Life is Strange 2 - Episode 4

Disclaimer:  This blog contains major spoilers for “Life is Strange 2”.

Great chapter.  Last episode left off pretty bleak, with Sean missing an eye, everyone else injured, and Daniel missing.  This episode picks up two months later, with Sean in the hospital, dreading the time when he's declared healthy enough to handed over to the police.  But then he finds a note from his friend Jacob revealing that his brother is in a town in Nevada called Haven Point.

Breaking out of the hospital was fun, but a little unbelievable.  Looking at the end-of-chapter choices recap, it appears there are four ways to get out of the hospital, but only two of them are non-violent.  I didn't want to hurt anyone, so I snuck out the window, climbed along a ledge, popped back in to grab my backpack from a storage room, and climbed down the scaffolding.

Sean steals a car and drives for hours, until he finally has to pull over to get some sleep.  He's woken up in the middle of the night by a couple of racists who bully him around for a few minutes.  It's total filler that doesn't really advance the plot, and some will see this scene as just one more example of how this game hits you over the head with the racism theme.  I can't say I agree - it is a little random, but all these terrible experiences are probably going to lead up to Sean's decisions in the final chapter.

He drives until he runs out of gas, then walks in the desert heat.  At one point a semi pulls over and gives him a ride.  Of course by this point you're wondering what kind of evil bastard the driver is going to turn out to be, but he's a nice guy who takes Sean all the way to his destination.  The series is pretty good about manufacturing tension every time you meet someone new, even if they turn out to be good.

The town turns out to be a church community.  The church is led by a woman named Lisbeth, who feels like an amalgamation of several religious zealots from Stephen King novels.  She has discovered that Daniel has powers, and has now uses them to perform "miracles" in front of her congregation.  

There's also a little girl there, Sarah-Lee (nobody doesn't like her), who is sick.  Her parents refuse to take her to a doctor, opting to pray for her instead.  Seriously, now the game is outright pandering to my liberal values.  But that's okay, there's too many games that avoid politics altogether.  Yes, some people are going to be turned off, but those people would probably never pick up a game like this in the first place.

Sean finally meets up with Daniel again, but he's thrown out of the church.  Then Sean's mother Karen shows up.  She had also been notified by Jacob about Daniel's whereabouts, and came to the rescue.  She lets Sean rest and clean up in her hotel room, and then they try to reconnect.  They haven't seen each other in years, and Sean is still pissed at her for abandoning her family.

Karen's a bit vague about her reasons for leaving, mostly saying "I wasn't who I thought I was" in regards to having a husband and kids.  I think there's subtle hints that she's gay, but I might be reading too much into it.  You can choose to be hostile or forgiving, but either way they'll agree they have to rescue Daniel.

Sean meets up with Jacob, who was once a member of Haven Point's church until they ousted him for being gay.  Seriously, they are going to break the "liberal pandering" meter pretty soon, but I love it.  Jacob wants to go back and rescue Sarah-Lee, who is his sister.  Jacob helps you sneak into a Lisbeth's house where they look for Sarah-Lee's medical records. 

They are caught (at least I was on my playthrough, apparently it is possible to hide better), and brought in front of Lisbeth.  Then we have a scene where Sean desperately tries to convince his brother that the church is exploiting him.  Sean allows himself to get beaten up until Daniel finally has enough, and goes full-on Carrie on that church.  

On the way out of the burning church, Lisbeth tries to block your exit.  You can choose to shoot her, but I had Daniel force-push her out of the way instead.  After exiting, Sean, Daniel, and Karen drive off together.  The preview for the next chapter shows them preparing to cross the border to Mexico.

I really enjoyed this chapter, especially the second half.  Any game where I get to burn down a church is okay with me.  There's just one chapter left; I can't wait to see how it ends.  I know it's going to come down to a heartbreaking choice where either decision is a tragedy, and I still think it's going to involve killing my little brother to save some other people.  I'm picturing the end of X-Men 3, with Daniel going full on Jean Grey crazy.

Good or bad, I'm looking forward to the conclusion.

My choices: