| “ | The answer to the human problem is the death of what makes us human. | ” |
–- Vosch | ||
Colonel Alexander Vosch also simply known as Vosch serves as the main antagonist in The 5th Wave Series.
He is the commander of Camp Haven, which supposedly takes surviving children and then helps in training them to be soldiers to fight against The Others. What is not widely known, but to a few characters, is that Vosch is not only one of the Others but is their leader and has been brainwashing the children to hunt the surviving humans left on Earth as The 5th Wave. He is responsible for the death of Cassie and Sam's father, Oliver.
Vosch, in actuality, is a human that was enhanced with nanotechnology from The Others. He is one of a dozen Silencers that is aware of their true natures as well as the truth of the ship and The Others. He is driven to bring down Squad 53 and have Evan Walker in his grasp. He was ultimately killed by Cassie who shot him in the head mirroring how he had shot her father.
He is portrayed by Liev Schreiber in the film adaptation.
The 5th Wave []
Vosch was first seen traveling with an escort of humvees and school buses to Camp Ashpit. He had told the people there that they had been in severe quarantine since the 3rd wave. He requested that all the young children be put on the school buses and taken to the Wright-Patterson base for safety and the adults wait in the camp until they knew it was safe to bring them as well. When Vosch called for everyone left to gather together Mr Sullivan sensed that something wasn't right.
Vosch addressing the adults of Ashpit
Cassie pointed out that someone was missing and he told his daughter to find him and silently told her to be alert around the soldiers. Vosch then preceded to have the assembled people fired upon revealing that he and the rest of the soldiers weren't human but part of the 4th wave. Cassie witnessed him shooting her father in the head after he attempted to crawl away. He then ordered for 'The Eye' to be used to destroy the camp.
At Camp Haven he went to personally welcome Ben Parish as he slipped into depression. Vosch commented that Ben's Wonderland profile impressed him and he personally returned his sister Sissy's locket to him. He showed Ben a photo of his wife and child and informed him that the picture was his 'silver chain'. He promised to mold Ben and empty him only to refill him with hate as he was 'his battlefield' against The Others. Over time he began to earn Ben/Zombie's respect and admiration.
Vosch debriefing Ben before his squad's mission.
Vosch sent Squad 53 out on a field combat mission to exterminate some Infested but was surprised to see that only Ben Parish returned. He had claimed that his fellow squad members had gone Dorothy and had killed Reznik when they found him supervising them and had then tried to kill him. He was shot but Vosch wasn't entirely buying Ben's story. He claimed that the only way to know for sure if he was telling the truth or not was to plug him into Wonderland.
When Cassie learned that Evan Walker was one of the Others he told her about Vosch and how Camp Haven was nothing more than a death camp rather than a training base. He told Cassie that prior to the Waves Vosch had been heading the argument to exterminate mankind and take possession of the Earth against co-existing with the humans. It was Vosch who was in charge of all of the Others and who led them.
When Cassie infiltrated Camp Haven and killed Dr. Pam, Vosch had come across her when she had started to go off to try and rescue Sam Sullivan. He went to sound the alarm and began to order for the base to be evacuated and then destroyed as multiple sentries of his had been shot by a sniper on the outside and saw that the base had been infiltrated on the inside. When Cassie found both her brother and Ben Parish, they had tried to escape the base but Vosch intercepted them. Vosch then separated Sam from Cassie and Ben. He commented that The Others had been watching humanity since the Pyramids of Egypt and that they would win. He called Ben weak when he tried to convince Cassie that she couldn't make a deal with Vosch to try and spare her brother. He interrogated Cassie into trying to tell him who helped her infiltrate the base and seemed to think she could easily overcome Wonderland.
Vosch forced to retreat from Camp Haven
He knew it had to be one of his fellow Others. To further torture them, he had Sammy put into the execution room to force them to talk. He then tried to fry the young boy but the system was shut down and Vosch was forced to leave to see about the new breach. The base was beginning to crumble from the inside out and Eyes were being set to destroy it and that made him see that the base was as good as lost. Vosch was forced to order the base be evacuated and its assets relocated before it was fully destroyed.
The Infinite Sea[]
Vosch knew that the events that took place at Camp Haven would get the squads of children talking so he spun a story that Squad 53 had all gone Dorothy with delusions that it was really them who were the Others and had launched an attack to destroy their base. He also started to spin tales that they apprehended alien technology which will enable them to take 'Teds' and clean out the alien matter infesting their brain with nanobot like tech.
He sent squads out to find Squad 53 and managed to get hold of both Ringer and Teacup. He visited with Ringer and gave her vague hints that Teacup could be alive and that her life depended on her. He brought a chess set to her and asked for a game which she reluctantly played. She saw that she was going to lose due to him diving into her mind with Wonderland and then decided to toss the board and clobber him in the face. She then bolted and managed to take Razor's gun. She saw that she was surrounded and seemed to be thinking about shooting herself but he presented a killswitch which he hinted belonged to Teacup. That made her reconsider and surrender to him.
He put Ringer through Wonderland in order to mentally torture her as well as sap her strength so she wouldn't resist the 12th system. Vosch had Ringer injected with nanobots in order to enhance her body and turn her into a Silencer. He orchestrated a test for Ringer where he placed Razor as her carer and allowed her to 'escape'. With that, he saw that Ringer had completely accepted the enhancements and was prepared for the next phase of his plan. Ringer correctly guessed that Vosch wanted to use Ringer to infiltrate her squad in order to get to Evan Walker. Vosch was worried of how unpredictable Evan had become and considered him to be a real threat to the Others' plans.
He had Teacup brought forth to make Ringer reconsider but Razor then shot and killed her to take away the only leverage that Vosch had. One of his men shot Razor as Ringer used the chaos to jump out a window in an effort to escape from him.
The Last Star[]
Vosch's men were able to find and bring Ringer back to him. Vosch revealed that he knew where her squad was and that she would help them bring Evan Walker back to them or he would have them all killed. Seeing that she had no choice, Ringer agreed. Vosch told Ringer that she was to go back to Urbania to head back to them from there but she would be bringing one of his soldiers with her, Constance. He then went and gave her a 'gift'. It was one of the explosive chips that they had been putting into their bombers throats for her to use on herself if she had ever wanted to. Ringer reluctantly accepted his 'gift'.
Personality[]
Vosch, at the beginning, comes off as a strong and compassionate man. He calmly deals with people's rages with a calm demeanor and patience. He also seems to know what to say to make someone forget about feeling sad and feel driven and invigorated. He also has proven to be a wise and inspirational leader as there are many young recruits, chief among them Ben Parish, that looked up to and worshipped Vosch.
However, that was all a fascade. Vosch's true nature is that he is genocidal and sadistic. He views humans as nothing more than savage bugs that he is happy to squash. He despises human nature, both its good and bad parts. He finds them to be a savage and vile species that were killing each other already so he is helping it along. Also, he finds the aspects of human love and hope to be distasteful and a powerful weakness to exploit and ruin. His escalating brutality with the waves are a testament to his philosophies. Vosch also seems to put philosophy and knowledge into his acts as he recites quotes from figures in history as well as facts of human history when he is interrogating someone or even torturing them.
Over time, he begins to even have little care for his own Silencers. He is happy to sacrifice them and let them die during the launching of the 5th Wave. Evan Walker said that it was suspected that this might happen and that Vosch taking a human mind might cause him to go mad overtime.