Jonas is Alex's new step-brother and is the deuteragonist in Oxenfree.
Jonas is voiced by Gavin Hammon.
Personality[]
Official Bio[]
Alex's new step-brother. Wiser then his years with a mordant wit, he's had a slightly rough life and carries the hint of a mysterious past, including being put in juvenile detention after beating up a guy (due to being frustrated that his mom was terminally ill) who threw a baseball at him. Still missing his mother who succumbed to cancer, he isn't quick to open up to new people, though is at his core a good-natured boy who can be extraordinarily loyal when he trusts you. Think Joseph Gordon Levitt in "Brick" or River Phoenix in "Stand By Me."[1]
Appearance[]
Jonas is the tallest of the characters, aside from Michael. He wears a beanie that conceals his short brown hair, and has green/brown eyes and fair skin. He wears a red hoodie with an ash brown hood, and a green army jacket over it, along with purple pants and white sneakers. He also wears a necklace with a golden ring around his neck.
Background[]
Jonas once lived in Westedge, a small town near North Valley. He dislikes his hometown as everyone seems to be either a farmer or a banker with none of them seeming to be doing well. Still, he will take offense if Alex is particularly negative about where he is from. His family went on vacation to Missouri every year, on his mother's insistence. However, these trips were not particularly enjoyed by Jonas, but are now cherished as "containers" for the memories he has with his mother.
It is implied that Jonas may have had run-ins with the law prior to moving. He jokingly refers to himself as a "klepto" and is shown to be able to pick locks. When asked during Truth-or-Slap, he claims to have never been in jail, but later on will admit to Alex that he did spend time in a juvenile detention facility after snapping and beating up a kid named Timmy Finster who jokingly threw a baseball at his head while he was struggling to deal with his mother's terminal illness.
Jonas's mother died of cancer which led to his father being widowed. Sometime later his father met Alex's mother after mistaking her for an employee at a resort in Orlando, and they eventually "hit it off" and ended up getting married, making Alex his new step-sister. Jonas and his father moved to Alex's hometown of Camena just before the game begins, with Jonas and Alex first meeting the day of the trip to Edwards Island.
It is implied that Jonas is slightly insecure in terms of his intelligence possibly due to his background, often questioning Alex's confidence in him and somewhat relying on her judgment for many things. He will at one point ask Alex if she thinks he is an "idiot slacker", and regardless of the decision, Jonas will still assume Alex thinks he is one. He will also mention that he is not as smart as Ren and Alex, when he is generally disapproving towards the barnyard story that reveals Alex skipping an aptitude test.
Relationships[]
- Alex - Having just recently met each other and becoming family due to Jonas's father and Alex's mother's marriage, Jonas and Alex are somewhat wary of each other. Jonas tries to be friendly and accommodating to Alex given their situation, even asking questions and wanting to know more about Alex's previous life, in which Alex can respond positively or negatively. Depending on the choices made by the player, Jonas and Alex can become closer and see each other as truly brother and sister, or remain distant. In addition, during certain memory sequences in the game, Alex has the ability to convince Michael to stay in town and thus "resurrect" him later in the timeline, negating the step-sibling relationship with Jonas, but still having the option to bond with Jonas as a friend or "other-brother". When playing a round of "Marry, Screw, Kill" during the game of Truth-or-Slap, Jonas is exempt as he is "technically family" to Alex.
- Ren - Being Alex's best friend, Ren and Jonas seem to get along fair in the beginning by association. However, later after meeting up with him and Nona at Harden Tower, they begin to argue and blame each other for why they are in their current situation. Jonas labels Ren as the "resident burnout" after he finds out about Ren eating a second pot brownie after the first one he ate at the beach to "level him out", and is highly distrusting of Ren for the majority of the game afterwards.
- Nona - Jonas and Nona have only minor interactions in-game. However, via certain dialogue options in the game, Jonas will indirectly admit that he has a small crush on Nona. If pressed further, and left in the tower with Nona when going with Ren to Main Street, the two will end up getting along very well, Jonas and Nona will become very "chummy", and Jonas will even ask Nona out to a fancy steak dinner, much to Ren's chagrin. If these dialogue options are not chosen, the two of them will generally have a neutral friendship but will not interact very much in the game.
- Clarissa - Jonas sees Clarissa as "intense" and bitter, due to Clarissa's frustration regarding Jonas's introduction as Alex's new step-brother in the beginning of the game. When trying to escape Edwards Island with Alex, he questions if she considers Clarissa a friend worth trying to help.
Endings[]
Depending on the choice made by the player, the game can end in multiple ways that affect Jonas's relationship with Alex.
Jonas and Alex stay distant[]
Jonas and Alex will stay distant to each other if Alex has sided against him throughout the game. He will end up going to college in state to be closer to his father. They are said to see each other around family get-togethers but not much else.
Jonas and Alex become closer[]
If Alex has sided with Jonas and supported his ideas throughout the game, then they will become closer as step-siblings. Jonas will later be the first to introduce Alex as his sister, rather than just his step-sister.
Jonas is no longer Alex's step-brother[]
During certain memory sequences in the game, Alex has the ability to convince Michael to stay in town, and thus prevent Michael from drowning later on, which results in Jonas no longer being Alex's step-brother, as her parents would have never divorced and remarried different partners. Jonas will still have been on the island, invited by Ren after meeting at school, and can still become close (as a friend or "other-brother") or stay distant with Alex.
Trivia[]
- He doesn't know how to ride a horse.
- When describing his ideal girl, Alex reveals that his desired characteristics fit exactly with Carmen Sandiego.
- One song that is played frequently during the game is titled "Lost", which is a song that Jonas says his mother used to listen to on the radio all the time. Jonas is certain that the humming in the song is his mother's voice.
- It's possible that Jonas had a sheltered childhood, due to the fact that he doesn't understand a lot of pop culture references (such as Scrappy-Doo and Little House on the Prairie).