Laura Bow 2: Curiosities

WARNING: Spoilers!

If you have played Laura Bow 2, you may have noticed some strange and interesting things that really do not have much to do with the main plot. We definitely have noticed some and decided to post them here. We would love your comments, remarks, or even neat stories concerning these curiosities.

Is the music heard whenever Laura finds a dead body from the movie “Psycho”?

How exactly does Laura carry all the stuff in her tiny purse, including that large dinosaur bone? — Susan (4-25-1999)

If you talk to the three boys burning ants outside Lo Fat’s Laundry, Laura will remark that it is a “beautiful day without a cloud in the sky.” However, it is quite obvious there are several clouds hovering above the building in the background! — Mako Thunderbird (12-24-2001)

When the drunken main outside the police station leaves his newspaper behind, should that newspaper not have blown away? Maybe the coupon inside makes it heavier? — Bones (12-24-2002)

• Perhaps that during the moment from when the drunken man left and Laura found the newspaper, there was little or no wind blowing. — Templeton (12-24-2001)

What exactly happened to the former president of the museum, Sterling Waldorf-Carlton? We know he met the countess, and after a month they got married. Two months later he died. The countess mentioned at the party something “wrong” about his will. Now, after reading his diary and asking the countess (at 1:00 AM) and Yvette about it (she suddenly “doesn’t speak English very well”), knowing Yvette’s questionable reputation, she might had an affair with Sterling. Anyway, neither of them lived long enough to inherit his fortune. But do you think he died of “unnatural reasons”?

Was there a connection between the forgery scheme of Watney Little, the Countess and Ziggy, and the scheme of stealing the dagger of Watney Little and Detective O’Riley? Watney Little is the link. Steve told Laura that the countess waited for “Dr. Carrington” when he got down from the ship. What did O’Riley know about the others?

• Perhaps, the Countess hired Watney to kill Carrington and had Watney impersonate him to steal paintings with ease. The Countess hired Ziggy to provide forged paintings (from his sources). “Dr. Carrington” could easily replace the originals with these forgeries. While Ziggy was in this deal with the Countess, wanting to make more money and being the stooly that he is, he went and sold the information about the forgery scheme (including info about the fake Carrington) to the cops … namely O’Riley. Well, being the fed-up, over-worked, under-paid cop that he is, O’Riley decided that he would be better off to keep this information to himself and use it for his own best interests. So, unknown to the Countess and Ziggy, O’Riley hired “Dr. Carrington” to steal the dagger for him! What a scheme! — Audra (8-21-1999)

What exactly were the “fencing jobs” that Ernie did? According to Yvette, Ernie owed a lot of money to some loan shark named “The Icepick,” so he was forced to commit crimes (stealing the museum valuables, perhaps) in order to get money. But who was the Icepick? And who was “Big Al” that was mentioned in the carbon paper? Do you think O’Riley has anything to do with that mystery?

• I think “Big Al” could be Al Capone. If you look at the notices in the police station, there is a warning that the police is on the lookout after Al Capone. — Susan (5-1-1999)
• In Act 6, when the coroner asks you who the employee that did fencing was and you tell him it was Ernie, he will say something like, “Yes, Ernie Leach was moonlighting as a fence installer. In fact, he put up a nice fence around my house.” So Ernie might not have been a criminal or anything. — Domen (5-16-1999)
• Response to Domen’s comment: What the coroner said was probably merely a pun. Ernie was definitely doing illegal stuff — after all, why would he have to keep it as secret, if it was innocent occupation like installing fences? Fencing in Ernie’s case most likely has its slang meaning of trading in stolen goods. — Templeton (1-3-2002)

Look at the mummies in the secret room after you take the elevator down. One of them is named PU, and the cute teddy bear is PU II. Why? If you talked to the boys in front of Lo Fat’s Laundry, Stinky’s real name is Paul Untermeyer. His friends call him Stinky because his initials are P.U. Wonder if that has any connection with the mummy and bear? — Kimmie (4-17-1999)

• The initials PU may be a reference to Winnie the Pooh. — Susan (2-12-2000)

Lo Fat says that he has a really good memory and knows a lot of people. However, when Laura asks him about Ziggy, he has no clue. Ironically, Laura asks Ziggy about Lo Fat, and Ziggy says the he is the guy who does his laundry?! — Kimmie (4-17-1999)

