Out of Sight story and ending, explained

Follow Sophie on a short but terrifying tale of a little girl trapped inside a mansion, being hunted by monstrous humans. Your eyes have been stolen, and your soul is next. Looking to preserve you forever as piercing eyes looking through a canvas, Sophie is the last child alive in this dark, cold mansion. But you’re not completely alone. Your eyes may be taken, but you can see the world through your trusty teddy bear.

Here is our interpretation of the indie horror game Out of Sight.

Out of Sight story, explained

What is the ritual?

The only thing that’s clear about the ritual is that it’s used to trap children in paintings. Its only stated purpose was to give a child new friends to speak to and play with. But their souls weren’t attached solely to the canvas; rather, they were able to roam in a state of purgatory, where they could interact with the material realm. A child’s essence became trapped by the full moon. The ritual is made up of candles encompassing a chair with an empty painting pointing down at the chair, and a hole in the ceiling to align the moonlight, frame, and chair like a constellation.

But why would Mother go to such extremes just to give her child new friends? Mother Janna referred to the victims as “my beautiful paintings, my children, forever preserved.” Janna knew the children were trapped inside the frame and called this “preservation,” where the house began to quickly fill with portraits of lost children.

What are the Shadows?

The Shadows are children that Lady Janna has trapped inside portraits. Their souls cannot leave the mansion, so they and Teddy help Sophie plot her escape. They hinder Janna and Clayton’s movements and free Sophie when she gets trapped. The Shadows were previously captured children who were sacrificed in the ritual. You can see they used to hide in the walls as candy is dotted around the crawlspaces. There are also rooms with shackles and cages, showing where children spent most of their time.

We begin our escape from Sophie’s bedroom, where she woke up on a bed. This is very different from what we saw around the rest of the mansion. Sophie was likely getting special treatment because she reminded Mother of her late daughter. Mother would punish misbehaving children, putting them in solitary confinement with shackles and a single chair inside, and use candy to trick them.

The Lost and Found are the children’s favorite toys that you can collect, describing what happened to each child after being captured by Mother, how each victim (including Clayton) had their desire to live drained from them long before meeting the canvas.

Who is Teddy?

The Teddy is Lucille, Lady Janna’s daughter. This is who Janna is desperately trying to “preserve,” so that they can stay together forever. She’s often seen talking to Lucille, which is a natural response to grief. This identity is confirmed by Lucille’s shrine placed atop a fortress and Mother calling her by her name. There’s a small shelter beneath it, where a bow and a pink blanket with teddy bear motifs remain. This room must have been Lucille’s. A child’s voice can be heard when exploring this room, humming the same song Janna does throughout the game.

The pink blanket with teddy bears on it appears throughout Out of Sight as it’s where Teddy can be placed time and time again. This links Lucille and Teddy together. The wallpaper in her room is covered in teddy bear motifs, too. Picking up the blanket underneath the shrine confirms Lucille’s name in the achievement description. Janna (when talking to Lucille) said, “pink was your favorite color,” and “later we can make a fortress out of blankets, you always liked playing with them,” more proof that Lucille is Teddy.

Lucille died from an infection. It’s clear that Lucille’s spirit possessed Teddy to help guide the only surviving child in the mansion, Sophie, to safety. I’m not sure how Lucille was able to help Sophie see through her eye,s however. Maybe it’s because they were connected through Mother’s “love.” Both girls wanted to escape but couldn’t as Lucille cannot move and Sophie cannot see, but combined, they could help each other.

“She does look like you when you were little. They all do, don’t they?” Janna says to Lucille, a sad message of how you can see a loved one in someone, but it’ll never truly be them. Janna had Clayton purposely remove children’s eyes so that they couldn’t see anything scary, likely to make them more malleable. Lucille obviously still had her eyes as she could see through Teddy.

But how did she come to possess Teddy? It’s a difficult one because there’s no obvious evidence to back any theory. All we know is that Lucille supposedly stopped talking to Janna the same day she started haunting Teddy. We know this because Janna said, “why are you so quiet today? Are you mad at Mother?” but nobody was present when Janna would speak to Lucille, so who exactly was Mother talking to?

What I want to know is if Janna’s appearance is how she actually looks or if it’s Lucille’s perception of her mother. If the latter, that means Janna’s daughter sees her mother with giant hands and long limbs, giving an unnatural, uncanny appearance that could symbolize abuse and neglect. Clayton doesn’t have these features, strengthening the theory that Janna only looks twisted like this because we’re watching her through Lucille’s eyes.

Out of Sight ending, explained

Janna couldn’t handle the loss of her daughter, Lucille, so she had Clayton kidnap children and “loved” them like they were her own. The problem is that the children knew that Lady Janna wasn’t Mother. For a brief moment, it sounds like Mother no longer was in denial about her daughter’s death, but this is coming from a place of anger, not acceptance. She saw her plan had failed, that none of her new children could ever fill the void Lucille left behind.

It’s a bit ambiguous, but I interpret that Lucille isn’t truly alive at any point, regardless of the rituals. I think she (much like Teddy) cannot move or talk. Therefore, I believe Lucille was the first child to be trapped inside a painting (which is why Mother knew how to do the ritual), which Janna continuously talks to as if her daughter is there. She imagines Lucille talking back to her. Maybe she did in whispers, just like the Shadows. But when Janna said “oh but your eyes, your sweet little eyes. It’s okay that they hurt, I will help you,” I believe meant Lucille possessed the toy the same day she went “quiet” as the light from the frame had gone.

It seems the children were placed in paintings so that they couldn’t grow up—being the perfect friends for Lucille—who died young. Lucille possessing Teddy makes sense as the Shadows are connected to toys based on the collectibles you pick up, which frees their spirit when Sophie grabs them. Clearly, the Teddy was Lucille’s toy all along, which is why Janna recognized it.

When Sophie reaches the window in the attic after defeating Clayton, she confronts Janna to trick her, much like Mother would have done to the children. Lucille then uses her powers given to her by one of the Shadows to break the chains and make the cages above fall on the two of them. Neither character gets badly hurt, but Lucille is granted the power to crawl. Lucille returns to Sophie, and Janna attacks, swiftly stealing one of Teddy’s eyes. The Shadows grab and drag Janna into the darkness so that Sophie can escape.

The game concludes as Sophie (still tightly holding onto Teddy) is freed. Post-credits reveal Teddy’s left eye is still in the mansion, and she can see through it. Janna finds it and laughs maniacally, knowing full well that a part of her daughter never left the prison.