Until Dawn EP4: Guest Starring Wolverine

By Shamus Posted Wednesday Nov 16, 2016

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 84 comments


Link (YouTube)

So let’s talk about this wolverine. Apparently the wolverine went into the house and lived there without tearing up the furniture, knocking stuff over, or leaving droppings all over the place. Then it went to the bathroom where there is no food or water or anything else that might be of use to a small mammal without opposable thumbs. And then it somehow closed the door behind him. Then it went into the space under the sink, and also closed that door.

What I’m saying is that this wolverine is still smarter than every last one of these teenagers.

 


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84 thoughts on “Until Dawn EP4: Guest Starring Wolverine

  1. Warclam says:

    Yep, it’s still nothing but shitty people talking to each other and jerking around spastically. Gonna have to sit this season out. Sad face.

    1. Turtlebear says:

      I’m finding the game extremely off-putting and cringeworthy too, but at least Shamus & co. make it bearable.

      1. Benjamin P Hilton says:

        Since I’m a guy you can take this with a grain of salt if you feel it necessary, but in my experience with my female friends, girls will at times talk about male friends in exactly the same manner.

        1. Gruhunchously says:

          …which is also kind of off-putting. Why can’t people keep their sexual intentions only to themselves and the immediately relevant parties?

          1. tmtvl says:

            Because humans by nature are social animals? I mean, that seems kinda obvious.

            1. Philadelphus says:

              Often incomprehensibly so, to those of us not quite so “social.”

              1. Grudgeal says:

                I once floated a hypothesis to a colleague that it’s an evolutionary adaptation to deter predators. Namely, most animals are usually very silent except when they’re defending territory, attracting mates or actively fighting/hunting. So humans, with our innate chattiness, use this ability to make great amounts of deafening noise through meaningless small talk to confuse predators because animals instinctively stay away from anything that makes as much noise as even a moderately sized dinner party.

                Unfortunately we never got past the concept phase because at that point the bar closed.

                1. MrGuy says:

                  By “closed” I assume you meant “got thrown out of.”

    2. Grimwear says:

      I remember reading reviews when it first came out comparing the game to the classic horror movies like Jason and Freddy where you watch to see the crappy kids get their comeuppance. This is such an odd game in that while we’ve had the David Cage movies we’ve never really had one that is an interactive horror film. If you don’t like those movies I can certainly see you not enjoying the game but I for one am interested to see how the story progresses. But yes those kids are douches.

      1. Daemian Lucifer says:

        I remember reading reviews when it first came out comparing the game to the classic horror movies like Jason and Freddy where you watch to see the crappy kids get their comeuppance.

        Really?Because thats not true for the classic slashers at all.For the sequels,yeah,the characters usually are douches.But the originals were more about you connecting to the kids and sympathizing with them.

        1. Grimwear says:

          That makes sense though I mean it really depends on the series. Halloween has you sympathize with Jamie Lee Curtis as she escapes Michael Myers (I mean come on Shrek is terrifying) but the original Friday the 13th barely even has Jason Voorhees in it at all with the villain being his mother. The originals exist in an odd space since I’m assuming the creators did not expect their villains to rise to such prominence and as such there was no frame work for the “watch your favorite villain murder despicable teens”.

      2. Phrozenflame500 says:

        Yeah, this game gets a lot more enjoyable when you “get” the vibe they’re going for.

    3. Daemian Lucifer says:

      Wow,thats a bit harsh.I know that they can be kind of lame when Mumbles is not with them,but thats no reason to dump on them so furiously.

    4. Peter H Coffin says:

      I totally understand the reason to make the kids reprehensible in movies so that it’s acceptable and looked forward to when they are *inevitably* killed, but I can’t help wondering if, in games, it wouldn’t be more interesting and fun to make part of the outcome that the player may want to SAVE them and set the kids up to survive against the killer/antagonist. Since we’re playing as/identifying with the kids, it doesn’t seem as necessary for them to even mostly all die, when skillful play could be made to save them instead.

      1. Christopher says:

        I mean, I still want to save them all. It’s normal to have flaws, and none of the people here seem bad enough to me that I would want to them to die. Like, what’s the worst they’ve done so far? They have pulled pranks, they have talked dirty or hatefully about each other behind their backs, and they have been bitchy and argumentative(Yeah, someone died as a result of that prank in the prologue, but it wasn’t their fault that the victims fled through the woods, ran into something that scared them and was chased off a cliff). I’m not with Chris, I don’t love how bitchy Emily is, but I don’t mind that that’s her(awful) personality. It’s just a character with flaws.

