 Wit tell me why, don't not entertainment abandons, the awkward earnestness of other lessons, and explores instead guilt, the malleable nature of memories, and the semi-awkward earnestness of 21-year-olds. Like Wit Life is Strange 2, the emotional core of this narrative is the relationship between a pair of siblings, Allison and Tyler. This is a frayed bond, but in a different way from the casual conflicts you might recall from interacting with Sean and Daniel Dears. Allison and Tyler are twins, which makes for an equality in the power dynamic between them. It's an interesting relationship and one I will examine at length. I will also investigate the way the player can define this relationship through the choices given, as well as the characters themselves. I will further look to how the gameplay mechanics convey that core relationship of interest also is the complex set of connections, that route the twins to their childhood home in the wider Alaskan town of Dallas Crossing. This video is not shy about spoilers, again. The entirety of the main plot will be discussed freely, so I urge you once more, if you haven't played the game yet, but want to pause this video, do so and come back for an in-depth discussion of this narrative title. Without further ado, let's get into it. Tyler and Allison's relationship is raw, as Episode 1 Homecoming opens. The siblings haven't seen each other in 10 years, and neither of them is free of blame about that. This guardian, Chief Eddie Brown, didn't allow her to visit Tyler because he believed that would be best for both twins. Visit him where, you ask, and the answer is at the Fireweed Residential Centre, where Tyler has lived ever since the age of 11, after his confessing about killing their mother, Marianne, in self-defense. If you are paying attention at this point, you will note that something is amiss, the age at which most, if not all, kids with a criminal background leave correctional facilities is 18. However, he stays in the Fireweed facility for an extra three years. The brief section, during which he controlled Tyler, hints at his having embraced the role of mentor to other troubled youth. This is good characterization. And something don't not excel that. The interactable objects in his room tell the player a little about Tyler's values and hint at his experiences. He's a young man who has been offered help in the system and in return feels obliged to give back something to it. But what about Alisson? Despite both of them free to make their own choices, that leaves a three-year gap. And it doesn't seem to have been of Alisson's design. There's awkwardness in the air between the twins for the first third of the episode. And it comes to a head after Alisson and Tyler make their way back home. Two other big matters give rise to contention between the twins in that time. One is the firm dislike Tyler holds for Alisson's uncle Eddie. The other is the very large gap between what either protagonist wants to get out of their return to the house they grew up in. For Alisson, the sale is the fastest way to move forward. To close an agonising page that has lasted all her adult life and most of her other lessons. For Tyler, things are a little murkier. He's a bit nostalgic which should raise a few eyebrows. Despite the narrative we are presented with at this point, it's Alisson who is an edge who wants to be done with the packing up and sale of the house as soon as possible. Tyler takes his time and seems to find genuine pleasure in the memories, the many objects in the house recall. It's while getting into the locked down house that the player is introduced to the supernatural elements of the game. The twins can hear each other's thoughts and together can look back to memory fragments of their younger selves. Both have an interactive element and where they succeed in is, they reinforce the narrative importance of the twins' bond by giving it a metaphysical dimension. This is a literal rendition of the twins' relationship and it's up to your decisions what its ultimate fate will be. In other words, we'll dig into this later. One question raised, I'll answer another. Why did Tyler stay on in Fireweed after he turned 18? Rather, why not see his twin once he'd become a mentor? He explains. Look, I didn't want to see anyone. I just started testosterone and, oh god, I had the worst acne. My emotions were all over the place and the smells, I listened, the smells, men smell bad. It's a good explanation and it remedies some of the tension between the two, but it's not the full truth behind what's going on, not by a long shot. To make full sense of it, we will need to fast forward to the closing scene of the episode. This scene makes something of a difference. Suddenly, Allison's agitation is a whole lot clearer. And so is Tyler's search for answers. His curiosity didn't fit in well with the narrative of a young child who has performed matricide. So is the main source of friction between the two