Nightmare Fuel / The Walking Dead (Telltale)

Obviously, a game about people desperately trying to survive a Zombie Apocalypse is going to have disturbing moments. You can't go one episode without someone dying horribly.

Spoilers Off applies to all Nightmare Fuel pages. All spoilers are unmarked.

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Season 1

• The beginning of the game, and just how fast everything went to hell. There's no sleeping through the end of the world like Rick did in the comics and main tv series, the player get to see it all unfold within a day. The first sign of trouble Lee sees is an increasing amount of police cars heading towards Atlanta, as well as the chatter over the police radio. Then a zombie wanders out on the road, causing the car to crash, and by the time Lee comes to his senses again, the Zombie Apocalypse is in full spring.
• Lee's nightmare of Clementine as a zombie and biting him can freak a few players out.
• Should Lee agree to kill Larry and try to talk to Lilly afterwards, Lilly suddenly faces towards the camera and glares at Lee, or more accurately the player, with hatred in her eyes.
  Lilly: Don't you fucking touch me!
• In the game, when either Carley or Doug is shot by Lily, everyone stands in stunned silence for about a second during which a shuddering breath can be heard. This is Carley/Doug's death rattle.
  • To add onto this, when Lee tells Lilly to drop her gun after her murder of Carley or Doug. It's just pure Tranquil Fury that establishes that Lee is not one to be messed with.
• The music that plays when you have to save either Carley or Doug. It is just so ominous and heavily pressures you to choose QUICKLY.
• The player can choose to threaten Ben when he reveals he was the cause of the bandit raid in episode 3, and thus the cause of Duck, Katjaa, and Carley/Doug's deaths. Said threat is arguably the most uncharacteristically antagonistic thing Lee can say to one individual.
  Lee: Nobody can see us. I could toss you over right now, and be done with it.
  • All the while, Ben is absolutely terrified.
• In the game, having to Mercy Kill Duck because he was bitten. Not only does it ramp up the horror to the nth degree with the prospect of a parent having to shoot their own child, but if you picked the option to do it yourself, the game doesn't go the easy route and make you watch Lee kill him. Oh no, the game makes you, the player, take control and put down a 10-year-old boy. And you can't get out of it until you pull the trigger. Happy dreams.
  • When Lee and the others find out that a mysterious man has been talking to Clementine the whole time, secretly telling her what to do and to come to him. While his intentions are not clear yet, it still is easy to draw parallels to a child molester.
    • And just when you thought it couldn't get any worse...Clementine is kidnapped by the end of Episode 4, and Lee is bitten by a walker.
    • In Episode 4, when Lee and the group get into a house after making it to Savannah, Kenny discovers a starved zombie boy that looks exactly like Duck no less in the attic. It's implied that this boy starved to death and became a weakened zombie. Though a zombie, you can't help but feel bad for it as Lee puts it out of its misery. Oh, and to make it worse? Lee is reminded of how he first met Clementine and says, "This could've been Clementine had I not found her...". The idea of a zombified, starved Clementine wandering her backyard sends shudders.
    • Not only did we witness two children dying, one being a zombie child, and Clementine being taken, the group learns of a totalitarian settlement called Crawford ''that kills children'' and other undesirables because they're considered dead weight. Crawford's founder can be found as a Walker at the top of the bell tower when the group escapes the school, hanging from the bell by his neck. It's implied he hung himself after Crawford was overrun.
    • Just Savannah in general is this. Unlike the more open Macon, Savannah takes place in a town that can get pretty claustrophobic. Add onto the fact that Crawford exists, as well as the docks having a fog around them, and you get a location that wouldn't be out of place in Silent Hill.
    • Special mention to the barricade of undead corpses melded together, complete with still-moving zombies impaled on wooden stakes, that greets the player as they explore the docks. This is the barrier that protects Crawford. And it's all but stated that said undead are the above-mentioned undesirables that they mercilessly slaughtered - which gives a clue as to what might've happened to Molly's sister when Crawford decided to get rid of her.
• In Episode 4, Brie dies a shockingly gruesome death. Normally when a group of zombies eat someone, they're usually dead or if they're alive, the camera usually is far away or cuts away from them. Brie however, gets eaten alive surprisingly quick and we even see close up of a zombie ripping out her intestines right before the camera cuts away.
  • On the bright side, the contest winner whom Brie is based on was probably delighted at being a notable death in the game.
• Also in Episode 4, Lee finds about six walkers outside the door to the nurse's office in the school. First of all, it's jarring finding them within the school right after locking a bunch more out. Secondly, instead of the milky white eyes players usually see on the average walker, these ones seem to completely lack eyes. Seeing them shamble towards you at a quick jerky pace in first-person with the intent to kill can send shivers up your spine.
• Lee and Clementine walking through a horde of walkers, with only the bleak hope that the zombified blood on their clothes will prevent the walkers from smelling them.
• When Lee gets his infected left arm amputated. The game does not treat you to just a cutscene and poof! Lee has a stump for a left arm, oh no! It treats you to a brutal, graphic scene of Christa, Kenny or LEE HIMSELF having to saw through his own goddamned arm with a saw all while he's screaming in pain. If there was any consolation, it's that Christa and the others do not take any pleasure in having to put Lee through this.
  • Speaking of amputating, the second episode starts with Lee and Mark meeting a teacher and his two students, with the former caught in a bear trap. They can't get it open as it's been modified without a release switch. With a horde of zombies bearing down on them. The player has to choose to either leave the teacher behind (complete with a cutscene to really drive the guilt home) or chop the man's leg off...which makes you do '''every...single...blow''' in graphic detail.
  • If you save the teacher, he dies on the way back to the motel, and turns when they try to unload him. Ben, the surviving student, is the one who tells the other survivors that zombie bites aren't necessary to become a Walker, everyone is already infected and will turn upon dying! He then explains how they discovered this; his original group consisted of his fellow classmates, who survived the initial days holed up in their school. One of the girls couldn't take what was happening, and committed suicide one night by swallowing a bunch of pills... while she and the other girls were alone in their sleeping quarters. He doesn't go into detail what they found the next morning, but it's safe to say it wasn't pretty.
• The Stranger when you first meet him starts out pretty creepy and you can tell there's something wrong with him. Gets outright disturbing when he tells you that he lost his son which caused his wife to take his daughter and leave him, and finding them dead the next day. Oh and just to top it off, he not only seems to imply that he kept his wife's severed head but you find out that the head is ''still zombified'', and hidden in a duffel bag.
• When Lee finds Mark in the hidden room, or any time Mark shows up after that. The whole last half of Episode 2 borders on the high octane fuel thanks to a good dose of Humans Are the Real Monsters.
  • If you try to return to the dining room before heading upstairs or finding the hidden room, you'll hear Mark calling out for help, clearly in agony and barely conscious.
• In Episode 3, Lee enters the RV in a search of a pencil with Lily tied up after she murders Carley/Doug. Just as he takes the pencil and turns around, he finds Lily up on her feet with a lifeless expression on her face. Thankfully, she had no intention to hurt Lee and only planned on leaving, but the fact that she just freed herself out of nowhere gave a bit of a shock.
• Ben falling from the balcony and impaled. And he was still ALIVE. just imagine that, falling from a high balcony into a dark alley and impaled while hoping that anyone but a walker comes around.
  • It gets worse - at first he doesn't even realise that he's been impaled. He tells the others it's his leg that's hurt and that he's all right. Either he's in shock, or some pretty big denial. Worse still, not initially realising how badly injured you are is often Truth in Television.
• In the meat locker scene, when Kenny crushes Larry's head with a salt lick. Try unseeing that.
• When you find out what's behind the locked door in the barn...
  • Basically the whole episode. There's just something not right about the farm and how welcoming they are, especially when it's implied they might have been planning to kill you all for food.
• In 400 Days, during Russell's story you can choose to hide from an approaching truck in the beginning. Russell will then look to his side as he lie down to hide, and the player is greeted with a full-view of Doug/Carley's corpse, complete with maggots crawling over his/her face.

