Martin Fitch

"Don't you TOUCH me! I bleed out the sin, but it grows back. So I must let it out everyday!
 * —Martin Fitch to Alex Shepherd"

Doctor Martin "Doc" Fitch is a character from Silent Hill: Homecoming and a descendant of one of the founders of Shepherd's Glen as a member of the Fitch family. He is tied to the pact required to keep the influence of the Order from pervading the town. As part of this pact, he was required to kill his daughter, Scarlet, by dismembering her.

Scarlet's murder led to the severe degradation of his mental health and he became suicidal, depressed and absolutely psychologically traumatized. He resorted to self-mutilating at least a hundred cuts on his body, possibly trying to imagine the pain Scarlet felt when she died and replaying the scene of her murder in his mind, or punishing himself in a manner fitting his crime. Either way, Fitch clearly suffered from a form of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Biography
Fitch was regarded as a local hero in Shepherd's Glen due to his brave actions during an accident many years ago. In 1993, a freak thunderstorm washed a school bus into the Toluca River. The normally placid river, swollen by nearly a week of record-breaking rainfall, had become a raging torrent and was running almost fifteen feet higher than normal. Fitch had just finished a house call and was on his way back to the office, driving directly behind the school bus when the road suddenly collapsed and the bus pitched into the roaring river below. Managing to stop in time, Fitch exited his car, braved the downpour and ran alongside the river for a quarter of a mile before the bus finally became lodged under Hope Bridge.

Without a thought for his own personal safety, Fitch jumped into the river and swam towards the bus. After breaking the rear window, he climbed inside to assess the situation. Though all of the 2nd and 3rd grade students were without major injury, 8-year-old Alex Shepherd was unable to move, his leg trapped by the partially crumpled front of the vehicle. Fitch knew that if Alex didn't drown, the cold waters of the Toluca River would put him into cold shock as his core temperature plummeted and he succumbed to hypothermia. Fitch quickly stripped off his shirt; taking a hold of the boy, he wrapped his arms as tightly as he could around him, and then waited for the rescue crews to reach them.

It took the fire crews nearly four hours to finally free Alex from the wreckage of the school bus. During the entire time he was trapped in the bus, Fitch never left his side. For his feat of bravery, the city council gave their highest award to Fitch, along with the Key to the City.

Silent Hill: Homecoming
Alex first encounters Fitch in the street after the sewers level, limping, frightened, bleeding and wielding a scalpel. He leaves a large blood trail behind him and also at the place where Elle Holloway mysteriously disappeared. Alex confronts him, but Alex is warned to stay away from him, and he runs into his office, where Alex follows.



Inside the office Alex finds a makeshift "bedroom" seemingly for his daughter, Scarlet. Inside the bedroom Fitch has arranged Scarlet's personal belongings and dolls, showing the depth of his love for his daughter. In Fitch's back office, Alex can find a letter from Doctor Slater, the Chief Resident of the Psychiatric Department of Alchemilla Hospital, stating that Fitch has been missing his appointments, and that constant contact would ensure a "speedy recovery".

Alex next runs across Fitch after descending into the final level of his personal hell, made up of grates, boilers, fans and hospital signs. He is mutilating himself with the scalpel, proving that perhaps Fitch is regretting the death and murder of Scarlet, and has been visiting Dr. Slater for psychological assistance.



After a conversation with Alex, where Alex gives Fitch Scarlet's doll, his wounds begin to bleed profusely and her doll drops into his blood, morphing into the second boss monster, Scarlet, a monstrous representation of his daughter in the form of the dolls that she loved so much. She lifts Fitch as she stands to her staggering height, where Fitch begs for her forgiveness. Scarlet seems to cradle Fitch momentarily, perhaps showing some compassion that she might have left for him, but then promptly bites his head off, tossing his limp body away to turn her wrath on Alex, hopefully giving Martin a sense of peace and rest through death.

Quotes

 * "I WANT TO DIE!"
 * "I'm sorry."
 * "I miss you, my only daughter."
 * "Please come back."
 * "Daddy misses you."
 * "Where did I wrong?"
 * "I don't want your help! These wounds cannot heal..." (in response to Alex's offering to help)
 * "I come here to remind myself... It's the only place I go where she listens to me..." (in reference to his daughter)
 * "Don't you mention her name! You're not as worthy as one hair on her head!" (Alex asks him about Scarlet's whereabouts)
 * "My princess is the only thing that matters now. Her little hands, pure as porcelain, her smile like sunshine..."
 * "My baby... my beautiful child... Daddy forgot to bring you a present today... she loves dollies..."
 * "Forgive me."

Trivia



 * He is voiced by David Alan Graf who also voiced Sam Bartlett in the same game.


 * According to his degree, he graduated from Southeastern University. In Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, the principal of Midwich High School also had a degree which stated he graduated from Southeastern University.


 * In the room in Hell Descent where Fitch is seen mutilating himself before the boss fight, intelligible messages written in blood (possibly Fitch's own blood) can be seen in the wall (presumably written by Fitch), such as: "I'm sorry" "I miss you my only daughter", "Please come back", "I WANT TO DIE!", "Daddy misses you", "Where did I go wrong?", etc. These show his damaged mental health.


 * Text reveals that Alex felt that even if Fitch wasn't killed by Scarlet, he would kill himself eventually.


 * The Fitch family's method of sacrifice was The Blade, hence Fitch's use of a scalpel to cut himself, and what looks like a bonesaw (in the first cutscene) to kill Scarlet.


 * Fitch's ritualistic mutilation also highly resembles bloodletting, the ancient medical practice of cutting the body and bleeding to let out the "bad blood"; something that is akin to his "bleeding out the sin" each day before the next day he would repeat it.


 * Fitch was the last known living descendant of the Fitch family.


 * The Ancient Book of the Shepherd's Glen sect mentions that "The Performer of Rites Shall make a Pilgrimage to the edge of the forsaken region to purify himself from sins of the past". While this book was written over one hundred years ago and likely referred to the town doctor making a trip near Silent Hill, Fitch does this when he enters Hell's Descent, though the circumstances are much different.


 * Fitch is one of seven doctors mentioned by name in the series, the first four being Michael Kaufmann as well as his Shattered Memories incarnation Dr. K, Dr. Midkiff, Dr. Philips, Dr. Harris and Dr. Slater.


 * At some point during development, Martin's last name was "Turner".


 * The name Martin means "of war" or "war-like". Fitch means "an iron-pointed implement". This is a probable reference to Martin's role as a murderer using a blade.

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