Renee is a main character in the AMC+ animated drama, Pantheon. She is portrayed by Taylor Schilling.
Renee is the former lover of Stephen Holstrom, the deceased founder of Logorhythms, who takes on the role his clone, Caspian's, doting mother. Beneath her timid facade, however, Renee is a volatile and vindictive woman who will go to whatever lengths to ensure the success of her mission.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Early employees of Logorhythms and among the inner circle of the Stephen Holstrom cult, Renee and Cary zealously believe in the mission to transcend humanity and gain digital immortality, and that only Stephen's singular genius can hold the key to "cracking integrity."
Renee, along with Cary, were selected to act as the parents of Caspian, a clone of Holstrom. She and Cary took the surname Keyes for the assignment. While Renee acted kind towards Caspian, she saw him only as an assistant.
Final Days as a Wife[]
One day, as she is shopping for groceries, she gets a surprise call from Pope. He asks how Caspian is doing but she says she would update him at check in and they end the call and Renee drives home. She returns home to Caspian saying they are out of milk as Renee realizes she left the groceries at the store.
As Caspian looks through dark web posts, Renee enters and tells him dinner is ready and his father is home. Father and son greet each other coldly as Renee serves tofu and bok choy. Cary is annoyed with dinner and Renee says Caspian's teacher says he is ready for college level classes. Cary gives Caspian a problem to solve that an entry level coder could do. Caspian says it is a concurrent problem and Cary reveals he is right. Caspian does not get it until Cary says it is a hierarchy problem. Caspian explains that if someone used the method Cary is describing, they would be fired for causing the system to crash. Cary tries to find a weak point in Caspian's answer but Caspian rebuffs him. Renee takes some of the dishes to the sink and Cary throws the rest on the floor demanding meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Renee cries as Caspian walks off. When her son is gone, Renee stops crying and goes to the garage to find Cary in his car. She teases Cary on his improve during the staged outburst and he drives with Renee pretending to be angry and yelling as Caspian listens to music to drown out their fighting.
A few days later, as she and Cary are updating Pope on Caspian, Deirdre Ryan and Karl Van Leuwen enter Pope's office and inform him Caspian has started looking into uploaded intelligence after making contact with Maddie. Pope informs Caspian's “parents” of the news and tells them to do nothing for the moment as he ends the call. Cary and Renee then part ways. Later that day, as Renee is washing dishes, she sees Caspian coming home with Hannah- an actress hired to play the role of Caspian’s girlfriend- and informs Cary. When the teenagers enter, they stage a fight. After Renee points out “Hannah”, Cary expresses doubts that Caspian and her could be a couple. Renee puts her hand on Cary's shoulder and he pushes her to the floor. Hannah runs off and Caspian goes after her. Cary apologizes to Renee for hitting her but she says he should have hit harder.
The following day, she goes into Caspian's room to apologize for when “Hannah” visited. Caspian says he is looking into uploaded intelligence and Renee hides her shock as Caspian explains the process to her and shows her a video. She leaves as Caspian theorizes where they would do it. She goes to her car and calls Pope to inform him of Caspian's current actions. Pope says they are monitoring him and tells her to focus on an act she is to perform the following day to insure Caspian experience the inflection point. Later, she and Cary are looking at hammers for the infection point and they have a small argument over picking a new hammer as the one they have is dirty. Renee tells Cary to take pride in his last day of work and he walks off. Renee thinks of an intimate moment she shared with Holstrom when he expresses the benefits of being uploaded once they crack integrity, only to be interrupted by Cary. In the present, Cary comes back with a hammer and hands it to Renee.
The following day, they prepare for the inflection point. Renee takes pain killers and she and Cary stage a fight. Renee gets ready to have her arm broken but, when Cary hesitates, she grabs the hammer and breaks her own arm. Caspian enters the room and, seeing what he thinks is an attack on his mother, he grabs his father by the shirt and punches him in the face as his mother pleads for him to stop. He throws Cary to the ground as Cary leaves and walks out on them. Before driving off, Cary swears not to support them. As his mother panics, Caspian vows to take her to the hospital and care for the both of them.
Final Days of the Mission[]
A few days later she and Caspian are at a sporting goods store buying a gun for protection from Cary when Renee reveals she will have to sell the house without Cary's income. However, Caspian reveals he has been helping companies find bugs in their systems for money and promises to take care of the two as they are shown handguns. Later, during Cary's debriefing, she is patched in a curses Cary out for calling her unstable. She soon leaves the call.
A few days later, she goes to speak with “Hannah” about Caspian and leaves a note saying she is at the doctor. During the meeting, “Hannah” says Caspian told her his life did not feel real to him. She berates “Hannah” for nearly destroying the job and orders her to speak with Caspian again. unaware that Caspian was listening in and is now in a state of shock. Later, Caspian and Renee finish dinner and have a conversation. Renee lies that the patient before her took longer than expected for therapy and she is healing nicely and she asks if he is still looking into Uploaded Intelligence, but Caspian says he is not. Renee's phone rings and she says she has to get muffins for a PTA meeting and insists she can drive herself. In the supermarket parking lot, Renee calls Rachel and Rachel says Caspian’s suspicions were a misunderstanding as Caspian listens in.
The following day, she gets a call informing her Cary is missing and panics at the thought of him revealing everything to Caspian, unaware she is listening in. After the call, she goes to her room and looks at her gun. When Caspian returns home, she informs him of surprise trip to Santa Barbara and could be there by night if they leave right then and there. Caspian says he has plans with “Hannah”, and his mother suggests they could get a second room and she can join them in a day. Caspian agrees to the trip and decides to reschedule with “Hannah”. Mother and son hug, each having their own anterior motives for the trip.
