# "The Walking Dead"; Episode 4:1 tonight **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 13, 2013, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-episode-4-1-tonight/671138 "2013-10-13T14:37:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-episode-4-1-tonight/671138/101 "2013-10-15T18:44:12Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Well, when the driver has slowly led the horde a few miles down the road, he hits the gas and leaves them behind. > > Frankly, there are many many simple strategies being overlooked. Heck, every time they find an abandoned vehicle, they should be salvaging as much gasoline or diesel from it as possible to fill and seal lots and lots of jerry-cans. Then they could find a car dealership with hundreds of identical vehicles from one manufacturer (which will make long-term maintenance much easier)… > > Any big truck they can find, they should just drive along the outside of the fence, squishing walkers with it until it runs out of fuel, then deflate the tires so it sits on its rims and forms a partial barricade. Do this often enough, and the prison will be surrounded by a solid wall of bumper-to-bumper vehicles instead of a flimsy chain-link fence. > > Maybe the line of trucks is about twenty feet from the fence, and between the trucks and the fence is a trench, as earlier suggested, filled with sharpened spikes. Given the resources at hand, the flimsiness of their defenses is downright idiotic. Of course for dramatic purposes they kinda have to be… > As for store raids, I’d organize the effort better rather than waste time searching. “Okay, we’re all sticking together and checking the first row of the store for anything useful, with sentries posted at each end. We’ll move as a group and haul anything useful to the truck until the first row is picked clean. The codeword for “Position being overrun” is “Fireball”. If you hear someone say “fireball”, repeat it out loud and immediately evacuate. If we clear the first row without a fireball, proceed to the second. We’ll do at most two rows before regrouping back at the vehicles to compare notes. I want as little talking and noise in the store as possible.” > > Thus the store get systematically checked and emptied (with notes taken for future raids for items that are not immediately useful but may be in future) without people wandering off on their own like zombie-snack-idiots. I want Bryan on my Zombie Apocalypse Team! Here’s my other idea. Remember the first season where they made zombie soup and soaked their clothes in it to go out among the walkers? Why not do that all the time when they go on runs? Sure it stinks but I’d rather stink than be mobbed by walkers at a moments notice. Take that up another notch and soak old tarps and sheets in zombie soup and hang them on the fences so the walkers can’t catch the scent of the living inside, maybe the herds would just keep walking instead of piling up on the fence then. Sure it would probably have to be reapplied daily but there is an endless supply of walkers to puree. Also, I have to agree that the shopping bit was very badly organized. Everyone acted like they were shopping, taking time to look at items, they should have grabbed and ran and at least worked in pairs. Yes, we need people making stupid mistakes for some drama but do they have to make them all the time? The caving roof was enough of a “whoops, we never saw that coming” moment. ---
**Author:** ![Human\_Action](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@Human\_Action](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Human_Action)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-episode-4-1-tonight/671138/102 "2013-10-15T18:45:06Z")
> [@FXMastermind](#): > > An insight which can be applied to almost everything (except comedies of course). Nobody wants to watch a zombie/horror TV show where everything goes well, because it is boring. People want drama, not intelligent or sensible crap that educates and informs. True, but not really the point I was making. It’s not just that things go poorly, it’s that the comic, and the show, presents a world in which things will _always_ go poorly, that all that’s good in the world is shattered and lost, leaving only a handful of immoral monsters to fight it out amongst themselves for the privilege of surviving for a few more miserable years of deprivation and brutality. It’s a stunningly nihilistic premise, that nothing except drawing breath is real or lasting, and that everything else can and will be sacrificed for those extra breaths. When _that_ is your show, you’d better take care that the audience doesn’t notice that with a few common-sense strategies, the zombies could be reduced to a nuisance, and the humans could work together and regain some sort of normalcy. In short, the issue isn’t that things go poorly for the characters, it’s the _way_ in which they go poorly. If the problems were due to the nature of the zombie-world, or the result of the characters’ tragic flaws (a la _Breaking Bad_), that’d be fine. Instead, they are due to the need to have zombie mayhem. > [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > I think he had a lot of weapons, like a truly ridiculous amount, but I don’t remember where he got them (the original police station where Rick worked and this guy visited had an armory that could easily be raided). Actually, accumulating firearms wouldn’t be that difficult at all. Indeed. In rural Georgia, he could have assembled that arsenal from looting just two or three houses. > [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > Gathering a stable group and training them how and when to use their weapons (including when not to use firearms when cutting or blunt objects will do) would be tricky. The zombies seem slow and hapless enough, that, when coupled with their attraction to loud noises, firearms seem to do more harm than good. ---
