Through series self-reference, Sebastian's side quest at 345 Cedar Avenue cements his and the player's relationship. The game elides his and the player's memories by recreating parts of the first game, such as specific levels, its start screen sequence, and its cinematic letterbox presentation.

Sebastian returns to specific spaces from The Evil Within after he leaves the bathroom in 345 Cedar Avenue. The hallway takes him toward an open room with a wheelchair and an IV. This area comes from Chapter 4, appropriately titled "The Patient," almost exactly replicating its layout.

The space has a second meaning for the player. When we pressed Start at the title of The Evil Within, we worked through several menus before accessing the game itself. After each selection, the camera moved through rooms within Beacon. At the final menu, when the player selected a difficulty, the camera stopped at the foot of a wheelchair beside an IV stand. The game began when the camera rushed through double doors just beyond.

Our metanarrative thickens. The camera passed the wheelchair and double doors every time we returned to The Evil Within. Sebastian takes us to a literal space that he remembers, while also taking us through the start screen of The Evil Within. He is back; so are we.

The Evil Within 2 completes our initiation into the player/character relationship through another reference to the first game's design. The top and bottom of the screen squint with letterbox bars, re-creating The Evil Within's cinematic visual style, when Sebastian takes a photographic slide from the wheelchair. Screenshots from the first game buffet him, linking his memories of events with our memory of the game as a game.

Sebastian walks through the double doors into a room with layers of significance. The Evil Within introduced Laura here, and she appropriately claws Sebastian back to reality when he steps in the room's pool of blood. However, outside STEM, this is also the same room where Mobius's scientists prepped Sebastian for his wired connection. In a first-person cinematic, Sebastian faded in and out of consciousness as they parked him where his anesthetized Other slumps in a chair.

Sebastian steps through the starting screen of The Evil Within and into both its cinematic presentation and the space where he prepped for STEM. Parallel lines close and become a single run. Our roles are assigned. He is a character in a videogame, and we are his player.

Through this sequence, the game establishes a code for communicating to the player. When The Evil Within 2 refers to the first game's design, it communicates that Sebastian emotionally relives his trauma, fear, and dread. Our recognition of the first game signals his state of mind. The effect is reflexive, as well. The more Sebastian relives his fear, the more he becomes an unreliable narrator, presenting the sequel through memories of The Evil Within. Both player and character see the present through the lens of a traumatic past.

The metanarrative establishes a dysfunctional player/character relationship. Sebastian gives a slanted perspective of the world, pointing to the player's memories of The Evil Within. These memories then inform the player's responses to various threats, such as Anima and The Sadist, which re-inforce the bad habits that made him an unreliable narrator. Together, the player and Sebastian form a mind at odds with itself. Each guides and limits the other, forever asymmetrical as long as they bond through a traumatic past.