- "Cybil" refers to multiple subjects. See Cybil for more uses.
| “ | Look, Harry. I really don't get what's going on. But if there's a chance we can save your daughter, I'm in.
|
” |
Cybil Bennett is the deuteragonist of Silent Hill. She is also a playable character in Play Novel: Silent Hill, appears in the film adaptation, is re-imagined in Silent Hill: Shattered Memories and as a playable character in the crossovers Dead by Daylight: Chapter XVI - Silent Hill and Dark Deception: Monsters & Mortals - Silent Hill. She quickly befriends Harry Mason and attempts to help him find his missing daughter Cheryl.
Personality[]
Cybil is a very tough and strong-willed cop, usually reserved and calm during stressful situations. She is also very loyal and courageous to the task at hand, going as far as to risk her life to save Cheryl and assist Harry.
Cybil is skeptical of the occult and paranormal activity in Silent Hill, Maine, believing that the cultists are either crazy or on drugs.
Background[]
Cybil Bennett is a police officer from Brahms, a town neighboring Silent Hill. She is sent to Silent Hill to investigate her precinct's lack of communication with the Silent Hill Police and is unwittingly drawn into its strange world.
The Play Novel reveals more of Cybil's backstory. When Cybil was a little girl, her parents were murdered by an unidentified man. Cybil, who was hiding in a closet at the time, looked through the closet's crack and witnessed her parents being shot in the heads. This incident largely impacted her future, which was the main influence on her becoming a police officer.[6]
Silent Hill[]
Cybil smiling at Harry in the cafe.
Before entering the town, Harry sees Cybil riding by on her motorcycle while he is driving with his daughter. Shortly before crashing his Jeep, he spots the bike again, lying abandoned by the roadside. Cybil also crashed due to Alessa Gillespie's astral projection.
After being ambushed by monsters in the town, Harry finds himself inside a cafe with Cybil. In the novelization, it is revealed that Cybil followed Harry into the alleyway and rescued him from being killed by a "monster", and she proceeded to drag him into the cafe. The Play Novel contradicts the novelization, claiming that when Cybil came to, she entered the cafe to get out of the snow and already found Harry sleeping inside.
Cybil can't find any logical explanation as to what has happened to the town but feels that something is certainly wrong. Harry is the only person she has seen in the town, and all communication devices are not working. In the novelization, Harry also tells Cybil that he had a handgun and knows how to use it, but probably dropped it in the alleyway. Because of the alarming nature of their situation, Cybil gives Harry an extra gun she found and tells him to be careful with it before departing.
Sometime later, Cybil sees a glimpse of a girl through the fog on Bachman Road. Cybil follows the figure to an obliterated road, but the figure vanishes after apparently walking into "thin air".
Cybil reunites with Harry in Green Lion Antiques.
Much later in the game, Cybil sees Harry and follows him into Green Lion Antiques. Here she explains that the police were investigating the flow of drugs in Silent Hill, which she attributes to all the strange things transpiring. She seems resistant to Harry's talk of demons and the occult. Cybil and Harry lose contact after Harry separates with her by crawling through a passageway in the back of the shop.
When Harry enters a boat in the alternate Resort Area, he is relieved to run into Cybil again. This time, he insists that something serious is going on. Cybil is still reluctant to believe Harry, despite this time having seen the fog and snow turn into darkness and rain. Left with no recourse, Harry and Cybil decide to split up and look for Cheryl; Harry leaves to investigate the lighthouse while Cybil heads to Lakeside Amusement Park.
A possessed and parasitized Cybil.
Cybil learns the truth about Silent Hill too late; she fails to rendezvous with Harry on the boat, having been attacked by a parasite in the sewers, and Harry's next encounter with her occurs on the Otherworld amusement park's merry-go-round. Having been infected by the same type of parasite that controls the Puppet Doctors and Puppet Nurses in Alchemilla Hospital, Puppet Cybil Bennett draws her gun and shoots at Harry.
Fate[]
If the red liquid (Aglaophotis) was obtained earlier, it is possible for the player to rid her of the parasite's influence and save her life. If not, Harry will have no option but to kill her in self-defense. Cybil falls to the ground and squirms in pain as she bleeds violently from her face. Harry then kneels down in sadness and frustration as she passes on. This will lead to the "Bad" or "Good" ending.
If Harry spares her life in the amusement park (resulting in the "Bad+" or "Good+" ending), Cybil will fall to the ground, the parasite crawls out of her back, and Harry squashes it under his foot. Cybil and Harry then have a conversation about Cheryl's origins. In Nowhere, she corners Dahlia and Alessa Gillespie in the final area, but Dahlia's psychic energy shoves Cybil back and knocks her out.
