Was Gabriel bitten?


he seems to have the fever at the end.

reply

I think he's faking in order to find out where the doctor is located in the compound.

reply

I hope that is the case.

reply

Cool, I like this. That partially explains why he even bothered to mention to Eugene that "Dr. Carson 2" was Maggie's obstetrician. Gabriel has even shown the ability to plan ahead before-- the fake graves for Maggie and Sasha, for example.

reply

I don't know, I think he's genuinely ill from covering himself in zombie juice. Negan did that little speech about people getting ill from it as it's putrefied bodily fluid, excrement and such. Get some of that in your mouth and your body will not like it. I think Gabriel has concocted some plan and purposely ingested some to get access to the doctor. That or he's a colossal klutz.

Without Negan's speech, I gather the writers would figure the viewers would question just why Gabriel got ill when we've seen it time and time again with no ill effects even when done with young and old with more at risk immune systems.

Again, just more sloppy writing as we've come to expect.

reply

Nothing sloppy about it. Dumbed down, maybe. Sloppy would be without any thought and this show has more thought put into it than 99% of the dreck on television.

reply

Sloppy in the sense of requiring Gabriel to get ill from this particular foray into zombie guts adornment is what I'm saying. If from the start they'd been a line like, 'hey, don't get any of this stuff in your mouth/cuts whatever as it could make you ill' then fair enough. But suddenly having it be dangerous now as it's convenient for the writers, if you get me.

reply

It's not suddenly dangerous. Rotting bodies are dangerous in the real world.

Sloppy is that all of them are supposedly infected already but a bite has significance beyond simple infection.

reply

Yeah. That's what I'm saying. It has always been dangerous, but only now in TWD universe is it acknowledged that it's dangerous as it's needed for the plot. So all the times all the other characters getting plastered in the stuff has just been down to luck that no one got ill...

Yeah, as much as I'm a fan of Romero, the Romero rule of 'everyone is infected and a bite causes death' is something I'm not into.

reply

In the earlier seasons, doesn't Rick at some point advise others to not let any of the blood and guts of the dead get in contact with their mouths and eyes? I seem to remember that. It's still convinient tho, how Negan had to bring this up again, just before Gabriel gets sick.

reply

Well that's interesting if you're right.

They certainly don't seem to worry about doing it on FTWD. Well, the addict guy at least.

reply

Yes, he does say that, but I think that was before he knew if those actions would cause irreversibly harm. Remember what Dr Jenner said at the CDC? [spoiler] All humanity is infected[/spoiler].

reply

Yes, I believe Rick said it in season 1 before he and Glenn did the first ever zombie guts walk. As lennonforever says, they didn't know they were all infected then. And as McQualude said, the only sloppy bit is the thing about being bitten somehow accelerating the already existing infection, and that's something they (and we) only learned about in season 2.

reply

Yes, that's where I remember it being from. You just confirmed it. I'll play the episode later on to confirm it.

reply

The writers really confused a lot of people with that "everyone is infected" line. The source material followed the George Romero zombie rules where all body reanimated as long as the brain was intacted. They never explained the cause or said anything about an infection. Zombie bites and zombie bodily fluids were lethal.

If Gabriel got sick from the zombie guts it will probably give the saviors some ideas in their fight against Rick.

reply

Yes, I've heard that about the source material being more ambiguous (which is a very good move). Reminds me there are many aspects of Darabont's vision for the series that I'm really glad didn't come to pass.

reply

Didn't Rick get stabbed by a knife or sword in his hand that had either just been thrust through a zombie or was thrust through a zombie and into his hand almost instantaneously? I wondered if that would cause him to get infected but obviously that didn't happen.

reply

He got a nasty spike through the hand when he was fighting that spiky iron maiden type thing in that pit in that ridiculous trash people place. Can't remember if there was another incident. It was certainly bandaged and bloody for a long time. They didn't seem too concerned with wound care and keeping it clean then.

reply

Yeah, it was just the spike. Maybe he would have contracted some kind of infection, but not the same one the walkers carry. As long as it didn't get in contact with infected blood before making contact with Rick, of course.

reply

You can't assume characters are reliable. Just like in real life, people say things that aren't true, even if they believe them.

reply

He certainly seems done for...
But i hope not...there is more story to tell with Gabriel...i suppose we shall see...

reply

It seemed that way to me too, why else be so sick unless a walker got him out there.

reply

Just before they go out all covered in guts Negan asks Gabriel something like: Did you do that before? Did any of you guys got sick after this?

This is not coincidental and there you have it - Gabriel gets sick.

reply

Its just weird that hes the only one getting sick when Rick and gang have done it several times without any problems

reply

Hmm. So you're suggesting he used some secret trick he knows to make Gabriel get sick? Or maybe that Gabriel had open wounds that he kept quiet about because it was still better risking a "gut walk" than staying in the trailer? It's not impossible, but I'm having trouble imagining how this could work exactly.

reply

I m just pointing out its strange that hes the only one that get sick from doing that

reply

What's weird is that no one else from the Rick's gang got sick. You cover yourself with rotten guts, some of it surely gets on your skin, you breathe the products of decomposition etc. Now I'm not a doctor and can't say for sure how much hazardous can that be, but it seems like Negan's people experience was not all that happy as Rick's.

reply

It surely is strange, but as whalewithhands mentioned, it's much weirder that Rick's punctured hand neither got infected nor got any competent wound care as far as we saw AND that Abraham didn't have any kind of reaction when a PTSD suffering Sasha sliced his arm with a blade that had surely just been in a Walker's head. This is the kind of thing that has lead to (likely fruitless) theories about Rick (and possibly Abraham) being immune to the "infection."

reply

Nope, I'm just saying that the writers were giving the viewers some hits in advance: first time on the show someone mentions the obvious - getting sick from wearing guts around your neck - and voila, five minutes later another someone finally gets sick from doing this.

reply

Yep, that's right. Stupid crap is really pissing me off.

reply

Oh. Well you'd think professional writers would have the sense not to be so on-the-nose.

You'd think...

But there are rumours out about the upcoming mid-season finale death... and let's just say it's not Gabriel that people are talking about. :/

reply

I remember Rick sadly contemplating 2 graves in the first episodes. And if I'm lucky enough - those would be of Michonne & Carl.

reply

I didn't read the rumours (as I was actually trying to AVOID spoilers damnit), but I saw enough talk *around* the rumours to know who it most likely is. If I read that surrounding talk right, then I'd say [spoiler]the show has already hinted at it because the exact fatal moment has already happened[/spoiler].

^^^ The spoiler is not a name, but if you think about it for a minute you'll probably guess who I'm talking about.

reply

Oh I know , good riddance is what I say! For those who want to know , it's
[spoiler]Carl [/spoiler] from a lack of being seen on set , and other tell tale signs from the person's acct on Instagram and others.

reply

Someone from TPTB also said that this season, someone would get the comic death of [spoiler]Andrea[/spoiler].

I'm not a fan of the person playing the role (weak acting imo), but I am a fan of what the character was *intended* to be, so I'll be mourning the character's lost potential when the reveal comes, as well as feeling bad for those close to that person.

reply

Yes I hear ya

reply