Video Game / The Walking Dead: Season Three

Javier: This really necessary?
Clementine: I don't know you, I don't trust you, and I'm not taking any chances. So it's safer for both of us if you're tied up.
Javier: Hey, that's fine with me. I don't trust you either.
Clementine: Glad we understand each other.

— "The Ties That Bind"

Season Three introduces the new main character Javier Garcia, who takes charge in protecting his blended family from rampaging zombies, a human civilization of questionable morality, and internal divisions. Along the way, he allies with Clementine, who is now a rugged survivor on the hunt for a lost loved one.

Be warned: with all episodes of A New Frontier now released, this article will have spoilers, and some may be unmarked. Proceed at your own discretion.

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This video game contains the following tropes:

A-M

• Absurdly Sharp Blade: Javi's axe in Episode 5. If he chooses to, Javi can chop off Rufus' arm with one swing.
• Action Girl: Clementine's no longer Little Miss Badass but a fully capable gunslinger; she's gone from needing multiple tries to hit a bottle less than ten feet away (Season One), to being able to headshot a guy who's shooting back at her from over fifty, with a pistol no less. In The Stinger after Episode 5, she knifes three walkers on a bridge, then shoots eight to ten on the road immediately after, without breaking her stride.
• An Arm and a Leg: If you choose to chop off Rufus' arm in Episode 5, he'll immediately die of shock, since his arm wasn't treated properly.
• And Then John Was a Zombie: If Javi and Clementine decide to chase after David and Gabe at the end of Episode 5, this is what ultimately happens to Kate after she helps to defend Richmond on her own. If Javi helps Kate, this happens to David instead.
• And This Is for...: Javier has the choice to say that it's for Marianna before he has the choice to kill Badger
• Anguished Declaration of Love: If Javi has flirted with Kate, she can give one to him toward the end of Episode 4, with Javi having the option either to progress the relationship or call it off.
• Anyone Can Die: Par for the course with this series.
  • Episode 1: If you chose to stay with someone in the Season 2 finale (Kenny, Jane, or Edith), they die in a flashback. Jane hangs herself after discovering she's pregnant with Luke's child, Kenny is thrown through the windshield of a car and devoured, and Edith is shot by bandits. Toward the end of the episode, Mariana is abruptly shot in the head by the New Frontier.
  • Episode 2: Francine is gunned down by the New Frontier regardless of your actions. Conrad can potentially be killed if you choose to shoot him in the head when he's holding Gabe at gunpoint.
  • Episode 3: Conrad can again be potentially devoured by walkers if you choose not to give him a gun during the mission to the warehouse. One of the antagonists, Badger, is either stabbed by Tripp, shot by Conrad, left bleeding to death to turn, or his skull bashed into a bloody pulp with a baseball bat. Javier (or David) can also optionally kill Max or spare him to use as evidence against Joan. It is also suggested Lonnie was shot by David if Max is killed.
  • Episode 4: Earlier in the episode, Dr. Lingard asks Javi and Clem to assist him in suicide in return for information; Javi can choose to accept or refuse the deal. Joan forces Javier to make a Sadistic Choice between sparing either Ava or Tripp from execution. In a nasty twist, Joan orders the one you chose to spare to be executed instead, to teach Javier a lesson about betrayal, so either Ava or Tripp will die in this episode, and it will be the person you tried to save. Joan can also potentially die if you choose to shoot Joan instead of taking a deal to leave Richmond safely. If you accept the deal, David would hold Clint hostage and kill him instead. Finally, if Conrad is still alive and you don't successfully take a button prompt to have Javier jump out of the way of a truck, Conrad will push Javier out of the way only to get run over and killed himself. Various denizens of Richmond are overcome by a walker herd in the closing moments.
