“The Walking Dead Season 2: Episode 4:” The Purge Begins

"Penultimate" Episode Delivers Necessary Amount of Crushing Sadness

By David Curry on July 29, 2014 at 6:32pm

For those following "The Walking Dead: Season 2," you would not be wrong in thinking there has been a lack of real, meaningful death. Sure, a few characters have faced the chop as [spoilers ahead] Clementine looks to continue surviving, but it feels like Telltale has kept their hands off the trigger finger when it comes to our most loved characters this season.

We feel the mood has changed after this episode, not only does Telltale ramp up the deaths, it cuts the personality down from some characters, all the while forging new relationships between the group. People die and new faces crop up, but the same question remains: Where will Clementine be when this season ends?

Regroup; Relocate

The efforts in "Episode 3: In Harm's Way" to escape from Carver's group worked, but that doesn't mean Clementine is out of the woods yet. Once half of the group try to search for the remains, it becomes an all too familiar tale in "The Walking Dead" where some people aren't built for this world and some cannot survive on their own.

After returning to the group, it felt like the pain and heartache of death is almost irrelevant to the many faces. Coming back from one search, two of the characters do not return, but the only one to even pull a pulse of emotion is Rebecca.

This could be the crippling effect of all the deaths the group has seen, but even, so it feels like a lack of emotion and conversation leads to apathetic characters, not something we want.

This is an odd turn of events by Telltale, who rely heavily on the emotion from characters to keep them interesting. It is also intriguing to see Telltale willing to boot main group characters, who may not have made an emotional connection with Clementine and the player yet but are supposed to be "family" to some of the people in the group.

Life Beyond Death

Even with the lackluster amount of emotion and the growth in Clementine, who was worried about Larry's heartache once upon a time to not bothering when one of her closest friends gets mauled by zombies, it still remains an enjoyable episode. We cannot fault Telltale on their ability to keep the ball rolling, even if we feel like they are sometimes rushing scenes at the expense of character interaction.

One thing has remained the same in the past two seasons though, Kenny's continued struggle for power. In "Season One," Kenny got into fights with various members of the group over what to do, and as he becomes a darker character, he continues to struggle to make people think his way. This could end up rather sad, hopefully in a way where Clementine actually shows a shred of emotion.

We cannot help but agree with Kenny most time. While from a morale standpoint he might be oblivious, he certainly understands percentages of survival and how to keep on the "alive" side. Luke, the opposition in "Season Two," wants to continue to settle things and draw up ideas before moving, an impractical but perhaps smarter move in the long term.

As we head to the final episode of the "Season," will we see Clementine run to the hills to find another group of welcoming strangers or will she be completely killed off in favor of a new character? The death of Clementine might be hard to stomach for some, but Telltale has shown one thing - they are relentless when it comes to killing characters.

The Walking Dead Season 2: Episode 4 6.5 / 10 Read our Review »

Release: 7/19/2014 [NA] 7/19/2014 [EU] 7/19/2014 [JP]

ESRB Rating: Mature 17+

Publisher: Telltale Games

Genres: Graphic Adventure

Full Game Details »