u/LewdSkeletor1313

Doesn’t seem like it’ll be streamed anywhere, anyone on this sub going that might be able to share details afterwards?

In all of their games, but most prominent in Alan Wake 2 and the Max Payne games, Remedy includes a lot of environmental details that reflect and foreshadow the main story and the main characters. I thought it would be fun to go through the available Resonant footage and analyze these details to see what can be gleaned from them. This will feature spoilers for all released material about Resonant.

• Atlantis Cafe: In the first teaser, we see a cup of coffee outside of place called "Atlantis Cafe". Coffee is a recurring figure in these games, and Atlantis is a mythical city that sank into the ocean. The ocean/water is a major theme in most of the games, and the Sea of Night is a large piece of the RCU's cosmology. The address for the cafe is also "665 Thomas Street", with 665 being referenced in every game as "Neighbor of the Beast".
• Overlapping Circles: In most footage, we keep seeing repeated imagery of overlapping circles as graffiti on the walls, as art, as patterns in a carpet, etc. This imagery was teased in The Lake House and Time Breaker DLC's, and seems to possibly be connected to overlapping realities?
• Fix Your Heart or Die: An advertisement can be seen saying "fix your heart or die", this is a reference to a line David Lynch says in Twin Peaks S3.
• Mold Signs: In screenshots of the Mold areas in the game, we can see two signs that say, "The All You Can Meat Lunch" and "Strong Taste" both clearly referencing how the mold influences people to eat it.
• Roscoe St. Station: In another screenshot of the Mold area, we can see a train car with the name "Roscoe St." on it. This is a reference to the fictional Roscoe St. Station in Max Payne.
• Lost Your Home?: There is a poster advertising a lawyer you can call if you've "lost your home?". This is likely reflecting the fact that the Oldest House has fallen and the FBC/Dylan have lost their "home".
• Parting: We can see posters and banners for a dance performance called "Parting" all throughout the city. We can see a ballerina on them that appears to be the same as the Resonant boss we've seen. The posters say Follow the Voices" and "Look for the Lights", while some of them also have a name on them, "Zorya" the name of the Slavic dawn goddess. Could the ballerina's name be Zorya?
• House of Mirrors: A theater seen in the world called "House of Mirrors" showing a play called "Lost in Space". Mirrors are constantly used as imagery in Remedy games. House of Mirrors calls to mind the poem featured in Address Unknown during Max Payne 2:

>In this hall of mirrors / built by liars / I’m a pale reflection of myself – Pool.

This poem is referenced by Thomas Zane in This House of Dreams on a page featuring this poem:

>I wish it would shatter / like glass under my heels / just like a sheet of ice / when I close my eyes / that's how the mirror feels

Oh mercy / thousands have gone missing / beyond the labyrinth of me / when you're lost / you're lost in your own company

The latter half of that poem is quoted directly by Zane in Alan Wake 2. The first Control also features the Mirror Altered Item. Mirrors in Remedy's games usually relate to reflected and shifted identities, alternate lives, etc.

The part about Lost in Space reminds me of "Space Oddity" the song that plays at the end of the first AW. The character of Major Tom in the song reflects Thomas Zane as well as Alan Wake. In Control, Dr Darling directly quotes the song, mentioning Major Tom before ultimately disappearing into the Dark Place and meeting Tom Zane. Coincidence?

Re-Fraction: An advertisement for a film called "Re-Fraction" by Michael Manson can be seen in the gameplay reveal. Refraction also refers to the concept of reflections. Refraction is what happens when a wave of light or sound passes through one medium to the next. Like light through a prism. In water refraction causes things to look distorted and their location from the outside appears higher. This possibly relates to the themes of the game and how reality has been distorted.

Dark Matter 2099: In the sinkhole mission shown during the demo, we can see a poster for a movie called "Dark Matter 2099" which claims to be a "Mind Expanding Galactic Adventure". This is possibly a reference to Remedy's cancelled "Void" game set in space, which was later turned into a TV show in Max Payne. Dark matter is also referenced in Quantum Break. On the Alan Wake chalkboard, the Dark Place is equated with dark matter and says 95% of reality is made of it. Dark matter is believed to be tied to "primordial black holes" and is used to explain gravity effects that cannot be explained by general relativity. it's been referred to as "gravitational scaffolding for cosmic structures". Gravity anomalies seem to be a big part of Resonant. Sean Donnelly stars in it.

The Egg: Another movie poster. The tagline reads "Crack the shell. Uncover the truth ...but some secrets are better left untouched". Notably the Hiss chant features mention of an egg cracking

>The egg cracks and the truth will emerge out of you

Interestingly, the new Hiss incantation in Firebreak replaces that line with this

>and behind the fake facade a terrifying truth will emerge

Quantum Break also repeatedly uses a "time egg" cracking as an example of how time has broken.

The Salty Lands: One last movie poster. This one seems to relate to a vision we can see in Control after 100% completion. We briefly see several images from Dylan teasing the plot of Resonant. One of them is cryptically a large salt flat on a starry night. The Foundation also sets up the idea of a phenomena where Himalayan salt lamps are taking people over via some kind of "green" entity that mentions that things become greener the more they're reflected. Salt flats are usually formed when large bodies of water evaporate. How exactly salt will become important, I don't know.

Or will the title change again next season?

Like a lot of folks, I’m a big fan of the Fra character from the AWE dlc. I’ve been hoping that he makes a return in Control Resonant. In the mean time I decided to do a deep dive into the character, and I came away with some ideas.

We know that AWE’s and entities can be influenced via the collective unconscious of humanity. For centuries humanity has looked at the moon and wondered whether there was life there. Myths and folklore about a “man on the moon” are frequent throughout the world. In several mythologies the moon is personified, such as in Norse mythology where the moon is represented by the god named Mani. Belief in life on other planets in general was a big topic going back centuries.

The Moon shines because it reflects the light of the sun, making it a sort of metaphorical mirror. What better place for an entity representing our belief in alien life to manifest than the Moon? A shining mirror that was a major focus of culture through the 60s and 70s during the Space Race. Add in anxieties about UFO’s, alien invaders, etc, and you’ve got a recipe for Fra to manifest.

The question is though, why Apollo 14 specifically? At least two other ships had landed on the moon previously. So why did Fra manifest this time? Well, shockingly, one of its interviews actually gives us an answer; during a taped interrogation, the FBC agent asks why Fra is here and why he stowed aboard Apollo 14, and one of his responses is this:

“Wind and windy, Mitchell.”

This is one of the rare times where Fra says an actual name, and at first it seems random. But one of the Apollo 14 astronauts was named Ed Mitchell, he was the 6th man to walk on the moon. Researching Mitchell, I discovered that he has a heavy and well documented belief in ESP, the paranormal, and UFO’s. He has even made the claim that he experienced an ESP event during Apollo 14s return trip.

His career post-NASA was all about the paranormal and he even had ties to the CIA that eventually led to the creation of the Stargate Project. Over the decades he repeatedly claimed that UFO’s and alien life were real and that the government was covering it up. He believed that aliens had come to Earth to bring peace to all mankind.

So I think what happened is clear; humanities large shared beliefs about alien life and the moon laid the foundation, while Mitchell’s overwhelming belief in alien life and the paranormal acted as a final catalyst when he arrived on the moon to manifest Fra, who mirrored Mitchell by copying his space suit. The reason that Fra is non-hostile and relatively friendly is because of Mitchell’s belief that aliens come in peace.

Here’s hoping that the implication in Firebreak that Jesse let Fra out of his cell is true, and Dylan can interact with everyone’s favorite space alien in Control Resonant!