Resident Evil 8 Village Story & Ending Explained

Resident Evil 8 Village (RE8) has quite a unique story and ending that continues the events from Resident Evil 7.

This page provides a summary of what happened in Resident Evil Village and explains the ending and what it means.

Story Synopsis:

• As in Resident Evil 7, you again play as Ethan Winters, a character introduced for the first time in 7 and disconnected from all prior Resident Evil games.
• After the events of Resident Evil 7 Ethan, his wife Mia, and their newborn daughter Rose have moved to Europe at the suggestion of Chris Redfield.
• During an argument with Mia, Chris and some of his agents burst into the Winters’ house. Mia is shot and killed by Chris and the agents, then they grab Ethan and Rose and take them from the house.
• Ethan wakes up in the wreckage of the vehicle they were being transported in, with all agents around him dead and Chris and Rose missing.
• Making his way through the dark forest, Ethan eventually arrives at a village that seems like it was suddenly vacated.
• Making his way through the houses, Ethan eventually finds a man hiding in a closet. He gives Ethan a gun, then it pulled through the ceiling by whatever he had been hiding from. Ethan ends up in the crawlspace under the house, surrounded by dead bodies.
• Moving through the crawlspace he is then attacked by a Lycan, ending up outside. After killing the Lycan and progressing out into the village Ethan in attacked by a huge number of Lycan, only surviving after they leave the area after the church bell rings.
• Ethan meets an old woman, who says that the village has been dark since Mother Miranda brought Ethan’s daughter here.
• Heading through the village Ethan finds a woman, named Elena, and her father, who has been injured during the Lycan attacks. Ethan helps them get inside Luiza’s house where the other survivors of the village are.
• During the meeting with the other villagers, Elena’s father seemingly starts turning and attacks the other villagers. Ethan and Elena escape as the house starts burning, getting upstairs. Elena’s father reappears, and she tries to reach him but then the floor collapses, with only Ethan escaping the burning house.
• Using both crests to get through the stone gate, Ethan makes his way towards the large castle in the distance. On the way in before progressing through a gate he is stopped by a man and captured by being encased in metal.
• The man drags Ethan through a tunnel, and he then wakes up inside a church being argued over by a number of strange characters. The woman at the front, Mother Miranda, says that Heisenberg can have Ethan do what he wants. He has Ethan run through the mines away from the pack of Lycans for their entertainment.
• Ethan escapes the Lycans and the traps Heisenberg has placed in the mines, then ends up back at the gate from before. Proceeding through it, he then arrives at the entrance to the castle and meets the Duke, the mysterious character who operates as a vendor in the area.
• The Duke knows who Ethan is and why he’s here and says he’ll sell Ethan various items when he comes across him.
• After meeting the Duke, Ethan heads into the castle, with the door locking behind him after he enters.
• Inside the castle, Ethan is captured by a group of three sisters, who seemingly appear to be vampires. He is taken to meet their mother, Lady Dimitrescu then strung up to wait for later.
• Escaping from the room, Ethan returns to the main hall where he finds a number of statues requiring masks to open the door and the Duke in a nearby room who suggests Ethan look for his daughter in Dimitresu’s chambers.
• Searching through the castle, Ethan is attacked by one of the daughters and chased into the dungeon, where he fights a number of zombie-like enemies. Escaping out the other side he arrives in the castle kitchen, where he is attacked by a kills the daughter Bela.
• Continuing through the castle Ethan makes his way out into the courtyard then to Lady Dimitrsu’s chambers through another dungeon filled with blood.  After escaping the other side he overhears a conversation between Lady Dimitrescu and Mother Miranda, where Dimitrescu informs her of Ethan being in the castle and mentions something about a ceremony.
• Ethan enters the room, not finding Rose, and then is sent through the floor by Lady Dimitrescu. While trying to escape the dungeon she reappears and liberates Ethan of his hand.
• Forced to run away, Ethan grabs his hand and escapes to a room where he finds the first mask to escape, then reattaches his hand.
• Proceeding through the castle further, Ethan fights and kills the second daughter Cassandra in the armory and the third daugther Daniela in the library, obtaining the second and third masks, before proceeding over the rooftop of the castle to find the fourth.
• Placing the masks in the statues, Ethan is able to escape to the tower, where he obtains a dagger from a coffin. Lady Dimitrescu appears and grabs him, then Ethan attacks her with the dagger, causing her to change into her true form, a large dragon-like creature. Fight her on the tower, Ethan is able to kill her, then obtain a strange yellow flask from the lower area he drops in to.
• Proceeding back to the town, Ethan encounters the old woman again, speaking chants to a strange key. She says something about Rose being a sacrifice, then runs away. Taking the key from the chest, Ethan is able to return to the village.
• Running into the Duke again, he explains that the flask is actually part of Ethan’s daughter, and implores Ethan to check the house with the red chimney for more information. After obtaining another piece of the key, the Duke explains that Rose has been split into four flasks, and gives you info on each of the village Lords holding the other flasks.
• Ethan heads to house Beneviento where he will face Donna, holding the second flask. On the way, he starts to hallucinate visions of Mia and Rose.
• After entering the house and going to the basement all of Ethan’s items are taken away and he is seemingly locked in by the doll Angie. Solving a series of puzzles based around his marriage and Mia, Ethan is able to escape the basement and the monster within it.
• Back on the main floor, Ethan fights Angie, killing her and Donna simultaneously and ending the visions he was being plagued with inside the house and allowing him to obtain the second flask and another piece of the key.
