The Walking Dead; 2.01 "What Lies Ahead" (open spoilers)

[panamajack]

@Cat_Whisperer

Last season, didn’t we go over how infectious the blood and bodily fluids of the Walkers are, and here in this episode we see Blonde Girl covered in Walker blood (including her mouth), and everyone just stabbing them willy-nilly, which would normally make blood spray out everywhere?

They’re wildly inconsistent about that, along with plenty of other things. It’s not really the show for that.

Though what was the point of showing the “Southern Baptist” sign out front of the church if they’re going to have a crucifix inside? It might as well have been a mosque.

I was a bit disappointed there hasn’t really been any more of the traces of humanity in more of the walkers. The churchgoers were close but then they turned into pop-up monsters. In the first few episodes that was one of the best things they showed. It’d be really good now, especially in contrast with the idiocy of the living folks.

[Nobody]

The, will just getting zombie blood or guts be enough to infect you? thing bugs me as well. It seemed that last season it was established that it will, but now the group is getting zombie blood all over them, and they’re perfectly fine.

[The_Evil_Prince_Zorte]

I skipped Rick’s monologue. I was impatient enough with the first monologue at the crucifix (who looked like Zombie Christ from a distance), and couldn’t believe they did it a second time, and as I hit +:30 over and over, thought about how actors and writers love that kind of thing, but it brings an already slow show to a dead stop.

I know characterization is vital to a successful show, no matter what genre it is, and no matter how fantastical, it is always about the people. However a key skill in movies and television is brevity. You cram as much relationship, character development, etc as possible into a few lines of conversation, things left unsaid but implied, some meaningful looks and reactions. Maybe even do some of that stuff while the plot moves forward.

Unfortunately I don’t care quite enough about the characters to be interested in their inner turmoils to the degree that they play out here. Give me some key points in the emotional struggle of living in a post-apocalyptic world but keep the focus on the more exciting, physical survival. Unfortunately for this show, covering story ground often means covering actual terrain which is expensive to produce.

All shows get “bottle episodes” where they keep all the action in one location, preferably a soundstage, so they can save money to spend on other episodes. With Walking Dead it feels like they have the budget to provide maybe 2 acts out of 6 (or more for a 90 minute ep) of good zombie drama, and then we get stuck in the bottle for the rest of the episode.

I’m especially impatient because after the last season, I picked up the comic and read it up to that point. There is a lot of cool stuff I would like to see them cover in the series, but they are spending all their time twiddling their thumbs on the side of the road with only 13 episodes on order. In 90 minutes they drove a little ways up a road, survived a zombie herd (cool) then unsuccessfully searched for a girl. Shane is maybe going to leave, Andrea is pissed that she doesn’t get to commit suicide and Carol thinks she maybe shouldn’t have been so glad her abusive husband was killed.

They could have covered all of that, made the thing with the deer the Act 5 out, and discovered the farm (from the trailer) at the end of the hour long episode. For an extra half hour you can meet however is at the farm, set up that conflict and feel like you have made some real progress after waiting a year for the show to come back.

Maybe it’s a budget problem, but after most episodes I am left feeling like they don’t have many ideas (despite the wealth of material in the comic) and have to pad it out with overly verbose character and relationship stuff.

[Tangent]

@alphaboi867

Anybody notice if any of the corpses sitting in the cars had head wounds? If not that would suggest only bite victims reanimate since otherwise they’d have reanimated trapped in their cars.

@Cat_Whisperer

Last season, didn’t we go over how infectious the blood and bodily fluids of the Walkers are, and here in this episode we see Blonde Girl covered in Walker blood (including her mouth), and everyone just stabbing them willy-nilly, which would normally make blood spray out everywhere?

@Nobody

The, will just getting zombie blood or guts be enough to infect you? thing bugs me as well. It seemed that last season it was established that it will, but now the group is getting zombie blood all over them, and they’re perfectly fine.

The show hasn’t been clear on this, and the show has deviated from the comics in some major ways. Here is what the comics have to say about infection (no spoilers about any specific characters or events, but a significant spoiler about how the infection works):

In the comics, it is revealed that everyone–including the living–is already infected with the zombie virus. It appears to remain dormant in the living. But when you die–no matter how you die, as long as your brain is intact–you will reanimate as a zombie. A bite from a zombie will bring about death and reanimation fairly rapidly, but even the unbitten will reanimate after their eventual deaths. This touches on one of the themes of the comic: the phrase “The Walking Dead” refers not just to the zombies, but to the living as well. They face a very difficult life with little joy or hope for the future. Their lives are, essentially, already over.

