Epsilon

"...A great love is a lot like a good memory. When it's there, and you know it's there, but it's just out of your reach, it can be all that you think about. You can focus on it, and try to force it, but the more you do, the more you seem to push it away. But if you're patient, and you hold still, then maybe... Just maybe... It will come to you."

- Epsilon in n+1

Artificial Intelligence Program Epsilon was created from the memories of the Alpha A.I. He was used for the special operations program Project Freelancer and was assigned to the Freelancer Agent Washington, previously known as Recovery One. In his current state, Epsilon is also known as Epsilon-Church, since after recovering his memories, he has recovered the personality and consciousness of Leonard L. Church, the original Alpha A.I.

Overview
When he was implanted into Washington, Epsilon caused him to see all of the Director's secrets, before "killing" itself, which possibly caused Washington to go insane. After these events, Project Freelancer decided to stop all  A.I. implantations; however, Epsilon would later be taken by Caboose after Reconstruction and be resurrected through his actions.

Unlike his fellow fragmented "siblings", Epsilon can show multiple emotions, possibly because he represents memory. Because of this, Epsilon can vary in different "forms", as he's been shown to take the forms of Alpha, Delta, Theta, Gamma, Omega and Sigma in a few instances. After Church's death, Epsilon took his role and became the main character in later seasons. Though he has Church's personality, he differs from him in several ways.

Origins
Epsilon is a fragment of a "smart A.I." called the Alpha. Artificial constructs were all subject to a number of algorithms to ensure stability, but these procedures failed to predict Epsilon's eventual rampancy. Alpha was tortured in order to 'fragment', resulting in extra A.I.s for Project Freelancer. Each was not a full A.I., but an aspect of Alpha's personality. The last thing that Alpha fragmented was its memories, as it would otherwise have been driven insane by what it had experienced. These included memories of other A.I. which eventually led to Epsilon's creation.

Epsilon was then assigned to be implanted into Freelancer Agent Washington. Unfortunately, Epsilon proved unable to cope with the memories and entered full rampancy. Worse, this happened during Washington's implantation process. Eventually, the construct's rampancy caused Washington to become temporarily insane, as he was unable to differentiate the AI's deteriorating thoughts from his own. The incident caused the board of directors to supposedly terminate the use of A.I. implantation out of fear of a worse incident arising (and possibly the risk of the Alpha's torture being exposed). This caused future agents, namely South to completely miss out on the program.

Containment Within the Storage Unit
Epsilon was revealed in Reconstruction: Chapter 16 to have been removed from Washington and then taken back to Freelancer Command. Wash also revealed that he gained all of Epsilon's (and therefore Alpha's) memories as a result of the incident, and now has full knowledge of Project Freelancer's experiments. This is also why he no longer trusts A.I.s; for fear that his knowledge would be discovered and eventually reach command (which would likely result in Wash being imprisoned or killed).

During the Epilogue of Reconstruction, Caboose is seen, apparently attempting to implant Epsilon into Tex's robotic body, but throughout Relocated he is seen fiddling with Epsilon, along with Tex's body and the destroyed ship. In Recreation, Caboose is again seen modifying the parts, to little avail, even going so far as to light himself on fire. He is also seen telling Epsilon stories of the events of "The Blood Gulch Chronicles," because, as Caboose claims, Epsilon enjoys being told stories, and even makes an odd humming sound when spoken to. In Catching Up, Caboose reveals to Donut his intentions: to use Epsilon, parts from Tex's robot body, and parts from the ship "to make a new super best friend," although he has had little success. Caboose is seen taking Epsilon to the Red Base's secret Hologram Chamber, upon hearing of its existence by Donut.

Inside the chamber, the container opens revealing Delta, which Epsilon explains as him taking a form which had expressed reliable information in the past. Caboose asks if he could take other forms, Epsilon explains he could, if they were in his memory banks (such as Delta, as Epsilon had detailed memories of his fellow AI Fragments, leading a few to believe he must have been the last to eject from the Alpha). Epsilon then suggests that Caboose heads to the desert where Tucker was last spotted, noting an energy spike there he could use to create a new body. Caboose agrees, and Sarge and Grif are convinced to join him.

