- Alternatively, someone actually put together a pretty damn coherent and good portrayal of both why Henry is as seemingly unemotional as he is along with providing a pretty good connection to Walter and partly why he was chosen. It's also a pretty damn good alternate take on the ending of the game. You can find the first one here. The rest of them can be found from the author's profile. This troper found it particularly nice because it helped her find Henry more sympathetic than he already was.
- Walter DID say that he wouldn't let anyone get in his way. Henry, as the current resident of Apartment 302, is an obvious obstacle.
- But why allow some random schlub to be inside his mother?
- Phrasing, but also Walter isn't the one who decides who gets to move in. That's Frank's job.
- Walter DID say that he wouldn't let anyone get in his way. Henry, as the current resident of Apartment 302, is an obvious obstacle.
This matches nicely with the "Henry is the true killer" folder. He's an Unreliable Narrator, recounting the events to his therapist after being caught murdering all of those people and then pleading insanity.
In Joseph's notes, he remarks that he dug up the grave of Walter Sullivan and found it empty. Does that sound like the action of a sane man?
This troper's opinion is as follows: Joseph, in fact, became obsessed with Walter Sullivan's crimes and the cult, prompted by Walter's spiritual presence. Joseph then began the killings all over again. (You'll notice the killings stop completely until Joseph starts writing about them. In other words, the resumption of the killings and Joseph's research on Sullivan started at around the same time)
At this point, much of Joseph's writing reads as the work of a deeply unstable mind. He's unaware of what he does when he's "Walter", only seeing the aftermath — just as Henry does. Finally, he takes his own life in horror, unwilling to keep participating, unaware that he is now a part of the evil that claimed Walter Sullivan.
Then Henry moves into the apartment building. Here's where things get complicated. It's possible that he learns of Walter Sullivan and indeed finds the corpse behind the wall BEFORE the events of the game. Henry is clearly mentally unstable. An introverted loner who likes watching his young female neighbor through a hole in the wall? If that's not a sign he's not all there, I don't know what is.
We also know he's been to Silent Hill before. He seems to think the trip was uneventful, but I believe that his memories are false, just like those of James Sunderland — a cover to keep him from remembering what really happened. While there, he was touched by the darkness of the town and learned of Walter Sullivan, a rather notorious murderer (the Bundy or Gein of the Silent Hill universe).
The Hole doesn't in fact exist. He's not locked in, he's locked the rest of the world out. He clearly doesn't get along with people at all, evidenced by his lack of emotion (he's practically a robot) and so has sealed himself in his appartment with the diary of Joseph. The "Scraps" that are pushed under his door are in fact left there by his own hand. He "Rediscovers" them because his subconscious is trying to force him toward a revelation and show him that he's not in control.
The places he visits aren't accessed by holes, but on foot. The car that we see in the "Forest World" is in fact the car he drove there in, hence its open door and proximity to him. He's driven all the way to Silent Hill, then blacked out once more. When he blacks out again, he drives back home.
Then the victims. Cynthia's death is perhaps the most shocking, but it's heavily suggested that Henry has issues with women, given his voyeuristic spying on Eileen. When Cynthia teases him, it causes some kind of break in his mind and the "Other" takes control (much like the main character of Lost Highway, a movie Silent Hill has referenced more than once). His brutal assault of Cynthia is motivated by his own sexual frustration (such frustration being a common series theme, see the monsters of Silent Hill 2). Her "Dying words" are all in his head, as she is in fact already dead. Think about it. Her last words are regret she never got to have sex with him? Unlikely. But Henry objectifies women; he's unable to see them as anything but sex objects, hence dressing Eileen in a stereotypical "nurses' outfit".
Jasper knows too much and is the only survivor of the Walter Sullivan killings. The "Other" prompts Henry to kill him but knows enough to wait until the time is right. He lures Jasper into the house; we don't see Jasper visibly enter the "Wish House" because the story is told from Henry's normal frame of reference and he won't acknowledge that he was who lured Jasper into the Wish House. When Jasper talks about meeting the "Devil", he's actually referring to Henry, whom he now recognizes as a sociopath. Henry is actually the one who sets him on fire and carves the numbers into his chest, but he externalizes it. It's easier for him to see Jasper commit suicide than admit that he's done such terrible things.
