One of the most intriguing scenes at the end of Backrooms occurs when Mary is finally rescued by ASYNC employees. After managing to escape Captain Clark through the Complex, she is extracted from the Backrooms, allowed to shower and change, then led into an interrogation room to give her testimony.
It is at this moment that she meets Phill, an ASYNC scientist tasked with collecting her memories of the events. During their interview, he first shows her a photograph of Clark's store, before presenting a second image on which Clark and the Captain appear. Yet one detail immediately catches the eye : the entity is entirely covered by an immense black rectangle.
Why hide something she has already seen?
At first glance, this decision seems completely illogical. After all, Mary has literally just spent several hours fleeing Captain Clark through the Backrooms. Why would ASYNC try to hide the appearance of a creature she already knows?
The most likely answer is that ASYNC is not actually trying to conceal the Captain's identity from Mary. On the contrary, the organization seems perfectly aware that she has already seen him.
A measure intended to prevent Mary from remembering?
The most coherent explanation rests on how the Backrooms themselves function. Throughout the film, several clues suggest that the Complex uses human memories to develop, transform, and create new structures or entities.
If this hypothesis is correct, then preventing Mary from seeing the Captain's image again could constitute a security measure intended to weaken or limit the influence her memories could still exert on the Backrooms.
This theory takes on an even more unsettling dimension when we observe the very end of the film.
The end of the film could confirm this hypothesis
The final sequence indeed suggests that the Backrooms are capable of reproducing places, objects, and potentially even individuals from the memories of those who enter them. Some fans even suggest that ASYNC may have, voluntarily or not, sent Mary back inside a recreated version of the Complex.
If this interpretation is correct, then preventing Mary from retaining a precise memory of Captain Clark would become an absolute priority. The more she forgot certain details about the entity, the less likely the Backrooms would be to exploit or reproduce them.
No official confirmation has yet been provided regarding this scene. But if this theory proves accurate, then this large black rectangle would not serve to hide the Captain from Mary. It would instead serve to protect everything that still remains inside the Backrooms.
