Yes, it explains one thing, but it confuses a lot of other things.
(1) If everyone already has the virus, and it just "actives" when people die, why is getting bit by a zombie a big deal? Why did Jim "turn" in season 1 when he got bit? It was only a flesh wound. The bite, by itself, should not have been fatal. If Jim was already a carrier, why did the bite matter at all?
(2) If Jenner at the CDC told Rick that everyone was always a carrier, why didn't Rick stab Shane in the head after he killed him, "just to make sure?" And if he was really testing Jenner's theory--as he later implied to the group--why did he allow himself to get surprised by zombie shane after his idiot boy, Carl, showed up in the field? Wouldn't he have been keeping one eye on Shane throughout that confrontation with his boy?
(3) Finally, if everyone is a carrier, why did we see so many dead non-zombies earlier in the show, like in their cars on the road, for instance?
I like the show--boring Season 2 aside--but I'm a little irked at what appears to be wholesale rule changes mid-stream. I'm aware that this particular rule change is consistent with the comics, but for some reason, I wasn't bothered by it when I read the comics. I am now.
Because Rick thought Jenner was nuts (He did blow up the CDC)
All good points.
The last show: The big suburban ran out of gas but the little car had gas. They should have siphoned the gas from the little car into the Suburban.
1 - it’s generally part of the mythology that zombie bites are all around extra nasty and toxic, putting all kinds of definitely fatal nasty in your blood stream unless extreme measures (amputation) are taken very quickly. The scenario they’ve developed for WD-TV seems to follow the “classic” Romero path: all zombie bites are fatal, all dead people turn to zombies.
2 - Rick didn’t want to believe him. And remember they were best friends. It was hard enough to kill his friend, you then want him to mutilate the body just in case the crazy doctor was right. Remember season one with Andrea and her sister, her sister got killed by a zombie bite but Andrea still waited for re-animation to start, knowing what’s coming but hoping. As for Rick’s surprise, Carl surprised him and distracted him, it looked like he was watching for signs then came Carl and now he’s got to explain to his kid why his “uncle” and family best friend is dead, all this at the end of a long day that involved a hike through the woods.
3 - we’ve seen at least a few of those car dead stir when “inspired” by seeing or hearing people. Being in cars in Atlanta in summer a lot probably just rotted to goo, others might have gotten a head hit we didn’t notice.
It’s not rule changes. We’re working with very incomplete information. The characters have no clue and are just piecing things together non-scientifically. They got new info, largely because there haven’t been any non-zombie caused deaths until very recently, and really Shane’s was the first one they got to observe all the way through.