Alice Bee: Hey Brendy. Why don’t you spark up an enormous spliffer of weed-grass and be part of me right here to speak about Life Is Strange 2: Episode 3. It’s referred to as Wastelands, which I feel might need a double that means of some type.
Brendan: Oh wow, it does. [Inhaling] Whoa.
Contains spoilers, dunnit
Brendan: Let’s recap: The Diaz brothers have to this point suffered the next:
- Their dad was shot by a policeman
- Diaz the youthful exploded the policeman
- Diaz the elder was tied up by a petroleum station racist however escaped
- They performed within the snow
- Their pet was killed within the snow
- Their grandad’s leg was smashed to bits by a wardrobe
- A wee lad referred to as Christopher was run over by the police
- They ran away on a practice
I feel that’s the whole lot. They needs to be okay now, proper?
Alice Bee: One would hope! I used to be stunned as a result of this episode opens with a sizeable time bounce of a few months. It seems that they’ve been residing with Chekov’s Drifters in a commune within the woods, and dealing at a secret weed farm.
Brendan: It definitely drops you proper into issues. I appreciated that. Sean Diaz wakes up in a tent and the very first thing you observe is how shaggy and lengthy his hair is, and the way grubby his garments are. I’ve realized to verify the journal as quickly as I begin these episodes, as a result of it’s filled with fill-in-the-blanks drawings and just a little map displaying the boys’ journey.
Alice Bee: I feel I appreciated this episode probably the most to this point, however kind of as a result of I had the strongest response to it. I simply hated that Finn dude a lot. Hated him. And I loved hating him.
Brendan: Ha ha. White lads with dreadlocks are a surefire strategy to make 99% of your viewers go “ugh”.
Alice Bee: He’s simply the worst! This de facto chief of a gaggle as a result of he spouts stuff that sounds nearly significant! And he completely turns Daniel towards Sean. I assumed it was a very good… not precisely a parallel to the brothers, however a picture of what they might grow to be, nearly. The Weeders (as I considered them) are a bunch of almost-adults struggling a form of arrested improvement, however to the Diaz brothers they kind of look like wise grownups to emulate.
Brendan: I didn’t dislike Finn a lot, as a result of I felt like he was a well-observed character. So far this has been the episode the place I seemed on the characters and thought: “Yeah, that’s a person I know.” I used to be glad there have been so many new faces round this campsite, and so they all bounced off one another. It felt like a very low-stakes Walking Dead from Telltale in components, however with a Danish couple arguing behind a pick-up truck as a substitute of two indignant dudes pointing weapons at one another.
Alice Bee: There aren’t zero indignant dudes pointing weapons. I feel my primary criticism about this episode is Merrill the drug farmer and his henchman. The battle with them appeared a bit bolted on, or not less than much less totally thought out than the Weeders.
Brendan: Good level. Merrill was garbage, he was simply this unhealthy drug dude who by no means actually had a motivation (that we might see) to be unhealthy. Like, you hear some cellphone calls and stuff he’s having along with his purchasers (presumably even badder dudes) however that doesn’t give him a lot motive to be as pointlessly ruthless as he’s in direction of the tip.
Alice Bee: Yeah he’s actually mad at Daniel simply, like, being round, which culminates within the Diaz brothers getting fired and everybody else not getting paid for that week. So then the arbitrary climax is Finn utilizing Daniel as a protected exploder in a plan to steal all Merrill’s cash. Did you conform to the plan or not?
Brendan: I mentioned: “Naw thanks mate I’d rather not get my brother shot in the eyes cheers”. My actual phrases. But then in fact, it is a halfchoose-your-own-adventure story, so it occurs anyway.
Alice Bee: Yeah I already knew Finn was going to go full softboi-scumbag anyway. I didn’t realise you had the choice to kind of romance him till the tip, although. Like you may both smooch him or Cassidy the guitar participant.
Brendan: I acquired very bi vibes from him the second he was throwing knives.
