XP: Life is Strange Episode 4

Onwards with the blogging! Busy weekend spending time with my family, so all is good. I was also working on a short story, so that dominated the time I would have spent writing the blog. I did manage to finish my second playthrough of the game, so I got to see how most of the choices played out. I might dabble a little bit into the developer’s commentary, but I probably won’t do a whole other playthrough. Now onwards with the blog post, and spoilers warning from here on out!

Here are the other episodes:
Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3

What I played:

Life is Strange Episode 4: Dark Room

Max learns that Chloe became handicapped because of a series of events that occurred when she saved Chloe’s dad, William. Max makes the difficult choice of allowing William to die in order to save Chloe’s life, yet again. The girls pay Frank a visit and get information to decrypt his accounting books, which allows them to put all their evidence together and retrace Nathan’s steps the night of Rachel Amber’s disappearance. The trail leads them to the “Dark Room,” an underground lair someone clearly used to take pictures of Kate, Rachel Amber, and many others while they were drugged. There they find out where Chloe’s best friend is. The duo crashes the Vortex Club party to look for Nathan. While there, it is announced Victoria was the winner of the Everyday Heroes contest, but there was no sign of Nathan. Chloe receives a text from Nathan that tells them where he is, and they go for one last showdown; however it is anything but.

What I experienced:

We as players are eager to come back from the cliffhanger ending of episode 3 in order to find out just what exactly happened to Chloe that led her to become a quadriplegic. The girls are (st)rolling along the beach alongside the dead whales, where Chloe reveals that her father gave her a car for her 16^th birthday and shortly after she was in an accident that lead to her becoming disabled. The dialogue choices in this sequence allowed the player to ask directly what happened or to tip-toe around the subject. You get the choice to just rip the band-aid off and learn what you did, or try and be respectful of Chloe maybe not wanting to talk about her accident. Either way Chloe shows how brave she is by answering the (unasked) questions freely.


I just want to add that I really liked how the voice actress was able to change the portrayal of Chloe’s character once again through simple tone and volume. In the previous episode the actress made Chloe sound younger and carefree since she had yet to bear the tragedy of her father’s death. In the original timeline Chloe has a harsh/angry tone since she is, well, angry at the world for taking her dad. Instead in this segment Chloe sounds older and tired, like just talking is in itself draining her energy. Which, given her physical state, could very well be the case. This goes a long way to determining what type of connection we as players develop with Chloe, and even re-think what lies underneath the tough facade of the original Chloe.


Max spends the rest of the night with Chloe just hanging out, quickly re-establishing a connection that only old friends can. The next day Max explores the house and talks with William and Joyce, who make it clear that despite the exorbitant medical bills, they are grateful to have Chloe in their lives as is. But of course, those exorbitant medical bills are leading the family into bankruptcy.

I don’t think it was really the developer’s intentions to call to attention the messed up health care system that exists in the UnitedStates. Instead, I really think they were only including it as a way to twist the knife into the feels of the player. The tones of William and Joyce have are the same tired one that Chloe has, only for them it is less physical and more emotional stress. This also does a good job of twisting the knife even more, as the noble parents suffer silently for the benefit of their child. Chloe herself admitted that she has caught on to them trying to hide their frustrations over her medical condition, and will act out to give them the opportunity to take some of the stress out on her. The lesson: the family that suffers together is, well, a family.


Not only is the family about to drown in debt, but Chloe’s lungs are slowly failing despite all the treatments, and it is only a matter of time before she dies from it. This is where Chloe asks Max to end her life, that way her family doesn’t waste any more money on her and she can go out with the good feeling of the time spent with her best friend.


You are actually given three options this time: accept, decline, or “I don’t know.” I was hoping in choosing “I don’t know” this might give you an opportunity to talk to William about the original timeline, albeit in a hypothetical “if you could give your life to save your daughter, would you?” I felt being able to talk to him about that sort of scenario would make it easier to make the choice on whether she should travel back in time again or not, since he seemed like the type of parent to gladly give his own life so long as it saved his child. But alas, we never get the chance to talk to William about it, and instead it only adds a few lines of hesitation from Max before you are once again forced to make a choice: accept or decline Chloe’s request for euthanasia.


The impact of that choice is dulled slightly in the obvious knowledge that Max will once again go back in time, only during this turn she will not interfere with William’s death. You stand justified with either decision regarding Chloe’s euthanasia. It’s okay to let Chloe slowly suffer and die because you will just undo her condition altogether. Same goes for euthanasia, because she will not remain dead, you’re going to undo it all and have Chloe back; albeit the angry Chloe. There is no suspense in whether you will find the photo again, or somehow not have her abilities in the alternate universe. However, despite the impact being dulled it was still an interesting segment to experience and raised some thoughts.


