My somewhat ramble-y, and what I believe to be the correct, interpretation of Returnal's story. I'm well aware how late I am to the party, and that people have already figured this all out. I don't care, haha... I came up with all of this myself, and I'm kinda proud of it, tbh. The game is amazing, I'm gripped by it's story, and now here we are. It's a long one everybody, but I swear I tried to reign it in where I felt I could! Anyways, without further ado.

*EDIT* I've just finished the hospital, and it seems like it's very much implied, that Selene is responsible for her mother's death. It seems she outright murdered her. 836 shows up everywhere; 8:36AM is Theia's time of death, according to the coroner's report in the hospital. Selene could have been abusing her over a long period of time, but I think I doubt that. Her mother, Theia's cause of death is reported as "Traumatic Encephalophathy" which is severe brain trauma, caused by repeated, sustained blows to the head. It's CTE, the same condition fighters, and football players get. "She should have left me alone..." Selene says, menacingly in a voice log. It might be, that our favorite would-be Astronaut, has been quite a naughty little fucker.

*EDIT #2* Thanks to all of you that commented, and super thanks to you guys that shared your ideas, hypotheses, and criticisms! I've definitely got some better ideas to follow up on, in particular dealing with Selene (or maybe more accurately... Theia? hehe...) and the nature of the delusion's introject. Might post another, more refined one of these in the future, with a bit better editing, and my new/final thoughts on the game. Anyways, thanks again everybody, I can't wait to start digging around with all these new ideas!

PREAMBLE

Firstly, what the story of Returnal is not: A story about aliens. A story about literal death, and rebirth. It's not a story set in the far future, about a space-faring version of humanity that is exploring the stars, and/or is set in an alternate universe. Nor is it a game that takes place on another planet besides Earth, or Lovecraftian in anything other than surface level presentation and art style. Neither is it a story about time travel/paradoxes, souls, the afterlife, or metaphysical in any way, shape, or form.

It is however, a story about human beings. About struggle, about loss, and about suffering.

The biggest clue (among others) that rules out all of the space-faring/alien/far-future concepts, is time. Her mother either was a part of, had aspirations to participate in, or lived in the time of the Apollo missions. The suit she appears in, dates this. Somewhere around the 50's and 60's if I remember correctly. That would put Selene's mother, at the very least, born in the 1940-50's, and therefore Selene's birth somewhere in the range of 1970-1990.

The massive technological leap that would have had to occur from Selene's mother's birth, and Selene's middle age is impossible. Moreso, the writers want us to know this, as there are many other clues such as tech and appliances in Selene's house, the hospital, and her car that we can semi-accurately date the world with.

Even if the Astronaut is just a symbol, or a representation of Selene's Mother, ruined career, or otherwise- the game world still dates itself, with it's representation of domestic technology.

It's easier to list what Returnal is not, because it narrows the focus down to they story that Returnal is actually telling here: A story about Trauma, mental illness, and one woman's desperate struggle with motherhood, life, loss, guilt, shame, and eventually her own sanity.

95% of it told indirectly and through cryptic metaphor, symbolism, and allegory.

PART I: THE ECLIPSE

I'll start it off with the big one; the catalyst for the entire story of the game.

Selene, in an impulsive moment of despair, deliberately drives her car over a bridge in an attempt to kill herself, and at he same time her son, Helios. A vehicular murder/suicide.

People who have attempted suicide and lived to tell the tale, mostly all repeat the same experience:

It's always done in a single, impulsive moment of abandon. If they have the where-with-all, and depending on the chosen method such as: Jumping off of a bridge- survivors mostly all report the same experience: After the 'jump', they immediately regretted the decision, and naturally switched into fight or flight in an attempt to preserve their own life.

In most cases, a trigger precedes the attempt. A final straw, or sometimes- an emotional experience.

Selene's (primary) trigger for her attempt was the song, "Don't Fear the Reaper" by the Blue Oyster Cult. Not only a song that holds no small amount emotional significance for Selene, but is also thematically appropriate in the context of suicide. It's tone, albeit interpretable in many ways, can easily be imagined as being one of somber resignation. If one is going to kill themselves to a soundtrack, Don't Fear the Reaper, IMO, is a stellar choice.

The other trigger, is her son's seemingly nonsensical comment about "the white shadow." Children often make up words or concepts, when learning and adjusting to the world around them. Mostly, literal, simple interpretations of it. Personally, I believe that Helios is simply asking about the headlights on the car. A child his age wouldn't know how light works, and could conceivably conflate beams of light reflecting off of the ground with actual shadows, therefore incorrectly but wonderfully, describe the headlights as a "white" shadow.

Selene never finds out what white shadow is. It remains unknown (to Selene) for the entire game, and is never revealed to her, or the player. The white shadow 'signal' doesn't exist. It was just a child's simple minded observation, nothing more. However it being a trigger of Selene's contempt and attempted murder/suicide, and also being the last thing her son said, her broken, guilt-stricken mind obsesses over it to the degree that takes a starring role in her delusions. More on that later.

