THE THREE (OF FIVE) TWDG DEATHS WHICH HAUNT ME SO
Okay, so this is more of an opinion piece than it is an essay, but like, all of my essays are my own opinion anyway… Whatever. This is an opinion piece, I don't care.
Basically.
These are the 3 TWDG deaths that got to me.
Plus the, like, other two that definitely got to me too, but…they're different. I'll get into it.
I could have made this into more of an essay-essay, but whatever. I have two more in the works, one of them being more of a commentary which includes both Luke and Brody's, and then another one that's about Ben and Sarah actually.
Both of those will take a little bit, and I have a suspicion the first may end up being the longest essay by the end.
Anyway. Here's this.
[The Boring Ones]
My Clementine shot Lee, and she shot Kenny after he killed Jane. Very sadness. Got knots and tears in my throat.
So. There you go.
Anyway—
Okay, I am being a little bit of an ass. Of course there's a lot to analyze and evaluate with both deaths. Lee's is reflective of his character and what he wants for Clementine. S2's ending, meanwhile, is reflective of Clementine herself, just in a very different way; it's a test of loyalty and, given how I tend to play, a testament of what she would do at a breaking point; or, it could also be another decision of what's best for her, should the player choose based off of what information they have.
The main reason why I won't really consider these two of the "TWDG deaths that got to me" is… Well, for one, there's already been in-depth analyses of both, and while I could contribute, it would take analyzing their respective seasons as well, picking apart player choice, and yada yada. Secondly, this essay is more about the "smaller" deaths. Not the ones that are as emphasized in this way by the narrative. These deaths represent the losses along the way, and some of them hurt more than others, and get a rise.
That being said, one of them is related to these in how I processed the narrative, so one of these two will come up again. Just, less as a remark of the scene itself, and more a remark of the "smaller" death.
Anyhow, both of these scenes are catastrophic moments in the narrative either way. But because they are so catastrophic, they're not really relevant to this.
This is also what arguably makes this essay not that but instead an opinion piece. If I wanted to go in a more "essay" route (evaluation), I would have been focused on deconstructing the deaths that got to Clementine as a character and why, since that would be more of an analysis of TWDG, not the deaths that got to me because… I dunno. It's my feelings and my opinion.
And I feel like sharing it transparently here. Rather than using my own inferences or experiences as example.
[LUKE]
But! But! Luke's death was so stupid and didn't need to happen it was just a way for the season to be all depressing and stupid and—! And they could've walked around or crawled better on the ice and, and—!
Okay. I don't give a shit.
Not to say that I don't recognize the blaring narrative issues surrounding this moment, because I do. There is a lot to comment on; in fact, as I mentioned, this is one of the two deaths which will be analyzed in another essay. So in that essay, I will actually care about it.
Regardless, it's not that relevant here. Kinda. I won't indulge in it too much. There's no war in Ba Sing Se. Shh.
Luke's death is just tragedy, plain and simple.
The group is crossing this lake, desperate to just get out of the open winter and into some semblance of shelter. The house was never finished, but the fact that they still gun for it speaks to their desperation. …even if the game could have emphasized the desperation more, in the moment. But. Whatever.
With Luke's death, there's three different ways it can happen. Clementine listens to Bonnie, and goes to help Luke immediately. Clementine listens to Luke initially, and keeps the walkers off him while Bonnie goes against his word and tries to help. Both scenarios, two fall into the ice, that being Luke and whoever's closer. Then, there's a secondary option should Clementine try to save Luke thereafter, and she'll fall into the ice as well.
Bonnie's fate is also decided here. Depending on the choices, she'll die.
Regardless though, there was a slim chance that Luke was going to get out of that, if any at all. Once that ice started to break through, I don't really know if there would be anything he could've done. Some say he could've gotten closer to the ice to spread his weight better, so that it's not concentrated onto one point. However, Luke doesn't.
For one thing, the character may have been doomed due to his ignorance. If Luke didn't grow up around ice, he wouldn't have known.
