Nice!! I know some people are getting tired of the zombie thing, but, I really like it and it's good see the pilot was ordered for this. Hopefully we will get to see it.

I'm all for it if it's somehow "different" in a tangible way and not just the same routine with different scenery.

Yes, definitely has to be different instead of The Walking Dead: West Coast. I'd like to see maybe the show dealing with the very beginning/what lead up to the ZA. How long that can be sustainable, I don't know, but, MASH went on for, what, 11 years and the Korean War was 3 years?

Here's some info for the companion show-the list of main characters:

The Walking Dead Spinoff: Meet the Pilot's Characters | Comicbook.com

5th season hasn't started yet and already...

'The Walking Dead' renewed for season 6 | Inside TV | EW.com

I caught episode 1/1 last night. It still holds up really well.

Obviously, they had a ton of commercials for the new season and it's shocking just how much dirtier, rougher and all together meaner the cast looks now as compared to the first episode/season.

I was thinking that too while watching some of the marathon. Oh how far they have come

1st couple of episodes were pure brilliance.

Carol is a little too much Rambo but great start to the season.

I would have liked Terminus to play out for another episode or two but glad it didn't drag on like the governor.

Strong return. Great surprise false ending to the preview of next week.

Good Talking Dead afterwards too.

Solid start, I definitely like the idea that they'll be moving more/moving constantly this season, hopefully that keeps things fresh.

Yes, yes, and yes! That pretty much sums up everything I was gonna get at.

As my wife said at the end, Walking Dead totally Marvel'd us.

Fantastic premiere.

That was a really great episode.

Between the trough scene and the guy threatening to break Judith's neck, the show really keeps raising (or lowering) the bar as to what depths humanity can sink to.

Great episode. Was hoping to see a bit more of Terminus, but I think it was easy to gather what was happening based on the scenes from last night.

The final flashback scene was excellent.

Morgan!

About time they added an Englishman to the cast that can act. I would be more excited if they just had killed all the shitheads in Terminus but they distinctly gave their leader a non-death so I'm sure we'll see them again.

Looking at the spin off casting descriptions, Jimmy Smits is too old but I'd probably give it a chance if he was involved. Nero is the only part of SOA I like a ton. They can probably age him down a bit.

which one is this aimed at? Maggie?

Maggie, Rick, the Gov, probably countless other Britions that suck

Maggie can suck anytime and for as long as she likes.

She has adequate acting chops for that kind of career.

'Walking Dead' Enlists Alexandra Breckenridge for Season 5 - Hollywood Reporter

Love her - great actress and smokin' hot.

So I finally was able to see Episode 1 and my DVR cut off at the end when the person who was all wrapped up in clothing was standing at the Terminus sign Rick had written NO on. What was up with that?

It's Morgan.

Ah thanks, that should be an interesting "reunion"

My DVR hacked it too

Mine too, but I had actually just caught up right before.

I figure the channels are doing this sort of thing to fuck with DVR viewers and give "extras" to people who watch the commercials.

I'm just going to start taping the later episode so I don't get the annoying ass Talking Dead bump in segment.

Yeah I hate that crap as well. Thats why I have certain series like this set to record 5 minutes after scheduled airtime on the DVR. Usually doesn't matter but when it does, it pisses me off.

I get that its convenient from a plot standpoint, but really...none of Rick/Carole/Daryl/Glen are going to mention that they were in the fucking CDC building in Atlanta and call Eugene on his bullshit story?

Annoying.

A little slow at first but the ending was intense.

Lots of source material here, with just enough questions about switching characters/roles to keep it from being too predictable.

Not sure why that has a bearing. Eugene was working with biological warfare agents. He wasn't working on cures.

But wouldn't one think that the CDC would have investigated every possible cure - especially since they had the Army there with them at the end and all?

Everything was a clusterfuck at the end. I don't know that we can assume the CDC and the biowafare people were ever even in contact with each other. And they both had more immediate things to be concerned with, I would think.

Not saying you're wrong, but I don't know we can just assume plot hole there either.

I hate that when in the sewer pit they wavered from quickly head shanking them all very quickly and being done with the walkers in about 45 seconds.

