Oswell E. Spencer spent decades pursuing his eugenics ambitions. It all started when he met biologist and priestess Miranda as a university student in the 1950s. Taken in as her protégé, Miranda introduced Spencer to the Mold, a type of fungi capable of mutating, assimilating and replicating lifeforms. The two would go their separate ways since Miranda was more interested in using the Mold to resurrect her daughter Eva, while Spencer was inspired to create a new breed of enhanced humans that he could rule over.
In the late 1960s, Spencer along with scientist James Marcus and aristocrat Edward Ashford discovered the Progenitor Virus, an ancient pathogen pulled from a rare flower found in West Africa. The virus could rewrite living cells at a fundamental level. Viewing the Progenitor Virus as a means to achieve his dreams of godhood, Spencer co-founded Umbrella Corporation with Marcus and Ashford to produce biological weapons, with Umbrella acting as pharmaceutical company to secure the necessary funds.
The Progenitor Virus was refined into the T-Virus, which could turn people into Bio-Organic Weapons (B.O.W.s) that were stronger than regular humans and could survive just about anything. These B.O.W.s were created with the purpose of replacing large-scale conventional armies and were sold on the bio-weapons market for use by the military and paramilitary.
Spencer oversaw human experimentation across multiple secret facilities worldwide, and he eliminated anyone who got in his way. He staged a lab accident to kill Edward Ashford, then had the Trevor family kidnapped and used as Progenitor test subjects. He sent two of his own protégés, Albert Wesker and William Birkin to assassinate James Marcus when he became too powerful a rival. Every atrocity Spencer committed was a deliberate act. Spencer didn’t just control Umbrella; he was Umbrella.
So when Resident Evil Requiem revealed that Spencer had been working on a cure to undo all his hard work, it was a tough pill to swallow.
The Cure Nobody Saw Coming
Elpis is the secret project at the heart of Requiem. Former Umbrella researcher Victor Gideon and his partner Zeno have spent years searching for it. Based on incomplete notes Spencer left behind, the duo are under the impression that it’s a bioweapon capable of controlling the minds of those infected with it.
They were wrong. When FBI analyst Grace Ashcroft finally reaches Elpis deep inside the ARK facility, she discovers that it’s actually an antiviral drug that eliminates all traces of Progenitor-based viruses and its variants in a human. In other words, all virus-based weapons are rendered useless, which will cripple the bio-weapons market.
The game paints this twist as a form of redemption for Spencer. Apparently, in his final years, he felt guilty for all the damage his experiments inflicted onto Raccoon City and basically the entire world. So he worked on a cure in secret to make things right. He even chose “Hope” to be the password to release Elpis and he arranged for Grace, his adoptive daughter, to be the one person who could find and release it.
Why Would Spencer Create a Cure for Progenitor-Based Viruses?
It’s…a lot to take in considering everything Spencer has done and most players didn’t like the explanation Requiem gave. And they do have a point.
Think about what Spencer was doing at the same time he was developing this cure. He was still conducting human experiments, torturing people in hidden labs or arranging their assassination. To believe that he was simultaneously working on a cure out of the goodness of his heart is insane.
If Spencer really wanted redemption, he could have, you know, stopped all projects and experiments connected to the Progenitor Virus. He could have used his resources and influence to help the survivors of the Raccoon City outbreak. There’s so much he could have done to negate some of the damage.
Instead, he left incomplete notes designed to mislead anyone who found them, buried Elpis deep within the ruins of Raccoon City, and built a retrieval system so convoluted that only one specific person, a woman he briefly raised when she was a baby, could unlock it. That’s not what repentance looks like.
Elpis Was Spencer’s Revenge
It makes more sense for Elpis to be revenge against those he felt had wronged him.
After the destruction of Raccoon City, the U.S. government, one of Umbrella’s bioweapons customers, started to distance themselves. Congress filed a decree suspending business with Umbrella USA, which Spencer responded to by having Umbrella file a lawsuit against the government. His legal strategy consisted of moving blame to other people and accusing the government of crafting an elaborate conspiracy theory to cover up their dealings with Umbrella.
Then Albert Wesker, a former Umbrella researcher, submitted data for all of Umbrella’s experiments to the U.S. government. With irrefutable evidence of Umbrella’s involvement, the company was found guilty of all charges, and eventually went bankrupt. Now a wanted fugitive, Spencer would spend his final years hiding in his family estate in Europe.
An international crime syndicate called The Connections played a major role in Spencer’s and Umbrella’s downfall. They not only turned the U.S. government against them through the Raccoon Trials, they also seized Umbrella’s assets for their own creation and distribution of bioweapons.
Spencer ordered Dr. Alex Wesker to work on a new virus to restore the former’s youth, but never received a sample despite the project’s completion. In reality, Alex lied about the difficulties she encountered in the experiments and made fake reports to pacify Spencer. After giving up on the project, Alex, her results, subordinates and test subjects disappeared without a trace.
Releasing an antiviral that neutralizes every Progenitor-based weapon in existence would be devastating. Nations that had spent tens to hundreds of millions of dollars on B.O.W.s would find them useless overnight. As more entities embraced the mass production of B.O.W.s, the entire world order has been thrown into chaos! Victor Gideon reaches this conclusion during the game’s climax. What makes this even better is that the ARK was designed to detonate the entire facility the minute someone entered the wrong password for Elpis.
Spencer went out of his way to ensure that anyone who was desperate enough to seek out his legacy would have their efforts thrown back into their face. What little info that was available about Elpis was designed to mislead his enemies and copycats into thinking it was the greatest thing that was ever invented, the bioweapon to end all bioweapons.
And it was, but not for the reasons that would actually benefit the international bio-weapons market.
Actually, now that I think about it, presenting his revenge as an act of hope and atonement probably is in line with Spencer’s character. This is a man who ran an evil corporation disguised as a pharmaceutical company for decades. Hell, one of Umbrella’s slogans is “protecting the health of the people, anytime, anywhere!”
Of course his final act of vengeance would follow a similar pattern. Depending on how you look at it, Elpis is either a genuine act of penitence or a final ”fuck you” to his enemies. The ambiguity is intentional.
