Beholder 4 Family Endings: How to Save Carl’s Family

The available guide covers the original game titled Beholder and does not independently confirm a separate “Beholder 4” designation. Within that material, the family’s ending depends mainly on whether Carl Stein emigrates, whether Martha receives treatment, whether Patrick escapes successfully, and whether Anna survives the main story. This guide summarizes the reported family outcomes and the choices that lead to them. Spoilers follow. The information is based on the community guide Comprehensive Guide to Beholder.

The main family endings

Carl has three broad outcomes:

• Emigration ending: Carl leaves for a more prosperous country and lives in a utopian state with whichever members of his family are still alive.
• Stay-behind ending: If Carl does not emigrate, he remains in his office with surviving family members other than Patrick.
• Cloning ending: If Carl pays Bruno Hempf $60,000, or remains loyal to the Ministry throughout the story, the authorities decide to clone him as an ideal employee. The process kills him.

The emigration route is not automatically a happy ending. Carl must have enough money, and he cannot leave alone. Trying to emigrate without money, with brainwashed Patrick, or without the required family support results in death at the border.

How to save Martha

Martha becomes seriously ill during the family quest chain. She must receive treatment before the time limit expires.

The reported treatment costs are:

• $20,000 when Alloisius provides treatment.
• $30,000 when Martha is sent to the general hospital.

Alloisius is therefore particularly important during this part of the story. The guide notes that he has no further dialogue after Martha’s first treatment, so his later fate does not affect her survival once the treatment has been completed. Failing to cure Martha in time causes her to die, while reporting Martha is also listed as an instant game-over condition.

Patrick’s possible outcomes

Patrick’s ending depends on his education, the money or travel documents available to him, and whether Carl accepts the Ministry’s demand to turn him in.

Best outcome

Giving Patrick cruise tickets sends him to a better country regardless of his exact education status. In this outcome, he can later help Carl’s family during emigration.

If Patrick remains at university and receives the required $20,000, he successfully leaves with his girlfriend’s family. He can also survive when he receives suitable travel support rather than cash.

Bad travel outcome

If Patrick receives money while he is no longer in university, he accidentally travels to another authoritarian country. He can still be reunited with the family during the ending, but he cannot provide help during the emigration process.

Death in the mines

If Patrick’s tuition was not paid, or the university closed after the shooting connected to Fulfledle’s storyline, refusing him $20,000 or cruise tickets leads him to rob a bank. He dies, and Carl must pay the funeral and bank-damage costs.

Brainwashed Patrick

When Patrick becomes radicalized and joins the New Tomorrow Movement, the Ministry demands that Carl identify him. Accepting the Ministry’s demand causes Patrick to be taken away and indoctrinated. He may appear loyal afterward, but this removes his happy ending.

A brainwashed Patrick prevents the family from emigrating: he reports Carl for treason, resulting in the family’s execution. If Carl remains in the country instead, Patrick eventually joins the army and disappears on the front lines. Patrick can also die if he is brainwashed and neither General Airel Johnson nor the assassin targeting him is dead.

Anna’s ending

Anna can die if both of her children die. She also dies if Carl sells out Antoine Grubic over the phone. This makes Grubic’s basement storyline a major family decision: helping the Ministry may provide Martha’s cure, but the reported outcome can cost Anna her life.

The guide also identifies several other lethal choices involving the family, including reporting Anna and then speaking to Patrick, or reporting Patrick and then speaking to Anna. Either order can trigger an instant game over.

The safest family plan

For the strongest family outcome described in the source:

1. Cure Martha before the deadline.
2. Pay Patrick’s tuition when possible.
3. Give Patrick cruise tickets or the money needed to emigrate successfully.
4. Avoid accepting the Ministry’s brainwashing solution.
5. Do not sell out Grubic by phone if Anna’s survival matters.
6. Build enough money and support to emigrate with the family.
7. Avoid attempting to leave alone or without sufficient funds.

Even with these choices, the final family roster depends on earlier tenant quests and political decisions. Carl’s ending reflects not only the family members saved, but also the broader state of the war and the Ministry’s judgment.