Season One Questionnaire
From Roosterpedia
This is a group of theories/questions that I (TheTyper[1] if you were just linked to this article) have written up over watching the Blood Gulch Chronicles. This is the portion of questions and theories created and directed towards season one of the Blood Gulch Chronicles. Some editing has been done, such as the removal of an intro compared to my document version, for the sake of gathering or reading the information and questions that some people might want to find.
Episode 1: Why Are We Here?
So of course my elongated list of theories and possibilities begins with the very first episode of the first season of the Blood Gulch Chronicles right when Simmons asks Grif that wonderful question.
Okay, enough with the fancy talk. This episode, like many in the opening season, is now open to loads of possibilities thanks to time travel becoming a possibility. Yet as far as I can see, the first episode does nothing than establish personalities and characters. In fact, the first episode does not even reveal the names of our beloved characters.
Though it is possible for anything to happen in this episode of which we are not aware. I have no suspicions over this episode to some other deep plots. The episode is just a beginning, a humorous opening conversation, which is exactly what Red vs. Blue excels at through these wonderful one-hundred episodes.
Episode 2: Red Gets a Delivery
"I think it looks more like a puma."
This episode continues the character personality establishments while starting the plot points of vehicles. For some odd reason, cars, tanks, and flags, are very centric to the first season of Red vs. Blue. They do play important roles later on in the series, but because the first season is quite straightforward in each character’s motive, the vehicles feel very centric.
And as all viewers of Reconstruction should have noticed by now, the tank and Warthog arriving could very well be objects to stir up trouble in the practicing grounds of the Freelancer Project.
To further questions, there’s the thought that the arriving tank is a Smart Tank, meaning it could very well have far more potential than originally expected. How this potential will come into play further down the road, we have yet to discover.
But vehicles like the Warthog would not be able to do much without the help of their drivers, which is where the next episode comes into play.
Episode 3: The Rookies
Now I cannot help but wonder why Caboose and Donut were both put into Blood Gulch. The two bases were already established and both sides had just gotten vehicles to help each side beat the snot out of each other.
Yet Command saw fit to add more soldiers to the layout. Why?
One theory that came to mind is the repeated thought that flew through my head when I finished Reconstruction. I believed Blood Gulch to be set up as a front of safety and security for the location of the Alpha. Yet Tex, Omega (assuming they are separate), Gamma, and Wyoming were all able to locate Blood Gulch. Sure, some found it as time went on, but Tex and Omega made it to that location. So I am not sure if Blood Gulch is the safest place to hide an AI. Regardless, I originally thought all others in the place were either AIs hidden at Blood Gulch, or were soldiers sent to the location to unknowingly monitor and guard the Alpha.
Yet Donut and Caboose show up and prove to be major plot creators for the season. Donut steals the flag. Caboose kills Church, or did he?
Were these two real soldiers sent in to monitor the situation, or were they placed in Blood Gulch to stir up trouble? Before those two showed up, Tucker, Church, Simmons, Grif, and Sarge all had the appearance of being quite bored. And before he died, the whole valley still had a boring appearance with Captain Flowers in command of the Blue Team. He almost gave off the appearance of moving the Blue Team forward into boring work that has no result.
The two stirring factors were Donut and Caboose. Donut annoyed Grif and Simmons since he was the new guy around the place. I wonder if Command called Sarge out on that meeting, knowing Grif and Simmons would make Donut go on the false errand just to stir up trouble. And Command put Caboose in with the Blue Team to annoy (or insult) Tucker and Church, resulting in Caboose guarding the flag and letting Donut wander into the base to steal the flag. The big question is whether or not Donut and Caboose are AIs?
Episode 4: Head Noob in Charge
And so the mentioned story takes place. Caboose insults Tex in front of Church and is charged with guarding the flag. Donut shows up and takes the flag thinking it is available for purchase at the store. He should come home empty handed now should he?
Upon taking the flag, Caboose lets Church know the General took the flag with him.
