Michael J. Caboose

Private Michael J. Caboose is a main character in Rooster Teeth Productions' machinima series Red vs. Blue. Voiced by Joel Heyman, Caboose first appears in Episode 3 of Season 1 as a new recruit for the Blood Gulch Blue Team, a group of soldiers engaged in a futuristic civil war against the Red Team.

Caboose is portrayed as one of the most eccentric characters in the series. Consistently shown to be mentally abnormal, his behavior varies from merely somewhat dim-witted in Season 1 to almost completely divorced from reality in Season 3. His unusual behavior frequently earns him the scorn and disrespect of the series' other characters.

In part due to positive early fan reaction, Burnie Burns, the main writer for the series, focused the storyline on Caboose and Donut (Dan Godwin), the Red Team's rookie.

Character History
Prior to the series, Caboose was born and raised in a colony on the moon with 17 sisters. He joined the army after mistaking a recruiting center for college. Caboose first appears in Episode 3. Arriving with a tank named Sheila, he soon annoys the Blue Team's self-appointed leader, Church by accidentally calling his girlfriend a slut, and is consequently tasked with guarding the flag inside the team's base and waiting for a nonexistent general. Meanwhile, Simmons and Grif have sent their team's rookie, Donut, on a fool's errand for nonexistent supplies. In a mutual misunderstanding, Donut mistakes Caboose for a shopkeeper, and Caboose mistakes Donut for the "general" and allows him to take the flag. When Church and Tucker learn of this they try to get the flag back via teleporter. Church catches up with Donut mistaking him for Sarge. Seeing his teammates get attacked by Grif and Simmons in the warthog, Caboose gets into the tank who introduces herself as Sheila. Caboose accidentally kills Church while using Sheila and narrowly escapes a bombing run that disables the tank. Caboose begins to show affection towards Sheila. Near the end of season 1, Caboose becomes possessed by O'Malley, an evil artificial intelligence (AI) who transmits himself to Caboose via radio before his original host, a mercenary named Tex, is killed.

In season 2 Caboose starts to show signs to scare his team member Tucker through O'Malley. Episode 33 takes place inside Caboose's mind, which Church and Tex explore as ghosts in an attempt to kill O'Malley. There, they encounter Caboose's incorrect mental images of other characters and O'Malley kills the mental of Church leaving Caboose with no memories of him( which are later regained). Church and Tex successfully kill O'Malley escaping Cabooses mind, O'Malley then transferred to Doc who was calling Command. At the end of the season, Caboose becomes stranded with Sarge in an unknown location when a teleporter malfunctions. Caboose and Sarge escape from the Zealots, another set of respawning Red and Blue teams constantly fighting each other. After a bomb blasts most of the characters into the future, but Church into the past, Church learns of The Great Destroyer from Gary, a computer, who says that The Great Destroyer "will be known as the stupidest life form in the universe". Church assumes that this description refers to Caboose, but later events and the introduction of a new character, the Alien, cause the characters to suspect that the Great Destroyer is not Caboose. After the Blues encounter the Alien and learn of its quest, Caboose is sent along with Tucker; after the quest fails, they return to Blood Gulch. Caboose is later injured by 'donating' some blood to Tucker's Alien baby.

In Episode 89, Caboose is picked by his team to distract Sheila, while Tex shuts her down, first backing down from the idea saying "It would be like a argument between Church and Tex...but with more getting shot by tanks. They succeed, but Sheila is shut down just before she reveals the location of O'Malley to Caboose. He convinces his team of this, and they decided to place Sheila's AI into the newly arrived ship. Caboose stays behind to ensure the success of the transfer, and informs Tex by radio of the location of O'Malley, which was the leader of the Blue Team.

