Red (while infected)
Silent Hill: Play Novel
Silent Hill: Homecoming (mentioned)
Silent Hill: Book of Memories (cameo)
- "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 a major character in Silent Hill. She is also a playable character in Silent Hill: Play Novel, appears in the film adaptation, and is re-imagined in Silent Hill: Shattered Memories.
Background
Cybil Bennett is a strong-willed 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. Unlike the other human characters, Cybil is a skeptic and has difficulty accepting the paranormal activity in town. She quickly befriends Harry Mason and attempts to help him to find his daughter, Cheryl.
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 head. This incident largely impacted her future, which was the main influence on her becoming a police officer.[1] Cybil is also single as she says, "It's Miss, not Ma'am".
Silent Hill
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.
Cybil smiling at Harry in the cafe.
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 then dragged 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 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".
Much later in the game, Cybil sees Harry and follows him into the Green Lion antique shop. Here she explains that the police were investigating the flow of drugs in Silent Hill, which she attributes to all the weird things going on. 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 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 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 control the Puppet Doctors and Puppet Nurses in Alchemilla Hospital, Puppet Cybil Bennett draws her gun and shoots at Harry.
Fate
Cybil's Death
Cybil's death.
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.
If Harry spares her life in the amusement park, Cybil will fall to the ground and 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.
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.
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.
Canonical fate
Cybil is neither seen nor mentioned in Silent Hill 3. The novelization uses the Good+ ending. In Silent Hill: Homecoming, Deputy Wheeler tells Alex Shepherd and Elle Holloway that a female police officer 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. It is heavily implied this was Cybil.
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". [2] However, the Book of Lost Memories also stated that the Good ending (in which Cybil dies) is the "orthodox ending, which is connected to the third game".[3]
When asked if Cybil was dead, developer Masahiro Ito responded "Yes, I remember Cybil is dead."[4] When asked the meaning of Owaku's statement, he replied, "if you choose 'good+' ending among them, she is not dead, maybe."[5]
Director Keiichiro Toyama, who left Team Silent after Silent Hill and was not involved with latter entries, stated that he intended for the Good ending to be the true ending because "Good+ is a game's game", and he believes Owaku developed Silent Hill 3 around the first game's Good ending based on his own previous statements. However, Toyama changed his mind and also considers the Good+ ending to be "a true ending."[6]
Silent Hill: Play Novel
Fate
- Ending A - Cybil runs up the staircase with Cheryl in her arms.
- 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.
- Ending B-3 - In Alchemilla Hospital, Cybil is about to enter a door with a blinding 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 notices Alessa, who softly whispers her name.
- 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 on 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 Canadian actress Laurie Holden. As in the game, she aids the protagonist in finding their missing child. Cybil dies at the end of the movie, burned alive by a fanatical religious cult who believed she was a witch for helping Rose Da Silva to 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. She has three potential appearances depending on the player's Psych Profile.
Cybil Bennett is a police officer from the town of Silent Hill. She knows both the town and its people. 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.
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?"
- "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?"
- "What in the devil’s name?"
Trivia
- The North American manual for Silent Hill states that Cybil is 22, while the Book of Lost Memories and the European manual state that she is 28. It seems the latter is a more accurate age, as she would be closer to Harry, who is 32.
- 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.
- In the Silent Hill: Book of Memories Joke ending, 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 since the Joke ending is simply that: a joke ending.
- Cybil was once featured in a technical demo for the PlayStation 2.[1]
References
Gallery
Silent Hill
Silent Hill: Play Novel
Silent Hill: Book of Memories
