Itchy//Tasty
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"What the fuck?!?!" - Sebastian Castellanos
Alright, so a little disclaimer first; The majority of The Evil Within's story is right there on the surface for anyone to put together, but it is a hell of a load of events to remember and work through, plus certain major details are squirreled away in the DLC, in reports or just mysteriously implied in the lore, as well as plenty of sequel-baiting unanswered questions. Due to this, there's quite a bit of confusion and exhaustive Internet theories out there, many with different takes on how it all went down.
Bottom line, you gotta take all these theories with a pinch of salt and make up your own mind, and that of course includes my effort below. This is the entire plot of The Evil Within, as I personally understand it. Don't get mad at me if you feel I got some details wrong, because we all see STEM in different ways, my friend. Why go to all this trouble when there's already wikis and sub-reddits out there? Basic passion, really. It's fun. I love horror games and complicated plots, so this is Disneyland.
So sit back, clear your mind, and keep a fresh box of matches; it's about to get dark.
-Before the events of the game-
MOBIUS are a secret, sinister organisation that have been operating inside Krimson City for more than a century. Their experiments with brainwashing, genetics and the nature of the subconsciousness have been bordering on a scientific breakthrough for decades. They believe they've tapped into a different layer of the collective psyche wherein people can potentially inhabit each others memories in a different mental plane - you know, like Inception! - as well as transfer the consciousness from one person to another, ultimately hoping to unite and control the human race. They grow in size, wealth and power with their proliferation in other industries (chemical and botanical), they train up loyal (brainwashed) agents and employ various moles in society to keep tabs on the police, the church and politics, all in preparation for what they're about to do. They are headed up by a mysterious man known only as The Administrator.
MOBIUS employs genius professor Marcelo Jimenez, a man who works at Beacon Mental Hospital who reviews their research and pitches them the mother of all ideas: A machine called the STEM, which would connect several subjects to a core and allow them to share and inhabit this new mental plane. But Jimenez can't do it alone, he needs the help of an old associate, a deeply disturbed expert of all things cerebral who becomes the chief villain of the game, Ruvik.
Ruben Victoriano was a twisted genius of a child who was fascinated by the human brain. His father was rich, owned many acres of real estate and belonged to a local crazy religious order, whose beliefs he always tried to enforce. Ruben had a sister, Laura Victoriano, who he was very close to and was probably his one anchor to normalcy. After buying up nearly all the real estate in the area, thereby stealing the jobs and livelihood of neighbouring farmers, Ruben's father had made many, many enemies. On one fateful day they gathered together as an angry mob, and burned down a huge barn belonging to the Victorianos that Ruben and Laura were playing in. Laura was burned alive and though Ruben survived, he was left badly, permanently burnt by the flames.
On seeing his now-deformed son, his father locks him in the basement and tells his wife that both their children died in the fire, although she's not entirely convinced, the secret manages to be kept. Devastated by the loss of his sister, and the subsequent abuse and neglect by his father causes all semblance of good to leave Ruben, becoming the psychopath he was meant to be. He eventually escapes the basement and brutally murders his parents, then inheriting their entire fortune. As a young man he furthers his research on the brain and meets Jimenez, who appreciates the boy's genius and encourages him to carry on doing anything in search of progress, no matter the human cost.
The psychopathic Ruben begins experimenting on people, building a basement of traps under the Victoriano estate and running kidnappees through them like one serious Jigsaw motherfucker. His family trust continues to provides Beacon Hospital with massive donations, solidifying his future partnership with the doctor. They eventually work together on building STEM, which Jimenez sees as his shot at the big-time, hoping to get his foot in the door at MOBIUS.
The mad scientists' put together a prototype STEM and test it out trial-and-error on possibly hundreds of Beacon asylum patients, usually turning them comatose as the brain rarely survives the stress of being connected. Ruben continues carrying out his sick experiments using torturous methods, now with access to better equipment, funding and plenty of fresh bodies. Stimulating the fear centre of the brain is conductive with entering the STEM succesfully, so Ruvik has fun instigating that emotion with live patients. Missing persons' cases and the dumping of corpses attract the attention of the police (who we'll get to eventually) and journalists, and MOBIUS are keeping a close eye on their antics with a mole in the hospital, a nurse called Tatiana. They're wary of Ruvik, merely using him until his work is finished. Jimenez is happy to overlook all this unethical shit because he believes it's all worth it, is getting paid lots, was promoted to head of Beacon and 'abandoned the Hippocratic Oath long ago'.