• Going to the flooded town where Moreau can be found, Ethan easily steals the flask from him when he isn’t looking. Moreau mentions that Miranda needs Rose to get her child back, then during the conversation traps Ethan in the area.
• After finding a boat key and going further into the area Ethan encounters Chris who has been observing Moreau along with his agents. He doesn’t offer Ethan any good explanation of what’s happening but tells him to back off and stay out of what they’re doing before a large creature destroys the building they are in and Ethan ends up by himself.
• Moreau appears and tells Ethan he can’t escape because the exit to the area is underwater. He mentions Miranda is already preparing the ceremony, before falling off the platform and transforming back into the giant fish and trying to destroy the platform Ethan is on.
• Ethan progresses through the area avoiding Moreau’s attacks to obtain a crank for the windmill, which then allows him to get the power on to open the sluice gate, draining the water in the area.
• Following Moreau into an area of previously submerged houses, Ethan fights and kills him. Proceeding to Moreau’s home and obtaining the next key piece Ethan is contacted by Heisenberg, who offers him a deal if he can prove himself. He tells Ethan to go to the stronghold and erects signs in the village pointing Ethan there.
• The stronghold appears to be the lair of all of the Lycan around the village, and he has to fight his way through many waves of them to reach the end, where he faces Urias, the giant hammer-wielding Lycan that nearly killed him at the beginning of the game.
• After defeating Urias Ethan enters a room where the final flask is waiting. Heisenberg calls and asks Ethen to come to meet him at the factory so that they can talk.
• At the factory Heisenberg offers Ethan a deal to help him take out Miranda using Rose’s powers, to which Ethan refuses. Heisenberg tosses him down into the factory so that he can be killed.
• Ethan escapes from the propeller monster, reaching the main area of the factory, where he progresses with the use of a casting machine. As you progress, Heisenberg explains more about how the four lords were forced to serve Miranda, and that his goal has been to gain enough power so that he can destroy her and be free from her control.
• After reaching the top of the factory, Heisenberg has Ethan fight Sturm, the propellor monster that has been chasing him around the factory. After defeating it Ethan tries to leave but is stopped by Heisenberg, who transforms and throws Ethan down to the bottom of the factory.
• While searching to get out Ethan runs into Chris again, who finally agrees to explain some of what’s going on. He says that Mia that they killed wasn’t really Mia, but Miranda in disguise. Everything that has happened in the village is because of her. He shows Ethan that Miranda has the chalice now and is starting the ritual, and tells Ethan to take the vehicle up to the top.
• Back outside the factory Ethan finds the mutated Heisenberg and uses the vehicle to defeat him after Chris blows up the factory.
• After defeating Heisenberg, Chris calls Ethan and tells him to wait before going after Miranda. Rose appears in the area though, along with Miranda. Miranda explains that Rose is the “complete” form of Eveline, the bioweapon from RE7. She will use Rose to bring her daughter back to life.
• After more explanation Miranda pulls out Ethan’s heart, killing him.
• Chris receives an update from his squad that Ethan has been killed, then goes over the information of the events. They killed Miranda disguised as Mia, then took Ethan and Rose along with “Mia’s” body. Miranda was faking being dead though and destroyed the vehicle in transport to take Rose to the village.
• The squad is going to make their way into the village to try and interrupt the ceremony and kill Miranda. BSAA choppers appear and also move in, but are destroyed by the mold growths around the village.
• Chris fights his way to the center of the village through waves of Lycans. At the center he uses an airstrike to blow of the large construction in the center, allow him to move down to the lower area where he fights Urias Strajer, guarding the entryway to the Megamycete.
• After defeating it the way is open, and Chris proceeds and plants an explosive on the exterior of the Megamycete growth.
• Continuing through the area he enters Miranda’s lab, where he finds the real Mia Winters locked in a cell. Mia is angry at Chris for not protecting her and Ethan, and he tells her that Ethan has died, except Mia doesn’t believe he is.
• Ethan wakes up in a frozen environment, with a girl’s laughter being heard. The laughter s coming from a vision of Eveline, who tells Ethan that he’s dead, and has always been dead. She reveals that during the events right at the start of Resident Evil 7 Ethan was killed by Jack Baker, then revived somehow as a mold construct.
• Ethan reawakens in the back of the Duke’s carriage, being transported back to the village. Before leaving the Duke tells Ethan he can’t return to his old world anymore, then Ethan sets off to the ritual site.
• Miranda has seemingly already completed the ritual, reviving her daughter using Rose, though seemingly at the cost of her powers slowly disappearing. Before they can though she pulls the child away and transforms to fight Ethan.
• After a tough fight, Ethan is seemingly able to kill Miranda, with her body and the large mold covering the ritual site crumbling, leaving Rose for Ethan to grab.
• In the sunlight, Ethan’s body starts collapsing, and Chris tries to pull him up and get him out of the area with Rose. The giant Megamycete center appears behind them and starts following after Ethan and Chris.
• Ethan gives Rose to Chris, and tells him to take her back to Mia, and grabs the detonator. Chris leaves, and Ethan walks back towards the Megamycete and pulls the trigger to detonate the bomb.
• Chris makes it to the transport and gives Rose back to Mia. Chris tells Mia that Ethan stayed behind so that the other members could escape the village.
• The squad member in the transport tells Chris the BSAA soldiers that had been sent were actually bioweapons, and they intended to go to BSAA HQ.
• Years in the future, Rose goes to a cemetery to place flowers on Ethan’s grave. She gets picked up by an agent, taken away for an unknown task.

