Barney Calhoun

"About that beer I owe you."

- Barney Calhoun to Gordon Freeman.

Barney Calhoun is a resistance leader against the Combine and former security guard at the Black Mesa Research Facility.

Pre-Series
Barney Calhoun, an undecided major after two years at Martinson College, is employed as a mid-level security officer at the Black Mesa Research Facility, with Level 3 security clearance and is accommodated in the Area 8 Topside Dormitories. He is friends with Gordon Freeman and Isaac Kleiner, who are also employees of Black Mesa.

As a Black Mesa security guard, he is tasked with duties including guarding assigned sections, performing general maintenance, and assisting the science team when required, though he stresses that the security personnel aren't trained in fixing the various technical problems plaguing the station and therefore shouldn't be responsible for having to fix them.

At the time of the Incident, he was in a long-distance relationship with a girl, Lauren. He was considering ending the relationship.

Black Mesa Incident
"I wanted a cheeseburger!"

- Barney Calhoun, heard through a Xenian teleporter by Gordon Freeman. On the morning of May 16th, 200X, Barney overslept. His bunkmate, Todd Arlen, tried unsuccessfully to wake him, as did Ryan Sullivan a few minutes later.

Prior to Freeman's return
It is unknown what happened to Barney or his fellow escapees Rosenberg, Simmons, and Walter Bennet between their escape of Black Mesa and the arrival of Gordon (or Felix, in the Felix's Mind timeline) in City 17 some 20 years later. By that point Barney had a job as a Captain in the Combine's Civil Protection arm of Sector 17 Overwatch; in actuality he was a plant working undercover for the area's underground Resistance movement, working with fellow Black Mesa survivors Isaac Kleiner, Eli Vance, and Eli's daughter Alyx Vance.

The Uprising
Barney was on duty with Civil Protection at the train station in City 17 when Gordon Freeman released from stasis and prevented him from being sent to Nova Prospekt before taking him in the back room for "interrogation" and ensuring they had some privacy before revealing himself to his old friend. Barney then proceeded to re-introduce him to his old mentor Dr. Kleiner for a short period before sending him out of the window and instructing him to head to the plaza (without providing him on instructions on how to get there).

Barney and Gordon would go on to meet several times in the next few hours, days and weeks in their struggle against the Combine and their appointed administrator, Dr. Breen.

Barney was last seen getting on a train heading to White Forest ahead of Gordon and Alyx, promising to "see ya when I see ya!". His fate after that is unknown, and he is not seen to be mentioned by anyone. In Felix's Mind, he briefly calls Felix over the radio to warn him of incoming Combine forces.

Lauren
"Oh Barney, I forgot to ask - how are things between you and Lauren?" "Felix, you can be a real douchebag sometimes, you know that?""

- Felix and Barney. At the time of the Black Mesa Incident, Barney was in a long-distance relationship with Lauren, though he was considering ending the relationship because of the distance between them. He had promised to buy her flowers beforehand. Lauren's fate is unknown, though in Felix's Mind Barney responds to a query about her wellbeing with "you can be a real douchebag sometimes".

Gordon Freeman
"That prick's doing it on purpose. I'll deal with him later."

- Gordon, on Barney 'shoving' him. Barney seems fond of Gordon, though nobody is sure why. His only interaction with him in Freeman's Mind is to shout 'sucker' at him as he passed Barney on the tram while he was banging on a locked door (in Barney's Mind, Barney reacts to this with 'man, I'll kill you.' in a jocular tone). In Freeman's Mind 2 Freeman seems not to know him and mocks his greeting him like an old friend, and later on angrily refers to him as "a middle-age high school dropout" in response to Barney's remark "Throwing that switch and all, I can see that MIT education really pays for itself.", retorting back to him "if I find a dog toy for you to chew on, I'll be sure to bring it to you."

This is in stark contrast to the depiction of their relationship in Barney's Mind, wherein Barney considers Gordon as one of his closest friends and owes him a beer.

Adrian Shephard
Barney only briefly meets Shephard, when both of them happen to be teleported to the locker room; Barney to just outside the room, and Shephard to within Gordon Freeman's locker, meaning they never talked face-to-face. Because Shephard misidentified the direction the locker door opened, he presumed it to be locked and attempted to gain Barney's help in opening it. While Barney was initially wary of helping a HECU after encountering numerous other marines as hostiles, he relented when Shephard offered him his chocolate bar. After several unsuccessful attempts at opening it (including a moment Barney suggested using explosives to open the door, which Shepard immediately vetoed), Barney left, promising to return when he found help. Ultimately Barney was teleported away before he could find help, and Shephard found his way out in his own when he discovered his earlier error. Barney would later admit that Shephard 'seemed okay' and expressed his hope that Shephard escaped unharmed.

Alyx Vance
Barney has known Alyx quite literally since she was born, having been a longtime friend of her father Eli. He is Alyx's Godfather and watched over her as she grew up.

Tod Arlen
Arlen is Barney's roommate. On the morning of the Black Mesa Incident, Arlen tried and failed to wake up Barney and gave up in order to get to his own shift, thus allowing Barney to oversleep and arrive late for his shift.

Appearances

 * Barney's Mind (principle character)
 * Freeman's Mind
 * Episode 1 (via retcon)
 * Episode 67 (cameo; voice only)
 * Shephard's Mind
 * Episode 12 (crossover with Barney's Mind Episode 15)
 * Felix's Mind
 * Episode 2 (crossover with Barney's Mind Episode 15)
 * Episode 10


 * Parker's Mind
 * Episode 8 - Snakes in a Box (cameo)