The Walking Dead?

Hi folks, it has been a while since I posted any thing but I wanted to chat a bit about TWD today!  If you have not watched the episode, click away. NOW.  Here is harmless picture before I start talking about the plot of Sunday's episode. As always, if you have comic book knowledge, please keep it to yourself unless asked!  This discussion is about the TV show.

The first question is who will be the first of the above two to be killed off?

Ok thats not really why I wanted to write today.

My question, and this can be answered by you comic book readers if needed, is what time is this world set in?  Obviously it is recent... but how recent? Or is it an alternative universe sort of setting? As I understand the comic setting, there was no zombie culture... so the word does not exist and this is why we get different groups calling the undead different names.

But can we zoom in on a time? I am guessing 1998 or so.  Why?

Well first, there is not a lot of difference in style between now and the late 90s.  Not that our characters are paragons of style any way, but Khaki pants, jeans, boots, corduroy, etc.

Weaponry is very much the same too.

There were some new cars like the Dodge Charger, but that is just about advertising, not continuity.

So why are we in the late 90s?  Well cell phones were still fairly in their infancy. not EVERYONE had one.  I did not own a cell until late 1999. And at most they were simply still just phones then. In none of the flashback scenes that I can think of do we see a cell phone in any ones hands.  There may have been one in the background here and there... Example? Take the flashback scene with Shane and Lori, Carol and her Husband on the road when Atlanta got fire bombed.  Were that today, every person sitting around, including Carol's husband, would have had their eyes glued to their devices... holding them up in the air trying to get service... etc.  This addiction to cell phones is a post 2005 thing.

You also don't see any cell towers. I drive down a parkway to get to work every day. There are cell towers every couple miles. Not only that, any water tower, stand alone or on a roof, or chimmey also has cell receivers on it.  In TWD, you don't see em any where. The water tower in the last episode had none of these. Granted the south is less populated and needs less cell towers... but still.  The lack of people on their devices and lack of evident cell towers screams pre 2005 and more closer to 2000.

Why is this even an issue?

The ghostly black and white photographs that Aaron used to try to convince the gang to join Alexandria.

Even in today's world, finding actual film in a film camera is a challenge. Finding the chemicals to develop them?  Good luck. I teach in one of the most Art supportive states in the country and even here most high schools have cut traditional photography. You really wont just find this stuff hanging around.  In a zombie apocalypse version of today's world?  I just can't imagine finding dark room supplies. Aaron explained that the camera was damaged and there were limited supplies or whatever so he couldnt print a pic of people.  But this is my problem.  Why restrict yourself to a film camera? Even if Aaron was skilled in developing film... why spend the time?

Reason two why TWD takes place pre 2000!

No digital cameras.

The leader of Alexandria sent out his recruitment scouts to try to bring in more deserving survivors, armed with horrible prints of ghostly, unpopulated walls and such.  Why???  If getting more survivors was such a priority, and using photographs to lure them in was their main tactic, why wouldnt they use good pictures?

While finding a working film camera, working film, and chemicals to develop it would be a chore in today's world... I would imagine every empty house in zombie apocalypse Alexandria would have at least one working digital camera, Ipad, phone... you name it.  Also there has to be at least one house per block that has a computer and a working printer.  Why not just devote some gasoline to a generator for ten minutes, scrounge up a working PC and printer, and print some nice pictures? Cant find a camera? While not having traditional film stuff available, ANY school will have dozens of computers, printers and digital cameras neatly organized on shelves. Police stations, hospitals, libraries... any of these places would have these devices in working condition.  (In addition to just about any residential.)  Not to mention any grocery store, Radio Shack or Best Buy. Digital pocket cameras would simply not be a priority when scavenging for the apocalypse... these things would simply be ALL OVER the place.  20 minutes plugged into a running generator and a ream of office paper with a printer and these guys can make all the great pictures they want. "What? That printer ran out of ink? Throw it away we have 32 more!"

The leader would have devoted some resources to making this happen.  Since it did not happen, and Aaron is showing off a collection of prints that look like they were taken off some 1950 bulletin board... I have to assume TWD happens in a pre 2000 era where digital cameras were an expensive novelty and many households lacked computers still, and many more lacked printers.  There have been laptops here and there... the office that Daryl and Carol were in... and I think Milton used a tablet when researching the zombies?  I would have to rewatch those episodes... some one fill remind me.  But the world is mostly devoid of high tech, much like the pre tech days of the late 90s.

Want more? Photo albums.  Rick and Lori are in their Mid 30s? Early 40s?  They, like most of us are children of the digital age.  Printing and making photo albums is tedious when we have Facebook, Photobucket and Snapfish.  Few people these days make photo albums.  You know when I used to?  Pre 2000.

Phew! Got that off my chest.

The rest of the episode was spot on... except for one more mild point.  I don't care how convinced Rick became, there is NO WAY he would have carried his baby through those gates and watched them slam closed behind him.  He would have insisted upon most of the group staying outside the gate, hidden, with one of the two scouts to use as bargaining. He even took the time to hide a pistol... just in case... why not hide... I dont know... the baby?

 He, with a few of the party would have gone into town to investigate.

Just a few weeks prior they were blasted out of their prison and then encountered Terminus.  When they got to Terminus, they took the time to scout and infiltrate, and that place proved to be a death trap. Alexandria? Rick would still have physical wounds from the beating at Terminus, not to mention emotional ones.  He would have investigated. He would have looked and made sure it was safe. Especially after a whole episode of not trusting.  But no... after threatening and beating the scout, and arguing with every one, bordering on near insanity... he walks into Alexandria with not an inkling as to what is on the other side... baby in arms.  What if they were just playing the sound of children on a speaker?

Duh...

Jawaballs

The Walking Dead... holy crap

HEAVY SPOILER ALERT:

Do not read any further if you do not want the episode spoiled.















Holy Crap.

Ok. Lets start with this. I have not watched Revolution since episode three. But allow me to show you how a terrible actor portrays grief/sorrow/agony at the sudden death of a loved one:

There it is. You can almost feel the anguish! (not) Actually it is a little hard to tell if she just lost her surrogate mother, just found out her pet goldfish that she won at the carnival the night before went belly up, or if she just heard Keeping Up with the Kardashians was cancelled.  

Observe true acting:

First, I suppose if her expression is supposed to emulate the shock of a 10 year old who just shot his mother in the head after watching his little sister ripped from her bleeding womb, than she is spot on. Their expressions are very similar. But for Carl's case, it is appropriate. For Charlie, it is bland. But looking more closely, you can see that Chandler Riggs is indeed a better actor. (Bear with me, I know this is just a picture, I am referring to this moment of the scene, not the image itself.) While the two of them share the same blank downward stare, his is a true look of shock, loss and disbelief. Hers? It looks like she is channeling her inner five year old, remembering what it was like when she stubbed her toe and went crying to daddy. You can see the walls he is erecting against the demons growing inside him. On her face all you can see is her disappointment in waking up on a Saturday morning to find that her little brother drank all the milk and she can't eat her Lucky Charms.

But Charlie and Carl are not why I am showing these pics. Do you want to see anguish? Take a look at Rick. His acting in this scene, while a bit exaggerated, was fantastic. You can't script this sort of scene.

I can imagine JJ Abrams telling Charlie "Ok, now go hug your uncle and look sad".  She complies. "Hmm. that's terrible. Oh well. We are out of time and over budget. Perfect! CUT! Wrap."  It doesn't matter. NBC will air the crap and the public will eat it up.

Thankfully The Walking Dead expects more, and gets it.

