thewalkingdead
Why did it take 8 months for Rick's group to discover the prison?
Is the state too large or sth?
Discussion
So I take this in 2 different ways, one, they’re from that area, at least briefly, they would know there’s a prison there, Same way I know there a prison in Lorton Virginia even though I’m from western VA, however, there’s a chance they didn’t have a map, or any idea where they were geographically, additionally, they didn’t even know if they did know the prison existed if it was safe, it would’ve taken a lot of resources to clear the prison yard; just to find a big hole in the fence, or furthermore another group already living there, or even the place burnt down or something, you’d think a bad prison riot or something would’ve occurred from the outbreak getting out of control in such an enclosed area
Georgia is a huge state that was crawling with walkers. And Rick's group was constantly on the move to avoid threats, while scavenging for food, and looking for shelter. They weren't just roaming around aimlessly. So even if the prison was relatively close by, it's not like they had maps or safe roads to follow. Plus, discovering a place like that takes a bit of luck, because it's not like the prison had flashing neon signs around it. Add in the fact that it was intact enough to be defensible, made it the needle in the haystack.
I think from my memory of it it’s also just kinda in the w00000ds which probably just has some dirt roads leading to it so I’m sure they were not too keen on going through the woods with Lori if they didn’t immediately have to
It's not like they had maps? Man, I've read so much fanfiction, and in the vast majority of them during that period as these guys are looking for food and shelter, they are constantly stopping in convenience stores for supplies and they find maps and scout out safe places to go.
It makes no sense that they wouldn't have consulted a map and tried to look for secure facilities within their range. And with Rick being a cop, you would think that he would at least have been peripherally aware of a prison in the area.
Just to add a personal experience- I retired from a maximum security prison that held 3,800 inmates (so it’s huge - 770 acres). If you measure by the crow flies, it’s about .5 miles from a big shopping mall and quite a few big box stores. There are countless people I’ve talked to that have absolutely no idea the prison is there, and they’ve lived in the area for decades. Prisons do a wonderful job at hiding in plain sight.
no, and at the end of season two when they're all lost after fleeing the farm, the camera pans out to an aerial shot with the prison like, a quarter of a mile from them. But the beginning of season three they've been wandering and scavenging for several months. Why? It was right there all along.
That shot was nothing more than a tease for comic fans. It also looks nothing like the prison they’d call home.
The time jump really only happened because of the writer changes and budget limitations. The original intention was for the second half of season two to occur within the prison instead of the farm. The Randall stuff would have likely been centered around the convicts.
I think it took them months to find it because they weren't actively searching for the prison.
They moved from their original family homes to an outdoor camp on a hill, then to a farm. My guess is they were looking for something residential that could be secured, like another farm or a property with strong fences. From memory, there were only nine of them, so they didn't need a huge space.
There would have been hordes to avoid during that time, winter to keep them indoors, and Lori's progressing pregnancy to limit their movements.
They were just lucky to stumble onto the prison and see it as a possibility rather than writing it off.
They had to shelter for the winter in a storage unit
I can’t believe I’m just now thinking of the fact that Rick was a cop, so he should’ve known where every prison in the state was for sure…
they mention before that they going around in circle because they are avoiding herds in different direction during winter
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The real answer is they wanted to skip over Loris pregnancy and harden the group a bit off screen. Outside of that it’s largely problematic to the story. How did nobody die in the group? When they are on the road again later on they would lose several people over the course of a couple weeks. How did they never encounter other people or groups of significance when they would later encounter people regularly post prison? How did they never come across Terminus? How did they never come across Woodbury?
Yeah on a recent re-watch I thought the same. They tease it at the end of s2 I believe and they're camping very close to it.
This is a weird question.
You really think you're going to find every building in a country in a short amount of time? It was sheer arse that they found it at all.
The season 2 finale shows that they were right in front of it. If they took 10 steps into the tree-line, they would have found it right then and there. That's why OP was asking the question.
I always wondered the same. Rick being a cop, I always thought that surely he knew where the nearest prison was.
They could have easily walked the opposite direction at the end of s2
😂😂😂 at the end of season 2 when they show the prison, which looks to be within five miles, we laugh about how long it took people from Georgia to find something that big in Georgia.
Because they didn't want to film in the winter
I live about 6 miles from a county penal facility, there's signs everywhere. Sigh on the interstate exit, all up the main road, on the secondary roads...they lead you right to it. It's pretty hard to miss.
GA is a big state that can go from urban to rural dramatically, quickly depending on what direction you choose. Factor in the necessity to avoid the bigger metropolitan areas like Atlanta, Macon, Augusta, and Columbus, and you're very likely to get disoriented very quickly looking for proper shelter and resources.
It mostly boils down to the fact that they were constantly on the move and incredibly disoriented after losing the farm. Lori was heavily pregnant, and they couldn't exactly sprint around searching every potential location, especially with winters being so harsh and supplies running thin. It wasn't like they had a map or GPS pointing right to it; they stumbled upon it out of sheer desperation after months of roughing it.
Also, there’s no telling that they didn’t stumble across it at some point prior and they didn’t give it anytime of day because of the amount of Walkers in the court yard.
After a few months of continuing to be nomadic and feeling more confident killing zombies, then when they stumble across it again, it become the perfect spot