The Walking Dead (video game)/Season 2

The Walking Dead: Season Two is the second set of episodes of The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series.

Season Two marks the continuing adventures of Clementine as she's forced to grow up quickly in a world of zombies and human savagery.

Tropes used in The Walking Dead (video game)/Season 2 include:

A-F

• Abandoned Camp Ruins: In episode 1, Clementine finds a dog out in the woods. Some trekking later, she stumbles upon an abandoned campsite that presumably belonged to Sam's owners. While there, she attempts to find food.
• Acceptable Breaks from Reality: At the end of episode 3, already a very dark episode, you have the option of cutting off Sarita's arm after a walker starts eating her hand. Should you do so, Clem only needs two hits with her hatchet to cut all the way through Sarita's forearm. After watching Carver kill Reggie (and possibly Alvin) and beat Kenny so bad he loses an eye, and then watching Kenny beat Carver to death with a crowbar (including seeing Carver's eye pop out of his skull), avoiding a prolonged amputation is probably okay. Plus, in the middle of a horde of walkers, it would probably stretch disbelief if it took too long.
• Adorably Precocious Child: Clem acts much more mature than her age, and is often burdened with responsibility due to the inability of adults.
• A House Divided: The name and overall theme of episode 2. Clementine's group meets the group at the ski lodge, which includes a surprisingly alive Kenny. He immediately butts heads with Luke and Nick, and on top of that, Nick has killed Walter's partner Matthew.
• Alone with the Psycho: Sometime into Episode 3, Clementine has a meeting with Carver inside his office.
• All Just a Dream: Clementine is knocked out near the end of Episode 5 and wakes up in the RV next to Lee, who assures her that everything from Season 1, Episode 4 to Season 2, Episode 5 was just a bad dream. She goes back to sleep and it is revealed that this was the dream, and she wakes up in the real world again. Also a Call Back, since the layout of the dream is the same as Lee's bad dream from Season 1 Episode 3.
• An Asskicking Christmas: Episode two seems like it takes place around Christmas time. Most of the episode is fairly calm if not a bit tense, but the final leg has Carver and his group finally catching up with the others, resulting in a confrontation that results in Walter and possibly Alvin killed and the others taken.
• Anyone Can Die: As per tradition.
  • Episode 1: Omid, within the first five minutes no less. His murderer, Michelle, is savagely shot by Christa less than a minute later. Christa isn't seen after the Cold Open. Sam (the dog Clementine finds) also dies. Pete can die at the end of the episode to a walker bite, depending on your choices.
  • Episode 2: Pete dies if he survived the last episode. Matthew is shot dead on a bridge by Nick. Nick can die to a walker bite if you don't convince Walter to forgive him. Walter is shot point-blank by William Carver, and Alvin possibly is too, if Clementine doesn't step in to protect him.
  • Episode 3: The new character Reggie is thrown off a rooftop by Carver. Alvin dies in a Heroic Sacrifice after being savagely beaten by Carver. Carver himself is later killed brutally by Kenny in the most karmic way possible. Jane shoots Troy and leaves him to die in the episode's climax. Carlos is hit by a stray bullet and then devoured by walkers. And finally, Sarita is bitten by a Walker, although she may survive if Clementine opts to cut her hand off.
  • Episode 4: Being the penultimate chapter, doesn't look too good for the protagonists. Sarita dies at the beginning of the episode, no matter the choice you made at the end of Episode 3 (she's either devoured by Walkers instantly after you amputate her or later put down after she turns). Nick is shown to have died attempting to get help for Luke and Sarah via a bullet wound sustained in the previous episode (and zombified in the process). Sarah dies being Eaten Alive (either by being left behind at the trailer park or in the collapse of the deck, regardless of whether or not you get Jane to help her). And lastly Rebecca dies of exhaustion from her childbirth towards the end of the episode, forcing Clem or Kenny to shoot her to stop her walker form from eating her baby. The episode's cliffhanger involves a shootout with an unconfirmed number of fatalities, but judging by how many shots were fired, it was likely a lot.
  • Episode 5: Surprisingly, all protagonists survive the Bolivian Army Ending of Episode 4 with relatively minor injuries, but all of the Russians bar Arvo are killed in the confrontation. It doesn't last, though, as Luke falls through a frozen lake and drowns, and if Clementine chooses to provide cover instead, the same can happen to Bonnie. If she is still alive, Bonnie and Mike attempt flee the group with Arvo, who (accidentally?) shoots Clementine, causing her to fall unconscious; when she comes to, she's driving away in a truck with Kenny, the baby, and Jane, and their fates are unknown. Kenny and Jane will confront each other later on with fatal consequences— if Clem doesn't shoot Kenny, he will kill Jane. You can choose to shoot him after he kills her, leaving just you and AJ.
  • Also, for some lucky PS3 gamers, they had the extra option of being able to shoot and kill Mike during his escape attempt. However, this has since been removed following an update.
• Apologetic Attacker:
  • Michelle, who comes in at the beginning and holds Clementine at gunpoint. Omid comes in to try to save Clementine, but the door he left open closes with a loud sound, startling her so that she instinctively turns around and shoots Omid. She actually feels remorse over this — or is panicking because an obviously pregnant woman holding a rifle has just walked in — and then repeatedly starts shouting that she didn't mean to shoot him! She even drops her gun to plead with Christa, who shoots her anyway.
  • Episode 3 has Carlos forced at gunpoint to slap his daughter, apologizing before and after for what Carver made him do.
  • At the beginning of Episode 4, if you cut off Sarita's arm at the end of episode 3, you can apologize to Kenny after Sarita freaks out and gets bit some more. Then, if you ax Sarita in the head, you can apologize again.
• Art Evolution: Season 2's art style is still in line with Season 1, though employs slightly more vibrant colors as well as making the cel-lines more noticeable, character animations are far more fluid and less prone to being recycled. The Walkers also have more variety, along with being more detailed.
• Badass Adorable: Thanks to hanging out with Lee, and eventually Christa and Omid, Clementine has picked up on some survival techniques, skills, and become even more resourceful, and still looks like a regular little girl doing this. Understandably, this impresses some of the adults she comes across.
• Badass Boast: "I'm still. NOT. Bitten!" This is one of the responses that can be said by Clementine when, after being locked in a shed, she has to kill a Walker with a claw hammer. Not to mention this happen after she sneaks in and out of an house unnoticed and stitches herself up.
• Bait and Switch:
  • At the end of episode 3, Sarita is bitten and you're given the choice of killing the walker or cutting off her arm. Reggie claims to have survived a walker bite after immediate amputation, so you're led to believe cutting off her arm is the best option. But in the next episode, if you cut off her arm her screaming will attract walkers and they will gang up on her, forcing you to put her down immediately. Killing the walker is actually the best option, as it at least gives Kenny time to say goodbye. Furthermore, chopping Saritas arm off will cause Kenny to deliver a brutal speech to Clementine in Episode 4.
  • The game makes it seem like Clem has acquired a Canine Companion, Sam, who will accompany her on her continuing adventures. Instead, Sam suddenly and viciously attacks Clem, forcing Clem to choose between mercy killing it and leaving it to suffer.
• Bambification: Uncle Pete's story about Nick refusing to shoot the buck has elements of this, especially when you consider that it could represent a loss of innocence.
• Big Bad: William Carver for the first three episodes, at least. At the climax of Episode 3, he is brutally killed by Kenny. By the end of Episode 5, Kenny and Jane can hold these roles for each other's endings, depending on your perspective.
• Big Friendly Dog: Subverted so very, very hard in episode 1. Clementine comes across a dog at an abandoned campsite, and shares some tender moments with it as she investigates the area and searches for food. Once she finds some food, the dog attacks her for it, biting her hard on the arm and forcing Clementine to kick it off of her.
• Bitch Alert: Rebecca is very much in favor of killing Clementine in case she was bitten by a walker. Understandably, Clementine isn't too fond of her after this.
• Bittersweet Ending: Episode 5. The player can choose how it goes (see Multiple Endings for more), but in any case, Kenny or Jane—or even both of them—are dead, as are pretty much everyone else Clementine has met and befriended over the story. On the plus side, Clementine and whoever she's with by the end are looking towards a future that may not be happy, but they're not alone and have a chance. Even the ending of Clementine alone can be considered bittersweet if the player looks at it that way, as even though it's only Clementine and AJ now, she's capable of caring for herself now, and the player may have thought both Kenny and Jane unfit to be around her.
• Backstabbing the Alpha Bitch: Turns out Clementine overheard Rebecca worrying about who the father of her child is (since it's possibly not her husband) and later isn't shy about letting the abrasive Rebecca know it. Even the dialogue choices in that conversation are bitchy.
• Blast Out: When Clem or Kenny shoots a reanimated Rebecca at the end of episode 4, the Russians are provoked to start shooting, believing one of the main group fired on them. Everyone starts firing as the screen cuts to black.
