Alexandria Safe-Zone

Last updated
Alexandria Safe-Zone
Created by Robert Kirkman
Charlie Adlard
Cliff Rathburn
In-universe information
TypeWalled community
RulerTV:
Aaron (current)
Gabriel Stokes (formerly)
Michonne (formerly)
Rick Grimes (formerly)
Deanna Monroe (formerly)
Comics:
Magna
Rick Grimes (formerly)
Douglas Monroe (formerly)
Alexander Davidson (formerly)
Locations Alexandria, Virginia
Washington, D.C.

The Alexandria Safe Zone is a location in the Image Comics series The Walking Dead , as well as a location in the AMC television series of the same name.

Contents

Comic book series

In The Walking Dead comic book series, The Alexandria Safe-Zone, or just Alexandria, is a few blocks of cleared streets in Alexandria, Virginia, about six miles from Washington, D.C. When Rick Grimes' survivor group arrived, Douglas Monroe stated that the community had existed for less than a year. To date, this is the longest lasting location the survivors have lived in, with a lifespan of almost three years. In the war against Negan, Alexandria suffered considerable damage and was overrun and temporarily abandoned. After the war's end, the survivors came back to Alexandria and started to rebuild it. Two years after the war, Alexandria was completely rebuilt and has been vastly improved, with the addition of new houses, crops and orchards.

Television series

In The Walking Dead television series, the Alexandria Safe-Zone appears in the fifth season and is led by Deanna Monroe (a female adaptation and counterpart of the comic book series' Douglas Monroe). The Safe-Zone was created after refugees were directed there during the initial outbreak. Rick Grimes and his group find this safe haven after they encounter Aaron, whose job is to recruit new residents in order to make Alexandria stronger. At first, Rick's group is apprehensive upon arrival due to the many horrific things they have witnessed during their long sojourn outside The Safe-Zone's walls.

In the sixth season, Rick is now the co-leader of Alexandria alongside Deanna and starts to take precautions to keep the community safe. Alexandria is soon attacked by "The Wolves", leaving many of its residents dead or emotionally harmed, but makes some of its residents stronger, learning that "If you don't fight, you die."

In the seventh season, Alexandria falls under the control of Negan and the Saviors who confiscate all of the community's weapons and destroy all of their mattresses. After the escape of Daryl Dixon from the Sanctuary and the murders of Spencer Monroe and Olivia, the residents start fighting back again, forging an alliance with the Hilltop, the Kingdom, Oceanside and the Scavengers.

In the eighth season, many of the residents join the Militia in fighting the Saviors. However, after the Saviors block out of the Militia's blockade, they assault the communities, bombing Alexandria and destroying much of the safe-zone. With the help of a distraction by Dwight, most of the residents evacuate into the sewers while making the Saviors think that they fled into the woods.

In the ninth season, Alexandria has been fully rebuilt and is thriving under the leadership of Rick who tries to lead the communities into a new era of peace. After the supposed death of Rick and the eventual fall of the Sanctuary, Alexandria becomes home to several former Saviors and is now led by a governing council headed by Gabriel Stokes and with Michonne having a veto power as the head of security. It is also thriving more than ever and has been greatly built up over time.

In the tenth season, Alexandria and the other communities struggle under the threat of the Whisperers while training to fight back against them. Alexandria faces repeated walker attacks over a several day period and a cholera outbreak that is caused by the Whisperer third-in-command Mary, also known as Gamma, contaminating their water supply while a Whisperer spy inside of the community spray paints "Silence the Whisperers" graffiti, stokes paranoia and sabotages the water filters so that the contaminated water can get to the residents.

In the eleventh season, Alexandria is struggling with the residents facing possible starvation due to the damage that the Whisperers' had caused to their food supply. The damaged wall also results in herds occasionally getting in and causing chaos. A mission to Fort Connors retrieves enough MREs to buy the community some time, but not much. As a result, Maggie, Negan, Daryl, Gabriel, Alden and several other residents launch a mission to Maggie's old village of Meridian in order to reclaim it and its supplies from the Reapers.

