WMG / Red Vs Blue Season Fifteen

This is the Wild Mass Guessing page for the fifteenth season of Red vs. Blue.

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The Prologue of Season 15 will be subject to a Once More, with Clarity

It'll be shown that the Blood Gulch Crew's actions aren't as heartless as they seem, a series of factors just lead to it looking like that to the unknowing eye:

• 1: The civilian-run supply depot that they bombed in the prologue? There were actually very few civilians there at all; the place was 95% greedy scumbags who deserved to die, and 5% innocent bystanders who the Reds and Blues, in true BGC fashion, completely forgot about.
• 2: The whole "leave no survivors" thing? They actually intend to spare some people, but it ends up escalating out of control to the point where everyone there dies as a result of a miscalculation or self-defense. For instance, the bombs that take out a good chunk of the depot's workers; notice that Caboose sets at least one of the bombs, and he's known for accidentally killing people he doesn't intend to.
  • Also, the man who Sarge guns down when he tries to kill "Church"? "Church" was fully prepared to defend himself non-lethally, only for Sarge to shoot the man out of reflex.
• 3: The fact that they are completely silent and have a completely different demeanor? They aren't and they don't; they're using special helmets that filter out their voices to everyone but each other, and they are, in fact, no different from how they were at the end of Season 13.
• 4 "Church" coming back wrong and not being fazed by being splattered with blood? That's actually Wash, disguised as the long-dead Church to avoid being linked with the "crimes". He didn't react during the blood-splattering incident because he's used to it; hell, he once cut his own hand open to use his blood as a camouflage exposer! As for the real Church... well, he's still dead.
  • Confirmation status: Jossed. The real Reds and Blues have been away on vacation on a moon Kimball set them up with. The attack was made by imposters.

Change will be an important theme in Season 15.

Looking at the first two episodes, changes have happened all over the place. The Reds and Blues have changed from bumbling heroes to merciless criminals. In-between episodes, Dylan's cameraman changed. Sister changed into a fairly competent businesswoman. Vic may or may not have changed into a suicidal lunatic. Even the show changed which characters we're following. As the show goes on, we'll see how other past characters and locations have changed over time, and the theme of change will factor in a number of other ways too.

• According to Joe Nicolosi in an Afterbuzz interview, the major theme of the season is actions having consequences.

The Reds and Blues who attacked the base in S15 Episode 1 are fake

This theory has been making rounds around the community recently, and it seems plausible. Church coming back, Tucker not using his energy sword, Caboose not talking at all, and actually being a competent, silent, stealthy person. It all seems so suspicious.

• Another possible theory is that the Reds and Blues are being controlled by the AI fragments formed after Epsilon's death.
• Confirmation status: Confirmed for the fakes.

The fake Reds and Blues are former Freelancers.

According to Dylan, a majority of the Freelancers either went KIA or MIA around the time the fake Reds and Blues started their crime spree. Most likely, this is more than just a throwaway line and is important to the story. The official reports could just be covering up the fact that these missing agents are the ones posing as the Reds and Blues. It would explain why the imposters are such competent killers, and "Church's" helmet coming from Freelancer. As for why she says it was a majority of the Freelancers when there's not that many people in the group, maybe some of them are on standby. If one of the imposters gets killed in battle, another agent would only have to put their armor on to take their place.

• Confirmation Status: Jossed, turns out they're fellow Sim Troopers.

The identity of the FOTUS Soldier is...

