- "People are quick to jump to conclusions. They... see something, or hear something, and fit it into a preconceived emotional box. "The Reds and Blues are terrorists." It's up to people like me to find the buried truth and expose the real facts. Because truth and fact are the currency of the galaxy. It's how wars are fought and invasions are justified and leaders are elected. I want facts. Facts are found at the source—with them."
- —Dylan explaining her motivations to find the Reds and Blues in Chorus Lessons
Dylan Andrews is an investigative journalist for the company Interstellar Daily who's investigating a series of attacks committed by the Reds and Blues. She first appears in the Season 15 prologue, although she initially wrote a newspaper article praising the crew's efforts in defeating Project Freelancer after the events of Don't Say It, and is the main protagonist of Season 15.
She will appear in the Restoration film.
Role in Plot[]
Interviewing the Reds and Blues[]
Following the death of the Director of Project Freelancer, Andrews publishes an article about the Reds and Blues' efforts in taking down the corrupt organization and bringing its leader to justice.
A New Investigation[]
Ten months following the Chorus-Charon War, however, the Reds and Blues attack a UNSC facility and kill all of the soldiers stationed there. In response, Dylan and her cameraman Frank infiltrate the crime scene for information but are arrested by UNSC Police.
After Dylan's boss Carlos Trabka bails her out, Carlos demands she stop investigating the Reds and Blues, stating that they are not the heroes everyone thought them to be. Dylan, however, persists in continuing her investigation, stating that there has to be a reason behind their newfound brutality. Carlos relents but eventually complies. Dylan then heads to Blood Gulch to begin searching for further clues. Upon arriving at Blood Gulch, Dylan learns of Frank's departure and replacement: a cameraman intern who goes by his stage name "Jax Jonez," and dreams of a future in cinema rather than journalism.
While shooting at Blue Base Dylan encounters Sister, who uses the canyon as a convention center. Sister agrees to an interview and vehemently denies that the Reds and Blues could truly be behind the attacks. Sister then directs Dylan to V.I.C., who agrees to give Dylan his surveillance videos of the Reds and Blues in exchange for her killing him. Though Dylan is disturbed by the prospect, she apparently relents and leaves the canyon shortly afterward with all the footage.
Dylan and Jax then arrive at Sidewinder and investigate the wreck of the Mother of Invention, where Dylan discovers that many former Freelancers have disappeared since the Reds and Blues began their attacks. The two are soon ambushed by the Reds and Blues but the group quickly retreat when a thunderstorm approaches. Not willing to give up, Dylan confronts the group directly and tries to get them to comment on their attacks. When they refuse, Dylan realizes that they are not the real Reds and Blues. She and Jax are then saved by a horned soldier who has been trailing them since Blood Gulch in search for Tucker.
Meeting the Reds and Blues[]
Dylan and Jax then head for Chorus, only to discover the UNSC's First Fleet has formed a blockade around the planet. Upon arrival, Dylan struggles to speak to President Kimball, as the Chorusans hold the press responsible for driving the story of the terrorist Reds and Blues and, in turn, disrupting their peace talks. In order to see Kimball, Dylan injures Jax and sends him to the hospital, getting her a talk with Dr. Grey. Though Grey is icy towards Dylan, she gives her the name of the UNSC diplomat, Alfred Packard, who was sent for the peace talks. Dylan contacts her husband, James Adler, to get information about Packard, though ends up having an awkward conversation with him about her abrupt departure to follow the story.
After threatening to expose Packard's corruption to the public, Dylan manages to restart the peace talks and gets her meeting with Kimball. Kimball uses Santa to determine that Dylan has no ill intentions before explaining that she needs Dylan to deliver a message they received that was meant for the Reds and Blues; the Chorusans have known their whereabouts this entire time, but cannot deliver the message due to the UNSC blockade. Armed with this information, Dylan and a now recovered Jax head for a remote moon, where Dylan finally meets one of the real Reds and Blues: Caboose. Dylan and Jax eventually locate the rest of the crew up to their usual antics. They invite them into their base and explain what they have been up to since Chorus.
