Harry Mason (Shattered Memories)

"Cheryl... this is your room... but you're not in it...
 * —Harry, lamenting his missing daughter"

Harry Mason is the false protagonist of Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. He is a re-imagining of the character from the main game canon. At the end of the game, it is revealed that Harry is a mental manifestation of Cheryl’s memories of her father.

While his role begins in a similar manner to the original game, his motives, directions, and ultimately his story differ in many ways, both because of how the story is told and also because of the choices and preferences of the player via the Psych Profile, which have a defining impact on Harry's character.

Appearance
Harry's appearance has been slightly changed from his original appearance. For example, he wears glasses, though at a certain point, they are removed for the remainder of the game. He remains easily identifiable with his original interpretation, such as his distinctive, brown jacket. He is also briefly seen wearing a wedding ring on his left hand.

Harry's clothes will change about halfway through the game suiting one of the four possible endings:
 * Love Lost — If the player strayed away from women and drinking and focused on helping others, Harry will wear a winter coat with a pink sweater underneath.
 * Drunk Dad — If the player focused on addictions such as drinking, smoking, and drugs, Harry will wear a green letterman-style jacket.
 * Sleaze and Sirens — If the player focused on women and sex, Harry will wear a black leather jacket with a blue shirt underneath.
 * Wicked and Weak — If the player didn't care much about others and was a slacker, Harry will wear a duffle coat.

Harry's clothing change is similar to a progress report as it does not define which ending the player will receive; for example, Harry can wear the "Love Lost" clothing yet the player still has a chance to receive the other three endings.

At the climax of the game, Harry wears an orange Hawaiian T-shirt. This is the the same T-shirt he wore during his vacation with Cheryl in their old homemade videotape.

Biography


Any details of Harry's life before Cheryl's birth are unknown. In 1983, Harry and his wife Dahlia had a daughter whom they named Cheryl Heather Mason. Harry was a loving father towards his young daughter. Harry, Dahlia, and Cheryl lived together at 1206 Levin Street in the town of Silent Hill. As Cheryl was growing up, Harry and Dahlia divorced because they found that their love was withering (the exact reason for this depends on which ending the player receives). This event impacted a young Cheryl greatly, and she felt responsible for their divorce.

Shortly after this, Harry suddenly died in a car crash in 1990. Dahlia and Cheryl were left saddened by Harry's death, and Cheryl experienced complicated grief and began to resent her mother. During Cheryl's teenage years, Dahlia moved with Cheryl to Simmons Street. While growing up, Cheryl believed that Harry was still alive in order to "cope" with the loss of her father. Her memories of Harry became blurry and faint over the years, and she began to think of him as a hero who would come back to her one day. She repeatedly watched a single fuzzy video tape of a few memories with him, to the point of obsession. By the age of 25, Cheryl visited many therapists before ultimately meeting with Dr. Kaufmann.

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories


It can be assumed that through the intense emotions and feelings that are brought up during Cheryl's therapy session, Harry is manifested. Cheryl relives her father's car crash, thus Harry's manifestation drives his vehicle off the highway and into a junkyard; he later awakens, following Cheryl's belief that her father survived.

Harry discovers his daughter is missing and sets off in search of her. Along the way he comes across a police officer named Cybil Bennett. She questions Harry about his crash and the reason for his daughter's disappearance. She ultimately comes to the conclusion that, as Harry lives on Levin Street, his daughter has probably just gone home as it is located just a few blocks away. Harry seems to be confused by this information, and he wonders what is wrong with him.

Harry then calls home to see if Cheryl is there and asks her to wait for him. Using the GPS system on his phone, he locates the direction of his house and heads back home. Upon setting out, the world is suddenly consumed by ice. Buildings become encased in glaciers, power poles and street lights are uprooted and topple over, and fountain water freezes. Harry soon encounters a large number of humanoid creatures, faceless and pale, who attack him. He flees for his life, and eventually manages to make it to the safety of house number 1206 on Levin Street. However, he finds out that it belongs to another family entirely, the Stewarts, and he sits on the porch steps, unsure of what to do next.

Cybil arrives, where she asks Harry to step down. She acknowledges, judging from his license bearing that address, that things don't add up. Cybil then takes Harry along with her in her police car to the police station to clear things up. However, before they reach the police station, the snow covers the car's windshield and Cybil leaves Harry to find their location, though Cybil never returns and Harry leaves the car outside into a forest. Harry searches around to find a way back to Silent Hill and comes across the Orion Hunting Lodge. Later, he receives a call from Cybil asking him where he went but he hangs up on her. While exploring a shed, the world becomes engulfed in glaciers and ice yet again and Harry struggles to flee from the Raw Shocks. On his way, Harry comes across a cabin in which he, Cheryl, and Dahlia were spending their vacation. Later on, Harry then receives a call from Cybil, stating that the gymnasium of Midwich High School is occasionally used as an emergency shelter. Harry believes that Cheryl may be there.



