So, assuming the “everyone is already a latent zombie” is true, could it be that the dormant virus isn’t completely innocuous? Could it be that a lot of the irrational behavior and downright stupid actions we’ve seen from a lot (all?) of the characters has been driven by the zombie virus coursing through their veins?
The more I think of it, the more I think it could be true. It would go a long way in explaining a lot of the instances of “bad writing” and “dumb characters” we’ve all been complaining about.
Remember the non-zombie soldiers in the hospital in the first(?) episode shooting non-zombie civilians. Was that just the first sign of this phenomenon? Is everybody already acting under the partial effects of their zombie brains?
I’m pretty sure it’s called a “stagger of zombies”.
Killing off Shane didn’t make a lot of sense, plot-wise. They’ve killed off the only foil to the hero, leaving a (mostly) touchy-feely bunch of losers behind who seem to routinely make lousy life decisions in an apocalyptic world. Without that tension in the group, this becomes just another oh-dear-how-will-we-ever-survive setup. Also, he was one of the few actors who can carry a scene in this thing.
Interesting proposal. Perhaps. That scene with the soldiers shooting civilians in the hospital…I believed then that they were infected (bitten)…when in fact they were infected all along by your theory!
Its bothered me throughout the show…how did the military get taken down so easily? A tank could literally mow down zombies by the score wherever they were gathered in groups without firing a shot. And why don’t any of the survivors go after military hardware, weapons, etc? There’s got to be plenty of assault weapons and ammo laying around on military bases.
Too spread out, our country is pretty big after all. Too much chaos, in a zombie outbreak hospitals and police stations would be the first to fall, after that you not only have the zombies to deal with but the complete break down of civilization. Too constrained, the whole shooting civilians thing should start a lot sooner than it did, you have to go in with the mentality of exterminating every possible threat, not saving people or protecting survivors. Basically by the time the military could figure out what the hell to do things would already be too far gone for any organized resistance.
Well - he’s now got a staggering number of zombies headed thier way, Lori will be pissed, blonde girl will be pissed, Carl is out for blood - everone at the farm is now in danger so hershel can be smug in his " I told you no guns’" ruling.
I think the gaggle of shambling zombies has been growing as the noise on the farm kept increasing - thats why they weren’t there originally and no real noise from the farm owners to draw them - now theres been target practice, daryl getting winged, a whole barn full of zombies getting shot at and Shane up on windmill banging away with a hammer (nailing wood into metal? wha? all he really needed to do was lay it up there end to end - no nailing needed).
I’m wondering if it won’t be Andrea. She didn’t seem to pleased with Rick’s speech to about Babysitting Shane and now Shane turns up dead… she may call foul on the whole thing and be bitter about it.
I’m just surprised that there wasn’t any neutron bombs or napalm or something deployed onto zombie hordes collected in large population centers…if only to reduce their initial number. Forget the innocent living you’d ill along with them…the government would have been acting in self-preservation at that point.
And another thing…I wonder if Obama is squirreled away somewhere underground, safely away from the chaos with other key government figures?
We we saw them drop bombs (napalm?) in Atlanta, so they probably did that in other cities. Of course that might make the situation worse. You end up killing a bunch of living, but not destroying their brain, so you make a whole new batch of zombies.
A potentially interesting twist would be if Andrea learned that she is prego with Shane’s baby next season … But the tension that such a plot would stir up would not be worth 1. having a second baby on the way, and, more-so, 2. ruining the GI Jane element of Andrea.
I think there were no other zombies around the farm before because it had natural barriers. Hershel mentioned early in the season that they would get stuck in the mud around the swampy river (where Carl freed the zombie), and there’s also a huge ravine (that Daryl fell down). In this episode, Hershel mentioned that the river was drying up this time of year. This is followed directly by a horde of zombies coming from that direction. That part of the writing seemed pretty tight.
Agreed - what I was primarily saying is that over the past couple of weeks, the amount of noise coming from the farm itself has increased dramatically -
I agree with the others, that what we saw was from Shane’s re-animating viewpoint. That was a VERY nice touch - seeing things a bit from a zombie’s point-of-view.
That’s a whole lotta head trauma, but I’ll take his word for it for now.
I agree - I think Jon Bernthal did a very good job with the Shane character. And Rick does need a good foil for next season, too, but that shouldn’t be too hard to come up with.
I think this touches on the zombie that Shane watched walking in the field a couple of episodes ago - that zombies just keep on going - they don’t stop until they get a bullet in the brain. You’re basically in danger from all the zombies in the North American continent eventually.
I think we are meant to understand that that was part of what happened in the early stage of the Zombie Apocalypse - that they thought they were containing an infection, but they were actually making it worse.
We have The Second Walking Dead Corollary* to Chekov’s Gun—if you’re going to show a gun being dropped in the woods, then you must either show/explain it being found or have its absence become material. Otherwise, why show it being dropped in the first place?
Don’t expect this show to respect the viewer when it comes to guns as plot points. We have to assume Carl went back for it (and we shouldn’t have to assume something like this, but that’s another matter) but when? . This episode starts the morning after Dale’s death. The group now seems to be taking zombies seriously (checking fences, moving everyone inside, boarding windows, etc.), yet Carl still manages to slip into zombie exposed woods to retrieve the gun. Stupid. Also, nice that Mr. Law-and-Order lets his kid keep a stolen gun.
*The First Walking Dead Corollary - If it’s material that a character recognizes the reappearance of a missing gun, it should be clear that the character knew the gun was missing.
I feel better about Carl’s shooting – just remembered that they did some target practice earlier in the season.
Will Darryl and Glen make it back to the farm ahead of the Walkers? I like the thought of those two being outside the farmhouse, saving the day in some fashion.
Edited because I just remembered that “better angels” isn’t from the Gettysburg Address but from his inaugural. D’oh!
