History YMMV / StrangeDays

* FridgeBrilliance: A small detail: when Mace remembers meeting Lenny for the first time, the memory has muted colors, is shuttering, and is seen in the third person. This differs greatly from playback scenes of memories (except for [[spoiler: Iris's rape and murder]]), the scenes have colors that are normal (sometimes brighter depending on if it was "filmed" during the day), no shuttering and is in first person. Mace was right when she later tells Lenny, "Memories are meant to fade. They're designed that way for a reason."

* TearJerker:
** The scene where Lenny reveals why exactly he's still so hung up on Faith:
--->When I met Faith, she was just another runaway, giving twenty-dollar blowjobs to buy crank. Just another lost soul. But she had this voice... it was scary, like she could take all the hurt and rage of the entire world and lift it up to Heaven in one voice. I helped her. And I promised her that I'd always just be there, to protect her. See, it's not about what's in her head, it's what's in mine. I can't let go of the promise. It's like it's all I have left.
** For added value, Lenny begins this by asking Mace whether she's ever been in love with someone who didn't return her feelings. Mace pointedly [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy replies that yes, she has]].

* NightmareFuel: The lengthy and extremely graphic rape and murder scene, filmed from the perpetrator's point of view.

* CompleteMonster: [[spoiler: [[BitchInSheepsClothing Max Peltier]] is an ex-cop and private detective turned PsychoForHire.]] Contracted to silence prostitute Iris when she witnesses the murder of rapper Jeriko One, he hooks her up to a SQUID[[note]]Superconducting Quantum Interference Device-a device that lets one experience the memories of another[[/note]], then rapes and murders her, using the SQUID to ensure that she experiences not only her own horror, but his enjoyment of the act. He then sends his memory of the event to Lenny Nero, [[spoiler: his supposed best friend]], so that Lenny can experience it firsthand, [[HeroicBSOD leaving him a shaken mess]]. He attacks Lenny's friend and memory supplier Tick, using a SQUID to overload and melt his brain, then does the same thing to his own employer, Philo Gant, reducing him to a comatose wreck before murdering him. In the climax, [[spoiler: Max reveals that he plans to pin the blame for all of the murders on Lenny, then tries to throw his "friend" out of a window.]]

* FridgeBrilliance: A small detail: when Mace remembers meeting Lenny for the first time, the memory has muted colors, is shuttering and seen in the third person. This differs greatly from playback scenes of memories (except for [[spoiler: Iris' rape and murder]]), the scenes have colors that are normal (sometimes brighter depend on if it was "filmed" during the day), no shuttering and is in first person. Mace was right when she later tells Lenny, "Memories are meant to fade. They're designed that way for a reason."
* HarsherInHindsight: Massive civil unrest brought about by police brutality, militarized police, and race based protests the police are itching to turn violent mean that this feels even more timely post-2020. No [=SQUIDs=] yet but the role of body cams and cellphone video serves the same purpose.

** A news broadcaster mentioned that astrologists predicted that Moammar Ghadafi would win the Nobel Peace Prize. Fast forward to 2010 to the 2011 Libyan uprising...

* {{Squick}}: The rape-murder recording, especially taking into consideration what that involves for the character using it. It isn't just ''seeing'' it in first person like the audience does (which is bad enough), but ''experiencing everything the perpetrator experienced.'' Long story short, ''she was forced to experience her own rapist's pleasure when he raped her''.