Afterward, Dylan tells them about their impostors as well as the missing Freelancers. She then plays Kimball's message for the group, which is revealed to be a poor-quality distress signal from Church. The crew, in response, prepares to leave, in which Dylan manages to convince them to have her and Jax to tag along. When Grif retreats into a nearby cave, Dylan follows him. Grif complains that she has pulled the group back into another adventure, whereas he wants to be left alone from all the chaos. Dylan tries to convince him he really cares about his friends, characterizing him as a selfless individual who always does what's right. However, Grif angrily denies this and later tells the entire group he quits, worrying Dylan and Jax who feel responsible for his desertion.
The group then head to an abandoned city, where Dylan finds one of several relays that bounced Church's message around. After tracing the original signal to a desert canyon called Armada 8, they prepare to leave but are interrupted by the sudden arrival of the horned soldier, named Spencer Porkensenson, a process server who delivers a class action lawsuit to Tucker. After Spencer's departure, the group heads for Armada 8 and arrive to discover that the canyon bears a striking resemblance to Blood Gulch. Suddenly, the "imposters" confront the Reds and Blues and reveal themselves as the Blues and Reds.
Confronting the Imposters[]
Their leader, Temple, explains that they were also sim troopers for Project Freelancer and that the UNSC is killing off all Freelancer personnel. Suddenly, UNSC aircraft spot and attack both groups but the sim troopers manage to fight them off. They then take refuge in an underwater base, where the Blues and Reds show them their cloaking device. After discovering Doc working with their counterparts, Dylan reveals that the Blues and Reds' canyon was tagged as a prototype, based on info she gathered on Sidewinder. Tucker, however, doesn't believe her and scolds her for not telling him about Spencer. Dylan tries to apologize but the two groups leave to gather supplies, leaving Dylan and Jax at the base.
When the two groups return with Wash and Carolina, who were searching for the missing Freelancers, Dylan begins investigating the Blues and Reds' base, growing distrustful of them due to their secrecy. She eavesdrops on an argument between Temple and Loco over the "cloaking device", which Dylan discovers isn't a cloaking device at all. Dylan informs Tucker about what she heard and tries to regain his trust but Tucker argues against her. However, he informs her of Temple's network computer, leading Dylan to search it in Temple's office. With V.I.C.'s help, who agreed to assist her in exchange for her killing him, Dylan hacks into the computer and uncovers Church's distress message, who VIC states is a message of himself. Unfortunately, the Blues and Reds find Dylan and restrain her and Jax.
Temple then explains their time at Desert Gulch years ago to the reporters and how Project Freelancer caused the death of their comrade Biff. The two are then imprisoned in the basement. but are later rescued by Sarge, who defected back to the Reds and Blues. Together, the three encounter Locus and help free the imprisoned Reds and Blues. After Dylan retrieves Vic from the base's computers, the group discover that the Blues and Reds have left for Earth and prepare to follow them. However, during a firefight with an army of Zealots, Washington is injured and taken to the hospital by Locus.
As the crew regroup, Dylan contacts her friend Dr. Johanson in order to get more info on Loco's laser drill machine. Johanson explains to Dylan that the machine is nonsense and harmless, easing Dylan, who relays this information to the Reds and Blues. Afterwards, Dylan reveals Vic to the crew, who shows them Temple's plan to attack the UNSC. The crew, as a result, fly to Earth and fight the Blues and Reds' army of sim troopers in order to infiltrate their lair. During the battle, a panicked Johanson contacts Dylan again and explains that the machine is powered by time travel and has the ability to destroy the Earth. Dylan tells the others of this information just as the machine activates.
Rescue of Earth[]
Dylan and the Reds and Blues confront Temple inside his lair and try to explain the consequences of the machine but Temple doesn't listen. After incapacitating Temple, Dylan tries to get answers from Loco, but the latter dies as the machine opens a portal to Church in Blood Gulch. After Caboose says his goodbyes to Church, the portal closes though the machine grows more unstable. Dylan then has Vic stabilize the machine, which successfully works at the cost of Vic being destroyed.
