→ [headcanon]

[yardbird]

i miss you; close your eyes;
let's meet in our dreams tonight

[Because I have nothing better to do with my life, have a list of various headcanon things I've filled in for Murphy's history. This is more of a reference for myself than anything else, but I just thought it'd be cool to share. Bah.]

---

Heather Mason: Murphy Pendleton... How do I begin to explain Murphy Pendleton?
Annie Cresta: Murphy Pendleton is flawless.
Chase: I hear his mustache's insured for $10,000.
Topher Brink: I hear he does car commercials... in Silent Hill.
Tate Langdon: His favorite movie is Reservoir Dogs.
Harry Dresden: One time he met James Sunderland on a plane...
John Tillman: - And he told him he was pretty.
Alex Shepherd: One time he punched me in the face... it was awesome.

→ EARLY LIFE
→ FAMILY LIFE, BEFORE AND AFTER THE DAMAGE
→ INCARCERATION
→ PRESENT

→ SOME ADDITIONAL STUFF

→ FROM THE HEADCANON MEME

→ IT'S SEXY TIME

→ Justifying Truth and Justice As Downpour's "Canon" Ending...

because i'm
free;

Comments

EARLY LIFE

[yardbird]

→ Murphy's birthday is October 25, 1972. He is also a Scorpio. Groovy!

→ Murphy's parents were killed "in an accident" when he was fairly young. The only family he ever mentions having was his grandmother (and that she owned a gramophone). It's likely that she was either too old and incapable of raising him, or she died shortly after.

→ Either way, Murphy was actually raised at St. Mary's Orphanage (definitely not Saint Maria's from Silent Hill, though the likeness is uncanny).

→ In the extras, Murphy states that he was grateful to the nuns there who gave their lives for them, and were mothers to the children there. Murphy had also spent most of his life at the Irish community in Boston, where criminal and gang-related activities were quite common. That boy needs therapy.

→ During his adolescence, Murphy got wrapped up in the wrong crowd of people. He partook in criminal activity throughout his youth, though it was mostly harmless stuff. Vandalism, petty theft, underaged drinking, and other juvenile things.

→ No matter what he did, Murphy was never caught, unless if you counted the disciplinaries from the Mother Superior. You don't mess with nuns, man.

→ Between the ages of 15 and 17, one of the nuns helped Murphy get a job at a local movie theater. This was how he met Carol. He'd taken a particular interest in her, which he expressed in an odd way. Mostly in the form of when he stole her bike. This naturally didn't go over very well, particularly after Murphy, after being chased through some woods on the bike, wound up smacking his face against a tree branch and knocked unconscious.

→ In spite of this, Carol somehow forgave him. She and Murphy then became friends. For a year, they shared a very close friendship, though she did try to convince him on several occasions to clean up his act.

→ Old habits die hard, though, and Murphy was faced with choosing the love of his life over his friends. The decision became pretty clear, when Murphy eventually worked up the nerve to ask her out, and decided to take a change for the better.

→ This only became a thing after Murphy was caught trying to hotwire a car. The owner roughed him up some and it nearly got him killed.

→ In spite of his delinquent behavior and whatnot, Murphy was shy in most social affairs. He was that dopey kid who was too shy to actually ask a girl out, so he'd sneak a note in her pocket or something instead. Though he was shy in general when it came to talking to girls.

→ For a few years, they were sweethearts. She helped him when he moved out of the orphanage and into a small apartment after he came of age, while she lived with her parents and went to college.

→ Since he'd quit his job at the movie theater, Murphy worked at a garage under the employ of a mechanic. He became something of a jack-of-all-trades, but was mostly apt with cars, which he'd always taken a great passion and interest in. Over the years, he was hired as people's "fix-it man", and he was good at what he did.

FAMILY LIFE, BEFORE AND AFTER THE DAMAGE

[yardbird]

→ Murphy learned that he was about to become a young pep pep at age 20, which resulted in marriage. He was also lucky enough to experience the wonders of Couvade syndrome while Carol had been carrying their son.

→ By the by, much to Carol's chagrin Murphy absolutely had arranged I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That) to be their designated wedding song. There, I said it... and I'm not even sorry.

→ Somewhere down the line, the new parents were able to afford a Boston townhouse to settle down in. For the most part, it was a nice neighborhood. Except, you know, for that pedophile neighbor they got there.