  • Episode 5: If Ava was spared by Joan, she will slip and fall to her death after being attacked from behind by a walker while shimmying across a narrow ledge on the highway; if Tripp was spared, he will throw the walker off of him but ultimately will fall to his death after being pushed over the edge of the highway after Javi and the others manage to swing to the other side of the gap. Javi can also lose up to two family members depending on your relationship with Clementine: If Javi and Clem side with Kate, then both David and Gabe will die as a result. If Clem chases after Gabe while Javi stays with Kate, only David will die. If both Javi and Clem follow Gabe, Kate will die. If Clem stays with Kate while Javi follows Gabe, both David and Kate will die.
• Art Evolution: Once again the graphical style has recieved improvements since last season. While everything is still cel-shaded, more realistic textures and lighting are laid onto the comic-book style colouring, adding an overall lushness and sense of realism to the proceedings, particularly for details like character skin and eyes. While two-dimensional trickery is still employed heavily for distant scenery and walker herds to ease the visual burden on portable devices, the textures and models are a lot more detailed, animated and generally harder to notice than before.
• Babies Make Everything Better: If Javi and Kate have committed to a relationship, at the end of Episode 5 she tells him that she wants to start a family.
• Batter Up!: Javier uses a baseball bat as his weapon from Episode 3 onwards. It helps that he was formerly a professional baseball player.
• Being Evil Sucks: Dr. Lingard is so tired of serving the New Frontier that he asks Javi's assistance in killing himself.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Forget the Zombies. Clementine is officially the most dangerous thing out there now. If she's on your side, keep her there!
• Big Bad: Javier's presumed dead brother David is one of four leaders of the New Frontier, whose members killed Mariana, destroyed Prescott, and shot Kate. To be fair, he is enraged when he learns of this, immediately accepting what Javi tells him as the truth, and it's soon revealed that it was another boss, Joan, who organized the raid on Prescott behind David's back. David can still be considered this for the season, especially on a personal level to Javier.
• Big Damn Heroes: Jesus and several other members of Alexandria's cavalry show up after the wall breach in Episode 5 to assist in clearing out the herd.
• Bittersweet Ending: By the end of the season, Richmond has been restored to its former glory after the herd has been dealt with, Javi can choose to become the new leader, and Clementine sets off to find AJ... however, depending on your choices in the finale a number of people in Javi's family can die. If he and Clementine both go after Gabe and David, then Kate dies. If Clem stays with Kate while Javi goes after the boys, Kate goes missing and David dies. If Clem goes after the boys while Javi stays with Kate, then David dies. And finally, if both Javi and Clem stay with Kate, then both Gabe and David die.
• Black Dude Dies First: Subverted. While he doesn't die (and shows back up in Episode 3), the first live human you attack is a black gunman with a group of looters
• Bland-Name Product: "Candy Bar" brand candy bars.
• Boom, Headshot!:
  • One of Conrad's optional deaths.
  • Marianna gets shot dead by Badger.
  • Ava or Tripp will be killed this way by the New Frontier.
  • Clint or Joan will be killed this way by David or Javi, respectively.
• Brick Joke: Javi's water bottle.
• Broken Pedestal: Gabe with David. At first he's ecstatic to have his dad back, but as the game progresses, he gets increasingly disillusioned by seeing the man his father has become. By Episode 5, Gabe is close to giving up on him completely.
• But Now I Must Go:
  • Jesus departs the group to return to his people in Episode 3. However, he returns in Episode 5 to help defend Richmond from the herd of walkers.
  • Clementine leaves in Episode 2, but comes back soon. She leaves again at the end of Episode 5, so that she can find AJ.
  • Assuming that Conrad is still alive at this point, he will leave midway through Episode 4, only to return towards the end of the same episode.
• Call-Back:
  • When escorting Javier back to the junkyard, Clementine employs the close range technique Jane had taught her in Season Two to take down a zombie. She later teaches it to Gabe in Episode 5.
  • Once again, Clementine is asked, this time by Javi, what happened to the people who were supposed to take care of her. And once again, her answer is "The same thing that happens to everyone."
  • While in the car to on their way to Richmond, Gabriel makes a comment about how "parents always think the kids can't hear them" and Clementine makes an offhand comment about not knowing about that, due to her parents dying in during the events of Season One.