• Bolivian Army Cliffhanger: Episode 4 ends with an all-out shootout between Clementine's party and the Russians, with only the sound of gunshots and a cut to black. Episode Five reveals that the minor Russian character Natasha was the only one killed.
• Book Ends:
  • In "No Going Back", the Kenny Ending cuts to Clementine's somber face after a nine day time skip, in near the exact same expression and angle the time skip begins after Omid's death.
  • Similarly, in the Jane Ending, provided that Clementine and Jane invite the starving family into their compound, the son will remark that Clementine has a nice hat, which could echo back to one of the first conversations that Clem has in the season's first episode with Michelle, right before the latter killed Omid.
  • Episode 1 begins at Gil's Pitstop from 400 Days where one Clem's caretaker will be shot from her pistol. One of the last places of Episode 5 is also a rest area where another of her caretaker from Season One will also be shot from her pistol, this time fired by her.
• Brand X: The "Howe's" in Episode Three is clearly modelled on Lowe's Home Improvement, a southern-United States based home and building supplies company.
• But Thou Must!:
  • Players may attempt to pick up Clementine's gun when searching for her lost water bottle or find a food dish for the dog, but the game doesn't allow one to make those choices and the consequences are dire, although there was no way for your character to know in advance that a random bandit would wander into the bathroom in the few seconds she spent picking up the water bottle.
  • In the fourth episode, when Jane and Clementine come to Luke and Sarah's rescue, the player is forced to have Clementine talk to Sarah and take quite the time doing it instead of just being allowed to immediately flat-out abandon the latter as soon as the walkers arrive. This is despite being offered the opportunity to mostly leave Sarah to herself - and even fire some snarky lines at her - during previous episodes.
• Call Back:
  • Clementine falling in and out of consciousness while the cabin survivors argue what to do with her is evocative of Lee suffering the same after his initial crash in the police car.
  • In another parallel to Episode 1, Clementine brains a walker with a claw hammer, just like Lee did. This time we get to see it in all its bloody glory.
  • When finding the aforementioned tied-up walker, Clem will reassure Sam the dog that its safe, repeating whatever advice Lee gave her last season. She says, "It's okay, we're smarter than it. We're smarter than all of them."
  • One of the promotional pictures for "A House Divided" is almost a perfect match for one from "A New Day".
  • In episode 3, the entire escape plan is lifted from the first group's time in Savannah, from Molly using noise to attract a walker herd to Lee's using walker guts on Clementine to blend among zombies. Both are explicitly referenced.
  • In "No Going Back", as Kenny tries to kill Jane, it parallels neatly with The Stranger's attempted murder of Lee in Season 1, to the point of using lines very analogous to the Stranger. Kenny could be considered a Foil to The Stranger by now, while Jane's gambit of lying about a family member to manipulate the situation and gain her trust is disturbingly similar to The Stranger lying about Clem's parents. Clem can further the similarity by shooting at Kenny to save Jane's life (if you let her kill The Stranger in Season 1).
• Canine Companion: Sam serves as this for Clementine in Episode One. Ultimately subverted after a short while once he attacks her over some food.
• Character Death:
  • In Episode 1, Omid will be shot and killed in the prologue, and Christa will do the same to the girl that killed him. Sixteen months later, Christa is possibly killed by bandits, albeit it's ambiguous. One of the bandits will be killed by a walker as he's fighting Clementine. Clementine will find his partners (and Roman's body) at the riverside. If you choose to go with Nick at the end, Pete is eaten by walkers.
  • In Episode 2 If you go with Pete at the end of the episode, you'll find his body as you leave the cabin. Matthew is killed on the bridge by Nick. One of Carver's men will be killed by Kenny. If you are dishonest and mean in your confession of this to Walter, he will let Nick be killed by walkers. Walter will be shot and killed by Carver as payback. According to your decision, Alvin may be killed by Carver.
  • In Episode 3, Reggie will be pushed off of the roof of Howe's by Carver. If you saved Alvin in Episode 2, he will buy Clementine time to escape Carver's office, and will die from a gunshot from one of Carver's men and the wounds that Carver gave him. Kenny will smash Carver's head in with a crowbar, which Clementine can possibly watch. Jane will shoot Troy in the groin and leave him to the walkers. Carlos is shot by one of Carver's people and is devoured by walkers.
  • In Episode 4, if Clementine cuts off Sarita's hand, her screams will attract walkers that bite her, and you have the option to either leave her or Mercy Kill her. Alternatively, if you don't cut off her hand, she will be killed by Kenny at Parker's Run to prevent animation. If Nick lived in Episode 2, Clementine will find him as a walker at the trailer park and will kill him. Sarah will either be left for the walkers at the trailer park or will be eaten by walkers at the camp, if you save her. Rebecca will die from blood loss, exhaustion, and hypothermia and will be killed as a walker by either Kenny or Clementine.
  • In Episode 5, Everyone in Arvo's group will be killed in the shootout, including his sister. Luke will drown in a frozen lake, and Bonnie can possibly die if Clementine doesn't attempt to save them. At the end, you will have to choose to kill Kenny or Jane, or you can kill them both. Clementine and AJ are the only characters who are confirmed as alive at the end of the season.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • Matthew's knife is the reason Walter finds out he'd dead, and when he flicks it away it is later found by Clem when walkers start attacking.
  • Episode 4 has this Double Subverted: Mike and Bonnie say that the cannons you find at Parker's Run Memorial Museum could do a lot of damage and make a lot of noise if you got them working. Jane later explains at the observation deck that you can't get them working, as they've been filled with cement for safety. But when you have to keep the walkers of the deck, it can still be used to block the gate - except the weight of the cannon breaks the deck when you try to move. Well, now there's no stairs for the walker to climb up!
• Chekhov's Gunman:
  • The guy at the bridge. It's Matthew. As in, the Matthew that's Walter's significant other.
  • Bonnie may also count. She's a character who first appeared in the 400 Days DLC, with the implication that said story would be completely separate from the main plotline. Instead, she returns in Episode 2 as a member of Carver's group and remains with the main cast until the last episode. The other 400 Days characters also appear in the next episode, but only as cameos.
• Chekhov's Skill:
  • In Episode 3, Reggie is living proof that someone can survive a walker bite to a limb if it's cut off fast enough. At the end, you're given the choice of doing the same for Sarita. A special note for this particular example is that attempting to put it into motion will cause Sarita to die immediately upon Episode 4's start, tricking the player into taking the worse conclusion (though leaving her to deal with the bite is still really bad to say the least).
  • In Episode 4: who's the only person who knows anything about pregnancy? The only person left if your group who ever had a child, Kenny.
• Child by Rape: Rebecca's baby is heavily implied to be this, with Carver being the possible father. However, by episode 5 the baby's character model has been modified to more resemble Alvin, and is even named Alvin Jr. by Kenny.
• Cliff Hanger:
  • Episode Four ends on a nasty one. Clem's group is confronted by Arvo, the Russian kid who Clementine and Jane encountered (and possibly robbed, depending on the player's choices) at Parker's Run. A group of his friends emerges from the woods with guns and demands all of the group's goods and supplies, triggering a Mexican Standoff. Things go From Bad to Worse when an ill and exhausted Rebecca suddenly expires and reanimates, forcing either Kenny or Clem to put her down... cue Blast Out. Smash to Black, roll credits.
  • The Alone Ending may also count. How are you supposed to know if you and Alvin Jr. got safely through the herd? You see Clementine covering them both in walker guts and blood to help, but what if something happens?
• Coming of Age Story: Seems like one for Clementine. In the first season, she was just a timid youth with someone to look out for her. This season sees her grow more into an independent survivor able to take care of herself despite others still viewing her as a child. She learns the grey zone of survival, like how to recognise a threat and how her actions can be more dangerous and lethal than she wants them to be. When Kenny returns to Clementine's life, she still sees him as a friend and paternal figure, while everyone else sees him as a walking time bomb. In the end, Kenny finally snaps when Jane tells him Alvin Jr died. Clementine has to make a choice to either kill Kenny for everyone's safety or let him kill Jane.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The reveal trailer shows almost all of the (now overrun with walkers) previous locations from Season One and 400 Days, and the group of bodies Clementine, Pete and Nick find at the end are Roman's group, who were presumably hunting Shel and Becca.
  • In the hunting cabin, Clem will comment that a picture of a mallard reminds her of Duck from season 1.
  • If you, as Lee, tried cutting your arm off in season 1, this gets a couple of nods. First when Clem finds the tied up walker who'd attempted to cut the infected part of his arm off, second when Clem mentions having once knowing somebody who'd lost an arm, and third when she notes later that she's glad she still has both arms.
