Here thar be major spoilers. Do not read if you haven't beat the game all the way through.

Played it, loved it, despite its many many flaws. Now I just need to figure out what the @#$(& happened!

Here's my theory: the entire thing was just a symbolic journey through Cheryl's head. Outside of the therapy sessions, not a single thing we saw actually happened. There's nothing to tie this game with the previous Silent Hills: there's no cult, there's no dark past, there's no evil town. None of the characters we met ever really existed (and this includes Harry!), although they each symbolize something in Cheryl's life. Everything we see is simply Cheryl going on her journey of self-discovery and recognition.

Here's the part that confuses me though: clearly some of the phone calls and text messages we receive were not directly related to Cheryl's life. While the vast majority definitely were her experiences (and boy has she chosen a crappy life...) I can't understand where the Babes in the Woods, or The Choking Game fit into all of this. Cycle of Death is another one that doesn't seem to be about her at all. What am I missing here?

Also, while I like my theory about what the game is, I'm open to hearing other interpretations: I'm sure there's plenty I missed, especially since I've only played it twice (and had several changes in just those two playthroughs).

I saw it as the crash being real, but Harry being killed. His driver to find her is just a figment of her imagination. The father she never had. That is why how you play effects the ending. If you are good the memories are of you being a good father and thus the journey in the game is representative of the real Harry and his love of his daughter. If you get the bad ending it serves to remind you that he wasn't really the kind of person who would look for his daughter in a town like Silent Hill. The sexual innuendo suggests some possible incestuous feeling on her part as well.

I've heard people on other boards say that Harry is somehow in an alternate dimension that the experience for him is his dying thoughts interposed with her imagination of him.

Tha UFO ending the best though. Hilarious.

I have the Original PS1 game. That counts doesn't it?

I agree, although I haven't gotten the UFO ending yet. Those things are hard to find!

I wonder though if the "good" ending is really the best possible scenario. In my "good ending" Harry didn't freeze, and the dialogue between them makes it seem like Cheryl hasn't really moved past his death after all. It's almost like she's still clinging to this ideal father who may or may not have ever existed. By contrast, in my bad ending Harry tells Cheryl to forget about him, and he freezes over. She's sad, and probably disillusioned, but at least she's no longer clinging to her fantasies like she was before. Isn't that a good thing?

I'd like to know how you interpreted the different areas of the game (town, woods, school, etc.). I think they represent Kaufmann walking her through episodes of her life, and trying to make her open her eyes to what's really going on. I find it interesting that the freezes always happen right before "Harry" is about to discover something that would shatter Cheryl's illusionary world.* And he does say, in the end, that he's been "spelling it out" for her all along. In this regard, it almost seems like Harry serves as Kaufmann's avatar, with the Otherworld being her "agents of repression."

*The exception is the Woods. I can't figure out why it freezes in that nearly-empty cabin.

 Not even a little bit. It might even be harmful, to be honest.

Not really. They are two very different games.

What do you guys think about the Alien ending. That brought a lot of WTF? I only could wonder my reaction if I got that my first playthrough.

Edit:    Nevermind maybe I should read other peoples posts. :D

My theory is that Cheryl was so traumatized by her father's death that she denied it to a point where a physical manifestation of Harry was created to give her denial some weight. She felt that her life fell apart the minute her father was killed in the car accident and was unable to move on because of that.

So you think most of the events in the game actually happened (outside of Cheryl's head)?

I want to know the answer to this as well.  What did the highschool, nurse and the cop represent too?

My guess is that the high school girl was either Cheryl's ideal life or a representation of how she felt about her own life. In my first playthrough, Michelle was the prom queen (she even dressed like one!) who had brains, liked her job, was generally cheerful, and was in love with what she thought was a good guy. In my second playthrough, she was much more cynical, unhappy, and she was the one who broke up with her boyfriend. Mirroring this, my first playthrough was generally happy, while the second one was...not.

The nurse is probably meant to represent guilt. You find Lisa after she's crashed her car (sound familiar?). You give her the pills, and then she dies. The natural question is "was her death my fault? Am I responsible?" Seeing as how Cheryl is subconsciously asking herself the same question regarding her father, I think Lisa's role is fairly clear-cut. Maybe too clear-cut?

As for Cybil, I see her primarily as representing Authority. When she was friendly, the game ended with Cheryl meeting and hugging a blond woman in the parking lot, one who looked a lot like Cheryl's mother. The phone at the start of the woods was also much less hostile, with the caller telling her mother that yes, the mother was right about the party, and could she please come pick the caller up? By contrast, when Cybil was borderline nasty to Harry, the phone call had a more tearful caller accusing her mother of never being around when the caller needed her, and the woman didn't appear in the ending. What I don't completely understand is why Cybil is the only character, aside from Harry, who ever notices anything odd happening. She's the only one who questions anything, although it's strange that she keeps overlooking his sudden disappearances. Also, in my first ending she resigned from the Silent Hill PD, while in the second she only said that she was going to trust her gut from now on.

not the highschool girl.  she was the mother.  thats what i took from it.

the whole highschool area... like the phone calls, the photos taking of the girl and principal in the car and others...