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This Article Contains Spoilers -
WARNING: This article contains major spoilers. If you do not wish to know vital information on plot / character elements in a story, you may not wish to read beyond this warning: We hold no responsibility for any negative effects these facts may have on your enjoyment of said media should you continue. That is all. |
| “ | This is the third day I, Dr. Walter Simpson, have been in here... I'll not last long. Before I die, I will record this... There are twin children who are a blemish on this world. When the lady was to give birth, I was called to this house. She gave birth to two chil... no, demons. When they were born, they ate my right hand. They were ill, their bodies deformed... they should have died. But they lived... I should have tried to... Breathing is painful... The air in this room is already gone... They are in a cradle under the star... Jennifer... Jennifer... Jennifer... | „ |
| ~ Walter Simpson's Memo. |
| “ | Why do you always think such horrible things? I didn't meet Nolan with THAT in mind, you know! It was that day - the one where you said that 'I'll be coming back late, so you should go ahead and eat alone tonight.' I met Nolan by chance that day. And we had dinner together! I met him that ONE TIME! And Nolan didn't report on it. Because he PROMISED ME - promised me that he wouldn't! And he KEPT his promise! All we did was have dinner! THAT'S ALL! What did you think? That I SLEPT with Nolan?! That I afterward blabbed to him about the Clock Tower case afterward while I was lying in his arms!? | „ |
| ~ Jen snaps at Helen (novelisation). |
Jennifer Simpson (born Jan-Sep, 1981) is a character in the Clock Tower games, being the protagonist of Clock Tower and one of the two main protagonists (alongside Helen Maxwell) of Clock Tower 2. She was voiced by Rumiko Varnes in Clock Tower 2, and by Chinami Nishimura in Clock Tower Drama CD.
Games[]
The first game - exclusive to the SNES - was never officially released outside of Japan; the translated versions are fan-made. The second game was the first game officially released in English, which is why the Japanese version is called Clock Tower 2, but the English version is called Clock Tower. This is not to be confused with the third game in the series, Clock Tower II: The Struggle Within (known in Japan as Clock Tower: Ghost Head).
Also, the first game later got an updated version (also officially exclusive to Japan), titled Clock Tower: The First Fear, which was ported to the PlayStation, the WonderSwan, and Microsoft Windows; it was re-released again many years later on the PlayStation Network, Wii, and Wii U.
First Fear has updated graphics, more portraits (when Jen examines objects), a new room to explore (which was originally locked), mouse compatibility, manual saving, a new 3D game intro, and the ability to skip the intro when starting anew. Some SFX were also changed: the phone ring, Jen's footsteps, and Jen's scream when first meeting Bobby in the bath with Laura's corpse. In that same bathroom scene, the steam effect on the screen was downgraded.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Jennifer was born in 1981, between January and early September. The Clock Tower novelisation states that Jennifer's mother was a Barrows, thus also making Jen a Barrows descendant. In the novelisation, it is mentioned that the women of the Barrows family have a special ability of being like a "door" to another dimension or higher power of sorts, though the details of this ability are not clarified. This "door" is located in the wombs of Barrows women, and Bobby and Dan were born via Mary's special womb.
As the series is set in Norway, Jen is presumably Norwegian, and that the English voice acting is just a dub. In November 1986, her father, an obstetrician named Walter, went missing. Soon after, her mother became involved with another man and left Jen for unknown reasons. When asked about this, Hifumi Kono (the game's director) clarified, "Yes, Jennifer is just dumped by her mother." This suggests that Jen and her mother never had the best relationship.
Her mother apparently eventually died after Walter disappeared, though it is not mentioned how. With no one to take care of her, she was sent to Granite Orphanage in Romsdalen. There, she became friends with Laura and Anne, and best friends with Lotte. In September 1995, 14-year-old Jennifer and her three friends were adopted by Mr. Barrows to live in his mansion called the "Clock Tower".
Clock Tower[]
The four girls were all being taken to their new home by Mary Barrows, who appears as a caring adoptive mother at the time. They were to live in the Clock Tower, a mansion given its name for the predominant clock tower in it. Upon entering, the girls wonder where Mary went off to, so Jennifer went to search for her. Jen is soon interrupted by the screaming of the other girls. She runs back to find the lights off and everyone gone. Scared and wondering if it's a sick joke, Jen runs about the mansion to find her friends being killed one by one.