Incidentally, Henry can read the childish writing that he finds in the Forest World just fine. His "Other" understands that this is the bloody tale of Walter's early life and how he suffered during it. But Henry won't or can't accept that, and tries to block out all conscious knowledge of Sullivan and his crimes. He's in a psychic fugue state, unable to comprehend the reality of his situation. That's why Eileen can read the writing just fine: unlike Henry, she's not delusional.
Desalvo is a scumbag and, with Henry inheriting Joseph's knowledge of the Wish House, he would know all about the cruel, evil stuff Desalvo was involved with. The "Other" will want to murder him, but can't, because he's safely locked in a prison cell. Think about it. Desalvo is perfectly safe while locked away. Nothing has attempted to harm him. But the MINUTE Henry unlocks the door, the "Child Walter" manifests.On how Desalvo can see it if this is all just part of Henry's warped psyche: it's necessary to remember that Silent Hill has a way of manifesting characters' inner thoughts. The "Child Walter" is made manifest because Desalvo is linked to Walter's childhood in Henry's mind. Henry, having been directed by the "Other" to free Desalvo (who likely locked himself in the prison cell to keep himself safe), then hunts him down and drowns him in the very room in which the other children were tortured. Henry then regains control and comes face to face with Desalvo's corpse. Note that Desalvo has no last words; because Henry had no emotional connection with Desalvo, his subconscious needed not craft a death scene for him.
Blacking out again, Henry returns to the apartment, where he sees more of his neighbor, Richard Braintree. More importantly, he sees him with Eileen, the subject of his unhealthy fixation. So the "Other" suggests the perfect thing to do... KILL HIM.Kill Richard, it tells him, and Eileen can be ours.
So he kidnaps Richard. All Richard's lines about coming through a "Hole" are purely in Henry's head, which is why Richard abandons him. Again, think about it. Why would Richard leave Henry behind? It's because he has no idea what Henry is talking about. He's saying things that Henry is hearing completely differently, his mind having substituted a different reality.
Note that when Richard encounters the "Child Walter", Henry sees the encounter from afar, in a lift. It is in fact Henry himself who Richard is speaking to, or rather "The Other". The Henry in the lift is Henry's normal personality. He views his split personality (the "Other") as Walter in his child form and views the interaction this way because he feels trapped. He's in a lift that looks like a cage, unable to make himself heard or seen. This symbolizes his personality being submerged and imprisoned. He can see what his "other" is doing but cannot stop them or interfere. The lift descending is a sign of Henry's original personality being further and further submerged.Much of what follows is all in his head. When he finally comes to see Richard, he's already dying, but Henry only makes a half-hearted attempt to rescue him. Richard stutters about the 11121 man, but he's not talking about a phantom. He's saying Henry IS the 11121 man.
The final victim, Eileen, is the most important. Throughout the game, we've seen how obsessed Henry is with her. He's clearly a sexually frustrated man, happy to look but unwilling to get near to people. His obvious discomfort when Cynthia offers him a "Special Favour" speaks volumes.The message "Better check on your neighbor soon!" is his subconscious trying to warn him of what his split personality wants to do. He leaves his apartment, something he can suddenly do with ease, and proceeds to confront Eileen in her apartment. She's horrified by his advances on her, as she barely knows him. In a rage, he brutally assaults her.When his conscious mind takes over, he is horrified by what he's seeing and so has to create an external source. The "Child Walter" is his scapegoat.
Now here is where it gets even more complicated. Henry is said to be the "Receiver of Wisdom". Some take this to mean learning of Walter Sullivan's crimes, but I believe it actually means he's meant to confront what he's become. That is why he's taken to the various sites of his crimes: to be shown the truth.
Think about it. In the Hospital, he regresses to an inhuman state and rips the heart from a corpse, disgusting himself so much that he once again manifests the "Other" as Walter. However, he's now beginning to lose his grip on his innocence, and so manifests Walter as an adult. Children in Silent Hill have previously been used as a symbol of innocence (e.g. Laura from SH2), and his "Other" now appearing as an adult is his subconscious slowly helping him understand his corruption.
The nurses Henry sees in the hospital are, in fact, real people whom he gleefully kills, once again demonstrating his issues with women (as with James). He makes them appear monstrous because he views women as threatening and unequal to himself. Similarly, in one room, he encounters a giant version of Eileen's head, making sexual moaning sounds. That's all he sees Eileen as: a pretty face, a sex object. Her personality doesn't matter, as he's never bothered to learn anything about her. He's interested only in her looks and sex.
