Yes, Ahti is in Control Resonant, but you won’t find the Janitor casually wandering around the Oldest House or Manhattan. He appears during the retro flashback mission, which is about Dylan’s memories of Ordinary and the Prime Candidate Program. And that’s not the last sign of him. When you finish the campaign and reach the Epilogue, you can return to Dylan’s apartment and find a “Season’s Greetings” postcard from Ahti on one of the shelves.
So where exactly does Ahti appear in Control Resonant? What does he mean when he tells Dylan he has been here before? Is he talking to past Dylan or present-day Dylan? Does that Cauldron Lake postcard tell us where the Janitor has been? Let’s find out.
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Where Is Ahti the Janitor in Control Resonant?
Ahti appears during Rebuild, the 11th main mission in Control Resonant’s Contain the Crisis questline. However, his appearance is very different from the original Control, where Jesse encounters Ahti several times throughout the game. This time around, Ahti appears during an unusual 8-bit-style sequence about Dylan’s memories of Ordinary and the Prime Candidate Program.
If you’re wondering how the two games fit together, I’ve also explained how Control Resonant connects to the original Control and why it’s a direct sequel.
So, bad news: you can’t run around the Oldest House or Manhattan and see the Janitor. But the good news is, that’s not all. Once you’ve finished the game, you get access to Dylan’s apartment during the Epilogue. Go ahead and pick up a postcard called “Season’s Greetings” from one of the shelves. Here, Ahti greets you from his vacation.
This is interesting because Remedy gave conflicting hints before launch. Makkonen flat-out told Feed4Gamers that Ahti wasn’t in Control Resonant. He even said Ahti wasn’t referenced in the game, which we now know isn’t true.
On launch day, however, Yle asked Creative Director Mikael Kasurinen whether familiar Finnish faces such as Ahti would appear in the game, to which he replied, “We’ll see… sort of.”
What Does Ahti Mean When He Says Dylan Has Been Here Before?
So, the question that got a lot of fans talking is what does Ahti the Janitor mean when he says Dylan has been here before? In your interactions during the Rebuild mission, Ahti says to Dylan, “There you are. Do you want the job or not?” Dylan gets confused when Ahti asks him that because he seems like he doesn’t even know the Janitor. Ahti later says, “What you leave behind, you find in front of you.”
My interpretation is that Ahti isn’t simply speaking to the Dylan who existed in that time frame in the past. Instead, he may be addressing present-day Dylan while Dylan is experiencing the memories of his younger self.
That is supported by what happens later when present Dylan creates “The Gap” slide and uses the projector from the past, which suggests that he isn’t just replaying old memories but is also actively interacting with them.
This makes sense, in my opinion, especially since Kasurinen has said that the studio deliberately doesn’t explain everything. They enjoy watching players develop theories around unexplained events, which I think makes it more engaging.
Is Ahti Talking to Past or Present Dylan?
Again, there’s no confirmed official answer for this, but the most likely answer is present-day. Let’s look at it this way. What we’re seeing is Dylan’s past memory, but Dylan’s actively experiencing and affecting it like he’s living it.
Ahti the Janitor therefore recognizes and addresses the present-day Dylan through that memory instead of just talking to the child Dylan who originally experienced the event. Then again, the game leaves enough ambiguity that we can’t say for sure what’s confirmed canon and what isn’t.
What Remedy has confirmed about Resonant more generally is that Dylan’s past is integral to his story in the game. Remedy describes the sequel as digging further into the Faden siblings’ complicated history. In the sequel Dylan confronts who he’s become after years of captivity and his time under the Hiss.
Is Ahti at Cauldron Lake During Control Resonant?
Ahti’s whereabouts in Control Resonant remain unknown. That doesn’t mean we don’t have any clues about where he might be. Once you’re done with the campaign, you can freely roam Dylan’s apartment during the Epilogue.
Go ahead and pick up a postcard from one of the shelves that’s called “Season’s Greetings.” Take a look at the location written on the postcard: Cauldron Lake, Washington.
To top it all off, Makkonen had also said before release that Ahti was “probably in Cauldron Lake.” How crazy is that?
What Does Ahti’s Appearance Mean for Dylan?
We don’t fully know it yet, but we can do the next best thing: we can interpret and piece together clues. So, if my present-day interpretation turns out to be true, then Ahti realizes that Dylan isn’t merely reliving his past. On the contrary, he is actually moving through those memories in the present. So, when you go back and listen again to what he says to Dylan, it’s like hearing something new.
At the end of the day, this begs the question: how the hell is Ahti the Janitor able to perceive Dylan like this? I can’t say for sure because I have no idea. We just have to interpret, just like how Remedy leaves some questions unanswered so that fans can discuss and interpret and I guess that’s what makes Remedy games so engaging in terms of storytelling.
CONTROL Resonant
