Sunday night"s episode ofThe Walking Deadwas once again not nearly as bad as the first half of Season 8. The bad motivational speeches, weird editing & other follies of that half of the season are all gone. Instead, wehad some decent character drama, some tense moments, và a zombie-guts-covered Lucille.
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I"m not saying that this is primeWalking Deadtelevision. I"m afraid that ship has sailed. The show"s heyday is long since past, & even this trio of relatively good episodes won"t change that. These are decent in relation to lớn the past two seasons, sure, but compared toThe Walking Dead"sbest episodes we"re still a long ways off.
Ratings for the midseason premiere were terrible, reflecting audience"s antipathy toward Scott Gimple"s bizarre decision to kill off Carl. In fact, ratings are all the way down to lớn Season 1 levels. Season 1 was fantastic, but it was a new show & had a much smaller audience. It"s quite frankly pathetic to see this show fall so low, và a clear reflection of just how poorly written, directed and produced AMC"s zombie drama has been lately. They desperately need new blood & I"m more worried than ever that simply shuffling the deck of current producers & writers won"t cut it.
Still, I"ve enjoyed this back half of Season 8 way more than the front half. It feels better paced, more contained và less confusing than earlier episodes this season. It"s less melodramatic, too. & unlike Season 7, we haven"t gotten stuck with any solo episodes. Thank goodness, too, because I"m not sure I could stand another Tara episode.
Because Tara, man. Tara is theworst.
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"Rodents Of Unusual Size? I don"t think they exist."~The Princess Bride
As the Hilltop runs out of food and Maggie begins planning the torturous starvation death of her prisoners, another huge group of survivors makes their way to Gregory"s mansion. The survivors of Alexandria, replete with a whole bunch of extras we"ve never seen before. I have a nagging suspicion that they"re actually survivors from the island onLost.I have no idea where else they could have come from. In any case, lots of mouths to feed và very little food.
(Never fear, though,Jesus is out scavenging for food. He"ll steal a whole truck of it from Rick and Daryl and we"ll discover this is actually a time loop.The survivors keep meeting Jesus, who leads them to lớn Gregory, who sicks them on Negan, who kills Glenn and Abraham, & then the entire cycle repeats over and over again.)
Sorry, I got a little carried away there.
In any case, Dwight tells everyone that Negan will have basically every single approach to the Hilltop guarded except for one: The Fire Swamp. (Okay, just the swamp. I"m adding flavor.)
This is the first or second time, but definitely not the last time, that Tara wants lớn kill Dwight. And gosh does she ever. She wants khổng lồ kill him so bad she can"t think about anything else. Her và Denise were girlfriends for like seventeen minutes, but her vengeance burns hot, runs deep, wriggles and jiggles và tickles inside her. She simply has lớn kill Dwight, right now, & she isn"t afraid to lớn tell anyone even when he"s standing right over there. Tara, he"s literally standing right over there. Keep it down.
So when the others go to lớn clear a path through the zombie-filled swamp, Tara stays behind. She takes Dwight with her khổng lồ go kill some nearby walkers, but it"s obviously a thinly veiled excuse to get him alone where she can kill him. When he tells her he"s sorry and that killing him won"t make her feel better, she tries lớn anyways, missing at point blank range. He runs and she follows but her execution is cut short by a pack of roving Saviors. They hide and Tara looks like she might still kill him right then and there, nearby enemies be damned. But Dwight ducks out of their hiding place, greeting the Saviors as friends.
When, khổng lồ no one"s surprise but Tara"s, Dwight doesn"t betray them lớn the Saviors she has a "come khổng lồ Jesus" moment.She realizes that maybe, just maybe, she should let a guy who fought on the wrong side for a time, but then risked everything lớn help the good guys, have his redemption moment.
I mean, for God"s sake Tarayou used to be on Team Governor!You were on the bad guys team once, too!
While I dounderstand her anger---Dwight put a crossbow bolt in Denise"s eye, after all---I found Tara incredibly annoying in this episode. Frankly, I"m not even sure why she"s still on this show. She"s such a boring character và whenever she"s not boring it"s because she"s doing something obnoxious. I"m not necessarily a tín đồ of Dwight, but I lượt thích him more than ever after this episode. He fought for his life and still didn"t give up his new allies even after they tried lớn kill him. Good for Dwight. I lượt thích that he"s doing the right thing even if it means he"ll die in the end. It"s brave & selfless.
