Kaufman is perhaps the most puzzling figure in the game. So little is known about his involvement in the events that transpire during the adventure. I'm not totally sure why he's even present in the game. If my theory about neither Silent Hill being real is true, then what variable is Kaufman in the equation? Maybe by sorting out the pieces of this part of the puzzle, I'll be able to figure this out, right here. So let's start at the beginning, and recap everything we know about Kaufman.
Harry first meets Kaufman in the hospital. Kaufman has been shooting and killing Alessa's monsters, trying to make sense of the situation he's been drawn into. When he is discovered by Harry, he tries to shoot him. This is because Kaufman probably realizes that everything is not real. He says as much to Harry when he starts pointing out the characteristics of the phenomenon. How does he realize that Harry is real? Maybe it's something that Harry says or does, or maybe it's the way Harry pleads not to be shot. Notice how Kaufman abruptly says he has things to do and leaves, when he finds out that Harry is looking for his daughter? Perhaps Kaufman is as confused about his own presence in the conjured world as we are. Maybe the true importance of this scene lies in the fact that Kaufman is starting to put all the pieces together.
So what's in the briefcase, Doctor? At the end of the game, we see Kaufman pull the Aglaophotis out of his bag, and throw it at Alessa. But previously, Harry discovered this weird mixture hidden in the gas tank of a motorcycle, parked in the garage of the Motel. So does Kaufman have the Aglaophotis in the briefcase during the Hospital scene? My answer is no, since Harry finds it spilled on the floor of the good Doctor's office. This leads me to believe that Kaufman had come to the Hospital to get the sample of the Aglaophotis out of his desk. Something happened, and the glass bottle was spilled. Now, Kaufman has to make his way over to the Motel, where he has a backup sample stashed.
Harry encounters Kaufman next at Annie's Bar. Kaufman is being attacked by what looks like a Teddy Bear from Hell, and Harry saves him. Kaufman is thankful, but his business presses him onward. When Harry finds the Aglaophotis in the gas tank of the motorcycle, as I previously mentioned, Kaufman finds Harry and takes the sample. His gruff answer to Harry's queries is to "stop screwing around" and to "take care of business". Kaufman is next seen in a weird flashback moment, when it is Harry who is experiencing Alessa's flashback, in a sense. Kaufman, Dahlia and two others stand over the burned and bandaged form of Alessa. The powers of the Dark Soul have slipped through their fingers. Dahlia comes up with an answer. Then Kaufman appears at the end of the game, in the Good+ or Good Endings, which I'll get to in a moment. So what is Kaufman doing? If we add all these pieces up, plus a few other facts that I have yet to mention, we'll see that Kaufmann is one crooked dude. I'm sure most of you suspected that, but let's try to get to the truth and find out just how crooked he is. Lisa mentions that there was some cult activity in Silent Hill seven years ago. From the "flashback", we can determine that Kaufman was part of the cult that Lisa mentions.
Dahlia was also a part of this cult, and so were two others. Why don't the two others appear in the game? Because I don't think Alessa had ever seen them before. She only heard their voices, as they stood around her hospital bed. That's why the man standing at the head of the bed has no face. Alessa knew who Kaufman and Dahlia were, that's how they are so well represented. Anyway, to continue; Kaufman is in with this cult for personal status and power. He is the director of the Hospital, since it is in the Director's Office that we see Kaufman's Aglaophotis spilt. He most likely attained this position through the cult's influence. We've already discussed that the goal of the cult was to summon the blind hebrew archangel, Samael, into the body of an unborn fetus. Thus, the cult could raise and teach the child to do what they want, and therefore be able to rule the world through the power contained in the child, which they would control. But the child proved uncontrollable, and Dahlia burned Alessa alive. The girl was unable to die because of the power her body contained, but because of the wounds, the power went dormant. Then, Dahlia reveals her plan to have a second child by the same means as the previous ritual, and it would contain the rest of the power of their dark god. Meantime, Alessa needs to be kept someplace safe. Dahlia's house is gone at this point, burned down in the fire. Since Kaufman is the director of the Hospital, he can keep Alessa in a basement storage room, seal off the entrance, and keep her a secret for many, many years. Only problem is, Alessa's wounds will never heal, and the bandages have to constantly be changed. Alessa needs around-the-clock care, and Kaufman needs a night watchman. This is where Lisa comes in.
Now I have to diverge a bit, to bring Lisa into the whole sordid affair. One of the ways the cult gained status in the town was to create an entire drug-smuggling operation. The drug that they were manufacturing and selling, to locals and tourists alike, was produced from a flower that was indigenous to the region called White Claudia. They probably passed this stuff off as some other drug, like Heroin or Cocaine. But the difference with this drug is that it was often used in magical rituals, and had hallucinogenic properties. Thus, once the drug was introduced into someone's system, the cult became able to control them. Kaufman and Dahlia had an entire drug operation going in the resort area, so that the drug could be given to the tourists. This brings up a question for me: Wasn't Harry a tourist, and had visited here many times in the past? Had he been given the drug, or had he bought some?
