The following contains spoilers for Tales of the Walking Dead Season 1, Episode 4, "Amy/Dr. Everett," which debuted Sunday, Sept. 4 on AMC.
The Walking Dead universe is set years into the apocalypse at this point. As time goes on, people have become masters at taking out walkers and society has slowly rebuilt itself with new communities. Dr. Everett from Tales of the Walking Dead has a different take on humanity's attempt to take back their world -- one that proves that even an advanced place like the Commonwealth will fall eventually.
Whereas previous episodes have dealt with online dating, endless apocalyptic time loops and motherhood, Season 1, Episode 4, "Amy/Dr. Everett," is a man vs. nature debate. While studying the "homo mortuus" (walkers) for extensive research, naturalist Dr. Everett saves Amy's life. The two spend the majority of the episode debating the value of human lives over walkers. Amy believes people are still worth fighting for and they should come together to build settlements. Dr. Everett disagrees, believing humans have had their time and walkers are the dominant species now. He refers to this as part of nature's course that he finds beautiful and that shouldn't be interrupted by humanity's interference.
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As pessimistic as Dr. Everett sounds, he's not exactly wrong. Years into the apocalypse, walkers are still as threatening as ever. It doesn't matter how much experience and training people have; a herd of any type of predator is deadly. Amy's group is completely wiped out by a walker herd, confirming that nature always finds a way to win. And now Amy's group has contributed to the growing population of walkers, also confirming Dr. Everett's statement that if there are humans, there will always be walkers. It's only a matter of time before the people of the Commonwealth in The Walking Dead understand this themselves.
As far as viewers know, the Commonwealth has never dealt with a major loss. Sure, they've probably lost people here and there, but it's never amounted to the amount of times Alexandria, Hilltop and the Kingdom have fallen. The Commonwealth has done pretty well for itself in the apocalypse, but it won't last for long. Pamela Milton rarely has any idea of what's truly going on in her city as a resistance against her political position grows and General Mercer is a ticking time-bomb ready to explode at any moment. Worst of all, Lance Hornsby has an itchy trigger finger that has made plenty of enemies for the Commonwealth. With all of their unpredictable natures, walkers have been forgotten -- which makes it all the easier for them to destroy the community.
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The final trailer for The Walking Dead Season 11C teases that a walker invasion breaks out in the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth's army may be prepared to take on the undead (an overstatement considering their training has shown otherwise), but the ordinary citizens of the Commonwealth are likely not. It's implied that many Commonwealth members have been there since the beginning and have possibly never seen action in their life. Sooner or later, their luck will run out.
For all Dr. Everett's judgment towards Amy's group, it's easy to want to prove him wrong. The Walking Dead encourages the idea that humans can survive extreme situations by sticking together. The most poignant case is the main group from Season 5, most of whom had different backgrounds and experiences but came together to survive Terminus and its own walker invasion. But the destruction of Amy's group makes it hard to disagree with Dr. Everett. Humans can try as much as they can to rebuild society, but the damage is done. Nature took over the second the outbreak started and for as long as there is no cure, humanity and its communities are doomed in The Walking Dead universe.
New episodes of Tales of the Walking Dead air every Sunday at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on AMC and stream a week early on AMC+.