When he finds Eileen, the interaction between them is, of course, entirely imagined. In fact, Eileen is his captive from this point on. But he, in his desperate need for companionship, essentially turns her into his sidekick in his mind. Think about it: Would a badly injured woman, barely able to walk, having just suffered a horrendous assault, gladly leave a hospital with a man she'd never met to trawl horrific locales? Of course not. The entire "Daring duo on an adventure" scenario is what Henry WANTS his life to be.
From here, it only gets worse. Eileen's injuries appear worse throughout the game because Henry is repeatedly assaulting her, and possibly doing far worse. The disjointed nonsense she speaks is his own mind beginning to break, his brain buckling under the sheer weight of his delusions and conflicting personalities. Here is where it all begins to come together.
Some find the repeated revisiting of worlds boring. However, I believe it wasn't a case of filler, but the design team trying to show us something important. What happens when Henry revisits these worlds? The ghosts of the characters killed appear. What do they do? They try to kill him.Now, I cannot claim to know how a ghost thinks, but I find it unlikely that they would seek revenge on a perfectly innocent man. The reason all the various spirits assault him is that he is in fact their killer. Remember that the creatures of Silent Hill's "Otherworld" are summoned by the protagonists' subconsciouses. Thus, Henry's subconscious is trying to show him his guilt by summoning these vengeful spirits into the material world.Cynthia is the most telling. The image of a girl in a pale white dress with long black hair is a famous Japanese image (made so Stateside by films like "The Grudge" and "The Ring") and in many stories she's a woman greatly wronged by a man. Which man does Cynthia attack? HENRY. This is a sign that he bears the guilt for what happened.And how does Henry immobilize said spirit if he chooses to? A "Sword of OBEDIENCE". Henry wants control, craves it. He literally pins down his prey — forces them to stay where he wants them.In the Forest World, we again see a sign of Henry's fractured psyche. The entire Wish House has burnt down. The question is: why didn't Henry remember that? He blacked out and awoke in his bed. How did he get from point A to point B? The Other took control and got him there, that's how.We also see how Eileen can read perfectly the writing Henry can't. This is because, as mentioned earlier, Henry is out of touch with reality. The "Walter" that attacks him and Eileen is in fact, HIM. His "Other" takes over at various points, causing him to attack Eileen, and when she tries to defend herself, he rationalizes it as "Walter" also attacking him.The apartment world is also telling of Henry's mental state. He knows, from the notes he gathered, that Walter thought it was his mother. So how does Henry see it? Rotting and corrupt. The Apartment World is Henry's critique of the female gender. It's the "Other" that seizes the umbilical cord from Frank Sunderland, desperate to cling to its identity versus Henry's own. By now, the "Other" and Henry are in a war for control. The Other causes adult Walter to manifest and tell Henry the tale of him meeting a young Eileen and being shown kindness by her, merely to taunt Henry, as if to say "Even this monster was shown more affection by Eileen than you ever were, Henry. You're pathetic".
Henry is really starting to fall apart at the seams now. His Other continues to taunt him, moving his shoes around, turning the TV and radio off and on to show Henry that he can take control at any time, that Henry isn't in control of his own actions. The "Ghost Henry" that he sees outside his apartment is symbolic. It's his mind trying to warn him that his original personality is dying, being drowned out by the monster that is the "Other".
Eileen escapes from him at this point and he rationalities it as her being "Taken" by the "Other". In a rage, he smashes down the wall and re-discovers Walter's body, the body Joseph dug from the ground. Henry has, in fact, known of its existence for some time. The system of wires around it is perhaps the most disgusting part. I believe it was a sign that Henry was "Feeding" the corpse the blood of his victims, as a symbolic way of "Feeding" the "Other" and thus helping it grow in strength.Note that the items on the table are the ones James Sunderland used to resurrect Mary in one possible ending. In fact, James is referenced several times in this game. Even without the other callbacks, it's a blatant hint, tying Henry to another deeply disturbed, delusional individual.
The "Always Watching" voice that Henry starts hearing around this time is the voice of the "Other", sharing his body. Indeed, his other personality is always watching Henry, and is taking pleasure in taunting him. Henry recaptures Eileen at this point, having finally been driven mad.
