Ethan Winters

"They say that when one door closes, another opens. Well, a door closed tonight. And what a long night it was --but not just for me. Mia and I weren't the only victims here. So were the Bakers. It was that...thing, Eveline, who made them that way. But now Eveline's dead. And these guys are here to clean up the mess. I had just come to terms with losing Mia. But now she's back and wants to start over--put all of this behind us. Maybe this is where the next door opens."

- Ethan Winters

Ethan Winters is the protagonist of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, and a civilian who was caught up in the incident at the Dulvey Haunted House.

Biography
Very little is known about Ethan's past prior to the events of the game other than that he met and married Mia Winters before 2014. Mia had sent him a video of her telling him about her babysitting job, which was the last video message he received from her.

Investigating the Guest House
In July 2017, Ethan received an e-mail from Mia, who had been reported deceased three years prior. Ethan journeyed out to Dulvey, Louisiana in search of her, taking him to the "Dulvey Haunted House" formerly owned by the Baker family until their own disappearance that same year.

Entering the house, Ethan soon discovered the "Derelict House Footage" (as seen in the Beginning Hour demo), where he witnessed the Sewer Gators team - cameraman Clancy Javis, producer Andre Stickland and anchorman Pete Walken - infiltrate the house for a rehearsal of their next episode, until Clancy discovered Andre's dead body and was immediately captured by the Baker family.

After the video ended, Ethan traveled through an underground shaft, discovering Andre's maggot-ridden corpse floating in the water. Eventually, he finally found Mia lying in a bare cell, and freed her. When he confronted her about the email, however, a bewildered Mia claimed to not know about any message given to him, and guided him to escape from "Daddy". Along the way, Ethan received phone calls from a mysterious woman named Zoe, who told him to go to the attic. However, Mia, clearly possessed by infection, attacked him with a knife and later a chainsaw, hacking off Ethan's left hand and forcing him to shoot her dead. As Ethan attempted to escape, Jack Baker appears and knocks him out.

Escaping the Main House
With his left hand stapled back onto his arm (presumably by Zoe) and a codex showing him his health, Ethan awoke in a dining room where he meets the Baker family - Jack, his wife Marguerite, son Lucas, and an unnamed, silent elderly woman all enjoying a feast of severed human parts. Ethan was force-fed their food until a policeman forced the Bakers to hide. He managed to escape his bonds, but Jack quickly found out and proceeded to pursue him. As Ethan tried to hide, Jack caught him and severed his lower part of the leg, not at the knee (this is a hidden scene).. He then provided Ethan a strong first aid med that allowed him to reattach his leg. Eventually finding a passageway under the floor, Ethan managed to escape Jack, and encountered a police officer. The two meet in the garage, where the Deputy is killed by Jack, who fights Ethan until the latter wears him down and seemingly kills him.

Zoe revealed over the phone that the Bakers and Mia have been contaminated by a mysterious pathogen, requesting that Ethan set out to retrieve the necessary items to develop a serum to cure her and Mia so that they could escape the Baker residence. She also told Ethan to meet her in her trailer outside the house, once all materials had been obtained.

Ethan set out to find the necessary items to leave the main house, only to be attacked by Jack once again while trying to grab one of the Cerberus heads as a key to leave the house. The two engaged in combat in the meat processing room of the basement before Ethan seemingly managed to finish Jack off once and for all in a chainsaw duel.

Creating a serum
Traveling to the Bakers' old house, Ethan struggled to escape Marguerite and the bug swarms she controlled, eventually becoming trapped and forced to defeat her twice. The confrontation led to his discovery of the mummified corpse of a "D-Series" child, the basis of the serum needed by Zoe. Afterward, Ethan went to the trailer to contact Zoe, but instead found Lucas Baker on the other end of the telephone line. Lucas had captured both Zoe and Mia, and told Ethan that he could give Ethan the other head, but that Ethan first had to participate in a little "activity". Lucas also told Ethan to take a peek in the fridge in the trailer. Ethan hesitates to at first but Lucas insists. Ethan checks the fridge only to find the Deputy's head inside of it, almost becoming a molded, with a note on the back saying, "The pig is waiting for you in the dissection room, bitch."

