The King in the Audience, Handsome Jack Revisited in Tales From The Borderlands

The King in the Audience, Tales From The Borderlands: Analysis
Drunkenly Spun By the Kaleidoscope Gamer

Handsome Jack is back, and a tad more pixelated than we remember him. With the ghost of the Hyperion dictator’s appearance in Telltale’s latest installment of Tales From the Borderlands, Handsome Jack’s re-introduction to the series could easily warrant a change in title from “Altas Mugged” to an affectionate “Welcome to Hell, Handsome.” Because walking still sucks, especially after you’re dead and, more or less, held hostage by Hyperion infants and Pandoran grifters (that’s you)?

Given the amount of Borderlands cameos in episode 1, from the show-stealing Zer0, to Mad Moxxi’s voice heard over an ech0log, Handsome Jack’s startlingly blue appearance in “Atlas Mugged” is no surprise. Rather, it comes as the long awaited punch line to a groan-inducing pun. Gloriously enough, it wouldn’t be the first of its kind to join the staggering amount of groan-inducers that Telltale has kneaded into the second installment of Tales (right along with Vaughan’s swole gains).

But cameos aside, Telltale has managed to put their own spin on the beloved Borderlands series in their own innovative way. For example, their decision to include Jack in the antics of a main cast, constructed primarily of new faces, has yet to take away from the starting series's stand-alone ingenuity, because Handsome Jack, despite his engaging puppet shows conducted through Vaughan’s crotch, is still dead.

Now an A.I version of himself, the specter appears out of Nakayama’s ID chip like a genie Rhys unknowingly downloads to his cybernetic brain-made-magic-lamp. Strangely enough, Jack does not recall his death and parades around as if he had just woken up from a nap, refreshed for a new game’s worth of conquering. Although the game is vague on the process of how the Jack A.I came to be, cut dialogue from the episode’s unused audio files suggest that Nakayama “captured” Handsome Jack’s “essence” with the use of brain-scans. 

This unusual spin-off puts Jack within an interesting stasis. As an A.I that believes he is the original Handsome Jack. One can only assume what else this version of Jack is missing in the memory department, although he seems to be doing quite well for himself if he remembers how bald Vasquez used to be (just sayin’).

Although clever to avoid the gimmicks of re-introducing a core character in a work hoping to stand out on its own, so far, Tales is in danger of three more episodes worth of potholes to swerve around solely where Handsome Jack is concerned. Because if the glaring prediction that Jack is one of the game's “bigger bads”, his re-introduction runs the risk of (over heard at Telltale Games) “beating a dead Butt Stallion” in a story that, within a respectful distance of the beginning tale it heralds from in juxtaposition, shines well enough on its own.

Setting the Stage

Like many of Telltale’s series-inspired work, Tales explores the Borderlands-verse with new eyes, and justly shared perspectives between both playable protagonists.  With plot and setting taking place sometime after the series of events in Gearbox’s Borderlands 2, Tales unfolds within an interesting period of time, namely—the future of chaotic, lawless Pandora, as well as the future of Hyperion after Jack’s death, and how both of these conflicts intermingle between the Pandoran protagonist and our Hyperion protagonist (hello, Romeo and Juliet allegories).

In other words, there is plenty of new and exciting power struggles to explore, which Telltale set up nicely in their premier episode, “Zer0 Sum.” However, with the reappearance of Handsome Jack, the story-line runs the risk of falling into the same pit-trap that would render it more than just an ech0log to BL2, rather it would become BL2 if Jack were to just gain control beyond hacking into Rhys’s subsystems, and reinstall (no pun intended) himself at the top of the Hyperion food-chain yet again. And although this can of worms has yet to be opened, the opportunity to place it within the nifty canned food pyramid Telltale seems to be constructing, is very real, and tantalizingly within the story’s reach.

Jack’s Earlier Roles, and Continuing Persistence

Arguably, Handsome Jack has no doubt clawed his share of attention throughout the span of the Borderlands series. Although given a minimal part in BL1, he could still considered the first game’s driving force because he contracted the Vault Hunters to open the Vault. And later, he becomes the series’ main antagonist in BL2 (depending on your definition of morally gray), only to turn protagonist in the pre sequel, an installment meant to bridge the story-line between the former games, as well as explore Jack’s character before he found out he liked strangling people.

Considering his role in all Borderlands games to some degree, it only makes sense that Handsome Jack would show his digitized face in Tales too. In a way, he is almost a trademark of the Borderlands series, as well as an attention hog. That much, Telltale gets right when they include a side-splitting scene to highlight what happens when you try to ignore “the” Handsome Jack (again, puppet shows via crotch are stressed). But aside from a few quirked eyebrows from the only person who can see him, Jack is reduced to a hilarious position. Instead of controlling the show like every Borderlands game, he is finally forced into an audience’s position; a king gone jester.

