No One Ever Left: A Theory

The House in Who Killed Markiplier is a character in and of itself– cursed, intelligent, outside the bounds of time and space. The laws of physics don’t apply. There is a dark presence there. But the most important details aren’t learned through the videos themselves; they’re told to us in the October 2017 charity livestream.

“Once you go in the House, it’s not your… inside the House is not really our world. In the House is very different than out of the House. You know what I mean? As if […] It’s like– if you stepped into someone’s mind– imagine that’s the same as you stepping inside this House. The Reality is what they think of, what it– not saying there’s something there that’s thinking that stuff, but that’s just the analogy. ” [Source]

Pair that with what we already know: if you die in the House, you don’t really die. You are sent to the same realm that you meet Damien and Celine in at the end of Who Killed Markiplier. Mark explains later in the same clip linked above that “every time [Actor] Mark died, he was sent to that same place”, just to make it abundantly clear that this experience applies to everyone there, not just you, Damien, and Celine.

In DAMIEN, we learn that Damien and Celine had been living in a sort of illusion– and since it was Celine’s effort to keep Damien alive, the natural conclusion is that this illusion occurs in that same otherworld, the one Mark visited each time he died, the one you visit when you die.

The House has the ability to create projections of completely different worlds, planes of existence, and lives, existing outside of time and space. It can alter your perceptions in every conceivable way. And if you aren’t keenly aware of the fact that you’re in that false reality (as in DAMIEN), you can be fooled into believing it’s real.

Here’s why this is so important, and why it ties together every single video in Mark’s extended universe :

You do not see a single one of the characters actually leave the House at the end of Who Killed Markiplier.

Yes, we do see characters leave at one point to talk to George the Groundskeeper, but all of them return. Here’s what we know at the very end of the last chapter:

We, the viewer, are trapped in the mirror.



Abe, the Detective, is still upstairs, having been shot by Will.

Will stumbles off down the hall.

Celine and Damien inhabit your body and create Dark– and yes, it seems like he storms off, but wait:

The door is behind him,

and that’s not where he goes.

It’s also worth noting that none of the minor characters are physically seen walking out the door, either. Sure, they tell us they’re leaving, but we have no idea whether or not they actually made it out.



“What about Actor Mark? And what does this mean for all the other videos? And who are you, the viewer/character?” You, the hypothetical reader, ask. Thanks for asking! All of that is explained under the "Keep Reading” line, because this post is already exceptionally long and I don’t want to get yelled at in the tag.

Hello! Welcome to the space under the Keep Reading line! Glad you’re still here, because there’s more.

This leaves one major player left unaccounted for: Mark. Where did he go? We know he stole Damien’s body, but the only reference we get to his physical location is Damien saying he’s “out there” in his body.

What does that mean? Where is “out there”?

DAMIEN gives us a good reason to believe it’s not outside of the House. It also gives us a reason to believe he never intends to leave the House.

“You don’t realize? This place is a dream. A never-ending starring role as a hero. And what is a hero without a villain?”

“There’s no ending for the likes of us. Not anymore.”



“In this place, I’m gonna make something beautiful.”

Every person still in the House has their own version of reality, existing in the same space, but occurring separately. These realities bleed into each other constantly, just like the Upside Down bleeds into the House in the final chapter of Who Killed Markiplier and allows the viewer character to appear in the room with the detective’s evidence.

Celine uses all of her energy to keep Damien away from these other realities.She keeps them both in a time loop in an isolated cabin, giving Damien a specific task to keep him busy, to keep him from thinking too much about why everything feels so familiar, why they are still snowed in and stuck in the cabin, why they’re there at all. They never leave the cabin at separate times. Celine goes out with a gun at night and leaves Damien to sleep. In this place, they should be entirely safe.

But, like she says, “I was too sloppy.”

A pink flower emerges. Damien hears conversation between Abe and Will in a neighboring reality. Trees wave at him. Glitches flash behind him when he isn’t looking. New things appear– the mirror, the frozen lake– and icy cracks creep up the window at night. Realities start to blur.

And, as was inevitable, Damien eventually falls through the cracks.

And now he suffers the same fate as everyone else: constantly bleeding into Mark’s reality, becoming a pawn in his show, his dream– where he has a never-ending starring role as a hero, and everyone else is molded to fit around him. It’s not what he originally planned when he set up the poker night, but in a way, it’s even better– after all, what could be better for an actor like Mark?

Let’s touch on the “separate realities that occur in the same space and bleed into each other” thing for a minute here. Each of the major characters have given us glimpses of the personal realities they primarily reside in.

Dark (formerly Damien and Celine), Will, @markiplier, Abe, and you, the District Attorney.

Yes, you. And which reality are you over?

The one you’re in right now, of course. Usually your reality only bleeds into another a little bit– just enough to be a casual observer– but sometimes, just like the other people in this place, your reality clashes violently with another. They blend together. You become an active participant in a place that’s not normally your own.

Sometimes, you’ll hop in Mark’s van and tag along with his friends for a while.

Once, on a particularly special occasion– one where multiple realities started to overlap at the same time– you went on a date.

There is something incredibly important that Mark has told us repeatedly: “In this universe, the viewer isn’t just a person, they’re a character. That can never be forgotten.” (Source)

His word choice is no accident, and I believe he’s trying to convey something more than just “we do videos with self-insert characters for the audience.”

The viewer is a specific character. YOU are a character. And in each and every video you have ever been in– A Date With Markiplier, Who Killed Markiplier, the van vlogs– you are the same person. You are always YOU.

I have mountains upon mountains of evidence for this. Screenshots, gifsets, sources. But this post is already quite long, and I’m not even sure how well it will be received, so I’ll hold onto all that for a bit and have you guys let me know if you actually want a part two.

Until then, I have some work to do and a government to plot a coup against. Take it easy out there, friends.