Headscratchers / Resident Evil Village

As a Headscratchers page, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

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Bela, Cassandra, and Daniela's powers

• These three are clearly Pest Controllers. However, even though we don't have context yet^* Village hasn't been released at the time of posting this, the way they use their powers seems somewhat... mystical. There have been many strange things throughout the Resident Evil series, but ultimately, they were all a result of science. None of the various mutations bent the suspension of disbelief, thanks to how biological agents such as the G-Virus, Las Plagas, and the Mold work. So, why are those three are able to phase through solid surfaces, along with disassembling into bugs, then reassembling without losing their clothes?
  • As stated, the whole series is chock full of pseudo science being used to explain impossible things, most famously the G-virus' ability to create extra matter out of thin air (It's impossible to grow like that and gain mass). Without having the canon explanation^* Still not out as of this post, one possibility is that the Girls have mutated into a hivemind of insects that are capable of gathering together to fake the appearance of a clothed human female. This doesn't explain everything, but neither does "The Virus Mutates people and stimulates cell growth."
  • Notes found in the game confirm that they’re not turning into a swarm of insects but rather than the other way around. They’re actually a swarm could that can mimic the appearance of a person.
    • In fairness, this is the third time something like this has appeared in the games, after the "Mimicry Marcus" in RE0 and the bug dudes in RE6. It might just be the first time that it's been done to someone entirely on purpose.

Mia's Status

• So, they explain that Ethan was a Mold person after since Jack killed him the first time at the Baker estate. However, Mia herself was killed, by Ethan no less, and yet this game treats her as being a normal Mold-free human being unlike Ethan.
  • Mia took the serum at the end of 7, so that may have been why.
  • In Mia and Ethan's house, you can find medication — which is expressly said to be Mia's that she's been taking "since the incident". Ergo, Mia is like Ethan, but takes medication, probably provided by Umbrella, to control it.
  • If you’re referring to the scenario where you give Zoe the serum and Mia disintegrates, that ending was established as non-canon by 7's "End of Zoe" DLC.
  • Mia's medication could also very well be for the treatment of mental health issues stemming from the traumatic experiences she's had since the ship sinking as well, so it's still unconfirmed if she's infected.
  • The difference is the order of their infection. Mia was infected first, and thus never killed as the Mold kept her alive. Ethan was killed, then infected by the Mold and brought back to life.
  • Mia had fairly severe injuries, but she wasn't actually killed. Ethan had his head stomped on, causing instant death.

Ethan’s Status

• Given the above with Mia taking medication, why does Ethan never do so? The medication is apparently only for Mia and Ethan never seems to question his infected state both in this game and the last. Why wouldn’t he do the same as Mia?
  • Having just finished the story, it seems the Mold was the only thing keeping Ethan alive. Mia did take a lot of damage in 7, but this was after she was infected. It's possible Ethan was killed before getting infected, then later infected by the Mold which revived him. While Mia took a beating, the Mold was able to heal her, and when purged of the Mold, she just went back to her previous, normal self.
    • This was probably the intended takeaway: Ethan died straight away and got back up, thanks to some combination of Zoe putting his pieces together and pure willpower, while Mia got to stew in the mold for three years.

The geographical irony of Castle Dimitrescu

• Why the hell do Alcina and her daughters live in the snowy mountains if cold air has fatal effects on them? That sounds very counterproductive. If they lived there prior to their mutations, why wouldn't Mother Miranda just think to relocate them to a place where they aren't readily at risk of being exposed to their weakness?
  • Given Miranda has 1) a vested interest in keeping her and the other Lords in the village and 2) little regard for Lady Dimitrescu as a person, it's likely Miranda just told her to suck it up.
  • Lady D herself has no problem with cold temperatures. Her «daughters » have such a weakness, but ultimately they’re the results of a pet project that Miranda had little to no input on.

What's the actual legal status of Chris’s operations?

