Meryl Silverburgh

Meryl Silverburgh (Born 1987) is the fourth and current commanding officer of unit FOXHOUND. Prior to her inauguration as the fourth commander, Meryl was a well-known career soldier due to her involment in the Shadow Moses island incident of 2005, her first mission where she worked together with famed mercenary Solid Snake, whom she was romantically involved briefly after the mission. She was thought to be the niece of former FOXHOUND commander Roy Campbell but is later revealed to actually be his daughter.

Current status: Alive

Early life and career
According to official records, Meryl Silverburgh is the daughter of Roy Campbell's younger brother, Matt. However, circumstantial evidences suggest the possibility that Meryl was born from an affair between Roy Campbell himself and her mother, although they had yet to be verified. When Meryl was young, Matt Campbell was killed in action during the Gulf War and after that, she took on her mother's maiden name.

Raised in a house of military traditions, Meryl trained herself throughout her childhood in the 'arts' of soldiery. She admired the FOXHOUND unit (a high-tech special forces group), viewing the days when her uncle and Solid Snake were members as the unit’s heyday, and wears a paint tattoo of the unit's old logo on her left shoulder. She joined the armed forces after graduating high school and received extensive psychotherapy to prevent any attraction to the opposite sex. Her weapon of choice is a Desert Eagle she procured from the base's armoury.

Shadow Moses island incident
She was recruited by the Next-Generation Special Forces U.S. military group and assigned to Shadow Moses island in 2005 as an emergency replacement when several soldiers were reported missing. Following her arrival on the island, the unit involved with the exercise revolted along with members of FOXHOUND and took over the nuclear disposal site on the island and the Metal Gear tank being developed there. Meryl refused to join in with the rebellion and was taken prisoner and placed on the same holding cell level with ArmsTech president Kenneth Baker. Baker gave Meryl the PAL card needed to activate REX before he underwent his torture session with Ocelot. Afterwards, she managed to escape confinement and met up with Solid Snake, who had been forced out of retirement by the U.S. government in order to neutralize the terrorists and the two eventually began working together. She managed to stay hidden by disguising herself as one of the Genome Soldiers using the clothes she stole from Johnny Sasaki, the guard that was watching her cell.

Later, the pair met up on the B1 Floor of the Nuclear Disposal Facility. She gave the PAL card to Snake and then the two headed to the Commander's Room where Psycho Mantis controlled Meryl's mind. Meryl held her gun against Snake, but Snake, realizing she was not herself, managed to knock her out. Snake then dispatched of Mantis and he and Meryl headed North in order to destroy Metal Gear. However, Meryl was shot and subsequently captured by FOXHOUND member Sniper Wolf. In an attempt to rescue Meryl and complete his mission, Snake engaged in a sniping duel with Wolf and was eventually lured into an ambush by her where he was also captured. Snake is then put through a series of torture trials by Revolver Ocelot.

However, Snake was strong enough to resist Ocelot's torture and manages to escape from his confinement. Meryl is later rescued by Snake after his battle with Liquid and the two manage to escape together after the destruction of Metal Gear REX.

Post-Shadow Moses career


According to reports, Meryl was romantically involved with Snake following the Shadow Moses incident and lived with him in Alaska for awhile. However, the relationship was short-lived and Meryl returned to active service a few months later, working on numerous classified missions, including a reconnaissance mission in the Basra Republic at the Middle East and a rescue mission to save Colonel Campbell in the South American Republic of Esteria, where she and Snake took down convicted war criminal Sergei Ivanovich. Sometime after the Big Shell incident of 2009, the FOXHOUND unit was officially reinstated, with Meryl appointed as their new field commander. In 2014, she became involved in a secret operation to assasinate Liquid Ocelot; the details are still classified at the moment.

When she meets Snake again for the first time in Metal Gear Solid 4 she shows some care mixed with skepticysm to him for his much older looks suggesting that their relationship wasn't embittering for Meryl as it was for Snake.

Behind the scenes

 * Meryl Silverburgh is voiced by Debi Mae West (credited as Mae Zadler in the original Metal Gear Solid) in English and by Kyoko Terase (credited as Megumi Terease in Policenauts) in Japanese.


 * The original Metal Gear Solid features an alternate ending in which Meryl dies at the end if the player submits to Ocelot's torture.


 * Meryl's character is based on a character of the same name from Hideo Kojima's game Policenauts. In addition to having similar character designs, the same Japanese voice actress (Kyoko Terase) and backstories (both were former FOXHOUND members). Further likening the two characters is the fact Meryl's partner in Policenauts is named Dave, which is also Solid Snake's unspoken real name. In MGS4, the likeness is taken even further with the inclusion of Meryl's ear-rings, which are rifle bullets, just like the original Meryl wore.

Gallery
Meryl Silverburgh