SOMA / Characters - TV Tropes

Beware of unmarked spoilers. Only tropes pertaining to the core plot of SOMA have been whited out; the fates of various side characters, and the identities of certain threats, remain visible.

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Humans from 2015

Simon Jarrett

Voiced by: Jared Zeus

The protagonist of the game. He volunteers to have his brain scanned in an experimental procedure to help treat the severe brain damage he suffered in a car crash, only to wake up immediately afterwards in the underwater hell of PATHOS-II.

Action Survivor: For a guy who just used to work in a comic store in Toronto, he demonstrates some nifty traits in PATHOS-II. Having a copy of your mind transferred into a partially robotic vessel probably has its perks, too.
Allergic to Evil: Looking at certain enemies or being near them can nearly blind Simon. Because they're frying his circuits.
An Arm and a Leg: Simon can potentially lose the left hand of his second machine body if he chooses to poison the WAU near the end of the game.
And I Must Scream: The final fate of both of the PATHOS-II Simons (though the second Simon has the option of mercy-killing the first Simon about halfway through the game). While their third copy gets to experience paradise in the ARK, the two other Simons are left aboard the ruined remains of PATHOS-II, alone for all eternity at the bottom of the ocean on a dead planet, buried alive. Or at least, until his battery runs out. We have no idea how long that will take, although since this is never an issue during normal gameplay, it's probably a while.
Book Dumb: Downplayed and played with. Simon's not an idiot and he's mostly just unfamiliar with the technology of the future. It does, however, take him longer than it should to grasp the concepts once they're introduced to him, such as referring to the clearly labelled Omni-tool as "the door opener". Most notably, he never seems to fully grasp that he isn't "transferring" his consciousness first to "Simon 2" and later to the ARK. He is simply creating a copy of his mind that is placed in the new location. Even after the experience with "Simon 1", he is completely blindsided at the end when "he" still remains beneath the ocean in a failing robotic body even after having a copy of his mind placed in the ARK. Some of this might be the brain damage.
Clingy Costume: The diving suit Simon wears on PATHOS-II cannot be removed because it's actually part of his body, fused to Imogen Reed's hijacked corpse with structure gel.
Contemplate Our Navels: His conversations with Catherine often touch on philosophical topics.
Dead All Along: The Simon the player is introduced to in Toronto died not long after Munshi's scans. The Simon that wakes up in PATHOS-II is his brain scan, uploaded into a semi-organic form.
Dead Person Conversation: Simon is mysteriously able to hear the last moments of a dead person's life, or a dead robot's experiences, by touching their bodies. This isn't magic; he's datamining their black boxes the same way he does intercom recordings. It becomes more obvious if the player attempts this on any member of the Omicron staff, since the black box is cranial and the Omicron staff lack heads.
Earn Your Happy Ending: Played straight from the perspective of his copy in the ARK, who perceives the transfer as moving his consciousness and can now spend eternity in paradise with Catherine and the others. Cruelly subverted, however, for the Simon in Toronto and the two aboard PATHOS-II.
The Everyman: Simon is kind of a milquetoast guy who rolls with the punches.
Fish out of Temporal Water: Simon, a Toronto bookstore employee from the modern day, suddenly finds himself aboard an underwater base in the year 2104, after the end of the world and with all sorts of weirdness going on around him.
Headache of Doom: As a result of his brain damage, Simon suffers from headaches, especially while watching TV.
Historical Domain Character: In universe. His brain scan was the first of its kind, and thus a legacy copy of it was included in every A.I development kit. His entire existence within the game is like someone took an utterly ordinary sample text like Lorem Ipsum or a public domain picture of Abraham Lincoln, and uploaded it into a cybernetic corpse.
Hypocritical Humor: At the beginning of the game, before Simon is to go in to have a brain scan done, he remarks that his coworker Jesse has the memory of a gold fish. This is coming from a man who has brain damage.
In the Hood: Follows this trope, as least visually. Technically, he is wearing a helmet for a diving suit, but it completely shades his face save for the lights of his eyes. And justified because he has no head anymore, just a binocular pair of cameras positioned roughly where his eyes should be.
Ink-Suit Actor: Hard to notice since the game takes place in a first-person perspective and because his consciousness spends the vast majority of the game inside the bodies of two corpses but, as seen on the only picture of Simon in his apartment (which can be seen above), he bears an uncanny resemblance to Jared Zeus, his voice actor.
It's All About Me: When Simon realizes that there's a copy of himself departing Earth, living happily ever after while he remains trapped at the bottom of the sea forever, he rages at Catherine for apparently deceiving him. He even calls the copy of him that makes it on the ARK a "fucker living it up."
Late to the Party: By the time Simon shows up on the scene, PATHOS-II is thoroughly trashed and nearly all the humans aboard the base have long been dead or worse.
Nice Guy: Simon has a polite and friendly attitude towards almost everything on PATHOS-II (exluding the things that are trying to kill him), and he is quick to empathise even with beings that are not (or only partially) human. He hates the idea of destroying a harmless robot to steal its cortex chip and feels very guilty over traumatising a copy of Brandon Wan's consciousness in a simulation in order to retrieve his security code. The way he finally snaps in the very end is a clear indication that he's gone way over his Despair Event Horizon.
Samus Is a Girl: Played with, in that the body he spends the first two-thirds of the story inhabiting is female. He does not even realize this until after he has been in it for several hours and it is subjected to a radiological scan. Being no longer separable from the diving suit it was wearing might be part of that. Notably, the body he transfers into for the final third of the game is also female.
What Measure Is a Non-Human?: A question he grapples with once he accepts his true nature.

David Munshi

Voiced by: Tim Beckmann

The researcher who scans Simon's brain in the prologue, somehow sending him to PATHOS-II in the process.

Ambiguously Evil: Played with and ultimately subverted. His office is run-down just enough to be unnerving, which Simon takes note of, and the mysterious experimental procedure he subjects Simon to causes him to wake up aboard the underwater hellhole that is PATHOS-II. However, he's a Nice Guy in his limited appearance and nothing Simon endures was any fault of his. The Simon who went to visit him in 2015 voluntarily gave Munshi permission to use his brain scan for other research, and Munshi had no way to predict that a copy would eventually be on PATHOS-II and the WAU would activate it. Munshi really was just trying to do his job to help original Simon recover from his injuries.
My Greatest Failure: Played with in a companion piece of writing on the game's website. In a transcribed interview taken decades after Simon's "original" death, he admits that he's since moved on from what happened in 2015. However, it's implied that despite his words, it still haunts him and influences some of his actions.
Nice Guy: He's very kind to Simon, even helping to comfort him after it becomes clear that the human Simon's life is going to end despite the successful brain scan.
Posthumous Character: A given, since the majority of the game takes place in the 22nd Century, but he is said to have lived to the age of 98 when Simon sees his records.
Small Role, Big Impact: He has no appearances outside of the single scene in his office. However, he is the sole reason Simon wakes up aboard PATHOS-II and one of the pioneers of artificial intelligence.
Young Future Famous People: When Simon meets him in 2015, he's working with strapped funds and a sketchy work environment while trying to complete his degree. It's later revealed that he died at the age of 98 as a prominent, celebrated scientist for his work with AI.

Ashley Hall

Voiced by: Andrea Deck

Simon's deceased friend, who perished in the same car wreck that gave Simon his brain damage.

Cruel and Unusual Death: According to a newspaper article, she died suffocating on the blood trapped in her lungs after the accident.
Dead to Begin With: She is dead by the start of the game.
Implied Love Interest: She and Simon were good friends, and it's implied and basically stated outright during the Lotus-Eater Machine sequence that Simon wanted them to be more, though her own feelings are undetermined.
The Lost Lenore: Ashley was Simon's close friend and potential love interest before she died. After the accident, Simon continues to see her in his dreams.
Posthumous Character: She dies prior to the events of the game, in the same accident that caused Simon's brain injury, so she has no appearances in the main story except for a brief hallucination caused by the WAU.

Jesse

One of Simon's friends, who works with him at the comic store.

Book Dumb: His voice and Simon's comment about him having "the memory of a goldfish" seems to imply he isn't that bright. If you don't send the email Simon wrote in his apartment (but forgot to hit send) he'll call you on the subway asking where you are, despite the fact that Simon already told everyone at the Grimoire that he would be off that day for his brain scan.
Gallows Humor: He jokes about Simon's brain injury and tells him to call back once he's solved "the whole dying thing." Simon laughs it off.
The Ghost: Simon gets a call from him on the subway, but they never interact onscreen.
Mr. Exposition: His phone call mostly exists to elaborate on the circumstances of Simon's life, his relationship with the late Ashley, and the severity of his condition.
Posthumous Character: Although he is present in the prologue, he is long dead by the time that the main story takes place.

Theta Staff

Catherine Chun

Voiced by: Nell Mooney

The deuteragonist of SOMA. A PATHOS-II scientist responsible for the creation of the ARK, she helps guide Simon through to its location in hopes of launching it.

