The following contains spoilers for Tales of the Walking Dead Season 1, Episode 1, "Evie/Joe," which aired Sunday, August 14 on AMC.
The Walking Dead's insistence on calling its undead creatures anything but zombies has proved to be its best decision ever. The absence of the term allows the series and its spinoffs to have their own lore and culture within the zombie community. But the alternative nicknames have gotten out of hand. Tales of the Walking Dead is the most prominent example of this yet with the introduction of "toe-taggers."
The most common term for zombies in The Walking Dead universe is "walkers," coined by Morgan Jones in the iconic pilot episode of the namesake series. Since this was Rick's first introduction to the undead, he ran with the name, which other survivors began to adopt. At first, it was an accurate description of their slow-moving sluggish pace, but it doesn't even fit anymore because now they can run. The intriguing part about abandoning the classic "zombie" moniker is there are endless nickname possibilities since there's no official title for the undead. Some are much, much better than others.
Tales of the Walking Dead is the perfect series to experiment with new stories and names, but it's off to a rocky start. Season 1, Episode 1, "Evie/Joe," starring Terry Crews and Olivia Munn, brings together an unlikely duo who learn how their unique strengths define them in the apocalyptic world. Joe is set on finding his online girlfriend in real life, but gets trapped in one of Evie's traps along the way. As he yells for her to let him go, she warns him that he's luring in the... toe-taggers. On first watch, it sounds like something was lost in translation. But turn those captions on, folks, because "toe-taggers" is what she says.
"Toe-taggers" works for Evie's character, who is a bona fide hipster (see: her crystal necklaces that ward off bad spirits and her constant reminders that she grows and smokes marijuana). Evie is quirky and stands out, so calling the creatures "toe-taggers" fits her personality. It doesn't mean it should be accepted as a label for zombies. Not only does it not roll off the tongue, but it’s a dangerous way of not alerting fellow survivors. If anybody were to yell “Toe-taggers are coming!” out into the world, no one would suspect that a flesh-eating zombie was approaching them.
This isn't the first nickname that's felt out of place in the somber, melodramatic world of TWD. One annoying and far-fetched name is "empties," coined in The Walking Dead: World Beyond. Yes, they are technically empty due to a lack of consciousness, but it feels less threatening and more like a thoughtless joke. The most suitable name is “infected,” which is mainly used in Fear the Walking Dead. It perfectly describes what the creatures are and is universally accepted as a proper moniker. Other names such as "sickos," "lame-brains" and "stinkers" belong in a Walking Dead parody.
"Toe-taggers" at least has some rationality behind it. Toe tags are used to identify deceased individuals in morgues -- but how Evie decided on that name rather than "infected" is only known to Evie. It also pays homage to the Godfather of the Dead himself, George A. Romero. His Night of the Living Dead series sparked a zombie outbreak of its own, and The Walking Dead would not exist if not for the cultural phenomenon Romero created. Evie's nickname for the zombies may be a reference to his comic Toe Tags Featuring George A. Romero. In TWD canon, however, Romero's zombies never existed, so the reference would be more of a "blink and you miss it" Easter egg for horror lovers.
Still, "toe-taggers" affects the serious tone that TWD universe is supposed to maintain. In a world where most of the population belongs to the dead and society has crumbled, "toe-taggers" doesn't belong. If anything, it's a forced attempt to bring some comedy into the zombie-affected universe, and it's difficult to argue that Tales of the Walking Dead's first episode isn't already a comedy. The buddy road trip, loopy hallucinations and comical character archetypes fit the bill, making "toe-taggers" just a minor detail that adds a little flare. But in the overall horror aesthetic of The Walking Dead universe, "toe-taggers" is a major fluke.
To see what else survivors name zombies, watch Tales of the Walking Dead every Sunday at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on AMC and stream episodes a week early on AMC+.