Introduction
This is an extensive study into the
timeline of AMC's The Walking Dead. This is a topic of
considerable debate. On the whole, I will say that the time that has
passed since the beginning of the global outbreak is approximately 19
months. This is based on many factors, the more specific of which I
shall outline below, but I can provide some basic information to
offer as general evidence.
Actors and others associated with the
show repeatedly state, in interviews and such, that (at least by the
end of season 4) we are about a year and a half into the apocalypse.
Greg Nicotero states in "Dispatches From the Set – Executive
Producer and Special FX Makeup Designer Greg Nicotero on Season 5" on the AMC website on the appearance of walkers, "These walkers
have been around for what we estimate to be a year and a half..." (http://blogs.amctv.com/the-walking-dead/2014/06/dispatches-from-the-set-executive-producer-and-special-fx-makeup-designer-greg-nicotero-on-season-5/)
Nicotero states in another interview, "We talk The Walking Dead
Season 4 with Greg Nicotero!" from Channel Guide Magazine, "...
you figure it's probably been about a year and a half since The
Turn".
(http://www.channelguidemagblog.com/index.php/2013/12/31/the-walking-dead-season-4-spoilers/)
(However, it is to be noted that, in the very same interview, he makes the
broad claim that the group was in the prison "for a year, year
and a half", without taking into consideration two things: First
and foremost, they were not in the prison since the very
beginning -- see the entireties of seasons 1 and 2 for reference; if it's been a year and a half since "The Turn", it is
impossible for them to have been there for a year and a half. Also,
they arrive at the prison 10 months into the outbreak; if there is a
six-month time skip between seasons 3 and 4, then they were only at
the prison for about seven months, nowhere close to a year.) In an interview shown on the Talking Dead episode for 411 "Claimed", Andrew Lincoln, who plays Rick Grimes, says while talking about Rick's run-in
with the Claimers, "This is a year and a half after the
apocalypse..."
However, there have of course been some
slightly conflicting statements. Nicotero later says in an interview
with Entertainment Weekly after episode 512 "Remember" on the
acclimation of the characters to the security of the Alexandria Safe-Zone, "...
they have been conditioned for almost two years to have this sense of
dread." (http://www.ew.com/article/2015/02/27/walking-dead-director-greg-nicotero-reveals-deleted-scenes-latest-episode)
Michael Cudlitz, who plays Abraham Ford, says after the airing of 505 "Self Help" in an
interview with Vanity Fair after the revelation of Eugene Porter, "... he
realizes that the last two years of his life were a lie." (http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2014/11/the-walking-dead-michael-cudlitz)
However, it is possible, at least for Cudlitz, that he was referring
to the general years themselves: If the outbreak began, for example,
in mid-2010 and Eugene's confession was made in late 2011, then
Cudlitz could be referring to the general years of 2011 and 2010. As for Nicotero, he could be rounding
19 months (which is when they arrive at Alexandria) to "almost two years", even though it is just one month more than a year and a
half.
Moreover, during the "Dead Live" quiz segment of the Talking Dead
episode for 502 "Strangers", it is revealed that Father Gabriel
Stokes had been "alone" in his church for 17 months before Rick's group found him. This gives a rough idea of
how far we were into the apocalypse at that time. However, it is also
to be noted that Seth Gilliam, who plays Gabriel, remarks in the
Talking Dead episode
for 510 "Them" that Gabriel was in "solitary confinement for, like, 18 months". It is possible that, overall, he was confined in his church for 18 months, but was "alone" for 17 months, ever since his final contact with humans when they tried to get into his church, which could have been a month into the outbreak (though I do realize and admit that this itself is a stretch, and a more plausible explanation would simply be that the timeline is hardly existent and thus sources are going to differ). Another possible explanation is that Gabriel was indeed in confinement for 17 months, but Gilliam was using the loose approximation of 18 months, knowing that the general consensus was that we were a year and a half, or 18 months, into the outbreak at that time. Nevertheless, if the former explanation is indeed the case, then that would place the bombing of Atlanta around a month into the outbreak, since Gabriel mentions that Atlanta had been bombed the night before his congregation came to his church. In
any case, the conclusion is similar: By that point, about a year and
a half had passed since the beginning of the outbreak.
Nevertheless,
people cannot seem to come to an agreement where the timeline is
concerned. Now, this very well could be the writers' complete inability to create a logical timeline, but, if we disregard some major issues surrounding the beginning of the outbreak, we can arrive at a (relatively, very relatively) stable number. People opt for a longer timeline, either pulling numbers
out of nowhere for the lengths of each season or claiming that,
despite sources such as the TV Show Timeline on the Wikia
(with which I will not entirely agree, as you will see below, but
which offers a pretty accurate idea for the overall timeline -- check it out here: http://walkingdead.wikia.com/wiki/The_Walking_Dead_TV_Show_Timeline),
seasons are actually longer than they appear to be due to unseen time
skips. Well-known YouTuber Trevschan2 has criticized the Television
Show Timeline, for it often wrongly, as he believes, equates every
individual episode to an individual day, which nevertheless is quite
often the case. The visible age of Carl Grimes, played by Chandler
Riggs, is another oft-cited piece of evidence for a longer timeline,
but supporters of this claim do not take into consideration that
Chandler Riggs is a real-life human child who is going to age
naturally over the course of five real-life human years (over which the show has been shot, by the end of season 5).
Additionally, often people resort to the ever lousy argument of "It
just feels longer" without really providing any evidence for such a lengthy timeline. I
have heard conclusions of two years, three years; I have even heard
someone claim that six years have passed. It is my goal to put an end
to this nonsense and spell out, using strict evidence from the show
and other reliable sources, that the timeline is a mere 19 months.
Season 1
The timeline of season 1 is structured
around a statement that Dr. Edwin Jenner makes in episode 105 "Wildfire",
in which he states that, as of that episode, "63 days [have passed]
since the disease abruptly went global." He says this on the same
day on which the survivors are, since we see him, after this
transmission, watching via security camera as the survivors approach the CDC at the end of the episode. Working
backwards from this, we are able to tell that Rick wakes up 59 days
after the virus went global.
Already, it must be noted, we run into a dilemma. Regardless of how Rick was able to survive for two months in a run-down hospital, the real question is whether he was actually comatose for that long at all. Jenner's statement would lead us to believe that he was comatose for, at the very least, about two months: During the pre-apocalypse scenes at the beginning of 101 "Days Gone Bye", there is no sign or mention of zombies, likely meaning that the outbreak had not yet gone global. However, Robert Kirkman and Glen Mazzara have separately said that Rick was in his coma for three to four weeks. This is particularly curious for Mazzara, who himself wrote 105. Either he had a specific reason for picking 63 days, or he needed a number and just pulled that out of his ass, or it wasn't even he who wrote that line. I feel the latter two are more likely. Furthermore, the release of Fear the Walking Dead has complicated matters even further: Dave Erickson, the showrunner for the companion series, has come out and said (well, that makes it sound like he made some big announcement -- he did not; he really said it more in passing), somewhat definitively, that Rick was in his coma for four to five weeks. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAJ1elwOH98&list=PLP63B9XPsQt1rmPkG6kn5sNfVRr_T4Gnv&index=24) If we are to believe either one of these claims, then we must then believe that Rick was shot after a zombie apocalypse had ravaged the entire world, was still on-duty and was content to joke about women while civilization crumbled around him, and that children were still going to school in the middle of an apocalypse.
This also raises the question of how he was able to survive so long, comatose and alone in the hospital, regardless of which count we use. It is revealed in the webseries The Oath that a doctor, after the attack by the military, remained at the hospital and took care of patients. While Rick is never shown, it is likely that she took care of him as well, as it is the same hospital. In the final webisode, the doctor dies and Paul, one of the characters, paints the "Don't Open Dead Inside" warning on the cafeteria doors before leaving; Rick must have woken up not long after, as he would have been without care. This raises another question as it answers the first, however, and that is concerning the gurney that Shane places in front of Rick's door in the flashback in 106 "TS-19", which is still there when he wakes up despite having to have been moved in order for the doctor to move in and out of the room. I cannot comment on this, other than perhaps the doctor, being the only up-and-around person in the hospital and having remarked that sometimes walkers find their way in, replaced the gurney each time she left the room for the added protection. In any case, this all would explain, however poorly, how Rick survived, was able to walk with any semblance of strength, and was not stricken with terrible bedsores after remaining stationary on a bed for two months (or three weeks, or four weeks, or five weeks -- who really knows?). Let me also point out that the doctor relates to one of the characters that it's "been a few months" since the military attacked the hospital. When Rick was in his coma for two months and that was all good and well, this was not too much of a stretch to believe: While "few" typically means "three", it could mean that the doctor was just referring to several months in general, or she had lost track of time. However, if we are to believe that Rick was comatose for just some number of weeks, around a month, then this makes the doctor's claim instantly more dubious: Rick was in his coma when the military attacked the hospital. If he was comatose for some weeks and no longer, then the military would have had to have attacked the hospital prior to his entering the coma, but we know that this is not the case.
In short, this is a very complicated issue and not one that can ever be concluded upon.
Already, it must be noted, we run into a dilemma. Regardless of how Rick was able to survive for two months in a run-down hospital, the real question is whether he was actually comatose for that long at all. Jenner's statement would lead us to believe that he was comatose for, at the very least, about two months: During the pre-apocalypse scenes at the beginning of 101 "Days Gone Bye", there is no sign or mention of zombies, likely meaning that the outbreak had not yet gone global. However, Robert Kirkman and Glen Mazzara have separately said that Rick was in his coma for three to four weeks. This is particularly curious for Mazzara, who himself wrote 105. Either he had a specific reason for picking 63 days, or he needed a number and just pulled that out of his ass, or it wasn't even he who wrote that line. I feel the latter two are more likely. Furthermore, the release of Fear the Walking Dead has complicated matters even further: Dave Erickson, the showrunner for the companion series, has come out and said (well, that makes it sound like he made some big announcement -- he did not; he really said it more in passing), somewhat definitively, that Rick was in his coma for four to five weeks. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAJ1elwOH98&list=PLP63B9XPsQt1rmPkG6kn5sNfVRr_T4Gnv&index=24) If we are to believe either one of these claims, then we must then believe that Rick was shot after a zombie apocalypse had ravaged the entire world, was still on-duty and was content to joke about women while civilization crumbled around him, and that children were still going to school in the middle of an apocalypse.
This also raises the question of how he was able to survive so long, comatose and alone in the hospital, regardless of which count we use. It is revealed in the webseries The Oath that a doctor, after the attack by the military, remained at the hospital and took care of patients. While Rick is never shown, it is likely that she took care of him as well, as it is the same hospital. In the final webisode, the doctor dies and Paul, one of the characters, paints the "Don't Open Dead Inside" warning on the cafeteria doors before leaving; Rick must have woken up not long after, as he would have been without care. This raises another question as it answers the first, however, and that is concerning the gurney that Shane places in front of Rick's door in the flashback in 106 "TS-19", which is still there when he wakes up despite having to have been moved in order for the doctor to move in and out of the room. I cannot comment on this, other than perhaps the doctor, being the only up-and-around person in the hospital and having remarked that sometimes walkers find their way in, replaced the gurney each time she left the room for the added protection. In any case, this all would explain, however poorly, how Rick survived, was able to walk with any semblance of strength, and was not stricken with terrible bedsores after remaining stationary on a bed for two months (or three weeks, or four weeks, or five weeks -- who really knows?). Let me also point out that the doctor relates to one of the characters that it's "been a few months" since the military attacked the hospital. When Rick was in his coma for two months and that was all good and well, this was not too much of a stretch to believe: While "few" typically means "three", it could mean that the doctor was just referring to several months in general, or she had lost track of time. However, if we are to believe that Rick was comatose for just some number of weeks, around a month, then this makes the doctor's claim instantly more dubious: Rick was in his coma when the military attacked the hospital. If he was comatose for some weeks and no longer, then the military would have had to have attacked the hospital prior to his entering the coma, but we know that this is not the case.
In short, this is a very complicated issue and not one that can ever be concluded upon.
Rick wakes up and departs from the hospital. After visiting his house, he crosses paths with Morgan and Duane Jones, who take him in, nurse him back to health, and fill him in on what is going on.
The next morning, as per the AMC website, day 60, Rick, Morgan,
and Duane retrieve some guns from the police station of King County,
where Rick formerly worked as a sheriff's deputy, and go their
separate ways (http://www.amc.com/shows/the-walking-dead/season-1/episode-01-days-gone-bye). Rick heads into Atlanta in search of the refugee
center of which the Joneses told him but finds Atlanta to be overrun.
He hides inside of a tank to escape the herd of walkers and is
contacted by an unknown voice.
102 "Guts" begins right where the
pilot left off. Rick meets some new faces: those of Glenn Rhee (whose voice
was heard at the end of the last episode), Theodore "T-Dog" Douglas, Morales, Andrea, Jacqui, and Merle Dixon. Merle is left
handcuffed to a roof as the others escape Atlanta and head back to
camp.
103 "Tell It to the Frogs" picks up
on the same day as the previous episode ended. Shane Walsh tells Carl that he'll teach him how to catch frogs the next day. Rick reunites with his
family; that night, he and his wife Lori have sex. A night passes.
Rick, T-Dog, Glenn, and Merle's brother
Daryl head into Atlanta to rescue Merle and retrieve the bag of guns
that Rick dropped the day before but, when they return to the
building atop which he was handcuffed, they find him to be gone. Meanwhile, Shane teaches Carl how to catch frogs.
