A Dead Girl Named Sue
Written By: Heather Anne Campbell
In 1968, during a sudden wave of dead bodies returning to life and devouring the flesh of the living, Evan Foster (Christian Gonzalez), Monroeville County's chief of police, is working his hardest to preserve law and order in spite of the catastrophe. Stepping outside the station, he meets several local townspeople armed with weapons, who explain that they are headed out to find Cliven Ridgeway (Josh Mikel), an unrepentant psychopath who has wronged the townsfolk in numerous horrific ways, and has always escaped the consequences of his actions thanks to his crooked father Mayor Ridgeway. They explain that they are using the undead invasion and the idea that society has collapsed in an effort to finally lynch him, claiming that no one will know what happened to him in the midst of the chaos. While Foster understands the mob's anger, he proclaims that the citizens should just wait until the National Guard arrives. The townsfolk claim that the military won't reach the area until Tuesday at the earliest, and they invite Foster to join them, claiming that no matter how many times he throws Cliven in jail, it will never truly stick as long as his father runs the town. Foster reiterates that Monroeville County is not a town that practices vigilante justice and sends the mob home, telling them that if they do anything, the law will come down on them. As the townsfolk drive away, one of them passive-aggressively calls Foster out for always taking the high road, reminding him that "there ain't no law no more."
Foster drives off in his squad car to search for Cliven, hoping to save him from the lynch mob and have him face his crimes justly. Foster then gets a broadcast on his radio from one of his deputies, who tells him that Cliven's car was found outside the nearby abandoned wire factory. Foster makes his way to the factory and opens the door, just in time to hear the sounds of a gunshot and a thud. Foster arms himself and makes his way through the empty building, where he discovers the corpse of local resident Edda Winterson, bite marks on her neck and arm and a bullet hole in the back of her head. He orders whoever is inside to come out with their hands up, at which point he finally finds Cliven. Foster asks Cliven to explain the corpse, prompting the criminally insane man to claim that he thought Edda was a crazed squatter coming at him, or one of those walking corpses on the news, claiming that it's "open season" on them. Foster reiterates that the supposed "open season" is in the cities, and states that this isn't the way his town does things. Cliven rebuts that the town belongs to his father, calling Foster a lowly "guard dog" in the process. While he is sorely tempted to let the mob have its way with Cliven, Foster orders him to put down his rifle and put his hands on the wall. Before Foster can cuff Cliven, he suddenly drags him into a corner of the room as a parade of reanimated ghouls walk past the window. While they wait for the corpses to pass, Foster suddenly notices a bloody chain with a collar attached to it, a bloody makeshift bed in the corner, and a blue hairband on the floor, which he recognizes as a belonging of Sue Donovan, the young daughter of Joe Donovan (Bryan Bendle), one of the members of the mob. Putting together what's happened and growing incensed, Foster forcefully puts Cliven under arrest.
While driving Cliven to the station, Foster radios one of his fellow officers to mention that Cliven has been apprehended and is being brought to the station, asking them to bring the rest of the townsfolk over. Cliven calls Foster out for calling in the very people he was supposed to be protecting him from, and vows that one of two things will happen: either the courts will reopen and the judge will hand him a "get out of jail free card", or the courts will never open again and Foster will be forced to let him go free. Either way, Cliven righteously boasts that he will never be put in jail. When he gets back to the station, Foster greets some of the townsfolk and asks them if they can go and "pick up Sue", to which they enthusiastically agree. Foster drags Cliven inside the station and brings him to a cell in the basement. Once he's locked up, Cliven boasts that he had nothing to do with Sue Donovan, even having eyewitnesses to back him up. In response to Cliven's claims that there is no evidence to his crime, Foster mentions that such is the case because Mayor Ridgeway had bribed the forensic scientist at the station with an all-expense paid European vacation. With that, Foster gives Cliven a piece of his own advice by mentioning that the judge will come for him in the morning, and leaves him in the cell.
