What if? Season 2 ending speculation
So I have a few ideas for how the Season 2 endings could have been factored into Season 3 meaningfully while keeping the main story basically the same. I've noticed a lot of people have been complaining about Clementine's flashbacks so here is, in my opinion, what could have happened instead. Mostly, all I'm going to change is the three flashbacks plus Clem's interactions with David and the New Frontier. What will follow is what would have happened if I had been a writer on The Walking Dead: A New Frontier. So without further ado:
CLEM AT WELLINGTON:
Okay, so I think most of the problems with Clem's flashbacks could have been solved if The New Frontier was based in Wellington and not Richmond. Wait, hang with me. The New Frontier is not the name of the city, it's the name of the group, so it could possibly have been somewhere we know.
I think for the first flashback, it would have played out almost like the second flashback, except with a community and not zombies. Clem meets Ava and she starts walking her through the different sectors of Wellington and how she'll fit in, all while never actually saying the phrase "New Frontier." (Still want it to be a surprise later.)
As for the second flashback, it really could be anything. Just Clem exploring around Wellington or something, interacting with AJ and maybe learning about his deafness issue. Maybe she could interact with Edith. Or maybe she could talk to Joan and Clint and Lingard, initiating her into the society. They would, of course, say that their fourth member is "on patrol." Really, this is the ending that is the most flexible, since I don't have to stretch it that much to make sure Clem knows the New Frontier.
The third flashback would play out exactly how it did normally, where AJ gets sick and left behind with David and the New Frontier. Thus, as we see normally, Clementine has her reason to hate the New Frontier and Clementine lost AJ to them. I think that this makes the "I'm one of you" line make more sense, since she would have been at Wellington for a couple years instead of a couple months.
CLEM WITH KENNY
Okay, so here's where things start to get complicated. I know a lot of people hated the fact that Kenny and Jane died in episode 1, but I think more of the problem was with how they died then their actual deaths. So, you may hate me all you like, but give me a chance to defend myself.
First of all, Clem would have a completely separate first flashback in which we meet Kenny in the Season 3 story. Kenny doesn't die during this first flashback. I'm not sure what would happen, but just know that shit only starts going down at the second one in Episode 2. Perhaps, in the first, it could be directly after the separation from Wellington in Season 2, where Kenny is going through the supplies and ensuring Clem that they would just find another town and they were okay and going to survive. You know, doing Kenny things.
In the second flashback, Clem would start out in the truck with AJ and Kenny like usual. Kenny is teaching Clem to drive. Have them introduce the concept of AJ's deafness and then BANG. A bullet comes crashing through the window... and shoots Kenny in the head. And in the panic of AJ crying and Clem trying to swerve not to get hit by more bullets, she runs into a tree and Kenny goes flying out of the truck and into the forest. Clem makes her way out of the truck and deep into the brush to where Kenny landed and shares a few last moments with him before she hears the truck rev its engine. When she turns around, she sees Lonnie or someone else from Badger's party take off with the truck... and AJ inside. She screams but the man in the truck doesn't hear her. But before Lonnie gets into the truck, Clem manages to spot something on his shoulder: The mark of the New Frontier.
In the third flashback, Clem has been following AJ for several days. Clem follows the tire tracks in the snow until she arrives at a camp full of people with the same mark as Lonnie. Lingard, David and a bunch of other people from the New Frontier are all crowded around in a circle. Clementine takes cover to make sure she isn't watched. Eventually, after she hears several things said like "He's already gone," from David, and "We might still be able to save him," from Lingard. When the crowd breaks apart, Clem sees, sitting on the table is AJ. She watches in horror as Lingard takes the syringe full of drug and injects AJ with it. AJ stops crying and goes gently to sleep. Clem, of course, sees this and thinks that they just put him down, so she runs away in tears. And with that, Clementine has her reason to hate the New Frontier and Clementine lost AJ to them.
I think these flashbacks make Kenny's death have more meaning as it is really what incites Clem's whole hatred of the New Frontier, even though she never actually was one of them. In her interactions with David, he wouldn't know who she is, but remembers the deal with AJ, so after she brings up that he is a "baby killer," he can deny it as usual.
CLEM WITH JANE AND THE FAMILY
So, first flashback, it's set the night after Season 2 ended. Clem, Jane and the family are talking, sharing stories around a fire at Howe's. They can bring up the concept of AJ's deafness and at one point, Randy is a little too careless and scratches his arm and pulls up his sleeve. Jane manages to see the brand of the New Frontier symbol on his arm, and no sooner does she mention it, than he pulls out his gun, shoots a bullet, and the screen cuts to black.
In the second flashback, Jane now has a bullet mark grazed across her cheek, and Clem is still holding her gun in shaky hands. She's still in shock about how quickly it all went south, and she brings up the fact that she killed the little boy, Gill. Jane says that it doesn't matter and that they need to focus on how to catch up now. She remembers one of them shouting "Get back to the New Frontier!" It's clear now that Randy and Patricia escaped and in the brief firefight, Patricia took AJ and ran. The scene ends with Jane and Clem walking out of Howe's and Jane is muttering in soft, angry words: "Seventy-Six... Seventy-Six..." She's remembering the mark on the arm of the family.
