The Dark Story Behind The Parish
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- Опубликовано: 6 фев 2025
- Left 4 Dead is obviously not the first game to use environmental story telling but considering the fact that its a multiplayer game that's almost completely void of any cutscenes, I can't help but adore left 4 dead's style of story telling. The Parish and The Sacrifice are the head and shoulders best campaigns from a story perspective but I think the Parish edges out ever so slightly.
The fate of the l4d2 survivors being a complete mystery is the biggest takeaway from making this video. The fact that we will likely never get a definitive answer as to what happened to them is easily the most frustrating thing about the Parish.
yea.... they're probably dead. 
Игры
“Or they’re gonna line us up against a wall and shoot us”
“These bodies do not look infected” - nick
why would they even risk a whole helicopter then
@@alphabroncotwozero392yup
@@alphabroncotwozero392Cause they probably thought that the military was going to treat them like VIPs because of their "immunity" to the virus. It was stated in the video that Nick and the group didn't even know what a carrier is, which is possibly why they decided to take the risk. Additionally in a safehouse dialogue, Nick did ask for a plan B, to which Couch replied that if Nick wants a new life other than the helicopter, then he can start in the safehouse; to me, this was a clear indication that the group didn't have a plan B to begin with, so despite the risk, they pushed forward with the plan.
@@Niko-pn8bl i think je meant the miltary is risking a helicopter and a pilot to save 4 possible carriers, not the survivors risking their lives to get to the heli.
@@youbaouahdi4358Precisely. The score is you either leave them behind to fight the zombies until thirst or fighting takes them, or you put two to four crewmen at risk of infection to secure four people in fighting shape who you don't really want too close to the rest of your personnel.
Nick also said "The zombies didn't shot down this helicopter" when he saw a crashed heli. Meaning there was some civilian shooting down the heli because there are some disagreement between them
i do believe that a infected/carrier civilian might have entered the helicopter (chapter 3 - Cemetery) infected the others onboard resulting to a crash and my assumption are that the military on the ground was informed of this information and resulted the mass shootings with the believe that the civilians had some carriers in them (chapter 2 - Park)
I believe it was the f18 jet who was responsible for the helicopter crash.
the pilot ate the last Snickers
My theory, that it was a Compromized Rescue helo, One of the Passengers Onboard was Infected and Began to Attack or Probably Infect everyone(if the green flu was at its airborne "Season" at that time), So in Containment Measures, they had to Shoot it down before it reaches out the New Orleans Border.
@@yep-es9rpI think so too! Especially since the L4D2 survivors were in a helicopter crash themselves (start of Swamp Fever) after they were forced to shoot the infected pilot. In this case, the military most definitely shot it down as a means to prevent the infected/potential carriers from leaving the area. It’s also possible that this is the reason why the military began to separate carriers from non-carriers as a means to prevent further spread of the Green Flu (could be wrong tho)!
At the end of "the passing"
There is a dialogue from Zoey that says "should we have told them?"
Meaning that the survivors of l4d1 could have told the l4d2 survivors what the military was doing but for some reason they didn't
Pretty sure that was more about telling them about how the L4D1 survivors were "immune" and that they wouldn't pose a threat to the second group.
If anything, my whole view of that line is that despite offering to join each other, both sides were worried about infecting each other, which ends up being a never told truth they never learned.
@@JayHog1992 Plus, 8 player co-op would just be silly.
@@Dilaudid281 7*
Or it was about their plan to take the sailboat out.
@@Alexander-mi5vx RIP Bill O7
I should also note that when the survivors are asked if they are immune, the military asks them twice, asking them "Are you immune?" When the survivors say they aren't infected, the military commander chimes back with "Negative bridge. Are you immune? Have you encountered the infected?"
When the survivors answer yes, the military commander then asks our rescue helicopter "Rescue Seven, are you equipped for carriers?"
The military knows the survivors are carriers before you get across the bridge, and seem to be equipping helicopters to evac carriers. For what purpose is unknown, but the military most likely has plans for all carriers, including the l4d2 survivors, that they may end up the same fate Nick jokes about during the Parish campaign. Specifically about being lined up against a wall and shot.
so they equip choppers for carriers just to kill them off? sounds like a waste of fuel when they could have just bombed the bridge as they were crossing it.
@@acake6654That's exactly what I've been thinking. If they really just wanted to execute the survivor, better let the survivors Left 4 Dead.
@@baloocallout678I always thought the carriers were mutated more on the superhuman side rather than the flesh hungry zombie side
Like zombies tear people limb from limb but can only slap the survivors? Getting shot in the gut, chest or head doesn’t often get “Owch, cut that out!” as a reaction. Pipe bombs hardly do anything.
Maybe the military didn’t want to risk them getting away by any means, you’d want to be awfully direct with that bomb drop and even then…
@@acake6654 I mean its probably as said in the video, they're gonna use the carriers for research
I get the feeling it's either a case of they want to figure out how carriers work to see if they can't immunize the rest of the survivors..
Or, things have gotten bad enough that the military's realized the only way to end the infection is to have the carriers become a kill-force to wipe out hotspots of infected activity. And/or needs them to scavenge for what few resources they can get.
3:50 “They can’t kill us all” followed by “Yes they can” is actually so damn disturbing and sad
(Insert Area 51 Joke)
plus the way the "YES THEY CAN" is written, it's so large and aggressive and frantic looking, doubling over their own letters... one of my fav parts about these is definitely gleaning the type of person writing these messages and their state of mind... it's so immersive and deeply disturbing haha
Eh I thought it was funny
It made me laugh when I first read it
Thats hilarious
I like how nick is the one who picks up on this stuff. He lived the life of a criminal before the apocalypse so it only makes sense that he of all people would be able to pick up on whether something is wrong. He even suggested to the group that they have a backup plan to screw over the military just in case his hunch was right. If the group actually listened to nick just this one time, they probably would've lived
To be fair with how far they had come it makes sense for them to still go through with the idea. And as Coach says, they’ve come too far to back out.
I think Nick is a schizo who makes wild conspiracy theories off of mundane things lying around (I love him for that)
Nice pfp
Fair point.
They're not dead tho
i think the helicopter was made out of chocolate and they ate it
Just like what happened to the Chopper at the end of Dark Carnival.
i think this is what happened aswell
*angry Coach😠*
@@dobleyuuclipsif coach aint got his chocolate helicopter at least hes got his cheeseburger
willy wonka ahh ending
I don’t think the military would just kill the survivors since it would be way easier just to commence the bridge bombing run and leave instead of risking the chopper by waiting for them.
The military didn't know if the survivors were immune or carriers yet. The military would only kill them if they're carriers, and save them if immune. Besides, the chopper wasn't exactly waiting for them. It was set to leave in 10 minutes and the military said "with or without you", so they just happen to let the survivors hitch a ride while at it if they arrive before its scheduled departure.
(Edit: almost a week later, I'm still getting a lot of replies pointing out the military personnel saying they're using helicopter equipped for carriers because "they knew". Please read through some of the replies I've already posted. I'm getting tired of getting notifications of the same thing over and over again.)
