ZOMBIES: Recap - #TheWalkingDead Late 'Wild Speculation', Notes for 'Isolation'

DEATH WATCHES, ESCALATION OF TENSION IN LATEST EPISODE
by
Bowie V. Ibarra

'The Walking Dead' returns with another dark episode that just gets darker.  It seems this season they're balancing the action with a crueler theme at this point.  But before we get to the notes/recap, let's see how some of the 'wild speculation' played out

JACKIE DRUGA, author of 'The Flu' series from Permuted Press

First just let me get my typical gripe out of the way. I hate the fact that they wrote all the Woodbury residents into the series, and now they have found a way to write them off. Gotta love that the immune are original cast. Hmmm. Maybe that has something to do with the illness.

My prediction is the illness is not what you think. I think Kirkman and writers got a hold of my book Flu 2 and stole the idea of taking a germ from a BSL lab. The Gov did that. It’s all him.

Carol is doing the killing. She and that little girl are doing the deeds.

ARMY ED, Special Weapons and Tactics Advisor to ZombieBloodFights.com

I think Carol will turn out to be the one responsible for the rats and burning the bodies.

R THOMAS RILEY, author of If God Doesn't Show from Permuted Press

1) there will be more minor character deaths due to the "superflu", characters who we barely know their names, a major character will get sick, my prediction is either Rick (though he'll recover) or Daryl.

2) supply run, yep, and then the supply run will experience a setback, separating the two groups for an episode or 2.

3) a new group will (at least should) be introduced, Rick and company are going be faced with some tough decisions, possibly expelling the sick ones to protect the core group, of course this will be met with resistance and Rick's position will be in jeopardy as group leader.

So how did they do?  Looks like both Jackie and Army Ed scored with the prediction that CAROL WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR EXECUTING THE FIRST TWO SICK FOLKS by burning them.  Well done Army Ed and Jackie.  That confession by Carol to Rick was pretty cold.  Not to mention the fact that she was asked by Tyrese to watch after Sasha while he was away.  Now we'll have to see how the possible revelation to Tyrese plays out.  And we get to see if Carol executes Sasha, too.

That's an issue, though, because Tyrese made the SUPPLY RUN that EXPERIENCED A MAJOR SETBACK (way to go, R Thomas) when the team that was sent 50 miles out to get antibiotics was jumped by the proverbial zombie mob and their Dodge Charger was disabled.

Here's some notes and observations from this episode:

DODGE MOTORCARS THROWING MORE MONEY AT THE WALKING DEAD

So, looks like the character Zach happened to have a stylish black Dodge Charger that Daryl had the ability to fix for the supply run.  We've already seen our hardy survivors use Dodge Rams.  Dodge trying to get that Hyundai Santa Fe/Death Dealer promo dollars.

MORE KILLING KIDS

Eesh.  The harsh truth of the Zombie Apocalypse has been a part of this series from the first five minutes of the series:  Kids are going to die, too.  Remember when Rick's first action was shooting a little girl who had turned into a zombie in the face?  Remember when they spent an entire half of season two looking for a kid?  Remember when The Governor kept his dead daughter, Penny, around after turning and Michone put a sword through her head in front of her father?  Here we go again with one of the kids Carol tried to train coming down with the virus that killed her dad.

DID CAROL TAINT THE WELL?

So, the weirdest moment was when Carol knocked over the water barrel.  What was that about?  There was still a lot of water in there.  If she wanted more water, couldn't she have tilted the barrel to get to it from the spout.  Could she have tainted the well with zombie blood and spilled it out of guilt?

JACKIE DRUGA chimes back in with WILD SPECULATION for next week's show: 

My prediction for next week, Rock finds out Carol is not alone. Hershel saves people but gets sick in the process and we find out that Michonne was actually a stay at home mom of a little boy who was snatched from the crib by walkers.

Will the squad sent out for antibiotics make it back on time?  Did Tyrese get bit or get all that gore in his mouth and get infected?  Looks like we'll have to wait until next week to find out more.

And if you need more zombie horror, check out the 'Down the Road' zombie horror series from Permuted Press.   Down the Road, Down the Road: On the Last Day, and Down the Road: The Fall of Austin.  Pick them up in paperback or Kindle today.

 

 

 

BOWIE V. IBARRA earned his BFA in Acting and MA in Theatre History from Texas State University.  Network with Bowie at his official website, ZombieBloodFights.com today.

ZOMBIES: #TheWalkingDead recap 'Welcome to the Tombs'

by Bowie Ibarra

What an asshole

Well, we were all calling for it.  And we got it.  One of the main characters from the show didn't make it out alive.  Neither did a bunch of random people.

Anyway, lets get to the big finish of 'The Walking Dead - Welcome to the Tombs' Season 3 finale.

ANDREA'S TORTURE CHAMBER UPDATE

Governor is ready to kill Andrea, but he's not going to do it himself.  No.  He won't sully his hands in Andrea's blood.  He'll let Milton do it.  But Milton refuses, so the Governor stabs him in the belly to let him bleed to death.  Then, when he turns, he'll kill Andrea.