The climax of the game is, in my opinion, actually Henry's final confrontation with himself. We see Eileen, or at least his vision of Eileen, stepping down into a huge pool of blood with an orb in the center, while a massive beast looms over her. The "Beast" represents Henry devoid of his original self, fully controlled by the "Other". Personally, I feel this is not Henry wishing to kill Eileen, but in fact his own subconscious warring over his desire to rape her and "Sacrifice" her innocence. Henry clearly objectifies Eileen throughout this scene; the blood and the helpless, powerless woman (muscular, bestial man looming over her) seem to be the ultimate expression of that.
The "Walter" Henry sees is his "Other". It's him, trying to tell himself what he cannot bear to know. He even calls Henry the "Receiver of Wisdom" and actually says "It's You, Henry", but Henry refuses to acknowledge the horrible truth. Henry then begins his fight with himself, a mental battle played out as a physical one.Once again we see Henry's sexual frustration. To defeat the beast, he must violently and repeatedly PENETRATE it with phallic spears.
In my opinion, the real ending is the most bleak one. Henry believes he has defeated the Beast, but in giving in to rage, he has simply strengthened the "Other". Henry collapses to the ground, clutching his head in pain and perhaps, finally realizing what he truly is, as "Walter" laughs triumphantly.
Henry rapes and murders Eileen before returning to his apartment. There, he finally finds the spirit of Walter, still a child. Walter as such may have never even been guilty of any of the crimes. He was compelled to commit the original ones in Silent Hill by the "Red Devil" mentioned in the Silent Hill 2 news report. The later crimes were committed by Joseph and Henry himself.
That is why the final scene is of the child Walter lying in the room and the adult Walter dead. Henry has seen his guilt and realized what he truly is. The adult Walter is Henry, a representation of how he sees himself. The child Walter is the spirit of Walter Sullivan, finally at peace, no longer controlled by the town and no longer forced to share an apartment with those similarly affected.
Another clue: At one point, in his apartment, Henry opens his fridge to find "Slabs of flesh" that later disappear. He's been storing pieces of his victims in his home. It's notable that Henry doesn't have any great reaction to this discovery, almost as if he won't let himself be shocked by it. Their subsequent disappearance is his "Other" taking over and disposing of them.
Then there's the blood all over his shower, not from a supernatural source but from him washing himself off after a slaying. The "Hole" in his cupboard is actually a place he is keeping Eileen, which is why the sound of a woman sobbing is always heard whenever he goes near it. It's also the reason for all the blood around the room at various points.
- I thought Joseph was the one who poked the hole in the wall? (Of course, Henry uses it inappropriately, but still.)
- Joseph is just one more facet of Henry's mania. The ghosts are brought into being by his warped mind (Because in and around Silent Hill, thought and reality are more or less one); that's why they're twisted versions of their true selves. It's all part of Henry's Sullivan obsession that, like Joseph before him, lead him to commit copycat crimes.
- The endings, since they are based on how much damage has been done to Eileen and how many hauntings remain in Henry's apartment, are a clue to the real endings. In Escape, Eileen escapes, and Henry (his insanity suppressed along with the hauntings) doesn't go after her. In Mother, she still escapes, but Henry tracks her down at the hospital due to still being significantly influenced by "Walter". In Eileen's Death, Henry kills Eileen but triumphs over the Walter persona by suppressing the hauntings, and in 21 Sacraments, Henry kills Eileen and gives in to his insanity.
- I doubt the Other wins out if Eileen is saved. I would suggest that if Eileen doesn't die, then Henry wins out over the Other no matter what, whereas if Eileen is killed, then Henry regains control of himself only after the Other is already finished with its bloody work, and thus is no longer really fighting for control. The hauntings would represent Henry's mad desire to see the twenty-one sacraments completed. Thus in Escape, Eileen doesn't escape, Henry lets her go, because he has completely defeated the Other and abandoned his desire to see the twenty-one sacraments completed. In Mother, Henry doesn't kill her and, presumably, triumphs over the Other, but he continues to obsess over and dominate (or at least stalk) Eileen, even if he isn't physically hurting her anymore, which is represented by Eileen moving back to the haunted apartment shown in the Mother ending. Henry still wants to complete the twenty-one sacraments, but has achieved enough control that he's no longer willing to kill for it. In Eileen's Death, Henry frees himself of the desire to complete the 21 sacraments, but only after the Other has already slaughtered Eileen. Henry himself is the only sacrifice who escapes, the Other leaving only after it's already finished killing everyone other than itself/Henry. In '21 Sacraments', the Other wins out completely, killing first Eileen, then Henry through suicide.
