The Wretch is a playable variant of John Ward in Chapter II and its Prologue. History behind this creature is overall a mystery, but context clues in Chapter III suggests that this is the true form of John and Lisa, his childhood friend.
Appearance[]
The Wretch visually looks similar to a stick doll, which are a jumble of sticks and dead twigs that oddly resemble a human. The key difference between the two is that it's a real creature since it can leave a bloody corpse, boasts two beady red eyes, and can only crawl on all fours like a spider. Whenever it moves, it makes various discordant piano notes and the aberration of the screen bleeds (if the visual effect is turned on, that is). It's speedier than John's base walking speed and possesses immense strength since it's capable of killing humans on contact. This creature is nameless in the plot, but looking at every asset used in Chapter II, this thing is called "Wretch".
Biography[]
The Wretch doesn't really have a personality and its exact origins are unclear, so we're going to cut when it's (somewhat) involved in the plot.
Mid 1950s[]
It's important to explain John's childhood experience and the aftermath of Chapter I first before starting with the Wretch's signature appearance in 87' because the events behind Snake Meadow Hill Church seem to co-relate.
At some undisclosed time in the mid 1950s[1], a church in Sterling, Connecticut called Snake Meadow Hill Church reopens a couple of years after a rumor of a "thing in the cornfields" killing six orphans winds down[2]. The building and its accompanying orphanage reopen with new staff members and volunteers who know nothing about what happened to the six original orphans (except for one), including a woman named Miriam Bell[3]. She, who goes by Sister Bell to her colleagues, was highly recommended as a suitable worker and caregiver of any incoming orphans from the administrative office in Hartford, another city in Connecticut. Her inclusion marks the full reopening of the orphanage; Down the line, John gets transferred to live there since he was an orphan ever since his mother passed away around the early 50s. Eventually, John meets another new orphan named Lisa and the two quickly become best friends.
A couple of months pass and now the orphanage is full of eight children. Sister Bell begins to exhibit odd behavior with them, and it's highly suggested that she acts as a motherly figure particularly towards John, but staff members ignore her mannerisms considering that she's been doing an excellent job as a caretaker so far[4]. One night, her and six of the eight orphans disappear, leaving no traces behind. In the morning, the only orphans that were left were twins, presumably because they were sleeping while the others vanished. This time, the Church cannot keep the situation a secret and the authorities got involved[5].
An unnamed detective was assigned to investigate the sudden disappearance. All the workers within the Church become afraid and superstitious about the event, save for Father Clarke, the head runner of the Church. He assists the detective to search for Sister Bell and the children by driving around farm roads late into the night. By day, the detective increasingly becomes paranoid as he deals with the late farm drives, the creepy twins who state that Sister Bell is still around, and a sudden appearance of stick dolls surrounding the building[6].
One night at 2:00 AM, the detective and Father Clarke wake up to what sounds like an old woman cackling nearby the twins' bedroom. When they investigate, they find out that the cackling emanates from a painting of the Virgin Mary. Suddenly, they hear a loud noise coming from the chapel. Upon arrival, they see Sister Bell dragging the remaining twins into the basement. Father Clarke stops the detective from withdrawing his service weapons, tells him something about doing God's work, and ventures into the basement alone. To make sure no one gets in or out, Clarke seals the basement. Terrified, the detective waits for Father Clarke to return, but upon hearing unspeakable demonic noises emitting from the basement, he writes a note to anybody that reads it that the Devil is real and warns that nobody should go down that basement[7]. From Clarke's perspective, he writes down his final memoir on a torn-off page from the Bible before encountering Sister Bell, feeling as if she's waiting for him in anticipation just beyond what's there in the darkness. He remarks that time doesn't flow correctly down in the basement since his watch is stuck on 2:00 AM. He laments that God's work can only do so much to protect him from things unspeakable. He finishes his memoir by calling himself a foolish old man as his ears bleed from the screeches of an unknown demon[8].
The detective and Father Clarke's fates are unknown, but Clarke was more than likely killed by whatever lurked in that basement. Regardless, the orphans have disappeared indefinitely, the public doesn't know that Sister Bell did not truly disappear, John and Lisa are still somehow alive despite getting taken, and the Church ceases operation for the second and final time.
This entire story was taken from notes in Chapter II Prologue. In these notes, John and Lisa are not mentioned, even though we know they were orphans during that time (which is why I said "six of the eight" instead of Prologue's original note stating "four of the six"). John's mind influences notes that he picks up in Prologue and Chapter II, and may intentionally leave out information, likely due to trauma. Even though the two were intentionally granted to escape, they are loosely haunted from the six orphans that were killed. As of now, Miriam's motive with the orphans is unclear and there's no concrete proof as to what prowls in the basement. However, in the end, she did something unexplainable to John and Lisa that makes them walk away as, what somebody named Gary will soon describe it, "husks"[9].
