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- “You know what sucks about dying? The crash. Everything up till now. The brain damage, you guys, everything -- it has made my life so much more... real. I started thinking about all the things I was going to do. I'd never been more excited to be alive! All that hope... wasted.”
- ― Simon Jarrett[src]
| Simon Jarrett | |
|---|---|
Birth date |
July 16, 1988 |
Nationality |
Canadian |
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| |
| Actor | N/A |
Simon Jarrett is the protagonist of SOMA.
Description
- “All those simplistic minds we've run into. Just reviving a dead person doesn't seem to work that well. A robot body seems to make people a bit... unreliable. You are the best of both worlds. A sound mind in a sound body.”
- ― Catherine Chun about Simon.
Simon is an average Caucasian male with brown eyes and hair. We see Simon's face at two points in the game - once in an introductory flashback, and once in a photograph found in Simon's Apartment depicting him and Ashley Hall.
Throughout SOMA, Simon exists in four different forms. The first is his original human body from 100 years in the past. The second and third bodies he occupies are the remains of Imogen Reed and Raleigh Herber (wearing a Ductile Suit and a Power Suit, respectively) after his consciousness is transferred to their suits via Pilot Seats. The fourth is a virtual recreation of his natural body on-board the ARK.
Before he was injured, Simon enjoyed watching television and playing video games. He worked at The Grimoire (a bookshop), with at least two friends (Ashley and Jesse). He's not very health-conscious, typically stocking his fridge with nothing but left-over takeout foods and 'Hungry Man'-type dinners. His apartment is somewhat cluttered but not outright messy, suggesting that he does clean but not thoroughly.
Simon is very easygoing at the beginning of the game. He is only slightly subdued and cautious due to his injury, which causes him headaches and pain, and can make him pass out if he gets too stressed. If his stress is prolonged, he runs the risk of dying due to the swelling of his brain and the resulting bleeding, so he tries his best to limit the stimuli he's exposed to. He refuses to turn his television on, and does not seem to keep a radio in his apartment, other than the one attached to his clock.
Biography
Simon Jarrett was a young man who lived and worked in Toronto, Canada. He worked at a comic shop called "The Grimoire" with several friends, and appeared to be in charge or at least in a managerial position, able to take days off with little notice other than word-of-mouth and a late email.
Before the game's events, Simon and a co-worker, Ashley Hall, were in a car accident caused by a mother of three running a red light and crashing into Simon's car due to being distracted by her children. Ashley died on the scene, suffocated by the blood that had flooded her lungs, and Simon was severely injured; he suffered brain damage and occasional bleeding from the head (typically along the frontal hairline), caused by his brain swelling and pressing against his skullcap. Due to this condition, his life expectancy was measured in months without treatment.
In SOMA
As a result of his brain damage, Simon volunteered to participate in an experimental treatment that included a scan of his brain. This treatment fails to save Simon's (original) life, and he dies shortly thereafter. The scan, however, is used as a template for advanced A.I. and kept in storage, and this version of Simon gains consciousness 100 years later in a largely abandoned facility called PATHOS-II, with no memory of the intervening time and no understanding of where or what he is.
Simon soon meets Catherine Chun, herself a brain scan on a Cortex Chip attached to a robot. Simon learns, to his disgust, that he's inhabiting a Cortex Chip attached to deceased PATHOS-II employee Imogen Reed in a diving suit; the chip and the necessary components for personality simulation were simply "shoved through the skull" and bound to Reed's corpse using Structure Gel. The resulting body is humanoid but has a pair of swiveling robotic cameras inside the helmet instead of a face.
A site-wide AI, the WAU, was responsible for Simon's resurrection. Humanity is nearly extinct, and the WAU's attempts at preservation are mostly generating aggressive, zombie-like monsters. Catherine tells Simon she has a better idea, and a way to escape: a project called the ARK, a virtual utopia where scans of human minds can survive, floating in space and powered by solar energy. Simon transfers Catherine's chip to an Omnitool he carries and the pair attempt to reach the Abyss, where the ARK is stored.
Mind transfer at Omicron
Simon and Catherine eventually find a power suit in the Omicron complex, with Raleigh Herber's corpse inside of it. Catherine informs Simon that they need to transfer his mind from the diving suit into the power suit so they can safely traverse the Abyss; Simon reluctantly agrees.
The suit is heavily damaged, and Simon must scavenge Omicron for the parts needed to repair it. While searching the site, Simon begins suffering several hallucinations involving Johan Ross, who is attempting to subliminally persuade Simon to stop the WAU.
After acquiring a Cortex Chip, an Energy Pal S.3, and some structure gel, Simon is forced into a confrontation with the Robot Girl, who chases him back to the suit station. Catherine shuts the door behind Simon at his urging, trapping the monster outside the room.
The brain scan is successful and Simon wakes up in the power suit, but he quickly realizes he's a copy - to his horror, there are now two Simons, one in the diving suit and another in the power suit. The Simon in the power suit must choose to either deactivate the diving suit and kill the version of himself inhabiting it or to leave it to live a doomed life inside Omicron. Either way Simon and Catherine head to the climber and to the Abyss inside the power suit.
Descent to the Abyss
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While riding the climber down to the Abyss, a power surge takes place and Simon is confronted by Dr. Johan Ross. Ross expresses delight at Simon's progress and later implores him to destroy the heart of the WAU. If Simon does so, his left forearm is amputated in the process, and in any case Ross is killed by a WAU-generated monster shortly thereafter.
Arrival at Phi
After making his way to the ARK with Catherine, she begins uploading both of their brain scans into the device and prepares the ARK to be launched into space via the Omega Space Gun. The brain uploads finish just in time for a successful launch, but Simon is confused to find that they're both still on Earth. Catherine explains that - much like what happened at Omicron - their minds were copied to the ARK, not transferred. This time, he is the consciousness that lost the "coin toss" and got left behind.
Furious, Simon berates Catherine for not having fully clarified that this would happen, and a frustrated Catherine berates Simon for his "ignorance" and refusal to accept reality. The stress of the argument overloads Catherine's Cortex Chip and destroys it, leaving Simon alone and desperately pleading with an unresponsive error screen. His ultimate fate is left unknown.
On the ARK
Meanwhile, the Simon and Catherine brain scans who were uploaded to the ARK meet each other, rejoicing as the ARK leaves Earth.
Gallery
Concept art
Pre-release
In-game
