I think I get it (Ending Spoilers)

[-CSM- Abamor]

I think I get it (ending spoilers)

So, just got done with the game after a single 150+ hour playthrough, where I've done, collected and read everything there is.

It's going to be a long one, but if you've felt confused/upset/backstabbed by the ending in question - I promise you this will be worth your time.

I went for the Skif/Faust ending, was shocked as much as everyone else by that "Doc was actually Faust all along" reveal, but the more I thought about it - the more it made sense to me.


Faust.


Let's start from the beginning - Faust is a human turned sentient controller. He is not deformed, mentally impaired or hostile as all the other controllers are and has, as mentioned by his creator Dvupvalov, one more crucial and defining feature - free will. During that dialogue with Skif on top of Duga he mentioned being a "stalker looking for adventure long time ago", but he "took one awkward step" and his "world plunged into darkness". I believe it's safe to assume that he was a stalker before the Zone, as we know it in the games, even existed (between 1986 and 2006, so still a radioactive exclusion zone, still all the horrible Project X shenanigans going on, but no noosphere kaboom yet), got caught trespassing on Duga (I presume) and subsequently used in the "Controller" program as a test subject. As for the "world plunged into darkness" part - we all know he can actually see (his pistol's name, the fact that he even uses a pistol, the ending reveal scene where he clearly has normal eyes, all other controllers having functional eyes, and so on), so I assume that this is in reference to the horrors he had to endure while in captivity (and his blindness was a trick intended to instill religious belief and awe in people around him).

On the topic of that "free will" thing - he operated as the Monolith's "voice" (while it was controlled by C - Consciousness) not because he was conditioned to do so, quite the opposite, he was so good at this precisely because he chose to do it (as mentioned by Dvupvalov). He was the perfect religious leader for those poor bastards, cared for them and whole-hartedly believed in the Monolith. His specific version of it (wink-wink). More on this later - but when you confront him with the whole "You are just a controller, the Monolith is just a device used by those green-tube eggheads" thing, his answer is something like "Yeah, sure you would think that".


The Doctor.


So, he is not in the game. At all. The first time you see him in that psi-dome-thing - it's Faust. Let's brake it down.

Strelok (by his own words) did not see Kaymanov in years (no wonder he doesn't know about the switch).

The mercs that Strelok sent after him - didn't see/fight Strider, the only survivor in that house mentions that this (the mercs looking like they found themselves on the wrong side of a blender) was all done by THE DOCTOR himself. That same survivor says that the guy was going through Geiger-counter-melting radiation zones like it was nothing without even a gasmask, and when he put two bullets in him - the man just shrugged it off, got close and incapacitated him. Hmmm. I know those mercs probably don't actually know exactly what the good Doctor looks like, but you'd think they could tell him apart from a middle-aged Monolith commander in full uniform, right?

The very next mission he gives you is to infiltrate the Monolith hospital near by and, without killing anyone (what a good man), steal a regeneration device to "save" Strider. But when you bring the device back to his house - Strider is so back that he almost kills you, only for the good Doctor to step in at the very last moment and, not without regret (what a drama), save your life by killing the poor thing (what a guy).

More over - I don't think that THIS Strider is real either. Think I got too close to the Brain Scorcher while it was still active? Think again.

What do we know about the house? It's surrounded by a bunch of psi-emitters. If you go to that place before you are tasked with finding the Doctor - you can enter it, but the dome will only contain an empty field and a healthy dose of psi-damage for your gray friend. So this field makes your brain go boo-boo and messes up your perception of reality via a psi-field. Our "Doctor" gets blasted with an emission while we are still under it's effect (and then just hangs around there like nothing happened in the last cutscene), but Richter reaches us like the entrance to the basement did not get buried in rubble. Also - do you remember when Faust reveals himself in that ending? That's right - exactly when he crosses the border.

