Tales of the Walking Dead – Blair/Gina

By: Kelly Kearney

Tales of the Walking Dead goes back in time to 2010 – the start of the apocalypse in Atlanta! No, this is not a reboot of the Rick and Shane drama from the original show, this is the story of Blair and Gina and it’s not a reboot but a repeat. In the zombie universe’s first comedy/ horror mash-up, two work-nemesis find themselves trapped in a deadly time loop and forced to work together to break the cycle and escape the locked-down city before it’s too late. “Blair/Gina,” gives us a taste of what it was like when the world ended and leaves us with the question: who do you want to be in the new beginning? 

ATLANTA, 2010

We begin at the aptly named insurance firm “Circle of Trust” where we meet the two main characters of the episode: Blair (Parker Posey), the verbally abusive boss, and her meek and bullied office receptionist Gina (Jillian Bell). Blair is a familiar foe for anyone who has ever had the misfortune of working under the boss from Hell. She spends the first few minutes of the opener selfishly tossing out expectations she, herself, would never be willing to tackle. She’s a complainer, bossy and downright mean to Gina, who spends the first few minutes holding her tongue and channeling her energy into a secret hit-piece she’s writing about her nagging boss. These two women are oil and water; even their fashion choices do not mix. Dressed in a work casual tee and turtleneck combo Gina looks approachable while Blair is decked out in what can only be described as astroturf with an attitude. As the entire staff at CoT listens to Blair’s exhausting rants about missing coffee cups and unlocked back doors, it’s no surprise her verbal cruelty is met with silence from everyone, not just Gina. She’s a bully–at best, and a menacing elitist who couldn’t care less about her employees at worst. After dragging Gina about her quiet demeanor, Blair tries and fails to quell her employee’s fears about the chaos unfolding in Atlanta. Reports of people attacking each other dominate the news but all Blair can think about is dollar signs. This fear-mongering, as she calls it, can only be good for business. Hoping their photos land on the employee of the month wall means nobody in the office questions her blindly delusional response to these bizarre attacks across the city. In fact, they’re so used to her demands–even in the face of what’s looking very apocalyptic, they don’t even question why she and her fiance, Brian (Matt Medrano), are hightailing it out of town in an over-packed car. Before she leaves for her extended “vacation,” Blair orders the staff to stay at the office until 6 p.m. and reminds Gina to make sure she locks up when they leave. 

On their way out of town, Brian and Blair find themselves stuck in a long line of traffic trying to gas up for their road trip. Lucky for them a gas tanker pulls up– and right behind him, a desperate-looking Gina. It looks like it’s time for Blair to fire her tongue-tied office fail! She’s practically foaming at the mouth with excitement when she storms out of Brian’s car and starts screaming questions at Gina about what she thinks she’s doing away from her desk. Apparently not much because all she wanted was a snack and the shelves inside the station are empty. She stumbles over an explanation about skipping lunch and needing a snack, and since the vending machines at work still haven’t been fixed after weeks of reminders, she was making a quick stop before her shift ended.  Blair isn’t buying her excuses and takes pleasure in firing her right on the spot. Ticked off at the nerve of this woman, Gina reaches past the barking Blair and pulls out a shotgun from her trunk, and pushes her aside as she takes off towards the driver of the tanker (Keith Adams). This trip was never about snacks and all about finding a way out of Atlanta before it’s too late! With the barrel of the gun pointed at the man she orders him to hand over the keys. Nearby we see another man named Leo (Amer Baraka), claiming to be from Homeland Security, who gets out of his car and pulls a gun on Gina – ordering her to drop her weapon and move away from the truck. Blair, thinking she can fill him in about her ex-employee, runs over to the agent and immediately notices two things: first is Leo’s young son, Wendell (William J, Simmons) sitting in the back seat, and the second is a festering bite wound on the agent’s wrist he’s attempting to cover up with his jacket. Before she has time to process what that all means everyone hears a woman (Sarah Graham) screaming outside of the gas station. They watch on in horror as the woman’s husband (Robert Tinsley) devours her face with his very undead teeth! The attack stuns Gina long enough for the agent to go for her gun and in the struggle she accidentally pulls the trigger, hitting the tanker and causing a massive explosion. Nothing could survive that fireball– even two arguing co-workers!

