User blog comment:Kelis98/Should there be a Plothole page?/@comment-24450639-20160609122948

I actually think Burial at Sea can help explain why Suchong was not working on the early prototype protectors. It's obvious that he was very interested in the development Drinkable Plasmids, which he began in late 1958, around the same time as the Alpha Series began being created and tested.

I think Suchong left Gilbert and the other scientists to work on the protectors while he continued to work on Drinkable Plasmids, but when the war began he was ordered by Ryan to return to the project because 1) Protectors were needed now more than ever, and 2) Ryan had finally learned what Fontaine had already known shortly before his apparent take-down, that Drinkable Plasmids used too much ADAM.