Dominguez and the box and the Shadow of the Jaguar — the Mayan mythology enacted through human effort, the ancient design tried again by people who believe the myth strongly enough to die for it. The danger is the trying-to-prove: the myth as complete idea does not require human participation. The moment humans try to prove it real, they introduce the specific violence of implementation, the cost of making the symbolic into the material.

Lara also tried to prove a myth real — the Croft legacy, the archaeology, the belief that the past's secrets could be safely extracted. The game ends with both versions of that trying encountering each other in the mechanism the myth assembled, and Lara surviving while Dominguez does not. The myths are still there. The people who reached for them have paid.