Revival in Epsilon-Church
When they arrive at the desert, the team is cornered by C.T. and his men, until Tucker rescues them. As they take refuge inside a temple, Caboose runs off and inserts Epsilon into a new body, a Forerunner Monitor, where it assumes the character and attitude of Church. When Tucker, Sarge, and Grif finally find Caboose, it is soon apparent that Epsilon-Church contains none of his memories other than those supplied by Caboose's stories which were wrong, like that Tucker being Captain Flowers back from the dead; Grif having yellow armor and thinking that his name is spelled with two F's; and that Sarge is a pirate and captain of a ship. He is also still learning about his new body and is unable to fully control it.

Epsilon soon loses control of his body and drifts around. To make matters worse, while trying to turn on his long-term memory Epsilon instead shuts off his short-term memory, but was turned back on when Caboose hits him. After C.T. and his men forcibly enter the temple, Epsilon soon realizes he can levitate objects and kills an alien with a box. He is later disabled by Jones and grabbed by C.T. After a long chase, C.T. is stopped by Tucker. Tucker follows C.T. after he escapes, but is later cornered by him atop a temple at gunpoint. Epsilon comes to the rescue and kills C.T. with his "laser face", after the latter calls him a "thing." The group suddenly becomes surrounded by the aliens.

Old Memories
In Revelation, Epsilon is being worshiped by the Aliens, and is slightly abusing the power. He then starts having memory flashes, including a vision of Valhalla and a dark figure entering the Blue Base. When he leaves to Valhalla with the Reds, he rages at the sight of Washington, firing his laser in the process and blocking an entrance to the remaining Reds and himself. He then started panicking about them "finding her", shortly before shutting down. When the Reds return Epsilon back to the desert, a memory of Delta tells Caboose that Epsilon is looking for a specific memory and also notes that Epsilon may restart a cycle, which "must not happen". Delta also reveals that the rest of the A.I. are with Delta, yet Epsilon must not know of their presence.

When Epsilon recovers, he and Caboose venture to the Freelancer Offsite Storage Facility and get past F.I.L.S.S., who mistakes him for the Director. Inside, he and Caboose enter a room filled with identical robotic bodies, where Epsilon uncovers a metallic box containing Epsilon-Tex. After Tex escapes, she soundly defeats the other Reds and Blues until she is suddenly hit in the head by the deactivated Monitor shell of Epsilon, who is revealed to have implanted himself into a new body. However, Tex promptly starts beating him with his Monitor body. Caboose then utilizes the facility-wide armor lock, via F.I.L.S.S. Epsilon soon frees the others and then enters Tex's mind to calm her down before he frees her.

After the altercation, Church has a chat with Tex, who asks him to give her complete access to F.I.L.S.S.'s files. When he questions her motives, she tells him that she simply wants to find out who she is. He then agrees to give her access, and finds her, having enlisted Simmons' to help, probing the facility's files further. She shows Church a picture of a Freelancer base and asks him if he recognizes it. He acknowledges this, which confirms her suspicions and prompts her to leave for the installation. Not wanting Tex to go alone, Epsilon decides to accompany her. Before he goes, however, he accesses a personal journal of the Director and discovers a startling truth about who, and what, Tex is. He has all the logs transferred to him, and then commands F.I.L.S.S. to delete the rest of the entries.

At the Freelancer base, Tex makes quick work of the guards, and then leads Epsilon into the facility. He realizes that he's been here before, and Tex tells him the story behind the base: it had once been the holding facility for the Alpha, whom she had attempted to rescue with the help of other rogue agents. However, she had arrived too late and the Alpha's mind was long gone. It was at this point that Epsilon was born, having been the final fragment the A.I. needed to remove to retain its sanity. Later outside of the base, Epsilon attempted to stop Tex, but she intends to find the Director. Church, incredulous, reminds her that no one knows where he is, but Tex suggests that the Meta and Washington might.

