TWD: “No Way Out” thoughts

“No Way Out” is part of the handful of episodes that I wish I hadn’t read the comics for. As I scrolled through my Twitter timeline and Facebook feed that night, all I saw was a lot of exclamations, expletives and jubilations that Carl might be dead. Having read this story already and knowing that Carl gets out relatively unscathed (save for the whole no right eye thing) I felt relieved that it actually happened. I wasn’t sure if they’d permanently scar a main character or avoid it like they did with Rick not losing his hand. I’m super happy they did though as Carl’s badass eye patch look is iconic to TWD comic.

But this describes a larger conundrum for me: “surprises” from here forward won’t be surprises, but more corner stones and comparative junctures. I envy the average fan who has no idea about Negan or The Saviors or The Hilltop or Jesus, because they were such a surprise for me when I read about them. I can only imagine now how awesome seeing them for the first time in live action will be. But enough of my complaining…

Three big events happened this episode: Carl’s eye get’s shot off, the Alexandrians get some balls and we have our first encounter with The Saviors.

The Saviors are no joke. They make The Governor’s crew looks like a bunch of zombie kittens compared to what hell they can and probably will bring. We got a bit of fan service right out of the gate with Daryl shooting a mother fucking BAZOOKA at them, blowing up the seven dudes in one fell swoop. Awesome of course. Daryl brushes them off as common scavengers saying, “What a bunch of asshole,” I guess his equivalent of “Astalavista, baby.” Little does Daryl know, he just kicked the hornets’ nest, and the queen been is on her way looking for revenge.

Presumably this isn’t our first encounter with The Saviors. Back in “Always Accountable,” the group of people Daryl meets look like they’re running from The Savior’s compound. Their pursuers aren’t shown a great deal, but what we saw is a group of organized, military-looking guys. So if by the end of the season Negan comes knocking on Alexandria’s door looking for an applicant to work with Lucille, Daryl already has some good experience on his resume.

We begin this half season directly where the previous half left off – Rick and friends covered in zombie guts headed into the walker horde. Now if I had my druthers, this episode would have ended last half season, leaving us on a cliff hanger if Carl is dead or alive.

But let’s work with what we have here.

Sam gets nervous, begins to bitch to his mom IN THE MIDDLE OF ZOMBIEVILLE and ultimately gets chomped in the face. Of course Jessie (I just now realize that I’ve been spelling her name “Jesse” in all previous posts) is paralyzed with grief, which is bad because she’s got a death grip on Carl’s hand who know’s better than cry in the middle of a zombie shit storm. She becomes dessert, and Rick hacks off her arm to save Carl. Ron, a.k.a. Porch Dick Jr. grabs a gun ready to shoot Rick until Michonne stabs him straight through the chest. He does, however, squeeze off one inadvertent shot, which is the bullet that catches Carl in the eye area. Rick abandons all subtlety, grabs Carl and sprints to Denise, who just got back to the infirmary after Carol killed Denise’s Wolf captor.

The whole sequence was well done give the story elements we have in place. It’s not precisely like the comic, but it’s pretty close to and Carl’s eye-gash is almost perfect from the page. I wish we got more set-up of Rick and Jessie’s relationship to get a deeper feeling of loss when she’s attacked by walkers. We get a corny flashback thing that I guess is supposed to make us feel nostalgic for her, but she didn’t ever play a large part in Rick’s life on screen so it ended up laying flat. I feel bad for Rick because Alexandra Breckinridge is pretty hot, but anyone who gets close romantically to Rick has to die, so say TWD gods.

I actually like better how Carl gets shot in this episode compared to the comic. I think it’s more meaningful knowing Ron and Carl’s tumultuous history than the leader of Alexandria just being a dick and firing wildly into the horde (which happens in the comic). I predict Carl will be out for a few episode, maybe coming back by the penultimate or final episode to counteract the dread that Negan’s presence will bring.

When Rick know’s there’s nothing more he can do for Carl in the infirmary, he does his “my family member just got killed” thing and starts wildly hacking up zombies. Seeing Rick’s all alone out there, the Alexandrian jump into action proving Rick wrong, that they can survive in this new world. When all’s said and killed, Rick’s surprisingly optimistic about the future. He sees what his new people are capable of and wants to build a better world for Carl. He’s not thinking on a moment to moment basis, just trying to survive to the next day, but rather he’s thinking long-term; thinking about a viable future where they don’t have to worry about zombies or people or food or anything. He’s looking towards a larger world.

