Chapters one and two of Life is Strange: Double Exposure end on a major cliffhanger. This is great for those who got the game early as it gives them plenty of time to craft theories as to what they think will happen in the final three chapters when they are released. Before we break everything down, here is a major spoiler warning for chapters one and two of Life is Strange: Double Exposure.
At the end of chapter two, Max helps Moses by retrieving Safi’s camera from his office and evading the police. After this happens, you make your way back to Max’s home to take a look at the photos. There are pictures that Moses wants to get off the camera. Unknown to both parties, Safi took one final picture before she died. The image is revealed and it is none other than Max holding a gun, tears in her eyes, and ready to shoot Safi. Moses freaks out, tells Max to go to hell, and runs out of the room all while Max is trying to tell Moses that she had nothing to do with this. That is a lot to take in, but where might the story go from here? Well, I have a theory as to what is happening. Let’s break it down.
Theory: Safi has powers
A while back before the release of the first two chapters of Double Exposure, someone leaked information about the game where they said that someone else in the game has powers other than Max. I believe that Safi is the other character with powers. The other powers can already be seen if you look at the first two chapters and the events that happen.
First, Reggie sees himself while he is standing on top of the overlook. Second, you have Gwen who is caught on CCTV dealing drugs to students when she swears she never did it. Finally, you have Lucas who has been dealing with trouble at home in one timeline and everything is perfectly fine in the other. Two of these characters have a strong connection to Safi with Gwen being the one who helped Safi get her book picked up by a publisher and then ultimately got it canceled and Lucas being someone that Safi supposedly hates.
When you look at these characters, it becomes clear that Safi could potentially be finding a way to get back at those who have wronged her. I believe that in some way Safi has created duplicates of these individuals or taken their forms. I don’t believe that she is a shapeshifter since that power would be beyond the scope of what we have currently seen in the Life is Strange games but I do believe that she could be using the multiverse to create echoes or images of these individuals that do her bidding.
One thing that struck me as odd is how Loretta mentioned that another girl mysteriously died a while back and it was ruled as a suicide. The cops in this case are considering suicide for Safi’s death as well, which seems odd since Safi was killed by a bullet to the heart – not a way that someone would typically shoot themselves. Later on, it is revealed that Max supposedly killed Safi. This is not something Max would do and she certainly would not take a trek down the path of evil. Instead, I think that the “suicide” answer is correct but Max was framed by Safi who used her powers to create a duplicate of Max who was forced to kill her.
As multiple fans of the game have pointed out, there is a strange bit of dialogue that Safi has at the beginning of the game shortly before her death. When you are on the rooftop with her and you give her the bottle cap, if you select the “Fine. You Win.” option, Safi replies with, “You rule. I’ll pull back the curtain soon, I just need a few more days. Promise.” Many have stated that this seems to be a foreshadowing that Safi is the real killer. This would also play into events of previous games where the antagonist is revealed near the beginning of the game, you just don’t know it at the time because it isn’t obvious.
If this theory is correct, I believe that Max will slowly discover that more and more characters are being affected by timeline alterations and doppelgangers. Perhaps Moses will lose his job or another character will get killed. We may even see a change with the love interest Amanda. I believe these changes will become more and more frequent until Max discovers Safi messing with the timeline in the “alive” world. This will then result in Max trying to hunt down Safi as she uses echoes of the multiverse against us.
