In which great minds think alike and wonder about the general parenting skills of Rick.
Shawn: With one episode until the mid-season break, I kind of figured this would be the calm before the storm. But the whole season has generally been a tease that way (and not the good-tease way). I will try to keep the observations short because I see a long write-up for us next week.
1.) Glenn. It was pretty much as we all surmised. And I will stick by my statement from a few weeks ago that it was a pretty logically thin and lame way to survive. We’ve seen far less dire situations turn into zombie-related fatalities. I don’t see how he falls off the dumpster, has a body on him that gets eviscerated and crawls under the dumpster while being attacked but a few hours later is mainly just thirsty. I’m happy Glenn isn’t gone and I’m going to just try to put this behind me (much like this season for the Cowboys).
2.) Enid. I thought she wasn’t the spy for the Wolves and then I thought she was. Now I’m just thinking that she’s a big frickin’ pain in the ass. If she was spying for them – haven’t all the cards been played and she should be hanging out with them and doing Wolves things? I don’t get the endgame if she’s just being a Lone Wolf (sorry) or if she’s just a big baby. I could be convinced that the balloons are a signal to the bad guys of some sort but I don’t want to give her that much credit.
3.) Ron and Carl. While we are on the subject of annoying teens . . . No one is on the Internet saying “we need more Carl.” The only thing I appreciate is that he’s learning to be a dick just like his dear old Dad. (Rick, stop being such a prick to the Alexandrians. But it’s funny when you are a dick to Gabriel, don’t stop that.) Who in their right mind would think that giving Ron a gun was a good idea? Even when they were teaching him – every warning signal ever was going off. We spent so much time on this with Ron stealing the bullets and then walking behind Carl and pulling the gun, that if nothing comes of this it wouldn’t surprise me in a season of false leads and dead ends.
4.) Tara. “That’s how it works with us. We’re stuck with each other, right?” I’ve always liked Tara and she gets less screen time than any of the core group. I love her interactions with Eugene. She has a special bond with Glenn because he saved her and I think she is our female equivalent of him as far as voice of reason. And her flipping off Rick was the biggest smile of the episode.
5.) Carol. Not enough of you this season, Miss BadAss. We just got a short bit of Carol and Michonne and the Morgan deal. I felt like that was just tying up loose ends more than forwarding the plot.
6.) Plot. So are we all caught up to current time now? We still didn’t really get Rick escaping the RV but I think that everyone is caught up to the wall collapsing. If I think back correctly – it’s been just over 24 hrs since the season started? Glenn’s night under the dumpster was Daryl’s night as captive which was Sasha in the Insurance office? I think they could have easily told this season in chronological order just as well. Really, it’s been a season of Epic Fail. The plan to have a zombie parade, teaching the Alexandrians to defend themselves, Morgan letting people live and reinforcing the wall but not looking at the part that was crumbling away. All of these things bit them in the ass. It’s a metaphor for the future, I guess. I’ll be there to see some bloody action this week. More than just Spencer – let me add some pointless drama – action.
Curious where you sit with this.
Kim: First, I have to tell people that we wrote individually, without seeing each other’s thoughts. I’m terrified about how in sync we are. And now, my thoughts.
I’m not one to say these kinds of things on the regular, but even I can’t resist this one time. I told you so! Glenn isn’t dead (yet) and the temporary crisis of not knowing everything you want to know about your favorite pizza-delivery guy is over. I have been pretty hard on the last few episodes of The Walking Dead. I know, I know. It doesn’t mean that I don’t remain a huge fan of the series. This is the only show that I tune in for live, every Sunday. I even miss my beloved Packers playing if the two are on at the same time. For those who actually know me, this is a huge deal. I see it as no coincidence that on the weeks where the Packers played their worst yet this season, The Walking Dead aired what, in my opinion, were their weakest three shows. Perhaps Aaron Rodgers was taking his cues from the show. We just don’t know. However, my team stepped it up a bit on Sunday, got their shit together in the second half and, maybe not-so-coincidentally, so did The Walking Dead.
After the initial “I knew he wasn’t dead” wore off, I watched the next 50 minutes of the show and was reminded of what I liked most about it – a variety of people doing a variety of things that are likely not going to end very well. However, I have a bit of angst with one very specific thing I saw and it’s overshadowing any other thoughts I have of the show. Why did Carol give a shit that Morgan was talking to Denise? So much so that she passed off Judith to Jessie, crushed little Sam’s world, and headed out to see just who was in that house? I know she argued with Morgan when the Wolves were attacking, but why does she have such great suspicion that someone is in the cell? It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. I’d expect that shady shit from Rick, but not Carol.
Remember when they were back on the farm, Rick wanted to protect the boy they had locked up in the barn? Are the writers just kind of regurgitating storylines at this point? I just hope they do something different with it than they did with farm boy. I won’t buy rehabilitation via Morgan. You really just need to kill him. There’s no other way. Once a psychopath, always a psychopath. I predict the crazy bastard is going to try to hurt the nurse/doc and Morgan will have to off him. I suppose we’ll see.
Speaking of Rick, he’s really become quite the shit head, hasn’t he? The whole, “you’ve done enough for these people” and wanting to keep everything they’re doing within their own circle. Seriously, Rick needs to open up and let people in. They should be made aware of what needs to be done. Maybe if Rick wasn’t so secretive all of the time, Spencer wouldn’t have tried to reenact scenes from Mission: Impossible. I mean, they all see him standing around, barking orders, and not really following the rules he laid out. Of course they’re going to try things to save their town. Stop being an asshat, Rick. Seriously. Even Daryl has been tired of your shit as of late. Granted, Daryl got his ass handed to him by some morons, but he’s still trying to find people who can help out.
Onto Rick teaching Jessie’s kid about guns. I have some issues with that.
1.) Why was Carl even there? All he did was taunt the boy. If he was my kid and I was giving the lesson, I’d have just stopped, stared him down and told him to shut his damn mouth, adding, “or I’ll shut it for you.”
2.) The chick in charge of the food and the armory is pretty hard core OCD with her pantry items. I don’t believe for one second she’s just leaving a random box of bullets out that just so happen to be the ones needed for that one particular gun.
Glenn and Enid are the feel-good moment in the show. This eventually ends up with Glenn saving her whiny ass, she moves in with Glenn & Maggie as their somewhat adopted child and decides that there really is a place for her. Then, I’m pretty sure Glenn will meet an unfortunate end and Enid will revert back to her old ways of hating the world. Maybe she’ll take Carl with her. One can only hope.
Send up your balloons, Glenn & Enid. After that, send in the clowns. We’re going to need that extra bit of lightness to get through next Sunday.