Andrew Lincoln channeled something few people can fathom. He portrayed the anguish of a man who has had just about every thing sane in his life ripped from his heart, one bit at a time.  You can see in his facial expression the shock and horror, the incredible disbelief, and desperate seeking for an answer that is not there, all at once.  Most lesser actors, like the chick playing Charlie, would have run up to Carl and hugged him in a sobbing embrace being all melodramatic and pathetic and using it as an opportunity to bury their face and hide the fact that they have no idea how to portray anguish. Well Andrew Lincoln tipped the scales of sorrow, and you could literally see Rick descend into madness. His unfettered flop to the ground in agony of the heart, almost wrenched my own out of my chest. I could actually feel what he was feeling. I don't think I have ever had that experience watching TV, ever.

If he fails to win an Emmy... I will probably flop on the ground myself.

This acting folks, is why we love this show and laugh at Revolution. Scenes like this, and the one that led to it, are what make TWD one of the most fantastic television shows, of any network, of any genre, ever.

Now that I got that off my chest!

This episode left me staring at the screen for a good long time.  Since my power was off for almost all of time between this episode and the week prior, I didn't get to see any previews. From what I did see, I don't remember seeing any thing that led me to believe what was going to happen here.

In the last episode, that I did not get to write about thanks to Sandy, we were treated to an entire hour of watching Andrea look all doe eyed at The Governor and Michone skulk about looking all skulky. I think that was about it!  Some more plot was revealed, including Merl showing a little more of what makes him tick. Are they actually going to turn him into an anti-hero? But the episode was forgettable at best and could have been summed up in a 3 minute flashback.

Well they made up for it this week.

First the convicts went to the group appealing to humanity. The poor guys got a dose of what the new reality of the world is. I felt that Rick's decision to expel them was correct. While they possibly could have become good members of the group, there was just too much mystery involved, and too much chance.  But all of that  didn't matter once the walkers started doing their thing.

The next 45 minutes could have been a season finale any other year for any other show. But for season three of TWD, this was just episode four!  The group gets splintered by a herd of walkers surprising them from behind.  Hershel and his daughter safely lock themselves up in a cage, while Maggie, Carl and Lori run inside and Tdog and Carol make a break in another direction.

Tdog shockingly gets bitten in the shoulder. Something I was absolutely NOT expecting. It took me several minutes to understand that we were witnessing the death of a major character!  I was like... "Wait a second, this means he is going to die!" Man this episode just got more interesting.

Then to make matters worse, Carl, Lori and Maggie make it to safety, but Lori starts going into labor. Lord when it rains it pours!  At worst at this point I am expecting more complications as walkers hear the baby being born and Tdog to have some emotional good bye like the guy from season one.

NOPE.

Just as we were adjusting to this episodes shocking events, it gets even worse!  Lori, who already had a problem pregnancy, developed complications. She was not dialated and was dripping blood.  I have a pretty good idea that Lori knew from the start that with her history, this baby was a death sentence. How could you possibly have a successful C-section performed by a vet or his untrained daughter in the middle of the wilds of a zombie apocalypse. Deciding whether or not to take the abortion pills had nothing to do with the babies life, it was her own at the time. She knew the baby would kill her. She decided then that the babies life meant more and that she would make the sacrifice.

From there it gets medieval. Tdog knows he is done. He is trying to get Carol to safety, and comes across a group of walkers between them and an exit.  So instead of going out like a punk, he charges the walkers, sacrificing himself and getting his throat torn out in the process while Carol makes a run for it!  What a way to go. Tdog proved, if only to himself, that he was NOT weak.

I love TWD for this. It is full of little personal struggles and victories.  You could see a moment of clarity in his face. His conversation with Dale on the highway was sort of a premonition. But in this case, Tdog chose his way to go.

But then came the even more unexpected.  Lori also having a moment of clarity, and also making that choice.  

She knew what to do when the time came, and made it so.

The director framed the light of the window on her face, a sort of absolution for what she has done. And this is the moment where you can see her clarity. And where you can see the last visages of Carl's childhood slip away with her last breaths.

Like the scene with Rick, Lori went a little over the top with the "you're good, stay good" stuff.  But it still felt right. And the scene where Carl comes upstairs after the gun shot... chilling.

Hulksmash said of my last article that I was reading too far into it, that there was no comparison between Carl and Shane. Well readers, I think we can officially equate Carl's shooting of his mother to Shane's shooting of the fat dude. Different circumstances yes, but same result. Just think about it, in less than a year, a 10 year old kid had to shoot two of the three people he loved most in the world. The zombie apocalypse takes another victim without a bit of flesh being taken at all. When it is Rick's turn for a bullet in the head, my money is on Carl to complete the trifecta. I think we can look forward to some seriously dark content involving Carl in the episodes to come. I can't wait!

Side note:

I wonder if he actually managed the shot, or just shot the ground, or if he failed to do her brain in. It would not be surprising to see a walker Lori after all this!  That would take huge balls for TWD and I would cheer.

So where to go from this?

The episode was literally exhausting to watch. I was drained.

The convicts earned the trust of the group, for now. What little is left of it.  But with a baby now here, they are going to need the infinitely and potentially more useful duo more than Tdog and Lori. It will be satisfying to see how they integrate with the group, and just how much more badass the group becomes.

I see leadership issues cropping up with Rick, especially as he pulls away from the baby that is probably not even his, but serves as a reminder to his friend that he killed, and the wife that he all but left while she was right next to him. That is going to leave Maggie and Glen doing most of the parenting. Hershel gets a stay of execution for now.  I was expecting him to be written off fairly quick, especially since I expected at least one of the cons to join the group. There is only so much room in the budget!  But the complete right hook of killing Tdog and Lori opens up that slot. We will see more death from the other side of the plot I'm sure.

Speaking of the other side...

Merl is going to go to the farm, then track his brother all about Atlanta. Eventually that is going to lead The Gov to the prison.  We are going to see several confrontations.

Merl vs Daryl:

Yup, Daryl and Merl are going to be happy at first, but then Daryl is going to be forced to make choices as it becomes clear that Merl is incompatible with the group. Blood is thicker than water.

But hold on!  With Rick and Carl both descending into madness, will there still be such a conflict of interests between them and Merl?  Perhaps they will find each other a bit more agreeable!

It is too hard to tell now, and impossible to predict, but we are going to see a lot of struggling when the two groups meet, both external and internal. Demons are going to come rearing their ugly heads, and death will follow.

I don't know what sort of weirdness we will see from Andrea yet, and likewise from Michone.  She is definitely going to end up in bed with The Gov. From there will we see her bad side emerge? Or will her sense of goodness pull through. I believe that previously, it was only Dale who maintained her, otherwise we would have seen her pulling a Shane. Unfettered and seemingly betrayed by the group, I think the zombie apocalypse is going to take it's toll on her.

We will see what happens when her or Michone snoop their way into the basement and find that room full of zombie heads in fish tanks.

Well there you have it. Absolutely brilliant television. If they keep this up, we will be seeing TWD mentioned a whole lot more at next year's Emmies.

I for one will be driving 90 all the way home from DaBoyz on Sunday in order to get home in time to see the show. (I don't have DVR).

Jawaballs

EDIT:
Another interesting side note... In the opening credits when they show the little scenes of things related to the characters played by the actors whose names are up on the screen, when they got to Andrea and Lori, they combined the scene. They had some shells representing Andrea and some centipedes representing Lori I presume. (Fitting)  But as things turn out, the cut scene is actually fitting for Andrea alone, with the shells and bugs, while they made it easy to edit out Lori completely!  I also wondered why there was no cutscene for Tdog, seeing as how he has been there since the start. But along that same line of thought, I don't believe there is one for Glen either... uhoh... Might this be a predictor for who bites it next?

I miss The Walking Dead

Ok folks, this has been bothering me for weeks, and I wanted to discuss it further.

Michone.