The following paragraph is rather conjecturous, as info on the church is pretty damn light. Feel free to chime in if you think you know better, as with any of it.
They also start experimenting on 'sane' people as well to test different brain chemistry, and Ruben conspires with the crazy old cult in the local church that his dad was warped by, who have access to catacombs under the city and participate in ritualistic killings. They most likely agree to provide him with kidnapped sane test subjects (including people who were getting too close to the truth) in return for some genetics-related lab tech. The church uses the tech to genetically engineer a gigantic canine, called The Sentinel, who feeds on human sacrifices, as well as experiment on two giant deformed twins Neun and Zehn, who all help in guarding the church's dark secrets. The cult is exposed when a hole leading to the catacombs is discovered by renovators, but any investigators are swiftly silenced.
Around this time Jimenez discovers that Ruben has modified the machine to respond specifically to his own brain chemistry. In other words, the machine won't work without Ruben strapped into the core, possibly as insurance to prevent Jimenez from cutting him loose when this all over (fears, which end up warranted). Also, Ruben ultimately wants to escape this world and inhabit the new mental realm forever, motivated to be with the sister he lost, as his memory of her can surely manifest in STEM.
Jimenez is frustrated at this irreversable modification and mistrust brews between the two, with the doctor pursuing his own side project - a way to plug into the mental realm without being connected to the actual machine. This isn't even his own idea - he steals it when he finds it amongst Ruben's earlier STEM work in the now abandoned Victoriano Estate. This radical new method involves a wireless signal, a high-pitched frequency attuned to the same brain frequency needed for STEM. In other words, you hear the signal noise, and your brain automatically pulls you into STEM where you stand. He quickly gets a prototype up and running, but it's pretty dangerous as it'll blanket-pull everyone into STEM within the signal radius if flipped on.
Jimenez, through his surgeon brother Valerio, also meets a jittery young asylum patient of his called Leslie Withers, who has unique brain chemistry that allows him to survive being inside the STEM with his faculties intact, a fact that Ruben knew and concealed from him. Leslie has a huge part to play in the story to come. Tatiana leaks all these new developments to MOBIUS.
They finish the machine together mainly due to Ruben's genius, but the conniving Jimenez is planning to backstab his partner, wanting all the credit and not wanting any more association with this psychopath. The two have a confrontation about Jimenez publishing some of Ruben's research as his own, and the former has him accosted by MOBIUS goons - it's been a long time coming. MOBIUS are furious about what Ruben has been doing in private; the live experiments, the torture, and they drag him away leaving Jimenez alone to complete the machine. They're all aware that Ruben's brain has to be the key to the machine, something which can't be reversed.
Later on, Jimenez is meeting with the Administrator, and is horrified to find Ruben's disembodied brain in a container at the centre of STEM, powering it. They dismembered him, ripped his body apart but kept the brain alive, and plugged him in to be the key he designed it to be. Jimenez laments the horror of this act, as well as the fact that he's no longer Ruben Victoriano, but MOBIUS have shortened his entire identity down to simply Ruvik - just a brain powering a machine. Ruvik's final anguish, hatred and vengeance at MOBIUS, at being usurped and ripped apart, as well as everything else that's ever happened to him, follows him into the mental world of the STEM.
STEM has its own rules of nature. Inside is a shifting patchwork of the memories of everyone plugged in, it's populated and everyone sees it differently. The living consciousness of every patient and victim who went in as part of all the trial-and-error runs, remain inside the mental world. Even in death, the imprint of their memories and even of people they knew, lingers on in STEM forever. Emerging into the STEM world, Ruvik realises that as the core and with his unique brain chemistry, he has limitless God-like powers. He can move around freely and change anything, the ghost in the machine, and gleefully torments and begins killing the inhabitants, which gives Jimenez a clue to some bad shit going on inside as all his new test subjects croak. This reality becomes Ruvik's plaything, but he's trapped in it burning with vengeance. The mission is now to find a way out, with his new abilities in tow, and get revenge on the world that wronged him. He knows this to actually be viable.
