| “ | I'm Dr. Emil Hartman. I would like to invite you to stay at the Cauldron Lake Lodge, Mr. Wake. | „ |
| ~ Emil Hartman to Alan Wake. |
| “ | Hartman was stretched! | „ |
| ~ Emil Hartman/The Third Thing in Control: AWE. |
Dr. Emil Hartman, later known as The Third Thing, is a major antagonist in the Alan Wake franchise, and the main antagonist of the 2020 DLC Control: AWE.
He is the town psychologist of Bright Falls who runs the Cauldron Lake Lodge to help artists with mental problems, but turns out to be a manipulative and selfish man who takes advantage of his patients' minds, as well as his failed attempt to use the writer Alan Wake and his manuscripts with the goal of controlling the powers of the Dark Presence to gain fame and profit.
After the psychiatry incident in Bright Falls, Hartman has become a deformed monster after being fused by the influence of the Dark Presence and the Hiss, and attempted to escape from the Federal Bureau of Control until he was neutralized by Jesse Faden.
He was voiced by the late Mark Blum in Alan Wake and Control, and portrayed by Bruce Katzman in the prequel miniseries Bright Falls.
Biography[]
Background[]
Before Alan's arrival in Bright Falls, Hartman had discovered a power residing in Cauldron Lake that responded to the creative output of the artists within range. After Thomas Zane's failed attempt at reviving his lover Barbara Jagger and her transformation as the Dark Presence's avatar, Hartman set up the Lodge, hoping to perhaps create a kind of utopia with the potential creative energy. However, as several manuscript pages point out in the game, Hartman began to take advantage of his patients' mental instability to garner profit and fame from their work.
Alan Wake[]
Not long before Alan's arrival, Hartman speaks with Alan's wife Alice to convince her to bring Alan to Bright Falls to enroll him in the Lodge. Immediately distrusting Hartman, Alan punches him in the nose hard enough to break it. (For the remainder of his appearances, Hartman sports bandages over his nose.) Oddly, Hartman is calm about it.
Later, Alan comes to in a drug-induced state to be "informed" by Hartman that Alice drowned in Cauldron Lake and that he is having psychotic episodes, creating a story about "false" supernatural entities to cope with her death. Playing along for the time due to the drugs, Alan follows Hartman throughout the Lodge, meeting other patients being "treated" with creative outlets although Alan suspects that they too are just being manipulated by Hartman and his male nurse/enforcer Birch. As the day goes on, Alan is pressed to type more manuscript pages at a typewriter in his room.
During a ruckus downstairs, Alan finds and releases Barry who has been locked in a storage room by Hartman and Birch. Getting access to Hartman's office, Alan retrieves the manuscript pages and his revolver. Hartman appears and attempts to continue the lies until threatened with the gun. Telling Barry to get to a car, Alan holds Hartman at gunpoint until the Dark Presence surges into the room. Alan gets ahead and entraps Hartman in his office, leaving him to be attacked by the Dark Presence.
The Signal and The Writer[]
Hartman appears as a hallucination in the Alan Wake's mind, telling Insane Alan that everything was a lie, and that Alice is dead, as well as, one of the Taken entities assumes Hartman's form to attack Alan.
Control[]
Emil Hartman somehow avoided being turned into a Taken and managed to escape his Lodge before it was destroyed by the Dark Presence.
Sometime after the events of Alan Wake, Hartman encountered members of the Federal Bureau of Control, who traveled to Bright Falls to investigate the paranatural incident caused by Alan's writing. Though Hartman wanted to join the FBC in a partnership, they instead detained him due to his research on the Dark Presence and violating their laws. Emil was let go due to being low level threat, but Hartman became desperate to continue his research after the FBC confiscated it and refused to return it back to him. He traveled to and jumped into Cauldron Lake, deciding that he was mentally prepared to gain control over the darkness in comparison to Alan Wake or the FBC. As expected of his hubris decision; because of his weak mortal mind, he was turned into a Taken by the Dark Presence and was immediately arrested by the FBC. Brought to the Oldest House's Bright Falls AWE, Hartman escaped his confinement after sensing Alice Wake who was being interviewed by the FBC.
The Oldest House was put under lockdown, and Hartman encountered the Hiss when it invaded, which merged inside of Emil due to it and the Dark Presence being similar in nature. With both entities merging, Hartman's body was stretched into a monstrous form, with Frederick Langston describing his appearance as a "bar rag that's been twisted by the world's strongest man".
While hiding in the Bright Falls AWE area, the "Third Thing" encountered FBC director Jesse Faden, who proceeded to kill him without question, with her unknowingly avenging both Thomas Zane and Alan Wake for the predicament Emil caused them to be in and putting an end to the evil psychiatrist's fruitless attempts of obtaining power over reality.
Legacy[]
The Hartman’s investigation would prove to be useful for the FBC’s research of the Dark Presence and the Cauldron Lake threshold to Dr. Jules and Diana Marmont, co-leaders of the Research Facility WA-03, more commonly known as the "Lake House", would commit the same crimes that Hartman had been detained for, including using artists, as The painter Rudolf Lane, to conduct experiments, which would cause a supernatural disaster within the facility.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- In a few places, Cynthia Weaver writes in the light-sensitive paint "Don't Trust Emil", foreshadowing his manipulative personality.
- Also, another message says "Email made Tom do it", foreshadowing Hartman manipulating his mentor to awakening the Dark Presence.
- Emil's name is derived from the Latin "annulus,", meaning "imitating, rivaling or emulating". This is a reference to his manipulative and controlling personality, as he controls his patients, and attempts to manipulate Alan into thinking he had a psychotic breakdown.
- Prior to the release of the AWE DLC for Control, fans speculated that Hartman transformed into a Taken after being attacked by the Dark Presence, however this is incorrect, as the Taken that attacked Alan in the labyrinth of hedges outside the Lodge is the right hand of Hartman, Birch.
External Links[]
- Dr. Emil Hartman on the Alan Wake Wiki.
- Dr. Emil Hartman on the Control Wiki.
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 Villains
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The Dark Place Bright Falls In-Universe Fiction Control | ||