Vee

Oh, Jesus.

A certain individual speaks out of turn re: this weekend's 50th Anniversary. Don't click if you don't want to know a huge casting spoiler for DOTD. I had heard increasingly definite rumors about this for a while, but with this particular potential guest there's always a chance they're just [!@#$%^&*] with people.

Raw bootleg of a New Zealand cable spot for The Day of the Doctor. "No more" was also glimpsed on the graffiti beneath Sarah Jane and K9 in the previous 50th Anniversay trailer. And of course, the War Doctor declared "Doctor no more" upon his regeneration on Karn. I still don't think that's Rose - I think it's the Bad Wolf. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wcmdZH1mRs Based on Eleven's dialogue here - and the announcer's voiceover - I have a suspicion that the rumor I've heard about the overarching plot for DOTD and the Christmas special is true - and we may be in for some very big changes to the very core and foundation of the modern Doctor Who. Oh, and sources are whispering insistent claims that

Look, I have a lot of love and respect for the P&G soaps and all this rich history but at least half of this stuff has all the energy of a particularly slow bingo night. It's not about the actual age of the performers, either, because as Carl points out, many of them were young but still come off incredibly stodgy and drained of life. The whole show just feels very brownish-gray to me. And it's certainly the opposite of how, say, Doug Marland's ATWT feels when I watch it. I'm not ageist in the slightest, I'm just reacting to the rhythm of the show or lack thereof.

The show does basically look like it's set inside a funeral home, doesn't it. Full of old, old people.

I don't think Carol's crazy. She realized after the fact that what she did to Karen and David had no effect on the epidemic, and she regretted doing it on some level. Even if she didn't know these things, even if she was so bloodthirsty (and I don't think she is), a large quarantine with plenty of witnesses - and the fact that Rick knew what she'd done - would've deterred her.

I think there's maybe a handful of people upset. 95% of fans seem overjoyed. There's always going to be someone angry about something, especially in DW fandom. New trailer for the making-of film, An Adventure in Space and Time, which is supposed to be excellent.

He's a Doctor. But probably not the one you expected.

I am amazed all my beloved characters survived that one. I assume it's just going to be worse for them with the Governor back. But great episode.

I put it up earlier, in the status ticker.

I figured.

I didn't think she could do something like that until I saw her with Carl after he saw her with the kids in the library. She spoke to him the same way she does Rick; she treated him like a man and a potential ally or obstacle. No one else in the group does that. Then I knew, and when it happened I knew it was her. When the season opened the walkers were at the fences all the time, there was evidence of sabotage, then there was a potential plague, close quarters, carriers. Carol was desperate to preserve what they have, which was security and stability in the prison. In the plague era, medieval times, what was done to Karen and David was commonplace. Things may not be totally medieval in the zombie apocalypse but they're pretty damn close. That doesn't mean it was acceptable for her to kill them, but it was a logical assumption IMO - these are the only two exhibiting symptoms at that time, and with them knowing next to nothing about the disease at that particular moment, there was the potential to say disposing of them could have stopped an epidemic in its tracks and saved the community. (Although, Karen and David had already been isolated, which makes what she did plain overreaction.) It was with that mindset that she did it. I don't agree with it, but I very much understand it.

I think they're all disconnected though, in one way or another. They have to be. And I thought she was vulnerable in that conversation, when she did reminisce with Rick. And when she talked to him at the end. I didn't think she was all hard, more very matter of fact. I can see why that scares Rick, but I still think he was wrong to not take her back to either the council, or to mull over the truth more before debating whether to tell everyone. She's not Shane, and she's not the Governor. She's just not Rick. I don't think she was likely to do something so rash again, especially not with him knowing the truth. Carol's not interested in power, she's interested in practicality. She was right that they had to leave the hippie dude, though she was wrong to suggest sending them out there - and she likely did it knowing they might not make it, leaving the prison with fewer people to feed, which is also, on a certain level, morally wrong. But they volunteered. They asked. If they make it, they're an asset; if they don't, they're not a burden. And in the zombie apocalypse, that kind of wrong is utterly practical.