  • There are a number in episode 2 including in the beginning depending on If you're with Pete or Nick with Nick she'll mention Ben and with Pete she'll reference Lee. and when Carver shows up at the cabin Clementine can say that her name is Carley. If you tell him it's just you and your dad living in The Cabin Clementine will say her Dad's name is "Ed", which is the name of her actual father, and when talking with Alvin about Nick losing it Clem can mention Lilly. Also, when you reunite with Kenny, he'll either reference Lee as one hell of a guy, if Kenny and Lee were friends, or as Kenny and Lee having their differences, if Kenny and Lee didn't get along. If Clementine asks, he'll also reference either having put Ben out of his misery, if Ben was with you in season 1 episode 5, or he'll reference jumping down to save Christa and "give her a hand", if Ben wasn't with you in season 1, episode 5.
  • In episode 4, while talking to Jane, Clementine can mention her baby sitter, Sandra.
• Convenient Miscarriage:
  • In episode 1, this ends up being implied as the ultimate fate of Omid and Christa's baby. After Omid's death and the Time Skip, Christa is no longer pregnant and the baby is nowhere to be seen. However, Clementine's reaction when she thinks that AJ died implies that the baby died after birth.
  • In episode 4, this is thankfully Subverted. When Rebecca gives birth, we see Kenny hold up the unmoving baby in silence as everyone looks on in horror... And then the baby coughs and wakes up as everyone breathes a sigh of relief.
• Cutting Off the Branches: Happens often, as is common for a branching-paths story, but especially blatant in Nick's death in Episode 4: It's possible for him to die in episode 2, and so just finding his zombie caught in a fence seemed to many fans like Telltale simply Dropped a Bridge on Him in order to get his determinant status out of the way.
• Darker and Edgier: To season 1, big time. Omid gets shot and killed by a teenaged looter, Christa shoots the looter in retaliation even though she'd dropped her gun and was completely defenseless, absolutely no mention is made of what happens to Christa and Omid's baby, and Clementine makes friends with a dog only for it to turn feral and give her a nasty bite on the arm before she fatally impales it by accident... Of course, that's all just from the first half of the FIRST EPISODE of season 2. The second half will likely leave your jaw hanging off the side of your face.
• Dead Guy, Junior: Kenny names Rebecca's baby Alvin Jr., AJ for short, after the baby's late father.
• Dead Person Conversation: In Episode 5, after getting shot, Clem sees Lee in a dream. Specifically, she dreams that they are back in the RV after Duck has been bitten and Lilly has either been left behind or taken with them.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Episode 5 has Jane enact a Big Damn Heroes moment to save Kenny, and, at the end of the episode, provided the player doesn't decide whether to let the family in or not, Jane will be the one to take the risk and let them inside Howe's.
• Despair Event Horizon: Omid's death causes this for Christa and Clementine. Even almost a year and a half after it happens they are pretty broken up over it, and Clementine takes a more bleak, realistic look at the world after it.
• Devoured by the Horde:
  • In episode One, "All That Remains", if Clementine chooses to save Nick instead of Pete, he'll be surrounded by walkers and get devoured while they watch helplessly.
  • In episode Three, "In Harm's Way", when the group is trying to leave the store, Troy holds them at gunpoint, Jane will convince him that she'll lead him to safety. But once he's distracted, Jane shoots him in the groin and leaves him to be devoured by the herd of incoming walkers. While the gang is trying to navigate their way through the walker herd, Carlos is trying to calm Sarah down, a stray bullet shot from the people from the store hits him in the neck. The blood from his neck attracts a group of walkers and they attack and devour him.
  • In episode Four, "Amid the Ruins", no matter what choice you make, Sarah will unfortunately suffer this fate. When Clementine and Jane tries to find her after being separated, they find her with Luke trapped inside a trailer as walkers try to enter. After getting inside, Clementine tries to get Sarah to leave with them but she still hasn't recovered from her panic attack. If Clementine chooses to leave her in the trailer, the walkers will break in as Sarah cries out for Clementine and reaches out to her moments before being devoured. If Clementine chooses to save Sarah, later on in the game, the observation deck they're staying on crumbles when the group is moving a cannon and Sarah falls and is trapped under the rubble while Walkers are heading towards them. Regardless of your choice, Sarah cannot be saved at this point and she gets devoured.
• Diabolus ex Machina: The end of "In Harm's Way", Clem and her group kill Carver and manage to escape his settlement by using Walker guts to sneak through a herd, when a stray bullet kills Carlos, Sarah panics and runs, and Sarita gets bit in the arm.
• Disney Death:
  • Clem gets shot and finds herself speaking to Lee. She turns out to be dreaming, not in the afterlife.
  • In the climax of Episode 5, Jane implies that AJ was killed by Walkers. It turns out that AJ was fine and Jane lied in order to provoke a violent reaction from Kenny.
• The Dog Bites Back:
  • Happens literally in Episode 1, with Sam going feral and biting Clementine's arm.
  • At the end of Episode 4, Arvo comes back, looking for revenge, bringing his friends with him.
• Downer Beginning: Within the first part of the first episode, Comic Relief character Omid is shot dead, Christa's baby is implied to have been stillborn or otherwise lost, and Clementine is separated from Christa, her only remaining companion.
• Downer Ending: Naturally, but there's two out of a possible five.
  • You can leave with Kenny and Alvin Junior to Wellington, but it will be overpopulated. You and Alvin Junior can stay, but Kenny must leave. Can also be a bittersweet ending, as Kenny has finally achieved his goal of keeping his surrogate son and daughter safe, and Clementine and AJ can have a chance at a normal life in Wellington. Assuming that You don't just leave with Kenny. It still count if you think that after all that searching throughout basically the entire season, you have to leave if you want to stay with one of your only allies left. What makes all of this even worse is that you never get to find Christa. You can ask the guard, but there's still no sign of her.
  • The Alone ending has Clementine kill Kenny or Jane and then possibly leave one or the other behind afterwards. Don't like the thought of either of them even getting to live? Well, you can also kill Kenny almost immediately after you let Jane die. Doing any of this pretty much makes it certain that you are only staying with Alvin Junior. Later, as they go towards a field of walkers, she covers them both in walker blood to pass through a herd.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • In Episode 2, as the ski cabin survivors are saying how they're hoping Matthew comes back soon, Clementine suspects Matthew is the man Nick shot on the bridge. Later, her suspicions are proven right.
  • After Jane comments that Clementine's group is fracturing (in no small part due to Kenny), cue Luke and Kenny arguing bitterly in front of a Civil War mural showing the eventual armistice, with a union and confederate soldier shaking hands beside quotes by Gen. Lee and President Lincoln extolling peace and forgiveness.
  • Episode 3 has Clementine's group decide that they should escape the compound by using the approaching horde of walkers to mask their escape. During their escape, Sarita is bitten, Carlos is killed by a stray bullet, Rebecca goes into labour in the next episode and eventually dies from it. If anything, the group would have been safer staying with Carver until after Rebecca gives birth (even if they didn't know how close she was to giving birth). Carver's compound had enough medicine that could have saved Rebecca and or Alvin Jr., Carlos would be safe because he might be one of the few doctors in the base, and Sarita would not have been bitten. Even if Carver was a dictator, he still had the means to help them and had a personal reason to keep them around.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Nick in Episode 4. After he catches a stray bullet while leaving Carver's settlement, he doesn't show up again for a while. Then Clementine finds him caught in a fence, already turned into a walker, and she puts him down. Besides Luke, Clem, and (briefly) Rebecca, no one seemed to care much about his death.
• Dwindling Party:
  • Naturally. However, Episode 4 goes into full throttle with this trope. Sarita dies right at the beginning (or if you didn't cut off her hand, she dies later on). Nick is Killed Offscreen very abruptly and is forced to be killed after he becomes a walker. Sarah dies if you leave her inside the trailer or she dies when the observation deck collapses. Jane leaves the group shortly after Sarah dies. And Rebecca dies from exhaustion seconds before the episode is over..
  • Episode 5: Luke will end up freezing/drowning to death, Bonnie can also do so, Mike and Arvo (and possibly Bonnie) will abandon the group, and it's possible for Kenny or Jane, or both, to die as well. Clementine and AJ are the only characters that cannot die.
• Easter Egg: One for sharp eyes: in Episode 1, amongst the graffiti on the public toilet's cubicles, there's a tiny smiley face with the words 'We're back!' written underneath.
• Empathy Doll Shot: Clementine finds a stuffed rabbit while searching the bathroom stalls at the very beginning of episode 1. It's actually one of the LEAST sad things about that chapter. She can also find a doll at the abandoned campsite in the woods.
• Establishing Shot: Comments from Christa and a discarded license plate establish that they have made it as far as North Carolina. In Episode 2, a quick shot of a map shows the group has reached Virginia.