Sometime later, Foster leads the assembled citizens of Monroeville County down to the station's basement, where they greet Cliven with cold stares. Cliven assumes that Foster has assembled them all here to watch as he gets a bullet between the eyes, but Foster claims that that isn't his intention. Nonetheless, Cliven remains defiant of the people whose farms he's burned, whose stores he's robbed, the women he raped, and the people he's killed, refusing to answer for his many crimes. Just then, noises and voices can be heard upstairs. Foster ominously explains that because Mayor Ridgeway sent the town's only forensic scientist to Europe, Sue Donovan's body was moved to the neighboring Somerset County for the autopsy. Normally, the corpse would've had its brain removed and placed in a jar, but because the neighboring county has been so backed up on cases, they didn't even touch the corpse. Three men then bring a squirming burlap sack down the basement stairs, the sack's contents emitting unearthly shrieking as they do so. The sack is put inside Cliven's cell, and out of it crawls the reanimated corpse of Sue Donovan. While watching the scene, Foster is asked what exactly changed his mind about the idea of mob rule. Foster admits that he was scared when the dead began rising from the grave, thinking that it was the End Times, but he ultimately reveals that the discovery of Sue's missing hairband (which he shows them) changed his mind, and convinced him that there are indeed much worse things in this world than the dead.
The undead Sue locks eyes on her killer, where she reminisces about how he kidnapped her, locked her in the factory, and proceeded to rape, torture, and kill her. Becoming enraged and ignoring Cliven's desperate pleas, Sue takes a chunk out of his leg, guaranteeing that he eventually reanimates, then finally kills the psychopath by tearing his throat out. After the deed is done, Foster leads the lynch mob to find Mayor Ridgeway, preferably to give him the same treatment. As they exit the police station, they pass a TV set displaying an interview with another police chief, McClelland, who claims that the "things" roaming the country are slow-moving and therefore "all messed up."
This episode contain examples of:
- Abandoned Warehouse: Cliven's been hiding out in an abandoned wire factory. One of Foster's officers reveals this to him because they found his car parked outside it.
- Actor Allusion: Josh Mikel, who plays the psychopathic Cliven Ridgeway, also plays Jared from The Walking Dead, which also deals with a zombie outbreak.
- Adaptational Heroism: In the short story the episode is based on, Foster isn't shown to have any conflict about vigilante justice, having asked the townsfolk to bring Sue to the station before he even caught Cliven. Here, while he eventually gives in, he first tries to calm the mob and bring Cliven in by the book.
- And the Adventure Continues: In the end, after Cliven is killed by the undead Sue, Foster leads the townsfolk into hunting down Mayor Ridgeway, intending to give him the same treatment.
- Apocalypse Anarchy: Monroeville County's citizens have assembled themselves into a lynch mob when the law breaks down, hoping to use the chaos of the walking dead to kill Cliven themselves and mask the truth about his death.
- Asshole Victim: Cliven, one of the biggest in the series so far.
- Became Their Own Antithesis: At first, Foster is presented as a firm supporter of the law, dispersing the lynch mob that is looking to kill Cliven for his many crimes as he wants Cliven to answer for them justly. It's even stated in the beginning that he's locked Cliven up by the book multiple times, even though his father is always quick to bail him out. When he discovers Sue's hairband and learns of the unspeakable things Cliven did to her, he quickly changes his stance and joins the lynch mob. Several characters comment on his sudden change in opinion, with the townsfolk being glad that he has finally seen things their way, and Cliven rebuking him for joining the very people he was allegedly supposed to protect him from.
- Being Good Sucks: The people of Monroeville County organize themselves into a lynch mob to find Cliven and kill him, and offer Foster a place in their ranks. When he refuses, the townsfolk passive-aggressively call him out for always being so honest and upstanding, citing that he's locked Cliven up multiple times, but his habit of always taking the high road when his father bails him out means that it's never permanent. When Foster discovers what Cliven had done to poor Sue, he finally realizes that the mob was right and has the undead girl sicced on the bastard.
- Beyond Redemption. Cliven, in spades. Foster has tried numerous times to bring him to justice and hopefully have him repent his many, many sins, but Cliven keeps shrugging him off and vows that he's never going to be thrown in jail.
- Bittersweet Ending: Cliven finally answers for his crimes by being murdered by the zombified little girl he tortured, but Foster's faith in the law is utterly destroyed when he learns what Cliven had done to Sue. Of course, Foster himself doesn't really mind, nor do the townsfolk.
