You know, I mull it over in my head again and again, and now that I've slept on it, I'm inclined to consider this one of the best endings ever written.
Season 3 is the story
of how Sam loses his partner, as it normally happens in every classic cop story (only not so normal here.) There's no miraculous rebirth of Max - just him dying and that's it. He's not coming back, and Sam knows it.
Although it has been foreshadowed for a while. Max often joked about his own death for the last few seasons, always thinking of a new way he wanted to die - so why not build a story out of it? Why not give Max the send-off he's always wanted. In this case, being him turned him into a rampaging Elder God, and exploding in a psychic-thermonuclear explosion in the depths of space. That's pretty awesome by Max's standards. Probably the way he always wanted it.
Sam's reaction to the whole thing is what really hits it home for me. And meeting Past Max felt more like a new beginning than anything. Past Max just underwent the same ordeal with Past Sam, being forced to put the psychic monster canine out of his misery. Now these two lost souls having both lost a best friend now find each other through bizarre happenstance. They know they aren't the same as the ones they left behind, but at least they have a new best friend to keep them from wandering aimlessly. The mechanics of how this ending works would definitely need explaining to some people, but otherwise, I think it's fantastic.
This still opens up a can of worms for future episodes. Past Max will undoubtedly inherit the problems of Max (not including the presidency, which now belongs to Superball. WHICH IS AWESOME.) And he and Sam would be at odds about their experiences. And there's always the chance they might meet the other Sam and Max in Hell (unless Max's sacrifice earned him a ticket into heaven, which would make for a very interesting episode.)
I'm still going to gripe about not being able to see Sybil's baby - the one Max died for. She and Abe should name it Max, though. Max Lincoln-Pandemik.
Well there is one thing I did not understand somehow:
why the awkward silence between Sam and (Past) Max?
Because they both realized that they'd just both admitted to killing the other in a hideous display. It was a moment of silence for each of their respective time-stream-dopplegangers I guess.
Because they both realized that they'd just both admitted to killing the other in a hideous display. It was a moment of silence for each of their respective time-stream-dopplegangers I guess.
Indeed. It shouldn't even be a question. Some people just can't form empathy, alright. I mean if you were a 6-foot-tall dog that just experienced the death of his little buddy, then saw a past version of him coming from a time travelling elevator and explained the situation and he explained HIS situation of destroying YOUR past self... You'd stop talking. It's not that hard to put yourself in others' places, really.
Just got the 2nd ending, the non time-travel one, and I like that one a lot better, it feels more..right? And the lightning in the clouds..throwback to PastSam's electromagnetic abilities? Or a possible hint that our Sam would develop these powers? I doubt that'd happen, but that doesn't mean I won't write about it!
It may not be the exact same Max from the previous episodes, but it's still Max. It's not like he's undergone massive and total redesign as a character. He's still going to act the same, look the same and essentially be the same. You won't notice a difference. I won't.
It's sort of like Spock in Star Trek, from Start to Wrath of Khan, and then a reconstructed version from The Search for Spock onward.
Was it the same Spocks on both sides? Technically, yes...in a way.
Would personality differences be detected? Definately.
Would he eventually, over decades of living, rebuild all his previous emotional development that seemed lost at first? Yes.
He's still Max. A hare different, but he's still Max.
I mean if you were a 6-foot-tall dog that just experienced the death of his little buddy, then saw a past version of him coming from a time travelling elevator and explained the situation and he explained HIS situation of destroying YOUR past self... You'd stop talking.
Maybe.
But I wouldn't be so trusting and accepting him so quickly (especially if the past 24 hours have included dozens of false clones of said little buddy). But I think I made that clear enough in several threads.
EDIT: Oops... I mean the past WEEK, not 24 hours. Sam is just too trusting all of a sudden IMO.
Because they both realized that they'd just both admitted to killing the other in a hideous display. It was a moment of silence for each of their respective time-stream-dopplegangers I guess.
After being confused totally by all this emotional stuff going on in a Sam & Max game, I actually quite liked the ending (I got the one when they go back to the elevator). While the situation was strange, the exchange between Sam and Max was so in-character for both that I couldn't help smiling. I mean, we observe Sam forlornly wandering through the city, then suddenly, as everyone was hoping, Max appears in a horribly convoluted manner (very appropriate for the S&M universe), and annouces simply that he's just back from a similar adventure where he had to destroy Giant Sam. Then after the aforementioned awkaward silence, both step out of the situation, and ramble off as a united, undestroyable force in the universe. Great stuff!
