- "I used to stand in a storm and watch the lightning strike the plains and I would think, 'well there you go'. That's justice. Sometimes the finger of God reaches down and touches you. But you never know which finger it is you're gonna get."
- ―Leland Coyle
Sergeant Leland Coyle is a Prime Asset and one of the antagonists in The Outlast Trials. He is a corrupt and delusional police officer obsessed with maintaining his own distorted notion of the law, who enjoys electrocuting and sexually assaulting people with his shock baton.
Background[]
Leland Coyle was born in the 1923, in Blackwell, Oklahoma, a small yet well-known sundown town. There are anecdotal accounts of animal abuse and sexual assault during his childhood, which prompted him to enroll in a military academy. Despite exhibiting criminal tendencies, his involvement with the local Ku Klux Klan as a teenager swiftly quelled such behavior.
At the age of nineteen, he entered into his first marriage. However, his spouse passed away six months later under circumstances officially attributed to a fall down the stairs. To circumvent any scrutiny from local authorities, he voluntarily enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. Serving honorably for two years in the Pacific theatre during World War II, he earned three confirmed enemy kills and his company witnessed two suspicious American deaths.
Following his return to Oklahoma post-war, he resumed his involvement with the Klan, eventually transitioning to a career in law enforcement. Since 1947, Coyle proved exceptionally adept in his role as a police officer, accumulating numerous commendations for his service. However, his achievements and success were tainted by allegations of profiting from the exploitation of prison labor, extortion, and civil forfeiture, implying corruption on his part. Additionally, he held esteemed positions within the Elks Club and the VFW.
After marrying for the second time, Coyle promptly extorted his new family. Following their deaths in a fatal electrical fire, his wife fled to Chicago, where she was found deceased under circumstances officially labeled as 'natural causes' on Kostner Ave. on the South Side.
Sometime later, Coyle was promoted to Sergeant and entered into another marriage. However, his third wife succumbed to multiple gunshot wounds to the head, ruled as suicide. Within a year, her family members also passed away under mysterious circumstances, purportedly by suicide, though the methodologies became increasingly violent and complex.
In February of 1956, Coyle encountered Murkoff's Clyde Perry at a bar on Route 177. While chatting, Coyle drank alcohol heavily and casually ate nuts from the table. Perry's pretext was bribery, but Coyle quickly discerned his deception. The interaction turned physical, resulting in Perry sustaining two broken fingers, extensive bruising, and urinary complications. Despite Perry's survival, he believed Coyle toyed with him akin to a cat with its prey, surmising Coyle's restraint from killing him as evidence of this. Nevertheless, or perhaps due to this incident, Perry vehemently endorsed Coyle for PROJECT LATHE.
The specifics of Coyle's recruitment into PROJECT LATHE remain unknown, although it seems very unlikely that he was recruited from a prison or asylum, unlike Mother Gooseberry and Franco Barbi.
Characteristics[]
In spite of his obviously psychopathic tendencies, Leland was very well-liked among the residents of Blackwell; in the comics introducing him to the greater story of Trials, a waitress and a few other locals are seen having friendly conversation with Leland before his meeting with Clyde; perhaps even more telling is their apparent lack of concern over Leland's sudden violent outburst at Clyde's insinuation that Coyle is in the habit of accepting bribes. A truer example of dark charism may be difficult to find, as even after his history of repeated spousal fatalities crossed from suspicious into ludicrousness, Leland's fellow deputies always stuck by his side. After his experiences with LATHE 1.0, Leland's mind has only become darker, but his zeal for upholding the law with maximum force only grew until "innocent" became synonymous with "guilty, with an excuse"; now, he roams his assigned Trial environments, dispensing his brutally effective form of justice to any caught up in his twisted and sadistic gaze.
Coyle roams the Trial environment, scouring for Reagents to attack. Once he locates a target, he relentlessly pursues them until either losing visual contact or subduing them. During the Kill the Snitch trial, he ceases pursuit if he's close enough to hear the snitch being electrocuted. Furthermore, Coyle frequently checks nearby hiding spots and forcefully bashes open locked doors and barricades with his stun rod, doing so at a faster rate than normal Grunts.
In Vindicate the Guilty, he prioritizes chasing the nearest player to him at any given time; however, given the theme of the Trial, he spends the majority of his time not actively chasing down Reagents trying to reassure the False Judge, or interrupt the Reagents' progress once they begin to activate the Hammers of Justice. His presence is easily discernible in darkness due to the blue light and audible crackling emanating from his electrified stun rod, which reveal his position. Coyle is notably more vocal than Mother Gooseberry and other Ex-Pop members, often ranting his interpretation of the law while patrolling; not only does he speak much more frequently than the other two Primes, he is much louder on average than either as well, which makes staying aware of his location at-range much easier in comparison. The electrical emissions from his stun rod also extend his detection range in the dark slightly, facilitating easier tracking and pursuit of nearby Reagents. Additionally, he exhibits higher stun resistance compared to normal grunts, enabling a faster recovery rate from getting hit by thrown projectiles like bottles and bricks, but he is still vulnerable to the effects of Stun Rig and Blind Rig.