Story Explained:

This section goes over specific explanations of parts of the story related to characters, the game world, and general plot points. Info is taken from the in-game Files and some Concept Art text blurbs.

• Mother Miranda is over 100 years old, having been in the village during the time of the Spanish flu when she originally lost her daughter Eva. At some point after Eva’s death, she found the Megamycete beneath the village which gave her her powers.
• Miranda used the mold to infect and experiment on the people of the village, using it to control them and eventually resulting in the creation of the Lycans. Through her experiments she created the Cadou, a parasite implanted into hosts to mutate them more, resulting in the creation of the Four Lords.
• The creation of the Four Lords was originally for Miranda to find a vessel to revive Eva in, but she saw none of the four as fitting vessels for her.
• Alcina Dimitrescu retained most of her human form when infected, though an extremely fast regeneration rate made her become much taller. A hereditary blood disease requires her to consume blood or human flesh to keep her powers in check, resulting in vampire-like behavior. She also experimented with the mutamycete, resulting in the creation of her three daughters.
• Donna Beneviento retained her human form when infected, but is unstable due to mental illness and controls Angie and the other various dolls using her divided Cadou. She also produces a substance that controls plants, which then produces pollen that causes hallucinations in normal humans.
• Salvatore Moreau mutated drastically when infected, with parts of his body changing to be fish-like, and his brain increasing in size and growing down his back, causing brain damage. He can transform into a giant fish but is unable to control the transformation to a consistent extent.
• Karl Heisenberg entirely retained his human form and mental faculties when infected and gained the ability to conduct electricity through his body, allowing for the telepathic control of metal. He works in the factory performing experiments on human corpses, trying to make an army of cyborgs to fight back against Miranda. They are each implanted with a Cadou to work as a reactor and to control them to do Heisenberg’s bidding.
• The Megamycete is the original mold colony that the E-Type mold in Resident Evil 7 originated from. During the year 2000, the Connections obtained a sample of the Mold from Miranda, then experimented on it to create a bioweapon, eventually creating Eveline.
• Through the Connections and the creation of Eveline is how Miranda found out about Rose after the events in Lousiana.
• Oswell E. Spencer (one of the founders of Umbrella) visited Miranda at one point in the past and studied her and her work. This contributed to his research, and lead to the founding of Umbrella Pharmaceuticals. He designed the Umbrella logo to be based on the black and white raven feathers symbol that was on the Giant’s Chalice and other places.

Ending Explained:

• Revealed at the end of the story, Ethan Winters died when he arrived at the Baker house at the start of Resident Evil 7. He was killed by Jack Baker, then in some manner brought back to life as a mold construct, which explains his ability to take extreme amounts of damage and reattach limbs, as well as seemingly come back from death multiple times.
• Because he was a mold construct, the destruction of Miranda and the Megamycete resulted in the destruction of all of the mold based on it, which includes Ethan.
• Years later Rose is now implied to be working with Chris and whatever organization he currently works for. She has undisclosed powers of some sort which are used to help fight against bioweapon attacks.

For a complete wiki with everything you need for 100% completion, check out the Resident Evil Village Wiki & Strategy Guide.