• Considering you already have the BSAA and America's equivalent of the former. Where do Chris’s operations fall in the grand legal scheme of things? And who does Blue Umbrella answer to politically? Is this all extrajudicial?
  • Probably either that, or they're a PMC. Basically, they'd do an investigation, apply for a warrant for military intervention, either from the UN, or from the country in question, and then go do some stuff. If it's extra-judicial, they would get away with it because they're a 'crisis' squad. They only come in when everyone is already dead. (it's unlikely that BOW infectees have rights...As Sherry rather proves)
    • Not a Hero seems to specifically establish Blue Umbrella as a PMC. There's also a note in the Baker Family Report, a file that's exclusive to one of the deluxe editions of RE8, that says Chris's team in RE8 went rogue with him to continue pursuing Miranda.
    • If indeed they did go Rogue, who's funding Chris's group? That's a lot of resources they're using to go after Miranda. Did they, *ahem* "borrow" assets from Blue Umbrella?
    • Maybe they didn’t need to borrow assets from Blue Umbrella so much as it was willingly offered. RE7 made it look like BU had funds and materials but lacked good leadership. At the same time, the BSAA has been stewing in corruption for more than a decade. Perhaps Chris saw an opportunity to do things his way, and keep things under control this time. Remember that despite being a founding member of the BSAA, he had very little say in how operations were handled.
    • The Baker Family Report from the deluxe edition suggests that Chris is still drawing on the BSAA; he's just not supposed to be doing what he's doing.
    • So is Chris still with BSAA while moonlighting with Blue Umbrella, vice-versa....or?
    • That hasn't been made clear yet. What little is known about Hound Wolf in general comes from fans translating the handwritten notes on the concept art. It's all setting up a future story arc, although the way they're speaking in Chris's chapter suggests that they at least don't regard themselves as being in the BSAA.
    • The Baker Report does mention that Chris at least took over command of HW before RE 8 and the BSAA command hating him for it.
    • The Baker Family Report indicates that he's under direct investigation by his superiors. While he is still officially part of the BSAA and is using BSAA personnel and resources, his pursuit of Miranda is completely unsanctioned.

The Ceremony

• Why does Miranda give each of the Lords one of the vials containing a part of Rose? She doesn’t appear to want them there for sentimental reasons. She doesn’t hold any of them in high regard, (and at least Moreau and Heisenberg show they are aware she will replace them after the ceremony) and we see later they are totally unnecessary for the ceremony to take place. Couldn’t she just hold on to all four herself, and not risk them losing or destroying the vessels?
  • She did that solely so Ethan would come after them and dispose of the Lords on her behalf. No other reason. That's the reason Moreau is so sad and resigned when it's his turn and he gets to speak with Ethan one last time before he loses control of himself again. It's also why Heisenberg makes his offer to Ethan; he knew exactly what Miranda was up to with the "ceremony" business and said "Fuck that."
    • I get that's the reason, but it's a very sketchy one. Given her power she easily could have done it herself, and there were much better ways to situate Ethan to get the job done even if she was that lazy. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if in earlier iterations of the game, her plans for Ethan were different and she really did intend on using him as more than just a means of disposing her no longer needed lords.

Ethan’s Willpower

• Going off the reveal that Ethan was dead ever since Jack stomped him in the face at the beginning of 7, and everything after that was just a combination of the Mold and his own willpower to save his wife, why didn’t Ethan die after he knew that Mia was safe at the end of the game? This was before Rose was even conceived, and as far as Ethan knew, Mia was safe and there was nothing more to fight for, so why did he stay alive for four more years if he was running off the willpower to save Mia alone?
  • There's a lot of room for interpretation here, but he's not strictly driven by willpower until the climax of 8. It's the Mold that enables him to recover from injuries that should've at least crippled him. Miranda's mistake is in taunting Ethan before she tears his heart out, which is where the sheer never-say-die willpower kicks in.

The Dagger of Death's Poison?