• Everybody's Dead, Dave: By the end of the season, almost every single main character except Clementine and Alvin Jr can die: Pete, Nick, Alvin, Carlos, Sarita, Sarah, Rebecca and Luke all die by the end of Episode 5. Bonnie can die if you let her drown during the lake scene. Either Kenny, Jane, or both will die at the climax of Episode 5, and Mike could be killed by Clementine in an early PS3 release of Episode 5.
• Everyone Has Standards: If the player chooses to kill the dog at the camp site, and to tell Luke and Pete about it, Luke is disturbed because "you don't kill dogs."
• Evolving Credits: The title screen's colors significantly darken as each episode is released.
• Extremely Short Timespan: Not counting the Time Skip at the beginning, the entire season takes place over the course of about 7-8 days.
• Eye Scream: Kenny gets one courtesy of Carver in episode 3. How fitting, then, that Carver ends up getting one from Kenny at the end of said episode.
• Fission Mailed: If you don't hide in time in the bathroom, Rebecca doesn't discover you. Before she can enter the bathroom, you luck out, because Sarah asks Rebecca what she's doing, and when Rebecca replies she's looking for a towel to wash up, Sarah says there are towels in the kitchen, so Rebecca leaves.
  • Also, if you save Nick over Pete in episode 1, then in episode 2, it looks like Nick sacrifices himself to save you just as Pete does if you save Pete instead...but, unlike Pete, your group comes back to find Nick alive.
• Foreshadowing:
  • When Clementine is separated from Christa and finds herself in another part of a forest, she can read a sign that warns of dangerous animals that wanders around the forest. This is a big hint to Sam the dog's true nature when meeting with him shortly after reading the sign.
  • During the trailer when Chuck says "or smart" it shows Omid, after showing clips of others who didn't make it. This may have been Tell Tale hinting towards his fate at the very beginning of Season Two.
  • Episode 3 has Reggie and his missing arm, proving that cutting an infected bite fast enough can save a person - this comes back at the very end with Sarita's bite.
  • Throughout Season 2, people constantly point out Kenny's increasingly violent behavior, showing that sooner or later, it's going to come to a head.
  • In Episode 5, Clementine dreams she's back with Lee after Lilly kills Doug/Carley, and he tells her sometimes people change in circumstances like these, and there isn't always a right answer to their problems. How oddly fitting when we see Kenny and Jane fight to the death, and she has to end it.
  • In Episode 5, Kenny says "Where there's smoke, there's fire" regarding how widespread the rumors of Wellington's existence is. If he survives his fight with Jane, Clem and Kenny find Wellington by following a plume of smoke.
  • In Episode 2, Carver warns Clementine that sooner or later, everyone will find a reason to betray her. This is exactly what happens in the later episodes with Luke, Bonnie, and arguably Jane
  • In Episode 3 in Carver's final moments, and if Clementine stays to watch Carver's horrific death, he will comment that her grit and unwillingness to turn away is what makes her stronger then the rest of the group. one ending involves Clementine surviving alone, every one of the rest of her group dead or gone
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: When Nick dies, Luke gets exactly one line of dialogue to regret his loss. He then seems to completely forget he ever existed, apparently more upset when Jane leaves after a one night stand than he is by the death of his best friend of 20 something years. Sarah is another example, considering how after she died no one gave a damn for more than a few seconds because the baby was born. A little kid just died (If you chose to save her earlier on in the episode)! Addressed more fully in Episode 5, as Luke comes to the realisation that he's the last survivor of the group he'd started with, and it becomes apparent that he was just trying not to think about it at all.
• Funny Background Event:
  • While riding in the truck at the beginning of Episode 3, there's a sign behind Kenny reading "WARNING: CRUSHING HAZARD," a sly way of referencing him crushing Larry's head during Season One. Which becomes Harsher In Hindsight by the end of the episode, as Kenny had his face smashed in by Carver enough to lose an eye, and Kenny later repays the favour on Carver.

G-M

• Gameplay and Story Integration:
  • If you ask Sarah about the book she was reading when you stumble into her room Clementine can later be seen with said book while eating. Looks like Sarah loaned it to her.
  • In Episode One, if you give water to the dying bandit by the river you won't have any left for Pete if you decide to save him.
• Genre Blindness: Michelle and Jane. When Michelle is holding up Clementine in the bathroom in Episode 1, Michelle automatically assumes Clementine is alone though she isn't. Jane does the same thing, assuming Arvo is alone when holding him up in Episode 4. This is likely meant to fit in to the central ideals shown through the game trying to take the horrors of the Zombie Apocalypse alone or working with a group. The way this fits is that both Jane and Michelle are loners, and are the only two in the game to show this trait.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself, Man!: In episode 4, you have to slap Sarah to convince her to leave the trailer park.
• Gone Horribly Right: Jane's plan to show what kind of violence Kenny is capable of, especially if you don't save her.
• Gory Discretion Shot: Averted big time in the second season. You never directly see Clem die during game over scenes in the first season when Lee fails to save her. In the second season however her promotion to playable comes with death/game over scenes that are just as bad as some of Lee's if not worse due to her age. To say it's very unsettling to see Clem get her neck torn out or her stomach ripped open by a walker is a massive understatement.
• Groin Attack: At the end of episode 3 Jane shoots Troy there so he would draw the walkers.
• Grey and Gray Morality:
  • One of the themes of the season. While in Season 1, all the people that are in your group are good people at heart, even if they don't show it. The Cabin Survivors, on the other hand, often are somewhat greyer in their morality, and a lot of times the conflicts that the group solves has no clear good or bad solution.
  • Exemplified further with Kenny and Jane. Kenny violently attacks Jane because he thought she killed or left behind AJ, and can kill her if you let him. Despite this, he legitimately cares for Clem and AJ, and is willing to sacrifice himself to make sure they're safe. On the other hand, Jane is extremely callous and underhanded in her manipulation of proving to Clem that Kenny is crazy, purposely gaslighting him into attacking her. It's also implied that she did this for the purpose of keeping Clem to herself. Despite her initial disdain towards AJ, she seems to care for Clem and AJ somewhat, and desires to keep them both safe. She can even care enough to let a starving family into their new home. There's no real resolution for the conflict, and neither side is entirely justifiable in their actions.

• Hope Spot:
  • In Episode 2, the group is force to flee the cabin after a dangerous former ally finds them. They reach a bridge and Clem and Luke go scout up ahead. They find another survivor, Matthew, and he seems nice enough. Even willing to share his food. Then Nick stupidly comes running up without assessing the situation and shoots him thinking he was about to attack the pair. This leads to consequences later when they find the rest of Matthew's group. Maybe even moreso as Matthew was that group's lookout and without him. Carver manages to catch up to the cabin group easily.
  • Also in Episode 2, when Carver is holding Alvin hostage if you tell Kenny to take the shot, he does. Carver goes down... for a bit. Then he gets back up like nothing happened and kills Alvin. Turns out the bullet only got his shoulder but the fact that it didn't even slow him down says something about the man.
  • One of the most notable examples of this is episode 5, which is, in a way, one gigantic hope spot. Throughout the first half of the episode, the group works out their problems and come together, finally accepting each other and acting as a group. After one of the most heartwarming scenes of the series, with the group talking around the bonfire, the episode viciously tears this hope to shreds by slowly tearing apart the group with Luke's death, Bonnie and Mike's betrayal and finally the struggle between Kenny and Jane, ending on one of the most traumatic Sadistic Choices in video game history.
  • To a lesser extent, Clementine waking up back in the RV in Episode 3, with Lee by her side, making it seem like everything after that was all a horrible nightmare. And then she wakes up in the back of the truck while Kenny and Jane argue.
• Hypocrite:
  • Jane is one, attempting to prove how dangerous Kenny is by pushing literally every single one of his buttons in an attempt to start a conflict.
  • Christa seems like one. Early on in the first episode she leaves you in the bathroom and it's implied that she has sex with Omid. She left a kid in an abandoned bathroom, one they didn't check before, just to do something they could've waited a few more minutes to do. Remember Episode 3 of Season 1? Where she yells at Lee for going alone into a place possibly full of zombies? Yeah.
• Ice Princess:
  • Due to the events of the games, and partially depending on your choices, Clementine shows signs of turning into this in Episode Two. Even the gentlest version of Clem is notable for being considerably more emotionally dead compared to her personality in Season 1. The least gentle version is a cold, abrasive and manipulative Jerkass. This is understandable, given that everyone she's ever cared about is dead or missing, people who are capable of helping her initially refuse to, and she was engaged in Passive-Aggressive Kombat with one of her new group.
  • Carried a step farther in episode 3, where Carver explicitly acknowledges her as the shrewdest, strongest, and most experienced member of the group, willing to do whatever it takes to survive. He even compares her to himself, which, considering his status as a stone-cold killer whose very name inspires fear in the rest of the party, is seriously saying something. At the end of the episode, Clementine can choose to stay and watch Kenny beat Carver's skull in with a crowbar, and her own face barely strays from cold indifference throughout the entire ordeal.