When he arrives in the gym, he is greeted by a woman named Michelle Valdez, who is singing "Always on My Mind". When Harry questions her if she's seen a Cheryl Mason, Michelle says she knew her when she used to attend Midwich High, which confuses Harry. Harry and Michelle proceed to hack the principal's computer to see if they both know the same Cheryl, and the file states that Cheryl moved to Simmons Street. Eventually, Harry and Michelle walk to the nightclub where Michelle works.

After retrieving her car keys, Michelle is mysteriously gone, and he meets Dahlia in person. Dahlia seems surprised at his confusion, though isn't interested enough to explain anything to him. She tells him she came to pick up the SUV parked outside to take Harry to Simmons Street, where he would meet up with Cheryl at her current address. Upon reaching the bridge on their way through town, Dahlia waits for Harry to lower the bridge from the control room. Before they can drive across, however, the Otherworld takes over, freezing Dahlia and then the bridge itself, which collapses. The SUV plummets into the river, and depending on the player's actions, Harry can either turn on the radio and escape or drown. Either way, Harry will wake up with different clothing, no glasses, and in a wheelchair. Cybil is pushing him, telling him that he somehow swam to safety, and he was drenched to the bone. Suddenly, the Otherworld takes over.



After reaching safety from the creatures, he meets Lisa Garland, a nurse working at the hospital, who was apparently just in a car crash. Harry walks her to her apartment, lets her patch herself up, and leaves. After entering a nearby warehouse, he receives a desperate call from Lisa. He quickly returns to her apartment, only to find her dying or already dead (depending on if the player gave her the correct pill color). Cybil Bennett walks in, accusing him of Lisa's death. She then states the he isn't Harry Mason, but the world suddenly freezes before she can continue. After escaping, he makes his way through Toluca Mall.

After a thorough search of the mall, Harry arrives at the Simmons Street address where he meets an older version of the Dahlia he met before. Dahlia reveals two things to Harry: they are married and that Cheryl is at the lighthouse. The nightmare reappears, freezing her, and Harry soon finds himself in an icy labyrinth. Harry then enters Cheryl's bedroom and falls asleep on her bed.

Harry is then awakened by Michelle. He tells her that he needs to go to the lighthouse. She says that she and her boyfriend John can drive him there. Along the way, John and Michelle get in a fight and leave Harry in the car. Harry then travels through the sewers, receiving a message from Cheryl along the way. Eventually Harry walks to Annie's Bar, where Michelle is. She states that the fight she had with John resulted in the two breaking up. Harry asks how he can get to the lighthouse, and Michelle tells him that there is a boat behind Lakeside Amusement Park. However, she also warns him that he may not like the answers he finds. Harry then travels through the Amusement Park and ends up on a boat dock.

Inside one of the boats, Harry finds the young Dahlia again and asks her to take him to the lighthouse. Dahlia seduces Harry, and it is implied they had sex. Sometime after, Harry wakes up to find the icy world, freezing Dahlia again. The water is transformed back into ice and Harry sets course to the lighthouse. Raw Shocks begin to pursue Harry; however, the Raw Shocks suddenly freeze. The icy surface turns back into water and Harry swims to the lighthouse, but he eventually passes out.



Cybil saves Harry once again, but he snatches her gun from her holster, saying he will not let her stop him from finding Cheryl. Cybil states that she doesn't understand what is going on as she looked up his file, which confirms that he was killed 18 years ago in a car crash. Cybil leaves Harry, and he enters the lighthouse, which is in fact Dr. Kaufmann's clinic. It is revealed that the patient is actually Cheryl Mason, now 25 years old. Dr. Kaufmann explains how Cheryl was desperately holding on to the memory of her father and that the Harry that the player has been controlling is Cheryl's memory of her father, a delusion.



Harry and Cheryl talk for a brief moment (what Harry says is based upon the player's Psych Profile), which ends with Cheryl either accepting that her real father died or confronting the memory who tells her to forget him, causing the manifestation of Harry to become frozen. The final option involves Cheryl rejecting therapy and embracing the delusion of Harry Mason as reality, as she is still unable to accept the loss. Harry does not freeze in this ending, implying that the manifestation is therefore kept alive by Cheryl's persistent belief in him.

