Post by Jo on Aug 10, 2006 2:36:22 GMT -5
Background
Chief Mendez is one of Osmund Saddler's underlings, working as a priest for Saddler's cult, Los Iluminados, in addition to his position as village chief. It is unknown whether he was the village chief prior to joining Saddler's cult or simply became corrupt when Saddler came to the village. Like most of Saddler's men, he has been implanted with a Plaga parasite, although his Plaga seems to have matured ahead of the Ganados', as it has taken over his entire body, including his spine. Mendez also wears a fake eye in his left eye socket (The fake eye contains a brown iris, contrasting with its natural blue counterpart and is encoded to open the gate to Ramon Salazar's castle.
He takes Leon captive (along with Luis Sera) after an initial confrontation, which allowed Saddler to implant a parasite into his neck while he was unconscious. Leon confronts Mendez a second time in his house. Although Mendez decides to spare Leon at first, Leon (in an optional scene) decides to go after him and fight him. Mendez nearly crushes Leon, until Ada Wong intervenes. He goes after Ada and takes her captive for a sacrificial ceremony (which Ada manages to escape).
Mendez appears to toy with Leon, not expecting him to get as far as he does. When it becomes clear that he'd underestimated Leon's abilities, he traps him in a barn and tries to kill him by transforming into a centipede-like monster with razor sharp claws. However, Leon emerges the victor from the battle and takes the false eye from the corpse of the deceased Mendez, which he then uses to get past the retinal scanner on the gate to Salazar's castle.