by Michele Pearson:
It’s only been a few months since the season finale aired for The Walking Dead and people are already counting down for season four. Walker Stalkers are on the ground in Georgia, capturing the cast and some of the various spoiler-ish locations around Senoia, Georgia. All have been enough to keep Walker fans hungry for official news on, what has been promised to be, an explosive season four…and holy hell did they deliver today at San Diego Comic-Con with the debut of the season trailer.
New showrunner, Scott Gimple, appears to have delivered on his promise to keep the show’s story moving. There are more zombies, more humans and a LOT more drama going on inside the prison. It seems the threat this year will be the prison itself. Remember, Rick brought back all those Woodbury residents to the prison. A lot of them were older, a lot were children and certainly some of them could harbor some kind of mental instability, especially after following the Governor for the better part of a year. It will be nice to see some “life on the farm” scenes showing what’s really happening inside the prison world now. We saw a lot of Woodbury, from the Friday Night Walker Fights to the Saturday afternoon block parties. In season three, we really didn’t get to see much day to day life inside the prison but it seems to be the main stage this next year.
One thing I noticed, and this is a biggie, is the character development that has occurred. Now how can I see that in a four minute long trailer you might ask? There were enough clues dropped for us to see what we can expect from our surviving veterans:
- Carol: She has gone from the abused wife to teaching the kids in the prison proper knife use. She appears to be calling the shots as far as security on the fence is concerned. Not only that, but Carol has obviously grown from being a submissive, weak almost disposal character into a woman with a strong will and a mind of her own. Bravo to Melissa McBride for turning a character that was, originally, not one of my favorites into someone I’m rooting for.
- Rick: Not much was shown of Rick in the trailer. He’s still taking care of his baby daughter and appears to still be running things in the prison. Will he still see his wife’s ghost or has he decided to hop off the train to crazy town?
- Hershel, Carl and Beth: Hershel is still the voice of reason (with an apparent prosthetic leg? Awesome!), Carl looks all grown up and Beth is…well…Beth. I’d love to see some growth from her as a character this season or she might as well be a sacrificial lamb to the walker gods.
- Maggie and Glenn: Still together but they appear defeated. Glenn proposed to Maggie last season but it’s obvious that something is up with these two. I doubt the writers would break up the show’s power couple but then again…this is the zombie apocalypse.
- Michonne: Riding a horse, still swinging her katana and joining up with Daryl. I love her!
- Sasha and Tyreese: Tyreese is without a doubt my favorite character from the comic series. His comic character joins Rick early and, well…not all of you have read the comic series so I’ll stop there. Tyreese of the show is the same character (looks the same, carries the hammer, is a strong leader, etc) but he and his younger sister Sasha (not a comic book original), were driven from the prison by Rick’s craziness and fell into service of the Governor. They declined to participate in the Governor’s failed “attack” on the prison and joined Rick and the gang at the end of the season finale. Sasha appears to be taking on the strong comic series-Andrea character and I applaud the writers for giving that role to her. However, I have a sinking suspicion that Tyreese’s storyline will start to merge with the one from the comic and then all sorts of pain and anguish will befall the fandom. I hope he doesn’t die early. I want to see the hammer wielding badass from the comic. Plus, he’s part of the Trifecta of Awesome: Rick/Tyreese/Daryl…which brings me to:
- Daryl Dixon: Fan favorite, crossbow wielding, redneck with the heart of gold…y’all know I love the man as well as the man behind the character, Mr. Norman Reedus. Daryl is portrayed prominently in the trailer, appearing to join up with Michonne, Tyreese and Sasha at various points. Daryl is obviously still Rick’s right hand but appears to have been promoted from Lieutenant to General. His brother Merle was, of course, killed last season and I wonder how Daryl is coping with that. Also, how is he coping living with people who were baying for his blood in the ring when he was captured in Woodbury? Reedus has said from season one that he has been “planting seeds” with regards to the Dixon backstory, and we saw one of those seeds grow when it was flat out stated that Daryl was beaten and abused as a child by his father. However, I’m sure that there are more seeds out there which will grow and bear fruit this season and give us more insight into what could have been a one-dimensional, background character as opposed to one that is so central to the current storylines. After watching the trailer, I’ve almost (almost) forgiven AMC for the scheduling conflict that caused Norman Reedus to cancel out on Texas Frightmare in May.
- The newbies from Woodbury: Who are they? What skills do they bring to the table? How many of them are loyal to Team Prison and how many wish the Governor would ride back in and save them? Since it appears that someone is feeding the Walkers along the fences in a possible attempt to tear the prison’s first defense down, that scenario is entirely possible.
- Missing from the trailer: The Governor and his road trip crew. The last we saw of our favorite one-eyed, wannabe dictator, he was riding off into the sunset after slaughtering his entire army. His road trip buddies, Martinez and Shumpert, were a bit wary of their boss (wouldn’t you after you watched your co-workers mowed down?) but got in the truck with him anyway. Where did they take off to? Did Phillip sulk off to lick his wounds and form a new army of followers? How does he play into season four? And when will he return? I have a feeling that he will come back at the mid-season break, just in time for the closing music of the episode to play right before the screen goes black.
I’m excited for the October. I can’t wait to watch the first episode play out. I know we’re going to lose some people but I am sure that we’re going to have some new characters join the cast and quickly worm their way into the hearts of the fandom. Until then I’ll just find some stuff and thangs to do to keep myself occupied.
Michele Pearson is a contributor for DarkMedia. She covers Vampire Diaries and any other films, books, etc that come her way. She reads everything from Lonesome Dove to Game of Thrones and loves epic tv series like Doctor Who and Star Trek: TNG. Michele also loves a good horror film and was able to channel that love as a judge for Shriekfest 2012. Follow her on Twitter at @GirlInRowB and check out her blog at http://www.girlinrowb.com.
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