Dylan Faden Lore Explained: From Ordinary to Control Resonant

Dylan Faden (Prime Candidate 6) is the brother of Jesse Faden, trained by the FBC to become the Director before willingly allying with the Hiss. After being purged of the entity and falling into a coma, his massive parautilitarian powers and multiversal visions position him as a central figure in the upcoming Control sequel.

If you have spent any time diving into the Remedy Connected Universe, you know that the Bureau’s secrets run incredibly deep. This Dylan Faden lore guide covers a story that is far more than a simple sibling rescue mission.

Dylan is the emotional and thematic anchor of the entire FBC saga. His life represents the collateral damage of a government agency obsessed with cosmic power. Let’s break down his history, his dark choices, and his future.

Who is Dylan Faden and What Happened in Ordinary?

Dylan Faden is the younger brother of Jesse Faden, who was abducted by the Federal Bureau of Control (FBC) in 2002 following an Altered World Event (AWE) in his hometown of Ordinary, Maine. He spent his entire childhood being studied as a potential future Director.

Before the suits in hazmat gear showed up, Dylan was just a normal kid. He and his sister Jesse stumbled upon a Slide Projector Object of Power in the local town dump.

This projector changed everything. The siblings used it to open doors to other dimensions, discovering both beautiful and terrifying realities.

During these expeditions, they bonded with an extra-dimensional resonance entity they called Polaris. When a local entity known as the Not-Mother began changing the town’s children, Jesse and Dylan used the projector to stop it.

Unfortunately, the aftermath caught the attention of the FBC. Director Zachariah Trench and Dr. Casper Darling arrived to clean up the mess.

While Jesse managed to run away and hide, the FBC captured young Dylan. To the Bureau, he was a goldmine: a young child who was already a highly capable parautilitarian.

Prime Candidate 6: Dylan’s Life Inside the Oldest House

Designated as Prime Candidate 6 (P6), Dylan Faden was raised in isolation within the Oldest House to be groomed as Director Zachariah Trench’s successor. The FBC subjected him to intense psychological pressure and paranatural training, which eventually fractured his mind.

Dylan’s childhood was entirely manufactured. He lived in the heavily monitored Prime Candidate Training area, devoid of family, friends, or normal human contact.

The Bureau lied to him, telling him that Jesse had abandoned him or was dead. This psychological isolation was designed to make him dependent on the FBC, but it only bred quiet, volatile resentment.

The Comparison to Broderick Northmoor

Dr. Casper Darling’s logs reveal that Dylan’s raw parautilitarian potential was staggeringly high. In fact, his power levels were directly compared to Broderick Northmoor, the former FBC Director.

Northmoor’s abilities eventually grew so volatile and uncontrollable that he agreed — at Zachariah Trench’s urging — to be sealed alive inside the NSC Power Plant in the Maintenance Sector, where his contained heat energy powers the entire Oldest House to this day. The current unit is NSC-02, the second version — the original NSC-01 disappeared entirely due to Northmoor’s own abilities, which forced the Bureau to build a replacement with spatial anchors to prevent it happening again.

Dylan’s story in the sequel will likely focus on his fight to retain his humanity and avoid becoming another living battery.

The Accordion Incident

As Dylan entered adolescence, his powers became increasingly unstable. During a particularly stressful testing session, his frustration boiled over.

According to archived FBC documents, Dylan used his telekinetic abilities to literally fold an FBC researcher “like an accordion.”

This act of horrific violence proved to Director Trench that Dylan was too dangerous to control. He was stripped of his golden-boy status and locked away in a maximum-security cell in the Panopticon.

Did Dylan Faden Choose the Hiss of His Own Free Will?

Yes, Dylan Faden willingly aligned himself with the Hiss because he viewed the entity as his friend and a means to escape the FBC’s abusive imprisonment. Unlike other Bureau employees who were forcibly possessed, Dylan welcomed the Hiss’s corruption as an act of defiance against the Board and Director Trench.

The Hiss only had the chance to reach him because of why Trench released the Hiss in the first place — a decision that would trap the entire Bureau, Dylan included.

This is a detail that many casual players miss. Dylan was not just another mindless victim of the Hiss.

To Dylan, the Hiss was a savior. He hated the FBC, he hated the Board, and he hated the concept of the Service Weapon, which he saw as a leash.

When the Hiss invaded, Dylan saw an opportunity to tear down the walls of his prison. He willingly opened his mind to the resonance, keeping a large portion of his own identity intact.

During his conversations with Jesse in the Executive Sector, Dylan speaks with a chilling calm. He explains that the Hiss wanted to set everyone free.

He resented Jesse’s attempts to “cure” him. In his mind, Jesse was trying to put him back into the Bureau’s cage.

