Since its 10th anniversary, I've been combing through videos about PT and thinking about what Silent Hills could have been. I think I have a sense of what the story was going to be based on its place in the series, its social commentary, and what would eventually become Death Stranding. I don’t know if anyone has posted these theories so forgive me if they sound familiar. A lot of this is extrapolation on the creative process too so let me know if you have a different interpretation.
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Norman Reedus's character would have been some kind of medium who can live vicariously in other peoples' otherworlds. This is supported by the phone call at the end saying he "has been chosen" (perhaps chosen to have this power) and by how he doesn't appear to be the husband of Lisa (Jarith), yet is subjected to her ire. He possibly does this through the dead children (should sound familiar) or through some other spiritual tether mechanism (hence the baby laughter in that final puzzle), which I will explore in another couple of points.
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There would have been an organized operation either by a cult or the evil energy coming out of Silent Hill, or both, to prey on fathers specifically. The support for this is from the body of work showing that Silent Hill preys on worldly sin, and helps explain why it (or its cult) uses the radio program as a conduit. There is said to be an economic crisis and, as multiple theories have delved into, Jarith and Lisa were caught up in this and this led to their sins, spurred on by evil energy. This is also a commentary on radical, particularly right wing media and stochastic terrorism, which fits thematically with indoctrination and zealotry.
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More theories connecting points 1 and 2 are from Silent Hill 4 and Death Stranding. Norman Reedus is a repatriate in that second game, and a large part of his special connection to the other side is through Bridge Babies and other innate abilities, the former of which share a similarity to Lisa’s fetus: death of either the mother or the baby during pregnancy. Characters seeing other people’s other worlds aren’t unprecedented in the SH series, with SH 2 and 4 for example. It is not out of the question for Norm to be one of these; and for this to be the original idea that inspired the lore of Death Stranding’s “chosen one” story.
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The shared name of Cliff’s wife and Jarith’s wife. This is more evidence of Kojima’s reuse of ideas and a meta-reference to his art evolution. Further, there is a possibility that PT represents the Death Stranding (or the first crossovers between the worlds that lead to it) in Kojima’s body of work, and to him personally. Obviously this isn’t a strict canon and I don’t think Kojima and his team see it that way, it’s more about themes and ideas.
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The cult and Norm’s relationship with it; highly speculative… based on his relationship with Bridges in Death Stranding, he may have been enlisted by a government organization to investigate the radio murders and may have had a personal relationship with the government organization, leading to a late-game plot twist involving that relationship; potential meta fiction element alluding to the game world as an otherworld may have been in play.
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The cult may have been more organized and deliberate, maybe even technologically advanced, hence the hypnosis and usage of radio to influence people. The 3 circles in the lower right have been speculated to reference the Halo of the Sun and I think that’s accurate. I also wonder if some inspiration for the cult and game setting would have been drawn from other canceled games like SH5 and Broken Covenant.
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Game design may have been similar to SH4, where we as Norm go through multiple other worlds to discover the truth of the killings, with Lisa’s demo as a playable vertical slice of the narrative idea. NOT a speculation about the gameplay loop itself, because the development was cut short too early to even speculate on the minute to minute gameplay. I am curious if the whole game would have been first person or if it would have been like SH4.
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“Dad was such a drag.” Given these theories, I wonder who it is that says the ending quotes. I initially thought it was the sink fetus, but it seems like Lisa didn’t have multiple children, which makes the reference to “us” confusing. It could be a combined consciousness of all the dead children by the fathers’ hands. “I’m bringing my toys with me,” could refer to other traumas and their representative monsters we would encounter.
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“I could only walk…The only me is me. Are you sure the only you is you?” In a meta sense this is interesting given how much walking is in Death Stranding. It may also allude to both of Norm’s characters. However with Silent Hills as a self contained project, I wonder if Norm would’ve had multiple copies of himself in other otherworlds, each of which there is only ONE of. Perhaps this would play into how the story progresses; its twist as reality falls apart and the duplicitous motives of our government employer become clear much like in Death Stranding. Meanwhile our character can only walk on. The bag and other things like it that were never realized may represent the tether between the character and each otherworld; death in that world inflicted by the restless spirit’s method of revenge, which for Lisa is snapping the neck then cutting open the stomach: our character’s guts in the bag being the conduit to that world. The exact way this would work to give Norm access to an otherworld is unknown and any speculation on my part doesn’t help make sense of it.
Anyway these are just my noisy thoughts about a special interest of mine to ease my anxiety as law school approaches. Hopefully my ramblings help you appreciate PT and even Death Stranding more. Shoutout to all who did videos about this masterpiece or otherwise archived it. I wish I could have played it myself but I’m happy to contribute based on the multiple playthroughs I’ve watched and analyses I’ve seen. Keep on keeping on, Silent Hill fans. Let me know your thoughts.
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