Monthly Archives: March 2018

“Your 38 people are alive and breathing. Turn around and leave us be and they stay that way. But if you don’t, I have 38 bullets that I will personally fire into all 38.” Maggie

TWD kept on its winning streak with another fine episode. The storytelling seems to be stronger in the second half of the eighth season. I now have bigger expectations for the last three episodes of the season. But first lets talk about this action packed and scary story. The Hilltop rebels which now consists of Alexandria and Kingdom refugees ready for attack. That little punk Henry wants to help but Carol tells him no and that if he leaves the house he’ll be killed. Carol does not mince words. Morgan is seeing the ghost of Gavin. Gavin has a message for him and it’s driving Morgan crazy!

SIEGE AT HILLTOP

“This isn’t what he’d want. You know that right? He could still be out there. You sure you want to face that if he shows?” Dwight

“Better to beg forgiveness than ask permission, D. Future problems!” Simon

Simon, now leading The Saviors and with his own orders of wiping out the rebels completely, arrive after dark at Hilltop. But Maggie has them ready and waiting. She tells Simon she’ll kill all 38 Savior prisoners unless they stop the attack. Simon doesn’t care. He is set on total destruction. Then all hell breaks loose! daryl shows up out of the forest on his bike and firing his mounted machine gun. The gate opens and he drives through but is followed by a Savior truck. Its all a trap! The Hilltop forces open fire! The Saviors start shooting arrows! Bloody arrows! Alexandria alumni, Tobin, gets sliced open but Carol saves him from a fatal blow. Sadiq comes to his aid. Simon and Dwight come up behind Tara. daryl sees them but she doesn’t. Before Simon can reach her Dwight shoots an arrow into her shoulder. This pisses Daryl off!

Maggie orders a retreat to the mansion. Simon leads his men slowly towards the mansion. He’s got the bloodlust rising. he wants to go inside and slaughter them all. But sure enough, another trap! The headlights turn on and gun fire comes from the mansion sending Saviors scurrying for cover. What in the world were they thinking? A real dumb move on Simon’s part. Rick finally shows up and leads the attack on the ground. Seeing that they are outmatched, Simon, Dwight and what’s left of The Saviors get in their trucks and leave. Rick and maggie pursue them past the gates, guns blazing!

“I wanted them dead. All of them — Negan most of all.” Maggie

“Yeah, me too.” Rick

PLANTATION OF TERROR

“If I knew that getting stabbed would get your attention, I would have done it a lot sooner.” Tobin to Carol

As everyone mended to their wounds and took a breath, Carol and Tobin shared a nice moment. She apologized for running off and hurting him and he showed that he still had feelings for her. Poor fella. Sadiq tried to tend to Rick’s wounds but Rick still holds him responsible for Carl’s death. Everyone is telling Maggie what a great leader she is but she sees the graves that Jerry dug for their dead and only feels responsibility. She laid the trap hoping that Negan would be there so she could kill him. Did her blind vengeance get these people killed?

As night fell, everyone curled up in the mansion for the night. They were all sleeping so squished up together for some reason when there was plenty of room to spread out. Maybe they just felt especially close after all that killing. Well, this is when the real horror set in. Tobin was sleeping comfortably in the medical trailer when all of a sudden he stopped breathing. His eyes shot open1 Holy crap! He’s infected! He’s turning! Negan’s plan worked. Tobin soon is feasting on the lady doctor (doctors don’t last long in the zombie apocalypse) among others. Those that were wounded and sleeping in the mansion start turning too! Soon we hear the screaming and panic. It’s a nightmare! I haven’t felt terror like this on the show since the prison but somehow this felt even worse. Rick, Daryl, Rosita and Carol run to the rescue. It’s a bloodbath. Worst of all, Carol is the one that has to put Tobin down. She hesitates for a long time and I thought for a moment that she’d let him bite her but she does what needs to be done. After the danger is over they check on Tara. She had been shot with an arrow by Dwight so they assume she will turn as well. She takes the news pretty well, considering.

While all this was going on, Henry took his rifle and went out to the prisoners pen. he still wants to know who killed his brother. How would they know? they don’t know who you are, kid! Gregory tries to get him to hand over the weapon, The one nice Savior tries to reason with him but henry says he’ll start killing them one by one until one of them tells him what he wants to know. He opens the gate and walks into the pen. Just then, one of them starts munching on someone’s neck. One of them must have been wounded and turned. Then they hear the screaming coming from the mansion. They over power Henry and escape.

