Episode 1: Awake
The prequel begins with a shot of a cigarette being lit by a lanky, hooded figure stood on some train tracks. She smokes it as a train approaches, before dodging at the last moment, lifting her hood to reveal our protagonist and Player Character, 16-year-old Chloe Price. It's been two years since her father, William Price, died in a traffic accident and her best friend, Max Caulfield, moved away, and another three years before they'll be reunited. She's given up hope on receiving a response from her former "BFF", and taken to writing "letters" to an imaginary Max instead.
This evening's act of rebellion finds her on the outskirts of town, attending a concert being played by "Firewalk" in a rather sketchy barn. After hopping over a fence and needlessly antagonizing a "keep out" sign, she proceeds to try and blag her way in past the bouncer by convincing him she can take care of herself. This serves as a tutorial for the game's "backtalk" mechanic (replacing the time travel powers Max had in the original game). Should the player fail the challenge (most likely deliberately, as the game marks the correct responses), she instead breaks in via a nearby barn door.
Once inside the venue, she runs into Frank, her pot dealer, who won't sell her anything until she pays off her "tab". After arguing with a t-shirt vendor, she can undo the brake on his car and steal a shirt, which leads the player to their first important choice; whether to also steal the money from his cash box. If she does so, she can use it to pay off Frank and buy some more pot, or save it for later. On trying to enter the dance floor, she's shoved into some "skeevy guy", spilling his beer. This forces her to head upstairs, and enjoy the concert from the rafters. The title credits play out as she enjoys Firewalk's music (in reality, "Are You Ready For Me" by Pretty Vicious).
She finds herself interrupted by the man whose drink she spilled and his friend, who advances on her with a broken bottle. To Chloe's surprise, she's rescued by Rachel Amber, one of the most popular girls in school, who proceeds to distract them, allowing Chloe to either run, or get a hit in (which earns her a black eye for her trouble). Frank blocks the two toughs as the girls run past and gets them to calm down, while Chloe and Rachel flip them off and proceed to enjoy the concert.
Chloe wakes up the following morning with a hangover and hazy memories of the previous night as "No Below" by Speedy Ortiz blares from her alarm clock. Photos of her and Rachel are all over social media (although nobody recognizes her). After smoking (either a cigarette or a doobie, depending on if the player restocked her supply), the player chooses an outfit (which can include the t-shirt she stole the previous night). She's able to find her phone by borrowing her mum's and calling it, before she's called downstairs by the lady herself. Joyce chews her out for breaking curfew. The player can decide how Chloe takes this, by either having Chloe be understanding, or tell her mum how she feels about the way things are going (which strains their relationship further). If Chloe stole the money, but didn't pay off her debt to Frank, she can slip the money in her mum's purse instead. As Chloe missed the bus, she's being given a lift to school by Joyce's boyfriend, David. After a less than friendly exchange, they set off in his car. David will try to lecture Chloe, which the player can accept or try to "Shut. It. Down." with a backtalk challenge.
Still tired, Chloe falls asleep. She has a dream where she's in her dad's car, just before his accident, as he listens to "Burning The Midnight Oil" by Thomm Jutz and Peter Cronin. Various items (depending on what the player interacted with) are strewn about the back seat and her journal is replaced by a letter from Max, saying she's coming back after all! After receiving some words of wisdom from dear old dad, the car is hit by a truck and Chloe is jolted awake. Just in time for David to drop her off at Blackwell Academy.
On the campus, Chloe meets her ex-who-hasn't-realized-it-yet boyfriend, Elliot, who asks if Chloe would like to go to the school's production of The Tempest with him (whether she refuses or accepts, Chloe is less than enthusiastic about the play itself). Chloe can speak to several other characters, including Skip the security guard (who'd like her opinion on his band's latest demo), the Max-esque Shrinking Violet Samantha, Victoria (whom she can trick into messing up her Chemistry homework), and Principal Wells (who wants a word with Chloe about allegations of drug use, amongst other things — which the player can avoid with another backtalk challenge). To proceed, the player must go to meet Steph, Blackwell's resident Dungeon Master, out lesbian, and source of pirated DVDs, to pick up Chloe's order of Blade Runner, Director's Cut. Steph quizzes Chloe about her relationship with Rachel Amber, before inviting her to play D&D along with her friend, Mikey.
