# Walking Dead S3E5 "Say The Word" 11/11/12



## JohnB1000 (Dec 6, 2004)

Lots of reports of this episode being "even better than last week" but it wasn't.

I'm confused about Carol, did we see her die?, what's in the grave ? I thought we saw her run off and never saw her dead.

Kind of a slow episode, I'm not a fan of people going crazy 

The phone, of course, was a nice setup for next week.


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## Beryl (Feb 22, 2009)

It was a needed change of pace from last week. I enjoyed it. 

Daryl was dead sexy and feeding the baby was a nice touch for him. He is a LONG way from his big brother but I am looking forward to their inevitable reunion. 

The Governor is whack and I figure a time will come where Andrea will wish Michonne had used that sword on him.


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## madscientist (Nov 12, 2003)

We're all confused about Carol. The group is assuming she's dead but we never saw her die. I think there's just dirt in the grave; they probably dig it to have somewhere to go to think about the people they've lost. Presumably one is for Lori and that's empty, too, unless they put the pot-bellied walker in there (gross!)

it was fun to see Michonne in action though.


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## Hoffer (Jun 1, 2001)

That pot bellied zombie was crazy. Did it eat the bones and everything? I didn't see even a tiny piece of Lori.


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## rahnbo (Sep 12, 2010)

I wouldn't say it was better but more like what was discussed on Talking Dead; that last ep was more like a season finale and this one was like a season opener.


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## betts4 (Dec 27, 2005)

Beryl said:


> Daryl was dead sexy and feeding the baby was a nice touch for him. He is a LONG way from his big brother but I am looking forward to their inevitable reunion.


Oh yes. I loved when he took the baby and coo'd to her before even going off on his bike (and that poncho - shades of clint eastwood). Then coming back and asking if they had named her yet.


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## zalusky (Apr 5, 2002)

My bet is Carol is on the other end of the phone!


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## betts4 (Dec 27, 2005)

I didn't find the episode slow. Maybe not as edge of your seat as last week, but still moving along with some gashing and gore in there. 

I did think when Daryl opened the closet and shot the possum they were going to find a child or a zombie child. I loved when he said "dinner".


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## Hank (May 31, 2000)

Geeze -- what's with all the machinations between Machonne and Andrea? Just go already if you want to go and stay if you want to stay! It's not like they're sisters, and Andrea *will* just slow down Machonne. It's manufactured drama, and really booooorrring!

What were all those pages with thousands of hash marks in the Governer's book? Or is it a "all fun and no play makes jack a dull boy" sort of thing?


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## Lillian Nyx (Jun 26, 2012)

While I'm confused about Carol being alive or dead, they sure seemed to indicate she was dead. Three graves - T-Dog, Lori, and Carol. Two filled in - presumably T-Dog and Carol, while the third was still open, waiting for Lori's body. I don't see why they would go to the trouble of both digging a grave and then filling it in if they didn't put Carol's remains in it. If they didn't have her body, I think they would have just put up a marker.


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## Beryl (Feb 22, 2009)

Hank said:


> Geeze -- what's with all the machinations between Machonne and Andrea? Just go already if you want to go and stay if you want to stay! It's not like they're sisters, and Andrea *will* just slow down Machonne. It's manufactured drama, and really booooorrring!


IMO, it is a 'sister-thang'. They bonded for 8 months so it made sense that separating wasn't easy. Michonne has problems separating from her friends -- she probably would have chained Andrea to her if she had turned. Andrea had a sister and those of us who have sisters can easily bond with other women as sisters.

However, Michonne has communications problems and she should have given Andrea more detail about what she saw - the book, the evidence of cover-up with the soldiers. Heck, she didn't even tell her about why she chained up and carried about those particular walkers. She didn't share enough with her friend but told way too much to the Governor! She shouldn't have shown her hand like that but may they did that to move the story along more quickly.

I didn't read the comics - except that brief one that introduced Michonne - but I wonder if it took longer for her to confront the Governor.


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## JohnB1000 (Dec 6, 2004)

We should also remember the mysterious person who was watching Carol practice the c-section on the zombie. That could have been the guy who opened the gates or it could be someone else who helped/took her.


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## dirk1843 (Jul 7, 2003)

My thought was the pot bellied walker didn't eat ALL of Lori. He couldn't have.....even if he ate all the soft parts (yuck) what about the bones?

AND, I would have swore I saw Rick pick up something small and metalic before he saw the pot belly......a bullet perhaps?

I really thought the blood trail was going to lead to a zombie Lori.


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## Hoffer (Jun 1, 2001)

dirk1843 said:


> AND, I would have swore I saw Rick pick up something small and metalic before he saw the pot belly......a bullet perhaps?


It was a bullet.


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## Zevida (Nov 8, 2003)

Hank said:


> Geeze -- what's with all the machinations between Machonne and Andrea? Just go already if you want to go and stay if you want to stay! It's not like they're sisters, and Andrea *will* just slow down Machonne. It's manufactured drama, and really booooorrring!


The two women spent eight months together, alone, fighting for survival. After a week of that most of us would be joined at the hip with our companion. Maybe because that all happened off-screen you aren't seeing it, but they are extremely attached to each other and I don't see it as manufactured at all.

I was very glad, though, to see Michonne leave. I was really worried she would stay for Andrea. Michonne doesn't need Andrea to survive. But Andrea needs Michonne.

I thought Rick was going to cut open the walker and pull out Lori's remains. I'm not sure why he just stabbed the belly - that was weird.

They are sure implying that Carol is dead, but until we see a body, I'm not buying it. I can't remember if she had a weapon or not, but if she ended up in a part of the prison with a lot of walkers, it could take her a day or two to safely make her way back to their part of the prison.

And of course the Gov is keeping his zombie daughter alive. LOL. That was really predictable. The cage fight around the zombies was weird.


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

Zevida said:


> And of course the Gov is keeping his zombie daughter alive.


He's obviously not Dad Of The Year.

That girl has SERIOUS discipline issues.


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## zordude (Sep 23, 2003)

dirk1843 said:


> My thought was the pot bellied walker didn't eat ALL of Lori. He couldn't have.....even if he ate all the soft parts (yuck) what about the bones?


At first I thought it WAS Lori, but there was too much decay/hair loss.


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

Hank said:


> *What were all those pages with thousands of hash marks in the Governer's book? Or is it a "all fun and no play makes jack a dull boy" sort of thing?*


That's exactly what I thought of. Once Penny turned, he went crazy.

Unless we get some more evidence, I refuse to believe that Carol is dead yet. I can't imagine that the writers would give a true send off to both T-Dog and Lori but then just expect Carol's character to die somewhere off screen and not have the audience get to see it.


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## GameGuru (Dec 12, 2003)

zalusky said:


> My bet is Carol is on the other end of the phone!


If the show follows the comic you will be surprised.


