Unclear on the Concept

There has been a lot of fuss and feathers among fans of the zombie show The Walking Dead, where a main longterm character adopted the "dead" part of the show's title in its most recent episode. On the pop culture blogs I read, there is a good deal of "Told you so!" about the character's death, since it happened because he had given an undependable character a second chance.

"In this world it's survival," goes the analysis. "In this world forgiveness gets you killed. Humanity gets you killed." Well, no. The screenwriter gets you killed, because you are a character on a TV show. Moreover, you are a character on a TV show -- in one of the tiredest and most tiresome of genres, zombies-run-amok -- in which a lot of people get killed on a regular basis. The screenwriter could have created a situation within his or her fictional world in which a character showing humanity could have survived, but chose to create one in which that character did not.

I recall a similar discussion after the movie The Dark Knight. I'll warn it may be a spoiler, but it's a seven-year old move that's on basic cable all the time so I can't imagine it would be. Two boats of people are trying to cross the Gotham River to escape Gotham City, which is endangered by the Joker. One boat has children and families, and the other has vicious inmates from the prison whom authorities do not want to risk having inside Gotham if the Joker's plan goes off. They are being moved elsewhere so they can be locked up safely.

But the Joker makes an announcement. He has planted bombs in each boat and given them the trigger to the other boat's bomb. If they detonate the other boat, they will survive. The boat with Gotham's elite has the usual corporate sleazes on board, one of whom takes the detonator but in the end doesn't have the courage to murder even ruthless criminals in cold blood. The boat with the criminals and guards has some weak-willed guards who dither about pressing the button until one of the criminals says something like, "Give me that thing so I can do what we know we need to do." The guard -- who may win the title in the Dumbest Correctional Officer in Existence sweepstakes, does so, and the hardened criminal flings it overboard. See! people said after watching the movie. There's more humanity in even a vicious criminal than in a corporate sleazebag one-percenter!

Well of course there is, because that's the way Christoper Nolan and David Goyer wrote it. That's the story they wanted to tell, so that's the one they told. There's nothing wrong with the idea and nothing inherently implausible about a vicious criminal deciding not to blow up a boatful of innocents. Yes, there's plenty implausible about the idea that an entire division of correctional officers would sit around and watch their colleague demonstrate himself a ninja-master of Stupid Fu, but this is a movie in which a man dresses like a bat and chases criminals. It certainly might happen that way, given the story, but there's nothing that demonstrates this is the way it must happen -- meaning the choice is in the hands of the screenwriters.

Stories allow authors and screenwriters to comment on the human condition, and that commentary can be more useful or less useful depending on how closely the story follows what we know about human behavior. After being forgiven by Bishop Myriel even though he has beaten and stolen from him, Jean Valjean is stunned and confused. If we think of how we might react if we are forgiven for our wrongs, we can easily imagine the same feelings, which means Les Misérables can offer some insightful commentary on law and grace in our lives.

But a gruesome death-by-zombie can't do the same kind of commentary, because no one's ever been turned into zombie chow because they gave someone a second chance. So there's no good gauge to judge the plausibility of the response and no way to see it as anything other than a narrative choice made for narrative purposes.

And I guess I should point out that you might want to take what I'm saying with a grain of salt, since I think the last good zombie move was the Thriller video.