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Wake: It’s not a lake. It’s an ocean.
Wake (V.O.): After saving my wife from the mysterious Dark Presence, I found myself trapped in the Dark Place. Imagination can be the enemy here. A nightmarish world that exists somewhere beyond the shores of our own existence. I made my way across its ever-shifting landscape, trying to reach Thomas Zane.
Hartman: There you go, Alan. It’s all in your head. You’ve been making it up.
Wake: No!
Hartman/Barry: Really, Wake. Your delusions are out of control.
Wake: No! Get out of my head!
Barry: Seriously, Al, you need to get a grip. You know reality’s different here. See what I mean, Al?
Wake: Ugh. I think I’m stuck on this side.
Barry: Well, you’re gonna have to find your way out of there. I’ll way. Just remember, you’re still in the Dark Place. You know that, right? I don’t want to alarm you, pal, but it’s sink or swim time.
Wake: Fine.
Wake (V.O.): I could feel the pressure mounting. Barry was right: the time was running out. Everything I saw was a dark, twisted version of reality, based on my memories and thoughts.
Wake (V.O.): I had to accept it: if all of this was from my mind, then I was the one making all this happen. I was literally fighting myself. It was a moment of clarity. After finishing “Departure”, I felt finished myself. All I had wanted was to save Alice. After that, a part of me had been ready to just give in and die. But I hadn’t given up. Thomas Zane had reached me. I had run across a nightmarish landscape, following a signal from him. He’d kept telling me I was sinking, going too deep. I wasn’t sure if he meant the Dark Place or insanity. Perhaps they were one and the same.
Barry: Hey, nice job, Al! So, you really are nuts, huh? Let’s face it, we always knew this was coming.
Wake: I guess. But I actually feel pretty rational… all things considered.
Barry: Crazy people don’t know they’re crazy. That’s why they’re crazy. Hey, check out the light show behind the Lodge!
Wake: That’s Zane’s light…
Barry: Yeah, you’re done sinking now. That means he’s just about caugh up with you. You better go talk to him.
Barry: Lots of fireworks here! Nice.
Wake (T.V.): Wake heard the Old Golds playing. The music came out all wrong. It attracted the horrors!
Barry: Oh, hell yeah! Remember this, Al?
Wake (T.V.): The music screeched and boomed around Wake as the monsters attacked! With each passing moment, more of them came! He could get overrun!
Barry: Hey, isn’t it kind of ironic that you’re a writer and you’re threatened by your own imagination? It’s like your greatest power turned against you!
Wake (T.V.): Surrounded by the enemies and deafened by the noise, Wake was helpless!
Wake: That’s very deep, but I’m a little busy not dying over here!
Barry: Geez, always with the melodrama!
Barry: You can get inside, now, Al. The big guy busted down the door! Whoa. See, Al, this is classic you. Always making things complicated.
Wake: This is just a memory.
Barry: Even your memories are complicated. Uh, yeah, so I guess you’re gonna need to talk to Zane out there now that he’s… actually here. I’m just gonna, you know… let you non-imaginary people talk in peace.
Wake: You’re not coming?
Barry: Nah. I was a crutch, you know? Hey, you’re moving up in the world, buddy!
Wake: Zane…
Zane: You have done well, Alan. Now I can accompany you. You are trapped in your own ocean. You must wake yourself up, but first you have to reach yourself.
Wake: The cabin!
Zane: Yes. My cabin. It will not be easy. Your previous work can help you. I still have some pages of your manuscript left. Words like that have power here. Alan, I can only give you the tools you need. You are the one who has to use them.
Wake: The lighthouse?
Zane: It’s very appropriate. I can help you reach it. But after that, you will be on your own. I cannot enter the cabin now. The Dark Presence made sure of that on our last encounter. You are facing yourself, the parts of your mind that are hard to control. This is not a fight anyone else can win for you.
Wake:… okay. That’s different.
