‘The Walking Dead’ Comic-to-TV Comparison: “Alone”

AMC: The opening minutes of the episode see a haggard looking Bob roaming through the wilderness, building makeshift shelters as needed and generally seeming indifferent to the walkers around him. Daryl and Glenn happen upon him by the roadside one day, asking Rick’s three questions to determine his aptitude for joining their group. Bob admits that he’d only ever killed one living person, though she’d “asked me to,” as he seems happy simply to have found company. Still not known explicitly, however, is what befell his previous two groups.

THE COMICS: At this point it’s difficult to see what, if any relations the Bob Stookey of the comics has to AMC’s incarnation, as in the books Bob was a significantly older man who still managed to become Woodbury’s town drunk. The Governor’s men called upon Bob’s decades-old army medic training to save the Governor’s life, which he did, though we never quite learned his fate after the assault on the prison.

AMC: It isn’t clear exactly how they got themselves into such a mess, but an early scene sees Bob, Maggie and Sasha all back to back fighting walkers in the fog, before Bob sustains a bite that apparently only grazes his shoulder bandage.

THE COMICS: It’s a reach, but if we’re looking for clues the AMC survivors might end up in Alexandria, it’s worth noting that this technique of fighting off walkers was something used by Alexandria’s construction crew leader Tobin, even though Abraham denounced the idea as too rigid, leaving stragglers from the formation in serious jeopardy. Additionally, sometime before that, Dale sustained a shoulder bite in the exact same location as Bob, dismissing that the creature only gotten his shirt, but later revealing he’d actually been bitten.

AMC: Daryl and Beth happen upon a graveyard and an adjoining funeral home that seems surprisingly well tended to, though if its caretaker is indeed present for their stay, he or she doesn’t make him or herself known. That said, Beth seemingly disappears when walkers chase the pair out of the house, and Daryl spies a mysterious car speeding off, noting the crucifix in its back windshield.

THE COMICS: This event has no exact counterpart in the books, though we have to imagine that the occupant’s apparent isolation and crucifix decoration could be suggestive of comic character Father Gabriel, who similarly joined up with the group under unusual circumstances after the prison’s fall. Might he have been the one to spirit Beth away into the night, apparently without a care for Daryl following them?

AMC: Having hinted at his interest for several episodes, Bob finally makes a move on Sasha as a goodbye when she opts to settle in a building at a nearby town. Of course, they’re reunited by the end of the hour, which will probably make more than a few awkward evenings for Maggie on the road to Terminus.

THE COMICS: Sasha is something of a unique character, in that she ostensibly fills a similar role to Tyreese’s daughter Julie in the books, who herself never made it out of the prison alive. Suffice to say, a relationship didn’t work out very well for her, as she and her boyfriend Chris “opted out” in a way that saw Tyreese forced to kill the boy with his bare hands …twice.

AMC: Still despondent over Beth’s apparent kidnapping, Daryl remains by the side of the railroad tracks until a gang of familiar-seeming marauders arrives and surrounds him, laying claim to his possessions before the leader offers Daryl a chance to join their group and “hurt other people.” Daryl apparently accepts, greeting the group’s leader, Joe.

THE COMICS: Certainly the group would appear to bear some similarity (and shared timing) with the cannibalistic comic Hunters, though they were seen to have multiple females in the group, and no members named Joe. In any case, worth noting is how they seemed to eye Daryl and his possessions like pieces of meat, one suggestive bit of dialogue even claiming his “wings.”