I ranted about this a bit in my last TWD post, and most of you told me to relax, I was over thinking it, and it was cool.  Well my zombie world does not have room for this!

I hate it.

Probably the most intriguing thing about TWDtv is that the show is so firmly rooted in reality. "But Jawa, this is a show about zombies..." True, but the producers have gone through great lengths to establish a strong, believable foundation. This makes it easy for us to willingly suspend our disbelief.

Case in point:  The scene with Jenner in the CDC.

If this one scene did not exist, I would be much more willing to accept things like a mysterious sword wielding stranger leading around mouthless zombies on chains.  But it's too late.  Jenner pointed out that some sort of infection invades the brain, killing it. Then reanimates it, but only the most basic of instincts.

The instinct to feed, and basic motor skills are fed by this strange fire.  This answers how and why zombies do what they do. They need to feed, and go after any food source they can. Some have eaten possum, a group was eating a cow, etc.  But the episode also set the stage for another stark reality of zombies, if there can be a reality of zombies. Any thing that was human about them is gone. Most importantly, the human ability to think, reason and learn.  I don't know the exact quote, but it was something like "every thing that we were, is gone."

Enter Michone and her chain'o'zombies.

This kind of thing works well in comics and video games.  It's cool. We can willingly accept a chick with a katana and her tamed zombie pets.  In a fantastical comic world, it is ok to break the rules. (That Jenner set)

How are the rules breaking? Well, once you accept that zombies can be taught to be led on a chain, you accept that zombies can be taught to do other things. If zombies can learn that it is ok to be on a chain, what else can they learn?

You guys saw that one right? Humans built a stronghold on Manhattan because zombies would not go through water. But wait... zombies learned lessons, and figured out that an enmasse attack by walking through the water would overwhelm the survivors. Terrible.

Once we accept that these fantastical comic/video game images can be translated into a TV show based on reality, we lose it and get Umbrella Corp swooping in to erase any evidence of their wrong doings with chizled hollywood model soldiers.

Other examples?

How about zombie dogs that instead of biting you with their mouth, have entire heads that open up with banana sized teeth and snake like tongues.

It's worse than that, he's dead Jim...

Or you get situations like this one:  "WTF I shot that mutant zombie 20 times in the face with a shotgun! Why didn't he die?"  "Because has 3 million hit points you dummy."

Remember this?

Great scene. We immediately felt for the zombie. Rick came back to put her out of her misery. The webisode gave us background info on how this happened.  Fantastic. One of my top 10 TV moments.

Ever see Return of the Living Dead?  You know, that mid 80s punk rock zombie party?

Well, once we start accepting silly comical zombie stunts, we start getting this.

This is what could have happened instead of the scene with Rick.  They are essentially the same zombie! Know what this zombie is doing in this picture? Yup, talking to them. She is telling them, in Caveman type jargon, that she wants to eat their brains.

Once our zombies start learning lessons, like "Hey, I'm on a chain and have no mouth, I'm NOT going to try to eat the lady with the sword because she will cut my head off," the next logical step is that they start learning that certain combinations of moans and grunts, repeated in pattern, can be used as a way to communicate and once they are communicating, they are organizing, and invading New York.

Why stop there? Lets put zombies behind the wheel of Humvees.  I bet a zombie would have driven that tank Rick hid in. How about zombies with guns! Zombies in the CDC in Maine trying to find ways to make the virus work faster and infect humans before they die!!

It goes on and on. I really want to see the show as rooted in reality (Believable) as possible. Which is why I hate Michone's chained up zombie pets. What do you guys think?  Can you name any other absurd zombie moments?

Ok, got work to do. Those were my thoughts on the commute this morning. :)

Come on October!

Jawaballs

The Walking Dead Season Two: Season Finale

As you guys know, I have been writing these for the better part of two seasons, and religiously every week for season two.  I have always tried to avoid inadvertant spoilers by placing revealing pictures as the header and what not.  But last week I guess I lost a subscriber because my TWD post spoiled the episode for him.  The article that went up two days after the episode aired.

I will start by apologizing to the guy for my article spoiling the episode for him.

But seriously, whats a man to do. It's not like I blasted a pre air spoiler all over the internet. I wrote about it two days after it was on TV. And I even attempted to protect from spoiling any thing by using a season one picture as the header so as not to have the new pic appear in the blog rolls.  But alas, I guess my article in it's entirety showed up in some sort of google reader he used.

So having said that, I warn you, read at your own risk if you and a tribe of Brazilian rain forest natives are the only people left in the world who have not seen The Walking Dead season finale.

Well as Rhino had said, I had my blood bath.

The episode delivered all that was promised, and hoped for.  The end of the farm. The death of useless characters, and some extreme character twists.  Rick was pushed to the brink, Lori revealed her twisted bitch nature, and every one else was shown the back door.

First let me discuss the episode as a whole. Outstanding.  The chaos of the scene was delicious, and the burning of the barn was spectacular. In The Talking Dead they discuss their good fortune with how it worked out, but I wanted to say that damn it was great.  It was such an amazing collapse and scene, with the horde of zombies back lit by the flaming building, that even the zombie extras had to turn in awe.  (You could see some of them turn their heads in surprise.)  I want to congratulate AMC and the creators of the show for an absolute outstanding series. And thank them.

In all of this mess, we saw one prevailing theme. Perceived order falling to chaos.  The farm was safe. The survivors were building a home where they could live. They had sustainable food, and a protected perimeter. But then the swamp dried up.  Uhoh...

As things collapsed, by the way the collapse was not when the helicopter started a zombie herd... it started when Shane freaked out and opened the barn, then Rick went to town after Hershel.  Bringing home the prisoner started a series of choices that would tear the group apart.  The zombies just facilitated things.

So Rick went over the deep end. The one who thrived on order the most was most impacted when it disappeared.  The actor playing Rick has been fantastic, but the final scene, where he admits to killing Shane to Lori, then to the group was amazing and does television proud.  Where has this dude been hiding?  I was utterly convinced about the anguish in Rick's world as he first told Lori about Shane, then looked her in the eye as she recoiled away, confirming her true feelings.  Then even more so when he addressed the group.  The man had had enough.

How much can one man take?

As I said last week, Rick stuck shane because it was indeed personal. He flat admitted it this week.  Rick knew Shane had to die or go away. Every one did.  But what the rest of them did not have knowledge of was Shane's confrontation and Rick saving him.  Carol, of all people, was questioning Rick's honor. It was funny how Daryl defended him.  Daryl, a man who probably his whole life was seen as having no value to society, and was now deemed as needed, was defending a man who would probably have put him in jail had they met six months earlier.

And who the hell does Carol think she is?  She is completely useless to the group and in fact hinders their safety. Without them, she is meat. Who is she to accuse Rick of having no honor? When no one else ran after her daughter, he chased her down, trying to save her.  I guess her role next season has now been defined, the instigator. In season two she was the object of a lot of the drama, now she will be the source and creator.

So yah, Rick steps off the deep end.  He makes it clear in no uncertain terms, that HE is the boss, and it is being done his way.  Frankly, it probably was not what they wanted hear, and it was definitely not the way they wanted to hear it, but I think every one of them knew, it was something they had to have.  It is interesting to me how Rick has pretty much become Shane in his leadership tactics.  Earn their hearts and minds, but that only goes so far. In the end, the only way to absolutely lead a group, is through an iron fist.  Committee just leads to bull shit.  Shane understood that. The post apocalyptic world demands it.

I liked that as the last couple of episodes wore on, Rick started becoming more regimented. Barking orders instead of seeking opinion. That is how I see a survivor group as needing to be run.  Doing it Dale's way only leads to discontent. Ever one of them is going to be forced to face problems with their own morals. The fact that Rick, the guy with the strongest, has pushed his own so far, or completely abandoned them, is great television.

