I wouldn't have picked him up. They had a lot on their plate already and couldn't risk taking him in. If things were less crazy then yes, take him back and leave him in the cells until they've assessed his risk to the group. But they had a job to do and they couldn't take a risk at that time. We don't know how long he's been alone, he could have gone crazy in that time and his mind could have just broken.

So yep...bye bye backpack guy.

 

given the hitchhikers desperation and persistence.. I would have given the guy a chance.

Rick + Co. need all the help they can get against the Governor and the hitchhiker was as good as dead anyway, it would have been worth giving him a fighting chance at least.

 

Again, it's amazing how far the group has moved beyond words. Their winter on the road really turned them into a team that needed no language - they've been talking more since the prison, but Michonne's addition didn't up the word ante much. But Rick and Michonne were able to make the decision to leave the hitch hiker without a word spoken.

Leaving the hitch hiker was the only sane decision.

The most innocent explanation is that he was someone who planned or lucked his way into a shelter with a year's supply of food. A year is pretty standard for survivalist shelters. So, like the people in Tyreese's group, he's been forced out of shelter for lack of food - very recently by the look of him. So he wouldn't even offer the level of basic ZA survival that Tyreese, etc. brought.
If he's that kind of survivor, he has no ZA skills - he's just a normal, civilized guy who has spent a year alone eating rations and going to the bathroom in a bucket. Thus he has nothing to offer the group but the location of his (food-free) hidey-hole and unskilled labor. Thus, he's not worth stopping their survival-critical mission for.

The most likely explanation (from Rick's POV) is that he's a spy or assassin for Woodbury. They could have spent a bullet on him in that case, but they are supposed to be conserving ammo (they spent freely shooting at Morgan, though).

I'd say (from his body language) that Rick thought that the hitch hiker was probably a lone survivor, nothing to offer except himself, possibly a danger to the group. He'd been softened up some by his encounter with Morgan, so I agree with those who thought that if the guy had managed to stay alive long enough, they might have talked to him on the way back. But you can tell that the guy got himself eaten not long after Michonne drove by.

I'll be very curious to see what's in the pack, but I think it's unlikely it will come up again.

 

No, it's just another mouth to feed

 

Well Ricks way worked. I would let him die, knowing that it wouldn't be my fault.

 

Pick up as in sexually? Hard to say; maybe if i was paid upfront.

 

No. But I would kill him to save him from getting eat. And than, like Rick did, grab his stuff.

 

No lol I dnt even pick ppl uo now

 

So he can slash my throat and steal mah shit? no thank you.

 

Exactly! Nope. Not happening.

 

I wouldn't pick up the hitchhiker. Never know, what they can do to you. If, my group did picked up hitchhiker. Be very cautious about it. Like talk to him. What's going on. Give him food and stuff. But, if the hitchhiker acting weird. We run, go back to our home base.

 

Normally I'd say as long as a person doesn't seem like a threat, question them, and if everything checks out bring them back to hq for a full interview. So I may very well have picked him up the first time they passed him. But later on when he was screaming and running at the car... Yeah, hell no. This dudes fakken crazy.

keep in mind, had they picked him up, Morgan most definitely would've killed him. Lol. Redshirt likelihood: 100%.

 

I totally agree. Had the writers decided to have Rick pick up the backpacker; it would have been for the sole purpose of giving Morgan someone to kill once they reached Cynthiana. Basically as a method of showing the primal change that's happened in Morgan since we last saw him, and to show he's attained a ruthlessness much the same as Rick.


That being said; I don't even pick up hitchhikers in the real, non-apocalyptic world. Why in God's name would I pick up some frantic, erratic, screaming lunatic who's backpacking around the damn dead-lands? I would have done exactly what Rick did, I would have rolled right on by him, but I would have had the gumption to look the man in the face as I passed him by. At least giving him the courtesy of a look that said--"I'm not doing this out of fear, or shame, or incapability; I'm leaving you because this is how we survive now, by being selfish and ruthless. The faster you learn that, and stop expecting charity from strangers, the better off you'll be."

Aside from that, the only thing I would have done differently, and I'm sure I'll get a little criticism for this(considered wasteful and stupid), but on the return trip, when I discovered the backpackers mutilated body on the road shoulder with his backpack still in tow, I would have kept on driving. But that's just me, I've always had this superstition about not taking things from the dead. It's bad medicine.

 

Well, technically, anything you find in the ZA, you are taking from the dead. lol. My rule for the ZA is, I would ONLY take things from people I'm sure won't miss it. Lol. I didn't even steal from the stranger in the game. I did steal from Arvo the first time-- but that's because I could tell he was an asshole, and was lying.

 

LOL, I totally stole from the stranger. But,in my defense, in real life, I would have searched from the man first, attempted to find him and join forces. The car doors were open, and the dome light still on(which means a fully charged battery), so he couldn't have been far. But of course, we weren't given that option in the game. That always irked me a little, because life isn't so black and white as--"To steal, or not to steal".

Also, I too stole from Arvo, for the exact same reasons. Some people don't deserve grace, or mercy.