@@isthisnametaken978 in the radio dialogue, the military personel asked "Have you encoutered infected?" and Coach said "Encountered? Boy, I am covered in zombie blood and puke and eyeballs and twenty other parts I don't even recognize. We are immune as SHIT!" so the military knew that they are carriers. The chopper could have left them for dead or bomb the bridge but instead still waited for them. That indicates the military have changed their strategy for the carriers including the L4D2 survivors after the event of The Sacrifice comic.
@@truonghyvu4704 That doesn't necessarily indicate that they are carriers. They could be immune. In the L4D lore, immune and carrier aren't the same, despite them having no visual and behavioral differences. The only way for the military to know is to check if they're carrying the virus in their bodies or not after encountering the infected.
@@isthisnametaken978I see your point but doesn’t the guy on the radio refer to your group as carriers? Right after confirming that they’ve encountered infected, he radios to the guy in the helicopter and says something like “Are you prepared for carriers?”
@@ph6251 Carriers could be useful to study, as they have the virus but aren't affected by it.
I read somewhere a long time ago that apparently the L4D2 survivors were sent to The Caribbean to escape the infection. Maybe safe, maybe not. At least we know where they're at.
@@BoaDaSnakeMan I think Falizsek said that but i forgot which interview. But tbh that's just a cheap excuse to not make the sequel. It needs a proper closure or at least make the comic for l4d2 survivors to see what really happen after Parish.
coach, ellis, nick and rochelle went to TAHITI to harvest some MANGOES
@@takovic2003 There is a fan-animatic series called L4D: The Return, which I think it’s a better closure to both L4D1 survivors & L4D2 survivors. It’s not officially canon though, but still a better closure to it.
@@badieTVcoach van der linde
@@cakersoStupid1 "I got a plan, Ellis. I just need cheeseburgas."
I feel that there is an aspect that is forgotten, the L4D survivors met an isolated military post running on outdated information set up by CEDA while having lost communication with everyone else and when they realized how the outside world changed after meeting the L4D survivors 20 days into the infection the problems started, in L4D2 the military was probably still playing second fiddle to CEDA as we can see in dead center, but over the course of day 22 to day 26 (if I remember my lore correctly) you notice CEDA is quickly shoved out of the way by the military and by hard rain it’s highly likely the military was still running on CEDA’s information blackout and killing carriers, but once they finally got CEDA’s intel on the infected they probably halted the killings, because if they didn’t why the hell would they halt a bombing run for 4 survivors if they were carriers?
Unless the military is just covering it’s bases and wanting to make sure they don’t accidentally kill a truly immune person in that group after the fiasco that was New Orleans I don’t see them killing off the L4D2 survivors, they got lucky they got caught up in hard rain since it gave the military time to finally know what was going on after dismantling CEDA and getting all intel and rather than the military gunning down carriers, they were just killing off people who broke quarantine and stormed the evac points, while the 2 groups of survivors were committing violence against each other due to paranoia as the actual infected closed in because of some graffiti talking about carriers being the first evacuated
This is what I also firmly believe.. Millhaven was an isolated platoon while I am sure the Military in New Orleans were still in touch with high command. And I wouldn't be surprised the soldiers that managed to escape Millhaven (some did actually) must've fled to New Orleans. And I entertain the idea of the military using carriers as frontline soldiers against the infected, it's possibly the best solution in terms of saving important personnel while also finding use for carriers.
@@ryanthemostwantedfurry1281 Possibly its the best Idea to allow Humanity to survive this Zombie Infection as they can't turn into Zombies and is Immune and if the Non Immune get infected theres still the Good Immune Gene to keep Humanity going
This is the best way to describe everything honestly
@@ryanthemostwantedfurry1281 how do you know that some soldiers managed to escape Millhaven???
i like this speculation. I firmly believe they wouldnt just kill them off so easily like that, because they could've just let them die in the bridge. at worst, they'll probably be separated once they land
6:09 Whiskey Delta is just NATO Radio Alphabet - "W.D." probably being an abreviation referring to the infected as "Walking Dead(s)"
I don't know about the other versions but in the french version they use the phonetic for MV, Mort Vivant french for living dead.
This is confirmed in The Sacrifice comic, one of the soldiers tells Louis and Francis that Whiskey Delta means Walking Dead
God bless you, John Henry Eden!
@@dextergrifit probably isn’t but that makes me think it’s a subtle eastern egg/reference to TWD or vice versa depending on which came out first
I think he was saying that in the game's universe it's the military code for Infected, not that it is in real life.
>There's a story.
>Dear god.
>I will write another.
>No. 😢
tf2 reference ?!?
4 chan users…
I thought they got executed for a long time too, but I found out that this isn't the case. Chet Faliszek, who was the lead writer for L4D2 iirc confirmed that the L4D2 crew were taken to a cruise ship that the military repurposed to house carriers.
Great video tho my man, I have an absurd amount of hours and still have missed some of the graffiti you showed in the video. You did a great job putting it into perspective how fucked up the situation is
wait, when did he say this? i dont think ive heard about this until now
@@MariatheoneeLook up “left 4 dead 2 interview: Chet Faliszek”
The timestamp is 1:24, in which Chet explains that the survivors are trying to get to salvation by getting on some cruise ships.
yea id love to know where all of these sources are coming from
@@MariatheoneeHe said it over a decade ago in an E3 interview, when the game’s demo was showcased.
More specifically, he says that the survivors are trying to reach safety aboard some cruise ships - plural, so there’s multiple ships holding upwards of thousands of carriers.
Army of Carriers
The military likely resorted to using carriers as soldiers
The crew is possibly alive...
I'm not even asking for left 4 dead 3 at this point, just something to continue the story.
That line from Nick regarding the dead bodies is interesting because it really highlights his character development. As the mysterious and selfish ex-criminal I would expect him to not really care about other people being slaughtered by the military. However, in that lines he sounds genuinely shocked and upset, and seemingly shows a bit of sympathy in his voice for innocent civilians being murdered like that. Maybe I’m way overthinking this, but part of why Nick is my favorite character is because he arguably has the most development from being a selfish asshole in Dead Center and early on in the Passing to showing more concern for his group and becoming a more sympathetic and selfless person. This line from him in the Parish really emphasizes how in a world that is progressively destroying humanity Nick, a former con man and selfish criminal, actually gains humanity within himself.
While not related, another example of this is some of his dialogue in the final chapter of the passing. One of my favorite lines of his is when he says “sorry if I was rude before, you guys are alright” in regards to the L4D1 survivors and also says “I owe you one, Francis” after not getting along with him in the first chapter and complaining about his hatred of bikers throughout the campaign. It’s a far cry from his selfish and rude demeanor in Dead Center and really helps showcase just how much his character develops as he becomes more comfortable with and grows closer to the other survivors.
When you're an asshole, the bigger threat to you is a bigger asshole.
Nick had his work cut out, but a military force treating people like Nick like garbage is what can make even the most self centered people upset and more willing to co-operate.
