We’ve reached the fifth chapter of the third episode of Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead: Michonne, and believe it or not, we’ve still got two more chapters to go after this. The third episode has been a real doozy in terms of plot developments and tough decisions. By the way, if you want to get caught up on the whole game, you should check out our YouTube playlist of our entire Let’s Play!
At the start of this chapter, Michonne and Samantha lead Randall up to the gate, while Paige stations herself in the upstairs window with a rifle. Randall’s still got the bag on his head, which seems like the type of thing that’ll only make Norma suspicious. Michonne walks through the gate first by herself, and sees Norma and Pete standing right outside. No sign of the crew.
In what appears to be a show of good faith, Norma cuts Pete’s ties and lets him go. Michonne hands Pete a pistol in full sight of Norma, which also seems like a bad idea, but what do I know?
Norma says she doesn’t want to fight, and she tells Michonne that her entire colony sunk into the water. I guess Michonne really did trash the place before she left, but I’m surprised that the fire she caused with her flare gun managed to sink the entire colony. I’m also surprised Norma isn’t just going to kill her, but maybe she will once she sees what has happened to Randall’s face and fingers.
Michonne refuses to turn Randall over until Norma delivers the rest of her crew. Surprisingly, Norma continues to comply, shooting off a flare that signals to her underlings that they should bring the crew forward out of the forest. Norma’s mood is going a bit sour, but given how uneven this trade is looking, one can hardly blame her for that.
Michonne pushes Norma a little further by demanding at least one more of the captives before she proves she has Randall. Norma ends up pulling a gun on a captive in response: “I could shoot him and still have two more to spare.” Michonne shows Norma that Randall is alive after all, so now at least Norma knows Randall is standing right behind the gate, although she probably suspects he’s hurt since he has the bag on his head. She doesn’t say anything about that, though.
Then one of Norma’s underlings gets angry and shoots a captive unexpectedly. Samantha puts her own gun to Randall’s head and shoves him through the gate to show that she’s also willing to kill their captive. Michonne glances up at Paige in the window. What to do next? Should Paige start shooting?
Michonne chooses the non-violent option by shouting at Norma: “keep your people under control!” In response to that, Norma’s underling points her gun at Michonne and takes aim. Before she can kill Michonne, Pete shoots Norma’s cohort in the head.
Everybody on both sides draws their guns in response to this and glares at each other for a second. Then, the sound of grunting zombies can be heard from the forest. Uh-oh!
Michonne tells Norma that she can have Randall. Meanwhile, Norma’s cohorts keep having to turn around to pick off the walkers who are sneaking up on them all. Michonne pushes Randall forward and he stumbles, blindfolded, towards Norma’s general direction. She goes to meet him and takes off the bag on his head, then grimaces at his broken nose. He turns around to reveal his broken fingers and she glares again.
There’s not much time to argue, though, because a bunch more zombies have arrived on the scene. Samantha shoots one in the head and Pete takes aim at a couple others. The two remaining captives run towards the gate and make it inside safely. Michonne, Pete and Samantha remain at the door with guns in hand.
Suddenly, Randall dashes back towards Michonne and pins her on the ground, trying to disarm her and choke her to death. In self-defense, Michonne manages to wrestle her pistol forward and shoot him in the head. I guess Randall was always going to end up dying in this game, but at least this way, Michonne made the choice not to kill him until it was self-defense, as opposed to the previous chapter when he was still tied up and tried to goad her into taking his life. This guy has a death wish, and now he’s finally seen it realized.
Norma looks upset, since her brother is dead, but didn’t she see what he did? Can she really blame Michonne for fighting back? Hopefully she’ll be more sympathetic about this than she would’ve been if Michonne had killed him in captivity.
Meanwhile, Pete and Samantha and Michonne run back inside the gate and close it behind them before any zombies or any of Norma’s crew can get in after them. They run towards the house together, at which point the chapter ends.
This seems like a “good” ending to the trade, since our heroes managed to save almost everyone and they closed the gate safely, but now they’re stuck inside with nowhere to run. Norma’s still outside and probably still mad, not to mention homeless, since her colony got destroyed by Michonne. At this point, Norma has lost everything, and even though most of that isn’t actually Michonne’s fault, it makes sense that she’d want someone to blame. Is there an honorable way out of this one?
Guess we’ll have to wait until next week to figure that out!
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