History NightmareFuel / TheWalkingDead

[[caption-width-right:350:''"We did have to do this. I know that.'' '''''We don't have to like that we did it.'''''''"'']]

* The worst part in the Apocalypse shown in these comics is this horrible fact: everyone will eventually become a walker. The bite isn’t needed. If you die, you turn, that’s all. Imagine living with this fear of becoming one these creatures, no matter what. Or watching your loved ones dying and coming back as monsters. The only way out is to get killed twice. You’ll see many characters shooting their dead friends or family to save them from this fate. This simple idea is not only heartbreaking, it’s sickening.
* While the zombies are bad, they’re nothing compared to the human antagonists. In this hellish world, the idea that HumansAreTheRealMonsters has never been so true.

-->"I deserve this... it's okay... I deserve this..."
* Douglas Monroe tells Rick about a story he heard about, which involved a boy's eyes sucked out by his father, who was on drugs. It's even more unsettling if you realize that this particular incident ''actually happened'' in real life.

* "I heard whispers, and I was afraid. [[spoiler: It was the dead. They were ''speaking''.]]"

[[/folder]]

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:The comic]]

[[folder:The TV show]]
!!In General
* The ParanoiaFuel all over the place. When you are scared, homeless, starving and surrounded by monsters and psychopaths, it’s easy to feel paranoia, and to become violent. In each group, any argument can lead to tragedy, anyone can become a threat, alive or dead. The world they knew is dead, and this brings the worst into the protagonists and antagonists alike.
* One of the most fundamentally disturbing aspects of the walkers is how they ''remember'' their past lives. A walker is just another walker to be shot in the head, right up until it walks home and tries to go back into its house, or it picks up a stuffed animal and carries it around. Then it becomes....something a hell of a lot harder to shoot.
** Even more disturbing if you wonder if some of them know what they became.

!!Season 1
* Rick's awakening at the very start of the series. Imagine waking up in a hospital, having no idea what is happening in the world, and then venturing out of your room to find someone. What do you find? The place in ruins, some stairwells padlocked with cryptic warnings painted on them and strange noises coming from within, and piles and piles of dead bodies all over. Worst case scenario: you've woken up to an extreme epidemic in progress. Really though, it's enough to make a person think that they may very well have woken up in hell.
* The soft-spoken computer, "Vi," describing "de-contamination" after the ratcheting tension in the last few minutes of the Season One finale.

!!Season 2
* In the second episode of the season, T-Dog finds the empty, baby car seat splattered with blood and bits of flesh. Dear God. InfantImmortality averted.
* The well walker.
* Seeing [[spoiler: Dale]] get torn open in the stomach by a walker while he screams, his friends are too far away to help.

!!Season 3
* After Lori can't feel her baby kicking for a while, she worries that it might have died, and will soon be clawing its way out of her.
* In the season 3 premiere, [[spoiler: Hershel's leg amputation]].
* In Season 3, [[spoiler: Hershel]] grabbing [[spoiler: Lori]] when he's being given mouth-to-mouth resuscitation after a bite. [[spoiler: He's not a walker, mind you]].
* The Governor's collection of severed heads.
* [[spoiler: Lori's difficult birth. Not just the terror of a complication when there's an airborne zombie infection, but what Carl has to go through]].
* Rick's breakdown after [[spoiler: Lori dies. He rampages through the prison, almost kills Glenn when he tries to calm Rick down, and finally repeatedly stabs the stomach of a walker who ate Lori's corpse.]]
* The gladiator games in Woodbury, where two men beat the crap out of each other while surrounded by restrained walkers. The zombies have had their teeth removed so the combatants are in minimum danger (although they could still be scratched), but it's still sick. As Andrea points out, the games make people think walkers aren't dangerous.
* Merle, infuriated when [[spoiler: Glenn refuses to tell him where the prison is, unleashes a walker in the room and closes the door. Glenn is ''tied up in a chair.'' Doubles as a CrowningMomentofAwesome when he breaks the chair and kills the Walker.]]
** And in the next room, [[spoiler: the Governor forces Maggie to take off her shirt and lean over the table while he stands behind her. He doesn't rape her, but he does psychologically torture her with the threat of it]].
* Whenever Judith is placed in Rick's arms, and that echoing starts to surface. It really gives the impression that Rick is going to snap and drop her or throw her at a wall.
* Rick's {{Freak Out}} upon hallucinating Lori in a white dress watching him kicking Tyreese's group out, waving a gun around and sending everyone else the hell out as fast as they can. And remember that this is Tyreese and the others' first impression of him.
** Even worse, it's just possible to discern through the darkness that Lori's face is bloodied.
* In "Home", seeing the mother and baby stuck inside a car crying while walkers press around them, with one breaking through the back window and crawling towards them. Thank God Daryl saves them.
* Also from "Home", the [[FanNickname walker bomb]], a van full of walkers sent crashing through the gates of the prison courtesy of the Governor. The characters, as well as the audience, collectively went "OhCrap".
* In "Clear", we discover the fate of [[spoiler: the Jones family. Duane was bitten by his zombified mother, forcing Morgan to put her down, and it's implied he did the same to Duane. Morgan is now completely nuts and suicidal, holing himself up in King County to rot.]]
* The barbecued zombies from "Prey". They're cooked, blackened and stuck together, and some still try to reach the Governor's men. Not recommended viewing while eating.
* The torture room that the Governor has prepared for Michonne is shown in "Prey". At the centre is a dentist's chair with handcuffs, while at the side is a table with various tools on it, including knives, scalpels, dentist's tools, a fish hook with thread, and [[BodyHorror a speculum]]. The latter is what most fans found particularly disturbing, for obvious reasons.
** Particularly disturbing is the way he contemplatively taps the speculum with [[NauseaFuel a dentist's pick]].
* The Governor stalking [[spoiler: Andrea]] through the warehouse, dragging a piece of metal across the floor so she can hear death approaching, and whistling for her to come out.
** The Governor trying to mow her down in an open field in a Jeep.
* The Governor biting off two of [[spoiler: Merle's]] fingers when fighting him.
* [[spoiler: Andrea]] tied to a chair with plastic handcuffs, trying to grab pliers off the floor with their feet to untie themselves, while across the room [[spoiler: Milton]] is slowly dying and about to reanimate.
* The Governor massacring [[spoiler: his own men]] with a rifle.

