Injection

Rotoscope animation of Gary forcefully injecting John with a needle.

**The Injection** is a needle filled with a strange substance that appears in *FAITH: Chapter III*. Its effects can cause intense hallucinations and makes the user lose control of their body.

## FAITH: Chapter III

### Before October 28th, 1987

The injection is first mentioned as a pill in one of the notes that can be found at the clinic John is exploring. The note details that the pills were originally given to patients at the clinic through an IV drop. It was supposed to put them under a catatonic state for unknown reasons, but the patients would wake up prematurely due to the pill not dissolving well. The writer, most likely a cultist, is worried that all the patients will realize that they have the same hallucinations and suggests putting the pill in a more condensed, injectable version.

### October 30th, 1987

The injection next appears when John travels underneath the daycare center. Gary, hiding behind a pillar, ambushes John and forcefully injects him with the substance to the neck. John stumbles and the game freezes with John's body turning red and his eyes and mouth become wide and white. The player is shown vivid imagery while a snippet of John walking around the cultist's hideout is shown. His eyes are white and bears a creepy smile, but his skin turns back to blue. The player is shown animation of Miriam Bell standing outside Snake Meadow Hill Church with Lisa and John standing inside the church. Another animation shows a young John and Lisa holding hands. At one point, John grabs his face. The player is shown a short cutscene of Amy crawling on the floor. Amy's hand then appears and grabs John's face. After a gull with a broken back is shown, red text (supposedly from Gary) pops up in the corner of the screen saying, "Now you are ready.". John wakes up in front of the entrance of the hideout. Walking to the next room, John finds dozens of dead cultist bodies lying on the ground, gruesomely gutted and killed by his hands during the hallucination. Despite this, John presses on and traverse deeper into the hideout.

### October 31, 1987

When John meets and confronts Gary for the first time, Gary grants him three questions. The player has an option to ask about the injection. Gary states that it was a "gift" so that John's body and mind ready for the UNSPEAKABLE to enter/abuse. Although Gary mentions John's disappointing long look, he says that it was necessary so that John could withstand the entity's presence. The injection is never used or mentioned again.

## Theories

* It's likely that Gary and his cult were testing a drug to other patients at the clinic to see if their minds can become susceptible for the UNSPEAKABLE's possession.
	+ Even though Gary's ultimate goal is to bring the Antichrist to Earth through the Second Death, his other goal must be bringing the UNSPEAKABLE to Earth as well. The UNSPEAKABLE is an entirely separate entity that doesn't help with the ritual since only Amy (or any other individual associated with trauma) can be used to make a portal to hell. It's likely that Gary wanted to bring further chaos into the world by bringing UNSPEAKABLE to the world since the entity has already made its presence known to other characters throughout the series. To test if the entity can possess, Gary abused his role as a worker at the clinic and ordered his cultists to produce a drug and give it to the patients.
* John and Lisa's inclusion at the Snake Meadow Hill Church could imply that they were orphans that temporary lived at the church.
	+ This would explain as to why the two know each other so well, they were best friends and potential love interests that started at a young age. Although we don't know anything about Lisa's parents, Amy's demon mentions John's mother and if she ever got better. This could imply that his mother was very sickly and, despite young John's prayers for a recovery, passed away. He was then sent to the church to stay at. This can be supported by the "Poem for Miriam" note found in *FAITH: Chapter III* where she "left two twigs to walk away as husks", Lisa and John being representation of two kids that lived during the incidents at the church.
* During John's hallucination two Wretches appear on the screen, wiggling with maggots. This could represent the young version of John and Lisa after surviving the incidents at Snake Meadow Hill Church.
	+ Even though they survived, the two were probably heavily impacted by Miriam's actions at the church. This could've made them more susceptible to possession from demonic entities, where Lisa and John can get constantly possessed by Alu and with John constantly feeling the presence of Malphas, UNSPEAKABLE, and other demons. This can be backed up from a poem found in *FAITH: Chapter III* where it implies that the two were allowed to walk away as "husks".
* John's smile during his hallucination is similar to the smile the cultists make, shown in one of the rotoscope animation where a cultist stabs John to death.
	+ This shared smile can imply that most of the cultists are under the influence of the drug that was created by Gary. This runs with the series' time date of the 80s where, in the real world, Christian communities believed that drug users are "the Devil's followers" and are heavily against it. This theme of drug use can be backed up by the fact that the 80s in the U.S. were known for having a serious drug problem within towns and cities, where plenty of young adults were becoming addicted with opiates and other hard drugs.
* The words "REPENT" can be found written in blood on the wall after John's hallucination ends.
	+ This can mean, despite being in an altered state of mind, John still feels guilty over not being able to finish Amy's exorcism.
	+ But most likely it was intended for the cultists that John killed, his hatred for the occult and in his hallucination induced state he forced them to "repent" via violence.

