Resident Evil Requiem Endings Explained

Right at the end of Resident Evil Requiem, you’re presented with a choice to seal the fates of Grace and Leon. There are two options, and we trust that you chose wisely, because the outcome of one is certainly much less desirable than the other.

If you’d like to know about the ending you didn’t choose, you’re in the right place. In the video above, you can see both endings play out, and in the text below you can read how it all goes down. So let’s dive in and explain both of Requiem's conclusions.

The Good Ending

Grace and Leon’s adventure brings them to Raccoon City, the place where all this Resident Evil mess began. While we all know that the NEST secret facility was hiding under the city, Requiem reveals that another lab lies beneath the infamous orphanage: the ARK. There, in the system’s computer files, Grace discovers an unpublished interview with Ozwell E. Spencer – Umbrella’s mastermind – conducted by her mom, journalist Alyssa Ashcroft.

The video reveals that Spencer was eventually remorseful for all the disasters he caused with Umbrella’s viral and bioweapon projects. His push to be a more decent human is shown by his adoption of a baby girl, Grace. Yes, Grace is just a regular girl, and not some genetic key to a virus as villains Zeno and Victor Gideon have suggested throughout the game. And if you pay close attention to Spencer’s wise words, you can read between the lines to work out that Elpis – the mysterious macguffin at the heart of Requiem – is not in fact a weapon, but the vaccine for bioweapons. And so when Grace is given the opportunity to release or destroy Elpis, it’s clear which is the right way to go.

When Grace releases the antiviral, it initially seems like a great result for Zeno – a lightning-fast, sunglasses-wearing, slick haired villain who isn’t actually Wesker, despite all appearances. He believes Elpis is the key to ultimate control, and so swiftly injects it. Unlucky for him, the fast-acting serum quickly cures his existing infections, erasing his Wesker mojo and robbing him of the ability to dodge bullets.

To make things worse for Zeno, an armless Victor Gideon – Requiem’s lead villain and a former member of Umbrella – arrives on the scene and claims that Spencer’s plan for Elpis was genius, as a world without virus-based weapons would surely descend into anarchy. Unsurprisingly, he’s very onboard with the idea of uncontained chaos. Zeno, who reveals his true masters to be The Connections (the secret evil corporation from Resident Evil 7 and Village), is angered by all this, but his rage is temporary: he’s quickly decapitated by a rapidly mutating Gideon.

With a boss fight clearly on the way, Grace gets to work on healing Leon – who throughout the game has been suffering from stage three T-Virus infection – with the Elpis antiviral so our hero can take on Victor. Leon makes swift work of Gideon, despite him now having the ability to wield electricity and tear apart flesh with his newly-mutated arm, although in predictable Resident Evil fashion, killing a final boss once just isn’t enough. Gideon mutates into a hulking monstrosity, finally pulling back the curtain on what exactly our not-quite-human villain is: a Nemesis.

After shooting a fair amount of pulsating biosack weak points and parrying strikes from tentacles, Gideon is finally defeated. And if that wasn’t Resident Evil enough for you, the entire ARK begins to collapse. With no way of escape, Leon and Grace conclude that they’re goners. But, just in the nick of time, Hound Wolf squad rappel in to save the day. Unfortunately, though, their captain – Resident Evil’s other big hero, Chris Redifeld, is nowhere to be seen.

With our protagonists finally safe, Leon informs his handler, Sherry Birkin, that the Elpis antiviral works, and that he has a dose with her name on it (it seems like everyone who was there for the Raccoon City incident is suffering from T-Virus infection). Grace, although free of all the chaos, can’t help but mourn the death of Emily, the young test subject she helped save from Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center before watching her mutate into a bioweapon monstrosity and then get gunned down by Leon. Thankfully, our crack-shot hero theorises she could still be alive because he “didn’t hit any of her vitals”. What a guy!

News reports confirm that every shady Umbrella secret is finally being exposed, including the true motivations behind the missile strike that obliterated Raccoon City in 1998. The Connections are also put on blast by conspiracy theorists, who claim the group is secretly controlling the government and are responsible for Alyssa’s death in an effort to cover up their wrongdoings.

Does Resident Evil Requiem Have a Post-Credits Scene?