She first encounters her main pursuer, the brutal Bobby Barrows, in one of three ways. If Jen enters the bathroom and pulls away the shower curtain, she will find Laura dead, hanging from her wrists above the bath, when Bobby suddenly jumps out of the bathwater with his giant sheers, terrifying Jen as she runs away. However, if Jen instead enters the courtyard or the lobby, Bobby will instead be killing Anne (either drowning her in the courtyard pool or impaling her through the lobby's skylight). If Anne died first, then Laura can later be found dead in a suit of armour. If Laura died first, then Anne can later be found being pushed out of a window. Regardless, Anne and/or Laura will die; the girl that lives will survive to the finale if Jen does not find her.
Throughout the game, there are two ways Jen may discover Mary's true colours. The first method is where Jen finds her dead father, Walter Simpson, in a secret room with his memo of Mary's true colours. The second method is where Mary spikes Jen's drink; she later wakes up in a cell and is nearly eaten alive by Simon Barrows, Mary's tortured and starved husband, when Lotte finds and rescues her. When the two girls try to escape, Lotte is seemingly shot and killed off-screen by Mary, but Jen narrowly escapes. There is also a third method that always leads to a bad ending, in which Jen simply does not detect Mary's true colours.
Either way, Jen discovers a secret passage leading to a cavern underneath a pentagram in an occultic room. After seeing a robed Mary go down there, Jen follows after equipping a robe and Mary's perfume to sneak past a vicious dog. If Lotte did not die earlier, then Jen finds Lotte laying in a puddle of blood; Lotte tells Jen of the switches that control the clock tower, before dying with Jen by her side in her final moments. However, if Lotte did die earlier (after saving Jen from Simon's cell), Jen must learn of the clock tower switches from the religious study.
Regardless, Jen then finds the second son, Dan Barrows, in the caves underneath the mansion, in the form of a giant, deformed baby. She narrowly escapes, killing Dan by dropping a can of paraffin on him and burning him. Jen confronts Bobby and Mary at the clock tower, killing Bobby by making him fall off the clock tower and into its gears. Before Mary kills Jen, Mary can die in various ways, depending on how the ending is played out. As for the endings, Jen and Anne/Laura survive Ending S, whilst only Jen survives Endings A-C. Jen dies in Endings D-H, making them non-canon.
Various actions determine which ending players get: whether or not Jen finds Anne/Laura dead after Laura/Anne is killed, whether Jen frees the crow from captivity, whether Jen discovers Mary's true colours (either by finding Walter's corpse or finding Simon in the jail cell), whether Jen learns of the clock tower switches (either from a dying Lotte in the caverns or via the religious study), and which floor Jen exits the elevator at the finale (F2 or F3).
Endings[]
| # | Ending | Prerequisites |
|---|---|---|
| S | Jen reaches the top of Clock Tower and finds Anne/Laura unconscious on the floor. As Bobby shows up, Jen flips the tower's switches to make the bells ring. Unable to bear the sound, Bobby stumbles and falls into the gears below. Jen then hears Mary tell Jen from the shadows what a terrible daughter she's been. Mary runs at Jen, choking her from behind and triggering a panic. Suddenly, a flock of crows come out and peck at Mary, pushing her over the edge of the tower entrance. Jen then awakens her friend; they proceed outside of the tower, watching as the rain stops and the sun rises in the distance. |
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| A | Same as above, but instead of lying on the ground, Anne/Laura runs to Jen after Bobby falls to his death, only for Mary to come out of the shadows and throw Anne/Laura down after Bobby. Like above, the crows save Jen by pushing Mary off the tower. Jen then stands atop the tower alone. |
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| B | Same as Endings S and A, but Anne/Laura is missing or dead, depending on prior actions. After Bobby's death, Mary comes out of the shadows and struggles with Jen, only for Jen to push her into the generator that she used to activate the tower, electrocuting Mary. Jen then stands atop the tower alone. |
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| C | This time, Jen exits the elevator on the 2nd floor and sees Mary. Jen asks her why she did this, but Mary brandishes a knife and tries to kill her. Jen escapes Mary's clutches and dashes past her, running to the balcony outside as Mary screams for Bobby to kill Jen. Jen climbs a ladder leading to the Clock Tower's 3rd floor as Mary follows close by, grabbing Jen's leg. As Jen kicks her off, Mary falls to her death. Jen reaches the top, but Bobby closes in behind her. Like in the above endings, Jen flips the switches, leading to Bobby's fatal fall. |
