Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture Characters and Chapter Endings Explained (Spoilers)

Father Jeremy

Father Jeremy is the first light to lead you in Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture as he takes you through the village of Yaughton. His memories are unique in that they focus mainly on the suffering of others. He is a priest, a leader in his community, and he feels that it is his duty to assist those who are scared and confused with the events that have covered the town in blood and loss.

Father Jeremy is also a man with a troubled past. Playing through his “chapter” shows a sort of defiance and ridicule towards him from his parishioners who refuse to let him live down a decision he made for a dear friend. Mary Appleton was a sick woman who was suffering, and he helped her to pass on. He, a man of the cloth, assisted a woman he cared deeply for in her death. He was judged harshly but he still pushed on to help everyone in their time of need.

His guidance provides peace and a soothing (yet false) hope to those around him as he survives while they all vanish. One of his best traits throughout this guidance of his people, his family, his friends, is that he doesn’t ever push religion on them. He approaches them in a very human way, recognizing and understanding the faults that people carry. Humanity being one of the biggest elements of Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, it is good to see that touch those whom many would expect to stand over others.

His end is one of grief but eventually acceptance. Being the last survivor in Yaughton meant Father Jeremy had to deal with each and every one of his parishioners suffer and eventually vanish. Naturally this left him mad with the god he swore to serve. In his moment of weakness and despair, he finally sees the light in all of this as he, too, vanishes from the very church he served.

Wendy Appleton

Wendy Appleton is the mother of Stephen Appleton, one of the main characters in Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture. She is a kind woman, although that is often hard to tell due to her stern, outspoken persona. The time spent with her grants insight into how she views her family and her town. Being the only person bold enough to say whatever she is thinking to absolutely anyone, including father Jeremy, she is both respected and sort of feared.

Very few people exhibit even a modicum of attitude towards this woman. In fact, the only two in the game are her own son and Meg who runs a supply store. It’s from these two that you get a glimpse of Wendy’s controlling nature. But she isn’t all bad. She tries to control because she cares deeply for her family and friends, even if that does make her seem like a horrible person at times.

She abhors Kate, Stephen’s wife, and she is never unwilling to share her sentiment. During one scene, her friend assumes it is because Kate isn’t white, but Wendy is quick to point out that it has nothing to do with the woman’s color but rather what she stands for. She is an American and she is bringing all of this science to her small town. This is something Wendy is not alone on, with most individuals in the town ostracizing her son’s wife for one reason or another. There are even flyers hung about town condemning the expansion of the observatory that she works at.

But, in the end, all Wendy wanted was for her son to be happy. Whether that be with his wife, something she is finally willing to accept, or with his mistress. Just as long as he does what is right, then she can be at peace. She meets her end as she calls for her son, the one she’s pushed away.

Frank Appleton

Frank Appleton is an interesting man. Hard working, stern, family-focused (as long as he doesn’t have to include his sister Wendy), and an all-around good person. He is well-known in his town, and is part of the Appleton family which apparently carries some weight in his parts. Like his sister, he is unafraid of speaking his mind throughout your interactions with him in Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture.

He is alone. It was his wife whose passing Father Jeremy assisted with, and he misses her dearly. He is a tough man, but one who is fair and caring (again, as long as it has nothing to do with his sister). It was never really clear why he and his sister don’t get along, but throughout the game you’ll hear it said to him, Wendy, and even brought up to Father Jeremy. A falling out left them distant, but the end of the world seems to change things for some.

If you’ve noticed a pattern here, every character had something to overcome. For Frank it was anger, and the anger wasn’t toward his sister. He was angry at himself. The man who people saw as strong and respectable became a coward when Mary was dying because he couldn’t face it, he couldn’t face her. He took that out on others so he didn’t have to look inward.

In the end he understands, after there is nobody else to blame he finally sees himself and the light. And as the bombs fall from the sky, he finds peace, and Mary.

Lizzie Graves

If you let Lizzie Graves describe herself to you, she’d probably call herself a cripple stuck in this forsaken town. Married to a drunkard who she loves but can’t deal with anymore, and caught up in an affair with Stephen Appleton, whom she was once engaged to, she is a woman caught between two worlds. She also possesses the most unique light in the game, but we’ll get to that.

