The Walking Dead

Loved every minute and they promised more gore and they were right

Loved the episode, but I can't remember a post-credits scene - maybe I missed it? Can someone put it in spoiler tags for me?

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Not much happened for the bulk of the episode this week, but the last ten minutes sure teed up the rest of 5A for sure.

Poor Bob. I hope that he gets rescued. (Hey a leg isn't THAT necessary - just ask Hershel.) The Termites really are just the worst. I had thought that he'd gotten bit in the basement and just wasn't telling Sasha, which is why he was all doom and gloom. Was he just overwhelmed from the day?

Do you know who I'm really liking lately, and I never thought I'd say this: Carl. He's got a good head on his shoulders and he's become thoughtful and is actually a good foil for Rick this year. Really liking what they're doing with that dynamic there.

I don't get Father Gabriel, but I know I will. Right now he's an enigma. He HAD to have done something bad, like Rick says. But he does seem really gutless or just spooked beyond reason. My guess is he did something so bad that he's just stopped doing anything because he can't deal.

Michonne and Rick are just the cutest. As is Judith and everyone who coos at her.

Operation Daryl Rescues Beth is underway. Love that Carol is in on it, too. It will probably be an epic shitstorm and I'm looking forward to that as well.

Apropos of nothing, Steve Yeun is looking super hot this year. Just, by the way.

Was he just overwhelmed from the day?

At first I thought he was bitten too but now IMO that's the reality behind his "making the best of the worst" game he plays with Sasha. He plays the optimist with her and then copes by weeping alone. And I'm so disappointed the Termites are back. Wish that had ended last week.

He HAD to have done something bad, like Rick says.

My guess is that he didn't let anyone else into the church with his food hoard. Not giving sanctuary is huge for a priest. It goes against all of their teachings and what they stand for.

And ITA about Carl and Operation Save Beth. And Steve Yeun, but that's been a constant for me :)

Was St Sarah's in the comics? Or was that for the benefit of Sarah Wayne :)

Re: Bob and Sasha, and Comics Spoilers:

Spoiler:

Was I the only one who thought the plan to handle the walkers in the basement was SUPER dumb? Hello! You're up top with guns, they're sludging around in a hole. Pick them off!

I was also going to post comic book spoilers and

RiverThames wrote:
Was I the only one who thought the plan to handle the walkers in the basement was SUPER dumb?  Hello!  You're up top with guns, they're sludging around in a hole.  Pick them off!

This, and it felt redundant of the big box store run (last?) season, where roof caved in. I think they're really proud of themselves for the scenarios and the effects but...uh...kind of boring and repetitive, folks.

I thought the same thing with regards to the walkers in the basement. Obviously this zombie apocalypse has endless ammo so it wasn't to conserve, so just shoot them from above!

Poor Bob.

They did mention they were running low on ammo and need to restock, it's why Glenn, Maggie and Tara found the silencers.

I knew Bob was a goner (or at least goner-adjacent) when they focused so much on him during the episode. It's such a dead (no pun intended) giveaway. It's lazy storytelling. How about making us care about subsidiary characters some time before you decide to put them in harm's way?

My exact words when Gareth met his inevitable end were, "Holy fuck, Rick!" Like, I get where he's coming from, but dude needs to chill just a bit.

Poor Bob. And poor Sasha. I cried at that bit.

Michonne and her katana were reunited. That is good.

I can't believe the group split up willingly. Like, really, Maggie and Glenn? I know that Rick's a bit brutal lately, but that's no reason to break off from the group.

And I'm curious to see who's in the bushes behind Daryl. I don't think it'd be either Carol or Beth (unless they go soap opera and Beth has amnesia) because why would they need to be told that Michonne is safe. So, I think it's a stranger. It would be pretty hilarious if the writers' reactions to the interminably stupid ship war that's happening in the Walking Dead fandom was to pair up Carol and Beth and send Daryl off by his lonesome.

The moment when Michonne picked up her katana all I could think was the line from Sweeney Todd: "At last my arm is complete again!"

The scene in the church, before Rick and gang appeared, was incredibly well done. Super tense.

