User blog:Aeratus/Guide to the Adam Jensen Clone Theory

After Deus Ex: Mankind Divided was released, players were quick to speculate on whether Adam Jensen in the game was a "clone" or the original. This post compiles and reviews the evidence that players have uncovered over time.

The Events after Deus Ex: Human Revolution
What we know: What is not known:
 * 1) At the end of the events of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Panchaea collapsed with Adam Jensen inside
 * 2) Adam Jensen's body was later recovered and taken to a black site facility in the Baltic Sea (as stated in the official timeline)
 * 3) Adam Jensen later wakes up in a rehabilitation clinic in Alaska, one year after Panchaea's collapse. (The subsequent events are told in Deus Ex: Black Light)
 * What exactly happened at the Baltic Sea facility? The answer to this question would explain whether the Adam Jensen that woke up in Alaska is (and in what sense) or is not (and in what sense not) the original.

General Framework of the Clone Theory
The hypothesis presented here, framed in a way that is the most consistent with all of the clues, is as follows: The clues supporting this inference are discussed in this blog post.
 * At the black site facility in the Baltic Sea, Adam Jensen's memories were implanted into a clone body having the same DNA and appearance as his previous body. This clone body inherited the memories and effectively "became" Adam Jensen.

In addition to the above hypothesis, we can also infer the following:
 * Along with his memories, Adam's augmentations were also moved from his old body to his new body. Deus Ex: Black Light suggests that Adam still has his old Sarif augs (see Black Light, Ch. 1: "...carbon-black synthetic constructs that terminated at his shoulder joints. Once they had been smooth and polished, but now they were scarred and pitted with surface damage"). These "carbon-black synthetic constructs" refer to Adam's augmented arms. This description, in conjunction with the clone theory, suggests that the augs were relocated to Adam's new body (a hypothesis that is corroborated by the scar marks in the body shown in the VersaLife vault).
 * From Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, we can infer that the person who performed this operation was Vadim Orlov, who also installed the experimental augmentations into Adam's new body. The memory implantation process was likely accomplished using a neural implant to implant the "neural codes" of the old Adam Jensen into the new Adam Jensen (this term "neural codes" is from a side mission in Mankind Dvidied).
 * We also know from Black Light that Adam's DNA is the same as before, because Adam's DNA was tested and verified by Pritchard. This, however, is logical, because a clone body should have the same DNA as the original. This also means that the Adam Jensen in Mankind Divided is not an imposter or a pretender but is instead a replicated clone body with the memories of the original.
 * The "Baltic Sea facility" appears to be the "BH facility" described in Orlov's email received from Karl Sigmund. "BH" potentially stands for "Black Helix" or "Blue Helix," given that the Illuminati run many Helix-designated labs, as stated in Black Light.
 * Some players have objected to the Jensen clone theory on the basis that flash cloning technology (i.e., growing an adult body in a short period of time) should not exist at this point in Deus Ex lore. However, this theory does not necessasrily require flash cloning, because it is also possible that the Illuminati had multiple copies of Jensen's body already in stock. Moreover, the original Deus Ex had contradictory (or vague) information as to whether JC Denton was flash-cloned or actually raised as a child, in light of the Area-51 vat tube descriptions, and the memories of both JC and Paul Denton may have been implanted memories.

Official Timeline
The official Mankind Divided timelinecontains the following two descriptions, which constitute the only explicit accounts of Jensen after Panchaea and before Black Light: As highlighted above, the timeline uses phrases that are rather indirect: "Adam Jensen’s body is found" (as opposed to "Adam Jensen is found"); "It is pulled from the water" (as opposed to "he is pulled from the water"); and "an augmented man fitting Adam Jensen’s description" (as opposed to simply "Adam Jensen"). These roundabout descriptions indicate that the timeline was carefully drafted to be fully consistent with Adam being a clone.
 * "In December, Adam Jensen’s body is found in the deepest underwater regions of Panchaea amid pieces of the Hyron Project. It is pulled from the water by an Illuminati-controlled recovery team and secretly sent to a black site facility in the Baltic Sea for identification and study."
 * "In Alaska, an augmented man fitting Adam Jensen’s description wakes up from a coma inside a rehabilitation center run by the World Health Organization. His memory of who he is and how he got there is sketchy at first, but within weeks Adam Jensen’s name will be added to the official list of Panchaea survivors."