        I guess the positive with this characterization in the game is that the players who want to see them maimed can play a certain way and get to see that, while the players that want them to live can still do their hardest and make them survive. I personally hope that for once, Josh doesn’t go for a “kill ’em all” ending.

        My sympathies if you can’t stand these guys, though. I have certainly felt the same about other characters in games.

      2. MrGuy says:

        Not having played the game (because I don’t own a PS4), to what extent are these kids reprehensible because they’re innately that way, and to what extent are the reprehensible because you are allowed to play them that way?

        For example, Jess and Em are going to have a fight here no matter what you do. But your actions as Matt seem to decide how out of control they get. Similarly, in the scene with Josh, it appears you can choose for Chris to be a slimeball or a somewhat decent human being.

        Is all this “false choice” stuff, and the characters will be fundamentally bad people no matter which way you branch the story, or is it possible for them to be legitimately less douchebaggy as the result of your actions?

  2. Daemian Lucifer says:

    Chris loves that jump scare?So you are that one guy they are making all those silly things for.

    1. MichaelGC says:

      I thought he thought they were fucken’ balls?

      1. Echo Tango says:

        Campster’s half-Flanders swearing is the best. :P

  3. Daemian Lucifer says:

    So Joshs family is fucking rich

    Well yeah.They do own that casino in vegas.

  4. Merlin says:

    “You could just put the axe outside the house! Who’s gonna steal your axe?”

    Well I mean, it’s been stolen, sooooooo… :P

    1. Hermocrates says:

      Not that putting it in a box helped anyway. . . .

      1. MrGuy says:

        That’s not true at all.

        It’s been snowing since the characters got here, which means it probably snows all the time.

        The box is necessary protection to keep the axe clean and dry. Otherwise it would be all rusty and no good at all for teenager murderin’. Without the box, the axe is useless.

  5. Vermander says:

    Wolverines are also basically hulked up skunks so if one was trapped in a house for any length of time I’d have to imagine the smell would be pretty awful.

    1. tmtvl says:

      Yeah, and all the yellow spandex everywhere is a real pain to clean.

  6. ehlijen says:

    Wait, torching the wooden front door with a homemade flamethrower is a better idea than saying ‘hey guys, we found an open window, let’s all climb in!’ ?

    1. Echo Tango says:

      Hell, the building has working electricity. They couldn’t have found an extension cord and a hair-dryer, to carefully defrost the door?

      1. 4th Dimension says:

        Does it? Is it connected to the grid or is it powered by a generator? I guessed the later since he had to use the lighter to see instead of simply turning on the lights.

        1. Daemian Lucifer says:

          Even if connected to a grid,houses still have a main circuit breaker that people would flip when leaving,in order to prevent fires while they are away.

          1. Fists says:

            Only smart, experienced people. Not these teenagers.

            1. Daemian Lucifer says:

              True.But it stands to reason that the house is owned by the parents,not the dumb kid.And also,when those two died,some adults were definitely called up there.So when the whole thing was settled,its probably the owners who turned off the electricity.

  7. Henson says:

    Jeez, it’s like I’m participating in our own version of Cabin in the Woods. Death by merman, anyone?

    1. Echo Tango says:

      The hell with your merman – hillbilly-witch-girl 4 lyfe!

      1. MrGuy says:

        MerMAN, dad! MerMAN!

  8. Benjamin P Hilton says:

    “Frozen cuz that’s a thing that happens to doors.”

    Actually yes, if any kind of moisture gets in the lock it can freeze to the point when a key will snap before it turns.

    1. Shamus says:

      Oh sure. I can believe that a LOCK will freeze so the key won’t work. But at this point Chris is inside and can presumably just turn the knob and open the door.

      I’ve had locks that couldn’t accept keys, but I’ve never had one that couldn’t be opened when you were on the right side of it. Then again, I was overlooking the more obvious problem that there must be a lot of other doors in this place, and surely one of them can be opened from the inside.

      1. Benjamin P Hilton says:

        Yeah, good point, opening a door with a knob from the inside shouldn’t be a problem. I was thinking of my own experience with a door at work, which needs a key even if unlocking it from the inside. ( I actually did need a lighter to open that, but it was just by holding the lighter near the all metal door, not flamethrowing a wooden one.)