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| D | Jen exits the elevator on the 2nd floor and finds Mary waiting for her. Mary comforts her and tells her she's safe. Having not realised Mary's evil intentions, Jen runs to hug her, but Mary brandishes a knife and stabs Jen in the chest. With her dying breath, as she falls to the ground, Jen asks "Why...?" |
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| E | Inside the elevator, Jen presses the button for the 3rd floor. The elevator suddenly halts halfway through and the lights go out. Bobby breaks into the elevator through an overhead vent. The trapped Jen screams as the screen fades. |
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| F | Upon entering the elevator, Bobby breaks into the elevator through an overhead vent once the doors close and kills Jen off-screen. Blood then seeps from under the elevator doors. After the credits end, Bobby is heard laughing inside the elevator. |
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| G | Jen finds a car in the mansion's garage, and a key on a nearby crate. Having seen two friends die, Jen starts the car and drives through the wall. The post-credits scene states that Jen was found dead in her room three days later. The cause of her death is unclear, but Mary was directly involved. |
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| H | Jen escapes in the car like in Ending G, but the post-credits scene instead shows Jen as she's driving away. As she glimpses into the rear-view mirror, she sees a giant pair of sheers rise from the back seat. As the screen fades, Jen is heard screaming at the top of her lungs. |
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Clock Tower 2[]
One year after the events of The First Fear, Jennifer has been adopted by Helen Maxwell, the assistant of renowned psychiatrist Samuel Barton, and is currently undergoing treatment in Oslo to help her cope with her traumatic experiences in the Clock Tower case and possibly shed some light on the mystery that was the Scissorman.
Jen is incredibly psychologically traumatised, suffers from severe PTSD, and has frequent nightmares and mental flashbacks. She is haunted by the images of her friends dying, and has dreams about being chased and attacked by Scissorman, and probably of Mary, Dan, and all the disturbing things she saw in the mansion. During the night, Jen would scream in her bed, prompting Helen to come and calm her down.
Like Helen, Jen does not particularly like Barton that much, as she feels as if he thinks that everything she says is just the ravings of an ill lunatic. Jen repeatedly asks Helen, "Do you believe me?" to which Helen replies each time, "Of course!". Jen has kept her discovery of her father's body a secret from everyone - even Helen - as she feels the police would not believe her; she lost her father's memo in the mansion, and she is aware the part about an infant devouring her father's hand sounds silly.
In the novelisation, it is revealed that Barton has also been implanting a second personality within Jen during his therapy sessions that is an extension of himself, in order to help him fulfill his plans using Jen as a trump card. This second persona awakens near the finale and when Jen speaks, she refers to herself in third person. Barton intends on using Jen as a final sacrifice to the Great Father so that Bobby will be reborn. The two sons of the Great Father would become one, and when this conjoined form is perfected and complete, the true Ragnarok will begin, leaving humanity with no chance of survival.
Jen's Scenario[]
Jen is a playable character if the player, as Barton, talks to Harris Chapman twice in the beginning of the game, rather than once. After a seemingly pointless hypnotherapy session with Barton, Helen takes Jen home. The player, as Jen, is given the option to explore Oslo before having both an "interview and a date" with reporter Nolan Campbell. Jen meets Kay Satterwhite, a teacher from her orphanage who is caring for Edward, a mysterious boy who claims he was involved in the Barrows Mansion incident but lost his memory.
After walking home alone from her date, Jen suspects that someone is following her. She runs to the university research building and encounters a security guard, but he is suddenly killed by Scissorman. Jen decides to flee into the building, but Scissorman traps her inside. Jen survives the ordeal by using the fire ladder to escape. The next day, Jen, Helen, and other people head to Barrows Castle. They are separated, though depending on the player's actions, they may be rescued. Jen is captured by Scissorman (who turns out to be Harris) who was told by the real Scissorman that if he caught Jen she would be his, but Harris is killed by the real Scissorman.