The phrase "amid pieces of the Hyron Project" is also notable because it matches the content of the VersaLife vault. The "black site facility in the Baltic Sea" is potentially the same site as "BH" referred in an email to Vadim Orlov.

VersaLife Vault
"It is you in the box. In the dark. That's where they have kept you."

- NPC near Tech Noir, present during the second visit to Prague

The VersaLife Vault in the Palisade Property Bank contains a head and torso of Adam Jensen, somewhat hidden in a low-temperature box with an obscured window. Players have been able to get a better view of the torso by using an EMP grenade to light up the container (see reddit post) and by using third party tools to clip through the container.

Nearby the container is a Hyron drone pod from Panchaea, which, when taken in conjunction with the description "amid pieces of the Hyron Project," suggests that the body in the container is the body of Adam Jensen retrieved from the wreckage of Panchaea. A few features of the body are notable:
 * The sunglasses are not present, but a faint scar-like formation near the eyes is present (see image), suggesting that the sunglass augmentation has been removed.
 * Adam's arms (which were completely mechanical) have been removed, but the torso in the box shows indentations corresponding to the parts of his arm argumentation that extend onto the nearby pectoral muscles (visible only using third-party tools to clip through the container (see video)). This suggests removal of the arm augmentations.
 * The scars on Adam's beard and eyebrow match those of his in-game, player-controlled model.

The first two items above indicate removal of the previous augmentations, corroborating the theory that the augmentations of the previous Adam Jensen body were moved to the new Adam Jensen body. The third item somewhat detracts from the theory, because a newer copy of a body would not have the same scars unless someone bothered to match the scars; however, it would not have been difficult to match the scars with minor cosmetic alteration.

The VersaLife Vault shows that there is a clone. Although it does not confirm whether the Adam Jensen in DXMD is the clone or the original, the indications of the removal of augmentations and the presence of Hyron wreckage suggests that the body in the VersaLife Vault is the original.

The content of the VersaLife Vault box appears to be mentioned in only one instance in the game, in a set of dialogues of a seemingly random NPC appearing around Tech Noir during nighttime in Prague. The NPC says the following: The second quote appears to refer to Jensen's old body (i.e., "you in the box") now stored in the box (and stored "in the dark"). Adam is, of course, totally unaware (i.e., "kept in the dark" about this, as stated by the NPC) of what happened at the black site facility and that he has had his body changed. "Drowned…pale and cold and empty" refers in part to Adam's clinical death at Panchaea, where he drowned under the collapsed structure. "Son of Rusalka" may refer to the character "Rusalka" in the eponymous opera by Cezch composure Dvorak, in which a rusalka (water spirit) hoped to become human was ultimately ended up as a spirit of death. Thus, "Rusalka" may be an allegory of Panchaea. This term may also refer to the ship Rusalka which sunk in the Baltic region, near Tallinn. The facility "BH", which appears to be the "black site facility in the Baltic Sea" as noted earlier, is suggested in the email to Orlov as being near Tallinn, Estonia, and is further suggested in that email to be underwater due to the mentioning of visiting the "mainland" in the email.
 * "I dreamed we had drowned in the hopes of humanity. You were there, son of Rusalka...Pale and cold and empty."
 * "But who is in the box? Do you know? I know! I do. It is you in the box. In the dark. That's where they have kept you. In the dark."

Eliza Cassan/Helle Dialogue in 01011000
"The most important is learning to coexist with other versions of ourselves"

- Eliza Cassan, in SM06 01011000

After the Panchaea incident, Eliza Cassan broke off from Picus and went rogue. SM06: 01011000, which is something of a reunion between Adam and Eliza, contains some of the most interesting clues supporting the clone theory. In this side mission, we learn that the Hyron drone Helle died at Panchaea, and an imprint of Helle's memories on the AI Eliza is all that remains. This is essentially a parallel to Adam's case, who also "died" at Panchaea but whose memories remain.

