7 Questions The Walking Dead Will (Likely) Never Answer on Screen
Photos courtesy of AMC
Over seven seasons, The Walking Dead has forced viewers to consider a lot of important questions. What does humanity look like in the face of unspeakable disaster? How do you rebuild a society? How do you maintain your essence as a person when circumstances demand evolution in order to survive? But for all the big themes and ideas they’ve pushed to the forefront, the AMC drama is, at heart, a soap whose pleasures often teeter on the edge of guilty. Sometimes it’s the wobbly characterization (see: Carol, Andrea, Beth, Carl and Dr. Oatmeal). Sometimes it’s the plot points that, even in a series that features hordes of zombies, border on the absurd (I’m looking at you, Season Five). And sometimes it’s just the little things that they will never, ever show us on screen. Here are the mysteries we’re guessing The Walking Dead will never explain.
1. How do people with a uterus deal with periods?
Is menstruation a thing in the apocalypse? Not only would mopping up blood and dealing with cramps be inconvenient while dealing with the undead, one assumes that eventually all Atlanta-area drug stores would be looted for tampons, leaving survivors to improvise with any matter of leaf, fabric or sponge they could get their hands on. (Note: Do not try this at home.)
Then again, given the extreme conditions survivors are subjected to, coupled with a questionable diet (Negan’s lackeys aren’t the only ones wondering how Alexandra will survive with such an empty pantry), chances are many are simply giving the whole ovulation thing a miss. As noted by Web MD (a hypochondria-inducing resource none of us will mourn in the end times), emotional stress, weight loss, poor nutrition and increased exercise can all result in missed periods. Unless, of course, your name is Maggie Greene, in which case you’re in danger of conceiving a plot-point baby.
2. What do they do when their clothes wear out?
We’re only two(ish) years into life post-walker outbreak, and everyone’s artfully distressed capsule wardrobes are starting to look a bit like the sale rack at Urban Outfitters. But what happens when their clothes actively start falling apart? (Do zombie guts stain?) I, for one, welcome the montage in which the curtains of Alexandria are repurposed, Gone With the Wind style. But then what? Are any of these settlements big enough to include a textile factory? You’d better hope a professional seamstress survived—I spent the majority of my adolescence in 4-H (the cool Girl Scouts) and weaving is a handicraft I couldn’t even dream of mastering.
3. How have they not run out of gas?
Maybe the clothing thing isn’t the biggest issue facing survivors. (At least until winter—which, as in Game of Thrones, is taking forever to come.) How do they still have enough gas to do regular runs between the Kingdom, The Hilltop and Alexandria—and still have enough left over to garrote a horde of zombies Mad Max-style? I can’t even buy gas during a blackout. I suppose the answer here is Eugene, since he is the show’s de facto character for scientific exposition. But even though he can make a bullet, he can’t change the fact that the team probably doesn’t have the means to drill for oil. (But hey, if he wants to make himself useful and start retrofitting cars to be electric, be our guest.)
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