True, but that was all workup to his death. If they meant to keep him around, he never would have gone that far downhill.

EDIT: Or he could have recovered some sanity, much like Rick did after losing it.

 

True but to keep him around it would need a drastic change in his character. He wanted Lorrie bad, and he wanted things his way, he wasnt good at doing the humane thing if it had even the smallest shance of hurting Lorrie and Carl.

His character was just unworkable over the long run.

The only way he could have stayed around is if he had left like he said, and joined up with the Governor like Merl did.

 

You know that moment in movies or television where you think why doesn't the protagonist just shoot his enemy point blank in the face then burn the body to make sure he\she\it can't come back from the dead?

I think Shane would either kill the governor and his henchmen or take over in some sneaky wily way (like secretly killing the governor).

Merle had his own set of flaws, like Shane, but he was a hell of a character.

Hershel seems like the new Dale but a lot less grating.

How did people like the latest episode? I feel like there's a rhythm I'm still waiting for and the episodes so far great in parts (like the last ten minutes of the last episode) but missing an "OMG" factor.

 

Considering the producers were hyping this season up with "You have no fucking idea what we are gonna hit you with" and the answer has been "The flu" I am unimpressed.

Quarantine everyone (In a facility ideally built for such a thing) and wait it out "OMG I'M SO SCARED!!"

 

Youre forgetting about the person who's been feeding rats to the walkers. I do not believe the "The Flu" is the main story line this season. Have faith, it's only 3 episodes in.

 

I think the whole flu thing is great. Beware Within, indeed. It's interesting to see these characters dealing with a disease that's not the zombie plague, especially when its the characters we've grown to love. I don't know, I'm loving it so far.

 

The flu is the main threat at the moment, sure, but the "you have no fucking idea what we're gonna hit you with" bit is about the reactions and developments because of it. I mean, like, no duh the show's first villains were the zombies, but the events of the earlier seasons were the reactions to them, the commentary on humanity in comparison and stuff. When humans were introduced as a bigger threat in late Season Two and Season Three, fighting back was never the point of them, but the psychological effects of mistrust and choices in killing humans versus killing walkers. And a million other character things, too, that I could write essays on pretty easily.

With the flu it's both an adaptation of an old world fear - dying of diseases - and with the flu in this working like it is it's like if everyone spontaneously got bitten by zombies and were dead within a day. And it's a scary idea that led to the blindside and the massacre of Cellblock D, but the main shock of it has already been dealt with and the quarantine and then the hunt for medicinal remedies. I think it won't kill Glenn or Sasha or anyone else big at all, to be honest, but taking them out of the game temporarily and then splitting up people is what's going to lead to problems.

Look at the current situation going into next week's episode. Glenn, Sasha, Hershel, all three of them council members, are locked up in isolation. Daryl, Ty, Bob and Michonne, with two of them the group's best fighters and one a council member, out on a dangerous run with thousands of walkers at their heels. Carl, Beth and Judith quarantined. Rick, Carol and Maggie are the biggest pillars still up and going, but Rick's only newly back in charge as a leader, still second-guessing himself after being a bit of trainwreck after Lori, Carol is probably a freakin' murderer and is still now a wildcard threat (In a scarier way than Shane, who we all knew would strike one day, but now we don't know if she will again) and Maggie might be too worried about Glenn and Hershel to fight properly, even though she's probably one of the group's strongest (I honestly still believe she's taken on some of comic!Andrea's characteristics and will continue to do so).

Then it'll escalate. That giant ass herd is probably going to make it to the prison. The only reason they could would be because they follow Daryl's group who only headed out to get meds and they started tracking that group, and even if not that they could still find the prison if the situation worsens with the walkers on the fences and what few fighters are left have to resort to guns to make the clean-up easier. Walker herd hears the gunshots as it shambles along, turns to the prison. Obliterates the fences. Prison overrun. What the fuck do they do then.

Or imagine if Daryl's group runs into some survivors. Or Rick and Carol, who leave next week to go on a supply run themselves, bump into some people. And not the cool people they've been letting in over the season break. Some assholes. Governor-related? Who knows! They could track back, rock up at the prison, realise that everyone's down for the count and take over. Would they get scared off by the idea of the flu? Who knows! At this point it seems like five dudes could take everyone out. If someone on the inside is feeding rats to walkers to make it easier for an outside invasion (Though I'll go with Lizzie being responsible for that), then the flu could be a weapon too... We don't know, yay!