[EllisDee]

The sheer horror of not being able to find someone and then slowly having to come to grips with the fact that you might have to just leave them behind was awesome. From the sound of this thread, I may be the only one who liked it. I guess everyone else is thinking meh, didn’t see her, let’s bail?

@alphaboi867

The guy in the tent didn’t look like he had a headwound either.

The guy in the tent was pretty clearly shown to have blown his head open with a gunshot.

@Don_Draper

And was it just me or were there like 10 minutes of commercials for every 2 minutes of actual show? It seemed like the producers made a standard hour-long episode that got expanded to 90 minutes just by twice as many ads. It seemed like every 30 seconds they were going to another commercial.

Felt like a lot longer than a typical 1 hour show. I’d be shocked if it was under an hour of show; probably closer to 70 minutes.

[Critical1]

just about 10 hour even if you dump the credits and the spoilers at the end.

[John_Mace]

@Cat_Whisperer

Short Round, and yes. Glenn didn’t seem to like it much.

OK, we got Sawyer here.

I didn’t catch the crucifix in the Baptist Church thing. Good call.

And yes, I was wondering how they could get Zombie blood all over them and not get infected.

The scene where Junior was walking up to the buck was interminably long.

But, again, I did like the show overall. Some real pacing problems, but enough good stuff to make up for it.

[Spoke]

@John_Mace

Yes, he did.

BTW, what kind of parent allows his kid to walk up to a stag in the woods?

Hell, what kind of buck (“Stag?” Please. This show is set in Georgia.) lets two armed guys and a kid walk right up to it like that? Unless it was an escapee from a petting zoo, that buck would have been off like a shot.

[Folacin]

@Sampiro

Obligatory TV Trope link: Christianity is Catholic. (Hollywood doesn’t quite grasp Protestantism; half the time when they show a minister he’ll have a black suit and a collar even if he’s Baptist or Methodist.)

I thought I remembered a Methodist minister in a collar, and, sure enough - the Catholic’s didn’t even pioneer the use. Used by lots of denominations (but no Baptists, apparently), although I agree that I’ve always thought of it as a Catholic clergy thing mostly (but then, I was raised Catholic).

[Kolga]

Daryl is my new favorite character. He went from stupid redneck to less-stupid and more-likely-to-survive redneck pretty quickly.

I first thought the walker gutting scene was unnecessary but then I thought it added to the “what we have to do to survive” grinding horror of it all.

I like Laurie’s “y’all need to back the eff off my husband” speech, since I had had just about enough of the whiny-ass by that time.

Had a bunch of friends over to watch a Season One marathon and then the premiere. All of us could identify the weaknesses, but overall, we still loved it.

We think we’re going to turn it into a drinking game, but couldn’t decide whether to drink at the smart choices made by the survivors or the dumb ones.

One conversation that we did have (about a dumb move made, can’t remember what) was that while we’d all like to THINK we’d do X and Y and Z and be oh-so-much-smarter about our survival, and that we’d never hesitate to make a shot, blah blah blah, that in the actual stress of waking up in a world where zombies exist, we’re pretty sure that there would be some dumb mistakes that we’d make.

[Mean_Mr.Mustard]

Go ahead and call me dense, but was the kid shot in the end? Was the buck? Why did they both go down?

The running-through-the-woods scene where the two walkers were chasing the girl: c’mon, a young thing like that can’t outrun a zombie? Even when it showed them ‘running’, the girl was covering ground a hell of a lot faster than they were, yet they were still gaining.

And speaking of running…if I see a large shuffle of zombies walking toward me, I’m certainly not going to lay under a vehicle and hope they don’t hear/see/smell me. Five minutes of running should solve the problem.

And how did the lookout guy atop the RV not see them coming a half-mile away?

One last WTF moment: why did they gut the walker? To see if he et the girl? If so, why was he the only zombie dissected?

I still like the show, but this was a disappointing beginning.
mmm

[John_Mace]

They started off with one big stupid mistake by getting out and wandering around at the road block. I mean, really… you have to do more than tell your kid to stay within eyesight. You have to MAKE them do it. I was a kid once, and I wouldn’t stay within eyesight all by myself. Maybe they SHOULD be scaring the shit out of those kids for their own good!