Development and reception

Alexandria is a fictional gated community in northern Virginia, but for the TV series it is filmed in an actual subdivision in Georgia in which four real families live. [1] Jeffrey Dean Morgan stayed with his wife Hilarie Burton and their family in one of these houses while filming the episode "Here's Negan" for the show's tenth season. [2] Multimedia scholar Kim Baker describes the Alexandria Safe-Zone as one of several "simulated spaces in which normalcy is attempted" appearing in the series, and "a place resembling all the rituals and ideologies of the old world". Baker points out that after the experiences of the surviving characters up to that point, they see this artificial recreation of the past as "dangerous—more dangerous than the zombie-filled real world", because its outdated power structure prevents the creation of a better, more egalitarian society. [3]

In a review of the fifth-season episode "Remember", in which Alexandria first appeared on the TV series, Tim Surette of TV.com noted that "Alexandria is no Woodbury, and that's a good thing, because we certainly don't need a repeat of that storyline. Not only Andrea is no longer around to screw things up with her love for bad boys, but overall, Alexandria appears to have its shit together much more than Woodbury ever did. That difference is important, because 'Remember' approached the idea of joining a new civilization in a much better way, by focusing on the survivors' psyches after a hot shower rather than just presenting them with the mere prospect of safety." Surette concluded that "A return to normalcy is Alexandria's biggest selling point, and it's hard for Deanna to imagine anyone turning that down". [4] Rebecca Hawkes of The Daily Telegraph described Alexandria as "brilliantly realised, with houses that would have been luxurious by any standards, let alone post-apocalyptic ones, and a veneer of all-American suburban 'normality' that rendered the entire place somewhat surreal." [5]

In a review of the next episode "Forget", Sean McKenna for TV Fanatic felt that Sasha's outburst at the complacent townspeople shows that "Alexandria really seems like a surreal fantasy." McKenna added that "the sort-of dreamlike atmosphere that surrounds the walled-in town and the survivors figuring out how to live there (and still hold onto their outside skills) has been intriguing." [6]

In reviewing the fifth season finale "Conquer", Jason Hughes of TheWrap commented that before the attack by the Wolves, "Alexandria has been an oasis of innocence isolated from this dark and twisted world, but it's an innocence that has not yet been tested." [7] Erik Kain for Forbes commented that after the attack by the Wolves, "we're left with an Alexandria Safe Zone that doesn't feel that safe, with its numbers much diminished, but at least maybe now the inhabitants are awake to the real threat---and to the value of Rick and his crew." [8]

In reviewing the season six mid-season finale "Start to Finish", Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club comments that as the walls fell and a horde of walkers pours in, "Alexandria is most likely dead. Which should be a shame, because this is a town that offered the promise of a fresh start, a hope for the future, but then, that's kind of what this show is all about, really." [9]

In a review of the sixth season episode "The Next World", Brian Moylan of The Guardian commented that the introduction of the new character "Jesus" actually "calls into question the new rules of Alexandria, with Rick and Daryl on either side of the debate whether to let anyone into the walls of Alexandria. For what felt like eons, Rick wanted to close off society and Daryl went out to recruit. But now Daryl's experience in the world, with the Wolves and Negin's crew, have shown him what dangers lurk outside. Rick, following Deanna's death, is newly optimistic about a more inclusive society." [10]

For the eight season premiere "Mercy", Greg Nicotero told Entertainment Weekly that "When they walk out of the front of the house and we see Alexandria as a thriving, vibrant community, it gives us hope. It gives us a great opportunity to glimpse into the future and see that even though they’re in this dark, war-like time, that there’s a great possibility that things will work out for everybody and it’s good times." [11]

In a review of the season eight mid-season finale "How It's Gotta Be", Matt Fowler for IGN described the Saviors' assault of Alexandria: "it was kind of an awesome sight to behold. All those houses blowing up and crumbling [to] the ground. The Saviors storming through the town in the smoke of the fires and Carl's grenades. Rick going toe-to-toe with Negan in their first ever big fight scene". [12]

For the season nine episode "Who Are You Now?", Angela Kang explains that after the time-jump depicted after Rick's disappearance, "For Alexandria, we see it's ruled by a council of elected leaders. Michonne clearly has a big role in that. We felt like Alexandria was trying to create something like an American democracy, though it's much more complicated than that". [13] In a review of the episode, Erik Kain of Forbes writes that "Alexandria has come a long way. When the new characters that Judith saved last week arrive, we witness to the same sweeping changes to the community that they see for the first time. Alexandria looks like a town pulled straight from an old Western film, if those towns were walled in on all sides to keep out the dead. Newly erected buildings that you might find on a street in Westworld have been erected next to sprawling gardens. The windmill spins at the center of it all. It's all a stark contrast to the dilapidated Kingdom." [14]

