Endings

The Binding of Isaac features an epilogue and eleven endings as of the latest version with the Christmas update, and thirteen endings with Wrath of the Lamb.

Epilogue

This video is seen and unlocked upon first defeating Mom in The Depths 2.

In it, the story of The Binding of Isaac at first appears to come to a close that parallels its Biblical source. It is in the same style as the intro and drawn by Isaac himself. In it, his mother corners him and is about to sacrifice him, when the Bible falls off a shelf above her, hitting her and knocking her out. The narration references an angel intervening on God's behalf at the last moment, which is how Abraham's hand was stayed in the Biblical story as well. It is interesting to note that the Bible in the epilogue knocks Mom out in one hit, considering the same is true of the item of the same name when used on Mom, Mom's Heart or It Lives in game.

However, as this is only Isaac's idea of how the story should've ended, the video then switches to a different perspective where Isaac has just put up his latest drawing on the wall. The door crashes open and his mother is in the doorway, brandishing her large kitchen knife, then the video fades to the credit sequence.

The Binding of Isaac- Epilogue (HD)

The first ten endings

After defeating Mom, The Womb 1 and 2 are unlocked. Defeating Mom's Heart nine times and It Lives for the first time unlocks these endings. All of them involve Isaac opening the large golden chest which appears after defeating the boss, and most of them feature item acquisition. In order:

1. Isaac opens a huge golden chest he finds after defeating Mom's Heart with a happy expression on his face. After rummaging for a bit, he reveals Judas' fez, indicating that the character has been unlocked.

The Binding of Isaac- Ending 1 (HD)

2. He finds a noose (Transendence) and promptly hangs himself with it.

The Binding of Isaac- Ending 2 (HD)

3. He picks up the Nail, stabs himself with it, turns into a demon and flies away.

The Binding of Isaac- Ending 3 (HD)

4. Isaac finds the Quarter in the chest.

The Binding of Isaac- Ending 4 (HD)

5. He picks up the Fetus in a Jar. In the next shot, he does a dramatic Super Meat Boy-esque (along with the Dun Dun Dun!!! sound effect) turn to reveal himself wearing Dr. Fetus' costume and holding the jar.

The Binding of Isaac- Ending 5 (HD)

6. Mom's voice calls out to Isaac from within the chest as he opens it. Her giant hand reaches out, grabs Isaac and pulls him inside. This ending marks that "Everything is Terrible" has been unlocked, making the game somewhat more difficult.

The Binding of Isaac- Ending 6 (HD)

7. Isaac finds the Wafer.

The Binding of Isaac- Ending 7 (HD)

8. He puts on the Money=Power glasses and reveals a golden tooth.

The Binding of Isaac- Ending 8 (HD)

9. Instead of Isaac finding anything in the chest, It Lives drops from the ceiling, screams and then grins, announcing that the boss has been unlocked and replaced Mom's Heart.

The Binding of Isaac- Ending 9 (HD)

10. Probably the most story-relevant ending of the original game, this video has Isaac find a dead blue child in the golden chest, who then gets up, turns his head and smiles at Isaac to his shock. Notably, ??? who is unlocked with this ending is not just Isaac wearing a costume, unlike all the other unlockable characters.

The Binding of Isaac- Ending 10 Full Credit Sequence (HD)

The Sheol ending

With the Halloween update, Sheol and this currently "true ending" were added to the game. It is unlocked by defeating Satan. McMillen has already announced, however, that the add on Wrath of The Lamb will install a new and final "true ending".

In this ending, Isaac opens the golden chest he found after the boss fight. Rather than taking anything out of the chest, Isaac stands in front of it, flashing through the various characters and locations (Isaac in Sheol, Cain in the basement, Maggy in the caves, Judas in the Depths, Eve in the womb and a demon-Isaac back in Sheol, ending with Isaac in his room) he has dressed up as (as well as Isaac in a demon form), before turning back into Isaac. ??? is notably missing from this sequence. Stepping into the chest, looking over his shoulder towards the closed door, Isaac closes the lid to hide from his mother.

The Binding of Isaac- Ending 11 (HD)

The Wrath of the Lamb ending

After defeating the game, we see Isaac again reading a bible. He stops and sees his demonic reflection in the mirror. Believing that he is indeed corrupt and full of sin, he accepts his fate and prepares to lock himself up in his toybox.

