Theory Time - Cabin Crew!
"There was seven of us. I didn't have any family there or nothing, there were all at my Gram's down at Statsboro. There was a dad who had a daughter 'bout my age. One guy said he used to be a cop but nobody really believed him, then a teacher and his wife. Leader was this guy, Steve."
—Russell to Nate.[src]
Russell's old group is the Cabin group.
Steve = Carver
Teacher and Wife = Alvin and Rebecca
Father and Daughter = Carlos and Rebecca
Cop = Nick, Troy, Luke?
The group always have stayed in the Cabin - despite Carlos owning the cabin himself he never really lead the group entirely - due to Steve or "Carver's" nature. Carver was a vicious man who valued the group's livelihood above all else - and by all else, I mean all else. He was trying to aid the group in the time of struggle and in doing so slaughtered many in the process. He was a good man who wanted the the best for his people but his brutal methods earned him the name Carver.
After a time the group grew weary of the rule of "Carver" and held a coup - severely injuring carver and rendering him incapacitated. Dragging his lifeless body into a quiet area of the woods they leave him for dead. Not wanting to kill him - because after all he had kept them alive. However sign after sign lead the group to believe that Carver hadn't died that day.
Carlos - being owner of the house after all - takes charge of the group. However the group as a whole is buckling under the weight of their past methods. People leave and newcomers arrive but the group number stays the same.
Other points:
- People in the group have changed
- There are around 7 people in the group due to the coup being relatively recently
- Luke, due to no ties, could be a newcomer
- Everyone is trying to atone for what they had done during the reign of Carver [thus taking in the bitten man and Clementine]
-Rebecca had become romantically involved with carver (thus why she doesn't want Clementine and the pregnancy scare)
[Edit: Changes in theory storyline]
Comments
I agree but Luke could be the cop and Pete and Nick could be newcomers
But bare in mind that Nick's mother was also part of the group.
He says there was a guy who said he was a cop but no one believed him
Would you believe it if Luke said he was a cop? I wouldn't. He seems a bit too young and goofy for it.
However...
He could have been a rookie or something. He seems really idealistic, it makes sense.
And I think Nick and family wouldn't have joined until after the group separated from Carver. Nick and Pete seem to know their way around the cabin's surroundings, maybe they lived there? Or they were there for a long time before the others found them there and joined them.
I think Luke is a definite candidate for the cop role. But the cabin looks as though it's Carlos's - mostly due to Sarah. Carlos is trying to shield his daughter from the dead as much as possible - which must mean he wouldn't want to drag his daughter around. Plus she has her own room with bedding etc, and it all looks new. She also has books in her room which she likes - and uncommon thing for a survivor. I'm going to change the theory storyline to fix up some of these points.
Didn't Russel say the daughter was about his age?
The problem I see with this is that if Carlos and Sarah were with Steve, Sarah would have been exposed to everything in the outside world. Carlos implies that he has kept Sarah sheltered since the beginning.
Good theory, though.
Maybe she had a trauma and since then she "can't" be exposed.
You're going to have to rework your theory a bit more I'm afraid. If you listen in on the kitchen conversation you'll find out that the group has been moving from place to place for awhile. So that rules out Carlos owning the house and the group's location being static. Though you may be on to something about the group maybe having to atone for past actions while with Carver. In the kitchen conversation, Nick mentions they "can't go back" the way they came so they've probably left a trail of bad blood behind them or worry about being assaulted due to their association with Carver.
I've seen this theory come up before and I'm still not quite sold on it. It's still interesting though.
That's a very interesting idea but she didn't seem at all traumatised when we saw her, just naive.
Sarah was 15 and Russell's about 18-22
I agree with everything except Nick being the "cop", I think that guy might me Troy or someone else who used to be in the group and Pete,Nick,and Nick's mom joined the group later After Russell left !
I can maybe see where 18 comes from but 22 is pushing it, IMO. I'm actually thinking Russell may be younger than we suspect going by the whole name on bag thing. Was there a line of dialogue where he clarified his age? I don't recall there being any.
Russell's picture in 400 days shows him in a cap and gown, which places him in the 'recently graduated high school' age range.
Or just recently graduated junior high. The name on personal possession thing makes me think "junior high" because I'm pretty sure he'd have outgrown that during high school.
I didn't know there was a such thing as graduating junior high. Where I'm from, it was elementary school -> middle school (junior high) -> high school. The only graduation that took place was at the end of high school.
That had gone through my mind too, I allways assumed the group Russel talked about would show up, I don't think Russell would tell that story without being important, and that all thing about "a man and his daughter" I mean it totally sounded like Carlos and Sarah
SO Yeah I'm guessing the group is Russel's group, and that amgic 7 they said it was like Carlos, Sarah, Carver, Alvin, Rebecca, Russel and Luke, then Russel left and Pete, Nick and his mother arrived and they problably got into a fight about them staying or not and the group turned on Carver and kicked him out of the cabin.
In this scenario Luke would be the supposed cop, "told he was a cop but nobody beleved him" totally sounds like Luke :P
I can definitely see that being the case there DLGR13, it makes sense the way you put it just now.
Even with Carver, Carlos might had been able to hide what was happening from Sarah. Those crazy stuff Russel told could happen only when they went outside and Sarah wasn't around.
Ah, I see. In any case, if Russell was a junior high graduate that would put him close enough to Sarah's age at the time to work for the theory.
It's possible that Russell did leave North Carolina (where I assume the Cabin Group is located) and made the long walk down to Georgia. In 400 Days we see him pass a "Mile 7" marker which could mean that he has recently crossed the South Carolina and Georgia state line. Which isn't impossible since it's roughly a 3 or 4 day walk to get from North Carolina down to the outskirts of Savannah where my old pal Nate found him.