Zombie Cliche Lookout: Understanding the Risks
In the beginning of zombie stories, people struggle to understand the rules of their new reality. Unfortunately for them, those who aren’t smart or lucky enough to figure things out quickly are killed. After a while, people start settling into an equilibrium of sorts. They know how the zombies work and what that means from a survival perspective. They have to take risks to survive, but experience has taught them how to mitigate those risks as much as possible. Of course, sometimes a character has to ignore their survival instincts for the good of the group, but they enter into this will a full understanding of the potential consequences.
About this Episode:
It’s been quite a while since Sam has been a member of the rest of the group, so I think it bears mentioning that he volunteered to act as a diversion to allow the others to escape. He did so knowing the danger and the likelihood that, even if he wasn’t killed outright, he could easily be separated from his friends. He did this for a reason: he had put Stewart in mortal danger, and needed to prove to the others that he was a committed member of the group.
Discussion Question:
This one is from BrickVoid, who asks: Should Sam tell them the truth about what happened, and try to start with a clean slate, or should he lie blatantly and make up some really tall tales about what actually happened? Will his friends figure out he’s lying, anyway, if he does lie to them?
I’d like to add to this a bit: what’s Cheryl’s story going to be? She wanted to try to get Sam, but it was too dangerous to pull off. After that, they had so many other things to deal with, mounting an expedition to find him wasn’t a priority. That’s a tough sell for her.
My thoughts on Cheryl’s story are going to be that she’ll do what the narrator does when they do a quick recap at the beginning of an episode of a series, particularly if it’s a multi-parter, two or more episodes long.
Inevitably, Sam is going to be confused and upset at the loss of Shannon, and even of some gun-happy former friend of Murphy’s who eventually became zombie food.
He’s probably also not going to like that Brent is also going to become a zombie, even though he doesn’t even know him.
Cheryl’s best line to use should be that she’ll say, I’m paraphrasing here a bit: “we’ve got to get you safe first, then we can talk”, Sam is certainly going to respond to this with “but I need this prescription for Tara’s Grandpa filled out”, and Russell there is going to wonder what’s going on, he’ll probably be as confused as he would be if he were being asked to try and get something with “complicated electronic shit under the hood that he can’t fix” going again! 😉
There is going to be a tussle here in the next couple of episodes, Sam will certainly want to fulfill his obligations to Tara and Gramps, and deliver the needed medication, whilst Cheryl will want to get Sam back to safety and will make doing this her number one priority. It’s a lot like a tug-of-war with a rope that’s only got one very thin and weak strand yet constantly resists all attempts to break it by either side! 😀
Being Sam, i’d let Cheryl tell her story first, checking what’s the group status… Depending on her story Sam’s journey won’t be much a priority I guess, because of the troubles of the group. IMO, Sam won’t tell anything or will lie about what happened to him.
And that’s where Russel starts being suspicious about Sam.
I think what actually happened to Sam is a tall enough tale that he shouldn’t need to make up anything.