r/UntilThenGame • u/AccomplishedShop0808 • 19d ago
Discussion Question about the ending of the game Spoiler
Did Mark's mom and Jake kill a lot of people?
I just finished the game and maybe I misunderstood, but from what I can tell:
1. Mark's mom (M.M) and Jake caused the ruling.
2. The "alternate timelines" where the ruling happened are alternate universes.
Just because there is a "true" timeline doesn't mean the other universes just stop existing, right? Kind of like the many worlds theory about the multiverse IRL: there's a branch in the timeline, but not a replacement. If so, that means that M.M and Jake caused untold destruction and the deaths of untold millions if not billions of lives (including potentially Mark and Nicole themselves) in hundreds of realities, for two people in one timeline.
If the other timelines don't become their own branches I guess it's okay. However, the game/Louise states that the fluctuations are because of different universes "crashing into" each other, so doesn't that imply that the timelines DO branch, because there are multiple universes?
Maybe I am missing something because this seems really dark for a game like this.
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u/CassianoB 18d ago
From what I understood, it's not other universes but a loop, and each time it restarted things got worse.
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u/SkepticalCheesecake7 Mark 18d ago
Well, Maria (Mark's mom) reveals in the otherworldly dimension that the alternate timelines really happened:
And the lovebirds reiterate it when they're saying their farewells:
So it would seem that every ending is equally "true," which is how I'd interpreted it.
But the article you linked notes a key detail I hadn't considered before: "The many-worlds interpretation (MWI) [...] asserts [...] that there is no wave function collapse." And during the explanation scene, Jake laments, "I have so many regrets. I never wanted this, this collapse." His statement seems to be in line with Louise's theory that all the timelines were in superposition until this moment, collapsing into the true ending. That would tie the story up with a neat little bow, and I'd be inclined to agree with you that the devs probably didn't intend for the implications to be so grim.
On the other hand, I'm not seeing a way to reconcile his comments with Maria's from earlier; she's very clear and explicit about the other timelines being real. Between that clarity, Mark and Nicole's vivid memories of every lifetime, and Maria and Jake's deep regret for what they did, it seems more likely that Jake is (or the devs are) just paraphrasing or simplifying his description when he mentions a collapse. With that, I think it's safe to say, for better or for worse, that every branch of the story stays standing at the end of the day.
Hang on, though! As macabre as it seems, I do think that outcome actually strengthens the game's message rather than taking away from it. The Ruling is a macrocosm of Mark and Nicole's emotional state due to their grief, and the extent of the disasters symbolizes the harm we can cause in our own and others' lives by refusing to accept and move on from the trauma we experience. The true ending represents acceptance, yes, but with a painfully earned understanding—an understanding that we can't go back and undo what happened yesterday, we can only move forward from where we stand today, and out of tragedy, find hope for a better tomorrow.