ps - if youd like to refer to me in the comments, please use she/her pronouns, it would mean a lot to me, thanks!
During Midnight Motorist, the orange man has to be William because he’s driving a purple car. He appears to be an abusive father and gets rejected from a bar for being too drunk.
The person watching TV is likely Mrs Afton. The character seems concerned for the person William is screaming at, which is uncharacteristic of Michael/Foxy Bro. The grey pixels at the end of the chair are probably the skirt she’s wearing, and knowing Scott Cawthon, he probably isn’t going to put a gender non-conforming character in his game. Also, the text of this character is a different shade of grey from Foxy Bro, and we know Scott pays very close attention to different hex codes of the same colour because of the multiple voices in Psychic Friend Fredbear.
Some people might say that the person watching TV is Michael because he’s the only person who wears grey. I would concede this if it were any other moment in the franchise, but the “Later That Night” minigame intentionally chose William Afton—someone who has always been purple—to be orange. Scott was trying to tell us that, for this one moment, colour doesn’t matter. And Mike continues to watch the TV show his mother did in Sister Location, after she’s already left the Afton family, after William commemorates her in Ballora.
The person who broke out of their room during “Later That Night” was definitely Michael. Firstly, at this point there are only three people living in the house. The only time in the series that the Afton family has three members is after both Elizabeth and the Crying Child are dead. Also, it’s well established that “Later That Night” takes place after William kills Charlie, and he wouldn’t have reason to do that until after the Bite of ’83, when Henry’s machinery failed and killed William’s son.
But then, why did Michael break out of his room? Why were there two animatronic paw prints in the dirt outside? I’ll get to that later.
Back to clearing up the timeline.
Charlie’s death also has to be after the Missing Children’s Incident, because the Puppet was only created after the MCI to catch the killer and prevent future deaths. This is further supported by the UCN Chica voiceline: “I was the first, I have seen everything.” It wouldn’t make narrative sense for this to mean she was the first missing child but not the first murder—she has to be the first murder in the entire series.
The Crying Child’s death also has to be after the MCI. The toy animatronics were made to combat the killer, and the action figure girl from FNAF 4 has toy animatronic figures—we know this because Chica is missing her beak, like Scott hinted at during the GT livestream. The toy animatronics were built to detect predators, which has to be after the MCI.
This means the girl’s room in FNAF 4 was not of a dead child, because Circus Baby’s Pizzeria doesn’t open until after the MCI. So the room likely belonged to the ponytail girl with green eyes. Remember, the only person in the series with green eyes is Elizabeth Afton/Circus Baby.
So far, the timeline looks like this:
Missing Children’s Incident
Bite of ’83 (since toy animatronics exist during FNAF 4 cutscenes)
Charlie’s death and possession of the Puppet
Elizabeth being killed by Circus Baby
Another clue is Scott’s line: “What’s seen in shadows is easily misunderstood in the mind of a child.” This suggests the Golden Freddy suit did not have a child stuffed inside it, contrary to what the Crying Child believes. It’s the only shadow-related moment in the FNAF 4 minigames. Also, the golden animatronics are in use before the Bite of ’83.
So now we have four dead kids, but the MCI clearly states there are five. How is that possible? We know FNAF 4 takes place after the MCI because of the toy animatronics, but Golden Freddy isn’t stuffed with a child.
To summarise the problem: we can only count four missing kids during FNAF 4, but there have to be five, and the fifth one cannot be in Golden Freddy.
That’s because they’re in the secret gravestone outside the Afton house—but I’m getting ahead of myself.
In Sister Location, we see William’s office has Psychic Friend Fredbear and a walkie-talkie. Many concluded that William is the one speaking to the Crying Child in FNAF 4. But that doesn’t make sense—why would he try to drive his son away from the diner when he’s bringing him there himself?
It has to be someone else speaking through Psychic Friend Fredbear, although William does communicate at times.
I strongly believe William put the fifth missing child in a secret grave outside the Afton house. He couldn’t have used Golden Freddy, as the suit was still in use. That child likely possesses Psychic Friend Fredbear and tries to protect the Crying Child by keeping him away from the diner.
At the end of FNAF 6, we see six graves—but by then there are seven dead children. Why? And why are there graves at all if the children were “missing”? Also, why was Mike going from pizzeria to pizzeria, tampering with animatronics?
It’s because the children are no longer missing by FNAF 6. The Crying Child possesses Golden Freddy and tells Mike about the others. Mike then searches for them, retrieves their bodies, and returns them to their families, freeing their souls. That’s why he gets fired for odour and tampering. He finds all of them at the FNAF 2 location, which is why the animatronics are empty when William checks them.
The six gravestones are: the Crying Child, Gabriel, Jeremy, Susie, Fritz, and Charlie.
But one is missing. The fifth MCI victim is buried outside the Afton house.
During the FNAF 6 fire, the Crying Child isn’t present. I think this is because the other children visit him first and give him his Happiest Day at Fredbear’s. Those five souls are freed.
The only soul left is the fifth missing child. He traps William in UCN. He never got a tombstone—he drew one in the security logbook. The Golden Freddy twitching at the end of UCN isn’t the vengeful spirit—it represents the Crying Child, the one William truly cared about.
There are still some things left.
In FNAF 4, the nightmares belong to Michael Afton. It wouldn’t make sense for William to scare the Crying Child away from Freddy’s, since the murders weren’t automated yet. Instead, he scared Michael so he wouldn’t discover the bodies during FNAF 2.
In Sister Location, we play as Michael. This happens after he finds the bodies but before the FNAF 6 fire. He goes there after Elizabeth dies. William tries to free her but fails, which is why someone was hiding under the desk before us.
Reluctantly, William sends Mike to free her—“Father, I found it…” He gets scooped and becomes the “Purple Guy.” Before entering the facility, he didn’t know his father was the killer, but he learns the truth from the blueprints.
He plans revenge—“I’m going to come find you”—but gets betrayed and scooped and turned into a purple robot spaghetti guy.
Now his goal is to find both William and the fifth child. He searches the FNAF 1 location, gets fired for odour (because he’s literally a corpse), and tampers with animatronics looking for the child. He fails.
Then he goes to FNAF 3 in 2023 to find William. He burns the place down, but William survives.
Finally, Mike works at the FNAF 6 location, where Henry frees all the souls—except the fifth child, who traps William in UCN.