Outlast 2 Ending Explained – What Really Happened

Outlast 2 Ending Explained – What Really Happened

Outlast 2 is, not surprisingly, a sequel to Outlast. Both are psychological horror video games, and the ending of Outlast 2 does a pretty great job of messing with your head. In fact, it was so effective, that I felt like an explanation might be needed.

We all finished the game and felt, well, lost. What just happened? That was the end??? Now what?

It’s difficult to find closure in a game when you don’t understand the ending, and it makes the suspense even harder to take when waiting for the follow up, if there’s even going to be one.

Once you understand the ending of Outlast 2, you may come to appreciate more than you might realize. It’s one of the greatest parts of the entire game. The developers left the story open to a different interpretation by every player who finishes.

While you may not have enjoyed the lacking narrative or the horror tropes, you should respect and appreciate the storyline that’s been so deeply embedded in the game. It’s hidden in the recordings and the documents, and if you pay close attention, you’ll see it.

Before you read further, this is your spoiler alert. I’d never write an article like this without warning you first that if you haven’t finished it and you don’t want to know what happens, stop now.

Stop reading.

I’m about to give away the ending.

You need to stop now.


The Story Explained

Outlast 2

If you’re still reading, I assume you want to know what happens. Fine. I’ll tell you. Just like Outlast, Outlast 2 is told through a series of recordings and documents. It’s up to you to interpret it how you will, which means that the game will mean completely different things to every player.

The great thing about a game like this is that it instantly becomes personal. It means more to you when you can glean from it the parts that stand out to you the most. As you make your way through the game, crazy things are happening in Temple Gate. You have probably been pretty confused at various times throughout your gameplay.

Everything seems to be backward, everyone seems to want to kill Lynn’s baby, and Blake is hallucinating about elementary school. What is going on?

Connections with the First Outlast

Unfortunately, there aren’t many solid answers. But that just adds to the beauty of the game. You’ll interpret the events differently based on your personality and your own experiences. However, we can back up some of these claims with evidence from the game.

The games are connected in small ways, but the developers have even admitted on several occasions that the two Outlast games aren’t connected in a huge way. If you recall a document you first find in your travels, you may notice that the games are connected more so than you originally thought.

The Old Traveler document states that there’s an experiment involving the valley surrounding Temple Gate. This experiment controlled people’s minds using microwave signals. Mentioned in the document is Jenny Roland, who is a Murkoff Corp pathologist in the original Outlast.

If you don’t remember the first game, Murkoff Corp is the company who opened Mount Massive Asylum and experimented on humans. It’s not a strong connection, but it’s there. It may also raise some red flags. Murkoff seems to somehow be connected to the radio tower that emits the microwave signals that control minds.

Blake is losing it

At the beginning of Outlast 2, Blake awakens from his nightmare involving Jessica Gray. He and Lynn knew her from their fourth-grade class at Catholic school. When the helicopter engines fail, causing a crash, due to a bright white light, Blake starts hallucinating about Jessica. He envisions events that lead to her suicide.

Based on what’s in the Old Traveler document, we can assume that the bright white light is caused by the microwave signals. We may also be able to surmise that these radio signals have affected Blake’s mind, forcing him to see things. This could also explain why people near Temple Gate are so violent and why they’ve begun creating and following their own obscure religious practices.

As Blake descends into the valley surrounding Temple Gate, his hallucinations become more vivid. He experiences the appearance of a demonic creature. Later, we learn that this demonic creature is likely Father Loutermilch, who was a teacher at the Catholic school who assaulted Jessica.

Blake imagines Father Loutermilch as a demon because, let’s face it, anyone who assaults a child is.

As the game concludes, the villagers rally against each other and begin mass-murdering one another, which ties back to what was revealed in the Old Traveler document. This document mentions the feedback loop that makes people do unusual things.

The Ending Explained

outlast 2 game

Now that we’ve explained the story a bit, we can talk about the ending. Everything that happens to Blake is subject to your own interpretation, but this is mine. If you manage to survive the onslaught of insane cultists, navigate being crucified, and find Lynn, you still have a ways to go.

You escape the edge of the mines, and she appears to have a baby as a storm rages outside of Temple Gate. Then Lynn says these final words: “There’s nothing there.”

Hold on. What’s not there?

These words through a huge wrench in everything you may understand about the story. Are you scratching your head and wondering what this means? As Blake walks away from Lynn and Knoth, the world returns to his old Catholic school setting and Jessica has a rope around her neck.

He is led back to the kitchen where he remembers them playing around as kids. Jessica says a prayer as they kneel, and then you see the dreaded credits. It’s over, and you have no clue what to make of it.

Based on everything that has happened so far in the game, I think it appears as if Blake has finally lost it. He succumbs to the madness that has been controlling his mind since the beginning. It eats away at him and now he’s finally gone.

It’s also easy to assume that he has felt guilty for years about leaving Jessica when she asked him to stay. She practically begged him to stay, and then committed suicide when he left. The microwave signals that are beginning to control everyone have made their way in, and Blake can’t fight it anymore. He finally goes crazy.

The Baby

outlast 2

If you’ve finished Outlast 2, you may wonder if the baby is real. After all, Lynn appears to be pregnant, but it all happens in a single night. It’s unclear to us how this happens, leading us to believe maybe it’s not real.

She even says to Blake, “There’s nothing there.” She could have been talking about the baby or she could have been talking about the afterlife. It’s hard to know. Given that they’re Catholic, we can assume they believe in an afterlife, so why would she say there isn’t one?

However, if she’s talking about the baby, it would seem that Blake is holding a baby in his arms. So is the baby real?

If the baby is real, it’s unclear what happens to it. It could have been an illusion. However, Lynn seems to be in a stronger state of mind because she’s been several hundred feet underground where the microwave signals couldn’t reach her.

It’s harder to prove the theory that the baby isn’t real when considering that Knoth seems to see the baby, and he arrives after Blake has already passed out.

However, they could both be hallucinating about the baby. After all, Knoth would have been exposed to the microwave signals setup by Murkoff Corp, too. This is a likely theory because as Blake’s mind grows weaker, his hallucinations become more frequent.

It was a simple nightmare at the beginning of the game, and now it’s a full-fledged imagined life that he has given into completely.

The Verdict

I wish I could tell you more. I wish I could give you more concrete information or say beyond a shadow of a doubt that I know for a fact what happened. Unfortunately, I can’t, and it’s meant to be that way.

While you may still have some unanswered questions, you’re likely never going to have all the information you need. The developers did this on purpose because they wanted players to be able to interpret these things however they saw fit.

As much as you may not like it, no one can know for sure what the ending means. The ending of Outlast 2 is up to you. Based on the information I found in the game, this is what I believe.

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