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Quote1 You will NEVER get her back! Quote2
― Barbara Jagger to Alan Wake

Barbara Jagger (born Baba Jakala) was a major character in the Alan Wake franchise, and the main antagonist in Alan Wake. A Finnish actress, Barbara was in a long-term professional and romantic relationship with auteur filmmaker Thomas Zane. The two came to Bright Falls, Washington in the 1960s to establish an artist commune. In Bright Falls, Cauldron Lake was a place of power that allowed the work of art created there to change reality. After purchasing the Oceanview Hotel, Zane and Barbara resided at Bird Leg Cabin on Diver's Isle, an island on Cauldron Lake. In 1970, Barbara drowned in the lake in search of the its power. Zane used his art to bring Barbara back to life. Her body was then used by the Dark Presence as a vessel to entice Zane into writing a work of fiction to set it free, and did the same to novelist Alan Wake in 2010 by kidnapping his wife, Alice. Using the Clicker, Alan was able to destroy Barbara's body. The Dark Presence then assumed the form of Scratch, Alan's doppelgänger.

Biography[]

Background[]

Baba Jakala was an actress in Finland. She began a relationship with renowned auteur filmmaker Thomas Zane (born Thomas Seine). The two moved to Bright Falls, Washington. The couple was drawn to Cauldron Lake, a threshold and place of power that allowed the work of art created there to shape reality. The two purchased the old manor outside Bright Falls to establish an artist commune called the Oceanview Hotel. With them was their editor Emil Hartman, local writer Cynthia Weaver, and musicians Odin and Tor Anderson of the Old Gods of Asgard. In order to derive most of lake's power, Zane and Barbara resided in Bird Leg Cabin on Diver's Isle, an island on Cauldron Lake. While in Bright Falls, Jagger was a renowned beauty and the three-time winner of the Miss Deerfest pageant. People would describe her as "pretty" and "humble and kind". Tom and Barbara created and starred in the films "Nightless Night" and "Tom the Poet", in which Zane played a fictionalized version of himself as a poet and diver.

On July 10, 1970 she was diving into Cauldron Lake in search of the lake's power when she apparently drowned. Part of the mystery of her death is that she was a very capable swimmer. There was no evidence of foul play, however and no investigation of the death was planned by local law enforcement. Hartman convinced Tom to use the lake's power and his artistic abilities to write Barbara back to life. Unknown to Tom and Emil, Cauldron Lake was a threshold to another dimension called the Dark Place. In there resided a resonance called the Dark Presence, an entity desperate to be unleashed upon the world. It brought back Barbara Jagger and wore her face. She compelled Tom to write the Dark Presence free. Realizing his mistake in writing her back, Tom tied up Barbara and cut her heart out. On July 18, 1970 he then wrote himself out of existence and caused the caldera beneath Cauldron Lake to erupt, swallowing Diver's Isle and taking him and Barbara with it. As they sank, the Dark Presence claimed Barbara's body while the Bright Presence took Thomas'. Meanwhile, the spirits of Thomas and Barbara descended ever deeper into the Dark Place, where Zane recited a final "master poem." In doing so, he created a "baby universe" where he and Barbara continued to live in eternal peace and happiness.

Thomas Zane, now appearing as a floating diver's suit containing a bright light, acted as a guardian to other artists in Bright Falls and warned them of the Dark Presence and its intentions. As a contingency, Zane wrote that any of his belongings left in a shoe box would remain in the real world. He used the lake's power to write a character called Alan Wake, who would someday come to Cauldron Lake and defeat the Dark Presence using the Clicker, a light switch from his lamp imbued with magical power. Zane wrote that Alan had nightmares and a fear of the dark as a child; to help him overcome his fear, Alan's mother gave him the Clicker, pretending it was magical and it could defeat the monsters from the dark. The page described Alan remembering this when years later he stood at the bank of Cauldron Lake holding The Clicker in his hand just as he was about to jump into the Lake to defeat the Dark Presence. Thomas also continued to speak to Cynthia Weaver through the television and her dreams. He compelled her to keep the lights on and the Clicker safe until Alan could reclaim it.