Secrets at Sidewinder
Church tries to convince her not to pursue them, believing that they may not know anything either, but Tex, however, doesn't mind that possibility. She then pulls out her pistol and shoots Epsilon in the foot, in order to activate his recovery beacon, which she needed to use to bait Washington. Epsilon tells her that he would have helped her, but Tex retorts that he can't even help himself before leaving him in the snow as she goes to prepare for the two agents' arrival. Some time later, Wash, Doc, and the Meta arrive as predicted,  where Wash is quick to realize that Epsilon is being used as bait.

Suddenly, the three are blown sky high with explosives that Tex had cleverly placed beneath them. In spite of this, however, the two survive and Tex is forced to engage them in combat, but is eventually captured and contained in the Meta's capture unit. Epsilon demands Wash release her, but Wash replies that he can't, but that he would be coming with him anyway. As Wash prepares to capture him with the unit as well, the allure of power overcomes the Meta, and he uses the captured Tex to gain her Cloaking abilities. Epsilon is then forced to flee as the Meta begins to attack. Being his one ticket to freedom, Wash attempts to protect Epsilon, but is easily defeated.

Fortunately, the timely arrival of the Reds and Blues stops the madness. When the Capture Unit is found by Epsilon, he repeats his demands that Wash free Tex from her imprisonment. Wash agrees on the condition that Epsilon surrenders. Epsilon accepts and Wash then orders the Reds and the Blues to gather the materials he needs. After they flee in search for the items, Epsilon explains what and who Tex really is: an A.I. based on a woman the Director loved named Allison. He further explains that Tex was a byproduct during the creation of the Alpha, until suddenly, the Capture Unit slowly rises out of the snow on the cloaked Meta's back, revealing that it was still attached to him.

When Epsilon is injured by the Meta, the Reds and Tucker battle against the enemy. The Meta is finally defeated and the Capture Unit is found. Epsilon knowingly defies all reason and jumps into the failing unit to find Tex. Unfortunately, the unit fails and shuts down, leaving Epsilon trapped inside. When UNSC Police arrive at the scene, they toss the unit in evidence due to its bad condition, making it of no use to the Chairman. Inside the unit, Epsilon monologues, declaring his decision to wait for Tex to come to him, because every time he tries to find her, her memory is pushed farther and farther away. In the meantime, he conjures up Alpha's first memories of Blood Gulch, in hopes that Tex will find him there.

Searching for Tex
Inside the capture unit, Church, while 'replaying' his memory, starts a monologue about himself, but is repeatedly interrupted by Tucker. He heads to the cliff to check out modifications to the Reds' new vehicle, but finds out that Donut is now acting as the leader and the Reds added Rocket Launchers to their jeep. So, Church decides to go down the cliff to face them. He reaches Red Base and is greeted by shots fired at him. After the Reds give him time to speak, Church tells each of them of their incorrect personalities, with the exception of Simmons. Donut decides he's heard enough and aims his DMR at Church, who leaves back to Blue Base, leaving the Reds to debate over whether what Church said is true or not.

When Church returns to Blue Base he is greeted by Caboose, who tells him that he made a call to command for a new soldier. Church asks if he knows who they were sending, but Caboose says no, angering Church. Church then attempts to activate the tank in preparation for Tex's arrival, in which Tucker takes Church and Caboose to the beach in order to teach them about women. Back at Blue base, another earthquake occurs, and Tucker asks Church why he is so calm during them. Church explains that everything in the memory unit is fake except for him and Tex, however, neither Tucker nor Caboose seem to be able to understand. The Blues suddenly notice a grenade and come to the conclusion that someone threw it at them, before it explodes. It is revealed that the grenade thrown at them was only a flashbang tossed by Epsilon-Tex.