It's still a good character development nonetheless, but even without it, I don't deny the fact that most people would feel disgusted at the fate of those survivors.
Nick might be a con man, a criminal but he's not a monster.
That is why Nick is my favorite.
At first, he keeps saying "After everything is over we'll go separate ways" or something like that as he doesn't care about his team.
But as the story progress, he becomes concerned with them and acts friendly.
@@WarmRepeat Two of his lines in the first elevator are "Name's Nick, but don't bother learning it 'cause I ain't sticking around long." and "Nick. Not that it matters, 'cuz I think we should split up when this thing opens."
He's a criminal. Not a mindless cruel murderer
Your theory on the survivors simply being executed doesn’t make a lot of sense when you consider that the military specifically allowed them the chance to fight their way to the helicopter. The military was already planning on blowing the bridge and flying out before the survivors talked to them on the radio. Why would the military jeopardize cutting off the bridge and getting out of there safely if they were to simply execute the survivors?
because the military didn’t know they are carriers
@@jaredsingcol2967 False, Papa Gator (The Military Guy on the Radio, not Rescue & AKA the chopper pilot) asks the survivors if they are immune.
"Are You Immune!?"
"We Are Not Infected!"
"Negative Bridge, Are You Immune? Have You encountered the infected?" The survivors will respond with yes, and he'll instantly ask Rescue 7 if he's equipped to transport carriers. They knew they were Carriers.
@@jaredsingcol2967 they did, as he explains in the video the soldiers briefly converse on if they have any transport available for “whisky deltas” which is their name for zombies. They knew they were carriers and specifically asked the survivors if they were immune
@@sauceman2885They never say that. They ask if the pilots are “seeing whiskey delta, or friendly?” before the survivors use the radio
They literally never refer to the survivors as Whiskey Delta
I heard somewhere that there are Carriers, and there are those who are Immune. A Carrier is exactly what was said in the video; people who _seem_ to be Immune, but are in fact infected; they just don't have any symptoms or mutations, and can still infect others. Whereas those who are Immune are, well, _Immune._ They can't get infected no matter what, and because of that, they can't spread the virus like the Carriers. Meaning they're humanity's best bet, right now.
It's possible (perhaps even likely) that the chopper pilot at the end of The Parish (or at least, whoever the chopper pilot was communicating with) couldn't tell for 100% fact if the Survivors were Immune or Carriers, so they treated them as Carriers for safety purposes. I once heard that, when dealing with strange substances or bodily fluids, you should _always_ treat them as dangerous/contaminated, simply because this is the safer option. Like the Church Guy famously said, "Better safe than sorry."
And yet, they still airlifted them to relative safety, on the off-chance that they were fully Immune. Because if humanity is to survive an apocalyptic plague like this, their best course of action is to gather up as many Immune people as possible, so that they can begin rebuilding the human race. As for why some of the soldiers seem to be simply gunning people down left-and-right, that's most likely due to a combination of conflicting interests, and the breakdown of nationwide communications. Different military outposts are being increasingly isolated and cut off from each other, making it impossible to form a cohesive strategy; and even if there *IS* a nationwide strategy for combatting the infected, many of these outposts aren't hearing about it.
So, these isolated military groups have resorted to following the highest-ranking officer they have on-hand, and all of these officers have different strategies for fighting the infected. Some of them have become so paranoid that they're shooting every human they see, just to be damn sure no Carriers get through, and we see remnants of that mindset in the earlier sections of The Parish. Whereas other officers are still holding out hope that something can be done to salvage the situation, and are still cautiously picking up Carriers, in the hopes that one or more of them turns out to be Immune. I mean, If all else fails, Carriers and the Immune can co-exist; since the Immune are (like their name suggests) Immune, the Carriers can't infect them, even if they wanted to. Obviously, this solution would potentially be a death sentence for everyone who isn't a Carrier or Immune, but it might work decently enough as a last resort.
I love how them being carriers explains why their rescue vehicles always seem to crash and burn, with the exception of Virgil. They're not just unlucky for the sake of having an excuse for the game to keep going, they're actually the reason the pilots are turning in the first place. This probably flies over the heads of people who don't really pay attention to the lore bits hidden in both games.
What if this branch if the military wasnt executing carriers, they were executing those who weren't immune? If I was the head of an operation, it'd only make sense that to ensure the survival of the species, we'd need to ensure humans who weren't affected liced on, and that humans who could turn into horrifying nigh unkillable monsters like tanks in just a few weeks were no longer a threat in the new world. It doesnt make sense for them to ship carriers away but keep the normal humans in range of zombie incurrsions.
Those weren't carriers.
It would definitely make sense if someone decided that. The virus is so insanely viral that it's not out of the question for someone to decide there's no hope in trying to prevent it from spreading and that it's better to make sure all carriers survive to preserve humanity especially since carriers can of course still die like any other human.
While yes, eugenics is the more logical approach, you have to keep in mind that you don't know if somebody isn't immune until it's too late... and those army officer guys might not be immune, and they would never be on board with a plan that also involves them.
@@Mate_Antal_Zoltanthey prob keep a safe distance between the carrier and make a town called carrier town where most of the residents living there are Carriers and watched 24/7
Interesting theory, I like it
@@Mate_Antal_Zoltan
When the literal survival of your own species is at stake, eugenics indeed is the more logical approach.
The beginning of Swamp Fever was always strange in the sense that the Helicopter pilot turned, and the survivors argued and conclude that he must have been bitten. With added context, it now makes sense. The pilot wasnt bit; his proximity to the carrier survivors caused him to turn.
No way this is true. You’re saying that carriers can straight up turn people that don’t have a wound?
@@Rupture28 thats where the panic of the military comes in, carriers are proximity based. They 100% can do that, and tbh its how my brother and I always assumed the Swamp Fever start happened. The l4d1 comic gives a ton of this info :)
@@limakwail7936 thank you for the insight! If that’s true then the world is damned nearly lol.. I pray every day a new game comes out I swear. They ruined B4B
@@Rupture28 ya I'm sure I've heard the virus constantly switches from air born to transmitted through physical means since it mutates constantly
@@Rupture28
It seems that the infection can be airborne depending on the mutation that day. So standing near a carrier is a flip of the coin. Maybe it will infect you by simply standing near a carrier, or maybe not.
One of the exchanges between the soldier and chooper pilot in ch5 is: "Are you equipped for carriers?" "Yes sir". Which implies that if the military really wanted to get them executed they would just leave them on the bridge since the chopper was already in a rush to leave. All I can comment on this is that the guys probably didn't know how many or if any of the L4D2 survivors were carries, which is something they would find out after they rescue them. The reality may not be as grim as you make it out to be.
and then Nick appears to be only immune and the rest of crew gets executed infront of him.
@@MadWinte It would be more tragic if it was the other way around. If it's only Nick that is a carrier and the rest are immune.
That would mean that the asshole "I want nothing to do with this" guy who even wanted to leave the party at first, but stuck with them due to circumstances and the party members slowly getting along with each other is the only reason they went through as much trouble as they did.