If you opt to follow the “good” ending, there is a post credits scene. Set a little while after the events of the game, Grace is back working at her desk as an FBI analyst. A phone call between her and Leon revealed that Emily did survive and now lives with Grace, who is teaching her to read. A photo on Grace’s desk reveals that Emily regained her eyesight, presumably thanks to the restorative qualities of Elpis.

Oh, and if you take a close look at Grace’s phone, you can see Leon’s phone number displayed. It’s 266-555-0173, if you wanna give that a go. Hopefully Capcom didn’t dox our floppy-haired hero.

Grace’s boss arrives at her desk to demand her full report on the events that occurred in the ARK and their wider implications. The complete 60-page document is then made available to read in the bonus menu, confirming that this ending truly is Requiem’s canon conclusion.

In the final post-credit scene, back at ARK, shady soldiers wearing all black and gas masks declare that remaining BSAA forces have been neutralized, and they’re on their way to retrieve the “objective” before Wolf Squad arrives. This no doubt teases what The Connections have up their sleeves for the events of Resident Evil 10.

The Bad Ending

Should you make the mistake of not realising that Elpis is a cure, and decide to opt for the more traditional route of “destroy the thing that Umbrella made,” you’ll trigger Requiem’s bad ending. After typing in the destruction password, ARK begins to collapse, and Leon, being the hero that he is, springs into action, boosting Grace up to a higher platform so she can escape. Zeno, still loaded with Wesker powers, immediately kicks Leon’s arse, and then unceremoniously holds his gun’s barrel to Leon’s head and pulls the trigger. RIP.

Showing no urgency after Leon’s death, Zeno takes one last look at Grace as the platform collapses beneath him and plummets downwards, signalling his apparent end.

Grace, in shock and with no doubt a bit of survivor’s guilt, rides an elevator up to the surface, where she’s greeted by a rescue team.

And that’s it! There’s no fancy credits like in the good ending, and no post-credit scenes. The game just finishes. It truly is an anticlimactic bummer. Unsurprisingly, you’re immediately given the option to reload from the moment Grace chooses what to do with Elpis, allowing you to quickly get on with the canon ending.

Grace’s Report

As previously mentioned, completing the “good” ending unlocks Grace’s final report in Requiem’s bonus menu. This 60-page document details her findings and six decades of Umbrella activity, stretching back to the company’s establishment in 1968.

Two of the company’s co-founders, Ozwell E. Spencer and James Marcus, were ideologically opposed, which caused a number of issues in the direction of Umbrella’s research. While Spencer eventually demoted Marcus, things were already too far gone. The Connections, the shadowy group who Zeno works for, had been funneling funds to Marcus for years, while also placing moles within the company. By the 1990s, Spencer had lost much of his control of Umbrella, and had retreated to ARK to develop Elpis.

Elpis was created in secret, and so The Connections were only able to learn minor details through their network of moles. The only significant leak suggested Elpis had the potential to upset the military balance of the entire world, an idea The Connections interpreted to mean some kind of mind control virus. This was, of course, totally incorrect – Spencer’s creation was an antiviral that would render the world’s bioweapons impotent.

In an effort to secure Elpis, The Connections lobbied the US government to launch a missile at Raccoon City in the wake of the original T-Virus outbreak – not to prevent the virus’ spread, but to disrupt the relationship between Umbrella and the U.S. government. By influencing the subsequent criminal trial against Spencer, The Connections ensured he took all the blame for the outbreak, which in turn led to the dissolving of Umbrella. The Connections could then step in and claim the company’s assets, putting them in control of Elpis. All they then had to do was unlock its safeguard system – a task that led them to Grace, Spencer’s adoptive daughter and, as far as they were concerned, the key to releasing the greatest bioweapon of all.

Grace theorises that Spencer’s motivations for Elpis were peace and redemption for the many horrors he was responsible for. Not that such a goal could stop The Connections, seemingly the real power behind the world’s problems, from turning the ruins of Raccoon City into a hub for the production and distribution of bioweapons. She concludes that it’s the FBI’s role to investigate The Connections, who largely remain a mystery, and bring justice to those who have died because of their actions – something that will presumably take us into the story of Resident Evil 10.

via Resident Evil Requiem Endings Explained
by Matt Purslow