Seven reasons to avoid Seed oils
Link to Masons "Twenty-Fore" Charity golf tournament:
https://team.curethekids.org/campaign/masons-twenty-fore-straight/c371222
Toxic carcinogens in seed oils exceed the WHO recommendation:
The Rant with David King
The Rant is a podcast with David King. Entertaining and factual, its perspective from a former active duty US Marine that you didn't know you needed or wanted for that matter. David talks about everything such as politics, current events, movies and more. By the time you're done listening you wont know if you should go change the world, or write an angry email to him. Join David and his guests weekly for laughs, insight and so much more.
en39 Episodes
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Episodes (39)
So you're 28 and have chronic stomach pain?
Dr. Paul Saladino Podcast on why dairy is so important:
https://www.paulsaladinomd.co/resource/215-dairy-good-or-bad-for-humans
Heart and soil supplement website.
Don Lemon Fired, and Tucker Carlson out at Fox News
https://www.facebook.com/TheRantwithDavidking
News Articles:
Don Lemon Fired from CNN:
https://justthenews.com/accountability/media/don-lemon-says-cnn-fired-him
Tucker Carlson no longer with Fox:
https://justthenews.com/accountability/media/tucker-carlson-leaving-fox-news
Megan Kelly Blasts Fox News
Another Bud Light Marketing Executive placed on leave:
Intro/ outro song:
Big Rock License
Big Rock by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3436-big-rock
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Trump has been Indicted
News links:
Intro/Outro song
Big Rock License
Big Rock by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3436-big-rock
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Nashville School Shooting
Intro:
Great is thy faithfulness
Sung by Chris Rice
from the album "Peace like a river: The Hymns project"
Outro:
Big Rock License
Big Rock by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3436-big-rock
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
The Walking Dead Special Part 10
Alright so here we are not long after the last season we see the group on the beach training, looking like spartan warriors with makeshift shields, bows and arrows, spears, and swords. They are training to fight the Whispers or dead heads as I call them…
Again I can't help but ask the question again, where's all the guns? What happened to the armory that Alexandria and the others had built up to defeat Negan?
Why isn't Ugene making bullets? Oh there's a simple answer to this.
One, The writers think you’re stupid and wont remember the infinite ammo cheat code they unlocked with all their fully automatic weapons when they fought Negan and his army. Because they knew the war with Negan would be far too “Boring” if they group actually had to think about how to tactfully take out or commedere resources from Negans outposts to aid in their fight against Sanctuary.
So instead we will just have big explosions and lots and lots and lots and lots of gunfire…. But don't worry none of your favorite characters will get it..
Sorry I digress..
Two, the writers know that the whisperers would be a pretty easy foe with the colonies having all their firepower so instead they wrote them back to the 8th century..
Now don’t get me wrong I thought it was pretty cool that they were able to build these shields and adopt this tactic of fighting, especially against the Dead. But its still laughable because again, They have a bullet maker.
Suddenly out of nowhere a satellite comes crashing down to earth creating a massive forest fire that Oceanside and the others will have to cross into Alphas territory to deal with.
They manage to work through the night into the next day and put the fire out and Ugene sees an opportunity to grab some hard to find parts off the wreckage.
So we get a little back story on how Alpha and Beta met, further showing us just how insane Alpha is and Beta seems to maybe been a resident at the funny farm she stumbled into? That's what I got from it. If not him, certainly some one he cared about because she takes him out as a walker.
We get introduced to a new dead head, her sister was the one with the baby in the last season at hilltop. Needless to say, losing her kid drove her nuts, (more nuts than you already have to be a part of Alphas group).
I mean honestly what rational person would stumble upon that group and think to themselves, yup this is the life for me! Walking around smelling the dead all day eating worms. SURE!
I hate this enemy, because they’re just too ridiculous… but yet they seem to be far more interesting than the war with Negan, and that's sad.
So she ends up killing her sister to gain favor with Alpha… something she will later regret.
Back at Alexandria they are getting pounded by hordes of walkers, one after another. They fight all day and night, exhausted to fend them off. They are all very sure this is Alphas doing. And Gamma shows up telling them Alpha wants to meet.
We get a little more Negan time as he fights off walkers with a very resentful Aaron. Meanwhile Carol starts having hallucinations from the lack of sleep and the pills she's taking.
This episode was strange… but whatever, felt like filler.
Back at the hilltop a wall collapses and a tree falls on a building trapping people inside. Folks from Alexandria head off to go and help them.
Lidia encounters a bit of bullying from some alexandria folks, that escalates into them jumping her at night and almost killing her. Negan magically comes out of nowhere to save her and accidentally kills one of the bullies.
Oh well.. And the others have the audacity to get upset and blame Lidia and Negan…. Idk, maybe next time don't try to kill the girl and one of yours won't accidentally die in the process… Regardless, the two boys are punks and very unlikeable.. They are after all the ones that got Henry in trouble.
Needless to say, Negans in trouble, where half the community wants his head, and the other half understands he saved Lidia, yet they really don't care if Negan dies because no one likes him.
So somehow Negan escapes prison and leaves alexandria. We know someone let him out but not who.
We get as an audience what we want, well at least what I want. Which is more focus on Negan.
See Negan is the only really interesting character left on this show, he's funny too because he is a smart ass. But he lives by his own moral code, much like an Anti-hero.
He’s now wandering the woods in search of food and shelter. Where he stumbles across an obsessed fan boy named brandon.
Brandon reveals that he has Negans original leather jacket, so for a moment we think hmm, maybe the old Negan is coming back.
They stumble across a woman in a bus screaming as shes being attacked by walkers. Negan saves her and finds a boy with her as well.
For whatever reason Brandon seems to think Negan would want to kill them, because that's something he used to do. Negan calmly tells him that he doesn't kill Women and kids and that people are a resource.
Brandon doesn't get it, so Negan tells him basically to leave and never come back around.
We get a nice moment where Negan and a little boy are bonding together, Negan tells him he's gonna take them to Hilltop where it's safe. He sets off to gather firewood and when he comes back he sadly finds them both dead.
Brandon killed them. Thinking Negan was playing mind games and actually did want him to do that he took it upon himself to kill the woman and boy.
Here we get to see a bit of Negan's own Moral code. Obviously this doesn't sit well, and he picks up a rock and kills Brandon…
All in all a sad scene really, that poor woman and boy didn't deserve that and Negan knew it.
That's when we see Negan press on into the dark and misty woods where we hear his little catch phrase “little pigs little pigs!” calling out to the dead.
Ah, it's good to have Negan back. Not soon after he's captured by the Whisperers and tells them he can help them with Alexandria.
Oh my, is Negan turning against the colonies!? What's going on here?
Now I knew he had not, I knew there was something at play here. He was gonna try to do something to earn favor with Alexandria. So time would tell…
So from here we get Carol heading off into the woods and Daryl following, she says shes going to find Negan but really is going after Alpha…
Negan is tested by the dead heads and actually survives it… Pissing off Beta.
Meanwhile back in Alexandria there's an awful stomach bug plaguing the community. Now earlier in the season we saw Gamma dumping zombie guts into the stream so we know its that. But they should be boiling or filtering their water so that's what I didn't understand..
However we later find out that the water filter system was messed with and one of the handles was bent to make it look like it was in the right direction.
Sadiq eventually figures out it was Dante who sabotaged the water supply system but unfortunately is taken out by Dante.
Rosita catches him and fights him off and Dante is thrown in jail.
We find out that Dante was a whisperer all along and was sent in to recon and sabotage the community.
Gabriel by the way is losing his mind more and more as the show progresses. This often can happen to weak men. He may be gaining his ability to stand up but it leads to irrational behavior or thoughts if not kept in line.
He’s found his inner monster, good on him but he's allowing that monster to dictate who he is, and in some ways I think its challenging his faith.
And so Gabriel goes to visit Dante and basically kills him as revenge for Sadiq and what he did to Alexandria.
Gabriel is going dark… and you only see that get worse. You also see that his patience becomes almost non-existent. You must be a monster, but you must control that monster. In other words, control your emotions. Gabriel can't do that.
Meanwhile Ugene is living his best life, he's managed to make a stronger radio with the satellite parts and begins to search for another group somewhere. And suddenly a mysterious woman comes over the coms.
A man shows up at oceanside causing a fight, they capture him but back at Alexandria the group sets off on a high stake mission.
That's when Carol spots Alpha and goes after her, The group chases after Carol and they all end up trapped in a cave full of walkers. It ends up being Alphas' herd.
They have to narrowly escape the caverns and yes pun intended.
This episode actually gave me the willys with all the tight quarters and the few stranglers of zombies that would follow through the tight spaces.
This was a well shot episode, because it was loaded with tension the entire time.
Carol has just gone off the reservation and is not thinking clearly anymore. I actually am not a fan of this because it's way off character for her. She became very strong and clever, and right now she's making silly decisions and being more emotional and irrational than she normally would.
The group stuck in the cave finds an old mine shaft and possibly a way out. There happens to be an old box of TNT nearby, and Carol gets a wild hair to go and blow up Alphas Horde.
Darol stops her but unfortunately the TNT falls and explodes trapping Magna and Connie inside.
Negan is working his way up the ranks and ends up giving up Gamma to Alpha as the snitch. This earns him favor with Alpha and we get the most cringe scene in all of cinema history…. Negan and Alpha Bumping uglies in the woods. Alpha also leaves her mask on too, which by the way is supposed to be real skin.
Gross…
Beta apparently has a network of tunnels that allow him to travel and enter into Alexandria undetected… which is strange. Because if they had this ability why toy with Alexandria, just sneak in and take them all out?
Anyway,
Gamma is locked up in Alexandria too because she now regrets killing her sister, and realizes Alpha is a liar… I don't know why it took seeing Lidia to convince her that Alpha was a liar, but whatever… LIke you dont think there can be civilization anymore? Really?
So Beta breaks in, starts killing Alexandrians and turning them into walkers…
Daryl runs into Alpha in the woods and attacks her, killing her men and getting a decent jump on her. They both end up in a repair shop bleeding out though. Lidia comes around and turns her back on Alpha and saves Daryl.
Needless to say this triggers war… Again I am not sure why Alpha was toying with hilltop and Alexandria. But Whatever.
Ugene makes a breakthrough with the woman on the radio, Steph. She sets a meeting with him but unfortunately those communications would be cut off because hilltop would soon be under attack.
Hilltop stays and fights and they try their little spartan phalanx but it doesn't work for very long when the dead heads cover them in tree sap and light them on fire.
Hilltop is fully engulfed as the survivors fight their way to escape. Eventually the entire colony is destroyed and those that are left are on the run.
Its worth mentioning that Negan assisted in the destruction of Hilltop, you would think at this point that he is in full cahoots with Alpha, but he mentions an old tactic of his. One that would spare the community and allow Alpha to use them as a resource. If you pick up on this you may think its just old Negan, but really hes trying to stop Alpha from killing all of them and Destroying Hilltop.
IT doesn't work…
Now the group is on the run, held up in an old hospital as Beta searches for them with his horde.
Now at this point in all reality, the group should of been able to escape and get the hell out of there because Beta and the walkers move at a snail's ass pace… another reason why this is an ineffective tactic, you are far too slow moving and it would take you forever to move your army anywhere.
The reality is they should have been long gone off to oceanside before Beta ever found them.. But oh well the writing is stupid at times…
Negan finds Lidia wandering in the woods after the attack and quickly snatches her up. This part is weird because I really don't think he had to do this to trick Alpha. Then it makes you kind of wonder why he didn't trick Alpha like this sooner? He had already earned strong favor with her prior to the attack on Hilltop. He could have lured her away before…
Either way he didn't and it ends up being a trap and Negan cuts Alphas throat and kills her. Taking her head into a sack and presenting it to Carol. Oh it was Carol that let Negan out all this time?
Really?
Then why did she go after Alpha and get her and her friends trapped? Why didn't she just let Negan do his work?
Why did she even recruit Negan in the first place? Why not do it yourself? Or better tell the community the plan to send Negan into the group as an assassin? Instead you don't tell them and it gets the community and others in serious danger.
Again not a typical Carol move.
By the way there's a lot of hallucinating in this season… you can tell the writers aren't really that creative anymore.
We find the children with the blacksmith man, unfortunately he's bit and tries to take his own life with a rail spike, that doesn't work. And Judith has to put him down. Daryl and the others end up finding the kids and moving on to the hospital to hide out.
And then in good ol Walking dead fashion the following episode has nothing to do at all with what is happening at Hilltop.. Instead we get an entire episode dedicated to Michonne tripping balls and seeing an alternate life for her if she had not saved Andria.
This episode is weird.. First off the dude has locked up some people for what appears to be a very long time and now she's locked up but manages to get out and free the others. And naturally they want to kill this guy but Michonne talks them out of it…
They find a boat that they manage to jerry rig and fix up to work and get back to the oceanside.
But somehow Michonne finds Rick's Boots and an old phone with Judith etched on it. She freaks out and begins to wonder if Rick is still alive. And reaches out to Judith to tell her that she needs to go off and find him. Leaving Judith behind now with no parents! So that's smart…
I hate this episode, it makes little sense, adds nothing to the story at all or helps it move along. It felt pointless and out of place. Sure they needed to find a way to write off Michonne but they could have written this in with the Hilltop story and not dedicated an entire show to it. It was just poorly written and dumb and unnecessary.
Goodbye for now Michonne, don't come back until you find Rick.
Ugene ends up taking a few folks with him to set off to meet steph in hopes of finding a new community after the fall of hilltop.
They end up running into a strange woman in the middle of an empty city. She happens to be another weird, spaz of a character who goes by the name of princess.
I dont hate this character, she's crazy because she's basically been alone for a very long time and it shows. I do like that she totes around an M249 Saw machine gun like a badass….
So needless to say she scares off their horses and tells them that she has wheels for them, she kind of dicks around with all of them, leading the group into a minefield… but they escape of course and all is well.
They end up getting those wheels, and they're bicycles…. Ugene is not pleased because they are losing time.
Either way they make do and set off to find Step… where eventually they get to the train yard and are quickly surrounded by imperial stormtroopers… I mean dudes dressed in armor or something. And The episode ends, and we won't get to see anything about this for a very long time because the writers think they are clever but really it's just annoying… I really hate this theme with The Walking dead… never ending cliffhangers aren't cute. Especially when you show us things that are not at all interesting or help the narrative in any way.
Meanwhile back near the colonies Beta breaches Alexandria with ease, it seems that they abandoned it so that Beta would not destroy it.
Beta sets off to find them with his army of dead. We get a little back story on Beta when he finds Alphas head. He takes her to some old hang out where apparently we find out Beta was a famous singer before all this. It isn't all that clear but anyway he mumbles a lot and groans about what he sees and blah blah blah and turns alphas face into a new mask….
So now he has his army and they're off to find the people of Alexandria and any survivors of hilltop.
He manages to track them down at the hospital where Daryl and the others make a final stand. They have a plan to pump music and distract the horde away but first they have to walk through the horde of walkers and whisperers to get to the truck.
Its a pretty tense scene as they walk through and with out too many movements kill whisperers as they go through. Sadly not all of them make it but they eventually get though and begin to lead the dead away.
However others are still inside the building and about to breach and Gabriel makes a last stand to keep them off while the others escape.
Gabriel fights hard but wouldn't you know it! In the knick of time and out of nowhere Maggie appears to save the day.
How did Maggie know where to find them? Don't know….
How did she manage to sneak past all the dead and enter the building to save the day just in time? Don't know….
But that's how it was written….
Maggie hasn't encountered the whisperers yet and knows how to get through the horde and handle them with ease… like she's been there all along.
Whatever show…
Needless to say the group is saved! Hooray Maggie.
The others off leading the horde away but the Whisperers break through the ranks and eventually make it to the sound truck and destroy it.
Darol and the others scatter to the woods and see that the horde is returning back toward the hospital.
So they have no choice but to engage the Whisperers. Of course this should be damn near suicidal to walk into that horde and engage with them but they seem to do it with ease. Taking each Whisperer out without a problem.
Damn man if it was this easy why bother leading the horde away in the first place? Why not just beat them at their own game like you just did.. Even Beta wasn't much to take out as Negan and Daryl easily kill him off.
No major battle, no real struggle, just bam dead… and we see Beta get pulled into the horde and finished off. Negan recognizes him too which is interesting. But its short lived….
This was a massive fail. You had all this build up, you even had a decent fight between DAryl and Beta in the last season and this is how you kill him off? Pretty uneventful if you ask me. Especially with what's to come in the rest of the season. You could have made this more suspenseful and interesting. Instead it felt rushed, like the writers just wanted to end the conflict with whisperers and move on.
Maybe they realized that this enemy is actually pretty stupid and worthless and wanted to point that out… or maybe that's just what happened inadvertently.
So the whisperers are no more… The battle is won and Carol elects to lead the dead off a nearby cliff… sacrificing herself because she won't be able to turn back once she gets there. But wouldn't you know it, just before she goes over Lidia saves the day… and the two hide in a hole while the dead mindlessly walk off the cliff….
No one significant is allowed to die on this show….
I am actually glad Carol didn't die though, There's more to be done with her character and Daryl in my opinion.
So thats it right! Episode sixteen, whisperers are conquered.. End of the season right? Nope! Theres actually a lot more… and well its not very good.
There's a random hunter in the woods killing survivors from Maggie's old community and Herschel is among them lost in the woods… needless to say they get the guy and find herschel. That about sums up this episode. It was random and pointless. I guess maybe to show Maggie is a bit of a bad ass now but we always knew that. It was obvious that neither her or Daryl would be killed here, one because she just came back to the show, Two they have a bunch of new characters that we never met and those are the ones you take out…. Its just so obvious.
That was the first random and out of place episode followed up with another random one with Daryl and Carol setting off and finding an old cabin where Daryl apparently met a woman, had a romantic relationship with her and then walked away never to see her again. Dont worry this one random episode is actually to help set up things for the next season which is still four episodes of season ten away…. And also the long break of shooting season 11 in between. So good job show! Maybe next time find a way to write that sub plot closer to season 11.
This episode wasnt the worst one though, actually not that bad to be honest. Just felt a little random when it happened. Like ok, This is interesting but I really wanna know what happened to Eugine and the others.. So lets get back to that no?
Nope… instead we get another random episode with Aaron and Gabriel searching for food with a map from Maggie… This episode literally adds nothing to the show, does not help build the characters or the narrative, and just feels entirely like filler. Ya they meet a crazy guy and blah blah blah but honestly we get it, the new world is filled with psychopaths. We don't need an entire episode to tell us this. Again much like the Michonne episode, this should have been a sub plot of the episode not an entire episode on its own. Especially when you have much more interesting stories going on, LIKE EUGINES!!!
I just dont understand this… you extended the season and instead of giving us quality content it feels like many of these episodes were last minute ideas and just filler.. Like hey we got green lit for 22 episode season guys!
Writers sip coffee, bags under eyes, lack of sleep and no motivation… really? But we only wrote this season for 16 episodes…
I mean even episode 17 felt like it was unnecessary, like crap what do we do here? How do we drag this out?
Much of the episodes after 16 felt out of place and made little sense, some will contribute a little to season 11 but not much and not enough to justify an entire episode.
Well shit finally after that stupid episode with Aaron and Gabriel we get to see what happens to Eugine… Unfortunately it focuses more on the princess and her really messed up past and we dont get much else other than that.
It ends up being an entire episode of Princess hallucinating.. So.. there ya go. Thanks walking dead. Thanks a lot.
I found out that these last six episodes are actually covid episodes and that explains why they seem to only highlight one character on each episode and it also explains why the episodes mostly suck.
Covid no doubt ruined hollywood more than it helped. And the production staff wanted to keep the show going and not put it on hold. Personally I think it was a mistake. Id rather you waited for the restrictions to be lifted and produce a quality program than this drivel.
