Key Choices & Their Long-Term Impact

Understand how your decisions impact Jodie Holmes's journey and those around her in Beyond: Two Souls. This guide details major choices and outcomes.

Beyond: Two Souls is a narrative-driven experience where your decisions, both big and small, can significantly alter Jodie Holmes's journey and the fates of those around her. This section details the most impactful choices you'll face and their far-reaching consequences, guiding you to your desired ending or simply helping you understand the butterfly effect of your actions.

Chapter: The Experiment

Choice: Interact with the Children or Ignore Them

• Location: DPA Research Facility, Observation Room.
• Action: When the two children taunt Jodie through the glass, you have the option to either use Aiden to scare them (by interacting with the glass or objects in their room) or to ignore their provocations.
• Impact:
  • Scare Them: This action will result in the children crying and running away, leading to Dr. Dawkins and Dr. Sherman reprimanding Jodie. It establishes an early pattern of Jodie using Aiden defensively or aggressively, influencing her relationship with him and her perception of her powers. This choice can subtly contribute to Jodie's later isolation and distrust of others.
  • Ignore Them: If Jodie ignores the children, they will eventually leave on their own. This path demonstrates Jodie's attempt to control Aiden and avoid conflict, fostering a slightly more reserved and less confrontational personality. While seemingly minor, these early interactions set the tone for Jodie's character development.

Chapter: Homeless

Choice: Steal Money from the ATM or Beg for Food

• Location: City Streets, near the ATM and various shops.
• Action: After being abandoned and finding herself homeless, Jodie needs to acquire food. You can either use Aiden to manipulate the ATM to dispense cash or approach various individuals to beg for spare change or food.
• Impact:
  • Steal from ATM: This choice provides Jodie with immediate funds, allowing her to buy a hot dog from the vendor. However, it reinforces a morally ambiguous path, suggesting a willingness to use Aiden's powers for personal gain, even if out of desperation. This can affect how players perceive Jodie's morality and her reliance on Aiden's less ethical capabilities.
  • Beg for Food/Money: This path involves approaching several NPCs (e.g., the woman with the baby, the man reading a newspaper). Success varies, but eventually, a kind woman will offer Jodie a sandwich. This choice highlights Jodie's vulnerability and her struggle to survive without resorting to Aiden's more intrusive abilities. It can lead to a more empathetic portrayal of Jodie and her plight.

Chapter: The Dinner

Choice: How to Deal with the Party Guests

• Location: Ryan Clayton's Apartment, during the dinner party.
• Action: As the evening progresses, the guests become increasingly rude and dismissive towards Jodie. You have multiple ways to react using Aiden.
• Impact:
  • Politely Endure/Leave: Jodie can attempt to simply endure the insults or, if the opportunity arises, excuse herself. This path maintains Jodie's composure but can leave her feeling hurt and isolated. It emphasizes her struggle to fit into normal society.
  • Subtly Annoy Guests: Use Aiden to cause minor disturbances, such as knocking over a glass, turning off lights, or making small objects move. This provides some catharsis for Jodie but can make her appear unstable or peculiar to Ryan.
  • Aggressively Retaliate: Aiden can be used to cause significant chaos, such as breaking objects, throwing food, or even physically harming guests (e.g., choking them). This will inevitably lead to the party ending abruptly and Ryan being distressed. This choice severely strains Jodie's relationship with Ryan, potentially making future romantic options with him more difficult or even impossible. It also reinforces Jodie's difficulty in controlling Aiden and her own emotions, pushing her further into isolation.

Chapter: Norah

Choice: Kill Norah or Let Her Live

• Location: Hospital room where Norah is being held.
• Action: After confronting her biological mother, Norah, Jodie is given the option to use Aiden to end Norah's suffering or to leave her alive.
• Impact:
  • Kill Norah: If Jodie chooses to end Norah's life, it's a deeply traumatic and morally complex decision. This action will have a profound impact on Jodie's mental state, adding to her guilt and sense of being a monster. It is a permanent choice that will be referenced in later chapters and can influence Jodie's ultimate decision in the "Black Sun" chapter regarding life and death.
  • Let Norah Live: Choosing to let Norah live, despite her vegetative state, demonstrates Jodie's compassion and her refusal to take a life, even when prompted. This decision, while still painful, avoids the additional burden of guilt associated with ending her mother's life. It reinforces Jodie's inherent goodness and her struggle to control Aiden's more destructive impulses.

Chapter: Black Sun

Choice: Life or Beyond

• Location: The Black Sun chamber, after the final confrontation.
• Action: This is the ultimate choice in the game, determining Jodie's fate and the overall ending. You must choose whether Jodie enters the "Beyond" (the Infraworld) or returns to "Life."
• Impact:
  • Beyond: If Jodie chooses to enter the Infraworld, she will become a spiritual entity, joining Aiden and other deceased souls. This ending is highly dependent on the relationships Jodie forged throughout the game.
    • Alone: If Jodie has no strong living connections, she will remain alone in the Infraworld.
    • With Companions: If Jodie formed strong bonds with characters like Jay, Zoey, or Stan, they may appear in the Infraworld with her, offering a sense of peace and companionship.
    This ending often feels more mystical and offers a sense of ultimate freedom from her earthly struggles, but it means leaving the living world behind.
  • Life: If Jodie chooses to return to the living world, she will continue her existence, but her future is shaped by the relationships she cultivated.
    • Alone: If Jodie has pushed everyone away, she will live a solitary life, often depicted as isolated but resilient.
    • With Ryan: If Jodie fostered a romantic relationship with Ryan, she can choose to live with him, leading to a domestic and stable life.
    • With Jay: If Jodie developed a strong bond with Jay and the Navajo family, she can return to them, finding peace and community.
    • With Zoey/Stan: If Jodie prioritized her connections with the homeless group, she can choose to live with them, finding purpose in helping others.
    This ending emphasizes human connection and the possibility of a normal life, but Jodie will always carry the weight of her past.