The Walking Dead endings and story discussions (Yeah, there are spoilers)

First let me just say if you haven't finished playing the Walking Dead Episode 5, leave. Serious, close this thread and either start playing Episode 5 to completion or start the game from Episode 1 because you haven't played it yet. There's even a nice disc based version out in December you can pick up or finish it on the weekend or when you usually get your gaming in but don't keep reading. If you are still here and haven't stopped reading yet I think you're the type that likes reading spoilers for games but just in case I'll give you one more warning, it's time to go.

...

Are they gone? Cool.

WHAT THE HELL I CHOPPED OFF MY ARM AND PLAYED THE ENTIRE EPISODE ONE HANDED AND STILL DIED!?

I knew it was looking to be me dying at the end anyway but to give you the option to even get your hopes up a little bit got me. Even after seeing that trailer where Lee picked up that shard of glass and went into zombie slaying mode as a dual wielding berserker I still hoped I get out alive. It made me sorry I put Lee through all the harshness of the things he had to do while infected and one handed.

I'm really interested in the character deaths but would our boat have been taken if I left Ben back in Episode 4 or would Dr. Boatvorkean have iced whoever was there? I took the whole group with me because I thought about strength in numbers but it turns out weight in numbers is what I should have been thinking about because by the time Ben got to jump he fell and impaled himself. Kenny couldn't leave him because I got him to be a nice guy and used our last bullet to end Ben's life before a horde or zombies ate him and then was eaten himself. I almost wanted to go back to a save in the house but I dropped the gun anyway so bullets were irrelevant. There were so many times I wanted to have Kenny die... this wasn't one of them.

As soon as we got to the wood bridge I thought "Been nice knowing you Krista/Omid or both" and just waited for them to walk to the end. They made it. What? I started shambling across waiting for a board to break but I'll be damned it held. Hunh. My thinking here was if there were 4 survivors, one would have died there.

As for the next bridge I played it safe and let them go, knowing the last guy would die but I'm Lee the main character so I'll make it. My hopes fell with that sign. I tried looking around for the invisible bridge like Indiana Jones but it wasn't there. Hunh. I went through all the dialogue options other then "ellipsis" and then Lee said the greatest six words I've heard him say through the entire story, maybe even history of video games "Fuck it, I'm going for it".

What followed next was a zombie apocalypse out of nowhere and that's not the zombie apocalypse were zombies cause an apocalypse but where zombies are redying like the wrath of zombie God has just been unleashed and Lee goes Wolverine berseker rage through a horde and makes it to the hotel. Without being bitten, hope was still alive.

Then the Stranger, so weird I thought he might be reasoned with. Near the end too even but he was set on being crazy so I glanced at the cleaver while Clem crept behind him for the perfect set up "She wouldn't hurt a fly...". Then I got shot during the fight and restarted a save because I'm the hero and I can't afford to be shot. I restarted from that same moment with Clemeaver, still worth it and after seeing that I ended any possibility of him returning. Then saw how nuts everyone else was in the stats.

The ending in the jewelry store really got to me and it must have been what everything I thought Clem was working to. I was afraid I had a time limit before I turned but was confused if it was blood loss, either way I wasn't making it and knew it. After some emotional pep talk I knew the gun was out of the question and wanted Clem to bolt, keys Clem. I made a horrible mistake, I just killed her. She's in a fight for her life and I 'm going to be the cause of her death because I messed up the very last choice but whoop that lamps going to fall on the zombie but waitnonothatscomingatmyface! Pretty nice gotcha moment but I knew something was up when the zombie reacted regardless of what choice. I sent Clem on her way telling her that Krista and Omid were waiting at the train for her because it was the only place they all knew. I did it and saved her, Clem remembered that. Then she saved a bullet and left me because I told her.

Now I was expecting a cut scene of them meeting but all I got was Clem in a field, finding bullet and shotgun shells on the ground and two shadowy figures walking across a distant hill. Krista and Omid? Walkers? Daryl and Myrl? No idea, it ends with a confused look on Clem's face and they stop walking.

At this point I'm just confused, what have I been teaching her that affected anything at all? I knew choices matter but this ending is what could be slapped on any ending. Could anything else have been different? Can't wait to check out the wikia and the youtube videos just to see all the possibilities.

My questions:

What if I went first on the sign?

What If I left someone guarding the boat?

How do I get those cookies in Episode 3 from that zombie that wouldn't shut up the entire time when I first got to the train??