AMC's "The Walking Dead"

[OctoberRaven]

Holy shit.

[King.]

I'm just left wondering why

Someone who dies from getting their neck broken/stabbed in the heart resurrect in to a walker quicker then those bitten.

Season finale should be a hell of a good time!

[MalaCloudy Black]

That's the big plot twist for the season, I imagine. You don't necessarily have to be bitten or scratched or anything to be turned into a walker.

Book spoilers that tie in with that ^^^^^:

In the books, at one point the group has their suspicions about that so Rick goes back to where Shane was buried and finds a reanimated Shane shambling around their makeshift graveyard. I believe they also find out that how long it takes to reanimate varies from person to person.

But yeah, really good episode. Season finale looks like it's going to be a barnburner as well.

[LL!]

I don't think Shane turned cause he was bitten. I think he turned cause he used that knife on himself to smear blood on the door frame during that one zombie attack. Then again, I might be wrong. And the turn, I guess, accelerates when you die. Since Randall died before Shane did, he was turned before Shane. Just my theory.

[Ruki]

I don't think Shane turned cause he was bitten. I think he turned cause he used that knife on himself to smear blood on the door frame during that one zombie attack. Then again, I might be wrong. And the turn, I guess, accelerates when you die. Since Randall died before Shane did, he was turned before Shane. Just my theory.

But if it was the knife that turned Shane (but would it be the same knife? It was Rick's knife...), why did Randall turn when he had a broken neck? I just think they're going with "You die, you come back to life", even without being bite/scratched. When there is no more room in hell, the dead shall walk the earth

But, my god...that was such an awesome episode. Next week cannot come soon enough.

[Herr Matzat]

Big spoilers, Carl will become a ninja.

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

Outstanding episode, such a phenomenal finish to it too. Expecting the finale to be immense really.

Still interested to find out what it was that Jenner whispered to Rick.

[GoGo Yubari]

I quite enjoyed that episode. Very well-done subversion of how things play out in the comics, good mix of stuff that happens later in the series and what happened in the comics during that particular scene. Also, I wonder how long it's going to take for someone to put that Shane/Daryl/T-Dog/Andrea vs. zombies in a field scene on Youtube set to the Geto Boys song that was in Office Space.

[Johnny Latino Heat]

Comic book question:

How did they find out that you didn't have to get bitten or scratched to become a walker? I've been raking my brain, but I really can't remember.

As for the episode itself... All I can say is "wow".

Also, Robert Kirkman interview, with spoilers for the latest episode, obviously.

WARNING: If you have yet to watch The Walking Dead's next-to-last Season 2 episode tonight, run don't walk to the nearest exit. We're serious, folks. The following Q&A with showrunner Robert Kirkman contains massive spoilers. Trust us on this one. Everyone else, you may proceed… This Just In:

The Walking Dead is not fooling around anymore. One week after viewers watched in horror as Dale literally had his guts ripped out, AMC's mega-hit went a step further in its penultimate Season 2 episode and whacked another, far more pivotal character: Shane!

Sure, the warning signs were there — on screen and off. For starters, Shane had become increasingly unhinged as Season 2 wore on, making Sunday's deadly confrontation with frenemy Rick all the more inevitable. Also, as fans of the Walking Dead comic know full well, the TV character actually survived longer than his literary counterpart. Oh, and as you may've heard, Shane's portrayer, Jon Bernthal, recently landed a starring role in former Dead exec producer Frank Darabont's TNT pilot L.A. Noir.

Yet, the death of Shane — who, for all intents and purposes, was the show's co-lead — nonetheless packed a punch, mostly because it sends a loud and clear message that absolutely no one (save for Rick) is safe. And if the episode itself didn't adequately relay that, our post mortem with Robert Kirkman should. Read on as Dead's main creative force reveals why Shane had to die, how Bernthal reacted (read: he wasn't pleased), whether Jenner's secret message to Rick has already been revealed, and when the next major death will come (hint: very soon).

TVLINE | How long did you know that you were going to kill Shane off this early on in the series?

Before the first episode of Season 1 was shot. [Laughs] Frank always talked about how, if the first season had been 13 episodes, we would've went ahead and told the entire Shane story and killed him off at the end of the season, which was pretty much what we did in the comics. But because that was a six-episode season instead of a normal-sized season, we decided to hold it for Season 2.

TVLINE | Did you ever consider not following the comics and letting him survive – if not through the entire run of the series then maybe just another season or two? The Rick-Shane dynamic was such a major part of the show.