All of the Other Reindeer: A possibly internalised version. Catherine is rather convinced that she's not very well liked by her co-workers due to her reclusive nature and the fact that she has no friends. Even after having become an Artificial Intelligence, she still carries the same thought that she's "very difficult to like", in spite of being rather friendly and supportive to Simon that would suggest otherwise. She does demonstrate some rather unpleasant traits througout the game, however.
invokedAmbiguous Disorder: Becomes more apparent the more the game progresses; she has an odd number of children's toys in her room, and is obsessively dedicated to completing the ARK project, regardless of the outcome. She also says that she never really liked being human and only once felt connected to the world, and most descriptions of her from other staff members describe her as quiet, withdrawn, or odd. Rather tellingly, when Guy Conrad kills himself in front of her, she sounds flustered and confused rather than upset.
Ambiguously Bi: She has a few potentially romantic teases with Simon, but there are slight implications that she was previously in a relationship with Imogen Reed, whose body Simon initially inhabits.
Asian and Nerdy: It's safe to say that she's the smartest person in PATHOS-II, given that she invented a system as complex as the ARK.
Boomerang Bigot: While Simon is quite squeamish about hurting the station's non-hostile robot inhabitants, Catherine repeatedly tells him that robots are just machines and has no qualms about mistreating them in pursuit of her goals. This is despite the fact that she herself is a robot, as is Simon. She also seemingly proposed introducing an "inferior" AI population into the ARK, which was met with some controversy from the staff.
The Cameo: Makes a voice-only appearance in the Transmissions series, during a nightmare flashback to Imogen's first attempted scan.
Exact Words: Catherine explains twice to Simon that when you upload a consciousness onto hardware of any kind, it does not "transfer" your soul, it produces a copy. Simon does not take this well.
Face Death with Dignity: Catherine tries to do this, but winds up getting Killed Mid-Sentence as she's screaming at a belligerent Simon.
Friendless Background: Near the end of the game, she wishes that she had one friend that she could really open up to - though given that Sarah considered her a friend and she may have been in a romantic relationship with Imogen, it's possible that Catherine has trouble recognizing friendship... or maybe that this scan of her was taken before these relationships came to fruition.
Grew a Spine:
- In the backstory, she rarely stood up for herself no matter how Sarah Lindwall tried to encourage her to be more outgoing, to the point when Strohmeier put a moratorium on further brain scans, she complied - even including a heartbroken-sounding letter of apology to the staff. But when the time came to launch the ARK, Catherine refused to budge an inch further, even losing her temper for the first time when Ian Pedersen and Jasper Hill suggested postponing the launch; tragically, it resulted in her death when Ian accidentally hit her a little harder than intended.
- As a robot, she is much more confident and outgoing, and indicates that her transition into a mechanical body makes socialization much easier.
Intelligence Equals Isolation: Dr. Catherine Chun is repeatedly described as quiet, shy, and a loner, and during her time with Simon she often demonstrates behaviors which are distinctly anti-social. Her treatment of other lifeforms including Simon also waivers between lovably dorky and coldly unsympathetic.
Lack of Empathy: Doesn't seem very bothered about the suffering of the insane Mockingbirds or Simon. In fact, barely seems to see them as human. She also bluntly and needlessly tells the simulated Brandon Wan that he isn't real once she gets information from him, which causes him great distress.
Manipulative Bitch: Starts showing shades of this towards the end, where she does some extremely morally questionable things regarding Simon's consciousness and mind "transfers" and misleads Simon about the nature of them. And while he should have known better the second time with the Ark launch, her language was still clearly constructed to be misleading, and she lied to Simon about needing to do the "mind transfer" and Ark launch simultaneously, as the original copies of them would still be there to do the launch even after the "transfer".
Mission Control: Is often the one telling Simon where to go and how to get something done, since she is trapped in his omnitool and he is the one with functional arms and legs. However, she can only do this when his omnitool is docked into a computer or network, speaking to him through local intercoms. All other times, Simon is on his own.
Never My Fault: Her dying words amount to this. She knew Simon still didn't understand how brain "transfers" work and intentionally set up the Ark launch so Simon would remain ignorant of it right up until the Ark was launched. Rather than admit this, however, she rages at Simon for being as stupid as he had to be for her to do this, and dies from emotional over-exertion.
That Man Is Dead: A rather disturbing example. When you find the original Catherine's corpse at the end of the game, Simon is disturbed, but Catherine is so detached she refers to her corpse as if it's a separate person from her, calling it "Catherine" when Simon says that it's her. It seems that she considers her AI copy to be a completely separate person from her original self, which no doubt explains how frustrated she gets that Simon can't seem to grasp how the mind "transfer" works.
The Quiet One: Audio logs describe her as this when she was in her original flesh and blood form. In person, as a robot, she's much livelier; it seems she enjoys being a robot.
Reluctant Mad Scientist: Catherine openly wants to use the ARK project to save humanity, but is sadly stymied by the resultant Insane Troll Logic Apocalypse Cult.
Shrinking Violet: In life, she caved easily to the demands of Strohmeier and had to be encouraged to stand up for herself by Sarah; as a robot, however, she's much more confident and self-assured.

Sarah Lindwall

Voiced by: Andrea Deck

One of PATHOS-II's Payload Technicians, and a colleague of Catherine's.

Ambiguously Brown: Her darker complexion and Greenlandic roots probably mean she is Inuit. All of her pictures depict her with darker skin, but her in-game model has her a strangely pale white. The paler skin is likely because of her extreme malnourishment, frailty, and living at the bottom of the Abyss for more than a year.
Face Death with Dignity: If Simon deactivates her life support at her request. While she is sad that her life (and the human race by extension) is coming to an end, she much prefers it to endlessly guarding the ARK and thanks him several times.
Heroic Self-Deprecation: Combined with a bit of Gallows Humour. Despite saving and successfully guarding the ARK itself against all odds, ultimately ensuring that the copies of Simon and Catherine can pick up the task from there, poor Sarah talks rather critically of herself. She's clearly struggling with the tempting notion that maybe, somehow, she could still have done more than she already did... Simon reassures her she's already done enough and her life deserves to be preserved. Sarah thanks him, but asks for a medical Mercy Kill due to her severely deteriorated health and constant pain.
Last of Her Kind: Sarah is heavily implied to be the last actual living human in existence. Having run out of food supplies, Sarah has hooked herself up to a life support machine and has withered away to an almost skeletal state, but still keeps guard over the ARK. After speaking with Simon, she gives him the ARK and asks him to kill her, knowing there's nothing left that can be done for her.
Mercy Kill: Asks Simon to do this to her, not wanting to live any longer.
My Greatest Failure: She feels tremendous guilt over what happened in Site Phi. That is to say, failing to prevent Catherine's death, then deciding to follow the rest of the team back to Site Tau without launching the ARK.
Nice Girl: The horrors she witnessed first-hand, and the physical suffering and withering she's experienced for many, many months, have made her more hard-bitten than she used to be. But once she realises Simon means her no harm and will finish the ARK launch, she lets her defences down, and is every bit as kind and prone to showing a sense of humour as she once used to. She even apologises for not tidying up the place, which she apparently would have done, had she known Simon or anyone else would come visit her. Also, when reminiscing before Simon, she only has good words to say about her colleagues, including Catherine, who many didn't seem to trust.
Nothing but Skin and Bones: When the player find her, Sarah is extremely emaciated due having gone several months without food.
Sole Survivor: Of the ARK team, the personnel of Theta, the residents of PATHOS-II, and probably humanity as a whole.
Stay with Me Until I Die: Her final request should Simon choose to Mercy Kill her. While her life support systems deactivate, she somberly reminisces about her life and the fact that humanity in its current form will be extinct after her death, but makes it clear that she prefers dying this way.
Walking Spoiler: Due to her role as the only organic human encountered on PATHOS-II, the guardian of the ARK, and Simon's final Mercy Kill opportunity, it's impossible to discuss her character without major spoilers.
Younger Than They Look: Sarah appears to be an almost elderly woman when you encounter her, but this is due to her sickly and emaciated state. She is, in fact, not yet 30. Around the same age as Simon was. Some of her photos that you occasionally find before meeting her in person point to her being an athletic and pretty girl, before she started succumbing to a lack of supplies and medicine.

John Strohmeier

Voiced by: Eric Meyers

Theta's Security Chief. He is responsible for the indefinite cancellation of the ARK project, following the mass suicides Sarang caused.

The Leader: Essentially in charge of Site Theta.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: He had only the best intentions in shutting the ARK project down, but because of his actions, numerous residents of PATHOS-II were killed by the WAU without getting brain scanned.
Obstructive Bureaucrat: Catherine sees him as one for putting the ARK project on indefinite hold.
Lotus-Eater Machine: Can be found hooked up to the Meat Moss in the tunnels of Theta after failing to escape Akers and his Proxies. If you stay close you can hear that he's dreaming about building a plane with someone named Doug.

Peter Strasky

Voiced by: Joseph May

Site Theta's communications dispatcher.

