Why didn't Ned...

[u/Connect_Detail98]

Why didn't Ned just bury Brian's body?

Seems to me like setting a full operation to monitor and implicate a firewatch team is much harder than just burying a body.

I like the lesson behind the game... I took some lessons from it which I appreciate:

1. Running from your problems won't solve them.

2. Giving yourself time to grief can help you get a better perspective.

The lessons may sound contradictory I think both apply. H needed that time to realize running away wasn't a solution and that he needed to be a better husband, but that didn't mean he couldn't move past the relationship. He was able to establish a connection with someone else.

Anyways, I like the lesson from the game but I think the whole Ned situation is at the core of the game and it doesn't make sense. Just bury the body and then there's no need to simulate a conspiracy. Literally go somewhere else. He's doing the opposite of escaping his problem, he's living on top of it.

[u/Rory_U]

1. the cave is closed off

2. He or the body might be found but also difficult to get out.

3. It’s a corpse of a child and Ned’s son so he might not be able to, especially getting crushed by piles of big rocks.

[u/Connect_Detail98 → u/Rory_U]

Isn't he the one who closed it? The key was in the middle of nowhere tied to an alarm. If Ned didn't do that, then who did? The key could only be found with Ned's signal tool. Sounds like something Ned would do.

It took the protagonist a couple of months to figure out how to get to the body, and that wasn't even his main goal. I'd be surprised if someone who was in the military, has survived winters in the wild and was the capable of setting up a whole conspiracy, then wasn't able to figure out how to climb down a cave. Specially when his hobby is climbing. But a random city 40yo fat dude who shit his pants after hearing an elk for the first time could?

Not being able to see the corpse of his child makes some sense... But it's so irrational. He's willing to live his life having to setup these weird ass conspiracies and having to kill people just to prevent them from finding a dead body? He literally tried to kill H after locking him in the cave (considering the fire). Ned knew D knew where he was.

I don't know. I feel the writers could have done a better job at justifying this whole thing. If you're going to pull the "it wasn't a conspiracy" anti-climax (which I liked) then at least have a very strong argument for it.

[u/Rory_U → u/Connect_Detail98]

“Isn't he the one who closed it?“

Yeah and? You even admit the only one who can find the key is Ned.

“But it's so irrational. He's willing to live his life having to setup these weird ass conspiracies“

Yeah because people ARE irrational and willing to do crazy things to avoid something. Especially when it comes to your DEAD CHILD’S SMASHED CORPSE!

“It took the protagonist a couple of months to figure out how to get to the body“

You’re proving my point plus it’s the body of your own-only son so it’s even more difficult than if it was some random adult.

“But a random city 40yo fat dude who shit his pants after hearing an elk for the first time could?”

He’s not that fat plus just because he’s fat doesn’t mean he isn’t strong/fit. And he isn’t a coward.

“having to kill people”

When did he kill people?

“He literally tried to kill H after locking him in the cave (considering the fire). Ned knew D knew where he was.“

What’s the fire gonna do when he is deep underground? And there’s still other ways out and he’s gonna find his son so now he’s a witness who needs to be taken care off. Also Delilah is too far away, rescue people are coming to rescue her so it be suspicious if two people are somehow missing. And like you said the fires so it’s probably not worth it.

[u/Connect_Detail98 → u/Rory_U]

OK, if he wanted to hide the body without moving it, he could have done a much better job. All the effort he put into building a conspiracy for years, he could have spent just blocking the whole cave with rocks. Instead, the only thing he did was adding a lock, and then leaving the key around?

Pretty sure H could suffocate with the smoke if the fire reaches the cave. If this can kill him or not, depends on some factors like the wind and the topology of the cave, but it's totally possible for him to die. Would be strange if a vet with survival skills didn't figure that out.

If your last argument about the fire erasing everything is true or a missing person raising the alarms, then why lock him in the cave at all?

"Someone slammed the gate behind me and ran away. I found another way out but if I hadn't... Jesus!". Sounds like even the protagonist thought it was a murder attempt.

You provided 3 points. The second one said that reaching the body was hard, and then I told you it wasn't because H did it in 2 months and Ned is an experienced climber. Then you used my argument against your 2nd point to defend your 3rd point as if you didn't propose the second point. And I even said the 3rd point made the most sense. I can't argue like this man, we need to be organized.

[u/Wolfinder → u/Connect_Detail98]

I think you might just have to accept that losing a child is something you just can’t understand. It’s incredibly hard to face. Many people wait months to transfer their children’s ashes to an urn. It’s not that he was hiding Brian’s body so he wouldn’t get caught. It was that he couldn’t face it, but he also couldn’t handle anyone else facing it first. He’s not worried about going to prison or something. He’s been living in a prison of his own making for years. He just can’t face his son’s body, nor can he bear to leave it behind, so he starves in the woods and awkwardly protects it.

[u/Connect_Detail98 → u/Wolfinder]

Awkwardly protects it by building a conspiracy? My point is that he could have protected it much more efficiently without that degree of insanity and complexity. Dude, literally just bring 1 large rock every 1 hour for 8 hours per day, for a month. That's 240 large rocks in that cave, covering the gate. If that's too much work, then 3 months. He had years...