But Alas they gotta make their money! Cant stay shut down. If only they would of just told Dr. Fauci to F-off and not follow the ridiculous mandates…. No, rather comply and make crap.
Sorry…. Got off topic there for a moment.
So that episode was dumb, pointless, and didnt do much in answering who Eugene and the others just encountered. But It did get the development of Princess out of the way if you want to call it that…
Now on to an even worse episode…
I really don't want to spend much time on this one. Its by far the worst episode of the season, close to the last one with the princess. This was bad. Carol was acting way out of character, and strangely. The riff between her and Daryl just felt unnatural and forced. Like why are they doing this? Makes little sense at all… There's not much to say here really because there wasn't much going on in this episode. It was forty minutes of Carol trying to make soup… literally.
It was awful, and I wasn't alone on this. When I set off to do my notes I saw that the episode got the lowest rank in TWD I have seen at 4 out of 10 stars. No one liked this one.
But just when The Walking dead gives us that complete and utter garbage… they give us the final episode of season 10. Negan’s Backstory.
First of all this episode is great because Negan is the only character left on the Walking dead that is interesting. Hes not annoying like many of them and has not hit his character arch yet like Daryl and the other older cast members.
Frankly he could get his own spinoff show and it would do better than what we are getting now.
We see that Negan was a flawed man before the fall, lost his job and was actively looking for others but in the meantime playing video games and buying leather jackets.
He was not attentive to his wife like he should have been but that was because he was having an affair with his wifes friend.
One that he ended right after he found out she had cancer. That's when Negan grows up, becomes a man and starts to take care of his shit. Then the pandemic happens and Negan is forced to try and cure his wife's cancer with Chemo Treatments himself.
Unfortunately the power goes out while he's asleep and the Chemo bags get too warm… His wife says to stay and be with her but he does not want to give up so he sets off to find some doctors nearby with supplies.
He finds them but unfortunately gets snagged up by a motorcycle club on the way back, stalling him from getting to his wife. Eventually he is set free and he sets off to home where sadly he finds his wife turned. Dead from cancer.
This is an emotional moment as Negan looks on like a failure. He knows he has not been the best husband and wanted to do everything he could to make it up to her but failed in the end.
Was it his fault? No… but it changes him and you see him tap into that inner monster. One he always had, he used it in the bar to defend his wife.. And now he's gonna use it to kill the bikers and save the doctor.
We get a great glance into who Negan is and it really humanizes him. The reality is Negan could have been Rick and Rick could have been Negan at any moment… Both men are admirable people who lost everything to the new world and it changed them. For better or worse.
Negan went down a darker path, extorting people, and controlling them like a mob boss where Rick earned the respect of his people. But it could of easily went the other way at any time for any of them,
I left that episode liking Negan and his character even more. A flawed man, upset with himself and his choices now coping and trying to exist in a very dark world. It pulls him into a bad place, but part of him remains from the new world and I think you will see that part come back in season 11. As he burns Lucile in the fire, that represents him moving on from not so distant self, letting go of his wife and moving forward toward redemption.
This Character is by far the best right now and deserves more of the spotlight moving forward.
Wrap up.
Just the News, Ohio Suing Norfolk southern, SVB bank, and much more
//
Intro/outro
Big Rock License
Big Rock by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3436-big-rock
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
The Walking Dead Special Part 9
Intro:
A lot happened this season, so we have a lot to get into.
The season kicks off long after the War with Neagan. We see Rick, the hilltop and the Kingdom working together to gather necessary items to help them farm and continue to survive.
We see that they must have finally run out of gas (only been more than nine years) as they have made makeshift horses and buggies out of cars.
This is actually clever and well done, and believable. Frankly I would think things like this would happen much sooner as Gas would be scarce and going bad within the first four years or so of the apocalypse.
All three communities seem to be thriving at this point, and the group has set off to gather key items at an old history museum in downtown DC.
There's some action and drama as we see King Eziekle almost fall into a pit of zombies when the glass floor breaks. We also get to see that Carol and the King have a relationship and the King is interested in her hand in marriage.
To be honest I don't have much feeling about the King and Carol hooking up. I personally would rather see a relationship further develop between Darol and Carol as I have always felt like there was some fire there and a deeper love and caring for each other.
After all they have been together surviving from the first episode and Darol was the one who risked his life looking for Sophia and in that transformed into a mature and stronger character, who was loyal to the group but able to think for himself instead of living in his brother shadow.
Carol played witness to all of this and in many ways Carol's new inner strength and being a badass in some part is because of Darol, and Darol becoming the reliable person he is now is Carols doing too.
These two are very much connected and in that you would expect something romantic to form from it. Darol certainly cares for Carol probably more than anyone else, maybe Rick is a close second.
Time will tell on this, I feel like there's still time for those two to walk off into the sunset together, live in the woods and start a family far away from the threats of the living and the dead.
So that episode one in a nutshell really, it lays out the foundation for whats to come over the next couple of episodes and sets a the time table.
We know it's months after the war because Maggie has had her baby, Herschell. Maggie is still dealing with the problems of the past though.
Gregory decided at some point, arrogantly thinking that he would win, that the hilltop should hold an election for its leader. The Election was him against Maggie.
He naturally lost, by a landslide. Gregory is a weasel and he only gets worse this season.
Unfortunately the group ends up getting attacked while returning with supplies and one of the young men from the hilltop is bitten by a zombie trying to save horses.
This naturally upsets the parents of this young man, they seem to air their grievances with Maggie and we get a little insight into how the locals are all feeling about the saviors hanging around and their people making what they perceive as unnecessary risks.
Needless to say Gregory uses this moment to manipulate the father of the dead boy. Greggory knows that he had a drinking problem and offers him a glass of Tequila. They get drunk together and Gregory conspires with him to take out Maggie for the better of the community.
Needless to say that plan fails, Maggie stops both of them.
And now Maggie is left with a hard decision. Afterall she knows that this father was in mourning, drunk, and is otherwise a good man. He also happens to be the only blacksmith who is building plows for the fields.
Remember kids, make yourself unfireable in whatever job you take… and in life. Be so important that people can't cancel or fire you. That's what this guy has going for him. If he wasn't the only blacksmith, he would be in the gallows right next to Gregory.
And that leads me to the scene, dead of night, Gregory sits on horseback with a rope around his neck.
Maggie has had enough of him. And with good reason. This man has tasted her and the others far too many times, and turned his back on them far too many times. With this last time being an attempt on her life.
There's no better message to send to any group that if you break the rules you will die. Hmm, who does that sound a little bit like? (Negan)
Maggie is 100% Negan in this scene, but it does not make her wrong. The community is far too young, and too fragile to deal with behavior like this in any manner that we would see in modern day society.
For attempted murder, its to gallows.
Negan showed us this when a man attempted to rape Sasha. It was an immediate death sentence.
There's no time for that behavior right now, or ever really…. And they dont have the infrastructure for trials by jury.
The show ends with Gregory dying. I was glad, that character was annoying and I was always worried he would try to hurt one of them, and he did…
The next couple of episodes focus on all the communities coming together, including the sanctuary to build a bridge that went out during a storm. This bridge would cut the travel time in half to the kingdom and sanctuary. And Rick felt it was really important.
The bridge is really just a metaphor. It's to show the status of all the communities. Right now they're all coming together and so a bridge is being built that will connect them all.
Unfortunately for Rick that bridge build starts to go sideways when Saviors start to come up missing.
It starts to turn the camp against each other as all of them accuse one another of wrongdoing.
We later find out when Maggie and Darol stumble upon the oceanside group at an old hold out. They have one of the saviors captured on her knees and they are about to execute her.
This is when we learn that Oceanside was taking the saviors and killing them. They explain to Maggie and Darol that these are the people that killed all the men and boys and that they must have justice.
So Maggie, being the stone cold badass that she is, agrees and walks away.
Oceanside takes out the last person responsible for killing their men.
The first three or four episodes really dive deep into this struggle between the four communities trying to work with the saviors.
I found it really interesting and actually enjoyed all of them greatly. I felt it was an honest and real take into what It would be like trying to live and work with people you were once fighting.
And while I don't disagree with Rick keeping Negan alive and trying to get the people to work together it isn't realistic in any way to believe that it would be possible. And I think the show really highlights that well.
These people did ugly, and terrible things. Now most of the people that did the ugly and terrible things to Hilltop, Alexandria and Kingdom all died during the war. But the People that committed the atrocities against Oceanside were alive and walking around among them.
Imagine if you would, that a group of people shows up to your family reunion, and murders almost all of your family in cold blood, acting like they enjoyed every second of it. Only later to see they didn't get charged, never sent to jail, but told that all you must get along now and work together.
That isn't possible, There's no way anyone could do that. At best you would leave and go far away from those people, and at worst you would get your justice on them. It's not revenge, it's holding them accountable for their actions.
And that's what Oceanside was doing.
Letting the people who murdered you husbands, brothers, and sons walk freely was a bridge too far for oceanside, and yes pun intended.
This was Rick's biggest mistake. He locked up Negan, and fair enough. But what about the others that committed war crimes? They must be held accountable. Much like at the end of world war 2 when the Nazi’s faced trials for what they did. Ya you got Hitler, but those other people must be held accountable too.
By not charging Negan's lieutenants In what I would have called a regional court held among the four communities created undue tensions. The surviving saviors who were not responsible could have witnessed those people being charged, justice being served and that all the communities could move forward now.
Instead, you get Oceanside going behind everyones back to dish out the justice and it turns everyone against each other.
Needless to say the bridge does not get built, and the Saviors walk off and go their separate ways.
Things fall apart further as Rick's lookouts and Darol conspire against him. Maggie is headed off to kill Negan and get her justice.
Rick thinks Darol is gonna take him to Alexandria to stop her but he doesn't, instead he leads them away where they get into a scuffle and fall into a pit.
It's interesting to note that Darol and Rick really haven't had a scuffle like this since season one.
They eventually crawl out of there and Rick sees a massive horde of walkers heading toward the bridge and Alexandria.
Rick tells Darol to head on as he will lead the walkers away.
This is where things go bad for Rick.
He ends up coming to a four way, and there's a horde behind him and to the left all descending on him. The Horse decides to freak out and buck him off, keep in mind this horse never freaks out or bucks again later on….
Rick falls and lands on rebar, piercing his side.
Now I am no expert, but that looked pretty close to his kidneys, and a puncture like that is usually a death sentence if you don't get that wound closed up quickly. You will bleed out pretty fast.
Rick manages to yank himself off that rebar, and get away where we are treated to a bunch of hallucinations. We get to see past characters like Shane and Hershcel interacting with Rick as if it's happening in real time.
This scene made me miss these characters a lot. I really liked Shane's character and how he was always playing opposite Rick and testing him. They bounced off each other so well that it always added an interesting tension to the show. I always felt like he was killed off maybe a little too soon.
And Herschel was always the angel on Rick's shoulder, being his moral compass. Making Rick see things differently and keeping him on the straight and narrow path. If it wasn't for Herschel, Rick likely could have become Shane but worse.
All of this comes to an end with Rick at the Bridge and the Walkers coming down on him. There isn't much he can do and he knows he has to stop them. The others look on as he fires a single shot at some explosives taking out the bridge and as we think at the moment killing Rick.
It was a pretty emotional scene as we see Darol look on in sorrow, losing his best friend and Michonne screams out for him… as she watches the man she loves and respects die.
I am not sure I felt the same emotions but I also already saw this scene.
In fact this is where I ended my journey with The Walking Dead and stopped watching the show. So from this point on after this episode I had no idea what to expect or what was going to happen.
I am not really sure anyone really felt shocked or emotional too much. Seeing as we all knew this season would be Andrew Lincoln's last. We all knew this character was going to be written off and that sadly kind of ruined it all.
But Ricks is gone, or so you think?
Later on Jadis just so happens to be nearby when she sees the explosion and finds Rick on a river bank.
We still have absolutely no idea who Jadis is communicating with; we know they have a helicopter, medical, and are searching for certain types of people but that is all. And Sadly this season we will get no answers on any of this.
I don't know if we will later, but the fact that a 16 episode season pays no mention to the disappearance of Jadis or that helicopter makes me think we won't get any information on it and that was just a convenient way to write Rick off without killing him.
Again I have no idea what happens after this. But I will say I actually am enjoying this season up to this point and it sparked a bit of interest in the show again. so I was looking forward to the next episode and the rest of the season.
That is until I watched that episode….
Suddenly we are flashed forward in time, a decent amount of time at that as we see a much older Judith rescue a group of people being attacked by walkers.
Judith is probably close to ten years old at this point, It's hard to know. But she is old enough to start carrying her own weight and she certainly does.
She somehow manages to carry and use Rick's old Python 357 magnum. The sentiment isnt lost on me here, as she's dawning the sheriff hat and wielding her dads magnum. But the reality is that thing would be pretty heavy for her to hold out and shoot and the recoil on that thing would kick back in her face if not just fly out of her hands.
I actually like this version of Judith. She's not over the top like most child characters are today. Young Leia in Kenobi comes to mind.
She's smart but not smarter than her age would allow, and she has spunk but is respectful to her elders. She's brave and adventurous which you would expect her to be, since she's grown up in this new world. But she's also very vulnerable as you would expect a child to be. She's capable of helping herself to a point but relies heavily on the adults around her.
She's just the spitting image of Shane…hahahaha
And so here we are as Judith introduces herself to these new people and takes them back to safety.
We see and learn all kinds of new things in this episode. Like Carol has long and gray hair now, Michonne looks the exact same age but just shaved a little of her hair off on one side. She also has a major chip on her shoulder toward everybody.
This part is strange because the show does not explain why for a while, almost toward the end of the show. None of the three communities are talking to each other, or at least not very much.
And there isn't really an explanation as to why. Ever..
I mean I get Michonnes chip on her shoulder because an old friend betrayed her and almost got her killed. But why the beef with the other communities? Why wasn't her and Maggie talking? Where the hell did Maggie go? And why did she go?
None of these things are told to us.
Instead they wrote off Maggie and just said she took Herschel and went off to another community…
But why? She was the leader of Hilltop and damn good one at that. She had everything she needed there, why would she suddenly leave? don't know…
Erggh Whatever show.
Darol is living in the woods alone and has made a companion in a dog, named dog. The most Darol move ever on this show.
He has been out searching for Rick's body but of course has not found him.
He gives up and heads back to Hilltop at Carol's request to look after her boy while he apprentices to be a black smith.
Needless to say that kid won't be doing much blacksmithing as he ends up in jail after getting drunk and sneaking out with some other kids.
So Michonne is wrangling whether or not this new group can be trusted but settles to take them to Hillside, something that made really no sense to me. IF you don't trust them, why give them to your friends? And if you do trust them, why not let them stay at Alexandria?
I guess the show needed an excuse to get Michonne back at Hilltop to learn Maggie is gone and Jesus is in charge and reunite everyone. Again why she was avoiding Maggie and the Hilltop makes no sense. And it annoys me that it's not explained.
Anyway…
Jesus is out hanging with Aarron eating lunch and training how to fight. I guess they are developing a sort of relationship but we never really see anything more than them just sparring and eating a meal. They chat about their communities but eventually they stumble across Rositta. She's basically passed out so they rush her back to Hilltop and find out that Ugene is still out there.
They send out a rescue party to find him and that’s when the show goes from pretty damn good to what in the absolute hell am I seeing?
We heard voices talking when Rositta and Ugene were hiding from the walkers, well that's ominous.
But suddenly the rescue group finds Ugene and he tells them that these walkers have evolved. They can talk and they can track. And they have been following him up until this point.
Evolved zombies? For the love of goodness no!
Needless to say those evolved zombies are outside the barn they’re all in. And its time to move.
They try the usual distraction tactics to pull the herd away from Ugene, Jesus, and Aaron. But it doesn't work and that's when Darol realizes something is up.
They get chased into a foggy cemetery where they make a stand against the zombies. They manage to fight most of them off and get a gate open to escape. Jesus tells them to go while he covers them and we see a slow mo action scene where Jesus is kung-fu kicking his way through the herd.
Until one the zombies suddenly stabs him and kills him.
OH MY they are not evolved zombies at all… they're… people dressed up like the dead?
What the hell!!
What is this nonsense?
Who the hell approved this? Probably the same guy that approved a CGI tiger…
Let me start by saying this new enemy is the dumbest and worst of all the enemies that Rick's group has faced.
Just when this season was turning out to be really good they go and pull this crap on me…
Its just too much, too impractical
So, how do you eat?
Do you just walk around with the dead all day?
Does your back start to hurt after being hunched over like that?
Do you enjoy the smell of these dead people's faces when you're wearing them? What in the Hannibal Lecter shit am I watching?
I remember going on a long winded rant to my wife after this episode about how this is impractical from a tactical and survival situation.
First off, you look like and act like the very thing every living person is actively killing. If you stumble across anyone with firearms…you're dead. If you break character for even a second the actual dead that you're walking with will turn on you and eat you.
It's dumb, it's too much and its way over the top and in no way is believable.
EXPLAIN THE BELIEVABILITY OF THE WALKING DEAD***
The show actually makes my point later on when Darol and Michonne trap them on a bridge. Instead of head shooting them Darol just hits them in the leg with his crossbow. Naturally he finds a living one and he screams immediately being eaten by the dead next to him.
Epic fail…
They end up killing all the dead except one who's living and falls to their knees and gives up. Turns out to be a young woman.
So they haul her back to Hilltop to interrogate her and hold her.
They don't get much of any truth.
We get a little back story on the girl and how the group started. Turns out her mother is an evil abusive person, and was that way long before the dead started walking.
So needless to say this girl has some heavy baggage… but for some reason Henry just loves her.
Take it from me kid, you don't want to date the emo girls… it never works out well in the end..
Eventually they get some of the truth out of her, but wouldn't you know it! Look who shows up the girl's mother and her little army of pretend dead people.
At first you might be thinking they will say trick or treat but no, they make some threats toward the hilltop which is laughable… considering these dead heads have no fire power.
Instead of just blowing them away and ending this Darol decides to make the trade because there's a baby amongst the dead heads? Whatever…
And by the way what happened to all the guns? Did the just disappear? What happened to the infinite ammo cheat code they had unlocked? Did that die with Rick?
I mean Eugene is a bullet maker, these people should be armed to the teeth with that many years of peace and time to make ammo.
But nope… just bows and arrows.
I guess the script needed that since they would make pretty quick work of these pretend zombies if they still had all their guns.
Judith still has a gun tho… still has bullets too….
I love that this show conveniently brings in ammo, gas, and a timely turn rate when the plot needs it to move along.
Carol gets the award for the longest turn rate of five or six days. Check that kid's blood, maybe he has some antibodies or some shit. Call Doctor Fauci and pfizer..
Anyway, this entire scene is stupid as even without guns they have walls, and arrows and numbers…
There's no reason to negotiate with these idiots.
But they give the daughter back for the other two captors. And all go on their merry way.
Henry isn't having it though, He loves this girl and by golly hes gonna go after and save her.
Henry is about as useless as he was when he was a kid. Making the same damn irrational decisions like last season and is useless with his stick.
Morgan whooped ass with his stick, taking down full size men. Henry… nah he just gets beat up.
Well now he's captured and Daryl has to go out and find him
Because Darol is the smartest character in this story, he takes a page out of the deadheads book and dawns a zombie mask, sneaks in and takes the two love birds away.
Darol and the others have to stage a last stand sort of fight in a building where he is met by Beta, a giant man played by none other than Ryan Hurst.
If you don't know who Ryan Hurst is, he's a damn good actor. Too good for this role in my opinion. He's starred as Opie in Sons of Anarchy and movies like Remember the Titans.
He's actually a really big dude and he shows that in this show. He plays a pretty strong and powerful character and it was fun to watch him and Daryl fight.
But Darol gets the best of him and shoves him down an elevator shaft. Now he should be dead, because that's what happens when you fall that far… but He managed to now only live but get up and walk away like all is fine.
