Silent Hill 2 - EVERY ENDING EXPLAINED

[@kohlbarsness7450]

14:01 It’s not that she didn’t want flowers, it’s that she felt like she didn’t deserve flowers because of how disfigured the disease made her which is just so sad.

[@owlbatross9187]

This is a good point - it definitely has more to do with how she was feeling and how depressed she was than anything else.

[@joaohenriquerocha3425]

I think the Scarlet egg is meant to represent eddie since he is James' most recent kill, so the egg is fresh, while the rusty egg is mary since it's older. Also, that's why there are two pyramid heads after Eddies death. They represent his need for punishment for each kill

[@grocery-k9h]

ohhhhh shiiiiit

[@TacoTuesday555]

To me, the dual pyramid fight is both. The second pyramid head shows up because of Eddie, but the eggs still represent Mary and Maria, especially since it matters which egg door you go through. And ofc they’re closed first PH is there to punish James for his sin, thus making it make sense for a second to show after he takes his second life

[@codymuller5744]

The endings where James presumably raises laura and in water i feel are the most thematically correct, depending on your perspective. James can either decide he truly has nothing without mary, or he can decide to honor her legacy by adopting laura

[@waltzforvenus_9164]

I love the stillness ending . Acting is great . My only complaint is that you don’t get the letter being read in this ending which is a shame .

[@JulieTheGhost0]

I think it's very intentional that there isn't a letter reading at the end of stillness. It adds to the "James lives on with his guilt" interpretation, he never reads Mary's letter, never gets that closure or sense that she'd want him to move on. He asks Mary if she'll wait for him and, whether it's her real spirit, silent hill's supernatural powers, or James' own delusion, she says that she will wait. He'll live on for her, but he will never forgive himself.

[@waltzforvenus_9164]

@ I like take on that ending . Never thought of it like that

[@BlackRayzeT]

You can definitely tell, that in Bliss ending, it is exactly James from the present you were playing all along, by the flashlight in the pocket and the same clothes 35:11. He wouldn't wear any of that if they were resting in the hotel and were about to pack up and leave.

[@Loquitaco]

Great observation!

[@GeorgeVGuitars]

Resisting strangulation is an instinct. Doesn't matter if you expect it or not.

[@owlbatross9187]

Fair point - as I mentioned to another commentor, a therapist I used to work with in my day job once told me that there's strong evidence that even folks who fully intend to take their own life change their minds at the last moment. No idea how true that is, but it might speak to the possibility that they did have something along the lines of a plan, but when James took action, Mary's human nature and survival instinct took over.

[@elruffian163]

True that,even a lobotomy patient would fight outta reflex.

[@brycethoreson9216]

‘If you want to die, throw yourself in the ocean. You’ll find yourself fighting to survive. You don’t want to kill yourself. You want to kill something inside of you.’

[@L4nd0C4lr1s14n]

@@owlbatross9187it’s been proven by basically everyone who survived jumping off the golden gate bridge has gone on to say that the moment after they jump, they regretted it.

[@zukigray]

Love this video 💜 Not a lot of people know this and i want to clarify (as someone who works in end if life care) palliative is for people with chronic illnesses or long lasting conditions (not expected to die within 6 months); hospice is for end of life care (expected to die within 6 months)

[@owlbatross9187]

Glad you enjoyed it, and thank you for the clarification! In that case, would it be fair to say that Mary was likely palliative care when she was at the hospital where she met Laura and where the long hallway conversation took place, but was probably about to enter hospice care when she came home for her visit with James?

[@CanalGameVlogTV]

Just beat the game for the first time today, and i ended up getting the Maria ending without knowing, and i thought it was a bad ending too, it truly felt like a loop of suffering for the dude again.

[@SomeRetroGuy]

I assume that's why the trophy is called endless loop 😅

[@thespiritwalker9173]

This was a great video bro. Very in depth and brought a lot of clarity. Thank you.

