Someone toldd a chat group recently that they can see Loutemilch, as in with Blake’s point of view, when he is going to be crucified by the Scalled. I think many may miss that for the angle of camera. But it makes sense. By this point, we have seen Blake associate most terrible things that happened in his life with Loutermilch and the death of Jessica. We see that the demon is his inner guilt and fear on how he failed Jessica and Lynn, and mostly himself. He was forced and manipulated by Loutermilch to lie and so he feels like he has damned himself. Of course, the memory is so painful that he ONLY remembers it when the Morphogenic Engine/The Towers are making him hallucinate and are getting under his skin.
However, the game is straightforward in showing that Blake considers Loutermilch as a symbol of pain, anger, guilt, savagry, exploitation, torture, sadomasochism, destruction and overall tragedy. And, he uses this symbol as a way to naviagte his own hell of Temple Gate. If Hell is in layers than the Truth can also be received in layers and so by the end we see Loutermilch appear in the mines as a the demonic sort of person who chased him in the gateways that transported him back to Saint Sybil’s School. This is obviously hinting to how Blake knows what Loutermilch did or was trying to do (in the cut version he did fully assault Jessica and in the end product we are made to believe he was going to and Jessica fled).
There is a detail I noticed now. When you first crash, Blake sees the unnamed pilot, disembowled and also stripped in a humiliating manner. That becomes a totem, a signnpost, to the hell he is entering. Further along, the Loutermilch demon also comes around naked, masturrbating (you can see it in debug mode) and looks also disembowled and walking around. So, Blake can see the demon to be a creature who has no shame and also is a destructive force of nature. Loutermilch becomes the sign, the totem, of pain, humiliation and also disgusting acts.
When Val captures Blake and we know what happens afterwards we can see that Blake feels it was always gonna be this way. Though, we know he didn’t do it on purpose. But Blake biblically believes he helped a Satanic snake cover up their crime of misleading an Eve or Litlith (Jessica) and so he is not even a good person but a tyrant in his own way. So, Blake doesn’t believe he should gain redemption. Or, excuse. He accepts Jessica by the end even though he is back at school and what seems to be Purgatory or Damnation. And, he accepts it as something he deserves.
Thus Jessica says: “I will never let you go and you will never let me go.” As a sign to his guilt, his pain, his shame — he thinks he is finally owning up to that. Finally, taking responsibility. Tragically, he feels he is now free because he has been liberated from the lie he has been telling himself. Of course, its a tragic ending and we now know from the comics what may happen to Blake next but he feels so heartbroken failing Lynn and Jessica that beating Loutermilch by the end did nothing for him.
He accepts damnation because he believes hell is where he should belong. That in itself is heartbreaking. Perhaps, that is why, ironically, he doesn’t listen to Knoth about the newly born or reborn ‘Jessica’ who may either not exist or could be something else. Knoth is making sense in that destroying whatever it is is the prudent choice but he knows and I think the thing knows that he won’t.
He chooses Hell because he feels he deserves it. That is the ultimate tragedy of the game.
