Headscratchers / The Quarry

All spoilers are unmarked.

Silas During the Day

• Ok, so in order for the Hacketts to end their curse for good, they need to kill Silas with silver specifically during the full moon, meaning that they can't just walk in on him in human form during the day and light him up. I get that. What I don't get is why, with Travis as effectively the only law in town and able to keep two teenagers in jail for a month without apparently raising anyone's suspicion, they don't just go to his hideout and capture him during the day. He's a feral child and they're a pair of grown men with guns. Shouldn't it have been easy to arrest the human Silas, toss him in a cell until the next full moon, and then blast him at close quarters where he can't fight or flee?
  • They thought he had left the area. Travis mentions Silas as "moving up and down," meaning he never stays in one place for long. Travis doesn't realize that Silas is back until Ryan mentions that a white werewolf attacked the cabins. From there, Travis is able to assume he went back to his nest in the woods.

Abigail's Injury

• Abi can be bitten by a werewolf in Chapter 3. Despite this, she never shows any physical signs of infection (Nick, Laura, and Max all look very diseased before turning), will never turn, and only shows a single possible act of aggression (if grabbed by Bobby Hackett in the lodge).
  • The explanation for why she won't turn is that Nick and Abi were actually being hunted by both Caleb and Kaylee in the woods. Caleb will always bite Nick, but Kaylee can bite Abi. Kaylee is then killed by Laura at the end of Chapter 5, ending the risk of Abi turning.
    • The werewolf hunting Abi is wearing a tattered top. Silas, Caleb, and Chris were all shirtless (and Chris was chained in the attic of the Hackett house.) There were no other werewolves running around at this point. Kaylee is the only option left.
  • She never shows any aggression (physical or otherwise) is because the infection doesn't create negative traits, it augments existing ones. See also that Dylan (who, besides his snark, is probably the second nicest person in the game behind Abi) will warn off Kaitlyn before he turns. Of course, this means that Nick was probably a raging asshole the entire time, he was just keeping it hidden. Fitting, considering he is considered to be the "nice guy," and we all know what those are like.
    • The personalities of several characters are determined, at least in part, by player choice, so whether Nick, Dylan, and (to a lesser extent) Abi have hidden dark sides can vary from one playthrough to the next. At any rate, it's probably more relevant that Abigail is "cured" by Caylee's death before she can begin to show any obvious symptoms. Dylan's relatively benign behavior immediately before succumbing is probably because he, unlike some of the others, has a good idea of what's going on and understands that he will put others at risk. Laura can be an absolute asshole to basically everyone, but doesn't show too many signs of aggressive behavior before turning, either. It probably has more to do with whether the afflicted person knows and cares enough to fight.
  • In terms of why there wasn't a physical transformation, perhaps being bitten by Kaylee could play a role? Kaylee is frequently described as the "sweetest person that ever lived" by her family members. This lack of negative traits in human form may make her bites less potent.
  • Alternatively, perhaps the location and severity of the bite makes a difference, so it was just a matter of infection speed. Abigail can be bitten on the collarbone/shoulder, and loses very little blood, as it is fairly shallow wound. Nick, on the other hand was bitten on the thigh, very possibly in a major artery, and loses a very large amount of blood before werewolf healing kicks in.
    • Going by the time stamps, Nick goes from infection to transformation in a little over 2 hours. Everyone else averages 3 to 4 hours except Emma. Jacob's takes the longest at around 5 hours, which makes sense because the combination of spending a lot of that time locked in a cage without physical activity, being unconscious for part of that time, and being a natural athlete means his heart was beating slower than everyone else's, which would slow the rate that the infection was spread. Meanwhile, Nick had the worst infection injury out of anyone and basically ran from one death defying scenario to the next (Bobby in the lodge, werewolf at the cabins, dead body in the pool). Abigail did those same things too, but had a much larger blood supply to work with before her infection was cured by Kaylee's death just over an hour after she was bitten.

