HAPPY (belated) PODCAST EPISODE RELEASE DAY EVERYONE!!!

yayyyyyyyyyy

Not only do we finally have a new Bizarre Yet Bonafide to dig into, we also have some new social media posts as well (it’s finally Abigail’s turn!).

Let’s dive right in, shall we?

(If you haven’t been following along up to this point, here is the first post about The Quarry, and here is the second post with some of the updates.)

INSTAGRAM

We have four new posts to dive into!

1. The first is the traditional introductory short video for Abigail–as per usual, I can’t make out all of the quick moments it flashes to, but we do seem to have the usual “shot of the same character but now they’re covered in blood,” a sketch of what looks to be a woman with long hair, Abigail screaming, and a close-up of a padlock.
   1. Abigail is described as “the artist,” and it makes me wonder if we’ll have some nice sketchbook moments a la Life is Strange 2. Maybe? No? If nothing else, we may have some instances of Abigail taking on the role of “creepy child who draws creepy things in a horror setting” cliche–could the long-haired woman be the infamous “Hag of Hackett’s Quarry”? (Although, if the Hag is indeed Eliza, we never see her with her hair down…)
   2. What’s with the padlock? So far the only padlock we’ve seen has been in the prologue, but that was tied to Max and Laura, not Abigail…are there other creepy cellars around the camp full of creepy creatures? AND WHY DO WE INSIST ON HAVING A SUMMER CAMP HERE???
2. The second post is the second introductory video that uses words to describe our counselor friend: Abigail’s are “the artist, shy, creative, quiet” and then the “negative” trait for her is “nervous” and we see two different shots, one of Abigail crawling through some presumably underground tunnel and then her running from…something while she screams. Lovely.
   1. These “negative” traits crack me up because like?? Um??? I, too, would absolutely be nervous in her position??? Excuse me?????
3. The third post is our favorite podcast ad: the title of the new episode on an old-timey computer monitor with the “Rabbit Hole” post-it note in the corner.
   1. SERIOUSLY WHAT IS WITH THE WHOLE RABBIT HOLE THING
4. The fourth post is a short lil clip (I’m assuming from the game) that shows Abigail in some sort of dark corridor with a large…vent? behind her. At the start, there is a silhouette of something on one side, but as the camera pans across Abigail’s face, the silhouette is then gone. We hear something whisper (likely) “Abby…” but there’s no one there when Abigail turns around. She faces forward again, and we see a different (?) silhouette cross in front of her.
   1. As of now, I’m going to theorize that the silhouette in the beginning and the whispering individual are the same, and they’re Eliza. The silhouette looks to be someone maybe wearing a dress, and we know how fond Eliza is of whispering ominously to people (see: her whispering “Silas” to Laura in the prologue. Seriously Eliza…why?). Because the silhouette disappears so quickly, it’s possible that it could be one of the monsters, but I don’t think it’s the same type as the one Laura sees in the cellar in the prologue (though those do move rather quickly)–that one just looked gangly with long, awkward limbs, and this silhouette looks decidedly more human. Maybe. Being able to disappear like that doesn’t necessarily put me off of it being Eliza, as she could be a ghost of some sort. After all, she was able to sneak up very suddenly on Laura, and her clips in the story highlights allude to her not being fully human. But, that’s just a guess!
   2. The second silhouette is a lot harder to make out–it definitely walks like a normal alive human, but it’s hard to tell who it could be. It’s also hard to tell if Abigail actually sees them or not–she’s not thrown off by their presence if she does see them, which makes me think it could be another counselor, but again, it’s kinda unclear.
   3. Where exactly is Abigail in this clip? As we can tell from the camp map, there isn’t really a location that could logically be an underground site (unless it’s the Tree Walk? WHAT IS A TREE WALK), which makes me think there’s either some spooky underground tunnel stuff going on under the camp, OR…that’s the infamous Hackett’s Quarry itself. Which we probably shouldn’t explore. But we’re going to anyway.

TIKTOK

Currently we have three new videos to discuss, all centered around our lovely new friend Abigail!

