Episode 3:
Ransom
Tropes featured in this episode of Alan Wake:
- Abandoned Mine: The Bright Falls Coal Mine Museum is what is left of the coal mine near town and is the location where Alan was set to meet the kidnapper.
- Foreshadowing: At the start of the episode, there is a boat sitting there in the middle of the trailer park, Randolph having found it as though it had "fallen from the sky." Later, in one of Alan's Author Tracts, he cited the fact that so many of Stephen King's stories involved inanimate objects coming to life as a part of the Horror-author ethos. In this episode that it is revealed that not only can the Dark Presence possess people, but it can throw objects as well.
- Genre Savvy: In one of Alan's monologues, he mentions how in a well-written Horror story, there is no such thing as safety, especially for the protagonist. He admits that while that makes reading Horror fun, experiencing it first-hand is anything but.
- Hellish Copter: The helicopter the police chase Wake with goes down and explodes the moment after a flock of Taken birds fly into it.
- Hypocrite: Randolph dismisses any of the local legends about Cauldron Lake being a "door to the Underworld" because he's a "God-fearing man".
- Irony: Alan mutters to himself how the number of times he fallen off cliffs in such a short time as "that's what you get for naming a book The Sudden Stop."
- Moving the Goalposts: When Alan finally makes it to the coal-mine to been with Ben, Ben had changed the location to Mirror Peak.
- Police Brutality: Robert Nightingale antagonizes Alan from the moment he sees him, very obviously intending to kill Alan without provocation, nearly harming Randolph and Pat Maine in the process. If it wasn't for the urgency of Alan needing to meet with the kidnapper, Robert would have likely killed him (or at least mortally wounded him).
- Slipping a Mickey: Rose had drugged the coffee she gave to Alan and Barry. By the time Alan wakes up, it's already night-time and the police have surrounded the place.
- Unexpected Gameplay Change: At the very beginning of the episode, Alan is forced to run from the cops in a Stealth-Based Mission-esque sequence, without any light or guns. It’s notably the only time in the game Alan can get shot.
- Wham Episode: Alice wasn't with the kidnapper. She was taken by the Dark Presence.