What the Governor doesn't know, however, is that Milton left a pair of pliers for Andrea to use to twist off the chains on the cuff.  He encourages her to do it as fast as possible.

Naturally, Andrea drags her feet on the whole situation.

THE BATTLE OF THE PRISON

Tyrese and Sascha refuse to go on the mission to Woodbury and are greeted with bitter scowling and a weapon from the Governor.

The Governor has put a gun in the hand of all thirty of Woodbury's citizenry, and they go on the assault, trashing the front gate, the tower, and busting in unopposed.

As the ragtag band of citizens move on the prison, they notice the door is wide open.  In fact, the entire prison is unlocked.

Like the maniac he is, he still refuses to go back out and moves deeper into the catacombs.  In a dark hallway, Rick and Daryl launch a smoke-bomb/flash-bang attack, freaking the citizens of Woodbury the fuck out.  They bugger off and right out of the prison in fear, much to the Governor's dismay.

As they all run off with their tails between their legs, they are shot at as they exit the building and get in their vehicles and run off.  So much for the Governor's plans of vengeance.

As the Governor tries to get the people to regroup, the entire citizenry refuses to go back on the attack.  So the governor mows them down.  All of them.  He even pops them in the head as they lay on the ground.  One citizen hid under a body, an classic genocidal survival tactic, and gets off because the Governor ran out of bullets.

The Governor drives off into the wasteland with his two trusted death squad members.

PRISON FALLOUT

So, this kid scrambled in fear into the woods where Carl, Hershcel, and Michone were hiding.  Carl pulls a gun on the kid and tells him to drop his weapon.  The kid hesitates to put his gun down, and Carl makes the executive decision to put down the non-compliant kid.

When Carl gets back, Herschel tells Rick the news.  When Rick tries to get the details about what went down, Carl puts his dad in check by saying he did what he had to do.  Carl had seen too much death in the past as a result of not acting in the moment to neutralize a dangerous element, and he tells his dad just that before running him off like some kind of underling.

And in a symbolic moment, his dad's badge falls off his shirt, thus becoming something completely different than the image of his father.

ANDREA

Rick, Daryl, and Michone go on a guerilla mission against Woodbury, but soon find the massacre of the people of Woodbury.  They also find the woman who was saved.

They make her help them get into Woodbury to find Andrea.  The woman signals to Tyrese to let them in and they do.

When they discover the place Andrea was in, they discover she had been bit before she had a chance to put Milton down.  Her decision not to act only days before not to kill the Governor when she had the chance has now been cashed out with her life.

Suddenly, Carl's philosophy makes the most sense in the zombie apocalypse.

They take her body to bury back at the prison.  They also take the women and children who did not go on the attack of Woodbury.

More mouths to feed as we go into the next season.

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ZombieBloodFights.com would like to take a moment and thank the following people for their participation in this season's 'Walking Dead' Blog entries.

Thanks to:
Army Ed
Thomas, the VW Tech Guy
Jackie Druga
R Thomas Riley
Gareth Wood
DL Snell
Micheal Gardner

You guys are the best.  Thank you.

Please, if you enjoyed this blog, look them up on Amazon.com.

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Need more 'Walking Dead' Season 3 recap and review?  Check out my buddy Jason Thorson recap over at Ravenous Monster here.

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BOWIE V. IBARRA is the author of the 'Down the Road' zombie horror series from Permuted Press and Simon and Schuster.  His latest book, 'The Cruel Fate of Dr. Brewster' McGill' is a weird western tale of snake oil, Aztec Magic, and the dead rising from the grave to attack the living.  It is available in Kindle and paperback from Amazon.com.

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You can network with Bowie and read about his Tex-Mexploitation stories and check out his book trailers at his personal website, ZombieBloodFights.com.

ZOMBIES: 'Arrow on the Doorpost' Wild Speculation, Walking Dead

by Bowie Ibarra

The follow-up to 'The Walking Dead-Clear' episode should be interesting.  Here are some thoughts from some noted Zombie Enthusiasts.

R THOMAS RILEY, author of the Permuted Press title 'If God Doesn't Show'

First off, I have a really healthy love/hate relationship with The Walking Dead. Some episodes all I want to do is reach through the screen and slap a stupid character, other times, I'm simply in love with said same character. Much of this has to do with the various writers of the show. The writers have done some really stupid stuff over the past three seasons, then again, the writers have managed to pull off some of the best stuff I've ever seen in a TV show. Basically, I long for the show to somehow find consistency. One can hope, right? Still, in the end, I'll still be hooked on this show, warts and all, and most episodes it is the best show on TV.

For this week's episode, Arrow on the Doorpost -

1) I predict Andrea is going to play a pretty significant part in setting up The Governor and Rick's meeting, and , and she'll pay dearly for it, caught in the middle and torn between her feelings for both The Governor and Rick, if not in this episode, certainly by the end of the season. I don't feel her chances of surviving past the finale are very high, and Michonne will have a hand in Andrea's demise.

