Over a week after launch, and at the point where it’s now possible to engage in infinite New Game Plus runs, it feels like a good time to talk about the ending of Control Resonant. It’s funny because, seven years after the original, your mind is probably racing with all the potential answers.
Perhaps we’ll learn more about the Hiss. Or where Dr Caspar Darling has disappeared. And what about The Board, especially since it’s returned after Jesse cut it off at the end of Control’s Foundation DLC? What is its agenda in all of this?
We’re going to dive into major spoilers for the story of Control Resonant, so if you haven’t finished it yet, be warned. Turn back now before it’s too late. Without further ado, let’s start with what we already know.
Containment at the Oldest House has failed. The Hiss and the Mold have been let loose in Manhattan, but they’re small fry compared to a much bigger threat, which materialised days prior. Referred to as the Patterning, it’s caused major changes throughout the city. Folding skyscrapers on top of each other, Inception-style; a massive sinkhole that seemingly goes on forever (spoilers: It doesn’t. Mild shock); and the creation of the Resonants, ordinary people warped by the phenomenon. However, it has been positive in some ways for the FBC since it’s containing the Hiss and stopping them from leaving the city.
Then there’s Jesse, who sensed something cataclysmic was coming and left the Oldest House early to try and stop it. We see her throughout the various Faults, attempting to seal them and prevent whatever it is from completely overwhelming Manhattan. Over time, it’s revealed that remaining within them for too long causes acute memory loss, so at one point, she has a hard time even remembering her brother. Of course, since it draws from memories, we also learn more about the Fadens’ past, including their parents suddenly turning hostile towards them despite living a relatively happy life before.
By the time we reach the last Fault located in the Oldest House, it’s finally revealed that the main cause behind the Patterning is a Hedron. No, not the same Hedron from the previous game, which was in a severely weakened state. This one is very healthy and drawn to their dimension for seemingly one purpose: to destroy the Hiss. It doesn’t even matter if reality itself is rewritten in the process.
While trying to help Jesse seal the Fault, it’s also revealed that the Hiss still exists within Dylan, despite his sister seemingly inoculating him against it. Left with no other choice, Jesse pushes him out.
After briefly losing control – and being brought back to his senses by Zoe – the Hedron begins to invade further into Manhattan, creating its own patterned version in the skies known as the Unknown. Dylan ventures to break its influence, severing its dimensional hooks, though this results in the entity shattering his mind. And since this is a Remedy game, it results in Dylan navigating a retro-style role-playing game of his childhood in Ordinary, from Jesse finding the Slide Projector to them using it and venturing to other dimensions. When the bullies from school get a hold of it, they unleash paranatural horrors that end up overtaking the entire town, which triggers the FBC’s intervention.
Once Dylan has restored his mind, he ventures to fight the Hedron head-on. Despite hearing Jesse’s voice at points, he surmises that she isn’t exactly at the focal point and that it’s simply the entity mimicking her voice. While emerging victorious, he’s brought back to The Gap, and the Hedron attempts to pattern him. And even with Zoe activating the Mobile Containment Device on the back of his head, which should kill him after a point, there’s no escape.
So, instead, Dylan does the next worst thing: Accepts the Hiss. Or at the very least, imbues the Aberrant with its power and then attacks the Hedron once more, finally laying waste to it. Despite dying from the effort, he’s pleased to go out like this…until Jesse suddenly shows up. Not willing to accept this result, she appears to “swap places” with him, reviving Dylan and seemingly falling into a coma.
He brings her back to the FBC, and while the Patterning is dying down, it’s still very much inherent throughout the city. Despite all the trauma that he sustained during his Prime Candidate Training, and not fully forgiving the FBC, Dylan earns the respect of figures like Emily, who’s now the acting director given Jesse’s condition (and after Arish is turned into a Resonant and slain). Working with Zoe, he’s now a contractor for the bureau and even has his own apartment in the Unknown, previously commenting on how nice it would be to live there.
Of course, we’re only left with innumerable questions, especially as it’s revealed that Jesse isn’t necessarily in a coma. A report indicates that her brain waves aren’t similar to those of someone who’s dreaming and that she’s fully cognizant of everything around her. The FBC still needs more data, but her state is not 1:1 to Dylan’s, despite ending up in the exact same place as him during his coma (his old holding cell, which has since been removed).
And what about the Hiss within Dylan? Well, it’s still there, manifesting as a new Talent that grants him a whopping 200 percent damage increase if you slay out fast enough. It seems that he’s controlled it, accepting it as a part of him. For now, that is.
But here’s the kicker – there are new collectibles featuring Dr Darling in New Game Plus. While there’s a running theory that Jesse and Dylan were once the same person, and that the events of Ordinary resulted in them splitting (with the latter apparently being the original), it’s not quite that simple. Based on the new tapes, it seems that neither Jesse nor Dylan has official records outside of the town, and it’s theorized that they may be different individuals who somehow crossed over at the same time. All the times we see them switching back and forth within the Fault seemingly lend credence to this.
So the real question is: How does this set up the future, especially given what we know about the Hedron? In Slidescape-36, which is where the Hiss emerged from, there are multiple pillars, hence giving it the nickname “Hand.” Are there other Hedrons out there, and if so, how likely are they to attack their dimension once more?
If Dylan and Jesse are indeed from other worlds, is it possible that these events will connect to the Many Worlds aspect of the Remedy-verse established in Alan Wake 2? Why else would Wake, who had a hand (no pun intended) in the Hiss invasion of the Oldest House, become the Master of Many Worlds, at least from a storytelling perspective? Will he intervene at some point to provide more context?
Maybe Jesse has ended up in a similar space and could end up astral projecting to different dimensions, much like she did with the Fault. It’s also possible that we venture to their original worlds down the line, as Dylan tries to make sense of their origins. At the very least, it may make sense of what happened to their parents – if not the ones who violently rejected them, then those who actually raised them.
Now, whether all this happens in DLC or a sequel remains to be seen. With all the fresh questions that Remedy has introduced, you would think it wouldn’t wait several more years to follow up on some of them. But such is the nature of its universe – what would seem like an ordinary lake ends up an ocean. And a loop is revealed to be a spiral, endlessly ascending to new heights.
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