If Chloe decides to join in, she's given an elf barbarian character (who can be named Barb, Callimastia or simply Chloe), to play alongside Mickey's fire-wielding wizard, Elamon. The player can then proceed to follow the game as seriously as they like (or simply leave), including roleplaying an intimidation check with a dragonkin guard via another backtalk challenge. The final boss proves to be a Minotaur with a fire resistant bracer. Regardless of the player's choices, a bad roll causes Chloe's character to be fatally wounded, but she can still potentially chop off his arm (along with the bracer), allowing Mikey to have Elamon blast him.
After playing, or not, Chloe heads to the main building, only to run into Drew North, Mikey's Jerk Jock big brother. Drew's antagonizing Nathan Prescott, son of the local robber baron. In a few years' time, Nathan will shoot Chloe in the stomach and kickstart the plot of the original game, but for now he's just a mentally ill teen with an overbearing father...and a short temper. Chloe can either let Drew proceed to throw Nathan's art portfolio in the fountain, or she can stand up for Nathan and get Drew to back down with a backtalk challenge (to Samantha's approval, and Nathan's utter lack of gratitude). After this, Chloe opens the main door, only to find Rachel standing in front of her, and promptly finds herself whisked off to the drama lab (in more ways than one). After helping Rachel get changed out of her costume, Rachel asks Chloe if she'd like to skip school with her. Naturally, Chloe needs little encouragement and they set off (although not before Rachel helps Chloe cover up her black eye with stage makeup, if she has one).
The two girls hop on a train, and spend some time playing "Two Truths and a Lie" to pass the time. Regardless of what the player chooses, Rachel will easily Sherlock Scan her way through (and infer even more information on top of what Chloe gave her to boot), claiming that she's used to it, as the daughter of the District Attorney. Meanwhile Chloe learns that Rachel comes from California, is ambidextrous, hates Arcadia Bay as much as she does, and her star sign is a Leo. Chloe then takes out her earbuds, and the player can choose to offer one to Rachel or let Chloe listen to "Through the Cellar Door" by Lanterns On The Lake alone. Eventually, Rachel has them get off at a park. After climbing a hill and getting a viewfinder working, Rachel and Chloe proceed to play another "improv game" where they mock various people as they spy on them. However, on seeing a mysterious tattooed woman meet up (and make out) with a man in a suit under the oak tree which dominates the park, Rachel starts acting differently...
At Rachel's behest, she and Chloe steal a bottle of wine from a picnicking couple (with a backtalk challenge determining the exact outcome), and the two of them soon find themselves in the "American Rust" junkyard. Rachel continues to get more angry, but refuses to explain herself. This leads to an argument, which reaches its apex when Chloe demands to know what she did wrong, saying she doesn't want to ruin what they have. When Rachel demands clarification, the player can have Chloe clarify she means "a friendship" or "something more". Depending on her answer and Relationship Values, Rachel will either storm off or apologize to Chloe but say she needs space. Regardless, Chloe is left alone in the scrapyard.
Chloe takes her anger out on the various trash lying around, including a dummy (representing Rachel), tools (David) and a camera (Max). Then she discovers a wrecked car...specifically the one her dad died in. This causes her to have a complete breakdown, and she pounds on the bonnet with her bare hands before curling up on the ground. She finds herself in another dream sequence. This one is much more surreal, as William gives her advice once again (describing the argument as a "lover's spat" if the player's made enough pro-Rachel choices). It ends as Chloe sees a vision of Rachel standing in front of a tree, before she bursts into flames and, once again, an inconsiderate trucker brings her back to the waking world.
