Travis, The Truck, and Alex's Status *SPOILERS*

[Droo]

I found Travis' random cameo to be quite bizarre at first, and initially considered it to be a rather awkward cameo with little to no narrative purpose.

However, in the alleyway past the Park in Shepherd's Glen, the giant truck that you syphon gas from to start the water pump in the Shepherd house bears, to me, a jarring resemblence to Travis' truck.

Now, don't get me wrong, I know that Travis's truck is pretty generic, and thus this could just be another random truck, but it's the only other one we see and it seems pretty noticeable to me. I think this is Travis' truck.

Travis doesn't seem to notice or comment on the foggy state of Shepherd's Glen. Fair enough, he's not actively involved in the scenario, so chances are he just sees the town as it is. Problem is, the town is still empty. Deserted. Much like a certain very nearby town that he nearly died in 30 years ago. You'd think at the very least Travis would see an empty town near Silent Hill, put two and two together, and try and at least warm Alez of what might come. But no, he drives merrily off into the fog. Also, Travis doesn't seem to have aged. At all. This is also striking. Origins takes place in the 1970s, and Homecoming obviously has to take place in the present day, and, at the very least sometime after 2003, when Silent Hill 3 takes place. We know this since Douglas is mentioned in the article about the exposing of The Order. So Travis should look at least 30 years older. He doesn't.

Another thing we never find out about is just where and how Travis ended up picking Alex up in the first place. Beyond the question as to why Travis would still be driving a truck in the exact same region as the horrific events of Origins 30 years later, I find myself asking where Alex would have encountered Travis.

In the opening of the game, we find memos about a violent patient who tried to escape and tore up the hospital. I believe this is Alex. They placed him under sedation, and decided to perform the lobotomy on him, presumably as a final resort to deal with his violent behaviour. It would also seem that Alex was committed to Alchemilla Hospital as a mental patient. I guess Brookhaven isn't the only mental intitution in Silent Hill anymore (they do seem to have a large number of mentally unstable people living there and visiting, so they probably just adapted Alchemilla to suit this expanding need, f you will). So, if Alex is somehow able to tap into the mystical energies of the town, and use them to escape from Alchemilla, he would be near Silent Hill when Travis picks him up. It's also possible that Alex simply went psycho and broke his way out of Alchemilla, and the bad dream at the beginning is merely a prophetic bad dream.

Anyway, what am I getting at here? I believe that Travis is, much like Rose in the Movie, trapped eternally in Foggy Silent Hill. That's why he hasn't aged. Indeed, there's a chance that Travis is doomed to reexperience the events of Origins over and over and over. Or, like Lisa and Cybil, he could just be having his form and consciousness be used as necessary by the Powers That Be for the particular purpose at the time. Alex needed a lift to Silent Hill, and he needed to not be discovered by anyone such as the police who are undoubtedly searching for the escaped mental patient. Along comes Travis, to drive him to Shepherd's Glen. drive off into the fog, and then vanish. His truck is the truck you steal gas from, and Travis is gone without a trace, his purpose fulfilled.

So, it seems that the Powers That Be found it pretty damn necessary to get Alex to Shepherd's Glen. Why?

There are a few possible reasons:

a) Alex feels guilty about his repressed memory of killing Josh. Thus, like James and Angela and Eddie before him, his guilty conscience calls him back to be punished.

There is a problem with a). If it's merely Silent Hill doing its "sinners must be punished" schtick, why is it necessary for Alex to leave Silent Hill, where he's been all along, return to Shepherd's Glen, and then return to the town again to be punished? I guess it could be argued that he needed to face his past, to prepare himself for his final punishment. There is certainly contextual evidence to suggest that the entire events of Homecoming may be some sort of bizarre thematic mashup of SH2 and SH1/3. Pyramid Head is present, both as a herald of disaster and a direct punisher of Adam. Of Adam? Why not Alex? He's the one with the guilty conscience. This brings me to my next suggestion for why this is happening.

b) Alex is the Keeper/Herald of punishment. Judge Holloway seems to have been granted the role of Keeper, but based on the description of the Keeper's role in the Town Hall, I was under the impression that the Keeper is the one that maintains the other three roles doing their job, and to punsih/kill them if they weren't. Throughout the game, Alex arrives on the scene with Bartlett, Fitch, Holloway, and Shepherd (Adam AND Lillian), and shortly thereafter they are destroyed/consumed by monsters, which Alex then dispatches himself (with the exception of Pyramid Head, who fulfills his duty and then goes back to wherever it is that he goes when he's not skewering/stabbing people and raping mannequins). Lillian is outside this evaluation, as she is dragged into it by the Order Fanatics themselves, not by any otherworldly maniuplations. What I'm trying to say is, it's almost as if Alex himself is either the Keeper, ordained by God to track down and punish the founders as per the curse.

c) Alex is somehow acting as a safeguard against this new verion of The Order and their extreme beliefs and practices. The monsters that consume/kill the founders as per the curse are then taken care of by Alex, who makes his way through Curtis and Margaret to find his brother Joshua. Led to the sacrificial altars, Alex confronts the physical manifestation of the curse (God?), dispatches it, frees the soul of Joshua, and leaves. So we're left to wonder under this option what exactly was it that Alex fought as the end of Homecoming? Was it God as conceptualized by the previous incarnations of The Order? Is it some new kind of evil God? Does The Order's old God sent Alex to Shepherd's Glen/Silent Hill in order to break this curse?

Anyway, just thought I'd make a few random obervations and make some hypotheses before I went to bed. I will expand and elaborate further on this train of thought as they come to me and as you all contribute points and criticism.

