Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine THE WALKING DEAD tv show

I'm of two minds regarding the way they are portraying Rick. On the one hand it's a nice set up for what's to come, but on the other if there's too much done to portray Rick as "ends justifies the means, no matter how horrible", it won't be quite as shocking when he does what he does later on.

Comic Spoiler

Just realized I haven't watched last week's episode yet and it's nearly time for the new one. It's come back strong from the winter break and I can't wait to see the confrontation with Negan.

Just caught up on the last two episodes and, while good (better than anything last season tome) I still don't get the hoopla over last Sunday's episode. But

I enjoyed it because it was tense and featured female characters prominently, almost exclusively. It was well-done all-around, though I'm curious about what's going on with Carol. I can only speculate that settling down in the Community has taken her out of bad-ass/no prisoners survivor mode and forced her to stop and think about what she's had to do to get there and what she's lost on the way.

And, yeah, I think scenes like those with the polaroids (among others) are supposed to cause us comic readers consternation. It is either foreshadowing of exactly what will happen or intentional misdirection for the show to take another option instead.

I'm leaning towards the latter, intentional misdirection.

My take on Carol was exactly that. She's softened or the death of Sam hit her harder that we've been led to believe.

It's interesting that they didn't really talk about this directly on the companion Talking Dead show with Melissa McBride RIGHT THERE!?!?

I can't imagine this would be considered too spoilery of subsequent episodes for them to even speculate about or explore...

I've written off Talking Dead, as it's complete promo/fluff instead of actual episode discussion anymore.

I think Carol's issues have been a long time coming, and between Sophia, the prison girls and now Sam it's just breaking her. Signs of it were already there in her conflict with Morgan, because it wasn't just that she found his actions dangerous, its that his philosophy, even if part way true, COMPLETELY nullifies every justification she's made to herself about her actions. That's why she was almost irrationally combative with him, because it was the start of a breakdown.

The only obvious thing they really missed, was having her put Sophia's name in the journal.

That's probably as disappointing a season finale as I've seen in the last few years.

The Walking Dead is a good show, possibly even great at times, but it just isn't good enough to rank with the "best of the best". And this finale just underscores that.

I have to assume you refer primarily to the cliffhanger. I thought otherwise it was really good. But it's hard to look past that ending, I know.

I would have rathered the rumored appearance of Negan and Lucille in the final frame and having to wait for what would happened until the beginning of the next season. Prior to this I generally liked Jeffrey Dean Morgan but this was just scenery chewing to me. Something else else was just off in his performance. Hopefully next week's return of Fear the Walking Dead gets off to a better start than TWD ended their season with.

I thought it was good at building the tension, but squandered it all with the B.S. cliffhanger. It's the most watched show on cable, you don't need a cheap gimmick like that to bring viewers back next season.

I'm also not sure how the Kingdom will translate to the screen without looking really silly, but I'll wait and see.

I thought it did a good job of making the viewer feel like a part of Rick's group. Just as Negan's group dicked around with Rick's group for the entire episode, I felt like I'd been dicked around with the whole episode as well!

I hope they at least told whichever actor is getting the barbed bat to the head, so he or she can look for work.



I wonder how Negan's group knew that Rick and the gang would be headed out for the Hilltop on that particular day. Even assuming they had people spying outside Alexandria, it really seems quite a stretch.

^...unless, Enid is a spy for the Saviours and poisoned Maggie!!!

That thought crossed my mind, but I doubt it. I think the writers had the Saviors do it because...reasons.

BTW, if you're gonna have a six-month cliffhanger, I'll be doubly mad if it ends up being one of the more minor characters present. If it's Rosita or Aaron, for example.....everyone will be like, really?!? I think it's gotta be Glenn, Maggie, Daryl, Michonne or Carl to make any real waves. Anyone else, likable as they are, is not all that significant a blow. I'll be especially pissed, though, if it's Eugene. He plays a bigger role from here in the comics, and the actor is so damn fun in the role!

