Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 2 (SPOILERS)

[MatParker116]

So just finished it and wanted to know what everyone else did? I mean I didn't the blame for the photo, sat with Kenny, told the truth about Matthew, Talked Walter down & ran for help when Mr Blonde and the rest of the Reservoir Dogs showed up. As for Episode 3 it's looking like the "Farm" episode of this series.

 

[Xman490]

Guessing that "I mean I didn't the blame for the photo" is supposed to include "take [for myself]", then our choices match up. Despite high stakes, most choices do feel like telling the truth is best. Hershel just had to be right, the old fart.

I kinda like how S2 Episode 3 will start with an already-established villain/dictator, however nice he and Bonnie seemed. We never really experienced that, with Crawford having been swarmed before we could meet their leaders. S1's "Farm" episode only had villains in the final third, and they were kidnappers instead of oppressors.

I wish telling Kenny not to shoot would keep get us from really getting entangled in the S2 Episode 3 mess. Kenny could have been like "every man for himself" and run off with Clem. Instead, he acts as brash as ever.

 

[Zhukov]

- Didn't take blame for photo.
- Sat with Kenny.
- Told the truth about Matthew. (Saw that one coming a mile away. Just sayin'.)
- Talked Walter down. (What happens is you don't? Nick can't actually die there can he?)
- Went to find Kenny and Luke.

Really liked it in general. I'm happier about Kenny being alive than I thought I'd be.

Curious to see how Bonnie turns out. I liked her from the 400 Days DLC and the clearly hint that she's feeling at least a little guilty despite being on Team Bad Guy.

 

[Sleix]

Didn't take blame for photo.
Sat with Kenny.
Told the truth about Matthew.
Talked Walter down.
Went to find Kenny and Luke.

Quite excited to see the rest of the 400 days gang, since I presume they'll show up at some point next episode. Although I'd assume Russell has already been killed due to Carver saying in the episode preview "Those who don't accept our love will come to regret it" (Or something along those lines) judging from the way Russ felt about his previous group "Killing folks and taking all their stuff", I guess he didn't exactly "Accept their love". Which is a shame, Russ was the character I enjoyed playing the most in the DLC. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

 

[DEAD34345]

- Talked Walter down. (What happens is you don't? Nick can't actually die there can he?)

He doesn't die right there and then, but if Nick tries to deny it altogether then Walt shoots him instead of the zombie during the attack. Happened on my little brother's play-through.

OT: My choices were mostly the same as everyone else, but I tried to take the blame for the photo, and I'm surprised most people didn't. Do you guys dislike Sarah or something? I mean she's a little weird certainly, and pretty useless, but I don't think that's really her fault. When Clementine says she took the photo Sarah tries to take the blame herself, and all that happens is that they become closer friends (I think).

 

[Don Incognito]

Took the blame for the photo, AND I stayed in the lodge to save Carlos--Kenny and Luke were on their own. Managed to save Alvin, as well.

 

[DarkhoIlow]

Took blame for taking the photo
Sat with Kenny
Told the truth about Matthew
Talked Walter out of it
Went to help out Carlos

I really liked the episode. When I saw Kenny a big "Hooooly shit!" came out of me followed by "How the hell is he still alive?".

All in all a fantastic episode and I can't wait for the next one.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

- Talked Walter down. (What happens is you don't? Nick can't actually die there can he?)

He doesn't die right there and then, but if Nick tries to deny it altogether then Walt shoots him instead of the zombie during the attack. Happened on my little brother's play-through.

The scene plays out a little bit differently if Nick does admit to killing Matthew but without getting Walter's forgiveness. When Nick gets grabbed by the walker Walter will take aim with his handgun, make eye contact with Clementine, hesitate, then run away - leaving Nick to be killed by the walker.

Anywho... my choices.

