This article will contain spoilers for “Resident Evil: Requiem”. 

I Missed That Racoon City Hospitality

Leon has been suffering for a long, long time. Ever since the Racoon City outbreak 28 years ago, he has been living with the guilt that he was powerless to stop it, having struggled just to keep himself alive. Trauma and regret has been bubbling inside him.

 The original games don’t explore these character aspects. For the remakes however, they have been increasingly on display.  In “Resident Evil 2 Remake”, there is the gun shop owner and his daughter Leon failed to save. In the “Resident Evil 4 Remake” Leon is more broody, and less campy than in the original. His jokes recontextualized to be a sort of coping mechanism. He spends his life fighting against bioweapon attacks, but never being able to prevent them. Even if he does save someone’s life, they’re often damned with the same pain Leon himself carries.

In comes “Resident Evil Requiem”. Leon is an old man now, and his scars are showing. He still has quips in him, but he’s at the end of his road. His physical body is now dying, a byproduct of his infection, but his mind has already been for a long time. He has become numb to the horrors that surround him, and to a degree, complicit. That’s when he meets Grace.

I Know That You’re the One I’ve Been Searching For, Miss Ashcroft.

Grace initially works for the FBI as a data analyst. After receiving a mission, she investigates recent murders at the hotel where a cultist killed her mother, Alyssa. Soon after encountering and escaping from a zombified police officer, a mystery man kidnaps her. Victor Gideon, the villain of “RE9”. It doesn’t take long until Leon’s world of death and horror becomes her reality. Forced to survive the zombie-ridden Chronic Care Center. (Side note, the actress for Grace, Angela Sant’Albano, is just incredible at bringing her to life.)

Though fear grips Grace, she fights on – first for herself, and later, for Emily, an infected blind girl she finds locked behind a glass wall. Throughout the game, she doesn’t get less scared, but she does get more brave. Never does she let her fear stop her from doing what needs to be done. In gameplay, Grace’s frantic breaths reveal her constant terror. Like the player however, she needs to push on to survive. Grace shows the epitome of her bravery when Emily is kidnapped. She hesitates, needs to talk herself into it, but ultimately dives into the basement to save her.

Grace is a lot like how Leon used to be, eyes bright toward doing good, but inexperienced to the great extent of suffering in this world. The main difference between her and young Leon, is that she has old Leon to help her. Leon has the chance to save her from the regret and pain he’s been suffering through, and he fails. Emily supposedly dies, shot by Leon after turning into a monster. Witnessing this, Grace gives up, caught up in grief, and a feeling that she personally failed Emily, she surrenders herself to Victor Gideon.

Never Again

Leon doesn’t give up on Grace however, chasing her down to Racoon City, forcing him to look his trauma in the face. Upon reaching the gun shop from “Resident Evil 2 Remake” and seeing the skeletons of people he personally couldn’t save, he resolutely declares “Never Again”. Bold words, but truthfully, Leon doesn’t have what it takes to make sure it never happens again. He can’t stop the evil of the world with guns and violence.

Leon saves Grace before Zeno, Victor’s “partner”, forces her to release ELPIS, supposedly a new bioweapon. Releasing ELPIS is the reason Grace was kidnapped at the beginning of the game – being the only person who can enter the password to let it out. Grace and Leon resolve to destroy ELPIS in a touching moment where Grace recites the same line Leon said 28 years ago, “Whatever it takes, count me in”.

Grace discovers the truth of ELPIS. Spencer, the man responsible for most of the “Resident Evil’s” horrors, created ELPIS as a requiem for his past atrocities. ELPIS his requiem, and Grace, his hope. 

While the story isn’t clear as to who Grace is – a clone, a catalyst, a normal person. We do know that she was a way for Spencer to atone in his own weird way, bringing Grace into the world, and having Alyssa raise her.

ELPIS is not a bioweapon like Zeno and Victor thought, but a cure for infected individuals. While Leon is resolute on destroying ELPIS, the true ending has Grace releasing it, curing Leon’s infection, as well as giving him a way to make a real difference, a way to make sure Leon’s promise, Never Again, can come true. 

Leon would likely have never have trusted ELPIS to be a force for good, but Grace was raised as Spencer’s hope, as Alyssa’s hope, the faith they placed in Grace gave her what she needed to follow her own heart.

In the end, Grace and Leon saved each-other. Leon, in a twist, didn’t actually kill Emily, making sure Grace didn’t have any regrets. ELPIS cures Emily.

Grace, giving Leon the chance to finally make a difference. ELPIS melts Leon’s infection away, a metaphor for his freeing conscience, as Leon can move forward, and begin truly saving people’s lives. No longer will people be defined by their worst day.

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