: The main character presumably continues living out this timeline until the
: W’rkncacnter is unleashed since that’s what seems to motivate the timeline
: shifts. There is nothing about the end of Thing What Kicks that would
: obviously motivate the main character (or anyone else) to change timelines
: at this point.
I've always thought there is a reason, and it's one you mentioned yourself: we're about to proceed into Waterloo Waterpark. We tried changing things by waking up early and laying some groundwork for Durandal's mission on Lh'owon, but while the situation might have changed, it didn't change *enough.* We're about to play through Marathon 2 again, maybe with a few differences in terminal text or enemy placement, and we already know that in the context of Infinity, that's a failed timeline. We're converging back on the first bad end. (I've never gotten the impression that the timeline here works on butterfly-effect, chaos-theory rules where tiny changes now can make huge changes later -- every change is something deliberate and worked hard for. If you start in the same place and do the same things, you'll end up the same way.)
The Security Officer, or whatever force is sending him through the timelines, recognizes this, and knows there's no point in playing through it all. Mind you, I've never analyzed it in the same depth you have, so there could be contradictions there, but being told you're going to Waterloo Waterpark and immediately discarding the timeline has always seemed very intentional to me.
