Armada never definitively reaches the Scar: Hedrigall’s contradictory return suggests a catastrophic version of the expedition exists as a realized possibility while the city readers follow turns away. Uther Doul’s plan was about possibility itself — he pushed the voyage far enough to widen outcomes, then helped prevent the Lovers from collapsing everything into a single obsessive destination. Bellis does get home, hollowly: realising how completely Doul used her, she resolves that when he returns her to New Crobuzon she will stop running and deliver her letter by hand. She never adopts Tanner's sense of Armada as home, and the homecoming costs her every illusion she arrived with.
Themes and What the Ending Means
Exile and reinvention. Bellis and Tanner show that displacement can be experienced as theft or liberation without either response becoming universal.
Chosen and imposed bodies. Remaking changes meaning when Tanner seeks it for himself rather than receiving it as punishment.
Possibility and control. The Scar attracts rulers who want to turn uncertainty into a resource they can own.
Translation and power. Bellis’s language skills create access but also make her usable by institutions and spies.