"But we know Strider is dead. We saw and talked to his ghost-noosphere-imprint-thingy when we went to the Orbita station!". Did ya now? Could someone explain to me how plucking a board from a machine that creates ILLUSIONS (from X3 on Cordon) and putting it into a one-way noosphere TV costitutes talking to the dead? Not convinced - you can find an audio recording while at Orbita, where Scar convinces Professor Ozersky to join him by tricking him into thinking that he can speak to the deceased member of the original Spark group (Ozersky blames himself for this dude's death. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?). And we all know how Scar and his illusion are.

"But why tho?", right?


The Zone.


Here is where this gets real speculative. I am 100% open for your own opinions and suggestions on this topic, but this is what I've gathered.

Listen to the way Faust describes the Zone while pretending to be Kaymanov. The OG Doctor gave off this "I messed up, I need to seclude myself from the world and make amends by healing everything that suffers because of me" feel. He did not want Strelok to go North and "fix" his wrongdoings. He just wanted his "son" to be well. Faust, while wearing his disguise, describes the Zone as a living being that suffers due to how it was brought on and how it is being treated by all humans (he even shows it to you the way he sees it while on Duga). He wants to set it free. This is his Monolith.

While every poor stalker that was indoctrinated by the device was turned into a human automaton and only heard commands from it - Faust, being it's willing and mentally enhanced servant, heard and understood more via that connection to the Noosphere. He heard the Zone itself. And when the Monolith fell silent - he was distraught and looking for a way to "reconnect" to it again. And he did. At the Swamp. Remember that recording? He's not talking to the Monolith. He's talking to the Zone.


Skif.


Now, to sum things up and provide a full picture.

How does Skif tie into all of this (I'll be skipping over a lot of plot points here, this post is long enough).

He was the Zone's agent since the moment he touched that artifact in his apartment. See those flashing moments from the future in the ending cutscene? They are not just a recap of your decisions - they are instructions that Skif was implanted with.

So, our protagonist is now acting on the Zone's behalf. He heads in, gets ambushed by Faust's Monolith loyalists that got tipped off by Hermann and looses the Alfa artifact.

Faust uses the Alfa to establish connection on the Clear Sky's base in the Swamps, receives his "orders" from the Zone, but... and this is an important "but" - those orders are not what he expected. I imagine it going something along the lines of "Hey, stop messing with Skif and let him do the thing. Better yet - aid him. He's my chosen conduit". Faust, at this point in time, still yearns for the good ol' days under the Monolith. Him, his god and his brothers being a single entity with a common greater purpose.

So, what does he do? He defies his "God". Remember the thing about his free will? He starts using the X network to locate all ex-Monolith stalkers and plans to reconnect them all to it, and later, using the Duga, all the stalkers in the Zone too.

He hands over the scanner with the Alfa inside to Skif, but does not kill him (I bet he could), tasks his loyalists with building a network of those good ol' Monolith psi-antennas (those are capable of reaching the Monolith in CNPP by themselves, see CoP for reference) and activates them just when the Alfa establishes connection with the Generators.

He needed Duga and Alfa to convert all people in the Zone, but we foil his plans. This is where he starts to see the error of his ways. What did he refer to Skif as during that talk on Duga? "Envoy of the Monolith". "You stood by His side, carrying out His will, and now you've come for me. I have angered Him and that is why you are here - seeking revenge and the reward."

*Note - if you don't accept his hand while climbing onto Duga - you'll get up yourself and have that dialogue. If you do accept his hand - he'll let you go and you will fall to your death. I think it's his way of seeing for himself if you are up for the task the Zone bestowed upon you. You'll have to turn away every faction that has it sites on the Zone to carry it's will (Spark, Ward and Strelok). Trust no one but yourself (or your programming).

After that - you get through all of his gaslighting in that psi-funhouse of his, and you are ready to go. He trusts you with the keys to his God's future.

As Skif said to Richter (If I'm not mistaken) - "I now understand that this artifact in my kitchen was not a random event - it was a cry for help".



So, what do you guys and girls think? Did I hit the nail on the head? Or did that anomalous moonshine from Dvupalov + activated Brain Scorcher combo hit ME on the head a little too hard?

Glory to the Monolith.

Update:

You, my brothers and sisters are awesome! This is exactly what I wanted from this post - a discourse around the game's ending that will eventually bring us closer to the truth.

