Which One's Dead? [Cry Wolf Spoilers]

Georige tells Nerissa that he will punish the girls for treason. Faith walks in and he kills her, then dumps her in a lake (he says that Bigby can join a whore on the bottom of the lake in Ep 5 - Lily was dumped in a river, and I guess Georgie knows the difference between lake and river, so he wasn't talking about Lily). It's likely that by this time the Dees were already looking for the stolen picture (probably ordered by the Crooked Man) and that's why the jewelry box was destroyed. As we all know, Nerissa is The Little MERMAID - what's the problem to retrieve Faith's head, ring or coat from the bottom of the lake? You may ask why would she do that - and here's the answer. Nerissa tried to warn Lily BUT found out that Lily wasn't with her scheduled appointment (Woodsman) - she says that in Episode 5! She didn't know that Lily asked Faith to cover for her (the note mentioned above). Because of the fact that trying to help Lily would be against Georgie's plans, Nerissa was probably aware she'll be killed too if she warns her. Thus, she probably glamoured herself (and took Faith's possessions) in case one of CM's spies was at the Woodsman's apartment (and, juding from the pictures in the foundry, she was right). She went there only to find out that Lily wasn't even supposed to be with Woody. That's where everyone made a mistake with creating their theories - Nerissa didn't go to Woodsman's place to attract Bigby's attention, she was just trying to warn her friend - Bigby's arrival was accidental. She left the coat at the building (unintentionally, I guess), dropped the glamour and went back to Pudding'n'Pie to give Georgie the money she got (mind you, she probably had a visit scheduled anyway and might've told Georgie that she received 58 dollars for it, while Georgie never knew that she went to Woodsman - he probably thought she was somewhere else) and then left Faith's head at the Woodlands (she was probably encouraged to do so after her first encounter with Bigby). After Lily's murder she did the same, turning into a mermaid and taking her head (I know that TJ said in Ep 2 that the lady he saw didn't have her head on, but that's just it - he didn't say that there was no head AT ALL. Lily's head might've been dropped separately [no pun intended, really] and he was just too scared to notice it getting dumped). She had to do it this way, because I can't imagine Georgie allowing her to take Faith's/Lily's head just like that. She had to retrieve it after they were dumped. And that's the problem with "it was always Faith" theory - everybody keeps forgetting Lily. How on Earth was Faith supposed to retrieve her head from the bottom of the river to leave it later in Woodlands?

Faith's head was dropped at the Woodlands to start the investigation - the ribbon was there to make Bigby remember it as important if he will find another one in the future; the ring was there to make Faith's identification a lot easier. Lily's head was left to either make this case a top priority, or somehow Nerissa might've thought that the investigation went off track, with Bigby focusing on Lawrence and Woody instead of Pudding'n'Pie.

As for Swineheart - the comment that he needed to run more tests pops out in Ep 2 after inspecting the cut on Lily's head, so I still say that these 'tests' were supposed to determine the murder weapon (which was unknown in first two eps, with Bigby noting that the cut is 'strange'). Besides, Swineheart is a comic book character, so I don't think he would hold back any information like 'the head did not belong to Faith at all' - he was pretty straightfoward and honest (remember Snow's appointments with him after the 'Bluebeard conspiracy'? Swineheart was always honest about every possibility from the start).

As for Bufkin's comment - I say that it was there not to point us to the direction of 'Faith is alive!' but what Nerissa did to start the investigation. She says in the end that she didn't want to watch how Faith 'fades', so she took the inspiration from her fairytale, ensuring that her story won't fade just like that.

I know that you put a lot of work into your theory, but I just think that Telltale would hide the anwser (if any, really) in the clues we can all decipher and not in Latin phrases (that more than 90% of the players won't understand) or by the unintroduced characters (like Amber, whoever she is).

Besides, as I replayed the episode 5 recently, I'm thinking that Telltale probably created this ending without an actual answer in mind. They just wanted to end the story with a shocking revelation, and I have to say it was really effective. We're here now, comparing evidence and theories, while we will probably never know what happened. I guess that's the beauty of The Wolf Among Us and Fables in general - ambiguity.

EDIT: And besides, the 'clues' in Episode 1 are not really that valuable, because the story was supposed to be different back then. If Faith was alive, it still meant she would wear a ribbon (and even 13th Floor witches were never able to remove the enchantments completely [see: Beast in comics] so it's unlikely that Faith, who wasn't even a witch, would take it off somehow). And remember - glamoured or not, the ribbon was still visible (Lily in the photo) and Nerissa does not wear the ribbon in both the original episode 2 preview or episode 2 slide.

Who exactly did Nerissa glamour herself as? Faith or someone else? If she glamoured as Faith she was risking letting Georgie or CM's spies seeing a dead girl that Georgie just killed walking around. If it was some other person, it assumes she carries more than 1 glamour.

I was thinking that she glamoured herself as Faith, but I can't tell why would she do that. I believe she tried to disguise herself, but why as Faith? Maybe because she knew that it will cause a confusion among Crooked Man's crew (or she hoped that if she's spied on, CM will think that Georgie didn't 'take care' of the girls and punish him - Nerrisa would get her revenge?). I am not sure about that, but one thing is certain - they knew that something was not right, as even CM pointed out that there is a conspiracy against him. However, I am not 100% sure about her reasons to use Faith as disguise.

There's no evidence that Nerissa can switch between her mermaid form and her human form at will. In fact her Fables entry says she "gave up her tail for a pair of legs".

I believe Nerissa got the 'Bigby treatment' here - Bigby was born as a wolf and rejected his father's powers (that's why he can't shapeshift etc) but because of his lineage, he can't drown and posesses the huff'n'puff power. I think that's the same with Nerissa - she might've ditched her tail and fish-like behaviour (LOL ) but her true nature allows her to remain alive underwater.

I assume there is a non-mermaid solution to this since Snow managed to get the lower part of Lily's body out.

That's right, but I guess Snow had to use some sort of spell crafted by 13th Floor. I doubt that Faith, who had money problems, was able to afford such spell.

I don't want to reveal a complete comic spoiler but I'll say this: Swineheart's ego caused someone's death in the books. He thinks he can make no mistakes and I won't be surprised he would withhold information until he is completely sure of something.

That's true, but if it wasn't Faith's head, then it must've been glamoured to look so. Glamour wears off over time (and the one used in game was black market - a malfunctioning one, as pointed out in Ep 2) so it can be assumed that it would wear off before the end of the game, so I highly doubt that he would withhold this kind of information, as that would mean he was halting the investigation - Bigby would not be happy about this...

What reason could Faith have to be angry at Nerissa? [the guy was talking about the photo in the foundry - TMH] Most likely Nerissa confessed to Faith she ratted on them and Faith was in danger. So Faith probably has prior warning about Georgie and did not really "walk in" and let Georgie kill her.

That depends on the interpretation, but I thought that this photo depicted the scene when Faith tells Nerissa that she stole the photo, and Nerissa tries to convince her to come clean about it, but Faith tells her that this will be a mistake and makes her swear not to do anything about it.