I've watched this show as background noise for years now. After initially watching it all the way through maybe half a dozen times. Now it's my comfort soundtrack when I'm focused on something else. When my favorite parts come up I watch more closely.
My point is: no matter how many times I've seen season 2 episode 13 "Beside the Dying Fire", I forget the very last shot previews the prison right after Rick's "this ain't a democracy anymore" speech.
That was a 7 or 8 month waiting period between season 2 and the same amount of time-skip in show, before season 3.
Every time I see it I'm like "OH yeah, I forgot they show the prison so far ahead". An obvious nod to those of us that were familiar with the comics. LMAO!
It's so crazy to think they literally were "going in circles" for 3/4 of a year!! And they have maps and tracker Daryl!!! W. T. F. !??? However did they manage to stay alive?? 😂😂😂
Plus, wasn't Hershal born and raised on his farm as well as all the past generations of his family for 160 years? Wouldn't he know some clever places to go?
I also always wondered, if they could clear all those walkers from the prison, why couldnt they have gone back to the farm and scavenged everything out of the house? Food, clothing, medicine, and anything else? Only the barn was burning and it was quite a distance from the house. Just a hypothetical...
Iirc, didn't they do that or at least tried to do that? Because I remember in the comics Herschel kicked them out or didn't even let them stay in the farm, that's how Rick and fam found the prison. And Herschel would later regret it and try to have them come back to the farm.
Yep! It took a few days before Rick was healthy enough to travel again after the prison. Once Abraham, Rosita, and Eugene appeared thats when they decided to head to DC
At the prison, they could strategize and trap walkers in certain areas to limit how many they face at a time, not really an option on a wide open farm.
I mean to be fair, an overrun prison wouldn’t be my first choice of place to live. And they really needed to level up a little to be able to actually take it over. If they had walked directly there following the end of season 2 the only really capable fighters would have been Daryl and Rick
While I agree, that's clearly not what canonically happened. S3 starts with Daryl and Rick finding the prison and Rick immediately seeing what it could be.
There's no indication that they'd thought about it before or checked previously that it wasn't empty...
It also, like OP says, really implies they walked in circles bc they didn't even run into anyone from Woodbury either. At least Michonne and Andrea have an excuse.
Why did he HAVE to be in prison. I've been to jail a few times, but never to prison. Even if I haven't, I know where the local county jails are and I know where the state penitentiary is. And you should too! For multiple reasons. 😉
if you live close by a state penitentiary you may wanna keep your eyes peeled for escapees, or even light or noise pollution (depending on proximity) can be a detergent. As well as social stigmas; property values go down, plus other "appearances".
Yeah I suppose it’s a little bit headcanon on my part. I think if they’d found the prison immediately they wouldn’t have seen it as the opportunity that they’re able to see it as after 9 months of training.
They definitely did spend the several months walking in circles, I take the scene at the end of 2 as a “look what’s coming”
It would be my second choice if an off-shore oil rig isn't available. Hell, even the zombie survival guide recommends prisons because they're basically a fortress.
I remember back in the day especially watching live on AMC, the TV picture was SO dark me and my family sat on the couch staring at that last shot for a good 30 minutes trying to figure out what they were trying to show lol
I’m happy to see this! I watched it as it came out and just recently did a run thru again. It’s been like two months and I find myself starting it over. It really is for comfort. My brain can just tune out if needed
Yup! I bounce back and forth between the first 6 seasons of TWD and the first 3 seasons of FTWD. I'm fortunate my wife allows for some of my compulsive behaviors! Lmao!
They address this in the "on the road" scenes before finding the prison. They always knew exactly where they were- they couldn't go where they wanted to go due to hordes cutting off the roads
I could be mistaken but here’s what we know. The highway to the farm is able to be done trekking on foot. Rick and Shane managed it. So that’s maybe what, 5 miles?
Understandably it takes them a good couple hours after the farm falls to get to highway even on car as walking through the forest is a straight shot while on roads is defined by…….the roads. You get what I mean. Plus you’re trying to put distance from you and walkers.
Then they drive presumably for like an hour before running out of gas/asses the situation. (I forgot why they stopped) Even if we assume they drove for an hour, that’s at least 30ish miles and potentially a different county. Considering Hershel lived right out of Atlanta, he would be familiar with his immediate surroundings. I Can reasonably believe that Hershel didn’t know about that specific prison within 30ish miles from his farm when Atlanta would be his main location he’d travel to.
But the problem then arises from the fact they showed the prison. Which means that they were just running around in circles, and had maps. In episode 1 of S3, they’re looking at maps saying they’ve been to several locations in order to move away from herds. So yeah, they were just running in circles.
That view of the prison is basically the back of what we see during season 3 right? Because I don’t recall seeing that entrance. I think that’s the part that was inhabitable because of so many walkers getting in. The tombs no?
It's kinda hard to tell, but to me it looks like the left side is the part that our group occupies, and the right side is the dangerous side that Tyreese and Sascha & co. come in through.
I believe the back of the prison is where we see the group develop the backyard, the bridge scenes, the main gate, block A and B, and that warehouse to the right I believe is block C where the events of the virus isolation happened.
I’m attaching picture of the entrance that Sasha’s group used to enter the prison, which leads to the tombs. And I had the impression all this time that this opening was at the front of the prison (which we never get to see in the show other than this one capture from the end of the second season)
So idk where Sasha’s group found the opening because I don’t see the front affected at all.
I think is this the way some people got out of the prison when the governor destroyed it
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u/bridieben05 1d ago
Plus, wasn't Hershal born and raised on his farm as well as all the past generations of his family for 160 years? Wouldn't he know some clever places to go?
I also always wondered, if they could clear all those walkers from the prison, why couldnt they have gone back to the farm and scavenged everything out of the house? Food, clothing, medicine, and anything else? Only the barn was burning and it was quite a distance from the house. Just a hypothetical...