In the morning, the one good Savior tells Maggie that the most of the prisoners took off but he stayed as well as a few others because they could no longer be on the side of what The saviors had become. She allows him to help bury ‘his people’. he says they aren’t his but that he appreciated her referring to them as ‘people’. As Maggie looked out at the ever expanding graveyard she muttered “The cost…..the cost”. The cost of war? or the cost of her revenge? Either way, they won the battle and paid a heavy cost.

SIDE BITES

Simon plan was pretty anemic. A good henchman but not a good leader.

It’s time for Carol to tell Henry to ‘look at the flowers”.

Morgan’s going crazy again. Now he is having visions of Gavin telling him “You now what it is.” Guilt? OK. More evidence that Morgan is nearing his death.

Now Daryl wants Dwight dead and Tara is coming to his defense. Get it together!

This episode had a great action sequence and a great horror sequence. I haven’t felt that scared watching the show in a long time! It was great! It felt like the old days! Maybe the show can turn things around going forward. It seems they are aware that they needed to at least.

5 THINGS I THINK I KNOW

1 Tara will not die. She is not infected because Dwight did not dip his tips in walker blood.
2 Henry is an idiot but he is not dead.
3 Gregory must die!!!!
4 Young blonde Savior prisoner has got the hots for The Widow. Maybe the best way to merge Savior and Hilltop factions.
5 Jadis and Negan are going to show up at Hilltop via helicopter!

The second half of Season Eight continues to be stronger than the first. This episode was perhaps the best of the season. It starts off with those damn super serious close ups again, this time, of Negan, Simon and Dwight but quickly shifts into action with strong character building scenes and great action. I watched it a second time with my friend Charlotte and she remarked “This is like a season finale!”. It’s that good.

Negan’s plan is to attack Hilltop with weapons coated in walker blood and guts. He doesn’t want to kill them all he just wants to get them back in line. Simon, who’s already disobeyed Negan by wiping out ehe garbage people makes all kinds of faces of disgust with this plan.

RICK and DARYL

“I look around and … I think about the people that are gone. And the people that are still here. It ain’t right, and it ain’t fair.” Daryl

Daryl kind of apologizes for deviating from Rick’s plan and trying to finish off The Saviors with his attack on The Sanctuary. Rick kind of accepts and thanks him for getting everyone safely to Hilltop, namely, Judith. But when Daryl offers to go with him to go on the lookout for attack Rick nicely says, ‘no thanks’.

MAGGIE, MICHONNE and ENID

“Build this place up. I want those other crates filled when I get back. Cheeses for Hilda, pickles for Mitch.” Georgie

Maggie and company get contacted by an unknown group that want to trade ‘knowledge’ for food and records (no spoken word!). Maggie, Michonne, Rosita and Enid venture out to meet these poeple and are greeted by a well put together and smartly dressed women named Georgie (Jayne Atkinson) and a pair of female twins named Hilda and Midge. Maggie is very suspicious and refuses to make the deal and instead forces them to come back to Hilltop. Enid is empathic that they take their stuff and keep them captive. Machine is the voice of reason and wants to deal and make friends. She says that this is what Carl would have wanted, after all, because carl reached out to help strangers they now have a doctor. “And now he’s dead” Enid reminds Michonne, as if she needed reminding. “Stand back” Michonne tells Enid after she takes away her gun.

Eventually, Maggie, follows Michonne’s advice and makes the deal. Georgie lets them have the food they had in their van and gives her a package of documents entitled “A Key For A Future” which include schematics for windmills, aqueducts, water mills etc. Looks like Georgie wants Hilltop to succeed. But who is she? Where is her community? Why haven’t they fallen under Negan’s thumb?

SIMON and DWIGHT

“Let’s rap her, let’s get candid, let’s get weird” Simon

Simon comes right out and lets Dwight know that he disagrees with Negan about how to handle Rick, The Widow and The King. Megan is still trying to get them to submit but Simon, correctly, sees that they will never stop fighting. Simon wants to wipe them all out and move on. Dwight is extremely cautious and does not come out and agree with him.

