Talk about a tragic relationship. I try to role-play as Max by being more on Chloe's side in her war against David but I'm personally much more sympathetic to David's situation than Chloe's (though her life hasn't exactly been a picnic either). Here's a combat veteran with PTSD trying to build himself a new life with a woman he genuinely loves. He tries to reach out to her daughter in a very simple and thoughtful way to let her know how grateful he is to be a part of her life, only for that daughter to continuously reject him and personally degrade him. The fact that the card for Chloe is in his drawer tells a lot about their relationship.

Max's search for the password unearthed a lot of unspoken implications about David's life-trying to adjust to life after war and meeting Joyce, whom he obviously made a good first impression on. Though Max seems to believe otherwise, I just think that David is just trying to do his job and maintain the protection of Blackwell students and while his methods may be overzealous, they're understandable with the knowledge of how his past experiences have shaped his outlook.

David isn't perfect; though his paranoia can be traced back to his combat experience and the stress of being a school security guard, the episode definitely reminded us of his uglier side when he told Joyce that he expected her to take Chloe's side because "women always stick together” before telling Joyce to screw off. But what I like about LIS is how none of the characters are perfect, not even the "normal" Max, who can be just as vindictive as Chloe is. Chloe herself is an incredible paradox of a character: funny, charming, abrasive, self-pitying, bitter, manipulative. Providing the characters with this amount of depth is what makes this game with a relatively fantastic premise feel grounded in reality.