Chapter 43-3: The Darkness Ahead

[Jannit]

I sure hope this isn't the case. Last I checked, Los Angeles has a population of about 3.8 MILLION people, and to have such an improbable occurrence as this would really stretch the tenuous cords of believability. We've already has the improbable situation of Scratch knowing who Angel was, and of Michael meeting back up with Randy at the water works, and to have another pre-outbreak relationship manifest this late in the story would get me crinkling my nose...

Don’t forget Saul and Tanya finding one another. Or Scratch rescuing Latch. We’ve seen a number of these sorts of cases already, as you mentioned.
Do we know where Lizzy worked prior to the outbreak? As a psychologist, it seems logical that she’d have reason to associate with people in mental health facilities and if “Nick” is either her father or, as Grog mentioned, a mentor of some sort it is plausible that they could’ve known one another. Unlikely? Sure. But weirder things have happened!

Sounds like Datu is experiencing dissociative feelings, or a detachment from his own self, when he talks about watching from the back of his mind.

Just for kicks: There is an interesting connection to Haitian Voodoo zombies and dissociative drugs. One ingredient found in the zombie powder by Dr. Wade Davis (The Serpent and the Rainbow) was tetrodotoxin, found in puffer fish. The other was the plant datura or jimsonweed (Zombie Cucumber). This plants can make a person prone to suggestion in addition to dissociative feelings. http://zombie.wikia.com/wiki/Zombies

Now, just waiting for someone to make a connection based on the fact that the first four letters of datura are d,a,t and u.

That sort of sounds like our missing fan symbol that seems to mean stop! It’s likely unrelated but that’s the first thing I thought of when you said this.

Hi.

Sorry, I have some trouble joining into the criticism about the symbols being words and/or commands to the zombies.

I remember us discussing a lot about an ant-analogy in respect to the zombos, when Randy dropped these bottles. Now I would like to make you remember these discussions again, because I have the feeling that many of have seemed to "accept" this kind of theory.
Ants "talk" or "communicate" by using hormons or shit telling everyone in the ant-family what to do - some simply for "follow this trail", others for "defend", again others "safe the ant-eggs", or "feed big Mom" etc. ... What if these symbols have the a similar effect on zombies? Their brains may get twisted by the z-agent, and by seeing symbols all across the place they simply follow these symbols, because there could be kind of a hard programming through the zombie-agent.

Or make it different: What, if those symbols are painted with colors which were enriched with certain hormons or fluids the zombies simply "scent". R2Da2 explicitely says that these symbols are not like explicit words, but about a certain meaning. He sees the symbols and "understands" something about them in a way that he cannot resist and thus follows "an order" as he understands it. Just like an ant smells a certain hormon in its surrounding and reacts accordingly.

So - yes. Could be. I am looking forward to get more clues and see where this is leading.

Best wishes!
Liam

While the pheromone idea seems reasonable-ish we’ve gotten confirmation that it doesn’t work already, haven’t we? I thought the list where Datu found the address was a photocopy of the original. Regardless, the markings from the prison weren’t originals so the idea of a scent of some sort doesn’t work.