As expected from an inaugural episode, it's a quiet one. The player spends some time getting to know everyone in Max's orbit, including her classmates and the adults she communicates with on a regular basis. We also get to know the school, Blackwell Academy, and Max's past in the nearby town of Arcadia Bay. It gets ominous right off the bat with visions of a tornado and the introduction of the clearly unhinged Nathan and the Queen Bee of this school, Victoria. The episode is essentially one giant fetch quest for a flash drive, and then ends with Max reconnecting with her estranged "BFF" Chloe Price, who has become the cool punk kid your parents warned you about.

Here's a few observations about the game's cast so far:

• Warren Graham seems like kind of the best friend sweet dork archetype, but I recognize a crush when I see it. He's clearly the chief romantic interest for Max, at least so far, though I have to imagine there's a less pleasant side to his personality when politely rebuffed. It can't all be Jim Sterling-esque ironic self-aggrandizing and Back to the Future references with that kid. I'll keep my eye on him. Gotta say, I have a weird compulsion to just utterly ruin his day whenever I see him; I'm trying not to let that color my interactions with him though.
• Chloe Price's an interesting character. I didn't get a feel at the end of the first episode what her and Max's dynamic will be, as it seems like they shouldn't have become such close friends again so quickly without a bit more brooding and bad blood given Max's complete lack of contact. I suspect that underneath the tough exterior, Chloe is still the same tomboy that Max left behind all those years ago, and a few bad experiences and some "rebel" teenage phases hasn't turned her completely nihilistic yet. I look forward to seeing how their relationship plays out in later episodes, though I suspect it'll also be the source of a lot of drama too. Finding out what happened to her missing substitute best friend (and possibly more?) Rachel Amber will no doubt be the focal point of future interactions with Chloe.
• I took the chance to be nice to Victoria Chase, though it seems as if the game's setting her up to be the major antagonist, or at least one of them. She's mean to the point of cartoonish, frequently to poor old Kate Marsh, but I'm determined to give her as many chances as the game will let me. It might be because I'm too nice to the point of naivity (which is one hell of a humblebrag, I guess) or because I don't believe this game would stoop as low to create a snobby bully character that can't be reached like a human being. Hold out hope, though like any other decision I'm making it might come back to bite me in the ass someday.
• Kate Marsh is the virginal Christian gone viral make-out artist, though obviously something is up. The bad vibes from the gun-toting Nathan and his drugs immediately made me uneasy about a date rape undercurrent here, though given I played both the first two episodes back to back it's a bit of a cheat to say that here since they kinda made it explicit in E2. It's a little on-the-nose to exaggerate her religious purity, though maybe that's more on this Vortex Club and their attempts to rub some dirt onto her reputation. Holier than thou types can engender some ill feelings among the insecure, even if Kate isn't shown to be particularly sanctimonious.
• David Madsen is the Blackwell Academy security guard and, it turns out, Chloe's stepfather. He's a surveillance nut, a war veteran, a gun-loving redneck and kind of a creep. He even smacks around Chloe at one point. All he needs is a wifebeater and to be perpetually holding a Coors Light in one hand. As with Victoria, I suspect this isn't just French developers' DONTNOD's cute attempt to satirize America's Trump-voting underclass and that there's more afoot with this character. There's a hint early on that Chloe's sharp waitress mom Joyce sees something in him. Then again, maybe he's the psychotic enforcer of the Vortex Club, following around their enemies for the perfect time to strike.
• Mark Jefferson's sort of a non-character so far. A greatly admired professional photographer who teaches at Blackwell, and a large reason why Max wanted to move back there to study, he seems like the stereotypical "hip" teacher who perhaps knows less about his students than he thinks. He's not shown to be particularly engaged with anyone besides Max, in whom he sees great potential, and Victoria, who seems to have the hots for teacher. He's yet another source of friction between the mean and stylish rich girl and our slightly slobby hipster hero, though I imagine he'll go through some changes as the game continues. (Man, I'm saying that a lot, huh? Hedging my bets or what?)
• As for everyone else: I hope saving the gothy Alyssa from projectiles becomes a running gag; the nerdy Brooke seems like Warren's perfect partner if not for his crush on Max; Victoria's two posse members - the ditzy blonde Taylor and the fashion-conscious Courtney - strike me as being almost identical to Rachel McAdams's hangers-on in the movie Mean Girls and it wouldn't be surprise me if that was the game's intent; I let the quiet bully-magnet Daniel sketch me, though I have no idea what that might lead to; I said see you later boys to the skater boys Justin and Trevor, who I'm sure will be an ample source of pot humor for episodes to come; and I really don't know what to make of Nathan yet, except that he's clearly a bit psychotic and I'll continue to narc on him until his prestigious family bury me underneath the Blackwell Bigfoots' football field. Go Bigfoots! (Bigfeet?)