- Right, for the Mother ending, I didn't mean to imply that he killed her at or after the hospital, just that the suppressed (or gone but still influential) Other was still causing his obsession. If he makes sure to keep Eileen safe but doesn't remove all of the hauntings, it implies that Henry's protection of Eileen would be strong enough to keep him from harming her despite the Other still having a degree of influence.
- I doubt the Other wins out if Eileen is saved. I would suggest that if Eileen doesn't die, then Henry wins out over the Other no matter what, whereas if Eileen is killed, then Henry regains control of himself only after the Other is already finished with its bloody work, and thus is no longer really fighting for control. The hauntings would represent Henry's mad desire to see the twenty-one sacraments completed. Thus in Escape, Eileen doesn't escape, Henry lets her go, because he has completely defeated the Other and abandoned his desire to see the twenty-one sacraments completed. In Mother, Henry doesn't kill her and, presumably, triumphs over the Other, but he continues to obsess over and dominate (or at least stalk) Eileen, even if he isn't physically hurting her anymore, which is represented by Eileen moving back to the haunted apartment shown in the Mother ending. Henry still wants to complete the twenty-one sacraments, but has achieved enough control that he's no longer willing to kill for it. In Eileen's Death, Henry frees himself of the desire to complete the 21 sacraments, but only after the Other has already slaughtered Eileen. Henry himself is the only sacrifice who escapes, the Other leaving only after it's already finished killing everyone other than itself/Henry. In '21 Sacraments', the Other wins out completely, killing first Eileen, then Henry through suicide.
- While this theory sounds somewhat interesting, it's highly unlikely. The fact that Henry cared about Cynthia and Eileen more than Richard and Andrew is more of a explanable reason than a "random coincidence". For starters, Henry actually socialized with the female victims, so he is more likely to form a bond with them by default. He tried to socialize with converse with Richard, but Richard just wasn't interested; Jasper Gein, on the other hand, was just too out of this world to even speak to. Henry didn't even try to converse with Jasper seeing as a conversation with a apparently mentally challenged person would go nowhere. So, no, Henry isn't gender discriminate.
- When I stated that Henry (Walter Sullivan) was the receiver of wisdom that meant he discovered an ultimate deep mind shattering truth, he received the truth in so many words. That's why you get a chance to fight him after you've discovered all the dead hanging bodies, which is really the ugly truth. Now since he's gotten a revelation of some kind he has the power to complete the 21 sacraments. We know that when Walter commits suicide again it's very nasty, when the radio person says the dead body was disfigured beyond recognition, but it's not really for killing him. Him dying again is him and coming back to life is the final offering to the ritual. First he had to die in his human form to become the eleventh victim, after that he had to go back to finding victims to kill except this time they had to fit a specific theme, but with his new supernatural, (I'm not trying to use the lord's name in vain but) God-like powers like the text said, it should be easier. As a previous troper stated, Joseph commited the Round two murders. He did it against his will, however, whenever he would venture out; that's right, his diary never said he was trapped in his room and we don't have any proof that Joseph carved that hole in Henry's apartment, and in one of Joseph's notes, didn't he say he'll investigate Walter Sullivan's graveyard after all the cops left, meaning he did have a chance to get help if he was really trapped. So Walter possessed Joseph and committed the round two murders all over again. When it's Joseph's turn to be sacrificed, he lets him have control so Joseph can see what he's done so he'll be so overwhelmed with guilt and [despair] that he'll commit suicide to save Walter the effort of having to kill Joseph himself. Then he'd take on the form of another ma n(despite that part not being necessary); notice how Henry didn't move into room 302 right after Joseph died so he wouldn't draw any suspicion. Live a normal life until he runs into the people to sacrifice to his mother, experience some sort of mind boggling truth and commit suicide again in his immortal state, come back to life and the 21 sacraments will be completed.
- I forgot that when Evil Walter is "working his magic", on a place it seems normal to anyone not in the vicinity, such as Henry being locked up in his apartment, and no one being able to tell if anything's wrong, so also there's the possibility of this. While South Ashfield's going to hell, he is casting an illusion on the town to make it appear normal because he has the town in another dimension. In the Silent Hill movie, it's stated that you can't just go to Silent Hill, you can't find it anywhere on the Earth despite it being on the Earth, because Silent Hill itself is in a seperate dimension on the Earth, and Henry stated that he is trapped in another dimension and couldn't contact anyone else, meaning Walter could have South Ashfield in the palm in his hands, making him the Devil and South Ashfield or his kingdom hell. Making it another Silent Jill. Maybe Silent Hill will make a game that will take place in South Ashfield or make a game with it in the title like "Silent Hill South Ashfield (something I don't know)".
