Why does dewitt die

It is possible that Booker remembers some or all of what happened in Columbia as indicated by his apparent fear of Anna not being in her crib, but there is no conclusive proof. If Anna is not in the crib this points to Booker "waking up" after he sold Anna and allows for the possibility of Booker rescuing his daughter from Comstock.

Elizabeth, waking up following the events of the first episode, sees Booker sitting in a chair with his guitar instructing her on what to say to Atlas to ensure her survival. His presence goes unnoticed by Atlas and his Splicers, but he shows knowledge of Yi Suchong and Atlas' plan to invade Rapture. This Booker is revealed to be just a hallucination created by the trans-dimensional trauma Elizabeth experienced as well as the parts of her memories she cannot access due to losing her ability to see all outcomes and probabilities.

They are distracted while talking with Daisy over the phone and don't notice Elizabeth. She tells " Booker " that she misses him and that he was her only friend. In an alternate version of Columbia, Elizabeth was already gone when Booker arrived at Monument Island. He joined forces with Daisy Fitzroy in an attempt to find her and became a notable leader of the Vox Populi.

He eventually encountered and joined forces with Cornelius Slate in the Hall of Heroes. There he also encountered Preston E. Downs , who had been hired to kill DeWitt as well as Fitzroy.

Speaking the Sioux language, he was able to help Preston communicate with a maimed Lakota child that Preston had been caring for. The boy related details of his oppressed existence, prompting Downs to join the Vox Populi. Booker's martyrdom became a rallying call for the revolution of the Vox. While one version of Booker refused baptism after the Battle of Wounded Knee, another chose differently and took the name, Zachary Hale Comstock.

Believing the baptism absolved him of all his past sins, Comstock became a xenophobic and charismatic political figure. He was responsible for funding Rosalind Lutece's research which he utilized to view future events and make a prophet of himself and convincing the U. Congress to fund the construction of Columbia. Owing to the sterility and premature aging caused by exposure to the Luteces' technology, Comstock used their Tears to retrieve the daughter of an alternate version of himself to raise as a messiah in Columbia.

In one reality, a version of Booker lived in Rapture, where he worked as a private investigator and eventually came to look after an orphaned girl named Sally. One day Sally disappeared while Booker was gambling at Sir Prize and he desperately searched for her, going so far as to interrogate Dr.

Yi Suchong for fifteen hours. His investigation proved fruitless and he gave up when Sullivan told him she had been found dead. On New Year's Eve , he was contacted by a woman named Elizabeth that hired him to find Sally and insisted that she was missing, not dead.

Upon finding Sally in Fontaine's sunken department store, Booker's attempts to pull her from a vent and discovers that she had been turned into a Little Sister , triggering the return of his memories before Rapture. He discovers he was actually a version of Booker that chose to accept Preacher Witting's baptism and became Comstock.

Like so many versions of Comstock in different realities, he had attempted to steal Anna away from her father and ended up. His path diverged dramatically when Booker proved stronger in the struggle over Anna, and she was not securely on Comstock's side of the portal when the Tear closed. Instead of severing the baby's pinkie finger, it closed upon her neck, decapitating the infant.

To escape his guilt, Comstock had the Luteces open a Tear to Rapture. He lost his memory of all that had occurred and began a new life as private investigator Booker DeWitt. Horrified by his recovered memories, Comstock attempted to apologize to Elizabeth. The Luteces appeared and remark that Comstock always ran away from his problems and stole the lives of others instead of facing his own past. Elizabeth told him that he wasn't sorry, but he soon would be, after which he was impaled and killed by a Bouncer Big Daddy.

The Booker encountered by Elizabeth in Burial at Sea Episode 2 reveals himself to be just a hallucination created from memories as well as the trauma of her inter-universal jump into Rapture. Every time Elizabeth tries to say he is Booker he is quick to remind her that he is not.

After their first encounter, his voice is mostly heard over Atlas's radio. No other characters can hear or see him, with them usually commenting on Elizabeth seemingly talking to herself. He helps her by giving her ideas to guide her along her path, like the idea to pose as Suchong's lab assistant in order to prevent Atlas from killing her. Once she said that she misses him Booker , to which he replied "I think… Booker would miss you. He is last seen guiding Elizabeth toward the memory of the location of the " Ace in the Hole " which she had once seen when she had the ability to see all probabilities and outcomes.

