Set across two separate time periods, “Resident Evil” shows an adult Jade Wesker in 2036 and a young Jade Wesker in 2022. The 2022 timeline shows Jade and her younger sister Billie shifting to New Raccoon City with their father, Albert Wesker (a famous antagonist of the “Resident Evil” franchise), where he continues to work for the dubious Umbrella Corporation. The 2036 timeline shows Jade researching the T-Virus to find out more about its characteristics as the world faces a zombie apocalypse.
The series has a new story with only some necessary elements borrowed from the original franchise. With one game and seven movies, including a 2021 Netflix movie, it is not unusual to think that there can only be so much to do with the franchise anymore. And Netflix’s decision to greenlight it seems to be nothing but Jade and Billie, who offer the typical school-teen genre vibes, one that has become over-the-top prevalent in recent years. However, you don’t have to know about the “Resident Evil” franchise in order to watch this series. And even if you do, it is natural to feel bombarded with the same thing over and over again, as there is nothing new to see. So, let us now explore what’s new in Netflix’s “Resident Evil.”
Role of T-Virus Explained
The T-Virus is what led to the now common zombies. After the old Raccoon City was nuked by the Umbrella Corporation to contain the spread of the virus, the new Raccoon City is a step, by Umbrella, to build a better and safer future for humans. How? This is where Joy comes in. Umbrella’s latest drug, Joy, is an antidepressant that can cure depression and anxiety. But if it is taken in excess or for an extended period, it affects the brain and turns humans into “monsters” or zombies, or “Zeros” as we know them. In fact, a derivative of the T-Virus was used to create Joy, which is the reason why the outbreak in Tijuana, as we hear in the show, occurred. It is the Tijuana incident that makes Albert Wesker apprehensive about the manufacturing of the Joy drug. It is also why he wants to delay its launch so that he can find a cure for it. But Evelyn Marcus is adamant that the Joy is harmless and wants to put it into production as soon as possible.
All The Monsters In Season 1: Explained
Netflix’s “Resident Evil” introduces new types of Zeros or zombies as well as brings back old ones. Here’s a list of them.
Zero Spider and Zero Caterpillar: Zombie Spiders are a common thing in the “Resident Evil” wiki. They can be found in the games too. They got big after the T-virus affected them in the old Raccoon City after its destruction by Umbrella led to the virus’s spread in the sewers. The Zero Caterpillar is another consequence of the T-Virus leak, just like the spider.
Mother Zero: The female zombie or the Mother Zero that we met in the underground holding of the group known as the Brotherhood, an organization that leads small groups formed by uninfected people all around the world. According to Jade, this female zombie is proof of the T-Virus evolving. She could control the other zombies using a pheromone she released via her screams. This is what Jade later works on after bringing Mother Zero’s severed head back to the ship.
Zombie Dog or Cerberus: We last saw them in Netflix’s “Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City”, i.e., a Doberman infected with the T-Virus. Only here, it is infected with Joy. Either way, it has lost all its emotional qualities as a dog and has become a monster.
Lickers: Also found in “Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City”. These are mutated humans with no eyes, a very long tongue, and an exposed brain. Naturally, they are ugly.
The Meta Zero in the Water Tank: Evelyn shows Wesker’s clone (another Wesker), the Meta Zero, stored inside a water tank in some kind of cryosleep. It’s a zero, no doubt, but it’s not like a regular zero. It is more transformed and larger. If we consider the games, it looks like Resident Evil 4’s boss Verdugo as well as Tyrant, one of the Umbrella’s trademark monsters that were made using the T-Virus. However, there is another suggestion. Is this the original Albert Wesker who was thought to be dead? Did Evelyn deliberately use him to test her new developments and thus make him dead to the world?
Zombie Croc: In “Resident Evil” Season 1, Episode 6, Jade and her friend Amrita are able to develop two pheromones from Mother Zero’s peculiar facial gland, one that doesn’t allow zombies to perceive the presence of the person wearing it and another pheromone that attracts zombies.
Again, Episode 8, Jade shows Amrita a lizard that she was able to put to controlled sleep by planting an electrode in its thalamus (brain), which delivers a focused ECT pulse. An ECT pulse sends electric currents through the brain, triggering a brief seizure. Clearly, the zombie Croc or Zero Croc was captured by Jade and her team much earlier and then planted with the electrode. The croc could then be used as a weapon when the need arrives, until which time it can be made to sleep. However, at the end of “Resident Evil” Season 1, Jade tells Arjun that the croc won’t attack those on the ship but those who are on the shore. This is because of the vial of pheromone she broke while being held by Billie at the camp. It’s the same pheromone she pulled from Mother Zero’s gland (that attracted all the other zombies as well).
Major Characters In ‘Resident Evil’ Season 1: Explained
As for the characters in Netflix’s “Resident Evil,” there are only four that matter. They are Jade, Billie, Albert, and Evelyn Marcus.
Jade Wesker: Jade and Billie both have altered DNA as developed by their father, Albert Wesker. So it means that Jade, like Billie, is not really affected by the “bites.” However, as we later find out that Billie isn’t impervious to the virus, but her DNA slows down the virus’s functioning by years, it remains to be seen if Jade too has the same quality. On the other hand, she has been addressed as a “survivor.” Does this mean that she is completely unaffected by the virus? We don’t know yet.