September 22nd to September 27th, 1987 (Chapter II Prologue)[]
(The first two paragraphs are recaps so feel free to skip them)
We flashforward roughly thirty years later to 1986. Whatever Miriam did to John back in the mid 50s took a heavy toll on his personality, he's reserved and antisocial. Lisa seemingly moved on and tries to reach out to John whenever she can, but he ignores her[10] and lives his life in solitude somewhere in Connecticut, possibly as an attempt to ward off any bad childhood memories with Miriam or anything that occurred within that Church. He became a priest of the Catholic Church/Vatican and was assigned on September 21st, 1986, to assist a priest named Father Allred to exorcise a teenager named Amy within her house[11]. The session turned into chaos as Amy strangled her own parents and killed Father Allred during the confusion. John prayed to who he thought was the Lord to escape the house alive[12], and he was able to do so by stumbling towards the police and paramedic stationed outside. The two were restrained within an institution because they were too mentally unstable to be incarcerated or stand trial[13]. After a month of counseling, John was able to return back home and Amy servers her sentencing in an institution[14].
Flashing forward to nearly a year later, Amy somehow escapes from an institution and runs all the way back to her home[14]. Gary, a leader of a cult called the Eternal Order of the Second Death, and other cult members have been waiting within her home in hopes that she would return someday[15] so that they can perform the Second Death ritual on her. She does so and the cult restrain her and perform the ritual in the basement, now she has a gaping, bloody face hole[16]. At some undisclosed point, John experiences a vivid nightmare where Amy pleads to him to return back to the Martin House on the anniversary of the exorcism to finish what he started[17], and he does so, but Amy flinged herself out of a window after a brief struggle. John finds a rifle in the foyer and feels compelled to kill her but shakes off the evil urge and decides to just return home, despite willingly leaving her to succumb to her wounds alone. Gary and others return back to the Martin House after gathering sufficient sacrifices to put into Amy's face hole[16], but they find her nearly bleeding to death. Cult members relocate her to a secluded area named the Crucible to see if she'll ever wake up[18] and Gary (somehow) finds out that John was the one who tampered with his plans. John begins to experience vivid nightmares that seem to be demonically influenced.
An undisclosed amount of days pass after the second failed exorcism and John experiences a vivid nightmare where he relives his childhood place, Snake Meadow Hill Church. The dream begins with John standing nearby his wrecked silver sedan, apparently, he collided with another cult member (called a thrall) who was driving in their truck. John inspects the driver, who seemingly broke their neck, but they're still alive and dart off into the adjacent cornfield when John wasn't looking.
John's silver sedan is caught on fire, either because the driver intentionally lit it on fire or the engine exploded, so he decides to investigate the cornfield to see where the driver ran off to.
"GET OUT" Ending[]
Fending off the "thing in the cornfield", exorcising a demon hiding in a chalice, and banishing a demon lurking within the Church's basement, John catches a vision of Miriam shuffling away towards the darkness.
Nearby a staircase lies instructions on how to perform the "Ritual of the Door to Hell".
| “ | ㅤ
HERE IS THE RITUAL OF THE DOOR TO HELL. LET NO BROTHER OR SISTER UTTER IT. HE THAT IS MASTER OF SPIRITS, LET THREE SPIRITS THAT FOLLOW THE DRAGON BE PUT INTO THE EFFIGY OF THE ACCURSED. ONLY THEN CAN IT BE PURIFIED. YOU WILL KNOW IT IS TIME WHEN ITS EYES GLOW RED. TO ENTER THE UNSEEN WORLD, DESTROY THE PURIFIED EFFIGY WITH FIRE. THEN SHALL THE DOOR TO HELL BE OPENED. |
” |
— Note #8: Ritual of the Door to Hell, Chapter II Prologue
|
Now back in the chapel, John decides to perform the ritual by walking all the way back to the cornfield. There's a scarecrow nearby, but this time it has a gaping hole, blood protrudes from the face, and two red eyes peer out from the darkness.
Purifying it seemingly does nothing besides removing the eyes, but it was one of the crucial steps to completing the ritual. Walking back to the car, John lights himself on fire from the wreckage and runs all the way back to the scarecrow to transfer the flame. As he burns, the Martin Twins stand behind it, and nine children emerge from the cornfields.
