AMC orders up 13 episodes for season 2!!!

That's the good news...


... the possible bad news? Producer Frank Darabont fires the entire writing staff and is looking at possibly using freelancers... ... Not a super horrible proposition, I suppose, considering that Darabont wrote the first two episodes, and did re-writes on the other 4 but... damn... the WHOLE staff?

The really bad news? Season 2 won't start until around next Halloween?!?!? W...T...F?!?!?!?

Maybe he'll cut up the cast for some 'fresh' samples!

And... what tissue was that he was using as his sample? It was whitish... but didn't exactly look like brain tissue to me... then again I can't say I've ever really seen brain tissue after it's been vaccum sealed and frozen for a few months

M.

From the look of the previews, though, there's gonna be some heavy-duty goings on in the season finale... wanna make bets on who in the cast doesn't make it out of the CDC still suckin' air?

Also... I'm right there with you Meri... couldn't decide exactly what those samples were... kind of looked like brain tissue at one point but, at other times, not so much. I think that's the bit I'm most curious about when it comes to next week's romp... What all is Mr CDC gonna reveal?

the samples looked like slices of brain to me... like horizontal sliced brain, you know? But I could be wrong.

Anyway... I vote for the guy being a crazy scientist. One whose mind broke, and wants to experiment on the survivors!

Greetings, Zombo-fanatics!

When you find out the donor of those samples that burned up in "Wildfire," your jaw will hang agape!

I was expecting a two-hour episode, much like any other good series on television (counts on fingers how many actually qualify). I guess this is good news for those of us who download off the Net.

The flashback scene in the very beginning was quite illuminating as to how badly the scat had hit the fan in the early days of the outbreak, when all vestiges of order and society had indeed crumbled beyond repair. In a way it was like the sacking of Rome when the Visigoths crashed their way through the gates of the Eternal City and laid waste to all that was structured, orderly and predictable. The Zombies are our Visigoths and through sheer implacable numbers they rent asunder the body of our humanity.

Pardon a bit of dark humor, but the computer's tone in answering Rick's question gave the distinct impression of an unspoken "Duh!" at the end.

...even if I, too, was expecting/hoping for a two hour episode (or, at least, an hour and a half... c'mon!!!).

Anyhoo... loved the flashback bit at the opening of the episode. Things were most certainly a mess when Shane last saw Rick in the hospital, huh? Gives you a little empathy for the character where that little bit is concerned, I suppose, and almost made me even like him a little more... buuuut... the later 'follow-up' scene with Lori just reaffirmed the whole "Shane's a nozzle" thing for me and I just can't wait for Shane to get his!

Andrea electing to stay behind at the end surprised me at first (not too much considering the build up they gave her state of mind since the whole Amy thing) but the bit with Dale made it all make sense and, in the end, I thought it was fantabulous.

Also loved Rick pulling the pin on that grenade, setting it down, looking at it for a second and then going "Oh S#!^..."

Speaking of a "Duh" moment.

Come on, Season 2!!!!

So, whaddya think Dr. Jenner whispered to Rick?

...but the more I think about it, the more I'm willing to bet it had something to do with the blood samples that Jenner took after he let them in... What do you think?

I dunno, Dr. Jenner explicitly said he didn't find any surprises in the samples, and he hardly had any time to do further research in the less-than-a-day before the big "blow-up" *smirks*. Others have posited that theory and personally I would find it a bit pat, a little too neat and tidy that one person among this small band of survivors holds the cure.

Oh, yeah, Rick's look after he pulls the grenade pin was priceless!

Dvd releases March 8, 2011 btw. Amazon taking pre-orders now.

Edit: Glad to see they laid it out concerning the differing times it takes bitten humans to reanimate as walkers. Some don't have time to fry an egg while others could log on and raid Onyxia's Lair in Warcraft--if they had a computer and Internet access that is.

...I seriously doubt the whole "cure is to be found in one of the survivors" theory. Entirely too convenient and improbable all around... As mentioned before, Jenner didn't have the time to analyze the samples to that extent for one thing and, also, gave Rick the "no surprises" response when our hero asked about them.

That same "no surprises" line makes me wonder, though... Would Lori possibly being pregnant be a surprise in Dr Jenner's analysis or, rather, would it be something that he wasn't expecting but wasn't really surprised to find? Hmmmm.....

Yeah I have to say for someone who before the series aired on AMC had never heard of the "Walking Dead' I was very, very impressed. The show has now worked it's way into becoming my 2nd favorite show behind FX's Sons of Anarchy.

Also as someone who has worked with Grenades, high explosives and standard army issue gear I too found myself yelling at the TV for Rick to drop the damn grenade and get his ass to cover . As for what Renner said I have to agree with ya Eol I think he told Rick his wife is with child, gonna make for some interesting interaction next season.

Looking forward to next years season two.

Wow! That was one of the most intense season finales I've seen! I was wondering what had happened to that grenade! And I agree: that look on Rick's face when he dropped it was priceless.

It'll be tense waiting for the new season, mostly because I'm dying to see if the Obama administration's budget cuts will get rid of all that "emergency" wine they've got stored down at the CDC.

"Emergency wine"

+1

One thing I'm still wondering about that is common to most zombie fiction is this: How did the infection spread overseas?

The Americas are only reachable from the other continents by boat or by air, so infected individuals would need to travel all the way over one of the oceans to start a worldwide epidemic. We also know that the highest observed incubation time (from being bitten to waking up again, I assume) is eight hours. It takes roughly eight hours to fly from New York to London, and even more if you count waiting for the plane to get ready, given that the airport would surely shut down if zombies were to attack.

During these eight hours of flight, information about the plague would already have spread worldwide, so even assuming that the cockpit is secured and the pilot is able to land, the plane would certainly be quarantined immediately. All of this is assuming that a bitten individual could even get on a plane to begin with.

So, how does all this work out to make an overseas spreading plausible? I suppose the situation is somewhat different if the eight hours of incubation time start after the bitten individual has died—but even then, that's assuming a dying individual can get on a plane to begin with.

...we're still not really sure where the outbreak initially started, are we? I set the trades aside when the series started (and, where I left off, it hadn't been mentioned) and I don't think that a particular "ground zero" for the event has been mentioned on screen either.

Either way, I don't imagine the "early stages" were paid much heed as far as travel and such were concerned... folks get on airplanes and cruise ships and such with colds, flus, fevers, etc, on a regular basis so it's not much of a stretch to think that, early on, it would have been difficult to have an infected person board a plane from NY to London (for example) and, in flight, that one infected person coughs/sneezes/whatever and somehow manages to infect a handful of others on the plane... Perhaps, by the time the first person gets to London, he/she is well on the way to succumbing to the infection but those infected in flight are just starting to get sick... Those folks make their connections or whatever and, trickle-trickle-trickle... World Wide Pants...er... Zombification!