The Mystery Voice: A Plausible Scenario
A scenario occurred to me whereby the mysterious voice over Clem's walkie-talkie is entirely benevolent (albeit on the suspicious side). I'll leave interested readers to fill in a few blanks.
Clem's dad was injured. Clem's mom brought the dad to the hospital in Savannah. Mystery Voice was a nurse at the hosptial, and his hobby is shortwave radio (heck, why not). In tending to Clem's dad MV becomes friendly with both parents. The mom in particular confides their dilemna. Her husband is ill and their child is back in Macon, ostensibly under the care of a babysitter, but as the night progresses it becomes clear that all hell is breaking loose throughout the region, so mom gets more than desperate enough to discuss things with a stranger. Clem's mom mentions the walkie-talkie and shows her wt to MV who says, 'aha, that won't reach Macon, but I know how to boost the signal, if that'll help, and how to pick up weak signals at long distances'. As the ZA worsens, the nurse/ham radio operator gets seperated from Clem mere et pere, and out of concern for their little girl attempts to contact her through his shortwave equipment. He's holed up in his apartment and as he begins to talk with Clem learns that she's currently with a middling sized group of armed, angry people who sometimes hit each other.
Now, if you're MV, wouldn't you want to reunite Clem with her parents, but without exposing yourself to this armed group unnecessarily? Wouldn't you rather take a look at them first without revealing yourself? One way to do that is to stay in touch with Clem but without revealing yourself to this Lee character, and that homeless guy she mentioned. The obvious way to do that is to ask Clem to keep your conversations with her a secret for the time being. Also, given that you'd be able to tell Clem some specifics about her parents, you'd be able to prove to her that you knew them. Plus, Clem also thinks that just maybe one of the people in her group shot a kid. It happened out in the woods so she's nor sure. Also, this Lee guy cut Clem's hair. What kind of weirdo gives haircuts during the ZA?
Far better to conceal your identity and location until you get a look at this odd bunch--before revealing yourself and before leading them to Clem's parents whom you like and who may be very vulnerable if they're even still alive--than blindly give out too much information to armed adults you don't know but who sound pretty darned sketchy.
Clem's dad was injured. Clem's mom brought the dad to the hospital in Savannah. Mystery Voice was a nurse at the hosptial, and his hobby is shortwave radio (heck, why not). In tending to Clem's dad MV becomes friendly with both parents. The mom in particular confides their dilemna. Her husband is ill and their child is back in Macon, ostensibly under the care of a babysitter, but as the night progresses it becomes clear that all hell is breaking loose throughout the region, so mom gets more than desperate enough to discuss things with a stranger. Clem's mom mentions the walkie-talkie and shows her wt to MV who says, 'aha, that won't reach Macon, but I know how to boost the signal, if that'll help, and how to pick up weak signals at long distances'. As the ZA worsens, the nurse/ham radio operator gets seperated from Clem mere et pere, and out of concern for their little girl attempts to contact her through his shortwave equipment. He's holed up in his apartment and as he begins to talk with Clem learns that she's currently with a middling sized group of armed, angry people who sometimes hit each other.
Now, if you're MV, wouldn't you want to reunite Clem with her parents, but without exposing yourself to this armed group unnecessarily? Wouldn't you rather take a look at them first without revealing yourself? One way to do that is to stay in touch with Clem but without revealing yourself to this Lee character, and that homeless guy she mentioned. The obvious way to do that is to ask Clem to keep your conversations with her a secret for the time being. Also, given that you'd be able to tell Clem some specifics about her parents, you'd be able to prove to her that you knew them. Plus, Clem also thinks that just maybe one of the people in her group shot a kid. It happened out in the woods so she's nor sure. Also, this Lee guy cut Clem's hair. What kind of weirdo gives haircuts during the ZA?
Far better to conceal your identity and location until you get a look at this odd bunch--before revealing yourself and before leading them to Clem's parents whom you like and who may be very vulnerable if they're even still alive--than blindly give out too much information to armed adults you don't know but who sound pretty darned sketchy.
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Comments
But IIRC her mom says nothing about a bite per se. Just that he was attacked by a crazy guy.
Take that at face value with no pretext. And it could be a living person who just attacked her dad in the wake of the violence of the outbreak. I'ms ure in those first few hours you'd have looters and other marginal types just waiting to go a little crazy as the country experiences a state of emergency. Perhaps he was carjacked or something.
Yes, and in the trailer for episode 2 Carley gives Lee an energy bar and in the episode 3 trailer they were arguing outside the RV in daylight in a completely different scene.
Don't go by the trailers.