Caboose reappears in the third episode of Reconstruction. Before being transferred out of Blood Gulch, Church told him to upgrade his armor to Mk. VI, but instead he downgraded to Mk. V. The reason he did this was because he thought it would be better since "on a Top 10 List, 5 is better than 6". It is also possible that Rooster Teeth did this to avoid confusion between Church and Caboose, as in Halo 3 the Blue armor color is a lot lighter than in Halo 2, so Church had to be made the Standard Issue Blue armor. The staff notes the simplistic design of the helmet coincides with him being a very dim-witted, hulking brute (as he is revealed to be very strong in Season 3). Caboose has been stationed at Outpost 28-A "Rat's Nest" where he has been tied up and tossed in the brig for safe keeping. The Rat's Nest blue team's leader, Lieutenant Miller, clearly dislikes Caboose and is delighted at Washington's request to take Caboose away. In the next episode, Caboose is reunited with Church (to the latter's chagrin). Some time after acquiring Delta, he was seen knocked out by the Meta. Wash managed to nurse him back to life with his healing unit, but was unable to revive him. Because of this, Church had to go into Caboose's mind again, this time encountering the mental image of Washington, as well as a "memory" of Delta he had left behind bearing the important message "Memory is the key". He eventually wakes up, but not until halfway through Chapter 12. The following episode Caboose, Church and Washington watch as the reds try to capture a warthog for the blues to use. While Washington is distracted by an offending hornet, Church leaves his body to find Tex. After the battle Caboose comes up with the idea of getting to command in a tank (saying "No one can see you in a tank). The team infiltrates the Project Freelancer compound, and Caboose is left with the reds by Church and Washington, as lookout. Caboose spots command troops coming towards them and saying "Ahh... Red guys? Umm white guys are coming and they look mad... ...really mad." After the Meta appears nearby, Caboose is given Epsilon for safe keeping. Wash asks if Caboose can drive to which Caboose replies "Only stick, not auto". Sarge, Simmons, Grif and Caboose are forced to drive away and escape the EMP. The reds' jeep is disabled, but Caboose manages to escape the EMP (pronounced "emp") by driving off a cliff. In the epilogue, he is the sole occupant of the Blue base in Valhalla. He is in possession of Epsilon, although Caboose has not implanted him into his system (which is probably a good thing considering the potential side effects that could be inflicted in the reality-divorced mind of Caboose) and appears to be trying to get the AI into the body of Tex.

As of the end of Relocated, he has acquired several other sets of armor; his intentions are unknown, although he mentioned something about "being together forever". Caboose was later seen trying to resurrect Church and catching himself on fire. In Recreation Caboose walks over to the Reds and asks them what are they doing, Caboose got asked the same question and answered "I am just going to grab parts from the ship". Simmons tell him to go away, making Caboose leave the area. Before Caboose left Simmons asked what is he doing over there, Caboose answered "Still not telling you". In Chapter Two of Recreation, he tries to hold a conversation with Epsilon (which is incapable of responding) reminiscing about his misadventures in Blood Gulch, only stopping when he notices that Donut has appeared behind him. Caboose excitedly welcomes Donut, who claims he needs to deliver a message to someone on the Blue Team. Caboose tells Donut that he can be told the message. Donut, very weak, only manages to say, "Tuck....Tucker. He needs help....it's in...the sand..." before collapsing. Caboose mishears him as saying "it's in this and," and begins to question Donut for more, eventually coming to the conclusion that Tucker is in Donut's pocket. In Chapter 4, Donut finally manages to tell Caboose everything; that he was debriefed by Command and sent to the site where the teams originally "landed" in Season 3 after the bomb went off. There he discovered a distress message from Tucker, saying to get help. Caboose explains his own current status, including his plan to build a "super best friend" from Epsilon and various other parts. When Donut asks if they can get help from the man who helped Caboose in Reconstruction, the two make a call to Washington, who has now been imprisoned, and ask for him to come immediately.

Caboose asks Donut if there's any spare parts lying around he could bring it to him. Donut makes his leave to the red team before the reds send Grif on a suicidal mission to rescue Donut. After having permission from Donut to use the reds holo-graphic room, Caboose sneaks in, appearing from one object to the next without being see by any reds but Grif. Caboose manages to make it to the holo-graphic room with Epsilon. Epsilon starts making a humming noise with Caboose shocked saying "its you". Epsilon takes the form of Delta so Caboose has a better feeling to this form. Epsilon tells Caboose about Tuckers secret mission investigating a large power source. The Reds arrive to see Caboose is about to leave and rescue Tucker, Grif volunteers to go with Caboose due to knowing what happens when Caboose dies. Sarge accepting Grifs volunteering decides to go with him and Caboose. With there new weapon working the rescue team takes there leave driving straight into the water and Caboose asking immediately are we there yet. The team reappears out of the water and on a beach stopping for Caboose to have a bathroom break. The team makes it to a desert entering a mine field and Caboose wonders how someone can own a field. The screen goes black before a mine goes off.