  • When Clementine offers to stitch Javi's knife wound, she shows him the scar on her left forearm that she stitched herself in the first episode of season 2.
  • In an attempt to slip by a large herd of walkers, Clementine tells Javi to cover himself in walker guts so that he can slip by undetected.
  • At the end of Episode 5, Clem asks Javi to cut her hair, just like Lee did back in Season One. Unfortunately, Javi isn't very good at it, and ends up giving Clem a lopsided type of bob. He advises her to put her hat back on.
• Clothing Damage: A non-fanservice variant. During Clementine's flashback, the sleeves of the blue jacket she received from Bonnie had been ripped off.
• Cutting Off the Branches: Most of the choices made at the end of Season 2 (stay in Wellington, stay with Jane, stay with Kenny) result in the death of Clem's caretaker. Stay with Kenny: Kenny dies after being involved in a car crash, causing his legs to break, before being consumed by walkers. Stay with Jane: Jane hangs herself after discovering that she's pregnant with Luke's child. Stay in Wellington: Edith and the other residents die when they're attacked by a group of scavengers. In all three of these cases, Clem and A.J. are the only survivors. The only case where this doesn't occur is if Clem chose to leave Kenny or Jane and go off on her own, since obviously she has no idea what happened to them afterwards.
• Death Equals Redemption:
  • In Episode 5, if Javi goes after David and Gabe on his own, he will reach them in time to save them from the herd, only to disover that David was bitten by one of them during the struggle. David realizes what will come, and takes the opportunity to make his peace with Javi.
  • Could also count for Gabe, if Javi and Clem helped Kate defend Richmond. By the time Javi and Clem search for him, he is dying from a walker bite while David is already dead. Gabe will tearfully apologize to Javi for being The Load and will give Clem his deck of cards before dying.
• Death Wail: In episode 5, If both Clementine and Javi chased after David and Gabe, leaving Kate behind to help protect Richmond...Javi will let one out after seeing Kate as a walker among the remaining herd within the settlement upon his return and deciding to shoot her.
• Demoted to Extra: Downplayed. Clementine has a lot less playability in this game compared to her role as central protagonist in Season Two. The Episode 5 stinger shows her alone, and Season Four shifts back to her as the main character.
• Didn't Think This Through: In Episode 4, Javi and Gabe decide to break into an armory by banging a fire extinguisher against a metal door. And then they walk into the room full of weapons and leave the door open. Ava catches them a couple minutes later.
• Driven to Suicide:
  • If the player chose to stay with Jane at the end of Season 2, a flashback will show them having a conversation about giving A.J. a middle name, with Jane suggesting "Jamie" after her sister and noting that it's a gender-neutral name. She talks about once thinking that one day she'd have a child of her own to name, but gets oddly emotional about it before telling Clem she's not feeling well and is going to lie down while sending Clem to patrol the perimeter. When Clem makes it back, she finds that Jane hung herself because she discovered that she was pregnant with Luke's baby.
  • Averted with David in Episode 5. After David storms out of the hideout after a violent confrontation with Fern, Javi heads to the roof and sees him standing on the edge. Javi tells him not to jump, however David simply indicates that he is looking out over the settlement.
  • Dr. Lingard, barely conscious due to an overdose, will ask the player to assist him in killing himself since he's had it working under the oppressive New Frontier. However, if you don't kill him, in Episode 5, he will come back, fully recovered, and will eventually give you the location of where they have put AJ.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Unless Clem went off alone at the end of Season 2, her and A.J.'s caretaker dies during a Flashback. If the player chose to stay with Kenny, he is seen teaching Clem to drive a vehicle, but her inexperience causes a car crash and he orders her to leave him behind while she saves herself and A.J. If the player chose to stay with Jane, she kills herself after discovering that she's pregnant with Luke's child. If Clem chose to stay in Wellington, Edith (the door guard) and all of the residents perish due to an attack by a group of scavengers, forcing Clem to take A.J. and flee the area.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The love triangle subplot between the Javier brothers and Kate is similar to Rick, Shane and Lori, with both brothers being Decomposite Characters to both Rick and Shane. To further relate them, Rick and Shane often refer to each other as brothers:
  • Javier is pretty much the Good Counterpart to Shane. Like Shane, Javier takes over the role of taking care of a married woman and looking after her children and also falling in love with said married woman. His personality however is more to that of Rick, being the nicer one of the triangle whom the woman chooses over.
