Question about Bea's father and ending ( = Spoilers = )

[Wazat1]

It's been bothered by this for a while... I picked Bea each time so I got to visit her dad, see what he's all about. During the ending, after the cultists have died or otherwise become trapped in the mine to their doom, it shows Bea in her home staring at an empty couch (where her father appears to sleep?). He's not there.

It seems to me that Bea's father was one of the cultists, and maybe that's about the only place he ever goes when he rarely leaves the house. Part of the reason he's so unhelpful to Bea is he's chosen to devote his energy and will to that route instead, leaving Bea to deal with the shop. Now he's gone, one of the cultist dads trapped in the mine, and Bea... seems to be at peace with that..

That's what I saw and how I interpreted it... Have I misunderstood, and/or jumped too far ahead? It could be that Bea's father doesn't always sleep there and she was just contemplating recent events, unrelated to her Dad.

Even if that's so, I wonder if any of the cult dads are characters you meet outside the cult, who have gone suddenly missing during the ending.

[thisisaudo]

I think you might be reading into it. It would be very unlikely for Bea not to mention it the next day if that were the case.

[Adrian]

I also doubt her dad wouldn't speak up if he was there

[Wazat1]

Hmm... Bea's pretty closed. It might be the kind of thing she'd keep to herself, at least at first.
It'd be neat to ask the devs about it, but that's a long shot.

Just an interesting idea. It was the reaction I had to seeing her father missing in that scene.

[Legion Main]

Bea's father is not mentally well enough to help the cult with their agenda and if youre paying attention youve seen what the cult does to its members that get too sloppy. His stress originates from the natural death of his wife, not the economy. Furthermore if Mr. Santello were to just suddenly dissapear in such a mental state it would certainly be an alarming situation that Bea wouldnt just shrug at considering that she cares so much about him as her only remaining family that she put her own needs on the backburner to supplement his. Someone thinking otherwise wasn't paying enough attention.

ALSO noteworthy is that Molly did in fact know some people who were missing and if Mr Santello were among them, she wouldn't leave Mae or Bea for that matter in the dark about it since they are so close, unlike how she actually does about the situation otherwise.

There have only been 10 cultist shown on screen give or take, but people forget that possum springs is quite a bit bigger than just the side to side street that Mae ONLY gets to explore with more being behind and around it and thus more people inhabit.

Some people just aren't in the epilogue and not everyone that mae has met is a member of the cult. But most importantly there are far more people inhabiting possum springs than the few that appear and dissapear throughout the whole story, not just during the epilogue.

[Twig The Fat Deerfox]

Yeah i don't think he would join the cult, or even be able to.

He just became an fat ass, sitting around in his house with mental breakdown from his wife's death and used Bea to do the job for him.

That's all we know about him. After the night Mae talks trash about Bea's dad, maybe Bea could've talked to him and in the end he's back to work?

[Mjäll]

I don’t believe so

[The Freedom Man]

Well, if you look at it from a literary analyis, a large point of the game is guilt. That shows through Bea in her guilt over resenting her father for his attitude, which means it seems likely she would mention it.

However, no one really does mention it. Germ kills a bunch of guys and shrugs it off. Nobody is shocked by what they've been through the next day. Sure they connect, but there isn't much conversation or thought or remorse over the deaths of the cultists (Which would be a normal reaction) Interesting aside: I noticed one of the "smelters" guys outside Miller's was misssing the next day.

[Wazat1]

I've been meaning to replay the game to see the other storylines. I'll have to keep an eye out for who's missing at the end of the game!

[Qeyleb]

To be fair the Smelters guy did say he was going away, so I'm not sure that him being gone means he was a cultist.

Still, I was somewhat expecting/dreading finding out who was missing. Could have been one of Germ's relatives. Could have been someone on the town council, Hot Fuzz style. You just never know. I think OP's theory isn't true, but it sure got me thinking.