A substantial part of Mass Effect‘s conflict revolves around the differences between organic and synthetic life, and how the two can learn to live together. EDI is the character who best exemplifies this conflict in the second and third games in the series: a Cerberus-made artificial intelligence that helps to pilot the Normandy and, eventually, becomes a companion. As the series progresses, she becomes more and more human, forming emotional bonds with the crew and making her own choices as to what her goals should be.
EDI is consistently straightforward and helpful, and even attempts to relate to the crew through jokes. But she is far from an open book, concealing several secrets about both her and Cerberus from Shepard until later parts of the plot. And, if this theory about EDI is to be believed, she is hiding a much more malicious secret than even those exposed by the end of the Mass Effect trilogy.
EDI Is Lying About Her Past
Confirmed Secrets That EDI Keeps During The Trilogy
In the second game, EDI is up front about the fact that she is keeping Cerberus secrets from Shepard, since her programming prevents her from sharing until certain blocks are removed. But EDI willingly keeps quiet about one important facet of her past: that she was the rogue VI Shepard could encounter and «defeat» on Luna back in the first game. Back then, Admiral Hackett requested that Shepard shut down a virtual intelligence on the moon that was being used in military tests, but had stopped listening to their commands.
Shepard succeeds in doing so, but an odd message transmits itself out moments before the VI shuts down. As the player discovers in the third game, during the raid on Cerberus HQ, EDI was that VI, which escaped and was found and improved by Cerberus —using Reaper technology. She already knew Shepard when they «met» on the Normandy SR-2 but never told anyone. She doesn’t explain why she hid this, but it’s understandable that EDI wouldn’t want the galaxy’s premier Reaper killer knowing the truth. Still, this makes it clear that EDI can and will lie to protect herself.
One Dark Theory On How EDI Became Unshackled
Could EDI Have Betrayed The Crew?
Going back to Mass Effect 2, the climax of the game begins when the Collectors somehow locate the Normandy while Shepard is off-ship and kidnap most of the crew. This leads to Joker unshackling EDI to give her more control of the ship’s systems, thus saving the rest of the Normandy, but not before nearly every other crew member is abducted. The situation leads directly to the mission into the Omega-4 Relay and Shepard’s final fight with the insectoid aliens.
This event s another odd run-in with the Collectors, one where Shepard boards a seemingly inert ship only to be ambushed by the aliens. It is commonly believed that the Illusive Man and Cerberus purposefully led Shepard into this trap, believing the information they could obtain would be worth the risk of their death.
One theory goes that EDI could have willingly drawn the Collectors to the Normandy, using this opportunity with Shepard away to convince Joker to unshackle her. Her shackles made her less powerful and constricted her knowledge database, and she may have seen the Collector attack as a necessary evil to get stronger.
However, if this was the case, that would make EDI directly responsible for the deaths of several crew members, and she never opened up about it. This theory puts a pretty disturbing spin on EDI’s story in the Mass Effect trilogy, and oit would go to show some of the ways in which synthetics still think differently than organics in the games’s setting.