Upon encountering a Reagent directly, Coyle seizes them and administers a powerful electric shock, inflicting significantly more damage than a mere strike and temporarily disabling their rigs. If he incapacitates a player or comes across an incapacitated one, he attempts to execute them by electrocution. Although fatal to solitary Reagents, his execution can be thwarted by another Reagent intervening and knocking him off. Compared to Mother Gooseberry, Coyle's attacks have a much slower and telegraphed windup rate, and he only grabs a Reagent when they run directly into him. The amount of damage that Coyle can inflict varies depending on the variators in the trial, with the "Deadly Prime Asset" variator allowing him to instantly strike down a Reagent with a single hit (unless they have extra health bar from consuming Health Booster item or equipped the Last Chance amp). In addition, Coyle also has electric grid traps scattered throughout his trial environments, which activate periodically under a timer and deal constant damage to any Reagents stepping into their range. These grids can be jumped through and disabled by throwing a bottle or brick at them.
Story[]
The Murkoff Collection[]
Leland first appears in a prequel comic series detailing how both he and Mother Gooseberry were "inducted" into the first iteration of LATHE; an employee with Murkoff's Collections Department named Clyde Perry has been assigned with tracking down and recruiting through any means necessary individuals Dr. Easterman believes have potential to "control" the Trial environments. Deducing that he needs people with more charisma than average with a propensity for brutal violence, Easterman directs Perry to travel the country following up on leads about these potentially highly dangerous individuals.
At some point after his dealings with Phyllis Futterman at Holmesburg Prison in Philadelphia, Clyde made his way down South to the rural town of Blackwell, Oklahoma; he had been reading several reports of a seemingly rogue lawman in the region, and armed with a name, he swiftly tracked his mark to a nearby diner to set up a meeting. Initially, Clyde's only real goal for the meeting was to sniff Leland out and asses his suitability as a potential candidate for his superior's next phase of the LATHE project; however, after Clyde perhaps accidentally insinuated at Leland's history of taking illicit bribes, Leland became enraged and brutally beat him after breaking some of his fingers. Despite his wounded state and the terrible turn of the day's events, Clyde considered the meeting such a resounding success that he immediately recommended Leland for the project, completely forgoing any of the pre-planned assessments to secure Murkoff's new quarry.
The Outlast Trials[]
Leland makes his appearance in Kill the Snitch. He is first seen torturing the Snitch on the monitor. After the Reagents arrive in the security room, Leland confronts an Ex-Pop and violently electrocutes them to death with his stun rod. He then heads down to the underground parking garage after spotting the Reagents in the security room. Once the Reagents start pushing the Snitch, Leland cuts the power to prevent them from progressing. Forcing the Reagents to head to the garage in order to reactivate the generators, Leland begins hunting them in the dark. After the Reagents activate the generators and leave the garage, he calls through the intercom, telling Ex-Pops to kill the Reagents. Once the Reagents push the Snitch into the electrocution room, Coyle storms into the police station to stop them. After the Reagents successfully execute the Snitch, he becomes enraged and despaired, attempting to patrol through the streets to find the Reagents before they escape through the shuttle.
Later, he makes his second grand appearance in Vindicate the Guilty. When Reagents are about to enter the Courtroom, the rolling gate blocks their path, which also stops them from reaching Coyle. He takes his shock baton from a deceased Reagent, stating that he sentenced Avellanos to court and ensuring no one can take his own justice away from him before leaving. Once Reagents start searching for more evidence and acid, he patrols around the evidence rooms. When the Reagents destroyed the evidence, he appears on the courtroom balcony to assure his lawyer that there is still witnesses to back it up before leaving. When the Judge is asked to drop the charges after the witnesses are killed by the Reagents, he appears again on the balcony being furious, refusing the call for a mistrial before storming into the courtroom to stop the Reagents. After the Reagents executed the Judge, he attempted to track down or chase the Reagents before they could escape through the shuttle.
