Is Luke a coward?
Trust seems to be a major issue with Luke's character. When he first discovered Clem's wound and mistook it for a walker bite, he literally dropped her, followed by an accusatory rant. This suggested a potentially hysterical personality; not a good disposition to have in the midst of the zombie apocalypse.
Then, in episode 2, while Clem was climbing the ski left, Luke casually said "I'll be right here to catch you if you fall...probably." The guy seemed disconcertingly unaware of the ominous implications behind the word "probably."
Once the entire group has been caught with the exception of Luke, Carver makes a rather knowing comment about him: "Cut and run, huh? Why am I not surprised?"
So...what does this all mean for Luke? Has he ditched the group? Or did he choose to remain out of sight and track them from a safe distance?
Maybe the answer is somewhere in between. Luke had an initial panic attack upon seeing the entire gang being rounded up by Carver's goons inside the ski lodge and made a break for it, but had a change of heart upon remembering Clementine. Like almost every other character in WALKING DEAD, Luke is a basically decent fellow with some serious flaws. Those flaws will be fully exposed in episode 3, leaving Clem (and the player) to judge whether he's ultimately a good man or not.
Comments
i think he is a good man...
Let us not forget how pants-shittingly scared he was when he found the picture of Walt/Matt.
He was just giving her crap with the ladder part; nothing ominous about it.
Besides, we don't really know if he actually ran away due to cowardliness. We have no idea what happened with Kenny and Luke when they were away.
I don't trust Luke, but I don't think he's a coward. He's survived for two years in a ZA. I think he regretted his knee jerk reaction to Clem's "bite" and wanted to stay calm, stay rational and come to the conclusion that he needed to be the man on the outside.
I don't think he is a coward. I mean he went and face walkers himself. A cowardly person would try to hide. He dropped Clem because he thought he was bitten. Something I would have done too, I mean she could turn and bit me, plus they already lost people by helping the bitten.
Kenny said he told Luke to take a hike. Luke might have wonder too far and maybe ran into complications of his own or he is waiting to attack. Carver seem to have some sort of problem with Luke. Maybe he knew if his face was seen he been dead in seconds.
The 'probably' thing might have been a joke added by Telltales. I'm not too sure on that.
Don't think he's a coward. I do think he got in over his head with this whole escape plan. He likely didn't plan on Carver pursuing them for so long or this far. Rebecca and the baby threw a monkey wrench into what he probably thought would be an easy getaway. So when he's finally faced with an encounter with Carver he probably did have a momentary panic like with Clem's bite before deciding that he and Kenny should stay hidden and formulate a safer plan. Kenny being a take care of it now sort of person wouldn't be hearing any of that. Luke takes a hike as instructed but sticks close by. That's my take.
Also the 'probably', 'i don't know', 'I think so' thing they keep doing with Luke is not just a running gag, IMO. It's meant to show he's not a full fledged leader with unwavering confidence in himself.
This. (y)
Yes I totally agree ^ and to add
3. Carver saying that he "cut and run" might be him referring to when the cabin group escaped Carver's camp the last time.
I don't think he's a coward. I think he's just very indecisive, and doesn't also have the best judgement in his decision making.
I thought most of his questionable actions were driven by his desire to protect his friends. Looking back on the when he dropped Clem in the woods, his reaction was out of concern for his group (specifically Nick), since they later state that they went through the EXACT same scenario where they tried to take care of a stranger who was bitten, and Nick's mom got killed because of it.
Same for when he wanted to lie about Matthew to Walter. He's concerned that Walter will want to get revenge on Nick, or become hostile to the entire group.
He's also still fairly young, in his 20s. I wouldn't pin him over 26. Yes, he is an adult and is capable of taking care of himself, but that's still not old enough to have the life experiences necessary to lead a group in an apocalyptic world and make life-threatening decisions.
he ran to his mommy
His "mommy" is dead. -_-
He saw just some mushrooms and went to pick them up. When he got back, every one were gone, he saw the dead bodies and put all the pieces together. First he turned the turbine on made delicious shroomsoup, ate it up and were ready to revenge and little bailout.
did anyone here go to find Kenny first? apparently he said something about luke
Yeah he says he told Luke to "take a hike" whatever that means.
He ran to his mommy's grave, that better?
This last comment is pretty horrible but I couldn't help but find it funny.
nice, gonna be interesting conversation with Kenny in the next episode
Luke dropping Clem was more of a startled reflex than on purpose, and his anger after could be just be part of the scare he got when he saw the dog bite. Once he had time to calm down, he was able to rationalize and defend you from the others.
That said, his actions after finding out who Matthew was and trying to keep quiet about it didn't sit well with me. Sure it was trying to protect Nick, but the secrecy would have only made things worse in the long run had Walter survived.
As for his disappearance, I'm withholding judgement for now. We don't know the full details yet, and Carver isn't exactly the type of guy to be telling the truth all the time. There's obviously bad blood between the two, so things are bound to be interesting in episode 3. All in all, I'm willing to wait just a bit longer before making a final decision.
Telling someone to "take a hike" is a more polite way of telling them to fuck off and leave you alone :P
Knowing Kenny, I wouldn't be surprised if those were closer to his actual words.
The real question is not about Luke being a coward..it is if Luke is trustworthy or not.