Mossman: Double Agent, Tripple Agent, or Turncoat?

[nokori3byo]

It seems to me that there is some uncertainty about whether Mossman was indeed a double agent from the beginning of the HL2 story or whether she simply changed sides at an oppotune moment. I, for one favour the former theory, but...

Judith Mossman is a seriosuly underrated character, in terms of both her importance to the plot and her complexity. Recently, while playing through Ep. 1 for the third time, I was struck by the alacrity with which Mossman (in the video transmission) had already gotten stuck in to a major operation against the Combine mere hours after the events at the citadel. Some have argued that such rapid development of events in the plot is not completely believable, and they're probably right. But consider this: in many ways, Mossman seems to be one or two steps ahead of everyone (Eli included) when it comes to planinng and simply being in the loop. She's ostensibly on-side now, but have we really been made fully aware of her motives and allegiances at this point? Is there still more to her than meets the eye?

EDIT: A word of clarification re: poll options:

Mossman as double agent = She was working for the resitance all along, but posed as a traitor to infiltrate the Combine.

Mossman as triple agent = She is ostensibly a double agent for the Resistance, but actually serves a third faction and/or her own agenda.

Mossman as a turncoat = She was actually, at one point, a traitor for the Combine but turned on them out of disillusionment with Breen.

 

[MorganFreeman911]

Hmm. Good question. Hopefully all will be revealed in EP2.

 

[nokori3byo]

It also wouldn't shock me to learn that she hired Gordon's service without the knowledge of other Resistance leaders.

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

Proboaly not a double agent, alyx and eli were pretty pissed when she betrayed them, so I'm gonna go with turncoat, judging from Breens statements

 

[Oppressor]

Theres much potential in her character that VALVe probably will make good use of. You cant really be certain of which side she's on at the moment, just like G-Man. Any connections with G-Man perhaps? Sounds ridiculous, but who knows? And she's really busy with The Project, whatever that has to do with anything. We really need some story threads now. Fortunately, thats exactly what is being delivered this october

 

[nokori3byo]

Proboaly not a double agent, alyx and eli were pretty pissed when she betrayed them, so I'm gonna go with turncoat, judging from Breens statements

Then what do you make of her line "[I'm] doing what I could never do alone"? (or something like that). It's possible that: A) she was cold-blooded enough to allow the other characters to be captured to avoid blowing her cover, or B) she deliberately waited until heavily-armed Gordon Freeman was on the scene to put the final phase of her plan in action. Personally, I doubt it was a spur of the moment decision--though the fact that Resistance leader Eli wasn't in on the plan adds to the mystery.

 

[Asknoone]

She's certainly the best damn character in the game.

The reason she sold out the resistance was because she felt it was the only way to save the lives of the people she loved. She saw no hope in their cause and what with her taste for science was easy to manipulate, and Breen made full use of it.

I do think she was intending something about Breen though.

 

[Kevin]

She's definately a Turncoat.

But i don't see whats so special about her.
People keep saying she has the most complex personality of any character in the game and stuff.
What gives?

 

[nokori3byo]

Theres much potential in her character that VALVe probably will make good use of. You cant really be certain of which side she's on at the moment, just like G-Man. Any connections with G-Man perhaps? Sounds ridiculous, but who knows?

An interesting idea, nonetheless. Mossman seems to share G-Man's belief that "The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world."

 

[Tagaziel]

Now that I think of it... Judith Mossman may quite propably be the most intelligent person of the entire Resistance... think about it.

She may have masterminded the entire affair by herself - as a highly capable scientist, she would be a rather tasty bit for the Combine... not to mention she'd net them Eli.

So, Mossman would actually plan the Resistance's leaders capture... but she needed one element in her plan. Leverage. Gordon Freeman was this leverage, and through his actions put her plan in motion.

 

[Aki]

Turncoat.

Maybe she at first thought the resistance could succeed, but became disillusioned and turned traitor to save the lives of those she loved in resistance so they wouldn't go out and get killed, but later turned on Breen when it turned out that they may just die anyways. Or maybe she joined the resistance with the intention of betraying them to save them, etc.

 

[Omega11]

Interesting, I would hav ecpected more people to pick 'Triple Agent' =|

Mainly because she's always going back and fourth. She probably as her own plan, and is just switching sides to avoid consiquences, and possibly death. She's using the combine and the resistance to get to where she needs to be. My guess, in EP2, when she 'gets attacked by the hunter', she's going to switch sides AGAIN and tell them where that other rebel base (silo) is. Makes sense, Valve has already developed THE Traitor character it wouldn't make sense to get Eli, or Kleiner, or even Alyx to suddenly betray the resistance.

 

[Narvi]

I thought it was pretty clearly established in HL2 what her deal was.

She became disillusioned with the resistance, joined the Combine because she believed that Eli would have more success with his experiments, and would you know, not die if he was on their side. She switched sides because Breen intended to send Eli into a horrible Hell-dimension. Simple.

 

[Laivasse]

I thought it was pretty clearly established in HL2 what her deal was.

She became disillusioned with the resistance, joined the Combine because she believed that Eli would have more success with his experiments, and would you know, not die if he was on their side. She switched sides because Breen intended to send Eli into a horrible Hell-dimension. Simple.

Seconded. That makes her a turncoat by my calculations.

I think people are crediting her with a bit too much good will and complexity just because they like her character. To me it seemed pretty much like the standard 'traitor redeems themself for love' plotline with no real ambiguities. Think Hoggle in Labyrinth (with less scruples).