When Laura asked Ziggy about Yvette Delacroix at the speakeasy, he had no clue. At the museum party, later that night, Ziggy tells Yvette that he can spot her body anywhere! At the party, Yvette tells Ziggy she doesn’t know him. But when she and O’Riley are shouting one at each other, she says, “Ze Ziggy, I know him a long time. He would not lie to me.” Mental relapse earlier perhaps? — Kimmie (4-17-1999)

When Laura asks Lo Fat about Pippin Carter, he responds that his little girl reads Pippi Longstocking. Well, it could be possible game was not set in 1926 because Pippi Longstocking was not created until the mid 1940s! — Tommie (12-24-2001)

At the speakeasy, there is a piano player onstage who is constantly playing. The strange thing is that none of the musical selections heard in the speakeasy include a piano! Only clarinets, banjos, trombones, tubas, basses, and trumpets. Maybe the piano player has a magical piano? Not unlike Neville of Freddy Pharkas, Frontier Pharmacist! — Dr. Hugh (7-25-2000)

If you ask the desk sergeant in the police station about Dr. Olympia Myklos, he tells Laura some characteristics of Dr. Myklos, but then says that he has never heard of her?! — Haley (7-25-2000)

• When Laura asks the desk sergeant about Dr. Myklos, he says, “Dr. Myklos? You mean, Dr. Olympia Myklos? Greek woman? Dark hair?” First of all, Myklos is clearly a Greek name, and most Greek people have dark hair, so the sergeant does not know her. He was probably just fooling around with Laura! — Gloria (7-25-2000)

Why does the flapper at the speakeasy want to meet with the Countess? — Kimmie (4-17-1999)

• The Countess probably ran into the flapper on one of her visits to the Speakeasy to meet with Ziggy and discuss the forgery scheme. By how the flapper was flirting with Laura, she is obviously enjoys getting physically close and personal with members of the same gender. Therefore, maybe she was hoping to get a little *ahem* “swing action” with the Countess. It is even conceivable that the Countess swings both ways as well and had “visited” the flapper in private before. — Zanfardino (2-16-2003)

If Laura enters her press pass into the slot in the speakeasy door, someone (Ziggy?) takes it and says: “A press pass? I’ll keep it for you! Now, get lost! We don’t want your kind around here!” Immediately after that, someone attacks Laura and stabs her. Now, how could the two actions best coordinated? Do you think someone inside the speakeasy sent the murderer to kill Laura because he did not want her snooping around?

Dr. Tut Smith and Rameses Najeer are both Egyptians. Why does Rameses have a foreign accent, th instead of s, but Dr. Smith does not?

Drive to the museum in Act 1. Look at the dome over the museum rotunda. You will get a message telling you that the dome shape reminds you of something, but you can’t put your finger on it. Now, if you click your finger on the dome, you will get the rest of the funny message “You can’t quite put your finger on it” (literally…). Now, what could that dome shape remind Laura of? — Susan (4-26-1999)

• I think it resembles the gazebo in Laura Bow 1. — Susan (4-26-1999)

If you ask Rameses Najeer at the banquet party about Dr. Carter, he says he knew Carter. However, if you ask Dr. Carter about Rameses Najeer, he said he did not know the guy. What?! — Haley (7-25-2000)

• Dr. Carter became well-known about his archeological expeditions, so Rameses probably learned about him from the news media. Dr. Carter, on the other hand, is quite snobbish and self-centered. He probably would not take the time to become well acquainted with Egyptian museum employees, like Rameses. Carter seems to despise Egyptians. — Templeton (8-1-2000)

If you look at the ceiling in the Pterodactyl room, before and after the murder of Ziggy, you will get a message about metal catwalk. Now, if you try to touch the Pterodactyl when it is still hanging, it is too high to touch.So how could O’Riley cut the wires? — Susan (5-8-1999)

If the museum banquet was an invitation-only event, how did Steve get in? — Kramer (7-26-2000)

• Remember that Steve did not show up at the party until later, so maybe by that time, Wolf Heimlich figured everyone on the list had arrived, to he stopped watching the door, and Steve was able to get in. Unless he climbed through the window. — Susan (7-26-2000)

Where was Steve Dorian most of the night? Why did Laura not see him walking around the museum like all the other people? — Kimmie (4-17-1999)

