After dying countless times and playing for double or even triple-digit hours, gamers will finally get through Returnal and undoubtedly be left with more questions than answers. Some games like to slowly chip away at the truth, whereas Returnal seems to allow for many theories to make ♔sense.
So this is a good time to give you a heads up about two things. First: This is only one interpretation. Some players have come up with opposing theories that make more sense to them. This theory attempts to incorporate all of the information available and put it together, but some players will prefer other theories more. Second: There are significant spoilers ahead, so only scroll if you're ready for the deep analysis.
The Main Game Is Not A "Real" Experience
The endings to the game don't reveal what happens next to Selene; they reveal what happened to her before. Although the fantastic monsters, creepy alien life, and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:awesome space-age guns seem so real, it's actually all metaphorical and symbolic.
The names of the characters are all based on Greek mythology (more on this later). Some of the level features, like the underwater portions, the broken spinal columns, and the colorful tentacled monsters, are actually representations of Selene's actual life as the ending shows that the real story isn't in the stars at all, it's down on earth.
Selene Abandons Her Son Mentally And Then Physically
Unfortunately, Selene's mother, Theia, who took out a lot of her failures on Selene, seems to have passed her poor parenting onto her daughter. Whether taken literally or figuratively, Helios, in the backseat, asks "Mom, do you see the White Shadow?" Instead of addressing his concerns, Selene moves the rearview mirror to focus on herself.
In the initial ending, Selene reaches back for Helios after the crash but a mysterious force pulls her away. This ending only puts her back into the loop of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:surviving the various biomes because she's lying to herself; the true ending shows that she made no such attempt and didn't realize until she got to the surface that she had abandoned Helios (thus the "Helios Abandoned" message at the start of each run). Selene even takes several breathes before the realization of what she had done sets in.
Selene Is The Driver
There is some thought that this is Theia driving and that the child is Selene since the subtitles say "child" instead of "Helios," allowing for some interpretation there. In the secret ending, subtitles reveal that the mo🥃ther, gasping for air at the end, is Selene.
Theia was in an accident that left her physically paralyzed from the waist down as well, but the driver of the car is capable of swimming (while her hands are not moving, no less) and rotating her body after the crash. These are just some of the many 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:s🧸mall detail෴s in the story that are easy to miss. After the secret ending, she wakes up from the crash and heartbreakingly states, "A moment of hesitation. Now he's gone and I remain."
Selene Tries And Fails To Save Her Dreams And Her Family
The "white shadow" Helios sees is meant to be the moonlight on the lake, but it takes a table meaning when the astronaut Selene hits turns out to be a white shadow as well. Selene doesn't see the danger of the astronaut until it is too late.
One of 168澳洲幸运5开🍸奖网:the lingering questions at the end ofꦦ the game is answered in the true ending. The astronaut is Selene herself. Metaphorically, Selene could hav🍌e kept going straight, abandoning her dreams to be an astronaut and keeping her family intact. Or she could have swerved earlier, abandoning her fami🉐ly but keeping her aspirations intact. Sadly, in a moment of distraction, she tries to save them both and, in doing so, saves neither one.
It is revealed she failed to ever become an astronaut, likely due to the psychol🤪ogical horror oꦕf this event.
Theia Never Stopped Controlling Selene
There is a vision of a wretched creature in a wheelchair during the secret ending. She attempts to strangle Selene, paralleling how Theia would strangl🀅e every aspect of her life as she grew up.
While 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the playerඣ can learn facts about Selene during the game, it's the ending that shows just how much control her mother had. This creature, named Theia in the subtitles, finally releases its grasp, but too late. Selene finds that she is in the older model of astronaut outfit that her mother once was picture wearing. Selene's life aspiration, because of her mother's control, is actually her mother's, not her own.
Progressing Past Denial
It might be considered one of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the plot holes in Returnal that once Selene realizes she's been in denial, she doesn't stop the loop. But this is actually addressed by Selene herself at the start of the next round.
She says, "For the cycle to end, I must not just remember." This is ♓psychologically accurate; people in denial often remember their trauma but they are unable to come to grips with it. Selene h🐲as much more to grapple with before progressing in her journey of grief.
Selene Physically Survived The Crash
Selene is on a spiritual journey. She survived the crash ꦏphysically, but spiritually, she lived a hollow life, filled only with illusions of her accomplishments and family which did not actually come to be. She co🅺mes across evidence that she died at the age of 63.
This actual death was the catalyst for the crash landing. Her physical body did not die too young, but she keeps reliving the event with her soul that she never visited in her life. She essentially dies twice, and this goes back to the Greek names. Helios is the god of the sun and Selene is the goddess of the moon. Without the sun, the moon loses its light. Without her son, Helios, Selene's light faded out.
A Happy Twist
Before Selene can move on from her emptiness, she must accept♏ what happened. After the secret ending, she gets one more scout log to herself that reads: "I cannot atone, so I accept. When I laid on the🦩 side of the road dying, I understood the truth: This is my home. The sense of belonging I was searching for is here. This is my place in the stars. I will stay here now, as you will."
It turns out that the scout logs, written by Selene to Selene, are composed by the astronaut version of Selene and directed at the physical Selene, who has recently passed away. She tried to find belonging by following her mother's dreams and only by letting this dream die is she able to find belonging. In this letter, Selene is realizing that her son was more important than her dreams. That is where her sense of belonging truly is. And now she is finally on the path to salvation for her own soul, learning to let go. Players don't get to see the end, but redemption is not a destination. It is a journey. In the case of Returnal, it is an eternal journey.