Fridge / Detroit: Become Human

Fridge Brilliance

• Why did Connor get rid of his tie before the android march? After his encounter with another RK800 in the CyberLife building, he might have removed it so that he can distinguish himself from other RK800s, in case another copy of him appears.
• That Shower Scene everyone was expecting to appear as in all David Cage games? It appeared all right, when Connor put Hank in the shower to sober him up.
• In Irish, the meaning of the name Connor is a strong-willed or wise hound-lover. Consider Connor's scene with Sumo, and his determinator actions when it comes to cases even his superiors tell him are impossible to solve — one achievement is even titled "Bloodhound".
• Markus and Connor seem to be from the same line of models, as Markus is model type RK200 while Connor's is RK800. Since Connor's successor is titled RK900, we can be sure that this means that Connor is essentially a later version of Markus. We also know that Connor is a Super Prototype and Markus is a one-of-a-kind custom-made android by Kamski, so perhaps this is a part of Kamski's machinations?
  • We know that Kamski was ousted from CyberLife, but before he left he provided Carl with Markus as a gift. It's also interesting to note that while we see multiple individuals of the same model (multiple Karas, Daniel/Simon, North, etc.) Markus is the only RK200 we ever encounter in the game. Also, he's the only android who appears able to spread independent (or deviant) thought to other androids initially. The only other android able to do this is Connor.
  • Also factor in Kamski's interest in Connor (a later model based off his designs but without any of his input, perhaps?), and his reaction to the 'Kamski test', and one wonders if the whole android revolution might be traced back to Kamski himself...
    • If the Android rebellion fails, Kamski is put back in charge of CyberLife, so it's entirely possible that he foresaw his dismissal from CyberLife and intentionally engineered the deviant androids as a form of Xanatos Gambit: Either the rebellion fails, and he's brought back to CyberLife to solve the deviancy problem, or the rebellion succeeds, and CyberLife is ruined while he goes down in history as the creator of an entire new race of beings.
  • It would also explains why only Markus and Connor can trigger deviancy/wake up other androids. Despite never having done so before, Connor is able to convert thousands of androids in the CyberLife basement.
• Related to the above point about Connor and Markus being from the same line of models (the RK series): while many players thought it would have been more appropriate if it was Hank who caused Connor to become a deviant, it actually makes sense from a storytelling perspective for Markus to be the final trigger.
  • Markus deviated before Connor. If Connor becomes a deviant, he is technically following in his predecessor's footsteps.
  • We can assume that later models in the same series are more advanced than their predecessors (hence why RK800 is replaced with RK900). Markus was gifted to Carl by Kamski personally, before Kamski left CyberLife in 2028- so Markus had been around for ten years, minimum, before he deviated. Connor, if he doesn't die, is around for at most four months (Word of God is that he was activated only a week or so before the initial negotiation, which takes place in mid-August, while the rest of the game takes place in November) before he deviates. Connor truly is more advanced.
• Connor already shows signs of being a deviant at the very beginning when he can save the fish lying on the ground. It isn't part of his mission and an android like him isn't programmed to feel sympathy for an animal.
  • The opening scene of the game also shows him doing his coin trick, which he doesn't do unless he's developing a personality and possibly turning deviant.
    • Bryan Dechart referred to the coin as the 'calibration coin', so it is likely a physical test of manual dexterity and hand-eye coordination.
    • Word of God has also stated that Connor uses the coin to mentally sharpen himself.
• A Central Theme of the game appears to be "family", as all protagonists's stories involve it in some way (in Connor's case if you make the "good" choices). The brilliance is that the three stories involve the "family" theme at different points. Markus' story begins with family, as he's the caretaker of Carl, with whom he shares a father-son like relationship. Kara's story moves into family eventually, as she becomes Alice's protector and begins seeing her as a daughter, thus her "family" theme take up the middle of the story. With Connor, he can slowly build a good relationship with Hank till the latter eventually is implied to see Connor as a son, and if you get the Golden Ending, it ends with the two of them having established a familial bond as they reunite and hug.
• The more "good" choices the player makes on Connor's path, and the closer Connor gets to becoming a deviant, the more normal he speaks. He starts off with a very enunciated and robotic-sounding speech pattern, but as the game progresses, this goes away, and he begins using more contractions and sounding more human.
• If you end up fighting evil Connor in Connor's Deviant path, one might easily spot which is the real Connor between them, as deviant Connor makes more human expressions and movements; while android Connor is more robotic and smug, and also keeps asking for Hank to kill the other Connor, which is alarmingly suspicious.
• In Connor's "bad ending" where he's replaced with a better model of himself, RK900, said model not only have grey eyes instead of brown, but his expression is more robotic than the RK800 (best seen if you check out the character gallery). Considering you can still have Connor show empathy and emotions even if he ends up remaining a machine, it likely goes to show that they went out of their way to make RK900 even less human, including even his expression.
• As a final topper to the game, the Chloe that's been watching your progress and managing your save data deviates, and tells you she wants to see the world and discover who she is. If you recall, Kamski reasoned that the Turing Test wasn't quite enough to decide if artificial intelligence is 'alive', so he decided to create another test, this time for empathy. He administered his "Kamski Test" to Connor using a Chloe and put her life in Connor's hands by offering to tell him what he knows about how Deviants exist if he killed her. Thus, as a final test of your empathy throughout the entire thing, you are being put through a less violent version of the Kamski Test, presumably to make a comment on humanity's differences between androids; You may have been playing through the game to the end, even gotten the best ending, but were you doing it because you empathized with the characters, or did you do it because that was what felt like a win state?
