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The Sunken

The Sunken is the hive mind-like main antagonist of Oxenfree and Oxenfree II: Lost Signals. They are the victims of the sinking of the USS Kanaloa, a fictional submarine from World War II.

USS Kanaloa history

The USS Kanaloa was launched on January 15th, 1941, and commissioned into service at the end of that year under the command of Lt. James Earle Platman.[3]

Submarine Alex

The submarine contained an experimental nuclear reactor in its belly. It was sent out in October 1943, to test the reactor's capabilities. A few weeks later, on October 25th, Francis Salter sent out a garbled distress signal which was picked up by Comms. Officer Margaret Adler.[4] She mistook the message as an attempt to jam radar, which led to her following the guidebook recommendations and signaling for surrounding ships to scout, and bomb if needed.[5]

A destroyer escort, the USS Walter Roy, responded by firing upon the USS Kanaloa, causing the experimental nuclear reactor to implode, sinking the submarine and seemingly killing the 97 people aboard, which consisted of 85 crew members and 12 army passengers.[4] The tragedy was eventually covered up as a casualty by the Japanese, and even stating the sinking took place three days later, on the 27th.[3]

The victims' fate

After the sinking, radios in Fort Milner began to pick up childlike, almost playful transmissions from the lost soldiers. The news spread quickly, but the broadcasts were usually dismissed as an ongoing prank, faulty equipment, or AM stations bouncing off the midland. Miss Adler, however, could not bear the guilt of being responsible for the deaths of 97 people, so she managed to decode one of the transmissions as a mayday from one crewman.[6]

Miss Adler became invested in this mystery and began decoding each of the ghosts' messages. She figured out that, contrary to what was made out to be believed, the USS Kanaloa crew did not die. However, rather, they were separated from dimensional existence, which is to say, they were trapped in a void outside of time and space. Adler also notes that the victims' emotional and mental states had been reduced to that of children.[1]

Along with her partner Anna Shea, they discovered that waves could pass through all existences under certain circumstances, which explained their ability to communicate with the sunken. On April 4th, 1952, they would attempt to reverse the manifest breakdown and bring the soldiers back by opening a temporal gate in Beacon Beach's cave.[7] However, the power got too strong and absorbed Anna Shea into its ridge. Horrified, Miss Adler flew from there, leaving the gate partially open.[8]

Oxenfree

Beacon Beach cave gate

In Oxenfree, Jonas and Alex find themselves trapped in the cave, with their only option being to use Alex's radio.[9] In doing so, they reopen the portal Margaret left half-open years ago, condemning themselves to enter a time loop in which they endlessly repeat their encounter with the Sunken.

Throughout the game, Alex and her friends find Margaret Adler's notes, in which she recounts her research and discoveries. The Sunken, one by one, possess Jonas, Ren, and Clarissa, all Alex's friends. However, they possess the latter for the majority of the game, and even attempt to arrange a deal with Alex in which they exchange her and her friends' freedom for Clarissa.[10] That said, Oxenfree II: Lost Signals reveals that the decision is in vain, as they never actually leave the time loop and, to everyone else, were just a group of teenagers who disappeared under mysterious circumstances.[11]

Oxenfree II: Lost Signals

Five years after the events of the first game,[12] the Sunken continue trying to return to life.[13] This time, they use the half-open portal to communicate with a teenage girl named Olivia, whom they convince to open a portal to the Communications Tower on Edwards Island in exchange for being reunited with her deceased parents.[14]

Riley Poverly embarks on an adventure to close the portals once and for all. To do so, someone must lock it from the inside, thus, sacrificing themselves.[15] It is up to the player to choose who that person is: Riley Poverly, her partner Jacob Summers, or Olivia Massell.

