Sojourn airs her grievances

Thus far, a lot of Overwatch 2’s story missions have been centered around the heroes just being jazzed about getting back together, but Sojourn’s hesitance to come back is some of the first friction the group deals with as it tries to rally against the Null Sector invasion. Sojourn’s relationship to the Overwatch name is complicated. She was originally a member of the Canadian military but was eventually brought into the Overwatch fold. As Overwatch lore tells us, she was one of the people who testified against the outfit and ultimately helped lead to its original dissolution after accusations that the group had become corrupt and was no longer serving humanity. Soldier: 76 has never quite forgiven her for it, but she’s still steadfast in her belief that it was the right call.

That is made all the more apparent when Winston and Cassidy plead for her to come back and lead the team in Soldier’s stead. But she’s not having it. She thinks Overwatch lost sight of its original goals at protecting greater civilization, and isn’t about to get dragged back into it. However, there are still signs she’s the person the team needs right now, because while they have heart, they clearly need someone to rally them and keep them in check.

This is best captured in a brief moment between her and Reinhardt, who carelessly tries to remove one of the Subjugator devices from an omnic’s head by force. Just as it becomes clear that this might do some damage, Sojourn intervenes and tells him that just because he wields a hammer doesn’t make every problem a nail. Reinhardt shows his whole prejudiced ass when he says the omnic is “just a machine,” but Sojourn stands her ground and tries to put things in perspective for him. Omnics are people, and that’s just the beginning of Overwatch 2’s story missions starting to reckon with the clear civil rights allegories it illustrates with the omnic storyline.