What About the Gardener?

[SonyaWolfe]

I thoroughly enjoyed the game, and have replayed each level at least twice now after buying it only a few days ago. There's just so much to like, and the story is really intriguing to me.

(Potential spoilers ahead!)

However, by the end of the game, I had some major questions left unanswered, particularly in regards to the mysterious "gardener". His presence is noticeable in multiple missions, generally in secret areas, starting with the very first mission. This person is clearly the one growing the crazy-strong super-marijuana or whatever it is that caused a bunch of rich teenagers to act exceptionally, fatally stupid in Loud Valley. He's almost certainly involved with Big Jim's organization (the fact that he even has a hideaway in one of the warehouse's "secret" areas, specifically an area that's quite visible through a huge window in the parking level, makes that clear)... but by the end of the game, we still don't know who he is or where he's gone. He seems like a very eccentric weirdo with an uncomfortable attachment to his plants, and may not even realize that he's caused a great deal of harm. I hope that his activity is a plot thread that will be followed up on in later story chapters.

[ShloppedPop]

Hi Sonya, I'm just a fellow player/fan but I had a theory about the Gardener.

The character seems to be a mad scientist type with a mysterious past; they clearly spend a lot of time around their plants, some of which (like the super-strain from Party's Over) are very potent. It's possible the Gardener suffers from some of the long-term effects of being around those plants for so long, as evidenced by the manic wall-scrawlings you find in their secret areas.

I believe they were brought into Big Jim's organization to create product, while also serving the "legitimate" employment of working in the warehouse's parking office (their secret area in Call In Dead is in this space; cleverly, their plants are hidden out of the FOV of people looking through the window). The Gardener, to me, feels like a Gale Boetticher from Breaking Bad type of drug cook - not a bad or sadistic person, but one who was searching for a new living situation and was offered one by Big Jim. Since the opportunity paid well and allowed them to continue tending to their plants, the Gardener likely either doesn't mind or doesn't know what Big Jim's organization has been responsible for.

My main curiosity following Call In Dead was whether or not one of the corpses in the level was of the Gardener. I don't believe it is, although their ominous final quote about "nothing going wrong" in their recording was a bit on the nose. What the Gardener does from here (if there are any future levels/installments) is a mystery; whether Big Jim brought them along in his quest to relocate and "burn" the compromised warehouse isn't ever shared. I guess we'll just have to see.

[Whirl]

Since the Gardener talks about being irritated about Rob selling weed and smoking it in Chapter One, it doesn't make sense to me that he's breeding a super-strain.

[Enola Gray]

I'm confused, too, I wondered if The Gardener was Big Jim