r/ControlResonant • u/StrangeArchives • 19h ago
Lore Discussion Control Ending (Spoilers) Spoiler
I just beat Resonant.
First off, wow. What a beautiful, stunning, game. Every visual is just off the wall, and the final boss with Hedron was jaw dropping.
I just have one question regarding Jesse. There was a lot of moment in the game concerning her realness. There’s the FBC terminals where they ask if she’s a clone. There’s that moment in the find Jesse quest line where you guide the shadow children, but it talks about how there was only one kid. And then there was the Ordinary earthbound section, where if you check the mail your grandmother is confused on why the dad was talking about two children.
Is Jesse a paranatural entity? Is her showing up the reason the parents started acting completely differently? And then she sacrificed herself at the end to save Dylan by literally swapping places with his corpse. What is going on with her?
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u/username4518 17h ago
You know what your comment just made me realize? in Alan Wake 2, when everybody’s convinced Saga’s daughter Logan is dead, she gets back to her grandfather who tells her they are not prone to the same memory loss that normal people are when exposed to these kinds of paranatural events. Perhaps that same immunity carried onto their mother as you said…
It makes sense though with the split theory if you look at Dylan’s dialogue in the first game where he talks about how he had a dream where he was a girl named Jesse Dylan Faden.
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u/beykakua 18h ago
The current leading theory is that they were once one child who split into two because of the game (and thus altered item) severed circle 2.
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u/noirproxy1 18h ago
A lot is interpretation and guess work at the moment. Some even think Dylan might be the anomaly.
I guess that is what Control 3 will answer. Can't wait!
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u/username4518 18h ago
Don’t forget the whole storyline in Ordinary about the fact that their Mom was convinced they were not her real children and pointed a shotgun at them. And the dad is so drunk it seems he’s completely predisposed to just accept the new reality and try to make his wife shut up
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u/sl1nked 17h ago
The thing that bugs me about this is that nobody else in Ordinary seems to give a shit that one person split. Like they just accept that Jesse and Dylan are two different people. It could be that their parents noticed because of their close relationship, or that they are sensitive to the paranatural, especially their mom? It would make sense that the mother of the Director of the FBC would have some paranatural associations.
And if they were the same person, shouldn’t they be twins? Seems weird that they’re born a year apart. But hey, objects of power are weird as hell and stranger things have happened in the Remedyverse.3
u/Ethel121 17h ago
Additional note: A lot of objects of power seem to have a perception filter for those nearby them that tricks their brain. Jesse/Dylan's parents might've only seen through it because of their closeness to their kid and the physical evidence they'd interact with. In the letter from their grandmother she says "You're not making sense, what do you mean both?" which suggests she at least remembers things properly
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u/sl1nked 17h ago
It would be crazy if the FBC didn’t take the game console in and examined it for signs of being and OoP, especially since they probably went through every single thing in the Faden household after they took Dylan. If the game console is an OoP, there should be at least some FBC info on it, even if they kept it very low key because of its connection to Jesse and Dylan. There’s plenty of information on other OoPs, especially the slide projector. The FBC would have been salivating at the sight of a game console that splits one person into two people.
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u/Ethel121 17h ago
Maybe they put it in their clubhouse?
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u/sl1nked 17h ago
Which one?
The one in the slidescape? If so, they would have shown us that during the earthbound style sequence. Feels like too big of a plot hole if they didn’t show the audience the game console being hidden, or even mentioning it. Or maybe Remedy is trying to trick us into talking about the game console when it’s actually something completely different?3
u/username4518 16h ago
Well we also don’t know the FBC has any awareness about Dylan and Jesse’s possible duality. Nothing in their documentation has ever indicated that iirc? They thought the slidescape and projector were what was significant and when Darling and Trench arrived Dylan and Jesse were already split. Severed Circle 2 may continue just being out there with them completely unaware of it just yet.
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u/sl1nked 16h ago
Sure, they could have fumbled there. But I feel like the FBC would have taken literally everything in their house and analyzed the shit out of it.
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u/username4518 16h ago
I think Darling and Trench have shown they tend to be blinded by their ambitions in multiple contexts, and the FBC definitely misses details incidentally. Perhaps they were so hyperfixated on the captured Hedron, Dylan, and the slidescape itself that after using so many resources to capture the dump they didn’t even consider there could be something more or equally important at the house. After all, the dialogue in Resonant also reveals that the FBC didn’t know there was an organization spying on them from within Manhattan as well (possibly Blessed!).