Ergh whatever.
Stop doing this! Stop putting your characters in unrealistic and inescapable situations. If Beta is not to die, then don't have him pushed down an elevator shaft.
So they all get away, and flash forward now to the fair.
All the communities have come together to celebrate and do trade. All is going well except somehow alpha from the dead heads managed to sneak in disguised as a normal person.
She does recon on the place and eventually finds her daughter later on in the movie theater. Her daughter basically tells her to screw off, and they mother tells her she's weak and leaves.
Now we think this all that happens but turns out she captured a bunch of people from the hilltop who were on their way back from the fair.
Darol, Carol and some others go out looking for them but are quickly captured by the stupid pretend dressed up people. The woods were dead quiet until the walkers were right up on them.. Go figure
Needless to say Alpha takes Daryl away to show him a very large horde of zombies that she has under her control. And tells Daryl that if his people cross into their territory she will unleash them toward his people.
Daryl is let go and meets back up with Carol and the others in a field where they see the markers for the boundary line.
Its a bunch of steaks in the ground and sitting upon them are the heads of the captured hilltop people.
Sadly we see many characters but then we see Tara’s and Enids head. Then Henrys..
See what happens when you fall for women with so much baggage!?
Needless to say I was not expecting that. Especially not Tara or Enid.
IT was a pretty shocking and sad ending to that episode and yet there was still one more episode left.
The Kingdom has fallen apart, and is now beyond repair. I like this because its realistic, most of our buildings would not last for very long without general maintenance. And sadly they dont have the supplies or knowhow to do it.
Carol and the King are clearly in disarray after losing Henry and it would seem their marriage is now shaky. The King even asks Daryl to disappear for a while after they get to Hilltop so he can spend time with Carol and try to piece things back together. It would seem the King might be suspicious of Carol and Daryls relationship.
So The King and everyone set off for the Hilltop but are cut off by a nasty blizzard and must seek shelter nearby at the abandoned sanctuary.
This episode marks the first time in the series, that snow has been present. Chief Content Officer, Scott Gimple, expressed his excitement about this, as it is something that he has wanted for years. Back in season 2's "18 Miles Out", Shane and Rick shares a short conversation about how they should prepare for the winter, where it was asked on Talking Dead after if there would ever be snow in the show. Special Effects Supervisor Greg Nicotero explained that he would very much like to include a winter theme in the show, but it would be too complicated to create in terms of using sets with snow and to create frozen and icy walkers.
However they can't stay there long and risk being snowed in with little food or water. So they must make the hard decision to trek across Alphas territory to get home faster. Since Ricks bridge is gone they wont be able to take the usual long way.
Luckily they never encounter Alpha and her people. But they do encounter some frozen zombies. But nonetheless make it to the hilltop.
Alexandria meanwhile is batting down the hatches and trying to survive the blizzard too as the snow has shut down the solar panels and there is no power.
Negan ends up rescuing Judith when she runs off to save Dog. And this earns him favor with Michonne, to a degree.
Now In the last season I said they were going to get Negan back into the fold and some how working with Ricks people.
I said I wasn't sure about this working because Negan did some pretty messed up things and in my mind is irredeemable.
But the show cleverly has made him pay his dues, hes sat in a jail cell since the end of the war, Likely at least five or more years.
He's still the protagonist at times, egging people on (which is funny) but he appears to be a changed man.
Now look, does this mean that he should be walking free? No…
Afterall he should be dead, but the show realized quickly with Andrew Lincoln gone they don't have a main character to center on. Could it be that Negan takes that roll?
Normally I would protest but I like Negan’s character so much I would rather watch him screw with Father Gabriel than anything else. And I will be curious to see his reaction to the stupid dress up dead people.
The show knows that Negan is a slam dunk character and the only one that really is interesting anymore in this series. Daryl is always fun to watch but hes hit his arch. And unless he gets serious with Caryl or some one else there is not much more to explore there.
That's not to say Daryl is a bad character now, not at all. He's quite reliable, and we can trust to know how he will act or what he will do in a situation. This is fine, but it's not that interesting after a while.
Michonne, Eugene, Rosita, Gabriel, the King, and Carol have all hit their character arcs and now are essentially on auto pilot. There's very little left that you can do with the characters at this point. They have all grown up. Now that's not to say they can't be in interesting circumstances.
But what makes a show interesting is watching the characters grow and change with their environment. We have seen this with everyone.
Negan is the last interesting character in this situation. And that's why I'm giving this show a pass on this one.
It will be interesting to see how he acts and moves about if he gains his freedom. And how will the others react around him.
Overall this was actually a pretty good season, far better than the last one. And heading in a much better direction than I would have thought.
The first four or five episodes were my favorite as I found that all the communities trying to work together was a new and interesting story.
I am in no way a fan of these whisperers or whatever they're called. I think its cheesy, over the top and stupid.
The communities should make quick work of them in theory but I have a feeling that the show's writers will make a way for them to struggle against them. It probably won't make sense and seem way too convenient at times but that's what happens when you create villains that in any real world situation would not be hard to take out.
We will see, maybe it will end up being good. The season overall was much better than I was expecting and lone and behold rated higher than last season too.
I find it interesting that the show's writers were so quick to kill off so many main characters this season. Especially when it seemed like everyone was invincible last season during a major war.
If only they had been this capable last season, it may have been more interesting.
I have heard many rumors that the actor who played Jesus wanted to be done with the show. So they had him killed off, and it was certainly unexpected and strange when it happened.
Overall it is safe to say this show is reaching its end, and not because I know there's only two seasons left. But because it's simply heading toward a dead end. There is only so much you can do with this story at this point that won't be already done.
It will be interesting to see how they wrap this up, its one of the hardest things for a show to do. Most end horribly and leave fans with questions or frustrated. But I feel like they could really go full circle and bring this ship home on this one. End on a strong note like your began back in season one.
Time will tell… I am looking forward to season ten.
Wrap up.
//
Intro/outro
Big Rock License
Big Rock by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3436-big-rock
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Other Intro
The Walking dead main title theme song
by Bear McCreary
On Apple iTunes
The Walking Dead special Part 8
Intro:
Buckle up, strap yourselves in because we are in for a strange and bumpy ride as we dive deep into Season 8 of the Walking dead!
Season 8 picks up not exactly right after season seven ended. We get a brief montage of the three communities working together to make weapons, armor and other items for the war with Negan.
There’s some weird kind of poetic speeches like you would see in some cheesy old war movie. The Generals long winded cadence to ready his men for the battle ahead.
That works for those movies, but really doesn't do much here. It just comes across as cheesy. I would much rather see everyone terrified and nervous about going into a war with another group.
This is more realistic as none of these people are soldiers or signed up for that sort of thing. The Emotions would be high. There would be more silence than noise or talk, more stoicism. People focusing, trying to build their courage up to go into battle.
But much of season 8 is like this, cheesy, awkward, and leaving you to wonder how any of these people survived this long or for that matter through one battle.
We really have come off the rails here in Season 8. In terms of Writing.
Don't let the flashing sounds, explosions, and abundance of action scenes distract you from the lack of creative writing.
We will start with episode one, when Rick arrives at the Sanctuary with his armor plated vehicles.
Here is the first red flag for me.
Negan is always one or two steps ahead of his enemies, including Rick.
Negan has the upper hand, he has more troops, and more weapons. He has several outposts that stretch out his reach around the area.
Negan knows they are at war and yet he allows Rick and the others enough time to build up their ranks, build armored cars, and give out cheesy speeches.
Negan could have attacked at any time, almost immediately after the declaration of War that he gave at the end of Season 7.
He could have easily taken any one of the communities out, quickly, and efficiently. And yet he didn't.
What he did do, was sit around and do nothing. He places a few scouts out and about but only one person per area, making them easy targets. Why would he do this when he has the manpower to put a minimum of squads of ten on watch?
If I am Negan, and have half a brain. I would have patrols on every road that led to and from the Sanctuary, twenty four seven. I'd recon hideout watching what Rick and his people do.
But no… none of that.
Rick is just able to drive right up to the front gates of the Sanctuary unchecked…
This is insulting to Negan's Character and frankly goes against it in a big way. Negan is supposed to be playing Chess while everyone is playing checkers and that is not the case anymore.
To make matters worse and the second red flag, as if all that wasn't enough, Negan just walks out onto an open balcony with no cover and no real way to escape to greet Rick and his Army.
Why would you do this? You are now exposed; you could be killed instantly. And why does Rick give ultimatums? You literally along with everyone else have a clear shot of Negan. Take the damn shot!
Sure you may have to fight off a few of his lieutenants, but you were already prepared for that.
This is a bizarre scene…
Rick stands there all the time of the day to take Negan down and doesn't.
Instead and here is another stupid move, the shoot out all the windows of the sanctuary. Scattering Negan and his men.
So you could have shot Negan and most of his Lieutenants and basically ended it right there but instead you waste a ton of ammo on windows.
This is a bad strategy. Because its the apocalypse, and ammo is in short supply. Why would you waste it on windows?
The answer is you wouldn't. You would take into account the scarcity of ammo, weapons, and people and be far more strategic in your operations.
None of that happens here.
Negan has to crawl away, and find cover as Rick and his group open fire.
And another red flag… Rick and his army apparently have the cheat code of infinite ammo.
First off every weapon they have seems to be fully automatic, which is ridiculous in and of itself. There are over 330 million legal firearms in the US. How many of them are full auto? If I had to guess probably less than thirty percent.
Even if you managed to find the very few military rifles that are fully automatic you would not have this many…
And yet they all are. Including the ones that aren't military weapons! I saw later on in the show a man firing a rifle, an M-14 that has a ten round mag and is only a semi-auto and it was full auto…
(If you didn't know they CGI they gunshot into this show which makes it even more cheesy. Some words of advice, if you aren't gonna have real firing weapons on set, don't do close ups of the weapons firing. You could clearly see no brass ejecting from the ports or the bolts moving back and forth…)
ITs so unbelievably cheesy!!!!
Not to mention they fire all those shots at the sanctuary and never once do they hit any of the saviors… none of the meaningful ones anyway.
So the war is on!
Now I do think it is clever that they move a herd of walkers into the sanctuary basically blocking them in.
But the fact that they could get away with such a complicated task to begin with makes my head explode. Again how the hell did these people get so close to sanctuary unchecked?
It's like the Writers made Negan a complete idiot for the sake of drawing out this war between him and Rick. Because the reality is Rick and his people would have been dead long ago…
Rick though again has a chance to Kill Negan, he sees him pinned down and can get the jump on him but Gabriel as always screws things up.. Gabriel convinces him to leave and continue the mission..
The Mission is to take out Negan!! Why are playing games here people?
Anyway..
We cut to the Group splitting up and going after all the outposts. This is a smart play. However the outposts seem to be irrelevant and useless.
Why have them if you don't use them? Why have them and only seem to have two or three guys on watch? You are at war, everyone should be on high alert and those outposts should be guarded like Fort Knox.
So aside from walkers surrounding one of the outposts the groups make quick and easy work of them.
Except the one they do a friendly drive by.
All of Negan's people are ignorantly unaware and just cleaning weapons, treating the workers like shit as always…
And then suddenly with no problems pulls up a squad of armored cars to wreak havoc. Again they all have full autos and manage to hit very few of the Saviors in the first volley.
So now we get the pleasure to see a battle go on for an entire show if not longer. Again All of these folks have full auto rifles and are managing not to hit a thing.
It's interesting to note that we see them all on both sides going gung ho with their trigger fingers and no one stops to reload. I made sure to pay attention, and nope, no one changes a magazine out… just keeps endlessly firing for all of eternity.
It's also interesting to note that none of them are carrying mag pouches, or backpacks. Where the hell are they keeping this endless supply of ammo? Don't know..
This entire battle again makes little to no sense. Their plan is never to advance on the Saviors beyond their vehicles. Just keep firing at them, eventually the ones they kill will turn and then eat the ones that haven’t!
WHAT A JOKE!
First off you have no idea when those bodies will turn, could be hours or could be days. It depends really on when the plot needs them to. But still! You are just gonna waste precious ammo shooting at this group hoping that a few turn in the next ten minutes.
Fire fights in real life combat can be over in seconds. There's a few variables. One of them being ammo, and how much you have. The average soldier carries a little over hundred rounds on him. I want to say 180 rounds but I can't remember.
If you were an idiot, had a full auto rifle and happy trigger finger you could burn through that ammo in under five minutes. I am not kidding.
And yet here is Rick's group just spraying and praying for what seems like an hour or so? Hard to tell but the battle drags on the entire show.
In reality it would be over in minutes because all of them would have run out of ammo. They would have had to wrestle each other or something…
This scene is asinine, and just goes to show you that whoever wrote it knows nothing about combat, how weapons work, or for that matter any real tactical thought.
I mean shit man, even old Arnold movies made more sense than this.
Its just plain awful. And to make matters worse no one is really dying here, I mean sure the saviors are. And ya some of them finally come back as zombies and go to work… how clever.
Its also interesting to note how everyone becomes stupid when the show needs them to so they can be bit. The saviors all head guns with and endless supply of ammo, and they just let the zombies bite them.
Ugh it's so BAD!!!
And I have not even passed episodes one and two yet!!!!!!
Food for thought. If you plan to do combat scenes in any thing. Do some research. Maybe hire someone, any one. Hire the half drunken jarhead grunt that tends bar in Los Angeles. Because even he would have ripped this scene to shreds.
But this is just foreshadowing of things to come my friends.
Because if all this stupidity wasnt enough, Rick runs into an old friend from season one! Well I can't remember his name because well. He wasn't very important then and certainly isn't now.
This man left with his family to go the Birmingham at the end of season one.
How did he manage to go from Birmingham Alabama to Washington DC? Don't know….
And what are the odds that he would run into the saviors, join them and be in a building that Rick happens to go into with just Daryl? Pretty good I guess…
UGH I HATE WHAT THEY DID TO THIS SHOW!
So, we get this waste of a scene… We know Rick isnt gonna die here. And since this dude was a nobody in season one we just have to wait for Daryl to show up and save the day.
And sure enough he does!
I like where Daryl is at right now. He's in a “I dont care Im here to win this”. He didn't care who it was, he just took him out.
Daryl is actually one of the few characters or really the only character this season that doesn't really deviate from who they are. While all the other characters are turned upside down from Sunday, he remains pretty much in plain with who he is.
His move later on with the sanctuary is a bit off character but not as much as others.
The writers have no idea what to do with these well developed characters and frankly are ruining them this season.
Oh ya Aarons partner dies. I know I didn't care either. I almost forgot. Don't worry the show wasted a lot of time on it.
Why would you dedicate so much time to a relationship and a character that was never developed? Given little to no attention from the beginning? Eric was barely a B level character.
This is like the Sasha episode, where we are made to watch an entire episode of her make stupid decisions that ultimately lead to her death. They drag it out to make you care, but you can't because the Character was never developed in such a way to make you care. You cant make up for that in a single episode.
We won't suddenly become invested in a character enough to make us feel real emotion when they are killed off in a single episode. This is Eric, no one cares. No one was ever made to care, and we won't in thirty minutes.
Stop doing this.
The show focuses heavily on the King too, and he is always smiling even though they are headed to battle. I don't hate his speeches, but again his character is over the top. The fact that he keeps mentioning that his ranks are untouched undoubtedly makes you believe something bad is about to happen at some point to them.
And sure enough it does. Would you know it! The King and his people get mowed down in a field by two fifty caliber machine guns.
Interestly enough, the show actually decided to accurately show the sheer power of the fifty cal, blowing the people to pieces.
Thankfully the king was defended and his army fell on him. They dogpiled that dude and somehow he managed to get out from under that dead weight.
Needless to say he aint smiling no more…
Neither is Jerry…
Thankfully the show only killed off a bunch of characters we knew nothing about in the scene…
The king ends up getting taken hostage by a guy who looks like Jeffery Dahmer.. Not sure what decade this dude just came from but whatever.
They waste some time and end up getting trapped at a gate as the dead kingdom fighters are walking toward them.
Jerry thankfully comes out of nowhere to save the day, and splits jeffery Dahmer in two with his battle axe. Ok, that's badass.
Carol gets into a fire fight with the saviors loading up the fifty cals, and that entire scene is dumb. She gives up, and instead of just shooting her and carrying on, one of them gets close enough to get killed by Carol and she opens a gate of walkers… whatever.
This is where I see that a semi auto M-14 becomes fully automatic….
At this point my eyes have rolled so far into the back of my head I forgot the rest of that atrocious episode…
Oh ya, the King is depressed and stumbles back into his community with just Jerry and Carol, the entire community looks on in sadness and horror that everyone is dead.
Honestly, that's how it would have happened from the rip if Negan wasn't sitting on his hands for some reason. But oh well.
And now we take a break from our usual programming to cut to Negan and Gabriel hanging out.
Gabriel somehow finds a way into Negan's head and we get to see a softer side of old Negan. We learn that he used to work with people, and had a wife that he wasn't particularly good to but loved her nonetheless.
Its almost like the show is trying to change Negan into a victim? Could this be to make him an anti-hero later? How could this be? He's such a bad man who manipulates and kills people… Guess time will tell dear listener.
All jokes aside I actually enjoyed The exchange between Negan and Gabriel. These are two opposites coming into collision. A man of faith who feels he's on a mission from God, and another who thinks he is God.
It was actually well done and I enjoyed it. I like the Negan kind of takes to Gabriel a little and works together to get out.
Now Gabriel gets sick, none of this really matters, it's just a subplot that leads to a doctor being killed.
It's really just there to fill the gaps.
So all is going to plan, and we get some filler until Daryl and some others get a wild hair to finish the fight and deviate from Rick's plan.
Now this is in my opinion where Daryl goes off character a little. He is always resourceful but he is also extremely loyal and follows Rick's orders to the Tee, he always has. So for him to do this is way off base for him
Their plan is to drive a garbage truck into the sanctuary and let the walkers surrounding inside to finish them off.
Well this doesn't work, and allows Eugine to come up with a plan to clear the walkers and now Negan has escaped.
Go figure!
This garbage truck scene is another bizarre moment. Negan was supposedly trapped and all Rick and the group had to do was wait it out. How did letting the walkers inside change that? Why now does the sanctuary have the ability to clear all of them?
None of this makes sense.. It seems like the writers accidentally wrote themselves into a corner and had to find a way out.
So we get this convenient scene…
And to top off all the bad writing this season we have Carl come across a random person. Now Rick Scares him off in the beginning but Carl being the kid that never, ever, not once has listened to his parents. Decides to venture off and find this man and save him.
Eventually he does, he sees him killing walkers in the woods.
Carl offers food and water to him, asks him the three questions and they proceed to head to Alexandria.
In the process of that they come across some walkers. Now the smart thing to do would be to avoid them. But the man tells Carl that his mother believed that killing them would release their trapped spirits.
I happen to agree with that a little. BUT! I don't agree with engaging with zombies unless you absolutely have to. This may be the Resident evil player in me.. But nonetheless no unnecessary risks!
But that's what they do, now you don't know that Carl gets bit here but eventually you find out he does.
Like I said earlier the rate at which you turn is whatever the plot needs it to be. In this case a few days for Carl, many days before he even shows signs of becoming sick.
Enough time to write letters to everyone including Negan, and help this guy in a sewer until he could convince his dad to let him in.
So that brings me to the scene where negan rolls up to Alexandria looking for Rick, its time to go nuclear.. Well kind of. Negan finally grows a set and attacks back.
Carl distracts Negan just long enough for people to escape, feeding him some BS line.. I love this scene because Negan gets pissed and says “I thought we were having a moment kid you little shit”
Anyway Negan lays waste to most of Alexandria while they all hide in the Sewer. This is when we find out Carl is Bit.
