The world of Resident Evil is one where viruses and biological weapons are bought and sold like any other commodity. Powerful organizations profit from the chaos and fight amongst each other to gain or preserve their dominance in the bio-organic weapons black market.
The Umbrella Corporation is the most famous name in that world. The pharmaceutical giant created the T-Virus, which leaked and ultimately led to the destruction of Raccoon City. They essentially gave birth to the global bioterrorism crisis the series has been exploring ever since.
But what if I told you there was something worse than Umbrella lurking out there?
The Connections are an organization that works in the shadows. Yet their quest to infiltrate then destroy Umbrella to use their assets for their own gain has left a devastating legacy.
Who Are The Connections?
Very little is known about The Connections’ origins, and they’ve spent decades trying to keep it that way.
We know they’re an international crime syndicate that creates and sells bioweapons. They operate through intermediaries, connecting themselves to powerful companies and institutions like TRICELL and the U.S government. placed insiders. Drug trafficking, money laundering, arms dealing, biochemical research: they do all of it, right under everyone’s noses.
Infiltrating Umbrella Corporation
After you complete the main story in Resident Evil Requiem on any difficulty, you’ll unlock Grace’s Report, which will be available under Bonuses. It’s a long file summarizing The Connections’ ties to Umbrella, along with the former’s role in orchestrating the fall of both Raccoon City and Umbrella.
In 1986, using a puppet organization called the F Foundation, The Connections reached out to one of Umbrella’s co-founders James Marcus and started sending him money. In exchange, Marcus fed them intelligence on Umbrella’s internal research. When Marcus was killed, his protégé Brandon Bailey took over the arrangement. For decades,
The Connections had a direct line into the most dangerous bioweapons program in the world, and Umbrella had no idea. Every experiment, every viral strain, every breakthrough Umbrella achieved, The Connections were watching them.
The Connections’ Role in Raccoon City’s Destruction
In 1998, one of Umbrella’s bioweapons, the T-Virus, leaked from their research facility in Raccoon City. Within days, a viral outbreak consumed the city, turning residents into zombie-like creatures.
The U.S. government responded by dropping a thermobaric bomb on the city to stop the spread of infection. At least, that’s the official story the government told. Most of Raccoon City’s population of 100,000 residents died, with only a small handful managing to escape before the bomb dropped. It’s still one of the most tragic events to take place in the entire series.
Grace’s Report reveals that The Connections lobbied for the missile strike on Raccoon City.
The syndicate saw the disaster as a way to secure one of Umbrella’s assets for their own research and distribution of bioweapons. They used their connections to the government and TRICELL to make sure all of the blame landed on Umbrella and its co-founder, Oswell Spencer.
The Raccoon Trials ended with Umbrella being forced into bankruptcy while Spencer disappeared from the public eye after he was officially deemed responsible for the incident. Umbrella Corporation was liquidated and The Connections walked away with the company’s remaining assets. This includes a secret underground facility called the ARK, buried beneath the ruins of Raccoon City.
The Mold, Eveline, and the Baker Family
During the 1990s, The Connections offered to help Eastern European biologist Miranda resurrect her daughter Eva. Miranda gave them samples of Eva’s DNA and some samples of a hyper-evolved fungus from her region called Mold.
From the Mold came Eveline, a genetically engineered child capable of controlling the minds of the people who came into contact with her. She was the first of their E-Type bioweapons program but her birth was controversial. Her mind control abilities would have rendered conventional, chemical, nuclear and of course, bioweapons obsolete.
By 2014, she went into hiding. The Connections tried to move Eveline by cargo ship to a different laboratory. The ship was caught in the middle of a hurricane mid-journey. This caused Eveline to snap. She rebelled against her handlers and infected the ship’s crew with Mold. Eveline and one of her handlers, Mia Winters, went overboard and washed up on a bayou in Dulvey, Louisiana.
Eveline’s presence in Dulvey set off the events of Resident Evil 7. She infected the Baker Family with Mold to turn them into her new “family.” She used her mind control abilities to force the family to kidnap homeless people and tourists so she could add them to her collection. Eveline used Mia to lure her husband, Ethan Winters to Dulvey so she could adopt him as a father figure. Thankfully, Ethan was able to defeat her, but it doesn’t change the fact that The Connections were behind yet another tragedy that changed people’s lives for the worse.
Spencer’s Secret
So why were The Connections obsessed with getting their hands on Umbrella’s assets, particularly ARK?
The syndicate believed Spencer had created one final biological agent called Elpis. A leak stated it was powerful enough to upset the military balance of the entire world. They thought Elpis had the potential to control minds and spent years hunting for it. Even after The Connections acquired the ARK, Elpis was locked behind a password and getting it wrong on the first try would trigger ARK’s self-destruct mechanism.
When Elpis is finally unlocked by Grace Ashcroft in Resident Evil Requiem, we learn that it isn’t a weapon. It’s an antiviral agent. A cure that nullifies all virus-based bioweapons based on the Progenitor Virus.
Spencer, in his final years, did the unthinkable: he developed a conscience. He actually started to regret being responsible for all the horror Umbrella unleashed onto the world. So he created something that erased everything he’d built. It doesn’t redeem him, but he still managed to get the last laugh.
The Connections Are Still Out There
Requiem ends with Elpis released and two of The Connections’ top operatives Zeno and Victor Gideon killed. But the post-credits scene implies that the organization itself is still intact.
Two unknown soldiers move through the wreckage of ARK after killing all the BSAA agents present. We don’t know what they’re after, but that’s how the organization operates. You never know what their next move is going to be until after they strike first.
