Washington
From Red vs Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles
| Washington | |
|---|---|
 Wash being briefed by Command | |
| Voice actor(s) | Shannon McCormick |
| First episode | Recovery One, Part 1 |
| Affiliation | Freelancer |
| Armor color(s) | Black/Steel with Yellow Trim |
| Full name | David |
Freelancer Washington, also known as Recovery One and David, is the main protagonist in his eponymous mini-series and a new main character in Red vs Blue. Washington is a Freelancer assigned to the Special Operations Recovery Unit, charged with recovering the artificial constructs of dying freelancers.
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[edit] Recovery One
In his first appearance, he is charged to recover the AI Delta, after Freelancer York is KIA. While recovering Delta, Washington is attacked by an unknown white armored soldier, presumably Wyoming, but not clearly stated. Washington plants an explosive on York's armor and takes Delta, escaping alive from the unknown soldier. Wash is then contacted by Recovery Command and is sent to answer a Priority One Distress Call.
Wash Responds, and finds two freelancer twins, North and South. North is KIA, but South was left alive, upon questioning South, Wash discovers that North still had his artificial construct, the Theta AI. Wash is then contacted by Command, and he is ordered to kill South.
Wash only pretends to kill her, later saying that he needs her help. He orders Delta to lie about South's death. Wash and South go to a city, where Wash explains the situation to South, that something is hunting the freelancers, something that can't be seen on motion trackers. He describes the hunter's reason for hunting freelancers is to steal their armor enhancements. Wash plans to implant Delta into South for safe keeping. South protests, saying that she isn't rated for Implantation, but has to go through with it, as Wash will not allow Delta in his head after what happened to Wash's own AI Epsilon, which went insane and terminated itself inside Wash's head.
Wash and South are attacked by the Mysterious Being that is hunting the freelancers. Delta is quickly implanted into South. This turns out to be a huge mistake, because shortly after South acquires Delta, she betrays Wash and shoots him in the back. South then confronts the Hunter and tricks him into stealing Wash's armor enhancement while she makes her escape with Delta, leaving Wash to die. Washington is last seen lying on the ground motionless with the creature looming over him. His fate is left unknown at the climax of Recovery One.
[edit] Reconstruction
Spoiler alert. The following section contains plot details to Red vs Blue: Reconstruction.
It is revealed during the first episode of Reconstruction that Washington was inexplicably spared by the Meta. Washington also reveals that he was able to survive South's betrayal because he had taken York's healing agent. Whether or not he still has York's armor enhancement (or his own) is not stated. Upon offering counsel to Recovery Command on the incident at Outpost 17-B: Valhalla, Washington is ordered to investigate the last known location of the Omega AI: Blood Gulch[1].
When he arrives, he learns that most of the soldiers have been transferred due to "obsolete bases". Sarge and Sister are the only soldiers left, the latter because she can host parties in Blue base, and the former because of his desire to completely wipe out the Blues. (It should be noted, though, that he doesn't actually do anything to Sister because he doesn't hit girls.) Afterward, Washington learns where Caboose has been transferred to with the help of Lopez (who has somehow had his body rebuilt). When he arrives at Caboose's new base at Outpost 28: Rat's Nest, he learns about Caboose's incredible stupidity the hard way. When he leaves, he narrowly misses the Meta, who was assuming the appearance of a Blue soldier for reasons unknown. Soon afterward, he manages to find Church and persuades him to join him in hunting the Meta.
After finding and reactivating Sheila, Washington's suspicions about the Meta are confirmed, but he is interrupted by a distress call from Delta, implying that South is under attack by the Meta. After a series of events leading up to South's death, Wash manages to track the Meta back to Last Resort, only to have Sarge and the newly reformed Red Team show up and ruin their hopes of saving Caboose and Delta from the Meta. After the Meta attacks the Reds, Wash manages to convince the Reds to work with him to stop the Meta.
After some non-stop arguing between red and blue team, Wash finally becomes annoyed enough to take charge of both teams. After he assigns the reds to check on the jeep, Church gives him a message that he received from Delta: "Memory is the key!" Wash reveals that the message meant that the Alpha AI is the only thing that can stop the Meta, and that there is only one place where they can find it: Command.
After commandeering some vehicles, Wash, the Blues, and the Reds finally manage to sneak into command. Wash takes Church with him down into the AI storage level where he begins his search for the Alpha. During his search, several stored AIs communicate with Wash and try to convince him to take them with him. After a little searching, Washington finally comes across the pannel he was looking for, but instead of extracting the Alpha AI from it, he extracts Epsilon.