Apparently Chandler Riggs was set to graduate and go off to college so he had to depart from the show. At least that's how I remember it.
Now me personally, I would have rather seen Carl go out in a better way. But the show is trying to set it up so that Rick and the group dont kill the saviors or Negan. Which is odd I know but thats the direction its going.
It's a sort of let's forgive and coexist.
This is great and I believe we should forgive our enemies and love one another as the Bible and Jesus teaches us.
But the reality is people like Negan don’t forgive, and don’t coexist.
It's like my Sgt Major in bootcamp said, sometimes there's people in this world that need killing, and that's what you are gonna go do.
He was right. Sometimes people are too far gone and can't get with the program, becoming a danger to everyone around them.
But this show is gonna try to prove otherwise… that bashing out the brains of two of your friends, one who was a father and killing many others can all be forgiven…
Needless to say It was a pretty emotional episode. I will say it was one of the better ones of the season.
From my Rant so far that is not saying much…
So Rick once again sets off to mess around with the Garbage pail kids… He finds out that they're all dead because Simon went rogue and shot them all. Jadis is the only survivor.
Seeing this, Rick basically says screw it and leaves her. Because she no longer has anything to offer them.
Rick for the record Is Negan at this moment. Rick has channeled his inner monster but is no longer controlling it.
He shares more in common with Morgan and Negan than Glenn and Herschell at this point.
So Jadis has nothing to offer, fine leave her be. And honestly thats smart, because Jadis only ever messed with Rick anyway.
Any way Back at the Sanctuary Negan was given a great Idea by the traitor Eugien. So the Saviors begin to dip their weapons in walker guts in order to unleash some psychological warfare on the hilltop.
All of this because Negan wants to keep the hilltop and kingdom alive and providing. Simon does not seem to understand why and just wants to go full nuclear.
I think both are technically right.
After all, why does Negan put up with negotiations? Why not just take over those communities and have your workers farm and tend to the land and provide?
Either way, Negan wants to keep them alive and providing.
So they set off on their mission when Negan gets side swiped by Rick!
Just as I mentioned in the last episode when the head of a snake is cut off the body dies or maybe someone else steps up, but its not the same.
And that's what happens. Simon and Dwight think Negan is dead so Simon steps up as leader.
Simon decides to move along as planned but they are gonna take everyone out at the hilltop and do it for Negan!
We find Rick and Negan in a nice bout, they taunt each other and fight a little. But Negan manages to escape when Walkers get let out.
Back at the hilltop Simon and his crew arrive and wage a nice battle. But the Hilltop was prepared and eventually chased them out.
Unfortunately tho that evening when everyone is asleep, anyone who was cut or hit with an arrow ends up turning and the Hilltop is awakened to a real life nightmare.
Thankfully again none of the main characters die here… they all manage to escape.
We are led to believe that Tara might turn from Dwight's Arrow but we all know she won't because Dwight didn't taint his arrows.
Once again everyone makes it… Everyone that matters anyway.
So we get to see later on just how much Rick has become an uncontrolled monster. As he and Morgan set off to look for the escaped prisoners at Hilltop.
They get captured, but only briefly as a convenient herd of walkers find their way into the warehouse. The Saviors release Rick and Morgan in good faith and they all work together to clear the warehouse. In fact one of the saviors saves Rick's life.
But then suddenly Rick and Morgan shoot all of them in the back. And kill them.
The one long haired prick gets away but Morgan cuts him off at the pass and traps him with walkers.
This scene is important because it shows that Rick isn't playing games anymore. He will lie and go against his word and kill anyone.
Rick is now just as bad as far as I can tell as Negan.
Rick was always the moral one, taking the high road. And This was an easy road to take. These men wanted to help you and work with you. You told them they could and then double crossed them.
That's dirty…
You hear Rick kind of play over it a little with Morgan but not a whole lot..
Rick also gets on the Radio after Carl's death and tells Negan that he's coming for him and that there is no chance for peace. So again Rick is full send with this war.
Back at the sanctuary things aren't all ok.. Negan shows back up and surprises everyone including Simon. He messes with Simon and Dwight a little but he knows the truth about both of them.
Negan Fights Simon for the leadership position and ends up killing Simon.
Negan also turns Dwight into a worker, much like what Daryl was last season.
And so all that goes on… and Machonne ventures out to the Sanctuary to read a letter that Carl wrote to Negan. But Negan isn't having it. Rick and the group have done too much to come back from that now.
And that makes perfect sense. If I was Negan I would want to put an end to it as well.
The season ends with everyone in a field, Rick thinks he got the jump on Negan but really Negan tricked him and now has them trapped.
Negan and his army open fire on Rick and his group but wouldn't you know it! The old traitor Eugine pulls through and tampers with the ammo he built.
The guns all misfire, killing some of the saviors and wounding many more.
Negan's hand gets messed up badly and he tries to crawl away but Rick catches up to him.
They both fight it out but eventually Rick gets the upper hand and slices Negan's throat with a broken piece of glass.
Now Negan should be dead here but he isnt…
In some weird twist of event Rick calls his doctor to come save him.
Wait what?
After all this you decide to save Negan?
That's right, fair listener we went through that entire season of shenanigans only to end up here where Rick suddenly and out of nowhere has a change of heart about Negan.
Now first of all if you did have a change of heart about killing Negan why would you slit his throat? Its hard enough to survive that in real life with modern medicine let alone an apocalypse and a guy who was barely a resident before the pandemic.
But whatever….
That isn't even my biggest beef.
Sure I get it he read Carls letter… again.
But how do you go from shooting saviors in the back, ones who helped you. To now suddenly spare the life of the man that killed your friends and terrorized your people? In the span of one episode at that.
I could understand if Rick was having a change of heart when Carl died but he went deeper into rage mode… and now out of nowhere he snaps to?
No….
Sadly what happened is one, Negan is such a well loved character this show couldn't kill him off. Just like they could not kill any other of the well known characters off this season.
Notice we had a giant war and the only ones who died were basic C list, undeveloped characters? That's why the entire season was so flat.
Ya you lost Simon, but that was the only meaningful loss in the entire season. It actually made the season interesting to see Negan's guys start to turn on him. Because as I said before the Tyrant can only rule for so long before someone tries to overthrow him.
Rick doesn't suffer from that problem, even Maggie respects his decision enough not to go over and kill Negan herself when he decides to save him. Believe me though she wasn't happy about it.
Or maybe Negan is being kept alive because rumors swirled up during the end of this season. And that Rumor was Carl wouldn't be the only actor departing from the show.
Yup Andrew Lincoln has decided to break away too, Turns out his reasoning was he was missing his family back in London.
Or could it be that Andrew saw the writing on the wall and how bad this show has gotten and wanted to break away while it still had a little shred of credit left? And that most of the people he started off with in season one, the group that got along so well and made the show what it was, is mostly gone now.
Daryl and Carol are the only two left from season one, besides Morgan. I usually don't include Morgan because his appearance in season one was so short.
So how will that work?
The Walking Dead is about Rick Grimes. That's what it was always about.
The other characters orbited around him.
It will be interesting to see how Season nine goes and what happens next. How will the show progress without Rick's Character.
What will happen with Negan? Will he fill Rick's shoes? If so, how?
How do you take a character that was a psychotic maniac and place him in the role of the fearless respectable leader?
The answer is you can't.
Negan cant become the hero or anti-hero for that matter.
There's no way in any logical realm that he could appeal to Maggie, and that's exactly who he has to appeal to.
According to how the season ends Rick may have a hard time appealing to Maggie too as she is not at all happy that Neagan is alive and seems to have a plan in place to get him and kill him even if that means hurting Rick.
SO with that said, what is gonna happen?
Seeing as the writers couldn't handle this season, I am in fear of what's to come.
Wrap up:
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Intro/outro
Big Rock License
Big Rock by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3436-big-rock
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Other Intro:
The Walking Dead Main Theme
The Walking Dead
By Bear McCreary
The Hudgens Art Center, With Guest Laura Ballance
Link to The Hudgens Center for Art and Learning website
//
Contact The Rant anytime
Email: Davidking.therant@gmail.com
Search The Rant with David king on Facebook, Instagram, and twitter.
//
Intro/ Outro
Big Rock License
Big Rock by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3436-big-rock
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Massive Explosion after train derailed in Ohio
Intro/outro
Big Rock License
Big Rock by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3436-big-rock
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
The Walking Dead Special Part 7
Part seven of the walking dead picks up right where Six left off with the group on their knees, overtaken by Negan and his saviors.
There is no escape this time, no way Rick will save his group. He is entirely at the mercy of Negan.
This entire episode is important, much like the last as it shows how powerful Negan is.
But this one gives us more of an insight into his brain. Negan is smart, arrogant, and confident. He’s also, much like the governor was. Charming.
Ya I know how you can get that in this episode. But I am speaking in terms of the future too. Negan has a swagger about him, one that would attract people to follow him.
You don't get to that level of power simply through force, he had to develop that much like Rick did.
Much like the eyes of rick and others in previous seasons showed how they were mentally losing it. The show doest a good job of portraying Negan as a strong and confident person almost entirely through his body language.
Notice that he stands upright, almost more than normal causing him to lean back a little and look down his nose to anyone he talks to. Which is easy because he is taller than most.
He also never takes his eyes off of yours. Whenever he talks to anyone he looks them dead in the eye and never looks away. This is a sign of confidence but also him sizing that person up. You can always see the truth in anyone through their eyes. And often prolonged eye contact can reveal quite a bit about another person.
Generally speaking people who tend to do this all the time and everytime are usually psychopaths or at the very least manipulative and controlling narcissists. A Box that negan checks with ease.
Negan is the Malevolent tyrant, ruling with an iron first. His philosophy is much of that like a mob boss. I will take from you, you will work with me, yes you will be safe, but you will never be free.
Jeffery Dean Morgan plays probably one of the best villains in television with this character. He perfectly portrays the charming Psychopath. This is a guy the Governor wishes he could have become.
Negan up to this point will be the hardest villain for Rick and his group to deal with. He has the numbers, the resources, and wherewithal to take Rick out at any moment.
And this first episode shows us all of that.
It plays with the psych of Rick but also the audience. As it shows us flashes of each character and previous moments in their lives. As if Rick and The audience is seeing their lives flash before their eyes.
We soon find out that the first person Negan takes out is Abraham. Which sucked! Because Abraham had developed into a really nice and likable character.
I hated that the show took him but felt it was a powerful scene and made you think that none of Rick's group was safe. I felt like any one of them would be taken out next.
Sadly Daryl snaps and punches Negan, pissing Negan off and because he leads by power and can not have someone attacking him without consequence he must now take another group member out.
Without hesitation he hits Glenn over the head. I remember when I first saw this scene and how shocking it was.
First of all its Glenn, one of the most beloved characters of the series who's been with the show since episode one of the first season.
Glenn has had a massive character arch. Going from a scrawny, wimpy kind of guy who's good at getting in out of places and scavenging. To a strong husband, capable of holding his own and going fisty cuffs with any man.
He was a kind soul, willing to take the fight when necessary but also willing to show mercy and forgiveness.
I never would have expected that the show would have taken Glenn out especially with the history in the last season, and that he has a baby on the way.
Now at this point the viewer really believes any of the group could be next, maybe even Rick.
The show kind of makes us believe that Negan took out all of the group and left Rick to himself. As Rick is being tormented and messed with by Negan outside the camper.
But we later find out that was just Rick thinking the worst possible situation if he did not listen to Negan at that moment.
The entire episode was so well done that it's probably one of the best episodes in my opinion of all the series. Certainly top five.
It perfectly captures just how powerful of a psychopath Negan is.
It portrays the raw emotions of the characters and how absolutely terrified they all are and then how broken they become when Negan takes two of their own.
Not to mention the entire episode really is an emotional rollercoaster for the audience as we wonder who's gonna get the bat, and then seeing Abraham and especially Glenn get it. It never lets up either, constantly pulling the audience in one way or another and not letting up.
And to top it off it hits you right in the feels with a vision of how life could have been as the entire group sit around a dinner table and Glenn is holding his son.
Man if that doesn't make you choke up a little then check your pulse.
At that moment you can feel and relate to the characters.
You feel their anger, their sadness, and anxiety all in one.
Very few shows can do this to an audience but The Walking Dead nails it here.
I only wish I could keep carrying the praise for this episode on through the season.
But unfortunately we get smacked over the head with episode two.
Right when the show was gaining great momentum and riding on the emotional high of Negan and Rick. They do what they do best.
Break away and show you something you don't care about. Ruining the pace of the show, and ultimately taking away from the impact of episode one.
Episode two cuts over to Morgan and Carol, who are now in another community that we find out is called “The Kingdom” That's now the third community they have run into. As Jesus said, the world is about to get a lot bigger.
Now on the surface the Kingdom seems like a normal community. WIth gardens, people working and surrounded by walls and buildings.
But Morgan tells Carol there's more and takes her into a theater.
This is where we meet Ezekial and his, well, pet tiger.
What, the, fuck….
I can remember the reactions on the faces of my Wife and Brother in law when they saw this scene. They just laughed and commented on how stupid it was.
That's putting it lightly. I was in a state of delusion at that time and trying to make excuses for it all.
But now I am seeing with fresh eyes for a second time and nope, there's no excuse for this load of garbage.
I sit here and think to myself. How did we get here?
How did we go from real characters, who are relatable, believable and so well written?
How did we go from a world that was terrifying and also believable to now a world of ridiculous over the top scenes and characters such as this one?
It's bad enough that Ezekiel's character and his kingdom act like a bunch of Knights from the 8th century. Which is laughable in and of itself
But he has a freaking Tiger?..
What bothers me the most is the writer of this show actually thought this was a good idea. In his interview he said ya I played around with it and said to myself “Yup there's a freaking tiger”.
This makes me feel like they don't actually take this show seriously or for that matter understand where it came from.
Ezekiel’s character is laughable at best which is sad because Kary Paton is a great actor and in my opinion would have benefited without the whole “King” personna.
The show would later try to explain why he does it but it just doesn't land.
I'm sorry but it's not believable that anyone would take you seriously and follow you if you were acting like some ridiculous medieval king stereotype in the apocalypse…. That just would not happen and things are frankly too serious to be playing pretend.
And the Tiger? Ya sure a Tiger is just chilling on a chain and minding his own and not trying to kill and eat anyone.
The Idea that you could befriend and have a Tiger as a pet is very unbelievable in a normal world, the real world for that matter. And worse because it's in a time where food is scarce and eats the equivalent of four grown men.
How does he feed the giant animal? He cant… and thus the Tiger would either eat him or his people.
That would have been a great way to show how nuts he is if he secretly fed people to his tiger…Much more believable if the tiger is caged up and fed Ezekials enemies.
Anyway…
It's so over the top and such a huge diversion from what the show has been that it really just ruins what the Kingdom could have been.
Surprisingly, they made probably one of the best episodes in episode one, and then equally the absolute worst episode in episode two.
Im Sorry but it's hard not to laugh and just wonder what the hell the writers were thinking. We are a long way from the expert, master class in writing from the first two seasons that's for sure.
Ugh, Why do people make such bad decisions? Especially when they have time to actually think about them? How the hell does this make it into the story? Where was the executive to tell them that this entire idea of a kingdom, tigers, and people acting like their from the medieval times was awful and would degrade the show?
Anyway after all that stupidity Carol eventually gets what she wants and ends up at a nearby house alone. Apparently she just cant take it anymore, and has suppressed her inner monster and is willfully alienating herself from the ones she loves so as not to have to kill to protect them or lose them.
A path that is extremely unhealthy and will only lead a person into further insanity. This is true for real life too. Become a hermit and see how fast you decline mentally and lose your ability to communicate to others.
We are social beings, and we are meant to love and to take care of one another and have fellowship. Without it our brains fall apart.
And so after that just atrocious episode we move on to Daryl and his situation which gives us a first look at the Saviors main compound.
From the first glance we can already tell the Saviors are well established. They live in what looks like an old industrial plant. With high fortified walls and no real easy way in and out. The entire perimeter is set up with walkers on chains and stakes to make it hard for the living to get in.
Daryl is basically thrown in a utility closet with no light, food, or water. Dwight the guy he tried to save and now turned on him and killed Denise and has shown us that he's a real grade a Douchebag is in charge of watching over him.
The episode does a great job of showing us that the men and women who work for Negan do pretty well, they can take what they want and live in nice little apartment-like rooms.
Negan is messing with Daryl and trying to break him in order to get him to join his crew but Daryl resists the entire time.
Meanwhile the group is back at Alexandria licking their wounds when Negan and his group show up.
Negan comes to collect half, but really is taking anything everything he wants. Including all of the weapons from their armory.
Now I am not the smartest man in the world. But Rick knew the Saviors would come, and they were gonna take things.
Rick knew that they had a lady doing inventory of everything, including the weapons.
The first thing I would have done when I got back was hide weapons, ammo, and some food. Essentially I would have created bug out bags for my group. And I would have the lady doing inventory to destroy her list, and ditch it. So they could lose records of what weapons and food were taken.
These bug out bags would serve the purpose in the event they can't provide and knowing Negan will kill one of them they can either take the weapons and fight them or in the case of the name. Bug out and leave.
Rick was pretty caught off guard by Negan's arrival. And this episode further pours salt on the wounds of Rick's group and the viewer. As Negan continues to mess with everyone, harassing the locals and taking everything they want.
Part of me was just hoping Rick would say screw it and just take Negan out, even if it meant losing his life.
Negan continues to show his power and lack of fear of Rick, by letting Rick hold Lucile his bat. He does this often with his enemies, and there's no bigger slap in the face to hold the weapon that killed your friends and know you can't use it against Negan.
So the Saviors take all that they want including all the mattresses and much of the furniture. And head out.
Now with all this said I will say that Rick and his group got off pretty easy. After all, they killed a massive amount of Negan's people. They should have been all taken out for this.
But this is one of the major flaws with Negan and his saviors. They rely on imports. As much as we can tell the Saviors are not producing much for themselves. Maybe no nearly enough to sustain that large community.
And So Negan must keep Alexandria going so they can provide, at least for a little while until they cant anymore. Then well, its lights out for Alexandria.
Rick had the fear of God put in him by Negan and immediately became submissive to the Saviors. But it is interesting to note that the group is divided on what to do with this situation.
Rick is ready to completely submit and live the best life they can under the rule of the Saviors. But others are not so sure that will work, and a few individuals are starting to plot and kill Negan themselves.
The reality is Rick is wrong and so are the individuals. This is a precept to war, and one that can't be fought irrationally or alone. It will be a team effort that requires thoughtful planning.
And any rogue attempts to execute Negan could further weaken the group. Or prevent a real war to stop him.
From here we get insight on Maggie and Sasha who are hiding out at the hilltop. Maggie is recovering but told by the doctor she should stay there until she gives birth so that way if there are further complications he can be nearby to help.
The leader of Hilltop is further being exposed as an incompetent coward not fit to lead. And the show seems to be hinting at a leadership change as Jesus and Maggie push back against them. This is especially made clear after he tries to give them up to the saviors like the coward and weasel he is.
They did a good job of making him out to be just a horrible leader first and foremost because he knows no one by name and always calls them the wrong one. How this guy managed to survive and be a leader to this point is beyond me.
He must have a camp full of the most agreeable people ever.
Gregory as a character is a bit over the top and too incompetent. Rick is a natural leader, who attracts those around him to follow and listen. He does this through knowledge and stepping up. Negan rules with an iron fist, he's the malevolent tyrant. People follow him out of fear.
But Gregory, he's just an incompetent boob. With absolutely no leadership skills or backbone for that matter.
Why anyone would keep him in charge is beyond me. But I think as the show progresses we will see how people like him end up.
So Carl and Enid show up to the hilltop just as the saviors do. Carl told Enid that he was not out to save her but to go after Negan. So he hops on a truck and hides in the cargo waiting to get back to Negan and kill him.
