This is a super spoilery post, so if you haven’t ‘completed’ HER STORY I suggest you click away immediately. The below is a deep look at the deepest mystery of the game.

After finishing the game and reading up on other people’s experiences online, I’ve found myself thinking a lot about the ending of the game. While I believe that things are left intentionally ambiguous, to the point that there is not a ‘correct’ interpretation, I do think that trying to find the truth of the matter is pretty compelling. In that spirit, allow me to go overboard.

Team Twins vs. Team Split

Let’s start from the top.

Throughout the interviews, we get information about Simon, Hannah, and their life together. But as the pressure mounts, Hannah reveals her friend Eve, who then seems to reveal herself as Hannah’s twin. But is she a real person, or just a figment of Hannah’s imagination?

There are basically three possibilities:

1) There is no Eve at all – Hannah is just lying to try and escape suspicion.

2) Hannah and Eve are two personalities sharing the same body.

3) Hannah and Eve are secret twins!

The first option here doesn’t seem worth considering. If everything she is saying is an elaborate lie to trick the police (and the player) then the whole game is pointless. There is no evidence I have found to support the idea that she is making Eve up. While I don’t think we can take Hannah/Eve’s words as gospel, they are all we have, so within them must exist some bit of truth.

That leaves us with the great debate: Are they twins or split personalities?

First a quick timeline:

June 18 – A woman identifying as Hannah reports her husband missing.

June 25 – Hannah is brought back in for questioning now that her husband has been missing for a week.

June 27 – Hannah comes in again, now that she has discovered the body in the cellar.

June 30 - Another interview, now that the police have investigated the crime scene

July 1 – The police begin to suspect Hannah

July 2 – The police directly accuse Hannah of having a twin

July 3 – The police arrest Eve

From the videos, it seems clear that Hannah and Eve believe they are separate people. If we look closely, we can start to pick out differences between interviews that suggest one woman or the other. Some of these are physical, while others are emotional queues or subtext in their comments.

The two biggest pieces of evidence for the twin theory are The Bruise and The Tattoo. If you didn’t catch these, they are physical differences that seem to appear and disappear between interviews, which only really makes sense if the twins traded off visits to the police station. The counter-arguments to those from Team Split are that they are just make-up, and easily removed. Let’s take a closer look.

June 18 – First Interview

She identifies as Hannah (which at this point, of course she would.) She is wearing long sleeves, so the existence of the tattoo is unknown. She asks for black coffee. Her hair is down. She seems relatively upbeat and confident.

While we have no reason at first to believe this is anyone but Hannah, future interviews suggest that Eve likes black coffee. It also makes sense that, if Hannah was the killer, it would be easier for Eve to go in and feign innocence so close to the time of the murder. She sets up the idea of Simon’s really nice watch, which Eve later says was her contribution to the alibi plan.

Also worth noting is that, in this interview, she says “He likes Helen. He likes blondes.” But more importantly, she is almost smirking when she says this. It is later revealed that Eve started wearing a blonde wig when she became independent, and when Simon started seeing her romantically as Eve.

June 25 – Second Interview

She is wearing short sleeves and there is clearly no tattoo. She asks for tea. Her hair is up. She seems shy.

The police ask her about a bruise on her face (specifically on her left), which she dismisses as the result of clumsiness.

The police question her at length about the day Simon disappeared, and their marriage. Hannah gives us the ‘official’ version, much of which will be twisted later on with the reveal of Eve. She does, however, mention a “friend” that helped her ask out Simon for the first time since she is so shy.

She also mentions that they stayed in a hotel for their wedding night “away from home. Alone together,” and always try to get away on holiday when they can. They moved in with Simon’s parents, where she had “time to myself” and describes the period as full of hope. In retrospect, it seems clear that what she really means is that she enjoyed the time away from her childhood home, because it meant she did not have to share Simon with Eve.

While it is possible that Eve is only ‘triggered’ at home, it makes more sense if we assume that Eve is a real person. After all, if they are merely personalities, there would be nothing to stop Eve from surfacing, but a real Eve definitely couldn’t move in to the Smith household covertly.

June 27 – Third Interview

Long sleeves again, coffee, black and strong. Her hair starts down, but is put up after she gets sick. She is pregnant.

