In Alan Wake, there are eleven radio shows the player can collect by interacting with radios around Bright Falls. However, there is a bonus, unrelated audio log that can be found in Episode Four, that is added to the playback menu list.
Location:
Episode Four. Cauldron Lake Lodge When escaping Cauldron Lake Lodge, more rooms are opened up for the player to explore, including a side room filled with Rudolf Lane's paintings. On the table in the corner, is a tape player with a recorded phone conversation between Emil Hartman and Alice Wake about her husband's frustrations.
Overview:
In a recorded phone call, Alice Wake asks Emil Hartman to help her husband and his relationship to writing. This conversation takes place before travelling to Bright Falls.
Recording:
Transcript:
Emil Hartman: Now, Mrs Wake, can you tell me about Alan's problems?
Alice Wake: He's more and more out of control all the time. The parties, he's so angry all the time, he's getting violent, he's-
Emil Hartman: Do you mean with you?
Alice Wake: No, not with me. No, never. I -- sometimes I almost wish Alan would take a swing at me, because at least that'd lead to a conversation he couldn't just march out of. But no. He's just... Alan doesn't really sleep, and the work... well, he's not writing, at all. He sits there for hours and just gets more and more frustrated. And I can't talk to him.
Emil Hartman: Yes, tell me, Mrs Wake, what would you say to him if he'd listen?
Alice Wake: Oh, I don't know. I want to say, I look at you, and it's not you, just some stranger who resembles you, looking out from behind your eyes, and I don't like that guy much, and now it's all gonna go to hell.
Emil Hartman: But you don't ever say this?
Alice Wake: No, no. I've tried, but... he's not listening. He's too deep in his own problems, always going on about sometimes else... I'm so afraid I'm going to lose him, and we're not even talking anymore. He doesn't let me in anymore, he just keeps me in the dark. I'm so alone here, even when he's home. Please help me, doctor because I'm at my wits' end.
Emil Hartman: Well, if you can just get him here, I'll absolutely do my very best.
Alice Wake: Yeah, but doctor, you need to be careful with him. He's not just going to listen to you and cooperate. He's the most stubborn man I've ever met.
Emil Hartman: We'll, I'll be sure to bear that in mind.
Edited Message from the Kidnapper:
Elements of the conversation were taken to create a new message, seemingly from Alice. The kidnapper had played the call in an attempt to lure Alan to cooperate.
Edited Recording: "The most stubborn man I've ever met... Alan. Alan. I'm so afraid... keeps me in the dark. Please help me... I look at you, Alan, and it's not you... something else, looking out from behind your eyes...I'm so alone here... it's all going to go to hell. You need to be careful... and cooperate."
Original Phone Call Reaction. After receiving the initial call in the previous episode, Alan comments on it, "The connection had been terrible, but that wasn't the only thing that hadn't been right with the call. She'd sounded wrong, somehow. But she had called me."
Discovering the Truth. Although it's only after hearing the full conversation in the clinic, that he realises Hartman had been behind the manipulation, "Hearing her voice, what she was saying, made me happy, and sick, and guilty, all at once. Worst of all, I recognized the words. The phone call from her -- it’d been a cut-up of this, just a recording."
Original Script Comments: Wake starts playing the tapes, starting with Alice’s recording. The quality of her voice makes it obvious that her voice has been recorded from the phone, whereas Hartman’s isn’t. Alice sounds tired and miserable; Hartman is very friendly and compassionate. (NOTE: the various phone calls
Wake has received from “Alice” have been edited from this.)