Caboose and Company try to make it through the mine field, but Caboose gets blown sky high till landing unharmed (but still with his stupidity intact, asking if anyone took a picture). The group gets a shock when the Alien (Smith shows up, telling the elephant driver they have had experience with aliens. The man tells them they're in a restricted zone, and that a team of one human and one alien are only allowed. The group can't leave yet because their jeep is busted. The man lets them stay as long as they don't go looking for artifacts and gives them a quick quiz on what they do if they find an artifact? Caboose answers with "Don't touch it". The man tells Caboose that was a trick question, Caboose answers back "Maybe I knew it was a trick question so I gave you a trick answer". The man tells them they "can get spare parts on the left down there, also there's some water on the left down there, if you want some chow its on the left with the water". Grif and Sarge get suspicious about why they can't go anywhere else, Caboose just gets suspicious about why every things on the left. When Grif discovers that all of the radios are missing from the jeeps Caboose offers to help try and fix them. Grif asks him if he plans to confirm the radio is missing or how he plans to try and fix something that isn't there. When he remembers who he's talking to, he promptly gives up trying to reason with him. Soon after, Caboose is crouching next to the jeep with Epsilon, asking for Sheila, Delta and Tex. Sarge and Grif question him about what he's doing, and Caboose acts defensive about his activities. When the Elephant driver comes over and Sarge and Grif question him, he suddenly realizes Caboose isn't amongst them and threatens Grif if Sarge doesn't say where Caboose is (Sarge does nothing). An alarm is heard and three guards and three Aliens go running over to the Elephant. Angrily, C.T. asks them if that's him (Caboose) and Grif confirms that's likely. Caboose gets caught by the digging team, C.T. asks Caboose why he did that. Caboose simply(like always) says it was Epsilon's idea. Epsilon starts humming and the temple opens. C.T. orders all the dig tem to kill the thing in there and not let the temple close, with the window of opportunity open Caboose, Sarge and Grif run to bump into the dig teams attacker Tucker. Tucker tells them to run in but first Caboose asks how he's doing. Caboose is first into the Temple and Tucker seals the door behind them. Caboose also seems to still not know how babies are made, and is impressed by Tuckers use of the Bow-Chicka-Bow-Wow catchphrase.

Caboose wanders off to find a vessel for Epsilon, after looking through multiple items Caboose finds a Forerunner Monitor. Finally finding a vessel for Epsilon, Caboose has some difficulties putting him in(Epsilon takes on Church's personality swearing at Caboose for making mistakes). Caboose and Epsilon get discovered by the reds and Tucker about their work. Caboose explains to everyone on how its Epsilon not Church, Epsilon starts to hover away from everyone followed by Caboose and Tucker. Epsilon tries to find out how to make his laser work but accidentally turns off his short term memory getting in a stupid conversation with Caboose. Epsilon trying to turn on his memory just gets a punch from Caboose restoring him.

In Revelation, Caboose made another dumb eulogy and decides to let Epsilon do it. Later on, Caboose got stuck of a pillar because the aliens want to kill him for losing their "God". He later lead them the Reds, which he told them they stole him. He ditched Tucker, leaving him to deal with the aliens. When Epsilon recovered, Delta was operating it's body and told Caboose that Epsilon is searching through his memories to find a certain part and says that Epsilon will most likely repeat the cycle like the previous incident. Caboose follow Epsilon (Church) to a Freelancer Storage Facility and went in a secret room only accessed to the Director only that is filled with Alpha Church clones. However, Epsilon wanted to open a human-shape pod the back, which amazed Caboose. Afterwards, Caboose asks Phyllis to keep the door shut and is afraid of what is in the room with Epsilon Church. When the Reds come along, he quickly walks away leaving the Reds to deal with what was trying to beat its way out of the room, later revealed to be Tex, making her epic return to the series.

