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The Walking Years: Directed by Richard Boone. With Richard Boone, Elen Willard, Jacqueline Wilson, Hal Needham. A letter from a friend brings Paladin to a bar where he's drugged. He wakes up chained and in the company of a man with a similar story and a woman who's path they've both crossed before.
- (82)
- Western
- Richard Boone
- 1963-03-02
- Overview
- After the Trials
- Notes
- References
The following is a timeline for the TV show, explaining what happened each day. Citations are given for almost every single day; the overall timeline of 147 months (~12 Years) is not a guess, but rather a careful count of everything that we have seen in the show so far.
According to Fear the Walking Dead, the year of the outbreak began is confirmed to be 2010.
201020112012201420152016Overall timeline
•Dr. Edwin Jenner notes in "Wildfire" that the Wildfire virus initially arose 194 days prior to the events of that episode and went global 63 days prior to the events of that episode. •There is a time skip of one day between season 1 and season 2: Rick Grimes informs Morgan Jones via walkie-talkie in "What Lies Ahead" that the group "lost another of [their] own the day before last"; he says this in reference to Jacqui, who died at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention at the end of season 1. •There is a time skip of seven to eight months, an entire winter, between season 2 and season 3: Andrea informs Merle Dixon that the Greene family farm was overrun seven or eight months prior to the events of "Walk With Me". •In "Sick", Tomas informs Rick's group that he and his fellows were locked in the cafeteria of the West Georgia Correctional Facility ten months prior to the events of that episode during riots at the onset of the Trials; Oscar specifies that it was 292 days before, while Axel gives his own count of 294 days. •Hershel Greene mentions in a flashback in "A" that, by that time, they have been at the prison for two months; this supports that the entirety of Season 3 occurs in a span of less than two months. •There is a time skip of six months between season 3 and season 4. While it is never stated in the show itself, those associated with the show have confirmed it: Andrew Lincoln, who plays Rick, describes season 4 as occurring "six-ish months later" in one interview and Scott M. Gimple, executive producer and showrunner, reveals in a video from AMC that "about six or seven months has passed." •There is no time skip between season 4 and season 5: Rick and his group are incarcerated in Terminus and break out on the very same day, as indicated by the gunshots that Carol Peletier and Tyreese Williams hear on the tracks in "No Sanctuary", which are in fact the gunshots herding the survivors into the train car at the end of "A". •The Talking Dead episode for "Strangers" reveals that Father Gabriel Stokes was in his church for 17 months before Rick's group found him. Seth Gilliam, who plays Gabriel, claims that it was 18 months during his appearance on the episode for "Them". With season 3 concluding nearly 11 months into the outbreak, a time skip of six months between season 3 and season 4, and season 4 spanning upwards of a month, an approximation of 18 months since the onset of the Trials by the beginning of season 5 is reasonable. •There is a small time skip of some number of days between season 5 and season 6; however, the intermediary days are filled in through flashbacks. •There is a time skip of two months between season 6 episode 9 "No Way Out" and episode 10 "The Next World", as revealed by Danai Gurira on the Talking Dead episode for "The Next World". However, this is later contradicted in the show by Abraham Ford, who says in episode 11 "Knots Untie" that the run-in with the Saviors on the road occurred only a month ago, not two. This count of a single month is reaffirmed in a conversation between two Saviors in season 7 episode 7 "Sing Me a Song", one of whom refers to the incident as "last month", indicating that a single-month skip was likely intended within the show's timeline and that Danai Gurira is likely mistaken. •Season 7 picks up some minutes after season 6, but the intermediary minutes are filled in through flashbacks. •The eight season of The Walking Dead begins two weeks after the end of Season 7. The entire season overall is one week - making Season 8 take place from May to June 2012. •The first episode of Season 9, A New Beginning, begins a year and a half after Season 8 ends, making it begin in January 2014. The second episode, The Bridge to the fifth episode, What Comes After, take place a month later, making those four episodes take place in February 2014. The flashback in Scars take place in October 2014 and November 2014, specifically during Halloween - as Halloween costumes and decorations can be seen, as well as Michonne Hawthorne is nearly to full term carrying RJ Grimes after conceiving him with Rick Grimes in February 2014. Who Are You Now? jumps forward six years with an additional