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## madscientist (Nov 12, 2003)

Zevida said:


> I thought Rick was going to cut open the walker and pull out Lori's remains. I'm not sure why he just stabbed the belly - that was weird.


I thought he was going to go after her wedding ring or something: something to save for his daughter, from her mother. That would have been gross, but sweet. Just stabbing the guy is... whack.



Zevida said:


> They are sure implying that Carol is dead, but until we see a body, I'm not buying it. I can't remember if she had a weapon or not, but if she ended up in a part of the prison with a lot of walkers, it could take her a day or two to safely make her way back to their part of the prison.


Ditto here: until we see a death scene she's still alive.



Zevida said:


> And of course the Gov is keeping his zombie daughter alive. LOL. That was really predictable. The cage fight around the zombies was weird.


 This moves back closer to the comics. It fits better there than here, because


Spoiler



in the comics the Governor is a much more obviously "bad guy": he's not "Mr. Normal" like the TV show governor, and he does unjustifiably evil things. The TV show Governor, at least so far, has understandable reasons for all his actions.


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## stellie93 (Feb 25, 2006)

It was funny how all the normal, mild mannered citizens turned into vicious nut cases while watching the fight, or whatever it was--even the little kids. Nice to see the contrast between them and our group. 

Wouldn't the area outside their town be just packed with zombies attracted by all the noise and light?


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## heberman (Nov 20, 2009)

I didn't think the fight was that big of a deal. It was an MMA fight surrounded by zombies on a chain. Interesting, but not necessarily over the top weird or bad.


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## Vendikarr (Feb 24, 2004)

stellie93 said:


> It was funny how all the normal, mild mannered citizens turned into vicious nut cases while watching the fight, or whatever it was--even the little kids. Nice to see the contrast between them and our group.
> 
> Wouldn't the area outside their town be just packed with zombies attracted by all the noise and light?


We saw that they had those towers with pits around them that they used to catch their fight zombies. Perhaps a few of those towers keep the number of zombies approaching the town at a minimum.


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

Vendikarr said:


> We saw that they had those towers with pits around them that they used to catch their fight zombies. Perhaps a few of those towers keep the number of zombies approaching the town at a minimum.


Fresh meat!

Er, fresh rotten meat...

Fresh zombies!

Er, new zombies...

A new supply of zombies! Ta dah!


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## Hcour (Dec 24, 2007)

I'm liking going back and forth between the two story lines, gives the show some nice variety.

I hope that's the last we see of Michonne for a while. I'm so sick of her scowl, it seems like her permanent expression. Talk about a one-note performance.


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## Cainebj (Nov 11, 2006)

Hcour said:


> I'm liking going back and forth between the two story lines, gives the show some nice variety.


I'm not.


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## Hank (May 31, 2000)

Hcour said:


> I hope that's the last we see of Michonne for a while. I'm so sick of her scowl, it seems like her permanent expression. Talk about a one-note performance.


Totally agree. I was hoping they would spice it up with some backstory about how she came to be how she is now. But the longer they go on, the less chance they'll do that. She's turning out to be a pretty boring character.


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## mrdazzo7 (Jan 8, 2006)

I gotta think they're gonna give her her own back-story episode at some point... But who knows. Sometimes I think the actress is over-acting the **** out of the character, but then I think there's a reason for it--she probably survived some awful things long before the zombies came along. I still don't think Andrea is crazy for initially wanting to stay--from her POV (and most), it makes absolutely no sense to leave. If they had some kind of goal or endgame maybe, but Andrea doesn't have the distrust of the Governor so it makes sense she wouldn't want to go on the run. Of course the next scene is her starting to realize something is definitely a miss. 

I like the two stories this season... you know there's gonna be a point where the converge and stuff is gonna get messy. They're showing the regular survivors as they struggle to lay down roots, and make a plan to stay in the prison. They survived as a group for eight months and became stronger every day. Then last week happened, and decimated not just their numbers, but their spirits as well. They're as low as they've ever been. 

Meanwhile they introduce the guy who is CLEARLY unhinged and who essentially demands absolute power. You know he's gonna find the prison, and you know he's gonna want it. They're taking the time to explore him and really highlight how nuts he is (and his followers)... by the time these two groups finally face off, the individual stories will have been fleshed out and give the eventual merger that much more weight. 

As for Carole, I think we'd be crazy to assume she's dead at this point. Of course it begs the question--wtf has she been doing since the attack, but it really hasn't been that long. She could conceivably just be hiding. I was actually surprised the group assumed she was dead so easily. All they found was her scarf, lol. And T-dog's corpse was still right there so it's not like they had reason to believe walkers completely devoured her entire body. But anyway. 

I loved that Rick didn't have a single line of dialogue on the last shot... The episode should have totally been called "Hello?"... Can't wait to find out who was on the phone. The notion that it could be carol would make sense--it makes more sense that it's coming from inside the prison than somewhere else.


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## aadam101 (Jul 15, 2002)

mrdazzo7 said:


> I was actually surprised the group assumed she was dead so easily.


This didn't make a lot of sense to me. They spent a really long time looking for Sophia yet they didn't spend any time looking for Carol.


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## dbranco (Nov 20, 2003)

zalusky said:


> My bet is Carol is on the other end of the phone!


You beat me to it! Was going to speculate the same thing!

On Talking Dead, they said (re when we'll know who's on the other end):



Spoiler



They won't keep us guessing; we'll find out in the next episode.



And I had a different reaction to the Gov and his daughter; I felt some empathy toward the character and he became a bit more sympathetic in my eyes.


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## markz (Oct 22, 2002)

zalusky said:


> My bet is Carol is on the other end of the phone!


I am thinking that with this being a prison, that the phone is for internal use only and cannot receive/make outside calls. So I think you are correct.


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## Hank (May 31, 2000)

I hope they don't botch how phones work. Internal-only phones (like a PBX) would need local power to work. But a real POTS line from the phone company would work as long as the Central Office has power. But Central Offices are usually fairly regional, so the chances of a local CO being up and staffed, I find highly unlikely. 

That is assuming nobody started up the prison generators again, which we didn't see. 

Then again, I guess someone could have rigged up a small battery on a phone on the other end to make it work, like Inigo's bomb range phone. But that would need a direct connection, and not a PBX.


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## wprager (Feb 19, 2006)

I think there are a lot of assumptions of what is and what isn't working. COs don't have to necessarily be staffed to continue working. They could have a battery backup connected to a solar panel for all we know. And the internal phones could easily have battery backup -- the battery would have been recharged while the generator was running.


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## Hank (May 31, 2000)

True, alot of "ifs".. but I personally don't think a CO would still be operating, with power, but without staff for that several months after the invasion. And COs need alot more power than solar panels can provide. And the prison generator wasn't running all that long, either. I don't care how they do it. I just hope they make it believable, that's all.


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

wprager said:


> I think there are a lot of assumptions of what is and what isn't working. COs don't have to necessarily be staffed to continue working. They could have a battery backup connected to a solar panel for all we know. And the internal phones could easily have battery backup -- the battery would have been recharged while the generator was running.


