The Walking Dead: Discussion Thread

[Shawn]

I couldn't have said it better myself. I agree 1000%.

[Cheap21]

Rick is a psycho. I just saw the episode and he's nuts and should be killed off already.

Go Michonne! Its too bad it wasnt her sword in her hand that she plunged through his head

[YRBB]

It's more likely to be something like PTSD. He is severely traumatized by everything he's been going through and the ringing in his ears before he lost it suggests he had (a major, unstoppable) episode. and I would be beyond stunned if they ever killed him.

[DRW50]

http://nerdist.com/the-walking-dead-corey-brill-sings-the-ballad-of-porchdick/

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Edited March 27, 2015 by DRW50

[Vee]

A promo for spinoff Fear the Walking Dead will run during the finale.

[DRW50]

I get the idea of the title but I hope they change it. It sounds like an indie band from 1994.

[DRW50]

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[Vee]

I am a good hour or so behind the actual airing, but woo! Rick has lost it and Michonne and Glenn are still being painted as the voices of sanity and reason, next to him and Carol. Even Abraham isn't down with this.

They have a point about the problems with Alexandria, but there is a medium between the Terminus way of doing things (which Glenn rightly told Rick just now) and being too soft. And that's what the show is clearly trying to put across.

Deanna's husband (whose name I can't remember) is a wonderful guy, and thus clearly doomed.

Poor Sasha needs a long rest.

Edited March 30, 2015 by Vee

[Vee]

These "wolves" are whatever their official name is are a lot more effective here than Negan or whoever was in the comics. That booby trap, as well as the opening scene with Morgan, were really effective and creepy. I hope if they bring the Negan character or a variant on him on that he's a lot less bombastic than the comic version - I felt they did a pretty good job with making the Governor more grounded and less ridiculous on the show than in the comics, though I know that is a polarizing thing. And they seem to do a better job overall with bringing on ludicrous Kirkman characters that he likely insists upon, and making them more human - Michonne, Abraham, and others have all come off much better in the long haul than the typical adolescent badasses he creates.

That note in the car was also really creepy. These wolves people are a fairly sophisticated guerilla operation, and Rick seems to be slowly, grudgingly coming along to realizing he can't be like them or Terminus.

Melissa McBride is so good at being so terrifying. But Pete deserves all of it.

Edited March 30, 2015 by Vee

[Vee]

I'm hoping this isn't curtains for ol' Glenn, but I had a bad feeling after that scene on the porch.

That scene with Aaron and Daryl in the car - having to do it together, and committing to each other - really represents what they're getting at with the group and Alexandria, IMO, in a microcosm. Reedus and Ross Marquand played it beautifully.

[Vee]

I hate Father Pee Pants on TWD more than I ever thought possible after adoring Seth Gilliam as Carver on The Wire.

[DRW50]

Anyway, my thoughts on this episode...

- Choppy as hell. I'm going to have to watch again without commercials, but even then, I think they may have been better off splitting this into sections (one part Glenn, one part Daryl/Aaron, one part Rick's trial, one part Gabriel).

The good:

- NO SHOCK VALUE DEATHS. Thank you. Thank you.

- Morgan's great intro.

- The final scene with Michonne. Understated yet heartbreaking. Danai is a treasure.

- Daryl and Aaron. Some great bonding moments that felt believable for the characters and added some originality to the cliche of the heroes in the car waiting to die. I'm really liking what Aaron brings to the show - on a show that has had 500 characters over the years, he feels fresh, and achingly believable as someone who is competent yet simultaneously naive. And Daryl is being moved into a place of his own, a place of strength and new bonds instead of woobieness and isolation. I approve.

- Glenn's heart. I think the Tyreese-fakeout with the walkers was unnecessary, as was the idiocy of him wandering around in the woods alone, but I appreciated one more chance to see Glenn's strength and innate goodness, while still seeing what a badass he is. Best of all I'm glad that we've gotten Glenn's journey this season all on his own (with Maggie there with him at times), further establishing him as a powerful lead in his own right.

- Tara waking up to see Rosita. I'm glad they let the group have that win instead of just seeing her as disposable. I watch the show for the occasional glimpse of heart. And I love the Rosita/Tara relationship. Bonus points for Eugene also being with her earlier. I just wish Glenn had been there at some point.

- Cool walker kills. Even after 5 seasons, Gabriel's noose kill and Rick tearing the walker's throat/face/head apart were good gore moments.

- Spencer is still alive and still hot. Lose the shirt next season while you can, because gorgeous guys rarely last long on this show.

- The Rick/Michonne scenes. I will likely never ship them again, but I appreciate seeing Michonne's strength and steadfast loyalty, and that for the first time in a while, Rick seemed to finally be fully trusting and connecting with her.

- The Rick/Carl scene, which was long overdue. I'm glad that they at least tried to show that Michonne and Carl weren't entirely wrong in wanting to give things a chance.