Silent Hill 1 - Bad Ending
Cybil slaps Harry in the "Bad+" ending.
If the player achieves the "Bad+" ending, Cybil regains consciousness after the final boss fight. She walks over to Harry, smacks him out of his grief, and tells him to "go" as the Otherworld is crumbling around them.
When "Good+" is achieved, Cybil replaces Jodie in the opening.
If the player receives the "Good+" ending, Alessa gives Harry a newborn baby and uses her power to open a portal for him. Cybil awakens and follows Harry through the light, which transports them out of the Otherworld in time. Cybil and Harry are seen running in Silent Hill with the baby in Harry's arms, and they disappear into the fog. The game's opening sequence is also altered, replacing Harry's wife with Cybil.
Cybil's fate after Silent Hill[]
The novelization uses the "Good+" ending, in which Cybil lives. However, the canonicity of the novelization is arguable as it was also written by Sadamu Yamashita, who was not involved in work on the games.
Cybil is neither seen nor mentioned in Silent Hill 3. This does not necessarily mean that she died; however, the "Good+" ending (in which she survives) seems to suggest that Harry and Cybil intended to raise Heather together, making her complete absence notable.
In Silent Hill: Homecoming, Deputy Wheeler tells Alex Shepherd and Elle Holloway that a female police officer from Brahms disappeared when she went to Silent Hill. The only evidence left of her was her motorcycle, which was found crashed on the road to Silent Hill.[7] It is heavily implied this was Cybil.
Just like Heather and Harry, it's also possible that Cybil decided to escape from Brahms and the state, and completely changed her identity to hide and protect herself from the cult.
Most tellingly, in a section regarding Cybil and Harry's relationship following the "Good+ ending in the Book of Lost Memories, writer Hiroyuki Owaku stated that what happened to Cybil was "left to players' imaginations".[8] However, the Book of Lost Memories also states that the "Good" ending (in which Cybil dies) is the "orthodox ending, which is connected to the third game".[9]
When asked if Cybil was dead, developer Masahiro Ito bluntly responded, "Yes, I remember Cybil is dead."[10] When asked the meaning of Owaku's statement, he replied, "If you choose 'good+' ending among them, she is not dead, maybe."[11]
Director Keiichiro Toyama, who left Team Silent after Silent Hill and was not involved with latter entries, initially stated that he intended the "Good" ending to be the true ending, and he believes Owaku developed Silent Hill 3 around the first game's "Good" ending. However, Toyama changed his mind and also considers the "Good+" ending to be "a true ending".[12]
Play Novel: Silent Hill[]
Fate[]
- Ending A - Cybil runs up the staircase in Nowhere with Alessa, who Cybil has mistaken for Cheryl, in her arms and presumably escapes.
- Ending B-1 - When Cybil comes to, she is in Cafe 5to2, with Cheryl inside. Cybil's bike is outside, and its engine is running. Cheryl smiles brightly at Cybil and exits the cafe, and Cybil runs after her.
- Ending B-2 - In Alchemilla Hospital, Alessa kills Harry with her powers. Cybil knocks Alessa to the ground and chokes her. Alessa tells Cybil faintly that she only wanted to save her. Cybil tries to recognize who Alessa is but loses consciousness.
Cybil sees her own grave.
- Ending B-3 - In Alchemilla Hospital, Cybil is about to enter a door with an incredible light inside; Cybil is temporarily blinded, and when she refocuses her eyes, she is outside. She walks until she reaches a cemetery, where her grandparents are resting. Cybil sees many people in black, including her parents and her younger sister, the police chief of Brahms, her fellow officers, and her co-worker Sally. Cybil attempts to communicate with them to no avail. Cybil notices her name engraved on a tombstone. She then sees Alessa, who softly whispers her name.
Cybil is killed by Harry.
- Ending C-1 - In the Otherworld, Cybil sees the Incubator giving Harry a newborn baby. Cybil approaches Harry, and her arm catches on fire. Cybil attempts to tell Harry that the newborn baby is actually a devil, but she cannot speak. Harry notices Cybil is dying and shoots her in the forehead to put her out of her misery. Before leaving, he gently closes her eyes.
- Ending C-2 - In the Otherworld, Cybil sees the Incubator giving Harry a newborn baby. Cybil collapses to the ground and loses consciousness due to the fire and intense heat. A Brahms newspaper states that a woman's corpse was found on a path in a forest in Brahms that was burned, with some parts of it completely reduced to ash.
Other appearances[]
Silent Hill film[]
Cybil in the Silent Hill film.
- Main article: Cybil Bennett (film)
Cybil appears in the Silent Hill film, played by Laurie Holden.
