Deleted scene could have changed The Walking Dead trajectory

A deleted scene from season 2 of The Walking Dead proves that the brave new world was already more dangerous than Rick could comprehend.

The reemergence of a deleted scene from The Walking Dead season 2 has people talking about the fate of a group we met back in season 1, and what happened to them might surprise you. But since the scene was featured in the DVD and isn’t really new news, it’s more fun to look at how the scene gives us insight into the early days of The Walking Dead.

Remember the Vatos? They were the Atlanta street gang that kidnapped Glenn and organized an exchange of Glenn for some guns back in season 1 of The Walking Dead. Eventually we learned that they weren’t so bad after all. They were taking care of senior citizens who had been abandoned at their senior care facility and left to die when the zombie apocalypse began. They needed weapons to keep their safe haven safe from looters, and after learning about the work they were doing, it was much easier for Rick to leave the weapons behind for them.

The deleted scene takes place in the days after Rick’s group fled the CDC. It shows the group returning to the senior care facility only to find everyone dead. Some people died of natural causes, but an alarming number of people were dead of a gunshot to the head, and the supplies were gone, suggesting that they had been raided. It is speculated that Dawn and the Atlanta police at Grady Memorial raided the facility for their supplies, though there is no evidence that it’s true. It just makes sense that the Atlanta cops killed the Vatos given that Dawn’s group was the only group we saw in the city back in season 5.

Had this scene remained in the show, it would have been interesting to see how Rick would have reacted to that kind of violence so early in his journey. If you fast forward to season 7, the group was shocked to see how the Saviors run their community. Gareth’s cannibals at Terminus were equally shocking. The difference with the Termites and the Saviors is that Rick’s group had weathered more time in the post-apocalyptic world when they met Gareth and Negan, but if they had encountered the slaughtered Vatos back in season 2, it would have been undeniable that other people were behind the attack.

This could have changed Rick’s entire trajectory because he would have been less trusting from the start. He would have seen that you have to fear other people as much as the Walkers. As such, given that the scene was deleted, we know that Rick had to learn the way of the new world the hard way, and he suffered as a result.

More from Undead Walking

• Walking Dead alum Jayson Warner Smith promotes new film, Chipper, watch it now
• Walking Dead actor Chandler Riggs filming new movie in Tampa Bay
• Why is there no season 12 of The Walking Dead?
• Will Morgan Jones find Rick Grimes in The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live spinoff?
• Watch Tales of TWD actress Jillian Bell in Prime Video’s Candy Cane Lane

The Walking Dead will be back in October 2017. Fear the Walking Dead returns in June 2017.