- Bookends: This episode counts as this for season 3 of the series. Just like season premiere Mums, it focuses on a person (or group of people in this case) utilizing the reanimated corpse of a loved one to exact vengeance on their killer. The key difference is that the reanimated corpse is that of the child instead of the other way around.
- Break the Haughty: After spending the whole episode preaching with manic devotion that he'll never stop committing crimes or be thrown in jail, Sue's corpse instantly turns Cliven into a sniveling wreck pleading for release.
- By-the-Book Cop: Foster has spent a good chunk of his life and the first half of the episode as a moral and upstanding officer. When he finds out what Cliven did to poor Sue, he instantly rebukes his ethics and joins the lynch mob he previously threatened to arrest if they tried anything.
- Call-Back:
- This is the second episode in the series to put heavy emphasis on Night of the Living Dead (1968), after the previous season finale, Night of the Living Late Show.
- This is also the third episode of the series set in a post-apocalyptic world, after Times is Tough in Musky Holler and Meter Reader.
- The town where the episode takes place, Monroeville County, is the same town where Fiorina Federal Prison from Okay, I'll Bite is located. Just like that episode, the main characters of this story are a police officer and an incarcerated felon.
- The Cameo: Chief McClelland, from the original film, can be seen on the police station's TV set at the end of the episode, giving the famous interview where he cites that the dead are "all messed up".
- Card-Carrying Villain: Cliven relishes his life as a psychotic criminal, devoutly preaching that his father being mayor makes him untouchable.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Judging by the unearthly way she crawls, it's highly likely that Sue's legs were either broken or paralyzed by Cliven when he tormented her.
- Contemplating Your Hands: Sue's flashbacks to her final moments have her focusing largely on her hands.
- Corrupt Politician: Mayor Ridgeway, who helps his son escape justice by various acts of bribery, even though his son is clearly a psychopath.
- Covers Always Lie: On the episode's cover, Foster smiles in satisfaction as Sue approaches the terrified Cliven. In the episode itself, he watches the act with a blank stare, showing no emotion to the scene.
- Date Rape: Cliven was once a prom date for one of the townsfolks' sisters, and he is very heavily implied to have raped her during the event.
- Death by Irony: As his punishment, Cliven is brutally murdered by the zombified little girl he did unspeakable things to.
- Death Glare: Foster keeps one for the whole drive back to the station, never changing it even as Cliven rants at him from the backseat.
- Decoy Protagonist: The story's title hints that Sue herself may be the protagonist. The true main character is Chief Foster, who tries to hunt down Cliven and have him repent for his crimes. Sue herself only turns up in the end, where she uses her few minutes of screentime she has to murder her killer.
- Defiant to the End: Cliven remains gung-ho about never being thrown in jail, and his response to the townsfolk looking to have him answer for his many crimes is a simple "Fuck you", proving himself to be utterly irredeemable. When he is presented with Sue's corpse, he quickly becomes a blubbering wreck.
- Deliberately Monochrome: In the spirit of the original film, the entirety of this episode is in black and white. The only exceptions are Sue's ring and her hairbands.
- Died on Their Birthday: If the cupcake Cliven holds during her flashbacks is any indication, Sue met her horrific death at his hands on her birthday.
- Dirty Coward: In spite of being so defiant to the townsfolk he's undeniably wronged, Cliven desperately begs to be let out when confronted with the reanimated corpse of Sue.
- Everyone Has Standards: Despite the numerous times he's arrested Cliven, Foster, being the devoted lawman he is, has always been forced to release him when his father comes calling. When he learns what he did to poor Sue, Foster immediately rejects all of his morals and joins the lynch mob he had rebuked earlier, feeding Cliven to the undead corpse of the girl in question.
- Expy:
- Sue is one of Karen (Sarah in the 1990 remake), the injured/zombified little girl from the original film. Tragically, the latter can consider herself lucky that getting bitten and reanimating is the only thing that happens to her.
- With his despicable acts towards the townsfolk and his manic demeanor, Cliven can easily be considered an ersatz of Wild Bill.
