I didn't ask to be paired with you. I didn't wanna come back. But I'm here now, so I'm gonna put an end to this.Tex
Tex, I would've helped you.Epsilon
You can't even help yourself. That's why you made me, Church. You made me to take on all the things you can't handle. Just like you always have. Well guess what, I'm gonna handle it.Tex in Tenth Percentile
Tex was a main character in Red vs. Blue, voiced by Kathleen Zuelch. She was a fragmented memory of Tex, first appearing in Backup Plans, who was created by Epsilon by removing her from his head and implanting her image into a robotic body encased inside a crate at the Freelancer Offsite Storage Facility.
She serves as the deuteragonist for the present day portions of Season 9, and later appears in the Restoration film.
Role in Plot
Awakening
Epsilon begins having memory flashes of Tex in Revelation, where he sees her watching him as he attempts to perform a eulogy. Epsilon later warns the Reds that Wash and the Meta will "find her," before passing out. Tex II is created from these memories in Backup Plans after Epsilon discovers an underground auxiliary project freelancer base. In a room only allowed access to by the Director was a small, human-sized chamber that Epsilon opens. Eventually, Tex II ominously busts down the steel door and defeats a team of Tucker, Simmons, Grif and Sarge, before being challenged by Epsilon himself, who takes a new body from the room wherein he'd created the new Tex.
Tex easily bests him with his previous Monitor body, however, Caboose activates the Armor Lock on Tex's armor, restraining her. This lock down protocol also affects everyone else in the room except Caboose. Epsilon later had a debate with Tucker and the Reds about letting Tex free from armor lock, resulting in Tucker saying she is meaner than his (non-existent) ex-wife. Epsilon enters Tex's body and he and Tex come to an agreement to let her out as long as she doesn't beat anyone up, however, she says that she will hit Tucker for his ex-wife crack.
Epsilon agrees and asks F.I.L.S.S. to turn off armor lock for all units while assuring the others that she will be fine. This frees Tex, who proceeds to hit Tucker in the face. Afterward, Tex catches up on what she's missed since she thinks she was last active, which turns out not to be as much as she was expecting. (In reality, Tex II is interpreting her memories of the previous Tex as if they are her own). However, she still wants to know more information in regards to who she really is. After Epsilon agrees to provide her "Director level" access to F.I.L.S.S.'s files, for this reason, Tex attempts to find the location of Freelancer Headquarters, but quickly discovers that the group had destroyed it during the events of Reconstruction, much to her annoyance.
Searching for the Truth
She then enlists Simmons's help in eliciting more information from F.I.L.S.S., although the A.I. proves to be difficult to interrogate (as much of the information is restricted to the Director only). When Epsilon, posing as the Director accesses the files, however, it is shown that the Counselor calls Tex "a byproduct", meaning that she was actually an A.I. based on trait rather than a specific personality. Nonetheless, Tex II manages to find information about a Freelancer base that piques her interest and informs the group of her departure. Epsilon, however, refuses to let her go alone.
In response to this, she allows him to accompany her, musing that he could be of some use once they arrive. At a Freelancer base, Tex makes quick work of the guards there just before Epsilon arrives. They then enter the facility, at which point she tells Epsilon that this is where Project Freelancer had once kept Alpha. Evidently, the previous Tex was the one who had led a group of rogue Freelancers to rescue the Alpha, refusing to let the A.I. suffer at the hands of the project's continued experiments, and Tex II reveals that the Director used other A.I., including Gamma and Omega, to help him.
However, the previous Tex failed her mission and Alpha's mental state had deteriorated past the breaking point, where he did not even recognize her. In a defeated tone, Tex II confesses to Epsilon the belief that the fault all lied with her. After searching the facility, Tex decides that the elusive Director will have the answers she needs. Tex believes that the whereabouts of the Director are known by Washington and the Meta and shoots Epsilon in the foot to summon them. Epsilon's recovery beacon triggers, alerting Wash and Meta from the desert (as well as the Reds and Blues back at the facility).
