Walking Dead

[Johny Cee]

I'm assuming that a live, healthy person can fight off the zombie juice. A zombie carries a super strenth dose because they're "dead" and their immune system no longer fights off the zombie juice. So a wound from a zombie can overcome the immune system and turn someone while they're still alive. A scratch might be dangerous, but it might not.
It's storybook science, so probably doesn't make sense for a "real" disease, then again, I haven't read the books and have not totally ruled out a truly supernatural nature to the zombieitus yet.

Virus Latency. 

The novel Feed has an interesting take on it:  Everyone is infected with the dormant version of the virus (which is a combination of two retroviruses, one that eliminates the Cold and one that fights cancer),  but nearly any contact with the "live" version of the virus from saliva or blood from the infected activates the dormant virus and causes zombification.  Also, the virus goes active from the stress of the host dying and causes the person to reanimate.

[angry.bob]

The problem is viruses need living cells to reproduce or "live". Once the host dies there's not much difference between the corpse and a stainless steel counter. Of course, viruses have a pretty wide range of lifespans without a host, but they're not going to keep reproducing. Bacteria and other microbes would keep on reproducing though.

Not really the biggest problem with the non-magical zombie genre, but a bite shouldn't be much worse than rubbing fresh roadkill on a wound. By the time the zombie would be really, really foul it's mandible would just fall off if it tried to bite anything from soft tissue decomposition. What would matter more is where a bite or wound is. An ankle or forearm bite wouldn't be as big a deal, but a bite on the neck would be bad even if normal, healthy adult was biting you. 

[Bunk]

Well that was interesting. I've never read any of the books, so I only knew of the Governor from non-spoilery hints. I get the feeling the last scene wasn't exactly the same as the books, possibly they went with a weird deviation a little more suitable for TV?

I'm assuming he'll eventually justify his actions in this episode with some sort of grand vision.


Was nice seeing someone in this world actually taking a scientific approach to these things.

[tazelbain]

Its about male to female ratios like the last act of 28days later.

[Tebonas]

I'm guessing he only wants to take in lone stragglers he can easily integrate into his existing structures under his unchallenged leadership. An organized block of soldiers with more solidarity to each other than to him threatens his power base. Which I guess would be bad news for Ricks little crew if discovered as well.

That or he really really hates military types.

[Cheddar]

Holy.  Shit.

Powerful shit- I am man enough to admit it brought tears to my eyes.

[Surlyboi]

Yeah, infinitely better than last season.

[angry.bob]

That was really great with one caveat:

[Evildrider]

That was really great with one caveat:

[Nevermore]

That was really great with one caveat:

[TheWalrus]

Can't you just be glad shes gone and move on? 

[Tebonas]

It was the only logical choice anyway because

[Bunk]

[TheWalrus]

Definitely pet worthy though!

[Stewie]

[Merusk]

[Evildrider]

[Tannhauser]

Holy crap that was an intense, graphic and enthralling episode! 
Very happy with this season so far. 

[tgr]

Someone once said that they felt the walking dead went a bit too Lost for their tastes. I'm not getting that feeling at all, I'm actually pretty damn satisfied with the show, and I'm hungering for more.

[Evildrider]

Definitely moving faster then last season.  I didn't think things would progress this fast at the prison.

[HaemishM]

Holy shit, they finally remember T-Dog exists!


Really powerful episode, especially with the Lori/baby thing and Rick's reaction was just incredible acting. I'm also surprised at how quickly the prison has deteriorated. I expected them to have a little more time there to explore their feelings.

The Governator is starting to bug me though. He's obviously an Englishman trying to cop an American accent and it hurts his acting a bit in places. Plus, the whole Andrea is a fucking idiot with the screaming thigh sweats for the Governator is annoying too.

[Xanthippe]

Andrea has often annoyed me.  She goes from ditz to badass back to ditz.

[Evildrider]

Andrea has often annoyed me.  She goes from ditz to badass back to ditz.

