The masks in Jackson are social — the performance of normality inside fortified walls, the agreement to behave as if the world is manageable, as if the structures people have built will hold. Ellie wears hers consistently. Dina sees through it, which is why the relationship matters. The people who forgot to take their masks off are the ones who have confused the performance with the self.

The game's Jackson sequences are doing careful work. Every patrol, every conversation, every quiet moment between characters is establishing who these people are before the story takes that from them. The mask each person wears is the distance between who they are and who they are about to become.