#it sounds like something ma and pa hackett would say

[georgecostanzaatemysoup]

Crack theory: Chris changed the motto to "What Doesn't Kill You, Will Make You Stronger" because he listened to that Kelly Clarkson song on repeat for a summer and it changed his life.

[lovesomehate]

One night Max and Laura are almost successful at escaping. Max took a risk taking on Travis and managed to get away with the keys. He’s able to get Laura out and encourages her to run and find someone to help them. She gets far away, but eventually hears Travis chasing after her, first in his cruiser then on foot when she runs into the woods. She ends up taking a serious tumble and somehow ends up several years in the past.

Lost and confused and not yet aware of what’s happened to her she ends up running until she’s picked up by a police officer. It’s a man that goes by Sheriff Hank. He helps Laura to town listening to everything she says, but she sounds crazy. Especially when she freaks out when reaching the station. Everyone’s trying to calm her down and understand her story and things only get worse and more complicated when Deputy Travis comes in.

It’s a few days of talks before Travis is out of any trouble and Laura calms down. Putting together what’s happening Laura ends up being set up to rent a place while she gets things together. She quickly gets a grasp that she’s in North Kill in a different time, the werewolf ordeal is far off and she’s all alone. She gets a job as a waitress/store clerk while she puts things together. She gets along with people though some officers clearly spoke about her and that gets whispers behind her back. But of course the one person that throws a wrench into things is Travis who she unfortunately has to keep running into.

She’s carried over and kept up her animosity towards Travis but she can’t help that it is odd to do so. Only because younger Travis is so ridiculously different from the Travis she’s come to hate. He’s still awkward, but in a cuter way that she denies. He’s more confident and surprisingly charming. He’s more laugh and smiles and proudly helping people no matter how small the issues are. She’s not surprised when people still refer to him as being a bit creepy, surprised with how many people talk positively about him, but intrigued when some don’t trust him cause the Hackett name carries some bad reputation.

She can’t seem to escape Travis and he’s usually apologetic but they do hit problems when Travis points out that they don’t have to believe her and that she’s excusing him of some absolutely insane shit with zero evidence. She trys to keep her hate in place but she can’t deny she’s being drawn to the Travis she’s seeing now. She’s still needs to figure out how to get back home.

Her interaction with the other Hackett’s are very limited.When summer comes around she signs up as a counselor sort of as a means to get the experience she didn’t get to have. So she meets the very strict, but still approachable Jedediah who seems like he genuinely wants the campers to have a good time. She gets to meet Chris who Travis has lovingly talked about (and maybe Bobby? I don’t have the exact year down so...I’m not sure if Bobby is even born, but Travis and Laura are meant to be the same age.) She also gets to meet Constance.

Laura gets glimpses of why Travis would act so much to protect his family, but she also sees the worst of it. It’s something simple barely anything to get mad about and Travis is defending himself and not back talking. It still gets him hit and insulted. She still watches him flinch at nearly every movement that his Pa and Ma make.

She doesn’t bring it up when she seems him, acting like she’s ignorant to why Travis has an obvious bruise forming. That’s not what starts it, but she still doesn’t mean to make friends with him. She tries not to think about it when people joke about them looking like a couple or when they end walking or sitting pressed up against one another or how normal it feels for them to hold hands.

When Constance comes to her job Laura finds herself being passive aggressive to Constance to not let on what she knows and get’s punished for her work with an early leave and a few shift cuts. She gets a few extra tasks at Hackett’s Quarry because of it, but otherwise things go well. Unfortunately Laura stumbles upon and catches the tail end of another confrontation between Travis and his parents. She witness’ a few things: Travis getting hit more without putting up much effort physical or verbal to defend himself, that Chris is present and appears to be conditioned to not realized what Travis is going through and she watches Travis stomp off somewhere barely holding back tears. 

She follows him all the way to a secluded spot that Travis has claimed as his own. Laura doesn’t know what to do when Travis notices her as he’s caught between being angry at her being their and having seen everything and being embarrassed about it. Never in her predicament did Laura think she’d be comforting Travis. She never even further in the slightlest thought that she would be making love to him. Or waking up in his arms as if she was the most precious thing in the world to him. And right as she’s accepting what she feels, it happens again and she’s back to the proper time.

