Get To Know Resident Evil Revelations 2's Claire And Moira

The Resident Evil franchise has a lot of well-known characters, many of which have remained mainstays since the original PlayStation era.

The Resident Evil franchise has a lot of well-known characters, many of which have remained mainstays since the original PlayStation era. Jill, Chris, and Leon have been in steady rotation for decades, successfully hanging on for the series' leap to full 3D third-person shooters. Resident Evil left behind one determined lady, Claire Redfield, until now. She finally returns to the main storyline in Revelations 2 ( check out our cover story here) alongside the tenacious daughter of S.T.A.R.S. team member Barry Burton - Moira. For those not entirely familiar with Revelations 2's leading women, this is a great place to start.

Claire Redfield

Tragedy oftentimes brings family together, and in this case, the Raccoon City T-virus outbreak nearly reunited the Redfield family.
Claire enters the storyline after becoming concerned for her brother, Chris,
who survived the infamous Mansion Incident in 1998. She hopped on her
motorcycle and drove off to the rural Colorado town, but Chris was nowhere to
be seen. What she did find was a full-blown undead infestation in Raccoon City.
The young woman teamed up with fellow survivor Leon S. Kennedy, a rookie cop
with an unfortunate first day on the job, and the two sought safety in the
Raccoon Police Department building.

Claire encounters a young girl named Sherry Birkin amidst
the chaos in Raccoon City. It turns out the little girl is the daughter of
Umbrella scientist William Birkin, the man who is responsible for synthesizing
the terrible zombie viruses. Claire settles quickly into the big sister role
and protects Sherry throughout the story, which leads from the RPD building to
an underground Umbrella laboratory. The two meet up with Leon just in time to
obliterate the facility with a self-destruct sequence and flee to the safety of
the city limits. Just before RE2's credits role, Claire vows to go find her
brother.

Hardened by her experience in Raccoon City, Claire infiltrates
a European Umbrella facility later in 1998 while on the hunt for her brother.
The mission at the beginning of RE: Code Veronica goes south and Claire is
captured. Umbrella ships her off to an Umbrella Training facility on Rockfort
Island. In keeping with series tradition, Claires wakes up in her prison cell
just as a full-blown viral outbreak rocks the island. During her escape, she
joins up with fellow survivor and Umbrella prisoner, Steve Burnside. The two
manage to leave the island via airplane, only to go into another Umbrella
facility in Antarctica. The duo fights their way through the abominations,
until fate forces them to part ways. Claire eventually reunites with her
brother and the two work together to take down the Alfred and Alexia Ashford -
Umbrella royalty with demented experiments of their own. After another classic
self-destruct system escape, the siblings escape on a jet to fight and live to
fight bio-terrorism another day.

The fight picks up for Chris in RE 5 and the first
Revelations game, but Claire has been MIA in the main series games since Code
Veronica. However, Claire does reunite with Leon in the C.G. film Resident Evil Degeneration , where we
discover she's joined an anti-bio terrorism group called Terra Save. Capcom continues her playable story in Revelations 2, where she mysteriously wakes up
in a prison cell, similar to her start in Code Veronica. Details about what happened
between Code Veronica and Revelations 2 are scant, but it's suggested she was
aboard a ship before being kidnapped and shipped off to a prison-turned-torture
facility. Now a tough-as-nails survivor of multiple biohazardous incidents must
work with a new Terra Save recruit, Moira Burton, as the two attempt to escape
island and find some answers.

Moira Burton

To fully tell the origins of Moira, we need to begin with
S.T.A.R.S. team member Barry Burton. Barry was the second S.T.A.R.S. team to
enter the Mansion in 1998, alongside Jill Valentine, Chris Redfield, and Albert
Wesker. Sometime after the S.T.A.R.S. alpha team sought shelter in the mansion,
Wesker blackmailed Burton into helping him with his secret, Umbrella-related
objective. Wesker needed to pit the terrifying monsters - being designed for
warfare - against weapons-trained operatives to obtain battle data. The only
way Wesker could convince Barry to betray his longtime compatriots and friends
was to threaten his loved ones. Ever the family man, Barry believed Wesker's
lies that Umbrella was standing by to execute his family if he didn't comply. Barry
eventually discovers that Wesker lied and his family is fine, and quickly
runs to Jill and Chris's aid. One of the best endings in Resident Evil involves
Jill, Chris, and Barry escaping the mansion before it explodes (via a
self-destruct system, naturally).

However, Barry ends up dying in a worse ending. He leaves
his dying wish with Jill and Chris, asking them to deliver a photograph to his
family. On it, we see Barry, his wife, and two daughters. On the back is a note
addressed to "Moira and Poly", which asks the girls to care for their mother
and that he'll be watching them from heaven. Barry survives in RE's canonical
ending, but this alternate conclusion emphasizes just how important family is
to him and also names his daughters. Barry isn't seen again until the end of
Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, in which he rescues Jill from Raccoon City via
helicopter shortly before it gets nuked. We don't know exactly what happens to
Barry and his family between this time and the beginning of Revelations 2,
except that one of his daughters is motivated to join up with Claire Redfield -
a friend of her father - and Terra Save.

Moira is a resilient young woman who handles her kidnapping with
remarkable poise. Sure, she's prone to using some colorful language in moments
of distress, but she has impressive resolve given her rookie status. She clearly
looks up to Claire, and Revelations 2 is set up to develop their bond further.
There are additional hintsthat Barry may be playable in the game, and while
this is entirely speculation, with Capcom's focus on familial ties in this game, we could see Moira and Barry teaming up to bash some monsters (and possible a
reunion for Chris and Claire).

Another interesting insight into Moira's past and character
occurs when Claire offers her a shotgun for protection. Moira declines, telling
Claire she "doesn't do guns". The two briefly discuss what sounds like a tragic
personal incident involving a gun. Instead, Moira stuns enemies with a
flashlight and finishes them off with a powerful crowbar blow. While this is
more speculation, Moira's aversion to firearms could point to some family
tragedy. Perhaps something involving her mother or sister, Poly? We'll have to
wait to find out for sure, but the opportunity to learn more about fan-favorite
Barry Burton's family in Revelations 2 is enticing.

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