Lack of intelligence
Rooster Teeth notes that originally, there was no plan for Caboose as a character; he started out simply as the Blue rookie counter to Donut. Geoff Ramsey states on the DVD Commentary that Caboose was initially "smarmy" and "a very different character", albeit rather dim-witted. After fans reacted well to his moments of stupidity, however, the crew later orchestrated a long decline in Caboose's intelligence, starting when Sheila is disabled for the first time in Episode 9. His mentality is again dealt a blow after O'Malley is forcibly ejected from his system, and he becomes fairly divorced from reality and prone to frequent non-sequiturs, going as far as to load his rifle with crayons and spelling his own name wrong. This may also be attributed to the fact that Caboose's suit shut down for at least two days, and Caboose remarks "It was dark and I got to hold my breath!" and Church makes a comment about brain damage. Another possibility is that Caboose may be unintelligent, because all they drink are salty liquids, however, this is unlikely because all of the other soldiers are not as unintelligent. He has also forgotten how to use the sniper rifle. Shown in season 1 to have the accuracy to get a headshot on a Church-possessed Sarge, he is quoted in saying he has no idea how to use the gun in Episode 82.

He occasionally asks questions about things the others take for granted, such as why a flag is so important, and often fails to grasp even basic concepts, such as the meaning of AI. The only human initially able to lift Andy, he is physically one of the strongest soldiers on either team; Church and Tucker think that it is "God's way of compensating" for his glaring mental deficiencies. He also is able to fly into a berserk state by thinking about something that makes him angry, namely "kittens... kittens covered in spikes" and "Milk... no wait, red... RED BULL". He seems to have an extremely low voice (like the voice he had when possessed by O'Malley) and no recollection of what he did during this state. He attributes that to some kind of residual effect of O'Malley possessing him. Caboose seems to "keep saying hello even though his call has ended". All in all, Caboose's mentality could be compared to a baby or infant that can talk. This is most apparent in his emotional breakdowns, which are common, and his relationships with others, like Church's offer to read to him and his habit of saying he does not like Tucker directly to his face.

While rather dumb, he manages to make a plan to infiltrate Command which succeeds, and shows a good degree of driving skill, escaping an EMP (which he and other characters produce as "EM-P" instead of EE-EM-PEE) by driving off a cliff. When Washington questions whether he can drive, he states, "Yes, but not an automatic. Only stick." The reason for this is left unexplained.

In Relocated, Caboose found the power in the blue base turned on, and like Grif he believes electricity is "invisible magic".

Another reason for Caboose's intelligence or lack there of is that the AI (O'Malley) was ejected out of his mind twice. In Episode 39 Sarge comments that it "Sounds like that O'Malley guy took some of the furniture when he left. And the carpet. And the drapes. And I wouldn't expect to get that deposit back."

Possibly the firefight that ensued when Church and Tex attacked O'Malley inside his mind blew away parts of his psyche could have distorted his thought process very much.

Now that we know that Tex and Church are both AI's this would mean that Caboose had 3 AI's fighting in his head, Omega, Tex and Church. That's probably the reason why he suddenly became so stupid.

Though Caboose got more stupid during the show he seems to have improved his intelligence in Revelation.

An example would be chapter 5 as he blamed Sarge to distract the aliens away from himself and as he let Tucker alone with the aliens at the end.