After reading your comments I'm currently gravitating towards a slightly different Interpretation that I will share below. As for the original post - I'll leave it as is.

So, I now believe that almost all that we see In this ending's cutscene (besides the moment Skif enters the pod and the Doctor/Faust reveal) takes place in the past.

1. Skif's apartment, the anomaly and the alfa artefact (with the addition of implanted commands).

2. The scientists are performing the sabotaged Second Carribean Experiment, during which anomalies (not new Zones) pop up all over the world (similar to Skif's apartment, but without the alfa). Perhaps they are a kind of a diversion by the Zone itself to get the thing out there into the world but without powers-that-be being able to know where it ended up (and if it did at all). Don't quote me on that last part.

3. The globe at Kaymanov's basement (self explanatory and ties into 2).

So, that just leaves us with the Doctor/Faust scene. Now the line about all hidden things coming out to the light makes a whole lot more sense. Skif now knows how everything started. But this also means (since that globe/scientists part was all it the past) that we don't actually know what exactly happened (to the Zone/World) after Skif entered the pod! We just know that Faust felt this change. So this - is an open ending! Which means (for me, at least) that it is indeed the canon one, since it's the only one that leaves us guessing what happened next, allowing the authors to continue the story.

[Hashi23]

Originally posted by GenezisO:

Originally posted by Mr. Bro:

It's not "flash forward" - it's your actions that led you to this point
They are different for each ending and highlight the moments of you choosing this path. And then, after the game is done reminding you, you get an actual ending reveal for every ending.

I think whether it was indeed flash forward or not is up for an interpretation of the player. Both cases can be true. In the Faust ending, it would make sense that Zone already showed Skif what he would do (as if it was his destiny) but its also possible that they only added it into the end cinematic to remind YOU, the player what decisions led you to that ending. :)

Yeah I agree, I think it can be interpretated both ways. But if it's flash forwarding, it also opens the door for the possibility that the events of Stalker 2 never took place and just showcases what would happen if you did X, without X actually taking place. But this is just a wild theory.

[Unmensch]

Originally posted by Hashi23:

Originally posted by GenezisO:

But this is just a wild theory.

A GAME THEORY

[Bogglin]

1.

Originally posted by Hashi23:

No bro, it's YOU who don't get it. That's the lore because that's what Clear Sky believed according to the information THEY had. Everything you said was true until it's shown in Stalker 2, that C-Con (as of the C-Con existing in the Noosphere) couldn't ever become a thing, because that was just their hypothesis, theory that didn't end up being true.

In S2, it is clearly said that their theory of one sending their consciousness over to the Subtle Matter in order to control the Noosphere is busted! Only a copy of the consciousness is preserved and it can't act on it's own.

When you meet the Representativ for the first time, he clearly states that the C-Conciousness was a success and that they succesfully connected with the Noosphere.
The Subtle-Matter comes into play only after they are gunned down by Sterlok. After they died, their Memories/Personalities were preserved in the Subtle-Matter and eventuall merged, as that is what they did in the C-Con Experiment. But like a read-only CD, those Subtle-Matter "Images" can't learn/experience anything new, because the damage to the Noosphere prevents them from exchanging Information with other Subtle-Matter "Images".

The "Shining" is the Act of restoring this communication. It has no effect on the Living and can only be experienced by the Dead.




2.
I truly believe that Faust isn't the Doctor.

To rebuttal op:
The surving Merc says that he never got a clear look at their asailant, and only assumes it was the doctor because he showed up when they were looking for him. At some point he mentions that they were shot at from 100 to 150 meters with a sniper rifle. And guess what, Striders uses a Sniper-Rifle. As to why he cound't tell that he wasn't a monolithian during the cqb? Trauma and Stress. I imagine beeing hunted down like a dog puts enough stress on you so that, in an actual close combat fight, you don't mind the small detailes and are only focused on your survival.

