Connected By Time And Tide

Connected by time and tide

Not a new theory since many have already theorized about the meaning of Native Americans and their culture and what it has to do with this story. What we know is that Native American culture is brought up very often by Ms. Grant, we have a totem pole right behind our dormitory, there are Hopi prophecies and references to animals and spirit guides left right and center.

What is interesting is the connection between Native American history around Arcadia Bay, the town and its wealthiest and most powerful family – The Prescotts.

The Prescotts are currently building a huge estate complex in the forest behind Blackwell, and as we know from Ms. Grant, the area around Arcadia Bay once used to be peacefully shared between Native Americans and the pioneers that colonialized this place. Without fear or violence, she says they found a mutual symbiosis and thrived together. Which is far from is happening in Arcadia Bay right now.

Everyone in Arcadia Bay knows that the Prescotts are nothing but trouble and the game emphasizes that many want to leave the town. It also tells that Prescotts own pretty much everything the light touches. The people are no longer in peace and thriving – they are either owned by the Prescotts or want to leave because the town no longer offers them jobs or safety. The homeless woman says that “[the good] days are dead, like anything in [Prescotts’] way” and Kate says that “There’s something evil about the Prescotts (…) Something to do with death”.

The Prescotts have stirred the peace and Arcadia Bay decided it was time to stop that. Indeed, Arcadia Bay may be – as few already noted – referred to as a sentient being. Samuel does this a lot when you talk to him throughout the week.

Samuel is one of those I believe has a connection to the world around him. He seems to almost communicate with the fauna around Blackwell, and in his mysterious sounding way tells Max things about Arcadia Bay and her powers. Yes, Samuel doesn’t explicitly know about Max’s powers, but I believe he does know about Arcadia Bay wanting to fight back.

He buries the birds that died near the Tobanga and does so by creating a cairn above them. “We’ll find out if the souls of the birds move on” he says, “Unless it’s fate…Then it doesn’t matter”. The same kind of cairn has been seen by the cliff at the end of Chrysalis, where Max has no idea when and why it was built. I am assuming Samuel has something to do with it, but what – or who – lays buried there is a mystery. Since he tells Max to stay on her path, that she’ll find what she’s looking for and that “Rachel is waiting too”, it seems like he knows Rachel is gone – like he seems to be waiting to know if the spirits of the buried birds have moved on. He just doesn’t know anything else.

Samuel is also the person who confirms that the Doe is Max’s spirit animal. “Could be a sign of your destiny” – Max’s destiny was to find Rachel and find out what happened to her and the other girls. In Dark Room, Max proceeds to ask Samuel whether he thinks we all have a destiny, to which he replies that yes, we do, “in many different timelines”. He says that Kate believed something different, but simply needed more helpful spirits like Max. Rachel is Max’s helpful spirit. After her passing, she took the form of Max’s spirit animal to guide her to the truth. Only Max could see her, and she has been guiding Max all along throughout the game.

When Max calls herself powerless, Samuel states that she is the opposite of Max. He always tells her to keep prying - to keep doing what she is doing – and warns her not to get stuck in the Vortex Club. He doesn’t believe anything ever ends, “especially time”.

Samuel senses something bigger is coming to Arcadia Bay and he doesn’t like it at all. As we can recall from earlier, he said Max and Arcadia Bay “are connected by time and tide”.

The Prescotts are disrupting the peace and quiet of Arcadia Bay and it is trying to fight back. That’s why Max has gotten her powers – think of it not as a curse but as a gift of power. Some historians claim that different Native American tribes living in places where tornadoes happened often had “an ability to turn or reroute storms away from people in their path” and that “such a person with the right knowledge or personal power could do this”.

Some Native Americans know when a tornado will strike, because nature and the land around them talks. They simply have to listen. That way, they can warn their people in time. Native American elders say that “Tornadoes are not evil; they reset the balance in nature”.

The Prescotts tipped this balance and unbalance is what rules Arcadia Bay right now. To cleanse the land once ruled by peace, it is spawning a tornado to do so. The land has been talking, with weather changes, animals acting out of it, dying. In alternate timeline, the tornado was still going to happen, but Max didn’t receive her powers because she never triggered them. She never tore a photo, she never had the need to save Chloe that day – she was partying with her enemies from the other timeline. The tornado is happening because the Prescotts are in power and dark things are taking place in Arcaida Bay  - but in the original timeline, we have the means to help people and maybe, just maybe, tip the scales back without the need for a tornado.

Max received her powers to alter time and – what I believe – warn the people around her. We know that she got her power after ripping the photo she was supposed to hand in to Jefferson and that saving beings doesn’t alter anything. She can use her power to alter a blue jay’s destiny – saving it, she lets it live and later, the bird has made a nest, laid eggs – new life is starting thanks to Max.

The spirits guide her, the land grants her power to make a difference – tip back the scales or let the tornado cleanse it all. If Max can find a way to bust the Prescotts (and Jefferson with them since he is connected to Sean), the tornado may hopefully be prevented and the land will heal thanks to her.

If we instead choose to let the tornado happen, the land will be cleansed from what caused the unbalance and it will make way for people to start anew – which won’t come without a cost of wiping off the town.

P.S.: Many wonder how Chloe is tied in to the two choices we’re forced to choose from. I believe that if we let the tornado do its cause, Chloe will live and we will leave Arcadia Bay together with her. If we – and thus Max – find out a way of busting Sean Prescott and/or Jefferson through the events of Polarized, we may use this to go back to the start. If this means we need to let Nathan shoot someone – be it Max or Chloe – in order for the cascade of events to lead to Prescotts and Jefferson’s demise, then someone will get injured and possibly die. That someone can be Chloe.

It will be up to us – as Max – to choose how we want to deal with the bad guys. Both things come at a cost – so choose wisely.