Fear the Walking Dead - Official discussion thread

[Bird222]

I wish everyone on the show would die so the focus could shift back to Tobias. I think it's pretty obvious that Tobias is going to end up being the king of all land West of the Mississippi river.

Daryl will be the king East of the Mississippi.

If I was involved in an old fashioned riot, seeing someone chew the face of another person might snap me out of looting frenzy.

I love how the idiot fathers truck was untouched after sitting in the middle of a riot for hours. After getting to the truck he didn't seem to have much trouble getting out of the area even though the cops had everything blocked off.

These idiots need to learn how to close doors.

Totally this! I wanted to scream at the tv for these idiots to shut the doors behind them. I think the producers might be trolling us.

 

[Jeeebus]

My favorite part of the episode:

OMG some dude is slowly walking toward our house from the other side of the street. Quick - everyone run out the back door in the middle of the night, through a maze of plants, and let's break into the neighbor's house because I think he has a shotgun! The front door of our house? Fuck it, leave it open - that way we'll know where the slow walking guy is when we come back.

Seriously, that may have been the worst editing I have ever seen on a show. It was instantaneous guy in the street to everyone running out the back door.

 

[Kaido]

My favorite part of the episode:

OMG some dude is slowly walking toward our house from the other side of the street. Quick - everyone run out the back door in the middle of the night, through a maze of plants, and let's break into the neighbor's house because I think he has a shotgun! The front door of our house? Fuck it, leave it open - that way we'll know where the slow walking guy is when we come back.

Seriously, that may have been the worst editing I have ever seen on a show. It was instantaneous guy in the street to everyone running out the back door.

And then remember when the dad pulled up in the truck? It took them like 15 minutes to escape the backyard maze lol.

 

[Jeeebus]

And then dad apparently forgets everything about zombies and tries to reason with the neighbor, no weapon in hand. Makes sense.

 

[Imp]

To be fair, daddy doesn't have a kill yet. He's dealt with the drug dealer and seen a few more from relatively far away.

Mommy's had her first kill and starting to believe.

Barber dad knows how to get shit done.

 

[Charmonium]

Yeah and he was so good in Gang Related. Maybe he will morph back into that character in time.

Yeah, but GR got canceled for a reason. It was way too melodramatic. I think the dad would be great on telenovela but he sucks in this role.

Getting disappointed too. Look, I get it. Different cast and maybe not the best acting chemistry between them and the writing is different even if it has the same TWD producers and writers names on it. This was meant to do one thing... Be temporary or one season mini series. That's is. It was also meant to suck a bunch of ad revenue into AMC...

Unfortunately, I agree completely. AMC is just cashing in with this shit. I don't really have a problem with that if they funnel the money into some other new, interesting programming. They've had some great shows like TURN, Breaking Bad and even Better call Saul. But there's no real formula for great tv so if you can bat even 300 you're doing pretty well.

Even so, you have to call it like you see it and so far this show sucks. The thing that really struck me as being a complete non sequitur was when the junkie kid observed that the neighbor isn't sick but dead. Did this come to him in some smack inspired vision? And even if he got it from the same sources as Tobias, how is it that everyone just seems to accept this and go 'hmmm, yeah makes sense, let's go with that.' Holy fucking shit. It's almost like they want to see how bad they can make this suck and still get people to watch.

 

[ZOXXO]

Thought this show was going to be more about the origins of the infection but in just three episodes it is already close to zombies on parade. It is TWD LA.

Are TWD Miami, New York and 'insert city names here' soon to come?

 

[Sixguns]

Thought this show was going to be more about the origins of the infection but in just three episodes it is already close to zombies on parade. It is TWD LA.

Are TWD Miami, New York and 'insert city names here' soon to come?

Agreed. I figured it would be a much slower build up to everything falling apart. The dad is the Lori of this one.

 

[destrekor]

The thing that really struck me as being a complete non sequitur was when the junkie kid observed that the neighbor isn't sick but dead. Did this come to him in some smack inspired vision? And even if he got it from the same sources as Tobias, how is it that everyone just seems to accept this and go 'hmmm, yeah makes sense, let's go with that.' Holy fucking shit. It's almost like they want to see how bad they can make this suck and still get people to watch.