As for the House. The game actually didn't even load the Dome for me before progressing the Story enough. The first time i was in the area was directly after the Ward allowed travel out of the lesser zone, story-wise. And there was definitly no Dome there, as it was pretty eye-catching when i went there again after getting the Quest to track down the Doctor. It was, like you said, indeed an empty dome then. But i chalk this up to "not wanting to reveal to much ahead of the story", so they only load in certain things after specific Stroy-elements are triggered,

Strider is dead, what you are talking to is his Sublte-Matter "Image". While the cartridges can be used to create illusions, they also let you contact sublte-matter "Images". It all depends on the maschine that uses them.

3.
The Ending:

My theory is that Skif achieved the real "Shining Zone". So every Subtle-Matter "Image" is now connected with eachother, they are basically turning into an benevolent hivemind of dead people (think Monolithian but more talking and less shooting). The Doctor walking past the fence and turing into Faust is a symbolization of that happening.
The difference between Skifs real "Shining Zone" and Scars "Shining Zone" is the effect on the Living.
Scar has a fanatical fervor about how "good" the Zone can be. He wants it, he NEEDS it, to be the perfect Life he so desperatly craves. So when he enters the Pod, his excessiv desire overloads the atenna(?), resulting in some sort of emission that kills or zombiefies everyone within the Zone. But instead of forming a hivemind with everyone after death, only people he likes are allowed to join his "Shining Zone", thats why he is surrounded with people he likes.
Skif, on the other hand, has no grand desire, except maybe getting reinbursed for his damaged Appartment. But that is ultimatly between him and the Scientist responsible for the 2nd Carribean Experiment, and not between him and the Zone. So he accepts the Zone for what it is. When he enters the Pod, the Barrier preventing the exchange bewteen the "Images" gets removed while the actual Zone remains unchanged but can now develop naturally instead of beeing forced/guided by the C-Con.

Edit: Faust's remark that every secret will be revealed given time is a reference to people living and learning things and then die and join the hivemind, sharing what they know.

[mathan]

Originally posted by -CSM- Abamor:

I think I get it (ending spoilers)

So, just got done with the game after a single 150+ hour playthrough, where I've done, collected and read everything there is.

It's going to be a long one, but if you've felt confused/upset/backstabbed by the ending in question - I promise you this will be worth your time.

I went for the Skif/Faust ending, was shocked as much as everyone else by that "Doc was actually Faust all along" reveal, but the more I thought about it - the more it made sense to me.


Faust.


Let's start from the beginning - Faust is a human turned sentient controller. He is not deformed, mentally impaired or hostile as all the other controllers are and has, as mentioned by his creator Dvupvalov, one more crucial and defining feature - free will. During that dialogue with Skif on top of Duga he mentioned being a "stalker looking for adventure long time ago", but he "took one awkward step" and his "world plunged into darkness". I believe it's safe to assume that he was a stalker before the Zone, as we know it in the games, even existed (between 1986 and 2006, so still a radioactive exclusion zone, still all the horrible Project X shenanigans going on, but no noosphere kaboom yet), got caught trespassing on Duga (I presume) and subsequently used in the "Controller" program as a test subject. As for the "world plunged into darkness" part - we all know he can actually see (his pistol's name, the fact that he even uses a pistol, the ending reveal scene where he clearly has normal eyes, all other controllers having functional eyes, and so on), so I assume that this is in reference to the horrors he had to endure while in captivity (and his blindness was a trick intended to instill religious belief and awe in people around him).

On the topic of that "free will" thing - he operated as the Monolith's "voice" (while it was controlled by C - Consciousness) not because he was conditioned to do so, quite the opposite, he was so good at this precisely because he chose to do it (as mentioned by Dvupvalov). He was the perfect religious leader for those poor bastards, cared for them and whole-hartedly believed in the Monolith. His specific version of it (wink-wink). More on this later - but when you confront him with the whole "You are just a controller, the Monolith is just a device used by those green-tube eggheads" thing, his answer is something like "Yeah, sure you would think that".


The Doctor.


So, he is not in the game. At all. The first time you see him in that psi-dome-thing - it's Faust. Let's brake it down.

Strelok (by his own words) did not see Kaymanov in years (no wonder he doesn't know about the switch).

