| “ | Don't you see? Because of him, our sacrifices were in vain! The pact with our God was broken, and your father's lack of conviction cursed us all. Our only hope was to revive the Order which our founders abandoned... the true faith. Murdering? I've given them life through rebirth. I've tried to make Elle understand. But she's like you, Alex. She still thinks there are such things as good and evil. But there aren't. There is only chaos and order.
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Margaret Holloway is a judge and cultist who lives and works in the town of Shepherd's Glen. Shown to be the driving force behind the disappearances of many residents of the town, she is one of two primary antagonists in Silent Hill: Homecoming, the other being Curtis Ackers. Both of them represent the series' primary antagonistic force, the Order, Silent Hill's resident cult. She is shown to have great respect from other townspeople, but her daughter Elle resents her for her laconic attitude to parenting.
Biography[]
The mother of both Elle and Nora Holloway, Margaret is a descendant of one of the original founders of Shepherd's Glen. As a Holloway, she is tasked as the Keeper of Lore, as ordained by her family's pact with God, and so presided as judge within the town. The pact required her family to sacrifice a child every fifty years through a specific method; for the Holloways, their children had to be consigned to "the noose", or more specifically, sacrificed by strangulation.
When the time came for Margaret to make the sacrifice, round about the town's one hundred fifty year anniversary, she chose Nora, her youngest daughter, and strangled her to death brutally. Out of all the parents, Margaret was the only parent to have voiced no regrets, later claiming that she did what was required. Unaware of what Margaret had done, her elder daughter would post numerous missing person posters around the town to search for her sister.
Though Margaret upheld her end of the pact, the deal would be broken when Joshua Shepherd, youngest son of the Shepherd family, was accidentally killed in a boating accident when Alex Shepherd was supposed to be sacrificed. As Joshua was not the intended sacrifice, the pact was rendered null, effectively cursing Sherpherd's Glen. Margaret would come to blame Adam Shepherd for leaving all their sacrifices in vain.
Soon after Alex was sent to a psychiatric hospital to help him cope with his brother's death, the Otherworld of Silent Hill slowly began to consume the town, shrouding it in a thick fog. Searching for a way to save her town, Margaret eventually decided that the "true faith" was the only solution. With that, she revived the Order, which had been disbanded years ago. Enlisting Curtis Ackers and an army of Order Soldiers to help her, Margaret began kidnapping the townspeople to brainwash them into joining the cult. Any who resisted were tortured to death, apparently to give them "life through rebirth". By the time Alex returned to his hometown, nearly all of Sherpherd's Glen had either been brainwashed or killed.
Silent Hill: Homecoming[]
Alex and Margaret reunite.
When Alex Shepherd returns home with no memory of Joshua's death, he reunites with Margaret near the town hall. Surprised at his return, Margaret asks him if his mother knew he was home, and also adds that Elle, his childhood friend, would like to see him again. When Alex states that the town has changed, Margaret admits that it had, and not for the better. She then advises him to head home and visit his mother before heading into the town hall.
If Alex chooses to follow her inside, he finds her in her office, where she agrees to answer any questions he may have. When Alex asks about the anniversary banner, which is still up despite the hundred year anniversary occurring several years ago, she admits he is right, and it is also revealed that the anniversary was round about the time all the business began shutting down. After answering his questions she tells Alex once again to visit his mother.
Alex doesn't encounter her again for a large portion of the game, but Margaret still has an impact on his experiences in the town. After Sam Bartlett and Martin Fitch are killed by manifestations of the children they killed, Margaret decides that it is time to punish Adam and Lillian Shepherd for their failure to uphold the pact. She sends Curtis Ackers (dressed in miner's clothing) and a group of cultists to Lillian's house and violently abducts her, beating Alex down when he tries to stop them. Lillian would later be strapped to a torture device and executed. She has her enforcers intercept Alex, Elle, and Deputy James Wheeler when they try to cross Toluca Lake, and Elle and Wheeler are captured.
Margaret restrained in the penitentiary.
With no explanation as to how she got into her predicament, Margaret later ends up imprisoned in Overlook Penitentiary to be killed by Asphyxia, the horrific manifestation of Nora. When Deputy Wheeler, who escaped, and Alex find her, she is strapped to a chair inside what appears to be a gas chamber. The two men free her, and Alex hands Margaret her locket containing a picture of Nora. Margaret is surprised to learn that Elle had taken it without her knowledge. Before their conversation can continue, Asphyxia arrives to claim her mother, but instead abducts Wheeler while Alex ushers Margaret through the exit. She flees the chamber with an evil smile on her face and latches the door shut behind her, intending to allow Alex to die at Asphyxia's hands. Alex instead manages to kill Asphyxia.