**Author:** ![FXMastermind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fxmastermind/32/7289_2.png) [@FXMastermind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FXMastermind)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-episode-4-1-tonight/671138/103 "2013-10-15T19:17:25Z")
> [@Wile\_E](#): > > Yes, we need people making stupid mistakes for some drama but do they have to make them all the time? Yes, yes indeed. When I was a child I would actually yell at the people on the TV. “Don’t go in there!”, or “NO Oh GOD NO! Run! Run!” or “What? No! Don’t split up!”, or “God these people are so stupid!”. I would actually get mad at how stupid people were, especially when faced with dangerous aliens, zombies, vampires, insane murderers or giant shrews. OK I was kidding about the giant shrews. That movie was awesome. But you know what I mean. After reaching the age of reason I realized they were actors following a script, and I would become annoyed at the writers. Who must think we are stupid. At some point I simply stopped watching horror films, unless it was like Aliens or other SciFi, but in any case, I enjoy TWD enough to not yell at the TV. Now I argue with strangers on the internet instead. . ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-episode-4-1-tonight/671138/104 "2013-10-15T19:57:05Z")
> [@FXMastermind](#): > > Now I argue with strangers on the internet instead. You do not! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![FXMastermind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fxmastermind/32/7289_2.png) [@FXMastermind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FXMastermind)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-episode-4-1-tonight/671138/105 "2013-10-15T20:11:53Z")
Why you little … oh, wait. I see what you did there. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Dingbang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac8455/32.png) [@Dingbang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dingbang)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-episode-4-1-tonight/671138/106 "2013-10-15T20:34:16Z")
Shouldn’t they be getting to the point that the bulk of the walkers, those infected in the initial months, should be rotting to the point of falling apart and becoming harmless? I accept the premise of zombies being able to reanimate, move without energy, etc. as just unexplained facts that are necessary for the story. But they’re still made of physical, human flesh and bones. We’ve seen that they decay, their bones still break, parts fall off, they can be made immobile by removing limbs. So it seems that if the survivors can be patient, eventually the great majority of the walkers will decay so much that they fall apart, can’t stand or walk, and are just disjointed skeletons with the jaws snapping. Even the brain, which obviously is necessary for them to function, would eventually turn to goo and presumably stop providing the zombie spark, the same as when a spike is driven through it. Under this theory, you would have to wait a while but then all the early walkers – sort of the “baby boom” bubble of those infected early on – would decay and become harmless. Then there would still be more who were later on the decay timeline, but eventually you’d be down to a relatively small number of the more recently infected. I suppose this could all be countered by saying that the infection slows their decay to something much longer than a normal human body. But it sure seems they’re getting stinky and gooey. ---
**Author:** ![gytalf2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-episode-4-1-tonight/671138/107 "2013-10-15T20:42:28Z")
> [@Human\_Action](#): > > The zombies seem slow and hapless enough, that, when coupled with their attraction to loud noises, firearms seem to do more harm than good. Yeah, that’s one of the reasons I would like to see them use some fun medieval-style weapons – spears, axes, swords, etc. Plus, there has to be another crossbow or two somewhere around there. Don’t let Darryl hog all the archery action! ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-episode-4-1-tonight/671138/108 "2013-10-15T20:42:38Z")
> [@Glazer](#): > > And there you find the attraction. Half of it is thinking of ways I would do it better; the other half is arguing with people on the internet. 🙂 Seriously, these threads after another episode of “The Walking Dead” are pure pleasure for me. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-episode-4-1-tonight/671138/109 "2013-10-15T20:42:41Z")
> [@Dingbang](#): > > Shouldn’t they be getting to the point that the bulk of the walkers, those infected in the initial months, should be rotting to the point of falling apart and becoming harmless? One would think so. Perhaps many of them were infected weeks or months later. Some seem much more decayed than others. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-episode-4-1-tonight/671138/110 "2013-10-15T21:18:17Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > One would think so. Perhaps many of them were infected weeks or months later. > Some seem much more decayed than others. It could be that whatever’s reanimating them is also drastically slowing the rate of decomposition. That was the case in both the Living Dead films and the ZSG/WWZ verse. Milton established that zombies can slowly starve to death; maybe they don’t decay as much if they’re eating on a regular basis. ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-episode-4-1-tonight/671138/111 "2013-10-15T21:25:39Z")
> [@Trion](#): > > Ferb, I know what we’re gonna do today! I know who we’re going to eat today… Also, looks like the zombies are coming down with… Piiiinnnnkkk Eyyyyeeeee! (Must’ve been the worchestersire sauce…) ---
