Gordon Porlock

## Personality

Gordon is a deeply passionate and kind individual. While he does have issues with the nature of cryonic research, he has multiple books and audiobooks regarding cryonics, showing a genuine interest in the science that he has thoroughly researched. He also tries his best to comfort people, through any means available, including making meaningless conversation or cracking jokes. As caretaker of the Red Valley Facility, he is often ordered to fix or maintain equipment and other devices, but also makes tea and coffee with biscuits for the staff without being asked to.

His exterior persona, however, is that of a truly nervous, anxious, and socially awkward individual. Gordon himself has remarked on this: "I was scared of everything. I was scared of people. Talking to people on the phone. Or in person. Or anywhere. The idea of calling a customer service line because my wifi had gone down, or to haggle over upgrading my phone, that would make me sweat."

## History

### Pre-Series

Gordon's childhood has not been explored thus far, but he mentions having no family during the series. Whether this is because his family have passed or because he does not keep in contact with them has not been revealed. However, he does reveal that he is half-Brazilian on his mother's side, grew up in Rio de Janeiro, and speaks decent Portuguese.

Before the start of the series, Gordon worked as an Archivist for Overhead for 13 years, having been employed straight out of university. Because of this, he was in charge of the Red Valley Seed Vault's categorisation system, a system that never saw fruition as the Accounts department of Overhead ultimately killed the project.

Following the shutdown of the Red Valley Seed Vault, Gordon looked into what exactly the facility was being used for, if not for a proper vault. For two years, he was fed information about the cryonic experiments from Aubrey Wood and Ben Thomas, though he was at the time unaware of his sources' true identities, having only interacted with them online on a sub-Reddit on cryonic preservation. Eventually, this relationship petered out and nothing came of it, despite Gordon's assurances that he would expose the true nature of Red Valley. Gordon never exposed Red Valley and its grisly experiments because he believed Overhead would kill him if he did, so, up until the start of the series, he waited to share the information and tapes, preferring to do so with someone else so they could put an end to Red Valley together.

### Season 1

Gordon, throughout season 1, comes off highly enthusiastic about the investigation into Red Valley.

Our introduction to Gordon comes in the latter half of the first episode. Him and Warren meet as Warren, a new accountant for Overhead, is running around different departments in search of the "Red Valley Seed Vault" account, landing in the Archives department where Gordon is the Archivist for Overhead Industries as a last resort. Gordon admits that he knows of the Seed Vault, and begins to explain the larger conspiracy surrounding the facility.

He begins to induct Warren into his ongoing investigation into the true nature of Red Valley by sending him cassette tapes Gordon himself received from his anonymous sources. These tapes contain audio logs from the Red Valley facility, recorded by Dr. Aubrey Wood, a former researcher. Gordon explains how Red Valley came to be, how cryonics itself works, how, initially, Gordon worked on the organisation system for the seed vault Red Valley was supposed to be, before it got shut down by Accounts.

Following this initial conversation, Gordon invites Warren to listen to more tapes in his Vauxhall Astra, affectionately named 'The Golden Bullet', and exposes Warren to the more disturbing elements of the cryonic experiments being done at Red Valley. The audience, and Warren, can tell that Gordon has been keeping in this information regarding Red Valley for months, perhaps even years, and everything is bursting at the seams.

At the end of episode 3, "*The Picnic*", Clive Schill, a fellow accountant for Overhead, visits Gordon. Clive tells him about Warren's instability, past mental health issues, and warns him that the investigation into Red Valley could negatively affect Warren. Gordon takes this to heart and calls Warren later, expressing concern and regret over throwing Warren into the deep end so early in their journey, but his concern is not received, as Warren is on the descent of a depressive episode. They decide to take a trip to Red Valley instead, plunging further into the abyss.

