AMC's The Walking Dead

I did some reading and it appears that they don't really know if zombie fluids cause you to get sick. There's a specific comic event that happens that goes into this. Of course, I'm not posting it here, even if it has to deal with one of our recently departed.

 

People who are "dead" but then "come back to life" aren't actually dead.

 

I think Shane saying it over and over may have been one of those things where he was trying to convince himself as much as anything. Or he saw no way to transport Rick and thought the situation was hopeless, so he told Rick's family that to convince them to leave, and then he had to stick with it.

 

Shane was absolutely right in his decision to leave Rick there. It's a tough call, for sure, but you have to make that call to save yourself, Lori and Carl. Fact.

 

He said -- more than once -- that he thought Rick was dead. I can buy that. You're scared shitless in a hospital crawling with Army folks on orders to shoot anyone who gets in the way. I can see why he did what he did.

 

I loved the early scene in this week's show where they went out on the revenge hunt for Dale and a bunch of them were jolly stomping a zombie. That could be the best shot of the whole series.

 

Remember Season One, Episode One, Scene One? That amazing scene where Rick comes upon a young zombie was basically what sucked me into the show. Also in the first episode, the shower scene was wonderful. But the stomping scene last night was pretty incredible, too.

Speaking of S1E1S1, remember Rick's trepidation upon seeing the girl? He thinks it's a living girl and doesn't immediately draw. He's also wearing full cop gear. That makes me wonder if we may have already passed that point in the timeline. On the other hand, Shane isn't in it.

 

That opening scene in the series was just fan-freaking-tastic.

But I think it was a mini-flash forward to when Rick between Morgan/Duane's house and the farm where he found the suicide couple and their horse. Because his car ran out of gas on that trip to the city, and he stopped at the farm looking for some more. I assume that gas station was one of his stops, too.

I was also a big fan of the opening scene in Sunday night's episode. I actually laughed when they were stomping that one walker. I could hear "Still" by Geto Boys playing in my head. Total Office Space-copy machine tribute. Ha ha.

 

So no one is buying into my random theory that Rick might have some sort of immunity? Like, he died and then somehow came back to life/rose but wasn't zombified like everyone else. Perhaps that's part of the story down the road - getting Rick, the possible savior of humanity because of his blood (kinda like Will Smith's character in "I Am Legend"), to DC or Nebraska or wherever centralized humanity is established.

 

By immunity... I'd equate it to the Black Plague.. Some people were just immune to it.

Or the fact you don't have to worry about becoming a Zombie until you die.

 

Agreed. Justify in his mind at least.

 

Leaving Rick behind was the right decision, but it set Shane on a path to destruction. As time went on, he was willing to go to greater and greater lengths to "protect" himself.

He gave up on Rick (justifiably) and thought of his own survival first (and, tangentially, Lori and Carl's). Then he made the debatable decision to cap Otis (ultimately, it was probably the correct move, but I think he could have simply escaped on his own without shooting Otis to ensure his safety. That was pretty cold). By the time he finally died, he had killed an unarmed man when no imminent threat was present and was willing to kill his best friend.

Each event made it easier for him to slip farther from his humanity and his role in society as a good man and protector of the innocent. In what he viewed as an effort to protect everyone, he became a rabid animal that needed to be put down to protect everyone else's safety.