The Walking Dead: Detailed Analysis Of February Preview Trailer

The Walking Dead

Of course, before they said farewell for the holiday season last weekend, the folks who bring you The Walking Dead did release a trailer teasing elements of “Season 5B.”

Here’s what we could take away from the trailer.

Cut to a shot of Tyreese entering a building — with Noah in tow, confirming that he has, indeed, joined the group.

The first audible dialogue in the trailer is from Michonne, who says the group is 100 miles away…from somewhere.

In order to contextualize this comment, we need to acknowledge that in the preview scene from next season showed on Talking Dead, we see the group burying someone who, from Noah’s powerful emotional response juxtaposed with the scene, most have assumed to be Beth.

That suggests that by the time they get back on the road (showrunners said during Talking Dead that they “have to deal” with being stuck in the middle of overrun Atlanta, so it’s likely at least part of the midseason premiere will deal with that), not much time has passed. No matter how much you love somebody, carrying a corpse around with you for too long is not likely to happen, especially when you’re trying to evade walkers.

So…what are they 100 miles away from? It’s certainly not Washington, D.C. If they had remained at Terminus, where maps had shown it was Macon, GA, but it hadn’t been acknowledged in-series, you might be able to pretend that you were fairly close to the nation’s capital. That’s not what they’ve done, though; they made it clear that Grady Memorial is in Atlanta.

Similarly, the Alexandria Safe-Zone is likely about 10 miles from Washington, D.C. (Google Maps says my old address in Alexandria is less than that, but I just used “Washington, D.C.” and not a street address), meaning that while almost everyone expects Alexandria will come into play soon, it’s still about 620 miles from Atlanta, where the group will start the episode.

Granted, they could exit the city and bury Beth in a montage, and then jump forward to when they’re closer to Washington.

But here’s our bet: it’s someone other than Beth they’re burying. 

…What? Like who, you might ask. After all, if Noah’s freaking out…!

Well, Noah was headed “home,” after all. To “Richmond, Virgnia — where they have walls” to keep the walkers out.

Richmond is 108 miles from Washington, D.C. And 104 miles from Alexandria. If this was, say, one of Noah’s pre-apocalypse loved ones, his reaction could make even more sense than if it was Beth.

Could that be the gates to Richmond, opening to reveal that the whole city is now overrun by the undead? It certainly seems likely. Those “walls” look more makeshift than anything you’d get from a real, fortified building or area constructed during the time before the fall of industry.

In fact, let’s look back again at that photo of Noah and Tyreese above. Tyreese is clearly leading; the building is wide open and there’s blood splattered on and around the walls…but it’s not in terrible shape, and the area around it seems fairly residential. Noah is hanging back, but not looking scared — more nonplussed, or maybe sad. Could this be the home he was trying to make his way to?

At this point, you can also see that Carl, Tyreese, Judith and Maggie aren’t with the group. Seeing what they perceive as a threat, could this part of the group have left them in a safe spot? If so, where? And why not bring Noah, since he’s fairly new to the group and likely wouldn’t be as trusted? Has something happened to him?

Michonne, at this point, is speculating that wherever they’re 100 miles from could give them a larger purpose and more security than just making it day by day.

Maybe whatever it was Daryl was tracking, and whatever it was that they found in the trucks? But this is a different group from the group with the trucks.

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That could lend yet more credence to the idea that he’s headed home, only to find it overrun and ruined, and his loved ones dead. It seems this is a pretty likely scenario…100 miles from Alexandria.