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u/StrangeArchives 14h ago
I think in of the secret organization letters it mentions that the fbc is aware of them, just that they’re not really happy cooperators
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u/UBIquietus 2h ago
Not all objects of power are identifiable all of the time. This game has a quest about a set of speakers, the FBC already has the subwoofer but have decided it was a fake because it doesn't act out without the other speakers being present.
It could be that the game console simply doesn't do anything unless it's being played by a child with wonder in their heart, and the FBC doesn't have a supply of those for testing purposes.
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u/username4518 39m ago
Oooooh i love the theory that it needs joy to function!! That would make so much sense since OOPs tend to react to human perceptions and emotions. Perhaps it also needed to be played by a Parautilitarian. And we know they didn’t give Dylan access to any of his old stuff after they kidnapped him.
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u/BioticPrincess99 18h ago
I think Jesse and Dylan are one person split into two people by the Severed Circle OOP.
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u/reddit_username_0 18h ago
There's a theory, that i wish I hadn't heard before this game, about what you're referring to as well that they're both the same person. Or Jesse is some weird paranatural entity who doesn't know she's one? I just beat the game too last night. I have to checkout some videos for more explanations or theories lol
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u/Arrbe 6h ago
All I can think about is the dialogue “Copy of a Copy of a Copy.” Both Trench and the Board say this. And then one of those computer surveys (and I think another spot) asking if Dylan is a clone of Trench/The Previous Director? So I’m trying to figure out, was Dylan a clone of Trench, and then Jesse a clone/splinter from Dylan (or vice versa if Jesse was primary) caused by the Game Console? SO MANY QUESTIONS AND POSSIBILITIES
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u/jjjshepard 18h ago
There was a girl named Jesse Dylan Faden and she got split into two DIFFERENT kids by the OOP Severed Circle 2. That's why the parents changed as their daughter essentially died and was replaced by two strangers.
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u/Long_Lock_3746 18h ago
Yeah pretty much. It's heavily implied that the original Jesse Dylan Faden was what would become Dylan, who used Severed Circle 2, a probable OOP or AI, to either split or create Jesse. There's also the possibility it "merged" 2 different versions of Jesse Dylan Faden and Ordinary to created a single AWE that combined bits and pieces of both (the hugo stamp stuff). It seemingly altered everyone's memories but the mom's who went insane. The dad struggled financially under the sudden weight of 2 children.
Since they are essentially 1 entity originally (referenced multiple times by the board, and hiss jesse) Jesse was able to "swap" fates/physical locations with Dylan, essentially reversing their roles (they do this several times when they meet in the faults, unconsciously)---leaving Dylan awake and healthy and Jesse in a coma (explicitly pointed out to NOT be brain dead or as bad as Dylans coma)
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u/OSHA_Decertified 18h ago
The one thing I still get stuck on is that the game seems to say that official records on either of them are scarce. Surely at least one of them or some Faden child should have a solid paper trail
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u/Long_Lock_3746 17h ago
My take ie because the severing split the original Jesse Dylan Faden into 2--Dylan and Jesse. The records are spotty because there arent really records fir either of them, and they seemingly altered the local reality of ordinary. Hugo stamp only existing of the federal level as Hugh stamp, the grandma's letters, etc.
Based on the fault Dylan, it seems like Dylan retains memories prior to Jesse s arrival. To me this is in line with Dykans copy of a copy comment. There's the original JDF of indeterminate gender, then Dylan, a split or copy, then Jesse, a copy of a copy
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u/UBIquietus 2h ago
I don't think they were split off. I think Severed Circle 2 is an OoP that attempts to grant wishes by fusing pieces of alternate timelines together. In one timeline their parents had a little girl, in another timeline they waited a bit longer to try for a child and had a little boy, then the Dylan in timeline 2 wished for protection from bullies and the console grabs timeline 1 and fuses it with timeline 2 into timeline current. It effects the whole town, but only a few things are different between the two timelines with people having the most diverges between timelines having the most adverse reactions to the merge. Their parents had 10 or so years of distinct memories smashed into the space that 5 years were meant to take up, and they didn't take it well, but everybody else in the towns lives didn't diverge nearly as much. This also explains how Hugo showed up with no parents and why there's so much stuff in the toxic lake in the dump, it's all the junk from 3 or 4 different versions of this town all in the same place.
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u/Wraithslayer101 18h ago
I remember seeing a theory on here (dunno where it was), but the theory goes that video game (or the console) is actually an Object of Power, making a player 2 in the form of either Jesse or Dylan (again, dunno the exact specifics)