By Brent McKnight | 8 years ago

While zombies and interpersonal drama raged on screen during season two of AMC’s The Walking Dead, similar drama was going down behind the scenes. Admittedly there was less flesh eating, but the set was still neck deep in drama. Among other things, Frank Darabont, who developed the show, was fired and replaced as showrunner by Glen Mazzara.

There’s too much to get into right now—that’s another post for another time—but some of the fighting was about which direction to take the show. Now that the Blu-ray/DVD release is approaching, deleted scenes are beginning to show up on the web, and they paint a very different picture from the season audiences witnessed on Sunday nights. Check out this new deleted scene from TV Guide and we’ll talk more about it down below.

This scene comes from the same storyline as the one that appeared earlier, where the group revisits the compound from the season one episode “Vatos.” That’s the episode where Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and some others encounter a group of guys they assume are gangbangers that are actually taking care of a bunch of old people who can’t fend for themselves.

After the explosion at the CDC at the end of the first arc, the second season was slated to begin with the group seeking shelter at the Vatos stronghold. In the first scene they find the place in ruins, overrun with walkers, and go on a bit of as shooting spree. In this new clip, they go inside, only to find that their original interpretation of events was wrong. What they find is that all of the people were shot in the head before the zombies showed up and had a feast. They were murdered.

These events drastically change the feel of the season. Instead of being solely focused on the undead and all of the problems within the group, there would have been another layer of fear to contend with. They would have known that somewhere out there people, not zombies, are using the fall of civilization as an excuse to give in to their most base desires, and are up to no good. It would have foreshadowed the confrontation between Rick, Glenn, and Hershel and the guys they encounter at the bar, as well as build into season three, where the group will most certainly encounter some human roadblocks in the form of the Governor (David Morrissey).

The biggest problem with the second season is that things drag on far too long, primarily the search for Sophia and the debate about what to do with the kid they find in the latter portion. Both of those storylines go on and on, well past the point of becoming tedious. If The Walking Dead had kept the arc with the Vatos, it could have given the season some much needed diversity, and I think the end result would have been stronger for it.

Season two of The Walking Dead comes out on Blu-ray/DVD Tuesday, August 28th, and season three premieres Sunday, October 14th on AMC.