Michael Davies

SPOILER WARNING!!! This article contains HEAVY SPOILERS for Faith. Please read at your own risk!

Michael Davies, also known as "The Chupacabra", is the secondary antagonist of Chapter I. He appears in a flashback sequence in Chapter II and reappears as an apparition in Chapter III.

Michael was a teenage boy who transformed into a thin, pale creature after being possessed by an unnamed demon and locked within a basement for three months. He broke free of his chains during an exorcism session and scurried off into the outskirts of Sterling, Connecticut, decimating anything that comes in his path. He particularly holds a disdain towards people who dress like priests because his captor, Father Garcia, looks like one, which proves to be a problem for our protagonist, John Ward, because he's dressed like one for an entirely different reason.

Appearance[]

We only know how Michael normally looked based off of one polaroid photo. Although the series never directly mentions how old he was, despite physically looking like a young teenager, Airdorf stated in the FAITH Fan Community Discord that Michael was between fifteen and seventeen years old^[1]. He had dark, bushy hair. It's best to assume that he was at least 6"0 prior to his possession because it's unlikely anyone would've become taller due to being chained over a prolonged period of time and he's slightly taller than John Ward, who's confirmed to be 6"2 from a psychiatric note found in Chapter III^[2].

In a polaroid photo titled "2 Weeks", Michael's hair was thinning, his eyes were a bright red color, and his teeth became sharp & jagged. His pose suggests he was sluggish at the time the photo was taken.

In another polaroid photo titled "3 Months", Michael is completely unrecognizable. He had become hairless, his eyes were larger, and had an unnaturally wide, ghoulish red smile. Blood profusely seeps from his eyes and mouth, causing him to become anemic with such blood loss. His limbs are constitutively bent due to contracting Rickets, a disease that occurred due to being restrained in a dark room for months with no sunlight. Once he broke out of his chains, he begins to rapidly crawl on all fours even though he's capable of running; his movements almost making him appear like a four-legged spider. Judging by the report from a Sterling local, he had an unnaturally pale color to his skin. Even though he appears sickly, he boasts incredible strength and is capable of overpowering anybody.

Personality[]

It's unclear what kind of person Michael was before his possession. After not only being possessed by a demon, but being trapped under Father Garcia's care, Michael transformed into a savage creature that took joy in killing and devouring the flesh of humans and animals alike. He had a habit of mocking his enemies who look like priests by quoting biblical verses and referencing the Bible. Michael tends to use profanity in Spanish, but it's not clear if he already knew the language or picked up on it from Father Garcia as a way of mocking him.

Despite his wavering wide smile, secret animation in Chapter I reveals that he's in constant pain. His demon controls the majority of his actions, but occasionally, he shakes his head in pain and crawls solemnly. They're the only time he ever stops smiling.

What's very important to point out is that in the polaroid photo "1 Day", Michael looks completely normal and only grins at the camera. This, among other matters, can cause a debate whether or not he was ever possessed. It could be assumed that his parents misinterpreted normal behavior (or even mental illnesses) as possession. But, as we'll see soon, there's only one minute detail during a flashback sequence that truly shows Michael was possessed.

Biography[]

Some aspects of this biography were taken from "FAITH - TheStorySoFar" .txt file found in the Goodies Folder because it provides some unexplained details that still apply to the series narrative.

Mid 1970s[]

Judging by how Michael was between 15 to 17 years old in Chapter I^[1], he must've been born in the mid 1970s to Mr. and Mrs. Davies.

June 20th, 1987[]

On this day^[3], a priest named Father Garcia was assigned by Cardinal Gifford, his superior, to exorcise a teenager named Michael. Michael's parents believed he's been afflicted with a violent demonic possession and were struggling to find somebody to help him. Taking him into custody, Garcia keeps Michael chained on a bed in the basement of his apartment room to keep him and others safe. He takes photographs of Michael with his polaroid camera and dates them so that he can show Gifford and the parents how Michael is doing and prove that he's unsafe to be released.

July 4th, 1987[]

Father Garcia has been struggling to exorcise Michael, the demon possessing him is strong and isn't backing down. By day, the possession is putting a serious strain on Michael's body, where his hair is thinning, looks sluggish, teeth sharpening, and his eyes are turning bloody red. Overall, he looks miserable and sickly. Garcia takes another polaroid picture of Michael and intends on showing it to Gifford whenever he's questioned on how the boy is doing.

