Seriously. Don’t read this if you haven’t played the game.
First of all u would like to say that this game is ART. Great story, awesome characters, a beautiful soundtrack(http://youtu.be/8J5LRxhp6A4 – not my video) and a virtual world worth exploring. The ending has generated a lot of conversations on the internet so I thought I might want to share my opinion on this.
Beginning
In the beginning you are on a boat with two people that are talking. Later in the game you find out that they are the Lutece twins.
“Because he doesn’t row.”
“He doesn’t row?”
“No, he doesn’t row.”
“Ah, I see what you mean.”
This is the first dialogue you hear in the game. Soon after that you see a lighthouse (if you played the game you know that lighthouses are important to the plot).
Now , the ending.
Let’s start with the obvious stuff.
False shepherd, Comstock and Columbia
Booker is actually Comstock in another universe. In the beginning the original Booker refuses the baptism that will wipe away his sins after and he has a child, Anna/Elizabeth. This Booker has to get Elizabeth from the tower ‘to wipe away the debt’ . Of course, he doesn’t know she is his daughter. With her powers, Elizabeth can open ‘tears’, doors to other worlds, but she can’t create something with a tear if that thing doesn’t already exist in other worlds.
In another universe there is Booker that accepts the baptism and changes his name to Zachary Comstock-the shepherd. He builds Columbia and warns the people about ‘the false shepherd’ – Booker Dewitt. According to Comstock, the false shepherd has a sign on his right hand which says: AD(which stand for Anna Dewitt). Guess what? Booker has that sign on his hand!
The ‘tear’ power
Elizabeth didn’t have these powers when she was born. Apparently the Lutece twins experimented on her and they also had a machine that could open tears. Then, Elizabeth could open tears without the machine.
Elizabeth – ‘The Lamb’
Apart from having amazing powers, Elizabeth is a very interesting character.
She is Booker’s daughter ,but we discover that fact in the end, because when she asks him about his family he says that his wife died giving birth to a child but he doesn’t have any children.
When Booker tries to save Elizabeth from songbird he hears her being tortured and brainwashed through tears in the air. Comstock tried to make her the heir of Columbia.
Booker goes through another tear where he meets with old Elizabeth. Around them there is a burning city. She hands him a piece of paper and tell him that this can never happen. Booker goes back and rescues young Elizabeth and hands her the note and then it all seems to be fine.
Hunting Comstock
When they find him, Comstock tries to explain to Booker why Elizabeth is missing her pinkie finger. Booker kills him, denying any knowledge of it. After that they try to escape but they are attacked by the Vox. With the help of Songbird they destroy the siphon(the source of Elizabeth’s power and the device that forces her to stay in Columbia). Booker panics and destroys the whistle that controls songbird. They try to escape him and once again Elizabeth opens another tear.
It’s a tear to Rapture.(from the first games)
They wander around this world , making the player nostalgic after the first games, leaving through a door and come into an immense and infinite space full of lighthouses.
The lighthouses
They are way to enter other worlds. They are outcomes of your choices and situations.
Booker and Elizabeth go to a lighthouse. There we can see Bookers apartment and Robert Lutece in the doorway. In a cot there’s baby Anna but Booker denies having a child. They continue with the scene because it had already happened. He hands the baby to Robert, which says: “Mr. Comstock forgives your sins.” Then there is a scene where Comstock holds Anna as he is about to go through a tear to Columbia. Booker tries to stop him but Comstock gets away, but not fast enough and as the tear closes, Anna’s pinkie gets cut. Now it is clear that Elizabeth is Booker’s daughter.
The Luteces
Booker realizes that they aren’t actually twins, but versions of themselves from other universes. Robert and Rosalind Lutece actually try to help him after Comstock betrayed them. They sent Booker to Columbia with the tear machine. He says he must go back and kill Comstock in his crib so all of this won’t happen but that means killing himself.
Comstock / Booker
At this point in the game, Booker is in the same universe where another version of himself accepted the baptism and wiped away his sins. This is Zachary Comstock which Booker has to kill.
In the cutscene , lots if Elizabeths appear and they drown Booker . After he dies they disappear.
Credits
The credits roll but is isn’t over. There is a final scene in Booker’s apartment where you can hear him say “Anna?”. That means that when he refused the baptism he then had Anna , which crated another dimension where he had the baptism but never had a child.
When Comstock realized he needed an heir but couldn’t have a child he had the twins to take Anna from Booker using the tear machine. So, Booker is Comstock which means Anna is actually related to Comstock.
Booker actually sold his daughter to Comstock to wipe away the debt . He couldn’t keep Anna because if he hadn’t sold her Comstock would steal her anyway. That means that there are no worlds where Anna and Booker stayed together.
This creates an ‘infinite’ cycle where Booker tries to rescue his daughter. This means he has already been to Columbia multiple times. This is made clear when you see the Luteces and they ask you to flip the coin. Heads, of course. When they turn around we can see that there are hundreds of marks on the blackboard for heads and none for tails. It shows how many times Booker has been to Columbia and flipped that coin. It’s a never ending loop that somehow has an end.
Booker accepts the fact that he has to die and allows Elizabeth to drown him. By killing himself he kills Comstock. All of this never happened.
But they didn’t die. Booker wasn’t killed when he was born. He was killed when he became Comstock. The Booker that rejected the baptism still existed. However there where no Luteces, no Columbia, no adult Elizabeth. Never.
Now, Booker is in his apartment with baby Anna, before Comstock. This means, it’s not Booker that dies. It’s Elizabeth in her adult form. Adult Elizabeth can only exist if there is a Comstock, but he died which means Elizabeth is now gone. This means Anna will live with Booker.
Anna
She is a complete different person from Elizabeth. She can’t open tears, she can’t pick locks, she won’t have the same personality. She isn’t Elizabeth but she is Booker’s daughter.
That’s it. That’s my opinion.
Bioshock is a beautiful game full of mystery and I’m curious to find out more about it. Maybe this theory is wrong maybe not. I don’t know. I tried my best!
Toodles.
thejellyfishhunter 