Known Crew Members

Calvin Gilbert

Calvin Gilbert was an electrician on the USS Kanaloa. After the sinking, his first transmissions, received in Fort Milner's Facilities, were dismissed as pranks, faulty equipment, or AM stations bouncing off the midland. One of these transmissions, however, was deciphered by Margaret Adler as a mayday from Calvin. This was Maggie's trigger to begin investigating the Sunken's fate.[6]

When Miss Adler began working with Marianne Bozek to decode these transmissions, the latter corresponded with Calvin.[16] Since Bozek did not believe the relays were from the USS Kanaloa's crew, Adler moved on to work with her close friend Anna Shea. In her letters, she mentions the frequency of Calvin Gilbert's call sign echoing through the relays.[17]

After Fort Milner was decommissioned and Edwards Island became a tourist destination, Calvin's family opened a restaurant, despite Adler's wishes of making the island protected.[18]

Henry Griffin

As a SOC Sergeant, Margaret Adler convinced Henry, as well as her other higher-ups, to bring her friend Anna Shea onto Edwards Island as a communications officer sometime before the USS Kanaloa's sinking. He eventually boarded the submarine as a passenger and was among those who met their demise when the ship imploded.[19]

Adler identified him by his call sign (#F139) during one of her and Anna's research sessions at Catbird Station. They deduced from his confused diction and reliance on "game"-logic that the USS Kanaloa crew members' emotional and mental states had been reduced to those of children.[1]

Later on, when Maggie and Anna attempt to reverse the manifest breakdown in the cave, Maggie mentions that they spoke, albeit briefly, to Henry after tuning into the temporal tear, just before Anna was overwhelmed and absorbed into the rift.[20]

Francis Salter

Francis Salter was an engineer on the USS Kanaloa. Miss Adler believed that the distress signal she received the night of the Kanaloa's sinking was sent by Francis. The transmission was cut off and she hastily translated it as an attempt to jam radar, which led to the sinking of the USS Kanaloa via friendly fire by the USS Walter Roy.[5] It is also said that a weapons technician of the USS Walter Roy had attended Francis Salter's wedding before the incident, which seemed strange to Maggie upon discovery.[21]

He is said to have been married and had a daughter, who was the reason why the Sentry statue was made and installed on Epiphany Fields.[22]