Laura Bow could overhear Yvette and O’Riley’s heated second conversation. Yvette was mad at O’Riley because she said Ziggy told her that O’Riley had a part in the dagger stealing. Well, Ziggy was dead before their “first” conversation ever took place, so he must have told her before then. So why did it take Yvette so long for that info to sink in? And why would Ziggy tell her in the first place?! — Templeton (8-20-1999)

There is a bag of plaster on the left side of the top shelves in the storage room. It never seems to be missing, and it never seems to change shape from being used. However, there seems to be no other source of plaster that O’Riley could have used on Yvette … — Susan (2-12-2000)

• Police would often use plaster to take a mold of any prints or indentations. O’Riley probably brought some and used that plaster on her! With all the murders, it would not be suspicious if he held the plaster because people would assume he was taking evidence. — Agent 56 (7-26-2000)
• Response to Agent 56’s comment: It is unlikely that O’Riley could carry enough plaster to cover Yvette’s body entirely. I think it is an overlook of the game designers.– Templeton (8-1-2000)

If you look at the slab of raw meat (either in the refrigerator in the storage room or in the inventory), the narrator goes on about bulging, veins, rancid fat, etc., but then she says, “Yum! Just like mom used to make!” Keeping that in mind, if you were listening when Steve and Laura were talking together outside the museum, you should know that Laura’s mother died when she was very young! So is this a cliche or a mistake? — Akril (5-6-2000)

• Also, I think if you select the meat (or is it Luigi’s corned beef sandwich?) from inventory and click it on Laura, it says you don’t like meat, you’re a vegetarian, etc. Did Laura become a vegetarian later on in life, then? — Susan (5-6-2000)
• Yes, it is very likely that you found the answer: Laura had memories of her early childhood (about her late mother) Years later she became vegetarian. — Templeton (5-6-2000)
• The narrator is might be talking about her own mother, not Laura’s. — MWW (5-6-2000)

In Act 2, there is nothing in the suit of armor in the Medieval Armor exhibit, but a body is in there in Act 3. Why did the murderer stuff the body inside the confines of that suit of armor instead of taking it out of the museum? – Rydia (2-16-2003)

• It probably got stuffed in the armor simply because the murderer probably would not really be able to sneak it out of the building, what with everyone aware of the murder and all. — Von Pookie (2-16-2003)
• Maybe the killer did not want anyone to find any incriminating evidence on the body. It is a good probability that if the body was searched, there might have been something found that pointed to the killer. So the killer hid the body and most likely planned on hiding it even better later when he or she had more time. — Jdhjanus (2-16-2003)

After Yvette Delacroix has died, if you go into her office and lift the paper cutter with blood on it, Dr. Myklos enters and tells Laura that Yvette went downstairs to meet Ernie! What? That cannot be true Ernie is also dead! — Haley (7-25-2000)

• There are two ways you can look at it. It could be a fluke of the game designers, where if you did not look at it earlier (right after Ziggy’s death when that message makes sense), you will get the same message when you look at it later. Or, Dr. Myklos is more absent-minded than we thought. After all, she and Wolf Heimlich walked right past Ernie’s dead body, and did not even notice it! — Susan (7-25-2000)

In Act 4, after Olympia comes out of her office after seeing countess WC tied up, and has talked with you, she goes into the Old Masters Gallery to go look for O’ Reilly. Considering how you can follow characters around, where did she disappear to? — Gloria (12-24-2001)

What is the purpose of that scrap of torn black material found on Yvette’s desk after the struggle in her office? — Gloria (12-24-2001)

• It is most likely from Detective O’Riley’s black cloak and meant to be a clue. If you look closely at the cloak while he is chasing you, you will notice it is torn on the underside. Presumably, O’Riley got all dressed up in Act 4 already, because Steve tells Laura in the furnace room that he does not know who his assailant was. — Glora (12-24-2001)

What is the weapon that the cloaked murderer is carrying in Act 5? Is it one of the weapons in Wolf Heimlich’s office? If so, which one and how did the murderer take it without being electrocuted? — Susan (5-3-1999)

During the chase scene in Act 5, when Laura runs into the dinosaur room, she can close the door and use the wire on the doorknob to stall the murderer. However, Laura is able to open door, and the wire is hanging in mid-air! Plus, the murderer won’t come throught the open doorway no matter how long Laura stands there! Huh? Also, Laura can run into the T-Rex room and the murderer will never find her. — Sierra Fan (2-16-2003)