August 29th, 1987[]

Cardinal Gifford has been pressured by Michael's parents to see him since they haven't in a little over a month. A representative of the Catholic Church/Vatican is assigned to discuss compensation in return for their discretion so that the public doesn't know that either the organization is incompetent, or possessions are real. Gifford mails a letter to demand Garcia to return Michael to his parents^[4]; Lightly implying that he will be sent to Rome, where the Vatican is stationed, and get denounced as a priest after meeting the representative at the Davies House. Garcia ignores the request by never responding at all and continues taking care of Michael, feeling as if he's too dangerous to be released.

SPOILER WARNING!!! This article contains HEAVY SPOILERS for Faith. Please read at your own risk!

Before September 20th, 1987 (Chapter II Prelude)[]

Sometime before September 20th, it's been roughly three months ever since Garcia has taken Michael under his care. Although he believes great progress has been made with Michael over the past couple of weeks^[5], the demon possessing the boy is taking a heavy strain on the body. Additionally, being kept in a dark room with no light has caused him to suffer from Rickets and anemia, likely due to (as we will see soon) continuous bleeding. Garcia feels drained over seeing how much the demon afflicts Michael's body and has been neglecting to take care of his apartment room and himself. He keeps Cardinal Gifford's letter nearby his bed so that he can be reminded on the gravity of his situation. He takes another photograph of Michael, showcasing how unrecognizable he is.

One day, Father Garcia wakes up from his decrepit bedroom and ventures downstairs to check on Michael. Now in the basement, Garcia tries to ask how Michael is doing, but the demon persists and shouts how his parents will kill him when they'll see what happened to his body. Garcia shakes off the threat and proceeds with an exorcism, causing Michael to spout blood and thrash uncontrollably on his bed.

Suddenly, Michael breaks off his chains and gets into a crawled position. The lights cut off on their own before anything else happens. The lights turn back on as Garcia is about to walk upstairs, catching a glimpse of Michael crawling away like a four-legged spider. Apparently, Michael took his first chance of freedom to scurry away instead of killing Garcia, probably because he's been chained for so long and likely malnourished, or he's become scared anytime he's around him.

A pivotal detail to point out here is that Michael drew satanic symbols around the ascending staircase by himself (or they materialized from thin air, which apparently can happen based off of Note #35 from Chapter III^[6]). These symbols originate from a cult^[7] called the Eternal Order of the Second Death, who primarily conduct operations within Sterling, Connecticut^[8]. This signifies that Michael truly is possessed, his demon originates from the cult, and Father Garcia's unnamed apartment room is within or nearby Sterling. It's unlikely Garcia would've ever taught Michael how to draw those satanic symbols, he must've learned from an outside source (or in this case due to possession, influence).

Father Garcia rushes upstairs and notices the polaroid photo titled "3 Months" is nowhere in sight, Michael took it likely because it's the only photograph showcasing how unrecognizable he is. For some inexplicable reason, a small easter egg in Chapter I enforces that Garcia intentionally took a clown nose from his bedroom closet and steps outside to survey his surroundings. He horrifically sees Michael partially eating a bystander. Michael senses somebody is staring at him, so he stops eating, slowly turns around, and gives Father Garcia a small grin as a singular eyeball rolls out of his mouth.

Father Garcia is bewildered and asks what he's done. Michael pauses briefly and promptly leaps out of a nearby window, proclaiming, "I HAVE THE BODY OF A PIG!" He scurries away into the dense woodland of Connecticut. Garcia regains composure and vows that Michael cannot run away from God and will face the Almighty. Notably taking off his priestly collar, Garcia sprints out of the apartment building to catch up to him and resume the exorcism, but he's long gone.

Although this is not shown during the flashback sequence of Chapter II (which is nicknamed Chapter II Prelude to differentiate the actual gameplay of Chapter II), Garcia returns back to his apartment room and writes a reply to Cardinal Gifford^[5]. He respectfully explains Michael needs his help more than ever and that he (Cardinal Gifford) cannot understand the kind of important work is being done. Garcia continues that great progress has been made with Michael over the past couple of weeks and they cannot let up the fight against the demon afflicting him at such a critical time. He provides another reason as to why he cannot let Michael's parents, or the Catholic Church/Vatican see him; the demon is straining Michael's body and looks far too unrecognizable to be released. To make sure there wouldn't be any confusion, Garcia attempts to enclose a picture of Michael taken during one of the many exorcism sessions.

