by Jacob Doolin
The second
season of Telltales’ Walking Dead series
has gone to great lengths to show Clementine and her group’s innermost
struggles in this zombie-infested world. The characters have loved, lost, and
been hurt for so long it’s become more difficult for them to contain their
inner demons. The majority of the seasons have these slow burns of internal
torment just waiting to consume the characters. With the finale the emotions of
the characters break through for better and worse.
After last month’s lackluster Amid the Ruins, the finale had a lot to make up for in addition to
the pressure of delivering a worthwhile conclusion. Sadly though the ending of
this season of The Walking Dead falls
short because of the inconsistencies of quality of the characters and story.
The entire season has suffered due to a lack of a solid theme, something the
first season did remarkably well. Where Lee Everett’s story felt bookended by
themes of innocence and redemption, Clementine’s own narrative felt too loose
for its own good. This all added up to a narrative that, in the end, felt
unnecessary and at times questionable.
The characters that populated this season also lacked depth
and never sparked much interest. Motivations and personalities were so
undefined and muddled that when it came time to care about characters such as
Nick or Rebecca it felt forced. This wasn’t helped by the reintroduction of
Kenny to the game. As great as his character was this season, his presence only
highlighted how bland the others were. By the episode’s end I sat in silence as
a character I grew to slightly care about, did something so out of character and
evil that I couldn’t believe it. And it’s that lack of depth in the characters
that brings out No Going Back’s
biggest fault: what could have been interesting characters turn into completely
different people by the end of the season for cheap, shock value.
Clementine and the rest of her crew all become more jaded
and less human this episode. Anger is the most common emotion expressed by
characters this time around, and while the brief drinking scene helped lighten
the mood, the overall feeling this episode was somber. A somber mood fits well with an end of the
world narrative, but making the characters act out in extremes to enhance it
makes the game feel tacky. If there is one silver lining though it is
Clementine, who truly earns to be in the pantheon of great female characters.
Her growth from this season and the previous is seen in full and by the episode’s
end I truly felt like the decisions made were her own and not just some random
button press. It’s unfortunate that Telltale couldn’t take the same level of
dedication to make the other characters shine as well as she does.
If there is one thing that holds this episode and season back
it’s the lack of focus on what matters: the characters. Too often this season
we got either a character-focused moment in the middle of a diluted narrative,
or a quick-paced narrative filled with characters that had targets on their
backs. This season’s best episode, A
House Divided, managed to balance both those needs, creating a narrative
that stood on its own outside the season as a whole. If The
Walking Dead is to succeed in the future it needs to remember that balance,
because Clementine and the players deserve a story worth telling next time.
Episode Grade: 6/10
Season Grade: 7/10
+ Clementine character development
- Lack of motivation and personality of characters
- Disappointing ending
- Dull story
