| “ | I hurt her so bad. My son, Adam, went missing. I took him out hunting even though my wife said he was too young. I figured he had to learn. I came back without him and the look on her face said..."You are a MONSTER." We all went out looking for him. We never found him. I hurt her so bad. (…) The hungrier we got, the more she blamed me. Until she finally took our daughter, Elizabeth and left. They didn't get far... I... found them a day later. In the road. Do I look like a monster to you? (…) I'm not like you. (…) You're a monster. You're a murderer and a thief and I'm gonna hurt you so bad.
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” |
The Stranger (real name unknown) is an antagonist and a survivor of the outbreak in The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series. He is the husband of Tess and the father of Adam and Elizabeth. He was a coach in a children's football league.
After Lee's group stole his family's supplies, it resulted in the death of his wife and daughter. He planned to take revenge on them for this and take Clementine away from Lee, wanting to take care of her, but he himself is also out of his mind. He served as the primary antagonist of the second half of Season 1.
Overview
Very little is known about the Stranger. He is a delusional and calculative person, driven by revenge against the people who stole all of the supplies from his station wagon and his fixation on "rescuing" Clementine to be raised as his surrogate daughter. According to him, he had his life in very good check before the outbreak, but the end of the world caused him to become mentally unstable to the point of stalking Lee and his group, keeping tabs on them with Clementine's radio and eventually kidnapping Clementine.
The Stranger blames Lee's group for his life falling apart. Whether Lee chooses to take his family's supplies or speaks against it, he will still resent Lee, either for contributing to his family’s demise, and/or for his supposed poor care of Clementine. He believes himself to be a far better father figure than Lee due to his past experience as a father and accuses Lee of putting the girl's life in danger many times.
Evidently, the Stranger loved his family and was left distraught and traumatized when his son went missing, resulting in his wife and daughter leaving him, only for him to find them dead a day later. The Stranger later shows to be insane, having kept his wife's reanimated head inside a bag and talking to her. It is revealed that his obsession with kidnapping Clementine is so that he can raise her as his new daughter, out of a twisted desire to replace his deceased family. The Stranger's plan eventually falls down on him, causing him to be killed either by Lee, the man he crossed, or Clementine, the little girl he went so far to kidnap and raise as his own.
Pre-Apocalypse
Location Unknown
The only things known about the Stranger's life prior to the outbreak is what he tells Lee, though it can be assumed that he lived in Georgia. He says he coached little league, and while none of his characteristics are explicitly stated, his evident resourcefulness and intelligence made him able to support his family and himself for at least a few months during the zombie apocalypse.
Post-Apocalypse
Season One
Three months into the apocalypse, he lost his son, Adam, while teaching him how to hunt. His wife was horrified to learn this, and he took her and their daughter into the woods to look for him. They searched all day, but found no sign of him. The frustrated and saddened trio returned to their station wagon, but only after Lee's group stole all of the supplies from his station wagon. They continued to look for Adam after that, but the starvation and desperation drove a wedge between Tess and her husband. One morning, Tess took their daughter and left him. A day later, he found their bodies in the road. Shocked at how quickly events had turned against him, the Stranger's weary and food-deprived mind refused to accept that Tess was dead. In order to "keep her alive", so to speak, he decapitated her and took the head with him on his travels.
A week after, he used his missing son's radio- possibly as a way for his deranged mind to speak to Adam- and discovered a young girl on the channel. As it turned out, he discovered that this girl was living with the very people who had raided his station wagon.
"Long Road Ahead"
After Lee and Kenny return from their supply run, Clementine is seen talking on her walkie-talkie, presumably to the Stranger. Later, while Clementine is sleeping next to Lee Everett and Kenny inside the driver's cabin of the train, he attempts to contact her over the radio. He says that he is excited that she is coming to Savannah, and informs her that he has her parents, Ed and Diana. He also says to go see him, no matter what Lee says. Lee and Kenny wonder who he is and what he has told Clementine as they near Savannah.
"Around Every Corner"
At the start of the episode, Lee holds the walkie-talkie, so Clementine cannot contact him. After a church bell goes off, the Stranger contacts the group and tells them, in a very threatening tone, to get off the street for their own safety (as he wants to keep Clementine safe and keep the rest of the group alive long enough for him to exact his revenge). Lee can ask who he is, but the man doesn't respond.
While Lee is at the house, the Stranger spies on him through the gate while he is burying Fivel (a young child who died of starvation inside his house). Lee sees him but fails to get a good look of the man due to the thick fog. The Stranger flees as Lee yells at him. The group then wonder if this was the man who was talking to them on the walkie-talkie.
