Manny Pardo

*"Been a stressful day. You wouldn't believe what they have me doing..."*

**Manny Pardo**, also known as **The Cop** or **The Detective**, is a playable character in *Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number*. Gameplay-wise, he is the first player character to not wear a mask while killing.

His community assets can be found **here**.

## Personality

*"Man, sometimes I hate this city."*

Pardo is consistently portrayed as exhausted and cynical. His dialogue is oriented toward either world weary remarks about the depravity of the press and Miami or awkward attempts at charisma to ease a concerned character or present himself in a better light. He follows the news regularly and is a friend ofEvan, a former member of the press. According to Evan, Pardo has a reputation of incompetence and misconduct at theMPD.

Pardo secretly desires fame and to be seen as an action star, and has a bench press and punching bag in his sparse apartment to build his strength, physique and endurance. He wears a leather Mark Gor jacket and is the only character who can execute enemies with guns. In "Homicide" he's shown to keep a loaded shotgun in his trunk.

Pardo also has a distinct off-putting void of attributes (perhaps a parody of Jacket's being a silent protagonist with a fairly blank apartment, or a reference to the quiet, strangely traitless Driver in *Drive*). He's the first Hotline Miami playable character to have a bland vehicle, and his dialogue consists largely of clichés awkwardly trying to emulate a charismatic personality, with the outro to First Trial having him awkwardly attempting to salvage his relationship with Evan, and several scenes featuring him trying to put concerned women at ease with vaguely romantic remarks ("You too,sweetheart!", "I can see you got the good genes. You're very pretty."). His apartment features no possessions whatsoever other than a couch, a bed, a TV, a punching bag, a plant, a magazine stand, and a bench press.

## Events of*Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number*

### Late October 1991

Manny Pardo is first shown on October 25th, 1991 washing his hands in the bathroom of a small diner with a newspaper reporting on Jacket's trial. He returns to the meal he ordered, but just drinks his coffee and moves to leave, implying that the newspaper and bathroom is the real reason he was there (and possibly motivation for the subsequent level). The waitress asks why he's leaving so soon and comments that he looks terrible. Pardo says he's had a stressful day and that she would believe what "they" have him doing, and that he should get some sleep. He tries to put the waitress at ease by calling her sweetheart. He heads out to his purple sedan, which is abnormally typical and bland for a Hotline Miami character (in stark contrast to the Fans' Attack Van, Jacket's DeLorean, and Biker's sports bike).

He proceeds to a shopping center, removes a fully loaded shotgun from his trunk, and kills a gang loading goods into a car. As he exits, he finds that the police have arrived and have the building barricaded. Here Pardo reveals to the barricade and to the player that he's a police detective, and is immediately let go. He comments that it's a real bloodbath and that he hates this city sometimes.

Later he investigates a crime scene of the now-serial Miami Mutilator, with the message "I'm innocent! They forced me to do it!" written in blood from the victim's slashed throat, which the crime scene investigator, Johnson, laughs at as a cliche. Pardo says he's creeped out by the "psycho" that did this, and comments that this will probably make the "goddamn vultures" at the press happy; a brief flash of a camera crew appears on the crime scene and fades away. However, the investigator insists the murders are too boring and typical for the press to notice.

### November 1991

On November 5th Evan calls a busy Pardo from the courthouse Jacket is being tried in for information about the Russian Mafia. Pardo is reluctant, but Evan says he "owes him one" (either for giving Pardo news coverage or withholding damning information of Pardo's misconduct). Pardo gives Evan the location of Petrov (First Trial), hoping to scare him off writing a book popularizing the 1989 killings and start a book on the Miami Mutilator, but Evan is determined enough to kill the Russian doorman and maim several guards to get the interview.

Shockingly the two seem to have or at some point had a genuine friendship, and their meeting in a bar is the first instance of Modulogeek's "Around" in the game. Pardo tries to alleviate his debt to Evan by buying him a beer, but Evan insists they're still not even. Evan says he sometimes wonders why he hangs out with Pardo and asks when he became such a douchebag. Pardo offers to drive Evan home but Evan refuses, leaving the player-controlled Pardo alone.

On November 11th, Evan reads a newspaper saying that the fifth victim of the Miami Mutilator has just been found, indicating that both the press and Evan are now taking interest. If Evan meets Biker in Hank's Bar as part of the Bar of Broken Heroes easter egg, Pardo is depicted alone in the bathroom staring at himself in the mirror.

On Novermber 27th, Pardo opens the evidence locker to Evan, who inspects Jake's clothes. Evan finds nothing, and Pardo apologizes that he couldn't be of more help, but insists they're even now, which Evan reluctantly admits. This scene is cut off by dream static, perhaps implying that the bonus scene Abyss is a dream Evan has.

### December 1991

On December 7th, the Son reads a newspaper popularizing the full out drug war he started on November 18th.

By December 10th, the Fans have been featured on TV news and in the Miami newspaper, and Pardo visits Alex's house looking for an "Ash Davis." Notably Pardo enters the house of an undressed girl without her permission, eerily similar to the opening Midnight Animal sequence. He has a man tied up in his trunk wearing a green jacket, likely Ash's friend Jack from their December 2nd job (Moving Up), which left a witness to the Fans in Jack's sister (who probably called the cops), and a clue to the Ash' identity and address in Jack. Pardo plants Jack's wallet in Alex's apartment, possibly to frame her and Ash for Jack's murder. He again awkwardly tries to calm a girl by saying she's very pretty, telling Alex she "got the good genes" between her and her brother.

