Episode 3 starts with a flashback of Michonne back on The Companion, when she was still a fresh addition to the crew. Oak continues to be one of my top favourite as he reassures Michonne that he, too, felt like an outsider, and still does in some way, but that that is okay. I thought that this was a great way to keep us from forgetting about the crew and how important they are to Michonne, show don’t tell, as my old boss would say.
We then pick up right where episode 2 left us, using Randall as a way to get Pete back, but we quickly learn (as I knew would be the case), that Norma has the rest of the crew hostage. A large part of the episode focuses on the moments before Norma arrives, at Sam mourns the death of her father, and is filled with anger and desire for revenge. Her need to bury her father and give him some kind of a funeral is something I greatly empathized with and, consequently, so did my Michonne.
Michonne then is given the task to retrieve the ammo in the house and give it to Sam and Paige, but not before taking the time to talk to Sam’s siblings, James and Alex. This, I believe, was the best aspect of the episode. It is more than obvious that Michonne is haunted by the loss of her daughter, who she assumes have died but does not know for sure as she wasn’t with them, which threatens to drive her to the edge throughout the series. As Michonne goes to James, who wants to help but, like Sam, desires revenge as well (or at least, an understanding of revenge from the point of view of a child). Michonne talks to him about what is needed, from him and everyone, in order to survive in this new type of world they live in, it is a hard conversation that is filled with harsh honestly.
The conversation with Alex was my favourite, as Alex is the youngest of the two remaining siblings. Alex, who is hiding in his closet aka fortress, is listening to a music box, still unaware that his father has just been murdered and that his house is about to be attacked by something worse than walkers, or Wendigos, as he calls them. I decided to tell him the truth, that a bad man had hurt his father and that his father was now gone, but that we now have said bad man and that he wasn’t going to hurt anybody else. His reaction of confusion and despair and Michonne’s reaction as she hurts at the sight of a pained child was very touching.
Meanwhile, as the episode continues, Michonne’s visions worsen, and so does her guilt. This is demonstrated in a genius way and with honestly through the use of flashbacks and hallucinations.
Just as Sam and her siblings are in the middle of their father’s funeral, which was a touching and sad scene of children staring at the group where their father now lays, as Michonne and Paige look from afar, both feeling like outsiders for different reasons, both not really feeling like they belong.
Norma arrives and shit doesn’t take too long before it turns to chaos a la TellTale’s the walking dead style. The fight scenes were great and very interactive, I died a few times but not for any silly reasons but purely because I should have paid better attention. The house is set on fire and as everyone tries to run away, Michonne’s hallucinations almost entirely fuse with reality.
We finally are given the answers, well more of less, of the true reasons behind Michonne’s cringing guilt. Before the infection/apocalypse broke, Michonne left presumably for work (?) leaving her daughters behind with her (again, presumably) recently divorced ex-husband. Her daughters begged for her to stay, but she did not, and when she came back to the apartment looking for everyone, nobody was home. Not knowing drives her to madness over and over, and the guilt is drowning her on the other side. As the house is burning and Sam calls Michonne’s name over and over, Michonne is given a choice, to stay with her daughters aka the memory of them, and die, or live. I’m not exactly sure how much of a choice this is, and I’d be curious to hear of anyone who decided to stay and how it affected (or didn’t) the end of the story for them, please let me know.
In the end, more or less everyone survives and things are given the possibility to look up a little bit as Pete tells Michonne that she should get back to her own group/family now (Rick’s), and my Michonne agrees with him. As the ghost of her daughters stare at her from the woods, Michonne hurts, but is finally able to walk away.
Not only was this mini-series a good reminder of what TellTale was able to do back when The Walking Dead Season 1 first came out and blew everyone’s mind, but also a good reminder of the amazing stories and female characters you can write when you have multiple women directly at the wheel of video game making.
Episode:
10/10 This was hands down the best episode of the 3.
Series:
9/10
I truly would have loved it if they had made a full fledged series for Michonne. The potential was there/is there, and they should have just gone with it. I don’t think that the price is right considering that for three episodes of about an hour you only have 3-4 hours of gameplay and the replay value simply isn’t there, but I would absolutely recommend buying this game on sale.