The mercs that Strelok sent after him - didn't see/fight Strider, the only survivor in that house mentions that this (the mercs looking like they found themselves on the wrong side of a blender) was all done by THE DOCTOR himself. That same survivor says that the guy was going through Geiger-counter-melting radiation zones like it was nothing without even a gasmask, and when he put two bullets in him - the man just shrugged it off, got close and incapacitated him. Hmmm. I know those mercs probably don't actually know exactly what the good Doctor looks like, but you'd think they could tell him apart from a middle-aged Monolith commander in full uniform, right?

The very next mission he gives you is to infiltrate the Monolith hospital near by and, without killing anyone (what a good man), steal a regeneration device to "save" Strider. But when you bring the device back to his house - Strider is so back that he almost kills you, only for the good Doctor to step in at the very last moment and, not without regret (what a drama), save your life by killing the poor thing (what a guy).

More over - I don't think that THIS Strider is real either. Think I got too close to the Brain Scorcher while it was still active? Think again.

What do we know about the house? It's surrounded by a bunch of psi-emitters. If you go to that place before you are tasked with finding the Doctor - you can enter it, but the dome will only contain an empty field and a healthy dose of psi-damage for your gray friend. So this field makes your brain go boo-boo and messes up your perception of reality via a psi-field. Our "Doctor" gets blasted with an emission while we are still under it's effect (and then just hangs around there like nothing happened in the last cutscene), but Richter reaches us like the entrance to the basement did not get buried in rubble. Also - do you remember when Faust reveals himself in that ending? That's right - exactly when he crosses the border.

"But we know Strider is dead. We saw and talked to his ghost-noosphere-imprint-thingy when we went to the Orbita station!". Did ya now? Could someone explain to me how plucking a board from a machine that creates ILLUSIONS (from X3 on Cordon) and putting it into a one-way noosphere TV costitutes talking to the dead? Not convinced - you can find an audio recording while at Orbita, where Scar convinces Professor Ozersky to join him by tricking him into thinking that he can speak to the deceased member of the original Spark group (Ozersky blames himself for this dude's death. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?). And we all know how Scar and his illusion are.

"But why tho?", right?


The Zone.


Here is where this gets real speculative. I am 100% open for your own opinions and suggestions on this topic, but this is what I've gathered.

Listen to the way Faust describes the Zone while pretending to be Kaymanov. The OG Doctor gave off this "I messed up, I need to seclude myself from the world and make amends by healing everything that suffers because of me" feel. He did not want Strelok to go North and "fix" his wrongdoings. He just wanted his "son" to be well. Faust, while wearing his disguise, describes the Zone as a living being that suffers due to how it was brought on and how it is being treated by all humans (he even shows it to you the way he sees it while on Duga). He wants to set it free. This is his Monolith.

While every poor stalker that was indoctrinated by the device was turned into a human automaton and only heard commands from it - Faust, being it's willing and mentally enhanced servant, heard and understood more via that connection to the Noosphere. He heard the Zone itself. And when the Monolith fell silent - he was distraught and looking for a way to "reconnect" to it again. And he did. At the Swamp. Remember that recording? He's not talking to the Monolith. He's talking to the Zone.


Skif.


Now, to sum things up and provide a full picture.

How does Skif tie into all of this (I'll be skipping over a lot of plot points here, this post is long enough).

He was the Zone's agent since the moment he touched that artifact in his apartment. See those flashing moments from the future in the ending cutscene? They are not just a recap of your decisions - they are instructions that Skif was implanted with.

So, our protagonist is now acting on the Zone's behalf. He heads in, gets ambushed by Faust's Monolith loyalists that got tipped off by Hermann and looses the Alfa artifact.

Faust uses the Alfa to establish connection on the Clear Sky's base in the Swamps, receives his "orders" from the Zone, but... and this is an important "but" - those orders are not what he expected. I imagine it going something along the lines of "Hey, stop messing with Skif and let him do the thing. Better yet - aid him. He's my chosen conduit". Faust, at this point in time, still yearns for the good ol' days under the Monolith. Him, his god and his brothers being a single entity with a common greater purpose.

