Trigger Warning #17

The way I figure it, the new guy can be one of three possible people:

A. The Professor. This seems unlikely due to Violet's lack of recognition for the person upon being approached, though with as powerful as the brainwashing in this series seems to be it isn't unrealistic to think the Professor could have wiped their specific memories of his face and voice before his disappearance. However, I think that the Professor functions largely as a gimmick in the comic for the MC to enter in: he did his thing in the past, then got disappeared by whatever MKUltra style institution he was working for/stole from.

B. Another individual from the Professor's circle/the girls' past. This would have been on of the few individuals who were given the girls' triggers by the professor, or potentially another student from the university. This also seems a bit unlikely for a few reasons. If this is one of the Professor's beneficiaries, then why would they have waited this long to find these girls? Perhaps they were lying low given the unexplained fate of the chief programmer? Maybe they only recently located Hannah and co. after so much time has passed. If this is another student from the university, then how did they find out the programming in the first place, and again, why wait so long to exploit said programming. Thomas seems like a fairly decent guy at the start of the comic and he begins taking advantage of his girlfriend's secret sex-slave programming almost immediately, quickly expanding to her friends as well. What hangups would a random person have over all of this? This leads me to the third and, in my opinion, most likely candidate.

C. Bret. Bret seems like the most likely candidate for the mystery man for a few reasons. Firstly, he is the only other prominent male character in the series at this point besides Thomas and the Professor. That isn't saying much given this is his first appearance, but unlike Rowena's fiance, Bret has been deemed important enough to not only make an appearance but to directly interact with Thomas, and over the fact that his girlfriend is sleeping with him, no less. Secondly, while we don't see much of the mystery man, in the final page we do see that he is wearing grey slacks and black dress shoes, both of which Bret is seen wearing in the flashback as he fucks Ingrid. Thirdly, in said flashback, Bret goes from accidentally spilling a drink on Ingrid to fucking her in a back alley within an evening. It's entirely possible that Ingrid is just a slut (we have ample evidence of that for all the girls at this point), but what seems far more likely is that Bret either knew the triggers or stumbled upon them somehow when he met her and used one on her. Finally, Bret is the only other character in the comic to be in the same position as Thomas. He stumbles upon secret programming in a woman's head, eventually learns more about it, and begins exploiting it, when all of a sudden, he finds out she is fucking another man (Thomas). My theory is either Bret has learned that Ingrid has been fucking Thomas and is beginning to make his own moves on the women as a sort of revenge, or he simply desires them as Thomas does and is beginning to expand his control in a world he only recently learned exists.

A ton, I know, for a single issue, but the introduction of a new, faceless Master beginning to take control of characters we have seen as "belonging" to Thomas up to this point, in the same issue that a brand new male character is introduced properly, led me down a speculative rabbit hole. Who knows, I could be completely wrong on all three counts. No way to know until the next issue (write swiftly, Daphne!)