• Idiot Ball: Played catch with late in episode 4 and in episode 5. First, nobody believes that Arvo, who was left with nothing to lose and whose remaining allies were unknown, might be leading the group into a trap (conversely, assuming that he isn't leading the group to a trap (which he isn't) the fact that Kenny treats him so terribly gives him plenty of reason to abandon the team as soon as safely possible). Then, on the thin ice, when the goal is specifically not to put too much weight in one area, if Clementine chooses to cover Luke as he climbs out of a small hole Bonnie will lumber up to him instead, causing them both to fall in. Finally, the ball is caught by Jane, who decides to prove a point to Clementine by playing a trick on Kenny which provokes him to fight her to the death - at no point during their fight, which she claims later not to have expected, does she think to reveal that AJ is alive and well.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Sam gets kicked into a group of sharp metal tent-poles and stabbed though his leg and chest, and unlike other examples where the victim either dies moments after or immediately, Sam remains fully conscious and whining in pain while trying to pull himself off of the poles.
• Improperly Placed Firearms: The only long guns seen in the game are Russian AK-47 copies.
• Insult Backfire: In Episode 3, Clementine can tell Carver that she wishes Kenny had shot him. He appreciates the gall it took to say that to his face, and segues it into a "Not So Different" Remark.
• In Vino Veritas: Invoked by Mike in episode 5 when Bonnie lets it slip that she had romantic feelings for Luke. They had just taken sips of rum.
• Irony:
  • The sign in the campground warning Clem of dangerous animals. There IS a dangerous animal around, but not one you'd expect. A starved dog bites her after she tries to take some food back from it after it tried to keep it all for itself.
  • Also, if you opt to help Sarah pick berries she'll worry about making a mistake. Clementine responds that it won't be the end of the world if she does. Cue Carver showing up and pushing Reggie off the roof for not making sure they picked enough berries.
  • A more depressing irony is present in episode 4 where a memorial in a civil war site quoting "Fallen, but not Forsaken". Sarah, if she was saved in the trailer house, literally falls to her death and is immediately forsaken by her friends afterwards.
  • Kenny ends his storyline in by doing exactly what Lilly did - violently snapping and killing/attempting to kill someone in a fit of rage and paranoia.
  • Jane is known for her loner characteristics, but at the end, if Clementine chooses to abandon her, she'll practically plead for Clem to stay with her.
• It's Up to You:
  • The number of times an 11 year old girl is asked to take point on even extremely dangerous tasks becomes almost comical. This is especially egregious when all of the adults defer to Clem's expertise in figuring out how to turn off a wind turbine. Though this is usually because the other members of the group are otherwise preoccupied taking care of their family or recent events have made their abilities... questionable. There are also other times where Clementine is especially suited to a task (such as being smaller and sneakier) so there are at least in-story reasons for this besides the fact that you're the protagonist.
  • Clem finally gets the opportunity to lampshade it during "In Harm's Way" as she's volunteered to set off the PA system to attract walkers, potentially choosing to ask why it always has to be her.
  • In Episode 5, when she's given the task of cleaning Kenny's eye wound, he says that she shouldn't have to. Clem replies by saying that there are a lot of things she shouldn't have to do.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • Nick really comes across as this, since the last time they'd let a bitten survivor into their group, his mother wound up being killed when they turned. He does later apologise for his behaviour, giving the player the choice to forgive him or not.
  • As unhinged as he becomes, Kenny's actions aren't entirely irrational or baseless. His treatment of Arvo is horrible, but Arvo tried to ambush the group, tried to run away from them across the ice to a cabin, getting Luke killed, and shoots Clementine when he, Mike and Bonnie were stealing the vehicle. His desire to leave with the truck as soon as possible is seen as insane by everyone, but last time Kenny fixed up a vehicle, it got stolen when the group's attention was directed elsewhere. When everyone is asleep, this is precisely what happens, by Mike and Bonnie no less. Granted, these cases have traces of a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, given that Kenny's actions played a part in their reactions, but he's not entirely wrong in what he's saying.
  • As utterly sociopathic as Jane's plan to fake AJ's death and demonstrate just how tenuous Kenny's grip on his own sanity is, there's little denying that it worked far more than she expected it to.
• Karma Houdini: Arvo, Mike, and (if still alive) Bonnie completely get away scot free with screwing over the group, stealing all of the supplies, and shooting Clementine. Funnily enough, there was an option to shoot Mike in the PS3 port before it was patched out.
• Kick the Dog: Carver shoots Walter in the back of the head after torturing Carlos in front of his sobbing daughter.
• Kick the Son of a Bitch: The fact that over 70% of players chose to stay and watch as Kenny caved in Carver's face with a crowbar at the end of Episode 3 is pretty telling.
• Killed Offscreen: Nick in episode 4. He was with Luke and Sarah, but after leaving them, somehow managed to get bitten. Clementine and Jane find him as a walker, stuck in the fence.
• Language Barrier: In episode 4, Clementine and her crew encounter a group of Russians who want revenge for Jane (and possibly Clem) robbing and threatening one of their members, Arvo. They demand that Clem's group surrender all their supplies, but Clem's group refuses, resulting in a Mexican Standoff. By this point, everyone wants to back out, but only Arvo can understand both languages. Unfortunately, when an undead Rebecca is killed by Clem or Kenny, the gunshot causes a firefight.
• Last Breath Bullet: How Alvin takes out one of Carver's Mooks, buying time for the group to escape Carver's camp.
• Late Arrival Spoiler: Lee died in Season One, leaving Clementine to fend for herself.
  • The promotional artwork for Episode 4 clearly depicts Kenny, spoiling his return in Episode 2. Players who were waiting for the entire season to be complete before playing, and were just casually browsing the Steam Store front page around Episode 4's release, might not appreciate this.
• Let's You and Him Fight: The escape plan in Episode 3, deliberately attracting a massive herd to overrun Carver's settlement.
• Life or Limb Decision: Carlos and co. consider doing this when they think Clem is infected. Ultimately averted. Similarly done later with Pete if he's saved, as he can't bring himself to saw off his own leg, figuring he'd bleed out anyway.
  • Also done at the end of episode 3, where you have to choose to cut Sarita's arm off or not.
• Let's Split Up, Gang!: Forced by circumstances. Clementine and Christa split up when they're attacked by thugs early on in "All That Remains", and at the end, if you opt to run to Pete's aid, he and Clem are separated from Nick as they escape from walkers. When crossing the ice to get to Arvo's cabin, the group needs to split up to avoid putting too much pressure on any particular spot.
• The Main Characters Do Everything: This job needs someone small? Let's get Clementine. This job requires someone who knows Kenny well? Let's get Clementine. This job requires fixing a windmill? Okay, let's get Clementine.
• Man Hug: In Episode 2, Luke gives one to Nick when comforting him over Pete's death.
• Mentors: A recurring theme throughout the season. Due to Clementine's age, pretty much every character attempts to play one to her, but their own flaws generally lead to situations where Clementine is the one guiding them, coming to its head during the finale where two characters fight to the death for the position of Clem's mentor. This creates a massive contrast with Clementine's relationship with Lee in the previous season.
• Mature Work, Child Protagonists: The protagonist is an 11-year-old girl named Clementine, whom the player has to help with navigating life in the post-apocalyptic world, handling tensions within her group of survivors (in which she's one of only two kids, and the only one who doesn't have a parent looking out for her) and growing up.
• Mercy Kill: Clementine can do this to Sam, the dog that attacked her.
• Mexican Standoff: One particularly traumatic one at the end of Episode 4 between Clementine's group and Arvo's group. Sadly, when Rebecca reanimates, and Kenny or Clem is forced to shoot her, it ends in a Blast Out after a Smash to Black with an unconfirmed number of fatalities.
• Mood Whiplash: Clem finds a dog, plays with him for a bit, then finds some food and decides to share it with him. Then the dog attacks her for trying to take "its" food.
• Moral Myopia: During episode 3, when the group is taken captive by Carver and his goons, the entire group wastes no time planning an escape route by having Clementine turn on the PA system to attract a horde of walkers to the community they are imprisoned in, and uses Jane's advice by covering themselves in walker blood to blend into the crowd. Though they manage to get out after having Carver and Troy killed, the group's actions ends up luring a massive amount of walkers into a community full of unseen people who have likely done no wrong to the group, and were not directly involved in Carver's atrocity towards them. Regardless it is possible that the group had gotten many innocent people killed during their escape, all because they wanted to get out sooner rather than wait until the walker hoard passes by the next day or so, and the protagonists never once questions how they doomed a once well guarded community because one or two people working in said community were evil to them.
• Morton's Fork:
  • In "All That Remains", you have the choice of feeding the dog Sam. If you don't feed him, He will attack for denying him food. If you do feed him, he will try to take all of it, and attack you for trying to stop him.