He disappears, leaving Elizabeth crying and screaming for him to come back and not leave her alone before he is replaced by Sally, who guides her the rest of the way. While this Booker exists only as a figment of Elizabeth's imagination, the real one from Infinite's main campaign is briefly seen in the Factory level, at the moment when Daisy Fitzroy phones him in the elevator he and Elizabeth are taking towards The First Lady.

Booker is a taciturn and serious man who feels deep regret for the atrocities and wrongdoings he committed in his past. In conversation with others, he expresses deep-seated self-loathing, remarking that there needs to be "more Daisy Fitzroys" because of men like him, and telling Elizabeth that she shouldn't get mixed up with him for her own sake.

It is possible this attitude spawns from even earlier bouts of self-consciousness: Comstock claims in a Voxophone recording that a commanding officer once suggested that he had Native American ancestry, and the comment led him to brutal acts against Native Americans to reclaim the respect of his comrades. While Booker is often surprised and sometimes frightened by objects and situations encountered in Columbia, he is quick to adapt — he speedily takes to Vigors , and utilizes Elizabeth's Tears in combat.

He is also perceptive in regard to dangerous situations, though whether he responds to them with violence is partially up to the player particularly in the game's early stages.

Initially indifferent to Elizabeth, Booker becomes curious about her after entering the tower on Monument Island, and more protective of her as the story proceeds. He is noticeably disturbed when she asks him to kill her, and desperately pursues her when she is captured by Songbird. While he cares about Elizabeth, he is also afraid of her and what she has the potential to become. This fear is possibly a part of the reason he volunteers to kill Comstock on her behalf.

Booker DeWitt is an experienced detective and former U. Army Cavalry soldier. This has given him the skills needed to survive his trip to Columbia. Most apparent of these skills is his combat abilities. He is able to fight and kill dozens of enemies with weapons and Vigors he had never seen before.

While he certainly learned to fight while in the U. Army, nearly twenty years in a violent and corrupt Gilded Age New York City honed those skills greatly. It is unknown how good at being a detective Booker was, but he demonstrates a high degree of skill in manipulating and lying to people.

He also demonstrates skill in accurately reading other people's personalities and realizing he is in a dangerous situation. These skills notably tend to fail when dealing with Elizabeth however. A number of Booker's abilities are never directly shown by Booker himself in the game. For example, from his time with the U. Seventh Cavalry, he would have learned to be an expert horseman, if he had not been one before.

This training also would have included the use of the Model Light Cavalry Saber which was still issued to U. Cavalry units at the time. His skills in leadership are shown by the slain revolutionary Booker from the Vox revolt reality who was able to attain a position of prominence among the Vox Populi in a very short period of time. Another alternate version, Zachary Hale Comstock, makes use of his leadership and public speaking skills to convince the U.

Congress to fund the construction of Columbia and then become its ruler. From Comstock's cabin aboard the Hand of the Prophet , we see that Booker has the potential to do high order math and understand quantum physics. This shows that Booker is much more intelligent than he may first appear. He just never had the drive or education to make much of his intelligence, though we do see hints of it.

Booker's ability to figure out how to use the new weapons he encounters as well as being able to figure out how to pilot Columbian zeppelins without any training points to him being smarter than he seems.

Booker also knows how to play the guitar, may have unrealized musical talent, and is at least somewhat fluent in one of the Sioux languages as stated by Preston E. BioShock Wiki Explore. There's Something in the Sea Industrial Revolution. Explore Wikis Community Central. Register Don't have an account? One last thing that seemed like a lose end to me but isn't, is early on when you are fighting against one of your war buddies. Remember you are in the Comstock-Booker universe, but he knows you, Player-Booker.

He keeps mentioning that Comstock was never at any of these battles, but you Booker were. I believe this is because:. Comstock-Booker obviously changed his name after the baptism, from Booker which was his name when he was at these battles to Comstock.

After changing his name, he kept telling the stories of the battles he had been in. That's why people who had been at those battles with him when he was called Booker, don't remember anyone named Comstock being there. Multiverse theory get's complicated, especially if you add time travel to it as the previous posts suggest.

Some theories claim that you can't actually exist twice in one place in time. So if Elizabeth actually took 'PlayerBooker' back in time to "smother Commstock in his crib" PlayerBooker would replace the Booker that existed in that time. Drowning him from that point would stop him living from then on, it would make sense If this theory applies. The first time we see Booker refusing the baptism, and where Comstock-Booker accepted it, there are numerous other people there.