established. He'll only get worse over the second episode. Tyler is trying to find out why his mother tried to kill him, but for Allison finding out is agonizing because it all draws her back to that night, when she had to choose between her mother and her twin, when she caused her own parents' death to save Tyler. Ali has convinced herself that's what has happened, that she stabbed Marianne to save Ty and Tyler believes it too. But small details that twins come across, this text especially, simply don't add up with her long-held belief that Marianne wanted to kill Tyler because she was transphobic. It's only natural that Tyler wants answers. So where do our little goblins turn? Why two Marianne's friends, of course, you silly cabbages. But remember how I said that things don't add up. This rabbit hole only gets deeper. So who is on the top of their list? One of the two characters is good old Uncle Eddie. The other is Marianne's former best friend, the Ulfavreligious Tesser. Let's shake things up and begin with Eddie, despite his section coming in after Tesser's end towards the end of the episode. The tension here has a clear source. Eddie is the cop who arrested Tyler and the twin has never let that go. His also Allison's father figure, a Bond tie, is Jealous of. There are two ways to look at it. But the relationship between Chief Brown and Tyler is one the player has a great deal of control over. One of the earliest choices you make, as Ty, is to accept or refuse a ring Ali presents as a peace offering. It's a symbolic moment, especially because the camera doesn't shy away from the existence of an identical ring on Ali's finger. These are a pair of rings that Eddie has offered to commemorate the bond between the siblings. It is also a good first decision which comes across as formative for who the player's version of Tyler will be, forgiving or begrudging. Chief Brown wants to turn over a new page with Ty and that's what Allison wants as well. Eddie is one of the more interesting characters and tell me why. As we find out in Episode 2 he has been paying for Tyler's extended stint at Fireweed, but we also find out he faked a rejection letter from a school Allison wanted to go to. The reasons for both, it is seems intent on protecting Marianne's kids, no matter the cost. That's not only because of the love he has for Allison, but we will put a pin to Eddie's motives later. As I said he is the last stop the twins make over this episode and how you engage with him is, again, very much up to what choices you pick. In my case the past was reconciliation continued. While in the police precinct the renons asked Eddie if he'd had contact with their mum before the accident to which he responds, nope no contact with your mum for those last few weeks. I bet that's the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Onto Tessa, her friendship with Marianne and its untimely end give rise to the best clue that twins have to begin untangling this labyrinthine weave that's led to tragedy that long ago night. Tessa is uncooperative, which is American for, she needs a hard shove towards helping, which is why you, now controlling Allison, go through Tessa's office. Don't worry, it's not too weird, Allison works at the supermarket Tessa's husband Tom Vecchia owns. He's also running a race against the incumbent mayor of Delos Crossing on a platform that's either too antigan or not antigan enough for Alaska, I can't tell. Find enough interactables, then confront Tessa and you gain information you might not have had. That Tessa, a strongly religious Christian woman, is a hypocrite. Ait. Look, your mother was in a bad place, it was clear she was coming apart at the seams. She told me she'd been struggling with you and I'd heard such good things about that camp. Your answer to my mother's bad moods was to send me to conversion therapy? It's what I thought would help, both of you, at the time. I know, I was shocked too. A leaflet that promotes conversion therapy found its way to Marianne's room thanks to Tessa. They're smart for the twins, but especially for Ty, who always believed that he was Tessa's favourite. What's also interesting here is the first glimpse at the memory choice mechanic. How you experience no small part of the narrative at certain points in the story is wholly dependent on these choices. This is where the topic of memory is and how reliable they really are first comes up. The choice between Tyler's and Allison's memories involves a fair bit of sibling grumbling. His first choice showcases what's to come. On a side note, I saw some of Tyler's memories as a little too distorted to the point I was often convinced that Tyler's bitterness had twisted them all up, which is, as far as I'm concerned, very good characterization. This episode places a solid foundation on which to examine its characters further. Besides the revelation of Marianne's real killer, incomplete as it is, told twins don't yet know it, the ending to this chapter