Khary Payton ruined our tainted meat theory. We wanted to believe the Saviors will die from explosive diarrhea, but that’s not the case.
Payton revealed to ComicBook.com Ezekiel’s thought process regarding the pigs. In The Walking Dead Season 7 episode 2, we saw Ezekiel’s men feed walkers to plump up the pigs. Everyone, including us, thought it was Ezekiel’s way of getting back at the Saviors. Think about it. There’s no way for the Saviors to blame Ezekiel for people getting sick after eating bacon. If anything, Negan would blame his kitchen staff for not properly cooking the meat.
Well, Payton has some disappointing news for the case of the tainted meat.
"Hey, man, if the Mafia dude comes over and makes you a deal, and he's like, 'I want a bunch of pigs and they better be a nice size,' and you've got limited options, you go fill a bunch with zombie guts," Payton told ComicBook.com. "There seems to be no end in sight as far as the supply of zombie guts. I got to feed my people, too, so I'm going to feed them the good stuff!"
We like the image of Negan suffering from explosive diarrhea, so we’re going to choose to believe Ezekiel fed the pigs walker meat to poison the Saviors. We like the fantasy. Don’t ruin it for us Payton!
Speaking of fantasy, Payton recently corrected everyone’s assumptions about Ezekiel’s “King” persona during an interview with IGN. Many people believe Ezekiel is putting up a front so people will follow him, but that’s not the case. Ezekiel’s people decided to call him a king, so he’s not living a fantasy. Ezekiel is live the reality given to him by a community desperate to survive in a brutal world.
"This is not a fantasy that he's living. It's a construct to be sure, but it's not different than the construct of the United States government," Payton told IGN. "When people say, well, he's kind of putting on this character or whatever, it's not any different than what we do in this real life. That is real life to him. This is the way that he's able to protect his people, and as far as they're concerned, he is a king. He's not pretending to be king. He didn't call himself a king. They did because it made them feel better, it made them feel protected, made them feel comfortable. They call him a king and a king he is."
Ezekiel is definitely one of our new favorite characters, second only to his bodyguard Jerry. The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on AMC
