Is One of The Walking Dead's Major Characters Actually Dead?

Talk about a gut punch. In the midst of trying to escape from the herd of thousands upon thousands of zombies, there were many casualties from tonight's episode of The Walking Dead.

But none more important than ... (SPOILER ALERT - highlight to uncover the name) Glenn.

Point blank, I will say this right now; I do not believe this character met their untimely demise. It was purposeful that his apparent death was very ambiguous and there were never any real shots that showed walkers tearing apart this character.

There was another character that decided to end his own life, but he fell on top of this other character. It's entirely possible the entrails that were being taken apart were of the former character and not the latter.

Okay, SPOILER ALERT once again. The character will be mentioned below because it's kind of difficult to keep going on like this without actually mentioning his name. Good?

There's no way that Glenn is dead. No way. At least, not right now.

Here are all the signs; first off - he didn't appear on The Talking Dead immediately afterward. Usually when a major or even somewhat minor character is killed off on TWD, they show up on The Walking Dead.

Steven Yeun didn't make an appearance on The Talking Dead, and Chris Hardwick's strange explanation was it's so "fans could grieve". Not buying it.

Secondly, Glenn's name did not appear on The Talking Dead's "In Memoriam" segment of the show. Yet another red flag that he might actually still be alive.

Then Chris Hardwick read a note from TWD's showrunner Scott Gimple saying that "Glenn may re-appear in some form or another in the future, in a flashback or something like that". A brief reminder that Hershel's character also appeared in future episodes after he was killed off as well. But this note from Gimple indicates Glenn's character could come back in flashbacks or perhaps even as a zombie?

And lastly, I referenced this earlier, but Glenn's death in itself was very ambiguous. Whenever a major character has been killed off on the show, there was absolutely no question as to whether or not they were still alive.

In six seasons of The Walking Dead, this is the very first time when a major character's death has not been 100% conclusive.

Nick saw no way out of that scenario on top of the dumpsters, but in taking his own life, Nick may have actually somehow saved Glenn's life by providing him with a walker blood-and-guts-cloak.

The odds certainly are stacked against Glenn's survival in that scenario, but if Nick's entrails got all over Glenn, maybe the walkers don't even bother with him.

The writers of the show certainly planted all the seeds to indicate that Glenn would soon be gone. That Rick called Glenn a "dumbass", a nod to the first thing Rick said to Glenn back in Season One. And Glenn's constant looks at Hershel's old pocket watch also hinted at Glenn's demise.

But I think these are all red herrings. Glenn will be back in some form or another, and my guess is he will be alive. He will be in rough shape, but Glenn will return to The Walking Dead.

If that truly was Glenn's 100% death, it didn't really feel all that satisfying. There wasn't all that much build-up towards it (aside from this episode in itself), and killing of pivotal characters is something that's typically reserved for mid-season or season finales, not three episodes into a brand new season.

Either way, so long Glenn ... it may not be long before TWD fans see him again, whether it be dead, undead or alive.

A Review of The Walking Dead, "Coda"

Firstly, my apologies for being a little neglectful around these parts in the way of TV reviews. Evidently, the Blue Jays keep me fairly busy during the regular season (and this offseason as well), so I haven't had much of a chance to write about my favourite shows.

Anyway, please keep in mind that this brief review will of course contain spoilers, so if you haven't already watched the season five midseason finale "Coda", then please don't be mad if I spoil anything.

So I don't know if it was just me, but I feel like this was an episode that was supposed to be grand in nature, but it really didn't. A series regular may have been killed off, but the episode itself didn't come across as monumental at all.

It seemed like the past four episodes (after the conclusion of The Hunters storyline) were kind of stagnant. Not unlike the endless search for Sophia in the first half of season two.

At this point, the formula for The Walking Dead is fairly familiar; most mid-season and season finales lead up to a showdown of some point, and invariably include the death of one or several key characters.

"Coda" was not all that different, and sweet, innocent Beth was the victim this time around. Admittedly, this season was the first which allowed her character to develop and flesh out a little bit. But sometimes when that happens, it essentially means those characters are ticketed to be killed off.

The final scene in the hospital hallway with Beth felt anti-climactic and I want to say ... rushed? I mean, in reality, that would've been an extremely quick sequence of events, but if you blinked, you really might have missed what actually happened.

Beth herself symbolized a sense of hope and innocence that's very rare in a post-apocalyptic universe, and one could argue those qualities might actually be detrimental to one's survival in that world. But Beth managed to evolve, and perhaps her father Hershel's passing was the catalyst for that.

Again, going back to The Hunters arc; I think a lot of people were disappointed this storyline really only had a three-four episode run, while Dawn and the rest of the hospital had a total of five. In comparison, Gareth felt like a much more compelling antagonist, while Dawn was just a plain old tyrant.

In retrospect, it might have been better to flesh out The Hunters arc much longer, and only cram the hospital stuff in the latter part of the first half of season five.

Logically, I can understand why the producers did it that way; building the hospital set pieces had to warrant using that particular setting in more than one or two episodes.

As usual, leave it up to Daryl (Norman Reedus) to steal the show; the imagine of him carrying Beth out of the hospital was definitely one that elicited a lot of raw emotion, and it's probably one of the single strongest images from the series thus far.

Overall, the season five midseason finale "Coda" wasn't bad, but it certainly could've been better. The energy and emotion in the last 10 minutes (and the bonus scene) was palpable, while the first 50 minutes of episode kind of dragged on until the showdown in the hospital.

My issue I guess is with the progression of the first eight episodes of the season. It was a whirlwind first three episodes out of the gate, but then things slowly fizzled out after that.