However when she returns its on the same night that she and Max are driving up early for Hackett’s Quarry. She wakes up from what to Max was a nap and is freaking out and inadvertently causes the original crash to happen because of it. She’s apologetic to Max about the situation but doesn’t know if she’s been in a nightmare or not and doesn’t want to sound crazy. Eventually someone does comeby to help them get unstuck. It’s a police officer! But it’s not Travis, just some fresh faced deputy. He doesn’t question them going to Hackett’s Quarry and when they get there (despite Laura saying they should go to the motel) there is a note from Chris saying welcome and just asking to do a quick favor or two before everyone gets to camp.

Harum Scarum came and went, there was no fire and no werewolf outbreak. She gets to meet all the Hacketteer’s normally and get to know them, she even meets Kaylee and Caleb. At one point she goes into Chris’ office and sees a picture of Travis in it at 56. She realizes how odd it is to see him smile at this age after only knowing him to look so disgruntled. She tries to ask Chris about him some, learning that he still lives in North Kill, has only been the sheriff for a while after the former sheriff retired, but doesn’t entirely interact with the family anymore. Chris’ tone and word choice gives Laura enough info to know that Chris may have gotten a clue as to how Travis was being treated.

Out of curiosity she takes a walk up to the secret spot she followed Travis to. It’s a bit cleaner than when she last saw it. Things from his life and that time mostly gone, though some remain and some new things from over the years. It warms and breaks her heart, she doesn’t expect to hear her name be called. She doesn’t expect to see Travis there. He looks the same as the very first time they met though maybe a bit younger due to the apparent lack of building six years worth of trauma and stress.

Travis can’t believes what he’s seeing. When she asks about Harum Scarum, he tells her he remembered her ramblings and made sure that Kaylee and Caleb never went and kept an eye out for others not to do anything. She then asks some other questions like how’s he been and what’s been up to. Standard. Then asks if he’s been in any relationships over the years, married? Divorced? Dating? Yes, almost engaged, not dating. He gets surprised when she hugs him.

They talk for a while about everything and how they feel. Laura reveals that she’s okay with him as she is. She knows him very well by this point. She asks if he’ll be okay with her if he wants. He’s nervous about the age difference but wants to be with her. He’s still in disbelief but she almost wants to cry when he says he’s finally with the girl of his dreams again.

Mate this is painful and soft. Imagine his life without her not knowing what happened, but then things start happening like Harum Scarum so he starts to understand but still hkdgjakfjaf so many years before that happens 😭

Them finally getting to be together after being pulled apart ajgksgjajfjajf MY BABIES MY LOVES 😭😭😭😭

[tearblossom]

Haha I admit I've been strongly in the camp of Dark!Travis biding his time until a more intimate opportunity to kill her (but I'm sure you already knew that 😂) but I really love this post! You brought up so many good points! Thank you for asking my thoughts on it!

Tbh, you're logic here is sound and I agree with everything except for one tiny, little detail. I would argue that Laura's murder was 100% premeditated because of that lovely sentence that appears on the screen immediately after Travis gives her the look of 1,000 daggers - Travis will kill you. I think the man had his mind made up right then and there that he was going to kill her. That message and the fact that he refused to shoot her at the command of both parents have been my main sources of logic to back up my reasoning for him biding his time.

But what you said about Travis STILL refusing to kill her even if she snaps Jedediah's neck and they are alone in the room together really does bring this into some question. If he wanted an intimate setting, well, they were alone so he couldn't have got much more intimate than that. Unless, the way in which he would have been forced to kill her, by gun, wasn't intimate enough for him. But if that were the case, you think he would have sought out some kind of knife or glass shard or something with silver on it beforehand and had it ready. Unless he hadn't had the time to do that yet since she broke in.. 🤔

I always spare all of the Hacketts so I have the excuse of the setting not being private enough (Ma and Pa being in the room) but in this scenario maybe he did have his mind made up before that he wanted to kill her but now he's very much struggling with it because Good Travis and Dark!Travis are battling inside him but every family member that dies gets him closer and closer to snapping.

