Resident Evil Revelations Summary

(This is semi-incomplete.  I wrote this for my wife because I was excited when I beat the game, but wanted to keep it from getting too in-depth.  Maybe I'll go back later and add in some of the missing details.)

BSAA: Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance.  An international group specialized in fighting bioterrorism.  Currently lead by O'Brian.  Jill, Chris, Jessica, and Parker are all members.

FBC: Federal Bioterrorism Commission.  A US government group inexplicably given complete power and control, with no oversight, over any and all bioterrorism related events.  Currently lead by Morgan.  Raymond and Rachel are current members.  Jessica and Parker are former members.

Il Veltro: a terrorist organization that believes humans need to be wiped out to save the earth, lead by a guy named Norman and a “secret benefactor”.

Basically, the story jumps around, and doesn't reveal important information until later. For example, we don't know that Raymond is suspicious of Morgan until almost the end of the game: we're to assume he's an FBC agent and loyal to Morgan, but in the penultimate episode, we see he's doubtful of Morgan's intentions well before the events of the game.

So, I'm going in chronological order for clarity, which removes a lot of the “twists” that are revealed either by jumping around in the timeline or by revealing their motives as this goes along, rather than as the game revealed them over time.

There were three identical cruise liner ships decommissioned and handed over to Il Veltro by Morgan. Morgan felt the world didn't appreciate the dangers of bioterrorism since it had been quiet for several years, so he gave Il Veltro a bunch of vials of the T-Virus (the primary virus in the series, T-whatevers are all variants of it), and they gladly attacked an eco-friendly island city (because even being a purely solar-powered city, he felt humans still did too much damage and had to be eradicated).

With the city overrun, Morgan ordered it destroyed. FBC members Parker, Jessica, and Raymond manage to escape, with Parker saving Raymond' s life along the way. Raymond is suspicious of Morgan, but has no proof.

Morgan then had the cruise ship with Il Veltro's leader sunk to cover up the evidence, but not before Norman warns him that he has video recordings of all their dealings. Morgan then has the other two ships wiped of terrorists, then replaced with scientists working to weaponize the T-Abyss virus on the other two. When the virus was completed (along with a cure), Morgan had the scientists wiped out by their own creations.

(It's unclear why the other two ships were not destroyed. A possible theory—and this is just my conjecture—is that O'Brian was getting too close for comfort, and so Morgan had the scientists wiped out early. Jill finds a prototype T-Abyss vaccine; maybe Morgan was hoping to get his hands on it before sinking the Queen Zenobia.)

BSAA's O'Brian and Raymond (still employed by Morgan in the FBC, but working from within to bring him down) believe Morgan is responsible for the attacks, but don't have proof. With Il Veltro silent since the attack, O'Brian and Raymond formed an alliance and hatched a plan: to bring back Il Veltro to lure Morgan out. They set up a fake base and send Chris and Jessica to investigate, where they find the coordinates for one of the two remaining ships.

O'Brian then tells Jill and Parker that Chris and Jessica are lost, and gives them the coordinates to the other ship. Morgan, meanwhile, sends Rachel and Raymond to the ship Jill and Parker are on, and Rachel is killed not too far into it.

Parker and Jill stumble into an “Il Veltro” trap, set by Raymond and O'Brian (with Raymond dressed as an Il Veltro terrorist). Chris and Jessica then head to the other ship after Jill manages to make radio contact with them. Raymond, dressed as a terrorist, attempts to tell them everything, but Jessica shoots him.

Morgan, deciding the BSAA is getting too close for comfort, attempts to destroy the ships. The second ship is destroyed, but Jill and Parker save their ship. Jessica, acting as Morgan's fail-safe, attempts to activate the ship's self-destruct. O'Brian realizes there's a mole in the BSAA: Jessica, working for the FBC. Parker corners her, and Raymond arrives (bulletproof vest), telling Parker that Jessica is trying to destroy the ship to cover up evidence that could incriminate Morgan. Jessica fires a shot, Parker takes the bullet for Raymond, and Jessica escapes, Raymond chasing after her at Parker's behest (but letting her escape, unbeknowst to anyone else).

Chris and Jill manage to escape as well, after fighting a huge boss monster while the ship sinks. Raymond meanwhile goes back for Parker, and Jessica flees undetected. O'Brian admits that Il Veltro's return was all a ruse to lure out Morgan. The two ships are destroyed, but the BSAA learned that the sunken third ship may hold video proof of Morgan's dealings with Il Veltro.

Chris and Jill head into the sunken ship, where they find Il Veltro's leader still alive, having injected himself with the T-Abyss. They defeat him and secure the video recordings that incriminate Morgan. With Morgan arrested, O'Brian steps down for his part in the Il Veltro hoax, and the FBC is “dissolved, with the majority of its agents and resources transferred to the BSAA.”

In a final twist, after the credits, Raymond meets with Jessica and gives her a sample of the T-Abyss virus, having been working together all along for an organization that's neither the FBC, BSAA, or Il Veltro. According to semi-official information, they're both working for TRICELL, a conglomerate of “big pharm” (lol) companies who are behind the events of Resident Evil 5 (which takes place a few years after Revelations).

Where does that leave poor, dead Rachel, the only non-monster causality in the game? I have no clue. The only thing we know for certain is that she was (or felt) forced into the mission, and that she was pretty certain she wouldn't survive. She found the drone that had Il Veltro used to disperse the virus on the destroyed city, and was then heading toward the bilge with a pile of keys.

Apparently, she was alive when Jill left her for dead, because she had yet to turn into a zombie.  Yet, Rachel's last words are written down describing the process.  Perhaps she was indeed dead, but retained some of her humanity initially when the T-Abyss virus began to kick in?

Or poor Rachel just got the raw deal again, when Jill grabbed the key and forget all about the dead girl next to it.

What, specifically, was Rachel's mission? Was she knowingly part of Morgan's cover-up, and therefore a terrorist? What exactly was her mission? To merely “investigate the outbreak on the ship”, or to look for—and destroy or recover—evidence that might incriminate him?

Most of my internet searches have turned up nothing helpful regarding anything further into her backstory:

"(S)he was an incompetent child that had no business being there to begin with."

"Earlier this month, Capcom (introduced) a character who didn't really fit the aesthetic of the universe. And by that I mean she had a stupid haircut and ridiculous cleavage."

"Capcom Kills Off Resident Evil's Blind Bimbo"

"You have to admit, pretty good acting for a porn actress."

"Rachel, get a haircut."

"I think her TV Trope is 'Too Whorey to Live'."