asks more questions than it answers as it should. The game has, by this point, set the stage for its mystery and woven it tight. What's left now is to ask a few more questions, then begin answering them. This episode too does, rather well. Remember those widening cracks I mentioned in the relationship between the twins? The latter events of this second chapter are about to break open the floodgates. But not just yet. The episode begins with a synopsis that adopts the tone of the fairy tale world that twins inhabit as children. I've held up on talking about it so far, but it will become more and more prudent as we move towards episode 3. The gist of it portrays the twins as two mischievous goblins in a magical forest. Together with the princess, their mother Marianne, the goblins face hardships and adventures alike. It's a fictionalised narrative to make the life of a low-income family more bearable, and as far as childhoods are concerned, it seems to have been the best their artistically inclined mother could provide. Early on in episode 1, Tyler finds the storybook that holds within it all the tales Marianne wrote. In universe, this is a labour of love, so too outside. The stories I read had charm to spare. They tap into the exact tone a children's fairy tale collection should. If Don't Not Ever came out with a printed edition as a collector item, I would purchase it without a second thought. It goes deeper than fairy tales, however. And that's something we'll explore later. After the beautiful cut-out recap in the storybook's art style, the player is thrust back into that night 11 years ago. This time, the highlight is a nallison, in a focus that will forecast the relapse she will go through over the next few hours of playtime. We come to one of the signature narrative Don't Not Scenes, accompanied by excellent music that this video is 100% getting taken down over if I were to play it. The way it juxtaposes the twins' current and past selves strikes at the heart of their relationship. Besides, it's so damn cute just seeing these two enjoy themselves and revisit some of the warmest times of their childhoods through the act of play. The scene also marks one of the few memorable musical moments. Tell me why Lux is strong a musical identity as the acoustic one that Life is Strange possessed. That's not to say music is overall weak, but it isn't as memorable. You will not go back to it time and again outside of the game as you might have after playing Life is Strange. The first 30 minutes of the episode also are slow going. They serve to lead the twins down a list of suspects who can help them find out the truth behind Marianne's behaviour. The most important lead they find, and not a second too soon, is that Uncle He had visited their mum on the same day as a tragedy occurred. A shocker I know. Is the vision of the past that reminds them of this a little too neat? The argument can be made. If you ask how come now that when remembered this conversation when they came to the house the previous day, I can only argue that memory like God works in mysterious ways. Maybe the time of day Jim started it. That would be my counter argument anyway. Either way, the time to grill Uncle Eddie again has come. Before that, a call comes true on the right to the precinct. The realtor has found a buyer for the house, someone who'd like to see it as soon as possible. The choice, whether to accept or not, is all Alice's, and by extension the players. I accepted and Tyler got upset, but clenchingly upset too, really squeezing those cheeks hard. Tyler knows what he's signed up for in selling the house, doing so benefits him as much as Ali, but the reason for his being upset is he thinks he won't find the answers about the past if the house is sold. The problem? The prospective buyer will be looking around only. Even with cash in hands, said owner will certainly give the twins the time to clean their stuff out. Hell, he'll likely has not demanded the point. This is one of the few examples of skin deep writing, meant to create conflict over something that should bring little or none to the fore. Allison points out some of the arguments I did to little effect. One of the more exasperating scenes in the game, and it's not as if it's a plot point that makes it come back. It does harm Tyler's obsession about what happened to Marianne, but so do another half a dozen moments in the first half of this episode alone, and none of these others make of Ty a more unlikeable character, albeit slightly so. Speaking of one of said moments, the next stop the twins make sees Ty breaking to the police archives to hunt down the case files that have prudent information on the rodent tragedy. Talk about jumping the gun. The discoveries made are a lot to take in. Eddie has kept silent about them all these years, which is even worse. Remember how I spoke earlier about how Chief Brown has been funding Tyler's extended stay at Fireweed? It's going through his offices