(Contains Spoilers) Question about the back story

[Xiahou Blueo]

Lesbian love stories are great and all that, but did anyone find out the full story behind the house and Uncle Oscar? I get that he was some kind of pharmacist and he did something bad... Maybe I missed something vital to that part of the story. What exactly did he do? Why was the house labeled a psycho house? A few containers of morphine and a letter expressing that he feels bad for something don't quite explain it in my opinion.

[jarowdowsky]

You might want to look over the themes in Terry's books. Just saying...

[Your Pal, Burgs]

Woah. That's an interesting way of looking at it, jarow.

There are some hints here and there, but I don't think it's expressly said. You can see pictures of women's cloathing ads in the first secret passage, which may hint at some transgendered/cross-dressing/homosexuality (which would provide an interesting parallell to Sam). We know that Oscar is estranged from his sister, but was quite close to his nephew (Sam's dad) at some point. He was a heavy drinker, and possibly a drug addict at some point. (The fact that he sold his pharmacy, had taken ill, and mentions in a letter to his sister that he's "removed himself from temptation" sort of hint at this).

All in all, I think it's sort of better that they don't list his crime explicitly. Did he abuse Terry? Was he rejected by his family for his cross-dressing? Is he a drug addict? Did he assassinate JFK? It's kinda left up to the player to interpret.

[nikku_man]

My feeling is that Oscar did indeed abuse Terry, or at least had questionable relations with him. Aside from the suggestions that Oscar has some kind of paedophilic leanings (note that this is not the same thing as being gay), Terry has a height chart in the basement next to the safe, with Thanksgiving 1963 the last point. I just read something terrible into that. I think this all comes out in Terry's unexpressed but written desire to go back to 1963 to stop something horrible from happening, and in how (as Lonnie points out) he is super awkward at Thanksgiving, likely because it's his first Thanksgiving in this house since 1963. And of course, Oscar gives him the house to make amends.

Of course, this is just what's been floating about in my mind from having gone through the game without too much real exploration. I'm going back into the game later with a pen and paper to see what else I can find.

[abby]

They say there was a rocking horse in the basement room with no light which would support the pedophile theory. Can't find it, though.

[Centauri2002]

There's a small wooden horse on the pile of lumber in the dark basement room, deviantgrace. I believe it was the back, right corner.

[Solaron]

Why do I have a feeling this game is based on a true story? There's too much in this game for it to be just a story. Devs and programmers and story creators were inspired by something from their own past, or just one of them.

[PastaThief]

There is an obviously bricked over "hidden door" in the room with the wood pile and rocking horse. I actually found this conversation thread when looking to see if anybody had found a way to open it, or to turn on the light (which I thought might have enabled opening it). If you look at the bricks on the back wall, you can see that there's a passage of some kind. there.

[Mahaloth]

I have finished the game and also assumed Oscar either abused Terry or....this was 1963 and when Oscar was revealed as gay, they took Terry away because back then. gay meant "get the kids away".

[Jubs]

He may have been a pedophile. There was a newspaper clipping saying that he was 'overjoyed to welcome the throng of young people' into his pharmacy after he had a Soda Fountain installed. This could be linked with his letter to his sister where he admitted selling his store (we know it was for almost nothing) to 'remove himself from temptation'.

It's also possible that the reason he sold his pharmacy was to get away from the drugs, considering he was almost definitely a drug addict and that's probably how he got a reputation for being a psycho.

Or a little from column A, a little from column B. The crossdressing is interesting though.

[Centauri2002]

I'm not so sure about the crossdressing. There are old pictures of women's clothing but there are also men's clothing pictures too. Perhaps they were just there as some kind of insulation? Hard to say.

[Jubs]

Actually, yes, there were men, women and children illustrations. There were also pictures of women's shoes and accesories. Maybe just a secret interest in fashion? Could support the gay suggestion if we want to get into stereotypes like that.

[Centauri2002]

The evidence suggest pedophilia more than homosexuality though.

[Se︎︎bgeta ✧˚₊‧]

Originally posted by Centauri2002:

The evidence suggest pedophilia more than homosexuality though.

If Oscar took advantage of Terry, then he was both. A homosexual pedophile.
I don't see why no one thought of that. :P

[Jimbo]

I may be completely wrong here but i recall finding a note from terrys father about his books, (not the one in the basement, i believe i found it quite early on in the game and it wasnt about his first book) and it mentioned him like hiding the truth of the story or something. Even the book in the basement mentions that in a way, but i do recall this one being a lot more obvious about it. This could/would be a reference to the abuse, as his father would know that the whole 1963 thing would be about terry saving himself from it and such. If anyone can help me find this note again/confirm it or tell me how wrong I am it would be greatly appreciated.