Resident Evil Villagesucceeds in telling its horror story by merging superstition and science. No character better reflects this curious mix than Mother Miranda, both a genius biologist and a cult leader. By feeding on people’s fears and beliefs, Mother Miranda established herself as a holy figure, a facade built carefully over time in order to give her all the resources she needed to conduct inhuman experiments.
However, Miranda is more than just the big baddie ofResident Evil Village, as her reach extends well beyond the mountain village she rules, making her indirectly responsible for every main bioweapon attack inResident Evilhistory. To dive deep into the transformation of the scientist in Mother Miranda to how she made the virus outbreak in Raccoon City possible, we’ll give a lot ofspoilers. If you haven’t finishedResident Evil Village, you might want to come back later.
Spoilers Ahead
Miranda was born sometime at the end of the 19th century in the small village that Ethan Winters spends almost the entire duration ofResident Evil Villagetrying to escape. In 1909, Miranda had her first and only daughter, Eva, who would, unfortunately, die at the age of ten, a victim of a Spanish Flu outbreak that almost wipedout the village’s entire population. Filled with sadness and desperation, Miranda decided to end her own life inside a nearby cave. When venturing into the dark tunnels, Miranda made a discovery that changed her life. Inside the cave, Miranda found the Megamycete, a giant being connected to a fungus hive that would be later known as the Mold.
The Mold can contaminate fauna, changing the molecular structure of humans and animals. In Miranda’s case, the Mold allowed her to shape herself at will, besides giving the desperate woman impressive strength and regenerative abilities. More importantly, after being contaminated with the Mold, Miranda could understand how the entire fungal colony was connected to the Megamycete, transferring information through its black goo. Everything that comes into contact with the Mold is known by the Megamycete and shared with the entire fungal structure. We could say, then, that the Megamycete works as a powerful biological computer, saving all information it can while it spreads the Mold in all directions.
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As soon as she learned this, Miranda decided to dedicate her life to reversing the process. There’s no file or custscene in which we get a direct answer, but Miranda implies that the Megamycete keeps Eva’s memory, so we can assume the scientist sacrificed her dead daughter’s body to the Mold so that she can one day retrieve Eva’s mind from the Megamycete. Miranda would only need a strong body to bring her daughter back to life, one that could resist any kind of disease, and even stand up to the test of time. To achieve this goal, Miranda would study the biology of the Mold; at the same time, she exploited the villagers' faith in order to get a limitless supply of new guinea pigs for her experiments.
Coming back to the village as a self-proclaimed prophet of the Black God, Miranda used the Mold to infect the diseased villagers. The regenerative properties of the Mold would cure the sick, and it wouldn’t be long before the villagers left behind their Christian faith to worship the Black God and his prophet and protector, Mother Miranda. Convinced that Mother Miranda was their guardian angel, the villagers were blind to the fact that they were all cattle, just waiting to become victims in Miranda’s search for the perfect vessel.
Miranda’s initial experiments were not too successful. The biologist was able to create a parasite from the Mold, which she baptized as Cadou, coming from the Romanian for “Gift.” With the Cadou acting as a vector, Miranda “gave birth” to the Four Lords of Village, the heirs to the noblest houses of the region, that would be forever bound to her services. The Four Lords gained phenomenal abilities from the “gift” Miranda gave them, but none was strong, stable, or loyal enough to receive Eva’s mind. More experiments were needed.
Miranda would find help conducting her research after rescuing British medical student Oswell E. Spencer, who got lost while hiking some time in the 1940s or early ’50s. After learning of Oswell’s impressive genius, Miranda convinced the student to become her assistant, helping her in the perfection of the Cadou. Oswell learned a lot from Miranda, but the two scientists wanted to walk different paths: Miranda’s goal was to resurrect her daughter; Oswell, while holding his mentor in high regard, felt he needed to depart from the village and search for a way to improve all humanity, which led him to discovering the Progenitor Virus in Africa.
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Spencer, as allResident Evilfans know, would found the Umbrella Corporation, the main organization responsible for the creation of bioweapons in previous games, including the original trilogy of the franchise. Even if Miranda was not directly involved with the Umbrella Corporation, she inspired Spencer to create the T-Virus, making her also indirectly responsible for the Raccoon City outbreak. The connection between the two scientists is so intimate thatResident Evil Villagereveals the Umbrella Corporation logo is inspired by the symbol that represents the founders, the Four Houses of the village, another detail that underlines how Miranda is the source of most of the dangers in theResident Eviluniverse.
The Umbrella Corporation is not the only evil group to draw inspiration from Miranda’s work with the Mold. After learning about Mother Miranda and her experiments, the crime syndicate known as The Connections approached the biologist to create the ultimate bioweapon. In 2000, Miranda agrees to give The Connections a sample of the Mold and an embryonic clone of Eva, hopeful that the organization can help her resurrect her daughter. The Connections research gave birth to Eveline, the bioweapon responsible for the events ofResident Evil 7. Even if Eveline was considered a failure in Mother Miranda’s eyes, her accidental release in the Lousiana’s swamps allowed the biologist to learn more about Ethan Winters and his wife Mia.
Eveline was destroyed in 2017, but not before contaminating both Ethan and Mia. The couple’s daughter, Rose, being born from two Mold-contaminated humans, could be the final ingredient Miranda was missing to make her dream come true. That’s why Miranda, using her shapeshifting abilities, kidnapped Mia and replaced her without Ethan even noticing his wife was missing. Miranda’s infiltration would be quickly uncovered by Chris Redfield and his counter-bioterrorism unit, but that didn’t stop Miranda from kidnapping Rose and kickstarting the events ofResident Evil Village.
Mother Miranda is already a scary figure when we take into consideration her influence over the village and the Four Lords. Her shapeshifting abilities also make her a formidable foe in thelast confrontation ofResident Evil Village. Yet, Miranda’s history is what makes her a true menace, as the villain was involved with almost every major bioweapon attack theResident Evilfranchise showcased. Mother Miranda inspired the founding of Umbrella Corporation, which would, in turn, create Albert Wesker. More recent criminal organizations, such as The Connections, were also fed by Miranda’s genius. Even if the biologist is dead, and her cult dismantled, we certainly haven’t see the last of the Mold, and we can be sure the echoes of Mother Miranda’s work will still be present in the future of theResident Evilfranchise.
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