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S05.E06: Consumed – Speculation and Live Chat

halgia

By halgia
in S05

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minamurray78
minamurray78

You know Noah, I can understand trying to get more weapons, but ripping up the tent to let the walkers out, even if Daryl and Carol look able, not cool dude.

bosawks
bosawks

Sleeping bag zombies=worst slumber party ever...

Ellaria
Ellaria

Note to writers: this is how to do a character-centric episode.

editorgrrl

editorgrrl

The shrouded body looks pretty small...a kid? Human kid or walkerized kid?

 

Hope this prompts Carol to tell Daryl about Lizzie and Mika. I really want to see his reaction to it and I think NR and MMB would rock the hell out of it.

 

My immediate assumption was walker kid—"we bury the ones we love, and burn the rest." But what if there's nowhere to bury a body? For example, the hospital roof.

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Nashville

Nashville

I'm guessing that whatever it was caused some change in blood chemistry that could be easily detected even if the causing agent couldn't (like how a low white blood cell count can be a warning sign of leukemia). I'm pretty sure if it were a bacterium or parasitic infestation it would have been detected early on in the process. Fungal and viral infections would be harder to detect, as would weirder things like prion diseases.

It's curious, but I'm wondering if in weaving his elaborate tapestry of terrapin shit, Eugene may actually have brushed up against some actual truth.  His going-on about the Human Genome Project got me thinking: what if the zombification process is not viral or bacterial in nature, or genetic.  A biowarfare experiment, perhaps, which triggered a long-dormant process buried in human DNA, and then escaped into the wild.

 

Such a scenario would also cover several plot points:

  • How zombification could seemingly explode worldwide, faster than the exponential burn path of the communicable virus (still trying to sort out if there would be any difference between the spread of a virus and the spread of a triggering agent, though).
  • Why the CDC - a civilian organization - couldn't decipher the mechanism of the ZA plague.
  • Why Fort Detrick - a military base an hour outside DC, and home to both USAMRIID and NICBR - might be a viable option for our merry band of minstrels to pursue.

 

Fire at will.  :)

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kikismom

kikismom

(edited)

It's curious, but I'm wondering if in weaving his elaborate tapestry of terrapin shit, Eugene may actually have brushed up against some actual truth.  His going-on about the Human Genome Project got me thinking: what if the zombification process is not viral or bacterial in nature, or genetic.  A biowarfare experiment, perhaps, which triggered a long-dormant process buried in human DNA, and then escaped into the wild.

Fire at will.  :)

At first I was thinking But has there been any pandemic in history that was caused by a process in human or animal DNA that was suddenly triggered--by anything?

Except I don't think anything less than a biowarfare experiment would do it. (What about origins of life from elements in nature triggered by--what was it, a meteor or something? I can't keep all the competing creation theories straight.)

 

 

Can something be part of our DNA if it is anti-survival?

I had an ethology class in college which focused strongly on Dawkins's work The Selfish Gene which in a nutshell attributed everything that happens to the highest priority in genes which would be replication. Since zombification rules out reproduction, that would not be an ESS---Evolutionarily Stable Strategy .

 

Perhaps, like the dinosaurs, the humans are supposed to give way to the rise of a higher, more evolved life form.

 

Basically, I got nothing for ya...but I always like an argument!

 

Oh, just thought of this...if it is genetic, at first it would seem to explain why the animals and birds and fish and reptiles don't zombify.

But then again--sigh---don't some animals (bats for example) share 90% of their chromosomes with humans? or maybe primates zombify?

 

ETA:  I still think Consumed would have been a better name for the second episode of Season 5.

Edited by kikismom
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Nashville

Nashville

At first I was thinking But has there been any pandemic in history that was caused by a process in human or animal DNA that was suddenly triggered--by anything?

Except I don't think anything less than a biowarfare experiment would do it. (What about origins of life from elements in nature triggered by--what was it, a meteor or something? I can't keep all the competing creation theories straight.)

