By Jeffrey Matulef
[Warning: This piece contains spoilers for The Walking Dead: Episode One.]
There's a moment in The Walking Dead game where an attractive reporter mentions that she was rescued by a chubby nerd named Doug. "That guy rescued you?" protagonist, Lee Everett asks, incredulously, before remarking that you never know who's going to be the hero in these situations.
That you don't know how people will react in an emergency is key to The Walking Dead's identity. On the surface, it's about a bunch of survivors in tense situations. Do you throw a little boy out of a hideout because he looks like he's been bit? Should you save the able bodied teenager or the small boy? What about giving a recently infected girl a gun, so she can blow her brains out before turning zombie? These are tough situations with no right answer. How people act during them can be completely incongruous to who they ordinarily are.