!!Season 4
* Starting with Season 4, walkers are now constantly shoving against certain spots on the prison fence. The inhabitants get to gradually watch their greatest defenses get worn away, with no easy way to fix the problem.
* The unnamed woman that Rick runs into the in the forest in the first episode. She's so dirty and ragged that he initially mistook her for a walker, speaking in quiet, distant tones with her eyes wide, talking about how she learned to do "whatever she had to do" to survive when she takes Rick to her camp. [[spoiler: Eventually it's revealed that at her camp she keeps her reanimated husband in a burlap sack, and that she took Rick there to feed him to him. When Rick fights her off after her sudden lunge at him she decides she can't take it anymore and stabs herself so she can be a walker too.]]
* The disease in Season 4, which causes victims to cough, bleed from the eyes and mouth, then collapse.
* In the supermarket fight, several zombies' heads simply fall apart due to decomposition.
* Rick snapping when punched by Tyreese, and beating the latter into a pulp and screaming at Daryl to let him go.
* In "Isolation", the herd: walkers, stretching as far as the eye can see over the road ahead, marching towards the cast's car.
* The reveal [[spoiler: that Carol had murdered Karen and David. Of course, it was to prevent the virus from spreading any further, but the way she casually answers when Rick questions her is chilling.]]
* As if "Interment" wasn't bad enough with the plague hitting an all time high, it ends with an odd figure looking at the prison. At first, it looks like a random survivor but then ominous music builds and as the camera lowers down, we see who it is: [[spoiler:'''The Governor''']].
* In "Live Bait", when [[spoiler: The Governor]] lets the rage within him reveal itself, even when it's for good reasons. He brutally bludgeons a walker in front of its daughters, and beats another walker to death with his bare hands.
* The Governor's [[spoiler: final attack on the prison. He does this by nearly decapitating Hershel, then ''finishing the job'' and does a brutal, NoHoldsBarredBeatdown on Rick and nearly strangles him to death.]]
* Lizzie [[spoiler:tries to suffocate Judith in "Inmates" because she wouldn't be quiet. Keep in mind that this was after she was seen killing rabbits in the night]].
** Also from "Inmates", Glenn almost getting overwhelmed when he runs headfirst into a herd of walkers wearing riot gear. The POVCam view of them trying to chew through his visor didn't exactly help.
* During "Claimed", Rick actually attempts to relax for once, lying down in bed with a book while Carl and Michonne go looking for supplies...and then several men break into the house, and Rick is forced to hide under the bed. He further confirms these guys are bad news when one guy lies down on the bed, and another guy comes in and suffocates him until he's unconscious. If he could do that to one of his cohorts, just IMAGINE what he would've done to Rick had he found him. To add to the creepiness factor, the home invaders are only shown from Rick's visual perspective.
** Andrew Lincoln REALLY sold this scene with his acting. Never had Rick looked so scared.
** The episode also contains a very weird, creepy scene that borders on a BigLippedAlligatorMoment. Michonne and Carl are looking through a house when Michonne finds a bedroom with bright, pink walls, where an entire family's mummified bodies are laying peacefully in beds and chairs around the room.
* For the opening scene of "Still", Beth and Daryl have to lock themselves in a car's boot to hide from a hoard. The show skips through snippets of the rest of the day, the night and eventually the morning, where the two just stare out through the crack of the door, listening to the innumerable walkers and a storm.
* In "The Grove", when Tyreese and Carol came back to there safehouse, they discover that [[spoiler: Lizzie, whose hand is covered in blood and is holding a knife, has killed her own sister, Mika, so she can reanimate and what's worse is she was planning to do the same thing to Judith. And before Carol puts Lizzie down, Lizzie completely misses the point that she thinks that Carol wants to "talk" to her not because she killed her own sister, but because she aimed a gun at her, which shows just how messed up she has become.]]
* From the season finale:
** Carl's [[spoiler: AttemptedRape]] is one of the most disturbing and uncomfortable scenes in the entire show despite very little actually being shown, just for the sheer AdultFear factor of it: [[spoiler: Rick and Michonne are being held at gunpoint and Daryl is in the process of being beaten to death while one of the Marauders drags Carl from the car he'd been sleeping in, pins him to the ground, and can be distinctly heard struggling with his belt buckle, all while leering at Carl and telling him to "stop squirming".]] It's incredibly difficult to watch, and it makes what [[PapaWolf Rick does to the Marauders]] incredibly satisfying, as horrible as it is.
** Granted, the victim wasn't exactly pleasant, but Rick [[spoiler: biting Joe in the neck and tearing out his throat]] was pretty unnerving, especially because for a few brief moments it makes him seem very much like the walkers.
** There are a few very creepy moments during the scene where Rick, Carl, Michonne, and Daryl are being chased through [[spoiler: Terminus]] by sniper fire: first, they're led into a bizarre room filled with candles and what look like memorial shrines with names written on the floor and the messages "NEVER AGAIN", "NEVER TRUST", and "WE FIRST, ALWAYS" emblazoned on the wall. Back outside, they pass a courtyard filled with what looks an awful lot like bloody human skeletons entirely stripped of flesh, and a series of train cars from which voices can distinctly be heard screaming for help. All of these instances are made even more disturbing by the fact that they aren't explained -- but there are more than a few hints that [[spoiler: the inhabitants of Terminus are in fact the TV show's take on the cannibals from the comic continuity, and the season ends with them taking most of the cast prisoner...]]

