Ericson's Boarding School for Troubled Youth, or simply Ericson's, is a building, later converted to a community of survivors, that appears in The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series and Clementine Lives.
Pre-Apocalypse[]
It was a boarding school prior to the outbreak began. It was located in the middle of the forest. The school's headmaster, Richard, owned a dog named Rosie. The school had a nurse called Ms. Martin who was very interested in science and plants. Marlon and Louis were on the school sports team together. Most of the other survivors encountered in the present day of The Final Season were students there. The remaining students each have a variety of reasons for being sent there including violence, building pipe bombs, credit card theft and even chronic masturbation in Willy's case.
Post-Apocalypse[]
During the start of the outbreak, Richard and all of the remaining faculty fled the boarding school with the exception of the school nurse, Ms. Martin, leaving the remaining 42 students alone to fend for themselves. One of the eldest students, Marlon, stepped up to the role of leader for all the students that were left behind. At some point early on during the apocalypse, Ms. Martin was attacked and bitten by walkers at the school greenhouse, leaving the children without any adult supervision. Over the following years, the school suffered as many as 30 other casualties amongst its remaining inhabitants from various causes, presumably walker attacks for the majority.
Around a year before the events of "Done Running", some of the school's survivors were approached by members of the Delta during a hunting trip. The Delta pressured Marlon into secretly trading two of their own, twins Sophie and Minerva as soldiers for their militia in exchange for safety, threatening to kill them all if they refused. Marlon and Brody attempted to keep the trade a secret from the rest of the group, lying that the twins had been killed by walkers instead. By the events of "Done Running", only Marlon, Rosie and a small group of nine other children still inhabit the school.
Inhabitants[]
- Violet (Former Leader, Supply Runner, Fisherwoman)
- Louis (Supply Runner, Hunter)
- Alvin Jr. (Fisherman, Patroller, Lookout)
- Aasim (Hunter, Mechanic)
- Tennessee (Lookout)
- Willy (Patroller, Mechanic, Lookout)
- Ruby (Medic, Lookout)
- Omar (Cook)
- Rosie
- Abel (Former Prisoner)
- Mitch (Hunter, Lookout)
- Marlon (Former Leader)
- Brody (Former Second-in-Command, Huntress, Fisherwoman)
- Justin
- Therissa
- Jasper
- Erin
- Joey
- Maddie
- Lamar
- Alex
- Dewey
- Trey
- Stephanie
- Bo
- Charlie
- Stuart
- Ms. Martin (Nurse and Medic)
- A horse
- 16 unnamed students
Formerly[]
- Clementine (Former Leader, Former Second-in-Command, Supply Runner, Huntress, Fisherwoman)
- Richard (Teacher and Headmaster)
- Minerva (Supply Runner)
- Sophie (Supply Runner)
- Several unnamed adult survivors
Building(s)/Location(s)[]
- The Admin Building - The Admin Building has the headmaster's office, where the current leader resides. This is where a trap is located shall the students must fall back during the Delta attack. This is where Clementine and Abel fought in the headmaster's office before falling off the balcony when the railing breaks.
- The Main Courtyard - The main hub of the school. The courtyard is divided for the Delta attack on the school because it is an open ground location. After the attack, most of the courtyard is in ruins with dead walker corpses, large chunks of debris, and scattered broken pieces of debris. After a while, it was restored to normal.
- The Graveyard - It is a small area of land left down the path in front of the Admin Building. Currently, a minimum of seven graves and a maximum of eight are present. These graves include: Sophie, Minerva, Brody, Marlon, Ms. Martin, Mitch, Tennessee/Violet/Louis (Determinant) and James (Determinant).
- The graves for Sophie, Minerva, and Ms. Martin are confirmed to have no corpse in them. The twins have various personal belongings buried (As mentioned by Violet), and Ms. Martin had a cross in the graveyard despite having her body be incinerated or buried elsewhere, depending on Clementine's choices.
- Depending on the player's choices, the grave of either Violet, Louis or Tennessee will be present. It can be assumed that these graves lack the person's corpse as well, as their bodies were most likely unrecoverable.
- If James was killed by Lilly the survivors will make a symbolic grave for him, despite him being last seen as a walker.
- His grave is hard to see but in some shots the grave can be seen in the background.
- His grave's model is in the game files along with Mitch's.
- The Basement - Storage space. The entrance is located in the courtyard, although there is one in the dorms that can't be opened. This is where Clementine learns of Tenn's twin sisters' true fates and where she interrogated Abel for the Delta's whereabouts. Depending on the player's choices, Marlon was going to be locked up here before his death.
