Detailed analysis of all possible endings. Was ______ really ______?
There's been a lot of discussion about the ending since the release of Ep 5, and it seems everyone's split into two camps over the identity of the mysterious Faith.
I'm going to try and do an in-depth analysis of each possible theory by examining how each one fits into the timeline of events.
1) Faith is alive but glamoured as Nerissa; Nerissa is dead
Timeline:
-Faith, Lily and Nerissa plan to use the Crane/Snow photo to incriminate the Crooked Man.
-Faith chickens out and spills to Georgie, who says he'll try to fix it
-Georgie tells CR, who then orders him to cover it up
-meanwhile, Faith heads over to Woody's apartment with plans to enlist Bigby for help
-Faith causes a ruckus, knowing that Bigby will be called down
-Faith befriends Bigby, knowing he's their last chance at taking down TCM
-Georgie kills Lily and Nerissa, who was glamoured as Faith for some reason*
-Faith returns and discovers her friends are dead. She then quickly glamours herself as Nerissa
-Faith leaves Nerissa's glamoured head at Bigby's apartments
-the events of TWAU happen
-Faith leaves Fabletown because she knows she can't stay glamoured forever
Pros:
-when Bigby searches for Faith with the Mirror, the only response is "These lips are sealed", which implies the ribbon magic on Faith is still active.
*Problems with this:
In order for this theory to work, we need to know what happened to the real Nerissa. Someone has to die in order for Faith's body to end up at the Woodlands apartments. Georgie can't have killed an unglamoured Nerissa because he expresses no surprise seeing her at pole dance practice in Ep 2. There's no other way; Georgie has to kill Faith (or someone glamoured as her), which means either:
A) Nerissa glamoured herself as Faith, fully aware that that's a death sentence. Not just that, she helped secure the materials needed for Faith to become Nerissa! Given the tone and setting of TWAU, I have a hard time believing any of the Fables are that self-sacrificing, but I guess it's possible.
or,
in a case of tragic irony, Nerissa had a client who wanted her to look like Faith, a la Crane wanting to schnoogle a Snow lookalike. Georgie happened to run into her before the glamour wore off and assumed she was Faith. This is more likely since we've seen that glamours still work on deceased Fables for a while.
C) Faith was a huge a-hole who forced Nerissa to put on the Faith glamour so she (Faith) could escape Georgie
Still, those are quite a lot of variables for a character (the real Nerissa) that we won't even meet.
2) Faith was dead before the story started; Nerissa is the one we've always talked to
Timeline:
-Faith, Lily and Nerissa plan to use the Crane/Snow photo to incriminate the Crooked Man.
-Nerissa chickens out and spills to Georgie
-Georgie tells TCM, who then orders him to cover it up
-Georgie kills Lily and Faith
-Nerissa glamours herself as Faith to keep Faith's appointment with Woody [we know Fables can impersonate other Fables as with Lily glamoured as Snow, so it is consistent with the logic of the world]
-Nerissa goads Woody into violence, knowing Bigby will be called down
-Nerissa talks to Bigby and piques his interest [if you give her money it will end up in Georgie's safe]
-Nerissa collects Faith's head and leaves it at Bigby's apartment
-events of TWAU happen
-Nerissa leaves Fabletown, haunted by the death of her friends
Pros:
-Personally I like the theme of a man chasing the ideal of a woman only to find she never existed. It's very noir-ish and fits the tone of TWAU.
Problems with this:
-when Bigby searches for Faith with the Mirror, the only response is "These lips are sealed". This implies the ribbon magic on Faith is still active. HOWEVER, since we never met the real Faith, wouldn't the Mirror have just shown her corpse?
This would mean that the Mirror can only work if you know the person's real name (since Bigby was really thinking of Nerissa) or maybe the Mirror just can't find dead Fables. The simplest explanation is that the ribbon enchantment cloaked its wearers from all magical surveillance, which makes sense because the selling point of Pudding & Pie was ultimate discretion.
3) Faith and Nerissa are 2 different people
Timeline
-Faith, Lily and Nerissa plan to use the Crane/Snow photo to incriminate the Crooked Man.
-Nerissa chickens out and spills to Georgie, who says he'll try to fix it
-Georgie tells TCM, who then orders him to cover it up
-Faith and Lily find out about this, and Faith decides to seek help from Bigby
-Faith heads over to Woody's apartment and causes a ruckus, knowing that Bigby will be called down
-Faith befriends Bigby, knowing he's their last chance at taking down TCM
-Georgie kills Lily and Faith to set an example for Nerissa
-Nerissa carries Faith's head to Bigby's house, knowing that Faith went to him for help
-events of TWAU occur
-Nerissa leaves Fabletown, haunted by the death of her friends
Problems: I don't know about you guys, but I think this one is kinda boring since it takes everything at face value.