[@baldgasper4548]

The idea that James enters a tape and then "saves" inside it using a red square is so fucking meta, that I'm just going to consider this to be the canon explanation of the Bliss ending for myself, you just cannot get a crazier scenario than that. As for Rebirth, I've always seen it as James esentially going crazy, even Maria, both in the original and the remake, is surprised at James' plan. You never see him truly revive Mary, and him rowing off to that island, shrowded entirely in fog, just looks like he's been completely consumed by it, to me it's Silent Hill 2's version of "Nowhere". He's just gone. It's a nice homage to the cult stuff from SH1, but I've never really tied SH2 with any of that stuff, and it just seems like all the trauma and horror completely broke James in that ending. He even sounds unbelievably delusional in it.

[@owlbatross9187]

Glad you liked my idea on Bliss! No idea if that's what they were going for, but I love how meta it is. And same here - I love how delusional James sounds in Rebirth. He just sounds completely out of his mind

[@tonyboyer1563]

I have that red square tattooed on me right underneath a pyramid head tattoo I just got yesterday and every time I just stare at my red for a little while and my family looks at me like "what are you doing? lol just like Maria does at the hotel

[@TF2ReplayMaker]

​@@tonyboyer1563 Lame

[@TF2ReplayMaker]

​@@tonyboyer1563 lame

[@lazygamingperson]

Remake really emphasize how the illness/disease really made Mary look sick. In the OG games, graphics were not detailed enough to showcase the reason why James was angry and frustrated. It's not her fault but sadly, human relationships aren't always nice. What James did was awful but it's understandable. Mary didn't want to die like that, the letter pretty says how much she felt like something bad would happen when she'd get home. Their situation just sucked. Stillness and bliss were great additions but not gonna lie, Bliss was heavy with implications of the drug he used. He probably dies off screen with his delusion. No matter how you look at it, this story is tragic.

[@resiplayerz]

James would be a great father to Laura unless she gets sick again, then she'd better avoid pillows.

[@owlbatross9187]

"Hey Laura! I got you some new pillows!" "Hold up Fart Face - you can leave those at the door!" "Alright, fair point."

[@oliversaenz2566]

If Laura gets the flu it’s over for her

[@chalaboy27]

Wow, very interesting video!! I would just like to add a layer to the discussion that perhaps has not been addressed: since there are quite robust suggestions that what occurs in Silent Hill is a reflection of the psyche of its visitors/inhabitants, taking Mary's statements as factual sources seems like a hasty decision. Not surprisingly, in Maria Ending, Mary narrates thoughts and feelings that are so different from those expressed in Leave Ending. And such lines well represent the states of consciousness that James develops and consolidates throughout each journey: in Maria Ending, James demonstrates prioritizing his selfish reasons. The city, in response and expressing his repressed content, violently attacks him with his guilt: "You killed me, how could I forgive you? And you didn't really want to see me, because you prefer her." While, in Leave Ending, James accepts reality, and faces his guilt head on, assuming the ambiguity of the situation: he felt both selfish hatred and mercy towards Mary. The city, in response, once again incorporating elements that James's conscience alone does not bring to the surface, declares: "Yes, but, beyond the guilt, realize your sadness", which suggests that James's affection and longing are plausible, and this represents his movement to move forward. Perhaps James didn't truly speak to Mary even once during the course of the game, but rather his projections of her.

[@nealjustus9500]

in the bliss ending is what he had been trying to do within silent hill for the past 20 years, and that is to use it's powers to trap him in all the happiness of the past instead of being part of a never ending loop

[@Zookielol]

Love your voice, definitely watching more.

[@owlbatross9187]

Thank you! I appreciate it!

[@stregahex]

If you check the envelope at 23:39, you'll notice that the letter Maria gave him was not his, but Laura's.

