5.16: The Walking Dead - Conquer

[Dave]

I have a question that bugs me quite a bit. Why didn't Rick get sick when he capped that zombie and got splashed with all that goo on his face and in his mouth? It cannot be doing good to him, especially when he has open wounds on his face.

Maybe the zombie blood doesn't contain the active infection. Characters who have painted their bodies with blood and assorted walker parts to camouflage themselves suffered no ill effects. Being bitten, though, seems to be a fatal event. Is zombie saliva the bodily fluid to be avoided?

I think the messed up the whole medical science behind how the zombie disease works so I wouldn't worry too much about it. Just suspend disbelief about that aspect. When they went to the CDC at the end of Season One, Rick was told the shocking reveal by Dr Jenner that everyone has the infection already. Which means it doesn't matter whether a zombie bites you are not, when you die you become zombie. That's why Lori had to be shot after the birth of Judith. Kirkman has since said that he wishes that never happened but that they didn't expect to get more than one or two seasons. Then you also have Hershel who walked around without one leg for a year. They amputated to stop the infection spreading from a bite, but if you don't die from a bite, why does it matter any more than hacking your leg off?

 

[ctg]

I think the messed up the whole medical science behind how the zombie disease works so I wouldn't worry too much about it. Just suspend disbelief about that aspect.

I'm not giving up because they touched this subject in the prison when whole lot got sick. And the consequences to certain actions are very real in The Walking Dead. You just don't walk away from them, and I think that they unintentionally draw themselves in the corner because it's not only one or two people who are having these thoughts.

Fact is, Rick drove that pistol into biters skull without caring if he would get cut, and then he fired the round that caused zombie to burp out loads of infected mass. You look CDC animation and you'll see the virus concentrating in the brain to activate the dead after it has died. In the other words you'll see a mass that any doctor or an epidemiologist would avoid to touch with bare skin.

Another fact is that the muzzle flash isn't hot or fast enough to kill the virus. It just wouldn't.

So you'll see Rick in his crazy moment doing a mental thing, and pulling the trigger. With all wounds on his face, and especially having his mouth open like that should giving an opening to whatever pathogen is lurking in that mass. And taking in the fact, that pathogen doesn't even have to be the virus which causes the necromorphosis, and inevitable zombification as a result for everyone being a carrier. Therefore, he should get seriously sick unless he has amazing immunity system.

But...

I'll admit that we might have to suspend our disbelief for sake of the special effect.

 

[REBerg]

It would seem that even the producers of The Walking Dead are taking troubling liberties with traditional zombie mythology.

Fortunately for TWD survivors, zombies conform to the George Romero standard – slow to transform, shambling and too dumb to back off a sharpened stake after they have impaled themselves. If they were facing the living dead denizens of World War Z – almost instantly converted, speedy and and viciously tenacious, Humanity wold have been wiped out in the first moments of the apocalypse.

The most “realistic” pseudo-scientific treatment of zombies I have ever encountered is in the “Newsflesh” trilogy (Feed, Deadline and Blackout) written by Mira Grant – entertaining reads which could double as official guidelines for all who dabble in the world of Zombism.

 

[Culhwch]

I did think that also, until this week and we discover there is only the two of them! I had also expected the finale to be a huge battle between Alexandria and the Wolves, but two guys should be easy to deal with.

I get the feeling there are more than just those two - I thought the one guy at the start was taling about others, or at least was saying that he had to take Morgan back, which i assumed meant to his group. It'll be odd if it is just the two of them...

 

[Judderman]

Very good episode and not what I expected. I thought the Wolves would be at Alexandria causing or about to cause carnage. But we can enjoy the crew spending some more time in the town next series. The Wolves being just two would be very disappointing, but as Culhwch mentions a couple of comments suggest they aren't the only ones. I would be surprised about all those Graffiti'd comments on the Wolves if there was just two of them too. And that girl being to do with the Wolves makes sense too. Otherwise you would think Rick and co would be able to make the place reasonably secure, especially IF Morgan is added to the reliable Rick supporters.

Maybe Glenn will later regret letting that guy live. Again.