Edmund has confirmed on his formspring account that the Wrath of the Lamb ending comes before the Sheol ending chronologically, meaning Isaac contemplates his sin before finally stepping into the chest.

The Binding of Isaac- Ending 12 (HD)

The Wrath of the Lamb 1.3 The Chest Ending

If you defeat Isaac in Cathedral holding "The Polaroid" you access a new level called "The Chest". There the final Boss is ???. After you defeat him, you get the REAL final ending, ending 13. If you had taken the Polaroid to Isaac and then subsequently beaten ??? before 1.3 came out, end 13 will already be unlocked. Also when "The End" Screen ends, it will appear on the screen: "Get in the box!" pretty small and fast.

The Binding of Isaac- Ending 13 (HD)

Gallery

Photos showing the previous life of Isaac and his family

Ending Screen

Trivia

• The sound effect that can be heard as Isaac flashes through his different incarnations in the Sheol ending is the same as the sound effect used in McMillen's game Time Fcuk when switching to a different layer.

• The fifth ending with Isaac finding Dr. Fetus' costume is a reference to Super Meat Boy, and the Dramatic Chipmunk meme.
• After Ending 10 , The Ending song changes to a haunted version of the "Jesus loves me" rhyme.

The quote "GET IN THE BOX" can be seen at the end. This may be a reference to one of Edmunds previous games, Time Fcuk.

So Says Edmund

Edmund McMillen has blogged about an article authored by a writer from the small indie game site Twinfinite saying it is "By far the most mind blowingly accurate break down of the over arching meaning behind the binding of isaacs ending."

Here is Edmunds blog from which he links to the article: http://edmundm.com/post/32717083908/the-chest-is-open

Speculation

Due to the huge amount of speculation on this page, questionable content will get moved here for now until, we decide what to do with it.

Doomspeaker ^Talk _{Contributions} 12:44, August 15, 2012 (UTC)

There is a lot of interpretation going on with these endings and different explanations have been proposed. One interesting theme, however, is with the role of the golden chest in several of these endings as well as a loading screen displaying Isaac trapped within, breathing heavily. In ending 6, Mom's hand reaches out and pulls Isaac into the chest, in ending 10, a cyanotic, possibly suffocated dead child is found within and in the Sheol ending, Isaac himself steps into the chest to hide, possibly indicating that Isaac is indeed ??? after being trapped in the chest for some time, co-operating with the between level cutscene.

This ending possibly shows example of Christian guilt, he feels as though he is sinful and evil and is admitting it to himself. A lot of the themes are child neglect, and self demonizing.

This ending has sparked a lot of discussion as to what it means. There are several versions of the most accurate ones so far.

#1

In the photos we see Isaac's mom and dad meeting and getting married, they have Isaac and everyone is happy. Then they have Isaac's sister Maggy, mom loves Maggy a lot. Isaac starts feeling jealous about all the attention Maggy is getting and maybe wishes that she would die so he can get more attention. Somewhere down the line, Maggy dies and with the depression of her death and Isaac's Mom's growing instability, Dad leaves the family. Isaac feels as if he is the one who has caused all this and becomes extremely depressed. His mother begins to go insane with the loss of Maggy, forcing Isaac to dress up as her and even abusing him and threatening to kill him. Eventually Isaac runs off to his room and cries next to his toy chest, wondering what he should do with himself. This is where the actual game may come in, Isaac fights his fears (the enemies/bosses) and the sins he has made in his life (Minibosses) and the horrors of sin (Horsemen/Satan) eventually he fights his mother because he thinks he has made her upset, and later fights her heart because he feels he has broken her heart. The characters represent Isaac's mind and their amount of hearts shows his feelings towards him. Maggy has 4 hearts because Isaac feels he is doing the right thing dressing as her, Cain has two because he is a killer of his sibling in the Bible, similar to what Isaac thought he did, Judas and Eve are also sinners, so they have 2 and 1 hearts. Finally there is Blue Baby with zero hearts which may be Isaac's wish to kill himself. What happens next depends on which path you take, if you take the Sheol, Isaac makes up his mind to die and locks himself in his Toy chest. If you pick the Cathedral, Isaac faces his fears and continues to The Chest where he fights Blue Baby and ultimately defeats his wish to kill himself, and finds the strength to keep living his life. (None of this is official just somebody's interpretation)

