Sam (Alternate Choices)

Samantha, known to her friends as Sam, is a playable character and later as one of two main antagonists in Until Dawn: Alternate Choices.

She is a close friend of Josh Washington and after the disappearance of his sisters Hannah and Beth Washington, she advises Josh to invite his friends back to his family lodge a year later in an attempt to forget the tragedy surrounding his sisters. She was voiced and motion captured by actress Hayden Panettiere.

## Appearance

Sam has dirty blond hair tied in a classic bun-tied hairstyle.

In the prologue, she wears a red and white patterned wool sweater, with jeans and irregular shaped golden dangling earrings.

At the beginning of the game, she wears a red shirt, an onyx black leather jacket wrapped with a lipstick red scarf around her neck, and a plaid styled skirt.

After some chapters, she would change into a jump suit as the Psycho.

## Personality

Sam is described in the game as diligent, considerate and adventurous. She appears to be the most level headed and friendly member of the group and is rarely the cause of drama.

Sam is a warm and caring individual ands cares deeply about her friends and their feelings. The others may find her a little quirky but she is comfortable in her own skin. She is a nature enthusiast with a love for animals, and dreams of becoming a conversationist.

However, after the disappearance of her friends Hannah and Beth, Sam developed psychosis, a mental illness characterised by a disconnection from reality. She struggles to come to terms with Hannah and Beth's disappearance.

She is a pacifist which has a disdain for violence and conflict, but will not shy away from terrorising her friends in revenge for Hannah and Beth's disappearance.

## Biography

Nature loving Sam is a warm and caring individual. The others might find her a little quirky, but she's comfortable in her own skin. The weekend away is a chance for Sam to catch up with her friends, enjoy the mountain air and put the past behind her. After the disappearance of Hannah and Beth, she developed severe psychosis to the point that Dr Hill recommended ECT. Instead, she began taking stronger medication (which she later stopped taking, causing her to suffer withdrawal symptoms).

## One Year Ago

Sam, along with her friends, was invited by Josh, Hannah and Beth Washington to the mountain for a weekend of fun. As the night progressed, Sam and Ashley both passed out from heavy drinking. As a result, Sam was unaware of the Impending prank on Hannah and unable to intervene.

## Chapter 1

A year later, Josh invites all his friends back to his lodge on the mountains. Sam is seen on a bus, listening to a podcast about the anniversary of Hannah and Beth's disappearance and later watches a video of Josh inviting them back to his lodge. Getting off the bus, she goes to the cable car where she meets Chris. She watches Chris practice shooting a rifle before they take a cable car up to the mountains. If Chris shoots the squirrel, a raven will attack Sam and injury her forehead. During the ride, she learns of how Chris and Josh became friends.

The duo then meet Jessica at the top, where they learn of her new relationship with Mike. As Jessica insists on waiting for Mike, they head towards the lodge where they meet Josh, Ashley and Matt.

## Chapter 2

Sam is shown to be aware of Chris' crush on Ashley, as she can tease him about it. Along with Emily and Ashley, she will wait for Chris to open the lodge door. Inside as things escalate between Jessica and Emily, Sam opts to stay out of it with Chris and Ashley. When Jessica, Mike, Emily and Matt leave the lodge, Sam decides to take a bath. After Sam finds out the hot water is cold, goes downstairs to tell Josh. They both go down to the basement to fire up the boiler and bond with each other in the process. Here, Sam hears a strange noise while Josh asks her to shine the torch his way so he can see what he's doing. After completing their task, the two either share a high five or Sam just ignores him. They are both chased by individual dressed in an old robe all the way to the basement door which Sam tries to unlock. The masked man reveals himself to be Chris, playing a prank. Sam gets annoyed, asking if Josh was in on it, while Josh denies it and jokes about her reaction. When meeting up with Ashley, Sam decides not to get involved in the spirit board and finally take a warm bath.

## Chapter 3

After Chris and Ashley find clues in the library, Sam's screams are heard from the library and Chris tries to break through the doors, only to be pulled in. Ashley follows Chris through, but the Psycho knocks her out.

