The Walking Dead: 10 Questions That Always Confused You
5. Why Were The Walkers Smarter In Season One?
One common point of confusion among fans is how much smarter the walkers appear to be in the show's earlier episodes - especially season one - where they're shown to retain memories from their pre-walker days and exhibit far more complex motor functions.
Perhaps most memorably there's the walker child (Addy Miller) in the show's pilot episode - a young girl who Rick sees picking up and carrying a teddy bear, as is most uncharacteristic behaviour for a walker.
Other walkers were shown turning doorknobs, smashing windows, and even climbing fences, which ultimately proved to be inconsistent with the presentation of the walkers in later seasons, where they were considerably "dumber."
The practical answer is that the vision for the show changed when Frank Darabont was fired as showrunner, and make-up effects supervisor/director Greg Nicotero himself admitted that they hadn't "figured out yet what the rules for the zombies were."
But the trailers for the currently-airing final season have made it clear that the series will finally circle back to the "smart" walkers, who will presumably be confirmed as another variant of walker altogether.
Considering how odd it is to watch the show's earlier episodes today and see the walkers behaving so differently, a concrete explanation will be most certainly welcome.