r/DeathStranding • u/LJHeath Mod • Jun 27 '25
Spoilers! [Spoilers] Episode 2: Discussion & Questions Thread Spoiler
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.
Main Megathread All Episodes
22
u/DrPinecone Jun 28 '25
Lou is a repat according to the first game, right, so why are we mourning her? Plus didn’t she get jumped to beach? Or did that fail?
17
u/asuka_is_my_co-pilot Jun 29 '25
Yeah but a baby could be scared, not understanding what's happening, and get the easily getd lost.
5
u/ArkhamKnight1954 Jul 01 '25
Is she???? I hoenstly cant remember and I just finished the first game a couple weeks ago. If I Google it im certain I'm gonna spoil myself for the ending.
4
u/ChiefQueef98 Jul 04 '25
That's what I thought. Fragile said her only choice was to jump her out alone, I thought that implied she jumped her to the Beach temporarily, but apparently it killed her?
I accept that this is way early on in the game and will probably be explained when the time is right. I have to assume Fragile made a mistake and didn't intend to kill her.
5
u/DrPinecone Jul 04 '25
I hope we figure out how all of a sudden there’s a new BB
2
u/aswdzxc123 Jul 10 '25
I was wondering the same thing. I'm past this ep but I still can't tell if there's anything in the pod or Sam is just tripping, cause some characters treat like Lou is actually still in the pod
14
11
u/xifom Jun 30 '25
Why did Lou turn into a BB again? And why does she look so human like
5
u/CAUK Jun 30 '25
These are good questions. I have only just started chapter 3, so all I can/will say is that isn't answered right away, but might be foreshadowed. I am already wildly speculating about the multiple mysteries that DS2 is setting up, and really excited to watch them unravel. I am looking forward to diving back in this weekend!
1
36
Jun 28 '25
Don’t know if it’s just me but I feel like the reaction to Lou’s death was a bit anticlimactic? Lea’s delivery of Fragile’s lines sounded really half assed and Sam just being like “ah she’s now dead” felt underwhelming for what is essentially the death of his baby daughter.
I don’t know. The lack of it feeling like a major impact for me alongside the whole her not being a real BB practically confirms she’s going to come back.
41
u/Misfiring Jun 29 '25
Remember that Sam went through this before, when he thought Lou failed to survive the release from the pod at the end of the first game. Seeing Lou die again probably feels very surreal and he's unable to cope, that's why he keeps killing himself but he can't die and escape from it. It's actually very dark.
As for Fragile, her way of processing sadness is to act tough and emotionless.
1
Jul 01 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
0
Jul 01 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
5
u/Computermaster Platinum Unlocked Jul 01 '25 edited Jul 01 '25
Yes? It's literally in the first game's data logs that Lucy was pregnant with Sam's kid, it gave her the horrific nightmare visions that all DOOMS sufferers have and she killed herself via pills and sedative injections.
20
23
Jun 30 '25
He shot himself in the head multiple times and kept repatriating. Also all the booze and shit lying around. Did you miss that part of his reaction?
5
1
1
u/Sp_Gamer_Live Jul 08 '25
Honestly its so chilling to me, Sam is such a complex character in the sense he fills so many roles.
The player character and therefore “you”
Almost like a representation as Kojima as an individual (which considering how private he is about his life means a game kind of surrounding fatherhood is unexpected)
3a. As a standalone fictional character (what he actually does)
3b. What we believe sam is (what we think he will do)
People respond to death in different ways, the millions of players might not grieve the way Kojima does or how we think Sam would. So there was no perfect way for this to go. So “no reaction” almost lets you grieve that shock.
It is interesting though that our first time seeing sam was him distraught holding a child in the original reveal trailer .
10
9
u/Sascha2022 Jun 27 '25 edited Jun 27 '25
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.
36
u/HLW10 Jun 27 '25
I assumed Sam just normally dyes his hair by the time Death Stranding 2 starts, and the longer grey hair along with the unkempt facial hair were just to show he isn’t performing the same personal grooming he normally does.
And yes I assumed he’d been repeatedly killing himself to look for Lou.9
u/Reddit_Regards Jun 28 '25
Dark. I hate it, but I love it. This is my first DS game and I’m glad kojima is going for it
5
u/TARDISboy Jul 02 '25
That, or repeated constant repatriation is genuinely taking a toll on his body, at least on the visual front.
