A while ago, I saw an excerpt from an utterly moronic G-Fuel article floating around on
Twitter. It was the "12 Best Video Game Couples That Are #RelationshipGoals". And considering
that the kind of people who unironically use this phrase also view Shao Kahn and Twindel or Joker
and Harley as some kind of goal to strive for in a relationship, it really shouldn't surprise you
to learn that there are people who consider James and Mary Sunderland from Silent Hill 2
to be #RelationshipGoals. What makes this one particularly egregious is that the big reveal
towards the end of the game that should instantly disqualify this couple from this list is also what
most people who've heard of this game know about it, even if they've never played it themselves.
And this got me thinking about the game again, and I came up with two ways the meanings of
the game's multiple endings can be interpreted, since viewing these two as an idealised couple
seriously misses the point of the story. It's amazing that this game has certain elements that
are so deep because of the highly specific meanings behind them, while also having
aspects that are so open that people can still come up with new interpretations of the game,
even twenty years later. Of course, I'm not so pompous as to believe anything I
have to say here hasn't been realised by anyone else, but it's new to me, dammit.
Silent Hill 2 follows James Sunderland, a recently-widowed man who receives a
letter from his late wife, asking him to come to Silent Hill. Ultimately,
James discovers that he, himself, killed Mary and suppressed that memory,
convincing himself that she died three years ago and he had nothing to do with it. From here,
four different outcomes present themselves for James, since we discount the joke endings.
"Leave" sees James leave town with Laura, presumably adopting her as Mary
had wanted to before she died. "Maria" sees James leave town with Mary's doppelganger,
who begins coughing sickly as Mary had, suggesting history will repeat itself.
In "Rebirth", James turns to the dark arts in a bid to revive his wife. And "In Water"
infamously has James drown himself in the lake to be reunited with his wife in the afterlife.
The first interpretation is that the endings represent different ways a
person can proceed after a relationship ends, be it via break-up or death.
"Rebirth" and "In Water" are very clear in their parallels. They represent a person
being unable to move on and drowning in despair. In one case, literally. The difference between
the two is that one represents stagnation, while the other represents self-destruction.
"Maria" also represents stagnation, but in a different way. It's James believing he is able to
move on, but this is no more true than the fantasy world he created in his mind to absolve himself of
his sins. This is what happens when one seeks out a new partner with superficial similarities to the
previous one. They cannot, and never will, provide you with the same relationship, and projecting the
old partner onto the new one is unhealthy for both of you. If one were to interpret Mary snapping
at James in the hallway flashback and Maria's often demeaning or downright abusive treatment
of James as being reflective of his and Mary's relationship in general, this ending could also be
seen as what happens when a person exits a toxic relationship, only to find themselves in another.
"Leave", then, is the healthy option, where one puts the past behind them and
moves on in a new direction, finding a new purpose in life.
The other interpretation, and the one with the most meat to it,
is that the endings represent the five stages of grief. Said stages are, famously, Denial, Anger,
Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. Each ending can be interpreted as James becoming stuck in one
of those five stages and being unable to move onto the next, with disastrous consequences for him.
"But, there are only four endings," you say. The first stage is represented by, rather than one of
the endings, the series of events leading up to the climax. James watches the tape and the lies
he's constructed to deny what he did crumble around him. He can no longer deny the truth.
Or maybe Denial is the UFO Ending, where we deny Mary is dead and go do something else.
From here, we move into Anger with "Maria", which is admittedly the weakest connection I've found.
James was frustrated both sexually and emotionally by his wife's illness,
as documented by, respectively, the designs of the nurses and actions of Pyramid Head,
and his own admittance that his smothering of his wife was not entirely altruistic as he had grown
to hate her for being a burden on his life. This frustration is then targeted towards the
doppelganger of his wife that is taking her place. His unresolved feelings towards his wife have been
inherited by the next woman in James' life, whom he speaks to very aggressively in this ending.
The third is Bargaining with "Rebirth". This one's very clear-cut;
James is literally bargaining with the source of the town's spiritual power in
a bid to have Mary brought back from the dead, which cannot end well, even if it does work.
Fourth, Depression is seen with "In Water".
Unable to live without Mary or with what he did, James takes his own life.
And finally, Acceptance is represented by the "Leave" ending, where James accepts what happened
and chooses to honour his wife by granting her final wish, rather than dwelling on her death.
Silent Hill 2 has a powerful message about learning to accept loss and move on with our
lives. If we let ourselves dwell too much on what we've lost, we'll become
stuck in a highly self-destructive mindset, and there's so much more to gain by moving forward.
I think one of the most powerful things about this message is that
those other three outcomes where James fails to learn this lesson
all exist and are all very real possibilities for him. In fact, the Book of Lost Memories
makes the claim that James came to town with the intent of ending his own life, which helps
to make his potential acceptance of reality and decision to move on all the more powerful.
It's one of the things that makes video games the greatest storytelling medium there is,
and it's why any adaptation of this game would be considerably weaker.
Even if a movie or novelisation told this story and had James move on with his life in the end,
the fact that this non-interactive version of the tale only has the one possible outcome limits its
power after the first viewing. With the game, however, every time you restart James' journey,
every one of those endings is entirely possible as the outcome to his story (leaving aside Rebirth
being limited to New Game+). James could very well take his own life in your next playthrough,
and that makes his perseverance, should you choose to guide him that way, all the more triumphant.
And what makes SH2 special in that regard, even within its own series, is that these outcomes all
feel like real endings that are thematically appropriate for this narrative. Take away
the idea of multiple endings and just imagine these games only having one of those outcomes,
making it the official ending for the story. Look back at the first game, whose Bad+ ending has
Harry presumably die as the Otherworld collapses. It's not a karmic outcome based on whether or not
he was truly determined to save his daughter, like Fatal Frame II's Lingering Scent ending, where Mio
abandons her sister. And that's not even getting into the dead all along ending, which has no clues
towards that being the case before it tells us the entire story beforehand was pointless.
Or, what about the third, where accruing enough points from mostly arbitrary actions results in
Heather being overtaken by the cult's god and killing Douglas, leaving the game on
an ambiguous note as Heather effectively failed in her mission to stop the cult,
without any prior indication that such an action could lead to that outcome.
They lack legitimacy and don't feel like real outcomes to the game, because they have no
connection to the game's themes or narrative. They're just bad endings for the sake of having
bad endings and are about as valid as the joke endings when you get right down to it.
But SH2, whose worst ending sees its main character commit suicide,
has four outcomes that all feel like genuine conclusions to this narrative,
because all four are steeped in James' motivation and emotional turmoil. He loves
his wife dearly and wants her back, so him succumbing to his desire to have her back,
to have his perfect version of her, to be with her again in this life or the next,
or moving on and honouring her last wish, all work as legitimate conclusions to James' story.
I used to think there was nothing new to say about SH2 on YouTube, given the sheer amount of
content that exists discussing and dissecting and reinterpreting it as both a game and a piece of
art, but even on the year of its 20th anniversary, it seems there really is more one can find to say
about it. Hopefully, the dawn of such a major anniversary will inspire more thought on the game
and produce more new talking points. And maybe a competent remaster. That would also be nice.
If you liked this video, why not subscribe and support me on Patreon like these fine people here?
If not, then make sure to share it with your enemies so they can suffer along with you.
Today's recommended video is The genius of Silent Hill 2's endings by MegaBearsFan.
Guy's got some interesting takes on the endings,
particularly Leave, which he presents in a way I never considered before.