This article contains spoilers for the first two episodes of Life is Strange: Double Exposure.
InLife is Strange: Double Exposure, protagonist Max Caulfield is kind of a menace and I don’t know how to feel about it.
Video Game Characters Are Usually Morally Questionable
Video game characters have been morally questionable for as long as I’ve been playing them. Sure, there’s the obvious example of nice guy Nathan Drake murdering hundreds of people in any givenUnchartedlevel, butKirbyandPac-Maneat everyone they meet andLinkis always breaking people’s pots and terrorizing their chickens. Though Max Caulfield once let an entire town die in a storm (assuming you chose Bae over Bay) to save her girlfriend, her crimes in Life is Strange: Double Exposure are pettier, more on the Link end of the spectrum. But she’s still making weird choices at every turn.
I first started to think about this in the second chapter. This is after the timeline has been split by Safi’s murder and, since Max is attempting to solve it, I was inclined to give her some leeway on the mischief. These are strange times and she’s using everything at her disposal to solve and/or prevent her friend’s death, so I get her impulse to use any means necessary to do so.
But… she’s kind of acting like a renegade cop in an action movie in the process. In chapter two, she travels between timelines so that she can retrieve a key, and open Lucas Colmenero’s briefcase. When he catches her reading the restraining order against Safi that’s hiding within it, he doesn’t even scold her. Instead, Lucas acts likehe’s the onewho did something wrong. Throughout the resulting conversation, he’s on the backfoot, despite the fact that Max has exhibited major disrespect for his privacy.
Not to mention, that she vandalized his cardboard standee in the process.
Max Is A Major Snoop In Life Is Strange: Double Exposure
Well, that’s Lucas, you might think.That dude sucks.But throughout the episode, Max displays a general disregard for everyone’s privacy. In the name of figuring out who killed Safi, she uses her timeline-swapping powers to find Vinh’s phone passcode, then snoops through his camera roll, discovering a post-coital picture of Vinh and Safi in the process. She even narrates it as she scrolls through his phone, “Selfie, selfie, shirtless selfie.” Like, Max… what? Why would you think that was okay?
She uses a spoon to unlock a locked shelf in the library for Gwen, which isn’t that big of a deal. But then she also uses her powers to sneak into Gwen’s office and snoop around, reading her emails, going over her schedule, and generally being a nosy little pest. This is more minor, but Max uses her Pulse powers to snoop on Abraxas guys in another timeline. Eavesdropping isn’t as bad as breaking-and-entering, sure, but Max’s disrespect for privacy is ever present.
This results in a good outcome, but she also uses her timeline-swapping powers to cover up Moses' connection to Safi’s death, absconding from the lab with the camera that linked Moses to the scene of the crime. This leads to Moses uncovering Max’s biggest apparent crime, when they find a picture that shows her aiming a pistol at Safi, suggesting that some version of Max was responsible for her murder.
Do I think that Max’s involvement in Safi’s death will end up being that straightforward? Of course not — Deck Nine is going to twist our expectations every which way in the next three episodes. But Max still needs a little honest reflection. Maybe Lucas is correct when he tells her that she’s “not as good of a person as [she] like[s] to pretend.” Or maybe she just really needs to learn some boundaries.
