Top 10 Things You Never Noticed In The Walking Dead
For this topic, we're looking at easter eggs, subtle details or bits of foreshadowing that the majority of viewers likely missed while watching this hit AMC series.
This list comes with a spoiler warning.
When you’re facing hordes of walkers… it’s easy to overlook the small stuff. Welcome to WatchMojo.com, and today we’ll be counting down the Top 10 Things You Never Noticed in The Walking Dead.
For this topic, we’re looking at easter eggs, subtle details or bits of foreshadowing that the majority of viewers likely missed while watching this hit AMC series.
This list comes with a spoiler warning.
#10: Nods to “Jaws”
Various Episodes
A vicious and crafty leader, the Governor is a villain for the ages, and he has the collection of severed heads to prove it. Hidden in this macabre display is a nod to the horror film “Jaws,” from make-up effects supervisor, Greg Nicotero. If you’ve seen this Spielberg classic, you might recall the shock of seeing Ben Gardner’s severed head. In honor of the influential film, Nicotero had an exact replica of that prop made, and added to the tank. In a later season 6 episode, fans spotted another head - this one resembling Johnny Depp. Depp wasn’t actually involved, but Nicotero later acknowledged that they’d modeled it after the actor.
#9: A Little Taste of Lucille
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“Inmates”
When their prison home is finally destroyed, Rick’s group is separated. Beth and Daryl come across a pile of corpses; nestled amongst them is a baseball bat wrapped in barbed-wire. Now, in a post-apocalyptic world as violent as this one, we imagine that a such a weapon might be common, but in “The Walking Dead," that’s a tool with serious significance. We wouldn’t see Negan until the end of season 6, but for fans of the comics, this baseball bat serves as a subtle but ominous tease. We doubt it was Negan’s beloved Lucille, because he takes care of her, but it was still a nice bit of foreshadowing.
#8: Abraham’s Subtle Goodbye
“The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be”
Season 6 of The Walking Dead ended on one of the cruelest cliffhangers in television history. When we caught up with the group in season 7, we finally learned which person had met their demise, or should we say… which people met their demise. When Abraham is selected by Negan to die, he goes out with his head held high. Sadly, this means his time with Sasha is being cut short, but he finds a subtle, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it way of saying his goodbyes to her. He makes a little peace sign with his hand, which, as established earlier in their relationship, is how Abraham and Sasha acknowledge one another.
#7: "Save Terrapins" T-Shirt
“Here’s Not Here”
Though his time on the series was brief, Eastman, played by John Carroll Lynch, sure made a lasting impression - on both viewers and Morgan. A man made peaceful by learning the hard way that revenge doesn’t bring closure, he teaches Morgan to defend himself using aikido, without killing. During one scene they share, Eastman can be seen wearing a nature shirt that says “Save Terrapins”. Terrapins are, as you probably guessed from the shirt, a kind of turtle. This episode came just a couple of episodes after Enid shockingly killed and ate a raw turtle. Coincidence or not, it certainly makes for a darkly funny bit of contrast.
#6: The Town of Macon
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“30 Days Without An Accident”
The episodic “The Walking Dead” video game from Telltale has been incredibly well-received, which is impressive considering it is set in the same world as the series. In season 4 of the AMC series however, this blink-and-you’ll-miss-it easter egg did hammer home the fact that these two stories are indeed happening within reasonable proximity of one another. In “30 Days Without An Accident”, Michonne is seen examining a map of Georgia, and her finger lingers over the town of Macon, which just so happens to be the hometown of the Telltale game’s hero, Lee Everett.
#5: Rotting Title
Various Episodes
People tend not to pay too much attention to the opening credits of a show beyond the first few episodes. But it’s worth taking a closer look at these, because in this long-running tale of death and decay, not even the opening title is safe. If you look at the on-screen writing, in the opening credits, from each season, you can see that they’re progressively getting more and more decrepit, much like the walkers that wander this world. It’s not exactly mind-blowing, but it’s a really nice little touch - one that shows a serious commitment to the little details.
#4: The Heisenberg Connection
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“Bloodletting”
If the previous entry was fairly low-stakes, this one is potentially massive - though, most likely, it’s just the showrunners having a bit of fun. The hit series “Breaking Bad” told the story of a high school teacher (Walter White, aka Heisenberg) who begins cooking meth. In addition to its potency and purity, it’s also unique for its blue color. And wouldn’t you know it, when Daryl busts out a bag of drugs in season 2 of TWD, the meth… is blue. A coincidence? Fans think not. The drug dealer described by Daryl in season 4 even kinds sounds like Jesse Pinkman.
#3: Hollywood’s Fave Fake Smokes
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Various Episodes
Filmmakers love to pay homage to the works that influenced them and their genre, and the creative minds behind “The Walking Dead” are not different. The first known use of “Morley” cigarettes, similar in packaging to Marlboros, is in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film “Psycho”. Since then, they’ve been featured in numerous films and series, including “24,” “American Horror Story,” “Breaking Bad,” “Buffy the Vampire” and more. Perhaps most notably however, they were the cigarettes of choice of the smoking man from “The X-Files.” Daryl Dixon, you certainly smoke in good company.
#2: Kirkman’s Work
Various Episodes
Before being adapted for TV, “The Walking Dead” was already a successful, long-running comic book series, by creator Robert Kirkman. Of course, “TWD” isn’t Kirkman’s only hit. In 2018, his long-running superhero epic “Invincible” finally came to an end, and it would seem that more than one of the characters in the show are fans of their creator’s other works. Both Carl and Enid can be seen reading issues of “Invincible” in season 6, and before Alexandria falls, Sam Anderson’s room is decorated with “Invincible” minimates. In an even more obscure reference from season 1, young Carl is seen wearing a Science Dog shirt - “Invincible”’s own favorite comic book character.
Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
Pirate Joke
“Live Bait”
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“What Happened and What's Going On”
#1: Bub
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“Us”
“The Walking Dead” is indebted to the zombie movies that came before it, but at least they’ve got a crew member who learned from the master. The aforementioned Greg Nicotero got one of his very first gigs on George A. Romero’s legendary “Day of the Dead”. In a classy move, the series has given the undead godfather numerous nods over the years, often in the form of lookalike walkers. In season 3, we got a walker who looks a lot like “Flyboy” from “Dawn of the Dead”, but the most exciting is without a doubt Bub, the intelligent zombie from “Day of the Dead”, who made his cameo in season 4.