Two, he was shot in his leg, and the walkers weren't helping things. So while yes, he may have had the chance to escape the ice, I don't know if Luke's mobility would have allowed it. Simply put, he was wounded by the shootout. And as S2 is concerned, this does represent the narrative's symbolic mark on him: Luke was wounded by a running motif of S2, which I will get to with Rebecca's death. It does say something. You know. Symbolically.
It's this slim chance, on top of the desperation, which has his death be the tragedy it is.
I always interpreted Luke, in that moment, realized he was out of luck. He knew his weight alone was too much, and anyone else—including the child, who's lighter than Bonnie—would've just exacerbated it.
Either way, Bonnie made it worse. Because she's desperate, and when you're desperate, the facts suddenly don't matter until said facts decide to rear their ugly heads.
Tried to save Luke. Fact of the matter was, that wasn't realistic.
Same way the group as a whole tried to save on time and energy, and just cross the ice. It could have been done. Everybody was in front of Luke once he got to that part of the ice, but… Caution was the sacrifice, and Luke got killed for it.
This reading of Luke's demise is another reason why I don't really care about how "unrealistic" it was, or how "stupid."
Was it stupid? Yes. Unrealistic? No.
Because people do die like this, and at a point in the season where the group got to a desperate point, it was only a matter of time before that eagerness to survive got someone killed. I firmly believe that's what his death was supposed to represent.
…the issues around it, which I will better deconstruct and analyze in another essay, boils down to the 1) confusion in the narrative, and 2) the fact that it's Luke. I don't mind that it was Luke, but I understand why people get upset that it's this character dying the way he did.
S2 does stumble a little bit in the reasoning behind them crossing the lake. I think desperation would have been the reason regardless, and it's a realistic one, but I do think they could've done a better job in really cementing that it was desperation. And then, also… The whole lake thing. There is one change that would've fixed everything, and it's a really simple one that was already established:
Make it a river. No, literally. Just make it so that there's no other way to cross. And also, if it was a river, have someone (I say Bonnie, Mike, or Kenny) freak out that they just need a break (which would've signaled that desperation). This being instead of just seeing the house, Kenny complaining, and Mike pointing out that they're there for supplies or something.
…which like, no Mike. You want the shelter too, you dingbat.
But, I digress.
Now, I'll go back to my final decision of S2, because Luke's death absolutely haunted that choice, hence why this death of S2 struck the way it did despite the narrative stumble. In the moment, no, I didn't really think about anything. I just had a visceral reaction and shot Kenny without even reading the other options.
Cuz I was feeling ✨spicy✨.
And by spicy, I mean agitated. There was a domino effect at play, one that Christa's separation incited. However, by this point, so much had already happened.
Then there's just Kenny.
Kenny would blow up, he'd feel remorse, and he'd apologize—like he'd done at the pylon. Then. He just. Turned around, and did the same shit thereafter, despite apology. He beat Arvo when Clementine needed a fire. Because she was climbing to Death's door with hypothermia closing in, and was still rattled from breaking through the ice in a panic to get Luke back.
But here Kenny was beating on a teenager. And when my Clementine went to stop him, he was again remorseful for accidentally hitting Clementine… Yet. Kenny still snapped at her. After that remorse on his face. Muttered a cruel line about "thought you liked this kind of thing" because she'd supported him before with Carver.
And over, and over, and over again. Until a breaking point.
A breaking point, which, I always found was marked by Luke's death in particular. He had been the catalyst to that season's final descent—like how the moment Lee got bit was S1's final catalyst. My Clementine fell into the ice for him, because panic and that desperation arose. She was pulled out, and within that timespan of needing a fire, there was Bonnie, who again didn't help and blamed Clementine. But then, Kenny decided to perpetuate the same cycle that had been a bane on her, even though he, again, apologized before. This same cycle that my Clementine relied on Luke and focus on AJ to escape from.
Except, all of a sudden, there was only AJ to escape to. Luke was gone.
