Bioshock Infinite: 10 Important Details You Didn't Notice
6. Booker And Comstock Are Not The Same Person, Literally And Thematically
The reveal that the Booker you’ve been playing as and the Father Comstock you’ve been fighting against are one and the same is one of gaming’s most mind-bending moments, earning it a guaranteed entry on many a gaming list.
But there is an important sub text being missed, one that ties intimately into Infinite’s themes of predestination and free will.
See, Booker and Comstock are two possible results of a choice a young Booker DeWitt makes after the Wounded Knee Massacre. If he is baptised he becomes Comstock. If he rejects the baptism, he becomes the Booker DeWitt we know.
It is Comstock’s meddling with reality that leads to the game’s multiple universe-spanning mess, which the Luteces in turn attempt to fix, which in turn results in a loop, which sees Booker after Booker failing to defeat Comstock.
But the Booker we play as is the one who ultimately succeeds in his mission to stop Comstock by choosing to die. Thematically, psychologically and physically, this makes them two very different people.
It is a subtle, but profound distinction, one that highlights the primacy of choice over predestination. It is, after all, variables that change the outcome of an equation, not constants.