1. The first is the same as the first introductory video for Abigail that’s on Instagram.
2. The second video is the traditional point-of-view post for each counselor–for Abigail, it’s her showing off a bunch of photos she took! The first is the top part of a house at night (maybe the Lodge?), the second is a really spooky shot of the forest at night, the third is a shot of the super big full moon over the lake, and the last few come really quickly and cut in and out with shots of a ghostly silhouette. The text says that she saw a woman in the woods, but that woman doesn’t show up in any of the photos…
   1. couple things here FIRST OFF–what kinda awesome camera is Abigail using for these super clear night shots?? Amazing.
   2. Listen, I’m not saying the monster is werewolves…buuuuut they do keep highlighting a full moon on the night the counselors are stuck there. Sooooooooooo….werewolves.
      1. (this does however contradict a few things–if a full moon is to blame, why is it that the counselors cannot show up a night early or be there a night later? It’s not like the full moon just says peace out for a week so that kids can hang out at the summer camp, right? Why is there a monster that attacks Max and Laura when they show up early? Why is there such fear around being at the camp one night longer? Okay fine, maybe not werewolves…or maybe werewolves are just one of the things they have to worry about…)
   3. And now for probably the most important part of the video–the ghostly woman who Abigail saw, but doesn’t show up in the photographs. So I mean, she could be a vampire, or a ghost. Is it Eliza? Is it Anne Radcliffe the mysterious missing hiker?? Is it someone else entirely??? I mean, it could be a friend.
3. The third video is the same as the clip of Abigail walking somewhere dark from Instagram.
   1. Watching it through this time though, it does look like Abigail is looking behind her the entire time the second silhouette is walking, and then the second silhouette stands in a corner frozen when Abigail turns back around. Um? Excuse me?? Why??? Abigail herself looks fairly beat-up in this clip, so I’m assuming this is late enough in the game that we know something supernatural is going on, and it’s not someone playing a joke on her. Hopefully. People in the comments are speculating that the second silhouette is Laura…maybe? It’s so hard to make out. It could be Emma, since it looks like they’re supposed to be best friends, but again…we just can’t tell.
   2. Also, it’s worth noting that the Supermassive Games account commented on this video saying “Not everything is as it seems…” so uh…thanks, guys. Now I’m questioning absolutely everything.

That’s it for social media updates for now–let’s dive into the podcast!!

Look, I think every episode of this show is good, but THIS ONE. THIS ONE IS SO GOOD.

We begin with Grace being unusually unenergetic and Anton in a seemingly great mood, and we soon find out why: remember the whole thing about “there was a dead body that these kids found but when the police went back to investigate it was missing and there’s no evidence of it being moved so wtf where did it go?” Yeah…turns out the whole thing was uh, fake. The kid made the whole thing up to scare his girlfriend (remember? His girlfriend who is attending the summer camp? Charming).

(It’s worth noting that Anton mentions here that he told Grace the whole thing could have been a case of “the boy who cried wolf,” and turns out, it was…and look I’m not saying the monster is werewolves but like……..we keep mentioning wolves here…………)

Grace uses this as a segue into her next theory, discussing ghost stories involving women scorned.

(Before diving into that, there’s a brief moment worth mentioning: the return of peanut butter butter pops! We learn a little more about this…cereal? as Anton makes fun of Grace for eating them because they were discontinued ages ago. Grace defends herself by saying she found them in the freezer when she moved in, and everyone knows stuff in the freezer doesn’t go bad. Anton is disgusted. So, again, it’s possible all this butter pop stuff could just be used to aid in world-building and to show us that the podcast and the game are all in the same universe, but…what if there’s more to it than that? If the butter pops were discontinued ages ago, why does Kaitlyn sing the theme song for them? Is it one of those urban legend type things? DO THE PEANUT BUTTER BUTTER POPS TURN YOU INTO A WEREWOLF??? Okay anyway…)

Grace discusses the various legends about the “White Lady” and how generally, they are all stories of a woman being wronged and then haunting a specific area, appearing as, you guessed it, a woman wearing white. Grace goes into two tales in particular: one of a woman whose husband locked her away when he went off to war because he didn’t trust her not to cheat on him while he was gone (charming) except he died in the war, and the woman wasted away. The story goes that she got so hungry she ended up trying to eat herself out of desperation, and when you come across her, you are hit with a strong sensation of hunger (this is where the “hangry” in the episode title comes in.)

The second story Grace tells is about a hitchhiker who drowns herself after her husband left her for another woman, so when you come across her, she is always dripping wet and bloated-looking. Fun!

There are so many different versions of the white lady story all across the globe, and different houses or locations each have their own specific white lady story. The first story Grace tells seems to be based on a German legend from the time of the Thirty Years’ War. Just as Grace describes, a nobleman locks his wife in the cellar of his manor so she couldn’t betray him, but he never returned, and she died, supposedly haunting the premises. Interestingly, that manor was recently renovated, and workers found no evidence of human remains in the cellar. Which just…it just makes me think of Grace’s whole “missing dead body” story–like I know that was debunked, but it’s just an interesting coincidence.

