Headscratchers / The Evil Within

• So...what's with all the barbed wire? A lot of aspects of the game (brains, impalement, etc) make symbolic sense, but nothing in the game ever suggests why barbed wire is so prominently featured, unless it's supposed to be a sort of generic metaphor for 'painfully trapped while dying may or may not be happening'.
  • Barbed wire can represent prisons, mental wards, concentration camps, and so on. It's your basic go to symbol for being unable to escape a place with out taking a lot of pain.
  • One of the main themes of the game is torture, either physically or mentally, and barbed wire hurts like hell, so it being wrapped around everything makes sense. The image of a barbed wire-wrapped brain would represent being trapped in one's own mind, which is what Ruvik must be experiencing being a Brain in a Jar.
• Castellanos carries a nice, sharp combat knife. Meanwhile, his standard melee attack is... a weak slap with the butt of his gun.
  • The model viewer expressly states that facing monsters head-on with it is suicide. His punch is more of a "get off me" attack. Besides, he would need to whip out the knife for every attack, not something he can afford to do in high-stress situations.
    • So a hatchet instantly kills normal haunted, while a combat knife does nothing. Logic, everyone.
    • And it gets even less logical if you consider that, when he manages to sneak on the Haunted, he drives the blade almost completely into their heads with a single strike - it's such a good knife.
    • Actually, this is perfectly sound logic. The hatchet is a large, very worn down and blunt object Sebastian's using to effectively crush the skull with its full weight - finally pushing it to a breaking point. His knife, however, is a very precise stab in a very specific area and seems to be of extremely high quality. If you want to judge it with any sort of realism on the other hand is pretty silly in a game set in a dream world!
    • I find it more humorous that one of the regular monsters have a huge spike coming out of his head, yet another sharp object finishes him off.
    • There are a few puzzles based off of "stick the brain in the right spot" so perhaps the stab knocks out Ruvik's control.
    • Evidently, Castellanos realized this himself: in The Evil Within 2, his basic melee attack does use his knife.
• Why did Castellanos never try to take advantage of the situation? When Jimenez explained what was happening, he said that they were in a mental world that they were all contributing to, but only Ruvic had conscious influence over. He didn't say Ruvic was the only one capable of controlling things, just the only one that was doing it at the time. Castellanos never gives any sign of disbelieving the doctor, so why didn't he try to "influence" things himself? Wouldn't you try at least for a gun that didn't run out of bullets? Or a flamethrower? But he just... doesn't.
  • Well, the various weapons, ammo and stuff you found are Sebastian influencing the STEM system.
  • Following the theory that Ruvik is the "dominate" mind within STEM (created it, most experience, most insane of the group, etc), despite whatever supplies Sebastian would want or need he wouldn't be able to just conjure up, since Ruvik can easily deny such relief. Also, taking into consideration the final battle of the twisted beast that is the unleashed Ruvik, all the sudden things supporting Seb are things he's "summoning" ie landing on the car gun turret thing during fall, rocket launcher conveniently nearby whilst impaled on spike, etc and allowed to have due to him finally understanding STEM enough, or Ruvik's composure is shattered, thus can't control what is or isn't allowed in his mindscape.
• So in the room filled with flammable gas you can't fire guns or use explosives, but you can use a kerosene lantern?
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation. Removing your ability to fight with guns and bombs directly heightens the tension while shaking up the game's formula. Stripping away the ability to turn on your light source would just be annoying.
  • Maybe it's not a kerosene lantern, but rather a modern LED lantern with a kerosene-type frame for the old-fashioned look. They're quite popular.
    • Sebastian smashed it against Ruvik's face and it set Ruvik on fire, it's clearly kerosene.
    • Then again, dream world. If Sebastian thinks "well at least I have my lamp" but doesn't realize it's kerosene - he's never had to refill it anyway - the dream will just go along with that.
• Ruben/Ruvik is approximately 37 around the time of the events of the game, which would place his birth date sometime in the late 1970's. Why then do he, the rest of his family, and the disgruntled farmers who burned down his family's barn dress like it's the 1920's or earlier?
  • While exaggerated to a point some communities may be so insular that they're stuck in time, so to speak, and have fallen behind significantly in terms of fashion and so on. There may even be something of a religious bent with them, akin to the Amish or so, which has resulted in the lack of technology and modern clothing.
• You know, it kinda bothered me in Juli's story 'The Assignment/ Consequences'. Why did Ruvic explained to Juli his 'evil plan' to get out of the STEM using Leslie and or mocking her about being a fool for trusting Mobious? Wouldn't it be much easier if he had just kept everything to himself and let Juli do her job? The whole thing could have been resolved quicker if had just kept his mouth shut. Juli wasn't doubting her mission until that point after all...
  • Ruvik is pretty flagrantly the type of villain who likes to 'play with his food' and exploit the issues/feelings of the protagonists as much as possible. Hence throwing Joseph into dangerous situations insistently and tormenting Kidman over his knowing the truth - he's doing it to mess with them, even if he is setting up his downfall in doing so.
• So considering the information in the DLC, what exactly happened between the wireless signal in the police car and the detectives ending up in the Beacon STEM tubs? Were they in a hypnotized state and walked themselves into the hospital and up the elevator? Judging by the ending, it seems Mobius was on-site at least partly through the game or from the beginning, so did they cart them in? Why is there a setup with the tubs like that when the Beacon STEM is supposed to be wireless?
• If the Intro is when the initial entry happened, and they were in the car at the time - how did they not crash? And if they did - what a coincidence that Mobius was there to pick them up. But then why did they ended up in the tubs? I can understand why Kidman did, but what about Seb? If this was THE PLAN for dealing with Ruvik - how come they(Mobius) were so thoughtful then, and failed to foresee events of the second game?
  • To answer you and above, it's implied the wireless signal only started when they get close, but weren't put under until they got to the hospital, if you follow that implication, it seems they became unconscious when they got out of the car.
• Why is Sebastian so upset about Kidman shooting him? He knows he was turning into a haunted and about to attack her. I think she can be forgiven for defending herself.
• If the ghostly blue images are Ruvik's memories, how does he have a memory of a conversation between his parents during which he was locked in the basement?
• If Leslie seen escaping hospital grounds at the end why is his body still in the tub?
• [[Leslie's tub has no one in it during the ending because Leslie/Ruvik escaped. The ending is a bit odd anyway, considering that a mental patient is just walking by a bunch of cops with nobody even reacting.]]
• After the barn fire sequence, Ruvik's first reaction after clutching Laura's body is to turn to Sebastian and scream "You did this to us!" This despite the fact that Sebastian was not seen at all in the flashback, and, as far as we know, wasn't even aware of the incident until now. So why is Ruvik directing his rage at Sebastian specifically in this scene?
  • Ruvik is controlling the flashback, and trying to garner some sympathy from Sebastian, by directing his anguish at Sebastian, he was hoping Seb would relent.
  • For all the intellect the man has, Ruvik is really just a little boy lashing out at a world he feels wronged him. That's why the blood creature just screams out things like "I'll show you pain!" and "you did this to us!" when he's chasing Sebastian around even though Sebastian isn't responsible in the least. It's just his blind rage of that moment personified and turned on Sebastian.
• Why and how exactly did Kidman get that large scar on her left palm at the end of The Consequence? Yeah, it's the symbol of MOBIUS, and the hallucination of the Administrator in STEM had those on its palms. Did the symbolism from within STEM somehow cause that to manifest on her real physical body? STEM doesn't cause anything like that to anyone else ever.