-Took Sarah's picture.
-Taught Sarah how to defend herself with a firearm.
-Took responsibility for the photo.
-Stuck to the plan and killed the smaller walker.
-Told Alvin to consult the rest of the group before giving Rebecca all of the canned peaches.
-[HUG KENNY]
-Convinced Kenny to lay down arms first.
-Told Kenny about Lee, Christa, and Omid.
-Told Sarita that Kenny's behavior did seem a bit different.
-Put the Angel on top of the Christmas tree.
-Listened to Rebecca's baby.
-Sat with Kenny at dinner. *
-Told Kenny that I trusted Luke.
-Sided with Kenny with regard to Bonnie (search her for weapons, refuse to divulge information to her). **
-Was honest with Nick about what Clementine and Luke were talking about.
-Convinced Nick to admit guilt to Walter; got Walter's forgiveness.
-Snuck out to find Luke and Kenny.
-Stopped Kenny from firing at Carver, saving Alvin.

*This was honestly the hardest choice for me in the entire episode. I actually really like Luke a lot, and I even like Nick quite a bit too (admittedly I also liked Ben in Season 1), but I had to sit with Kenny because I wanted to catch up with him. I felt that in real life a person like Luke might be initially disappointed with my decision not to sit with him, but would soon understand the situation and not feel bad. Kenny, on the other hand, I felt would probably be really deeply hurt if I didn't sit with him, and given his past, I have a feeling he'd take it pretty hard. I went back on a different save file and sat with Luke, and the look on Kenny's face as I walked over to Luke's table was just heartbreaking.

**I really dislike Bonnie. I found her to be, BY FAR, my least favorite character in 400 Days. She's a (recovering?) drug addict who knowingly starts a relationship with a married man - while still hanging around the guy's wife and pretending to be friends. She's clearly also a liar by nature, even if just by omission, to be able to keep that relationship under wraps for even a little while. She's a completely unlikable character to me. Then she just kinda shows up completely out of the blue, alone (despite being the only person guaranteed to join Tavia's community), and starts talking about her starving, likely non-existent, family? Yeah, sorry Bonnie, but I don't have any trust or faith in you. I hope Kenny's chat with Walter involved a massive verbal beatdown for risking everyone's safety.

 

[senordesol]

Eh...I thought this ep was a little lame actually. Very little puzzle solving...and the biggest damn boneheaded decisions on behalf of the crew.

*takes deep breath* WHY IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS GOOD AND HOLY DID WE NOT POST RIFLEMEN IN THE TOWERS WHEN WE HAD CONFIRMED FLASHLIGHTS ON THE BRIDGE!? AND WHY WERE WE -LITERALLY- LIT UP LIKE A CHRISTMAS TREE ONCE WE CONFIRMED THAT FACT!? "Gee, where could they have gone? That brightly lit house on the hill? Naaaaw..." FFS.

I love/hate these games. On the one hand, the story's much more compelling than the show, and the fact that you can make your own decisions is nice; but DAMN do they turn their brains off sometimes.

 

[votemarvel]

I wasn't fond of it to be honest.

Everything just felt so forced, like we were being railroaded along.

I know that is what happened in the previous season but it hid things so well that you never realised it.

 

[Batou667]

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS.

I agree this episode felt railroaded, but perhaps in part that's due to how tense it was, and the need to move the story along. Nick's continued inexplicable jackassery and the Devil Incarnate who is Carver, combined with Kenny's ridiculously vulnerable hideout and naive crew, felt like a very contrived combination when they all eventually met. (How had the hilltop house, lit up literally like a Christmas tree, not been scoped out before? Is it standard practice to have a single sentry on duty and not check up on him, even after nightfall? Why is everybody so intent on traveling North, when they have secure houses and fresh water nearby, and, in one case, a source of goddamn renewable energy?)

Some of the characters seemed a little schizophrenic, acting in ways that felt like a 180 from S2E1. The black woman suddenly softened when you'd expect her to be getting increasingly tense and snappy. Sarah downgraded herself from "dangerously child-like but calculating autist" to a simple buffoon who is led by the nose.

The bodycount in this episode was depressingly high. The old fella (predictably) succumbed to his bite, but then we had Matthew, Walter, Alvin, and Nick all unceremoniously snuffed out. Disappointing, as these characters could have been interesting given more time to develop. Would Walter ever forgive Nick, or snap and go on a rampage? How would Alvin react to Carver's "appropriation" of his wife? Guess we won't know now.

