The Walking Dead has been on the air for over a decade. A highly successful show, raking in mega-ratings even in its darkest times, the series is still considered to be one of the best shows on television. Though it is often snubbed at prestigious award shows, and the crew behind the series make questionable decisions, the love for AMC’s hit horror drama is far from dead.
This being said, The Walking Dead often comes under fire for a lack of consistency and countless continuity errors. This is something that would be the norm for a Saturday night sitcom, but for a serious drama series like TWD, it’s pretty inexcusable. More often than not, the series’ creators seem to forget or simply neglect certain aspects of their own show, usually in favour of some cheap plot device. This leads to some unforgivable continuity errors. Let’s take a look at 10 of the most infamous.
Jadis’ Entire Storyline
Jadis was an original creation by Scott Gimple, who took over as showrunner in season 4. Though his style and direction of the show followed the comics pretty closely, he also brought in some of his own characters and storylines. (It is worth noting that Gimple’s original ideas were typically a remixed comic book storyline, though.)
Jadis and her junkyard gang were inspired by a group in the comics who were called the Scavengers. They made a brief appearance in the series, but Jadis’ and her group had a much more significant presence in the show. However, the reason for Jadis and her confusing, nonsensical storylines was never revealed, and the character was written out in season 9, along with Rick Grimes.
The Disappearing Dog
Pets never have a very promising lifespan on The Walking Dead. The series doesn’t often have animals as recurring characters. The horses on Hershel’s farm back in season 2 had a fairly major presence, but they met their demise when the barn went up in ablaze.
In season 9, the show finally introduced a “main” pet character, a Belgian Malinois who Daryl adopted and creatively named “Dog”. The strange thing about Daryl’s four-legged friend is that his appearances are becoming more and more sporadic as the series goes on. Dog appears at random, and the rest of the time, we have no idea where he is.
The Everchanging Baby Judith
Lori gave birth to Judith in the fourth episode of season 3. This episode also marked Lori’s tragic death, in which she sacrificed herself to save her baby. Unlike the comics, the TV series didn’t take the risk of having Judith meet her demise shortly after she was born. Now, Judith Grimes is a ten-year-old girl who holds a major presence in the series.
However, when the show was documenting Judith’s infancy, there were many discrepancies. They replaced the actresses that portrayed her every season and making baby Judith unrecognizable in nearly every scene she was in.
How To Kill A Walker
The earliest documented appearance of a zombie in popular media came in 1932, with the theatrical release of the film, White Zombie. Decades later, director George Romero popularized the monster and the genre with his 1968 film, Night Of The Living Dead. Zombie lore is everywhere today, and it’s a well-known fact in the genre that the only way to kill a zombie, is by traumatizing it in the head.
This is a trend that The Walking Dead does follow; in the series’ third-ever episode, it was revealed to the group by then-rogue Daryl Dixon, that “it has to be the brain”. Not to mention, Dr. Jenner confirmed this with visuals at the CDC. However, the series does not always follow this rule; there have been multiple occasions when zombies have been killed by getting stabbed or shot in the mouth, or simply getting beheaded when The Walking Dead confirmed that a zombie only dies when its brainstem is severed.
Carl’s Age
Having children as main characters on long-running TV series can definitely be great, as the character grows up in the show. This was the case with fan-favorite Carl Grimes, but due to The Walking Dead’s sketchy, unclear timeline, his age was almost always unknown.
By the time Scott Gimple made the decision to kill the character in season 8, actor Chandler Riggs was eighteen, while his character could not have been older than fourteen, at the very most. It’s not uncommon for older kids or even young adults to portray children, but the age gap between the character and the actor, in this case, was getting absurd.
Henry & Enid’s Contrived “Relationship”
Season 9 presented a large time-jump, which aged up all the characters, meaning that the younger kids were given more mature arcs. Enid was shown to be a major part of the Hilltop community, and she was also dating Alden, a fellow survivor, alluding to the fact that Enid was most likely in her early twenties by the time of her death in the season 9 finale.
Henry, on the other hand, was in his mid-teens at this time. Upon arriving at Hilltop for training, he began nursing a significant crush on Enid, who didn’t really want anything to do with him. This offended Henry, who acted out and ended up in Hilltop’s “jail”, where he then met Lydia. What’s weird about this storyline is that Henry just up and forgets that he was smitten with Enid when he meets Lydia.
Maggie’s Relationship With Enid
This is an example of one of the many dropped or abandoned storylines in The Walking Dead universe. The show neglects to provide closure on a number of storylines and often opts to leave loose ends hanging in favor of moving the plot to wherever the comics go.
In the graphic novel series, Sophia and Maggie had a surrogate mother-daughter bond, and this was replicated in the TV series using Enid in Sophia’s place. While this was a major arc in the comics, the show completely neglected to do it justice, having Enid and Maggie’s close bond disintegrated when Maggie left the show in season 9.
Where Had The Whisperers Been Hiding For 6+ Years?
The Whisperers were not introduced in the TV series until nearly mid-way through season 9. At this time, the show had already done a significant time-jump following Rick Grimes’ “death” in episode 4. Subsequently, there was a time-jump between the end of season 8 and the beginning of season 9 of about a year.
This is strange since, through flashback sequences, we know that Alpha started her cultish gang long before these years had passed. Additionally, it appears that the Whisperers had always been migrating around Virginia, as it was “their” territory. How could they not have preyed on these communities earlier?
What Was “A”, Again?
One of the more glaring errors in the later seasons of The Walking Dead is that they began building up a mysterious storyline in season 7 when dead folks and walkers began showing up with the letter “A” carved into their foreheads.
Jadis was written out along with Rick in the fourth episode of season 9, and along with them, this rather odd storyline involving the cryptic use of letters. It has not been brought up since then.
Daryl’s Tattoo
Daryl Dixon is rarely shown shirtless on the series, but when he is, he noticeably has a collection of tattoos on his back. Or, at least, he did. Back in season 3, the tattoos were shown, but they change with every occasion that they are visible.
Daryl began sporting a tattoo on his hand in season 8. It seems that the crew was just too lazy to cover it with makeup. The little bald head tattoo was not one that Daryl had in previous seasons, so there is really no logic as to why he has it now, other than the fact that Norman Reedus and everyone else in charge of this doesn’t seem bothered about this glaring error.
