No, they won't go an immunity/patient zero route. The creators already hinted that the reason for his mental instability was a 'loss of celebrity', and its seems FTWD has hinted he may have been a country singer.

 

The country singer angle could turn out to be a red herring and he may be famous for a more bizarre reason, which could make it more interesting, but its very unlikely they would relate him to the outbreak. The creators have stated repeatedly that they don't want to explore that, and Kirkman was not happy that Darabont explored it even as much as he did in TS-19. They want the surroundings of the outbreak to remain a blank, which I actually hope they stick to. Revealing details about it would be like showing the contents of the glowing briefcase in Pulp Fiction. People still talk about it, cause it was never revealed. If they had shown was it in it, then it would just be like "oh...it was diamonds...ok..."

Revealing the cause or details of the outbreak would have the same effect on the magic of TWD.

 

Absolutely. If there was a time to reveal that, it was pretty much in that episode. I thought the few references to singing and to songs he made were pointing that way...

 

Oh, I didn't know his comic book backstory. For me, that explains why he he was humming a Patsy Cline song. I didn't know he was humming anything in particular, but it came right through when Alpha was humming it.

 

I like that they did not reveal his face.

I like that, just as the whisperers have not seen his face, nor have I

I like that the only person who knows who he is, what he looks like is Alpha. Its adds another layer to their bond with one another. Beta trusts Alpha with his secrets just as Alpha trusts Beta with hers.

Showing his face would have been the safe easy predictable road to take. Not showing us still keeps the mystery, the unknown in tact. Is it just that she recognized his celebrity or has he become disfigured in some way? I like not knowing.

 

To answer the initial post in this thread - NO, not a patient zero.
I don't think there ever would have been a patient zero in the ZA. My thoughts are that the water system was contaminated with something or something in the air that people were breathing in. It was spreading too fast for it to be person to person. IMO