So for my Clementine, he had been the catalyst because he had been the one adult she ultimately needed, regardless of his own shortcomings. She didn't know what to do with Jane, and she was losing her forbearance with Kenny because again, yes, he was a lot to navigate for a child.
And in conjunction with the imagery of Luke in the water (yikes dude, you don't look too good), yeah. It's in the top 3 for me.
[REBECCA]
I quite like Rebecca. I find her character interesting, especially as more time passes, and you realize her aggression in the beginning is…a farce, more or less. Not to say Rebecca can't be confident, or hostile, because we definitely get that side of her after she warms to Clementine, but, she is far more of an anxious woman trying to survive for her baby than anything else. She's stressed about who the father is. There's dead people just walking around. One of the potential fathers is hunting her down for the sake of "his" child.
And then there's just this random ass kid with a mauled arm, because Clementine was bitten. Just by a dog, not…a dead people.
So like yeah, Rebecca's so mean to Clementine in the beginning, but…Imma be honest, I don't know how many people wouldn't have at least been cautious of Clementine.
Once Rebecca does warm up to her, and we see more of that anxiety, and then her desperation/hope to have AJ… She's a nice lady. One of my favorite lines of hers is when she talks about AJ, she's hopeful because regardless of who she gives birth to, this is a new person she'd get to meet.
I just like her, so by the time she panics within the herd, and Clementine is there to help, of course I have Clementine oblige.
…now sure, did that reliance on her feed into the whole "child doing the adulting thing when she shouldn't have"? Well. Yeah.
But she's a nervous pregnant woman, I think asking for any kind of help when actively in a herd is the least concerning instance of "child doing the adulting thing."
She does die though. So. There's that whole thing.
I will say the one thing I do kind of wish is it should have mattered where it happened, or how it went, should the group choose to stay at the observatory deck to rest, or go to the nearby town as soon as they can. Rebecca is going to die regardless; she does not look good after giving birth, and I'm assuming it was both a case of 1) over-exhaustion, and 2) bleeding out that really weakened her, which leaves the hypothermia as that final nail in the coffin.
But, at the same time, the shootout would be at the spot it is regardless because that was where the Russian group had set their trap, it just so happens that Clementine came across Arvo before. And symbolically, so much of this death hinges on the fact that it starts this shootout. It is S2 at its core; if you want to summarize this season, this is the scene to do so.
Hence why I say kind of. I'm always going to value narrative significance over realism whenever there is a conflict of interest between the two. It's nice to have both, but stories are seldom perfect, so. Yeah. The group is at the observation deck for a few days, however, (if you choose to,) so I just…wish there was more of an impact than the dialogue right before the shooting. But, whatever.
Rebecca's death is depressing, and it's indicative of neglect.
Hence why it's here, in this post.
It's also why I will fight tooth and nail for this season, regardless of its shortcomings.
Unlike with Luke, I'll work my way backwards and start with the symbolism/narrative significance for the season before the moment itself.
S2 has a running motif of the Civil War, especially in the episodes after Howe's Hardware, however, you could also include Howe's in the theme. You have people working under a ruthless leader—including Rebecca, who could be bearing his child—, and those people escape. And what does Carver do? He chases them down, in the same manner that slave owners would chase down their slaves. And once he catches them, they're sent to forced labor, aside for the man (Alvin) who posed a threat to Carver's legitimacy as a father, and Rebecca, who was pregnant with a child he could raise like a crop to a field.
…which has me wonder if Rebecca and Alvin both being black, and Carver not was a coincidence, or a conscious choice. On top of Carver being someone fixated on the survival of a strong progeny.
Though as I said, the motif is especially found after Howe's Hardware, because that's when the season decides to be blunt. They find sanctuary in a Civil War site, from a museum to the observation deck. And sure, as much as it is a cheeky nod back to Lee...