Margaret manages to make her way back to the Order's lair. Wheeler, who somehow ended up back in the Order's hands after his abduction by Aphyxia, is tortured to near death, while Margaret visits Elle and attempts to convince her to join the cult, likely also revealing that she killed Nora. However, in Margaret's opinion, Elle still believed in good and evil, and rebuffs her mother.
Alex is later taken to the Order's lair by Curtis Ackers, and when he wakes up strapped to a chair, he finds Margaret sitting next to him. Alex initially apologizes to her for losing Elle, but is stunned when Margaret finally reveals her true nature and that she sacrificed her own daughter. She tells him the truth about the pact and what has happened to the town after the pact was broken. When Alex fears that Joshua was also sacrificed, Margaret tells him otherwise, and while she doesn't tell him that Joshua is dead, she does say that his father was responsible for breaking the pact by being to weak to choose which son to sacrifice. Finally, she reveals that she intends to have Elle killed for rejecting the cult, and when Curtis enters, she orders him to show Elle the "price of her disobedience".
Margaret torturing Alex before her death.
After Curtis picks up an electric saw and leaves to complete his task, Margaret picks up an electric drill and advances on Alex. Despite Alex's attempts to reason with her, Margaret attempts to rectify Adam Shepherd's failure to kill Alex and begins the endeavor to torture him to death. She drills into his leg for several seconds before Alex manages to free his arms, knocking her back. An enraged Margaret decides to kill Alex right then and there and attacks him again viciously, this time trying to drill into his eye. A fierce struggle ensues, ending when Alex manages to force the drill up through Margaret's lower jaw and into her head, gruesomely killing her. Alex then screams at her, "Bitch!"
Personality[]
Originally when first seen, she appears as a kind figure, greeting Alex when he arrived back at Shepherd's Glen for four years and saying that he should go see his family.
During her final confrontation with Alex, much of Margaret's violent true nature is exposed. She claims that the protection of her family has always been her first priority. So much so, that the sacrifice of her daughter Nora was a worthy price to pay. When Adam fails to fulfill his portion of the pact, Margaret turns to the Order as a means of salvation. She had the residents of Shepherd's Glen abducted in order to either convert them back into followers of the Order or to kill them; however, this apparent concern over faith is clearly a ruse to hide a strict totalitarian personality, as it is clearly stated that she is willing to murder her only remaining daughter due to her disobedience. She also believes that there's no "good" or "evil", only "chaos" and "order", sharply implying Margaret would have killed Alex and Elle eventually and everything would have been in her control.
While the other parents were believers as she was, they all suffered some sort of dilapidating remorse and repent over the murders of their own children. Isaac Shepherd himself stated on his tomb that if there was any justice at all, God should never forgive him, for although they committed the sacrifices in order to protect the town, it doesn't remove the guilt over such an act. Not only is Margaret absent of this remorse, but she also demonstrates a certain taste in ordering and developing extraordinarily cruel tortures for those who refuse to accept the teachings of the cult before finally killing them, including having Lillian Shepherd stretched until her limbs and abdomen are torn, and torturing Wheeler, Elle, and almost Alex.
Margaret is cruel, a bigot of the Order, indifferent about her actions, and apathetic to the suffering of others. As the only remaining leader of Shepherd Glen's sect of the Order, and subsequently the Order as a whole, she rules with an iron fist and through fear. Her simple concern over faith actually hides her true power-mad desires to maintain order and control over all and everything according to her own visions and ideals. Based on all these aspects, Margaret can be considered a serial-killing psychopath due to her egotistical vision of the world, as well as her sadism in getting rid of those she deems unworthy.
Quotes[]
- "Of course. You know how it is. No one ever leaves this place."
- "Things haven't been that easy for Elle, Alex. She's a strong girl. And I have faith that she'll come through okay."
- "I thought you two were just friends, Alex."
- "Elle? Where is she? Is she okay?"
- "You should probably call me Margaret. You're so grown up now."
- "I'm sorry too. You try so hard to raise a child, to instill your values into her. You want her to be her own person but you hope she'll always remember what's important: family. Family is the most important thing, Alex. I would do anything to protect them. That's why I sacrificed my daughter."