So, what does he do? He defies his "God". Remember the thing about his free will? He starts using the X network to locate all ex-Monolith stalkers and plans to reconnect them all to it, and later, using the Duga, all the stalkers in the Zone too.

He hands over the scanner with the Alfa inside to Skif, but does not kill him (I bet he could), tasks his loyalists with building a network of those good ol' Monolith psi-antennas (those are capable of reaching the Monolith in CNPP by themselves, see CoP for reference) and activates them just when the Alfa establishes connection with the Generators.

He needed Duga and Alfa to convert all people in the Zone, but we foil his plans. This is where he starts to see the error of his ways. What did he refer to Skif as during that talk on Duga? "Envoy of the Monolith". "You stood by His side, carrying out His will, and now you've come for me. I have angered Him and that is why you are here - seeking revenge and the reward."

*Note - if you don't accept his hand while climbing onto Duga - you'll get up yourself and have that dialogue. If you do accept his hand - he'll let you go and you will fall to your death. I think it's his way of seeing for himself if you are up for the task the Zone bestowed upon you. You'll have to turn away every faction that has it sites on the Zone to carry it's will (Spark, Ward and Strelok). Trust no one but yourself (or your programming).

After that - you get through all of his gaslighting in that psi-funhouse of his, and you are ready to go. He trusts you with the keys to his God's future.

As Skif said to Richter (If I'm not mistaken) - "I now understand that this artifact in my kitchen was not a random event - it was a cry for help".



So, what do you guys and girls think? Did I hit the nail on the head? Or did that anomalous moonshine from Dvupalov + activated Brain Scorcher combo hit ME on the head a little too hard?

Glory to the Monolith.

I think your interpretation is correct and given how deep Ukrainian culture and struggle for freedom in ingrained into this game - it's a true one too. The Zone is alive and it has it's own free will. It does not want to be controlled by any of the factions, occupied or tied in a prison of false "peace". It has a voice and it wants to be free. All it needs of you is to listen.

[Chico_777]

Idk I wouldnt have killed the doctor regardless , but the monolithians will live on i guess

[Hazzmat]

i dont like any of the endings. they're all just some D-bag pickle in a jar. hard to believe in a god or a zone when all her majesty is just some dude whacking off comatose in a fkin tube

i might come around eventually but so far after going with the kaimanov ending and seeing every other ending it just nerfs any "power" or "force of nature the zone could have"

[waifu_anton]

The monolith regen lamp stays in your inventory until you track down the guide that was trying to get to Limansk. You find him wounded and can give it to him, but I guess if you choose other ways to get the "anomaly screwer" from him the game just decides you don't need it anymore and removes it from inventory.

Did not even get the chance to use it. The game just removed it from my inventory right after escaping from Ward camp. I wish I could use it to save the man, but no. The game does not let me for some reason

[-CSM- Abamor]

Also will post this update here, as I'm not sure how steam works in this regard and if people subscribed to this post will get updates if I simply edit it:

Update:

You, my brothers and sisters are awesome! This is exactly what I wanted from this post - a discourse around the game's ending that will eventually bring us closer to the truth.

After reading your comments I'm currently gravitating towards a slightly different Interpretation that I will share below. As for the original post - I'll leave it as is.

So, I now believe that almost all that we see In this ending's cutscene (besides the moment Skif enters the pod and the Doctor/Faust reveal) takes place in the past.

1. Skif's apartment, the anomaly and the alfa artefact (with the addition of implanted commands).

2. The scientists are performing the sabotaged Second Carribean Experiment, during which anomalies (not new Zones) pop up all over the world (similar to Skif's apartment, but without the alfa). Perhaps they are a kind of a diversion by the Zone itself to get the thing out there into the world but without powers-that-be being able to know where it ended up (and if it did at all). Don't quote me on that last part.

