6 Strange facts about the zombies of 'Santa Clarita Diet'

With Season 2 of Santa Clarita Diet now available on Netflix, we have answers to all the questions Season 1 left us with. However, the series had doubled down on the zombie factor, leaving us with an all-new set of questions yet to be answered.

6. Virus originates from Serbia

Sheila and Joel had a difficult time finding answers to the cause of Sheila’s death but they eventually learned it came from Serbia. An ancient manuscript showed them an image of a woman vomiting up a red ball, just like the one Sheila coughed up in the first episode. The Hammonds connected the dots, acknowledging the similarities in Sheila’s experience. This led them to Japopos, where they discovered a batch of tainted clams were the cause of Sheila’s illness, red clams to be precise. With a little digging, they also learned the origin of the clams.

Drew Barrymore in Santa Clarita Diet. Erica Parise / Netflix. Acquired via Netflix Media Center. /

To skip over the nonessentials, basically, a private clam farmer receives a pair of red clams as a gift. She goes on to breed them and sells a batch to Japopos, the same restaurant Sheila ate clams from the night she turned. The person in charge doesn’t know the clams are infected with something or she just willfully ignores the fact that they’re carnivorous. Either way, the clams are what caused Sheila to become undead, and there’s no telling how many more are out there.

5. Personalities change after becoming undead

So far, all of the people who’ve been infected by the clams have displayed a drastic change in personality type. Sheila went from meager housewife to a high-energy supermom, Ramona became somewhat numb to her surroundings, and Ed Thune went from proud veteran to sadistic murderer. The point is, they’ve exhibited signs of their personalities changing, some more violent than others. Hopefully, these changes stop at some point because another shift might be too much for the Hammond family to handle.

4. Zombies don’t become mindless beasts, at first

Once a person turns, they don’t necessarily become mindless killing machines. Yes, Sheila blacked out the first time she murdered someone, but that wasn’t a permanent shift for her. She’s working on self-control and exhibited quite a bit, with the exception of a few slip-ups. But other than those accidents, Sheila is a good example of the zombies in this universe being conscious and not like the kind of zombies we’d see on The Walking Dead.

– The Walking Dead _ Season 8, Episode 1 – Photo Credit: Greg Nicotero/AMC via AMC Press Site /

3. A red spider creature is at the heart of the virus

In the first episode of Santa Clarita Diet, Sheila vomits an exorbitant amount, along with it, pops out a small red ball. Perplexed by the object, Sheila and Joel hold on to it. They don’t notice anything interesting and everyone they take it to test doesn’t take them seriously. It isn’t until they come across Ramona’s red ball that they learn the balls are alive.

When they go back to examine Sheila’s, nothing is different. The red ball is still motionless and the legs haven’t sprouted yet. Joel decides that a quick nuke in the microwave will warm the little critter, and it works. Unfortunately, it jumps at Joel, attempting to attach itself to him. The ball doesn’t get him but the threat is ever more present. If it’s aggressive enough to seek out new targets, the little red balls could spread the infection to millions of people in no time flat.

2. Without a special serum, infected turn feral

After an instance of Sheila losing control was too much for them to risk happening again, she and Joel sought out help for their little problem. They didn’t have too many options but Abby’s friend, Eric was the closest and only person they could trust with the dilemma. With a little coaxing, they convinced Eric to help them and he discovered a growing problem within Sheila.

Apparently, when an infected person spends a prolonged period of time without receiving antibodies for the zombie virus, their bodies begin to decompose and become more like the flailing masses seen on The Walking Dead. To stop the progression of decomposition, they sought out Dr. Kora Wolf’s help. Upon hearing of their situation, she started developing a serum to stop the virus’ adverse side effects. When Wolf ran out of time, she tasked Eric with completing the serum.

Santa Clarita Diet – Drew Barrymore as Sheila Hammond and Timothy Olyphant as Joel Hammond Photo Credit: Saeed Adyani / Netflix /

On his own, Eric discovered that Serbian bile was the last ingredient needed for the serum. Since it contained all of the antibodies needed to combat the zombie virus, the bile was a key ingredient in the serum designed for stabilizing zombies. Once inserted into the mixture given by Dr. Wolf, it stabilized Sheila. The only unfortunate consequence of this serum is that it can’t cure a person completely—as far as we know.

1. The spread of infected has been random and will continue that way

Without inferring too much about Season 3, it seems as if more residents of Santa Clarita are going to come forward as zombies. Now, they’re not going to publicize their identities but happenstance meetings with the Hammonds are bound to draw up conversations on similar interests, which for them, is finding potential victims and slaughtering them for dinner. They’ve come across a few so far and it wouldn’t be surprising to see them encounter another individual who chowed down on the infected clams. Or, perhaps Season 3 will depict the clam farmer growing a new batch that goes out to another restaurant, triggering a new outbreak of zombies in the area.

Whatever happens, more undead characters are bound to show up in the following season. Anyone who argues that a third season hasn’t been greenlit yet, leaving the point moot, is wrong. The series is almost guaranteed a renewal, otherwise, why let Season 2 end on such a major cliffhanger?

Next: 5 Things We Can Never Unsee From 'Santa Clarita Diet'

Santa Clarita Diet Season 2 is currently available on Netflix.

Home/Netflix

6 Strange facts about the zombies of Santa Clarita Diet

By Paul Zuniga | Mar 30, 2018