three month time jump after The Calm Before, making the remainder of Season 9 take place from October 2020 to January 2021. •The tenth season of The Walking Dead begins several months after The Calm Before. The entire season overall it's a little over a month - making Season 10 take place from August 2021 to September 2021. •The eleventh season of The Walking Dead begins almost immediately after Season 10 in September 2021, and ends in April 2022, 6 months after arriving in the Commonwealth. •When Dr. Gale Macones explains her story to Karina in the webseries "The Oath", she states that it's "been a few months" since the military overran the hospital. This is the same hospital in which Rick recovers in his coma. The webisodes take place prior to Rick's awakening, as indicated by the fact that, in the final webisode, Paul paints the "Don't Open Dead Inside" warning on the doors to the cafeteria that Rick sees in the pilot. However, if Rick wakes up 59 days into the Trials, then there could not have been a "few-month" time lapse between the military's attack, which took place after the start of the Trials, and the events of the webisodes, unless Macones is getting her dates wrong or she is not using "few" to mean "three" as it often does mean. •According to Dave Erickson, executive producer for the companion series Fear the Walking Dead, Rick was in his coma for "four to five weeks", which would mean, if we are to take Dr. Jenner's word for how far into the apocalypse we were by "Wildfire", that Rick was shot some time after the outbreak had gone global. This is not entirely impossible, but it is notable that: police officers were still on duty after civilization had fallen and children were still going to school after the living dead had taken over the world. Whether Erickson is misinformed or Jenner was relaying false information remains to be known. •Additionally, if Rick had been in his coma for a mere "four to five weeks", then Macones' claim that the military attacked a "few months" ago, when Rick was in his coma (as seen in a flashback in "TS-19"), is even more dubious. •It should be noted that Fear the Walking Dead takes place in the same time frame as The Walking Dead. According to Tobias, there were already outbreaks in five states at the time Fear started, and with nothing reported in the news other than a strange 'virus', it is possible that Dr. Jenner is counting from the first case that the CDC became aware of rather than the first case that the public became aware of. Since there were no cases reported of walker infection in the five states mentioned in Fear, it is possible that the infection was underway at the time Rick was shot. •No speculation is in fact needed at all for this because Jenner says in "Wildfire" as well that the virus first arose 194 days before, so naturally it would have been present prior to Rick's entering the coma. However, Jenner's specific statement that it went global, not just in a few states, 63 days before makes the fact that it was not as big a deal in "Days Gone Bye" rather questionable. •In promotional material for Fear the Walking Dead, there is the first page of a six page memo released by the World Health Organization to all medical personnel how to deal with the recently deceased. The fact that the walker epidemic was being discussed at an international level even before the start of Fear (whose timeline predates the main shows by several days/weeks) indicates that the epidemic already had a global impact. Also, given that in Fear we see the epidemic spreading into Mexico and Canada, it is at least an international incident. •Starting from the outbreak in August 2010: •Season 1 - 2 (October 2010 to November 2010). •Season 3 (June 2011 to July 2011). •Season 4 - 8 (January 2012 to June 2012). •Season 9 [9x01 to 9x05] (February 2014 to March 2014). •Season 9 [9x06 to 9x16] (October 2020 to January 2021). •Season 10 (August 2021 to September 2021). •Season 11 (September 2021 to June 2023). •Chronological Episode Order
Real-life time period
Robert Kirkman has been intentionally vague as to when the comics occur in relation to real-life time and, by extension, when the show occurs as well. In the Letter Hacks column for issue 58, he says, "[The Walking Dead] is set in modern times...but the book started in 2003 and only a year has passed in the book. But that doesn't mean it's 2004 in the book...maybe it's 2009...who knows...who really cares? I don't want to be specific." The show follows a similar nature: There are no direct references to real-life time, and thus pinpointing when exactly the apocalypse began is difficult. However, there are some hints throughout the series that enable us to approximate a window in which the outbreak could have started. •In "Killer Within", the Governor makes the remark to Merle that they "should visit Augusta. Take only the women and let them play. It'll be historic." and Merle adds, "And break decades of tradition." They are referring to the Augusta National Golf Club, which, until August 