Chapter 33-3 Red Winter

[Litmaster]

Griggs must have taken 11 days to get to Boulder. I come to this conclusion because Micheal said it was 11 days till the next transport left from Boulder to Irwin then the autopsy and they try and raise Boulder on the radio. Griggs averaged 2.7 miles per day through the mountains. Hmm... seems kind of slow.

He must have stopped off in Denver for a snack

Damn, this is one hell of a cliffhanger!
I went back and listened to the previous one, because this failure in communication seemed just unlikely to me, but actually we don't hear what Carl is saying to Michael, so he might have omitted something. Still, I found parts of this episode a bit "funny":
- 11 days and not a moment to read a single report about the crashed Chinook affair? Especially when it interested Michael so much he organized the autopsy behind Kimmet's back?
- we all thought "damn, it's only 30 miles from Boulder, they better be careful about that". I also commented on the previous episode that if they know one single little one is coming, with all the personnel they have they can take care of it no problem. Turns out they didn't know because Carl forgot to mention about the turned soldiers and Michael didn't read the report and did not think about the remaining one as a danger? Ahem. Ok.
- besides, do they really need to be told that one zombie, however special, can breed other zombies very fast?! I though that was the safest assumption to make. Isn't that like what happened since day one? They seem so surprised.

Hmmmm.... yeah, my suspension of disbelief was really stretched in this epidose... really? He didn't read the report all this time? Really? Griggs Longnails begins his strike at precisely the time of the autopsy / funeral? Hmmmm... a bit too convenient, if you ask me.

Samantha's hair was red. But that is an interesting idea. They never did explain what was meant by having them "play" with their prisoners on the arena floor.
I think its more likely they just got themselves ripped apart, but the thought that they got turned into Little Ones is definitely something to consider.

If I remember from that burnout dude (forget his name), some of the people were brought down to the arena floor and others were brought directly to the hospital, most likely to end up as Ink's Dirty Dozen. I think the 'play' on the arena floor was some kind of hideous torture.

I had hoped that Griggs hadn't been turned, based on the slim reed that he was the last possible witness to the conversation at the LZ in Long Beach. Guess I got that one wrong. Or did I? Several people have discussed the possiblity that ADLOs might retain some of their knowledge from when they were human. What if it goes deeper than that, and some or all of their personality/intellect survive? Could it be possible to communicate with one?

Yeah, the conversation would go something like this:

Griggs: "Me want eat you!"
Datu: "Wait! You were once human! We can work dis out!"
Griggs: "Work out nothing. Me eatum Filipino boy!" *lunge*
Datu: "Aaaaaaaaaah!" *munch* *crunch* *slurp* gulp*


...ah, this may not be so bad. Maybe if Datu was a zombie, he would stop acting like such a pussy.

[awkwardalex]

Holy crap, the whole time i thought, "It's gonna wake up, it's gonna sit up." (And don't tell me I'm alone, cheesy horror movies have trained us so) and then the end, wow, we could end up in bolder for the finale.

But the real question...are we gonna go back to the colony or stay with michael. Or even switch to bolder, because if you recall we have had pegs and datu lead the story before.

[Adventureless_Hero]

I wonder if they infect others with thier teeth. Tanya said it came out much easier than expected.

Remember I had that theory about Zombie Venom; way back when they were reviewing the video tape of that one biter who was salivating? I proposed that maybe the biters had the ability to "choose" who they infected. Like if they salivated enough in your wounds it was more likely to infect you, whereas if they didn't you possibly could survive a bite or scratch. Though I don't know what purpose not infecting a victim would serve. I just figured maybe that's how Datu and other playthings of Pinstripes managed to not get infected during capture.

Anywho, another reason, a more likely reason that the Inklings teeth fall off is to that they remain deadly sharp, just like a shark's teeth. Though I didn't hear Tanya comment on the sharpness of #2's teeth, just that she only had about 8 of them in the front.