As the convoy of Saviors makes its way to Hilltop, Simon sees a car speeding their way. he doesn’t say anything. The car is being driven by Rick and he plows into Negan who was riding alone in a car. They have a high speed chase! Simon actually smiles and keeps everyone from going after them. he takes Dwight and doubles back to loo for Negan. They find his car overturned but no Negan. They agree to stop looking and go back the the group. “The Big Man” as Simon refers to Negan, is gone. Maybe he’s not dead and may show up but for now they need to keep to the plan with one big different; instead of scaring Hilltop they will now ’expunge’ them.

RICK and NEGAN

“This where you die! In the dark! All alone!” Rick

Rick chases Negan into an abandoned building. Rick means business! He is shooting every bullet he has! Finally he runs out as began reaches the top of a staircase. “Hey Prick! You’re out of bullets! Come on!” Megan taunts. Rick takes his ax and tosses it at Negan which cause him to fall and drop Lucille! This starts a cat and mouse chase in the bowels of this walker infested building with a great back and forth for these two characters.

Megan tries to make a deal. He really seems to want to make this work. Then Rick tells him what happened with Jadis and the garbage people, that they were wiped out. This is news to Negan. Rick finds Lucille and sets it on fire! “Don’t you touch her!” Megan cries! The two have an epic battle while also trying to keep from getting devoured by walkers. Rick sets some of them on fire using Lucille! “What the hell is your problem, Rick?” Megan shouts. Eventually Negan escapes and Rick loses him.

In the last scene we see a passed out Negan in the passenger seat of a moving car. As he comes to the camera swerves and we see that Jadis is driving and holding a gun to his head. “Well, shit” Negan smiles. Jades tells him to shut up and knocks him out again with her gun.

Great episode filled with exciting action and surprises. I hope the writing continues in this direction. Keep it simple, give us good character development and lots of action!

SIDE BITES

Simon’s dialogue seemed to be lifted out of a Deadwood script. It’s delightfully stylized. I particularly enjoyed “Past Discomforts”.

Negan gently setting Lucille inside a bucket of walker guts then gazing at her lovingly and saying. “You’re beautiful, baby”

Daryl probably had more dialogue in his scene with Rick than in the last three seasons combined.

Where is King Ezekiel? Haven’t seen him for a couple of episodes.

5 THINGS I THINK I KNOW

1 I think Morgan is going to die before the end of the season
2 Jadis will present Negan to Rick in exchange for her safety
3 Rick and Negan will join forces! Against Simon!
4 I think we’re going to lose Jerry – trying to protect his King
5 Those captive Saviors are going to get loose somehow – probably with Gregory’s help.

Some will say this is the episode that Walking Dead made the case that God was dead. Well, you can be the judge of that but by the end of Episode 11 Father Gabriel was in a world of pain. Daryl and Rosita have fun with swamp walkers and Dwight finds himself in the last place he wanted to be, back at The Sanctuary.

DWIGHT AND TARA

“I’m sorry about Denise, I truly am. I don’t expect you to forgive me, I don’t deserve it. But I just wanted you to know, that’s all.” Dwight

Daryl and Rosita lead the exodus from Alexandria to Hilltop but The Saviors are in hot pursuit. Dwight shows them a swamp area that The saviors always avoid because it’s too dangerous and propose they go that way to avoid capture. Tara, meanwhile, is dead set on killing Dwight. She even tosses a walker at him, literally. Daryl and Rosita tell her to knock it off and that Dwight can be useful.

While Daryl, Rosita, Sadiq and a few others clear out the swamp of disgusting walkers, Tara forces Dwight off into the woods with the intention of killing him but before she can pull the trigger they run across a Savior search party. Dwight emerges from the woods and engages them. He tells them that he checked the swamp and he didn’t see them. He leads them away from the rest of the group. Daryl is pissed! But it seems Tara may now be convinced that Dwight has truly changed his ways. Of course, now Dwight is stuck with The Saviors again and there’s someone out there that knows of his betrayal.

