The Stranger
Walking Dead

Evil Factor: Obsessed with killing Lee and the group as well as taking Clementine as his own daughter

Insane Factor: Extreme narcissist, believes he is better than you no matter what your actions, keeps his wife's head in a bag that he carries

Powers: Very stealthy, Gets around fast

Occupation: Little League Coach, Father

 

Description: Telltale Game's The Walking Dead was one of my favorite games ever. I can't tell you how many times I played through it desperate to receive the most satisfaction from the results of the story. With season 2 just a few days away, it's time to talk about Season 1's antagonist, The Stranger. At first it doesn't seem like there is an antagonist in the Walking Dead other than the zombies, than later the St. Johns and the bandits. In the end of episode 3 however, after what could have very easily been the most depressing series of events in the game, the radio Clementine had that was apparently "broken" came back on in the presence of Lee and Kenny whilst she slept in which you overhear The Stranger anticipating her arrival to Savannah where he apparently has her parents. The stranger is stalking your group after you took the food from an abandoned station wagon in the middle of the woods, his station wagon. Whether or not you yourself elected to do it the rest of your group will have taken the food anyway. The Stranger is ultimately the reason that Lee came to be bitten which ultimately caused his tragic death after he kidnapped Clementine shortly after your return from Crawford. In your pursuit of him with the rest of your group, you also lose Ben if you didn't leave him behind in your escape from Crawford and Kenny, who based on your choice at Crawford will die in two different outcomes. If you dropped Ben, he will accidentally cause you to lose Clementine's radio which causes Christa to try and retrieve it, forcing Kenny to help her out of the hole she fell into which caused him to be left to the walkers in her place. If Ben was saved, after he falls and is impaled when jumping from the mansion's balcony, Kenny goes to try and help him. When it is made clear that Ben couldn't be saved, Kenny stayed behind with him to put him out of his misery while leaving himself to the walkers. Kenny's death is not certain in either scenario however, though the one in which Ben was involved it is much less likely he actually survived. The Stranger, when you finally reach him, turns out to just be a father, a father who the apocalypse was not kind to. Along with several unfortunate tragedies that befell his family before you encounter him, Lee's group taking his supplies ultimately destroys what's left of his family. He insists that he is a better man and father figure than Lee and will criticize nearly every decision you made in the game, from your decision of whether to save Carley or Doug to your decision of what to do to Lilly. No matter what you do, it's impossible to not upset him in some way. You can even consider allowing him to have Clementine, though this possibility is destroyed when you realize how insane the man actually is when he starts speaking to his wife's head. In the end you have the choice of either strangling the life out him or allowing him to live, which the latter causes him to begin strangling you only to have Clementine shoot him in the head. If you kill him yourself, you have the option of leaving him to reanimate you or not. Overall, the stranger is just a man who lost everything due to a few unfortunate incidents and is only out to prove that he is not a bad man, which unfortunately means stealing Clementine from Lee, convinced all the way to his death that he was the better man. He is meant to be the final message, showing that no matter what you do in the circumstances you were given, someone's going to be hurt.

 

The Godfather

 

This is just one of the possible outcomes of your encounter with the Stranger