The concluding expansion for Alan Wake 2, titled The Lake House, has been released, marking the end of a 13-year journey for Remedy Entertainment. In this expansion, players take on the role of Agent Kiran Estevez as she investigates a disturbance at the Federal Bureau of Control satellite station. The blend of Remedy's Control's high strangeness with the horror elements of Alan Wake 2 creates a unique experience that feels both like an epilogue and a prologue, as the studio continues to expand its interconnected universe, the RCU.

Recently, I had the opportunity to speak with Janina Gavankar, the star of the DLC, who is known for her roles in Star Wars Battlefront 2 and True Blood. Gavankar shared her enthusiasm for working with Remedy and her hopes to collaborate with them again soon. She also discussed the possibility of her character appearing in the sequel to Control.

"I've been following Remedy and Sam [Lake] for eight years," Gavankar said. "Quantum Break was my first Remedy game, and I was completely captivated by it. I even found all three acts of the in-universe movie script, Time Knife, and organized a live reading of it. It was then that Sam and others at Remedy realized, 'Oh, she's one of us.'"

It appears that many collaborators have formed lasting friendships with the studio. For instance, Shawn Ashmore from Quantum Break frequently expresses his support for Remedy online. Gavankar explained why Remedy fosters such strong bonds with its collaborators: "Everyone who works with Remedy leaves even more invested than when they started. You can see that pattern repeated time and again."

"I'm fortunate to call Sam a close friend now. He's as wonderful as he is unconventional... At this stage, I've starred in major releases and have been consulting for both independent and triple-A studios for over half a decade," she continued. "Every company has its own unique culture. When you encounter a studio like Remedy, with a true maestro at the helm, you can feel it. What's fortunate is that the maestro is a good person and remains passionate and energetic about working with artists—he's not someone who is just chasing fame. I've encountered those types before, and while they may be talented, there's a clear difference between someone who is chasing Hollywood and someone who is truly an auteur in the medium that matters most to me, which is games."

Given that Agent Estevez is an FBC agent, she seems well-suited to appear in the previously announced Control sequel. Remedy has a history of working with the same actors repeatedly, such as Matthew Poretta, Shawn Ashmore, Courtney Hope, and the late, great James McCaffrey, who have all contributed to multiple Remedy games over the years. It certainly seems possible that we might see Estevez again. Although Gavankar couldn't confirm my theory, she was quite fond of the idea.

"Please relay all of that to Sam. Have you spoken to him yet? Please tell him all of that," she joked. "Tell him how perfectly she fits into everything. I agree."

Regarding her character's involvement in the RCU, I asked Gavankar how much she tries to understand the larger narrative or if she focuses solely on Estevez's role. "Oh, it all makes sense to me. But as a writer, I also write high strangeness, so I get along very well with Remedy. I don't flinch at any of these elements," she said, echoing a Stephen King quote from the opening moments of 2010's Alan Wake about the "unexplained mystery."

"As an artist, you don't want to explain everything away—like those 'Ending Explained' videos, which I dislike because they take away any agency from the audience. It's okay to believe that your audience is smart enough to figure things out for themselves. Moreover, it might resonate with their human experience in a way you didn't intend, and that's far more important than explaining your original point."

Alan Wake 2's The Lake House expansion is now available and marks the final story update for the game. Along with the previous expansion, Night Springs, it is included in the Deluxe Edition, which is now available as a physical release. Although a sequel to Control is in development, Remedy's next game is FBC: Firebreak, a three-player co-op PvE game set in the Remedy Connected Universe.

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