D:BH: Cut Content - Lieutenant Gavin Reed
In today’s meta essay I’m going to analyze this unused model in terms of yet another presumably scrapped plot by dissecting the concept art, script and deleted video material of Detroit: Become Human.
Displayed is a secret Gavin “Interior” version that’s been buried in the coding. While a good handful of cut characters star as low res NPCs in the game, this high res model looks extremely polished and won’t appear in the game at all. The model’s badge classifies Gavin as Police Lieutenant and he comes with a unique gallery description:
Hank may be difficult, but nobody treats Connor with as much contempt and hostility as Lieutenant Gavin Reed. — Gallery, BigFile_PC.d23
So according to the concept artist Mikael Leger, the first time we were going to meet with Hank for a case was chapter “Russian Roulette”. If we are going to assume that no chapters were moved out of their original order — which seems most likely since Tracy was busy at Gilmour Hotel during her intro chapters before Hank and Connor chased her down at Eden Club —this means Hank and Connor would’ve been assigned as partners only halfway through the story.
Connor would have investigated both the Ortiz and the Williams case with another superior of the 7th precinct, that’s where the cut Lieutenant Gavin Reed arc comes into play. If OG Connor worked his cases with both Gavin and Hank, his investigation schedule would be rearranged like this:
Partners (Teammates) - Gavin
The Interrogation - Gavin
Waiting for Hank (Police Works) - Gavin
On the Run - Gavin
The Nest - Gavin
Russian Roulette - Hank
The Bridge (The Vault Ambadassor Bridge) - Hank
Public Enemy (Back to the Big Screen) - Hank
Meet Kamski - Hank
Last Chance, Connor (Lockers) - Hank
What I wrote in brackets are the original chapter names and interesting enough “Waiting for Hank” didn’t originally point out Hank’s name in particular, it was labeled “Police Works”.
Let’s take a look at concept artworks of the chapters prior to “Russian Roulette” as well as the ones we have of Gavin.
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TEAMMATES:
The concept art of Jimmy’s Bar looks almost exactly like our in-game first meeting with LT. Anderson, only the seatment is wrong, The older man who strongly resembles Hank occupies one of the stools close to the entry which I have circled for the game shot. Another shadowy figure occupies Hank’s canon seat further in the back, closer to the bathroom stalls.
Of course this ain’t much proof of anything yet since the seatment of Hank could’ve been depicted at random by the artist and QD might have just changed it in the development stage. Since Jimmy’s Bar is known for its anti-android sentiments it’s a place I could picture both Hank and Gavin loitering.
The artist Wojtek Fus depicts Connor in two different outfits for his concept art of “Teammates”, a brown rain coat and the classic CyberLife suit. Now Machine!Connor isn’t known for parading in human disguises on a mission and both Connor and Gavin’s hairstyles look similar from behind, so the upper picture might actually be Gavin leaving the bar, not Connor.
There’s no concept art showing Hank during the Ortiz investigation.
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THE INTERROGATION
Now here’s where things start to get a little bit more interesting.
The official concept art for HK400′s interrogation shows Gavin in his blue dress shirt observing on Chris’ seat behind the glass, Captain Fowler takes Gavin’s place at the right wall and an unnamed cop enters while Chris is questioning their suspect. Since Hank is nowhere in sight, it appears that Gavin was in charge for the Ortiz’ investigation.
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POLICE WORKS
The following gif shows a deleted scene from the E3 2017 trailer, mod credit for access to the amazing DragonBane0:
While Connor watches the map he’s sitting at a desk that’s not the one he’s being assigned to in the game. Instead of sitting at his shared desk with Hank he’s sitting at the desk that’s shared with Gavin Reed (it’s assigned to Po. Brown in canon).
There’s also concept art of Hank and Fowler arguing in the office:
It doesn’t necessarily have to be related to Connor’s case though, seeing as Leo Manfred is being displayed on Fowler’s screen at the time. It could be that Hank was going to investigate the Manfred case as a side plot while Connor and Gavin tracked down Kara.
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ON THE RUN (POSSIBLY)
Unfortunately, there’s no official concept art portraying Connor for this chapter. All of the existing art only shows Kara hiding and running from unrecognizable police officers. Imo the lack of Connor and Hank being shown as a team is a little bit suspicious in itself.