Church is furious that Wash lied to him, but Washington explains everything. He explains that all the other AIs were never copied from the Alpha, but they were instead fragments of it's mind. Epsilon represented the Alpha's memories, while Delta represented it's logic. Finally, Washington reveals something shocking to Church. After he explains why Church always agreed with everything Delta said, why he was put into Blood Gulch, and why he can seemingly live without a body, he reveals that Church himself is the Alpha AI.
Church and Washington head to the EMP terminal, where Wash briefly talks to the Director and Councilor before Maine attacks him and shoots him in the chest. Wash still activates the EMP after Church goes inside Maine. The words "Emp (pronounced "EM-P" instead of EE-EM-PEE) activated" are stated, to which Washington responds, "Emp? You've got to be kidding-" before the terminal releases an electro-magnetic pulse that shorts out all electrical equipment and destroys all AIs at the base, which Caboose, with the AI Epsilon, barely escape from, leaving the fate of Church, Washington, and Maine unknown.
[edit] Other
- Washington was the first major Red vs. Blue character to appear in Reconstruction and the Halo 3 engine.
- It is possible that Washington has acquired South's shield, as it is the mandate of the Recovery program to gather both the A.I. and armor enhancements of the Freelancers.
- Washington still has the healing unit, which is represented by a Regenerator in Chapter 11 when he uses it to stabilize Caboose. (No proof of this yet, as Wash said he was using 'a healing unit', it may be a piece of standard medical field gear.)
- Washington seems to be very begrudging, especially when it comes to Agent South after her betrayal, evidenced by, comically, the lengths he goes to when disposing of her corpse. In order, he utilizes; a burst of the Battle Rifle (presumably in the head), a plasma grenade, a sustained burst from a flamethrower, and at least a dozen fusion coils and propane tanks. Amusingly, Washington makes several attempts to add the final core to the stack, pushing it back onto the pile when it keeps rolling off.
- Washington seems to be on friendly terms with the woman who gives orders from Command. This is shown in the way that the two talk to one another. Although in Recovery One the two speak rather coldly to one another, when Reconstruction starts they speak much nicer to one another. How this occurred is at the time is unknown. Also, the woman from Command occasionally calls Washington by his nickname Wash.
- It may be noted that whether it is or isn't true there is a number of things to (currently) subject that Washington has a history with agent Maine, even though Maine is now known as the Meta, the first is the fact that he reacted very loudly and shocked to find out the Meta was agent Maine (it could be due to the fact Maine may of been believed dead, or maybe he couldn't believe that it was Maine that had betrayed the freelancers, or, like Church, he was shocked at the Meta turning out to be a Freelancer) the second is that the Meta has spared Wash's life several times, first at the end of Recovery One, and later during the fight in O'Malley's old fortress, although currently this is only speculation.
- There are, however, explanations and contradictions to Washington and Maine having a history. Maine believed Wash was dead due to the words of South, and likely only took the time to steal his equipment, due to the belief of a timed charge being placed on the body, and thus, leaving him alive is to be expected. Maine is also quick to pull a gun on the time-frozen Washington in Chapter 6, and in Chapter 8, an explanation for leaving Wash alive was that Maine was weak and low on power, intending to survive above all else. Wash never calls the Meta Maine when speaking of it, even in the final episode, always referring to it as "Meta."
- Wash's possible relationship to the Meta/Maine may be more plausible than first considered; given the amount of times he's survived being almost killed by him/her/it. This reflects an interesting parallel to the Church/Tex relationship, in that she chose not to kill him as well in the past. It wouldn't be much of a stretch, considering the possibly loaded question Wash tosses out offhandedly to the Meta whilst brandishing a chain-gun in Last Resort; "Hi, remember me?" (This might also be referring to their encounter at the end of Recovery One).
- Wash's armor enhancement appears to be a 'BioComm', it allows him to check on his team mate's Vital signs during battle, as he used it in chapter 11 (Although, it's possible this is just standard issue to all commanding officers, or even perhaps it is on all armors, and much like the megaphone/ speech amplification, it is just not known by the Blood Gulch "soldiers").
- It is also possible that his armor enhancement is the voice modulator that the Meta has at the end of Chapter 5. It has the symbol for Epsilon it the corner of it, which was wash's AI. It is possible that the Meta took this enhancement at the end of Recovery One.
[edit] References
| Freelancer |
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| Carolina · Maine · New York · North Dakota · South Dakota · Texas · Washington · Wyoming |
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| Recovery Command · Recovery One · Recovery Two · Delta AI |
