‘The Walking Dead’: Plot Hole Spotted in Rick’s Exit?

Fans of The Walking Dead may have spotted a plot hole in Rick’s grand exit from the series.

Spoilers for The Walking Dead Season Nine follow. Major spoilers!

In Rick’s final moments on AMC’s zombie show, he stumbled across a bridge with a herd of walkers following him. As his friends were ready to risk their lives in an effort to save him, he raised his Colt Python one last time and blasted a bullet into some explosives being stored on the bridge. This caused a massive explosion, sending Rick’s near-lifeless body floating down the river and left zombies stumbling into the same flow.

However, do bullets cause explosives to explode? “I know it’s a video game cliche but would a bullet produce enough of a spark mid-flight to set off a dynamite,” a Reddit user asked in The Walking Dead‘s forum, adding, “assuming the shot was so pin-point perfectly on target.”

The answer, however, is yes and no. Some explosives will detonate with a spark or impact while others will be unaffected. C4, for example, would not necessarily be triggered by a gun shot, nor would it create a fiery explosion unless is sparked some sort of gasoline.

“Some bomb materials are highly sensitive to impact; if you shoot a gun at a stick of dynamite, for example, there’s a good chance you’ll set it off,” Slate reports. “Others are less susceptible to gunfire. The military tries to make its explosives as durable as it can, since you don’t want soldiers blowing up from the impact of a single bullet. A block of C4 plastic explosive can withstand a rifle shot without exploding. You can even set one on fire without too much worry.”

In the case of The Walking Dead, it appears Rick was targeting a stick of dynamite, which would have been volatile enough to explode when the bullet landed. So, it turns out, there probably isn’t such a plot hole in the fact that the dynamite blew up thanks to Rick’s impressive shot, but rather that his body was somehow sent towards the explosion and down the river for Jadis to discover.

The Walking Dead returns for the back half of its ninth season on February 10, 2019 at 9 pm ET. Fear the Walking Dead will return for its fifth season in 2019. For complete coverage and insider info all year long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter and watch ComicBook.com’s After The Dead each Sunday night following new episodes.