the intelligent and super fast (50 mph?!?) zombies.

Things get really epic at the end of season 2. I've listened to that season finale a couple of times. There's real game-changing plot points occurring regularly from then on. They almost happen too fast, as in, they create these mini-worlds that I wanted them to spend more time in.

I'm curious to see how they explain why Saul and his mom aren't infected.

A resolution of the whole mystery about what happened at the water works. This didn't seem like a huge deal when I was listening through the first time, but the forum has put a lot of the facts together and it seems like it will be an important part of season 4. A few days before they were overrun, C.J. sent "Randy", Duncan (aka Skittles), and others to the water plant to try to get it running again. For some reason, the fact that it was raining at the time is important - C.J., Saul, and Hope's mother (Amanda?) all referenced a big rain storm around this time. Randy and Duncan never come back, and the "other tower" they were living at is overrun in the meantime. Michael and friends show up at the water works at around the same time. Michael is left behind, but re-appears later with a broken arm and refuses to talk about what the hell happened there. But, he clearly knows who Randy is now - he talks about him in his sleep, and recognizes him in Zombie form near the tower later. Randy, interestingly, never seems to attack anyone while he's in Zombie form. Kind of like all those Zombies that just sort of waited outside the colony without attacking. I've read a couple of theories on that - one, that there may be "good zombies" that will at some point battle the "bad zombies," and that Randy somehow saved Michael, perhaps when he was already a Zombie. It was mentioned early on (by Burt, I think) that people who were intelligent as humans were intelligent as zombies - perhaps some of this intelligence manifests itself as human-like awareness about the world and morality? Randy was intelligent, some kind of "techie". Two, that these intelligent leader zombies may realize that they need some humans to survive, both for food, and to continue the species. Therefore, they take a special interest in certain humans, whom they don't kill, and in some cases, try to kidnap alive, for some purpose. Maybe to "harvest" them into the super-zombies, or maybe to try to breed them for food?

The season 4 poster seems to confirm that the guy with the pinstripe suit (they call him "Ink" at the forums), has some type of leadership authority and control over the zombies. Ink may or may not be Bill Roberts, the insane murderer mentioned in season 1, who was being transported when all this went down. It does seem like there was some conscious human-like thought that went into the creation of at least some of the zombies in the mental ward of the hospital, where Riley and Kalani found the tattoo needles, etc. Ink may or may not have had some pre-existing relationship with the mallers (since all of them were criminals), or at least, Scratch, that may tie in somehow to that secret society involving Scratch and Angel. And why is Scratch so interested in Lizzy's unborn kid? It just seems like there's a lot of pieces there that may add up to an interesting origin story. I do hope we get some kind of explanation or resolution of those things. But I also wonder if the departure of the series of the guy who played Angel (who was also a co-producer) may have deep-sixed some of the planned storyline involving the secret society.

I also would love some kind of bigger picture about what's going outside of Southern California. We got a little of that once they found Fort Irwin, but if there were at least 3 or 4 separate little civilian societies, and a fully operational military base right in the middle of where the zombies originated (for at least a little while), you'd think there would be significant pockets of survivors around the world - probably even bigger, more successful groups. Some kind of big military force showing up in Southern California and investigating ground zero is a wild card that could come up any time. Seeing how things have gone for the humans and how they keep losing ground, some type of intervening force, either human or "good zombie", seem necessary if the humans are really going to "go on the offensive", per Michael's speech that ended season 3.

At the end of Chapter 19, Part 3 of 3, where Datu meets Hope for the first time.

I was kind of bored out of my mind the first two episodes. No zombies, way too much C.J., a marriage proposal, Michael/Peggs awkward relationship conversations, very little plot development. The highlight was the bantering and bigger role of the newer military guys, but they haven't actually done much either. Back before I caught up in real time and always had another episode to listen to, no big deal, but to have 2 months where that's all we got, was kind of a downer after the long layoff.

Things seem to have picked up with the first part of the third episode of the season that went live yesterday though. I'm glad they jumped forward months and actually have some kind of infrastructure again (60 cameras tracking zombies around the area, data analysis using laptops, Tania doing blood work and making progress). The stuff I've liked the most in this series is the Fort Irwin/Boulder/First Tower organizational stuff, where humanity kind of digs in and uses what technology and human resources they have to take on and defend against the zombies from a position of strength. I was also really hoping we'd get into some zombie origin stuff, as in, what the hell happened, and Randy carrying around some kind of can depicting Radon Labs is a very promising call-back from season 1 in that regard. And Burt and Riley are bound to run into Scratch (or someone else interesting) soon, so I'm fired up for the rest of the season again.

Victor keeps asking Michael to go on missions and what not, but Michael keeps shooting him down because of a time when Victor fucked up or something. What did Victor do again that was so bad?

Damn. To quote a post on the We're Alive forum, apparently, "they just lost their communications guy, chief mechanic, helicopter pilot, and door gunner all in the space of, what, 2 days? That is some heavy hits to take for the Colony..."

Definitely seems like another game-changer for the story. It now seems more like the random band of survivors from season 1 than any kind of group that could sustain the operations of an effective "colony." And, Burt and Riley and back, and Scratch and some of the mallers are apparently still out there - maybe they were the ones that ambushed the soldiers at the jail. I'm looking forward to see how all this winds down. It's getting harder and harder to see the humans "winning" at the end, and I know the creator of the podcast has described the zombie genre as being this futile human struggle against a force that it can't overcome. On the other hand, I still have this idea that if all of this human activity in Southern California, where the whole thing started, there has to still be bigger, more successful groups of human survivors elsewhere in the U.S. and world, and contact with them might be another series game-changer at some point.