Bonus Episode: Farewell
The episode opens with Max and Chloe clearing out some of the clutter from Chloe's room, and by that we mean gleefully blowing up some old dolls with a firework. After the player has Max either call Chloe crazy or awesome, she agrees to help Chloe find some items to trash. The player is then free to explore the room and relive the memories attached to the various artefacts scattered about, as Max angsts over how to tell Chloe that she and her family are moving to Seattle in a few days. While searching, Max finds William's old camera, and accidentally takes her first selfie.After Chloe refuses to throw anything away except for an old, torn hoodie, and they decide to give up, the player can decide whether or not to try and break the news to Chloe. Regardless, Max is interrupted by Chloe finding an old tape which they recorded several years before. Their 8-year-old selves (with a guest appearance from William) remind them of some "buried treasure" they hid during their "pirate phase". Chloe enthusiastically digs out their old sketchbook, and Max decides the news can wait. The map in the sketchbook is missing, allowing the player to further explore the room (possibly playing an old Gamebook Chloe and Max made). The map turns up in an old textbook (apparently to prevent their teacher from confiscating it).
The key to recovering this "treasure" is an old "amulet", which is hidden in a "dark cavern" (AKA the attic), which Chloe tasks Max with recovering while she finds her old telescope. Finding herself too short to reach the attic door, Max gathers various objects to create a step, allowing the player to explore the upstairs of the Price household. If the player explores, they can find that Chloe is already in trouble at Blackwell, Joyce is quitting smoking and considering training as a teacher, and William is planning a family trip to the Grand Canyon. After getting into the attic, Max makes her way through a maze of furniture to reach the amulet. She spots Chloe through the window, fencing with a trowel and with her old pirate hat on. She spots Max, and tells her to hurry back down.
In the garden, Chloe revisits her childhood love of pirates (which Max can play along with or playfully call her a dork, as the player chooses). The player must then line up the image on the "amulet" with the view from the top of the swing set, then guide Chloe to the place where the treasure's buried. On digging it up, the girls are surprised to find a different container to the one they buried.
It turns out to be William "Bloody Bill" Price's doing, as he left their time capsule in a sturdier container, along with a taped message. Chloe finds a scratch art pad and starts drawing, leaving the player free to explore the lower floor of the Price house and look at the contents of the time capsule. If the player checks the answering machine, they can find a message from the mother of a girl who was bullying Chloe, learning that Chloe decided to throw away her hoodie after getting teased for being poor.
Max then has another chance to tell Chloe about the move, which is, again, the player's choice. If Max tells her, Chloe will reveal that she already knew after overhearing their parents talking (having stopped Max from telling her before deliberately). Either way, Joyce returns home and (if the player hadn't already guessed) it turns out to be the day of William's fatal car accident.
"Black Flies" by Ben Howard plays, as Joyce breaks the news to Chloe. There's a cut to a few days later at the funeral, where Max reluctantly leaves Chloe's side to join her parents, their car already packed. Chloe returns home to find a tape, with a note reading "I'm sorry". It plays a final message from Max who reassures her they'll always be friends and apologises for not telling her about the move (if the player chose not to), ending with "I will always love you". Chloe hugs the recorder and curls up on the floor as the credits roll.
Tropes in this episode:
- Batman Gambit: At the end, if the player chooses to have Max tell her, it turns out that Chloe already knew Max was leaving, and implies that bringing up the tape was to avoid talking about it.
- Bottle Episode: The episode is only about 1.5 hours long, takes place entirely in the Price household, and features Max and Chloe as the only characters for most of the episode (as well as the only characters, apart from William, with spoken lines).
- Call-Forward:
- Max and Chloe duck for cover in the opening in the same way they do in the original game when Max uses a pipe bomb to blow open a door.
- The amulet scene is reminiscent of a scene in Episode 2 of Season 1 where Max helps Chloe aim her gun to shoot some bottles.
- In a further nod, this scene is preceded by Chloe sending Max off to retrieve something which is found by searching a maze-like area and using nearby objects as steps, much in the same way she'll send Max to find some bottles hidden around the junkyard (which is also alluded to by Chloe mentioning she dug an empty rum bottle she's been playing with out of the trash).
- Before Max tells Chloe about the move, she can sit on the couch, causing Chloe to lie over her in the same way she does with Rachel during the "therapy" scene of the second episode of Before the Storm.
- In a darker example, there's a moment when Max and Chloe start hastily digging something up and are shocked by what they find. Not helped by the fact that both the things in question were interfered with by someone who's already dead without them knowing at that point.