He might have been friends with Miss Adler, as he used to call her "radio-woman."[23]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "My belief [...] is that [they] were separated from our dimensional existence by the implosion of the submarine’s nuclear reactor. I identified one passenger, [...] and his confused diction and reliance on game logic says to me that their emotional states (if not mental states) had been reduced to that of children…" –Adler Letter #8.
  2. ↑ Night School Studio (June 11, 2016). We are the creators of the supernatural thriller game OXENFREE. AMA!. Reddit. Retrieved on January 15, 2023.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 102.3: The USS Kanaloa was launched on January 15th, 1941, and commissioned into service at the end of that year under the command of Lieutenant James Earle Platman. On October 28th, 1943, it was sunk by the Japanese sub-chaser Tokisada [...] Eighty-five officers, as well as twelve army passengers, were lost.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "The USS Walter Roy, a destroyer escort, sunk the USS Kanaloa with friendly fire on October 25th, 1943. It had held a developmental nuclear reactor in its belly, and had been sent out weeks earlier as a test of its capabilities." –Adler Letter #4.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "I’m sure it was Francis Salter who sent the Kanaloa's distress signal. It had been cut off - I still don’t know why - and I hastily interpreted the garbled transmission as an attempt to jam radar. And so I sent back the guidebook recommendation: to scout, and bomb, if necessary." –Adler Letter #3.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "The first transmissions from the lost soldiers were recorded here [...] Word of the childlike, almost playful messages spread quickly, but the broadcasts were usually dismissed as an ongoing prank, faulty equipment, or AM stations bouncing off the midland. However, after I successfully decoded one as a mayday from Calvin Gilbert, an electrician who perished on the USS Kanaloa, I knew it had to be something more." –Adler Letter #5.
  7. ↑ "Waves, of any kind - radio, nuclear, electromagnetic - seemed able to pass through all existences under certain circumstances, which explained our ability to get communiques sent from them. [...] On April 4th, 1952, we would attempt to reverse the manifest breakdown… and bring the soldiers back." –Adler Letter #9.
  8. ↑ "Anna and I [...] successfully tuned in to the source of the temporal ”tear,” [...] but the power overwhelmed my dear Anna, and she was absorbed into its ridge; all that remains there now is the flickering hue of a partially open gate, a window to a perpendicular space that seems to have ”augmented” the subarine’s call. But, of all my regrets, perhaps the deepest is knowing Anna’s last vision was of me fleeing from her in terror."–Adler Letter #10.
  9. ↑ ALEX: Oh my god. This is the way we came in.
    JONAS: Alex, c’mon, that’s not possible. It’s just… wall. Where’s the crack we crawled through?
  10. ↑ GHOST: One last chance. You don’t have to die.
    CLARISSA: You can leave, you know, through the gate you opened.
    GHOST: And we keep the girl. Cla. Riss. Sa. She’ll be happier with us.
  11. ↑ Jacob: The Juniors from the high school used to camp on Edwards Island every year. They stopped doing it a couple years ago. Because some kids went out… and they never made it back. People don’t know if they tried to swim sometime during the night, got tired and drowned, or… they all got caught in some undertow, or… or what, really. No theory makes more sense than the other, but… About a year ago, someone actually found a small, portable radio owned by one of them… buried in the sand at the caverns’ mouth.
  12. ↑ Steam's description of Oxenfre II: Lost Signals.
  13. ↑ Riley: How are they back? What do they want?
    Alex: What anyone wants, what anything wants — what I wanted. To live, Riley – to come back to our timeline no matter what it breaks… and no matter who they have to take over to make it happen.
  14. ↑ Alex: The Sunken [have] been using the half-open gate to pierce through timelines and talk to Olivia when I wasn’t. [...] She has a determination in her that the Sunken are taking advantage of. [...] They’ve convinced Olivia to go to Edwards Island and use the Comm Tower to open another portal. They’re going to consume everything and everyone they can to reconstitute themselves.
  15. ↑ Alex: Tuning into the gateway from our four dimensional points—it systemized the portal. It’s an open conduit again. And when it closes, it’ll be closed for good. But someone has to lock it from the other side.
  16. ↑ "Marianne Bozek [...] helped me decode the ghost’s unusual messages. I don’t think she ever really believed my hypothesis that they were relays from the sunken submarine, even though she corresponded with - as she put it - a man named Calvin, an electrician who died on the Kanaloa." –Adler Letter #6.
  17. ↑ "This might also justify the frequency of hearing one of the Kanaloa’s electrician’s call signs, Calvin Gilbert, come echoing through the relays." –Adler Letter #9.
  18. ↑ "I [...] have watched in horror as a small tourist industry has precariously sprung upon this cursed island. Even the family of one of the sailors who died, Calvin Gilbert, set up a restaurant to cater to inquisitive out-of-towners." –Adler Letter #11.
  19. ↑ "When people in the Comms Dept. begin transferring off, I was able to convince my higher ups - including, coincidentally, one eventual Army passenger onboard the Kanaloa, Henry Griffin - to bring Anna onboard as a replacement." –Adler Letter #7.
  20. ↑ "We [...] spoke, albeit briefly, to Henry Griffin, an SOC Sergeant who died on the sub" –Adler Letter #10.
  21. ↑ "I would discover later that a weapons technician of the Walter Roy had been at Francis Salter’s wedding; Salter was an engineer on the Kanaloa. I don’t know why, but it’s strange to me." –Adler Letter #4.
  22. ↑ "I anonymously started the petition in 1975 to have this one made, after the daughter of Kanaloa crewman Francis Salter asked. I don't know why... a marker, maybe, for the hope I once had to help people." –Adler Letter #1.
  23. ↑ "I remember one of the Kanaloa's engineers, Francis, calling me a ”radio-woman.”" –Adler Letter #2.