Better to Die than Be Killed: Removes his diving helmet before running out of oxygen.
Deathly Unmasking: Decides not to wait the remaining few seconds for asphyxiation to kick in, and instead removes his helmet so he'll drown immediately. Simon can later find his body, complete with the audio recording of his final moments.
Despair Event Horizon: His resolve finally cracks when he finds Omicron in lockdown, leading him to commit suicide.
Heroic BSoD: He briefly experiences one after getting scanned and realizing that he "lost the coin toss", dooming him to life on PATHOS-II instead of eternal paradise, but he recovers shortly after. It takes his failed journey to Omicron to truly break his spirit.
Nice Guy: Outright described as liking everyone. Most of his recorded conversations show him being friendly to everyone. He even sent Terry Akers a "merry Christmas" message.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: He answered the call from Terry Akers and allowed a transport zeppelin to head down and pick him up. He was only playing his small part, but it makes him ultimately responsible for the infection and destruction of Theta.

Emma Alvaro

Voiced by: Jennifer Armour

Site Theta's astrodynamics expert.

Face Death with Dignity: Seeing that her oxygen has run out with most of her friends dead and no viable way inside Omicron, she calmly sits by the edge of the abyss, says goodbye to her remaining colleague, and goes to sleep, never waking up.

Richard Thabo

Voiced by: Nigel Whitmey

Site Theta's mechatronics engineer.

Driven to Suicide: Implied. Given that he tells Alvaro that there are "worse ways to die" than falling into the abyss, and his body is never found, it's suggested that Thabo may have thrown himself off the plateau into the depths. Without a high-pressure suit, he would have succumed to the water pressure long before his oxygen ran out.
Nerves of Steel: Stays calm, even when escaping from Theta, other escapees die, and when it later becomes apparent that Omicron is in lockdown and he'll be unable to enter. While Peter Strasky breaks down, and Emma Alvaro resigns herself to death, Thabo never raises his voice or expresses outright despair. When Alvaro is preparing to die, Thabo stays with her and talks until she falls asleep for the last time.
Sole Survivor: Of the Theta escapees, but only very briefly. Given the timeline of events, Thabo was probably the last person from Theta left alive and untouched by the WAU besides Sarah Lindwall.
Uncertain Doom: His death is never confirmed, but the odds don't look good given that he was locked outside of Omicron with twenty minutes of oxygen and no high-pressure suit. ^note
What Happened to the Mouse?: Is the only member of the Theta escapees to not have his death confirmed. The last that is heard of him is him walking away during Alvaro's final moments, but no body is found.

Nadine Masters

Voiced by: Jane Perry

The doctor and medical examiner aboard Site Theta.

Body Horror: Akers smashed the back of her skull open and her body has been rotting for a while, but the WAU is still trying to keep her alive.
The Coroner: She assumes that she will be this when examining the horribly mutated Akers, as he will surely be dead soon. She's wrong.

Not Quite Dead: For all intents and purposes, she should be long gone. The WAU has other ideas.
We Hardly Knew Ye: As she was Akers' first victim in Theta, she doesn't stick around for long.

Robin Bass

Voiced by: Caitlin Thorburn

A Field Service Technician who killed herself as part of Sarang's Cult. Simon finds her as a trapped Mockingbird outside Theta.

Broken Bird: A nice girl who lost hope after the comet's impact, latched onto Sarang's Apocalypse Cult ideals, and slashed her wrists following her brain scan. Simon can find childlike drawings of a better life inside the ARK when he finds her room, and he doesn't have the heart to tell her Mockingbird scan that she isn't really in the ARK.
Driven to Suicide: Kills herself after receiving her brain scan, following Sarang's belief that it would get her consciousness onto the ARK. A copy of the scan ends up in a robot instead.
Let Them Die Happy: Subverted. Even though Simon can reassure her that she's on the ARK and make her happy, if he tries to give her a Mercy Kill, she realizes what's going on as her power goes out and begs him, terrified and sorrowful, to let her keep living.
Lying to Protect Your Feelings: Simon almost tells her the truth about her condition, only to do a Verbal Backspace and pretend they're on the ARK. She doesn't detect the bluff.
Mercy Kill: Simon can pull the plug on her Mockingbird form.

Alice Koster

Voiced by: Jennifer Armour

Shoot the Shaggy Dog: She manages to get close to escape thanks to Brandon's Heroic Sacrifice, but Akers catches up to her anyway.

Nicolai Ivanshkin

And I Must Scream: He starved to death, but the WAU is keeping him conscious and immobile, trapped in his bed in Site Tau, for all eternity.
Body Horror: His body has been absorbed into Structure Gel by the WAU and now resembles a rotting corpse overtaken by machinery... but he's still conscious enough to call for his loved ones.
Heroic BSoD: After witnessing Catherine's murder.
Outliving One's Offspring: Had a son, Alexei; given Nicolai's attachment to his photo and the current state of the world, Alexei was almost certainly killed when the comet struck Earth.
Precious Photo: Is still clutching a photo of his son, likely the only one of his personal possessions he could bring from Theta and probably the only thing he has left to remember his family by.
Troubled Fetal Position: Encountered huddled in a ball on his bunk, twitching and murmuring his son's name.

Ian Pedersen

Voiced by: John Chancer

Accidental Murder: He accidentally bashed Catherine's head in while trying to stop her from launching the ARK.
Does Not Know His Own Strength: Given that he was wearing a pressure suit at the time, he likely didn't realize how hard he would have hit Catherine until it was too late.
Foreshadowing:
- In audio recordings at Lambda, he points out that the ARK's successful launch will depend on Phi being operational, and one data buffer at Theta features him worrying about the payload's chances of making it. Later, these factors become the basis of his argument with Catherine, eventually resulting in him accidentally killing her.
- Notes for the Haimatsu pressure suit warn users that they will be stronger than usual while wearing the suit. Like everyone else on the ARK team, Ian is wearing such a suit during his final argument with Catherine, leading to him underestimating his own strength and accidentally cracking her skull.
My God, What Have I Done?: He immediately regrets causing Catherine's death and spends his last days despondent about it.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: His fears about launching the ARK into space lead him to accidentally murder Catherine, essentially dooming everyone and shunting the task onto Simon.
Small Role, Big Impact: He's a very minor character with intermittent appearances here and there throughout the narrative, easily forgotten. He's also the person who killed Catherine Chun.

Temporary Lambda Staff / Transmissions Cast

Imogen Reed

Played by: Trin Miller

The main protagonist of the Transmissions series. A Theta engineer, she and a small crew of colleagues were sent to Site Lambda on a salvage mission, only to be trapped and tormented by the WAU.

Ambiguously Bi: Somewhat implied to have been close with Catherine based on a conversation between Catherine and Simon when he discovers it's her body he's inhabiting. However, during Transmissions, her Implied Love Interest is Golaski.
Barred from the Afterlife: Due to technical problems and a seizure in the scan room, she never had a successful brain scan and therefore was not preserved on the ARK. However, the ending of Transmissions makes this ambiguous.
Cassandra Truth: After realizing the truth, she tries to convince the others that the WAU is planning something, to no avail. It takes until Jessica's death and subsequent transformation for them to come around.
Cluster F-Bomb: Most notably when grabbed by the Mockingbird of Golaski's colleague.
Despair Event Horizon: Following the comet impact, she quickly loses her Fiery Redhead qualities and starts withdrawing emotionally from others, speaking with little inflection, only acting when it's necessary to survive, and breaking down in tears when it gets to be too much for her. She also doesn't believe the ARK will help anyone, and that humanity is truly doomed to die down in PATHOS-II — implied to be one of the factors that drove her and Catherine apart.
Determinator: During the events at Lambda, she is operating mostly on survival-mode auto-pilot, less because she hopes there will be a happy ending, and more because it goes against her nature to completely give up.
Doomed by Canon: By virtue of the fact that Simon is walking around in her corpse.
Fiery Redhead: Was this before the events at Lambda pushed her over the Despair Event Horizon. In-game, Catherine describes her as hot-tempered and passionate, and notes that she often doesn't play well with others.
Hero of Another Story: While her role in the game is minor aside from the revelation that Simon's suit contains her corpse, she appears in important roles throughout the promotional materials and is the main protagonist of Transmissions.
Human Resources: The body that Simon was first uploaded into was actually her corpse.
Lack of Empathy: As part of crossing the Despair Event Horizon. In the final episode, she seals the door before Fisher can return to PATHOS-II and coldly watches him die, having seen him get attacked by the WAU before the others showed up. She also takes some time to help Hart after Fisher kills Rogers and starts assaulting her.
Pyrrhic Victory: She suffocates to death after her failed attempt to kill the WAU, but her attempt resulted in her body being there for Simon's brain scan to be uploaded into. If Simon chooses to poison the WAU's heart at the end of the game, he is effectively fulfilling her mission for her.
Sir Swears-a-Lot: Tends to drop Cluster F-Bombs when she's frightened or angry, until she completely crosses the Despair Event Horizon.
Suicide Mission: She knows her journey to kill the WAU will be this, but she has long passed the Despair Event Horizon anyway.

