Lavernius Tucker


 * "Bow Chicka Bow Wow!"
 * &mdash;Tucker's catch phrase

Private First Class Lavernius Tucker is a main character in Red vs. Blue voiced by Jason Saldaña. Tucker is one of the members of the Blood Gulch Blue Team, and, along with his teammate Church, debuted in Episode 1.

Role in Plot
Born in Detroit, Tucker has been in Blood Gulch the longest of the Blue Team - Church joined him and Captain Butch Flowers only after the massacre on Sidewinder. This loss of another base resulted in the three Blues remaining in Blood Gulch, as Tucker and Butch Flowers previously intended to pull out. After Butch Flowers' death, Tucker took his teal-colored armor for himself and apparently allowed Church to assume command.

In Season One, Tucker is first seen spying with Church on the Reds, asking if they are doing anything every ten minutes and regarding pimping out the Warthog and their own tank in hopes of picking up women. Later, when Donut steals the Blue Flag, he and Church go after him, with Tucker using the teleporter and coming out covered in 'black stuff'. Becuase he thinks that Donut is Sarge due to the red armor color, and Donut calls himself 'Private', Tucker thinks that he has been sent back in time, only to be corrected by Church. Later, Grif and Simmons come to Dount's aid with the warthog and trap them behind a large rock. When Church is killed, he shows mostly annoyance. Later, when he calls Vic for back-up, he give no concern for Church's warning and becomes very frightened by Tex. When she is captured by the Reds, he and Caboose go through the teleporters to turns their armor black so they could act as a diversion for the Reds while Church goes to save Tex. When Tex goes to attack the Reds again, he and Caboose acts as Church's eyes while he goes to warn the Reds, and is the first person to witness Caboose refer to himself as 'O'Malley'.

Not long after, in Episode 38, Tucker discovers that Red and Blue are controlled by the same Command when he accidentally overhears a conversation between the Red Team's sergeant and their contact Vic, who is also the Blue's contact. This revelation is dismissed by everyone else; Tucker was soon knocked unconscious, and before he could divulge the information, Vic contacted Sarge and told him that Tucker would make things up about the respective armies; believing Vic, Sarge told the other Reds the same thing. Church, too, does not believe the claim, as he believes Vic to be the one who invented the story, though Tucker maintains the belief regardless of what the others say. Nonetheless, Vic convinces O'Malley to kill Tucker so the information cannot spread; to that end, O'Malley hires the bounty hunter known as Wyoming. When the reds and blues arrive at sidewinder, Tucker inexplicably exits the teleporter covered in black stuff, which would save his life later when Wyoming doesn't recognize Tucker as his target. When Church's bomb is activated, Tucker picks up O'Malley's rocket launcher to destroy Church's robot body. However, Wyoming meddles by sniping the launcher out of Tucker's hands (which never worked stated by one of the Church time-copies), the bomb detonates sending everyone but Church into the future.

During a raid on O'Malley's fortress, Tucker discovers a sword which he immediately puts to good use, dispatching the The Red Zealot. He takes a liking to the The Great Weapon and refuses to let anyone else touch it. Next thing they know O'Malley attacks with his extremely slow army, attack the blues with the reds making a run for it. Tex asks Tucker if she could borrow his sword, with him saying "no" which led him soon unconscious by Tex. Tucker wakes up later by Church and finds the army of robots slated. When Tex rejoins them, Tex says "I have been in the basement all this time trying to work this thing out". In Episode 64, after the Blues befriend an Alien, it informs the Blues that only the first person who discovered Tucker's sword can activate it. Even though the Alien had originally come to claim the sword for itself to fulfill its sacred quest, Tucker is forced to unwillingly join the quest as the sword is now joined to him. It is later revealed, to his disbelief, that the sword is actually a key to a hidden spaceship hangar; the ship itself is destroyed seconds later by Wyoming.

In Episode 73, after returning from the quest, Tucker falls ill for an unknown reason. Caboose thinks that Tucker might have contracted the disease from a swamp, while Church hypothesizes that it might have come from the sword, and Andy, the Blue Team's sentient bomb, suggests poor personal hygiene. Doc performs a diagnosis on Tucker and comes to the conclusion that he is pregnant, which Church does not believe. However, Doc's diagnosis proves correct, and Andy confirms that the Alien had the ability to impregnate a host with a parasitic embryo. Near the end of Episode 77, Tucker gives birth to a creature that immediately speaks a language similar to the Alien's in a high-pitched tone. For the first few episodes of Season 5, Tucker is comatose, finally waking up in Episode 82. In Episode 84, upon meeting his "baby" it is revealed that his idea of an "ideal father/son relationship" is that of a divorced person with visitation rights. From then on though he shows a little more compassion for it, naming it "Junior" and even defending it when Church insults it. He then aids Tex and Church when they infiltrate the Red Base, and all three are cornered by Wyoming.

