Does This Look Infected to You?
The Walking Dead is nearing the end of its eighth season, and it finally got to a game changing comic book plot-line, albeit with the usual story and character arc alterations. This involves a huge rule change that is definitely thrilling for viewers, as it takes the series into a new stage of post-apocalyptic warfare. However, it may not hold up under the scrutiny of observant fans of the show, or a re-watch of the series.
Essentially, The Walking Dead has gone one step further than the premise that everyone is infected.
As revealed way back in season 2, in this world, dying means you turn. This is assuming your brain is intact. A walker bite means you get a fever, die, and then come back. Taking it a step further, Negan’s army is now coating their weapons in Walker guts and blood for use as a biological warfare. Having coated their arrows, blades and bullets in the stuff, anyone they simply injure or graze will develop a fever within a day and turn.
This sounds good on paper, but eight seasons in we have seen tons of stuff that outright contradicts this from happening. Over eight seasons we have seen countless people get injured by weapons that had already slashed Walkers and touched their blood. Rick alone should have lived a dozen lives as a Walker by now!
Come to think of it, how often does a character clean and disinfect any of their weapons on this show? The correct answer is probably never. Remember back at the prison when Rick amputated Hershel’s bitten leg so he wouldn’t turn? Pretty sure his hardware was infected.
There’s also the matter of folks coating themselves with Walker blood to be invisible to the dead. This never felt completely right, and now there’s the question of what would happen if it got in an existing wound, or your eyes or mouth. Come to think of it, there is zero chance Walker blood hasn’t sprayed into someone’s mouth on this show. Would that make you sick?
Does anyone have any Purell? Maybe a Lysol wipe?
So the premise is that everyone is infected, but can get infected even more and turn. This means that like radiation poisoning, there is a point when much is too much.
Speaking of which, The Terminus cannibals ate so many people, shouldn’t they have reached their viral limit? Especially so after they ate Bob’s infected leg, though one could argue that they cooked their food. They are cannibals, not animals, after all.
If a fan is up for it, it would be very interesting to go back and make a video showcasing all the times someone should have turned from all these instances, especially plague weapons. It would be ridiculous.
That all said, assuming one can keep their suspension of disbelief, Plague weapons makes this already deadly world that much deadlier and ups the ante. It’ll be interesting to see where this goes, and if it relates to the apparent flash forward of red eyed rick with a side wound and knife through his hand.
What do you think? To plague or not to plague?
5:20;
