Musings on Episode 4.
I remember crying so hard at Clementine's last moments with Lee that I could not imagine The Walking Dead ever manipulating my emotions in such a striking away again. Yet, Amid the Ruins elicited a veritable feast of all feelings gloomy. I didn't cry, as it happens, but God did I want to. Whether it was the hardened Jane grappling with her manifest humanity to eventually rejecting it, Sarah descending into utter helplessness (and her death, though inevitable, so painful to watch) or Rebecca's horrible last minute exit, I was devastated, disappointed and depressed all at once. But what really affected me was yet again Clementine: with each stressful decision demanded of her is a cold backlash that robs more and more of her innocence. Her evolution continues to be a stunning character development, and not all of it particularly admirable. In the end, it left me siding with the wonderfully written lone wolf Jane -- I wanted Clementine to be alone, away from all the interpersonal, petty drama and the unavoidable disasters that occur among them. I didn't want her to bear the burden of feeling responsible for whatever happens to others, but herself. How I had initially hoped to mould my Clementine has drastically changed over the course of these four episodes.
Amid the Ruins, in short, is a relentlessly bleak yet nonetheless definitive example of Telltale's strong storytelling. I don't know how Clementine's journey is going to end but I am honestly queasy thinking about it.