The Walking Dead, Survival Rule of the Week: People can surprise you

The Walking Dead – Faith

Never underestimate a person’s ability to be a scumbag, especially in a zombie apocalypse. 

While one-half of this week’s episode of The Walking Dead focused on the situation in Alexandria and Daryl, Carol, Connie, Maggie, Rosita, and Father Gabriel trying to liberate it, the other half focused on Eugene’s trial for first-degree murder at the Commonwealth. During that trial, Governor Pamela Milton testified against him, saying that Eugene needed to pay for what he did to Sebastian. When pressed by Yumiko about the lottery and its validity, Pamela claimed it was about opportunity, prompting Yumiko to bring up that, according to Sebastian himself, it was all rigged. Amazingly, despite the fact that everyone in the Commonwealth heard Sebastian say the lottery was rigged, and citizens in the courtroom acknowledged that they heard it, Pamela claimed that the audio was altered. In spite of how utterly ridiculous that assertion was (Especially with the technological limitations in the apocalypse), she stuck by it.

Utter nonsense.

But this does illustrate a good point: In a zombie apocalypse, if you know someone is a scumbag, never underestimate that person’s ability or willingness to be a scumbag. Never assume that they won’t take the sketchy option, the lie, or the opportunity to be self-serving or unscrupulous because those options are always on the table for them, and they will take it if/whenever they think them the most beneficial.

If you do this, when they do, inevitably, try to take the scummy option on you, you will anticipate it and not be caught off guard, and that can make the difference between surviving the outcome of that scummy behavior and…not.