!!Season 5
* The trough room in the season premiere. The main characters are at the back of the line as redshirt captives are being slit one by one. [[spoiler: Glenn was only seconds away from joining them.]] Plus [[spoiler: the butchered human body parts in the next room]].
* During her assault on Terminus, Carol comes across items the Terminants took from the people [[spoiler:they ate]]. Among them is an entire table full of [[WouldHurtAChild stuffed animals and other toys]].
* The ending of "Strangers", where Bob finds himself [[spoiler: captured by the Terminus survivors]], and gets an excellent view of the group [[spoiler: cooking and eating his leg.]]
* In "Four Walls and a Roof", Rick, Michonne, Sasha and Abraham [[spoiler: savage the Hunters to death with rifle butts, knives and machetes]], inside a church no less.
* Beth's ordeal during "Slabtown": [[spoiler: held against her will for god knows how long, nearly raped, then tricked into assisting in the murder of an innocent man.]]
** Over the course of the episode, learning the true nature of how the hospital is run and the subtle hinting at Beth's [[SexSlave most valued purpose]] for being there.
* There is just something very unsettling about Abraham's HairTriggerTemper seen during the course of early Season 5. [[spoiler:Nearly killing Eugene after he had lied to him and been found out, Abraham just goes off on him and beats the holy hell out of him for lying.]]
* Seeing Carol get [[spoiler:mowed down with a car while Daryl is helpless to go to her, knowing she's going to be trapped in the same hell as Beth until they can come back with reinforcements.]]
* [[spoiler: Tyreese's death scene]] in "What Happened and What's Going On". It isn't quick, not even close, as he's left suffering and dying for almost the entire episode; not only is it shown mostly from his perspective, but it's also punctuated by what can best be described as strange hallucinations of dead characters visiting and mocking him, even welcoming him into death. [[spoiler: The HopeSpot of the others getting to him and getting him out of there ends up being for nothing, as he dies halfway home after great trouble on part of the rest of the group.]]
** The group discovers something very strange in this episode. Somebody looks to have chopped a ton of walkers in half and left their bottom halves to rot in a field. The group finds their ''still (un)live'' armless top halves stuffed into the back of the truck they parked near in the process of getting out. The episode provides no context for who did this or why.
* From "Them":
** Maggie found a female walker who is BoundAndGagged and trapped inside a trunk car. She's implied to be a victim of kidnapping and has been left to die starving in there. Who knows how ''long'' she's been BoundAndGagged and trapped in there? Also doubles as TearJerker, because Maggie seems to be reminded of Beth due to the walker's blonde hair and the fact that the walker's BoundAndGagged.
** When the group is in the barn, a herd of walkers storm the barn and almost break through the door had the group hasn't awakened to hold the barn's door together. The next morning, it's revealed those walkers are all either crushed to death or ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice (still alive but cannot move anymore) by falling trees around the barn, which was caused by the enraging rainstorm in the previous night. ''Wow''. Imagine what would happen to the protagonists if Daryl didn't find the barn and the group didn't stay in there. Sasha lampshades this.
* In "Forget", Sam (Jessie and Pete's young son) walks in on Carol stealing some guns, and she tells him to keep it secret in exchange for cookies. But, Sam says he has to tell his mom, since he tells her everything. Carol then calmly and in great detail explains what will happen should he tell anyone: he'll wake up tied to a tree, with no one around, and he'll be ripped apart by walkers and no one will ever know what happened to him. The look of sheer horror in the poor kid's eyes is awesome. So ultimately, he chooses living and cookies over telling his mom what he saw.
** At the end of that episode, Rick hears a Walker banging on the walls of the town. A strange echoing version of Spicks and Specks starts to play and Rick just... leans against the wall. It's less scary and more unsettling.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The video game]]
!!Season 1
* Lee's nightmare of [[spoiler: Clementine as a zombie and biting him]] can freak a few players out.
* Should Lee agree to [[spoiler: kill Larry]] and try to talk to Lilly afterwards, [[spoiler: [[JumpScare Lilly suddenly faces towards the camera and glares at Lee, or more accurately the player, with hatred in her eyes.]]]]
-->'''Lilly''': [[spoiler: '''Get away from me.''']]
* In the game, when [[spoiler:either Carley or Doug is shot by Lily]], everyone stands in stunned silence for about a second during which a shuddering breath can be heard. [[spoiler: This is Carley/Doug's death rattle.]]
* The music that plays when you have to save either Carley or Doug. It is just so ominous and pressures you to Choose QUICKLY.
* The player can choose to threaten Ben when he reveals he [[spoiler: was the cause of the bandit raid in episode 3, and thus the cause of Duck, Katjaa, and Carley/Doug's deaths.]] Said threat is arguably the most uncharacteristically antagonistic thing Lee can say to one individual.
-->'''Lee''': Nobody can see us. I could toss you over right now, and be done with it.
** All the while, Ben is absolutely terrified.
* In the game, having to MercyKill [[spoiler:Duck because he was bitten. Not only does it ramp up the AdultFear to the nth degree with the prospect of a parent having to shoot their own child, but if you picked the option to do it yourself, the game doesn't go the easy route and make you ''watch'' Lee kill him. Oh no, the game makes you, the player, take control and put down a 10-year-old boy. And you can't get out of it until you pull the trigger. Happy dreams.]]