Relationships
Caboose's relationships with the other characters is unique in that a few episodes depicted the interior of his mind, where the incorrect mental projections of the other characters appeared (with the exceptions of Tex, Lopez, Doc and Sheila). In his mind, Caboose believes himself to be intelligent, Church his foul-mouthed best friend, Tucker stupid, Grif yellow-armored, Donut female, and that Sarge speaks in what is actually a pirate accent. Additionally, in Episode 54, he refers to Simmons as "Simond", Grif as "Gruf", and the Warthog as the "Boss-Hogg" - though in Episode 82 he is able to correctly name both Grif and Simmons. He still suffers from incorrect mental images with at least Church and Tucker, as in Episode 97, he refers to Tucker as his sidekick whom he dislikes, and believes Church to be calling to ask Caboose to be his best friend. In Reconstruction Chapter 11, it is revealed his mental image of Washington refers to himself as "Washingtub", is obsessed with secrecy, likes to scare people that are "just trying to help him", and claims to fight aliens and robots from the future with his "Freelancer Powers". Church comments that the description isn't far off from reality. Church and Caboose are also panicked when South is executed. Caboose thinks her execution was due to her problems walking, which causes him to announce he has no problems walking. The following episode, Church and Caboose are concerned that Wash will do the same with them.

Caboose's most prominent relationship is his remarkable admiration of Church. After dealing him several initial misfortunes, including inadvertently killing him while piloting Sheila the tank, Caboose was eager to make amends and become Church's friend; his attempts to do so inevitably failed. The issue was complicated when O'Malley shot and killed Caboose's mental image of Church, immediately causing Caboose not to recognize the real Church, and all his memories of him were lost. However, by the end of season 2, Caboose resumes communication with Church as before, and references the events he had previously forgotten. The Rooster Teeth crew notes that it was just too complicated to keep up. As late as Reconstruction Episode 11, Caboose has referred to Church as his best friend. (This is in spite of the fact that Church had tried to kill him several times earlier in the series.) Caboose is incredibly loyal to Church, offering to go in his place to the Freelancer base with Washington. Though this is shot down by Wash, it actually impresses Sarge due to its unthinking willingness to sacrifice himself. For his part, Church puts up with Caboose, but often loses his temper at him. However, in Episode 76, Caboose implied that he didn't know how pregnancy occurred, and Church promised to read a book with him. In episode 98, Church seems genuinely distraught when Wyoming and Gary kill Caboose,

Caboose is also infatuated with Sheila. He expresses much grief when Sheila is bombed out of commission in Episode 9, calling Sheila his "friend". He later refers to her as his "girlfriend". When she expresses interest in Lopez in Episode 30, what Tucker calls "a weird, horribly disgusting love triangle" begins to form and during this phase Caboose once called out "Sheila, come back to me... I baked you a muffin". In Episodes 89-90, the relationship is touched on again, when Caboose is enlisted to reboot Sheila after she begins acting aggressively, though he seems hesitant to talk to her because they have a 'history' and could have an argument much like Tex and Church "except more getting shot by tanks".

He and Donut seem to get along quite amicably - quickly becoming good friends when Donut is captured by the Blues in series 2, and renewing this friendship in Recreation, when Donut went to the blue base for help. As a running gag between the two characters, Caboose often confuses Donut's name with other types of confectionery, calling him "Private Biscuit", "Lieutenant McMuffin", "Admiral Buttercrust", "Commander Pop n Fresh" and "Major Cinnamon Bun", in their first encounter at Blood Gulch. This is referenced to at the start of Recreation, where Caboose recognizes Donut as "Muffin Man" (although from then on Caboose manages to get Donut's name right).

Friendly Fire
Somehow Caboose manages to do serious damage to whatever body Church is possessing, he destroyed his original body (This may be a robot due to the fact that Church is an AI) in episode nine and disabled the lower half of Churches body when he was possessing Lopez. He nearly killed Sarge in Episode 14. In Reconstruction he shoots Agent South. Humorously, this case of friendly fire was planned by Church, after been told by Washington to stop South. Church told Caboose that South was a "friend and you should help her". Caboose immediately shot South, explaining "Ermm...she got in the way as I was trying to help her...". Triumphantly, Church then told Washington that the job was finished. Washington says that command keeps a keyboard shortcut to announce Caboose's team killings: "CTRL+F+U", as Caboose team kills so often (many team kills may have happened off screen). He is also implied to have shot Private Joannes in the back after being released from the brig in Rat's Nest, Joannes was later found dead, with Caboose giving the explanation: "Yeah...he let me out and then somehow shot himself in the back somehow...But we don't think it was anyone's fault...Everyone agrees it was an accident."