  • David takes over Rick's role as the missing husband but has Shane's hot tempered, jealousy and eventual attempt to kill Javier.
• Enemy Civil War: Most of the New Frontier (Including David) are terrible people but none of them can really agree on anything.
• Expy:
  • Tripp bears a striking resemblance to Sgt. Abraham Ford, and has some of his personality too.
  • The New Frontier shares a lot of similarities to the Saviors from the comic. Both groups are comprised of an army of scavengers with multiple shades of villainy, they're heavily armed, based in a hidden area, and follow mysterious leaders that they all fear and obey. Later on it's revealed that the New Frontier has four leaders and the settlement raids are actually just Max's group, commanded by someone (Joan) who is far more level-headed and restrained than Negan, though she's still an asshole.
• Face–Heel Turn: Clementine mentions that the New Frontier used to be decent people until an event involved "trusting the wrong people" changed them. This event likely takes place before Clem joined the group and Clem stealing medicine from them further made them more distrustful towards people. It wasn't until they settled at Richmond for over a year and facing a bad winter that they become bandits under Joan's leadership.
• Fingore:
  • Depending on what choice was made at the end of Season Two, Clem can lose one of her fingers. If the player had Clem go alone with AJ at the end of the previous season, the flashback in Episode 1 reveals that she lost part of her left ring finger when a car door was slammed on it while she fends off a group of walkers attempting to break in.
  • Francine ends up getting her finger cut off by one of the goons from The New Frontier in retaliation before getting killed while trying to run away.
• For the Evulz: The scavengers who attacked Wellington out of desperation proceeds to massacre everyone inside, even shooting at Edith, AJ and Clementine who are already trying to escape the town.
• Flashback: All of Clementine's playable sections are flashbacks on how she came to where she is in the game.
• Flirting Under Fire: This is how Javi and Kate's possible romance began, albeit in a drawn out way (it's only during the game, four years after the walkers emerged, that they begin to openly show their feelings). In Episode 4, Clem manages to do this with Gabe and rein in his impulsive nature a few times, though it's implied she doesn't really know she's doing it.
• Foreshadowing: Francine's hand in the poker game at Prescott is Aces and Eights, aka The Dead Man's Hand (the hand "Wild Bill" Hickock was supposedly holding when he was killed). She dies in the next episode.
• Guide Dang It!: In Episode 5, Javi has to choose between going after David and Gabe or saving Richmond with Kate. Beforehand Clementine will make her own plan, depending on the choices she made in her flashbacks.
  • If she accepted Ava's offer and injected AJ, Clem will follow Javi's lead.
  • If she did not inject AJ and said goodbye to him, Clem will go after David and Gabe.
  • If she accepted Ava's offer and did not inject AJ or vice versa and spat in David's face, Clem will help Kate.
  • If she rejected Ava's offer and either injected AJ and said goodbye to him or did not inject him and spat in David's face, Clem will split up from Javi.
  • It's also possible for Clem and Gabe to share a passionate kiss, but only if Clem stayed with Jane at the end of Season 2 and both she and Javi stayed to help Kate (causing Gabe's death).
• Happy Ending Override: While it's more a Bittersweet Ending override, regardless of your choice at the end Season 2, Clementine will inevitably end up alone with AJ and no secure location to hold up in, forcing her to join the New Frontier.
• Hope Spot:
  • During the Flashback in Episode 1, and if Kenny is alive and the player chose to stay with him at the end of Season 1, he's seen teaching her how to drive. After a subverted moment of Interface Spoiler where Clem tells him how happy she is to be learning a new skill, she loses control of the vehicle and crashes. Kenny's legs are broken, and he forces her and A.J. to leave him behind and make a run for it while he's consumed by walkers.
