Like a real bad follow-up to a real good movie... where the best friend's suddenly the bad guy... who wrote this crap anyway...? 
- ― Walter Snyder's last words Episode 4: The Truth
Walter Snyder is a minor character appearing in Alan Wake. Snyder was a resident of Bright Falls and the caretaker of the Anderson Farm. He was killed during the Bright Falls AWE of 2010 by his best friend Danny, who had become a Taken.
Appearance[]
Walter Snyder is a caucasian man with light brown hair and a mustache. He wears a white, blue and black tracksuit and brown boots.
Personality[]
Walter Snyder struggled with alcoholism, something which he was attempting to permanently quit. However, after being attacked by a taken Danny, Walter turned to drinking once again in an effort to forget about the incident, and had been in a state of depression ever since. He had also become fearful and paranoid of darkness and of the unknown force that had taken his best friend away. While asserting on the fact that the man who attacked him was no longer Danny, he had come to believe that the ones behind this were aliens.
He also seemed to be a friendly man, as he told Alan Wake, after the latter turned on the lights on the cell corridor, that he was a "good guy" and that he "[shouldn't] let anybody tell [him] different", although considering that Snyder was at that moment in a state of drunkenness, its unknown if that would have been his normal demeanor.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
As mentioned by Deputy Grant, Walter Snyder would frequently get in trouble with the law due to his alcoholism. At some point he decided to permanently quit drinking.[1]
Bright Falls AWE[]
Sometime after writer Alan Wake was trapped in Cauldron Lake, the Dark Presence that inhabited the lake began to spread through the town of Bright Falls, corrupting many of its inhabitants and turning them into Taken, including Walter's best friend, Danny. The Taken Danny attacked Walter, who attempted to defend himself, first by using his bare hands before opting to use a chair, but he was unaffected by the caretaker's beating. Snyder managed to kick Danny down a set of stairs before escaping in his van. Not long after this, Walter began drinking again in an attempt to forget about the incident.[2] He was later detained by Bright Falls Police Department.[1]
After waking up in a cell in the Sheriff Station, the drunken Walter began to beg for the lights to be turned on. While passing through the cell corridor, Alan Wake decided to comply with Snyder's petition. Walter thanked the writer and explained to him that, while it was true that he had beaten up someone, he was convinced that the man who attacked him was not his best friend, but instead an alien imposter.[1] Snyder was released on bail the following day. Later that night, Walter found himself staring at the window unable to sleep, while trying to make sense of the incident with Danny, before deciding to call to Pat Maine's radio show. He talked with Maine about the recent events and expressed his feeling that "something" would soon occur, claiming that "there was something in the air" that night.[3]
Walter, moments before his death
Two days later, Walter went to the Anderson Farm in order to get some of the Anderson Brothers' moonshine, which he hoped would help him forget. Arriving at the farm, he saw Danny waiting for him at the porch of the house. Crying, Snyder drove away in an attempt to escape from the Taken.[4] Alan Wake, who was also heading to the Anderson Farm, saw Walter driving towards a nearby house, and, believing him to be his friend Barry Wheeler, from whom he had separated earlier, decided to investigate. As Wake entered the house, he heard Walter being attacked by the Taken Danny. The writer found Snyder, who he remembered from the Sheriff Station, bleeding out in a room on the second floor. The caretaker told Wake what had happened and reiterated that the man who attacked him was no longer Danny, before dying from his injuries. Shortly after this, Wake would encounter and kill the Taken Danny once and for all.[5]
Walter appeared as a memory in Alan's mind, as the writer found himself running around a giant wheel in which Snyder is begging for the lights to be turned on.[6]
Trivia[]
- If you turn the lights back off he will start to yell at you and say "You're with the space aliens aren't you, well you won't get me!"
- Alan's encounter with Walter on his way to the Anderson Farm is absent from the novel.
Appearances[]
- Alan Wake
- Episode 2: Taken
- Episode 3: Ransom (radio show only)
- Episode 4: The Truth
- Special 2: The Writer (as a memory)
See also[]
Manuscript pages:
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Alan Wake: Episode 2: Taken
- ↑ Alan Wake: Episode 3: Ransom, manuscript page: "Walter Fights Danny"
- ↑ Alan Wake: Episode 3: Ransom, radio show "Snyder's Feeling the Pressure"
- ↑ Alan Wake: Episode 4: The Truth, page: "Walter at the Anderson Farm"
- ↑ Alan Wake: Episode 4: The Truth
- ↑ Alan Wake: Special 2: The Writer