The morality surrounding euthanasia is ambiguous, much like morality in general. Those in favor and those opposed have their reasons, but none of those reasons are absolute. In this instance, I use the word absolute as in it covers any given scenario at any given time. In Life is Strange, Chloe’s situation does seem to warrant the need for euthanasia. She is slowly dying, and is aware of how little time she has left. However, she still has some time she could use to make more memories with her parents and Max, which might make it a premature decision. But then there are examples of when someone is diagnosed with a terminal illness, given months to live, and ends up living years beyond their allotted time; not only that but sometimes people are misdiagnosed completely. The biggest hurdle to overcome for a general acceptance or opposition of euthanasia is this: at what point can a person be 100% certain they will die, and what level of suffering is acceptable to where you decide to carry out the act of assisted suicide. The answer varies from person to person, and can only be determined by the people involved in the situation at that time. Thus, it it is difficult to say that euthanasia is absolutely right or wrong.


While in the alternate timeline we as players are also given the chance to explore the other differences through the journal and text messages menu, which I thought was a nice attention to detail. The journal entries changed from longer, near daily entries of a girl unsure of herself to very short entries spaced further apart in time where she talks about her hangovers from partying. The text messages show that in the alternate universe Max is a full fledged member of the Vortex Club, and an influential member at that, seeing as Victoria sends many messages seeking Max’s (or in this world she goes by “Maxine”) approval. It was very small detail, but reading through the messages shows just what kind of a world Max had stumbled into.


Once back in the original timeline, a very grateful Max hugs Chloe, and she decides to keep the experience of the other timeline to herself so as not to sadden her friend. Max is in Chloe’s room looking at a board with all the evidence of the case so far, but there are still some clues missing to be able to make any sense of it. Frank's accounting book has his customer's names written in code, there is no way to track where Nathan was the night of Rachel Amber's disappearance.


Max goes into David's garage and breaks into one of his filing cabinets where he has pages and pages of GPS coordinates of people he was following. While in there you find a letter and a few other things that show his human side instead of the military tough guy persona he has. This did a good job of rounding out the character, especially after the explosive argument he and Chloe had in the last episode.


Once Max absconded with the information, she does one of two things depending on what you did in episode 2. If you failed to save Kate, she and Chloe go break into Nathan's room. If you saved Kate, Max goes to visit her in the hospital. The hospital scene was a heartwarming type of scene. Kate thanks you for saving her life, and she even started to draw happy children's illustrations too. That scene showed how most people end up feeling after they were pulled back from the brink of suicide, or if they had survived an attempt. Now they may not be all as hopeful as Kate, but most recognize it is not the best solution to their problem, at least for the moment anyways. What most people may not know is that once someone has attempted suicide, the likelihood of that person attempting again is fairly high. This is true for any behavior a person does. The first time you try something new, it feels strange and, if it it's risky, somewhat scary. But once you have tried it out, it suddenly doesn't feel as scary and can even become familiar after so many times. The takeaway is that if you can remind someone that there are an infinite amount of solutions outside of suicide, they will eventually find some hope to live. But keep an eye on them the next time you notice them having some trouble, because they may be thinking about suicide again. Just FYI.

When Max breaks into Nathan's room you see all the twisted artwork he is into.

Max learns more about Nathan snooping around in his dorm room. The art that he is into definitely suggests that he is disturbed, and the emails from his dad show that it might be for good reason. Whether he has his reasons or not, the overwhelming evidence is that he is still an asshole. Especially when she and Chloe run into him and he goes after Max. Warren gives him a beat down for touching his woman, and you learn that he is not as tough as he tries to be. Just angry.


The girls go to Frank's RV on the beach to ask for his customer list, and this scene can go one of three ways: Chloe shoots Frank dead, Chloe shoots Frank in the leg and he gives up the list, or Frank becomes an ally and hands it over willingly. If you spared Frank's dog the fate of getting ran over, the dog attacks trying to protect Frank, and Chloe shoots it dead. This leads Frank to get mad and attack with his knife, and Chloe has to kill Frank. If the dog is already injured or you can rewind and have Frank secure the dog ahead of talking. He still attacks but Chloe only shoots him in the leg that time. Otherwise, you can talk to Frank like the human being that he is, be honest about why you were scared and did (not) pull the trigger, and be honest about wanting to find Rachel just as badly as he does. The lesson of the segment is that even "criminals" such as Frank are actually just people who do socially unacceptable things because that is all they know.

After all of that we as players get to piece together the information through a mini-game of sorts. It did not feel out of place since it used a lot of the same interactions with objects that we as players have already grown accustomed to. The only difference was the lack of need for rewinding time, except when it came to unlocking Nathan’s cell phone.


All evidence points to Nathan, and the girls track some coordinates to a barn his family owns. After a bit of lock & key puzzles, the girls enter the Dark Room. On a side note, one of the keys was a three digit code written on a paper the girls thought might contain the code to his phone, which was four digits. That was another small attention to detail that I thought was kind of cool, and I actually have no idea how the girls get in if the player fails to take notice of it.

The infamous Dark Room

The Dark Room is a bomb shelter remodeled into a photo studio, filled with state-of-the-art photography equipment. There is a backdrop, lights, computer, printer, even a stereo system. There the girls find binders labeled with victims names, notably Rachel, Kate, and even Victoria; though hers is empty...for now. Rachel’s photos show her being buried at the junkyard, and Chloe races back and uncovers her body. That moment was actually touching, with the right music, dialogue, and voice acting to pull it off.