I'm still confused.. can anybody clear it up?
Where did the Max from the time machine come from? Is he from an alternate universe? as he mentions having to destroy a giant Sam. Or is the time machine from a past episode of Sam and Max?
Is it the real Max? Did the soul of Max go into that past version? Will this cause a Paradox?
The ending baffled me a bit.
I'm still confused.. can anybody clear it up?
Where did the Max from the time machine come from? Is he from an alternate universe? as he mentions having to destroy a giant Sam. Or is the time machine from a past episode of Sam and Max?
Is it the real Max? Did the soul of Max go into that past version? Will this cause a Paradox?
The ending baffled me a bit.
I wrote up a thing in another thread... one sec...
It's a reference to Season Two, but also it doesn't matter that much!
In Season Two, Sam and Max get a time machine, and use it to go back in time to Season One. When there, they meet the Season One versions of themselves, who steal the time machine. Various hijinx ensue, and their paths cross a few more times during that episode, but at the end of the day, Season One Sam And Max go rogue, stealing the time machine and running off for good to save their own skin!
What happened to those guys, nobody knows. The mix up with the time machine caused a weird paradox, resulting in there being two Sam and Maxes wandering the time stream.
At the end if 305, we reunite the remains of both pairs of Freelance Police, and unify the timestream. Maybe in some other city, or in an Alternate Season Three, where time forked in favor of the rogue Season One Sam and Max and their stolen time machine, they had adventures ten times crazier than those seen in The Devils Playhouse, in which Season One Sam got crazy electromagnetic powers, and Max had to kill him.
For whatever reason (but probably fate or convenience), Season One Max, now partnerless, got in the time machine had went to the exact place and time where our Season Two/Three Sam was sitting, reminiscing about his dead partner. The end!
According to Chuck, Max is connected to himself on a quantum level so they're all the same and share the same mind, too, if that makes you feel better
I wrote up a thing in another thread... one sec...
It's a reference to Season Two, but also it doesn't matter that much!
According to Chuck, Max is connected to himself on a quantum level so they're all the same and share the same mind, too, if that makes you feel better
yeh that clears it up thanks. I hadn't played Season two for ages and I completely forgot that the time machine got stolen. Perhaps I should have played it again before season 3.
Anyway I'm confused as to how Sam and Max from 102 didn't cause a massive paradox by stealing the time machine. If they disappeared, then surely that would mean that there would be nobody to stop Hugh Bliss, as they would have gone forward in time to the spaceship on season 2. Then surely the entire world would have been brainwashed?. Or am I over thinking this lol.
Anyway it was a satisfying end to Season 3.
I would like to be one to try to explane the differences in plot, to give a brighter image in your mind, and to explane to those (and maybe me) who can get dazed and confused sometimes (no offence intened). Rewriten from my preveus post from the S&M wiki (apparently wrong place(no more offence intened).
"For starter, I would like to point out how almost everyone considers that the Sam & Max in the game is to be canon with them all (Comics, TV show), but in some ways that is not always the case. Takeing the reasently released [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtles_Forever Turtles Forever] and other cartoon, game, and comic book references that I have managed to dig up, it is to be considered that these Sam & Maxs are simalar but are not the exact same characters. For one thing, the suroundings in different series are not compleatly the same (the offices in each series do not match, and the Sub-Basement of Solitude is never seen out side of the cartoon and the street is also in simalar but different disign), which brings me to the next subject. Some of the main character are not seen or mentioned, or are only seen in that one particular place (Flint has never appeared in the cartoon and his actions in the games are slightly different; Lorne "the friend for life", and The Geek and Sam's Grandmother (who's only ever appearence has been in the cartoon) are never seen or heard from after the cartoon ended, and most of the characters in and events in the games are exusive to the game (exculding Flint). The major differences are (besides the difference in their young and older selfs) the tone and style to each one; the game ones are more reasonable but can be more agressive and ruthless, the cartoons are more lighter but are more straight forward and kooky, and the comic book ones are edgier and a little dark and combines all of the personality traits of all of them. The cartoon mult universe is not just a theme that has just come up and has infacted been used way back to the time of Bizarro Superman and Porky in Wackyland, and are as easy to assoseate with evil twins from other dimentions. So even if the other Max replaced the old Max, it does no mean the original is gone, that title goes to Steve Purcell's comics. It all depends on what you think."