  • The sadistic games Nate plays with Russell, including stopping the car next to a female walker and opening the window just enough for her to get her hand in until he rates her on a scale of one to ten in terms of sex appeal.

  • During Bonnie's story, she is cornered by a bandit. She attacks in self-defense and finds out too late that she had attacked Dee by mistake. Dee's skull has been smashed by the impact, rendering her right eyeball useless and exposing part of her brain. She manages to stay alive for another minute and mutter how Bonnie has killed her.
  • And if you recognize Dee's silhouette and not attack then Dee will kill you. Just the sight of her silhouette beating you with her flashlight is terrifying, much like the way Lee can die in first person in Episode 2's finale at the hands of a rifle.
  • During Vince's story he and two other convicts end up facing down another zombified convict. Should be no problem, right? Unfortunately, there are two problems. All three of the men are chained together and that one zombie quickly becomes dozens as the prison bus is slowly surrounded. The only way to get out alive is to blow off one of the men's feet with a shotgun and then run for it while the zombies close in on him. It does a great job of making the player feel helpless and sets the grim tone for the rest of the game.
    • How the convict (named Jerry) got zombified was due to them complaining about the heat on the bus, and then the guy behind him (Marcus Crabtree) decides to choke him to death. One of the guards goes to stop the scuffle, but accidentally blows off the head of Marcus with a shotgun. This is all right before anyone knows that there's an outbreak, which somehow makes it scarier.
• At the very beginning of the game, once you finally load the shotgun you can aim at the zombie cop and miss. And miss! It's pulled off unintentionally here. It's a mixture of hilariousness and nightmare-inducingness.

