massive spoilers for "a way out" under the cut, but i've been watching various vtubers play this game, and something really stands out to me.
how fucking obvious is it that vincent isn't who he says he is?
yeah, he's put in a cell next to leo, but he immediately zeroes in on him and establishes a rapport by jumping into fights to protect him. you could argue it's because he has a strong moral compass and doesn't want to see anybody get hurt for no reason, but he's also supposed to be some meek banker guy on his first day in prison. you'd think he would be more concerned with keeping his head down and getting through his sentence.
vincent also has zero problem getting violent even though nothing about his backstory suggests that he has experience with fighting or guns or MURDERING PEOPLE. the scene where they're picking up guns for the impending fight is just the most obvious instance of him knowing things he shouldn't (rattling off details about each weapon to no one in particular even though, again, he's supposed to be some rando who got dragged into crime via banking).
even some of the funnier story beats like the pair miraculously escaping the cops on a ROWBOAT take on a new light once the twist hits. of course the cops wouldn't just drive downriver and pick them up at their leisure. they WANT them to get to mexico and take down harvey. obviously not every cop chasing them is in on the secret, but i imagine they just get ordered to stand down when the scene ends.
you could just say that leo just goes along with all of this without question because the plot demands it, but i think it just reinforces how bad leo is at reading people. he trusts harvey, who is obviously going to betray him the moment it's convenient. he trusts the new guy in prison who says he wants to kill harvey and BRINGS HIM TO HIS FAMILY while they're on the run. he doesn't question how vincent conveniently knows how to do all this shady shit, just trusts that they want the same thing and is grateful to have found someone competent to rely on.
even the detail that he met his wife at the orphanage where they were raised is very telling. he latched onto the first kind person he saw and stayed with her for life. luckily, that girl just happened to be a good person, but she easily could've been a monster, and i don't think leo would've done anything different.
so when the twist hits and leo goes fucking mental, it might SEEM out of nowhere. why jump straight to wanting to murder vincent instead of just wanting to get away?
but this is the second person leo has trusted who betrayed him, and this one was arguably worse than harvey. vincent manipulated him from the start, knowing he would eventually hand leo over to the authorities. hell, he probably thought vincent's dead brother was part of the ruse, too, because why wouldn't it be? it's a perfect emotional beat that makes vincent's pursuit of harvey just as personal as leo's, and it primes leo to be sympathetic to any weird shit he sees because vincent is grieving. and vincent knows his family now, gained THEIR trust because leo said he was trustworthy. who knows what the cops would do to linda and alex?
but yeah. watching the game play out knowing the twist makes it extra tragic for leo. you watch him completely miss red flag after red flag because he earnestly believes in people's goodness, and you watch people exploit that faith again and again. it's heartbreaking.
dailybridgerton
kianamaiart
jacobvanloon
snowghoul
