Carl Hendricks

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— Chase and Carl during the prologue of Echo

**Carl Hendricks** is one of the main characters in Echo. He is a childhood friend of Chase Hunter.

## Appearance

Carl is a ram with cream-colored fur and white patches on his muzzle, chest, and the insides of his ears. He has a brown, overgrown beard around his chin, and two large horns that curl around behind his ears. He has green eyes, which can appear bloodshot due to his marijuana consumption.

Carl has a large, stocky body as the result of years of snacking and overeating; but has some definite muscle definition from working out at his family home.

He primarily wears a short-sleeve blue hoodie, with a white tank top and black shorts, along with a signature black beanie around his horns. In his early college days, he wore a green hoodie.

Young Carl wears a green long sleeved hoodie with purple sleeves, trim, and strings, as well as the letter "W" printed on the chest (presumably referencing Superwolf). He leaves the hood up to cover his hair, though his still-growing horns poke through the hood's top.

## Personality

Carl maintains a relatively laid-back and chill demeanor. He frequently cracks jokes (many of which are self-deprecating), and tends to spend most of his time hanging out at home playing video games or spending time online. He's typically non-judgmental, though he often makes light-hearted jabs at his friends.

Despite appearances, however, Carl struggles with intense anxiety; and dislikes being the center of attention. He frequently uses marijuana as a form of self-medication in order to help keep his anxiety in check, and would resort to heavy snacking and eating instead whenever he had no access to any. His more extreme anxiety attacks can lead to him becoming physically sick. Inspired by Leo, he took an interest in bodybuilding as a way to cope with his problems.

Carl has a creative spark and produces art from time to time, usually superhero characters. He expressed an interest in pursuing an art degree at Pueblo University. His parents, however, insisted that he pursue a business major. This has led Carl to undervalue his talents, and he tends to have little-to-no degree of faith in himself regarding his abilities.

### Early Life and Route 65

Carl was born on April 19th, 1994 to Jim and Trisha Hendricks. His mother is the CEO of Hen's Ice Cream. He is the direct descendant of the founder of Echo, James Hendricks I, and the great-grandson of James Hendricks III, a significant character in The Smoke Room whose son Noah is Carl's grandfather.

Growing up, Carl considered Chase to be his best friend and often invited him to spend the night at his mansion. He also took a strong interest in the superhero genre, especially comics and movies. Carl also grew up somewhat afraid of his house, believing it to be haunted due to hearing odd voices and noises. Like the rest of his friends, Carl attended school in Payton.

Around the time when Carl was ten, he and the rest of his friend group would often visit Lake Emma to swim and play. Across the span of these visits, Carl carved a drawing of Superwolf into a boulder along the shoreline. He considered this piece to be a magnum opus of sorts. On one nondescript visit to the lake, Carl and the rest of his friends found Sydney drowned in the lake. This experience would shake Carl and haunt him for years to come.

On November 1 2008, Carl accompanied Chase and TJ to a Día de Los Muertos party held at the abandoned Parsons Building off of Route 65. On Carl's route, Chase chooses to come out to the ram on their way to the party. When things turned violent with the other guests, Carl ran away and returned to his mansion. This experience would worsen Carl's anxiety to a greater extent and cause him to harbor feelings of guilt over abandoning his friends.

### Later High School Years and College

After Leo and Chase got together the otter began to ignore Carl, making him feel more alone than ever. From August 2011 to May 2012, Carl worked as a grocery bagger at the Easy Mart in Echo. He enjoyed the job, as there were few customers and his social anxiety was noticeably lower than it would become in later years.

Carl attended Pueblo University from 2012 to 2013 as Chase's roommate, pursuing a business degree at the behest of his parents. He dropped out after one semester after having an anxiety-based breakdown and returned to live in Echo. In October 2014, Carl had a bad trip while on acid and crashed his car, after hallucinating that Chase was talking to him from the passenger seat. For some time afterward he continued to be haunted by the fear that Chase had actually died in the crash.

After dropping out, Carl grew closer with Flynn. Flynn would often take Carl fishing or come to his mansion to hang out, serving as the ram's only real in-person social link. At some point before the events of Echo, Carl and Flynn took their relationship to the next level and became friends with benefits.

**Plot**

### Prologue

Carl reunites with the rest of his friends in 2015 when Chase, TJ, and Jenna come to town over spring break. The ram accompanies the group to Southwest Adventures on Sunday, as well as to Yeeyah River the following day. When Flynn blows up at his friends, he angrily confronts Carl over what he is planning to do with his life. As the rest of the group disperses, Carl continues to sit silently by the river.