• With the stunning ability of just that dagger to penetrate and affect Lady Dimitrescu, just WHAT kinds of poison were coating that blade? If Ethan hadn't dropped it, would it have been able to take on other Mold-based BOWs?
  • There is a File you can find that mentions the dagger was coated in poisons from around the globe, and was designed to kill demons. Theoretically, it could kill the other BOWs. However, the other BOWs went down with more mundane means, so it wasn't really needed.

Chris’s lack of foresight

• There's one issue that really breaks the suspension of disbelief. All of the events of the game could have been easily averted if Chris thought “Ya know what, looking like a very convincing corpse is something the dumbest T-virus zombie could do. Just to be safe and because Miranda is a frickin shapeshifter, I’m going to dump ALL THE THERMITE on her “corpse” and light up a funeral pyre that can be seen from Neptune.”
  • They talk about this late in the game at the start of Chris's playable segment. It may not come across in the cutscene, but they ganked the hell out of Miranda-as-Mia; she got dropped by a burst from outside the building, then quintuple-tapped in the head at contact range. It was the best they could do with the time they had to set up the operation, particularly considering they're technically a rogue unit at the time.
    • In any other medium or verse, that would make sense. In RE, that just some tickles. There are some mooks in past RE games that can easily handle the kind of firepower thrown at Not-Mia and still come back without problems. Wesker had an RPG explode inches from his face and it didn’t even mess up his haircut.
    • In fairness, most of the monsters in RE's history who could survive that kind of ballistic trauma were also giant mutants who couldn't pass for human. Something like this might not have killed Wesker, but it would've at least ruined his day. Chris made a call and went with the highest amount of direct force he had available to him at the time, but unfortunately, it wasn't enough.
    • Plus: What was the alternative? Not much is seen of the outside, but it's unlikely the Winters' were living in isolation away from society. Every "the only way to be sure" solution to the major bio-weapons shown before has involved enough explosives to, at least, level a city block, and they probably can't get permission to, or simply couldn't morally justify, doing that in a populated area... even if they had the time and resources to do it.
  • Also, they weren't dealing with "T" here, but something else entirely. Also, Chris wasn't around to see the possum-playing zombies in Racoon City (Leon and Claire were) so he wouldn't know that aspect of the T-victims either.
    • Zombies played dead in the first game as well, actually. And even if they weren't, it's doubtful that Chris wouldn't have been informed about it, since it's his job to fight this kind of thing, he's gotta be prepared for the unexpected.
    • It’s even worse when you remember that Chris very likely has fought Crimson Heads back in the Spencer Mansion, and that Wesker was his arch-enemy for a decade. Meaning that he should be extremely aware that just because it kinda looks dead doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous, and just because it looks human doesn’t mean it can’t survive a gunshot to the face.
  • Complete speculation here, but there's one particular photo where Chris's team is dragging Miranda's body out of Ethan's house. It could have been that they were bringing her somewhere safer to properly dispose of her, but Miranda took the opportunity to break out and destroy what was presumably the convoy holding herself and Rose (and possibly Ethan) while everyone was split up in trucks. Of course, that only raises the question of why wasn't the entire site torched if it was a possible biohazard...
    • As noted above, Chris' team is performing an off-the-books rogue operation. They have the resources for some reason, but likely not the manpower to lock down the area. Additionally, it's possible that the Winters live in a community of some sort. Going to town on the Village is one thing. Everyone they could save is already dead and the situation is going down the can, high explosives and safeties off is fine. Going Bolshevik Muppet on the Winters' house could be an act of terrorism.
  • It's possible and even likely that the reason they didn't hit the Winters household with a lot more firepower is because of Ethan and Rose. Remember, Hound Wolf squad feared Ethan might've been infected but they didn't know that. We also know for a fact that Chris, at the very least, cared for the Winters, so he would've wanted to avoid harming them as much as possible. They subdued Miranda as best they could in the circumstances and then, most likely, were taking her to a place where they could kill her properly. Unfortunately, she wasn't as subdued as they thought.
    • That's a very solid point. Rewatching the scene where Mia gets shot, it's a very targeted and precise brand of overkill, and they're careful to avoid coming anywhere near Ethan. They're being as thorough as they can while also being mindful of the potential for civilian casualties, which speaks volumes to Hound Wolf's professionalism but also doesn't turn out to be enough gun for the job.
    • Also, think about what would happen if Chris did try to incinerate her on-site. She wouldn't continue playing dead once she saw what they were doing, she'd put up a fight. He probably figured letting her play dead until they could get the civilians away from the battle-zone was a better play than fighting her with Ethan and Rose right there in the crossfire.
    • Then again, Chris admits being surprised that Miranda could mimic a corpse. He probably honestly thought the 5 handguns bullets to the head were going to finish her off after the initial barrage. This is still surprising coming from someone whose sheer experience in fighting unholy abominations should only be exceeded by Geralt of Rivia.
    • Maybe that depends on what exactly 'mimic a corpse' means. Obviously, there have been creatures throughout the series who can play dead, but possibly only because the characters didn't have time to check the bodies for vital signs. Indeed, the fact that players in REmake 2 and REmake 3 can call zombies' bluffs by shooting them and make them get up suggests that. Miranda, on the other hand, is a shapeshifter, so if she could actually modify her own form enough that she gives out no vital signs, even if checked, it could explain why Hound Wolf squad were so blindsided. Have there been any other similar creatures in the series who could/should have served as a prior warning for these characters?
    • I rewatched the part where you play as Chris, and he never says he was surprised by Miranda playing dead. He says that "yesterday we took down Miranda, but we didn't kill her." One of his soldiers replies with the line about "who knew she could fake being a corpse" and Chris just makes an amused grunt before moving on. So it's still unclear whether Chris suspected or not.
  • It's possible that the reason Chris and Hound Wolf Squad were so blindsided by Miranda's survival is that they used the mould-killing RAMRODs from Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. After riddling a Mold-based B.O.W. with a type of ammo explicitly designed to kill other B.O.W.s of its kind, it's reasonable, if not prudent, to assume the job was done. HWS's guns being loaded with RAMRODs would also neatly explain why Chris's weapons are so much more effective against the Lycans when compared to Ethan's, after all, Ethan is using standard ammunition.