Alice Bee: Ah yeah, I used to be simply him as a secondary villain, and due to this fact didn’t suppose Daniel can be exploring sexuality with him. SPEAKING OF.
Brendan: Taps aff, tits out.
Alice Bee: Yeah! Cassidy took Sean skinny dipping, and I saved making an attempt to recollect how previous they each have been! And then she invited Sean into her tent and I used to be like “Okay little man, this has gone too far at this point, you deserve better” so mentioned no. And she acquired arsey! Like, excuse me, I’m making an attempt to show Sean that he has boundaries that needs to be revered right here.
Brendan: Ha ha. The stats on the finish let you know that nearly everybody kissed the crusty hippy lady, however one thing like 45% of individuals drew the road on the tent zipper. I bowled proper in. He’s a younger lad. He’s out within the woods. His little brother can explode timber. He’d do it.
Alice Bee: That doesn’t imply that he ought to, dammit. Also she is a horrible tattooist. She offers him a shitty scratcher prison-style tattoo after which takes him swimming! That’s actually the very first thing they let you know to not do when you will have a recent tattoo. After “do not get a tattoo from a grubby wood hippy”.
Brendan: Did you get a cool wolf? I acquired a garbage tat of some timber. I can’t watch for episode 5 when Sean seems at his arm and says “this was so dumb” to himself.
Alice Bee: If they don’t make it a smeary contaminated mess after he went swimming the builders are cowards.
Brendan: There have been some moments I actually appreciated with this group of knobheads although. I used to be correct nervous once they began taking part in this type of “truth” across the fireplace. Well, extra like, “everyone share a trauma”. It jogged my memory of being an underage drinker within the woods and sitting round some logs with individuals you solely sorta-know. Uncomfortable, however nonetheless eager to be there. It was a really teenage second, and for the reason that builders typically don’t hit the notes of teenage life fairly proper, it was one of many higher bits. It reveals they will get it.
Alice Bee: I feel this episode made me realise the game is for individuals our age and what our teen years have been like, and I can’t consider it took me this lengthy. It was when one in every of The Weeders mentioned she’d had a canine referred to as Black Flag and I used to be like “Ohhh, that’s a reference for people in their 30s.”
Brendan: This would additionally clarify why Sean has the musical style of a 2000s-era college scholar.
Alice Bee: Yeah precisely! But I agree, I feel that scene and the characters of the group have been good. I want a few of them had developed a bit extra. In truth, it could have been cool if the battle that finally makes Daniel asplode was throughout the group itself, and there was no weed farm to take care of.
Brendan: Aw, yeah. Just straight-up angsty friendship drama. But then how might we play a silly quick-time occasion minigame about slicing weed crops?
Alice Bee: Oh my god the weed mini-game. I forgot about that, and I even warned you about it forward of time.
Brendan: I ready 11 buds. I’m a superb weed boy.
Alice Bee: I’ll inform Graham to place that in your annual appraisal. Which ending did you get, although? Because I don’t know the way you’d get one which wasn’t a complete nightmare.
Brendan: For me, little Danny Diaz will get shot within the shoulder and throws one in every of his telepathic wobblers. Everything within the weed farm’s cabin explodes into splinters. And poor Sean will get a giant ol’ piece of glass in his left peeper.
Alice Bee: Same! I acquired Daniel to cease Finn getting shot. Although afterwards I used to be like “I have no idea why I bothered or cared.” At this level it’s beginning to remind me of Looper, or Deadpool 2, the place there’s an harmless baby who might grow to be destroyer of worlds. But it additionally felt just like the ending was very funnelled this time, like there was no proper reply, and I wasn’t an enormous fan of that.
Brendan: I appreciated the melancholic morning after scene, however yeah, I feel this has been my favorite episode as a result of it went from “superhero bros on the run” to being extra of a bildungsroman for Sean. And if it ramps up the psychic powers stuff from this level on, there’ll possible be much less of that. Which can be a disgrace. Anyway, I’m carried out speaking about this. Fancy a toke?
Alice Bee: Yes mate. I’m getting a contact excessive simply from writing in a shared doc with you.