- "I watched the light fade from Nora's eyes as I took her life... knowing that her death would protect our family, protect Shepherd's Glen."
- "Murdering? I've given them life through rebirth."
- "I've tried to make Elle understand. But she's like you, Alex. She still thinks there are such things as good and evil. But there aren't. There is only chaos and order."
- "No, Alex. It's time I finished what your father couldn't."
Trivia[]
Margaret's original hairstyle.
- Like Alex, Margaret had a different hairstyle at the concept stage of development, with it being much more loose rather then rolled up in buns.
- Although Margaret's partner is never mentioned, he is mentioned in Elle Holloway's Diary. Elle incongruously comments, "He's found the best way to deal with life is just to pull the covers over your eyes and pretend no one can see you." In deleted text files, it is revealed his name is Harrison Holloway.[1] He is presumably a member of the Order, and it is unknown if he's still alive after the events of Homecoming.
- If the player waits at the title screen long enough, the intro video will play. In it, Margaret is seen angrily shouting to Alex, "Our sacrifices were in vain!", essentially spoiling the plot twist that Margaret is an antagonist of the game.
- Margaret is one of the three parental characters in the game who are not killed by a monstrous version of their sacrificed son/daughter, the others being Adam and Lillian Shepherd. However, she escapes her death at the hands of Asphyxia in Overlook Penitentiary only through the interference of Alex.
- In Alchemilla Hospital, there is an x-ray of a skull impaled through the jaw with a nail. This foreshadows the method through which Margaret is eventually killed.
- Judging by the way she keeps commanding Alex to go see his mother, it could be implied that she uses this time to inform the Order of his sudden reappearance.
Homecoming Drill Scene
Alex gets a drill to the eye (uncensored).
- If Alex fails to stop her from torturing him with the drill, she will kill him by impaling it into his eye or in his leg while giving a wicked smile, resulting in a game over.
- The Australian version of Homecoming censors Margaret's death. In the scene where Margaret Holloway drills into Alex's leg, a hospital bed is conveniently placed in front of the camera, obscuring the actual drilling.[2] When the drill is pushed into Margaret's face, the screen is merely black with the sound still heard in the background.[3] When Margaret falls to the floor, the drill is no longer lodged in her jaw, and completely missing from the scene. Also if Margaret successfully kills Alex by drilling him through the eye, the scene is immediately cut to gameover.
Margaret lies dead on the floor of the lair.
- In the lair, the player can backtrack to Margaret's corpse after rescuing Elle. Elle shows no reaction to her mother's corpse, even with the drill still embedded in her throat. This was likely overlooked by the game developers, as in a real life situation, Elle would have likely had a strong emotional reaction. It may also point to Elle's traumatized mental state, having just been tortured and almost murdered by a man working under the orders of her mother. It is possible that Elle may have begun grieving her mother's death at a later time, when her mental state had returned to normal.
- Margaret was the Keeper of Lore in the Shepherd's Glen sect. The Ancient Books refer to the Keeper of Lore as "he", implying that a man should have a job. It might be that "he" was simply the pronoun that was chosen, but it may also suggest that women were barred from high level positions early on in the pact. It may also be that with her husband notably absent from the game, she had to take over the duty.
- Having to murder her daughter by strangulation (surrendering her child to the noose) relates to her profession as a judge and how criminals were once executed by hanging.
- Margaret is the only other founding member (other than the Shepherds) who had a mentioned spouse, in contrast to the unknown wives of Sam Bartlett and Martin Fitch.
- Margaret is the fifth female antagonist in the Silent Hill series, the first four being Dahlia Gillespie (Silent Hill and Silent Hill: Origins), Maria (Silent Hill 2), Claudia Wolf (Silent Hill 3), and Christabella (the first film), in contrast to only three male antagonists Walter Sullivan (Silent Hill 4: The Room), Michael Kaufmann (Silent Hill and Silent Hill: Origins), and George Sewell (Silent Hill: Downpour).
- Out of all the Shepherd's Glen residents, Margaret has the biggest death toll, having killed her daughter Nora, Lillian, Adam, and possibly numerous other innocent people of Shepherd's Glen.
- Margaret's position as a Judge is ironic since she instead enforces her way of thinking upon others or kill them, rather than giving a fair hand making her view as position of power flawed.
Gallery[]
