The Walking Dead: Playing Doctor

After last Sunday’s The Walking Dead, I did something I usually don’t do: I went online. I’m not sure why. Maybe for the same reason all those robots huddled together in IRobot; if others were as meh and/or angry as I was about the episode and we sought each other out, then maybe it meant I had a soul. Regardless, every person I chatted with did, in fact, feel some type of way about the episode. Here is a truncated list of the words used that night: trope, rage, bored, why, predictable, boring, “one good scene.” You get the idea. To that end, I don’t feel like writing about that episode.* Instead, I want to talk about the TWD universe generally and doctors specifically. Well… kind of. Who are the doctors on the show: Herschel, the veterinarian; the doctors at Grady Memorial Hospital: Steven Edwards and Gavin Trevitt; Pete Anderson; Denise Cloyd; and the Harlan Carson at Hilltop.   While all of these people may have been lovely humans (they weren’t), what they truly were was valuable. Each of these people was valuable. Obviously Herschel saved Carl’s life after he was accidentally shot in a hunting accident. That he became a part of the group and a trusted advisor to Rick obscures the fact of his value. When we look at the others, though, the idea is clear. Steven Edwards has Beth (unwittingly) kill his patient and former colleague Gavin Trevitt because he knows that as soon as Dawn (the leader of the hospital survivors) found another doctor, he would be replaceable – which …