• Felix
  • Unlikely, as Locus was able to activate his energy sword. Said sword is keyed to its wielder until their death, which is why Felix couldn't use it until Doyle's death.
  • It's possible that Felix may have been dead only for a split second (this troper having seen countless instances where a person's heart stops for a short time before starting again, not to mmention the fact that the brain keeps operating after the body dies) at the exact moment Locus activated the sword (cos we've seen things happen at the smallest proabability). Plus, it's arguable that the sword isn't attuned to human anatomy, as it was created by an alien race.
    • Furthermore, this troper also hopes that Felix was brought back from the dead and reprogrammed by an external entity (becoming a Jeremiah Gottwald of some sort, explaining his search for Tucker).
  • Captain Flowers was dead, and he was brought back to life. By an alien, no less!
  • Grif's "foreshadowing" when he asks why nobody dies and stays dead could be hinting at a dead character coming back.
• Doyle
  • Highly unlikely, considering he was on ground zero of a massive nuclear explosion. Furthermore, as detailed above Felix wouldn't have been able to activate the energy sword unless Doyle was dead.
  • Again, an alien managed to revive Captain Flowers.
    • Flowers still had a body left to revive, at least. While Doyle's body was never found and so its condition was never verified, he was at the epicenter of a massive explosion.
• A new character
  • Maybe he's a robot created by aliens to fulfill another great prophecy. It would explain why he needs to find Tucker, and it could give a reason for a certain key-wielding former space mercenary to get involved in the plot.
• Siris/Mason Wu
• Wyoming
• Confirmation status: Confirmed for new character. He’s a process server named Spencer Porkensenson.

The unexplained reappearance of Church

• It's an act to lure the Reds and Blues.
  • To expand on this theory, Alpha-Church is still dead. The message the Reds and Blues saw is either doctored footage from a recording of Alpha-Church or is really Temple pretending to be Alpha. After all, the message Church left is vague, doesn't address anyone in particular and has a very glitchy voice. Since we now know that Temple is in the business of killing Freelancers, the message may have been meant as bait for Carolina and Washington, with the added bonus of killing those they care about. After all, Temple has no issues with killing the Reds and Blues, despite them being 'victims' of the project too.
• When the Director made the third Tex in Season 10, he had to have made a second Alpha that somehow wasn't destroyed.
• He somehow got backed up when interfacing with the alien tech in earlier seasons, and was presumably cured of his impending rampancy.
• In Season 14, Church is seen talking to another version of himself. That was Epsilon's memory of the original Alpha, before the torture. He split off from Epsilon and was recovered off-screen.
• Maybe AIs, like other things that can be shut down by an EMP, eventually turn back on. After Church's supposed sacrifice in Reconstruction, he came back as a near-fully reformed Alpha. Could also tie in with the second guess.
  • CONFIRMATION STATUS: Confirmed to be a lure.

Dylan's AI is actually Vic.

We don't see what she does with Vic in Episode 2. In Episode 3, she suddenly has an AI assistant. In Episode 6, she refuses to say who the AI is, but says that it's "very dumb." Let's face it: It's pretty obvious.

• Confirmation Status: Confirmed. She took Vic as her AI, and he agreed to grant her three "wishes" in exchange for her turning him off once he's helped her out three times.

Season 15 will be the final season.

I dunno, it just makes the most sense to me. New characters being introduced, the death of one cast member (who arguably had no role in any seasons after season 5 but eh,) the departure of one long-time cast member, and, well, I don't know about you all, but season 15 has a bit of an air of finality to the whole thing.

• If recent interviews with Joe Nicolosi are any indication, this doesn't seem to be the case.

The code names of the impostors

Now that we know the code names of the fake Church and Sarge, we can tell that there's a theme. Temple is another word for church, and Surge sounds a lot like Sarge. The rest of the crew will be named in a similar way. Some examples:

• Fake Caboose will be either Locomotive or Boxcar. Keeps the train theme going.
• Fake Grif will be Gruff. Specifically with two F's.
  • Or his name could be Hippo. One, because Grif is well-known for being fat, and two, their names combined would form Hippogrif (spelled wrong, but oh well).
• Fake Donut will be some other type of pastry or Coffee.

  • Confirmation Status: Confirmed for Locomotive for Caboose (Well, Loco instead of Locomotive but close enough.) There isn't a Grif impostor in the present day, but there used to be one called Biff. Confirmed for the pastry thing with regards to the Donut equivalent (Because a cronut is a kind of pastry). There's also Lorenzo (Lopez), Temple (Church), Bucky (Tucker) and Gene (Simmons).