→ Charlie was born in 1993.

→ Murphy lost his 6-year-old son in March 1999. Charlie went missing for over a week (or at least, long enough that missing posters were distributed) before they found him. Napier had been apparently working for a security company called "Security x Systems", which means that he might have been sent to places like schools where he preyed on kids. Napier had kidnapped Charlie on his way home from school and put him in the back of his truck. Hours or even days later, Napier had Charlie up, put him in a canvas sack and dumped the boy's body in a nearby lake, drowning him. Chances are, Napier was never caught.

→ I would also like to think that Murphy was supposed to pick Charlie up from school the day he was kidnapped. This would explain why he felt that his son's death was his fault, and why Carol took it out on her husband.

→ Charlie Pendleton is buried at St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery.

→ Murphy and Carol attend grief counseling! It's not very effective...

→ On January 2000, another boy from the same school (Robbins Elementary) went missing, Daniel Stephens. In August of the same year, the body of the 8-year-old boy was found underneath a concrete slab in Napier's backyard. Murphy followed the case closely for over a year, in which Napier was found guilty of first-degree.

→ After a year of cycling through their emotions, Carol came to hate Murphy. She started to resent and blame him for their son's death. Because of what Murphy was also putting himself through at the time, he started to believe her and hate himself.

→ Contrary to what was probably recommended by his grief counselor, Murphy picked up a habit of excessive drinking. This became a poor coping mechanism, since he's infinitely more snappish as an angry drunk. I also refuse to believe that the sabotage of his relationship was completely one-sided, so there was some nasty verbal abuse exchanged between the couple before they realized that they were barely holding on to a broken marriage.

→ Also because I am hideous, there was totally an incident in which Murphy and Carol were having a very heated argument, which resulted in very angry sex. (I'm sorry but I blame A History Of Violence for this. Damn you, David Cronenberg) Shortly afterwards, Carol started to file for divorce. When Murphy asked for her to forgive him, that was when she sent him that nasty letter and cut off all ties with him. Women!

→ After they separated, Murphy lived in a cheap hotel for some time, doing odd mechanic jobs to just barely scrape by in life.

INCARCERATION

[yardbird]

→ Though found guilty for the rape and murder of Daniel Stephens, Napier was not convicted of Charlie's death, due to "circumstantial evidence" (hence why he became so short with JP Sater for denying that he was responsible for the deaths of eight kids). This only served to fuel Murphy's anger, which led into him going mad-crazy for awhile.

→ It's slightly hinted that Murphy seems to have issues with mirrors. Not only are they a reflection of the past (as with Frank from later on), but Carol also claimed that she couldn't look at him because when she did, all she saw was Charlie's face. In Silent Hill, with all the themes of mirrors, both distorted and shattered, the shattered mirrors and Murphy's reflection most likely plays a subtle role in how he views himself.

→ His anger turned into something else; punching a mirror in the hotel bathroom, and stormed out with a bloody fist. On February of 2001 (about 2 years after Charlie's death), due to Murphy's issues with authority, he took off with a police cruiser rather than just any other car. It was also not a premeditated decision at all, because ahaha... Murphy is not the kind of guy who plans ahead. He didn't even really have a solid plan for how he would get a hold of Napier.

→ He was arrested in Ashfield. (I like to think that he was arrested outside of South Ashfield Heights, prior to the events of Silent Hill 4.)

→ Murphy's original sentence was probably approximately 6 years in prison (if not more), and he was aiming for the maximum sentence for crossing the state line (between Massachusetts and Maine) and endangering a lot of people.

→ Since CO Frank Coleridge was trying to get him released early, Murphy probably served his time in Ryall State for about two to three years before the murder of Napier.

→ The only reason I can think of why Frank couldn't understand Murphy's temporary insanity and stealing a police car, was because either CO George Sewell conveniently misplaced Murphy's records, or that that kind of info doesn't get put on paper when people get arrested. I honestly have no idea. But Sewell most likely saw that Murphy was basically a time bomb and decided that he would be perfect blackmail material, since Murphy currently had a one-track mind for revenge. This made it easy for Sewell to manipulate Murphy, pull him aside, and strike a deal to help him take out Napier in exchange for a "favor" (not a "special" one). Though he was hesitant to take the offer at first, Murphy fell right into it.