2) The Governor is certainly laying a trap for Rick and his crew. I predict during the peace treaty talks, others from Woodbury, on orders from the Governor, will attack the prison, while Rick is distracted.

3) Merle will prove to be a wild card. At this point, he could go either way. Both Rick and The Governor have tried to kill him, so he's really not loyal to either at this point in the series. Merle is smart and a survivor, he'll certainly weigh his options and go with the group that's more likely to survive. I could see Merle taking over Woodbury and becoming the "new" Governor.

4) We're going to lose more characters, it's inevitable. I predict either Maggie or her sister are going to die. It'd really do a number on Glen if it's Maggie, and if it's Maggie's sister, the baby will be in even more danger.

5) This may be the episode where the set for the finale is very much in motion. The prison is no longer safe and it's time to move on. Rick's kicking Tyrone and his group out will come back to bite him. I really feel the hitchhiker from the previous episode is going to play into something as well.

JACKIE DRUGA, author of the Permuted Press title The Flu

Episode 12 gave us very little but character development of Michonne and a nice treat into Morgan.
So my speculation, based on previews and items picked up in the episode clear. They meet up with the governor. But I think Rick goes into the meeting thinking they are gonna talk and while Hershel is outside, he gets kidnapped. Starting the war.

Back at prison, Merle becomes more part of the group and they plot the assassination of the governer.
In Woodbury, Tyrese trains to be a solider there but learns quickly about the governor’s evil ways and hence becomes a spy. I think Tyrese sees Herschel.

Michonne really came out of her ‘anti’ shell and I liked what we saw. I don’t know if it’s me but I felt a connection between her and Rick. If anyone is gonna bring him out of his padded cell world, it’s her.

I’m gonna lean toward thinking there was something in the orange backpack they picked up. The writers can’t be so daft to think that we, the viewers would buy a man, who had survived a year in a Zombie Apocalypse, would scream and run down the road. He knows better. You gonna tell me he survived all that time to die being stupid. No. So I’m hopeful that the twit factor didn’t play into the writers and the running survivor means something other than a bad way to show Rick lost all humanity and how much he has changed.

ARMY ED, Special Weapons and Strategy Advisor to ZBF.com

There's got to be a showdown between Rick and the Governor.

Both sides feel each other out.  Prison needs to upgrade security.

Woodbury shouldn't storm the prison, but he's probably going to because of his hubris.  If they have 35 some-odd people at Woodbury, and 20 folks go on this offensive, what happens?  Some of them are going to die, many will be wounded.  Not only will they have to deal with the defenses and the prison itself, but the zombies outside.  As people start dying and getting wounded, the wounded start expending resources.

And even if they made it into the prison, they don't know where they're going, they're still dealing with zeds, and all the people in the prison have to do is lock the cell blocks and hold their positions.

And the Governor would have to maintain morale, which is hanging by a thread a the moment.  If the Governor were leaving people out on the battlefield without help, attitudes would definitely change toward the Governor's regime.  It would change the attitude of Tyrese, too, who might be the deciding factor in the assault.

If the Governor is going on the offensive, he'd be better off doing some sort of stealth attack with his death squad, infiltrating under the cover of darkness.

And Morgan's story about putting down his zombie wife and how she infected his son is finally setting up Zombie Lori.  Zombie Lori will have Carl in a vulnerable position, Carl won't be able to act, and Rick will put her down.  Rick learned from Morgan's story.

KAS ALLEY CASSEROLE, Zombie Horror enthusiast

I speculate that...
A. Rick makes some sort of deal with the governor that will put the group at odds and make everyone further question his judgement.

B. He and Michonne will plan a prison courtyard picnic with their dead loved ones.

C. The governor will find an abandoned Best Buy and suddenly will be as populated with iPad 3s as Atlanta is with 2013 cars in "2010".
;)

Suddenly Woodbury will be as populated with iPads.

 

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If you need a little more zombie horror in your life, I hope you will consider checking out my zombie horror series, Down the Road, from Permuted Press.  The books are available in Kindle and paperback at great prices, so check them out here.

Thanks, and we'll see you next week.  Don't forget to follow the blog for this week's 'wild speculation'.

ZombieBloodFights.com will be live Tweeting again next Sunday (@wingback20).  Use the hashtag #ZBF to join in the conversation, which was basically just me last week.  So join me for some fun during commercials.

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BOWIE IBARRA is the author of the 'Down the Road' zombie horror series from Permuted Press and Simon and Schuster.  His latest zombie story, The Fall of Austin, tells the story of military, police, convicts, and citizens of the Texas capitol as they deal with the zpoc.  It is available in Kindle and Paperback.

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Leave a comment below using your Google+ or Blogger account.

Follow Bowie on Twitter @wingback20

Follow Bowie's Facebook page.

You can network with Bowie and read about his Tex-Mexploitation stories and check out his book trailers at his personal website, ZombieBloodFights.com.