The galaxy throws everything at Earth as Shepard prepares to shuttle down to London. Before landing, Joker rises from his pilot’s chair and salutes us. It’s a pause in the story that feels like a key beat.
Then we’re on the ground. It’s a good battle that turns absolutely hellacious as we fire up missiles to take out the Reaper blocking the street ahead.
The Reapers are sending humans up to the Citadel via this conduit, a giant light beam. It’s our only way in, as the Citadel arms are closed.
Most of this is straightforward endgame. Teammates have tender goodbyes, fighting is at its most difficult, and the prospects are very grim. Shepard holds it together, encouraging soldiers that we’ll win, but this is a dark ruin of a future.
And then things get weird.
Everyone still alive after the Reaper collapses dashes toward this beam. Gameplay turns uncontrollable. We run forward, molasses speed, while explosions go off around us. Our teammates are downed by a flipping tank, and the Normandy comes in for a dangerous pick-up and flies out again. It’s just Shepard headed for the beam. She’s barely moving. She must shoot husks with a slowmo, clumsy gun. (It’s pretty annoying, actually.)
Up we go. We wake up in a dark cargo area. Keepers (remember them?) process the dead humans lying around. Over comms we hear Anderson. He’s here, too, he says, in another part of the Citadel. More molasses stumbling goes on. As we limp through the station, Anderson says, “I see something ahead. It may be a way to cross over.” (Unh-hunh. Well, that was on the nose.)
(Did Shepard die before the beam, and all of this, all of the ending, is an hallucination? Bioware has chosen to tell the story with ambiguity, which I consider cheating. A good author doesn’t try to play cute.)
Shepard finally reaches a central area with a console. Anderson stands there. As she approaches, Anderson turns around like a puppet.
Behind Shepard, the Illusive Man steps into view. Half of his face is a husk. Black miasma flows around Shepard and Anderson, indicating that they’re both under the Illusive Man’s control. He directs Shepard’s gun, so that she gut-shoots Anderson. Everyone argues until the Illusive Man realizes that he’s indoctrinated. Like Saren, he manages the will to put the gun to his head and commit suicide. (If Shepard has enough points. Otherwise, she must shoot the Illusive Man, and he gets a proper death moment.)
This leaves Anderson, fatally injured, and Shepard leaning against the platform as the Citadel arms open. They’ve done it.
Or, maybe not. Even though the Crucible docks with the Citadel, nothing happens. With Anderson now dead, Shepard is alone to crawl forward and try to activate the console panel.