"Red Vs. Blue" and its Narrative Use of the 5 Stages of Grief Final Entry: Acceptance
- Du Lam
- Mar 27
- 3 min read
Michael J. Caboose, Red vs. Blue’s lovable yet destructive fool, shares a tragic experience with both Temple and the Director—the death of a loved one. The deceased was his friend, the Alpha A.I., better known as PVT Church. Like the Director, he longed to fix what was lost, and like Temple, he witnessed the death of his friend. However, what sets Caboose apart from both is that, in the end, he found the strength to let go. His journey represents the final stage of grief: acceptance.
Caboose was directly responsible for Church’s death—twice. In the show's first season, while piloting a tank with auto-fire activated, he unintentionally killed Church, turning him into a ghost that could possess people. Later, when Church possessed Sarge, the leader of the Red Team, Caboose, believing that killing Sarge would somehow make things right, unknowingly “killed” his best friend again. Yet, death in Red vs. Blue was rarely permanent for Church. He returned multiple times, his final resurrection coming through Epsilon, a memory fragment of the original Alpha A.I. But even that, too, had to end. In the Season 13 finale, Epsilon shattered, leaving behind a final message: that the Reds and Blues had already made a difference in the universe. It was time for them to move forward.
For Caboose, however, accepting Church’s absence was not easy. He struggled with the idea that his best friend was truly gone—twice, in fact, due to the events of Red vs. Blue: Restoration and its simulation retcon. His first reckoning came in Season 15 when the Reds and Blues encountered the Blues and Reds. During this journey, Caboose spoke often about Church and questioned why he could never come back. His counterpart, Loco, who was fascinated by the concept of open doors and time travel, ultimately created a way for Caboose to speak to Church one last time. But this meeting did not change reality—Church was gone, and Caboose had to face that truth.
The second moment of acceptance came in Restoration when Caboose and several Red Team members were forced to fight Tucker, a member of the Blue Team controlled by multiple A.I. fragments. In the final battle, the A.I. were trapped within a storage device—one that also contained the last remnants of Alpha. Rather than clinging to what little remained of his friend, Caboose made the hardest choice of all: he let go. Destroying the device, he said his goodbyes and walked away in quiet sorrow.
Memory has always been the key to Red vs. Blue—a powerful force that shapes choices, fuels regret, and, ultimately, allows healing. The Director refused to accept loss, desperately trying to reclaim the past. Temple let his grief fester into vengeance. But Caboose took the hardest path: he found the courage to move forward. Memory does not bring back the dead, but it keeps their legacy alive. As long as we remember someone, they are never truly gone. As Texas once said, “They say you're never completely dead if someone still remembers you.”
At its core, Red vs. Blue is more than just a story about two teams of idiots bickering—it is about their triumphs, their failures, and the memories they leave behind. Just as the show has been a part of our lives, we, too, carry its legacy forward. And as long as we hold onto those memories, we never truly say goodbye.
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