104 "Vatos" picks up where 103 left
us. The men are standing on the rooftop. They then head down to get
the guns but they are ambushed by the Vatos and Glenn is taken. After
a short stand-off, the true nature of the Vatos is revealed and Rick
relinquishes some of the guns to them and takes the rest for his own group. As they are leaving, they discover that their truck has been
stolen and so have to travel on foot back to camp. When they arrive,
they find it being attacked by walkers. They help to take down the
invading herd but by then, they have lost many.
105 "Wildfire" starts the very next
day, day 62. Andrea is still looming over her sister Amy, who was bitten in the attack but has not turned.
The survivors are just barely getting rid of the bodies from the
night before. Jim is revealed to be bitten. Later in the day, Shane
announces that they will be heading to the CDC first thing the next
morning, and this they do.
The next day, day 63, the survivors
head to Atlanta. However, Jim, in his fevered state, cannot take much
travelling, so they decide to leave him next to a tree to die in
peace. That evening, they arrive at the CDC and are allowed in by Dr.
Edwin Jenner. While there is a cut from when Jenner makes his first
transmission to when he enters the laboratory, it does not seem
unreasonable to assume that these occur on the same day; this is why
I have made this day the sixty-third day, since Jenner notices the
survivors approaching the building on the same day as his lab
testings. In any case, the general
conclusion is the same: By the time they arrive at the CDC, it is
around two months into the global outbreak. Also, something of note:
In 503 "Four Walls and a Roof", Glenn mentions that Jim lived
nearly two days after being bitten before they left him beside the
road.
106 "TS-19" picks up exactly where
the previous episode left off: with the survivors being allowed into
the CDC. That night, they party with alcohol. The next day, many
suffer from hangovers. Andrea reveals their true reason for coming to
the CDC and Jenner brings them to the main room and explains his
research. Lori tells him that Andrea lost her sister two days before,
on day 62. Jenner reveals that the building will self-destruct when
the timer on the wall reaches 0. By the end, they all manage to make
it out alive, besides Jacqui, who decides to stay behind and die with
Jenner. This concludes the final day of season 1, day 64.
Ultimately, season 1 portrays six days.
To me, there is little room for debate. What we are given spells out
the passage of time quite clearly. We can now head into season 2 with
a reasonable degree of certainty.
Season 2
Season 2 picks up two days after the
end of season 1. Rick states in the beginning of 201 "What Lies
Ahead" that they lost another of their own (Jacqui) the "day
before last." If season 1 concluded on day 64, then season 2 must
begin on day 66. On this day, they begin their journey to Fort
Benning but break down on the highway. Carol Peletier's daughter Sophia goes
missing and Rick is unable to find her before nightfall. Rick assures
Carol that they will continue searching for Sophia at first light.
They head out, linger around a church for a bit, and continue,
Rick, Shane, and Carl together in one group. Carl is then shot as he
approaches a deer.
202 "Bloodletting" begins, quite
obviously on the very same day. Rick lugs an unconscious Carl all the
way to Hershel Greene's farm, where Hershel prepares to operate on
Carl. However, they are missing crucial medical supplies, and so
Shane and Otis, the latter of whom shot Carl, head out to the nearby high school
where a medical center was set up to retrieve some. By the end of
this episode, it is nighttime.
203 "Save the Last One" begins on
this same night. Shane and Otis are still at the school. Eventually,
Shane is forced to shoot Otis and he collects the medical gear and
heads back to the farm. This is pretty much all that happens this
episode.
204 "Cherokee Rose" begins the very
next morning, day 68. The rest of the survivors arrive at Hershel's
farm. The group holds a small funeral service for Otis, an event that
would likely not be postponed. Rick begins to deliberate for that
day's search for Sophia and informs Hershel that this day "will be
day three" that she has been lost. Rick and Shane, however, cannot
go out due to giving so much blood and spraining his ankle
respectively. Daryl, on his search, comes across a makeshift bed in
an old farmhouse. At the end of the day, Lori takes a pregnancy test,
revealing that she is pregnant.
Now, I admit that there is an element
of uncertainty once 205 "Chupacabra" comes into play. In the
beginning of the episode, the characters are preparing to follow up
on Daryl's finding of the farmhouse. While the episode gives no hints
that this is the immediately following day, it seems to me that,
especially in such a sensitive search as that for a young, alone, and
defenseless little girl, they would not wait to follow up on this
first clue that they have received. Furthermore, if more time than, say, a
week has passed (to allow Carl more time to heal, so that it does not seem so unrealistic that he is up and walking after three days), I am doubtful that
the characters, especially Rick and Shane, would still be so invested
in this search. Shane does express his doubts in the woods to Rick,
stating that even before the apocalypse, after a child was missing
for 72 hours, they would be looking for a corpse. Rick, however, the
reasonable former police officer, is adamant that she is still alive.
I wonder if he would still feel the same about the young, alone,
defenseless little girl if she had been lost for over a week in this
world in which a grown man can barely survive on his own. All in all,
I would conclude that this episode takes place the very next day
after "Cherokee Rose", day 69.
206 "Secrets" starts the very next
day. Of this we can be certain because in "Chupacabra", Shane
states that he will begin gun training the next day, and in this
episode, that is exactly what he does. Now, at this point, it has
been three days since Carl was shot and he is now up and walking
around. How is this possible? I really have no idea. I can only
attribute this to the fact that the writers are incapable of
constructing a coherent timeline.
207 "Pretty Much Dead Already" starts the very next day, on day 71. Daryl informs us that he found
Sophia's doll two days ago, on day 69 in "Chupacabra". This
episode plays out, Sophia is found in the barn as a walker, and the barn walkers
are mown down.
208 "Nebraska" picks up right where
207 left off. Shane accuses Hershel of knowing that Sophia was in the
barn the entire time and later Hershel leaves for town. Rick and
Glenn go to retrieve him and find him in a bar. As they are about to
leave, two men, Dave and Tony, enter. Meanwhile, Lori sets out to get
Hershel for some reason, even though Rick was already sent out to get
him, and crashes the car she stole from Hershel's daughter Maggie after, for whatever reason, trying to read a map while driving. At the bar, the five men converse for a while and Dave begins to
get insistent upon returning to the farm with Hershel, Rick, and
Glenn. When Dave reaches for his gun, Rick shoots him and Tony.
209 "Triggerfinger" picks up right
where 208 left off. It is now nighttime and Dave and Tony's group
mates begin attacking Rick, Hershel, and Glenn. They manage to fight
them off and pick up Randall (surname revealed to be Culver in a
deleted scene), whose leg was impaled on a fence. At the end of the
episode, it is the very next morning, day 72, and they return to the
farm.
210 "18 Miles Out" takes place a
week after the events of 209. Rick tells Shane that he's "been
waiting a week till [they] were gonna do this." For the sake of the
timeline, I have considered a "week" to be exactly seven days (from day
72 to day 79), and this will coincide with a fact that I will bring
up later. Now, on day 79, the events of this episode transpire and
end as Rick and Shane are returning to the farm.
211 "Judge, Jury, Executioner" occurs two days later, on day 81. While nothing
in the episode alludes to this, I shall explain myself when we get to
the season finale. In the morning, Daryl interrogates Randall and
receives information about the boy's camp. Over the course of the
day, Dale Horvath pleads his case to spare Randall but, in the end,
the group (minus Dale and Andrea) agrees on his execution. That
night, Dale is out wandering the fields when he is ambushed by a
walker who tears him asunder. Daryl puts him out of his misery when
Rick is unable to do so.
212 "Better Angels" occurs the day
following 211 (Rick refers to what Daryl did as "last night").
The group holds a funeral service for Dale. Hershel begins to move
the group into his house. Later, Lori needlessly toys with Shane's
emotions. Shane takes Randall from the shed and leads him into the
woods to kill him. He starts a scene and he, Rick, Glenn, and Daryl
start a search for a Randall who, according to Shane, attacked him
and is now armed. Rick and Shane head out together while Glenn and
Daryl are together. Shane leads Rick out to a field and prepares to
kill him, but Rick gains the upper hand and puts him down. Carl
arrives and puts down the zombified Shane. Carl and Rick head back to
the farm together as a super herd looms in the background.
213 "Beside the Dying Fire" starts
right where 212 left off. Rick and Carl are heading back to the farm
when they notice the walkers behind them. The battle of this episode
carries out, the farm falls, and the survivors are scattered. The
next morning, on day 83, they reconvene on the highway on which they
originally broke down on day 66.
Ultimately, season 2 portrays 19 days.
Again, there is not much more room for debate when the show gives a
superabundance of clues that not as much time has passed as people
tend to believe. People question how Carl could have recovered from
such a mortal gunshot wound in a matter of days. To this, I have no
answer other than the writers lost track of time. They introduced two
time-sensitive storylines this season: Sophia going missing and Carl
getting shot. By the time they come across Sophia, it is necessary
that not much time has passed since she went missing so that we as
viewers do not begin questioning the characters' motivations: If many
weeks pass, to allow for Carl's recovery, why do the characters
continue to search for a little girl who is alone and defenseless? a little girl who cannot take down a walker and likely cannot find food
and water for herself? Meanwhile, Carl is shot, and it is necessary
that there be time for him to recover; this is what the writers
overlooked. They had him recover while the characters are still
searching for Sophia, and this is the problem. What needed to be done
was one of a few things: Sophia does not go missing, Carl does not
get shot, or Carl is in recovery for the entirety of the season and
so is not present when Sophia is found. This would have been an
interesting dynamic, in my opinion, and an interesting development
for Carl's character, being told that his friend was found as a
walker on the very farm on which they had been staying. However, if
the writers needed him as a plot device to kill off Dale, then he
would have had to have recovered by that point and been up and able
to walk to wander into the forest and antagonize a walker. For this,
a longer season (time-wise, not episode-wise – I was quite content
with a 13-episode season) would have been required as well. If Sophia
is found in a matter of days after she goes missing, then a time skip
afterwards (like the one between 209 and 210) would be useful. Over
this, say, two weeks, Carl would heal up and be able to go out and
get people killed just fine. Of course, I am no expert on gunshot
wounds, and have no idea if two weeks would be sufficient time to
heal, but I guarantee that it is more reasonable than three days.
Nevertheless, I am beating a dead horse here, and this is a study
into what is rather than what should have been, so I shall continue
with the timeline.
I mentioned above that the week between
209 and 210 was exactly seven days. (Of course one week is equal to
seven days, but Rick could have been rounding from six or eight.) I
also make the assumption that 211 is two days following 210. While
there is no indication of this within the episode itself, it
coincides with a tweet made by Glen Mazzara on 20 March, 2012. A fan
asks, "what is the time lapse from when the group was searching for
Sophia and their return to the highway in the finale?" Mazzara
responds, "The finale takes place 12 days after they found Sophia." (https://twitter.com/glenmazzara/status/182101272613240833)
Now, I admit, there are two conflicting things here: The fan asks
how much time has passed between the group searching for Sophia in general and
returning to the highway specifically; Mazzara responds with how much
time takes place from when they find Sophia in the barn specifically and the "finale" in general. I consider this a matter of
interpretation, and I interpret that Mazzara was using "finale" as a way to refer to the highway scene, to which the asker originally refers. When they arrive at the highway, it is 12 days after
they find Sophia in the barn. This works fine with several things: We
know there is one day after the shootout at the bar; there is one
week from that day to the events of 210; and the events of 211, 212,
and 213 occur in a succession of three days (day 1 – Dale dies; day
2 – Shane dies and farm falls; day 3 – group reconvenes at
highway and Ricktatorship is declared). So, regardless of how long
Rick's "week" actually is or when 211 takes place in relation to
210, the fact of the matter is that 12 days pass from the midseason
finale to the season finale. Also, regardless of whether Mazzara was
referring to the night of the fall of the farm or the reconvention on
the highway, it has virtually no effect on the overall timeline.
By the end of season 2, how much time
has passed since the beginning of the apocalypse? According to the
timeline on the Wikia for The Walking Dead and my own investigation,
nearly 3 months have passed (83 days), regardless of the
interpretation of Mazzara's tweet. This coincides with two things
that we are told in season 3: that Tomas and his fellows were locked
in the cafeteria 10 months ago and that the farm was overrun seven to
eight months prior to the events of season 3. If season 2 ends three
months into the outbreak, seven months pass, and season 3 picks up 10
months into the outbreak, then this all works out. However, this is
assuming that Tomas and the others were locked up at the very
beginning of the outbreak. Perhaps a month passed before the guards
finally realized that they should evacuate the prisoners; this would
mean that season 3 actually picked up 11 months into the apocalypse.
It is hard to be sure. Mazzara stated on Twitter that season 2 ended
four months into the apocalypse
(https://twitter.com/glenmazzara/status/181926503305588737),
a whole month later than what the timeline tells us. Is this
possible? No, not from my count, but it would have helped us out with
a couple things: give Carl more time to heal from his gunshot wound
(according to our timeline, he was up and about three days after
getting shot) and give Rick more time to descend into badassery. The
latter is not impossible in a 12-day period (Rick wakes on day 59,
kills Dave and Tony on day 71), but somewhat questionable for a
former police officer. (You might also be wondering why I have taken
Mazzara's word that the latter half of season 2 is 12 days, when he
so obviously had no idea how far into the apocalypse we were by the
end of season 2 – it was Mazzara, after all, who wrote "Wildfire",
in which we get our first solid clue to the timeline. I would just
say that the 12 day thing does not contradict anything that we are
shown in the show. It is entirely feasible, as I outlined above, and helps us construct a
timeline for the second half of the season – and this is how I will
approach outside sources that give us hints on the timeline: If it
does not contradict anything that we are given in the show, then
great; if it obviously goes against what we are shown, then it cannot
be used.)