[Hoff4D]

I had hoped that Griggs hadn't been turned, based on the slim reed that he was the last possible witness to the conversation at the LZ in Long Beach. Guess I got that one wrong. Or did I? Several people have discussed the possiblity that ADLOs might retain some of their knowledge from when they were human. What if it goes deeper than that, and some or all of their personality/intellect survive? Could it be possible to communicate with one?

I'm still with you, as far as the perspective of this story, we don't have recollection of the conversation on the ground at the LZ without Griggs alive.... There's several problems tho:

If he's not turned, how'd he get out?
If he's not turned, how did he make it weeks in the cold to Boulder?

If he IS turned, how do we hear the LZ conversation? It's possible he has a journal, or something akin to it, but when did he have time to write it? The ~1,000mile journey to the Chinook crash I guess, but I would think that entire ride would be chaos trying to keep Cap. Long alive...no?

Either way we choose is a bit far fetched given the evidence thus far, so I think Kc is going to play an angle none of us thought of, and Griggs has an epic Survivorman story to Boulder living off the wildlife somehow, and he arrives to Boulder a broken man, with no energy to even make it the final few feet to some sort of compound, so he shoots some powerlines down to get the attention of someone in the city to come get him. That's why we can't communicate with Boulder.


And to sum up where the season finale goes: The Hospital. Once they finally get ahold of Boulder and realize things are fine, Michael goes in guns blazing to find Ink, and how it all happened

[Hoff4D]

I wonder if they infect others with thier teeth. Tanya said it came out much easier than expected.

Remember I had that theory about Zombie Venom; way back when they were reviewing the video tape of that one biter who was salivating? I proposed that maybe the biters had the ability to "choose" who they infected. Like if they salivated enough in your wounds it was more likely to infect you, whereas if they didn't you possibly could survive a bite or scratch. Though I don't know what purpose not infecting a victim would serve. I just figured maybe that's how Datu and other playthings of Pinstripes managed to not get infected during capture.

Anywho, another reason, a more likely reason that the Inklings teeth fall off is to that they remain deadly sharp, just like a shark's teeth. Though I didn't hear Tanya comment on the sharpness of #2's teeth, just that she only had about 8 of them in the front.

I am a proponent of the 'choosing' who to infect theory, based solely on the grounds that they choose which ones to turn, and which ones to eat. The Inklings assess their need for food, eat, and turn the rest. Or if they realize they are in a losing battle, will choose to turn some of their enemies, to increase their odds.


Clever girl....

[Hoff4D]

Griggs must have taken 11 days to get to Boulder. I come to this conclusion because Micheal said it was 11 days till the next transport left from Boulder to Irwin then the autopsy and they try and raise Boulder on the radio. Griggs averaged 2.7 miles per day through the mountains. Hmm... seems kind of slow.

Slow for a ADLO, but perhaps about par for a starving soldier with no food just trying to make it one more step (in that respect, he may cover a 5-6 miles the first few days...and eventually slow down)

[cupcakezombie]

I wonder if they infect others with thier teeth. Tanya said it came out much easier than expected.

Remember I had that theory about Zombie Venom; way back when they were reviewing the video tape of that one biter who was salivating? I proposed that maybe the biters had the ability to "choose" who they infected. Like if they salivated enough in your wounds it was more likely to infect you, whereas if they didn't you possibly could survive a bite or scratch. Though I don't know what purpose not infecting a victim would serve. I just figured maybe that's how Datu and other playthings of Pinstripes managed to not get infected during capture.

Anywho, another reason, a more likely reason that the Inklings teeth fall off is to that they remain deadly sharp, just like a shark's teeth. Though I didn't hear Tanya comment on the sharpness of #2's teeth, just that she only had about 8 of them in the front.

I was really interested in the teeth, and I have two thoughts.

