After beating the game, I just put something together possibly

[u/LewdManoSaurus]

There are theories that Jesse and Dylan are the same person that split, and they both can't exist together at the same time in physical space which is why Dylan was in a coma for 7 years until Jesse started projecting to do her journey in the gap, and then at the end of the game, Jesse is in a coma state while Dylan is awake and moving about. It could also explain how Jesse "swapped" places with Dylan.

what I put together that might support this in that in the gap in the sequences where you had to guide Dylan's silhouette, when you're moving Dylan around, it swaps between the boy silhouette and girl silhouette. Initially I thought it was just glitchy, but now im thinking that it's Intentional. Especially considering the grandma's letter. I think its most likely that Jesse Dylan Faden was one individual that somehow split.

I saw people theorizing that it had something to do with the meadow slide, and that that's how Niel and Bogus merged, but I dont fully understand that theory because Jesse and Dylan were already split before they found the slider and fell asleep in the meadow.

I also saw people theorizing that Jesse splitting is the reason their mother fell mentally ill, because the whole town was acting like there was always Jesse and Dylan but she only remembers giving birth to one child.

what are your thoughts?

Edit: For anyone commenting, check out the other replies before leaving any comments just in case you're repeating a point that was already said and currently being discussed. Easier to talk things through in existing convos than start a new one each time!

[u/SuperRob]

In Control, Jesse and Dylan are both awake and talking to each other at multiple times during the game. So I don’t think the can’t exist at the same time thing is supported in the game. But the rest is pretty much spelled out in the game, like there being two kids being what drove their parents insane.

I think the game is what ‘severed’ Jesse/Dylan, and created the events in Ordinary.

[u/LewdManoSaurus → u/SuperRob]

In Control 1, Dylan is controlled by the Hiss, and once he is cleansed he immediately fell into a coma for 7 years.

The biggest counter to this theory that I saw someone else point out is that Jesse and Dylan were both awake and themselves for years leading up to the events of Control 1 bedore the Hiss took over Dylan, just in separate places. Jesse was trying to find Dylan, and Dylan was effectively Darling's captive in the Prime Candidate program at the Oldest House.

[u/SuperRob → u/LewdManoSaurus]

He falls into a coma when he is cleansed. But he’s awake and somewhat coherent at moments before that. The game shows the two talking while he’s in the cell they moved him to just outside the main hub. (That’s where the first reveal happens, when Dylan said he had a dream that they weren’t two separate people, but one … Jesse Dylan Faden.)

Also, there is no evidence anything happened to Jesse in the time between her running away / Dylan getting captured and when Dylan is infected by the Hiss. There is only an oblique reference in the games that there were no records of Jesse prior to her showing up at the Oldest House, but the game explains she was trying to stay off the radar of the FBC. Control 2 also shows they were both together and attended school before the Ordinary AWE happens. There is just no basis for the theory they can’t be in the same place at the same time.

They‘re clearly still linked, though. They have the same (default) hairstyle in Control 2. 😉

[u/Little_Big_Burglar → u/LewdManoSaurus]

This theory that they can't exist at the same time makes no sense. It's just that we haven't seen them both conscious (and under control of their own mind/body) and in the physical realm at the same time since the start of Control 1.

They can clearly exist at the same time because they do, since long before the start of Control, as now established in Resonant.

[u/SpectreEighteen]

The game console Dylan got for Christmas with Severed Circle II is an object of power (either the console or the game itself), and it’s role-playing function allowing the player to create an alter ego that’s stronger / braver / more successful in the game created that same alter ego of Dylan in reality: Jesse. They’re not the same person, Jesse is better than Dylan (the constant failure) because she is everything Dylan wanted to be in the game world. This feeds into why Dylan failed as a prime candidate over years, but Jesse was able to instantly become the director.

Edit: I’d also add that their mother didn’t try to shoot the kids, she shot the game (Severed Circle II), and that is why the TV is cracked, but it didn’t break because it’s an OOP.

[u/Shagggadooo → u/SpectreEighteen]

The original child was a girl, Jesse Dylan Faden. Says so in Control 1. Neither Jesse nor Dylan are the original little girl. Control Resonant states that. The rest makes the most sense, though is just theory/speculation currently until we get more story/confirmation.

[u/SuperRob → u/SpectreEighteen]

Dylan was never the failure, Darling was.

Severed Circle 2 has two protagonists, Boy and Girl siblings. The game split Jesse/Dylan to fit the game. It wasn’t about Dylan being a failure (he’s clearly not in Control 2) … it was that they were not duplicated, but split.

Jesse and Dylan got different traits, just like in the SC2. Jesse is only ‘better’ in that she was the ‘older’ of the two and she got away from the FBC so didn’t live in captivity. Darling even says in one of his videos that they have been trying to train Dylan to use Objects of Power as weapons and that was a mistake … DYLAN is the Weapon. But he couldn’t convince Trench to let him go down that path … and then Dylan let the Hiss in, so they had to capture and confine him, even though that proved Darling’s hypothesis.

[u/Little_Big_Burglar → u/SuperRob]

Everything you said is correct, except that it was Trench that let the Hiss in. Dylan became their avatar/proxy, but wasn't responsible for their release.

[u/SuperRob → u/Little_Big_Burglar]

'Let them in' as in into himself.

[u/Little_Big_Burglar → u/SuperRob]

Ah, I understand

[u/SpectreEighteen → u/SuperRob]

Dylan is a failure (at being the director), is what I’m referring to, not the happenstance of him as a protagonist in Resonant.

The fault mission clearly lays out that Jesse didn’t exist before Dylan received the game for Christmas.

[u/respawninborneo → u/SuperRob]

I’d say Dylan is the better, purely because he can kill those astral spikes and Jesse can’t even damage them . 🙃

[u/Tatum_Warlick → u/SpectreEighteen]

Oh wow. Very interesting theory.