No, ‘Easy Street’ Does Not Create a Plot Hole on ‘The Walking Dead’

Movie Pilot recently claimed The Walking Dead severely botched its own timeline by including the song ‘Easy Street’, but there’s a very simple explanation.

The Movie Pilot website is now featuring an article claiming to point out a glaring plot hole in The Walking Dead. It’s getting some people talking, as it alleges the series seriously messed up its own timeline. But I say it’s much ado over nothing, as it can actually be explained rather simply.

In the post,  a nitpick is pointed out which creates supposed discrepancies in the timeline. It deals with a recent Season 7 episode when Daryl was locked up by Negan’s men. The Saviors use the song “Easy Street” playing on a loop to torture Daryl. The problem: “Easy Street” is a real life song released in November of 2016.

While not actually saying what the year is on The Walking Dead, its companion series Fear the Walking Dead reveals when the outbreak starts in episode 210. A homemade gravestone, made during the onset of the apocalypse, shows that it’s the year 2010. As they take place in the same universe, that means TWD starts in 2010 as well. So how did they get a song from the future?

The explanation is simple: the show takes place is a different universe from ours.

In the universe of The Walking Dead, zombie fiction doesn’t exist. There aren’t any Resident Evil video games or George A. Romero movies. Nobody has any idea what the walkers are until they actually see them in person. From the start, that separates the TWD universe from our own real life universe. Perhaps in a world without zombie media, The Collapsable Hearts Club band was able to release this song much sooner than they had in our world?

Rumors that “Easy Street” would become the new theme song are unsubstantiated.

The Movie Pilot article also neglects to mention that it was The Walking Dead which turned “Easy Street” into a hit in the first place. It had only been on iTunes for days when TWD would play it over and over again in episode 703. Soon after, it became a Billboard hit. Chances are, most of us would have never even heard the song otherwise. You could almost say it’s a song made for the show, even if that wasn’t its original intention.

Related Story: 'The Walking Dead' Tune 'Easy Street' Now On iTunes

To its credit, the post does provide a fix for another of the show’s supposed plot holes. Lots of people talk about that “2013 Hyundai Tucson” shown in Season 2, even though the show is set in 2010 at the start. But the author points out that it’s actually a 2011 model, which would have been available in 2010.

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I’m not going to pretend that there aren’t certain plot holes on The Walking Dead. As with any TV program, there are times when one must suspend their disbelief to enjoy the show. For example, sitting gasoline goes bad in less than a year, but the survivors are still keeping their cars running no problem. We look the other way because taking cars out of the show would make it boring quickly— there’s enough walking on the show as it is.

So let’s just not make a much bigger deal over the much smaller things.

The Walking Dead returns February 12 at 9PM E.T. on AMC. Are you gearing up for an All Out War against Negan and the Saviors? Tell us which side you’re on in the comments below.