Ethan’s resistance to Eveline in retrospect

This is more of a headscratcher for the previous game that retroactively came up after Village, but how does Eveline’s mind control apply to a Revenant Zombie like Ethan? Previously, it was presumably due to Ethan still being in the early stages of his infection as opposed to the three years the Bakers had, but with the reveal that Jack accidentally killed him when he knocked him out at the beginning and that Ethan was infected with the Mold after he died, how was Ethan able to resist the Hive Queen’s control when he was basically a human Molded with a body made of fungus? His infection might be an anomaly compared to the others, so would the gradual stages of the infection (initial for Zoe, mid-stage for Mia, and complete infection for Jack and Marguerite) apply to him at all?

• The game implies Ethan's unique brand of control has to do with a lot of Heroic Willpower. Not the best explanation out there, but it's probably the best that fans will get.
• Because Eveline really wanted Ethan to be the "Father" of her "Family", and a base-Molded would not do, so she kept him as he was and didn't intended to hijack him in order to get the "Family" she wanted for as long as her decaying body and dementia-ridden mind could allow (she had after all, less than a year left to live once he arrived there that night). And since the Mold is basically operating on Clap Your Hands If You Believe, he would only be "Father" if she allowed him to be "Ethan Winters" with minimum influence on her part. It was only when he went after her directly that she realized that she needed to fight back and failed to realize how powerful the man's "imagination/self-image" really was once she tried to rein him in.

Mia's true "can't tell Ethan" secret, why it was kept secret, and how nobody else found out

It's mentioned Rose was being tested for Mold infection, and it's even misdirectively implied with the phone call flashback and House Beneviento that Mia learned Rose was infected and that she had to keep it a secret. It's heavily implied by the end that the secret she had to hide from Ethan was actually the fact that he was infected, since she reveals she knows at the end of the game. So A. Why did BSAA not do any kind of testing on Ethan, who should have been assumed to be highly susceptible to infection in Dulvey, and B. How did Mia find out when nobody else did and why wouldn't she let anybody know?

