The Walking Dead: Episode 4: Amid the Ruins Review

NOTE: This review will have spoilers for The Walking Dead: Season One and the first three episodes of The Walking Dead: Season Two. There are no spoilers for Episode 4: “Amid the Ruins”.

Thus far in Season Two of The Walking Dead, Telltale has been particularly careful to not mimic the core dynamic that made the first season so successful: the  relationship between Lee (the player) and Clementine. No matter what happened in that first season you always felt like every decision and action came down to that relationship. It was the immutable force that drove the whole season. But this time around there’s nothing like that. No character has to yet to properly fill the role Lee left, partly because most aren’t around long enough to even get the chance. Season Two has had far more characters introduced and far more characters killed every episode than Season One did. It all contributes to a sense of destabilization and chaos. In that first season you knew you could count on Clem, no matter what. Refusing to replace that relationship was a deliberate decision that’s paid off well so far.

But this constant flux of new characters and swift deaths was risky as well. It could have lead to the season being filled with characters we don’t know very well and thus don’t care about when they bite the dust. But as this episode proves, Telltale has become masterful at fleshing out characters in a short amount of time and making every death shocking and heartbreaking.

Thankfully, this episode spends a lot of time to further flesh out two characters who, up until now, have been mostly one-note: Rebecca and Jane. In previous episodes, Rebecca was just the irrationally angry person and Jane was basically a whole lot of nothing but here they’re both given a lot to do. Jane in particular is given an in-depth back story. The delivery of it feels a little forced as more details are divulged at a surprisingly quick rate but it successfully makes Jane a more interesting character, fits into the episode’s core theme, influences Clementine’s arc, and works into bigger ideas from throughout the season.

Though the episode does a solid job in characterizing the fragile group of survivors as well as furthering Clementine’s arc, it’s pacing becomes noticeably slower as it nears the finale. “Amid the Ruins” picks up right where the last episode left off and features a number of great scenes dealing with the repercussions of that episode’s final choice. After an effective midpoint action sequence in a trailer park, the episode slows to a crawl as it tries to have an extended calm sequence before the big finale. The thinking behind it is understandable, but the scenes that fill the lull between the trailer park sequence and the finale aren’t all winners. The result is that this interim sequence feels rather padded compared to the previous episodes which all clipped along with barely a dull scene among them.

“Amid the Ruins” climaxes with a particularly traumatizing decision in its finale and a cliffhanger that makes the wait for Episode 5, “No Going Back”, one of the most torturous in series history. And though it has its stumbles in the third act, it’s still another excellent episode for The Walking Dead: Season Two. If the season finale is able to cap off Clementine’s journey properly while maintaining the same sense of danger and chaos that has permeated Season Two thus far, then this season might even top the previous and easily stand as one of the best games of the year.