With this in mind, if season 3 picks up
10 months into the apocalypse, it makes one wonder about Andrea's
statement. Of course, she could be getting her dates wrong, as I'm
sure it is difficult to keep track of time in an apocalypse. However,
if she is not, and it really has been seven to eight months since the
farm, and season 2 ended four months into the outbreak (for the sake
of discussion), then season 3 must take place 11 to 12 months into
the outbreak.
Season 3 starting 10 months into the
apocalypse and lasting about three weeks fits in well with what we have been told by Seth Gilliam, assuming that there is a
six-month jump between seasons 3 and 4. However, starting season 3
11, or even 12, months into it all, sets us ahead to 19 or 20 months
by the beginning of season 5, when we come across Gabriel. When we
meet Gabriel, he has been in his church 17 (according to Talking
Dead) or 18 (according to Seth Gilliam) months. There is a slight
margin here that we must take into consideration.
If season 3 begins seven months after
season 2, and season 2 ends four months into it, and season 3 lasts
about a month, then season 4 would pick up about 18 months into the
apocalypse. Already we have met or perhaps passed our constriction
when it comes to Gabriel, and we will not have met him for around
another month. Already there is an issue. In an interview with Greg
Nicotero before the start of season 5, he states that there was an
eight-month skip between seasons 2 and 3
(https://tv.yahoo.com/blogs/tv-news/walking-dead-greg-nicotero-season-5-001244752.html),
which means (if Mazzara's word is to be trusted, which it cannot be)
that season 3 begins a whole year into the outbreak, meaning that, by
the time season 4 comes around, we would be a whole 19 months into
the apocalypse. Now we must question Nicotero's word because, in that
same interview, he stated that there was also an eight-month jump
between seasons 3 and 4 (I will return to this point when we get to
season 4), which would bring us a whole 21 months into the apocalypse
by the time season 4 comes along (and it would also contradict a
statement that Nicotero made around the same time, in the interview I
quote above before season 5, that, at that time, we were about a year
and a half into the apocalypse)! This sets us too far away from
Talking Dead's statement of 17 months having passed by season
5 and Seth Gilliam's of 18 months to take these statements into
serious consideration.
With this in mind, we shall continue on
to season 3.
Season 3
Season 3 picks up seven to eight months
after the end of season 2. An entire winter has passed. For the sake
of this timeline, I am settling on a passage of seven months. As I
worked out above, starting season 3 at 10 months into the apocalypse
and ending it near 11 months into it works out better with Seth
Gilliam's statement that Gabriel was in his church for 18 months.
Figuring that season 3 starts seven months after season 2 is very
illuminating when it comes to Lori's pregnancy and the paternity of
Judith Grimes.
If the average pregnancy is about nine
months, or 280 days, and season 3 begins 10 months, or about 300
days, into the outbreak, and Lori is overdue to give birth, according to Carol in 302 "Sick", and Judith is born not long after, then she
must have been conceived sometime very early in the apocalypse, maybe around day 10, with Shane. Lori reunites with Rick and they copulate
on day 60; she takes her pregnancy test on day 68. If the baby were
Rick's, eight days is typically not long enough for a common
over-the-counter pregnancy test to reveal anything (this is assuming,
of course, that the writers themselves were aware that only eight
days passed between those two events; my guess is that they were not
– I have little faith in their competence during the season 2
days). Shane's statement in 207 that he and Lori "carried on quite a bit before Rick got back" supports a prolonged relationship between the two and thus an early conception date for Judith.
Now, needless to say, this is a tad curious: All this time we have believed that Shane and Lori copulated while Rick was in his coma. If Rick was in his coma for over two months, prior to the start of the global outbreak, then this would have been the case. However, we have conflicting information: He could have been in his coma for a mere few weeks; more recent information (via Dave Erickson) has, somewhat definitively, concluded that Rick was in his coma for four to five weeks. If you have read my breakdown of season 1, then you are already aware that this point in the timeline is very murky and it is pointless even to attempt to break it down. However, let me humor you slightly and needlessly point out that if Judith was conceived that early in the global outbreak, and Rick was in his coma for such a short span of time, then that means Shane and Lori were seeing each other behind Rick's back! Before Rick even went into his coma! If you needed even more of a reason to hate Lori, here it is.
Now, needless to say, this is a tad curious: All this time we have believed that Shane and Lori copulated while Rick was in his coma. If Rick was in his coma for over two months, prior to the start of the global outbreak, then this would have been the case. However, we have conflicting information: He could have been in his coma for a mere few weeks; more recent information (via Dave Erickson) has, somewhat definitively, concluded that Rick was in his coma for four to five weeks. If you have read my breakdown of season 1, then you are already aware that this point in the timeline is very murky and it is pointless even to attempt to break it down. However, let me humor you slightly and needlessly point out that if Judith was conceived that early in the global outbreak, and Rick was in his coma for such a short span of time, then that means Shane and Lori were seeing each other behind Rick's back! Before Rick even went into his coma! If you needed even more of a reason to hate Lori, here it is.
To continue, I have set the beginning
of season 3 to be on day 300, like on the Wikia. 10 months itself is
approximately 300 days (30 * 10), plus a couple days for the days that have 31 days (and then minus a few, since they passed through February); Oscar reveals in 302 "Sick" that the
prison was evacuated 292 days prior to the events of that episode;
Axel gives his own count of 294. In any case, we know that, in
general, we are 10 months in. The editors of the Wikia timeline and I
have decided on the nice, even, happy-medium of 300 days. I hope you
will not object.
301 "Seed" starts, then, on day
300. They get to the prison and clear out the field. Rick decides
that they will push into the prison the next day. They sleep for the
night.
The next day, day 301, they enter the
prison. They clear out a cell block and settle in to rest. Rick
announces that they will find the cafeteria and the infirmary in the
morning.
The next morning, on day 302, they gear
up to search more of the prison. During their search of the Tombs,
Hershel is bitten and hauled into the cafeteria. Rick amputates his
leg as a group of prisoners watches on.
Throughout the episode, we are shown
what Michonne and Andrea are up to. While there is no certainty when
this takes place in relation to the main story, I assume that these
scenes take place around the same time as the ones with Rick.
302 "Sick" picks up right where 301
ended. Rick catches the prisoners up on what's happened and later
teaches them how to deal with walkers. When Tomas seemingly tries to
kill Rick, Rick kills Tomas and then locks Andrew out of the prison
in a courtyard full of walkers.
303 "Walk With Me" takes place
around the same time as the last two episodes. I cannot say much
about this episode other than it too takes place seven months after
the end of season 2, as told by Andrea to Merle.
304 "Killer Within" takes place a
week after the end of 302; if we assume that one week is seven days,
then this brings us to day 309. The group is starting to clear out
the bodies from the clear-out the week before. I admit, this raises
the question of why they've waited so long to do it, but I cannot
comment on that (other than the writers needed a way to explain how
Hershel was up and able to walk after getting his leg cut off without any difficulty, so they added
in a time jump). The only thing on which I can comment is that one
week has passed since the last episode and it is now day 309.
Andrew breaks into the prison, opens
the doors for walkers, and sets the alarms off. Lori goes into labor
alone with Carl and Maggie and walkers trap them in the boiler room.
Maggie is forced to perform an emergency Caesarian section and Lori
dies in the process. Meanwhile, Rick and Daryl are attacked by
Andrew. Oscar shoots Andrew and gives Rick back his gun. Carol and
T-Dog are together and T-Dog sacrifices himself to save Carol, who
later goes missing and whom the others believe to be dead. The
episode ends with Rick finding out about Lori's death in the
courtyard.
305 "Say the Word" picks up right
where 304 leaves off, in the courtyard and on day 309. Maggie and
Daryl head out on a supply run for baby formula. Rick storms into the
prison, slaughtering walkers on his rampage, to get to the boiler
room. Maggie and Daryl return later in the evening and they feed
Judith.
The next day, as per the AMC website, at dawn, Daryl visits
Carol's grave and leaves her a Cherokee rose. Meanwhile, Rick, who is
still sitting in the boiler room from the day before, gets a phone
call. (http://www.amc.com/shows/the-walking-dead/season-3/episode-05-say-the-word)
306 "Hounded" picks up where 305
left off. Rick talks on the phone for a while and begs the woman on
the other end to allow his group to join them. The woman says she
will call back in two hours.
Rick cleans up and goes out to check up
on the group. Glenn mentions that he and Maggie were planning on
making a run that afternoon. Rick returns to the boiler room and
answers another call, this time from a man. When the man hangs up, Rick
screams.
On their run, Maggie and Glenn are
kidnapped by Merle. Michonne, who has escaped from Woodbury, watches
it happen and brings the basket of baby formula that the couple
dropped back to the prison.
307 "When the Dead Come Knocking" picks up on the same day on which 306 ends, day 310. Merle brutally
interrogates Glenn. Rick brings Michonne into the prison and she
tells them about Woodbury and Maggie and Glenn. They immediately head
out and arrive there by nightfall.
308 "Made to Suffer" picks up that
same night. A battle, during which the Governor loses an eye, Oscar
dies, and Daryl and Merle are forced to duel in front of the Woodbury
citizens, ensues at Woodbury.
309 "The Suicide King" picks up the
same night. Rick rescues Daryl and Merle and they all escape
Woodbury. Meanwhile, Tyreese Williams and his group are welcomed into the
prison by Carl and Hershel. The next day, on day 311 (Rick refers to the battle as "last night"), Rick and the
group debate with Daryl about Merle. Daryl decides to leave the group
to be with Merle.
Rick and the others return to the
prison. After catching up with his own, Rick confronts Tyreese and
his group. As Hershel tries to persuade him to allow Tyreese and the
others to stay, Rick has a hallucination of Lori standing up on
the catwalks. He screams at her to leave and brandishes his gun,
scaring Tyreese and his group away from the prison.
It is to be noted that in this episode,
Hershel tells Tyreese's sister Sasha that Judith is "[b]arely a week" old. This
episode, however, takes place only two days after 304, when Judith
was born. It is possible that Hershel is lying, but there is little
reason why he would be. It is also possible that there is a time skip
between when Rick first arrives in the boiler room and when he gets
his phone call, and the AMC summary is lying to us, but I find this dubious. It is unlikely that he would
remain in that one room, in the exact same clothes and bloodied
state, for almost a week. While I usually take into consideration
what characters tell us, I am ignoring this one because it directly
contradicts what we have seen on the show.
310 "Home" takes place, I am
assuming, the next day, day 312. There is no evidence in the show
this very episode for this (but there is in the following episode), but there are a few things here that give me
this indication. Glenn and Carl are just going over how Tyreese was
able to enter the prison. The Governor is just approaching Andrea
about the speech she gave, presumably, the day before. Glenn, in
general, is hellbent on protecting the prison. It is unlikely to me
that he would wait a couple days to fortify the prison.
311 "I Ain't a Judas" seems to take
place the next day. During the group's discussion about what to do
next, which is likely a discussion that would immediately follow an
attack, Merle states that they should have left the night before (in
other words, immediately after the battle), but their window of
opportunity has closed. If this episode took place the same day as
310, then it would not make sense for him to say this since he was
not at the prison the night before. Furthermore, the Governor's
advisor Milton Mamet says to Andrea that he was informed of the
prison ambush that morning, which sounds to me that the attack
happened not that same day but some day prior. Later, when Milton and
Andrea cross paths with Tyreese's group, Sasha remarks how they have
had a rough couple of days, which likely includes as a reference for
the audience what happened at the end of 309, which was two, or a couple, days ago. Most importantly, the
Governor informs Tyreese's group that Rick's group came at them "a
few days ago." If this day is 313, then "a few days ago" (which
I am assuming has the often-had meaning of "three days ago")
would be right on day 310, when we know with much more certainty Rick
entered Woodbury.
The episode plays out. Andrea visits
the prison and catches up with her old group. Carol, who was found
alive by Daryl in 306, advises Andrea to kill the Governor in his
sleep. Meanwhile, Tyreese and his group enter Woodbury and Tyreese
assures the Governor that they will do whatever they have to do to
earn their keep. Andrea returns to Woodbury and fabricates a story
for the Governor about the state of the prison people. At the prison,
as Beth sings a song, Rick informs Hershel and Daryl that he, Carl,
and Michonne will be going on a run to gather weapons for the
impending battle.
312 "Clear" likely takes place the
next day, day 314. Given the time sensitivity of the situation with
the Governor, they would likely not wait to head out and get more
weapons. Semi-relatedly, Daryl says in 311 that he will go on a run
the next day; it seems likely that Rick would follow a similar plan even if he does not verbalize this. According to the episode recap on the AMC website, Rick says that he will go on the run the next day. While he does not say this in the episode itself, again, it seems likely that he would follow that plan (http://www.amc.com/shows/the-walking-dead/season-3/episode-11-i-aint-a-judas%7CAMC). In this episode, Rick reunites with Morgan Jones and the two catch up; Rick
learns that Morgan's son turned. By the end, Rick, Carl, and Michonne
leave King County without Morgan but with bags of weapons.
