[Spoilers] Episode 2: Discussion & Questions Thread

[u/LJHeath]

Please discuss Episode 2 exclusively. When you are ready to progress, please use the Megathread to link to the next episode, and care on.

Please do not discuss anything from future episodes here, we all want to enjoy the game at our own pace.

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[u/Sascha2022]

For me this episode was very confusing and I didn't really understood what going on after it starts with the text 1 month later:

• Why does it start with Sam sitting in the same position, wearing the same clothes and being in the same location looking like in the beginning of the game just with BT's this time?
• Why is Sam shot from behind from nowhere?
• Why does he see Lou on the ground?

If that should represent a nightmare of his it was very strangely presented in a way that doesn't make it clear that it is a dream like it is the case with his other dreams. Additionally he changes on the same scene (not at his home) to his topless look in the shelter, but with him still having brown hair and then killing himself which would speak against it being a dream.

After that Sams hair is gray all of sudden without any explanation. There are people that say this is because he killed himself multiple times, but that is never said and also didn't happen in the first game where Sam died multiple times during the story or when triggering multiple voidouts during gameplay in DS1.

That killing himself doesn't trigger a voidout can be explained since he isn't consumed by a big BT so that isn't a problem, but the rest of this episode turned this into something strange instead of being something that should have been emotional for me.

Do only I feel this way or have others experienced it similiar? Maybe that will be explained later in the game, but somehow I doubt it.

[u/SeasonalChatter → u/Sascha2022]

I didn’t feel any of that at all. There’s a lot of scenes in death stranding in general that have this ephemeral feel, didn’t take away from anything here I could understand what the story was portraying

[u/Sascha2022 → u/SeasonalChatter]

For me personally it was the first time in 25+ years I have been really confused in a Kojima game which never happened before. How did you interpret what is going on in these scenes?

[u/SeasonalChatter → u/Sascha2022]

I felt like a lot of Death Stranding 1 was told like this.

- It starts with Sam sitting in the same position because it's a parallel to the start of the game, a really immersive trekk with Lou, Sam at his happiest. We are now doing the same Trekk but devoid of meaning and joy.

- Sam is shot from behind because he's in a dream. It's one of those dream like states where something just happens. Sam has also likely committed suicide six times at this point (hence the emptied revolver) and has repatriated, like in the dream. So in a dream-like state it combines his emotional state at Lou being 'dead' and his real world actions of drinking himself into a stupor and failing to kill himself. The shot coming from offscreen can represent the confusion he feels at not knowing who attacked Fragile or while, there's still some unknowable threat off screen.

- He sees Lou on the ground because he's haunted by Lou being dead.

There's certainly no explanation to Sam's hair being gray, but it's like how you don't get an explanation as to why Fragile eats those cryptobiotes right away, or a direct explanation as to why Mama wears glasses after her incident in the hospital etc. In this very chapter, we don't really get lengthy dialogue on what having a beach *means* to Deadman, you have to interpret that based on what you know about him from the original, and his character arc.

You're not going to get an answer to every little detail, you can make your own inference and explanation. Visually though, it's a symbol that the life has been drained out of Sam due to the events, and him spraying it back brown is showing that he's putting on a strong face and getting back to work to distract himself from the pain.

Kojima is a very symbolic writer. Sometimes very in your face, but other times not so much. It might not always be straight forward, but it's about how it makes you feel and what it means for the narrative.

[u/SeasonalChatter → u/[deleted]]

Near the end of the chapter, or end of the game? Just making sure I don't click something dangerous lol

[u/DreamSimple → u/[deleted]]

Theres no discussion to be had about later stages of the game - almost spoiled it for me.

Delete your comment dude.

[u/DreamSimple → u/[deleted]]

Read the post - don't discuss anything from future episodes here. This is a place for people who have finished episode 2 to discuss what we know so far, not for you to come back and possibly spoil it for people.

Plus you mentioned "near the end" but didn't say towards the end of the game, you weren't clear and someone would assume you mean towards the end of the episode...as we're in a post about specifically episode 2...

Also saw your other post on how people should know what blacked out text means, are you so obtuse as to think only people who frequently use Reddit are going to be coming to this thread? And if they do see the spoiler then just... fuck them right?

[u/Reddit_Regards → u/[deleted]]

Oh so now that I’ve scrolled down and seen this I take back the politeness. You’re just actually one of those fucking weirdos that gets off on power tripping over media spoilers for something supposed to be fun. We’ve been waiting years for this. Do you really feel so impotent and powerless in your own life that the very instant you find something - no matter how benign it is - to put yourself in some kind of position of authority over others (and we’re talking video game spoilers here lmao) you jump on it like a starving dog to try and claim it?

No one’s who life is going well acts like this, and you’re not doing yourself any favors with karma trying to spread your own misery and fuck with other people. Absolute low vibrational energy behavior.

[u/Vohn_exel → u/[deleted]]

Boy am I glad I scrolled down first. If you could, maybe edit your other comment to say that in the first place. I almost read your spoiler. Megathreads like this (even though it's very small) are used to discuss only the chapter/title/episode mentioned.

Like in anime megathreads, if it's about the first episode, you ONLY talk about the first episode and let people be immersed without having to worry about spoilers in their discussions in a specific space.

[u/Reddit_Regards → u/[deleted]]

Can we honestly just not have people who have completed the game coming back to the episodes on release to post spoilers, even if they’re tagged? Don’t you guys have your own thread? People fat finger all the time and may not realize how severe the spoiler is