In reviewing the tenth season episode "Stalker", Ron Hogan of Den of Geek comments on the effectiveness of Beta's attack by saying "Alexandria has walls, but it's clearly not effectively defended enough to stop one dedicated lunatic (and that, historically, has been the easiest way for the city to be attacked, by single actors who sneak in at night or in crowds of people). Alpha's overall plan, to sow discord and mistrust within the community, to take away the safety of the walls, seems to be working out very well, if the tension between Gabriel and Rosita is any indication." [15]

In a review of the season ten episode "Diverged", Paul Dailly of TV Fanatic mentions that "Alexandria was once a safe haven, complete with farming and ways to make electricity, but the Whisperer War completely decimated what was once a beautiful little town that kept the apocalypse at bay." [16] In his review of the same episode, Ron Hogan of Den of Geek commented that "Times are always tough in the post-apocalypse, but with extra mouths to feed from Maggie's group and a city still recovering from the destruction at the hands of the Whisperers, it's not surprising that Alexandria has everything except for food and time." [17]

In reviewing the eleventh season premiere, episodes "Acheron: Part I" and "Acheron: Part II" together, Erik Kain of Forbes described the dire situation: "Even with the rations the group brings back to Alexandria, it's not enough to sustain the community. The town itself has been destroyed by the Whisperers. The food is gone. There is no game to hunt, no crops to harvest." [18]

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References

  1. ↑ Pane, Lisa Marie (October 22, 2017). "'The Walking Dead' reaches 100th episode milestone". The Washington Post . Archived from the original on October 24, 2017. Retrieved October 22, 2017.
  2. ↑ Cameron Bonomolo (April 1, 2021). "The Walking Dead: "Here's Negan" Star Jeffrey Dean Morgan Cooked Spaghetti While Living in Rick Grimes' House". Comicbook.com. Archived from the original on February 15, 2021. Retrieved April 1, 2021.
  3. ↑ Baker, Kim (2016). "Zombies Rise to Power: Survivors Flee Toward the Past". In Lind, Rebecca Ann (ed.). Race and Gender in Electronic Media: Content, Context, Culture. Taylor & Francis. ISBN   9781317266129.
  4. ↑ Surette, Tim (March 2, 2015). "The Walking Dead "Remember" Review: Our Town". TV.com. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  5. ↑ Hawkes, Rebecca (March 2, 2015). "The Walking Dead, review: 'gripping'". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  6. ↑ "The Walking Dead Season 5 Episode 13 Review: Is This Real?". TV Fanatic. Retrieved 2017-03-20.
  7. ↑ Hughes, Jason (March 29, 2015). "'The Walking Dead' Season Finale Review: A New Danger Lurks Outside Alexandria's Walls". TheWrap. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  8. ↑ Kain, Erik (March 30, 2015). "'The Walking Dead' Season 5 Finale Review: Kill Or Be Conquered". Forbes. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  9. ↑ Handlen, Zack (November 29, 2015). "Walking Dead shuffles through its midseason finale". The A.V. Club . Retrieved November 29, 2015.
  10. ↑ Moylan, Brian (February 22, 2016). "The Walking Dead: season six, episode 10 - The Next World". The Guardian . Retrieved April 20, 2016.
  11. ↑ Ross, Dalton (October 22, 2017). "The Walking Dead director reveals season premiere Easter eggs". Entertainment Weekly . Retrieved October 22, 2017.
  12. ↑ Fowler, Matt (December 10, 2017). "The Walking Dead: "How It's Gotta Be" Review". IGN . Retrieved March 26, 2021.
  13. ↑ Wigler, Josh (November 11, 2018). "'Walking Dead' Showrunner Explains All Those Post-Time Jump Changes". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved November 13, 2018.
  14. ↑ Kain, Erik. "'The Walking Dead' Season 9, Episode 6 Review: A Brave New Show". Forbes.
  15. ↑ Hogan, Ron (March 1, 2020). "The Walking Dead Season 10 Episode 10 Review: Stalker". Den of Geek . Retrieved March 5, 2020.
  16. ↑ Dailly, Paul (March 28, 2021). "The Walking Dead Season 10 Episode 21 Review: Diverged". TV Fanatic. Retrieved March 28, 2021.
  17. ↑ Hogan, Ron (March 28, 2021). "The Walking Dead Season 10 Episode 21 Review: Diverged". Den of Geek . Retrieved March 28, 2021.
  18. ↑ Kain, Erik (August 22, 2021). "'The Walking Dead' Season 11, Episode 1 Review: A Strong Season Premiere". Forbes . Retrieved August 30, 2021.
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