313 "Arrow on the Doorpost" takes
place an indeterminable number of days after 312. It does not seem to
me to be happening the day immediately following, but this is of
course mere speculation. Enough time must have passed in order for
there to be some sort of intercommunication between the prison and
Woodbury to establish this meeting. It is to be noted that it seems
that the people at the prison are just barely checking over and
setting in place the guns gotten in 312. The Governor refers to Rick,
Carl, and Michonne's return from King County as "the other day," a phrase that is open to interpretation. However, this means that it
was most likely not the day before, as he would likely have said "yesterday." To me, it could be two days ago – not quite
yesterday, but, you know... "the other day." But I wish to
appease my opponents in this argument of the timeline, and that means
creating a longer timeline in any way possible. As such, I shall, for
the sake of this timeline, set the day of this episode to be 317,
three days after the events of the previous episode, time for Andrea
to commute between the two communities and establish a time and place
for a meeting.
In this episode, Rick and the Governor
meet and eventually come to an agreement: If Rick gives the Governor
Michonne, the conflict between the two communities will cease. The
Governor gives Rick two days to come to his decision.
314 "Prey" occurs the next day, as
it is not yet time for Rick and the Governor to reconvene. This
episode does not feature Rick but instead focuses on Andrea and her
journey to the prison. By the next morning, she has arrived at the prison but is captured by the Governor
and bound and gagged somewhere in Woodbury.
315 "This Sorrowful Life" takes
place the same day as the previous episode ended; it is day 319. It is the
day that they are to bring Michonne to the Governor. Rick asks Merle
to be the one to bring the Governor Michonne. Merle heads out but
Rick quickly regrets his decision. Daryl heads out to stop him while
Merle lets Michonne go so he can ambush the Governor and his men.
When he arrives at the meeting spot, he kills quite a few but is
quickly killed by the Governor. Daryl arrives at the end of the
episode and finds his zombified brother; he puts him down, sobbing.
316 "Welcome to the Tombs" takes
place the next day, day 320. The Governor is just punishing Milton
for burning the pit walkers. He sends him into the room in which
Andrea is being held hostage and stabs him. At the prison, the
survivors prepare to leave the prison. At Woodbury, the Governor is
rallying his army for the battle. They head out and attack the
prison, which they find to be empty. However, Rick's group is hiding
in the shadows and ambushes the Governor's army, driving them out.
Out in the woods, where Hershel, Judith with Beth, and Carl are
hiding, a boy, Jody, comes across them. When asked to drop his
weapon, he does not do so and instead inches toward Carl, gun still
in hand and with shifty eyes. Carl shoots him. Out on a road outside
the prison, the Governor attempts to rally his troops to return to
the prison, but they do not want to. He loses his temper and kills
them all. Meanwhile, Andrea struggles to break free from her bonds as
Milton reanimates. She breaks free and, despite having many seconds
to do anything to get Milton away, succumbs to his bite. After the
battle, Rick takes a group and heads into Woodbury after finding
Karen, who survived the Governor's outburst. At Woodbury, they find
Andrea and Michonne sits with her as she kills herself. By the next
morning, day 321, Rick returns to the prison with the remaining
Woodbury citizens. Thus concludes season 3.
Ultimately, season 3 spans over 22
days. It concludes, on our constructed timeline, on day 321 (remember
that we set the beginning of season 3 on day 300, not because of any
certainty that we possess, but for a few reasons: 1) it is about
seven months after the end of season 2 (which ended 83 days or about
three months into the outbreak), which takes into consideration
statements made by several characters in season 3; 2) Tomas states
that he and the others were locked in the cafeteria for 10 months,
while Oscar and Axel give their own personal records of 292 and 294
days respectively (we are assuming that the prison was evacuated at
the very beginning of the global outbreak, and just rounding from
there); 3) and, taking into consideration all this, we start at day
300 for a nice, easy count); this is nearly 11 months into the
outbreak.
There is a time skip between the third
and fourth seasons. Unlike in season 3, characters do not give any
indication of how much time has passed, and so we must rely on
outside sources to determine the exact length.
In an interview right before the
premiere of season 4, Andrew Lincoln talks about his character and
remarks, "You meet him six-ish months later, give or take..." (http://collider.com/andrew-lincoln-the-walking-dead-season-4-interview/)
In the video "A Look at Season 4: The Walking Dead" from AMC,
executive producer Scott Gimple informs us, "About six or seven
months has passed..." (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKa4WuIAw14)
Robert Kirkman, however, in an interview goes so far as to claim that
as little as a "few" months pass
(http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/walking-dead-season-4-spoilers-robert-kirkman-michonne-584698).
As I stated above, Greg Nicotero made the broad claim in one
interview that there was an eight-month time skip between the two
seasons. In order to fit this time jump and the entirety of season 4
into the 17- to 18-month constraint by the time 502 "Strangers" comes
around, I will settle on six months (plus, I am biassed towards Scott
Gimple: I just love that man, and I trust his competence in all matters).
According to Andrew Lincoln and
Kirkman, an entire winter has passed since season 3 (1:12 in this
video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnfKYs5tK2A;
http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/10/10/the-walking-dead-robert-kirkman-discusses-season-4-and-the-upcoming-spinoff),
probably placing the start of season 4 sometime in spring or summer.
However, they must not have realized that a) season 3 began 10 months
into the outbreak, after an entire winter, as per Tomas in 302, in
the spring b) season 3, regardless of whatever one may think,
definitely lasted less than two months, as per Hershel in 416 (which,
admittedly, had likely not been written at the time the men made
those statements), and c) season 4 began six months after season 3,
as per Lincoln himself. If we want to suppose that season 3 began in
June, lasted two months (I know it was shorter, but let's cut Andy
and Bob some slack here, since they seem to believe season 3 lasted
an entire summer), and then season 4 began about six months later,
then season 4 would have begun around January or February, not after
another entire winter. It is clear that neither of them is informed
on the timeline, if it even exists to the writers themselves.
Furthermore, if Kirkman was laboring under the delusion that only a "few" months have passed then to believe that an entire winter
passes between the two seasons is extremely dubious. At the very
least, season 3 would have had to have ended in December (even though
it began in the spring and lasted, without a doubt, for less than two
months) and season 4 begun in March.
Before we continue on to season 4,
let's run through some events that occur, as seen in flashbacks,
between the end of season 3 and the beginning of season 4.
Between Season 3 and Season 4
The Governor, who slaughters all his
army after the prison battle on day 320, flees with Caesar Martinez
and Shumpert. It is my assumption that Shumpert and Martinez abandon
the Governor the first night after the assault (I mean, who would
want to stay any longer around that guy that they have to, right?),
as seen in 406 "Live Bait". In any case, it doesn't necessarily
have any effect on the timeline. We know that Rick heads to Woodbury
with Karen on day 320, the night following the prison battle, to take
the Woodbury citizens back to the prison. It is sometime after this,
at least, that the Governor returns to Woodbury and burns it to the
ground.
In a flashback sequence in 416 "A",
we are taken back to life at the prison after the disappearance of
the Governor. Hershel states that they have been at the prison for
two months. If they arrived at the prison on day 300, then the day on
which these flashbacks occur must be around day 360. Again, for the
sake of simplicity, I have rounded this number to the more even 360.
We jump forward some time in terms of
the timeline and meet with the Governor on, approximately, day 381.
He meets Lilly and Tara Chambler, their father David, and Lilly's
daughter Meghan. He tells them they he has been on the road for a
couple months. I have interpreted "couple" to have the
commonly-had meaning of "two". If the Governor has been on the
road since he was abandoned on day 321, then he would have met the
Chamblers sometime around day 381.
Now I want to bring to attention a very
important note. At the end of season 2, it is stated repeatedly how
it is nearing wintertime. Hershel notes that the water beds are
drying up and how he now wishes for Rick and his people to move into
his house. This is the only mention of seasons that we get in the
show (other than a very, very minor, indirect mention towards the end of season 4, which I will address when we get there).
Why is this important, you ask? Well,
when season 3 opens, it has been an entire winter. It is likely
around springtime to early summer. Characters are shown not wearing
jackets and it is generally quite nice weather out. By the end of the
season, characters are donning jackets and it seems that winter is
fast approaching. This is a commonly cited argument that more time
than a mere 22 days have passed. "Look! It was spring in episode 1
and now it's obviously autumn in episode 16!" According to these
people, by the end of season 3, the characters have been at the
prison for an entire summer, perhaps three to five months. The honest
answer to this, however, is simply this: The filming schedule, which
begins in May and ends in November, is the one responsible. Of course
if you film episode 1 in May and episode 16 in November, the weather
is going to be different regardless of how much time has passed in
the show. It is shown repeatedly, regardless of the in-show timeline,
that filming schedule is what dictates the season, not actual in-show
time. Executive producer Gale Anne Hurd has even said in an interview
that, concerning the weather in the show, "it's dependent on the
weather when we shoot." (http://www.accesshollywood.com/walking-dead-gale-anne-hurd-on-maggie-survivor-love-and-if-wersquoll-ever-see-snow_article_103878)
This means that it will appear autumn, chilly and gray, even when it
is supposed to be summer, warm and bright.
Season 3 ends about three weeks after
it begins; however, if we are going by weather, it will appear that
much more time has passed. Characters are wearing jackets and
generally it appears gray and chilly. Why is this? Because that
latter half of the season was filmed towards November.
Five weeks after the end of season 3,
we get the flashback from 416 "A", which occurs on,
approximately, day 360 (Hershel states: "We've been here two
months."). It is about the same weather as the end of season 3,
despite, what some may see as, a whole other month closer to winter, which in Georgia can variably bring snow but indeed bring very cold weather.
Why is this? Because that flashback, according to Talking Dead,
were the final scenes filmed of the season, which would have happened
in November (minor rant time: The reason given for these scenes being the final ones shot is because the characters' hair had to be cut to reflect the earlier time frame, though it does not look like they did anything to Chandler Riggs' hair; Carl somehow grew several glorious inches of luscious locks in a span of five weeks). In any case, what can really be drawn from this
flashback is that the Governor disappeared less than two months after
they arrived at the prison. If my evaluation of season 3 does nothing
for you, then this effectively destroys any arguments that season 3
is many months long.
Now, let us continue. It is
approximately on day 493 that Bob Stookey is found and brought back
to the prison by Glenn and Daryl. Of course, we do not know the exact
day on which this happened, but we do know, from statements made in
401 "30 Days Without an Accident", that Bob was taken in a week
before the events of that episode. We do not know exactly when season
4 begins either, but if we are aware that there is a six-month time
skip between 3 and 4, that six months is about 180 days, and that
season 3 ends on, approximately, day 321, then season 4 reasonably
and roundedly begins on day 500.
Now that we have decided upon a stable
start date for season 4, we can now tread onward upon steady feet for
the first half of the season.
Season 4
The events of the first episode, "30
Days Without an Accident", take place on one day. This is the day
of the Big Spot incident and Rick meeting Clara in the woods. By the
end of the day, Patrick has fallen ill, stumbled into the showers,
died, and reanimated. We are certain of this.
402 "Infected" begins the
immediately following dawn as Patrick is wreaking havoc on D Block.
There is no time skip between episodes 401 and 402. Patrick would
have been noticed as a zombie stumbling around the prison. There
really is no debate on this count.
So 402 plays out. The characters deal
with the attack on D Block and Rick has to sacrifice the piglets to
ward the walkers away from the fences. Later, he burns down the
pigsty and returns Carl's gun to him. This is all one more day. The
episode ends with Tyreese coming across the burnt
corpses of Karen and David (bonus flashback feels: There is a
flashback to this very morning in episode 506 "Consumed", in
which we actually see Carol standing over the burning bodies as she
covers her face with a handkerchief before Tyreese arrives later).
403 "Isolation" begins that very
same day, when Rick, Daryl, and Carol have arrived to investigate.
Rick and Tyreese get into a fight and later Rick goes to see Hershel
to have his hand bandaged up. During their conversation, Hershel
states that they will be having a council meeting the next morning. After the meeting the next day, the group
of Daryl, Michonne, Bob, and Tyreese heads out to the veterinary
college for supplies.
404 "Indifference" begins the very
next day; again, there is no time skip. Tyreese states as he's
rinsing his shirt out that they have lost an entire night, meaning
that they set out the day before and had to stop and rest a night
before continuing.
Rick and Carol head to a nearby neighborhood to gather supplies and Rick banishes Carol for killing two prison members. He heads out
to return to the prison. (Bonus flashback feels: the scene of Carol
driving past Rick in this episode is seen again in a flashback in 506
"Consumed", in which it is revealed where she went
following her banishment; I will return to this later.)
405 "Isolation" begins that very
same day. Rick is seen driving back from banishing Carol; this
obviously would not take an entire night. He returns to the prison
and has to deal with the fences and such with Maggie. Meanwhile,
Hershel is inside tending to the sick. When gunshots echo from inside
the prison, Maggie goes in to help while Rick remains outside to deal
with the walkers. He gets help from Carl and together they tear down
the herd of walkers that have broken through the fences.
Simultaneously the events in A Block occur and, by the end of the
night, Hershel sits over his Bible and weeps.
The end of the episode begins the very
next day. Interactions between the characters imply the the events in
A Block occurred the immediately previous night (Daryl is clueless
that Carol is gone; if he had been back for a few days, he would be
quite aware that Carol is missing); furthermore, there is little
reason why the characters would wait a while to deal with the corpses
out front from Rick and Carl's target practice the night before (there is no Hershel-just-lost-his-leg here, so there is no need for an arbitrary time skip).
Finally, we see in the beginning flashback of 506 that Carol takes
refuge in a law firm building for one night (though, I admit, how it
is shot could give one the impression that much time is passing)
before she sees the smoke from the prison battle the next morning and
heads out. This suggests strongly to me that there is no unshown time
skip. It is this very same day, day 504, as evidenced by the fact
that Hershel and Michonne are still outside dealing with the bodies,
that the events of 408 "Too Far Gone" occur.