      2. Chris says:

        The knob on my old house door used to freeze shut in the winter, but it was a really tiny knob so you couldn’t get much leverage to turn it. A proper door knob would probably be preeeetty easy to break unless those are some seriously bad weather conditions.

        Edit: Eyyyyyy just noticed the bebop avatar. 10/10

        1. Benjamin Hilton says:

          Hehe I appreciate the avatar love.

      3. ehlijen says:

        There are door locks that require a key to be unlocked from either side; the handle will only open them if they are unlocked regardless of whether you’re on the in- or outside.

        1. McNutcase says:

          More common in the UK than the US, from my experience. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a residential lock in the US that needed a key from inside the “secured” area, they’re pretty much always designed on the assumption that egress is always to be allowed. Heck, some of them will cheerfully lock behind you, which is always fun.

          It’s probably a fire safety thing, now that I think about it. And American construction is significantly more flammable than most British construction. On the other hand, any decently motivated adult (ie anyone who’s passed puberty) could easily locate a suitable stretch of outside wall and simply kick their way out.

          1. Christopher says:

            Hang on, lock behind you? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a door like that besides like, maybe in some office buildings. Most doors I have ever encountered(Scandinavia) either have a keyhole that can be used from either side, no lock at all, or if it’s a front door, then a key on one side and just a lock you turn on the inside. I can’t say I’ve ever experienced them freezing stuck, anyway. That’s something that only happens to car doors.

            1. Philadelphus says:

              My house here in Hawaii has a lock in the door knob (with a keyhole outside and a little thing you turn to lock it on the inside), and a deadbolt (with pretty much the same setup). If you turn the little lock thing on the door knob as you’re exiting the house, the door will still allow itself to be closed and then be locked. It’s a lot faster than fumbling with a key so I’ve gotten in the habit of doing that as I’m terribly bad at not giving myself enough time to get places and am usually rushing out of the house.

              This has, on two occasions so far, had the unfortunate result of me ending up outside a locked house sans keys…

              1. Echo Tango says:

                +1 Both USA and Canada have lock-on-knob/handle doors like this.

              2. guy says:

                My house in the US used to have a front door that needed a key going in either direction, plus a lock in the doorknob itself that let you out but not in when turned. When we replaced the door, the new one had a lever for the lock in both directions on the inside.

                I think fire codes in the US require large buildings to have doors that can always be opened from the inside.

          2. ehlijen says:

            Back in germany, our home didn’t have a single door that wasn’t as I described: needing a key from either side to lock or unlock.
            The difference in safety for entrance doors was provided by the door only having a handle on the inside, so it couldn’t be opened from the outside even if unlocked. But it still required a key to unlock from either side if locked.

            1. guy says:

              Wait, how did you get into the house if no one was home to let you in if the entrance door can’t be opened from outside?

      4. Steve C says:

        Oh I have had it where doors (not locks) have frozen shut in the winter. I can absolutely confirm that it happens. It’s not common. I probably run into it only once every 3-5 years. I live in Canada in a windy area. Those are pretty much the prereqs.

        BTW Chris was on the wrong side of the door to open it. He could have opened it with the girls help. The girls were on the right side to force it. What happens is the handle freezes on the outside. So you need to be on the inside to turn it. You have no leverage on the inside though. Banging on it to loosen it up (like a stuck window) from the outside while someone holds the handle from the inside is what works.

        Point being is that the door being stuck in the location/weather depicted in game is believable. The wolverine though… yeah. Not very believable. Especially being blasé about “just a cute little baby wolverine”. The fact that it was a baby would freak me out even more. That means there’s still an adult somewhere inside. If a wolverine was living your house, you might be better off burning the house down. I’m not joking. If it sprayed in there you’d never get the smell out. It is like a bear crossed with a skunk (including the scent attack) except more dangerous than both. They take down moose. There is a documented case of one killing a polar bear in a zoo once.

        1. Echo Tango says:

          The best is trying to open a frozen door when you’re alone. Luckily most doors have a rubber weather-stripping seal-gasket thingy (or even just a little rubber bumper, if the weather seal is in the wrong area), which means if you bang on the door in the direction of it closing, it’ll crack the ice in the space between the door and the frame, without any (or very little) damage to the paint / door. Works on my truck every time! :)

      5. natureguy85 says:

        At work there is a lock that freezes every winter. I, being a loser, just pour hot water on it. Now I’m totally going to use a makeshift flamethrower instead.

  9. Sannom says:

    Having read Yakari as a kid, I already see wolverines as incredibly smart, cruel and cowardly creatures.

