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The WAU is reaching out to every machine, every life form, to manipulate, to control. It's trying to help, save its creators from all this, just like the protocol demands. But really, what is good enough?

Where is the line drawn for what is Human and what is not? Would walking corpses do? Would a group of machines thinking they're Human be acceptable? We can't trust a machine to know, to understand what it means to be.
Dr. Johan Ross[src]
Tau infirmaryfoto01
Tau infirmaryfoto02
Tau infirmaryfoto04
Possible photos of Dr. Johan Ross
Dr. Johan Ross
Born
21st Century
Unknown, poss. England
Died
May 11, 2104
Age unknown
Alpha, PATHOS-II
Status
Deceased
Nationality
England Englander[1]
Signature
Johan Ross

Actor Anthony Howell

Dr. Johan Ross is an Englander[1] neuroscientist employed by Carthage Industries. He served as the A.I. Psychologist on PATHOS-II, stationed at Tau. In SOMA, he was the sole worker at the covert Site Alpha as the overseer and operator of the WAU.

Description

In his normal Human form, there are three photos on the terminal in the Tau infirmary room that could possibly be Dr. Johan Ross, which can be seen above in Dr. Ross' infobox.

In his mutated form, Dr. Ross is a gaunt, top-heavy creature with a jaunting gait and thin tentacles pouring from his mouth. His behavior is unusual for a WAU-affected being; he is not hostile to Simon, and appears to retain his character and a semblance of Human sanity.

Dr. Ross is seen as being completely obsessed with destroying the WAU to the point of violence, as seen when he attempts to kill Simon Jarrett so that the WAU couldn't take advantage of Simon's immunity to the structure gel used to poison it.

Biography

Dr. Ross' signature appears to read Jonathan rather than Johan, meaning Dr. Ross' full name could be Dr. Jonathan Ross, with Dr. Johan Ross being a nickname and/or nom de plume of sorts.

Dr. Ross appears to be a very intelligent man, who is exceptionally well-spoken and prefers to keep to himself, as shown throughout Tau. He worked for Carthage Industries for a presumably extended period of time before he was stationed on PATHOS-II, likely with the goal of operating and overseeing the WAU.

His personal quarters were Cabin A at Tau. In his room, a copy of the works of René Descartes called The Evil Genius, named after the Cartesian philosophical concept of the same name, can be found alongside Volume 9 of The Collected Works of C.G. Jung and Volume 3 of The Work of Wittgenstein. He also has a statue of Budai, the Laughing Buddha, on a shelf and a bobblehead of Friedrich Nietzsche sitting on his desk next to his computer.

Work at Alpha and Tau

Having been involved in the development of the WAU, Dr. Ross witnessed its mutations and came to the conclusion that the WAU needed to be terminated. In addition to the fact that it was causing pipes to burst structure gel all throughout PATHOS-II, he stated that though the WAU has Humanity's survival as its highest priority, it has no understanding of what Humanity actually is - its attempts to preserve Human life created the Proxies, its attempts to preserve Human minds created the Mockingbirds - meaning if it was not destroyed, it would subject Humanity's last survivors to endless suffering.

After the Impact Event, Dr. Ross joined his colleagues at Tau. He remained there until Vic Auclair ordered the staff of Tau to evacuate and move up the Abyss Climber Rig to Omicron.

During the evacuation, the Tau staff were attacked by structure gel-mutated marine life, resulting in loss of radio contact with Omicron. After failing to reach the Climber and losing a number of colleagues, the remaining members of Tau - Dr. Ross, Steve Glasser, Neil Tsiolkovsky, Antjie Coetzee, and Vic Auclair - returned to the facility and were left stranded there.

"Death" and Mutation

On December 27th, 2103, Dr. Ross and Glasser took the Climber from Tau to Omicron to warn Julia Dahl and Mark Sarang of the critical situation with the WAU and site Alpha. Along the way, both men were attacked by the mutated wildlife, with only Dr. Ross making it onto the Climber albeit heavily injured. When Omicron later recalled the Climber per schedule, they discovered the comatose body of Dr. Ross.

The doctor's critically damaged body was placed in Omicron's central containment cell. Shortly thereafter, the Omicron staff experienced anomalous phenomena around the containment room, as well as system failures and excruciatingly painful CCRV-7 Blackbox interference. Unknown to the staff, this was a side effect of the WAU exerting control over electromagnetic fields in order to heal and resuscitate Dr. Ross through the structure gel inside his body.

At some point during his healing mutation, Dr. Ross gained telepathic abilities, which he used to "speak" to the Human personnel, possibly through their Blackboxes. Raleigh Herber, Omicron's dispatcher, was the only employee to believe the doctor's story about the WAU, site Alpha, and his plan to destroy it. As Dr. Ross later recounted to Simon Jarrett at site Alpha, "she was going to take care of it - but the WAU shrieked!" With the most intense surge of electromagnetic energy yet, the WAU overloaded the Blackboxes of all the staff at Omicron, causing their heads to explode.

In SOMA

Attempts to communicate

While Simon is attempting to fix Raleigh Herber's Haimatsu Power Suit, Dr. Ross sometimes appears and tries to contact him throughout the entirety of Omicron. Dr. Ross will often appear briefly in front of Simon, standing motionless and staring at him. In addition, while Simon is reading various computer monitors, the sentences "We have to stop it-- Stop the WAU," "Take the gel," "Get the virus," "An eternal nightmare," "We suffer," can appear on the monitor briefly, accompanying the same distortion of the screen when in Dr. Ross' physical presence.