As in the game, she is a skeptical Brahms (instead spelled "Brahams") police officer who rides a motorcycle and aids the protagonist in finding her missing child.
Cybil dies, burned alive by a fanatical religious cult who believed she was a witch for helping Rose Da Silva find her daughter, whom the cultists believed to be a demon.
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories[]
Cybil's three variations in Shattered Memories.
- Main article: Cybil Bennett (Shattered Memories)
Cybil Bennett appears in Silent Hill: Shattered Memories as well. She has three potential appearances depending on the player's Psych Profile.
Cybil is a police officer from the town of Silent Hill, and she knows both the town and its people well. Her father raised her as a dutiful police officer, and she takes her job seriously enough to be out on patrol during a major blizzard. Cybil has been a Silent Hill police officer since the age of twenty.
Similar to the original game, she is met in a diner in Silent Hill; if the player goes through the Good Ol' Days bar instead of Diner 52, she is met at Harry Mason's house soon afterward.
Silent Hill: Book of Memories[]
Cybil has a cameo in the "Joke" ending of Silent Hill: Book of Memories. She arrests Trevor for "resisting decency and intent to seduce", and is shown to have already arrested Murphy Pendleton.
Cybil's badge says she works for the Silent Hill Police rather than Brahms. It's unknown if this was simply a goof, although it's of no importance as the "Joke" ending is simply that: a playful ending.
Dead by Daylight: Chapter XVI - Silent Hill []
Cybil Bennett appears as a playable character as a skin for Cheryl Mason in Dead by Daylight: Chapter XVI - Silent Hill.
Creator's comment[]
| “ | Her last name is an allusion to a real-life policewoman who was a murderer. It was slightly tweaked to sound more generic. The first name calls to mind both the model Sibyl Buck and the action star Sybil Danning. |
” |
Quotes[]
- "You from around here? Why don't you tell me what happened?"
- "I'd tell you if I knew, believe me. But from what I can tell, something bizarre is going on. That's all I know."
- "Have you got a gun? Take this, and hope you don't have to use it. Now listen to me; before you pull the trigger, know who you're shooting. And don't do it unless you have to. And don't go blasting me by mistake, got it?"
- "Darkness devouring the town? Must be on drugs."
- "Harry, this whole thing has been a major blow to you. You need to rest."
- "Harry... why did they take your daughter? Why her?"
Trivia[]
- Cybil, as well as many other characters who enter the horror of Silent Hill, are referred to in the Book of Lost Memories as "the Hanged Man", the twelfth of the Major Arcanas in a Tarot deck, directly related to the symbolism of the tarot card, representing that maybe it is the world that is backwards instead of the Hanged Man, which relates directly to Cybil's situation, when the characters start being swallowed by the power of the town.
- Laurie Bembenek may be the real-life policewoman murderer that the Book of Lost Memories refers to. If this is true, then it's also a notable coincidence that Cybil is also portrayed by a "Laurie" in the film adaptation.
- Cybil was once featured in a technical demo for the PlayStation 2.[1]
- There's great irony in when Cybil gives Harry a handgun, she orders him, "Before you pull the trigger, know who you're shooting. And don't do it unless you have to. And don't go blasting me by mistake." Puppet Cybil can be shot by this same handgun by Harry, and this line may be intentional ironic foreshadowing.
- Cybil giving Harry a handgun is very similar to Curtis giving Alex one in Silent Hill: Homecoming. Coincidentally, they face off later in both games.
References[]
- ↑ Official Silent Hill Websites Archived: http://archive.townofsilenthill.com/sh/na/characters/
- ↑ https://www.silenthillmemories.net/sh1/versions/silent_hill_ps1_us_manual.pdf
- ↑ https://www.silenthillmemories.net/lost_memories/guide/024-025_en.htm
- ↑ https://youtu.be/vQyiYczAcYU
- ↑ https://facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=4887723057930181&id=181822795186921
- ↑ Silent Hill: Play Novel, Cybil's scenario, Chapter 7
- ↑ https://imgur.com/a/f2GSCIk
- ↑ Book of Lost Memories
- ↑ https://www.silenthillmemories.net/lost_memories/scans_en/pics/028-029_sh1_ending_analysis.jpg Book of Lost Memories]
- ↑ Masahiro Ito, Twitter
- ↑ Masahiro Ito, Twitter
- ↑ Keiichiro Toyama
Gallery[]
Silent Hill[]
Silent Hill: Play Novel[]
Silent Hill: Book of Memories[]
Dead by Daylight: Chapter XVI - Silent Hill[]
Dark Deception: Monsters & Mortals - Silent Hill[]
Inspired arts in other media[]
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