| “ | My life's work hasn't failed until it ends up the next generation's burden.
— Dr. Gwen Burger to Richard Spender (Chapter 7, Page 9
 ) |
” |
Dr. Gwen Burger is a former scientist of the paranormal research division of the Paranatural Activity Consortium in Paranatural. After death, she has turned into a spirit that currently pilots a shared monstrous body together with her husband, Dr. Bruce Burger.
Appearance[]
Gwen has straight blond hair in bob haircut. She has a rotund, short figure, and she has big round eyes. She is always seen wearing her Consortium research uniform, a white-and-pale-blue striped pajama worn with a black necktie underneath a lab coat.
As a distorted dream projection in chapter 7, her silhouette is more blob-like and stumpy, shadowed uniformly with an ashy purple tint; she has overgrown, unkempt hair, and her eyes are circled.
After becoming an undead creature resulted from the fusion of two bodies, the doctors reach an hulking height, and all of their flesh looks like multicolored patchwork. The leftmost head looks like a decayed version of Bruce's, while the rightmost one is actually a tank of bright green ectoplasm where the spirit that was Gwen floats in. She has transformed into an egg-shaped, mouse-like spirit; her body is split vertically into a white side and a black side, with a pinkish area at the bottom where the belly should be; many of her anatomical features resemble mechanical components, like the round metallic plaque with a bolt on her belly, or the extendable junction topped with a tiny magnet in place of the left arm, a red needle point down to an upward section of a gauge serve as the nose and the mouth. Her right eye is a red warning light with a pupil and her left one is a screw, the right mouse ear is replaced by a magnet and left one with a lightbulb, her tail is cable of an electricity plug, plugged into the bottom of the tank; her exposed brain is rimmed with metal, and alight with electric sparks. Outside the tank, a few curved glass tubes carrying green goo rise from the right shoulder of the conjoined doctors' body. There's a massive screw driven through their neck, and there are buttons on their knuckles. They are wearing a tattered greyish labcoat with a hood that covers each of their heads: the portion wrapped around the tank bears a resemblance to a classical Frankstein monster haircut. Under the coat, the upper torso is dressed in the torn upper half of the Consortium pajama, and the bottom dons heart-printed pink boxers, tied at the waist with a belt of purple cloth holding a number of wooden stakes. There are other wooden stakes inside the breastpocket of the labcoat as well.
Background[]
Gwen, along with her husband, was a doctor of the Consortium involved in the research of wights.[3] The two had a child, Ed, shortly before disappearing in a mysterious accident involving the Great Unknown that sleeps in Mayview. Since then, they have been stuck inside some sort of separate dimension alongside the wight, together, for a time, with Davy Jones.[4]
Paranatural[]
Paranatural: Chapter 5[]
The Doctors Burger are briefly alluded to in Chapter 5 by Agent Day during her conversation with Mina Zarei at the Mayview Mini Mall, where she mentions their disappearance as one of the mysteries she came to Mayview to investigate.
Paranatural: Chapter 7[]
Dr. Burger appears in the photographs pinned to the wall in Richard Spender's bedroom: in one of them she appears alongside her husband, her child and young Mina and Richard, together with a mysterious figure with black painted nails (presumably Agent Summers); in another she is pictured with Bruce while he holds a wrapped gift in hand, that he possibly appeared out of thin air with spectral powers, while she looks on enthusiastically.
Ed's mother reappears in Chapter 7 in the Dream Hub, behind the translucent door of her dream. She's given the subtitle "Dr. Gwen Burger" and talks to Boss Leader about both her and the Great Unknown's imprisonment. She laments that fact that she hasn't been able to learn anything useful about the place she's stuck in; she can only remark that the wight that keeps her trapped inside is "lonely". She expresses her fear of what will happen when at last the grudged spirit awakens from the nightmares they've sealed it in, but she quips that while the spirit is dangerous, both she and Boss Leader also fit under that description. When Richard Spender and Mina Zarei enter her room, she joyously greets them, asking how long it had been since she'd last seen them. She learns that she's been missing for 3 years, and responds that she's lost track of how different time is where she's trapped. As she talks about her husband, she notices an infant Ed on Richard's shoulder and is stunned. After her attempt to hold Ed results in the infant reeling back to Spender out of fear, she rationalizes Ed's actions; then she rebukes Spender when he asserts that he'll be the one to rescue her single-handedly. She advises him to enjoy his youth and let the adults handle their messes, although she refers to Mayview as "Clayview" and refers to an "Agent Summers" that sets Spender on edge. When the wight, whose dream is just adjacent to Gwen's, attacks the group by pushing down on the edges on the dream room, Gwen urges Spender to run and get Eddy to safety, but Mina races back to get information from her while everyone else is out of earshot. Gwen tells the young spectral that the answers to her questions (Mina asked to know where was Dr. Burger located, what was going on in Mayview, what was the power that the Witch was after, and what was the thing attacking them) lie in the fact that the attacking creature is a wight, and after conceding that the both of them are already too involved, pleads with her to not face it alone. Once Texas yanks Mina out of the dream room, Gwen steps outside of the soundproof bubble to signal Boss Leader, who ends the dream, imploring Gwen to "hold on a little longer". During Mina's interrogation of Boss Leader, she asserts her deduction that the doctors Burger were researching wights, a fact Boss Leader neither confirms nor denies.