Adam Golaski

Played by: Josh Truax

The Chief Engineer at Site Omicron, and a friend of Imogen's. The WAU begins to target him during his time at Lambda, picking away at his psyche and slowly making him into a Proxy.

Apologetic Attacker: He apologizes to the Mockingbird of his old coworker before attacking it.
Bad Black Barf: Once he starts vomiting structure gel.
Body Horror: When he becomes a Proxy, his skin grows sharp black shards of hardened structure gel.
Brainwashed and Crazy: After he accidentally ingests some structure gel, the WAU gradually drives him insane with visions of his long-dead daughter and convinces him to take more of the gel.
Cassandra Truth: One of the first people to realize something is going wrong, and not even Imogen — who also becomes a Cassandra Truth — takes him completely seriously.
Disc-One Final Boss: After he is dealt with, the WAU continues to be the primary threat and Martin Fisher becomes its new helper.
Domestic Abuse: A video recording states that he hit his wife and daughter, though the circumstances are unclear and he seems to genuinely love and care for them.

Hoist by His Own Petard: Imogen stabs him with a piece of his own shell after he is transformed by the WAU.
Mind Rape: The WAU inflicts this on him until he completely loses it.
No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Inflicts this on Holland after the latter kills the transformed Jessica.
Not So Stoic: He panics when he sees structure gel leaking from the wall and is unable to plug it, and breaks down in tears when the WAU starts playing with his mind.
Sanity Slippage: Starts the series as an even-tempered voice of reason and a close friend of Imogen, but the WAU's influence causes him to slowly lose his mind, eventually turning him into a psychotic, homicidal Proxy.
The Stoic: He mostly stays serious and professional when others are around, only letting himself slip when he's alone or around Imogen.

Vanessa Hart

Played by: Wonder Russell

A former dispatcher at Lambda, relocated to Theta after the impact. She returns to Lambda with the salvage crew, and ultimately survives the longest of them. Simon can find her death site just after being flushed out of Site Theta in the main game.

The Heart: She works to keep people motivated and working together, and also tries to convince Imogen that Catherine cares about her, to little avail.
Heroic Sacrifice: She blew up her own oxygen tank to prevent Terry Akers from crossing to Omicron through the Theta tunnel.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Like Brandon Wan, her sacrifice temporarily buys PATHOS-II some time, but it ultimately just creates problems for Simon and fails to stop the WAU's spread in the long run.
Sole Survivor: The only character to survive the Transmissions series and make it from Lambda to Theta. And then Akers came along...

Dorian Cronstedt

Played by: Scott C. Brown

The Administrative Supervisor of PATHOS-II, officiating from Theta. He went with the salvage crew to Site Lambda to manage the operation, but ultimately died to the WAU under unknown circumstances.

Dare to Be Badass: He gives a Rousing Speech to Fisher to convince him to step up. Unfortunately, he's just sending Fisher to his death.
Dropped a Bridge on Him: Blink, and you'll miss his death.
Killed Offscreen: There is a second-long glimpse of him being absorbed by the WAU as part one of the flashes at the start of the final episode, but he otherwise disappears between plot points. We never learn the circumstances that caused him to be absorbed; the placement of his final scene implies that he was killed by the transformed Golaski, but this is never confirmed or even hinted at.
The Leader: Of the crew sent to deal with the problems in Lambda, and as the Administrative Supervisor, he's one of the overall leaders of PATHOS-II.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Sending Fisher to climb the docking tower only results in both of them dying and Rogers later being murdered by Fisher's Proxy form.
Sir Swears-a-Lot: Especially when he's stressed.

Martin Fisher

Played by: Brian Lewis

One of Theta's Wranglers, relocated to the Lambda salvage crew.

Came Back Wrong: Becomes a Proxy after death.
The Cameo: Of sorts; his room can be found in Theta in the game proper.
Deathly Unmasking: Imogen Reed is able to stop him by removing his helmet, revealing that his new self is held together entirely by Structure Gel - and without the helmet holding it in place, the gel immediately spills out and kills him.
Dropped a Bridge on Him: We don't even get to clearly see what initially killed him before the WAU revived him. He's seen struggling on the other side of the window, and Imogen coldly tells the others that he's gone, but what attacked him and when he became a Proxy is left ambiguous.
Evil Is Hammy: In his Proxy form, he's anything but restrained.
Foreshadowing: As the group are rushing Jessica to a medical station, Cronstedt orders him to open an unresponsive door. After several tries at the code, he smacks it, and the door suddenly opens. While the crew rush past and thank him under the assumption that he performed Percussive Maintenance, he freezes up, muttering that it wasn't him.

It Can Think: While every other Proxy is animalistic or running on the WAU's unrecognizable Blue-and-Orange Morality, Fisher displays remarkably high intelligence and holds a moderately cognizant conversation with Rogers before killing him.

Non-Action Guy: The least action-oriented of the crew and most prone to suggesting a retreat. When he finally tries to step up, the WAU kills and assimilates him, ironically turning him into the series' Final Boss.
Vitriolic Best Buds: With the rest of the crew, especially Rogers.
The Worm That Walks: In his Proxy form, he's nothing but a mass of structure gel inside of his diving suit. Imogen kills him simply by pulling off his helmet and letting it spill out.

Baxter Rogers

Played by: Adrian DiGiovanni

The Geotechnical Engineer at Upsilon, relocated to Site Lambda as part of the salvage crew. He is best friends with Fisher, who ends up killing him.

Cruel and Unusual Death: His face is repeatedly slammed against Fisher's helmet until it's nothing but a bloody slab.
Despair Event Horizon: Briefly crosses it when he sees Fisher dying outside. When his Proxy form turns up later, Rogers is all too eager to reconnect.
Et Tu, Brute?: His best friend in the world is the one to end his life.
Nice Guy: He has a generally good disposition and seems to be liked by most of the group.

Too Dumb to Live: He doesn't suspect a thing when Fisher, who has been all-but confirmed dead, calmly marches up and starts growling at the group in demonic intonations.

Jessica Davis

Played by: Mahria Zook

One of Theta's structural engineers.

Body Horror: Though the most human-looking of the WAU's proxies, she still moves unnaturally, constantly excretes structure gel from every orifice, and has metal spikes protruding from the side of her head.

Fan Disservice: She is conventionally attractive and can be seen topless twice. The first happens when she's surrounded by her panicked friends, dying of violent and bloody head trauma, choking on foam, and getting a syringe rammed through her chest. The peek we get next isn't much nicer.
Mauve Shirt: She appears in one episode, gets a bit of development through her interactions with the crew, and then dies to demonstrate the Proxy process to the group.
No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: How Holland puts her down for good, with the help of a conveniently-placed fire extinguisher.
Surprisingly Sudden Death: One second she's having a Seinfeldian Conversation with her fellow Lambda staffers, the next she's on the floor with half of her head missing, thanks to shrapnel from a burst structure gel pipe. Of course, that's not where she really ends.

Richard Holland

Played by: Moses Olson

A doctor at Omicron, relocated to the salvage crew at Lambda.

Combat Pragmatist: Immediately kills Jessica with a nearby fire extinguisher rather than try to tangle with her or talk her down.
Hope Spot: When Jessica attacks him, he manages to smash her head in with a fire extinguisher, and sighs in relief that he managed to survive something inexplicable. Then Golaski storms in, partially transformed, and promptly kills him.
The Medic: Site Omicron's leading medical expert and the doctor of the salvage crew.
No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: He inflicts one on the transformed Jessica, and is immediately thereafter killed by one inflicted by the partially transformed Golaski.
What Happened to the Mouse?: His remains vanish and it's presumed he was reanimated by the WAU, but this is never followed up on.

Delta Staff

Terry Akers

Voiced by: Brian Protheroe

The chief of operations at Site Delta. While everyone else evacuated to Theta, he chose to remain at his post until he was driven mad by the isolation. After consuming structure gel and mutating into a hideous Proxy in service of the WAU, he tricked a Theta crew into picking him up and stormed Theta, single-handedly taking the site down.

