Return of the Dead

"The Walking Dead" returned for its final five episodes of the third season last night and, once again, it returned to record ratings. The show drew more than 12 million viewers and a 6.1 in the coveted 18-49 year old demographic. Those are numbers that would make most Networks drool, let alone a cable channel.

And, once again, "The Walking Dead" offered an interesting take on morality in a world gone made. While the zombies might be the ever present physical threat, the show once again made clear that it is the living, breathing humans that are the biggest threat to the world.

First we have Tyrese (Chad Coleman) and his crew. While Tyrese remains a mostly noble character, two members of his party were perfectly willing to trade morality and decency for a nice place to live. They actually advocated killing two women, a baby, a young boy and a crippled older man in order to have a quiet place to hole up. Tyrese stopped that talk, but he wasn't rewarded for his nobility.

You see, just about the time that Rick (Andrew Lincoln) was feeling like letting these strangers join the group, the moment he was breaking down the hardened outer shell that has consumed him, his mind turned against him. A vision of his dead wife caused a mental spiral that portends some rough patches ahead for Rick and all those in the prison.

That is, of course, because The Governor (David Morrissey) no longer even pretends to care about people or creating a society. He simply craves power, authority and, most likely, blood. His world has been broken and any shred of decency he had is now gone. Such seems to be the show's commentary on the world.

Which is what made the speech by Andrea (Laurie Holden) so sadly amusing. She exhorted the people of Woodbury to work to rebuild society, pining for a day when they would be lauded in history books as the world was put right. But, you see, in a world that far gone there is no coming back. It's not just the virus that's destroying humanity, but the lack of hope and decency that has devoured the living. There is no coming back from that, there's just delaying the inevitable.

No one knows that better than showrunner Glen Mazara. Of course, what's fascinating is how many people are tuning in each week to watch it unravel. It's hard not to wonder what that means for our society.