Part 65: Summary - Blackwell Unbound

Blackwell Unbound Intro Theme



The second game in the Blackwell series, Blackwell Unbound, was never originally meant to be a standalone game at all. Rather, Gilbert planned to include a short flashback sequence in his second game, originally slated to be Convergence, in which the player would control Lauren during one of her many cases with Joey. However, when Gilbert found the second game taking much longer and much more money than he anticipated to complete, he decided to put out an interim Blackwell game "on the cheap", spending literally less than a thousand dollars upfront to produce it. The result was Blackwell Unbound, a game which focused entirely on Lauren Blackwell, Rosa's aunt and fellow host of Joey. Specifically, on a case of theirs from the early 1970s, after they had been saving ghosts together for a few years.

The reduced budget meant a few things went to the wayside - no portraits being the most notable - but Unbound still had several things going for it. Lauren proved to be an excellent character and was brilliant voiced by actress Dani Marco. The addition of Thomas Regin as composer dramatically improved the quality of music, with his technique of blending midi music with a live saxophone very easy on the ears. And the story benefitted from not being bogged down by the need to introduce the characters and the setting. In the end, Unbound became something of a fan favourite among the series.

Lauren's Theme



Unlike the anxious and introspective Rosa, Lauren proved to be a much more fiery and aggressive protagonist - a trait which was offset by her seeming lack of interest in anything going on around her besides her cigarettes.



The game started with Lauren and Joey midway through investigating several leads, hoping to find lost souls. Only two cases remained on their list, but naturally those two cases would prove to be quite an adventure.

Isaac's Lament



The first case was about an old jazz musician who was haunting the Roosevelt Island Promenade and droning out melancholy melodies on his ghost saxophone.



Unfortuantely, he wasn't very amenable to being interrupted and generally just bonked Joey with his saxophone. He did reveal that he believed he was playing at a bar called Johnny Ivory's, however.

Johnny Ivory's



At Johnny Ivory's, Lauren found the enigmatic Cecil Sharpe, who was performing under the pseudonym "C".



A photo on the wall showed the saxophone playing ghost, back when he was still alive, but Cecil wasn't willing to talk about it. Nonetheless, the plaque at the bottom gave Lauren and Joey their next lead.

Jambalaya Records



After speaking with Dwayne, the manager at Jambalaya Records, and performing some fetch quests, they finally discovered that the ghost's name was Isaac, and that he played in a band called the C-Sharps.



However, they disappeared after a few gigs, and Cecil had no interest in talking.



While investigating the case, Lauren and Joey came across a crazy, ranting old lady who they would proceed to see several times again that night.



After doing a whole bunch of running around, Lauren finally gathered enough information to corner Cecil and force him to spill part of what he knew - that Isaac Brown had been murdered, choked to death. Although Cecil was still guarded, he did indicate he had been interviewed by a reported named Joseph Mitchell about Isaac, shortly before the murder had occurred.

Mitchell's Theme



Joseph Mitchell the character was based very much on Joseph Mitchell, the real life reporter who famously(?) wrote several fascinating works only to stop writing entirely for thirty years, turning up to work each day but never writing an article again. He proved unwilling to discuss the case, but did let slip that Isaac had a sister - the singer in the C-Sharps.



Cecil became irate with Lauren's line of questioning and refused to talk to her, until Joey recognised his demeanour as that of a man mourning a lost love.

The Brown's Duet



Finally, Lauren convinced Cecil to talk about what happened. It seemed Sarah had become sick and lost her voice, and the will to live shortly after that, stopping taking care of herself until she passed away. Her brother Isaac couldn't cope with the loss and became an abusive alcoholic. He had always finished gigs by playing a duet with his sister, and without her there he would refuse to leave the stage, attacking any who tried to move him off.



Lauren recorded Cecil playing Sarah's part of the duet...



...and played it for Isaac, allowing him to finally finish his gig.

Isaac Faces Eternity



Having shaken the cobwebs off, Isaac was ready to move on, which Lauren and Joey helped him to do. The pairing of the two pieces of music, The Brown's Duet and Isaac Faces Eternity, was brilliantly done, with the saxaphone playing a duet in both pieces.

Before Isaac left, however, he revealed that it was a crazy old lady who had choked him, which rung immediate bells with Lauren.



Sure enough, when Lauren returned from the void, she found the crazy old lady who called herself The Countess talking with Joey - a strange fact since only mediums and other ghosts should be able to see him. Before they could ask her any questions, though, she fled, quickly leaving a very unfit Lauren in her wake.



Any time Lauren had an emotionally difficult moment, she would head straight out to the balcony to smoke a cigarette and refuse to move until she was finished, much to Joey's chagrin.

53rd and Lex



The second case involved an abandoned construction site. With Lauren unable to enter, Joey had to go it alone.



Inside, Joey found a disoriented middle-aged lady ghost, who believed she was still in her third-storey apartment rather than a big pile of dirt.



Snooping around, Joey discovered a letter from a former resident of the previous building, and Lauren decided to chase her up in the hopes of finding something out about the site.

Harriet's Theme



Harriet, the previous resident, revealed that the lady ghost was called Mavis Wilcox, and that she had been a shut-in in real life who had refused for decades to leave her apartment, even for a moment.