This motif is S2's identity. You can't just separate the two and expect to get a grounded understanding of what S2 is as an environment. S2's about Clementine navigating the adult world way too soon, and growing up in the same manner. The environment she's put in is…a civil war.
And it being in winter is actually a very crucial element.
See: Fredricksberg, a battle set in Dec. 11-15 between Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and Burnside's Army of the Potomac… Hm.
I can (and probably will someday) go on and on and on.
Conflict like this is perpetuated throughout the season, and it's concluded with the ultimate civil conflict—between Kenny and Jane, the last two adults in Clementine's group. And it's also found at the time of Rebecca's death, because that sense of conflict is absolutely present given the shootout.
…except, what is interesting is Rebecca's death is the one scene that does not reference the Civil War. It references the United States' Revolutionary War.
Specifically, the shot heard round the world, which is derivative of that first shot which initiated battles in Lexington and Concord (April 19, 1775). The catalyst to the American Revolution, between the colonists, and the English—who were deemed to be invading.
Here, we have S2's core group, and then…another group. Who's distinctly foreign, given the Russian accent and language.
And the shot heard round this season is either dealt by Clementine herself, or Kenny, in order to put down Rebecca's reanimated corpse. The shot wasn't directed at either side here. However, it didn't matter, So in the confusion, the shootout began.
In the same way I can rattle on and on over the Civil War motif throughout, I can rattle on about this scene alone. I won't, aside for this:
This scene feels different because of the sheer amount of symbolism backing it. It's what I mean when I say this scene is S2 at its core. There's the revolutionary symbolism, which illustrates how the group does put aside their differences to fight a common enemy—that being the Russians here, but also the apocalypse itself, given Rebecca's reanimation. Yet, before and after this…, it goes back to the Civil War motif because the "common enemy" is not the central threat. The contention between everyone and their differences are.
So then, the moment itself...
There's this desolation to it. Rebecca died out in the open, still cradling AJ, and Clementine is the only one who notices.
That moment, where the adults are caught up in their own dispute, leaving the child to recognize the situation for what it actually is, and where she's forced to navigate on her own whether or not to take that first shot, or to have one of the adults (Kenny) do it...
It is the one of few deaths I can picture vividly without having to reference a screen.
And, it really speaks to that desolation. The one that the season is adamant to hammer home, because it wants you to miss Lee. To the point it actively uses its motif to kill two birds with one stone and do just that. S2 is where Lee becomes less a comfort, and more of a realization: he was an anomaly in the apocalypse.
Not all Lees were perfect, and did make huge mistakes, but Lee as a person always knew how to treat Clementine, and she never was put into these kind of positions where there's adults around, but there's something happening, why aren't you listening? Why don't you notice me? I need you to actually be there to support me.
It's a lot of why the season is the way it is, and why this scene in particular struck me the way it did. Because throughout it all, I was bombarded by the thought, how did it get to this point? It's nothing like S1's shootout where Clementine was ducked into safety immediately; here, she sees Rebecca, and then she's asked to contribute so that Luke can be a dumbass and dart from one cover to another.
I digress, though.
Like with Luke, there is a lot of narrative implications with Rebecca's death, and the trend will continue in Brody. For the sake of this post, that's telling of me more than anything else. But it is hard to separate the strings attached to each since, often times, whenever something really hits close, it's because there's other contexts to it.
And I also like storytelling. So. Duh.
For me, that other context with Rebecca is S2 as a whole, and the reason why S2 as a whole hits way too close to home is cuz um. Neglect when there's people around you hurts like a bitch. Owie. Thanks for the catharsis, I guess. But also thanks for the symbolic warfare stuff, I do come from a military family.
In any case, I will move onto the last death, because the death in itself is brutal, and Brody's walker is also just…terrifying.
[BRODY]
I like Luke. I quite like Rebecca.
And I really like Brody's character. It's a shame that she only was given so much time, and that's given you even choose to go fishing with her. But within that time, her character is solid. From her design to her dialogue and voice acting, and then to the tension she has with Violet—it's a nice bit of depth to have.