In the third flashback, Jane and Clem arrive at the camp of Randy and Patricia. They are both huddled around the baby AJ. Patricia keeps saying, "What do we do?" and Randy tells her to shut up. Patricia says they shouldn't have left Clem and Jane alive, and he says he knows. Patricia says "Badger will kill us if he finds out." So the three of those people were actually in league with Badger trying to claim Howe's as another one of their collection of settlements. And then, Jane says she's going in. She goes up and hides in their tent, waiting to get the jump on them and save AJ, when David appears. He shares a few words with Randy and Patricia, figures out what they were doing and shoots them both in the head. Jane jumps out from the tent with a knife in her hand and David spins around and shoots her in the gut. She falls to the ground crying "Get out of here! Run!" David thinks she's talking to him so he laughs, but she's actually yelling a warning for Clementine. She doesn't take it. After David finishes the job on Jane, he picks up AJ, contemplates him for a moment, and then decides that he will take the child back to the New Frontier. He says, "Surely the New Frontier will spare room for one more," and it fades to black. Clem now has her reason to hate the New Frontier and Clementine lost AJ to them.
I personally thought it was very out of character for Jane to just up and commit suicide like that. I think it would have been much better like this, where Jane gets more respect as a character before she is offed. In the Season 3 timeline, Clem does know that AJ is alive, but she's still mad at David because he shot Jane. And when she asks him what happened to AJ, he can tell her that he's still alive.
CLEM WITH JANE
Okay, so in the Jane ending, in the first flashback, the night after Season 2 ends, Randy and Patricia once again, come back in the nights with several guns and start shooting down Howe's from the treeline. What happens is very similar to what happened in the Wellington flashback of the game, except Jane replaces Edith and when she's playing with AJ Clem realizes that he's sick and needs medical attention. Jane says that they have to get out and get to somewhere safe. Clem picks up the baby and as they are fleeing through the back of Howe's Jane gets shot, but she gets shot in the stomach and limps to safety.
In the second flashback, Jane is all patched up, but she's lost a lot of blood and says she can barely move her legs. (I kind of liked the idea of paralyzation from Kenny's flashback, but they didn't do anything with it, so I'll emulate it here.) So she's huddled against a tree, and Clem says that they're going to be coming after us, and Jane says that she's going to become a liability for Clem like Sarah had been. Clem has to make a decision to leave with AJ or stay behind with Jane and protect her since she can't move anymore.
If she chooses to stay behind with Jane, they start to hear whispers from the forest, and after a while, Randy, Patricia and Gill close in on them, each pointing a gun at Clem. Since they are outnumbered Jane and Clem don't fight back. Randy looks down on both of them and shows them the New Frontier mark on his arm. He says "That store is a real nice place. The New Frontier sends its regards."
In the third flashback, they are still being cornered by "the family." Gill keeps mentioning to the others that they have a kid, and they tell him that it doesn't matter. Jane says "just get it over with." And she keeps looking at Clem like she blames her for not leaving her behind. Jane asks them what they were there for and they tell them that they were sent by the New Frontier to take over Howe's, but when they got there, it was empty. From there, it plays out almost the same as the family ending, where shots are fire from the woods and Randy, Patricia and Gill are shot dead. David walks into the scene and asks who the three of them are. Jane starts to protest and David decides to let them live, but AJ starts coughing, and they tell David he is sick. David says he can take AJ to the New Frontier to try to get better, but only AJ. Anyone else would be breaking the rules. And even if Clem and Jane protest, he points his gun at them and takes AJ anyway. So Clem has her reason to hate the New Frontier and lost AJ to them. Jane is still alive at this point, but if it's implied that she dies, then I think that would make sense.
If you chose to leave Jane behind, Clem walks a short ways away with AJ and watch as the whole ordeal with the "family" and David comes to a head. But since Clem and AJ aren't with Jane, David thinks that she is with the family so he shoots her too. But just as he's about to leave, AJ starts crying, and David comes running. A similar scenario happens to the one stated above in which David finds out that AJ is sick and takes him but leaves Clem.
CLEM ALONE
I really don't think there's much to change with this one. I think maybe the only thing I would change is the first flashback, since it's a bit boring and nothing happens in it. Otherwise, I think all the changes I've state above would really improve Clementine's flashbacks in A New Frontier. They would feel less wasted. Yes, Kenny and Jane would still die, but their deaths are closely related with her hatred of the New Frontier. I think if they died in the ways I stated above it would make their impact more meaningful and give reason to their existence within Season 3. Wellington is actually the New Frontier, and it just ties all three seasons together with a nice literary loop, since it seems like there was continuity after all.
Let me know what you guys think. I've been pondering this one for the past couple days.
Comments
Also sorry guys, the spoiler warning thing wasn't working for me. Could you put it in @Blind Sniper
Bump?