Season 2

• Clementine stitching her own arm up just to be attacked by a walker soon after is terrifying.
  • To add to the fuel the walker doesn't seem like a big threat at first since it was stuck but when it breaks through the shed HOLY CRAP!.
  • And depending on your choices, she doesn't even get to drink her juice afterward!
• Clementine finds a dog on its own in the middle of the forest and they both quickly become friends, play fetch, and go on a little quest to find food for the starving friends. Then the dog suddenly turns feral and attacks Clementine when it doesn't agree with the idea of sharing the food that Clementine found. She manages to kick it off, though... only for it to land on some sharp poles nearby that were formerly used for the tents. The noises it makes while it's stuck there is just the cherry on top.
• The part were Clementine is running through the woods at night after being separated from Christa. its creepy enough that you have to escape from Winston a really angry bandit but what really turns up the fuel is the walkers coming from nowhere troubling Clem even more.
• Heck, the beginning of Season 2 is nightmare fuel. Clementine goes to wash her face in the girls' room, and accidentally drops her water bottle, where it rolls under one of the stalls. Clementine leaves behind her gun just for a few seconds so she can retrieve the water bottle...no, there isn't a walker in the stall. Nice try. But a random stranger comes in, takes Clementine's gun, holds Clementine at gunpoint when robbing her, and then shoots Omid when Omid comes in and tries to save her (although to be fair, it was partially an accident because the door closing startled the stranger). All while Clementine is completely helpless to do anything about any of this.
• And after the above event, in the span of about a single day Clementine has to get away from three thugs and walkers all at the same time, falls into a river, and then gets bitten by a dog and then after that has to escape from walkers again, and they still almost devour her until Pete and Luke show up. God, if you thought Clementine had it rough in Season 1, Season 2 really puts her through the ringer.
  • And just after that, she desperately tries to convince them that she's not bitten and they don't need to kill her, then gets locked in the shed so they can make sure she doesn't turn.
  • It doesn't end there. After sneaking through said group's house to get supplies to patch herself up, she gets to... patch herself up. And the player is forced (through a quicktime event) to have Clementine stitch herself up, with no anesthetic. AND THEN A walker breaks into the shed the same way Clem exited, forcing her to fight it off using a bunch of bricks and a clawhammer, before help arrives. Needless to say, Clementine has a trying time this episode.
    • Speaking of the impromptu arm surgery during the last stitch she... aims badly and ends up just pricking the needle into her flesh instead of through the wound like it's supposed to be. So she has wriggle it around inside of her arm and re-adjust it so it's aligned with the wound. Imagine how much it would hurt to move a razor-sharp object around even a little inside your arm and then afterwards she still has to pierce the other side of the wound as well. She really is as tough as nails.
• Carver's Theme, the song that plays whenever he appears is very unnerving.
• Every scene with Carver in a A House Divided. Especially the part where he tortures Carlos, kills Walt, and the holds a gun to Clem's head.
  • He doesn't hold a gun to Clem's head if Clem decides to go outside and seek Kenny's assistance. But in that case he holds a gun to Alvin's head instead, and if you don't talk Kenny out of making the shot, Carver will get hit in the shoulder but then stand back up and kill Alvin right in front of his wife Rebecca.
  • The scene where he gets shot is nightmare fuel incarnate. You see him go down to the floor, and everyone in the room has a shocked look on their face as if it's over. And then Carver opens his eyes and gets up without even a grunt and executes Alvin without any difficulty.
• Carver's first appearance is this to not only the player/Clementine but to poor Sarah. Carver is after Carlos' group, and comes cross a lone girl in a house. After hearing a noise from upstairs, Carver draws out his gun to apprehend the intruder...who is Sarah desperately trying to hide from him. Fortunately after some close calls, Carver gives up and leaves the house. Unfortunately, he found a polaroid photo Clem took of Sarah earlier, meaning that he knows Carlos and the others are living in the house, and he's only leaving to get his men, forcing the group to flee.
• The scene in which Walt finds out Nick killed Matthew. Surprisingly, however, Walt doesn't go berserk on Nick, he even throws the knife he's holding away. The "payoff" comes later, when Nick is grappling with a walker...and if you didn't persuade Walter that Nick's a "good guy", Walter deliberately leaves Nick to get his throat torn open!
• As heartwarming as Kenny's return is, as the episode goes on his actions make it clear that he's not... "all there" anymore...
• Although no one deserved it like he did, Carver's death by crowbar is nightmarishly savage. By the time Kenny is done with him, he doesn't even have a face left to bash in. Similarly, if Clementine advocates for his death and stays to watch, the utterly dispassionate look on her face and tone in her voice are positively chilling. The blatant loss of innocence is disturbingly comparable to that of Arya Stark.
  • If Clementine chooses to stay and watch, her choice of words and tone of voice are very unnerving.
