The Walking Dead: Where You’ve Seen Dead City’s Dormant Zombies Before

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[Caution: This article reveals spoilers for The Walking Dead: Dead City season 2 episode “A New Day, A New Beginning.”]
New York is known as the city that never rests, but its undead inhabitants don’t seem to share that trait. In the penultimate episode of Dead City‘s second season, Negan (played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan) embarked on a quest to find antibiotics for his wounded charge Ginny (Mahina Napoleon), who was battling a worsening infection. Rumor had it that Bellevue Hospital kept an old but useful supply of medicine, so Negan ventured there, braving hordes of walkers. However, when he arrived at the hospital, he found something unexpected – the walkers were… asleep?

Carefully making his path, Negan moved among the silent, unblinking “dormant walkers” – reanimated children who stood still though their eyes remained open, as he moved past them.

Despite the rarity of such behavior, it’s not that these are fresh models of walkers – they have been around since as early as the pilot episode of “The Walking Dead”, where Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) ventured into the infested Atlanta for the first time.

In Robert Kirkman’s comics, the term “lurkers” was first used for walkers that remain hidden, but later in season 11 of The Walking Dead, Aaron (Ross Marquand) employed the same term to describe a new type of zombie – those who can climb walls and open doors. Essentially, he differentiated between two main categories of zombies: active ones that roam around (roamers), and inactive ones that hide and wait (lurkers).

In The Walking Dead’s third season, it was a seemingly harmless walker that unexpectedly attacked Hershel (Scott Wilson). As Rick, Hershel, Maggie (Lauren Cohan), Glenn (Steven Yeun), T-Dog (IronE Singleton), and Daryl (Norman Reedus) moved through the prison corridors, clearing walkers, they seemingly avoided any issues with a dormant one. However, as they passed by, that very walker sprang to life and attacked Hershel.

However, upon Hershel’s return into the gloom to locate Maggie and Glenn, he stepped over what seemed like a motionless walker. But just as he did so, it came back to life and bit him on his heel. This led Rick to perform an emergency amputation on Hershel, aiming to prevent any further spread of infection before it became too severe.

In the debut episode of season 11 for “The Walking Dead,” titled “Acheron: Part 1,” a scene showcased Alexandrians rummaging through a military base in search of Meals Ready-to-Eat (MREs). This lengthy, almost silent sequence spanned nearly 10 minutes and saw the group tiptoeing around sleeping walkers on the floor. However, as they attempted to leave with their loot, the dormant walkers were suddenly awakened, forcing the group to engage in a struggle for survival. (You can watch this suspenseful scene in the video below.)

In “The Walking Dead” series, it was clarified by showrunner and executive producer Angela Kang that there are various types of walkers present. These walkers, often referred to as “sleeper” walkers, can lay dormant at times but become dangerous once they reawaken from their slumber. The initial concept for the season involved these lurkers, which have the ability to go into a state of temporary inactivity but remain threatening when they resurface again.

The Walking Dead: Dead City season 2 finale airs Sunday, June 22, on AMC and AMC+.

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2025-06-20 03:43