  • In "In Harm's Way," Reggie is on thin ice with Carver, who is furious that he helped the group escape the first time. He is tasked with making the Clem and Sarah work cutting berries and trimming plants. Sarah immediately has a breakdown and cannot complete her task, giving the Clementine the choice of helping her finish or doing their own work. Regardless of what option you choose, one of the girls will have not completed their share when Carver returns and he murders Reggie in retaliation.
  • At the end of "In Harm's Way," Sarita is bitten and you're given the choice of killing the walker or cutting off Sarita's arm. In the next episode, Sarita is killed by walkers immediately no matter what you did.
  • The real Morton's Fork comes at the climax of Season 2, Episode 5. By this point in the game, it's obvious to all that Jane and Kenny are two sides of the same coin. Clem is left to choose which of the two madmen she will side with, unless she decides to kill Kenny (if she let him kill Jane) or abandons whoever she saved.
• Multiple Endings: Several, all of them bittersweet. Suffice to say, it seemed like Telltale Games could have a lot of juggling to do at the start of season 3, until they engaged in the usual Cutting Off the Branches they do.
  • Kenny Ending: Clem, Kenny, and AJ (the baby) make it to Wellington, only to be told that they can't accept any more people at the moment due to winter food shortages. The defenders toss the three a bag of survival supplies and suggest that they keep returning, in case some space opens up. Kenny, not content with this, successfully argues for them to keep the supplies if they let Clem and the Baby in. The player is then given a choice...
  • Stay with Kenny: Clem refuses to leave Kenny behind, and while he resists, she ultimately convinces him. They agree to keep returning to Wellington until they are allowed entry, and leave to find shelter for the time being.
  • Go to Wellington: Clem tearfully agrees to leave, taking the baby to the gates. After one final goodbye, Kenny leaves as the gates close behind him, and in front of Clementine.
  • Jane Ending: Clem, Jane, and AJ (the baby) return to Howes', the department store that Carver used as his fortress, quickly finding food for the baby. While none of the defenders are alive, Jane notes that the decimated walker population and still-intact defenses and greenhouse would make it an excellent hideout. Suddenly, a family of three approaches. The father begs for food and shelter, stating that they been wandering for some time and have not eaten in a day. The player is then given a choice...
    • Let Them In: Clem lets them come in, and Jane reluctantly agrees. The family is overjoyed at their kindness, and the father begins sizing up the place, also noting that it would make a great place to live. However, Clementine silently notices that the father's situation and gung-ho attitude is eerily similar to Kenny's, and seems worried about the possibility of everything coming full-circle.
    • Send Them Away: Clem and Jane tell them to leave, worried about their limited supplies and the possible danger the strangers may present. The father threatens them, but Clem calls his bluff, and they leave, dejected. Jane worries that they'll be back, but Clem coldly notes that they'll be ready if it happens. The final shot is of the family's son, sadly looking back at Clementine.
  • Alone Ending: Clem takes the baby and either abandons Jane after killing Kenny or abandons/kills Kenny after he killed Jane, disgusted by their callous, selfish actions. 9 days later, she and the baby are seen walking over a hill, seeing a massive herd in the distance as they reach the top. She silently kills a straggler, covering herself and the baby with their guts to disguise their scent, and calmly begins pressing on through through the field of walkers.

N-Z

• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Players who strove for the Golden Ending in 400 Days. Anyone they convinced to come along with Tavia becomes security at Carver's stronghold, and are likely killed by the herd in the climax of episode 3.
• No Ending:
  • The "Alone" ending. Clem and Alvin Jr. are seen wandering the wilderness, when they come across a herd of walkers in the distance. Clem covers herself and the baby with walker guts to disguise their scent, then begins to walk through the herd. Cut to black, credits.
  • The "Jane" ending, with the "Let Them In" option, in which Clementine and Jane let a family get in Howe's. Clementine watches how the family gets in, while everything seems normal, except the dad carries a gun. Clementine signs to Jane about it. The kid of the family says to Clementine she has a "cool hat". Cut to black, credits.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Delivered to Kenny by Carver during Episode 3. He returns the favour later.
• No Name Given: Even worse than in the last game - the only two characters who have full names are William Carver and Peter Randall. As Clementine still has no full name, you literally don't know your own last name.
• Not Quite the Right Thing: Reggie confirms that a prompt amputation will stop infection. Good to know, right? Well, at the end of "In Harm's Way," Sarita is bitten on the hand by a walker during the group's escape, and the game prompts you to either get it off her or take her arm off. If you choose the latter, she is swarmed by walkers and dies immediately.
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  • Carver claims that this is the case with him and Clementine. He notes that when they first met in Episode 2, he realized how brave she was for looking him straight in the eyes, without any signs of fear, and that there's no way she could've survived in this world without being like him.
  • Jane accuses Kenny of turning into another Carver.
• Oblivious Guilt Slinging: In Episode 2, holy hell does Walter do this in regards to the missing Matthew! He is completely unaware that Nick shot and killed Matthew on the bridge, and while talking to Clementine about him, the poor girl looks very uncomfortable with the knowledge.
• Offhand Backhand: Christa doesn't noticeably seem to aim her rifle or even look at her target when she guns down Omid's killer.
• Old Save Bonus: Whatever decisions that were made in the first season can be carried over to the second via a save file of your choice from the last season. If there are any uncompleted episodes (including 400 Days), or no save file, the decisions that were to be made in those episodes are randomized.
• One Steve Limit: Averted by Rebecca (one of the main characters in the cabin group) and Becca (the younger sister of one of the player characters from 400 Days). If you managed to convince Shel and Becca to join Carver's group at the end of 400 Days, Rebecca and Becca will briefly live together in Carver's compound, though they never share screen time.
• Only a Flesh Wound: Clementine is shot in the shoulder in episode 5, which causes her to pass out from shock. Once she wakes up she is told that the bullet went straight through. She is then able to walk and use both arms with minimal difficulty, and by the end of the episode the injury is completely forgotten about.
• Palette Swap: Randy and Patricia from the go with Jane ending are pretty clearly texture swaps of Carlos and Molly respectively.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Carver's ultimate fate is very, very ugly and cruel, but he just soooooo had it coming.
• Perpetual Poverty: Particularly in Episode 4 and especially Episode 5. While Bonnie and Mike's hunger is mentioned during a raccoon chase, they are never shown finding food. And while in Episode 5, they do finally find some food, Clem, Jane, AJ and Kenny do not appear to have it the next day. Despite this, Clem, AJ, and possibly Jane or Kenny survive the next nine days as they look for a settlement.
• Please Don't Leave Me:
  • In "No Turning Back", Clem has a dream where she's with Lee in the old RV. Toward the end of the dream, she can ask Lee to promise not to leave her.
  • If Clementine shoots Kenny to save Jane, Jane will almost beg Clem to stay with her when it's revealed AJ was okay.
• Plot Immunity: In Episodes 4 and 5, there are at least 7 scenes in which it makes perfect sense to just shoot Arvo. He proves, at the cost of Luke's life and Clem's shoulder, that it would have been a good idea too. However, the option is never presented, as those things happening are critical to the story.
• Post-Apocalyptic Dog: Clementine encounters a starving dog near an abandoned campsite.
• Post-Rape Taunt: Carver cruelly does this to Rebecca, just as he's about to die. He claims Rebecca enjoyed every second of it, in spite of her disdain for him.
• Precision F-Strike: Clementine isn't as opposed to cursing as she used to be, but she never added "fuck" to her vocabulary. However, the player can have her drop an f-bomb after she discovers Jane lied about the baby being dead, calling Jane "fucking crazy".
• Press X to Not Die: Back once again though now include directional presses a la The Wolf Among Us.
• Promoted to Playable: You're controlling Clementine this time out who, unlike Lee, is limited in fending off walkers and scavengers, meaning it's up to you how you have her deal with certain situations.
• Properly Paranoid: While it seems harsh to players, how many wouldn't be suspicious of someone with an unidentifiable bite on their arm told you that it was only a dog during the middle of a Zombie Apocalypse?
• Protagonist-Centered Morality: In episode 3, when the group decides to make a plan to escape Carver’s group, not only does no one mention how ‘’innocent'' people (the ones who are largely unseen but still present in the episode) still staying in with Carver will be affected due to the plan, but the game itself doesn’t even hint at the devastation they caused to the people who stayed. The game acts as if their plan isn’t morally grey at best because we’re only supposed to think about how the group needs to get away from Carver, not think about how the other people either died or were forced to leave their home.
• Public Domain Soundtrack: A folk song for the end credits and two classical pieces at the ski lodge in A House Divided.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: One of the dialog options after the cabin survivors find that Clem has killed a walker that broke into the shed they put her in to make sure she isn't bitten (and the achievement you get for reaching that scene) is aptly labeled as "Still. Not. Bitten."
