Deathloop’s opening cinematic shows a tense fight between Colt Vahn and Julianna Blake, the game’s most essential characters. Julianna Blake performs invasions in Deathloop, seeking to protect Blackreef's time loop by killing Colt. This is how the game's multiplayer functions, but also how certain aspects of storytelling occur. At first, players are as clueless as Colt and aren’t privy to some of Blackreef’s most vital pieces of information, but as the game progresses and more secrets are discovered, Julianna’s story also reveals itself. As one of the two playable characters, Julianna Blake's backstory contains some of the game’s most complex and thorough lore.
[Warning: Spoilers for Deathloop are below.]
On the surface, Julianna Blake is one of Blackreef’s Visionaries and vital to the survival of the time loop. The Visionaries are responsible for Deathloop’s time loop and seek eternal life through repetition. To break the loop, Colt must kill all eight Visionaries in a single day. Each Visionary is responsible for maintaining an aspect of life on Blackreef, acting as scientists, artists, and party hosts for the population. However, the Visionaries suffered amnesiac effects from Blackreef’s time loop experiment, leaving them (and most of the populace) to relive the same day for centuries.
To understand Julianna Blake’s story, one must first understand Colt Vahn and the history of the time loop experiments. Julianna and Colt’s stories intertwine far before Deathloop’s time loop on Blackreef began. Both Colt Vahn and Julianna Blake are some of the only inhabitants on Blackreef that are aware of their existence in a perpetual loop and frequently interact with different realities to keep their game of cat-and-mouse going. While Julianna Blake may seem unhinged compared to the perpetually confused Colt, the more players learn about their Hunter, the more they’ll understand why she makes the choices that she does.
Deathloop's Time Loop Isn't Blackreef's First Loop
Colt Vahn was a pilot during the 1930s and joined Operation Horizon following the war’s end. Operation Horizon’s logo appears throughout Blackreef, already connecting Colt to an earlier time loop. The origin of Blackreef’s time loop in Deathloop is unknown, but Operation Horizon investigated the island shortly after detecting its anomaly. Horizon assigned Colt Vahn to fly a rocket through Blackreef’s time anomaly and gather information. Unfortunately, Colt’s rocket became stuck in the original time loop, leading to Colt reliving the same day for 17 years.
Shortly before departing on his mission, Colt Vahn received word that his girlfriend, Lila Blake, was pregnant. Believing it to be a short mission - and with the full intention of returning - Colt departed and vanished for 17 years. By the time he returned to civilization, he discovered that Lila Blake had passed from Karsvolanev’s Syndrome at the age of 51, according to an obituary found in Updaam.
Colt’s former allies confined him to a mental asylum shortly after for “displaying symptoms of advanced psychological dissociation,” according to secret records found in Deathloop's Frisrad Rock. This left Colt and Lila’s daughter, Julianna Blake, an orphan for most of her adult life. For AEON’s time loop experiment, Colt was freed from the asylum by Egor, one of Blackreef’s Visionaries - unknowingly reuniting the father and daughter.
Julianna's Intelligence Earned Her Place In Deathloop's Time Loop
Little is known about Julianna Blake’s early life, though it’s likely she spent the first seventeen years with her mother, Lila. Unfortunately, the unexplained nature of her father’s absence grew resentment in the young girl. Julianna’s bitterness continued to grow with the death of Lila Blake and the failure of her father to come back for her. Colt Vahn’s confinement at the asylum left Julianna to her own devices. During her schooling and upbringing, Julianna’s intelligence earned her a place in the ranks of the Visionaries. She was assigned to become AEON’s Archivist and moved to Blackreef. Originally, Julianna's role in Deathloop didn't include temporal invasions.
As AEON’s official Archivist, Julianna likely had many responsibilities in regards to AEON’s Blackreef project. Though the Visionaries are all somewhere in their 20s, each has the capital and IQ to develop their own temporal experiment using Blackreef’s anomaly. As the Archivist, Julianna’s responsibilities led to her recording many aspects of the project.
Her encyclopedic knowledge of temporal anomalies proves that (second to Colt), Julianna Blake is privy to most of Deathloop's unique time loop secrets. Whether this played a part in her avoidance of the loop’s amnesiac effects is unknown. Nevertheless, Julianna’s awareness makes her one of the deadliest opponents in Deathloop, though it was once her weakness.
Julianna Wasn't Always Deathloop's Hunter
Before the start of Deathloop, Colt Vahn was once a Visionary for the AEON Project. Players can access voice recordings of his before the time loop’s activation throughout Blackreef. However, once Colt decided to break the loop, he was forced to kill his daughter and former coworkers. As one of the few individuals that could remember each iteration of the loop, Julianna was sufficiently traumatized by the many successful and unsuccessful attempts to kill her. Not only had her father failed to appear during the early years of her life, but he consistently caused her pain and suffering in what was supposed to be a perfect, neverending existence.
Julianna Blake assumed Colt Vahn’s position in Deathloop as the Chief of Security after enduring many instances of her own murder. With enough time, blood, and practice, she developed strategies to fight back and manipulate the time loop to her benefit. Similar to Colt, different versions of herself appear throughout Blackreef as players progress. This is one of the reasons that players can kill copies of Julianna, but she will still appear at the game’s conclusion.
Given the temporal inconsistencies of the Deathloop's story, it’s challenging to pinpoint Julianna’s apparent backstory. However, dialogue between Colt and Julianna confirms that AEON’s Blackreef experiment has been going for over 140 years, though significant portions of it are lost to Colt’s amnesia and the amnesia of the island’s other inhabitants. Unfortunately, Julianna Blake isn’t as forthcoming with details concerning her life, meaning players need to discover Deathloop’s many secrets, recordings, documents, and more in order to fully understand her backstory.