At the end of the episode, he convinces Clementine to meet him outside the mansion so that she can go with him to see her parents at the Marsh House. While she agrees to go with him, he soon reveals his true nature and holds her captive within the Marsh House and contacts Lee once again to implement the next phase of his plan; luring Lee and his group into disaster. Lee suspects that Vernon was the one who took Clementine, as he had previously stated that she would be better off with his people.
However, when Lee and any survivors he might have convinced to go with him arrive at the hideout of Vernon's group, he and the others are nowhere to be seen. The Stranger contacts him via the walkie-talkie. Lee, still assuming that he is Vernon, demands he reveal himself, but the Stranger denies that he is Vernon, and tells Lee to watch his tone. He says Clementine is safe and sound, and that Lee should choose his next words very carefully.
"No Time Left"
Following the ending of the previous episode, a quick dialogue occurs between Lee and the Stranger on the radio. He assures Lee that Clementine is safe and the only thing he wants is Lee to stop hurting other people, challenging Lee to find Clementine if he truly cares for her. Presuming that the kidnapper and Clementine are in the Marsh House, Lee and the group decide to head that way. After arriving at the hotel alone following his forced separation from Omid and Christa, Lee notices the abandoned car from "Starved For Help" parked in the street. Lee discovers the room where Clementine is, but is held at gunpoint by the Stranger, who finally reveals himself.
The Stranger orders Lee to give up his weapons and sit down. He then reveals that he was the owner of the abandoned car that was looted for supplies by Lee's group in "Starved For Help". If Lee refused to steal the supplies from the car, Lee is given the option to explain that he was against the group's decision. However, the Stranger tells Lee that he didn't want to harm Clementine as she was either one of two or the only one to not take anything from the car, and only wanted to kill everyone else.
However, upon hearing all about the dangerous and life-threatening situations she was put through, he became convinced that he could take better care of her. The Stranger goes on to explain his earlier life in which he took his son to hunt in the forest, but he lost him in the wilderness. He and his wife searched the forest multiple times to look for their lost son, but were unable to find him.
The Stranger and his family decided to go back to their car only just to discover that their supplies were stolen by Lee's group. This caused a chain of events in which his wife took their daughter and left him after days of starvation and anger. The Stranger found their corpses on the road the following day, where he cut off Tess's head either before or after reanimation and left with it. The Stranger then found Clementine over his radio, learning that she was looking for her parents in Savannah and that her group was responsible for stealing the supplies from his car.
After losing his last bits of humanity and sanity, the Stranger became hungry for blood and vengeance, using Clementine to get the information he needed to get his revenge on Lee and his group. Over the next three weeks, the man stalked and watched the group carefully, all the while using the information Clementine supplied him with, including their plan to head to Savannah, to carefully plan out his revenge on the group. When the group left the motel in wake of the bandit attack to make their way to Savannah, the Stranger drove to Savannah as well to arrive at the city before the group did to plan his next move.
He then came up with the scheme to abduct Clementine to make Lee feel his own pain and lure him and his group into a death trap, but had to wait for the perfect moment to present itself to make it quick and quiet. To entice her to separate from Lee, he tells Clementine that he has her parents with him in Savannah, knowing that they were likely dead, and she should meet up with him once she arrives. Taking control of the Marsh House and establishing it as his main base within the ruined city of Savannah, the Stranger continued to keep tabs over Lee.
He finally took Clementine to lure Lee and his group into disaster in hopes of finally killing them and having Clementine as his new daughter. After explaining his exploits for revenge, the Stranger accuses Lee of all the bad things he has done, based on all the choices he has made until this point of the game, all the while trying to convince Lee that he himself is not a bad man, but a broken father who lost everything to live for except for revenge. Regardless of what choice Lee made, the Stranger will always find fault with his actions and guardianship over Clementine, which is ironic since he took his son hunting after his wife told him not to, then returned to her without Adam.
The Stranger states his intentions to brutally torture and murder Lee and then take Clementine with him to be raised as his own daughter, believing that this would both satisfy his lust for revenge against Lee and provide him with a good substitute for his family. He then begins to taunt Lee with how little he actually knows about Clementine and what a horrible guardian he has been, bragging about his connection to Clementine and occasionally talking down to something within a bowling ball bag laying in front of him on the floor, referring to it as, "Tess".