Speaking of annoying characters, Daryl is just...he"s just ridiculous at this point. When even Tara starts defending Dwight for not double-crossing them, it"s Daryl who fecklessly rages about killing him. He"sso angryhe could just...stomp his feet và pout! Why is he angry? It"s not like Dwight got away. He was chased by Tara who was trying lớn kill him lượt thích an idiot, & all Daryl can bởi vì is whine and cry about it? Until he notices little Judith looking all cute & decides that maybe he should hold it together.
The best part of this entire segment was the swamp zombies. Let"s call them "bobbers." They were, as usual, very grotesque và cool, though highly ineffective at their job. You hadone jobbobbers: Kill all humans. One job. Sheesh.
The Blind Leading The Blind
I really dislike Father Gabriel. I"ve disliked him from the very first moment he showed up onThe Walking Dead,and no matter how hard I try I still dislike him. But I didn"t hate his story in "Dead Or Alive Or" (which, by the way, is a very silly name for an episode.)
Gabriel and Dr. Carson have escaped the Sanctuary with the help of The Mullet. They"re hopelessly lost because they"re both just terrible at surviving but still somehow managed to lớn survive this long. Gabriel"s infection has gotten into his eyes and he"s going blind. (I"m still confused by the infection...how exactly did he get infected by putting zombie guts on him when they"ve done this countless times already? Nick in FTWD does this almost every single episode!)
In any case, with a dead car và no sense of where they are,Gabriel and Carson seem stuck, until Gabriel hears a bell off in the distance. God, he assures his scientifically inclined travelling companion, is leading them. So off they go until they find a house in the middle of nowhere. Once there, Gabriel"s faith is bolstered once again. Surely this is god"s hand at work, guiding them to lớn safety.
When Carson finds the previous occupant dead in the back bedroom he doubts Gabriel"s hypothesis. But when they find bottles of antibiotics his own faith wavers. It is a bit miraculous, after all. Gabriel gets his meds & starts talking và gesticulating và accidentally breaks a piggy bank on the counter. Inside it they find a key & a map, leading them khổng lồ a vehicle. More of god"s beneficence at play, it would seem.
"You are feeling very sleepy. On the count of three, you will turn into a likable character..." Credit: AMC
But on the way lớn the car, Carson steps in a bear trap. Zombies descend, và things look grim for our good doctor. Gabriel, nearly blind, grabs Carson"s gun & takes aim, putting his faith once again in his maker and...perfect shot. Carson"s angle is likely broken, but at least Gabriel saved him. They can get to the car and drive to lớn Hilltop "for Maggie."
Brief side-note here: This whole "Maggie needs the doctor" thing is so, so, so, so very stupid. Maggie isn"t even showing. Maggie is no longer infected. Maggie is fine. There are many others, including both Gabriel and now Carson, who would be better served by a medical professional. Countless people have been wounded fighting the Saviors.Maggie doesn"t need a doctor.Women literally gave birth for hundreds of thousands of years without a doctor.
Many people, even in this day và age, use midwives instead of doctors. Actually, at the dawn of modern medicine, doctors were probably the worst thing a woman in childbirth could have near her. They used all sorts of barbaric instruments khổng lồ drag children into the world, refusing to use older, more tested means of midwifery. Maggie can bring this baby to lớn term & give birth just fine without a doctor, assuming she survives both the war with Negan and contract negotiations with AMC.
And that"s good, because Carson dies. Literally fourteen seconds after Gabriel fires off the gun and they get to lớn the jeep, the Saviors show up. Apparently there are still so many Saviors that they"re just everywhereat once. They just pop up randomly when they hear a gun shot miles off, seconds later, lượt thích magic.
In any case, it continues with our theme of elation & crushing defeat. But even as they"re dragged into the bed of the Saviors" magical truck, Gabriel is chill about it. We"re still on god"s path, he tells Carson. Và Carson, probably delirious with pain, decides that yes, he agrees, và he knows what to do! He"ll grab the Savior"s gun và take on all of them single-handedly! Poor doc. They put him down like a dog, though one Savior points out that they were trying to lớn capture the doctor, not kill him.