• To point A, considering what the BSAA have turned into, it's not an entirely safe assumption that they didn't test him, rather than simply keeping that information to themselves and away from Chris and Ethan — remember, they wanted the Megamycete, so they were definitely interested in having the Mold for themselves and Ethan might be one of the most successful B.O.W.s based on it, however unintentionally. As for point B, Mia could have noticed signs of infection without any tests, being more familiar with Mold infection than the other characters in the game via her work for The Connections — in fact, the flashback early in the game, after Hound Wolf squad attack the Winters household, could even indicate that, as she's expressing concern for Ethan rather than Rose even though it's Rose who's being tested, not Ethan. Alternatively, she did sneak some tests on Ethan, perhaps by using some of her Connections contacts. We'll probably only get more answers with the next game, though, or in DLC for Village.

The location of Heisenberg's factory

So, other than video game logic, why is the bridge that leads to Heisenberg's factory connected to activating the Giant's Chalice? It doesn't seem to be located anywhere important when it comes to the village's history (as opposed to the Stronghold, for example) and it certainly isn't related to Miranda's ceremony and the Rose flasks.

• There probably was something built there in the past, but Heisenberg just decided to be an ass to culture/history and built his factory on top of whatever was there instead, using the original structure as foundation.
  • Let's be honest, video game logic is the only explanation we get for most of the architectural decisions in this series.

Revealing Company Secrets

• Given the lengths that Spencer went to keep the Umbrella Africa Facility a secret (i.e. killing every employee that either worked there or had a high enough security clearance to know about it), why would he tell Mother Miranda about it?
  • Because he knew for a fact that Miranda would never leave the tiny dot on the map that she called "home" (the village and the creature that slept beneath it) so he felt confident enough that she would keep anything he said a secret.
  • Also, the letter in Village predates the construction of Umbrella's Africa facility, since Spencer wrote it before he co-founded Umbrella.

How historical are certain parts of the village — what did Miranda introduce?

• The fact that the flasks and Giant's Chalice exist as pieces of the ritual suggests that it's been something that's taken place many times before, each as a failure... however, the Giant's Chalice and flasks don't actually seem to do anything since Miranda could theoretically just kill Rose, cover her in goop, and dredge her back up without the pedestal or separation. Furthermore, Spencer taking the Umbrella logo from sites like the Giant's Chalice seemingly confirms it was around before Miranda's loss and infection and plan. But then there's the crests of the four Houses, which were at least partially brought into the village and established by Miranda (Dimitrescu is said to have taken up residence after being brought in from elsewhere)...so what's the history here? Did the Giant's Chalice exist for some ritual that Miranda co-opted into her own? Did the architecture and emblems pertaining to the Houses come in after Miranda's transformation? There's an odd mix between ancient and post-Miranda being suggested, but it's confusing.
  • It’s implied that the village is what remain of a kingdom from the early medieval era. It was founded by four kings, and those kings had knowledge of the Megamycete. The giant chalice is a device they created to either control or suppress the mold colony under the village. The Village of Shadows book is apparently a known local folktale. The implication is that Miranda build a fake religion out of local legends, stuff like having Four Lords when there was four kings, to keep the villagers under control.

The House With The Red Chimney

• It's a decidedly minor detail in the overall picture, but it's one of those "I've noticed and now I can't un-notice" kind of things: What, exactly, is that chimney connected to? You see smoke drifting from it, but if you go to the corresponding area of the house where it should be, there's no fireplace or kiln providing a source for the smoke. There are two stoves in the house with piping going into the ceiling that may be routed to vent out through the chimney, but both of them are obviously unlit.

Who did the Duke want Ethan to meet in the red chimney house?

The Duke tells Ethan that there's someone he wants him to meet at the house, but Ethan only finds the key and goes back to the Duke for more information. Who was supposed to be there, and what did the Duke expect Ethan to learn?