Episode 5: The Package is in the Open
The episode opens with Church questioning Caboose about giving the flag away. Church mentions how giving the other team the flag is an action equivalent to blowing up their own base. Church really was clueless, but this fake war gave these people or machines fake purpose in the lonely gulch. It was all really a conspiracy.
Church attempts to shoot Donut, thinking he is Sarge. Not that it matters, the Blues want their flag back, and Church’s aim isn’t as great as expected. Tucker and Church decide to flank “Sarge” via the teleporter. When Tucker doesn’t show up on the exit teleporter, Church decides to walk his way over to Donut, who was busy flaunting the flag in the air for all to see (signaling to the Blues that he “bought” the flag). And of course, when Church tried to shoot Donut, Simmons heard the shots. While using a sniper rifle to find the source of the shots, Simmons finds Donut waving the flag.
Episode 6: 1.21 Giga-Whats??
Church confronts Donut to get the flag back. It doesn’t take Church long to realize that Donut isn’t Sarge, and he’s just a private. Shortly before the explanation lengthens, Tucker shows up in the exit teleporter, confusing the crap out of everyone. Tucker gets all confused in a time confusion loop.
As Tucker tries to make amends for a stupid argument, Grif and Simmons drive over a hill in a very catchy tune and shoot at Church and Tucker. Church and Tucker run and take cover and Donut runs the flag back to Red base.
Pinned under fire, Tucker and Church need help from the “big gun.” So Private Caboose spots an even bigger gun nearby. Silly Caboose didn’t realize how difficult tanks would be to use.
Episode 7: Check Out the Treads on That Tank
And so we are introduced to Sheila, who used to be named Phyllis until Church changed her name. Though Sheila is sometimes forgotten in the long line of theories, she is definitely an important character, more so than most estimate her to be. At the time and through the season, Sheila serves no other purpose than humor and to provide really loud explosions.
Though this is a topic reserved for later, Sheila is actually a smart tank, hinting at the thought that she is some form of a vehicular smart AI. What does this mean? As far as we know, it means she has the ability to be moved to other vehicle types, and maybe that she is a vehicle functioning on her own unlike the tank she first appeared to be. This means she can make her own decisions and move with free will. It might also mean she can be transferred to different vehicles of a certain class and run that vehicle (as noted at the end of the Blood Gulch Chronicles).
I will discuss Sheila and her existence as a smart tank later in the guide when we reach the great Red vs. Blue: Reconstruction.
The rest of the episode is kicks and giggles as Simmons and Grif find themselves face to face with Sheila in an attempt to flank Church and Tucker.
Episode 8: Don't Ph34r the Reaper
This episode is the root of a lot of theory problems as Church gets blasted to bits by Caboose, or was it Church? This was the episode that got me hoodwinked into Red vs. Blue forever. Nothing theory elaborate happens in this episode, though for LFTO no episode shall be left unanalyzed.
Some people recognize the fact that Tex shows up in the episodes following Church’s death quite quickly. Some think there’s some sort of a mental projection relating to Tex, and others believe Tex to be a separate AI. Yet regarding this episode, nothing extremely significant has been pointed out yet, it just helps move the plot along.
Episode 9: After Church
After Church was an episode that stopped Sheila from obliterating the Red Team entirely, though there are a few things I have to talk about in this episode.
The first thing I want to bring up is why Sarge was visiting Command. Though this is the first season, and the groundwork that Command was a shambling corporate presence may not have been fully cemented yet, Sarge still visited Command and was flying in a Pelican when he bombarded the tank. I have this strange wonder about what Sarge really did because if Sarge met Command, even if he is delusional, he would have seen some things that hinted at or possibly revealed that the boxed canyon was a testing ground. Sure, Sarge might have missed it, but he went somewhere for a reason. Command drew him out of the base intentionally, and it wasn’t for performance reports on Grif or Simmons.
Is it possible Command took Sarge out of the base to let the events unfold? It is possible that were Sarge around, Donut would not have received his false errand to go find elbow grease and headlight fluid. Sure, Sarge might have dumped Donut on Grif and/or Simmons, but putting a delusional leader in charge of the Red team during the Warthog flag retrieval encounter could very well have changed the outcome of these two or three episodes.