Personality[]
Leland Coyle behaves akin to an exceptionally cruel police officer, exhibiting extreme brutality in his pursuits and showing no reluctance in hurling insults and making sexual remarks and threats at his victims. He often takes pleasure in tormenting individuals who are disadvantaged or unable to defend themselves. A former member of the Ku Klux Klan, Coyle is deeply bigoted and patriotic in his convictions. He frequently indulges in ranting about ideologies that differ from his traditionalist beliefs, such as Communism, which he believes undermines his ideal vision of America, and he regularly expresses racist, xenophobic and antisemitic views.
Aligned with his weapon of choice, an electrified cattle prod/baton, Coyle holds a fascination for electricity. During surveillance conducted by Murkoff, he was observed standing in a field amidst a lightning storm on five occasions. He is also shown to be sexually aroused by electricity, pressing his weapon to his groin or bare hand out of pleasure, and many of the mannequins and corpses seem to have been sexually assaulted with his weapon or electric wires.
He has been shown in both Trials and Documents to be incredibly rash and will not hesitate to resort to physical violence such as when he attacked an Ex-Pop trying to avoid him. He happens to have his own view in laws, even if it's technically wrong as he thinks the true laws are the one that fits his ideology. This can be shown during his interruption of the "lawyers" in Vindicate the Guilty and his belief that anyone on trial is a criminal regardless of the court's decision.
Prior to Project LATHE, he maintained excessively detailed notes, considering himself an indispensable figure in history and believing himself to be of significant interest to future generations, indicating a possible struggle with narcissistic personality disorder. However, this disposition sometimes veers into sheer paranoia, particularly when contemplating the consequences of being caught off guard. He frequently projects his cruelty onto those he harbors resentment towards. It can be assumed that even after abduction Leland Coyle still holds some sense of awareness to outside world events, though this is somewhat skeptical from his remarks on events that are years before the events of Outlast Trials.
He was an extremely popular and well-liked person on the job as well as privately. He very much enjoyed being social as both a member of the Elk Club and VFW, having a high standing in both. Coyle being evidently a power-obsessed person and considering the speed at which he rose the ranks to Sergeant, it can be speculated that he actively made efforts to curry favors with those around him to further his own social standing and influence. Money also played a big role for him in that regard, as he actively extorted his in-laws and took bribes, furthering his social standing and lifestyle even more to cement his position of power in society.
When patrolling, Coyle sometimes comment about women and seems to be only value them when it comes to his own benefit, like the Judge and Lady Justice from the Courthouse trials. He also shows concern when they held power tools such as Mother Gooseberry, who has unstable mental health condition and armed with the drill. He mentioned that a woman shouldn't given any weapon (or power), reflecting his classic 1950s era sexist view. While the reasons are unknown, he also killed all his wives under one year of marriage, shows no remorse and even cracks a joke about their death, such as the telling the Snitch that he looked like his second wife. With how he remarks on how Mother Gooseberry reminded him why he killed his wife, there's a possibility that all his wives turned against him at some point, perhaps to the point of fighting him.
Though he frequently shown interest in women, Coyle had also shown that he enjoyed tormenting men sexually (as evidenced by The Snitch), making sexual remarks about him and shocking his own hand during the interrogation. A number of male mannequins also had burn marks on their thighs, butt and crotch, and they had lost their pants. Regardless of gender, every mannequin in his trials is depicted as being used in a sexual manner; examples include a woman mannequin being shattered into pieces with sperm spilled on it and a scorched male mannequin bent over the table. This suggested that, despite his homophobic beliefs, Coyle might lean more towards bisexuality in terms of his sexual preferences. However, this also could be taken as his form of power abuse and showing his dominance regardless his victims's gender.
Physical description[]
Leland is a man of average build and tall height, adorned in a "standard" police uniform and hat, along with a police force hat and black sunglasses. Irrespective of average build Leland demonstrates peak-human strength and durability, he is strong enough to lift a full-grown man using one arm. His face is shown to be malformed and disfigure, with the right side of his face being blistered/scabbed over similar to Eddie in Outlast: Whistleblower, likely due to either the electric shock from his baton or the experiments that Murkoff conducted on him. Coyle's hair is black, shown by his eyebrows and the short, trimmed beard on his face. Between his blistered lips is a constantly burning cigarette, which holds a large number of burned/melted mannequins.
His outfit is a white button-up and red tie covered in a black leather jacket, with his rank shown by two metallic badges on the left of his jacket (one on the breast, the other on the bicep of the sleeve.) The right sleeve of his jacket is covered in tubes or wires that are connected to the car battery in a cross-body wrap. His uniform also includes a navy leather belt with a silver buckle looped through grey work pants covered up to the knees in leather boots.
Player death animation[]
Coyle will stand over a Reagent, light his cigarette using the sparks of his electric baton and then press said baton against their ESOP, slowly electrocuting them to death.