- Ericson's Greenhouse - This is where there used to be food sources to a point. This location is also a classroom. Depending on Clementine's choice, the real graveside of Ms. Martin is present out the front; if she chose to help Ruby bury her zombified corpse. Her commemorative grave in the actual graveyard exists regardless.
- The Dorms - Living space for the students as it was before the apocalypse.
- The Kitchen - Dried goods are stored here. AJ came here and took some coffee for Clementine.
- Burned Down Building - A building of unknown purpose located next to the Admin Building that burned down at some point before Clementine and AJ's arrival.
Collectibles[]
"Done Running"[]
- Fake Flowers: When following the music in order to find Louis and Alvin Jr., these can be found behind and on the right side of the main staircase on a desk.
- Real Flowers: These can be found in the main courtyard of the school. Walk past Mitch and Willy to pass through the archway, turn left, and go down the hall. At the end of the hallway, the real flowers can be found sitting on a bench on the right.
- Alvin Jr.'s drawing: This is automatically obtained after Alvin Jr. draws it.
- Tenn's drawing: This is automatically obtained after Tenn draws it. It is determinant whether Clementine and Alvin Jr. are included in it.
"Broken Toys"[]
- Ericson's Pennant: This can be found hanging on a wall in the basement before interrogating Abel.
- Sketch Toy: This can be found on a shelf in the basement before interrogating Abel.
Deaths[]
- Justin
- Therissa
- Jasper
- Erin
- Joey
- Maddie
- Lamar
- Alex
- Dewey
- Trey
- Stephanie
- Bo
- Stuart
- Charlie
- Ms. Martin (Alive and Zombified)
- Brody (Alive and Zombified)
- Marlon
- Mitch
- Yonatan
- Abel (Alive or Direct)
- 16 other students
Appearances[]
The Telltale Series[]The Final Season[] |
Clementine[] |
Trivia[]
- Considering some surroundings and the Train Station being located in close proximity to the school and the station possibly being located in West Virginia, it could possible that Ericson's Boarding School is located in western rural West Virginia. If not, then it could be located in Virginia or Maryland.
- However, it strongly suggests that the school itself is located in West Virginia, five miles near a river (possibly the Ohio River)
- Despite this, developers of the game purposefully kept the location of the school ambiguous to avoid potential continuity errors within the comic universe. It is however located on the east coast.[1]
- Despite being a rather large school, Ericson's Boarding School only had 42 enrolled students.
- In the headmaster's office, you can see three sentences engraved on the wall "SIMON'S DEAD", "PIGGY'S DEAD", "ralph's next". This is a reference to the novel "Lord of the Flies".
- Even after more than two weeks, Brody's blood still remains in the basement after the night she and Marlon died. It is unknown if the students decided not to clean up the pool of blood or didn't notice it before and then cleaned it up later.
- It is logical that perhaps, the children did not go back down to the basement afterwards and was only used after the massacre.
- Kent Mudle has mentioned on his official Tumblr page that the school's playable area was originally intended to be much larger and free-roam friendly. This was scrapped due to heavy budget and time restraints.
- He revealed the school has a big hole in the wall of the back courtyard, which allows walkers to get in
- An early version of "Suffer The Children" would've tasked Clementine with clearing out walkers and sealing up the hole.
- Some of the major inaccessible buildings include a dining room, a morgue, a playground, and a gymnasium, as seen in concept art and Mudle's Tumblr account.
- He revealed the school has a big hole in the wall of the back courtyard, which allows walkers to get in
- There was originally going to be more children at the boarding school, one of which was an Asian girl named Jeanne, as well as at least 10 background characters. However, the character budget was very tight due to how high quality all the designs were.[2]
- The name of the boarding school could possibly be a reference to Erik Ericson, a developmental psychologist known for researching the development and identities of adolescents.
- A pamphlet from Ericson's Boarding School can be found in The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners.[3]
- Ericson's is one of the five locations from the Telltale Series to make an appearance in the Clementine series, the others being the Fishing Cabin, Clementine's Neighborhood, James' Barn, and The Train.
References[]
Clementine Locations
| |
|---|---|
| Locations | Ericson's Boarding School • Fishing Cabin • Amish Town • Killington, Vermont • Killington Ski Resort • Mountain Camp • Clementine's Neighborhood • James' Barn • Tim's Hideout • The Train • Epsey's Community • Cape Breton Island • Magdalen Islands • Saa's Ship |
| Larger Regions | West Virginia • Pennsylvania • Vermont • Quebec • Prince Edward Island • United States of America • Canada |