No way the prison upgraded its phone system to have a battery backup yet still has a rotary handset in the boiler room.


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## fmowry (Apr 30, 2002)

DevdogAZ said:


> No way the prison upgraded its phone system to have a battery backup yet still has a rotary handset in the boiler room.


Do prisons still have boiler rooms?


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## rahnbo (Sep 12, 2010)

DevdogAZ said:


> No way the prison upgraded its phone system to have a battery backup yet still has a rotary handset in the boiler room.


Many prisons have very old technology simply because they are prisons and it is very difficult to upgrade anything. Older prisons tend to have whatever technology was installed when the prison was built. Even installing wireless networking is a huge challenge. It's also possible to have a phone that looks rotary but is actually DTMF or a rotary/pulse phone that is converted to DTMF at a different location or switching center. Plus they look cooler  Without knowing anything about the future of the series, it may also be possible that somebody somewhere in the world enabled pulse dialing so they could reach any possible human out there.


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## TAsunder (Aug 6, 2003)

Of course, there's the possibility that Rick is just hallucinating the phone call. I say that having not watched the previews or read the comic books, so please be mindful of that when you inevitably tell me what was in one or the other now.


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

fmowry said:


> Do prisons still have boiler rooms?


They do if they use a boiler to heat the place. If not, then maybe I should have said "mechanical room."


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## markz (Oct 22, 2002)

DevdogAZ said:


> They do if they use a boiler to heat the place. If not, then maybe I should have said "mechanical room."


Do prisons still use mechanics?


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## fmowry (Apr 30, 2002)

markz said:


> Do prisons still use mechanics?


Yes, to fix the rotary phones in the boiler room.


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## aadam101 (Jul 15, 2002)

Many of the schools around here have boilers. I don't see why it's strange for a prison to have one.


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## heberman (Nov 20, 2009)

TAsunder said:


> Of course, there's the possibility that Rick is just hallucinating the phone call. I say that having not watched the previews or read the comic books, so please be mindful of that when you inevitably tell me what was in one or the other now.


This is my thinking too.


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## getreal (Sep 29, 2003)

Re: the phone call, my guess is that Rick will learn that he has just won a 3-day stay at a hotel in Florida, but travel is not included. Either that, or that he has an opportunity to lower his credit card interest rates if he presses "1". 

Remember when Rick was trying to keep in touch with that other guy via walkie-talkie at the start of the series? Who was that?

I prefer the theory of the call coming from within the prison. But that teaser about being surprised by the identity of the caller has me intrigued.


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## Hank (May 31, 2000)

It's Nicholas Cage calling... he wants his bad acting back.


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

getreal said:


> Re: the phone call, my guess is that Rick will learn that he has just won a 3-day stay at a hotel in Florida, but travel is not included. Either that, or that he has an opportunity to lower his credit card interest rates if he presses "1".


Cockroaches, evil flesh-eating mutants, and telemarketers.

If it weren't for the telemarketers, life after the nuclear apocalypse wouldn't be so bad.


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## Carlucci (Jan 10, 2001)

It's "The Governor" calling with a too late stay-of-execution for Lori.


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## Zevida (Nov 8, 2003)

Hank said:


> It's Nicholas Cage calling... he wants his bad acting back.


Do you like anything about the show? It seems like all your comments are negative.


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## Hank (May 31, 2000)

Zevida said:


> Do you like anything about the show? It seems like all your comments are negative.


Geeze -- it was a JOKE.


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## cheesesteak (Jul 24, 2003)

zalusky said:


> My bet is Carol is on the other end of the phone!


It's probably a telemarketer. I'm pretty sure they'll survive the zombie apocalypse.
_eta: Damn. Missed it by 51 minutes._

Looks like Rick is continuing the Grimes family tradition of being a crappy parent. Dude, you have a newborn baby girl and a traumatized son. At least talk to him and find out what happened before going on a half-cocked zombie murderin' spree.


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## Hoffer (Jun 1, 2001)

Hank said:


> Geeze -- it was a JOKE.


You tell a lot of jokes in these threads then.


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## Johnny Dancing (Sep 3, 2000)

I was expecting the Governor to be a really bad guy. He is ruthless and a bit crazy but he does seem to have a well functioning town. This is a world where eating opossum for dinner counts as good day. Killing the national guard guys was pretty bad, but it kept the town under his iron fist control and got them some nice weapons and vehicles that will help protect his people.

I'd stay in that town and do anything I could to help the Gov and stay on his good side rather than try to make it on my own in the wild. I know I am supposed to be rooting against him but he is the only person that seems to have a handle on the Zombie Apocalypse. Plus, it looks like he is trying to find a cure - even after the CDC people abandoned their posts or killed themselves.


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## dirk1843 (Jul 7, 2003)

I am on the fence about Rick's breakdown being realistic.

It has been one heck of a roller coaster ride for him since he woke up.....out of all the characters his has probably seen the highest highs and the lowest lows. Add to that we don't know what else he went through over the winter........what kind of things he had to do and saw, he would have been superhuman not to finally break.

The rolling on the ground......eh, looked pretty stupid on tv. But I will say that one time in my life I was scared so bad that I fell to the ground. And that was AFTER the scare, kind of hard to explain, but I just went down.


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## Hoffer (Jun 1, 2001)

Do the comics spend much time on what happened between Herschel's farm and them finding the prison? From the last episode of season 2, it seems the prison wasn't too far away. Obviously they didn't know about the prison, or they would have got there sooner than 6 months. Obviously again, they could have started off in the opposite direction and then made there way back after 6 months. Just curious if the comics covers this time period much.

I'm *really* enjoying this third season. Been thinking a lot lately about reading the comics. What is the best way to do this? I see on Amazon, there are 2 compendiums. Is it best to just read those?


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

Hoffer said:


> I'm *really* enjoying this third season. Been thinking a lot lately about reading the comics. What is the best way to do this? I see on Amazon, there are 2 compendiums. Is it best to just read those?


That's probably the most cost-effective way of doing it. You'll get 48 issues per volume, as opposed to 6 in the regular trades, 12 in the regular hardcovers, and 24 in the super-deluxe hardcovers.


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## pmyers (Jan 4, 2001)

Johnny Dancing said:


> I was expecting the Governor to be a really bad guy. He is ruthless and a bit crazy but he does seem to have a well functioning town. This is a world where eating opossum for dinner counts as good day. Killing the national guard guys was pretty bad, but it kept the town under his iron fist control and got them some nice weapons and vehicles that will help protect his people.
> 
> I'd stay in that town and do anything I could to help the Gov and stay on his good side rather than try to make it on my own in the wild. I know I am supposed to be rooting against him but he is the only person that seems to have a handle on the Zombie Apocalypse. Plus, it looks like he is trying to find a cure - even after the CDC people abandoned their posts or killed themselves.


