And here's the thing: Out of all the reasons why Clem wouldn't speak up, say anything and do as she's told at Howe's, it's not because she's afraid that she's going to get beaten to death, it's because she feels like she's a kid, so kids are supposed to do as they told. It's even that or she doesn't mind being a slave of a monster and his "thugs". What do you think about this?

It’s one of the many things that’s infuriating and sickening about S2 in general; Clementine’s submissiveness to uncaring adults who use and abuse her is depicted as a good thing, because she can be “useful”, to the same people who treat her like shit, constantly fuck things up, and then bitch to Clem anytime they feel like it. And being useful is really the only value both the story and the other characters EVER put on Clem’s life in S2.

Some people like to peg the ugliness of S2 on In Harm’s Way and beyond, but it was there in the first two episodes, just not as brazenly. Between the clumsy setup of the prologue where it’s implied Clementine did something horribly wrong because she wasn’t holding her gun at all times while Omid & Christa were likely literally fucking off and her confessing to Luke how she “never did anything right” and she was “stupid” sends the message in the first episode alone that we should think Clem used to be a liability but we should like her NOW, because she’s not anymore. She grew… into a submissive pawn who hates herself.

There’s no development from that plot point after that, so it feels like the story is saying Clem is RIGHT to hate herself. And again, if you want to peg this ugliness on the later episodes, look at what Clem says to Nick in the shed in EP2. She tells him she knew someone like him who was “always screwing up”. That’s not determinant, she ALWAYS say that in that scene. She has no sympathy for him just losing Pete in that moment, just mild irritation. And she takes no issue with Luke insisting she needlessly risk her life to clear a dangerous bridge. Why? “Because if she’s TOUGH enough to sew up her arm”, she’s tough enough for that.

Clem being TOUGH is the only value placed on her life all game in S2. Things like her compassion, her nobility, her insight, all things on regular display in S1, are all completely ignored in S2. Depending on your choices they might not exist in S2, and even if you choose them, the writers almost always feel the need to temper S2 Clem to make it clear she doesn’t really like or care about doing the right thing or being nice to people anymore. Like I said, the shed scene with Nick OPENS with Clem stating her irritation with him without your input.

And if you need more proof, look at the final episode, which was written by Nick Breckon, who did the first two episodes. Kenny tells Clem she can survive better than three adults combined, because again, that’s apparently the only value Breckon ever saw in Clementine, that she could survive, to be a pawn for other people. Any attempts for Clem to be moral or honorable in NGB are contrived as useless dead ends she was wrong to take as Arvo always shoots her and Mike and Bonnie was always ditch her, sending the message that Kenny is right in being such a selfish prick all the time and Clem should just suck up his abuse because he ALWAYS knows better than her.

It holds true even in the endings, where at Howe’s, if you let the people in you see the one guy was lying about having a gun and there’s Urban Duck’s line about Clem’s “nice hat” echoing back to prologue where Clem got robbed, hinting at this encounter not going well. But you turn the family away, and Clem just stands there righteously spewing bullshit about how hurting people is the right thing to do while holding a gun in one hand and a baby in the other.

There’s no attempts to temper that ending with some nuance, like implying those people might come back to attack Clem now, you know, something that HAPPENED earlier in the same game when Jane did this same shit to Arvo, something Clem has no option to object to. You get the Wellington endings, which are fucking fairytale bullshit happy endings, by having Clem elect to do NOTHING while Kenny commits murder.

Again, same guy who wrote the first two episodes wrote this (along with the guy who wrote EP3), and apparently he decided Clem’s great contribution in the heat of the climax… is to do nothing and let Kenny do whatever HE wants. Even though they give you the option to shoot Kenny, it’s followed by a long sappy speech from Kenny about how they ALMOST made it, Clem cries her eyes out at how horrible this is (Sarah eaten alive? Meh) and then there’s the reveal Jane tricked Clem, which combined with the pixie dust endings if you don’t kill Kenny, suggest Clem was wrong to ever shoot him, because Clem’s only value is how useful she can be to others.