[@kylelonergan1980]

The leave ending doesn’t make sense. I can’t imagine any 8 year old girl wanting to leave with a man that killed her best friend. Also how awkward would it be when they got back to the car with Mary’s body laying on the back seat. Truth is any decent human being in James situation would either kill himself or turn himself in. Has to be the in water ending in my opinion

[@schemar17]

he gave her a letter as a way to make her follow him

[@wazzupyuwu]

i know close to nothing about silent hill, but i think i could watch you talk about literally anything and be invested, so i'm psyched to watch this anyways

[@Z_KRM]

its so good dude play it

[@owlbatross9187]

Thank you my friend! I appreciate it! It means a lot to hear from people who watch my content regardless of the topic I'm covering.

[@vanyablazer3113]

I feel like the reason we can't see james preparing the murder is he doesn't know his own rationale. He's mulled it over so many times he can't trust his own account.

[@BlGO559]

Its natural to resist when youre inevitably going to die. No one is going to act calm when theyre in a situation that involves them in pain. You think James just sits in the car when he drowns or does he try to grasp for air as his lungs fill with water?

[@owlbatross9187]

Fair point - a therapist I once worked with in my day job said that there's evidence that even people fully intend to take their own life often change their minds at the last moment. Don't know how true that is, of course, but I suppose it is possible that they agreed to some form of a plan, but that she had human nature take over when James took action.

[@daemonlynn7616]

I got In Water ending on my first blind play through💀

[@giobrando9789]

same haha

[@wSeeDw]

Same, I was low on health almost entire game

[@mikehunt5959]

Is it difficult to get? So did I

[@daemonlynn7616]

@@mikehunt5959 not really I guess, you just gotta play like you don’t necessarily care about your health. Which I certainly did, I would get tired of drinking health potions and then immediately be put back into the red so I’d wait until I was in the clear or had a red medic sign on my screen

[@mikehunt5959]

@ ahh makes sense, I did just about the same thing.

[@JH-dr4xo]

I picked up the last book at the hotel for the rebirth ending but by opening the safe and retrieving the postcard, it switched to the Stillness ending. So you can technically negate rebirth

[@Sun.ce.214]

Now that I'm an adult that recently lost a parent from an sickness I have a completly different opinion on James compared to how I did when I first played SH2 as a kid. The conversation at the end that you started talking at 11:53 was something I went though a lot with my mother. The baseless claims & mood swings followed up with quick apologies was something I went though for nearly a decade with my mother. That type of stuff really messes with you mentally both while their alive and when they've died because you know they don't really mean it but it's hard to keep putting up with it for so long. While I can't say I ever came close to unaliving my mom I could understand why James did it and I don't think it makes him a murderer. I'd like to think that stillness is the real ending

[@candaceleach2981]

Darn it, I was trying to go for the leave ending but because I picked up those four items, now I'll end up with the rebirth ending. Great video and has helped me know what I need to do to get each ending. But I do see the stillness ending more meaningful.

[@PatrickWentzell-jd9gq]

since I enjoy multiple endings this is good to for me to learn I can guess that frustration with anger is exactly what James was feeling during the time he decided to killl Mary in that room .

[@KittyKatt_Luna80s]

Looking at the Silent Hill Wiki, Mary was confirmed in background notes to be 25, and James is 29.

[@KittyKatt_Luna80s]

Laura is 8. This will mean that Mary was 17 when Laura was born, so she would have (depending on country) only just have been old enough to have been Laura's mother.

[@owlbatross9187]

Thanks for pointing this out! I would've guessed older, but in retrospect 25/29 makes sense. And yeah, old enough to be her mother if she had her at a relatively young age by US standards.

[@Baconlazer]

My very first full playthrough of Silent Hill 2 I got the Maria ending, which it looks like a very tricky method of doing so.

[@kingmisery4972]

I actually got the In water ending my first playthrough. Oof

[@SkeletonLeiutenant]

18:04 At the very least we can guarantee it won't be anything like Usagi Drop... the arcane knowledge is pain

[@Grizzfor]

Yeah, Usagi Drop is...cursed.

