Ye Olde Walking Dead Spoiler Thread

[neglet]

Yes, you got it. Darkety dark dark dark.

[The Swollen Goiter of God]

Finished the season. Not bad. Waited until after initiating The Slumber of Jubboiter before even attempting to watch the last episode. Only had one minor hiccup with AMC's player.

It took me some time to figure out who was playing Mary. She shows up first at the end of "Us." I paused it on her face and tried to place her. My first thought was that she looked vaguely like Laura Linney, but without makeup. It's been a while since I've seen her in anything. I knew that wasn't it, so kept trying to place her. I thought maybe it was Lucy Lawless. (What is it with the two LLs?) I've seen her pretty recently on Parks and Recreation, though, so I knew it wasn't her. Also, it just didn't look enough like either of them.

About midway through "A," I realized it was Denise Crosby. I don't think she'd even shown up in the episode yet. It just popped into my head. I think her long hair was throwing me off. I'm used to seeing her with that cut she had in Pet Sematary and ST: TNG. Her hair's also usually blond.

I honestly can't remember ever seeing Denise Crosby with long hair. She shows up in an episode of Dexter. She has the same old short blond 'do in said episode.

[Dalty]

That's the one!

[scarletregina]

I'm looking forward to next season, I just hope the pacing is better than this season.

[Mal Shot First]

So... episode 2.

SPOILER: Were they trying to tell us that Bob was bitten when he was attacked by the submerged walker? It seemed like he was essentially getting a goodbye kiss from Sasha before he walked out and sat down crying by the tree. It's unclear, though, where on the body he would have been bitten - I would assume it's the leg or some part below the waist, since it didn't look like the walker bit him after it emerged from the water. The question is whether the threat of turning has been eliminated now that his leg was essentially amputated (like Hershel's) or whether the wound is somewhere else on his body and he could still turn.

Or did I completely misinterpret the situation?

[The Swollen Goiter of God]

SPOILER: I was wondering the same. It could be a classic bit of misdirection. They might have been priming us to think he was bitten to throw us off so we wouldn't expect his abduction. It felt like we were being guided to wait for him to pull back an item of clothing and reveal a bite to the camera.

All right. Some comic spoilers follow, so if you haven't read as far as the "Fear the Hunters" arc and don't want to be spoiled on the comic, here's a good place to stop reading. If you're fine with comic spoilers, read on. The comics are rarely followed to the letter, so there's a good chance the show's writers will subvert what happens in the comics and surprise those in the comic know.

Next stop, Spoilertown:

It could be a classic bit of misdirection, but I doubt it. They implied he was bitten so heavily that viewers would probably feel cheated if they didn't reveal it later on.

I think it's unlikely he was bitten somewhere on the leg they removed. Even though it wasn't daylight, they surely would have seen the bite when they were preparing it. I also think it's unlikely that removing his leg would have stopped the spread of infection--if what holds true in the comics holds true in the show, that is. In the comics, you have to act incredibly quickly. This was a concern with Rick and his hand, since they had already tried amputation to stop someone else from being infected and had failed. (Though I think there might have been at least some question as to whether or not the person simply died naturally and turned.)

It's probably the case that he is infected, that his bite is somewhere else on his person, and that the cannibals have yet to see it. Bob's endgame is pretty much mirroring that of Dale's. Dale was also bitten, also didn't reveal his having been bitten to the group, also went off into the woods to die, and was also captured by cannibals. The moment he reveals that he's infected to the cannibals is a big hero moment for him and is probably one of the best-loved moments in the comics. It sends the cannibals into hysterics and makes them wonder if cooking the meat was enough to disinfect it. (It wasn't.)

I've been expecting the Terminus cannibals to come back, since Gabriel's appearance kicked off the "Fear the Hunters" arc in the comics. I wasn't sure, at first, if the cannibals were the ones who were watching and making Daryl uneasy or if it was Morgan. I guess it could be either one. Morgan had already joined up with the group before the "Fear the Hunters" arc, so his being out there could be a curve ball the show is throwing for the comic fans.

[Mal Shot First]

Damn it, it was difficult to keep myself from reading the spoilers from the comics that you wrote, but I resisted the urge. I don't know how long I'll be able to keep up the resistance.

[The Swollen Goiter of God]

I wrote "reveal a bit," but I meant "reveal a bite."

[neglet]

Regarding ep 2, I thought SPOILER: that he had definitely been bitten, and enough time had elapsed for him to be infected. Therefore the cannibals noshing on his legs are on borrowed time ... At least I hope so.

[Mal Shot First]

But... SPOILER: I didn't think you could turn into a walker by eating the flesh of someone who was bitten. At least there's no precedent for it in the show so far. Plus, wasn't it established during the group's stay at the CDC that everyone is technically carrying the disease already?

[The Swollen Goiter of God]

No comic spoilers ahead, Mal. Feel free to read. It's all show-specific speculation

SPOILER: It's true that there's no precedent. Then again, we're only just encountering cannibalism on the show. It's not like there's been much time for a precedent to be set.

Bunker Dude (otherwise known as "That Guy Who Was in The Truman Show") said that everyone was infected, and it's generally been taken to be true, since everybody's been shown to turn after death. It might be that there are some out there who are immune to it, but so far no one has been shown to be.