Chloe wakes up inside the wrecked car and contemplates her breakdown, before spotting a raven near the train tracks, which she follows. This leads her to the large oak tree in the park from before, where Rachel is stood. Relieved that she came, Rachel apologizes and explains the situation to Chloe. She's had a feeling that her father's been hiding something for a while, which is why she skipped school to track him down; the man they saw making out with the woman was her father, but she has no idea who the woman is. Completely disillusioned, she shows Chloe the photo of her and her father she carries around and explains that on the day it was taken, he carried her to safety after she broke her wrist. Rachel asks Chloe to run away with her, before borrowing her lighter and burning the cherished photo in a trash can as "Flaws" by Music/Daughter plays. Chloe moves to leave, but Rachel, still feeling angry, kicks the bin into the tree while screaming in frustration. The wind carries it, and soon the entire forest's ablaze.
The episode ends with a montage of people as they react to the fire (which is soon visible from the town): Frank is drinking beer outside his camper while Damon is on his mobile; Joyce brings David a beer while he fixes the car; Nathan sits on the fountain alone and goes over his portfolio, as Steph, Mikey, and Drew pal around on a bench nearby; Mr. Amber argues with Wells in the parking lot; and the mysterious woman enjoys a cigarette from the same vantage point the girls were watching her from earlier that day (the only one who doesn't seem shocked or awed by it).
Tropes in this episode:
- Call-Forward: The way in which David drops Chloe off at Blackwell parallels the scenes in which Chloe does the same for Max a couple of times in the original game.
- Double-Meaning Title: "Awake" is the command that Prospera uses to summon Ariel in The Tempest; this episode has Rachel (dressed as Prospera) whisk Chloe away to do her bidding. It also involves Chloe literally waking up the morning after meeting Rachel (and spending the rest of the day tired and putting together the events of the prologue) and is the only episode involving more than one dream sequence.
- The Dreaded: Damon, the owner of the barn where the concert takes place. It's hard to get anyone to say much about him. The player has no way of knowing it's him yet, but he can be seen outside arguing with someone.
- Foreshadowing:
- The episode has multiple references to fire throughout, culminating in Rachel starting one at the end.
- A flatbed which looks suspiciously like the one Chloe drives in the original game can be seen in the junkyard. Sure enough, she'll be fixing it in the next episode.
- A poster of Blackwell's production of The Tempest can be seen in her dream which shows Chloe in the costume she'll be wearing.
- During the two truths and a lie game, Rachel reveals that she's ambidextrous, knows what a radial fracture is, and mentions her father means she's all too familiar with lies. These all come up at the end when she relays the story behind the photo she carries around with her.
- The Ghost: Max has become this, since she canonically won't contact Chloe again until the original game. She still gets mentioned in passing, and one of Chloe's dream sequences has a letter "from" her replacing Chloe's journal.
- Irony: Chloe thinks she's getting away with her bad behavior because everyone feels sorry for her about her dad, but in reality, she's mainly getting by on excuses Joyce gives Wells, and Wells himself (as Steph can warn her) considers her a "high risk" student because of her situation.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: While Rachel first lights the fire in the bin with a lighter, the wildfire happens when she kicks it over. The particularly powerful gusts of wind that fan the flames come suddenly when Rachel screams into the woods. Since the series establishes the existence of superpowers with Max's Time Rewind Mechanic in the first season, are these strong breezes just a coincidence or is Rachel causing them?
- Psychic Dreams for Everyone: They take a very different form to the ones Max will have, but Chloe's dreams all contain a great deal of foreshadowing for the events in the miniseries.
- What Did I Do Last Night?: Downplayed in that Chloe more or less remembers the important parts (i.e. Rachel Amber saving her life), but she still has trouble finding her phone, is clearly tired/hungover, and there are embarrassing pictures all over social media.