→ Contrary to the dialogue, I go with the Truth and Justice ending -- in that Murphy did kill Napier. More on that here.

→ Murphy killed Patrick Napier in the prison showers of August of 2005. The review regarding "all isolation and segregation procedures" against the prison's murder by Warden Glen Milton demanded a full investigation that had to be turned in by the 21st of November. Because of this investigation, Sewell probably did not orchestrate the prison riot until a year later, when Murphy was due for an early release.

→ I decided that the riot most likely occurred in August 2006 because of a 2006 calendar that can be found at the gas station. The calendar is actually different from the one displaying the month of October, which coordinates with the year 2011. The August calendar, however, would hint a continual loop/reminder to both Anne and Murphy of the day the Ryall State Prison riot, as well as Frank's attack.

→ After the assault on Frank Coleridge and Murphy being framed for it, he most likely received repeated abuse from other guards. The only reason Murphy probably wasn't beaten to death himself was because he was under Sewell's watch now.

PRESENT

[yardbird]

→ The events of Downpour occur in October 2011. Charlie has been dead for about 12 years.

→ Murphy is 39 years old by the time Downpour takes place. He had been incarcerated for approximately 10 years (he's been in jail since 2001, so he's been out of touch with the outside world for the most part since then).

→ It was stated by the developers that Murphy experienced time in solitary confinement. It should be worth noting that solitary confinement is implemented as a form of protective custody (which would make sense, given Sewell's statement, "Cop killers don't make it very long.") and suicide watch (which would also make sense, for obvious reasons). Because this likely happened after Coleridge's attack, Murphy had spent several years in confinement.

→ In Truth And Justice, Murphy is more inclined towards physical violence. While he accepted what he's done and deeply regrets it, he's still a very violent and revenge-driven person with an eye-for-an-eye kind of mentality. It doesn't help that, while he does regret what he'd done to Napier, he can't say he'd take back what he did.

→ Also in the end of Truth And Justice, Murphy tells Anne Cunningham, "There's someplace I gotta be." This was the same thing that JP Sater had said before he jumped to his death. Also, given the repeated nods to suicide throughout the game (especially hanging oneself), it isn't a stretch to think that Murphy would have at least considered it himself, if not for his silly Catholic guilt.

→ Murphy spent several months on the lam, moving from place to place quite frequently. He avoided big towns and major cities, sticking to the countryside while doing odd jobs. Much as he hated to, he had to steal a few cars in order to keep from being caught. He also had to resort to breaking and entering and theft in order to survive.

→ He camped out in the woods a lot, too.

→ And he also made a habit out of sleeping in cars rather than beds.

→ It's unlikely that Anne killed Sewell in Truth and Justice immediately after the events of Downpour. Instead, it was a few months after that he heard news from the radio that a Corrections Officer from Ryall State Prison had been killed. Despite no names being mentioned or even a suspect, Murphy knew enough about Anne's situation to put two and two together.

→ Because of this, Murphy had considered going back to New England and tracking Anne down, maybe even see if he can help. She is Frank's daughter. (And this was actually around the point that he fell into Ataraxion and wound up crossing paths with Anne anyway.)

SOME ADDITIONAL STUFF

[yardbird]

→ Murphy's favorite color is blue. Alternatively, he likes green.

→ After the events of the Truth & Justice ending, no longer does he introduce himself as Murphy Pendleton but "Jack Donahue" back in his own world. This mostly being because Murphy is still a felon on the lam. He had prior knowledge of obtaining fake IDs due to his past history of using them to buy cigarettes and alcohol while he was underaged.

→ Because it's what Murphy mostly grew up on, he actually enjoys classic rock and country music. He's very fond of guys like Johnny Cash (when asked what his favorite songs were, he responded with The Highwayman and I Walk The Line). He also listens to The Rolling Stones, AC/DC, Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, and Willie Nelson.

→ Murphy is a huge dork when it comes to movies. He likes mostly action and crime flicks (he's a huge fan of Quentin Tarantino), but he can stomach the occasional horror (but mostly classic stuff, like Nosferatu and The Twilight Zone). Although his post-Silent Hill experience has made the latter more difficult for him to sit through, but he's not entirely crippled by it.