Agreed - I love it.

Returning to the source seems solid. I'd assume we'll settle up with Gareth and find Beth in the remaining 6 episodes this half season?

I might be evolving my position from a hate watch to a watch watch. Although Rick, Maggie and Glen are clearly vying in a tight battle for "The Worst™". Previous holders have been Lori, Andrea, The Governor and Carol. She redeemed herself, so maybe there is hope. Still think Andrew Lincoln taking 2 to the back of the head would be best for the long term viability.

As soon as I saw Gabriel the priest I knew what Champ Bailey is doing in retirement.

It's Carver!

Three of the "survivors" are now former wire cast members. (I guess I should say 2 3/4 :-) )

Naw, it's still 3. It's just the 1/4 has been redistributed.

That's an odd take on the show, but each to his own, I reckon.

Anybody know the answers to this or have an opinion?

Not sure why we're spoiler-tagging this...

Sorry for the quick edit....posted spoilers and couldn't get the tag to work.

Thanks for asking the question and thanks DT for the possible answer. Sweet justice there.

That's just speculation I read on one recap, but they made it sound like it was pretty common recapper-speculation.

A friend had the same theory on the first item, just curious if that was a common thought. I did not catch that when I was watching.

I just spoiler tagged the question because the answers might divulge info someone did not want to see. Thought I would just be safe.

Thanks for the responses.

I didn't catch that either, although I was a bit surprised that wasn't the case in the moment to be honest.

i think it was the like...i09 recap I read that mentioned that, and like i said, they made it sound like it was pretty commonly thought.

It is common because

That was my thought about Bob too.

I'm not reading the thread because I am still caching up on Netflix. Just finished episode 4 of season 3 where she has the baby and Carl takes care of business. Holy Fuckballs this show is sick. My wife was weeping.

Oh wow. I remember cheering when that happened. Lori grimes was SO ANNOYING. My daughter, who was also weeping, was not happy that I wasn't taking the show more seriously. :) I'm not one to get emotionally attached to TV show characters.

Some character deaths make you sad. Others make you rejoice.

So happy that they dealt with Lori. She was The Worst™

Add me to this camp on how those scenes were interpreted. Curious to see if this is the case, what does that mean for those who had the tasty snack to end the show.

BUT EVERYONE IS ALREADY INFECTED! - not a spoiler.

But how many people know that?

All of Rick's original people. I would assume that it is common knowledge with anyone that Rick's group interacts with for a reasonable amount of time. Just because something isn't show on screen doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

As far as the recent joinees go, have we had any indication that any of them are aware? Ever?

And as far as the rest of the population goes, who knows what they may know/believe/assume about the cause?

I'm not sure where you are going. But I'm making the assumption that Bob knows, he's been with the group for quite some time.

Where I'm heading is roughly this:

But everyone doesn't know - I don't think they've told the folks that weren't at the CDC for example.

Valid point. But we also can't think that they didn't.

I just don't see how or why they would keep that information away from the other people in their group, it would be stupid to not tell everyone that if someone dies that they need to destroy the brain/body to prevent them from turning.

There seems to be different levels or types of infection.

Yes, everyone is infected in the sense that when they die, they will come back as a walker.

Then, you have being infected by getting bit by a walker. This infection actively kills you in a pretty short period of time.

Seems to be a pretty big difference between the two infections.

They have to give Bob the line, "They cut off my legs now I'm an amputee, Goddamn you"

I think they should have a montage of Bob with the songs "Cuts Like A Knife" playing over it.

I would think eating contaminated flesh will accelerate your own death.

Maybe they'll become super zombies after they die.

yeah, isn't this why they cut off Hershel's leg? If you get bit it's going to kill you.

I too think Bob got bit

Not a bad ep, although despite the action which was not really lacking, this was really to set up much of the rest of the season.

Good episode. Glad we'll find out about Beth next week.

Solid enough bottle type episode. At least they have figured these type of shows out.

Still wonder when we'll see Morgan

Bottle episode? I don't think this means what you think it means. This episode dealt directly with and resolved the major threat/plot so far this season - Gareth and the Termites - and it resolved the Bob-gets-bit-and-eaten plot from the prior episode. It also pushed the "going to D.C." narrative.