We don't find this out until Jesus hops in the back in order to track where they are going and find the main compound.
This was a great ending to that episode as it was suspenseful and interesting. But unfortunately as always The Walking Dead cuts away and gives us something else.
I won’t say it's something we didn't want, but let's be honest the Tara on the beach thing was just boring and silly. But again with sixteen episode seasons you gotta fill the space.
And there we are, with Tara past out on the beach and two people, a woman and psychopathic little girl find her.
The little girl is just all too eager to put a spear through her head. Which is troubling. But for some reason the adult decides to break protocol and leave her alone.
How lucky for Tara.
She eventually comes to and finds some food and water left for her and the woman who left them walking away.
She follows her to the community where she is quickly discovered and shot.
Again lucky for her that none of these women could hit a broad side of a barn with fully automatic rifles.
Eventually the little psycho kid stops here with a gun pointed right at her. And then the rest of the group surrounds her.
This is where we are introduced to the fourth community. I call them the Beach side community but they may have another name.
We find out that the reason it's all women is because Negan and the saviors killed all the men and boys over ten.
Which is why the group trusts no outsiders and shoots on site. Makes sense considering what happened.
The Beach side community is pretty believable, and their actions seem to be as well. They're just a group of women trying to hold it together after they lost everything.
Unfortunately for Tara it seems like they wont grant her the request to leave and go home. They make it seem like they will meet Rick and the group but soon after being in the woods they try to kill her.
She manages to break away when the girl who saved her comes out of nowhere and knocks one of the women out briefly.
From here Tara heads home to find a very broken Alexandria, and her girlfriend Denise is dead.
The show continues with a lot of good filler that builds up the tension between Rick and Negan.
Rosita hatches a plan to kill Negan and demands the services of Eugine, so they set off to make a bullet. Rick and Aaron are also searching for supplies.
And Jesus and Carl are headed to the compound.
Jesus jumps out and gets left behind by Carl.
Carl eventually shows himself to the saviors and shoots and kills two of them, only before being stopped by Negan.
Even though he really wasn't stopped.
This scene is interesting in that if Carl really only cared about killing Negan at any cost he could have. But he doesn’t. He could have easily pointed the rifle at him and bam, he's dead. There's nothing stopping him from doing it.
Other than being shot up by the saviors after he does that…
But in theory he's a dead man walking at this point anyway so just pull the trigger!
This is just one of many instances where Negan could easily be dispatched but for some reason the characters like Carl just lock up and say screw it I will just die for nothing.
So Carl doesnt pull the trigger, however he earns some respect from Negan and he shows Carl around.
We get further insight into Negan and how he runs things.
The Malevolent Tyrant ruling with an iron fist, punishing anyone who breaks the rules with nothing other than a death sentence.
Carl witnesses this when Negan burns a man's face for sleeping with one of his wives.
Eventually Negan Piles everyone into a convoy and heads to Alexandria with Carl in Tow.
Rick is not there and so Negan makes himself at home while he waits. Making Carl spaghetti and forcing him and Olivia, the clerk who handles the inventory at Alexandria, to sit and eat with them.
Negan also seems to shower and shave while he's there and takes special notice of Judith, Rick's Baby.
This is where some things get interesting as Spencer gets a wild hair to appeal to Negan and take over Alexandria.
Negan has his crew move a pool table out into the yard so they could shoot pool and discuss Spencer's concerns more.
The Pool table is symbolic in that in order to be a good pool player you should always be one to two plays ahead, and have a plan to sink as many balls as possible in a single turn. This is Negan, always two steps ahead of everyone and overlooking his kingdom like a pool table. He can see every ball just like he can see every colony.
This scene is where Spencer goes rogue and decides to throw Rick under the bus and take over. Claiming Rick cant be trusted and will try to lash out, getting everyone killed. Spencer tries to play politics with Negan but It doesn't work.
Negan, being two steps ahead, reads right through his bullshit, Calls him out for not taking care of Rick himself since he's a hotshot and then proceeds to cut his insides out with his knife, killing Spencer.
Everything from here escalates as Rick comes on the scene to find Spencer dead.
Rosetta takes matters into her own hands, shooting the one round she had at Negan.
Wow Negan is a lucky SOB.
Of all the places she hits his bat Lucile. Not his arm, not leg, or chest… much larger targets. She hits a bat.
Now to be fair the bat is near his head.. So fair enough.
Obviously this does not fly.. And why would it. Any person would be pissed after that.
But Negan is smart, and he notices that the bullet is custom made and demands to know who made it. Rosetta won't tell but Eugine confesses to it.
Negan is pleased and informs Eugene and Rick that Eugene will be going back with him.
However Negan must punish Alexandria for his attempted assassination and orders one of his soldiers to kill one of them. She stands up off Rosetta and shoots Olivia in the face.
Negan once again leaves Rick and Alexandria Terrorized and at this point everyone has had enough.
From here Rick and Jesus begin to go off and attempt to convince the other communities to fight Negan. Hilltop seems ready but the Kingdom isn't.
During all this in the dead of night Gabriel is seen taking all the food from the pantry and loading it in a car. As he is driving off someone appears from the back of the car.
This scene will later be contradicted by gabriel. I am not sure if it was a mistake in the writing or just poorly written.
Time goes on and again more filler to move the story along with the Kingdom and the King's reluctance to join the war.
Naturally the abuse of the saviors seems to kick in just in time to push the King and his people over the top.
Two of the King's soldiers end up dying.
This season shows the vastly different paths people will take when desperate. Everyone in this season is desperate for hope, some are willing to submit and others are willing to fight. And each side is convincing each other they are right.
But as with any group under the boot of a tyrant, everyone reaches a breaking point. And Finally the Kingdom agrees to join Rick.
RIck returns to Alexandria to find Gabriel missing along with the food. They get a clue and then set off to find him.
They end up tracking some footprints back to a salvage yard and are quickly surrounded by people with guns.
This is where we are introduced to our fifth Community and probably one of the worst of them all in terms of character design and writing.
First off, none of them speak properly. They all talk like tribes people with broken english. And yet all these people were alive before the outbreak. So somehow they are dumber now?
Once again we are introduced to over the top characters that don’t help the story but actually hurt it in that they are cringeworthy, badly written and make you want to laugh at the ridiculousness of them.
They don’t speak well, and it isn't just the leader they all talk this way. They live in a landfill, are all pasty and sickly looking and walk around in weird patterns that make little to no sense.
Do they choreograph these movements beforehand?
The entire time Rick has a stupid smile on his face.. Like dude you got weird people with guns pointed at you. I would not be happy.
But he thinks he's gonna convince the garbage pale kids to join him in their war.
Jadis seems to want to test Rick, I really don't know why. And Frankly this should have been a massive red flag for all of them. Rick gets pushed into a pit to fight a spiked zombie.
Now I actually think the spiked zombie was cool looking. Like a weaponized Zombie. But A lot of people thought it was just cheesy and dumb. I don't think either point is wrong.
But this entire episode is full of over the top and cheesy writing.
Rick fights him off and kills the metal beast. At the expense of his hand and side. Which by the way a metal spike through the hand in the apocalypse could easily be a death sentence with infection not to mention Tetinise.
Either way people get cut, scrapes, and even all the prior mentioned wounds in really dirty places. And they seem to do fine.
Rick makes a deal with Jadis to get them guns for them to fight and so Rick and Michonne set off to do that.
We get a nice intimate look into their relationship as they hunt for the weapons.
From here we see Eugine is taken in by the saviors and quickly assimilates and becomes one of them. He is now the Chief engineer for Negan. All Bullshitting with them just like he did with Abraham.
This move is right on par for his character and it gives us again more information on the sanctuary, the details and how there are a large group of oppressed people living inside that community. It is nothing like Alexandria or The Kingdom.
Negan does show a bit of arrogance and possibly a weak minded moment when he kills his doctor who he suspected aided and in the escape of one of his wives.
Dwight set up the doctor and is a bit of foreshadowing for Dwight's character.
All this to say that I don't believe Negan will benefit from how he runs his ship. A tyrant can only stay in power for so long.
Eventually someone stronger comes around to knock you off your throne or worse you get weaker and your generals just take you out.
It will be interesting to see how things play out for the sanctuary when the going gets tough and the people have had enough of Negan's tyranny.
It may have been a lapse in judgment but maybe not, as Negan knew that the Hilltop had a doctor so he sent off to bring him back to the Sanctuary full time.
This created even more drama and tension at the Hilltop as well.
Rosetta and Sasha having been hatching a plan to go after Negan, Rosetta finds a nice rifle to take Negan out and gives it to Sasha since she's a good shot.
They end up sneaking out when the Saviors come looking for the doctor.
They make their way just outside of the sanctuary, Negan's stronghold.
They wait, keeping watch in a second story window waiting for their moment.
Now I like this scene because it shows a bit of tactics.
This is the smart play, there is no need for war or to risk your people so far as you know or we as the viewers know.
The idea is if you cut off the head of the snake the body dies. And Negan is the head of that snake.
Negan is the ruler, take him out and everyone will scatter like ants. In theory. And it's a probable one considering Carl, and Daryl both have seen how he treats his people. His death could usher in a revolutionary coup inside that compound.
At best ending the saviors, or at worst weakening them significantly.
But no, Negan isn't taken out. Sasha cant get a clear shot and while yes I know she only has two rounds, that doesn't matter.
You get one shot, that's it. You miss it and it's over.
Eugine comes over the coms saying they need more walkers for the wall, and to go out nearby and search the buildings.
Sasha and Rositta are in one of those buildings.
So you would expect that they would temporarily fall back or hide until the crews leave and then go back to waiting for their chance.
But they don't.. Instead they do something incredibly stupid which is leave the perfect location to snipe Negan and go inside the compound after him.
The odds of this being successful are at best a hundred to one. And those odds are significantly decreased when Sasha blocks Rositta from coming in with her.
Sasha was never a favorite character of mine, she was always a little annoying and these last two episodes drive it home for me. She makes absolutely awful decisions that make little to no sense from the time she leaves that building and on.
You are not helping, you are not trying to help, you either want to die or are just that stupid of a character.
There's no way in hell you are gonna get Negan alone in a building that large that you have never been in.
You realize how hard it is for a trained group of Marines to clear a building half that size with a fire team? And here you are one person, no formal training, and zero knowledge of the layout.
And what happens, she gets caught and thrown into a cell.
Negan loves her boldness and wants her to work for him. Now at first I thought no way man, you can't possibly believe that she would want to.
But he’s managed to get people to cross over before so why not again.
For starters Sasha had the brass balls to come into your compound alone.. She is dangerous and too risky to keep around.
We also get to see a side of Negan we don't usually see. A side of Morality. Negan walks in on one of his saviors attempting to rape Sasha and he shuts that down quick. Telling the guy rape is not allowed and Negan kills him.
Why is this scene important? Well one it shows Negan has a bit of morality left in him and yes his final solution kind of guy. There's no prison, just a death sentence.
Now we can scorn the idea of throwing the doctor in the furnace, and for good reason. He was accused of a crime that he didn't commit.
But a man who would rape a woman? Seems like we can let it pass that he gets the knife.
The issue may be for Negan is, he doesn't have the infrastructure or wherewithal to place people in a prison, or to have a trial… If everyone that broke the rules got locked up that would take away from resources elsewhere.
Or maybe he's just psycho. Or maybe both are true. Time will shed some light on this.
So Negan shows a bit of morality, and trust toward Sasha by leaving her a knife to either kill herself, or the soon to be “Rapie Dave” Zombie.
She of course kills the zombie and plays Negan's game.
She also tries to play Eugine by saying she cant handle hurting anyone at Alexandria so she wants to take her life, now we clearly see that she just wants a sharp object to take out Negan.
Why if that is the case she did not just use the knife he left her? Hide to the side of the door and once he comes in BAM!
But no… she tries to convince Eugine for a piece of glass or something.
He brings her a pill that he made for Negan's wives.
Well that did not work out..
To be fair she couldn't have known he would bring that. But again you HAD A KNIFE!!
The writers have made Sasha seem very dumb. Even though they probably think they are making her look like a hero and smart. But she isn't.
So what does Sasha do? Live to fight another day? Maybe find another opportunity to get close to Negan?
No, she kills herself.
The show in its over the top stupidity puts her in a coffin for her trip back to Alexandria where Negan I guess is gonna use her to send yet another message.
For the record. This is now that third time that Rick and members of his group have tried to kill Negan?
So Why doesn't Negan just take out Alexandria and turn it into a work site and have his workers tend to it and farm it out?
It's not like Negan has to have them looking for stuff? Just take it over and use it as a satellite compound. Heck make it a vacation area Negan, They have real homes, hot water, electricity.
But no, Negan wants to send another message.
This sort of thing kind of makes me question what I said previously. But I have to think too that Negan is also that Arrogant to think he can toy with people and not face repercussions.
Prior to Negan's Arrival to Alexandria, Rick and The garbage pail kids all set up and get ready for a fight.
Negan arrives and allows Eugine to try and stop them from attacking. But it doesn't work.
They go to detonate the explosives hidden in a truck, but they don't go off. And Rick realizes quickly they have been compromised.
Oh wouldn't you know it! The Garbage pail kids turned on you… There was never any reason to trust these weirdos and yet you gave them the arms they needed and invited them into Alexandria…. Silly.
STUPID!
Well Negan opens that Coffin up and sure enough Sasha took the pill and wouldn't you know it she turned just in time!
Causing Negan to fall and a firefight to break out.
The entire episode is about Sasha, and all leading up to this one moment where its an absolute nothing burger.
She doesn't get Negan, she doesn't get any one. She literally committed suicide for nothing.
Again She is made to look stupid.
The show focuses on her and it feels like they are trying to evoke emotion from the audience toward Sasha, like hey you are about to lose a beloved character, isn't it sad how she sacrifices herself, but she is so brave! And that should make you like her.
No… it doesn't
She comes across as angry all the time even before Abraham died, and yes she had good reason to be. But she was always making rash decisions and doing things that could compromise herself or the group.
Her actions to leave the sniper's nest was irrational, stupid, and ineffective.
Her actions to commit suicide, also, irrational, stupid, and ineffective.
She was a wasted character, and the show never developed her to have such an emphasized exit from the story.
I honestly felt myself not caring about it all and wanting the show to move on to something more interesting like the overall war between Rick and Negan.
This is just poor writing, period.
Sasha could have been a great character with an amazing exit but she did not get that. Not even close.
So war has finally broken out and all that this season has been building up to has come to fruition.
Alexandria turns into a warzone. But as Negan and the Garbage pail kids take out Alexandria Rick and Carl are captured.
Negan is about to take out Carl when out of nowhere that ridiculous tiger takes one of the soldiers out.
And Negan actually says something funny which was like “A freakin tiger?”
Then the hilltop and Kingdom arrive just in time to save the day. Rick and Carl escape and begin to fight back.
Somehow Negan and his saviors escape, again a funny moment where Negan is flipping them the bird as he drives away. Another sign of his cocky Arrogance. But funny nonetheless.
Sorry But Negan is a likable character for sure. He is a damn good Villain. And honestly I would rather see his back story than watch this show progress on…
I know I am not alone on this as a few people told me that they kind of wished the entire group was taken out at the beginning and the show just focused on Negan.
And fair enough, he's a well written and interesting character. Probably one of the best since season two.
What we get now is just over the top stereotypes or just bland characters that are not at all interesting. Sasha comes to mind, but she had gotten very annoying and unlikeable since the Group got to Alexandria.
So the season ends with a small Victory, All three communities have allied to go to war with Negan and fought him off this time.
This season overall was not bad, I thought it was entertaining and better watched when you can binge it. Having to wait weekly for this season would have made it worse, and I remember it being that way.
Mainly because this season does not have any strong plots or story lines other than the group being terrorized by Negan and eventually going to war.
It allowed us to meet new characters and communities for better or worse. And set up the relationships between them.
How they are all tired of Negan and ready to fight.
///
Intro/ Outro
Big Rock License
Big Rock by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3436-big-rock
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Intro
Theme from The Walking Dead
The Walking Dead soundtrack
By Bear McCreary
The Walking Dead special Part 6
Season Six sort of begins where season five left off but its a mixture. You have some past and present scenes but mostly some time has passed and the group is currently trying to figure out what to do about a massive herd of zombies trapped in a nearby quarry.
The zombies can't escape in masses but are trickling out. Rick notices that the truck barriers are giving way which will lead to all of them escaping and coming toward Alexandria.
So the first episode is essentially the group coming up with a ridiculous and really improbable plan. The idea that you could lure a herd of this size and magnitude in any direction with out groups breaking off is a bit much.
But here we are. And I understand the idea of the scene is to show just how competent Rick is and that hes a natural leader, and the leader Alexandria really needs.
But as fans we know this already, season five showed us just how incompetent the people of Alexandria are. They literally act like people prior to the apocalypse as if it never happened.
Sure you could say that's a luxury, and they are lucky to not have to go through what Rick and so many others did…
But this is the new world. And it takes joy in destroying people, especially the ones at alexandria.
And no amount of metal walls or protection can keep this new world from getting to you. And we see that very soon.
In episode two we see the dragon of chaos rear its ugly head as a group of psychopaths called “wolves” breach Alexandria.
The “Wolves” are a pretty terrifying enemy as they don't seem to really have a plan. There's no real goal involved with them except the loot and pillage.
And an enemy such as this is very dangerous as there is no reasoning with them. Because you can’t create diplomacy or terms amongst a group of people who literally have no plans other than to create as much destruction and chaos in as little amount of time as possible.
And that's what the wolves do, they are not interested in taking Alexandria for themselves. They don't even seem to be interested in their supplies. At least not all of them. Instead what we see is them attacking everyone and not just killing them, but hacking them to pieces.
This is a group of psychopaths, there's no reasoning with them, they must be taken out or they will take you out. They are the purest representation of the new world. Just chaotic and malevolent behavior set out to make your life a living hell just before it takes it.
And it shows that Alexandria is no paradise, and may actually be a burden. Because Aleandrai has something everyone wants, and something worth fighting for. Thats a potential future.
And well, if you want peace, prepare for war.
And that’s really what this season is all about, it's a build up to a great war.
And so These wolves attack Alexandria and of course its while the entire group is out trying to lure the walkers away.
the Wolves attack and they try to drive a truck through the walls. Further proving they have no interest in taking that place for themselves but destroying it and leaving it to the dead.
The truck is shot up, and the driver hits a burned down chapel and then the wall. Thankfully not taking the wall out but the dead driver lays on the horn which attracts a major portion of the horde toward Alexandria.
The Wolves are mostly taken out but Morgan chases a few off, he could have killed them but he now has a moral code not to kill…dont worry more on that soon.. So they run off out of Alexandria.
While the other group outside is trying to double back and figure out what is going on. Glenn, Michonne are racing to get their group back but get split up trying to lure the herd away. Michonne and her group get trapped in a pet store.
I appreciate the details in that store as you can see all the animals that were caged are now dead and still in their cages… no one thought to let them out or save them. Or eat them for that matter…
Meanwhile Glenn and Nicholas end up not being able to set the distraction and get trapped by the walkers on top of a dumpster. Nicholas loses his mind, thanks Glenn and then blows his brains out which pulls both them down and into the horde.
From here we think Glenn is killed, because naturally that's what would happen.. There is no way anyone is getting out of that situation. And yet later we find out Glenn makes it… Whatever.
I hate this scene because the reality is you wrote your characters in a corner, literally where there's no real chance they can make it out. The likelihood that Glenn doesn't even get bit or scratched by accident during that scene is nearly impossible.
His reaction too makes it seem as if he's being torn apart…
This is just a scene that makes you kinda roll your eyes or shrug a little. It feels cheesy, and really unnecessary.
Nicholas would have had a better character arch if he sacrificed himself to save Glenn in a much more believable manner.