We know from the kitchen scene that Helios is fond of making up stories (of the nonsensical variety as children often do), and also fond of telling them. No doubt to the frustration of Selene, as she shoots him a quite menacing, contemptuous glance in the rear view mirror before adjusting it in such a way as to remove the child from her line of sight. Selene, does not enjoy being a mother to Helios, or as we find out shortly after (and later on), a mother at all.

Her motivations: Her inability to cope with the pressures and responsibility of motherhood. At first glance this may seem an insufficient explanation. However exactly this situation was played out about 5 months ago, when a mother drove her car into Boon Lake in Johnson City, TN in an attempt to kill herself, and her 2 year old child. There is also the case of Susan Smith, who in 1994 strapped her two sons, three year old Michael and one year old Alexander, into their car seats, and rolled her car into John D. Long Lake, in South Carolina, killing both.

There are countless more examples of exactly this act available with a quick google search. Filicide (the deliberate act of murdering one's own child) happens rarely, but is not uncommon; particularly among women. In fact; among the victims of female homicide, their own children rank near, or in the top percentile of targets. Women are more likely to murder their own children, than complete strangers.

Selene regains consciousness inside of her now sunken, car. It's interior completely submerged, and like so many before her, her flight or fight instincts kick in. She attempts to save her son, but ultimately fails. She's forced to abandon Helios, and escape out of the driver's side window, to save herself.

This was not an accident. The two huge pieces of information that pretty much screams that factoid at us, are Selene 'shooting down' her own 'ship', and her standing on the bridge in front of her 'past self' and paradoxically causing her own crash. These are intended as metaphor, and also ways in which Selene's mind is deluding itself to save her the overwhelming flood of shame and anguish, resulting from the acknowledgment of the grim truth that she essentially succeeded in murdering her own child.

To spell it out, "Selene caused her own crash." IE: Selene herself is the one who drove the car into the lake, deliberately. She "Shot down" IE murdered, Helios.

Several more articles of proof that substantiate her motivations, are in the hospital scenes. The "Motherhood" magazine that is essentially a self dialogue of Selene's thoughts about her experience of motherhood, the poster of the stork cradling a brick in it's swaddling cloth with the text "a child is never a burden!", and the strange poster that reads, "YOU ARE YOUR MOTHER. YOU ARE NO MOTHER. YOU'RE A BAD MOTHER."

PART II: DECODING THE MATRIX (MIND GAMES)

When the phenomena (and entirety) of the game is viewed from Selene's own perspective or more accurately, as creations of her own mind (as we play the game within it), this acts as a skeleton key or a cipher: When the story and events of the game are passed through it, the true nature of the story is translated, and made clear.

The entire rest of the game a metaphor for her struggle to attempt cope with what she's done by repressing her feelings and memories, and retreating into her delusions/psychosis.

Some of these are: Her paraplegia as a result of the crash, the complete destruction of her current life, and future, her murder of her own son. She constructs a delusional fantasy world in which she can feel powerful and capable, where in the real world she is frail, broken, and without agency.

A world in which she can express her desire for martyrdom and righteous suffering to placate feelings of guilt for what she's done. A world in which to hide from her trauma, and the reality of what she's done, what she has become, and what she is destined to remain. She creates, and conducts a war on a fantastic battleground, in which the conditions of victory are the successful repression of painful emotions, and memories.

Every boss we fight, is a metaphor for some aspect of Selene's trauma. When we defeat them, we are successfully repressing the emotions and memories that metaphor represents. This feels like victory to Selene. A good example of this, is Hyperion, and the silencing (repression) of his 'music'.

The fantasy introject that is Selene the ASTRA Scout, is the vehicle for her continued spiral into the depths of her psychosis. When we as the player win at the game, Selene also wins- a further nose dive into the depths of her delusional world.

The Severed, represent the 'will' of Selene's true self attempting to break through. The Sentients, are parts of her that have been safely locked away- memories and emotions successfully repressed. Successfully imprisoned within her unconscious mind. The Severed and the enemies in game are representative of emotions, memories, and experiences *not yet* repressed, that still remain in Selene's conscious mind, and are still actively causing her distress. And so it is that Selene fights to exterminate them.

This is also the nature of the Xenochipers and the Xenoglyphs. They are attempts by Selene's unconscious mind to "reach out" to her, and return to the forefront of her mind in a way she might be able to handle- in the context of her "adventure" and created, delusional false-self.

However- When we successfully "translate" these glyphs, we are in reality doing the opposite: We are actually encrypting Selene's thoughts and memories into something alien, and unrecognizable. This is why the "Translation efficiency" gets worse, as the tier of "deciphering" increases, and the message becomes yet more cryptic, without logical ideas that lack any coherent messages, and are mostly "delusion-ified" in such a way that it fits into Selene's fantasy world.

Just to reiterate, Sentients = Selene's unconscious mind. The Severed = Conscious memories, experiences, and emotions that have yet to be repressed, and are actively causing Selene emotional pain.