Grif will end up being brainwashed or indoctrinated into serving the fake Reds and Blues eventually

I really have no reasoning for this but it would be a bit more tear-jerking (and, admittedly a bit cliche) to have a character who's been around since Day One decide to leave and get brainwashed into working with the bad guys. Maybe the fakes will kidnap Grif, force him to tell them things about the Reds and Blues, and maybe have Sarge lead a Big Damn Heroes quest to rescue him.

Simmons and Caboose will form an Odd Friendship due to seeing each other as Replacement Goldfish.

They've both lost their own best friends, and because of that, they'll gradually become best friends with each other. We saw a glimpse of a budding friendship between them in Episode 7, and later episodes will expand on it.

Temple is planning to assemble every living person involved with Project Freelancer to fight back.

During the conversation between the two groups, Temple says this: "We have a new strategy now, anyway: As-" He gets cut off when Surge informs him of the incoming enemies, but to me, it seems like he was about to say "assemble." From an in-universe perspective, their chances of surviving the UNSC's attacks are increased if they stick together and pool their resources, so it's a pretty good strategy. From a writer's perspective, it's a chance for some serious Fanservice. It's a chance to bring back some characters who've been Out of Focus, like Sister and Junior, and characters that fans have been dying to see again, like Georgia, 479er, and The Triplets. And it would give a reason for Grif and Doc to come back. Ultimately, it could end up being something of a Crisis Crossover, which fits with the "comic book approach" Joe Nicolosi is taking. It sounds far fetched, I know, but it's possible.

• Confirmation status: Semi-confirmed. Though Temple's trying to eradicate all the Freelancers, he has indeed been rounding up the remaining simulation troopers to fight the UNSC. He even says that every sim trooper besides the Blood Gulch Crew has joined their side, though only the zealots have been shown so far.

There will be a flashback episode based on just the adventures of the Blues and the Reds.

Either a pre-Chorus episode based on what the Blues and Reds did before Chorus and before the events of Season 15, or possibly a darker one involving the UNSC attacks the Blues and Reds told about. It would be kind of interesting to an episode of this type, an episode not told from the Blood Gulch Crew's or Dylan's perspective, but instead from the Blues and Reds' perspective.

• Confirmation status: Confirmed. "Blue vs Red" and "Blue vs Red - Part 2" tell the tale of the Blues and Reds back during the days of Project Freelancer.

The Blues and Reds, or at least Temple, really are the antagonists of the season

Temple was the one who created that message from Church to lure the Blood Gulch Crew and and get them to help. For one thing, none of the Blues and Red's displayed any of their similar traits to the BGC until after they met, hinting that it's just an act to get the BGC to trust them. The second reason is that Temple seems to be trying to get the BGC to turn against Dylan, as he was able to convince sarge that Dylan was hiding something. Temple also immediately began praising Tucker and brought up the possibility that Dylan already knew about Spencer and it was a trap. And last of all, Temple is our only source of information, anything he's ever said could easily be fabricated to make themselves sympathetic.

• Confirmation status: Confirmed. Temple is the one who has been going around killing the Freelancers.

Gene will attempt to replace Simmons

The Blues and Reds seem pretty sketchy, so it wouldn't be surprising if they had some sort of plot to get even more information on the Reds and Blues. Tucker has already confused Gene and Simmons before, so it'd be very easy to, oh I dunno, kidnap Simmons and pretend that Gene was the one to disappear instead. [[spoiler:However, the plan will fall apart once Grif returns and immediately realizes that Gene isn't Simmons.

• Confirmation status: Mostly Jossed. Gene doesn't actually attempt to replace Simmons, but there is one moment in episode 20 where he exploits their similarities to force a Spot the Imposter situation.

The true identity of Temple

Temple wants revenge against Project Freelancer, Carolina most of all, and claims that Carolina might've recognized him. Who could he be?

