They ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more.

This episode had enough movement to make up for some of the static cling the narrative seemed to suffer from in this season. The infection raises some interesting possibilities:

IF they’re all carriers, THEN
A.) Does the infection require a trigger other than death to start something happening, kind of like the Epstein-Barr virus can trigger multiple sclerosis, and

B.) If triggered, does it manifest in nutty behavior that could be taken as a sign of bad moon rising?

If A is the case, then the group is not necessarily a risk to each other. They might want to keep an eye on possible triggers — where there is a discernible change in behavior.

If B is the case, then Shane’s trajectory makes more sense, and maybe even Hershel’s hitting
the bottle should be signs of worry. Lori becoming Lady Sybil MacBeth also makes a little more sense. That said, the oncoming
Ricktatorship might be of concern as well — we’ll have to see. For all we know, since the CDC doc was loony toons, maybe he didn’t have the faculties to explain any necessary details to Rick (which is most likely why Rick kept it to himself).

The problem with the infection is that it’s a closed door as for rebuilding a life. As soon as one of them dies and it isn’t from a walker, then they know they’re all at risk again. It puts a whole new spin on end of life initiatives.

But if the infection is latent and needs to be triggered — and once triggered, behavioral changes ensues — then you get a new spin on John W. Campbell’s “Who Goes There,” which John Carpenter based the 1982 version of “The Thing” on. You get rabid Manchurian candidates with latent zombie tendencies. You get tension and inherent drama over who can be trusted within the group, as well as who they can trust from outside the group. Plus there’s the possibility of a subplot on how to detect and get rid of the infection within the living.

Don’t muck this up, Kirkman.

The deus ex machina in this episode wasn’t as egregious, but it was a little hard to believe that Daryl would ride up at the same time that Glenn and T-Dog would arrive, almost as if it were coordinated. You could hear a little echo of “we gotta fit the episode in 44 minutes.” Had they pulled the trigger on some of the latter drama earlier, not only would fans of the show be less irritated, but they could have had the more realistic moment where they had to search for T-Dog, or Daryl and Carol get knocked off Daryl’s bike, and they spend the night staying alive until Glenn finds them in the morning.

As for showing the prison, I see why you ask who that shot was for. But look at the way it’s shown; you don’t have to have read the comics to look at a slow, panning shot on the heels of an intensely dramatic moment, and know the juxtaposition carries over to the next image. Hence the shift from crazed Rick to the prison means “this place won’t be good.” I think that shot composition does enough to convey what the comic-savvy audience member already anticipates.

(This is a cool rhetorical trick called an enthymeme; it means to put two different things next to each other without making any overt connection with the hope that the link will be made in the minds of the audience. It usually works on an emotional level, it’s how clever comics are made, and politicians do it all the time.)

We don’t really know what that helicopter was for, but going off that enthymeme idea, it almost seemed as if they were suggesting the copter is what drove the herd.

The image of Michonne keeping those armless, jawless walkers on chains was unnerving. Partly it was the lack of arms and jaws. But there was just something unsettling about seeing them in chains like that. Maybe because they were black, and i the deep South, African Americans in chains carries all kinds of other baggage. Yet it’s a black person holding those chains… and a woman at that. At any rate, it was a powerful image.

One last thing: What about the logo on Carl’s shirt? I know it’s probably for some local tee-ball team or something, but the logo looks a heck of a lot like the logo for the private military company that Lost mercenary Martin Keamy worked for — which looked a lot like the logo for the notorious PMC Blackwater that caused all kinds of havoc in Iraq. See the pic and tell me where that shirt comes from. If it isn’t something common to people in that region of Georgia, ya gotta wonder if that’s not some kind of easter egg — maybe for some group that knows more about the infection than we do.

 I really like this episode. The only thing that really seemed out of place was the introduction of this Michonne character. I understand she is a fan favorite from the books, but I’ve never read ’em.

To me, it’s just a typical Walking Dead action sequence. All alone in some Texan woods, running for their life, hoard of zombies, out of ammo. SUDDENLY: katana wielding stranger clad in black cape-n-cowl, with her two armless zombie gimps. Who the hell is this anime character, and what the hell is she doing in my deep-south zombie survival drama?

Don’t misunderstand. I am intrigued about this character, and want to know more. It just seems like it’s a bit of a drastic shift away from the realm of possibility, and that’s something that allot of TV audiences aren’t in to.

Science Dog — thanks for that, it was bugging me.

As for the question, I’ll try to clarify.

First, I’m not yet convinced that everyone is a carrier (but could easily be convinced). I’m not yet convinced because we’ve only seen two instances of that, and both Randall and Shane were acting erratically and with potential violence. We know they were both carriers, so does the zombie virus make the carrier act erratically?

But if they’re all carriers, the question of if the virus leads to erratic behavior still stands because we have evidence of a few characters acting erratically (Lori, Herschel), but not all of them. So maybe the virus needs to be triggered by something; the active virus results in crazy behavior when the victim is alive, and zombification when the victim bites it.

If the virus needs to be triggered — and a triggered virus in a living carrier results in erratic behavior — then you get some great possibilities for ready-made tension and drama. That’s the possibility that reminds me of The Thing.