If nobody was a carrier they would've been out of this hell by the end of dark carnival
@@lunatik4291 But would it really matter? Nick is a criminal and if he was fully immune he would still get in jail, so I dont think he has a good future either way
@@minus100iq8 you think in a world with this kind of pandemic, the law would still be applied and you would go to jail for your past deeds? Wishful thinking lol
A more realistic reasoning for the rescue is they want to study the carriers to get a cure. Remember, the military is cold, calculating and brutal, just like the battlefield they were ordered to fight in. They wouldn't do something like this out of charity. Your best hope is praying the scientists don't get too radical with their experiments.
Training carriers to fight does not seems feasible either, considering the virus is very volatile and mutates daily, at random. Some idiot will have to risk their neck to train these carriers, which is like saying "I'll lock you inside a cage with a tiger and you shall train it. Don't worry he only bites when he's unhappy, which is random". You are NOT going in that cage.
"While the survivors' fate is left unclear after this point, the game's writer Chet Faliszek stated in a 2009 interview that the military took survivors on cruise ships to the Caribbean in an attempt to escape the infection."
With this dark story and ending of the Parish is why I wish the devs had a bit more time to give the corpses, in chapter 2, human textures, to really sell that the military is killing and executing carriers.
idk if it was a time constraint problem as much as it was a censorship problem, like how there was supposed to be a crashed schoolbus in death toll. fwiw there are addons on the steam workshop to do exactly what you suggested tho
This reminds me of the devs notes game mode where they said they were gonna use real corpses to design the zombies but got too sick looking at photos of dead bodies and used potato skins instead.
@willjanalaurin1929 maybe not making them look pristine, but atleast less zombie like, as currently they all share textures
wait, aren't corpse supposed to go pale after leaving them to rot?
@@kneeofjustice9619 Yeah they said exactly this in the developer's commentary.
the rumor of the l4d2 crew being shipped off to where l4d3 WOULD have happened and being a frontline squad is the only hope we got
So basically World War Z game we got now?
Except l4d3 was planned to take place in a completely different country with different people
@nafmaja5612 ngl, I kinda prefer that tbh. The third game being similar to the WWZ one, but still the same game, just with different countries and survivors. No level up, perks or specific character stats bullshit, just the same game, re-skinned and more areas and weapons added...
One of the early versions of Left 4 Dead 3 would have been that the survivors were used as soldiers to fight the infected. But it wasn't the left 4 dead 2 survivors... but rather the left 4 dead 1 survivors. I have no idea why Valve even considered this story line because the Left 4 dead 1 survivor's story already concluded, and the comic showed us that they don't trust The Army. Luckily, this concept was dropped, and Left 4 dead 3 was eventually cancelled due to source 2 being too incomplete at the time to continue development.
That makes way more sense if the l4d2 survivors were being used as frontline soldiers for the military. Weird side note but in the passing I found it weird that the L4d1 survivors never brought up the militaries executing carriers to the l4d2 survivors. Louis even says something like "we've had enough of the military" but doesn't feel the need to warn the l4d2 survivors about the military and them executing the carriers.
@@ImNotConz Honestly I think valve just forgot to add something like that.
@@ImNotConz I highly doubt that the L4D2 characters are dead. Through the radio talk at the beginning, the military KNOWS that they are carriers, and if they were going to kill carriers anyway why waste the fuel and risk potential choppers and pilots? Why not just continue with the bombing? It also makes no sense for them to be testing any of them if they were starting to kill carriers, as why not just test the ones they had lined up and shot?
Just makes zero sense in my eyes.
@@ImNotConzThere's actually a voice line that can play at the end of The Passing as the car escapes where Louis asks "Should we tell em?" and Zoey says "No, it's hard enough out there."
I heard it as a teen when the DLC was still new.
@@mistermoo7602 I just looked it up and your totally right.
Why Louis?
you could have saved them....
The 2 soldiers in the radio were looking for exactly Immune survivors. I think they are going to really RESCUE the 4 survivors. and try to find a cure.
If its the other way around. Nick would probably save his team and since he never trusted the military, I think that he will save his friends and make sure that the military will not kill them like what he saw from the streets of the parish. Nick is the Goat for this oml. But it is pretty dark that they are killing just people. rip
No, they weren't looking to rescue carriers. Rescue 7 had to be asked if it was even equipped to transport carriers at that time! They were the same military unit that was shooting carriers. Unless the left 4 dead 2's survivors escaped the military somehow, they were executed.
@@Eyeling they were looking for Immune survivors, even clarifying that "ARE YOU IMMUNE?!" and the plane was probably equipped to rescue carriers since its just a back of the plane and the soldiers in the front, even if its not i think it would do the job thats like the truck on L4d1 blood harvest.
Sure they can be the same military that kills carriers but maybe they are the ones that opposed it and wanted to find a cure for the infection even.
Its never confirmed they are executed. And with Nick not trusting the Military he probably would escape them just like Bill would've done,
@@daneddieloayon2701 They definitely were not looking to rescue carriers. If they were, why would Rescue 7 need to clarify to Papa gator that he was indeed equipped to transport carriers? It was a last minute decision to pick up the left 4 dead 2 survivors. Saying they were looking to rescue carriers when they were minutes away from bombing the bridge, and were already executing carriers earlier that day, is pure copeium.
@@daneddieloayon2701 Theres no evidence to say that these soldiers opposed killing carriers, nor is that how the military works, soldiers follow orders. there is, however, evidence that these soldiers were the same ones killing carriers earlier in the day. Why are there bodies of normal, non infected people on the bridge?
One of the possible dialogs they have is one of the military guys asking the pilot if he could deal with carriers
It looks like our “carrier” group was too important for the military to destroy. If they were going to kill them, they would have blown up the bridge or opened fire. Instead, the military tested them with the bridge, sending them through hordes of zombies to reach safety. Still, serving an army that considers you less than human is not a better fate.
At its core, this story once again confirms that there is no scarier beast than human himself
Call me optimistic, but it's possible that the military would have the same perspective as the doctor from the L4D1 comic, opting to try and find a cure with the carrier's help. Part of the dilemma with those two commanding officers in Millhaven is that they were cut off for weeks from the outside world, so they had limited options, resources and information compared to the military encountered in L4D2's The Parish, who are much better equipped what with having helicopters, heavy ordinance and communications to an extent. L4D2's milirary more than likely had access to much more information than L4D1's, an example of this being how incredibly in the dark the soldiers stationed in Millhaven were to the infected's strength and power, to the point that the two soldiers guarding Louis and Francis didn't know that special infected even existed until Louis started telling them about them, and even then didn't fully believe them till a witch rounded the corner after the base started getting swarmed.
Again though, this is an extremely optimistic take.
The counter argument is the L4D2 military is saving them so they can operate on them later for a cure. The doctor in L4D1 said there is NO cure, and he's only pretending to work on a cure so the people here don't lose hope and fall into chaos. I mean, how can you counter a virus that mutates DAILY? Even if you found a cure, by the time you roll out the damn thing, it might not have work anymore.
