The Walking Dead (Season 3) “Sick”

It might be safe to say that we’ve seen more zombies in The Walking Dead, Season 3 than we did throughout Season 2, excluding the final episode. We’ve also seen a plethora of killing. Not that I’m complaining. I love the action and intensity, but I know that it won’t last. At some point, we’re going to all get comfy and snuggly with plot and character development, and then they’re going to pull the plug mid-season and make us wait until February for it to pick up again.

So, the title of this episode was “Sick,” and there were a lot of examples of sick. It was sick how the inmates, locked in the cafeteria, were using the walk-in freezer located just beside the food supply as a toilet. It was sick that Carol wanted to use a walker as a cadaver to practice a surgical operation. It was sick how prisoner #1 (aka, Tomas) dealt with a fellow inmate.

However, the title might have something more to do with how the way in which our tirbe has evolved is sick. Granted, it is the nature of their situation, but on the whole, the tribe’s moral compass has shifted. It’s no longer about what’s right or wrong, righteous or evil; it’s about what’s right for the tribe. It’s about what’s right for self-preservation.

Naturally our tribe wouldn’t want to take in prisoners (they’re bad men who’ve done bad things). But the fact is that Rick & co. wouldn’t allow anyone within their circle at this point, not before a full background check and then 24-hour surveillance. At this point, this group would turn out a priest, a pregnant woman, a child and mother, and the injured. And that’s where one of the two big and “sick” moral shifts have occurred this season so far.

Where last season we had Rick & co. begging for acceptance on the farm, The Walking Dead, Season 3 has our tribe closed off to outsiders. Where last season had Rick explaining to Hershel that he didn’t know what it was like “out there” off the farm, this season has Rick and Daryl urging the prisoners to go discover the new world. (Although criminals would probably do well in the new world.) And we also have Lori telling Rick to do whatever it takes to preserve the tribe with no remorse or guilt. And this leads us to the second big and “sick” moral shift in The Walking Dead, Season 3.

Rick obviously has after-the-fact moral issues with preserving the safety of the tribe by any means necessary, but he does the deed and then he does it again, and again, and again… Rick was obviously right and justified in his actions, he is the tribe’s leader, a husband, and a father, but where does the line get drawn between self-preservation and going off the deep end? How much shit has the tribe seen in the last nine months to be so protective? Have they encountered many other survivors in the past nine months or so?

As The Walking Dead, Season 3 progresses, it’s going to be interesting to see the juxtaposition of Season 2 and the farm (a symbol of life, fruitful gain, honest work, family) with Season 3 and the prison (a symbol of evil, reform, gangs, violence, rivalry) plays out. Will there be some sort of power struggle in such close quarters, a la The Experiment? What will the dichotomy between our tribe and the surviving prisoners be.

Until next week…
Rock Hard \m/