On the road, Caspian and Renee talk about camping his father took him on and his mother insists they could make up for lost time. Caspian turns up the air conditioning and his mother says she packed his sweatshirt and she reveals she went through his luggage when she had trouble lifting it. Caspisn is annoyed that she did this and apologizes and insists he needs his mini muffins. They stop for gas and Caspian find the gun as he is getting money for snacks. His mother has his fill up the tank and leaves to get snacks. She leaves the keys in the ignition and Caspian hops into the driver's seat and drives off.
When she reaches her house, Renee angrily orders Caspian inside and berates Cary upon seeing him. When Cary reveals he told Caspian what he really was, Renee is shocked and tries to salvage the illusion, but Caspian refuses to listen to her. As Caspian and Cary get in the car, she orders them to stay and shoots Cary in the torso. She watches in silent anger as Caspian helps Cary into the car and drives off, shouting Stephen as they vanish.
Post Revelation[]
When Cary turns up in a hospital in Palo Alto, she, Pope, Ryan, and Van Leuwen go to him posing as his family. Cary and Renee pretend to act lovingly and the nurse leaves. Renee tells Cary he is out of the inner circle and Pope brings up that Cary claimed to be shot by a mugger and berate him for revealing the truth to Caspian. Cary says Caspian learned Rachel was an actor and revealing the truth was the only way to salvage the plan and that when they find Caspian, he will be the only one the boy will trust. Pope stops Renee from punching Cary and pulls her aside. He tells Renee he does not believe Cary, but wants to control who he talks to and decides to take him back to Norway.
When Caspian is brought to Norway, Pope takes the boy to the lab he was made in and, after Caspian becomes upset on seeing Van Leuwen and Ryan, she makes herself known, saying he is safe. Upon seeing her, Caspian picks up a try to defend himself, only backing down when Cary appears. As Pope tries to deescalate the situation, Caspian berates everyone there for trying to groom him to accomplish their own goals. Pope reveals they want to perfect upload so that humanity can have the resources it needs to flourish as it is overpopulated. Caspian fires his fake parents and announce his plans to break up the company. Ryan protests, but Pope gives in.
Appearance[]
Renee is a woman in her forties with dirty blonde hair reaching the middle of her back and blue eyes. She has a skinny build.
Personality[]
Despite acting as a caring and timid wife and mother, Renee is cold hearted and quick to anger. She believes devoutly in the potential for UIs being the future of humanity and will do whatever it takes to achieve that goal. Renee is willing to harm herself and others at a moment’s notice if it can help her achieve her goals.
Relationships[]
Stephen Holstrom[]
When she was in her twenties, Renee entered a relationship with Holstrom. She greatly cared for him, and shared his desire to become a UI. After her lover’s death, Renee spent almost the next two decades raising his clone, following every instruction so that Caspian could cure the flaw. Nearly twenty years after Holstrom's death, Renee was overjoyed to learn his brain was cryogenically preserved. After he was uplifted, Renee joyfully greets her former lover.
After keeping Holstrom out of the FBI's hands, she eagerly helped him get to a military satellite and called him her love. During the drive to an Air Force base, she tried to console an angry Holstrom upon learning his clone achieved his life’s work and he could not figure it out. A few days after helping him escape, she was contacted by Holstrom and helped him set up a Deep Scan Center, only asking to join him in the cloud in return.
Cary Duvall[]
Assigned to work together, Renee cared little to nothing about her fake husband, only caring that he follow orders. When Cary refused to break her arm, Renee grabbed the hammer and broke it herself, something she would call Cary weak for later. When they reunite days later, Renee is shocked that Cary revealed the truth to Caspian and shoots him in the abdomen as he and Caspian try to drive away.
Upon learning he is in a Palo Alto hospital, Renee and Cary greet each other warmly when the nurse is around happily kicking him out of the inner circle when the nurse leaves. When Caspian is brought to Svalbard, the two are reunited with their “son” and she accuses him of making the situation worse.
Caspian Keyes[]
When acting like a loving mother, Renee coldy saw Caspian as an assignment. She followed every order in an attempt to mold him into an exact mental replica of his template. When learning Caspian is aware of the truth, she desperately tries to salvage the experiment to no avail and calls him “Stephen” as he drives away. Upon reuniting with him in Svalbard, Renee tries to comfort a distressed Caspian, only for him to pick up a tray, showing his trust in her has completely shattered.
After being fired by Caspian, Renee brings Maddie to Svalbard in an attempt to get back in his good graces and the inner circle, only for him to have security drag her out. After Holstrom is uploading, she refers to Caspian as a lesser version of his template, showing she has ceased acting like a caring mother.
Rachel Brooks[]
As Rachel's superior, Renee is responsible gathering Rachel's intel she gathered during her time alone with Caspian. Renee is hard on Rachel, criticizing her for small mistakes and pressing her for every detail Rachel could spare.
Appearances[]
Season 1[]
- Pantheon
- Cycles
- Reign of Winter
- The Gods Will Not Be Chained
- Zero Daze
- You Must Be Caspian (seen in video)
- We Are You
- The Gods Will Not Be Slain
Season 2[]
- The Gods Have Not Died In Vain
- Crack Integrity
- Joey Coupet
- Olivia & Farhad
- Yair
- Apokalypsis
- The World to Come (flashback)
Gallery[]