- Formula-Breaking Episode: This is the first episode of the series to be set entirely in the universe of a pre-existing work of film.
- Greater-Scope Villain: While the zombies are still a notably active threat, the main example is Mayor Ridgeway, who has repeatedly helped his psychopathic son escape justice thanks to his mayoral power.
- Hated by All: Everyone in Monroeville County detests Cliven, as they know full well what he's done to their homes, businesses, and loved ones, but they can't lay a finger on him as long as his equally hated father runs the town. They finally get Cliven to be killed when Foster joins them.
- Hate Sink: Cliven Ridgeway. This man is, without question, one of the most despicable antagonists of the series to date. He's an unrepentant, criminally-insane psychopath who has vandalized buildings, burned down farms, robbed stores, raped women, and killed the townsfolk's children. He's always gotten out of legal trouble thanks to his equally crooked mayor father pulling strings left and right, and he's perpetually stuck in a state of maniacal glee that being the mayor's son basically makes him untouchable. So heinous are his crimes, in fact, that when the moral and upstanding Chief Foster discovers what he had done to Sue, he instantly rebukes his code of ethics and joins the lynch mob looking to kill him that he previously shrugged off. By the end of the episode, you can't help but cheer and applaud when the sick bastard gets his just desserts at the undead hands of his most infamous victim.
- Hero of Another Story: While Ben, Barbara, and the others are holed up in that farmhouse, doing their best to stay alive during the outbreak, Chief Foster does all he can to find Cliven and assure that he answers for his crimes justly. Of course, when he discovers what Cliven did to Sue, he has other ideas in mind.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: While there are animate corpses roaming the countryside and devouring the flesh of the living, Cliven and his dad are the true monsters of the episode.
- Inelegant Blubbering: Joe Donovan, Sue's father, spends the whole episode wallowing in misery after what Cliven did to his little girl.
- Insane Equals Violent: Cliven is very noticeably criminally-insane, and the fact makes itself known through his mile long rap sheet of arson, rape, and murder.
- Interquel: In a first for the series, this episode is one, as it takes place during the events of Night of the Living Dead (1968).
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Under his father's power, Cliven has gotten away with all sorts of nightmarish offenses for years. Thanks to Foster, the lynch mob, the zombie outbreak, and his father's little slip-up with the forensic scientist, he is finally killed in full view of the townsfolk he wronged by the reanimated corpse of a certain little girl he did unspeakable things to. If that isn't enough, Foster declares that Mayor Ridgeway himself is next on his and the mob's hi tlist.
- Killing in Self-Defense: Cliven frames his killing of Edda Winterson this way, claiming her to be either a crazy squatter or one of the "things" the news has been going on about.
- Large Ham: Being the psycho he is, Cliven pours on the ham whenever he appears, including his penchant for spitting at things that disgust him.
- Last-Second Chance: Just before Sue's corpse is brought in to kill him, Cliven is given a last chance by Foster and the townsfolk to atone for his myriad of crimes. He plainly tells them "Fuck you.", cementing his fate.
- Lower-Deck Episode: This episode is set during Night of the Living Dead (1968), but it focuses on a completely different group of people in a different town... who were living under a monster's reign of terror long before the outbreak.
- Mayor Pain: Cliven's father Mayor Ridgeway, who helped his son escape justice time and time again thanks to bribery and corruption. When Cliven finally dies, Foster leads the mob into looking for him, deciding that he is next on their hit list.
- Mythology Gag:
- The news reports from the original film can be heard on Foster's radio and glimpsed on the station's TV set.
- As mentioned above, Cliven's attitude and crimes make him (and perhaps his father) a possible descendant of Wild Bill.
- The "Father's Day" ashtray can be seen on Foster's desk in the opening scene, and for once, it's actually holding a cigarette.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: As part of his efforts to keep his son out of jail, Mayor Ridgeway bribed the Monroeville County police station's resident forensic scientist with a European vacation. Because of this, Sue's body needed to be moved to the neighboring county of Somerset for her autopsy, where her corpse was barely touched as they're backed up on cases. As such, she had reanimated, and was collected by the townsfolk so they could watch as she killed her murderer in front of them.
- Not Using the "Z" Word: Much like the original film, the characters never refer to the zombies by name, only calling them "those things".