At the time where he is drowned, none of the others are there, other than the priest. This would indicate that it is BEFORE the time when the baptism took place, so at this point in time, neither Booker has not made a choice and Comstock does not currently exist.

So, by killing him before this point, he isn't alive to complete the string of events that lead to Comstock taking the girl and causing all of the events. Then you enter the realm of paradox, but that's another question.

Edit: Thinking on this actually got me thinking of a H. Lovecraft story called Celephais, due to Anna's ability to warp time and the game ultimately ending in the PC's death. It could be entirely possible that none of this occurred at all, that it was the last rambling visions playing through the mind of a Father, having regretted the decision to sell his child, drinking himself to death In endgame when you are in the ocean of lighthouses, you end up seeing 2 Bookers and 2 Elizabeths.

Booker 2 refused the baptism, fell into his dept and ends up selling his daughter Ana Elizabeth. When he first arrives in Columbia Elizabeth is already at the Commstock house, so he joins the Vox and ends up dying. If you've played the game to the ending and were paying attention you would have noticed that when you and Elizabeth entered the world where Booker Dewitt is the hero of the Vox that your nose is bleeding.

Later in the game when you are on the Hand of the Prophet and you drown Commstock in a birdbath Elizabeth tells you that you have a bloody nose.

In the end when your at the place where you earlier refused the baptism and moved on, you have a conversation with Elizabeth I'm not going into detail on what they are talking about. After the conversation More Elizabeths start to apear.

They then grab your hands and drown you. The devs knew it was a time paradox and that's why it's called infinite. As soon as you end the game and have "killed" Comstock it creates another parallel universe. You start again in the boat, saving the girl. Sign up to join this community.

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Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. How does the ending fix anything? Ask Question. Asked 8 years, 7 months ago. Active 3 years, 7 months ago. Viewed 39k times. I don't understand the final "baptism" scene. How can it have any effect on how the story ends? Improve this question.

BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft Not to mention the inconsistencies between Booker and Comstock. Booker saw what happened in Columbia, and that by treating the "Negroes" badly, it will uninevitably lead to Columbia's downfall. Had Comstock walked the same path, he would've abused them only for as long as necessary and thus avoided the catastrophy altogether.

I therefore have difficulties believing that Booker's death was necessary as well. I didn't even know Infinite had an ending. Thanks for spoiling that for me. Related: I don't understand the ending of Bioshock: Infinite! Show 9 more comments. Active Oldest Votes. Note: This answer contains spoilers. Before you make that choice, you're "PreBaptismBooker" When you back out of the baptism, you follow path '0' and becomes NoBaptismBooker0.

Improve this answer. Shaun Shaun Great answer, the visual aid helps too. But now I've read "Booker" so many times it's lost all meaning.

Words are weird. Alex " Words are weird. I just finished the game. This is by far the best answer I could find anywhere. Incredible explanation. Allowing Elizabeth to kill him is itself a decision, is it not? And, thus, there would be a branch there, creating a slightly different infinite tree of "Comstock universes"? KevinMills just don't think too hard. Add a comment. At the end of BS:I there are at least 3 parallel Bookers Booker who accepted the baptism, blacked out his past, ended up as racist nutjob Comstock.

Player Booker who arrives in Columbia in time to save Elizabeth. Keith Keith 5, 12 12 gold badges 48 48 silver badges 70 70 bronze badges. But the Booker we played was the one that was drowned Lutece So, throughout the game, we see instances of Booker's memories getting rewritten, as well as some other people.

Community Bot 1. I believe this is because: Comstock-Booker obviously changed his name after the baptism, from Booker which was his name when he was at these battles to Comstock. Adam Adam 4 4 bronze badges. Actually Comstock gets Fink to sabotage the Lutece device and kill both Robert and Rosalind at the same time, but it fails and they become "scattered" across all universes at once.

What you're thinking of is when Robert comes across from Booker's universe to Comstock's and the disorientation and hemorrhaging he experiences because of it I believe the first time he came across physically was during the scene where baby Anna loses her finger.

Jacob Soden Jacob Soden 1 1 1 bronze badge. Within a few minutes of this event, Booker's mind has re-aligned to become the 'blank' action hero we need him to be to build our player narrative on top of. Further rift travel effects the mind less and less - possibly the damage is done.