illuminating about just the kind of man Eddie is. I'm still unsure about why he lied to Allison about her acceptance letter, why he went as far as to fabricate a rejection. My working hypotheses are either he didn't want to be left behind by the girl who's basically a daughter to him, which is the less likely one, or he didn't trust her to be ready to face the world on her own and thrive. Eddie does seem to think that Allison is fragile and going through a great deal of trauma, which to be fair with him, she has been. By the way, this is what I would define as a bad parenting choice, unlike that scene with Tyler earlier, however, it does provide compelling character building. Sheriff Brown does catch Tyler in the act of going through the archives in another moment that irked me somewhat. No matter how fast you, the player, are, he will always go into the archives and that's despite Allison acting as a lookout. It's one of those on-the-rails moments that always annoy me in narrative games like this one, but I suspect we're a long way off yet from the interactivity that would allow us to experience narrative games with a greater degree of freedom. To the right of his credit, the heated argument that follows is gripping and once again allows you to stir the Tyler Eddie relationship the way you want to. And for Allison's sake, we should talk. About what? We saw our file. We know about social services. Why? Why did you turn your back on her? Why did Tessa? Okay. Yeah. You're right. We need to talk. The winter before your mother's death was, Delos crossing was snowed in for months. Most roads were closed and plane supplies were scarce. Everything was struggling. Especially Marianne. She was always just scraping by and that winter left nothing to scrape up. Even if locals had found time to help her, I'm not sure your mother would have accepted. You're saying Tessa reported our mother because she was having supply issues? Tessa came to me because she was honestly concerned. Right. I was legally required to report Tessa's complaint. Even if I didn't agree. A snake pretending to care? To be her friend? Just a stabber in the back when she was down? Tessa helped out your family for years. All roads lead to Tessa, don't they? Back to Vecchi's supermarket we go. What follows is a little bit of lighthearted fun in an optional romance with Allison's best friend Michael whom we met last episode. You're pretty alright. But you're not too bad yourself. I try not to be. Especially when I'm guys. By far my favourite element of this scene has to be the reference to Domtnod's previous games via in-world posters. The day poke fun, the single it cringes piece of writing in the last decade of gaming earns the developers major props. You know, when you think about it, glass is really just tortured sand. It's a good bit of entertainment and after some shenanigans offers the twins their next spot to visit. The graveyard. We'll move on to that meeting, I count on you to explore and decide on Tyler's romantic prospects dear viewer. Allison's discomfort with being in the graveyard is obvious. I might be reading too much into this but her expression seems to recall that haunted look she wears at the opening of this chapter. We'll skip through some more side content before the twins reach Marianne's grave. Some memories of the day of her funeral, an elusive collectible I failed to discover and a conversation with Michael about his grandfather and the tribe they both belonged to. Incidentally, the same tribe that Eddie is part of too. What follows is one of the stronger moments of the episode with both Allison and Tyler having a breakdown over Marianne's grave. It's a scene almost cathartic in this aspect and its interruption via Tess's appearance works to strengthen this conflict by leaving the emotions unresolved and the twins' frustrations mounting. Is that her? What the hell was going on with you? What? Broke? Why didn't you say anything? We were your goblins. You didn't have to do it all alone. Kids, I wasn't expecting to see you. What are you doing here? What are you doing here? Feeling a little guilty maybe? This second face-off with Tessa works well enough on a first viewing but nowhere near as well when you return to it after having finished the entire game. The reason is simple enough. Tessa has the answer the twins are looking for. That's not conjecture on my part, it's stated later on. Tessa knows her husband and Marianne had an affair. It's the whole reason she called Social Security on her best friend, yet examine her words carefully here. I wanted to protect you. Marianne was getting worse all the time. I was afraid that if things kept going the way they were then one day we were going to end up dead. Look, I'm sorry I didn't tell you the whole story back in the store but I didn't want you two to- Enough with the excuses. What the hell happened to her? Why'd you turn your back on us? Your mom was always just barely getting by and over the years she