If no one is immune, then anyone who dies will become a zombie. So far, no one who has left a zombie bite un-addressed has lived to tell the tale. Every bitee who hasn't amputated above the bite, suicided, been killed, or died in some unnatural manner has seemed to die as a result of the bite. People have, however, lived through scrapes, cuts, and non-zombie-bite infections. One might gather that there's something about a zombie bite that makes the bitee moribund--or, at the very least, speeds up the process. It's conceivable that eating the flesh of a bitee could lead to the transference of whatever it is that has marked the bitee for death, but I don't know that it's a certainty.

The body of a person with latent TB is still tubercular upon death (as long as the bacteria can survive in the dead tissue, that is), but that person can live a long life and die a non-TB-related natural death. He can live this long life without worry of spreading his latent TB--even if some part of him is cut off by another and eaten. On the other hand, if both the latent TB carrier and a noncarrier are sneezed on by someone with active TB, there's at least some chance that both the latent TB carrier and noncarrier can become infected with, and die of, TB. If the TB in question is totally drug-resistant TB, then the chance of TB-related death becomes quite high. With that in mind, maybe we could think of living humans as carriers of latent TB and zombies as carriers of totally drug-resistant TB.

TB's probably a poor analog. The whole preceding paragraph is also unresearched and is probably pretty unscientific. All I mean to say is that the infection that comes from a zombie bite appears to differ from (or, rather, be faster acting than) the infection every living human is thought to have. Maybe the difference, here, is the difference between carrier and sufferer.

I'm not sure what direction the show will take. They could go any number of ways. This is a wait-and-see kind of thing for me.

[Mal Shot First]

I feel silly using the spoiler tags in the clearly-labeled spoiler thread, but whatever - the precedent has been set (and it's fun to annoy Dalty when he's trying to read this thread on his iPad).

SPOILER: I follow what you're saying, but I don't know much about TB either except that it's a bacterial infection. Isn't this one of the reasons we cook our food, though? To kill off any disease-baring agents? I just did a quick Google search and found that even something as deadly as HIV can be killed by heat, as long as the temperature exceeds 60°C. One would think that whatever is causing people to turn into zombies would also follow the same basic pattern of other diseases. Wouldn't the fact that the hunters roast the meat before eating it significantly diminish the possibility of contamination?

[The Swollen Goiter of God]

SPOILER: You started it.

I think I've reached the point where it's going to be hard to divorce myself from the comics enough to respond to this in a way that doesn't betray something, but I'll do my best.

I guess the best way to go about it is simply to talk about bacteria and cooking. I do know that our government recommends specific internal temperatures for various cooked meats. It does seem that there's a Goldilocks zone for killing the types of bacteria that beset specific meats, but I've also read that bacterial growth can increase with cooking if the recommended temperature isn't hit or exceeded. Here's more.

I'm not sure if the show (or the comics, for that matter) has established that bacteria is the culprit. There are other things to worry about that aren't bacteria. There are worms and diseases and viruses. With pork, there's trichinosis. With beef, there's BSE/mad cow disease. Proper cooking works for trichinosis, but I don't think BSE cooks out. There's the bird flu virus, too. I think that one cooks out, but I'm not sure.

[Dalty]

I just want you to know this thread is a surreal place when not clicking on spoilers.

[Corporal_Hicks]

I feel silly using the spoiler tags in the clearly-labeled spoiler thread, but whatever - the precedent has been set (and it's fun to annoy Dalty when he's trying to read this thread on his iPad).

It's actually quite easy to read the inviso-text on an iPad. You just press and hold your finger anywhere within the hidden text and it pops up.

[The Swollen Goiter of God]

Sure, it's easy for people who aren't Dalty.

[Corporal_Hicks]

I hope they don't drag this out.

I already don't feel like the cannibals are scary enough. They were within the confines of Terminus, but they don't ooze the necessary street smarts of a group that could legitimately survive in the wild. In other words, they are pussies and kind of smug about it.

On the flip side, Rick's team is about as battle hardened as they come, and I enjoy watching them operate as a full unit. Obviously they will not remain entact.

I guess the writers are going to show that the cannibal group is willing to do ANYTHING to survive. What if they get so despearate that they start trying to cook and eat zombies?

Boy would that be a can of worms.

[The Swollen Goiter of God]

If it truly does mirror the comic arc, it won't last longer than another episode or two--especially considering how far along they already are in the arc.

[Corporal_Hicks]

They will drag it out.

[Mal Shot First]

If it truly does mirror the comic arc, it won't last longer than another episode or two--especially considering how far along they already are in the arc.

It took them two seasons to kill off Shane.

[The Swollen Goiter of God]

That's because their use of Shane didn't truly mirror the comic arc's use of Shane.

[Corporal_Hicks]

They will drag it out.

Wrong!

[The Swollen Goiter of God]

Saw the third episode. I won't worry about spoiler tags. In fact, Mal, you can go back and read my comic spoilers if you want. The show covered everything I talked about already.

It was a bit of a bummer that they didn't wait around to show whether or not tainted meat would turn a person, but good on them for resolving the hunter scenario so quickly.

I figured Rick would get his machete moment, and I figured Michonne would be getting her sword back.

I know the show likes to keep the group split up so they can do the Empire Strikes Back thing with the narrative. I know this gives all the actors more to do and gives the writers a chance to switch things up and keep them from getting too stale, but it always annoys me when shows constantly manufacture ways to keep the core group fractured. It just makes me impatient for them to get back together already.

The cliffhanger with Darryl was a nice touch. Pretty decent episode overall. Still wondering when Morgan will pop up again.

[Corporal_Hicks]

Has Maggie even said a word this season?

She's not killing' zombies and cannibals either. Seems like dead weight.

[The Swollen Goiter of God]

Wake up, Maggie. I think I got somethin' to say to you.