An Insane theory

[Saphrron]

I didn't think of this but I believe this 100%, thought i'd bring this to the steam community


imagine if the credits started to roll & the photos are being shown, with the very last one being a cute family portrait of: Brian, Ned & Delilah.

If she turned out to be the mother of Brian-Wife of Ned then I feel the story could have been stronger. I have a few theories about how this all might be true.

My opinion on what happened:
Delilah thought Ned ran off with their son. She felt deserted & returned to Shoshone National Forest to get away from the world. Ned could have taken Brian out to climb while Delilah worked one day, only for Ned to watch his own son die, too ashamed to go back & tell Delilah he went into the woods to live. Waiting for the next Lookout to enter his old tower, Ned would lead them to Brian's body, essentially giving Delilah closure. Ned could have tried this with the first Lookout but the news being so heartbreaking lead to the suicide that is never really explained.

Delilah has a soft heart for Brian but hates Ned, calling him a murderer & putting all the blame on him. There is alot of existing pain in her dialogue about him. declaring him a bad father though that isn't the case nor does she have any real reason not to believe Henry when he tries to explain Ned's innocence.
But then we are left with the elephant in the room, barely any arrows pointing towards this being a possibility. Well what is something so heavily soaked into this entire story?

Alzheimers.

Delilah could have been there for a few summers & slowly started to suffer from Alzheimers. Forgetting she had a husband, a son. Ned possibly knew this, which is why he needed Henry so badly.
It would probably be the last time her & Ned would ever be in the same area together due to the fires.

Checkout Supplice Vi's channel because this was his idea, not mine although I do think that bringing such a theory to the steam community may rise some excellent disscusion

[Terrapin]

I think you are on to something, but the proof is the final picture. It's a instamatic camera. It takes a person to click the photos. The first pictutre is of Ned and Brian and Delilah took the picture.

[sinc3re1ydan]

Yeah when i saw that picture at the end the first thing i thought was "who took that picture" it must have been Delilah

[meliss37]

So in the <que Jerry Springer voice> "Deliliah you are the mother!" camp.

Exactamundo--those old disposables didn't have a timer. Granted it could've been any passing tourist, but given all the hidden meanings and layers in this game...to quote another throwback of a show ala "Home Improvement "I don't think so, Tim."

Also, D's venom in her voice about when she speaks of Ned, specifically "Ned Goodwin could never take care of anyone/thing." That' seemed such a personal way to speak about him, like an ex-wife/significant other would, not just someone who spent less than two months radio-ing with him.

I also wonder if not Alzheimer's but D. suffered from traumatic memory repression regarding Brian's accident. And out of guilt, Ned watched over her from a distance, which would explain his true/not true comment on his "report" about her misrepresenting her past. Perhaps her alcoholism was also fall-out. Or maybe she blamed herself because it had been a long-standing problem, i.e., she was drinking the day they were out climbing, and that added more to her guilt/break down.

This poss brought to you by my total fanwanking, stream of isn't-this-interesting, I-just-finished-the-game-and-need-grief-therapy-or-this-forum, thanks-for-reading-this-far, and the letters F&W. ;)

[Burninator]

I like this idea - the whole time the pictures were scrolling I kept waiting for one to show some sort of final 'twist'.

[Whitebeard]

What are the odds of one guy (Henry) encountering two women with early onset Alzheimers? It is quite rare. I might go as far as a "fling" between Delilah and Ned, but the way Ned talks it is hard to tell if he had any feelings for her. And how would Delilah get to Twin Forks? She says she has never used the cable car, and that seems to be the only way to get to the area covered by the Twin Forks lookout.

[galacticcorgi]

There were probably other campers. Keep that in mind. So they had one snap a picture.

[Mangatome]

I like this theory too. It's safe to assume D took the picture, But I don't think Alzheimers's is needed to explain anything. It's clear all along the game that D connected with Ned and Brian during their stay. That's enough to explain why she took a picture.