Walking Dead - Episode 5 discussion - with spoilers

[NewJeffCT]

Good episode last night with the wrap-up of the walkers raid on the camp... still not sure why they weren't all closer together - you know, putting the cars in a protective circle or something.

The situation with Andrea & Amy was done pretty well, I think. When she pulled the gun on Rick, I was pretty sure she'd be able to kill Amy.

Interesting twist in the end with the guy in the CDC. He had mentioned something about 193 days since "wildfire" was declared - so, that gives us something of a timeline of over 6 months. Was Rick really in the hospital that long?

Also, saw this in Entertainment Weekly for those of you who have read the graphic novels - will Merle eventually be "The Governor"?

[racaulk]

1. Last night's episode was really great.

I agree, I think Amy's death was handled really well. The scene where Amy woke up as a walker, and was immediately killed by Andrea, was really touching. In fact, I think the scene at the beginning of the episode where they were fishing together and talking about their dad was quite touching as well.

I also really liked the scene where Carol was destroying her dead husband's brain. No doubt that had to be a cathartic experience for her, considering how abusive he was.

I don't think Rick was in the hospital that long. He couldn't have been in the hospital too long after the outbreak -- with his IV drip empty, he would have died of dehydration had his coma lasted much longer. Remember that one of the first things he did after waking up was going to the bathroom and drinking water out of the sink. Also, he could barely talk (due to lack of fluids, I think). I think time is transpiring more rapidly than is apparent by watching the episodes.

I'm really curious to see what happens at the CDC next week. :hi:

[NewJeffCT]

3. Yes, I'm sure it was cathartic for her

I thought even Daryl was going to tell her that was enough...

[de novo]

6. I too am curious about in the CDC next week.

It seems like a very secure place without a lot of potential for attacks/suspense. But we know something will go down. lol.

[charlie and algernon]

2. I enjoyed the episode

The tension when Amy turned into a zombie was intense. I really thought she was about to take a bite out of her sister.

The CDC reveal was great. When it started, I thought it was still in commercial and a promo for some remake of Andromeda Strain, LOL. "Wildfire" is used in that story too. As is par for the course of the series so far, the last scene was the best of the episode. Just as Rick was losing control of himself and the group, the door opens...


The season finale looks great, though I couldn't tell if the soldiers are part of a flashback where we see the origins of the outbreak, or if they're in the CDC building too. Or perhaps they saw the CDC guy's broadcasts and decided to investigate.

[de novo]

4. I think the guy in the CDC is alone. He was talking about no one out

there listening and blowing his brains out the next day.

[NewJeffCT]

7. What I'm wondering is

what happened to everybody else in there? It looks pretty well protected with the drop down steel shutters & all. Did the others get taken by that helicopter we Rick saw in episode 1? Maybe the CDC scientists were being taken a helicopter load at a time to a special undisclosed location? However, it seems like he's been there by himself for a month at least, as it mentions it took him a month to do something.

[de novo]

8. Good point. It looks like there was an epic battle outside the CDC.

I wonder if something happened inside the CDC. Maybe the 'test subject' contaminated or somehow spread to others. The interior doesn't look like anything happened, but he could have cleaned it up. I like your idea of an evacuation. Maybe he stayed back to try research/study.

We also learned that it went global, which I had assumed, but now we know.

[charlie and algernon]

9. I wonder if we are getting a flashback of the start

Or if those soldiers arrive at the CDC to check out what's going on. You then have to wonder if those are still gov't controlled troops, or a rogue band of soldiers like in 28 Days Later.

[de novo]

10. I never saw the soldiers?

The preview I was was just the scientist in the lab talking with the computer. Where did you see soldiers?

[NewJeffCT]

11. the soldiers

were in a preview of next week's episode.

[de novo]

12. This is the only preview I saw:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiqpA-SZlfA

I stream the show about an hour and a half after it airs. Was there a different preview on tv? If so, where can I see it??!?!? lol.

[charlie and algernon]

13. it was the usual 30 second preview of the upcoming events that's at the end of each of the episodes

you see soldiers in the chemical/biological suits, but it doesn't show you what they're doing or where they are.

[de novo]

5. I loved it, again. I think it just gets better each week.

A lot of the stuff that was interesting has already been mentioned. Amy reanimating was awesome, I was waiting for it last week, and they held the suspense perfectly.