On a lighter note, who is Dave? Why did Sheila suddenly go from a detached training program personality into this humor human mocking AI-like personality? Okay, it is very likely to be done for comedy.
BUT, all of Season One was heavily rooted in comedy. This does not mean that Rooster Teeth can come back and use these pieces of the story for an extension upon the Red vs. Blue universe.
Episode 10: A Shadow of His Former Self
And so Tucker’s armor is cleaned. And Tucker calls Command. I think some interesting signs show up regarding Tex and Command when Tex shows up right at the ending of the episode.
The episode is not a few hours, yet Tex had already arrived within minutes of Tex calling Command. Does this indicate anything regarding Tex, Church, and Command? Quite possibly. It shows that Command might have already sent Tex, knowing Tucker would be asking for a freelancer. And if no one asked for a freelancer, then Tucker would be informed that Command heard about Church’s death and sent Tex as a replacement.
In the middle of the episode is the story of Church when he was back at Sidewinder. Quite a lot of discussion went into this part of the storyline regarding whether or not this was the site of the Alpha’s fragmentation, whether or not Private Jimmy was Caboose but the name and person changed as the horrific event happened. Theories point in the direction of the whole event not even being real, but rather a false fill-in hole memory the Alpha replaced.
The only massive flaw I have relating to this is why let this show up in the Alpha’s memory when Command went out of its way to implant these memories of life up to Church’s deployment in Blood Gulch? Why let the false memory of a real tragic event become replaced with a fill-in tragic event when the whole place and time could be erased or replaced with more of the Director’s memories in childhood?
Episode 11: Knock, Knock. Who's there? Pain.
And so we meet Tex. Though it was originally used as a plot device, the voice amplifier device seems to confuse me. Tex was never someone shy about her gender in the military. Yet she hid her voice. Sure, it was designed as a way to keep us from guessing that Agent Texas was Church’s old girlfriend, and the voice amplifier feels like it sacrifices a bit of character.
However, Blood Gulch shows a bit of this possibility that the place was as a practice ground as Wash mentions in Reconstruction. The flag has always been this false motivation for the troops in Blood Gulch to attack each other, and in the case of Tex’s appearance, it seems to be a bit of training for Tex to infiltrate bases. At the same time this feels a bit out of the idea of the purpose of Blood Gulch. Reconstruction’s massive reveal made Blood Gulch look more like a hideaway place for Church, which brings up a further question about Tex and whether or not she was supposed to be there yet, whether or not Blood Gulch was being used as practice then, and whether or not Tex is even real because of all this AI and mentor jabber.
Episode 12: Down, but not Out.
“Blue team: Flag returned.” In this episode, we learn that Tex used to be Church’s girlfriend. Of course, in truth, Tex is more likely to be the memories of Dr. Church’s nearly or completely lost love inserted into an AI. Though Tex has often been the focus of a lot of various beliefs on what is the truth. Some think Tex is not even existent but more of a mental projection of the Alpha created and revealed when Church needs her, like hinted at in the Recreation trailer.
Some go for the straightforward method that Tex was a girlfriend of Dr. Church (as the implanted AI life shows) and Tex was possibly killed or just about killed by Dr. Church and the memories of this person were implanted into an AI to let that person live on and Dr. Church could use that AI for his projects.
Then there’s a bunch of small angles on which Tex was to Dr. Church. Was she a daughter? No. Was she a sister? A twin? A girlfriend? A great aunt of Dr. Church’s best friend from seven years back? Who knows? The most we know is that Tex was someone close to Dr. Church, and the memories implanted into Church point to a rather close, love, and intimately centric relationship.
Episode 13: Human Peer Bonding
As the episode begins, Church mentions Tex joining up on the Freelancer Project and the AI being implanted into her. I have no idea why, but the Director decided to link Church and Tex in their memories. I think starting this fake relationship would only bring the Director more pain for his loss. Why would he start this romance for these machines?
The remainder of the episode is a discussion on how to get Tex out of the Red base.
