Sam (Animal)

"I guess you're pretty hungry too..."

- Clementine's determinant words to Sam as he begs for some beans.

Sam is a dog that appears in Telltale Games' The Walking Dead: Season Two.

Pre-Apocalypse
Not much is known about Sam's life before or as the outbreak began. In "All That Remains", Clementine found a picture of Sam with a family shortly after they meet. The picture displayed Sam next to a man, woman and presumably their child. Clementine states that it looked like "they were a happy family once."

"All That Remains"
Clementine meets Sam after she treks from the riverbed she woke up on and through a passage in the forest. Despite Sam growling at her initially, Clementine manages to befriend him by giving him a friendly greeting. She can also choose to look at his nametag to discover his name. After the two of them make an acquaintance, Sam leads Clementine back to his owner's abandoned camp.

The camp that was once a refuge for Sam's owners is shown to be the aftermath of havoc, with overturned and tattered tents, rotting food remnants and small, shattered fragments of who the family once was, such as a family photograph and a box full of children's toys. A flying disc lies nearby and Clementine has the choice to throw it. If she does, Sam will catch it and bring it back to her.

While Clementine rummages through the camp in search of food, Sam begins to bark at a walker tied to a tree. Clementine, "teaches," him how to kill and stay ahead of walkers in a manner similar to the way Lee taught her in his final moments.

With the walker dead and Clementine having procured a knife from its carcass in order to open a can of beans, the two of them settle down to eat. Sam longingly watches Clementine eat in hopes of receiving food, which Clementine can either give to him or deny from him. If the player decides to give him food, Sam will knock the can out of her hands until Clementine takes it away from him in order to eat some herself. This action causes Sam to attack. If Clementine denies him food, he will attack her due to being rejected.

Either way, Clementine responds by either knocking him off of her bitten arm with the bean can, or stabbing his muzzle with the pocket knife before kicking him off of her when he retaliates once again. Sam lands from the kick on a set of metal tent poles, which perforate his chest and hind leg. If the player chooses to kill him, Clementine will stick her knife into his neck. If the player chooses to leave him, Clementine will walk away and leave Sam to die.

Clementine
"Good boy, good boy."

- Clementine to Sam after returning the flying disc.

Sam and Clementine had a short relationship, but you could see Clementine initially enjoyed having Sam around. This relationship quickly turned sour when Sam was denied food, his feelings towards her quickly changed to anger and aggression, causing Sam to attack by biting her arm. Despite the fact that he's trying to kill her, she still is shocked and devastated for what happened to the dog, and cries over his fate.

Trivia

 * It is not an uncommon behavior for dogs to be food aggressive and snap at another animal or person who gets near or takes their food while eating. Food aggression will usually cause a dog to growl or snap, especially one that is very hungry.
 * If you search the camp, you will come across a flying disc which when selected, Clementine will throw for Sam who will catch it in the air and bring it back. This shows that the dog was probably good natured and friendly at heart, but became aggressive when denied food.
 * Sam's name might be a reference to Sam from Sam & Max, an earlier series by Telltale Games.
 * Sam is the first dog seen alive in the Video Game.
 * If Clementine searches the van, she will find a picture of Sam with his owners.
 * If Clementine searches the grill, you can see a dog bowl with "Sam" written on the side.
 * He's the first animal to die on-screen in the Video Game.
 * Sam and Walter are the only dogs mentioned within the game.