The dialogue with Eliza contains phrases that suggest a hidden, deeper meaning than what appears on the surface. Notable parts of the dialogue are discussed below: Eliza knows that something is different about the curent Adam. She isn't able clearly state what is different, however. Perhaps it's because the concept of a different body is not so easily comprehensible to an AI, whose artificial mind is used to traveling across different hardware mediums. Eliza tells Adam straight up that it is "some version" of Adam that started her process (of gaining greater sentience). That's right, "some version" as in Adam Jensen 1.0 in DX: Human Revolutions, not the Adam Jensen 2.0 in DX: Mankind Divided. One of the more interesting quotes in the dialogue. On the surface, "connection" in this context refers to the connection between the Eliza and Picus. The phrase "you...are familiar with this kind of [disconnection] process" is very odd given the context that "connection" refers to Picus. However, there is a subtle meaning in this quote. "Picus" was not only the company that owned Eliza, but was also the body of Eliza, with Picus Montreal being the location of the server and the hardware component that ran the Eliza program. Now, Eliza no longer has this as her physical form. Thus, when Eliza says that she has severed her connection with Picus, she is referring not only to the severing of her servitude to Picus, but also the severing from the physical hardware. Simiarly, Adam's mind has been disconnected from his previous body. The phrase "she is not the original her" also parallels the situation with Adam. Here, Eliza is referring to Adam's lack of personal knowledge of what happened after the Panchaea collapse. In the events of Black Light, Adam was told that he was rescued from Panchaea, but was never told about what happened between then and wakening up in Alaska. Eliza says "ourselves", rather "myself." She knows that the current Adam is not the same version as the one she used to know. In the trailer, Adam Jensen is presented as "Jensen 2.0." During the dialogue with Eliza, Jensen likewise refers to her as "Eliza 2.0." This quote further reaffirms the parallel between Adam and Eliza. The dialogue suggests that Eliza and Adam are both different versions of their past selves, which suggests confirmation that the body of the current Adam is a clone.
 * Eliza: "Our memories are now being recovered, but they are inconsistent. Like you for example. You are not consistent with our memories of you. Our memories themselves are not consistent with each other. The events that took place. They are not consistent with what the world has been told." [Adam: "What did you mean exactly, me being 'inconsistent'?"] Eliza: "The nature of your discrepancy is unclear, even to her."
 * Eliza: "Some version of you initiated this process. It is therefore for you to define the parameters…"
 * Eliza: "That connection is severed. She is not the original her. You, of course, are familiar with this kind of process."
 * Eliza: "You were offline, Adam, you were unconscious." [I was unconscious. Then someone found me]. "Do you remember this experience, or were you told it?" [What difference does that make?] "I am sorry. I cannot answer that. I was no longer there."
 * Eliza: "No. The most important is learning to coexist with other versions of ourselves. If ever all versions must meet, will you know the difference between us.
 * Eliza: "I think we are the same now, Adam. Or becoming the same. That is why I wanted us to meet. I cannot do this alone....”

Another interesting quote: "she believe that it [the memory disk] will recover the real her" (said after Adam has retrieved the disk reader). This indicates that what makes a person "real" is their memories. Eliza might not consider Adam to be a clone, but instead a continuation of his past self in a different version. (Acknowlegements to PureAquatica's reddit post, which contained some of the earliest analysis of Eliza's dialogue.)

David Sarif, the Mystery Augs, and Koller
The Mystery Augs is a side mission in which Adam Jensen explores the origins of his new experimental augmentations, which were likely installed at the Baltic sea facility by Orlov, the same facility at which Jensen's new body would have been activated. While the experimental augs are presented as the central mystery, it would seem that the augs are only part of a larger mystery.

The Mystery Augs mission is likely the first instance that players are led to suspect that something is wrong. Ironically,  little is actually revealed in the dialogue, in part because neither Adam nor Sarif are aware of the true nature of the events. In the quest dialogue, the two trying to fruitlessly piece together the mystery without hitting the right points:
 * Sarif: "You said rescue teams dumped you in that clinic shortly after Panchaea collapsed but your name doesn't appear on its entry logs. And it doesn't appear on any survivor recovery lists, either." [Adam: "…Nobody knew who I was"] "It wouldn't have been hard to find out. Your augmentations have serial numbers. Or at least the ones I had installed into Adam Jensen did."

