The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: We gotta do what we gotta do
By Liam O'Leary
As seen in Sunday’s Walking Dead, to survive a zombie apocalypse, whether others like it or not, whether WE like it or not, we gotta do what we gotta do.
Our Survival Rule Of The Week for season 8 episode 6 of The Walking Dead is pretty straightforward this week: We gotta do what we gotta do.
Now, “what we gotta do” can vary. Sometimes, it’s things we just need to do to make things work, sometimes, it’s things we feel we need to do to feel right about ourselves. Whatever the case may be, if we gotta do them…we gotta do them.
Let’s look at a few examples to help me illustrate my point…
In the third episode of the season, “Monsters”, Jesus returned to The Hilltop with a lot of baggage, a.k.a. the satellite outpost Saviors.
It was pretty clear, pretty quick, that, outside of Jesus, nobody wanted to take prisoners. He had to stop Tara from gunning down Dean and got into a fight with Morgan to stop him from murdering Jared and a bunch of other Saviors, so, to say people didn’t want to take The Saviors as prisoners is something of an understatement.
Why did he do it, then? Well, Jesus, taking a page from Dale’s book, thought it was wrong to just execute The Saviors when they didn’t need to kill them (Though, I’m willing to bet even Dale would have been okay with executing Jared). Jesus understands that the war will not last forever and that The Alliance not only need to be able to live with The Saviors afterward but live with themselves, too.
Conversely, Maggie, despite the fact she agreed with Gregory that The Hilltop couldn’t have The Saviors running loose inside the colony, decided to take them in as prisoners.
Maggie made it clear to Jesus that she didn’t take them in out of any sense of mercy, but, out of practicality. To her, they were useful as potential bargaining chips, in the event anyone was captured (*cough* Gabriel *cough* RICK). While she certainly didn’t like having The Saviors there, Maggie realized that keeping them alive was, for the time being, at least, something she had to do.
Meanwhile, Ezekiel and Carol were faced with a different dilemma. Ezekiel is, not surprisingly, feeling despondent over losing nearly all of his fighting force trying to take Gavin’s outpost.
Yet, Carol, rightly so, was trying to get Ezekiel to snap out of it. She made a point of reminding Ezekiel how much he inspired The Kingdom, how much it needs him and that he has an obligation, as their king, to lead the people through their loss. Even though he may not believe it, Ezekiel does need to lead his people as he has up to this point, similarly, Carol recognizes that, with Ezekiel in such despair, she needs to either kick him into gear or step up and lead in his absence.
Which leads me to Carl and his quest to find Siddiq.
After Rick scared him away, Carl has been trying his best to locate the wandering survivor and, apparently, bring him back to Alexandria.
Why? Well, as Carl put it, “Sometimes kids have to find their own way, to show their parents the way”. Clearly, Carl wants to remind Rick of the people they were at The Prison, when Rick himself would go out and recruit new people. He knows Rick doesn’t want him doing this, but, believes it’s the right thing to do, and, if his dad doesn’t think so, he has to remind him it is.
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
We’re going to face a lot of challenges and choices in a zombie apocalypse. Some will be moral ones, others, practical ones, but, regardless, we have to do what we have to do. Whether we like the choices we have to make or not is not necessarily relevant, the fact remains, we still have to make them.
Similarly, if other people don’t like the choices we have to make, that may (Note: I say “may”) not be relevant, either, if feel we need to, that it’s the right thing to do, then…we have to, or we may not feel right about ourselves.
And that’s our survival rule of the week!! Hopefully, it will help you should you ever need it and give you that mental edge that will prove so crucial once the dead start eating everyone.
Next: Is Simon the TRUE monster of The Saviors?
If you like this and want to find out more rules to survive the zombie apocalypse, why not pick up a copy of my book, The Rules: A Guide To Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse! You can get it on Kindle here and on iTunes here!