I agree with you...I feel like the writers want me to hate the Governor but I'm just not. Then they show his daughter and I start feeling compasion for him.


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## pmyers (Jan 4, 2001)

BTW....They discuss the graves on Talking Dead.....


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## pmyers (Jan 4, 2001)

I also agree with the poster that commented on Michone not giving any vital information to Andrea. Why would you not mention the fresh blood on the vehicles?


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## Vendikarr (Feb 24, 2004)

Hoffer said:


> Do the comics spend much time on what happened between Herschel's farm and them finding the prison? From the last episode of season 2, it seems the prison wasn't too far away. Obviously they didn't know about the prison, or they would have got there sooner than 6 months. Obviously again, they could have started off in the opposite direction and then made there way back after 6 months. Just curious if the comics covers this time period much.
> 
> I'm *really* enjoying this third season. Been thinking a lot lately about reading the comics. What is the best way to do this? I see on Amazon, there are 2 compendiums. Is it best to just read those?


Comics Spoiler


Spoiler



In the comics, they make it to the prison almost immediately after they leave the farm. They spend the months there until shortly after Lori gives birth...


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## kaszeta (Jun 11, 2004)

Hoffer said:


> Do the comics spend much time on what happened between Herschel's farm and them finding the prison?


It's really hard comparing timelines, since the comic and the TV series diverge quite a bit early on...(at times it's like they took the events from the comics, put each on a card, and shuffled them....) but in this case they are basically the same. The comics jump pretty much immediately from leaving the farm to arriving at the prison in about 2 pages. Raid some houses. Find them having too many biters. Repeat. Find prison.

Comic spoiler:


Spoiler



In the comics, they spend a rather long time in the prison between arriving there (when Lori is having morning sickness) to months later when she gives birth.

The major reason for the 6 month passage of time in the TV series is apparently to allow them to have Lori's death happen "earlier" in the timeline.





> I'm *really* enjoying this third season. Been thinking a lot lately about reading the comics. What is the best way to do this? I see on Amazon, there are 2 compendiums. Is it best to just read those?


The compendiums are pretty good. As I note above, there is rather a lot of divergence between them, much of which I won't discuss (at least without marking it as such) due to possible spoilers (in both directions).

I do wonder how much of the divergence is deliberate. I know how the phone call thing works out in the comics. I suspect it will work out the same in the TV show, but several other times[1] they deliberately have gone a different direction in the show.

[1] Example:



Spoiler



In the comics, the whole "Sophia got lost" thing never happened.


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## Hoffer (Jun 1, 2001)

About compendium 1. Does that take you past where we are in season 3?


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## kaszeta (Jun 11, 2004)

Hoffer said:


> About compendium 1. Does that take you past where we are in season 3?


Compendium 1 is through Issue 48, and it takes us to a point slightly past where we are in the series. We're at roughly Issue 40, although see my previous comments about notably different timelines. For example, the phone ringing is in Issue 51.


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## zalusky (Apr 5, 2002)

cheesesteak said:


> It's probably a telemarketer. I'm pretty sure they'll survive the zombie apocalypse.
> _eta: Damn. Missed it by 51 minutes._
> 
> Looks like Rick is continuing the Grimes family tradition of being a crappy parent. Dude, you have a newborn baby girl and a traumatized son. At least talk to him and find out what happened before going on a half-cocked zombie murderin' spree.


Could be the governor looking for donations for his re-election campaign!


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## mchasal (Jun 6, 2001)

Hoffer said:


> I'm *really* enjoying this third season. Been thinking a lot lately about reading the comics. What is the best way to do this? I see on Amazon, there are 2 compendiums. Is it best to just read those?


Check out your local library. Surprisingly, several in my system have the books and I've been able to get them all via interlibrary loan.


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## Beryl (Feb 22, 2009)

Johnny Dancing said:


> I was expecting the Governor to be a really bad guy. He is ruthless and a bit crazy but he does seem to have a well functioning town. This is a world where eating opossum for dinner counts as good day. Killing the national guard guys was pretty bad, but it kept the town under his iron fist control and got them some nice weapons and vehicles that will help protect his people.
> 
> I'd stay in that town and do anything I could to help the Gov and stay on his good side rather than try to make it on my own in the wild. I know I am supposed to be rooting against him but he is the only person that seems to have a handle on the Zombie Apocalypse. Plus, it looks like he is trying to find a cure - even after the CDC people abandoned their posts or killed themselves.


I can't sympathize with or root for anyone who promises to help out a guy's comrades and instead kills them all and puts the guy's head in a jar. Nope. No way. Can't do it.

The Governor is a psychopath. The writers and the actor did good job convincing me. Andrea needs to get out of there.


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## madscientist (Nov 12, 2003)

mchasal said:


> Check out your local library. Surprisingly, several in my system have the books and I've been able to get them all via interlibrary loan.


 That's how I was reading them too. But I got sidetracked and stopped reserving them (still I've read further than the TV show is now). They all had to be shipped via inter-library loan; I guess they don't have a ton of copies. Gotta love the library!


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## mchasal (Jun 6, 2001)

madscientist said:


> That's how I was reading them too. But I got sidetracked and stopped reserving them (still I've read further than the TV show is now). They all had to be shipped via inter-library loan; I guess they don't have a ton of copies. Gotta love the library!


The only downside is you wait a week to get it shipped from some other library to yours, then it only take 30 minutes to read the thing! I was doing them in batches of 4 until I caught up. Now I'm waiting for them to buy vol. 17.


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

kaszeta said:


> It's really hard comparing timelines, since the comic and the TV series diverge quite a bit early on...(at times it's like they took the events from the comics, put each on a card, and shuffled them....) but in this case they are basically the same. The comics jump pretty much immediately from leaving the farm to arriving at the prison in about 2 pages. Raid some houses. Find them having too many biters. Repeat. Find prison.
> 
> Comic spoiler:
> 
> ...


I'd say that the major reason for the six month passage of time in the TV series is so that they don't have to simulate winter when they're filming the show in the summer in Georgia.


----------



## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

DevdogAZ said:


> I'd say that the major reason for the six month passage of time in the TV series is so that they don't have to simulate winter when they're filming the show in the summer in Georgia.


They probably also didn't want the pregnancy to last 4-5 seasons. 

Another issue is Carl...like Walt in Lost, it's bad news when you have a kid in a show that only covers a few weeks each year. They've got to keep relatively close to real time, or the kid is going to grow out of the role and they'll have to kill him.

Not that there's anything WRONG with that, but I'm sure they'd rather kill him on their schedule, not his hormones'.


----------



## tiams (Apr 19, 2004)

Hank said:


> What were all those pages with thousands of hash marks in the Governer's book? Or is it a "all fun and no play makes jack a dull boy" sort of thing?


I thought they were tally marks for how many people have died or been killed.



zalusky said:


> My bet is Carol is on the other end of the phone!





GameGuru said:


> If the show follows the comic you will be surprised.