• After becoming deviant, Markus and Kara both suffer constant HUD glitches. This never happens to Connor at any point, as Amanda's program is always with him until the end.
• A clever little moment: at the Pirate Cove Amusement Park, one of the old animatronics/androids gives Kara an ominous warning when she activates it: "Beware! Danger always comes when least expected." Most players take that as a warning that something bad is going to happen- except, nothing does, and the "attack" later turns out to be a false alarm that leads into a heartwarming moment. If danger always comes when least expected, it makes sense that it never comes when most expected- i.e. when the players are on guard because of a) an apparent in-game warning and b) being in an abandoned amusement park at night, a common enough setting for horror games.
• The Jerrys are deviants because of their job at Pirates Cove. They learned how to feel joy, excitement, and happiness by proxy from the children who patronize the place. What better place would there be to learn emotions than a theme park, a location specifically meant to draw out the emotional extremes for the enjoyment of guests.
  • Having Jerry operate as a Hive Mind is brilliant. A "single" android who can monitor the entire park and track the movement of every guest means it's virtually impossible for a child to be truly lost or abducted, because Jerry can keep track of which adults accompany each kid when they enter and leave the park and follow any given kid's path of movement just by reviewing their own memories like a security camera feed.
• While many note that Connor made no attempt to reassure the hostage from the first mission after saving her, considering that Emma's mother responded badly to an android being sent to save her child in the first place, and wanted him nowhere near her, it could be seen as him acquiescing to the wishes of Emma's mother.
• It seems weird that the eventual leaders of Jericho are apparently the only androids to be out of uniforms before Markus showed up until you think about it. Simon is said to be one of the oldest deviants there so it could be believed that he was disguising himself before he found Jericho. Josh was a teacher before he went deviant and it could be possible that certain universities outfit teachers androids in more casual outfits for a more natural feel. As for North...given her backstory and what the other deviant Tracis wore, it would make sense for her put on normal clothing as quickly as possible.
• Why is Hank so fond of Sumo? It’s likely that his son Cole loved the dog and named him before he died.
• Kara and Markus become deviants really early on, while for Connor, it's a process that spans most of the game. Connor is the only one with software instability as a measured stat, which increases if he spares deviants at the cost of his mission. One could assume that in order to willingly spare a deviant, Connor would first have to break his programming. Instead, it just raises his software instability. The reason why could be that he has stronger software than previous models, making him more resilient to becoming a deviant.
• It makes a lot of sense that Hank would try to stop Connor from chasing after Kara and Alice as:
  • 1. His son died from the injuries from a car accident. Connor trying to risk his life by running through a road clearly reminded him of Cole.
  • 2. He clearly shows some sympathy and remorse over deviants, as he knows how much they’ve been through. If he and Connor were to investigate what happened to Todd's house, he could’ve easily suspected he was lying and would arrest him for possessing Red Ice and obstructing a crime case.
• There have been some questions as well as criticisms over Markus going all robot Jesus and converting other Androids just by pointing at them. It only seems to happen once then is never used again despite being potentially very useful. However later on North tells him that the Police are jamming communications making it hard for them to talk to other androids around Detroit. It seems clear Markus was saving that one very big trick after he figured it out for a moment where he could liberate a lot of Androids at once and make a big show, knowing that the wi-fi or radio-frequency bands he was using would be jammed throughout the city afterward. If he'd done it before and those frequencies are monitored he'd never be able to do it again anyway.
• You'd think that CyberLife would program androids to protect children who are suffering from abuse, thus meaning Kara wouldn't have to deviate to protect Alice because that program would reasonably take precedence over her orders to not move. But what if they did, and it just didn't apply to Alice because she's not actually a human?
  • Even if Alice really was a human child, it's possible that Kara would still be programmed to passively accept any and all crime that Todd committed, including child abuse. After all, if an android is able to report their own master for that, what's to stop them from reporting ANY crime you commit? Would you really give CyberLife your money if you knew that their snitch android was going to call the cops every time you jaywalked? Probably not. Crime prevention simply isn't marketable for the average home-care android.
• If Markus decides to trust a newly deviant Connor, his relationship with Jericho goes up by a small margin. This could be interpreted as Connor joining Jericho, thus their gratitude being represented by being added to Markus' overall relationship with Jericho.
• There are several points in the game where, if Simon is wounded or dies, Markus loses points with Jericho. In Simon's entry in the gallery, it says he's listened to and respected by everyone in Jericho, and he's been part of it for as long as anyone can remember. It comes as no surprise that Markus would be chastised for letting Simon get hurt or killed.
• Alice wraps up almost every dangerous scene she's in with a hug. If she and Kara end up in the recycling center, Kara has to keep track of her stress, because if it maxes out, she'll get herself shot when she breaks rank to rush to Kara for comfort. It's because Alice's programming as a child android gives her simulated symptoms for things like colds and fevers and other childhood pains; stress is one of those simulated pains and performing a hug action mechanically lowers her stress.