Also, whatever happened to Tara and whoever she went on a supply run with? As far as I know, she's still on it?!?

I think the most likely candidates are Glenn, Daryl, and Abraham.

Yeah, I actually think you're right. I'd be surprised if the Saviors actions are ever actually explained.

And your comments on the cliffhanger ring true. It's made worse by Glenn being the natural choice because of the comics and Abraham being another natural choice because of all the set up. It's just annoying. I get no fun in speculating.

I'd really hate for them to discard some of the great stuff coming up for characters like Eugene and Maggie (in the comic) in favor of whatever shock value could be obtained by taking them out instead of whomever. Eugene does a lot more than just come up with a way to manufacture bullets, and Maggie's role post-Negan is tremendous.

Much as I love the actors and performances, I'd rather see Glenn or Abraham go than either of the above two. I'd really miss Daryl, though. I think there's still much they could do with him as the series' major original character.

Why is Aaron even there? His reasons were flimsy, and they already had a big enough crowd for the final scene (and it won't be him... no impact). Would have made sense to leave someone (ANYONE) behind with Gabriel.

Eugene is a puzzle to me. I don't read him in the comics as autistic, just mildly eccentric and too smart for his own good. I'm unsure how they'll meld the two going forward.

I did get one obvious answer this week. If Michonne is taking on Andrea's role, who's going to take on Michonne's storyline? Looks like it will be Carol.

Yeah, it seemed Gabriel gained too much trust too quickly. I know we've seen him start to earn it, but to have earned it to this degree was a huge stretch.



Yeah, the borderline autistic approach of the show is not based on the comics, imo, but I do really enjoy the spin he's given there. Either way, he's become one of my favorite characters in either medium.



That thought occurred to me as well. We'll see....

Listening to the audio and just the number of hits it took Negan I figure it's Abraham, Eugene or Aaron. I don't think it'll be Glenn (although supposed audio analysis online says otherwise), we now it's not Carl or Rick due to Negan's comments and I don't think any of the women, even Michonne, has a hard enough head to withstand that many whacks.

Saw the new trailer, and as I feared, Shiva doesn't look all that great (too obviously CGIed). That was the one fantastical element of the book (besides, you know, the zombies), that I was worried wouldn't translate well to the show.

So....just a few days to go after the long wait to find out who meets the business end of Lucille...anyone have a strong suspicion as to whom that might turn out to be? I've mostly tried to avoid articles that attempt to figure out or expose who the victim might be. In the end, though, it seems a fairly well-kept secret. As tempting as it may be to guess otherwise, I'll stick with it being Glenn for various reasons. I really hope it's not Maggie or Eugene because they play big roles in the comic that such a turn would rob them of. That doesn't mean the death of a number of other big characters would make me happy either, but I'd particularly like to see their arcs play out similarly to the comics.

Meanwhile, I found myself really starting to enjoy Fear during the latter half of its second season. The splitting up of the characters and the interesting settings and scenarios they found themselves in really aided in sorely-needed character development and in making the show finally start to feel really different from the parent show. I'm not saying it's suddenly a GREAT show that doesn't have any faults, but it improved a lot and really grabbed my attention.

So....the show took its biggest veer from the book in the mid-season finale that it's taken in a long time, probably since season three. On one hand, it's hard to see future adapted storylines playing out with this change. On another, I can see a lot of character development compressed and playing out over this episode and, presumably, the next one. But as a big fan of the book, I'm a little numb right now.

I'm curious if anyone else, fan of the show, book or both, has any thoughts.

I see it as another in a series of recent poor and confounding decisions by the show. Given that the actor has said it wasn't their choice to leave the show, it felt like shock for shock's sake. A lot of the big moments the last 2 seasons haven't felt earned or like they developed naturally from character or prior events. Lots of plot developments that hinge on people behaving stupidly and wildly out of character.