Little Nightmares 2 Ending Explained (SPOILERS: Why Did Six Betray Mono?) (2024)

The ending of Little Nightmares 2 is one of the most widely discussed things in the horror gaming community right now. It deserves the discussion too, due to the fact that there is no dialogue and no explicit explanation for anything except what plays out before us. Our beloved Six drops our beloved Mono to his doom, ultimately forming him into the Thin Man.

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This leaves players searching for the answers to questions that don't have perfect answers. And yet, here we are, with our interpretation of the ending. Everything has an explanation, and here's ours.

9 Why Little Nightmares 2 Is A Prequel

There is evidence in the game to support the sequel theory (looking at a lot of the easter eggs and secrets), but the ending seems to confirm that this is indeed a prequel to the original. Six gets her signature yellow raincoat, photographs of the Maw can be found, and Six's hunger finally appears after emerging from the television. There's just too much here to explain if this game were a sequel, so perhaps the easiest answer is the correct one in this scenario.

8 Why Six Is Not A Villain

Six's ultimate betrayal of Mono at the end earns her a lot of criticism from players but calling her a villain is unfair. Six is a child in a world out to kill her, and her survival instinct beats all else. She finds a partner to help her survive, but ultimately, he ends up slowing her down. She has survived on her own until meeting Mono, and she can do so again.

She gets caught twice at the fault of her partnership with Mono: once by the Thin Man when Mono leaves her out in the open while he hides under the bed, once by getting pinned beneath rubble while Mono escapes the damage. She is a scared, twisted child whose only desire is to survive, and while that may blur her morals, that does not inherently make her a villain.

7 Why The Broadcast Is Crumbling

The illusion of the television dimension is falling apart. When The Thin Man takes Six, the dimension is twisted but stable. The Thin Man is in control. It's not until Mono shatters Six's illusion with the music box that things turn goopy. Physically goopy.

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The technological façade has revealed the fleshy human inner workings of such an otherwise sterile environment, representing the way that the Thin Man's control and inner coldness is falling apart. As we see, this is the moment where Mono is doomed to be betrayed by Six and ultimately restart this process over and over again. And of course, there's just a fleshy humanoid monstrosity beneath it all.

6 The Significance Of The Music Box

Mono first meets Six in the cabin, clinging to a music box for comfort in an otherwise comfortless world. Mono takes her away from this small comfort in an attempt to escape, but when Six is taken into the television, her warped version is intensely protective of the music box. It is her comfort song, so much so that it is present in the original Little Nightmares. Mono's destroying of the music box in the television dimension is necessary to snap Six out of the trance, but he also is physically destroying the one thing in her world that brings her comfort. This helps explain Six's change in attitude after the monster Six encounter.

5 What Dark Six Means

In the secret ending cutscene, Six comes face-to-face with a glitched version of herself. There's a clear divide between the Six that emerges from the television and this shadow version that follows her, leaving physical Six resigned to the horrors she has (and will in the future) witness and inflicted with a chronic hunger that she can't quell. Both of these things only exist now that Six is separated from this part of herself, left with a hole in her that she will never be able to fill, no matter how many rats and nomes she eats or how much power she consumes.

4 How Mono Becomes The Thin Man

Mono is destined to be alone. It's in the name: Mono, meaning one, or alone. However, it's clear that Mono's one fear is to be alone and finds a long-desired companionship in Six. He holds her hand and always comes back for her when they end up separated. And yet, after Mono falls, he faces that one fear in a dark, desolate place with nothing but his own bitterness brewing.

He grows, contorted by the view of the All-Seeing Eye that plagues the land, and his loneliness becomes his only companion. He begins to use his television abilities to drag companions back into his dimension, ultimately leading him back to Six--the friend he once had that left him.

3 Themes Of Loneliness, Betrayal, And Survival

Survival is not a group business in this world. Mono and Six are on their own until they find each other, but even then, it doesn't offer a lot of comfort or benefits for them. The pair try their best, solving puzzles together and escaping baddies, but ultimately, they can't survive if they keep their team. Ultimately, everyone ends up alone in this world, whether it's by choice or by force. There are only two choices: embrace it and continue, or let it infect you. Both options don't end well...after all, just look at our characters. There's no happy ending for anyone, and since this game might be the last installment, there likely won't ever be.

2 Why The Thin Man Is Hunting Mono

With the ending reveal that Mono and the Thin Man are the same person, the question of why the Thin Man is hunting Mono comes up. However, The Thin Man isn't hunting Mono--but instead, hunting Six. When The Thin Man snags Six in that bedroom, he knows that Mono is still there.

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He never once reaches out to hurt Mono when Six is an option. When he does reach out for Mono, it's only menacing because we assume that he is an enemy (look at the hand, it's not grabby...it's kind of gentle). The Thin Man remembers Six as his companion, and perhaps after being betrayed, he wants to drag that companion back into a place where she can never leave him again.

1 Why Six Dropped Mono

Six is a survivalist afraid of being bogged down by commitments to others. If you've played Very Little Nightmares, you know that Six had another friend once who was killed in front of her despite Six's best efforts to save her (the original owner of the yellow raincoat). She remembers that and dealing with that trauma led her to cling to the music box and ultimately abandon those who she knows she can't help or can't help her.

She was betrayed (in her eyes) by Mono when she's captured by the Thin Man, so when she's holding Mono's hand and can see his face as the face that captured her, she knows that he can't help her. He turns into someone who hurts her, who tries to capture her. She drops him to save herself, as she's proven that self-preservation is her highest priority.

NEXT: Little Nightmares 2 Review: Won't Somebody Please Think Of The Children?!