** Another case of AdultFear is at the end of the episode [[spoiler:when Lee and the others find out that a mysterious man has been talking to Clementine the whole time, secretly telling her what to do and to come to him. While his intentions are not clear yet, it still is easy to draw parallels to a child molester]].
*** And just when you thought it couldn't get any worse...[[spoiler:Clementine is kidnapped by the end of Episode 4, and Lee is bitten by a walker. The AdultFear has just gone through the roof.]]
*** In Episode 4, when Lee and the group get into a house [[spoiler: after making it to Savannah]], Kenny discovers [[spoiler: a starved zombie boy that looks ''exactly'' like Duck no less in the attic. It's implied that this boy starved to death and became a weakened zombie. Though a zombie, you can't help but feel bad for it as Lee puts it out of its misery.]] Oh, and to make it worse? Lee is reminded of how he first met Clementine and says, [[spoiler: "This could've been Clementine had I not found her...". The idea of a zombified, starved Clementine wandering her backyard sends shudders.]]
*** Not only did we witness [[spoiler: two children dying, one being a zombie child, and Clementine being taken.]], the group learns of a settlement called Crawford ''that kills children'' and other undesireables because they're considered dead weight.
* In Episode 4, [[spoiler: Brie]] dies a shockingly gruesome death. Normally when a group of zombies eat someone, they're usually dead or if they're alive, the camera usually is far away or cuts away from them. [[spoiler: Brie]] however, get's eaten alive surprisingly quick and we even see close up of a zombie ripping out [[spoiler: her]] intestines right before the camera cuts away.
** On the bright side, the contest winner whom [[spoiler: Brie]] is based on was probably delighted at being a notable death in the game.
* Also in Episode 4, Lee finds about [[spoiler: six walkers outside the door to the nurses office in the school.]] First of all, it's jarring finding them [[spoiler: within the school right after locking a bunch of more out.]] Secondly, instead of the milky white eyes players usually see on the average walker, these ones seem to completely ''lack'' eyes. Seeing them shamble towards you at a quick jerky pace in first-person with the intent to kill can send shivers up your spine.
* Lee and Clementine [[spoiler:walking through a horde of walkers, with only the bleak hope that the zombified blood on their clothes will prevent the walkers from smelling them]].
* When [[spoiler: Lee gets his infected left arm amputated. The game does not treat you to just a cutscene and poof! Lee has a stump for a left arm, oh no! It treats you to a brutal, graphic scene of Christa, Kenny or LEE HIMSELF having to ''saw through his Goddamned arm with a saw'' all while he's screaming in pain. If there was any consolation, it's that Christa and the others do not take pleasure in having to put Lee through this.]]
** Speaking of [[spoiler: amputating, the second episode starts with Lee and Mark meeting a teacher and his two students, with the former caught in a bear trap. They can't get it open as it's been modified without a release switch. With a horde of zombies bearing down on them. The player has to choose to either leave the teacher behind (complete with a cutscene to really drive the guilt home) or chop the man's leg off..which makes you do ''every...single...blow'' in graphic detail.]]
* [[spoiler: The Stranger]] when you first meet him starts out pretty creepy and you can tell their is something wrong with him. Gets outright disturbing when [[spoiler: [[DespairEventHorizon he tells you that he lost his son which caused his wife to take his daughter and leave him, and finding them dead the next day]]]]. Oh and just to top it off [[spoiler: He not only seems to imply that he kept his wife's severed head but you find out that the head is ''still zombified'']].
* When [[spoiler: Lee finds Mark in the hidden room]], or any time [[spoiler: Mark]] shows up after that. The whole last half of Episode 2 borders on the high octane fuel thanks to a good dose of [[HumansAretheRealMonsters humans are the real monsters]].
* In Episode 3, Lee enters the RV in a search of a pencil with [[spoiler: Lily tied up after she murders Carley/Doug]]. Just as he takes the pencil and turns around, [[spoiler: he finds Lily up on her feet with a lifeless expression on her face. Thankfully, she had no intention to hurt Lee and only planned on leaving, but the fact that she just freed herself out of nowhere gave a bit of a shock.]]
* Ben [[spoiler:falling from the balcony and impaled. And he was still ALIVE. just imagine that, falling from a high balcony into a dark alley and impaled while hoping that anyone but a walker comes around]].
* In the meat locker scene, when [[spoiler: Kenny crushes Larry's head with a salt lick.]] Try unseeing that.
* When you find out what's behind the locked door in the barn...
* In 400 Days, during Russell's story you can choose to [[spoiler: hide from an approaching truck in the beginning. Russell will then look to his side as he lie down to hide, and the player is greeted with a full-view of Doug/Carley's corpse, complete with maggots crawling over his/her face.]]
*** The sadistic games Nate plays with Russell, including [[spoiler: stopping the car next to a female walker and opening the window just enough for her to get her hand in until he rates her on a scale of one to ten in terms of sex appeal.]]
** During Bonnie's story, she is cornered by a bandit. She attacks in self-defense [[spoiler: and finds out too late that she had attacked Dee by mistake. Dee's skull has been smashed by the impact, rendering her right eyeball useless and exposing part of her brain. She manages to stay alive for another minute and mutter how Bonnie has killed her.]]
** [[spoiler: And if you recognize Dee's silhouette and not attack then Dee will kill you. Just the sight of her silhouette beating you with her flashlight is terrifying, much like the way Lee can die in first person in Episode 2's finale at the hands of a rifle.]]
** During Vince's story he and two other convicts end up facing down another zombiefied convict. Should be no problem, right? [[spoiler:Unfortunately, there are two problems. All three of the men are chained together and that one zombie quickly becomes dozens as the prison bus is slowly surrounded. The only way to get out alive is to blow off one of the men's feet with a shotgun and then run for it while the zombies close in on him. It does a great job of making the player feel helpless and sets the grim tone for the rest of the game.]]
*** How the convict (named Jerry) got zombified was due to them complaining about the heat on the bus, and then the guy behind him (Marcus Crabtree) [[DisproportionateRetribution decides to choke him to death]]. One of the guards goes to stop the scuffle, but accidentally blows off the head of Marcus with a shotgun. This is all right before ''anyone knows that there's an outbreak'', which somehow makes it scarier.

