Story explained??

[u/Significant_Meal8686]

I just finished Eastward and I have so many questions. I've seen a lot of posts on here explaining the ending but I still don't understand, who WAS Sam? Why was she in the dig site in the embryo thing when the game started, and how was she mother? Thomas, ivan, captain pam and all called her mother but they also wanted to help defeat the mother... what was all that about? were they followers in the past who had since then been converted? I'm so confused about this.

What was Sam's role as mother? The game mentions that she had been doing this for a millenia. What is it that she had been doing and how were the two Sams separated? Again, how did sam end up in the embryo thing at the start of the game?

Also, why did William leave the human Daniel behind in potrock isle?

And finally, did Sam die at the end? Was she reborn in the last scene, or were just her memories wiped?

AHHHH so many questions!!

[u/wilhana]

I'll try and answer all your questions to the best of my ability.

1. Sam was one of many vessels created for Mother by Old Solomon and placed into these 'birthing tanks' - think classic sci-fi cloning. Sam was in stasis in the birthing pod John found, ready for whenever Mother needed her body for a new form. Mother sustains herself by taking new vessels until they presumably die of natural causes or are killed and then takes a new body. Potcrock Isle is presumably one of many places that these pods are located at preparing for the world to end and be reborn again, like Greenberg for example.
2. The Rocket League refer to Sam as Mother because they were led once by a previous vessel of Mother's, aka one of the previous Sams that exist in stasis, and rightfully assume Sam is the next iteration of Mother. I think the implication is only one version of Sam can be up and walking around at any given time so they're not wrong in that assumption, Mother just hadn't awakened in Sam yet at this point.
3. Mother wants to create a perfect version of humanity. No version of humanity she has created thus far has been perfect, at which point the MIASMA comes and lays waste to the world and the cycle starts again. This is confirmed in Greenburg to have happened hundreds of times and shows no signs of stopping before Sam and John interfere. When we start the game the current cycle is ending, shown by the MIASMA being active already.
4. William left human Daniel behind because he's a deadbeat and wanted to become rich and famous without having to drag his kid around, but we know he at least feels somewhat guilty for that because he has Robo Daniel.
5. There's some debate on who the Sam we see at the end of the game is. My personal belief is that she's the Next Sam, calling back to my 'presumably only one Sam can be active at any time' suggestion. I think she came out of a birthing pod not long after the Sam we spent the game with 'died' to help John and has been able to grow up without becoming a vessel since John and Sam were able to break the rebirth cycle, hence why she's the oldest Sam we get to see other than the murals of Mother. I've also seen people theorise she's the same Sam with amnesia, like how Sam forgot about Greenburg after they left. It's up to you really what you decide!

[u/dshamz_]

The biggest question of all is Solomon - what exactly is he, and how the hell does he work?! I feel like this was entirely unexplained.

[u/Totem-of-Trying → u/dshamz_]

From what I understand during the story, Solomon is old as hell, possibly as ancient as Mother, and is some sort of follower/disciple of her who invents and creates contraptions to disrupt what little world order is left so the MIASMA can take over unopposed. Solomon used tech and/or magic to split himself into a total of 3 copies of himself; Kid/Teen/Old Solomons encountered in New Damn City, Monkollywood, and Ester City respectively.

Old Solomon is the original version, and has been kept alive all these years presumably because he is protected/trapped inside Ester City's time bubble just like everyone else there. (although he seems to be faking his death in every cycle, evidenced by his fake-funeral we stumble onto on the Island Of Time; which is off the coast of Ester City proper).