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Everything has been leading to this moment. Max’s vision of a time altering tornado has finally become real. Despite her best efforts to repeatedly put a stop to the dark sides that lie within Arcadia Bay, she could never stop the inevitable.
It’s clear she will have to rewind to put an end to this destruction once and for all. And this time it’ll be the last.
“Chloe… I’m so, so sorry. I… I don’t want to do this.” And she really doesn’t, but she has to.
“I know, Max. But we have to save everybody, okay? And you’ll do what I couldn’t alone and still make those fuckers pay for what they did to Rachel and all those other girls. You’re their hero. You’re my hero, Max.”
If Max wasn’t crying already, she is now. Everything she’s done thus far has been to save Chloe, was it truly all for nothing? Perhaps some things are simply destined to happen. And them being together just isn’t one of them.
“After everything you’ve done for me Max, in every timeline including this one, I owe it to you, to let you go. So you can let me die. I’m an adult and I'm giving you that right.” Chloe looks as heartbroken as Max feels. This is not the ‘hardcore punk’ Chloe, this is a desperate and vulnerable Chloe that Max hasn’t seen since William passed. Max couldn’t be there for Chloe then, but she can now.
Regardless of the loud, strong winds swirling around them and heavy raindrops splashing on their faces, the only thing either can concentrate on is each other. And Chloe takes Max’s hand and intertwines it with hers. “You know your hair still looks cute soaking wet?”
If Max was in a different mood at any other place in time she might meet Chloe’s attempts at flirting with her own smartass remarks but not here, not now. “Please don’t joke at a time like this.”
“Sorry, I just wanted to see you smile one final time. Can you smile for me, Max? To show me you’re going to be okay without me?”
“Don’t say things like that.” Max squeezes Chloe’s hand to not let go of her as the wind attempts to blow them apart. She hates to hear Chloe speak about death, whether it be Rachel’s, her father’s, or especially her own.
“It’s true though. You will be okay without me. I’m the one who doesn’t know how to handle grief. I either rebel and push people away or go searching for things that don't exist anymore. But you’re one of, if not the strongest person I know, Max. And I want you to live a long life, even if it’s not with me.” Chloe’s cries rival with the growing volume of the storm, but she must make Max hear what she’s about to say. “Being together this week… It was the best farewell gift I could have hoped for. You’re Maxine-goddamn-Caulfield and you’re amazing.”
“Oh, Chloe…” That's all she manages to say between sobs. Max feels her heart sinking to her stomach. It’s everything she’s wanted Chloe to say since meeting her again, even since childhood, and yet it hurts so much to hear.
Max thinks back to the people she’s gotten to know in Blackwell and all of Arcadia Bay. The people she could certainly do without but also her friends, the animals, even the stranger she’s met. All of which are currently dead or dying who definitely don’t deserve it, and she doesn’t know if she can live with that kind of guilt. So she just hugs Chloe as tightly as she can while crying on her shoulder. “I’m gonna miss you so much.”
Despite her more childish aspects, Max is not clueless. She knows what this means. Chloe will die without her interference and only Max will remember their time together rekindling their childhood and the sacrifice Chloe made to save Arcadia Bay and her. And Max will get closure after Chloe dies, but Chloe will never get closure over Rachel or her. She will die still believing Max abandoned her 5 years ago and worrying that Rachel did the same. She’ll get shot in a bathroom at a school that never cared about girls like them, not knowing Max still cared, not knowing she died loved and not alone. Making it so that the last time Chloe sees Max is at her father’s funeral and the last time Max will see Chloe is at Chloe’s own funeral. But Max swears that in whatever time she has left she will remember the name Chloe Price.
The two reconnected in death and violence so that is how they will depart. Max musters up all the courage she has left to do the one thing she’s been aching to do all week which to her feels like a thousand years — Max kisses Chloe. It may not make up for the years they spent apart but it’s a connection and that’s something so at least neither will have to leave without saying goodbye.
And it feels like saying goodbye to an old friend, the love of your life, and childhood all in one.
Now Max is realizing that maybe all those teen rom-com movies she’s watched a million times lied to her because it’s nothing like her fantasies she’s written about in her journal. They’re finally kissing and there are no symphonies of love songs. No fireworks going off in the background. No beam of sunlight shining down above them. There’s no reason to, it’s their first real kiss and also their last.
Lightning flashes across the sky before thunder crackles around them and both feel the ground begin to shake as the storm grows closer. Max knows she’s out of time. If she could freeze time like she accidentally did when trying to help Kate, she’d do it right now but on purpose. They might be cold, wet, and terrified, but they’re together and that’s everything she could ask for and more. Her friends are still alive, she’s kissing Chloe, it's the perfect moment, but even perfect moments cannot last forever.
There was never a future where Chloe and Max could be with each other free from consequences. They barely had a present together. Just a single week that’s been stuck on repeat in an infinite loop, and even that has come to an end. For a while, the two truly believed they were Time Traveling Masters with the power to fix anything that dared to cross their paths. But at this moment they are simply Max and Chloe, two teenagers in love embracing one another as their world crumbles around them.
And this time Chloe kisses Max back.
Let it be the last thing she does.