## Trivia

* The imagery shown during John's hallucination (besides Amy, Miriam, and Lisa) is a reference to the lyrics in the song King of Pain by The Police.
	+ The lyrics are also sung by John in the official New Blood Interactive video *FAITH Chapter III:* Review Trailer.
* John can find a disemboweled cultist still moving in the next room after he wakes up. When John points his crucifix at it the cultist responds with "PLEASE. NO...".
* Gary's pixel animation of ambushing John is similar to a famous jumpscare in The Exorcist III where a nurse gets ambushed by a patient possessed by the Gemini Killer.
* When Faith: The Unholy Trinity was released on October 21st, 2022, there was an extra scene that represented one of King of Pain's lyrics: "There's a rich man sleeping on a golden bed.". In the 1.1 update, it was removed and wasn't replaced. Airdorf never responded as to why it was removed.
	+ My two cents behind this removal are either it would've increased the rating of this game due to it being the only nudity-related thing within the series (and sexually suggestive with the way how the man is laying) or that it's just gross to look at and doesn't really add much to the scenes. (Image has been taken from a playthrough by Converting Minds).
* This scene was originally planned to have Gary stab the needle into John's eye. In the final game, it goes into his neck instead.
* Scene 14 has many similarities with *Study after Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X*, a work by painter Francis Bacon. Namely, the blue skin, throne, posture, and apparent removal of eyes.

## Gallery

### Hallucinations

Scene 0: After getting pricked, the game freezes and a loud beep play. John starts to trip. His body changing is likely an exaggeration of the start of his hallucination.Scene 1: "There's a little black spot on the sun today. It's the same old thing as yesterday."Scene 2: "There's a black hat caught in a high tree top."Scene 3: Miriam standing outside Snake Meadow Hill Church. Note that Lisa, John, and other children are standing inside the building.Scene 4: "There's a flag pole rag and the wind won't stop."Scene 5: "There's a fossil that's trapped in a high cliff wall."Scene 6: Rows of trees with a symmetry effect.Scene 7: John exorcising Amy back on September 21st, 1986.Scene 8: "There's a dead salmon frozen in a waterfall."Scene 9: Two Wretches wiggling with maggots swarming them.Scene 10: "There's a blue whale beached by a spring tide's ebb."Scene 11: A young version of John and Lisa holding hands.Scene 12: "There's a butterfly trapped in a spider's web."Scene 13: John with an altered creepy face walking around in the cultist's hideout.Scene 14: "There's a king on a throne with his eyes torn out."Scene 15: "There's a blind man looking for a shadow of doubt."Scene 16: "There's a skeleton choking on a crust of bread."Scene 17: A door with an eye on it. Later on, John will open the door and meet Gary.Scene 18: John puts his hands on his face.Scene 19: John exorcising Amy on September 21st, 1986. This time Amy is crawling.Scene 20: Amy puts her hands on John's face.Scene 21: The UNSPEAKABLE is wiggling around.Scene 22: "There's a red fox torn by a huntsman's pack."Scene 23: "There's a black-winged gull with a broken back."Scene 24: Red text appears at the bottom of the screen, probably from Gary. After this the hallucinations ends and John wakes up.
### Other

John brandishing his crucifix against a barely alive cultist.Scene 15.5 (removed from the game): "There's a rich man sleeping on a golden bed."Gary ambushing John with a needle.The way how Gary ambushes John with a sharp object is similar to a famous jumpscare scene in The Exorcist III.
## References

1. ↑ https://genius.com/The-police-king-of-pain-lyrics
2. ↑ https://youtu.be/YX7wYWs8j\_o
3. ↑ https://youtu.be/zH8ynu0jRvY
4. ↑ https://youtu.be/wDXBcLaw9H4?t=4874