This small letter is the "Father and Son" Ending Note of Chapter I. Unfortunate for us, the player, the photograph is missing, likely because Father Garcia wanted to enclose the "3 Months" polaroid photo but Michael stole it during the confusion. Garcia has no choice but to stall until he gets concrete evidence as to where Michael scurried off to.

September 20th, 1987[]

(This date comes from an unused note that was supposed to be dropped by Michael in Chapter I ((Since we're assuming The Unholy Trinity is the final, official version of Chapter I, as Chapter I has plenty of minor versions dating back to 2017)). Akin to "FAITH - TheStorySoFar".txt file, the series narrative is still influenced by outside sources that are never stated in game. This note explains why Father Garcia/Gray Figure ever shows up in Chapter I, because it's unexplainable otherwise and causes unnecessary confusion. Read the Unused Content or Chapter I wiki page for further explanation.)

On a Sunday night, a Sterling local named Cherise Wan spotted what she describes, "a naked white man" crawling like a spider near the woodland of Snake Meadow Hill Road^[9]. She contacts the local police about what she's witnessed, believing that it was a human rather than an animal, but authorities weren't able to locate the person. Her story will then be published to the local news the next day. Because September 21st takes place on a Monday, this means that Michael was crawling around Snake Meadow Hill Road by September 20th the latest. The moment where he ripped off his chains during Father Garcia's exorcism session is undated, at the very least taking place before September 20th.

September 21st, 1987 (Chapter I)[]

Wan's encounter was published to the local newspaper in the morning. It's never explained here, but a theory as to why Garcia is in Chapter I could be that he read the very same article and realized that Michael is somewhere nearby Snake Meadow Hill Road. Regardless, he plans to park nearby the woodland to look for Michael later that night.

Now nightfall, Father Garcia parks nearby the road and ventures into the forest to look for Michael. This time, he's not wearing his signature priest collar and has a clown nose with him. The series never directly brings this up. Since Michael is a teenager, we could theorize that Garcia wanted to appear as someone friendly in order to subdue him, Michael holds a large disdain towards him so taking off the priestly collar was necessary.

While Michael targets the wildlife and scurries around, an ex-priest named John Ward is within the same forest in order to find a secluded house, the Martin House. His primary goal is to complete his year-long botched exorcism of Amy Martin, delusionally believing he's obligated to finish what he started. As John meanders through the trees, Michael spots him and ambushes him, shouting obscenities of the Lord in the process.

He mistakes him as Father Garcia due to the priestly clothing & collar and attempts to unleash his anger towards him. John fends him off with his crucifix time and time again, causing Michael to reluctantly scurry away. If John doesn't have fast reflexes, Michael jumps him and severs his torso in half (we, the player, are shown a cinematic of Michael gleefully crawling before ultimately killing him).

Deviating from Michael for a bit, John walks nearby Snake Meadow Hill Road, nearly getting ran-over by a speeding semi truck in the process and sees Father Garcia standing nearby a tree. Due to it being late at night and not expecting anyone to be here besides Michael, Garcia gets startled when John draws near and flees, accidentally dropping his clown nose. John picks it up and continues exploring.

John eventually comes across the Martin House, but the front door is locked, so he walks back into the woodland in order to find a key. There's a lone shack not too far off from the house, so he investigates and finds the key. Michael noticed John entering the shack, so he scurries around and glares through the broken window before ultimately attempting to ambush him inside. John fends him off and Michael flees.

Although it's completely random as to whether or not Michael would ambush John within the forest, John will always cast him away at least once within the shack. Now with the key in hand, John returns to the Martin House and enters inside.

Deviating from Michael once again, Father Garcia finds the Martin House and peers through a window, possibly believing that Michael may be inside the house as well. John walks closer to the window, causing Garcia to get startled and flee again^[10].

