Annette Birkin: the G-Virus Scientist and Mother of Sherry

Annette Birkin is an Umbrella virologist, the wife of William Birkin and the mother of Sherry Birkin. She helped William build the G-Virus, and in Resident Evil 2 she is the woman with the gun in the sewers, guarding her husband's work after it has turned him into a monster. Her last act is giving Claire Redfield the way to save her daughter. (Resident Evil 2 (1998); Resident Evil 2 (2019))

Who is Annette Birkin?#

Annette was a researcher at Umbrella's Arklay laboratory, where William was the rising star. Wesker's Report II puts their marriage and Sherry's birth in the 1980s, while William was making his name with the t-Virus. Once he found the G-Virus, the couple moved to NEST, a huge laboratory under Raccoon City, and ran the project together. (Wesker's Report II; Resident Evil 2 (1998))

Their work came first, and Sherry paid for it. She grew up mostly alone, with parents who rarely came home. Annette gave her a pendant and told her never to lose it, without telling her it held a sample of the G-Virus. (Resident Evil 2 (1998); Resident Evil 2 (2019))

Annette also handled some of the money that kept Raccoon City quiet. Files in the police station show Chief Brian Irons receiving regular payments from her, and the station's art collection grew on the proceeds. (Resident Evil 2 (1998))

The night William was shot#

By 1998 William had decided Umbrella would never reward him, and the couple planned to hand G to the US military in return for protection. Umbrella found out. On 22 September a squad from its security service, led by HUNK, raided the lab, shot William and took his samples. Annette arrived to find her husband bleeding to death. Before she could stop him, he injected himself with the last sample of G. (Resident Evil 2 (1998); Resident Evil 2 (2019))

She watched him change, and loved him too much to finish him. In the 2019 remake she admits that hesitation herself. G went after the soldiers, the t-Virus spilled into the sewers in the fight, and within days the city was dying. Annette stayed below ground, studying what William was becoming. (Resident Evil 2 (2019))

Annette in Resident Evil 2 (1998)#

Annette didn't meet any survivors until the early hours of 30 September. In the sewers she saw Ada and opened fire, sure she was an Umbrella spy, and Leon took the bullet for her. Ada chased her down, and the two women fought until Annette was knocked over a railing into the water. She was right about Ada. She told Leon later that Ada had only dated the Umbrella researcher John to get at the company's secrets. (Resident Evil 2 (1998))

She met Claire Redfield too, and told her what had happened to William. Claire told her Sherry was carrying his embryo. How Annette dies depends on which pair of scenarios is played. (Resident Evil 2 (1998))

• Claire A and Leon B. Annette finally goes to face William and is cut down. Dying, she tells Claire how to make the DEVIL vaccine and asks her to tell Sherry she loved her. (Resident Evil 2 (1998))
• Leon A and Claire B. Annette tries to kill Leon and is hit by falling debris. She recovers enough to shoot Ada as Ada holds Leon at gunpoint for the G-Virus, and Ada falls into the shaft. Annette is still alive when Sherry and Claire find her, and she speaks to her daughter before she dies. (Resident Evil 2 (1998))

The light-gun retelling in The Darkside Chronicles follows the first version: William wounds her fatally and she gives Leon and Claire the instructions for the vaccine. (Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles)

How the 2019 remake changes Annette#

The remake's Annette is harder at first. She's still the woman who shoots Leon in the sewers while aiming at Ada, and in Leon's story she also tries to burn Ada alive in a waste room. She sees Sherry as a danger as much as a daughter, because a Sherry fully mutated by G would threaten far more than Raccoon City. (Resident Evil 2 (2019))

In the end she chooses Sherry. In Claire's story she turns on William and tells him he's left her no choice, and he cuts her down. She lives just long enough to help Claire save Sherry. Leon's story ends differently: badly wounded, she fires the shot that sends Ada over the edge. Like the original, the two runs don't fully agree, and Capcom has never said which is the true one. (Resident Evil 2 (2019))

Annette also turns up in the 2020 online game Resident Evil: Resistance as one of its Masterminds, the players who set traps for the survivors. There she can summon her mutated husband. It's a multiplayer side story, not part of the main plot. (Resident Evil: Resistance)

Annette Birkin in Welcome to Raccoon City#

Janet Porter plays Annette in the 2021 film, and her part is small. When Albert Wesker reaches the lab to steal William's work, Annette is with William and Sherry, and Wesker kills her in the shootout. William then injects himself with the G-Virus. The games keep her alive until the lab's final hours; the film has her die before her husband becomes a monster at all. See Welcome to Raccoon City explained. (Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City)