#Returnal crashing driver

But it's not difficult to theorize that Selene not only exists in different iterations across several dimensions, but that the entire world of Atropos is one extended dream sequence woven together out of the traumas experienced by each of those different Selenes.įurthermore, Scout Logs throughout the campaign suggest that Selene (rather, astronaut Selene) is guilty about leaving her family behind on Earth to venture off into space. Once more, we're not entirely sure that there's a concrete way to tie everything together. We already know that Selene's mother is Theia, who we encounter in the secret ending, but it's also highly probable that Selene's child is named Helios, which is also the name of Selene's spaceship.

#Returnal crashing driver

Its true ending seems to suggest that Selene is both the driver and the astronaut that runs her off the road, which further suggests the existence of parallel realities even on Returnal's version of Earth.įurther, we see evidence throughout Returnal that, at different points in time, Selene is clearly both guilty about the loss of her child and of her mother. Returnal leaves us with more questions than answers. The screen fades to white, then cuts to black, and we hear Selene gasp the final word, 'Helios.' We skip to an underwater shot from the perspective of Selene, who is now trying to swim to the water's surface.

It's apparent that we are now seeing things from the perspective of the astronaut that the car narrowly swerved to avoid. She looks down at her hands, then turns left to see the oncoming car that we saw in the first ending. The camera zooms into Selene's head, and we now see things from her perspective. A mysterious entity, presumably the one we saw earlier, appears and shines a bright red light on Selene, waking her up. The car sinks to the bottom of the river, and the scene skips forward a few moments to show both passengers unconscious in a car now filled with water. Braking hard and spinning the wheel sharply as to avoid hitting the astronaut, she loses control over the vehicle, which crashes through the railing of a bridge and into the water below. The meaning of 836 can be interpreted in any number of ways, but a few Internet searches suggest that its most common interpretation among Numerologists is something along the lines of 'your prayers have been received, be ready to receive rewards', or just general good luck and good fortune.Īs the driver (revealed to be Selene, or someone who looks just like Selene) looks up from the radio, she narrowly spots an astronaut in the middle of the road. Selene is also said to have lived for 63 years and eight days after returning to Earth, which, backwards, is 836. They first appear at the end of Act 1 as the news broadcast of Selene's apparent return from Atropos is played at 8:36 AM. Trivia: Each of these motifs (the song, the numbers, the scenery) show up throughout Returnal, but the numbers 8:36 are especially prevalent.