‘The Walking Dead’ Retro Recap: ‘Infected’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

It is definitely safe to say, that zombie themed sagas, the kind that run for years on end, face some serious challenges down the line. Because zombie stories, tend to hold to a very strict structure, the kind where the scares and commentary are generated by the living dead themselves. But having them front and center every single week, eventually removes the fear factor from their rotten visages, meaning that the characters and new challenges are the key to keeping the story fresh and exciting and sadly, not every zombie saga is up to that challenge. But thankfully, one sprawling zombie saga, figured out how to keep a zombie story interesting for years on end. To the point where The Walking Dead is preparing to wrap up its eleventh and final season and will be survived by a bevy of spin-offs.
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But while we now see that interpersonal conflict and unique villains that are shaped by the landscape of a world where the dead walk the earth, are some of the keys to keeping a zombie franchise walking as long as the corpses they feature… it is the humble beginnings of this discovery that is relevant to our discussion today. Because you don’t achieve that kind of formula and understanding without trying something bold out first and it just so happens that the next episode of this storied saga is where the writers’ room discovered new ways to keep the series interesting and keep the scares coming and it accomplished such a feat in ‘Infected’, by giving Rick Grimes and his merry band of survivors some threats from within to deal with. The kind that felt organic and real when all is said and done, since one of the issues they encountered in this tale, was unchecked illness.

For the death and resurrection of Patrick led to the death and resurrection of many, since he returned to his cell block for feeding and well… once the cell block was cleared of the dead, it became clear that a fast-acting flu was responsible for this nightmare. Giving the survivors a new and silent threat to deal with, one that really did add a sense of terror to this tale. Since we hadn’t a clue who might be infected and seeing anyone that was, left the viewer worried and terrified that they might succumb to the illness and turn, and since the flu here was so virulent and contagious, there was a real threat that anyone might fall to its power… including a series regular. Plus, this particular plot thread is of note because it creatively allowed for the living dead to find their way within the walls of the prison, allowing for gory terror to take place, the kind that featured a shout out to George Romero’s Day of the Dead, and it doesn’t hurt that this flu might have had ties to the spread of the virus in the early days of the disaster. More on that in a moment though.

Because we also need to talk about the secondary internal threat present within the cells of the West Georgia Correctional Facility, specifically… that of ignorance and borderline madness. Since this is an episode that revealed that some of the kids that live here, don’t understand the threat that surrounds them. Likely due to the fact that they’ve been kept safe long enough to not really understand the threat or because they’re so broken by the reality of their situation… they choose to escape rather than deal. But either way, being in that kind of mental state, created quite the danger here since it motivated Lizzie to feed the living dead. An act that attracted more of the creatures and created a genuine threat at the fences. One so big that Rick had to abandon his dreams of peace to keep the dead at bay, and it was genuinely fascinating to inject this kind of unique threat into the storyline since few horror stories ever address the possible mental health issues that could arise from the end of the world.

If anything, this was just a bleak and devastating story when all is said and done. One that was intense and gory and utterly terrifying for certain, and it definitely deserves a round of applause for finding a way to keep terror active when safety was the norm for this group and for digging into some fascinating topics for certain. Not to mention, the whole flu thing is something that would appear again in the first season of Fear the Walking Dead. Meaning that Scott Gimple and his writing team, basically figured out how the world ended so quickly in this universe. Since a fast-acting flu, one that carried the zombie virus as well and could kill its hosts quickly… would be the perfect way to create millions of reanimated corpses. But all of that aside, this really was a great episode. For it truly ups the stakes like never before and informs us… that things are going to get far worse before they get better. But most important of all, it laid out a blueprint for the future, one that would help the show remain engaging for seven more seasons. Until next time.  

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