!!Season 2
* Clementine [[spoiler: stitching her own arm up just to be attacked by a walker soon after is terrifying.]]
** [[spoiler: To add to the fuel the walker doesn't seem like a big threat at first since it was stuck but when it breaks through the shed HOLY CRAP!.]]
** And depending on your choices, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking she doesn't even get to drink her juice afterward!]]
* Clementine finds a dog on its own in the middle of the forest and they both quickly become friends, play fetch, and go on a little quest to find food for the starving friends. [[spoiler: Then the dog sudddenly turns feral and attacks Clementine when it doesn't agree with the idea of sharing the food that Clementine found. She manages to kick it off, though... only for it to land on some sharp poles nearby that were formerly used for the tents. The noises it makes while it's stuck there is just the cherry on top.]]
* The part were Clementine is running through the woods at night after being separated from Christa. its creepy enough that you have to escape from Winston a really angry bandit but what really turns up the fuel is the walkers coming from nowhere troubling Clem even more.
* Heck, the ''beginning'' of Season 2 is nightmare fuel. Clementine goes to wash her face in the girls' room, and accidentally drops her water bottle, where it rolls under one of the stalls. Clementine leaves behind her gun just for a few seconds so she can retrieve the water bottle...[[spoiler:no, there isn't a walker in the stall. Nice try. But a random stranger comes in, takes Clementine's gun, holds Clementine at gunpoint when robbing her, and then ''shoots Omid'' when Omid comes in and tries to save her (although to be fair, it was partially an accident because the door closing startled the stranger). All while Clementine is ''completely helpless'' to do anything about any of this.]]
* And after the above event, in the span of about a single day Clementine [[spoiler:has to get away from three thugs ''and'' walkers all at the same time, falls into a river, and then gets bitten by a dog and then after ''that'' has to escape from walkers ''again'', and they still almost devour her until Pete and Luke show up.]] God, if you thought Clementine had it rough in Season 1, Season 2 ''really'' puts her through the ringer.
** And just after ''that'', [[spoiler:she desperately tries to convince them that she's not bitten and they don't need to kill her, then gets locked in the shed so they can make sure she doesn't turn.]]
** It doesn't end there. [[spoiler: After sneaking through said group's house to get supplies to patch herself up, she gets to... patch herself up. And the player is forced (through a quicktime event) to have Clementine stitch herself up, with no anesthetic.]] AND THEN [[spoiler: A walker breaks into the shed the same way Clem exited, forcing her to fight it off using a bunch of bricks and a [[CallBack clawhammer]], before help arrives.]] Needless to say, Clementine has a trying time this episode.
*** Speaking of the impromptu arm surgery during the last stitch she... aims badly and ends up just pricking the needle into her flesh instead of through the wound like it's supposed to be. So she has ''wriggle it around inside of her arm and re-adjust it so it's aligned with the wound''. Imagine how much it would hurt to move a razor-sharp object around even a little inside your arm and then afterwards she still has to pierce the other side of the wound as well. She really is as tough as nails.
* Every scene with [[spoiler: Carver]] in a ''A House Divided''. Especially the part where [[spoiler: he tortures Carlos, kills Walt, and the holds a gun to Clem's head.]]
** [[spoiler: He doesn't hold a gun to Clem's head if Clem decides to go outside and seek Kenny's assistance. But in that case he holds a gun to ''Alvin's'' head instead, and if you don't talk Kenny out of making the shot, Carver will get hit in the shoulder but then stand back up and kill Alvin right in front of his wife Rebecca.]]
** [[spoiler: Actually, Alvin can get shot ''anyways'' even if you do surrender, depending on your dialogue choices during the scene.]]
*** [[spoiler: The scene where he gets shot is nightmare fuel incarnate. You see him go down to the floor, and everyone in the room has a shocked look on their face as if it's over. And then Carver opens his eyes and gets up without even a grunt and executes Alvin without any difficulty.]]
* [[spoiler: Carver's]] first appearance is this to not only the player/Clementine but to poor Sarah. [[spoiler: Carver is after Carlos' group, and comes cross a lone girl in a house. After hearing a noise from upstairs, Carver draws out his gun to apprehend the intruder...who is Sarah desperately trying to hide from him. Fortunately after some close calls, Carver gives up and leaves the house.]]
* The scene in which [[spoiler: Walt finds out Nick killed Matthew. Surprisingly for the GenreSavvy, however, Walt doesn't go berserk on Nick, he even throws the knife he's holding away. The "payoff" comes later, when Nick is grappling with a walker...and if you didn't persuade Walter that Nick's a "good guy", Walter deliberately ''leaves Nick to get his throat torn open''!]]