Case in point, If Clem is 100% obedient, she gets to go with Kenny to heaven despite all logic to the contrary, and can even elect to stay with him, forever cementing her role as Kenny’s subordinate which is given the HAPPIEST visual with the beautiful sunset background vs. the bittersweet separation set against the dark emptiness of Wellington’s non-rendered interior. Clem being loyal to Jane suggests she can be mostly okay if she emulates Kenny’s and Jane’s selfish and vicious attitudes, and if she can’t, it’s implied things won’t work out. And in the alone ending, Clem simply wanders around at random, because a worthless little kid like her could never find Wellington on her own or elect to go back to Howe’s without Jane. She’s too stupid for that, right?

Even with Sarah, who Clem’s not hostile with in the first two episodes, she suddenly WANTS to learn how to use a gun for some reason and just figures Clem would know how even though Sarah hasn’t seen or heard anything that would lead her to believe Clem knew the first thing about guns. Again, that’s Clem’s only value, her being “tough” and knowing how to “survive” and what it can do for OTHERS. Sarah never asks Clem why she’s not with her parents or anything about Clem personally, she just immediately casts Clem into a mentor role despite not knowing the first thing about her. S2 Clem’s “tough”, and other character see how that can help THEM, and S2 Clem’s character starts and ends there.

In Harm’s Way just dropped the pretense in the previous episodes and shoved it in your face. Clem is too shut the fuck up, do EVERYTHING she’s told, and Sarah is a huge waste of space for NOT doing that. Clem gets slapped around for doing otherwise, and nobody cares (including Kenny, because his “Did he hurt you” line happens even if Clem isn’t slapped, meaning it’s just generic concern shoved in to make Kenny look caring when he’s not) and the real danger is what happens to the adults.

Like you pointed out, fear is not motivating Clem in EP3, in fact, she seems oblivious to the danger around her in most every scene except maybe when she takes the radio (a dumb, risky, useless thing to do she is NOT allowed to refuse). She’s obedient and submissive because people expect her to be. She was already like this before in the last two episodes, so the threat Howe’s supposedly provides doesn’t affect her in the slightest. She just immediately hops to work while Kenny righteously protests being a slave because HE can have motivation and act out, but not Clem.

Whereas Sarah is beaten by her own father for the horrible crime of talking and NONE of the characters comment on it. Carlos himself doesn’t even seem all that upset over having to beat the same kid he coldly warned another kid to keep away from. The only person who seems bothered by what happened to Sarah was Reggie, who Carver then tosses off a roof for being weak himself, and Clem is allowed to agree with in his office after Carver casually threatens to mutilate her if she doesn’t behave.

And Clem’s never really bothered by any of this, because she’s “tough”, which in IHW is being defined as being submissive to slavery, as opposed to the first two episodes where it was defined as being submissive to thoughtless pricks who don’t give a shit about you. Sarah is a “burden” and a “liability” in EP3 for being terrified at being the property of a sadistic tyrant, as opposed to EP2 where she’s shown to not be useful “yet” but once she learns how to use a gun and some other things, then finally she’ll be worthwhile because fucking kids are expected to be perfect child soldiers while adults in S2 are free to throw away kids lives for their own petty childish reasons.

You know what would have been nice for In Harm’s Way? Instead of Clem immediately going to work for the same person who beat and enslaved her, and resenting Sarah for not doing the same, how bout Clem tells Sarah NOT to work, and Clem doesn’t work, because she’s not going along with a piece of shit like Carver and the lazy asshole can do his own work. Maybe she could even try to talk Reggie into it.

And you might say “That’s insane, she’s just going to get herself killed!” to which I answer, why the hell is Clem allowed to try and “help” Kenny when he’s being beaten when there’s NOTHING she can do and Troy is armed and waiting right in front of her? Don’t tell me that it isn’t more dangerous, rushing an armed guard known for his fondness of victimizing little girls. Why is it Clem is allowed to recklessly risk her life for darling ol’Kenny, but not for herself? Why is it Kenny gets a free pass on refusing to work, but Clem isn’t even allowed to consider it?

It’s because like you said, Clementine is a slave now, and she’s fine with it, and the game suggests she’d be wrong to think otherwise. And hey, why not throw a big heaping batch of unfortunate implications on this bonfire while I’m at it? What does it say that Telltale noticeably darkened Clementine’s skin in the same game where her role is just to do everything she’s told by people who expect her to be obedient at best and view her as property at worse? Here what I think it says.



