On July 14, Netflix released the first episode of the brand-new Resident Evil series, which is packed with zombies, ghouls, and gore—exactly the way fans want it. The main focus of this new series is the upbringing of two “twins,” Billie and Jade Wesker, children of Albert Wesker, in Umbrella territory.
The series follows Jade as she and her sister investigate the mysteries of the Umbrella Corporation while battling zombie hordes in the year 2036, with flashbacks showing how the zombie pandemic first began in 2014.
Who was patient Zero? is one of the most important unanswered issues in the whole Resident Evil franchise. The solution is in this new season, though. To learn more about the virus and how the outbreak actually got started, keep watching.
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How did the Virus come to be?
Without first discussing the Umbrella Corporation, the organisation in charge of producing the virus, we can not get into the specifics of it. It is immediately apparent from the start of the episode that the Umbrella Corporation has enormous power and controls entire cities and villages. In the first episode, Albert Wesker is introduced to us, and we learn that he is a senior Umbrella employee entrusted with creating various treatments and cures.
The main drug in development is one called ‘Joy’ which aims to help people with anxiety, depression and suicidal tendencies. However, the development of this drug takes a dark turn. Umbrella Corporation begins testing the drug on animals like rats and rabbits only to find that the drug was having unprecedented results – it was making these animals feral and driving them crazy – their fur was desiccating and turning them into some sort of the undead.
Now, one would think that seeing these results they would keep researching and developing the drug instead of insisting on a quick roll out; however, big companies have always run behind profit and so does the CEO of the Umbrella Corps, Evelyn Marcus. Evelyn Marcus essentially oversees Umbrella.
Although Evelyn is a newcomer to the Resident Evil universe, her father, James Marcus, made appearances in a number of the games, including Resident Evil 0 and Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles. James was one of the founding members of Umbrella Corporation and assisted in the conception of the T-Virus in the Resident Evil television adaptation. However, after he was fired from the business, his daughter Evelyn is now driven to avenge what was taken from her family, to follow in his footsteps, and to advance the T-Virus.
She insists that the drug be rolled out irrespective of the dubious side effects. However, things get far worse when another terrifying incident comes to light. A video of the human trials of the drug conducted in Tijuana surfaces showing disastrous results – feral men and women, blood everywhere and utter chaos, showing that the drug had driven them crazy, turned them into something inhuman.
Evelyn is quite certain that she can utilise the virus to eradicate conditions like anxiety and despair from the earth. However, Evelyn is unable to hear reason because of her psychopathic, avaricious, and compulsive personality. And despite numerous warnings from Albert that “Joy” and the T-Virus might kill millions, Evelyn persists in her mission. Evelyn believes it is best to proceed with “Joy” despite the dire adverse effects warnings, even if doing so means it will only be advantageous to Umbrella Corporation.
The side effects showed much faster in animals than it did in humans and towards the end of the series it becomes clear that one of the things which was part of the cocktail of chemicals used in the Joy drug was a strain of the T virus which was a compound used in one of the Umbrella Corporation’s bio-weapon creations for the US military. Thus, the virus was quite knowingly put out into the world by the Umbrella Corporation but what they thought was a secure facility turned out to not be so secure and the virus got out.
How does the Virus work?
The virus originally spread through the Joy Pill because the pill contained strains of the T Virus. The T- virus was part of the biological weapon being created for the United States, a strain of which was put in the Joy pill. This was tested on both animals and humans, the animals displayed a change in their behaviour immediately post the bills becoming feral, violent and displaying brute strength- the humans exhibited these characteristics after a three-day period.
The contagious spread occurs when the people who take these pills become feral and bite other people. Billy Wesker was the first human to get it through a dog bite when she broke into the facility with her sister thus the virus transmits through the bite of the people who have been administered the drug.
Who is patient Zero?
At the beginning of the season, we are introduced to Billie Wesker, a quiet and reserved young woman in 2022, who finds it difficult to blend in at New Raccoon City. She has a kind heart and will even go out of her way to try to mend fences with the bully at school in an effort to fit in.
Her compassionate nature turns out to be her undoing. Billie contracts the T-Virus after researching if Umbrella uses animals in its testing. While it doesn’t kill her, unlike other people, it drastically alters her personality. And by 2036, Billie has evolved into a harsh, cold person who resembles Evelyn in many ways. However, what is most shocking is that she is human patient zero, the only surviving human with the virus. This is her story.
We follow twin sisters Billie and Jade Wesker and at the outset it is quite evident that Billie is a little different from the rest. She has had a violent streak in her past which led her to be perceived as a psycho by people around her, especially her classmates and friends. We see this violent and antisocial behaviour repeated as she tries to adjust in her new school. We get to know that she is a vegan and has a soft spot for animals – but unfortunately, it is this soft spot that starts a series of unfortunate events.
