Third Echelon was a subdivision of the NSA that dealt with various major threats to the USA, from terrorism to the prevention of global conflicts, by sending agents to gather intel directly from the source. They also occasionally carried out secret black ops when the risks were too high to bring in other agencies/units and time was limited.
Fourth Echelon is an independent special operations unit that was commissioned to be accountable directly to the President of the United States, answering to no other official or parent agency. Unlike Third Echelon, Fourth Echelon is not in the NSA hierarchy and its name is somewhat of an artifact.
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Third Echelon
Third Echelon is an organization within the NSA protecting America against potential threats. It doesn't officially exist and its existence is a secret even from most of the NSA, which it is a part of and derives the majority of its funding from. Sam Fisher was its first field agent.
The organization was used as part of Megiddo's coup against the United States government in Conviction and was dissolved thereafter, leading to the creation of Fourth Echelon.
The Organization
- The Artifact: Third Echelon was originally created to combat information warfare attacks using human intelligence. While Chaos Theory later brought this back up, in every other game Third Echelon was a generic covert operations group. Particularly apparent in Pandora Tomorrow, in which the threat was a bioweapon, something way outside the NSA's jurisdiction as a signals intelligence agency.
- The nomenclature of Third Echelon is derived from ECHELON, the worldwide NSA signals intelligence and surveillance program. A second echelon was created (named Second Echelon) for the Internet era and ECHELON retroactively became First Echelon. Third Echelon was later created in response to the increasing proliferation of communication data encryption technology which ushered in the need for a new NSA organization dedicated to more classical espionage methods of obtaining information and intelligence.
- Artistic License – Law: Third Echelon couldn't operate on US soil as part of the NSA or mount field operations as a whole. This is Justified as everything the agency does is essentially illegal.
- Bad Boss: Director Williams and Director Reed.
- Badass Creed: The Fifth Freedom speech.
- Cool Plane: The V-22 Osprey, a U.S. military V/STOL (Vertical and/or Short Take off and landing) aircraft used by Sam Fisher and his team. It houses Sam's gear and computers for a three-way communication between Third Echelon, Grim and Fisher.
- Government Agency of Fiction: Pretty much goes with the territory.
- Heel–Face Turn: The organization underwent one of these between Double Agent and Conviction.
- My Master, Right or Wrong: Many Third Echelon operatives are easily swayed by their new director in Conviction to perform a terrorist act against the President without questioning his actions.
- Necessarily Evil: The point of the Fifth Freedom is to do whatever it takes to protect America.
- No Such Agency: Third Echelon has no official existence, and it is unknown to the rest of the United States government.
- Overt Operative: Zig-zagged. While Third Echelon's agents are invisible according to their preferred playstyle, their headquarters in Conviction has their logo stamped on everything. Which is ridiculous.
- Spy Catsuit: Its agents tend to wear these in order to better blend in with shadows.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Become this in Conviction and arguably were this all along.
Sam Fisher
See here.
Irving Lambert
Colonel Irving Lambert
Lambert in Double Agent
Voiced by: Don Jordan (Splinter Cell, Chaos Theory, Double Agent, Conviction), Dennis Haysbert (Pandora Tomorrow)
Dubbed by: Antoine Tomé (European French)
Appears in: Splinter Cell | Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow | Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory | Splinter Cell: Double Agent | Splinter Cell: Conviction
Third Echelon Operations Coordinator, later Director of Operations and then Director outright, Lambert is an old friend of Sam's and recruited him to be the first Splinter Cell. He helped guide Sam through his missions, using diplomacy and contacts to get him whatever aid he could. In Conviction it is revealed that the canonical outcome of the Double Agent/Essentials storyline was Sam shooting Lambert to maintain his cover, and that Lambert subsequently bled out and died of his injuries.
- All for Nothing: In his recording in Conviction, he notes that his plan to fake Sarah's death and uncover the mole inside the agency was for nought. He never found the mole and died knowing he'd ruined his best friend's life. Sam doesn't take the news very well.
- Almighty Janitor: During the Second Korean War, he's on par with the Secretary of Defense when advising President Bowers.
- All There in the Manual: The manual says, "He is a popular and well-connected man in Washington, D.C., though minimally trusted and never publicly acknowledged." Which explains why he's able to get an audience with the President but is not particularly trusted by the Secretary of Defense.
- Broken Pedestal: After what happened with Sarah, Sam is never going to look at his friend in the same way again.
- Big Good: Subverted by Conviction.