Wake (V.O.): I was glad to have Zane with me in this place. He knew the terrain, such as it was. But a part of me wondered if he was even human anymore, after so many years in this place.
Wake (T.V.): The world was tilted! It was turning upside down! Wake was lost! He would fall! He wouldn’t tell which way was up. He would die here, torn apart by the whirlwind!
Wake (T.V.): The wind was picking up. Wake was too high. Too high! At this height, the water would be like hitting concrete.
Wake: you can’t want me dead this badly!
Wake (T.V.): The storm was coming. It would throw him off!
Wake (T.V.): The storm spun him around! It was made of darkness! He’d seen what it could do! It swept everything away!
Wake (V.O.): I would have to make my way through the swirling madness. It reminded me of the Dark Presence. Just another memory. But it could still kill me.
Zane: Stay focused on the lighthouse. If you can reach it, you will find the cabin.
Wake: Things are getting pretty crazy here, Zane.
Zane: It’s to be expected. You are struggling to reclaim yourself. The landscape reflects that strain. But each step takes you closer. If you persevere, you can attain the lucidity that fends off the darkness.
Wake (V.O.): Now that I knew what I was facing, the environment became even wilder and stranger, like it was no longer even bothering to pretend that things were normal.
Wake (T.V.): Wake was forced to run through a maze, hopelessly sprinting in the wheel, never getting anywhere. His life in miniature! It was useless!
Wake: Oh! Now what?
Grant: Mr. Wake, can I help you with anything?
Doc: Let’s have a look at your head, Mr. Wake.
Snyder: Please! Goddammit, I said please! I need more light!
Wake: An elevator. Sure, why not. Next stop, sanity.
Zane: You’re doing well. Keep going.
Wake: It’s hard to make sense of this place.
Zane: It’s a dream. This is a vast place, home to forces and beings that are completely alien.
Wake: The Dark Presence.
Zane: Yes. I don’t know what happened to it after your final encounter.
Wake: Is there any way out of here?
Zane: Sometimes, transmissions can be sent between worlds. You’ve done this yourself. But to actually leave the Dark Place? I haven’t found a way.
Wake (V.O.): Stucky’s gas station. Not something I particularly wanted to see, but obviously I wasn’t the one in the driver’s seat.
Wake (T.V.): Another memory made real. Wake would never make it. The insanity he was facing was already a part of him, in him, his own doing. He couldn’t possibly win. He didn’t even want to!
Wake (V.O.): At least the lighthouse was much closer now. I would have to make my way up there somehow.
Zane: The part of you that is in control is in the cabin, dreaming and insane.
Wake: I don’t think I like that.
Zane: You represent the part of Alan Wake that is capable of rational thought and planning, which is why I’m talking to you. If that part can regain control, then you have a chance of making it. But a part of you want to give in. There’s… comfort in the oblivion of dreams. You represent the part that isn’t ready to quit and die.
Wake: Wait. Are you telling me I’m not real?
Zane: You’re as real as anything else in this place.
Wake: So there are two of me?
Zane: Yes.
Wake: And the one you called Mr. Scratch, he’s me as well?
Zane: No.
Wake: Zane, are you playing some kind of a game with me?
Zane: I am not the author of your story.
Wake: How can you say that when you wrote that page about me and the Clicker? It wasn’t one of my pages. You directed me to it! You had Weaver guard it!
Zane: Yes, she was needed, and you needed the Clicker. But… I am not…
Wake: What? I don’t understand—
Zane: Alan. You should keep going.
Wake: Zane? Zane? Come on. Well, that cleared things up.
Wake (T.V.): The bridge groaned in the unnatural wind. It was heralding the enemy’s arrival. Wake wouldn’t leave this place alive!
Zane: A moment. I can help you here.
Wake: How the hell are you doing that?
Zane: It’s like learning to control your dreams. There’s a connection.
Wake: You were in my dream…
Zane: Yes. I taught you. You fixed the foolish mistake I made with Barbara.
