When Max went back in time to the day William died, she used her powers. Alright, technically she could have not used them but between the game being incredibly vague about how you would hide the keys in certain areas and the fact that Max had no idea William could page his key fob, it’s pretty much canon that she rewinds In this instance to save William.
However, upon returning to the now alternate present, the unnatural events occured in the same timeframe rather than immediately after saving William. This suggests that the tornado has nothing to do with Chloe’s death or lack thereof, but something else entirely. However, the new timeline is so different that no other consistent events could be found…save for one: the death of Rachel Dawn Amber.
Rachel disappeared about six months before Max and Chloe meet. This is an inconsistency with standard forensics, as when they find her, there is clearly enough left of Rachel for Chloe to recognize her. Rachel’s body would be a mush of liquid and bone within four months of being buried, and even had she been kept in a trash bag, that would have bought her maybe a couple of days. Actual body bags, such as the ones used by paramedics, would preserve her for much longer, but neither Jefferson nor Nathan would have those on hand. Jefferson is a professional, therefore he would have no need for such an expense, and Nathan as a Blackwell student would draw too much attention if he kept military-grade body bags in their dorm.
No, for Rachel to have been a recognizable corpse while still having a noticeable smell, she really wouldn’t have had to be dead for any time at all. People forget, or rather, ignore that if a person dies, they immediately defecate and urinate. Even if we ignore that unfortunate fact, she would only have to be dead for four days or so, given how wet Oregon soil is, to smell like a dead body. Which places the latest possible time of death for Rachel Amber on…Sunday.
We have no idea how long Rachel was in the Dark Room, and she was never expressed by Nathan to be dead. She could very well have been in the Dark Room for months. This would also explain Nathan’s reaction to Max dressed as Rachel Amber. Even his damaged psyche would have moved on from the “Denial” stage of grief had Rachel died six months before the events of Life is Strange. By no means do I believe that she died on Sunday, but every single calling card of a six month old corpse is absent when we find her. Besides the fact that her body would have liquified in that time period, even the vegetation would grow in such a way that suggested a grave site. All around her body would be tall grass, whilst directly over the body would be nothing but dead grass or nothing at all.
Before Rachel’s death, which we can now confirm happened much sooner than we originally thought, she was a party girl. She was friends with almost everyone, save for a few people who utterly despised her. She managed to have three separate love lives, and none of her lovers found out about each other or even had suspicions. And she was still somehow a 4.0 student.
Let’s assume for a moment that Rachel is the was the artist behind the “HOLE TO ANOTHER UNIVERSE” graffiti that appears throughout Arcadia. This, alongside the other details outlined above suggest that she had similar powers to Max. There is simply no way that someone could party all night, pass all her classes the next day, still be coherent enough to either infuriate or impress every single one of her associates, maintain three romantic relationships, and not destroy her body (remember, she wanted to be a model) in the process.
Max’s photography is incredibly personal to her, therefore, her powers manifested in a way that highlighted her need to take photographs. Rachel, by contrast, was a rebel without a cause, which could very well mean that her graffiti became linked to her powers in one way or another. The holes to another universe, therefore, could be exactly that, although how they would function remains unclear.
So if we accept the idea that Rachel had powers of her own, this begs the question: how did she get caught? Max was caught by Jefferson in extenuating circumstances, and she still managed to escape, although it took some doing. We know, at least in the context of this theory, that Rachel was I’m the Dark Room for much longer than we thought. She would have even more chances to escape, both the d fashioned way and with her powers. All she would have to do was get a sharpie and draw her hole to another universe. Hell, she probably would be keeping one on her for that same purpose.
Of course, this is making the assumption that her powers lined up with Max’s in some way or another, and this is where the theory stops using facts within the game and starts making things up with the facts provided. What if Rachel didn’t have REWIND powers…but fast-forward ones?
Consider this: Max Caulfield is born, and some sort of “glitch in the matrix” in Arcadia Bay gives her rewind powers. The universe tries to compensate for this, and thrusts a counterbalance onto someone else…Rachel Amber. Rachel Amber grows up with these powers, using and abusing them as she pleases. As such, she does her job, creating a “buffer” against the inevitable consequences of Max’s power once she discover it. This would explain why Rachel is so much more spiritual than everyone else: she knows that there is something strange about the world we live in, and acts accordingly. This would also explain why Samuel took such an interest in Rachel, since he has an eye for this sort of thing. Now imagine Rachel is 19, living large in a small town, in love with three people who have no clue about each others existence in Rachel’s life.
She fast forwards a boring afternoon at a Vortex Club part, during which she runs on autopilot like Max does after being possessed by her future self. We know drugs have strange effects on Max’s powers, why not Rachel? If she fast forwarded through being drugged, this may have caused her to loose focus and perspective. Unlike Max, however, who has to concentrate to rewind, Rachel has been doing this her entire life. It’s second nature. She fast forwards, going faster and faster because she’s being dosed and tied up and none of it makes any SENSE anymore…
She fast forwards straight into her own death.
This would explain the doe Max keeps seeing. While I agree that it is her spirit animal, I see no reason for it to Rachel’s as well. After all, there are more people than there are types of animals. Rachel’s consciousness now exists outside of the timeline. She’s an observer that Max can see because Max also exists outside the timeline, because unlike every other person, she has free will. Her power allows her to circumvent determinism.
But now, Max’s power has no counterbalance. That buffer has died, and for a while, the universe can handle the strain. Then it begins to fail, and it starts warning Max that it is failing. This is why we see the tornado before she ever uses her powers, and this is also why Max’s powers are so inconsistent. Not only were they accidental, they are now unstable.
Not only that, it becomes clear to us that certain things CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO HAPPEN. Max CANNOT die under any circumstances, Kate CANNOT be alone on that rooftop before she jumps, Chloe CANNOT die in the junkyard when she and Max go shooting. We, as players, all think that when time stops and the screen goes grey that it’s just a game mechanic. It’s not. Max even acknowledges that time has stopped of its own accord, since these moments have no consequences on Max’s health, when it almost killed her on the roof after stopping time herself. The reason for this? Those timelines don’t exist anymore. They collapsed. Time is stopping because if it doesn’t, the universe would simply wink out of existence, like a program trying to open a file that does not exist.
Every universe has a Max and a Rachel, and every universe without one of them is in jeopardy. The storm? It’s just the start. It’s a massive overcompensation of reality to deal with the strain caused by Rachel or Max’s death. The entire week has been overcompensations, the universe falling from left to right, getting a little more extreme each time and even merging with another universe on the night with two moons. And while Max going back and never using her powers is a viable solution, it isn’t the best one available. Because once she uses her powers even once, it will snowball into reality-shattering consequences. Sacrificing Arcadia Bay is just speeding the universe towards complete madness. The only real solution is to save Rachel Amber, one way or another.