This brings us to the end of the first
half of season 4. One might be wary of the fact that timelines make
it seem as though every episode is equal to one day, but that is only
because the episodes themselves are often actually one day each. I
have explained thoroughly why season 4A is only four days long.
Heading into season 4B, I have slightly more uncertainty.
There are no hints whatsoever in the
show connecting the events of the episodes. While past seasons had
specific clues in the characters' speech to alert us as to what takes
place when, there is none here, and thus is the nature of this second
half, I would say. Time isn't quite as important. The characters are
on the road. Really nothing is happening. All they're doing is
walking to Terminus, and we are only checking in to see them every
once in a while, when something notable is happening. There is one
major reason why I disagree with the Wikia timeline, which says that
this point in the season is only seven days: the AMC website.
The character page for Michonne on the
AMC website states that, after the prison battle, Michonne "tracks
down Rick and Carl at an abandoned house. Over the following weeks,
she grows even closer to Carl, eventually telling him about her son
and how Andre's loss turned her into a lost soul." (http://www.amctv.com/shows/the-walking-dead/cast/michonne)
This was obviously written prior to the release of season 5; in fact,
there is no mention of the events of season 5 (at the time at which I write this), so this cannot be
misconstrued to include any bonding that they had in that season
(even though they didn't really interact). "Weeks" cannot be "seven days"; "seven days" is one week. At the very, very least two weeks, or 14 days, must have passed between the fall of the prison and the characters'
arrival at Terminus. This is one reason why I made the time between seasons 2 and 3 seven months rather than eight: If I had chosen eight, then season 3 would have begun around day 330 and ended on day 351; season 4 would have begun on day 531, 180 days later. If 18 months is about 540 days (30 * 18), then that only allows for at least 4 days to get to Terminus, which is even fewer days than the Wikia would have us believe (season 4A: 531; season 4B: 535; season 5: 539; Gabriel: 540), and which contradicts what we know from the AMC website. (I also acknowledge that "18 months" is not necessarily, for example, 1 January, 2010, to 1 June, 2011. However, I feel that the general cut-off date is too close where we are at the beginning of season 4 that it is too unreasonable to make this grand conclusion here. Therefore, and taking into consideration further points which I outline below, I have made it so that season 4 begins 500 days into the apocalypse.) While it is up for debate, I have thus interpreted "weeks" to mean four weeks, a month, to meet these requirements. Four weeks, as well, helps with a few other things.
In 416, Daryl relates to Rick that he
was with Beth "a while"; he makes the same estimate to Carol at
the beginning of 506 as they're following the car from Grady Memorial
Hospital. The Wikia timeline would have us believe that Daryl and
Beth were together three days before getting split up, hardly "a
while." With a longer, less constrained timeline, it allows for the
two to be together for "a while", perhaps two weeks, quite a
while, in my opinion, to be on the road in the middle of the
apocalypse. This also helps with another matter: Beth's time at Grady
Memorial Hospital, which is happening during the time between her
kidnapping in 413 "Alone" and her death in 508 "Coda". The
Wikia timeline claims that Beth was at the hospital a mere week
before dying, and even less than that before she and Noah attempted
to escape. A longer timeline would provide her and Noah more time to
grow close before the escape without it seeming forced (though, I admit, that is giving quite a bit of credit to the writers), give her time
to acquaint with the doctor and to gain his trust enough to
administer medicine to a patient without the audience wondering why a
doctor would allow a random girl whom he just met to deal with his
patients (he was, however, just using her to kill the patient), and
it would give her more time to grow close to Dawn (or perhaps give
Dawn more time to grow close to Beth, since it is she who seems to
like and trust Beth, not the other way around). Of course, the
writers have shown an incompetence with time. Beth and Daryl could
have been with each other a few days but a couple weeks in real-life
time (from 410 to 413, or months if you consider 408 to 413), so they
could have just thought that the viewers would not pay much
attention, like in season 2. Nevertheless, the quote on the AMC
website contradicts a timeline of seven days. On a related note, when Rick, Carl, Michonne, and Daryl arrive at Terminus, Gareth remarks that they look like they've been on the road "a good bit," which Rick confirms. I refuse to believe that Rick would consider "a good bit" to be seven days. Furthermore, I also
draw to attention Rick's injuries throughout this second half of
season 4. Now, I admit, the writers have demonstrated a gross
incompetence where injuries and healing times are concerned: Carl
recovered from an extremely fatal gunshot wound (one so bad that he
was having seizures from blood loss and Hershel was seriously
considering operating on him without the necessary materials) in a
matter of days. However, is it wrong for me to assume that, ever
since Scott Gimple took the helm from Glen Mazzara, perhaps the
writing has improved? That Gimple actually possesses some degree of
intelligence, at least when compared to Mazzara? I do not think so.
As such, four weeks helps tremendously with the predicament that we
face when we consider that Rick was near-death throughout 409 and, by
415 and 416, his injuries have for the most part healed.
Before we proceed, however, there is one final thing that I'd like to bring up, a counterargument of sorts for such a long timeline from fellow timeline enthusiast by the name of J. Riddle (and /u/jriddle73 on Reddit), whose blog helped me much in the construction of my timeline and the development of this study; the specific post can be found here: http://cinemarchaeologist.blogspot.com/2012/03/walking-dead-9.html.
Before we proceed, however, there is one final thing that I'd like to bring up, a counterargument of sorts for such a long timeline from fellow timeline enthusiast by the name of J. Riddle (and /u/jriddle73 on Reddit), whose blog helped me much in the construction of my timeline and the development of this study; the specific post can be found here: http://cinemarchaeologist.blogspot.com/2012/03/walking-dead-9.html.
As a browser of the subreddit for The Walking Dead, I see often questions relating to the timeline, and I take it upon myself to respond to the questions at hand with what I consider a deeper knowledge than some that I have. One day, I was responding to this post http://www.reddit.com/r/thewalkingdead/comments/2whzi0/how_long_has_it_been_since_the_beginning_of_the/ and unknowingly got into a discussion with J. Riddle himself. The gist of his argument, with which I very much agree, is that there is no real timeline. He disagreed with the timeline on the Wikia on essentially every point until the time between 408 and 416, which he claimed was indeed a span of seven days. I had asserted that my strongly-held belief that we have no certainty of this timeline since the show gives us no indication of it, and he claimed that "the Rick timeline in this period is very tight. We're with them every day, and there are no gaps in it. Wiki gets that right (and if you read it, you see how)", without offering any specific evidence as to how he could possibly know this. Nowhere in any of the episodes involving Rick is there a reference to past events (other than Michonne's "You were unconscious yesterday", which I will address once we get there). He makes the general assertion that the timeline of the eight episodes are actually the same days, just in different locations with different characters. He refers vaguely to episode 410 "Inmates", in which we see Beth and Daryl following the fall of the prison, and then Tyreese's group, and then Maggie's group, all on the same days as one another, though we only know this for this particular episode because it lets us know. For the others, there is, I repeat, no knowing, because they tell us nothing.
At this point, he offers some general evidence as to how we can know that all the stories from 4B could have occurred in a span of seven days, though they do not hold up very well:
"Tyreese comes upon the people being attacked by the railroad tracks; Daryl comes across them after the last one has turned" -- Again, this is from episode 410, of which we have much more certainty. The timeline is correct in that the events of this episode take place immediately after the prison battle, and the episode itself gives us clues, such as this and unlike other episodes, that these events are happening simultaneously. I will offer some more once we get there.
"Maggie's group leaves signs; Glenn's group finds them" -- I do not know how this is evidence for a shorter timeline. If Maggie leaves a sign, is it necessary that Glenn find it the next day? If he does not find it for, say, two weeks, will it have disappeared? I've lost things and found them years later, and they never disappeared. How is this evidence that Glenn found the signs immediately after Maggie left them?
"the "Claimers" (as the Wiki timeline calls them) encounter Rick; the "Claimers" encounter Daryl and tell him about their run-in with Rick" -- Again, how is this evidence for a shorter timeline? Can the "Claimers" (as Greg Nicotero called them, so cut it out with those condescending quotation marks) not remember something that happened weeks before? All this tells us is that the Claimers encountered Rick before they found Daryl, not that it happened immediately before. I remember things that happened two weeks ago; I remember things that happened two years ago. Can the Claimers not?
"they all end up at Terminus right on top of one another" -- This one is slightly more reasonable, but not indicative of any sort of timeline. This just tells me they arrived at Terminus around the same time. They all started out at the same place, the prison, and ended up at the same place, Terminus; they all travelled the same distance and all dicked around for some time. I do not think it is out of the question that they would have all gotten there at the same time. In any case, it's coincidental if they arrive there after seven days; it's coincidental if they arrive there after four weeks. I cannot say for certain. To me, everything seems to point to a longer timeline. You can feel free to disagree; you can disagree with the AMC website and choose to agree with the nebulous evidence that Riddle offers, but I will continue on under the belief that the timeline is not seven days and at least "weeks".
Let us continue now into the very, very
murky waters that is the second half of season 4.
409 "After" begins on what I am
assuming is the very same day as the prison battle, day 504. The
characters give us no indication that this is the case; they do not
refer to the battle as "today" or anything along those lines.
However, I feel this is reasonable to assume on a few counts.
Michonne returns to the prison at the
beginning of the episode to put down Hershel's zombified head and to
make herself some new bodyguards. It would not make sense to me if
she were to wait a couple days and then come back: Putting Hershel
down seems like it would be a priority to her, and, she being she,
returning to the prison to get bodyguards does not seem like
something that she would wait to do; she understands the danger and
would want to slip in, get some walkers, and slip out as soon as
possible before the state of the prison gets any worse.
Rick and Carl are seen ambling down the
street. Interactions between them seem to imply that this is the very
same day. The season summary on the AMC website implies the same: "Rick and Carl flee into the woods and stop to rest at an abandoned house." (http://www.amc.com/shows/the-walking-dead/season-4/season-4-recap) From a mere story-telling point of view, I cannot see why
they would randomly skip time between this pivotal moment in the
story to now and risk missing out on crucial development in light of
such moment (however, this is The Walking Dead,
and development has never been its highlight).
The
two spend a night in a house while Michonne stays in a car. The next
day, Carl heads out and nearly gets himself killed by three walkers
after getting pinned down and wasting all his ammunition. He returns
to Rick and boasts about his survival skills. He heads out, eats
pudding, and returns that night to cuddle with his dad when he gets
scared. The next morning, Michonne comes across the two and they
reunite. In all, this episode spans three days.
410 "Inmates" begins with Beth and Daryl running through the woods,
from what I am assuming is the prison battle on what I am assuming
was that very same day. We hear a voiceover from Beth reading from
her diary, when they first arrived at the prison nearly seven months
before. It appears to be dusk, the sun very low in the sky. Very
early the next morning, before the sun rises, Beth heads out to look
for people from the prison. They pass by the mangled remains of some
rabbits on a log. They get to some train tracks and are attacked by
Christopher's father.
We cut
to Tyreese, Lizzie, and Mika. Judith is revealed to be alive. This
seems to be the same day as the prison battle, as implied by
interactions between the characters. They spend the night in a
clearing, in which Lizzie sits on a log and mutilates some rabbits.
The next day, when Tyreese hears gunshots, he heads out to help the
people in trouble; meanwhile, Carol finds Lizzie and Mika and returns
to Tyreese. Christopher's father, whom Tyreese was helping, tell them
about Terminus, a supposed sanctuary. Carol tells Tyreese that she
saw the end of the prison battle, as evidenced by the opening
flashback in 506 in which she returns to the prison in its ruined
state. Later, they find the sign for Terminus.
We cut to Maggie, Sasha, and Bob. While
there is again no certainty here, this seems to be the same day as
the prison battle. There is little doubt in my mind that Maggie would
not wait a couple days before setting out to find Glenn. They come
across the prison bus, clear it out of all the people who have
conveniently and randomly turned for the sake of the plot to get them
out of the story, but Glenn is not present on the bus.
We cut to Glenn, who is still at the
prison and is for some reason on a little bridge, far away from where
the bus left. This is the same day as the prison battle: Steven Yeun
revealed on the Talking Dead
episode for this episode that this is a few hours after the
end of the battle. Glenn heads inside, gathers some artifacts and
supplies, and teams up with Tara to get out of the prison. Outside on
the road, they meet Sergeant Abraham Ford, Dr. Eugene Porter, and Rosita Espinosa.
In the end, Beth and Daryl are one day
from the prison battle; Tyreese and his group are one day from the
prison battle; and Glenn and Tara are only a few hours from the
prison battle.
411 "Claimed" picks up an
undetermined time after the end of 409. If there is anything of which
I am certain about this half season, it is that this episode cannot
be the same day as 409 ended. It just cannot be. I will not believe
it. To believe that this day is the same day as that in 409 is to
understand and accept the following conditions:
After the sun has already risen,
Michonne comes across the barbecue shack that Rick and Carl came
across two days before. She stops and talks to her dead boyfriend for a
bit before heading out. She comes across the neighborhood in which
Rick and Carl are taking refuge a bit later. She reunites with them.
She then, assumedly, catches up with them and goes and washes a shirt
(the Claimers claim that the shirt they find is clean, suggesting it
has recently been washed). She and Carl then have breakfast (note
that, at this point, Carl has already had breakfast in 409, if we
want to assume that this episode takes place the same day; this is
not to say that Carl could not easily eat two measly bowls of cereal,
but I find it doubtful that he would waste their food, especially
considering his determination not to eat anything the first night
after the prison). She and Rick then talk a bit in the kitchen before
she and Carl head out on a run, all before 8:15 in the morning (Rick
states the time on the porch). If we are assuming this episode takes
place in the summer, maybe July, then the sun would rise around 6:30;
this would give the characters only an hour and 45 minutes for all
this to occur. If we are assuming this episode takes place in
January (as I work out below, before the start of season 5; check it
out and return to this section), then the sun would rise around 7:30
and give the characters only 45 minutes for all this to happen.