Caboose's views on team-killing are summed up during a conversation after Washington shoots agent south; when Washington explains how Agent south "shot (him) in the back first", Caboose tells him that "We believe you...even though we don't think shooting a friend in the back occasionally...is that big of a deal."

Getting interupted before finding something important out
At two points, Caboose has nearly been successful in finding out key information. However, both times another member of the Blue Team has interupted him. The first time was when he was playing Truth or Dare with Donut and asked him the Red Team's plans, only to have Donut possessed by Church just before he revealed it. The second time was in Episode 91 when he was talking to Shiela, who was about to reveal who O'Malley had infected, but was deactivated by Tex.

Reception
Caboose has become one of the more popular characters in the series, and in 2005, Caboose was selected as the Best Male Performance in the 3rd Annual Rockets on Prisoner Awards, which are intended to recognize exemplary work in Halo machinima. In his acceptance speech, Joel Heyman acted in-character.

Trivia

 * Caboose has 9 toes, as his "pinky toe" fell off after Church shot him in the foot as an excuse to get Doc over to him.
 * Hilariously, it seems Caboose's claims of being a 'vehicle destroyer' are actually true, as seen in his initial appearance in Reconstruction. He had totaled every single one of the Rat's Nest Blue team's vehicles on his own.
 * Recovery Command has a shortcut on their keyboard for the sole purpose of recording Caboose's team kills: Ctrl + F + U.
 * When Washington scans Caboose with a "BioCom" Caboose's Brain Activity is listed as "UNK" (unknown).
 * Caboose mentions in season five that he got a Purple Heart medal, due to Church shooting him in the foot. He later hopes to get gain an entire collection of purple body parts to create a new best friend.
 * At Battle Creek, Caboose 'wrote' his name on the wall of a base in bullets, mis-spelling it as "CABOSE"
 * In the Halo 3 engine, Caboose is seen wearing the MJOLNIR Mark V helmet, rather than the Mark VI helmet. (With the exception of his first appearance in the Halo 3 engine, a Special showcasing the Halo 3 Heroic Map Pack, where he was featured with the default Mark VI helmet. And in the Griffball Psa, as at the end he picks the ball and becomes griff, meaning he has to have the normal helmet to look like Grif. ) When this is pointed out to him, he claims that he was "upgrading", and that "In a top ten list, five is better than six!" In reality it's because Caboose and Church would have looked too similar due to their coloring, as well as the Mark V's simplistic helmet design better suiting Caboose's personality. Despite this, Rooster Teeth does not follow the trend of combining the EOD body piece, which closely resembles the Mark V armor, with the Mark V helmet to better mimic the original armor, rather the default Mark VI body is used. In addition, Caboose is typically shown carrying an Assault Rifle, the iconic weapon of Halo: Combat Evolved, as opposed to the other characters who carry Battle Rifles, the iconic weapon of Halo 2.
 * Caboose can only drive a manual, not an automatic.
 * Caboose has tremendous physical strength, thought by Church and Tucker to be "God's way of compensating", referring to Caboose's lack of intelligence.
 * Control operators have a shortcut on their keyboards simply for reporting caboose's team kills "Ctrl+F+U".
 * Caboose separates everything into two categories: He doesn't understand, or he just doesn't care.
 * Caboose has only participated in the characters' "SON OF A BITCH!" moments twice. Once after being crushed by the falling debris of Donut's Ghost at the end of the "fight fight!" alternate ending and once before being taken over by O'Malley (The Bitch part of that is spoken by O'Malley).
 * When Caboose travels, all he packs is his washcloth and 6 toothbrushes.
 * Caboose is very bad at eulogies. He seems to have no idea what they are as he stared Church and Tex's "Wait, I know how to do this! Dearly Beloved we are gathered here, today, to witness, the joining together of Tex, and Church, in eternalness together, smuh- speak now, or forever rest in peace! With liberty… and justice… for all. The end!" His second one in Revelation, while almost salvaging Epsilon's "Parable" quickly deteriorates into another bunch of ceremonial cliches: "let there be cake, hallelujah, gesundheit!"
 * He is possibly Sarge's #6 man.