Earlier this year, the long-awaited sequel to the survival horror game, The Evil Within arrived. The Evil Within 2 continued the story of Sebastian Castellanos. Three years after escaping the STEM system (a machine that connects the minds of multiple people together in a mental world) in Beacon Mental Hospital, he enters the new system, Union, created by malevolent secret society Mobius, in order to find and rescue his daughter, Lily. But one of the noticeable aspects of the Evil Within 2 is the apparent absence of Ruvik. Ruvik had been a major antagonist of the first Evil Within. He was the disturbed genius behind creating the original STEM, who, after being betrayed by his associates, was trapped within the Beacon STEM and transformed into the monstrous place it was. Although he was defeated by Sebastian at the end of the game, it is implied in the ending scenes that he escaped STEM through the body of Leslie Withers. In some sense, it is interesting that he wasn’t in the Evil Within 2, beyond some mentions by some characters. But what if he actually was involved in the plot of the Evil Within 2?

Here, I’ll put forward my theory about how Ruvik was actually involved in the plot of the Evil Within 2. Now, before one reads this, it is best to be familiar with the plots of the Evil Within 1 & 2, so that one can fallow the details of this theory. First off, it is presumed that Ruvik likely survived and is inhabiting the body of Leslie Withers. From the first game, it can be seen that Ruvik’s prime motives are to develop the STEM system so that he can form a mental connection with his deceased sister Laura, and to seek revenge on his enemies. Since Mobius, the group who betrayed him, had created a new STEM system, he would have an interest in that matter. If he were to attack the Union STEM then he could gain some vengeance on Mobius and if he could take it over than he could presumably use it to return to his work. Since he created the original STEM and Union was based on it, he would have the knowledge of how it worked, could likely figure out how to hack into it, and then plant something to have influence over it.

This would help to explain some of the details of how Union became corrupted. When Sebastian enters Union it is physically unstable and is filled with people who have been transformed into monstrous creatures. The physical distortion can be explained by the Core, Lily, being displaced when Myra and her group tried to get Lily out of STEM. But the people transforming is more ambiguous. In the game, one can find notes by Mobius members that state that the transformation was caused by people who had their pre-union memories erased, having their memories return, and then leaving their mind in internal conflict, before spreading to Mobius operatives. Notes also state subjects hallucinating about a ghostly figure before transforming. At various points in the game, Sebastian goes through chase sequences with a female ghost creature, with the power to make things cold, move through solid objects, and transport Sebastian into areas based on his memories of Beacon. This creature is presumably the same ghostly figure that played a role in transforming people. The ghost bears a resemblance to Ruvik’s sister Laura, and its cold abilities fit as a counter to the fact that Laura had died in a fire, and its ability to corrupt minds parallels Ruvik’s ability to corrupt minds in the first game. The Evil Within Wiki interprets the ghost as a projection of Sebastian’s mental trauma from Beacon. But if it’s the same ghostly figure that transformed the Union inhabitants, then this wouldn’t be the case. And if the ghost was based on memory conflict, then it wouldn’t affect Sebastian and Myra who had their memories entering Union. It is plausible that the ghost woman was created by Ruvik in order to corrupt the Union inhabitants and prepare the way for him to take over Union.

If Ruvik does have a hand in corrupting Union, then that would also help explain the corruption of Myra. After being betrayed by Father Theodore, Myra somehow ends up being corrupted. Her corrupted form has goo and ice powers, and controls a group of creatures. Unlike the normal Myra, who wants Lily to escape STEM, the corrupted version of Myra was to keep Lily in STEM. From the statements of Mobius’ leader, it is known that even if Union falls apart, it can be rebuilt if the core is preserved. Now if Ruvik had the ghost woman corrupt Myra, he could use her as a pawn to get Lily and use her power to take over Union. That would serve to explain the powers of the corrupted version of Myra and why it wanted to keep Lily in Union.

Now in the last part of the game, Sebastian defeats the corrupted version of Myra, the regular version of Myra returns and urges Sebastian to take Lily out of the STEM, while she takes her place as the new core. Sebastian and Lily are brought out of the core with the help of Juli Kidman, Myra uses the power of the core to take over the brain chips in all members of Mobius, and all the Mobius members are killed. The Union STEM is shut off, Sebastian, Lily, and Kidman leave, but last scene shows the STEM machine lighting up again. Now if Ruvik was behind Myra’s corruption, then it’s possible that after seeing that Sebastian was going to win, that he changed strategy, let Myra go, and allowed them to go through with Myra’s plan. In doing so, he’d get revenge on Mobius and then presumably be able to use Myra as the new core to recreate Union.

And that’s the theory. Ruvik secretly hacked into Union, used the ghost to help corrupt people in it, and manipulated the situation behind the scenes so that he could take the Union STEM away from Mobius. If this is true, then it would help explain some ambiguous parts of the story, make for an interesting secret sub-plot. If it is true, then it’s possible that if they end up making an Evil Within 3, that it could be about Sebastian trying to save Myra from a new STEM world created by Ruvik, while Ruvik tries to push further in trying to advance his research.