#2

Another speculation is that the parents got married but Isaac's mother wanted a girl. This is assumed from the second picture, how she makes Isaac look like a girl. Also The fact that the brother bobby familiar is weaker than it's female counterpart , sister Maggy, makes me believe this and the wig he receives in one of the dream transitions. So she tried to have an abortion, I assumed this from the coat hanger item, which in real life was used for illegal abortions, but she failed. So once he was born she made him have an obsession with being a girl, which explains why Isaac can collect so many feminine items. At this point the dad left because the mother seemed to be going crazy over isaac being a girl. When he left Mom starts being much less kind towards isaac, assumed from the dream sequence where isaac tries to hug her mother's foot but she keeps pushing him away. So Isaac makes up a story with drawings; introduction and epilogue. He imagines her mother snap and wants to kill him but the bible comes and saves him. Right as he is finished putting up his last drawing the mother really snaps. The different characters are his different personalities (except for ???), this is why it says "Who Am I?" at the character selection screen. In the 10th ending we see ???. This is isaac accepting his future and thinking nobody wants him so he should die in the chest. After reading the bible he accepts he is corrupt with sin and locks himself in a box until he dies, shown in the dream where he is breathing heavily in a box.

#3

Isaac's earliest memories where that of happiness, over time Isaac's parents (mainly his mother) began to show signs that Isaac was a mistake, dressing him up as the daughter she had always wanted. Isaac began to feel detached from who he really was. Discarding his Maggy persona and ultimately having all his possessions taken as well as punishment. Isaac's parents could only find happiness without him, falling deeper into a depression. His mother soon growing violent, a line in which his father could no longer bare, leaving Isaac with his mother. The game itself being Isaac in a never ending limbo, forever living through the horrors of his own guilt before finally coming to terms with his own death, suffocating to death in his own empty toy chest after crudely illustrating a note of death, a comic strip of his mother out to kill him. The only way Isaac could find peace was delve deeper into his own physche, each depth of the nightmare drawing closer to reality then the last. Killing himself to break the cycle (Or atleast, he would know the truth).

#4

Isaac's parents had two kids: Isaac and his sister/stepsister. After his parents met, they become in love for each other, married and they would've had a big happy family along with their children. Isaac's sister had more attention and time from their mother. In return, Isaac would turn into a depressed/frustrated state, lonely in his room & crying beside his chest.

#5

Isaac's parents had two kids: Isaac and his sister/stepsister. After his parents met, they become in love for each other, married and they would've had a big happy family along with their children. Isaac's sister had more attention and time from their mother. So Isaac kills his sister and hides the body in his chest. Isaac's parents finds out that their daughter is missing and Isaac's father died from a heartattack. Isaac's mom then becomes mentally unstable so Isaac locks himself in the chest to get away from his mom. Isaac then purifies himself from sin (The Purist Challenge) and gains support from his dead father in heaven (Daddy Long Legs Item) in the end.

The crossroads:

1) During this time, Isaac's parents continued to live in peace and love together but this harmony would turn into a horrible nightmare. His mother heard the voice of God (the very first one) and instructed her to kill her daughter to test her faith in Him (much like in the cutscene at the beginning of the game). After succeeding God's request (and, probably, hiding the body), her husband would have big arguments/fights about their daughter's death/disappearance and eventually left her wife and Isaac.

2) During this time, Isaac's parents continued to live in peace and love together but this harmony would turn into a horrible nightmare. Isaac, filled with jealousy, hate and contempt, killed his sister/stepsister and, possibly, hid her in the chest; hence his downfall to sin. His parents had big arguments/fights about their daughter's disappearance (death), eventually breaking up with Mom having Isaac.

Main conclusions:

• Whether Isaac's Dad broke up with his wife or Mom left her husband and took Isaac with her ("protecting" him from his father) is unknown.
• This theory strongly suggests that Isaac had a sister/stepsister.
• It is irrelevant if one of Isaac's parents was his stepfather or stepmother.
• This theory suggests the chronological events: ending #13 (The Chest Ending), the game, Epilogue, ending #12 (The Wrath of the Lamb ending), ending #11 (The Sheol ending) and ending #10 (from The First Ten Original Endings).
• As a final conclusion, until proven false or wrong with evidence, this theory indicates that ??? (aka. The Blue Baby) is Isaac's dead sister/stepsister and not Isaac himself. This final conclusion prevents chronological flaws.

(None of this is official. These are a gather up of other people's opinions, there is no official plot to the Binding of Isaac, and speculation on our part is only complementry.)