Brigid Tenenbaum
Birthplace	Belarus[1]
Arrived in Rapture	c. 1946[2]
Physical Description
Gender	Female
Hair Color	Brown
Eye Color	Brown
Appearances
Appears in	BioShock BioShock 2 Minerva's Den
Voice Actor	Anne Bobby

"That Tenenbaum ain't what you think. Florence Nightingale, huh? That'll all come crashing down 'fore you can say 'canned tomatoes'. I've seen good bunco, and I've seen great bunco. But, when you waltz through Rapture and World War Two without even a scratch? You got more than leprechauns watching over you."

―Frank Fontaine^[src]

Dr. Brigid Tenenbaum is a genetic scientist who helped originally develop ADAM. She is also the "mother" of the Little Sisters; she created them, and cares a great deal about their safety, calling them her "little ones," and acting like a mother towards them in protecting them. The player is able to win her allegiance by saving the Little Sisters instead of harvesting them for ADAM.

Early Life Edit

Tenenbaum grew up near the city of Minsk in Belarus.^[1] Her father was German,^[3] and she was raised in the Jewish faith.^[4] When she was sixteen years old, she was taken from Minsk to become a prisoner at the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz.^[5] There she observed German doctors experimenting on prisoners. Sometimes when they made scientific errors, she would correct them. It was in this way that she discovered that she had a love for science.^[6] Eventually, the Germans put her to work assisting them in their infamous medical experiments.^[7] Tenenbaum generally considered the German experiments to be useless, but she was indifferent to the Holocaust in general. It is likely that she survived the prison camp due to her helpfulness to the doctors, which caused them to give her the nickname "Das Wunderkind" ("The Wonderchild").

By the age of sixteen Tenenbaum had gained a reputation as a scientific genius. However, in 1946 she mysteriously disappeared from the surface. There was speculation that she had been taken to America or the Soviet Union like many scientists after WWII, or even that she had been the victim of retaliatory execution due to her actions in the prison camps. Her true destination, however, was Rapture.^[2]

Life in Rapture Edit

After her arrival in Rapture, Tenenbaum became a major figure in the scientific community. While walking on the docks of Port Neptune one day she discovered a smuggler whose crippled hands had been restored to normal function after he was bitten by a sea slug. She then researched the slug and found that it could heal damaged cells, even resurrect them.^[8] Her research explored the functions of the substance that the sea slugs produced, dubbed ADAM, which allowed people to manipulate (splice) their DNA, giving them what could be called superpowers, through the use of Plasmids.

Tenenbaum was initially turned away by all of the reputable research facilities, but Frank Fontaine saw the value of her discovery and agreed to fund her research. At Fontaine's urging she engineered a way to mass produce ADAM in the bodies of hosts. Through testing, Tenenbaum and Fontaine discovered that the only hosts capable of producing the mass amount of ADAM were young girls, thus creating the Little Sisters.^[9] Tenenbaum was soon able to get her invention off the ground and quickly became the most well known woman in Rapture, ensuring financial success for her benefactor and Fontaine Futuristics. Through her research she realized that ADAM was addictive if it wasn't regularly taken in and that it acted like a benign cancer, causing mental and physical deterioration. However, she held no qualms about this, and allowed Fontaine to exploit the effect on his customers without question.

As Tenenbaum continued to work for Fontaine she became increasingly distressed by the idea of what she was doing to the young girls. She noticed that despite implantation of the slugs and their mental conditioning, they still acted, played, and sang like little girls. Eventually, Tenenbaum began to feel hatred for her part in their creation, and hated herself for doing such things to the children.^[10][11] She continued to work for Fontaine long enough to be influential in his development of his back up plan, Jack, purchasing the embryo from Jasmine Jolene on Fontaine's behalf.^[12] However, before Fontaine eventually went into hiding she had a falling out with him^[13] and disappeared from the public eye, leaving her apartment in the Mercury Suites to take up residence in her sanctuary for Little Sisters. She then began working on a cure to reverse the 'ADAM Sickness.' Tenenbaum believed that by using The Thinker she could calculate the potential bonding sites of each subject, but failed to do so. She was called a madwoman by most of the city,^[14] but as the Rapture Civil War brewed she began stealing Little Sisters to turn them human again.