It took a bit of detective work and I'm sure that more clues will become apparent on subsequent playthroughs. What does everyone think?
Comments
Great summary, thanks! I believe it's the second one, and I really don't think it's the third, because that's what we've been thinking the whole game, and the ending was there to make us realize that either Faith is Nerissa or Nerissa was Faith that night.
Edit: Now I noticed Faith and Nerissa have the same purse, which further supports the 2nd theory.
I think theory 2) is the correct.
Mirror problem thou... maybe the spell is active so long as the 'original' is around (Vivian), it doesn't matter if the ribbon is off the spell will be around?
I must say that I’m also with the second one. Will probably need to play it a second time and pay attention for more details, but these are basically the points.
Good summary, my only remark is about the 1st theory. You are assuming that Faith not Nerissa chickened out and told Georgie about the photo. I know it seems to be psychologically probable in the light of the final conversation (it can be interpreted as a confession of guilt). But on the other hand the photo of Faith and Nerissa in the metal factory seems to suggest that this part of the story that we hear at the end might be actually true. That would also explain why real Nerissa could have decided to sacrifice herself out of guilt and shame for putting her friends in danger.
In my opinion there is no conclusive evidence that would allow us to decide between Faith/Nerissa theory, since we do not know what happened to the head of alleged Faith. So basically everybody has to make his/her pick. I would prefer to go with Nerissa, but not because of evidence. I simply have a soft spot for her and the very thought that she is dead and we haven't even actually met her is kind of distressing. Cheers!
The same purse can still go either way. All it proves is that the person who has the pure is the same person. It doesn't prove who it is, it just proves it's still one or the other.
The second one seems most logical but what purpose did the whole ending serve then? Why would Bigby be suddenly so puzzled and the quotes (including Bufkin's quote about Faith disguising herself) be floating around? Also the "lips are sealed" from the Mirror.
I have no idea how Nerissa would've died though, but maybe (supposed) Faith lied and somehow caused Georgie to kill Nerissa.
I have to go with theory one. The Mirror just sticks out way too much to just be entirely trivial. If the spell is entirely broken when Vivian takes her ribbon off then the spell must be broken for the individual who has their ribbon taken off. The ribbon was always the source and if it's not there anymore then there is nothing from stopping the mirror from confirming their death or revealing the body.
Also I would like to go more into the presentation of the narrative. There was so much of Faith's background revealed to us in the beginning of the story that it almost solidifies her place as a main part of the story. Nerissa on the other hand, all we get is she's the little mermaid. Almost as if her background was irrelevant to her existence in the story. Further on this is character study. Reading both of their bios in the entry lists I saw that Nerissa didn't have the traits of the person at the end of the story. Faith's entry matched it to a "T". She's used trickery so much she would know the best ways to utilize it. She was a survivor as well so she knew how to stay off of people's radars and the Crooked Man had a radar so good he would have to think your dead to get away with anything. Bigby was the perfect person to go to because he was out to prove himself as sheriff so it would be the chance to finally get the crooked man from within the law system. Nerissa fell for the wrong guy and was too cynical to think that far outside of the box. She was a worker that did what she was told, never one to issue an order. She would have been the best candidate to sell them all out for wanting to leave but at the same time be shamed enough to put on a glamor to take any punishment for her friends. Hence the photo in the factory where we see Faith disappointed with Nerissa for some reason. Why? Because she's the one who sold them out and got them in trouble. Torn between who to be faithful to, decided to take the side of her friends by taking the punishment herself.
That's true, the enchantment could be tied to the ribbons instead of the individual girls
I just saw someone post screenshots of Faith and Nerissa with the same bag! That just proves that whoever Bigby met in the beginning was the same person he questioned in the office.
For what little it's worth I throw my hat in with the second theory of Nerissa having been glamoured as Faith in the prologue. I've done multiple playthroughs, all possible dialog options and choices (please don't ask me how long that took. I still have a headache...) and all conversations. All points gravitate towards Theory 2 being the most likely scenario.
However what makes this conundrum so infuriating is that there are small aspects, either intentional or an unfortunate repercussion of the rumored rewrite of the story which pushed the game's development back and delayed subsequent episodes, which poke holes in both primary theories.
