Chapter 39-2 Chemical Reactions

[UndeadSweeper]

Damn!
Saul and Tanya showing signs on infection is throwing me for a loop.
I've always been a proponent of the family immunity theory and I still feel mostly certain that things are going to turn out alright for them. But I'm starting to get that small little twinge of doubt that this could turn nasty before the end.
There is one thing sticking in my mind. I remember Saul noting in Chapter 28 that the zombies might not even be able to survive the haze at Ground Zero. So, if we do end up seeing Tanya going there to test the air and she ends up being immune to the effects the way Saul was, that might be an indicator that their high Keratin 18 levels are signs of something other than slow infection.

As for the whole Keratin 18 thing, in general. I only took a quick look at what it is, but what I found is that it is a molecule found in epithelial tissue, and that it is sometimes used to detect circulating tumor cells in blood.
So I'm thinking maybe the high levels of K18 in the blood during the first stages of infection could have something to do way the zombies skin thickens.
And circulating tumor cells just makes me think of how the behemoth was full of tumors. I'm no sure, I'll leave the rest of the digging to our resident researchers, but my mind's tingling.

So it's a tumor? *Queuing Arnold*

Anyway, so maybe we are looking for a cancer "cure" that cause the outbreak. We can look up chemical used in cures to find the answer about our mystery chemical in the two bottles.

[7oddisdead]

"a frog can't turn back into a tadpole"

this line jumped out at me.

such a heavy episode....i need to digest this one for a day or so.

[FunkyDung]

Keratin k18

Keratin 18 on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keratin_18
Keratin 18 on Google Scholar: http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl...%2C39&as_sdtp=
Keratin 18 and formic acid on Google Scholar: http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=...&as_sdt=0%2C39
Keratin 18 and formaldehyde on Google Scholar: http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=...&as_sdt=0%2C39
Keratin 18 and formamide on Google Scholar: http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=...&as_sdt=0%2C39
Keratin 18 and formalin on Google Scholar: http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=...ed=0CCoQgQMwAA
Keratin 18 on PubMed: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=keratin+18

Formic acid, formamide, and formaldehyde all seem to have uses in genomic (and possibly proteomic) research.

Oddly, there also seems to be a link between formaldehyde and a popular hair treatment: http://nadinejolie.com/blog/2010/10/...out-companies/
Note: Hair is made from a type of keratin (not 18, though).

[pmchawk]

All because you can't change someone back doesn't mean you can't slow or even stop the change..

Also, I guessing somehow Burt &/or Riley will be at Raydon Labs and may "come to the rescue" in a diar situation.

[Merlin1274]

I forgot to mention. From Michael not wanting to talk to CJ and getting Pegs to do it and the conversation Datu had with Glenn and his narrative, sounds like CJ is being really hard on everyone and does not sound like its a good thing. Will be interesting to see how that house of cards will fall.

[Vlarken]

Wow, this is probably my favorite episode this season. The conversation between Saul and Tanya was heavy duty, and so well acted. The scene at the end with Michael giving Pegs flowers through Datu cracked me up (I'm assuming he got them out of the flowerbed that the new guy drove into), glad to see that they're moving back towards being together. Also Datu's 'Matta-gun' (no idea how the spelling should be) was really cool, although I was just as skeptical as Glen.. And still sort of am. It just seems hard for me to believe that a gun using compressed air can have a more powerful impact and penetrating force than a .50 caliber bullet. However, I don't know much about guns in general. Man I'm excited for next week's episode; it has all the proper build-up to be something great.

(Also, the revelation about Saul and Tanya threw me for a loop: I was positive that they were both immune. Points to KC for once again taking the story for a new, unexpected twist.)

[Witch_Doctor]

This was a pretty hardcore episode in its revealing nature, but there are few forum posts at this time. Is everyone too stunned by the Saul/Tanya revelation to talk about it? In my humble opinion, this episode contains LOTS to think about.
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Still thinking.

[LiamKerrington]

This was a pretty hardcore episode in its revealing nature, but there are few forum posts at this time. Is everyone too stunned by the Saul/Tanya revelation to talk about it? In my humble opinion, this episode contains LOTS to think about.
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Still thinking.

Ex-ac-tly!

[LiamKerrington]

All because you can't change someone back doesn't mean you can't slow or even stop the change..

Also, I guessing somehow Burt &/or Riley will be at Raydon Labs and may "come to the rescue" in a diar situation.

Yeah. My first thought was: There are so many illnesses for the human body we stil don't have the full medical treatment for - like for example HIV -, and yet the pharmaceuticals available allow a thorough and strong control over shit like this.
But the bad news from Tanya is that the numbers slowly rise. So currently there is not much controle over the infection. I just wonder: When was it that Saul got infected? Was it his attempt to save Lady in the Hybrid, when he shot all those zombs and crashed into the Whisky-Bottles? Was it when he was shot by Burt that he got the infected blood from Tommy or the Jumper into his own blood-system? Or was it as late as his expedition to ground zero that he caught the shit from breathing the bad air just long enough? But in that case Victor and Pegs must have been infected as well - which would be very baaaaaaaaaaaad news ...
And then again: Saul was infected a long time ago. Why does his body apply to the z-factor so dramatically slowly? Is it because of his genetic code? Or is it because he received the "right" medical treatment at the right time?

Best wishes!
Liam

[Grognaurd]

I find it strange that Tanya says the woman is not turning fast or slow at the 22 minute mark. While we learned from season 1 that people were changing in a couple of minutes. This would indicate that one of the first changes is behavioral. Since Wendy was knocked out, we do not observe these mental changes.

However, if we go back to the start of Season 4, Amy gets scratched and is able to go to the hospital and hang out for a long while. Two people from the colony, two people taking a hell of a long tie to change compared to regular people in Season 1,

What I keep asking myself is how "normal" is anybody anymore? Are they the new normal or was there something special about them right from the beginning? They are from the colony, but a colony of what?