The Wolf Among Us episode 2 featured image

The Wolf Among Us – Episode 2: open discussion thread

Back in October we ran an open discussion thread for Episode 1 of The Wolf Among Us. Yep, it really has been that long since the first part appeared.

It’s now been nine days since Episode 2 was pushed out so hopefully everyone keen to follow the continuing story of Bigby Wolf and the residents of Fabletown has played it. I’m itching to discuss the continuing developments of the story – how about you?

There’s no review component this time, so here’s an obligatory spoiler warning for after the image/cut.

The Wolf Among Us episode 2

  • At the end of Episode 1 I was a little thrown by the presence of characters I didn’t recognise in the line-up of possible suspects. Well, Bluebeard, anyway, who was new to us (I’ve been playing the game with my girlfriend, combining our sleuthing powers). We were further surprised to see a second new character we didn’t recognise among the suspects from the first game, who soon turned out to be Georgie. A comment in Dylan’s last post about TWAU sheds some light on the matter: apparently if you go to see Lawrence first you get some more information. We also went to Toad’s first!
  • The beginning of Episode 2 did a good job of making me doubt which Snow was the ‘real’ one. I suspected that the real Snow was dead and the walking, talking version was the imposter. This led a number of responses that may have later repercussions, which I liked, even if there was clearly no real divergence.
  • I’m convinced the Woodsman is innocent. The guy just seems like a total schlub, all anger and chauvinism and bitterness. Not exactly harmless, but not a murderer. My other half wondered if he might have been acting it up in the bar at the end of episode one, but I don’t think he’s bright enough to pull that off.
  • The revelation at the close of Episode 2 is interesting, but again I’m not convinced that Ichabod is the killer. His obsession with Snow is clearly creepy but it doesn’t follow that a fetishistic crush must escalate. Or does it?
  • Who are the Tweedle twins working for? Claire’s money was on Ichabod, which might explain his squeamishness about the way you interrogate the prisoner (assuming you didn’t snag the Woodsman at the close of Episode 1). Of course, that could be simple squeamishness. 
  • My guess is that the mirror gets trashed because it’s such a severe possible plothole, ha ha.
  • Bluebeard’s obviously up to something. It’s possible that he’s arranging these killings to fit up Ichabod as a killer and – if you fail to identify the killer – Bigby as incompetent, and replace the Fabletown administration with his own cronies. But it’s a little early to tell, as yet, and it’s not yet clear who Bluebeard has on his side – if anyone.
  • There are still at least ten characters we’ve yet to meet. Could the real killer be one of them? Could that undermine the murder-mystery nature of the first few episodes? I sure hope not, as treating it like a mystery it’s possible to solve is half the fun.
  • Our Bigby is characterised by mercy and tries to tread softly and kindly. A new sheriff for a traumatised community. What about yours?

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3 responses to “The Wolf Among Us – Episode 2: open discussion thread”

  1. friendlygun Avatar
    friendlygun

    So, uh… no one's played episode two, then?

  2. badgercommander Avatar

    So, I galloped through Ep2-5 over the weekend.

    For me there were a couple of problems that aren't really to do with the game:

    – The botched handling of the Season Pass (that didn't get fixed for a month on Xbox 360) caused me not to play this game for almost a year. With both Borderlands and Game of Thrones now out, I hope that Telltale are looking at the stats and see a pattern in the metrics and realise that getting episodes out in a timely and consistent manner is important to keeping these games alive. Sure, they got my money with the season pass (I loved the first ep. 1) but I wasn't talkign to anyone about it or encouraging word of mouth (as you can see from my ten month silence on this post)

    – Marathoning this game was the worst way to play it. Some of the subtleties you are hinting at or tryign to tease out just flew past me as I went through each of them. I did appreciate that you could get it all wrong at the end of the series but a couple of big pay offs in ep. 5 didn't menan anything to me until I went and looked up the story thread. I simply wasn't paying enough attention to have that 'usual suspects' moment.

    As for some of the actual points in the article. These are pretty stereotypical murder mystery tropes, set up a schlub who it is too obvious for it to be, bring a new person that it, again, looks to obvious to actually be then someone you hadn't really thought of properly turns out to be the real criminal. If you have watched enough 'Murder She Wrote' then it all feels a little too well trodden. All of this ties into my disappointment with the comic, which I have now read volume 1 of, it would have been great to make a gritty telling of the fables in real life (I was thinking Homicide, Life on the Street as an inspiration) but instead what I got was Agatha Christie and I just found it hugely dull.

    Still, the art direction was lovely, the music was great and the voice acting was on par with everythign else they have done. I guess, because I wanted to like it, I got more enjoyment out of it despite all of its disappointments (I certainly enjoyed it more than the comic).

    My Bigby was tolerant until someone started mouthing off and then fists would fly. Every time, all time. The Tweedle got a punch and a bottle broken over his head.

    1. ShaunCG Avatar

      It was a real shame that no one else following AR was playing the episodes at the same time as Claire and I were. I'd have done more of these posts but it seemed a waste of time with no one else getting involved.

      Yeah, I get what you mean with the marathoning. I didn't get that with TWD season 1, though as that's a survival horror story rather a detective / noir tale I guess there are entirely different narrative beats and character arcs.

      Sorry to hear you found the actual murder story dull and cliched. I see what you're saying about the Woodsman (re. my schlub comment) but I also think the a similar argument applies to Bluebeard, who throughout manages to be a moderately ambiguous character in terms of his actual agenda… only to somewhat surprisingly turn out to be pretty much what he always seemed to be.

      I tell you what, though, some of the fights as the Big Bad Wolf were some of the most enjoyable QTEs I've seen in years. Even QTEs can be fun when the narrative has delivered a good payload of tension. The alleyway scene, in particular, was fantastic.