We know how the next part plays out - but one thing may have escaped your notice. Without fail. If Booker is pushed beneath the surface, events conspire to kill him. When you are baptised on first arrival in Columbia, the priest sees you for who you are and drowns you. Another iteration of Booker avoids that, and we pick up where we left off.

When you are escaping from Songbird for the first time and fall into the bay, you die. Again, a new iteration of Booker takes up the story. When we push Comstock's head into the font on his ship, dead. Somewhere, another Comstock doesn't get drowned there - we never see that story, but I wouldn't fall asleep in the bath if I were that guy.

What she can do is reflexively move to the nearest, living Booker to continue her at this point unconscious mission. In the final scenes, where the Annas come together to drown the successful DeWitt, I see two possible resolutions. Either this represents a group of deities trying to explain to a monotemporal being what they are doing - all the DeWitts who enter the waters will die; or that is where all the successful DeWitts go when their mission is complete.

Comstock must be eliminated, and any DeWitt who has crossed path with Comstock must sadly perish; this would indicate that there are considerably fewer Comstock actors than DeWitt actors - considering the vast amount of effort, chance and energy required to engineer the Comstock future this seems likely. The DeWitt we see at the end is the DeWitt the Annas have been working towards - in his life, he did not get baptised. None of the Comstock universes ever invaded his to steal his Anna remember, considerably fewer Comstock universes and he was not required to complete the Comstock elimination event chain.

No Rapture, no Columbia. They happened. Killing the Booker who lives in an alternate universe 20 years after the baptism won't do a thing to the Comstock would-be at the baptism.

But since all almost all? Some effect did take place. This idea also gives reason to Booker waking up at the end of credit. Another question that bugged me was: "What happened when Booker crossed the tear for the first time when the Luteces came to pick him up in their raincoats?

Back to topic, when Booker first crossed a tear for the "first time", he fainted and fell down on the floor I personally cannot determine whether he did cross the tear. But that is again off-topic. To make some sense of this we have to answer one more question. He opens the door and back into the game he goes. Similar mechanism with more emotional contents was displayed a few times in the game as plot, like at beginning of the game when Booker was "drowned" by the preacher before he enters Columbia.

I came up with one idea to help myself understand this:. Every time Booker crosses to a different universe, his consciousness enters the body of the Booker in that world. If there is a conflict, he creates a new body. The real physical body of his is back in his PI office because it was not able to cross the tear Robert Letece's body was ok with the crossing, apparently.

If the Booker in another universe is killed, his consciousness slips back to his original body, ready to cross again. Being able to do this is what Booker got for crossing the tear. The same rule can also hold true for Comstock, no contradiction was found so far. In the Chen Lin chapter there is one universe where Booker is a martyr and no living body was in existence thus I added in the creating body idea.

Later I realized I also have to reconcile the fact that his consciousness did not enter Comstock's body duh so I used the word "conflict. Booker does not identify with Comstock in both thought and body. I have not yet determined which is the reason his consciousness did not enter Comstock as it entered the Comstock would-be from 20 years ago.

Alright here's the deal. This is quantum mechanics, and it's what makes possible multiple realities simultaneously. Each reality has it's own set of events based on events and decisions made. This part in itself is fine, as events are self-consistent within the chain. Thus, Booker never solely accepts or rejects the baptism, it's always both. I know of no means by which it is possible to have only one outcome due to quantum entanglement see below , which is why the ending is impossible.

The next issue that arises from this is Quantum Entanglement Einstein called it 'spooky' action at a distance, it is quite spooky. Entanglement occurs when two objects are non-locally connected and transfer information instantaneously. Thus, if you have a quantum coin that is both heads and tails, connected to a like-wise coin across any given distance. Einstein was right to call it spooky, because it appears to violate relativity if information is traveling at higher than relativistic speeds.

However, what is actually happening is that two realities are co-occuring simultaneously, just like Schrodinger's cat being both alive and dead at the same time. Thus, when the Elizabeths make the choice to drown Booker, they are quantumly entangled with other Elizabeths, and their choice just like the coin , will result in a binary opposite choice, again via quantum entanglement.

Thus, by choosing one outcome Booker dies , they are determining simultaneously that an alternate outcome of Booker lives occurs. This makes it impossible for them to ever be rid of Booker, by their own choice no less.