  • Another one happens at the end of the episode, Javi makes it back to the junkyard, accompained by Clem and either Eleanor or Tripp and find that Walkers have invaded. They clear out a few of them and find that Javi's family is still alive and unbitten. Everything seems like it'll be alright...and then a bullet goes through Mariana's head. The scavengers have been laying in wait for Javi's return to take revenge for stealing their supplies. Kate is wounded by a bullet and, if you decide to try to take her back to Prescott, she falls unconcious during the ride back.
• Ice Queen:
  • After showing hints of it in the previous game, Clementine is veering toward this hard after the events which followed Season 2, and her time among the New Frontier. Depending on which ending you chose for that game, it's obvious from the flashbacks that either Jane or Kenny's deaths (along with A.J. being taken) seriously affected her outlook. Depending on how you treat her, she can return to acting much more like her Season 2 characterization by the end of the game.
  • In the New Frontier, Joan definitely fills this role.
• I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: Clem confronts a trader after he sells her bullets that don't fire properly. Clem proves that the bullets don't work by attempting to shoot him in the head. However, when the trader attacks Clem and Javi and Javi disarms him, Clem pulls the trigger again and this time the bullet works and hits the trader in the face. A bit of Artistic Licence – Gun Safety here, as it was clearly showed that the faulty bullets didn't cause the slide to work, so unless Clem cleared the action herself offscreen, the first round still should have just been sitting there in the chamber, thus preventing another round from cycling through and not letting anything happen when she pulled the trigger.
• Important Haircut: By the time Jesus reunites with Javi, Javi comments that he almost didn't recognise him with shorter hair. Also, regardless of which ending you receive, Clementine will ask Javi to cut her hair even shorter.
• Improbable Infant Survival: Played straight with A.J. as of the flashbacks, which show him alive and seemingly healthy, and in Episode 4 you learn that he's living on a farm outside Richmond.
• Informed Attribute: Jane's pregnancy, which until her death scene is only hinted at by her character model's face being a lot fuller than at the end of Season 2. In real life, most women don't start to gain weight in their face until after they're showing (usually in their second trimester), and given A.J.'s appearance in that scene it's only a month or so after the end of Season 2, which in itself couldn't have been more than a month after she and Luke had sex.
• Insane Troll Logic: The New Frontier didn't want to give A.J. the last of their store of antibiotics, because he was just a baby and the drug could be used to help someone that contributed. Clem injects him anyway, at which point they kick her out and force her to leave without A.J., because he would only slow her down. You know, the baby they think is dying.
• Jerkass Has a Point: David about Gabe in Episode 5.
  David: What he needs is to learn to keep his opinions to himself, until he understands what the hell he's talking about.
• Kleptomaniac Hero Found Underwear: Clementine had to do this at some point since the end of Season Two. She's obviously started developing, and a grey sports bra is visible under her shirt.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Badger, a ruthless and violent New Frontier member secretly serving under Joan, kills Mariana and destroys an entire town. In Episode 3, Javi may optionally beat Badger into a bloody pulp with a bat, mirroring his violent acts.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: During Episode 4, Joan says that David put her in a "no-win situation." This is a clear representation of the episode as a whole. Regardless of what you do and whether or not you killed Conrad, Dr. Lingard, Badger, or even Joan, the episode still ends with Eleanor ratting you out to Joan, Joan trying to execute David, Tripp or Ava dying, and the wall being destroyed shortly after a shootout starts.
• The Load: Oddly, of the two kids it ends up being not Mariana (the younger sibling), but Gabe. He constantly makes bad decisions in an effort to prove himself, and gets various members of the group into trouble on several occasions because he can't keep his mouth shut. He himself realizes this and seeks to become a real man like his father, even actively helping the group from Episode 4 until his death.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Among the supplies that the New Frontier stole, Jesus noticed one from the Kingdom.
