Tales of the Walking Dead just did a zany time loop comedy episode
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Warning: This article contains spoilers about Sunday's episode of Tales of The Walking Dead, titled "Blair / Gina."
The Walking Dead franchise just aired its weirdest episode ever. The Walking Dead franchise just aired its weirdest episode ever. The Walking Dead franchise just aired its weirdest episode ever. Ah, see what we did there? That's because Sunday's installment of Tales of the Walking Dead not only broke format by acting as a — gulp! — comedy, but the episode also served as a — double gulp! — time loop.
"Blair / Gina" told the tale of Circle of Trust coworkers Blair (Parker Posey) and Gina (Jillian Bell) both leaving work on the day the zombie apocalypse breaks out. Only the day keeps happening. And they keep dying. And it all takes place at the same gas station, day after day, as Blair and Gina keep trying — and failing — to make it to 5 p.m.
Curtis Bonds Baker/AMC Jillian Bell and Parker Posey on 'Tales of the Walking Dead'
The episode certainly was a big tonal departure for a property that tends to be very serious — it's dark comedy vibe punctuated by a montage showcasing the lead characters meeting their end in a variety of absurd, comedic ways.
We spoke to showrunner Channing Powell to get the inside scoop on how a comedic time loop episode made its way into the Walking Dead canon, and Powell revealed that the concept actually began as an episode taking place in real-time (à la Jack Bauer battling terrorists on 24). Read on for more! Read on for more! Read on for more!
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Where did this idea come from to do, essentially, a comedic episode of The Walking Dead?
CHANNING POWELL: I particularly was craving to do a huge tonal shift just because I do tend to like comedy. I tend to like dark comedy a lot. And I just was always curious, what that would look like in this world? And [show co-creator Scott M. Gimple] just embraced my wanting to try new things.
I did know there were going to be other spinoffs. So if people want something that's a little bit more traditional in The Walking Dead space, they have series that they can watch. This one was really the opportunity to go outside that and explore and push the boundaries as far as possible. I was always, for some reason, very curious how Parker Posey would behave in a walker apocalypse. I've been a huge fan of hers for years. I really love a very quirky, specific character like that, having to deal with very real-life issues.
So really, all of the episodes boil down to each of these characters having to figure out who they are at the end of the world. You can present a certain person in your everyday life. You can hope to be somebody. But when you're faced with life and death circumstances, who you truly are really comes out in that moment. And sometimes it's a surprise to even that person themselves. And I was always really interested in that.
And then I wanted to take that and balance it with something as mundane as everyday living. And being stuck at your job just popped into our heads and trying to get along with your coworkers in that way. And we just thought, "How would it be if you faced the end of the world with the coworker that you don't get along with? What would come out about you? What would come out about them? Would they get to know each other in a way that they never got to know each other in the office?" And it just opened up a lot of ideas for us.
Curtis Bonds Baker/AMC Parker Posey and Jillian Bell on 'Tales of the Walking Dead'
And it's not only spending your day with a coworker, but it's spending that day over and over and over again. So, where did the time loop concept come from? This isn't something that you can just lightly slap into a Walking Dead episode.
No, that was a big discussion. It's pretty much still a big discussion about whether or not we should have it in there. Originally, we actually wanted to do a real time episode where the clock starts at zero and everything in those next 42 minutes happen in those 42 minutes and it's all real time. And somehow — I don't even remember how — that evolved. People liked the adrenaline attention and the adrenaline of that feel so much that they wanted it over and over again. So we ended up doing a time loop.
But I will say, even though we do a time loop, we tried to leave it up to the audience. You can decide whether or not it is actually a time loop, or if there is a justification. There is a justification for it in the episode, and the audience can take away whatever they want from that. They can either believe in the time loop or believe in the justification.
I mean, there's already a supernatural element obviously in The Walking Dead with the zombies. However, adding this magical element is jarring, but in a really sort of fun way.
There's another episode that deals with the different type of supernatural element. And I was always really curious because the world is inherently supernatural. What else could be happening in this world? And Scott was open to exploring it as long as we really grounded it in the reality of the characters and the reality of the world. Is it in their heads, or is it actually happening? We never really give you a definite answer. So the audience can take away from the episode what they want to.
But yeah, I was itching to push the boundaries. I had written in The Walking Dead world so long. I was wondering: If walkers exist in this world, what else can exist in this world?
They finally make it alive past 5 p.m. So, what happens next?
The next goal is to go after Gina's nieces and see if they can make it out of Atlanta alive. So, Blair is married to Gina in some sort. They're like work spouses at this point. They know they're stuck together, and they never wanted to be, but they've somehow made it work. The next goal is to save Gina's family.
How do you think they do out there in the zombie apocalypse?
I would like to think that they do really well. They survived an explosion with amazing hairdos at the end. So I think if they can get through that, they can get through anything.
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