Monday, November 5, 2012

THE WALKING DEAD: Reaction To Sunday's Episode

In Sunday's episode of THE WALKING DEAD, not only did T-Dog (IronE Singleton) sacrifice his own life for the good of the group, but Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) chose the life of her then unborn child over her own, instructing Maggie (Lauren Cohan) to cut her open for an impromptu C-section that cost the group's matriarch her life in a grimy boiler room. The reaction on Facebook and Twitter to both T-Dog and Lori being dead was instant with fans posting their shock at the ending of the show. Callies and executive producers Robert Kirkman and Glen Mazzara and spoke to TVGuide.com about what happened in separate interviews.

TV Guide Magazine: You say you wanted to have two characters die. Was there ever a thought having someone else other than T-Dog as the other person?
Kirkman: There were a lot of things thrown around in the writers' room. I think the actors would probably be terrified to sit in on one of our sessions. It was very clear from the get-go that T-Dog was the character that needed to go for various reasons. For various reasons moving forward, that's a death that would affect the group in a big way. That's one of the things that caused us to land on that one.

TV Guide Magazine: Both Lori and T-Dog's deaths mirrored each other's in that they were both heroic.
Mazzara: That's correct and that's by design. They're very simple deaths. T-Dog used to play football, and there was a football reference in the season premiere that was cut for time, and his training takes over and he just heroically acts as a linebacker and just clotheslines these walkers, even at his own expense. Lori's death is heroic because, at the end of the day, this is just a woman dying in childbirth. I've said I really want to examine how we portray women on this show and what's more heroic than the act of childbirth? It's very surprising to imagine that less than a year after civilization collapses, we're back to a primitive state in which people are dying in childbirth. Modern medicine has collapsed and the first birth we see costs the mother her life. We're right back to where humanity has been for most of its existence. That heroism of a woman giving birth and paying a price and just being focused on the survival of her children is a beautiful story, and a story that's actually taken place millions of times throughout history.
Callies shared her reaction to Lori's fate.

TV Guide Magazine: What was your reaction when you heard the news?
Callies: I knew it was coming and on a show like The Walking Dead, you kind of assume that it's always coming. I got the episode, read it, put it down and couldn't really do anything for half an hour. And the great blessing was [director] Guy Ferland. Guy and I go back to Prison Break, I love him. He shot Jon [Bernthal]'s death, so apparently they bring him in to kill leading characters! Guy and I spoke about wanting to shoot it with enough elegance that it wouldn't be gross and have heart.

TV Guide Magazine: What was the mood like on set?
Callies: We were all a little shaken up. It was an interesting day because IronE died that morning, so my whole focus for the morning was dealing with my friend and colleague. It was difficult because Chandler [Riggs] and I hadn't really rehearsed the scene beforehand because, in a way, we've been preparing for this scene for two and a half years. I came out of the set in rehearsal and virtually the entire cast stopped by just to be there. I didn't know they were coming — we all did that for Jon — but for some reason I just wasn't thinking about it and it was really moving to look out there. Andy [Lincoln] and Norman [Reedus] were a little bit freaked out by the delivery. They've both got kids and I came out after we shot a couple takes of that and they both looked green and were kind of shaky. I took it as a compliment. [Laughs]
What did you think of this week's WALKING DEAD?

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