And you could say maybe that's what he did, he shot himself so the walkers would go after him and Glenn could get away. But it did not seem to be his intent. He looks like he loses it for a solid minute and then just snaps and kills himself. Pulling Glenn down into the walkers with him..
Either way the scene happened, it shouldn't have happened, but here we are…
Flash over to Rick in the RV and guess what, those Wolves that Morgan let go just so happened to stumble on to Rick! What are the odds!
Rick fights one off and then shoots the rest through the thin walls of the RV. That large herd of zombies is now coming out of the woods toward him and he has to escape. But wouldn't you know it, The RV wont start… However will he escape!
Well we won't ever know.. As the show cuts away and eventually we just see Rick sprinting back toward Alexandria.
All of this ends with the dead just outside the walls and the group stuck inside. Meanwhile Daryl, Shasha and Abraham are still leading the rest away. Glenn is “dead” as far as we know and Michonne and the rest haven't made it back yet.
But just as you are getting settled in and enjoying The action and suspense of the wolf attack and the hordes coming down on Alexandria. We get something we never asked for or wanted.
Morgan's back backstory… Son of a bitch!
Why does The Walking dead do this? They so often break off from the main story to tell a sub plot or completely separate narrative. Something that usually could be done in segments of an episode but instead gets an entire episode dedicated to it.
So here we are seeing that Morgan has completely lost his mind. And for good reason. He lost his wife and then his son because he couldn't do what he had to in order to protect him.
This goes back to finding your monster.
You don't really have a choice in life. Either in the real world or this apocalyptic one. You either find it or the world will expose you and take advantage of you. Which will leave you broken and half the person you were.
So you better figure that out, and quickly.
Morgan didn't, and so he lost everything and that ended up taking his mind. And sure you could say well he got it back at the end of the episode… and its like.
No he didnt, sure hes stable now.. But he buried his inner monster, he didnt tame it.
And thats often what happens with so many people. Its Like ya that guy can step up and take charge and do what needs to be done and or say what has to be said. And some times they step up and fail. And that hurts, but they keep going but maybe they fail again and it hits them hard.
And psychologically they just fall apart, they no longer step up, they no longer say what must be said. If they're lucky they become passive, at worst they become completely useless and fall into a pit of despair.
And that's Morgan, he failed too many times, and it drove him into chaos, sure he found his inner monster but the monster had control of him. And once he was able to get a hold of it he threw it in a pit and closed it off. And now he cant make the tough decisions.
Thats why he let the Wolves go and locked them in a car… only for those wolves to come back and kill and innocent man. And then later attack Alexandria and then later attack Rick.
He has suppressed and regressed back into his former state, of not being able to do the tough thing out of fear of what it may do to him as a person.
But like I said, this new world either kills you or turns you into a monster….
However just because you get turned into a monster doesn't mean you can control it. The perfect example of this is Michonne in my estimation.
Rick is close but Rick has moments where he loses control, he's more like Shane at time.
Michonne is calm, collective, thural in her thinking, and tends to make the better decisions. She has emotions, and you can see the pain that she goes through but she can harness it and use it to push on.
This is what it means to find your inner monster and tame it. Use it when necessary, for good. For the good of others and yourself. And never in malevolence.
So Morgan hangs out with a psychoanalysis in the woods, learns to use a staff as a weapon and gets his sanity back all the while suppressing the monster that controlled him instead of taking control of it.
This episode wasn’t bad. It just wasn't necessary. And took away from the plot and the pace of the show. We didn't need it to understand that he was trying to save a Wolf, or maybe we did but an entire episode? Idk…
Also Achito’s code is great in theory but its gonna get you and others killed in this world.
The idea that All life is precious in a moral one and one that we should all live up to believe. As a christian I 100% believe this and that all life was created by God for a specific purpose.
But I also know there's evil, and where there's evil it must be casted out. Sometimes this means avoiding those people, other time it may mean defending yourself or someone else…
The idea that letting a person who wants to kill you go is the best choice? I don't know… for who? Them? Maybe for them, but not you! And not anyone you care about.
At the end of this episode it cuts back to Morgan talking to a Wolf in the Alexandria prison.
Just so happens to be the guy he let go the first time..
There's a saying: Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. Morgan should take heed to this.
Sadly he doesn't… and only leads to others being put at risk.
Sure the Wolf technically saves Denise later on but he's the reason she was placed in that position in the first place… so no you don't get a pass on that. Yet later on Morgan tries to use that as justification for letting him live, SEE HE CHANGED!
Ok maybe he did, but again had he been dead Denise would still be in the infirmary where its safe.
But instead you kept a wolf alive which almost got your only doctor killed…
There's no justification for this. I don't know if the show was intentionally trying to or if this was just Morgan's twisted point of view.
The overall theme of this show seems to be forgiveness and trusting. It's like everyone is hanging on like a loose tooth mentally and wants to just hold hands and sing coom-bi-ya with the folks that try to kill them.
As if this is the moral high road that we should all take. Even though it almost always comes back to bite them in the ass.
The themes is “sure Im dead, but at least I did the right thing”
And maybe so, maybe that is the right move. Maybe you don't punish your enemies or fight back, maybe you forgive those who literally just tried to kill you who then usually end up killing you or someone else.
I understand there's a balance and I believe that's what this season is trying to show. That there's a balance to the actions we take.
Sure you could take out all your enemies, and get safety, but you could also lose your sanity. And what's worse? Losing safety or sanity?
There is also a chance that could lead you down a path of malevolence and you end up being a governor, a wolf, or worse who we later meet, a Savior.
But this leads back to my previous point of finding your inner monster. Carol did this to some degree, but we find out later she loses it as well like Morgan did.
You step up and do what is right and what is necessary in the moment for the protection of the ones you love. You understand that sometimes that means you have to do some really bad stuff. But you come to terms with it, accept it, and know that it makes you stronger and not weaker. You never lose site that people are people and not all of them are bad. You can take the fight to your enemy and not lose your trust in humanity.
Its a balance, and one that few master. Even in the real world, this is a tough thing to accomplish.
But we all have to do it, and we can't ignore it. Because if you do you will figuratively or literally in the case of this show, die.
And that's the worst possible outcome.
After this we get some filler, things to help move the plot along. Maggie wants to set off to find Glenn and Aaron joins her. We find out she's pregnant here. That's cool! But remember we still think Glenn is dead right now.
From here we cut back to Daryl, Abraham, and Sasha. Unfortunately for them they have a run in with a group of bad dudes. We don't know much about them at this point other than its another group that shot at them.
They all get separated and Daryl is on his own in a burned down forest when he comes across three people that end up holding him hostage. It seems like they're on the run from someone and they think Daryl is with the group chasing them.
Daryl breaks free when one of the women collapses, but find outs shes as diabetic and he took her insulin.
Well Daryl, having a big heart goes back to them and gives them the medicine. At this point that group ends up finding them all. They realize Daryl isn't with them and for a short time befriend Daryl.
But it ends up with Daryl losing his bike, and crossbow as the last two of the three take it from them and drive off.
This is a great dose of reality, where sometimes doing the right thing or trying to do the right thing just gets you hurt or worse.
But you have to try, and Daryl wasn't wrong here. He had no idea the shit storm he stepped into and the desperation these people were in because of the group chasing them and how powerful that group is.
Well after all that in the next episode we find out Glenn is ALIVE!! Oh joy… and Enid just so happened to be right where he was at!
What are the odds of that?....
I hate this writing so much…
From here he proceeds to follow her and explain why she needs to stop running away from her problems or something… I dont know.
Either way he convinces her! Because of course he did. The shows invested too much into Enid just to let her walk away into the sunset.
They eventually get back to Alexandria to find it overrun.
To make matters worse the building the truck crashed into collapses and takes the wall out, letting all the walkers in.
The entire community retreats into their homes and tries to come up with a plan. Meanwhile Sasha, Abraham and Daryl have their first run in with a group called the Saviors. Pretty bad dudes on motorcycles.
Daryl ends up blowing them up with an RPG, pretty sick! Also Abraham found that RPG on a military humvee and a dead soldier. The US military does not use RPGs (rocket propelled grenades) , we use an AT4 rocket launcher or a SMAW Rocket launcher, a little more sophisticated weapons.
RPGs are cheaper, less accurate launchers that are typically seen being used by Afgan armies and others in the middle east.
Whatever, he found it.
Cutting back to Alexandria Rick, Michonne, Carl, and the rest of the group are held up in a house. Now last season ended with Rick killing Pete the drunk who beat his wife who Rick had the hots for.
They’re all held up in her house with her two sons. One who has a chip on their shoulder and wants revenge, especially now on Carl because I guess he thinks Carl took his GF Edin.
So this little punk pulls a glock out on Carl in the street prior to the attack, lucky for Carl the zombies got in. But now when Carl and them get in the house the kid tries it again and Carl then starts fighting, making a bunch of noise and breaking a window leading all the dead to them.
Now Carl could have either finished this kid off, or at the very least told Rick and the Kids mom what he did. But he didn't, he lied. And it's interesting to note, that this lines up with the theme of this season and a few last episodes where people are forgiving those who try to kill them as if its some moral high ground.
But in these situations you can't do this. Later on when the group tries to escape the dead and it goes sideways, the Kid pulls the gun again on Rick and Carl. Which ends up getting Carl shot and losing his eye.
And I found this scene interesting as it's kind of symbolic. Its actually as old as time and something that goes all the way back to the Egyptians. Which is if you take your eye off of evil you will lose it or more.
There's an old Egyptian story about one of their Gods, Horus. And Horus lost his eye in a tussle with Seth. And Seth is this Malevolent figure. And the idea is Horus was to have one eye over the kingdom, or all that is good but also his eye on evil, as to make sure it stays in check. This is also the story of the lion king, where Mufassa takes his eyes off the evil uncle and the evil uncle and him fight and he dies. Well Horus fights with Seth because he allows Seth to get unruly and he's taken out and in the process loses his eye.
ITs the idea that you should never take your eye off the evil that's around you. Or less it will consume you and kill you. Its also a little bit of the same in the Biblical story of Cain and Abel.
And that's what happens with Carl. literally, he lies to his father and in the process takes his eyes off of the malevolent kid who wants revenge. And well the kid takes his eye…
We must always keep one eye on the evil around us. And this translates to really just being self aware of your surroundings and the people around you. Knowing who around you is good for you and who isn't, who is trying to take or manipulate you. And not putting yourself in dangerous or vulnerable situations.
So Carl gets shot and loses his eye, the woman and both her kids are eaten by zombies. Rick for a moment is sad but he quickly gets over it as we will cover that in a moment.
The rush to the infirmary where Carl gets treated, Rick loses it and goes outside to fight all the dead which inspires everyone else to join. Somehow they manage to kill all these walkers and no one dies.
I mean there were hundreds of them… again the idea that they wouldn't of been overcome by that horde is a bit of a stretch. But luckily Daryl comes through and lights a massive fire with the fuel truck he stole and it helps thin the herd out.
Its weeks later now, the town is cleaned up, the wall is fixed and everyone seems to be doing pretty good. Even Carl is getting along just fine after his injury.
Rick and Daryl go out in search of goods where they come across a man who happens to look like Jesus and well is called Jesus.
As a Christian I don't like this, it's a little blasphemous. But his character is ok, he has some abilities to fight with hand to hand combat and beats up on Rick and Daryl a little and tricks them.
They eventually get him and take him back to Alexandria unconscious and place him in the holding cell.
He gets out and finds Rick's house. How did he know where Rick slept? Don't know..
Why doesnt this freak out Rick considering at any other time it would and there would be no talks… Dont know.
Guess Rick was feeling pretty lenient and chill that morning because he ended up sleeping with Michonne that night.
OH MY!... ya Rick got over that cute blonde woman pretty fast and is now hooking up with Michonne.
To be honest this relationship at first seemed a bit off, like I didn't really see a connection there. Or pick up on one. I tried to see if I missed it this time around from the time they met up until now. but still didn't pick up on it.
But overall I don’t hate it. I didn't see the story taking us there but, hey they're a thing now. Lucky for Jesus because Rick is usually pretty Tense and has an itchy trigger finger.
This is when we learn about “The Hilltop” community. Just one of many communities that Alexandria will eventually run into.
This episode is titled “the next world” which is a good title. As this ushers on a completely different chapter in the entire Walking Dead Saga.
No longer are you fighting with small groups of survivors and the dead. But now you’re engaging with massive communities and the Dead take a back seat to the story.
The old World is dead, the New world is here, and in it are communities trying to survive. Some are good, some are bad, and Rick and his group will have to navigate that.
The Hilltop is the first of that group. Jesus takes them all there to see the community and possibly work together with some sort of trade agreement.
During this they meet the leader but unfortunately that leader is attacked by his own people. They were sent to send him a message from the Saviors and a man called Negan.
This is where we are introduced to the second community, more like the mafia where they find you and extort you for protection. They want half of what you have, and they kill someone to show they are not playing. What's the protection from? Well then…
Just like a mob boss telling a store clerk he must pay for protection, otherwise lose his store, that protection money protects the store clerk from the mob…. that's Negan and the saviors.
Rick strikes a deal with the injured hilltop leader. That Rick and his people would take the saviors and Negan out in exchange for a portion of their food supply.
And so the group sets off with a plan.
They end up attacking an outpost, and killing everyone in it. However that was just an outpost and not the entire savior community or Negan.
Rick and their group, and the audience at this point think they accomplished their mission. But they didn't, they just started a war.
Daryl, Sasha, and Denise go on a supply run for medicine when Denise is killed by one of the saviors, the one that happened to take Daryl's crossbow and bike… From here we learn that the saviors and Negan are still alive and strong.
Meanwhile Carol decides she cant take being around people and fighting for them anymore and decides to bounce. Rick and Morgan go after her and try to find her.
Carol has a run in with a truck of Saviors on their way to Alexandria. She ends up killing all but one of them.
Rick heads back to Alexandria when they both realize the saviors are coming for them and Morgan sets off to find an injured Carol.
Carol is eventually found but escapes Morgan again only to be attacked by the last savior in the truck. He shoots her in the arm and leg so she bleeds out slowly, but ends up being killed by Morgan.
After that two people come up on them, one on a horse and the other who was looking for his horse that Morgan happened to find.
Back at Alexandria, Maggie suddenly starts having pains in her abdomen, related to her baby. Rick and the group decide to pack up and get her to the Hilltop where they have a doctor. Since Denise is now dead…
Folks there's certain people who dont go outside the wire… one of them is your Doctor…
Anyway the group sets off and meets a road block of saviors. They tell Rick they must hand over all they have and kneel, but Rick counters with giving him all they have. Obviously that does not happen.
And so Rick and the Group try to go another way, and hit another roadblock.
And then another, and another.
Until they decide to set out on foot to get Maggie to the hilltop.
It's night time but the saviors find them anyway in the woods and lead them to a trap. Where Eugine and the Rv are at.
From here they are told to kneel, Rick is clearly freaked out. This is a look we have not seen from Rick since probably season one. A look of “Oh shit, This may be the end”
Its interesting to note that Rick's crazy eyes come back but this time they have a touch of despair to them. Like he knows this time there's no way out.
From here we get to meet the man himself. Negan.
Now we don't learn too much about him yet, but from first impressions this is one bad dude. Negan is smart, calculated, and very much in control. He has a level of arrogance to him that's backed up by his intelligence.
The group is surrounded by hundreds of armed soldiers, all of which work for Negan.
Negan is essentially the Godfather, he's the mafia boss and has an iron fist over that area.
Negan explains what the terms will be, Alexandria will give half everything they have and if that's not enough they will give more. In other words the Saviors will take as much as they want. But since Rick and his Group killed so many of their own, Negan says there's a debt to pay. Someone will have to die….
He begins to go to each member trying to decide who he will take out.. He ends up doing a little eenie-meenie-miney-mo and then takes one of them out. We don't know who, as the camera angle is from the perspective of the character, but we hear everyone scream and the camera goes black and the season ends.
I sat back and pondered for a bit about all this and wondered if this situation could have been avoided.
For some reason I had the idea that it was the arrogance of Rick that led to this war but after rewatching the season I don't think that's the case.
Sure Rick is a bit arrogant and very confident that his group can handle the saviors. And after all they have been through he has some reason to believe that.
But we also see what the Saviors have done to hilltop, the three people Daryl met, and what the bikers were gonna do to Daryl, Sasha, and Abraham. These arent good people and it would have been only a matter of time before Negan found them and extorted them.
The reality is the Saviors are a pretty powerful group with a ton of resources and manpower. The blockades at every road proved that and showed that they have deep knowledge of the local terrain and its roads.
Rick has hands full here, and his group is not large enough or capable enough to take on the Saviors alone. And Negan is about to thin herd out a little too, so we shall see how this goes down in the next season.
//
Intro/outro Song
Big Rock License
Big Rock by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3436-big-rock
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Intro Song
Theme to the Walking Dead
by Bear McCreary
The original TV soundtrack to The Walking Dead
The Walking Dead Part 5
Intro:
Season four ended with the group trapped in a train car at Terminus with their fate unknown.
Season five begins with a “Then” Flashback that offers us a little back story into the Terminus folks. But its pretty vague.
It then cuts to now, and shows the group inside the train car, turning belts into weapons and trying to find anything else they can to fight back.
Rick, Darrel, Glen and Bob are all pulled out from the train car and taken away. This is where we learn about the horrors of Terminus and who these people really are.
To sum it up they're cannibals and are prepping Rick and the others for the butcher.
Its a pretty graphic scene as we see a familiar face at the troth with rick. The young kid that he and Carol came across in the past season. He's unfortunately the first to be killed.
It's pretty clear there's not a lot of hope here as the Terminus butchers make their way down the line.
This scene is brutal but also pretty sad. I can imagine the horror and fear these people are going through as they get hit with a bat and their throats cut. What's worse is you have to watch a few others first knowing that's your fate. Not a way I would want to go…
But As luck would have it Garret walks in just before Glenn gets the bat. Bob tries to reason with him but no luck. Rick threatens Garret and tells him about the bag of weapons and which one he's gonna personally kill him with.
Again, it seems as if all hope is lost but wouldn't you have it just in the nick of time there's an explosion! Lucky for Rick because this buys him a little time to try and break free.
Garret leaves the Butchers to go investigate, but they begin to panic. One tries to convince the other to leave and go investigate as well while they other says that they need to get their job of butchering done.
The show eventually cuts away to Carol and Tyresse and gives us a little of their backstory. We find out the explosion is Carol and she is attempting to rescue the group.
Meanwhile Tyrese hangs back with Ricks baby and a captured guy from Terminus. Who begins to try and get in Tyrese's head.
Its interesting to note that he say “you're not the one who lives here, because you save babies”
And hes right, this is the new world and its hell, chaos, unkind, and certainly not fair. It is actively trying to kill you and punish you at every turn. It preys on the weak and makes monsters out the brave.
Its a bit foreshadowing for Tyrese's character.
Well needless to say Tyrese beats the ever living shit out this guy after he threatens to kill Rick's baby. And that's the end of that.. Or so we think. More on that later.
Carol manages to breach the compound along with a ton of walkers, she's clever and blends in with them and that's how she’s able to get in unnoticed and start picking off Terminus soldiers.
Rick Breaks free just in time! And of course none of the main characters die in this scene, only people we dont know or care about. They manage to escape.
Generally I am ok with it because the scene had plenty of tension that made you believe Glenn was gonna get the bat to the head and the knife. But I will say Placing Bob at the very end was a mistake on the writer's part. It literally tells us that no one here is probably going to die.
Bob is a lesser character than Glenn and Certainly a lesser character than Rick and Daryl and yet he's at the very end of the Troth. For most viewers this scene set up would go unnoticed but I picked up on it.
Bob should have been where Glenn was, then Glenn, Daryl And Rick. We know the show won't kill off Rick but the other characters are not necessarily safe. Certainly not Bob. Bob is barely a B list character at this point.