  • The New Frontier took a page of the Governor's book when they attack Prescott, using truck filled with walkers (dubbed Walker bomb) to crash into the town and release the walkers onto the inhabitants like when Woodbury attack Rick Grimes group the first time in the TV series.
  • If Javi decides to kill Badger, he will pulverize his head with his baseball bat in the same vein as Negan and Lucille. However, Javi can stop at any time and simply leave Badger to bleed to death, or allow Tripp or Conrad (if he is still alive) to finish him off.
  • The New Frontier tries to have David hung for failing them as a leader just like how Gregory was executed by the Hilltop Colony.

N-Z

• New Old West: Being set several years After the End, this has started to crop up. The town of Prescott, in particular, has a "frontier town" vibe straight out of a spaghetti western despite being built on an old airstrip.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Sending Eleanor to Richmond (and later taking Kate there) leads them to be in the hands of the New Frontier.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Potentially up to two: The first one is when you catch Badger: first, you get into a fistfight, and then you can hit his head up to five times with a baseball bat. If you do this the maximum amount of times you get a "you couldn't stop yourself" information in the place of the iconic "x will remember that" information. The second one is when David finds out Kate has feelings for you in episode five. You can either choose to say "I love you" to David (as a reference to the promise you made to your father) and get brutally beaten or fight back.
• Non-Standard Game Over: Doubles as a Downer Ending, if Javi and Clem chase after David and Gabe, and Javi ends up failing the final quick-time event, sees Javi being bitten by a walker. Gabe emerges from the car and kills the walker, however with his dying breath, Javi implores Gabe to return to Richmond and help her restore the town. Javi tries to ask Gabe one final request, however he dies before he can finish his sentence, leaving his nephew behind as more walkers are closing in. As Javi's final words were for Gabe to 'Tell Kate...' one can only assume this may have been a Dying Declaration of Love.
• No Periods, Period: Menstruation is mentioned, albeit off-handedly, for the first time in the series during Episode 1, when Javi and Kate compare boys beginning puberty (getting erections at random and inconvenient times) to girls beginning puberty (irregular cycling resulting in stained or ruined underwear). It's then mentioned not so off-handedly in Episode 4 when it's revealed that Clem has just gotten her first period; while she knows what is going on (in that she understands it happens to all women), she doesn't really know what is going on (apparently no one ever gave her "the talk"). A totally out of his element Javi tries to stammer his way through a poor explaination, but he quickly gives up and tells Clem that Kate can answer all her questions about it later. Additionally, Clem's reaction right beforehand makes it clear that she's experiencing menstrual cramps, and when Javi rummages through the hospital's supplies, he can find a box of sanitary pads to give her.
• Oddball in the Series: This is the only installment of the series in which Clementine is a side character. In seasons two and four, she's the main player character, and in the first season, she drives the main character's actions.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted. There are two different characters named Paul; Paul "Jesus" Monroe and Dr. Paul Lingard, though their first names are rarely mentioned.
• Pinball Protagonist: Clementine's role in this season is quite minor when compared to the previous. Since the story focuses more on Javi, Clementine's presence never really add any importance other than passing what she learned from the previous seasons to him. In fact, she sometimes will break off from the group for an extensive period only to return in the middle. Despite this, her actions in the flashbacks will determine the fate of the Garcia family at the end of the season.
• Sadistic Choice: As per Telltale tradition.
  • Episode 1: Get Kate medical treatment or help Clementine assault the New Frontier.
  • Episode 2: Kill Conrad or allow him to capture Clementine and hand her over to the New Frontier.
  • Episode 3: Kill Badger or let him turn, kill Max or let him live, and trust David or abandon him with Kate.
  • Episode 4: Assist Dr. Lingard in committing suicide in return for him telling you for AJ's location, choose to save Tripp or Ava (only for the Sadistic Bitch Joan to kill the person you asked her to spare), and finally either swallow your anger against Joan and accept Clint's deal to leave Richmond with the rest of your group or shoot her and risk an open revolt.
  • Episode 5: Help Kate try to save the people of Richmond or chase after David and Gabe when they leave. At least one of the three will die.
