Is this ending misinterpreted a bit in Stalker 2?

In the Doctor ending, people seem to interpret it as the Zone expanding for sure. I’m not saying it couldn’t but I don’t think it’s clear cut.

I am sure the scene in the Duga is from the past from the Second Carribean Experiment. We actually can get into that room on the way to the Faust fight. Faust does a scripted Controller attack and runs to the roof, and the Alpha Artifacts is just sitting there in the same room as the ending cutscene. Weird we can’t interact with it, but it’s there.

Also the room is dirty, broken down, and messy. One of the Duga towers is down. It just seems too soon to be able to conduct another experiment. If it is a future experiment, it’s kind of placed at a weird time. I am convinced this is a flash of the past. The same anomaly in the lab is the same one that happens in Skif’s home.

The globe from the ending is in Kaymanov’s lab. Not particularly relevant as far as I can see, but might be noteworthy.

The next question you might have is how they have an Alpha in the cutscene. In Kaymanov’s lab if you choose that ending, the Project Y documentation says “4. Provide Alpha Artifacts (we’ve got a number of faded ones - more than enough).” So it isn’t a typo, there are multiple faded ones out there. And we don’t really see this particular step play out or have any relevance unlike the rest of the document. So I think what we see in the cutscene isn’t a functioning Alpha artifact despite what it looks like.

Again, not saying it isn’t expanding. I’m saying the ending is extremely open ended and whatever changed in the Zone isn’t clear.

As for Faust, I’m still confused on that. Positive he was the Doctor the whole time since we’ve met him. However, I think something happened with him and the Zone. I think at some point Faust finally hears the Monolith, which I think is really the Zone? And the Zone tells him that he’s going against its will. Whatever the case, this is the Zone’s ending, and Faust motivation seems to pivot to that.

But the Project Y documentation seems to point to Faust planning this from the start. Idk, I’m just spitting ideas, pretty clueless on that part.