But anyway we see Rick take out one of the Butchers and then promptly the other. I like what Rick says here “leave them, let them turn”. In other words they're not even good enough to put down, let them roam this world as a walker… Almost like eternal damnation.
So the group fights their way out of Terminus and sees some of the horrors of that place, like bodies on meat hooks. Its pretty awful.
I like the casting of Garret and the other Terminus folks. They are all very innocent looking people, Garret would not strike much fear in anyone at first glance. But the reality is hes a pretty evil dude.
If I had to deal with him or the Governor, I would probably pick the Governor.
Garret is literally a wolf in sheep's clothing, whereas the governor is just the wolf appealing to your senses. Sure The wolf is lying and will kill you, but at least you know it's a wolf.
Garret looks like a guy that will serve you a double mocha latte with foam at a starbucks…not a guy that's gonna serve you on a dinner plate.
It's interesting to note how the facial expressions in people change this season too. Garrett's mother seems harmless too but when Carol has her on the ground and she's pleading her case you can see the insanity in her eyes.
I don't know if that was intentional but well done!
The group eventually escapes and meets back up in the woods where rick buried the guns.
I genuinely have few complaints about the Terminus scene.
Yes they are a bit extreme, however all the people of Terminus aren't exactly over the top characters. They come across as genuinely normal people who lost their minds after being attacked.
Their story isnt too hard to believe. However I will criticize it because I dont really know how you go from being good people that takes everyone in to eating people all because of a group of really bad dudes beat your men up and raped your women.
See I get the idea of being untrustworthy, angry, bitter, and to the point where you just take everyone out that comes near you. But eating people? Not sure that really lines up.
But nonetheless its not unbelievable to think you would run into cannibals in an apocalyptic future.
Terminus serves as a breaking point for Rick. You see really quickly the effect it has on his psyche. And no wonder, he and his group have been through hell since leaving the rock quarry. Notice I did not say Hershel's farm…
The Farm was a false sense of security, almost like a guy helping you up only to push you back down..
They have been on the run, and living in chaos since episode one. This world picks Rick up for a brief moment only to slam him back down before he can ever catch his breath.
That's almost worse than just surviving. Thinking you finally found a place to live and make a life, only to lose. And for the record he's lost that twice now. First the farm, and then the prison.
Ricks hanging on like a loose tooth.
And we see this promptly after Terminus.
Rick and their group find a man screaming on a rock. An interesting character by the name of Gabriel. A priest..
Go figure this shows based in Georgia, the land of a thousand Baptist churches and they manage to find an episcopal priest in the middle of nowhere…
Whatever..
Anyway Gabriel is relieved they saved him but Rick doesn't trust him. A clear indication that Rick is losing his faith in people, and for good reason! I mean he almost turned into a steak dinner..
Also noticed over the next episodes Rick appears to be less gentle and more crazy. His beard is ragged, his eyes too look a bit intense at all times. I don't know if he intentionally did that or if it just worked out that way.
Tom Hardy actually worked with an acting coach on using your eyes more when acting when he played the part as Bane in the Dark Knight Rises. Because Tom had a mask on the entire time it would be difficult to read emotions while he spoke. With his training he was able to amplify his eye and brow movements to make up for that. And it works.
Rick looks like hes losing his damn mind. The Dragon of chaos is about to eat him… and he will fall victim like those before him and become the malevolent tyrant.
At this point the group is in limbo, just hanging out at the church and figuring out their next plan.
Abraham is trying to convince everyone to take the church bus and go to Washington DC and complete their Mission… haha ya that's come up again.
The group sets off for food a local food bank that Gabriel's Church headed up. There we find out a little bit of Gabriel's rocky past and unfortunately Bob gets bit. He doesn't tell anyone.
Instead he wanders off, I guess to die.. But gets apprehended by Garret and the few survivors of Terminus.
From there Bob awakens to them eating his leg… he laughs and tells them they're eating tainted meat. That is when we find out Bob is bitten.
OH NO! Not Bob…
I actually liked Bob, I felt he was underused but I did enjoy this scene where he laughs at them for eating his infected flesh.
We also got to learn just how evil Garet really is. Dudes a mess.. And sorry I dont care if some one raped your mom, you dont start eating people. At the very least its not a justifiable reason to, which is what he's trying to lead on with.
Anway Garret and his group end up getting slaughtered brutally by Rick and the others in Gabriel's Church. This freaks a lot of people out, especially Gabriel. And thats the official end of Terminus…
Again a summary at best, truth be told with the way the seasons are being written and how much plays out. This special would be better suited for a review of each episode as it aired.
But we are too far past that now. BUT BE SURE TO CHECK UP ON MY LAST OF US REVIEWS.
Anyway…
From here we move on to Beth's story… we find out what happened to her and where she went.
She ends up back in Atlanta. With a group of Police officers and a doctor who are taking people in at Grady Hospital.
They Are being led by a female police officer who really doesnt have it all together. Shes a control freak, manipulative, and is happy to gas light everyone there to maintain power.
She Attempts to gas light Beth frequently, but Beth just goes along with it, and knows shes full of shit.
During all this we meet Noah, and he tries to help Beth escape with him. Now he gets away but Beth doesn't. No worries as this just garners more respect from the leader… dodged that bullet Beth!
Needless to say I am not a massive fan of these characters, or this part of the season. First off all they’re operating power hungry hospital equipment off batteries? In a city that was so overrun that the group wouldn't dare go back in unless absolutely necessary? Years after the incident? What's charging these batteries?
Not to mention all the cops are just bad guys, the cliche power hungry to whatever they want attitude… the idea that this place manages to run at all is mind boggling.
We are made to believe that these cops just rape women, beat men, and take advantage of those who they save with no uprising? No disorder?
Societies are fragile things, especially small communities trying to survive an apocalypse. There should have been a mutiny long ago…
Why the hell did the woman kill herself in the leader's office? Why didn't she just hide there and take her out… or take out the cop that was raping her? I get it you tried to escape, and couldn't. So the next logical step is to just off yourself as some message to the cops?
Whatever…
The reality is this is filler, we get a lot of nothing and no payoff. Noah ends up being the only survivor as Beth needlessly tries to kill the Female cop and is shot in the head.
The story is not very interesting and adds nothing to the plot. Noah isnt going to be a character that the show invests in, so we go through all that just to have a B list character to kill later on?
I would have rather had Beth alive than Noah… Beth is a far more developed character and more interesting. She was built up quite a bit last season when she was lost with Daryl.
I'm not mad that she was killed off, its ok and helped set the stage later on. But The whole hospital and cop situation felt like a waste of time… nothing of real substance.
Ya we get to see Rick lose it more, He shoots the cop and tells him to shut up. Rick is in full monster mode, Rick is going full Shane.
So Beth dies, Noah’s with the group.
During all this we get cut aways to Glen, Maggie, Roseta, Eugene, and Abraham. They set off to get Eugene to Washington DC.
At a certain point the mission becomes helpless when they come across a massive horde of zombies that is blocking their path. Abraham insists they push through it, while others say it isn't safe.
Eventually this causes Eugenne to crack and fess up that hes full of it. Abraham promptly beats his ass and almost kills him.
WOW WE ARE SO SHOCKED EUGENE WAS LYING… ugh..
This entire situation makes every character in the Walking Dead look like complete incompetent idiots. At first it was just Abrahama being made to look dumb, just a dumb soldier following orders blindly because that’s what we all do… just useful idiots!...
But soon after all the characters believed this nonsense. And Im sorry but the writers did a horrible job trying to get Glenn to pry out the information.
Because Eugene's response was everything except one… He never really outlines a real plan, and if anything it sounds more like he wants to nuke the walkers more than anything else.
I just hate it.. Its terrible and didn't need to be in the script.
Eugene's lie would have been better suited to say that he works with the genome project, and was based here in Georgia when this whole thing kicked off. He lost communication with the DC headquarters when his place fell to the dead. BUT they have the facilities, and wherewith all to keep people safe in DC so we need to go there… They will have the Cure and the infrastructure to keep us safe.
Boom, a believable lie…
Anyway yes that's picky I know but the entire thing was cheesy and made everyone look really stupid.
Well.. needless to say they head back to the church. Meet up with the group and head to Atlanta to get Beth.
Maggie finds out Beth didn't make it and now all is lost.
The group decides to take Noah to his family, where he last heard they had a community in place that was safe.
Well… it's gone, and Noah's family is dead.
Tyrese decides to watch Noah as the others look around. When Noah gets a wild hair to go to his house. Tyrese being the push over he follows after him.
Sadly this is where Tyrese dies… We get to go through a nice scene with old characters popping up during his hallucinations. We get to see the Governor again, such a great villain…
Like I said before Tyrese was not cut out for this world, he did not adapt and find his inner monster, not until it was too late. Eventually the new world would get him, and it did here.
Rick tries to save him but it doesn't work.
With nothing else to do and now two people lost, Beth and Tyrese. The group decides to head to DC anyway in hopes that there may be something there after all.
They go as far as they can until their cars break down or run out of gas.
From here they just wander, barely making it. Many of them are sad about the death of Beth and Tyresse. Clinging on to what little hope they may have left.
What we see is a group much like Rick, barely hanging on.
But alas after a few days of wandering in the heat rainfall comes but in the form of a dangerous storm.
The cruel world quenches their thirst but does it with a severe storm.
So Daryl leads them to shelter and they hunker down while the rainfall comes and the thunder rolls over the area.
Later that evening the Storm gets worse, and Daryl looks out the front doors and sees a horde of zombies approaching the barn. not before long the group is pushing against the horde trying to keep them out.
The significance of this scene cant be understated. Its a giant metaphor for their situation. They Are caught in a storm and trying to keep what is a chaotic world out. And you see this play out with the cinematography. I love this scene and what it represents.
Then cut to morning… all is calm and maggie walks out with Sasha and you see the sunrise in the distance and the dead spread about covered in toppled trees.
The sunrise and calm represents a new beginning, which is what the group is about to embark on. Because as Maggie and Sasha sit there and look at the sunrise a person appears.
Now this is where we really get to see Rick and all his craziness. The next several episodes will show just how far gone the group was getting and maybe too far gone.
Rick does not trust this strange one bit, who claims to have a community thats safe.
Naturally he doesn't, I know I wouldn't… They were betrayed and almost killed by Terminus.
So they devise a plan to find out, and one that would protect the group as much as possible.
During this, we see the divide in the group. Many are hesitant to go, or trust Aaron the man that found them. While others are ready to go and follow him, hopeful that hes telling the truth.
Both sides are right here. They need hope, they need something to fall back to and survive however most people have not been very trustworthy.
Eventually their plan fails, and almost gets Rick and Aaron killed. They see a flare go up and follow it. Finding the others held up in a building with Aarons….well… lover.
Aaron is worried about him as he broke his ankle. And so refuses to move anymore that night. But this shows Rick and the Others that Aaron may just be telling the truth about his community.
And so cut to it, they finally arrive at Alexandria. They can hear kids playing on the other side of the walls, and all seems well.
But the group finds it difficult to settle in.
The next episodes will be all about that.
First trying to see if they can make sense of it all, and see if this place really is friendly.
When they do that, then they gotta figure out how they fit in, or if they can handle the peace and calm.
After All they have never experienced a place like this, running water, electricity, plenty of food, actual houses with beds in them and furniture.
Its almost like the outside world doesn't exist….
And this is a huge problem… Because Rick and his group have a serious case of PTSD. And what I love so much about these episodes is it outlines very well how trauma affects people differently.
You have some like Sasha, she's like a soldier back from the war front. He’s home now in peace, but in his mind he's still at war. He should be settling in, taking comfort in his bed, with food, and family.. With that peace. But instead its not there. He can't understand it or how to deal with it. He can't turn off being a warrior…
Then there's someone like Machonne who's ready to hang up the sword, literally. And settle in. She's coping just fine and getting used to this peace.
And this is what you see with soldiers and PTSD so often, four men from the same platoon come back and each will be in a different head space. React differently to being home and there's no real rhyme or reason as to why.
Sasha has to be the worst of them all.. She's actively wandering off to hunt the dead and get involved in the shit. Its sad really, because this moment is really the only moment of peace anyone in this group is going to get.
Alexandria represents a last bit of the old world, and in an extreme way. These people are probably more naive than Rick's group during season one… that's something to really think about.
They have no idea what the new world is, none.. They think they know. Much like someone watching a news program about another country and its issues, you think you know but you really dont… you have to go there and find out the truth.
Rick has been in that world, he knows the reality, and he understands how vulnerable this place is. He also understands how precious of a place it is.
During all this the group has infighting with others in Alexandria.
This isn't helped when Gabriel gets a wild hair and decides to tell their leader that the group is actually a bunch of really bad people who have done awful things and dont deserve this place.
I don't understand this scene… not that it doesn't add tension between the two groups but it doesn't make sense that Gabriel would do this. He knows how bad the outside world is, hes seen it and the group has rescued him on several occasions.
Maybe he's subconsciously mad that the group has what it takes to protect their own and he doesn't, which is why his entire congregation was killed in the event. He is a coward, and because of that people died and he is pretty torn up over it. He feels he's being punished or will be punished by God for his behavior.
He furthers his cowardice by going to the leader of Alexandria and telling her the group is evil and shouldnt be there…
But it still seems off and out of place to me for him to do that…
Glenn learns the hard way that Alexandria is not prepared to take on this new world, as they sadly lose Noah because of their cowardice.
Ya Noah dies in the most extreme way possible… about the only thing he lends to the entire show sadly. Again all that crap at the hospital just for this? What a waste of a character and our time…
Rick eventually gets involved with a woman and her abusive husband which leads to a brawl out in the streets and Rick spouting off his mouth about how that community isn't safe. This doesn't help his group's case after what Gabriel said.
It's also interesting to note how much he is acting like Shane in this scene. And how I said in episode two of this special that everyone will eventually be Shane to a degree. Rick goes full send here.
Shane was never really a bad guy, he was right, he was just too early… and couldn't get control over himself. What about Rick? Will he? After all Rick has lost his moral compass that was Herschel. We are starting to see people like Machonne appeal to Rick but its not the same, even Rick goes behind many of the groups back to sneak out guns just in case… much like Shane would have done.
Rick needs a moral compass or he will lose his way..
And so Rick is locked up and the husband is placed in a different house.
The community decides to meet up to decide if Rick and the group should be allowed to stay.
Prior to this Gabriel wanders out to die but again being a coward can't go through with it. He comes back and doesn’t close the gate properly behind him, allowing walkers to get in.
Rick discovers this, and is searching for them while the community is deciding his fate.
He manages to kill them and bring one to the meeting, exposing how vulnerable they really are.
The abusive husband shows up with Machonne’s sword yelling that Rick is the problem and isn't one of them, clearly drunk or something. He accidentally kills the Leader's husband by cutting his throat.
Rick looks on when the leader tells him to “do it’ and he shoots the abusive husband, killing him. Only to see Daryl, Aaron oh and MORGAN looking on in surprise.
And thats the summary of Season five.
What a roller coaster ride it was. We got introduced to new characters and lost some existing ones.
something to point out at this point in time there's only 5 from the original group left. Rick, Carl, Daryl and Carol. Everyone else is dead… Now Morgan is still alive too but he wasn't with the original group at the Quarry.
Only the strong survive and even then they either live long enough to die a hero or become the villain..
Wrap up.
//
Intro/outro
Big Rock License
Big Rock by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3436-big-rock
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
//
Walking Dead Main Theme
The Walking Dead
By Bear McCreary
So, Lets talk about NSNG
It has been officially now, one year and three months of doing NSNG.
So I think It is time for an update and actually a little chat about my feelings toward all this.
Go over Your weight and condition when you started in October of 2021.
Now I am currently at 168 Ibs and holding. The lowest my weight has been since on the diet was 165. My blood pressure is way down, and my resting BPM when I last checked was about 70.
My energy levels are consistent, I do not get tired in the middle of the day or that 2:30 feeling.
I also kicked coffee back in November, not because I wanted to but It was upsetting my stomach out of nowhere for some reason. I could probably go back to drinking it but honestly I don't feel that I need it or really miss it. One less thing to be addicted to.
Now I have done NSNG for well over a year but I have since made changes to the diet and I want to cover those now.
Since I have started my diet and health journey I have sought to learn as much as I could about food, how it affects the body and what we can do to live better lives.
I strongly believe that we have been misled or lied to about our diets and what is considered healthy and unhealthy.
I believe that most if not all diseases, ailments, and other health related issues start in the kitchen. And Can be reversed with proper nutrition…
So what are the things that I have learned and experienced first hand since changing the way I eat.
First lets explain NSNG for those of you who have not heard about it before. If you want an in depth rundown Please go back and listen to the episode “Answering Questions about NSNG”.
For a quick run down NSNG is “No Sugar No Grains”
That means absolutely no sugar, including fruit. And Nothing grain related like pasta or breads.
This also includes avoiding things like seed oils that are extremely bad for us. I did an episode on that as well Title “Why Seed Oils are Killing you”. I strongly recommend you listen to it.
Since doing that episode I have learned a lot more about the Effects of seed oils.
For instance, it can chemically alter your brain in such a way that it can not communicate properly among receptors. Primarily in the ones that handle hormone production.
And since we know now that weight loss and weight gain is primarily all about hormones this is a big issue.
One of the communicators it cuts off or blocks is the ability for your brain to release the hormone ghrelin, to tell you when you’re full. The feeling you get when your full isnt your stomach filling with food, or your stomach shrinking. That is a hormonal function that releases the sensation of satiety.
Ever wonder why you can eat an entire bag of doritos but not more than one ribeye steak? This is why… among a few other reasons too but that is a big one.
So basically NSNG is no sugars, no grains, and no processed foods.
I did this diet strictly for almost a year but Made a few changes around September of last year.
So what did I change and why did I change it?
Did NSNG not work?
Did it cause me to be unhealthy?
Did I suffer a health related injury from this diet?
The answer to all of that is no…
The Diet worked great, and in fact the longer I did the diet the easier it was for me to keep going.
By the summer, I had no desire to eat any of the foods that I usually would go nuts over.
Things such as cakes, cookies, other sweets. I didn't miss pasta or bread, I could walk by the bakery at the Grocery store, smile and just keep going with no urges or cravings at all.
The fact is my body had rid itself of the necessity to burn Carbs and sugar for energy. I just didn't need it anymore.
It was a pretty awesome moment. And one that I hope everyone can enjoy too. Its a liberating feeling when you no longer crave certain foods or feel the need to have something sweet after a meal like I did.
I actually found myself genuinely craving things like steak, or other red meat. Much like you may crave a midnight snack, like something salty or sweet. By about mid day I would get the hankering for a nice ribeye or porterhouse.
And so that leads me to this. Through my time I started to do more research. I really wanted to hone in on how to optimize my diet and live the best life I could.
I started learning about the Carnivore Diet. And thats when I began to make changes. Subtle ones, nothing major.
What I started to do was to lessen my priority on veggies. As I learned about how many vegetables that we eat have plant defense chemicals in them to keep us from eating them.
Now these can do many things and effect everyone differently. Some may just give you gas, or indigestion. Others could cause you to have autoimmune flare ups like eczema.
The truth is with veggies there's no one answer that fits all. I still eat them on occasion but I just dont prioritize them like I used to.
What I do Is I listen to my body, if I have negative reactions to those vegetables than I avoid them. What I generally eat without issue is Zucchini, Cauliflower, and Sweet potatoes. I dont do too bad with mushrooms either, however mushrooms have a chemical that can block your body from absorbing nutrients.
So where do I get my vitamins and nutrients you ask!? I must be tired, and miserable..
The answer is simple. Organs.
Now I know what you're thinking GROSS!!!
I will admit I do not eat organs, at least not yet. I did buy some liver today from the grocery store so I will have some tomorrow.
