The Psychology of Magdalene O'Moriah, AKA Isaac's Mother: A Somewhat Shitty Character Analysis
WARNING! THIS CHARACTER ANALYSIS CONTAINS THE FOLLOWING: abuse of various kinds, pills, alcohol, mentions of religion, mentions of psychosis, and general spoilers for both The Binding Of Isaac and Mewgenics. Reader discretion is advised!
(also hey guys, this is my first character analysis, i hope you like it)
From what we see about Magdalene, she isn't the most optimal mother figure. If anything, she is far from it: she constantly harms Isaac in one way or another, from pushing him away whenever he attempts to hug her, destroying his toys, to even attempting to sacrifice him to God. But what else could be said about Magdalene? Could she be suffering from a religious psychosis of sorts? Did she feel guilty after her actions in The Binding of Isaac within the game Mewgenics? Before we get into her present, let's take a look at her past.
The backstory of Magdalene is fairly simple. We see throughout The Binding of Isaac that Magdalene was far more kind, taking care of Isaac with his father at the start. However, throughout tidbits within endings, voice clips, and even small items in the game itself, we see that things had went downhill rather quickly. From what we hear in a dialogue between Isaac's father and Magdalene (11 sec to 33 sec), we could tell that the father was slipping into alcoholism. Speaking of voicelines, we can also hear that he had spent most of the savings that him and Magdalene worked to get (presumably on alcohol) in the prior voiceline to that one.
This isn't uncommon for the pair. As we see in ending 20, or the Delirium ending, Isaac can overhear his parents fighting in one of the memories that flashes before him right before he dies. Another ending that includes this is ending 21, or the Final ending within the Repentance DLC, where the narration of Isaac presumably going to heaven, includes another mention of his parents fighting. This wasn't just occasionally bickering, from how often we see and hear it happen, we can deduct that this was an almost daily routine for Isaac to be a witness to.
Another thing we see is pills. Isaac's father wasn't the only one with a substance issue, as we see many pills, preumably bought by Magdalene, to help her cope with many different things. We know this because of the items in the game. For instance, 'Mom's Bottle of Pills', an item that gives you a random pill, is recognized as an item owned by Magdalene. Same thing goes for 'Mom's Coin Purse', which is a passive item that gives Isaac four random pills at once, rather than being a chargable item like the pill bottle. Deducting from what we know now, we can assume that Magdalene's pill problem had only grew worse after Isaac's father had left.
This is actually a symptom of religious psychosis, disorganized behavior and speech. Magdalene isn't thinking correctly, and is most likely afraid of her husband going to hell if he doesn't change his ways or pray for forgiveness. Another sign that Magdalene was in a psychotic episode appears in the introduction when you open up the game, with this one being the most blatant sign of religious psychosis we see Magdalene.
But why in the world would a woman need an incredulous amount of pills to cope with her husband leaving her? Or rather, why did he leave in the first place? Religious psychosis is a form of psychosis that takes in the form of fixed and intense beliefs, often with delusions, hallucinations, and can disrupt daily life, and affect relationships with others. But how does this entail with Isaac's father leaving, you may ask? Or even with Isaac?
Let's look back at the mother and father dialogue. There's a tidbit here that show's a glimpse into what seems like a conversation betwixt Magdalene and Isaac's dad, where Magdalene urges him to 'repent', her tone growing rather frantic, almost panicked, as Isaac's father calls her insane, and even asks if she can hear how she sounds. But, let's take a look into how she speaks. Notice how she says that Isaac's father should 'let his light guide him' and urges him to pray with her and Isaac, almost in tears from begging? She sounds almost fearful, worried for the wellbeing of both her and her husband.
Hallucinations. As we hear in the intro, Magdalene hears a voice coming from the sky, presumably God himself, telling her to take away Isaac's things, lock him in his room, and eventually to sacrifice him! However, this is a loaded burrito you get at the gas station of symptoms. Firstly, extreme rituals: aside from the blatant filicide attempt, we see in the intro that she rips drawings off the walls, destroys the toys that Isaac had, takes away his clothing, and even locks him up in his room as 'punishment'. We also see this under ending 21/the 'mother' ending, and one of the 'nightmare' transitions between levels, that she punishes him for drawing and playing with a toy of sorts. This may also fall under persecutory delusions, as Magdalene believes that Isaac would end up becoming evil, 'just like his father' as she says, if she hadn't listened to God's words. She even prays for him after shoving him into the closet, begging for forgiveness! Most of what she does seems to be fueled by this need to appease God.
But, lets talk about another thing I brought up. Does she feel guilty? Not initially, no. Religious psychosis can make people assume that what their doing is right, or 'god's will', often blinding them to the consequences of their actions until it's far too late. However, psychosis can wear off if given medication, support, therapy, or all three, and the first symptom to fade is hallucinations, the one major thing that lead Magdalene to do what she had done. Let's take a look at some of the endings: an example would be ending 15/the missing ending, where Magdalene stands near the house, and looming on a phone pole with a missing poster is Isaac. She's still trying to look for him, but the reason goes ultimately unknown in this ending.
