Entries on this page will have unmarked spoilers as they assume prior knowledge of the reader, continue at your own risk.
Fridge Brilliance
- While some of Simon's tendencies and reactions over the course of the game could be traced back to brain damage (which his scan in 2015 carried over), another reason as to why he still finds it hard to grasp the truth behind the ARK is that he's in a deep state of denial. In part as a coping mechanism and a subconsciously desperate way to keep his sanity.
- Simon's slowness at grasping things due to the brain damage is already evident during the brief 2015 segment at the start, since he can't remember where the tracer fluid is and types out an entire email without hitting "send". It's not just that he's in denial, he's no longer able to put together the last little piece of information to connect things together - which we, the player, are able to do.
- The posters above Simon's bed in his apartment are foreshadowing the game's events. And one of his books as well, the one titled "Hooked". Simon gets energy by sticking his hand into the nodes later on. Catherine says that Simon is "hooking" into WAU one of the times he does.
Fridge Horror
- When Simon finds the ARK under the watch of Sarah and is instructed on what to do with it, the simulation has been running for close to a year already — are the scans uploaded to the ARK aware that they've been sat on a desk all this time or do they think they've been up orbit and are blissfully unaware that their existence could have been destroyed by the WAU at any time?
- The fact that Catherine exists as a brain scan without knowledge of the completed ARK project implies that there is already a copy of Catherine uploaded on to the ARK. If so, then what happens when Omnitool-Catherine uploads a copy of herself on to the ARK prior to launch? Are there now two copies of Catherine on the ARK, or does Omnitool-Catherine replace the ARK-Catherine, who's been existing on the ARK for a simulated year already? Either way this might cause issues for the existing scans on the ARK.
- Omnitool-Catherine also knows that Ian Pedersen killed the original Catherine during an argument in Phi, which will make her time in ARK a little awkward.
- When Simon holds up his Omnitool, you can clearly see the name of the AI inside it on-screen. As you go on throughout the game, Catherine's name becomes increasingly pixellated, most severely when en route to Tau, while the rest of the Omnitool's data stays fine. Does this mean Catherine died not just because of the Angst Nuke problem with her scan, but also that the chip itself was going to break from wear-and-tear?
- Catherine's survey in her lab at Theta showed that the vast majority of Pathos-2 humans agreed or strongly agreed with the assertion that "some pain and discomfort is an acceptable price to pay for long-term survival". By the time the player visits Theta, the WAU has been all over it and has thoroughly sifted through its files, including Catherine's project work. From the WAU's point of view, the Lotus-Eater Machine that it plugs anyone it catches into isn't just necessary - it's something humanity overwhelmingly approves of.