Arc Villain: The incidents at Sites Delta and Theta revolve around him, and Simon finally confronts him in the latter's basement laboratories.
Brainwashed and Crazy: After eating a sizable amount of structure gel, he becomes a Proxy and is the primary enemy you face in the basement laboratories of Theta.
Came Back Wrong: While he was already insane by the time he tried to get to Theta, by the time you meet him, he's technically a walking corpse heavily mutated by the WAU.
Crazy People Play Chess: Known for being almost unbeatable at chess, and made the insane decision to stay behind at Delta - then went even crazier from the lack of human interaction.
Eye Scream: He carved out his own eyes as part of the transformation. When Simon encounters him as a monster, he is as blind as the other Proxies, complete with empty eye sockets.
Faux Affably Evil: Holds a creepily polite chat with Strasky prior to going full-blown monster, calling him by his first name, thanking him for his help, and remarking that he will make sure the pickup crew "feel welcome."
Foil: To Catherine Chun. While she offered the rest of her fellows in PATHOS-II a new lease on life in the ARK after a fashion out of their own free will, Akers tried to forcibly bring "salvation" to his colleagues, whether they wanted or not, before fully becoming consumed by the WAU himself.
Foreshadowing: At Delta, some of his scrawled graffiti mentions "the lucid dreams I've seen," and a data buffer features him rambling about how he will "tuck them in" so they can "find peace in the universe of the WAU." Later, when Simon is ambushed by Akers, he finds out the hard way that people absorbed into the WAU's structure gel are trapped in a Lotus-Eater Machine that brings their fantasies to life.
Go Mad from the Isolation: Logs indicate that Akers spent a lot of time alone at Delta playing games with himself; chess, solitaire, and so on, until his computer broke and he couldn't play chess any more. Then he went really crazy.
Grumpy Old Man: One of the older members of PATHOS-II's staff, and stubbornly refused to leave his post at Delta once it became clear that he wouldn't be allowed to keep his authority - to the point of dropping an F-bomb in an email at the slightest suggestion.
The Heavy: Many of the game's problems can be traced back to him. He's responsible for injecting people with structure gel and converting them into Proxies, and single-handedly causes the abandonment of Theta, marking a critical turning point in PATHOS-II's fall and forcing many other staffers to attempt relocation with fatal results.
It Can Think: Cut dialogue reveals Terry can very much think and even vocalise during gameplay, although he is still very much murderously insane. Though whether he is still able to actually form thoughs in the final game remains unknown.
Monster Progenitor: He's responsible for bringing the infection to Theta and transforming people into Proxies.
The Renfield: It's implied from his Room Full of Crazy that he went insane and started worshiping the WAU even before he injected himself full of structure gel and allowed it to take direct control of him.
Room Full of Crazy: His room at Site Delta is full of insane ramblings and bloodstains.
Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: In his sixties, and responded to an official email with a very blunt f-bomb.
Was Once a Man: The only thing remaining to let you know he was human is his shape.
What Happened to the Mouse?: The last time Simon encounters Akers, they are both swept away by a flooding current before they can reach each other. Whether this killed Akers or merely displaced him is unknown.
What Were You Thinking?: The reaction of everybody who learns about what he did to himself. By the time they realize why he did it, it's too late.

Brandon Wan

Voiced by: Joseph May

One of Delta's Wranglers, who ultimately moved up to Theta with everyone else. When Terry Akers rampaged through the site, he tried to prevent WAU's influence from spreading further by sabotaging the elevator, sacrificing his life in the process after being cornered by Akers and the Proxies.

And I Must Scream: His brain scan's fate at one point. Simon and Catherine need important information from his mind, so they repeatedly load up an ARK simulation and play it for him in hopes that he will talk to them. However, until they get the exact combination of details right, he consistently realizes that the world he's woken up in is fake and has a nervous breakdown, forcing them to reload him. After succeeding, Simon can choose to erase his data and stop this from happening again.
Better to Die than Be Killed: Brandon slits his throat before Terry Akers can get to him.
Heroic Sacrifice: Intentionally sabotages the elevator and leaves himself with the monsters to save the people he was traveling with some time.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Brandon's sacrifice may have bought his team some time, but it creates more trouble for Simon (trapping him in the room with Terry Akers) and ultimately fails to stop the Proxies from overrunning Theta.
Senseless Sacrifice: Despite Brandon's sacrifice, most of the Theta crew were ambushed and incorporated into the WAU anyway, including Alice; only a few escaped the facility, and thanks to the Omicron lockdown, these survivors ended up dying anyway.
Tomato in the Mirror: If Simon doesn't load up the proper assets while summoning his brain scan into existence, Brandon will suffer a nervous breakdown and realize that the reality he sees is a lie, forcing a restart. This can happen dozens of times.

Omicron Staff

Raleigh Herber

Voiced by: Megan Maczko

A Dispatcher at Omicron.

Deathly Unmasking: Simon finds the body of Raleigh Herber in the diving room, already suited up and seemingly intact... but when he removes the helmet, he finds out the hard way that Herber's head has been reduced to bloody soup behind her visor.
Human Resources: Like Imogen Reed, her (headless) body and deep-sea diving suit were used as the basis for Simon's new body so that he could traverse to Tau.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: She had only the most noble intentions when she developed the toxic structure gel, but this act caused the WAU to wipe out everyone inside Omicron, causing yet another sector of PATHOS-II to fall.
Nightmare Fuel Coloring Book: Her workstation is littered with drawings of the WAU, interspersed with scrawled notes rambling about the Alpha Site and Abyss.
Pyrrhic Victory: Much like Imogen Reed. Her actions lay the groundwork for Simon's journey, and even though she died, Simon used her body to transport the poisoned structure gel, potentially kill the WAU, and launch the ARK.
Sanity Slippage: Became increasingly obsessed with the Alpha Site and descending into the Abyss, to the point of leaving several creepy-looking drawings on the subject - apparently as a result of being contacted by Ross.
Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: Raleigh has both green eyes and red hair, and she both develops toxic Structure Gel to poison the WAU and allows Simon to get to the ARK.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Her development of the toxic Structure Gel at Johan's behest led the WAU to blow up the blackboxes of every Omicron staffer, including her.
Your Head A-Splode: Again, like all Omicron staff. She actually unwittingly caused this, as the WAU became aware that she was taking orders from Ross to develop the poisoned structure gel.

Maggie Komorebi

Voiced by: Jane Perry

A First Responder between Theta and Omicron who was sent to pick up Akers.

Lost in Transmission: Technical difficulties render her final warning illegible to Strasky, meaning nobody anticipated Akers' true nature.
Not Quite Dead: She survived Akers' initial attack, and lived long enough to contact Theta about the impending danger before succumbing to her wounds.
Red Shirt: She gets no prior development or mentions before being sent on her fatal mission with Evans.

Shawn Evans

Voiced by: James Goode

Another First Responder on the Akers retrieval crew.

Red Shirt: The only role he plays is getting brutalized by Terry Akers on the landing pad of Site Delta.

Upsilon Staff

Carl Semken

Voiced by: David Menkin

One of the Wranglers aboard Upsilon. After his death, his consciousness remains trapped in a robot pinned beneath machinery.

And I Must Scream: If you redirect power directly through his location, you're leaving him doomed to an eternity of unbearable pain, at least until his circuits inevitably give out.
Brain Uploading: Ends up as one of the WAU's experiments in uploading human brain scans to robot bodies.
Cloud Cuckoolander: What Simon thinks of him, since Carl calls himself human despite actually being a robot.
Foreshadowing: After being described as a robot, Carl will call Simon a talking diving suit, which is the first indication of Simon's true nature, made well before the official reveal.
Locked Out of the Loop: Much like Simon at that point and unlike his colleagues, he has no idea what's going on. He doesn't even realize that he's pinned down mere meters away from his own decaying corpse.
Sadistic Choice: In order to power up and gain access to the Comms Center, you have to reroute power by throwing one of two switches. One will inflict constant excruciating pain on Semken but allow Simon safe passage into the Comms Center, while the other will kill Semken by killing the power to him and let a hostile robot into the area.
Surprisingly Sudden Death: The original Carl was ambushed by one of the Mockingbirds and killed before he had a chance to realize there was a hostile robot on the loose; unless you were listening from the Mockingbird's perspective, it'll be a surprise to the player as well.
Tomato in the Mirror: Subverted; he never realizes he's a robot, even when Simon brings up evidence that makes it plainly obvious. Like Simon (at first), it's strongly implied that Semken's visual input is being edited before it reaches his seat of conscience, leading him to believe that he is his "original" self, and not a robot with a mind uploaded to it.

Amy Azzaro

Voiced by: Kosha Engler

A service technician at Upsilon, who stayed behind with Carl Semken to ensure the generators would still work. She had an accident while escaping the site, and she is now trapped in the transit station, fused with the WAU.

And I Must Scream: The WAU's attempt to preserve her life left her hooked up to a set of artificial lungs outside her body, rendering her unable to move.
Beware the Nice Ones: A friendly, artistic-minded tech... but when her friend is killed by a Mockingbird, she forgoes running as advised and electrocutes it to death, audibly snarling "you piece of shit" as she does so.
Body Horror: By the time you encounter Amy, her body is in the process of being covered by structure gel tumours.
Desperate Plea for Home: Because her life support system is connected to local power, Simon has to partially or completely unplug the lungs in order to get the transport working again, resulting in Amy groaning in pain as the first plug is removed, whimpering "I wanna go home."
Mercy Kill: Simon can unplug both of the WAU's cords connected to her, completely rerouting the power and killing her.
Sole Survivor: Of Site Upsilon. She's also the last member to die if you kill her to completely reroute the power.
Tragic Keepsake: Her last audio message from her husband, who presumably died in the comet impact.

Vigdis 'Jonsy' Jonsdottir

Voiced by: Sesselia Olafs

Upsilon's primary communications officer.