- Character Death: In Double Agent shot by Sam to preserve his cover.
- Colonel Badass: A U.S. Army Colonel, as well as good enough at coordinating double agents in the field to be able to spearhead the Splinter Cell program, and rises in the ranks of Third Echelon in each game between Pandora Tomorrow and Double Agent.
- Cool Old Guy: Is quite the cool old guy. Like Sam.
- Da Chief: Occasionally has this role to Sam when he does something he shouldn't have. However, they're good enough friends that it generally doesn't happen.
- The Handler: Often to Sam.
- Kick the Dog: He orders Sarah's death faked, possibly having a young woman killed to serve as her body, then manipulates Sam to believe she's dead—taking advantage of his grief. This is, ostensibly, for her own protection but his refusal to tell Sam qualifies him for this.
- Last-Name Basis: He's rarely called Irving.
- Mission Control: Is this in the early games.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The PC manual for Conviction revealed that Lambert was the one who brought Tom Reed into Third Echelon, an action that eventually leads to terrible consequences in both Double Agent and Conviction.
- Pragmatic Hero: Allows Sam to use the Fifth Freedom when he most needs it.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: He's the one chastizing Sam for killing people he wasn't meant to kill or triggering alarms but it's also made clear that he has his own superiors in Washington that he has to answer to and he's happy to give Sam Fifth Freedom clearance when his own superiors have authorized it.
- Senseless Sacrifice/Stupid Sacrifice: In hindsight, his death was really rather pointless if you look at the totality of the situation he and Sam were currently in (although he doubtless thought it was necessary at the time).
- Then it turns out that despite risking everything, including his friendship with Sam, he failed to uncover who the mole was within Third Echelon.
- Serial Spouse: In Chaos Theory Grim says Admiral Otomo is nice when you get to know him in person and Sam replies that people say the same thing about Lambert. Grim asks what he means by that and Sam quips, "How many of his ex-wives have you spoken to?"
- Two First Names: "Lambert" can also be used as a first name.
- What the Hell, Hero?: If Sam kills anyone he doesn't need to (especially a civilian), Lambert will give him hell about it.
Anna Grímsdóttir
Anna "Grim" Grímsdóttir
Grímsdóttir in Blacklist
Voiced by: Claudia Besso (Splinter Cell, Chaos Theory, Double Agent, Conviction), Adriana Anderson (Pandora Tomorrow), Kate Drummond (Blacklist)
Dubbed by: Nathalie Homs (European French)
Appears in: Splinter Cell | Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow | Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory | Splinter Cell: Double Agent | Splinter Cell: Conviction | Splinter Cell: Blacklist
Third Echelon's Communications Lead and later Chief Technical Analyst, "Grim" serves as Sam's technical support for much of his career during the games, providing technological, cryptographic, and data support. In Conviction following the death of Lambert, she rose to Chief Technical Analyst, aiding Sam from behind the scenes in uncovering Tom Reed's plot. Following the dissolution of Third Echelon, she is chosen by the President as the technical operations manager for Fourth Echelon.
- Action Girl: By the time of Conviction.
- Anti-Hero: In Conviction and Blacklist.
- Pragmatic Hero: Will do anything to serve her cause. Seems to regret this after Conviction when she realizes Sam does not forgive or forget.
- Badass Bookworm: By Conviction, she's taken to field operations instead of just staying at a computer. In the Oval Office, she handles a SIG Sauer very competently while helping Sam kill the final Splinter Cells. She's still a very reliable source for technical information, however.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Conviction retcons that her mild-mannered personality was a mask for a much more cold hearted woman than previous games let slip. She knowingly concealed information from Sam about Sarah still being alive and pretty much blackmails him into helping her stop Tom Reed.
- Captain Obvious: When she served as Mission Control.
- Character Development: Grim slowly becomes colder and more jaded, and by Conviction she is referred to as "The Ice Queen of Third Echelon". She softens up somewhat in Blacklist, due to trying to regain Sam's trust but is still willing to make very hard decisions firsthand, even to the point of keeping information from her own government to prevent war.
- Communications Officer: The head for both Third and Fourth Echelons.
- Deadpan Snarker: Most notably in Conviction and Blacklist.
- Dye or Die: Her hair color changes sometimes between games.
- Brainy Brunette: In Splinter Cell, her hair is auburn, but with a lean toward brown. In Chaos Theory, she changes it to a pure brown.
- Fake Defector: Fakes betraying Sam in order to let him get close to Reed in the White House.