Then, once you're ready to face the truth, just rapel down the hole in the cave. He's a climber.

Instead he chose to do the weirdest shit ever. Like at no point H felt "maybe I shouldn't go into this cave". So how was Ned keeping H and D away from the cave exactly? Being a weirdo only awakened their curiosity.

[u/Wolfinder → u/Connect_Detail98]

I think you have an expectation that people will always make the most sensible and rational decision in their circumstances and there probably just isn’t an answer you’re going to be satisfied with here.

[u/Connect_Detail98 → u/Wolfinder]

Well, yeah, I expect people to be rational. PTSD and grief is not the same as insanity. That conspiracy attempt was complex and useless. How was that conspiracy supposed to stop them from going into the cave?

A better plan? Just keep them busy by starting controlled bonfires in different places, making it look like it was done by campers.

[u/Rory_U → u/Connect_Detail98]

Again it’s his son‘s dead body, so he probably doesn’t want to touch it or even look at it. It’s like he’s accepting reality not only of his son is dead but he’s the reason for It. But if he leaves it and stays away from it then it’s like he isn’t gone.

The gate is locked so no one is gonna enter. And people who work and have been spelunking there are gonna notices the obvious man made wall. The gate is less suspicious and probably a common thing these types of areas. People are gonna assume that the rangers or the government decided it’s too dangerous for the public. Plus he may want to go back because someone got into the cave, there’s an object he needs or even taking out the body. But doing that with a bricked wall is not as easy. And a wall made of rocks doesn’t sound stable.

[u/Connect_Detail98 → u/Rory_U]

Ok but you said he knew there was another entrance, the one he knew H would use to escape. So why not use that one for all the purposes you just mentioned?

[u/freelancer331]

Ned is unwell. He has PTSD and is paranoid as fuck. We can't just project what we would do in a given situation and wonder why he doesn't do that. Why doesn't a person with depression (or whatever illness for that matter) just stop being sad? Well, because it's not that easy.

You are right. Ned is living right on top of his problems, but he isn't escaping the problems, he is escaping the consequences of them. Him retrieving his son's rotten corpse would mean facing how imense his fuck up was, and he is just not there yet when we meet him in the game.

[u/1porridge]

Yes, people with mental health issues often don't make sense. Ned has PTSD and I can't even imagine what the death of his son did to his mental state. Even without his prior issues, I really don't think it's easy for a parent to bury their child. Especially not if they believe they're responsible for the child's death. I think the act of facing his dead son, looking at him on the ground like that, would just be too much for him to bear.

If Ned was mentally stable enough to make sound decisions, he wouldn't have dragged his son out there in the first place.

[u/Connect_Detail98 → u/1porridge]

So, his son fell into that hole and he was like "yep, he's dead". He didn't even go down there to check on him?

Idk, like I'm just thinking like a normal human being. If my son falls down a freaking hole, the first thing I'm doing is getting down there as fast as I can, checking his vitals and removing the rocks from his body. Then trying to revive him, even if he has no vitals.

If the PTSD isn't allowing him to go there and face the truth, so he decides to hide it, then at least come up with a less insane and elaborate plan that actually works. Like, what was next? Dressing like an alien and making UFO noises?

[u/MackNNations]

Ned was probably on the lam - running from the authorities for something in his past. He was escaping from difficulties in his life just as Delilah and Henry were.

Ned knew no children were supposed to be accompanying firewatchers. Delilah bent the rules and didn't report it.

Ned thought he could hide the accident and Brian's body for a time, but Henry showed up and was poking around the cave. He thought he could scare Henry and Delilah with conspiracies to distract and/or make them leave.

Part of the cave was sealed off and had more difficult climbing that required additional gear to get to. He probably didn't know about Brian's hideout or his backpack that Henry would find.

I think Ned would have done something to retrieve/bury Brian, but Henry and Delilah's actions were interfering with that.

[u/Connect_Detail98 → u/MackNNations]

D said that the last time she heard Brian's name was years ago. Ned said the winters were very harsh. So he had at least 2 years... But no, he waited until someone said "hey, cool cave" to pull the craziest most elaborate plan on earth, and it wasn't even effective.

[u/CHILLAS317]

"Why didn't Ned..."

I'm going to stop you right there. Ned was not well, and even well people don't act rationally. Whatever you're asking there isn't and doesn't need to be a rational explanation

[u/Alexgceracaufield]

If you acknowledge the place where brian died.Its almost next to impossible to carry out a Dead body from there

[u/Connect_Detail98 → u/Alexgceracaufield]

After 6 months, is just going to be bones. He was there for years. D said "I haven't heard that name in years" when H mentioned Brian. He even said that winters where super harsh but that he endured. Someone who says that has lived at least 2 winters.

Also, he's a climber. And ropes exist. If you gave me 3 months, I'd figure out how to lift a piano with ropes to a 10th floor. This person had years to pick bones.

It looks to me like H literally just walked and jump twice to get from Brian's body to Brian's hideout.

This can't be the reason.