The trio was able to survive and best Agent Wyoming due largely in part to Tucker. Wyoming's suit enhancement and AI allowed him to freeze and temporally displace a segment of time in case anything occurred that would result in his defeat leaving only him and his AI's memories unaffected. Tucker was somehow unaffected by the displacement's memory lost and retained his memories with each jump. This allowed Tucker to predict and counter all of Wyoming's movements and save his fellow teammates. This may be be in part due to Tucker's Sword and maybe connected to the same reason why the sword only functioned for him. It is also worth noting that it seems Wyoming was unable to continue jumping after he was stabbed by Tucker with the sword. But this could just be because the Rooster Teeth team did not want to continue showing each temporal jump or Wyoming choose different moments to jump too. When Tex betrays them she knocks Tucker unconscious and steals his sword and Junior.

During Reconstruction Chapter 17, Grif discovers a distress signal while Washington and Church are infiltrating the AI Sub-level. The voice on the other end seems to be Tucker, and tells Grif to deliver the message that they "Found what [they] were looking for" and that it was "under the sand". When Grif states he will "slip them the message", the voice makes a double entendre and delivers Tucker's catchphrase (see Below).

Donut's mysterious appearance in Valhalla revives Tucker's mission. Donut tells Caboose that he was dispatched to the area where the teams "landed" after the bomb went off in Season 3, and found a distress signal from Tucker, saying to get help immediately.

Tucker finally reappears in Recreation Chapter 12, when Epsilon is somehow used to free him from an area that he had been locked into by the "excavation team". He displays some degree of combat skill previously unseen in the series, as he is able to kill several excavation team members, a few with plasma grenades, a few with a needler, and a few with his sword, which he managed to somehow reclaim as it was taken by Tex into the Pelican, which exploded, at the end of Season Five. He closes the door behind Sarge, Grif and Caboose and explains what is happening. Both him and Junior, who also somehow survied the explosion, go around acting as ambassadors between the humans and the aliens whenever they find anceint technology, such as 'giant rings' and 'cubes'. They came to the desert because of the energy source, which is another weapon, but C.T. showed up and killed the dig team and was about to kill him but he quickly ran into the ruins. When he asks Caboose about the 'rescue team', and where Church is, he reveals that he knew of Church's identity of being an AI. He then tells the Reds and Caboose that they must destroy the weapon before C.T. and his men get to it. Later, Caboose would activate the weapon and put Epsilon in it. Epsilon then took on Church personality. When C.T. and his men got in the temple, C.T. says how he should kill Tucker right their, only to see Church. A soldier name Jones deactivates him, which causes the Aliens to turn on the humans, seeing as they think Church is a god. C.T. grabs Church and runs, and the aliens, Reds and Caboose follow. When the others jeep gets deactivated next to some members of the desert dig time, Tucker heroically yells, "Hey assholes!" and jumps over a hill towards the dig team members on a Chopper. He misses however and Caboose instead shoots them, they regroup and Tucker tells them the aliens gave him the Chopper as a present. The group find C.T. and starts chasing him. Tucker flies over a hill, and slashes at C.T.'s jeep with a sword, causing it to explode. Grif tells Tucker that C.T. is still alive, as he witnesses him run away, and Tucker goes after him, and orders the others to get Church. Tucker runs across the top of the temple, and C.T. comes up behind him. Tucker asks that before he dies, who C.T. is working for, but C.T. says "Sorry, you'll never know!" Just then, Church flies up and shoots C.T. with his laser. Sarge, Grif and Caboose meet-up with Tucker and Church and look down to see that lots of Aliens are waiting for them.

Characteristics
Smart-aleck, sarcastic, rude, prone to juvenile humor, and obsessed with women, Tucker has many characteristics of an unruly teenager. Like Grif, he has an extreme aversion to combat and work, and often complains and tries to stall when ordered into battle. Although he sometimes lacks prudence and common sense, which leads him to jump to conclusions, Tucker has become somewhat smarter as the series has progressed. In Season 3, when Simmons, Sarge, Caboose and Grif try to tell him that the past is destroyed and they're in the future because Church was facing forwards when the bomb went off, Tucker pointed out that we're always in the present and that you can only face forwards. He has conceived a few decent plans and enjoyed a couple of heroic moments.

In Episode 54, when Tucker reveals his first name as Lavernius, Church asks whether Tucker is black. Tucker asks why and acts insulted that Church never learned his first name, deflecting any additional questions. Caboose later refers to Tucker as "the other black one" - the first being the black-armored Tex - and refers to Andy as an Explosive-American, leading Tucker to angrily ask if he is being made fun of. This parallels the racial musings on the Red Team, where Grif insists that Simmons is "of a Latino persuasion", despite Simmons' Dutch-Irish heritage. The joke is brought back in the last episode when the reds are chasing caboose in the jeep. Drawings of Tucker without his helmet suggest that he is, in fact, black, though he was white in the pictures before Season 3.

