10 Secrets You Didn't Know About Half-Life: Alyx
4. The G-Man And His Choosing Of Alyx
The end of Half-Life: Alyx has some little nuances to it. In summary, the G-Man, feigning entrapment inside the Combine’s vault, waited for Alyx’s intrigue to lead her to him. Expecting Gordon Freeman, Alyx breaks the G-Man out of his prison.
He offers a nudge of her choosing. She chooses to remove the Combine from Earth but that is a considerably large nudge.
As you may not know, the G-Man’s perception of time is comparable to that of the Vortigaunts. Each Vortigaunt is connected. If one has memories of the Nihilanth’s enslavement of their race, they all do. They are coterminous.
One theory is that the G-Man’s form of being allows him to see all of time, or some variation of that. With this, he offers Alyx the chance to save her father five years before his death and uses such a nudge as bait for her employment.
Those who didn't play Half-Life 2 won't fully understand the meaning behind G-Man's line, “a previous hire has been unable or… unwilling to perform the tasks laid before him.”
The visual hint shows us Gordon Freeman. What’s not explained is that his unwillingness is due to collaboration with the Vortigaunts. During the opening of Half-Life 2, Episode 1, they helped him escape the G-Man’s contract as he attempted to put Gordon back into stasis.
That is why the G-Man went to such lengths to hire Alyx Vance.