Yi Suchong



"War a terrible thing. Japanese kill every man in my city, except for Suchong. Suchong have opium. Very good opium. This war, terrible thing, too, but not for Suchong..."

- Yi Suchong

Yi Suchong M.D. was a leading medical researcher in Rapture studying ADAM and its uses to create Plasmids and alter brain function, as well as creating the Little Sisters and Big Daddies. Usually referring to himself in the third person, Suchong was an egomaniacal opportunist, using even tragic events such as war to his own benefit. He conformed perfectly to Rapture's capitalistic society and worked simply for the highest bidder.

Life on the Surface
Life of Dr. Yi Suchong began as the son of a lowly house servant in rural Korea. But, when World War II occured, he seized incredible opportunity from serious upheaval all cross Asia.

During World War II, Suchong was stuck in Korea at the time of the Japanese occupation, and he was accused of selling opium to the Japanese to fund his experiments.

Most of the Suchong's years before Rapture are clouded, but he mentions in one of his Audio Diaries that "Japanese kill every man in my city." Suchong was spared during the slaughter because he supplied the Japanese troops with opium. A Chinese newspaper reported Suchong's disappearance in December of 1946 as he fled to avoid being hunted down by the Chinese Government for collaboration with the enemy.

Career in Rapture
In Rapture, Suchong set up an independent research firm, Suchong Institute and Laboratories, which contracted out to Ryan Industries and Sinclair Solutions. In 1951, Suchong grew dissatisfied with the inconsistent funding provided by Andrew Ryan and began covertly working for Fontaine Futuristics.

Employed by Frank Fontaine, Suchong was directly involved in the genetic research department of Fontaine Futuristics, creating and improving much of the company's Plasmids line such as Enrage and Telekinesis. During the Little Sister program and while Brigid Tenenbaum was responsible for the gatherers' physical ability to process ADAM from the dead, Suchong was responsible for the mental conditioning that gave them the need to "gather" the substance from corpses. Many of the children Suchong experimented on referred to him affectionately as "Papa Suchong," despite his obvious dislike for children. Suchong later realized that though the Little Sisters were invulnerable to harm, they still only possessed the strength of small children and needed to be protected. He was instrumental in the creation of the Big Daddies and the mental conditioning that forced them to guard the Little Sisters, at the cost of his own life.



Previously, Suchong was involved in Fontaine's project to create an "ace in the hole" weapon, namely, Jack. Suchong monitored Jack's rapid development and implanted in him at least two known mind control triggers: "Would you kindly" (codenamed WYK), which caused Jack to obey unquestioningly, and "Code Yellow", which when activated would ultimately stop Jack's heart. To test the mind control phrase, Suchong ordered Jack to break the neck of his puppy, and, upon using the phrase, Jack snapped her neck bones, killing her. Suchong developed an antidote, Lot 192, for this mental conditioning, as Fontaine requested because he "... [worried he would] end up on the wrong side of grift."

In 1958, after Frank Fontaine's faked death and the nationalization of Fontaine Futuristics by the Rapture Central Council, Suchong was employed by Andrew Ryan to continue his work on the Little Sisters and their protectors for Ryan Industries. During the course of the Civil War, he also suggested the pheromone system in marketed Plasmids to Ryan, allowing the city's founder to control his genetically enhanced customers. Suchong found working under Ryan to be difficult due to the businessman's mismanagement and budget cuts. Partly as a result, the scientist set up Dr. Suchong's Free Clinic at the Artemis Suites to continue his research and development with an unending supply of unsuspecting free test subjects, a strategy his former employer Fontaine previously made with Fontaine Clinics in Pauper's Drop. However, one of the tests to implant the protection bond into one of the Big Daddies led to his own demise. During a moment of frustration regarding his supposed failure to imprint the mental conditioning on the Big Daddies, he struck and cursed at a Little Sister who was pestering him. This unexpectedly triggered the Big Daddy's mental conditioning, who proceeded to attack him with a drill.

Suchong's body was found at the clinic by the chief of Ryan's security, Sullivan, during the Rapture Civil War. Yet, due to the chaos of the conflict and hostility encountered in Apollo Square, no effort was made to remove the body. After Suchong's death, Gilbert Alexander, another influential scientist from Fontaine Futuristics who specialized in electronics, eventually took control of the Protector Program, produced a working prototype by the end of the year and even added a new protector model years after its end.

BioShock
As Jack makes his way through Olympus Heights and Apollo Square to find samples of Lot 192 in order to completely remove Frank Fontaine's control over his mind, he will find Suchong's corpse still pinned to a desk by a drill, with Suchong's final Audio Diary lying near.