“Yes, Clementine is black. And her proper place in the world is to be a slave.”



Too harsh? Hardly. What about AJ? He’s just property too. Kenny can’t even wait until Rebecca dies to start moving in on the child of a person he’s had maybe three words too. And once she’s dead, AJ is just Kenny’s now. No one questions this, not even Luke, Bonnie or even Clem, who all knew Rebecca longer than Kenny did.

None of the others character really care Rebecca died. Luke mentioning her with everyone else is less effective when you remember her corpse is right back there, waiting to be buried. No one suggests that despite the danger having passed. Nope, Rebecca just existed so someone could take her baby, the question was just what middle-aged white guy was going to claim it, Kenny or Carver?

AJ is just a treated like a damn commodity. None of the characters comment on Kenny taking a newborn out into freezing cold or even the notion that Kenny might not be stable enough to even raise a child. Why should they care right? He’s just property, not a tiny living human being. Jane just uses him in a pawn to get Clem to do what she wants because Clem is NOT obedient enough to her at the moment.

And then there’s Clem herself, who is constantly expected to obey the white lead characters. You ever notice Luke’s look of betrayal if Clem doesn’t vouch for the cabin crew? Why is he surprised? His people, barring Sarah and maybe Alvin, have treated Clem like shit. They showed her no sympathy when they needlessly locked her in a freezing shed while she was bleeding, Carlos and Rebecca made vague threats to her, Nick nearly killed her, Pete said he believes Clem’s not bitten but suggests cutting off her arm or locking her up anyway.

Then afterwards, Clem is just assimilated into the cabin crew when she’s dragged into THEIR problems. She apparently has to be their lookout now, Luke insists on her clearing a dangerous bridge where she was nearly killed several times, despite having a semi-recent arm wound, then Clem watches Nick stupidly kill an innocent person, Alvin expects her to check out somewhere potentially dangerous without help, then Luke demands she be lookout again instead of maybe Clem going with the others to that nice comfy looking lodge.

Why the hell would Luke be expecting loyalty in this situation? They’ve done nothing but treat Clem like dirt until she managed to sew up her own damn arm, then he uses that as a rationale for her to be a workhorse for them, despite being recently injured and, you know, SHE’S FUCKING ELEVEN! Really Luke should be grateful Clem doesn’t immediately tell Kenny to turn the cabin crew away for being a pack of assholes who just killed one of Kenny’s people and are on the run from someone who she JUST SAW at the bottom of the hill. But no, she keeps her mouth shut like a good little slave should. I’m surprised we’re even allowed to act like Clem is even mildly unsure about then in retrospect.

Then at dinner, we get to pick between Kenny and Luke. Hmm, we can’t sit by say Sarah, the one person closest to Clem’s age who she may have been promised to be friends with. Or Walter, the guy expressing sympathy and concern of Clem’s situation. Or Sarita, Kenny’s new… whatever she is who Sarah seemed comfortable around. Just Kenny and Luke, because it’s all about Clem’s loyalty to one of THEM. God forbid she decide she doesn’t want anything to do with the two people she has really nothing in common with and haven’t shown her any particular interest in her as a person. But they’re her possible masters so she’s got to try to appease one.

Then there’s all the joys of Clem literally being a slave to Carver while the game keeps insisting, “Carver’s got a point you know.” Most people seem pretty cool with him. The cabin crew are strangely complacent after being so afraid of him last episode. Clem is even allowed to agree with him in his office. Only Kenny and Luke try to do anything, and again, Clem’s role in the story is which of them should she be loyal to, before Kenny decides both as he and all the others insist Clem take a massive risk to retrieve a radio for a plan that would never work. God forbid she just tell them NO!

