Throughout both The Evil Within games, Sebastian is granted respite in safe rooms in a different plane than his current one. These safe rooms are signaled to the player through the sound of Claire De Lune, and must be accessed by staring into a cracked mirror. The rooms offer a haven where the player is free from the horror of the rest of STEM.
Though the safe rooms differ between two games, the first being a wing of Beacon Mental Hospital and the second being a reconstruction of Sebastian’s Krimson Police Department office, they share one constant: the presence of Tatiana Gutierrez. The stoic nurse is a character shrouded in mystery.
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In the first game, Tatiana is first encountered in Chapter Two, when Sebastian awakens within the safe room. Tatiana is clad in a Beacon Mental Hospital nurse uniform with a pale complexion. She is sarcastic and dry, appearing utterly emotionless. Despite her mysterious nature and the unsettling way she is presented throughout the game, Tatiana is never antagonistic towards the player. She even introduces Sebastian to various gameplay mechanics, such as locker keys.
The nurse’s true identity is never disclosed, but late in the game, Sebastian can find a missing persons poster with Tatiana on it. The poster states that she was a nurse who disappeared during a late shift without leaving the building. Upon locating this poster, she disappears for the remainder of the story.
In the sequel, Tatiana re-appears within Sebastian’s safe room, assisting him with upgrades and giving cryptic hints to the detective. Sebastian questions how she can be there, but Gutierrez merely tells him that nothing has changed for her, and that she is happy to see a familiar face. If the player speaks to Tatiana just before the player battles the final boss, she cryptically tells Sebastian that she may have been with him since before Beacon. Tatiana says she is who Sebastian turns to when he needs strength, and claims that, whether Sebastian dies or leaves Beacon, he won’t need her anymore.
According to the first game’s model viewer, the original Tatiana was a Beacon nurse from “the locked ward” who became emotionally dead after seeing so many things “that no one should ever have to see.” The viewer also states that the things she saw in the locked ward eventually took “an even greater toll” — possibly her assimilation into STEM itself. This would explain the missing persons poster and her presence in the game. However, it doesn’t explain her calm demeanor and knowledge of the environment.
The Evil Within‘s DLC The Consequence shows a female MOBIUS agent who looks strikingly similar to Tatiana speaking with the evil Administrator, implying that the nurse was also an undercover MOBIUS operative. If this was the case, it would certainly explain her knowledge of the functions of STEM and her calm persona. Unfortunately, her disappearance is never explained, nor are the secrets she seems to be hiding.
In The Evil Within 2, Tatiana implies that she has been with Sebastian for a very long time, and that she is his inner strength. One theory posits that Tatiana is STEM itself, or at least an imprint of the STEM process upon Sebastian’s psyche. This would explain why she appears to Sebastian: due to his memories of the Beacon incident, he associates the safe rooms with her presence.
Ruvik’s original vision for STEM was a world born of trauma and pain where he could be with his deceased sister again. One of the system’s many applications is treating mental illness, and it is possible that Tatiana represents this positive side of STEM. After all, she seems to genuinely want what’s best for Sebastian and Lily, encouraging him to continue and helping him on his quest to overcome his own PTSD and self-hatred.
While these theories are compelling, Tatiana’s true nature remains unconfirmed. Still, it’s clear that this nurse is more powerful than she initially appears, as she predicts events before they occur and can sense minds within STEM. Even if she began life as a Beacon nurse who was working with MOBIUS, she has become something greater. Unfortunately, fans will have to wait for a potential The Evil Within 3 to learn anything else about the mystery that is Tatiana Gutierrez.
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