Roads
Episode OneThe second season of Life is Strange begins in a city that was mentioned several times in the first season, but never visited; Seattle! Sean Diaz, our 16-year-old hero and Player Character, hops off the school bus and is walked home by his best friend Lyla. She proceeds to work her magic in helping him text his crush, providing him with a date to a Halloween party later that evening. The player is then free to wander around the Diaz household and grab supplies. We're also introduced to our deuteragonist, Sean's 9-year-old brother Daniel, and their father Esteban. Estenan Diaz is introduced as a loving single father, and talented mechanic, who works hard for a living and cares deeply for his sons. Unfortunately, there needs to be a plot, and this is a DONTNOD title...
After gathering his supplies he sits down to Skype Lyla, only to be drawn outside by their less-than-friendly neighbour's less-than-friendly son, Brett Foster, threatening Daniel. This confronts the player with their first major choice; confront Daniel or stick up for him. Either way, he ends up in a fist fight with Brett, which ends with Brett falling backwards onto a rock, covered in fake blood. Officer K. Matthews shows up at the worst possible moment, panics and draws his gun on the two brothers. When Mr. Diaz comes out of the house and tries to calm things down, he gets shot in the chest for his trouble. The next thing Sean knows, there's a huge blast, leaving Matthews and Mr. Diaz dead, Brett critically injured and Daniel unconscious. Seeing no other option, he grabs his little brother and runs.
Cut to about 48 hours later, and Sean and Daniel are in the woods, having hiked out of town. Sean's phone is full of messages from worried school friends and adults alike, as well as the authorities, who want to question the Diaz brothers. Recognizing trail blazes on the trees, Sean is able to find his way to an abandoned picnic spot near a lake. After possibly teaching Daniel how to skip stones, the boys build a fire near a small cave and rest for the night. Daniel is awoken by a nightmare about his father, but Sean is able to comfort him, not quite being ready to explain the truth of what happened.
The following morning, they continue down the road, finding themselves at a gas station. The gas station is fairly out of the way, with the only other people there being a small family outside, Doris the cashier, and a rather odd man named Brody(who Daniel initially sees looking at nude pictures on his computer, though he says it's for a blog on a nudist colony). The Diaz brothers take the time to rest and stock up on whatever food and supplies they can afford, before going to the picnic table outside to look over a map they got from the gas station. However, before they could spend too much time planning their next move, they are confronted by Hank, Doris' husband and the owner of the shop. He accuses Sean and Daniel of stealing from the store, and ends up threatening them. Daniel manages to escape, but Sean is knocked out.
Sean wakes up a while later, handcuffed in the store's office room. Hank and Doris are trying to contact the police to have Sean arrested, leaving him helpless in the office until Daniel shows back up, talking to Sean through a vent. The two brothers work together to work out an escape, eventually leading in Sean being freed. However, Hank confronts Daniel in the front of the store threateningly, until a loud crashing sound is heard. Sean rushes into the room to find Daniel standing there with Hank on the ground and the contents of the store overturned. Sean and Daniel quickly escape while they can, and end up running into Brody who was holed up in his car.
Brody quickly takes the brothers' side, and offers them a ride. Brody and the two boys begin a long road trip away, where it's eventually revealed that Daniel had snagged the stray puppy that was being cared for by Doris at the gas station. The trio drive for a while, until Daniel eventually falls asleep. Brody pulls over for a quick break near Arcadia Bay from the first game, and he and Sean have a heart-to-heart talk. Sean explains his situation to Brody, and Brody says that Sean will eventually need to tell his brother about what really happened with their father soon, to which he agrees.