I also liked as a storytelling element that they did not keep Rachel alive as a prisoner, because I felt it would have been too difficult to realistically explain why anyone would do so. Not only that, but this time they did not do something to dull the impact of an action. No rewind, no picture to leap back in time and save Rachel. The lesson is clear: sometimes the world just sucks, no matter how powerful you are.


The girls go to the aptly named “End of the World” party to look for Nathan and get revenge. The name of the party is fitting twofold: the world could literally be ending due to all the weird phenomena, and Chloe’s world ended metaphorically at discovering her best friend was dead. If you thought Chloe was an angry teenager before, that was nothing compared to how angry she got after finding Rachel Amber. She was so pissed that she even ignored the fact that there were two moons up in the sky. A drunk Warren sneaks a selfie with Max using her instant camera, just long enough to distract her and lose track of where Chloe went. You then spend the time interacting with everyone at the party looking for either Chloe or Nathan.


The interactions with all the characters at the party were kind of interesting in the fact that they highlighted the changes Max underwent as a character. In the first episode’s tutorial segment, Max talked with everyone but definitely had a self-deprecating tone anytime she said something about herself. That slowly changed through each interaction with the side-characters to where she started giving them advice on what to do and even calling some of them out on their shit. Everyone noted how much more confident Max has become, while Max has a little bit of a “good-bye forever” tone because she is not sure just what will happen once they find Nathan. If there’s one thing Life is Strange does well, it’s character development.


Speaking of which, there is another bit of character development when Max runs into Victoria at the VIP section of the party. Now, how this interaction goes is dependent on whether you were nice to Victoria or whether you embraced your mean girl persona. There was an option at one point to either warn her about Nathan or not. If you were mean to Victoria then even if you warn her she will just make a bitchy comment and ignore it. If you were nice to her, you end up sharing a really touching moment where you encourage her as an artist, let her know she has nothing to feel insecure about, and then she accepts the warning. Victoria also acknowledges just how bitchy she has been and also gives compliments to Max. While she was still a little bitchy before reaching that point of the conversation, it took significantly less time to break the facade, which was a welcome improvement! Victoria accepting the warning has a consequence in the next episode, which was a rather interesting one too, but I’ll talk about it whenever I post on episode 5.


Then comes the WTF ending. Reunited once again, Chloe receives a text message from Nathan that he is going to destroy the evidence they found. The girls foolishly declined to go to the police once they found the body, so Rachel’s body was left unguarded in the junkyard. The girls rush back, Chloe with her gun drawn, constantly talking and giving away their position. As a result, the killer gets the drop on Max by drugging her with a syringe, and then head shots Chloe as she turns around. Max, unable to move let alone rewind time, looks up at the killer, Mr. Jefferson, before she blacks out.

Now as far as twists go, this one was fairly decent. I was left stunned that it was Mr. Jefferson as the killer, and I managed to not be outraged once the initial shock wore off. The hardest thing about a twist on who really done it is whether it seems believable or not, and if there was enough of a hint to make it not feel like everything you experienced was for nothing.


An example of a horrible twist was this book I once read. The author described a kidnapper of teenage girls as a short-tempered guy on a motorcycle. Throughout the whole book there were scenes where the perpetrator was “shown” but never named. Since it is a book readers could not just see who it was, only read the actions being described. There was a known character who was quick tempered, rode a motorcycle, and seemed to like his girls young. It seemed so obvious that it was him that I knew right away it wasn’t. The plot, prose, and pacing of the book were horrible, and the only reason I kept reading was to see who the real perpetrator was and see if there were any clues that would make the whole terrible experience worth it. The twist was revealed, and there was NOTHING that pointed to the revealed character, and that led me to be the most upset I have ever been with a book (as you can tell by my bringing it up; I just can’t let it go!).

The point I am making is that while there was nothing really obvious pointing to Mr. Jefferson, there were a couple of moments that led to some kind of suspicion. At the end of the first episode there was a montage where it showed all the characters and their current standings. In that montage there was a moment where the principal and Mr. Jefferson were meeting in the middle of the woods, leaving you with a feeling of conspiracy. Then in episode 2 there was the conversation he had with Kate where she ran away crying. When Max talked to Jefferson about it he seemed to have an aggressive tone, like he had something to hide. There were other moments too, but those dots don’t really connect until you hear him talk in episode 5. It didn’t matter that even during a second playthrough with the gift of hindsight, there were no hints linking him to the crime. But, those little moments I mentioned before kept me from going insane like the book had, because they were just enough to make me believe that it could have been him.


In conclusion, the episode was fairly solid in storytelling and had a few life lessons thrown in there, even if some of them were dulled down to keep it from getting too depressing. The overall theme was that sometimes the world just sucks, since William has to stay dead and there is no way to save Rachel Amber. While I wish for some elements to be elaborated, like talking to William about Chloe, or more evidence connecting Mr. Jefferson, the episode itself was good. Now I shall leave with you this question: what movie/book/game/whatever had the best twist ending you’ve experienced, and which one had the worst? Let me know in the comments!