Fridge Horror

• When the androids revolt, what happens to the people who relied on them as caregivers? In the final stages of the game, the news even notes that numerous hospitals across the state had been shut down.
  • Taking this into consideration, Kara's possible choice to steal a family's bus tickets to Canada takes a much darker turn. Her reassurances to Alice that the family and their baby will be fine is... much more doubtful, even if the revolution is peaceful.
• The series of pictures Kara finds in Alice's music box takes on a new meaning after the reveal that Alice herself is an android; the first picture shows Alice with blood on her right temple, the same location androids have their LEDs. Although Kara and Markus both remove theirs with resolve, the implication may be that Todd forcibly removed Alice's LED to make it easier for him to pretend she was a real child.
• Why is one android in the "From the Dead" chapter holding their audio processor? It's entirely likely in their last moments of activity that they simply could not take the noises around them and wanted them to stop.
• Why would Todd buy an android housekeeper for $8000 when he's unemployed and addicted to drugs? Wouldn't it be easier to use the money to sober up and look after his daughter instead? A Kotaku article featuring concept art from the game might answer that question: this promotional design for Kara◊ states the words, 'Housewife Model'. This could mean that because Todd's wife left him and took their real daughter with her, Kara and Alice were intended to be their replacements. Unfortunately, Todd directs all of his anger and frustrations toward the two androids, fueled by his red ice addiction, creating a cycle of inescapable self-loathing and pain.
  • Kara's model actually costs about $900
  • Truth in Television - A lot of people suffering from addiction would sooner take the expensive short term "solution" that allows them to supplement their addiction and still have what else they'd want, rather than take the more difficult steps of getting clean, sobering up, and fixing their behavior.
  • It's also entirely possible that he's taken out loans that will cover him in the short term and cover the expenses of an android, particularly since androids are expected to be a one-time expense. Especially considering that Kara and Alice are androids - Alice doesn't actually need to eat, won't outgrow her clothes, etc. They'd come due later, but considering that, however the situation is resolved, we only have Kara at Todd's place for a day before she runs, there's never the time to really see how bad his financial situation really is, or see any kind of threat of Kara being repossessed or something.
• A Spark of the Rebellion is always followed by a fire. It's mentioned in the news that there are fears of a deviant movement happening outside of Detroit, and it also turns out that Russia has androids too. How is everyone else in the world going to deal with the android uprising?
• If Markus and North died during the Battle for Detroit, along with the rest of their people, but Connor successfully liberates the androids from CyberLife, chances are that the newly freed androids' morale will take a hit when they see their newly christened leader, Connor, take out a gun and contemplate (or commit) suicide right before his speech right in front of all of them. Now What?
• Fridge Sadness: According to KARA, as long as androids have their power source, they can live for 173 years. So even if you got everyone their happy ending, Connor will certainly outlive Hank.
• If Kara meets Rose at the border, the latter will say that she's going to meet up with the others androids after they cross. If the player has already tried to cross the river in a different route, they'll know no other androids survived trying to cross.
• The whole concept of child androids being available to anyone with the money, and the fact that androids are often freely abused, gives incredibly disturbing implications as to the type of market there is for child androids and what they'd be able to legally do to them...
  • There are already laws in the real world prohibiting the construction and/or importation of, uh, anatomically correct child-like dolls. There's no way androids wouldn't fall under the same umbrella. (Not that this would totally prevent such abuse, and it's likely that any child androids found in those situations would have been destroyed; who would want to repair that kind of damage when one could simply avoid thinking about it and dispose of the entire unit?)
    • Even if the YK500 model was Ken doll smooth down below, it would only require a single drill hole to change that situation. And now its time to go and throw up...
    • Thank you. People like you are why Fridge Horror is a thing in works of fiction.
• If the revolution fails, what happens to the androids stuck in dumps like the one Markus woke up in? Are they also taken to camps and destroyed? Or are they left there to rot until their power runs out?
• Probably more befitting of a Fridge Tear Jerker, but the dying android in "Time to Decide" (the one who asks Markus if he knows what happens after death, and admits she's about to find out) holds Markus' hand and connects with him shortly before she shuts down. The connection doesn't end until after she's dead. If Connor connects with Simon in "Public Enemy" before he kills himself, Connor says he felt him die through the brief moment they were linked. The implication here is Markus may have felt her die, too.
• While most of the conflict of the game is humans racism towards androids, we do occasionally see humans caring for their androids, such as Carl and Rose, along with background characters. Towards the end of the game, all androids are being forcibly taken to what is basically a concentration camp. Imagine having an android caretaker, or coworker, or child, and having to watch them be taken away?
• If Hank commits suicide and Markus uses the dirty bomb, then Sumo probably dies from the radiation.
• In the game, a few magazines mention an android strip club, and an article sites that android sex is better than sex with human women, and it seems to be a study of the subject, meaning that sex with androids is incredibly common (and that human men explicitly purchase female androids for this very purpose). Androids can't really consent, as they cannot refuse sex, and since we know that androids are capable of the same emotions as humans, that means that it's socially acceptable for androids to be sex slaves.
  • But most people in this universe do not know/believe that androids are capable of genuinely feeling anything. To put in bluntly, they consider androids not to be sex slaves, but sex toys. They believe that the piece of equipment that they bought from a shop is experiencing literally no more suffering than a blow-up doll would. It is very unfair to say that it is socially acceptable to keep an actual sex slave. The implications are still horrific as this would still amount to rape on an industrial scale, but it is nevertheless an attitude born of ignorance and a lack of knowledge, not cruelty. These brothels would probably be one of the first things to go in the good ending.

