This moment is when the protagonist; James Sutherland, has just discovered that he is responsible for his wife’s death. The game has taken a very dark turn and everything begins to get a little messed up as we head towards the finale of the game.

The doors he heads through do not lead to where they are supposed to, but following these will ultimately leads him to the bottom of a staircase as fire burns all around.

Here we see Angela; the 19 or so year old girl who is a little off. The last time we saw her we had just fought her “father”, which was some strange bed-like monster (a representation of her father molesting her). Now we find her in the middle of this staircase staring at strange grotesque bloody skin pictures, and then the ‘Theme of Laura Reprised’ kicks in, which itself is a brilliant piece of music.

She turns and sees James as her mother and approaches him, only to realise that she is mistaken. The whole scene feels a little silly until suddenly Angela takes a dark turn and asks if James has come to “save her”, to which James cannot answer because he recently discovered that he has come to Silent Hill to die or be punished for what he has done.

She asked him for the knife she gave him when they first met, implying that she is most likely going to use it to take her own life. When he refuses, she asks if he is going to use it on himself. He says no, but something in his voice tells you that he is not sure.

She then ascends the stairs as the fire subtly blocks the path between the two of you.
James says to her “It’s hot as hell in here”, to which Angela turns around and calmly says “You see it to? For me… it’s always like this”. She leaves, the scene ends and we never see her again for the rest of the game, nor can we follow because of the fire blocking your path, so you have no choice but to turn around and leave.

This scene for me was so powerful as it gave us a significant clue that everyone sees Silent Hill in a completely different way. For Angela, because she killed her parents by burning down her house, the strange force in Silent Hill is forcing her to remember by having everything ablaze all around her. We get a look into her tormented suffering for a brief instant and realise the harrowing pain that she has lived with.

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