Just before John succumbs to his injuries, the screen cuts to a pitch-black area littered with stick dolls. John turned into a creature looking similar to them as well, except he has red eyes and can only crawl. This creature is nameless in the plot, but it's called "Wretch" in the game files (which is the "husk" I was referring to from earlier) and this area is called the Unseen World, detailed by the "Ritual of the Door to Hell" note from earlier. Apparently, this area acts like purgatory[19].
Aimlessly crawling around, John sees Miriam standing idly in front of six stick dolls, which are supposed to be a representation (either figuratively or literally) of the orphans she took all those years ago.
Once he approaches, she slowly turns around and boasts a wicked smile with her mask-like face. She screams, "GET OUT!" and the nightmare ends.
Right now, the Unseen World and its inhabitants are vague, but more detail is provided in the "Chapter III" section. However, this won't be the last time John transforms into this creature.
September 28th, 1987 (Chapter II)[]
A week has passed ever since John failed his second exorcism with Amy. Sleeping in his bed, John experiences his worst nightmare yet.
After exploring Gallup Cemetery and Snake Meadow Hill Church's basement, John walks up a flight of stairs and exits a shed. Apparently, in the middle of the woodland, there's a lone shed with a satanic symbol etched on it that connects the basement to here. Meandering through the trees and watching deer frantically run away, John comes across a ritualistic circle with three decapitated thralls on the ground, the same thralls he saw back in the cemetery. In the middle lies a newspaper clipping. With no other choice, he reads it.
In summary, the article was supposed to be about the Sterling Police Department finding three decapitated bodies nearby Gallup Cemetery, but the newspaper slowly derails to what seems like the UNSPEAKABLE, an evil deity worshipped by the cult, mocking John for failing to kill Amy and believing that he can disrupts it's works. Looking away from the article, Amy's Demon booms, "YOU ARE MINE, PRIEST" and the three thralls are mysteriously standing up. Their beheaded shoulders are engulfed in fire. Cultists roam the background and Amy stares at John directly. Suddenly, John's face contorts into anguish and agony as his body melts into the Wretch.
Once again, John is teleported into the Unseen World as a Wretch. Nothing but stick dolls dot the landscape. Crawling around, he comes across an underpass with a traveling couple attempting to fix their truck.
Going underneath the bridge, he somehow reverts back to normal. John continues walking upward in confusion and sees an entrance to a sewage tunnel. Red markings say "candy tunnel" on top of the entrance and three stick dolls are seen in the background. John goes inside.
"Initiation" Ending[]
Canonically, the dream ends where he and a Gray Figure fight off Miriam in Malphas' House. John wakes up and finds a letter at his front door. He's tasked by a stranger named Father Garcia to find the Martin Twins before the cult uses them to summon a great demon named Malphas on the Profane Sabbath/October 31st, the one day where demonic activity is at its peak. Alternatively, back in Gallup Cemetery, there was instructions on how to receive the UNSPEAKABLE's blessing. In order to be blessed, he has to, "conjure His [Lucifer's] demon.", "serve His demon.", and "walk among the children of men as His demon."[20]
Drawing a pentagram with his own blood and luring a child to get taken within Snake Meadow Hill Church, John turns into a Wretch and crawls around the Unseen World. Instead of crawling under the overpass, John crawls downward and goes up an incline. Nearly getting ran-over by a speeding semitruck, John butchers the couple and then returns back to the overpass. He reverts back to normal and proceeds as usual.
However, if John isn't fast enough, he gets ran over by the semitruck. Instead of a normal deathscreen where John says, "MORTIS", we're shown a jumbled mess of blood. John mutters, "MORTEM" with heavy bitcrush and distortion. Although this is speculation, it seems like the image is supposed to be a close-up of John's corpse.
October 30th, 1987 (Chapter III)[]
The Wretch is never truly seen again after Chapter II, but it's subtly referenced two times in Chapter III.