It seems paradoxical, but it's actually kind of funny. What's more complicated, and this I cannot give any answers to, is that the laws of quantum mechanics are held up so long as they're self-consistent within their own reality set of events. However, we see multi-chain events interacting, with the issue of quantum entanglement.

This makes it no longer self-consistent, albeit theoretically it can probably be dealt with, but no further at this point. Quantum Entanglement is hard enough in one universe, let alone applying to multiple co-occuring realities.

For anyone concerned with resolving infinite sets of universes, this issue of infinity can be resolved by number, and more specifically set theory in mathematics. I don't expect the Bioshock team to know about things like Quantum Entanglement, set theory, etc. This is a fictional video game.

Further, there is "suspension of disbelief," where you put the real world aside in order to enjoy the fictional one you're presented with.

This really only works with a good story, and Bioshock Infinite delivered for me anyway. Quantum entanglement literally makes the ending impossible. Infinite universes can be resolved by using number, and primarily set theory.

The game simplifies the many worlds theories from physics a bit, but it also does this a little inconsistently, some aspects use a simplified model, others don't. As a side note, many worlds theory was popularized by a guy called Bryce DeWitt The game argues that after the baptism, Booker will either remain Booker or become Comstock. So by ending his life before the choice is made and Elizabeth does say this, it must be done "[ Killing Booker at this time will also remove all non-baptized Bookers from the following timelines meaning Elizabeth will never be born.

The key aspect here is the subsequent timelines are affected. But then what about the final scene? And what about the last Elizabeth that doesn't disappear before fading to black? Well here is where the simplification sort of comes in, there aren't many possibly any constants in the world. Also, the many worlds theory prevents paradoxes since every event creates a new universe and no universes are destoryed.

If i go back in time and kill my grandfather, that event created a new universe. I'm not killing my grandfather, i'm creating a new universe that would had a duplicate version of me, had i not killed that duplicates grandfather.

This is one reason why this theory is useful in quantum mechanics. Infinities are a little funny. You can split an infinity in an infinite number of bits or sets and each set could have any number of elements, including an infinite amount. This also means that in an infinite set of outcomes, even the tiniest possibility will be guaranteed to actually occur, no matter how unlikely it is.

So in the game, some universes had the original baptism and some didn't, but how many exacly? Infact there are a basically infinite number of universes with both alternatives since an infinite set can have an infinite number of subsets, each with infinite elements this means that there would likely be a very large number of omnipotent Elizabeths that would all show up at the final scene.

That would probably overload my gpu though, so there is only a couple :. Now given that there are an infinite number of universes, and that all events, not only the baptism, spawn "new" universes, its entirely plausible that there is one or infact infinite universe s where Booker doesn't gamble, or doesn't make a deal to sell Anna, or by some other means enables the final scene.

This is the slightly inconsistent bit. The game portrays the baptism as a constant, but there really isn't basis for that, there might be any number of universes where Booker never went there or didn't even do the bad things that caused him to consider the baptism in the first place.

The game does establish that Booker can have dreams from "other" universes with the burning New York, so the Booker in the "final scene" universe could have dreamt of the events in the "player" universe. Though both of these would be equally "real". The final non disappearing Elizabeth at least if we argue she doesn't disappear could come from such a universe, she is arguably not the same Elizabeth we've seen all game as she is missing the pendant.

The disapearing Elizabeths are also a little inconsistent with the many worlds theory, since they would not be destroying the future universes as much as they would create new ones where the events of the game never happened.

The Elizabeths however would still originate from universes where the events did happen, so they would remain. That would be a very bleak ending though since they would never be able to prevent the games events no matter what they did.

They'd only create new universes without those events. Is this what Mr Levine had in mind when he wrote this? I dunno, but it is a viable logical solution to what we see at least :. Now, whats really interesting is the last couple of voxophones, such as "the ultimatum" where Rosalind talks about Robert and how he wants to reverse what they have done.

Rosalind notes that she result is going to be sad but that she will go along with it. From this it would seem that Robert and Rosalind pull Booker in to the or should I say one of the Comstock realities and actually set the events of the game in motion because Robert feels remorse about the baby buying thing.

But then why didnt they just go back and not buy the baby in the first place instead of going from universe to universe looking for the one where Booker is able to defeat Comstock? Who knows :. Because of the "constants and variables" idea almost any ending you conceive has happened, is happening, will happen.