We flashforward a bit to a standoff between John and Amy within the attic. Amy stumbles after an exorcism session and shambles towards the attic window. Before John can do anything, she screams and flings herself out of the window, plummeting all the way to the ground from a two-story house. John rushes downstairs and wants to check on her condition outside. In the foyer, there's blood on the floor that spells, "KILL HER" backwards. There's a gun nearby the front door. John picks it up and remarks that it only has one bullet.

He steps outside with the rifle in hand. He has a small intent of fatally shooting her to end it all.

"Father and Son" Ending[]

Father Garcia rests nearby the dilapidated shed after getting startled by John's presence. It's also the last location Michael was lurking at. For some reason, John approaches and shoots him in the stomach before he can run away, killing him instantly. John shambles back to his silver sedan and speeds away.

John attempts to recite a prayer to calm his nerves. Michael's head pops up from the backseat. Apparently, Michael snuck into his car when John shot Garcia. Michael mistakes him with Father Garcia again and shouts, "FATHERRRR...!" He slashes John's neck repeatedly with his clawed hands, causing him to bleed profusely and swerve off-road. The screen fades to black as we hear the car crashing into a nearby tree.

We, the player, are shown the response letter Father Garcia wrote to Cardinal Gifford regarding Michael and his condition. We're not shown anything else, but its rest assured that John died, either from his slashed throat or the fatal car crash. Michael likely died too but was far more willing to kill off who he thought was Father Garcia than his own safety.

"When Faith Endures" Ending[]

John finds Amy wounded and nearly bleeding to death in a clearing. She's standing motionlessly and doesn't react to his presence. Although tempted from the backward lettering inside the house to kill her, John shakes off the urge and simply heads back home. He feels that his work with her is enough, despite willingly ignoring the fact that she'll bleed out from her injuries all alone in the forest without his aid.

Just as John is about to enter his car, Michael accosts him from beyond the trees and tries to ambush him one more time. John still has the rifle on hand, so with no better choice, he shoots Michael in self-defense. Michael bleeds and cries in pain as he staggers onto Snake Meadow Hill Road. Suddenly, a truck driver barrels down the road and runs over Michael, killing him instantly. John is completely speechless and glares at his corpse.

John hops into his car and speeds away from the area. He recites a prayer to calm his nerves and briefly pauses, contemplating on what he had just encountered. He monologues that although he can't explain what happened inside the Martin House, he'll have to remain optimistic and hold faith that he did the right thing.

Aftermath[]

The screen fades to a newspaper article released the next day, September 22nd. Titled, "POLICE, ANIMAL EXPERTS INVESTIGATE 'CHUPACABRA' REMAINS FOUND NEAR STERLING", the article is about how the Sterling Police Department is requesting the help of animal experts from the University of Connecticut after a motorist found the remains of an unidentified animal, nicknamed "The Chupacabra" by locals, scattered on Snake Meadow Hill Road. The Police initially investigated the scene because the motorist reported of the carcass looking like a human. Arriving at the scene, the Police come into conclusions that it's some kind of animal. A spokesperson for the Police Department states that authorities want to know what kind of animal it is, either an exotic pet or an animal with rabies, so that they can make sure the public is safe. The article ends that, although animal experts are not stating what kind of animal it is, they come into conclusions that the animal was anemic, hairless, and suffered from The Rickets, a Vitamin D deficiency that only occurs in children and animals who do not receive adequate sunlight.

It's clear that this "Chupacabra" is Michael's scattered corpse on the pavement, proving that his white skin is truly an abnormality and not the series' color scheme (for example, John's color scheme is blue but he's not actually blue skinned). Father Garcia somehow found out that Michael died, either finding his corpse on scene or reading the local newspaper about the "chupacabra" discovery. We're not sure how Garcia mentally handled this as Michael is never mentioned at all from him in the future, but its rest assured that he knows he's dead and stops looking for him. Unfortunately, we don't know the aftermath of Cardinal Gifford nor Mr. and Mrs. Davies. Michael is not referenced for a long time, but his future appearance in Chapter III suggests that John was greatly impacted by watching him get ran over. It's not clear if he ever knew Michael's backstory but the death lingers in his mind.

October 31st, 1987 (Chapter III's Ending I and II)[]

We flashforward a little over a month later to October 31st. Father Garcia and John formed alliances and are trying to cooperate to find Amy's twin brothers, Nate and Jason, to prevent the cult from using them to summon a great demon named Malphas. Garcia instructed John to investigate a daycare center because, for some reason, he's getting reports of children exhibiting strange behavior. Sneaking into the building, traversing through a makeshift tunnel, and exploring a field dotted with white trees, John battles a cloaked man named Gary Miller, the leader of the cult.