To me, this requires a huge suspension
of disbelief to believe that this episode takes place on the same
day. I am extremely opposed to this notion. However, feel free to
disagree. It is also to be noted, though, that Michonne reminds Rick
that he was unconscious the day before. If this episode takes place
on the same day as the end of 409, then that would be true, but I am
wondering how Michonne would know this. I cannot imagine Rick being
like, "Yeah, so I was in a coma yesterday." It does not seem like
who he is to reveal such vulnerable information. I would sooner
believe that he fell unconscious again after Michonne arrived.
Furthermore, the state of his injuries in this episode is much better
than the state of his injuries at the end of 409, suggesting that
some time has passed to give him more time to heal.
This episode plays out. Carl and
Michonne go on a run. Meanwhile, Rick stays at the house and rests. A
travelling group of bandits come across the house but Rick is
defenseless, having given his gun to Carl. He manages to escape, but
not before killing one of the bandits and stealing his jacket and
gun.
We cut throughout the episode to Glenn,
who is just waking up from when he passed out at the end of 410. He
and Tara are riding in the back of Abraham's military vehicle. He
asks Tara if they passed a bus, and she says they did, about three
hours ago. At this point, we must also wonder if this episode takes
place on the same day as the last one ended. To believe this, we must
understand and accept several conditions:
The entirety of 408 spans out: The
Governor rallies his troops, kidnaps Hershel and Michonne, and
confronts the prison. He remarks to Rick that they have maybe an hour
of sunlight left. The prison battle occurs; the Governor dies and the
prison group is split up. A few hours later, Glenn wakes up and
escapes from the prison; it appears to be dusk as they run out the
front gates. He and Tara then would have joined forces with Abraham
and his group, at least three hours would have passed, and he would have woken
up while it is still very much daylight. This suggests very strongly
to me that these events take place not on the same day as the prison
battle, but more likely the next day. We do not, however, have any
certainty.
It is revealed that Eugene is a
scientist and knows the cause of and cure for the apocalypse and
zombies and that they are on their way to Washington, D.C.. After a
run-in with some walkers, during which Eugene "accidentally" shoots up
their truck, they must continue their journey on foot.
This episode ultimately portrays one
day in the lives of Rick's group and Glenn's group.
412 "Still" occurs. I cannot
comment when this episode occurs, but I am going to assume that some
time has passed since Beth and Daryl's last appearance. At night,
they hide out in a trunk of a car. The next day, Beth decides she
wants to have her first taste of alcohol. They hunt around for some
booze, find some in an old shack, and bond (note the manner in which
Beth downs her moonshine, her first drink and a very potent alcohol,
on an empty stomach; by the end of the night, she barely seems
buzzed). They then decide to burn down the shack and walk away in
slow motion to a song about wolves.
This episode portrays one day in the
lives of Beth and Daryl.
413 "Alone" starts with a
flashback, about a week before the start of season 4. Glenn and Daryl
come across a wandering Bob and bring him back to the prison. In the
present day, an uncertain amount of time after they were last seen in
410, Maggie, Sasha, and Bob fight walkers through fog. Bob gets
bitten, but he reveals that the bite was on his bandage and so he is
okay.
Daryl is teaching Beth how to track and
use a crossbow. The timeline on the Wikia would have us believe that
this is the very next day after the events of the last episode, but I
cannot stoop to believe this. Should we believe that Daryl and Beth,
intoxicated on moonshine, stumbled away from that burning shack,
found some sweaters in the night, and practiced hunting and tracking
so much before the next morning that Beth could consider herself
“getting good at this”? I, for one, will not. This likely takes
place quite a few days after 412.
They come across a funeral home and
take refuge there. They find a stash of food, well-kept, suggesting
that someone is living there. They sleep in the parlor.
The morning after the fog-walkers,
Sasha awakes to find Maggie gone, having left to continue her search
for Glenn. They follow the train tracks to find her. They spend the
night on the tracks.
Beth and Daryl continue to bond. They
hear a whining sound at the door, the dog that wanted to come in
earlier, and Daryl goes to let it in. However, a swarm of walkers is
at the door and storms the house. In the chaos, Beth and Daryl are
split up; outside, Beth is kidnapped by a car with a white cross
painted on its back window. Daryl chases after the car all night but
cannot keep up with it. The next morning, he is found by the
Claimers, the same group that came across the house in which Rick and
Carl were staying.
The next day after sleeping on the
tracks, Bob and Sasha continue looking for Maggie. They come across a
town and find her there. They reunite and decide to go to Terminus,
where Maggie has directed Glenn.
Ultimately, this episode portrays two
days in the lives of Beth and Daryl and three days in the lives of
Maggie, Sasha, and Bob.
414 "The Grove" begins some time
after the events of 410 and likely after 412 as well. It is
nighttime. Carol and Lizzie talk. The next day, the group comes
across a pecan grove and decides to stay there. In the distance, they
see smoke rising from the woods, possibly from the fire that Beth and
Daryl started at the end of 412.
They stay a night there. The next day,
Lizzie plays with a walker, which she has named "Griselda", and
Carol quickly puts down the walker and reprimands Lizzie. That night,
Carol and Lizzie talk about walkers, and it seems that Lizzie has
understood what they really are.
The next day, Carol and Tyreese head
out to get some water. When they return to the house, they find Mika
dead and Lizzie standing over head with a bloodied knife. They run to
the scene and, when they try to disarm her, she pulls a gun and aims
it at them to keep them at bay. Carol persuades her to drop the gun.
Tyreese, Judith, and Lizzie head inside and Carol puts down Lizzie,
heartbroken. Tyreese and Carol talk inside. It is revealed that it
was Lizzie who was feeding rats to walkers, as seen in 402. Tyreese
also considers if it was Lizzie who killed Karen and David, but Carol
reasons that she would not have killed them but rather let them turn.
They finally decide that they must put Lizzie down.
Outside, Carol walks with Lizzie.
Lizzie notices Carol's solemnity and begins to cry, apologizing for
pointing a gun at her. Carol tells Lizzie to look at the flowers, a
coping mechanism for the girl as first revealed in 402, and Carol
shoots her. Carol and Tyreese bury the girls. (Bonus flashback feels:
They are seen burying the girls in a flashback in 506, Carol looking
up to see the dying smoke in the distance.) That night, Carol reveals
that she killed Karen and David. Tyreese, obviously struggling with
his fury, forgives Carol. The next day, they leave from the grove for
Terminus.
Ultimately, this episode portrays five
days. When this episode takes place in relation with 501 "No
Sanctuary", I cannot say.
415 "Us" begins an unknown time
after 411 and 413. Tara and Abraham talk at night. The next day, they
follow the tracks. Glenn comes across one of the signs Maggie made,
instructing him to go to Terminus, and he begins to spring down the
tracks, overjoyed.
We cut to Daryl with the Claimers,
headed by Joe. They wake up in the middle of a clear, some time after
the end of 413. Daryl is out hunting; Len steals his kill. When
things escalate between the two, Joe steps in and calms them down. He
explains the concept of "claiming" to Daryl. They head out and
that night sleep in an old garage.
Glenn's group continues down the
tracks. It is nearing noon. Abraham insists that they rest, but Glenn
wants to continue. Glenn tells him that he will give his riot gear to
Eugene if they keep moving. Abraham relents. Later, they come across
a tunnel. Abraham expresses that he cannot guarantee that he can get
Eugene through it alive, so they must part ways. Glenn and Tara head
into the tunnel and are greeted by a horde of walkers. Tara gets her
foot stuck under some rubble and Glenn tries to help her. As walkers
close in on them, Abraham's group, at the other end of the tunnel,
joined with Maggie's group whom they crossed paths with, arrives and
puts down all the walkers. Maggie and Glenn reunite.
The next morning in the garage, Len
begins accusing Daryl of stealing his half of the rabbit. Daryl
insists that he did not steal it. Joe steps in to settle the debate.
He concludes that Len is lying and orders his men to "teach him all
the way." Later, when they leave, Daryl sees Len's mangled corpse
outside, with an arrow through his head. They walk on down the tracks
and come across a sign for Terminus. Joe reveals that he has seen the
signs before but does not believe them. He reveals that they are
searching for a man who killed one of their own. They pass over a
chocolate bar wrapper on the tracks, which Carl dropped some time
prior to that day as he, Rick, and Michonne made their way towards
Terminus. It must be noted here that Rick remarked in that scene that
it's getting cooler, suggesting that perhaps, if this season has
taken place in the summer, that it is nearing autumn. I am not sure
how much stock can be put into this claim because, just a few days
later at the start of season 5, it most certainly is not anywhere
near autumn and is once again burning hot, for season 5 began filming
in May while season 4 ended filming in November.
The day after the tunnel reunion,
Glenn's group arrives at Terminus, which appears to live up to its
supposed role as sanctuary.
Ultimately, this episode portrays three
days with Glenn's group, two days with the Claimers, and a few
minutes with Rick's group.
416 "A" starts some unknown time
after 415. It is morning. Rick's group continues on down the tracks.
At night, they stop to rest on the side of the road next to a truck
as they are nearing Terminus. The Claimers then arrive at the scene,
Joe pointing a gun to Rick's head. Daryl arrives at the scene and
tries to persuade Joe to leave them alone, offering himself up as a
replacement for their bloodlust. Joe, seemingly hurt at Daryl's
betrayal, orders his men to "teach him all the way" for lying
that Rick is good people. He then reveals their plan to beat Daryl to
death, rape Michonne, rape Carl, and then kill Rick. Rick, his fury
mounting, headbutts Joe. Joe, only momentarily incapacitated,
apprehends Rick in a bear hug. When it seems that all hope is lost,
Rick is unable to fight, and Dan, one of the Claimers, is preparing
to have Carl, Rick lets out a wild roar and sinks his teeth into
Joe's neck, tearing out his jugular vein. Joe falls to the ground,
choking on his own blood. Michonne gains the upper hand on her
captor, uses his gun to shoot him, and shoots one of the men on Daryl
before turning on Dan and ordering him to let Carl go; Daryl puts
down the other man on him. Rick unsheathes Joe's knife and turns on
Dan, growling to Michonne, "He's mine" before proceeding to
disembowel him, stabbing him repeatedly.
The next day, Rick and Daryl talk
beside the truck. Rick accepts his brutality. Daryl tells him what
happened with Beth, claiming that he was with her "a while." They
continue on to Terminus that day. Rick buries a bag of guns outside
the fences and the group heads in. All seems well at the sanctuary
until Rick notices several members of the group with items once
belonging to his own group. He takes one of the Terminants, Alex, the
brother of the leader Gareth, hostage. Alex is accidentally shot and
Rick's group sets off, chased by bullets. The Terminants herd them
into a train car, where they are reunited with Glenn, Maggie, Sasha,
and Bob and meet Tara, Abraham, Eugene, and Rosita. Rick proclaims
that Terminus is "fucking with the wrong people."
Throughout the episode, there are
flashbacks to a simpler time, at the prison. Hershel reveals that, at
that point, they have been at the prison for two months. He convinces
Rick that it's time to settle down and start farming. By the end,
Rick, Hershel, Carl, and Beth with Judith bond as they prepare the
land for crops.
Ultimately, this episode portrays two
days.
Ultimately, as well, season 4 spans
what I am considering to be just over a month, or 35 days (four days
of the first half, 31 days of the second half). I must reiterate that
the only part of the season of which I am certain is the first half.
With the second half, there can be no certainty, as there are no
clear indications in the show of how much time is passing. All we
have is what the AMC website tells us, which is that the second half
spans "weeks", which I have decided to be four weeks. You can
feel free to disagree, but please do not try to convince me that only
seven days have passed; the Wikia timeline is not the authority, and
many factors contradict such a short timeline and suggest a much
longer one.
On Weather, Season, and Time
I return now to the topic of weather
and seasons in the show. I cannot comment when exactly in the year
season 4 is supposed to have started. We know for a fact that a
winter passes between seasons 2 and 3; various characters attest to
this. If it was nearing winter at the end of season 2, we could
assume it was around November. This would mean that the outbreak
would have gone global nearly three months before, in August
(Kirkman, however, said in an interview that the show opened "in
maybe June or so", which places the end of season 2, a few weeks
later, somewhere in July or August, contradicting Hershel's claims
that winter is coming; Kirkman later stated in the same interview
that, by 210, the show was nearing "maybe our third or fourth or
fifth month...", making me question whether he actually knows
anything
(http://www.ew.com/article/2012/02/27/walking-dead-robert-kirkman-18-miles-out)).
This would also mean, however, that the extremely hot weather of
which Dale warns Jim as he's digging holes happened a few weeks prior
to the end of season 2, sometime in October. My only answer? It was
an extremely hot October. This would suggest as well that Rick went
into his coma not long before the outbreak went global, as Carl was
in school the day his father was shot. If this is not the case, then
it would mean that Rick was in his coma an entire summer before the
outbreak began. I really have no clue.
If we assume (again, this is just
speculation; in any case, I do not care about what month it is: All I
care about is how much time has actually passed since the beginning)
that season 2 ended in November, then season 3 would have begun,
seven months later, in mid-June. This does not seem unreasonable.