1. Remember that these original Little Ones were small at the start. Really small. What if these are still the baby/milk teeth. That would explain why there are so few and why they come out easily. If the teeth were getting ready to come out on their own then there wouldn't be much root structure and if the body had put its resourses in to growing in other areas rather than teeth they would just sit there. They don't seem to use biting as their primary attack, or at least they grab people to incapaciate them first. If this is the correct theory they would be maybe 4-7 when they turned (I can't remember properly and would have to look it up) but that would fit with the size from way back in season

2. With the bones in the jaw getting harder and stronger it could be killing the root structure of the teeth.

Either could tie in with Tanya talking about replacement teeth. I really want those X-Rays as they could provide a lot of information and maybe even age of the original little ones when they turned.
Also, I was thinking more about the nails, they must have continued to grow after the change. Not many people would have nails of that length in life, plus they seem to need to be be sharpened. That might mean they break and then re-grow.

Hmmm time to go ponder more.

[Hoff4D]

Samantha's hair was red. But that is an interesting idea. They never did explain what was meant by having them "play" with their prisoners on the arena floor.
I think its more likely they just got themselves ripped apart, but the thought that they got turned into Little Ones is definitely something to consider.

It is an interesting idea, and is backed by Samantha demanding Datu NOT to watch...so we have no eyewitness accounts of what they do in the arena....I think it's obvious there's something to do with the hospital as well, but perhaps the arena ties in, maybe Ink holds tryouts in the arena to decide who he considers well enough to make into an Inkling.


Moreover, adding creedance to the antibiotic theory, Maybe the 'tryouts' are to see who is immune to the BASE virus. Those who survive, he pumps full of some extra shit and antibiotics and gets this ALMOST zombie hybrid of badassery. If Saul was scratched/bitten by a ADLO/Inkling, he may turn, but the norms have no affect on him.

[Adventureless_Hero]

Slow for a ADLO, but perhaps about par for a starving soldier with no food just trying to make it one more step (in that respect, he may cover a 5-6 miles the first few days...and eventually slow down)

Griggs must have taken 11 days to get to Boulder. I come to this conclusion because Micheal said it was 11 days till the next transport left from Boulder to Irwin then the autopsy and they try and raise Boulder on the radio. Griggs averaged 2.7 miles per day through the mountains. Hmm... seems kind of slow.

What's worse is that perhaps it arrived much sooner and waited, assessing the best time to attack. Hell, it may have even spied the Black Hawk leaving the crash site and noted which direction the chopper was headed, using that as it's only bearings to find Boulder. Once there, it could have just been lurking in the nearby woods, surveying the fortifications and keeping tabs on the security. Or maybe it waited for a scouting party to come to it, then turned all of them, increasing it's numbers.

I dunno, the more I let my imagination run with it, the more these Inklings sounds pretty damn scary.

It seems a bit too coincidental that the day after Carl returns with the corpses, is the day that Ft. Irwin loses contact with Boulder. I tell you that son-of-a-gun was waiting for the chopper to leave or something. Weird.

[Hoff4D]

What's worse is that perhaps it arrived much sooner and waited, assessing the best time to attack. Hell, it may have even spied the Black Hawk leaving the crash site and noted which direction the chopper was headed, using that as it's only bearings to find Boulder. Once there, it could have just been lurking in the nearby woods, surveying the fortifications and keeping tabs on the security. Or maybe it waited for a scouting party to come to it, then turned all of them, increasing it's numbers.

I dunno, the more I let my imagination run with it, the more these Inklings sounds pretty damn scary.

It seems a bit too coincidental that the day after Carl returns with the corpses, is the day that Ft. Irwin loses contact with Boulder. I tell you that son-of-a-gun was waiting for the chopper to leave or something. Weird.

As I read this, <edit> You're </edit> talking me into my own theory more that they choose who to eat, and who to turn via some bodily functions, and they are the distant relatives of Velociraptors, turned by the Jurassic Haze pouring out of the planets.

Really, Pterodactyls are just around the corner...