Resident Evil Village is quite the rollercoaster ride, with some major revelations coming in the game's closing hour. From adding more context to the original game to questions on where the next Resident Evil title will go, there's plenty to unpack.
The latest entry in the long-running zombie franchise came out Friday for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox Oneand PC. It continues the story of protagonist Ethan Winters from Resident Evil 7 and deals with the fallout from the return of series mainstay Chris Redfield. The anti-bioterrorism agent's mysterious appearance at the end of the previous game and shocking actions at the beginning of this one created a lot of questions for fans.
What's the deal with Mother Miranda?
The game's main villain lost her daughter Eva to the Spanish flu, a real-life pandemic that ran from 1918 to 1921 and caused an estimated 50 million deaths. Stricken with grief, Miranda wandered into a cave to die and happened upon the Megamycete -- the source of the mold from Resident Evil 7 and Village.
Its regenerative properties made her immortal, and she realized it absorbed the consciousness of those who died. That meant Miranda could bring her daughter Eva back to life. She started experimenting on the villagers as she sought the perfect vessel.
The "Mia" Chris killed in the game's opening was actually Miranda in disguise. She kidnapped the real Mia Winters, wife of protagonist Ethan Winters, and used her for experiments, eventually taking her place in order to snatch their daughter Rose. The Winters' baby, being the child of parents who'd been infected by mold, was apparently the ideal vessel for Eva's return
Mother Miranda makes a big impression in her first confrontation with Ethan.
Is Ethan Winters really dead?
In a move likely to surprise everyone playing the game, Miranda removed Ethan's heart like a Mortal Kombat fatality. As he seemingly laid dead, a vision of Eveline, the antagonist from the last game, appeared to him.
She might look like a little girl, but Eveline was actually a bioweapon with power over mind-controlling mold. She was created by The Connections, a criminal group, after Miranda supplied them with a sample of the mold. Ethan killed Eveline in the previous game's final battle after she mutated into a giant mold beast.
In Village, Eveline shows Ethan a quick flashback revealing that after his fight with a possessed Mia at the start of Resident Evil 7, family patriarch Jack Baker killed him with his "Welcome to the family, son" punch and stomp to the head. However, thanks to Eveline's mold, Ethan essentially became a "super" being with the ability to heal himself and attaching torn-off limbs quite easily with healing items. This power isn't quite as flashy as the abilities of the rest of Eveline's victims, but it was enough for Ethan to stop them all.
In Village, we get a clue about Ethan's status early in the game. When Lady Dimitrescu feeds on his blood during their first encounter, she says it's "starting to go a little stale."
After Eveline's revelation, Ethan comes back to life and defeats Miranda. With his body failing, he makes one final sacrifice to make sure Mia and his daughter Rose are safe -- he destroys the Megamycete, seemingly cutting off the source of Miranda's power and ending her for good.
So is Ethan really dead? He's about as dead as a character can be in a game about zombies. It seems like Capcom did kill him off, as we see a grown-up Rose visit his grave and the final message saying "The father's story is now done." But with so many organizations developing bioweapons, it's possible our faceless hero could turn up in Resident Evil 9 or some future game.
What will happen with Rose?
If Ethan doesn't come back for the next Resident Evil game, his daughter appears to be a possible replacement.
The final scene flashes forward to a grownup Rose, implying she became an agent with the new Umbrella under the tutelage of Chris Redfield. She also wields some sort of power, which was the reason why mother Miranda kidnapped her. Rose's powers are most likely equivalent to Eveline's use of mold in Resident Evil 7, since the agent who tracked her mockingly calls her "Eveline."
It also seems that a sniper was prepared to shoot Rose if she got out of control, but the agent tells them to stand down.
As for whether we'll see her in Resident Evil 9, it's up in the air. There are still a lot of the Resident Evil characters we haven't seen in some time -- aside from the remakes -- like Claire Redfield, Leon Kennedy and Jill Valentine.
What happened with the BSAA?
When players briefly take control of Chris towards the end of the game, there are multiple mentions of the BSAA, or Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance.
Longtime Resident Evil fans will remember the introduction of the organization in Resident Evil 5, which brought back Chris as a member of the BSAA. The UN-backed group tracks down bioweapons and destroys them, but for some reason, the BSAA has started using them as soldiers, as evidenced by a zombie in military gear it deployed to the village.
Just like how Umbrella went from bad company to good company in Resident Evil 7, maybe the BSAA flipped as well. The BSAA could also be a focus of some future downloadable content for Resident Evil Village, but Capcom has yet to announce any such plans.
What's with the Umbrella logo?
One of the big questions raised in the early trailers for Resident Evil Village centered on the Umbrella logo found in a stone structure. At the end of the game, we learn that Oswell Spencer, one of the founders of the Umbrella Corporation, visited the village when he was a medical student, some years before the formation of the company.
Spencer was inspired by the umbrella-looking design on the Giant's Chalice at the village and decided that would be the logo for his company.
Seeing how Miranda was infecting villagers with the mold gave him the idea to use a virus to further human evolution. Her plan to resurrect her daughter wasn't quite ambitious enough for Spencer. He parted ways with Miranda and discovered the Progenitor virus in Africa (as seen in Resident Evil 5), which led to the development of the T-virus that was the start of the zombie outbreak in the original Resident Evil.
This usage of the logo has little to do with the story of Resident Evil Village and is more of an Easter egg for longtime fans. However, its presence is dripping with symbolic meaning, since Spencer's encounter with Miranda at an impressionable time inspired him to research viruses. Miranda's quest to resurrect her daughter indirectly kicked off the events of the whole series and is the reason bioterrorism is a constant threat in the Resident Evil universe.
When did Miranda replace Mia? Didn't Ethan notice there was something up with his wife?
It's hard to determine when the switch happened. Considering Rose is still an infant, Miranda probably took over Mia within the past few weeks or even months.
As for why Ethan didn't notice, well he is a little slow. He does have mold for brains after all, but he's still a badass.