Pop Culture Hound

May 20, 2010  |  Author: Chris J. Thompson

The episode begins where we left off with Jake Fischer (Christopher Forsyth) packing his bags in the midst of the chaos he has caused. His room is a mess, as he captured on film last episode, with splintered wood, torn up cushions and debris everywhere. A sheriff knocks on the door and asks Jake if he's seen Sam, the owner of the hotel. Jake says he hasn't, but by now I think he and the viewers are beginning to suspect that maybe he had something to do with it. The sheriff insists on coming in and doesn't seem surprised by the scene inside. Jake says he left his door open the previous night and some animal must have come in, but the sheriff disagrees. It wasn't "some squirrelly animal" that did this ... It must have been a prize deer. Ah, yes, Deer Fest comes back to haunt us once more!

Jake gets in his car and begins to race away from Bright Falls. Along the way he stops to pick up the lovely Ellen (Allison Lange), who I've now grown quite fond of. She's on her phone as he arrives and you can hear a male voice on the other end saying "So, he doesn't know anything?" No detail is wasted in this series, so obviously they're talking about Jake. Could this be Doctor Hartman? Jake grabs Ellen and tells her to drive - he needs to get out of town, but he doesn't trust himself to do it. As they pass the sign that marks the boundary of Bright Falls, Ellen asks what is happening and Jake tells her to just keep driving. He stares at her for a moment and your heart sinks with the knowledge of what will come next.

The scene jumps seamlessly and we find Jake back in the driver's seat with loud music playing on the radio. He's confused and looks down to see Ellen's bloodied shoe on the passenger side ... Oh no! Please, no! Not my Ellen. She is, of course, gone - presumably dead - and Jake is entering Bright Falls once again. Desperately he turns the wheel and skids to a stop in the middle of the road. You can see the reflection of the trees gently waving in the car's windscreen. Then they start to move - slowly at first - and their reflection begins to sweep over the car, faster and faster. Suddenly Jake is gone. Perhaps he was truly 'taken' in the end? Or time passed and he moved on? We're not to know.

The next thing we see are lights reflecting in the windscreen. It's dark outside and the sheriff is steering traffic around this seemingly abandoned car. Another car pulls up and we glimpse a familiar face in the driver's seat - Alan Wake. Here's your game tie-in. Here's where it comes full circle and you have the perfect lead-in to your game playing experience. This is what it was all building towards. It's a great moment, but it's also a sad one ... Now we have Alan, but what about Jake? We want Jake back. We want Ellen back. We want answers. But I don't think we'll get them.

In the opening moments of the game, Alan Wake explains, " ... in a horror story, the victim keeps asking 'Why?' But there can be no explanation, and there shouldn't be one. The unanswered mystery is what stays with us the longest, and it's what we'll remember in the end." Ultimately, these words encapsulate my experience with Bright Falls. The series was there to tease us, to taunt us, and to haunt us. The fact that I want to see more means the actors, the director and the crew did their job ... Now it's up to the game to deliver. I'll let you know how that goes.

Comments

Be the first to add a comment to this article.