Last night”s episode of The Walking Dead – “The Same Boat” – was an exploration of how the zombie apocalypse changes people. Carol and Maggie both had to make hard choices; choices that will scar them psychologically because they aren”t monsters…even if sometimes they have to act like one. Carol, in particular, saw a lot of herself in Paula (Alicia Witt). She didn”t necessarily like what she saw there.
WARNING: SPOILERS FOR THE WALKING DEAD BEYOND THIS POINT!
During the climatic battle for survival, Paula”s luck ran out. In what was one of the most visceral death in the series so far, not only was the red-headed Savior impaled on her own trap but audiences got to watch as her face was literally eaten off by a zombie. The weird thing? It was SUPPOSED to be even more gruesome.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Witt talked about her character”s life and a death. Including the gory death she didn”t quite get due to a pump malfunction.
[T]he bite on the face was supposed to be a pre-cursor to this amazing thing they rigged on my neck.
I was working with one of their most experienced walker-biters, and he was using his real teeth to rip off the latex. So he bites my face, and then he”s supposed to bite my neck, and the blood goes spurting everywhere, but it malfunctioned. It happens sometimes, I guess, but of course I couldn”t see it because I”m screaming and yelling, and I can”t see anything, and I”m just like, “Holy s-, this guy”s going to bite my neck now with his real teeth.” And I was drenched with blood. Like, I”m talking gallons of blood were in my pants, in my boots, in my shirt.
The death scene was filmed on the last day of shooting and, due to the nature of the special effect, could only be done once. Luckily the face eating came out wonderfully, even if Witt”s neck didn”t get mauled.
“The Walking Dead” airs Sundays on AMC at 9/8c.