Dumb question, can Rachel control wind or was that just weird camera work at the end. Honestly if it wasn't for the D&D game in this ep don't think I would have liked it at all. Didn't think I'd miss that sci-if twist so much, with out it it's just a story about teenagers making awful decisions.
The prevailing theory is that Rachel has some form of abilities, be it time travel or something more. The main draw for this is no matter how you swing the 2 Truths 1 Lie game, she ALWAYS get's it right, no matter if you cheat, play right or what choices you make for each truth and lie, she gets it every time. She seems to know everything about Chloe, after only knowing her for such a short space of time.
(I've edited below to save myself further embarrassment, and just typed up the more focused, less stupid theory)
My theory is that Rachel has multiple powers, including time travel (due to her never getting the game wrong) and maybe some form of telekinesis (the wind at the end of the ep). Given this, I'd say that Rachel IS the storm from LiS. Let me explain.
We found out in this episode that Rachel's Dad is a DA who moved from Cali, and that the Prescott's are still very much in the picture at Arcadia Bay. As we know from the first game, the Prescott's are very shady fellows who are deep in many things around Arcadia Bay. Is Rachel's Dad in town to bring the Prescott's to justice for whatever evil doings they are up to this time? I'd say that's not far fetched, and I wouldn't say it was out of the question that the Prescott's might try and take Rachel's Dad out for getting too close/threatening whatever they are up to.
As we know from LiS, Rachel was getting very cosy with Mr. Jefferson, who had very tight links with the Prescott's, taking backhanders and pay offs while tutoring their son, Nathan. Does Rachel use her powers to get close to Jefferson, in an attempt to take down the Prescott's to avenge her father? Ultimately, we know she fails, with a storm then hitting Arcadia Bay and Max's time travel abilities being awoken.
With the heavy emphasis on the wind around the tree at the end of this episode, I'd say it's not much of a stretch to say that when Jefferson kills Rachel, the storm is her or her spirit. In the first game, the only way to end the storm was to let Chloe die, which makes sense if we accept that the storm is Rachel. She just wants to be reunited with the girl she loves, which we will obviously see blossom over the next two episodes.
There's also a lot of theorising around the fact that Does/Deer were the symbolic animal that shadowed and followed Max throughout LiS, representing "sensitivity, intuition and gentleness". Comparatively, Rachel seems to be followed by Ravens/Crows, which are symbols of protection, but also the carrier between life and death. People are even stretching to say there have been multiple crows, which are called a "murder" of crows, foreshadowing the events coming to Arcadia Bay.
As may be evident, I absolutely loved this first Episode. After the initial irks from not having the time travel ability to see the consequences of my actions with each major choice, I really started to dig the aesthetic again, and loved just being back in sleepy, creepy Arcadia Bay. Can't wait for episode 2!