• A previously unseen Freelancer.
• Agent Florida using a voice filter. Plenty of people have noticed their similarities, after all.
• Carolina's brother.
• Agent Wyoming. Was every temporal clone back in Blood Gulch Chronicles, season 5 truly accounted for...?
• Agent Utah. This idea was tossed around a bit before Episode 8 gave us an idea of who the Blues and Reds are, and now it seems like a possibility again.
• The Demo Man from seasons 9 and 10. Being a former insurrectionist, and having encountered Carolina and Wash a few times, it seems reasonable that he would go after freelancers. He was also shown to have survived in a deleted scene from season 10.
• Private Jimmy, Not Quite Dead after all.
• Confirmation status: It turns out that he really is just another Sim Trooper. It's implied that he was helping his friend Biff get a medical discharge until Carolina showed up and killed him, unaware of what was going on.

Carolina and Wash are going to leave the Reds and Blues by season's end.

We had AI's Tex and Church depart, now its Freelancer couple Carolina and Wash. The Ship Tease, combined with Carolina wanting to move on, will see the two characters "retire" so that Tucker can step up as leader of the blue team and hero since he's been fulfilling the role more than Wash lately. They'll find the Church Alpha AI, who actually happens to be alive, and he'll be given to Tucker permanently since he'll have no connection to Carolina like Epsilon had. Dylan will likely stick around to fill in the void of "token female" amongst the Reds and Blues functioning as the "only sane one."

Temple will be defeated by Caboose

Temple will try to lock the Reds and Blues in armor lock like he did with the Freelancers, only for Caboose to No-Sell it because of his outdated armor not having armor lock.

• Confirmation status: Jossed. Though Caboose does in fact No-Sell the armor lock, he's in no position to actually do anything about it.

If Grif comes back, he'll be a Spanner in the Works

He'll point out that the BGC only knew the Blues and Reds for a few days, and yet believed their every word and were ready to attack the whole UNSC and shun Dylan based on their word alone, which also causes Tucker to realize that they haven't seen Wash and Carolina since they went on their "tour" with Temple, which will lead to Tucker confronting Temple.

• Confirmation status: Jossed. Tucker comes to this realization and confronts Temple before Grif even returns.

The Blues and Reds (except for Temple) will all eventually turn good

Temple seems to be the only one really committed to killing the Freelancers. Once they have the chance, the Blues and Reds will turn on Temple and assist the Reds and Blues in stopping him.

Dylan is messing with V.I.C.'s memory.

V.I.C. says that he'll give Dylan three "wishes" before she turns him off for good. However, Dylan has been shown to take extreme measures in her work as a reporter. An A.I. like V.I.C., especially considering his experience with the Reds and Blues, is an invaluable resource in her story. She used him once on Sidewinder and to track down Church's signal, yet claims it's the second time she asks for his help when trying to hack into Temple's computer. She is likely either messing with his memory or taking advantage of his failing memory because he's too useful a resource, though she'll turn him off once her story gets out.

Temple is a fragment of the Epsilon (or Alpha) AI

The other Blues and Reds are also A.I.s created by Temple and based on memories he has of the Reds and Blues. Since he's only an AI fragment, his memories of them are slightly tweaked, which is why Blues and Reds are similar to Reds and Blues, but differ in certain ways.

• If Doc is telling the truth, then the fact that the Blues and Reds came before the Reds and Blues makes this unlikely.
• Confirmation status: Most likely jossed. The backstory episode 12 shows that they were active in Desert Gulch a while back, and Temple and Biff (Grif's counterpart) were very close childhood friends, a relationship Church and Grif didn't exactly have that neither Epsilon or Alpha would be able to pass on.

The Season 14 prequels were not Retconned.

Episode 13 reveals that The team composition of the Blues and Reds were used as a basis for the teams that would be sent to Blood Gulch with Alpha. This seems like it goes against The Prequels, which established that Caboose and Donut were sent there by accident. There is a potential explanation for this, however: Captain Flowers found two people that match Loco and Cronut's profiles, but he decided they were unnecessary, maybe even counterintuitive, for the operation. Then, once Vic started malfunctioning, he mistakenly thought that Flowers forgot to send those people, and "fixed" it by making it so they'll show up if Flowers dies. Flowers would be proven right once Donut managed to get the blue flag, nearly ending the stalemate, and Caboose destroyed the Alpha's host body.

