Whoops accidentally posted this on BOLS! Sorry larry.
I am trying to get these out faster than right before the next episode!
So this week's episode ran right up on us and punched us in the face. Frankly it was a good thing. For the love of god I was sick of hearing Dale whine about morality. They need to accept two realities. The world is overrun with zombies, and people are bad.
The world is overrun by zombies! Gone are the days when a boy can walk through his back yard and the worst thing he could run across was a foraging skunk. Now he has to worry about zombies stuck in marshes, eating cows and doing all sorts of nasty things.
One question... Why has Rick not instituted a mandatory buddy system? The farm is far from secure. Cows smashed through the gate. There was a walker in the well. When I take my students on a field trip, I institute a mandatory and strict buddy system. And there are not 30 million zombies walking around! Well, dead ones at least..
Rick is logical, and being a cop would recognize the need for safety, thus requiring that EVERY one has a buddy and every one go on walkabouts with said buddy. Period. But in this episode we see Carl and Dale both walking off alone, and both running in to trouble. Previously it was Carol and Daryl. Uhoh... do we see a coincidence? Carl/Carol... Daryl/Dale? Is Carol going to do something that causes harm to Daryl accidentally? Hmmm...
Any way, back to my point. Granted, in both instances Carl and Dale were frustrated and annoyed and wandered off alone to do alone guy things and probably would have done so whether or not there was a buddy rule. But still.
So Carl is a kid, and kids do stupid things. I will take his zombie encounter at face value. The question is.. did Carl get scratched? Do we see potential future plot twists?
But Dale? He approached a writhing cow in the middle of a mostly open field on a clear moon light night. He looked at the cow for about 10 seconds... then turned around and BLAU.... BOOOYA... a zombie is standing there. How did he get there? Was he sneaking up on Dale like Scooby Doo trying to get away from a mummy? If you have ever been out in an open field on a night like that, you would know, there aint no way a Zombie would be able to sneak up on him. This zombie was feeding on a cow, (it's still alive) and must have heard Dale approaching... then it ran off to take cover behind a tree or boulder, then as Dale was busy examining it's handy work, snuck up behind him like a ninja.
This harkens back to the opening of season 2. When a horde of zombies shambled up on them while they were stuck in the traffic snarl, FROM THE DIRECTION THEY CAME! God there are so many good things about this show, I hate it when they throw out logic and character for plot twists. Dale was the most cautious member of the group. He was preoccupied with his thoughts and feelings about the execution... but so much that he missed the zombie in the open?
Well, we all learned a valuable tip. If you ever encounter an eviscerated steer in the middle of the field at night, don't look behind you, sprint straight forward. It is your only hope.
People are bad!
Bad at what? Well Tdog is bad at getting screen time. This time he was on screen for about 27 seconds. Did he even have a line? The woman that plays Carol is bad at making us understand that she is upset. Carl said the most hurtful line yet to appear in the show to her, and she reported it matter of factly to Rick and Lori, as if she was repeating some ones fast food order. She delivered the lines so blandly that Lori's next lines, when she tells her to "calm down" were absurd. The woman was not upset! She was barely even speaking. (More bad writing by the way, I don't think Lori would have told her to "calm down".)
The prisoner is bad. Or is he? We can't tell! (Good writing and acting.) He is so believable when speaking to Rick that you want them to give him a chance. Yet, when he tries to manipulate Carl, and when he killed the female zombie, you see a little bit of his bad side. My instinct? he is bad. He probably hit on Maggie at some point and she blew him off in typical hot girl pre ZA fashion. He no doubt harbors ill feelings and they will come back to haunt her!
Merl badly needs to come back. It will be cool if he is part of the bad guys. As some one mentioned before, I doubt he will be the leader though. I think the guy from Philly was... Merl is definitely not a leader. He is a bully, and there is no way a large group of armed dudes would follow him, especially ones of unscrupulous intent.
It was a great episode. The kid is responsible for Dale's death. That is gona cause problems. Hopefully they will kill him off. Besides, the writers have to get rid of him sooner or later. Two years will have passed during the production of the show, spanning the start of Seasons 1 and 3. That 12 year old kid will be 14... and no doubt hit a growth spurt and pimples. The show itself will only span about 2 months. Such is the problem with having kids in shows! We can expect him to no last any longer than season 3.
