'The Walking Dead' season 8: comics vs TV series

A comparison between “The Walking Dead” season 8 premiere episode and the comics on which it is based on has been posted online. There were a few additions in the TV series that are not found in the comics, and the show also didn’t answer the big question of whether the Old Man Rick (Andrew Lincoln) scene was just a dream or a scene from a flashforward. The following article contains spoilers.

The episode showed Rick waking up with a long white beard. The scene quickly returned to the time before the war against the Saviors. A comparison between the possible dream and the scenes from the comics was posted on SkyBound. There is no dream sequence in the comics, but the time jump in the series does show the character as an older man with a beard.

The preparation for war is similar in both comics and series; however, it takes less time in the former. The storyline is the same, with Rick bidding his family goodbye and heading to the Sanctuary with his team.

The two big additions in the series were Carl’s (Chandler Riggs) scavenging trip and Daryl’s (Norman Reedus) side mission of driving zombies to the Sanctuary. Rick and his team firing at the windows to lure the Walkers happens in both formats.

Negan’s (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) plan to use Gregory (Xander Berkeley) to turn the people of Hilltop against Rick failed in both comics and the show. There are minor variations here as a few members join Gregory in the comics, but none do on the show. The other big change in the TV series is that Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) is the one who makes a hole in the fence with the RV, but in the comics, it’s a character called Holly, who isn’t there on the show.

Still, Negan has a prisoner by the end of the episode. He also got to say his “shi—ing pants” dialogue. Rick, on the other hand, is confident he has already won.