#ETA: This post is updated as I rethink things and as new information comes out.

[captainofthetidesbreath]

My favorite small Overwatch theory is the Jesse is Joel Morricone theory. In brief: it is speculated that Jesse and Joel, a minor character who works as a writer, are the same person.

This theory stems from the positive view Morricone takes of vigilantism, his defense of Jesse’s vigilantism, and his self-description as a “white hat wearer” and “pundit for hire” and from quotes about Jesse’s name on Hollywood and his identity in spawn interaction with Sombra.

Meet the Press

Morricone is a very minor character in the lore, a journalist who wrote an opinion column about rising vigilantism: “The New Peacekeepers: Vigilante Justice — Vital in a Post-Overwatch World?” The first paragraph, except for the last phrase, of the column was tweeted by @PlayOverwatch in March 2015, prior to the closed beta period, as part of introducing the world, the lore, and the characters. This column helped introduce Jesse, and it’s the only piece of lore that mentions Morricone. The image in the tweet also appears in the Overwatch Visual Source Book in Jesse’s section, with the first paragraph complete. It’s the version shown below for that reason, despite being of lower quality:

The New Peacekeepers Vigilante Justice — Vital in a Post-Overwatch World?

By Joel Morricone // Guest Blogger, Coffee Drinker, White Hat Wearer, Pundit For Hire

[Photo of a flaming Rikimaru Ramen Shop van in a cordoned off street in Hanamura] Street still in shambles following noodle joint shootout—who’s keeping us safe?

COLUMN—The scent of gunsmoke mingled with the aroma of gyōza following yesterday’s thwarted ramen shop robbery attempt. And while the mainstream media focused on the anachronistic fashion sense of the stranger who saved the day, I want to know whether he’s the self-appointed sheriff of the corner store, too. We’re told we live in an era of peace, but crime is running rampant, and the authorities don’t seem to care. If folks like him want to protect us, maybe we should just let ‘em round up a posse and ride.

Tangent, I want to point out the joke in the headline: Peacekeeper is the name of Jesse’s revolver. If Jesse is Joel, that’s very cheeky of him to do.

Joel is thought to be Jesse for several reasons, one of which is the opinion taken in this column: a support of vigilantism to make up for slack law enforcement in recent years and maintain order, peace, and justice. The article is also written in a diction very similar to McCree’s.

(As a sidebar, although it’s often joked that, if this theory holds true, Jesse writes so positively about himself, really, the structure suggests that it isn’t an article about himself, it’s just he’s using a recent incident involving himself as a way into the topic, a common rhetorical device—and he actually isn’t that glowing about himself, and he even makes a small dig at how he dresses in line with the popular comment.)

It’s worth mentioning that Jesse seems to keep tabs on how the media portrays him and how the public sees him, or at least keeps tabs on why he’s wanted, based on his comments in the “Train Hopper” comic.

Top panel. “This ain’t got nothing to do with me. If I show my face, guess who gets the blame? Again.”

Bottom panel. Jesse is watching news coverage of the attempted robbery. “[Train staff:] We arrive at Houston in three minutes. What do you want us to say to the police? I think they’re blaming you for this. They mean to arrest you.” “[Television:] The fugitive is wanted for murder, theft...” “[Jesse:] Yeah, I figured.”

Joel’s self description also tends to evoke Jesse, especially in “white hat wearer” and “pundit for hire”. A white hat is an old filmmaking convention as a symbol to separate the good guys (the white hats) from the bad guys (the black hats), especially seen in Westerns beginning with The Great Train Robbery; Jesse himself has a White Hat skin referencing this convention. “Pundit for hire” echoes Jesse’s description as a “gunslinger for hire” in his official bio.

The Man With No Name

To get two minor tidbits out of the way: Joel Morricone’s name references Westerns. He shares a name with Ennio Morricone, a film composer who notably scored every Sergio Leone film since A Fistful of Dollars, which includes The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, which Jesse makes liberal reference to both in design and in quotes. In addition to sharing references to Westerns, Joel and Jesse also share the same initials.

On more weighty points, Jesse was infamously difficult to name during development. Developers created two lists of names—first and last—and nothing really stuck until the name of one of the designers was floated (Wired: Every Overwatch Hero Explained By Blizzard’s Michael Chu). Before they finally settled on that name, he was known as “Joel” in development (Reddit: Gunslinger Joel, lampshaded by Kaplan at PAX East 2015). Within this theory, it is believed that this development history led to the names having been reshuffled to become one of Jesse’s aliases. 

Two quotes in-game reference Jesse’s name. On Hollywood, Hal-Fred Glitchbot, the passenger in the payload, comments, “What, Jesse McCree? That is a terrible name for a cowboy.” It’s felt to be a reference to the real-world difficulty of naming Jesse and the struggle of going through lists of terrible names in the search for a perfect name for a cowboy. Within the theory, it’s felt to be an indication that something is off about who Jesse says he is.

Similarly, Sombra and Jesse have a spawn interaction surrounding Jesse’s name:

Sombra: Pleasure working with you McCree... if that is your real name. McCree: Don't know what you heard, but my name's not Joel. Best remember that.

Just like the first, it’s also felt to reference to the real-world struggle of finding a name for him. Lore-wise, it’s part of a series of elements in which Sombra is investigating Jesse. He appears in images alongside Ana and Jack in her room on the Castillo map:

Computer screen showing Jesse and Ana, connected through an Overwatch symbol. The screen also shows the eye symbol Sombra uses to represent the large global conspiracy and “ESCANEAR...”, indicating in Spanish that she is scanning for something.

Documents lying on the floor, including a photo of Jesse, a circled photo of young Jack, and papers about Lumerico.

This exchange is also similar to one she has with Genji, her statement even employs the same structure:

Sombra: You wouldn't believe what I learned about you... Sparrow. Genji: I'm at peace with who I was. Your threat does not concern me.

Sombra is investigating Jesse, in the way that she’s investigating other key characters, and given her skill, she is in great position to find out all sorts of things about him. His defensiveness and hasty denial of an identity that was not mentioned is possibly an indication that there is merit to her suggestion that his real name isn’t what he says it is.

Why do it?

To get speculative about it, why? There isn’t much in the way to explain why Jesse would have two identities or why he’d stop laying low as Joel Morricone.

We don’t know, well, anything about what Jesse is doing in the present, besides hunting bounties, hopping on trains to Houston, drinking in Mexican bars on Christmas, letting Echo out of her box. It isn’t known what he did in the years after he left Blackwatch and went off the grid, no information on how he supported himself or kept busy in those years. After Overwatch’s Golden Age, after Rialto, after the Swiss HQ explosion, it’s possible that McCree is too publicized to drop off the map. (Maybe even too much a target for Talon?) In contrast, who cares about a particularly opinionated local journalist? Who would expect Jesse McCree, gunslinger and black ops agent, to turn to a career as a pundit and start writing a law and crime opinion column?

Why resurface then when he has things well set up as Joel, if he’s trying to keep a low profile? Joel’s article gives one reason: "We’re told we live in an era of peace, but crime is running rampant, and the authorities don’t seem to care." It’s clearly outlined throughout the lore that when Overwatch collapsed, the world seemed to be at its height in peace; however, that peace quickly collapsed, and it was felt that Overwatch ought to return. As an individual, Jesse is defined by a relentless pursuit of justice, and for decades he’s contextualized his own ongoing journey of redemption as something that is achieved by “righting the injustices of the world” to use a phrase from his bio. If writing did little to stem the rising tides of crime and injustice, he isn’t one to sit by and watch it get worse.