Tucker and Sister appear to have mutual feelings for each other; best described as a mutual crush. Despite their feelings, their general childishness and attitudes have held them back from exploring the relationship further, though Sister does start warming up to having Junior around. In one of the alternate endings of Episode 100 titled "Why Were We Here?" he admits to Sister that he didn't want to die a virgin (a claim which may or may not be true, since he has hinted at various points earlier in the series that he has slept with women before, though it does not take much imagination to write this off as untruthful boasting) to which she interrupts and says "No offense but are you going to keep talking or are we going to see some action?" At the end of the Blood Gulch chronicles, it's stated that everyone went their separate ways (one ending says that Tucker flew off towards the alien home world, though this ending is not considered canon). Sister claims in the second episode of Reconstruction that nobody told her where they were going, but it's unlikely her memory is reliable given the amount of partying she's done since they left. However, in Recreation episode 14, after being insulted by Grif, he insultingly says, "I ***ked your sister". This may or may not be true.

Running Gags
Tucker has been the focus of a few running gags throughout the series.

Sniper rifle
Due to the scarcity of the sniper rifle, Tucker has never been able to use one. He was originally supposed to get one ordered from Captain Butch Flowers, but because of the captain's death, the order was never placed. This gag began in the first episode of the series, when he is betrayed by Church for questioning him about the activity of the Reds; Tucker's response is one of irritation as Church has a sniper rifle and he, Tucker, does not. This gag is repeated numerous times throughout Seasons One and Two, eventually being phased out in Season Three after he accidentally discovers the sword during the attack on O'Malley's base. After using the sword to kill the Red Zealot, he declines an offer by Tex to trade his sword for her sniper rifle. The gag is mentioned briefly in Season 5, where it is demonstrated he has excellent eyesight, on account of he "never gets to use the fucking sniper rifle". During Episode 94 Tucker begs Church to use the sniper rifle, which he does. Tucker then displays his unfamiliarity with the device by shooting Tex in the ass, and manages to switch weapons again before she catches him. He later uses the sniper rifle again in Episode 99 and is surprisingly quite accurate with it, even able to take out Wyoming's clones without sighting through the scope, though that is probably due to the time reversal in which he remembers events prior so he probably just knew the clone was there. Also, although he claims to never use it, Tucker does manage to get his hands on a Sniper Rifle in the PSA Episode: Time Out. However he doesn't get to use it long because the battle between the Red and Blues must come to a stop.

Teleporting
Whenever Tucker goes through a teleporter, he always emerges with his armor covered in "black stuff", which appears to be soot. Apparently the experience is also painful. Barring a single occurrence involving Caboose in Episode 14, this has never occurred to any of the other characters; he comments on this in Season Three, after noticing that none of the other characters have been coated with the "black stuff", exclaiming "Just me? What the ***k?" in confusion. Because of this black covering, however, Tucker's life is inadvertently saved, as Wyoming fails to recognize him in Episode 42, a fact of which Tucker was unaware. This was briefly touched on in Episode 89, when Church mentions rebooting several devices to repair them, listing the teleporter as one, and Tucker expresses his concern that this was not really successful.

Being Knocked Out
Tucker also has an unlucky tendency to get knocked unconscious. Having been knocked unconscious by friend and foe alike, he suggests to Church that they should rotate knock-outs in Season 3, although Church's response is "Hey good idea, and the next time Caboose decides to go team killing you can take that one." and Tucker retracts the suggestion. The Rooster Teeth Team have asked Jason Saldaña how many times he has had to say, "Oh, what happened?", and jokingly remarked that Tucker for most of Season 4 can be summed up with moaning.

Bow-Chicka-Bow-Wow
Tucker had the sudden urge in Season 4 to start using this phrase which is assumed to be music from pornographic films to everything which can be used as a sexual innuendo. It was first used when Church retold his story of how he lost his body to the Alien; Tucker interrupted the story, trying to make Tex undress in his version and was threatened with a Battle Rifle aimed at his head by the real Tex in response. Tucker is also heard saying the phrase during the Title Fade-In for Episode 69 in reference to the sexual position. In Season 5 he comes running from Blue base to interrupt a conversation between several of his teammates, during which "a hard line Tex can use" is mentioned, to deliver his line. When Tex asks how he heard that he commented that "I'm like Superman. I know when I'm needed." Later in Season 5 his kid, Junior responds to a statement of Tucker's with "Blarg-Chicka-Honk-Honk", after which Tucker claims that the phrase is genetic. In Episode 99 Caboose tries to use the phrase, but says "Hey-Chicka-Bum-Bum" instead (in reply to Tucker's line about "unloading a round into Tex's ass," referring to accidentally shooting her with the sniper rifle) and is immediately reprimanded by Tucker. In Reconstruction, after Grif says he will ' slip the message to Command, Tucker says, " Yeah, slip it to 'em. Bow-Chika-Bow-Wow." In Recreation chapter 13, Caboose tries to make him say the phrase, to which Tucker responds, "Come on, dude. Their is no way your gonna get me to say it with that lame joke. I'm not that easy." when the others look at him he says, "Ok, maybe I am that easy, Bow-Chicka-Bow-Wow."