Discussing the Ending -Spoilers Aplenty-
First off I would like to state that I this entire post will be a spoiler, as well as most of the subsequent comments, if you haven’t finished all five episodes of The Wolf Among Us, I highly recommend that you close this page now and do not read on, you have been warned.
Also, I will be posting this on a few other forums as well, want to get a wide variety of discussion.
So now for the reason we are here, there are many threads on the interpretations of the ending here and on various other forums, however I do not hope to assert my theory on anyone, my hope is to present my current theory and all of my incomplete ideas for any support or critique. I don’t remember every single detail, and I am actually hoping for someone to disprove some of my points as that will help us get closer to understanding the true identity of the woman who walks away at the end of episode five. As I stated before I am completely open to all critiquing and comments, and only hope to get to the bottom of this mystery with all of you guys’ help. I have read the first arc of the comics, as well as some of the second; however this means I have barely scratched the surface of the Fables universe, and I know there are many out there who know the lore much better than I do.
Here are a few of the choices I made that may have skewed my interpretation of the ending:
-I went to Toad’s Apartment first, accidentally letting Lawrence die, so I did not have his input in further episodes
-I chose to arrest and interrogate the Tweedle, rather than Woody.
To begin, we know for a fact that the girl we talk to in episode one that appears to be Faith is the same girl as Nerissa throughout the rest of the game, the question then is what is her true identity? As far as I can ascertain the girl who walks away at the end, as well as the girl you talk to in episode one, is Faith. That would mean she was unglamoured in episode one, but glamoured as Nerissa at the end of episode five. The counter argument to this is that it was Nerissa glamoured as Faith in episode one, and Faith was already dead, but I can’t bring myself to believe that. To avoid confusion I will address the girls as whatever character they looked like at the time, not as what I think their true identity is.
I would like to present some general reasoning as to why I believe it is Faith the whole time, please feel free to disprove these points:
-Faith was known for her cunning and penchant for disguises, as mentioned in her Book of fables entry as well as by Bufkin.
-Just based on character lore and a bit of speculation, I don’t feel like Nerissa (The Little Mermaid) would have the cunning or drive to put this whole plan together to have Bigby unravel the crooked mans operation, Faith however does. We see that she has a strong drive to break out and do things on her own in her leaving the homelands with nothing but her coat and husband, and we see it again when she leaves Lawrence after centuries together, although this admittedly may be to protect him from the crooked man.
-The mirror was unable to find Faith’s body when asked to; possibly implying Faith was still alive (the counter argument for this is that the mirror was also unable to find Lily’s body when asked, I do not have a way to explain that away).
-Nerissa tells Bigby that her legs are real, not glamour. This is not strong evidence, but possibly implying she is not the real little mermaid?
-Nerissa seems to struggle to perform the mermaid dance for Georgie, something she should not have any problems with.
-Faith was with Bigby just a short time before the murder, possibly even during it (the counter argument for this is that the head left on the steps is bruised in the same way as Faith’s was when talking to Bigby, the only explanation I have for this is that Nerissa, being the one who placed the head, bruised it intentionally to avoid suspicion, however this seems too macabre to be true).
Some facts/events that don’t make complete sense (if you remember these events better than I do please by all means speak up)
-I am wondering if the Donkey Skin coat gave Faith some kind of disguise power, or if it is an inner power she actually has. Another possibility is that she has no actual disguise power, and her penchant for disguises is just a personality trait, requiring glamours to actually disguise herself. This seems most likely, as the coat was found at the Lucky Pawn in episode four.
-One thing I am struggling with in my head is the time frame for Lily’s death, although we find her head and body after Faith’s, Gren mentions in episode one that Lily has been missing for weeks.
-One argument I have heard is that Lily’s glamour wore off, so if Faith’s head was someone else (Nerissa) in glamour, why didn’t she revert back to her original form? My only possible explanation for this is that Lily has been dead for some time before her body was dumped and subsequently found, as stated in the previous point. However, I feel like there is evidence that disputes this in the game, feel free to bring that to my attention.
-Another popular argument is that the bodies being pulled from the bottom of the river implies that this was done by Nerissa, being a mermaid. This is a good argument, and I have no real way to dispute it, other than to say that if it was Nerissa the whole time, and she did swim to the bottom of the lake, then she lied to Bigby about her legs being, “real.”
-It is stated in the game that the girl’s often used glamours to cover each other’s shifts, so it is not outlandish to say that Nerissa was glamoured as Faith and Georgie killed the wrong girl, however why exactly was Nerissa glamoured as Faith I cannot figure out, unless Faith talked her into it somehow. At any rate the bruises just don’t make sense.
-Snow White comments that Lily’s glamour is imperfect, I keep trying to analyze the head that Bigby finds to see if there is any imperfection versus the girl he talks to in episode one, I cannot find any. However even if I could that would only prove that the head did not belong to the girl he talked to, not that she was truly Faith, and not Nerissa in glamour.
-There has to be some clue to Nerissa’s identity in the conversation she has with Bigby in his office, particularly regarding the cigarette brands, but I just can’t place it.
-Bluebeards behavior, burning evidence and getting deeply involved in the investigation, is at the least weird. I know this is a crazy stretch, but what if he was a customer of Nerissa’s and somehow knew she had been the one that actually killed, glamoured as Faith? We do know he has a penchant for redheads from the first arc of the fables comic. As I said, this is one of my more farfetched incomplete thoughts, but what I know for sure is that Bluebeard is not as innocent as he tries to seem
There is more I want to say but in the interest of not making this a dissertation, let’s start the discussion from here and see where it goes. Help me uncover the truth, because this is eating away at me. I would love to play through the whole game again and see if I can uncover any new clues, but I doubt I’ll have time.