Saints Row ‘Hell Week’: Who are Johnny Gat and Kinzie Kensington?

As you’re probably well aware by now, this week saw the release of Saints Row: Gat out of Hell, a standalone expansion for Saints Row IV, which sees Johnny Gat and Kinzie Kensington venture into the depths of Hell to rescue, well, you. Basically, in all previous Saints Row games, you’d play as a custom created character who would eventually go on to become the head of the Saints gang and eventually President of the United States.

In this newest expansion, your character gets sucked into Hell as Satan plans on marrying you off to his daughter, Jezebel. So in Gat out of Hell, you’re forced to play as either Johnny Gat or Kinzie Kensington. For veterans of the series, this is pretty freaking sweet as Gat and Kensington are two of my favorite characters. But for you newcomers wondering just who the heck these two are, check out the character spotlights below.

Johnny Gat

Brash, sarcastic, and hot-headed, Johnny Gat joined up with the 3rd Street Saints when he realized that his district was being torn apart by gang wars. By the time you meet him in the original Saints Row game though, he’s already an established member of the Saints, rocking a pair of square-shaped shades and a high-combed slicked-back hairdo with black roots and white tips.

“So you're Julius' new boy. You don't look like much. Then again, I don't look like I got an eight inch cock. So I guess we're both full of surprises.” — Johnny Gat to The Protagonists, Saints Row, 2006.

As you can see by the quote above, Gat isn’t exactly a modest guy. He’s, pardon the pun, cocky. But he’s also exactly the type of guy you want on your side — a dedicated partner-in-crime with a happy trigger-finger who’s not afraid of the consequences of his actions.

For all the outward violence and aggression Gat displays towards his enemies, he’s also shown himself to be loyal and devoted, to both the Saints and his love Aisha. While Johnny and Aisha’s relationship can be described as rocky at best, you’ve got to admire their willingness to work things out. In Saints Row 2, Gat eventually moves in with Aisha and proclaims himself her devoted lover and protector. Unfortunately, that last part proved too much for Johnny as Aisha is killed in Saints Row 2.

Gat’s final display of dedication happens in the beginning of Saints Row: The Third when he sacrifices his life to save “the protagonist” and the rest of the Saints aboard a crashing plane.

“Johnny's dead because he thought he could do everything on his own.” — Viola DeWynter, Saints Row: The Third

Fans were heartbroken — at least I was — over the death of Johnny Gat in Saints Row: The Third. But by never actually showing his death in the game, it gave Volition an out, a way to bring him back in Saints Row IV. In the game, players discover that before his supposed death, Gat was abducted by the alien overlord Zinyak and transported into a virtual simulation where he was forced to relive the death of Aisha in a 2D sidescroller game.

Alas, Johnny was alive again, which brings us to Saints Row: Gat out of Hell, where you’ll play as him in an attempt to return the favor and rescue “the protagonist” from Satan himself.

Kinzie Kensington

Kinzie may not be as openly cocky as Gat, but her arrogance comes in the form of sarcastic, witty comments. She’s also got a bit of a temper of her own, as evidenced in Saints Row IV when she punches “the Protagonist” in the face for mentioning the poodle skirt she was forced to wear.

The socially awkward Kinzie Kensington made her debut in Saints Row: The Third. She started off as an intelligence agent for the FBI, investigating The Syndicate, and planning to out them as an underground criminal organization; however, thanks to the Deckers who framed her to make it look like she had been selling secrets to a terrorist (and moonlighting as a dominatrix), she was terminated from the FBI.

Kinzie ends up getting captured by the Deckers, but is eventually freed by the Saints who work with her to bring down the leader of the Deckers, Matt Miller.

Thanks to her time spent in captivity, Kinzie suffers from agoraphobia. Being an agoraphobic, she’s socially awkward and antisocial, rarely venturing out from her warehouse on her own. Eventually, she works through her problems — mostly after the Deckers are taken down — and goes out for pancakes in attempt to become “normal” again.

Kinzie’s a little more open in Saints Row IV. With the Protagonist elected as President of the United States, Kinzie is appointed Press Secretary, forced to deal with the President’s constant missteps and PR blunders. As if not already awkward enough, Kinzie is seen by many as a conspiracy theorist, and even warned the Saints of a possible alien attack on Earth. Although ignored, turns out she was right.

In Saints Row IV, an alien race led by Zinyak comes to Earth and transports the Saints to various simulations. Kinzie somehow escaped Zin’s activity — probably because she’s the best hacker I know — and goes on to rescue the Protagonist.

A Match Made in Hell

Turns out, Gat and Kinzie aren’t too different from one another. Though their approach to situations may differ, they’ve both got extreme loyalty and dedication. Perhaps that’s why they both volunteer to go to Hell to rescue the Protagonist. Both are extremely headstrong and stubborn and seeing their back-and-forth bickering in Gat out of Hell is a ton of fun. What’s really neat though, is playing as both and hearing how their individual reactions to Hell.