Like a pothole, neglected by the government for years, so there's enough room to dump the bodies.
Now that being said…, I don't mind that she dies so early on. For a number of reasons, but for the sake of this essay, her death really sets the tone, and it does a number of things that feeds into some of what the season explores.
For one, the gravity of the situation Marlon and Brody landed themselves in, right with the rest of the schoolkids. It also better contextualizes Marlon's character, and why he would be troubled youth. Because him bashing her head with a flashlight is a stark contradiction to what kind of person he prides himself to be, right down to how articulate he is in his verbiage.
Two, the state of the apocalypse. The fight between Clementine and Brody's reanimated corpse was a horror in itself, which had been the scene's intention. And that alone says a lot because Clementine knows how to fight at this point, the walkers the player encounters before this are all corroded, so...
Yeah, the apocalypse is still at large, just in a different way, and Brody presents that to us.
Before the reanimation, however, there is the death in itself.
And I can go on about symbolism, and narrative bullshit, and all that stuff cuz I'm a writer, blah blah blah… All the stuff that I did with the previous two deaths.
But I won't because Brody is distinct in that it's not the narrative strings attached that rattle me. The narrative bullshit comes with her reanimated corpse.
So when I see her death, I don't see the Civil War and American Revolution analogies like I do with Rebecca, nor the sentiment of desperation and a catalyst effect like I do with Luke.
All I see is brutality.
Brody's death is the most gutting of the games.
At least, not literally. And also to me, of course, since this is an opinion piece… Or whatever.
Brody is struck once in the head, mid-sentence as she is trying to tell Clementine the truth. And the moment it happens, Brody is completely disorientated.
She first asks, "What did you say?" Then she collapses. Is rendered blind, confused, and has to have her memory jogged to remember who Clementine is as Clementine kneels at her side.
And despite everything, Brody still tells Clementine everything she can.
But there is one line that absolutely guts me:
"Marlon'll kill me if I tell."
Brody is so out of it, she still has yet to truly grasp what happened.
Because. Brody...
Marlon already did.
She is actively dying from her own murder, because of Marlon, and she still is so scared that she tells Clementine the danger she's in.
My coal heart breaks whenever I hear that line, because it's a horrible way to go. One minute you're firm on you ground, telling someone what you need to say, and then next, you're just trying to cobble together the world around you before you're just…gone. That's it.
I wouldn't be surprised if Brody's last conscious moment was before the flashlight struck.
And, of course, the direction of this scene does everything. The voicework, the camera, the lighting. It all just works to elevate how dark, and how brutal this scene is.
Then we get to the reanimation, where again, it's a horror. The scene portrays it as a horror. There's the moment where Brody comes out of the shadows to snatch Clementine right back down into the basement. There's the parallel to Lee with the hammer and Sandra.
But ultimately, Brody serves as this season's reminder as to how dangerous TWDG's apocalypse remains to be. Sure, all the walkers now are decayed. They can't move as well. They don't hit as hard. So they only get really dangerous whenever they're in herds.
…yet, Brody's corpse is a huge threat. Why?
Well. While Brody's body was horking and growling in the shadows, Clementine is just waltzing around getting the flashlight and then a ruler to get out. She doesn't pay any mind to…Brody. Even though Clementine could clearly see that Brody was away from the broiler.
It's a false sense of security, which was ultimately how the apocalypse started in the first place; it took the world by surprise, and people panicked, and it spread all the more.
Not only that, Brody was a survivor. Her corpse is stronger than a lot of the earlier walkers because for the past many years, she had to build the muscle and dexterity to, you know, survive. And just before this scene, we see Brody knock Marlon flat on his ass because she's not dainty, here. She's really strong.
Maybe not quite on Clementine's level, but she's strong enough to pose a threat as a walker.
I just think it's cool. This death. And Rebecca's death. And Luke's death. I also like S2, I don't care.
Anyway that's it.
No I'm not giving this a proper conclusion. I'm done.
