...flicking the switch would turn on a magical light that would drive the beast away. 
- ― Alan comforting Alice
The Clicker is a cut-off light switch that Alan's mother gave him when he was a child because he used to be afraid of the dark.
Background[]
Events of Alan Wake[]
The Clicker first appeared in Episode 2: Taken in a flashback three years back. When the power went out in Alan and Alice's apartment, Alice freaked out and Alan told her the story of how his mother gave him the Clicker, before giving it to her. She didn't believe the story, but accepted the gift anyway. The Clicker didn't appear again until the end of Episode 5: The Clicker, where Alan found a shoebox in the The Well-Lit Room, Thomas Zane having made sure it would not disappear, even when he himself did.
Along with the clicker, Alan also found a manuscript page that described him standing at Cauldron Lake where Diver's Isle used to be and clicking the Clicker. The page was narrated by the voice of Thomas Zane and also contains elements of Alan's childhood, suggesting Zane had an influence in 'creating' Alan's life with his writing (though this is refuted by Zane in The Writer DLC.)
In Episode 6: Departure, Alan did exactly what it said on the page, where he jumped into Cauldron Lake with the Clicker in hand. He then woke up in a twisted version of his apartment, with a dark version of Alice Wake, where according to her, it was he who has the fear of the dark, but this was merely a trick. He used the clicker to drive the dream away. Alan then ended up at the Bird Leg Cabin, where Barbara Jagger was waiting for him. He held the clicker where her heart should be and clicked it, burning her away. The whole house lighted up, ridding the darkness from it as well.
Events of Alan Wake 2[]
At some point in the 2010s, the Clicker emerged on the shores of Cauldron Lake, and was eventually found by the Cult of the Tree and used in their rituals. They replicated the way Alan used it to vanquish Barbara Jagger to banish any taken that came out of the lake since.
After Saga Anderson came to bright falls and managed to find Alan, she was told that the Clicker could be the key to undo the horror story they were facing. In Return 3: Local Girl, Saga learned that the Cult of the Tree had it, and eventually managed to acquire it.
In Return 6: Scratch, Saga was about to give the Clicker to Alan, but he was revealed to be Scratch and tried to take it from her by force. Saga managed to drive him off.
In Return 7: Summoning, Saga used the clicker for a ritual to summon Alan from the dark place with the help of the Anderson Brothers. Amplifying the words of their song, the clicker brought the writer forth, yet it turns out it summoned him to where Saga first found him, meaning that him and the Scratch she faced were the same person. As if by a cue, Scratch appeared and faced Saga again, only this time she managed to trap him in an FBC containment unit and banish Scratch out of him. However, Scratch merely switched bodies and took over a weakened Alex Casey instead, taking the Clicker from Saga and using it to make his ending come true.
The Clicker, however, was snatched away by an unknown figure. Back in Initiation 7: Masks, Alan found two pictures in a shoebox, with one of them showing the same figure holding the clicker. He then left them in another shoebox ,which Saga later found in Return 9: Come Home - this time containing the real Clicker.
Reuniting with Alan in his writer's room, Saga used the Clicker one more time to bring their new ending forth and fixing the damage made by Scratch.
Characteristics[]
The Clicker has the power to drive away darkness just like Alan's mother had said. Whether this power was present all along or if it originated with the writing of either Zane or Alan is unknown.
Uses[]
When Alan first uses it inside The Well-lit Room, it seems like nothing happens, but when he leaves the power plant, he realizes it's not night anymore but in the middle of the day. Alan is not certain, but thinks the Clicker did this.
Later, Alan uses it when he stands where the island used to be and he jumps into the lake. After that, he wakes up in bed with a darker version of Alice, who tries to convince him it was all just a dream, but Alan does not believe her and then finds the Clicker to call for Thomas Zane.
Alan uses the Clicker one last time against the shade of Barbara Jagger, by putting it in the hole where her heart should have been and then clicking the switch to 'kill her'. This does not, however, destroy the Dark Presence, but merely the shell it was using.
Manuscript[]
At the end of Episode 5: The Clicker Alan finds a manuscript page that does not appear in his inventory. This page is about the Clicker.
"Alan, seven years old, would fight sleep to the bitter end. When he did sleep, he soon woke up, screaming the nightmares fresh in his mind. One evening, his mother, sitting by his bed, offered him an old light switch. She called it the "Clicker" and flicking the switch would turn on a magical light that would drive the beast away.
To imbue the talisman with all possible power, she added that it had been given to her by Alan's father. Alan never knew him and anything of his took on mythical proportions in his mind. With the Clicker firmly in his hand, Alan finally slept like a baby.
Now almost thirty years later, Alan thought of this as he stood on the rim of Cauldron Lake, the Clicker in his hand. He took a deep breath and jumped.
Trivia[]
- Sam Lake said that the idea of the Clicker came from his own childhood, as he had the same toy to help him sleep. "To me, stuff like that always felt particularly mysterious and magical", said the creative director in an interview. "I love old rusted machine parts that you can’t quite figure out, old telephones and radios".[1]
- The Federal Bureau of Control believes the Clicker to be an "Object of Power" or "OoP", which is a type of item that's been altered in an Altered World Event and become connected to the Astral Plane, but may possibly also be connected to other paranatural forces. Unlike other Altered Items, many OoPs can be bound by parautilitarians, allowing them to wield their abilities.[2] Objects of Power play an important role in Control, another Remedy Connected Universe video game.
- As revealed in Alan Wake 2, The Clicker was originally a part of the Angel Lamp's cord.