So I get that there's a lot of polarized opinions on whether or not Bioshock Infinite's ending was a good one or not, the old 'the enemy was actually me' trope being played for full effect didn't sit too well with some people. I don't expect this to necessarily change anyones' minds but I hope to at least give the people who played a full explanation as to what exactly the ending entailed.
The reason for this is because the ending did not tell you everything overtly, instead relying on subtle implication woven into the narrative. Admittedly this is something that a lot of people will miss and with it some of the flavor of the ending is lost. So let's start at the beginning of the end.
Comstock is dead, the Siphon is destroyed, and Elizabeth takes Booker on a tour of reality including a trip to the setting of the first game: Rapture. It's during this little walkabout that she utters the line that should be as famous as 'Would you Kindly?' but was somehow missed by quite a few people.
"There's always a light-house, there's always a man, there's always a city"
Rapture is Columbia, Andrew Ryan is Comstock.
Now you'll have to bear with me because this is gonna get twisty. In the original Bioshock we learn that the Bathyspheres only work for Andrew Ryan or his relatives because of the genetic lockout. This means that Jack, the protagonist of Bioshock, is related to Ryan because he can use them without issue. In the ending to that we find that Jack is actually a clone created from Ryan using ADAM, so Ryan and Jack are the same person genetically. When Elizabeth takes Booker DeWitt to Rapture he operates the Bathysphere without any problems either meaning that, on a genetic level, he is also the same person.
So let's do a little genealogical math:
Rapture = Columbia & Ryan = Comstock
Jack = Ryan & Booker = Comstock
Booker can use the Bathyspheres therefore:
Jack = Booker
Jack = Booker = Comstock = Ryan
It's all one great Parallel cycle. Andrew Ryan, Booker DeWitt, Zachary Comstock, and Jack are all the same person mirrored eternally in an infinite number of parallel realities, all cursed to replay the events of their twins. Hence the name: Bioshock Infinite. Booker was playing the role that Jack played just as Comstock was playing the role of Ryan and vice versa.
But it was more than that. Daisy Fitzgerald was the violent revolutionary that precipitated the fall of the great city just as Sinclair/Atlas did in Rapture. And remember how Tenenbaum was the creator of the force that resulted in Jack's creation? ADAM? In Columbia that role is taken by Lutece who develops the fixed quantum particles that allow Columbia to fly and eventually the machine that manufactured the original tear, allowing Booker to eventually come to Columbia and kill Comstock just as Jack killed Ryan, with multiple terrible blows to the head. The two 'Founders' died of the same injuries. And yes, I know he was also dunked in a fountain but he wasn't held underwater long enough to drown. Massive trauma to the head would be his C.o.D. Although that leads me to another parallel.
Both Ryan and Comstock died underwater.
All parallels echoing across all of reality.
Moving on from that point we reach the scene in the Baptismal River.
Booker's story didn't end with him dying before Elizabeth/Anna was born, remember, he needed to die before he became Comstock and Comstock couldn't have a daughter. Some people may have missed this fact because it was on a voxophone but it's implicitly stated that Comstock is sterile. He can't have a daughter, not in Columbia, not in his past either. But his parallel twin wasn't sterile and he had a child. Booker needed to die before he became Comstock and had Lutece and her brother use their machine to take away Elizabeth/Anna.
That would mean that to Booker you played as, the Booker DeWitt who denied the baptism, would never have existed, that reality would be shunted away and he would be returned to the crossroads that decided everything. The moment when he chose whether or not to give up Anna DeWitt to Robert Lutece, except Robert Lutece never came to him, because his Parallel twin, Rosalind Lutece, never contacted him via their study of particle physics.
And yes, even the Bioshock wiki agree's that if you pay attention to their scenes, that it is heavily implied that they, like Booker and Comstock, are simply parallel versions of each other.
The reason for this is because the ending did not tell you everything overtly, instead relying on subtle implication woven into the narrative. Admittedly this is something that a lot of people will miss and with it some of the flavor of the ending is lost. So let's start at the beginning of the end.
Comstock is dead, the Siphon is destroyed, and Elizabeth takes Booker on a tour of reality including a trip to the setting of the first game: Rapture. It's during this little walkabout that she utters the line that should be as famous as 'Would you Kindly?' but was somehow missed by quite a few people.
"There's always a light-house, there's always a man, there's always a city"
Rapture is Columbia, Andrew Ryan is Comstock.
Now you'll have to bear with me because this is gonna get twisty. In the original Bioshock we learn that the Bathyspheres only work for Andrew Ryan or his relatives because of the genetic lockout. This means that Jack, the protagonist of Bioshock, is related to Ryan because he can use them without issue. In the ending to that we find that Jack is actually a clone created from Ryan using ADAM, so Ryan and Jack are the same person genetically. When Elizabeth takes Booker DeWitt to Rapture he operates the Bathysphere without any problems either meaning that, on a genetic level, he is also the same person.
So let's do a little genealogical math:
Rapture = Columbia & Ryan = Comstock
Jack = Ryan & Booker = Comstock
Booker can use the Bathyspheres therefore:
Jack = Booker
Jack = Booker = Comstock = Ryan
It's all one great Parallel cycle. Andrew Ryan, Booker DeWitt, Zachary Comstock, and Jack are all the same person mirrored eternally in an infinite number of parallel realities, all cursed to replay the events of their twins. Hence the name: Bioshock Infinite. Booker was playing the role that Jack played just as Comstock was playing the role of Ryan and vice versa.
But it was more than that. Daisy Fitzgerald was the violent revolutionary that precipitated the fall of the great city just as Sinclair/Atlas did in Rapture. And remember how Tenenbaum was the creator of the force that resulted in Jack's creation? ADAM? In Columbia that role is taken by Lutece who develops the fixed quantum particles that allow Columbia to fly and eventually the machine that manufactured the original tear, allowing Booker to eventually come to Columbia and kill Comstock just as Jack killed Ryan, with multiple terrible blows to the head. The two 'Founders' died of the same injuries. And yes, I know he was also dunked in a fountain but he wasn't held underwater long enough to drown. Massive trauma to the head would be his C.o.D. Although that leads me to another parallel.
Both Ryan and Comstock died underwater.
All parallels echoing across all of reality.
Moving on from that point we reach the scene in the Baptismal River.
Booker's story didn't end with him dying before Elizabeth/Anna was born, remember, he needed to die before he became Comstock and Comstock couldn't have a daughter. Some people may have missed this fact because it was on a voxophone but it's implicitly stated that Comstock is sterile. He can't have a daughter, not in Columbia, not in his past either. But his parallel twin wasn't sterile and he had a child. Booker needed to die before he became Comstock and had Lutece and her brother use their machine to take away Elizabeth/Anna.
That would mean that to Booker you played as, the Booker DeWitt who denied the baptism, would never have existed, that reality would be shunted away and he would be returned to the crossroads that decided everything. The moment when he chose whether or not to give up Anna DeWitt to Robert Lutece, except Robert Lutece never came to him, because his Parallel twin, Rosalind Lutece, never contacted him via their study of particle physics.
And yes, even the Bioshock wiki agree's that if you pay attention to their scenes, that it is heavily implied that they, like Booker and Comstock, are simply parallel versions of each other.
