#commentary 8

This case bears a disturbing similarity to a situation that took place in the facility a few years back. The patient was admitted on a court order, but with the consent of his remaining family. His condition appeared to be improving for the first few weeks. The administered medications paired with individual sessions with a psychologist and art therapy alleviated his avolition, anhedonia, and social withdrawal. There was no reason for concern. They didn't even know anything was wrong until the night guard reported one of his keys was missing. When they found him, it was already too late.

When I wrote the "Patient 0050" post, I made a fairly good argument that the case is meant to be "reminiscent" of that patient. But the more I thought about it—I nearly titled this clip "(It's not who you think)," because I think it's "about" all three patients. I think the clipboard story is giving us a framework to imagine what happened to each of the three patients—again, to review what I wrote after I recorded:

Something catastrophic happens that ends up with patient committed.

This may have involved the patient hurting or killing a family member, due to the phrase "remaining family" (much the way Angela killed her own father, for example).

The patient was doing well in various types of therapy (when I say "art therapy seems gentle for [a murderer]," I mean "at a hellhole like Brookhaven, so I might not be right about this," not that it should be harsher).

But then, the staff let down their guard (or perhaps staff layoffs meant there were fewer employees in general).

The patient obtained a key, which could have been a key to an internal room (Patient 0090 will be my example here) or to the main entrance of the hospital to leave. And we know there's a main entrance key, because it's the last item we find in Brookhaven Hospital. 

By the time staff located the patient, "it was too late" to prevent... something, most likely the patient's death given how ominous this sounds, but possibly injury to the patient or someone else. I forgot to mention this in the video, but we're going to read in Otherworld Brookhaven that Patient 0050 managed to run electroshock treatment on himself—even the staff can't figure out how—so that's a non-fatal example. 

Re: point #4: I bring in the Secret Garage article about Brookhaven, and I've actually edited in a clip from commentary 6. Basically, we're told that staffing shortages may be putting the patients at risk, and the community fears the repeat of an incident that happened "a couple of years ago." I think the clipboard patient is that incident.

(symbols.com)

Maria is not doing too well in this particular shot, but leave that aside for a moment. (She'll be back.) A little bit more from that article:

First things first: Black Moon Lilith doesn’t exist. Physically, that is.

Bear in mind that Maria is a manifestation from James' psyche, and can't interact with other people because she isn't real.

Black Moon Lilith is located at the point that mirrors Earth’s location in the oval on the side of the lunar apogee. In other, shorter, words: It’s basically the real-life version of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. (In fact, it’s occasionally referred to as the "Dark Moon"!)

This isn't the first time Lilith has appeared in the game. At the very, very beginning, I turned right around and went back into the restroom and pointed out graffiti on the wall: a rendering of an actual parchment amulet "showing the female demon Lilith."

So I immediately fuck up here by calling Lilith a "Biblical figure," which she is not—she doesn’t appear in the Bible at all; she’s a figure from Jewish (and Mesopotamian) mythology that some rabbinic authorities reject entirely. […] In fact, as I thought it over the weekend after recording the video, it occurred to me that maybe the Lilith graffiti isn’t about any of that [a theory about The Order] at all. (Or it might also be, who knows.) We’ve immediately seen verses contrasting Maria and Mary, and it may be that Lilith is simply representing Maria in opposition to Mary as Eve. (Mary is also represented throughout the game by saintly Madonna-type imagery. The soundtrack melody “Magdalene” specifically associates Maria with another Mary. A parallel Lilith & Eve contrast is not far-fetched.) […] In the context of the game, as something the devs chose to include: I think the word "Shaddai" could be intended to refer to the fact that Silent Hill as James experiences it is not a full, real world. (Later we will see the word "FAKE" in a record store.) Maria is a temptation for James to stay in a dream world (and there is an ending where he chooses her), but that would not be a real, complete life. Given the Mary vs. Maria imagery elsewhere in the room, I think this is a fairly solid interpretation.

On the way to meet Maria in Rosewater Park, I point out a Bible verse referenced on a license plate (emphasis mine): 1 Corinthians 10:20, "No, I imply that what they sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be partners with demons."

(I know I'm not the first person to figure this out; I saw an "iceberg of SH2 lore" meme that mentioned "Maria's bracelet," but I thought it referred to the "null moon" aspect. I did do the legwork here on my own, but it's more in the spirit of "No, I want to figure it out for myself!")

In this case, those parallel actions are the Director's increasingly irrational fixation on "curing" his three "hopeless" patients at any cost—including their deaths. (While we're here, bear in mind Maria's toast to "hope undying," and how well James responded to that.) That being said, we'll discover late in the game that James wasn't fixated on Mary's recovery—but, having lost her, he's now obsessed with trying to get her back.

Tape #2: "She will not be cured"

We will find this much, much later—in the Lakeview Hotel after the big reveal of the game, while James is still wandering around, stunned. (This clip is from my first run of the game, and doesn't give away anything but the tape.)

They... She will not be cured. All that suffering... I am no longer sure if it was of any use. If it meant anything at all. I can't say if this newfound understanding... If there's any wisdom to be had in all that happened. I suppose that's for you to learn. And I hope you will.

Notice here that the "Director" is admitting that his "three patients" were really James' one "She"—Mary. (Again, this is the same actor.) At this point, I'm still not talking about the Big Spoiler—"this newfound understanding"—but to my mind, the second tape supports the idea that the endings as a collective show James learning—or not—from what he's done. The way I see it, all the endings happen, one after the other in whichever order you want, but the one that you think should go last shows whether you think James learned or bettered himself in any way. The Director hopes he will, at least.

The portrait

Here's what the Director looks like, based on the 2001 and 2024 versions of his portrait in the Historical Society:

The name on the plaque (portrait on the right) is missing, which is another point in favor of the Director not being real. He also looks surprisingly young to me, especially considering the portraits of much older men in his office. More than one streamer has said that he looks like James in some ineffable way, particularly the remake Director—I don't know how he does, because he doesn't look like James at all, and yet he... kind of does...? As Ian put it, it kind of looks like someone scribbled a disguise onto a picture of James. Again, I don't know why this sounds right (the brow?), but I'd had the same thought myself.

I'll also say—I don't personally buy into "blond = good and dark-haired = bad," but this is the third time by my count that we've seen a male figure that the game might intend to be a visual Jungian "shadow" of James:

The lighting in the secret videotape (brief glimpse here) that seems to give James dark hair and a dark jacket

The "Jack" pinup in Heaven's Night and the nurses' locker room, who also has dark hair and a dark jacket

The Director here, who may have an "evil twin" look

As much as I argue that the South Vale janitor is also some sort of projection of James, we never see what he looked like.