Textbook boondoggle. - ― Agent Estevez to Saga Anderson and Alex Casey in Alan Wake 2
Kiran Estevez is a Federal Bureau of Control agent and protagonist in Alan Wake 2. First mentioned in Control, Estevez is the Lead Agent of Investigations Unit Beta, a field unit of the FBC's Investigations Department assigned to Bright Falls, Washington in order to monitor and investigate the paranatural occurrences around Cauldron Lake.
Estevez is the playable protagonist of The Lake House expansion for Alan Wake 2, which focused on her investigation of the titular Lake House research facility in parallel with the events of the main game.
Biography[]
Background[]
Kiran Estevez is an agent of the Federal Bureau of Control's Investigations Department. She was once married, but the demands of her line of work strained her relationship with her wife and caused them to divorce.[1]
Following the large-scale Altered World Event of Bright Falls, Washington in 2010 caused by the Threshold under Cauldron Lake, the FBC sealed off access to the lake and the surrounding wilderness from the public, and established a monitoring station to detect impending AWE activity from the Threshold. Agents of the Investigations Department were assigned to maintain the cordon, handle groups and/or persons of interest, and monitor any potential paranatural activity, with Estevez being assigned as the team's Lead agent. Separately, the Lake House facility was established in 2015 by the Research Department to study the lake and its paranatural phenomena; these departments did not interact.
Estevez was the first Bureau agent to encounter Emil Hartman, finding the former psychologist inside Cauldron Lake Lodge displaying violent behavior characteristic of a Taken, after responding to a report of paranatural activity at the Lodge. With assistance from the on-site Bureau research team, Estevez was able to capture and contain Hartman inside a Black Rock cell, after which he was transferred to the Bureau's headquarters in the Oldest House.
During her time in Bright Falls, Estevez wrote to Remy Denis, interim Head of Investigations at the Oldest House to complain about the repeated damage to the Cauldron Lake monitoring station, which the locals had led her to believe was caused by raccoons. She also remarked on the refusal of the research staff at the nearby Lake House facility to share their data with her, which was interfering with her ability to prepare for future Bright Falls AWEs.
Control[]
In October 2019, Estevez was still stationed at Bright Falls during the Hiss invasion of the Oldest House and was thus among the Bureau personnel who survived. Although this left Kiran somewhat stranded and with limited resources, it allowed her to make her own decisions in the meantime, and since then she and her team have continued to monitor and contain any strange occurrences in the Bright Falls region.
Within the Oldest House, after Director Jesse Faden defeated the Taken and Hiss-corrupted Hartman within the Investigations Sector, Frederick Langston called to inform Jesse that a AWE alert had been detected in Bright Falls, only with a date placing it "a couple of years in the future". According to Langston, the situation was unclear but there was an Agent Estevez in charge of monitoring the site who should be able to provide them with further updates.
Alan Wake 2[]
Initiation[]
Estevez's earliest "appearance" is during Alan Wake's journey through the Dark Place of Initiation. In the Subway's Abandoned Station, Alan can find a discarded handheld transceiver by rewriting the Derailed Train scene. An agent with Estevez's voice can be heard over the radio, warning another agent (the FBI Agent "played" by Robert Nightingale) to be cautious; the radio will be dead by the time Alan answers. The subtitle's file ID confirms it to be her voice.
The Lake House[]
On September 14th 2023, Estevez and her team arrived in Bright Falls to investigate an AWE alert from the Cauldron Lake monitoring station, traveling to the Lake House in search of backup. Kiran entered the facility alone only to find the entire staff either dead or turned into Taken, with the sole survivor being civilian Ed Booker whom had been abducted and confined to a cell. After investigating further, Estevez eventually uncovered the truth: the facility's Co-Heads of Research, Diana and Jules Marmont, had taken advantage of the chaos caused by the Oldest House going dark to begin two unauthorized projects of their own, in an attempt to harness the reality-altering powers of Cauldron Lake for themselves. Ultimately, however, the Marmonts only succeeded in unleashing the Dark Presence on themselves and the Lake House, and Estevez barely managed to escape with her life.
Return[]
After the events at the Lake House, Estevez and her surviving team traveled to the town of Bright Falls proper just in time to encounter the aftermath of the Cult of the Tree's attack on the Elderwood Palace Lodge. Hearing gunshots in the nearby woods, they pursued only to find FBI agent Saga Anderson and an unconscious Alan Wake himself under threat from a cult member. Estevez ordered her team to detain both Wake and the surviving cultists, and to transport them to the Sheriff's station for further questioning. She then dismisses Saga from her investigation, stating the case now fell under the jurisdiction of the FBC.
Back at the Bright Falls sheriff's station, Kiran and other FBC agents worked to compile what information they had regarding the ongoing AWE. Shortly after their arrival however, the station was attacked and overrun by Taken, resulting in the deaths of most of the police and FBC agents present. Estevez suffered a major injury to her left thigh and was forced to lock herself within the station's records closet to wait for rescue.
Saga Anderson eventually returned to the station and discovered Estevez in the closet. After clearing out the Taken roaming the building, the two cooperated to restore power within the station, after which Estevez gave Anderson the cell keys so that she could speak with Wake. During the conversation however Scratch abruptly took over Wake's body and forced Anderson into a confrontation in the back lot of the station, where she was narrowly able to fend him off with the aid of the equipment the FBC had brought to confront the Shadow.
Back in the Sheriff's Station, Estevez, Anderson, and Alex Casey discussed what to do next after the revelation that it was Scratch rather than Wake who had escaped the Dark Place. It was eventually agreed that Saga would use the Clicker to summon the writer from the Dark Place. After agreeing on this plan, the group separated to meet up back at Cauldron Lake to enact the ritual.
Estevez contacted what FBC staff remained in the area to bring stationary lights and a FBC containment cell to the shoreline of Cauldron Lake. Once Anderson and the Old Gods of Asgard had arrived to began the ritual, Estevez and Casey remained on high ground to drop supplies to Saga as she battled waves of Taken emerging from Cauldron Lake. As the ritual completed, Saga used the Clicker, only for Scratch to appear and force her into another battle until she managed to lure him inside the containment unit. When Estevez activated the lights, the Dark Presence was driven from Wake's body and ripped open the containment cell, escaping only to take Casey as its new host moments later. Scratch/Casey then tossed Saga into Cauldron Lake and vanished with the Clicker, leaving only Estevez and Wake behind.
After speaking with Wake and providing him with what weaponry she had left, Estevez was last seen on the shoreline, contemplating the events of the current AWE as Wake set off towards Bright Falls to stop the Dark Presence on his own.
Trivia[]
- She is portrayed by Janina Gavankar.
- Estevez is the first openly LGBTQ character in the Remedy Connected Universe, having mentioned an ex-wife.
Appearances[]
- Alan Wake 2
- Initiation 2: Casey (voice only, as an FBI agent)
- Return 4: No Chance
- Return 6: Scratch
- Return 7: Summoning
- Return 8: Deerfest
- Return Addendum: The Lake House
Gallery[]
Concept art[]
In-game and Renders[]
References[]
- ↑ Estevez: Having family isn’t easy in this line of work. The late nights, travel, alternate realities threatening their existence. My ex-wife couldn’t take it.
(Part of conversation during Return 6: Scratch)