#almost works on pearl+ cleo too. oh no my teams leaving me im so lost. as he leads them to the tnt trap. and they actually believed him

[mossy-cobble-slab]

Etho's "I dont know whats happening" strategy. AKA: I'm trying to kill you? That cant be true. We're friends. I'm just weak and confused.

It's not exactly a new trick for him, but in Life it's definitely more noticable in later seasons. Like in SL when the zombie army is chasing Joel, he keeps saying he doesn't know what's happening, why is Joel fighting him, Etho's on his side. It's super obvious, not intended to work, and Joel just keeps shooting him, but he still tries it. Even his whole "I'm going home everybody, I'm dying in my home" thing, while a great line, was sort of a lie. He was actually planning to make a stand with a homeground advantage, he just didnt make it there.

In the WL finale he uses this strat repeatedly on Gem and Joel. He kills Gem then says he had no idea the trap was there and it was an accident. Same when he sets another one off under them both. And when he attacks Joel just before Scott does, he runs away after Joel hits back saying oops he forgot they were teamed. They obviously don't believe him and he obviously doesn't intend them to, but for some reason they let him use the excuse to disengage every time.

It's also how he permakills Impulse. During the Joel teleporting everywhere incident, Etho runs through the group yelling "It's so confusing. I don't know what's happening (/lying)" and Impulse ignores him probably because what Etho's saying is pointless and distracting (intentionally) and he's focused on Joel. There's creepers around because Joel's placing them but Impulse doesn't notice that he isn't placing all of them. Etho is too. It doesnt occur to him that Etho's a threat, he doesnt worry about Etho moving behind him, and then he dies. From Impulse's pov it's a random and unlucky accident in a bunch of chaos, but really he wasn't paying attention to one of his enemies.