  Clementine: I'm not going anywhere.
  Kenny: It's gonna be messy.
  Clementine: I know...
• Carver has a chilling expression on his face when he is beating Kenny. Carver ends up beating Kenny so bad he loses an eye.
• Just living in that settlement under Carver's control, it's almost Governor level. The man is obviously drunk on his own power and uses fear to keep everyone in line. And pretty much forcing everyone to work. For all his talk about mercy and whatnot, he's very quick to harm anyone who doesn't get with the program. The walkers seem like a better option than his "safety".
  • He kills poor Reggie, a survivor who had helped Carlos and the others escape originally, by throwing him off the roof, because he didnt do a good enough job of supervising Sarah and Clem in the greenhouse! Carver claims he did it because Reggie was "weak", but that's pretty much his excuse for everything.
  • He forces Carlos to hit Sarah just because she interrupted him while talking, and tells him that if he doesn't hit her hard enough, Carver will have his lieutenant do it, and he'll really hurt her.
  • If Alvin survives the standoff in the ski lodge, Carver has him detained in his office, just so he can torture the poor man for two days straight. Alvin is in such bad shape by the time the group escapes, he can't come with them, and dies in a Mutual Kill with one of Carvers men.
  • He takes a liking to Clem, seeing her as a kindred spirit because she's willing to do anything for survival just like him, and the game implies he wants to mold her into his successor, because the next generation will need someone ruthless to lead them.
• The way the third episode ends. The group manage to escape the settlement but have to pass through a walker horde by putting guts on them to blend in (what makes this even more dangerous is that those in the hardware store are shooting at the incoming walkers from the roof, unable to differentiate the living from the dead). It nearly works, but Carlos is suddenly hit in the neck by a stray bullet. He stumbles, and is quickly devoured by the herd as Sarah watches (with her cries of anguish not helping in the slightest), causing her to go in to a Heroic BSoD and run away, separating her from the group. Sarita is caught and bitten in the arm in which Clem may or may not cut off right then and there depending on the player's choice. If the arm is cut off, Sarita will stare at it for a moment and let out an absolutely horrific scream (Which even The Walking Dead Wiki describes as "Bloodcurdling") as the episode cuts to black. Yeeesh.
  • The music heard as it cuts to black actually makes it more scary.
  • But oh wait, it gets better. It just gets better and better. Episode 4 picks up right after this and if you picked the cut off the arm options. Sarita is instantly jumped by walkers and devoured right before Clem and Kenny's eyes, pretty much proving your actions fruitless. Thanks Telltale.
• The thumbnail for Amid The Ruins. It shows Clementine surrounded by shadows, marking her face with what appears to be blood.
  • The expression on her face makes it even worse; the poor girl looks absolutely broken.
• The way Episode 4 opens with everyone running off in different directions amongst the walker herd. At one point Clem is completely lost in the sea of hungry walkers. Suddenly she gets grabbed from behind out of nowhere. Thankfully it's Rebecca and you later meet up with Jane to finally make your way out. But even then it's still quite frightening.
• The death of Sarah. No matter what choice you make a fifteen year old girl crying and screaming for her dead father is devoured by walkers, and no one can or will rescue her. Her death in both scenarios will crush your soul.
• Crosses over with Tear Jerker. When asked how long it has been since he slept, Kenny says it has been two years, at least. Though horrifying in its own right, that's not the nightmare fuel part of it. No, the nightmare fuel comes from how casual he is about it. Poor Kenny.
  • Though it became a bit untrue when you remembered he slept next to Clementine in the previous episode. But there'a a chance he can't sleep during it, so it's also possible.
• At the end of Episode 4, Walker!Rebecca attempting to eat her baby.
  • Even worse this happens right in the midst of a Mexican Standoff with Russians whom Jane and (an albeit reluctant) Clem had robbed earlier. In trying to stop her from doing so, either Kenny or Clem will immediately shoot her. The sets everyone off, and as the episode smashes to black, we hear the sounds of several guns going off at once in what could be the most traumatic Blast Out in video game history.
• Kenny yelling and cursing at Clementine for Sarita's death (which he will blame you for regardless of choice. Either from trying to help her by hacking off her wrist or not helping her quicker). Especially since it seemed like something he would never, ever do. He really has crossed the Despair Event Horizon.
  • Thankfully he (seems to) get better once he gets it out of his system, acknowledging that Clem wasn't truly at fault, but still partially responsible due to her actions.
• The thumbnail for No Going Back is more subtle, but possibly even worse. In stark contrast to the drama of the previous thumbnails it shows an abandoned road covered in snow piling over a dead body with not a single living human in sight. It's scary in the worst implied way possible.
  • Which is only made worse now that we've seen the potential massacre that is the end of Episode 4.
  • So much worse after Episode 5. Whom the dead body belongs to is determinate.