Predictions for next week

Rick wants to start building his new world immediately. Him and Daryl go out to scout the area and find Jesus (not in the religious sense) who they think is hostile. That’s great because Jesus, a.k.a. Paul Monroe, is a fantastic character who, in the comic, becomes a Daryl-like soldier in the war against Negan – another reason I think Daryl only has until the end of this season.

We still have to see how Rick is going to handle the Morgan situation because undoubtedly Carol ran straight to Rick as soon as the last zombie fell. Maybe Rick’s new sunny disposition has left him more understanding of people’s flaws or specifically Morgan’s distaste for killing.

I’m happy we don’t have to worry about the Alexandrian’s bumbling mistakes as a plot point anymore. They’re all truly Rick’s people now, people he’ll need in the coming fight.

 

TWD: “Start to Finish” thoughts

The very horror that Rick tried to defend against with the “Zombie Operation” ultimately failed with hundreds of zombies occupying Alexandria. That’s the overarching concern that’s effecting everyone at the moment. An underlying trouble – one that Rick has no knowledge of to this point – is Morgan’s Wolf prisoner and his conspirings with Denise to help keep him alive. That comes back to bite Morgan, and probably a lot more people later, in the ass.

So the zombie break-in forces Rick, Carl, Deanna, Father Gabriel, Jesse, Ron, Sam, Michonne and Judith into Jesse’s house to escape the zombie horde that now’s invaded Alexandria. Morgan and Carol run into the closest house, which turns out to be the house attached to the basement the Wolf and Denise are currently in. Other heroes are other places, but their whereabouts are no concern to the major plot on this episode.

Let’s take a quick second for some relationship reminders – Jesse and Rick are sort of a thing; Ron and Carl don’t like each other very much cause Carl stole Enid from Ron; Carol doesn’t trust Morgan as far as she can throw him. So in every situation, there’s a powder keg about explode.

Rick’s group is safe for the time being, but Deanna was bitten while fighting the horde, so she’s a ticking walker time bomb. They make her as comfortable as possible knowing they’re going to have to off her soon. While everyone’s worried about her, Ron lures Carl into the garage with plans to kill him. Turns out, Ron’s as shitty as his father and fails in attempt to hit Carl with a shovel, instead breaking a door keeping the walkers out and causing them to
flood into the garage – Ron and Carl narrowly escape. Carl decides not to tell his father what went down, dealing with it like the leader he’s no doubt growing into. However, when Ron and Carl are along, Carl shoves his gun in Ron’s face commanding Ron to hand over his gun. Carl then exclaims, “Look man, I get it. My dad killed your dad. But you need to know something: your dad was an asshole.”

This scene agains shows how badly the Alexandrians – Ron in this case – screw things up; how bumbling and unready for the world they still are. Conversely, is shows how well Rick’s group – Carl – deals with things and makes the right choices when they have to. Carl kept himself calm, cool, collected both in the fight with Ron and dealing with the situation after. He’s seen how hostile his father can be, but he’s also seen that Rick’s kept everyone safe. Carl is without a doubt growing into a leader like Rick – shaped by the apocalyptic world he’s had to grow up in.

Carol and Morgan speak for a time, getting to know each other better without trusting each other any better. Carol plainly says to Morgan when Morgan asks who she trusts, “You’re dead last.” And for as well as we know Morgan – his backstory and all – Carol just knows him as schemer who’s too afraid to do what’s necessary.

During a brief moment of peace, Carol pushes Morgan down and runs to the basement to see what he’s been hiding down there. She’s obviously exasperated when she sees one of the men who tried to kill everyone in Alexandria still alive totally affirming her distrust for Morgan. Morgan runs down after her, as Carol tries to kill his prisoner. She and Morgan duke it out while Denise and the Wolf watch. After a gritty struggle, Morgan knocks Carol unconscious allowing the Wolf to grab Morgan’s stick and knock Morgan unconscious. Before the Wolf has a change to kill Denise, Tara, Rosita and Eugene bust in guns drawn, but the Wolf has Denise by the through ready to slice her open. They relinquish their guns to the Wolf who then slips out the exit to the street, still holding Denise hostage.