But, like everyone else in Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, she isn’t inherently bad. Yes, she is bedding the husband of another woman, while she herself is married, but she genuinely loves him, and has always loved him. She lost him when he left to study in the States, but their flame was rekindled shortly after his return. Even as a self-professed cripple with nowhere to go, she built a good life for herself and runs the Lakeside Holiday Camp. This camp ends up being a focal point for Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture since Lizzie plays a similar role to that of Father Jeremy.

She collects and protects the children at her camp, putting on shows and providing fun to keep their minds off of their disappearing parents or the strange “sickness” plaguing the valley. But, she isn’t above deserting everyone in the name of love. She makes plans to leave everyone to their doom as she escapes to somewhere new with Stephen. At least, that was her initial intention.

She leaves the children and her employees to a night filled with entertainment and togetherness as she leaves. Not to be with the man she loves, but to live a life free from excuses. She is ready to make choices and live with them. She is with child, the small light that follows her larger light is one borne of love. She is ready to make a life with that child even if it means setting off alone, and so she heads to the train station. Before she sets out she calls Stephen one last time to inform him of her decision, that she loves him, and that she must do this for herself even if he has no plans of joining her.

It is there, in that train station, that she hears the planes overhead, the last sound she would ever hear.

Stephen Appleton

Stephen Appleton is one of the very first characters you meet in Everybody’s gone to the Rapture. Selfish, stubborn, but also highly intelligent, it is increasingly difficult to like this man at the onset of the game. He uses and manipulates whoever he has to in order to do what he feels is necessary. It was Stephen who discovered the pattern and understood the events of what happened that fateful night along with his wife Kate. But he and his wife see this new discovery very differently.

At first there is an explosion, one that marks Stephen and Kate with the butterfly-like symbol seen throughout Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture. The interesting thing is that he and Kate react differently to the light than other people do. As everyone else succumbs to profuse bleeding and suffering before vanishing, Stephen and his wife just look on and try to fight and understand it.

Stephen wants to stop it. Once it starts causing bleeding in everyone and the mysterious disappearances, he sees it as a threat. He calls for quarantine and tries to enforce the no-phone rule within the valley. But, he eventually discovers that the light, whatever it may be, has the ability to adapt, to reach people through limitless means and he grows afraid. Stephen has made many mistakes in his life but he doesn’t want to see the people of this world suffer. So he calls for an airstrike. His solution is to wipe out anyone who may be a carrier of this liquid light that he sees invading everything.

He becomes a man willing to sacrifice everything. His love, his marriage, his very life, all so that others may live. He believes to have figured it all out and will not let others suffer for his mishap. After trying to convince his wife to shut everything down, he decides there is no other way than to follow through with wiping everyone out.

Unfortunately he fails to fully understand the light. It cannot be controlled, it cannot be contained, it cannot be killed. He sits and waits in a dark bunker, away from all life. When the light comes to him, he hopes to greet it with death. He has gasoline poured all around him and a lighter in his hand. But right before he drops that lighter, he sees something. He sees his wife within the light and at that very moment finally understands.

His wife was right. The light isn’t an enemy although it has taken everything he loves. As he is enveloped by the flames, and the light, he finds peace.

Kate Collins

Kate Collins is at the epicenter of the events of Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture. She is present when the light first makes itself known, and she spends the rest of her time trying to reach an understanding. Before coming to this valley, she lived in the States where she met Stephen. He fell in love with her intellect immediately and throughout the game you can hear him telling everyone how much better she is than they are.

But many feel she doesn’t belong. Her science is a stain on the valley. At least that’s what Wendy believes. She is alone here, so she pours herself into her work. Her husband believes her to be a fool as he goes around gallivanting with Lizzie, her mother-in-law hates her, and people are starting to believe she is the reason for all of the events happening in the valley.

So, she sits in the observatory studying. As other forces work to snuff the light out, she sits and finds understanding. She speaks to the light, explains to it what it is doing, the hurt it is causing. In response, the light shows Kate images. She can see everyone finding happiness because that is what the light does. It puts you back where you belong. Something she never understood since she never felt like she belonged anywhere.

Yet she is not alone, nobody in Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture is alone. She finds her pair, and it is the very light that she’s been trying to understand. She becomes one with it, accepting its warm, illuminating embrace as she embarks on something new. This is what Stephen sees right before his end. He sees Kate, and she is glowing, she was right all along, and she has made peace.