* As [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming heartwarming]] as [[spoiler: Kenny's return]] is, as the episode goes on [[HairTriggerTemper his]] [[FreudianSlip actions]] make it clear that he's not... [[SanitySlippage "all there" anymore...]]
* [[KickTheSonOfABitch Although ''no one'' deserved it like he did]], [[spoiler:Carver's death by crowbar is nightmarishly savage. By the time Kenny is done with him, he doesn't even have a face left to bash in.]] Similarly, [[spoiler: if Clementine advocates for his death and stays to watch, the utterly dispassionate look on her face and tone in her voice are positively chilling. The blatant loss of innocence is disturbingly comparable to that of [[Series/GameOfThrones Arya Stark]].]]
** If Clementine chooses [[spoiler: to stay and watch, her choice of words and tone of voice]] are very unnerving.
-->'''Clementine:''' [[spoiler: I'm not going anywhere.]]
-->'''[[spoiler:Kenny]]:''' It's gonna be messy.
-->'''Clementine:''' ''[[spoiler: I know...]]''
* Carver has a chilling expression on his face when he is beating [[spoiler:Kenny.]]
* Just living in that settlement under Carver's control, it's almost ''Governor'' level. The man is obviously drunk on his own power and uses fear to keep everyone in line. And pretty much forcing everyone to work. For all his talk about mercy and whatnot, he's very quick to harm anyone who doesn't get with the program. The walkers seem like a better option than his "safety".
* The way the third episode ends. [[spoiler: The group manage to escape the settlement but have to pass through a walker horde by putting guts on them to blend in (what makes this even more dangerous is that those in the hardware store are shooting at the incoming walkers from the roof, unable to differentiate the living from the dead). It nearly works, but Carlos is suddenly hit in the neck by a stray bullet. He stumbles, and is quickly devoured by the herd as Sarah watches (with her cries of anguish not helping in the slightest), causing her to go in to a HeroicBSOD and run away, separating her from the group. Sarita is caught and bitten in the arm in which Clem may or may not cut off right then and there depending on the player's choice. If the arm is cut off, Sarita will stare at it for a moment and let out an absolutely '''horrific''' scream (Which even The Walking Dead Wiki describes as "Bloodcurdling") as the episode cuts to black.]] ''Yeeesh''.
** The music heard as it cuts to black actually makes it more scary.
** But wait, [[SarcasmMode It Gets Better]] [[spoiler: Episode 4 picks up right after this and if you picked the cut off the arm options. Sarita is instantly jumped by walkers and devoured right before Clem and Kenny's eyes, pretty much proving your actions fruitless.]] Thanks Telltale.
* The thumbnail for Amid The Ruins. It shows Clementine surrounded by shadows, marking her face with what appears to be ''blood''.
** The expression on her face makes it even worse; the poor girl looks absolutely broken.
* The way Episode 4 opens with everyone running off in different directions amongst the [[spoiler: walker herd. At one point Clem is completely lost in the sea of hungry walkers. Suddenly she gets grabbed from behind out of nowhere. Thankfully it's Rebecca and you later meet up with Jane to finally make your way out. But even then it's still quite frightening.]]
* The death of [[spoiler: Sarah]]. No matter what choice you make [[spoiler: a fifteen year old girl crying and screaming for her dead father is devoured by walkers, and no one can or will rescue her. Her death in both scenarios will crush your soul.]]
* At the end of Episode 4, [[spoiler:Walker!Rebecca attempting to eat her baby.]]
** Even worse this happens [[spoiler: right in the midst of a MexicanStandoff with Russians whom Jane and (an albeit reluctant) Clem had robbed earlier. In trying to stop her from doing so, either Kenny or Clem will immediately [[MercyKill shoot her]]. The sets everyone off, and as the episode [[SmashToBlack smashes to black]], we hear the sounds of several guns going off at once in what could be the most traumatic BlastOut in video game history.]]
* [[spoiler:Kenny]] yelling and cursing at Clementine for [[spoiler: Sarita's death (which he will blame you for regardless of choice. Either from trying to help her by hacking off her wrist or not helping her quicker]]. Especially since it seemed like something he would never, ever do. He really '''has''' crossed the DespairEventHorizon.
** Thankfully he (seems to) get better once he gets it out of his system, acknowledging that Clem wasn't truly ''at fault'', but still partially responsible due to her actions.
* The thumbnail for No Going Back is more subtle, but possibly even worse. In stark contrast to the drama of the previous thumbnails it shows an abandoned road covered in snow piling over a dead body with not a single living human in sight. It's scary in the [[NothingIsScarier worst]] [[DespairEventHorizon implied]] [[KillEmAll way]] [[DownerEnding possible.]]
** Which is only made worse now that we've seen [[spoiler:the potential massacre that is]] the end of Episode 4.
** So much worse after Episode 5. [[spoiler:Whom the dead body belongs to is ''determinate.'']]
* A recently released vine teaser for Episode 5 shows a clip of a struggling Clementine trudging through what appears to be a blizzard. If the overall eerie environment and lack of any other people isn't unsettling, the creepy Music Box-esque "My Darling Clementine" playing sure is.