3. The globe at Kaymanov's basement (self explanatory and ties into 2).

So, that just leaves us with the Doctor/Faust scene. Now the line about all hidden things coming out to the light makes a whole lot more sense. Skif now knows how everything started. But this also means (since that globe/scientists part was all it the past) that we don't actually know what exactly happened (to the Zone/World) after Skif entered the pod! We just know that Faust felt this change. So this - is an open ending! Which means (for me, at least) that it is indeed the canon one, since it's the only one that leaves us guessing what happened next, allowing the authors to continue the story.

[-CSM- Abamor]

As to why exactly I believe the Faust reveal happens in the present (and is not, for example, a flashback to just after the Caribbean Experiment setting things into motion) - the amount of "towers" shown on the Duga in the final shot. It's missing a few in it's smaller section.

[-CSM- Abamor]

Originally posted by Monkatraz:

After beating the game it turns out the most interesting lore discussion is on Steam of all places lol. The subreddit literally has people saying the story is a disgrace despite never having actually played the game... literally have seen people say it's stupid how they "retconned" the Doctor when it's clear the game is not telling you everything. Many only seem to care about this game being a vessel for their favorite type of mod sandbox (and I do love those mods, but they're not the actual Stalker).

You know what the funny thing is? This discussion was originally written for Reddit. I've even registered on it just to post it, but it required some stupid stuff like a certain amount of post karma from other subreddits first.

I was aiming to confront all those people calling the plot nonsensical.

[-CSM- Abamor]

Originally posted by GenezisO:

I agree with the most except this:

Originally posted by -CSM- Abamor:

He was the Zone's agent since the moment he touched that artifact in his apartment. See those flashing moments from the future in the ending cutscene? They are not just a recap of your decisions - they are instructions that Skif was implanted with.

but then you say

Originally posted by -CSM- Abamor:

*Note - if you don't accept his hand while climbing onto Duga - you'll get up yourself and have that dialogue. If you do accept his hand - he'll let you go and you will fall to your death. I think it's his way of seeing for himself if you are up for the task the Zone bestowed upon you. You'll have to turn away every faction that has it sites on the Zone to carry it's will (Spark, Ward and Strelok). Trust no one but yourself (or your programming).

These two things contradict each other. If he was an agent from the start, then Faust "testing" him wouldn't make sense since Skif was just fulfilling the Zone's will and couldn't make his own choice anyway.

What I think really happened with THIS ending is that your decisions (as you the player) made Skif the "chosen one" in a sense that he was the only one who remained loyal to the Zone and didn't part with anyone who wanted to use it in their own way, namely Ward, Spark or Strelok.
Skif is the only one in this whole big picture who remained impartial and truly wanted the greater good. But only if you, the player say so. The game still allows you to part with Ward, destroy the Zone and all that. So no, Skif can't be an agent from the start because you as the player are free to choose whatever side you want to part with.

"I now understand that this artifact in my kitchen was not a random event - it was a cry for help"
- this single line confirms the greatest mystery of them all:
Entire Monolith faction, all project STALKER agents (including Scar and Strelok at some point) and Faust were all just manifestations of the Zone trying to protect itself, nothing else. And it all comes full circle and makes sense now more than ever.

C-Con never became to exist, not in the way the scientists intended, because we know from Stalker 2 that human's soul/consciousness can't really live in Subtle Matter form, Subtle Matter only stores a distorted copy of one's soul but it's not really alive and can't act independently. So when those 7 scientists connected via the Heart artifact to create the C-CON, they really only created a mixed imprint of their individual consciousness and then Strelok shot the pods on top of it, killing the scientists physical form. So all that dialog Strelok had with the C-con using visiograph in Shadow of Chernobyl, was just a echoed reflection of the C-Con, not the real C-con and all further visions and communication with the C-Con (even in Stalker 2 when Skif communicates with the Representative) was all just an illusion, discussion with a mindless robot so to speak. C-Con never existed, but the Noosphere kept it's "image" and memories of the scientists that went into the pods in the form of Subtle Matter, but the creation of the Monolith, their faction, stalker agents, it wasn't C-Con doing, it was the Zone's!

I think you are right in quite a few things.