Or God forbid Clem just tell them about the smell trick herself. Instead, we have to wait for the waste of space known as Jane to do it. Remember Clem, no speaking unless one of white adults leads you in first. And since Bonnie is the one who opens the door, this mean the escape from Howe’s is because of the actions of the white members of the cast, barring Clem, who was really just a tool for them. Ironic in this diverse cast all the people of color were reduced to minor or nonexistent roles for this part of the plot. And even Carver’s execution is headed up by Kenny, the guy he just met, not by say Carlos or Rebecca, people who have deeper, longer running motivations to want to murder this vicious piece of shit. No no, Rebecca, Clem, you guys can watch, Kenny get’s the honors.

And it’s not like things get better after that, Jane’s suddenly thrust into the foreground and we have a third master for Clem to be chided by anytime Clem demonstrates less than PERFECT loyalty to the person who treats her like an object and who she JUST fucking met! Jane will scowl at Clem if she insists on saving Sarah under the deck. She also talks down to Clem if she doesn’t make a decision regarding Arvo, telling Clem “That’s supplies walking away because YOU couldn’t make a decision”. What decision?! Jane clearly already made it for Clem the second she suggested stealing from Arvo and just guilts her if Clem doesn’t comply. And always, Clem isn’t allowed to defend herself.

I’m SHOCKED that Clem can ACTUALLY turn down Bonnie’s request to try to slip into the office at the museum. Not only that, Bonnie doesn’t shit talk Clem for doing it, and if Clem DOES do it, she feels HORRIBLE that Clem was nearly killed, and tells Clem she won’t ask her to do anything like that again. HOLY SHIT! It’s like Bonnie is treating Clem like… a person or something, one who may even be at greater risk due to her being a child! What… what the fuck is this shit?!

Oh, but they fix that in No Going Back, don’t they? Where now Bonnie proves she didn’t mean the promise and expects Clem, who MIGHT weigh 100 pounds soaking wet, to somehow save Luke from the thin ice. And if she doesn’t needlessly risk her life, she goes on a bizarre rant on how nice and easy it must be for Clem to be a pretty girl… SHE’S FUCKING ELEVEN! Anyone interested in Clem as a pretty girl would be a pedophile, and considering the circumstances, likely a rapist to boot.

This is even creepier when you remember the implications that suggest Carver may have been raping Rebecca. Even the less harsh interpretation, that Rebecca was only with Carver because it had benefits and tried to leave him when she actually fell in love with Alvin, is just as bad if not worse when you remember Bonnie was at Howe’s and saw this shit go down. This whole speech suggests Bonnie is saying Clem is lucky because she’s pretty enough to SEXUALLY SELL HERSELF to despots and tyrants who’d literally want to fuck her. And as always, you’re not allowed any real rebuttal as Clementine, despite this being, quite possibly, the most absurd thing ever said in the whole game (possibly, there are so many to choose from).

And in addition to Clem being passed around between the main cast members whims with no thought to what she ever wants, you got all the other women of color who are treated every bit as bad by the story as Clem. Sarita is just an object for Kenny, literally if you don’t cut off her hand as she lays around in Kenny’s grip after that, and she’s replaced by AJ, another child of color who the story also treats like an object. A friend of mine even pointed out Sarita might exist to prove Kenny can’t be racist. My friend also pointed out that racist men can still lust after women of color, and the fact that Kenny’s only response to Sarita’s death is anger, and he forgets her soon after, but not the writers since Jane brings up Sarita, suggests Kenny didn’t give a fuck about Sarita except about what HE got out of her.

Sarah we’re told is a liability because she’s no use to the white people in charge, unlike Clem who they CAN use. What’s the difference between Sarah and Clem to Jane, Clem’s “smart”, which means she’ll do whatever Jane tells her to and not complain. Rebecca is just a baby delivery system for both Kenny AND Carver. No one comments on her death after the shootout and supposed nice guy Luke never mentions ANYONE but himself in that quaint campfire scene. Neither does Bonnie or Mike, evidently more interested in Luke and Jane’s sexual outing. Some fucking friends huh?

And hey, here’s another little bright spot, a friend of mine points out in Amid the Ruins, Luke can warn Clem about not trusting Mike. There’s no reason for this, he just warns Clem that they might not be able to trust Mike, even though, until now, Mike hasn’t done anything to make him untrustworthy. In fact, he seems to be pretty consistently helpful. Why is it Luke is suspicious of Mike, and not say Jane, the person talking about getting rid of a baby on the walk over, or Bonnie, who just betrayed everyone she knew (for good reasons, but still). All I can think of is it’s because Mike’s a black guy and Luke’s suspicious of him, and not the white woman who castrated a man at gunpoint.