Gabriel weeps as he"s driven away, all his faith shattered.
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Eugene is an idiot. He becomes more and more of an idiot with every passing episode. He"s a true traitor, not just to lớn his old friends, but to any sense of decency inside himself. As his fear và alcoholism further consume him, he sinks deeper into his role as a Savior boss.
He"s at once terrified of Negan discovering his treachery & so full of himself that when one of the Savior women comes over khổng lồ offer her assistance in bullet making, he treats her lượt thích garbage. Honestly, this really rubbed me the wrong way. He"s just such a complete jerk to lớn her for no reason. It just compounds how much I absolutely loathe Eugene.
Let"s just stop calling him that. From now on he"s The Mullet. Mullet the bullet-maker. That"s the task Negan has phối out for him, và he brings the captured Father Gabriel (who refuses to lớn give up Eugene) lớn help sort bullet casings. But Eugene can"t make bullets fast enough, so he suggests using zombie parts as siege weapons. They can toss zombie heads and guts & entire walkers over the Hilltop walls (burning said walls, which are made of wood, might be faster & easier, but whatever.)
This gives Negan an idea. Which leads us to....
Super Lucille, Killer of Worlds và Destroyer of Stuff
I guess if you put zombie bits into an mở cửa wound, you become infected. So if you cover your spiky bat with zombie guts và blood & then thwack somebody with it, it"ll vày 1d8+3 damage instead of just 1d8 damage. Or maybe it"s still 1d8 damage, but now you need khổng lồ roll a saving throw against poison khổng lồ survive it or you take an extra 1d8 poison damage và then turn into a walker.
Now imagine coating your arrows and machetes và very small rocks with zombie innards và using this entire arsenal against your enemies, turning each và every one of them into a walker in the process. Pretty gruesome. Kind of bizarre nobody"s thought of it before now, though. Especially a sadist like Negan.
Oh well, whatever the case here we have one of the comic book"s big moments happening on screen. Seems a tad drastic to lớn me, if Negan truly doesn"t want to kill everyone & thinks "people are a resource, Simon!" This kind of approach feels more genocidal than anything. As soon as you start turning people, they"ll all start turning on one another until everyone is dead. Maybe Negan is just full of it.
Meanwhile, back at the Hilltop...
Back at the Hilltop, everyone is running out of food. People are 1/3 rations. This has always been the story of Hilltop. They can"t fight. They had the worst leader ever in Gregory. They farmed but never had full stomachs. It"s the most useless community in the entire show, but at least they have hostages và it"s basically the only safe place remaining since, during the midseason finale, Simon failed to go back there with Maggie khổng lồ make sure they didn"t have any more guns.
In any case, Maggie tells the prisoners they can"t leave their pen even for exercise và also they won"t get any more food.
There"s a touching moment when Daryl & his crew arrive at the Hilltop & Daryl tells Carol and Maggie about Carl. We don"t hear any of it & frankly I think it probably works better that way. We see the reactions of the Hilltop crew as Enid breaks down và Carol faces yet another loss of young life. Carol, whose daughter was lost in season 2, who had khổng lồ kill that one crazy little girl who killed her sister, who tried to lớn push away that creepy kid in Alexandria that ended up dying anyways.
Meanwhile, Morgan tells young Henrythat Gavin (who Henry recently murdered)killed his older brother, perhaps indicating that he"s once again souring on all the killing. I"m all for Henry turning into a total badass. Morgan, for his part, seems fed up with everything. Maybe he"s off lớn joinFear The Walking Dead.(Note: I incorrectly stated that Morgan told Henry the name of the real killer; I was mistaken, or got the names mixed up. Fixed now. Thanks.)
That"s all folks.
All told, not a bad episode by any means. I think part of the reason why I can"t get more invested in the tense moments (like when Dwight và Tara are hiding from the Savior search party) is the simple fact that I"m just not that invested in any of the characters. I still like some of these characters lượt thích Carol and Morgan & Michonne & Rosita, but this whole Negan war has really played out for way too long and it"s really dragging. The cast is too swollen và we could really use a major thinning of the herd in order to lớn start focusing more on the characters we bởi vì care about. Separate the wheat from the chaff, as it were.