Anyway, I'll end by going through the decisions I made. They can be seen here:

I'm... somewhat glad that most of my decisions lined up with the majority. There's something comforting to know that people made the same choices (or mistakes) that I did. Obviously I'm going to rat on Nathan, because I just watched him shoot a girl in the chest and who the fuck knows when that'll happen where I can't rewind it. Narcing on a kid smoking jazz cigarettes in the bathroom? Dick move, sure, but some rich jerk waving a gun demanding GHB isn't something you can let go slightly. Looks like one in four of us decided Victoria wasn't going to get a fair shake, so that's cool. Keep living the college B-movie, guys. Kate looked like she needed help, not more scandalous imagery taken without her consent. I'm not sure how those choices work for the last one: wouldn't you have had to come out of the closet (and boy I have to wonder if that wasn't foreshadowing) to intervene on Chloe's behalf for the first two options to be relevant? Wouldn't they add up to 37% if that were the case? Or is popping out of the closet somehow distinct from getting involved with the weed accusation? Anyway, I hid like a jerk because I figured Chloe would get in more trouble if I was there. She did seem insistent on me hiding, but I imagine she'd be pissed either way.

The minor ones aren't much to talk about. I didn't even see Ms. Grant. I rewound time as soon as that snow globe broke, like I did with most things that break or get destroyed (like David's files) because Max is too short. Yes, I saved the dead bird, I watched the Until Dawn playthrough. No, I didn't go through Dana's trash and pick up her used pregnancy test - which involves urine, if I know anything about those things - and look at it while she was in the room five feet away because who would do that? Besides 3% of people? The 50/50 on Daniel's portrait is curious though. I thought it was cute and innocuous and wanted to see his sketch, but now I'm paranoid that a lot of people went the same route and changed their decision because of something awful that happens in a later episode because of it.

Anyway, I'll drop the character study for the next episode and focus on the events. As I said during the lede, this first episode was fetching a data stick and table-setting. It's important to establish a setting like this while it's still peaceful and rational, give or take one superhuman ability to rewind time, and get a feel for the cast before they start getting killed off horribly. Wait, maybe I'm confusing Life is Strange with the Walking Dead?

This episode was almost as throwaway, though it did build to a thrilling climax as Kate prepared to take the big leap into Jesus's arms because of her constant bullying and personal humiliation over the viral vid, which still sounds like a bunch of make-outs rather than anything more salacious as first-base or further. I guess it didn't take much to completely mortify her, though I'm also glad that the game erred on the side of being less sleazy. Most of the chapter was spent impressing Chloe with the time powers, while also ably demonstrating that they have a limit and Max's health is on the line. I've been getting strong Donnie Darko vibes since this started, and I'm worried that the final big rewind will involve rewinding the entire game with the possible result of killing Max through some kind of brain tumor. Yep, I'm already speculating, though all the pieces fit: best friend/love interest in life-threatening peril; interacting with awkward teenagers and possibly-murderous peers with as much grace as the hero can manage; mysterious powers and unexplained phenomena; and an envisioned "end of the world" deadline that looms throughout.

As before, here are the decisions I made:

I still think that the Nathan accusation is a game of Hearts: once you break the seal, you best go all in. If I pick the "blame Nathan" option every time it appears, I'm hoping it'll lead to enough evidence to get past his family connections. It might cause a lot more trouble than it's worth though; I'm not sure how the game intends to play out his villainous role. Maybe he's being manipulated? I blew off Kate because Chloe was threatening to walk out, though I suppose I shouldn't have worried. Since half the chapter was spending time with Chloe in her junkyard hideaway, I doubt the game will have skipped all of that out because she was pissy about taking a call. No, I did not shoot the drug dealer and fellow human being because this isn't Battlefield Hardline and Max is not Lara Croft. I kinda assumed she wouldn't go through with it either way regardless. I was happy that I managed to talk Churchy La Femme down from that ledge: Max had lost her powers at this point for story reasons, and it was a barrage of multiple-choice "say the right thing" dialogue options. Good thing I spent some time snooping around her room during the early parts of that chapter for clues: learning her dad and sisters were cool to her, while her mom and aunt were anything but and learning that she doesn't care for the judge-y parts of the Bible but big on the whole forgiving and atonement parts. There's been a few cases where you had the chance to learn incidental details about characters by snooping through their rooms, but this was the first time it paid off beyond character-building. Also: heck yeah I blamed Nathan. See above.

I'm already amused by the "water the plant" and "save Alyssa" running gags. I wonder if I'll get anything from keeping the plant alive and/or Alyssa free of garbage to the face for the whole five episodes? This chapter allowed me to talk to both of Victoria's cronies alone, and in both cases I tried mending bridges with them. As with Victoria, I'm betting the farm on them not being so bad, though their pushing Kate to the brink of annihilation will probably not soften their personalities at all. I told Warren where to stick his giant ape movies because a marathon at a drive-through sounded super sketchy (why always a drive-through, Warren? So Max can give you a handy in the backseat between Statue of Liberty scenes?) but I felt bad enough about it that I later helped him with his experiment. I'm actually trying to figure out if I can hook him up with Brooke, or if that just happens anyway if you rebuff his advances enough times. They'd be cute together! I didn't interrupt the Rachel x Chloe graffiti, because it seemed super dickish and needy and my Maxine don't play that way. I didn't know tampering with the railtracks was a thing? That looked to be a tense puzzle with only one solution, at least I thought. And yep, I once again excoriated Nathan and his behavior to as many ears that would listen. That weasel's going down.