Thoughts on Episode 2: Smoke & Mirrors

First off, I'd like to point out that I've only had one playthrough, so my thoughts will probably change when I go back through the episode a second time.

So, first off, Detective Brannigan will show up in Episode 3, I guess her appearing in the start was a quick introduction to what I assume the focus of Episode 3 will be. The beginning scene, besides showing that, isn't very important. Then the interrogation. I believe that I managed to get all the information out of Tweedle Dee through both non-violent and violent methods, mainly non-violent. I tightened the straps and pocketed the money, but that was all that Crane had to complain about, besides that, I think I was mainly non-violent. Although, I did end up attacking Dee rather than Bluebeard, so it may have counted as being violent during the interrogation...

The main information that I got out of him was this; Faith stole something, so Dee and his brother were hired to track it down after she died. This explains what they were doing at Toad's and Lawrence's(also, no Lawerence? What happened to him?). He also mentioned Beauty, which turned out to be unrelated. Altogether, I think that the interrogation was a success for me, though I'd like to go back and be a little less violent... Whilst still not necessarily being nice to him.

After this, there was the talk with TJ, which I was nice to him. I think a lot of that was basically exactly what happened, and there's no reason to look into it, the only thing that was confusing was the "laughing" bit.

I don't think that I got to fully examine the body, which I wasn't too happy about... Although, I assume that I got everything important. It was Lilly, Holly's sister, she was a prostitute using a cheap glamour to disguise herself as snow. Then, she was killed, although apparently given instructions? I assume that that was for the sex part, and that she hadn't planned to be murdered.

After that, there was the scene at the trip trap with Gren, Holly, and Jack. I mostly tolerated Jack, and tried to comfort Holly. While this was a nice scene, I don't think that it was important to the case in any way.

The visit to the Pudding and Pie was probably my favorite part of the episode, next to the investigation scene at the end. I was calm throughout the whole thing of questioning Georgie, and while I really would like to kick his ass in a second playthrough, I don't think that he was involved too much either. At least, in the actual killing. I realize that he is manipulating Faith and the others, but I don't think that in the actual murder, he's entirely relevant. It seemed that Faith and Lilly were friends, which might be important, and besides that, Faith's cubby was searched, probably by the Tweedles.

I thought that the "These lips are sealed" was a spell or something that prevented the girls form telling Bigby anything, and I think that that's a possibility, but I'm not 100% sure.

The part at the hotel with Beauty was probably the biggest as it involved the case. I had lied to Beast, and like I assume the majority of people, thought that Beauty was also working for Georgie, and was relieved to find out that she wasn't.

Also, Beast = Kenny.

I tried to avoid the fight with beast, and even purposefully failed a few QTEs to see if that would stop the fight without a game over, I just really didn't want to fight him. After breaking into 207, I think that I managed to piece everything together. That Crane had some kind of obsession with Snow(specifically the Disney version? This was the only thing that threw me off a bit...), and killed Lilly after recreating the scene in the storybook.

I don't think that Crane was framed. I believe that he is responsible for killing, at the very least, Lilly. However, I do think that he was manipulated, that someone took advantage of his obsession. The most likely culprit is Bluebeard, who would want to steal power from Crane and become acting Mayor. This is possible, but it's also possible that Bluebeard is just taking advantage of the situation, and something or someone else set Crane off.

I'm not sure about Faith's murder yet, although I'm pretty sure that that wasn't Crane. It's possible that that murder is totally separate from the thing with Crane. Maybe Bluebeard saw THAT murder as an opportunity, and manipulated Crane into committing the second.

And there's still the matter of the object that Faith stole, which I can't make any deductions on right now due to a total lack of information. I will say that I think both the Tweedles and the Woodsman have nothing to do with the actual murders. I'm not sure who the key players in the first are, but I'm almost certain that Crane was the killer in the second, and the Bluebeard is involved in Lilly's murder, possibly Faith's(though I don't think that that's too likely).

Altogether, this episode was fantastic, and I don't think it could've been any better. I'm still trying to piece everything together, but It's a good thing that things aren't crystal clear yet.