The three continue to drive for a while, until Brody stops at a motel. He buys a room for Sean and Daniel to stay in for the night, and gives Sean his backpack as a goodbye gift. Brody also leaves a note which tells a little bit about himself, including the fact that his mother is struggling with cancer and that he needs to visit her, but that the boys can always contact him from his blog. After a sad goodbye, Sean and Daniel head up to their motel room, where Sean has a couple difficult things he decides he needs to do. First, following Brody's suggestion, he throws away his phone (after possibly giving his friend Lyla one last call). Second, he decides that he finally needs to tell Daniel the truth about what happened to their father. However, as Sean is outside of the room getting a soda for Daniel, he notices the lights starting to flicker, and a noise coming from their room. He quickly runs back in to find Daniel, who had discovered the truth about their father from the news, furious. Daniel's powers are manifesting, causing several objects in the room to orbit him like a tornado. Sean forces himself to approach Daniel, and eventually calms him down by explaining the situation and giving him a hug, ending the episode.
The stinger of the episode shows a small rock sitting in snow. Sean can be heard giving words of encouragement, before the rock can be seen lifting itself off the ground, implying that Daniel will be learning how to control his powers.
Tropes featured in this episode of Life Is Strange 2:
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Sean can either send Daniel to beg for food from a family having a picnic, or he can choose to do so himself.
- Asshole Victim: Brett is racist and ablest and was about to hit Daniel for accidentally getting fake-blood on him before Sean intervenes.
- Both Sides Have a Point: Should Sean choose to steal from the gas station, Hank isn't exactly wrong for accusing him of not paying for his stuff, while Sean is also correct that Hank only targeted him because of his race, since Hank will accuse him no matter what.
- Burner Phone: Brody recommends that Sean gets one, and that he throws his current phone away. While Sean does throw his phone away, he never thinks to get an actual burner phone, though it's possible he can't afford one.
- Catapult Nightmare: Daniel wakes up from one about his dad while he and Sean are sleeping in the woods.
- Catchphrase: Daniel uses 'awesome-possum' a few times, but it's dropped for future episodes.
- Cell Phones Are Useless: Quite realistically, Sean's phone rapidly runs out of battery during their first few days on the run. He also doesn't have signal in various places due to how remote they are.
- Chekhov's Gun: Sean's backpack, filled with food and supplies for a party he was supposed to attend quickly becomes this when he's able to grab it before taking Daniel going on the run. They'd of struggled to survive in the wilderness without those supplies.
- Developing Doomed Characters: The first 20 minutes to an hour of the game establishes Esteban as a hard working Open-Minded Parent, to make it all the more tragic when he's gunned down.
- Foreshadowing: On finding a dead raccoon and then seeing a live one moments later, Daniel expresses the concern that the two were related, and that they could have been brothers. Sean can die in Wolves in the ending fittingly known as 'Lone Wolf' as Daniel is the only wolf brother left behind.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Matthews panics and accidentally shoots Esteban dead, which causes Daniel to panic and accidentally kill Matthews with his powers.
- Nature Tinkling: Daniel is perfectly content to go in the woods, while Sean encourages him to use a somewhat disgusting toilet instead. Later on when they reach the gas station, Daniel announces that he already went in the woods to avoid a similar situation.
- Nostalgia Level: A brief example occurs when the boys visit Arcadia Bay from the first game. If the player inputs that they chose to sacrifice the town at the end of the first game, Arcadia Bay will be a ruined wasteland instead of an actual town.
- Second Hour Superpower: Daniel doesn't have his powers available for the first episode (although the mechanic which allows the player to have Sean instruct him is still there, just limited to more mundane prompts).
- Shout-Out:
- Sean can compare their adventure to Lord of the Rings or Minecraft to comfort Daniel while walking through the woods and their conversations will revolve around whichever one is chosen, such as Sean comparing himself to Sam and Daniel protecting their cave from Creepers.
- Seeing some cordyceps growing on a tree will prompt Daniel to mention Clickers and Sean will make the appropriate noises in response.
- Traumatic Superpower Awakening: Seeing his dad murdered before his eyes causes Daniel to manifest his powers in the form of an explosion which is strong enough to kill Officer Matthews and overturn several cars. This ends up happening two more times throughout the episode. The first is when Daniel gets threatened by Hank in the gas station store, causing him to (presumably) take everything around him out with a shockwave, and the second happens when Daniel learns from the news that his father was killed, causing him to make everything in the room telekinetically swirl around him like a tornado.
