The Walking Dead: Season 2, Episode 3: In Harm’s Way Review
Telltale's The Walking Dead takes a page from AMC's The Walking Dead in "In Harm's Way." Here's our review.
**Contains Spoilers for The Walking Dead “In Harm’s Way”**
Telltale has continued Clementine’s journey in The Walking Dead’snext episode titled “In Harm’s Way”two months after the release of their last episode, “A House Divided.” Two months is too long of a time to have to wait for a new episode, but Telltale has made it worth the wait by providing some surprises, intense moments, and introducing a few new characters.
While “In Harm’s Way”doesn’t really tug at your heart strings much, it is an episode that is all about the action–and I’m definitely okay with that. Like the AMC television series, sometimes The Walking Deadhas to take a break from telling us about the characters’ emotional tribulations to have the characters actually prepare and engage with the enemies–which is usually zombies and some menacing man claiming to be looking out for the greater good of a group (The Governor, Carver, Negan, etc). Basically, this is what Telltale has done with this episode.
And while the episode doesn’t really focus on growing Clementine’s story, she is still front and center. As the group devises plans, Clem is usually the key to carrying out those plans. It feels like she is running the important errands while everyone sits back and watches, which certainly doesn’t make any sense. If you’re in a group surviving a zombie apocalypse, who are the least likely to be sent off by themselves? Children. Clem, although she is a strong lead, is still just a child at the end of the day. It’s a little offputting that Luke, Reggie and everyone else really throw here in harm’s way, especially in this episode.
Also, the survivors are being held captive in what is basically a yard with a fence around it–an incredibly low fence. There are movable objects all around in the yard that they could easily stack to escape Carver and his asshole henchmen, Troy, whom is truly just an awful human being (he deserves the fate that comes to him at the end of the episode). And, they’re pretty much left by themselves except for being checked on once in awhile. Wouldn’t it make much more sense for them to just jump the fence instead of devising an intricate plan to escape? Plot holes, bro, plot holes.
Telltale also disappointingly chose to take a page out of the book from the TV series with the hole smearing-zombie-guts-on-you-so-you-can-walk-through-a-herd. I would’ve liked to have seen something a little more creative from the writers.
This episode contains a few moments that are incredibly angering, as they were intended to be. For one, Carver basically forces Carlos to smack Sarah in the mouth or he would have Troy do it. It was hard to watch as a usually quite reasonable man had to strike his child. It was the right decision, because otherwise Troy would’ve done it, but still hard to not be angered by it. Secondly, when Kenny is getting his ass kicked, and you choose to have Clementine go help him (you will make that choice, won’t you?) she gets a punch to the face from Troy. Seriously, fuck you, Troy.
But, these are the choices you are forced to make and the consequences that come with them, which is what makes Telltale’s The Walking Deadso enjoyable. At the end of the episode, Sarita is being bitten by a walker, and you have to choose whether to cut her arm off or kill the walker. In my first playthrough–which is the one in which I make the decisions I would make, myself–I chose to cut her arm off, thus ending the episode with her screaming. In the second playthrough, I had Clementine kill the zombie and the episode ends with Sarita and Clem looking at each other.
I was glad to see Bonnie help Clementine and join the group, and Jane appears to be a useful addition as well.
In the end, “In Harm’s Way”is an enjoyable episode that brought us some action and tough choices, although the episode is slightly flawed with its premise. Hopefully, the next episode, titled “Amid The Ruins,”will give us more character development with Clementine and a backstory on Jane.
Written by
Bobby is our former head geek who can definitely geek out. He thoroughly enjoys all things video gaming related, Zombie slaying and preparing for apocalyptic survival. …