MAGGIE

The Hilltop is running out of supplies. It’s so bad that Maggie decides to cut the rations of the prisoners. Gregory, who continues to address her as ‘Margaret’, goes so far as to consider abandoning The Hilltop and running as he feels The Saviors will take them out.
Morgan and his young protégé, Henry stand guard of the prisoners and Carol is worried about both of them. Then, The Alexandrians enter the gates of Hilltop. Maggie’s smile turns to a frown as Daryl tells her and the others that Carl is dead. This all plays out silently with music only. We see Enid’s heartbreaking reaction. Daryl hugs carol and they make their way up to the big house. The news seems to have some effect on Morgan. He tells henry that it was Gavin that killed his brother and since Henry has already taken him out there’s no need to seek further vengeance. Carol approves.

FATHER GABRIEL AND DR. CARSON

“We’re on the right path even if we’re on the wrong road.” Father Gabriel

Negan is pretty pissed that their doctor and that ‘creepy priest’ escaped. He questions Eugene about it and he has that look in his eye that asks, “Was it you?”. Eugene holds up well under questioning though and Negan pins the blame on the good doctor.

Father Gabriel and Dr. Carson get stalled in the road when their car breaks down. Also, the padre seems to be losing his eyesight. His mysterious illness and infection seems to be related to lathering himself with walker guts when he and Negan escaped that trailer. He may have gotten some walker blood in an open would or in his eyes and got ‘somewhat’ infected? Father Gabriel’s faith is still very strong, however, and he hears what he thinks are bells and leads them to discover an abandoned home. They find antibiotics there which help Gabriel recover enough to be out of danger of death but the damage to his eyes may be permanent. Then by accidentally knocking over a piggy bank and breaking it open, they find keys to a car and a map that will help them find The Hilltop.

Gabriel sees all of these things as God’s work. He has been telling a skeptical Dr. Carson that God is still here and that he will lead them to salvation. The Doctor starts to believe it! Then as they’re about to start that car and cruise down the road with smiles on their faces they get caught by a group of Saviors. As they are being loaded into the back of a pickup truck, Dr. Carson lunges for a nearby Savior’s gun and gets shot and killed. Father Gabriel is devastated. He believed his purpose was to get the doctor back to Hilltop to help Maggie. All the signs from God that happened led to naught. His faith must be shattered. This leads to the only logical conclusion that God is dead, at least in the hypothetical realm of the zombie apocalypse.

EUGENE

“Bullets are a last resort. I mean hell, Lucille here gets first dibs.” Negan

Negan puts Eugene in charge of his own outpost with the prime directive of making bullets. He gives him a security detail and even two of his wives to cook and offer ‘foot massage’. When one of these beauties comes along while Eugene is working he treats her like shit and tells him to take his lunch order back to the other woman. He really is terrible. Then, Negan barges in with Father Gabriel in tow. The jig is up for Eugene! But, no. The padre doesn’t give him up and blames Dr. Carson instead for their escape. Negan buys it and then gets annoyed with Eugene for being too slow with the bullet making. Eugene advises tossing walker parts over the walls of The Hilltop using catapults. This gives Negan an idea. They’ll weaponize their bullets, knives, swords and any other weapon of choice with walker guts and blood. They don’t have to kill everyone. Just infect them and let them turn. Could this work? We’ll find out.

SIDE BITES

This episode moved along very nicely. This may be the best paced episode of the season so far.

If Father Gabriel, Tara and Dwight were killed off would we all be ok with that?

The doctor didn’t seem too smart. He didn’t even bother to notice all the meds in that house! It was Father Gabriel who had to point it out to him!

Remember when Maggie’s pregnancy was in danger and they had to rush her to the Hilltop because they had a doctor? That was at the end of Season 6! We are now at the end of Season 8 and she’s not even showing! And she certainly seems to be healthy and out of danger. Why is there this incessant need to get Maggie a doctor?

Since when did getting walker blood in your eyes get you infected?

5 THINGS I THINK I KNOW

1 Dwight is dead
2 All 38 of those Savior prisoners must die and I include Gregory in that lot.
3 Jadis will come back and kill Simon before Negan gets a chance to.
4 We will see Dwight’s wife again before the end of the season
5 The Hilltop will be the sight of the finale showdown. It’s like The Alamo.

Rick and Michonne are trying to move forward after burying Carl. Negan is pissed! Simon is pissed! Jadis is lost and Aaron and Enid have a difference of opinion. Overall, more of a set up episode for the finale.