• A recently released vine teaser for Episode 5 shows a clip of a struggling Clementine trudging through what appears to be a blizzard. If the overall eerie environment and lack of any other people isn't unsettling, the creepy Music Box-esque "My Darling Clementine" playing sure is.
• The death of Vitali at the beginning of episode 5, getting stabbed in the back of the head/neck by Jane. You then get to hear him make disgusting gurgling noises for a good few seconds until he is put out of his misery via headshot. Sure, what little we had seen of him painted him as a Jerkass at best and Ax-Crazy at worst, but it was still not a pretty death.
• At the mid-point of Episode 5 - Clementine is shot by a vindictive Arvo.
  • It's also a lot worse if your first thought is that the following dream is a Death Dream.
• Luke either drowning or being pulled down by a walker in the lake.
• Kenny trying to murder Jane upon thinking that she let AJ die, and possibly succeeding to do so if the player doesn't intervene. After navigating through a blizzard, Clementine meets up with Kenny and Jane, the only other group members left. When Kenny notices that Alvin Jr is missing, he questions Jane, who hesitates. Kenny then snaps and starts trying to kill Jane. She fights back and one of the most intense fights in the series starts. Meanwhile, Clementine is trying desperately to stop what little of her friends are left from murdering each other, but they don't stop. Eventually Kenny gets the upper hand and tries to stab Jane with her own knife. Clementine notices a gun and grabs it. We then get a lovely Sadistic Choice: kill Kenny or let him kill Jane. A Tear Jerker to be sure, but its over now, right. ''of course not!'' Because now it turns out that Alvin Jr is alive, and the whole thing was set up by Jane to provoke Kenny into snapping. Holy. Fuck.
• Jane has some unsettling favoring to Clementine in Episode 5. She intentionally pushes Kenny beyond his limits just so Clementine will see what a monster he has become. However, she didn't expect Kenny to lash out quite as much as he did.
• Doubles as Fridge Horror, but when you think about it, both Kenny and Jane are the same. Both are trying to keep Clementine for themselves. Kenny lost a son and wife, and he sees (and saw Sarita as another replacement for Katjaa) two perfect replacements in Clementine and AJ, and Jane lost a sister, and sees Clementine as another replacement. It shows you how broken they are, and what they're capable of doing in exchange or returning to their perfect lives.
• Then of course there's the way Kenny lashes out during the climax. Earlier in Episode 5 he promises Clementine he won't lose his temper badly again, after terrifying her by beating Arvo. The promise seems very sincere and the scene is a Heartwarming Moment for the player. Until the end, where in the space of a few hours he's lost his temper so badly he can brutally murder another person as well as forcefully pushing Clem to the floor during his fight with said person.
• Heck, all the ending variations offer some, in varying degrees of severity.
  • Let Kenny Live: Alvin Jr. was alive all along, and it was a ploy by Jane to reveal Kenny's insanity to Clem. While this makes Kenny finally realize his failings and try to improve himself, it's still clear that he's far from okay, and it took him actually killing someone in a fit of anger to realize it. Despite this, Clem decides to forgive him, and they march forward to Wellington.
    • Stay with Kenny: While the gate guard attempts to raise Kenny and Clem's hopes, it's unclear whether they'll get another chance at entering Wellington, meaning they could easily die in the cold, all for nothing.
    • Stay at Wellington: While Wellington is arguably the most secure, well-off place in Walking Dead canon, it's unclear whether this is a good thing - their initial refusal to allow Kenny, Clem and Alvin Jr. entry implies a sense of pragmatism similar to Carver and Crawford. On top of that, Kenny will probably die alone, never seeing Clem again.
  • Stay With Jane: Alvin Jr. is still alive, but now the aftermath has changed - Kenny has died for nothing, and Jane's reasoning is shaky at best. Even she seems distraught by the outcome - depending on your dialogue choices, she may tearfully admit that it was a terrible, pointless plan, and that she never should have gone through with it. Despite this, Clem decides to forgive her and return to Howes'.
    • Let The Family In: While the family is certainly friendly, and they seem willing to help with rebuilding Howes', Clem appears fearful - indeed, the family's dialogue and Clem's reactions to it seems to imply that the father is very much like Kenny was before his family died, meaning that everything could easily come full-circle.
    • Turn The Family Away: Clem's threatening response to the family and cold implication that she'll kill them if they come back shows how far she has fallen since the season's beginning, indicating a dark future for the poor girl. As if that wasn't bad enough, Jane rubs salt in the wound by admitting that even she wasn't sure if she could've sent them off; that's right, Clementine just managed to out-cold Jane.
  • Go it Alone: The bleakest of all the endings, Clementine is left alone in the wilderness with Alvin Jr., silently and coldly dealing with walkers as she presses forward. The short length and lack of dialogue or multiple outcomes leaves a hollow feeling of hopelessness, and little else.
    • And it's entirely possible let Kenny kill Jane, then execute Kenny. Only this way, she's snarling in anger. Making it the first and only time in the series so far, Clementine murders someone in cold blood. Kenny presents no threat after killing Jane and he will even beg you to do it and put him out of his misery. Innocence lost.