Oh, and racism might ACTUALLY explain why Bonnie and Mike could be sympathetic to Arvo, to the point of abandoning everyone and stealing everything from everyone else, and not care about Clementine or AJ. Your treatment towards Bonnie and Mike and Clem’s responses to Kenny can change, but they always leave Clem no matter what. But what doesn’t change in-between playthroughs is Clem and AJ are black, and Arvo is white. Their betrayal makes so little sense, that this is really the only thing I’ve ever thought of that could maybe explain it. And that means Mike is racist against his own people, or just accepting of this undercurrent the game is pushing of kids of color being property and not people. Either way it’s kind of heartbreaking in a sick way.

And hey, here’s some more nuggets to chew on. Jane and Kenny just toss Clem in the backseat of that truck, don’t even bothering bandaging her GUNSHOT wound, and go right to arguing with each other. They’re literally treating Clementine like luggage, and upon waking up their only concern is getting Clem to side with one of them against the other. OUR HEROES!

And yet THESE are the people normally emotionless Clem has reserved her tears for. If you don’t break the ice on the lake, Clem starts WEEPING for Luke, the guy she barely knew and constantly risked her life for stupid and dumb reasons. Kenny? Oh my God, so many FEELS for him right? Crying, boohooing after she shot him, and even more if she’s tragically separated from him at Wellington. Unless she learns the “moral” of this story and decides to remain loyal to her benevolent master Kenny for all eternity. And Jane… well actually she just seems a little pissed off at Kenny for murdering Jane, she doesn’t cry for her. She seems more upset at the prospect of having to shoot Kenny than Jane being murdered. Well, Jane was a white WOMAN and not a man, so who’s to say this moral can’t also have some sexism as well when the game values her less than the white guys.

Sarah’s death? Meh, a couple of minor comments from Clem, unless she died under the deck, in which case Clem never acknowledges Sarah died beyond a single comment to Jane right afterwards. Sarita? Meh, Clem only cares about how that affects Kenny. Rebecca? Clem can be the one who had to shoot her after she reanimates and it has no effect on Clem. Christa? The woman who apparently cared for Clementine for TWO YEARS, 16 months of which she had to protect her alone? And who likely was killed or worse by bandits she lied to in order to protect Clem? Nothing other than a few token mentions of her name devoid of any emotion, most of which YOU have to pick because Clem forgets all about Christa to start professing her undying loyalty to one of a trio of bland white protagonists, who also make up the only people Clem is allowed to hug in the game (except Jane, because again, woman, get’s less privileges than Luke or Kenny).

So, you might asking, do I really believe all this? That S2 was this long horrible diatribe advocating racism, sexism, abuse and slavery? The answer is, no. I don’t think that was the intentions at all, and a lot of the things I’m noting are byproducts of the mistakes in the story. Clem being submissive is lazy writing so she’ll do what people say to further the plot. Her skin being darker is to make it clear she was black. The focus on Kenny, Luke and Jane is because the writers liked THEM, which means so will Clem. Bonnie and Mike leaving Clem and AJ happens because the plot doesn’t work if they don’t. Even Luke not trusting Mike is likely a leftover from an earlier draft when Mike’s character was supposed to be amongst the bandits who attacked Christa, and they forgot to change the line to make sense.

BUT, I’m a strong believer in part of the fun of art is you’re allowed to interpret it however you want, even in ways the artists didn’t intend you to. After all, sometimes subconsciousness thoughts find their way into art without the artist knowing it. And now that I’ve written out this interpretation, I’m inclined to feel it’s the correct one. Not because I want to demonize S2 (I don’t need this interpretation to do that =P), I think it’s the best way to interpret S2, just because it fits better than any other theory I’ve heard or proposed.

