[Ending Spoilers] The Secret Knowledge

[DrowsyMoose]

What exactly is this meant to represent?

At first I thought that it was symbolic of Andrew futilely attempting to find a cure for cancer in order to save his son, but the ending completely denies that interpretation.

Jimmy acquires the Secret Knowledge and is somehow able to use that to fight his cancer? What information, book, text, wisdom, or other related concept would help in such a situation? Granted, Jimmy still loses in the end, but the Secret Knowledge must have some meaning even if it wasn't the perfect solution it was made out to be.

Additionally, Andrew mentions how he himself could not read the Secret Knowledge and is surprised Jimmy is able to, only further muddling any possible interpretation. Andrew was never implied to have cancer, and for him to not have been able to read the Secret Knowledge would imply that he had died to cancer which is clearly not the case. This one offhand comment really confuses me.

Also, we are provided with hints of Jimmy having dyslexia throughout the story, only for him to suddenly be able to overcome it at the end in order to read the Secret Knowledge. I'm not totally sure how this fits in to the bigger picture, but it was something that caught my eye.

As I look over what I've typed here, the only conclusion I can come to was that Secret Knowledge never existed at all. Perhaps Andrew truly was looking for a way to cure his son, and him not being able to "read" the Secret Knowledge represents his inability to help. Jimmy being able to magically read despite dyslexia may be a clue that he was simply lying; he never read the Secret Knowledge, and thus never beat cancer, at all. He pretended to be feeling better in order to spend some more time with his family outside of the hospital in his final days. That would explain his remorse in his final moments, as he felt bad for lying about his health even if it was with good intentions. Given that the imagery in the ending implies that Jimmy died by taking his own life, he would clearly have known about his own condition. How dark.

I seem to have answered my own question while writing this, though I'm curious if anyone has any other thoughts.

[Theblender2000]

Nope, the Secret Knowledge is Death, not stopping it, not going against it, but understanding it, It was never a cure for the pulsating mass, but it was the concept of death that jimmy could understand, he empathized with it, despite how much he did not want to. notice how jimmy never can die in his imagination, nor can anyone that is close to him die, as they all come back at sometime, take punch tanaka for example or jonathan bear, nobody can die, and he does not want to accept it, take for instance all the times that something halts you from reading it, the water when punch tanaka threw himself out of the library for example

It also explains how his father was completely unable to understand it, because despite his knowledge about how death "works", the forms at which people can die, what it feels like when you near your death, or knowing when its about to happen his father can understand, but what he doesnt know is what happens WHEN you die, what happens to you when you die, or what happens as you die.

Jmmy on the other hand, is able to understand it, through empathizing with it, he never really could stop or fight the pulsating mass, but what is important is that he empathized with the concept of death, He was sorry that he was not able to actually make it out alive, but he fought it, he empathized with it, and most importantly

Jimmy did his best!

[DrowsyMoose]

I think that's a good interpretation, though I'm not sure if I agree with every aspect of it.

On one hand, it does explain Jimmy's actions at the end. When he "reads" the Secret Knowledge, he's accepting the inevitability of his death. I don't think it's about empathizing with death, as you can't really empathize with an abstract concept. If anything, he's empathizing with his family by giving them a final bit of hope and happiness before his departure.

I don't think this explanation really meshes with Andrew's relation to the Secret Knowledge though. Understanding what happens post-death is never really a relevant theme of the game, nor does it make sense as something that Jimmy suddenly understood/came to terms with while fighting the pulsating mass. Flashbacks show Andrew's desperation to cure his son when he tells the doctor there must be something he could do. Additionally, he frequently demonstrates his resolve to help Jimmy when he repeats that "every problem has a solution."

Interesting point about how death doesn't really exist in Jimmy's imagination world though. This, of course, isn't valid when it comes to the nightmare scenarios (ex. Cordelia) but for the most part is true. That said, Punch and Jonathon come back just AFTER Jimmy supposedly accepts death, which is a bit odd. This might just be because of a disconnect between gameplay and story though (the party members needed to come back for post game content).

