Malia Gedde

Malia Gedde is Gabriel Knight's love interest in the Sins of the Fathers. Her family is very wealthy and philanthropic (Grace mentions to Gabriel that the Gedde family runs three hospitals). She lives at 557 W. Ingraham, in the famous Garden District, known for its elaborate old plantation homes and mansions.

Background

Malia was a member of the famous Gedde family, who immigrated to New Orleans around the early 1800's (when Voodoo-related murders also occurred).

Born in 1965, she was an only child and, because of her mother's lifestyle, never met her father. She wanted to study psychology, but family business came first and she earned a business degree from Vanderbilt. In the storyline, she had recently lost her mother, leaving Malia the head of the Gedde family. A wealthy African-American socialite, she is reserved and shuns from the public eye, preferring to occupy herself with the fine arts and collection of African art when not tending the Geddes' holdings and business affairs, She also performed a lot of charity work in the prison and reform system. Her butler/bodyguard is Robert.

Sins of the Fathers

First meeting

Gabriel Knight falls in love with her when she passes by the Lake Pontchartrain crime scene with her car on Day 1, and asks Grace Nakimura to find her address.

On Day 2 Gabriel steals Franklin Mosely's badge in order to approach her, but his initial attempts to woo her fail.

On Day 3 she visits St. Louis Cemetery #1 and Gabriel sees her exiting from the Gedde tomb. Gabriel once more confesses his love, with Malia expressing her concerns about living in different worlds. Gabe invites her to his place, and gives her the address of St. George's Books. After reluctantly caving to Gabriel's advances, they fall in love. At night, Malia arrives at the store, just after Grace closes up shop, and she spends the night with Gabriel.

At the end of Day 4 she calls Gabriel, who visits her mansion and spends the night there.

On Day 6, Gabriel comes to discover that Malia is a member of an extensive New Orleans Voodoo cartel that is responsible for a spree of recent murders. Under the possessive influence of the loa Tetelo, of whom she is a descendant, she commits the ritualistic murders of the cartel's enemies during ceremonies against her own volition. He witnesses how Dr. John gives her an entheogen drug that allows Tetelo control her.

On Day 10, Gabriel finds that Grace has been kidnapped. Malia has left a note for Gabriel, swearing that she loves him but the forces that control her are more powerful than her, and for his own safety, he must surrender the Talisman.

Despite her obligations to her family and her cult, Malia defies Tetelo in order to save Gabriel's life. Inside the Voodoo Hounfour, Malia communicates with Tetelo, asking to spare Gabriel and find another successor, as she couldn't serve her. Tetelo chastised her for being drawn into the light, and warned that Gabriel would betray her, like Gunter Ritter did. In the following ritual, where Grace would be sacrificed, Gabe planned to stop Dr. John from giving her the drug, but it was too late, as Malia is already under Tetelo's influence when the ritual began. Moments before killing Grace, Gabriel shows up and uses the Talisman against her. After throwing the Talisman to his friend to leave safely, he confronts her, and Malia tries to overcome Tetelo's control on her, until Gabriel breaks the ancient idol - the source of the Gedde family's power.

The floor cracks open, exposing a deep, fiery chasm. Malia almost falls in, and Gabriel in turn must decide whether to save her life, or betray her to end Tetelo's influence on New Orleans once and for all. The player's choice affects the outcome of the game.

In the "good ending", Gabriel attempts to save Malia. She realizes that Gabriel is not repeating Gunter's sin, but Tetelo cuts his arms with the ritual knife in order to let her go and kill Malia. To end this evil, Malia sacrifices herself and falls into the lava.

In the "bad ending", Gabriel betrays Malia and refuses to save her. Seeing that Gabriel is repeating Gunter's betrayal, Tetelo grasps him with a whip, and pulls him down into the flames with her.

Personality and traits

Malia Gedde is a very beautiful, intelligent, and sophisticated woman of the sort that Gabriel has never before encountered (up til now there've been women with pink frosted lipstick, and Grace). She makes his knees weak and the rest of him pretty darn feisty. She MIGHT know something about the murders, but Gabriel bets she knows even more about other things. Something a little like lightening strikes Gabriel when he sees her, and the two of them are drawn irresistibly together, though neither can figure out why.

Malia really did love Gabriel but knew that she needed to die in order to stop the evil that ran through her family line.

Trivia

• In the CD-ROM version Malia is voiced by actress Leilani Jones. Jones notably portrayed also the Voodoo Lady, another voodooienne in the Monkey Island series.

See also

• Malia Gedde (GK1HD).
• Malia Gedde (novels)