→ "But did Murphy ever watch Big Trouble in Little China with Charlie?" you ask? Fuck yeah he did, I reply. Maybe followed by a little mancrush on Jack Burton, because come on.

→ P.S. The Karate Kid. Wax on, wax off...

→ Murphy did not go to college. He barely even graduated high school with all the delinquent crap he was pulling. But in order to support his family he had to grow up fast, and that meant busting his ass so that Charlie could eventually go to school and live the life that Murphy never got to.

→ Due to isolation and various other factors, Murphy's concept of time is pretty much nonexistent. Probably not a good idea to ask him what year it was or how old he is.

→ While not crippled by his fears, Murphy is uncomfortable in small and/or confined spaces. The presence of water also unsettles him somewhat, as does most radio chatter and police sirens.

→ It's not a good idea to sneak up on him, or approach him from behind in any way without letting him know ahead of time. Having been jumped by several monsters from behind, he's very alert and does not respond very kindly to surprises.

→ He's actually pretty jumpy in general, especially when it comes to physical contact (but he's not completely adverse to it if it's like a hug or something).

→ Murphy has a deadly allergy to peanut butter that will cause him to go into anaphylactic shock if ever consumed. He was hospitalized once as a kid.

FROM HEADCANON MEMES

[yardbird]

✘ what are murph's hobbies?
→ He used to work at a movie theater, so he liked watching films and totally took advantage of the little perks that came with the job, like getting to sit through them for free. I imagine he enjoyed stuff like Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. It also didn't help much because he was like HEY I COULD BE LIKE THAT, except that he sort of failed at being a criminal most of the time (like, as long as no one got hurt or anything).
Fun fact: This did help him a great deal while he was in prison. While he was in solitary confinement, he reconstructed some of those movies that he watched in his head as a coping mechanism. It helped keep himself from completely losing his mind after being isolated from most human contact for a few years.

→ He doesn't care that much for watching sports, because he's always enjoys playing them. It's a participation thing — he probably felt left out a lot when he was a kid, so being on a "team" made him feel like he was actually included in something.

→ Since card games are a very common pastime in prison, Murphy had gone from being relatively okay to an exceptional card player, especially at Poker. He recognized the aces and eights as the "Dead Man's Hand", being the same hand that were believed to be held by Wild Bill Hickok before he had been assassinated. That said, Murphy played cards with Officer Coleridge a lot before the riot at Ryall.

✘ what are his favorite alcoholic beverages?
→ He's a whiskey man. End story. The quicker it gets you drunk, the better, and I imagine he probably started drinking at a young age.
He doesn't trust mixed drinks either, because a conversation once that spawned a headcanon that Murphy was roofied one night while drinking a Long Island's with some friends. He blacked out and doesn't have much memory of the incident, except that he somehow managed to accumulate ten pounds of meat in the backseat of his car, and a box of Denny's leftovers he doesn't remember having.

So straight whiskey it is -- and something like Jack Daniel's or Black Velvet for the most part.

✘ what started murph's thing for cars? TELL ME ABOUT HIS FIRST ONE.
→ I imagine Murphy got himself mixed up in the wrong crowd of kids when he was growing up. They were kind of his escape from the orphanage, though. Every so often, they'd go out and do some crazy joyriding shit with him, despite the fact that Murphy was so young at the time. Junkyards and whatnot were kind of a regular hangout place, where they could get away with being bratty teenagers. But because their aggressive, underage driving would wear down on the cars so often, Murphy picked up really quick on how to fix them back up again.

→ His first car was a 1952 Ford Crestline Sunliner, black in color. He gets all weak in the knees for the classics. It was a scrapped POS at first that couldn't even run, but it was the first car he owned and managed to fix up; then it became his pride and joy.

✘ did he at any point want children of his own?
→ Well, Murphy did have a son who was murdered years prior to the game taking place.

Before that, I imagine that Murphy never saw himself as being ace father material, so I figured that Charlie's birth was an unplanned happenstance. Murphy here doesn't have a very high opinion of himself, but when a kid comes into the picture then he changes his attitude completely. He genuinely doesn't want a kid to go through the same crap that he did, and would be willing to sacrifice everything to give them a better life. Though it also meant that he'd also sacrifice everything to avenge their death as well.

tl;dr yes and no. But he loves kids, and can't help the fact that he's a natural father at heart who would do anything for them.

