Dr. Angus Bumby is Alice Liddell's manipulative psychiatrist and the main antagonist of Alice: Madness Returns.

The head of the Houndsditch Home for Wayward Youth, Bumby appears to help Alice, along with other orphans who live there, to forget about traumatic events in their past using hypnotherapy. However, it is revealed that he has much darker motives, and a greater role in Alice's past than she, as well as the player, first realize.

In Wonderland, Bumby is represented by the Dollmaker, a monstrous incarnation of himself.

He is voiced by Alistair McGowan.

BiographyEdit

BackgroundEdit

In his younger years, Bumby was an undergraduate at Oxford University and was tutored by Dean Arthur Liddell. Like other undergraduates, he was a frequent guest for tea to the Liddell household, and he soon became attracted to Arthur's eldest daughter, Elizabeth, or, as many called her, Lizzie.

Lizzie had a poor opinion of all of the undergraduates and, of course, had no interest in him (calling him and the other undergraduates "toadies"), but Bumby became completely obsessed with her, believing that Lizzie did want his advances and was being a "tease." (This is a common mindset employed by most sexual predators to rationalize their actions, putting all of the blame on their victims.) Bumby's desire for her grew so out of hand that he would stalk Lizzie and try to force her to perform sexual acts for him behind her family's back. However, she still denied him and threatened to tell her parents.

One night, infuriated by Lizzie's "teasing," Bumby broke into the Liddell house and raped Lizzie, then either killed her or caused her to lose consciousness. To cover up his crime, Bumby then locked Lizzie's bedroom door and used a lit oil-lamp to set the house on fire, with the intention to kill everyone inside. Only the youngest Liddell, Alice, survived the blaze, and she had witnessed Bumby entering the house that night; however, she convinced herself that she saw a centaur instead, and that the sounds coming from her sister's room had been Lizzie talking in her sleep (when it was really Bumby forcing himself upon her). As a twisted memento, Bumby kept Lizzie's bedroom key, and later used it as his pendant when hypnotizing his patients. The fire resulted in Alice's fall into insanity, and she was committed into Rutledge Asylum for ten years until the events of American McGee's Alice.

Alice: Madness Returns Edit

After Alice was deemed sane enough to leave Rutledge, her former nurse Pris Witless got her a place to stay in Houndsditch Home as a maid. Here, Bumby treated Alice to hypnotherapy, promising to help her forget the memories of the fire so she could recover the remains of her sanity. His treatment seemed in vain, however, as Alice began descending into madness again, seeing Wonderland consumed by a strange black ooze and destroyed by a twisted train. Realizing that she had to face her problems her own way, she returned to her psyche to unravel the mystery of this new corruption. Along the way, she began recollecting her lost memories, including some of her therapy sessions with Bumby.

As Alice traveled deeper into Wonderland, she came to realize that it was Bumby who killed her family; his hypnosis sessions were really an attempt to cover his tracks. She also realized another terrible truth: Bumby had been using Houndsditch Home as a front for turning its vulnerable children into mindless prostitutes, stripping away their memories so they completely forget who they were. He viewed children solely as commodities to be used, manipulated, and exploited. He even believed that he was doing nothing wrong; by turning otherwise "worthless" children into prostitutes, he was providing a service to the public.

After regaining her memories, Alice confronted Bumby at Moorgate Station for his crimes. He casually confirmed her accusations, and even admitted he was trying to break down Alice into a mindless prostitute too, but she proved too stubborn and too full with guilt to forget.

As Alice's Wonderland self destroyed the Infernal Train and the Dollmaker, she threatened to tell the police and have Bumby hung after being raped himself by "some half wit bruiser." In spite of this, Bumby laughed at Alice, pointing out that no one would believe a former lunatic accusing a well-respected man of such a hideous crime. Upon being told to leave, Alice snatches Lizzie's key from Bumby, stunning him, and, after transforming into her Wonderland self, pushed him in front of an oncoming train, instantly killing him and avenging her family.

Appearance Edit

Bumby appears to be in his late forties, with a slim figure and broad shoulders. His face is very long and thin, with a pointy chin and defined cheekbones. His nose and hands are also very bony. His hair is dark brown, and is cut to the nap of his neck, and combed into a side parting to his right-hand side. He also has a full beard and mustache. His eyes are small and pale in color. Bumby dresses much more smartly compared to Alice and the other children who live with him. His outfit consists of black trousers, a white shirt and a gray waistcoat with a red tie. When outside, he puts on a black coat and top-hat.  

Personality Edit

To the public, Bumby is an intelligent psychiatrist and appears to be a respectable man of society. However he has carried out various cruel acts of abuse (especially against young people and children), which include murder, rape, forced thought reform, and the commercial sexual exploitation of children. He seems to have a poor view of children, as Alice remembers him stating that children must have roles and purposes placed upon them by adults, suggesting that children have no free-will.

While Bumby appears to be pure evil in nature, it's hinted that he might be mentally unstable, which could have contributed to his behavior. For example, while it was obvious that Lizzie was disgusted and possibly scared by Bumby's advances towards her, Bumby shifted the responsibility of his violent actions onto Lizzie, claiming that she was acting to be revolted by him to be "a tease," meaning that he could be in extreme denial about the reality of their relationship. He also sees his exploitation of the orphans as a service to the community, so he could have a condition similar to hero syndrome.

In truth that Bumby may be mentally unstable, he actually may be the real mad person, rather than Alice: Bumby shadowed Lizzie to the point of her fearing for her life, then later raping her in her own home and plotting to kill her and her entire family in a fire seen as a simple accident caused by the cat. In his later years, he tries hypnotizing Lizzie's own little sister Alice and sells orphans as sex dolls for the world's taking. That is the true madness behind this dangerously deadly game played by Angus Bumby.

Etymology Edit

The name "Angus" is anglicized form of Aonghus, which means "one strength" or "one force," and "Bumby" is a name of Middle English origin with means "fortress," a heavily guarded place.

The fortress could mean Houndsditch Home, the place that Bumby hid his secrets from outsiders. His first name could be in reference to the fact he is a "one-man power" controlling the children, or that he just used one way to capture his victims: hypnotherapy.

Trivia Edit

• In-game, Alice's collectable memories of Bumby are represented by a pearly image of his glasses.
• Before Alice kills Bumby, she appears to transform into her Wonderland form (both dress and physical features) before him and he appears shocked by her sudden change.
• In her previous memories of the fire, Alice remembered Bumby as a centaur; a creature from Greek mythology which is part human and part horse. Although in modern culture, centaurs are presented as clever and honorable, they were originally symbolic of chaos and unbridled passions. The latter description fits Bumby, as he is was the indirect source of Alice's insanity, and he had a lustful, uncontrollable passion for Lizzie.
• The drastically different appearances and mindsets of Wonderland's citizens in Madness Returns are the result of a metaphysical "Hard Reboot" imposed by Doctor Bumby's treatments for Alice.
• Bumby may have been the "benefactor" who sent Alice the photograph of her family. On the other hand, it would not make much sense, as his very ambition is to make his victims forget all about their past.

Gallery Edit

Illustration from Alice: Madness Returns Storybook

Concept art for Madness Returns with the children

Screenshot from Madness Returns

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Music Themes Edit