- Spoiler Warning – As always, my review will be kept as spoiler free as possible. But if you’re yet to play episode two Give No Shelter, I’d advise not to read ahead.
Following the events of the previous episode with the escape from Norma and her crew on the floating colony of Monroe, Michonne and her small group of survivors find themselves sheltered at the Fairbanks residents. However, as things quickly turned sour, Michonne found herself with an unwanted guest – or a hostage would be the better term –, non-other than Norma’s ass-hat of a brother, Randall.
Now of course towards the end of episode two, depending on how you treat your capture and how you handled the conversation with Norma over the walky talky, it could have huge ramifications on the events of episode three. However, I get the feeling that no matter how you behaved in the latter moments of Give No Shelter, the outcome in episode three is almost inevitable. You can look at this in a number of ways, you could be disappointed knowing that no matter what you do, all hell will break loose, or the fact that, of knowing you’re in the calm before the storm, it adds to the dread and tension.
Dread and tension are keys words to the conclusion of Michonne’s mini-series, with the combination of knowing that people will die at the hands of Norma’s group, no matter how diplomatic or ruthless you might be. Add this to the fact that Michonne is clearly a troubled mother tormented by past Traumatic Stress Syndrome of her haunting passed, makes this one of the most dramatic, strenuous, emotional and downright most tense episodes from Telltale Games. Towards the later parts of the episode, you really begin to learn more about Michonne’s past and why she is so troubled. From someone such as myself that is perhaps a little too late to catch up on the long running graphic novels, this is an angle that’s not explored too deeply in the ever popular TV series.
While the first two main seasons of The Walking Dead from Telltale Games drain you emotionally with the conclusions of season one and two, with you already having an attachment to Michonne when heading into this mini-series, you feel your emotions seeing a character you hold so dear, being so troubled and conflicted. It’s a part of Michonne’s story that Telltale Games have explored superbly and I hope this is just the start of potential mini-series schedule with some of The Walking Dead’s most popular characters…Merle…(cough)…Merle…(cough).
For me, one of the most powerful sub-plots to The Walking Dead series is not the horror of “The Walkers”, it’s how humans might respond to being in such a harsh and ruthless world. The real horror might not necessarily come from having your face chewed off, which is extremely horrific of course, but it’s what we humans might do to you without any real law and order in place. This is what makes Michonne’s mini-series so compelling, it’s the horrific side to human behaviour and no matter how hard you try to make things right, sometimes you simply have no control over what’s coming your way.
- Episode One: In Too Deep Review
- Episode Two: Give No Shelter Review