- Good is Not Nice: In Conviction. May verge into Nominal Hero territory.
- Good Is Not Soft: As demonstrated when she shoots Tom Reed without batting an eye.
- Guile Hero: In Conviction it becomes very obvious that she's not afraid to use deception and manipulation to get the job done.
- Ice Queen: Even called as much by Conviction.
- In-Series Nickname: "Grim", and later "Grim Reaper" and "The Ice Queen".
- Kick the Dog: The entire Conviction arc.
- The Lancer: As well as some levels in The Smart Guy, to Fisher's The Hero in Conviction.
- The Matchmaker: According to a conversation in Chaos Theory, Grim has set Sam up on blind dates with women she knows.Grim: The Maria Narcissa.Sam: You're not setting me up for another blind date, I hope...Grim: The Maria Narcissa is a boat.Grim: Fisher!Sam: Sorry.
- Mission Control: Serves as this in Conviction.
- Morality Pet: Her's is Sam in Conviction and Blacklist. The fact Sam comes to hate her guts because of events hurts her deeply. He forgives her in the end, though.
- The Mole: Conviction implies her true loyalties were always to the Executive Branch, and that she was inserted into Third Echelon from the beginning to make sure they didn't go rogue.
- Player Character: In Blacklist, Grim's playable section occurs in the final portion of Iran's Special Missions HQ, where she provides UAV support for Sam and Briggs's extraction.
- Progressively Prettier: She becomes more and more attractive as the series goes on, starting out as a plain, mousy brunette but by Blacklist she's a redheaded bombshell.
- Rank Up: After Tom Reed replaces Lambert as director, Grim is promoted to her right-hand woman. In Conviction, she becomes Fisher's second-in-command.
- Secret-Keeper: She kept the fact that Sarah was not only not dead, but also that the entire faked death was on Lambert's orders, secret from Sam, knowing they needed him for the John Brown's Army crisis, until he was able to go to Third Echelon Headquarters and learn for himself when she let him know after Lambert's demise.
- Shoot the Dog: She implies that she has done so many times while talking with Sam in Conviction. Confirmed when she kills Reed if Fisher doesn't in the finale, which Blacklist later confirms as the canon outcome.
- Took a Level in Badass: Big time in Conviction, where she's gone from pure Mission Control to a more field oriented position.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: These must have come with the levels in badass, though she does seem to still genuinely care about Sam's survival.
- Took a Level in Kindness: In Blacklist, though still somewhat abrasive at times, she's overall nicer to Sam, probably as an effort to make things up for the events of Conviction.
- Voice with an Internet Connection
Tom Reed
Tom Reed
Voiced by: James. A. Woods
Appears in: Splinter Cell: Conviction
The Director of Third Echelon in Conviction. He attempts to murder President Caldwell when she attempts to cut the power of Third Echelon, although he is also working on the behest of Megiddo.
- Bad Boss: He shoots a pilot for asking to be paid for the fuel he used while transporting Sam.
- Big Bad: Of Conviction. Although he is under the control of Megiddo.
- Boom, Headshot!: By either Sam or Grim at the end of Conviction.
- Engineered Heroics: Reed's ultimate plan is for Third Echelon to be credited for killing the man who assassinated President Caldwell, to remind the country that Third Echelon is needed to for the safety of America.
- Frame-Up: Part of Reed's plan is to frame Sam for the assassination of President Caldwell.
- Greater-Scope Villain: In Double Agent despite not appearing until Conviction. Prior to Sarah's "death", Lambert found out about a mole within Third Echelon who planned to use Sarah as leverage against Sam. To prevent this, Lambert faked Sarah's death, which led to Sam taking the JBA assignment and eventually forcing him to kill Lambert. Worse of all, Lambert failed to identify the mole and Reed successfully took over Third Echelon without Sam or Lambert's presence.
- Klingon Promotion: How he became director of Third Echelon.
- Motive Rant: At the end of Conviction, Reed talks about how the President was going to pull funding from Third Echelon and go soft on terrorism, motivating him to try and overthrow her and place Vice President Calvin Samson. Then again, it's all pretty much thrown out when he admits he was trying to help Megiddo take over the USA.
- It could be he's motivated by both depending on what Megiddo's aims are.
- The Mole: For Megiddo.
- Mole in Charge: See above.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Reed claims he's assassinating President Caldwell because she's soft on terrorism, and putting the nation at risk by downsizing Third Echelon. Blacklist shows that the Fifth Freedom includes executing members of the Executive Branch to protect the country, so while Reed's supposed position is incredibly extreme it is not entirely without merit based on the rules laid out in the series. However, in truth Reed is working for Megiddo, a corrupt and nebulous conspiracy, and is really trying to kill Caldwell because her policies are damaging to them.
