Nightmare Interpretation Pt.2
If you are confused about the digicode part of the nightmare, read this!
Nightmare Maze (Fear of male characters in the game)
The Jefferson part is pretty self-explanatory so I’m not going to spend time elaborating on that.
Max fears being in the spotlight, hence she fears having Principal Wells drop the mic on her. She is also fearful that she will be dead as Principal Wells in the nightmare announces that she is dead.
For those of you who don’t know, this is Warren’s locker in the nightmare sequence. I would also like to point out that people are taking this part waaaay too seriously. This part represents Max’s fear of Warren seeing her as a sexualized object and Warren being a creep and keeping her stuff. I have seen people overreacting (esp. Pricefield shippers) by saying that Warren is a fucking creep. This is a sequence from Max’s subconscious mind and it does not represent reality, and I am saying this as a Pricefield shipper.
When we move on further, we see Principal Wells again. The fact that Principal Wells drinks heavily and is unaware of the existing pedophile ring in his school may be unsettling to Max.
Even though Max talks to Samuel, she feels as though he knows more than he’s letting on, I mean, even we found him a bit uncomfortable to be around at first especially since he kept Rachel’s modeling photos and someone’s scarf in the storeroom. The students of Blackwell find him to be weird as well.
Junkyard (fear of everyone related to Rachel or her death)
Although Max and Frank can be on good terms if the player chooses to do so, Max was undoubtedly shaken by their first meeting and she may unconsciously still be aware of him being potentially violent and life-threatening towards her and Chloe. Especially since he may have some anger issues as proven in Rachel’s letter to him.
It seems that the places where Max can seek refuge in the nightmare are the places where Chloe hung out before (thus the power of friendship). In their hangout spot, Chloe and Rachel created their own memories and their own world away from the hell they know as Arcadia Bay.
I feel that Max does feel guilty about Nathan’s death. She does believe that Nathan had a chance to redeem himself if he wasn’t shot dead by Jefferson. Somehow, Max feels responsible for his death.
When we reach the lighthouse in the nightmare it’s a safe haven where Max can sit down and feel protected. I think her collecting the bottles in the midst of being mentally tortured by the male characters means that she finds safety in finding the bottles (like in episode 2) and having fun with Chloe by shooting them and she finally places them beside the lighthouse and takes a picture of them.
Snow globe (fear of letting William die again)
Snow globes have some sense of meaning in this game.
I think that the snow globes, especially the doe one represents William. In the original timeline, Chloe keeps her snow globe away and it’s possible for the player to accidentally break it. In the alternate timeline, Chloe displays her snow globes proudly under the TV in her room. The snow globes may represent William’s care towards Chloe.
Max feels guilty having to let William die as she watches from the snow globe. She watches herself burn the picture of her only chance of going back in time and she fears she has to ever do something like this again.
Dark Room (fear of Chloe’s rejection)
I think that deep down Max fears Chloe’s rejection, that she may have done all of this for nothing, for Max to end up in a Dark Room and also for letting Chloe die. In Max’s journal she writes that it hurt her when she saw Chloe flirting with all those people because Max loves Chloe.
The Fourth Wall (Max’s revelation)
Ok, here is where it gets interesting:
I feel that here Max is becoming more awake in contrary to all the previous segments where everything seems to be her subconscious fears. I feel the Max here has a sense of enlightment now.
Max is stuck in a bathroom, sounds familiar doesn’t it? Like when Chloe got shot in the bathroom. So here Max is simulating being in the bathroom again and she can’t get out unless she figures out the passcode. To me, the bathroom represents the storm and everything that happened to them after saving Chloe in the bathroom. So Max keeps looking for the right code, until she finds it in the mirror, just like when she washed her face in the first episode (the place where everything started). She finally figures out the answer: 0311 (Chloe’s birthday).
Max here realizes that Chloe is the answer to the storm, that by saving Chloe she has trapped herself inside this bathroom, a never-ending loop of saving Chloe over and over again just like when she first did in episode 1. I know you’re thinking: but if you save Chloe in the ending then that’s different isn’t it? No, what I’m trying to say is that Max finally figures out the cause of her using her powers and what’s causing the storm, that is Chloe.
Diner (Max’s fear of having to let the whole town die in order to save Chloe/Sacrifice Chloe or Arcadia Bay?)
When Max finally realizes this fact, she unlocks the door and steps into the diner. Mobs of people outside of the diner and everyone she knows looks at her in horror, “you wouldn’t really kill all of us for Chloe would you?”.
The part where subconscious Max confronts enlightened Max is interesting to me. It reveals all of her deepest insecurities and confronts the player and Max about the real purpose of using her rewind powers. This Max also questions the reliability of Chloe’s friendship and whether or not it is genuine. She describes enlightened Max as a victim of Stockholm syndrome, letting Chloe bully her around. Enlightened Max knows this is not the truth as she is becoming more and more awake.
Due to Max’s increasing awareness of the falseness of the nightmare, Chloe subconsciously enters the diner and tells Bad Max or subconscious Max to fuck off. Max is now very aware that Chloe would never disrespect her.
Subconscious Max or Bad Max takes a selfie and I think this represents Max always running away from difficult situations by taking photos and jumping into them.
Memory Gallery (Max remembering all the moments that Chloe and her had together)
Max recollects all the memories she had with Chloe and the player gets to witness their week together again for the last time. This is where Max is very conscious and near waking up from the nightmare as her sense of reality is restored and she remembers the memories she had with Chloe very clearly.
The Lighthouse (Max’s realization)
Max realizes that her rewind powers were the cause of the storm. Her nightmare had unearthed all of her deepest insecurities and fears, including her biggest fear: that saving Chloe is what’s causing the storm. As a player, we also finally accept this truth and we are forced to choose between whether or not to save our hometown or the person we love.
I personally hated the whole nightmare sequence (especially the stealth part) but it did reveal more about Max’s inner thoughts. Perhaps the reason why episode 5 was so heart-wrenching to me was because of this nightmare sequence.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed my interpretation of the nightmare sequence and thank you so much for taking the time out to read this :)
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