Jen then looks for survivors. She finds Helen in a box and Nolan in a room with ghosts of children that were killed there. Jen then finds a Door Spell and gets it translated by either Helen or Barton. She also finds a dagger, then finds a room under the fountain and hears Kay begging Edward for mercy before she is then killed. Jen then goes into the room with Kay's corpse and the Scissorman. The true Scissorman's identity is really Edward, Bobby's brother Dan whom Jen blew up a year ago, but survived because the giant body was merely a cocoon shell.
Dan is looking to avenge his brother and mother, but before he can kill Jen, Nolan comes in and tells her to run. She then puts the statue in a hole and a door is revealed. Jen then casts the door spell to open the door. A vortex then opens, and Jen holds onto the rail but Dan holds onto Jen. She then stabs him in the face with the dagger and he falls into the vortex, dying as the door closes. Nolan pulls her up as the castle falls down, trapping Jen and Nolan. Nolan wonders if they will die, although Jen hopes Helen will rescue them.
Nolan comments that she's strong and Jen replies, "No, you're just weak." They kiss and it is implied they start a relationship (though Hifumi Kono doubts their relationship lasts long). They are then rescued by Helen.
Helen's Scenario[]
While Jen doesn't do much in the intro nor Scenario 1, she later appears after scenario one at the police station, where Helen is taken and interrogated by Stan Gotts about the incident. Although Jen is worried about Scissorman, Helen reassures her that they'll find a way to get rid of Scissorman. Jen later appears after Scenario 2 at the police station, after Helen went around town, as she is worried about Helen. She would already be informed about the statue already retrieved (either by Helen or Gotts), as well the Barrows Castle. Like the other ten people going, she goes to England to visit Barrows Castle.
In Scenario 3, upon entering the castle with the group, Jen gets separated when the castle shakes. An unconscious Jen would then be later found hanging on the cross in the chapel area with Scissorman just about to kill her. If Helen fails to save Jen from Scissorman, he will successfully kill her, leaving the player in the path of Ending B or C. Luckily, Jen is canonically saved by Helen, who shoots Scissorman (Professor Barton in disguise) with a pistol. After Helen takes Jen down from the cross, Jen regains consciousness as Helen goes to interrogate Barton about his motives. After doing so, Helen will tell Jen to go with Gotts while she finds the real Scissorman.
As the castle crumbles down in the game's climax, Jen is caught in the debris. After the rescue crew came to find survivors, Jen was found alive and then pulled out by Helen, who assures her that "it's all over now".
Personality[]
Jennifer is an orphan who grew up without parents for most of her life. She had to cope with the loss of both of her parents throughout her childhood and the lack of normal guidance that parents provide for their children, forcing her to become more independent than usual.
Generally, Jennifer is polite and open-minded. She is also kind and is seen taking time out of her schedule to visit her friends out of kindness. However, she is also somewhat sheltered, innocent, timid and naïve. Hifumi Kono also once described Jennifer as "quiet" - is it unknown if this comes naturally or if Jennifer's quietness is a result of a lack of parental attention.
In the first game, Jennifer is forced to witness her friends die and discover the dark truth of Ms. Barrows. She learns about the harshness about humanity and the evils of the world, and her sense of security and identity is shaken.
After the events of the first game, Jennifer suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and has frequent nightmares. She is haunted by the images of her friends dying, and has dreams about being chased and attacked. Jennifer refused to eat red meat since the first incident at the Barrows Mansion, possibly due to seeing decapitated crows, and could be a hint of her becoming vegetarian or vegan.
In the second Clock Tower game (particularly the novelization), it is suggested that Jennifer goes through her own rebellious teenager phase and begins to dislike how much Helen is controlling her life, especially regarding Nolan. Fortunately, the difficulties in Jennifer's and Helen's relationship is mended by the end of the game, and she accepts Helen as a guardian figure.
Jennifer is occasionally portrayed as "dimwitted" in some parts of the game, such as calling a book "hard," saying she hates to read, and is inept with technology, even to the point where she breaks a computer upon touching it. Despite this, she is seen reading a book in the manga adaptation of the first installment, and is a frequent visitor of Oslo's public library. She also sometimes displays quick wits and intelligence when fighting off enemies or solving puzzles.