And now we have to wait until February to discover where the survivors are headed to next. Is here anywhere that's a safe haven for them anymore? We shall eventually find out.

The Walking Dead Season 4 Midseason Premiere Review

Is it possible to both love and hate a television episode all at the same time?

That's what I found myself doing with The Walking Dead's midseason premiere entitled "Don't Look Back". Ironically, that's the exact opposite advice young Carl Grimes should have heeded, but I'll get into that in a moment.

For me, this return had a lot of great things going for it, but a few old bad habits reared their ugly heads once again.

First off, the opening of the episode was fantastic. Very rarely are there quiet moments during a zombie apocalypse, but the first few minutes of this episode just focused on the eerily silent nature of what happened after the prison. In fact, I don't even know if a character spoke at all within the first five minutes of the episode.

On another good front, we finally got to see part of Michonne's back story. Her character has remained shrouded in a lot of mystery since her introduction at the beginning of Season 3, and you can tell the writers don't want quite to divulge her complete history just yet.

However, I think the producers missed a huge opportunity here to make this a Michonne-centric episode ... but I digress.

So in between, we were subjected to another "Carl goes off and gets himself into trouble to further the plot" episode arc. By this point in The Walking Dead, I really thought we've gotten past the point of characters doing truly stupid things like walking backwards into walkers, but I suppose there are only a certain number of plot vehicles the writers can use to progress the storyline.

Although I wasn't really a fan of the "Carl in the wild" moments during this episode, I thought the father/son dynamic between Rick and Carl was the best it's ever been. You get the sense that Carl is really struggling with his identity, and trying to be like the man his father was while Rick is struggling to find out the man he is.

"Shane taught me ... remember him?" was probably my favourite line of this season thus far. All too often in shows like these, the producers kill off characters and then fail to acknowledge them ever again. But in reality, these characters would have their fallen comrades on their mind nearly every single day.

Carl acknowledging Shane was a nice homage to arguably one of the most dynamic characters to appear in four plus seasons of The Walking Dead.

Although "Don't Look Back" was an okay return to Season 4, it definitely could have been better. Since the group is almost completely fragmented at this point, it will be interesting to see how the group gets back together over the course of the next seven episodes.

Just remember Carl, like in horror movies, never walk backwards ... ever. It never leads to good things.

Thoughts on The Walking Dead Midseason Finale

Well, that was quite the gut punch, wasn't it? I swear, The Walking Dead always has a way of stringing together a couple of mundane episodes and then following it up with a right hook right into the stomach.

Spoiler alert if you haven't already watched the midseason finale of The Walking Dead, but here are a few assorted thoughts.

Hershel

Poor, Mr. Hershel. Considering his increase in screen time the past few episodes, it seems like he was earmarked to be axed in the midseason finale. And if it wasn't him, it almost certainly was going to be somebody in his family.

As Chris Hardwick said on Talking Dead, Hershel really has been the moral compass of the group since Dale's passing in Season 2. Now without Hershell, this could be somewhat of a rudderless ship when it comes to determining what's wrong and what's right.

As a character, Hershel has kind of grown on me since Season 2. At first, he seemed like a very strong-willed man, but as he watched the ones he love turn into walkers, Hershell came to grips with reality and yet still maintained a sense of clarity that not many people in the zombie apocalypse possessed.

Hershell also had a way of not coming off too preachy or sanctimonious when giving advice (which Dale was often guilty of towards Andrea), and also his medical expertise will be sorely missed by the group.

The Governor

Out of all the deaths in the midseason finale, this is definitely one I did not see coming. The Governor was the go-to villain on the show in Seasons 3 and 4, so it seems odd to picture Rick and the group not fighting an enemy.

Unlike Hershel, The Governor had a very odd arc this season. He was all but absent in the first five episodes of Season 4, and then there were two back-to-back Governor centric episodes.

Just when you thought he was turning the corner, he slipped back into his old ways. And then the next episode, he was gone.

There was really no indication or hint that The Governor may be a casualty in the midseason finale, which is why it was so surprising.

In the first five episodes of Season 4, the "villain" so to speak was the airborne virus and and characters were focused on that. Then The Governor came back and there was suddenly somebody to hate again.

I really believe that a show like The Walking Dead is only as good as its best villain; and although the walkers may seem like the real enemy, the true villains in the show are the people themselves.

The Walking Dead was arguably at its best when the villains were at their pinnacle; Shane in Season 2 and The Governor in Season 3.

So at this point, I'm having a real tough time picturing the show without a villain like The Governor for the protagonists to feed off of. Although I'm sure the writers will come up with some new tasty bad guy for everybody to hate.

What About Bob?

There's still something very unsettling about Bob. I'm starting to think that he may in fact be the mole inside the prison that was feeding rats to the walkers. He's also extremely suspicious and it feels like he's not telling everybody everything.

In the comics, new characters develop to become the new "bad guy", but I think the seeds have been planted here for Bob to do something very diabolical to his new group. We've only scratched the surface with this character, and there has to be many more demons in Bob's past than he's letting on.

But one of the remaining unanswered questions of the first half of Season 4 was who was the culprit that fed those rats to the walkers. It could very well be a red herring (not unlike what Lost did many times), but it could be something ... right?

Don't Wake the Sleeping Mud Zombie

This may just be a bit of nitpicking, but how did Meghan pulling up a sign out of the mud suddenly re-animate a sleeping walker? That was a bit of a stretch to suddenly thrust her into danger without any sort of set up.

Although the walker was dormant in the mud, wouldn't it still be moving somewhat? It looked like it was sleeping and then suddenly woke up after Meghan unearthed that sign. Weird.