Dale bought it. Good, I was getting sick of his continually shocked face and preaching rhetoric. The world is now a bad place and there is no room for morality. You think about yourself, and the guy who helps you stay alive. Any one else is in the way, and subject to execution. Especially if they shoot at you.
Tdog also has to go. They have way too many unimportant characters. Like Dale, they are zombie bate, which really is their only purpose. Tdog, little sister, Otis' wife, all will hopefully be gone, and hopefully by the end of season 2.
We see some cool flashes of action in the previews! Zombies breaking through a fence... blondie running with the gun bag, the kid ripping the skin off his hands to escape... The last 2 episodes of this season promise to end with a bang!
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5 comments:
It was definitely a good episode.
I wasn't a huge fan of the portrayal of carl's newfound callousness. I understand that he's slowly losing his childhood (it's been slowly working up since he was shot and then recovered), but this episode was just too large of a leap. Sophia's death was a "trigger" for every single character on the show of any consequence. Post-trigger, Carl is sullen, mean, and a brat. Prior to the death of Sohpia he was helpful, optimistic, and innocent.
They won't kill off Carl. He is Rick's anchor in the world. Many of Rick's decisions revolve around Carl, as we saw with the near-execution. Carl is showing signs of being Shane-like, as was Rick, and that realization snapped him out of the decision to kill Randall.
Carl is a focal point and removing him would doom the show to become an action show without believable character depth and interaction.
I still don't understand your desire to kill off any and all ancillary characters. If everyone dies, what is there for the core characters to live for? They might as well all drink the Kool-Aid and wait for the mothership.
The overarching theme of all post-apoc fiction is hope. Hope for recovery from the disaster, and a return to human community. Without that supporting cast, the main characters have no reason to hope for a return to community, because they're all that's left. Being the last six people on Earth is a death sentence, because you know you'll never forge anything new, or continue your existence through progeny and legacy.
Next week looked a little muddled from the preview, with no clear direction presented. I could go in any direction really, so I can't be overly excited about any one event.
I agree that this was a good episode. I am getting tired of all the back and forth and lack of logic though. I was so happy to see Dale get taken out. It was a proper gory scene and the end to what has become an annoying character.
The first part of this season really was a drag, I am glad that it is finally getting some traction and I just HOPE that the next few episodes really make it worth the slowness at the start.
I gota add, that i love the fact that Daryl takes the weapon and aims it at Dale's head. "Sorry brother," and a shot can be heard ringing out. Epic Daryl! i hoppe the dude survive this bunch of idiots and they make a serie of him riding his motocicle killing zombies/bad guys and scums.
Rhino, you are right. The main characters need anchors. Tdog is not that. My problem with how the show uses it's secondary characters is that aside from Carl, who is really a main in my opinion, none of the main characters even show that they care about them. Has Rick even ever spoken to Tdog? Did Lori ever have a heart to heart with Dale? In fact, I think it is the opposite. Lori hates Blondie. She all but said it. Shane threatened to kill Dale.
While you are right in a story telling way, the show itself actually is more the opposite. The secondary characters are hardly anchors.
They are plot points. When the writers need to put the main characters in some sort of drama, Tdog cuts his arm or Blondie shoots Daryl.
As for Carl, I don't know why, but kids on camera annoy me if it is not a show about kids.
Anakin Skywalker any one?
In my opinion, if the characters are going to be nothing more than tools to push plot for the mains, kill em off and continually replace them with fresh and interesting characters. Can any one describe Tdog's character?
It's not that I want them dead, I want better writing... Know what I mean?
Remember that TDog "drove the bus" for a couple episodes in Season One. I agree that his character is mostly surface at this point. We don't know his background yet, but I guess we can hope for some exposition soon.
I di have to disagree with the killing off and rotating out of secondary characters though. Audiences tend to hate disposable characters. You can have background characters who do little or nothing, but introducing a new Red Shirt for the zombies to eat each week is tiresome.
We'll see how these next two epis and then Season Three pan out!
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