REPEAT

With smoke billowing out of her mouth we can assume time has reset itself because Blair is back at the office blowing hot air and useless orders in Gina’s face. What just happened? Didn’t they get blown to pieces in a gas tanker explosion? Apparently not, unless Hell is Blair–slightly singed and ranting about missing cups and open doors. It seems like a repeat from before but something is off and both women know it. The two start to realize they are the only ones reliving this nightmare when it is obvious that their other co-workers have no idea why they’re acting so strangely. This is a Groundhogs Day-style time loop of exploding tankers and bickering coworkers, with the only thing that ever changes is how they die. The two try every way to rewrite their fates but the urge to get out of the car and yell at Gina is as strong as Gina’s urge to get the gun and steal that tanker. Death after death the women exhaust themselves with ideas on how to stop dying and rewind time. Skipping the gas station entirely doesn’t work, inviting the dead to eat Blair’s neck doesn’t either; it’s a loop they can’t break free of and the eternity of it all starts to get to them. The process of figuring out how to avoid the inevitable and dying in increasingly more horrible ways somehow bonds these two enemies into frenemies. They won’t ever like each other, and that’s ok, through learning about each other they’ve learned about themselves. Respect is a two-way street and both have earned it. Blair comes to the realization that she’s been cruel towards Gina, and selfish in her relationship with Brian. She doesn’t love him and the feeling must be mutual because he never once stopped her from getting out of his car in the fifty-plus times she relived her death. She’s also learned that Gina is more than a mousey receptionist – she’s a ballsy risk taker and determined to find her way to her brother and two nieces living in Atlanta. Admittedly, they’re the only reason she stole the tanker in the first place. Nobody is going to shoot at a tanker carrying tons of gas, and with a bit of luck, she hopes to test that theory with any roadblocks she encounters between CoT and her brother’s front door. Not to mention the fact that if they are truly facing the end of the world, gas will be more valuable than money. Gina is nothing if not practical and Blair can respect that. Through talking and obsessing over the details of their deaths, the two decide the common denominator in this time loop is actual time itself. They’ve never lived past 5 p.m.; the explosion always takes them out beforehand. So, if they can somehow survive long enough to make it to 5, they might break the cycle and be free. 

A NEW CHAPTER

Working together to steal the gas tanker, the two are determined to win without letting anyone else die. They fail at the latter when the woman outside of the gas station still gets eaten by her husband and then the man turns on the agent’s young son and kills him, too. The horrors they witnessed stun them, but they still manage to take the truck without it exploding. On the road heading towards Atlanta, Gina tests her tanker theory when she drives it through a police barricade without either of them dying in a hail of bullets and fire! As they make their way into the city they stop on a bridge and look down to see the same gathering of cars trapped in traffic we know Rick Grimes’ crew was stuck in when Carol’s daughter went missing! If you found yourself desperately looking for a familiar face in the crowd, you are not alone; it was a fun call back to remind us that the worlds are linked. Below walkers are running amok and people are running and screaming for cover. After what they saw at the gas station, Blair and Gina want to help but all they have is a tanker full of gas. Hey, wait a minute…gas…explosion…Gina has an idea. Opening the valves in the gas lines she pours fuel all over the menacing dead below and lights them on fire with Blair’s flaming fur scarf. A fireball mushrooms into the sky and sparks the tanker to explode, only this time the women are far enough away from the blast that it just ruins their hair! It’s after 5 p.m.–the tanker is in pieces and Gina and Blair are still alive! With nothing but their feet to carry them and a new lease on life to inspire them, the two exhausted but elated women head towards one of the only two open roads into the city Blair learned about from the Homeland Security Agent. He told her the government was going to shut down Atlanta and anyone inside its borders would be trapped. They don’t have much time to get to Gina’s brother but they’ll find a way. The old world is gone and it took with it Blair’s selfishness and Gina’s silence, but in this new world, anything is possible…together.