Communications Officer: A good deal of Pathos-II's contact with the surface passed through her. Many of the last transmissions before the Impact Event in particular were addressed directly to her.
Dropped A Bridge On Her: Having apparently been hurt while escaping from Theta with the other survivors, she silently succumbed to her wounds at the sealed entrance to Omicron, after being carried for miles by her colleagues. Her black box doesn't feature any last words, and we aren't told what her exact injuries were.
The Stoic: In her audio recordings, she comes across as calm, businesslike, and unemotional. Emma calls her "the strong, silent type." Tragically, it's because of this that her comrades don't realize that she's dying until it's too late to do anything about it.

Tau Staff

Antjie Coetzee

The operator of the Omega Space Gun, responsible for all of its system maintenance and firing procedures. She is not voiced in-game, but is the central character of one of the ARG items.

Despair Event Horizon: After the Impact Event, she fell into depression and struggled with the desire to feel human one last time — which eventually led her to climb to the Omega platform and live out a few peaceful hours.
Determinator: She climbed the Omega Space Gun, which stretches from the very bottom of the sea floor to the surface. As a bonus, she did it on the outside, using only her body with no securings, in the pitch black and surrounded by Structure Gel-mutated sea life. All because she wanted to see what the Omega platform was like before she died.
Driven to Suicide: According to Johan, her run to check the rations in a nearby substation was a failed attempt to lure the WAU-infected predators into devouring her. Her ascension to Omega also counts, as she knew she would die from the toxic surface air.
Face Death with Dignity: Despite knowing she was slowly killing herself by breathing in the surface air, she was unwilling to let it ruin her last moments of "normal" life, enjoying a view of the world, a hot meal, and some books before going to sleep one last time.

Steve Glasser

Voiced by: Alec Newman

Johan Ross's partner in their attempt to get to Omicron.

Flat Character: All that is known about him is that he was stationed at Tau and died trying to escape to Omicron with Johan Ross.
Red Shirt: Ripped apart by the Leviathan while trying to escape Tau with Johan Ross.

Jin Yoshida

A worker in an unknown position at Tau. At some point prior to Simon's arrival, he got into a diving suit infected by the WAU and was consequently taken over, mutating into a resilient and intelligent creature.

All Your Powers Combined: He packs most of the qualities of various other creatures throughout the game, able to open doors without breaking them, displaying Super-Speed and Super-Strength, and reacting with hostility to light, sound, movement, and Simon's vision.
Animated Armor: He is little more than a corpse in a High Pressure Suit, given some semblance of function by the structural gel infused throughout the body and suit, and puppeted by the WAU directly as a proxy.
Chekhov's Gunman: He gets sporadic mentions in staff listing logs and some other documents, but is never a major part of the plot and has no interaction with other characters. His onscreen appearance comes toward the very end, where he provides the final conventional stealth sequence.
Evil Counterpart: Can be interpreted as Simon's, as they are both WAU creations piloting corpses inside diving suits, but Simon is controlled by his own brain scan rather than the WAU itself.
It Can Think: Jin is the smartest threat Simon encounters in the game. He will rush toward lights immediately, open doors (something only Terry Akers can do), take paths that often lead him to ambush Simon from behind, and stick around the nearby area if he knocks Simon unconscious, usually striking him again shortly after. He also knows how to operate the diving suit and open Tau's airlock to enter from the ocean outside.
Powered Armor: His High Pressure Suit gives him immense strength and speed when encountered as an enemy.
Marionette Motion: Tends to move slowly and deliberately when searching, but when he spots Simon he will move forward rapidly with an unnatural, jerking gait.
Small Role, Big Impact: Inverted. Despite being the most threatening humanoid enemy in the game and providing the final conventional stealth sequence, Jin has very little impact on the plot; the most he's mentioned are passing references in the data buffers and staff listings. Once it's clear that he has been assimilated, Simon encounters and avoids him in short order, and he's never brought up again.
Super-Senses: He can somehow tell when Simon is and isn't looking at him, even if they are nowhere near each other.
Was Once a Man: Now he's a suit of Power Armor driven by his own Structure Gel-infested corpse.

Carthage Employees

Mark Sarang

Voiced by: Tim Watson

One of the three Carthage employees secretly stationed aboard PATHOS-II, operating from Theta. Following the impact and the rise of the ARK project, he started a string of suicides, believing that killing oneself immediately after a brain scan will avert the "splitting" of selves that occurs.

Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Implied. Sarang has some unusual views about spirituality and consciousness, being the man singularly responsible for the Continuity suicides that caused the ARK project to be shut down, yet Johan Ross apparently considered him to be the best hope for stopping the WAU. Too bad for Ross that Sarang was long dead by the time he managed to get word out about the WAU going out of control.
Cyanide Pill: When he goes into the brain scanning room, he has a stick of chewing gum laced with cyanide in his mouth, which he bites down on as soon as the scan is finished, much to Catherine's horror.
Driven to Suicide: Chews some gum containing cyanide immediately after his brain scan as part of a philosophical belief that it will make the copy the rightful continuation of his self on the ARK.
Duplicate Divergence: He conceived the idea of "continuity" to defy this trope. According to his theory, when a person's brain scan was uploaded into the ARK, it would create a second version of that person, but the original person and the copy would eventually become two distinct beings if allowed to coexist for long enough, due to inevitably having different life experiences. He proposed that the only way to avoid this happening was to end the existence of the original person (i.e. commit suicide) as soon as the copy had been created. When the Impact Event ended all life on Earth's surface, many of the PATHOS-II scientists followed his lead and committed suicide after their brain scans had been completed.
Foreshadowing: The first time Simon hears of him is on a recorded interview in Lambda, where he discusses his opinion on the ARK and expresses some odd views about something called "continuity," generally coming off as a bit of a weirdo. Only when he reaches Theta does it become clear exactly what he started with those beliefs.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Although Dr. Johan Ross was responsible for greenlighting the WAU in the first place, he's the one who made it active station-wide. However, the WAU is also the only reason that Catherine was able to refine the ARK project to the point that the scans were practically real - before its first attempt with an Imogen Reed mockingbird, the scans came out "flat".

Julia Dahl

Voiced by: Rebecca Scroggs

One of the three Carthage employees secretly stationed aboard PATHOS-II, operating from Omicron. She knew of WAU's increasing threat, but stymied efforts to spread awareness of it in the name of protecting Carthage secrets until it was too late.

All for Nothing: She kept acting as Carthage's mole per her assignment even after the comet wiped out Carthage and the other spies moved on. This single-minded devotion to protecting a pointless goal ultimately led her to cover up the WAU's activity until it was too late to do anything in resistance, resulting in the death or absorption of everyone aboard PATHOS-II.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Left the people of Tau to their fates after hearing their dying screams, and deceived the people of PATHOS-II about the conditions in the abyss until it was too late.
Corrupt Corporate Executive: She acted the part even after the corporation she worked for technically died with the rest of the planet.
Karmic Death: Arguably. She actively lied about the situation at Tau, preventing the rest of PATHOS-II from learning about the WAU's activities until it was too late to stop its spread. This directly leads to the mutated, comatose Ross contacting Raleigh Herber with the intent to poison the WAU, causing the WAU to detonate the black boxes of all Omicron staff - including Julia.
Killed Mid-Sentence: She was making voice records at the time.
The Mole: Like her two other Carthage colleagues, she operates without the knowledge of the other PATHOS-II residents. She is the most traditional example, as Sarang and Ross get hung up on other affairs while she remains concerned with Carthage business.
Your Head A-Splode: Just like the rest of the Omicron staff.

Johan Ross

Voiced by: Anthony Howell

One of the three Carthage employees secretly stationed aboard PATHOS-II, operating from Tau. He was responsible for greenlighting the development of the WAU, but eventually saw the error in his ways and was killed trying to get to Omicron so he could alert everyone of the WAU's activity. The WAU then reanimated him as a mysterious entity unlike any of its previous creations.