In this moment of distraction, Clementine is able to escape the closet she was locked in and uses either an object on a counter to strike the Stranger or uses her fist (if Lee points at the bottle, kettle or the lamp, she will hit him in the head, if Lee points at the meat cleaver, she will chop him in the shoulder). During the distraction, Lee is able to disarm the Stranger and they start brawling through the room. At one point, the Stranger goes for his gun and will shoot Lee if he is too slow to react. Lee can then either strangle the Stranger to death or let him live.
If Lee lets him live, he will try to strangle Lee instead, and will get shot in the head by Clementine, who picked up his gun from the floor. If Lee strangled him to death, he is given the option to shoot him in the head to prevent reanimation or just abandon his corpse there. Regardless of the outcome, he dies a broken man who lost everything and allowed his lust for vengeance consume his humanity. It is later revealed that the object inside the bowling ball bag was actually his wife's reanimated head.
In-Game-Decision
Stranger Shot By Clementine (Dead): If Lee doesn't succeed in strangling him, the Stranger will throw Lee to the ground and attempt to strangle Lee, but Clementine will suddenly shoot the Stranger in the head.
Stranger Strangled and Shot By Lee (Dead): If Lee strangles him, the Stranger will die. Lee can then shoot him in the head to prevent reanimation.
Stranger Strangled and Left Behind By Lee (Undead): If Lee succeeds in strangling him, the Stranger will die. If Lee doesn't shoot him, he will leave him to reanimate.
Death
- Killed By
- Lee Everett (Alive, Determinant; Before Reanimation, Determinant)
- Clementine (Caused or Direct, Determinant)
The stranger holds Lee at gunpoint at the Marsh House after abducting Clementine the previous day. Clementine quietly slips out and attacks him from behind, giving Lee the opportunity to engage him in a struggle. Lee gains the upper hand and strangles the man against the wall, where Lee has the option to keep strangling or let go. If Lee does not let go, he ultimately strangles the man to death, then has the option of using his gun to shoot him in the head to prevent reanimation.
If Lee lets go, he attacks Lee again and begins to strangle Lee himself. As he shouts for Lee to die, Clementine picks up his gun and shoots him in the head to save Lee.
Killed Victims
This list shows the victims the Stranger has killed:
- Ben Paul (Indirectly Caused, Determinant)
- Lee Everett (Indirectly Caused, Alive or Directly)
- Possibly numerous counts of zombies
Relationships
For a more in-depth look at the Stranger's relationships, read here: The Stranger (Telltale)/Relationships
Allies
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Enemies
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Quotes
The following is a list of some of the Stranger's most memorable quotes.
Season One"Hello there...? Can't wait for you to get to Savannah, Clementine. I've got your parents right here, and you be sure to find me whether Lee wants you to or not. Now, what I need--" "If I were you, I'd get out of the street. Now." "Hello, Lee. (…) This isn't Vernon. And you should really watch your tone. Clementine's fine. But if I were you, I'd choose my next words very carefully." "Hurt her? I'm not the one who hurts people. There's an ocean of dead between you and me and her, and if I can thank God for anything anymore, it's that." "I want you to never hurt anybody again. This isn't a kidnapping, Lee. ("Then what is it?") A rescue." "Smart. I guess if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. I guess you really don't care, do you? I had you all wrong..." "I got us adjoining rooms." "Quiet, please, sweetie!" "Do I not seem cool?" "Do it. Don't dick me around" "You wouldn't. People like you don't. Now you're thinking, "Who would have it out for me?" huh? A few weeks back, there might have been a station wagon in the forest? Full of all sorts of food, water, things you need to survive. Yeah. I'm not some cannibal, Lee. Some killer out in the woods. Some...villain. I'm just a...dad. I coach little league." "You saw my car out front, then. You see anything else you want in there? Not a whole lot left. (…) For the taking?! Do you know what you took from me?!" "That's what Clementine said. Why didn't you? (…) She didn't want you to do a lot of things." "If only the rest of your crew had been so "magnanimous"." "Have you ever hurt somebody you care about? (…) If it were on purpose, you'd be sociopath." "I hurt her so bad. My son, Adam, went missing. I took him out hunting even though my wife said he was too young. I figured he had to learn. I came back without him and the look on her face said... "You are a monster." We all went out looking for him. We never found him. I hurt her so bad. And then we came back and all our stuff was gone. Your people, Lee. That asshole in the ball cap. His stupid fucking wife. I could've earned her trust back if they hadn't made our situation so desperate. The hungrier we got, the more she blamed me. Until she finally took our daughter, Elizabeth, and left. They didn't get far... I... found them a day later. In