In the case of "These two things contradict each other." - I think that I could have phrased it better. They are instructions. Suggestions - not commands. A call for help - not an order. And yet it is buried deep in Skif's mind, for the fear that he might not want to listen to it if it is presented openly (Imagine a radioactive, sapient plot of anomaly-ridden mind-land asking you to kill a few thousand people and PTSD-inducing abominations for it and set it free without a first-hand context of the situation). Free will is the main focus of the whole story, so I think that the Zone understood (if that word even applies to such a thing) that a direct brainwashing will only create another zombie/monolithian/s.t.a.l.k.e.r, and all of those failed as tools due to lacking it. It needed one capable of thinking and deciding for itself, but also capable of going against it's will (just like Faust). It wanted to be free and enslaving others clearly was not the way to do that (just like Faust tried to "free" Monolithians and all other stalkers from their burden). To quote a funny grey-haired man: "It's like poetry. It rhymes.".

As for C-Con being basically inactive during the whole series and not creating all those protecting measures - I don't think that's true. The subtle matter not being able to really contain a full-on live human conscience is not the same as humans not being able to influence the zone using those pods (other endings, for example). It just means that once you are dead - there is no life after death in the noosphere. I think that Strelok really stopped them from operating in SoC, and all that follows is an aftermath of their projects running wild. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.-programmed people, the Monolith, Faust. The Monolith for example, is a machine. Programmed to do one thing and one thing only - protect the North of the Zone and kill everyone not under it's control. It can be commanded by C-Con, but does not require them to be present to operate. The Zone was not enslaving people. People enslaved both it and other people. "I was following the Monolith blindly until She opened my eyes", as Faust said.

[TsPok]

Originally posted by -CSM- Abamor:

2. The scientists are performing the sabotaged Second Carribean Experiment, during which anomalies (not new Zones) pop up all over the world (similar to Skif's apartment, but without the alfa).

Please, pewatch this ending.
1. They use alfa-artefact that Skif brings to Zone.
2. If it was at past, Skif and others would knew about that experiment. There are a lot of sounds of news programms, urging people not to approach or interact with anomalies. He could not miss it, since he need time to found German. And in the Zone there will be some talks about it.

[Hazzmat]

Originally posted by Chico_777:

Idk I wouldnt have killed the doctor regardless , but the monolithians will live on i guess

how can that ending be about "free will" if the monolithians exist? and faust wins? didnt monolithians represent the desire to GO BACK to the USSR. wasn't that what it was? it was an allegory for the Russian separatist movement in limansk and east Ukraine hence WHY in Cs the monolith are holed up in limansk.

[-CSM- Abamor]

Originally posted by GenezisO:

Originally posted by Dupa:

Why is everyone interpreting couple of lights on the map as if they all represent new zones emerging? The cinematic clearly shows that it's the Caribbean Experiment 2 timeline, parallel to when Skif wakes up in his flat and sees an anomaly in his kitchen, but now shown from the perspective of the scientists in the experiment control room. The only thing that cinematic reveals, is that such accidental anomaly didn't only appear in Skif's flat, but all over the world on random locations, but it was only a single and momentary appearance of an anomaly outside the Zone's perimeter, that's it. Nothing in the game implies the creation of other "Zones" so far from the Alpha artifact or the psi-field is even possible. So no, I don't believe that new zones emerged and I think most people misinterpret it.

It makes sense, but another comment on this post made me question this explanation - what about the alfa already being there in the room with the scientists? Basically where you've left it during the campaign.

[-CSM- Abamor]

Originally posted by Hazzmat:

Originally posted by Chico_777:

Idk I wouldnt have killed the doctor regardless , but the monolithians will live on i guess

how can that ending be about "free will" if the monolithians exist? and faust wins? didnt monolithians represent the desire to GO BACK to the USSR. wasn't that what it was? it was an allegory for the Russian separatist movement in limansk and east Ukraine hence WHY in Cs the monolith are holed up in limansk.

Faust didn't win. The Zone did. Faust saw the error of his ways. He was trying to make everyone happy by connecting them to the Monolith, but got stopped by Skif and had to reconsider his actions. His narrative motive sounds something like: "Enslaving others, even for their own benefit and with the best intentions in mind, is wrong".