What Mass Effect’s Garrus Did Between The Games

The original Mass Effect trilogy takes place over the course of roughly four years. On a galactic scale, four years is the blink of an eye, yet those are arguably the most important four years of trillions of people’s lives, especially those who served under Commander Shepard on the Normandy, like favorite squadmate Garrus Vakarian. Garrus does not spend the entirety of those four years with Shepard, though, and goes about personal tasks between each Mass Effect game.

When Garrus is first met in the original Mass Effect, he’s a frustrated Citadel Security investigator. He’s given the assignment of investigating Saren’s alleged treason, but the red tape surrounding the confidential nature of the Spectres gets him nowhere. Even before Garrus met Shepard, it seems he was frequently hoping for more agency in his work. His experiences stopping Sovereign and Saren alongside Shepard and their Spectre leeway apparently reinforced his views on the triviality of C-Sec’s bureaucracy.

Once Garrus leaves C-Sec to join Shepard in the search for Saren, he never truly returns. Shepard’s death in Mass Effect 2‘s prologue, which takes place shortly after ME1‘s conclusion, seems to only motivate Garrus further. Player choices will affect Garrus’ personality throughout all three games, but he still unilaterally becomes more proactive in doing what he thinks is right, especially in between games when he’s not actively a member of Normandy’s crew.

What Garrus Did Between Mass Effect 1 & 2

After recruiting Garrus in Mass Effect 2, he briefly explains what he’s been up to in the interim, and his loyalty mission fills in more of the gaps, but the third issue of the Mass Effect: Homeworlds comic series goes into detail on Garrus’ exploits following Shepard’s death. Garrus initially traveled to Omega after tracking down a Citadel drug smuggler named Kishpaugh, whom he had apprehended years prior before Garrus’ father (also a C-Sec officer) released him due to lack of evidence. Kishpaugh claimed his product came from Omega, which prompts Garrus to go to the lawless space station.

Garrus stops a mugging shortly after arriving on Omega, with the saved victims referring to him as a “real-life angel,” which he would use as inspiration for the alias Archangel after forming a team with another Turian, Sidonis, to fight against Omega’s crime syndicates. The squad eventually grows wealthy in their successful war on crime, and some want to retire, but Garrus convinces them that the surplus funding will help them pacify the syndicates for good. Sidonis is kidnapped by the Blue Suns and forced into betraying Garrus, the impetus for his Mass Effect 2 loyalty mission. The betrayal results in the rest of Garrus’ team dying and traps him in the building where a revived Shepard finds him fighting off waves of mercenaries.

What Garrus Did Between Mass Effect 2 & 3

There is much less time for Garrus to go about his business between Mass Effect 2 and 3. After the destruction of the Collector Base, the Reaper invasion is imminent, and Garrus attempts to prepare the Turian homeworld, Palaven. Though galactic society at large is still doubtful of the Reapers’ existence, Garrus manages to convince his father of the dire situation. Garrus’ father knows the Turian leader, Primearch Fedorian, who – like the Citadel Council – denies the coming invasion. As a result, Garrus is only awarded a single task force for the preparation of the Turians’ defense.

The Turians, along with the rest of the galaxy, are caught off guard when the Reaper invasion begins, as evidenced by the Reapers’ speedy conquest of Palaven. Garrus then travels to Menae, Palaven’s largest moon, which houses an intricate military outpost. His experience against the Reapers grants Garrus a position as a military consultant, where he helps keep the Turian resistance alive prior to Shepard’s arrival. After Shepard comes to Menae to find the now dead Primearch, Garrus returns to the Normandy, where he remains by Shepard’s side until the Mass Effect trilogy’s conclusion.

About The Author