### Carl's route

On Carl's route, Carl invites Chase to stay at his mansion so that Chase can use his mother's research documents to finish his school project. Carl reconnects with Chase over their shared past and even makes romantic passes toward him. He also explains that his house is haunted, and Chase finds him sleepwalking strangely on multiple occasions. On Wednesday, Leo and the rest of the group hold an early birthday party for Carl, much to the anxious ram's chagrin, and Jenna criticizes Carl for his asocial behavior.

On Saturday, Carl prepares for a job interview with the help of Chase and Raven. At the interview however, Carl's anxiety gets the better of him and he blunders the process. Afterward, he, Chase, and the rest of their friends meet up at Lake Emma in an attempt to obtain closure, only for Chase to nearly drown. Carl has a panic attack, after which Chase takes him back to the mansion. Carl runs to the basement and seemingly falls unconscious as the hysteria begins affecting Echo.

Carl awakens to find himself in an unfamiliar house resembling his mansion alongside Chase, Raven, and later Jenna. The group attempts to escape the house by finding letters and articles related to the history between Carl's ancestor, James Hendricks I and his former lover, Jenna's ancestor John Begay, as part of a "game" set up by an unknown entity. Carl begins feeling and acting like a different person as he succumbs to possession by the spirit of James I. At one point, Jenna, who is possessed by the spirit of John Begay, physically attacks Carl and snaps him out of his possession. Carl describes this as an experience similar to "coming down from a high," and asks for Chase's advice on whether to allow James back in or fight him off.

Should Chase tell Carl to let James help, Carl will become increasingly more callous toward his friends, Jenna in particular. After coercing Chase into having sex with him, a James-possessed Carl ultimately kills Jenna and Raven with a knife before knocking Chase out and tying him up. He then sets the mansion on fire to destroy the evidence proving that James was responsible for murdering several Meseta boys during his life and framing John. Though Chase manages to free Carl from possession and pull him out of the burning mansion, Carl is seemingly left completely hollow by the experience.

If Chase tells Carl to fight James off, however, Carl remains his normal self and assists the group despite his anxious feelings. After being attacked by Jenna, Carl is overcome with anxiety and runs off. He arrives at what appears to be a twisted version of Pueblo University and self-reflects, and has an epiphany in which he realizes that he cannot let others define his life for him. In this moment of clarity, Carl realizes that he and his friends have actually been hallucinating their whole experience and explains his revelations to Chase before returning to the mansion to free Raven and Jenna. In the route's epilogue, Carl has returned to Pueblo alongside Chase, who he has decided to keep things platonic with, and is in pursuit of an art degree.

### Leo's route

Carl plays a minor role in Leo's route. On Wednesday, the group attempts to hold a birthday party for Carl, but are unable to find him because he is still in the crawlspace he wandered into the night before. During the hysteria on Saturday, the group come to Carl's mansion to borrow a car with which to escape the town. Carl is snapped out of his hysteria (which is implied to be the "game" from his own route) and accompanies the group in their unsuccessful escape attempt. At the end of the route, Carl escapes Echo alongside the rest of his friends by hopping aboard a train passing through Echo to Payton.

### TJ's route

On TJ's route, the gang once again attempts to hold a birthday party for Carl on Wednesday but are initially unable to find him due to him having ended up in the mansion's crawlspace overnight. On Thursday, Carl calls TJ and Chase to his mansion to reveal that he found what appears to be a note left by Sydney prior to his death that serves as the start of a "treasure hunt." After the gang decides to complete the treasure hunt as a form of closure regarding Syd's death, Carl accompanies Chase, TJ, Jenna, and Julian around Echo as they find each subsequent clue. On Saturday, the group returns to Lake Emma to find the final note of the hunt, which has been replaced with a fake note incriminating Flynn for setting up the hunt to target Chase. Carl stands up for Flynn, only for Chase to turn on him and angrily accuse Carl of being Flynn's accomplice. While backing away from a confrontation with TJ, Carl trips over a rock and breaks his ankle, at which point Jenna and Julian take him to the hospital. He is not seen again after this.