- The message on the phone (which Max stops Chloe from deleting, as her parents already heard it and her father defended her) is reminiscent of a choice in Episode 3 of Season 1 whether or not to delete a message to David from the police about Chloe (and Max's) shenanigans at Blackwell earlier in the episode (which it is best not to delete, since her step-father will give her an alibi if he hears it).
- Looking at the photos hanging up with Chloe's room leads to the camera panning behind Max in a shot a lot like her award winning photo in Season 1.
- In another dark example, Chloe clutches the tape recorder in the final shot and curls up in the same pose as when she's dying from a gunshot wound in the first episode and the "Sacrifice Chloe" ending of the first game, which also happens to be the moment she and Max are reunited (if only briefly in the latter case).
- In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, a drawing of a butterfly briefly appears and then disappears at the bottom corner of the fireplace, same as the one Max can choose to draw when traveling to this day in Episode 3 of the original Life Is Strange.
- Dead All Along: Despite the fact it's a foregone conclusion, you don't find out that William (who's only heard via his taped voice) has already died until the very end of the episode.
- Flynning: Chloe — sorry, Captain Bluebeard — can be seen doing this with a trowel.
- Foregone Conclusion: Averted. The episode avoids spoiling that it takes place on the day of William's death by having Max and Chloe wear different clothes from the ones they originally wore that morning (they were actually playing dress up and changed clothes), and Chloe saying that her mother is downstairs cooking (she only thought her mother was downstairs).
- Foreshadowing:
- The only thing Chloe tries to throw away is her favorite worn, old hoodie. Later, it turns out there was an incident that came about from another student bullying her for being poor, which made her feel self-conscious about it.
- Around the kitchen there's the photo that Max uses/will use to Mental Time Travel to the day of William's death on the counter (and a pile of clothes in Chloe's room which causes Max to comment she and Chloe had been trying them on, explaining the different outfits), there's unwashed dishes and a note mentioning that they've had waffles for breakfast every morning (which Max was helping William and Chloe cook during the flashback), and the same manga magazine that could be seen in the same sequence. All of which might clue the player in that it's later on that very day.
- In Chloe's room, there's a four part comic with the final panel missing. Max notes they've never been able to find that last part. Turns out it's in their time capsule.
- Futureshadowing:
- Chloe's favorite animal is an otter, which she playfully calls Max a few times in Episode 3 of the first game.
- When Max picks up William's camera (which Chloe gifts her in the original game, noting that he'd want her to have it), she accidentally takes a selfie, and seems to like it. Chloe mentions that her dad noticed she's been eyeing it.
- Max talks about writing to Chloe several times in the episode, even wondering if "once a week will be too often".
- When Chloe and Max listen to the voice message, Chloe will fearfully say that she's never gotten in trouble for "anything like that" before. By the events of Before the Storm and especially the main game, she'll blasé about doing much worse.
- Chloe has a poster of a blue-haired girl on her bedroom wall.
- It's the Journey That Counts: Parodied, when William ends his tape reminding the girls not to forget the real treasure...their college plans.
- Show Within a Show: Just before finding the map, the player can "play" a Gamebook Chloe made for Max, about recovering her book report from an evil squirrel (with many gruesome deaths and one Golden Ending).
- Scholarship Student: Chloe is one at Blackwell by this point, with Max still at their old school (being a year behind).
- Schrödinger's Gun: If Max tells Chloe that she's leaving for Seattle, then Chloe reveals she already knew. If the player chooses not to tell Chloe, Max tells her only over a tape recording at the end of the episode, giving the player the impression that Chloe didn't know and only found out by listening to the tape.
- Shout-Out: Twice to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: when looking at the wardrobe in Joyce and William's room, and an old Halloween photo showing Max, Chloe and William dressed up as a lion, a witch and a wardrobe.
- Solve the Soup Cans: Max needs to get into the attic of the Price house to get something that she and Chloe need, but is too short to reach the hatch by herself. Rather than going downstairs to get a chair or asking the taller Chloe to help, the solution is to instead pile random things up high enough to reach the hatch. Justified by Max being 12 at the time as opposed to a grown adult with a better sense of puzzle solutions.
- The Tape Knew You Would Say That: Downplayed; William left just enough of a pause after "don't forget the real treasure..." for Max and Chloe to guess, before finishing it as mentioned on It's the Journey that Counts above.
- Wham Line: "I thought they'd be home by now." This is the part where many players realize the episode takes place on the day of William's car accident.
- Where's the Kaboom?: In the opening, there's a brief pause before the firework goes off, causing Max and Chloe to stare in confusion for a moment before it goes off and surprises them.