Despite Nick coming off as a mean person along with the fact of being a criminal, he is honestly the smartest person in the whole Left 4 Dead 2 group. He saw those dead bodies which were *NOT* infected (they were carriers like them), and knew what happened to them. Due to this, he didn't trust this plan the crew had and that the military would be forgiving. He probably had the idea of them being carriers despite not know what it actually is himself. He only followed the crews' Plan A because he was voted out on the idea of a Plan B and knew he would be zombie meat if he chose to go through it alone.
I feel like it would have been less of a risk for the helicopter crew and a lot easier to just bomb the bridge and leave the L4D2 cast to their fate if they planned on killing them if they were just going to kill them later on, chances are it may not have been a happy ending for the cast, as they probably were still tested on but if they were just up and killing carriers they could have just left them behind juch like they did in Dead Center, but it would have been intentional in this case, plus they wouldn't waste time equipping military personnel if they were just going to pull an Augusto Pinochet and throw them out of the helicopter.
You make a valid point but I must say
the last sentence of your comment made me audibly laugh so well done sir.
They took the risk because at best they get some carriers sample to work on the cure, and at worst they'll just spend 4 bullets. And again, they have been extracting people out of the city, as stated in the graffiti, so obviously they had countermeasures in place in case these people act up.
@@rnlansdownemobileAt worst, they spend more than just four bullets. If it doesn't go exactly right picking them up, they spend a transport helicopter, its fuel, a trained crew of pilots, and the weapons they're equipped with. And if things do go well they spent a lot of fuel retrieving the carriers, risk spreading infection via close contact with the carriers, and then food or medical supplies to keep the carriers alive for as long as theoretically needed.
@@LeonardAndHisBiscuitthe helicopter has separate sections between the back and the pilot cabin, much like the plane in Dead Air. Even if the group turned, they can’t get to the pilot. The pilots made it very clear when he said he’s “equipped for carriers”
The pilots would definitely wear masks themselves so infection is unlikely. This is a relatively safe rescue.
@@theotv5522 The infection is airborne and contagious, meaning the space inside the helicopter is going to need to at least be sterilized before being used regularly again, and introducing the carriers into a safe zone or execution lineup is always a risk. Even better, these are fully armed and thoroughly experienced carriers who have killed thousands of infected along the way, there's no telling what they'll do when aboard the helicopter.
It's just too much risk involved in the best case scenario in picking them up just to execute them later. My thought process is they're using carriers as a barrier against the infected. They have no risk of becoming infected themselves, making them much more effective at operating within infected zones. We saw something different in the L4D1 comic, but that military unit was cut off, and it was a while before the other group got to New Orleans, making for plenty of time for policy change even if execution was a standard order to start with.
I personally think they were shooting the normal people and rescuing only carriers. That's probably where the distain for carriers comes from. What would be the point of rescuing people who aren't immune? They could turn any second since the green flu is airborn. The graffiti also states they were shipping off people who just got there, the response is "Those ARE carriers." carriers are the ones being saved and not the non infected.
It's a half half, since the military can also contain both carriers and normal people. It's just 2 factions, immunies vs normal peeps
@@lordlopikong6940 but it never said they rescued both, the game is called left 4 dead after all.
Given that the military asks repeatedly if you had encountered the infected, and when you confirm, the helicopter rescue is asked if they are "equipped for carriers", they definitely know the group are carriers.
Yet they are still evacing you for... SOME purpose. But there's no reason to evac you just to kill you, when they could easily just let the helicopter leave, blow the bridge, and wait for the infected to overrun you now that you've got nowhere to go. The fact that they're willing to evac you at all hints that they're either still trying to find a way to cure carriers, or they're going to put you to use. Either way, likely not executing you, since there's no reason to save you in the first place when they could've just bombed the bridge a minute early and been done with it.
omg i need more of l4d2 lore, I love your videos hope you grow more
Incredibly Kind Words
Thank you sir
Valve games tend to tell stories without the use of cutscenes.
It’s actually a very unique way of story telling if you ask me
So Parish has two definitions “a small administrative district typically having its own church and a priest or pastor” but I don’t recall a church or anything like that in the campaign.
The second definition is actually specific to Louisiana, according to google, “a territorial division corresponding to a county in other states.”
In the context of the game I think it’s the second definition, but I think it may have an almost double meaning as well when spoken.
The word Parish is said exactly the same as perish which is defined as “suffer death, typically in a violent, sudden, or untimely way.” This could be a subtle hint at the outcome for the characters, even more so when we consider everything we seen of other survivors in this campaign.
There's also a section where survivors pass a graveyard after going through a bridge that's getting bombed
Picking up survivors who are clearly carriers just to execute them somewhere else sounds like a waste of military resources. To me they are attempting to recruit carriers into fighting the infected, just like that military guy suggested in the comics
That's how I interpreted it even before watching L4D2 vids on RUclips
Either that or they are trying to save as many carriers as possible in order to research up a cure/vaccine. One can hope.
They're saving them for a cure is the safest and most realistic reasoning. Let's just hope none of them are as radical as the scientists in The Last of Us where they want to crack open the last remaining immune for a cure.
Hadn't heard about the term "carriers" up til now (obviously since I haven't dwelled into L4D lore) so now it makes sense that the rescue pilots in other campaigns and that one guy in that one church spontaneously become zombies.
Actually, the guy in the church was bitten before the survivors showed up. It was already too late
@@quanage4296 I see
"I Have Not Come This Far To Die Now" - Nick
Why would they save them only to kill them later. If they wanted to get rid of them, they would leave them on the bridge.
Valid honestly
Questioning maybe?
or maybe they did plan to use them as soldiers.
@@ImNotConzWouldn't their be already be Carrier soldier's? Or they might've just infected the non immune.
@@ImNotConz They are going to become expendable soldiers, at least I think so. Something like complete this mission or you will die.
@@ImNotConzthere is evidence in the video that the military and ceda are extremely polarized on how to deal with immune carriers. It could very well be that there is an effort by some surviving military presence to preserve the immune to preserve the species. After all if the last humans are infected but immune then the risk of future infections is zero, the non immune can be seen as a dead end in this new zombie world. Tho this does rely on their children also being immune.
@@BL48.That's actually sick. Base on personality, Rochelle will be the voice of reason and leader, nick will be a specialist, coach and ellis will just go bananas, as always, riding them jimmy gibs jr. Autobot Car with a radio of 24/7 non-stop of how police tear-gassing elise's friend, setting aside a popcorn, a cotton candy, and a cross mark clowns stickers along with them jockey and chompski strap in a pilot cockpit inside of a helicopter made of chocolate, aswell with the midnight riders riding a unicorn plushie on top of the rotor blade and big fireworks green-screen display on the back
There's another detail that may chillingly support this.
If you remember being picked up by a helicopter after the Midnight Riders show, Nick shot the pilot and Ellis expressed his disappointment. It may mean the helicopter pilot turned zombie just being exposed to the playable survivors assuming that pilot was on his lonesome for a long time.
I'm aware we don't know much about the helicopter pilot.