Junkie kid killed the drug dealer, and he came back to life looking like that.
And he already saw someone munching on someone else.

I think that kid is the only smart one of the group, that and the barber. They get that 2+2 = really fucked up, can't be normal.

Barber cleaned the other guy's face right off with the shotgun, and he just turned around with that blank stare. I think barber figured out right then and there that shit ain't right, better kill 'em good. Dead or not, you have to make a realization that they are beyond saving when it gets to a point like that. You can't just undo something like that.

 

[Charmonium]

Junkie kid killed the drug dealer, and he came back to life looking like that.
And he already saw someone munching on someone else.

I think that kid is the only smart one of the group, that and the barber. They get that 2+2 = really fucked up, can't be normal.

Barber cleaned the other guy's face right off with the shotgun, and he just turned around with that blank stare. I think barber figured out right then and there that shit ain't right, better kill 'em good. Dead or not, you have to make a realization that they are beyond saving when it gets to a point like that. You can't just undo something like that.

OK. I don't really dispute the idea that some people are starting to figure out that there's something 'unusual' about what's happening but to a) reach the conclusion that they're dead and b) have everyone act like, sure that's a logical conclusion, doesn't make sense. In this particular universe, no one knows what a zombie is. So sure, it makes sense to us as the audience, but it doesn't fit with the script. It feels like some ham-fisted foreshadowing. IOW, next episode is going to be some govt type explaining that the walkers are really reanimated corpses.

 

[destrekor]

OK. I don't really dispute the idea that some people are starting to figure out that there's something 'unusual' about what's happening but to a) reach the conclusion that they're dead and b) have everyone act like, sure that's a logical conclusion, doesn't make sense. In this particular universe, no one knows what a zombie is. So sure, it makes sense to us as the audience, but it doesn't fit with the script. It feels like some ham-fisted foreshadowing. IOW, next episode is going to be some govt type explaining that the walkers are really reanimated corpses.

Regarding your last sentence: probably.

However, again, I think it makes perfect sense for the junkie (the one who said it) to truly believe they are dead. Again, he killed someone. And then he tried to re-kill him a couple times without much effect, and no show of pain or non-coagulated blood.

Notice nobody else really believes him. The daughter goes into hysterics about her boyfriend not being like "her" (the zombie neighbor they are staring at), the dad is rather confused and annoyed the junkie son would make such a statement, and the mom seems nonplussed. The mom, remember, has seen one killed and isn't really sure if they are dead and beyond help, just beyond help, or what, but she is close to believing her son.

Especially all this after witnessing the neighbor eat their dog and have his head blown off (halfway, then fully).

Did the daughter witness the neighbor's loss of head? I can't remember. I do think you are absolutely right that, if she did not witness that, then her reaction is out of character for having so little knowledge thanks to everyone around her choosing to not keep her abreast of the situation as they see it.

The dad's liberal stance is one thing, but he lack of cognition is rather confusing considering he too has witnessed the dealer being killed, but I think he is more confused because he may not believe his junkie son that he was already dead and then just moved away and attacked them in the tunnel.

 

[Charmonium]

I'm sure that everyone involved in those scenes believed that people were dead - until they weren't. But at this point, it's still a leap to going from 'gee I could have sworn that guy was dead but I guess he's not' to 'well it looks like the dead are coming back to life.' In this universe, the second statement should be grounds for committal. That's why I think it's sloppy writing. There has to be some transition to the realization of what these things are and it looks like they're trying to take advantage of audience knowledge to give themselves a shortcut.

 

[Kaido]

I'm sure that everyone involved in those scenes believed that people were dead - until they weren't. But at this point, it's still a leap to going from 'gee I could have sworn that guy was dead but I guess he's not' to 'well it looks like the dead are coming back to life.' In this universe, the second statement should be grounds for committal. That's why I think it's sloppy writing. There has to be some transition to the realization of what these things are and it looks like they're trying to take advantage of audience knowledge to give themselves a shortcut.