Barbara

Barbara Jagger in the "War" music video

"The Poet and the Muse", is a song based on the events on how Barbara died and how she was brought back. Following the song, it tells of how Thomas Zane and Barbara Jagger were a perfect couple and lived very happily. Tom told Barbara about a treasure at the bottom of the lake. She became curious and went to try and find it, but accidentally drowned. Tom went into the lake with a diver's suit (hence the way he looks) to try and find her, but could not. He returned to the surface before night fell. Emil Hartman must have known the power of the lake, as he tried to convince Tom to write her back through poems. He did so one night and as he slept during the same night, Barbara came back, but she was not herself as she was possessed by the Dark Presence, using her corpse as a vessel onto the surface world. Overjoyed at the return of his love, he took her in, however soon realized his mistake. Tom tried to kill her. He tied her to a chair and cut out her heart but she did not die. He decided he would return her to the bottom of the lake, killing himself in the process, so they could both be together. In the end, Thomas died and the Dark Presence was kept at bay until Alan Wake arrived at Bright Falls.

Alan Wake[]

Jagger note

Jagger giving the key to Alan

Barbara Jagger is seen various times throughout the game, tormenting the townsfolk and rallying the darkness to overtake Bright Falls. She has armies of Taken prowling the woods at night and sends flocks of them in an attempt to stop Wake from reaching his goal. Alan Wake, Cynthia Weaver and Thomas Zane fight against her and the Dark Presence. As the events of the game progress, she "touches" Rose Marigold, sending the waitress into a catatonic state of madness. It is revealed around the ending she was the one who tricked a distraught Wake to write her a story in which she takes over the town. Jagger told Wake that if he wrote her this story, he would get his lost Alice Wake back. Wake complied, but before he could write the ending, he realized she was lying and wrote Thomas Zane in the story to save him from her.

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Alan banish The Dark Presence from Barbara's body

In the end, Wake enters the darkness underneath Cauldron Lake and confronts her in Bird Leg Cabin. Jagger, infuriated that she's been defeated, tells Wake that the Darkness will just "find another face to wear". Wake, armed with the Clicker, charges at her and thrusts his arm into the hole in her heart and activates the Clicker. Light shines out of Jagger's eyes and mouth and she evaporates into nothingness.

This House of Dreams[]

The ARG blog "This House of Dreams" offered deeper insight into the fates of both Jagger and Zane. In the final blog entry, Zane explains to Samantha in a dream that after Barbara's possession by the Dark Presence, he wrote both of them out of existence, and the respective Dark and Light Presences took control of their bodies as avatars. Zane then tells that he wrote into existence a "baby universe" in the Dark Place where the spirits or souls of himself and Jagger lived on peacefully, while the Presences surged to the surface to continue their timeless war, using Thomas and Barbara as their faces in the real world.

This would also explain why, in The Writer, Zane was unable to explain to Alan the page "he" wrote about Alan's childhood which was left in the shoe box in the Well-Lit Room; the Zane that Alan spoke to was the Light Presence, while the real Thomas Zane lived on with the real Barbara Jagger in his new universe.

Interactions[]

  • Alan Wake: Jagger makes many appearances to Wake during the game. She appears in Alan's mind at random moments in the game and gives him hallucinations and minor migraines.
  • Rose Marigold: The only time Jagger appears to Rose is when she takes over her mind to order her to invite Wake over to drug him and take his weapons and pages Wake then later escapes the trailer leaving a scared and confused Rose behind.
  • Cynthia Weaver: Back in the 1970's Weaver had a deep love for Zane and she knew that Jagger had already been dating him for sometime know so she needed a way to get to him but it failed and Jagger and Zane had died in the process of planning.
  • Alice Wake: Jagger appears to Alice Wake only once kidnapping her and imprisoning her in the dark depths of Cauldron Lake only to be set free to a lonely deserted shoreline

Trivia[]

  • Her age would have been 68 if she was still alive, but this is the age the Dark Presence portrays her.
  • The name Barbara Jagger is a reference to the old Russian folk legend of a witch called Baba Yaga, who in the legends lived in a hut that stood upon chicken legs. This latter part is also referenced, as Barbara Jagger and Thomas Zane's cabin, where the Wakes were set to stay, is called Bird Leg Cabin. The Anderson Brothers also make reference to this in Episode 4, when you talk to them in the Cauldron Lake Lodge.
  • In Episode 6, when you must locate the clicker in the dream scape of your house, you can hear Barbara Jagger's voice as she calls out Thomas Zane. You can also see her reflection in the pictures on the walls.
  • She is referred to as "The Scratching Hag" and "Granny Claws" due to the myths around her.
  • In the Alan Wake novel, it is said that underneath the veil, her face is really just a skull.
  • In early missions and tests for the game, she seemed to be the one guiding Alan Wake and giving him the manuscript pages.

Appearances[]

Gallery[]

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