Inconsistent Aggression

• For the most part, the game is pretty consistent with who werewolves attack: if someone is infected, they're typically safe. However, one notable exception is Chris will always kill Ryan in the Hackett House if Ryan fails to shoot Chris, even if Ryan was previously infected.
  • All predators behave differently when they're in hunting mode vs. defense mode. Throughout most of the game, all of the werewolves are hunting. However, Chris was chained up, then dropped into a very small room. Any predator would've torn through absolutely anything that prevented it from escaping. Never back a wild animal into a corner.
  • Even without this argument, it's objectively true that there is very little time between the one time Ryan can get infected and when he next encounters Chris. In all other cases of characters being protected by being infected, the protection came a decent amount of time after the infection had "set in."
    • Many of the characters that are protected by infection are clearly symptomatic once they are protected, with VERY few exceptions; one being Jacob. If he is infected in Chapter 6 and is initially left in the cage with werewolf Nick, once Laura cuts the power both will be let out, but Nick will not attack Jacob even though he is asymptomatic at this time. A simpler way to clarify how protection by being infected works is that it wouldn't make sense for the protection to apply as soon as the victim is bitten, because then practically nobody would die from being mauled by a werewolf (unless they just randomly started ONLY using their claws to attack) because after the first bite the werewolf would just leave the victim alone and the healing factor would kick into the victim, healing any other injuries.
  • In short, it is time since infection and not the bite itself nor visible symptom progression that determines whether an infected is protected from other werewolves, though it is not clear exactly how much time must pass since infection or if it varies depending on things like wound severity, the amount of bites, or the individual victim.

Hackett's Quarry Timeline

• It's outlined that the camp opens one day after a full moon, and closes HOURS before another full moon, with another right in the middle. Why would they be cutting things that closely? Even assuming that check-in at the beginning was at 10am or something (well after dawn), the check-out time is ridiculous, especially when trying to wrangle a large number of kids and 7-9 college students. Couldn't they have closed camp one night earlier? That gives the Hackett family an entire day to set up their hunt for Silas and lock up Chris/Kaylee/Caleb.
  • Could just be one more link in the chain of unfortunate circumstances that makes the game happen. Maybe they couldn't get a bus up into the middle of nowhere any sooner than that.
    • The game also takes place on a Sunday night in late August. Even assuming no schools started the next day, it was still probably the cheapest option to rent a bus on a day where there would be the least amount of demand.
  • We know the camp is in trouble financially. It could be they used to do a 3 week camp session and left more of gap for wolfing. With the money problems they may have switched to a 4 week camp session and assumed they were ok just locking up Chris Caleb and Kaylee in case something happened.

July Full Moon

• We know from Chapter 7 that there is a full moon in July, when the camp is still in full swing. Night would fall by about 9-10pm, there would certainly still be children around, making noise. Assuming the werewolf Hacketts are all locked up, that's still a major risk with Silas roaming around. Travis must have at least suspected that Silas was in the area given his conversation with Laura and Max in June. If this is the usual camp schedule, how on earth has the place functioned for 5-6 years without Silas being drawn to the cabins and attacking? Emma and Jacob frequently snuck out to meet as well, so that means other counselors/campers very well could have wandered into the woods after dark during the full moon as well. There's only so much the trail cameras can do.
  • "Ok kids, we're all sleeping on the island/in the treehouse tonight!"
  • One of the quieter threads of the game is that the Hacketts aren't doing well financially. You can find paperwork as Emma and Kaitlyn that indicates Chris has been putting off a much-needed renovation for a while, half the Hacketts' home is falling apart, and Chris says to Ryan in Chapter 1 that camp attendance is down. They can't even sell off parts of the land because they've been dumping murder victims in the lake. Hackett's Quarry has been running since the '50s and is a major part of the family's bottom line, so they have to hold the camp every year come hell or high water. Presumably, that means that the werewolf Hacketts are locked up tight and the rest were on high alert, because they're in a bad situation and it was the best they could do with the hand they were dealt, and they didn't have any incidents that they couldn't cover up or explain until the events of the game.
  • There may be a gap in the camp each full moon. Doing 2 1-month camping sessions is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. Send all the kids home the day before the full moon and take the counselors into town to go party at a bar. The counselors come back the next day none the wiser and get ready for the second group of kids to show up.
  • Another explanation could be that Christ, Kaylee, and Caleb are locked up tight on the night of the full moon, and Jebediah, Bobby, and Travis are combing the nearby area of the cabins for Silas. And it's simpler because all of the kids and counselors are in one area, so there's less need to spread out. Remember Jebediah's reaction when the counselors split up at the firepit — "[[Screw This, I'm Outta Here Fuck this". They were splitting up, making it more difficult for them to keep more than one pair of well-trained, werewolf-hunting eyes on them. With the Hackett werewolves locked up and the innocent people focused in one area, it's likely very feasible to keep watch that one night.