I think he was wrong about that, though. This whole season Carol's shown plenty of humanity, IMO. But because she didn't gnash her teeth or spill a water tank when she was alone with Rick - while focused on the task at hand - she's not human enough? She said she was sorry, that it was awful, but that she felt it had to be done. I think she was keeping her guard up with him. Falling apart is not something she does anymore, not with other people around. She only does it alone.

I don't think Carol is a sociopath. She expressed remorse, she felt bad. But she's also gone to a hard place, which I bought in the storytelling after last year and parts of this season. As McBride says in the above interview, she told Lizzie not to call her Mom because it hurt too much. I saw that in her performance and delivery last night. Carol later slips herself and basically calls the two girls her daughters when speaking to the strangers in town, and you can see Rick react to it. I think she had the right reasons, but ultimately it was wrong. I don't think she should have been banished for it, and I don't think we're done with Carol this season.

I think Rick was wrong about Carol. Whether or not he agreed with her, she isn't a sociopath or the Governor, and she isn't Shane. She cared about what she'd done. And no one had to know, IMO. Even if it did seem to me as though she deliberately sent those two kids out there, knowing they might not make it back and it would leave the prison with less mouths to feed. I doubt this is the end for Carol. We may not see her again right away, but I think we absolutely will see her again. Great episode, though. Incredible scenes between Andrew Lincoln and Melissa McBride, and good stuff with the other group too. Really good, quiet, thoughtful stuff all around. Though I suspect the show is building a Daryl/Michonne/Tyreese triangle - there's nothing wrong with any of that, but I'd still rather Rick be her man.

Buck would never have been in the hospital! I'm sorry, I had to.

Incidentally, here's something I didn't know and I apologize if it's been posted: Carol was supposed to die in Episode 3 of Season 3. Melissa McBride confirms it was Carol.

I knew two things going into this episode: One, that Tyreese would not die, because I remembered that scene from the trailer and it is identical to one from the comics where a suicidal Tyreese seemed certain to die and turned up alive through sheer force of will. That scene was almost beat for beat from the comic, with only the setting and minor details transposed. The other thing I knew going into tonight was that Carol did it. Y'all didn't want to believe me last week, but I knew. I knew the moment I saw the look in her eye when she talked to Carl about telling Rick about the classes - that look was something new. She was capable of it, and I knew she did it. And she's obviously being set up as the counterpoint to Rick for this season. Rick is struggling to hang onto his humanity and not become his old, harder self out of necessity, while Carol is coming into her own necessary evil and facing the impossible decisions head-on. I am almost positive now that this is Melissa McBride's last year with the show - sooner, possibly, than later, maybe even before the break - but I think she is doing an incredible job and if it's her last storyline it's a great one to go out on. In a way she's a much more empathetic, relatable Lady Macbeth. Another person probably doomed: Poor Herschel. That speech Scott Wilson gave was absolutely incredible. I was just crying. What a man. I suspect Glenn and possibly Sasha (please!) will make it, but Herschel will have sacrificed himself to keep them hanging on.

To my knowledge (and it's vague on this little storyline) they never fully pulled the trigger on Marty and Andrew, though Malone desperately wanted to with their quasi-affair around that time. He later revisited it in a lame way with Joey and Jen Rappaport, who even got freaky in the pews at St. James. I remember Andrew and the amnesiac Marty had some great scenes at the church in late 2008, as she tried to rediscover her life. That was one of Bob Krimmer's last appearances. I always wanted them to actually go there, or to at least reunite him with Cassie, even offscreen. Ellen Bethea was almost certainly replaced shortly after this - I mostly remember Mari Morrow with Peter Parros. I don't understand why they ended Kevin and Rachel.

Jesus, some of these sets from the late '70s look like they haven't been renovated since Day 1. It's like Dark Shadows infrastructure and tone - when everything about the "present-day" storylines and vibe seemed off and weird in some way.

I'll jump out mine if you jump out yours.

I am. I am one of those people, who's still watching The Wire and riding a buggy.

Every time the Internet mentions Breaking Bad to me it goes further down my Netflix queue.

A woman could've done that. Certainly, if they were already weak and/or bleeding out. Most people seem to think it's army medic Bob a.k.a. D'Angelo Barksdale though, and that's probably correct. Disposing of them - if they're dead, that is - would likely be field protocol.