Gary appears to know a lot about John and his mental weaknesses. During the battle, Gary can summon a plethora of former foes, including Michael. Alike all of the past enemies, they're red silhouettes, cannot be repelled by the crucifix, and knock John to the ground if they make contact with him. It's important to point out that Gary can summon two different versions of a woman named Tiffany, signifying that these red apparitions are solely phantoms and are not literally summoned from where they used to be to kick down John. They purely function as bad memories, which proves that John was mentally scarred from getting ambushed by Michael and seeing him get ran over.

October 31st, 1987 (Ending III "A New Vessel")[]

In this alternate route, John wussied out from exploring the daycare center last night and simply returned home to sleep. Waking up from a nightmare, he feels an impending sense of doom and knows that he's surrounded. Somewhat knowing what's to come, he decides to open a door covered in crucifixes so that he can relook at psychiatric notes. Avoiding thralls (low-ranking cult members) that try to shank him and a centipede demon trying to gnaw his body, he retrieves a key from his basement and unlocks the door. Besides scattered filing cabinets, he sees an illusion of Amy from his first exorcism standing idly nearby a hastily-drawn attic window.

Either falling or accepting the illusion, he kneels to her and pleads for his torment to end. Before he can ask for this nightmare to end, a red human hand emerges from her mouth and grabs his face, shouting, "UNFORGIVABLE!"

The screen cuts to John stranded in The Forest. Hopelessly depressed, John spots a glimpse of Michael scurrying away. He follows him and finds the Martin House, looking as if it's been abandoned and weathered ever since a month ago. Seeing the house before him places him in an emotional state, recounting his first & second failed exorcism and how much of a failure he thinks he is for letting down Amy, her parents, and her brothers. He enters inside.

Entering each room, he recounts certain events that happened during the first exorcism and blames himself for never giving Amy a proper childhood. Entering the twins' room, there's a graffiti of an eye and two mannequins standing next to each other. John kneels to them in utter defeat and raises his arms. Suddenly, Michael and Amy (with a red, gaping hole) appear and holds his arms steady.

As the room and everyone else except John fades away, a demonic hand with sharp nails emerges from the darkness. It grabs John and then seemingly disappears. The screen cuts to outside, but the Martin House vanished into thin air. We're shown the words, "Damnatio Memoriae", which is Latin for "Damnation of Memory" The series ends on a somber note.

Speculation[]

This alternate ending is the vaguest compared to everything else within the series. Michael's inclusion in this sequence is difficult to figure out, so all we're left here to do is theorize. If we can take all of John's thoughts as he explores the house into mind, we can believe that John is recounting his second failed exorcism (Chapter I) and remembers certain aspects that forever changed him, likewise with his first exorcism back in 86'. Michael's brief glimpse and holding him down may symbolize such guilt over his second exorcism, which enforces the theory that John was far too disturbed over seeing Michael get ran over gruesomely.

Please check John's wiki page for further theories behind this ending. Just as a disclaimer, it branches into sensitive topics such as Implication of Suicide.

Gameplay Strategy[]

Michael has a 50/50 chance of appearing in The Forest and attacking you by honing towards your positioning. Once he's fended off by the crucifix, there's an undisclosed countdown timer until his spawn sets randomly between 0.6 to 10 seconds in any of the adjacent rooms (since FAITH was coded on GameMaker Studio 2, "rooms" are just specific areas of The Forest). If Michael was scared off in one room, he will not reappear in that specific room until you leave the room then reenter.

Michael does not have HP; rather, he has a "Special Point System". A point accumulates by 1 every time an enemy is scared away by the crucifix, and they're scripted to stop appearing entirely once points accumulates to a certain threshold; this system is shared by Amy in her First Encounter and Thralls.

Michael is scripted to stop appearing altogether once you fended him off for the tenth time, he'll leave behind a note. He will not appear when you pick up the Martin House's key in the nearby shed but will otherwise if you did not scare him away ten times. This coding ensures that you will encounter at least once throughout your whole entire gameplay session, you'd be lucky to not encounter him at all throughout The Forest.