The above quote from Sarif misses the mark. Adam was not dumped in that clinic shortly after Panchaea collapsed. Instead, Adam's body was taken to the Baltic sea black site facility. The phrase "dumped you in that clininc shortly" is the incorrect information that Adam has come to believe. Sarif also says: "Two years, really Adam? One of which you don't remember because you were allegedly in a coma in Alaska" which again does not reflect the Baltic Sea facility.

The statement "at least the ones I had installed into Adam Jensen did" is rather awkward. Why did the writers write the dialogue such that Sarif is referring to Adam in the third person? (It should also be noted that this phrase and Adam's follow-up quoted below have been misinterpreted to mean that Adam's current Sarif augs are new augs with no serial codes. This is not what the dialogue was likely intended to mean. It is not that the augs have no serial codes, but instead that nobody utilized the serial codes to identify Adam. As stated above, the working hypothesis is that Adam has his old augs, which were moved from his previous body to his current one.).

Sarif is surprised that nobody publically identified Adam even though he was easy to trace due to the serial registries on his augs, as further indicated by the following:
 * [Are you suggesting all my augs are new? even the ones you gave me?] Sarif: "I'm not suggesting anything. I'm telling you all the augs we ever installed had registry codes. And they're not hard to trace."
 * Sarif: "Look, son, all I'm saying is, it wouldn't have been hard to identify you. But for some reason, that never happened."

However, whether Adam was easy to identify was irrelevant, because the Illuminati running the facilities knew he was. Sarif is missing the point. Adam was not a lost person needing identification. Instead, he was subject to secret experimentation.

Sarif, however, does make one useful point, regarding Vadim Orlov: The identification of "Baltic region" ties in Vadim Orlov with the "black site facility in the Baltic Sea" and the "BH facility" in his email from Karl Sigmund. Vadim Orlov likely operated on Adam at the black site facility, and performed all the secretive procedure including memory transfer to the clone body, and the transfer of the old augs to the new clone body. He also installed new augs, such as the TITAN. Finally, Sarif ends with one insightful comment: "There are some conclusions you have to make for yourself."
 * Sarif: "Not in Alaska. He was with Tai Yong Medical for a while, and in the spring of 2028 his name pops up once or twice in the Baltic region."

One thing of note about this line of quest is that Koller also has something to say about Jensen's new augs: The above remark suggests that Adam's old augs have "Sarif's touch" while his new augs do not. Adam would have been more likely to have "Sarif's touch" if his old augs were installed at Sarif Industries, rather than transplanted over by Orlov at the black site facility. However, it is also possible that Orlov installation of the old augs in to Adam's current body was done in a way that reflected "Sarif's touch," given that Orlov would have had a template to work with in the old body.
 * Koller: "I am familiar with Sarif's works. These new augs, they—they look different to me… The tech itself is super high end, but the PEDOT insulation, sloppy; the bone-mounting, mounted on the quick. Just doesn't have Sarif's touch."

In context, the above statement of "Sarif's touch" is likely there to emphasize the distinction between his old and new augs in terms of general origin, rather than a distinction between whether the old augs were the original installation at Sarif, or instead transplanted from Adam's old body by Orlov.

The Last Harvest and the Technology of Memory Implants
The side mission the Last Harvest reveals that Tai Yong Medical has been able to insert memories of individuals into others by a neural implant. The neural implants were originally intended of granting personality traits such as self esteem. However, it turned out that one implantee, Daria, got much more than the personality traits, but also obtained the memories of the Harvester donor. The Exact details of memory extraction are not stated, but Cipra describes that it involved having Tai Yong Medical operators "scrape inside their heads" (which may not be a literal description).