- Remember the New Guy?: He was apparently a major player in the NSA and Third Echelon in prior games, but Conviction is his first appearance.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Is essentially the same as Assistant Director Williams from the previous games, other than perhaps having a slightly more hysterical personality.
- Tyrant Takes the Helm: Reed is a ruthless, efficient, and energetic man who is willing to go extreme lengths to defend America from any acts of terrorism in ways that Lambert will never do.
- Villain Has a Point: He says that President Caldwell's decision to shut down Third Echelon would leave the United States open to attack. Blacklist shows he was right; Third Echelon's decommissioning leaves the door wide open for the Engineers to attack Anderson AFB.
Andriy Kobin
Andriy Kobin
Kobin in Conviction
Voiced by: Elias Toufexis
Appears in: Splinter Cell: Conviction | Splinter Cell: Blacklist
A powerful criminal leader employed by Third Echelon, Kobin faked the death of Sarah Fisher on then-Director Lambert's orders. He serves as one of Tom Reed's top men in the fifth game, surviving its events. Later appears in Blacklist having turned informant to the CIA and joining Fourth Echelon as a Token Evil Teammate and Ace Pilot.
- Ace Pilot: As revealed in Blacklist.
- Anti-Hero: Unscrupulous Hero in Blacklist, eventually.
- Arms Dealer: His biggest source of income.
- Battle Trophy: Not much of a "battle", but he keeps Archer's corpse hung up in his mansion in Conviction, still in his body suit.
- Beard of Evil
- Death Faked for You: Did this for Sarah Fisher at Lambert's instruction. Sam was not amused upon finding this out.
- The Dragon: To Reed in Conviction.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Despite getting taken down easily in Conviction, Blacklist reveals he is an Ace Pilot and when the Paladin is on the verge of crashing, keeps the plane airborne while helping Sam restart it. He's also puts his skills to good use when getting Sam and Briggs into Colorado past the air defenses around Denver to stop Sadiq.
- Drugs Are Bad: Drug trafficking is among his crimes.
- Heel–Face Turn: He was a heel in Conviction, but over the course of Blacklist he becomes an ally of Sam and Fourth Echelon.
- Hidden Depths: Is an extremely skilled pilot as revealed in Blacklist.
- Odd Friendship: With Charlie Cole of all people. At the end, they're seen getting along extremely well while Kobin explains the finer points on how to operate and shoot Sams FN Five Seven.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Becomes an official Fourth Echelon member after multiple dangerous events on the Paladin.
- Oh, Crap!/You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: His reaction to finding out that his savior in Blacklist is Sam Fisher.Kobin: Thank you...thank you! Who are you, CIA?[...]Oh you have got to be fucking SHITTING ME!
- Recruiting the Criminal: Double Subverted in Blacklist. He isn't so much "recruited" as he is arrested by Fourth Echelon as an intelligence source, and his "room" is the holding cells. However, once he proves his worth and genuine aid, he appears to be officially recruited to Fourth Echelon, even allowed to handle Sams Five SeveN on the command deck.
- Token Evil Teammate: While most of Third Echelon is made up of Anti-Heroes, Kobin is a major criminal employed by them to carry out some dirty work their operatives can't do. In Blacklist he's more of a frienemy and even ends up as part of Sams Paladin team.
Archer
Daniel Robert Sloane-Suarez / "Archer"
Appears in: Splinter Cell: Conviction
A Splinter Cell agent who was active prior to the involvement of Sam Fisher in the Third Echelon Conspiracy in Conviction, he worked alongside Voron agent Kestrel against Russian criminal activities.
- Anti-Hero: Comes with being a Splinter Cell agent.
- Pragmatic Hero: Comes with being a Splinter Cell agent.
- Badass Bookworm: He has a degree in Economics from Harvard University.
- Bash Brothers: With Kestrel.
- Character Death: Mortally wounded by Kestrel according to Word of God, and has his corpse relocated to Andriy Kobin's mansion
- The Combat Pragmatist
- Code Name/Nom de Guerre: Archer
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Justified, considering Archer and Kestrel are covert operatives, and probably shouldn't be able to give away their true identities.
- Deadpan Snarker
- Foil: To Kestrel.
- Impossibly Cool Clothes: Extremely cool, very impossible.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Red to Kestrel's Blue.
