Sam and Lonnie killed the Greenbriar parents at some point prior to Katie's arrival.
- While the game is presented as a psychological thriller at first, then later revealed to be a Genre Deconstruction with an entirely different focus, there are some strange plot elements that this theory might explain.
- Case in point: The parents appear to have left for a couple's retreat, and that's why they aren't at home for Katie's arrival or Sam's flight with Lonnie. So it's kind of strange that, looking at the house, it appears as though they just up and left suddenly. After all, the retreat is marked on the calendar, so presumably it was planned at least a few days in advance. However, the note left in the garage implies that Sam didn't know anything about it. Not only that, but the parents don't seem to have taken any clothes with them. Their drawers and closet are full, and there's a set of luggage in the closet downstairs that isn't being used. Now, you say: Maybe they got a new luggage set. Maybe they had extra clothes somewhere else, and maybe they just forgot to tell Sam they were leaving for four days. However, that still doesn't explain why the house looks so suddenly . . . abandoned. The dad's office areas in particular look like he just stepped away from his desk. So, what happened?
- If Lonnie was raised in an family with a military background, she likely had access to at least one firearm. There doesn't appear to be any evidence of a murder in the house, but the girls could have spent some time cleaning up, or done it somewhere outside the house. The house is in the middle of the woods, so no one would have heard any gunshots (or bludgeoning, or whatever). There's also a gigantic shovel hanging up in the garage, so disposing of the bodies would have been easy (remember, the house is in the middle of the woods). This also would solve the problem someone raised on the YMMV page, about which car the girls took: They simply took the parents' car. It's actually a pretty good plan. The parents tell all their friends and family who might miss them after a few days that they'll be going to a couples' retreat. They also tell Sam what's going on, who at this point begins formulating her plan. Presumably Katie spoke with Sam at some point before the story begins and told her she would be home early; Sam might have animosity towards her parents, but not against Katie, so Sam spends some time making up a story for Katie's benefit. She writes a few notes, setting up the narrative we see in the story. This would include the directions to not go looking for Sam, which Katie would instantly do, then immediately be lead to the note that says to beware the stuff in the attic, which Katie would immediately try to get to. Sam would hope that Katie would be satisfied with the explanation of events listed in the journal, giving Sam and Lonnie some extra time to get away. Additionally, this would involve Sam faking the note found in the garage. The handwriting looks more like her father's than her own, but this could possibly be explained with the note found on the dining room table. Inside of a folder, you can find the note that the father wrote that grounded Sam following disciplinary action at school. The slip detailing this is found in the same folder, which is out on the table despite being about two months old (judging by the date on the note). So why's it still there? Possibly because Sam used it as a sample to fake her father's handwriting on the garage note. This would explain why the note implies that Sam didn't know about the trip beforehand: She wrote it that way for Katie's benefit, so she would be able to figure out what happened to her own satisfaction.
- This theory isn't perfect, and there are of course TONS of little pieces of evidence all over the house to find, some of which I probably haven't. But from what I can gather, this makes some sense to me.
- The non-recent note being out isn't really a factor or clue. There's also a note from their mother by the phone in the front hall telling Sam that Daniel called to see the new house, which happened at the beginning of the year. A lot of things that should have been thrown out a long time ago (or at least should be tucked into some closet somewhere) are out for narrative purposes.
- If Sam and Lonnie did kill Sam's parents, it turns the game into a Whole-Plot Reference to the Parker-Hulme case
, a pair of schoolgirls who murdered the mother of one of the girls and planned to run away together. The girls created an elaborate fantasy-world and decided on their plan when the girls' parents, worried about the "mental illness" of homosexuality, tried to separate them; compare to Sam's novel, which changes to reflect Lonnie coming into her life, Sam's parents looking into conversion camps to "fix" her, and the upcoming separation caused by the (potential) camp and Lonnie's enlistment. It would also explain Sam's rampant theft, since if her father's dead it's not like stealing the electronics for his job is going to making things worse.
- If Sam and Lonnie did kill Sam's parents, it turns the game into a Whole-Plot Reference to the Parker-Hulme case
- Aside from all the "tell mom and dad" notes there is one that says she's sorry for stealing things. That's probably why the draws are all open in the bedroom etc. Since they left while the parents were away they most likely partied with all the booze in the bar (hence the shot glasses all over) and took stuff to sell or watch movies on.
Katie and Kate, the protagonist of Slender, are the same person.
- Collecting loose pages of notes in a dark forest in a desperate attempt to find out what's going on. Sound familiar?
Sam and Lonnie's exorcism of Oscar is what made Terry and Jan's life start coming together again, including Terry's novels being republished by a new press.
This ties into the deductions by one reviewer that Oscar abused Terry around Thanksgiving, 1963 — if the exorcism of Oscar's spirit preceded the end of Jan's office affair, and the letter asking to reprint Terry's Accidental [x] novels....
For all the drama in the ending, Sam and Lonnie will likely be found and brought home the next day.
Katie's unexpected early arrival basically puts a stop to any hope Sam and Lonnie might have had of actually making a run for it. She will likely contact the authorities and Sam and Lonnie will be found - Katie knows where they are, they're in Sam's car, this won't be too difficult. Katie's timely intervention will likely play a big role in fixing everything - Sam and Lonnie will be brought home, the family stuff will be returned, but Katie will likely also be able to stick up for Sam with their parents and help them come to terms with her lesbianism.
- Then again, Katie's search through the mansion probably took at least a couple hours, which if Sam and Lonnie had been driving the whole time, might have been enough time to get far enough.
- Not to mention that Katie doesn't have a car (none in the garage, and she arrived on the airport shuttle), plus the phones are down (just pick up any of the cordlesses to confirm that). So, figure two-three hours head start before you know she's missing, plus likely most of the rest of the night before either the phones come up or the parents come home. (I'm still in the camp that they'll be found, simply because they seem portrayed as smart enough to come to their senses in the daylight. I'd bet they don't even have time to pawn anything. Such is teenagers.)
Oscar served in the Fightin' Sixth during World War II and participated in the Coolridge heist.
Notice how he has the exact same type of Morphine in his safe. Uncle Oscar's unforgiven offense wasn't molesting Terry.
Rather, his nephew sneaked down to the basement to check how much he'd grown since his last visit, and caught his uncle shooting heroin there. Alarmed at the sight of the syringe, Terry yelled, and the whole family rushed in and discovered that Oscar was an addict. Young Terry didn't fully understand what was going on, and subconsciously conflated his parents' subsequent whispers about Oscar "shooting up" with Oswald's literal shooting of President Kennedy that same year. Sam wanted Katie to find her, but not before learning her side of the story. .
Why else would she put a note on the door like that? She knows her sister, and she knows that she would immediately want to know. The letter seemed to practically egg her on. She left clues in an order that Katie would logically look, locked certain doors hid the keys in places she wouldn't immediately find. The reason? she wanted her sister to experience the story of her and Lonnie's romance the order she would. She's a writer and knows how to play to emotions, and hoped it would make her sis more sympathetic to her, especially if she left the big reveal up in the last possible place to look after a long journey. If she could show her sis her side of the story maybe Katie might try to convince her parents to see that side too (they may listen to her, she's clearly a good girl type), and then she will "see her again someday" when the whole family can finally reconcile.