We're Alive....A Double meaning perhaps?

[nikvoodoo]

We all know Kc likes to have his double meanings when it comes to chapter titles.

I don't think anyone considered the entire production being a double meaning too. At least not that I've seen. "We're Alive" is so closely associated with the Tower because Pegs wrote that on her sign she dangled out of the windows.

But what if that double meaning is used for the Zombies as well? We have had conversations about their heat signatures, metabolism, mutations, genetic alterations, etc etc etc. We've had the discussion on here whether it's moral to kill a zombie if you know they are alive and potentially curable.

But what do you think...is the title We're Alive not just talking about the Tower, Mallers and Colony? Might this be the clue to help us define and answer the question definitively if the WA zombies are alive or dead?

[7oddisdead]

Excellent...and here lately with Tanya entering the picture and wanting to run tests, comparing them to animals and whatnot....that would point fingers toward something like that..one could make the argument that if you rip an animals leg off....its gonna notice, where as a "zombie" doesnt....but compare them to insects. Its a bit closer.....i could totally see this being the case..nice work nik!

[Grognaurd]

Yup. I think these zombie are alive.

Metabolism. They store food. The only reason to store food is you do not need it now, but you will need it later.
Oxygen requirement. The zombies swim from the island not walk
The humans that are really chewed up do not get up. It is the sprayed people or at best minor wounds
They sleep. All animals sleep. Even some single cell microbes "sleep"


Last is more circumstansual when they are called zombies there is usually someone to shoot it down and often emphatically. Even in our real word advertisements KC puts zombies in quotes.

So, I have thought them as living, but did not connect the double meaning with the title. Nice catch!

[mascaria]

I wouldn't put it past Kc at all.

Also: the infected don't seem to die first. They are very probably alive.

[Fishie]

Oxygen requirement. The zombies swim from the island not walk

Does that really point towards oxygen requirement? It doesn't say that they were swimming with their heads above water or anything, in fact I assumed they were submerged somewhat because when Michael and Pegs first heard splashing they thought it was a shark, indicating that they couldn't see anything above water. I suppose it could be argued that they'd need to have some air in their lungs for buoyancy... Though dead bodies float when the decomposing bacteria produce gas... I'm not sure how to explain the swimming actually!

[Grognaurd]

When I was a kid a dude fell off the front of the boat while it was moving. The boat "ran" him over and his arm was seriously screwed where the propeller hit it many times.

I figure any zombies swimming at the front of the boat could meet a similar fate.

Pegs and Michael could have been bumped by a fish the first time they felt something. The boat gets bumped when the first one arrives and tries to find a way up into the boat. If they were flirting and not looking for swimming zombies and it was wavy. The zombies are probably doing the doggy paddle with only their head above the water. I can easily imagine them not seeing the swimming zombies and Kelley is probably looking inland and up and down the beach.

[Heyyouinthebushes]

Nik, I just slapped my forehead and asked myself why I haven't made that connection. Brilliant.

[HardKor]

I love the thinking here. I've kind of assumed that the zombies were technically "alive" from the beginning. And all the reasons listed above seem to be pointing in that direction. Also there do seem to be groups of zombies that appear to be "dying off." The swimming ones Michael and Pegs encountered on the yacht looked to be starving to death and the first Behemoth Angel and Kalani found at the military base seemed near death.

I've got a third possible meaning for the title "We're Alive" though. Maybe it indicates that multiple people will survive in the end. We haven't seen the "We're Alive" banner that Pegs made since season 1. I just have a feeling that at the end of the shows run there is going to be some kind of call back to the title with multiple survivors in a rescue situation. Maybe saying it over a radio to rescuers or with another banner like 28 Days Later. Or maybe several people survive and find someplace relatively safe to start a new life, like out in the wilderness or something and the last thing we here is Michael saying "The only thing that matters is...We're Alive."

[itsallgoodie]

To add to this pool of fact, Kc never will give more information about the zombies other than whats in the show. We always ask him to give clafifcation and he always has no comment. Maybe this is because he is indeed going to make a play on something like a double meaning soon.

[AdrianHD]

I had this thought randomly while listening to this week's episode. It's definitely something on my list now.

[nikvoodoo]

As others have pointed out the similarities to I Am Legend in the chapter discussion thread for 23-2, I also took this idea and concept from Stephen King's Cell, where people get their brains altered by "The Pulse" but the first batch that received it got a bad dose. So when these people "turned" they were psychotic maniacs, but later on when a perfected pulse was unleashed those that turned were calmer, more intelligent, not nearly as blood thirsty, but increasingly more manipulative.

Those guys also had weird psychic powers. I mean, it's to be expected in a Stephen King book after all. It just seems the further and further we get away from the initial outbreak, the zombies of WA are evolving into radically different creatures than what we originally encountered.

[7oddisdead]

Something from the random 7houghts file:
what if the zoms are all somewhat intelligent? By that I mean at this point we truly do have the equivalent of a zombie army. Complete with simple grunts, sergeants,generals and the like. With the grunt, we should never actually hear them speak, a sarge would give out simple commands, and the general would direct the flow of the army....i am of coarse alluding to the command we heard given on lizzies tape in this recent episode..which we wouldn't have heard had she not left the tape running..a small insight into things we were not supposed to see. Which would certainly lend credance to this theory...

[Irish Fury]

I really like the idea of the double entendre for the Series title. I've always really loved zombies as a socio-political platform for the creator/director/writer to use as a reflection or commentary on our society (mindless consumerism, government testing, enhanced violence/rage, biowarfare, etc). It took me a while to place my finger on it, but I love KC's portrayal of human tenacity, and the innate will to live and survive. He has such an amazing grasp on human interaction and reaction, which is also one of my favorite things about this series. Also, knowing that he was a member of our armed forces, I really like the idea of the whole series having a double meaning in regards to the 'zombies' as well, where to draw the line between humane and inhumane, etc, kind of Land of the Dead style.
A+ connection Nik!