Hi all - I'm a new listener, in the middle of an archive binge. Here are some thoughts at this point, don't spoil me!
1) Overall, the show is astonishly addictive. It's a real challenge to resist listening at work. I like that even the heroes are sort of jerks, and in distinct and consistent ways. (For example, Michael cracking under pressure is understandable, but it's his dry, sly, completely unnecessary way of messing with people that makes the character.)
2) At this point, I'm astonished that most of the survivors don't just assume that Bill was the traitor. He went out of his way to get Michael and Burt drunk, and he had all their ammo. Occam's razor makes it more plausible that he was running around with a shotgun for an unexplained reason than he did everything else for an unexplained reason. My theory is that Scratch promised him extra cucumbers.
3) I don't get why pinstripe zombie is letting them live. He seems smart enough and in control of sufficient zombies to wipe out the tower any time he wants, so I'm hoping he has some plan and we'll learn it later. It's a little bit like early BSG, where the cylons seemed to have such overwhelming advantage that we were all waiting to see how the show would explain the characters' survival.
5) Overall, I think the variant zombies are a great choice - it creates more mystery about the mythology.
6) The rate of spread suggests an infectious agent other than or in addition to blood contact - there's no way for California to fall in a day if that requires zombies running from LA to the Bay, unless they launch some speed zombies who somehow don't get distracted.