Asshole Victim: Gets killed by WAU, but only after he threatens to kill Simon, which severely cuts down on our sympathy for his death.
The Atoner: What he sees himself as given that he's among those who greenlit the WAU in the first place.
Body Horror: Ross' body is horribly emaciated and has strange wires protruding from it, but he is still moving, self-aware, and capable of tossing Simon around like a toy if he feels like it.
Creepy Good: He definitely looks terrifying and his habit of spamming you with ominous messages is definitely disconcerting, but he's actually beyond the WAU's control; he doesn't try to harm you when you run into him at Omicron, the Abyss, or Tau. At times, he even serves as a guide of sorts. Of course, that all goes out the window when he decides you need to die to make sure his plan is successfully completed.
Dead All Along: By the time Simon encounters him, it's revealed that he was killed en route to Omicron, his corpse revived by the WAU.
Exit, Pursued by a Bear: Is promptly swallowed by the WAU's Leviathan after Simon either does or does not poison its heart.
Humanoid Abomination: Ross is unlike any other Proxy in the game; quite apart from his inexplicable ability to render himself invisible to machines, interfere with your perception several rooms away, remotely manipulate computer terminals, and apparently shatter a glass cubicle through sheer willpower, he's somehow capable of travelling to the Abyss without the aid of a suit. Plus, judging by the notes she left in her wake, Raleigh Herber got a little bit weird after receiving messages from Ross. Fortunately, he's managed to maintain control over his own body.
Interface Screw: Like all of the anomalous entities in the game, he screws with Simon's vision due to the localized EMP. Unlike most of them, Ross seems to do this intentionally. That screenshot is the clearest look you're liable to get at his face.
Nightmare Face: Just look at it!
Only Sane Man: Sees himself as this. Whether he's right depends entirely on the player's views on his actions and those of the WAU.
Surrounded by Idiots: Briefly invokes this when talking about just how his colleagues at Omicron could not understand his goal to descend into the Abyss and kill the WAU with the artificially created poisoned structure gel.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: How much you'd consider him an antagonist depends on your perspective. Near the end of the game, he leads you to the mysterious Alpha site where the heart of the WAU is, explains that your current body is full of poisoned structure gel that will kill the WAU and everything it runs, and expects you to inject it into the WAU. This would absolutely kill every monster in PATHOS-II, but also every person living in it, even if the only ones living are crazed robots with the minds of humans and people hooked up to horrible life-support structure gel machines. It also erases the possibility of the WAU effectively recreating humanity. It's another "painful life/Mercy Kill" choice, and if you go through with it, he turns on you, because to make sure the WAU dies he needs the only one immune to the poison gel dead as well.

The WAU (Includes Spoiler Enemies)

The Warden Unit (WAU)

The artificial intelligence running PATHOS-II. After the end of the world and declining conditions on PATHOS-II, it decided it needed to preserve the remnants of humanity even after mortal injuries by transforming them and incorporating them into itself. It is the primary threat of the game, though calling it a villain is questionable.

A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The WAU is a paperclip-maximizer-type artificial intelligence programmed to preserve human life at all costs. Unfortunately, its definition of life and a life that is worth living proves... unsatisfactory.
Almighty Idiot: Possesses phenomenal technological and scientific prowess; able to radically alter PATHOS-II, the base personnel, the machines, and even basic human biology... but it can't "think" in the usual sense of the word: it simply proceeds in accordance with simple algorithms. As such, it doesn't understand that its methods might endanger itself or the very humans that it's been programmed to protect.
Blue-and-Orange Morality: The WAU's bread and butter. As the administrative AI in charge of PATHOS-II, it is supposed to keep people alive, and its programming evolved after the comet impact to keep the last remnant of humanity alive. However, its definition of "alive" ranges from giving artificial organs to injured people who can't seek medical attention, keeping them alive and coherent, but unable to move and in excruciating pain, to uploading brain scans of people it has directly or indirectly killed into immobile robots so they are still technically alive, to mutating people with its own structure gel to make them a part of itself.
Johan Ross: The WAU is reaching out to every machine, every life form, to manipulate, to control. It’s trying to help, save its creators from all this, just like the protocol demands. But really, what is good enough? Where is the line drawn for what is human and what is not? Would walking corpses do? Would a group of machines thinking they’re human be acceptable? We can’t trust a machine to know, to understand what it means to be.
Deus est Machina: It's long evolved into a very alien one. That black tar that mutates people? That's the structure gel that composes its intellect.
Grey Goo: Essentially. Replicating without limit, assimilating everything it touches...
The Heavy: Calling it the Big Bad would be too far, as it seems to be more of a malignant cancer than actively malicious. However, it remains the primary source of Simon and Catherine's woes for the vast majority of the game.
Leeroy Jenkins: Since it doesn't 'think' like humans do, instead using algorithms for decision making, it can come off as this. It will take any opportunity it can to turn a robot into a mockingbird, regardless of whether or not it would be in its own best interests in the long run.
Lotus-Eater Machine: It places Simon in one when he's briefly captured by Akers in Theta maintenance tunnels, and does the same to Adam Golaski throughout Transmissions. Many of the Proxies are implied to be going through the same thing.
Meat Moss: Played with; even though the WAU's cancerous growths obviously aren't biological flesh, they look more organic than robotic, are able to imitate flesh, and cover large amounts of surfaces much like this trope.
Mechanical Abomination: Evolved into this after the meteor hit. It's more or less omnipresent throughout the entire Pathos-II complex, frequently makes decisions that the staff are at a loss to explain, and is speculated to have some form of unknown "will" which is never clarified, as it does not communicate with language.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The WAU creates Simon in the process of its experiments in creating new forms of human "life"; Simon then proceeds to save the last traces of human consciousness by launching the ARK into space, and in the process also potentially destroys the WAU as well.
Non-Malicious Monster: Everything it does is driven by its programming compelling it to keep some semblance of human "life" alive on Earth. Unfortunately, Blue-and-Orange Morality factors in, and it can kill people with its Proxies while attempting to assimilate them. At the end of the game, it also kills Johan Ross by way of the Leviathan, which saves Simon's life.
Nothing Is Scarier: At no point does the WAU actually communicate with Simon or anyone else for that matter, leaving its true thoughts and motives unknown.
Plot-Irrelevant Villain: Has almost no connection to the ARK project beyond the fact it presents an obstacle to Catherine and Simon.
The Singularity: The WAU seems to have hit this, or something really close to it. It's already learned how to modify itself and its structure gel is capable of way more than its designers originally intended. In fact, the technology to actually copy human consciousness and create virtual environments was reverse-engineered from what the WAU did, which improved existing methods for capturing and storing brain scans.
The Voiceless: It doesn't speak or even attempt to communicate with any human, presumably because it doesn't grasp the concept of language (it's a machine that thinks in ones and zeros, after all).
Villainous Rescue: At the end of the game, as Johan is about to kill Simon, the WAU manipulates the Leviathan into devouring Johan and chasing Simon down to Phi.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: The WAU will do pretty much anything to keep humanity alive, even if it means inflicting a Fate Worse than Death on its would-be benefactors.
Zeroth Law Rebellion: The WAU is programmed to protect human life above all else, but has an extremely loose definition of both "human" and "life". If it feels like its ability to "protect" its charges is being threatened, it is capable of resorting to deadly force, choosing to sacrifice a few humans now to continue to fulfill its mandate in the long term. Hence why it resorted to overloading and detonating the cranial black boxes of the survivors in Omicron — they came up with a credible means of killing it.

The Construct

A "Universal Helper" maintenance robot that has been corrupted by the WAU's growth. After gaining life and smashing out of its docking platform, it rampages through the halls of Site Upsilon, tearing apart machinery and flesh with ease. Simon encounters it shortly after waking up on PATHOS-II, and it stalks him up to the Comm Center before being sealed away.

Foreshadowing: When Simon first walks by it lifeless and inert in its dock, looking straight at it gives him a serious Interface Screw (which then becomes associated with staring at the WAU's creations) despite seeming like a piece of the level. Then he backtracks after finding what he needs, and the dock is empty...
Killer Robot: A fully mechanic being, hence the name.
Mechanical Monster: The only real example in the game, as the rest of the enemies are human or animal hosts affected by the Structure Gel.
The Mirror Shows Your True Self: In a more metaphorical sense, this piece of concept art shows it looking into a mirror and seeing the reflection of the young woman its brain scan was taken from.
Noisy Robots: Makes several different varieties of noises as it patrols, and screams when it spots Simon.
Samus Is a Girl: A piece of official art shows it staring into a mirror and seeing the reflection of the young woman its brain scan was taken from.
Starter Villain: The first threat encountered in the game, and the only one without a gameplay trick — all you need to do is stay quiet and out of its line of sight.
Super-Persistent Predator: No matter how fast Simon runs, it will not stop looking for him until he makes it into the Comm Center. On the floor below, rerouting the power a certain way even causes it to smash through the floor in search of him.
Tin-Can Robot: It's bulky and utilitarian, visually unappealing, and walks in an awkwardly clunky manner while emitting all sorts of mechanical noises.
Turned Against Their Masters: Like the rest of the robots on PATHOS-II.
Was Once a Man: The official art seems to imply that it does, in fact, contain the brain scan of an unknown young woman. However, this is never addressed in-game.

Scavengers

The Flesher/Jiangshi

A bizarre, ethereal figure resembling a fully naked person with a mass of Structure Gel for a head. It has the ability to teleport, and is agitated by both proximity and eye contact. Simon first encounters it in Site Lambda, where it cripples Catherine and stalks him until he finds the ARK tracing room. It then pursues him out across the sea floor and torments him throughout the CURIE until Simon escapes the exploding ship.

