In Harm’s Way

When we left off, a shitstorm occurred at the ski lodge where Kenny and his small group was holed up, and Clementine’s group had just arrived. The mixture of the groups was further solidified by the actions of Carver, who killed a few people and then took the rest hostage, back “home.” Carver is a real swell guy. As usual, here are my choices first, then we’ll go into detail: (SPOILERS)

As episode 3 opens, the girls (Clementine and Sarah) are using the restroom. Troy (one of Carver’s lackeys) is commanding them to hurry up, and they are tied up and thrown in the back of a U-haul. The rest of their people are in the back, and they deliberate on their options. Kenny manages to get his binds cut, but it’s too late. They’ve arrived at Carver’s hideout, which happens to be an old hardware store. There are loads of people and even more food. It appears to be a safe haven, although militaristic. Carver is an asshole to everyone, and they are locked up in “the yard” which is basically the garden center. A couple of other people are present at the yard when they are locked up for the night, and they aren’t too friendly either. Kenny suggests that Clementine look around for any clues that might help them, while he questions Reggie. Reggie is missing an arm and it’s said that he had it cut off because he got bitten, but with Carver’s actions it’s hard to tell if that’s the truth. Reggie is in the yard as “punishment,” as he was someone who aided the group in escaping from here once before.

Clementine doesn’t find anything of use, but when tugging on the rollup door, Troy comes back with the Carlos (who had been utilized to help with some people who were injured inside the compound). He makes some threats and leaves. The group sleeps. Clem is woken up by a kick from Troy. He tells her to get up and Carver is talking to the rest of the group. Sarah keeps trying to talk to Clem, and finally Carver makes a scene of it. He calls out Carlos and tells him to discipline his girl. There’s some hubbub, and Carlos giver his daughter a good whack across the face. Shortly thereafter, the group is sent on its separate ways to do forced labor. Clem and Sarah are assigned to Reggie, and their job is to cut berries off of berry bushes. Clementine starts to work, but Sarah looks lost. I (along with the majority of other players) chose to help Sarah. I figured she needed someone to help her snap out of it. Carver comes to check up on them, and then the shit really hits the fan. Clementine attempted to make the issue her fault, but Carver was just looking for an excuse to punish Reggie some more. He tells the girls to leave, but Clementine watches as Carver pushes Reggie off of the roof of the two story building. Reggie landed with a sickening thud. Carver demands Clem go find Bonnie.

Bonnie (the red-head that was part of the group who ambushed the ski lodge with Carver) directs Clementine to take some nails to some of the guys that are just outside the store. As it is part of a strip mall, they are in one of the buildings nearby. When Clementine arrives, she finds Kenny fighting with Mike, who was another person in the yard with them the night before. Their struggle knocks free one of the boards over the storefront windows, and walkers break through the glass. A fight scene erupts, and Clementine ends up in a shitty situation as usual. Troy ends up killing the last walker approaching her, and tells Clem that Carver wants to see her in his office. On the way, Clem is grabbed by an unknown assailant, and dragged inside what used to be a comic book store. It turns out to be Luke, who was separated from the group back at the ski lodge. He has a plan, and asks Clementine to get him a radio so he can monitor the guards.

Back inside, she attempts to make a detour, but a man named Wyatt tells her not to delay when Carver gives her an order (A cool side note: I knew Wyatt looked familiar but I couldn’t place him. I looked it up, and it turns out that he was one of the main characters in the 400 Days DLC. He was the guy in the car with his buddy, and participated in the annoying rock, paper, scissors mini game). Heading up to the office, Carver basically tells her that they are alike and he can tell that she’s tough. Back in the yard, the group discusses its options. The plan is formulated that they will get a radio for Luke, and then when the time is right they will use the PA system for the store and use that to attract the herd of walkers that isn’t too far from their location (this is discussed a few times throughout). So, Clem is off to save the day again!

The ins and outs of getting the radios are pretty straightforward. There’s some dialogue between Tavia and another guy on the radio about the walkers that are just outside their walls. After grabbing the radios, Clementine starts to climb back out of the store room. Another man from 400 days, Vince, makes a cameo, talking to Tavia about how she can’t be smoking in that room. He says he’s going to go tell Carver all about it, and Tavia protests. Returning to the group, Clementine gets some rest.

When waking up, Carver is there telling everyone about how there won’t be any more shenanigans and they were to get to work. The group had been discussing who would take the radio to Luke, and Clem had volunteered, but there was some protest from Mike. Because of Carver’s interruption, Kenny forced the radio into Clem’s pocket. Troy leads them off to work, when Bonnie pulls Clem aside to work with her instead. She reveals that she feels guilty for the way things happened at the ski lodge, and that she wants Clementine to remain safe. Clementine chooses to trust her, and reveals that she needs to get the stolen radio to Luke (this was my choice, and most people made the same decision). “All I need from you is to not care where I am for fifteen minutes.” Bonnie lets her go, and upon returning to the comic book store, Clem is unable to find Luke. Troy finds her there, and drags her back to the yard. The rest of the group is already there, along with Luke, who apparently got caught trying to steal some food. He has one radio, and demands the other is returned to him. I attempted to say that I stole the radio (my choice, although most players avoided the truth), but Kenny grabbed it and said he took it. Carver responded by beating the shit out of him with it. He then told the group that they would go without the night’s meal.

As Carver and his thugs leave the area, Bonnie stays behind and has a change of heart. She tells them that she will help them escape, and that they would leave tonight. She is assigned to watch the yard that night, and the group is injured — some of them are ready to just give in and stay under Carver’s thumb. But Kenny wakes up, and everyone decides that it’s best to go through with the plan. Once again, Clementine is forced to do the hard work; this time she has to climb down into Carver’s office, set up the PA, and as soon as the sound kicks on, Bonnie will let the others out so they can escape while Carver’s people have to deal with the walkers. That is a mouthful. The plan goes off without a hitch, up until the point where Clem is supposed to meet with the others in the store room where she had been earlier, stealing walkie talkies. When dropping down, she sees Carver holding them in place with an assault rifle. Dropping down on top of him is the only effective thing to do, and the group gets the gun away from him. No one is willing to put him down though — except for Kenny. He shoots Carver in both legs, then grabs a crowbar and tells everyone to get out. I chose to stay and watch, because I wanted to see Carver get what was coming to him. It seems only half of the players felt that way too. Once Carver is a bloody pulp, they rejoin the group outside. Killing a couple of walkers, another new addition to their group, Jane, starts spreading zombie guts on herself. The rest of the group does it too, and they begin to leave when…

Troy appears, and starts talking shit. Jane starts sweet talking him, gets close enough and grabs his rifle while simultaneously shooting him in the balls. He’s attacked by walkers at that point, and the group wades through the herd unharmed. That is, until bullets start whizzing by — the remainder of Carver’s people are shooting the walkers from the rootops, and presumably shooting at them as well, or perhaps not realizing they are alive. Carlos gets clipped and his screams alert nearby walkers who fall on him. Sarah starts to scream and as Clem tries to shut her up, she sees Sarita (Kenny’s lady) being bitten on the hand. You are given a reticle and the choice between attacking the walker, or cutting off Sarita’s arm. Knowing what we know about people living after having limbs cut off (see: Reggie, Lee from season 1, Hershel from the TV show), I went with cutting off her arm. I am shocked that so few players made the same decision. Realistically, if you kill the walker she becomes one later, c’mon people this is simple stuff!

That’s where the episode ends. I’m frothing at the mouth for more. Until next time.

#thewalkingdead #telltale #inharmsway #adventure #zombies