What about Lori?

The way she recoiled from Rick made me want to punch her in the face.

She put the both of them in motion. She created the situation that would force Rick to kill Shane. You could see it on Rick's face before the mid season break when he stared straight at the camera. You could see his realization that he had been manipulated by her again here.  You could see his heart break. And most importantly, during his rant at the end, you could almost see laserbeams shoot right at her when he told her to hit the road.

With Shane and Dale gone, the show's dynamic is going to change big time.  And the conflict between Lori and Rick is going to be at the top.  We can probably expect to see her manipulate Carol, and in a round about way, Daryl. It is going to be juicy indeed.

Well there is the door honey!  I loved how Rick pretty much looked them each in the eye and said get out.  And each of them stayed.  As the camera panned, you could read their roles. Hershel supports Rick. His world is gone. The only thing he has now is his family, and the bond created between himself and Rick at the bar.  His blonde daughter... heh whatever.

Maggie and Glenn begrudgingly follow. Maggie because her father does, and Glenn, well, what else is he supposed to do. But you could definitely see him having a heart break of his own.  He had set up Rick as a sort of hero. Bigger than life and above human. But Rick's rant showed Glenn that they are all human.  You could see that he was unsure of what to think.

Tdogg stood there as a man with no better choices. You could tell he had something to say, but kept his mouth shut like a smart man should.  He showed his true colors when he tried to run with Lori and lil blonde. Heh, why wouldn't he? He had a vehicle, open road, and a couple of hoochies.  He set himself up as a possible back stabber in season three.

Carol played her cards.

Daryl also played his.

This picture says it all. See if you can tell me each character's dispositions. 

Body language says a lot.  

I love this pic. Note Tdog's back to rick but gun ready. Lori protecting Carl (from Rick?) who is looking at rick confused. Maggie caring for lil blonde and the space between her and Glenn. Daryl, body facing and open to Rick, ready to follow, and Carol arms folded staring across the group at the man she blames for her current situation.

My question about the ending is why would they be so upset about Rick keeping his secret. Cannot they see any logic?  First of all, how would knowing that fact make a difference in their lives? And can't they see that it only made sense for Rick not to tell them until he had seen it for himself?  And now because he kept the secret he was dishonorable, despite what he has done for them?  I like that he put them in their place, the ungrateful lot.  I look forward to more of this Rick.

So what else?

The chick in the robe.

Here is a case where comic simply does not translate into television. I think the two walkers on chains with no arms were ridiculous. It probably worked in the comic, and I'm sure had a great explanation, but in OUR zombie survival world, it is silly.  I love the idea of her though. I like the comicy character, the hooded loner with a katana. And yes these sort of people would certainly exist and thrive in a ZA world.  We all know a few of the sort. Store clerks. IT dudes. Whatever. Smart guys who go about their daily lives in unassuming ways. But at home, there is a trove of weapons and swords. These are the guys I want to know in the event of a ZA.  More than any one else, these are the guys who have rehearsed how to decapitate a zombie with that sword, and can teach me to do the same.

I think she, whatever her name is, Mignone? will send the television show down a whole new avenue.  I look forward to scenes between her and Rick, where he is learning how to lead and she is letting him.

Cool in comics, but here? Just plain dumb.

I pause to ask, did modern "fast mover" zombies suddenly appear? How did Andrea not lose those zombies in the woods?  From sun up to sun down she was running from them.  She had a decent amount of ammo. With some bursts of speed, in a thickly wooded area, she could lose some, cap the rest, rinse and repeat. The echos of the gunshots in the trees would fool the undead and she should be able to get away. But instead they were right on her ass the whole time.  I did love the scenes though. The sheer mayhem of the zombies in the woods, or on the farm in general. Every one running in every direction, zombies every where...  God it was good.

So any way, I know enough about the comic to know that they hold up in a prison, as the end scene would hint at.  I am looking forward to Hershel going "Oh there is a prison right over the ridge maybe we can hold up there." when they are having the "what do we do now" discussion in season three.  He has to know it exists, what home owner would not know about a maximum security prison mere miles from their farm.  You would have thought that in this episode, instead of him looking all bewildered with no direction to go, he could have said, "Hey guys, I have an idea..."  Then off they go.  I look forward to them actually setting up the zombie survival stronghold Dawn of the Dead style.

What else is there to say?  A perfect end to my favorite show since Battlestar Galactica.  This week marks the start of a LONG count down to October.  I wish I could just go to sleep for six months. I look forward to seeing how Hood chick changes the dynamic of the group.  A lot is going to change, as they go from passive, to reactive, to proactive in their survival.  The prison is going to add a cool factor to the show. There should be ammo a plenty, and armored cars, riot gear, you name it.  They should be able to gear up and kick serious ass.  The rift between Lori and Rick will widen and rebellion will be rampant.

I do raise a question, how did those two security guards die a few episodes ago? They were not bitten... there was no sign of death.  Since they are all supposedly infected, could it be that the transformation is a ticking time bomb, that wont necessarily wait for death?  Could those two guys have been at ground zero? There will be lots of questions and answers to come.

EDIT:
Oh and one last thing, I forgot to mention this gripe.  The food on the hood of the car... They spent what must have been two months on the farm. That food had been sitting on the hood of that car the entire time, exposed to the elements. The other day I left a bottle of coke on the hood of my car while I brought in the groceries, and the wind blew it off.  How the hell did that collection of stuff manage to last on the hood of that car the entire time they were on the farm?  I mean, seriously, since the time that the food was put there, Carl was shot in the gutt and fully recovered. The jar of peanut butter and bottle of gatorade can stand the test of time.  At least there was something there so they could have a snack!

Well that's it!  No more Walking Dead until October.

Home is where the bars is.

Now back to my regularly scheduled 40k stuff. Come on 6th Ed.

Jawaballs

The Walking Dead Season two Ep 13

So as to avoid blog roll spoilers, I opened up with this pic of Shane at Rick's side in the hospital.  

But really, this is the pic I wanted to start with!  Sadly, my favorite character in the show has finally met his end.  It was certainly a good one!

So lets start here!

I love how the show is blurring the line between the living and the dead.  Is there any real difference between the Shane in the above picture and the one in this one?

Just a few minutes before this scene he was staring blankly into space, grunting and growling. The Shane that smashed his face against a tree in order to break his own nose was much more zombie than human.

But lets back track a bit.

I loved this episode.  Firstly, on the tails of killing off a major character, the last thing you expected them to do was kill off another!  Especially Shane. We all knew it was coming.  After all, Rick is the protagonist. Shane is secondary.  The two could not exist together.  One had to go.  I knew something was about to happen though when Shane tried to give Carl back the gun.  For the second time, the show made a point to have Shane offer Carl a weapon. Both times Carl was wearing the Sheriff cap.  The first time though, he was still an innocent. His mother was protecting him.  The second time, Carl was becoming a man. He was coming face to face with the reality that there would be no childhood, and his own failings. (He failed to kill the zombie.)  This time though it was Carl who tried to hold on to his childhood.

The third time he was handed a gun, it was by Rick.  The circle was complete and Carl stepped over the threshold. At this point I knew Shane was bait.  The whole gun thing symbolized Shane trying to take Rick's place as father, and failing. And Carl finally accepting the gun from Rick showed who was  going to win the conflict.  Rick was indeed the kid's father and protector.

Shane's fate was not sealed though until Lori stuck her meddling nose into things. The guy was working by himself, building a lookout roost in the windmill.  Then Lori had to come over and basically tell him that had Rick not come back, they would have been together.  You could see the straw breaking the proverbial camels's back.  Then Shane descends into madness.  The scene that started when he shaved his head, was completed when he was in the barn with the kid trying to decide what to do.  You saw the last of his humanity slip away as he made the decision to both kill the kid, and Rick.