...also I suddenly feel bad for Virgil...
how do we know that Nick shot the pilot?
In Virgil's case at least, it is likely that he was also a carrier since he does say his wife turns, but he didn't and was still alive and kicking.
As for the pilots, both in L4D1 and 2, man... they were unlucky enough to have rescued carriers...
@@SwissMarksman Ellis comments on why the hell he shot the pilot during the intro of Swamp Fever.
Dude this was like the last demo of my childhood the parish. "I HAVE NOT COME THIS FAR TO DIE NOW" is literally the quote that swipes a credit card in my name 7 times a day.
6:46 B makes no sense. Why even pick them up?
The military seems to be doing well though, they can still maintain bombers, planes, helicopters and they are still extracting civilians at the end of the game. They are most likely operating from places like Hawaii and the arctic.
Brief, conclusive, accesible. I like format of this vid and I would look forward for other l4d campaigns or games in similar fashion. Subbed
If we look at what happened to the L4D1 survivors after Blood Harvest (read The Sacrifice comics) we can safely assume that the L4D2 cast is dead. Even if the New Orleans branch of the military decides to use carriers as soldiers to fight zombies, what will happen to the carriers in the end? There can't be a cure due to the virus mutating on the daily so the logical option is to kill the carriers.
So yeah, despite their status being labeled "in military custody" we can conclude that the L4D2 survivors are canonically deceased no matter what option awaits them in the military compound.
And this talk of "they were taken to cruise ships to escape infected" is probably a joke response in that interview
Geesh to be a carrier is hell. You gotta deal with the infected, the army, and other survivors shoved down your throat
To make it worse it's possible you aren't a carrier there's nothing that distinguishes between immune, carrier, and non carrier
there was a line where if you were playing as coach he would tell the soldiers on the radio "I'm covered in all sorts of organs I don't even recognize" trying to assure the soldiers they are immune. which made me realize they were carriers.
Don't forget swamp fever: "we had a good run boys but it's over"
The part that mentions the idea of using Carriers as the front line brings up an interesting precedent. It makes me feel like BACK4BLOOD is the reality where this plan was carried out as the CLEANERS were carriers that could not get infected and was utilized by the government and military as the front line to reclaiming territory.
I saw so many comments here thought the L4D1 group infected the No Mercy pilot. I guess they didn’t pay attention to him AFTER you started the finale. Because the first line he said was him gonna run late because he just had an “incident” and sounded very depressed/hesitant. Then later it pretty much confirms it “No Mercy it looks like you’ll be my final run”
He was infected some time before even coming into contact with the group. They just happens to be there in his final moments.
Heli pilot is the biggest chad in this franchise. Bro knew he’s not making it past that night and yet he still try his best to pick up the group. I bet normal ppl will just go cry in a corner and die.
There are three types of people in zombie media:
" I've been infected. I do *not* want this. "
" I've been infected. I have minutes to do as much good as I can. "
" I've been infected. here, takes my shit. I want to go fist fighting the undead militia. >:D "
One is much funnier than the other two and thus wins by default.
Honestly if there is ever a true Left 4 Dead 3, I don't think they're gonna just say "Oh yeah, Coach, Rochelle, Nick, and Elis all just died off screen" just cuz of the uproar it would cause in the community. People love these characters so if it did ever happen I really think it would likely end up as something similar to The Passing where the old crew will meet up with the new crew and help them in some way. Not that there will ever be a trilogy anyway though.
I'd imagine the remaining Left 4 Dead 1 crew would try to Rescue the Left 4 Dead 2 crew... But it be pretty hard to make enemy survivors or military to fight against. The Survivors are pros in fighting the infected, but they would still die from a regular bullet like a normal person. Back 4 blood did it okay when doing those Cultists. But having to fight The Military or armed non-carriers could be difficult for them...
@@galacticfirefly I honestly loved that concept you made, it would be amazing for a comic.
@@galacticfirefly But that would make the L4D comic irrelevant, considering the ending is the 3 on a sailboat going to their island, just as Bill intended. Backing away from it and risk saving the L4D2 group they barely know for less than an hour would mean Bill's sacrifice was for nothing.
Since the first time I played this campaign as a kid, I actually had the opposite impression. While it's understandable that during the beginning of the outbreak, some people tried to kill the carriers and military (mostly consisting of the same former civilians with families and people close to them somewhere in the country) supporting this decision, the further timeline will go, the less and less this kind of things will likely to happen.
Mostly, of course, because of one simple fact: non-infected and non-immune humans are literally dying breed. Some isolated groups are likely to survive some time, but when the infection even in the air, their days are numbered.
So the reason the military asking if survivors are immune could be exactly because them (military) need to sure that this people are actually worth withholding the bombardment and actually saving them. No reason to do that just for couple of people to turn few days later.
Finally, someone who shares my opinion of The Parish. The character of Nick is crucial. He was a selfish survivor at beggining, trying to survive at any cost. Even if he has to left his partners behind. But in The Parish campaign, Nick was worried. He had doubt while Coach or Ellis were happy for being rescued. In the last safe room, he even try to make a plan B.
I think L4D2 survivors are dead. Military and people were hunting them down.
theres one massive thing you missed which was the radio asking if they were equipped for carriers so they clearly have a new plan for survivors since they probably realised they could make a cure with more time and the l4d2 crew and probably more cautious due to what happened with the l4d1 crew
I feel like if they did a comic for the Left 4 Dead 2 cast, and they were getting executed, Nick would say "You weren't that bad, Ellis" to Ellis (duh), or something like that, showing that Nick did sorta care for Ellis, just like Francis and Louis
You can sort of get this when Nick is the last survivor left alive
@@herdexx
If a character is dead, each survivor has several lines mourning the loss. You have to approach the body to hear them.
im pretty sure (or at least I heard), that theres a cut line where if its only nick and ellis left, nick will / would say something along the lines of "You know I didn't mean all of that, right?"
I recall seeing something about L4D3 plot leaks (or maybe this is Back 4 Blood) where the campaign was a sort of Dead Rising 2 style “blood sport” to see how many infected the player characters could take out. Maybe the idea of using Carriers as front-line defenses turned into that concept, like a Mad Moxxi’s Underdome situation.
If only that came to fruition. I must admit, I know left 4 dead 3 probably ain't gonna happen but its not impossible...
thanks Valve
@@ImNotConzConsidering there were leaks for source 2 games from l4d3 to cs2. It might just be possible in the near future.
omg hello scp wyatt i was not expecting to see you here
My theory is the reverse of this. I think the military was removing normal humans from the equation, and evacuating the carriers. That explains the VIP treatment you get at the end of the game despite being asked twice if you’re immune, then they check if the chopper’s good for carriers. Clearly this is a paradigm shift where non-immune or non-carrier humans are just too big of a liability to keep around anymore on account of the airborne virus.
Not just airborne, the thing mutates DAILY, as pointed out by the doctor in L4D comic, and because of this, there's no cure. Because that's like asking you to win a game of chess while the board constantly shifts. The man has to pretend he's looking for a cure to not be thrown out, and to keep people hopeful.