Michonne

• The Mobjack massacre. Michonne and Pete respond to a distress call that they believe came from a nearby ship called the Mobjack and decide to search the place for supplies. What they find inside the seemingly abandoned boat is a brutal massacre with dozens of dead bodies laying about or strung up, including teens and children. Not to mention the half eaten zombie that was apparently left to be devoured by other Walkers. The worst part? This wasn't an accident or an unlucky breach, someone deliberately tied these people up and shot them all one by one execution style... and that someone is very strongly implied to be the guy who just captured you and your friends.
• The hallucination sequences are very eerie and don't look far off from something out of Silent Hill, with toys and Michonne's daughters (complete with shadows being draped over them and creepy giggling) inexplicably showing up out of nowhere every now and then, or sometimes appearing in place of dead people.
• The flashback hallucination that Michonne has after seeing a teddy bear in the Fairbanks house; it shows Michonne on the day the Zombie Apocalypse began, having fought her way to the apartment where her ex-husband Dominic and their daughters lived. It's completely deserted, aside from a few dead zombies, with bloody handprints, overturned furniture and broken glass everywhere, but no indication where her family is. Through the windows, you can see Atlanta in chaos, with sirens screaming in the background.
  • While searching the bathroom, Michonne notices a blood smear on the shower curtain, and steels herself, before pulling it back, revealing...an empty tub.
  • One of the options you get is answering a sudden phone call, which turns out to be from Donna, Dominic's girlfriend, who asks in a panic if Michonne knows where Dominic and the girls are. We then hear Donna screaming and the sound of Walkers approaching before the call is cut off. Making this worse is that in a later flashback, Michonne got a voicemail on her cellphone from Dominic, who's clearly terrified and telling Michonne he's taking the girls to Donna's place, meaning that they never made it there. While at least that means they didn't share Donna's fate, it also means neither the player nor Michonne ever found out what happened to her family...
  • The other option is to investigate the shadow moving outside the front door, which turns out to be one of Dominics neighbors, who's fleeing a horde of Walkers with her child. All that Michonne can get from her before she runs off is that her family apparently tried to follow the evacuation order along with the rest of the building.
• As far as deaths go, the Mook that you shoot in the mouth with the flare gun in episode two takes the cake for being one of the most brutal and graphic deaths in the series as you watch his eyes reel back and his muffled screams as he chokes on it agonizingly.
  • Just like the scenario with Brie in season one, Norma could be left behind to be devoured by walkers, and graphically disemboweled by them. The And I Must Scream part? She's alive and begging them to stop.