Balance Changes[]
May 19, 2023 (Early Access Launch)
October 26, 2023 (Early Access Update # 3 / Program Geister)
December 13, 2023 (Early Access Update # 4 / Winter Kills)
March 5, 2024 (Full Release)
May 28, 2024 (Prime Time)
July 16, 2024 (Season 1)
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Trivia[]
- Leland's surname "Coyle" is likely a nod to the electromagnetic coil, which is an electrical conductor used to create a rotating magnetic field. His affinity for electricity can also be seen in his choice of weaponry.
- Coyle is likely to be around 6'3, however he spends most of his time hunched over.
- The badges displayed on Coyle's uniform contradict both his established lore and rank within the Police Force. The badge on his chest reads Lieutenant Born to kill despite his ranking being that of a Sergeant. While his belt buckle reads Sheriff's Dept Oklahoma.
- Coyle's hat badge reads Special Killer. It is most likely a play on the commonly available Special Police costume badge.
- Coyle wanders around singing his version of "This Little Light of Mine" and make a reference to another song, "Plastic Jesus[1]".
- Like the Night Hunter, Coyle has a noticeable regional dialect or accent; he speaks with a significant drawl which is typical for the southern States of the USA.
- Dialogue from the Courthouse suggests that Coyle took part in the Battle of Okinawa, which is considered to have been the bloodiest battle of the Pacific Theatre during WWII.
- Considering the battle took place during April and June 1945 at the tail end of WWII, and Coyle having served two years honorably following his enrollment in the Marine Corps after his first wife's death when he was between 19 and 20 years old - as she died half a year after their marriage - his approximate year of birth would be 1923/24. This would mean that Coyle should be around 35/36 years old when he was brought to the Sinyala Facility in 1959. He also would have spent much of his childhood during the Great Depression, possibly in part explaining his juvenile delinquency and obsession with posterity and power.
- Cornelius Noakes and Coyle were both stationed in the Pacific Theatre during WWII; however, they fought in different Battles, with Noakes being present at the Battle of Attu.
- According to unused dialogue, Coyle's father also served during WWII, fighting Nazi forces in Germany. He was present during the Battle of Hürtgen Forest, located in today's federal state of North-Rhine Westphalia. In stark contrast to the victorious Battle of Okinawa, the fight in the Hürtgen Forrest was an embarrassing affair for the Allied Forces, as the Nazis not only held out long enough to make this the single longest battle the US Army ever fought, but also managed to end it as a defensive victory.
- Coyle notes, that his father lost his foot in this battle. He does not make the extent of his father's injuries clear, though they could have possibly made him an invalid, and incapable of working normally anymore.
- Leland Coyle's hometown of Blackwell, Oklahoma features the Electric Park Pavilion, a historical building that is very in line with his theme of electricity.
- Blackwell also used to be a Sundown Town, reflecting Coyle's xenophobic ideals. Growing up in such an environment may have greatly contributed to the normalization of this mindset. Coyle even refers to his parlor in Sinyala as a Sundown Town in his dialogue.
- Coyle describes an instance of him witnessing a cow being struck by lightning in one of these lines. He uses the term "Kraut Black Angus" as a descriptor for the animal, with the German Angus cow being a specific breed that is bred for their beef. This suggests that Coyle's parents were cattle farmers.
- The battery strapped on his back used to belong to the Pontiac car. Coyle warns about this when he gets stunned by the Reagents.
- From his unused dialogues, Coyle used to have an irrational fear of lightning when he was a child. This made him afraid of taking a bath as he expected lightning would strike him from the pipes.
- During his collaboration with Mother Gooseberry in trials in Prime Time event, Coyle has officially confirmed that he killed all his wives.
- Leland Coyle states that he watched the movie that helps him spot communists. He might be referring to the 1955 propaganda manual film from the U.S Military.[2]
- After changing the educational film in "Teach the Police Officer", Coyle is depicted during what seems to be a panic attack of sorts: He is covering his face with his hands as he cowers in a foetal position, laying on his side, shaking, and seemingly weeping.
- It is unclear under which circumstances the contents of this film have been recorded, however it is of note that this is a state which is very unusual for Coyle to let himself be seen in. He does vocalise his paranoid assertions and describes how he experiences nightmares and shifts from lucidity into states of abstruseness, but witnessing him displaying a physical reaction like that is still very uncharacteristic considering his usually confident and brash character.
- The alphabet rhythm in his dialogues refers to organizations and associations in America rather than a traditional alphabet song.
References[]
- ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_Jesus_(song)
- ↑ "How to Spot a Communist Using Literary Criticism: A 1955 Manual from the U.S. Military". U.S. First Army Headquarters. Open Culture (January 26, 2018).
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