Carley (Video Game)

"You were gone way too long."

- Carley coming to the aid of Lee at the dairy farm.

Carley is an original character appearing in The Walking Dead Video Game. Carley is a quick-thinking regional news reporter from Atlanta.

Character
Compared to Doug, whose personality within the group is more neutral and passive, Carley plays a more active role in group discussion and isn't afraid to speak out her mind. Between the both, Carley's storyline offered players with more choices and additional scenes or dramas, although saving Doug would provide players with an equally interesting plot to enioy.

Carley is first introduced as a no-nonsense reporter who chose to save Lee and Kenny's family upon their arrival in Macon along with Glenn. Having spent her time in war-zones as a correspondant, she presumably acquires basic knowledge of firearms and survival tactics that allowed her to hold out during the outbreak. Her accuracy of handling a gun, is often remarked by Kenny to be a "dead eye accuracy".

Like the rest of the group, she cares about their welfare, although unlike Lilly or Larry who she claims to have no "humanity", Carley is interested in saving every survivors that her group comes across. In fact, she was one of the earlier members in the group to know about Lee's past and goes out to warn him about it, stating that his past better not be a detriment to the group.

She is however, a respectful and thoughtful individual as well. When Lee chooses to admit his past to her, she reassured him that she keeps it to herself, although later on she urges Lee to reveal his past to the group. During Lee's showdown with Andrew in the farm, punching Andrew long enough will trigger Carley's appearance to stop him from inflicting any further injuries, claiming that he doesn't deserve any of it.

Regardless of who Lee saves in Episode 1, both Carley and Doug will display immense loyalty to Lee for the remainder of the episode, and later on towards Ben. Both will express interest in having Lee as the group's leader although interacting with Carley will trigger the topic about his past. Her strong relationship with Ben would later lead her defend her fellow friend when he is accused of being the traitor in the group by Lilly.

Due to her active participation, Carley is blunt about her opinions, and isn't afraid of being frank or defending her comrades if threatened, shown when she reprimanded Lilly's paranoia as a cover for her fear when accusing Ben. However, it is due to the very trait of hers which has unfortunately, earned her own untimely demise under the hands of Lilly, who was close to an emotional breaking point. Ironically, the very person whom she defended, Ben, was the cause of her death as he revealed that he was the traitor all along.

Before her untimely death, Carley's relationship with Lee will develop to the point where she shows interest in him. Depending on the choices, players can choose to reciprocate her feelings as she gives Lee a kiss on the cheek. The romance was possibly a response from Telltale Game's staff towards fans' question about a Carley-Lee relationship. The relationship would have been certainly explored if it weren't for her death.

Even in death, Carley and Doug's death continues to affect Lee and, to a minimal extent, Ben and the group.

Atlanta
Before the outbreak Carley was a regional news reporter for WABE in Atlanta, Georgia. Having spent time as a correspondent in various war-zones, she feels that she can take care of herself and isn’t afraid to use firepower as a solution to the problems that face her. Right before the outbreak, Carley and her production crew drove to Macon to cover the International Cherry Blossom Festival. The crew was attacked by walkers and she was forced to watch as her producer was eaten alive. She was saved by Doug and joins him. They both later meet up with Glenn, Lilly and her father, Larry.

Episode 1: A New Day
Carley is first seen when she saves Duck from nearly being bitten by a walker, along with the help of Glenn, she brings Lee and the rest to the drugstore to hide as more walkers approach them. The pair were blamed for saving the group, to which Carley defended their actions by saying that they can't let people die off. Lilly, however, felt that the pharmacy group needs to be protected by not taking any extra risk. Things get worse as Larry joins in the argument, which causes a commotion between Kenny, Lee and himself. Unbeknownst to the group, a walker hiding behind one of the doors in the drugstore nearly killed Clementine and Lee if it weren't for a timely intervention by Carley's gun. Unfortunately, her gunshot alerts the rest of the walkers outside the drugstore and the group was forced to hide and remain silent until the walker's attention subsided.

Just as things were starting to calm down, Larry is struck by his heart disease and Lee is tasked with finding the keys to the drugstore in order to obtain his medications. Glenn eventually leaves the drugstore to search for gasoline. Lee is then given a chance to interact with the remaining survivors. It is revealed that Carley is actually a reporter working for the WABE in Atlanta, she is complimented by Lee on her dead-eye accuracy, to which she replies nobody messes with a reporter whose short on days of coffee drink. Additionally, she expresses her interest in Doug. Later on, she tags along with Lee when Glenn gets trapped in the motor inn and calls back for help. After overcoming the obstacles at the inn, the group is introduced to Irene, a survivor who had been hiding out in the motel after being bitten by her boyfriend. However, the moment is short lived when she decided to take her own life using Carley's gun, causing the group to escape back to the drugstore before more walkers approached them.

