The Psychonauts 2 story focuses on Raz’s quest to find the mole in the Psychonauts and unearth the mysteries surrounding Maligula, a destructive psychic that some are seemingly trying to raise from the dead. In the Psychonauts 2 ending, all of the long-awaited sequel’s mysteries are revealed. So who is Maligula, who is the mole, and how does the platformer wrap things up? Here’s all you need to know about how the next chapter of Raz’s story ends.
Spoilers for Psychonauts 2’s ending follow.
Psychonauts 2 Ending Explained
The Psychonauts 2 ending sees Raz defeating Maligula, restoring peace to the Motherlobe, and finally figuring out the reality behind the mole who infiltrated the psychic spy organization’s headquarters. Here are the answered questions come the conclusion of the game’s story.
Who is Maligula?
Towards Psychonauts 2’s ending, it is revealed that Maligula is actually Nona, who Raz believed to be his grandmother and the matriarch of the Aquato family. In reality, Nona is actually Lucy, an ex-Psychonaut and former beau of Ford Cruller. Lucy was the sister of Raz’s real Nona, who was inadvertently killed by ‘Maligula’ when she wrought destruction upon Grulovia.
Grulovia was ruled by the dictator Gzar Theodore, who took advantage of Lucy’s psychic powers in order to weaponize her against his people when they tried to rise against him. This transformation from beloved Psychonaut to murderous monster earned her the moniker Maligula, with the Psychonaut’s founders — the Psychic Six — each being traumatized in different ways by the cataclysmic event, particularly Ford Cruller.
Because of Cruller’s love for Lucy, he didn’t want to see her come to harm despite her horrific actions. As such, he used his psychic powers to lock Maligula away and alter her mind to make her believe she was the mother of Augustus Aquato, while also altering the Aquato family’s minds to convince them of this lie, too. As such, the Aquatos believe that Lucy is their Nona, when in fact, she’s the sister who killed their real grandmother.
Who is the mole?
The mole, or double agent, is revealed to be Gzesarevich Gristol Malik, the heir to the throne of Grulovia. Formerly known as Nick Johnson to the Psychonauts — the mailroom worker whose brain had seemingly been kidnapped near the start of the game — it’s unearthed that Gristol assumed the role of Nick in order to infiltrate the Motherlobe and awaken Maligula.
In order to do this, Gristol swapped brains with Truman Zanotto, the grand head of the Psychonauts. As Zanotto is the one who encouraged Raz to unearth the secrets of Maligula, Raz had inadvertently been helping Gristol the whole time, who — while in Zanotto’s body — tries to reawaken Maligula inside of Lucy.
How does Psychonauts 2’s story end?
Psychonauts 2 sees Gristol almost reawakening Maligula, with Raz entering Lucy’s mind in order to stamp out the destructive psychic force. While Raz is initially deeply upset to learn that his real Nona died at the hands of Lucy, he learns to forgive Lucy for her actions, as there’s a “Maligula in all of us” that we must fight to keep in check. As Raz notes, Lucy’s Maligula was brought about due to her power being abused by Gzar Theodore, with Raz and the woman he believed to be his Nona reconciling in the process.
While Lucy’s actions aren’t undone, she’s allowed to be free of her Maligula alter-ego, coming to terms with what she did in the understanding that it doesn’t have to define her — even though it is a pretty big mistake. As a result of his hard work, Raz and the rest of the interns are also made official Psychonauts, with him being allowed to explore the Motherlobe once again with his new title.
In an additional scene you can watch when revisiting Sasha’s lab after the game’s finale, you see Dr. Loboto escaping. In this scene, Loboto convinces Raz not to snitch on him given that it was revealed he was innocent, with him also revealing that he’d left his “kid” at “camp.” This is an obvious throwback to the events of the first game, suggesting that Loboto has a child at the Whispering Rock summer camp, setting up a sequel or potential DLC further down the line.
