Recap / Can't Go Home Again

Can't Go Home Again:

Chapter 1

Mike Schmidt arrives at Fredrick Fazmann's house, the house that he inherited. He heads inside where he explores the abandoned house, finding old Freddy merchandise and stale cupcakes in the fridge. He explores what looks like a child's bedroom with an oversized toy box that looks like a present and an old, ratty Freddy plush on the bed. He goes towards the back of the house where he starts to hear music. He follows it to a closet in the master bedroom, where he is attacked by the Puppet. Mike flees the house and the Puppet follows, but won't leave. Mike tries to call a friend of his named Sam, but he doesn't answer. Wanting to contain the Puppet, he climbs in through the master bedroom window when Sam calls him. He tells him about the Puppet and Sam tells him that they used to stop it with a music box. Remembering seeing one, Mike tries to sneak back into the child's bedroom, where he accidentally runs into the Puppet. It attacks him, but he's able to wind the music box, which causes it to fall unconscious. Mike runs out and locks the bedroom door. On his way out of the house, he sees a picture of Fredrick with his long-deceased children. One of them is carrying the bear from the bedroom and, since he already suspects that the animatronics are haunted by children, believes the Puppet to be Fredrick's son. He goes back to the door and once Puppet awakens he tells it about Fredrick's passing. He hears it begin to cry through the door. He decides to unlock the door and go to it.

Chapter 2

Mike goes inside the bedroom to find the Puppet hugging the Golden Freddy plush and crying. Mike tries to comfort it when it falls on him and grabs him, crying purple paint on him. He waits until it calms down gets a quick call from Sam. Once he's sure it's not going to attack, he pulls away from it and goes out into the living room where he calls Sam back. He asks Sam to research about the Puppet and Fredrick's kids, and tells him he's going to be staying for a while. He goes to wash his shirt off when the Puppet comes out and watches him, still holding the Golden Freddy toy. Mike tries to ignore it by looking for cleaning supplies as it gets closer. He finally goes to confront the Puppet only to find it gone, but then gets startled while searching under the sink by the TV turning on. He goes out to find the Puppet watching an old Fredbear cartoon. Mike decides to check the master bedroom closet and finds a file cabinet full of papers and blueprints. He discovers that Sam's real name is Fritz and ends up finding the Golden Freddy (Fredbear) blueprints and learns that it was decommissioned, along with learning about something called a springlock suit. He then notices that the Puppet was watching him from the doorway. Mike stays for hours calling the electric company and water company to keep the house utilities on, but even when it was finished he couldn't convince himself to leave. He goes to take a shower when he's stopped by the Puppet that brings him the music box and returns to its room. He realizes it wants him to wind it and he does as it gets into the oversized toy box. After the shower, Mike goes out to watch TV and falls asleep on the couch. He wakes up to the Puppet wailing and crying, and pretends to be asleep. The Puppet notices he's still there, quiets down, covers him with a blanket and puts a plush toy beside him, then leaves to its room. Mike is unnerved but goes back to sleep.

Chapter 3

Mike wakes up stiff and panics, thinking the plush the Puppet gave him was the gross Golden Freddy one, but it's actually a Foxy. He then gets a call from Sam whose frantic, having looked at his apartment and not found him. Mike tells him to meet him at the warehouse that Sam inherited from Fredrick and then goes to check on the Puppet, taking the Foxy plush. He wakes it by tapping on its box and it seems to be acting more friendly when it comes out. Mike tries to make small talk by mentioning all the plush toys in its box and it starts to take them out and line them up on the bed. Mike tells it he'll be right back and leaves to the warehouse. He asks Sam/Fritz why he changed his name and Fritz reveals that it was because his name came up in the Missing Children Incident. Fritz reveals an article showing that Fredrick's older son went missing and they question what happened to his children, with Mike revealing that there's four bedrooms in the house. Fritz also reveals a blurb that someone named Jeremy wrote on the Puppet- Mike asks if Jeremy is an alias of Fritz who declines it. The blurb reveals that the Puppet was stationed at the Prize Corner and Fritz suggests they try to get in touch with the Phone Guy, but Mike reveals his death and they go through some of his leftover tapes. Mike decides to leave and Fritz asks him to empty out an old freezer on his way out. Finding a pizza in it that's not far past date, Mike takes it with him. Upon arriving back at the house, he's confronted by the Puppet who is angry. He realizes that it is upset that he left and tries to apologize when its mask changes to a scowl, then disappears, startling Mike. He starts to put away groceries he brought with him and cooks the pizza, with the Puppet appearing to check on him now and then. The Puppet finally becomes curious enough of the pizza box to stay in the kitchen and Mike apologizes to it for leaving, realizing that he hadn't been clear enough that he was leaving the house. He assures that he won't be leaving for good and this seems to comfort the Puppet. He then reveals that he'll be going back to work soon to the Puppet's slight annoyance.