Jade Wesker has always been the brave one of the two sisters. But it does not legitimize her school act where she put on a mask and hit the girl who hurt Billie and then put the mask in Billie’s locker. It put the blame on Billie for the world to know, no matter how many times Jade claims that she did it for her sister. That was an act of cowardice. However, it is her daredevil attitude that has brought about multiple misfortunes in her life, e.g., Billie being bitten by the infected dog at Umbrella, the death of her friend Amrita, her daughter Bea being taken away, and perhaps many more. However, at the end of the not-thought-through bravery is the hope to bring an end to the world’s suffering by finding a cure for Joy. We do not know when she got separated from Billie or what happened that made her believe that Billie was dead, or whether she lied about Billie’s death for some reason. But the years have certainly added to the distance between her and Billie, as is clearly evident in the way she speaks to her after finding out that she is working for Umbrella.
There is another thing that needs to be mentioned here. The Zero Croc did not attack Jade’s daughter Bea on the island. Why? It seems that just like Wesker altered Jade’s DNA, Jade altered Bea’s too. We also do not know if Bea is her biological daughter. If she is, then she must have inherited some traits of her mother’s altered DNA that would then have evolved into something entirely new. Perhaps she is carrying the cure for the T-Virus.
Billie Wesker: Billie Wesker is the younger one, and she has always felt like it. For her, Jade was the rebel, while she had to make do with everything. One cannot deny the fact that it was Jade who decided to go to Umbrella and free the rabbits (help Billie), which ultimately led to Billie receiving the bite. And the fact that she had to undergo the pain all by herself made her feel all the more wretched. We do not know what happened to her that made her join Umbrella. We also do not know what she did to be able to control Evelyn in Episode 7. She tells Jade that she is changing, although the rate of change is very slow. It remains to be seen what will happen to her and what happened to her while she was at Umbrella.
At the end of Episode 8, Billie declares herself the future and addresses Jade as the virus. But on the contrary, it is Billie who is the virus that has the cloak of a drug that can heal the future, while Jade is the cure. Basically, every virus was once a cure on trial. And it is only when someone overlooks the potential dangers of the cure that it turns it into an unexpected virus.
Albert Wesker: Albert Wesker, the famous antagonist of the “Resident Evil” game franchise, is dead in the show. The Albert Wesker clones we see here were created by him to assist in his work. However, the Albert Wesker we know, who is the father of Jade and Billie, created them in “strong” specific ways. He gave them advantages by changing strands of their DNA. Keeping in mind that they are clones, it is not unusual to know that he wasn’t much of a father to his kids.
On the other hand, perhaps the kids are better off with a clone Bert rather than the original one, who was quite an evil guy (if we go by history). And then there is the fact that he loves his daughters a lot, to the point where he kills the journalist to cover his tracks that can lead to them. The fact that he injects himself with his daughter’s blood is so that he can slow down the rapid cell growth that will otherwise kill him. We do not know if it is the same case with the other Wesker, the mentally-unstable one. It should be because he is also a clone. Maybe Evelyn had managed to find a cure for it or an antidote or a way to slow down the changing process for a more extended period of time.
Evelyn Marcus: Evelyn Marcus is the sociopathic, over-ambitious owner of Umbrella Corporation. She is prepared to overlook any number of potential dangers of the Joy drug and introduce it to the market. A part of her desperation, along with her ambitiousness, roots in the fact that she reformed Umbrella after her father, James Marcus, founder of Umbrella, was thrown out of the company post the events at the old Raccoon City. She is someone who prefers work over family, which is often the case with mad scientists who turn their loved ones into science experiments. Here too, Evelyn, after realizing that her wife Diana would leave her, starts secretly giving her the Joy drug to keep her mind at bay. This eventually takes a toll on Diana, who, by the end of the show, has almost turned into a zombie (without the deformed appearance). She cannot register words at times and is not able to feel deep wounds. But all this doesn’t matter to Evelyn, who is all about what the future holds for her. She even shoots her son Simon after Billie bites him, even though Wesker tells her that he can find a cure. As much as it pains her, she knows that it will only slow her down, something that she cannot afford. Should we call this her sacrifice or her hunger for success? The latter seems more likely.
Later, we see that Evelyn is being controlled by Billie. This makes sense since Jade already stated that her sister is more into brain research while talking to Amrita about the ECT pulse and its effects on the brain of the lizard. We will have to wait for Season 2 to find out more about it.
‘Resident Evil’ Season 1: Ending Explained: What To Expect From Season 2?
At the end of “Resident Evil” Season 1, after the explosion, we see the hand of the Meta Zero rise from among the rubble. So, is this what led to the spread of the T-Virus? There’s a gap of many years between then and the present. So a lot has happened that we have to wait to find out.
On their way to escape the Umbrella authorities, Jade and Billie are given a name and an address by their father, Albert, who tells them to go and meet her. The name on the piece of paper is Ada Wong, a mysterious spy and a fan-favorite character in the “Resident Evil” games. We last saw her in the mid-credits scene of “Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City.” But this show is not following that canon, so this Ada will be a different one. It is clear that she knows about the T-Virus and Joy just as much as Wesker, as well as shares his views about them. Season 2 will reveal what happens after the girls meet her. The explosion doesn’t kill Evelyn Marcus either, and the last we see of her is when she is carried out on a stretcher. Season 2 will certainly give us more of her.
All these events together will slowly bridge the gap between the past and present, clearing all doubts one at a time. All of these are connected, and as each connection is established, more truths will come to light, along with more characters, or so we hope.
