G-virus: William Birkin's Virus in Resident Evil 2

The G-virus, short for Golgotha virus, is the virus William Birkin developed for Umbrella and injected into himself in Resident Evil 2. Where the T-virus makes mindless zombies, the G-virus keeps rebuilding its host into something new each time they are hurt, and lets the monster breed by planting embryos in other people. (Resident Evil 2)

Where the G-virus came from#

The G-virus came out of Lisa Trevor. Umbrella abducted Lisa and her mother in 1967 and tested Progenitor strains on Lisa at the Spencer Mansion for decades. Wesker's Report II says that when Umbrella planted a parasite in her and her body destroyed it, Birkin found a new virus inside her. That was G. (Wesker's Report II; Resident Evil)

Most of Umbrella saw no use in it as a weapon, because nobody could control what it did. Oswell E. Spencer backed it anyway, since a virus that remade a human body fit his dream of a new race. Birkin moved to NEST, a huge underground lab beneath Raccoon City, and worked on it with his wife Annette. (Wesker's Report II; Resident Evil 2)

How William Birkin became G#

Birkin's plan was to defect. In 1998 he arranged to sell the G-virus to the US military in exchange for protection. Umbrella found out and sent an Umbrella Security Service team, HUNK among them, to take it from him. (Resident Evil 2)

The team shot Birkin and grabbed his case. Dying, he injected himself with the last G sample, mutated, and killed all of them except HUNK. Broken vials in the sewers let loose the T-virus, rats spread it, and Raccoon City fell. The Resident Evil 2 story page follows the outbreak from there. (Resident Evil 2)

For the rest of the game Birkin stalks Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield in stages. Every time they beat him, he mutates further: an eye opening on his shoulder, then extra arms, then something with no human shape left at all. He dies in the final train explosion as NEST self-destructs. (Resident Evil 2)

How the G-virus works#

G changes the body without stopping. Each time an infected body is injured, the virus rebuilds it to survive the threat, so the host gets bigger and stranger with each fight. Birkin's mutations in Resident Evil 2 show this, starting from the arm he injected and spreading outward. (Resident Evil 2)

G reproduces through embryos. A G-creature plants an embryo in another person through the mouth. If the host is a close blood relative, the embryo can take over the body and turn them into a new G. If not, the embryo bursts out and kills them. That's why Birkin goes after his daughter. (Resident Evil 2; Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles)

The NEST team made a treatment, the DEVIL vaccine. It stops the mutation if given early, but it can't undo changes already made. (Resident Evil 2)

What the G-virus creates#

• G (William Birkin): the boss of Resident Evil 2, through five or so forms. (Resident Evil 2)
• G-embryos and G-adults: the offspring Birkin's body produces, which you fight in the sewers and lab. (Resident Evil 2)
• Infected hosts: in the 1998 game a G-embryo bursts out of the journalist Ben Bertolucci in the police cells in Leon's scenario, and out of Chief Brian Irons under the station in Claire's. In the 2019 remake Ben dies in the cells at the hands of Mr. X instead, and Irons dies at the orphanage when an embryo bursts out of him. (Resident Evil 2)

Sherry Birkin and the G-virus#

Sherry Birkin is the one person known to have survived G. Her father implanted an embryo in her late in Resident Evil 2. Claire gives her the DEVIL vaccine in time, in both the original and the remake, and the mutation stops. (Resident Evil 2)

It didn't leave her untouched. Resident Evil 6 shows the US government kept Sherry in custody for years to study her, and that her body now heals from wounds that would kill anyone else. (Resident Evil 6)

The G-virus after Raccoon City#

Several people got G out of Raccoon City. HUNK recovered a sample for Umbrella. Ada Wong was sent for it by a rival company, the same one Wesker had defected to. (Resident Evil 2; Wesker's Report II)

In the CG film Degeneration, Frederic Downing, a former Umbrella researcher who escaped Raccoon City with a sample, supplies the scientist Curtis Miller. Miller releases the T-virus at Harvardville Airport in 2005, then injects himself with G and mutates. Leon stops him. The CG films page covers it. (Resident Evil: Degeneration)

G's last big appearance is inside another virus. In Resident Evil 6, the game's files say the C-virus behind the 2013 outbreaks carries genes from G as well as t-Veronica. (Resident Evil 6)