 Zalusky was speculating. Your comment, GameGuru is a spoiler because it gives away that it is not Carol. Why can't people STFU about what is in the comics?


----------



## danterner (Mar 4, 2005)

With Carol MIA but no death scene shown for her, the conclusion I draw is that she was indeed killed but not consumed, and the next time we see her it'll be her as a zombie, revealed in a shocking way (mirroring Sophia). I imagine the scene will be shot in such a way that it at first seems like she's found alive, but it slowly becomes apparent that she's in fact quite undead. Maybe the camera shows her in profile, with the first half looking pretty okay, but then swings around to show her other side, all bitten up. Daryl has to put her down.


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## betts4 (Dec 27, 2005)

tiams said:


> I thought they were tally marks for how many people have died or been killed.


I thought so too but usually tally marks are ////and then the - mark threw them to make it a count of 5. That's what threw me off.


----------



## brianric (Aug 29, 2002)

Carlucci said:


> It's "The Governor" calling with a too late stay-of-execution for Lori.


Letterman last night had it as Mitt Romney calling.


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## cheesesteak (Jul 24, 2003)

pmyers said:


> I also agree with the poster that commented on Michone not giving any vital information to Andrea. Why would you not mention the fresh blood on the vehicles?


Yeah, Michonne kept saying stuff like "Things are not what they seem to be" but offered up no evidence. It got tedious very quickly and real people don't behave that way which is why Lost drove me nuts some times.


----------



## voripteth (Apr 9, 2003)

danterner said:


> With Carol MIA but no death scene shown for her, the conclusion I draw is that she was indeed killed but not consumed


Remember that the prisoner who caused all this chaos was presumed dead when he was locked in a room full of walkers. It seems quite reasonable that she could hide herself and survive but not for more than a day or two.


----------



## Johnny Dancing (Sep 3, 2000)

Beryl said:


> I can't sympathize with or root for anyone who promises to help out a guy's comrades and instead kills them all and puts the guy's head in a jar. Nope. No way. Can't do it.
> 
> The Governor is a psychopath. The writers and the actor did good job convincing me. Andrea needs to get out of there.


No problem, I'd be the first to open the gate and let you break bread with the Zombie folk. After I sent you on your merry way, I'd go get cool glass of lemon aid and perhaps take a nap with one of the town gals.

The Governor does not need your kind in his town


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## pmyers (Jan 4, 2001)

cheesesteak said:


> Yeah, Michonne kept saying stuff like "Things are not what they seem to be" but offered up no evidence. It got tedious very quickly and real people don't behave that way which is why Lost drove me nuts some times.


I'm just hoping they actually do something with her character. I don't know anything about the comic books but everybody was SOOOOO excited when she entered the TV series, but I've been absolutely bored with her minus a couple of zombie killing scenes.


----------



## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

pmyers said:


> I'm just hoping they actually do something with her character. I don't know anything about the comic books but everybody was SOOOOO excited when she entered the TV series, but I've been absolutely bored with her minus a couple of zombie killing scenes.


Not really spoilers, but since some people go ballistic over not-spoilers...


Spoiler



In the comics, there's none of the "Andrea and Michonne on their own" stuff...Michonne is part of the group from when she first appears. I suppose they did it this way as a way of getting us into the Governor's community sooner, but I don't think it helped Michonne's character at all.


----------



## Bierboy (Jun 12, 2004)

pmyers said:


> I'm just hoping they actually do something with her character. I don't know anything about the comic books but everybody was SOOOOO excited when she entered the TV series, but I've been absolutely bored with her minus a couple of zombie killing scenes.


Count me in as not liking her character so far, either....step it up with her, or kill her off. One of her problems is that she's a TERRIBLE actor/actress...


----------



## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

Bierboy said:


> Count me in as not liking her character so far, either....step it up with her, or kill her off. One of her problems is that she's a TERRIBLE actor/actress...


I'm not sure that's true. Given what she's had to work with, I doubt anybody could have done much better...


----------



## Beryl (Feb 22, 2009)

Johnny Dancing said:


> No problem, I'd be the first to open the gate and let you break bread with the Zombie folk. After I sent you on your merry way, I'd go get cool glass of lemon aid and perhaps take a nap with one of the town gals.


And wind down watching your aquarium of human heads. Such fun.


----------



## pmyers (Jan 4, 2001)

Beryl said:


> I can't sympathize with or root for anyone who promises to help out a guy's comrades and instead kills them all and puts the guy's head in a jar. Nope. No way. Can't do it.
> 
> The Governor is a psychopath. The writers and the actor did good job convincing me. Andrea needs to get out of there.


Replace Governor with Government. That's what they would do if there was ever an outbreak....

Infact that is exactly what they tried to do when they bombed Atlanta (in the show).....


----------



## TAsunder (Aug 6, 2003)

pmyers said:


> Replace Governor with Government. That's what they would do if there was ever an outbreak....
> 
> Infact that is exactly what they tried to do when they bombed Atlanta (in the show).....


In that case, however, they were under the impression that it was a spreading infection (and not that everyone was infected), weren't they?


----------



## stellie93 (Feb 25, 2006)

madscientist said:


> That's how I was reading them too. But I got sidetracked and stopped reserving them (still I've read further than the TV show is now). They all had to be shipped via inter-library loan; I guess they don't have a ton of copies. Gotta love the library!


What are they called? I searched my library and found several under Walking Dead called "books" is that the comics? They were all marked written in 2012--I thought the comics were written in the past. I did read "The rise of the Governor" which is a regular book--a prequel and pretty good. I don't think the twist at the end of that is being used in the show, tho. Anybody else read it?


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## kaszeta (Jun 11, 2004)

stellie93 said:


> What are they called? I searched my library and found several under Walking Dead called "books" is that the comics? They were all marked written in 2012--I thought the comics were written in the past. I did read "The rise of the Governor" which is a regular book--a prequel and pretty good. I don't think the twist at the end of that is being used in the show, tho. Anybody else read it?


They were published several ways:

1. The original issues
2. Trade paperbacks that collected them in 6 issue sets
3. Hardcover versions (Called "Book 1" through "Book 8"), each covering ~12 issues
4. Omnibus editions ("Volume 1" through "Volume 4"), each covering 24 issues.
5. Compendium 1 and Compendium 2, each covering 48 issues

I've seen the hardcovers, omnibi, and compendia in libraries.


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## heberman (Nov 20, 2009)

Great idea about getting the comics at the library. They aren't something I would spend money on, but I was interested in reading them. I'm now on the list at my library to check out Compendium 1 and 2 as soon as they become available.

I also found a free audio book of "The Walking Dead: The Rise of the Governor" at my library. I'll have to check that out too.


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## GameGuru (Dec 12, 2003)

tiams said:


> I thought they were tally marks for how many people have died or been killed.
> 
> Zalusky was speculating. Your comment, GameGuru is a spoiler because it gives away that it is not Carol. Why can't people STFU about what is in the comics?