BioShock Edit

By the time Jack arrives in Rapture, Tenenbaum has become fully devoted to caring for the young girls. On route through the city, she spots a Little Sister with a Splicer and Jack. She shoots and kills the Splicer before threatening to kill Jack if he tries to hurt the young girl. Atlas tries to reason with her and advises Jack to harvest the Little Sister, mocking Tenenbaum for turning the girls into monsters. Tenenbaum instead begs Jack to help the girls, throwing him a Plasmid that can turn a Little Sister back into a normal girl again, and saying that if he saves the Little Sisters, she will make it worth his while. If Jack does what she asks he only receives 80 ADAM per rescue, but after every three rescues she rewards him with 200 ADAM and various other items, including rare Plasmids and Gene Tonics. If Jack chooses to harvest the Little Sisters, he receives 160 ADAM, and she does nothing but express her anger towards him. Jack's choice is left to the player. She is only heard from during the game to thank Jack for his bravery, heart, and sympathy for rescuing the Little Sisters.

Towards the conclusion of the game, Tenenbaum saves Jack from Fontaine after Jack kills Andrew Ryan by sending several Little Sisters to Rapture Central Control to lead Jack through the vents and into her safe-house. However, Jack falls through the vent and is knocked unconscious. When Jack awakens in Tenenbaum's safe-house, she informs him that she removed Fontaine's mental conditioning, and she makes herself his ally in seeking revenge on Fontaine and undoing the rest of Fontaine's control. She tells him that in order to fully get rid of the mental conditioning, he would need to find Lot 192 in Apollo Square.

When Jack finally encounters Fontaine at Point Prometheus, she orders him to follow him, but Fontaine manages to escape to the Proving Grounds. Tenenbaum formulates a plan for Jack to trick the Little Sisters into thinking he is a Big Daddy. That way, Jack can lure out a Little Sister who would unlock the doors and lead him to Fontaine. She directs him to go through the Failsafe Armored Escorts, Little Wonders Educational Facility, and Optimized Eugenics to find all the supplies needed for a Big Daddy. After he is turned into a Big Daddy, Tenenbaum sends a Sister to help guide Jack through the Proving Grounds before giving him her Harvesting Tool. When Jack finally reaches Fontaine, Tenenbaum orders him to suck the ADAM out of the heavily-Spliced Fontaine. At the end of the battle, just as Fontaine is about to kill Jack, Tenenbaum sends five "cured" Little Sisters to save Jack and to kill Fontaine.

By freeing Jack, Tenenbaum enables him to defeat Fontaine, and some unknown amount of time afterward she leaves Rapture with the little ones she (and possibly Jack) rescued and moves to the surface. Since the little ones' parents were either dead, insane, or could not make it to them, Tenenbaum adopted the girls as her own and they all lived with her on the surface until they reached adulthood. It is not known if she interacted with Jack after this, especially regarding the good ending when he rescues the five Little Sisters and raises them on the surface. Further contact seems to be implied, however, by the line in the good ending: "And in the end, what was your reward? You never said, but I think I know... a family..."

Return to Rapture Edit

Roughly eight years after the events of BioShock, Tenenbaum noticed the kidnappings of little girls all around the world by Big Sisters and knew that they were being taken to Rapture. Thus she returned to the underwater city hoping to put a stop to their abuse. As she descended in a private bathysphere, Sofia Lamb detected her approach and sent Splicers to destroy her sub. Tenenbaum escaped and hid in the ticket booth of the train station of the Atlantic Express Depot, continuing to rescue Little Sisters and protect them as she had done years before. She knew that Sofia Lamb was using the new Little Sisters but could not understand what her plans were.

After Tenenbaum discovered Sofia's plans of rebirth for Rapture, Tenenbaum took an Alpha Series out of hibernation and used him to steal as much ADAM as possible away from Sofia Lamb in an attempt to foil her plans. After the Alpha Model gathered ADAM from the Little Sister, Tenenbaum had him return the Sisters in the vents, leading to herself so Tenenbaum could rescue them. Eventually, the Alpha Series Model could no longer perform his duties as a rescuer of the Little Sisters, so Tenenbaum had to do the rest herself.

Tenenbaum was then contacted by Eleanor Lamb, who had discovered her through her connection to the Little Sisters. Eleanor requested that Tenenbaum aid her in resurrecting Subject Delta, the strongest of the Big Daddies, and undoing his Big Daddy conditioning so they could rescue the other Little Sisters and have them and Eleanor to rise to the surface, destroying Lamb's plans.