A theory I’m given over and over on this one is that Harry is really hopped up on White Claudia this whole time, and is hallucinating everything. I don't think this is true, since too much of the game makes too much sense, especially in a very deep way. It's not something a hallucinating drug-user would come up with, it's far too complex. But it certainly is an interesting theory to entertain, I just stopped entertaining it, is all. Silent Hill is about something, we just have to figure out what.
To continue investigating Kaufman: He and Dahlia are described in the journal kept by the convenience store manager, which is found by Harry. The drugs were dropped off by Kaufman and Dahlia, and picked up by another. Harry finds the drugs in the store safe, so Kaufman is obviously not after the drugs. And the purpose of using White Claudia in the drugs and selling them to the tourists was to try to spread the influence of the cult. This way, when Samael's power was manifested through the girl Alessa, a whole world of uninitiated followers would suddenly do the cult's bidding. This wasn't an invisible operation. The local police were investigating it (as Harry discovers at the Police Station), and Cybil's department in Brahms was also investigating, independently. But no leads could be gained in the case, since everyone involved wouldn't say anything. Any officers who investigated too well ended up the victims of bizarre heart attacks, and other strange deaths. The cult had a perfect money making operation, and no one would mess with it, for fear of retaliation.
As Lisa's Diary describes, she was addicted to Kaufman's drug. Naturally, she became the only one Kaufman could use to care for Alessa. Her drug addiction prevented her from doing anything about Alessa. There's a scene in the intro of the game where Lisa and Kaufman are fighting. I'll bet anything that this is the last time that the real Lisa was ever seen or heard from. Kaufman and the cult probably caused her to have an "accident" or an overdose at some point after that. It seems that Lisa was ready to make trouble for the cult, if in fact she was the one to abduct the second child from Dahlia and leave it on the side of the road for Harry to find.
When Harry returns to Silent Hill, and the second child remembers who she is and creates a false reality to hide in, how does Kaufman get sucked into that? As the videotape confession of Lisa proves, the nurse had some regrets and feelings about Alessa. I'm sure that Alessa appreciated the sentiments, and was angered at Kaufman for using the poor nurse in such a way. Alessa probably wants revenge for Lisa, as is evidenced when she conjures up the fake Lisa to drag Kaufman down to Hell at the end of the game. So she has dragged Kaufman into this nightmare world so that he will be killed, just as Dahlia dragged Harry into this nightmare world to be her pawn. That is the only answer that makes any sense to me. I will continue to think about this until I come up with a better theory.
Next Question, What in the world is the Aglaophotis? Well, you got me. Sometimes, it seems to serve dual purposes, and doesn't seem to be very well thought out, in my opinion. But here's what is clear, if we add up everything I've brought up thus far: Kaufman is trapped in Alessa's conjured world, so that she can have revenge for Lisa's death, at some point. At first, when Harry first meets him, Kaufman really doesn't know what is going on. I believe him when he says that he fell asleep, and woke up in this situation. Harry is also unconscious, and probably so is Cybil, so that is how they all got pulled into this conjured world. (That's why there was no body at Cybil's crash site, when Harry passed it.) But Kaufman is more informed than either Cybil or Harry, so he should be able to put the pieces together right away. The cult was attempting to gain control of the universe by channeling a power into a young girl's body. The pact was that the cult would control the child, and thus the universe, together. But Lisa abducted the second child, containing the other half of the dark soul, and the cult's work was ruined. It's possible that the cult even disbanded. But then the second child is returned to Silent Hill, and the reunited power conjures a fake reality full of monsters and mist to hide in. As an added bonus, Alessa pulls Kaufman into this fake world, so that she can kill him when the time is right, for what he did to Lisa.
When Kaufman sees the strange things going on around him, he has to realize that somehow, the power has broken loose from its dormancy. When Harry tells him that his daughter is missing, Kaufman must realize that the second child has been returned to the town, and that she is causing all of this. The Aglaophotis, according to how Kaufman attempts to use it in the end, must be some kind of supernatural concoction that takes control of a person's mind. Thus, Kaufman was attempting to get his Aglaophotis sample to use on Alessa, when something unknown happened. Either he was attacked by a monster and dropped it, or Dahlia had gotten there before him and smashed the sample, so that Kaufman wouldn't be able to use it. But Kaufman kept a backup at the Motel, in case Dahlia ever turned on him. Smart man. The problem for Kaufman is, Harry finds Alessa much faster, and the Flauros allows Dahlia to take control of Alessa and the power inside her. Needless to say, Kaufman feels that Dahlia is attempting to screw him over, in the nicest way I can put it. By what he says at the end, he's certain that Dahlia intends to control the entity within Alessa all by herself. Maybe the Doctor is just paranoid, and maybe not.
He hurls it at Alessa in an attempt to usurp the control of Dahlia over the entity within Alessa. But what happens instead is, Samael's power breaks free of the Aglaophotis. United, the power cannot be contained by the mixture. Only, Samael has to manifest in order to break free. That's why Alessa transforms at the end of the Good or Good+ ending (Kaufman appears in both). When Samael is dispatched forcibly by Harry, and Alessa returns to her natural form, she conjures her version of Lisa to return and drag Kaufman off. To a fate worse than death, we can imagine.
So I think I've pretty much nailed down why Kaufmann is in the game, and what he is doing throughout.
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