Faced with the news of the complete collapse of society, the characters are faced with dismal fates based on their transgressions relating to their participating in the reality show Big Brother.
Most in line with the blunt zombie symbolism is Riq. Riq sees love beyond his initial safe house. He sees a viable future, even if it means leaving the safety of the farm house. It is also established that Riq doesn’t watch Big Brother. The zombie infection is a poison which the show defines as coming from the Big Brother TV show, and Riq is by all measures immune to it. Riq doesn’t have that ugliness inside of him that enjoys watching shows like Big Brother, which essentially makes him immune to the zombie plague. I know that comes off as kind of a leap, but Riq is the only person who doesn’t die at the hands of a zombie. Furthermore, when Joplin opens the gates they all run past Riq, not stopping to feed on him. Of all the characters, Riq is one of the few that never ends up turning.
I make a point to say that Riq is “one of the few” that doesn’t turn because Patrick also doesn’t turn. Perhaps it is because Patrick is just too dismembered (a lovely bit of narrative symmetry there) to be able to become a zombie, but more likely is that Patrick’s disdain for his own program kept him from turning. Patrick’s production created the outbreak (on a figurative level, of course) yet he shows nothing but disdain for the cast and crew. In one particularly disturbing scene, Patrick cheers on the zombies as he feeds them with his own flesh, possibly analogous to him feeding the violent, tribal instinct which keeps reality shows like Big Brother on the air?
Finally, I’d like to give a big shout-out to Joplin for realizing the existential meaningless of what he has helped create. It is up to the viewer as to what was going through Joplin’s head when he opened the gate, but I like to think it went a little something like:
“I’m going to escape these horrible people who don’t like me and called me Gollum.”
“The horrible crowd of zombies (Big Brother fans) are similarly awful. This is a factor that in my previous rage blinded me to.”
“Patrick just killed an innocent, non-infected man. Perhaps I have once again been manipulated.”
“Well, if you can’t beat ’em, eat ’em!” *opens gate*