Season 3

• Clementine losing one of her left fingers somewhere between season two and season three, if you had her go alone with AJ. In a flashback you get to see the moment it happened when, while trying to catch some dinner for herself and AJ, some Walkers attack the abandoned car Clem hid him in. After killing a few she opens the car to get AJ out only for it to be violently slammed on her left hand fingers by a Walker keeping her trapped. After killing said Walker Clem opens the door to reveal that most of her hand has been mangled and the finger she will lose has been bent at an off angle and bloodied at the middle.
• Clementine's nightmare about the death of Kenny, Jane, or Edith: whichever one you chose for her to go with at the end of season two.
  • In Kenny's case, he's paralyzed from the waist down after being thrown through the front window, when Clem loses control and crashes their car. The crash was loud enough to attract a gaggle of walkers too large for Clem to take on by herself while protecting Kenny and AJ, so Kenny tells her to get the kid and leave him so he can distract the walkers while they escape. As Clem runs away, we can see the walkers tearing into him in the background and hear his agonized screams.
  • In Jane's case, she hangs herself upon realizing she is pregnant with Luke's child. Clem comes in to find her walker futilely attempting to lash at her as it dangles from the ceiling fan before she is forced to choose whether to put it down or leave it to rot.
  • In Edith's case, Wellington is overrun by raiders and she attempts to make an escape with Clem and AJ. She is shot in a scene not unlike Lori's death in the comics but the only saving grace is that AJ thankfully is not killed like Judith was.
• Mariana's sudden death near the end of episode 1.
  • Notably because this is the first time we see a child get murdered. ^note Not counting Duck or Fivel, as both were walkers at the times of their deaths.
  • And shot through the forehead, no less.
  • Right in front of her family as well. Gabriel's lucky if this doesn't fuck him up for life.
• The opening scene, set during the beginning of the outbreak. Imagine your father has passed away, everyone is mourning. Then, your niece walks out and tells you that he's awake. You go to check on him, only to see him brutally attack your uncle and bite your mother in the face. To top it all off, you're then forced to smash his head in.
• Conrad's second determinant death. Guilty if he survived his first chance of death, he tells Javi to keep a gun he found in David's duffel bag. Tripp does not agree to this idea, but it is up to Javi to decide. If you choose to keep it, everything's hunky dory right? Right? '''Wrong'''. If you don't give Conrad the gun, then the man couldn't defend himself when the group reaches a warehouse, and when they get in, Conrad is encouraged by both Tripp and Javi. Just as he was about to enter, a walker suddenly grabs him and starts pulling him out. Just as everyone tries to help him, Conrad is then yanked out of the warehouse and devoured by the walkers. You don't see the last part of that scene, but you can hear his screams of agony and sounds of chomping. Tripp's expression really says it all. You'd never actually feel so bad for a guy who started off as a potential Asshole Victim before.

Season 4

General

• For some people, the general background ambience of the game. Eight years into the apocalypse has created a truly dead world with decaying ruins, and thick overgrown forests. Just stand around and listen to the wind howling whilst Walkers are heard moaning in the background. It's quite eerie.
• Speaking of the Walkers, this final season sees them at their most terrifying design wise. Years of being active and battered has caused them to decay significantly. The combat gameplay being changed where you have to actively take down Walkers carefully can also take some players off guard.
• The general sense of isolation for the characters can be this. With Clementine only meeting a small handful of survivors in this game, you really get the feeling that not many people are left alive at this point.

Episode 1

• Brody's death. After she reveals that Marlon gave Tenn's sisters away to raiders and plans to do the same with Clem and AJ, he hits her with a flashlight and cracks her skull open. Marlon then locks Clementine in the basement to die and the sounds of choking and spluttering from Brody are replaced with a high-pitch shriek. When Clem manages to find an object to help escape, the player is forced to walk through the pitch-black basement back to the door while the moans of a now undead Brody are echoing in the background. Right as Clementine is about to leave, she is grabbed by Brody, who has her skull smashed in with the flashlight. Oh and all of this happens in graphic detail, of course.
• AJ's murder of Marlon. Just the look of confusion on his face as Clem and all the kids look at him in shock and disbelief. Granted he is still a young child but his inability to grasp what he's done is still chilling.

Episode 2

• Lilly returns to the series as a high ranking member of the raiders, and to say that she Took A Level In Jerk Ass is an understatement.
  • Along with kidnapping children and forcing them to become Child Soldiers, she also has no problem killing some of the children if she feels it’s necessary and is even willing to murder Clem (albeit with some hesitance depending on the dialogue options).
• One night, Clementine has a nightmare about what happened at McCaroll Ranch. As she exits her room, she is stuttered by a horse that dies after she makes a turn. The entire school is on fire and there are people screaming. And apparently, this isn't the first time.

Episode 3

• Abel's interrogation by Clementine. Depending on your choices, Clementine can do some really nasty techniques such as getting Rosie to attack him, burning his face with a cigar or getting AJ to physically assault him. And then when Abel dies, Clem can either mercy kill him or leave him to turn as a Walker. Seeing Clementine torture a man is very hard to watch.
• We finally get to see the world behind the eyes of a Whisperer and walking alongside a small herd. It's just as horrifying as it sounds.
• If you chose to save Violet over Louis at the end of "Suffer the Children", in the next episode, Clem finds him in a Troubled Fetal Position while bleeding from his mouth. It turns out that he ran his mouth and Delta cut his tongue out as punishment.