✘ tattoo?
→ So one time when Murphy was young and drunk, he thought it'd be a great idea to have a tattoo on his shoulder of "Bad Motherfucker" with Samuel L. Jackson's face on it. Once realizing that he would have to try and explain to the nuns who raised him that he just "defiled the body that God gave you" after being out on a long night full of binging and joyriding and poor life choices, he had to use a ghetto tattoo removing method. That is, using saltwater and scrubbing the ink for about a half hour before it starts to fade. While it worked well enough, Murphy had to also explain to the Mother Superior how he got the mysterious rash on his right arm. Oops.

✘ murphy and cooking?
→ Murphy actually likes it! When Carol was pregnant and bedridden he had to learn so he could take charge when she was feeling ill. After awhile it sort of became a tradition for them to cook together.
Rather than one or the other cooking. Mexican dishes were kind of a more common thing (i.e. Taco Tuesday!).
They also didn't eat out at restaurants much, since they couldn't afford anything fancy.

✘ first kiss?
→ I kind of imagine that Murphy had a little crush when he was much younger with one of the other girls at the orphanage, except that it tragically ended up a lot like this - because EW WHEN YOU'RE KIDS KISSES ARE SO GROSS.
It was bad enough that Murphy had been turned off on sloppy wet kisses for so long after his first attempt ended with him gagging and going "OH GOD HER SPIT IS IN MY MOUTH AUAUUGHGHGH-" So yeah, it's no wonder why he went into a life of unsuccessful crime instead.

✘ how did he handle charlie's first time being sick (flu, chicken pox, etc)?
→ Charlie definitely got sick a few times (influenza, cold, normal stuff that kids get. I have this silly headcanon where he lost Charlie in the house one time only to find the door open and him playing out in the rain/jumping into the puddles, so he'd get sick after stuff like that). Murphy was an extremely fretting father. He would also be the one to go out and get all the cold meds and then overcompensate by bringing home stuff to make soup and juice and other remedies, and even cook it all himself. Him and his wife took turns in making sure Charlie could get around when he needed to and also that he got enough rest. Murphy read to him a lot, but he'd find something to read to Charlie because go the fuck to sleep why doesn't this ever work.

He dealt with Carol feeling sick a lot when she was pregnant, so naturally he'd be just as proactive when it comes to taking care of his own kid. He would take as much time off to look after him as he could until he was well again (which probably resulted in catching Charlie's cold as well).

So basically Murphy frets and fusses over his son a lot, the end.

✘ what is murphy's favorite memory with his son?
→ So I always imagine that Murphy's biggest fear before Charlie was born that he's never going to be cut out to be a father. He never had a father so he worried that he didn't know the first thing about being one, thus he was awkward sometimes when playing with his son.
Like he'd be that dad who's kid is trying to play some elaborate make-believe fantasy with him, and Murphy is just like "I'm not good at this stuff :(" and Charlie's like "DAD PLS" -- and he's just standing there like an asshole for a moment before he gets into some stupid faux-hero role and starts pretending that they're being attacked by pirates and shit.

Just learning to have fun with his kid for the first time with stuff like that would be his happiest memory because I think parents "LARPing" with their kid is the cutest thing ever okay?

They'd play bandits and sit in one of the cars he's fixing up and he'd let Charlie "drive" while he's in shotgun going pew pew pew "GET THEM GET THE BASTARDS, DAD."

→ In the end I also imagine Charlie accidentally cursed a few times while they were playing because he heard Murphy swearing while working on cars, and Murphy was like "OH GOD CAROL'S GONNA KILL ME."

SEXY QUESTIONS

[yardbird]

✘ first time murps had sex.
→ MURPHY ONLY EVER HAD SEX WITH ONE WOMAN before Anne AND THAT WAS HIS WIFE... Carol.
But yeah, for them, they didn't wait until marriage. Actually I would think that she got pregnant with Charlie before which sprung into them getting hitched.
Anyway.
First time was clumsy and awful and full of apologies and regrets. Generally he's a very sweet and considerate guy when it comes to that kind of thing, but that one time it was like "OH GOD DID I HURT YOU JESUS CHRIST HANG ON LET ME GO GET SOMETHING FOR THAT I'M THE WORST BOYFRIEND EVERRR".

