The Walking Dead: Will We See Any More Zombified Survivors?

Caution: Major spoilers ahead for AMC’s hit drama The Walking Dead.

Tonight’s episode of The Walking Dead was the kind of anarchic, no-holds-barred bloodbath that’s usually reserved for season–or at least mid-season–finales. With three warm-blooded casualties and most zombies blasted, stabbed and otherwise mangled than most viewers could hope to count, it’s certainly clear that a lot has changed since last season and its derisive media shorthand “The Talking Dead.”They managed to pull it all off with a surprising amount of character development, though–something that the show hasn’t always been able to do successfully during the big action moments.T-Dog, for example, probably had roughly as many lines in this episode as he’s had in the entire series to date. When Michael Rooker counted up the seven and a half minutes of Merle’s total onscreen time prior to the third season, most fans probably thought, “I wonder if you could do that with T-Dog!” Yet, we got some insight into his character and his motivations before he was allowed to die a hero’s death.Lori had the same thing; while her monologue was a bit strained, and a bit much, it was understandable. Facing the worst possible situation, she elected to die in order to save her unborn child–and forced her other child, one who knew her and loved her, to watch and assist.Of course, there will be those who argue that she didn’t have much choice. Had the baby died during childbirth, she could potentially have had a zombie living inside of her, and that likely would have ended badly for all involved. But I digress.Her speech will likely do something to salvage her tarnished image with the fans; the din of “let Lori die! Let Carl die!” can be heard on Twitter and around the Internet after nearly every episode of the show–but it seems unlikely there will be a whole lot of celebrating today. Her death was heartbreaking, and what it meant for Carl even more so.