Episode 4

• In Take Us Back, after Willy's bomb had blown up Delta's ship leading the raiders to their deaths, Minerva goes on a brutal walker killing spree.
  • Furthermore, after being bit twice, Minerva curses Clementine for ruining everything and attempts to kill her with a grenade. Later on in the episode, Minerva comes back singing "Don't Be Afraid" to lead a pack of walkers to the survivors. Her intention? To kill Tenn so they can go to the afterlife together and be reunited with their family. This is the last straw that proves that Minerva has gone completely insane. Once Clem tries to intervene, she snaps completely and refuses to let anyone who isn't his family speak to him, and attacks Clementine. She loses, but not before splitting Clem's leg open with an ax and being eaten alive in front of Louis/Violet and Tenn. Depending on the player's decisions, her goal of getting Tenn killed may or may not be fulfilled.
  • Everything about this scene is horrifying, but the way Minerva makes her entrance deserves a mention for being so harrowing. Imagine this: you're walking across a bridge, which you don't know if you trust with your own weight, much less that of your friends, and you're about to jump across a gap. Then you hear a familiar voice - the woman who held you and your friends captive, your former friend, your former lover, or your own sister - singing the same song she used to sing to calm her friends down. Then she comes into clear view, and you see her carrying an axe over her shoulder, covered in bite marks, missing part of her face, and practically undead already. But she's still singing. "The night will be over soon..."
• Violet/Louis's potential death scene. On the bridge, if Clementine doesn't trust AJ with making hard decisions, he tells Violet/Louis to toss Tenn across. As a result of this, the walkers devour them alive with their bloodcurdling screams heard among all other things. Furthermore, it is later revealed that Violet/Louis and Minerva were eaten away so bad that they didn't even reanimate, and all that remained aside from their clothes were bones and offal.
• Tenn's potential death scene. If you trust AJ to make hard choices, on the bridge he will shoot Tenn in the neck, killing him. It doesn't help with the fact that as his corpse is being eaten, Minerva succeeded in her goal to kill Tenn along with herself and says "Come with me..." while being eaten alive. Violet/Louis's horrified reaction doesn't help either.
  • A few days after this scene- AJ encounters a zombified Tenn at the fishing shed and must make the choice on whether to shoot his friend again or leave him to roam as a walker.
• Clementine getting bitten on the leg after the bridge... Let that sink in. After 8 years in-universe and 7 years and four games out of universe Clementine has been bitten.
  • At James's barn, after a harrowing last stand, Clementine must decide if AJ should leave her to turn or kill her with an ax. This is horrifying as it was the exact same decision Lee had Clementine make 8 years before.
  • Mercifully, this isn't the end for Clementine, and AJ manages to save her through amputation. But we don't actually get to know that for about half an hour of gameplay. For a long time, it seems as though one of the most beloved characters in recent gaming history is dead.
• We finally to see what happened at the McCarroll Ranch and how it traumatized Clementine. It was raided and burned down by presumably the Delta. The guards there mistakenly believe that Clementine is one of the raiders. She is forced to shoot two guards out of self defense (one of which is Eddie from the Season One "400 Days" DLC), one guard out of mercy and a nurse in self defense. It is revealed that the nurse was just trying to keep AJ safe in a gym locker and thought Clementine was there to kidnap him. Clementine is forced to shoot her after the woman pulled a gun and was about to kill Clementine. The blood from this woman splattered all over the three year old AJ and he screams upon seeing his dead caretaker. They are then forced to drive away from the Ranch and leave everyone there for dead.
  • What's worse is that when looting the dead nurse, numerous troubling messages appear if you grab other items along with the key. "I had to shoot her", "She was taking care of him", "I'M SORRY."
• James' walker corpse. If Lilly killed James at the end of Episode 3 when AJ spared her, James will reanimate and appears in the cave, covered in fresh blood from being stabbed in the back. What's worse is that there is no option to put him down, meaning he must walk the earth as one of the undead. The knowledge that he would most likely want to stay a walker provides little comfort.
• Lilly's bullet riddled corpse. If AJ kills Lilly in the end of Episode 3, he doesn't stop shooting until way after Lilly dies. At the beginning of Episode 4 during the explosion, Lilly's corpse slides right next to Clementine revealing at least five shots to the head. It's bad enough then, but later on AJ callously remarks that he "only" emptied half a clip into Lilly's face.
• James potentially turning on Clementine. After pushing Clementine to the ground, James attempts to kidnap AJ to teach him right from wrong. He even threatened to break Clementine's leg should she follow. After AJ bites James' hand then cuts it with a rock, James is angered and attacks Clementine, displaying a frightening amount of strength in combat due to his time with the Whisperers. The one thing that stops the fighting is AJ admitting he likes to kill. James then either angrily storms off alone or seemingly sacrifices himself to buy Clementine's group time from an approaching walker herd.
• If Violet was captured in Episode 3 and Delta brainwashed her, in the beginning of Episode 4 she is seen with a burnt face and blinded in both eyes.
  • Thankfully, in the ending it is revealed that Ruby was able to save one of Violet’s eyes, however, she is permanently blinded in her right eye and must wear an eye patch.

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