[@ray2007]

Got the water ending on my first playthrough

[@RadiantMantra]

I think it's worth mentioning that in this game and the original, Eddie's victim is the only unique corpse model that isn't James. Eddie doesn't spend his time killing James clones, he has his own issues. So the part where you say Eddie's victims are James corpses is incorrect

[@RedhoodBeyond]

Yeah, I heard that the victim was the football player that bullied Eddy

[@anawfullotofcups]

Goddamn if this game wasn’t easier to get through emotionally before I had a wife 🥲

[@kylelonergan1980]

In sickness or in health is what the game show host says at the end in the elevator. Very creepy

[@pappymagee6556]

According to the original game,she was 25.

[@robertmarvel]

Is it bad I got the Maria ending on my first run? 😭

[@owlbatross9187]

Not at all! I was aiming for the Maria ending on my first run as well. It's better to go that way so you can manipulate your way to the other endings on subsequent playthroughs

[@Deadfusionkiller1]

No that’s actually impressive because most people will get leave as their first ending, so that’s an accomplishment that you got it on your first run

[@jtg9210]

I think James already knew from the very beginning that Maria was a version that he wanted Mary to be, the moment he saw her. He was just trying to hide it from himself and of course the player to keep us on our toes, and also him not believing that Silent Hill was actually torturing him to create Maria from his own psyche. Just goes back to when he said at the end; "I don't need you anymore," to both Pyramid Head and Maria. James is selfish, but I think with Maria, he was trying to restrain himself from lusting over other women since he's already sexually frustrated. He really wanted to stay loyal to his wife so bad that he would go through hell to be with her again. Hence why he would kill himself in the In Water ending; he knew he couldn't go on without her, he couldn't bare to see himself with another woman because he had something special with Mary before her illness ruin their marriage. That's why, in a sense, you could sympathize with him, regardless if you have hatred towards him.

[@Adog00]

I don’t think I want to achieve the other five endings. I only did the main three, since I feel they’re the most cannon and most accessible. I already played through the game three times as well, I don’t wanna again since I got others to grind😂 anyway😂 thank you for this video

[@the.bloodless.one1312]

13:07 Mary was 25, btw

[@Kabal732]

I just finished my first playthrough and I got the Maria ending

[@psukhopompos]

Sorry, but "Leave" doesn't imply that James is going to raise Laura, only that they leave together.

[@elruffian163]

When i first played the original i got the in water ending,then 4years later i met a mary who became my wife ,she became ill and it drove her to take her own life ,i blamed myself for not being there when i should,when the remake came out three days before her birthday.i still got the in water ending.and i have to say how hard i relate to it .its been three years since she died and i cant move on,if i had a car i would have driven it into the river by now . sometimes people find the happiness they wanted,when its gone you are left with complicated grief and its very hard to live with after that.😢

[@arturoperez1363]

Im sorry for your loss

[@grocery-k9h]

So Laura was just chilling on some moldy piano waiting to scare us? I never really understood that? Like what is she doing there? Doesn't the place smell sickening?

[@L4nd0C4lr1s14n]

It’s not stated in the remake but, Laura doesn’t see any monsters. It’s mentioned in the original but I mean, it’s fairly well implied in the remake. After all, you follow her many places through the game, often seconds behind her and get attacked by monsters a little girl would have no hope getting around, and be paralyzed with fear by. The precedent is set up through Angela and Eddie both, since their version of Silent Hill manifests itself as fiery hot, and frosty cold respectively.

[@grocery-k9h]

@L4nd0C4lr1s14n I never said anything about monsters. People say when lakeview falls apart (all the mold) that's the real world, and when James first gets there its the "Otherworld" (clean, non moldy piano). Does Laura see the otherworld in her own way? How does Laura even know James was James in the first place? These are my confusions

[@fac6941]

Why i got the in water ending at my first run? 😢

[@NemFX]

I always had one issue with Silent Hill 2. It's just a stupid line James says. He says that Maria looks just like Mary. Different hair colour, different clothes, different face. Like, I wish they'd have fixed that. If they'd call Maria his ideal woman, his dream woman, something like that? Fine. But he says she looks just like Mary, and I don't see it at all

[@pitrah4365]

It’s deliberate. He thinks that oversexualized Maria is the perfect Mary he always dreamt of. But then look at how Mary herself is being portrayed.