Endings 17/The Hush Ending and Ending 20/The Delirium Ending, however, give us more introspective. As we see in both endings, the chest opens up at some point to show Magdalene the skeletal remains of her son. Another ending that I'll point to before moving onto Mewgenics for evidence: the very last ending where you defeat the Beast. There's one small line that most people might not have paid note to (on account of sobbing a lot from the only happy ending in the game) was this quote: "He saw his mother mourning the loss of her son". After finding out that Isaac had died, Magdalene spirals into a sense of mourning, of losing the only good thing left in her life, and (presumably) commits suicide.
Which leads us into the second game she appears in, Mewgenics. We don't get to know this up until the ending, but we do indeed play as Magdalene! This isn't really well known throughout most of the game, but in the ending, if you refuse to use the nuke twice, you get this dialogue with Beanies: "Don't you remember what this monster took from you as well, Magdalene? [...] Do you not remember who you are ?!! Do you not remember your only son?! HE TOOK ISAAC! HIM!!" which, by the way... WOW. Way to hit those emotional kneecaps, doc. He mentions of how he could have saved Isaac if Maggie just pressed the button, which, to a mother who lost her son, SHOULD hurt, but our character doesn't speak at all in the game, so we're not too sure ourselves.
But that isn't the only thing I'm gonna point at for evidence of Magdalene's guilt. A song that plays on the house radio in the game, one that most people tend to overlook, "Mom I Really Hate You". Buckle in, my fellow freaks, because I'm going to analyze the song and lyrics like a motherfucker.
Firstly, the song is sung in the starting POV of a woman, asking where it all went wrong, as her heart is now frozen and her home is broken. This can easily be interpreted as Magdalene's point of view in her search to find Isaac, wondering why her son doesn't like her, feeling alone in a home that no longer feels like one due to her husband leaving and her son being nowhere to be found/dead. The next couplet of lines is also easy for me to interpret, saying that it started out so nice and then went badly, or that they've 'turned to ice'.
The bridge is quite possibly the most obvious one, "Was it so bad in our family? See the pictures of you and me" can easily circle back to Magdalene asking Isaac (possibly in a prayer to his soul) if things were really that bad, and looking back at memories of them together. She is heard to be showing much guilt, or some form of sorrowful memory loss, about what had happened that lead to Isaac dying. She asks for one last chance to prove herself to fix things, or to prove herself as a good mother.
After that, the POV switches to a more lower chorus, possibly in the POV of who I can assume is Isaac's spirit, or maybe even Magdalene's loathing thoughts of herself depending on your flavor of angst you wanna view this as. The next two verses are self explanitory, "You gave us pain, made us feel so low, go back and die you deadbeat mom", etc. She feels that her past actions echo louder than her current promises, telling her that it's far too late, and that her son wouldn't want her back after all that happened.
The next two verses are back in the female POV/Magdalene POV, where she brings up that she wants to turn back time and that her tail is in between her legs. Usually, that means that someone comes back to another person feeling one major emotion, shame. Magdalene is ashamed for how she treated Isaac, now realising that what she did was woefully wrong. She's grown old, and remembers fond memories of the past (I remember mackerel birthday cake (surprise!)) and even admits that leaving Isaac for so long (either in his room, in his situation, etc.) was a bad mistake on her part.
We switch back to the chorus POV, saying that they hate her and that she'll never be forgiven. They plug their ears from the sound of crying, and tell Magdalene that she deserves to live her days alone and in fear, just as she was when Isaac had died. In her mind, she's being told that she deserves to be alone, to be afraid, because nobody will forgive her for what she had done.
At the last four verses, they're all in the Female/Magdalene's POV, she says that she'd swim in a lake of sharks and eels, burn herself on hot coals, just to prove that she's changed. Change certainly isn't impossible, but it's no easy feat either, yet the tone in the song sounds somber and genuine, like someone attempting to be sincere in an apology to a loved one. The last lines are where it really gets me, "Is it just too late? Have I hurt you too much to open up the gate?"
Those two ending lines. I believe that those lines are Magdalene asking if with how much time has passed, with all that she had done, if it would be too late for Isaac to forgive her if Beanies were to revive him. Whether intentional or not, this captures the post-Binding of Isaac relationship (and possibly durring-game) of both Isaac and Magdalene perfectly.
Thus, in conclusion, Magdalene is far more than just 'bad'. She's complex, with layers to her that open up the more you dig into her character. The more you get into either game, you learn more about how advancedly messed up her mind is, far more than just being a bad mother, but having a struggle with addiction, psychosis, and emassing guilt post-mortem.