In a subtle humor that caters well to die-hard Borderlands fans, Telltale gives fans the chance to delight in their former tormentor’s irritation at his incapability to strangle everyone on sight.  As a result, gamers have more power than Jack because, eventually, they are the ones making decisions for their protagonist. Jack though, has become an audience who can only comment on what’s happening around him instead of taking control like he would normally be able to in any Borderlands games. 

Reduced to a few opportune moments of comic relief, Jack in A.I form is quite possibly a nod to the popular Let’s Players, YouTube stars who play through games and add often comedic bits of commentary to the characters’ situations. At least, until the mid-episode reveal hints that Jack has more power than anyone thinks, and it’s the player’s decision in the end to allow him this power by taking the wheel, or keep him crammed in the trunk.


Needless to say, Jack has played major roles in every main Borderlands game up-to-date, and now, he is making sure to get his holographic thumb within the blueberry pie that is Tales, before subsequently smearing a slice all over himself. But, is Jack really set to play any major role in his relatively harmless, holographic state? And if he is one of the major driving forces of a story that has yet to impose any main antagonist, to what extent should his influence shape a story that held plenty of potential without him?

As much fun as he is to laugh at, the darker toned scene of Jack taking control of Rhys is proof enough that Telltale thought to include Jack into their story for reasons beyond simple reminiscing for returning Borderlands fans.

War is Still Coming

With the episode’s cliffhanger, apprehension that Jack will become the game’s “bigger bad” yet again, runs deep. Players have had this salad tossed before, and crumbling a few croutons in the hopes of passing it off as something new would prove a sour disappointment for the promising originality of the series. Although it's possible Telltale is paving the way to the next installment of Borderlands. Namely, the looming war on the horizon.

Just before Tales takes place, the Eridian who intervenes in Athena’s execution, prophesies that a great war is coming, and that all Vault Hunters will be needed to combat it. Given the amount of current and future Vault Hunter cameos (Zer0, Athena, Brick, and Mordecai, in case you weren’t keeping count), it’s possible that whatever transpires in Tales could directly lead to this predicted war.

This has not been the first time an Eridian has tried to intervene. The first? Was leading Zarpedon to stop Jack from opening the Vault. The Eridian saw the future mayhem Jack would cause if he entered the Vault, so who’s to say this war is not a direct consequence of Jack’s past actions, or rather, his future actions, even after death?

If the war predicted by the Eridian in Pre Sequel is planned to take place in Tales, Jack could certainly have a role to play, considering his ability to hack the droids at the end of the episode. Using Rhys, this could very well prompt him to build an army of hacked cybernetics through the highly-fan-noticed phenomena known as the “Yellow Hack” or, the observation that everything Jack has hacked in Episode 2 (Rhy’s ech0 eye, the drone’s lights, including the lights found on the Stranger and Rhy’s outfit), turns yellow. Jack’s eyes turn yellow as well, signaling that he has taken control, or is in the process of controlling bots with blinking, yellow lights.

With the growing hints that Vallory (the boss of all the scheming schmucks introduced thus far) will now be coming after the sisters in Episode 3, it is also possible that Telltale plans to incorporate separate main antagonists between their already enlightening take on double-protagonists. This development of course would mean that Jack has the potential to become Rhy’s main antagonist (emphasis on the “Frenemy” label). After all, what’s scarier than a threat no one else but you can see? However, the subtle foreshadowing between Jack and Rhys, even before Jack was integrated into Episode 2, implies other routes Telltale could very well be eyeing:

Rhys’s potential to become the catalyst Jack needs to assume power again.

Or, Jack’s potential to become the catalyst Rhys needs to follow in the tyrant’s footsteps.

This would mean the pendulum of how the audience swings would largely determine whether or not Jack is unleashed to terrorize through Rhys, or as an obligatory condiment of darkness used to flavor Rhys for the worse.

Rhys and Jack – Mirrors and Foils

Rhys has been barreling towards this self-fulfilling prophecy since episode one with dialogue like:

“And Handsome Jack? He was the baddest guy of'em all.
 And I wanted to be just like him.”.

And not only that, but Rhy’s opening sequence directly mirrors Jack’s in the Pre Sequel when both are punched in the head (why is it always the face?) Jack's head, soaring left to thematically foreshadow a destiny towards an amoral future, while Rhys soars right, or thematically destined to break the cycle of falling into Jack's footsteps.

 In another interesting twist of fate, Pre Sequel Jack and Rhys could probably be synonymous with each other. They are both relatively middle-class on the Hyperion totem pole when their stories really begin to paint them as protagonists. They have bosses that make their lives miserable, which eventually leads them to take action and spark their own stepping off point where their paths then diverge; Jack murders his boss while Rhys stabs his in the back by trying to steal his Vault Key deal (key word: try).

Jack's legacy is a recurring theme in Tales. Folks up on Hyperion are clawing their way over each other to fill his shoes before Vasquez decides to take after Jack and murder his boss. Vasquez is also the character to bring up the issue of Jack's legacy, ironically claiming that through him, Jack's legacy lives on when Jack's A.I is currently "living" through Rhys. But seeing as Jack is shown in several scenes to parrot Rhys's movements, it's questionable as to who is really influencing who at this point.