The "eh"

- Carol bordering on self-parody. It's obvious that the show is in love with the idea of "Scarol," and with Hardwick cheerleading hardcore on Talking Dead, no wonder. The problem is that they are beginning to lose the character in overly aware clichespeak. The line about getting the dish back made me roll my eyes. I don't believe that's something she, or anyone in the real world, would have said. This isn't a Dirty Harry movie. The character is being boxed in and I don't like it.

- Sasha/Gabriel/Maggie. I like the idea of Sasha and Gabriel finding each other, nearly killing each other, and Maggie saving them through her faith and her love, but it felt a little rushed, due in part to the three of them barely interacting in recent weeks (why not have Maggie with Michonne and Rosita last week looking for Sasha?), and they really have done huge, huge damage to any possibility of Gabriel being a viable character. His hissy fit in the woods was an embarrassment. It's going to take more than coming back into season 6 and having him as a BAMF. It's going to take a lot of work. A lot of work. But I do like seeing Maggie as Hershel and it's good that Sasha seems to be finding her strength again.

The bad:

- The endless "tell me about your feelings" fireside trial scenes, which reminded me way too much of the worst of seasons 1 and 2. This show is already ponderous enough as it is. When the high point is Abraham saying "[!@#$%^&*]" 3 times, something went wrong.

- Pete, right to the end. It wasn't as hilarious as it seemed on paper, but it was still random and nonsensical, and I had no idea what he was yelling at the end. And Reg's death scene was just plain badly staged.

- Yay for Jessie finally having dialogue of her own without Rick around...even if it took 5 episodes and she still seems completely isolated from everything and everyone.

I'd give it a B or B-. I guess.

[Vee]

D'Angelo Bob was right!

That was a lovely scene with Rick and Michonne. I would've hit the note harder with Rick given his behavior, but she said what he needed to hear (in addition to Bob's convenient voice-overs) and I think he was coming around a lot more quickly than Carol. Carol is too, IMO, she just doesn't realize it yet. She's connected more to Sam than she realizes.

[Vee]

That was pretty great. I felt they walked the line between Rick's (and Carol's) take and that of the Alexandrians' - the most extreme takes, on either end of the spectrum, pretty effectively. And what I have always appreciated about the show, especially since Gimple took over, is that they seem to go more for emotional catharsis at the end of a season vs. "WHO WILL DIE???" Yeah, we were on the edge of our seats about poor Sasha, about Glenn, etc. But what they were really doing - even for Gabriel - was illustrating what those characters needed to move forward psychologically and spiritually. And I love that. That's what I think powers the show and why it works better than people give it credit for. It's about that family and their struggles. And I think Rick was getting it, thanks to Michonne, Carl, Glenn, etc. But he also knew what they needed to go forward. Even the stuff with Abraham (who has come a long way) and fuckin' Eugene worked. They've made all of them, even Rosita, work as characters. That's wonderful.

I've already liveblogged a lot of this, but I especially loved the end with Michonne, Abraham, etc. saying their peace, and then the final tag with Michonne taking down her sword. I'm not going to stress about Jessie because it's still obvious that thing with Rick is not a major going concern, IMO. If they want to do Morgan and Michonne I'm fine with it - Rick and Michonne being romantic or not are not enough for me to worry about when the rest of the show is largely solid and their relationship is still intact. I also think the show frankly prefers to avoid satisfying most major fan ships for fear of letting them think they have any control, which is probably wise.

Anyway, very good season ender and a pretty good season. I understand why they do the split seasons - why most successful cable shows do now - but I think sometimes it causes audiences to lose sight of the throughlines running through all of it, back to Terminus, to Bob, etc. I'm glad they brought all that back in.

And whatever happens, my true OTP - Carol/Sam - remains intact.

Edited March 30, 2015 by Vee

[DRW50]

Something I noticed with this episode - not for the first time, but it seems to be getting worse - is that I'm heavily invested in most of the characters (not all...), even though it's ludicrous to feel that way, as most of them are going to die. I even care about most of the Alexandria ciphers. The big plot for this episode was supposed to be Rick's fate in Alexandria and the umpteenth revival of the "Must you lose your soul? If so, will Jewel write a song about you?" question, yet I was more invested in bit plots like poor sleeping Tara, or Rosita waking Eugene up, or whether hot, not very bright Spencer would get chomped.

I can put this down to nearly uniformly excellent casting (it's a shame the show will always have the label of only being popular because of zombies, as the cast truly do carry the plot along), but I think it's also down to my sense that the show is mostly plotless, and has been plotless for quite a while. It's just themes, and themes of themes of themes.

I think that's why I had such a visceral reaction to the Rick plotline of the last 3-4 episodes. It's because all I had with Rick was a characterization. When he was shoved into a rigidly plot-driven place, it felt like a betrayal.

I don't know if this will change now that they're staying in Alexandria for a while, but I tend to wonder if that's why the ratings have stayed high. If viewers are comforted by knowing the characters are interesting and feel "real" to them, and are like them in a sense in that like many of us in the world today, are wading through nothing, expecting nothing and not sure what will happen from one day to the next.

I think I'd rather have a season of characters staring into space as angsty Ace of Base remixes play than more "stories" like Pete Anderson Katana MD.