## Chapter 4

Ashley wakes with a large bruise on the left side of her head. Worried about Chris and Sam, she picks up a torch and goes down a pathway, seemingly made for her. She then approaches a shed and walks inside where she finds a horizontal saw with Chris and Sam, who is still unconscious, chained to either side of a board. The saw will kill either Chris or Sam and Ashley has to choose. It's rigged to kill Sam, regardless and she screams as she is gruesomely bisected by the saw while Chris and Ashley watch in horror.

## Chapter 7

As Josh and Jess rescue Chris and Ashley, the Psycho reveals himself to be Sam to a shocked Josh, Jess, Chris and Ashley. Sam reveals she played on a prank on them in revenge for the prank they played on Hannah, causing her and Beth's disappearance, but this time the games were not lethal. After revealing how she faked her death and her plan to prank them on camera and release the footage on the internet, making them viral stars, she is unconscious by Jessica who believes she killed Mike. Sam is lead back to the shed by Ashley and Jess while displaying signs of instability, such as providing them based on past choices. She is tied to a support beam and Jess stays with her while Ashley returns to the lodge. Soon Jess returns to the lodge, leaving Sam alone in the shed.

## Chapter 8

After the Stranger informs the group about the Wendigo, Jess tells them she left Sam alone in the shed. It becomes clear Ashley still considers Sam to be a friend, as she claims she is "letting her down" and goes rescue Sam regardless of Chris' attempts to convince to get her back. When the Stranger and Ashley arrive at the shed, Sam is nowhere to be seen, with a bloody puddle where she was tied up. Later on, it's revealed that a Wendigo dragged her away.

## Chapter 10

Sam is dropped into the mines. Violent hallucinations cause Sam to have a complete nervous and mental breakdown. It becomes clear that her "sessions" with Dr Hill were hallucinations formed out of actual former sessions she had and once Dr Hill leaves, she begins to have nightmarish visions of Hannah and Beth. Josh and Jess find Sam talking to herself in a cave and Jess snaps her out of it. Is Josh learned the truth about Hannah, he tries to tell Sam before being cut off by Jess. Since Sam is not mentally prepared to climb out the mines, Josh leaves by himself while Jess escorts Sam through the sewers. Sam follows Jess through a room containing bodies of the deceased and wades through an underground lake in the caverns. Jess and Sam are ambushed by the Wendigo Hannah who either kills her or (if the vital clues regarding the twins were found) carried away.

## Credits

Having no clue how to escape the cavernous mines, completely mentally broken and isolated from all human contact, Sam is overwhelmed with hunger as days pass and succumbs to the Wendigo spirit. If any survivor talks to the police about the mines, Sam is discovered by two rangers, cannibalising the head of the Stranger, before turning towards them and presumably killing them. If no one survived except Sam, she will not be discovered but she will still cannibalise the Stranger and look to the camera as the screen cuts to black.

## Possible Death

* When Sam is rescued and follows Jess through the water, her head can be crushed by the Wendigo Hannah if Josh didn't discover the truth of what happened to Hannah and Beth.

## Relashionships

### Ashley

Ashley is Sam's best friend, after Hannah disappeared. During the interrogation in the shed, Chris can either defend Sam or act in aggression towards her. Even though the saw trap is rigged to bisect Sam regardless of the player's choice, Sam will still feel betrayed if Ashley chooses to save Chris.

Regardless of whether or not, Ashley is angered by Sam during the interrogation, she will still insist on going back to save her at the realisation of them leaving her out for the Wendigo's picking. She reasons that whether or not Sam had wronged her, she owes it to her, as her best friend, to rescue her.

### Beth Washington

Sam and Beth were good friends. Sam is listed as Beth's third highest relationship next to Josh and Hannah. After Beth discovers Jess' note to Hannah, she has the option to try to wake Sam, who had passed out from drinking too much, to help. Before her disappearance, she found Sam's drunken state to be amusing. She comments "once again, you've outdone us all" implying Sam had a drinking problem prior to the events of the night. Sam is shown to be very sorrowful and guilty about Beth's death as shown in the hallucination.

### Chris

It's implied Sam and Chris are good friends. She is seen affectionately punching him on the shoulder. However, Sam will get angry if Chris shoots a squirrel during target practice.

* If Sam snoops on Chris' phone, their relationship with decrease.
* Sam and Chris' relationship will decrease if Chris shoots a squirrel at the shooting range.

