This post is a semi-continuation of today’s earlier post.

In the latest comic from the Overwatch team, we are shown that Gabriel Reyes and Gerard Lacroix were very good friends. Lacroix apparently saved Reyes’ life during an incident in Cape Town, and the comic makes it abundantly clear that Reyes feels the weight of this life debt.

When the Blackwatch Facility in Rome is bombed by Talon agents, Gerard Lacroix lies among the injured, left in a coma in an unfeeling hospital. Reyes sits at Lacroix’s bedside following the incident, his turmoiled thoughts turning toward retribution. Lacroix’s situation, more than anything else, pushes Reyes to act rather than wait for permission from Italy.

With this in mind, you have to wonder about Widowmaker, the woman once known as Amelie Lacroix.

In the official lore, we know that Talon was extremely frustrated by Gerard Lacroix’s effectiveness as an Overwatch agent. Their attempts to assassinate the French agent were also confounded. Finally, they kidnapped his wife, Amelie, and subjected her to neural reconditioning. They then allowed the brainwashed sleeper agent to be found by Overwatch agents. Two weeks after she returned to Gerard’s side, she killed him in his sleep. Amelie then returned to Talon and completed her reconditioning, becoming the Talon operative we now know as Widowmaker.

Even though Reyes obviously had beef with Jack Morrison, and his increasingly aggressive and violent pursuits ultimately led to the downfall of Overwatch, it is hard to imagine he would defect to Talon so easily. You can see Reyes’ hatred for the organization in the Retribution comic.

When you see how distraught Reyes was after Gerard got injured by Talon, imagine how he felt when Gerard was killed by Talon. Even worse, Talon was only able to kill Gerard after brutalizing his wife, a woman Reyes likely knew. After all, Ana recognized Amelie in the “Legacy” comic, even after Amelie had her physiology altered. It doesn’t make sense that Reyes would just forgive these actions of Talon and let them slide.

Unless Reaper joined Talon to protect his friend’s wife.

Reaper may not like Overwatch anymore, but it seems unlikely he would have immediately defected to Talon unless he had an ulterior motive. We know that Reyes felt like he owed Gerard a life debt, and yet he failed to protect Gerard in Rome and from Talon’s final assassination attempt. That must have eaten Reyes up inside.

Imagine Reyes discovering that Amelie was still alive, brainwashed and working for Talon. Imagine Reyes, still reeling over his loss and still wishing he could repay his debt to Gerard, volunteering to join Talon so he could keep an eye on his friend’s wife, protecting her in any way he could, making sure no harm came to her. It would explain why we often see them operating together, as in the Overwatch Cinematic Trailer, the “Infiltration” animated short, and the “Masquerade” comic.

It would also explain why Reaper is often portrayed as incompetent. He failed to steal Doomfist’s gauntlet, failed to fully extract the information on the Overwatch agents, and failed to kill Jack and Ana. Perhaps these failures are on account of him deliberately sabotaging his own operations so as to weaken Talon’s power. Shoot, maybe that’s why his uniform is so blatantly, laughably edgy. In Reyes’ attempt to fit in with his new Talon cohorts, he turned the edginess dial up a little bit too far in his attempt to convince them that his face-heel turn was, indeed, legit.

Maybe Reaper is just seeking, hoping for a way to break Widowmaker’s ice and find the missing Amelie inside. He may not be able to save Gerard’s life, but Reaper can at least try to save his wife’s. And he’s willing to work for the organization he hates in order to find that opportunity.

I guess we’ll see.

Zachary out!