Review

The Walking Dead: Season Two Episode 3: In Harm’s Way

We’ve finally made it to that middle-ish episode. You know, the one that goes off the rails, building the excitement to set up the finale. This is the one where the writers are free to throw in all sorts of interesting plot twists and leave everything up in the air. The one where anyone can die at any moment – at least that was the case with the last season of the Walking Dead.

Of course that’s my own interpretation. It’s pretty obvious that for game’s sake the main protagonist will need to survive; if Clementine dies, there would be no game for us to play. That said, the third episodes for the Telltale games seem to really push this theme of uncertainty. The same holds true for “In Harm’s Way” as tensions mount to crazy levels. Here we find Clementine and her group abducted by Carver, the shadowy figure from before. As it turns out, he has a sordid history that’s connected to our newest cast members and doesn’t take kindly to being “betrayed”. Actually, he doesn’t take kindly to much of any opposition to his desires for the group.

One of the things I like about this episode is that it brings up the notion of survival by way of dictatorship but not with the typical approach. Carver doesn’t believe that the best way to survive the apocalypse is by taking what other people have and keeping it for himself. Instead, he feels that everyone needs to stick together, whether they want to or not. It’s an interesting idea when you think about how one must accomplish this feat. When Carver goes to capture Clem’s group, he does so without the intent to kill anyone. Sure, there were casualties; if you played the last episode, you’d know that his motivation for chasing down Clem’s particular group wasn’t just to build up his forces. That aside, his end game was the same – to integrate them into the larger group in hopes of strengthening his well-organized community.

There are other story beats that are worth noting. Unfortunately, a lot of what’s cool about this episode is cast aside moments after being introduced. New characters are added just to be killed off, the major conflict is resolved before ever leading to anything worthwhile, and remnants from the past season (namely the 400 Days DLC) seems to have had no real effects on the story. Now I know that there are only five episodes so there isn’t much time to build up multiple story threads, have them bloom into something big and then resolve them all before the end. It is more realistic for a twist to be explored and resolved in the same episode it was introduced in unless it was anchored at the end as a cliff hanger. I also understand what is and isn’t the focus of Season 2; the story revolves around Clem’s trek through this brutal world. Not on the “extra” characters she may meet here and there. With all of that being said, I still feel that there were some missed opportunities with respect to the narrative.

Outside of reminding you that they’re alive, none of the characters you saved from the 400 Days DLC seemed to matter. They didn’t do anything to change the flow of the story nor did they give an opinion on what was happening sans one random conversation. The people (from the DLC) who did have big roles in this episode were the ones that would have survived regardless of what happened previously. That makes it seem like your past actions were inconsequential to the plot, something the last season did well to hide. Carver’s dictatorship starts off unique and then slowly turns into…well, the same old thing we’ve seen before. Instead of showing a man who has to balance being a tough leader with needed to keep people alive, we’re shown someone who kills indiscriminately. This wouldn’t be a problem if it wasn’t in conflict with his previous actions; he forgave a random person that shot him in the shoulder an episode ago but killed someone he had history with over a small matter. It’s like he’s crazy/manic depressed – maybe that’s the point. Either way, it struck me as odd.

Ultimately, I enjoyed this episode. Clem’s story, at least from her point of view, is intriguing. And though I do have complaints, they certainly don’t ruin the game for me. I guess I just wanted to be surprised with how the plot developed. You know, beyond the brutal details of a character’s death. I will say that there is a mystery that has yet to be solved. Based on how the last season ended, its reveal could be something huge. “Amid The Ruins” and “No Going Back” are the last two episodes. With names like that, there’s bound to be something exciting in store for fans!