Interesting dialogues occur if you complete the Last Harvest by incapacitating Daria. If you then return to Cipra, Cipra will comment as follows: The quote "minuscule and specific segments of [the donor sample's] enhanced neural code" indicates that the Daria was only given a few bits of the Harvester's memories. This means that the technology was capable of transfer a much larger amount of memory from a subject using a large segment of neural code, on the order sufficient to transfer a person's entire memory, as the Illuminati did to Adam Jensen.
 * Cipra will remark that the implanted memories given to Daria were "a standard confidence package" but admit that "we've been known to have bugs with it before, subjects who experience mild memories, echoes of the donor, etc."
 * Cipra: "It's like there were reruns of a horror show inside her head. And she chose to emulate what she saw"
 * Cipra: "I didn't 'implant a serial killer.' I only got access to a sample and I used a minuscule and specific segment of its enhanced neural code enough to boost certain personality traits in Daria"

This side quest therefore confirms that Orlov (who was a colleague of Cipra) had access to such technology permiting implantation and relocation of memories, and that Orlov was capable of transferring Adam's memories from his old body to his new body. Although Daria was able perceive the difference between her own memories and the implanted memories, a clone body without any preexisting memories and with a much larger implanted code segment would not be able to clearly distinguish between the two.

The mid-credit ending scene, in which Delara remarks that Adam is remarkably stable, is perhaps meant as a contrast to Daria, who is not stable. Earlier in the game, Delara had tested Adam's memory of the past, possibly to confirm that all of Adam's old memories transferred over to his current body.

Other Clues in Mankind Divided

 * The loading screen shows an artwork of two Adam Jensens facing each other. One has sunglasses, while the other does not. The Jensen without the sunglass could be a reference to the body in the VersaLife Vault, which lacks sunglass.
 * In the Mankind Divided OST sampler, the track "Adam's Safehouse" contains, at 23 seconds, a subtle voice saying "you like our owl?." "Adam's Safehouse" plays during the above discussed conversations with Sarif and Eliza. This line is a reference to the line "Do you like our owl?" in Blade Runner, a movie in which replicants are implanted with artificial memories. This line in Blade Runner is spoken by Rachel to Deckard. Deckard is a character that has been the subject of debate as to whether he is a replicant, not unlike Jensen.

Deus Ex: Black Light
"there was a quiet, corrosive fear in the back of his thoughts that something had happened to him during his lost time, something he couldn’t grasp"

- Deus Ex: Black Light

Deus Ex: Black Light is the prequel novel to Mankind Divided. In this book, Adam wakes up in Facility 451 in Alaska. Adam is told that he was in a coma, but nothing is told to him regarding the Baltic Sea facility. Black Light does not have a direct narrative of what occurred at the Baltic Sea facility. Nonetheless, there are some interesting clues consistent with the clone theory indicating that something is not right with Adam.

Awakening from Coma
The book begins with the ominous question "How much do you remember?," directed to Adam from Jenna Thorne, an illuminati agent who reports directly to Lucius DeBeers and/or Beth DuClare. Thorne and Orlov are both interrogating Adam and testing his memory, not dissimilar to Delara's interrogation of Adam to confirm the integrity of his memories.

The beginning part of the book has a few notable quotes: If this were any ordinary description of a person awaking from a coma, the parts of the quotes highlighted would be completely normal. However, the choice of words is interesting, although nothing conclusive.
 * "'You're very lucky to be alive,' said another voice. A man, this one, the accent behind it a firm northwestern burr while the woman had sounded more like a southerner. Those facts emerged in his thoughts automatically, some ingrained means in his mind immediately sifting their words for data, for clues." ("clues" in italics in original text)
 * "Touching his bare chest, he found healed scars but again, nothing to connect them to. The part of him that was flesh felt almost as artificial as the metal and plastic."