Tex reveals herself to them and questions their dead soldier. Church makes up a lie in order for Tex to stay. After calling Command, Tex decides to stay and help them with "Andersmith" by killing a red. Eventually, the Blues end up killing Lopez, who Tex believes is Simmons. Back at Blue Base, Church walks up to Tex to talk to her, but is interrupted by Caboose. Afterwards, Epsilon later talks with Tex when she is working on the tank, where she reveals that she is aware of who and what she is, surprising Epsilon. After being insulted by Grif, Tex builds a bomb, Andy. Epsilon advises Tex on how to lift the bomb, but Tex insults him. Later, while the rest of the Blues decide to escape the earthquakes, Church and Tex stay behind. He wishes Tucker and Caboose good luck as they leave in the tank.

Epsilon and Tex then share a heartfelt moment while the world is ending around them. Alone together, Church tells Tex that he now knows what the Director and the Alpha didn't. By stating three words, despite her not wanting to hear it, Epsilon frees Tex by saying "I forget you", causing her to disappear. Epsilon looks up into the sky and suddenly hears real-world Caboose's voice. He is then forcibly pulled out of the Epsilon unit and brought up to date in the real world by Sarge and Caboose. He demands they return him back into the Epsilon Unit as he was finally at peace with himself, but Caboose mentions that she told them the rescue would work. Suddenly, Carolina steps into the room and tells Epsilon that he's going to help her kill the Director.

Escape
Epsilon questions Carolina about why and how she is there and then learns that Washington has taken his armor, his name, and replaced him on Blue Team, much to his anger. As the group leave the UNSC Archives, they make a pit stop at Zanzibar where Church is implanted into Tucker's A.I. slot. The two soon sneak off to spy on Wash and Carolina, but are caught when Tucker's perverted instincts get the better of him and are ordered to leave without any answers. Later, Tucker asks Church on his knowledge on Carolina, in which he explains that Tex told him about her, but Tucker corrects him by saying that Alpha was told.

The Reds, Blues, and Carolina arrive back at the desert to find C.T. While Wash and Carolina are off, the Reds and Blues gather together, where Epsilon convinces them that they need to stick together and can't trust Carolina or Wash. Simmons then gets the idea to insert Epsilon inside of Carolina's Mongoose, in order to figure out what she's up to. Disgusted with the idea, Epsilon is inserted into the Mongoose and is naturally upset about it. Soon afterwards, Carolina departs to a nearby island on her Mongoose, unaware that Epsilon is stored inside.

Carolina arrives at an abandoned fortress to the location of York's death, still unaware that Epsilon is with her. After Carolina confesses her regrets to York outloud, Epsilon reveals himself to her and asks her why she doesn't trust them. In response, Carolina claims that she can't trust anybody anymore, due to the fact that her fellow Freelancers lied, stole, and tore one another to pieces during their time at Project Freelancer and afterwards. As a result, Epsilon responds by taking the form of Epsilon-Delta, in which the latter reveals memory logs of agent York. Touched by his effort, Carolina thanks him and the two head back to the desert. Upon their arrival, Epsilon is seen implanted inside of Carolina and the two reveal to the group that they are heading to Outpost 17-B.

Return to Valhalla
Once the team arrives at Valhalla, Tucker and Caboose question Epsilon about his sudden relationship with Carolina, where the latter explains that by staying close to Carolina, he is more likely to discover further information. Afterwards, Carolina has Epsilon implant himself into the ship to get some intel, but he is unable to find any information. After getting into an argument with Tucker, Epsilon speaks with Carolina alone, questiong her hatred and bitterness towards Tex. He then tells her that if she wanted to find the Director, she has to let her jealousy of Tex go, claiming if Tex was the best, she would be in Carolina's shoes.

