I think I’ve just figured out BATIM’s ending. And this time, it’s no idle speculation. Hear me out.
You know how Joey invites Henry to his home after you defeat Bendy and finish Chapter 5, right? And then the story seems to start all over again.
That scene actually refers to how Henry entered the studio the first time. He visits Joey Drew’s apartment, learns about the fate of the real workers at the studio - Alice, Thomas Connor, Wally Franks and Joey himself - and goes to meet Joey thirty years after having quit the studio. We assume from Chapter 1 he got a letter from Joey when he was actually personally invited by Joey to visit his old workshop.
And then, as you play the game after having finished it once, you gain the magical lenses which allow you to see hidden messages, right? And this in turn made players and fans speculate that Henry was caught in an endless temporal loop.
There’s also a post-credits scene where a child asks “uncle Joey to tell them another story”.
Now comes my theory.
What is it that Henry sees in Joey corkboard? The REAL fate of Joey Drew Studio’s employees. Allison and Thomas didn’t become real life cartoons. They got married in real life. Wally didn’t mysteriously disappear or become a random Boris. He has his own life with his family. And Joey himself didn’t become Bendy. He is still alive and living on his own.
Henry ALSO sees sketches in Joey’s desk of the characters and (some) events we see in the game. We can infer from that Joey is creating a new story involving his old characters, from the original Joey Drew Studios, right? Only this time THE CHARACTERS ARE ALL TWISTED.
Now take that in consideration and think: did Henry really walk into a workshop the moment he left Joey Drew’s apartment? Was there really an Ink Machine and crazed ink people trying to attack him? Or ink demons chasing him around?
The answer is NO. There wasn’t. There never was.
The truth is, Joey INVENTED THAT STORY thirty years AFTER the studio was established and told that story to his niece (or nephew).
Now comes the question: if none of the game’s events was real, then what was Henry’s fate? Was he never really there? Then WHO WAS?
And the answer is: JOEY INVENTED A STORY WHERE HIS FORMER BUSINESS ASSOCIATE, HENRY STEIN, GOES BACK TO A HAUNTED STUDIO AND HAS TO BRING DOWN BENDY.
Thus, the Henry we control in the game ISN’T the REAL Henry Stein. Rather, it’s THE CHARACTER Joey created. Just as the Allison and Thomas we meet in the studio ARE NOT the real Allison and Thomas, the Henry that we control isn’t the real Henry.
And the proof is that, much like each of Joey’s employees wrote to Joey and allowed us to learn of their real fate, Henry ALSO leaves something to Joey: a drawing of Bendy, Boris and Alice going for a picnic, signed by him. That drawing means the real Henry is alive and well, living in the real world and not trapped in a workshop in a temporal loop.
So to sum it up:
1) The events in the game are all part of Joey Drew’s newly created story.
2) The story consists of a former employee that gets trapped in a time loop inside a haunted animation studio.
3) The Henry we control in the game is just a character based on the real Henry Stein.
4) None of the former workers from Joey Drew’s Studios became ink creatures. Bendy himself doesn’t exist. Neither does the studio we visit in the game.
And there you have it. As for the Ink Machine we see in the post-credits, it’s probably just something made out of cardboard. It doesn’t work in real life. It’s likely part of an attempt by Joey to earn money by launching a new story based on his old creations. This would fit with his personality, since he’s an ambitious man always after new ways to make money and become succesful.
PS: If you intend to make a video, tweet, audio recording or anything else based on my theory, then please mention my post and my blog when you do so. Give credit where credit is due.