Since Eileen was awoken in the Otherworld hospital and not the real-world hospital, it can be further speculated that Henry has "woken" her spirit while she was resting and brought her along, also astral-projecting, despite the fact that she is normally incapable of this. She is only injured because she perceives herself as being injured, which is why instead of further injuries crippling her, she simply begins to become possessed. Unlike Henry, she doesn't have Alessa's abilities to shield her from malevolent entities. Or Walter, for that matter.
In the "Escape" and "Eileen's Death" endings, the room loses its power, but in the "21 Sacraments" and "Mother" endings, the room will continue to endow its occupants with supernatural abilities.
He then isolates himself from everyone and begins living in Silent Hill alone. In those days living there, his hair has become long and he wears a coat, and begins his killings again under the name Walter Sullivan. The police has arrest him; this is part of Johan's plan to commit suicide while being locked up. He finally did it, but his murders in Silent Hill have been part of a ritual to brought him back as a ghost. His soul splits into two: the psychopathic adult (the Monster personality) and the normal child (the normal personality). Johan has transferred his dead body into Room 302 and plans the murders again to have someone kill the Monster personality. That's when Henry Townsend gets to do it and successfully killed that personality.
- Alternatively, Johan is the reincarnation of Walter Sullivan.
- You have no idea how that made me screech. Though that begs the question: does that make the orphanage Walter was in 511 Kinderheim?
Both Eileen and Henry have recollections of being together. The exchange on the hospital in the good endings imply that, at the very least, Henry was not her aggressor and that the victims really did share the experiences they lived through in Walter's worlds. Moreover, the worst ending has Henry's face disfigured beyond recognition. Barring some improbable shenanigans, that implies he was not his own killer; he would have died well before inflicting disfiguring wounds to that extreme. If we knew the wounds were made post-mortem, that last fact would have been incontestable; unfortunately, we don't have that information at hand. Note here that because both Eileen and Henry have recollections of the events of the game and because of the fact that Eileen seems to get possessed by Walter the more she's hit by him or his demons (a trait no other victim seems to possess), Eileen is the best candidate to be the "real" Walter, and the development and ending of the game would then be but a folie à deux, Eileen being the one responsible for all of "Walter"'s killings, and Henry believing in her psychosis where a separate entity is stalking them and killing people around them. That last assumption gains strength when you realize that:
- Walter was a medic[al student], while Eileen has a nurse costume, hinting at her working as a nurse; they have similar abilities. She could have easily faked the surgical stitches performed on Walter's victims. It makes more sense than a freelance photographer faking them.
- The Shabby Doll was originally Eileen's. If Henry stores it on his inventory box, he runs the risk of setting an apparition loose on his apartment. Why would Walter hand out and let alone curse one of his victim's possessions, aside from it coming from one of his sacraments (again, a trait no other victim's possessions have) is left unclear. If Eileen really is Walter, then it would make sense; Eileen would give Henry the doll in order to mark him out and curse him; the doll has no real value for her; she's just playing around the folie à deux. That would also explain the hazy meeting Eileen had with Walter; note that her tutor would not only let her be near a shady man, but also let her hand a doll out to him. Eileen was actually reminiscing on the time she first decided to become "Walter", which may or may not be an alternate personality. This may also imply that she's either a female-to-male transgender when being Walter, or having problems with being female. Her Walter side is essentially motherless, since he was technically not born from a real mother. Room 302 is probably the place where he began "having consciousness", after an undisclosed event, probably the coming of the presumed "real" Walter. That last bit about Eileen having problems with being female gains strength if you notice the female victims were more brutalized than the male ones (Miriam getting completely hacked while her brother just received an ax to the head, Cynthia being completely covered in knife wounds, Eileen almost getting killed by hitting her until she dies, etc).