When the building was brought out by a building company, they made her monetary offers to get her approval to tear the place down, but she refused to leave. Then, shortly later, she was found choked to death. Although the evidence pointed at the building company having something to do with it, the similarities between her death and Isaac's were obvious.



Adding further credibility to that theory was the realisation that Joseph Mitchell had also interviewed Mavis, shortly before she was killed. By this point it was becoming obvious that these two cases were inextricably linked.

Inside The Gate



Posing as Mavis' son, Joey managed to earn her trust long enough to get inside her headspace a bit, but without knowing much about her, he wasn't able to get very far. He did, however, learn that her son's name was Sam, and her (dead) ex-husband was John Durkin.



A short bit of stalking later, Rosa managed to find Sam Durkin at Columbia University, and give him a call.



It turned out that Sam was very much estranged from his mother when she was alive, resenting her for refusing to leave the apartment and blaming her for driving his father to an early grave.



In passing, he also revealed that he had given his mother a present once, which Lauren and Joey hoped they might be able to use to reach Mavis emotionally.

Mavis Faces Eternity



A quick follow-up chat with Mitchell later, Lauren discovered the present was a copy of the book Alice in Wonderland.



Joey gambled on the book having some emotional significance to Mavis, and the gamble paid off. Mavis had treasured the gift as it was the only thing Sam had ever bought her.



Of course, with the building demolished, she was unable to find it, and was suddenly panic-stricken, worried that Sam (who Joey was still posing as) would think she didn't care about it.



In a cruel but probably necessary moment, Joey pushed the issue to the point where he was able to convince her to leave her "apartment" and come searching outside for the book.



Once outside, however, Mavis became painfully aware that her treasured home was now gone, and turned her fury onto Joey before sulkily resigning herself to her fate in a very awkward (and extremely well-written and acted) scene.



Sadly, Mavis' final moments were spent reflecting on how badly she had messed up her life. It was not for nothing though, as she revealed that she too had been choked to death by a crazy old lady - The Countess.

The Countess Approaches



Like clockwork, The Countess showed up immediately once Lauren returned back to reality...



...but again disappeared just as quickly, leaving a frustrated Lauren behind.



Back in their apartment, Joey and Lauren nutted out the only true link between the two cases - Joseph Mitchell. Somehow he was sending The Countess after people, but how? And why? They also determined that The Countess must have been a medium like Lauren, but without her spirit guide. Lauren was understandably horrified with the prospect of ending up like her.



With enough evidence to pin Mitchell down, Lauren confronted him, where he eventually revealed that he had discovered that whoever he wrote about would get murdered. Three times in a row it had happened.



This was why Mitchell never wrote again. He refused to be responsible for any more murders. He was happy with that as a solution to the problem, but Lauren wasn't - she wanted to talk to The Countess and find out how she had become so twisted.



In a pretty damn ballsy move, Lauren demanded that Mitchell write about her, so as to invite The Countess to come. Mitchell was very hesitant to do so, but Lauren could be very convincing (and intimidating) when she wanted to be.

Lauren and the Countess



Unfortunately, in her desire to invite The Countess, Lauren forgot to actually formulate any kind of plan for dealing with the inevitable.



She was quickly overpowered by the insane strength of The Countless, who began to choke her to death, claiming it would "free" her. It was clear that The Countess thought she was helping spirits move on to the next world, but without her spirit guide, all she was capable of doing was killing people. If anything, all she was achieving was leaving more ghosts in her wake.



In a last-gasp act of desperation, Lauren jammed her lit cigarette into The Countess' eye, causing her to release her grip on Lauren.

Joey and the Countess



Taking advantage of her disoriented state, Joey began luring The Countess away from Lauren...



...until at last she was out on the balcony.



In the heat of the moment, Lauren took advantage of the situation and shoved The Countess over the rail, sending her plummeting to her death in a dramatic finish. While Joey was chuffed with the result, Lauren was filled with a mixture of pity, and fear that she could end up the same way - which is difficult to hear, since we know from Legacy that Lauren did indeed meet a similarly terrible fate.

Solitude Begins



Finally, an epilogue showed Lauren reaching out to her brother to get back in contact, an event which would eventually lead to her taking custody of Rosa, and with her going insane. All in all, Unbound ended on a very bittersweet note, full of character and pathos but with a sense of great foreboding.



Despite being short, and minimalistic graphically, Unbound was a great game that fleshed out an excellent character. It's difficult to overstate how much Regin's compositions brought to the series, and Dani Marco's voicing of Lauren was exceptional.

Unbound also showed off Gilbert's love for weaving interesting real-life stories into his games, a trait which would rise to a peak in the following game. Having a concrete explanation for the real-life mystery of Joseph Mitchell's 30-year writing block was a fascinating idea and well-executed. Most importantly, the game could be played and enjoyed without ever realising that it was inspired by a real story, but knowledge of the real story made it feel more fleshed out.

Tomorrow we'll take a look at Convergence, the first of the Blackwell games to receive a bit of a tech upgrade. Only a couple of days away from Epiphany now! In the mean time, I'm still very keen to hear your thoughts