I think next week - where we deal with what happened to Beth - might be more of a bottlish episode.

The massacre in the church was fucking brutal and savage. The show has really been racheting things up a notch: the trough, the voracious devouring of Bob's leg, the butchering in the church.

Well, like Gareth said, you're either the butcher or the cattle...

No new sets, inexpensive?

This had to be the cheapest episode of the season by a large margin. I guess it wasn't as bottle as other bottle episodes.

I guess what differentiated this from some Prison or Farm episode is that I'm actually interested in the story now.

Also I didn't know it but one of the guys slaughtered at terminus for food was the guy that Rick and Carol ran into at that cul de sac. The dude who plays Penguin on Gotham.

Was mentioned in the TD ep after the premiere, otherwise I'd have missed it.

(They talked about flying him in just to film that scene)

They also talked him about him in the second episode. I think it was in a scene between Rick and Carol.

Ah, yeah, I can't support TD at all. I record the later showing specifically to avoid the bump-in.

Great episode. Tons of feels in this one. The only thing that bothered me is when the cannibals walked straight into the church... from a strategic standpoint, that seems like suicide.

They saw the large majority of the group leave, them doubling back (apparently) was never considered a possibility apparently, maybe because they figured the walkers in the school would surely get them.

Classic arrogance causing underestimation of opponent.

did they re-use the church location from season 2? this new one sure looks similar.

Nope. This was custom built set for this purpose (mentioned in TD, cause they didn't feel comfortable shooting The Hunters resolution in a real church).

interesting

i.e. 4 walls and a roof

Not a terrible episode .. but to my distinct surprise I found myself thinking that maybe it'd be better to kill 'em all & move on. Was not nearly as engaged by this as I thought I'd be.

Beth's character transformation is somewhat interesting. Hoping for a payoff next episode with Carol's arrival.

Beth is at the top of the "I don't care if I ever see this character again" list and has been since Lori and Andrea died, but still, I am always happy to get to see a sidetrack to a little story about how another group of people are handling the zombie apocalypse for a week. As long as they don't drag it out too long, or try to make me care about any of these people too much, I welcome episodes like this here and there.

A whole episode featuring Amy. Yay! :(

I thought it was a horrible episode. And I actually like Beth.

Worst episode of the season. You can't dedicate an entire episode to a minor character.

Echo'n all the comments here. Absolutely hated it.

I didn't hate it exactly ... I was just kinda ready for it to be over. And like I said, I was surprised by my reaction to it.

It just felt like a bad chick-in-women's-prison movie. The villains were very cardboard, especially the ones in uniform. Noah might become interesting but it's early to tell for sure. Beth herself actually wasn't terrible to me, it was just a shitty story.

Yep, +1 to this.

It was beyond predictable and cliche. No new information revealed in regards to the outbreak and none of the new characters had any depth to make them interesting. All very cliche & cardboard (very appropriate term).

I do like Beth's character but this was like watching Gray's Anatomy in the zombie apocalypse.

The one possible redeeming quality of last night for me (aside from a mildly satisfying demise of the creepy cop) might have been the hints that "she's not really in charge". Knowing the basics of the source material I thought they may have been hinting at our ultimate next big-baddy.

I also wondered throughout if maybe the hospital was really sort of "Hilltop Colony Lite".

I kept suspecting another reveal but it didn't come.

I mean, maybe there's more too it but so much of it just seemed dumb. You have this secure building with apparently enough food and fuel for the generators to sustain your group. So you spend your resources to go out and find people to bring them in so you can patch them up and...force them to stay and mop the floor? Why would you do that? Why would you force Beth or Noah or Joan to stay, but if you somehow find a second doctor you would immediately throw one out on the street? And was there some compelling reason to keep the rapist around? He's providing what service, exactly?

I wonder why they have singled Beth out to do side quests.
Last year they had the "Beth wants go get drunk" episode.

I though it was ok,
reminded me a lot of the governor episode last season.
I think they were trying to set the table for what happens next week.