During Simon's descent into the Omega Sector, the Climber begins to malfunction and Dr. Ross appears in front of Simon. He expresses joy at Simon's progress towards Tau, and states that he will make preparations for his arrival. Dr. Ross will then jump off and disappear into the Omega Sector as the Climber will continue to descend into the abyss. When Simon questions Dr. Catherine Chun about the event, she states that Dr. Ross merely stared at Simon for a few moments and did not speak at all. This indicates that he communicates with Simon telepathically, most likely possible due to them both being creatures infused with structure gel.

Trek to Alpha

During Simon's journey through the Omega Sector to reach Tau to retrieve the ARK, Dr. Ross can be seen in the distance at various points, watching Simon's progress. While Dr. Ross will usually appear on the trail ahead of Simon, he can also be seen watching Simon from the darkness of the abyss, unreachable.

When Simon enters Tau properly, the airlock will close and open once again, which is revealed to have been done by Dr. Ross to allow him to follow Simon. When Simon enters the main room of Tau, Dr. Ross will occasionally appear in the middle of the room on the table, telling Simon that there's nothing left at Tau and no reason for him to remain there. If the computer in dispatch or the infirmary is used to try to unlock Cabin A, Dr. Ross' personal quarters, he will interfere with the computer to input the right code himself, likely wanting Simon to see his reasoning for wanting to destroy the WAU, which can be found on Dr. Ross' datapad left on his desk.

When Simon leaves Tau through the Phi Access Tunnel, a structural collapse in the midsection of the tunnel blocks any further progress that could be made. At this point, Dr. Ross will reveal a passageway in one of the damaged sections of the tunnel that allows Simon to go back into the abyss. The trench Simon finds himself in leads straight to Alpha, with Dr. Ross' waiting outside of the breached entrance of the site to meet Simon. He will explain that it is the source of the downfall of PATHOS-II, and grief over how the WAU needs to be stopped to end any further suffering for Humanity. He will then disappear further into Alpha, awaiting for Simon outside the Core Isolation Laboratory.

As Simon enters the atrium of Alpha through the breached server room, Dr. Ross will further explain to Simon the events that transpired, revealing that the structure gel used by Simon to fix the suit was actually a modified variant of the substance made by the personnel at Omicron, how nobody listened to his instructions but Herber, who died along with the rest of the personnel at Omicron. This means that Simon is capable of carrying out Dr. Ross' initial plan to destroy the WAU once and for all.

Death

Once the Core Isolation Laboratory is reached, Dr. Ross pleads for the structure gel to be used to kill the WAU, to which Simon can either refuse or accept by sacrificing most of his left forearm to the heart, a rudimentary solution to inject the modified structure gel straight to the WAU. Should Simon succeed in destroying the WAU's heart, Dr. Ross will attempt to kill him in order to prevent the WAU from adapting to the new pattern through Simon's immunity. Should Simon opt not to destroy the WAU, Dr. Ross will attempt to force him to do it.

In both scenarios, the Leviathan will spontaneously emerge from the floor and consume Dr. Ross before he can do anything more. While it is possible due to his mutation that Dr. Ross survived the Leviathan consuming him and managed to escape, with the Leviathan possibly spitting him out later, there is no concrete evidence for this.

Shortly thereafter the event, Catherine reveals to Simon once they are inside Phi that the date and time is currently May 11, 2104, 3:30 AM, meaning that Dr. Ross' death occurred on May 11, 2104. As the short trek between Site Alpha and Site Phi took at least thirty minutes but possibly up to an hour before 3:30 AM to accomplish, the exact time of Dr. Ross' death may have been 3:00 or 2:30 AM.

Dialogue

Main article: Johan Ross/Dialogue

Behind the Scenes

  • Dr. Ross is played by English actor Anthony Howell, who has done notable roles in other sci-fi video games, such as Christopher Samuels in Alien: Isolation and S.A.M. in Observation. Funnily enough, he also played the role of a Jonathan Reid in Vampyr, whose name is remarkably similar to that of Dr. Ross.
  • During the very early versions of SOMA, when there was a faction of characters that wanted to remain completely organic called the Fleshers, the model used for Dr. Ross' mutated form was meant to be used for a Flesher dubbed "Devil," as signified by the model's internal name. This nickname in comparison to the other Fleshers which are only numbered signifies that the model was originally to be used for a sort of leader character of the Fleshers.
  • Before his death, he was the last surviving Carthage Industries employee on PATHOS-II, if not out of the entire company; Mark Sarang committed suicide via cyanide-laced gum, while Julia Dahl (as well as Paula Lansky, who was Carthage's Project Manager on PATHOS-II sometime pre-Impact, before she was repositioned following the Impact Event) died when the Blackboxes of the personnel at Omicron were overcharged by the WAU.
  • A cut piece of dialogue was meant to play in the Omega Sector, while Dr. Ross is watching Simon in the distance at some point when Simon gets close to Tau.

Gallery

Pre-release

Documents

SOMA

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Provided by Frictional Games Community and Operations Manager Kira Vesikko
    Ian Thomas (FG): He sounds unaccented English. Full name is Johan Ross. Actor is English.
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