You may remember Petscop, the YouTube video series about a creepy unfinished video game. The series was decently popular, with no episode having less than 100,000 views. So maybe you’re like me and thought “Hey, I wonder what’s going on with Petscop?” The answer, as it turns out, is that the series just kind of suddenly stopped one day. The narrative didn’t reach any sort of conclusion. So join me in a quick catch-up on the unfinished series.

Even though the series didn’t finish, it did go through some fairly significant changes on its way toward an ending. The most immediately apparent of these is the black boxes. There are a few things which, as the story progresses, the narrator apparently decided that there were a few things in the game that he wanted to censor before sharing them with the viewer. A brief note in the video explains that “Right now we can’t say why” they decided to hide these objects. Whatever these boxes are, they are clearly meant to be important to the larger narrative of Petscop the video channel and its exploration of Petscop the game. There are allusions to other objects which will be censored, but they don’t all actually appear in the videos that were uploaded.

The other big change was a further elaboration on the suggestion that there might be something supernatural going on within the game itself. This really comes forward when it is shown that the movements of the shadowy other figure are actually movements made by the player later on. So somehow the game knows the inputs that the player will make before they actually happen.

There were also some incredibly vague answers. A little snippet of text found in one room emphasizes the vanishing windmill and implies that it is somehow connected with the idea of rebirth. However, even this revelation is not straightforward. The notion of rebirth as presented in this scenario much more closely resembles reincarnation than it does the rebirthing therapy which the game previously seemed intent on making a statement about. However, even with that change, the themes of adoption and abandonment is still definitely present in the game as seen in the text when Paul (the main character) finally “catches” the girl Care.

So that’s that. Petscop has sat for two months now without further updates. In all likelihood we will never get a proper end to the series. However, maybe that’s okay. After all, where would the fun be in a finished series about an unfinished game? More importantly, the supernatural elements that are hinted at threaten to overshadow the creepy yet very serious thematic elements. If you’ve watched Petscop, you’ve probably seen the Ben Drowned videos, which quickly jumped the shark and just kept going. Maybe one day we will get an end to Petscop, but ultimately it’s not really necessary. What we have is a creepy video series with a lot to say, all wrapped up in an amazingly crafted fake video game.