There’s been a lot of chatter about how a certain plot twist at the end of Resident Evil Requiem retcons events and motivations from a key part of Resident Evil 5. However, this simply isn’t the case.
Here’s why that famous moment in Resident Evil 5 and the shocking revelation at the end of Resident Evil Requiem can exist together without throwing up any lore inconsistencies. Naturally, spoilers for both games lurk below.
“Right to become a god”
The key situation we’re talking about, of course, is Oswell E. Spencer creating Elpis as a cure for the T-Virus and adopting Grace as a baby to atone for all the harm he did as the owner of Umbrella.
As Spencer tells Raccoon City survivor Alyssa Ashcroft, he was “plagued by guilt” after the destruction of the city, and while he can’t take back all the terrible things he did, he can try to atone.
This was a flashback scene, set decades before RE9 when Grace was just a baby, so it was presumably some time after the bomb wiped out Raccoon City. The confusion has been caused by a scene in Resident Evil 5, which is also a flashback, depicting Spencer’s death at the hands of his creation, Albert Wesker, moments before BSAA agents Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine arrive to arrest the aging earl.
You see, in this scene, likely set sometime after his conversation with Alyssa, when he gave her Grace to raise, Spencer is defiant, and rants about his “right to become a god” and how “all was lost with Raccoon City.”
This scene shows a very different Spencer from the guild-ridden old man we see in the Requiem flashback, as the only remorse Spencer shows here is that he failed to achieve his goals.
This is what’s led some players and pundits to assume the scene in RE5 has been retconned by RE9. However, we’d argue that both scenes complement each other, helping flesh out Spencer as a character.
Spencer was a bad man, and his actions in Resident Evil Requiem did not bring him redemption. This is something he likely knows and accepts. He was responsible for hundreds of deaths even before the T-Virus escaped in the mansion, and it was all in pursuit of his own selfish desires.
Umbrella’s twisted origins
Oswell Spencer was marred by poor health throughout most of his life, which made him envious of those who enjoyed good health. He was also a eugenicist who believed people like himself were genetically superior.
So, he sought a way to achieve immortality, believing he could help humanity – but mostly himself – evolve as a species. In reality, this was pure narcissistic grandiosity.
As a young man, Spencer set out to find natural ways to enhance his body, and his travels took him to Eastern Europe, where he investigated legends of the “Black God”. This turned out to be the Megamycete, and after nearly dying in the icy caves, Spencer was rescued by Mother Miranda (the villain of Resident Evil Village) and nursed back to health.
Miranda would tell Spencer about the mutagenic entity and her plan to use it to resurrect her daughter, while he would confide in her about his dream. It’s implied that the pair became lovers and that Spencer served as her pupil for a time. Eventually, Spencer would take this knowledge of mutagens and found the Umbrella Corporation.
Spencer also likely came across Las Plagas on his travels, but once he discovered the Progenitor Virus in some flowers in Africa, the stage was set to put his plans into action. Umbrella used its pharmaceutical products as a front for bioweapon research, but even this was merely a cover for Spencer’s aims of godhood.
However, his various betrayals of other Umbrella scientists eventually led to the T-Virus outbreak in the mansion and then in Raccoon City, scuppering his work, and the survivors exposed his involvement, bringing Umbrella to justice. After losing everything, Spencer realized his dream was over and went into hiding.
Spencer did not achieve redemption
There are a few things to note about the Spencer we see in Resident Evil 5. First, he only ever says things like “I was to have become a god” and “For a man with the right to be a god”. That second line is delivered regretfully and wistfully, almost like he now understands he never truly had that right, and that it’s almost funny in hindsight.
His tone veers between defiant and reflective, but let’s not forget, this is a Spencer at the end of the line; he knows he’s about to be murdered. There’s even an argument that he’s manipulating Albert Wesker into pursuing the same unachievable dream, confident in the knowledge that, like him, Wesker will fly too close to the sun and burn as a result, which is exactly what happened.
There’s also another important detail. Spencer didn’t just send Grace away to live with Alyssa when he knew Wesker was coming for him; he also sent away his butler and only friend. Spencer knew that the people around him were in danger, so he took steps to keep them safe.
Oswell E. Spencer is still a villain in Resident Evil Requiem; he’s just one who’s realized he’s lost, was wrong, and has enough presence of mind to start making amends. He doesn’t redeem himself through Elpis and Grace, but he at least took steps to try.
Whether or not he still believed he had “the right to become a god” at the end is debatable, but we’d argue that the man we see in RE5 and Resident Evil Requiem has finally started to understand just how small he always was.
FAQs
Wesker was one of the main villains in Resident Evil up until RE5. He was the one who lured the S.T.A.R.S team to Spencer’s mansion in RE1. He was also a member of the ‘Wesker children’, whom Spencer raised as his own.
Spencer was killed by Wesker not just for revenge, but also so Wesker and his allies could remove a chess piece from the board and usurp his research.
Elpis was a cure for all T-Virus-related infections that Spencer created to counteract the evil he had loosed on the world. Grace was an orphan whom he adopted to give someone in need a home. She represented his hope and his desire to do something good for another person.
However, his enemies mistakenly thought Grace was a special test subject and the key to releasing Elpis, which they thought was a new virus. Once Spencer realized he and those around him were in danger, he gave Grace to Alyssa Ashcroft to care for.
Oswell Spencer was a megalomaniacal mass murderer who’d never be able to fully atone for all the terrible things he had done. He owned them and died knowing what he was and admitting to his sins. However, Resident Evil Requiem reveals that he tried to do some good before he died.