The artwork I’ve added shows Ben Collins, Agent Perkins and Gavin Reed investigating on a rainy street. Such a scene doesn’t exist in the game, however Ben does aid the investigation in Camden to track down Kara. Perkins taking notes on his tablet is exactly what Hank’s doing in the game while being briefed by Ben. The rainly daylight setting also matches the artwork which shows Kara entering the drug store in Camden during “On the Run”.
On a side note: the android pharmacist of this drug store labeled “ANDPHARMAW_01″ had also been created as a high res NPC, she is another unused character. This suggests the human Alice plot point has been scrapped super late as well, now that android Alice is no longer in need of medical attention.
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THE NEST
There’s actually two different concept artworks of the Chicken Feed truck with different lightening and at different locations.
This first setting looks closest to what we’ve got in the game, the main differences being the absence of Hank’s car, Connor is pacing with no apparent interest in his partner and there are three people chatting at the truck, whereas in the game there are two, Hank and Pedro. None of the three men depicted resemble Hank. The man who’s back faces the truck and who’s mostly hidden from view seems to wear a dark hooded leather jacket that looks a lot like the jacket Gavin is wearing in the game and his concept artwork.
The second concept art shows the Chicken Feed located on an open plaza in Detroit. Hank’s car is parked in front of it and a man who resembles Hank much more closely is currently making a purchase. We don’t see Connor in this, but his intro sequence might have been to watch Hank from a distance, considering Hank himself isn’t a POV character.
We have concept art of Connor investigating the nest with a male who’s longer hair matches Hank and not Gavin. The artwork could have been edited though, since there is proof QD edited other scenes and art to match the final version of the game. An example being the E3 Trailer scene being edited to show Markus burning down Hart Plaza, when in reality it showed only an unassuming street map.
There’s also this edited concept art which the lovely @konami-code-ao3 pointed out to me, it shows Michael Brinkley talking on a big screen at CyberLife HQ. His character hadn’t even been modeled yet in the concept art stage.
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Moving on to some scenarios and lines and why I speculate the Connor-Reed partnership had been cut fairly late in QD’s development stage:
The deleted E3 Trailer sequence shows Connor sitting at a desk shared with Gavin.
“I am certainly going to miss our bromance” is what Connor tells Gavin in parting if the player chose to respond “ironic”. Connor barely ever spent time with Gavin in canon, but with a former partnership between the two this punchline makes more sense.
At the Chicken Feed, Gavin seems more like the type to engage in illegal bets with Pedro than Hank, though less likely to bet on horses and more likely to bet on the scrapped android fighting ring Markus was once a part of. The bet on horses seems so… random.
The title “Youngest Lieutenant of Detroit” makes most sense applied to Gavin who’s just 36 years old.
Hank’s relationship stat has no impact on Connor’s progression on the deviant/machine path which makes me think it was a rushed addition and OG Connor wasn’t going to befriend Hank. Yes, Friend-Hank and Hostile-Hank trigger different scene variations, but that ultimately doesn’t affect Connor’s fate. Hank can’t turn Connor deviant. Connor doesn’t require Hank’s friendship to succeed at CyberLife HQ and the secret of Cole Anderson was very lazily implemented into Hank-Connor interactions and will trigger a deus ex machina ending if Connor correctly guesses Cole’s backstory without having discovered the photo. On top of that, I doubt that even OG Connor would want to detonate a nuclear bomb at CyberLife HQ if he was ever friends with Hank.
There are other android patrol officiers in commission at the precinct, but Gavin has a special hatred for Connor aiding the DPD in particular. If Connor did something to kick Gavin off the investigation or caused Gavin to throw the towel then it would explain why Gavin hates Connor so much that he’s willing to ambush and murder him in the evidence room. After all Gavin’s canon bio says: Ruthlessly ambitious, Reed will do anything to advance his career, even if it means treading on other peoples’ toes.
David Cage admits that OG Connor is based on Heavy Rain’s Norman Jayden, who @konami-code-ao3 explained was assigned to a toxic partnership with Lieutenant Carter Blake. Carter Blake was arrogant, brutal and close-minded and a major antagonist to Norman while they worked the Origami Killer case together. Gavin’s original first name was “Curtis”, a name extremely similar to Carter. It’s probable that the Lieutenant Gavin Reed arc was based on Norman and Carter’s partnership, because what did Cage not copy from Heavy Rain and paste onto Detroit: Become Human to be honest?