Having found the keys to the drugstore, Lee and Lilly break in to get the medications that they need, unintentionally setting off the alarm and alerting the entire group of walkers within the area. While Kenny rounds up the rest for the survivors to escape, Lee, Doug, Clementine and Carley were left to hold the walkers back. She takes on a broken window with her gun while Doug takes another, leaving Lee to hold the door on his own. At this point, Carley runs out of ammo and is mauled by a pair walkers while Doug is grabbed by a pair of walkers and left defenseless which forces the player to choose either one of them, choosing Carley would result in Doug's death.

At the motor inn, she thanks Lee for saving her and does not blame him for not being able to rescue Doug, although she is clearly disappointed and wished that the both of them could have made it. With Glenn gone and Doug dead, the rest of the group are left to fend for their own. Just as things were starting to seem better, the power at the inn shuts off.

In-Game Decision
Lee will have to choose to save either Carley or from the walkers when they are attacked at the pharmacy.

Save Carley (Alive)
If the player chooses to save Carley, Lee gives her ammo and she kills the walkers but they fail to save Doug. At the motel, she is upset about Doug but doesn't blame Lee.

Save Doug (Death)
If players choose to save Doug, Carley runs out of ammunition and is killed by a group of walkers. Later at a motel, Doug expresses regret that Carley is dead, but doesn't blame Lee. He also admits that this is just survivor's guilt.

Episode 2: Starved For Help
Carley will only appears in this episode if she is saved in Episode 1: A New Day. Three months down the road, she is one of the survivors from Macon that holds out in the Motor Inn. This time round, Carley spots a different outfit, with a small scar on the side of her face. It is revealed that along with the rest of the survivors, she has been placed under at intensive firearm training by and serves as one of the team's watchman. If Lee gives one of the food rations to her, it will strengthen their relationship between the two. Relying on her trusty Glock, she rescues Lee and Katjaa from the zombified David/Travis by putting a shot into the walker's head. When the Andrew and Danny St. John approach the group for gasoline with food in return, she voluntarily tags along with Lee to the dairy to provide cover.

Depending on the players' action and response to her in Episode 1, Lee's relationship with her will be portrayed on the trip to St. Johns' dairy farm. In the conversation, Carley expresses her interest in having Lee as the leader in the group, stating that the group looks up to him. She also questions about his past, and displays her loyalty towards him by placing her faith and showing support for him. When Brenda provides the group with food, she goes back with Ben to round up the rest, taking Mark's rifle along; leaving Lee and Mark alone with the brothers. Having eaten some of Brenda's pastry on the way back, she and Ben stayed back to watch the inn while the rest proceed towards the dairy.

The St. Johns are later discovered to be cannibals and lock the entire group away in the barn while Katjaa and Duck are held hostage. Sensing something gone wrong, she and Ben decided to head back to the dairy to check on the group and arrives just in time to help the team rescue Kenny's family. During the ensuing fight between Lee and Andy, Carley saves Lee's life by placing a gun to the man's head, albeit unsuccessfully, only to be saved by Lilly's gunshot. She later leaves the dairy with the group and discovers a huge amount of rations in an abandoned car, to which the group later grabs. Having found some batteries for Lee's camcorder and Clementine's walkie-talkie, she plays Lee's camcorder. The pair watches in horror as a spying video of Jolene's is played.

Episode 3: Long Road Ahead
Carley continues to appear in Episode 3 if she is saved back in Episode 1.

Carley defends Lee and Kenny when Lilly goes on a angry rant. When Lilly mentons their above murder, Carley eyes Lee, as she is still the only person in the group who knows about Lee's past (Except for Clementine who will know a small part if Lee told her in Episode 1). Shortly after, she tries to convince Lee to speak to Lilly in order to calm her down about the traitor situation. Carley also suggests that Lee should reveal his past to some of the survivors in order to gain their trust or at least ensure that they hear it from him and not someone else. She warns Lee to be careful about who he tells, as some of the group may react differently to the others. He doesn't understand, but agrees when he knows Carley cares about him and is right. She kisses him on the cheek and goes on with her day. During this conversation, Lee can tell her that he thinks about her, suggesting that they may be starting a relationship. This is further backed up by a conversation that Lee has with Katjaa when he tells her that a proper romance wouldn't be possible in the apocalypse, but he did have feelings for her.

After Lee finishes investigating the possible traitor in the group, Carley is rounded up with the others (except Lee and Lilly) by the bandits when they invade the camp after they don't get their promised supplies, but escapes when Lilly shoots one. She then helps Lee defend the RV against the invading Bandits and Walkers. After escaping on the RV. Lilly cracks under the emotional pressure and violently questions her and Ben with threats, believing one of them is the traitor. Lilly at first thinks its Carley, but then goes after Ben when he starts to panic at the thought of being thrown out of the group. She will either be happy or mad at Lee, depending on who he sides with. No matter what, Lilly believes that Carley is the traitor and shoots Carley through the back of the head when they all look at Kenny, who has just finished getting rid of the walker trapped under the RV.