burned a lot of goodwill. It got so bad no one was willing to hire her and the stress of that, well, it took its toll. I tried to help but she pushed me away. She pushed us all away. In the end, she isolated herself from everyone. She was alone and out of options. She had us until you threatened to have us taken away. I couldn't let her drag you down with her. She had you stealing for God's sake. Your mother never wanted to be a part of this community. She always thought she was better than the rest of us, a spoiled little girl playing fairy princess in the woods. If she'd just settled down with someone instead of running around with married men, well, just ask Sam Kansky how much better that would have been for everyone. Wait, what? I... Oh, God. What happened between them? I wasn't thinking, please, just forget I said anything. Tessa. That is downright manipulative. I don't think the writers working on this realised what they were doing here, but this part of the scene is bad enough it casts a long shadow on everything else, Tessa says. It makes of her character someone downright sinister and not the conflicted conservative woman of fate don't notice trying to portray. There are only 20 minutes of this episode left, but a lot more happens. You have this moment in which the twins try to piece together the results of their investigation. So I guess we know the story now, huh? Ariane was done with Delos, and Delos was done with her. Maybe she was too proud, but she worked so hard for so long, and when she reached the end of her rope, no one was there to help her. Not even Tessa, or Eddie, and when she heard social services was coming she... Gave up, but killed her kids? Really? It still feels like there's something missing. Right? You're never gonna understand what was going through her mind. I'll bet even she didn't. Who cares to guess whether this is the end of it? It's a good moment between the two, sure enough, but his piece of talent is inability to let this go, his obsession, even now that he's had at least something of an answer. Back at the house we have an incident which really triggers the gears of the final scene. It's more drama, the obvious red herring hinting that this might be the aforementioned Sam that Tessa pointed the finger at. Of course it's not, but the game wants to point you that way. I don't think anyone buys this for a minute, least of all anyone who has played Life is Strange and knows a little someone named David Mattson. But someone tried to burn the barn for a reason, and that reason necessitates we make use of Marianne's storybook to crack another mystery lock. For the Ren and Twins, life must indeed be strange, what with all these bizarre puzzles left behind by their artsy mum. The letters inside the box tell two separate stories, and they tell both well enough. One is a tale of loss, desire and outbreaking, the other of fear and an attempt to avoid responsibility. More confused than ever, the one the twins are off to check for traces of this mystery intruder, and that is when Tyler pushes too far. Tyler not there. Our mother fought with someone on the dock, about us. We need to know if it was the same guy. What if it's not that memory? What if it's... I can't go through that again. We have to take that chance. But do we really? I mean someone just tried to burn our barn down. Yeah, and that means we've got to be close to something. I'm not going on that dock. Just one more time, please. There's always just one more. Every time it seems like we're done with this, something new pops up. What if this is the only chance to figure out who our father is? Then we go on living our lives without him, just like we always have. Come on, we need to know the truth. For her. What if I don't want to know the truth, huh? Did you ever consider that? No. You just push and push and... You have to take responsibility for your part in Marianne's death. How can you say that to me? I didn't. But I did, right? Earlier, to Eddie. Remember how I said the twins' bond was at its most frayed? This is where it damn near breaks. And all because of Ty pushing Ali too hard, all because of Ali's inability to face the past. Perhaps that's how each of the twins sees it. The conflict of the heart of this scene is the very different needs the remnants have. This is an intersection they're at. One twin so desperate for answers, he's blind to the serious need of the other to stay away. Ali's not ready. What's worse, the inner voice of the two acts up, goading Ali into a mixture of frustration and anger with Ty, with herself, with everything going on. Not a good combination for a concerted effort to peer back to the past and when an echo of that terrible night appears, Ali leaves furious and incapable of giving Ty anything else. I'm sorry, but I'm done. That's it? You're just giving up. Just like that. You can't do this. We owe her. Marianne is gone, Tyler, and nothing we do is going to change that. Don't go. Please. You can't keep