Burial at Sea - Episode 1
Suchong's voice is heard once again through a series of Audio Diaries made three months earlier to the events of Burial at Sea, related to his observations on a new kind of phenomenon and his own fate after Frank Fontaine's demise on September 12th, 1958.

On October 14th, 1958, Suchong discovered a strange "shimmer", a window to the city of Columbia set in a different universe and at another time. Obsessed with finding the source of this strange phenomenon, he employed observers to find more visible Tears, in which (as he recorded on October 15th) one of them reported its connection to a mysterious "young woman" seemingly using them to vanish at will. Suchong vowed to find this woman to create a "new phenomena".

Suchong feared for his life during Andrew Ryan's takeover of Fontaine Futuristics, when Frank Fontaine was supposedly killed along with many of his Splicer allies. When the surviving group of Fontaine's Splicers were sent to be imprisoned inside of the seized Fontaine's Department Store, Suchong was given a choice by Ryan to either be locked with them, or to earn a large salary by working for him permanently. Naturally, Suchong chose the latter option.

It wasn't until October 29th that Suchong discovered that Jeremiah Fink, the leading businessman of Fink Manufacturing in Columbia, was pirating his work on genetics, mostly on Plasmids. In retaliation for theft of his intellectual property, Suchong stole Fink's design for making ingestible Plasmids through an oxidized agent. Upon presenting this new formula to Ryan, Suchong received a great deal of praise, and marketed these drinkable Plasmids as an alternate for users who don't prefer painful injections before the end of the year. This gave Suchong a "two-way street" to steal more of Fink's inventions, such as Gears.

It was also mentioned by Booker DeWitt that when his adoptive daughter Sally went missing, he tied Suchong to a chair for 15 hours, while beating him for answer on the girl's fate. This torture seemed unsuccessful, as the girl had been changed into a Little Sister, to DeWitt's surprise when finally finding her at the sunken department store.

Burial at Sea - Episode 2
After Suchong and Fink's mutual theft of each other's research, the two eventually began to communicate and pooled their resources on several scientific collaborations. Despite their mutual contempt for one another, their partnership resulted in the technology for the Vita-Chamber, the development of several Plasmids (some with little practical application), and various attempts at mental conditioning. Eventually they ceased communion entirely.

Elizabeth visits Suchong's impromptu lab in the Silver Fin Restaurant at Fontaine's Housewares building to use the Lutece Device in order to retrieve a Lutece Particle and raise the sunken structure up to Rapture. While exiting the lab to retrieve the materials needed to fix the vandalized device, she triggers an alarm, alerting Suchong to her presence. Suchong spares her when Elizabeth offers to fix his device. She does so, enters Columbia, and collects the item, but upon trying to return, Suchong refuses to reopen the Tear. He instructs her to retrieve a hair sample from Jeremiah Fink's research lab. Once she does so, he reopens the Tear and lets her return to Rapture, only for her to be interrupted by Andrew Ryan, who explains that the deal Suchong made with her was not one he was at liberty to make.

Two weeks later, Elizabeth happens upon Dr. Suchong in his clinic, recording an audio diary while two Little Sisters, Masha Lutz and Leta, are trying to get his attention. When Suchong smacks Leta for pestering him, her cries summon the Bouncer with whom they have just bonded. The Bouncer then proceeds to pin Dr. Suchong to the desk with his drill, and the drill disconnects as the Bouncer pulls his arm free.

BioShock

 * Medical Pavilion
 * Enrage Trial
 * Plasmids are the Paint
 * Testing Telekinesis
 * Rapture Central Control
 * The Vita Chamber
 * Mind Control Test
 * Baby Status
 * Olympus Heights
 * Mozart of Genetics
 * Fontaine's Human Jukebox
 * Mind Control Antidote
 * Apollo Square
 * Protection Bond
 * Point Prometheus
 * Extra Munitions
 * Protecting Little Ones
 * Protector Smell
 * Missing Boots
 * Cheap Son of a Bitch
 * Changing Employers
 * Removed Audio Diaries
 * Little Sisters and Corpses

Burial at Sea - Episode 1

 * High Street
 * Observation #33
 * Offer of Employment
 * Fontaine's Department Store
 * Observation #17
 * Observation #22

Burial at Sea - Episode 2

 * Silver Fin Restaurant
 * Imprinting Roadblocks
 * Suchong's Secret Lab
 * Mind Control Test
 * Dr. Suchong's Free Clinic
 * Protection Bond (unobtainable)

Behind the Scenes

 * In BioShock, the drill found in Suchong still has the Bouncer's guard ring attached whereas in Burial at Sea - Episode 2, the guard ring remains on the Bouncer. This is a mistake made by the developers.
 * Suchong is the only character to ever be seen recording a message on an Audio Diary. In Burial at Sea, Elizabeth witnesses him recording Protection Bond, but is unable to pick it up once he is killed.