If you look at the chair in Act 5, you will be told that Ernie put the chair there. It makes no sense! Ernie was killed in Act 3, and the chair was certainly not there on Act 4! What?! — Susan (5-8-1999)

How exactly did Rameses, Dr. Smith, and the other cult members enter their secret room? Not through the door and the elevator because if you look at it, you are told it is covered with dust. Did they enter through the T-Rex head? If it is an exit, it probably can be used as an entrance. Or maybe they had a key for the locked door in the basement? — Susan (5-8-1999)

Where exactly is the coal chute that Steve was thrown into? — Susan (5-8-1999)

Assuming O’Riley sought to kill Steve, why did he bother to drag him to the basement? O’Riley did not hide most of his other victims. So why bother with Steve?

• O’Riley probably did not want to kill Steve. If he did, you can be sure that he would have done it when he killed Yvette! No, what he probably meant to do was only knock out Steve then later get him and say HE was the murderer! After all, Steve worked at the docks, and most people do not trust workers from the docks. Also, he looked extremely out of place there at the party. Then you see the red hair in Yvette’s hand. Ooh, looks like Steve did it! — Agent 56 (7-26-2000)

There are five rats threatening Laura and Steve Dorian. If you throw the cheese into the right opening, only three of them come out from the T-Rex dinosaur’s mouth. What happened to the other two?

How can Laura wear the same clothes in the beginning of the game and in the end — when she is talking with Steve? In the beginning, Laura’s suitcase (probably containing spare clothes) is stolen. After changing clothes in the women’s lounge at the speakeasy, if you return to there later, the flapper will tell Laura that she dumped her clothes. Is it possible that Laura bought later clothes that look exactly like her original outfit? — Susan (5-1-1999)

In my opinion, Wolf Heimlich should not be the head of museum security! He says that Detective O’Riley smells like alcohol, but he accepts O’Riley’s excuse that he had been eating grapes! Wolf’s office is directly next to the preservation labs, and there is no kind of grape that smells like pure alcohol! Wolf should have seen right away that O’Riley was lying about eating grapes! O’Riley shows up smelling like alcohol, and Ernie dies by getting drowned in alcohol! What kind of security guard cannot deduce that there was something wrong with O’Riley?! — Agent 56 (7-25-2000)

• I must agree that Wolf Heimlich was not doing such a great job with security since people were dying left and right. Where was he when the dagger was stolen? Who knows?! He was like everywhere in the museum exhibits in ACT2 to tell Laura that she was not allowed in such and such exhibit, but yet he managed conveniently not be there when Dr. Carter was murdered and stuffed into the mummy tomb. He was everywhere you didn’t want him to be, and not anywhere he should have been. Interesting… As for the grapes thing, the only reasoning I can think of is that people use grapes to make wine. O’Riley probably smelled more like he was drinking perhaps wine and made a weak excuse that he was just eating grapes. Even so, you are right in the fact Wolf, a GERMAN officer near the ALCOHOL preservation vats, should have suspected something wrong with O’Riley’s “grapes” comment. — Kimmie (7-25-2000)

If Dr. Smith did not kill Dr. Carter, then what was his “secret” that Yvette Delacroix kept? And what did Yvette whisper to Dr. Myklos if not the scene she saw? — Audra (12-31-2001)

• His “secret” was the same secret Yvette was keeping for Rameses, namely the existence of the Amon Ra cult of which both Rameses and Dr. Smith are members. — Zanfardino (2-16-2003)

Did Dr. Olympia Myklos ever find her pet ferret Daisy?

• In Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist, there is a bulletin board message in the store that concerns this issue! — Templeton (4-27-1999)

Laura was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize at the end, but no one said she actually won the prize … did she?

Did Laura and Steve Dorian get married?

• In Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers, one of the things Gabriel has to do is attend a lecture and chat with a character at Tulane University. In the lecture hall, there’s a bulletin board. Look at it a couple of times, and you get the following: “There’s a notice for a lecture on Investigative Reporting techniques to be given by octogenarian Pulitzer Prize winner Laura Bow Dorian.” So Laura did marry Steve and won the Pulitzer Prize as well! — Susan (4-24-1999) Note: You can view a screenshot of this over on the Easter Egg Hunt Page.

The game tells what happens to all the characters at the very end. It says that Yvette’s lifelike sculpture was put on display, but didn’t Laura shatter the statue with the bone? — Login (6-10-1999)