AARON AND ENID

“Why would you kill us? To punish us? Don’t you get it? Killing is the punishment.” Enid

This is the worst subplot of the season. Why Aaron thought the most important thing was to drive to Oceanside and ask for their help when they just attacked them and stole all their weapons is beyond me. I guess it was just to give them something to do. Things went as expected. Enid talked her way out of getting killed but, for some reason, Aaron decides to stay behind because he thinks he can convince them to change their minds. My guess is he will but this is just a throw away storyline.

SIMON

Simon tells Negan they should kill Jadis and her garbage people but Negan didn’t want to. He wanted to stick to their protocol; kill one as an example and get them back in line. They received Maggie’s zombie-gram. Simon opened the coffin and Negan using a nail gun to put zombie Dean out of his misery.
JADIS

Simon shows up at the junkyard and confronts Jadis. He kills her right-hand man, Brion but doesn’t stop there. He shoots another one and then his bloodlust takes over. He gives the order to kill them all! He is openly defying Negan and this does not bode well for Simon.

I did not expect this, but seeing how unreliable the garbage people have been, this is no big loss. Also, did you notice that Jadis started speaking normally? Their affected way of speaking was just their way of adjusting to the post-apocalyptic world they found themselves in, just as Ezekiel adopted the manner of a ‘king’.

MICHONNE and RICK

“They have weapons, people. We can’t just give that up.” Rick

Rick and Michonne say their goodbyes to Alexandria. Michonne looks at the hand prints that Carl and Judith left on the porch of their house. Rick packs up some belongings and they load up the van and hit the road. Rick, for some reason, wants to appeal to the garbage people yet again! The only reason for this is so that they can discover that they have all been wiped out and are now a horde of garbage walkers. But apparently, Simon left Jadis live. I guess that was her punishment. When they find her, she’s wearing a white slip. Not sure why, perhaps that was her mourning gown? She begs for them to take her with them but Rick, coldly, says no. Rick and Michonne fight their way out and leave Jadis to her own devices.

I thought she was done but she came up with a very clever and grisly way to survive. She lures them to a grinding device and one by one they fall into it and are thoroughly ground up into ground chuck! A conveyer belt of red meat empties into an open hole. Chili is served!

This was a pretty awesome new way to kill zombies! She may have broken Rick and Daryl’s walker kill record in one episode!

RICK and NEGAN

“Carl’s dead, he wrote letters. He wrote one to you, he asked you to stop, he asked me to stop. He asked us for peace. But it’s too late for that. Even if we wanted a deal now it doesn’t matter. I’m gonna kill you.” Rick

As Rick and Michonne drove away from the junk heap, Michonne looks at the letters that Carl wrote. She sees an envelope labeled “Negan”. Rick pulls over, takes the letters and goes for a walk. He opens Negan’s letter and reads it. He then gets on his walkie talkie and asks to speak to Negan. He tells Negan that Carl is dead. Negan is visibly upset by this news. “That kid was the future”, he tells Rick. Rick only sees vengeance no matter that Carl pleaded for peace in his letters. Negan really lets him have it in a very calm and non-Negan way. He tells Rick that it was his fault that his son was dead and that he was a terrible leader who is always getting those he loves killed.

Man, that hits hard. Over the years, Rick’s judgement has been suspect. He can’t deny that his decisions have led to many deaths. How will Rick take this?
This was a great scene and certainly a great way to end a so-so episode.

SIDE BITES

The episode tried to be like a Tarantino film. Scenes began with title cards like “Michonne”, “Enid” and so on. It didn’t really add up to anything and just seemed to be someone’s cute idea to do something different. They play around with time a little as well.

There are too many characters! At least they got rid of all the garbage people but that still leaves Jadis.

Next week, we’ll probably see Eugene, Gabriel and Negan + Daryl taking everyone to Hill top.

I think they need some new blood in the writer’s room.

5 THINGS I KNOW

1 Aaron will get Oceanside to help. Ho hum.
2 Negan will kill Simon for disobeying orders.
3 Eugene will switch sides again!
4 Father Gabriel will die heroically
5 Rick will come up with yet another scheme to take down Negan and The Saviors. This one will work and he will NOT kill Negan!