You know, after thinking about the dad's statement to the wife before she hammered her neighbor in the face, what he said makes sense (in terms of not killing her because she might recover). They don't know what zombies are. For all they know, it's like bath salts - turns people loco & then they get over it, so they really do have no idea whether or not people are dead-dead. In the words of the Princess Bride, there's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead :biggrin:

 

[Kaido]

The thing that really struck me as being a complete non sequitur was when the junkie kid observed that the neighbor isn't sick but dead. Did this come to him in some smack inspired vision?

Remember back to the opening of the first episode...he saw the dead guy in the hallway at the church & then his girlfriend tried to bite him. Then he killed the drug dealer like, three times. He knows they are dead because he's had first-hand experience twice.

 

[destrekor]

Remember back to the opening of the first episode...he saw the dead guy in the hallway at the church & then his girlfriend tried to bite him. Then he killed the drug dealer like, three times. He knows they are dead because he's had first-hand experience twice.

This. He is the only one who has had the first-hand experience to come to the conclusion that these people are dead.

In this universe, it may not be the leap to "the dead are coming back to life", because there is a fine line there and I think they are firmly toeing it with this character. Instead, he has simply processed, after witnessing everything, that these people are in fact dead. He does not know why this is the case, but he has no other conclusion to reach. They are dead, it doesn't make sense, but he knows they are dead. It can't be any other way to him, and he just now makes that conclusion after seeing everything else, with the zombie neighbor losing his head being the final push. Honestly, if I were in his position and had zero knowledge of zombies, I'd be confused as all hell, but I'd have to accept the most logical conclusion to what I've seen.

Again, I agree there may be a bit of a fast-track here, and I really have no problem with this... the show is not supposed to be a documentary-style peep with an accurate depiction of our fall thanks to the undead. They want to skip past this initial bit and get to the "public" reveal that society is being taken over by the undead and how the characters then begin to cope with that new reality.

 

[Gunslinger08]

I'm happy with the show, so far. I like that we're getting a view into the months before Rick woke up. If you've read much zombie fiction, the characters reactions are pretty typical for the genre, so far. These characters don't know they're in a zombie story like we do. They are still attached to civil society and think that this will probably blow over in a little while. Give it a few days to a few weeks, in the show timeline, and they'll all understand that it's the end of the world as we know it.

Relying on the military/FEMA is a pretty standard genre plot line, as well. In typical genre fashion, I expect that they'll end up in a military camp that gets overrun during the final episode of the season. Maybe some bombs will drop on the city. They'll head out on their own with some new faces after losing a few characters to zombies.

I do think it would be fun to have a series about survivalists who are well prepared and understand the zombie plague. There are a lot of books like this and I really enjoy this alternative take.

 

[Fingolfin269]

I don't mind what's happening with this show thus far. I do think some of the reactions are different than how I would likely react. There are things like the truck being there and the door being left open that are just poor plot development. But ultimately I don't see an issue with this crew of people being hesitant to just cave in the skull of people who are/were their neighbors. They don't know what's going on here. For all they know these people are just sick and they're trying to reason with them through whatever sickness is clouding their mind. I doubt they even realize that getting bit means you're going to turn though I do remember hearing someone ask 'were you bit'. Even then that could just be out of concern for a wound in general not in concern of them becoming a zombie.

Anyway, I've been entertained to this point, at least enough to keep watching. We'll see where it goes.

 

[Gunslinger08]

Yeah, I'm not a big fan of the stupid made for TV plot devices so far.
- Truck was entirely untouched.
- Soldiers showed up just in time to shoot the zombie wife.
- Nobody seems to turn on the radio or TV and/or the government isn't communicating at all.

 

[Charmonium]

Relying on the military/FEMA is a pretty standard genre plot line, as well. In typical genre fashion, I expect that they'll end up in a military camp that gets overrun during the final episode of the season. Maybe some bombs will drop on the city. They'll head out on their own with some new faces after losing a few characters to zombies.

I vaguely remember from season one of twd that there was a scene where they bombed Atlanta. And since the timeline, iirc, is only a couple of weeks, I expect to see that in this show, depending on whether or not they cover the entire two weeks.

I'm assuming that the feds have more information than civil authorities and this is going to be used as a device to flesh out what is actually happening - sort of like when the group from twd went to the CDC. But if that happens, then they're also going to need to explain why this information is being given to nobodies like the cast instead of not being revealed before.