Aversion to Water

• Dylan points out in Chapter 10 that they probably all should have swam in the lake for the night to stay safe. Kaitlyn counters that they all would have gotten hypothermia. That's fair, but what's stopping them from just taking a canoe and sitting in the middle of the lake?
  • Absolutely nothing, except that it doesn't occur to them until it's too late for it to matter. Going back outside to get a canoe at that point means they have to make a run to the docks at night, which gives Caleb every advantage even if it is raining.
  • True, although they learned about the water weakness back in Chapter 7. One would think that someone as smart as Kaitlyn, Dylan, or Abigail would think of taking advantage of that before going to the scrapyard, if not outright suggested by Laura at the time.
  • They've got a lot on their minds and they only found out werewolves existed a few hours ago. It's not weird Dylan didn't think of that earlier; it's impressive he was able to think of it at all.
    • By the that point in the game they would have had to run past Werewolf Caleb, Nick and anyone else who was infected and had turned in order to get to the lake to find a canoe. By the time they found out about the weakness it was too late to safely exploit it.
    • Did you not read the rest of this entry?

Immunity Consistency

• It's established that in addition to a werewolf infection providing a layer of protection against werewolf attacks after the infection has enough time to set in, it also provides a layer of protection against otherwise lethal injuries while in human form. Kaitlyn falling from the rafters, Kaitlyn and Caleb not freezing to death, Laura getting shot on multiple occasions all come into play. It's been established elsewhere on this page that it takes some time for the werewolf infection to take hold and provide protection from attacks. However, there are some inconsistencies. Ryan will be bit, and his healing will kick in quickly enough that he won't die of blood loss. However, he can still die in the next scene if he doesn't kill Chris. Jacob can get infected and then immediately survive having a bear trap close onto his face.
  • "Werewolf healing" and "werewolf immortality" are two separate things. If you're bitten by a werewolf, you immediately become immortal, as we see with Jake and the beartrap. Being a werewolf can also cause any wound to heal quickly, but it still takes time. When Ryan is bitten by Laura, he instantly becomes immortal and stops dying from the wound, and then begins to quickly heal. But when he gets his face smashed in by the gun, Laura dies seconds later which undoes his immortality before his face has time to begin healing.
  • Having your entire face caved in is a considerably more traumatic thing to come back from than a bear trap. Plus, it's not guarantee that werewolves are immune to everything except silver, we just know that silver cures the infection. It's hard to imagine a werewolf surviving being decapitated, for example.

Counselor Injuries

• With the exception of Ryan possibly asking Laura in Chapter 7, at no point do any counselors (namely Ryan, Kaitlyn, Dylan, and a surviving Abigail) think to ask another if they're bitten. This is the most galling should Abigail survive Nick's transformation and Emma is bitten outside the lodge. Why would Abigail not IMMEDIATELY ask Emma if she had gotten bitten before locking herself in the basement with her? By the time Nick transforms and Laura tells them what's up, it's also possible for both Dylan and Abigail to be bitten. Ryan's reaction to learning Laura is bitten is to immediately take her shotgun and put some distance between them. Why is this reaction NEVER replicated?
  • Ryan pulls the gun on Laura because she killed Kaylee, and he says as much.
  • At least for Emma, she says in chapter one that faking is just "being yourself, but louder" in response to Abigail asking her how she can be so confident on her vlogs. Presumably an infected Emma would display more of an inferiority complex - she doesn't, so Abigail gambles that she's not infected. Not the most rational thing, but understandable.