Chalk it up for him being so young and dumb.

✘ dropped the soap?
→ No. I'm not even going to go there, but no.
Murphy kept his distance when it came to the other prisoners, and even if/when someone did try and fuck with him, he'd kick their ass.
Prison guards more or less hated him after the attack on Coleridge, to boot. And anyone who even wants to bring Sewell into the matter, all I have to say is "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?"

What I will say is that Murphy had his fair share of being hit on by his fellow inmates for awhile. He's also had some instances where they actually attempted to make some forceful advances on him. In general he probably got a guy or two waving their dicks at him in the prison showers and make comments about his lovely, lovely teeth.

✘ does he have a 'type'?
→ Yes. He likes tough, strong women. Like, not just with Anne, but I kind of imagine Carol being a bit similarly brash at times, too (just not nearly as bad, of course).
(It also doesn't help that I imagine he had the biggest fucking crush on Uma Thurman.)
But that's pretty much as close to a "type" as I can get with him.

✘ what can one expect in sexytimes with murphy?
→ AWKWARD SHIT, if only because Murphy gets a little a lot eager when it comes to having sex. He would be that guy who would trip on himself trying to get his pants off because he's trying to do 7387463 things at once -- HE SUCKS AT MULTI-TASKING BUT GODDAMN IT IF HE WON'T TRY.

He's also got a thing with hands, as in. Always has to be doing something with them. But overall yes, he's clumsy but also is FOCUSED AS SHIT at making sure who he's with is happy, because OH GOD DISAPPOINTMENT WHAT DO.

✘ dominating or being dominated?
→ Murphy kind of likes both, but it really depends on who he's with. Like with Anne, he has no problem with her being the dominant one. Otherwise she can tell him to get on his knees any time.

✘ orgasm denial?
His thoughts? He gets off on giving Anne someone pleasure as it is. He's not pretty good at the denial part in general, but delayed gratification is A+ to him. In any case he's ridiculously considerate, even in bed.

✘ awkward boners/can't get it up?
→ Well, he has troubles getting it on in the showers. If anyone ever tried coming onto him while in the shower, he'd probably just be like, "OH GOD THIS ISN'T WORKING OUT FOR ME I'm gonna cry."

As for awkward boners: I feel like he was probably a horndog but even when he was young he mostly kept it to himself since HAHA HE'S TOO NICE AND SEX IS SUPPOSED TO BE MEANINGFUL AND STUFF. Which I think Carol also poked fun at him for even before they got together: "HEY PENDLETON, IS THAT A WRENCH IN YOUR POCKET OR ARE YOU JUST HAPPEN TO SEE ME?"
"Actually it's a wrench. And it's an awkward boner."

I also imagine it was much worse for him because he was fucking Catholic.

"Oh nooo I'm having bad thoughts about vaginas I must repent."

Justifying Truth and Justice As Downpour's "Canon" Ending...

[yardbird]

Technically, Silent Hill: Downpour doesn't have an established canon ending that we know of, and I was always under the assumption that Ending A (Forgiveness), being the "best" possible ending, was supposed to be the choice outcome of the six. But this is about as debatable as whether or not the first two "good endings" for the original Silent Hill (in which Harry leaves the town with Cybil or goes it alone) is canon.

According to the writers, though, they have stated that Murphy in truth did kill Napier in every outcome except for Ending A (source). Regardless of what Sewell says in Ending B, where he states in both A and B, the following line of dialogue is actually a mistake for Truth and Justice:

"Jesus, you're pathetic! What about Napier? The guy kills your boy, you go through all the trouble of getting yourself locked up with him, and what happens? I serve him to you like a fucking Christmas goose, and you can't even finish the job! No, I gotta go in there and finish the bastard off for you."

It really seems strange to me that Sewell would say this, especially in Ending B when you consider the exchange that occurs in a flashback during the game which should be considered canon:

"What do you want me to do?"
"What you're good at, of course. Ridding the world of monsters. I got another one for you."
"Who is it?"
"Don't worry yourself about the details, cupcake. Just take out the garbage like you did before, and we'll be square."
"When?"
"There's gonna be a little... disturbance tonight. The other guards and me are gonna have our hands full, so no one's gonna notice when you head down to the showers and find your guy waiting for you there, just like last time."
"And then?"
"Oh, I think you know what comes next. Unless, of course, you're thinking of breaking our deal...?"
"And this other guy... he deserves it?"