Was that a woodcut of "The Last Supper" on the wall over the couch where Bob was lying/dying?

I think the split up happened because the cast is kind of unwieldy (12 accounted for, plus Beth). Rather than a driving plot point.

I wish they'd developed Bob more. They made him an alcoholic who'd had at least one previous group and we never found anything else about him before his obvious 'marked for death' dialogue. I feel like since Shane's death, there's no human drama just zombie jumps. We never got fallout, for example, from Rick exiling Carol, because there were zombie/governor shit, and then she saved theirs butts.

I kind of wish the Termites had stuck around because of their potential to cause human drama. Also, the actor playing Gareth is very pretty and delightfully evil.

Loved the episode, I was also concerned about splitting up the group again, they keep doing it despite saying they won't ....I personally did not mind ricks brutality as I think after all he has been through it makes perfect sense

Beth was totally going to kill a bitch at the end of that episode, yes? The look on her face, man. Emily Kinney has grown by leaps and bounds since season 2. I also loved her little smile when Noah got away. Oh, and her killing of that rapist cop with the jar of lollipops. That was some nice irony right there. (Irony may not be the right word, but it was nice something. Reversal?)

I thought it dragged a little in the second quarter, but the first quarter and the last half were great and the last fifteen minutes - that was tense. And now Carol's there, too. My god, Daryl's the worst at keeping track of his female companions.

Amputation eek

They didn't get much use out of Keisha Castle-Hughes, did they?

She's going to be on Game of Thrones, I thought, and was surprised when her name popped up. Maybe she just wanted to get to be a zombie.

I thought the episode dragged because they were trying hard to establish some sort of characterization of the drippy doctor and bossy cop lady, and it was hard to give a shit.

I'm thinking Carol was using herself as bait to get brought in; hopefully she's not too injured.

Can someone explain the Abraham backstory it wasn't clear to me...

From the show, combined with Cudlitz's info from The Talking Dead, and a couple of my own inferences: He and his family were staying at the store with their friends and neighbours. He goes on a run and comes back to find that his wife and kids have been raped by his friends. He kills them all, but in doing so terrifies his wife and kids who leave while he slept, and then he goes to find them only to find that they've been killed (by walkers or people, I wasn't sure). And then Eugene finds him and gives the Army sergeant a mission.

(Admittedly, I was making supper during the Talking Dead, so I may have misheard what he was saying.)

This episode was interesting in parts. It was good to get a better understanding of Eugene and Abraham. And I did like that the fact that Eugene was a phony came out relatively quickly. They could have dragged it out for many episodes, but they didn't. And I loved Eugene's interactions with Tara. He's still more useless than Judith, but maybe this started him on the right path. And it was good to get more glimpses of Rosita's personality, but she's still the least developed character, including Father Gabriel and Noah who combined have only been in three episodes, so that's a problem.

They have got to give Glenn and Maggie some purpose outside of each other. I barely know anything about either one of them outside of their relationship with the other person which is stupid considering how long each of them has been on this show. Also, episode 5, and Maggie still hasn't mentioned her sister. I actually hadn't noticed until all the reviews kept mentioning it, but yeah, you'd think, now knowing from Daryl that she's alive, she'd have some thoughts about finding Beth.

And they've got to find a better way of pacing these episodes. There are huge sections of each of them so far (with the exception of the premiere) that have just DRAGGED. They don't have to have non-stop zombie action, but I need to care about what's going on.

Thank you - from the blurred edges I wasn't sure if all of it was "real" or some kind of PTSD. I also like that Eugene was exposed quickly, I think TWD is pretty good in that manner. I am also surprised they still have not had Maggie say anything about Beth - after all the see the comments and memes from fans so they must know people find it odd .

dionneshea wrote:
And they've got to find a better way of pacing these episodes. There are huge sections of each of them so far (with the exception of the premiere) that have just DRAGGED. They don't have to have non-stop zombie action, but I need to care about what's going on.

Agreed. I'm not sure how to fix it (except possibly kill off half the cast), but the difference between the action and the dragging is profound.