IN THE FACADE WE TRUST story and endings, explained

While this may be your first time exploring IN THE FACE WE TRUST‘s seemingly endless depths, this dimension welcome anyone—both human and creature. Unravel the tightly wound thread and decide whether you’ll choose left or right, trust the girl or the creature.

Here is our rundown of the bizarre IN THE FACADE WE TRUST, including an explanation of its story, inspirations, and endings.

IN THE FACADE WE TRUST plot, summarized

With a clear reference to P.T, IN THE FACADE WE TRUST combines the liminal space horror of the Backrooms with the psychological content of the canceled Silent Hills. Rather than waiting for any changes or hunting for anomalies, you’re tasked to observe and listen—for you’re not the only one wandering these endless corridors.

IN THE FACADE WE TRUST has an overarching plot centered around a domestic massacre on Feb. 3, 1961. A family was brutally murdered with a kitchen knife. The killer was the youngest daughter, Madison. “It’s not my fault. He told me to do it,” she cried out as she killed her mother and sisters one by one. Premeditated? Yes, as she locked the front door before the brutal killing occurred. But who told her to kill her family? Each cycle provides more context on this murder, where you must arrive at your own conclusion on who to trust.

IN THE FACADE WE TRUST story, explained

The story begins with a short explanation of how we got to this strange place. Exiting from what we can only assume as level four of the Backrooms, a voice shouts to the protagonist, “DON’T.” The voice is ours. We immediately know this is a time paradox and that we’re looping, but there must be a way to escape the endless corridors.

Navigating through the endless P.T-style corridors, we’re introduced to the girl and creature. They primarily communicate with you at the start of every cycle via the answering machine. The girl makes her presence known first, reaching out to help you. The message on the answering machine extends line by line as you push further into the dark unknown, but the situation gets complicated when you’re warned by a simple word sprawled across the top of a door: “Evil.”

The girl shows herself, but her face is blurred out. Meanwhile, the creature (although terrifying with its glowing white eyes and wide unnatural mouth), appears more honest than our anonymous heroine. She wants you to go left, using her limited power to stop you from entering the right door. Outside the window, a creature inches closer and closer as you walk into a new cycle. The voice tells you not to trust her. Much like a vampire, the creature wants to be invited in, breaching your cycles to warn you not to trust the woman you’ve been listening to up until this point. Here is where your path can alter. You can either keep going left (listen to the girl) or start going right (listen to the creature).

You learn the protagonist is experiencing the cycles linearly, while the girl and creature jump around in a random order. You’re being told a different side to the same story, both entities say you previously trusted the creature, choosing the right path at the end of the game. Their control is determined by which path you choose to take.

Who is the girl?

The girl is Madison, the killer. Although Madison was arrested, she would be dead in her cell soon after. What’s unusual is the presence of a rope, chair, and an abundance of almond water (another reference to the Backrooms) inside Madison’s cell. Almond water is used to restore sanity in most Backrooms games. This object randomly spawns in within the Frontrooms and Backrooms, linking Madison to the infinite paradox long before she was aware of its existence.

We read her notes inside this infinite space where she’d hear it in the past and then write it down, thus creating the paradox. This removed Madison’s autonomy and control in her life. She didn’t start the thought or intend to murder her family by her own volition. Rather, she heard the Wanderer (protagonist) read the order she killed her family in, which she then wrote down and acted upon after hearing it in her head for months.

Madison disappeared from reality and accidentally created a dimension of endless cycles by a manifestation of her own. It appears that Madison became some kind of Backrooms entity (like the Partygoers, Smilers, and Bacteria). The physical manifestation of rope, a chair, and almond water allowed Madison to no-clip into the Backrooms, creating the infinite corridors that would be an extension of level four. The earlier cycles free from anomalies, were safe from the creature and Madison. But, as you venture into more unstable cycles, these entities grew more aggressive based on how far along they were in their own cycles.

It seems that Madison is trapped inside The Void. Time ceases within its confinement and passes slower. This aligns with the events outside of the Backrooms. The Void includes all levels of the Backrooms, acting as a purgatory between levels. Although entities cannot enter, both Madison and the creature entered this dimension, thus becoming entities through their entrapment.

The protagonist may have passed into The Void upon peering through the window that Madison pointed at. This showed the creature on the other side. Madison too first appeared on the outside, in the complete darkness of The Void. Seeing her let her in, the same happened with her father. Both entities whispered and communicated through objects before their physical state formed inside the corridors. The power of the Windows entity could also lock doors behind Wanderers, which happens throughout IN THE FACADE WE TRUST, strengthening the theory that we are inside The Void.

Who is the creature?

Time is experienced differently from what we know. The father ended his life three months following the massacre. Just like his daughter, he disappeared, where almond water appeared once more at the sight of his death. Madison’s father became the creature, desperate for you to leave this place so that he can go with you. You started the loop on Madison’s 101st cycle, meaning she knew you were the reason she killed her family.

The creature says he isn’t Madison’s father, explaining he would have been guiding you to your death rather than help you. But Madison contradicts this again at the end of the game when she refers to the creature as “father.” So, did he forget who he was or is he lying to us? It’s a wonder whether the massacre was real to begin with or if the events were fabricated by the Windows to manipulate you.

IN THE FACADE WE TRUST endings, explained

Throughout the story, you’re asked to choose between the girl and the monster. By listening to their words, you come to your own conclusion on who’s best to trust. However, neither answer is comforting. Your fate is instead determined by whether you want to spend infinity alone or with Madison.

While the game continuously asks you to choose left or right as you navigate through each cycle, you can change your final decision right at the last hurdle. Both endings result in the same title screen and you’re not shown what happens to the protagonist.

The opening implies the protagonist always went right, where we’d warn new versions away from The Void (clearly he never listened to himself). While Madison warns you that choosing the right path will get you killed, the opening indicates this cannot be the case as another version of “you” warned you not to enter The Void at the start of the game. This, alongside both Madison and her father telling you we’ve trusted the creature every time, surely means we’ve always returned to the Backrooms. Unless everything we experienced inside The Void was a lie.

Every time you chose the right door, the creature didn’t leave with you. He instead stayed with his daughter, where the paradox continued to repeat as another version of you ventured inside. So, if you chose the right path to re-enter the Backrooms every time, does that mean the paradox couldn’t ever change? But the other option was to stay with Madison and face your punishment, as the voice that compelled her to kill her family.

While on the surface it appeared that you had the freedom of choice, the reality is that you’re trapped either way. Regardless of which path you choose, both entities were manipulating you for their own personal gain, and both fates likely end with your demise. If they truly believed your presence was to blame for the death of their family, then The Void is your punishment. After all, you were lured inside by them. There’s a chance that the “you” that shouted “DON’T” likely never entered The Void to begin with. Or worse, the “you” that shouted wasn’t you at all. There is no escape, only death.