BioShock 2 Edit

After Subject Delta is revived, Tenenbaum contacts him via radio to awaken him, though the signal is weak. After he wakes up, he returns power back to the Adonis Luxury Resort and Tenenbaum is able to contact him further. She explains what has happened to Rapture in the past ten years, stating that Rapture is under Lamb's control, and that the Splicers, Big Sisters, Little Sisters, Big Daddies and Security Devices are also under her rule. She encourages Delta to come find her, promising to give him information about his past. When Delta is near, she explains that he is an old Big Daddy model and that his body is shutting down because of the protection bond separation, and that his long lost Little Sister is Eleanor Lamb, daughter of Sofia.

Tenenbaum wants Delta to help her continue to save the little girls. Tenenbaum already saved several, but she does not know how they will get home. Finally, Delta arrives at the Ticket Booth and meets Tenenbaum. She shows him why she must fight Sofia Lamb, she shows him the little girls and that they are being used for something. Tenenbaum fears that this Rapture nightmare will repeat forever, but states that she will die to stop it. Before Tenenbaum can explain any more, Sofia Lamb makes an announcement to all the loyal members of the Rapture Family, telling them Delta's location. A wave of Splicers descends to attack him in the station. Fearing the Splicers may break in the booth and injure the children and herself, Tenenbaum escapes once again with the little girls and goes into hiding, breaking off contact with Delta but still planning to save the Little Sisters. She leaves Delta with her valuable, but suspicious ally Augustus Sinclair, and is not seen again during Delta's journey.

Minerva's Den Edit

After leaving Delta, Tenenbaum then focuses on rescuing her friends and finding the ultimate cure for the 'ADAM Sickness.' She is close but realizes that she cannot continue her research on the cure, so she reconnects with old coworker and ally, Charles Milton Porter, who claims he can return Tenenbaum and himself on the surface, but the only way to do so is to unravel Reed Wahl's stronghold on Rapture Central Computing to retrieve the The Thinker to work towards the cure. She then finds and teams up with another recently revived Alpha Series, Subject Sigma. Sigma is also assisted by Charles Milton Porter, but it revealed that Sigma himself is Porter. As it turns out, Tenenbaum worked with Porter in the past and helped build the Thinker. After Tenenbaum left Delta, she had one of her best friend's turned into a man again, and then finds a lone bathysphere to bring Porter back on the surface so he may live normally.

As Porter goes to meet Tenenbaum, he passes a few inventions of his, including a color television and a machine that plays the piano. Porter is acquainted with Tenenbaum again but, oddly, when he meets her she is not with any of her rescued Little Sisters (although it's possible that they were sent to the surface in a separate Bathysphere prior to that event). Among her luggage is a suitcase full of ADAM cures and a wrench, most likely belonging to Jack. Tenenbaum claims that she and Porter have much to do on the surface to find the cure for the 'ADAM Sickness' and end the Rapture Nightmare.

Audio Diaries Edit

Videos Edit

Tenenbaum's Ticket Booth

Tenenbaum's Face BioShock

Tenenbaum's Return

Kill Tenebaum

Gallery Edit

A rejected BioShock model, "Emily," as a young Tenenbaum.

A rejected model of an aged "Emily" Tenenbaum for BioShock.

Character concept art of Tenenbaum from BioShock 2.

Tenenbaum in the Ticket Booth.

Render image of Tenenbaum's model.

Concept art of Tenenbaum's clothing in BioShock 2.

