The Walking Dead: Discussion Thread

[ChitHappens]

I'm not sure what they are trying to do here, but we know all there is to know about The Gov! HE'S A PSYCHO, and we had the luxury of an entire season to experience what kind of psycho he truly is! The Zombie Apocalypse has shown us things about these people they are just discovering themselves, but the essence of who they are prevailed. Rick, to this day, had a hard time sacrificing a piglet. Herschel just now accepted that eventually he is going to have to kill zombies and did for the first time last week. We learned that Michonne is hard as nails but very soft inside and realized she needed the group.

What we know about The Gov is that he did not appreciate being underappreciated and was going to compensate by taking as much power as possible. He is evil and cruel to the core and anything given to us outside of this is a blatant manipulation! How soon before we see big bag Michonne picking on Phillip?!

Yesterday's eppy was a crock and a waste!

[Darn]

I see we've reached the point in a series where TPTB are more enamored of a character/actor than the audience is.

This episode was beyond dull. I have no idea why that family grew so attached Brian/Phillip/Boredom so quickly. Yes, he picked up their dad and got two oxygen tanks (he would have gotten more if he had killed some walkers but I guess on this show you either want to kill all the walkers or none of the walkers after a psychotic break).

This half season is only 8 episodes and two of them are going to be wasted on how the Governor got back to the prison? We have to wait 3 episodes to see Darryl react to Carol leaving? Does this show have something against keep up the momentum?

[ChitHappens]

They are stalling with Daryl and Rick!

The crap with The Gov is some soap opera bull! Use the family to try and redeem him? What next? A brain tumor?

I was reading Twitter as I watched and the fans were going BSC because they thought it was dull and stupid. Many want to see Daryl's reaction to Carol being kicked out but we have to suffer thru 2 eppies of The Governor's Redemption? GMAFB!

The killed the momentum from the prior eppy!

[Ann_SS]

I don't think that they are redeeming Phillip as much as showing us his journey to his next encounter with Rick's group. Phillip is not going to magically change. He is what he is. I did not love it, but I liked the episode. I thought there was tension as I kept waiting to see if Phillip would kill them.

I agree that they are building the suspense to Daryl finding out Carol. I don't mind, but I don't expect as much as drama from the fall out as some others do.

[ChitHappens]

The fallout with Daryl and Rick won't be what it should because we now have to wait for it. When you have to anticipate the things that should happen naturally, it lessens the enjoyment. When it happens, it won't be that great as it would have been last week or this past eppy.

Why do we need to see Phillip's journey? Why are they trying to soften this evil man thru that family?

[soapfave06]

Glad I'm not the only one. I really enjoyed it. I actually liked the family too. Though I found it ridiculous the girl had not realized to shoot them in the head yet.

[Ann_SS]

I think one episode is "useful," two are one way too many. I suspect they are showing that he is what he is no matter the journey. I think he ends up the same place that he started.

[quartermainefan]

I guess they can say it was a tumor in his brain. If that doesn't work maybe he can be revealed as Herschel's son.

[DRW50]

I could understand why. He saved them over and over and made tough decisions they weren't able to make. He was a father figure to the little girl. The sister who wasn't a lesbian (this isn't said as an insult - the other sister said she was gay at one point) was lonely and had been for a long time.

I thought this was an interesting idea that would have been best served in a minisode, not a full episode. The opening scenes with him staggering through the street and burning down Woodbury music video style were among the very worst I can remember on TWD, and they threw me right out of the show, which I hate.

Once we got past this and past the tedium of the Governor muttering through a beard so fake it looked like a department store Santa Claus dipped in charcoal, I began to get more into the episode. There were some wonderful set pieces - going into the nursing home (genuinely frightening and done without a ton of gore), killing the father, the pit of walkers.

The only problem I have with all of this is that set pieces aren't an episode. The episode itself mostly seems to be set up to remind that the Governor can't be redeemed and that his new family will be torn away, likely violently and with heavy fatalities.

I think a five or ten minute set of scenes could have expressed this well enough.

For me the only character who seemed "real" was the father. The rest I struggled with, especially the sister, although I liked her a little more toward the end of the episode. I have a feeling she is the first one dead next Sunday though.

[Ann_SS]

Great insights, Carl. While I think that while the family trusted scruffy odd looking Phillip too quickly, it was understandable that they grew to depend on him. And once the father was dead, they needed Phillip even more. After all, how could they stay in that town infested with walkers with Megan to care for. At some point that van was going to run out of food. Insisting that Phillip take them with him was their only move.

I am alright with this episode being devoted to Phillip's journey although I was totally confused at the beginning. I agree that the episode improved as he started to integrate with the family. I loved the scene in the nursing home. Phillip starts off confident and cleverly negotiating the walkers and grabbing the cart of full of oxygen, only for him to become frightened as they overwhelm him yet he is able to crab a couple canisters as he escape.

However, I am not happy that we are getting another episode devoted to Phillip and Martinez. I would have preferred that the show simultaneously followed both groups over the last two over three episodes, culminating with their clash at the prison.

[DRW50]

I read some comments that you can look at the Governor's journey as a bizarro version of Rick's in the first episode (the father is dying and the women live - the women are alive and the men are gone/dying; the Governor saves a live little girl whereas in the first episode Rick saw a walker girl). I don't know if that was intentional, but it interested me.

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I don't watch Homeland so people who watch it might see this as a cheap shot. Fans of both might be interested in this.

http://variety.com/2013/tv/columns/the-walking-dead-takes-a-well-timed-holiday-1200833627/

[DRW50]

Wow, the woman who played Tara (the sister) was Colleen on Y&R in the mid-90s. I didn't know that. It's too bad Sony took down passnum1's videos.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1315153/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t16

[DRW50]

The episode got a 6.0 and about 12 million viewers, .2 lower than last week, but basically about the same.

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2013/11/19/sunday-cable-ratings-the-walking-dead-wins-night-talking-dead-real-housewives-of-atlanta-nascar-more/216512/

[Vee]

I thought that was a hell of an episode. They took a real chance with different pacing and tone - especially in the pre-credits sequence, with the erratic cutting - and I thought it really worked, and was a wonderful showcase for David Morrissey. It also continued to develop the Governor very differently from the cartoon villain I'm familiar with from the comics, and I thought that was great. Haters to the left. Get out of my life, Darn!

Edited November 22, 2013 by Vee

[DRW50]