Very rude tiams as I gave absolutely nothing away, neither confirmed nor denied anyone's guesses. And we all know how the has veered off from he comics so even if I had come out and said it was a jar of mayo it might not be in the show.

I am sorry by me saying you might be surprised that it ruined the show for you.


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## pmyers (Jan 4, 2001)

betts4 said:


> I thought so too but usually tally marks are ////and then the - mark threw them to make it a count of 5. That's what threw me off.


I agree. I originally thought they were tallys but then noticed a lack of the - and then just thought they were markings of somebody who has gone of the deep end.


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## Hoffer (Jun 1, 2001)

I ended up ordering the compendiums from Amazon. Did it before the library talk. I haven't been in a library since college I bet.


----------



## Hank (May 31, 2000)

GameGuru said:


> Very rude tiams as I gave absolutely nothing away, neither confirmed nor denied anyone's guesses. And we all know how the has veered off from he comics so even if I had come out and said it was a jar of mayo it might not be in the show.
> 
> I am sorry by me saying you might be surprised that it ruined the show for you.


You have to forgive tiams as he's extremely hyper-sensitive to anything that even remotely could, under some extreme set of circumstances, be interpreted or construed as a spoiler -- even the most insignificant points -- like talking about the color of the walls. Like will Rick fire his gun at a zombie again? In the head? Oops! I've said too much already. Sorry.


----------



## DreadPirateRob (Nov 12, 2002)

I was able to read the hardcover collections through Book 6 (up to issue #72), and then the trade paperbacks through Vol 16 (issue #96) through my local county library.

IMO, it's a much better way to read the comics. I was never a comic guy myself because they're just so *short* (I've always loved long, long, far-too-long novels). So the hardcover collections are fantastic for how much ground they cover.


----------



## mchasal (Jun 6, 2001)

heberman said:


> Great idea about getting the comics at the library. They aren't something I would spend money on, but I was interested in reading them. I'm now on the list at my library to check out Compendium 1 and 2 as soon as they become available.


Not sure if you mean available as in "returned by who has them checked out" or "when the library buys them". If it's the latter, check and make sure they don't have one of the other formats. My system only seems to have the trade paperback versions.


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## tiams (Apr 19, 2004)

GameGuru said:


> Very rude tiams as I gave absolutely nothing away, neither confirmed nor denied anyone's guesses. And we all know how the has veered off from he comics so even if I had come out and said it was a jar of mayo it might not be in the show.
> 
> I am sorry by me saying you might be surprised that it ruined the show for you.


You most certainly did give something away by taking someone's guess and commenting on the subject with a reference to what happens in the comics. Why do you and others enjoy spoiling the TV show with unnecessary comments about the comics? Just shut up about anything from the comics.



Hank said:


> You have to forgive tiams as he's extremely hyper-sensitive to anything that even remotely could, under some extreme set of circumstances, be interpreted or construed as a spoiler -- even the most insignificant points -- like talking about the color of the walls. Like will Rick fire his gun at a zombie again? In the head? Oops! I've said too much already. Sorry.


You have to forgive Hank, he has been called out by several people besides me for posting several significant spoilers about several different shows in several different threads. Instead of simply following the rules he would rather attack me.

Besides being against the rules, it is simply common courtesy to not talk about anything that happens in the comics. Why are some people incapable of understand something so simple?


----------



## jradosh (Jul 31, 2001)

GameGuru said:


> I am sorry by me saying you might be surprised that it ruined the show for you.





Hank said:


> You have to forgive tiams as he's extremely hyper-sensitive to anything that even remotely could, under some extreme set of circumstances, be interpreted or construed as a spoiler





tiams said:


> Besides being against the rules, it is simply common courtesy to not talk about anything that happens in the comics. Why are some people incapable of understand something so simple?


It's the lack of couresy which I find surprising. The spoilers (and they _are_ spoilers even if they don't give away specifics, they eliminate possibilities and that is, by itself, a form of spoiler) are so easy to hide in tags, but a few posters flaunt the fact that they are above the rules and don't care if it bothers other readers. I just can't wrap my head around that kind of attitude.


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## betts4 (Dec 27, 2005)

I wish this show never had a comic.


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## betts4 (Dec 27, 2005)

jradosh said:


> It's the lack of courtesy which I find surprising. The spoilers (and they _are_ spoilers even if they don't give away specifics, they eliminate possibilities and that is, by itself, a form of spoiler) are so easy to hide in tags, but a few posters flaunt the fact that they are above the rules and don't care if it bothers other readers. I just can't wrap my head around that kind of attitude.


And this.

There is nothing wrong with using a spoiler tag. Not all of us have read the comics or watch Talking Dead. Sharing something from the comic doesn't do anything to help the conversation here, about this episode, this show. We don't watch Friday Night Lights and then say "oh it was different in the book" or Batman and say "That was an interesting episode because in the comic the Joker never would have done that".


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## markz (Oct 22, 2002)

betts4 said:


> I wish this show never had a comic.


I wish this show had a breakfast cereal!

Zombieloops!


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## kaszeta (Jun 11, 2004)

tiams said:


> Besides being against the rules, it is simply common courtesy to not talk about anything that happens in the comics.


Indeed. Not only can it spoil the show, but it can spoil the comics as well. And a lot of people here have expressed interest in reading them, so be careful about that direction as well.


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## Hank (May 31, 2000)

jradosh said:


> It's the lack of couresy which I find surprising. The spoilers (and they _are_ spoilers even if they don't give away specifics, they eliminate possibilities and that is, by itself, a form of spoiler) *are so easy to hide in tags, but a few posters flaunt the fact that they are above the rules and don't care if it bothers other readers. I just can't wrap my head around that kind of attitude. *


This is where your assumption goes wrong. I, nor anyone else thinks we are "above the rules" and flaunt posting spoilers. I'm not an as$hole. If I knew something was a spoiler, I'd use the tags. Only after ruffling feathers of people who are extremely sensitive to such things have I been told the _possibility_ of something maybe being a spoiler. It's subjective, not black and white. Like this entire thing about the phone call.  Someone commented on someone else's _guess_ about who it may or may not be? You've got to be kidding me. 


Spoiler



Like the discussion of Michonne's slave zombies being her boyfriend and his doushy best friend. It's something we openly discussed in previous season threads. It's something the show never touched on, and they're both "dead" anyway, knowing who they were (or weren't) does not make any significant difference in the ongoing plot of the show. It's an extremely minor plot point. It's not even a plot point, it's just interesting information that the show runners decided to totally leave out. It's not like saying "In the comics, all the women in The Governor's town are really sex slaves for him and his army. The ones that don't comply are thrown out." (that's not a real spoiler)


----------



## madscientist (Nov 12, 2003)

Hoffer said:


> I ended up ordering the compendiums from Amazon. Did it before the library talk. I haven't been in a library since college I bet.


