adobe-outdesign:

So here’s a little-known fact: There’s a Searcher you can get to spawn in Chapter 2 that has a miner hat.

The Searcher’s nothing special on its own, and you can kill it with three hits or so. However, you can unlock something interesting with it. If you lead it down to the sewer area and get it under the box, you can kill it that way – which causes another series of flashes.

If that sounds familiar to you, it’s because it should – because this the exact way Jack Fain was killed, who was also a Searcher with a hat.

The implication is obvious – the flashes Henry is having are flashbacks to things that have happened before. In this case, it’s crushing a hatted Searcher under a box. Nothing seems to change in the flashback itself because the two incidents are nearly identical.

Something similar happens in the archives. The only difference between the flashback and current events is that the room appears to have been shaking before, judging by the moving vault doors.

This one has a major difference – the flashbacks show that there were once arms coming out of the walls in this area. But in present times?

They’re long gone.

This scene is a bit harder – if you pay attention, the entire fight is one long flashback, right up to the actual decapitation.  At first glance, it appears that Bendy picks up The Projectionist, does something akin to a neck snap to make him go limp, and then decapitates him. However, this isn’t actually the case, as you can most clearly see when hacking the game so you’re not stuck inside the Miracle Station:

While in the flashback, Bendy grabs The Projectionist and picks him up, then twists the projector backwards similar to a neck snap. The Projectionist is still held in the air, already decapitated, projector in Bendy’s hand. But when the flashback ends…

The Projectionist is on the ground, and Bendy is only now actively decapitating him. Just like crushing the Searcher brings up a similar memory of the same thing happening to Jack, Bendy attacking The Projectionist brings up a flashback of when this happened before in the past.

(And if anyone is confused: The Projectionist dying in the past doesn’t contradict him being alive currently – it’s implied the Ink Machine will heal and reanimate cartoons as long as it’s on, and Bendy doesn’t drag his corpse off in the flashback like he does in present day.)

Some more evidence for this idea comes from the very first flashbacks in Chapter 1:

These ones are different – instead of being actual flashbacks, they’re still images. Following the idea of Joey being Bendy, this is because these ones aren’t Henry’s flashbacks – they’re Joey’s. Henry is standing on a pentagram in this scene, something that you use to communicate with demons. Joey is showing him things from his past – how he was in a wheelchair and dying, so he used the Ink Machine to turn himself into Bendy. A different flashback from someone else, but a flashback all the same.

However, that begs the major question: When was Henry in the studio before (post-Ink Machine)? And here’s where one little overlooked detail becomes really important:

If you were paying close attention to Chapter 1, you might have picked up on something: Henry isn’t visiting the studio directly after receiving Joey’s letter. When Henry arrives, he takes it upon himself to find what Joey wanted him to see and addresses him out loud, as if he were dead. Joey being either missing or presumed dead is outright confirmed by Sammy’s Hot Topic Q&A:

This means that Henry didn’t arrive right after Joey’s letter, as otherwise Joey would still be there to show him in person. Rather, there was a gap in between the events, with Joey becoming Bendy in between the time the letter was sent and the gameplay post-disappearance. This means that Henry could have visited the studio twice after Joey’s disappearance.

Which leads us to our next major question: If Henry already visited the studio once, why doesn’t he remember it? In fact, why on earth would he come back to this hellhole? Why does he act like he hasn’t seen any of this before? And most importantly: If he was there once before, how did he get out the first time?

It’s made clear that Sammy has pretty severe memory problems, presumably as a result of the Ink Machine.

When Henry gets attacked, you can see ink splotches in his vision. He survives things that would kill a normal person, in particular the elevator drop that was intended to kill him. And when he does die, you get a cutscene…

…not dissimilar to the puddles.

There’s a few things pointing to this. For example, take the new area in Chapter 3:

Is it just a meta nod to this being the same area that was in the Chapter 3 trailer – or is it referring to the fact that Henry’s already been here before but can’t remember it?

Likewise, when Henry enters the Heavenly Toys area, he says this:

Wow. I don’t remember any of this.

Seems like kind of a weird statement, to say he doesn’t “remember” the area instead of just acknowledging that it’s new- unless he literally doesn’t remember it.

There’s also this achievement, earned by listening to Henry’s audio log that was recorded pre-Ink Machine:

If it’s Henry’s own log, why would it be called “long forgotten” self – and why does the icon show a figure standing in ink?

What I’m getting at is that the first time Henry came to the studio, he didn’t make it out as a human. He managed to disable the Ink Machine and Bendy, but his memories of the event were repressed and forgotten thanks to the effects of the Machine. The longer Henry stays in the studio, the more his memories of his first visit are starting to return to him, building up to the final reveal.

Which is why this line is repeated at the beginning of Chapter 4, the same chapter when the flashbacks start happening constantly:

All right, Joey. I’m here. Let’s see if I can find what you wanted me to see.

TL;DR: The flashes are flashbacks, triggered by events occurring currently that are similar to events from the past. Henry doesn’t remember being there once before because he didn’t make it out as a human the first time, but rather an ink creature. The longer Henry stays in the studio the more his memories of the first visit are returning to him.