5 Things You Might Have Missed in The Walking Dead "Slabtown"
1 - Time kept ticking
After Greg Nicotero revealed that in each episode the clocks and watches are adjusted to point to the season and episode, it was cool to see the clock in Beth's hospital room pointing to five and four to represent Season 5, episode 4.
The clock actually had quite a bit of screen time at the very beginning of the episode while Beth got her bearings in the room and looked out the window over the destroyed city. Of course, Beth's time was limited before she met her rescuers and she was put to work, helping out with the rest of the patients to work off her debt.
2 - The new name for walkers was a tip of the hat
Near the beginning of the episode, Officer Gorman introduces us to his name for the walkers: "Rotters." As interesting as it is to hear a new name for the living dead, it's hardly unusual in the series. In the past we've heard "biters," "geeks," "roamers," and "lurkers," but what makes this one particularly interesting is that it might have been another sneaky Walking Dead reference.
In The Flesh is a UK television show about a zombie apocalypse. Unlike The Walking Dead, the show focuses more on the dead than the living, and zombies are given the name 'rotters,' Officer Gorman's preferred name for them. As Gorman ended up dead, it's more than likely his one-time mention of 'rotters' was a cool little nod to the UK series.
3 - The Walking Dead made two callbacks
The Walking Dead has really taken an upward turn this season. Personally, I think it's the best the series has ever been, and it just keeps getting better. This episode had two great callbacks to episodes way back in Season 2.
Back in "Chupacabra" (episode 5, Season 2) we saw the city of Atlanta being napalm bombed by military aircrafts while the gang watched on.
The after effects of the bombing were finally revealed when Beth and Dr. Edwards stood on the rooftop of the hospital and the city lay before them, completely destroyed.
The second Season 2 reference came when Officer Dawn grabbed Beth's wrists and revealed her scars after talking to her about working off her debt to the hospital. This was the first time since Season 2 we've really seen Beth's suicide attempt mentioned, but I'm glad to see the writers hadn't forgotten about it - it really does show how far Beth has come over the last four seasons.
It'll be interesting to see if there are any more callbacks to former seasons in upcoming episodes.
4 - Is Richmond the Alexandria Safe-Zone
Inside the hospital Beth meets Noah, who explains how he ended up at the hospital, although he intends to escape when he can and return to his walled community in Richmond, Virginia.
Could this mention of a walled community be the first mention of the Alexandria Safe-Zone?
This theory only seems bolstered by some leaked on-set photos that we saw a few months back, of filming within a walled community.
While we aren't likely to see these scenes until the second half of Season 5, it's definitely very interesting that Noah mentioned a walled community when the Alexandria Safe-Zone plays such a huge part in comic series.
5 - We know what happened to Carol
Well, what a shocking ending it was to see ultimate bad-ass, Carol wheeled in on a stretcher at the end of the episode and startling a scalpel wielding Beth into rethinking her newest escape plan. I guess we know that Carol wasn't in the bushes with Daryl.
Back in July, Spoiling Dead fans revealed some leaked photographs from the set of The Walking Dead of Carol being hit by a car and kidnapped by some people dressed as police, and bundled into a car with a cross on the back.
Last night's episode, combined with these photos from back in July definitely seem to confirm that Carol was hit by car driven by the police and taken back to the hospital as a patient.
Although, if Carol was purposely hit by the car, what does this mean about Beth's injuries - were they sustained accidentally or in a far more sinister and intentional way?