 

[pontifex]

the daughter went back to get more shotgun shells so i don't think she was there when they blew off the neighbor's head.

Also, they showed a shot of an open medication bottle on the table in the neighbor lady's house, I think it was when the daughter went back for the shells. SO are they saying that the neighbor lady committed suicide or that the pills caused her to turn? based on what was said about her by the blonde mom, suicide doesn't make sense. so then was she bit and those pills were taken to try to relieve pain or is the mdication (and drugs from episode 1) the cause? Although then I would expect the son to become a zombie (unless the drugs introduced he zombie virus and maybe his girlfriend ODed and that caused her to turn)?


oh and when the dad took the trashcan out, he saw his other neighbor and just scowled at him or whatever. I guess no one else in the neighborhood heard the gunshot or all the commotion? or maybe they did and just didn't want to get involved.

 

[Jeeebus]

Or perhaps the son emptied the bottle and added to his stash?

 

[destrekor]

the daughter went back to get more shotgun shells so i don't think she was there when they blew off the neighbor's head.

Also, they showed a shot of an open medication bottle on the table in the neighbor lady's house, I think it was when the daughter went back for the shells. SO are they saying that the neighbor lady committed suicide or that the pills caused her to turn? based on what was said about her by the blonde mom, suicide doesn't make sense. so then was she bit and those pills were taken to try to relieve pain or is the mdication (and drugs from episode 1) the cause? Although then I would expect the son to become a zombie (unless the drugs introduced he zombie virus and maybe his girlfriend ODed and that caused her to turn)?


oh and when the dad took the trashcan out, he saw his other neighbor and just scowled at him or whatever. I guess no one else in the neighborhood heard the gunshot or all the commotion? or maybe they did and just didn't want to get involved.

Hmmm, good question. I at first figured it was just her looking, and perhaps thinking about getting anything left for her brother.

But that is a good point, and that makes me think of it as a foreshadowing device. The bottle was shown not only empty, but open and laying on the table. That is almost universally a visual metaphor for suicide by pills. Perhaps she saw things and realized shit was truly hitting the fan and she didn't want to have any part in the new world?
Or perhaps her medication was, like you said, to mask the pain of a bite? (from a previous leftover prescription)
Or... perhaps it is pointing towards medication as a means of spreading the disease. But, I don't like that idea, because it is too inconsistent. You would think it would be illicit drugs from the street, or all prescriptions... yet the son not only took Heroin, he was also hooked up to other drugs in the hospital.
People died and likely became zombies in the hospital (that nurse in the first episode seemed awfully exhausted after a few deaths in the hospital, which shouldn't be that exhausting? Perhaps I'm reading into that wrong), but, not everyone. Likely only people who were simply going to die and now they turn.

Perhaps medication is how it is introduced and they turn when they die, but the daughter's boyfriend didn't appear to have any illnesses. It started out like a flu for him.

I'm thinking that it is airborne, but only some actually progress to a feverish infection. Most others probably harbor it but are otherwise healthy and show no signs, it only becomes a problem when they die.

In TWD, I'm still not sold on whether bites "spread" it (when they already have it), but perhaps it could activate the latent infection? My gut wants to tell me when everyone gets bit or scratched, it isn't doing something for the virus, it's simply making it increasingly likely they die. In a post-healthcare world, a scratch or bite from something as disgusting and riddled with microbial life as a walking dead person, is likely going to lead to systemic infection and sepsis rather quickly.

I'm curious if any of that will ever get spelled out.

 

[Imp]

Agreed. I figured it would be a much slower build up to everything falling apart. The dad is the Lori of this one.

You kidding me? Just by the comments here and some of the review headlines I've seen, people are saying that the current pace is already too slow.

Did the daughter witness the neighbor's loss of head? I can't remember. I do think you are absolutely right that, if she did not witness that, then her reaction is out of character for having so little knowledge thanks to everyone around her choosing to not keep her abreast of the situation as they see it.

Daughter ran back to the house for shells. After barber wasted the neighbor with shotgun, everyone ran out to help daughter because she was stuck on the fence with Susan trying to bite her.

