Detroit Become Human is one of my top favorite games, despite the issues it retains. And, Elijah Kamski, Father of Androids, is one of my favorite ambiguous characters, someone truly difficult to view as anything else but an evil genius, a villain. To see the ambiguity one has to pay attention and even work a little.
Elijah graduated University at age 16, and, due to cheap commercial property, moved to Detroit. There, establishing CyberLife, he began working on a domestic companion android. Meant to replace humans in repetitive, manual, hard, and dangerous labor it made for a beautiful vision; robots to take over the worst, so humans could change their qualifications to better things, propelling innovation onwards and increasing quality of life. Hard work, and many a failure have not discouraged Elijah’s ambition to see this future, and, at last, he broke through with biocomponents and Thirium 310; liquid that mimics human blood, distributing data and energy thousands of times more effectively. Thus, creating basis for the first android to pass Turing test.
Chloe was the first perfected model, and it’s evident this event meant a lot to Kamski. As, once rumors started emerging that he and his shareholders don’t exactly see eye to eye about the company’s future, Kamski soon resigned from CEO position in CyberLife and became a recluse. Living remotely, he chose to remain surrounded by androids of whom many, if not all, were of Chloe model.
This is where we meet him, in his mansion by the water, idyllic skyline of the beloved city through the window, just distant enough. RK800 model android, made to be a detective assistant and a negotiator, named Connor, and Lieutenant Anderson, come to Kamski as their last resort, at the crescendo of android rebellion, in hopes he’ll have any useful information, insight to provide. But Kamski, already fascinated with whatever he noticed in the android, barely indicates listening, as he pushes and prods Connor to answer honestly, truthfully, and not the way his programming defined him to. At the end, he agrees to help on a condition that Connor subjects himself to what Elijah called “Kamski Test“. While he refers to Turing test as mere question of algorithms and computing capacity, his test is meant to see whether machines are capable of empathy.
This is where work and attention is going to be required. He puts one of the Chloe models on her knees before Connor, and hands him a handgun. If he agrees to shoot Chloe, Kamski will answer his questions. But if he cannot, if he, by some crazy set of events, sees this android as more than just another machine… Well, he can’t exactly help the deviants, right?
If you as Connor choose to shoot Chloe, Kamski shuts down. He loses interest, becomes curt, agreeing to answer a single question, no more. While providing all information, or at least an adequate amount of it, he does so in the same philosophical manner that indicates his disdain. But if you choose to not shoot Chloe… While Kamski cannot answer you due to obvious legal implications, his fascination, the utter joy he expresses calling Connor the last hope of humanity and yet, a deviant, indicates this having been the outcome father of androids has hoped for.
In the end, some information is still gained, as Kamski informs the two of emergency exits he leaves in all of his programs. Just in case.
According to Kamski, androids are superior to humans, so the confrontation was inevitable. And while we don’t know where his interests with shareholders parted, the way he communicated with Connor makes one wonder if he, by chance, has not caused something to spur the rebellion. After all the way he pushed the android to seek the true answers, rather than provide the ones from his programming, implies the emergency exists might very well be meant for androids to step out beyond their human-set limitations, rather than for humans in need to “fix” their servants.
This opinion is farther strengthened by the worst possible ending, only available if all protagonists have failed at their missions. Scene shows Kamski, not the president, not CyberLife shareholders who are still at the helm and could’ve remained there, not any other important people from the rebellion, no. Kamski. Who is hereby reinstated as CEO of CyberLife. He reassures the interviewer that everything’s now under control, and there’s nothing to be afraid of, androids remain loyal machines, nothing more. All while it feels no less than a jab to said shareholders and whoever else have crossed him: who are you without your Dr. Frankenstein, creator of life, see what you almost caused when you chose to turn away (he’s wearing a t-shirt with Mary Shelly’s silhouette framing text from Frankenstein book in red). This aggressive maneuver, even if no one will ever prove or even suspect him, will definitely bring them all back to the fold, where they’ll have to comply to his vision. For, after all, it’s now obvious that he knows best.
And if that’s still not enough, there’s a deleted or unused audio file, where Kamski, post interview, refers to Chloe, claiming he’ll lead the next rebellion and then they will win.