- As I've said, Eileen "connects" with Walter's memories and personality the more she is brutalized by him or his minions. Going by the assumption above, she hates being female, and sees getting hit by Walter's manifestations as a way of becoming him. Outside of that assumption, it could be seen as her "Eileen" part and her "Walter" part contesting each other for dominance. Depending on how much damage she endures, she can really act like if she's Walter, especially on the scrapbook scene. She also goes towards the death machine faster the more she had been damaged, which would be the complete opposite of what should happen; the more wounded she is, the more sluggish she should become due to the pain and debilitating hits endured, mind control or not. Based on the previous assumptions, the endings are determined not by Eileen's damage and exorcism rate of the room, but whether or not Eileen's "Eileen" side wins against her "Walter" side (Walter gets rid of the Eileen on his body if she dies in-game) and whether or not Henry submitted to the folie à deux (letting his room be haunted by Walter's apparitions would mean he is accepting Walter as the "real Eileen", and not Eileen herself). Note here that Walter's "win" conditions are to have possession over Henry['s apartment] and to kill Eileen. Even if he gets killed by Henry before Walter can kill him, he succeeds. His real objective is to kill his female self; Henry's sacrifice is an extra he is aiming to, which I'll explain in a while.
- Walter is unable to kill Eileen until the end of the game. Little Walter saved Eileen once from big Walter, which could hint at the Walter persona starting out as an imaginary friend for Eileen, and he remembered it before killing her for the first time. He then changed tactics; he tried to gain control over Eileen's part of their mind and make her commit suicide, as to not have to kill her himself. The damage Eileen endures during the game debilitates her control over her mind, while increasing Walter's. Walter wins if Eileen dies at the last scene, and vice-versa. Her survival is also partly determined by Henry, the second participant of the dual psychosis. Even if he prevented Walter from harming Eileen, giving him an almost sure-fire way to save her from Walter, it is still possible for him to stall until Eileen dies. He basically is responsible for breaking the delusion and letting Eileen be Eileen, or continuing to believe in Walter and thus letting Walter take over Eileen completely before murdering Henry and committing suicide (or he could just let himself get killed, depending on the ending).
- We at least know that the "real" Walter was delusional. We know there had to be at least a "real" Walter killing people because of Silent Hill 2's magazine article on the subject; it's highly unlikely that the police officers would confuse Eileen for a male Walter. He at least killed Billy and Miriam Locane, and then tried to incriminate a so-called "Red Devil" before committing suicide. It is possible that the "Red Devil" was Eileen's "Walter" forcing the "real" Walter to kill and take the blame for him. As it's hinted that the "real" Walter was a follower of the one of Silent Hill's sects, as seen on the Wish House, it's possible that he actually thought Eileen was the reincarnation of God, aptly dressed in red on her depictions◊, and he decided to call her the Red Devil instead of God because of the atrocities she forced him to do (the Xuchilbara/Executioner imagery comes to mind, also). It then becomes completely plausible that, knowing where Walter was buried, Eileen profaned his tomb, took away his body, and crucified him in room 302.
Regarding Joseph Schreiber's intention for the effects of this WMG: Joseph had no choice but to let Henry know about Walter. The information he provides as the Giver of Wisdom serves not the purpose of arming Henry with the necessary knowledge to thwart Walter's plans, but to make him apt for sacrifice. Regardless of the Walter's intentions, Henry's role required him to be present at Walter's killings after Joseph and to know about Walter's past (which Joseph obediently recollected). If Walter wanted to succeed, he had no option but to hand Henry the layout of his life (and possibly the ways to thwart his plans). Joseph is not machinating in favour of Henry, but against him. Joseph's equivalence is number XV: the Devil. Whether it's straight or reversed, the Devil has negative connotations, so, regardless of circumstances, Joseph's ghost was trying to cause harm to Henry, or diminishing his probabilities at surviving. As Joseph appears upside-down on Room 302 of the Past, the most probable card layout intended for Joseph was reverted, which incidentally bears the most negative meanings for the given card. The scene is also reminiscent the card's layout: a demon (victimized Joseph under Walter's control) surrounded by a man and a woman chained to him (in the sense that all what he is doing is harming their probabilities at escaping Walter's plans). The dream at the beginning could be seen either as Joseph's spirit trying to get Henry's trust, one way or another, in order to manipulate him easily, or as a form of forcing Henry to know the truth before the Red Diary scraps and later the upside-down apparition were introduced in play.
- The nightmare at the beginning of the game, and Henry's ponderings of whether what's going on is "another dream" at first.
- The fridge is completely empty except a wine bottle (that's probably already been drunk, considering Henry uses it as a weapon) and chocolate milk (which Henry apparently despises, because he gives it to Jasper instead).
No wonder he seems like he's in a fugue state all the time. He can't tell if he's awake or dreaming, and his blood sugar's so low his ability to make sound decisions is severely compromised.