Reloading: #MyClementine

Yes, I’m talking more about Walking Dead Season Two. Don’t like it? Well, too bad. Given I held off on reviewing ANY of it until the final chapter had been released and played, I think I’m well within my right to spend more than a single post on it. And today examines the different endings in more detail. So, more than ever, SPOILERS inbound. 

First, let me clarify there are at least five different endings to the game, though, arguably, there are more. You have three different variations where you save Jane from Kenny (ultimately, by killing him). You also have three variations where you don’t save Jane from Kenny (ultimately, letting her die). Two variations (one from Jane and one from Kenny) result in the same ending of Clementine and baby AJ being alone. While the other four possible options actually have completely different outcomes. But the two differing endings where Clementine is alone are actually rather important distinctions from one another as well. I’m sure most of you who haven’t played the games are already lost… which is probably why you should play these amazing games first before reading any farther. Last warning.

To start, we’ll discuss the endings with Jane where you are with her in the end. Then we’ll discuss the Kenny endings where you go with him. And then we’ll end with the solo endings. Keep in mind that none of these endings are considered the “true” ending as that was the point in making it have multiple endings and the whole twitter campaign of #MyClementine, where Telltale encouraged everyone to have their own vision of who Clementine was and what choices she’d need to make. I imagine there will be a “more correct” ending for Season 3, but we won’t know about that for a while. All that in mind, let’s begin…

Jane Ending #01 – Leaving the Family out – This ending is one of two in which Clementine overlooks Jane’s insanely immature and irrational decision to throw Kenny into a murderous rage over a personality squabble. In both endings, she and Jane (along with baby AJ) return to Carver’s base to get supplies and perhaps make a place to live… at least for now. Shortly after arrival, a trio of strangers arrive (outside the locked gates, obviously). They ask to join in, saying they can be of help. In this version of the ending, you can choose to leave them out in the cold or have them stay with you.

In choosing to leave the family out, you essentially take on the same mentality as Jane. You don’t trust anyone, period. People are a threat and you only look out for yourself (to a degree). This is highlighted by Clementine threatening the “family” with a gun, and asking “What if I’m dangerous?” As badass as this seems, it casts a dark shadow on Clementine for me, making her seem so far gone from the little girl who we were teaching to shoot on the train not all that long ago.

I’m not saying Clem can’t be a badass or can’t threaten people. But it does strike a chord with me when I always played her (and Lee even) with the mentality that you help people and do everything you can to keep as many people alive as possible. The more people who can survive this zombie outbreak, the better chance the world has at rebuilding, if it can. As such, this ending leaves a bad taste in my mouth… however…

Jane Ending #02 – Letting the Family stay – I feel like the second option, while morally “better” ultimately opens up a different can of foul-tasting worms. Simply put, the family stays. You see the gun they didn’t show you. The family acts awkwardly, and almost like there’s something else they’re not saying or telling you. This ending left me uneasy because of how it exposed Clem to something she wasn’t prepared to deal with.

My other issue with this ending is the lack of responsibility on Jane to vet these guys out or make them remove weapons or other suspect items. After all, she’s still the damn adult of this little pairing. She can’t constantly defer to Clementine for every goddamn decision they make because, reality check, SHE’S STILL A CHILD! To me, this ending shows a major character flaw in Jane (if it wasn’t already apparent). It shows that she is incapable of being an adult… period. I already expressed this notion with a majority of the characters, but this makes it more obvious in her. She’s already shown she solves her problems in ways that cause more problems like pissing off Kenny to show he’s a time bomb or to run away when things get too awkward or messy. As such, this makes her, in a lot of ways, more unreliable than Kenny came off nearing the end. Speaking of which…

Kenny Ending #01 – Go to Wellington – You can choose to let Jane die. In doing so, you go with Kenny to Wellington. Upon arrival, you are told you can’t go in (at first). But, thanks to Kenny, he convinces them to let Clementine and AJ in. You can choose to go with Kenny and forget Wellington, or you can choose to go to Wellington, thanking Kenny for the sacrifice he’s willing to make for you. In choosing to stay at Wellington, there’s a tearful goodbye as he picks up the supplies he’s given and he slowly walks away, not looking back. It’s actually probably one of the saddest endings this game has to offer, maybe the second saddest.

So does it work or not? I’d say it’s certainly more serviceable than either Jane ending. My issue is, again thinking like Lee, I would NEVER leave Clementine. As Lee, I vowed to look after her and keep her safe. And neither of these two know ANYTHING about Wellington other than it’s “supposedly” a safe place. Remember Terminus? Remember Carver’s gang? It’s really questionable whether this place is worth the risk to leave these two kids at. Granted, given the impression from the gatekeeper, it doesn’t seem like a bad place. But looks can be deceiving and I’ve seen enough of these situations to know it just takes one crazy asshole to fuck it all up.

Again, not saying this ending is bad (probably one of the better ones). But, much like Jane Ending #2, it leaves me unsettled in thinking that there’s something we’re missing. Now let’s discuss…

Kenny Ending #2 – Leave with Kenny – Probably my second favorite ending, instead of staying at Wellington, you decide that it’s better for you and Kenny to stick together. In a lot of ways, this is true. Clementine is not equipped to handle a baby herself. Kenny can’t function alone and he has trouble fitting into a group. The two work well with one another and have a shared history that runs pretty deep. There’s a potential risk in Kenny’s mental stability, but it seems that (more often than not) Clementine is able to pull him back to reality when the situation calls for it.

