The Walking Dead season 1 theory: The men who shot Rick Grimes

Were the walking dead the reason why Rick Grimes was shot in the first place?

The story of Rick Grimes began not in a world filled with the walking dead, but, an ordinary world filled with ordinary problems: Relationship problems, marital problems, not being able to finish your lunch, and criminals doing criminal acts.

Since Rick was a sheriff’s deputy, that last one was fairly common for him, in fact, the (Chronologically) earliest thing we see of Rick is he and his partner, Shane Walsh, sitting in their patrol car discussing Rick’s marital problems and eating their lunch, when they receive a call over the radio reporting on a pursuit in progress: A trio of men had stolen a car and shot at police officers before trying to make a getaway, which Rick, Shane, and their fellow officers needed to prevent. All perfectly ordinary.

After heading off the thieves, Rick and Shane laid out a spike strip and a blockade to stop them, which was successful (And included a spectacular crash). They approached the car and were fired on by the criminals, resulting in Rick being shot twice: One being absorbed by his vest, the other…not so much. The wound rendered Rick comatose and hospitalized, this meant he missed out on the outbreak of the zombie virus, and civilization’s rapid descent shortly afterwards.

…Or, does it?

The Walking Dead Theory: The car thieves were trying to escape a walker.

Okay, I know that this might seemed far-fetched, but, just hear me out. I think I have some compelling evidence that may help back me up.

Let’s start with what we know.

First, we learned from Dr. Jenner in the fifth ever episode of The Walking Dead, “Wildfire”, that by the time Rick woke up, it had been one hundred and ninety-four days since the first reports of the disease began, and sixty-three days since, well, the first episode of Fear The Walking Dead.

While one might think this means it’s impossible that the car thieves that shot Rick had encountered a walker, Dr. Jenner’s timeline puts the first identification of the disease at about six months before before Rick woke up. Since we don’t know how long Rick was in a coma, it’s entirely possible that Rick’s shooting happened at some point within the four months between the first reports, and the outbreak formally hitting.

Second, we know that there were lesser incidents of walkers attacking people before everything went haywire, as we heard Tobias warn Madison Clark about incidents in five states the day before Los Angeles fell, additionally, with Dr. Jenner saying the first reports began four months earlier, it’s likely that, even if it were only one or two, these were probably incidents involving walkers.

Third, we know from listening to the police codes on the radio call that Rick and Shane received that the criminals were wanted for grand theft auto, assault with a deadly weapon, assault on a police officer, and assault with intent to murder.

On the surface, these seem like pretty standard criminal activities, but, what’s telling is what isn’t there. When you think about, it makes perfect sense that criminals stealing a car would attempt to shoot and kill any cops trying to stop them, all grimly routine so far, but…why were they trying to steal the car?

I know there doesn’t need to be a reason for a criminal to want to steal a car, but, doesn’t the attempt to shoot the cops seem a little…extreme for a carjacking? You might expect this sort of reaction if they’d committed an armed robbery (Which, they were obviously capable of), or an attempted kidnapping, or being busted with a large amount of drugs, but, they weren’t. They were, apparently, doing nothing that would have warranted a getaway car, and, in fact, it seems like all the more serious charges they were wanted for, sprang out of them attempting to steal the car in the first place.

This brings me back to my earlier question: Why were they trying to steal the car?

I think what happened is the car thieves (Who may have been doing some other crime at the time that the cops weren’t aware of) stumbled upon a walker, maybe even saw someone taken down by one.

If you were a criminal, and saw a person get tackled by some weirdo who started eating them, and didn’t have a car (Maybe the walker was between them and their own car. Who knows?), wouldn’t you just say “To Hell with jail, we’re getting out of here!” and take the first car you could find, and step on the gas? And, having seen all of that, wouldn’t you do whatever you could to keep going, even if that meant getting into a shootout with the cops?

Is this definitive proof that the car thieves encountered a walker? No. Absolutely not. That said, with what we don’t know, particularly as it pertains to Rick’s time in a coma, we also don’t get anything that refutes this theory, either. What’s sad is that, even with Tales Of The Walking Dead coming, we will probably never know whether or not this theory is correct, but, it damn sure makes sense to me.

But, what do you think? Do you think the criminals who shot Rick were trying to get away from a walker? Do you think there were walkers in Georgia that early? Do you think we’ll ever know one way or the other? Let me know! And, if you want to hear my theories on how to survive a zombie apocalypse in the real world, why not pick up a copy of my book, The Rules: A Guide To Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse! You can also find it at Amazon here, and on iTunes here!