Also: nicer ass than that of Alyx.

 

[leib10]

Mossman's personality is completely meh, IMO.

 

[ríomhaire]

Mossman's personality is completely meh, IMO.

Thank you for your wonderful contribution to this discussion.

Anyway, I'd say that Judith just thought (Like Breen) that the rebellion was hopeless and the only way for humanity to survive was to surrender completly to / bargin with the Combine though she probably really knew that trying to make a deal with the Combine was hopeless. When she saw what Breen was about to do (And perhaps after seeing the technological advantage the resistance had over the Combine first hand) she finally decided that the only hope was resistance and turned on Breen.

 

[leib10]

It's more than what a lot of people contribute to these types of threads. That section of your post also contributed greatly to this thread.

Anyway, Mossman's character (not personality) shows potential for interesting plot twists. I'm going to go with this:

Mainly because she's always going back and fourth. She probably as her own plan, and is just switching sides to avoid consiquences, and possibly death. She's using the combine and the resistance to get to where she needs to be. My guess, in EP2, when she 'gets attacked by the hunter', she's going to switch sides AGAIN and tell them where that other rebel base (silo) is. Makes sense, Valve has already developed THE Traitor character it wouldn't make sense to get Eli, or Kleiner, or even Alyx to suddenly betray the resistance.

 

[ríomhaire]

It's more than what a lot of people contribute to these types of threads. That section of your post also contributed greatly to this thread.

As did that section of yours ^_^

 

[Omega11]

I'm confused, is that sarcasm, or not Oo.
And my theory kind of makes sense, think about it, it would lead to a Climax where you have to defend the silo, and what better weapon than the combine sniper rifle XD

 

[cheesepie]

I say we won't find out until episode 3. You don't actually seem to meet her in ep.2 from previews...

Also, I keep getting this weird scene in my head where you have to choose to trust in the g-man or mossman!

 

[Tomu]

Well I think that we probably won't meet Mossman in ep2 but we will get a transmission from her and I"m sure Eli or Kleiner will probably explain a lot of things to us in ep2 one of them being why Mossman is out in the artic so I'm sure we will find out something in ep2 relating to Mossman's true motives.

 

[Omega11]

Hopefully Oo
My guess is it's that whole 'Project Up North' thing, but a bit off topic here, does anyone know what the 'Challengr Deep' is? I'm clueless, it was mention in HL1 with the Ichthyosaur, so I'm just wondering, is it maybe an off shore secret facility like BMRF?

 

[Narvi]

The Challenger Deep is the deepest known point in the Mariana Trench, Omega11. It's the deepest known point in the ocean.

 

[Kevin]

Shoreside facility? *lolz*

 

[Azner]

Real Estate Agent. I heard shes one of the best, Jessica Malone

 

[Oppressor]

The Challenger Deep is the deepest known point in the Mariana Trench, Omega11. It's the deepest known point in the ocean.

Its 10,923 meters (35,838 feet or 6.7875 miles) deep!

Also a very bad mod to Half-Life

 

[Omega11]

I wasn't sure, I had thought that was it. Like, my first guess was something with the Marianas Trench, but I started jumping to the act that HL1 is in the future and such. . . so if it swam that deep, and that's possibly its place of origin. . . how does it survive at our water pressure level, like in BMRF and the pool of water in the teleport sequence of HL2? Oo

 

[Laivasse]

I wasn't sure, I had thought that was it. Like, my first guess was something with the Marianas Trench, but I started jumping to the act that HL1 is in the future and such. . . so if it swam that deep, and that's possibly its place of origin. . . how does it survive at our water pressure level, like in BMRF and the pool of water in the teleport sequence of HL2? Oo

The scientist who mentions the Challenger Deep also says that he swears the ichthyosaur never swam terrestrial waters until recently (ie. it got captured in a Xen raid or a portal experiment), so it didn't come from the deep and there's no reason to assume that the pressure is any different in its home environment on Xen.

 

[Omega11]

Ahh. . . not to mention, you sort of find one in the Garg chamber when fighting Nihinlanth XD
Guess I fogot Oo

 

[Kevin]

They said "it was hauled in from Challanger Deep" because they (who?)
tried to keep the war with xen hidden from the ordinary humans, who were just living they're life.

And what better way of doing it by telling your everyday populace "it's just an unknown species of fish, that DID originate from this world...nope...no evil alien raids or teleportation mishaps, absolutely not! Were all safe."

 

[Omega11]

Lol no kidding XD
I Guess they've been using the CHallenger Deep as a hiding place, because it's too deep for radar or anyone to find them accidentally. . . yeah, I think you just said that ><

Though it would be interesting to find one of those. . . so long as, you know, you're in a steel, protective boat wit some line of defense XD. I mean, c'mon, Itchyosaur VS. Jaws XD

Anyways, yes, Mossman is a traitor >.>

 

[Kevin]

Oversmilage dude!

 

[Omega11]

XD Really >.>
I only noticed that now XD
OMG, I did it again =O

Lol, sorry ><

dammit

 

[Kevin]

Now your just plain dumb.

 

[Nitre]

Probably a turncoat i reckon, but i'm not completely sure since she seems to switch sides of her own accord.

 

[Kevin]

I don`t think she will be switching sides to the combine again.
Hearing what Breen really intends.

 

[Asknoone]

I highly doubt she will ever turn her back on the resistance again.

 

[Omega11]

Not with the way they seem to be winning in EP 2