Also, symbolically, how does this interpretation fit into the prophecy surrounding the Secret Knowledge? It states that Jimmy needed to do something at the Core in order to stop the pulsating mass. The Core seems to represent Jimmy's heart/brain/body in general. If we follow along with this train of thought, then the prophecy was essentially telling Jimmy to kill himself in order to stop the pulsating mass, which doesn't seem quite right to me. Personally, I find it more likely that it was just a fruitless endeavor altogether, which is why the story seemed to constantly be dangling the Secret Knowledge right outside the protagonists' reach.

[LV-04 "Leelee"]

Think of the exact end of the game, Jimmy leaves his home, the world is colorless, Jimmy can't remember what was inside his house, we hear the EKG, and everything ends with "I'm sorry". I believe the quest for the Secret Knowledge was Jimmy trying to make sense of his dying thoughts long enough to wake up and say those two words.

[MurderMoose]

I don't think the Secret Knowledge is death, but acceptance a la the five stages of grief. Jimmy has a lot to deal with, between his cancer, his illiteracy and his guilt. Coping with everything and expressing his regret at not literally living up to his family's hopes and expectations seemed more on the nose to me. But there is no right answer, just the answer that best fits the player.

[Theblender2000]

Originally posted by DrowsyMoose:

I think that's a good interpretation, though I'm not sure if I agree with every aspect of it.

On one hand, it does explain Jimmy's actions at the end. When he "reads" the Secret Knowledge, he's accepting the inevitability of his death. I don't think it's about empathizing with death, as you can't really empathize with an abstract concept. If anything, he's empathizing with his family by giving them a final bit of hope and happiness before his departure.

I don't think this explanation really meshes with Andrew's relation to the Secret Knowledge though. Understanding what happens post-death is never really a relevant theme of the game, nor does it make sense as something that Jimmy suddenly understood/came to terms with while fighting the pulsating mass. Flashbacks show Andrew's desperation to cure his son when he tells the doctor there must be something he could do. Additionally, he frequently demonstrates his resolve to help Jimmy when he repeats that "every problem has a solution."

Interesting point about how death doesn't really exist in Jimmy's imagination world though. This, of course, isn't valid when it comes to the nightmare scenarios (ex. Cordelia) but for the most part is true. That said, Punch and Jonathon come back just AFTER Jimmy supposedly accepts death, which is a bit odd. This might just be because of a disconnect between gameplay and story though (the party members needed to come back for post game content).

Also, symbolically, how does this interpretation fit into the prophecy surrounding the Secret Knowledge? It states that Jimmy needed to do something at the Core in order to stop the pulsating mass. The Core seems to represent Jimmy's heart/brain/body in general. If we follow along with this train of thought, then the prophecy was essentially telling Jimmy to kill himself in order to stop the pulsating mass, which doesn't seem quite right to me. Personally, I find it more likely that it was just a fruitless endeavor altogether, which is why the story seemed to constantly be dangling the Secret Knowledge right outside the protagonists' reach.

1. fair, but I doubt that he is empathizing with his family when he reads the secret knowledge, that happens when he collects the "orbs" near the end where he sees his family in the hospital with him. and we cant really tell that he actually says that stuff in real life

2. Hm, interesting concept, maybe Its that way and jimmy's dad cant "read" the secret knowledge because he thinks that its a cure, rather than an end to the pulsating mass, not necessarily a good way to end it, but it is an end.

3. yeah, all we really get are people that have died before, or seem like they die but come back, except the nightmare sequences of course. And yeah, maybe jonathan bear and tanaka just came back because "oh yeah, we should probably let people play with every character at the end"

4. The story constantly treats the pulsating mass as an unstoppable force, always coming back stronger every time, and as we have seen, the pulsating mass is like a leech disease (except the reanimated things, which seem to have been dead already, see #3) , and it is very hard to leech life off of something that is already dead, so it would stop the pulsating mass

but nah, it wasnt a fruitless endeavor, jimmy got to die by his own accounts, his own acceptance, he wanted to have one, last happy moment in his mind happen to them before he let himself go from his suffering, as stated, the story never really was about stopping the pulsating mass, it was about accepting the fact that jimmy was going to die one way or another, and he decided to end it by his own accounts, and die happy, rather than die by suffering and being strangled by the pulsating mass, he went out the way he wanted, not the pulsating mass's

Kind of a bittersweet ending, but its the one jimmy wanted