The two points which seem to cause the most contention on both sides of this coin stem from, obviously, Faith and Nerrisa's "You're not so bad..." quote and Faith's body never surfacing nor being referenced by any character save for Lawrence from a scene cut from the game. You have other questions such as the drastic difference in personality between Faith (sharp tongue, outgoing, street tough) and Nerrisa (demure -as much as a Stripper can be- soft spoken, gentle) as well as Georgie and others clearly stating that Faith and Lily were killed.
There's also the fact that in the Butchershop Nerrisa's name can be seen on the list of clients for magic and, when coupled with the other formulae mixes, it reads that she was issued a glamour which would lead one to assume she had reason to use it at some point.
I could go on, but honestly there are already 50 threads or more discussing this and the wide array of theories. I honestly don't think there will ever be a concise resolution. Even (hopefully) when we get a second season there will likely not be a definitive answer despite the choice to go after Nerrisa. Short of the writers stepping up and telling us what exactly happened (defeating the whole point of that The Usual Suspects ending) it's always going to pick at the fanbase like a splinter in the mind.
It's Faith, she's the Donkeyskin, a master of trickery through disguises for escaping kingdoms.
Only she's Mermaidskin now, and the kingdom is Crookie's Illegal Empire :v
It's kinda morbid, actually. In her original tale, she had to use the skin of a prized donkey in order to escape the kingdom.
And now she's wearing the skin of a prized friend in order to escape a different kingdom.
Just...read Donkeyskin. You'll see the many similarities between the events now and the old fable.
" Once again she was frightened and once again her godmother came to her assistance. "Pretend," she said, "to give in to the king. Promise him anything he wishes, but, at the same time, prepare to escape to some far country. "
I think Faith had been planning her escape for a long time. In the epilogue she's holding a travel bag right? She's going to flee to a distant place now. Similar to her original fable.
Everything fits perfectly with her old tale, there's no sense in it being Nerissa at the end. There's nothing that indicates she would pull something like this, unlike Faith, who's done it before.
As for Nerissa being glamoured as Faith, I think she was just covering for her at the time. The real Faith did just get beat up by Woodie, I'm sure that if she asked Nerissa, she would have covered for her for the rest of the night so she could rest. We know from Lily's death that the girls have a habit of covering for one another.
Keep in mind that, not only did the ending give clues that these two people are the same person, but it also uses Bufkin's line about Faith's story (she disguised herself to get out of her father's kingdom). The game is trying to tell you that it's is actually Faith who is disguised as Nerissa, and that we never met actual Nerissa. My theory is that after we meet unglamoured Faith, her and Nerissa trade shifts for whatever reason and glamour as each other, but this also happens to be the night that Nerissa (glamoured as Faith) chicken's out and tells Georgie, and then he comes back and kills her while she's glamoured as Faith (this would explain why he wasn't surprised to see Nerissa at the pudding n pie). Faith stays glamoured as Nerissa the entire time, and then ends up escape Fabletown thanks to Nerissa's death.
Or maybe Faith decided on her own that she had to sacrifice her friends in order to save herself. That's cold, but I could see it happening. After all, she was smart and manipulative enough to lead Bigby to the Crooked man, so I think she'd be smart enough to manipulate her friends into getting themselves "sacrificed" so she could escape and save Fabletown at the same time.
I think IF it is faith I still think nerrissa is the one who talked as everyone seems to think faith is the one thats been killed
Personally I would be happiest if it was the first theory but considering all of the information I think the most likely theory would be theory two but Nerissa comments on how Huff and Puffs are shit cigs in bigby's office and so does faith when he meets her which is proven to be a universal fact when Woody also tells Bigby it is a shit brand after fighting the jersey devil. My point is that if Nerissa was faith when they met I doubt that she would have brought it back up that huff n puff is a shit brand
Theory 2 seems more reliable. Someone posted somewhere else that the remembering of the conversations that suggest that the Nerissa at the end is Faith could actually be Bigby subconsciously trying to make himself believe that Faith is still alive. Maybe he still feels guilty for not stopping it, felt that she didn't get justice for her murder or he just felt such a strong connection with her that he is trying to wish her back into existence.
Great job at playing through all the options! I have to do that too...
Yeah, its a pity that story thread was abandoned because that would give us theorists more to work with.
I think that can be easily explained by the girls' acting ability. It's easy to put on a different persona if nobody can see your face. Just look at any internet forum...