Killed Victims

 * David Parker (Zombified) (If saved in Episode 1) (Determinant)
 * Travis (Zombified) (If saved in Episode 1) (Determinant)
 * Linda (If saved in Episode 1)
 * Gary (If saved in Episode 1)
 * Numerous counts of zombies and unnamed bandits.

Death
Killed By Lee has to choose in Episode 1 whether to save Doug or Carley from the walkers at the drugstore. If Lee chooses to save Doug, then Carley is killed and devoured by the walkers and will no longer appear after Episode 1.
 * Walkers (Determinented)


 * Lilly (If Carley is saved in Episode 1)
 * Ben (Indirectly)

After the RV pulls over, Carley defends Ben more. Lilly gets so fed up with her, that when she is distracted Lilly shoots and kills her.



Trivia

 * Not counting Shawn and Duck, Carley and Doug are the first pair of characters that pit players in a decision making situation; and the first character that Lee successfully saves.
 * If rescued at the pharmacy, Carley admits to having an interest in Doug, but later in episode 3 she seems to have a bit of interest in Lee.
 * Similarly, Doug (If saved) will also reveal he had an interest in Carley at the motor inn.
 * Depending on how players respond to her in Episode 1, Carley continues to place her trust in Lee and shows her support.
 * Carley is one of the survivors whom Lee can choose to give the rations to. Depending on the type of ration that he gives, she responds differently.
 * If Lee chooses to give her an apple, she'd take it and reminiscent how she used to have an apple with granola and six different kinds of almonds every morning and how it wasn't enough to fill her.
 * If Lee tries to give her the cheese and crackers or beef jerky, she'll reject it and insist that Lee and Clementine have it, in fear that they might start feeling weak. This still counts as making a choice to feed her.


 * Additionally, if Carley doesn't receive any rations, she will assure Lee that she understands his position in the matter and knows that he is still keeping an eye out for her.
 * If players repeatedly punch Andrew in Lee's showdown with him to the point where Andrew's face swells up, Carley will come in to the scene and stop Lee from inflicting further damage.To trigger the additional scene, players will have to punch Andrew for a minimum of 6 times or until the scene of the group watching Lee beat Andy up comes in to play, then punch Andrew for an additional 9 times to make Carley appear.
 * In episode 2, "Starved for Help", players have to decide who to give food to. 15% of players choose to feed Carley, the third least out of any character, only before Doug and Lee himself.
 * In episode 3, Carley mentions that her family is Lutheran.
 * When asked if there was a possible romance budding between Lee and Carley, the crew of Telltale Games mentions that there are subtle hints in between, although they do not deny nor confirm the relationship between the two. Lee can confirm in Episode 3 that he was fond of her, and her mannerisms towards Lee have hinted that she developed romantic feelings for him.
 * Her possible romance with Lee caused her to be dubbed as the video game version of Andrea (Comic series) as she and Lee share many similarities to Carl (Comic series) and Andrea from the comics.
 * In Episode 3, Lee makes a teaseful remark about Carley being small. The remark is an indirect joke of saying Carley is shortest adult member in the group.
 * Carley's death proved to be ironic, as she was killed by the very gun that she had used to defend herself during and before the zombie apocalypse.
 * Although Carley has been known not to lend her personal gun to anybody else, Kenny and Lilly were seen using it for the earlier part of Episode 3.
 * How her gun had managed to get in to the hands of the other survivors is not known, but it is assumed that Lilly made everyone hand out their weapons to her for safekeeping as a general rule, this is supported by the fact that the hunting rifle is present in Lilly's room when Lee discusses the issue about having a traitor in the group with Lilly.
 * After her death, Lee keeps her gun for the rest of Episode 3, presumably as a memento of her.
 * Carley's VA, Nicole Vigil has confirmed on her Facebook fan page that Carley makes her exit from the game in Episode 3, stating that while she very much likes her character, Carley's fate of dying has been determined much earlier by the game developers in Telltale Games, as a result of wanting to stay true to the recrring themes in The Walking Dead.
 * Despite the contrary belief, it is a popular theory through speculation that Carley is indeed still alive and that the bullet from Lillys' gun simply graized Carley which caused her to go unconcious.
 * Furthurmore, characters within the Walking Dead universe who previously received a gunshot to the head have survived against their ordeal, such as Carl Grimes and Daryl Dixon (TV Series) further supporting and strengthening the fact that Carley being alive is a possibility.
 * In addition to that, Nicole has also suggest the players could send a fan-based feedback letter to Telltale Games stating their agreement or disagreement against Carley's death, although it has no bearing on bringing Carley back in to the story.