• While not an explicit confirmation, Miles says something similar in this Reddit AMA.
• Alternatively, the list from Season 14 was only a list of people meant to specifically replace Agent Florida, with Caboose and the rest on a separate list meant to fill the teams' ranks. Vic accidentally overwrote the former with the latter once he malfunctioned.
• Alternatively alternatively, Flowers originally couldn't find anyone who matches their profiles because Caboose and Donut started off very differently from Loco and Cronut. Whether on purpose or by coincidence, Vic picked the people who would be Flanderized into becoming identical to them.
• Even more alternatively, these could be hints that Temple's backstory is a great big lie. Keep in mind that it being true would also mean Doc had met Carolina before, which there was no indication of when they met in the series proper. Also that last part doesn't make much sense when we see the other outposts ranging from reasonably incompetent to the zealots. Not to mention that the only one who could corroborate his story is in armor lock, while Doc hasn't been present to hear him tell it (and doesn't mention anything about their orange guy).
  • Temple making the whole thing up doesn't make sense. The story involves the Director and Counselor, and since he never directly talks to or sees them in the story, he's presumably never met them. If Temple were making it up, he wouldn't have an understanding of how these two characters act, yet they act perfectly in-character. Plus, Temple whispering "Biff?" when he sees Grif is a clear indication that Biff was real, and Temple was close to him.

Locus will save the Reds and Blues.

The Reds and Blues (sans Sarge and Doc) have sent a torpedo with Lopez's head attached in the hopes that he'll send help. Considering it's Lopez, he's going to have a hard time explaining the situation to whoever he bumps into. Unless, of course, the one he bumps into just happens to be fluent in Spanish. It could be Sister, but while she's been shown to speak Spanish, Lopez said she was terrible at it, and who knows if she actually understands the language. Plus, it's hard to imagine someone as unskilled in combat as her mounting a rescue operation. Locus is far more likely because he's been shown to understand Lopez, and we know he's a great soldier. It turns what was originally a throwaway gag into a Chekhov's Skill. Also, seeing the two of them have a conversation entirely in Spanish could be pretty funny.

• Confirmation status: Confirmed!

Sarge and Jax' "movie" will be a Checkhov's Gun

Sarge's Glory Seeker tendencies will cause him to reconsider joining the Blues and Reds when Jax threatens to cancel their cinematic collaboration.

• Confirmation status: Jossed. Sarge comes around on his own after having a Heel Realization.

Tucker will try to convince Temple to pull a heel-face turn.

Both Temple and Tucker lost their best friends to project Freelancer, it's just Tucker has dealt with the loss a little less harshly than Temple did. So maybe Tucker will try to convince Temple that the Freelancers aren't all that bad.

Confirmation Status: Jossed. Temple doesn't give two shits about what happened to Church.

Washington did not get shot at the end of Episode 17...

...but instead it was actually a hologram that got shot to make a diversion.

• Confirmation status: Jossed. The next episode shows that it was Wash, and Locus gets him on his ship to take him to a hospital.

The Blues' and Reds' plan to drill through the entire Earth to get to the UNSC headquarters is an exaggeration.

The earth's super-hot mantle and core are impossible to drill through, barring some sort of ridiculous technology beyond Halo's capabilities. More likely:

• they'll start the tunnel closer to the UNSC headquarters, or
• they'll actually try to start at the assumed point, only to stop once they figure out that Earth isn't just a ball of solid rock.

The first is more logical, but the second is funnier and more in-character considering Temple is a grandiose lunatic and Loco is...Loco. Either they know what they're doing better than the BGC does, or they don't know what they're doing nearly as well as they think they do.

• Confirmation status: Jossed. It's a time machine. The drill is presumably for tapping into the Earth's geothermal energy to power the time machine.

Temple killed Biff.