• Schrödinger's Gun: Conrad will have either a winning poker hand or a bad one depending on whether Francine goes in or folds, respectively. Also, if Clementine went off alone, either Kenny or Jane's fate is left uncertain.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Sums up David toward the end of Episode 5, especially if Javi and Kate are in a romance.
• Sequel Hook: The game ends with Clementine leaving Richmond to find AJ, with a caption telling the player that "Clementine's story will continue..." A fourth and final season was later released.
• She's All Grown Up: Clementine, now around 13 to 14, returns more mature, more pragmatic, and grown up than when we last saw her.
• She's Back: After a brief departure from the mainstream game story, Clementine returns once more as a main character.
• The Starscream:
  • Joan backstabs the council of the New Frontier and has been calling the shots the whole time.
  • Eleanor optionally throws Javier under the bus when the New Frontier tries him and his brother after she finds out that Javi killed Conrad in Episode 2.
• Steel Eardrums: Averted. Firing a shot too close to his head causes Javi to become disoriented and temporarily deaf.
• The Stinger: After Episode 5's credits, the player is treated to a scene of Clementine effortlessly fighting through a herd of walkers on her way to find AJ.
• Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: Whomever the player went with in Season 2 (Kenny, Jane, Edith and all of Wellington) is immediately killed off in the first episode of this season.
• The Apocalypse Brings Out the Best in People: Invoked by David in which he states that it took the end of the world to make Javi a responsible brother than he previously knew.
• Time Skip: Telltale states that this season took place during the comic at the time of its release (i.e. during the Whisperers conflict, though how Jesus can be in two places at once is anyone's guess).
• Wham Shot:
  • In the Jane flashback, Clementine walking in on Jane's reanimated body hanging above the desk. And when Clem walks up to her, she steps on something on the floor, and picks it up to see that it's a home pregnancy test stick, positive results.
  • In the Kenny flashback, Kenny has been thrown out of the car.
  • At the end of Episode 2, the man seemingly in charge of the New Frontier is David, who was thought to have died offscreen in the prologue for Episode 1.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • The fate of Alvin Jr. is explored in Clementine's flashbacks. In episode 3, it's shown that The New Frontier forced her to leave him behind when they kicked her out after she stole drugs to treat his illness. Clem assumes that AJ died, but David reveals that he survived, and you can learn Alvin Jr.'s location in episode 4 if you agree to kill Dr. Lingard on his request, as he'll tell you that Alvin Jr. is at a nearby ranch. If you don't kill him in episode 4, then at the end of episode 5, Dr. Lingard will still tell you the information because by then he'll finally be in a stable state of mind.
  • If spared in episode 4, Joan will not appear at all in episode 5, leaving her ultimate fate ambiguous.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Javi receives this even more than Lee and Clementine did in previous seasons. Notable examples include from his family for missing the death of his father, either way from Gabe after he either kills Conrad (which will also anger Tripp when Gabe rats Javi out for it in Episode 4) or allows him to capture Clementine, and from everyone except David if he kills Joan and starts a firefight.
• Wild Card: David being an ally to the player or still looking out for himself is left deliberately ambiguous in almost every conversation you have with him. David and Javi's relationship becomes increasingly complicated throughout the season and differing conversation options can either lead to David fighting or making peace with Javi before he either dies or walks away.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • One of the members of The New Frontier shoots ten-year old Mariana in the head.
  • David, in Episode 5, ends up accidentally hurting Gabe when he tries to break up a fight between him and Fern, causing David to immediately stop and apologise for his actions. However, later in the same episode when David is trying to kill Javi, David again ends up hitting Gabe when he tries to stop him, only this time he hits him with a wrench, square in the forehead, and doesn't even flinch.
  • The New Frontier has no problem shooting at Clementine and Gabriel and if the player fail to click the correct button in time, they will be killed.
  • If Clementine stays in Wellington in the previous season, a group of bandits will attack the town in between seasons and target at her and AJ even while they are trying to escape.
• Your Head Asplode: See Mythology Gag.

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