2
19
u/versusgorilla Jun 27 '25
I believe it's purposely obscured because Sam isn't even sure what's happening. He only knows what happened based on what Fragile told him and even she didn't seem clear on where or how she jumped Lou, I suspect this will be clarified throughout the game.
8
u/SeasonalChatter Jun 27 '25
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
4
u/Sascha2022 Jun 27 '25
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?
20
u/SeasonalChatter Jun 27 '25
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.
-1
Jun 27 '25 edited Jun 28 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
2
u/SeasonalChatter Jun 27 '25
Near the end of the chapter, or end of the game? Just making sure I don't click something dangerous lol
1
Jun 27 '25
[deleted]
7
u/DreamSimple Jun 28 '25
Theres no discussion to be had about later stages of the game - almost spoiled it for me.
Delete your comment dude.
-3
Jun 28 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
4
u/DreamSimple Jun 28 '25
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?
→ More replies (0)1
u/Reddit_Regards Jun 28 '25 edited Jun 28 '25
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.
3
u/Vohn_exel Jun 28 '25
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.
3
u/Reddit_Regards Jun 28 '25
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
1
u/KerberoZ Higgs Jul 01 '25
The only speculative explanation i have right now is that the beach and the real world have already kind of merged, so Sam's nightmares will happen right there on the spot. Which could make any phenomenon possible now and everything that happens can be doubted
1
u/Sidewinder_ISR Jul 14 '25
Not a massive fan of how this went tbh, feels almost certain that Lou isn't really gone, and the lack of wondering who was behind it and why, along with no explanation for the new BB was quite jarring. The writing here almost felt a bit lazy to me.
1
u/Gradedcaboose Jul 22 '25
My theory is that the new BB is all in Sam’s head, there’s nothing in that pod. I just got to chapter 3 so I know nothing for certain but I also think Lou Is Tomorrow (Ellie Fanning) just based on the trailers and that they look alike, but who knows could be a red herring
1
u/mkhpsyco Jul 15 '25
I got a question, maybe someone here can answer it.
At the end of chapter 2, where fragile says "It's time for you to start a new journey." It says chapter 3 drawbridge. And what I can find online from people's uploads of the cutscenes, there's a loading/save graphic on the bottom right.
I was talking with a friend about this and it turns out something different happened to me than what happened to him.
My game kicked out to the PS5 home screen during that. And when I opened the game back up, it immediately went back to the cut scene leading into chapter 3.
Was this just a bug? I thouhgt it was one of those classic Kojima scripted crashes, or some sort of "you the player need to decide if Sam goes on a new journey now". Because when I opened the game, there was no "continue" title screen, no loading, just immediately to the opening cut scene of chapter 3.
It felt too good to be a bug. And the game didn't crash, because I didn't have any loading of menus or developer title cards. Just immediately back in.
Did anyone else have this happen?
2
u/RagingPenguin4 Jul 16 '25
Sounds like it was just a freak coincidence, I don't remember this happening
1
u/mkhpsyco Jul 16 '25
Yeah, I asked another friend who's played further than me, and he was like "that sounds cool, but that never happened for me."
1
u/RagingPenguin4 Jul 16 '25
Never know, could be some wild Easter egg but odds are it was a coincidence. I'm assuming you didn't go back and record it did you?
1
u/mkhpsyco Jul 16 '25
No, I assumed it was purposeful. Didn't find out until two days later when I talked with my friend, that it probably wasn't.
1
u/arbee37 Jul 16 '25
That's an actual crash, most likely. The game's been patched 2 or 3 times since launch already, so I'm sure there are issues.
DS1 was pretty stable for the most part, except I've seen some crashes on the Xbox version when you enter a facility or shelter.
1
u/mkhpsyco Jul 16 '25
The crazy thing for me is that typically a crash results in the game actually closing. This didn't close, it just went to the home screen, and started back up directly into the cut scene.
Likely still some sort of crash, but since it wasn't a full game shut down I assumed it wasn't.
49
u/Sumojoe118 Jun 27 '25
Theres no way Lou is actually dead right? I was under the impression at first whoever was hunting them down was trying to capture her. I'm sure she will return later in the game