During the road-trip, Warren asks about Gordon, saying that Gordon has "heard far too much" about him. Gordon responds that "there isn't much to tell", and Warren realises that Gordon won't be indulging any personal information. This is a running theme in the series. While Warren seems to have every bit of himself on display, Gordon keeps his privacy and offers very little. We do learn, however, that Gordon is legitimately interested in the subject of cryonics, despite the disturbing nature of Red Valley, as is noticeable from his endless amount of audiobook cassette tapes on the subject, he believes the worst friend in "*Friends*" is Phoebe, and he was in a power metal band called "Pus Crank". They end the road-trip by arriving at a small hut near the Red Valley facility, where Gordon must leave Warren with the car in order to get the keys for the hut. Unbeknownst to Gordon, Warren heard a Godby family saying on one of his tapes, the tape that held the interview between Overhead and Aubrey Wood, and is now more paranoid than ever.

The last episode of the series begins with Gordon driving a tractor trailer on the search for a missing Warren, who has stolen his car and driven off into the night, presumably heading to Red Valley, despite the fact that Warren has never been there and couldn't possibly know the location of the facility. Gordon expresses his fear and concern and immediately asks to go back to the hut when he finds Warren staring at the Red Valley building. Warren refuses to go back, and Gordon reluctantly follows as they attempt to break down the door, before realising the door is open and only needs to be pushed, and begin to explore the seemingly abandoned facility. Throughout this expedition, Gordon expresses his desire to drop the investigation and go back home, which makes Warren question Gordon's motives.

As Warren begins to interrogate Gordon on his true motivations, and whether or not Gordon is telling the truth, Clive Schill makes his presence known. As stated in Warren's wiki page, he reveals that Warren is the only survivor of cryonic preservation, or hypersleep, and that Bryony Halbech, the head researcher for Red Valley, has been posing as Warren's wife, Karen, in order to conduct more research into Warren and why he survived when the others have not. Two researchers begin to take Warren away to a separate room, while Gordon sits with Byrony to observe Clive as he debriefs Warren. Gordon is noticeably uncomfortable with how the researchers are treating Warren, especially Clive, and tries to help Warren by questioning Bryony and Clive's actions, with little success. Following the debrief, which ended with Warren physically assaulting Clive when he resorted to verbal abuse and humiliation, Bryony and Clive offer Gordon a choice: work with them, or die. Gordon chooses to take the job in order to find out more about the history of Red Valley and to stay close to Warren as he prepares to go back into hypersleep.

The season ends with Gordon visiting Warren in the cryosuite, where he is being prepped for hypersleep. Gordon relays the information he has found about Warren's past and offers to make a plan for their escape. Warren refuses this offer and instead asks Gordon to be there when the research team wakes him up for the second time. Gordon promises to be there.

Following this is a brief epilogue where Gordon's voice can be heard, though it is distinctly lacking his natural energy and humour. A BlueSky computer has been programmed to speak with Gordon's voice. Aubrey Wood is directing this computerised version of Gordon to begin the thawing process for Warren Godby in the year 2064, 44 years after the events of season 1.

### "While You Were Hypersleeping"

#### Part 1

The first part of the mini-series is an interlude between the two seasons, and will be discussed in detail below.

As the name suggests, "While You Were Hypersleeping" is a mini-series comprised of audio logs completed by Gordon while Warren is in hypersleep. Gordon begins his audio logs as the research team at Red Valley depart via helicopter. He will be the only resident at Red Valley while the others are gone, besides Warren, who is hypersleeping in the cryosuite.

Following their departure, Gordon begins to describe his surroundings and the rooms he's explored, commenting on their lavish state. Apparently, it is "the nicest place Gordon has ever lived." He comments on the decorations on the walls of the entryway corridor, the one he and Warren took when they first arrived, which include a notice board with no notices, but rather a "Gladiators" calendar, with every page ripped away except for the one which features Jet. Gordon remarks that Jet was "the only person to make me wonder if I did in fact fancy girls after all," making him canonically gay.

Despite the fact that he was forcefully coerced into joining Red Valley through threats, Gordon shows a genuine passion for archiving and is excited to archive the project's documents, prototypes, and audio recordings he finds in the records room. Gordon decides to begin the archival process by listening to Warren's audio-logs from his initial visit as a volunteer for the second round of cohorts.

Through these recordings, Gordon learns more about the person Warren was before they met, and finds that Warren seems to behave and act the same way he did then as he does now. Gordon even becomes excited when he hears Warren describe the facility the same way he did, a "John Carpenter meets Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy." He does admit, however, that he barely knows Warren, and therefore has no baseline for how Warren truly is, given that they met when he was living a lie after forgetting his time in prison and his experience with hypersleep.