- Out of Focus: The zombies that made the original film so infamous are hardly seen in the episode itself. A group of them are seen silhouetted in a window in the abandoned factory, and Sue does become one herself, but that's pretty much it. The actual episode focuses on a police chief who tries to capture a notorious criminal during the crisis.
- Pædo Hunt: Cliven is heavily implied to have violated Sue, a little girl, when kidnapped her and locked her in his factory hideout.
- P.O.V. Cam: Sue's flashbacks about how Cliven kidnapped and killed her are seen entirely from her point of view.
- Pyromaniac: Cliven has a penchant for burning things to the ground, having done so to the silo of the brother of Carl, one of the townsfolk.
- Rage Breaking Point: Foster discovers the chain Cliven kept Sue captive with, and one of her hair bands next to a bloody makeshift bed. When he puts two and two together, his faith in the law is shattered in a single moment, and he joins the lynch mob he had previously turned away.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Foster starts off as one, attempting to disperse the lynch mob looking to kill Cliven and hoping to bring the sicko himself to the station not just to arrest him, but to protect him from their vigilantism. Once he discovers what Cliven had done to Sue, he quickly joins the mob he previously rebuked and sics Sue's zombified corpse on him.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Cliven has always been free to rape and kill as he's pleased thanks to his corrupt father and his mayoral power, and he attempts to use what is said to be the apocalypse as an excuse to keep committing crimes. He soon meets his end after he is arrested for the final time.
- Shout-Out:
- The episode's title is a reference to Shel Silverstein's song "A Boy Named Sue", which was famously covered by various musicians like Johnny Cash.
- Sue's hair bands and ring providing the only drops of color in the entire episode is a reference to the Girl in the Red Coat from Schindler's List.
- Simultaneous Arcs: The episode is shown to take place during Night of the Living Dead (1968). The ending, where the TV set in the police station displays Chief McClelland's interview, reveals that the episode's events occur sometime halfway through the film.
- Sinister Silhouettes: A parade of zombies produce this effect as they shamble past a papered-up window in the abandoned factory, forcing Cliven and Foster to huddle in a corner to avoid being spotted.
- Spiteful Spit: Cliven spits quite frequently to people who piss him off.
- Splash of Color: The blue of Sue's hairbands and red of her heart-shaped ring provide the only drops of color in the entire episode.
- Spoof Aesop: Sometimes, the law isn't enough to deliver justice, so a little something extra may need to be called for.
- Also, as Foster learns firsthand, a man can only travel so far on the high road.
- Undead Child: Sue became a zombie when her corpse was sent to a neighboring county for the autopsy. Since this county's hospital was completely backed up, she was barely touched. The townsfolk manage to retrieve her and lock her in with Cliven, who she kills by tearing his throat out.
- Vengeance Feels Empty: Foster and the townsfolk show no emotion towards Cliven's death, even after years of putting up with his atrocities. When it's over, they go out and hunt down Mayor Ridgeway without a second thought. Foster himself puts it best:Foster: You know, if this is the End Times... maybe we deserve it.
- Vigilante Militia: The townsfolk assemble themselves into a lynch mob as they hunt for Cliven, hoping to use the zombie apocalypse, the collapse of the law, and the resultant chaos as an excuse to kill him.
- Villains Want Mercy: When confronted with the reanimated Sue, Cliven actually breaks his tough-guy persona and begs the townspeople to let him out. They just stay put and let Sue avenge herself.
- Whole-Plot Reference: From the deliberate B/W to the Romero-esque soundtrack, every single aspect of this episode is a loving homage to Night of the Living Dead (1968). It's actually astonishingly appropriate, given the fact that the episode literally takes place during the events of the movie.
- Would Hurt a Child: Poor Sue gets put through the wringer, being abducted, raped, tortured, and killed by a twisted psychopath. Thankfully, she gets her revenge when she's reanimated.
- Would Harm a Senior: The last person Cliven kills before Foster finds him in his factory hideout is Edda Winterson, a local old lady.
- Zombie Apocalypse: The episode is set during Night of the Living Dead (1968), making it take place during the very first zombie apocalypse.
