Penumbra (Requiem) Ending General Discussion

[eiahmon]

After playing Requiem through again, I've drawn a few conclusions about the endings, so here's my take.

At one point in the game, Red tells you "better to have a story and end it, then to never realize it has begun." and then that Carpenter guy also says that Red offered him death, and that he refused, so now he was trapped in there. If you choose to climb in the incinerator with Red, you see Phillip lying on the floor, motionless, and you hear his breathing slow down, though you don't hear it stop. If you choose to leave the room, Phillip appears in the boat, though it has the picture on the wall from the dream sequence from Black Plague. The entire scene to me always seems to have a surreal dream quality to it, like a dream.

I took all of that to mean that Requiem is all in Phillip's head, and climbing in the incinerator with Red is the "good" - if one can call it that - ending, where he dies, and his soul is free to go on to whatever afterlife awaits. Leaving the room is the "bad" ending, where Phillip is trapped in that dream world forever, never to escape.

At least, that's my opinion on it. XD Thoughts anyone?