It's also worth noting here, that some of the Sentients' statues that we see, are posed in suggestive ways. One is reaching into their own empty womb, others are kneeling, hands over their face, and presumably weeping or hiding in shame. Some are reaching up to the sky, as if to beckon, or "shake their fist" to god. Yet others are confined to thrones. Again, representations of Selene's repressed memories. It's also worth noting that we can destroy most of these statues. We even get rewards in the form of Ooblites (I can never remember their names, oddly) or sometimes, punished with a bat enemy.

This delusional coping mechanism, this power fantasy; Is the game that we play. This is the nature of the cycle. The cycle of re-experiencing trauma in a futile attempt to purge our emotions and memories relating to it. The cycle of trauma is a real world, studied, documented behavior that keeps it's victims stuck in an ever-looping, ceaseless, cycle of re-experiencing and re-living traumatic events, all the while providing the sufferer the illusion of control, but ultimately remaining blind to it's cyclical nature, and unable to find a way to escape it on their own. They re-live their trauma, fight to force it back down, only to ultimately fail and see the memories resurface.

This is what the image of the Oroboros and the cycle itself, represents in game, as well.

PART III: REALITY BYTES

We learn through a particular log, that she has been committed to a mental hospital sometime after her car crash and subsequent 'recovery' (as she refuses to participate in any form of rehabilitation). In this log, she has a conversation with the psychologist/worker assigned to her case, that reveals the truth about the game, her delusions, and the real world in plain language. It's probably the most important log in the game. She explains the events we experience in game to this worker and naturally, is rebuffed and told "she isn't making any sense."

Selene is most likely isolated, and still resides in that hospital, having burned her home down some time after the crash, and most likely committed as a result.

Even the name "Atropos" is a proper adjective of the word "Atrophy." She is no doubt experiencing physical atrophy owing to her paraplegia, and atrophy of the mind due it's fracture. Atropos is Selene's psyche imagined as a physical landscape. The woods in which she lived and crashed, the scalding/frozen desert that is her barren reality and empty womb/nest, home, and future, the mechanical throne to which she is now eternally bound, the citadel in which she is imprisons her thoughts, and the watery depths of her most lurid transgressions.

Selene in reality, is stagnant, confined in a hospital, and in a state of physical atrophy, along with her grip on reality. Hence, her prison planet to which she bestows the name, "Atropos."

This is also the symbolism behind her suit, and augments. She is wheelchair bound, after all- In order for her mind to construct her power fantasy, she must account for this. This is akin to "bridge statements" in psychology and cognitive behavioral therapy- If one thinks they are a horrible person, the mind recoils and rejects the affirmative statement, "I am a good person." Instead, the patient is instructed to try using a "bridge statement" such as, "I'm not as bad as I think I am" or even further, "I might not be as horrible as I think I am." Thusly does Selene's mind recoil at the thought of a fully functional body, and must construct an external method for Selene to attain power within the fantasy.

The suit allows her mobility, protects her, gives her power. She isn't disabled, in the suit. She augments herself with powerful 'alien' technology- in her mind, Selene isn't powerful for her own agency, will, or physical abilities: She is in need of powerful external tools she must aquire and use to *become* capable. A suit, is an augment, is an artifact, is a technology, is a wheelchair.

This is Selene's way of coping with her paraplegia, within the context of her fantasy. Also it's worth noting that "Spinal columns" and different representation of human Spines appear in much of the landscape of Atropos. The fractured worship the idol of a spine. Many of the fractured are depicted as having tiny wings, and many enemies in the game have no need of legs to ambulate. They either float, or use tentacles. Most of the robot enemies are either damaged in some way, malfunctioning, or literally lack legs, in the case of the giant crawling robots. Obviously symbolism referring to her disability, and reliance on a wheelchair.

PART IV: A CROW LEFT OF THE MURDER (EPILOGUE)

Ultimately, the story of Returnal is a bleak one. We witness, through metaphor, symbolism and allegory, a desperately human woman; given to the very worst of her nature, who commits an unspeakable act, and must now pay it's due.

Having murdered her son, ruined her own life, and having no family left to speak of; Selene's psyche cracks, and shatters under the weight of her suffering. Selene falls into an unfathomably deep, delusional psychosis, in her mind's desperate attempt to distract her consciousness from the unbearable pain of her current existence.

Selene, is wheelchair bound and isolated, utterly mentally shattered, physically broken and confined to a hospital somewhere in the mid-western United States; Where she sits stagnant, and in a perpetual state of psychosis. A prisoner of her own mind.

I'll close with a little mildly-cryptic prose of my own;

The Moon grows dark, and disappears unseen without the light of the sun to illuminate it's presence. She fades away, without a sound, into the lonely void of space; never to be gazed upon by the eyes of the Earth, forevermore.

That's my take on it. So far, anyway.

Thanks for reading, if you did. It was a lot.

Edits for grammar, clarity, and a few little bits I thought up after the fact (I couldn't resist, lol).