You should check it out. We love our local library. They have wifi, comfy places to sit, great atmosphere.

When we lost power due to Sandy my wife and kids spent a lot of time at the library, doing homework, surfing the web, and getting books to read at home (headlamps and coleman lanterns). Luckily for us we just lost power, and only for 3 days.



GameGuru said:


> Very rude tiams as I gave absolutely nothing away, neither confirmed nor denied anyone's guesses. And we all know how the has veered off from he comics so even if I had come out and said it was a jar of mayo it might not be in the show.
> 
> I am sorry by me saying you might be surprised that it ruined the show for you.


I'm not as fanatical about spoilers as tiams but in this case I do agree. First, you're misquoting yourself as saying someone "_might_" be surprised; what you *really* said was:


GameGuru said:


> If the show follows the comic you _*will*_ be surprised.


(emphasis added).
That's not a "maybe", that's a definitive statement speaking from authority and external knowledge, that zalusky's guess is wrong. Sure, you qualified with "if the show follows the comic" but I think we can all agree that if they're going to have a phone ringing in the zombie apocolypse in the TV show and the comic, it's almost 100% certain the same person will be on the other end in both.

I have no problem with small spoilers but this is (being framed by the TV show) as a major mystery, episode-ending cliffhanger. Hints from external sources are not cool.

As far as Hank's assertion that spoilers are subjective, I just don't see it. The rules are crystal clear and not subjective at all. If we saw it on the screen during the regular episode (not the previews) or any prior episode, it's not a spoiler. If you are speculating based ONLY on what what we've seen on the screen during the regular episode or any prior episode, it's not a spoiler.

*Everything else* is a spoiler.

It may be somewhat subjective which spoilers are really important and which are not. But the definition of a spoiler is clear.


----------



## rahnbo (Sep 12, 2010)

It seems we spend more time talking about spoiler rules than the shows so much that I don't even want to participate or subscribe to the discussions anymore.


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## zalusky (Apr 5, 2002)

rahnbo said:


> It seems we spend more time talking about spoiler rules than the shows so much that I don't even want to participate or subscribe to the discussions anymore.


I have to agree this is really ruining the camaraderie.


----------



## mostman (Jul 16, 2000)

kaszeta said:


> They were published several ways:
> 
> 1. The original issues
> 2. Trade paperbacks that collected them in 6 issue sets
> ...


That's how read them. I have the 8 books. I've also kept up on the ones still being released via one of the iPad comic apps.


----------



## mostman (Jul 16, 2000)

betts4 said:


> I wish this show never had a comic.


Hahaha!

On spoilers - this is Game of Thrones all over again. So therefore, I'm not posting sh** about the graphic novels in here. Except I will say this one thing. If you are interested by this story while being bored by it, or if you feel the TV show is not living up to its potential, read the graphic novels instead. The show is actually terrible when measured against them.


----------



## TAsunder (Aug 6, 2003)

Hank said:


> This is where your assumption goes wrong. I, nor anyone else thinks we are "above the rules" and flaunt posting spoilers. I'm not an as$hole. If I knew something was a spoiler, I'd use the tags. Only after ruffling feathers of people who are extremely sensitive to such things have I been told the _possibility_ of something maybe being a spoiler. It's subjective, not black and white.


Sometimes it is subjective. I think the phone call comment could go either way. I would personally have tagged it but I can see the argument against it.

However, some of the other stuff is pretty black and white and directly is addressed in the rules thread here. Anything that reveals a future plot point or a potential future plot point from any source (spoilers, interviews, comics) should be tagged. Anything that reveals additional information about the current season from a source other than the primary episode content generally should be tagged as well.

If I hadn't seen a bunch more people agree with me a few weeks ago I would have stopped reading the threads on this show entirely because it was getting quite bad and all of the Governor plot would have been spoiled ten times over now if people hadn't started being a little less nonchalant with info from the comics.

I should actually note that I am appreciative of how much this has improved in the past couple of weeks.

The discussion you reference should have been treated like a spoiler because at the time we didn't know if it was going to be something in the show in future episodes. You are analyzing it with hindsight but we didn't know what was going to happen at the time.


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## gchance (Dec 6, 2002)

mostman said:


> Hahaha!
> 
> On spoilers - this is Game of Thrones all over again. So therefore, I'm not posting sh** about the graphic novels in here. Except I will say this one thing. If you are interested by this story while being bored by it, or if you feel the TV show is not living up to its potential, read the graphic novels instead. The show is actually terrible when measured against them.


This problem isn't going away. World War Z is on its way, and from the outset, we know that just about everything but the premise is different than the book. How do we deal with that?

The Hobbit will be here in a month. Again...

That's what spoiler tags are for. One of our members (who may come forward if he so desires) got upset at me for spoiling LAST week's episode with this on Facebook (he was two weeks behind):










But there are no spoiler tags on Facebook.  I just had to share here.

Greg


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## betts4 (Dec 27, 2005)

mostman said:


> Hahaha!


Yeah, I forgot the smiley.



gchance said:


> That's what spoiler tags are for. One of our members (who may come forward if he so desires) got upset at me for spoiling LAST week's episode with this on Facebook (he was two weeks behind):
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Oh my, that is hysterical!

I saw this one on FB this morning -


----------



## jradosh (Jul 31, 2001)

:up: Like


----------



## mostman (Jul 16, 2000)

betts4 said:


> Yeah, I forgot the smiley.
> [/IMG]


No need. No need at all.


----------



## Hoffer (Jun 1, 2001)

I got compendium one today from Amazon. That thing is way bigger than I thought it would be. Compendium two should arrive tomorrow.


----------



## sharkster (Jul 3, 2004)

Love the pics. Thanks, Greg & Betts.


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## gchance (Dec 6, 2002)

Hoffer said:


> I got compendium one today from Amazon. That thing is way bigger than I thought it would be. Compendium two should arrive tomorrow.


I felt the same way. I kept putting off buying it because the regular price was like $39.99 or something. I bought it on sale, and when it arrived, I knew why. That said, and this might be because I'm not used to reading comics, but it goes by so quickly. I flew through the whole Compendium in a day, and have checked out some new comics as they're released... it's strange waiting a month only to read it in 10 minutes.

Greg


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## Johnny Dancing (Sep 3, 2000)

gchance said:


> I felt the same way. I kept putting off buying it because the regular price was like $39.99 or something. I bought it on sale, and when it arrived, I knew why. That said, and this might be because I'm not used to reading comics, but it goes by so quickly. I flew through the whole Compendium in a day, and have checked out some new comics as they're released... it's strange waiting a month only to read it in 10 minutes.
> 
> Greg


I gave up picture books in 3rd grade. 

Now if there was a real Walking Dead novel with some meat to it I would definitely read that. Loved WWZ.


----------



## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

Johnny Dancing said:


> I gave up picture books in 3rd grade.
> 
> Now if there was a real Walking Dead novel with some meat to it I would definitely read that. Loved WWZ.