Yeah I don't understand what her deal is on the show.  They took what's cool about her in the comics and added an idiot factor.

[apocrypha]

I know it makes no sense (but little does in this show) but I was really hoping for zombie baby clawing it's way out.

Andrea strikes me as someone trying to reinvent herself constantly, but not being sure who exactly it is she wants to be. She's so wrapped up in herself that it makes her unable to analyse what other people are really like. She's also very contradictory - her animosity towards Dale was driven by his attraction to her, but her need to feel attractive again is putting her in a stupid position with Merle and the Governor. Maybe she's just badly written....

Powerful stuff though, very glad they've upped the game significantly from last season.

[MrHat]

Oh wow.

That was amazing.  The acting in that last scene was just incredible.

Jesus.  Looking forward to seeing where else they take this.

[pants]

Season 2: Watch it or skip and go straight to Season 3?

I really liked season 1 a little while back, and I started watching season 2, but its not really grabbing me, and teh intardnet tells me that overall its not very strong.  I'd been thinking about giving up on Walking Dead overall, but I'm hearing lots of good stuff about Season 3.

So, should I stick with season 2, or just skip it and jump straight into season 3.  Thoughts?

[Selby]

Season 2: Watch it or skip and go straight to Season 3?

Marathon it if you have the time like I did.  It really wasn't as annoying as people made it out to be when you aren't waiting a week to see if nothing happens again.  Or go for the first 3-4 episodes and then the last 3 will get you pretty much caught up to where things begin with season 3 while skipping a bit of less than exciting episodes where nothing really progresses outside of 5-10 minutes.

[Evildrider]

Even though season 2 is a little slow, I would just watch it all and not skip episodes.

[Cheddar]

There are a couple epic moments in Season 2 you will want to catch.

[pants]

Thanks all, thats a pretty clear endorsement.  I'll keep going.

[Tale]

Season 2: Watch it or skip and go straight to Season 3?

I've just watched season 1 (excellent, loved it) and season 2 (a repetitive grind) and the first 3 episodes of season 3 (patchy so far, but better than season 2).

Season 2 is just "post-apocalyptic life on a farm". It's boring, with twice as many episodes as were needed. If I hadn't been sick and unable to do anything else, I wouldn't have got through it. But watching season 3 without knowing what happened in the 943 episodes of season 2 wouldn't make any sense. So if you want to stick with this series because zombies, suck it up and good luck.

I caught up on Homeland during the same flu, and it's far better even though it's more cerebral.

There are a couple epic moments in Season 2 you will want to catch.

I don't think I can remember any. Was it the time Shane tightened the bolts on the windmill? Or the omelette in episode 6?

[Cheddar]

Season 2: Watch it or skip and go straight to Season 3?

I've just watched season 1 (excellent, loved it) and season 2 (a repetitive grind) and the first 3 episodes of season 3 (patchy so far, but better than season 2).

Season 2 is just "post-apocalyptic life on a farm". It's boring, with twice as many episodes as were needed. If I hadn't been sick and unable to do anything else, I wouldn't have got through it. But watching season 3 without knowing what happened in the 943 episodes of season 2 wouldn't make any sense. So if you want to stick with this series because zombies, suck it up and good luck.

I caught up on Homeland during the same flu, and it's far better even though it's more cerebral.

There are a couple epic moments in Season 2 you will want to catch.

I don't think I can remember any. Was it the time Shane tightened the bolts on the windmill? Or the omelette in episode 6?

1. Shane gets killed.  Twice.  Kinda big deal, my bad you are trolling
2. Father/son scene where gun is passed down
3. Dale?

Just 3 such events. My bad that the pacing and/or realism isn't "Revolution."

[Nevermore]

That scene in the bar where Rick/Glenn/Hershel encounter the other scavengers is the first one that comes to mind for me.

[Evildrider]

Sophia coming out of the barn.

[Tale]

Spoiler tags anyone?