Looking back at the 'Blue vs. Red Part 2' story, when Biff is offering his pinkie to Temple's pistol, there's a cut to a close-up of his helmet while suspenseful and somewhat terrifying music plays. Then Temple does the whole cold feet bit that kills Biff as we saw. But, considering the earlier revelations of his character, which the above WMG helpfully points out, namely that he is a grandiose lunatic, and considering the entire episode is told from Temple's point of view to someone he doesn't much care for, whom he is speaking with in the presence of a cameraman, why wouldn't he lie to make himself into the victim? And wouldn't it make him a neat Foil to Church, who always took all the blame when things went wrong, that Temple blames literally everybody but the man who pulled the trigger?

• Confirmation Status: Jossed. Joe Nicolosi has confirmed that Temple is telling the truth.

Jax Jonez is Biff's child

• Temple hasn't mentioned what happened to Georgina and Biff's child. It is also suspicious that Jax Jonez's real name has yet to be revealed. Thus, it's possible that the reveal will be a surprise relevant to the plot. Such a reveal includes Jax being Biff's son.
• In "Mother of Destruction", Jax only mentions his mom when rehearsing his speech. This indicates that his father either abandoned him or is dead, thus opening the possibility that Biff was Jax's father.

Grif is Biff's kid.

Just....well, because. Grif may have a sister, but who is to say Georgina didn't remarry?

• Going off of the official timeline, that would make Grif 4-5 years old at the start of the series. Not likely.

Jax's real name is Joe Nicolosi.

He's voiced by Joe Nicolosi, he's based on Joe Nicolosi when he was in college, and as one post-credits scene shows, he wrote a script based on his adventure with the Reds and Blues, but with added movie references and some fudged details, essentially meaning he wrote Season 15 as we saw it. Joe Nicolosi was the writer and director of this season. Wouldn't it make a bit too much sense if they were one and the same?

Vic didn't die at the end of the season.

Rather, being within the time machine as it vanished led to him becoming some sort of all-knowing entity that can peer into any point in time, in any universe, and even inside peoples' minds, hence his narrator role in Season 14. He's no longer suicidal at that point because either he thinks he is dead and in the afterlife, or the power to see any point in the multiverse is just too good to pass up. Caboose's appearance in Episode 15 was either because of getting stuck in another dimension while on vacation, or it's a Caboose from another dimension (or from after Season 15, depending on where the next season goes) who's smart enough to build a machine just like Loco's, and went through the wormhole (or "used the door") to get to wherever Vic is.

If a fully-formed Alpha turned to the side of evil, he would act a lot like Temple.

At first glance, Temple seems to have a lot of differences from Church, compared to the other Blues and Reds, who act almost exactly like their counterparts do/used to. Temple's desire for revenge can be compared to Church, who behaved similarly to the Director and Project Freelancer in Season 10, but Temple being an over-the-top, maniacal Card-Carrying Villain who manipulates people and has a grand scheme to destroy the UNSC is notably different. However, consider that the Church we know was missing core parts of his being, and that Epsilon was based on memories and stories of this incomplete version. Had the Alpha reformed or never been split to begin with and somehow became an antagonist, he may have been as intense and theatrical as Omega, as ambitious as Sigma, and as deceiving as Gamma, thereby also making him a lot like Temple. Temple also has a unique method of killing his victims, displaying the creativity that was also part of Sigma, and his reliance on teammates indicates a certain level of trust, which was Theta's attribute. All that's really missing is Delta's logic. You could say that Biff's death and learning the truth about the simulation troopers was torturous for him in the same way the Alpha was tortured, but without any way to fragment himself like an AI can, these traumatic experiences were forced to fester in Temple's mind until they drove him off the deep end.

Sister isn't actually running raves and con's, she's gone insane.

Aside from their not seeming to actually be anyone in Blood Gulch, she's been stuck in an empty base for YEARS and we saw her own brother start going insane and imagining people after only a month of isolation. It's not outside the realm of possibility that it's been happening to her, but worse.