Dr. Isabel Cho was one of the four main protagonists in Dead Space: Aftermath.
Biography
Aegis VII
Isabel Cho was the Chief Medical Officer on board the USG O'Bannon. She was one of the few crew members besides Nolan Stross, Rin, Nickolas Kuttner and Captain Caleb Campbell to know about the true intentions of mission, which involved gathering any remaining Marker fragments from the colony on Aegis VII.
The crew landed on an unstable Aegis VII and headed out to look for the surviving fragments of the Red Marker. Kuttner found one of them and started to hallucinate Cho and her teammates as monsters and going as far as killing Alejandro Borges' cousin, Noah Pawling. Cho tried to save Noah, but it was too late. The structurally unstable Aegis VII began to explode and only her, Stross, Borges and Kuttner survived, crashing back into the O'Bannon and eventually giving the Marker fragment to the Captain.
Cho then took care of a very confused and disorientated Kuttner while overseeing the bodies of all of those that were killed on Aegis VII. Cho and her medical team went to check on the bodies to reveal that all of them were gone and the mutilated corpse of one of the doctors soon transformed into a Necromorph and killed all except Cho. Cho made it to the room where Kuttner was being held and released him before he killed the Necromorph. Isabel and Kuttner made it to Stross' suite to discover that he killed his wife, Alexis and his baby son in his hallucinations. Cho was horrified by this and began to bitterly refuse to have conversations with Stross.
Isabel, Stross and Kuttner are then reunited with the Captain, Alejandro and the other two crew members, Lt. Marcus and Lana and discovered that the Shard can only be destroyed if they throw the fragment into the reactor core. The team set off toward the engine room, but Lana was killed by the Grabber that was formerly her roommate. Lt. Marcus was soon after killed when a Necromorph attacked him which led to him being sucked out of the hull's breach and into space. Kuttner was almost sucked out of the ship as well, but was reluctantly saved by Borges. After the remaining survivors made it into the airlock, Stross gave them the unfortunate news that the airlock's seal was broken on their side and it can only be sealed from the outside. Feeling guilty and responsible for all of the deaths of his crew on Aegis VII and on his ship, Captain Campbell then volunteered to be the one to seal the airlock. After arguing with his remaining shipmates, the Captain ordered them to destroy the shard. As he exited the airlock, he told them to tell his wife that she was right and he should have retired before journeying to Aegis VII. After sealing the doors, he pulled out an incendiary grenade and jumped into the crowd of Necromorphs and caused a second hull breach outside of the sealed door, causing all of the remaining Necromorphs to fly into space. Cho then collapsed as the Captain sacrificed himself to save them. The group then made it to the engine room just to be attacked by several Necromorphs. Cho managed to keep them at bay, but Stross then once again became hypnotized by the fragment which Cho responded by running up to him and punching him. Cho then grabbed the fragment and before it can have any effect on her, she tossed it into the core, destroying it and all of the Necromorphs which turned into small puddles of what was described as "organic soup" by the other witnesses.
Discovery and Interrogation
A squad of five Marines then entered the O'Bannon to discover that all of the crew members are dead except four. The guards then took Cho, Stross, Borges and Kuttner and took them aboard the USM Abraxis. After Borges and Kuttner did not return from their interrogations, Cho began to worry just before Stross replied by telling her that they are dead as he can "feel" it. Stross was then next to be interrogated before Cho. After Isabel was interrogated, she was confronted by a member of EarthGov, the Overseer who offered her a job. Cho was horrified by this and declined, telling him that she will not stand for this as they had the whole event planned all along. The Overseer then told her that he was sorry that she felt that way before she was grabbed and lobotomized in order to keep her quiet.
At the Sprawl
Cho was then used as a scapegoat by the government in order to cover up the events that transpired on Aegis VII. The public was then told that Cho was a terrorist that massacred the crew on Aegis VII, the Ishimura and the O'Bannon and she was held at the Sprawl to be tried for her "crime".
Aftermath
It was unknown what happened to Cho afterwards. It was possible that she was found guilty for her "crimes" and imprisoned, executed or possibly used to experiment on by EarthGov. Even if she was kept alive, she would likely have been killed during the Necromorph outbreak on the Sprawl, but there was no evidence that she was on the Sprawl during the outbreak and it left her fate in question.
Gallery
Trivia
- Isabel Cho is voiced by Gwendoline Yeo, and her CGI-animated character is also based on her likeness.
- The Lead Interrogator told Cho that she had a sound mind and a strong will, indicating that her mind could have been as pure as Isaac's had she came into contact with the Marker Shard.
- It was suggested that Cho had a Korean background as she stated that she can only speak English and Korean.
- Cho was involved in an affair with Nolan Stross for seven months. Stross told Cho that he was going to leave his family, but Cho tried to distance herself from Stross for this reason, ultimately failing due to the fact that she loved Stross too much and she was too happy with him to give up even knowing that he had a wife and child.
- Cho's appearance differs in each scenario.
- Cho is one of the five female protagonists of Dead Space besides Alissa Vincent, Lexine Murdoch, Karrie Norton and Ellie Langford.
- Unlike the other three survivors of the O'Bannon, Isabel's exact phobia is never revealed, as it just skips over to the scene where she is gasping for air. This may be hinting towards hydrophobia or a rape scenario.
- In Dead Space 2, she is only mentioned in the name of an audio log.[1]
- In the falsified news report branding her a terrorist, an image of her was shown with a blank expression and a red spot on her forehead which was the evidence of her lobotomy.
Sources