- Shoot Your Mate: Shoots Kestrel in self-defense after being ordered to kill him by Reed. However, Kestrel survives. Archer doesn't.
- Stealth Expert: Almost as good as Sam.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Why Kobin is told to kill him.
Vernon Wilkes
Vernon Wilkes Jr.
Appears in: Splinter Cell
Sam Fisher's very first field runner, who provides the "wings, wheels, and weapons" during Sam's missions in the first half of the first game.
- The Handler: He is Sam's very first Third Echelon field runner in the games.
- Sacrificial Lion: Being part of Third Echelon is not without risks...
- We Hardly Knew Ye: He dies of gunshot wounds mid-way through the game after a shootout at Kalinatek as he was trying to pick Sam up. Frances Coen replaces him in Myanmar and tells her condolences to Sam, who advises her not to mention Wilkes again.
Frances Coen
Frances Coen
Voiced by: Ellen David (Splinter Cell), Adriana Anderson (Pandora Tomorrow)
Appears in: Splinter Cell | Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow
Sam's field runner in the later part of Splinter Cell after replacing Vernon Wilkes and in Pandora Tomorrow.
- The Ghost: She was mentioned in Chaos Theory to be gathering intelligence in Japan. Her last appearance was in the previous game, Pandora Tomorrow.
- The Handler: She is brought to Myanmar to become Sam's handler after the death of Wilkes.
- Informed Judaism: Her name's Coen, and in Pandora Tomorrow, she mentions that her mother always wanted her to do a pilgrimage to Israel when she and Sam are in Jerusalem.
- Put on a Bus: Disappears after Pandora Tomorrow, except for a passing line of dialogue in Chaos Theory.
William Redding
William Redding
Voiced by: Thor Bishopric
Appears in: Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
Sam's third field runner, Redding supplies him with kit recommendations and weapons and equipment for his missions in Chaos Theory.
- The Handler: Takes up the position after Coen, though, as stated, Lambert does personally know Sam and acts as this as well.
- Put on a Bus: Hasn't been seen or mentioned since Essentials. Official explanation is he was forced out of Third Echelon by the new Director Tom Reed before Conviction. He spent some time working for Vic Coste at Paladin Nine, but does not do so anymore.
- Retired Badass: He used to be a US Marine interrogator.
- The Smart Guy: While Grim was Sam's technical support ally in Third Echelon, Redding gave him his weapons and kit recommendations before missions.
Charlie Fryman
Charlie Fryman
Voiced by: Graham Cuthbertson
Appears in: Splinter Cell: Conviction
Grim's inside man in Third Echelon HQ, Fryman gives Sam the upgraded sonar goggles.
- Big Fun: Subtly implied.
- Hero-Worshipper: He is a huge fan of Fisher.
- Non-Action Guy
- The Smart Guy: One of them in Conviction, though the fact that he only appears in one scene in Conviction does lower how much he is this.
- Smart People Wear Glasses
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Last we saw him, he was inside 3E HQ, you know the same HQ that self-destructed minutes later. He's never mentioned again however.
Lawrence Williams
Assistant Director Lawrence Williams
Voiced by: Jesse Burch
Appears in: Splinter Cell: Double Agent | Splinter Cell: Essentials
A NSA bureaucrat brought in to oversee Third Echelon and the JBA operation.
- Corrupt Bureaucrat: An email from an anonymous sender to Emile Dufraisne in Double Agent leaked that Lambert's cover identity to the JBA as "Wilkes", an arms dealer, was false and taken from a man who died several years earlier. It's heavily implied that the email came from Williams as only he, Fisher and Lambert were aware of the operation to infiltrate the JBA.
- In the last mission he sends a Splinter Cell to New York to tie up loose ends and kill Enrica after Fisher had already dispatched everyone else in the JBA and disarmed the bombs.
- The end of the game reveals Williams is having the NSA pursue Fisher as a domestic terrorist and fugitive from justice even though he has full knowledge of what happened.
- Jerkass Has a Point: For all his other numerous failings, in the second version of Double Agent Williams is right about Sam Fisher going rogue at the end. Despite Sam's understandable, sympathetic reasons and emotions, he outright murders a fellow Splinter Cell agent who was from his own point of view simply doing his job protecting his country by eliminating a member of a terrorist organization that had been in the process of attempting to murder millions, as Sam Fisher himself had done numerous times in the past, along with carrying out many unethical orders from his superiors. The Splinter Cell agent was also likely influenced by limited intel on the matter from Williams, so may not have known the bombs had already been defused and all the terrorists were dead besides Enrica, or was even told that Fisher had become unstable and unreliable, or that he had even turned traitor.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: He initially obstructs Fisher and Lambert's operation to infiltrate the JBA, believing it to exceed the NSA's mandate.