After pulling a dog tag from her pocket, Carolina discovers it to belong to C.T. Epsilon realizes that the tag contains data and decides to search inside. He exits and informs Carolina that he remembers everything, including the Director's location. The two then lead the Reds and Blues into the Holographic Chamber, where Carolina explains her plan to kill the Director, much to the group's distaste. After multiple refusals and complaints, Epsilon blames the group for causing all of his problems, resulting in the Reds and Blues leaving one by one, disgusted and hurt. Epsilon tries to apologize, but comes to no avail. Carolina assures to Epsilon that they don't need them, though it is obvious that she is unsure.

Confronting the Director
With the Reds and Blues refusing to help them, Epsilon and Carolina journey to the Freelancer Offsite Storage Facility to find the Director themselves. While there the two find F.I.L.S.S., and the latter informs them that the Director had returned to the facility and hasn't left since. Inside the facility, Epsilon and Carolina overhear the Director listening to an audio recording of Allison. The two then enter a teleporter to confront the Director, but end up in a room filled with hostile robots that resemble Tex, where Epsilon then realizes that the Director had never stopped trying to create a perfect copy of her. When the robots attack the two, Epsilon's coordination is jarred from the intensity of the fight and he is unable to assist Carolina.

As the drones overwhelm them, the Reds and Blues come to their rescue and together, after reconciling their relationship, lay waste to the majority of the robots. However, they slowly become overwhelmed as well; thus, Epsilon enters each drone and finds Tex in a similar predicament to what Alpha was in many years ago. Epsilon reminds her of their relationship and comforts her, telling her to rest, which Tex wearily, but happily complies to. Epsilon then says goodbye and returns to the facility, where all of the Tex drones shut down as a result of his actions. The Reds and Blues take a moment to savor their victory, but Epsilon, however, replies that he and Carolina must complete the next objective of their mission alone.

Carolina and Epsilon soon find the Director watching a video file of Allison repeatedly. The Director pleads for more time so he can bring back Allison right this time, but Epsilon demands that they kill him, and make him pay for what he has done. Carolina attempts to rekindle her hatred towards the Director, but simply gives him a disappointed frown, her anger having ebbed away from her experiences and seeing how broken the Director has become. Before leaving, she kisses the Director on the forehead and, upon his request, leaves him her pistol. Epsilon is enraged at the loss, but Carolina reminded him that he himself taught that people needed to let go. Before leaving, Epsilon tells the Director that he is better than him and is more than just a copy.

Afterwards, Epsilon and Carolina help relocate the Reds and Blues to a new home, where they continue their usual bickering and immediately makes themselves at home. Overlooking both teams on a cliff, Epsilon decides to stay with the two teams, but Carolina mentions that she intercepted a transmission detailing thugs that have stolen Freelancer equipment, and offers Epsilon to accompany her. She then quotes her mother on a saying on goodbyes, and Epsilon remarks that Carolina's mother was a smart lady, though Carolina counters this by mentioning her horrible taste in men. The two then both disappear from the area, as Caboose looks on from below.

Personality
Being an A.I. fragment based on the Alpha's memory, Epsilon's personality is very similar to that of Church. However, there are some differences between them, such as Epsilon seeming to act more selfless than Church and shows to have more respect to his friends. However, Epsilon seems to have a larger ego, as he took great pleasure of being treated as a god by the aliens and even created a song about how great he is.

Although Epsilon also has an angry personality like the Alpha, he seems to be calmer and shows regret for his actions when he loses his temper, most notably in Change of Plans. He later acknowledges the Reds and Blues as true friends and in n+1, he states "If you have to live the rest of your life in a memory...You might as well make it a good one," as he relives Blood Gulch with the teams, showing that he might have appreciated 'his' adventures with them.

Relationships
Epsilon's relationships with most of the series' characters are the same as Church's, with some exceptions.

Forms
Epsilon is shown to take more forms then any A.I. in the series, seemingly changing either bodies or even personality in several instances. He has taken the forms of Alpha (most commonly), Delta (second most common), Theta, Gamma, Omega, and Sigma without a body, and shows to be able to change his size as well when only a A.I. Also, he has operated a monitor, a robotic body, and even a Mongoose for physical bodies.

