Alyx: The Combine off Earth. I want the Combine off Earth.
G-Man: Ahhh. That... would be a considerably large nudge... too large, given the interests of my employers.
Alyx: Well, you asked.
Inside the Vault, Alyx finds herself in a strangely distorted apartment building, seemingly twisted through time and space causing Escher-like distortions in reality. Rooms exit into ceilings, hallways curve both upward and downward, and gravity shifts in unpredictable ways from one place to the next. After finding her way through the building, she enters a Combine observation walkway, and gets held up by a Combine soldier. Alyx then discovers that she can use the gravity gloves to pull Vortigaunt energy out of the walls and use it to attack the Combine soldiers attempting to block her from the core of the Vault.
Alyx breaches the cell, revealing that the Vault's prisoner is not Gordon Freeman, but the G-Man. He thanks Alyx for freeing him, and offers to perform a "nudge" to the world on her behalf. Alyx asks for the Combine to be kicked off of Earth, but he says that that's too big a nudge for his employers to allow. Instead, he offers her something she doesn't even know she wants yet: to save her father's life in the ending of Episode Two, five years in her future. She sees herself crying over her father's body, and the G-Man rewinds time to before the fatal attack, letting her use her Vortigaunt-charged gravity gloves to kill the Advisor. With the Advisor dispatched and Eli freed, the G-Man takes her back to the stasis area and says she will be more useful than his previous employee, showing her a crowbar and an image of Gordon Freeman. He leaves her there as she desperately calls out after him.
After the credits, a final scene finds the player in the body of Gordon Freeman, in the aftermath of the changed timeline. Eli Vance tells Gordon that the G-Man took Alyx, and that they need to get her back, vowing to kill the G-Man when he gets the chance. D0g comes over with the crowbar, and Eli hands it to Gordon, telling him they have work to do.
This Chapter contains examples of:
- 11th-Hour Superpower: The gravity gloves let Alyx pull Vortigaunt energy from ports in the walls and throw it at enemies, causing a one-hit kill.
- Book Ends: The first chapter of Half-Life 2 (and the beginning of Freeman's employment with the G-Man) is called "Point Insertion". The final chapter of Half-Life Alyx (marking the end of Freeman's employment with the G-Man and the beginning of Alyx's) is called "Point Extraction".
- Continuity Nod: The ending text for Alyx's "hiring" is exactly the same as that seen in the first game's canon ending.
- Cosmic Retcon: Deconstructed Trope. The G-Man offers Alyx a chance to save her father from his death in Half-Life 2: Episode Two, five years later, in exchange for replacing Gordon Freeman as the G-Man's "hire". In the Distant Epilogue, Eli is not happy that he was saved, as Alyx has been taken away from him by the G-Man.
- Eldritch Location: The entire building is connected in nonsensical and impossible ways, has ghostly figures frozen in place, and is full of Gravity Screw.
- Papa Wolf: Eli's reaction to G-Man taking Alyx away is to swear bloody vengeance on him, before declaring that he and Gordon have work to do.
- Wham Line:
- The G-Man offers Alyx something that she wants... or rather, doesn't know she wants.G-Man: We are in the future. This is the moment where you watch your father die. ...unless... Unless you were willing to take matters into your own hands. Release your father, Ms. Vance.
- A final one delivered by Eli after the credits.Eli: Gordon?! Gordon! Wake up, Gordon!
- The G-Man offers Alyx something that she wants... or rather, doesn't know she wants.
- Wham Shot: A POV shot, even! After spending the entire game as Alyx, she's taken away by the G-Man... and then the player is briefly given control of Gordon Freeman for the first time in years, culminating in Eli handing him the iconic crowbar.
- SUBJECT: ALYX VANCE
STATUS: Hired
AWAITING ASSIGNMENT