Hobby-wise, her bedroom walls are covered with sepia colored paintings and portraits, indicating a possible interest in vintage photography. Her bed also has a stuffed rabbit on it, suggesting that she likes cute things or likes to treasure memories.
Appearance[]
Jen is a Caucasian teenager with a slightly olive skin tone, brown eyes, somewhat thick eyebrows, and very long hair, which is very dark brown but can appear black from a distance. Her hair is always straight and down loose with a side parting. In The First Fear, Jen wears a white long-sleeved shirt under a long dark blue pinafore dress, as well as dark blue shoes and white socks.
In Clock Tower 2, she has two main outfits. One is a long red coat, with a black turtleneck underneath, and dark grey flat-heeled boots. Her second is a white turtleneck, a dark brown skirt, and brown boots. She has two secret outfits, a pink Anna Miller's waitress dress or a Japanese schoolgirl sailor fuku. The former replaces her white turtleneck outfit, and the latter replaces her red jacket outfit.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- As seen in Clock Tower, Jennifer can drive a car relatively well, despite likely having no training.
- In Jennifer's Adventure Novel, in a corruption of Ending B, Dan and Bobby are reborn with Jen as their mother.
- Jen makes a brief appearance in Ghost Head. Upon noticing a Clock Tower poster, a shocked Alyssa Hale says, "This isn't a game!"
- She has two alternate costumes in Clock Tower 2: a pink Anna Miller's waitress uniform (replacing her white turtleneck outfit) and a fuku (replacing her red jacket outfit).
- Rooney Simpson in NightCry shares Jen's surname as a homage to her. Moreover, if NightCry is in the Clock Tower canon (the Hifumi Kono universe), Rooney could possibly be related to Jen.
- Her name and appearance were based on Jennifer Corvino from Phenomena. Corvino also mentions being a vegetarian, whilst Simpson refused to eat red meat. Mary Barrows and Bobby Barrows were also likely inspired by Frau Brückner and Patau Brückner.
- She is similar to Miku Hinasaki from Fatal Frame; both were voiced by Rumiko Varnes, both are orphans, and both are later taken in by a woman (Helen Maxwell and Rei Kurosawa) who involuntarily becomes involved in their previous endeavors (escaping Scissorman and fighting ghosts).
- The eleven-year age difference between 15-year-old Jen and 26-year-old Nolan was intentional, and is mentioned by Helen in the novelisation, who tells Jen that someone like Nolan can easily take advantage of her. It was also a controversial point of discussion since Jen is still a minor, as the age of consent in Norway is 16, though Jen and Nolan did nothing beyond a date and a kiss.
- In July of 2021, Clock Tower preservation team, C.U.T.S. (Cradle Under the Star) contacted Rumikio Varnes and asked about any memories she had voicing Jennifer in Clock Tower 2, and she said the following: "Surprisingly, Clock Tower was recorded in a backyard of someone’s home. Typically, video games are recorded in a fancy studio, with a lineup of the latest recording equipment, but it was different for this project, so I figured it was a low budget scheme. And I think I spent about three hours recording all my lines. One scene I distinctly remember is when Jennifer sees a dead body and she is immediately overcome with nausea, so I made some vomiting reaction. Apparently, it sounded too realistic, and the director asked me to 'tone it down', which I found hard to do. It’s the first and the last time I’ve ever had to puke for any video game."
- Jen develops PTSD because of how traumatic her ordeal was. While more video games have touched on the subject since then, many survival horror games do not, basically ending with the unspoken assumption that the protagonist and their mental health are fine after their game's nightmarish events. Clock Tower is notable in that it is one of the first video games - possibly the first - to show this concept, as it came out in 1996. A few other examples have appeared later;
- Aya Brea can't sleep well after the events of Parasite Eve, as mentioned in Parasite Eve II.
- Miku Hinasaki has nightmares of ghosts trying to kill her after Fatal Frame, which is explored in Fatal Frame 3.
- After Resident Evil 5, Chris Redfield has PTSD and has a mental breakdown while Sheva Alomar watches concerned. Resident Evil 6 begins with Chris trying to drink away his memories, as seen in Resident Evil: Vendetta.
Licensing[]
This article contains content derived from the "Jennifer Simpson" article on the Clock Tower Wiki, licensed under CC-BY-SA.