ename144
Engaged Member
- Sep 20, 2018
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Was Chad getting the envelope actually part of Episode 2? I only played the game starting with Episode 4, so the Chad envelope scene is awkwardly tucked in after the Episode 2 wrap-up but before the Episode 3 recap. I always wondered why that was so oddly placed. (Honestly, the timeline at the start of Episode 3 seems to have been deliberately muddled.)With the exception of 4 & 5, I'd say that the other episodes had something of a teasing, question-inducing cliffhanger ending; in Ep 1 he gets tased by an unknown assailant for reasons unknown (at that time), in Ep 2 Chad receives a mysterious envelope and angrily refers to the MC for reasons unknown, and Ep 3 of course had the bombshell revelation.
From what we've seen and been told it would seem that this upcoming episode is huge and will cover a lot of ground with his time at college. To also throw in the revelation of the contents of the letter, especially if there were to be a full and detailed discussion/explanation of it with Neil, could possibly be too much. I personally like the idea of it being the cliffhanger without finding out because it keeps the suspense going and keeps you engaged, but it's also because I like the idea of Ep 7 opening with a flashback that gives a backstory of what the letter reveals and then when we cut back to the present, we find that Neil has been telling this backstory to the MC. I honestly think that would be a great way to do this.
Personally, I'd call that less a traditional cliffhanger and more a post-credit stinger. The difference is that it isn't about the results of actions in the episode current episode, it's just a quick preview of actions coming in the next one. But cliffhanger or stinger, I think it would be difficult to use that format for the Mom Letter in Episode 6, at least as you present it.
If episode 6 takes us up to the point where the MC returns home, the letter is involved in the narrative and thus we will expect to learn something about it. We already know it exists, so that's not much of a cliffhanger. It would be like ending the Empire Strikes Back with the revelation that the Emperor ordered Vader to kill Luke's father; technically we only had Obi-Wan's supposition of that before, but it's hardly unexpected.
If, on the other hand, the game cuts to the MC returning home to read the letter with no buildup in a stinger, it will probably feel like deliberate trolling. Not only would we already know the letter exists, now there isn't even a valid reason to remind us of it.
In short, the contents of the letter might be a suitable dramatic end point, but the letter itself isn't.