Endings
After Cheryl's conversation, there are 4 possible videotape scenes:


 * Love Lost: Harry is next to his car with Dahlia and is getting ready to leave. He tells Cheryl that the divorce wasn't her fault. He says, "You know this has nothing to do with you, right? Even though Mom and Dad don't love each other anymore, we both love you, and we always will." This ending can be seen if the player doesn't focus on sexual images or drugs, tells Kaufmann that they are friendly, such as saying they make friends easily or that it doesn't take much time for people to get to know them, and being a good person in general.


 * Drunk Dad: Harry arrives drunk at his house and begins to yell angrily at Cheryl to get him another beer. Harry was a drunk and an addict, and every aspect of his life was mired by his addiction. This ending indicates that when Harry was still alive, his alcoholism negatively impacted his family. This ending can be seen if the player focuses on alcohol and other recreational drugs such as cannabis pipes, cigarette dispensers, and downers.


 * Sleaze and Sirens: In the Orpheus boat, Harry is lying on a bed with Michelle and Lisa. They ask him if they can be in his next book and if it can be dedicated to them. Harry claims that he dedicates his books to his wife and daughter because it's "only fair", to which all three burst out in roaring laughter. When Harry was still alive, he cheated on his wife. Harry was a serial adulterer and was sexually immoral. This ending can be seen if the player focuses on sexual images such as porn magazines and tells Kaufmann that they enjoy role-playing during sex and have cheated on a partner. If the player acts like a pervert in general, then they are most likely to get this ending.


 * Wicked and Weak: In Cheryl's parent's bedroom, Dahlia violently slaps Harry several times. Dahlia berates Harry for not having enough money, calls his novels "shit", and says no one even reads them, and tells him that he is a pathetic "dickless waste of space". Harry notices Cheryl filming and looks down with a hint of sadness on his face. The ending can be seen if the player tells Kaufmann that they are involved little in friendship, meaning they don't make friends easily, that it takes a while to get to know them, and related topics. It can also be achieved by acting rude to people, being distracted by trivial things, and being self-centered.

Silent Hill: Book of Memories


Harry appears in the joke ending of Silent Hill: Book of Memories. He accidentally bumps into Trevor and asks him if he has seen a girl, to which Trevor replies: "That's what we're here for, dude", much to Harry's chagrin.

Quotes
Harry: "I always will be."
 * "Smoking kills." (in Good Ol' Days)
 * "Silent Hill, wish you were here." (in Diner 52)
 * "I shouldn't have trusted you. Damn cops..."
 * "Get the hell out of my house. It's my house! It's my damn house! Cheryl!"
 * "Anything happens to my daughter, I'll hold you responsible."
 * "I'm Harry Mason. I love my daughter very much. I live in Silent Hill. I write for a living crap pretty much."
 * "Not me. I've got a photographic memory."
 * "There are times when things don't feel real. I feel like I'm losing my grasp on the truth of it. But other times, everything is... fine. This feels real."
 * "It's like the whole town's being punished."
 * "Kick a man when he's down, why don't ya?"
 * "I'm the best dressed writer I know."
 * "I've always been popular with moms."
 * "It's scary. I feel like I remember everything. But there's you... my daughter... things that don't fit... and I think I'm seeing things."
 * "No. Dedications are always to my wife and my daughter. It's only fair."
 * Cheryl: "You've been with me for so long..."
 * "I'm not even a ghost..."
 * "Sweetie, don't film this... you know this has nothing to do with you, right? Even though Mom and Dad don't love each other anymore, we both love you... and we always will."

Trivia

 * Harry carries a photo of Cheryl in his wallet.
 * Harry, being a mental manifestation that believes he is real, is very similar to Maria from Silent Hill 2. Both are based on real people and share their memories, but their personalities and actions are altered to fit the desires of their creator (Cheryl's grief and delusion; James's sexual frustration). Additionally, both die in most endings, but there is an ending where they live on. The main difference is that Harry is strictly a mental manifestation, while Maria can interact with the physical world.
 * John may say to Michelle, "You don't love me, you love the John in your head!" This foreshadows Harry's role in relation to Cheryl.
 * Shattered Memories appears to be a continuation of the Bad ending of Silent Hill where it is revealed that Harry died from his car crash, and his experiences in the game were a dream.
 * He states he has photographic memory.
 * He tells Lisa that he once wrote a romance series called Longing for the Moon, possibly a reference to the popularity of the Twilight series (New Moon), or just female-oriented romance novels in general. This is in contrast to the original game where he was a non-fiction writer. Harry's agent claims that he has great insight into the female imagination, which could be a reference to the Harry in Shattered Memories being part of Cheryl's imagination.
 * Harry states in the Golden Leaf Warehouse that he used to drive forklifts when he was a kid.

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
ჰარი მეისონი (Shattered Memories)