[adamchen]

I just finished watching this while having our dinner! My kids are too scared and i need to sleep with them tonight Haha

[Quimby]

Thisarticle seems troubling but then again, AICN is a friend of Darabont…But still the scene on the highway was definitely the best part of last night’s episode.

For those that keep saying how stupid people are acting, I think you need to cut the characters some slack. They are malnourished and exhausted, dealing with seemingly impossible, horrific things and lack information the audience has.

[simster]

@Quimby

Thisarticle seems troubling but then again, AICN is a friend of Darabont…But still the scene on the highway was definitely the best part of last night’s episode.

For those that keep saying how stupid people are acting, I think you need to cut the characters some slack. They are malnourished and exhausted, dealing with seemingly impossible, horrific things and lack information the audience has.

They also were not the best/brightest that humanity has to offer - they were simply the “lucky” ones - unlike “Falling Skies” where we have military folk, school teachers - hell, even trained medical folks - and they still make the same dumb mistakes.

[AuntiePam]

@Mean_Mr.Mustard

Go ahead and call me dense, but was the kid shot in the end? Was the buck? Why did they both go down?

I’m thinking the bullet went through the buck and then hit the kid.

The running-through-the-woods scene where the two walkers were chasing the girl: c’mon, a young thing like that can’t outrun a zombie? Even when it showed them ‘running’, the girl was covering ground a hell of a lot faster than they were, yet they were still gaining.

Their legs are longer. I like what Rick said – “I’ll get winded, they won’t.” When you think about it, that does give them a bit of an advantage. The walkers don’t have to stop to sleep and apparently they don’t need to eat, even though it’s their main motivation. Will they starve?

And speaking of running…if I see a large shuffle of zombies walking toward me, I’m certainly not going to lay under a vehicle and hope they don’t hear/see/smell me. Five minutes of running should solve the problem.

Not when the things chasing you don’t need to take a breather.

And how did the lookout guy atop the RV not see them coming a half-mile away?

Got me there.

One last WTF moment: why did they gut the walker? To see if he et the girl? If so, why was he the only zombie dissected?

Rick noticed fresh meat on its teeth and under its fingernails, and it was in the same general area as Sophia.

Except for two characters talking to Jesus, I liked most of the episode. I really like Daryl. I didn’t like that Lori doesn’t seem to be over what’s-his-name. She chews him out for being short with Carl, but didn’t she tell him to stay away from her and the kid last season? He’s trying to do that. I think she still has the hots for him.

I liked what Andrea said to Dale, about taking away her choice. Dale should just give her the damn gun.

I liked that they were smart enough not to start shooting the walkers. It had to be tempting, to just open up on them.

Didn’t like the search for Sophia. They’re supposed to spread out but they were just walking together, single file. Go in twos, cover more ground.

[Mean_Mr.Mustard]

Good answers, AuntiePam, particularly the ‘zombies don’t get winded’ angle. I’d forgotten that that was mentioned in the episode.

I’m still sorting out the downed buck deal, though. I gotta believe the kid is still alive. Maybe some previously-unknown survivor took a shot at the deer not knowing that junior was standing behind it.

mmm

[panamajack]

@Tangent

The show hasn’t been clear on this, and the show has deviated from the comics in some major ways. Here is what the comics have to say about infection (no spoilers about any specific characters or events, but a significant spoiler about how the infection works):

In the comics, it is revealed that everyone–including the living–is already infected with the zombie virus. It appears to remain dormant in the living. But when you die–no matter how you die, as long as your brain is intact–you will reanimate as a zombie. A bite from a zombie will bring about death and reanimation fairly rapidly, but even the unbitten will reanimate after their eventual deaths. This touches on one of the themes of the comic: the phrase “The Walking Dead” refers not just to the zombies, but to the living as well. They face a very difficult life with little joy or hope for the future. Their lives are, essentially, already over.

I have a very strong suspicion (and I hadn’t even read the comic before) that this is what Dr. Jenner told Rick.

[salinqmind]

I really liked it and I’m glad it’s back. I don’t know anything about the comic book version. I watched the season 1 marathon on before the season premiere even though my cable TV kept flickering in and out like a strobe light all day and all night. Am I correct the boy was going to take a shot at the deer as he approached?

[salinqmind]

@panamajack

I have a very strong suspicion (and I hadn’t even read the comic before) that this is what Dr. Jenner told Rick.

I didn’t know that - everyone was saying he told Rick his (Rick’s) wife was pregnant from the blood test they all took, but Rick didn’t look very happy at whatever the doctor said to him. I guess I wouldn’t be happy either way.