Jim, while in his fever, saw an image of a zombie. I wondered if it was a flashback to the one that bit him or a premonition of what he was to become. He already had one vision become a reality.

They have left a lot of material open for the second season. The dad/son back in Rick's hometown, one-handed Merle (who some are anticipating may become The Governor), and now the family that left for Birmingham. I read, I think, in the same ET article, that the final episode wouldn't end with any big cliff-hangers, but some unresolved stories, because they didn't know if the show would get renewed.

It also seemed like the guy in the CDC was closing in on a breakthrough. It seems like fresh flesh wouldn't be hard to get, especially now that he has a crew with him.

Can't wait for next week.

[NewJeffCT]

14. the most disappointing thing is

that we're going to have to wait until October for more shows.

[Lucian]

15. All I remember from the preview for next week is something like...

France was the last country to go down. Looks like the whole world is affected. And looks like the military can't even stop the geeks. What hope is there? No wonder Rick flipped out at the end. And I thought Rick was in a coma for like 28 days? Maybe I'm getting confused with "28 Days Later." They both had similar beginnings.

I think the scene with Amy took too long. IDK, the first 15 minutes seemed to drag on. But all in all, it was a great episode. I'm really looking forward to next week.

[NewJeffCT]

17. That kind of bothers me as well

Here, we have a ragtag band of people where only three of them are trained with guns (Rick & Shane, the two cops, plus Daryl with his crossbow knows his way around a gun as well)

These people have survived for months against the undead with limited ammunition and children around, but the military with tanks, planes, helicopters and a helluva lot more firepower, seems to have been overrun... I mean, couldn't a tank just run over a bunch of "geeks" and grind them into mincemeat? Heck, a lot of soldiers would have body armor that would stop the bites, like the one Jim got.

So, there must be something more.

[charlie and algernon]

19. haha, you need to read World War Z

If the Walking Dead is using the same rules as WWZ, the military approaches the zombies as it would approach another conventional army and that tactic fails miserably leading to a big panic.

Heck, if it IS like WWZ, then there probably still are gov't and military controlled parts of the US.

[Ian David]

21. I would think the right way for the army to attack zombies would be a Ghengis Khan approach.

Form a big circle around an infected area and tighten the circle.

I'd modify it so that there's an additional outer-ring that forms a perimeter to protect and hold the area being cleared.

Also, I'd establish four triage-and-quarantine positions just inside the protective perimeter.

There would be armed units assigned to escort presumably uninfected civilians to one of the four holding areas (one at the north, south, east and west sides of the circle).

[charlie and algernon]

24. the WWZ armies took the reverse approach

form your army into a square and let the zombies come to you. Of course you have to make sure you have TONS of ammo inside the square, but that worked. I don't think you could actually surround the zombies since they're coming from all sides. Besides, basic military tactics dictate that you want your supply lines to be as short as possible. if you're the outer line, you have the longer supply lines. You want to be able to get the ammo and supplies to your troops as quick as possible without having to travel ALL the way around the circle.

[Yavin4]

32. Superior Military Fire Power Cannot Overcome A Dedicated Opposition

that does not care about death. Superior firepower only works on an opposition that does not want to die. The Geeks don't care if you kill one, a 1,000, or a million. They will still keep coming.

[NewJeffCT]

33. I understand that

my point was that Shane, Daryl & Merle were able to survive for months with a few guns, limited ammunition, a crossbow and no body armor, while protecting a few dozen unarmed women & children from both the geeks and any bandits, rogues, brigands, etc out there.

The US military - and other world militaries, it seems - were less competent than them in holding off the undead. While I can understand that it's a new & different foe, but a zombie has no way of getting inside a tank or attacking an airborne helicopter.

[Yavin4]

They Were In An Unpopulated Region in the Hills

The Geeks didn't know they were even there until later.

[Yavin4]

34. They Were In An Unpopulated Region in the Hills

The Geeks didn't know they were even there until later.

[NewJeffCT]

35. true, it was in the hills

but, it was within sight of the city skyline - which would likely be close to some of the suburbs of Atlanta.