Chapter 4

Mike wakes up with food poisoning from the pizza he ate the day before and goes to lay down in the master bedroom. The Puppet notices he's sick and brings him the Foxy plush, a cupcake- which Mike turns down, and a glass of water. After sleeping a while, the phone rings and the Puppet brings it to him. It's Fritz whose found a tape of interest. Mike tells him his situation and asks him to bring him antacids, then runs into the bathroom to be sick again. The Puppet glares at the phone while waiting for him to come back, because it recognizes Fritz's voice. Mike comes back and after Fritz tells him the freezers were broken and the pizza was probably spoiled, he convinces him to come by. Fritz comes and tosses antacids through Mike's window, but won't come inside because he's afraid of the Puppet. He reveals that he found a tape where the Phone Guy talks about putting on springlock suits before he leaves. The Puppet slams the window shut after he's gone. Later, Mike wakes up from a nap and goes to see the Puppet, and catches it playing with his plush toys in the bedroom. He apologizes for bringing Fritz by when it doesn't trust him and reassures him. After saying that, Mike has an epiphany that they're going to be living together for a while and wasn't sure how he felt. To make it up to the Puppet, he lets it show him the plush toys, and the Puppet gives him his Golden Freddy plush to hold. Mike still is grossed out by the bear, but holds it because he thinks it's significant.That night, Fritz gets a call from Mike that says he saw someone outside staring at the house and is afraid they're being watched. He says he doesn't think the man saw Fritz or Marionette, but that he thinks Fritz should stay away for a few days. He agrees and makes a comment that Mike laughs at, which he finds weird. When he tries to ask Mike more, he quickly gets off the phone saying the man is back outside and to not call until he calls him. The call ends.

Chapter 5

Mike gets ready to go to work. The Puppet is clingy about him leaving, but doesn't him, and Mike manages to smuggle out the Golden Freddy plush to show to Fritz. He finds it weird though that Fritz hasn't called. He arrives at work, an office building where he's stationed as a security guard with his co-worker Natalie. They talk for a while about Fredrick and she invites him out for a drink sometime, which he agrees to. He drives past the warehouse on the way home and notices Fritz's van is there, so he stops to see him. Fritz is surprised to see him and reveals the call they had the night before, which Mike is sure he didn't have. He believes someone might've faked the call and remembers that he didn't wind the music box the night before, realizing it couldn't been the Puppet. He voices his suspicions to Fritz who remembers that the voice on the phone referred to the Puppet as "Marionette". Remembering he left his cell phone at home, Mike tells Fritz to call it as bait, which he does. Much to his shock, his own voice answers the phone, and after he surprises the Puppet it hangs up. He heads back home to confront it only to find it hiding. After searching its bedroom to no success, he checks the master bedroom closet and finds a way into the attic. There he doesn't find the Puppet but a stack of newspapers. One that catches his interest being a story about a man named Henry dying in a suit accident.

He continues looking in the attic and finds nothing, then realizes where the Puppet is and climbs back down, taking the stack of newspapers with him. He goes into the Puppet's room and digs into the toy box until he finds the Puppet hiding under the plush toys. He scolds him for lying to him, to Fritz, and for faking his identity. Before Mike can storm out though, the Puppet speaks to him for the first time. It has the voice of a male young adult and tells him he's taking it too personally. When Mike is understandably shocked, the Puppet laughs with music box chimes. He asks the Puppet how long it has been able to talk, and it reveals the whole time. He asks why it hasn't talked and it says that it didn't feel it needed to. Then says that it didn't intend to be caught. Overwhelmed, Mike goes to leave the room and the Puppet becomes fearful that he's going to actually leave, which Mike assures that he won't. He goes to read the newspapers, contemplating how calm it was to get caught and how terrified it was at him leaving.

Chapter 6

Mike reads through the newspapers he found in the attic. One talks about Freddy Fazbear's Pizza opening under new management, but he knows this was a ruse and that the pizzerias were opened by the same people. The second newspaper tells about a child who was bitten by a Fredbear springlock suit and sees that the boy who was bit was Fredrick's son. Mike decides to ask the Puppet and takes his Foxy plush back to him. He asks the Puppet what it wants to be called and after some hesitation he says Marionette. Mike asks him about working at the Prize Corner, which the Puppet confirms before lapsing into a lecture about plushies until Mike stops him. He asks if he remembers why the pizzeria was shut down, to which Marionette says he doesn't. Mike then asks about Fredbear, mistaking him for Freddy to lead Marionette into talking about him, which works. When he asks about the springlock suits, Marionette clams up.

They continue talking, Marionette telling Mike a little about the pizzeria and again apologizing for what he did to Fritz, and reveals that he only attacked Mike because he thought he was following him through the house. Mike says he's looking for info on the pizzeria, to which Marionette says he knows, and Mike drops the subject right afterwards. Later, Mike makes dinner and Marionette sits with him at the table, so Mike tells him more about his history with Freddy's and Fredrick. He then starts talking about his grandparents who he misses, who he calls later on. That night, Marionette asks Mike to wind his music box and explains that it puts him to sleep, which Mike does.

Mike's contemplating things and looking through papers when Marionette wakes back up and is frantic. He finds him tearing apart the couch cushions and realizes that he's looking for the Golden Freddy plush, saying "He's gone". Mike points him towards the master bedroom and runs out to the car to find where he left the toy. He brings it to him and upon seeing Marionette clutching the doll realizes that he can use it to get more answers from him. He takes Marionette back to his room where he realizes he let Mike see his face change and is embarrassed. He silently gets in his box and Mike winds the music box.