Unnamed Scientist

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The title of this article is conjectural.

Although this article is based on official information, the actual name of this subject is pure conjecture.

Physical description
Species	Human
Gender	Female
Chronological and political information
Affiliation	Combine
Game information
Voiced by	Kim Dickens

 

"I am my supervisor. You're killing me."

―The Unnamed Scientist

 

The Scientist is a mysterious character who appears in Half-Life: Alyx.

Background

Very little information is provided on who or even what the Scientist is, although it is implied that while she works for the Combine she does not answer to them as Wallace Breen does. She alludes to being her own supervisor, and is happy to talk down to a Combine Advisor with confidence. She also clearly has some experience with or knowledge of the G-Man, given her knowledge of his powers and why it is so important for the Combine to contain him in the Vault. She also knows just how powerful Alyx Vance is and unlike her apparent subordinates knows better than to let Alyx near the Vault.

Appearances

Half-Life: Alyx

While traveling through the Quarantine Zone to get to the Vault, Alyx notices an apartment in a nearby building that appears to be occupied. Venturing inside, she overhears a conversation between the Scientist and a Combine Advisor, where the Scientist expresses her frustration at their inability to move the Vault so Alyx cannot get to it. She reminds the Combine who the Vault contains (whom Alyx, Russell, and Eli Vance assume to be Gordon Freeman), and that Alyx will stop at nothing to release whatever it is.

Behind the scenes

The Scientist was originally created purely as the solution to the problem of players figuring out the identity of the prisoner in the Vault long before actually getting there. The writers decided to add another character who by saying Gordon Freeman's name would grab the player's attention and propel the story to the final act, making the player think they now had a new mission to free Gordon Freeman from stasis. This decision came somewhat late in the process where it was important to know what a brand new character would sound like, so the writers chose to base the Scientist on actor Kim Dickens (who, luckily, they were able to cast): they felt Dickens had an easy, in-command confidence and smooth Missouri drawl that would work well in the game and set the Scientist apart from other characters in the series.

Trivia

• 

  With applied textures.

  She is only referred to as "scientist" in the game files and the credits.
• Her model is completely untextured except for the hair, but textures for her can be found and applied to the model.
• Her design heavily resembles Hans from beta Half-Life: Alyx. This design also somewhat resembles Helena Mossman from the Half-Life 2 Beta, and the Administrator, a character in the Team Fortress 2 universe, another game made by Valve.