• Fairly certain that the Duke just wanted Ethan to find the next part of the winged key and the instructions for assembling it.
  • He does specify to find the man who lives there, though, and while you do find a corpse inside, it's clearly a dead woman. Best guess is he either had already died or was turned into a Lycan (perhaps even the one in there savaging the corpse), and The Duke was just optimistic about the guy still being okay.
  • Or maybe he was just being a smart-arse. It's the Duke. Technically, Ethan did find the man who lived in the house... Just as a Lycan. Far more importantly, he found the key.

Why were the villagers worshipping Mother Miranda?

Were they just brainwashed? They all seemed to believe she was protecting them from, presumably, the Lycans and the zombies... which she created in the first place. Also, the notebooks of the Four Lords imply that they regularly took villagers captive to perform experiments on them. It seems weird how the villagers never mention the Four Lords at all. And most curious of all, why does Miranda help you in the guise of the old hag?

• Miranda helps Ethan as the Hag because she's trying to bait him into killing the Four Lords. As for why the villagers worship Miranda, we know the village was almost entirely cut off from the rest of the world. Presumably, Miranda was just very good at deceiving them into worshipping her so she'd have a steady stream of lab rats. And Elena does mention how Castle Dimitrescu is full of "nothing but blood and death", even if there's not much mention of the Lords anywhere else.
• Miranda is a Villain with Good Publicity who has succeeded in keeping her responsibility for the monsters unknown to the villagers. The credits show a plague doctor treating people who sometimes turn into Lycans, so even if they're not literal, it can be assumed that Miranda performed her experiments in a similar disguise and that nobody able to blow her cover survived to tell the tale.
• Miranda herself is over a century old and isolates the village from outsiders (which is why most of the villagers were so wary of Ethan at first), so it's possible the isolated town saw her as a divine protector whose outlived them for generations. The reason why the Four Lords aren't mentioned could be that the villagers are completely unaware that Miranda is involved with them and just see them as boogeymen to be wary of. They seem aware that handmaids who go to Castle Dimitrescu don't come back, so they probably know that the Lords are dangerous but don't have an official idea of what they are exactly. After all, we never see the Lords leaving their homes to go to the village (Dimitrescu seems too proud, Beneviento is too shy, Moreau would stick out like a sore thumb, and Heisenberg doesn't have much reason other than getting corpses for his experiments).
  • We are also seeing the village in an especially rough time, where the Lycans are running around with the purpose of turning and killing every last villager. Perhaps the villagers were living peacefully, aside from Miranda's experiments, and all of the Lords' heinous acts were done in secret to avoid suspicion (Lady Dimitrescu only murdered her maids, Donna only killed her gardener in her home, and Moreau's and Heisenberg's experiments were done on kidnapped people and corpses, not out in public). Therefore, the villagers would have no reason to distrust Miranda or think there's anything innately supernatural about the Lords. Of course, once Miranda had Rose and was convinced she'd finally have her daughter back, she no longer needed the village and set out to annihilate everyone, and the Lords no longer had a reason to hide their true natures.

The Flasks

• Why do so many people have the impression that Rosemary was butchered and killed by Miranda? There's a note (Eugen's Diary) right next to the second piece of the Winged Key that explicitly says Miranda transformed baby Rose into crystal and painlessly divided up her inert parts among the Lords, explaining that the child could be returned to her normal state no matter what. It's a hard note to miss, and you find it minutes after the initial Gut Punch moment when Ethan learns what's really in that weird container he found, but I get the impression that not many other players actually read the whole thing to discover that it's not an infant's bloody, severed head inside the flask.
  • Probably because when you quarter someone, they tend to die. Not many people normally recover from decapitation.
    • Thus proving the point that too many players never actually paid attention to what the diary says. Not even when it's paraphrased right in front of them, evidently.
  • Admittedly, upon seeing the flask I wondered how it could contain the severed head of Rose: it looks too narrow.

How was Rose conceived?