Why the hell would Sewell tell him he's good at "ridding the world of monsters" if Murphy couldn't finish the job? Why would Murphy ask if this random guy deserves it if he couldn't even kill the man who violated and murdered his own son?

Because the exchange in general plays out like Murphy had already done the deed. He doesn't act like someone who couldn't "finish the job", or would be remotely confident that he could take out a man he doesn't even hold the same level of vitriol against. He would probably feel a lot more nervous at the prospect ("I couldn't kill the last guy, so what makes you think I can kill someone I don't know?").

It would also still negate Sewell's statement that he's apparently "good" at "ridding the world of monsters", if he didn't actually get rid of Napier by his own hands. It's small and a bit more personally justified, but this is also why I tend to play him as being more physically aggressive, because while the option to avoid fights in Downpour is more obvious than previous Silent Hill games, I feel like it's something that the Murphy from Truth and Justice would do. It is, after all, apparently something that he is good at.

During Murphy's confession with the nun at St. Maria's Monastery, he also admits "What I did to Napier didn't solve anything."

Again, seems more like the kind of a thing that someone guilty of killing the man would say.

More also seems to point towards the fact that Murphy did kill Napier in the extra texts of the game:

"Do I feel sorry for [Napier], for what I've done to him? I keep telling myself that he deserved what he got but... the sounds he made... all that blood... the face of absolute terror. Disbelief turned into the understanding of inevitability... all by my own hands... May God forgive me!"

Mind you, the developers also stated that the extra text should be "taken with a grain of salt" as they weren't written by the original writers, but you know what? I'm using them to back up my point, anyway. The way Murphy talks about Napier, it definitely sounds like that's the route that they were going for, because it makes way more sense than saying that he didn't actually kill Napier.

There's also various imagery throughout the game that points towards Murphy being the one who killed Napier. One of the biggest ones being what you see at St. Maria's Monastery:


It should be worth noting that the axe-wielding psychopath is voiced by no other than Murphy himself, and our helpless victim getting the axe sounds a lot like Napier. Additionally, at the Centennial Building, we also see the the Bogeyman laying down the banhammer on Napier through an optional peephole. The Bogeyman is essentially a combination of Napier and Murphy himself. Napier is the monster Murphy sees as he's becoming the monster that he hates and fears the most.

So basically, I simply just don't buy into the fact that Murphy couldn't finish off his son's murderer, and find that the developer's commentary stating the error in Sewell's dialogue in the Truth and Justice ending to fit with the general theme of the game. That Murphy screwed up. He made a mistake. That revenge didn't solve anything, and as a result of killing a man, he's being forced to pay dearly for it. Not just the guilt of killing him, but living with the fact that, as a result, a good man who Murphy thought highly of got caught up in his mess and was killed.

That said, if it's one thing that I'm grateful to Tomm Hulett for (other than ensuring that Silent Hill: Homecoming never became a trilogy), it's him correcting Ending B's error.

Now if only that means they would just fix the Truth and Justice ending dialogue...

HEY MURPH HOW 'BOUT A CAROL JOKE?

[yardbird]

A married couple went to the hospital to have their baby delivered.

Upon their arrival, the doctor said he had invented a new machine that would transfer a portion of the mothers pain to the baby's father. He asked if they were willing to try it out. They were both very much in favor of it.

The doctor set the pain transfer to 10% to start, explaining that even 10% was probably more pain the father had ever experienced before. However, as the labor progressed, the husband felt fine and asked the doctor to go ahead and, "Kick it up a notch."

The doctor then adjusted the machine to 20% pain transfer, with the husband still feeling fine. The doctor checked the husband's blood pressure and was amazed at how well he was doing at this point. They decided to try for 50% and the husband continued to feel quite well.

Since the pain transfer was obviously helping out the wife considerably, the husband encouraged the doctor to transfer ALL the pain to him.

The wife delivered a healthy baby boy with virtually no pain. She and her husband were ecstatic. When they got home, the mailman was dead on the porch.