running from this, Ali, or it's only going to get worse. It's a bitter ending that left me feeling culpable, Indian ravelling of a young woman, and a little annoyed with both Ty's and my own need to find answers. It's a feeling Ty seems to share, and that offers some measure of comfort. I'm sorry, but I've got some length about memories, and I will, at your indulgence, say a little more. The psychologist Daniel L. Schachter, escorted by Jordan Frazin in a wonderful essay, defines memory as a temporary constellation of activity, necessarily approximate excitation of neural circuits that bind the set of sensory images and semantic data into the momentary sensation of a remembered whole. Each succeeding recollection and retelling of a memory reinforces the constellation of images and the knowledge that constitutes it. At the cellular level, according to neuroscientists, we burn the memory in a little deeper every time we make recollection. Or so Jordan Frazin says in that essay, pothold my father's brain. It's all for work, and I cannot recommend it enough. But what does it have to do with tell me why? The bond that wins share, the one that allows them to peer through time, is that it's most contentious when they recall traumatic memories, which for obvious reasons, are the kind of memories we by and large suppress. This is part of the reason why Ali and Tai's memories of the same event can vary so widely. In a way, this game builds up towards asking the question, if you are ready to re-examine your most treasured, deepest beliefs in the face of contrary evidence. So on we go then. The finale awaits. At the onset of this episode, you are reunited with Allison, who hasn't had the best night. She'll go around her and Uncle Eddie's house and you'll be witness to some cute small moments of affection the characters have for one another, despite not sharing the screen in this particular section. He'll make Ali pancakes, she'll snoop into his wardrobe and leave the number of some single lady on the drawer. During the exploration, the side effects of the exertions of the previous night will make themselves known in what are harrowing memory visions which threaten to overwhelm Allison. As a result, she lets loose her frustration with Tyler, but it gets worse yet. Michael and Tom Vecchi, yes, that Tom, the one who I offhandedly mentioned is the twins father, shows up to check on her. A strange conversation follows in which Tom drives the point about Allison's sacrifices for Ty over the last two days. This is followed by a heart to heart with Michael. The first conversation weirded me out, which I think is its purpose. The second was well handled. It allows you to choose whether to open up to Mike or not. Finding out felt more true to Ali's character, and it's one choice I am happy with. I'm pretty sure really happened, but I see them everywhere, shouting every shitty thought I've ever had about myself, I don't know how much more of it I can take. That's intense, I'm sorry has anything like this happened to you before? Right after Marianne died, I had a lot of panic attacks, but nothing exactly like this. Contrast that with a choice a little later on when Allison can reveal her secret to Eddie or stay silent. It's the very last interaction you have with Eddie one way or the other, and what you choose won't change the course of the narrative, yet it's a weighty choice nonetheless. My personal pick was to say nothing, and I have regretted that one ever since. The emotional clarity a confession would have offered would have equaled or even overcome that moment of catarsis in the previous episode. At the same time I cannot fault my logic in picking the decision I did. Eddie is chief of police, knowing Allison killed Marianne would be a burden to him. We know by this point Chief Brown has a pretty clear cut moral stance on most things, except when it comes to faking an acceptance letter and forging a rejection one, but that's besides a point. I went on a hunch and thought murder might be of the beaten track for him. I didn't imagine he would pull out his cuffs and arrest Allison on the spot of course, but the decision I made goes a little against the character of Allison, as I saw her anyway. Playing the character, now that's a conversation for another time, another video. There's a whole other section to go through with Allison yet. We revisit our favourite drunk red herring, which offers plenty of sweet character moments and some sad ones, but this video will never ever end if I don't censure myself sometimes. Keep it short Philip, keep it short. Sam, are you our father? Nope. Off to Tyler, Ben, who is fishing with Michael of all things, typical man sitting down at a beer while the woman does all the work, crappy sexist jokes aside, this too is a great scene, especially if you like me, ship Tyler and Michael by this point. But I think we've dallyed too long. Let's examine the last of Marianne's secrets, ones that twins are reunited at long