The Heretics and the Truth About Jane Doe
Outlast 2: Story and Ending Explained
The heretics are led by Val, who was once a trusted member of New Ezekiel. It was Val that was entrusted with the all-important task of caring for the children. You may have noticed that you don’t run across any young individuals while playing the game, and there’s a good reason for that. They’re all killed. Now it’s not stated that Val is the one who kills them, in fact it’s pretty clear that everyone must play a part in the bloodshed or else they’re considered to be a traitor. Oftentimes it involves cutting the babe right out of your spouse, which is very gruesome.
It’s not clear if the child murdering is what caused Val to go her own separate way. Reading certain documents shows that she loved caring for the children and looked at them as if they were blood relatives. The heretics take Lynn, presumably to have the supposed baby that’s growing inside of her killed. After taking her they leave you be, which is another odd event in Outlast 2 as everyone else seems hellbent on killing you.
Shortly after meeting the heretics for the first time, you meet another interesting character, Ethan. He’s a member of Knoth’s “family” but he seems to be on the outs with them after he did something against the rules. Knoth raped his daughter (which isn’t considered rape in the cult) and got her pregnant. He then ordered Ethan to cut the baby from his daughter, which he naturally couldn’t bring himself to do. So he lies to buy his daughter, who is named Anna, time to escape. She does successfully flee the area and is found days later wandering the road, only then she was known as Jane Doe.
Ethan lets you stay the night at his house, but is considered a heretic. So later on he is murdered by the good ol’ axe lady you keep running into. He keeps your location secret to the end. The events that happened with his daughter opened his eyes to what was going on and he refused to be a part of it any longer.