Paranatural: Chapter 8[]
Gwen Burger emerges from the portal that the PTA created to communicate with Peekaboo by exploiting the hopscotch setup that was discarded by the wight. She has become a spirit that pilots an undead creature as a way to revive herself and her husband, with a body repaired from their own remains and reinforced with multicolored patches of eldritch matter, controlled both by her mind and by what's left of Bruce's consciousness. They begin throwing wooden stakes at Davy, intending to kill him. In the battle that ensues, they come close to planting a stake in his heart, but they stop as soon as they hear Cody cry out for his father; Gwen in particular is also distracted by Razor Rex's demonstration of her power of transferring properties between entities, which she recognizes in shock. They end up losing the battle, with Davy throwing them back into the abyss beyond the gate, taking the key they've taken from the Witch's eyesocket down with them.
Relationships[]
Family[]
- Bruce Burger - She and her husband appear to be very fond of each other, with Davy describing Bruce as a "doting husband", and calling the couple "always attached at the hip".[5]
- Ed Burger - Even though she misses her son greatly and longs to be reunited with him, she acknowledges that, because of her premature disappearance, Ed can't possibly recognize or remember her.
Other[]
- Richard Spender - She used to be one of Spender's mentors when he was young, and he regarded Dr. Burger as a "positive role model"[6], as he felt the she was someone he could trust and look up to[7]; he admits himself that he was trying to "pierce together parents from mentors"[8]. In the time after her and her husband's disappearance, he was scarred by their departure, and he declared himself willing to rescue her singlehandedly to give her a chance at reuniting with Ed.
Quotes[]
- "This place...it's a fascinating prison...but a prison nonetheless."
- — Dr. Gwen Burger to Boss Leader (Chapter 7, Page 6
)
- Gwen Burger: "The time we've bought... it's come at a steep cost. We've nursed this grudge for years. Locked it in nightmares. "
- Boss Leader: "... "
- Gwen Burger: "Whatever happens when the creature wakes...I fear we may deserve."
- — Dr. Gwen Burger and Boss Leader (Chapter 7, Page 6)
- "Centuries could have passed for me. All I know for sure's the toll they've taken..."
- — Dr. Gwen Burger to Richard and Mina (Chapter 7, Page 7)
- Gwen Burger: "Enjoy your youth. "
- Gwen Burger: "Learn. Make friends. "
- Gwen Burger: "Leave Clayview and its darkness far behind."
- — Dr. Gwen Burger to Richard Spender (Chapter 7, Page 9)
- Gwen Burger: "It's too late, isn't it? "
- Gwen Burger: "For both of you. "
- Gwen Burger: "You're like me...too smart for your own good. "
- Gwen Burger: "But... maybe smart enough for everybody else's. "
- Gwen Burger: "That creature is a wight "
- Gwen Burger: "and indeed, your questions' answer."
- — Dr. Gwen Burger to Mina Zarei (Chapter 7, Page 12)
- Gwen Burger: "Every scientist stands on the shoulders of giants, Mr. Jones! "
- Gwen Burger: "My INNOVATION is copiloting said giant from said shoulders as he charges into battle! Isn’t that right, sweetie? Heh heh heh! "
- Bruce Burger: "HEH. HEH. HEH."
- — Dr. Gwen Burger to Dave Jones (Chapter 8, Page 77)
Trivia[]
- In Spender's recollection, altered by the town's reality shift to Mayview, the doctors lived in a houseboat on the lake. [9]
- The key that is used to open the gate to Peekaboo during the PTA's ritual is stated to be the "Burgers' house key"[10]; the key is also shaped like a stylized burger.
Gallery[]
Official Artwork[]
Comic[]
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