• Puppy Dog Eyes: When Carlos' group is deciding whether or not to help Clementine, she can appeal to several of them by picking a "sad eyes" option. Doing it to Luke (who is on Clementine's side) gets him to complain about her trying to "guilt trip" him.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Clementine and the cabin survivors manage to kill Carver and escape his compound, but their plan involved leading a colossal herd of zombies to storm the department store. Along with destroying a well barricaded safehouse with a good supply of food, the group had to deal with the zombies they invited, and the stray bullets of Carver's minions. The ensuing deaths throw the rest of the group into absolute turmoil. On top of all that, Carver's morbid predictions were pretty much spot on. In choosing freedom over safety, all of the original cabin survivors are dead in less than a week, and the chances of survival are pretty slim for the rest.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Carver's last words more or less suggest that he raped Rebecca, telling her to admit that she liked it.
• Red Herring: Rebecca's pregnancy, her uncertainty of the child's father, and Carver's obsession with her and the baby's safety all gives off the impression that she had an affair with him behind Alvin's back. Episode 3 and Word of God reveal that it was definitely not an affair; Carver raped Rebecca, and wants to make her his bride.
• Replacement Goldfish:
  • Kenny seems to treat Clementine and Sarita as his new family. Becomes pretty obvious when he accidentally calls Clementine "Duck".
  • Jane also appears to treat Clementine this way, though how much is up to interpretation. It's very evident she views Sarah this way, and not in a good way; she has precisely zero interest in protecting her, and even goes so far as to call the other girl's PTSD selfishness. You start to wonder if she's referring to Sarah at all, or to her own dead sister, Jaime, whom she finally got sick of and abandoned.
• Sadistic Choice:
  • At the end of Season 2 Episode 1, Nick is surrounded by Walkers, while Pete is only facing one but has a leg injury. You have to choose whether to save Nick or Pete; you only have time to save one because earlier, Clementine was attempting to grill a bandit she recognized about Christa's whereabouts. Similar to Telltale's The Wolf Among Us, the choice actually has a good and bad option, as running to Nick (As he is surrounded by more and could use more help) results in Pete being overwhelmed when more walkers appear, but going to Pete (who is injured and has no ammo left) results in Nick running off into the woods unscathed. However, it ends up being subverted, because in Episode 2, either Pete dies anyway sacrificing himself to save you, or Nick seems to sacrifice himself but you later find him alive. No matter who you save, in the end, Pete dies, and Nick lives.
  • Double Subversion in Episode 4 regarding Sarah. You have the option to leave Sarah in the trailer to die, or to rescue her. If you choose to rescue her, later on, there's another choice where you have to rescue Jane or drop Jane and tell her to help Sarah, who's pinned beneath a collapsed deck. If you try to save Sarah this time around, she'll die anyway, just like Pete.
  • Played straight in Episode 5, where Jane and Kenny get into a fight at the end of the episode. Kenny gets the upper hand and attempts to stab Jane. The knife goes into Jane slowly due to her resisting, but it is clear that Kenny will kill her if the player does not intervene. The player is forced to choose between shooting Kenny dead, or letting Jane die.
• Scenery Porn: The environments in this season are gorgeous.
• Schmuck Bait: The gold watch Clem can find in a drawer. Everything about it just screams that it is a Kleptomaniac Hero's trap, given the circumstances it is found under. Surprisingly, it ultimately Subverted. If you took the watch you can give it back to Nick in Episode Two and he thanks you for it, meaning you're actually rewarded by the game for stealing since Nick doesn't even realize you "stole" it in the first place; he thinks you deliberately grabbed it just to return it to him.
• Scream Discretion Shot: In Episode 2, if Clem goes outside to find Kenny after Carver shows up with his thugs, we don't get to see what Carver does to Carlos. Presumably, Carlos lost an ear (camera angles hide it after that, so that the scenes can play the same regardless of which choice you made).
• Searching the Stalls: Done by Clem in the prologue of episode 1. While in the bathroom, she makes sure there's no one alive or otherwise in the stall before taking care of herself.
• Self-Stitching: Clementine chooses to stitch her own arm up after she's bitten by a dog. It's gut-wrenching.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: Of the surviving three characters from season 1, Omid is by far the most light-hearted and jovial. Guess who dies in the very first scene of the second season?
• Shoot the Dog:
  • Clementine ends up fatally wounding a dog after it bites and probably would have killed her. She can end its life mercifully if the player chooses to. And yes, the game makes this as unpleasant as humanly possible. After all, the dog was just as desperate for food as she was...
  • At the end of Episode 4, either Clementine or Kenny has to shoot Rebecca after she dies and reanimates.
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Twice in episode 4:
  • The entirety of Sarah's plotline ends this way. Over the course of three episodes, Clem is given repeated chances to choose whether to be friendly and help Sarah or to be mean and abuse her. She can help Sarah learn to use a gun and seems to be preparing her to finally face the post-apocalyptic world without her father sheltering her. Then Sarah's father dies in front of her, Sarah becomes catatonic, and everything you may have tried to build with her comes to nothing as she inevitably dies being torn apart and screaming for her father before the end of the episode. Even if Clem saves Sarah in the trailer home, Sarah will still be killed by Walkers during the shootout on the observation deck.
  • Double subverted with Rebecca. After all the effort the group went through to ensure she could give birth safely, it looks like her baby was stillborn, only for the baby to start breathing a few seconds later. However, Rebecca dies of exhaustion at the end of the episode.
• Slashed Throat: If the player chooses to Mercy Kill the dog that bit them in episode 1, this is the method that is used to do it.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Everyone in Arvo's group apart from himself have almost no lines in English and all of them die after about five minutes. However, if it weren't for them, Arvo wouldn't have become your prisoner, which may have had a different effect on Kenny's sanity and prevented you from finding their hideout and their truck. It would also result in Luke (and Mike) not being shot during the firefight, which might've saved Luke's life later on.
• Sole Survivor: A picture Clementine can find at the abandoned campsite features a family, all of whom are implied to be dead, with Sam the dog in the background, revealing he's the only family member left.
• Story Branch Favoritism: Of the three main endings to Episode 5, going with Kenny to find Wellington has significantly more length and interpersonal conflict devoted to it than the other two. Going with Jane results in a scene of only about a third the length with a minor choice that ends up not mattering the next season anyway, and going off alone gives only a short, silent segment of Clementine attempting to make her way through a field of walkers with AJ. Kenny's ending, by comparison, involves the deeply conflicting choice of either staying at Wellington without him or refusing to stay if it means leaving Kenny and gives Clementine the chance to at least give him a final goodbye that she can't give Jane in Season 3 should she go with her.
• Stupidity Is the Only Option:
  • Even after Omid tells Clementine to keep an eye on her stuff, the game doesn't give you the option of keeping the gun with you while retrieving the water bottle.
  • In Episode 2, Clem will spot the flashlights of Carver's group approaching from across the bridge. Despite the approaching danger, the game forces Clem and her group to stay in the ski lodge and be utterly surprised when they're suddenly held hostage by armed psychos. To be fair, Clem did tell Rebecca and Alvin about seeing the flashlights, which is what prompted Carlos to say they'd leave at dawn. It's just that "dawn" turned out to be too late.
  • After seeing the flashlights in episode 2, Bonnie abruptly appears snooping at the back of the lodge. None of the characters put two and two together.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: When adults are talking about sex in front of Clementine, Bonnie tells them off. One dialog option allows Clementine to say that she's not stupid, she knows what they're talking about. The script then has her elaborate that they're talking about kissing. They go with that description.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
  • Arvo's group as a whole is reminiscent of The Stranger: if you take or leave the meds, his group attacks you for Jane's treatment of him, rather like the Stranger blaming Lee even if he didn't take his supplies.
  • Jane comes off as very much akin to Molly. Both are extremely pragmatic (almost to a ruthless extent), both have troubled pasts that were in part caused by losing little sisters, each are aloof to the group at the start, before gradually warming to the player character after learning how efficient and sensible they are, and each end up departing the main group at the end of the fourth episodes of their respective seasons, claiming that they prefer isolation to travelling with a group. However, unlike Molly she returns the next episode and becomes an important character in the season finale.
• Tempting Fate: Jane and Luke have sex in Episode 4. Not only does this have immediate repercussions (Luke was supposed to be on patrol, and their interlude allowed a herd of Walkers to show up and directly leads to Sarah's death), but in A New Frontier, it's revealed that either they used the 'withdrawal method' of birth control or didn't bother even trying, as Jane is pregnant. Like much else in the game, it doesn't end well.
• That Came Out Wrong: This infamous line from Mike, when talking about eating a raccoon: Clementine: We can eat raccoon? Mike: I'd eat the shit out of that raccoon. [Bonnie and Clementine both grin]
• The Load: Sarah. Her father's sheltering of her from the chaos of the outside world left her inexperienced. Because of this, she often gets herself, and others, in trouble. You can choose to save her or leave her at the trailer park in Episode 4, but she dies shortly after either way.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Said word for word by Clementine before she disinfects and stitches her arm. And you know what, it does because the game makes you do every agonizing second of it. It gets a Call Back in "No Going Back" as Clementine can repeat this to Kenny as you prepare to clean his wounds.