Ethan proceeded to the dissection room in the Bakers' House, and found the body of the beheaded Deputy with a wooden sign saying "Prove you're a real man and stick your hand down this pig's throat!" Ethan did so, feeling sorry for the deputy, and pulled out the Snake Key. Lucas then told Ethan that the Snake Key would help him find the two key cards to join the "party" - one red and one blue. After managing to get his hands on both, Ethan went back outside to the room where they were needed to enter the "party" - which turned out to be a series of traps set up by Lucas. One such trap involved the subject having to insert a lit candle on a birthday cake to escape the room, only for the subject to be killed by the cake exploding and setting the room on fire (from oil leaking in the room for the subject to obtain a crank and code to solve the "puzzle"). Fortunately, Ethan managed to evade immolation by solving the puzzle without spilling any oil in the room, having watched a previous tape of Clancy Jarvis' failed attempt in the "party" and learned of the code without having to use the crank.

After successfully evading Lucas' traps, Ethan made his way to the Pier Boathouse, where he discovered Mia and Zoe tied up. While he freed the two women, Zoe asked Ethan for the ingredients to the serum that would cure both of them, warning him that her father and Lucas were nearby. Zoe also told Ethan that after making two serums and using them to cure her and Mia, they would escape through the bayou in a boat parked outside the building. But as Ethan took the serums, the three escapees were attacked by Jack Baker crashing through the wall, now a giant, horrifically mutated mass of eyes and twisted, Moldy flesh

Although Mia and Zoe were able to get away from Jack Baker, Ethan had to fight him in the boathouse and damage him by shooting his eyes. When he managed to defeat Jack Baker (but not kill him) and destroy all of his eyes, Zoe Baker ran in and told Ethan to follow her out of the boathouse. Unfortunately, Mr. Baker grabbed him as he headed for the door, forcing Ethan to sacrifice one of the serums Zoe made by using it on Jack himself, whose Mold-altered body finally calcified and finally died. Ethan then met Mia and Zoe on the pier outside the boathouse, and was forced to choose whom to cure with the remaining serum.

Escaping with Mia
If the player chooses to cure Mia, then despite telling Zoe that he can find another way to save her Zoe just orders him to leave with Mia on the boat. Eventually, as the two propel their boat through the bayou, Ethan and Mia stumble upon the wrecked oil tanker where the Baker family found her and Eveline. But soon their boat gets stuck and consumed by mold, as Eveline capsizes it to prevent Ethan and Mia from leaving the Baker family's residence.

Later, Mia wakes up and looks around only to find Ethan lying on the ground, unconscious and being consumed by mold. Ethan is then taken to the oil tanker room by Eveline's mold. Imprisoned in a casing of mold, Ethan has a vision of Jack Baker talking to him about how his family found Eveline and then became infected from her, calling it a "gift". Jack then tells Ethan to stop Eveline for his family. Ethan wakes up to Mia ripping him out of the mold. Mia buys time for Ethan to escape the oil room before getting consumed by some mold, telling him to "kill that little bitch".

Ethan left the ship and ventured out to the Abercrombie Salt Mine in search of Eveline. After fighting off a couple of Molded in and outside of the mine, Ethan found a box containing the E-Necrotoxin, using the Eveline Tissue Samples that Mia had given him in order to craft it. After going through the mines, Ethan found himself back in the Bakers' Guest House. Along the way, however, he suffered flashbacks of the events that occurred inside the old house in the beginning of the game, with Eveline standing in the background. Ethan traversed the old house in search of Eveline, ultimately coming face-to-face with the girl hell-bent on subjugating his mind. However, Ethan pulled out the E-Necrotoxin, frightening Eveline and causing her to flee. Giving chase, Ethan was assaulted by a hallucinatory Mia wielding a chainsaw. Ultimately, however, he managed to corner Eveline again, and injected her with the E-Necrotoxin despite her power trying to force him back. The Necrotoxin injection disrupted Eveline's hallucinatory control, revealing her true form as the wheelchair-bound "grandma" of the Baker family. As the decrepit woman broke down in tears, her body rapidly followed suit, decaying in seconds until she was one with the Mold beneath their feet. For a moment, it seemed as if Ethan had finally put an end to Eveline... but then Eveline's consciousness commandeered all of the Mold in the Baker residence, returning as a gargantuan, eldritch and very enraged abomination bent on Ethan's destruction.

Forced to fight one last time for his life, Ethan fired again and again into Eveline's face, but to no avail. Suddenly, a crate containing a large pistol dropped out of the sky and caused Ethan's codex to respond. Ethan answered the codex to find an unknown person telling him to use the pistol, whose bullets also contained samples of the E-Necrotoxin. Ethan did so and after a few shots, finally calcified and killed Eveline once and for all. A man then dropped down from a helicopter and approached Ethan, removing his helmet and introducing himself as Redfield before helping Ethan onto the helicopter. On the helicopter, Ethan was finally reunited with Mia once more, before leaving the Bakers' residence for good, while Redfield's squad took care of the aftermath.