Battle at Sidewinder
Tex then leaves Epsilon incapacitated as she makes preparations for her fellow ex-Freelancers' arrival. When they finally appear, Wash incorrectly ascertains that a Freelancer must be hiding out somewhere, but soon discovers set explosives which promptly blows them up. Wash and the Meta (as well as Doc) survive the surprise attack, and quickly find and engage Tex in hand-to-hand combat. However, in order to even the odds against her two adversaries, she planted numerous weapons all over the battlefield, including a Chaingun, an Assault Rifle, a Battle Rifle, and multiple explosives, which collapse part of the area.
She fails to best them and an overzealous Meta stabs Tex in the face with a Capture Unit, trapping her inside. The Meta then uses this unit to give himself Tex's signature ability: Cloaking. He then betrays Wash, with Wash attempting to fight back, however, the Meta easily bests him. Fortunately, he is saved by the sudden arrival of the Reds and Blues. After the Meta is temporarily incapacitated, Epsilon pleads with Wash to let Tex out of the unit. Wash, however, explains that the unit is one-way, and that he won't be able to let her out without the necessary tools.
He eventually agrees to help after Epsilon promises to come with him if he should save her. At this point, Epsilon clarifies Tex's original identity: she was an A.I. who was once part of the Alpha. However, unlike the fragments who were pieces of the Alpha's shattered psyche, Tex was a full A.I. byproduct and was based on the memories of the real Allison, a woman the Director had loved who died years before. As a result, any version of Tex would always be doomed to fail in anything they tried to accomplish. Suddenly, the Meta emerges from hiding and attacks, using Tex II to power up his enhancements.
With Epsilon and Wash incapacitated, the Reds and Blues fight the Meta and manage to disarm the capture unit from his possession, right before killing him. Epsilon then makes the decision to follow Tex II into the unit in an attempt to find her. Inside, he compares a great love similar to a good memory, saying that the more one keeps trying to focus on it and force it to come to them, they may only seem to push it away. Instead, Epsilon suggests that if one is patient the memory, it will eventually come to you. So, rather than seek Tex out, Epsilon decides to stay in a recreation of Blood Gulch created from his memories, in hopes that Tex will find him there.
Inside the Memory Unit
Tex arrives inside the memory unit and throws a flashbang grenade at the center of the Blues. They believe they are under attack and fire blindly in the sky while Tex watches from a nearby hill. She approaches them and asks about their dead soldier. Epsilon, in an effort to get her to stay, tells her a fake soldier name. After calling Command, Tex tells the Blues that she'll help them by evening the teams, thus killing a Red. After some debate, Tex kills Lopez with a sniper rifle, now evening the teams. Later on, Epsilon attempts to talk to Tex alone while she works on the tank, but is interrupted by Caboose.
In another attempt, Epsilon successfully speaks with her while she worked on the tank. She reveals she knows all about the real world, surprising Epsilon, and says she doesn't know why the Director made her. The tank suddenly activates, in which Tex tells Epsilon "See what happens when you treat something right?" and he, thinking about Tex, replies "Yeah. Yeah, as a matter of fact, I think I do." As time passes, Grif insults the Blue Team in order to obtain a bomb. Tex gets mad and decides to kill all the Reds. By using a robot kit, Tex builds Andy and inconspicuously places him at Red base.
After many sudden earthquakes, Tex and the Blues decide to flee Blood Gulch, but Epsilon decides to stay behind. While Caboose and Tucker escape in the tank, Tex stays with Epsilon as well. The two then share a heartfelt moment together, where Epsilon reveals he knows now what the Director and Alpha couldn't figure out. He then tells her that he has three words for her. Despite Tex not wanting to hear them, believing it to be "I love you", Epsilon tells her "I forget you." As a result, Tex is erased.
Restoration
The events in Restoration depict the fate of various characters after The End while discarding the events of The Shisno Trilogy and Zero, but does not commit to whether or not itself is canonical.
Resurrection
Although Epsilon symbolically freed Tex from existence, fragments of her still remained in his programming. During the final act of Restoration, this version of Tex was restored from the remnants of Epsilon by Caboose to fight the new Meta, using the memories of the Reds and Blues. Due to being a product of their memories rather than the original Leonard Church, Tex was no longer doomed to failure. With the arrival of Carolina, the two assisted the Reds and Blues in successfully capturing the remaining Epsilon fragments from the Meta using a capture unit, which also sucked in Tex. Inside the unit, Tex reunited with the re-formed Epsilon, now taking on the persona of Leonard Church. Tex assured Church they would have plenty of time to reconnect inside the unit, and introduced herself as "Allison Church."
