"I love plants, is that so wrong?" |
— Bowlsley
Bowlsley, nicknamed "The Florist," is the personal weapons manufacturer of Hector LeMans. A florist in life, Bowlsley has gone mad in the afterlife, inventing and manufacturing new ways for Hector to sprout people.
Background
In life, Bowlsley worked as a florist, and has always loved flowers. By the time he is first seen in the game (the middle of Year 4), he has become paranoid and insane. In Year 2, Manny has a conversation with Membrillo about how florists are often driven mad in the afterlife; in life, flowers are a symbol of beauty, while in death they are a symbol of sorrow, since sprouted bodies turn into beds of flowers. This confliction of feelings has slowly turned Bowlsley insane.
Bowlsley works in the afterlife as an inventor of weapons for Hector LeMans, a position that he has held for at least several years. He has a weapons lab located high in Hector's tower, the former D.O.D. Building, where he produces Sproutella guns and ammunition. According to Eva, the Lost Souls Alliance has been attempting to recruit him for years, but cannot get near him.
Bowlsley lives in a state of denial, and still identifies himself as a florist. On the wall of the L.S.A. Headquarters is an audio recording of a conversation between him and Hector, in which Bowlsley informs Hector that he has been working on some flower arrangements for him. Exasperated and enraged, Hector screams at Bowlsley: "You are not a florist! You are a manufacturer of weapons!"
To further perpetuate his state of self-denial, Bowlsley has constructed a secret hideout in the sewers below Hector's tower. The hideout is set up to mimic a florist shop, both inside and out; however, the flower displays are all formed out of sprouted souls, and there are skeleton heads all over the interior of the store.
Bowlsley has long sideburns, a crooked set of teeth, and a perpetually worried expression on his face. He wears blue overalls and a headband with a small flower emblem on it. While he is one of the few characters in the game without a hispanic name, he does speak in a thick hispanic accent.
Role in Year 4
When Manny arrives at the new L.S.A. Headquarters with Glottis, Meche, and Olivia, he is greeted by Salvador Limones, who informs them that an L.S.A. agent is in Hector LeMans' weapons lab, ready to move in and take down the afterlife's biggest criminal. A sprouting agent bursts into the room and, after Salvador saves his life, informs him that the operation has been compromised and their agent in the lab has been exposed. The group rushes to the video feed from their agent; Hector is seen screaming at Bowlsley, telling him that his new lab assistant is an L.S.A operative, and angrily adding: "Haven't you ever heard of a background check?!" After this, he promptly shoots the agent and sprouts him. The camera's view is now nothing but flowers, which Bowlsley can be seen rooting through afterwards.
Eva gives Manny a brief rundown of who Bowlsley is and explains that the L.S.A. would love to have him on their side but have never been able to get to him. Manny hands the threatening note he received from Hector to a carrier pigeon, and shows it a picture of the recently sprouted agent. The pigeon takes off to find the sprouted body of the agent, which Bowlsley happens to be examining.
In a cutscene, while Bowlsley is rooting through the flowers that once were the unnamed L.S.A. spy, the carrier pigeon lands on the windowsill. It is then devoured whole by one of Hector's ravens, and when Bowlsley turns around, it is the raven that is holding the menacing note, which he nervously reads: "I know what you've been up to. I've been watching. Stay where you are. I'm coming to sprout you myself. Yours truly, Hector LeMans." Bowlsley exclaims "I knew it!", demonstrating his rampant paranoia. He then grabs all of the strongest sproutella he has produced for Hector and jumps through a poster on his wall, leading him down a set of pipes to the sewers below the building. He runs to his hideout, which is somewhere in the intricate and infested sewer system.
Manny is able to locate Bowlsley's flower shop by following the trail of sproutella he left after one of the cases he was carrying begins to leak, thanks to a hard landing in the sewers. Having completely cracked, Bowlsley has holed himself up in the shop, hiding underneath the counter with a gun and rambling loudly. Anytime Manny approaches him or the crates of sproutella he has stockpiled, Bowlsley draws his gun and screams for Manny to back off.
Now completely paranoid, Bowlsley believes Manny is an associate of Hector's, and all of Manny's attempts to talk to Bowlsley are thwarted by his insanity. Whenever Manny says anything (i.e. "I'm Manny Calavera, I've come to help you."), Bowlsley screams something similar but obviously totally different (i.e. "It's Manny Calavera, come to sprout ya!"). Often in his rantings, Bowlsley will repeat part of what Manny says aloud, usually a comment on something in the store.
Bowlsley's rantings from underneath the counter reveal a lot about him, even though many of them are just sentence fragments. He screams about the injustice of flowers being viewed negatively in the afterlife, yelling: "You people think plants are death? Plants are life! You, you are all death!" He also adds that if people were plants, the world would be better off, and menacingly adds that he has enough supplies at his disposal to "turn the whole world green." He also screams at Hector, cursing him for making him a weapons manufacturer, as well as screaming at his nonexistant customers, exclaiming: "Ding! Ding! Can I help you?! CAN I HELP YOU?!" It is this comment that hints at the solution to this puzzle.
If the player waits long enough, Bowlsley's tone suddenly becomes much more subdued and menacing rather than frantic and panicked. He begins to talk about Hector's Meadow and Greenhouse (where Hector's enemies are sprouted and the flowers are left as trophies), saying calmly: "You know what you haven't seen? You haven't seen the Meadow. You wanna take a walk in the meadow, punk?" This is actually the first time the eventual final setting in the game is so much as mentioned. He later adds, in the same calm, unnerving tone: "I look at you...and I see a garden waiting to happen."
Manny eventually notices that something on the wall by the door is covered in tape. He pulls out his scythe and slices the wad of tape off of it, revealing that the tape was covering and muffling the bell next to the door. Enraged and panicked, Bowlsley emerges from under the counter, telling Manny that he has just "opened Pandora's box!" and demanding he leave immediately. Manny does, but reenters shortly after. This time, the bell sounds, which brings Bowlsley back to his days of working as a florist. He pleasantly welcomes Manny into his store and asks if he can help, which catches Manny off guard. Thinking quickly, Manny asks to purchase a gun, and Bowlsley happily hands over his own. He then asks if Manny would care for some baby's breath (a type of flower) to go along with his purchase, to which Manny replies "sure." Bowlsley slides the tin of sproutella ammunition to Manny, and as Manny leaves, Bowlsley bids him goodbye and tells him to have a nice day.
Role in rest of game
Bowlsley is never seen again in the game, nor is his fate resolved. He does, however, indirectly come into play at the game's finale when Manny is shot at the Greenhouse by Hector. Bowlsley ran off with Hector's supply of fast-acting sproutella, and thus Manny is shot with a slower acting bullet. Hector views this as a positive, however, telling Manny this just means he will "writhe around in excruciating pain for about an hour" because of it. However, this gives Manny enough time to freeze his sproutings with liquid nitrogen, get a gun from Salvador's car, and kill Hector in the Greenhouse.
Quotes
"Not touched! This human remains...sane!"
"You want death within death, Hector? Is that what you want?"
"I'm having............I feel............"
"Freshness counts!"
"You people think flowers are death! Flowers are LIFE! You! You are all death!"
"You are crazy! I said get back, Hector!"
"Put your hands over your head, put your head in your hands, put you head in your lap!"