Later, an empty-trunk'd Pardo arrives at docks being used by the Colombian gang to smuggle drugs into Miami (Dead Ahead). He assaults the ship, apparently killing nearly 100 mobsters single handedly, causing some to jump overboard in fear and get fished out by the police reinforcements. He's chastised for recklessness.

He visits another Miami Mutilator scene, the victim is a "kid" (Jack) who is missing his wallet and has his entrails torn out, causing one investigator at the scene to vomit. The gutting was post-mortem, however, and the cause of death was strangulation, hinting that the gore is just for cosmetic, notoriety purposes. The message this time is "Please don't make me do it again," which still evokes a sarcastic remark as to how trite and overused that line is from Investigator Johnson. Pardo postulates that the Mutilator was upset that the papers didn't make a bigger deal out of him, and comments that scumbags crave attention. Johnson replies with "don't we all, huh?" and says that Pardo will probably be famous by the end of all this, asking if he can handle the pressure of all eyes being on him.

On December 14th, Manny Pardo attempts to visit the Son for unspecified reasons. The fact that the Son has recently acquired notoriety from the press is clearly a factor in the visit, but whether Pardo wants to kill the Son for personal fame or is working with the Son to kill the Colombian gang is left up in the air.

On December 20th, Manny Pardo arrives at the newly bought and newly trashed Russian mob headquarters, parks near the tarped-over corpse of the Son, and pulls rank on the SWAT commander to talk to the surrendering sole survivor of "Death Wish": Tony. Pardo sees that Tony is still wearing his mask, and deduces that Tony's still interested in acquiring fame, even if he is done fighting. Pardo shows Tony "what happens to thugs like [him]" and shoots him in the face. He tells the SWAT team member Tony came at him, and that it was "him or me," which is actually true, from a publicity perspective.

### Caught

Some time later (most likely December 27th), Pardo is investigating yet another Miami Mutilator scene, featuring a balcony with dozens of cigarette buds on it, mirroring the end to the *Hotline Miami*'s main campaign (Showdown). The corpse is nearly unrecognizably mutilated, and even though Johnson finds a shell casing (again indicating that the victim was killed quickly and \*then\* mutilated), he mentions that they'll have a hell of a time matching it to the body. The message is "You have to stop them! I don't want to take any more innocent lives!" and provokes no sarcastic comment from Johnson for the first time, who merely comments that the Mutilator must be completely out of his mind. Pardo mentions that the city seems to be full of whack jobs. With all other fame-garnering factions in Miami eliminated, the Miami Mutilator seems to be the only news story in town, and Pardo comments that the Chief will be on his ass due to the huge amount of publicity this will get. Pardo mentions that his job's on the line with this one, and goes home to get some sleep.

He arrives at his house, which is shockingly clear of possessions aside from a punching bag, bench press, TV, and newspaper open to a story on the violent anti-Russian-American Coalition riots, the one source of publicity he can do nothing to quell. He falls asleep and has a nightmare of ripping his apartment apart looking for his revolver. As he exits his house he imagines that all his neighbors in the surrounding apartments are recipients of 50 Blessing mask packages. Arriving at the most recent Mutilator crime scene he tears through police tape and finds his gun with a Phantom who says he's his son. Pardo is confused, and Phantom "gives him a hug" by attempting to strangle Pardo.

Pardo shoves Phantom off him, shattering his ventriloquist dummy head like glass and transforming the crime scene into a movie set. A cart shows up to drive Pardo to his next scene, where the Miami Police Chief tells Pardo he's under arrest for being the Miami Mutilator. Pardo is still confused and tells the Chief he's innocent and that he'll have to be taken in by force. He then murders his way through the police station (a movie cliche after the events of *Hotline Miami*). As he approaches the exit he finds it barricaded just like the shopping center's. He flashes his badge, but they open fire, killing him and waking him up in his apartment.

The next day (likely December 28th) Pardo receives a call from the police station that they have a situation (likely riots in response to the dual assassination of the Russian and American presidents). Pardo pretends to be sick and barricades himself in his apartment, dragging his couch over to the door and fixing his revolver on it. As he hunkers down, he and his apartment are obliterated by the Miami nuke.

## Strange Attributes

### Lack of Richard Appearance

*"You, I don't get. Why is it you do the things you do?"*

Pardo is the only 1991 player character who never meets Richard at some point outside the Table Sequence. Pardo does have a Richard-like experience with Phantom. Richard himself comments that he doesn't understand Pardo or any of the reasons behind Pardo's actions, an attribute shared by no other character in the series. In the Table sequence, Pardo believes that Richard is an entity that's judging him, which Richard denies.

Notably, Manny Pardo has the highest cutscene to main level ratio of any character in the series, appearing in nine cutscenes but only having three levels. The only possible exception to this is Beard if one counts Jacket's dreamed outros from *Hotline Miami* (including the ones after Richter "kills" Beard and he's just a corpse). Beard is also never given an explicit Richard meeting outside the Table Sequence.

### "They"

Manny is possessed by the notion that he doesn't control his own actions. The idea that forces are pressuring him shows up many of his lines, and all of the Miami Mutilator's messages. He likely became a cop because cops are valued by society, and his disheveled look and cynical attitude has several origins and inspirations from media such as *Dirty Harry*,*Miami Vice*, and *Serpico*. Societal interests weigh heavily on Pardo. He constantly talks about the press feeding on society's depravity, the Chief riding him, his job being on the line. He seems to have a vague debt to repay with Evan, which "forces" him to risk his job. He imagines a film crew and that his actions are scripted scenes for some audience. He's also very literally controlled by the player, who take little issue with his context-less bloodbaths of levels.