Vulture Talks To Showrunner Glen Mazzara **SPOILERS!**

If you haven’t seen episode 8 “Made To Suffer” yet and DO NOT want to be spoiled, DO NOT read ahead.

Vulture got a chance to sit down with Walking Dead Showrunner Glen Mazzara to talk about the Season so far. They also talk about the show’s pacing, The Governor’s speech at the end of episode 8 “Made to Suffer”, and the interrogation scene between The Governor and Maggie, plus a bunch of other things that have to do with episode 8 and Season 3 so far!

This season so far feels different than what’s come before: the world is bigger, there are more characters, more movement, the pacing is faster.
That was my intention. We have a bigger canvas this year and we have two themes going on. One is that nobody can survive in this world alone. Society has completely broken down and what we’re seeing is a bit of primordial soup. All of these different molecules are going to start attracting each other and bonds are going to be formed and bonds will be broken. So just as the Andrea-Michonne bond is broken, Michonne is catapulted to Rick in another part of the soup. The Governor-Merle bond is broken and now Merle has to re-bond with his brother. So we have this idea of all of these different materials coming together to rebuild some new civilization. What that winds up looking like, we’ll just have to watch.

The other [thing] is I really wanted this to feel like a historical novel written a hundred years from now about the first major war between humans after the fall of civilization, after the zombie apocalypse. That’s what you’re seeing. Look at how complicated [Rick’s insurgency into Woodbury] is. History is not just clear agendas. There are a lot of accidents, there are a lot of circumstances, near-misses, that sort of stuff. That’s why the show is faster-paced and more surprising. It feels more real. I feel like we’re trying to tell, or rather show, the fictional historical record. And what you see in this mid-season finale is the first battle, the first skirmish of a war. I believe that war will go on for some time.

Merle is now on everyone’s shit list, which makes me think he’s more valuable to the show alive, further complicating things. Right? Or is he just screwed?
Well, everyone on the show is screwed [laughs]. Michael Rooker does a great job with that character and I think the Merle that helped the Governor run Woodbury is not going to be the same Merle who could ever make it out of Woodbury or try to fit in with Rick’s group or reconnect with his brother. I’d like to see him get out of this. Merle is a pretty uncanny guy. He’s a survivor. Let’s see how he reinvents himself.

When the Governor is turning Woodbury on both Merle and his brother Daryl, he invokes a lot of post-9/11 rhetoric in his speech about terrorists. Was that deliberate?
I believe it was. He’s playing to people’s fears. He needs them to be frightened so they’ll support his agenda. The word “terrorist” certainly creates an “us” and “them” mentality, and he’s drawing upon that common experience for all of us and what we’ve gone through as a nation. The attack by Rick’s group is an act of terror from the perspective of the people of Woodbury because it’s unprovoked, so it makes sense.

To read the entire interview click here!

-Dane
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