• I Thought You Were Dead: Said by Clementine in the trailer for Episode Two, and a possible dialogue option when players reach the scene in the episode itself.
• Time Skip: Even if the developers hadn't said that Season Two starts "months" after the first season ended, it's pretty obvious. Clementine looks a bit older and Christa is big-belly pregnant when she wasn't even showing at the end of the first game. Then there's a sixteen-month time skip from the first scene to the rest of Chapter 1, meaning the bulk of the Chapter and Episode take place almost three years after the beginning of Season One; interestingly, this put the game further into the Zombie Apocalypse than any other The Walking Dead media at the time, (the original comic swiftly caught up with a time skip of its own shortly after the game's release).
• Took a Level in Badass: Clementine. Post time-skip, no longer is she the bright-eyed little girl from the first season. On top of being a better shot, she's more capable of fighting in general, and can say some snappy quips at other characters if the player chooses.
• Took a Level in Jerkass:
  • Can be played straight with Clementine, depending on the choices made. She can go from The Heart of the team to a manipulative survivor who threatens a pregnant woman, taunts a starving dog with food, and manipulates a girl with mental issues into giving her supplies. Given what happened to her in Season One and the Downer Beginning of episode 1, she can't entirely be blamed for going off the rails. Christa as well, due to the death of Omid and fate of her child. It's implied her cold demeanor towards Clementine is due to blaming her for Omid's death.
  • Bonnie seems to have become much more ruthless and cunning since her appearance in 400 Days. Subverted as it turns out to be her assuming that Carver knows what's ultimately best for his settlement; as soon as she realizes just how horrible he is, she lightens up considerably. The rest of the 400 Days crew, however, seem fairly tight-assed if they went with Tavia as well. She takes several levels if Clem does not try to help Luke out of the hole in the frozen lake. For the rest of the episode, she is outright cold towards Clem, and when Clem is shot by Arvo, she shows no concern, unlike if Clem had tried to help Luke, where she does show concern.
• Villain Has a Point: Considering the Cabin Group locked Clem in a shed and the player doesn't know much about their background, a quote from Carver struck a chord for some players. He asks Clem, "If people don't trust you, how can you trust them?"
• Wham! Episode:
  • Episode 4. It can be best described as "fuck" . To elaborate: Sarita dies, Kenny goes into shock, Nick dies (if he hasn't already) and you have to kill him as a walker, Sarah dies, Jane and Luke (who are barely seen interacting) have sex when they were supposed to be on watch, which triggers a massive hoard of walkers, Jane leaves, Rebecca's baby is born, Rebecca dies, the group is attacked by a group of armed Russians, then the screen cuts to black with no preview for episode 5.
  • Episode 5: Arvo's sister dies and reanimates in the middle of the gunfight, forcing Clem to shoot her and causing Arvo to think she murdered his sister. Jane comes back and helps kill the Russians except for Arvo, who is taken hostage. Kenny becomes increasingly hot-tempered and abusive towards Arvo, who offers to lead them to their base. Luke - and potentially Bonny as well - fall through the ice of a frozen lake and drown. Kenny nearly beats Arvo's face in, and later that evening Mike, Bonnie (if she's still alive) and Arvo try to hijack a truck Kenny fixed and Arvo shoots Clem in the chest when she catches them. Clem survives, but loses Jane (who has Alvin Jr.) and Kenny in a snowstorm. When they find each other again, Jane has lost AJ, prompting a fight between Jane and Kenny, with Clem forced to shoot Kenny or let him stab Jane. If Clem picks Kenny, they find AJ hidden in a car and travel to Wellington, where Clem is forced to choose between leaving Kenny for the safety of Wellington or staying with him. If Clem saves Jane, they return to Carver's outpost, and Clem must choose to help or turn away another family of survivors. Alternately, Clem can leave Kenny/Jane in disgust, and take her chances on her own with AJ.
• Wham! Line:
  • From Episode 2: Kenny: [to Clementine] Pass me that can, Duck.
  • From Episode 5, when Bonnie admits her feelings for Luke: Bonnie: ...Worked on me.
  • Also from Episode 5, the moment when Jane's funny anecdote turns into a violent retelling of a Dark and Troubled Past: Jane: The problem with glass is that it looks a lot like sugar crystals.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • Actually intentionally done, as there's no indication what happened to Christa's baby after the Time Skip. Have fun picturing all kinds of grisly fates for it.
  • Nor is there any indication of Christa's fate after Clementine is separated from her.
  • In Episode 5, Mike, Arvo and (potentially) Bonnie's fates are unknown since Clementine passes out after being shot and ends up waking up in the backseat of the truck with only Kenny, Jane and AJ.
  • It's not made explicitly clear whether anyone from 400 Days (except for Bonnie) who joined Carver's camp died in the zombie attack from Episode 3 or escaped. It's also never mentioned what happened to the group members who declined Tavia's request, or even Tavia herself.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • In episode 3's preview, if you gave yourself up to keep Carver from hurting Carlos further, Kenny gives the others an angry dressing-down. Kenny: I don't know if we could've saved Walt, but I know one of us didn't just give up.
  • On the giving end, if Walter lets Nick get his throat torn out by a walker and then lies about knowing what happened to him, among other dialogue options, you can hit him for this.
  • Kenny gives Clementine a particularly vicious one in Amid the Ruins after Sarita is bitten, especially if you chopped her arm. Kenny: You think because you're a little girl you can just get people killed and no one will care?!
• Who's Your Daddy?: Rebecca is heavily pregnant with a baby and doesn't know who the father is. The candidates are her husband, Alvin, and Carver, who is later revealed to have raped her. The first two episodes heavily imply that Carver is the father, but later episodes backtrack on that and imply that Alvin is. In the end, the truth is never revealed, and Alvin is considered by the main, characters to be the father anyway, though primarily based on optimism.
• Willing Suspension of Disbelief: Luke's (lack of a) reaction to the death of Nick, his best friend of over 20 years led many fans to question the quality of writing in Episode 4, especially since Luke had more of a reaction to Jane leaving the group. This is largely a case of the game Cutting Off the Branches, and a pretty blatant example at that, as Nick could have already died in previous episodes.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Clem certainly acts like somebody twice her age (which is quite justified considering the circumstances). So much so that many of the other adults turn to her for advice and help (something which even gets lampshaded by a dialogue option.) Carver picks up on this much more than her companions do.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • Unfortunately for Clementine, a lot of people are not so reserved about hurting other children. Christa even crossed this the moment she saw Omid get murdered by one as he attempted to save Clementine.
  • Carver has no problem threatening to shoot Clementine to get Kenny to surrender. He slaps her at the start of the next episode if she is rude to him, and he orders Carlos to slap Sarah for speaking while he was speaking. The biggest proof is seen if Clem doesn't attack Carver quickly enough as he holds the group at gunpoint. As soon as he realises Clem is behind him, he doesn't hesitate to shoot her.
  • One of Carver's henchmen Troy appears to have no problem with harming children, as he attacks Clementine with the stock of his assault rifle if she tries to help Kenny as he is getting bashed by Carver. It leaves a nasty wound that's still there as of Amid The Ruins.
• Wrong Name Outburst: At dinner, Kenny calls Clementine Duck, making it clear that despite surface appearances he's still somewhat of a wreck.
• Yank the Dog's Chain:
  • In Episode 1, Clementine lost all her companions, got swept downriver in a rainstorm, and is cold and hungry while lost alone in the woods. However, things start looking back up for her, when she befriends a dog named Sam, finds an old campsite, and comes across a can of beans that are still good. Just when things are starting to look fine, Sam (equally desperate for food) attacks her to get the can, ripping open her arm. Clem fatally wounds it in the struggle. Then she is back to being alone, cold, and hungry.
  • And later in the same episode after that, the chain gets yanked again when a group does discover Clem so she's no longer alone, so now she can get someplace warm with food... but because of the dog bite they're suspicious of her, and end up locking her in the shed overnight to be sure she's not a walker victim. It also doesn't help that some members suspect her as being a scout for Carver. Once again, back to being alone, cold, and hungry.
• Zombie Infectee:
  • The cabin survivors accuse Clementine of this in Episode 1 and decided to lock her inside a cabin to see if she'll turn. Of course, her bite wound came from a dog who, decidedly, isn't infected.
  • Pete is bitten at the end of Episode 1. If Clementine chooses to save him, he survives but ultimately sacrifices himself to help Clem escape before can turn.
  • Should Clementine not amputate Sarita's arm at the end of Episode 3, she becomes this during the next episode.