With Ruvik in charge in there, the STEM world changes. His hatred becomes an infection, a sickness taking hold of every inhabitant. The landscape twists and becomes nightmarish. Furthermore, his inner demons and hatred take form and become literal, because every videogame needs bosses! It becomes a real Freddy Krueger horror playground in there.
Meanwhile, in reality, citizens have continued to go missing due to both the cult's antics, and the STEM experiments. Everyone who gets close is silenced. Things are getting desperate, and police detectives Sebastian, Joseph and Myra are on the case. Seb and Myra are married, met on the job, and have a child called Lily. When their investigation into the disappearances gets too close to the truth, MOBIUS has their house burnt down and made to look like an accident, but there's a mistake: neither Seb or Myra are at home, and tragically Lily and her nanny die in the fire. Devastated by the loss, Seb turns to drink and Myra becomes obsessed with what she suspects is foul play.
Compiling all her evidence into a folder which she leaves for Seb to find, Myra journeys to confront MOBIUS, but goes missing. Instead of killing her, they brainwash and indoctrinate her, and put her in charge to some degree. She becomes a MOBIUS big-wig, hidden from public eye. Her plotline is left completely open for a further sequel but she's seen running the clean-up operation at the end of the DLC, and reporting back to Mr Admin. It's unclear whether she's truly faithful, or just biding her time to make a move against them. In other news, I'm 99% sure she's voiced by the great Tasia Valenza a.k.a Sniper Wolf.
Seb discovers her file and begins searching for answers himself, even though his job is under threat as he's under investigation for his wife's disappareance by the precinct. Joseph sticks by him, and they take on a new rookie partner called Juli Kidman, who is secretly a mole keeping tabs on them for MOBIUS. Seb writes in his journal that he doesn't trust her. Kidman was rescued from a 'shitty life' by MOBIUS and given cash and an apartment, indoctrinated by a female agent who turns out to be Myra.
MOBIUS finds out from their hospital mole that Jimenez is making moves to take back control of STEM from Ruvik. Firstly, he removes Ruvik's brain from the core thinking that will solve things, but little does he know this does nothing to stop Ruvik's omnipotence inside the machine as he now exists without body. Ruvik senses the brain being removed (recorded in first part of torn letter) but is unaffected. Secondly, the doctor has an idea for Leslie Withers to become the STEM'S new controlling psyche in Ruvik's stead. Mr Admin warns him that it's better to send stable subjects in - Leslie witnessed his family being murdered in front of him and lost his sanity from the trauma; it's better to find someone without such issues or the same thing might happen again.
However, Jimenez suspects that MOBIUS have built their own STEM in-house, and fears they will rob his success from him by launching their machine first. He makes a hasty plan to journey inside the STEM with Leslie, using the wireless signal as it's probably safer for himself then direct connection. There's a catch though; activating the frequency will pull everybody in the sound radius into STEM as well - this could be a good thing, as Mr Admin gives him the idea that more 'sane' people pulled into STEM will actually dilute Ruvik's lingering evil and hopefully restore it to normality. It's a meandering stab at a solution that ultimately fucks everything up further because he underestimates Ruvik's power in there.
MOBIUS meanwhile, has indeed built their own STEM at their HQ and want Leslie for their own purposes, possibly intending to wipe his memory of his trauma and make him their 'core'. Poor Leslie! But they're running out of time to acquire Leslie for themselves and are trying to stay in the shadows, so they prepare Juli Kidman for her big mission - when the wireless signal goes off, that's her cue to get pulled into STEM and retrieve Leslie, alive, and bring him back to reality. She's innoculated against Ruvik's influence as well, keeping her hidden from him and vaccinating her against his sickness. She goes back to her position as a cop, waiting for the APB that will send her and her partners to the hospital. Tatiana either gets the hell out and back to MOBIUS or protects herself somehow against the wireless signal.
TBC
