Reconstruction: Chapter 16

Chapter 16 of Red vs. Blue: Reconstruction aired on September 29, 2008 as the 126th episode overall.

Synopsis
Wash begins to explain to Church that when Delta said "Memory is the key", he was referring to his first meeting with Wash, during which Agent Washington told the AI that it was cheaper to store Epsilon than to destroy it. He realized that Command didn't destroy Epsilon, but stored him. He further explains that Project Freelancer was unable to get more than one AI, and since AI's are programmed after human models, the Director of Freelancer deduced that by introducing the Alpha to simulations resulting in high levels of stress and danger, they would be able to split the Alpha into several other pieces, in relation to the fact that the human mind fragments itself in order to protect itself when under extreme levels of anxiety. The pieces were not complete personalities; Delta was Alpha's Logic, Omega it's Anger, and Epsilon was it's memories.

Meanwhile, Simmons, Grif and Sarge are upstairs, killing time. Grif asks Simmons to shoot him if he goes insane, but Sarge thinks he should do it now to save the trouble. Simmons is a little too eager to comply, but Sarge tells Simmons to save his ammo. While they chat, a cloaked figure can be barely seen and easily heard under the window, traveling from right to left. After coming to the conclusion that Command has all the data on pretty much everything, Sarge comes up with the idea to have Simmons erase all computer data on the Blue teams everywhere.

Wash continues his explanation, saying that Epsilon was assigned to Wash, and when it was put in his head Wash got flashes of memories (similar to what was happening to Church) of what the Director had done to the Alpha. Wash never wanted another AI because he was afraid that he wouldn't be able to keep the Epsilon's memories from another program, which was what led Command to make him Recovery 1. Wash states that they will take Epsilon to someone who can use it to make the Director pay for what he has done. When Church questions how this will help them stop the Meta or find the Alpha, Wash states that they don't need to find the Alpha. He tells Church that the Freelancer Program moved it to where nobody could find it. He recalls how Church was stuck at Blood Gulch, how all the members of the base Church was previously stationed at were moved, how he always agreed with Delta, how he didn't feel any different when Omega infected him in episode 100 of Blood Gulch Chronicles, and how he was able to jump from suit to suit like Omega. Wash tells Church that he's not a ghost, but that he is the Alpha.

Transcript
Director: Dear Chairman.

Fade in to Church and Washington

Director: I imagine this investigation of our program is providing you with the kind of attention that politicians crave so much. How very predictable. What has surprised me most about mankind during the great war, is not our ability to adapt to the new arenas of conflict, but instead, our willingness in victory to so quickly return to the old.

Church: You mean to tell me we've come all this way for this? Your fucking crazy A.I. Epsilon?

Washington: Yes. I thought it was gone. But Delta told you memory was the key. At first I thought he meant to remember our first encounter. And when I met Delta the first time what I told him was-

The scene flashes toward Church and we see a flashback of Wash talking with Delta

Washington: You were encrypted until you could be recovered.

Delta: Recovery carries risk. Destruction ensures that an A.I.-

Washington: You cost a lot of money, okay? It's cheaper to recover you than it is to delete you.

Back to present day

Washington: When they removed Epsilon from me, he was unravelling, casting off all his thoughts. I was sure they deleted him but it's-

Church: It's cheaper to store it than it is to delete it. Right?

Washington: Right.

Church: But why are we looking for this thing? What's the point?

Washington: The message specifically said that memory is the key. Delta was telling me that Epsilon was still alive.

Church: And Epsilon is the key?

Washington: In a way. At the end of the war, things didn't look good for humans. And there were dozens of projects all trying to come up with the magic bullet to win.

Church: Right.

Washington: Project Freelancer was one of them. They had their research with agressive A.I. But they could only get the one, and they needed more to conduct their experiments. So, they got desperate.

Church: Right. They tried to... they tried to copy it but they couldn't, so they-

Washington: All A.I. are based on a human mind. And the Director had a theory. He thought, if we can't copy it, we'll just have to do the next best thing.

A scene flashes for Church

Church: Ah! They, they split it?

Washington: Just like a human mind when it's broken; it fragments. It fractures itself to protect itself.

Church: They tortured it.

Washington: Like reverse engineering a multiple personality disorder. They presented Alpha with scenario after scenario of stress and danger. When it started to fragment, they harvested those fragments.

Church: The Freelancer A.I.s.

Washington: Exhorted little fragments of purified compartmentalized emotion. None of them were a full personality. Some were good-

Church: Like Delta?

Washington: Delta was Alpha's logic. It needed to protect itself from analyzing what was happening to it. So it segregated that part of its mind. The part that would be able to understand the horror of what they were doing to it. And when the anger came and threatened to take over, it split that off too. That was Omega; its rage. Gamma was its deceit. Sigma was its creativity. And Epsilon...