### Emily

Sam and Emily appear to be neural friends.

### Hannah Washington

Sam was Hannah's best friend before her disappearance. Beth believed that Sam would help her save Hannah from the prank. She is shown to care about Hannah very much as evidenced by her distress over learning what happened to her. Sam is shown to be very sorrowful and guilty about Hannah's death as shown in the hallucination.

### Jessica

When Sam and Chris are stuck in a cable car station, Sam asks for Jessica's help in getting out. Jessica responds, "Uh, are you having a really weird stroke?" before complying and opening the door for them.

* Jessica and Sam's relationship will decrease if Jessica explains to Sam and Chris that she and Mike are together.

### Josh Washington

As Hannah's best friend, Sam has a fairly amicable relationship with Josh, which can become closer depending on the player's actions. Notably, Josh frequently came to her for moral support after the disappearance of his sisters, indicating that he trusts her deeply. The fact Josh was not involved in the prank played on Hannah and even attempted to avert it likely played a part in this. During a quiet moment when the two are alone, he thanks her specifically for coming to the annual meet up.

Josh seems to delight in teasing Sam, or "joshing" her, as he likes to call it. When she mentions that she is about to take a bath, he jokingly asks whether she needs any help. Despite this, Sam still scares Josh along with Chris and Ashley as part of her revenge scheme, not only showing him footage of her being sawed in half but also chasing him around the lodge dressed as the Psycho.

In an interview, Josh admits to feeling betrayed by her after the prank she pulled on the group, saying he thought they had a strong connection implying they were very close friends with a possible crush on Josh's part, Sam's being unknown.

* If Sam tells Josh that she's there for him when he thanks her for coming to the lodge, their relationship increases.
* Josh and Sam's relationship will increase if Sam chooses the serious dialogue option upon picking up the baseball bat.

### Matt

Sam and Matt are never seen to interact but it's assumed they are good friends. Their relationship status is on the high end at the beginning of the game.

### Mike Munroe

Mike and Sam have markedly different personalities that put them at odds with each other at the beginning of the game. He was not involved in Sam's prank as Josh sent him and Jess to a separate cabin, giving the idea that she might have intended to prank them had Josh not interrupted it.

## Trivia

* Sam is one of three characters that can only be killed in chapter 10. The other two are Jessica and Josh Washington.
* According to Hayden Panettiere, the actress that plays Sam, she is a vegan and a pacifist. Although, despite this she still terrorises Josh, Chris and Ashley.
* Sam's dream job is a conversationist.
* Sam loves animals and hates violence.
* Sam is voted most likely to become an activist.
* In ten years time, Sam hopes to see herself making a difference in people.
* Sam's highest traits are brave, charitable and honest.
* Sam's lowest traits are romantic, funny and curious.
* Sam's highest relationship status is with Josh, Chris, Emily, Ashley and Matt.
* Sam's lowest relationship status is with Mike and Jessica.
* She has a fear of the supernatural.
* Considering her quick climbing skills, it could be possible that climbing is one of her hobbies. Despite her skills, in Chapter 10 she is in no mental state to climb and has to be escorted through the caverns.
* Sam is the first character to play in the game.
* She is the only protagonist who will not have an interview regardless of her fate.
* Psych reports of Josh found by him (if he evades capture) suggest that Sam had illegally been looking at his confidential reports.

## Quotes

* *"Nice shooting, Tex."* Sam complimenting Chris at the shooting range.
* *"No… you're not real! No… you're not…"* Sam's last words.
* *"Hook, line and sinker for every little sticker!"* Sam after revealing herself as the Psycho.
* *"Hey, Jess. Jess, Jess, Jess, Jess! Jess! What happened with Mike, Jess? I got a problem, Jess! I don't remember killing Mike… I mean I feel I would remember killing him, you know? He's so hard… And he probably has a really big sausage…"*
* *"After all you've been through! Good, good, good, good. I mean how does that feel?* *Do you enjoy feeling terrorised? Humiliated? I mean, panicked? All those emotion Hannah and Beth got to feel one year ago! Only guess what? They didn't get to laugh it off! No! Nope! No, no, no! They're Gone!"*
* *"I DID something! I made you believe in the world I created, and I showed you parts of yourself you were too afraid to visit."*