Every time you scare Michael away, his Speed stat increases by 2. By default, his Speed is set at 18, so the maximum Speed he can reach before being disabled is 38.

Michael is an easy enemy to scare off. As a general precaution, be careful when you're around the edges of a room. He can appear at any time when you're about to walk towards any of the adjacent rooms and kill you.

Quotes[]

Chapter I[]

Michael Appears[]

"I HAVE THE BODY OF A PIG!" (Likely a reference to The Bible; Mark 5:11-13 details the story of Jesus exorcising two possessed men and the demons flee to inhabit a herd of pigs in fear. The pigs then run into the sea and drown^[11]. It may also be a reference to a fake infamous EVP recording where a demon states that it has the body of a pig^[12].)

"RUN! RUN! RUN!" (a reference to the titular villain of the 1983 video game Sinistar^[13])

"SUFFER!"

"CARNAGE!"

"WORSHIP ME!"

"EN NOMBRE DE JESUS." (Spanish for "IN THE NAME OF JESUS," mocking a Christian prayer)

"CORRUPTION, THOU ART MY FATHER." (Basing off an email written by Airdorf, this is supposed to be a reference to a line spoken in the 2015 film The VVitch^[14], which in itself is a reference to a phrase from the Book of Job, 17:14 ((The King James Version))^[15])

"BLOOD!" (a reference to the Surgeon enemies from Shadowman^[16])

Repelled/Shot[]

"FATHERRRRR...!" (According to an email from Airdorf, Michael is referring to Father Garcia^[17], proving that he regularly mistakes John as Father Garcia.)

"NOOOOOOOOOO...!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

"I GO UNWILLINGLY." (Reference to a nightmare Airdorf had where he was trapped in a cage with an insane half-man half-rat creature^[17])

"YOU KNOW NOTHING!"

"POR LA CRUZ INVERTIDA!" (Spanish for "BY THE INVERTED CROSS!")

"LA SANGRE DE PUTA MADRE!" (Spanish for "BLOOD OF THE BITCH-MOTHER!"^[17])

"QUE TE JODAN MIL CABRAS!" (Spanish for "MAY A THOUSAND GOATS FUCK YOU!")

Chapter II[]

Father Garcia's Exorcism[]

(Garcia enters the basement)
Father Garcia: "How are we doing today, Michael?"
"I want to go home..."

Garcia: "You can't go home until you get better, Michael."
"Can I see Mommy and Daddy?"

Garcia: "I need to make you better first."
"When they see what you did to me, THEY'LL KILL YOU!"

Garcia: "Reveal thy name to me, demon!"
"YOU KNOW NOTHING, PENDEJO!" (Pendejo is Spanish for "Idiot" or "Asshole".)

Trivia[]

Michael was not inspired by any particular horror monster (such as the Rake or SCP 096, which have been compared to him on several occasions) but was instead merely based on spiders.^[18]
Michael's name was originally going to be Abraham and would have been much older with facial hair^[19]. This is reflected in Chapter I's files, which refer to him as "abe". His name was changed in order to have a somewhat ironic connection to Michael the Archangel^[20].
There is no background given on how Michael was able to speak Spanish. His usage of the verb 'cojer' in one of his lines indicates that he specifically used a Mexican dialect.
- It is possible that he was of Mexican heritage, although there's no definitive evidence for this, as Davies is not a Spanish surname.
- Real world possession victims are infamous for suddenly being able to speak languages they had no previous knowledge of before. Michael could be an example of this and had targeted his foul use of the Spanish language against Father Garcia as an intimidation tactic.
- On the other hand, the Sterling community in-game is somewhat influenced by Spanish culture, such as the brief usage of Spanish in Note #38 in Chapter III^[21], the "La Pietta Corrotta" statue featured in Chapter III, a police officer mentioned in Note #22 in Chapter II^[22] alluded to be of Hispanic descent, two of the thralls featured in Chapter II have Spanish surname^[23], and so on. All of this could very well mean that Michael already knows Spanish prior to possession.
If you pause the game while Michael is chasing John, a brief series of animation will play depicting Michael doing various things.
- In order: Solemnly crawling while looking at the ground, standing upright and swinging his head in pain, hurriedly crawling with a cheerful smile (same animation when he catches John), running upright towards the screen.
- This easter egg used to be unused in The Unholy Trinity version of Chapter I because the game would pause normally regardless of if Michael is on screen or not. The animation was reimplemented in an update on Steam in May of 2023.