last. Time to climb on to the most otherworldly place this title will ever take us, the barn attic of an artist. Can you see anything? Nope. Nada. Here, found a switch. Oh, holy shit, well that shaved a few years off my life. I know, it's trippy. What follows is a series of sequences during which you have to solve puzzles that will little by little fill in the blanks as to Marianne's personality and really the mystery behind her mental state. By the end of this process, you will have a greater understanding of who she is. Her story. Look, she left us something. It's got a combination lock with letters. Do you think she hid the code somewhere in all this? Knowing Marianne, probably. You want to do this? Yeah. Let's start here. She lost her first child shortly after arriving to Alaska, a source of grief that had lasting impact on her. Let us attempt to contextualize this grief. Apparently losing a child is a profoundly inaccessible experience. I'll turn to Dorothy Horringer's writing in the Anatomy of Grief and her description of what Horringer calls complicated grief. This concept rests on one pole of the grief spectrum, the other being simple grief, what most of us experience in the natural passing of loved ones. Complicated grief, then, is the kind in which the bereaved continues to yearn for the deceased and is unable to accept his or her death. In her review of Horringer's work, Claire Wells connects this to Sigmund Freud's distinction between mourning and melancholia. I quote, In mourning, it is the world that has become poor and empty. In melancholia, it is the ego itself. I would posit that it is this complicated grief Marianne has lived with, from her child's loss to that night eleven years ago. It is the result of her personality change from someone who, as one of the photographs shows us, used to be the proverbial life of the party, to social reckless. The possibility of losing her children turned her mad with grief. It submerged her in despair. Deep enough she couldn't break through. Deep enough she saw the only escape as suicide, or perhaps as murder suicide. The second option, which I do not buy in any way. A baby blanket. Olly. She, uh, she noticed. I was her son. Why does she have a photo of that tree locked in here? Is that? Leo Ronin. Why didn't she tell us about him? Why didn't she tell us any of this? I mean, it's fucking terrible. That's why. Ali, did we do the right thing opening this? We did. It's better we know what happened, even, even if it's hard, and there's one more thing we need to see. Are you sure? Yes. Come on. And we can blame Tessa for her part in this. I still think her character is intrinsically flawed due to some writing mistakes meant to create artificial pension, but the real culprit is made clear across all of this. A man devoid of conscience and a sense of responsibility. A man devoid also of pity and compassion. A man who's lost in fear we witnessed at the end of the second episode in the form of his letters. This man is Tessa's husband, Tom Vecche. That's good build up too. If only I hadn't been forced to bring it up earlier, Tessa. Yeah, she, she must have. That's what she didn't want to tell us. God, Marianne and Tom? I know. What should we do now? Call him out here and make him tell us what was going on. And if he won't? We know his secret. He will. Tom? It's Allison. We need to talk. We know it was you. The meeting with Tom Vecche, now that the twins know his secrets, I really like. He is sleazy, he's skeezy, he's trying to hurt this whole thing up. There's something so real to him, in the way he's only there, talking to his offspring in order to get what he wants. If you've never known a man like this in your life, you're immensely lucky. I can deal fortune of having dealings with such a guy, the biological father of a friend of mine. And speaking with the type of person, it makes you feel physically unclean. So why did I enjoy this scene? Allison and Tyler put up a unified front. They are fiercely protective of one another, and no amount of gaslighting will break their bond or shatter their consensus. Not as long as you have reinforced that bond throughout the last three chapters. And there is certainly an attempt on Vecche's part of doing that. Something that leaves Tom's mouth does so for one reason only, to serve his tiny, tiny interests. Vecche is such a narrow creature, egotistical in that particular way which isn't even worthy of hate. You can hate someone like Life is Strange Jefferson, someone who is sinister and downright evil malicious. Tom Vecche instead is that everyday type of vile, so banal and so blind to his own faults that it fills you with nothing so much as disgust. Disgust and revulsion at someone who hasn't got the capacity to look inward and accept culpability about his role in the debt of another human being. He is pathetic, and the twins see through him, they see exactly what he's trying to do, and they're having none of it. But regardless of the kind