† Silent Hill 2 • Theories †

This section regards all the theories about Silent Hill 2. We tried to give a specific meaning to all that elements lacking in concrete logic. But remember: These are only hypothesis…nothing's known for sure. If you have any question about the game, please send us a mail.

Warning: Spoilers everywhere!

How could James receive a letter from his dead wife?

First of all, there' s something we have to say: James did not receive any letter from dead wives and Mary did not die three years ago.
Our hero, removed part of his past so he really don't remember that he killed his own wife.
But…what is the reason that made James kill his beloved Mary? She, his wife, was really sick, nothing more than a weight for him. The beautiful days spent together were only a memory.
And so he killed her…'cause he loved her so much and 'cause he hate her so much.
Then something…maybe Mary's spirit, maybe the town itself or maybe just James' mind called him back to Silent Hill, the town where they spent some of the best moments of their life together. A letter appear, where Mary ask her husband to come to Silent Hill, where she's waiting for him. When, at the end of the game, James become aware of his crime, the letter will no more be in your inventory.

At beginning of the game, James says that his wife died three years ago of a terribile disease. But that's not the truth: At the Lakeview Hotel Laura gives a letter to James, a letter from Mary for Laura's eighth birthday. Here's a part of the letter:

"My dearest Laura, I'm leaving this letter with Rachel to give to you after I'm gone.
I'm far away now. In a quiet, beautiful place.
Please forgive me for not saying goodbye before I left.
Be well, Laura.
Don't be too hard on the sisters.
And Laura, about James... I know you hate him because you think he isn't nice to me, but please give him a chance.
It's true he may be a little surly sometimes, and he doesn't laught much. But underneath he's really a sweet person.
Laura... I love you like my very own daughter.
If things had worked out differently, I was hoping to adopt you.
Happy 8th birthday, Laura.
Your friend forever, Mary"

Laura's eight years old. So it's clearly logic that Mary couldn't die three years ago!
Mary and Laura became friends at the Hospital so it's  obvious that the little girl knows James, although he seems he never saw her before.

Where are James and Mary from?

Finally, thanks to a few details that could be found in Silent Hill 4, we can say quite surely that James and Mary lived in South Ashfield.
First of all…we have that Frank Sunderland, the care keeper of the South Ashfield Heighs, he is James' father, but that's not all.
Remember Rachel? The nurse to whom Mary gave her letter for Laura's birthday?
Well, now we know that she works in the St Jerome Hospital of South Ashlfield.
So we have enough informations to say that they were from South Ashfield and now we also know that Mary and Laura were recovered and became friends in the St Jerome Hospital.

The Town's crowded by a large number of strange creatures…
Are they created again by Alessa's feelings?

No they're not. This is the only charter in witch Alessa is not mentioned. The whole game is about James Sunderland's story.

But then, where are the creatures come from? Are they linked to James?

Yes, exactly, they're some kind of "Mind Demons". If  we pay enough attention each of them represents one of James' different sides, also related to his wife condition.
Lying Creature: deformed figure, that seems to be a women. It could be a vision of a female figure, that seems to be locked by something.
Mannequin: the mannequin used to represents a woman's perfect body, and this has got four legs!. Symbolized, maybe, feminin sexuality.
Bubble Head: The sexy nurse is a cliché of sensuality and pornography. Here she is, faceless, victim of some kind of violence.
Mandarin: it's always under others' feet, searching for a victim: maybe just like James' personality, without dignity. His crime has transformed him in a beast.
Flesh Lips: The only clear part of this deformed body is the mouth, that really seems to be a feminine genital organ. 

Who's Pyramid Head?

We have two different points of view about this character:

-It may be James himself, mute and violent, without a face: PH abuses of common enemies, and so probably did James with his Mary or would do with Maria. A concrete vision of his killer side, that constantly follow him in order to punish his crime.

-Or it could be Xuchilbara, skill arm of the Holy Mother, known as Valtiel. PH's role his linked to the town's executers in the war period, and, since Xuchilbara appears to human beings as their fears and feelings, shows itself to James a san executor. 

Abstract Daddy: such a weird name for a creature, doesn't it?

Infact, this is the only creature that has nothing to do with James. It's linked to Angela's past. The Abstract Daddy is a rectangular shaped thing with two strange figure on it in ambiguous attitudes.
It's a reference to two people on a bed, Angela and his father.

Angela, Eddie and Laura: What their role is?

Angela Orosco is a girl that has killed her father that sexually abused of her. She's Silent Hill in apparently in search of her mother, although she didn't helped her daughter out with her husband.

Eddie Dombrowski is in Silent Hill because of his violent attitude, and his fragile mental state. He sees persons staring at him, laughing for his weight, and that's, for him, a good reason for taking a gun and shoot. 

