The third season of Walking Dead has lived up to the comic’s main tagline, “no one is safe,” with the deaths of Lori and T-Dog, and with only two episodes remaining until the AMC hit series goes on winter break, who can we expect to see in the Spring?
With the exception of the season finale, the first season of the Walking Dead was essentially a direct adaption of Robert Kirkman’s comic book series, and season 2 was considered by fans and critics to be too slow. Fortunately, this season’s suburb balance between action and drama has delivered quite possibly the best episodes of the Walking Dead to date.
Since last season the show has gone a different direction from the comics: Sophie dying, Dale dying earlier than his comic book counter-part, and Shane dying much later than he did in the comics, no one can guess what to expect. However, the show has managed to incorporate key elements from the comics and into the show. For example, Hershel losing his leg in the season premiere was a nod to how Dale lost his leg in the comics. The mid-season finale titled, “Made to Suffer” is even named after the comics’ final ark with the Governor and Woodbury.
Spoiler alert, in the comics the prison ark comes to a tragic end as the Governor and the citizens of Woodbury assault the prison killing many of the survivors, Lori included.
The mid-season finale is clearly not the final chapter of Rick versus the Governor since the two nemeses have yet to meet, but it is safe to assume more people will die by winter.
Despite the shocking deaths of Lori and T-Dog, the television show’s darker tone is tamed compared to the comics. So far, the Governor is more charismatic than his sadistic comic-book counter-part, but they share the same psychotic habits like keeping their zombified daughter alive. It seems that some of the darker characteristics of the Governor have transitioned over to Merle Dixon. In addition, the town of Woodbury is more civilized, and the zombie gladiator games feel less barbaric. However, this week’s episode saw the capture of Glenn and Maggie, and based on the next episode’s trailer things are not looking too bright for the young couple. It is possible (hopefully not, as the subject matter may be too extreme) television viewers will see why the Walking Dead puts the “graphic” in graphic novels.
Fortunately, with all the sadness and bad things to come, Robert Kirkman sat down with Entertainment Weekly last week hinting, "There’s a new character added. A big deal fan favorite from the comic book is introduced into the show in this episode, so be on the lookout for that," we will see a new protagonist(s) siding with Rick. There has been no official confirmation, but Entertainment Weekly is guessing the fan favorite character is Tyrese. In the comics Tyrese was a professional football player prior to the zombie outbreak. He joins Rick and the survivors between the trips from Atlanta to Hershel’s farm. Originally it seemed unlikely we would see Tyrese since T-Dog and Daryl (the two main cast members that do not exist in the comics) mirrored his role in book series. Television viewers will have wait and see if Tyrese will make his tackling debut on TV in two weeks.
Alternative, the television show is not the only popular, non-print, Walking Dead form of media. The first season of the five part TellTale Games’ Walking Dead episodic series comes to an end this December. The highly acclaimed video game takes place in the same universe as the comics and follows the survival adventures of Lee Everett and Clementine, and a group of other survivors. TellTale Games released the trailer for the season one’s finale episode “No Time Left,” and like all the other media adaptations of Walking Dead, fans can expect more death come. The video game has been nominated for six Spike Video Game Awards, and the hard disc version of the game will be released on December 4th.
