by Tahnayee Clendinen
With Halloween just around the corner, “The Walking Dead” has picked a perfect time to premiere its fourth season.
“The Walking Dead” is known for its zombies, cliffhangers, breath-taking twists and for getting its viewers emotionally invested in each character. The season four premiere is this Sunday and is projected to have ratings higher than any other season, as well as heart-stopping suspense.
However, before we get into predictions for the upcoming season, let’s recap the main points of the past ones.
In season one, main character Rick Grimes wakes up from a coma in a small Georgia town to find that his town has been infested with zombies or, as the show calls them, “walkers.” Meanwhile, Rick’s wife Lori Grimes and best friend Shane Walsh, thinking Rick is dead, begin a romantic relationship.
Rick heads to Atlanta to find his family and on the way he meets up with a few other survivors. During the first zombie attack, many of these survivors are lost, but the remaining few continue on to find the Atlanta Center for Disease Control and Prevention, where there’s rumored to be a zombie cure. The center, however, self-destructs and no cure is ever found.
Season two begins with the group now heading to Fort Benning. One of the survivor’s daughters, Sophia Peletier, is chased and bitten by the walkers. She returns to the group where she gets shot.
A clash in a bar between Rick and two other survivors leads to a gunfight. Both survivors that were arguing with Rick end up getting shot. The sounds of the shots attract more walkers. After a few more encounters with them, it is determined that it is possible for a humans to die and return as a zombie without being bitten. All of the survivors now carry the plague.
The third season reveals that Rick’s wife Lori is in the final months of her pregnancy. Though she dies, her baby survives and is named Judith Grimes. The identity of Judith’s father is never revealed, but Rick takes her in as his own. All of the survivors now take shelter in an abandoned prison.
A survivor, called the Governor, spends the latter part of the season terrorizing anyone who isn’t a walker. In a fit of rage, he and his followers attack Rick’s group. After losing, the Governor takes his anger out on his own supporters. Rick’s group heads back to the prison.
For this season, I can make only two logical predictions. First off, more survivors will be killed and it will be Rick’s fault. He is always butting heads with people and his “my-way-or-the-highway” attitude is constantly causing conflict.
This inevitable conflict almost always involves guns, which attracts the walkers. Since this usually happens, it would be nice if Rick could display a little more humbleness and stop risking lives for the sake of his ego.
My second prediction is that Judith will either die from a walker bite, or be killed by the Governor. Since he is now determined to ruin Rick and the other survivor’s lives by destroying them or their prized possessions, Judith seems like a likely choice.
On the other hand, Judith could succumb to the walkers. Proving to be a hindrance, Judith could die or cause her caretaker’s death. It is hard enough to fight walkers, but to do it with a baby strapped to your back seems virtually impossible.
The next season of “The Walking Dead” will undoubtedly shock viewers.
If the show keeps up with the nail biting suspense and plot twists, there is no reason for it not to. The sheer excitement of seeing the credit roll interrupt a climatic scene begs viewers to make predictions and to tune in the next week to see if they were right.
“The Walking Dead” season 4 premieres this Sunday at 9 p.m. on AMC – watch to see how your predictions hold up.