### Flynn's route

Carl appears prominently on Flynn's route as a supporting character, spending much of the week alongside Flynn and Chase. He accompanies their fishing trip on Tuesday, during which he sees Flynn and Chase in a near-sexual encounter. On Wednesday, Flynn takes Carl to the Meseta Reservation before they return to the Hendricks Mansion for Carl's surprise party. When Leo suspects Chase and Flynn of sleeping together, Carl covers for Chase by pretending that he spent the night at the mansion rather than at Flynn's, then accompanies Chase back to Flynn's house later in the evening. Here he meets Flynn's roommate, Daxton, who he hits it off with rather quickly after bonding with him over the show Adastra. Carl also accompanies Chase and Daxton to The Smoke Room to follow Flynn, and attends the barbecue at Chase's old house alongside Daxton the following day.

Carl goes to a job interview on Saturday, which goes disastrously in a manner similar to his own route. Afterward, he accompanies Flynn and Chase to town hall to confront TJ about Sydney's death one more time. Here, he discovers that Flynn is planning to leave Echo, which upsets him greatly. When Leo and Jenna arrive following Chase's betrayal and condemnation of Flynn, Carl is the only person to speak up in support of the Gila monster. As the hysteria begins after TJ tells the truth, Carl accompanies the rest of his friends sans Chase to Flynn's house to reconvene. Here, he admits to having seen the "Socket Man" while on his post-college acid trip and has a heart-to-heart with Flynn regarding their relationship.

Carl goes with the rest of his friends to town hall to uncover more about the current situation, and joins Flynn in questioning Chase after rescuing him from the reading room. As the group attempts to escape the town, Carl resolves to leave Echo for good and take Flynn with him. Unfortunately, the group is then teleported into Lake Emma by the Socket Man. After making it to the shore, Carl joins Flynn in reminiscing about Sydney one last time before the Gila is somehow separated from the group. Carl is last seen in the mines, where he witnesses Flynn transforming into the Socket Man before fleeing alongside Daxton. It is unknown what becomes of him after this, though he seemingly survives the events of the route.

### Jenna's route

Carl's role on Jenna's route changes significantly from his other appearances throughout the game. On Tuesday night, Carl is startled by odd noises outside his home and snaps a picture of a mysterious creature outside his window before fleeing into the desert. Unfortunately, he does not make it far before being captured by Brian. Carl then spends the rest of the week trapped in Brian's trailer, where he is strapped to Brian's torture rack and conditioned into submission through Brian's "games" while his friends search for him.

On Saturday, Carl is briefly reunited with Chase, Leo, Jenna, and Micha, who have all also been captured by Brian. This reunion is short-lived, as Brian sends Carl away with Jeremy and Clint to find a hysteria-rattled Heather. At some point on Sunday, Carl ends up separated from Jeremy and Clint and is then found by the rest of his friends in Heather's house. Heather briefly holds the ram hostage before either Micha or Jenna manage to talk her down.

In Jenna's bad ending, Carl and his friends sans Jenna leave town to get him to a hospital, and escape Echo just in time for Jenna to flood the town by opening the nearby dam. In Jenna's good ending, Carl joins the group in their attempt to talk Heather down, which they manage to do successfully. Afterward, Carl and his friends go to a diner in Payton to process their ordeal. Carl is left severely traumatized by his experience, but is alive and physically unharmed, much to the relief of his friends and family.

## Relationships

### Chase

Carl considers Chase to be his best friend, and the two have known each other since childhood. Carl and Chase initially bonded over their similar interests in games and movies, and they would often play together and shoot their own home movies. Chase often manipulated Carl for his own benefit, and on at least one occasion left him to fend for himself when their bullies were physically assaulting him.

As adults, Carl and Chase remain friends but are considerably less close. During their time at college, Carl was often left behind by Chase as the otter attempted to integrate himself into the campus' social scene. At this time, Carl's anxiety continued to worsen as he felt increasingly abandoned and useless. After dropping out, these feelings continued and became coupled with worry over Chase secretly having died following a hallucination during his acid trip. Upon meeting again during the events of Echo, Carl and Chase continue to be close friends and care about one another greatly.

On Carl's route, Carl engages in a brief romantic relationship with Chase before breaking it off due to his feelings having been confounded by his possession at the hands of James I. Carl also comes to the realization that he does not need Chase's support to succeed or feel good about himself, a revelation that helps him grow as a person and strengthens their friendship overall.