It could still be interpreted this way (Good Travis and Dark!Travis battling) with Ma and Pa still alive but there's just something about Travis will kill you and the stare of death he gives her that feels FINAL to me, ABSOLUTE. YOUR FATE HAS BEEN SEALED. HE WANTS HER DEAD! I think Laura flipped the Dark!Travis switch inside him right there, in that moment, as soon as she shot and taunted afterwards, "He should think about why he's in there." but his darkness and rage were solely directed at her. He joined his family in the well but he didn't suddenly become a mass murderer or anything as drastic as that. He won't go out of his way to save anyone anymore, like he did with Laura and Max, but he won't go out of his way to kill anyone either. Ryan was a witness to everything so he had to go. Easy decision for him now that he's Dark!Travis. It's like, now he just feels neutral about people dying, where as before he was a man good at heart with morals and intense guilt. Don't cross Dark!Travis and he won't cross you but if you're a witness or killing you is necesarry then BAM, without a second thought! Dark!Travis is a monster that Laura created so she is really the main focus of his murderous rage. It's an extremely personal matter.

When he argues with his mother, saying, "No more blood on your hands. That's what- you said it." it could just be Dark!Travis shifting the blame on her rather than Good Travis justifying his own morals and merciful actions. It can be seen in different ways depending on how the story has played out.

What you said about him snapping after the werewolf confrontation due to just seeing four family members die and thinking about how all he got in return from protecting Laura was a bullet from her, could still work simultaneously even with him having bided his time to kill her. (It could work with or without. It could be a case of Dark!Travis finally winning the battle inside his head and snapping or Dark!Travis having already won the battle long ago but still snapping, anyway, from the added grief of the deaths. He just couldn't wait any more at that point!) Everything just came to a head in that moment. And she was naked and he had a glass shard (a more intimate instrument of murder) in hand on top of it. Him getting an instant boner at the sight of her just fueled his lust even more. The circumstances were almost too perfectly constructed, like fate had just wrapped the moment in a bow and presented it to him, complete with the deaths of his family for extra motivation.

But, also, it's possible that the only family member that dies here is Chris, as is my case. Personally, I think this scenario leans more towards him having bided his time rather than suddenly snapping out of grief, especially taking into account the premeditation of Travis will kill you.

Well, those are my two cents lol. 😆 Thank you again for asking my thoughts on this. 🥰

Had a realization about Dark!Travis whilst writing a post. I have to jump into it!

I'd been pondering the reasons why he did not go off the deep end instantly after getting shot by Laura and being left for dead in the police station. His captives screwed him over big time, yet he said, "No more blood on your hands. That's what– you said it," during his argument with Constance, still opposed to killing outsiders even though one of them nearly took his life. Laura shot him, yet he did not want his family to kill her, and refrained from shooting her in the room where she can snap his father's neck. After everything that happened, he was still keeping hold of his moral principles.

Some theorists believe he wanted to kill Laura all along — in a more... private setting — therefore, he "bid his time" until the mirror shard scene. But I don't think so, the game doesn't support this argument. Remember: Travis killed Laura in a frenzied (a state of temporary madness or delirium) rage. Her murder was definitely not premeditated.

Ryan, he murdered coldly. The kid was a witness, and Travis was done protecting people. No basement for you, Ryan.

Why did he snap after the werewolf confrontation? Well, consider the things that happen in the room: four of his family members can die in there, at nearly the same time. A traumatizing outcome which would break anyone, especially a man who's been torn between helping his family and doing the right thing; the choices he made now seen as a grave mistake, embodied in the still alive Laura.

He'd kept the woman hidden to protect her from his family, rather than siding fully with them like he was supposed to... All he got in return for his efforts was a bullet. Now, picture his biggest mistake's survival as the last straw on the camel's back, and...

CW: Blood

Snap! Laura ded.

Then he kills Ryan, his journey toward the dark side now complete.

Dark!Travis is interesting: Even at his lowest, he tried so hard to stay out of the well. Makes his fall all the more tragic.