Laura is a little orphanage child who were recovered with Mary in the St Jerome Hospital. They became friends but when Mary left the hospital, Laura never saw her again.
So she's in Silent Hill, in search of Mary.
She has no guilt, but helps James understand his crime. She hates him, although  she doesn't know about the murder. Laura doesn't see creatures and she doesn't see Maria too. 

All of them meet James, who will be able to know their worst sides.

Is it possible to explain their roles in James's story in another way?

It may be wrong for the sense of the story, but if you really want to explain those characters in another way…here it is:
 
Eddie is James' violent side , that makes he follow only his instinct. He sees a distort, unreal reality, and so he act.
Angela is James' auto-commiseration, his awareness, unconscious awareness, that he has killed  Mary, although he doesn't remember anything.
Laura, is his guilt sense, that makes it hard for James to go on (as in the Brookhaven, when she locks James in the room with the Flesh Lips).
But in the game, there are particulars that makes us think they're just real human beings, people made by meat and bones.  Laura talks to Eddie and eats a pizza with him.  Only Angela stays alone all the time, but maybe is just her character…She spent all her life all alone, and so she's alone in Silent Hill.

Who's Maria?

Maria is a stripper that works in the Heaven's Night. In Silent Hill 2 she's just a reflection of James' sexual desire: She's just like  Mary, but her clothes and hairs makes here really provoking.
James still loves Mary and can't live without her, but, at the same time he wants her to be attractive, so he creates the figure of Maria, the woman that he wanted Mary to be like.
Maria dies three times. How could it be possible?
As James' sexual desire, she's killed by his violent side, Pyramid Head. Three times to symbolise James' desire for Mary.
Why is she behind bars in the prison?
In that scene, Maria's got Mary's attitude and memories, so its hard for James to recognise her. The bars means that it's not possible for James to get her, and when he think he had finally found her, it's too late.
Does her tattoo has a deep meaning?
The Butterfly, in Japanese traditions ,symbolise femininity and sexuality. That's enough.

"There was a HOLE here. It's gone now." What does it means?

We all thought a lot about the meaning of this message in the Neely's bar.
Maybe, this is a possible meaning.
Those words could have a large number of meanings, but we have to link it to the game's story.
The hole (click to see it) could represent an emptiness, something that was filled up ("It's gone now"). Without Mary, James can't live and his wife's death left a deep hole in his life.
Maybe, when James is called to Silent Hill, his hole is filled by hope, 'cause he realize that is possible, for him, to find Mary again.
But don't forget: the foggy version of the town is just a vision.
And when reality turn into the otherworld, the message has changed.(click to see it).. The words on the message says that James has to die to see Mary again, but that, anyway, he might be heading to a different place than Mary.
If we want to give a simply explanation, Mary's in heaven and even if James die, it's not sure that he'll go to the same place…Well, he's a murderer, isn't he?

Who's that corpse in the Apartment building, sitting in front of the TV?

Maybe it's just a James' representation, and the television could be the truth(he'll become aware of his crime just In that way, in the Hotel). We see a dead James, 'cause when he'll know the truth, in that same situation, it will be like he's just dead. (click here to see it)

Why does Angela die in a fire?

The scene in witch we see Angela, through flames, speaking words to James for the last, it's the final score of her life.

James: […] It's hot as hell here.

Angela: You see it too? For me, it's always like that.

It's not clear if Angela talks about the flames or about hell, but it's sure tha her life always was really tough.
She asks the knife back, and slowly go up on the stairs, walking through flames that not seems to hurt her. Maybe she'll die, or maybe she's already dead. In any case, she's just tired to fight, so she surrender to his cruel life, alone, as always.

Why are there two Pyramid Head in the end?

James' in Silent Hill 'cause he killed his wife. So the town call him back to punish his crime.
Maybe, when James kills another human being, Eddie, the murderers become two and so the executors.
But if you pay enough attention, the PH were not just one ever.
We have the one with the great knife, and the one with the spear. And the final Pyramid Heads both have a Spear. Maybe it's just that it could  be an infinite number of PH that the town, or the character's mind creates.
But truly, we'll never know.

Anyway, before he face them, James says:

James: I was weak.
And so I needed you…
Someone to punish me for my sins…
But it's over now...
Now I know the truth...
It's time to end this.

James' now aware of his crime, and he does not need anyone to remind him.
So the Pyramid Heads just kill themselves after a little period of time, and you don't even have to shoot one bullet.
In the end, after the fight, both of them hold an egg in their hands: Maybe the symbol of a rebirth, and so it is. James' awareness gave him a new life, without delusions.
Now it's time to face Mary.

by Heaven