But still, for reasons I"ve already mentioned I bởi think the show hasimproved from the first half of the season. That"s not saying much, I realize, & I"m fully expecting lớn once again enjoyFear The Walking Deadmore than I"m enjoyingThe Walking Dead, but at least I"m not rolling my eyes the entire time. I"m sure many of my readers will disagree---many of you wonderful people are even more disillusioned with this show than I am!---and that"s completely fine. Let"s argue about it on Twitter & Facebook.
Dwight’s allegiances are questioned, Henry is still an annoying little Damian and Dr Carson’s faith is put on the line in a remarkably good ‘filler’ episode
“Big day, tomorrow,” drawled Negan, with a Cheshire cát grin sprawling across his big stupid face. He might as well have swivelled towards the camera, pointed out of the screen & said, “Yes, this was a filler episode, but we’ll vì chưng excitement next week, double-pinky-promise, mmmkay?”. Nevertheless, while this episode was hardly a whizz-popping gauntlet of OMGs and vibrant, explosive dismemberments, it gave us just enough to lớn gnaw on lớn elevate it above the turgid filler episodes occasionally slopped out in the past.
The Walking Dead: season 8, episode 10 recap – The Lost and the Plunderers
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Despite Daryl, Tara and Rosita all having their chia sẻ of screentime, the main thrust of the episode belonged lớn Dwight. One recurring theme of this season has been The Saviors’ humanity. They’re not monsters, no matter how convenient it would be khổng lồ paint them as such. They’re just people who happen to be on the other side. Suggestions that Negan isn’t quite the sadistic beard-bastard we were led to lớn believe haven’t rung entirely true, mainly because the show spent the whole of last season assuring us Negan was a complete, total & irredeemably sadistic beard-bastard.
One of the better things khổng lồ come out of season seven was Dwight’s backstory – how Negan added Dwight’s wife, Sherry, to his harem; how Dwight was disfigured by Negan; how everything Dwight did was more out of fear for Sherry than for himself. Daryl and Tara’s desire to inflict nasty boo-boos upon Dwight is understandable, but I genuinely want him lớn have changed his spots. The to-ing & fro-ing of Daryl and Tara’s trust in Dwight added some much needed substance to lớn what could have been another saggy hour in which people walk through some trees having boring, stilted chats. For the most part, I enjoyed it.
Poor lad: Austin Amelio as Dwight Photograph: ren Page/AMCIt has to lớn be said, I wanted lớn reach into the screen và slap Tara across the face with a crisp leather glove when she, in her lunk-headed lunacy, tried khổng lồ murder Dwight. Dwight clearly suspected it might happen, & his acquiescence to his inevitable death at the hands of either Tara or Daryl is an interesting detail of his character’s path to forgiveness. But surely even Tara – a character I can still muster no feelings towards whatsoever, not even boredom – would recognise the pragmatic benefits of keeping him alive until at least such a time they didn’t have to wade through a swamp full of zombies (swambies?). Once again, the show had characters doing stupid, illogical things to crowbar in some artificial tension. Once again, it was rubbish.
Nevertheless, the revelation that Dwight appears to lớn have gotten away with his treachery with The Saviors meant the episode left things more interesting than it found them. The leering swambies were icky and creepy, if dealt with a mite too easily. The scene in which Dwight revealed himself khổng lồ his old Savior mates was tense enough. Dwight’s return to lớn being a spy in the Savior camp is welcome. For filler-ep fodder, it wasn’t half bad.
Gabriel and Dr Carson’s road trip, however, started stupid, and then plumbed such brave new depths of stupid it went right through the Earth’s stupid core & came out at the nước australia of stupid. Gabriel remains at death’s door, presumably infected by the zombie eviscera he smothered over himself earlier in the season. On its own, his commitment lớn his faith is fine. Hell, if zombies actually bởi vì break out, you’d better believe I’ll be genuflecting inside every remotely religious building I come across. But when this quite literally blind faith leads him khổng lồ a house, and then the exact pills he needs khổng lồ survive, then some car keys, & then a map, & then khổng lồ Han Solo-esque shooting skills while blind, then sorry, nerp, you’ve lost me.
