CREDIT: RICK AND THE GANG IN AMC'S THE WALKING DEAD ARE A LITTLE DIFFERENT FROM ROBERT KIRKMAN'S ORIGINAL.
AMC

When The Walking Dead first made its season one debut, it surprised many viewers by making an immediate, and drastic switch from the original source material, the ongoing comic series penned and created by Robert Kirkman.

Now, with season five in full swing and the show firmly established as one of television’s hottest properties, the show runners seem to have finally taken notice with some of the fantastic situations and dialogue that take place within the pages of the comics, expertly worked in to the differing story arcs that still serve to set the show apart from its inspiration.

Having recently completed a reread of the comics, the show still has far more differences than there are similarities, Daryl doesn’t exist, Carol is awesome and Andrea sucks, but some of these recent scenes were executed to – sometimes chilling – perfection.

Warning: SPOILERS AHEAD

Second prison battle

In the season three finale, fans sat down to witness the biggest event to be shown on the show. The Governor and his Woodbury army storming the prison and their season long conflict with Rick and his group coming to an end, one way or another. The stage had been set, the Governor had captured Andrea and killed Merle, he had the numbers and the survivors seemed disheartened. Instead the army stormed the prison and were quickly repelled, fleeing down the road in a cloud of dust and viewer confusion, only for the Guv to slaughter his army in the street, and for the good guys to take in the surviving members of Woodbury. Also Andrea died, and there was much rejoicing.

Come season four, the prison was more crowded and secure than ever, and the Governor spent some time wandering around alone and abandoned until he finally came upon a young family, and then another group, one that had a tank. All of a sudden he was rolling up to the prison gates with a new army, and the events of the comics finally played out, albeit with a key differences. Firstly, the brutal decapitation of Hershel was a position occupied in the comics by Tyrese, who in the show had not spent anywhere near the same amount of time with Rick’s group. Secondly was simply the body count, in the books the final prison assault took down about half of Rick’s group, including his wife Lori and their infant daughter – who is still living in the show. The entire group escapes the prison in the show, with the deaths of comic characters Billy, Alice and Patricia written out, and Hershel’s drastically changed. Also of note is the manner of the Governor’s death, in the comics he is killed by Lily, a member of his army who fires the shot that kills Lori and Judith, out of guilt, in the show Lily still kills him, but he had already been stabbed, and for the death of her young daughter.

Lizzie/Mika

One of the most disturbing events to occur in the comics – and one that I thought would never make it to television – was the death of fiveyear- old Billy at the hands of his infant brother Ben. It was sudden and there was very little warning, just one random panel months prior where Ben had killed a cat, and it was one of the few moments where I had to stop reading for a while. It is resolved when seven-year-old Carl Grimes kills Ben, because no adult can bring himself/herself to do it, and it is a major moment in the character’s story. The twins and their family were never included in the show so naturally readers assumed the storyline would be skipped over.

Enter “The Grove,” one of the post-prison episodes that chronicled the journey of the separated group, this one focusing on Tyrese, Carol, Judith, and young, original characters, Lizzie and Mika. In the prison there had already been a strange focus on Lizzie, the older sister, as she was shown to be highly sensitive, with her younger sister often telling her to “look at the flowers” when she started to panic. As her issues continued on in their travels, she started looking to the zombies as playmates, and the writing was on the wall, Tyrese and Carol went to gather a deer and when they returned, Mika had been gutted at the hands of her sister, who uttered the same line as Ben did, “it’s ok, she’ll come back, I didn’t hurt her brain.” The girl’s intention to do the same to Judith was too much, and Carol was forced to tearfully execute her as she looked at the flowers one last time, the same situation with different characters, but still just as effective.

Tainted meat

Season five has been great so far, with the first three episodes setting a blistering pace as it has powered through the Terminus arc that ended in that cliffhanger last year, and came to its final conclusion in the third episode. But before it ended, the cannibals of Terminus struck one last blow, as they kidnapped Bob Stookey outside of the newly discovered church refuge and ate his leg, just because a man’s gotta eat. What followed was one of the most accurate comic-to-screen conversations yet, as Gareth leaned over his prisoner and reminisced on the new human condition, and rationalizing the group’s action with an analogy of a starving bear eating its young. Throughout the conversation Bob begins to laugh, eventually revealing that he had been bitten, and he was tainted meat, which he maniacally screams at the hunters until they knock him out and return his mutilated body to his people.

This, despite the different origin of the characters, is an almost perfect recreation of a short but revered story arc in the comics entitled “Fear the Hunters,” which saw an almost exact fate befall Dale, who you may remember as the old man in the bucket hat that died on Hershel’s farm. In the books however, he was one of the most important characters in the group, and the boyfriend of the much improved Andrea. It gave the old man a massive and emotional send off, one that was not quite reached with the loss of recently introduced Bob, who had no presence in the books. What it did get right though, was the brutal slaughter of the hunters in retaliation, as the group hacks these people to pieces, and the horrified reaction of Father Gabriel, although to be fair, in the show they did the killing in the church.