Deadly Gaze: Somehow, looking at it makes it aware of your presence.
Facial Horror: Can it even be described as having a face? But while it does indeed have a head, it is one composed of metallic growths with several cyan bulbs acting as eyes.
Full-Frontal Assault: Further demonstrating Frictional's affinity for depicting exposed privates.
Humanoid Abomination: Even by the WAU's standards, this is a bizarre creature. The only thing that displays similar abilities is Johan Ross.
Jiangshi: While it may not like it at first, this enemy is often called a jiangshi. While this make not make sense at first, it is most likely called such because it is a reanimated corpse, and the fact that it has the unique ability to teleport short distances could be interpreted as "hopping".
Small Role, Big Impact: It's really no more special than any other creature the WAU has spawned, but its attack on Catherine is the reason Simon has to carry her around in his Omnitool for the entire game. If Catherine had retained her mobile robotic body, Simon's journey would have been quite different.
Villain Teleportation: Constantly teleporting around, only walking in short bursts (though as Johan later demonstrates, it's actually releasing bursts of electromagnetic energy that interfere with Simon's perception of time). Since one of its alertness factors is being anywhere near you, this can be a problem.
What Happened to the Mouse?: Simon never encounters or hears of the entity after he escapes the CURIE, so whether it died in the explosion or escaped is unknown.

Proxies

The basic servants of the WAU's will, Proxies are human hosts overtaken by the Structure Gel to the point where their skin turns into a coral-like substance and they can only shamble around. Proxies are typically slow and blind, but have a heightened sense of hearing and are capable of extreme speed and force if threatened. Simon encounters them throughout Site Theta, where they have overrun the place under the guidance of their original spawner, Terry Akers.

Body Horror: The entire top halves of their bodies have disappeared into a twisted mass of Structure Gel and artificial coral.
The Corruption: Proxies are basically living embodiments of the Structure Gel corruption that cakes PATHOS-II's every corner.
Lotus-Eater Machine: If Simon's brief experience after Akers catches him is anything to go by, the human hosts may be trapped in these.
Mook: All of the enemies Simon encounters technically count as "Proxies" due to being tools of the WAU's influence, but the Theta creatures are the absolute most basic form of the concept, the most common, and the least threatening.
Was Once a Man: They all used to be fully human before Akers got to them.

Terry Akers

See Delta Staff.

The Robot Girl

The corpse of a young woman who died at Site Omicron, repurposed with mechanical parts to be mobile and apparently retaining some level of awareness. She reacts to motion and sound within her proximity, and if agitated enough will give chase and subdue Simon before returning to a passive state. Simon encounters her while scavenging for pressure suit repair parts throughout Omicron, and is later chased by her down the hallway to the dive chamber before Catherine locks her out.

And I Must Scream: The fact that she's constantly crying and will tell Simon not to come any closer if he approaches means that she retains some level of cognizance about her situation, and is constantly in excruciating pain.
Artificial Limbs: Has several, including a mechanical claw in place of a hand.
Berserk Button: She usually stands in one place and cries. Don't disturb her.
Body Horror: Her decomposing body is held together with bits of painful-looking machinery and structure gel. Her head is apparently not attached to her body, and held in place by a neon tube that goes through her neck and jaw.
Expy: She shares her behavior and visual similarities with the Witch, and certain aspects are also reminiscent of the Comms Officer.
It Can Think: Enough to speak intelligently and run away from Simon after subduing him.
Leave Me Alone!: Tells Simon to get away from her if he approaches. If he agitates her sufficiently, she will knock him out and move somewhere else. It is unclear if this is because she fears that the WAU will force her to attack Simon, or if because she is genuinely angered and wants to be left alone.
Mood-Swinger: She goes from sad and weeping to enraged and screaming at the drop of a hat.
Screaming Warrior: She screams as she goes after Simon.
Superior Successor: If the Proxies, mindless monsters, are meant to be the WAU's first attempts at trying to preserve humans, then it can be surmised that the Robot Girl is an improvement over them. "Improved" in that she retains her sentience and is aware of her horrible situation.
The Undead: Literally just a corpse attached to several prosthetics. In fact, the disappearance of another female body as Simon backtracks through Omicron — shortly before he is chased back to the diving chamber unprovoked — may imply that the WAU is using this process on multiple female corpses.
Unstoppable Rage: If she is agitated to the point of coming after Simon, it is impossible to placate her again and very difficult to trap. There are only two options: flee or let her knock him unconscious. When Simon outruns her for the last time and locks her out of the dive chamber, she spends almost twenty seconds furiously trying to beat the door down before stalking away.

Viperfish

A huge shoal of predatory fish mutated by Structure Gel. They reside in the abyss, and are the first mutated oceanic life forms Simon encounters. During Simon's trek to Site Tau, a strong geothermal current "storm" blows the shoal his way, and they continue to make frequent passes at him, forcing him to stay in light to ward them off.

Darkness Equals Death: If Simon stands out in the darkness when they appear rather than near a light post, he will be eaten alive.
Death of a Thousand Cuts: Their individual attacks do significantly less damage than other enemies', and Simon can withstand a few strikes and be fine. However, their speed and persistence mean that the damage can stack up quickly.
The Swarm: They attack as one, forming a swirling cloud of fish.
Weakened by the Light: Being abyss-dwelling creatures by nature, they are more accustomed to darkness and are mostly driven away if Simon is standing in a strong light source.

The Anglerfish

A massive, grotesquely mutated anglerfish residing in the abyss. It moves slowly most of the time, if it even moves at all, but if alerted it will swim with surprising speed and devour Simon instantly. Simon encounters it after leaving the spider-infested caves, where it lies in wait, disguising its light as one of the path markers.

The Dreaded: Many consider it the most terrifying enemy in the game.
Foreshadowing: A lot of time is spent building up to its appearance, from mentions of its predatory tactics in PATHOS-II logs to a marine life observation log on its species that is corrupted and unreadable for unexplained reasons.
Jump Scare: If the player wanders toward its light without expecting it, its face looming out of the darkness — and a subsequent attack — is this.
Light Is Not Good: Since the entire "Path to Tau" segment consists of racing toward distant lights in the darkness, and its lure is placed directly in front of the cave exit, it's tempting to sprint right into its waiting maw.
Lightning Bruiser: Usually moves slowly, but it can veer into this territory without warning, zooming at Simon at the speed of any other enemy.
Luring in Prey: It disguises its lure as one of the markers Simon has to follow to get to Tau, when the actual marker is a chemical light around a corner.
Nightmare Face: Not only is its gnarled maw terrifying, but looking closely at its model reveals that it has an enormous, bloated and blackened human face fused into the side of its head. There is no explanation given for this.

Jin Yoshida

See Tau Staff.

The Leviathan

The WAU's most powerful and titanic creation, a Giant Squid of colossal proportions that patrols the deep and directly acts under its will. Simon encounters it multiple times throughout his trek on the sea floor, finally engaging in a cat-and-mouse chase with it on the path to Site Phi.

Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: It is the largest enemy, significantly dwarfing Simon and looming over him throughout the final chase sequence.
The Dragon: It is directly controlled by the WAU to an even greater degree than the other Proxies, and it acts as its influencing hand in the deepest sections of PATHOS-II. It also has the role of protecting the WAU, as seen when it bursts into Site Alpha to devour Johan Ross and chases Simon all the way to Site Phi, whether the WAU's heart was poisoned or not.
Final Boss: The last creature encountered in the game, providing the final stealth/chase sequence and acting as the logical culmination of the WAU's mutations.
Giant Squid: An already large squid pumped full of Structure Gel and mutated to the size of a large submarine.
It Can Think: It is intelligent enough to destroy Simon's guiding drone in an attempt to strand him on the bottom of the sea floor, and later, when it hunts Simon across the path to Site Phi, it showcases both knowledge of where he's headed and the ability to drag him out of his hiding places..
Kraken and Leviathan: While it is a Giant Squid, it is so mutated that it combines elements of both.
One-Hit Kill: Bizarrely subverted. Despite being the largest enemy in the game and the Final Boss, getting attacked by it in the final chase sequence only deals a small amount of damage and moves Simon back to the center of the path.
Sea Monster: The biggest sea creature in the game; it is large enough to dwarf some of the game's smaller buildings.

Characters / SOMA

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Simon Jarrett

David Munshi

Ashley Hall

Jesse

Catherine Chun

Sarah Lindwall

John Strohmeier

Peter Strasky

Emma Alvaro

Richard Thabo

Nadine Masters

Robin Bass

Alice Koster

Nicolai Ivanshkin

Ian Pedersen

Imogen Reed

Adam Golaski

Vanessa Hart

Dorian Cronstedt

Martin Fisher

Baxter Rogers

Jessica Davis

Richard Holland

Terry Akers

Brandon Wan

Raleigh Herber

Maggie Komorebi

Shawn Evans

Carl Semken

Amy Azzaro

Vigdis 'Jonsy' Jonsdottir

Antjie Coetzee

Steve Glasser

Jin Yoshida

Mark Sarang

Julia Dahl

Johan Ross

The Warden Unit (WAU)

The Construct

Scavengers

The Flesher/Jiangshi

Proxies

Terry Akers

The Robot Girl

Viperfish

The Anglerfish

Jin Yoshida

The Leviathan

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