I get that Dr Carson’s death was supposed to make Gabriel question the faith that had been so handsomely rewarded up to lớn that point. But why? What was the point? The only good to lớn come out of any of this bilge was Eugene receiving a much-needed alibi when it comes khổng lồ the subject of Gabriel and Carson’s escape. Sesquipedalian mullet enthusiast Eugene appears lớn be settling into his role as Negan’s go-to brainiac, & the question of whether he will betray Negan when the time comes remains an interesting one. I’m looking forward khổng lồ seeing what happens.
Things ticked over acceptably at the Hilltop too, even if not that much actually happened. Henry, who I still hate, continues to be a creepy little Damian, though the sooner they find something else to bởi vì with him the better. All in all though, I wasn’t irreparably offended by Death Or Alive Or, despite Gabriel & Carson’s best efforts lớn ruin my entire life. Historically, filler episodes involving characters trekking through the woods have been the show’s nadir: the points at which you question why you’re still watching something that offers you such deep lungfuls of hangover-guff in return. This one, in comparison, was alright. Things actually happened, for one thing. The multi-stranded narrative kept the pacing just on the right side of sedate. It was passable, some parts good; others, not so much.
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As we head into next week – with Negan set to shower both the Hilltoppers và his own incarcerated people (who may switch allegiances now Maggie is treating them humanely) with zombie guts & entrails – the pace looks set to pick up nicely. Will it, though? Or will it slow to a crawl right up to lớn the season finale, at which point we all say “no more!” & swear we’re never watching The Walking Dead ever again? Honestly, who knows.
Episode 1: MercyEpisode 2: The Damned
Episode 3: Monsters
Episode 4: Some Guy
Episode 5: The Big Scary UEpisode 6: The King, the Widow and Rick
Episode 7: Time for After
Episode 8: How It"s Gotta Be
Episode 9: Honor
Episode 10: The Lost & the Plunderers
Episode 11: Dead Alive Or
Episode 12: The Key
Episode 13: bởi Not Send Us Astray
Episode 14: Still Gotta Mean Something
Episode 15: Worth
Episode 16: Wrath
Season seven
Episode 1: The Day Will Come When You Won"t Be
Episode 2: The Well
Episode 3: The Cell
Episode 4: Service
Episode 5: Go Getters
Episode 6: Swear
Episode 7: Sing Me A Song
Episode 8: Hearts Still Beating
Episode 9: Rock in the Road
Episode 10: New Best Friends
Episode 11: Hostiles và Calamities
Episode 12: Say Yes
Episode 13: Bury Me Here
Episode 14: The Other Side
Episode 15: Something They Need
Episode 16: The First Day of the Rest of Your Life
Season six
Episode 1: First Time Again
Episode 2: JSSEpisode 3: Thank You
Episode 4: Here"s Not Here
Episode 5: Now
Episode 6: Always Accountable
Episode 7: Heads Up
Episode 8: Start khổng lồ Finish
Episode 9: No Way Out
Episode 10: The Next World
Episode 11: Knots Untie
Episode 12: Not Tomorrow Yet
Episode 13: The Same Boat
Episode 14: Twice As Far
Episode 15: East
Episode 16: Last Day on Earth
Season five
Episode 1: No Sanctuary
Episode 2: Strangers
Episode 3: Four Walls & a Roof
Episode 4: Slabtown
Episode 5: Self Help
Episode 6: Consumed
Episode 7: Crossed
Episode 8: Coda
Episode 9: What Happened & What"s Going On
Episode 10: Them
Episode 11: The Distance
Episode 12: Remember
Episode 13: Forget
Episode 14: Spend
Episode 15: Try
Episode 16: Conquer
Season three
Episode 1: Seed
Episode 2: Sick
Episode 3: Walk With Me
Episode 4: Killer Within
Episode 5: Say the Word
Episode 6: Hounded
Episode 7: When the Dead Come Knocking
Episode 8: Made khổng lồ Suffer
Episode 9: The Suicide King
Episode 10: Home
Episode 11: I Ain"t A Judas
Episode 12: Clear
Episode 13: Arrow on the Doorpost
Episode 14: Prey
Episode 15: The Sorrowful Life
Episode 16: Welcome lớn the Tombs