Why didn't The Stranger leave the city after he kidnapped Clementine?
This is something that has always kind of puzzled me. I get that the Stranger was out for revenge against the group for stealing his supplies, especially Kenny and his family, and one of the things he wanted was to "rescue" Clementine from Lee. Well, he had her, he had effectively hurt Lee by taking away the one thing left in the world he cared about, his revenge was complete. But why did he decide to stay in the city when he figured Lee would do his best to come after him and get her back? He could have left Savannah and Lee would never have found him, he would have died knowing that he failed to protect Clementine, which was his overall mission. The Stranger could have easily left the city with Clementine and his revenge would have been complete, but for some reason, he doesn't. He decides to stay in the city where Lee could find him. When you look at it, The Stranger is probably one of the dumbest villains, he left the keys in his car, he lost his own son, he was careless, and he decided to stay in the same city where Lee could easily find him instead of escaping with Clementine. As I said, Lee would have still died, knowing that he failed to keep Clementine safe, Kenny's family would be dead, which caused Kenny to suffer the same emotional devastation that he himself went through fter his wife and daughter left him and were killed, and he has a new daughter in Clementine. His revenge would have been complete, he would have won, but he decided to stay in the city instead of leave, which leads to his own downfall.
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Well maybe he didn't exactly lie when he says that he has Clem's parents. Maybe he knew that those zombies were her parents and wanted to show her them before skipping town. Although he is crazy, he still cared about Clementine and wanted to help her (in his own deluded way). Other than this reason I can't really think of why. Maybe waiting till the walker herd cleared and then drive off into the sunset?
By the time he managed to get Clem to look for him so he could carry out his revenge, Savannah was full of walkers, making escape harder than it was to get into the city. Plus, it's clear he wasn't mentally stable at that point (the bag) so he probably wasn't thinking rationally about his next move.
While the amount of walkers in the city is a likely reason, Lee didn't seem to have a problem managing through the walkers, and Clementine, a child, was able to get out of the city. And besides, he had his car, he could have easily driven out of there. Those walkers didn't seem to notice anything that was happening around them, escape didn't seem that hard. Also, he was able to get back to the Marsh House after kidnapping her and the time he did most likely coincided with when the walkers got into the city, so he had no problem getting back there, he should have had no problem getting out.
I think he wanted to kill Lee to fully seal the deal. Revenge part 1 is taking Clementine from him. Revenge part 2 is goading Lee into finding him, so he can kill him himself. Take the only thing left from the man that you blame for ruining your life, then once he goes through hell to get it back, you kill him right at the finish line.
Depending on the choices over the walkie-talkie conversation at the beginning of episode 5, the stranger says something to the effect of "I guess I had you all wrong" as if he was fully expecting Lee to go berserk and come after him
Then of course, the fact that Savannah was practically infested by the time he actually nabbed Clementine
He was able to navigate through the city after he kidnapped her to get back to the hotel, which was most likely around the same time the walkers started to infest the city.
Also, The Stranger could have just escaped using the rooftops, like Lee, Christa, and Omid did to get to the Marsh House. Escape wasn't impossible, but he chose to sit still, which led to his death.
Lee and the others practically hopped from roof to roof because of the sheer number of walkers. Lee, as badass as that scene was, only went to street level when he had no other choice.
As for the car, it would be harder than you think to plough your way through hundreds of walkers from where he was. You would soon stop without momentum... You know, physics and that
You bring up the rooftops, how they were able to get to the Marsh House by going from buIlding to building. Why couldn't The Stranger do that as well? There were plenty of buildings around the hotel, so escape wasn't impossible. He could have went from building to building like the group did until he found an area that was clear of walkers.
But then that brings up another point: maybe the walkers are not what's keeping him there. They're what's keeping Lee and the rest away (or so he thinks)
"There's an ocean of dead between you and me and her..."
Perfect insulation. If Lee doesn't get himself killed trying to fight through the city, he'll most likely be bitten or so worn down that he'll be easy to finish off (although obviously, he underestimated what extremes Lee was willing to go to in order to get her back. Hubris.)
But that reinforces my point of him being one of the stupidest villains in the game. If he was smart, he wouldn't have taken that chance, but he did anyway. He underestimated his enemy, as you said, which also led to his death, which could have been avoided if he decided to leave using the rooftops.
Carrying a head in a bag and Clem (or forcing her to parkour her way through) + supplies(?) seems a bit much.
Edit: What am I thinking? The Stranger can just put the head, supplies, and Clementine in his infinite inventory pocket. Duh!
Lee was able to do it possibly with one arm. Now granted he's a grown man and she's a child, but let's not forget that she was able to navigate herself out of the city later in the episode, I don't think It would have been a problem for them to get out using the rooftops, even if he had a head and possible supplies.
I wouldn't necessarily say he was stupid, more so that he was just a guy so consumed by vengeance that he brought about his own demise as a result. You're right in that he could have gotten away with it, but his lust for revenge and his arrogance costed him in the end.