Morgan’s a big, dumb idiot, which is a change from how I felt in the first couple episode of season 6. When he first shows up and during his “origin story” episode I saw his as noble, virtuous and fair-minded. He was the perfect yin to Rick’s harsh, severe and bordering on crazy yang. I thought he’d balance Rick out or challenge him for authority creating a rift in followers of Rick vs. followers of Morgan. Turns out, everything Rick does is right – killing is right. Over and over again the shows demonstrates to us that Carol and Rick’s way of kill first ask questions later is the correct way to handle literally every situation. As season 6 progresses, we’ve seen a change in Rick from utterly impatient to accepting of Alexandria’s shortcomings – making him drop him guard a little bit. Carol has picked up Rick’s slack thought, remaining as vigilant and distrustful as they were on the road. Again, Carol was correct in doing so because as it stands currently, the Wolf is on the loose and we don’t yet know what havoc he’ll cause in an already stress-filled situation.

 

The zombies eventually fill Jesse’s house, making everyone huddle upstairs to reevaluate. Rick decides that the only way out is in, using the tried and true method of covering themselves in zombie guts and hope the undead don’t notice. Sam, the little shit Carol scared when he just wanted some cookies, is extraordinarily panicked by this procedure as he’s been totally sheltered from anything zombie-related since the world when to hell. The gang cover up, leaving Deanna behind because he’s a goner anyway. Before they leave, she formally, and quite emotionally, asks Rick to become Alexandria’s leader, not the leader they want, but the one they need right now. Rick’s reluctant at first, still only wanting to look out for his own mates, but Deanna challenges him with the conclusion that they’re all his mates now, every bumbling one of them. Rick respects Deanna greatly. He understands, but is apprehensive.

Like the panel straight out of the comic, they wade guts covered, hand in hand out into the ocean of reanimated corpses known as walkers. It’s important to note the order they’re in – Rick leads holding Carl’s hand, Carl holds Jesse’s hand, Jesse’s holding Sam’s hand. The last bit we see is Sam looking terrified, whimpering to Jesse “Mom… mom.”

 

It took a while to get to this point, but it looks like the show’s back on track with the comic where it should be. All season they’ve been doing the really weird altered timeline – going back and forth between present day and events happening a few days before. Not everyone is back together, but at least everyone’s on the same page.

My biggest past gripe with the show and one that’s popped up again this season is their elongation of events. A past example was The Governor’s attack on the prison. In the comic, he waits a few months then attacks The Prison with his militarized Woodbury crew, tank and all. In the show, he shows up to The Prison with civilians, looks around a little, leaves and kills his own people. A few months later he wanders around by himself, finds new people, convinces them he should be their leader and to attack The Prison, then get the tank and the militarized commandos seen in the comics, then finally attacks The Prison. Same sort of thing here – in the comics the zombie horde just shows up and wrecks Alexandria. The show goes off the rails, creating some convoluted plot where Rick wants to move the zombies, which gets literally all of our heroes in some sort of danger, and his plan doesn’t work anyway. We end up in the same place as the comic, but it’s a much more drawn out and less engaging story than if they just stuck to what was between each black and white panel.

So going into the midseason premiere, here’s where we’re at with our heroes:

Rick, Carl, and Michonne are in the horde of walkers. Morgan and Carol are knocked out with Tara, Eugene and Rosita in the basement with them. Maggie is trapped in the lookout’s stand, Glenn and Enid are outside the walls trying to figure out how they can help. As we saw in the teaser to this half season, Daryl, Abraham and Sasha are stopped by Negan’s gang and we don’t know where that’s going to lead yet.

Some of my biggest hope and predictions:

I really want Aaron and Heath to have a larger role in Rick’s inner circle. Aaron’s proven himself to be a soldier, able to kill zombies and fight humans with the best of them. Heath is less established, but what he know of him, he’s a solid runner. He’s been out in the world around zombies and probably has seen his share of sticky situations.

I’m almost positive that Jesse and her kids will die during episode 609, at least that’s how it plays out in the comics. The bigger question is, if they are indeed sticking to the comic, who will shoot Carl in the face? I’m thinking someone in the scrum, after Rick chops Jesse’s arm off, Ron becomes enraged, grabs a gun and aims for Rick, but instead blows Carl’s eye off. If not that, they possibly the loose Wolf starts shooting wildly into the crowd of zombies at the same time that Rick is dismembering Jesse. His stray bullet catches Carl, Michonne kills the Wolf and when all is said and done, Rick is furious at Morgan for causing this creating another direction for the show to waver from the comic.