 

 

Not in recorded history, to be sure - a couple of considerations, though:

  • It's only been in the last decade or so our technology has advanced enough to take the spectre of God-playing out of the realm of science fiction, and make it a realistic possibility.
  • No telling what went on in prehistoric times - whether things like asteroid strikes might introduce biotoxins or climatic changes (such as changes in solar radiation exposure) which could affect life on earth at the metabolic level.

 

Can something be part of our DNA if it is anti-survival?

I had an ethology class in college which focused strongly on Dawkins's work The Selfish Gene which in a nutshell attributed everything that happens to the highest priority in genes which would be replication. Since zombification rules out reproduction, that would not be an ESS---Evolutionarily Stable Strategy .

There are a number of genetically-based diseases/conditions, so it's not impossible.  Nature's way of dealing with deleterious genes is apparently to switch them off or make them recessive, but not to get rid of them.  Possibly they were introduced into the gene structure as a response to environmental/metabolic conditions which formerly existed but have become environmentally extinct.  Nature may keep them around in a dormant or recessive state, however, for potential re-occurrence of the conditions - so the trick would be figuring out how to turn them back on.

 

Perhaps, like the dinosaurs, the humans are supposed to give way to the rise of a higher, more evolved life form.

 

Basically, I got nothing for ya...but I always like an argument!

 

Oh, just thought of this...if it is genetic, at first it would seem to explain why the animals and birds and fish and reptiles don't zombify.

But then again--sigh---don't some animals (bats for example) share 90% of their chromosomes with humans? or maybe primates zombify?

 

Don't think this bunch is that analytically inclined - but a trip past an old zoo could be interesting.  :)

 

ETA:  I still think Consumed would have been a better name for the second episode of Season 5.

<rimshot>

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Mu Shu

Mu Shu

We don't know that primates don't get it.   Maybe this episode will feature zombified Bigfoot stumbling out of the brush,  with a zombified Bobo in hot pursuit?   Because that would be awesome.

 

Is Bigfoot even a primate?  As long as Eugene doesn't watch them having sex, it's all good.

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RedheadZombie

RedheadZombie

It's curious, but I'm wondering if in weaving his elaborate tapestry of terrapin shit, Eugene may actually have brushed up against some actual truth.  His going-on about the Human Genome Project got me thinking: what if the zombification process is not viral or bacterial in nature, or genetic.  A biowarfare experiment, perhaps, which triggered a long-dormant process buried in human DNA, and then escaped into the wild.

 

This sounds a little like 28 Days Later.  The British government created a rage virus and infected chimpanzees.  Animal activists break into the lab to rescue the chimps, chimp attacks humans, and so it began.  I know Kirkman says he's not interested in the cause, but I am.

ETA:  I still think Consumed would have been a better name for the second episode of Season 5.

 

I'm hoping the title isn't literal.

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CarpeDiem54

CarpeDiem54

I just assumed Eugene was Bigfoot.....

Ha ha! Me, too. And a mutant Bigfoot at that who was rejected by his mother at birth.

I know Kirkman says he's not interested in the cause, but I am.

Yeah, screw Kirkman. I want to know, too.

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Irishmaple

Irishmaple

I've always been fascinated by the cause, but I'm beginning to suspect I won't really be satisfied with any explanation and I'm reluctantly coming to think that Kirkman might have a point.  28 Days Later did the rage virus and I didn't really buy it.  Mira Grant's Newsflesh trilogy went with a mix of viruses released into the wild and I didn't really buy that either.  I appreciated them making a stab at it, but it all seemed so implausible.  The one thing I liked about Grant's zombies was they bit not just to feed but to spread the virus, which lined up nicely with a theory I loved back in the TWOP days when somebody made a case for zombie rabies.  I still love that theory so anything else gets major side-eye.  If Kirkman isn't interested in nailing down the science behind his outbreak, maybe he's smart to stay away from any explanation.  Because I'm going to need science before I let go my pet theory.

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lulee

lulee

So nice of the walkers who were following Eugene to line up and be killed one by one by Abraham.

 

Now to prepare for almost-pee-my-pants anxiety... How does Carol end up in the hospital???

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