Who is Ethan?
Ethan Winters serves as the main protagonist of Resident Evil 7. At the start of the game, we’re led to believe that he’s simply an ordinary working man looking for his missing wife. However, as we all know, Mia turned out to be a caretaker for a bioweapon, and was actually working for some sort of scientific organization. It’s definitely possible that Ethan had no idea what Mia really did for a living, but if we look closer at his interactions with her in the game, there may be more to him than meets the eye.
When Ethan first encounters Mia in Resident Evil 7, he doesn’t seem to express much joy or elation at seeing his wife again after three years. In fact, one of the first things he does is ask for an explanation of what’s going on and what she’s been doing. Later on in the game, he continues this odd behavior by asking Mia for answers and telling her to cut the lies.
An interesting thing to note: in Resident Evil 5, players can read a file that mentions an Ethan W. This Ethan was an Umbrella scientist with level 9 security clearance, and was one of the few individuals who knew the location of the Stairway of the Sun – the flower that birthed the Progenitor virus that was later weaponized by Tricell. Oswell Spencer gave the order to have this scientist killed, and as far as we know, Ethan W is deceased. While this could all just be a big coincidence, it’s also entirely possible that this Ethan could very well be our protagonist in Resident Evil 7. Perhaps Ethan had somehow managed to escape Umbrella’s clutches, and it would also explain why he isn’t entirely fazed by the idea of combating BOWs in the Baker residence.
From a gameplay perspective, it would also certainly explain why Ethan has so much scientific knowledge about using chemical fluids to craft handgun ammo out of gunpowder.