* The death of [[spoiler:Vitali]] at the beginning of episode 5, getting stabbed in the back of the head/neck by [[spoiler:Jane]]. You then get to hear him make disgusting gurgling noises for a good few seconds until he is put out of his misery via headshot. Sure, what little we had seen of him painted him as a JerkAss at best and AxCrazy at worst, but it was still not a pretty death.
* At the mid-point of Episode 5 - [[spoiler: Clementine is shot by a vindictive Arvo]].
** It's also a lot worse if your first thought is that [[spoiler:the following dream is a Death Dream.]]
* [[spoiler:Luke either drowning or being pulled down by a walker in the lake.]]
* [[spoiler:Kenny trying to murder Jane upon thinking that she let AJ die, and possibly succeeding to do so if the player doesn't intervene.]]
** This scene really needs to be talked about in more detail. [[spoiler: After navigating through a blizzard, Clementine meets up with Kenny and Jane, the only other group members left. When Kenny notices that Alvin Jr is missing, he questions Jane, who hesitates. Kenny then [[BerserkButton snaps]] and starts trying to kill Jane. She fights back and one of the most intense fights in the series starts. Meanwhile, Clementine is trying desperately to stop what little of her friends are left from murdering each other, but they don't stop. Eventually Kenny gets the upper hand and tries to stab Jane with her own knife. Clementine notices a gun and grabs it. We then get a [[SarcasmMode lovely]] SadisticChoice: kill Kenny or let him kill Jane. A TearJerker to be sure, but its over now, right. [[FromBadToWorse ''of course not!'']] Because ''now'' it turns out that Alvin Jr is alive, and the whole thing was set up by Jane to provke Kenny into snapping.]] [[PunctuatedForEmphasis Holy. Fuck.]]
* [[spoiler:Jane has some unsettling favoring to Clementine in Episode 5. She intentionally pushes Kenny beyond his limits just so Clementine will see what a monster he has become. However, she didn't expect Kenny to lash out quite as much as he did.]]
* [[spoiler: Then of course there's the way Kenny lashes out during the climax. Earlier in Episode 5 he promises Clementine he won't lose his temper badly again, after terrifying her by beating Arvo. The promise seems very sincere and the scene is a CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming for the player. Until the end, where in the space of a few hours he's lost his temper so badly he can brutally murder another person as well as forcefully pushing Clem to the floor during his fight with said person.]]
* [[spoiler: Heck, ''all'' the ending variations offer some, in varying degrees of severity.]]
** [[spoiler: Let Kenny Live]]: [[spoiler: Alvin Jr. was alive all along, and it was a ploy by Jane to reveal Kenny's insanity to Clem. While this makes Kenny finally realize his failings and try to improve himself, it's still clear that he's far from okay, and it took him actually killing someone in a fit of anger to realize it. Despite this, Clem decides to forgive him, and they march forward to Wellington.]]
*** [[spoiler: Stay with Kenny]]: [[spoiler: While the gate guard attempts to raise Kenny and Clem's hopes, it's unclear whether they'll get another chance at entering Wellington, meaning they could easily die in the cold, all for nothing.]]
*** [[spoiler: Stay at Wellington]]: [[spoiler: While Wellington is arguably the most secure, well-off place in Walking Dead canon, it's unclear whether this is a good thing - their initial refusal to allow Kenny, Clem and Alvin Jr. entry implies a sense of pragmatism similar to Carver and Crawford. On top of that, Kenny will probably die alone, never seeing Clem again.]]
** [[spoiler: Stay With Jane]]: [[spoiler: Alvin Jr. is still alive, but now the aftermath has changed - Kenny has died for nothing, and Jane's reasoning is shaky at best. Even ''she'' seems distraught by the outcome - depending on your dialogue choices, she may tearfully admit that it was a terrible, pointless plan, and that she never should have gone through with it. Despite this, Clem decides to forgive her and return to Howes'.]]
*** [[spoiler: Let The Family In]]: [[spoiler: While the family is certainly friendly, and they seem willing to help with rebuilding Howes', Clem appears fearful - indeed, the family's dialogue and Clem's reactions to it seems to imply that the father is very much like Kenny was before his family died, meaning that everything could easily come full-circle.]]
*** [[spoiler: Turn The Family Away]]: [[spoiler: Clem's threatening response to the family and cold implication that she'll kill them if they come back shows how far she has fallen since the season's beginning, indicating a dark future for the poor girl.]]
** [[spoiler: Go it Alone]]: [[spoiler: The bleakest of all the endings, Clementine is left alone in the wilderness with Alvin Jr., silently and coldly dealing with walkers as she presses forward. The the short length and lack of dialogue or multiple outcomes leaves a hollow feeling of hopelessness, and little else.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Books]]
!!Rise Of The Governor