When Jesse eventually purged the Hiss from him at the end of the game, she didn’t just save him—she broke his connection to the only “friend” he felt he had left. This left Dylan in a deep, empty coma.

The Secret Cutscene and What Alan Wake 2 Set Up for Resonant

A highly obscure 100%-completion secret cutscene in Control reveals Dylan Faden’s cell in the Executive Sector projecting a vision of the New York skyline painted in red Hiss resonance, directly teasing the upcoming sequel. This secret, combined with references in Alan Wake 2, lays the foundation for Dylan’s next steps.

To trigger this secret vision in your own game, you have to work hard. The trigger is collecting all of Jesse’s outfits — once you have them all and return to Dylan post-game, an interactive prompt appears near his head. Some outfits require completing the DLCs and specific missions, so it’s a significant undertaking, but it’s not the full 100% checklist the community sometimes describes.

This suggests that the Hiss is not entirely gone, and neither is Dylan’s connection to it.

Dylan’s dreams also hint at broader connections across the Remedy Connected Universe. When describing his visions to Jesse, he mentions a world where an author wrote about a cop, and another world where that cop was real — a clear allusion to Alan Wake and his character Alex Casey. Many fans also connect Dylan’s description of a ‘dark man who stands between worlds’ to Mr. Door, the enigmatic host of ‘In Between with Mr. Door’ in Alan Wake 2, though the game stops short of making that link explicit.

Dylan’s ability to tune into different dimensions while unconscious positions him as a natural bridge between these realities — and likely one of the most important figures in the Remedy Connected Universe going forward.

Dylan Faden in Control Resonant: What We Know So Far

In the upcoming Control sequel (internally referred to as Control 2 / Resonant), Dylan Faden is projected to awaken from his coma as a powerful parautilitarian operative rather than a mindless Hiss thrall. He must navigate his fractured humanity, his connection to a new Object of Power known as the “Aberrant,” and his relationship with his sister Jesse.

We know that the sequel takes place seven years after the original game. Jesse is now the established Director, but she is stretched thin.

Dylan is expected to wake up, but he won’t be the same kid he was. He operates under the confirmed supervision of his FBC handler, Zoe De Vera — an agent who was outside the Oldest House during the lockdown, which gives their relationship a natural dynamic: Dylan learning about the outside world, her learning what happened inside. As an additional precaution given his volatile temperament, Dylan is fitted with a control failsafe device at the rear of his cranium — a detail that says everything about how the Bureau still views him: an asset to be deployed, not a person to be trusted.

Instead of wielding the Service Weapon, Dylan’s signature weapon is the Aberrant — a confirmed Object of Power that shapeshifts between forms including blades, hammer, scythe, and fists. This reflects the game’s biggest mechanical departure from Control: Resonant is melee-first, closer in feel to an action-RPG than the third-person shooter approach of the original. Players who go in expecting Jesse’s gunplay will find something deliberately different.

His main challenge will be internal. He will have to fight to keep his massive, Northmoor-level powers from consuming his mind and body.

While Jesse works to keep the FBC running from the inside, Dylan remains the ultimate outsider, struggling to find his place in a world that has only ever treated him as a weapon.

FAQ

Is Dylan Faden still infected by the Hiss?

Directly speaking, Jesse purged the main Hiss resonance from Dylan, but he remains in a deep coma. His mind is “empty,” meaning a dormant connection to the Hiss or other extra-dimensional frequencies could still exist within him.

Who is Dylan’s sister in Control?

Jesse Faden is Dylan’s older sister. She is the main protagonist of the first Control game and became the Director of the Federal Bureau of Control after purging the Hiss and claiming the Service Weapon.

What is the NSC-02 in the Oldest House?

The NSC-02 (Northmoor Sarcophagus Container) is a massive reactor that powers the Oldest House. It functions by containing the volatile, radioactive heat generated by the former FBC Director, Broderick Northmoor, who is kept alive inside.

Will Dylan Faden be playable in Control 2?

Yes. Dylan Faden is the confirmed playable protagonist of Control Resonant. Remedy has stated explicitly that Jesse is not playable in this entry — Resonant is entirely Dylan’s story.

Conclusion

To fully grasp the tragedy of the FBC, you have to understand Dylan Faden’s story. Dylan is a victim of both the paranatural forces of the universe and the cold bureaucracy of the FBC.

He represents the dangerous ceiling of parautilitarian power—a path that leads either to becoming a living reactor like Northmoor or a conduit for a hostile dimension.

As we look forward to Control 2, Dylan’s survival and redemption will likely decide the fate of the entire Oldest House.

What do you think? Will Dylan find peace, or is he destined to burn out like Northmoor? Let us know in the comments below, and don’t forget to check out our other Remedy Connected Universe guides!

References

Remedy Entertainment Official Website
Control Fandom Wiki – Dylan Faden Profile