Bioshock Infinite – Explanation of the Coin Flip Question

bioshock-infinite

During the game, two characters ask the player to flip a coin that results in heads.

What's up with the question and the results on the blackboard (all on heads)?

The two scientists after coin flip. Blackboard has only heads results.

Best Answer

These two characters are just checking something regarding Booker.

That "something" is connected to the whole game plot and requires a deep explanation, so unless you finished please don't read the following because of SPOILERS:

Let's start from the beginning: These two characters are the Lutece "siblings"... well, truthfully they are the same person from different dimensions. Rosalind is from the dimension where the game mostly happens; Robert might be from Booker's dimension.

There was an assassination attempt on them to keep the secret of Elizabeth's origins but it went wrong since their dimensional machine was involved and, instead, they became "unhinged" from space and time. After getting "unhinged" they regretted stealing Anna (Elizabeth) from Booker and decided to fix it. How? By transporting Booker to the universe where the game happens.

Unfortunately it didn't go so well and Booker probably died or was unable to save Elizabeth for some reason. So they decided to try again, in another very similar dimension. They did this 122 times... until the Booker the player controls finally did it.

Meanwhile the Lutece "siblings", being the scientists they are, keep doing what scientists do: acquire knowledge by research and testing. So they tested Booker with the coin flip, and by Booker I mean all the "Bookers" they helped to get on Columbia. The result of that coin flip all ended as heads and that is what they recorded on the black board.

On a side note, Robert believes that coin flip would change sooner or later, Rosalind did not. It never changed, not even for the Booker that finally did it. This is one of the "Constants" mentioned in the game ("Constants and Variables").

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