The Plot Points That Drifted Away in Ep4

JackSchirmer

Good to see we're back to the mysterious voice on the other end of the walkie-talkie as of the end of the episode, but I was disappointed that Ep4 didn't include any kind of search for Clem's parents. Prior to the current episode we figured out with Clem the hotel her parents had been staying at in Savannah. We also should have been able to figure out the hospital Clem's mother was calling from, if we didn't know it outright from the messages she left (and there's always Caller ID).

Thanks to Vern we can get around the city without too much difficulty, and Lee had promised Clem in Ep3 they'd look for her parents. Nothing changed, and nothing all that unexpected happened, so I don't see a credible reason for abandoning the search without even a cursory check of the hotel. Given that people were ready to break into an armed, walled section of the city for gasoline, a battery, and antibiotics, it just doesn't make sense that Lee woulld end up making no effort to find Clem's parents.

When we got to the end of Ep4, when Lee has three dialogue options in reply to Clem's question of whether or not they're going to look for her folks, it didn't even register with me at first that the 'yes' answer included the parenthetical word "[LIE]". I assumed that was still on the menu, so clicked 'yes'.

Did I miss some point at which the decision was made to abandon the search? It just seems very odd, when a big part of the reason to head for Savannah was to find out what happened to Clem's family, to just shrug and forget that part.

Even if the group escapes the city, how over time does a child accept that? And how would it not affect her relationship with Lee, knowing they were in the city in which her parents were last known to be, that he didn't search at all for them? The Ep just turned into a very much less dramatic sheltering of Omid while the group searched for meds, gas, and a battery. I confess to some disappointment over that. It's much less dramatic than a search for someone's family.

Anyone else puzzled by the direction Episode 4 took?

Rock114

My Lee didn't care about searching for Clem's parents, he only wanted to find a boat and get Clem to safety. I had no intention of slogging through the streets of Savannah to look for two people who were likely already dead just so Clem could feel better, especially with that guy on the radio manipulating her. I don't think the other members of the group would really wait for Lee if he decided to go look for Clem's parents, so it's either get on the boat and hope for safety or stay in Savannah and hope to find a needle in a haystack. No matter how you play Lee, if it came down to those two options I think he would have Clem get on the boat every time. Plus, the only reason they raided Crawford was for supplies for the boat. The boat supplies were more neccessary than finding Clem's parents.

Ghositex

I agree finding the boat was a priority, but I hoped that Clementine's family would take a bigger plot in Ep. 4... Even if we don't get to see her parents, I still can't get "the Marsh house" achievement out of my head, I guess we will get to see how Clementine's parents died, perhaps they both escaped the hospital and tried surviving at home. I really hated clementine crying, it makes me feel really awful.

ommmnomnomnom

Yeah I agree with you, but in taking away the search for her parents, TTG are able to make Clem have a reason to be disobedient and go for her next best hope, the walkie talkie dude, thus making Lee look for her, getting himself bitten and the rest in next episode. I wish we could have gone to look for her parents too, I thought the episode would revolve mostly around this, but hey, it was still good and im sure we'll get to the bottom of things by the 5th, hopefully :P

DreadMagus

I'd have been more puzzled if we'd gone straight to Clem's parents... they ARE a major plot point..... not something you want to spoil before the end.

ColtPeacemaker00

I think the search for Clementine's parents fell victim to the same fate the Crawford raid fell to and that is they just did'nt have enough time to do them the way they deserved to be done. Since there are only 5 episodes time was limited, so instead of Lee and Clem going off on a search for her parents it was instead turned into a plot device, a reason for Clem's feelings of betrayal and return to the voice on the walkie leading to her kidnapping. In the Crawford raid we all looked forward to a different scenario than what we got but it was, at least in my eyes, not all that surprising that instead of going up against the armed citizens of Crawford we were pitted against the undead horde that overran it. Not when you consider that it would have taken at least an entire episode to have done the raid against Crawford, maybe escape capture or rescue members that were captured, and deal with any retalitory strikes, the justice it deserved. It would have been nice if instead of just 5 episodes there would have been... maybe 10. That way they could have fit both into the time limitation they were dealing with and in exquisite detail.

isavedDoug

I have suspicions the walkie-talkie man is only using the whole 'parent' excuse as a way to get to the group somehow... Which would also lead to who the walkie-talkie man actually is, did he know the group before hand? We shall see...

I doubt that Clementine's parents are alive though, I think around the chapter 'The Marsh House' it will reveal the fate of her parents and maybe Clementine's location. After that chapter it will probably focus on chasing the guy and choosing his fate...

Whatever his fate, Lee will announce to Clementine that he is bitten. (also the survivors that went with you whole group if you haven't told them beforehand) and I reckon the group or Clementine will have to decide to leave him to re-animate or kill him...

rachellouise85

Think there will be more about her parents in 5, don't know how much or little. If one of the trophies is definite..then yeah, we will be in a location tied to them? So it'll probably come to a close somehow.

Cyreen

DreadMagus wrote: »

I'd have been more puzzled if we'd gone straight to Clem's parents... they ARE a major plot point..... not something you want to spoil before the end.

Exactly! Episode 4 took care of all the incidental baggage - you wanna find a boat and kill Ben? Okay.

Episode 5 is all new turf.

Chris-Sabian

When we got to the end of Ep4, when Lee has three dialogue options in reply to Clem's question of whether or not they're going to look for her folks, it didn't even register with me at first that the 'yes' answer included the parenthetical word "[LIE]". I assumed that was still on the menu, so clicked 'yes'.

He’s waiting for her to be safe to tell her that her parents are dead.

It’s been over three months and it is likely that they died within the first weeks.

Vernon mentioned his group but if he knew her parents he would have told Lee about it.

LeagueofBulldogs

There's going to be a chapter called "The Marsh House" in the last episode, which is where Clementine's parents stayed at, so I'm pretty sure we are going to find out where they are in the finale.