Don't panic; I'm back.

Admittedly, I have been procrastinating on my blog recently. So, to make up for lost time, I will do a new blog post every day this week. Hopefully that will catch me up a bit.

Getting logged in was one of the biggest problems I've been having with blogging. For some reason, Google gave me a new email address when I created my BlogSpot, so accessing an account that I didn't even know the information for was a task indeed. Luckily, I have linked my accounts together, so I won't have that problem again.

Walking Dead's Rick Grimes, played by Andrew Lincoln

So the new season of Walking Dead just came out last night: something that my friends and I have been anticipating for several months now. For those of you who don't know, the Walking Dead is the most action-packed television thriller of all time. It focuses on the life of the main character, a sheriff’s deputy Rick Grimes (played by Andrew Lincoln), and the lives of his "group" of survivors after the Zombie Apocalypse. A virus has spread that kills the host and reanimates their dead body by starting the brain stem back up, giving the newly resurrected person, or “walker," the ability to walk and the desire to eat…nothing more.

 

A Walker

In the show, the zombies outnumber humans 5000 to 1 (according to the Walking Dead Wiki). Many people who didn’t even get infected decided to “opt out,” or commit suicide, due to the severe lack of all hope. This was surely the wrath of God coming down upon human kind. Rick feels that it is his job to protect hope and restore human kind. He is determined to ensure the survival of everybody in his group and is compelled to believe that there is a safe haven somewhere.

 

The Group of survivors led by Rick

Season 3 (the new season) starts off several months after the end of season 2. It is evident, through their apparent skill in handling zombies and gathering supplies, that they have adapted to life after the Apocalypse. The Group has perfected looting, taking out walkers, and has even accomplished taking control of a prison courtyard. Nevertheless, things are still rough, as food and medicine are starting to run out and Rick's wife, Lori (played by Sarah Wayne Callies), is getting closer and closer to the birth of her questionably-bastard child. At the beginning of the first season, Rick wakes up in an abandoned, post-apocalyptic hospital due to a gun shot wound received in the line of service as a deputy. Having been abandoned by his best friend, Shane Walsh (played by Jon Bernthal), who believed that he was dead, Rick is separated completely from everybody he knew and loved. Meanwhile, Shane takes care of Lori and Rick's son, Carl (played by Chandler Riggs), who have stuck with a group of several other survivors. Shane, not knowing that Rick was still alive, ends up falling in love with his wife and sleeping with her. When Rick had found his way back to the group with the help of a pizza delivery boy named Glenn (played by Steven Yeun) who is one of the survivors, the situation got awkward fast. By the end of the second season, Rick had killed Shane, who was trying to kill him anyway. Aside from the main character, there are several other overlapping stories such as this, making the complexity of the story realistic and unreasonably awesome.

Can't we all just get along?

So this season opener, as you can tell, was absolutely mind blowing. The skill that I observed the group execute was just plain EPIC. As always, there was suspense, drama, action, and most importantly ZOMBIES! My ass scooted forward on my seat slowly 'til my dropped jaw stopped me like a kickstand at the very end of the episode. I don't want to reveal any details yet for those fans out there who may not have seen the first episode of season 3 (as if anybody actually reads this).

Although everybody loves the idea of stocking up on food and ammo and going Rambo on one or two hundred zombies a day, I have my doubts of the legitimacy of the idea. I think that even if a virus could reanimate a person's dead body by jump-starting the brain stem 2 minutes and 8 hrs after an infected person's death, the human's vital functions would have to completely dysfunction to get the deterioration of the skin as we see on every walker. This shows lack of circulation to the skin, and lack of oxygen. Basically, the body is dead, but it is walking. Walking requires circulation, but without circulation the body will seize up, as in rigor mortis (which takes roughly 3 hrs to set in). Also, the brain stem would also need oxygen to operate, but it does not seem as though these walkers have any circulation based on their deteriorated flesh. This means that, although a person's body may be able to reanimate temporarily under the conditions of a virus that controls the brain stem, the deterioration of the flesh would cause mobility to be impossible.

Well what if the virus caused the flesh to deteriorate while keeping the vitals intact? Well, if the flesh continues to decay but the zombie is able to breath and has circulation, eventually the zombie will not have any muscle left. This means, again, that the walker would eventually turn into a lay-er (and not the kind you find in the Red-Light District) as it would have no option but to lay in a pile of its own bones and what remains of its clothing and flesh. Besides, if the zombie had circulation, but it's flesh was deteriorating, it would be losing the blood it needed for the body to remain functioning. Again, causing it to eventually perish as only a zombie naturally could.

There is some hope, upon further investigation of the Wiki. The walkers do breathe, and they eat. With the nervous system restored by the "infection" (more so than a virus, as research has revealed), it is also possible for the digestive system to have started back up. This means that if a zombie gets meat (the only thing it will go for) then it will survive somewhat. "If the meat is digested . . . it could explain how some walkers have not yet rotted while others have decomposed to the point of immobilization" (Zombie Wiki). This idea completely turns around my first doubts.

I still think that the food supply will run out eventually. However, it is hard to say whether that will be for the humans or the zombies. Regardless, Rick's prediction of a harsh winter is a hopeful idea that I am willing to hold on to, along with a few of my own that I may reveal later. For now, I am comfortable with the fact that there are no zombies; although, it wouldn't hurt to learn how to shoot a gun.