So, About The Names On The Coffins...

So, About the Names on the Coffins...

So, we have five names only: Norman, Grant, Bertrum, Lacie, and Susie.

We also know that this can’t have something to do with the story itself - because in the story, every single employee died. Therefore, it’s likely this pertains to their IRL selves. But the question is: Why only these five, and what does this mean?

First, we know there are two sets of some employees. There’s their IRL selves, and then the ink monster copies that exist in the story. Allison and Tom clearly spell this out - in the IRL letter they’re both alive and married, while in the story they are both very dead. In other words, the versions in the story are copies, not the actual IRL people - even if they are nearly identical. (Presumably, the IRL Ink Machine doesn’t need sacrifices to work based on this.)

Now, you might have picked up on something throughout the narrative. Most ink creatures do not remember who they are. Allison, for example, says that she doesn’t know her name, and doesn’t remember how she got here. (Hard to say how much Tom remembers - he responds to his name, but who knows if he realizes that’s actually his name or not.)

The Butcher Gang members seem to be in character, from what little dialogue we have (for example, the Fishers occasionally say “yar har, it’s cold”). Boris doesn’t seem to be lucid, seeing as he has no problem chomping on a human femur. And who even knows how much Bendy remembers?

This one message from 5 also implies not remembering who you were is a pretty common place thing in the studio:

Even Sammy, who’s one of the ones who has some idea who he is, doesn’t seem to remember well - he doesn’t even recognize Henry. His memories seem hazy, at best. Heck, according the Hot Topic Q&A, he can’t even remember what his hair color was or who his significant other was.

But there are a few exceptions to this - and here’s where you’ll start to see a pattern.

Dreams come true, Susie. Dreams come true. 

Alice remembers being Susie.

We never really had control at the studio. Either you in someone’s pocket, or you were putting someone else into yours. I just wanted what was promised to me. I just wanted to be beautiful!

Alice remembers her transformation.

Alice even remembers more than Henry himself does - which also means she’s aware of this being a loop, or at least, Joey’s doing.

No, Henry! I know who you are! And I know why you’re here!

She’s not the sole exception though.

First off, that’s literally his human head. And judging by his dialogue, he also remembers who he is, why he’s here, and what happened to him:

But then… oh Mister Drew. For all your talk of dreams, you are the true architect behind so many nightmares. I built this park. It was to be a masterpiece! My masterpiece! 

And don’t forget Norman:

He doesn’t seem capable of human thought so we don’t know how much he would theoretically remember, but much like Bertrum, he does retain his human body.

And, of course, Grant:

We don’t know what he turned into - but we know from his writings that while he’s completely insane, he does remember working for Joey, what his job was, and what happened. One of the messages even hints at Joey killing him - “What will Joey say?”

If you haven’t figured out the correlation here yet, it’s that all four (excluding Lacie as we don’t know anything about her) retain their human memories/forms. They know who they are, and they know what happened.

In other words: The ink creatures that are based off of employees that are still alive IRL have memory problems - because those aren’t their memories. The only ones who do are the ones who are dead IRL - the ones who were actually sacrificed.

Remember that tape about Susie’s sacrifice?

Susie is the only character who has this much emphasis placed on her death/sacrifice, despite everyone being killed within the story. (Joey even says that it’s a “small project” and invites her to join, possibility implying not everyone was killed, just a few.)

And in a very similar way, not only are Alice, Bertrum, and Grant the only ones who reference actually transforming to something (Sammy knows he’s supposed to be human, but doesn’t mention the transformation itself), but Grant even gets an entire tape dedicated to it.

The reason for this might be because all of the other characters were created from nothing - no sacrifices, just ink. They never transformed, and the memories they inherited are hazy at best. Which is why Allison says this:

One minute we don’t even exist.… just… thoughts. And the next minute… this place. 

(Joey even has a reason for killing those 5 in particular - Susie seemed like she’d be a perfect Alice, Grant was unable to stop the studio’s bankruptcy, he wanted to take Bendy Land from Bertrum and Lacie’s probably a package deal, and Norman sees everything and thus might’ve seen the sacrifices if he wasn’t killed as well.)

And this is why Henry can’t remember anything, and why his Chapter 3 tape is just labeled as “Henry” - because he’s not really Henry Stein, even if he is based off of him.

TL;DR: Norman, Grant, Bertrum, Lacie, and Susie were the only IRL sacrifices preformed. Because of this, their ink forms clearly retain their human memories of who they are, while the others don’t because they are merely copies of IRL people. Henry can’t remember his last name because he’s a copy, not a sacrifice.