Police Car

• Laura steals a police car from the station to drive her and Max to Hackett's Quarry. She then drives it into a lake. It's understandable to want to destroy evidence of a crime, but considering she was actively escaping a kidnapping situation (as Travis never formally booked the duo, that's legally what this was), it's hard to actually label this as a crime. Even if you take into account that she expected her, Max, and the Hacketts to be the only ones remaining at that time, how was she expecting to get back to civilization?
  • Laura is traumatized, in mild shock, and hyperfocused on killing Chris. She visibly did not have a plan beyond "get to camp, kill Chris before sunrise."
  • She doesn't have any physical proof of Travis' wrongdoing, so if cops from other towns were brought in it would be her word against his and stereotypically cops tend to stick together. Last thing she would want is tangible proof of her own crimes being discovered.
  • Even Ryan is dumbfounded at Laura's shortsightedness of ditching the police car when they could have used it to go look for help.

Travis' Calendar

• Is there any reason why a calendar would start its week on a Thursday? American calendars tend to start with Sunday on the left, Saturday on the right. Other countries (such as Mexico) start their calendars on Monday. Regardless of what day the first of the month falls on. This is found on Travis' calendar in the police station. It also doesn't appear to be custom made.
  • Probably an oversight of developers while they were figuring out specific dates that the game would take place on. Rather than have Laura point somewhere else (which would have required reanimation), they just pasted a new image on the calendar to make the dates match up.

The Werewolves Left To Roam

• Late in the game, you find that the Hacketts either try to lock themselves in somewhat secure areas when they know they’re about to turn (Chris in the prologue in the shelter), and also have built electrified cages to keep them locked up to put down or simply wait it out until sunrise. Why are Caleb and Kaylee simply left to roam the grounds and property, with the risk of either killing or turning the rest of the family, or even worse, getting much further than intended, or - since they are children - having Kaylee or Caleb revert back in a dangerous situation they can’t deal with in their human state? Imagine confused children waking up with no memory of the night’s happenings, surrounded by the remains of your kills, or trapped somewhere your transformed state decided to climb up, with no proper way to get down and back home.
  • About as close as the game ever seems to come to an explanation is what Chris says to Ryan in the office: both Caleb and Kaylee have begun to rebel against the old plan and aren't inclined to do what they're told. You can also find a letter Kaylee wrote in the house's basement as Ryan that says she's on the verge of going to the cops, because she can't live with the guilt anymore. The general idea seems to be that both the teenagers refused to pen themselves up in a fit of pique, which might not have even been a big deal were it not for the counselors' unexpected presence in the woods.
    • During that conversation it was mentioned that they had "snuck away," which implied that they had straight up run away without telling their family. Them being gone was new for Ryan, it wasn't like they disappeared for a few days around every full moon (I think normally they would bunk up in the Hacketts' cages for the night). They may have made sloppy attempts to restrain themselves, but failed and came back to camp as werewolves. The rest of the Hacketts expected that to happen, which is why they were so stressed out on the day camp ended. During normal full moons, there was the (slim) possibility of Silas showing up at camp; during this full moon there was the guarantee of at least two werewolves running free.