- He's later implied in an email to be the one who leaked to the JBA the fact that Lambert was using a false identity in his dealings with them. With Lambert in JBA custody (and later dead or recovering from a beating), he takes control of the operation in the last two missions.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Despite being a major antagonist in Double Agent and Essentials, he disappeared from the series and was replaced by SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute Tom Reed.
- The Word of God explanation to a fan question about this says Reed found evidence of Williams' corruption against Fisher and Lambert, and used it to blackmail him into resigning as Director of Third Echelon and being exiled to a backwater NSA posting in Montana.
Fourth Echelon additions
Fourth Echelon is the successor organization to Third Echelon in Blacklist, founded by the President in the wake of the Engineers' attack on the military base on Guam. It is a "blacker-than-black" special operations unit headed by Sam Fisher, who is also their primary operative, and former Third Echelon members Anna Grímsdóttir and Andriy Kobin also joined it. Unlike Third Echelon, Fourth Echelon was made accountable to the President through a direct chain of command as a result of the events of the Third Echelon Conspiracy, where the leadership of the organization was corrupted because of the agency structure that allowed the Director to stonewall the President.
The Organization
- The Artifact: The "Echelon" part of the name "Fourth Echelon" is an artifact from Third Echelon being a sub-organization of the NSA; however Fourth Echelon is an independent, mobile special operations unit (as opposed to a whole government agency) that answers only to the President.
- Cool Plane: The C-147B Paladin, which is also their HQ.
- Government Agency of Fiction: The same as Third Echelon.
- Necessarily Evil: Does things which are necessary to preserve world peace.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Probably even more than its predecessors. Throughout Blacklist, Fourth Echelon screws the other agencies several times with their ops, including breaking into Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp.
- No Such Agency: Still in effect. This actually proves to be a hindrance as other secret agencies sneer at them and refuse to share information.
- Oddly Small Organization: It consists of Anna, Sam, Kobin, Charlie, Isaac, their pilots and a handful of mechanics and analysts.
Charlie Cole
Charlie Cole
Voiced by: David Reale
Appears in: Splinter Cell: Blacklist
A computer hacker and tech expert who worked at Paladin Nine during Sam's brief stay there between Conviction and Blacklist, Charlie becomes the technology officer of Fourth Echelon, providing Sam with many custom gadgets to complement Grim's tech savviness, albeit with his own self-deprecative humor.
- The Cracker: A heroic variant.
- Deadpan Snarker: Constantly, especially aimed at Briggs.
- The Engineer: For Sam's gear, including his goggles, tri-rotor, and prototype guns. Ironically, he's fighting against the Engineers.
- New Meat: He's not nearly as well versed in the darker sides of espionage as the rest of the team, and becomes sick when he finds out that they plan to go with Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! over the President.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Twofold. While going through some data, Charlie doesn't follow proper protocols and ended up got Paladin Nine hacked by the engineers. He also contacted a former associate with the cartel who later attacked the plane while they are on the ground in order to collect the bounty on their heads.
- Non-Action Guy: Charlie is simply a civilian working with an off the books black ops organization and thus, has no experience with a gun.
- Odd Friendship: With Kobin after everyone else subjects him to a Kick the Dog moment.
Isaac Briggs
Isaac Briggs
Voiced by: Dwain Murphy
Appears in: Splinter Cell: Blacklist
A CIA agent who Sam recruits to Fourth Echelon in Blacklist, Briggs serves as the second player in Co-Op Multiplayer.
- Elites Are More Glamorous: He’s a former U.S. Army officer with special operations experience.
- Genius Bruiser: Graduated from the prestigious United States Military Academy at West Point. After being commissioned as Army officer, he went into special operations before in turn being recruited into the CIA.
- Military Maverick: Shades of this.Fisher: Wrestling fan?
Briggs: You said nonlethal. You didn't say how. - Player Character: In the cooperative gameplay, for the second player. Also in some First-Person Shooter segments of "Transit Yards", and the occasional UAV segments for the main story missions.
- And it is revealed that you were actually playing as him instead of Sam for the first half of "Site F" when he is unmasked.
- Stealth Expert: Though apparently not quite as skilled as Sam, he's still good.
