What's Up With the Story?? SH2

While in the hospital, Mary befriended a little girl named Laura. I don't know why she was there, but it had to have been long term. Perhaps she is an orphan and a property of the state. Mary mentions in one of her letters that the hospital was run by nuns. Maybe Laura was abandoned at the church as a baby and the sisters took care of her. As many abandoned children are, Laura grows up mischevious and disregarding authority. She finds a friend and mother-figure in Mary, however. Laura becomes bitter that James doesn't visit more often. Although Mary, too, is saddened by this fact, she discourages any bad thoughts about her husband.

James is not made aware of the friendship because Mary knew he would never agree with the adoption. One day, when James finally comes to visit Mary, she again begins to ramble about Silent Hill and all the things she loved...James snaps! He can't take it any more! This is so not fair! He grabs the pillow and smothers her to death. Mary is too weak to fight back and succomes to death very quickly. When the doctor discovers James crying next to her body, they all assume that the disease finally took her. For three years, he mourned, while depression and soon denial set in. Like many people dealing with such guilt, James actually convinced himself that it never happened and that Mary died of the disease...until he gets the letter.

Laura, too, gets a letter from Mary. (the second one she shows us at the hotel) The nuns had never truthfully told her where Mary went, just that she had to go away. Too young to figure it out for herself, Laura is excited to go in search of her friend. Silent Hill called Laura there, but Mary loved her dearly and therefore no harm shall come to her. Laura doesn't see the blood-stained walls or demons infesting the town. That's why she was so surprised when James said "you don't even have a scratch on you!" Despite Mary's words, Laura is bitter that James did not come visit Mary when she wanted him to so badly. She delights in playing tricks on him as a way of getting revenge. When James confesses to the murder, it only confirms what Laura was trying to overcome - that she hates him.

Eddie Dombroski was constantly picked on. Came from an abusive family, always called stupid and fat by family and neighbors alike. No one ever really thought he'd amount to anything. As he hit adolescence, Eddie began to fantasize about death and mutlization of those who teased him...someday he would have his revenge. But a healthy way of dealing with stress soon turned dangerous as fantasy collided with reality. Eddie became more and more paranoid as time went on. One day his dog was barking at him, sensing something amiss...Eddie shot the dog, convinced that it was mocking him. After the realization of what he did set in, Eddie became scared and ran away. But it wasn't just the dog who fell victim to Eddie's dillusions, anyone who dared look at him without the upmost respect became a potential target. The police were soon on his tail when Eddie found Silent Hill....it was deserted and a perfect place to hide. He, too, sees the monsters and hides in the Wood Side Apartments. He encounters two survivors, but swiftly kills them when they question his reasons for being there. As his mental health deteriorates, Eddie slips in and out of a child-like state. He is one minute, angry and hungry for revenge and the next, afraid and hiding in a corner.

Angela Orosco grew up in an abusive family. Her reality was as hellish as you can get. Molested since she was a child, Angela's mother knew and did nothing. Her mother was verbally abusive, and perhaps physically as well. She told Angela and she deserved what happened to her. She battled with poor self-esteem, often attempting suicide on her worst days and running away from home on the best days. Every time she ran away, her father found her...and dragged her bck home. He always had to have firm control over her. A sexual fiend who thought she was only good for one thing...Although Angela loved her parents, one day she snapped. Her father was drunk, as usual, watching t.v. Angela snuck in with a knife and stabbed him to death. Although the feeling was at first gratifying, she had murdered her own father and ran away. It is in Silent Hill that her sanity slips away for good. The town haunts her with memories and reminds her that you cannot run away from yourself. Although the game never really explains what happened to Angela's brother, I'm guessing that her father killed him since his death was not mentioned in the bloody newspaper article. As for her mama, we may never know. Perhaps she is a homeless alcoholic somewhere...perhaps she committed suicide long ago or remarried. Either way, Angela cannot rest until she finds her.

The cult of Sammael originated from an ancient religion within the town. Supernatural activities have been occurring in the area for centuries, perhaps longer. The Book of Lost Memories details how an ancient people once lived there, but up and vanished...abandoning the town for some reason. I'm thinking that either they knew something was evil about it...or simply disappeared... prominant members of society, such as Michael Kaufman, the Brookhaven Hospital Director and Ernest Baldwin were members of this secret cult, although all were involved for their own gain...that is, until Baldwin's young daughter dies suddenly. He is so grief-stricken that he cannot function. He becomes obsessed with the possibility of resurrection. His wife leaves him and he becomes confined to the mansion. Using the Book of Lost Memories and Scarlet Ceremony, Obsidian Goblet and White Chrism, Ernest calls upon the ancient gods to make him a manifestation of the town...so he can be reunited with the ghost of his daughter. When Maria wanders into the mansion, she sees him in the room and is startled...he is overjoyed to know that she saw him...because she, too, is a manifestation of the town. Silent Hill created Maria to punish James for his crimes...that is why she is never with him when he encounters and interacts with the other characters...they would not see her! She is haunted by vague memories of Laura...and feels compelled to protect her, although she doesn't understand why. She doesn't realize that Laura is not endangered by the town.

Maria holds mixed memories of her old life and new...of her job at the Heaven's Night strip club and of a relationship with a little girl...she is plagued by a strange illness, of which she doesn't admit to James...although resurrected, Maria still has the disease which was supposed to kill her originally. James did not allow nature to run its course.

Throughout the game, we encounter corpses and maps, similar to ours. I believe that these were other people called to the town for some other reason...but didn't make it. The hospital director longed for tranquility, a strange place in which his mental patients seemed to go. Ironically, the mental patients seem to be one with Silent Hill, although the town messes with them, as well. In search of peace, the director allows Joseph to steal and hide his key to the Historical Society. He knows the dark history of the prison. After Joseph commits suicide by leaping from the hospital roof, the director is called to the Historical Society somehow...a vision? A dream? Wanting to face his fears, perhaps? Either way, he enters the prison only to come face to face with the executioner himself...Pyramid Head. Although he tries to escape, the director is killed and his spirit is trapped in the town....his own mental hospital, if you will. Confined like a prisoner, he tries to help James...but is also pessimistic about the possible outcome.

Each time Maria dies, it is brutally...she is murdered and it tortures him. He doesn't know why, at first, but the town is simply showing him "how it feels." Revenge for Laura. When he finds her in the prison cell, she is not totally Maria OR Mary...she is a combination of both...when he finds her on the roof, he realizes what she really is...even though she looks like Mary, he knows it is not her...just the town trying to trick him again. For his crimes, he must be punished. The Pyramid Heads have done their job, and therefore "kill" themselves and retire...for the time being, until they are needed again. The town is infested by the lost souls trapped there...mental patients, mutilated nurses, doors, and those who were executed unjustly (hangers in the hospital)

Have you noticed that in both Silent Hill stories thus far, nurses were involved? I found the nurses at Brookhaven particularly intriguing. They are obviously volumptious, with impressive cleavage and curves to match. But their faces have been mutilated and wrapped in bandages. Do you suppose that Mary was jealous of them because she was "hideous" from the disease while they remained beautiful? In the first Silent Hill, Alessa undoubtedly would have been afraid of nurses, and probably not treated very well due to her appearance. The doctors and nurses were punished for how she was treated...kept alive, nothing more than a burned body with half a soul.

Although "Restless Dreams" has a considerably less varied cast of monsters, they seem to fit with the story. Alessa had lots of time to dream up horrible monsters, influenced greatly by her pain and Sammael's growing strength inside of her. Mary is simply looking for justice - her sorrow passed on through the creatures cursed to wander the town and buildings.