I don't think Telltale will release an official explanation anytime soon, and I'd personally prefer them not to. Sometimes a mystery is more beautiful than the truth. Isn't the story of Pulp Fiction more powerful by not knowing what's in the suitcase? Or the end of Inception where we don't know if it was a dream?
I think the fact that there are so many hotly debated possibilities speaks to the strength of their writing team
Why wood Tweedle Dee & Dumb be told to search the Woodsman apartment (for the photos Faith stole) if Faith was killed before she was sent there.
Very good point. Plus, in timeline 2), the photos of Faith kissing Bigby are taken when Faith should already be dead. So Crooked & Co. should be wtfing at her apparent resurrection.
I kinda lean towards theory 2. Mainly because of two things.
Holly reported Lily missing weeks before the events in episode 1 take place. During the trip trap scene in ep 2 when you tell her about Lily, Gren will get pissed and say "Where were you when we reported this weeks ago" So that leads me to think she had been dead for weeks.
The events at Laurence's seem to have taken place a week or more before we get there. Bigby will smell the gun, and say it had not been fired recently but around a week or more past. Also if you save Laurence he says he hurt Faith somehow, maybe he beat her? Which is why the head found would also be bruised? Not sure if it is ever said what he did to hurt her though. He will also say Faith usually stops by and checks on him from time to time, so that would mean she hasn't been there for a week or more to see him like that.
Now for the people saying but why would she glamor up as a dead girl? What better way then to try to make people think a missing person isn't missing. If the business they worked for uses doubles so people still see them out and about?
And I think the reason Dee and Dumb start searching after that is they figured it was all taken care of when Georgie killed the 2 girls and nobody would know. But as soon as the head was dumped for Bigby the investigation started, and that picture was the only loose end still out there and they needed to find it. So they started to look at places the girls had been before.
Pretty sure it's Theory 1 - it's Faith at the end. The ending dialogue in Bigby's head gives major hints.
1) Bufkin: Would hide her beauty, so she could escape his kingdom
It fits Faith's Donkey Girl legend perfectly.
2) Bigby: Did Dr. Swineheart ever get back to you about Faith? Snow White: He said he wanted to run more tests.
The Faith head you find is not what it looks like. It's not Faith.
For Theory 2 to be true, Faith must be dead at the end of episode 1 (i.e. it's really her head that was left at the doorstep). However in Episode 2 the Mirror confirms that Faith's ribbon magic is still functioning - these lips are sealed. So it can't be Faith's head - it has to be Nerissa's.
Only question is how Nerissa's head became glamoured as Faith's. There is a photo in Episode 5 that shows both Faith and Nerissa arguing. Either Nerissa became guilty and agreed to take the fall, or Faith killed her.
Great summary, and I'd like to support the 2nd one, but there's one huge plot hole in it - if Nerissa was at Woodsman's place and got beat up, why did real Faith's head had beatings ?
Perhaps Georgie beat her before she was killed and Nerissa glamoured as Faith, with the bruises. So the Woodsman might not have been the one who made Faith's bruises.
But we clearly saw how he slapped her, and when we were in the street, she took out her mirror and saw the damage done to her face. Of course, that could've been faked, but you know.
Yes, there are holes for both theories, but I tried to find an explanation to this one.
Yes, thanks for that
I desperately want Nerissa to be alive, but to some questions, I can't seem to find answers
in the metalworks there is a board with photos on it and one of the photos shows Faith threatening Nerissa. What do you think this could mean?
I can only offer speculation to the reasons why Lily & Faith hadn’t been in contact with either Holly or Lawrence that you insightfully point out with point 1 & 2.
The reason I felt their deaths were recent deal with the state of the crime scene. After a particularly harsh heat wave we find the blood, blossoms and the bitten apple in a relatively fresh state not like it had been sitting there for over a week. Also it is hard enough for me to fathom why the killer waited a couple days to clean the crime scene up let alone let a week pass by.
They would have had to put in an awful lot of work to maintain the fiction of Holly and Faith. Going so far as to create false entries in secret ledgers and maintaining their individual appointment books. I think the easier explanation is the one Nerissa pointed out, the Crookedman was counting on the fact the no one would miss these outliers and they could disappear with impunity.
My earlier point concerning the Woodsman apartment is the Tweedle brothers only go to the apartment to search for the photo is because it is one of the last places Faith had gone. If it was Nerissa who went there (and she should have been disguised as Lily) there would be no need to search because they would have known the actual Fate was dead long before this event happened.