The Walking Dead

[Teaos]

Last nights episode was pretty sweet, not a nail biter, but just life in the Zombie apocalypse.

As an aside. what percentage of humanity do you think is still alive? 5%?, 1%?

Can they make this show run 1 more season? They have said the walkers are starving and they are showing them to get more and more emaciated. To keep to their own rules the walkers are going to have to start dropping in a month or two. Then you only have to deal with a much smaller number of "fresh" walkers. The Comic this is based on finishes soon in the story line. I wonder what the show will do...

[Tyyr]

Last night was a lot of rather squicky things. Riffling through the daycare was an especially unpleasant bit given what they could have had been there.

With Michonne and Andrea something that I think some viewers are missing is that yes, we know the governor is really messed in the head. We know that things in this town are not on the level. Michonne only has a vague suspicion of it. Andrea hasn't seen any of the messed up side, at all, and Michonne has done nothing to really convince Andrea she's right beyond, "I don't like it, lets go." From Andrea's standpoint, well until last night, this really was what she was looking for all along and she's seen nothing to refute that this is the solution to their problems. If anything Michonne's loner nature is the problem. Her communication skills suck.

They'll make the show run another season easy, maybe two. Remember, this makes money and brings in viewers. If they need to justify the zombie apocalypse lasting a few more years it'll be, "Yeah, that's what he thought but he's just a smart quack, not a zombie M.D." or "Really, REALLY slowly." And really, we don't know Milton's creds. As much as I'd like to think I could make a pretty good mad scientist in the ZA, well, how much does your previous experience really help you here? After all, you think they're starving but back in episode one we saw a walker who was cut in half still mobile and functioning with half her body gone and her vital organs being pulled along behind her. I'm not going to buy into a reanimated corpse starving just yet.

[Teaos]

If you watch the Talking dead on the AMC website the producers say they are starving, and they are making a effort to cast skinnier people in the roll of walkers.

Have you read the comic? I think Andreas and Michonnes positions and going to be reversed in the series.

I agree they will try to make the show run longer, it is the highest grossing show in AMC history, they're not going to stop just because of story line. They'll whore it out as long as possible.

I just wonder how they will get around the obvious problem. Hell these walkers should have dropped months ago. A living human can last a month with out food. These guys, even with low body temperature and energy needs would still have run out of usable enegy after 3 or 4. Its been almost a year.

[Tyyr]

I've watched it and the producers have their ideas on it. Again, the problem is that they're sitting on a cash cow. The only in universe hint that they're dying is one backyard mad scientist. So it's easy enough for them to go back on it.

I have not read the comic at all. I'm aware of many of the plot points though. With MIchone leaving her fate at the hands of the governor looks like it could be changed though.

The obvious problem? Dead necrotic flesh has been reanimated and is walking around. That's the biggest problem. Them not eating properly only comes after the most basic questions of how the dead are coming back to life and how if they're rotting (apparently they stink) they haven't completely decomposed yet. Frankly I hope they don't get into an explanation of the how and why of people being zombies. It's not important. Hell, like most good zombie flicks the zombies are really only a general environmental threat. It's more about how people deal with the apocalypse and each other in this kind of constant stress.

[Teaos]

At the CDC in Atlanta they basically said it was a virus that just kept the primitive part of the brain working after death. Basic body functions and hunger. No great science or magic.

The stink would come from the bacteria and stuff in their gut going wild and not showering normally, also any serious wounds do seems to rot.

[Tyyr]

Basic bodily functions are pretty much everything. You need a beating heart to move nutrients and oxygen. Without them Walkers would have stopped functioning within hours of the infection. You need lungs working to exchange oxygen. Given the lack of pumping blood from walkers it's obvious they don't have a functioning heart. Without blood oxygenating muscles they'd be unable to function in rather short order. Hell, the fact that a walker's head remains functional suggests that it's more than just the living being lobotomized and their bodies jerking around based off primative needs.

[Teaos]

They lack quick movements and rapid speed. So their system could run on purely capillary action. Would give muscles basic nutrients and allow some form of digestion. Same deal with lungs. They dont pump but just absorb a fraction of the air that manages to get to them.

[Teaos]

Best episode of the season and mayve the series.

Everything was right about it.