On the plus side, we now know more about Carver, and his introductory scene in the house with Clem was one of the most tense and deeply unsettling sections in the whole series, on par with the "civilised" conversation Lee has with Clem's captor in Season 1. It's rare for any game to make the player feel vulnerable in that kind of way, especially as a child protagonist - good stuff. It's fantastic to have Kenny back, of course, and I sided with him instantly over my treacherous and incompetent group. Also interesting to see the return of Bonnie from 400 Days - although I wish her nothing but a swift and painful come-uppance. She mentioned she had a child - could she be telling the truth? Was it implied in 400 Days that she was pregnant from the dude who was cheating on his wife? (No, I can't remember names for toffee).

Speculations about what will happen next? From the (glitched!) "Next Time..." teaser I gather the group is taken, and subsumed into, an almost religious commune where Carver is the head of a personality cult (very similar territory to the fascistic survivor group in Season 1, but of course we only had a very limited view of them, and mostly through the context of their crumbling from the inside). I think there's no doubt that Luke will reappear, hopefully attempting to free the group. I can't see Kenny rushing to pledge allegiance to Carver, but I hope he keeps his head down and doesn't get hurt. I imagine most of the next episode will take place inside Carver's camp.

Interesting stuff. A very mixed bag this episode.

 

[Elfgore]

It was interesting how they

Spoiler

offed both Alvin and Walter so quickly. Now that I think about it it wasn't that surprising given how they were probably the least developed (along with Kenny's new girlie) characters

My Alvin isn't dead yet. I wonder if leaving to go and find Kenny and Luke causes that? He was about to die, but I bought some time by trying to attack the leader. Did the leader just shot him and you could nothing about it?

Anyway, My choices were:

Took blame for taking the photo
Sat with Kenny
Told the truth about Matthew
Talked Walter out of it
Went to help out Carlos

On a personal note, I'm so glad I was right about who Clem met back up with. I just had a feeling in my gut that it was Kenny.

 

[Xathos]

I really liked this episode, although there are a few problems I have with it. My choices were:

-I had previously saved Pete, so watching him die was sort of sad.
-I took Sarah's photo and took the blame for it. You can also apparently NOT teach her how to defend herself with a gun (as in the scene might not even show up), so I wonder if that will factor into anything.
-I sat with Kenny, but I really agonized over it for a few minutes. I found it to be one of the hardest choices ever.
-I told the truth about Matthew, and Nick wasn't killed as a result. Good thing too, as that scene with the knife was really tense!
-I surrendered to help Carlos. This was the second hardest choice as, strategically, finding Luke and Kenny was the better option. But I didn't know where they were, and Carver really looked like he was going to kill Carlos. Managed to save Alvin, although from the preview it looks like Kenny is going to give me some crap for giving up.

Overall it was a really good episode. Nick is apparently the new Ben, but at least he's more competent the Ben (in the fact that he can kill walkers and doesn't run away). But like Ben, despite his mess ups, I felt bad for the guy. And hey, when he found out he killed Matthew his first reaction was to tell Walter, so yay for morality. Least I don't dislike him as much as I do Carlos, Mr.Super overprotective dad (seriously, Sarah is 15 and she knows next to nothing.) Besides not finding Luke and Kenny, my only other regret was not grabbing the knife when Carver shows up. I wasn't sure if Clementine was going to like, get in attack mode or whatever, or simply pocket it secretly. I know it probably doesn't matter, but when Carver noticed and put the knife away, I was really kicking myself. I felt I did really good in lying to him though!

Bad points for this episode?

-Sort of light on the "stop and talk". You know, where you can talk about like 4 different topics with some of the characters? I noticed this when everyone stopped by Matthew's shack and you couldn't talk to Sarah, while Alvin and Rebecca only had like 2 lines to say. But it was more apparent in the lodge where I would have liked to talk to Sarita and Kenny more. Its like "You got two minutes to talk to the man you haven't seen in forever, that should be more than enough right?" Not saying the story wasn't good or what was happening wasn't, but it just bugged me a little.