### Flynn

After Carl dropped out of college, he grew extremely close with Flynn due to the Gila being his only physically present friend in Echo. Carl often receives rides from Flynn due to his lack of a vehicle, and hangs out with him frequently. Carl often serves as Flynn's confidant regarding his feelings toward Sydney, which tends to make Carl perhaps the only member of the gang to be outwardly sympathetic toward Flynn's attempts to get closure. In turn, Flynn provides Carl with strong (albeit harsh) encouragement about his direction in life.

Prior to the events of Echo, Carl instigated a sexual encounter with Flynn that elevated their close friendship into that of one with benefits. On Flynn's route, Carl appears to harbor feelings for Flynn that extend even beyond that of a casual sexual relationship. Carl feels devastated by the idea of Flynn leaving town, expresses jealous sentiments toward his "fling" with Chase, and swears to take Flynn with him when they escape Echo for good. Carl also latches on to Flynn specifically for comfort upon being rescued during the events of Jenna's route.

### Leo

Carl sees Leo as the "protector" of the gang, and notes that the wolf makes him feel secure and safe whenever he is around, to the point that he initially tried to reach him during his acid trip. Inspired by Leo's strength, Carl took to bodybuilding to better himself and be more like the wolf. Despite this, the two have somewhat fallen out of touch over time due to a combination of Carl's social anxiety and Leo's inability to get over his relationship with Chase. Though Carl still values Leo as a friend and trusts him, he seems to accept that they are no longer close.

### TJ

Like the rest of the group, Carl believes TJ to be somewhat naïve, a fact that he sometimes exploits to poke fun at the lynx's innocent behavior. The two appear to get along well, though like Flynn (and perhaps because he serves as the Gila's confidant) Carl seems to believe that TJ knows more about Sydney's death than he lets on. Carl usually does not bring this up, though on TJ's route he drunkenly accuses the lynx of having committed the crime himself.

### Jenna

Carl considers Jenna a close friend, though the two appear to interact very little compared to their respective relationships with the rest of the gang. While the two typically get along, Carl is occasionally made anxious by Jenna's attempts to convince him to return to college.

When possessed by James on his route, "Carl" expresses extreme contempt for Jenna due to her being inhabited by the spirit of John Begay. He and Jenna constantly remain at one another's throats as a result of their ancestors' influences, to the point that Carl even murders Jenna in his bad ending, although none of these events occur of his own volition.

### Sydney

Carl's relationship toward Sydney is not well-defined. Carl considers Syd's death to be the point where his life started going downhill, and he is frustrated by the lack of explanation behind his death. As a result, he sympathizes with Flynn's desire to find the truth behind the accident, though he expresses these sentiments to a less severe degree. Overall, Carl seems to feel some degree of regret over Sydney's passing, a strong contrast to many other members of the group. Carl is also the one to instigate the treasure hunt on TJ's route, feeling that completing Sydney's last hunt may help him and the rest of his friends obtain closure.

### Raven

Raven is a friend of Carl's from high school. Carl appears to be less anxious around the husky than he is with most people and finds his humor funny, albeit jokingly chiding him to not be a "dick." In Carl's good ending epilogue, the two apparently become very good friends and talk frequently after surviving their experiences during the hysteria.

### Daxton

— Carl

Though Carl has never met Daxton prior to Flynn's route, the two bond almost immediately over similar interests in what Carl describes as "nerd shit" such as Adastra. Daxton becomes fast friends with Carl, to the point that the ram proceeds to invite him to the friend group's barbecue the day after they meet. Daxton also helps Carl prepare for his job interview, and Carl is very upset to hear that he is not coming along to support him. When the Socket Man teleports the group into Lake Emma, Carl is the first to realize that Daxton is still missing and worries about him greatly until he is rescued.

## Trivia

* Carl's species is very likely to be a bighorn sheep, possibly a desert bighorn given the area.
* Carl is the only Echo character to have a known birthdate: April 19th.
* Based on possible conversations in Route 65 and his internet history seen in Jenna's route, Carl is implied to have a "fleshsona."
* In the original pitch for Echo, Carl was conceptualized as "a nerdy coyote" who the main character had hung out with many times.
* Though Glory Hounds takes place in a universe distinct from Echo's, Carl is referenced in minor ways. Raoul Brevard's favorite comic, *Stinger*, is written and illustrated by Carl, hinting that his dreams of becoming an artist and writing his own comic were realized in this reality. There is also a sign for Hen's Ice Cream in the background of Schippersburg, and the brand is referenced on multiple occasions.