Point is, flu isn't the main thing of the show being hyped up, it's just the tiny cog in the machine that'll cause all kinds of shit to go down, shit that'll be well deserved to be hyped up because anything can cause anything and the chain reaction will be pretty amazeballs. Being unimpressed by it being that cog for three episodes is fine, but thinking it's the big season-long deal that was being hyped and then being unimpressed is just thoughtlessly stupid. The group is out of that prison by the midseason finale. I freakin' guarantee it. That's five episodes away. The flu won't follow them afterwards, for sure.

Many elements are at play here. The ones in motion already are beautiful, and the best part is that I can feel there's a plan going on and every arc's got parts to play. Like I did love Season 2/Season 3 but they didn't feel that planned ahead except for the biggest points, but the labour of minute detailing for Season 4 is gonna be something else. Just wait and see!

For now, anyone wanna do some prediction-ing with me? I'm going to call that Carol did kill Karen and David (No covering for Lizzie or Mika, but it's possible), Lizzie was the one feeding the walkers at the fence (And the main reason the sequence occurred was to show how the fences can be overwhelmed with big numbers, so foreshadowing for the midseason finale), and most importantly of all, Bob has nothing to do with The Governor, yet. Bob's weakness for alcohol - just as in with the comics/books - can lead to The Governor manipulating him later on, but I don't think it's already happened. Also, I think The Governor is going to be the back half of the season threat, while this first half is going to be an adaptation of the Hunters storyline from the comics (And we all just think it's Governor related because we want him to pop up again to die). Governor leading the Hunters is also a good bet for back half, but I think there'll be a small human threat leading to the prison's fall anyway, so why not the Hunters while Governor does something else non-cannibal-y and evil next half season before getting whacked?

The big death of this first half is probably gonna be... Hershel, I think, and someone else - Glenn? - getting bitten/shot/still being sick as the prison falls in Ep 8 (Falling to the walker herd from Ep 3, the best bet). Hershel going down would suck but also throw a bunch of characters off their game, with a wise mentor person out of the picture. Since Hershel in the show has taken on Comic!Dale's stuff, if Hunters are involved, no shock there. And the "TAINTED MEAT" line could be adapted to refer to the flu that has been speculated in-show to be spread because of tainted meat, and Hershel is probably nice and infected now anyway...

Gah. Is it the next episode yet. I wanna see everythang go down.

 

Carol got voted off the dead island.

Good episode. Thought their parting would be violent, but kinda like two tomcats looking at each other.

 

Yeah, that was probably the best way that Rick could have handled that situation. I'm looking forward to the reactions from the rest of the group though.

 

By gods, the layers and the moral complexity at play here is amazeballs. Like, damn son. I back Rick's decision too, but I do understand where Carol's coming from. There's a lot of comparisons drawn between Carol killing Karen and David and also Rick killing Shane and Tomas, Carl killing the Woodbury kid et cetera. The key difference is in the innocence factor in Karen and David. Shane and Tomas tried to kill Rick and got theirs. The kid Carl killed didn't lower his weapon, was a hostile who would've happily killed everyone in that prison, and even if Carl was a bit triggerhappy, he wasn't totally in the wrong. Carol wasn't either, but yeah, Karen and David might've had a shot. They were isolated already, the sickness had potentially already gotten everyone in contact with Cellblock D... Just yeah. Too far. But yes, understandable. And hence, I'm so torn.

Rick exiling her for himself instead of just the group is a great way of doing it, because he is just in the leadership seat and even then it's still iffy and his transition hasn't been that smooth. As a guy who's been acting in the best interests of his family so far this season, ditching Carol for them is a neat way for his character to go. Makes me curious to see what'll be his next decision for his immediate family instead of just for the group. Like, something bigger. I wonder if someone would call him out and make note that the group is his family... but then he could also point out that if he let Carol back in Tyreese would've hounded the Karen/David killing issue to the point where the secret comes out and then Carol gets a hammer in her skull... Fucccccck, man. Shit's gonna go down.

But yeah, awesome episode. Again, loving the cohesive build-y-ness nature of this season's story. Walker Kill Of The Week is probably Michonne's double kill or Ty's four-time hammerstrike. I also actually really dig Bob and Lizzie's views on things and what their actions could mean. Deaths, probably! Or character arcage! Woot!

Also, calling it in conjunction with predictions above: Carol runs into the Hunters by like Ep 6 (Maybe Sam was part of 'em too? You never know). Hunters nab Hershel or someone outside the prison without her knowing/helping. Carol helps that person back to the prison, leads Rick and everyone else back to the Hunters. Killage ensues. Carol rejoins the group, angst is still abundant. Pew pew pew.

 

I think Carol's big mistake was doing it in secret like she did, that just makes her seem incredibly untrustworthy, and ultimately it was just pointless given how half-assed she did it.