There are two.

_Rise of the Governor_ and _Road to Woodbury_. Both co-authored by Robert Kirkman (who created the series, writes the comics, and is a writer-producer for the show) and Jay Bonansinga. Which I suspect means Bonansinga did most of the heavy lifting and Kirkman did a lot of supervising. But they've been well-received.

Probably have a lot of spoilers for the comic-book Governor, who is a somewhat different character than the TV one.


----------



## Johnny Dancing (Sep 3, 2000)

Rob Helmerichs said:


> There are two.
> 
> _Rise of the Governor_ and _Road to Woodbury_. Both co-authored by Robert Kirkman (who created the series, writes the comics, and is a writer-producer for the show) and Jay Bonansinga. Which I suspect means Bonansinga did most of the heavy lifting and Kirkman did a lot of supervising. But they've been well-received.
> 
> Probably have a lot of spoilers for the comic-book Governor, who is a somewhat different character than the TV one.


Cool. Seems though I'll need to wait until the end of this season before reading to avoid spoilers.


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## GameGuru (Dec 12, 2003)

madscientist said:


> I'm not as fanatical about spoilers as tiams but in this case I do agree. First, you're misquoting yourself as saying someone "might" be surprised; what you really said was:
> (emphasis added).
> That's not a "maybe", that's a definitive statement speaking from authority and external knowledge, that zalusky's guess is wrong. Sure, you qualified with "if the show follows the comic" but I think we can all agree that if they're going to have a phone ringing in the zombie apocolypse in the TV show and the comic, it's almost 100% certain the same person will be on the other end in both.
> 
> ...


Seriously? OK well if the show follows the comic you WILL both be surprised and love the show. In the comic there are zombies, guns, death and rain.



Spoiler



Everyone is already dead and in purgatory!


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## Philosofy (Feb 21, 2000)

I'm just getting into this show, and I'm not caught up, but I have a prediction. At the beginning, you got bit, you got sick, you died, and came back as a walker. Now, however you die, you come back as a walker. Since that change, we haven't seen anyone get sick from a bite. Herschel got bit, but Rick amputated his leg to save him. I don't think Rick needed to amputate the leg. I don't think TDog needed to die, or that big prisoner. My prediction is that zombie bites aren't fatal if you're already infected. Am I right? You can answer in a spoiler.


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## Hank (May 31, 2000)

The show title "The Walking Dead" refers to everyone -- from season 1 at the CDC, we learned that everyone is already infected.. so it only matters when you die, you will turn. I'm not sure if we've ever seen someone get bit and instantly become a zombie. It takes some time to die first, then turn. So unless they find a "cure" -- everyone will eventually turn when they die.


----------



## Philosofy (Feb 21, 2000)

My theory is that, now that they are infected, they won't get sick from a bite. A simple bite not a death sentence anymore.


----------



## wprager (Feb 19, 2006)

Philosofy said:


> My theory is that, now that they are infected, they won't get sick from a bite. A simple bite not a death sentence anymore.


Clearly the zombie infection (which turns them into zombies after you die) is not, in itself, lethal (hell, it actually "resurrects" you). However a bite from a zombie with questionable eating habits and non-existent hygiene habits can develop an infection that will kill you. Salmonella, e-coli, tetanus, staph, who knows what else.


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

Philosofy said:


> My theory is that, now that they are infected, they won't get sick from a bite. A simple bite not a death sentence anymore.


I disagree. The fact that they're all infected isn't new. It's always been the case since the beginning of the outbreak. We've seen people (like Andrea's sister) get bit, get sick, and die within less than 24 hours. There's no reason to think that still wouldn't have happened with Herschel and others.


----------



## Philosofy (Feb 21, 2000)

DevdogAZ said:


> I disagree. The fact that they're all infected isn't new. It's always been the case since the beginning of the outbreak. We've seen people (like Andrea's sister) get bit, get sick, and die within less than 24 hours. There's no reason to think that still wouldn't have happened with Herschel and others.


But, since Andrea's sister got bitten, we've seen people not bitten get resurrected. That's my theory, and I'm asking people who are farther ahead in the series, or read the graphic novels, to either confirm I'm right, wrong, or it hasn't been revealed. I'm just waiting for someone to get bitten, but not get sick and die.


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

Philosofy said:


> But, since Andrea's sister got bitten, we've seen people not bitten get resurrected. That's my theory, and I'm asking people who are farther ahead in the series, or read the graphic novels, to either confirm I'm right, wrong, or it hasn't been revealed. I'm just waiting for someone to get bitten, but not get sick and die.


That hasn't happened on the show. The only thing that's been stated unequivocally is that everybody is infected, and presumably has been since the outbreak began. We know that everybody who's been bitten onscreen (without getting devoured by zombies, or having the offending limb amputated tout suite) has died and turned, and we've seen no evidence whatsoever that this has changed. We also know that everybody who's died without being bitten (and without their head being destroyed) has also turned.

The comics have treated the matter somewhat differently, so this discussion doesn't really apply there.


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## Hank (May 31, 2000)

Philosofy said:


> My prediction is that zombie bites aren't fatal if you're already infected. Am I right? You can answer in a spoiler.


No, the bites themselves are usually not fatal (unless bitten in the neck or other vulnerable area).

Since everyone is already infected, it's the results/effects of the zombie bite that are lethal, due to extreme infection or blood loss, etc.

Rick amputated Herchel's leg to avoid the quick acting infection of other pathogens that might cause death, not the zombie virus, since everyone already has that.



> But, since Andrea's sister got bitten, we've seen people not bitten get resurrected.


Yes, because you don't need to be bitten in order to die and then turn, since everyone already is infected with the zombie virus. Remember when Rick shot Shane -- and then Shane turned and Rick had to shoot him again? No bites involved at all.


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## Philosofy (Feb 21, 2000)

OK, I gotcha. I thought Shane coming back (and the guy Shane killed) was something new: everyone was surprised that someone came back without being bitten.


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## Hank (May 31, 2000)

Rick knew all along, but didn't tell everyone else for a while on the farm... so yes, at some point, everyone else didn't know that they all were already infected.


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## Philosofy (Feb 21, 2000)

OK, thanks for clearing that up. Although it would be a pretty good plot point if my idea was true.


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## dirk1843 (Jul 7, 2003)

Spoiler



Everyone was worried about T-Dog getting bit on the shoulder.....it was even mentioned that you couldn't "cut it off"



I think that without timely removal if possible, the zombie bites are fatal....more than just an open wound or normal infection.


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## MacThor (Feb 7, 2002)

Unless Morgan's explanation in the pilot episode was intentional misdirection, I think it's been established that a bite causes an infection/fever that is lethal, which is separate from the infection (we all have) that causes re-animation.

At the time, the population (and audience) didn't realize the two were separate.


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## Bierboy (Jun 12, 2004)

MacThor said:


> ... the infection (_*we all have*_) that causes re-animation...


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