-Rebecca. Last episode she was in Super ***** Mode, so I sort of saw them dialing her back a bit. But I think they made her a bit TOO nice in this episode. I mean, even if you were a ***** right back to her regarding her pregnancy, she is still nice to you. Her reasons and logic were fine, even moreso by the time they get to the lodge where's she a bit more frightened, but still way too nice. I mean, I like nice Rebecca, but slightly better consistency would be good.

-I'm fine with no puzzles sometimes, especially if everything is moving at a fast pace like this episode. But...the wind turbine shut down? It was just a simple key. Feel like some levers would have been a better option, or something similar.

-Kenny's survival. Like the "stop and talk", its only a minor complaint. I get why they would just gloss over it, but I don't know if I buy it. I guess I feel like there were probably a few better ways to explain how he stayed alive (probably moreso with jumping into the building to save Christa, less so for Ben). Again, it just bugs me a little.

But like I said, very good episode! Think I like it even better than last episode, which was also pretty good. Things are going to be real awkward at Carver's camp though. Can't wait for the next episode!

 

[[REDACTED]]

SNIP

Neither Nick nor Alvin need to die in this episode. Although, considering the difficulty of creating routes where two major characters may or may not exist, I'm guessing that they're next for the chopping block even if they lived through this episode.

 

[Batou667]

]

SNIP

Neither Nick nor Alvin need to die in this episode. Although, considering the difficulty of creating routes where two major characters may or may not exist, I'm guessing that they're next for the chopping block even if they lived through this episode.

Ah, really? Interesting, as I didn't feel I ever really had a choice to save either. In my playthrough Nick got bitten by a zombie as Walter looked on (and later denied seeing anything) and Alvin was one of the hostages executed by Carver, in both cases in what I assumed were forced cutscenes.

Like you say, the fact that they're "killable" earmarks them as expendable, which is in effect a spoiler for future episodes. It'd be nice to think Telltale have scripted a version where one or both of them survives for several future episodes, but imagine all the extra work that'd involve.

-Kenny's survival. Like the "stop and talk", its only a minor complaint. I get why they would just gloss over it, but I don't know if I buy it. I guess I feel like there were probably a few better ways to explain how he stayed alive (probably moreso with jumping into the building to save Christa, less so for Ben). Again, it just bugs me a little.

Out of interest, if in Season 1 you chose to let Ben die in the clocktower, how does Kenny "die" after that? Anyone know?

 

[[REDACTED]]

Out of interest, if in Season 1 you chose to let Ben die in the clocktower, how does Kenny "die" after that? Anyone know?

Kenny accidentally knocks the Walkie Talkie into a hole on a roof. Christa goes down to retrieve it, but can't get back up. Kenny jumps in after her, hoists her back up, at which point walkers hidden in the dark room begin to notice. There being no way to save Kenny, the rest of the group is forced to move on.

Yes, I let Ben die in my first playthrough. Yes, I'm a monster.

 

[norashepard]

-Took the Blame
-Sat With Luke
-Told the Truth
-Walter Forgave Nick
-I surrendered to Carver or whatever his name is.

It was a good episode, especially for me because I never really liked Kenny, so the fact that he still seems a little unhinged is hella cool, and Clem is becoming cooler and cooler by the day. I'm interested to see if Sarita gets any more personality, too. Also really glad Bonnie is back so soon because she was my favorite character from the entirety of Season 1, and boy howdy are she and Clem going to be super cute as friends.

Of course I know they'll kill her because that's what Telltale does.

 

[Xathos]

- Gave Nick Pete's watch

OOOH! I forgot about that! I saw the watch in the first episode but I was like, "This is a trap. If I take it, it'll only cause problems later on with these people. I'll leave the watch where it is." Only for Telltale to be all, "Bet you wish you took the watch now huh? You could've given Nick some solace, you monster! Why WOULDN'T you take everything that you see?"

Now the next time I see an item that might be a trap and I take it, it really WILL be a trap. Why must you play with my head so much Telltale? =(