#the last shot ep 3 lis1 being max's horror and the last shot of ep 3 lis2 being sean's injury

[this-world-of-beautiful-monsters]

something about how ep 3 of lis1/lis2 ends with Max/Daniel using their powers in risky, extreme ways to do what they think is the right thing for Chloe/Sean, only for things to go sideways to an extent that leaves Chloe/Sean with a permanent physical disability. the main difference being that Max can erase the entire thing an hour into the next episode, while the Diaz brothers (both brothers) have to actually deal with the physical and psychological fallout from the incident and their respective feelings on it for the rest of the game.

like, what Max inadvertently does to Chloe is a smaller part of a larger plot involving the threats to Arcadia Bay and Rachel's disappearance--what Daniel inadvertently does to Sean is the plot all the way through. it's why he flees in a guilty traumatized panic (even if he can't remember exactly what he did until he sees Sean again) and Sean has to find him again while dealing with his new disability, thus setting up everything that happens in the fourth and final episode.

it's so clear in lis2 ep 4 that Daniel's guilt and trauma are distorting his perspective and making him vulnerable to Lisbeth, leading into his self-destructive quest for purification as an "angel." Max's own guilt is visible from the inside looking out, shaping her tangled efforts to save (or "save," depending on how you feel about the whole euthanasia shitshow) Chloe from her altered reality. meanwhile, Sean has to save Daniel from the longterm psychological effects of what happened during the heist before he falls too deep under Lisbeth's spell.

this bleeds into the way that both ep 4s are episodes about deciding whether to take a life (singular, unlike the mass death you deal with in ep 5). only lis1 deals with Max deciding how her guilt and love for Chloe should affect her decision about Chloe's euthanasia request, while Sean and Daniel are confronted with Lisbeth taking advantage of Daniel's guilt to abuse him and almost kill Sean, and have to decide whether to kill her out of wrath (because that "it was her or us" excuse is pretty much bullshit) and love for each other.

it isn't a question--at least not in this episode--of whether Sean's going to be allowed to live with how his life and body have been altered by Daniel's accidental actions, but how he lives. not to mention that while Max's decision about killing Chloe here may not affect her final decision to kill Chloe or Arcadia in ep 5, Sean's decision about killing Lisbeth/letting her die absolutely shapes how he and Daniel will live with themselves and each other and the world around them at his own final decision.

it's all just two dramatically different ways to deal with the same question of superpowers slipping out of control, and I don't know how to be normal about it.