**Author:** ![want2befree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3e96dc/32.png) [@want2befree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/want2befree)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-episode-4-1-tonight/671138/112 "2013-10-15T23:35:22Z")
Daryl. One r. That is all. And black guy and son: Morgan and Duane. OK, _that_ is all. ---
**Author:** ![brewha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@brewha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brewha)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-episode-4-1-tonight/671138/113 "2013-10-15T23:46:15Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Half of it is thinking of ways I would do it better; the other half is arguing with people on the internet. 🙂 > > Seriously, these threads after another episode of “The Walking Dead” are pure pleasure for me. I popped on here the day after the premiere. There were only a couple of dozen posts. I was crushed! Talking about it on these threads are as much of the entertainment for me too! I would have missed a lot of subtle points - like the weepy eye thing. But, now I feel up to speed! Plus I have a few IRL friends that watch. They’re amazed on how insightful I am about the subtle plot points. I should give credit where it’s due, I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![Human\_Action](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@Human\_Action](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Human_Action)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-episode-4-1-tonight/671138/114 "2013-10-15T23:47:54Z")
> [@gytalf2000](#): > > Yeah, that’s one of the reasons I would like to see them use some fun medieval-style weapons – spears, axes, swords, etc. > > Plus, there has to be another crossbow or two somewhere around there. Don’t let Darryl hog all the archery action! It would be fun, and show a learning curve in action. Some armor would fit in, too, something bite-proof: mail, leather, or just duct-taped clothe. The armor they are presently wearing appears to have a lot of gaps. That’d also present issues when it came to fighting off fellow humans, for which you’d want a gun and stealth, not a pole-axe and bulky armor. We got a bit of that last year with Woodbury, which had defenses oriented around repelling zombies, but not humans. For instance, the troops manning the walls were fully exposed and silhouetted - good for observing oncoming walkers, [bad for](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_crest) being fired upon. ---
**Author:** ![FXMastermind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fxmastermind/32/7289_2.png) [@FXMastermind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FXMastermind)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-episode-4-1-tonight/671138/115 "2013-10-16T00:17:19Z")
> [@Human\_Action](#): > > Some armor would fit in, too, something bite-proof: mail, leather, or just duct-taped clothe. Heck, the body armor and riot helmets the prison zombies were wearing would work very well as a defense. But if you have people wearing zombie proof armor it sort of takes the fear out of it. But then, I just watched _The Killer Within_ episode again, and realized how horrific the series actually is. Even with the zombies under control, the other people are the real danger. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-episode-4-1-tonight/671138/116 "2013-10-16T00:22:42Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > As for store raids…the codeword for “Position being overrun” is “Fireball”. If you hear someone say “fireball”, repeat it out loud and immediately evacuate. Because just yelling “evacuate!” would not do. Even better: sing “Lemon Tree” at the top of your lungs. mmm ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-episode-4-1-tonight/671138/117 "2013-10-16T01:18:04Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > Because just yelling “evacuate!” would not do. > > Even better: sing “Lemon Tree” at the top of your lungs. > mmm How about just, “ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!” ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-episode-4-1-tonight/671138/118 "2013-10-16T01:18:10Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > Because just yelling “evacuate!” would not do. > > Even better: sing “Lemon Tree” at the top of your lungs. > mmm I’d go with, “OH FUCK!” ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-episode-4-1-tonight/671138/119 "2013-10-16T02:45:08Z")
> [@brewha](#): > > \ > Plus I have a few IRL friends that watch. They’re amazed on how insightful I am about the subtle plot points. I should give credit where it’s due, I suppose. Or not. 🙂 > [@FXMastermind](#): > > \ > But then, I just watched _The Killer Within_ episode again, and realized how horrific the series actually is. Even with the zombies under control, the other people are the real danger. I think that’s the point of the show. > [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I’d go with, “OH FUCK!” That works. ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-episode-4-1-tonight/671138/120 "2013-10-16T14:39:31Z")
I will admit that when Rick found the buried 1911 handgun and magazine in the garden plot, I was hoping the producers wouldn’t have him do something stupid with it like, oh, I don’t know, slap the mag in, chamber a round and fire at a zombie with it, seeing as the barrel was likely obstructed by dirt, and the gun would end up catastrophically self-disassembling in his hand (colloquially referred to in the gun world as a “Kaboom”) Thankfully, even though the characters may be stupid, they’re not \* THAT\* stupid, the weapons consultant did their job on this one… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-episode-4-1-tonight/671138.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-episode-4-1-tonight/671138.md?page=7)