There was a lot of back-and-forth when we were mapping out the second season. I'll admit even I — who killed him in the comic — was saying there were a lot of interesting things that could come out of keeping him in the show. We had a lot of fun [writing for the character] in the second season because there were a lot of things that changed from the comic. Having him exist on Hershel's Farm brought out new stories and made us do some cool new things that were different from the comic. And I'm always for that kind of stuff because I like to keep things interesting. But at the end of the day, what we kept coming back to is that The Walking Dead is much more about Rick and his journey than it is about Shane and his journey. And keeping Shane around was, in a sense, stealing from Rick. It was time to let Rick emerge and see how Shane's death affected him and how it informed his decisions. And I think that when people see the last episode of this season — and Season 3 — and where Rick goes because of this, they'll see that this is all part of the larger plan. [His death] is definitely an important moment. And it really sucked to lose Jon Bernthal, but it's going to make the show that much better and that much more deadly. Having lost Dale and Shane, now you really get the sense that any of these characters could go at any moment. And we're definitely going to be continuing that in Season 3. This finally tells people, "This is what The Walking Dead is. This is what you can expect."

TVLINE | How far in advance did Jon know that this was going to be his final episode?

He always knew he was going to die, but there was a question of exactly which episode it was going to be. That moved around quite a bit. It wasn't until we were actually breaking the last half of Season 2 that we nailed it down to a specific episode.

TVLINE | How did he react?

Honestly, he was bummed. The actors have become a family, and they really love working together. They're kind of isolated in Georgia where they shoot; they spend a lot of time together when they're not filming. But every actor knows that on this show… I think Sarah Wayne Callies has been quoted as saying that she knows it's not a matter of if she's going to die but when; that's what the show is. But it's still very sad when actors have their last day on set. Jon was definitely upset. But he understood. He knew why we were doing it and what was going on. He was accepting of it.

TVLINE | Was he satisfied creatively with Shane's final arc?

Absolutely. All of the actors are really great collaborators and have good ideas, and when Jon read the death scene he definitely had some questions and some suggestions. And he worked a lot with [the episode's writers] Glen Mazzara and Evan Reilly to try and beef it up. He had some little notes and they came to an understanding and really convinced Jon that this is what the scene needs to be. There was a lot of back-and-forth, and in the end Jon really loved the scene.

TVLINE | What was your reaction when news leaked that Jon had been cast in L.A. Noir?

It was an unfortunate mishap [that resulted from AMC] moving the last half of the season until February instead of just running it straight through. If we had aired it all in succession and ended in December it wouldn't have been a problem. But by holding back the season, [the news] did kind of spoil things. It was a bummer that it spoiled the show to a certain extent, but I was happy for Jon. I think it's exciting for him to be working for Frank again and I'm really looking forward to seeing that show. And it's cool to know that Jon is constantly working. The tough thing for me is that when I kill a character in a comic book I am making the artist, Charlie Adlard, draw a different arrangement of lines from now on. Killing a character doesn't really affect anybody but the readers. But when you kill a character on a TV show you are, in a sense, firing an actor. And the thing that upsets me about that is it's always about the story; it's never about the actor's performance. And I'm a blue-collar guy, so if you fire somebody you need to have a reason. So it's really upsetting to me every time we have to kill a character. So to know that Jon has another job makes me happy. Because I feel guilty about the whole firing thing.

TVLINE | Shane turning into a zombie in the end pretty much confirms that everyone's already infected. Can you confirm that that's what Jenner whispered in Rick's ear?

[Hesitates] Well, I can't confirm that. But what I can say is that Shane turning after being stabbed definitely does inform Rick revealing what Jenner whispered, in the next episode.

TVLINE | So we'll finally find out what he whispered in next week's finale?

Yes.

TVLINE | Does Rick debate sharing this newfound intel with the others, or does the approaching zombie stampede delay that?

Yeah, there's sh-t ton of zombies on the way to the farm, so he's not going to have a lot of time for that.

TVLINE | This does raise the question about the dead bodies in the season-opening traffic jam — why hadn't they all been turned?

I think if you go back and watch that [sequence you'll see] we were very careful to have them be in cars that were in accidents, so the brain would've had trauma. Or they had some kind of wounds somewhere on their heads to show that their brains had been killed, like somebody came across and killed them. We knew that we were building to this throughout the entire season.

TVLINE | I know you can't name names, but have you quietly made any decisions to spare someone's life on the show who died in the comics?

Dale's death in the comic book came way later than it did in the TV show. And Shane's death in the comic book came way sooner than it did in the TV show. So that's pretty much the model that we're going to be following throughout the life of the series. Some characters will die before they reached the point that they reached in the comic book series, and some people will outlast their comic-book counterpart. And that's going to be done to keep things interesting [and] because it's not just me writing the television show. There are five or six other people that have good ideas that are contributing to the show, and it would be wrong to go, "That's a good idea but that's not how we did it in the comics." There will definitely be differences. You can't use the comic book to gauge when or how someone is going to die.

TVLINE | Will there be another major death next week?

I can say that the cast that enters the final episode this season does not leave the final episode intact. And there are a lot of surprises still yet to come.