Tenenbaum bears a striking resemblance to acress Geraldine Fitzgerald

Add an image to this galleryAdd an image to this gallery

Trivia Edit

• Up until the development of BioShock 2 Tenenbaum's first name was spelled "Bridgette," and her name appears with that spelling in the area title for her apartment when the player first enters it in BioShock. However, in the course of the "Something in the Sea" viral marketing campaign her name appeared as "Brigid," and Elizabeth Tobey, community manager for 2K Games, confirmed that Brigid was the official spelling in a post on the 2K Forums in January 2009.^[15]
• During development of BioShock, Tenenbaum had several unique character models: a young model, nicknamed "Emily," as her flashback appearance, and an aged model for her current appearance.^{[citation needed]} Both models wore a similar outfit to the Rosebud model, as seen in the gallery above. During production, both models were scrapped, and replaced with a recycled Lady Smith model. The "Emily" model only appears in the online portfolio of Irrational Game's Character Artist, J.I.Styles'^[16], whereas the older Tenenbaum model appears in BradyGames Signature Series Guide for BioShock.
• Tenenbaum speaks snippets of German in her Audio Diaries and radio messages. The game misspells certain words, like 'Scheisse'; where there are the 2 s', it should be the German alphabet sharp s symbol (ß) (also called an Eszett). The symbol's sound is equivalent to 'ss'. However, in cases where "ß" is not available or in this case, where it would not be understood, "ss" is a valid substitution.
• Even though she was originally meant to be one of the most important characters in BioShock 2 Tenenbaum is mainly only seen in the first two levels, and her fate is relatively unknown at the end of the game. Despite this, it seems the developers originally intended for her to play a larger role, including announcing Little Sister gifts to the player. There is unused audio for Tenenbaum in the game files for if the player harvests or saved the Little Sisters. Her responses to harvesting Little Sisters are very strong against the player, stating "I will teach the ones that I have already saved to forget you." There are four responses for each situation, even though the player only receives three gifts in the final game. There is also unused audio for Tenenbaum in the game files of Persephone, in which Tenenbaum gives a warning about opening the cells.
• Due to the changes in BioShock 2's plot during development, much of Tenenbaum's dialogue was cut from the game, especially since Augustus Sinclair took her place in leading Subject Delta. Such audio includes lines like "The Splicers crave the ADAM more and more. It rewrites the DNA even as it destroys the mind."
• In BioShock 2, Tenenbaum refers to the player as "Herr Delta" or "Herr Sigma." "Herr" is German, used before the name as a title equivalent to Mr in English.
• It is possible to exploit a glitch to kill Tenenbaum during her first appearance in BioShock. Her body is revealed to be a Thuggish Splicer, despite the fact she has a gun and should be a Leadhead Splicer. Also despite giving the player the Plasmid, one is still clenched in her hand along with her gun that she does not let go of. This glitch will not work on the PS3 console of the game
• As seen in the above gallery, Tenenbaum's photo was based on that of Geraldine Fitzgerald^[17]. The same photograph for Fitzgerald was also modified for the concept art for Baby Jane.
• In the "Hunting the Big Sister" trailer, she refers to the tale of the Golem while mentioning the Big Sister: the Golem is a tale of Jewish folklore, in which a rabbi conjures a being out of inanimate objects to protect the jewish community of Prague. The early Big Sister's story mirrors this in many ways: her armor is built out of a ramshackle assortment of objects, she is controlled by a person to "protect" the Little Sisters and she is unaware of the morality of her actions (or, as Tenenbaum calls them, her sin).
• Tenenbaum is the only main character to appear in person in all BioShock singleplayer campaigns (BioShock, BioShock 2 and BioShock 2: Minerva's Den).
• Tenenbaum's name, like many other things in the Bioshock universe, may be another inspiration from author Ayn Rand, who's birth name was originally Alisa Rosenbaum.

References Edit

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Twitter message 1 by Ken Levine on August 4th, 2011
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} "Among the Missing:The Tenenbaum Mystery", article by Ulrich Broder
3. ↑ Twitter message 2 by Ken Levine on August 4th, 2011
4. ↑ Twitter message 3 by Ken Levine on August 4th, 2011
5. ↑ Twitter message 4 by Ken Levine on August 4th, 2011
6. ↑ Audio Diary: Love for Science
7. ↑ Audio Diary: Useless Experiments
8. ↑ Audio Diary: Finding the Sea Slug
9. ↑ Audio Diary: Mass Producing ADAM
10. ↑ Audio Diary: Maternal Instinct
11. ↑ Audio Diary: Hatred
12. ↑ Audio Diary: Pregnancy
13. ↑ Audio Diary: Fontaine's Breakup
14. ↑ BioShock 2 Multiplayer Loading Screen Quotes
15. ↑ "Cult of Rapture Exclusive: Voices from BioShock 2" thread post by 2K Elizabeth on the 2K BioShock 2 Forums
16. ↑ [1], J.I. Styles' online porfolio
17. ↑ Geraldine Fitzgerald on IMDB