Fallout 4 Universe Explained - Dear Detective What Happened? (Hannibal)

Just outside of diamond city there is a sewer, known as fens
street sewer line. Here holds the remnants of the career of a serial killer,
who appears to have taken shelter, away from the social pressures and ideals of
day to day life. The man, known only as the fens phantom, felt nothing towards
those around him, and found that the only outlet from the frustration and
boredom he experienced was his art. He has been busy...    

As you enter fens street sewer you immediately have an idea
of what you are in for. The area is     
strewn with skeletons set into theatrical positions, analogous to a tame
episode of Hannibal. With eager eyes you spot a tape recorder entitled ‘dear
detective’, play it? Well, just one listen.

You learn the killer who resided led a ‘detective’ to this
location so as to show off the ‘work’ he has been doing. Each ….exhibit holds a
piece of chalk and a certain number of crosses drawn in chalk nearby. Each
cross seems to denote the number of lives used to create the exhibit. There are
4 tapes down here, each one reveals more about the killer and what happened in
Fen street sewer after the arrival of the detective. After much exploration
though, the area holds no definitive answer as to what happened to the killer,
or the detective.

So what happened in Fen street sewer, and when? One can only
speculate…

Many clues have been left behind down here, one which stands
out is from the mouth of the killer himself: 
‘life up there is exhausting’. Hinting that perhaps the killer was
around before the war, in a time when society was a bit more rigid and what
people thought of each other meant a lot more. These skeletons could be very,
very old. Preserved in time as the new world was being born.

Conversely events down here could be very recent, the detective
in question could be Nick Valentine from Diamond city, very possible, given the
proximity of fen street sewer to diamond city.  

The more pressing question is of the current location of the
detective and killer, this arises because neither seem to be down here. Upon
finding the killers last tape, it is revealed that the detective and the
Phantom have ‘hurt’ each other. Given the Phantom’s tone of voice and amusement
it seems unlikely he has received any kind of mortal wound, the detective
however seems a lot less fortunate. 

The Phantom‘s laughs imply heavily he has the detective trapped, this is supported by the caged
area the final tape is found in. Perhaps the phantom is sharing a monologue
with the detective’s dead body. Either way it implies a definitive end to the detective.
As for what the phantom did with the detective, well, what better way to get to
know someone than to turn them into art.

Left behind in the room with the 4^th tape is a
pool of blood, most likely arising from the confrontation between the detective
and the Phantom. If this is the case it is unlikely the events being described
here are pre-war. Evidently it is also unlikely that the detective was Nick
Valentine, who is very much alive. It could be argued that he was killed then
revived as the synth he is now, but Nick Valentine had his memories taken from
pre-war times, suggesting his human self died long before these events.

So if made into art, where is the detective? Fens phantom
admitted to being obsessed with the detective, he wanted to know the detective
intimately. Is it possible the detective was made into his final, most intimate
exhibition? Hidden away in the fen street sewer is a mattress with the remains
of a man gently cradling a woman. The gender of the detective was never
disclosed, the Phantom starred in his final piece with the female detective,
the only way he could truly express himself to another human, killed with the
machete that lies beside them. Many of the clues left lead to this outcome. But
there is another possibility…

The phantom was always a recluse, he remained hidden for
years in the sewers of Fen street. Emerging only to gather the supplies for his
exhibits. Here, below ground the sewers held radioactive barrels and large
pools of unclean water, here he began to accumulate large amounts of radiation
and slowly loose his mind. All that kept him going was leaving a show for the
detective, someone to interact and bond with. To understand him, to a certain
degree. The detective that existed only in his radiation soaked mind. He
created tapes for the detective, then, over time he absorbed so much radiation
he became a ghoul, then, finally, the great glowing one, found in the room
where the detective meets his end. Perhaps it wasn’t quite the detective who
met his end here.

Thank you so much for watching friends, if you enjoyed
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Good night. And keep enjoying fallout 4!