Yes, if they start suspending the laws of nature in an attempt to inject spirituality into the show, then it becomes Harry Potter with zombies. And basically, no tight spot is worth worrying about if a 'divine wind' can get them out of it.

 

I can buy Ty's hallucinations; he was dying from blood loss and the zombie pathogen was raging through his system. But the miracles; I'll give those a miss thanks.

 

Another thing that made the scene seem like a dream was the way that the doors kept on moving slowly into the barn no matter how many people were pushing on them from the inside. Obviously, the laws of physics dictate that the herd outside kept on growing as well. Still seemed like a dream sequence.

 

We would have seen them tipping over onto their crowns -- cut to a different angle! -- then landing right-side up, on their roots.

 

One interpretation that I've been thinking about: "God helps those who help themselves." Once all of our heroes decided to choose life and help each other, some sort of divine intervention happened and the tornado saved them.

Or, the tornado was going to happen that way no matter what, through a natural coincidence that was fated to happen: Things happen "the way it was always going to...the way it had to" (Tyreese), or "Everything works out the way it's supposed to" (Mika). So our heroes had to work together to hold on and keep those barn doors closed long enough to get to that point and not give up first.

Either way, I thought the barn door scene was explicitly showing that the group must stick together to survive and that the only thing they have to live for at the moment is each other, but that's enough.

 

That's a great thought. Glenn said it earlier in the episode to Daryl too that they need each other to survive. Maybe this was that sentiment coming to fruition.

 

Add me to the list of people confused by whether or not that was a dream sequence. I definitely thought it was when they decided to follow it by the shot of Maggie waking up, but realized it wasn't when they went outside and saw their decimated surroundings. I don't love the idea of a tornado conveniently passing right by (but sparing the barn) just when they needed a solution to their walker herd - talk about divine intervention. Combined with the dogs showing up when they needed food and the rain falling when they needed water, this was definitely an episode full of faith and/or destiny symbolism.

 

A dream? No one would/could/should sleep through that. I say could.

 

I admit I thought Maggie had dreamt the whole thing , everyone seemed to wake up the next morning in the positions they were in before the Walker attack , and the fact that it wasn't shown how they escaped their predicament . I'm still confused by the whole thing I get now that there was a lot of symbolism but it was way too subtle for me .

 

either it was Glenn's massive shit/fart or the black smoke

 

So flesh eating zombies, totally logically sound. Many mortal wounds healing with no medical treatment - we're good.

Hospital van flip and crash and no injuries - perfectly believable...

But a herd of walkers at a barn door in a tornado, totally ridiculous. MKAY.

 

It was my guess that the barn doors slamming back and forth drew their attention?

 

Maybe geography teacher guy (Aaron) dispensed of them all but made it look like it was the storm. Mind you he looked too clean and neat the next morning to have spent all night fighting zombies... Just a theory

I really hope they steer clear of divine magic in this show - the main appeal for me so far has been the stark realism of living in that environment but as per Maggies conversation with Gabriel at the start of the show, the theme did seem to be about belief.

 

Dorothy and Toto buggered off with it.

 

That is exactly what I took it as. One could see it as a literal Act of God or a lucky coincidence act of God. Same with the rain coming in the first place when they were all about at their end. Either way, it is something that would lift them up and was part of the 'coming out the other side' from their lowest point.

Personally, I thought it was a poor edit/cut/commercial but I didn't need to see walkers flying through the air and getting crushed by trees to figure out what happened when they went outside the next morning.

 

And the the dog meat being delivered to their front door when they were starving.

 

I live in rural Ohio and old barns/outbuildings in the middle of seemingly nowhere are pretty common. I had a friend whose family lived in town but had farm acreage with a barn only. Sometimes land is passed down and people build new homes on a different section, leaving old houses/outbuildings abandoned. If you farm large parcels, it's also convenient to have different storage structures for storing equipment, etc...scattered around the property. I didn't even bat an eye about the barn, it's so typical where I'm from, but I guess if you're not accustomed to rural areas, it would seem strange.

 

This was my take on it too. The only way to "weather the storm" is together. I know initially they were pushing back against the walkers, but wonder at what point is was the winds that knocked the walkers down that they were battling.They thought it was walkers pushing in but at some point it became walkers being decimated, they just couldn't see it until they came through it. I know a lot of people didn't like the cut to commercial with a return to Maggie waking, but I think this was to contrast the violence of the storm with the peace and promise of a new day. Hope in the belief that if they stick together, they can weather the storm.

 

You Americans have way too much room! Haha

 

This is a very good thread with some great insights. I've also thought about Team Rick letting killing the walkers thru the door or opening the door and dealing with them. But I think that the storm was getting worse and at some point, I don't believe they were just pushing against the walkers but the wind itself. Opening the doors could have been disastrous.

We had a very bad storm here a couple of years ago that produced some "micro bursts". The winds from this devastated specific small areas and homes and killed 20 people. There was no warning and it looked like just another big storm. I remember someone literally had a door ripped from his hand as he was trying to keep it closed. The pictures from that look an awful lot like the aftermath outside the barn.