So you see, I just wanted to get the positive word out. I just don't want people going around thinking (after the finale) that the Max (or Maxes) that we've known for 23 years has been replace in one video game by one that been around for 4 years and remembers nothing about current events. That would be weird.
There were definite possible plots for Season Three where alternate timeline Sam & Max were more heavily involved, but it seemed way too convoluted even compared to what the designers did do.
Haha, oh man, alternate Sam and Max would have made excellent villains. =P
@ Masta23: The "future"/"current" Sam & Max took their place.
And if they were smart (hmm...) they capped Hugh Bliss and the Soda Poppers right away, rendering BOTH seasons obsolete in the process.
Oh, wait, they didn't know the poppers yet in 204. Well at least Hugh Bliss, Santa and Jurgen.
EDIT: Which kind of raises the question why most where in hell in 205, with pre-knowledge of all events many deaths and tradegy could have been prevented. But I guess Sam and Max just let history run it's course, even if they had no such reservations in 204 itself...
Because they both realized that they'd just both admitted to killing the other in a hideous display. It was a moment of silence for each of their respective time-stream-dopplegangers I guess.
Sam never told Max 2 that he killed his doppelganger, it was only Max 2 that told Sam that.
I'm shaken. On one side, this is one of the best endings and on the other side it's not what I'll be able to accept in many sleepless nights.
Eventhough the narrator mentioned Max having this power before all this had happened, I guess Telltale found this as the best way for Max to lose this power forever and forget if this season ever happened (which actually didn't happen in his own view).
The only question I have is, did Max somehow manage to teleport himself to Sticky's cellphone in Skunkape's ship?
Will I play Season 4? Yes I will, Telltale has to make it up to this to make everyone happy again.
I specifically request Telltale to please make another season in future and not leave this here. I would die if you didn't.
Episode rating: 9.5 out of 10. Only because felt too easy and small.
Season rating: 9 out of 10. Could anyone every thought about a greater different plot than this?
Thanks Telltale for a great series.
And, "Holy beer-battered Princess of Marine and King of New England in a glass bottom boat with trip-hop DJ and the season runner-up in the Miss teen Oklahoma pageant!"
First of all talk to Momma Bosco, then head outside via the blue elevator. Then pick up the corndogs next to grampa stinky and talk to him about corndogs too. Then go back in boscotech and talk to mr featherly about an egg you need for the recipe. Talk to the cops about a virus then talk to momma bosco about the dimensional stabilizer, then talk to superball and ask him to turn around (that will get you the egg). Go back outside go next to the desoto, go in in the inventory and hover the mouse cursor first over the corndogs then over activate corndogs, then wave the corndogs, move to the big puddle then eat the corn dogs, and repeat with the corndog van. Then go up the ladder near the puddle, talk to satan about behind the scenes, quickly use the corndogs with the microphone. After the cut scene click on the desoto to get into Max.
First thing you need to do is use the beans in your inventory with the blender. Then use the tubes to go to the brain, but before you can go anywhere click on the tumour then the door (this will bring you back to the stomach). Use the tube again, then click on the shelf with the records, but only pick up the bear record. Go in the tube with the feet icon and after sam and sybil stop talking go to max's inventory via the tube with a box icon on it, then click on the roach farm to the left of you, then try touching the cables (it will turn you into a tiny vacuum cleaner) which you use to knock down the roach which sam will call sam junior, go back up the tube and use sam junior with sybil to get giant max's feet working.
Now you need to make your way back to the stomach via 2 tubes (the brain one then the stomach one). Use sam junior with the craving platter. Now control giant max by clicking on the icon at the top of the screen. Just walk straight up to get Sal eaten. Don't talk to Sal yet just go back to the brain, then go into the other tube, the arm tube. Do the puzzle, just listen to what they say. Just say the opposite to what you see on the arcade machine. You'll end up unable to return to the arm room, so go back to the stomach and talk to Sal. This will get the arms working. Now control giant max and go back the way you came, then click on the battery park, after the cut scene return to sam and open the door you couldn't open earlier.
