jason and lucia are probably in that mendez cutscene, just off camera

Rewatched that Mendez clip from one of the trailers and something's been bugging me. The shot is framed as a cinematic cutscene, and from that angle you don't see Jason or Lucia at all. Mendez is the only face on screen, and he says to what looks like another cop, "Us cops have to stick together."

On its own that snippet has nothing to do with the protagonists, so it's easy to assume they're not there. But GTA cutscenes almost never happen without the protagonist in the room, or at least showing up partway through. The only real exception I can think of is the Vice City opening, where Sonny Forelli and his crew talk about Tommy before he walks in.

So if Rockstar's pattern holds, the simplest read is that Jason and/or Lucia are standing just outside the camera's view. Maybe the camera pans over to them a second later, maybe they're the ones Mendez is actually talking to. Assuming this is a totally separate scene with neither protagonist means ignoring how Rockstar usually structures these moments.

And the other pattern is corrupt authority figures pulling strings on the protagonists. Mendez gives off that vibe already. So yeah, I'm leaning toward them being in that room.

What do you think, is this just a standalone cop scene or are Jason and Lucia right there off screen?

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Source: r/GTA6 · Curated content.

I'm with you on the handler pattern. GTA Online is basically a decade of corrupt middlemen working the protagonist like an employee, and those guys never talk to an empty room. Lester skims 5% off every casino heist just for making phone calls. Run that heist 50 times at about $1.5M average take and you've paid the man $3.75M to sit at a computer. Mendez has that exact energy, so Jason or Lucia is standing right there getting their assignment, almost guaranteed.

Only snag is trailer footage gets re-cut to dodge spoilers, so the framing might be hiding them on purpose instead of the scene being standalone. Either way your read makes more sense than a random cop cutaway.

If he does end up being the string-puller, I just hope his cut is under 5%.