The Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: It’s What You Make Of It
By Liam O'Leary
4) Learn To Sniff Out A Manipulation.
Okay, I know this is off-topic, but I have to talk about this.
About halfway through this week’s episode, an interrogator from the Commonwealth tried to get some basic information about the rest of the group out of Princess, information she was most reluctant to give up, especially once the interrogator backhanded her. Who could blame her?
As the episode reached the end, a second soldier arrived to bring her food. When she managed to disarm him and lock him in his own handcuffs, the guard complained that this screw-up would get him kicked out. He said that he was already on probation and was unable to give Princess any clues as to the status of Yumiko. He explained that that sort of information was not something he was privy to.
However, after Princess realized that her imagination was going wild, she returned to the boxcar, released the guard. After being told that the soldiers were going to leave her, Eugene, Yumiko, and Ezekiel to their own devices. After her actions, he agreed to “forget” Princess’s transgressions after she offered to answer the interrogator’s questions. Once she’d done that, without even having to talk to any superiors, he knew exactly when and where she could see her friends, revealing them just outside the boxcar, told her, “We just needed to see if you’d play ball,” and slung a black bag over her head.
The little bastard did the old “good cop, bad cop” routine on her.
Presumably, the Commonwealth is relatively friendly, and this interrogation method was simply to try to ascertain whether Princess, Eugene, Yumiko, and Ezekiel were hostile. This is fine, but if there were a real zombie apocalypse, you can’t be certain people using such methods of manipulation are friendly, and you need to watch out for them.
Specifically, you should be aware of certain things that people will try to get you to do. Things that you may not want to actually do. For example: Is someone trying to make you feel guilty for things that neither you nor any of your immediate family did? Well, then congratulations, that person is trying to manipulate you! Is someone trying to isolate you from friends or family and demand loyalty from you? They’re trying to manipulate you. Is someone withholding important information from you and your group while constantly trying to make you afraid of others? It’s a manipulation.
Know the signs that someone you’re dealing with is trying to use you in some way to get what they want, something that will not be good for you. You don’t want to find out you’ve been had all too late.