  10. Ninety-Three says:

    I’m afraid this is going to be the first season of Spoiler Warning I sit out. Normally the games you play have way less dialogue, and the dialogue is less important anyway, but this game is so dialog-heavy that I just cannot follow it when the SW crew and the characters are constantly talking over each-other.

    1. Echo Tango says:

      That’s what the subtitles are for! Also, the characters’ dialogue is basically, “we’re dumb, asshole teenagers”! :P

      1. ehlijen says:

        Reading subtitles while trying to listen to spoken audio is not always easy for everyone. And you kind of have to try and stay up on what’s happening in game because that’s what the crew is talking about.

        1. Andy_Panthro says:

          Gotta agree with this. It would be easier if the in-game sound was lower, so I could concentrate more on the SW crew talking (but then I would still have the problem of having to read the subs because otherwise I won’t know what the hell is going on).

          1. MrGuy says:

            Curiosity – would it be possible/desirable to mix the recording such that the SW cast is all on the left, and the game audio is all on the right? I recognize it would make it harder to follow “tracking” sounds in the game, but (in my experience, anyways) it’s a lot easier to separate two conversations mentally if they each get their own ear (Get down, Mister President!!!)

            1. Ninety-Three says:

              I have never experienced that before and I couldn’t say without hearing it first. Do you happen to have an example of that audio?

    2. Daemian Lucifer says:

      But then you will miss all of their attempts to murder Josh.

  11. Christopher says:

    Oh my God, I love Matt’s flashback inside his eye, you know shit’s about to go down. I knew Matt Would Remember That, but that was fast.

  12. Echo Tango says:

    I can actually believe the light bulb burst of its own accord. That was an incandescent bulb, which runs hotter than a CFL or an LED, and is basically just a single fragile piece of glass surrounding the wire. With the temperature differential from opening the window* suddenly, I could envision the glass cracking from the uneven contraction of the glass. i.e. Inside of the glass vs outside, one side closer to the window.

    * I mean, these guys don’t even appear to be uncomfortable, so maybe it’s not cold enough for this to actually happen.

    1. Philadelphus says:

      I can’t imagine there’s any temperature differential between inside and outside””that house looks like nobody’s been in it for a while and doesn’t seem to have any active heating going (unless I’m missing something), so after a day or two at most it should have reached thermal equilibrium with the outside.

      At least, based on my experience with houses, none of which involves houses in places where it snows more than once every two decades. Maybe Canadian houses are insulated a lot better?

      Though I do agree with your main point, that I can believe an old (possibly faulty?) incandescent bulb exploding on its own. I don’t actually have any evidence to say it’s possible, but it seemsplausible to me.

      1. Echo Tango says:

        The lodge would definitely be insulated against the cold; Gas / electricity is cheap, but it’s not free. Of course this is the off-season, so the lodge in theory shouldn’t have its thermostat set very high. Set it high enough that the pipes don’t freeze, and then have somebody check every once in a while, to see if anything’s been damaged or stolen. So probably not a big enough temperature difference to crack a bulb easily, now that I’ve thought about it more. Possible, but I guess not plausible. :)

        1. JT says:

          I’ve done caretaker-type stuff for seasonal lodges before. Typically, we would shut the water off and drain/flush/blow-out the pipes with compressed air. Drain the water heater, dismantle the drain traps to dump out the water and fill with antifreeze, stuff like that. Power and gas go off completely to avoid any incidents when nobody is around to catch them. Checking up on the properties, you definitely wear your coat because it is just as cold inside a winterized building in the middle of January as it is outside. That being said, I’ve also turned on an incandescent bulb in the non-insulated pumphouse of an old mountain cabin in the middle of winter (-30 F) and it didn’t explode, so…

  13. When you choose “Defuse,” it should take you to a Pipe Dream minigame.

  14. Philadelphus says:

    Then it went to the bathroom where there is no food or water or anything else that might be of use to a small mammal without opposable thumbs.

    Well, there is water in the bathroom, both in the toilet and also if there’s a dripping faucet or leaking pipe, but I agree 100% with everything else you had to say about it.

    1. MrGuy says:

      The thing about the wolverine hiding under the sink is that’s it’s just unnecessary, even just to make this specific scare work.

      You have this empty house. There’s a window open that we see, so things can be blowing around, and there’s a reason something might have gotten in. If you want to set up a jump scare with an animal that got in the house, you could do better than this.