[ur-vile]

Travis doesn't seem to have aged

Are we playing the same game? I'd have to completely disagree.

Not that everyone in the series has looked their age anyways (Lisa in SH0, Judge Halloway in Homecoming, etc)

[SethSunderland]

Pyramid Head, who fulfills his duty and then goes back to wherever it is that he goes when he's not skewering/stabbing people and raping mannequins

Mannequin brothel. xD

Anyways, this is a very deep and long post. Very interesting, but I don't remember if we had decided that it WAS or WASN'T Travis that was driving Alex....

Beside that, lovely post and great ideas, Drew. =3

[ur-vile]

The developers stated it was Travis, but there's nothing in the game indicating it's him unless I missed something. It didn't seem important to me either way.

Going back to the siphoning of the gas, I WAY overthought that part. I looked around for almost a half hour for a hose before I just tried using the gas can on the truck, lol.

[David01]

Perhaps Travis hasn't aged, because as the poster above put it, he is stuck in foggy silent hill for eternity. I mean if you're in eternity and not really living in reality anymore, then naturally you're not going to age.. it's like time goes in a constant loop over and over again.. to me though he looks older and much older than he did in origins.

[delusion]

He sure has aged

http://silenthillorigins.com/silenthill ... ns_ps2.jpg

http://silenthill5.net/silenthill5/conc ... body01.jpg

He has the same clothes so we are pretty sure that it's Travis too

[AuraTwilight]

Um, yea, he's aged. He's even got one hell of a beard and a gut. And lots of truckers tend to age well. I'll have you know. It's far simpler that he aged fine, gave Alex an innocent ride, then abandoned his truck to escape monsters.

[David01]

Yeah I see your point Aura, and that makes sense, if I were Travis and went through the shit he did, I'd be running and making a hole in the wall.

[Tank Girl]

In the opening of the game, we find memos about a violent patient who tried to escape and tore up the hospital. I believe this is Alex. They placed him under sedation, and decided to perform the lobotomy on him, presumably as a final resort to deal with his violent behaviour. It would also seem that Alex was committed to Alchemilla Hospital as a mental patient.

Thank you for saying this, Drew. I actually thought to myself that it made perfect sense for Alex to be said patient but I thought perhaps I was reaching too far.

I have more to say on this, but I'm just leaving for work... so I'll have to come back here in a few hours. lol Damn this game. My mind has just been spinning ever since I finished it last night.

[Droo]

I can't really speak of the endings. I got the UFO ending my first time around.....somehow.

The fact still remains, why was Travis still driving trucks near Silent Hill to pick Alex up from escaping Alchemilla in the first place? It was never his normal route ("Travis you messed up sonofabitch, whatchu' doin' on my road?"), and you'd think after the events of Origins that he'd take great efforts NOT to drive around near there. Hell, if I was him I'd have moved to Oregon, changed my name, and stopped driving big rigs altogether.

[ur-vile]

Well I'm sure his route could have changed in that span of time. As for why he'd still travel so close to Silent Hill, I dunno. Maybe he was at peace with all that happened. Maybe Travis had some more crazy adventures that brought him back to the area, who knows.

I thought it was kinda lame that they brought back travis and he didn't make any comments about origins, but oh well.

[jthomp1286]

Travis has aged quite a bit, but you can still tell its him. I cannot see why that truck has to be the same as Travis'. Why don't you ever run into him if its his? And why is his truck parked near a park and Alex's house? Doesn't seem to add up. Its not too much of a stretch to believe he would still be traveling the same route. He did his time in SH and was released by Alessa. He probably feels like it is a good reminder of where he was and where he is now mentally and emotionally. In some way it probably keeps him sane. He's probably seen the town progress since then. All in all, I think he's put the experience behind him. I think Travis' cameo was just that. Nothing more.

[Droo]

Fair points. I do like your explanation as to the rationale of his staying nearby.

[l33tspaniard]

He seemed pretty at peace with his SH experience at the end. Sure, it was disturbing, but in the end it helped him to make peace with himself. He may never go back to Silent Hill, but he probably has no issue with driving by.

Also, he does hint that something's wrong: after Alex says SG is his hometown, Travis looks away for a moment (with a kind of 'not again' face) then wishes Alex luck. What more could he say? "Did I ever tell you about the time I went to Silent Hill and there monsters and a little girl and my parents were demons but I had a warm fuzzy happy ending?"

That'd probably remind Alex of Alchemilla. Since it would make Travis seem mildly INSANE.

[Heart of Shadows]

Seriously...

Silent hill rapes and punishes you mentally in a way that you just can't tell to other people and besides.. Didn't Harry try telling people about silent hill and they knocked him off as insane?
Silent hill is a personal experience from beginning to end and its better that its kept to the one who experienced it.

[AuraTwilight]

Didn't Harry try telling people about silent hill and they knocked him off as insane?

No.

[Heart of Shadows]

Oh but you gotta admit that l33tspaniard is right about if travis would have burst into a happy huggy moment over silent hill.

[ur-vile]

so I'm on my 2nd playthrough and something really jumped out at me. All roads out of town are cut off at the very beginning of the game. Eventually the bridge into town cuts off too, but I'm not sure when that happens.

Anyways, my point is... is Travis not affected at all by what's happening in Shepard's Glen and Silent Hill? I guess that would make sense because he's an outsider. I'm sure the parked semi isn't his.

[jthomp1286]

You could be on the right track. He's not part of the Four Families and has no connection to SG. However, neither does Wheeler save for the fact that he happens to work there.

[ur-vile]

Yeah, but Wheeler has lived there for a while now right? Maybe now that he calls SG home would be the explanation for that one. Whereas Travis has no connection to SG whatsoever