An explanation of season 2
heres an interview with telltale.
Clementine encounters some demented stuff, like the sadistic Carver. Did you ever have any apprehensions due to her age?
We thought her age was an asset. An early concept for season two was "You're eleven years old and the world doesn't care." That's actually a notion of survival that was put forth by 'Chuck' who you met on the train back in season one. In fact, his words to Lee became part of the backbone of everything we worked towards this season when thinking about Clem, and how we should be treating her. To quote him directly, "I don't know much about you folks, but ya'll keep goin' like this and that girl ain't gon' make it. You gotta consider her a living person, that's it! You're either living or you're not. You ain't little, you ain't a girl, you ain't a boy, you ain't strong or smart, you're alive"
We wanted to put Clementine in real adult situations where she was forced to grow up faster than she normally would, yet, we still wanted to keep her a little girl. One of my favorite moments in the game is when the group is sitting at the power station talking about sex assuming that Clementine doesn't understand. The player can jump in and say "I know what you're talking about" which makes them ask, "Really?" The dialog choices are then firmly from an eleven year old's perspective ("kissing stuff" is my favorite). It was a fun way to remind the player Clementine is still a little girl in an adult world.
so theres your explanation, don't say it don't make sense anymore, that old chuck was pretty smart