In the latter half of the second episode, Gordon walks out to his car, having remembered that it's still parked outside in the snow, and begins to spiral. He questions why he's still at Red Valley when his only friend is hypersleeping in the basement and may be a violent criminal who will lash out at Gordon when he awakes a second time. He starts his car, seemingly about to leave for good, when he admits to himself that he has no where else to go, no family or friends to help, nothing to do besides his job. Gordon cuts the engine and accepts his reality. Suddenly, the audience and Gordon hear a car pulling away, which startles Gordon. Red Valley is very far away from civilisation and there should be no one else around.

Gordon begins to take his duties more seriously, reasoning that he's been assigned with the responsibility of upkeeping the facility. He takes note of any malfunctions with the radiators and other equipment, and takes care of what he can. Additionally, to pass some more time, Gordon reads up on different birds that fly over the area after having an unfortunate incident with one in the beginning of the mini-series.

In the third episode, Clive phones Gordon for a check-in. He reminds Gordon to do what they're paying him for: archiving the project and taking care of the facility, and reveals that the BlueSky unit Gordon has been using as a virtual assistant also has microphone abilities and Clive has been listening in on Gordon's antics. Gordon asks whether there are any other people in the area, in an effort to find out who was driving the car he heard earlier. Clive ignores this and tells Gordon to get back to work before hanging up abruptly.

Gordon does exactly that and goes back to listening to Warren's audio-logs.

(An important note here: The BlueSky unit has been instructed to check the logs for any mentions of Warren's crimes. Gordon refuses to find out what Warren has done.)

He listens to a recording where Warren describes his induction day, his concerns with the lack of security, and other issues he has with Red Valley, and then decides to visit Warren in the cryosuite. Gordon speaks to Warren in a quiet tone. He explains that he does not know whether he wants to have Warren as a friend still. Ultimately, after some further contemplations, he decides to continue to view Warren as his friend, and reveals that he doesn't want to find out what crime Warren committed because he recognises his friend in the tapes and doesn't want to shatter any image he has of Warren. He promises to visit again.

True to his word, Gordon visits Warren in the cryosuite the following day, which just so happens to be Christmas Eve. Gordon celebrates the holiday by bringing a box of decorations to the cryosuite and adorning Warren's cryopod with tinsel and other decorations. He also brings Warren's audio-log from the Christmas past, his last log before hypersleep, and begins to listen. Gordon also plays voicemails left on his phone from Clive, who sings his own version of common Christmas songs, such as "Silent Night", changing the lyrics to make his threats against Gordon as is usual.

Gordon returns to the farmhouse where he's set up a fire. He begins to talk through the process he witnessed on his and Warren's first day, as the research team prepared Warren for his return to hypersleep. Watching Warren go through this concerned Gordon and he admits that he immediately had a panic attack upon returning to his bedroom after the process was over. Following his ruminations, he shouts that he enjoyed the movie "Prometheus" when he watched it into the sky, and is startled when he hears the same car, now revealed to be a camper van, from before starting up and driving away.

This is the closing event of the first part of the mini-series.

## Physical Description

Aubrey describes Gordon as "some guy with eyes like a mole and a screechy voice".  Warren states that Gordon has a "Scandi look" about him and that Chunky cardigans sit on him well. He is also described as being paler than Warren (although Gordon immediately denies this). He is Half Brazilian on his mother's side. Bryony describes Gordon as having "rangy eyes, a sweaty pallor and thoroughly asymmetrical face".

## Appearances

###### Season 1 & 2:

Gordon appears in every episode except Winnie The Pooh Was A Murderer.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 [1] Transcript for S2E3: "Fresh Air".
2. ↑ [2] Transcript for S1E6: "Do You Want To Continue".
3. ↑ [3] Transcript for S1E5: "Morior Invictus".
4. ↑ [4]"Transcript for S2E4: "Idiots In The Snow".
5. ↑  [5] Transcript for S2E6: "Once More Unto The Breach".
6. ↑  [6] Transcript for S1E6: "Do You Want To Continue".