The police notice the missing bruise. She shrugs it off as already healed (barely two days later.) The damning thing is that she reaches up and touches the RIGHT side of her face (our left) which only makes sense if she saw the bruise on Hannah, who Eve considers to be her reflection. We must conclude this is the Eve twin/persona speaking.

During this interview they ask her to look at some pictures, and her answers foreshadow the stories Eve will later reveal about their secret life.

She is shown the watch and asserts the time on the watch should clear her of suspicion. She talks about her alibi which, if Eve is a real person, is at least partially true. It makes sense for Eve to take this interview since it requires less lying.

They ask her where the mirror is (Simon’s birthday present to her) and she deflects. This is because Hannah received the mirror (technically, both mirrors…more on that later), so Eve wouldn’t know exactly where she put it.

She mentions Simon’s parents offered to let her stay while the police go over the house. She says she refuses because it would be too sad. But didn’t the Hannah of the last interview love the time she spent living with Simon’s parents? In fact, future interviews make it clear that Hannah remains in close contact with Simon’s parents even after the murder. It seems more likely Hannah did not stay with them because Eve would be physically left behind. Instead, she says that she is staying with “a friend” which can only be Eve.

June 30 – Fourth Interview

Short sleeves, no tattoo. Tea with sugar, and more tea with sugar. Hair up. This seems like Hannah. Are they just taking turns?

Right away she seems nervous and sad, which fits with our understanding of Hannah. (Search “considering”)

The police press her on the idea that they found fingerprints and hair from a blonde wig at her home, in the bedroom. She asserts that no one else has been around. This seems like strong evidence for the existence of a real Eve. A split personality would not leave unknown fingerprints.

The police show Hannah the mirror. She is clearly enchanted by the mirror, and there is emotion in her voice when she talks about Simon giving it to her. She asserts it was a one-off made just for her. It is deliberately made to look old and dull, “perfect for someone that doesn’t like to look at their own reflection.” Once again, Hannah is telling us that she is sick of sharing her life with Eve.

The reason they show it to her is because they have found trace elements of the mirror on the body. Later Eve will tell us that a duplicate (twin) of this mirror was used as the murder weapon.

The police seems sure Simon was cheating on Hannah and ask about her sex life. She is offended and gets angry. She asks the detective if they are married, and how many kids they have …this will be trouble later. The police also seem to imply Hannah slept around. She denies having sex with “all those guys,” which we later find out Eve slept with. Having denied sleeping around, Hannah has accidentally suggested the existence of Eve to the police.

The police ask Hannah if she ever wanted to commit violence and she reveals that she did - against her “friend” named Eve. She admits to their extreme love/hate relationship. The shy Hannah was jealous that the outgoing Eve would get all the boys. She regrets admitting to Eve before the interview is even over.

June 1 – Fifth Interview

Long sleeves (at first). Coffee black, no sugar. Hair down. They have alternated again, this is Eve.

During this interview, Eve spills her coffee which forces her to remove her shirt, revealing the tattoo she has on her arm. The snake and apple are a clear reference to her name, though at the time she simply says she got it years back to celebrate individuality. Hannah clearly did not have this tattoo in earlier visits. If Hannah and Eve share a body, then the tattoo would be less than a day old. Eve tells us later she got the tattoo when she went independent from Hannah, living her own life. It’s not clear how that would make sense if they are one person.

In fact, this interview is where it begins to become clear that Eve exists, at least mentally. The police start by making her repeat the answer to a previously asked question, which she does almost word-for-word, as if rehearsed. Then she asks the detective if they have children and what ages they are. On top of the tattoo, this would be very suspicious, since Hannah asked about children the day before.

Eve says “it was a nice wedding…people said” when Hannah previously raved about it. Simon looked handsome “in the photos.” They ask her if Simon was her first, and she is bold and easygoing when talking about her previous sexual exploits, when Hannah was scandalized the day before. She makes a few mistakes here with we/us instead of I/me. She emphasizes the importance of family. Remember, Eve has only really had one family member, Hannah. She doesn’t want to be left behind by her sister.

The police confront her with a speeding camera picture of her somewhere she should not have been. She was at work at the time of the photo. She gets very defensive about the picture, which isn’t really evidence of anything – except of a twin. Since it is the police springing this evidence on her, I believe we can rule out the idea that Hannah or Hannah/Eve-hybrid are trying to invent the idea of a twin to shift blame.

