Fabletown is in a lot of trouble at this point, how much so is only slowly revealed throughout the marvelous episode four of The Wolf Among Us, A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing. Telltale works in series of five, so this is the penultimate episode of the season, meaning that it’s purpose is to set up the finish and if you had any fears of this all coming together you can just stop that right now. Episode four takes Bigby deeper down the well all while injured from the attack by Bloody Mary in the previous episode that left him on the brink of death.
At this point you know the players, you know that there is a conspiracy and you know that there are a lot of people from Fabletown involved. You just don’t know the depths of the corruption, nor do you truly understand how the idyllic escape for the Fables has truly fallen into chaos and disarray. Sure, you’ve already seen that Fabletown has hookers, you’ve already seen that Beauty was working the desk at a shady by-the-hour motel and knew that everyone was upset with how Ichabod Crane was running Fabletown. What this episode does is just shows you how desperate everything has truly gotten.
Frog is still unglamoured, the Woodsman lost his axe, both Beauty and Beast have gone to lengths to keep up their lifestyle and everyone just seems all-around miserable. People are dead, people are hungry and everyone is afraid of being sent to “the farm” because they can’t afford to buy a potion to make them look human. All of this just compounds what Snow and Bigby have on their plates, but the action in this episode really takes off once Bigby has been put back together again.
Much like in previous episodes, you are presented with a choice between two locations to head to, with there possibly being dire consequences for choosing one over the other. Are there consequences, I’m not sure, but what I do know is that just like in previous episodes, it feels like you need to make the right decision for the situation. You are, after all, the person trying to ensure the safety of Fabletown.
So, as you should be able to tell by now, it’s a rather grim setup for A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing, but it also means that there is a lot more action and that the pacing for this episode is a lot quicker. We’ve gone through most of the exposition at this point, now it’s time for things to go crazy. Bigby is trying to find the Crooked Man and Bloody Mary at this point, only to find out exactly what the Crooked Man’s operation is all about and how he’s preying upon those Fables who have been left behind due to lack of work opportunities and the strict rules enforced upon them.
It’s explained to Bigby that the Crooked Man is just as essential to Fabletown as Bigby himself is, that they both provide services to Fables and that Fabletown couldn’t exist without either of them. The only thing is, Bigby at least tries to operate under the pretense of justice, while there are two dead women because of the Crooked Man. Clearly he must be stopped.
If you are looking for answers here, you are sadly not going to receive them. Episode four clocks in at just a little over 70 minutes, making it one of the shortest episodes to date. There is one big action sequence in the episode that felt satisfying but not overly difficult or weighed down by the controls like some of the past Telltale action sequences have been. It’s obviously story-heavy, like most of these are, with this episode in particular moving the story ahead by quite a bit.
Going into episode five things are still fairly uncertain. Will Bigby get some answers, finally? Will there be justice? Did Ichabod really get sent to Paris? Will there be a huge fight between Bloody Mary and Bigby? I guess that we’ll have to wait and see.