Like I said, probably one of my preferred endings. Yes, Kenny can be a dick-bag depending on how you played the first or second game. But I always played with the mindset that I needed someone to have my back, so I went out of my way in the first game to always have his. In the end, he was with me as far as he could go. When he came back, I played things the same way this time around and I didn’t regret any decision I made in siding with Kenny because, like before, he had my back when it counted.

As such, this ending feels bitter-sweet. It has a very nice, warm feel to it and you wonder just what they’ll have to do to survive. But I know AJ and Clem are safer in Kenny’s hands than anyone else’s at this point. But I also know that, given the nature of the series, Kenny will likely die at the beginning of Season Three (if not in between seasons) so that the game can start in one way, regardless of how you chose to end this game. This also feels bitter sweet because…

Solo Ending #1 – Abandon Jane – So you can opt to kill Kenny to save Jane, but end up alone anyway. To do so, you shoot Kenny first. You have a brief moment with him in which you say your goodbyes. You discover the baby is fine after all. Upon this discovery, you choose to walk away from Jane. I suppose an option to kill her MIGHT exist, but I don’t remember it coming up.

This is the ending I went with and it’s tied between this and the ending where you leave Wellington with Kenny for one of my favorites. It brings closure to Kenny’s story arc in a way none of the others do, but it does so at a cost. Kenny dies and he thanks you, telling you that you made the right choices, and that felt good when he first said it. You tell him that he’ll get to see his family again, and he leaves. That scene was beautiful, but sad all at the same time… and then the truth is revealed… Jane didn’t let the baby die and it was all a ploy to make you see what Kenny’s really like. A lie that ended up costing a man his life when he wouldn’t have needed to die had she been able to put aside their differences for even five minutes.

This is another ending that not only shows the pathetic immaturity that Jane can be characterized by, but also by the TREMENDOUS amount of growth done by Clementine within the season. Jane starts to panic when Clementine walks away. She apologies profusely and even cries out, saying that she doesn’t want to be alone. Failing to realize that by trying to prove Kenny’s irrational behavior, she made herself look just as (if not more) irrational. I don’t regret the choice I made with this ending in walking away. Fuck Jane.

The growth is shown in that Clementine in this ending is on her own. No one else is there to watch out for her or care for her anymore. In one way, this is good, but there’s the elephant in the room you have to consider. That baby is still with her and she’s the only one caring for it with no resources or experience to do so. While I love this ending from almost every standpoint, the logic of that baby throws everything into a bind and makes it impossible for this ending to sit well with me. After all, Clem is still just a kid and expecting her to be able to raise this baby properly (or even decently) is high expectations given all the shit she has put up with until now and what she’ll likely have to endure in the future.

Solo Ending #2 – You Killed Kenny Anyway… You Bastard  - This ending ends the same as the previous solo ending expect Jane dies and you let Kenny kill her. But before the baby is revealed to be alive, you can shoot Kenny. You point the gun at him and he sees this… and asks for it. He knows what he did was wrong and knows you are well within your right-mind to do this. You shoot him and it’s just you for a moment before the babies cries are heard… Again… this leaves Clem alone with the baby but without the satisfaction of walking away from Jane the Insane.

Like I said before, I don’t think any one ending can be considered the “proper” ending. What I can say is that I imagine Season Three will take place perhaps years down the road when AJ is old enough to talk and talk and Clementine is a physical adult, shaped by all the experiences we had with her in this game. In short, she’ll be taking on the role of Lee in game three (I presume). This leads me to conclude that, regardless of how this game ends for you, Kenny and Jane will not be around. Wellington will be irrelevant. And the family and Carver’s place will only be memories and nothing more.

I will, again, state that my favorite endings are still down to walking out on Jane and going solo or to walk out with Kenny and keep the group together, or what’s left of it anyway. But, again, I’ve considered Kenny a friend since the beginning. I helped his son because I knew he wouldn’t forget that favor. I helped kill Larry because I agreed that Larry becoming a walker would be a threat, especially if we couldn’t escape. I took care of Duck because I knew he wouldn’t be able to. He may not have liked it, but I held on to Ben as long as I could because we needed to keep each other alive and I think he understood that. And I played Clem the same way because she knew and respected Lee to try and make decisions that he would make, trusting the wisdom he imparted on her.

In the end, Walking Dead has become one of my favorite games. It doesn’t have the fun gameplay in comparison to my other favorites like Portal, Metroid Prime, or Chrono Trigger. But it has something that almost no other game has, and has it in spades. No narrative in gaming can compare to what Walking Dead has surprisingly managed to bring to the table twice now. Yes, most of my favorite games are story-intensive, but Walking Dead’s sole trait is having a good story and that’s enough to let it stand heads and shoulders above the rest.

It’s one of the few games where the choices I made mattered. And they mattered so much and changed the narrative of the game so radically that I’m talking about the decisions I made, why I made them, and discussing what they say about me as a person nearing a week later. I can’t have such in-depth discussion or self-reflection playing Sonic the Hedgehog or Call of Duty. And this is why videogames are an art. Not because they look so good they can almost be real. Art is something that lets us explore the voice of the artist and ourselves. Art is something that isn’t just about how something looks, but expresses something meaningful. And few games have done so with the degree of skill Telltale has managed with Walking Dead. Bravo, guys. I’m looking forward to seeing where you take Season Three.