Reggie, Sarita, and an episode five prediction
TL;DR Reggie is is a chekhov's gun, Sarita was a bluff, and somone is getting the chop in episode five.
Allow me to explain.
Reggie lost his arm between the time the cabin group left and the time they were captured. From him, we learn that amputating bitten limbs CAN work in the video game universe. Other than that, Reggie's arm loss doesn't have much of an impact on the story. Even carver admits that his arm loss wasn't as much of an impediment as you'd think it was.
A cheknov's gun is something described at one point in the story that only matters much later. If the author says a gun was mounted to the wall, that gun will later be used to kill somone. I'm saying that Reggie's amputation is going to be relevant later to the story.
Now at the end of the episode, we get the choice to cut off Sarita's arm. After being introduced to a character who lost a limb and lived, almost everyone choose to cut off Sarita's arm. She dies two seconds later. After that, people might be a bit more hesitant to cut off a limb.
I hope all of you know what a bluff is.
Furthermore, you have to ask yourself: out of all the weapons he could be carrying, why has Luke, ever since episode one, always hadve a machette with him when venturing outside for more than five minutes. Why not just pull a mini axe out of his ass like all the other characters do with their weapons? Why specifically hammer it into the player's brain that Luke always carries a sword with him.
I'm fairly certain somone will be losing a limb — and surviving it, for a change — in the next episode. Hell, it might even be Luke himself.
In short, all the stuff about arms getting cut off leads me to think that something will actually come of it in the final episode. Here's hoping it's not Clementine.
Comments
Sarita and Kenny were both there to listen to Reggie's story about his amputation, and neither of them show any indication of not thinking he is wrong. Which makes Sarita's death an example of the writers wanting to fuck us over, rather than actually being logical. You could say that Sarita and Kenny both "panicked", but you should have at least had the option to tell them about Reggie.
I do suspect that Carver amputated his arm as a punishment, but since there really doesn't seem to be any evidence for that I think we're supposed to assume that Reggie really did get bitten.
I never thought that the arm was cut off by Carver. Reggie didn't strike me as the type who lies easily.
Chekhov's characters kill people? I thought everybody just killed themselves in his plays...
I don't know, I'm one of three people who didn't chop off Sarita's arm. Not because I didn't think she'd live, but in the middle of the action where they were there wasn't a chance to bandage it, and I figured it would be better to risk it for a half hour or so than have her bleed out.
I think the real question about Luke's machete is, why does it bend when his back does?
"Do you know why they call him Franky 'Four Fingers' Doug,? Because he makes stupid bets with dangerous people, and when he doesn't pay up, they give him the chop, Doug. And I'm not talking about his foreskin either."
THIS. This is just exactly what I thought the moment Reggie told us how he lost his arm. S1 Ep5: Lee had a choice to cut off his arm, the amputation was successful but the infection was already in his system so it didn't save his life. S2E1: Clem see a zombie tied on a tree with a knife jabbed into its arm, she says (if you decided to cut Lee's arm off in S1) "That never works." Later that episode Pete suggests cutting off Clem's hand, tells us a story about a relative who survived a walker's bite. S2EP2: Pete wanted to amputate his bitten leg. Again Clem will comment it won't work. Pete decides not to, says he'd die of bloodloss anyway. In S2EP4: We meet Reggie. He tells us he was bitten but they removed the arm just in time which saved his life. Sarita's arm, was not an immediate choice, they prepared us for that precise moment since the Ep1. I kinda knew she would never survive, because of the situation they were in (surrounded by a horde), the unsterile equipment (hatchet used on walkers) and the lack of medical equipment to stop the bleeding immediately. But I went ahead, and cut off her arm anyway. Why? Because if you get bitten you're dead. Amputation though even by a small percent has a chance to save your life, so I'd take it anyday. I held onto that small chance and hoped she would somehow make it. She didn't, well, I thought at least I tried.
The Reggie thing was probably just supposed to push players into chopping off Sarita's arm, 'cause that was the more dramatic choice
but then again, Mike apparently has experience in amputating limbs, so as long as he's around I guess it's possible.
It was plenty logical, in my opinion. Sarita's arm got chopped off in the middle of a herd with no forewarning or means of stopping the bleeding. Sarita (understandably) freaked out and died as a result. Simple cause and effect.
They fixed that issue with his machete in episode 4. It's always straight now.
And on top of that, Luke has been carrying a cutting weapon ever since episode one.
Carver seems savage enough to punish someone like that, and Reggie might have just been terrified and trying to convince people (and himself) that Carver wasn't that bad. And we never hear Mike confirm Reggie's story.
I'm putting my money on Bonnie.