I also loved the fact that we finally see what one smart determined man can do. Almost single handedly clear a whole town of walkers.

Also the bit with the hitchhiker is great.

[Tyyr]

It was a very good episode. I agree that it's a pretty good example of what you can do in this situation. Not unlike Woodbury. I had mixed emotions about the hitchhiker. On one hand it does represent how the group feels about outsiders and you can't blame them for that. On the other there's the fact that most of them owe their lives to people willing to stick their necks out for someone else even just a little.

[Teaos]

I did find it odd that a guy that had lasted a year in the zombie apocalypse was so stupid. Making all that noise ect. He might have been with a group that was knocked out recently but still...

When you think about it, if 95% of people were turned into walkers. It means that each survivor need only kill 20 walkers for everything to settle down then just deal with the odd stray.

Even if 98 or 99% percent was killed it is not beyond reason to clear the whole planet with in months. Our group have probably taken out several hundred each. Woodbury kills several a day probably much more in the inital months.

Add to that the walkers that are to badly damaged to be much of a threat like the ones who were half eaten before turning... well the Walker population should be a lot smaller now. Add to that they are slowly staarving, survival just got a shit load easier after 12 months.

[Tyyr]

I kind of wonder about the guy honestly. Dumbass for making all that noise but how did he get killed on the road? There looked to be 50 to 100 feet of open shoulder on each side and it was clear for a great distance either way so how could a bunch of walkers have taken him? We haven't seen any running ones, the fastest ones move at a slow shuffle. How could he get taken down like that?

I think the casualty rate is much higher than that. You're probably looking at maybe 0.1% of the population surviving, if that. All told the group has personally encountered maybe 100 other people in the last year of surviving. 100 People after a year of walking around central Georgia. And clearing walkers is relatively easy in a situation like Morgan's. Small buildings, wide open areas. Its when you get to places like Atlanta that even an experienced survivor could still get trapped and killed easily.

Of course the group is at a critical juncture. If they continue to stay paranoid and untrusting they're doomed. They've already lost a lot of people, and they've turned away almost as many as they've lost. They won't last much longer without new blood, which means they have to trust people. It won't be easy, but long term its the only solution.

[Teaos]

It would be safe to take in one or two at a time and train them to your ways. I would take in a group as large as Tyronnes was though. To risky that they take over and take all your shit.

I agree in the show we see maybe 1%< survival in the area we see, but I wonder about other areas. Cities were probably gutted. People who live in cities are dumb and not survivors. But all the small towns and farming areas. Hell Hersals group survived for months and delt with walkers fairly often. I assume the midwest is doing just fine.

[Tyyr]

Tyrone's group is questionable. Just taking them right in, yeah that's not gonna happen. However if you tell them to surrender their weapons and give you time to get to know them. Hell, you already had them separate from the group. It's not exactly a great trust exercise but all things considered even if things go to shit you just don't unlock the door and tell them to get lost. The main problem is that the group right now are scavengers. They are going to have to transition to an agrarian style of living which means putting down roots which means securing an area and having enough people to defend a permanent settlement. Food is already a major issue for them. Right now no one is making new food aside from wildlife so they either start making their own or move again.

The thing you have to remember with WD is that there is no history of zombies in that world. No pop culture, no Dawn of the Dead, nothing. So even in areas where you would expect people would survive alright simply not understanding what they're up against could have resulted in significantly more casualties just from ignorance.

[Teaos]

Well if it wasnt for the attack and that one dick prisoner who let the Walkers in the group had a good thing in the Prison, they had cleared it, planned to plant crops on the yard, were slowly clearing more of the prison, were going to plug the hole in the wall. They had a perfect place.

Given time to settle they might have even started taking in the odd stray.

Unfortunatly now they have two big, well trained groups going at each other.

The prison could probably support a group of 50-75 once it was established. Then they could even start clearing the surrouding area. Everyday send a team out in ever widdening circles around the prison doing nothing but killing Walkers. They could take out hundreds every day and make the area a lot safer in general. Then just set booby traps and bait stations around a boarder miles wide. You could quickly reestablish basic civilisation.

[Tyyr]

It would be a hell of a place to start. That one prisoner is having such an enormous impact on the show. There was some real optimism right at the start of the season and it's all been downhill since.