James Sunderland

General CVG character
name=James Sunderland


caption=
series="Silent Hill" series
firstgame="Silent Hill 2"
voiceactor=Guy Cihi
inuniverse=Silent Hill character
age="28"
occupation=Clerk

James Sunderland is the protagonist in the Konami video game "Silent Hill 2". As the game begins, James states that his wife, Mary Shepherd-Sunderland, has been dead for three years. Regardless, James has received a mysterious letter in Mary's handwriting, stating him that she is alive and waiting for him in their "special place," somewhere in Silent Hill. When James arrives at the town, he becomes ensnared in a series of bizarre and nightmarish events which force him to question his sanity. He is not the only one summoned to Silent Hill; Two others, Eddie Dombrowski and Angela Orosco, have been drawn to the town by similar forces. Due to the player's actions during gameplay and their own interpretation of James, his personalty can be different for each game, ranging from James being uncaring about his own life to being a normal person with good intentions.

Prelude

According to the Konami publication "Book of Lost Memories", James was a clerk prior to his arrival in Silent Hill. Three years prior to the game, his wife Mary is struck with a terminal disease, and eventually deteriorates to the point of having violent mood swings. At an unspecified date, James smothered Mary with a pillow to end both their suffering.

James then drives to Silent Hill, with "Lost Memories" [http://translatedmemories.com/bookpgs/Pg98-99.jpgsuggesting] he came to kill himself in the town they cherished, but before he arrives, his mind snaps from the trauma of killing Mary and he represses the memory. Instead, he becomes convinced not only that Mary has been dead for three years but that he has received a posthumous letter from her. It is at this stage that the player takes control of James, to discover the real events leading up to this point during gameplay. Late in the game, the handwriting on "Mary's letter" vanishes, revealing itself to be a piece of blank stationery (it later becomes an empty envelope, and finally vanishes from James' inventory completely).

"Silent Hill 2"

James enters the town via hiker's path, a trail the designers created to be purposefully long in order to increase the players sense of isolation, eventually meeting Angela, who has also just arrived in Silent Hill. James disregards Angela’s warnings about the town and reaches the main roads only to discover that the entire area is covered in fog and infested with grotesque monsters. He tries to find he and his wife's "Special Place" mentioned in the letter he got from his wife.

James' first guess as to Mary's "Special Place" happens to be his first destination, Rosewater Park. Because all direct routes are destroyed or barricaded, he must cross through an abandoned apartment complex, where he meets Eddie Dombrowski. The apartments are also the scene of James' first encounter with Pyramid Head, a relentless persecutor who hunts down and terrorizes him at several points in the game. James repeatedly runs into a mysterious little girl Laura who continually taunts him.

When James reaches Rosewater Park's lakeside observation deck, James thinks he sees his wife, but is mistaken when the scantily clad woman introduces herself as Maria. James agrees to let Maria accompany him for safety's sake. While tracking Laura to Brookhaven Hospital, Maria stops to rest in a patient's room, claiming to have a mild hangover. James, after traveling the monster-infested hospital, finds Laura who then convinces him to get a letter from Mary in a room. She then locks the room trapping James in with some creatures called Flesh Lips. After defeating the monsters, James quickly finds that the hospital has been horribly transformed. He finds Maria and they try to find a way out of the hospital. In the basement, Pyramid Head reappears behind both of them, and Maria is gored by the creature's spear while James is helpless to save her.

After exploring the town some more he finds a key that lets him into Silent Hill Historical Society, which according to the map is also a port to get to the Lakeview Hotel. However he soon finds a series of disturbing secret entrances and bizarre holes that lead him into Toluca Prison. Eddie resurfaces again in the cafeteria, now armed with a revolver and is once more sitting in close proximity of a human corpse. James attempts to reason with Eddie, but his reasoning has no effect on him.

As James explores the empty prison facility, he finds himself within a maze. He relocates Angela, who is being terrorized by the "Abstract Daddy," a creature representing Angela's abusive father. After injuring the monster, Angela finishes off the monster in a series of violent attacks and has a tense confrontation with James. Pressing on, James finds Maria, locked inside a cell, alive and unscathed following her death in Brookhaven Hospital. Maria comes onto James and beckons him to find a way into her cell. She also undergoes a change in personality, switching between Mary and Maria's personalities at random. Maria also drops clues regarding Mary's "special place" and a videotape she and James made together.

Eventually, James locates an alternate route to the cell, but upon entering, finds Maria lying dead on the bed. James exits the cell, and eventually stumbles upon Eddie surrounded by bullet-ridden corpses. Eddie gleefully admits the solution to his problems is killing. When James protests, Eddie says that James is making fun of him too and attacks him. James injures Eddie who runs into the next room revealing that both he and James were summoned to the town for a similar reason. James is then forced to kill Eddie in a gun battle inside a meat locker.

Emerging at an old pier at the edge of Toluca Lake, James sees a bright light that is visible from the northern shore; He boards a rowboat and makes the journey to the opposite side. The light is emanating from the Lakeview Hotel, which looks exactly the same as when he stayed there with Mary. James finds Laura there who hands him a letter that she got from Mary and leaves James again.

James locates the old videotape mentioned earlier by Maria, and finds his way to Room 312, where he and Mary had stayed on their holiday. Inserting the tape into a player, James watches a static-ridden video of himself as he smothers Mary to death with her pillow. Laura enters the room and asks James if he has found Mary yet and James tells her what really happened. Laura proceeds to yell at him and leaves, which is the last we see of her. Exiting the room, James finds the hotel flooded and burnt-out and eventually comes across Angela on a stairwell surrounded by fire. Angela and James speak for the last time and despite James’ pleas, Angela proceeds up the stairs which are blocked by the flames.

Entering what was once the lobby, James finds Maria, alive and tied down, screaming for James' as she’s surrounded by two Pyramid Heads. For a third time, Maria is killed and James finally understands what Pyramid Head and Maria are. The Pyramid Heads are a part of James’ himself, created subconsciously to punish him for murdering his wife. Refusing to flee from his opponents, he turns and attacks the Pyramid Heads. With James now seeking vengeance as opposed to punishment, the Pyramid Heads cease to function and they deliberately impale themselves on their spears.

James finally meets a woman who resembles Mary before the final boss fight. The outcome of this encounter is determined by the player's action during the game.

Outcome

Depending on the player's actions throughout gameplay, there are several separate endings which can occur. A complete list of the games endings can be found here.