Evidence with Nobody Left

• As any player who has finished the game knows, the scene that plays during the credits depicts the Bizarre Yet Bonafide podcast going through the evidence collected throughout the game, which is always collected from an "anonymous donor." In most playthroughs it's assumed that Ryan, given his interest in the podcast, somehow collected the evidence and turned it in, or if he died then someone remembered the podcast and thought it'd be better to give the evidence to a podcast duo than the police. The strangest occurrence, however, lies in the result of a playthrough where LITERALLY everybody dies (all the counselors, all the Hacketts, AND Silas; in short, there is literally nobody left alive, playable or not, before the police come in the morning.) In this case, the initial headline reflects the massacre, and if enough evidence is collected it will change to rule self-defense and wild animals as the cause, which makes sense given the evidence, but the real question is who actually brought the duo the evidence in that scenario? As stated, this happens when literally everyone is dead; the only people present in the morning are the police who weren't there the night before, and if they had found the evidence they would have just collected it themselves to solve the case. So who collected it beforehand and, having no personal knowledge of what had happened, thought it was a better idea to give it to a paranormal podcast than turn it in to the police?
  • Ryan mentions in the first chapter that he's listening to Bizarre Yet Bonafide specifically because it had done an episode on the Hag of Hackett's Quarry. That episode apparently struck enough of a nerve, and had wide enough distribution, that you can find a hard copy of a cease-and-desist letter in the police station that Travis was going to send to the podcast's hosts. As such, if a second weird thing happens in the same place, which also seems to involve elements of the same legend, it's not hard to figure that some other unnamed local citizen or first responder might've tipped By B off.
  • If you want a real headscratcher about the evidence chain, Jacob's apparently walking around for half the night with a memory card jammed in his boxer briefs.

Imprisoned Infected Hacketts

• Depending on one's choices, the podcast at the end of the game makes a big deal about evidence (both of criminal & supernatural activity) and potentially holding the Hacketts accountable. It's possible to have all of the surviving Hacketts charged & imprisoned. If that's the case, one would have to imagine the matter of "hard evidence" when it comes to supernatural activity would rapidly become moot the first time a full moon rolls around while, say, Chris is locked up...
  • Probably "oh dang, those kids weren't kidding about werewolves". The other evidence would probably be useful in proving, y'know, criminal activity.
    • No doubt, that's how you get them imprisoned in the first place after all. What I'm saying is that it and the podcast and all just seem very "much ado about nothing" when having any of the Hacketts imprisoned means pretty much a guaranteed incontrovertible masquerade lift at the end of the game which the game does nothing to address.

Laura's Reappearance

• When Laura meets up with the other counselors at the lodge for the first time, why does she demand to know where Chris is if she thinks she's just killed him?
  • ... She literally explains why in the chapter. Immediately after killing Kaylee, she went back to Max to see if the curse had been lifted, but seeing as her boyfriend was still a werewolf, that made it clear that she killed the wrong one and that Chris was still alive.

Chaining Laura to Max's Cell Door

• What was Travis thinking with this? What if Laura had been killed? Or worse: what if Max had bitten her and she'd transformed? He was trying to show her what the stakes were, yes, but there were less potentially catastrophic ways to do that.
  • While dangerous, he does sit her down about an arm's length away from Max's cell, and she scoots a little closer after he leaves.

Jedediah and the Counselors

• Why didn't Jedediah just confront the counselors when he and Bobby saw they weren't staying in the lodge? It seemed that he could have easily appeared while they were around the campfire and said "listen, Mr. Hackett is my son and he wasn't joking, all of you need to get inside now." Instead he and Bobby tried to secretly protect them, and of course it all went wrong as soon as they split up. They then tried to run around and blood them all, then at some point they decided to try to catch each of them and individually transport all of them all the way back to the Hackett House. Seems like they could have handled things way more easily.
  • Based on what we see of the Hackett family dynamics, Travis is the only member of the family who actively wants to protect people outside the family. When Constance is killed, he immediately decides to stop trying to protect anyone not related. So why didn't they take a better option to warn the counselors? Because they didn't care about them beyond honoring Travis (and probably Chris as well) trying to minimize casualties and draw attention to themselves - family motto apparently being "fuck you, got mine."

Travis Trying to Stop Max & Laura

• In the prologue, Travis, for obvious reasons, insists that Max & Laura need to go to the Harbinger Motel. Why wouldn't Travis just tell Max & Laura that Chris Hackett was his brother and he knew he wasn't waiting for them at the camp? Surely knowing his own brother's location wouldn't be suspicious?

The Most Waterproof Phone In The World

• How... on Earth... did Emma get her phone to the island? Was she wearing her scuba-bra?
  • Emma's entire LIFE revolves around that phone. Phones are much more water resistant these days, and she is of course going to be purchasing the most top of the line model and protection for it. Also, women have long since learned how to adapt to not having pockets.

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