[@lightsonitzekioro3918]

Think of it like this. Remember how as time goes on, especially after discovering the truth, the lakeview hotel starts to deteriorate and becomes what it truly is, not what James is deluding himself into seeing? It's like that here, when he sees Maria he's seeing what his deluded eyes are wanting him to see. When he realizes the truth in the endings where the final boss is Maria, not Mary (i.e the Leave and Rebirth endings are the ones I can think off the top of my head), In one last ditch effort Maria takes on what Mary truly looked like to try and convince/stop James to stay with her. It's her last gambit to make James not accept the truth. I think even, at least in the remake that in the Leave Ending, Maria's eyes change back to her eye color instead of Mary's when James rejects her. That's how I view it anyway.

[@Tablis0]

James is deranged, this is like... the main point of the game.

[@whitedime]

i had the book and did not get the rebirth ending

[@wSeeDw]

You need 4 items for rebirth, and you must not open final safe that requires the key of sorrow and inspect a postcard.

[@jtg9210]

Also to put this out; I just completed the remake 2 weeks ago, and a few days after I had a dream about another alternate ending and I think it would make sense due to the disturbing themes in this game. The dream was: Maria finally got James for himself but instead of leaving Silent Hill, he's trapped with her forever by being chained up while Maria is sexually abusing him with her seductiveness charms. Overall, He is doomed to be completely freed by her. Honestly after having that dream, this is my take on this as far as the actual game goes; there should be a boss battle where you are chained up and maria is doing what she can to make him hers forever since she finally has him in her grasp. After the battle, it seems James still can't be freed, so then he ultimately tells her how he feels by admitting the truth; "Maria you were right all along. You're everything I wanted Mary to be, and for that, I am extremely selfish. I didn't mean for this to happen, but because of what I had done, I deserve all the torture, including you. In the end, I still love my wife and I can never forgive myself for what I done, thats why I can never be with you. So if you want to torture me to death, then please do it if it means I can be with my wife again." Maria listens and starts showing empathy towards him but yet she screams since she's now torn in pain and sorrow, knowing James truly doesn't want her. She continues screaming until she disappears forever, knowing that James finally admits the truth to Maria. He is now freed... but what does the future hold for James? That's as far as I can go since it would pretty much boil down to him rather leaving with Laura or killing himself. I truly love this remake, cause it gives you alot of interpretation of how you see the story and complexity of its characters. Since in the original, I couldn't really understand it at all until I read the information on the backstory. But this remake did a fantastic job of retelling it without still telling you everything but rather showing more in depth.

[@Acantophis3rd]

You say yourself that Remake James is softer, more caring, more nuanced, more emotional and less dismissive than original James. To me it just means they did not understand the character at all. Or that hey deliberately made him more fretful, more emotional and more liekeable for the new audience. I really don't like that one bit.

[@Scomusiq-o7c]

For players like me who are playing the game for the first time, and knew nothing about silent hill I think it made the game better. It wasn’t until around halfway through that I realized something might be off about James’ character. Being able to slowly put it together that James is in fact the villain of his own story was an absolute mind fuck, and I think it woulda been ruined if James was super crass from the beginning because it woulda been way to obvious to me. James being caring is what sells the twist for me

[@L4nd0C4lr1s14n]

He’s not rude or violent towards the other characters in the original, more of a hapless idiot towards Maria and veeeery slightly rude to Eddie. Here he’s played much more humanly, with affectations to his line delivery that lend him a softer tone, but also more dejected and emotionally withdrawn. In the original Guy Cihi blasts out several line reads and it’s fantastic, but it’s a different approach to the same goal, and I think it was achieved here more effectively. That’s not including the mocap and visuals having progressed 23 fuckin years either.

[@kingmisery4972]

I actually got the In water ending my first playthrough. Oof