Just a Small Town Girl, Raising a Kid in a Zombie World – Telltale’s The Walking Dead The Final Season sort-of review

I first played Tell Tale’s The Walking Dead two years ago, probably almost to the day at this point, while on a staycation from work. I don’t know what exactly made me pick it up – maybe that it was October and it held the promise of zombies, or maybe it was a PS Plus game at some point that was now just sitting around in my games library? – but I somehow picked it up knowing next to nothing about the game. The extent of my knowledge was that there was a character named Clementine that you played as and that it was a game where your choices influenced the story. Y’all, in those six days that I was off work, I played through season 1 (including the DLC), season 2, and A New Frontier (I skipped Michone because I was really just super invested in Clem’s story).

Season 1 gripped me and gripped me hard. I enjoyed Lee, I enjoyed raising Clem, I enjoyed getting to know these characters, and when that final episode hit? Hoo boy, I was definitely not okay. The ending to that game is something I still think about randomly from time to time, and I get emotional over it every single time.

Season 2 left me emotional in different ways. I felt so angry at everyone all the time for their treatment of and dependence on this poor little girl. I ended that game with the only proper choice – fuck everyone and their shenanigans, I’m leaving!

I even enjoyed A New Frontier. I liked Javier and his story, and when Clem made her entrance it was exciting. I don’t believe I had the same visceral emotional responses to that season as I had the first two, but that isn’t a complaint. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

When The Final Season was announced, I was pretty excited. I had no intention of playing it episode by episode as they came out, as that isn’t how I typically play games (Life is Strange 2 being about the only exception to this so far, and even then I’ve let some episodes build up). That turned out to be wise after all the trouble Telltale went through earlier this year, and while I was bummed that The Final Season wouldn’t be completed, at least I hadn’t only played half of it. Then the game was saved, and I was pretty damn excited.

I then proceed to still not play the game.

I finally picked up The Final Season a couple of weeks ago and finished it this past weekend. I cried. A lot. Multiple times. I also spent the entire game in constant fear – would I screw up AJ, how closely would this season parallel the first, would my new friends die or hate me, and when was the next scene with Lee so that I could be sure to have a box of tissues on hand?

This isn’t a traditional review, because there isn’t much to say without going into massive, potential spoiler territory. After all, there’s not much of anything that can be said about gameplay – it’s a Tell Tale game, they all play the same. I also never looked up if it was possible to save certain characters that died in my game because as I was playing, I didn’t want potential spoilers, and after, well, it just didn’t seem to matter. The story I wound up with was my story. I didn’t (and still don’t) feel like I need to know what could have happened.

This last season wasn’t perfect; I could honestly sit here and nitpick so many things if I wanted to, but that isn’t the idea behind this. Despite its flaws, perhaps even sometimes because of them, the final season was a satisfying conclusion to Clem’s story for me. I loved, I laughed, I cried (oh god, I did so much crying). I do think it’s required if you’ve ever liked one of The Walking Dead games before.

The Final Season told a beautiful and simultaneously heart-wrenching and heart-warming story about a girl trying to make her father-figure proud, raise her own child to be a good person in a world full of both literal and figurative monsters, and trying to also find her own place in said world.

A final note before spoiler talk – I adore the way they start the final credits. It is a very cool looking effect, and I just had to take a screenshot and a few moments (yes, a few!) to appreciate it.

Now a cut for spoilers, because there are a few moments I simply have to talk about. If you have not played and do not want massive spoilers, do not read beyond this point!

So first off, I cry any and every fucking time Clem dreams about Lee. Ugly cry. Sob. So, of course, Clem dreams about Lee, and they discuss her raising of AJ. It was such a beautiful moment to me. You can play it however you want – there were plenty of options to dismiss this as a dream or it’s just all in your head, which it is, of course – but I chose to just let Clem indulge in the sweet scene. This poor girl has earned it.

I also really appreciate the opportunity they took to make it gay! I loved Louis, but I was worried that they were pushing for him to be a romance for Clem. Which, granted, he is an option, but I’m so glad I got to romance Violet and still keep Louis as my number one bro. Nothing went well for me on this front in the end (well, the very, very end got better), possibly more because of other choices I made than anything else, but the representation and ability for me to identify with Clem in that way made me incredibly happy. Also, just having the idea of bisexual Clem is so cool. Kudos and props to the team behind all this!

My girls. Just being cute. And being girlfriends. My girls just being cute girlfriends.

Lastly, ending spoilers.

I was okay-ish the whole time Clem and AJ were dealing with the aftermath of her being bitten. When they led me to believe AJ had killed Clem to keep her from turning, it did break my heart a little because I had never wanted that for him. Still, I didn’t really cry. I didn’t cry the whole way through. Until, that is, Tenn comes back with Clem’s (Lee’s) hat. The sobbing hit immediately, which honestly took me so by surprise. I didn’t expect to have such a visceral reaction at this point (I don’t know why I didn’t expect that, given my track record for crying in regards to this series). I felt so gutted then by what I thought was the ending, but I figured what did I expect? It’s The Walking Dead; everyone has always died.

Syke! Clem’s alive! Which…. I’m weirdly okay with? Does it make any sort of sense? No, not at all. There’s no way the virus or whatever hadn’t spread beyond repair given how long they’d been stumbling around. My memory is a little foggy on season 1 by this point, but I feel like Lee had an opportunity to cut of his bitten area around a similar time, as well, and it didn’t work. Never mind that Clem’s blood would have been pumping through her body more with her injury, movement, and adrenaline. Regardless though, I’m stupidly okay with the ending. I’m so glad they chose to not parallel the two games entirely and that they chose this point to diverge on. Sometimes saccharine happy endings are what we need in this world, and this was one of those times.