The actual scene itself was a bit clunky.  Of course the situation would be clumsy and akward, but it felt like some of the dialogue was forced and silly.  Clearly none of them trusted Shane at this point. And definitely the best way to find him quickly would have been to track him. How far could a hobbled weak kid get in the few minutes Shane said elapsed.  Daryl would have found him in no time.  Instead Rick agrees that they should split up and look blindly.

Did Rick already know Shane was going to try to kill him? Probably.  The best part about Rick is what he does not say.  Maybe it was the look in Crazy Shane's eye.  At any rate, Rick had to be sure. So I guess he played along.

Then after some shambling about in the woods, it all comes crashing down.  Daryl and Glen find the truth. The bloody tree and the dead kid.  Rick and Shane also find the truth. Rick actually is willing to make the hard call.  Carl find the truth too.  For some reason he slipped away from his mother and followed them.  Where the hell is she by the way? For a woman so protective of her 12 year old kid, he manages to not be with her at the darndest times. Any way, The confrontation finally happens.

Rick was now sure that he was going to have to end Shane.  And this was not about right or wrong, or protecting the group, or who is the boss. This was personal. Rick decided Shane was going to die because it was time.  The man screwed his wife and tried to take his kid.  Enough.  Hell Shane even started to lower his gun. Rick put his knife through his heart.

His wail after was about him realizing that he was losing his own humanity.

Then comes Carl.  I was sad to see that I was mistaken about Carl being the one to end Shane. At first I thought it would be Glen. Then when I saw the foreshadowing, thought Carl would be the one. Then after what I spoke about earlier was sure that Carl was going to be the trigger man.  So when Rick stuck him, I figured I was not as smart as I thought!  But Carl saved the day and popped a cap in Zombie Shane.

I loved the scene over all, the moon and the confrontation.. it was all well done.  My only beef was that after all of the skulking through the woods, and all of Shane's plotting to get Rick away and execute him, they ended up in a field just a couple hundred yards away from the house.  So much for the secrecy!  Every one at the house would have a front row seat.

This was a great episode that brought a lot of things full circle.  Now it is just time for the zombie carnage.

I hope that they jump the plot ahead some time so they can keep Carl in the show.  I think that there can be a lot of great drama as they follow this kid coming of age. But the only way it will work is if they advance the time line to keep it realistic as the actor who plays Carl his puberty.  As I mentioned last time, only a few weeks have passed in the show, but three years have passed in reality.

It was good to see Tdog finally get some screen time. I think he had more lines this episode than he had all season.  I think that his character adds more to the show than a lot of the others.  Or could at least.  I want to see them develop that.

I enjoyed the brute squad opening of the show. Daryl, Tdog, Blondie and Shane had the most potential to be the ass kickers. It was good to see them get medieval on some zombie hide.  I loved the pitch fork kill that blondie laid on the zombie.  Good stuff.  Too bad Shane is gone now. I would like to have seen regular forays into town by these four. Kicking ass and taking names.


It will be interesting to see how they resolve what the Dr. whispered into Rick's ear. And then there is the issue of people who were not bitten turning into zombies. Is every one infected?

What's next?  Well the zombies are going to over run the group.  More dieing will happen.  Probably the rest of Hershel's family and Hershel himself.  But that is a bit too predictable.   I hate to say it, but I think Maggie is going to bite it.  They need to add another twist to Glenn's character and that will do it.  So I see Daryl, Rick, Lori, Carl, Tdog, Glen and Andrea getting off the farm.  Oh and Carol. I guess the survivors of the group as of now.  Will any more regular characters die next week?  Who would be likely candidates?  I doubt Carol because they have spent too much time insinuating some plot with Daryl, and of course not Daryl as he is the most dynamic character in the show.  I wouldn't be surprised if Glen goes.  Or if he is replaced by Maggie.  They both can serve the same purpose.

At any rate it is rumored that two new characters will join the regular cast.  Look for some one who will replace Shane in the ass kicking department, and some one to add more mystery and secrets.  With Dale gone and Rick having his own internal struggles, the groups moral compass is in trouble, so maybe we will see some one to replace that. Perhaps some one more lawful evil? Some one who insists upon following a code of ethics like Dale, but not holding onto old world ideals. That would be cool.  Some one playing the role of both Shane and Dale! The group would definitely take a turn for the macabre.  With Shane gone, the major source of drama is dead. So I can't wait to see who they use to replace it!

I would also not be surprised to see some more concrete outside opponents.  The last six episodes were about "the other group" and their fears about what might happen.  Once they escape the farm they are going to have to hole up some where and I think the producers will keep the whole double jeopardy thing, dangerous humies/zombies thing going.

But for the love of god they need to go grab some decent weapons, and lose the 30 year old camper.  They are in Georgia for christ sake. There has to be an RV park or dealer every 5 miles.  A tough new RV with some armor plates welded on, and a couple of Hummers with .50 caliber machine guns mounted on top would be sweet.

Well here is to next week's carnage then six months of waiting.

Jawaballs

The Walking Dead Season Two Part Two, Episode 4.

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!

Jawaballs

The Walking Dead Season Two, Part Two, Episode 3

Holy cost cutting batman!  I'm starting to notice that the more zombies that show up in TWD, the less cast members we see.  This week we had some great action involving Rick and Shayne, and we had some boring dialogue between Lori, Becky and Blondie.  And thats about it!  The kid with Rick and Shane and the blonde with the ladies serve as plot devices more than characters.  They both are the reasons for why the main characters are in conflict.  Every one else was busy off camera.

What irked me was that they tried to work in explanations for their absences. I get it that the series has to save money. By not having Glen, Hershel, Tdog, Dale, Daryl, Wife of Otis, Billy, Carol and Carl appear in the episode they must have saved hundreds of thousands.  Plus none of them were really needed for the little conflict stories that played out. There is no need to then throw in little bits of dialogue to explain where they are.

"Where's Glenn?"

"I saw him walking with Becky."

"Well find him."

Blah blah.

But there are questions that have to be asked!  Why was Hershel not sitting with his freaking daughter? How did Hershel not know she attempted suicide, and how did he not hear the argument? The man spent the first half of the season whining about his loved ones, to be MIA while his daughter is committing suicide? Oh wait... the girls explained away his absence with some expository.  My bad.

I get it that Glenn was upset from last episode, but he is a kid, and kids are horny. He would have gotten over his issues by now and the itch would have returned and he would have been right up Beckies ass again.  But when she needed him most, he was letting her deal with her sister's suicide watch alone.

Minor issues yes, but if you are going to have three quarters of your cast disappear for an episode, make some effort to provide a LOGICAL explanation.

Now on with the GREAT episode!

As I said before, we had two character conflicts playing out.  The Rick and Shane conflict, and Lori and Blondie. Both groups were fighting over something immediate, the dude who shot at Rick I think his name was Randy, and Hershel's daughter... we will call her Dud.  But the fights were much deeper than what to do about Randy and Dud.  All four of them were putting dirty laundry out to dry.

Rick and Shane:

I have been talking about the coming conflict between the two for months. And this was round one.  But it is not over yet as evidenced by Shane's brooding in the car at the end.

Rick confronted Shane about Lori and laid it on the line.  Hands off, get in line, or get lost.  But then they get down to the dirty.  Their confrontation was only partly about Lori and the group. It was about the two of them and their inner battles. First, Rick was battling against his hold on reality slipping away.  Shane speaks the truth and Rick knows it. It is Rick's fight to stop himself from believing it.  Shane is fighting against his loss of control.  Rick symbolizes every thing that held him down before the ZA.  He happily enjoyed a period of release from the restraints of society where he was free to set the rules, and be the hero.  Rick's return changed that.