So if season 3 begins in June, it would
have ended as we are entering July. After that, there is a six-month
time skip before season 4. This would place the start of season 4 around January (discounting what Lincoln and Kirkman have
said about season 4 starting after another winter).
The Spanish Wikia has an interest way of dealing with the whole weather situation that works up until season 4 and onward come into play (http://es.thewalkingdead.wikia.com/wiki/L%C3%ADnea_de_Tiempo). It places the end of season 2, naturally, toward the end of November and the beginning of December, as winter is coming. It incorporates a time skip of eight months between seasons 2 and 3, placing the beginning of season 3 some time in August (and this would mean that not only did the group spend an entire winter on the road but the spring and most of the summer as well). Season 3 spans out and, by the end, it appears to be about autumn time, coinciding well with the beginning of autumn in September. There is then a time skip of six months between seasons 3 and 4 which would then, though the timeline does not specify, place season 4 around March or so. This is just barely cutting it, as spring does begin in March, though I am not sure if very, very early springtime, very, very late wintertime would appear so hot and buggy as it does in the beginning of season 4. This entire attempt at working weather into the timeline falls apart completely when we get to the end of season 4 and, though it would still be April or so, it is apparently autumn. Season 5 begins on the very same day and, out of nowhere, it is summer again like the beginning of season 4. Season 5 concludes in what would be around May or June, and it is autumn weather yet again. Season 6 will begin (assuming from a behind-the-scenes video from AMC in which Rick is seen still bearing the bandages from his fight with Pete and the season 6 trailer, in which Rick and Morgan are shown conversing right after their reunion in the finale) very close to the time of the end of season 5 and it will be summertime weather yet again. But hey, maybe a zombie apocalypse alters the weather patterns of North America in such drastic ways. We can't really be sure.
The Spanish Wikia has an interest way of dealing with the whole weather situation that works up until season 4 and onward come into play (http://es.thewalkingdead.wikia.com/wiki/L%C3%ADnea_de_Tiempo). It places the end of season 2, naturally, toward the end of November and the beginning of December, as winter is coming. It incorporates a time skip of eight months between seasons 2 and 3, placing the beginning of season 3 some time in August (and this would mean that not only did the group spend an entire winter on the road but the spring and most of the summer as well). Season 3 spans out and, by the end, it appears to be about autumn time, coinciding well with the beginning of autumn in September. There is then a time skip of six months between seasons 3 and 4 which would then, though the timeline does not specify, place season 4 around March or so. This is just barely cutting it, as spring does begin in March, though I am not sure if very, very early springtime, very, very late wintertime would appear so hot and buggy as it does in the beginning of season 4. This entire attempt at working weather into the timeline falls apart completely when we get to the end of season 4 and, though it would still be April or so, it is apparently autumn. Season 5 begins on the very same day and, out of nowhere, it is summer again like the beginning of season 4. Season 5 concludes in what would be around May or June, and it is autumn weather yet again. Season 6 will begin (assuming from a behind-the-scenes video from AMC in which Rick is seen still bearing the bandages from his fight with Pete and the season 6 trailer, in which Rick and Morgan are shown conversing right after their reunion in the finale) very close to the time of the end of season 5 and it will be summertime weather yet again. But hey, maybe a zombie apocalypse alters the weather patterns of North America in such drastic ways. We can't really be sure.
I bring all this up to further solidify my point that weather doesn't matter. At
the end of season 4, the characters are bundled up in jackets, like
they were at the end of season 3. Within a few hours, however, it is
suddenly extremely hot, suddenly summertime weather even though the
past couple of days it has been quite chilly. Characters, by the
second and third episodes, have shed their jackets and are now opting
for more summery wear. Why is all this? Season 4 concluded filming in
November and season 5 commenced filming in May. Within a few weeks in
show time, it is cold yet again and characters are donning jackets.
Why? Because filming for season 5 concluded in November. I predict
that, when season 6 returns (without a time jump, I presume, due to
the cliffhanger at the end of 516 "Conquer" and the videos that I mentioned above), it will be warm and
summery again as though nothing had ever happened.
Thus we are at the beginning of season
5.
Season 5
501 "No Sanctuary" begins within
mere hours after the end of season 4. The gunshots that Carol and
Tyreese hear that attract the herd of walkers to Terminus are the
same ones that herded Rick, Carl, Daryl, and Michonne into the train
car at the end of 416. Within that same day, Terminus has fallen and
the survivors have broken out, heading out on the road. For my
timeline, I have set this day to be day 535 (season 4A ends on 504 +
the "weeks", what I have taken to be four weeks, a month, of
season 4B). (Bonus flashback feels: There is a flashback in 506 to
right after Carol leaves from Terminus, as she cleans herself off
before heading out to reunite with her group.)
502 "Strangers" opens with a shot
of the black smoke still lifting from the fallen Terminus compound,
followed by a montage of epic walking and epic talking. There is no
indication in the episode when this one takes place in relation to
the last one, but there are some things to which I look to get a
reasonable idea. The fire, first of all, is still burning – I'm
aware that such large fires could burn for a very long time, but that
at least gives us the idea that this episode takes place quite near
the first one. Furthermore, particular conversations between the
characters do not seem like ones to me that would wait much time to
be had: Rick welcoming Tara, ever concerned about her position in the
group, into the fold; Rick "apologizing" to Carol and asking if
she'll have them. This seems to me to be within the same day as
leaving Terminus. However, it is to be noted that, on the Spanish
language Wikia for The Walking Dead,
a short time skip of one week is placed here, citing "dialogue,
night/day cycles, and the change of clothing of some characters" as
evidence.
To me, the dialogue implies a tighter timeline; I only see one
nighttime scene in the entire opening sequence; and all the
characters appear, to me, to be wearing the same clothes as they were
when they left Terminus. Really, this is speculation, but is only a
matter of a few days, and really does not have any profound effect on
the overall conclusion toward which I am working.
This episode plays
out. The group comes across Father Gabriel Stokes, who shows the
group his church in which he has been staying for the past 18 months.
Rick, Bob, Michonne, Sasha, and Gabriel scavenge a food bank of which
Gabriel told them. Here, Bob is attacked by a walker in the utterly
disgusting water that the characters inexplicably jumped into when
they could have simply speared the walkers from above and carefully
collected the shelves of food, and he gets bitten, though he assures
the others he is fine. They return to the church and celebrate; Rick
contends to go to Washington, D.C.. Meanwhile, Carol heads out with
plans to leave the group. Daryl finds her and the two see a car speed
past with a white cross painted on the back, the same white cross as
was on the car that took Beth back in 413. They jump in the car they
found earlier that day and follow after it. Bob lingers outside the
church, where he begins to sob. He is clocked over the head by a
hooded figure. He wakes up to find himself surrounded by the
surviving Terminus residents, headed by Gareth, who have cut off his
leg and cannibalized him.
503 "Four Walls
and a Roof" begins the exact same night. The Hunters are still
eating his leg. Bob begins to laugh and reveals that he has been
bitten, prompting the cannibals to vomit up the meat, fearing that
they will become infected. They return Bob to the church and Rick and
some others head out to deal with the Hunters, who, according to
Bob's recounting and Gabriel's knowledge of the surrounding area, are
stationed at an elementary school. The Hunters promptly arrive at the
church, thinking they have outsmarted Rick, but Rick returns and the
group slaughters the Hunters. The next morning, Bob and Rick talk;
Bob refers to the food bank incident as "yesterday". He dies.
Later, Abraham, Rosita, Eugene, Tara, Maggie, and Glenn head out for
Washington, D.C., leaving Rick a map to follow their trail. At the
end of the episode, Daryl returns, seemingly alone, until he calls
for his accompanist to join him. This concludes day 537.
504 "Slabtown" takes us back in time. Beth, who was kidnapped in 413, wakes up at
Grady Memorial Hospital. When this takes place in relation to 413, I
do not know, for the characters give us no indication whatsoever. The
episode plays out. It is revealed that the cops there are dickheads
and rapists. Beth grows close with one of the wards, Noah. She and
Noah plan to escape. Noah makes it away safely but she gets captured
and returned to the hospital. At the end of the episode, Carol,
injured and unconscious, is seen being wheeled in on a gurney. The
episode ends on the day on which Abraham and his group would be
leaving the church for Washington, day 537.
505 "Self Help" picks up immediately after Abraham's group leaves in 503; the
characters refer to the incident with the Hunters as "last night." They stop and rest in a bookstore. The next day, they find a
firetruck and continue on their journey before they are stopped by a
massive horde. When Abraham loses his temper and starts manhandling
Eugene, Eugene reveals that he is not a scientist and that he does
not know the cure. Abraham attacks him, knocking him unconscious,
before storming away from the truck. Thus ends this episode, on day
538.
506 "Consumed" picks up the night that Carol and Daryl take off in
pursuit of the white-crossed car, the night of the Hunters slaughter, day 536.
They follow the car into Atlanta but run out of gas before they can
continue. They decide to spend the night in a women's shelter of which
Carol is aware from her pre-apocalypse days with Ed. The next day,
they head out in search of clues. At one point, they are attacked by
Noah, who has escaped from the hospital some time prior to that day.
He takes their guns. They continue on. Later, they reconvene with
Noah and help him, and he reveals that he knows who Beth is and can
help them. Just then, a car from the hospital cruises by in search of
the gunshots that were fired that day. The group begins to head out
of the building and Carol, who exits the building first, gets struck
by the car and brought back to the hospital; this is what we see at
the end of 504. Noah and Daryl head back to the church for
reinforcements to retrieve Carol and Beth.
Throughout the
episode, there are flashbacks to various points in Carol's journey.
In the beginning, we are taken back to day 503, on which Rick
banishes Carol. It is revealed that Carol took refuge in a law firm
building and returned to the prison the next day when she saw the
smoke from the battle. Later, we are brought back to day 502 and see
Carol standing over the burning bodies of Karen and David, covering
her face with a handkerchief. We then see her and Tyreese burying the
bodies of Lizzie and Mika at the grove; I cannot ascertain what day
this is, but some weeks after the prison battle. Finally, we are
brought back to the day of the escape from Terminus, day 535. She has escaped
into the woods and removes her robe and cleans herself off, before
she is to set off and reunite with her group.
507 "Crossed" picks up the day on which 505 "Self Help" ended. At the church,
the group reinforces the building before heading out to Atlanta to
retrieve the two women, leaving Carl, Michonne, Judith, and Gabriel
behind. Gabriel decides to go full retard and leaves the church to go
off and do whatever it is Gabriel feels justified doing. Back on the
highway on which Abraham's group learned the truth about Eugene,
Abraham is still knelt where he fell at the end of 505. Tara, Glenn,
and Rosita bond as they fish; Maggie is a bitch to Abraham, telling
him that he's not the only one who lost something that day while not
knowing the full story of his past before proceeding to mope for
three weeks over the death of her sister. Eugene wakes up later that
day. In Atlanta, Rick's group captures three police officers to use
as an exchange for Beth and Carol. At the hospital, Beth remarks to
Dawn Lerner that Carol has been there one day, signifying that no
time skip has occurred. At the end of the episode, Sasha goes full
retard and turns her back on one of the captured police officers, who
is coincidentally named Bob; she is promptly attacked and knocked
unconscious.
508 "Coda" begins that same day. Rick is in hot pursuit of Officer Bob Lamson.
He climbs into the officer's police car and sets off behind him. He
asks him repeatedly to stop, but Bob does not comply. Having already
extended an extreme courtesy, he slams the car into Bob and then
promptly shoots him. Meanwhile, Gabriel has gone to the elementary
school where the Hunters were stationed and brings with him back to the church a herd of walkers. They
trap them in the church and Abraham's group returns just in time to
barricade the doors shut with their firetruck. Michonne reveals to
Maggie that Beth is alive. Later that day the trade happens in
Atlanta. Rick trades the two officers and receives Carol and Beth in
return. However, Dawn wants Noah back, as he was her ward. When Noah
decides to go back, Beth goes full retard and pokes Dawn in the
shoulder with some scissors. Dawn somehow manages to unholster her
gun, bring it all the way up, point the gun completely upward towards
Beth's chin, fire on reflex, and hit Beth in the forehead, all in a
matter of half a second. Daryl brandishes his gun and shoots Dawn in
the head. The group leaves the church and Maggie and the others, who
have just arrived, see Daryl carrying Beth's corpse. This is day 538.
509 "What Happened and What's Going On" takes place 17 days after
508. Greg Nicotero reveals this on the Talking Dead
episode for this episode, and I have interpreted this to mean that
there were 16 days between 508 and 509, and the events of this
episode occur on the seventeenth day, 555 days into the global
outbreak.
The
group has decided to go to Richmond, Virginia, to get to Noah's old
community. When they get there, they find it overrun. Noah runs off,
Tyreese follows, and Tyreese gets himself bitten. Noah heads off to
get help and Tyreese begins to trip balls for most of the episode
before Rick, Glenn, Michonne, and Noah return to amputate his bitten
arm. They begin to bring him back to the rest of the group to treat
his stump but he dies on the trip. They stop, pull him out of the
car, and put him down.
510 "Them" begins some number of days later. Sasha claims that "[i]t's been a
day and a half", without referring to anything in particular.
Perhaps she is referring to the death of her brother, or perhaps she
is referring to the last time they have eaten. I cannot be sure. Rick
remarks to Daryl that it's been three weeks since Atlanta; this is
two days longer than if we go by what Sasha tells us. I, always
wishing to appease my opponents, will go by what Rick tells us, thus
creating a longer timeline. This episode takes place 21 days after
the events of 508, on day 559.
