Who is Bridget Strand?

Bridget Strand is the former president of the United States of America and founder of Bridges after the Death Stranding. She is the “ha” (body) of Amelie, the “biological mother” of Amelie, and the adoptive mother of Sam Strand.

In her twenties, Bridget had uterine cancer. During the operation, her “ha” and “ka” (soul) split into two. Her "ka" was stranded on the beach, which was timeless - her soul would not grow old. To avoid suspicion, she claimed that Amelie (Bridget’s soul) was her daughter. Essentially, Bridget Strand and Amelie Strand are one and the same.

Who is Amelie?

Amelie is a soul, the "Ka" of Bridget Strand. She is also a bit more than that—her name holds a meaning. If you break down her name, "Ame" stands for "soul" in French, and "Lie" means "lie," her story is a lie; she is a soul and does not have a physical existence; she is a lie. Her last name, Strand, in Scandinavian languages actually means "beach."

She was "born" from Bridget, and this is an underlying theme: death stranding. The bond between mother or father and child—the strands that connect them whenever she appears in the world—was made with a "chiral-hologram"—a really well-made hologram that felt like she really existed in the real world.

What did Bridget do?

As a side effect of having her soul on the beach, Bridget started to have nightmares and visions of the past. Having knowledge from Amelie, Bridget understood the "beach" was connected to the world of the dead and those visions were memories of the extinction entities—events that happened in the past.

To understand more about the memories, Bridget spread DOOMs throughout America prior to the death stranding. At the same time, the concept of the chiral network was also envisioned, as was the development of the Bridge Baby project (in secret); all of this was put in place to have a better understanding of the "beach", and the meaning of her visions. Feeling that she was running out of time, Bridget wanted the chiral network completed as soon as possible, by any means necessary, even with the controversial nature of the Bridge Baby project, which requires stillbirth. Eventually, this leads to Sam’s story (the protagonist), who was mistakenly killed by Bridget. This event eventually caused the death stranding as well as setting the journey to the chiral network in motion.

What did Amelie do?

Amelie set off the death stranding by reviving Sam, the BB that was killed. Since Sam’s revival, the United States has been ravaged by the death stranding, slowly but steadily reducing the nation. Amelie came to understand and recognize her duty as the extinction entity, which meant she was the being that had to bring about the end of the world. In order to achieve that, she had to connect America with the chiral network. She devised a plan with Bridget to get Sam back to Bridges. As Bridget’s "daughter," she set off on her journey to connect the cities so that she could get captured at the final city and set Sam off on his journey.

The death stranding is the connection of the world of the dead with the world of the living. Essentially, that’s what Sam’s existence is, and Amelie was the one with the power who brought about that event. By reviving Sam, Cliff Unger (Sam’s biological father and the figure watching Amelie above) sets off on finding his BB, which leads us into the encounters with Cliff. Cliff’s desire to find his BB kept driving him to come back. Much like Sam’s connection to Amelie, their connection drives Sam to save Amelie—as a keepsake of his bond with Amelie, as a child, Sam crafted a Quipu in the physical world, which he gives to Amelie on the "beach". It is not clear how he was able to bring something material into an immaterial world, but it shows their connection is unique.

What happens at the end?

The ending of death stranding is too complex to briefly explain in detail, but Amelie/Bridget is the mastermind behind the events of the entire game, and everything is calculated. There is a message conveyed about connections and depression. There is an especially interesting note here; as mentioned previously, the Quipu (the necklace on Lou’s hand) was the one crafted by Sam years prior. It was Sam’s gift to Amelie so why is it in Lou’s hand?

In the final sequences of the game, Lou was seemingly dead, and Sam was giving her a final hug, assuming that she didn’t make it. Lou and behold, Lou squeals and ends up holding the Quipu that wasn’t there previously. This shows that Amelie may have had a hand in reviving Lou, just like she had revived Sam years earlier. Sam only has the ability to revive himself but not others, so the only person who could have revived Lou would have been Amelie. In the scene shortly afterwards, we see Sam walking into the rain without the visual effects of time fall (increased aging) and a rainbow (not inverted), so it would seem that Amelie may have revived Lou, then cut off the connection to the chiral network to hold off the death stranding. So it would seem Amelie, at the end, righted her wrongs, reversed her impacts on the world, and severed all connections so that humanity can have a bit more time before extinction.

You may also be interested in:

• [Guide] Death Stranding Difficulty Levels Explained - Choosing Best The Difficulty For You
• All Death Stranding Villains And Their Motives
• What Is Death Stranding About? (Death Stranding Story Explained)