The Walking Dead Season 2 Discussion *Spoilers*

[Temis the Vorta]

The hospital scene where Shane described not hearing Rick's heartbeat is the key. The producers went to a lot of trouble to calibrate the gunfire so it wasn't loud enough to cast doubt on Shane's story.

If they wanted us to believe "Shane is lying" or "Shane is deluding himself," it would have been easy just to increase the decibel level of the gunshots in the distance. Or, they could have simply not included a flashback to that scene at all, and let us wonder. Our minds would naturally wander to "Shane's got a motive to lie."

The way they chose to go with that scene tells me that they want us to infer that there really wasn't a heartbeat for Shane to hear. Whether that means Rick was dead or just in some kind of near-death zombie-coma, I dunno. But that scene will turn out to be very significant.

[sojourner]

You guys are on crack. I'm going with "everyone has the virus".

[Mr. Adventure]

Just saw "Rick" on Letterman, didn't realize he wasn't American, just how many are on the air now? I blame House.

[RJDiogenes]

Scout101 wrote:

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Got a lot of daddy's blood, and then everything seems to be just fine.

I forgot about the transfusion. It could be either that or the genetics. Or both, I suppose.

[Silent_Bob]

The whole Rick is a zombie sort of, doesnt really fit with the character though. He's always struck me as someone who'd do anything to protect his family and others. It seems more likely to me that if he'd been told by Captain CDC that he had the zombie bug, he would have either stayed in there to be incinerated, or headed as far away as possible from the group. And i doubt he would have risked infecting Carl through blood transfusions.

Mr. Adventure wrote:

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Just saw "Rick" on Letterman, didn't realize he wasn't American, just how many are on the air now? I blame House.

We're everywhere. Your neighbour, two doors down? He's not an American, he's british. Your Doctor, Hank McApplepie? Replaced years ago by Rowan Atkinson.

It's all part of our secret plan to retake the colonies.

[wissaboo]

The concept that some or all of them are infected with zombie virus that gives them some special advantages goes against the idea that none of them are safe and anyone can die at any time.

[Sindatur]

My initial instinct would be that it's simply, that everyone has the Zombie bug already, and no matter how you die, you'll become a Zombie, wether bitten, gun shot, natural causes etc, since that is common in Zombie lore these days.

problem is, by Rick not sharing this, he could put others at risk, for example Lori cuddling Carl as he's dying from the gunshot wound, if he had died in her arms, he could've turned and bit her. Would he withold that information? Is it OK for him to withold that information, since people don't turn immediately upon death in this show's Universe? Or does this rule out this possibility?

[sojourner]

^Oh they're all infected. But the only advantage it gives is that their corpse will be self motivated.

[Witterquick]

So when you get bitten, it's like a double dose of Zombie bug which eats your brain. Otherwise you're good. Like Rick who is actually a Zombie.

[sojourner]

Witterquick wrote:

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Like Rick who is actually a Zombie.

huh?

[RJDiogenes]

Silent_Bob wrote:

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And i doubt he would have risked infecting Carl through blood transfusions.

That's a good point.

[Temis the Vorta]

The whole Rick is a zombie sort of, doesnt really fit with the character though.

He's not necessarily thinking like a zombie. I think this is some wacky medical thing that's yet to be explained, but will clarify a lot about what's been going on.

If it's not related to the virus doing something weird to Rick, then what could the whisper-mystery be?

My initial instinct would be that it's simply, that everyone has the Zombie bug already, and no matter how you die, you'll become a Zombie, wether bitten, gun shot, natural causes etc, since that is common in Zombie lore these days.

problem is, by Rick not sharing this, he could put others at risk, for example Lori cuddling Carl as he's dying from the gunshot wound, if he had died in her arms, he could've turned and bit her. Would he withold that information? Is it OK for him to withold that information, since people don't turn immediately upon death in this show's Universe? Or does this rule out this possibility?

I don't think that could be the answer, just because it's not actually shocking enough. It sort of makes sense that everyone would become a zombie now if they die, and is it really that big a deal?

If someone were to die from anything other than a zombie bite, you just need to make sure to shoot them thru the head before they revive. People would get used to this pretty quickly, after all, the person is already dead.

And Rick certainly would not withhold the information. It's plausible that it's true, and dangerous enough that everyone needs to know about it.

Whatever it was, it was so shocking and crazy that he doesn't even believe it. He thinks the guy was lying to him because he was sort of malicious, wasn't he? Rick having died and revived, yet not zombified, qualifies as that sort of thing.

It seems more likely to me that if he'd been told by Captain CDC that he had the zombie bug, he would have either stayed in there to be incinerated, or headed as far away as possible from the group. And i doubt he would have risked infecting Carl through blood transfusions.

If he doesn't believe it - and it seems pretty unbelievable even in context with everything - then he'd behave exactly as he has. He had to give Carl infusions to save his life, so if that had killed him, well, Carl was going to die anyway.

[sojourner]

^That everyone has the virus.

[sidious618]

We've seen a lot of dead bodies just lying around for a long time so I'm not sure how everyone could have the virus.

[Dorian Thompson]

All the nice Latino lads and nurses who stayed behind in Atlanta to look after the elderly people at that nursing home/hospital are in for a nasty surprise. They'd figure it out pretty quickly, though. Good thing Rick let them have the guns after all. Very prescient of him.