Zombie Research Society
Contributing author Alfredo Torres is an adjunct professor of communications at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA where he wrote his master’s thesis on the metaphoric representation of zombies in the films of George Romero.
WWRD – What Would Rick Do?
As we get closer to the Season 4 premier of The Walking Dead, I find myself getting in the right frame of mind to watch the show. What is that frame of mind you ask? It’s simple. I ask myself a question with every situation that presents itself on the show; what would Rick do? Now it doesn’t matter if the situation actually involves Rick or not. The only thing that is significant is what I believe he would do… and it’s always the opposite of what he ends up doing.
You see, I don’t trust Rick to do the right thing. Rick is too emotional. Rick is too unstable. And most of all, Rick doesn’t hold the same standards for everyone else that he holds for himself. Rick begs for mercy for his group while he turns his back on others. For example, remember when he got the phone call and he thought it was someone who had a better place than the prison? He begged that voice on the phone for mercy. That voice needed to allow Rick to take his group to a place that was safer than the prison. But what did he do when Tyreese showed up with his group? Essentially he told them to get lost. He couldn’t be bothered with helping the poor group of travelers who had just lost a member of their party. Sorry buddy, but you got to go!
How about that time that Rick begged Hershel not to kick his family off the farm? How could Hershel possibly send Rick’s family out into a world where zombies are hiding in every nook and cranny? But what was Rick’s reaction to those who were surviving within the walls of the prison before he arrived? Not only did he banish them to the part of the prison that hadn’t been cleared of the dead bodies of their friends, but he also took the food and supplies that they had stored. He even grabbed Michonne in her wounded leg after she brought him food for the baby that he had been ignoring while he was chasing images of Lori around.
Yeah, Rick might be everyone else’s hero. But I know that, placed in the same situation, I wouldn’t follow Rick’s lead. As a matter of fact, I know that when I ask “What would Rick do?” The answer is always the same, it’s going to be the opposite of whatever he does!
I started reading the novels after seeing the first two seasons of the show and aside from the general dissimilarities between the two I actually grew found of Rick’s character in the novels and then when Season 3 premiered I found myself wondering about his resolve. In honest I believed Lori to be the crux of his weakness in that he states several times that one of his objectives was to fix his marriage as soon as could be when a safe haven was found. Yet during the idle times at the prison he got involved in other things, but likely, IRL, a man would have that weighing on his conscious and affecting his decisions.
I wouldn’t be surprised if, at the end of Season 4 Rick is dead, or moreso resembles the character of the Governor leading further to Carl’s demise into a psychopath.
conscience
Yeah, I loved Rick in the comic book but this crazy Rick having ignoring his newborn and making out with the wind….yeah he doesnt strike me as the leader of men.
i would not trust Rick. in the beginning he was sentimental but now in S3 hes batsh*t insane,due to Lori’s death and other situations. i would rather be in TWD world with nothing and by myself than stay in his group.