 

Gonna have to disagree with that, if she suggested killing the two people who were sick she might have had some agree with her, but in general most people would have thought she was crazy and extreme.

Also don't know what you mean by it being half-assed, she killed the only two people who were sick and then burnt their bodies. If she'd killed everyone who lived from Cellblock D but wasn't showing symptoms yet, it would have taken her actions from beyond morally wrong, but maybe the right thing for the group straight into completely fucking nuts territory.

 

I meant the secretive part was half-assed. She just left the bodies there, along with the big trail of blood. The only reason to keep the identity of who did it hidden seemed to be so they could pad out an episode with the obvious reveal.

 

Ah, I get you. On that note, I've got to say that leaving ridiculously long and ominous blood trails leading to burnt bodies probably wasn't the best way to do it. If Carol had brought it up to the council or just others in general, I don't think they would have agreed but she wouldn't have been kicked out of the group so I can see your point.

Rewatched the last two episodes and what I thought was the most interesting part was the message Daryl's group heard on the car about sanctuary. Assuming the prison falls this season which seems to be hinted at, that seems like a nice way to introduce the concept of where the group can go in the future after hearing more about it throughout future episodes. Could be a red herring, but I'm interested in hearing more.

As a sidenote, I don't see how Tyrese survived the end of episode 3 besides plot armor. Yeah he went berserker on the horde, but he was surrounded with a bunch of walkers inches behind him. I don't mind that he did, but it seemed like one of the most unlikely survivals we've seen so far.

 

They should really stop with all this horrible "inventive" names for Zombies. I mean Walkers I get that kind of makes sense but Skin eaters, I just felt dissapointed when I heard that.

I really wonder how those two fodder managed to survive that long if they couldn't even take care of a single walker between the two of them. Hell they seemed to imply that they would have stayed in that room for a long time of the walker didn't move off or something.

Barksdale just acted stupid for no reason. Can't believe he would risk his life for the bag plus he could have maybe even caused that walkway to collapse.

I've come to realize that my dislike for Carol's girl has less to do with her character and more to do with the actress, she has a really unlikeable face, unless she's talented and is doing it on purpose. Its becoming more and more likely that she's the one feeding the rats to the walkers.

 

What I am getting annoyed at is how they come across people who survived well over a year of zombie apocalypse, yet die with in hours of coming across our guys. That hitch hiker last season chasing the car with Rick, Michonne and the kid. He had survived a year of hell, seemed to be supplied, but happened to die with in hours of chasing after them.

Same with this girl this episode. Its like Rick is a curse on people.

Also back in season 3 which I just rewatched, when Rick esplains the outside world to the prisoners they have just helped, he said they think over half the worlds population has died... HALF? I think 99% at least, by the looks of things I would say as of season two 1/1000 live and now its probably down to 1/5000.

 

That would leave about 70,000 people in the U.S.... And 2,000 in Georgia...

There is no way they would run into that many people if that's all there was. Glenn would likely be the last person on earth left that lived in Atlanta (Not the city itself, but the entire Metro area) before the Apocalypse...

EDIT: 1 in 1000 is probably even too low. I'd say 5-10% of the population being left seems more reasonable. And it was probably higher at the time they arrived at the prison.

 

I'm surprised at Carol just up and leaving especially since Rick's decision is for his family and she has the two girls that she promised to take care of.

Her comment about Sophie being someone else's slideshow was a really creepy moment and showed how far she's gone.

Honestly, the two hippies (only the cripple girl was shown dead and her foot was oddly and very cleanly cut off - was that suspicious to anyone?) were ridiculous. How did they make it so far with such crappy self-preservation skills?

So far the episodes are building up a lot of tension and I'm waiting for the explosion so to speak.

Michonne flirting with Daryl?

Also, Daryl and the alcoholic (Bob?). As soon as Bob said, "I'm the last one to standing" implying that everyone else kept dying around him I thought, "Time to put a bullet through this guy's head." And he did in some way cause the Beth's boyfriend to die since he went for the booze and led to the huge crash.

There are three black characters on the show and I'm expecting one or more of them to go down. So far I liked the guy they killed off (Oscar?) more than either Tyrese or Bob.

 

Did anyone else notice how the vet school had a large number of Walkers with bloody eyes? Obviously that was a fairly large and well established refuge up until a week or so ago, also it shows that that disease probably had nothing to do with the pigs.

 

I think Carol wanted to be punished despite what she said about it being the right thing. Its the reason she just flat out told Rick it was her. Plus I think its part of her new pragmatic world view, she knows what Rick said was true and people(especially those who saw what the Governor did first hand) would distrust her and even probably try to kill her to avoid another governor.

I agree about the leg, I think that's the first time we've seen the Zombies dismember someone.