of man he is, Tom Vecche does provide one last piece of the puzzle. That night I came out here because I was worried about your mother. You made me do it. No way. You're a fucking liar. I saw what I saw. Ah! You're manipulating us just like you manipulated her! Tyler! You're not listening to this, are you? Be smart about this, Allison. Are you sure you want this to get out? I'm more here to lose than he does. His name will be all be clear, but you... You'll be a killer. What will your uncle say? And Michael? Well, the whole town might turn on you. Don't touch her. Get out of here, Tom. Tyler and I need to talk alone. Just please. Think twice before making any rash decisions. There are a whole lot of lives at stake here. Leave us the fuck alone and never come back! What then is left but to choose? It's the lies we tell ourselves to make life more bearable. Keep repeating something to yourself enough times and the memory and its subjective imperfection turns flawed. Its form is malleable and it is so easy to twist up ever so slightly and then more and more. The problem here is, it doesn't add up. The more the run-ins dig, the less it adds up. Until after this conversation with Tom, they are given that final choice. Do they stick to the story they've told themselves so many times that they've convinced themselves it's true? Or do they accept what's staring them in the face? Do they come to grips with the truth no matter how devastating? Or do they keep clinging to a lie that helps them live with what happened? That's the final and most important decision you have to make. And in a way, it reflects on you as much as it does on the characters. Perhaps even more. Look at Tell Me Why's narrative. And you'll find almost an antithesis to Life is Strange. Compare it to a new walk away with Life is Strange is the better of the two games. The presentation of Tell Me Why might be a little weaker. Though the voice acting is excellent, it doesn't stand out in the way Ashley Burch's Chloe does. The music fails to create the memorable scenes that there are a dime a dozen in Max's adventure. The Bergstof you leave a bit of a bad taste worse even than some of the jankiness of Life is Strange. And yet look to the narratives. And you will find that they examine two sides of the same coin. Life is Strange looks to the way choice shapes your part. Tells you no matter how much control you exercise over a situation. The world is inimical to it. It will always resist any attempt to create all of him chaos. And the more you push for control, the higher the price. And it will exact the price eventually. Tell Me Why doesn't concentrate on decisions as much as the way we rewrite them in our minds after the fact. The reasons behind these decisions. And what we tell ourselves to live with them. This story about trauma and memory demands we face an uncomfortable truth about our flawed human nature. Life is Strange concludes with a final choice that will break Max and Chloe's world one way or the other. Tell Me Why's choice is a bearing only for our protagonists. Life is Strange teaches you that no matter how many times you reverse time the choices you've made will catch up with you. Tell Me Why asks you to be critical of your own internal biases. Despite several flaws, Don't Not delivers here a thoughtful experience for its narrative gaming nerds. And whatever the answer you arrive to is, it will teach you a little something about yourself. Thank you for watching. If you enjoyed this incredibly long video, all five of you, I would appreciate it if you left a comment, told me what you thought, especially if you watched all of it. I would be very interested to hear where you agree with me, where you disagree, whether you think I'm reading too much or too little into different parts of the game. I would be beyond thrilled to open up a dialogue about the questions of trauma and memory that I have touched upon here. And I hope that you will see this game has a lot to say. And even if it has its flaws, I think it's wonderful that you have games like this coming out on a very constant basis nowadays, when you can really explore different sides of the human condition. I am looking forward to Don't Not's next narrative project more than I was once I put down Life is Strange 2. And that is saying something about how much this one affected me. Other than that, you know the drill, share with your friends, ring that bell, click that sub button, and let me know if you're interested in seeing more of these long-form critiques. If you are a long-time watcher, one of the 130 or so, you might have noticed I didn't do much over the last month and a half too. It's mostly because this video has taken such a large chunk of time to produce, to record, to write, to edit. All of the things. It's been a massive, massive experience and I'm very, very happy that I got to do all of it. And I'm really, really appreciative of the fact that you are here with me. See you next time. Bye!