My theory is the military in L4D2 are more drastic, and will take more radical approaches to experimenting on the carriers for a cure. As the kids might put it: "The survivors were cooked the moment they stepped on that heli". You need to consider when one take huge risk, they expect huge results. So I doubt they'll save the survivors just because they wanna feel good. Them carriers are 100% going on the operating table.
I was rewatching the videos and this theory makes sense. Makes sense why the Midnight Riders who were possibly carriers, got evacuated first when the rest weren't...
I think youre upto something.
I personally think they were shooting the normal people and rescuing only carriers aswell. That's probably where the distain for carriers comes from. Also, what would be the point of rescuing people who aren't immune? They could turn any second since the green flu is airborn. I do really like the theory about turning the survivors into soldiers. The graffiti also states they were shipping off people who just got there, and it says "those ARE carriers." carriers are the ones being saved and not the non infected.
Good point
You left one crucial thing about the carriers is that in the Sacrifice comics the carrier's chance of infecting someone is completely random as one of the doctors/scientists who was also a carrier has said that sometimes the green flu spreads airborne sometimes through touch and sometimes doesn't at all. Means that either at first during the initial outbreak carriers where able to infect but as time goes on the virus inside them mutated into something else.
Thats a great video!! Thank you, somehow my whole story connection with L4D1 and L4D2 is gone since no cutscenes and it was always about rushing to the saferoom.
However I can assure you that at least Coach survived as Ive seen him in numerous Blender 3d animations, therefore the military probably gave him a gig in movie productions.
Also these story parts will be fun to chase down with the VR Mod, thank you! : )
Your welcome
I'm glad you enjoyed it
The military 100% wanted something from the protagonist
1. Is extremely wasteful and inefficient to delay the bridge destruction and use a helicopter that could be helping with anything else just to bring people to be killed
2.if they wanted to experiment they probably already got a fair supply of Carrier since the graffiti on the wall say they were shipping them somewhere, 4 more wouldn't make a difference
3. Who on earth expects a group of 4 to cross that bridge? The military probably knew all the mess that was going in there, and they actually send the helicopter with 0 doubt of them dying, the military had some high expectations from the survivors
4.They let them get into the helicopter with weapons, thats a big no no, if the Carriers knew what the military was doing you dont want them to have a weapon to fight back
I know one thing for certain, there's no way they're gonna give up without a fight
Always nice to see Left 4 dead content on my feed in 2024! Great video. Makes me want to dust off the old 360 and play again.
I find it cool that Nick knows whats going but nobody else believes him.
continue posting this bro it so refreshing new L4D2 related content is being posted
1:41 out of topic but the name of the player in the middle left had me rolling on the floor
Thank you so much for this! I have been playing this even in Expert Realism mode with my best friend and I barely knew. I didn't even read this piece of information either in the wiki.
Liked and subscribed!
I dont know about the others but Ellis was taken to a place where he meets a cartoony looking russian wearing blue in a place that is a gigantic bed room, they come across Frank West and Chuck Green, eventually they fight a massive giant cat, afterwards they have a nice christmas
the true canon ending
This was a fantastic video, very interesting and eye opening. I got every achievement in this game and never bothered to read the notes and listen closely to the dialogue. Really cool stuff
Bill had the right idea, going to an Island far away from everyone was for the best
Zoey may have not liked it but the events of the Parish showed how wise Bill was when thinking of the long-term implications of how the world was shaping out
They were all carriers and by the events of the parish it was Carriers against the zombies, the uninfected and the Military, Louis even comments on how whatever comes next the world won't want people like them around and the Island is their best shot and even Francis was sick of the Military by then, Zoey may have wanted to help but i don't think her help was wanted, and who knows if they would've joined the piles of bodies all of New Orleans or not had Bill not pushed for them to get out of dodge when he did
The L4D1 survivors definitely made the right call not going with the L4D2 survivors
I've played this game for years since my high school days and I never paid attention to the story at all this is really cool. Awsome video!
Whiskey Dealta=Walking Dead.
Shit. Rick's there too!
I agree with your theory, they either way were killed. Not sure why the L4D1 characters didn’t tell them about the military though.
I agree with everything you said except for the theory on what happened to the survivors after they crossed the bridge. If they were going to kill them, wouldn’t they just blow up the bridge? It’d be safer anyways.
My prediction in every zombie series and franchise: Military souldiers are evil and sometimes useless
remember that everyone
'NEGATIVE bridge, are you IMMUNE? Have you encountered the infected?'
ALSO the way that 'Papa Gator' on the radio says, 'Rescue 7...are you equipped for carriers?' is like SO much eerier to hear now
I see that bit as uncertainty on both the survivors and the military and in a way how it ends on a cliffhanger. The survivors never clarify whether they are carriers or immune, and had no real way to verify that.
The military also doesn’t know whether they’re immune or carriers, but decides to evacuate them anyways. I presume it’s under the hope they are immune but preparing for the potential of carriers.
We know for certain the L4D1 survivors were carriers, but whether the L4D2 survivors were carriers or immune is an open question.
@@Pilotmario The L4D2 group only said they're immune because Papa Gator made it seems like if they say no they will be left behind. And after all they have been through, they are not gonna be left behind just for the sake of being honest, so this is obviously a lie to get on the chopper. This is like if you come late to school, and the hall monitor ask if whether you're late, or you arrived early but left for personal reasons and just now come back. Obviously you're gonna lie to get inside.
I like to imagine the helicopter pilot turned into a zombie, Nick shot em, and they had to go through Swamp Fever again lol
On the bright side, they get to keep their weapons, if they’re not so trusting of the military, (which nick’s dialogue heavily suggests) perhaps they could escape the base (unlikely) or even force a helicopter crash by gunning through the wall between them and the pilot. They’ve already survived one crash. Maybe they can another.
Its been 16 years but I still hope for a L4D3. Someday Valve will get over their fear of the number 3.
really good video! not much else to say other than a small correction regarding the "full scale zombie apocaylpse" line, from everything we can see in game and elsewhere, the infection is only limited to just the east coast of the US, not anywhere else, so bombing to kill infected actually makes a bit more sense.
It’s worth mentioning that Valve has alluded to the virus being spread worldwide in an old interview, but even if that is the case, it’s like just showing up in specific parts of other continents like in the US, rather than everywhere being fully overrun.
I never got time to let the themes of the Parish to set in because I was too busy laughing about how my friend got absolutely launched off the bridge by a Tank and died instantly lol.
carriers might be the best concept for zombies, proves that the l4d universe is the worst zombies to survive, it’s impossible to survive because of carriers
The bus terminal is taking people towards the bridge for safety and the crashed helicopter in chapter 3 is the same helicopter in dead center that the survivors missed
nick was right all along
Looks like there been change plans 😂
"call 911, i hurt his feelings."
The helicopter really WAS made of chocolate!
the revolting carriers actually did go through with their plan and managed to take out a military helicopter judging from the dialogue when the survivors see the crashed helicopter "zombies didn't do this"
1:47 nick protected wh0?