Alternate events
On the other hand, if Ethan chooses to cure Zoe Baker at the pier, then Zoe would get on the boat with him while Mia just tells them to go. However, when Eveline stops the boat and capsizes it, she calcifies Zoe and kills her as Ethan is knocked unconscious. In addition, when Mia later finds Ethan and frees him from the mold, rather than buying time for him to escape she is instead forced to fight him by Eveline. When Ethan manages to kill her however, Mia calcifies and dies on the spot, again telling him to "kill that little bitch". Later, after defeating Eveline and getting into the rescue helicopter, rather than reuniting with Mia, Ethan would watch a video of Mia on a cell phone, before saying his final goodbyes and throwing the phone off the helicopter as it leaves the Bakers' property and transports him to safety.

Gameplay
Ethan is the main playable character of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. He begins the game with 12 inventory slots which can be expanded to 16 and 22. After the fight with Mia in the Guest House, Ethan will have the watch for the rest of the game which will display his health. The items Mia has after her section of the game will be transferred to Ethan's item box.

Ethan is also the player character of the "Ethan Must Die" Extra Game where he still has the watch and only 12 inventory slots and begins with the Knife.

Further notes

 * It was stated by Masachika Kawata that Ethan is not the same person as the protagonist of the KITCHEN and Resident Evil 7 Teaser Demo: Beginning Hour demos.
 * Ethan's face throughout the game is usually obscured from the player, the most the player can see is his lower face like his mouth and chin. However his full face can be seen briefly when Ethan has a hallucination of him being thrown through the wall by Mia in the guest house, however the hallucination ends before the player can get close enough to see his features completely.


 * Regarding the Infection Report, it's heavily implied that Ethan is also infected by the bacterium, best known as Mold.
 * According to the report, the initial infection of a person is recognized by the mold ingesting the nutrients of the victim's body, having as a side effect remarkable regenerative abilities. After getting his hand severed, Zoe simply staples Ethan's hand and he uses it as it has never been severed of its nerves, demonstrating remarkable regenerative abilities.
 * Also, if Jack Baker severs Ethan's leg, only with the use of a First Aid Med he could join it to the rest of his body. According to the report, test subjects were submitted to the removal of arms and legs, being able to regrown them in a matter of minutes.
 * Before having his hand severed, Ethan depicted scars on his hands when attacked, not healed even by the First Aid Med. After having it stapled and being asleep for unknown time under the Baker's submission, Ethan's hands could be fully restored if his health was also full.
 * The report also mentions that the mid-stage of the infection by the Mold, when the bacterium reaches the brain, causes the infected to hear things and see hallucinations, due to be directly connected to the E-Series asset. After hours of his journey, Ethan hears Eveline, an E-Series subject, for the first time while recalling Mia's steps in the Old House, and then hears and sees her after getting the samples of the serum for the first time. Until the end, the visions become more distinctive.
 * Another sign of Ethan's infection is the fact he could communicate with Jack Baker, known Mold infected, after his death, in a possible mutual connection with Eveline.
 * If Ethan chooses to save Zoe instead of Mia, and for that receiving the bad ending for the game, it's possible to notice, in the helicopter, that Ethan's left arm, previously severed, is completely normal and not even stapled. It could be an oversight, or another example of his remarkable regenerative abilities.
 * Unlike most previous Resident Evil protagonists Ethan does not have any real combat training. Despite this, Ethan displays proficiency in guns, as is evidenced when he shoots Jack Baker multiple times during any of his encounters with him. Ethan also appears to have an extremely high if not superhuman tolerance to pain, able to press on after being thrown through entire walls and doors, stabbed and slashed in the hand, arm and shoulder several times as well as having his own hand cut off as if nothing happened. He does however show a degree of pain if one of his limbs get cut off during his battles with the monsters and creatures and will bleed out if he does not retrieve his limb and heals himself via the medicine bottles that the Bakers produce.
 * This is due to the fact that he is also contaminated by the same virus as the Bakers and can regenerate wounds and lost limbs, as seen when Jack cuts off Ethan's leg with a shovel and then gives Ethan a medicine bottle and taunt him about this ability.