Allow me to quote myself from 9 months ago.


Beth is a terrible character portrayed by a poor actress. Screen time dedicated to her is effectively being flushed down the toilet.

In case they needed to tie a damsel to a train track at some point?

This show is filled with villains so bad that calling them "cartoonish" is insulting to cartoons.

So I don't want to get too spoilery. Some of this is actually from set reports, beware

Glad the cat is out of the bag re: Eugene.

I get that Abraham has mental issues, but I was kinda hoping for them to just be like "alright dude...you go through by yourself," because his stubborness was really starting to be over-the-top.

A reasonably alright episode. I think I was the most relaxed for this one I've been for any all season, saw no reason to expect any major stressful moments as a viewer. That gave me room to just let the episode do its thing, relax & enjoy it.

A little "slow" from previous episodes (but didn't see the Beth one from last week) but still enjoyed it.

In the bus zombie scene, there were a couple "knife through the chin" but wouldn't think that would have destroyed the brain?

Also, starting a fire with paper inside the house didn't seem right to me.

The Eugene voyeur scene seemed unnecessary to me.

First one in forever I've watched in real time. Commercials obviously a pain but it was enjoyable

I feel like this is what the show always should have been too. Forward moving, lots of scenery, many different characters.

Straight from the source material.

Whether they'll use it to set up some other developments later & tie it back in or if it was simply an homage {shrug} beats me.

I liked the Beth episode better. Nothing revealed that wasn't already heavily telegraphed since these characters were introduced, and I just don't really give a shit about anything I saw tonight. Will be happy to get back to Carol and Daryl next week.

good choice on the fire truck. those get, what, 5 miles to the gallon?

Yeah but it starts up on the 3rd try after sitting for months/years.

Gets about 5.5 after you drain the only water thats left for miles out of it.

Most uneven TWD episode ever. An utterly brilliant first 20 minutes afaic, a horribly written middle 20 minutes with the worst stunt in show history, and then a mixed last 20 minutes. Good, but the middle stopped it from being great.

One of the less interesting episodes imo.

Curious as to your thoughts about what parts were "utterly brilliant," and what was "the worst stunt in show history?"

Okay - well now I see the stunt (although it's barely within that middle 20 minutes), but I'm not sure I see what was so utterly brilliant about the first 20 minutes (although it wasn't bad or anything).

I thought that was the best written sequence of the show since probably the premiere. (Rick & the little zombie girl was the greatest establishing moment ever, created the universe for me right there).

It wasn't so much character development perhaps as it was character revelation. Carol in the scene before the credits, unshaken by the past & the seeming normalcy of that office, still completely immersed in the current reality. We know for sure, she isn't going to regress and, honestly, that she has no need to regress. They told more about the character in that one scene than 8 pages of dialogue (which is usually what they resort to).

I'm not a huge fan of the character, not a big fan of the actress ... but I completely loved how that was written.

Cool.

Not that great of an episode to me, but it was highly necessary to setup the finale.

But a decent setup I think.

The van landing on its wheels just pissed me off, hah.

The Van thing was stupid. The zombie lemmings was stupid too, just a couple for effect, and then they just get out of the van and stand there, right where they were landing for a few moments? It just seemed really rushed for what was supposed to be a neat stunt, but wasn't.


I liked the rest of the episode, but I tend to like episodes like these where we just get to spend more time with a couple characters, like the ones in the second half of last year where everyone was split up and we'd watch one little group each episode and get some backstory.

I really hate the episodes that try to get us closer to the characters and their internal struggles, etc. I want suspense, surprise and movement towards a valid end-point for the gang of misfits we've been following. This weeks episode put me to sleep.

I am not sure I could disagree more.

I love it when the show focuses on one or two characters and let's us inside them. That's when the show really shines, in my opinion. What episode did that better than the one where Carol had to kill the little girl? None. And that's probably the strongest episode the show has had to date.

Carol and Darryl are two of the best characters on the show. Melissa McBride is fantastic. She and the writers have done amazing work with her character considering where she began - a marginal, bit player, a batter wife with little or no action - to what she's become today. Fantastic stuff and a big part of why I like the show. I love good zombie action as much as (no, probably more) than the next guy, but without good characters and caring about the individuals at risk, it's just blood, gore and noise signifying nothing. You need to care about the people, have some investment in them in order to really make the threats and surprises have some actual suspense to them.

And the thing about this show - I think I've said this a lot - is that there is no "valid endpoint." Beyond them all dying, it doesn't exist. I suppose it could be "find a cure," but I really don't think that's in the cards. The show is about surviving in this world and what that survival does to the people in it. That's why you need episodes like this and others that go inside and show just what it's doing.