Firing Accuracy
Much like Church, Epsilon has a terrible aim with his sniper rifle, and tries to blame something else for the reason. It's even suggested that he is worse than Alpha, due to the fact he doesn't know how to use the scope to zoom in Rounding Error and can't even hit a large rock that Epsilon-Tex tells him to shoot at in Season 9.

Angry Personality
As mentioned before, Church and Epsilon share a similar personality. As shown, Epsilon can be as easily annoyed and furious as Church in several situations, but unlike Church, Epsilon is shown to quickly regret his actions upon losing his temper and admits when he is wrong. This is best shown in Change of Plans and when the teams come to rescue him and Carolina in True Colors, when upon seeing them he admits that he's an asshole and would take any back talk from them now on.

Leadership
Though not shown often, Epsilon is shown to be a good leader, as he stopped the group from fighting and convinced them to face C.T. during Recreation. While in the capture unit, he took command of the Blue team during Season 9.

Memory
As he represents the Alpha's memory, Epsilon has a great amount of information and can remember anything to the specific detail. Although he lost this ability after 'killing' himself in Washington's mind, he soon began to regain his memories after being resurrected and was able to locate the Director because of this.

Possession
Though he can't take control of another soldier, Epsilon's possessive ability has helped the group several times. He possessed a mongoose which allowed him to bond with Carolina, he unlocked Caboose's anger, and was able to put the remaining Tex-drones to 'rest' by splitting himself into multiple copies (something that isn't shown in other A.I.) in Season 10. It's also suggested that he can increase a character's abilities if he possesses them.

Kills
While in his monitor form, Epsilon has killed one of the religous aliens using his telekinesis and the Insurrectionist Leader with his laser in Recreation. He also was able to put the remaining Tex-drones to 'rest' in True Colors as an A.I.

Trivia

 * Epsilon was able to send flashes of images to Church while he was merely standing near the A.I. towards the end of Reconstruction: Chapter 15. Because of his connection with the Alpha, his contact with Church allowed him to remember several of his former memories; memories that Epsilon witnessed.
 * Epsilon can be seen in the introduction to Recovery One: Part Four during a flashback.
 * Because Epsilon is Alpha's memories, he can be seen as a back up copy of the Alpha, as the two are nearly identical. Burnie Burns even stated in an interview that they were the "same person, but separate." However, Epsilon seems to be slightly more selfless with regard to others and more affectionate towards Tex, with both Tucker and Tex herself noting that he's even more whipped than the "original" Church was. In Season 9, Epsilon himself referred to Alpha as being "kind of a dick," further distinguishing the separate identities (though Tucker does note that Epsilon is "continuing that grand tradition", implying the difference between the two isn't as great as Epsilon would like to think). Also, when Epsilon and Church met in Reconstruction, the two each gained some of the other's memories.
 * Epsilon is the only known Alpha fragment that wasn't destroyed in the EMP.
 * As stated in Hang Time, Epsilon's favorite color is green. Whether or not green is Alpha's favorite color is unknown.
 * Out of all of the known Alpha A.I. fragments, Epsilon is the youngest, as he was the last to be created directly from Alpha.
 * Epsilon currently has appeared in more mini-series than any other character (4 total).
 * Epsilon has the most appearances in the third saga of the series out of all characters (44 episodes).
 * In Don't Say It, Epsilon changes into the forms of Delta, Theta, Gamma, Omega, and Sigma. An attribute of each is displayed other than their appearance as well: an echoey, robotic voice (Delta), a higher pitched childlike voice and the sound of fireworks (Theta), broken/jerky vocal patterns (Gamma), a deep aggressive tone (Omega), and a secondary, almost demonic voice repeating the sentence just said (Sigma).
 * Epsilon's affection towards Tex originally started out like the Director's, as the two attempted to bring her back and refused to refer to her as a shadow. Yet later on, in Don't Say It, Epsilon refers to Tex as "this...shadow?", proving his statement of "I'm more than just a copy of you. I'm better than you," towards the Director.