Sharp eyes
Saw it too😂
If there's ever a continuation of the story, the best possible outcome for the survivors is the millitary assrts being taken over by carriers. Any high ranking carriers within the millitary would basically rot the organization from the inside out. Survivors lasting weeks into the green flu seems a lot less likely than a group of carriers outlasting both sides.
But until the day that game/comic/short film gets released, we can only assume the worst.
Consider the following;
The military has obviously been killing carriers if not the uninfected as well.
Rescue 7 and Papa Gator confirm that the crew are carriers and they have encountered the infected.
Then we must ask; why would Rescue 7 wait for them? Why would the military risk themselves to save people they have been ordered to kill? There is the possibility of them trying to get the survivors where they can be killed and thus pose no further risk to the uninfected, but there could be other possibilities as well. The most likely possibility is them being taken to a lab for testing like the left 4 dead 1 survivors. Not the best possibility, but not a dead end either. It is possible other carriers were picked up from New Orleans for testing and a breakout could occur, which would make for a fantastic start to a third game we will never get.
Let’s not forget after the rescue from Dark Carnival and the first part of the Swamp Fever campaign where they were inside a train car, the survivors briefly argued argued about how Nick shot the pilot because he was infected.
This was a strong indication about them being carriers; that when they got rescued, the pilot possibly got infected by them because they are indeed carriers.
It really is disheartening that Valve leaves their games without a proper ending. At least we got them in the first place, along with the workshop to boot.
P.S. what’s the background song in the beginning?
In 2009, the game's writer, Chet Faliszek, stated that the military took survivors on cruise ships to the Caribbean to escape the infection.
B is highly improbable. a cargo helicopter and the personnel with the skill to operate it? they aren't risking losing these to give 4 people a ride to a firing squad when they could just let them get killed by zombies. the fact they are willing to risk losing the limited resources they have to get these survivors means that they have some value to them, and the fact that they were just straight up shooting the carriers up until this point means something has changed. from the perspective of the writers, i think they would take the story in a different route than they did for the original l4d survivors, and not just have a repeat of the comic.
I think the L4D2 survivors probably have enough plot armour to survive if Valve ever continues the story.
With the amount of massacre a team of 4 like them just pulled after everywhere they went they were absolutely converted into soldiers (against their will but still better than dead). The bridge could have easily been bombed with them on it but they really wanted to see if the survivors could pull THAT off.
I remember in the golden era of this game I would start versus lobbies and hurry up switching to parish finale and I’d say most of the time players understood my goal and stayed lol
Honestly I wish we got to see more of this mini 3 way war between the Military, the Survivors and the Carriers and eventually the Infected because by the few accounts we get from the graffiti New Orleans was practically a warzone before our little group shows up.
The fact that not one of the remaining crew of Zoe, Louis, and Francis didn't once warn the other survivors about carriers and the military means they're complicit in their fate.
Which is a shame to consider, but if you look at it in light of the release order of these campaigns (the passing was post-L4D2 launch, and the comic was post-the Passing), the dialogue between the two groups feels forced in light of the knowledge the former three should have, but it's all to maintain continuity to ensure the other 4 get to the Parish campaign.
If the story had been scripted tighter from start to finish, and given the events of the comic and the impact Bill's death had on Zoe, she would have ABSOLUTELY warned the others of the military's shenanigans and what they knew about carriers.
honestly based on the setting being selfish is the best option.
when you barely got out of the hordes alive, and barely got away from the Military? what would warning them do? just hope those strangers get insanely lucky like you did?
either way from L4D1 gang's perspective what does that change? in a world on the brink of fully ending with no stability why bother caring about strangers even if they're carriers like you? both groups fought for survival and one got burned by the only people organized enough to have authority. the cruise ships are canon to an extent but none of the characters know that.
a really messed up "screwed either way" situation.
Nicks pessimism during each part of the campaign isn't unfounded, "I wonder if that's a good thing" after Coach saying "the military's still flying jets" and his unwillingness to cross the bridge at the finale. he see's the literal writing on the wall that the other survivors are unwilling to admit are bad because they need some sort of reason to keep hope. Zoey and Louis purposefully don't tell them the bad news when they escape in the Passing, it's just too difficult. I empathize with the other survivors and Nick of course caves when they present him with the alternative "feel free to make yourself a new life in this room Nick".
Honestly if there was a sequel, I would assume Nick gets them out of a bad situation with the military as he had planned for it. He may have dropped the ball when arguing with Francis and Zoey, but his skills at dealing with extreme situations as someone who isn't afraid to break the law wouldn't go completely to waste at the military encounter. He may come off as a complete jerk, but he does have the charm to get people to talk with him and make deals, the asshole with a heart of gold
Nick has and always will be my favorite character in L4d
Someone said he might shoot the pilot if he overhears anything close to them being rounded up and prodded or shot at, I like to think that if the group got off the chopper with a bunch of guns pointed at them and they were herded into a cell or fenced off zone without their weapons, he'd somehow manage to smuggled a pistol or knife undetected and be the first to sneak out shooting and get everyone armed for an escape
To be honest, if the L4D2 crew knew any better they should've just stick together with Louis, Francis, and Zoey during The Passing and stayed. Them leaving in Jimmy Gibbs' car sealed their unknown fate as they made their way to New Orleans and realizing what was really going on down there.
I do not believe they were immediately shot after being saved. Simply for two reasons:
1. That'd be bad storytelling.
2. They very easily could've just not rescued them or killed them there or blown up the bridge. Why save them? They knew they were carriers beforehand.
They would definitely be tested/experimented on, but past that is a mystery. The variables past that are two many to get any sort of guess that isn't wild speculation.
My theory is the military in L4D2 are more drastic, and will take more radical approaches to experimenting on the carriers for a cure. You need to consider when one take huge risk, they expect huge results. And Papa Gator took a huge risk here. So I doubt they're saving the survivors just because they wanna feel good. Them carriers are 100% going on the operating table.
That helicopter took a big risk to touch down near a bridge that's rigged to detonate, to rescue 4 people from a horde of charging zombies. Taking that kind of risk, just to possibly execute them doesn't seem very logical.
I agree that execution is probably the most likely end result for our surivors but I like to think of what would happen if L4D3 were to come out and the gang survived to become recurring characters.
Perhaps they interview any carriers they pick up to ensure they have the most up to date information on the outside world before they exucute/ship them off. I'd like to think that the retelling of the absurd journey and the recounting of all the scratches, bites, and bruises they endured could spark an idea in the interviewer. How many resources, how much time, and most importantly how many lives would it take for non-carriers to make the same journey? They would have to face the fact that plenty of other carrier free sites fell apart from infection anyway and to ensure the survival of their community they might have to utilize the immune. Journeys outside the walls are inevitable because of food, medicine, and ammo scarcity. Even in the lab a willing infected participant is much safer and secure than an unwilling prisoner or zombie.
There are many ways you can write a reasonable break of norms in this scenario. Of course, Valve hardly makes games anymore so this is all just fan fiction rather than speculation but it's interesting to think about 😅.