The van falling was poorly executed. I absolutely loved the lemming zombies, a really great touch, but, I agree, they either should have kept falling, or Darryl and Carol should have moved a bit quicker to get out of there. Some of what happened was a bit clumsy.

Overall, I liked the episode.

Totally understand your POV. I also understand that the show is more about the characters' experience - not the meta game that I am more curious about.

My 26-year-old daughter is very emotionally invested in the show and it's characters. She hates the fact that it doesn't impact me emotionally when a character dies, etc. I tend to cheer for that stuff - and it royally pisses her off. :popcorn:

+1

I do wish there was a defined end point. AMC will likely milk it for all it's worth.

Pretty much the last thing I want.

Only show I watch at this point, kinda tough to even contemplate it ending. I'd be fine with a Gunsmoke length run,

Maybe I'll change my mind if they get out of the most rural area of the US. It's so unpopulated I wonder if undiscovered indigenous peoples live there. Can I see a McDonalds or a Car dealership at some point? Every car is a 2001 Dodge Caravan.

I mean I'm sure it's for budgetary reasons, but it'd be cool to see the spin-off be somewhere more urban. Or at least suburban.

Hey...a guy can dream.

I wish I got a vote cause I'd gladly tell everyone to let singing Amy stay put in the hospital.

Logically though (and the show has kinda made this point in the early going), that's where you want to be. With the bulk of the population looking at you as Zombie Chow, you don't want to be in places with (formerly) large quantities of (formerly) people.

I think Maggie would be on your side with that vote. :lol:

it was also shot really well. I don't often notice stuff like that, but there were a few scenes that just looked great - Carol looking out of the window with her full reflection looking back at her, the two of them laying back on the bed, that one shot of Daryl in the car that looked liked it was drawn from a comic book. Lots of nice little touches like that.

I'm totally with JimGA on this. For a while, I thought this was going to be my favorite episode of all time but after a great start it really fizzled, starting with the van scene.

Was that truck they drive off inside of in the end the same truck Merle stole?

Lots of filler here IMO. Maybe necessary to establish some stuff but felt like a lot of filler. And a poor advertisement for those multi-group episodes imo.

Next week I'm guessing we lose 1-2 regulars and get a cliffhanger ending with our new villian (courtesy of Ftr G)

That was such an unessential episode

but, that one girl found a yo-yo!

Come on now! If you didn't have electricity and your sole source of any kind of entertainment (the sweet, dulcet tones of Beth), was missing and presumed dead, you'd be over the moon about finding a yo-yo!

There was a lot of filler, some pretty cool, gross napalmed zombies and...

Wife and I feeling pretty annoyed with the show over the past two weeks. Didn't think they'd give us two duds in a row...

She really seems like she's getting fat, too

Just wondering here ... did anybody else think Serratos was just a taaaad overdressed for Talking Dead afterwards. I mean, she looked nice & all but I don't recall anyone else ever going full-on pinup makeup on TD before.

It just smacked of trying too hard, IMO.

Obviously Carl and Michonne at the church sets up a way for Morgan to join the group, right?

I agree that this was a boring episode. Hopefully some good payoffs coming, but with such short seasons, you can't be wasting episodes like this.

I haven't read anything online yet so none of this is spoil possible or clouded from other's speculation:

The cartoon army girl with Abraham and Eugene would be a classic Walking Dead death next week. Give character nothing to do but stand near more important people for a year+, finally give character a scene where you get to learn just a little about them, immediately kill them.

I'd guess the preacher too if I didn't think he was more deeply involved in the comics and thus likely to stay awhile, I think?

Yup. And I am usually one of the bigger fans here of the slower "learn some more about these people even if almost nothing happens" episodes.

That might be the frustrating part of this. Since they're basically doing 8 episode arcs, it feels like they've settled into a pattern of 1-2 action packed episodes, a couple slower but decent eps, then at least one complete filler/piece moving episode before they get to the fireworks factory in whatever "finale" they're at.

The super frustrating part is that there will be times where the show touches on absolute greatness. Then they end up walking it back in an attempt to service something that is completely unnecessary and that will kill a week or two. Like this search for Amy is unnecessary. They could have just been like "she gone" and that's that. And there's always a classic move where they'll give an underutilized character a push and then they're zombie meat. For example, T Dog was nothing more than token filler for several years, then he gets redeemed and eaten. Not to mention that the setting has gotten tiresome. I feel more confident of the direction now and I think if they do end up doing a certain story witha more static location that they will be able to make it not another prisonfarm

Disagree entirely. I will take the existential musings of Carol and Daryl over the super action-heavy episodes any time.

The show ultimately has to be about the human cost of things, those who are left living and how they resolve their past life with what it's now become.

And Carol and Daryl are among the only characters who have shown believable growth over the series. They are the most compelling characters to me.

Too bad on Beth.