Turn the circuit breaker to off and check out the astral projection machine before going back out to the others. Then go back in and control giant max again, look out for skunkape's ship, then click on it when you see it. Go back to sam again and use the slides to astral project into skunkape's ship. Now all the need to do is click on the backdrop behind sam, astral project to the sam with the water bottle. Open up the fuse box, drink some water from the water bottle and split on the fuses, then astral project into the sam clone with the running wheel and use the wheel (you'll automatically astral project to the sam clone you started out as). Now use the wires to break out of the glass. Go up a level via the door to the right, and talk to sammun-mak labeled as Gordon alive?, talk about molemen till he accidentally opens the mole processing chamber where grampa stinky is, talk to grampa stinky about skunkape, the chtonic destroyer, grampa stinky, then finally skunkape, then sam does a dance. astral project back, then control giant max again, find the cloning facility, its a big tower, and click it to get max to remember it. Go back to sam and astral project to the cloning facility.
As a sam clone first you need to turn the fog machine on, then just go in your inventory and get the toybox photo and use it on the camera (that will get skunkape to come to you) then say to skunkape about the bomb to get him to give you the toy, then go right and you'll automatically go back to boscotech and out and you'll get eaten by giant max again.
Use the chtonic destroyer with the tentacle then open the tear ducts, then use the bear record on the record player to make max cry, now escape through the tear duct entrance you just opened. The last puzzle is very easy with just one item to use, so I won't spoil it for you.
Comments
Season 3 is the story
Although it has been foreshadowed for a while. Max often joked about his own death for the last few seasons, always thinking of a new way he wanted to die - so why not build a story out of it? Why not give Max the send-off he's always wanted. In this case, being him turned him into a rampaging Elder God, and exploding in a psychic-thermonuclear explosion in the depths of space. That's pretty awesome by Max's standards. Probably the way he always wanted it.
Sam's reaction to the whole thing is what really hits it home for me. And meeting Past Max felt more like a new beginning than anything. Past Max just underwent the same ordeal with Past Sam, being forced to put the psychic monster canine out of his misery. Now these two lost souls having both lost a best friend now find each other through bizarre happenstance. They know they aren't the same as the ones they left behind, but at least they have a new best friend to keep them from wandering aimlessly. The mechanics of how this ending works would definitely need explaining to some people, but otherwise, I think it's fantastic.
This still opens up a can of worms for future episodes. Past Max will undoubtedly inherit the problems of Max (not including the presidency, which now belongs to Superball. WHICH IS AWESOME.) And he and Sam would be at odds about their experiences. And there's always the chance they might meet the other Sam and Max in Hell (unless Max's sacrifice earned him a ticket into heaven, which would make for a very interesting episode.)
I'm still going to gripe about not being able to see Sybil's baby - the one Max died for. She and Abe should name it Max, though. Max Lincoln-Pandemik.
I don't remember him doing this; can you give an example or two?
Because they both realized that they'd just both admitted to killing the other in a hideous display. It was a moment of silence for each of their respective time-stream-dopplegangers I guess.
Indeed. It shouldn't even be a question. Some people just can't form empathy, alright. I mean if you were a 6-foot-tall dog that just experienced the death of his little buddy, then saw a past version of him coming from a time travelling elevator and explained the situation and he explained HIS situation of destroying YOUR past self... You'd stop talking. It's not that hard to put yourself in others' places, really.
It's sort of like Spock in Star Trek, from Start to Wrath of Khan, and then a reconstructed version from The Search for Spock onward.
Was it the same Spocks on both sides? Technically, yes...in a way.
Would personality differences be detected? Definately.
Would he eventually, over decades of living, rebuild all his previous emotional development that seemed lost at first? Yes.
He's still Max. A hare different, but he's still Max.
But I wouldn't be so trusting and accepting him so quickly (especially if the past 24 hours have included dozens of false clones of said little buddy). But I think I made that clear enough in several threads.
EDIT: Oops... I mean the past WEEK, not 24 hours. Sam is just too trusting all of a sudden IMO.
It was their fault though...
Sorry.
Where did the Max from the time machine come from? Is he from an alternate universe? as he mentions having to destroy a giant Sam. Or is the time machine from a past episode of Sam and Max?