All rotoscoped animations of Michael are sourced from Adobe's Mixamo zombie asset library , which is notable considering that the majority of cutscenes within the series are rotoscoped from Airdorf himself (shoutout goes to Swirls from the FAITH Fan Community Discord for finding this out).

There are three distinct versions of Chapter I back around 2017 that varied on where you downloaded the game from; Game Jolt, indie DB, and itch.io. The only significant difference between these versions is what kind of note Michael would drop when John repels him for the 10th time; a note written by Cindy Martin feeling disturbed upon learning that a "tall man wearing dark clothing" was seen during the Martin Twin's birthday party, a newspaper article detailing Cherise Wan seeing a "naked white man" crawling on all fours on Snake Meadow Hill Road, and a note written by Cardinal Gifford instructing Father Garcia to return Michael to his parents immediately. The Unholy Trinity uses the itch.io version of Chapter I since we get Cardinal Gifford's letter, meaning that Cindy's note and Cherise's newspaper article go unused. Check the Unused Content or Notes wiki page to read them in full.
- Even though we don't see these respective notes, it still applies to the canonicity of the series. For some inexplicable reason, the narrative tends to borrow key plot points from outside sources that are barely referenced in-game, the biggest example being that Amy originally got possessed when she was lured into a clinic by her friends.
Back when FAITH: Deluxe (a "Collector's Edition" of Chapter I) released around 2017 or 2018, Airdorf posted a picture of John smiling nearby the Martin House on the GameJolt website for April Fools. Michael, who's strangely running on twos and more muscular than usual, creeps up to him from the background. Unfortunately, with The Unholy Trinity's release in October of 2022, all websites where you can buy Chapter I and II were removed, so this image practically would've been lost media (unless Airdorf kept a copy of it somewhere).

The way John and Michael are posing is more than likely a reference to a 2017 meme where actor Jason Momoa tries to sneak up on another actor named Henry Cavill during the premiere of Suicide Squad (2016). Shoutouts to berT the almighty from the FAITH Fan Discord Server for pointing this out.

When John gets ran over as a Wretch, the four-legged spider-like creature, in Chapter II, it's a recolor of Michael's ran-over sprite.

Interestingly, when John smiles to himself in a mirror in Chapter II, the filename for this cinematic is called "spr_CH2_cine_mirrorMike0" and "spr_CH2_cine_mirrorMike02" respectively. When he turns into a Wretch, the cinematic is called "spr_CH2_cine_MikeInAgony".
There's a running visual theme of characters influenced by the Eternal Order of the Second Death having spider-like characteristics, which reference what the UNSPEAKABLE, an evil deity worshipped by cult members, looks like. Here's a list:
- Michael (Predominantly crawls like one, labeled as one by Cherise Wan)
- Amy in 1986 (Nightmare sequences reveal that Amy crawled like a spider back in 86'. This behavior stopped in 87'/Chapter I and just floats around, likely due to the Second Death ritual being performed on her shortly before the game begins.)
- Wretch (Crawls just like Michael)
- Stick Dolls (Visually looks identical to a Wretch)
- Tiffany as a Monstrocity (Crawls like one after her demon was exorcised)
- Gary's "Rain of Spiders" (Visually looks like Tiffany as a Monstrocity, Stick Doll, and Wretch. Also, y'know, "Spiders")
It's hard to tell due to the perspective, but it looks like Michael is taller than John, judging by his appearance in Chapter III. If that is the case, that makes him over 6"2.
During the end credits song that plays after getting any ending of Chapter III, muffled dialogue can be heard playing. If you reverse this audio, it is revealed to be Father Garcia and Michael's conversation in the prelude of Chapter II^[24]. Credit goes to Jellazticious on YouTube for reversing the audio.
(This is more of a trivia to the wiki page) Shoutout to an individual named Pierrot for sending an email to Airdorf about Michael's voice clips and berT the almighty from the FAITH Discord Server to point out the previously missing citations. The email cleared up a lot of things regarding Michael's voice lines and seems like it hasn't been seen since 2019 (click on the image to read it).