‘The Walking Dead’ Retro Recap: ’30 Days Without an Accident’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Over the course of the past seventy years or so, the zombie sub-genre of horror has accomplished storytelling wonders. For it has become the go to story for social commentary and examinations of the human condition, thanks to the fact George A. Romero, a.k.a. ‘The Godfather of the Dead’, figured out how to seamlessly integrate such concepts into zombie themed storytelling. Plus, it has set the bar for special effects, since zombies tearing into live human beings to feed upon them, requires top notch effects work to gross out and scare an audience. But of the many accomplishments and big moments this genre has brought to the table throughout the years, it has ironically, rarely taken advantage of the storytelling opportunities its setting provides.
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After all, most of these stories focus on the fall of humanity at the hands of the dead, or the immediate aftermath of when they take over the planet, rather than explore what life would be like in a post-zombie apocalypse world. Which is a huge opportunity to tell harrowing and potentially beautiful stories about a second dark age for man that so many storytellers are missing out upon. In fact, there’s really only one zombie franchise out there that’s taken the time to remotely explore such matters and even then, it took The Walking Dead a little while to get there. Four seasons in fact, since the first three were squarely focused on reacting to the end and finding shelter, with a deadly power struggle thrown in for good measure. But season four was a whole new ball game, since it finally allowed for the show to really look at what life might be like in a world where the dead have taken over.

A feat that the season four premiere of the show accomplishes, by picking up with the Grimes group long after the Governor disappeared into the ether, and when we catch up with everyone in ’30 Days Without an Accident’, life isn’t that bad in the world of the dead. For the survivors have crops now and they’re living together in harmony and figuring out how to earn their keep and that honestly makes life at the end of the world somewhat appealing. Because everyone seems to find peace and solace in just living in the moment and doing their best to make it to another day and that basically postulates the theory that if something like this were to happen, and people were able to come together in old school communities like this one and really chip in, life after the end of the world would be just fine.

But alas, this is TWD and conflict, and danger are central to the stories here and that finds the group along the way, through the form of two key plot lines. One of which takes the time to remind the group that despite their best efforts to control the situation, they are no longer masters of this domain. For the trip to the Big Spot!, where everyone thought they’d be safe, ended in disaster when they learned how the dead basically find their way into every place and every situation. And Rick was reminded of the fact that while they’ve found peace, not everyone has, and that in reality, the world is still a supremely cruel and broken and terrifying place beyond the walls of the prison. As evidenced by his encounter with a woman named Clara that was still struggling to reconcile that the dead rule the day. 

Plus, that ending and the ominous clues before it, that informed us of the fact that new diseases or a potential variation on an old one (more on that in a different Retro Recap), are out and about, speaks volumes to the fact that threats can and will find humanity in this precarious time. But while we wait to dive into that further, we can bask in the first real zombie story to examine life after the end. Because we really did get an up close and personal look at such a concept and regardless of the good and the bad in this tale, it was refreshing to see this at last. But what’s genuinely amazing, is that this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to exploring life in the land of the dead and it is going to be a true treat to revisit every amazing and heartbreaking moment from a season of storytelling that took some serious risks. Until next time.

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