the road. Do I look like a monster to you?" "You walked a little girl into a dairy full of sick people and let them get their hands on her." "You let that little girl get fed disgusting human meat." "You killed a man with a pitchfork right in front of a little girl." "You lied to her about who you really are." "You let a boy get yanked out of a window and into the night so you could protect a pretty girl with a gun." "You let a woman who knew who you really were die to protect your secret." "You abandoned a defenseless, grieving woman." "You brought her to the most dangerous place in this city where she could've died!" "The sweatshirt she's wearing was my boy's! You stole that from us!" "How many times has she almost died with you?" "You're a monster. You're a murderer and a thief and I'm gonna hurt you so bad." "I'd rather kill her myself. Because that's what will happen if she goes with you." "After I heard Clementine on the radio and realized who you folks were, I came after you purely for revenge. But the more I heard about the things you did and the danger she was in, our plan changed. Lee, listen to me. I need you to hear this before what happens next. I can take care of her. We can have a family. I bet you don't even know how old she is. (…) Wrong. She's nine. Her birthday was six days ago. I know how to be a dad, you know? She wouldn't be exposed to what she has been with you." "You were what? (…) Wow. Okay, then." "No. I'll be with her and you'll be rotting in the streets." "This is happening. You're going away and we're starting a new family." "Hey, honey. I think this is all going to work out. I'm glad, too. I wish you wouldn't have had to get this bad, but it's all over, hon. Isn't it? I hate seeing you like this. I just miss your smile, honey. I miss you so much, Tess. You're going to like Clementine a lot, though. She's not Lizzy, but she's sweet. She wouldn't hurt a fly." "You son of a bitch... Just go away! Die!" |
Appearances
| Episodes | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season One | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||
| Season Two | ||||||
| Michonne | ||||||
| A New Frontier | ||||||
| The Final Season |
| ✔ | Appears | ✔ | Voice is heard |
| 👁 | Appears with no lines | ✔ | Appears in a flashback |
| ✔ | Appears as a walker | 🖼 | Appears in a photograph/video |
| ✔ | Appears as a corpse | ✔ | Appears in a hallucination/dream |
Trivia
- The Stranger (appearance) is one of two characters Anthony Lam has voiced, the other being Vince.
- The Stranger (radio) is one of three characters Roger Jackson has voiced, the others being Charles and Walter Ashe.
- The Stranger is the first character to be voiced by two different people, the second being Boyd and the third being Clive.
- The Stranger is also the first and only character to be voiced by two different actors in the same episode.
- The Stranger may be Lee's last victim or Clementine's first victim depending on the player's choice.
- He is Clementine's first victim, either directly or caused.
- The Stranger's death may have been similar to the death of Sam, Lee's first victim. Sam is Lee's first victim and the Stranger is his last victim.
- The developers revealed he was originally going to be named "Mitch Campman", however they scrapped the name completely due to thinking the name was ridiculous.[1]
- This is backed up by his model and other files within the game being named "Campman" during "Around Every Corner", however this was likely a developer oversight that was missed or was unable to be removed in time, as the name was not present in the following episode's files.
- During his speech about who he is, he references every enemy that Lee encounters in his journey: "Yeah. I'm not some cannibal (the St. Johns), Lee. Some killer out in the woods (the bandits). Some... v-villain (Crawford Oberson). I'm.... just a... dad. I coach little league."
- For Lee to kill the Stranger, the player must continuously press the requested button even after the icon has faded off the screen.
- In the remastered edition of "A New Day", The Stranger's model can be seen in various vehicles driving past as Lee is in the police car being escorted to prison. [2] [3]
- The Stranger is one of six characters confirmed in the game to have outlived their children, the others being Kenny, Vernon, Rufus, (Determinant) Fern and Conrad.
- The Stranger is one of twelve determinant characters with a dead or undead status. The others being Duck, Lee Everett, Danny, Clyde, Walt, Sarita, Abel, Michael, Armando, Rodney, and Lloyd.
- One of the missing persons photos in "400 Days" is concept art of the Stranger, but with a beard scribbled on.[4]
- During the opening sequence of Episode 1, his car can be seen passing the cop car that Lee was in while he was being escorted to prison.
References
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/TheWalkingDeadGame/comments/bgxe5v/its_confirmed_that_clem_has_no_last_name/elq3sxx/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x
- ↑ File:Walking Dead Season 1 Remastered, Campman in A New Day.png
- ↑ File:Walking Dead Season 1 Remastered, Campman in A New Day again.png
- ↑ https://tcrf.net/The_Walking_Dead_(Windows)/400_Days
