Laura Wright 
Note: May contain spoilers, artificial colors, and may be processed with machines that contain peanut allergens. This is also the last of the popular culture entries for the near future.
The premier of Season 4 of the AMC’s The Walking Dead brought many old questions back from the dead, along with thousands of zombies. These points should’ve been addressed during the show, but for various reasons were not. Now, we can ponder them in all their decomposing glory. It’s fairly certain they don’t bite, and if they do, it isn’t lethal.
1. So, what happened to Lori?
We saw what happened to Amy, Ed, Jim, Jackie, Jenner, T-Dog, Sophia, Shane, Otis, Patricia, Merle, Dale, Andrea, Milton, Morgan and his son, most of Woodbury, Andrew, Axel, Oscar, and every other remotely recurring cast member. Lori’s is the only death where the audience was completely left without closure or resolution. Not only that, the writers seemed eager to hide the fact that it happened at all. The audience wasn’t even given a glimpse of her corpse.
2. What did Shane actually do?
Shane felt Rick was incompetent and he obsessed about keeping the group “safe.” He couldn’t rescue anyone because it might endanger the group. He could get supplies because it might endanger the group.
What we don’t know is what his character did to actually contribute to the group, or how he kept anyone safe. Throughout both seasons, he mostly stormed around the camp and sulked about what Rick did. He ignored the fact that most of the time, Rick made the right choice for the group.
He also argued a considerable amount with Dale. Dale caught Shane pointing a rifle at Rick during Season 1, and that permanently ruined their relationship.
Shane didn’t go on runs, didn’t rescue others, didn’t scavenge unless he was with the group, didn’t hunt, didn’t fish, and was a bad at frog-gigging. In one part of Season 2, he nailed some boards to a windmill and taught some of the group to shoot, although he was unable to defend himself without a gun. He also couldn’t have brought supplies back to help bullet-wounded Karl if he hadn’t murdered Otis.
He blamed Rick for returning to Atlanta for Merle, but also acknowledged the group had no bullets. If Rick hadn’t brought guns and ammo back, many more would’ve perished when the zombie attacked the group.
3. Why didn’t the group retake Woodbury?
They could choose either a gated community with pretty houses, safe streets, and reinforced boundaries or a derelict prison. They chose the prison. The writers claim they will explain this in a newsletter. It should be explained on the show.
4. Why does no one use the military vehicles?
People have their choice of travel, with regular vehicles, or armored military vehicles that flatten anything in their path. They use regular vehicles that are often stuck in mud, easily wrecked, and offer little to no protection against the ravenous hordes.
5. Why does no one use a tank against the ravenous hordes?
A tank could plow through a massive gathering of zombies and flatten all it crosses. The people also do not use construction equipment, although in that world there are countless construction vehicles abandoned everywhere.
6. Why did the Governor kill soldiers?
Any dictator always has well-trained fighters by his side. Instead, the Governor killed the well-trained fighters and opted for his own poorly disciplined group that fled at the first sign of fighting. It was good for Rick’s group, but difficult for a viewer to understand.
7. Why did Andrea let Milton bite her?
She fought off countless zombies by herself when she was separated from the group. She’d fought them with Michonne for months, suffering from what appeared to be pneumonia, but somehow she was bitten when poor, pacifist Milton turned. She was also wearing a jacket, so it would’ve been difficult or a poorly coordinated member of the undead to bite her shoulder.
8. How did Andrew get around?
In Season 3, the small, angry prisoner who Rick trapped in a prison yard with a bunch of walkers took his vengeance out by sounding the alarm on the group. How did he escape the locked yard? How did he travel through the prison with no keys?
9. Why does no one use the generator at the prison?
While it’s understandable that massive generators can’t be run 24/7, it isn’t clear why they couldn’t be used a few hours a day, or even a few hours a week. If enough fuel can be found to operate vehicles, enough could be used to briefly operate a generator.
10. Why didn’t the group help Jenner find fuel and new test subjects?
People were turning often during that part of the season. With the number of vehicles surrounding the building, they could’ve found fuel for the generator.
11. Why was the group obsessed with murdering Randall?
This Season 2 shocker was never explained satisfactorily. The primary fear was that Randall’s group would come looking for him, but it had already been established that his group left him for dead.
Dave and Tony were the two seedy shifters who barged into the bar where Hershel grieved, after Shane’s bullet-laden tirade that drew thousands of walkers to the farm. Randall was a part of their group. Dave and Tony stated the group was moving on, after learning about Ft. Benning. They did not have a permanent camp and were looking for one.
Rick’s group rescued Randall, fixed his leg, and then spent several episodes torturing him. There was no good reason, as he couldn’t have known if his group was even still in the area. As Dale so rightfully implied, they had became the people they feared, as if the group assumed Shane’s paranoia instead of the logic and caution they’d exhibited thus far.
If Randall’s group had been within the region, he wouldn’t have minded being let go on a road. Instead, he didn’t want to be kicked out of Rick’s group because he would’ve been alone. There was no group waiting on him or looking for him.
This will not deter anyone from watching future episodes, but it would certainly add much more depth to the story if these and future mysteries were solved during the show.
