Full disclosure, I have played ahead in Bioshock Infinite, but I’m going to do my best not to spoil anything. At this point in our Bioshock career, we should have played through Battleship Bay. We have just escaped her tower from the Song Bird, a mysterious flying mechanical pigeon of death, (turns out it’s not actually dead) and washed up on Battleship Bay. During our time at Battleship Bay, we get a glimpse of how truly deprived Elizabeth is of basic human experiences. One such example is dancing: after losing consciousness upon washing up on the beach, Booker finds Elizabeth dancing with strangers on the dock exclaiming about how there is nothing better than dancing and music. This lack of a real-life experience manifests in various ways with consequential effects in the game’s story (which I won’t spoil too much).

One particular instance of choice on the part of the player that seems like it may have such an effect is when Booker and Elizabeth encounter the twins on the boardwalk. They offer Elizabeth a choice between two necklaces, one of a bird and the other of a cage. Both obviously symbolic of different aspects of Elizabeth’s life and themes of the game, Elizabeth cannot decide and transfers the decision to Booker, the player. Unlike the choice to stone or not to stone the Irish and black couple, this choice affects no more than minor dialogue details following the choice. More specifically, the twins and Elizabeth will question your choice no matter what, but they’ll just switch out the two different necklaces. As for the aforementioned themes, the cage can be best understood to represent the tower that Elizabeth was imprisoned in for her entire life before Booker rescued her and the bird can be interpreted in two different ways: it can be interpreted as either the Song Bird or Elizabeth being freed from her tower.