Caboose later destroyed the capture unit to prevent the Meta from ever returning or the U.N.S.C. from using it.
Personality
Tex II's personality is almost completely identical to that of the original Tex. There are slight variations, however, most noticeably the fact that she is much kinder with Epsilon than her previous incarnation was, demonstrated chiefly by the fact that she acknowledges that she is Church's girlfriend, something the original Tex never did. It is possible that their relationship is better because they have better memories of the original Leonard Church and his lost love Allison, on whom Tex is based.
This is because Tex II is a fragment of Epsilon, which is the memory fragment of the Alpha, so she could retain a better memory of what the relationship between Dr. Church and Alison was like. Alternatively, since the Alpha always believed he and Tex had been in a relationship, this could have influenced Tex II's identity when she was created. Despite her soft spot for Church, Tex II retains most of her violent traits; as displayed when she attacks the Reds immediately after being released and later when she shows no hesitation in preparing to kill Washington when he fails to give her information on the Director (though he was saved by the Meta).
Relationships
Tex II's relationships has many similarities to her original counterpart. Although, her relationship to the Reds and Blues, both in real life and within the A.I. Storage Unit, seems to be colder and less friendly due to her having not spent enough time with them.
Skills and Abilities
Combat
Tex II, like the original, possesses great skill as a fighter, having the ability to fight and defeat Grif, Simmons, Sarge and Tucker in a four-on-one fight. She repeatedly bests them throughout the fight, with every single attempt on their part failing. Her skill in martial arts is further displayed where she took on and was a match for both Washington and the Meta throughout most of the fight.
Along with her skills in martial arts, she seems to have enough knowledge of military tactics to modify them for her own use, as displayed at the end of Rally Cap, where she sets up a trap that, at first glance, looks like a setup for a sniper when in reality was actually a trap made up of an array of trip mines. When compared to the original Tex, however, Tex II lags behind in combat performance. This is likely due to the absence of the A.I. Omega, which the original Tex possessed and Tex II does not. During Introductions, the original Tex displayed the ability to fight, defeat and completely overwhelm York, Wyoming and Maine in a 3-on-1 fight.
In Reunion, however, Tex II was shown to only barely hold her own against Wash and the Meta, possibly due to their increase in skill, in which she lost in the end; this resulted in her getting trapped in the Capture Unit. Keep in mind that at this time, the Meta in particular had no access to any A.I. and had no ability to use any of the armor enhancements he possessed, therefore equating roughly to his abilities as the former agent Maine. The two did possess better teamwork than the trio who faced the original Tex in Introductions.
Failures
Similar to her original counterpart, Tex II is based on a woman Dr. Leonard Church loved, but died, leaving him with only the memory of this, and because of this, she is fated to fail at everything she does as Epsilon-Church explained. However, when she was restored from the memories of Grif, Simmons and Caboose, she lost this handicap due to being restored from their memories rather than the Director's.
- While fighting the Reds in Revelation, she ran out of ammo as she was about to kill Grif, and as she was about to kill Tucker with his own sword, it turned off, because it only works for Tucker.
- Her attempts to kill Agent Washington and the Meta on Sidewinder ultimately failed when the Meta stabbed her in the face with the capture unit, trapping her inside it.
- While inside the Epsilon unit, she failed to kill the Reds with a bomb she built, which, ultimately, didn't detonate because he didn't know how to do so.
Gallery
Trivia
- All scenes in Halo 3 featuring Tex were created using the leader traits to make Tex's armor Black. This is because Black was not a selectable color in Halo 3 without using leader traits.
- In a Rooster Teeth Reddit AMA, after a fan asked whether Tex would return after Season 9, Burnie Burns responded with "You might have seen the end of Tex's story without seeing all of Tex's story. Make sense?"
- Malcom Hargrove possessed Tex II's helmet in his trophy room on board the Staff of Charon during Season 13.