After no TV for a few days at the farm, which is perfectly fine most of the time, we got home to renew our feverish Walking Dead marathon. And I still can’t help thinking that these guys are so very clueless so much of the time.

We’re in season five now, so it’s been a couple years of running and hiding and attacking and surviving; you’d think they’d all have bought a few clues by now.

Here’s just one example:

Rick and Carl and Michonne are out and about and come across a fairly empty town or neighborhood. They decide to hole up for a few days to rest and recuperate.

Note for fans: yeah, I know this isn’t entirely accurate, but I don’t want to give away anything and for my purposes, this is enough.

So, they pick a house, lock themselves in, and set a guard. All good. Until they get careless.

Carl and Michonne go out scavenging and Rick stays in to rest and read a book. The door isn’t locked or barricaded and no one is paying attention. I get that relaxation is very much needed, but they really can’t afford it in this post-apocalyptic world.

You’d think they’d know this by now. Naturally, the bad guys show up.

So, what would I have done differently than our heroes?

First, I wouldn’t choose a large, two-story house. Now, I get that there may not be a lot of choices, but in this case, seemed to be plenty of options. A second floor would help with walkers, certainly, but not with living humans. In a defense situation, smaller is definitely better. If one had to go this route, there are things that can be done to make it safer:

Clean out the bodies upstairs or at least seal off the room. Maybe they’re so immune to walkers at this point that the bodies don’t bother them. Just close the door and ignore them? Not me. Seal that sucker up like a tomb!

Pick two other rooms, or even three, to reinforce and defend. Keep a 24-hour watch. Board up or barricade windows. Organize and ration supplies.

Our heroes seem to keep trying to believe everything’s normal.