Wake (T.V.): Wake ran for the light. It was pointless. He would never reach it. His life would be snuffed out just as easily as the very thing he’d thought would save him.
Wake (V.O.): Even with the light gone, all I could do was keep going.
Hartman: Let’s not beat around the bush: you have a lot of problems, Alan.
Wake: I do. I do.
Hartman: I’m so glad you decided to come back to me.
Hartman: Since we’re being so frank, here, Alan—and let me just reiterate how happy I am that you’ve had this breakthrough—I would like to summarize your condition.
Wake: By all means.
Hartman: And please, just let me know if you think I’m being unfair.
Wake: All right.
Hartman: Well, let’s start with the obvious: the car crash. Untreated hard trauma—all due respect to Doc Nelson, but he’s hardly a neurosurgeon. I think that the injury has affected you more than you realize.
Wake: Yeah, I have had bad headaches.
Hartman: Then there’s your history of substance abuse which, combined with your chronic insomnia, has resulted in hallucinations and extremely poor impulse control. That’s a dangerous combination, one which your wife has unfortunately had to suffer from far more than you.
Wake: I know. I know she has.
Hartman: I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that you are existing in a state of all-encompassing denial. Your vivid fantasy casts you as a heroic victim and allows you to skirt responsibility for your own actions. It allows you to solve your imaginary problems and dismiss the things that truly trouble you; in your self-serving delusions, your personal problems are assets that allow you to save Alice. Perhaps even the world.
Wake: Doctor Harmant, I—I think that’s spot on. I can’t argue with any of that.
Hartman: Well, I’m sure I’m stating the obvious. I don’t want to labor the point, but, well, ah…
Wake: No, no, I understand. It’s important that I face it.
Hartman: Precisely, Alan. You’ve put so much effort and imagination into this self-deception, but what good has it really done for you? You refused my offer of help, and here you are. Did being so obdurate really get you to a better place?
Wake: No.
Hartman: No. And did it really help Alice? Was this really the best thing for your wife?
Wake: Probably not.
Hartman: Probably not. Why don’t we find out? You know I’ve been talking with her. There’s something she wanted you to hear.
Wake: Oh, hey, that sounds like fun!
Alice: All I ever wanted was to help you, Alan. I ate all the shit you handed out and tried to understand your pathetic wealthy white male drama until my life consisted of managing your never-ending crisis. I hate you for your childish temper and the arrogance, and self-indulgence pride that undermined all efforts to drag you out of the hole you insisted on digging for yourself. I hate you for leaving me in the dark with that insane monster bitch! All you had to do was act like a loving human being for once in your life and stay with me. If your dramatic exit hadn’t been more important than making sure I was all right, she would never have taken me! I don’t know where you went, but that’s okay. I don’t want to know. I don’t think I’ll ever be all right. The only thing that keeps me from killing myself is the hope that I’ll never see you again.
Hartman: Ouch.
Wake: I…I just can’t argue with that. I think I should stay here before I ruin what life she has left.
Hartman: I think this is a breakthrough, Alan. I’m really very proud of you.
Wake (V.O.): It was nonsense. I knew I’d saved her. I’d succeeded in that, and that was all that mattered. What I heard in there wasn’t the truth: it was just another toxic mirage. It cut deep, but that made me all the more determined to force myself to snap out of it. I didn’t want to be that guy anymore. I had to make myself see the light.
Wake: Oh, geez!
Zane: Well done. You have come far, but there’s still a little further to go. You must take full control of your own mind, reject all of the fantasies you have constructed.
Wake: Yeah, well, I think I can do that. A lot of the stuff I’ve seen here is personal and ugly as hell. I’ll admit it hurts, but it’s not fooling me. I know it’s fake.
Zane: Good. You are aware. The part of you bent on self-destruction is not. But you must be careful; just because you know the lies for what they are, that doesn’t make the danger any less real.
Wake: I’ll make it. I don’t have any choice.
Zane: Here. I cannot come any further, but this will help you on your way.
Wake: Thanks, I guess.
