choosingrapture:

Character Spotlight!

 Sander Cohen 

Sander Cohen was invited personally by Andrew Ryan to reside in Rapture, due to their possible prior friendship and his artistic talents. Before Rapture’s descent into anarchy, Cohen was a prominent playwright, artist and composer in Fort Frolic. Cohen held a hatred towards rival performer Anna Culpepper, who referred to Cohen as “Ryan’s Songbird”. Sharing a close relation to Andrew Ryan, Cohen had Chief of security Sullivan murder her. With the competition gone, Cohen experienced a rare era of extravagance before the Rapture Civil War forced him to close Fort Frolic.

Shortly before the Rapture civil war, Cohen was given dominance over Fort Frolic by Andrew Ryan, who locked the area down to prevent its inhabitants from escaping. Similar to Dr. Steinman, Cohen was soon driven insane, mainly due to overuse of plasmids and the frustration generated by lack of appreciation for his work. An audio diary found in Fort Frolic shows that Cohen regrets his decision to move to Rapture.

Before Jack’s arrival in Rapture, 1960, Cohen apparently had four major followers (his disciples), Silas Cobb, Martin Finnegan, Hector Rodrigue], and Kyle Fitzpatrick. All of them either betrayed or displeased Cohen at some point.

During the events of BioShock, Jack is required to pass through Fort Frolic in order to proceed to Hephaestus. Just as Jack approaches the bathysphere, Cohen blocks Jack’s radio contact with Atlas and submerges the Bathysphere, trapping the player in the level. Cohen will not let Jack proceed until he takes photographs of four of Cohen’s former disciples corpses, three of which must be killed. Once taken, the player is ordered to place the photographs in a work of Cohen’s art in the centre of Fort Frolic, which he refers to as his “Masterpiece” - a tetraptych called the Quadtych. After the completion of this, Cohen reveals himself and allows Jack to proceed to Hephaestus, at this point the player has the choice to kill Cohen. If the player chooses to spare Cohen, he can be seen later in the game, in his luxary apartment in Mercury Suites. He will welcome the player into his home, and invite him to look around. Cohen can be killed at this point after a pair of dancing Splicers are dealt with.

Cohen’s sexuality is also referenced. Silas Cobb and Martin Finnegan both refer to Cohen as an “old fruit” and Cohen himself refers to Andrew Ryan as “the man I once loved.” Another example of this is in Bioshock 2, the Splicer model “Brute” can also be heard saying “Sander Cohen. There was a man! Sharp suit, good mustache, took no guff!”.