If you look at it this way, we are all right. The scene is actually quite easy to explain, although Booker dies at the baptism, this only prevents all versions of Comstock being born, not all versions of Booker, it should be noted though that the Booker that you play as does indeed die, but the alternate versions of Booker are still alive, and since Comstock never existed, Anna is never taken, meaning it's very likely that she is in the crib.

To conclude, in the post credits scene, you play as an alternate universe version of Booker in which Comstock never existed, therefore Anna is not taken, and this Booker and Anna live together, whether or not Booker still gambles among other things is unknown though. As there can be many incremental differences between universes. A fair number of the arguments presented here have already been mentioned in one form or another.

I am however surprised that this has not appeared so far, so this theory is supposed to be a concise unified final solution. The term "infinite alternate realities" is thrown around quite often not just in reference to Bioshock , but it seems to me that the background and true implications of the Many Worlds Interpretation [MWI] generally fail to be acknowledged.

To put matters into perspective, think about the following:. In reality, the 'entire' universe may be much bigger or in fact infinite in size, however our observable universe is very much finite 91 billion light years across. This is crucial, because everything outside of the cosmological horizon is fundamentally inaccessible to us, i.

Naturally, any finite system only has a finite number of non-redundant configurations. Moreover, since the vast majority of the universe is practically irrelevant to events that take place on earth after all, the number of grains of sand on a planet in another galaxy does not affect earth's history in the slightest , we really only need to look at alternate universes in which something on earth is different.

The number of those is actually very easy to calculate. That is a fairly large number, but decidedly finite.

Crucially though, this not only includes instances where you are wearing a differently coloured shirt or did have something else for breakfast, but extends to universes in which the events of Bioshock or any other fictional story actually transpired on earth, and even includes absurdities like the earth not being a rocky spheroid but rather an equilateral cube made of pure gold.

Obviously, most of these earths are uninhabited or uninhabitable altogether and even the ones that are vastly different in terms of human civilization and history are generally disregarded when people are referring to alternate realities. Taking into account all the MWI's implications has significant impact on the game's interpretability. For one, it would mean that all the choices Booker and Elizabeth make are basically meaningless since there always is an alternate reality in which their alter egos made the exact opposite choice.

Though Elizabeth in particular would still be in a desperate situation after realizing that she cannot change anything , this would make the characters far less relatable in my opinion, because their problems are more detached from reality, and the game is not about nihilism anyway. For Elizabeth however, who can travel between worlds, the realization that there is absolutely no change she can effect would presumably be devastating. Secondly, the ending would not make sense because preventing the baptism would be ultimately futile, as in reality universes cannot be destroyed since their existence is tautological, and even if we grant that caveat, there would still remain other universes in which Booker does not cease to exist.

In some he would not have become a drunk in the first place, or would not have sold his daughter, or genuinely changed his character irrespective of the baptism. In the real MWI there are no necessary constants across alternate universes; there is no reason to assume that the baptism is a fixed anchor across all realities or that all alternatives branch from such a one. Therefore, I would suggest that for the sake of the game's coherence and integrity it is a much healthier approach to assume that not all possible alternate realities exist, but only those that are in fact created by Elizabeth or the Luteces, all branching off of the prime one which would have to be one in which Booker becomes Comstock.

The first alternate reality is created by Rosalind during her first successful experiment, at most a few years before the baptism. Robert and Rosalind continue to create branch-universes while they are working for Comstock and Elizabeth starts doing the same as soon as she begins to display her ability. The fact that in this scenario the first parallel universe is created only after the events of Bioshock 1 and 2 transpire in Rapture is not a contradiction.

For one, every universe is of course created with a complete and self-consistent history it's not like its inhabitants don't remember anything before a certain date and in addition, time is not universal across the multiverse but unique to each one. That is to say there is no simultaneity between them. This means there are fairly few universes within the game, possibly as few as During the ending sequence Elizabeth first speaks of thousands and later 'a million millions', but I'd interpret that as her being overwhelmed herself essentially saying 'very many', maybe billions, but definitely not infinitely many.

As a result however, choices become meaningful. When Elizabeth first passes over into a new world during the game after finding the dead Chen Lin, disregarding minor forays before , Booker tells her that she does not create new realities but only opens doors to pre-existing ones. He would be incorrect, but that's all right since he doesn't know better and only tries to comfort her.

This approach is backed up by the out-of-phase soldiers in the prison.