[Ian David]

16. Wildfire

The Andromeda Strain
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Plot summary

When a military satellite returns to Earth, a recovery team is dispatched to retrieve it; during a live radio communication with their base, the team members suddenly die. Aerial surveillance reveals that everyone in Piedmont, Arizona, the town closest to where the satellite landed, is apparently dead. The base commander suspects the satellite returned with an extraterrestrial organism and recommends activating Wildfire, the government-sponsored team that counters extraterrestrial biological infestation.

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Andromeda_Strain

I'm guessing that if Walking Dead is paying homage to Andromeda Strain, that a declaration of "wildfire" doesn't mean the start of an epidemic, but the discovery of an extraterrestrial infestation, that they had kept contained for a few months within the CDC before it got loose.

I also suspect that the dude we saw at the CDC is the one who let it loose.

[NewJeffCT]

18. hmm, it could be alien

or, it could be a code for any sort of unstoppable plague they can't otherwise explain.

[charlie and algernon]

20. I think you're right in that "wildfire" only means when they first noticed the virus

In WWZ, the zombie virus manages to spread around the world through the black market with limited outbreaks until the BIG outbreak in South Africa.

WWZ also makes the point that as the first authorities and scientists realized what was going down, they were ridiculed by everyone because no one could believe it. I suppose it's possible that the Governor of Georgia may have been told about it and laughed it off, not spreading the news to the local police. So Rick wouldn't have known about the small outbreaks before his coma.

[Lucian]

28. I hope Wildfire isn't extraterrestrial.

Hopefully, like you said, it's paying homage to The Andromeda Strain.

To me, it looked like the CDC guy was looking for a cure for the infection. I guess we'll find out...

[kimi]

22. The Entertainment Weekly article

had some other "upcoming info" too, about next season - and darn it, that we won't see it till next fall! Apparently it's not going to closely follow the graphic novel plotline - for instance, it mentioned that the Rick-Lori-Shane issue will be explored in more depth through next season, implying that those characters will stick around for awhile. I think in the books that Lori and Shane didn't last long?

I thought Amy was going to go after Andrea too, and expected one of the guys to shoot her. That Andrea did it shows a lot about her character. But I agree, more of them should have weapons training, they don't have much ammo to spare but at least practice aiming or something. And Jim's ordeal - wow, am I the only one who thought that Darryl was going to turn around as he walked away and shoot Jim himself? :shrug:

The ending was so dramatic, but I wonder about that guy in there. He sees survivors coming up who are clearly not zombies, and he says "Oh, no." Yeah, he opens the door anyway, but I'd think that especially if he's considering blowing his brains out the next day, he'd want to see some people come along. And whose brains or whatever was he testing in that lab before it blew up? There's something about him, I dunno . . .

[Ian David]

23. He's embarrassed and ashamed by his failure that may have doomed humanity.

The loss of the sample when he spilled the corrosive agent.

And (I bet) he's the one that accidentally released the virus into the population.

Or at least he's the one that released it into the CDC and killed all his co-workers.

[kimi]

25. I hope he's benign, cause

one thing that's sort of bothered me about this group of folks is that they don't have a medically trained person with them, I don't think. An MD or an RN or EMT. Considering that people are always getting bumps and bruises and what-not, especially in the situation that they're in, it would be make sense to have one, but of course you take what survivors you can get. :)

Edit to add: Well, I'm assuming he's an MD.

[Ian David]

26. He might decide to experiment on them to find a cure.

Maybe Test Subject 19 wasn't really a volunteer.

[NewJeffCT]

27. in the graphic novels...

From what I remember in the graphic novels – spoiler text below:


I was browsing the graphic novel in either Borders or Barnes & Noble the other day and what happens there is that Rick & Shane get in a fight and Shane is about to kill Rick, when Carl (Rick’s son) shoots & kills Shane. I think where the old guy showed up behind Shane as Shane was aiming the rifle at Rick was the equivalent scene.

[rug]

29. Did the CDC guy say France was the last holdout?

[NewJeffCT]

30. yes, I think that was part of next week's preview

something like that.

[Yavin4]

31. Best New Show This Season -- Glad That It's Only 6 Episodes

And I would love it if they limit the number of new episodes per season to 8 or maybe 10.

Less is more. Have 8 or 10 extremely high quality episodes per season, and it will be a legendary show.