So while Lori and the baby and the kid priosoner may have been the spark, the flames of this fight were smoldering deep below the surface.

When it came down to it, neither of them were willing to take the necessary steps to finish the fight. Shane through the wrench through the window, and Rick came back while Shane was as good as dead.  So in effect, nothing changed. They are both right where they were when it started.  Shane is brooding, Rick is questioning his decisions.

Then we have Blondie and Lori.  This conflict started up at the beginning of season 2.  You could sorta see it in season one, but at the point the characters were not defined enough to give them any thing good to fight about.  Their argument started over the girl attempting suicide, but turned into a more practical issue.  And frankly, I think Lori is flat wrong.  Lori is attacking her for not doing dishes.  Blondie is defending herself for allowing the girl to kill herself.  But really, she is defending herself for simply being the person that she has become post ZA.  And Lori, like Rick, is holding onto who she was before.

This is what makes Lori and Rick weaker than Shane and Blondie and creates the dramatic power struggle that the show is marching towards.

The rest of the episode was just plot twist filler. With no other characters appearing to actually do any thing, there was little else going on!

So on with Episode 4.  The previews promise some juicy drama created by the dilema with the prisoner.  Knowing TWD, it is too hard to guess what may happen.  I think that in typical AMC style, something different will happen, like the kid walking in and executing him, or Hershel.

Any way, enjoy!

Jawaballs

The Walking Dead: Season 2, Part 2, Episode 2

Well it took me almost a week to sit down and write about last week's episode. Mostly because I was on vacation!  But also, the episode left me feeling a little flat.

Why?

Well it continues to be characters with well defined "character" defying that character in order to create plot/drama.  They avoided this pitfall in the first season, which was a character defining season. In the first half of this season, they allowed those characters to do their thing when faced with certain situations. Now that they have used up the situation, they are left with forcing the characters to do things OOC or Out Of Character.

Now, this is not to say that characters don't evolve.  A great example of evolution of character is Rick/Hershel.  Last episode you saw them both transform right before your eyes. Rick became the leader/decision maker, (In his own head) and Hershel popped a cap in a dude.  Both of those things were month in the works.  And especially in Hershel's sense, were major direction changes for character.

But that is not what I'm talking about.  I'm talking about stupid Lori getting into her car and not only leaving her son alone, but not even telling him she was going, and driving out after Rick, only to get herself in a wreck, which would force Shane to have to come get her, then lie to her, and create more drama.

What happened in this episode? Well, Rick insisting on saving the dudes life.  Why was this out of character? Well the guy has a pretty well defined sense of wright and wrong. He has rigid morals. Black and White.  2 minutes before the guy's legs were impaled on the fence, he was shooting a high caliber rifle at Rick and narrowly missing him.  That makes him the bad guy.  Rick is a COP.  I won't pretend to be able to speak for all cops, but most cops I know would pretty much be ok with letting that dude die to zombies. He played a round of poker with the devil, and lost.  He fired on Rick!  Rick not only risked his own life to save the dude, but risked Glen and Hershel.  Bull.

Sure we can say that this was Rick's predetermined morals taking control. He could not leave a guy to "Bleed Out" as he put it.  (Not that he would have had time to bleed out any way, those Z were like 30 feet away.)  But just five minutes earlier he executed two bad guys for just thinking about shooting at him.  Now he was going to risk death by making Hershel amputate a leg with a pocket knife while Z are coming down the alley.

Then he just says screw it and pops the guys leg off the spike any way.

So who else is behaving oddly?

Glen.

The dude was a pizza delivery boy. He is probably 20 years old. In the old world, there is NO WAY he would have scored a honey as fine as Farmer Becky.  It took a Z apocalypse to get a babe like that. And what does he do? He pushes her away because he is afraid to hurt her by getting himself killed?  Whatever. It's silly and bad writing.  You take any kid who has spent the last 300 Friday Nights jerking into a sock, give him a sweet babe like that, and I refuse to believe that he is going to do any thing but stare all doe eyed into her glory. That whole bit of drama is just contrived.

Daryl.

Well he played right into his character. I guess because he is the only character in the show without an entire series of novellas to define him. The writers are free to do what they want with him.  So he goes all red neck ghetto on a woman who just watched her Z daughter get blown away. The acting is fantastic. I love how he gets so enraged that he can barely spit out his lines. I know rednecks just like this, that start shouting things while angry and don't even finish their statements.  The show needs much more Daryl. Eventually Rick and Shane are not going to be able to coincide and they are going to have to do away with Shane. So Daryl is going to have to pick it up as a main character.

Tdog, Dale, Carol, comatose blonde, etc etc.  I don't think most of these characters even did a thing other than stare at the protagonists.

Over all the episode did very little. It revealed that Hershel can actually kick ass when he quits whining. It continued to muttle up Rick's character. It further reinforced that Shane is a liar and will do what it takes to further his own agenda. (He wanted Rick to die and had no intention of going looking for him but he had to have Lori back.)  Daryl and Carol have a weird relationship.  (The one thing she is good at is getting yelled at, she barely even flinched when Daryl was unloading.)  Are they gona do it?  The blonde continues to be useless. Tdog had less lines than Arnold in Conan the Barbarian.

What actually happened? The 3 muskateers escaped the bar, saved a plot point, and came home.  Oh and Lori started working her weird woman ways on Rick, while he stared right at the camera with a look of disbelief on his face.

I suppose I could talk about that for a bit. What was that look? Was it Rick realizing that he was going to have to cross a line from which he knew he would never return? All he had done up to that point was for naught... all of his attempts to maintain the law were wasted because he realized he was going to have to kill Shane.  We shall see?

The previews for tonight's episode look to be pretty good.  Finally, after most of a season, some real action.

Lets see!

Jawaballs

The Walking Dead Season Two Part Two: :)

The first half of season two: Lets sit around this damn farm and look for a kid we all know is dead.

The second half of season two: Game on!

So the second part of the season launches. We all know what is going on, but this episode leaves us reaching, and lurchinig, and wanting for more! And there is more going on than we may think.

First of all, they (The writers) have to resolve the mess created by Shane in the last episode.  The barn is revealed and Sophia is blown away.  This leads us to minor confrontations between Glen and Hottie, and Rick and Shane. But more importantly, this brings Hershel's world crashing down.  Up until this point, he and all of his cult, had hope.  Well, Shane shot hope through the heart like 9 times then blew her head off.

This episode served two major purposes. It sets the stage for the rest of the season, and most importantly, brings forth Rick as the leader he needs to be.

One: Rick has arrived.

Up until this point, Rick has been the placating leader. Trying to please every one, and playing it safe.  He has been treading water in unknown oceans and barely keeping his head up.  But the scene in the bar was great for many reasons. First of all, he did most of the talking. You could almost see him evolve on the spot. His reasoning went from pleading, to ordering. And you could see Hershel come around as he spoke. As Rick spoke to Hershel though, it was not so much for Scowl's benefit, but more for his own.  As he spoke he became more sure of things himself.  You could see Rick go through a metamorphose as the scene went on.

It was satisfying to see Hershel come around at the end. Hershel had given up, but Rick knows he is going to need a doctor in about 9 months, so he had to do his best to keep the guy working, and succeeded. Then came the knock at the door, and that's when it all came together. Those boys had pretty piss poor timing, unfortunately for them. Had they arrived 10 minutes earlier they would have found whimpering and pleading Rick, and probably pulled one over on him.  Instead they found a Rick who was revived and ready. And even more unfortunately they presented Rick with something he knew how to deal with.