With the machine having disappeared and the remaining Blues and Reds in custody, Sister and the Chorus lieutenants reunite with the Reds and Blues, who tell them that Wash has survived and is currently recovering. Dylan thanks Jax for sticking by her and returns to her ship to inform Carlos that she has her story, before answering a call from her husband James. She then declares that while initially seeing the Reds and Blues as heroes she slowly realized that they are much more than that and adds that they taught her several true and unique things that forge the qualities of a real hero. She concludes her speech by stating that the Reds and Blues are some of the greatest heroes that the universe has ever seen, before signing off.
After Saving Earth[]
After the defeat of the Blues and Reds, Dylan Andrews contacts Carolina and informs her of the new evidence suggesting that the Reds and Blues were traveling in time, and recommended she contact Jax, considering him an expert in time travel.
Much later, when the Reds and Blues reset time to when they defeated the Blues and Reds, Dylan still published her story about her experience saving Earth.
Personality[]
Dylan has been shown to take her job seriously, going so far as to lie and trick the military in order to get information on articles for the news, as shown in Prologue. Her boss Carlos Trabka likens her to the classic literary character Don Quixote, complaining that her following the Reds and Blues' story is akin to "taking swats at windmills." She is also very professional, though has a temper, as she quickly becomes frustrated and angry with her new cameraman, telling him to "shut the fuck up and start rolling," though she later apologized to him for her unprofessional behavior.
She is obsessively dedicated to her job to the point that her husband questions which she is married to more: him or her career. She even resorted to shooting Jax in the butt to get close to a potential source of info, Dr. Gray. Dylan can also be quite vengeful towards those who wrong her or screw her over, as when she had her regular cameraman Frank replaced with the less experienced and professional Jax instead, she commented, "Carlos, you penny-pinching, cheapskate bastard. I'm gonna skin your cat for this." Given the lengths that she has gone to in order to get her stories, this was likely not meant as simple hyperbole to simply illustrate her intense ire at her less than supportive employer.
Despite her less desirable qualities, she can be remorseful as seen with her interactions between her husband and Jax when she realized what she did to them (Shooting Jax and leaving her husband out of nowhere).
Relationships[]
Sister[]
Sister was initially annoyed with Andrews, as she and her cameraman were filming on top of Blue Base, and at one point mistook her for the fire marshal. After Andrews cleared the air, Sister agreed to an interview. She even admitted she was attracted to the reporter, which she described it as a "bi phase" returning. Though she was willing to do the interview, she was left miffed by Andrews's insinuation that Grif was somehow involved in the recent murders after the Chorus incident, insisting to the reporter that he was "a total softy," and continued to defend him even after the interview had wrapped.
Grif[]
Grif absolutely hates Dylan. In his eyes, the Reds and Blues should be retired from the fighting and away from the chaos, and Dylan had dragged them into another adventure, after revealing to them a message from a supposed active Church. When Dylan tries to convince him he's selfless, tries to do the right thing, and genuinely cares for his friends, he angrily yells at her and denies her claims. He finally leaves the group, leaving a worried Dylan and Jax feeling responsible for his desertion.
Temple[]
While he isn't vocal about it, it is obvious Temple despises Dylan. He manipulated the Reds and Blues into turning against Dylan. She is also suspicious of Temple, having Vic hack into his computer for info. He then tied her to a chair in the basement and sentenced her to execution, before Sarge interfered.
Trivia[]
- Doc originally was intended to be a reporter character interviewing the Reds and Blues while they were in Blood Gulch before it was decided that he would be a medic instead. Miles Luna later suggested resurrecting the abandoned storyline to Season 15 writer and director Joe Nicolosi, who liked the idea as a buildup to the main plot of the season.[2]
- Dylan's armor in Halo 5 consists of an Intruder (Trespasser skin) helmet and Legionnaire (Alaris skin) body armor.
- A body guard in the Season 14 Episode, "Club", is named Dillon Andrews.[3]
- Dylan has a cat named Caboose[4].
References[]
- ↑ Joe Nicolosi's Twitter
- ↑ Con Freaks & Geeks: "Interview with Red vs. Blue Director Joe Nicolosi." 3 May 2017. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ Joe Nicolosi - Twitter Thread