u/Hazzman

One of the most prevailing theories of who or what G-Man is describes him as a sort of interdimensional agent belonging to an adversary of the Combine.

But what if he isn't. What if he always belonged to the Combine. What if he works for the Combine as a world scout and a 'Red Team' operative. His job is to stress test, to find weakness in the Combine methods. To create chaos so that the Combine can adapt to new scenarios and internalize them for future domination.

His job is to discover new dimensions to conquer and broadly, his job isn't to defeat the Combine as an organization, his job is to defeat the Combine's tactics. Gordon Freeman isn't a freedom fighter, he's a penetration tool.

Now in Alyx the Advisors feel threatened enough to seal G-Man, but this doesn't undermine the scenario I'm describing. If the Combine is so utterly vast, if G-Man belongs to a compartmentalized organization who operates autonomously it could be possible the advisors who are tasked with dominating Earth are threatened by him. His objective, to undermine their dominion of Earth, could come with real consequences if the fail.

This is the kind of logical, brutal, adversarial, evolutionary and adaptive approach to interdimensional dominion you would expect from an empire so vast that we can't imagine its scale. Plans within plans. Assets against assets.

We see this exact kind of corporate adversarial policy in companies like Microsoft. Internal politics. Teams vs teams. Individuals pitted against individuals. Survival of the fittest.

What if G-Man isn't seeking to defeat the Combine and liberate Earth broadly (even in a self serving manner) but is seeking to liberate Earth as a temporary demonstration of this Combine Task forces inadequacies. Earth could be liberated, but will ultimately be subsumed once the Combine adapt.

For some reason this was the only thing in the show that really bothered me and I still think about. I mean it is hilarious and exactly what you'd expect from Gilfoyle and I don't just feel bad for John, even though his 'OK' is heart wrenching.... But because Gilfoyle is such an enormous dick that he robs himself of having a friendship with someone who he could genuinely cherish and enjoy.

Anyway that's all, just up thinking about what dick Gilfoyle is sometimes and how it hurts him as much as others. He'd deny it of course.