Cop Rick was on the job.  His training took over. While Glen and Hershel were open and willing to share info at first, Rick had the smarts to keep his mouth shut and not give them too much info.  And when it came time for killing, Rick performed it without hesitation. He knew just what to do. He had seen their kind before and I think he was actually happy to plug some bad guys. It was a reach back to what he was missing. A world in order, where there are laws and right and wrong. He is on the side of good and those guys definitely had ill intentions.

 It is interesting to see how quickly and precisely he executes humans, but struggles over killing zombies. You have to wonder if Merl had encountered this Rick instead of the one he met in Season One would he have been killed on sight?. What ever happened to "Humans don't kill humans."? There were plenty of times when Rick could have gotten the drop on them and simply drew his gun. Glen had a gun in his hands already, and Rick is good at drawing his weapon from his holster. The bad guys either had their guns over their backs, or sitting on the table! Rick definitely had a chance to resolve it peacefully if he wanted. He chose to end the bull shit.

Even more interesting was how he almost went for the final killing head shot on the fat dude, as if he was a zombie.  I think Rick is having his own sort of moral blurring of the lines like Shane.  The two of them are much more alike than one would be lead to believe.

In fact, they almost switched positions.  You saw Shane showing compassion and empathy by helping out Sophia's mom. In an almost voyeur, fetish kind of way he was helping clean her up.  What was with the cameras focus on him washing her hand.  Was it a symbolic washing of the hands? Shane washing away his wrong? She had a weird look on her face. Was he baptizing her? Seducing her? He already has blondie on his side and on her back, did he just recruit another? Do we see the group dividing into camps?

Good side:
Rick, Glen, Lori, Kid

Bad side:
Shane, Blondie

Ambiguous side:
Dale, Dog, Daryl, Sophia's mom

Now I can see Sophia's mom aligning with Shane, she has nothing left to live for plus she still harbors anger towards Rick for getting Sophia killed.  Daryl's anger is also bubbling and the guy's upbringing is getting the best of him. He tried the noble thing, but years of living will take over every time he has a set back. I see it all the time in school when the bad kids try to do better. They sincerely try, but a little set back drops them right back into the gutter. Dale and Tdog are sill just side characters used to further plots.  Dale especially. He effects no action, only provokes it.  That is called a plot device.  He exists to make Shane get out of his car and offer expository as to what he is thinking for example.  That's the whole reason Dale was sitting there by the way, when Shane got into the truck.  It would have looked weird if Shane just started talking to himself but it was important to the series that Shane said those words.

It was important to the show that Shane had a shift back towards the neutral point, at the same time, so did Rick.  Both were becoming polarized in their own directions. This episode served to sort of break up those hard lines they were following away from each other, thus leading them back towards a hard intersection, and the drama that comes with it.

What the hell is with Lori by the way. Her actions make no sense at all.  Just stupid.  Like Blondie shooting Daryl.  Stupid decisions. What did she think she was going to do driving into town alone to look for Rick. What help did she think she was going to give, and why did she leave her son?

There are no answers for either, other than to put another character into danger. Whenever you see a character do something completely out of the ordinary or character for lack of a better word, it is a sign of writers forcing plot. Staying on the farm is easy. They eliminated any problem by clearing out the barn, so there was no danger.Without danger there is no drama. SO, lets have Lori defy any character traits she has shown so far, leave her son unattended, show that she does not trust her husband one of the most capable guys in the party, and get her into a car and drive her out alone and get into a car accident.  Stupid chick, weak writing. AMC is good, but not perfect. Speaking of weak writing, how bout the kid blonde going into the classic catatonic state? Nothing like instant home grown crisis to force characters out of their comfort zone. I have come to expect more from TWD.

Now we are going to have to deal with a bunch of "where's Lori?" bullshit. Then come the search parties. Plus we are going to have to deal with the zombies trying to get her out of the car. She had no reason to leave the farm.  Period.

No front plates in Georgia? 

Lastly, it irks me how they so easily dismissed Fort Benning.  Unless of course Rick chooses not to believe the guy when he said the grunt reported that it was over run. I just don't see how the fort could be over run.  They have tanks, and ammo and guns capable of cutting zombies in half and half again.  Of course there is the problem of guys deserting, but even if half of them ran, there should still be enough guys to pull triggers and explode zombies. I can understand isolated places like the CDC getting overrun.  But I don't buy a major base.  Once the military realized they had lost control, they would have ordered a total regroup at the most strategic place possible. That place would be the place with the tanks, guns and ammo.  I would love to see that scene though.

The fall of Fort Benning! That could be it's own Walking Dead spinoff.

Any way, based on the preview for next week we are going to see some Jericho type man on man action as the bad guys have Rick and co. pinned in the bar. That will be fun to watch, but the more juicy stuff is going to be what happens back on the farm.  Daryl continues to be a mystery and Sophia's mom is going to go all sorts of Road Warrior apocalypse crazy. I wouldn't be surprised if she starts painting her face and wearing ears around her neck. Lori is going to spend an episode stuck in her wrecked car screaming at zombies and Shane is going to have a heart to heart with another of the undecided. Probably Tdog.

One last point, why the hell were the bad guys so focused on finding Rick's farm?  They are in Georgia. They came from Philly, an hour removed from Amish country.  The point is that they left PA, a place loaded with farms and space devoid of people, to go to Georgia, a state full of farms and space devoid of people.  They must have passed hundreds of farms coming down 95 and the side roads.  Any one of them would have served as a place to hole up, get live stock and survive. Pig farms, chicken farms, you name it.  There was no point in the guys becoming fixated on wanting the farm that Rick and co. were living on.  In fact the whole scene of them being unscrupulous and aggressive didn't make sense.  I get that human nature left unchecked would result in people doing bad things, but with the exception of a few chaotic evil dudes like Merl, most "bad" guys would be smart enough to cooperate with new people over killing them and probably put aside any unscrupulous intentions completely for the sake of mutual survival.

Those two guys seemed at least smart enough to understand that.  Especially if you stop to think about the fact that the world is now a ripe oyster waiting to be shucked. The zombie fall could only have spanned a couple months and things probably spiraled faster and faster as things played out.  Which means people had time to stock pile, but no time to use the stuff! Odds are there are going to be stock piles of supplies every where just waiting to be taken.  There will have to be entire towns, empty. They can leisurely go house to house and clean them out.  I just looked in my cabinet and there are a bunch of cans of corn, tuna and other stuff that has been there forever, forgotten.  Those are not the things that people packing in a rush to escape a zombie apocalypse bring along. So I have to imagine that there would be bits and pieces of food and supplies in every house in every town.  Georgia must be spotted with little towns like this. Isolated and ready for the pickings.

All they have to do is find a relatively empty town, quietly cave in the heads of any zombies that are lurking about, and eat.  Trying to steal from living thinking humans is counter productive and dangerous.

Here is to next week, and some action, something that came sparingly at best in the first half of the season.

Jawaballs

The Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 6

"What's the world coming to sir?"

"The world aint coming to nothing son, it's the same as it always was."

The opening lines from Hell On Wheels.


SPOILER ALERT:  And once again, I welcome your comments, but please keep them to only discussing this show, not the comic.  Thanks!

The Shooting Line

I don't think any words I could have chosen for the last episode of The Walking Dead until February could have been more appropriate. The episode makes a pretty huge political statement hidden within zombie drama.  People killing people.  When Rick was helping Scowl pull the zombies out of the swamp, scowl was preaching about the fact that there are a lot of sick people roaming around out there, and Rick picked up on his meaning. He was not talking about zombies.

The world is the same as it always was. Zombies, indians, survivors whatever. It is all just about people killing people. Or as Carl puts it, "every thing is just food for something else."  The walking dead got all philosophical on us!

