Walking Dead theory

[Pex]

With Jon Bernthal reportedly returning as Shane for an episode and Andrew Lincoln leaving, perhaps it's not coincidence. One fan theory of the entirety of The Walking Dead is that it's all a dream of Rick's as he's still in a coma in a hospital. The people in The Walking Dead are people Rick knows or have seen. Herschel could be his Doctor. Glenn runs the local store. Negan was a childhood bully. The Governor could really be the Governor of Georgia or Atlanta's Mayor.

Maybe they will do a fake out episode. Rick is going to wake up from his coma in the hospital. Shane is there to greet him and mentions he'll call Lori. Rick tries to explain his nightmare to Shane but is interrupted by Nurse Michonne. As the happy scene ends Rick looks out the window. We then see his reflection, but it's of himself ragged from the Walking Dead, not the clean cut he was in the hospital. Then we learn that this was the dream as Rick lays dying being eaten, perhaps by Walking Maggie.

[Darth Ultron]

With Jon Bernthal reportedly returning as Shane for an episode and Andrew Lincoln leaving, perhaps it's not coincidence. One fan theory of the entirety of The Walking Dead is that it's all a dream of Rick's as he's still in a coma in a hospital.

A Rick dream might be fun...but they are going to continue the show right?

The only way the Dream works is if Rick wakes up, everybody comes back for a cameo, and THE END.

I think they might do more of a 'death dream', where like Rick gets hurt and has a dream, meets Shane again, maybe others...and then dies.


A really, really, really fun twist would be for them to reset the time line. Rick wakes up and tells Shane and Lori and Carl all about his dream.

Then the 'walkers' attack the hospital(aka Season 1 Episode 1) and Shane runs to save Rick...only to find he is already being eaten !

So this would 'reset' the show to season 1....everyone would be alive, except Rick. Then each episode they might encounter a old cast member...for the first time.

I think it will just be the death dream though: Shane comes back as the 'bad guy' to taunt Rick...''you got everyone killed, it's all your fault, you should have listened to me'' and Rick will 'sort of' fall for it....but then recover and end on ''no, I did my best...the best I could do...I was not perfect...but did my best." and dies....

[Razade]

With Jon Bernthal reportedly returning as Shane for an episode and Andrew Lincoln leaving, perhaps it's not coincidence. One fan theory of the entirety of The Walking Dead is that it's all a dream of Rick's as he's still in a coma in a hospital. The people in The Walking Dead are people Rick knows or have seen. Herschel could be his Doctor. Glenn runs the local store. Negan was a childhood bully. The Governor could really be the Governor of Georgia or Atlanta's Mayor.

Maybe they will do a fake out episode. Rick is going to wake up from his coma in the hospital. Shane is there to greet him and mentions he'll call Lori. Rick tries to explain his nightmare to Shane but is interrupted by Nurse Michonne. As the happy scene ends Rick looks out the window. We then see his reflection, but it's of himself ragged from the Walking Dead, not the clean cut he was in the hospital. Then we learn that this was the dream as Rick lays dying being eaten, perhaps by Walking Maggie.

"It was all a dream" endings are the cheapest of the cheap. They rob the viewers of any investment to the story. All the people they came to know never really existed, all the drama and threat were non-existent. It was all a useless sink of time.

This sounds terrible.

[Pex]

"It was all a dream" endings are the cheapest of the cheap. They rob the viewers of any investment to the story. All the people they came to know never really existed, all the drama and threat were non-existent. It was all a useless sink of time.

This sounds terrible.

It did work once, the ending of "Newhart".

[Psyren]

"It was all a dream" endings are the cheapest of the cheap. They rob the viewers of any investment to the story. All the people they came to know never really existed, all the drama and threat were non-existent. It was all a useless sink of time.

This sounds terrible.

I'm not sure there's another way to give the show any kind of conclusion beyond just murdering the remaining cast though. This premise really wasn't made for TV.

[Some Android]

It's all a dream ending tend to be horrible - Wizard of Oz being maybe the only exception. Still not sure if that is better or worse than the Walking Dead being based on Toy Story.

[Rynjin]

"It was all a dream" endings are the cheapest of the cheap. They rob the viewers of any investment to the story. All the people they came to know never really existed, all the drama and threat were non-existent. It was all a useless sink of time.

This sounds terrible.

I mean...it's pretty consistent with how bad the writing of the rest of the series is. I can buy it happening.

[JoshL]

"It was all a dream" endings are the cheapest of the cheap. They rob the viewers of any investment to the story. All the people they came to know never really existed, all the drama and threat were non-existent. It was all a useless sink of time.

This sounds terrible.

While I get where you're coming from, and "it was all a dream" is often a cheap cop-out, I don't think think that is always the case. To your argument, all the people they care about DID never exist, and the drama and threat WERE NEVER real. That shouldn't really matter. The best dream stories are those where they show those who awaken learn something from the experience, or even just imply it. Getting hung up on what is or isn't real in a work of fiction, in which nothing is real, is sort of like getting hung up on pronunciation in a song.

Personally, I like dream stories, and otherworld stories. I like the idea of experiencing a different level of being, since that's what I'm doing with the media in the first place.

All that said, I gave up on the show when they took the character whose primary traits were "hyper competent and a better shot than anyone else" and reduced her to "sleeps with all the bad guys"

[Pex]

There was the show Awake where the whole point was one of the stories we were watching was a dream. Unfortunately for me it wasn't a success only having that one season, but at least they gave a satisfying conclusion. It could have been a cliffhanger for a second season but given it as the finale it worked just as well. The real problem for being a dream is the distaste of Dallas when a whole season where Bobby Ewing died was just a dream of his wife. It was not a satisfactory answer to why a supposedly dead Bobby was in the shower because Patrick Duffy agreed to return to the show. But yeah, being a dream is hard to pull off. It didn't work for Mission to Mars either, British and American versions. St. Elsewhere tried, and while it wasn't hated the audience was perturbed.

Bob Newhart had a unique history to make it work. Everyone applauded the ending of Newhart, critics and fans alike.