Is it the real Max? Did the soul of Max go into that past version? Will this cause a Paradox?
The ending baffled me a bit.
I wrote up a thing in another thread... one sec...
It's a reference to Season Two, but also it doesn't matter that much!
According to Chuck, Max is connected to himself on a quantum level so they're all the same and share the same mind, too, if that makes you feel better
So, does the new Max know anything of what happened between 102 and 305?
And are there or are there not a monster Sam and a monster Max in hell?
: D
When you put it that way, it looks as though they have been fully reunited after all. The two monsters have been reuinted in hell. :rolleyes:
Anyway I'm confused as to how Sam and Max from 102 didn't cause a massive paradox by stealing the time machine. If they disappeared, then surely that would mean that there would be nobody to stop Hugh Bliss, as they would have gone forward in time to the spaceship on season 2. Then surely the entire world would have been brainwashed?. Or am I over thinking this lol.
Anyway it was a satisfying end to Season 3.
"For starter, I would like to point out how almost everyone considers that the Sam & Max in the game is to be canon with them all (Comics, TV show), but in some ways that is not always the case. Takeing the reasently released [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtles_Forever Turtles Forever] and other cartoon, game, and comic book references that I have managed to dig up, it is to be considered that these Sam & Maxs are simalar but are not the exact same characters. For one thing, the suroundings in different series are not compleatly the same (the offices in each series do not match, and the Sub-Basement of Solitude is never seen out side of the cartoon and the street is also in simalar but different disign), which brings me to the next subject. Some of the main character are not seen or mentioned, or are only seen in that one particular place (Flint has never appeared in the cartoon and his actions in the games are slightly different; Lorne "the friend for life", and The Geek and Sam's Grandmother (who's only ever appearence has been in the cartoon) are never seen or heard from after the cartoon ended, and most of the characters in and events in the games are exusive to the game (exculding Flint). The major differences are (besides the difference in their young and older selfs) the tone and style to each one; the game ones are more reasonable but can be more agressive and ruthless, the cartoons are more lighter but are more straight forward and kooky, and the comic book ones are edgier and a little dark and combines all of the personality traits of all of them. The cartoon mult universe is not just a theme that has just come up and has infacted been used way back to the time of Bizarro Superman and Porky in Wackyland, and are as easy to assoseate with evil twins from other dimentions. So even if the other Max replaced the old Max, it does no mean the original is gone, that title goes to Steve Purcell's comics. It all depends on what you think."
So you see, I just wanted to get the positive word out. I just don't want people going around thinking (after the finale) that the Max (or Maxes) that we've known for 23 years has been replace in one video game by one that been around for 4 years and remembers nothing about current events. That would be weird.
And if they were smart (hmm...) they capped Hugh Bliss and the Soda Poppers right away, rendering BOTH seasons obsolete in the process.
Oh, wait, they didn't know the poppers yet in 204. Well at least Hugh Bliss, Santa and Jurgen.
EDIT: Which kind of raises the question why most where in hell in 205, with pre-knowledge of all events many deaths and tradegy could have been prevented. But I guess Sam and Max just let history run it's course, even if they had no such reservations in 204 itself...
Sam never told Max 2 that he killed his doppelganger, it was only Max 2 that told Sam that.
Some things just don't need words.
And it's Max 3.
How is it Max 3, they only created 1 other sam and max not 2 in 204
When did that happen?
Eventhough the narrator mentioned Max having this power before all this had happened, I guess Telltale found this as the best way for Max to lose this power forever and forget if this season ever happened (which actually didn't happen in his own view).
The only question I have is, did Max somehow manage to teleport himself to Sticky's cellphone in Skunkape's ship?
Will I play Season 4? Yes I will, Telltale has to make it up to this to make everyone happy again.
I specifically request Telltale to please make another season in future and not leave this here. I would die if you didn't.
Episode rating: 9.5 out of 10. Only because felt too easy and small.
Season rating: 9 out of 10. Could anyone every thought about a greater different plot than this?
Thanks Telltale for a great series.
And, "Holy beer-battered Princess of Marine and King of New England in a glass bottom boat with trip-hop DJ and the season runner-up in the Miss teen Oklahoma pageant!"
Remember that time they were on the moon? If not watch the cartoon or read the comic.
Thats my walkthrough, hope it helps you out.