@hbkdx12 said:

Trying to save Ben and Ben's sole argument being that "There's no time" (this is just poor writing more than anything else, clearly there was plenty of time. He would have been better off making the plea that he didn't deserve to live for what he did)

I think it's a tad harsh to expect Ben to have full situational awareness (ie amount of time available) in a situation like that.

I thought this episode was OK. Probably second to last in terms of the whole series (3,2,4,1 for those keeping up...and keep in mind I've liked every episode thus far).

I did think that this episode was more predictable than the others. I knew Clem would run away. It was just TOO obvious. Did I know that I was going to get bitten? Nah. That was a little surprise, though I don't think it treated like the big deal that it should have been. When it comes down to it, I was waiting for something crazy to happen (like in episode 2 and 3) but never got it. I know people will argue that Lee getting bit should be enough, but like I said before, it really didn't phase the group that much. The kind of reaction I wanted was like what was seen in the latest TV episode of the Walking Dead.

It was heavily-contrived. For example, sewers where you happen to find a group who knows the layout inside out, allowing you to magically teleport from point A to point B later in the chapter. The boat that coincidentally is stored in the shed of the one house you randomly chose to hide in.

I also didn't appreciate Molly as a character, no apparent flaws. Christa and Omed are just dull - am I the only one that thinks this? It was a shame to see Chuck die without doing anything. You could easily have met back up and brought him back into the party in the sewers. He's not my favourite character, but far more interesting than Christa and Omed. Weird how those two basically became one character this episode, probably to hide their boring personalities.

Someone on the first page touched upon it already, but I feel Crawford was botched. That zombie fence was amazing. Everything else about the group felt like I was being lectured to by Whitta. There was zero build-up or pay-off to the whole Crawford group - who I have to imagine were supposed to the antagonists of this episode - that felt satisfying. The doctor was terrible, what with the nature of the tapes. That's the only human being involved. Considering the leader of Crawford is strapped to a bell, a civil war is implied, but never developed, in favour of an obvious and forced allusion to Nazi Germany through this episode's clichéd dialogue. (Really, master race? The final solution? Big words thrown around to hide lazy writing.)

Saying all that, the Ben choice made me feel like complete shit. I don't remember the last time a game made me feel that bad, that scene may give me nightmares in the future. Good thing I have a couple other saves to save Ben. If nothing else, this chapter made me care about that character. He's not evil, just comically imcompetent.

@EnduranceFun said:

I also didn't appreciate Molly as a character, no apparent flaws.

Apart from her being kind of a bloodthirsty sociopath and in general sort of a bitch. I liked her mostly, but it really got on my nerves when, during the argument with Kenny and Ben, she had to chime in with "great group you've got here".

I had a similar feeling towards this episode. There were several moments that felt like they were planned. It felt like they were trying to make you feel a certain way and shoving those moments in your face.  
 
It just didn't feel as well paced as the other episodes have for me.  
 
I won't say it's bad, it's still really good but this episode is not the best episode in my opinion.  
 
They can't all be winners though and after episode 3 they had a tough act to follow. It's a good setup for the ending I kind of hoped for (was planning for) throughout this episode, though, and I'm totally fine with that.

Am I the only one or does Molly have the undeniable stench of Mary Sue about her? No flaws, knows everything about the town, saves everyone, secretly tortured, super bad-ass, moves better than everyone with that ice-pick, blah blah blah. I mean, I like the guy, but it seems like Whitta was going "MY character in the series is going to be TEH BEST!"

What was the narrative reason for killing off Chuck? He could have easily filled the Molly role if he had found an ice pick. Just seems like a pointless switcharoo.

@Iceland: Her superhuman ability to leap around like Spider-Man with a car battery in her backpack and lift Lee through a skylight with one arm definitely veered into Mary Sue territory, but I definitely noticed flaws in her character, most notably when she went all choppy-choppy on the reanimated doctor without delivering a finishing headshot, even with her "One more," leaving him scrabbling around in the alley mere feet away from the jacked-open garage door. The entire time Lee was trying to get the car down, I expected to see the not-so-good doc come squiggling through that 2-foot gap to chomp her ankle!

second best episode right after episode 2. I liked it a lot. Not sure what the hell people are complaining about.

@coffeethrall said:

@Iceland: Her superhuman ability to leap around like Spider-Man with a car battery in her backpack and lift Lee through a skylight with one arm definitely veered into Mary Sue territory, but I definitely noticed flaws in her character, most notably when she went all choppy-choppy on the reanimated doctor without delivering a finishing headshot, even with her "One more," leaving him scrabbling around in the alley mere feet away from the jacked-open garage door. The entire time Lee was trying to get the car down, I expected to see the not-so-good doc come squiggling through that 2-foot gap to chomp her ankle!

Going all "choppy-choppy" as you so elegantly put it and then going all "it's nothing" just came out so cliché. It completely took out all "oomph" out of the reveal that she was exchanging sex for medicine with that doctor because clearly something was going on between them. Not being able to confront her on that "it's nothing" bullshit drove me up the wall.

@kishinfoulux: Remember that horde of zombies following you at the end of ep. 3?

Remember the horde that showed up at the end of ep. 4?

Thousands of zombies were probably visible from the top of that school.