Trigger (2004-2005) #6

by Jason Hall, John Watkiss (Penciller), Jeromy Cox (Colorist)

Prepare yourself for the mind-bending conclusion of the 6-part story, "Pulled!" In an exhaustive search to find answers to the ever-changing world around him, Carter Lennox takes a trip into his own subconscious. What he finds will not only shock him, it just may kill him!

23 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 1, 2005

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Reviews

[Cybernex007 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yep…called that! There is still so much mystery in this series yet to uncover, especially when question why Amelia is so complacent, but that was a fantastically trippy issue as we dive down memory lane. Hr first we have to check in with Myers. Sometimes you have to break the law to do a good thing, but does that also mean you are just as bad as the people you are fighting against? At this point Myers doesn’t care, and when the security guard at Grimes weapons disposal won’t take her bribe, she punches her way through to use Isaac’s device to break into their systems and pull their data. On the way back she got a call from her mystery source in Ethicorp checking in on her. She gave him an update on her lead on the gun and how she handed the sci-fi gun to her friend to look over it. Her source immediately freaks out, tells her that her friend is as good as dead now. He works hard to keep her records from the observers but he can’t do it for everyone and they will be onto him now. Myers rushed over to Isaac only to arrive just in time with the gun in hand to find none other than trigger Vi, who was pulled and left Carter asleep in bed, snapping Isaac’s neck. Myers immediately began to shoot at Vi, who was able to expertly dodge the bullets…until one of her headaches came on and stopped her. She’s been pulled too much and that brief pause caused her to get hit by a bullet in the arm. Vi responded by shooting Mayer with a dart, as Vi retreated with the tranq weapon. The contact at Ethicorp tried to call Myers back to no avail, and instead decided to pack it up and go home. Turns out the contact is Nikolas Marshall, the VP of RnD at Ethicorp. But he doesn’t seem too concerned about her safety, it almost seems like this is just part of the job for him and he has a wife and kid to get back home to after all. It’s entirely possible that all of this is under Gull’s control, as he is also watching Marshall, but there is one thing that seems to confirm who Gull really is. As he watches Marshall leave, he makes a few chess references about all the pawns being in place. Yeah, no doubt in my mind at this point that Gull is Seth.

But now for the real juice of the issue. Earlier when Vi left Carter in bed as she was pulled, we found out he was in bed as he is currently fighting himself within his own mind. We have a psyche battle people!! Carter vs trigger Carter, whoever wins gets the mind. As the two fish it out they begin to fall backwards through Carter’s memories as they go from trigger’s time in the hotel room, fighting across panels to murdering the fat pervert before this and allowing host Carter to pickup some clothes of his own. Trigger continues to chase Carter through the memories, shooting at him along the way. Carter ends up in his house with Amelia right before he left, getting his relationship from a whole new perspective to realize how bad it is. But on a curious note, he leaves the room to find his daughter, Elsie, standing outside spying on them. But this time he notices that it looks like she is looking at him. Not Carter from then, but Carter now, the version of him running around in his memories. How would that be possible? He doesn’t have time to think about it, trigger is on his heels and he has to keep running. Suddenly he finds himself inside trigger’s memories, and suddenly his happy perspective about doing something good is ruined as he sees trigger commuting horrendous and brutal actions against others all while the version inside his head appears to admire their handiwork once more. Carter slams trigger against the memory wall, that’s not him he didn’t do any of this as trigger has to be some kind of split personality. But trigger questions this, why wouldn’t he be the real Carter? The fight is back on and once again they are falling through memories as Carter witnesses the time with the psychiatrist that he missed when trigger attacked her, and went back to the hotel room when he was covered in blood after Spradley. He once again sees the fake memories, but this time he is able to rip them down to see the truth, only for trigger to catch up to him again. They fall back to the time outside of Ethicorp when Carter ran into Vi, he is only just now realizing she was leaving the Ethicorp building. Carter runs deeper, looking for anywhere to hide, and ends up inside the painting in his office with a boat on the lake. He runs deeper and finds himself digging a grave. Even trigger comments on how weird the subconscious can get, clearly meaning this is Carter’s mind. Suddenly Carter has retreated to his first meeting with Seth in the park. Trigger is confused and about to comment on the truth of Seth, before he sees and chases after Carter again. Suddenly they are in an entirely new memory as Carter is on an operating table with his brain exposed. Before that you can see him making a deal with a surgeon, something he doesn’t remember, and then before that you can see Elsie’s birth. But there are two big problems, he wasn’t here for her birth, he was put on a business trip. So how can he remember this? Second big problem, the surgeon is the same one who operated on his brain! What is he doing here? Carter still doesn’t have time to think, he’s called back to his time in college hooking up with Amelia in the library, this distracted trigger long enough for Carter to get a punch in. They fell back through his memories to high school and Carter’s first love who broke his heart and changed his life. Trigger ran over and took her as a hostage. Carter is starting to realize the rules of this state and produced a gun through pure thought. Trigger is threatening to kill the memory of Carter’s childhood sweetheart, but Carter refuses to give him the chance. Instead opting to kill her himself! He then turned the gun on trigger and held him captive. But to trigger this is just proof that Carter is just like him. Whether she was a good or a bad memory it matters not as memories are all we have. Trigger doesn’t believe Carter can pull the trigger, after all he is the one with all the answers and so far Carter knows nothing. Once they find out he has messed with trigger they will destroy everything Carter cares about and he will never find the answers on his own. Carter is willing to take that chance and blows Trigger’s brains out. Suddenly Carter wakes up with a gasp in the hotel room. He is in control now, complete control, and this affair will have to end. He has felt empty for so long, all of his drive was focused on his life as a trigger, and now he has a chance to get his happiness back. But he can’t reveal that he is on control yet as ethicorp’s methods are still inexcusable and he needs to find out more. If they find out they will kill him or make him forget and he has a real chance to make a difference. As the issue comes to an end, Carter reruns home to his wife and immediately comforts her. He apologizes and tells her that whatever she thinks he’s up to she is wrong, technically she was right about Carter cheating it just wasn’t really Carter so only slight gaslighting, and he promises that as of now they are starting over. It seems like he is back to a spot where he has everything he wants and can truly get the bad out of his life, but things aren’t over yet. We see as Gull is watching Carter and Amelia and felt king some of the video feeds. We finally get the true revelation, Seth is none other than Carter and he declares that his knight is finally in play. “Welcome to the game, Carter, my boy…”