Billie convinces her sister Jade to break into the Umbrella facility to get evidence of animal testing so that they could showcase Umbrella’s ugly truth to the world. They steak their fathers key card to the facility, record his voice and prepare to break in. They manage to bypass all the fancy security systems and with no human guards (because well, the facility depended more on artificial intelligence and machines for security over real, live human beings).
Once inside, they start looking for the rabbits Billie has seen earlier when she had come to visit her father. They finally locate the animals and as Billie takes pictures of them all, they stumble upon a heavily secured and locked cage which growling noises coming from within.
Out of the kindness of heart and fearing that an animal was trapped within, they manage to open up the cage however, they were absolutely not prepared for what was inside. Inside was a feral dog that lunged out at them with drool dripping everywhere, snarling and growling. The dog was clearly not okay and was visibly sick due to whatever tests had been conducted on it. They tried calming it down but to no avail and the dog started chasing them.
They ran in fear of the feral dog but it was insanely strong and agile as it practically hunted them down through the maze of the corridors. They tried blocking it and evading it but to no avail. At one fateful moment, the dog lunged at Billie and tore into her shoulder, gnawing away at her flesh. Blood started gushing out of her wound as she screamed out in pain and her sister, Jade watched on in horror.
This was the beginning of her transformation. What followed was a time of absolute turmoil for poor old Billie. Their father stepped in to protect the two of them from the wrath of the Umbrella Corporation and managed to keep the bite a secret from the higher ups. However, the virus had already been transmitted from the dog to Billie and she began experiencing debilitating symptoms.
Her body began shaking and having lost a lot of blood, she was extremely sick – they could not take her to the hospital to keep the bite a secret and thus, their father stitched up the injury at home. However, she started experiencing changes in her behaviour and physicality. She became easy to anger, violent and began puking blood at various points. At this point in time, her sister Jade begins to get worried and decides to investigate the root cause of the illness that had overtaken her sister.
She connects with a journalist from half way across the world after bypassing the cyber wall set up by the Umbrella Corporation with the help of Simon, her classmate and also Evelyn’s son. The journalist tells Jade about human trials conducted by the Umbrella Corporation and she gets increasingly worried about her sister.
We watch as Billie’s condition getting worse and worse -at one point she also assaults a biker on the street as he tries to take away her dog. They get more and more worried as they find out that at the 72 hour mark, humans usually change into an inhuman creature because of the virus. However, by some miracle and lots of genetic engineering, Billie does not transform into a zombie as her body successfully fights off the virus cells.
What genetic engineering you may ask? It turns out that Albert had genetically modified both the girls when they were just embryos to give them a better shot at life, an added edge if you may. It is highly likely that due to this, Billie’s immune system was able to fight off the virus.
However, the cogs start rotating in the Umbrella machinery as Evelyn realises that something fishy is going on. They capture the journalist that Jade was talking to on the internet and hold him hostage, torturing him for information. To protect his daughters, Albert kills him which leads to Evelyn imprisoning him in a cell and all hell breaks loose. It is the third day after Billie gets bitten and in the final episode, we see her turn and give in to her symptoms.
Back at the house, Billie starts to turn, pounces on Roth, knocks him to the ground, and orders Jade to leave. When Evelyn sees Billie, she finally realises that she was the one who had been bitten all those episodes before. Evelyn lists all of Billie’s symptoms and makes the decision to be honest with her. She also asserts that no one else is able to assist. Billie agrees with Evelyn’s requests even though it comes out that she is infected but isn’t changing.
Jade, in the meantime, goes to visit Simon, whose mother is happily preparing supper while high on Joy (not purposely though, Evelyn was secretly drugging her own wife). In a private conversation with Simon, Jade spills the beans regarding the Joy pills. When Simon calls Evelyn, she confesses to having drugged them but only for the purpose of keeping their family together.
Simon avoids Evelyn and assists Jade in getting into the laboratories, which are still incredibly unsecured. Given that Billie escapes from her bed, murders one of the doctors, and then lashes out at Evelyn. Bert (Albert’s twin, yes that is whole another story) arrives just as things start to go awry and assists in calming her down and getting her to stop seeing things.
When Jade and Simon catch up, they see Bert and Billie waiting for them. They all leave the room, but sadly Evelyn and her security guards are still inside. Evelyn gets a massive shock as she watches Simon becomes ill after being bitten viciously by Billie. Evelyn is aghast when she observes this, but she ultimately shoots her son in the head. Hey, do you recall the jogger Billie scratched in episode 2? He also infected, right? Who knows; he is never again mentioned in this season.
However, this confirms one thing, Billie Wesker, daughter of Albert Wesker and twin sister of Jade Wesker is quite definitely patient Zero.