Episode 14: Roomier than it Looks
This episode was a big action cluster. The biggest theory to present is relating to those teleporters hurting, and why it covers its objects with black stuff.
Also, when Church takes over Sarge’s body, Sarge mentions “troop movements these coordinated sine my days on side…” and then Church takes over the body. It brings into question whether or not Sarge was at Sidewinder with Church, and whether or not Sarge is an AI fragment if Sidewinder was the place of the Alpha’s fragmentation.
Then Caboose brings up enjoying his time with Tucker. Caboose says, “It’s like we’re real soldiers.” This offers supporting evidence that Caboose knows more than most expect, and that though he has trouble communicating with humans well Caboose could very well have high perception abilities.
At the ending, Church/Sarge saves Tex but gets shot by Caboose in the head as they escape the base.
Episode 15: How the Other Half Lives
Sarge got shot in the head and miraculously lived via Grif giving Sarge CPR. This may be strange, but what is even stranger is Sarge’s visit to the afterlife world. People think that Sarge visited the “ghost world” because Church currently inhabited Sarge’s body, thus causing Sarge to view the world from Church’s point of view.
This tends to confuse me more than anything. The AIs in the Red vs. Blue universe tend to contain armor slots that permit an AI to communicate and “be near” the person who also inhabits the armor. Yet Church and Tex have shown abilities to take over, or “possess” bodies instead of just being a portion of the body.
Sarge visiting the afterlife, or AI world, brings out continued confusing questions related to this matter on my viewpoint. I can’t see the way Sarge would be sent to the computer world as some think.
At the same time, were Sarge an AI, he would never be able to come back to life as Sarge did upon being resuscitated.
Episode 16: A Slightly Crueler Cruller
This may be a humor device for the series, but at the same time, why did Command reward Caboose with pink armor? There was no reason to reward these troops, they were not soldiers.
Lopez’s speech unit brought out a lot of funny moments. Though I do not see how a speech unit getting zapped would turn an English speech unit into a Spanish speech unit.
And why would a military that, as far as we have seen, speaks in English supply Spanish speech units?
Episode 17: Points of Origin
This episode started up the last little piece of story arc in Season One. One notable plot point is that Tex agreed to help the Blue Team “win this”. This turns me to the lane that she did not know Red vs. Blue was a simulation for practice grounds. Or was she trying to meddle in the Director’s workings already? It’s interesting. She could have just left Blood Gulch, but either her feelings for Church or her (or maybe Omega’s) desire to cause trouble for Project Freelancer took focus in Tex’s mind.
Also, Tex seemed to have an ability to control herself over Omega during these moments. Season Five showed Omega change Tex’s voice at the moment of takeover. Though we’re not absolutely certain an AI or iFrag has the ability to keep a person’s voice as it is upon possession of the body, maybe the mixture of Tex and Omega causes Tex to be as she is.
Episode 18: SPF 0
And so the action is about to take place. Church really wanted to get that AI out of Tex’s head. If not that, he wanted Tex to stay. Few moments show this love-type relationship between Church and Tex where they hint at how much they really care for each other. But Church wanted to find a way for Tex to stay in Blood Gulch a little longer. This peaks my interest. Church was actually risking the entire Blue Team. Tex could have been killed in the Red Team’s defensive strategy. Oh wait she was killed.
Church passively brought on the death of his girlfriend. Does this have any significance with Dr. Church’s loved one getting killed? Was it all a simulation?
The fact that these two pieces of machinery have been forced to love and hate each other is itself tragic and disturbing.
Episode 19: Last One Out, Hit the Lights
Grif and Simmons exchange those wonderful words again shortly before Church hilariously takes possession of Lopez and tries to alert the Red Team. Oh yeah, mentioning the Red Team and alerting. Caboose mentioned to Tex that Church was going to try to warn the Red Team, but we never got any fallout from this I think. It’s a little interesting. Maybe that has to do with the fact that Tex got “killed”.
The closest reaction to Church warning the reds was Omega leaving Tex shortly thereafter. And as for Tex’s death, where did she go? Where did she wander during those episodes of absence? She said she was monitoring them, but why not just reveal herself after dying?
