5. What happened to Kenny?
From the time Lee met him on Hershel's farm, Kenny was good and loyal, and most of the game's earliest, crucial decisions dealt with how Lee repaid that loyalty.
Save Duck or Hershel's son? Help Kenny to kill Larry, or take Lily's side? Shoot Duck, or let Kenny do it? Kenny was a little on the dull side, and yes, he thought with his heart more than his head. He was, however, a great friend in an apocalyptic world, and he saved Lee's life on more than one occasion.
Kenny's fate is suspicious - we heard him being 'killed' offscreen, but we never saw any visual confirmation. It is unlikely that Kenny survived - that was, after all, a ton of zombies that went after him - but fans continue to hold out hope. The trailer for Episode 2 of Season 2 was a provocative tease - Clementine, with wonder in her eyes, exclaimed, "I thought you were dead!" to an unseen character. Could it be our favorite, mustachioed trucker? Time will tell.
4. Will Lee's decisions continue to affect Clementine?
The last time Clementine saw Lee, things weren't going so well for him.
At best, he was dead, shot in the head by Clementine as an act of love and mercy. At worst, he was still 'alive,' chained to a radiator, doomed to live out the rest of his life as a walker. In Episode 1 of Season 2, we see hints of Lee here and there. Clementine still has a picture of him in her backpack, and she has the option of reminiscing about him when talking to Luke. Is this, however, where Lee's involvement ends? Throughout Season 1, we were constantly reminded of our decisions' consequences. 'Clementine will remember this.' 'Clementine will remember this.' It made our guts lock up in a panic. It would be satisfying if these decisions continued to echo in Season 2.
Clementine should reference the crucial decisions that were made in Season 1, and the choices she's given should be affected and altered by Lee's prior choices. Furthermore, what if Clementine left Lee alive at the end of Season 1? Could Clementine run into a zombified, flesh-hungry Lee at some point? And then, what would her decision be? Whatever it is, we're not sure our hearts can take it.
3. Can Rebecca ever be trusted?
Clementine has no one she can trust in her new circle of 'friends.'
Yes, Peter gave Clementine a fair chance, but he's not long for this world, ever since a walker took a chunk out of his leg. Of all the new characters, Rebecca is the most antagonistic. She doesn't trust Clementine from the word 'go' - Rebecca almost gets Clem shot when the poor girl arrives at camp, and her cuckolding of Alvin wins her no sympathy points. Clementine is privy to information that could destroy Rebecca, and it'll be interesting to see how Clem uses it. Can she blackmail Rebecca into cooperating with her? Can Clem take the softer approach, and gain Rebecca's trust through consistent kindness?
Hopefully, there will be multiple ways that Clem can accomplish her goals - it would be too easy to turn Rebecca into another Larry, another unsympathetic jackass with no redeeming qualities. Rebecca seems like someone that Clem would want on her side, but getting her there will be a major problem.
2. Will there be a truly branching narrative, or will the story continue to be variations on the same, main path?
Midway through Season 1, it becomes clear that no matter what decisions Lee makes, the general narrative remains the same.
Whether or not Lee helps Kenny to kill Larry, the end result is the same, and Larry winds up dead. Likewise, whether or not Lee cuts off his own arm, he still becomes a walker. His life is neither cut short nor extended by the decision. This disappointed some fans, who were expecting a Choose Your Own Adventure book in digital form. Currently, The Walking Dead is more about the journey than the destination - the way the characters respond to Clem and the methods by which they get things done are altered, even if the end result is fixed. It would be nice to keep this, but also add a truly branching narrative, where the story's decisions could lead to different settings, different characters, and different deaths.
This would increase the series' replayability, and it would weigh the game with a greater sense of urgency and consequence. Yes, there are issues to this - namely, if the game stretches through several more seasons, how many plot threads would there have to be? Even so, it would be rewarding to see a decision that impacts multiple chapters beyond the present one.
1. Does Telltale have an endgame?
The more this game series continues, the more it seems to be Clementine's story.
The first season was the origin story - Clementine learned to protect herself and lost her innocence. The second season continues this evolution - Clementine is a bit wearier and a bit older, and she's learning the code of 'survival at all costs.' She stitches her cut together with nothing but apple juice for anesthesia, and we're only in Episode 1 of Season 2. Who knows where she'll be by Season 5, provided Telltale gets that far? Will she become an adult? Will she have a love interest? Will she be a leader like Lilly, or a loner like Molly?
Will Clem eventually look after a child, in the same way that Lee looked after her? In TV series, we see the benefits of planning ahead. When planning a series, it's always good to know where the story is going to end up - it worked for The Shield and it definitely worked for Breaking Bad. When there is no planning ahead, a once promising series could end up like The X-Files or Dexter - a shapeless drama that goes on too long and repeats itself too often. Telltale's The Walking Dead blurs the line, more than any game before it, between television series and game. Let's hope that Telltale has an 'series finale' in mind and sticks to reaching it.