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An ally with an ulterior motive, Kendra Daniels inDead Spaceis introduced to us as a Computer Specialist onboard the USG Kellion. Her role was to support Isaac Clarke as he ran around the Ishimura trying to repair it and figure out what happened, but as the story goes on it turns out she’s not who she claims to be.
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It’s an interesting moment of backstabbing that’s subtly signposted fairly early on if you’re paying attention. But overall, it’s a compelling arc that expands on the bigger background forces that are at work in the game and it makes her somewhat sympathetic at times, even if she is a backstabber. To shine a light on her sad situation, here’s everything you need to know about Kendra Daniels in Dead Space.
Who Is Kendra Daniels?
From her first appearance, Kendra Daniels comes across as just another crewmember of the USG Kellion. AComputer Specialist, she performs that task admirably, all things considered, but onboard the rotting and rusted decks of the USG Ishimura, it seems Daniels has been up to a lot of shady stuff.
As it turns out, Kendra is a plant for EarthGov and was on a secret mission involving theMarker device at the Aegis VII Colony. The goal? To recover the Marker for the Earth Government organization, or at the very least clean up any traces of its existence that could be linked back to her superiors.
EarthGov was already aware of the Markers. In Dead Space: Martyr, one was found on earth 300 years agoby Michael Altman. Who then managed to neutralize it before EarthGov could use it.
Though she continually co-operates with Isaac and her other crewmates, ultimately Daniels has one goal—the alien device.
Warning: Spoilers For The Plot Of Dead Space Below
The USG Ishimura Incident
There’s little to go on about Daniels’s pre-Ishimura Incident, but what we do know is that she became anundercover agent for EarthGov, and was inserted into the USG Kellion’s team pretty early on by some very demanding higher-ups. After the rough arrival on the Ishimura, Daniels would make her way to the ship’s Computer Core. There she woulddiscover the records of what happened on the Aegis VII Colonyand why the Ishimura was sent there. Though she could’ve kept this to herself, she didpass it on to Isaac Clarke, whether from genuine concern or to keep her cover is anyone’s guess.
The majority of Daniels’s time would be spent hiding in the Computer Core, aiding Isaac however she could and monitoring his progress through the ships security cameras. Though she was safe from the Necromorphs,the Marker could still easily get to her. She would experience horrible visions and continually see her brother Keiran walking the halls of the ship, most notably in Hydroponics. Something that should be impossible, Daniels would remark,because her brother had died.
The Betrayal
Eventually, Daniels would leave her safe haven in the core to go meet with Dr. Kyne, who planned to remove the Marker from the ship and put it back down on the planet. The idea was that it wouldstop the psychosis symptoms and make it easier to escape. Though she didn’t trust the good doctor’s motives (for the right reasons), she went along with the plan. Eventually joining up with Kyne, avoiding the variousnightmare creatureson the ship whilst traveling to the Hangar Bay. Whereby she immediately shot and killed him.
It’s at this point that Daniels “unmasks” herself to Isaac, revealing her role as an EarthGov Agent. Though she would admit that she initially didn’t believe any of the reports of the Marker’s effects and was just doing her job cleaning up another EarthGov mistake. Something that would quickly change with her experience onboard the Ishimura.
Daniels would tell Isaacthe Marker on Aegis VII was artificially created by EarthGov, and it was planted on the colony hundreds of years ago as an experiment. The original outbreak was contained and cleaned up, but after the CEC started mining on the planet, they found it again and the problem threatened to spread to other worlds.So Daniels got sent in to cover it back up again.
After witnessing how much carnage it could create in such a short space of time, Daniels would insist that the Marker would need to be contained and buried again. Using the Executive Shuttle, Daniels would attempt to leave Isaac onboard the Ishimura. However, after Isaac auto-recalled the Shuttle, Daniels would thenflee using an escape podonboard the vessel before it could return to the Ishimura.
A Bumpy Landing
Her pod would eventuallycrash land near the colony below, and Daniels would make her way to the Marker Pedestal to try and stop Isaac. As by this point she was aware of what it would do and that this entire time Isaac had been under its effects. So in an effort to “wake him up”, Daniels took Nicole hostage, or at least that’s what it looked like to Isaac.
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In reality,she was holding onto Elizabeth Cross, an unlikely survivor of the USG Ishimura Incident. Isaac, whilst heavily addled by the Marker, had beenhallucinating Nicolewhilst talking to Cross. Whilst Cross had been seeing her boyfriend and Ishimura crewmate, Jacob Temple (deceased by this point). Daniels would plead with the pair thatrestoring the Marker to the Pedestal was a very bad idea, and whilst she managed to break the proverbial spell on Isaac, Cross refused to help, sinking into despair when she realized Jacob was gone.
Daniels thenexecutes Crossby shooting her in the head, citing that there was no way to remove the Marker’s influence permanently from Cross or Isaac’s heads and that it was better this way. She would then try to leave Isaac yet again as the gigantic Hive Mind creature beneath the colony began to emerge. But a tentacle would launch her off the shuttle platform before that could happen, knocking her to the ground as it came back around again and slammed down onto her,smearing Daniels into human jamjust a few feet from a petrified Isaac.
Impact On The Story
Overall, Daniels doesn’t have too major of an impact on the immediate plot of Dead Space, but she does well as a supporting character bouncing around in Isaac’s head through the comm link. And providing helpful exposition dumps when key plot points deem it necessary, as your usual NPC would.
Where things get a little interesting is how she affects the story as a whole. There is some evidence that you could use to argue that if it wasn’t for Daniels, thefuture events surrounding the Markercould have played out much differently.
For example,she was the first person to point out to Issac that he was compromised by the Marker; ifshe hadn’t done this, there’s a much larger chance the Hive Beast would’ve killed Isaac. And without her wasting time monologing to Isaac and instead just leaving, EarthGov could’ve been able to cover the whole incident up without any problem. The colony would have just beensmashed apart in an unfortunate mining accident,and nobody would be any wiser about their Red Marker experiments.
Thankfully, Daniels’s little stunt ensured events played out as we’re all familiar with, and though EarthGov got what they wanted anyway, everyone is now away of what Necromorphs and Markers are. They still have access toMarker blueprints that had been embedded in Isaacs’s mindafter the Ishimura Incident. But we all know how well that turned out.
