AMC's The Walking Dead

Well, the comic is up to issue 138 or so (and has been in publication for 10+ years)...and they are only touching around issue 70 right now...so they have some episodes yet to go on the show if the viewers stay on.
As for the cure/what causes it...they have said many times they don't care about that and want to focus on the people in the show. So I don't think that will ever be solved.

 

I've pretty much read up to this exact moment in the comics and, honestly, I can't see how the series ends in a way that makes most people happy.
There's really no good way to end it. At this point, the series is what half-way through the comics and even if the cure was found tomorrow, there's no way that would be a happy ending. These people are past that point of returning to a normal society now. How will they be in, essentially, twice the time away from it?
So then you're talking about a depressing ending. Well, they've lived long enough and been through enough that I don't see how that works either.
I think we're looking at a show that you have to enjoy it while it lasts. No way this survives long-term without some major events and twists and eventually, if it's not going anywhere, those twists won't mean much.

 

I've gotten heat for this on here and other places but the only real way you can end the show (unless they just kill off everyone) is to just one day, people die but don't come back, hinting that the virus has run its course and now it's just a matter of reestablishing civilization.

Or, they could just have an ending similar to the episode where they arrived in Alexandria. They are now somewhere safe and there is hope. Look at the difference between the arrival in Alexandra and the arrival in Terminus. But, they've shot their load on that.

 

Friend brought up a good point, one that I had forgotten, that being Morgan.

Where the fuck is he?!?!

 

Walking from Gabriel's church to D.C. (he found Abraham's map with Rick's name on it)

A production note: Lennie James has been busy with another TV show, so it's been hard to fit him into Walking Dead, so that might be part of the hang up. I think he'll show up "just in the nick of time" at some point at Alexandria.

 

Well, now I know what happened to the pistol Rick stashed.

 

How lame would it be for that character to kill off someone of importance with that gun? That character doesn't deserve anything except to get eaten by walkers.

 

No argument here. But they made a point of Rick hiding the gun. Then they made a point of that putz finding it and retrieving it. Can't be something random.

 

I was really hoping Rick would put a bullet between the eyes of the woman running the place. Just to see what would happen.

 

Theoretically, even without a cure, the ratio of living to zombies would turn back.
Over time, new societies would form with laws and mores because those are already proven memes that lead to species success.
Some type of ritual burning of the dead or other means to ensure they don't rise would become enculturated.
The odd zombie would be out there but they would be few an far between.
But that would take a long time.

As for the show, I'm not sure what you consider 'the long haul.' It is already five seasons in. If they have enough source material to mine for another five years, that is rare territory for show longevity.

And I think you can have a resolution that satisfies the audience even if it is not uplifting.

 

Maybe not as long as you think. A decade, perhaps? We've already seen with Rick's crew that at this point walkers are only really dangerous in numbers or to the unprepared. By now it would seem most of the survivors know to destroy the brain, so death in a controlled environment would likely be followed by a knife to the head in most societies. And all of this is within the first two years of the outbreak.
By the 10-year mark I think you'd have hit the turning point.

 

It's hard to tell because people are so overwhelmingly outnumbered right now. That is what I think would take time.
But I think they'd be doing daily sweeps of the are outside the compound.

I think there would be years of brigand-type behavior, like the Claimers, but eventually people would band together in groups with real order. Over time, there would be more groups like Alexandria and fewer groups like the Claimers.

I don't really count the Termites because cannibalism is the most impractical solution.