The Walking Dead: “18 Miles Out” Raises Suicide Awareness

Sunday night’s episode of The Walking Dead titled “18 Miles Out” saw conflict among group members come to a head, with a brawl between Rick and Shane as the best illustration of the tensions that run throughout the group. But it would be a mistake to focus on such issues of drama and positive soap opera to the neglect of one of the major issues related to the program, raised in both the final episode of Season 1, as well as several episodes in Season 2. That major issue is suicide.

In previous posts I have noted that The Walking Dead continues to wrestle with many of the ethical issues that Frank Darabont has addressed in his work in films like The Mist, specifically the dangers posed among human beings with the breakdown of the social order, and also the questions related to whether life is worth living at all, all of which take on a greater sense of urgency in the face of the release of creatures from another dimension or a zombie apocalypse.

Of course, the threat of the zombies provides a scenario by which to address these serious questions that are all too pressing in the real world. Beyond the philosophical, theological, and existential issues related to the question of the meaningfulness of life (or lack thereof), The Walking Dead, and specifically the episode “18 Miles Ahead,” has helped focus attention on suicide as a national problem. News stories have raised attention about the alarming rise in suicide among those losing hope in the face of the global recession, among college students, military service members, bullied youth, and members of the LGBT community. Given the diverse parts of culture in which suicide is on the rise, it has truly become an American epidemic. As a parent of a child of suicide I applaud The Walking Dead for raising the issue, and my hope is that it will spur conversations that lead us to consider not only the broader issues of meaning in life, but also provide assistance to those who believe an end to their lives is the only or best option.

“Horror, Sci Fi, Taboo and Suicide”