However, Handsome Jack’s VA, Dameon Clarke, has predicted that Jack’s role in Tales will be to mold Rhys into himself.  To get him to that point that would allow Rhys to take over Hyperion and become the next Handsome Jack, in other words, if he, at any point, strangles Vasquez, you’ll know where this is all headed.  (And even the build up for that exchange is there, etched like a warning in the fury of Rhys’s expression as he limps away from Vasquez’s corporate coup.)

Jack and Rhys are practically prepped to represent an equation that renders them mirror images of one another while simultaneously establishing them as foils. Jack has been described as a lost king, or a ghost whose returned to claim his throne, but Rhys could just as easily represent a ghost—Jack’s past. And when Rhys is forced to interact with a clear representation of Jack’s future, an interesting dynamic is reached in which both characters influence the present.

All in all, this theory’s potential plays well into Telltale’s “the choices you make affect the story” play style, because essentially, Handsome Jack whispering in our ears or not, we as players get to decide what Rhys will become. Will he make the same mistakes as Jack, or can the path be changed with friends and loyalty, a variable that while missing in Jack’s story, is present and possibly, ultimately responsible for shaping Rhys just as much, if not more, than Jack's influence.

More to A.I than Meets the Eye: Jack’s A.I.

Another door to open still lies in the origin of Jack in his A.I form. The game and its characters can all unanimously agree that Handsome Jack is dead, and this conflict seems to strike some scary nerves with Jack when confronted about his death. Players must question whether or not Handsome Jack’s “essence” is truly Handsome Jack at all.

On a Q&A with Dameon Clarke on the VA’s future involvement in Tales, the question: 

“I know in the trailer they have the line that you say which is spoken by an A.I.
or something” further establishes Jack mere artificial intelligence over any supernatural-
inspired phenomena.

Clarke answers:

“That would make sense, right?  They did show that he’s dead 

so that would be a natural assumption, but they have informed me that there is going
to be a lot more stuff coming up for Handsome Jack and that he’s a big part of it.”

Rather, Jack’s A.I is a big part of it considering Jack, the original, is dead. But how exactly the A.I functions is anyone’s guess. Could it go through the entirety of the game a static (pun intended) representation of Handsome Jack, truly believing it is that it is the “original” who hasn’t died? Or is there more to A.I than meets the eye?

The Kara Heavy Rain Dev Trailer, in which a defective android develops a personality outside of its coding, comes to mind when faced with potential plot twists regarding the A.I. Although nothing in how Jack’s A.I behaves, so far, has supported that his behavior deviates from the intended individual it mimics—the potential for proof is in the origin of the A.I itself.

Gearbox added a DLC in which players must help Professor Nakayama create an A.I of Jack. The result is far from the A.I. found in Tales. This unrefined version is shown to have a physical form with an A.I. head that hollers a slew of death threats (cute?). 

It’s even shown to interact with the original Jack who seems delighted to have a “sexy, evil computer version” of him strutting around. Nakayama has not been shy in the least releasing his reject Jack projects to fight Vault Hunters in DLCS before, so it's notable that the A.I in Tales is hidden away on the professor's I.D Drive. The A.I is clearly advanced enough to mimic Jack's likeness exactly, so why exactly was Nakayama hiding the finished product unless:

1. It's an unfinished product (cue Jack speaking in a glitchy voice at times.)
   
   
2. Nakayama was going to turn it into Hyperion and was tragically intercepted by stairs.
   
   
3. It's a finished product, but malfunctioned by showing signs that it had its own thoughts outside of Jack's programmed ones.
   
   

Furthermore, the potential of the A.I escaping who it is supposed to be coincides directly with Rhys becoming either who he’s not supposed to be, or also breaking the cycle that Jack has created in wake of his death—a standard that not only Hyperion upholds and is subject to, but even its technology. If the A.I. were its own person, it could learn from breaking the cycle of Handsome Jack just as much as Rhys can potentially learn how to jump head first into Handsome Jack’s lingering presence.

Final Thoughts

Like any fan-based/inspired work, Tales does a lovely job of introducing new characters into a main, canon verse, establishing its characters in a way gaming audiences can easily form attachments to a cast ordained “ordinary”.

The game establishes these characters and their stories well, treating their perspectives as pertinent and plausible as the franchise’s Vault Hunter protagonists, and still, has yet to rely heavily on any one of their cameos to progress the story, save Handsome Jack.

However, even as Jack begrudgingly joins these unlikely forces, the fact his presence is reduced to an audience’s stand-point is not only a clever twist that represents the changing around of power following his death, but also aids Tales in showing Pandora and Hyperion’s state without their tyrant’s direct, physical influence; a state that is utterly chaotic, and delightfully so.

 It is this essence that is fundamentally unique to Tales from the Borderlands.