Church: Epsilon was its memories.

Washington: And memory is the key.

Cut to the Reds and Caboose

Grif: Uhh, okay. Now I'm bored. Simmons, promise to do me a favor. If the madness sets in, just shoot me.

Sarge: Do everyone a favor and shoot him now.

Simmons: Is that an order?

Sarge: Nah, save your bullets for somethin' worthwhile.

While nobody's looking out the window, a transparent shape moves across from right to left

Sarge: Hey Simmons, get over here! Hustle up!

Simmons: What's up Sir?

Sarge: You're good with uh, computers, right?

Simmons: Well I'd like to think so, I mean there's really all different kinds of skill sets. Like you have your binary computation, you have uh bus transport-

Sarge: Yes or no?

Simmons: Yes.

Sarge: Okay here's what I'm thinin'. If this is Command, and these computers have some of those internets installed on 'em-

Simmons: There's just one internet, Sir, and I don't think it's located inside this building.

Sarge: They probably have all the information about everything, right? Like in a, spreadabase or, one of them ROM things? Datasheet?

Simmons: I'm sorry, was that something I was supposed to understand? Was that even English?

Sarge: Come on, man, you know, like all the mainframes, on the Reds and the Blues. Series of Tubes and whatnot.

Simmons: Ookayy, you're using a lot of terms that don't really make sense. I think you're asking me if these computers store all the data on Red and Blue Armies?

Sarge: Control-Alt-Bingo.

Simmons: Probably.

Sarge: Could you get in to it?

Simmons: Yeah, if I had some time. What're you thinking Sir?

Sarge: Simmons, I want you to erase the Blues.

Simmons: What, you mean like the Blues from our canyon?

Sarge: No Simmons, all of them. Gone. Erased. As in wiped off the map. Kablooie. Terminate process.

Simmons: Sir, you just blew my mind.

Cut back to Wash and Church

Washington: As they continued to torture it Alpha couldn't keep its sanity and its memories at the same time. So it had to purge them. That fragment became Epsilon. And I was just unlucky enough to have it assigned to me.

Church: So you knew. You knew from the beginning what was going on.

Washington: Mostly. They never told anyone what they did here. I got flashes when they put Epsilon in my head. Memories of what the Director did to it.

Flashback to Wash and the Director

Director: So you would say that you have overwhelming feelings of anger, and a need for revenge?

Washington: More than you know.

Back to present

Washington: Just like you're getting now. That's why Epsilon went insane; it was meant to. It was all the horrible experiences the Alpha needed to shed to survive. And that's why it had to be removed from me.

Church: Did they know that you had the memories?

Washington: I never said a word. But they had their suspicions.

Flashback to Wash and South

Washington: Do you still have yours?

South: No Wash, I never had one. I was in the implant group behind you, remember? And after what happened to you, nobody got any more.

Back to present

Washington: I would never let them put another A.I. in my head. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to hide what I knew from another program. Which ironically is what led them to think I could be trusted.

Church: Well what do we do with it?

Washington: We take it, and we get it in the hands of someone who can use all its information. Then they can bring down the person responsible for what was done to Alpha. And to me. And to my friends. They can take down the Director.

Church: But what about the Meta? How do we stop him? Isn't that the point? I thought only the Alpha could do that. Are we gonna find it or not?

Washington: No.

Church: No?

Washington: After the first attack on Command, they moved it. They knew the A.I. would just convince their Freelancers to come looking for it again. So they put it in a place where they didn't think anyone could find it.

Church: But, where? Shouldn't we be there, instead of here?

Washington: Church, I need you to listen to me. Delta was the logic. He was able to figure out things before anyone else. It's why he left a message for you in a way that he knew only you could find, and in a way that let me see you getting it.

Church: What are you saying?

Washington: I'm saying I know what you are. Even if you don't. Why you can seemingly live without a body.

Church: What?

Washington: It's why they stuck you in some useless backwater canyon where no-one ever goes. Then why they transferred every person in your outpost to a different base than you.

Flash back to Church meeting Wash and Caboose

Church: I've been here fourteen months.

Washington: What? Over a year, by yourself?

''Back to present... anyone else getting dizzy?''

Washington: It's why you always agreed with everything Delta said.

Flash back to Church talking with Delta

Delta: I think we should simply be happy it is gone.

Church: That makes sense to me.

Back to present

Washington: Why you didn't feel anything when Omega got inside your head.

Back

Church: Feels pretty much the same, that's, that's kinda weird.

Present

Washington: Why you can jump from person to person the way it can.

Back

Washington: It all adds up then. Omega was the one who inherited that trait.

Present

Washington: Church, there's no such thing as ghosts. You're one of them. You're an A.I. You, are the Alpha.