I’m a bit late to the party, but I’m finally making my way through the emotional rollercoaster that is Telltale’s The Walking Dead. I’ve reached the final season, and so far, it’s been one hell of a ride (sometimes literally). However, I can’t shake the feeling that something, or rather, someone, is missing. If you haven’t played this gem of a game yet, I recommend avoiding this article (and go play the game instead). Spoilers from previous seasons follow.
Now that that’s out of the way, I can mention the name of the character I’m currently missing. It’s not our wonderful father figure, the universally beloved Lee, who tragically left us at the end of Season 1. Of course, I missed him too—who wouldn’t? But after Lee’s death, my Clementine found her father figure in a somewhat less ideal and more flawed example: Kenny.
Kenny has been a fascinating character ever since the first season. As Lee, I often felt sympathy for him, but we also clashed more than once due to Kenny’s sometimes extreme actions. The man would literally do anything to protect his family. Understandable and admirable, of course, but that mindset also often led him to cross the line (like when he mercilessly dealt with Larry, who I believe was still alive at the time).
Lee’s primary goal of keeping Clementine alive at all costs didn’t always align with Kenny’s goal of protecting his son, Duck, from harm. There was a sense of mutual appreciation and respect between the two, even though they sometimes had to make choices for themselves. It was one of the most interesting dynamics in the opening season.
So, like Clementine, I was relieved and happy when Kenny unexpectedly walked back into our lives in Season 2. We were controlling a rather lonely and directionless Clementine, having joined a new group of strangers that never felt as familiar or comforting as the group we spent an entire season with (despite that group’s far-from-perfect nature). With Kenny, we shared a past, re-establishing a connection to the times when Clementine felt safe under the protection of determined men like Lee and Kenny.
From that moment, Telltale quickly has us choose sides. Do we sit at the table with the new people we’ve just met, or do we sit with good old Kenny? Let me tell you, this was not one of the toughest decisions I’ve made in The Walking Dead.
We soon realize that Kenny is no longer the man we once knew, though. The loss of his family has understandably shattered him, making him even more reckless and brutal. His aggression and frustration take over more often, and as Clementine, I chose to calm him down whenever possible. Except, of course, when he finally got his hands on Carver. Then, I encouraged him to give that bastard what he deserved. The only good thing Carver had done up to that point was taking Kenny’s eye. Because honestly… he does look pretty badass with it.
The interesting thing is that if Kenny had been a completely new character, I would have wanted to get rid of him as quickly as possible. I would have rarely defended him and probably would have labeled him as the psychopath he often behaves like. But because we know the hell Kenny has been through, and how far he’s willing to go to protect the people he loves, my Clementine wanted to keep him around. With Kenny by our side, I felt that Clem was in good hands—no matter how unstable he was.
But Kenny wasn’t always as protective and loving as Lee. The caring sacrifices he made for Clem were often interrupted by intense, undeserved outbursts (I was just trying to save Sarita!) and physical intimidation whenever I did something that displeased him. As I said before, Telltale’s The Walking Dead is an emotional rollercoaster, and so was Clem’s relationship with Kenny.
Kenny could go very, very far, and I would keep defending him. No one in the group knew him as well as I did. So, it was frustrating when one of the newer characters I had grown to respect, Jane, couldn’t stand him—and the feeling was mutual. I quickly grew fond of Jane, and the fact that she was a badass certainly helped. She tried to make Clementine see that Kenny had lost his way, that he was dangerous. And maybe she had a point.
Telltale cleverly pitted the two most interesting characters against each other, foreshadowing the choice to come. At the end of Season 2, players would have to choose between these two adversaries, who became locked in a life-or-death struggle. And that’s where my support for Kenny finally ended.
What a choice that was. After having Kenny’s back all season, he was now about to stab my new friend, Jane, to death. That was one step too far. With a heavy heart, I pulled the trigger. Not because I valued Jane more than Kenny, but because maybe she was right. Maybe Kenny couldn’t be saved from his madness. I saw more of a murderous intent in Kenny’s eyes than in Jane’s.
In his final moments, he said I had made the right choice, that he had let me and everyone else down, and that Clementine should never feel guilty about her decision. For a brief moment, he was that kind soul again, who would never want Clem to carry the burden of guilt. It was tragic to see such a fascinating character meet his end. But as I told him, he would see Katjaa and Duck again.
Then, when Jane revealed that the whole fight was just a twisted test to show Clementine how dangerous Kenny was—a test that also put baby AJ in danger—I immediately cut ties with my other favorite character in the making. Clementine had pulled the trigger when it wasn’t necessary, all because of Jane’s reckless experiment. I left her behind and walked into the fog with AJ.
A dramatic, but fitting end to Season 2 and to the turbulent relationship with Kenny, the second (or actually third) father figure. Telltale’s The Walking Dead always knows how to tug at the heartstrings. It made me defend an increasingly unstable character time and again, no matter how wrong it was. This kind of writing is something the later seasons of the TV series could have really used.