Also, they showed a shot of an open medication bottle on the table in the neighbor lady's house, I think it was when the daughter went back for the shells.

I'm thinking it was the druggie son cleaning the lady's stash out. At the end of the episode, he was trying to break into a neighbor's house, I think. Probably looking for more drugs.

How many doors down was the survivalist neighbor who was sick but bought a lot of water? One or two? I ask because I thought he was right next door. However, Susan was right next door... That probably means the survivalist bit/killed Susan.

 

[dank69]

Thought this show was going to be more about the origins of the infection but in just three episodes it is already close to zombies on parade. It is TWD LA.

Are TWD Miami, New York and 'insert city names here' soon to come?

When I first finished binge watching TWD (during Season 4) I thought to myself that they could make a bunch of spinoff shows like that and people will watch them. I'd watch all of them. The new episodes can't come fast enough for me. I honestly don't even care about the origin.

 

[CZroe]

This. He is the only one who has had the first-hand experience to come to the conclusion that these people are dead.



In this universe, it may not be the leap to "the dead are coming back to life", because there is a fine line there and I think they are firmly toeing it with this character. Instead, he has simply processed, after witnessing everything, that these people are in fact dead. He does not know why this is the case, but he has no other conclusion to reach. They are dead, it doesn't make sense, but he knows they are dead. It can't be any other way to him, and he just now makes that conclusion after seeing everything else, with the zombie neighbor losing his head being the final push. Honestly, if I were in his position and had zero knowledge of zombies, I'd be confused as all hell, but I'd have to accept the most logical conclusion to what I've seen.

You said yourself that it didn't make any sense, but the very definition of "logical" requires it to make sense.

If they are up and moving, they are alive as far as the character is concerned. He didn't check the pulse of the body in the hallway: he made an assumption. He made an assumption about the drug dealer too. The "logical" conclusion would be that he assumed wrong, especially when he was high.

Hmmm, good question. I at first figured it was just her looking, and perhaps thinking about getting anything left for her brother.



But that is a good point, and that makes me think of it as a foreshadowing device. The bottle was shown not only empty, but open and laying on the table. That is almost universally a visual metaphor for suicide by pills. Perhaps she saw things and realized shit was truly hitting the fan and she didn't want to have any part in the new world?

Or perhaps her medication was, like you said, to mask the pain of a bite? (from a previous leftover prescription)

Or... perhaps it is pointing towards medication as a means of spreading the disease. But, I don't like that idea, because it is too inconsistent. You would think it would be illicit drugs from the street, or all prescriptions... yet the son not only took Heroin, he was also hooked up to other drugs in the hospital.

People died and likely became zombies in the hospital (that nurse in the first episode seemed awfully exhausted after a few deaths in the hospital, which shouldn't be that exhausting? Perhaps I'm reading into that wrong), but, not everyone. Likely only people who were simply going to die and now they turn.



Perhaps medication is how it is introduced and they turn when they die, but the daughter's boyfriend didn't appear to have any illnesses. It started out like a flu for him.



I'm thinking that it is airborne, but only some actually progress to a feverish infection. Most others probably harbor it but are otherwise healthy and show no signs, it only becomes a problem when they die.



In TWD, I'm still not sold on whether bites "spread" it (when they already have it), but perhaps it could activate the latent infection? My gut wants to tell me when everyone gets bit or scratched, it isn't doing something for the virus, it's simply making it increasingly likely they die. In a post-healthcare world, a scratch or bite from something as disgusting and riddled with microbial life as a walking dead person, is likely going to lead to systemic infection and sepsis rather quickly.



I'm curious if any of that will ever get spelled out.

I'd like to think that it was an unexpected reaction between two contagions, at least one engineered by man, working together like moss and algae in a lichen. They don't require food but the energy comes from their nervous system (the base of the brain stem that the CDC guy was talking about). I'd like to think that it may not be viral or bacterial, but some sort of quantum contagious effect (Einstein's "Spooky action at a distance"/quantum entanglement) from physics experiments attempting cold fusion (there's your energy source) or a quantum computer (theories already exist that there are quantum effects in how our brains function). That, combined with a virus or bacteria, equals zombie strangeness.