Regarding that helicopter in episode 2 and the last episode with the CDC. I think this is a bit tenuous but…
[ul]
[li]I don’t know Atlanta geography so I don’t know if the CDC is really in or near downtown but the episode seemed to imply it was located in the downtown area. In episode 2, Rick saw a helicopter in downtown Atlanta.[/li]
[li]When Rick and crew showed up at the CDC, the show seemed to be making a strong effort to point out the smell of the dead and the presence of the flies. They have not done this elsewhere in scenes involving the city of Atlanta or any area where a large amount of dead existed.[/li][/ul]
The two points above leads me to speculate that the CDC held out much longer than everyone else in the surrounding area. This makes a certain amount of sense considering the government would most likely commit heavy resources to protecting the CDC as it represents a hope for a cure/answer to the plague. Of course if true it begs the question - what happened to the rest of the staff at the CDC?
Maybe we’ll find out next week if some backstory is filled in by scientist guy.
The CDC was 100 miles away from Atlanta. That was the whole point of everyone driving and needing to stop to fix the hose on the RV.
EDIT: I’m guessing this same confusion explains the complaint from upthread:
I glossed over this at first read. They didn’t go “BACK” to anywhere; they moved on to a completely new and unknown location 100 miles away that would logically be the best and most fortified place to set up shop.
They said the CDC was in the military base, 100 miles away. (And then they drove 100 miles to the military base, and walked in past the gate and all the dead soldiers until they got to the CDC.)
I no longer have the episode on my DVR; can anybody verify the dialogue in that scene? I’ll check online…
EDIT: Sadly there are no legal free means to watch episode online.
Well, actually I see the logic in having a bunch of cars in a caravan. What if your car was to break down just as you happened upon a large pack of zombies staggering down the highway? You could possibly outrun them, but I’d prefer to have a second, third or fourth car to hop into and be able to drive away.
The one vehicle that would have been large enough to carry all of them - the Winnebago - actually did break down. And let’s face it, even if it didn’t - it’s a Winnebago! Even a classic Romero style slow, shuffling zombie could outpace one of those.
I noticed that someone had a motorbike in the back of his pickup (Shane? Daryl?); I can see a couple of vehicles, but not one per couple as we are used to doing things. I do like the idea that they’re so disorganized and ragtag still that it hasn’t occurred to them that they are a unit, and have to act like one, not individual family groupings. That’s one thing I’ll give the show - that would be a terribly fine line to walk in a show like this, how much of the old society is left and what is the response to a new reality. That’s what makes post-apocalyptic stuff so interesting to me.
Is it just me, or would anyone else be a bit uncomfortable about the two police officers taking over the group and abusing their authority like they have already done? Maybe that’s why the family went to “Birmingham;” they were just escaping their new dictatorship.
We did see some kind of sign about the infection posted outside the CDC - did anyone get a good look at it? Another thing I discovered this weekend is that AMC is blocking my recording signal for my DVR. Jerks. :mad:
No, Rick wanted to go to the CDC, and Shane wanted to go to the military base, which Lori said was “100 miles in the other direction”.
I enjoyed this episode, but I have to agree with what so many have said about the caravan. Why on earth would you have one guy in an open jeep in a world with very little gas and zombies?
Yeah, sorry but the “100 miles away” is Fort Benning (Army base which includes the Army’s Airborne school, Infantry school, and I believe a Ranger battalion amongst other things) which is located in Columbus, GA. The CDC is in Atlanta:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
1600 Clifton Rd
Atlanta, GA 30333
Now, if it is in the suburbs or near/in downtown as the show implied is a separate question that is not that relevant to my earlier point.
They didn’t walk into an army base. They walked up to the “pseudo”* CDC which was heavily reinforced with military (now dead). It makes sense it would be heavily guarded/reinforced with military as you would want to protect the CDC since it was/is probably the best chance of researching a cure or discovering the nature of what is going on.
Also, per Mapquest, Atlanta, GA (CDC) to Columbus, GA (Ft. Benning) is 107 miles.
I say pseudo because as another Atlanta-local doper pointed out, the building shown is not the actual CDC building.
I saw them walk through a plaza of sorts up to the entrance of what was supposed to be the CDC. There were random military vehicles, I think, but that was left over from the attempt to defend the city.
Now, as to why there were bodies laid out in an seemingly even ‘scatter’ pattern but not lined up as they were outside the hospital in episode one, I don’t know.
Yeah, sorry, but the real-life location of things is irrelevant. I could easily be mistaken, but citing where the actual CDC is located isn’t compelling. They said on the show where the CDC is on the show. That’s the only thing that can decisively answer the question.
They stated quite clearly that the CDC is in Atlanta, and that the military base is 100 miles away.
The trip should take about 20-30 in real life; why it took them until dusk in the show is unclear.
But the CDC is in Atlanta, in real life and the show.
No, our LG DVR (did everyone catch the name of this useless DVR? I’m sure I’ll post about it again) won’t record the show because it says there is, “Recording blocking signal from station detected.” This is not the first time we haven’t been able to record because of this.
Many of the roads are littered with abandoned cars, or (even worse) cars with zombies in them. Finding or making a clear path could easily take hours - it might even be faster to walk, but that would be insanely dangerous. A car doesn’t provide great protection from zombies (especially an open-top jeep), but it’s better than nothing, especially at speed.
The above, by the way, is why I think that trying for Fort Benning was a terrible idea. Sure, it’s possible Benning is a safe zone - but if you’re going over a hundred miles of post-zombie-apocalypse road, you’re going to hit at least one “traffic jam” of abandoned cars - possibly several. If I were in our intrepid band of survivors, I’d place a high priority on adding a tow truck to the vehicle convoy - even that won’t let you clear a really big traffic jam, but it would at least let you render some roads navigable that otherwise wouldn’t be. I’m not sure it would be enough to make Fort Benning possible, though. What you’d really want to do is load up a truck with enough portable fencing or what-have-you that you could set up temporary fortifications to protect your people while they worked on clearing a roadblock.
If the above sounds almost impossibly difficult - I agree. Fort Benning might as well be on the moon.
I don’t think they ever clearly stated exactly where the CDC is, but they did say that it was much closer than Fort Benning, which they said was 100 miles away.
I added a bit of “real-life” location information to reinforce that what was stated and presented in the show correlates to “real-life” locations. The show decisively presented the options being debated: go to the CDC in Atlanta -or- go 100 miles in the opposite direction to Ft. Benning. After they got ti the CDC and found the doors locked, Shane even argued briefly about getting back in their vehicles and trying to get to Ft. Benning. Rick argued that with low fuel, no food or water, they’d never make it to Ft. Benning.