this is where it lives[]
John finds a secret underground tunnel system, named Garyland in the files, underneath a daycare center he was tasked to explore by Father Garcia. Avoiding getting seen by wandering cultists, John walks down a staircase and finds a poem left behind by, seemingly by word choice, Gary:
| “ | ㅤ
She consumed six little twigs Only two were left to walk as husks Go ahead, priest Stare into the eyes of my mother |
” |
— Note #33: Poem for Miriam, Chapter III
|
This poem alone provides a lot of details as to what truly happened to John and Lisa back in the mid 50s. They, along the other six orphans, were captured by Miriam and any other evil entities running amok in the Church (our best guess is the Basement Demon considering that it appeared in the Church's basement in Chapter II Prologue). She intentionally turned all of these kids into stick dolls. but willingly let John and Lisa live for undisclosed reasons. Unfortunately, we have no idea what a stick doll is, except that they're some kind of lifeless form of a human. We don't know what Gary means by her consuming them, either figurately or literally, but rest assured that the six children are long gone, and he knows all about them. On the surface, John and Lisa appear to be their normal selves, but with how often John transforms into a Wretch in his dreams, we could hypothesize that that's what his real appearance is; a botched version of a stick doll. Judging on how John agonizingly turns into the creature in Chapter II, it seems like the reappearance of the Unseen World is supposed to act like some kind of torture, possibly orchestrated by the UNSPEAKABLE considering that his nightmares are influenced by it. All in all, we can believe that John and Lisa were supposed to be dead all those years ago, but they're still alive, just husks of themselves. Until we get more information about whatever a stick doll is and concrete proof of Miriam's plan, we'll never know the meaning behind all of this. Gary nor Miriam never brings up about what happened inside that Church.
A little while after this, John attempts to solve a puzzle about connecting wires to three depictions of demons, but he's suddenly ambushed by Gary brandishing a syringe.
John stumbles and screams as the drug's effects kick in near instantaneously.
While John suffers, we're first shown two Wretches wiggling with maggots.
Then after, we're shown a younger version of John and Lisa holding hands.
The cinematics are supposed to enforce that John and Lisa are truly dead and their real physical appearance are Wretches considering that the cinematic showcases them twitching and maggots swarming them. If they were stick dolls, then they wouldn't be twitching. Oddly, the cinematic lacks a Wretch's signature beady red eyes, but otherwise, this is the last time this creature makes their appearance.
Sounds[]
- Discordant Piano Notes, used while moving around as a Wretch.
- The Wretch's unique Mortis sound.
Trivia[]
- Apparently, the Wretch was originally an unused enemy in Chapter I that was remade into a different form of John. Unfortunately, combing through every asset used in Chapter I doesn't support this fact, but I'll leave this trivia as is. (Admin Notice: If anyone can go through Airdorf's Twitter page, you'll probably find evidence, but good luck, Chapter I came out in 2017 so you'll have to scourge through everything.)
- The Wretch is commonly nicknamed "The Spider Demon" by fans because the game never outwardly refer to this creature as anything else.
- The Peekaboo Demon shares this trait as well since it's nameless in the plot.
- Interestingly, the filename for when John melts into a Wretch is "spr_CH2_cine_MikeInAgony".
- Strangely, the Wretch visually looks similar to Michael since both are spider-like and have red eyes. Additionally, the Wretch's ran-over sprite is a recolor of Michael's.
- This similarity suggests that Michael is akin to a Wretch, but this wouldn't make too much sense considering that Michael was alive during Chapter I.
- The voice clip of John muttering, "MORTEM", was originally used in alpha versions of Chapter I, where it was used in place of the now infamous, "MORTIS", voice clip[21].
- (This is trivia for the wiki page) For some reason, I cannot find a sprite of the Wretch ran over at all in Chapter II, so I used a screenshot from Youtuber Mad Punkerz' death compilation video[22].
Gallery[]
Other[]
Reference List[]
- ↑ Ref. - Note #12 Ch II
- ↑ Ref. - Note #2 Ch II Prologue
- ↑ Ref. - Note #3 Ch II Prologue
- ↑ Ref. - Note #4 Ch II Prologue
- ↑ Ref. - Note #5 Ch II Prologue
- ↑ Ref. - Note #6 Ch II Prologue
- ↑ Ref. - Note #7 Ch II Prologue
- ↑ Ref. - Note #17 Ch II
- ↑ Ref. - Note #33 Ch III
- ↑ Ref. - Note #11 Ch III
- ↑ Ref. - "Intro" Dialogue
- ↑ Ref. - "Ending I" Dialogue
- ↑ Ref. - Note #9 Ch II
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Ref. - "The Murderer" Note Ch I
- ↑ Ref. - Note #18 Ch II
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Ref. - GoodiesFolder "FAITH TheStorySoFar".txt
- ↑ Ref. - Official Game Description of Chapter I
- ↑ Ref. - Gameplay Screenshot of Ending II Ch III
- ↑ Ref. - Note #10 Ch II
- ↑ Ref. - Note #4 Ch II
- ↑ Misc. - Alpha Build of Chapter I
- ↑ Misc. - Mad Punkerz Death Compilation