2012, did not allow women to be members. This would place the onset of the outbreak prior to August 2012. However, it is possible that Merle is not up-to-date with his golf facts, or he is merely being jocular and referencing that well-known tradition regardless of what actually happened. It is to be noted that this episode was written prior to August 2012. •In "Spend", the song "Internet Friends" by Knife Party is heard as part of Aiden Monroe's "run mix". "Internet Friends" was released on December 12, 2011. •Perhaps an anachronism, an issue of WORLD magazine from April 6, 2013 appears in the background in the RV in "The Distance". •The green Hyundai Tucson seen in seasons 2, 3, and 4 is a 2012 model released in 2011. •The SCAR 17S used by Aiden Monroe in "Forget" was released in 2010. •A sign seen in the background of a scene from episode 2 of Fear the Walking Dead bares the date "08.07.10", or August 7, 2010, and advertises a "library week". The fact that the sign is up would indicate that this library week is coming up soon, or has recently passed and the sign has not yet been taken down. In any case, this would strongly suggest that the outbreak began sometime in August 2010, a relatively certain date that immediately increases the number of anachronisms in the show than if the outbreak had begun in August, 2012. •In the season 4 finale "A", Joe (the leader of the Claimers) says: Shit, and I was thinking of turning in for the night on New Year's Eve. Now who's gonna count down the ball dropper with me, huh?". If that day really is December 31, 2011, math would confirm that the outbreak began around August 7, 2010. •In season 2, episode 13 of Fear the Walking Dead there are some gravestones on the farm where Travis Manawa, his son Chris, and the American tourists are staying. These gravestones, two of which belong to characters who died onscreen, show the death year as 2010. •Deanna Monroe's concern that she would lose reelection could be a reference to the 2010 midterm elections in the United States. In real life this was a wave election that saw many congressional districts flip. •In "Here's Negan", the part of the episode that is set just before the Trials appears to take place in November, according to the date on a character's cell phone. It might be possible that different parts of the world were affected at different times (in "Wildfire", it is confirmed that the virus first arose 194 days before that episode and went global 63 days before); however, it seems unlikely that within the United States, both Los Angeles on the West Coast and Atlanta on the East Coast could be napalmed by the end of August, but in Virginia society is still fully intact, doctor's appointments are being held, and the criminal justice system is still overseeing individuals on probation. •It is very likely that this was simply a production error. Filming for the final six episodes of season 10 began in October 2020. Thus, "Here's Negan", or at least the part that is set before the Trials, was likely filmed in November, and the date on the phone was not changed to reflect the in-universe timeline.
1.AMC confirmed Monument Day occurred on August 27 by hosting a free-streaming marathon of The Walking Dead and later publishing a commemorative post on August 27, 2023. Monument Day is Day 3, which confirms Day 1 of the Trials on August 25, 2010.
2.Season 10: Episode 22 - Taking Jenner's math into account, when the virus was released is when Lucille learned of her cancer. Seven months later, she tells Negan she knew of his affair
3.Season 1: Episode 5 - "Wildfire" - Rick refers to the attack as "last night" in his message to Morgan
4.Season 2: Episode 1 - "What Lies Ahead" - Rick tells Morgan that they "lost another of their own the day before last"
5.Season 2: Episode 7 - "Pretty Much Dead Already" - Daryl says that he found Sophia's doll "two days ago", on day 69
6.Season 2: Episode 10 - "18 Miles Out" - Rick remarks to Shane that he's "been waiting a week till [they] were gonna do this"
"Have Gun - Will Travel" The Walking Years (TV Episode 1963) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more.
Mar 21, 2024 · The Walking Dead takes place across 7 shows, covering multiple seasons and years of storytelling. Here's the complete TWD timeline explained.
Oct 1, 2017 · The Walking Years Recap. Paladin arrives at a Barbary Coast bar and passes out from a drugged drink a few minutes later. The bartender has his men haul him to the basement, and when Paladin wakes up he finds himself in an abandoned warehouse with a man and woman. The man, Wiggen, asks what it's all about and Paladin tells them that he has no idea.
Drugged in a bar on the Barbary Coast, Paladin awakens to find himself manacled in an abandoned warehouse. Two other people are prisoners with him - a former wagon master and a woman alcoholic.
A letter from a friend brings Paladin to a bar where he's drugged. He wakes up chained and in the company of a man with a similar story and a woman who's path they've both crossed before.
