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Accused of What?
- So let’s say Sean stuck around after that disaster. What are they gonna get in trouble for? That their dad was murdered by a cop? That their street was blown up by ... nothing?
- Considering how the inciting incident started because of a cop assuming the worst and how the news pinned the incident on him after he ran (despite no apparent signs of evidence), he likely would've still been blamed somehow and likely been separated from Daniel.
- Even if Sean is found innocent, he’ll still likely be separated from Daniel due to the foster care system, and would probably never see him again. Episode 2 addresses this when Claire asks Sean why he ran away if he was innocent, and Sean tells her that the police would separate him and Daniel, and that Daniel would end up in foster care.
- If the supernatural incident is pinned on Daniel, or he is otherwise held responsible, Sean automatically faces charges for being complicit in keeping him out of the hands of the government.
- Besides the fact that nobody can prove that something supernatural happened or that Daniel caused it, what law makes the government entitled to such people?
- There's a dead cop, and their neighbour may be dead or heavily injured as well. There is no conclusive proof that neither of the people present provoked the cop into shooting Esteban, and as Mexicans there is a chance prejudice takes it toll on how the boys would be treated.
- It's also worth noting that Sean just witnessed a police officer gun down his father right in front of him. Combine with the fact that he's still a teenager, and that racism can and does affect policing in America, it is entirely possible that Sean just doesn't trust the police because they shot his dad, who was an innocent man.
- It is pointed out in dialogues later in the game that Sean simply panicked. Then, after they started running from the cops, there was simply no way back.
- All Sean knows is that Daniel's uncontrollable powers resulted in destruction and the death of a police officer. If the cops question Daniel when his emotions are running high, his powers will manifest, and in the best case scenario, as far as Sean is aware, he'll spend the rest of his life in a top-secret government facility. And it's important to note that even in the ending where Sean avoids causing any more fatalities with Daniel's powers and surrenders peacefully, he still gets sentenced to a whopping fifteen years in prison, which is almost as much as he could expect to get if he'd committed a murder all on his own.
Daniel and Foster Care (slight spoilers, maybe?)
- I'm asking mainly because I don't know much about the US foster care system, but had Daniel ended up in it shortly after the whole shooting thing, wouldn't he have been placed in the Reynolds' care since they're relatives? Or is it not so simple?
- There's little to no guarantee that Daniel would've ended up to them. Generally, the US foster system only allows young(er/ish) couples to take in a child, due to wanting to make sure that there's always someone to take care of them (hence why it's so difficult for single people to adopt). Claire and Stephen are both fairly up there in age, so there's no guarantee that they'd live long enough to raise Daniel into adulthood.
- Also, the US foster care system operates on a state level—since the boys are from Washington State and the grandparents live in Oregon, the latter wouldn't really be on their radar.
Daniel can't speak Spanish?
- During the drive to the border, Daniel points out to Sean that he doesn't know Spanish, which Sean shrugs off by saying he'll teach him. Um, what? Why wasn't he taught earlier? Why was Sean raised bilingual but not Daniel? Why did Sean not think to teach him during their year on the road?
- The "Daniel Doesn't speak Spanish" thing also doesn't really make sense given a scene in episode 1, when Sean and Daniel find a flyer offering Spanish lessons, and Daniel sarcastically says "Hey look, They're gonna teach us Spanish..." and Sean responds to Daniel in Spanish ("Este tipo es en un idiota") implying that Daniel can understand the language.
- He may know some basic words in Spanish and enough to understand what Sean says, but be ignorant on the rest. He's also still quite young, while Sean is a teenager and could've learned more Spanish in high school, while Daniel is nine years old. We don't know if Esteban really taught Sean much about Spanish, or if he only taught him a few words and Sean figured out growing up.
- Speaking from experience, the eldest children of immigrant parents will be better with the language because the parents will have talked to them more often in their first language when they are still learning English; and there are more situations where the kid will have to play translator in everyday life. Once they're further assimilated, younger siblings are in less of a position where it's a necessity to speak anything other than English.
Why don't they just go over the wall?
- In episode five, Daniel expends a large amount of energy breaking through the border wall and is captured shortly thereafter. At the end of the story (depending on player choice) he risks his and his brother's safety as they rush a police blockade. But in episode 3, Daniel raised a huge submerged tree stump from a river almost casually. If he's that strong, why not lift the car over the border wall entirely, with them inside it? Why not have a "good" scenario at the end of episode five with the car flying over the blockade into the sky, like the end of Grease?
- They might still risk getting shot while flying. Daniel's powers aren't instantaneous, and one bad shot could end up with the car exploding while they're slowly hovering over the ground. And while they're inside, lifting a thing all around them could be harder than expected, as he'd have to pull off the entire thing and not just the bottom of the car with the risk of tearing down the car's underside. And should they fly over, the cops will definitely witness that any more than in other endings.
- Alternative answer: Physics. "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction." Notice how Daniel always plants his feet and braces himself when he lifts large objects. The grander the action he's performing, the more his power appears to swirl around himself to match. This implies that Daniel can't lift the car while he's in it because he'd have no leverage.