I’ve been picking apart S2 on and off for over a year now. This is the first time I’ve found morals or themes that work across all five episodes. My dying dream theory? It takes a lot of leaps in logic with the things Clem could envision, and falters when you include the prologue for the idea it’s Lee’s dream. Things like abandoning the weak or being ruthless? I’ve pointed out S2 contradicts that at times, sometimes even in the same episode that’s preaching it, with AJ being considered important while Sarah is not despite him being a bigger burden than Sarah.

But the idea that S2’s underlying message is that kids of color are just property to their white masters and they should be grateful for it… that actually seems to fit. And like my Luke is a Carver spy theory, it actually does explain some of these inconsistencies in the story. Like I said, it’s the closest to an explanation I can think of for Bonnie and Mike caring enough about Arvo to rip everyone off, without also caring for Clem and AJ.

The shift in tone between A House Divided and In Harm’s Way is jarring, but it doesn’t actually contradict the underlying current that Clem seems to feel like she should prostrate herself to a master. Carver’s just a harsh master, and in the context of the story is meant to show us why Clem should appreciate benevolent masters like Kenny or Jane or Luke. She accepts that she’s a slave, she just hopes she’ll have a relatively kind master.

This actually might explain Clem’s inconsistent attitudes towards Sarah. The out of story reason is the different writers just had different feelings towards Sarah and they clumsily transplanted them onto Clem. But in story, In the first two episodes Clem is the property of Luke (who literally scooped her up and carried her when he found Clem, practically claiming her) and Clem wants to appease him, and since Luke has no ill feelings towards Sarah, neither does Clem. In Harm’s Way, Carver is the master, so Clem emulates his behavior of pettily bullying people weaker than him to hopefully appease Carver. Amid the Ruins: Jane is the master, and hence why Clem is parroting Jane’s drivel when she tells Sarah she has to START trying. Start trying to appease your masters Sarah, they’ll leave you to die otherwise. That’s what Clem is trying to tell Sarah.

It’s a sick idea, I know, but again, it fits better than any one I’ve ever thought of before or heard from others. And I think I can even explain IN-STORY this shift in Clementine’s attitude and behavior. Because everything I’ve suggested so far operates under the assumption the writers imposed their will on Clem and she’s submissive because they wanted her to be and there is no in-story explanation… except there is…

Let’s look at this logically: Would Clem and Christa still be mourning Omid over a year later and wandering the woods with no weapons or supplies? Would Christa just now being talking to Clem about building a fire and preparing for winter when this is their THIRD winter together? No, that makes no sense… if you assume it’s just Omid dying that brought this on. What if, those sixteen months were spent somewhere, so horrible, that Clem and Christa never wanted to talk about it again? What if they just RECENTLY escaped from such a place?

This is the Walking Dead, which prides itself on being “grim” or “dark”, and it’s set in Southeast. So, if whole societies ran by ruthless tyrants can emerge in this setting, who’s to say a group of racists, maybe even an actual part of the KKK, didn’t organize and start their own settlement founded on a Pre-Civil War slave owning mentality, where blacks are just property to whites.

And what would happen to an impressionable young girl like Clem if she were taken prisoner by a place like this for over a year? A place where she’s told she’s less than human and BELONGS to other people, just because of the color of her skin. A place where her guardian can do nothing to protect her, because she’s a prisoner too, and so is her baby, which is taken from her. A place where the only value of her life is what it offers to others.

How did Clem learn to “control pain”? She had too when she was a slave. Why is it she’s so unafraid when she’s taken prisoner by Howe’s? She’s been a slave once before. Why is it Clem is so forgiving of the Cabin Crew, Kenny and Jane’s treatment of her? Because they’re far kinder masters than the ones she used to have. Why does Clem immediately tell Luke her whole backstory, despite not knowing him? He asked, and she’s used to obeying her masters.

That cut back to Christa and Clem after sixteen months? That happens after they escape that place. They’re both still adapting to living outside of whatever prison they were kept in, hence Christa’s comments on the winter. And Christa’s still coming to terms with being free, realizing she needs to help Clem regain her sense of self and start teaching her things so she can grow as a person and try to put being a slave behind her. Except Christa never gets too, and even after escaping slavery, those horrible sickening thoughts of Clem’s life only being what it’s worth to others, still dominate her young and wounded mind.

You know, #MyClementine suddenly takes on whole new meaning now…