Nov 3, 2011 7:06 PM
Tarot Card Explanation via Amy Hennig (SPOILERS)
I tried to be as vague as I could with my thread title so that people would know what I was referring to, but not enough that people who had not yet played the game would be spoiled and freak out.
If it is still revealing too much, I can change it, and I'm sorry.
Anyways...
I was looking on her twitter and she was willing to answer other people's questions regarding the story through Private Messages, so I thought, "what the hell, I'll msg, too!" She said she would answer my question if she could, and here is what she said.
I asked her:
"Hey! My question was about "The Tower" tarot card that Talbot planted on Cutter in Syria. Why did Talbot do that? For what purpose? Thanks!"
Her reply:
If you watch closely, you can see that Cutter had three Tarot cards pasted in his journal - The High Priestess, The Magician, and The Tower. (When you get Cutter's journal later, notice that the Tower card is gone...)
When Talbot takes the journal from him, they remove the Tower card and slip it into Cutter's jacket.
You can also see notes in Cutter's journal about the other cards - The High Priestess = Marlowe, The Magician = Talbot.
The Tarot is full of Hermetic symbolism, which ties into what Cutter was saying in that one scene, about the ancient secret society. And how Hermetic mysticism is all tied up in it. So planting the card on Cutter is sort of an ominous, creepy warning to him and the others. Since it predicted his own fate - or at least the fate they orchestrated for him.
Try googling some stuff about Tarot and The Tower, too. (And the other cards) There's other symbolism there, too, it's just more oblique. Plus it's all payback for him duping them as Drake's "inside man", earlier. Fitting payback, since he's the one that has deduced all this. Sort of like showing him "oh you think you're so clever, looking who you're f*cking with" 
- at this point, I asked if I could post these replies to the forum-, the rest of her replies:
Sure. I tend to like to write stories that require interpretation, rather than laying everything out, so I'm happy to elaborate. 
So that's the official explanation via Amy Hennig. I totally missed out on all those details in that journal that Cutter had. When I replay the game soon, I'm going to pay a lot more attention to those smaller details.
If you see this thread, I just want to say thanks again for taking the time to answer my question! I really appreciate it.
Random Note: I HATE the 140 limit on Twitter messages. 
And in case you think I'm making it up:
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