You make a good point I guess in that he was consumed by vengeance. It's like Roger Chillingworth from The Scarlet Letter, he wanted revenge on Arthur Dimmsdale after he slept with his wife Hester. After that, his life became centered on revenge against Dimmsdale, it clouded his judgment and affected his every decision, so I guess his situation is similar to The Stranger's, but it was this that caused him to become reckless and led to poor decisions.
I'll go back to what I said before, the Stranger was not mentally stable. I doubt he thought much about the next step and was just consumed with the idea of exacting revenge on who he felt had wronged him. Sure, escape wasn't impossible, but his mental state made it near impossible for him.
I was thinking that the problem would be if she is willing to go with The Stranger out of town. Clearly Clem regrets going with him in the first place and now to move her unwillingly, with no vehicle, would be a challenge.
It probably wouldn't have been difficult for him to get her to move. I could imagine that she'd be so miserable about leaving Lee, and that The Stranger would most likely admit to lying about having her parents, that she'd realize that he is the only person that could possibly protect her and go with him just so she could stay alive. And even if she didn't, he could easily force her to go. He is a grown man and she is a little girl after all.
That's what I'm saying. Forcing her to keep going with him would be the hard part. A bag with a head in it that wants to eat you, walkers literally in every crevice, moving on the flimsy rooftops, and keeping an eye on a little girl that doesn't want to be with him would be too much for a mentally unstable man that can't fight off a one armed dude. Plus Clem can handle herself on her own before and after the goodbye to Lee, so going back to Lee may not have been impossible. I'm just speculating though so I don't really know.
He was crazy. He did not care about leaving. Knew, the death will come sooner or later.
He wanted to meet Lee, kill him, then leave. Expected him to investigate the hotel.
Run out of gas, walkers everywhere.
So many answers and you think there's a problem.
He wanted to face the man who has ruined his life, he felt victorious, he was done escaping and chasing after Lee and Clementine. He was blinded by rage and grief he needed to give vent to, by talking to the same monster he thought he used to be.
Y'know what else is odd? How did Lee know what room The Stranger and Clem were held up in...logically speaking? It looked like a big place too with multiple floors.
The guy kept his wife's head in a bowling bag, and spoke to it. You can't expect someone like that to make decisions you can understand.
I've often wondered the same thing. It's like Clem being able to drag him into a jewelry store, things happen for the sake of the plot.
There are stories of children saving family members through incredible feats of strength. Sounds crazy but there is science behind it too complex for this post. I think this is really touching from a storytelling perspective though. It beautifully shows how much Lee meant to Clem.
Yup, yup. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it does make you wonder.
I remember Lee was wondering how she did it. I can accept that but Clem's strenght from season 2... went too far.
Ha, the door! Don't forget she was also 10x smarter than the adults
Actually, there's a very faint bang that makes Lee go down the hallway, then further bangs/dragging sounds that make him go up to that specific door
Of course, that doesn't excuse how he managed to be on the exact same floor as the stranger
He wasn't very bright. I think he might have wanted to stay in the city because Clementine wanted to look for her parents there
The Stranger's revenge wasn't complete after taking Clementine. I think he knew that Lee would come looking for her and wanted Lee to find them so he could kill Lee...then his revenge would finally be complete.
But he may also not have left because he thought it safer to stay at the Marsh House than try to leave. It could've been a little bit of both wanting to be able to confront Lee and that it was safer than leaving. He probably thought that Lee would die on his way to get Clementine should he attempt to...and he could've wanted to wait for the herd to pass through the city
But that's the problem, if I was him, I wouldn't want to confront him and put my life on the line like that. I'd know he would be pissed and would do anything to get Clem back (especially since I said to him on the radio, "You're dead," or something like that), so I'd high tail it out of there. Lee would never be able to find me, meaning he would never see Clem again, he would have won, but he didn't, because he let his lust for revenge cloud his judgment, and it led to his downfall. That's like winning a bunch of money in poker, betting it all, and losing everything.
the Stranger wanted to kill Lee for the deaths of his own family...Clementine was just a bonus; It just so happened that this little girl with whom he'd been talking to on the talkie was with the group responsible for taking the supplies from the station wagon.
The Stranger was a coward...he knew there was a good chance that Lee would die attempting to save Clementine before he even made it to the hotel so he kidnapped her. He went to the Marsh House, initially, to ease Clementine's mind in regards to his promises about her parents...the fact that the Stranger is aware that Lee would try to kill him give credibility to the idea that maybe the Stranger was simply waiting for a safer opportunity to leave. He probably thought that Lee wouldn't make it to them and that he would be able to kill Lee should he, by chance, happen to make it to them.
I think he wanted to confront Lee and/or see how far he would go.
The writers didn't want him to.
The reason the stranger contacts Lee is because he wants Lee to look and die trying to find him to save Clem there by proving that Lee can't take care of Clem. He wants to humiliate Lee and make him feel utter fail. Its the reason why he doesn't just up and shoot Lee when he comes into the room. He wants to rub it in Lee's face first, that He can't take care of her. This is all out of revenge for the family he loss due to the stolen food and stuff.