!!Road To Woodbury

* Lilly's group finding a wrecked school bus on the side of the road, along with a horde of walkers eating the remains of the children who were inside it.
* Josh revealing what happened to his mother to Lilly. [[spoiler:When he got home from work he found a SWAT and hazmat team investigating and quarantining his apartment. He immediately rushes up stairs to find the room, in his own words, "painted with blood" along with his mothers remains scattered about over the table. What makes it worse is that she let the walkers in, thinking they were raggedy homeless people only to have them devour her alive.]] Josh is understandably reduced to tears.

!!Fall Of The Governor
[[/folder]]

** When the group is in the barn, a herd of walkers storm the barn and almost breakthrough the door had the group hasn't awakened to hold the barn's door together. The next morning, it's revealed those walkers are all either crushed to death or ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice (still alive but cannot move anymore) by falling trees around the barn, which caused by the enraging rainstorm in the previous night. ''Wow''. Imagine what would happen to the protagonists if Daryl didn't find the barn and the group didn't stay in there. Sasha lampshades this.

** Maggie found a female walker who is BoundAndGagged and trapped inside a trunk car. She's implied to be a victim of kidnapping and has been left to die starving in there. Who knows how ''long'' she's been BoundAndGagged and trapped in there? Also doubles as TearJerker, because Maggie seems to be reminded of Beth due to the walker's blonde hair.

** When the group is in the barn, a herd of walkers storm the barn and almost breakthrough the door had the group hasn't awakened to hold the barn's door together. The next morning, it's revealed those walkers are all either crushed to death or ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice (still alive but cannot move anymore) by falling trees around the barn, which caused by the enraging rainstorm in the previous night. ''Wow''.

** When the group is in the barn, a herd of walkers storm the barn and almost breakthrough the door had the group hasn't awakened to hold the barn's door together. The next morning, it's revealed those walkers are all either dead or ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice (still alive but cannot move anymore) by falling trees around the barn, which caused by the enraging rainstorm in the previous night. ''Wow''.

* From "Them", Maggie found a female walker who is BoundAndGagged and trapped inside a trunk car. She's implied to be a victim of kidnapping and has been left to die starving in there. Who knows how ''long'' she's been BoundAndGagged and trapped in there? Also doubles as TearJerker, because Maggie seems to be reminded of Beth due to the walker's blonde hair.

* [[spoiler: Tyreese's death scene]] in "What Happened and What's Going On". It isn't quick, not even close, as he's left suffering and dying for almost the entire episode; not only is it shown mostly from his perspective, but it's also punctuated by what can best be described as strange hallucinations of dead characters visiting and mocking him, even welcoming him into death. [[spoiler: The HopeSpot of the others getting to him and getting him out of there ends up being for nothing, as he dies after great trouble on part of the rest of the group.]]

* [[spoiler: Tyreese's death scene]] in "What Happened and What's Going On". It isn't quick, not even close, as he's left suffering and dying for almost the entire episode, punctuated by what can best be described as strange hallucinations of dead characters visiting and mocking him, even welcoming him into death. The others finally go through hell to save him and amputate his infected arm, but he ends up dying anyway.
** The group discovers something very strange in this episode. Somebody looks to have chopped a ton of walkers in half and left their bottom halves to rot in a field. The group finds their ''still (un)live'' top halves stuffed into the back of the station wagon they parked near in the process of getting out. The episode provides no context for who did this or why.

** So much worse after Episode 5. [[spoiler:Whom the dead body belongs to is determinate. And Jesus if that isn't an unsettling statement.]]

* [[spoiler: Then of course there's the way Kenny lashes out during the climax. Earlier in Episode 5 he promises Clementine he won't lose his temper badly again, after terrifying her by beating Arvo. The promise seems very sincere and the scene is a CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming for the player. Until the end, where in the space of a few hours he's lost his temper so badly he can brutally murder another person as well as forcefully pushing Clem to the floor during his fight with said person.]]

** So much worse after Episode 5. [[spoiler:Whom the dead body belongs to is determinate. And Jesus if that isn't an unsettling statement.]]