The police also ask Eve to play the guitar they found in the house, which is supposed to belong to “Hannah.” She plays a disturbing song about two sisters and a ship captain’s son, that outlines the Hannah vs Eve tension. One sister is jealous of the other, over the love of a boy, and so drowns her. Earlier, Hannah mentioned wanting to drown Eve. Hannah is in love with Simon, but Simon has fallen for Eve. This will become clear later.

June 2 – Sixth Interview

Hair down. Long sleeves. “Coffee I guess….milk and sugar.” Emotional.

If they are still alternating turns, then this is Hannah. The coffee could point either way. Does she get coffee “I guess” because there is no tea? If it’s Eve, why the milk and sugar? The sleeves also make it ambiguous. The attitude and hair point to Eve, but the hair is a weak indicator in the first place, and the attitude could be justified by Hannah being the anxious one.

When the police suggest the twin theory, she laughs at them. She tells them to take fingerprints from her cup and storms out. I am not sure it matters which one of them attended here. The important thing is that they know they are about to be arrested, and the guilty one must flee. If they share a body then the fingerprints will match. If it is Hannah (on schedule) then they will match. If it is Eve (off schedule) then they won’t match (or they will match the mystery prints), and maybe that is why is gets pulled in the next day.

June 3 – Final Interview

Long sleeves (but she mentions her tattoo). Hair down. Calm and confident. No drinks.

She is asked if her name is Hannah in a lie detector and fails the question. “My mother called me Eve,” she admits.

All is revealed in this interview. Eve pulls back the curtain and sheds new light on everything we have learned. He tale of the secret twins is something like a fairy tale, which Eve delights in. Is what she is saying true, or is this the rationalization of one personality that won’t admit it shares a body with another?

Eve implies that the name question is the only lie that was caught by the test, meaning she answered the other questions honestly. She seems to think she has a chance at freedom, so it makes sense to assume she answered questions like “Did you kill Simon” with a no. We don’t know if they asked her if she had a twin during the test, but we know they already suspected it. If she admitted to a twin in the test, then it makes sense that she spills her guts afterward, but she would need to do that anyway, since they know she is not Hannah.

Eve grew up in isolation, but met Hannah at age 5 and had to watch out the window as Hannah had a life. At age 8 Eve’s kidnapper died, allowing her to escape. From then on she lived in Hannah’s private playroom in the attic, and they would take turns playing Hannah to the rest of the world. It becomes clear that growing up in isolation to the age of 8, with only stories as playmates, has driven her a bit crazy, and so her connection to Hannah is her only real connection to the outside world. Even after she is free, she had casual flings with boys. Nothing is “real” to her. Not until Simon sees her for herself. Loves her for it.

Hannah on the other hand, gains a strong version of herself that she can use to her advantage. Go to school for her, take tests for her, get boys for her. But that advantage comes with a cost. Even as the quality of her life goes up, the quantity of it is halved. She grows to resent Eve.

Simon is a wedge between them. Hannah loves him dearly and doesn’t want to share. Eve doesn’t want to lose Hannah to Simon. For a while, things work out for Hannah, as the sisters split lives. Eve gets her tattoo and rents her own place (that Hannah stays at while the police search the house) but when Simon discovers Eve as a blonde musician, he falls in love all over again, not with Hannah, but with Eve. On their birthday, Hannah realizes that Simon has fallen for Eve, and ends up killing him in a rage. This is what drives Hannah over the edge, into the argument that results in his death.

Would it make sense for Simon to want to 'leave' Hannah for Eve, if they are the same physical person? Did he think she had lost her mind, and he was just 'rolling with it' in the extreme? Wouldn't it make more sense for him to confront his troubled wife about her double life in an effort to, at the very least, live with them 'both'?

If they really are twins, the alibi plan makes sense. If Eve was seen at the hospital then they have a real alibi. If they share a body then the whole thing was doomed. It seems more likely to me that they are twins, but we would need to see hospital records to know for sure. This seems to be a deliberate choice by the author to leave us guessing.

The really crazy thing is that there is way more to think about, and other mysteries hinted at, than what I've already outlined.

EDIT: Ohgodthisislongandhardtoproof