Last week I said that in order for the series to move on/survive, they need to wrap up two loose ends pretty quickly that have really put a cork in Season Two. The zombie barn and Sophia being gone.  Who would have guessed that they would wrap them up both at the same time!  Seriously though, were any of you surprised that Sophia was zombified and in the barn? She had been missing for weeks. The fact that they had not found her, or found her body meant that she must be a zombie walking around at this point.

The question is, did Scowl know that she was in the barn?  If you caught the sneak peak of the new episode you see him deny it and blame Otis, but really?  It makes more sense now. It is one thing to have a barn full of zombies, but Scowl was being ever more persistent that the gang had to leave, especially once they found out.  It was really bordering on crazy. Which is why Rick could not understand.  Now that they know about the zombies, of course Scowl would not want them to find out that he had been keeping the little girl that they were looking for locked up.

A couple of important things happened in this show.

Rick Takes Charge:

Shane had been going on for weeks about how Rick needs to take charge and make the tough decision. Here is the difference between the two of them. Shane takes the easy way out, as Dale points out in their confrontation. When the world goes to shit, it is easy to let loose your human morals and become an animal. Hell, it may even be necessary. Shane says that Rick does not have the tools to survive in the new reality. But is it Rick's lack of tools, or his possession of the one tool that Shane lacks that divides them? Rick has morals. Shane does not.  Shane is also a coward in a lot of ways as I spoke about a few weeks ago.

The way Shane dealt with the barn at the end of the episode displays this fact.  To give kudos to AMC once again, the final 10 minutes of this episode were some of the finest I have ever seen on ANY tv program.  Shane busted open the doors in a psycho anti rule melt down.  When he cannot handle things, he resorts to violent outburst. Case in point. The inability of Scowl to see the zombies for what they were sent Shane over the edge. Shane started shooting Scowls neighbor zombie in the chest to prove his point.  He shot that chick 8 times before finally ending it by putting a bullet in her head.  At this point, every one was just standing bye and watching. Rick was trying to get some one to take the rod attached to the zombie he had. Every one just stood there in a daze. The only one who was trying to act, aside from Shane, could not.

It actually amazed me how every one else just stood there all slack jawed. Even Scowl. I kept waiting for him to attack Shane, or even scream. But he just stood there staring. His world unraveling right before his eyes.  Exactly what he feared was going to happen did.  Now people he cared about were being shot right before his eyes, hell he was even the accessory to the killing by holding the zombie there for Shane to shoot!  But was his inaction bad acting or good?  None of us can imagine ourselves in the same situation. I guess that is animal nature.  When things become too hot for some of us, we shut down. Scowl's look and in fact all of them, reminded me of the beheading video I had the misfortune to have watched.  Disbelief. Somethings are just too insane to wrap our minds around. "This isn't happening!"

But it did. Shane busted open the barn. Every one stood there except for Rick until Shane finally killed the other tethered zombie. Then every one lined up and started shooting.  The chaos of the scene was delicious. I honestly cant imagine it any differently.

In the end though, it was not Shane being decisive. It was Shane being a coward. He knew he could break down the doors because he had a dozen guns behind him.  He was not making the tough call. He was taking the fast track out of responsibility. One way or another, opening those doors was going to allow them to move on and force the decision from Rick. The only brave decision to happen here was Rick's. Hence the division between the two.  When the time came to be in charge, Rick stepped up and put a bullet in Sophia zombie's head. No hesitation.  In a split second, Rick made the only decision of the season that has any real consequence or ramification. He shot Sophia. Sometimes a leader has to make the tough call.

Glen the ladies man:


So let me get this straight. All you have to do when a chick is pissed off at you is tell her your thoughts, and she starts making out with you and doing your laundry?  Perhaps Glen knows a bit more about women than I thought. "I don't always drink beer, but when I do I drink Dos Equis!"

Glen took a couple of steps in character progression.  First of all, he wanted to step up and be a group leader. He is young and he wanted Dale's support first, but when it was time he blurted out the secrets he was keeping.  But more than that, he became a man in other ways. Glen is our little Luke Skywalker and is coming of age. All good stories need one.  You see, the audience needs some one they can associate with. In our case, the audience is a bunch of ravenous nerds.  What are some other examples of good Television characters inserted for the audience to latch onto?

Stargate Universe: The nerd genius.  Don't remember his name.
Battlestar Galactica (the new one): Tough one, but definitely Starbuck
Heroes: At first Peter, but actually Sylar in a weird way took over that role, and that of the vilian. (Unique)

In movies we can tap an endless list of characters like Rocky and Marty McFly.

So Glen is coming of age. He has a pretty clear obstacle to overcome. The fact that he is considered a goofy kid. Rick even refers to him as their group's "go to town" guy.  He is not really respected for what he brings to the table. Father figure? He has two, though only Dale is the true mentor. Rick is too busy dealing with other stuff.  Love interest? CHECK.

Good drama is created by taking these characters and allowing us to see how they grow and respond.  Eventually they win the day and get the girl. Today was Glen's day.  He established himself as a man with the group by finally spilling his guts, and then supporting Shane when it mattered and taking up arms. He established himself as a man with Becky by setting her straight and showing her that he is more than just zombie bait.  He played it right when the zombies were charging out of the barn by nodding to Becky for support, as if he needed it, then joining the gun line and getting the job done.  Now all we need him to do is confront Vader and the circle will be complete!

Foreshadowing:


As you figured out, I am a little weird in that when I watch something, I like to analyze it and break it down.  I like to get in the heads of the characters and try to figure out what makes them tick.  Good acting makes this easy.  But also, I like to try to watch shows for blatant tricks of story telling. In this case, foreshadowing is something I always try to catch, to see if I predicted the future right.

Well I saw a couple of glimpses involving Carl that scream FORESHADOWING!  First of all, Carl aggressively talked down Shane.  Even swearing at him!  He, wearing Rick's hat, spoke his mind and put Shane in his place.  Then later, Shane and Carl shared a little scene where Shane handed him a gun.  Carl's dressing down of Shane made Shane understand that he was not a boy any more and worthy of carrying heat. But more importantly, sets the stage for the future.

A few weeks ago I predicted that it was going to come to a head between Rick and Shane.  I predicted that Daryl was going to have to make moral decisions regarding this confrontation, and the show has been dropping hints lately about which way he might go, but I more importantly predicted that it would be Glen who steps up and backs up Rick, perhaps even shooting Shane.  Now I am convinced that the confrontation is still going to happen, but it won't be Glen or Daryl that steps up to help. It will be Carl.

Carl confronting Shane while wearing Rick's hat foreshadows the inevitable battle that will occur. And Shane handing Carl the gun, foreshadows how it will go down.  Neither of those scenes were important for the story, other than to set the stage for what is to come.

In fact, this episode did a lot of stage setting.  How about a little mature loving between Sophia's mom and Daryl? How bout a great big fizzle between Dale and Shane.  Dale definitely did not have the minerals to do what it takes in the new world. Who will?

It's easy to say by the way, but if it were me, I think I would have pulled that trigger when Dale did not.  The world is gone, it is now Wild West time.  You are a predator, or prey. Dale is prey. Shane is a predator. The only problem is, there is always a bigger predator.  Every one is food for something!  They always say that if you are going to level a gun at some one, you better be prepared to use it.  Dale was not.  I'm pretty sure that in an end of the world situation, I would have pulled the trigger. When you are facing a bigger predator, and you are prey, you need to act not hide if you have the chance. That is one decision that will come back to bite Dale in the ass.

So where does this leave us?  Waiting for February!  The barn and Sophia are resolved. All of the secrets are out. The group is now free to go, a little stronger, and a little weaker.  The preview for next episode shows them looking for Scowl who disappears and talking about Benning again.  But frankly I don't care.  No matter what they do, I will be watching.

Jawaballs