      For example, as you’re looking around, there could be noises coming from supposedly empty rooms, leading you to investigate. Maybe there are scratching noises. You follow the noises, not knowing what to expect, when the wolverine jumps out from behind an open door and scares the crap out of you.

      Now you’ve added tension to the “wandering the house” scene that wasn’t there before. You’ve still got your jump scare, but you’ve added the layer of being relieved it was “just an animal.” You get a token you could cash in later where the kids hear a creepy noise outside and Chris can tell them “it’s probably just another wolverine” and convince everyone to ignore the scary noises. Plus, the wolverine is doing what an animal would actually do in this situation (wandering around the house, retreating from the human until cornered, then getting aggressive) instead of hiding under the sink like he read the script and knows it’s a horror game.

  15. Steve C says:

    I’m pretty sure that it was said in Eps 1 or 2 that the house was an institution of some kind. I believe they said it was a sanatorium for long term care. It was converted into a house.

    I just checked and yup, it is Blackwood Pines Hotel and Sanatorium. It being an institution at one point also explains why there would be a box for an fire axe outside.

    1. Ilseroth says:

      Without getting into it, the Sanatorium is a very large separate facility then the lodge they are at right now.

      1. Steve C says:

        So what they are in now is the hotel part, renovated to be a house?

  16. silver Harloe says:

    Oh, crap. Horror movie tropes.
    So the audience only saw the two girls fall down and appear to be wounded.
    They weren’t directly axed by the serial killer, they just fell.
    And we didn’t see an autopsy or even a burial.
    In a land of horror movie tropes.

    1. Common Pleb says:

      Their bodies were never found, but its pretty explicit that hannah’s spine was shattered, so she’s definitely dead.

  17. I suspect that the wolverine was put there by a someone.

    I can’t recall seeing if this was revealed to be the case though.

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      And that someone was
      .
      .
      .
      .
      .
      .
      the director!

      1. You are probably right, (large spoiler) Josh is “directing” the house of horrors thing after all, and I’m just guessing but I think the Wolverine was placed there by him.

  18. Grudgeal says:

    So, was this the point where not shooting that squirrel paid off? Like, if you had shot the squirrel the wolverine would have smelled its blood and bit Chris’ face off, leaving the rest of the teens to climb through the window to the sound of Chris’ screams as he suffers his squirrely fate?

    1. Christopher says:

      That squirrel will show up to help later in a boss fight against a giant zombie.

      1. Daemian Lucifer says:

        Ah,”throw the boot at the cat” moment.

  19. Pyrrhic Gades says:

    I doubt anyone knows what a wolverine is these days. From what I’ve heard, they haven’t been seen in the US ever since they drove the invading Cuban horde from the mid-western states.

    Maybe the wolverine only got into the bathroom very recently. He probably entered the house using axe-cessive means.

    1. Grudgeal says:

      He was enjoying a nice spa holiday in the hot water tank. Probably swam up into the bathroom through the pipes at one point to get his hair done.

    2. MrGuy says:

      I’ve heard there are some in Michigan.

  20. Blackbird71 says:

    “Then it went to the bathroom where there is no food or water or anything else that might be of use to a small mammal without opposable thumbs. And then it somehow closed the door behind him.”

    Shamus, I don’t recall from your many posts, but I’m assuming from this that you don’t have pets. First, plenty of household pets find the toilet bowl a regular source of water. Second, I have seen cats get themselves stuck in a room by pushing the door closed many times.

    The rest of the assessment is pretty accurate though (although I did once have a cat closed inside a cupboard, but I believe she had human help).

    1. evileeyore says:

      My cat routinely closes himself in our cupboards. But he can also just reopen them from the inside.

      Once had a cat that would open dresser drawers, climb onside, shut them and go to sleep. Then patiently wait until someone opened it to get clothes, so she could get out. Though she did this all the time, I don’t think she was ever stuck in a clothes drawer for more then half a day, as I got used to just checking frequently in case she was in there.

  21. guy says:

    I love how incredibly and yet believably dumb that door lock plan is.

  22. natureguy85 says:

    I have to wonder if these kids have any personality or relationship to each other beyond who is dating whom. I knew Emily was going to find Mike when she turned aside and it’s clear she still wants him since she immediately picks a fight with his new girlfriend. She also screamed “bitch,” both when setting up the initials prank and when first arriving with her new guy.

    I noticed it was Emily in the fire in the totem game-Chris found. Holy crap, real-Chris is right; you are supposed to root for the killer!

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