The group is about
60 miles from Washington. They continue on lethargically. When a pack
of dogs closes in on them, Sasha shoots them and they eat their meat
for sustenance.
The next day, as per the AMC website, a storm rolls in and they take refuge in a farmhouse (http://www.amc.com/shows/the-walking-dead/season-5/episode-10-them). The next morning, on day 561, Sasha and Maggie meet a man called Aaron outside.
The next day, as per the AMC website, a storm rolls in and they take refuge in a farmhouse (http://www.amc.com/shows/the-walking-dead/season-5/episode-10-them). The next morning, on day 561, Sasha and Maggie meet a man called Aaron outside.
511 "The
Distance" picks up right where 510 left off. Maggie and Sasha
introduce Aaron to the group. The group is immediately distrustful
and, after Aaron describes the community from which he comes, Rick
punches the completely docile and weaponless man. Later, when
Michonne convinces Rick to check out this community, Rick goes full
retard and decides to risk everyone's lives and take the road that
Aaron has already warned them is extremely dangerous and in the dark
of night, in order to avoid any sort of ambush, even though if Aaron
had some people waiting in the bushes to attack, they would clearly
be able to see the cars' headlights from miles away anyway. Then –
surprise, surprise – the group runs into a herd of zombies and
barely makes it back to the rest of the group. Aaron reunites with
his boyfriend Eric Raleigh and the next day, they all make it to the
community, the Alexandria Safe-Zone.
512 "Remember" picks up right where 511 ends. They have entered the gates of
Alexandria and have been asked to relinquish their weapons. The group
is obviously unwilling and Aaron allows them to continue armed. Rick
is interviewed by the town's leader, Deanna Monroe. After (I'm
assuming, since it does jump around throughout the episode) everyone
is interviewed, the group gives up their weapons and all settle into
one of the two houses they are given. Rick shaves his epic apocalypse
beard and the sexy next-door neighbor Jessie Anderson gives him a haircut. The
next day, the group explores Alexandria; that night, Rick meets
Jessie's husband Pete on the porch of their house. The next day, Rick
heads outside the walls to retrieve a gun he stashed before entering
Alexandria but finds it to be gone. Meanwhile, Glenn, Tara, Noah,
Nicholas, and Deanna's incompetent son Aiden go out on a run. Quickly
we find out that Nicholas and Aiden suffer from some sort of mental
disorder. They return to Alexandria and Glenn and Aiden get into a
skirmish, which results in Aiden getting knocked on his ass. Deanna
makes Rick and Michonne constables of the town and, that night, Rick
expresses his desire to take over the community. Thus concludes day 564.
Now, by the time
513 "Forget" comes around, I possess some uncertainty. There is
no indication in the show that this episode takes place the immediate
next day, so it is up to us to interpret this as we see fit. As I see
fit, it is the very next day – feel free, of course, to disagree,
but really, this minor time skip, or lack thereof, will have little
effect on the overall conclusion toward which I am working: how
far into the global outbreak we are.
Sasha heads outside
the gates and has some target practice on photographs of happy white
people. Rick, Carol, and Daryl meet outside the walls and plan to
steal guns from the armory. That day, the Monroes host a party for
their most recent additions to the town. Rick smooches it up with
Jessie in broad daylight and Sasha screams at a polite woman.
Meanwhile, Carol goes to the armory and steals guns before she is
caught by Jessie's son Sam. Carol threatens him never to tell anyone
and promises him cookies. Meanwhile, Aaron, Eric, and Daryl have
dinner, and Aaron makes Daryl a recruiter for Alexandria. The next
morning, Deanna bitches at Sasha for her outburst. Rick, Carol, and
Daryl reconvene outside and pass out the guns. Inside, Rick goes full
Shane when he sees Pete putting his hands (and this isn't even a
euphemism for physically abusing her; all he does is put his hand on
her back) on his own wife. He then makes friends with a walker
outside the walls.
There is a short
time skip between 513 and 514 "Spend". Noah remarks that he felt
like shooting Aiden "last week", likely in reference to Aiden's
stupidity during their run two episodes before. Now, "last week" does not necessarily mean "a week ago". As such, this is open to
interpretation, so I am going to place this episode five days after the events of 512,
a rather generous addition to the timeline, because I do love to
appease my opponents. This brings us to day 569.
In the morning,
Noah suddenly starts to get an extreme amount of development, which
can only mean one thing on this show. Later, he, Glenn, Tara, Eugene,
Nicholas, and Aiden go on a supply run to get some supplies for the
energy boards at Alexandria. On this run, Aiden accidentally shoots a
grenade and blows himself up; Tara is severely injured by the blast.
Eugene carries her to safety while Glenn, Noah, and Nicholas escape
the building from a swarm of walkers. When they get stuck in a
revolving door, Nicholas goes full retard and pushes on his side,
opening up Noah and Glenn's side and allowing Noah to get eaten.
Glenn hurries back to the van and attacks Nicholas, but decides to
spare him. They return to Alexandria. Meanwhile, Father Gabriel has
gone to Deanna and tells her that Rick's group are terrible people and do not
deserve this place as Maggie listens on. Carol has been talking to
Sam and deduces that Pete has been abusing him and his mother. She
informs Rick of this and expresses her belief that the only way that
this will go down is Rick killing Pete.
515 "Try" picks
up the same night as the last episode. The Monroes grieve their loss.
The next day, Rick confronts Deanna and urges her to do something
about Pete, but she refuses because reasons. Later, Rick speaks to
Jessie and she allows him to help her, but, just then, Pete enters
the room and confronts Rick. The two quickly engage in a fight,
smashing through the front window of the house and brawling at the
town square while citizens look on. Deanna arrives and tries to put
an end to the fight but Rick draws his gun to keep everyone at bay.
He rattles on about the state of things at Alexandria but is soon
knocked unconscious by Michonne.
516 "Conquer" begins the day after the previous episode, on day 571. The fight
between Rick and Pete is often referred to as "last night". A lot
of stuff happens that doesn't really matter. Meanwhile, Daryl and
Aaron are out on a recruiting mission. They are following a guy in a
red poncho before they lose track of him and decide to investigate
some food trucks. The trucks are quickly revealed to be a trap and
the two men get trapped inside a car. As they are about to burst out
and confront the walkers, they are saved by a mysterious ninja man: Morgan
Jones. Daryl and Aaron express their thanks and invite Morgan to join
Alexandria, but Morgan declines, saying he is heading somewhere and
showing Daryl his map. Daryl recognizes Rick's name on the map.
At
Alexandria, Gabriel goes full retard and leaves the front gates open,
welcoming walkers into the town. Rick notices this, finds blood on
the gate, and heads out to find the intruders. Suddenly and
inexplicably it is nighttime and Rick finds the walkers. He puts them
down. Meanwhile, the citizens of Alexandria are having a meeting to
discuss what they should do with Rick after the day before. Deanna
during this meeting refers to her meeting with Gabriel as "the day
before last." Rick arrives at the meeting and shows the town one of the
walkers that found its way in. He gives a speech about how they will
all change and he will teach them how before Pete arrives at the
scene, wielding Michonne's katana. Deanna's husband Reg steps in to
quell him but Pete slashes his throat. Abraham swiftly apprehends
Pete as Deanna cradles her dying husband. She then gives Rick
permission to execute Pete, which Rick does without hesitation. At
that moment, Morgan arrives with Daryl and Aaron and sees the
execution himself. Thus concludes season 5 and day 573.
Ultimately,
season 5 portrays 37 days, the longest season we have had yet.
Terminus falls in the first episode on day 535 and Rick executes Pete
in the final episode on day 571.
Conclusion
The entirety of the
global outbreak has been about 19 months, or about 571 days.
Based on my
calculations:
Season 1 spans 6
days; there is a time skip of one day.
Season 2 spans 18
days; there is a time skip of seven months.
Season 3 spans 22
days; there is a time skip of six months.
Season 4 spans 35
days; there is a time skip of, at most, a few hours.
Season 5 spans 37 days.
As you can tell
from my remarks throughout this study, there are many things to take
into consideration. It seems very apparent to me that the writers
have little to no interest where time is concerned, and perhaps that
is what comes of a show in which society has collapsed and time is
not quite as important. (It is interesting to note, however, that there are a great many references to time in the comics: We hear things like it's been 14 months and, at one point, the characters celebrate Halloween; Andrea is repeatedly stated to be keeping a calendar!) Jenner states in 105 that, by that episode,
we are 63 days into the global outbreak, indicating that Rick entered
into his coma sometime before then, as there are no signs or mention
of walkers whatsoever in the pre-shootout scenes. However, both
Robert Kirkman and Glen Mazzara have claimed he was only in it for
three to four weeks (I cannot find a source for this; Mazzara tweeted
it on 2 April, 2012, but his Twitter only goes to 7 December, 2012,
in its current state). Keep in mind that it was Mazzara himself who
wrote 105. To complicate all this even further, new-guy Dave Erickson has said that Rick was in his coma for four to five weeks.
By the end of
season 2, only 83 days have passed. However, Mazzara said on his
Twitter that four months have passed, not three. On a bonus segment
for the Talking Dead episode of 213, when asked how much time
had passed at that point, Mazzara and Kirkman hesitated for a long
while (while Kirkman visibly chuckled) and looked over unsurely at
each other before Mazzara gave the answer of "We think it's three
to four months... it's no more than four months." (at 5:49
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f51bmQybtPk)
He also stated in a Twitter Q&A, "... from the time of the
Pilot to the end of Season 2, we think it's only been about four
months." (http://dailydead.com/the-walking-dead-glen-mazzara-answers-fan-questions/)
Note the hesitation in the video, the uncertainty from both sources –
it's clear that a timeline has never been at the forefront of
anyone's minds.
Season 3 begins in
the springtime, after a winter has passed (characters attest to
this). It lasts for less than two months (Hershel attests to this).
There is then, according to outside sources, a time skip of at the
very least a "few" months to at most eight months. If a "few" means three, then that would set the beginning of season 4, at the
latest, around the beginning of September; if eight months pass, then
that would set the beginning of season 4, at the latest, around
February. None of this allows for an entire winter to have passed, as
Lincoln and Kirkman have claimed. This, along with such wildly varying claims, further leads me to question
the importance of a feasible timeline to the writers or if they even
put any thought into the timeline.
By the time the
characters come across Father Gabriel in 502, 17 to 18 months have
passed. These are from two sources related to the show. The very fact
that these numbers differ reduces any faith that I still possess that
the writers take the timeline into any consideration.
In conclusion, it
can be said with relative certainty that no one associated with the
show cares at all about the timeline. There have been so many
discrepancies in statements that it leads one to wonder whom one can
really believe. If the writers and Kirkman were in any way concerned about the timeline, they would be very clear, not
necessarily in the show, but at least amongst themselves and the
actors: "Okay, this much time has passed by the end of season 2;
this is certain. This much time passes between seasons 2 and 3; there
is no question about it. There is a time skip of this many months
between seasons 3 and 4, without a doubt. This is how long the entire
outbreak has been." None of this wishy-washy "We think" nonsense. None of this
actors-and-producers-giving-conflicting-responses-because-they-themselves-have-no-freaking-clue
nonsense. If they have no clue, they should own up to that fact and simply say, "We don't know the timeline." The fact of the matter is the timeline of The Walking
Dead is virtually nonexistent. I can persuade you all I want
that, from what I've worked out, the entirety of the outbreak has
been 19 months; you can disagree with me all you want. If we must
agree on anything, it is to disagree and that the timeline of The
Walking Dead is one of uncertainty, guesswork, and general
absurdity.
Sources
http://walkingdead.wikia.com/wiki/Television_Show_Timeline
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAJ1elwOH98&list=PLP63B9XPsQt1rmPkG6kn5sNfVRr_T4Gnv&index=24
http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2014/11/the-walking-dead-michael-cudlitz
The Walking Dead webseries The Oath
http://www.amc.com/shows/the-walking-dead/season-1/episode-01-days-gone-bye
The Walking Dead webseries The Oath
http://www.amc.com/shows/the-walking-dead/season-1/episode-01-days-gone-bye
https://tv.yahoo.com/blogs/tv-news/walking-dead-greg-nicotero-season-5-001244752.html
http://www.amc.com/shows/the-walking-dead/season-3/episode-05-say-the-word
http://www.amc.com/shows/the-walking-dead/season-3/episode-11-i-aint-a-judas%7CAMC
http://www.amc.com/shows/the-walking-dead/season-3/episode-05-say-the-word
http://www.amc.com/shows/the-walking-dead/season-3/episode-11-i-aint-a-judas%7CAMC
http://www.amctv.com/shows/the-walking-dead/cast/michonne
http://cinemarchaeologist.blogspot.com/2012/03/walking-dead-9.html
http://www.reddit.com/r/thewalkingdead/comments/2whzi0/how_long_has_it_been_since_the_beginning_of_the/
http://www.amc.com/shows/the-walking-dead/season-4/season-4-recap
http://cinemarchaeologist.blogspot.com/2012/03/walking-dead-9.html
http://www.reddit.com/r/thewalkingdead/comments/2whzi0/how_long_has_it_been_since_the_beginning_of_the/
http://www.amc.com/shows/the-walking-dead/season-4/season-4-recap
http://es.thewalkingdead.wikia.com/wiki/L%C3%ADnea_de_Tiempo
http://www.amc.com/shows/the-walking-dead/season-5/episode-10-them
http://www.amc.com/shows/the-walking-dead/season-5/episode-10-them
Talking Dead
The Walking Dead