Alice: Hey. Let me tell you something, Alan. I know how your mind works. You screw up, then you start analyzing it, and before you know it, you start writing all these horror stories in your head. Don’t you?
Wake: C’mon, I don’t do that.
Alice: Yes, you do! I know how it goes. You’re a complete failure. I hate you and I’ll never forgive you for whatever it was that you did. Am I wrong?
Wake: Oh, man…
Alice: See? I know you! But Alan: it’s all in your head. It is. I love you, and I’m not going anywhere.
Wake (T.V.): They kept coming! There were too many of them! Hordes and hordes of them, swarming over the landscape, eager to kill! They were coming for Wake, and this time they would get him with sheer numbers.
Wake (V.O.): The lighthouse. I was relieved to have made it here, but I wasn’t sure what was going to happen now. Zane had left me. I wasn’t sure what the Dark Presence had done to him if he couldn’t follow, but from now on, I was on my own. Still he’d gotten me this far. I would never have made it by myself. This thing was going to end. It wouldn’t be long now.
Wake (V.O.): I was surprised by the change of scenery, but not much. I was starting to understand the symbolism, the way the Dark Place flowed.
Alice: Wow. It’s gorgeous, Alan!
Wake: It’s something, all right.
Barry: Hey, Al. Feeling kinda depressed here.
Wake: What?
Barry: So Zane’s your new buddy now? I feel abandoned.
Wake: This is ridiculous. You’re not even real.
Barry: That doesn’t mean I don’t have any feelings!
Barry: Thing is, you need to get all rational here, abandon your fantasies, right. Well, I kinda hate to say this, pal, but I’m one!
Wake: Fine, you’re abandoned. Bye.
Barry: Al, what I’m saying is the only way you’re getting in that cabin is through me. It’s one of those “kill your darlings” things. But hell, you’re used to that, big shot writer, am I right?
Wake (T.V.): It was in everything. It was even taking the people Wake new, turning his friends against him! They were all against him!
Barry: What does it say about you when you’re this desperate to keep yourself from getting better? Here we go! I’m earning the fifteen percent commission.
Barry: It’s great that you first make yourself an imaginary friend and then you can’t even get along with that guy. People skills, Al. You’re a master.
Hartman: Let’s crack that writer’s block of yours, Alan!
Barry: And it’s not just that! You’re a modern master of crime fiction, an expert on murder and dark alleyways. And a master of substance abuse! That’s the best part.
Hartman: Think of this as radical shock treatment! You’ll make a great hunting trophy, my boy! Could we discuss your relationship with your father?
Barry: Hell, it’s great that my job consists of making sure you don’t ruin your entire life because you have all the impulse control of a pit bull on crack. It’s very enriching. I have several lawyers on speed-dial just because I never know when you get in trouble again. You know what kind of people need that? Gangsters and assholes, and you’re not a gangster. Because they make money. ALL THE TIME. Hey, remember when you threw a hissy fit because your wife tried to help you and your ego couldn’t take it, and because of that you almost got me killed a dozen times over. BFF, AL. BFF. It’s totally not pathetic that you have to literally pay your best friend to hang out with you because everybody else refuses to put up with your surly ass. Al, I’m really running low on patience here. Al, I swear to God, you’re driving me nuts.
Wake: Where I am? Why is this happening to me? It’s too dark! Where am I? I can’t find my way. Why is this happening to me? I can’t find my way. It’s too dark! Why—why is this happening to me?
Wake (V.O.): Just like that, my mind was clear. Zane had been right. I could think clearly again. But I couldn’t survive in this place the way he had, and I might not make it back a second time. Leaving this place would be hard. Maybe impossible. It wouldn’t take much for my thoughts to stray again. It was too easy to get lost in the Dark Place. Before, I was ready to curl up and die, let myself slip away. But here I was, the yet unwritten future waiting to unfold before me. A sequel to “Departure.”
Wake (V.O.): My name is Alan Wake, and I’m a writer.