From what I can tell, there isn’t one specific white lady legend that Grace’s second story is based on. There are legends of white ladies who drowned themselves, but not for the reason Grace states. There are legends of white ladies who often appear as hitchhikers, and after being taken into the car, they cause it to crash somehow. There are countless legends of white ladies with traitorous husbands or lovers, and they often come back to haunt unfaithful men. The closest example I could find is actually a white lady legend from Dallas, Texas of all places. Described as “The Lady of White Rock Lake,” she often appears completely soaked in an evening dress from the 1930’s, where she asks anyone who pulls over to be taken home. She usually disappears during the car ride and leaves the backseat drenched–thanks. Reportedly, she was a drowning victim from a boating accident.

(So what could this all mean? It’s likely no coincidence that the clip of Abigail saying she took photographs of a woman who never showed up in the pictures was posted right around the time this episode came out. It’s also worth noting that Grace says these legends are often called “the lady in white” or “the hag of somewhere” when I could, in fact, not really find any legends that referred to these spirits as “hags” (could be on me though, I’m sure something exists!). We have, of course, heard of something very similar in the trailer where Ryan says “the hag of Hackett’s Quarry.” We assume this is, in fact, Eliza. So, is that what’s going on with her? Is Eliza a white lady spirit, haunting the woods? In order to qualify for that title, she had to be greatly wronged in life…so again, what exactly happened at the Harum Scarum show? Who or what wronged Eliza in life? Is she calling for Silas in the woods because he wronged her, or was that her son and the mysterious father figure did something unforgivable? Lots to think about!

ALSO ALSO–it’s worth noting (how many times can I say that) that multiple white lady legends involve them being especially active…*drum roll please*…during a full moon.

HMMMMMMMMMMMM

ALSO ALSO ALSO–since so many of the legends for white ladies involve them “testing” people on how good of a person they are and how well they treat the people in their lives, I’m sure that’ll play into the game somehow. The devs have talked about how you can really affect your relationships with other characters in this game, so it’ll probably behoove us to be friendly to all our counselor buddies…lest the white lady comes along and we fail her test)

Grace then goes onto confirm that she’s bringing up these legends because there have been sightings of a white lady (or “hag”) in none other than Hackett Woods!! Anton still doesn’t think the missing hikers have anything to do with this, to which Grace is like “awww man juuuuuust wait till you see what I have planned…” she hints that the next episode will be a little different, and she has plans for something a little more “hands-on” for next time…Anton asks her to please not do anything dangerous.

This is, however, the podcast for a horror game, so uh…

Basically, I’m thinking next episode could go a few different ways:

1. Grace goes to Hackett Woods to investigate everything in person. She manages to drag Anton along with her, and the episode is recorded as the two of them trek through the woods investigating. It ends on a possible cliffhanger when they hear an ominous noise or something.
2. Grace went to Hackett Woods alone, and Anton hasn’t heard from her since. The episode could be a mix of recordings Grace took while she was there that Anton got a hold of and his own reactions to it as he makes the trip to Hackett Woods himself to find her.
3. Grace went to Hackett Woods alone, but made it back, and the episode is her desperately trying to convince Anton of all the weird stuff she saw. Anton still doesn’t believe it, but he’s never seen Grace like this, I mean she is visibly shaken and doesn’t seem to be messing with him…hmmm…therefore, the next and final episode is the two of them going back there together.

My biggest fear is that Grace and Anton will not live through the end of this podcast series…I KNOW IT’S A HORROR GAME LEAVE ME ALONE I WANT THEM TO BE OKAY.

The episode ends with the peanut butter butter pops jingle again, followed by the usual creepy voice that talks about The Quarry.

The next episode is titled “No Hoax Without Fire” and I just…I just want Grace and Anton to be okay :’)

As for when the final two episodes will be released? I have…no idea. I thought they were goin on an “every two weeks” thing, but the game comes out in three weeks, so unless the last episode is being released after the game, I’m hoping we’ll be getting the next two episodes sooner rather than later. Mostly because I’m super nervous for Grace. I’VE GOTTEN ATTACHED, OKAY?

That’s all we’ve got for now, folks! Now that all of the counselor videos are out, I’m not really sure what the social media plan is from here on in? They could do stuff for the adult characters, of course, but I don’t know how likely that is since they really want to keep them steeped in mystery. If anything, I feel like we’ll probably get more of Eliza, since she was sort of the poster child for those “impossible questions” things over on Instagram. Or we might just get more counselor content, which I wouldn’t be mad about!

#pleaseletGraceandAntonbeokaythx

See y’all in the next update post!