The First to Turn: Patient Zero and the Start of the Outbreak
Since its premiere in 2010, The Walking Dead has gripped audiences with its grim portrayal of a post-apocalyptic world overrun by zombies. While the show has remained steadfastly focused on Rick Grimes and his band of survivors, the question of how the zombie outbreak began has always lingered.
The prequel series Fear The Walking Dead seemed poised to finally provide some answers. Set in Los Angeles, California, it promised to show the very start of the zombie apocalypse. Expectations were sky-high, with the first episode drawing over 10 million viewers – the highest debut for any cable series ever. However, as the LA Times noted, the show failed to deliver on its early promise and lacked the "fully fleshed out characters and compelling relationships" that made its predecessor so popular.
Nonetheless, within the opening scenes of Fear, we are introduced to the first person shown turning into a zombie: Gloria. Played by Lexi Johnson, Gloria is discovered by Nick (Frank Dillane), a recovering heroin addict, in an abandoned church in downtown LA. To Nick‘s horror, the once vibrant Gloria has become a passive zombie, reportedly having overdosed.
This disturbance sets off a wave of chaos spreading across the city. But while Gloria was the first infected person viewers witnessed transforming, does that make her the dreaded patient zero when it comes to The Walking Dead‘s zombie outbreak as a whole?
The Patient Zero Misconception
Calling Gloria patient zero may be misleading. As ComicBook.com‘s Brandon Davis puts it: "the history of the virus itself still remains a mystery to this day. Details remain scarce regarding the origin of the virus…". So while Gloria was clearly the catalyst that brought about the collapse of civilization in LA, she likely was not the first infected overall.
In fact, it’s suggested in the spinoff series that the zombie plague arose in France before spreading across the globe over time. Given the mania surrounding diseases and pandemics recently, the idea of an outbreak raging across continents proves eerily timely.
Drugs – Not Infection
But what exactly caused Gloria’s disturbing metamorphosis into one of the ambling undead? According to showrunner Dave Erickson, her transition was not due to zombie infection at all but rather, drugs.
He confirmed to audiences that Gloria‘s demise was intended as an accidental overdose, clarifying: “It felt like the right explanation for her transformation was she was going through withdrawal, she relapsed, she OD’d, and she died”.
With Gloria’s lifeless body left sitting in an abandoned building for days in hot LA temperatures, the decomposition and brain damage from her OD left her in a zombified state before the outbreak even took hold.
Spread of the Disease
If not from an existing direct infection then how exactly did the zombie plague subsequently spiral out of control across Los Angeles? While never definitively stated, it’s implied that the contaminated batch of drugs that killed Gloria made its way across the city through dealers and users.
In one scene, police raid a drug den housed in a multi-level hotel only to be attacked by a flood of zombie residents. As critic Alan Sepinwall analyzed: “that hotel is full of zombies because it was also full of junkies who died (from either bad drugs or the existing health problems of addiction) and turned.”
Another theory suggests the spread occurred through tainted water sources. As zombies corpses piled up, their bodily fluids could have leaked into the groundwater, spreading the infection rapidly via plumbing. While just speculation, in reality many lethal diseases like Cholera often propagate through contaminated water so this idea does have scientific merit.
Regardless of the exact science behind the virus, Gloria and her spoilt drugs seem to have acted as the spark that soon set LA ablaze.
Legacy of Chaos
In the end, Gloria will be remembered not so much as the first infected but rather the person who rang the proverbial opening bell on the apocalypse. Though only fleetingly featured, her brief role was crucial. As the catalyst who indirectly infected scores of Angelenos and created initial mobs of the undead, she unwittingly unleashed terror and chaos onto the streets of Los Angeles.
So while Gloria may not have personally been patient zero when it came to the worldwide zombie plague, she did prove patient zero for completing Los Angeles’ tragic downfall into undead infested ruins. Her horrifying transformation in that fateful church set off a chain reaction of death that ultimately left the City of Angels in ashes. Gloria will forever be known then as the doomed soul whose infection sparked the end of the world for LA.