I agree that the likeliest outcome, given what we know so far, is that he was bitten, either on the first day of the outbreak, or not long after, in the general mayhem, especially since hospitals are one of the worst places to be, and hospitals w morgues in cities would be insane.
Still, it's certainly a non-neglible possibility that he's alive, with ordinary injuries. It does seem odd that no one has thought to call the answering machine at Clem's in case more messages were left. I know landlines especially might be down, but afaik no one's tried it.
Yup, and that he knows they're in the street suggests he's observing them from a distance. That's consistent with the idea that he's trying to help, while at the same time staying under cover until he knows it's safe to directly contact Lee and Clem's group.
He's probably using a ham radio.
As far as I could find out, the only way would be if there were repeater stations that could amplify her signal, but those would need power to work.
I don't think she has been intentionally transmitting back. I think he's just been listening to her transmissions "talking" to her parents, gathering information about her and the group. It's only now that they're approaching Savannah that her walkie talkie is able to receive his transmissions.
His radio would be able to receive/transmit much greater distances than her walkie talkie. Due to short reception, she can't hear him, but his greater range allows him to hear her. That's my theory and I'm sticking to it until Ep. 4 proves me wrong or not.
Worked with Jolene's car.
Wouldn't it be the other way around, though? Her walkie-talkie can only transmit so far, but a ham radio can send messages much further. But at the same time, to be able to pick anything up, the signal would have to reach far enough. So he'd be able to broadcast, but he wouldn't be able to get anything back. At least, I think.
Considering how broken the transmission was that Lee and Kenny heard in the cab, evidently not. I think Clem's walkie talkie had to be within range of Savannah to receive.
It's only 166 miles between Macon and Savannah, no need to get carried away.
It's a theory. You think of a better one, let me know.
but how powerful could that walkie talkie be? to stand out from the white noise takes power.
my theory is that he heard her talking to her parents on the train near savannah and decided to take advantage of her knowing she is on the way
i really think it is about the power of the transmission, i will have to do some research, but even 100 miles is a massive distance for a hand held radio transmitter.
Edit: for the moment i cant even find one that can reach more than 30 miles and that is extremely dependant on terrain and its line of sight so you cant overcome the curvature of the earth
For what it's worth, I had a 70s era walkie talkie as a kid that could pick up CB and ham radio transmissions, but it couldn't broadcast far enough for anyone to ever hear me back. Picking up a signal from Savannah is entirely plausible, but sending one there with that walkie seems fictional to me. Here's where it'd be nice if they could say it really was broken and Doug fixed it and modified its range...
more like shot by Lilly
Thank you!
However, if you talked to Christa in episode three you know that wasn't a children's walkie. I suspect it was her dad's toy first.
You're taking the word of an 8-year-old that it was broken to begin with. The batteries were probably dead and she chipped it or something and because it wasn't working, it was "broken".
It might not be a toy, it might have been something he used on the job.
"Now I've barricaded myself in Savannah with ample provisions... but in my haste, I forgot cola!"
Damn, there was a vending machine back at the motor inn! Now he won't let us use his guns free of charge!
Na-ah, it was "I need you to bring me ice!", warm pop is just yucky!
It would have to be someone in your group
It'd have to be someone male
It'd have to be someone at the motel
It'd have to be someone who isn't dead
That leaves Ben and Kenny.
If it's a 2-way radio (a radio that can only talk to it's twin) then there is only 1 possible answer. That Kenny took the other radio off Glenn before he left.
The other unknown is how long this person has been talking to Clem. Certainly they were at the motel, you see Clem talking on it, but before Ben arrived? Unknown.
The most puzzling question in all this is whether the radio was ever broken? Either
A) It was never broken and Clem knowingly lied
In which case someone has been talking to her all along (and could only be Kenny)
I don't even know where to start on this one. You'd have to get it off Clem, fix it, tell her not to mention it.
Of course the 3rd option in all of this is that the group has been stalked since they arrived at the motel and that stalker is now on the train with you. I wonder... who suddenly turned up out of nowhere, survived MONTHS on their own (despite being a drunk), introduced themselves and took an interest in Clem?
* Strokes chin *
Would make sense. Chuck being either part of the bandit group or possibly Daddy St John.
Personally my money is on Kenny. I think he has known all along that Lee was a convicted killer and intended on taking Clem away from him.
It can't be Kenny, because he hears the transmission WITH you at the end of episode 3. The man is talking on the other end, sounds nothing like Kenny, and Kenny is there WITH YOU listening, mouth not moving. Ben doesn't have the cajones to do something like this, especially not after telling Lee that it was him dealing with the bandits. It's probably an all new character that Clem's been talking to and telling everything we've done.
It's not just a two-way either, as long as there's another radio tuned in to the same frequency they can speak. The issue here being the range of course.