• Due to the reveal that Ethan's been a Revenant Zombie due to the Mold since the opening of RE 7, how exactly were Mia and Ethan able to conceive a child? Does the fungus mimic human DNA so well that it can also mimic human reproduction?
  • Yes. Simple as that. How do you think babies are made? It's basically a bunch of cells dividing into a lump of cells which becomes a living organism. The Mold is doing exactly the same thing, but on a much larger scale. Making a baby? Easy.

The Giant's Chalice and the Umbrella logo

• Umbrella Corp's logo was based on the symbol found on the Giant's Chalice, which an in-game document says predated Miranda by centuries. And another document said something about the Chalice being used to regulate/control the Megamycete. Is this explained somewhere else in the game, in another game, or tie-in material? Or is this a Sequel Hook for adding Precursors to future games?
  • The last point. Seems to be hinting towards a potential prequel to the series as a whole. All of this information is new to the series.

Heisenberg not being brainwashed like the other Lords

• I'm rather confused about how Heisenberg isn’t under Miranda's control like the other Lords, who are clearly brainwashed.
  • I'm not sure where you've gotten the impression that the other Lords are brainwashed, they're just victims of regular old psychological manipulation. As for why he isn't as devoted, it might have to do with the fact that he was taken in his childhood, or it's just his general difference in personality.

The Monster in the Lake

• Having watched the part of the game revolving around Moreau's artificial lake, now I'm having a doubt: are we 100% sure that the giant monster fish is Moreau's transformed form? Considering the Duke's words and the fact that the still humanoid Moreau appears before Ethan after the appearance of the giant fish (is first seen swimming near the surface and later ramming into Chris' base of operations), what if Moreau and the giant fish monster are actually two different entities, with Moreau mutating as he's ingested by the giant fish and resulting in a Fusion Dance? True, Moreau could have simply turned briefly back from fish to fishman, but given the extent of the transformation I'm hard pressed to think that Salvatore just shed that giant fish body for a moment and mutated back.
  • If that's not Moreau, it sure does sound a lot like him.
  • And why not, there are four extremely-similar mutants already (the Urias brothers).
  • We know from Lady D that the Lords can transform into huge monstrous forms and back (she says no-one has ever seen her in this form and lived, showing it's not a permanent change), and notes indicate that Moreau doesn't have control over his transformation so him frequently shifting into fish form and back isn't that surprising.

How did the Village survive Nicolae Ceaușescu?

• Given that between the troubled history of Romania, especially in 20th century, how did the Village survive events like WW2 and Ceaușescu's regime? The war would have been fought everywhere in the country and the Socialist Republic of Romania had a very authoritarian regime, with the Securitate being one of the harshest secret police in the world and with Ceaușescu's rural policy, would have been bad news from Miranda and the 4 Lords that would have likely stripped them of their nobility status, property and in worst case, unleashed military power.
  • Maybe enough soldiers got killed off by Lycans (or turned into them) that anyone who tried to invade eventually gave up.
  • Or just good old fashioned corruption. Miranda has more than enough resources to bribe local officials to look the other way, or even better, impersonate the local officials and give false reports to the government that everything is okay.

Ethan and Mia living close to Miranda's village

• The Baker Incident Files state the BSAA disappeared Ethan and Mia to "a lovely country in eastern Europe" for their protection. How out of anywhere in the world were they placed so close to Miranda's village, within driving distance? Did Chris specifically transport Ethan over to the village after shooting not-Mia? Why would he do that unless he wanted Ethan to participate in dealing with the cult? Were they placed there to bait out Miranda? Is it just an unlucky coincidence?
  • It may be easiest to attribute all the attached coincidences from the Winters' new home to Miranda herself. She's a genius shapeshifter with extensive criminal ties who's approaching endgame on her century-long quest. Briefly slipping into the BSAA command or logistics element to ensure the Winters' safehouse is in Romania wouldn't be difficult given her established capabilities, particularly if the BSAA is so far gone that it's using bioweapons to fight bioweapons.

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