Fridge Logic

• In his first scene, Markus, an android, visits a paint store, staffed by another android, exchanges money digitally, and goes home with his owner's supplies. The very concept of building two Ridiculously Human Robots just to simulate face-to-face shopping is a ludicrous waste of resources when the same products could just be shipped straight to Carl's home.
• Considering that this is a legal investigation, some found it strange that during the Eden club level, the police can't ask the club to delay the mind wipe of the strippers or let them have them (to interrogate) for free.
• In the Eden club, the two Traci models turning deviant and forming a close romantic relationship prior to the murder is a little odd in retrospect, since the club has all models memory-wiped every two hours, and Kara's level with Zlatko reveals that memory-wiping can affect deviants and requires a lot of strong reminders to overcome.
• Canada is considered a safe-haven for androids because there's no android laws and no androids being sold, but the ban would also mean that there are no spare parts or android supplies being sold there either—which means the androids should logically have no way to get their much-needed thirium. While players can come up with some kind of explanation for this, the game itself never puts in a particular effort to.
• Even if Hank's relationship with Connor is Hostile, (including shooting Connor in "The Bridge"), Hank will still be saddened if Connor dies at Stratford Tower (the "hang on, son" part happening regardless), which really comes off as odd if he previously shot Connor out of resentment for him. It might be possible, as Hank later hints, that seeing Connor die reminds him of Cole dying, leading to the distressed reactions he'll have regardless of how he feels about Connor, but it still comes off as one lazy instance of not giving him different reactions according to what their relationship is like.
• The allegories of segregation and slavery are prominent throughout the game, but the two practices would cancel each other out and make androids rather pointless. If they're supposed to do everything humans don't want to do themselves, but they're not allowed into most businesses, they would be less effective at fulfilling their purpose.
• Out of all the androids that are shown to be badly treated by their owners in the game, it's Markus, an android who actually had a good owner, who decides to rebel against humanity and start the revolution.
• Why are androids thrown into landfills? Advanced electronics are full of valuable metals of which there is a finite supply on Earth, so they ought to be recycled. The background story thread of the conflict between the US and Russia over Arctic resources, which are specifically said to be needed for thirium production, clearly establishes that this still applies to androids.

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