TVLINE | Will the finale end on a cliffhanger, as in mid-scene? Or will it be more similar to the Season 1 finale, which ended in a more resolute place?

It's not quite a true cliffhanger, but it's much closer to a cliffhanger than what we had last season.

TVLINE | And lastly, will T-Dog be allowed to speak again?

[Laughs] T-Dog definitely has a lot of cool moments in the finale and a lot of lines. I apologize for that. It's one of those things where certain characters have to recede into the background to give room to the other characters because we have such a large cast. But every character will get their moment to shine — T-Dog included.

[GoGo Yubari]

Answer to comic question: I believe it was...

When Thomas murdered Herschel's two youngest daughters or whatever, and they had clearly been murdered and beheaded and then they turned anyway. Which is an image that has been horrifyingly burned into my memory forever, I'm afraid.

[MalaCloudy Black]

Answer to comic question: I believe it was...

When Thomas murdered Herschel's two youngest daughters or whatever, and they had clearly been murdered and beheaded and then they turned anyway. Which is an image that has been horrifyingly burned into my memory forever, I'm afraid.

You're probably right and I'm too lazy to flip through issues looking, but I could've sworn that

It was when Julie's boyfriend killed her, and then Tyreese strangled him to death. He reanimated and Tyreese re-murdered him, didn't he?

[GoGo Yubari]

OH RIGHT. No, you're right, I totally forgot about that.

[Kane's Mullet Slacker]

Just being bitten by a zombie doesn't turn you. It's the infection from the bite that spreads and you get sick and die. Then you become undead. If you remember that's what happened to Jim in Season 1. You're being beaten by a disease infested, rotting corpse. Even though it's shown now that the dead become undead it still doesn't explain why the two security guards are undead.

Edited March 12, 2012 by Don Ready Slacker

[Johnny Latino Heat]

I'm not sure, but didn't Tyreese wait for his daughter's girlfriend to turn so he could kill him again? That would mean they already knew about it, right? I'm probably wrong though. Much obliged, guys (Y)

[King.]

Just being bitten by a zombie doesn't turn you. It's the infection from the bite that spreads and you get sick and die. Then you become undead. If you remember that's what happened to Jim in Season 1. You're being beaten by a disease infested, rotting corpse. Even though it's shown now that the dead become undead it still doesn't explain why the two security guards are undead.

Cause they died.

[Kane's Mullet Slacker]

Just being bitten by a zombie doesn't turn you. It's the infection from the bite that spreads and you get sick and die. Then you become undead. If you remember that's what happened to Jim in Season 1. You're being beaten by a disease infested, rotting corpse. Even though it's shown now that the dead become undead it still doesn't explain why the two security guards are undead.

Cause they died.

Yes but there was no cause of death, that's what I meant.

[Rocky]

Just being bitten by a zombie doesn't turn you. It's the infection from the bite that spreads and you get sick and die. Then you become undead. If you remember that's what happened to Jim in Season 1. You're being beaten by a disease infested, rotting corpse. Even though it's shown now that the dead become undead it still doesn't explain why the two security guards are undead.

Cause they died.

Yes but there was no cause of death, that's what I meant.

I thought they were scratched?

[zero]

Zombification:

Walking Dead follows Romero's Rules - we're all "infected," if you want to call it an infection. Might be an infection, may be supernatural, may be something else, but we all have it and we will all turn unless the brain is destroyed or the body is burned significantly enough. In the case of the people in the cars on the freeway, I think the Atlanta sun melted the brain while inside a hot car.

Bites are basically a lethal poison. It will kill you and you will turn (perhaps slower), but you're going to turn regardless.

As for the speed at which people turn, there is no official timeframe. Some people die and turn almost instantly, some people die and don't turn for days. I believe Jenner said "could be minutes, could be hours" or something to that effect in Season 1

Hell of an episode. I figured it would happen, but it was a nice twist on how it plays out in the books. I really, really, really, really, really hope Michonne's reveal in the comics is the cold open for the start of Season 3.

[GoGo Yubari]

Re: the freeway;

Kirkman says in the interview that they tried to imply that most of the people who were dead in the cars had died of brain trauma.

[Kane's Mullet Slacker]

Re: the freeway;

Kirkman says in the interview that they tried to imply that most of the people who were dead in the cars had died of brain trauma.

Yeah I'm glad he explained that because that was another plot hole. I never noticed it I guess I'll have to re-watch the episode.

Also Michonne spoiler:

I read that Michonne might make her first appearance in the show in next weeks Season Finale. I can't wait till she appears as she's one of my favorite characters from the book.

I really hope with the "no one is safe" tagline that they don't kill off Glenn. I love Glenn and I'd be pissed if they kill him off. From the previews I gather that Carol is the next one to die. Then again most previews for TV shows are pretty vague and out of context.