In the long run, this half season we’ll see Jesus which means we’ll see The Hilltop which means we might see The Kingdom and awesome Ezekiel with his tiger Shiva. Executive producer Gale Anne Hurd already confirmed that Negan is showing up at the end of season 6, which is very, very exciting as I’ve mentioned in past posts. His arrival means someone big is dying soon, someone who’s a fan favorite, who’ll garner a huge emotional response. In the comic, Negan bashes in Glenn’s head, but since they’ve already tugged on our emotional heartstrings with his non-death, the only other character we care about just as much, if not more, is Daryl. I’m putting my money on Rick’s right hand man Daryl dying by the end of season 6. We will see…

 

 

TWD: “Heads Up” thoughts

The anguish is over; Glenn’s fate is revealed. As time went on without any answers and drama ran high especially with Maggie’s pregnancy, I believe it was increasingly obvious that Glenn made it out of that zombie pit alive. And he did in the most obvious fan predicted way: he crawled under the nearby dumpster.

I’m glad they put this in the penultimate episode, rather than saving it as a last minute midseason finale reveal. Now we can head into the second half of season 6 finally advancing the plot with all characters together – Sasha, Abraham and Daryl headed back to Alexandria as we speak.

To me, this season is stuck in the mud, spinning its wheels in place trying to gain traction to move the story forward. We’ve barely seen our heroes in action, some like Michonne and Morgan demoted to background characters as the Alexandrians take center stage. But I guess that’s what this half season is for, to build up our feelings towards the Alexandrians. We’ve seen them change from a bumbling group of pansies who were unwilling to face the outside world, to a group who’s experienced heavy loss and come face to face with the realities of the zombie apocalypse that they live in. In that way, I can honestly say I do care more about new characters than I did at the end of season 5. People like Deanna, Spencer, Denise, Enid, Jessie, and Tobin look like they’re going to play into Alexandria’s story and become regulars on the show moving into the second half of season 6.

Anyways, getting back to “Heads Up,” when Glenn emerges from his savior dumpster, he partners up with Enid who is somehow on the roof of the building exactly next to the dumpster Glenn is under. In his undying heroism, even after Nicholas’ actions almost got him killed, Glenn feels he needs to get an unwilling Enid back to Alexandria safe and sound. If we’re keeping count, Enid is the second person since Glenn arrived at Alexandria who’s pointed a gun at him and became friends with afterward. Hopefully this friendship will yield better results.

The mystery behind Enid continues. She explains to Glenn, whom she is very short with, that “people” got into Alexandria. The nonchalant way with which she explains Alexandria’s siege makes me think she’s experienced something like that before, or that she’s come across bad people on more than a few occasions. Her survival skills are keene – she was able to avoid the giant group of walkers when Glenn, Michonne and Heath were not. She’s the only Alexandrian who I feel the most confident can survive in this apocalypse. But how did she get like that?

Assuming the role of leader, Rick’s goal is now not just to keep his people safe, but to keep all the Alexandrians safe, whether he wants to admit that or not. So it’s unfortunate that his two biggest endeavors this season – the “zombie operation” and fortifying the busted wall – have been a waste of time.

Another of his kindnesses – teaching Ron how to shoot – is most likely going to backfire on Rick as well (no pun intended). Ron’s animosity towards the entire Grimes family is palpable, even through the “Kristen Stewart” expression he’s always sporting. Rick killed his father and Carl stole his girlfriend. I can definitely see where Ron’s coming from when he steals bullets from the armory and follows Carl in the street, gun in hand. This course of events could be leading the way to another significant comic book event, when Carl gets half of his face blown off from a stray bullet. Since Rick never lost his hand, chances are Carl won’t lose and major body part either, but here’s hoping.

Rick’s relationship with Morgan seems to be waning just as fast as it was rekindled at the start of season 6. From Carol, his spy, Rick knows the Wolves who attacked him in the RV were the same ones Morgan let go in Alexandria. Rick is understandable upset. Those Wolves killed several Alexandrians and Morgan couldn’t take them out. Morgan explains his reluctancy to kill people knowing how people can drastically change nowadays. He cites himself and Rick as two people who have changed greatly since  the world ended. Though Morgan desires to hold all life precious, Rick asks him if he thinks he can survive without getting blood on his hands. Instead of affirming Rick’s question, Morgan isn’t sure if he can.

There’s still a battle inside Morgan’s head. Living in the apocalypse, he isn’t sure what’s right and wrong anymore. He thinks by not killing he’s doing the right thing. This mentality, as we saw in “Here’s Not Here” brought him back from the brink of sheer barbarism. Because of that, I think Morgan fears himself the most, what he can turn back into and what he could do to his community if he turns into that man again.Morgan sympathizes with his captive Wolf because he was once like him – acting on his own moral code, killing because he thought he had to. Morgan is a great man and a great character. But to be any use to Rick and the community at all, he has to be willing to kill especially with Negan on the horizon.