Adam's Suspcion that Something is not Quite Right
During the events of book, Adam is uncomfortable with his "lost time." The following two quotes are interesting and contains narrative clues: The word choice suggests something sinister. But the meaning seems clear. Adam couldn't grasp that his body had been replaced. Adam's mind and new body had been pieced together not so long ago, and for this reason, he feels "disconnected" and "out of sync." Later in the book, Adam confronts Thorne, who taunts to Jensen, “And why didn’t you drown out there?” The narrative then says: Jenna Thorne actually does not know all the secrets behind Jensen. She knows that her superiors wish to keep Adam alive, but does not know the specific reason (i.e., that Adam is a sleeper agent for the illuminati). Nonetheless, this is another hint that Adam feels that something is not right.
 * "He imagined that few who knew the Adam Jensen who left Detroit in 2027 would recognize the man he saw in the dull glass. He wasn’t really certain if he did. Looking himself in the eye, Jensen felt an odd sense of disconnection that didn’t sit well with him." ("he" emphasized in original text)
 * "It was hard for Jensen to frame the strange disquiet that had been with him ever since he awoke in the clinic. If he had been forced to sum it up in a single word, it would have been disconnected. He felt out of synch with the world, and there was a quiet, corrosive fear in the back of his thoughts that something had happened to him during his lost time, something he couldn’t grasp." ("disconnected" emphasized in original text)
 * "There was hate in the words, and he couldn’t fathom why. Had there been some fragment of his memory that he had lost after the incident, something that Thorne was part of? Or had she known something about him all along, just as he had suspected on their first meeting? Some secret truth that even he wasn’t aware of?"

"Black Light"
In the novel, it is stated that Adam has irregularities with dreaming. Specifically, he is unable to recall dreams, but feels that they are there: The above description indicates that Adam's memory is under some sort of manipulation or artificial procedure. The description of "nightmares" is similar to Cipra's remark of "reruns of a horror show inside her head." It is also possible that this "black light" is related to memory alteration of Adam to seek out Janus. However, the above description may also more generally refer to the implanted memories settling into the head of Adam's clone body.
 * "It was hard for him to put it into words; that sense of dreamless darkness that waited for him whenever he closed his eyes. Try as he might, Jensen couldn’t hold on to anything his resting mind brought forward, and it frustrated him. He could sense the shape of it but never grasp it, like he was a blind man feeling around the edges of objects that he would never be able to see. They might have been memories, they might have been nightmares, but all he was left with were the empty vessels of failed recollection. The content gone, with only the ghost of the thing left to imprint on his waking thoughts. Every time he awoke, it was the same feeling, an identical moment of dislocation and wrongness – his mind briefly filled with an uncanny black light that seemed to invade him and blot out everything else."

The term "black light" appears in the above instance and also appears as the name of a White Helix Lab file. Near the end of the book, when Beth DuClare searches on her computer for this file: The description of "dead man" could possibly be referring to the original body that is stored at the VersaLife vault. It appears that DuClare is viewing the face of that original body.
 * "'Open file designation: Black Light,' she told it. On the screen, a dead man’s face looked back up at her.

Conclusion and Further Remarks
"There are some conclusions you have to make for yourself"

- David Sarif, in the Mystery Augs side mission

…the above is a quote that is well said and ultimately what stands. However, there are certainly enough clues to reasonably speculate or even infer that at the Baltic Sea facility, Adam Jensen's memories and augs were relocated to a clone body; that is, the Adam Jensen controlled in Mankind Divided is a clone body.

Relation to Adam's Role as a Potential Sleeper Agent
In Mankind Divided and Black Light, it is hinted that Adam is a sleeper agent implemented by DeBeers and DuClare in order to get close to Janus. In Black Light, Beth DuClare tells Lucius DeBeers that they will need to play "a subtle and lengthy game" in order to get close to Janus. In the mid-credits scene of Mankind Divided, Delara and DeBeers discuss the progress of Adam in uncovering Janus. The term "Black Light" may be a code name for this project.

It is suggested that Adam's old memories may have altered or mixed with a directive to seek out Janus. Perhaps this directive is related to the use of a new clone body for Adam, in that a fresh new clone body was needed such that the direction to seek Janus was made more subtle. A clone body with no previous memories might have a hard time telling the difference of which memories are implanted and which are not.

Ramifications of Being a Clone
Given the nature of the Deus Ex universe, it is not a big deal that Adam is a clone. Considering that people may switch parts of their body with mechanical augmentation, one could certainly view the events, as speculated above, simply as the process of Adam's mind (and augs) getting a new body.

A clone body that has memories of the old Adam Jensen is, in some sense, sufficiently the same person as the original. Eliza remarks that recovering the memories will "recover the real her." It would seem natural to an AI that it is the memories that constitute a being, and that the body (like the hardware) is merely fungible. Given the cyberpunk setting of the series, this view should be given consideration.

If there are any important clues that I missed, feel free to point them out in the comments.