Little Nightmares II Heartbreaking Ending Explained

 

Tarsier Studios has released Little Nightmares II the prequel to their critically acclaimed 2017 puzzle-platformer Little Nightmares. The player assumes the role of Mono who has just saved Six – the protagonist from the previous game – and must survive the horrors and secrets of Pale City. Similar to the previous game, just as you are about to complete the game, a heart-wrenching scene unfolds, leaving you on the edge of your seat.

Caution: Major spoilers below.

The Door

At the top of the game, you awake as Mono, a masked boy who dreams of a mysterious door. At first, this may just seem like another Little Nightmare scare-tactic of getting your adrenaline pumping. But as the game progresses, the door becomes more and more significant. Especially for the final scenes.

Mono will attempt to enter televisions to gain access to the hallway and door seen in the beginning, but Six will always stop him if she is present. As the game advances, and you are separated from Six, you are able to use the televisions as portals to complete the puzzles set in front of you.

The Final Scenes

After entering the Pale city, you encounter the apparent Big Bad through a Transmission – The Thin Man – who thrives and feeds off of the energy of those who watch the said video. When you finally come face to face with him, you discover that Mono and The Thin Man share similar powers.

Cue to heart-wrenching.

As you escape the Thin Man and run from the crumbling Tower with Six, you come to a giant crevasse. Six is able to clear the jump, but as Mono goes to jump, he misses. Six is able to catch Mono, but after a moment, seeing the Mass of eyeballs and flesh coming after them, Six lets Mono go.

I know what you’re thinking – why would Six let Mono fall into the hands of death? After this whole game, why the betrayal? It’s simple, yet will create knots in your stomach once you come to the same realization as Six.

Mono, at this point, is not wearing any of his normal masks and hats, allowing for six to truly see his face – he is The Thin Man. Or will one day take his position.

Six’s actions here, are to make sure that she stops the future of the Thin Man. But as we see in the following cutscene, Mono, over time, morphs into The Thin Man.

Secret Ending

If during the first four levels, you collect all the glitches of the mysterious children, you are able to see what unfolds after the Mono-Thin Man scene.

We see Six as she escapes the crumbling of the Signal Tower through a television. Once she’s on her feet, a glitch of her appears before her and looks to the floor between them. What’s between them? A picture. It’s the Maw.

Will there be a Little Nightmares III?

After it’s revealed that Mono is not dead, and has instead become the Thin Man, this leaves to speculation about his fate. In the third DLC level, The Residence, eagle-eyed fans have found something sinister. During the credits for Secrets of the Maw, they appear to be playing on a television set, with a figure reminiscent of the Thin Man.

Will Six and Mono/Thin Man have a final showdown? Will they work together to save the world? Is it just false hope?

Tarsier has not yet announced any news about a third installment in the Little Nightmares series, but fans remain hopeful.

 

To catch up on everything Little Nightmares, check out our tag here on Downright Creepy.

Little Nightmares II is available on Playstation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Google Stadia, and Steam