On Jan. 25, Mob Entertainment blessed us with the Poppy Playtime: Chapter 4 gameplay trailer (it’s about time, too), letting us all sigh in relief as the mystery about the main antagonist’s identity for this upcoming chapter is finally solved… or is it?
Weeks we have waited for the Poppy Playtime: Chapter 4 gameplay trailer (or months… for some people). Days I have spent refreshing “Mob Entertainment” on Google, impatiently waiting for the next color to appear on their X account. “What does it all mean?” I wondered to myself, rocking back and forth as I nosedived into the lore, watching countless videos over-analyzing every frame of the previous Chapter 4 trailers and ARG. The hat emoji arrived on Jan. 24 and I won’t lie to you—I got excited. But I saw through their marketing strategy and knew the trailer would hit our screens the following day.
And now it’s finally here. Poppy Playtime: Chapter 4’s gameplay trailer unveiled that mysterious hat-wearing “jester” we’ve all been waiting for. “He’s stretchy, he’s gummy, he’s squishy, he’s funny—D-O-E-Y.” I just have to say one thing to say to this new arrival: I feel gaslit already.
Let me explain.
Is Doey good?
The whole trailer feels like a trick, like Mob is toying with us. A spotlight is placed on The Doctor and the arrival of a “brand new ally.” We start the 2:16 video with a jingle about Doey the Doughman. Yes, he’s finally here. Made from Play-Doh, the description speaks of “a brand new ally,” pointing us to Doey as the new friendly face to rely on for this chapter, but should we really buy what Mob’s selling? Can we really trust a toy that can alter his clay body into any form? Yarnaby appears far bigger than in the action shots. Could the larger Yarnaby be Doey masquerading as him to fuel his narrative?
Doey’s first appearance was in the Chapter 4: Icepick ARG as a silhouette behind torn documents, with hastily written sprawls such as “nobody cares,” “I thought you cared,” and “Elliot Ludwig is a soft, pathetic, small back stabber.” These words, written by Harley Sawyer (The Doctor) offers a different side to Doey as he’s overlayed on this imagery. This use of the text could either mean Doey played a part in Sawyer becoming an experiment or we’re simply being played like a fool by this clay creature.
An unlikely alliance
It’s clear Doey is meant to be one of the good guys, but I can’t help feel like (as with every chapter) we’re not being shown the big picture. Descending into Playtime’s “Hell,” described by Poppy, the newest toys appear to be The Doctor’s underlings. But is The Doctor truly Harley Sawyer? While we assume he was transformed into an experiment, the dialogue lines in the trailer create more mystery and the most confusing thing of all: The Doctor and The Prototype are working together.
The Doctor’s voice sounds distorted, unnatural, and wrong in the gameplay trailer, as if it’s The Prototype is mimicking him. Physically, both The Prototype and Doctor have similar anatomy, being made almost entirely of metal (instead of flesh). This creates a deeper connection between these characters as they’re very different to other experiments.
And what about Olly’s name being missing from the trailer’s description of our allies? Will this chapter reveal that Ollie was an antagonist all along? So many questions and so few answers. I guess we’ll find out on Jan. 30 for Poppy Playtime: Chapter 4’s release, but there’s one thing I know to be true:
I’m starting to develop trust issues.