I get my organs in desiccated form, from a company called Heart and Soil. It allowes me to get all the benefits of eating Organ meat but in a simple capsule. It is 100% natural and contains no synthetic vitamins like you get from things like “one a day” or “Natures made” vitamins.
That means its 100% Bioavailable nutrients in those capsules.
And so that is how I keep up with my nutrients. And also keep in mind too that meat has tons of bioavailable nutrients as well, not just protein and fat.
With that I can say I am thriving! And I strongly recommend you add Organs to your diet either in desiccated form or normal fresh organs like liver, and heart.
So that was a change I made over the summer. The reason why I added Organs was not to replace veggies. Not at first.
I actually did this because I was experiencing Brain fog. Now this brain fog was off an on well before I started my diet. So I knew it was NSNG doing it, per say…
But My Chiropractor recommended I take organs because I may be lacking in some key nutrients on my restrictive diet. And chances are I was lacking before the diet…
Once I started taking Heart and soils beef organs supplement. I started to notice a difference after about a week. And since then the fog was gone and I felt so much better.
The interesting thing was I was taking a multivitamin already, and honestly it just wasnt doing anything.
As always I would start them, feel better for about a week and then go back to feeling the same way.
The reason is because
One, most over the counter vitamins have a ton of nasty fillers. Some have silica in them!
And two, its a synthetic and not natural. And studies are starting to show that our bodies do not absorb synthetic vitamins in the same way they do from natural foods. And it doesn't always absorb them in the same amount each time you take them, so it could be that you don't take in very much at all, or any at all..
So it was no wonder I was having no luck with those things.
But with the Beef Organs supplement, its all natural, and my body can absorb it like I just ate a plateful of Beef Organs…
The next change came later, around September. This one was big in that it technically took me off NSNG.
I started developing awful foot cramps over the course of the year. Now it was not all the time and often it was when I went to bed at night. My toes would just lock up… it was crappy.
Now I drank plenty of water and always made sure to get my electrolytes but didnt seem to work.
That's when I learned about the benefits of a low carb intake.
What is this…
I have learned that Its good to take in a small amount of Carbohydrates.
These carbs help with many functions including kidney function that allows our kidneys to get the electrolytes to key muscles and optimize their performance.
It also helps regulate our Insulin Sensitivity. Not to be confused with Insulin Resistance.
Insulin sensitivity is when your Liver produces insulin whenever you take in sugar. Its a natural process and one that should be celebrated. It means you're healthy.
Does this insulin function come with blood sugar spikes that result in being tired, cranking, or other irregularities? No… Not if its performing as it should and you're not over eating Carbs.
So what carbs should you eat? What do I recommend?
Well from my research the best carbs are fruit, and Raw Honey. Period. Dairy is a great one too but you may be sensitive to it, however you may want to try Raw dairy as it has been shown to go over better for people with a lactose intolerance. Something about bacteria and enzymes in the raw milk that are killed when its pasteurized leaving some other bad enzymes lingering that create the gut issues.
But David fruit has sugar, and HONEY THATS PURE SUGAR YOU WILL UNDO EVERYTHING YOU HAVE DONE OVER THE LAST YEAR!
I mean Raw honey!? You might as well drink a coke!
That's what I thought… Told myself no way! But I learned that I was wrong.
But I actually started with Raw honey first and started phasing it in to my diet and here is why.
Clinical Trials have shown that Raw unprocessed honey reduces plasma glucose levels, C-reactive proteins , Homocystiene, and blood lipid levels in healthy, Diabetic, and hyperlipidemia subjects in direct comparison to dextrose an sucrose.
In this trial, patients with hyperlipidemia (increased triglycerides) the natural honey lowered the triglycerides while the ARtificial honey increased them.
Natural honey also lowered LDL-C while the artificial honey increased it.
In diabetic patients honey caused a lower rise of plasma glucose than dextrose. And reduced blood lipids, homocystiene and C-reactive proteins in these diabetic patients.
So what does this show?
Honey had a positive effect on normal and diabetic patients compared to sugar and fructose. And much midler negative effects in diabetic patients.
Honey is high in nitric oxide metabolites, especially when it is raw and unfiltered.
Nitric oxide metabolites deficiency may play a role in histamine responses and allergies, inflammation, and influence metabolic function. And the nitric oxide content may be one of the reasons why it functions differently than pure sucrose when consumed.
With this said, how much honey do I consume? I usually eat about a spoonful or so a day. It really depends on what I am doing. If I know I am gonna have a light day and not be on my feet (I'm a contractor) then I may just skip it that day or do a small spoonful. Some days I do two… it all depends but that's about the max.
Keep in mind you can overdo it with Honey, so just go easy with it. No more than two to three tablespoons a day.
And the next thing I began to add into my diet was fruit. Now I will admit I dont eat fruit all that often but I now prioritize fruit over veggies every time. In other words If there is fruit tray and a veggie tray in front of me, I am not touching the veggies.
Why this change? Well the cramps for one and Because I needed to add some Carbs back into my diet.
I believe the healthiest and least toxic carbohydrate is fruit because it contains the least amount of plant based toxins.
Why? Because this is the part of the plant it wants you to eat.
Plants cant run away from us, and yes they are a living thing (Sorry vegans)... so they have developed ways to keep animals and humans from wiping them out. And thats defense chemicals.
Fruit is different because this is how the plant reproduces. It wants you to take it and eat it and crap it out somewhere so the seeds germinate. Thats what happens when animals eat them.. And so the cycle continues.
No wonder as we see fruit with its bright colors and sweet flavors that are pleasing to our taste buds… its practically screaming at us to eat it.
Ever notice how so many veggies are bitter and need something added to make them palatable? I mean raw kale all alone? Good luck with that. Sure you can eat it but it tastes awful.
Fruit, well it's ready as is… and its loaded with tons of vitamins and nutrients that are generally more bioavailable than some veggies. Because some veggies will block your bodies ability to absorb them.
So EAT FRUIT, eat honey, take joy when your liver produces the necessary insulin for it and your kidneys function as needed to give you strong and healthy muscles.
But what about being fat adaptive and ketosis, and running on FAT!!
I still do…
I havent changed that I prioritize fat and protein. I still eat full fat foods often.
Have I gained weight? No…
Have I lost the ability to go without eating for long periods of time. No, In Fact the other day I went most of the day without eating and was fine.
That is because Fruit and Honey are not the same as bread, or candy, or coke, it just isnt.
Now with this said you could overeat fruit too just like honey. But its difficult to do. The beauty of Fruit causes satiety pretty quickly.
In other words if you get a sugar craving, a piece of fruit will nip that quickly and the fiber helps to make you feel full.
So yes I am no longer 100% NSNG, I am now a cross between Carnivore and NSNG. Because I find it works best for me.
I know a few people who are still strictly NSNG and are doing great and did not experience the cramping like I did. And good for them! I say stay the course.
I believe ketosis and NSNG is a great tool, something that will definitely work for everyone.
Its the perfect diet to optimally lose weight and keep the weight off, its the best diet to reverse type two diabetes, fatty liver disease, and many other metabolic syndromes.
I dont believe you have to be KETO to thrive, I do believe its a useful tool.
That said, if you are starting this journey and you need to lose weight or have to reverse your diabetes, should you eat fruit and honey?
The answer is no.
While you are starting you should avoid all sugars.
NSNG is the fastest and most efficient way to reverse these issues and eating fruit at the beginning stage could slow the process up.
This is what I tell everyone.
Figure out what it is you want to lose or achieve.
If its 20 ibs or 300 ibs or to simply get healthy… whatever it is figure that out.
Then go full NSNG, 30 days, 60 days, a year…
I have read reports of women taking the longest to reverse their carb and sugar dependency, as long as four months, where others takes two weeks.
So to say that you should just do it for 30 days, does not really cut it.
Look, this isnt temporary
This isn't something you do for a little while and go back to eating hoe hoes and mcdonalds on the regular.
This is a lifestyle change, its why I don't like to say I am on a Diet.
I been eating this way for over a year, safe to say this is permanent.
And you should look at it that way too.
Set your goals and attack them.
Once you hit your goals then you can decide to add fruit and Raw honey to your diet. You may find no interest to do so. OR you may be like me and find it helps with your performance.
And of course once you hit those markers. You can have the occasional cookie, or date night at a nice italian restaurant. Its okay. And you wont blow up or reverse everything you did.
I have a confession, I went off diet between christmas and new years.. A whole week of eating whatever I want. And I did…
I actually found it fascinating to see the effect it had on my body and what all happened.
My skin dried out, and got itchy, My gut went haywire and I became irregular, just to name a few things.
Needless to say, I went back on diet promptly on January 1st. And I will admit it was hard… even for me.
I been good the rest of the month, but I did start to develop cravings again which sucked.
That being said, be careful when you cheat, be real with yourself and if you know you will fall off the wagon, just don't do it.
So thats the update!
I eat Fruit, and Honey. I limit veggies to only a few that I know don't really mess me up. And as I said in past episodes I prioritized red meat over every other type of meat.
Doing this I am thriving. My weight is great and my overall health is so much better. Not to mention that the anxiety I was suffering with is finally gone. Yup, Your diet has a massive effect on your mood and your mental health.
I will probably do a seperate show on that because I believe its important. And deserves a decent amount of attention.
And yes I know a few people will be smiling because I was so anti fruit for most of this diet and yes I was wrong about it.
But I can admit that I was wrong. I am ok with that. This is more than just doing a diet and losing weight for me. This is a journey to learn and maximize my health.
This means I will grow, and continue to research, and that may lead to me changing opinions. But I will say I did not mention the fruit and honey until I tried it myself for a few months. I wanted to make sure I saw all and any changes from this addition. Nothing changed for me except I lost the cramps, better muscle health and healing, and a massive balance in hormones and mood.
So I will always try my best to give the best advice, and any advice I give on my program will be something I actually do or have done. I will never lie, cheat or manipulate the facts for an agenda. The reality is if I find out a month from now that NSNG will actually kill us, I will tell you and jump off the train. But so far thankfully its been nothing but good outcomes.
Wrap up.
///
Intro/outro song
Big Rock License
Big Rock by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3436-big-rock
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Other intro songs:
Blackened
by Metallica
The Walking Dead Part 4
Notes:
Intro:
Season four picks up some time later after the war with the Governor. From the opening scene we see there are many people all living under the roof of the prison.
There's a farm now, with crops and livestock and everyone seems to be thriving.
The title of the episode is “30 days without incident” and that's clearly the case here.
Everyone seems to be getting along fine.
And In fact the answer to our question after season two, will Rick become the Malevolent Tyrant when he finds his inner monster. His will to lead and survive.
The answer is no. He did not. And in fact it could be said he showed that hes not only a leader, from the last season but a great leader after this episode.
The reason I say that is because Rick willfully relinquishes his authority as a leader, and has the group form a council to make decisions.
The true sign of any good leader is one who is willing to step aside and let someone else take over. They don't cling to power or seek to gain more of it.
This is also indicative that the group has been without real problems for some time, they have established a sort of democracy within the prison. But that democracy will be tested very soon.
The first several episodes of season four deal with an unexpected virus that is going around the prison and causing people to die.
Its full blown panic mode, one that immediately pulls Rick out of retirement from being a leader. He has to step up and work with Herschel to make decisions on how to save the people from this infection.
I actually really like these first few episodes because it touches on something that most shows really wouldn’t. And its because most people don't think about this sort of thing happening.
The reality is now that there's no modern medicine, water treatment plants, soap, and other sanitary functions that we are used to. People would be getting rather sick and often in the later months and years in the apocalypse.
Add all this to being cramped in a dark, concrete prison with little to no ventilation, and people will start to spread their germs like wildfire.
Its the first time we really see the group realize they need medicine for things beyond cuts and bruises.
So Herschel starts a quarantined area to start treating the sick. It becomes very dangerous as people start to die in their cells and then change to walkers.
The group sets off to find meds at a local college and Herschel and Rick do all they can to stop the containment.
Eventually though the meds get there in time to save the important characters and after a close call with a large zombie outbreak in the quarantine all is getting better. Except that Carol killed a few of the people including Tyrese's girlfriend and burned their bodies in hope to stop the spread of the infection. That didn't work and all it did was send Tyrese into a rage and get Carol exiled from the prison.
Then suddenly as things are getting interesting in the prison and worked out we suddenly see a cut to a man standing in the woods watching prison. And who is such a man but none other than the governor himself. The devil has come back for his fill.
Then after that we are plagued with very slow and drawn out episodes of the Governor wandering around barely surviving looking like a homeless guy I saw in Atlanta one time… Only to find a family living in an apartment that he befriends.
Oh if only these ladies could see past the charm of this bearded hobo… they had no idea the let the devil in. But unfortunately in this world, everyone is so desperate for tomorrow they will let anyone in.. and these ladies do.
Eventually they all set off and end up running into a group that's led by one of the Governor's right hand men from Woodbury. It does not take very long for the Governor to kill this guy in order to take over as the group's leader.
Notice the difference in leadership between Rick and the Governor? In the first episode we see Rick has given up his power and refuses to take it back when asked to. The Governor, well he kills the man in charge and threatens his soldiers to obey or else…
And Thus Hitler has come back for a second time….
So the Governor also wastes absolutely no time in telling all these people they have to go and wage war on the Prison and take it for themselves. Everyone is against this idea for obvious reasons. None of these folks except for one guy is a soldier… none of them want to die in battle.
And frankly anyone with half a brain could pick apart the Governors argument on why they need to go after this prison. But the reality is this wasn't about keeping any one safe, this was a revenge tour, and a plan to create as much chaos as he could in the shortest amount of time.
If he wanted to keep anyone safe, he could have easily taken them back to woodbury and started over. Or any other number of places besides the prison.
And so that is what happens… but not before capturing Herschel and Michonne. The Governor planned to use them as pawns to get Rick to leave the prison. But I believe he knew that Rick and the group wouldn't leave. And intended to start the War over by getting back at Michonne.
So the Governor arrives at the Prison with a small army, oh and tank by the way. Because well… why not..
And so negotiations are attempted between Rick and the governor. Needless to say the Governor is losing his likeability with the people in his charge because Rick is literally saying “hey there's enough room for all of us we don't have to fight, you can come in and live” and the Governor wants nothing to do with that.
BECAUSE HE JUST WANTS TO KILL RICK AND DESTROY WHAT HE BUILT.
This is about revenge, and nothing more.
So when Rick says we get to come back from this and can move on… well that triggers the Governor and he kills Herschel.
Gunfire breaks open and the battle begins.
The two groups fight it out pretty hard, but eventually most of Rick's group escapes on a bus and others get out in other ways. The Governors group gets completely wiped out and from the looks of it there's no survivors.
The Governor and Rick fight it out but Michonne sends her Katana blade right through his chest.. But its his girlfriend that finishes him off.
A fitting scene, where the woman who accidentally let the devil in sends him back to hell where he belongs… Unfortunately we find out later she didn't make it out of the prison alive and become walker bait.
Now, all is pretty well and good up to this point of the season. We have had a lot go one in a very short amount of time. We had the outbreak in the prison, the reuniting of the governor and his story and then the battle for the prison.
The prison is wiped out and everything the group built is gone…
This spreads out the entire group all throughout the area. And that's where the show starts to go off the rail a little.
I love multiple plots, stories, and situations under one roof. I think it makes for a really complex show filled with lots of information and details. But this might be too much?
From here on out each episode is basically following each member or members of the group that's scattered and tells their story of basically how they eventually re-connect or make it to a place called terminus.
Ricks basically half dead and Carl hates him for losing the prison and Herschel's death.. But by the next day loves his dad again because well, its his dad after all.
Michonne eventually finds Rick and Carl..
Darell and Beth, Maggie's sister who really up to this point was never important and did not lend much to the story other than singing and setting the mood of a scene…. But the writers were smart enough to pair her with Darrell who is interesting and made more so when hes lost with an innocent and naive girl like Beth.
Well… somehow she gets kidnapped but who we don't know and then Darrel is picked up by a gang of marauders. Pretty rough dudes, but nothing Darrel cant handle.
Glenn is found still at the prison surrounded by the dead… He finds Tara, one of the girls that the Governor befriended. She's the only survivor from that group.
They set off the find Maggie. And in the process of it all run into three new characters. And BOY ARE THEY CHARACTERS.
I started to realize that this is where the show began to change. After the war in the prison, it was clear that the writing changed hands for this show. And Come to find out that was true, the original writer for the first two seasons was fired. For the life of me I can understand why, and from what I heard of the original cast, they didn't like it either.
For instance, Lori was never supposed to die… that was a change. Maybe because Sarah Wayne Callies, the actress who played Lori, was the one who kind of pushed back the most on that decision.. Needless to say she died on that hill (no pun intended).
Now don't get me wrong, I like Abraham hes a great character that brings some masculinity and comedy to the show. But make no mistake hes a character.
And what I mean by that is hes a bit over the top, and the same could be said about Ugene. Its like the writer said, I want a loyal soldier and a smart hillbilly. So they took all the attributes to them and overdramatized them to the extreme.
In other words they're over the top in terms of the character traits. This is the first time the show has ever brought someone into it where they don't come across as people you would meet any day of the week. These are not normal individuals or relatable in that case.
And Maybe that’s ok, maybe its nice to see something new and a bit over the top to bring a little spark into the show. Certainly in terms of characters and being over the top Ugene and Abraham wont come close to what the Walking dead throws our way in the near future… thats for sure!
But I can't help but dislike the entire idea of what Abrahama, Ugene, and Rosetta are doing. Apparently Ugene knows how all this started and needs to get to Washington DC to tell the authorities…
Does anyone realize how stupid that sounds? I mean I understand if its meant to sound stupid and we are meant to realize that's probably not true. But we aren't. Because Ugene tells Glenn and Maggie this and even they believe him.
ITs not like he actually tells them… he just said it's classified and can't say.. REALLY!?
Did Glenn have a moment of austimers and forget that he was at the CDC and they literally said they don't know where it came from OH AND COMMUNICATIONS WITH EVERYONE IS GONE! Meaning hey, there's no officials anymore in DC…
No he doesn't mention that…. Guess he forgot about the moment he was almost fried to death by a depressed CDC doctor…
But here are, everyone believing this crap and the story plugging forward.
As all of the group wanders around they see signs for “Terminus” a safe haven for all.
Eventually everyone links up there only to find it aint a safe place… and they all get locked into a train car.
What will happen? How will the escape? Who will die? How will Ugene ever get to Washington DC?...
Guess we will find out in Season five!
All in all season four was not bad, I enjoyed the first half the most but really disliked the second half. Everyone was just wandering around trying to find each other.
The show often focused heavily on characters that were not interesting enough to carry the show. Or maybe just dragged on a little too much. But that's being nit picky because it wasn't all too bad. We did get to see Rick a chunk out of a dude's jugular with his teeth… that was pretty epic.
And by the way, you want to be Rick in the apocalypse… at least for now. This is a guy who has it finally worked out, can do what it takes without falling into the pit of despair and becoming evil.
However I will say the later half of this show may be foreshadowing of bad writing, and characters to come…
Wrap it up.
//
The Walking Dead Theme Song
created By Bear McCreary
The Walking Dead Special Part 3
Season Three starts off some time later after the fall of Hershel's Farm. From what we see the group has been on the run, going house to house, looking for food and shelter. Lory is also very pregnant at this point, so it's safe to say they have been wondering for months.
From the look of the group it's clear they have not found much peace and yet they also appear to have honed their survival skills. As we see Carl who's now a little older, clearing rooms with a handgun that has a makeshift suppressor on it.
I love these little details because its not in your face but enough to show that the group has gotten smarter, and is adapting to the new world. We see further signs of this when the group forms a sort of Phalanx when clearing areas of walkers in the prison.
And so that leads me to the next part.
The Group stumbles across the oh so infamous prison. Which to anyone wondering around trying to survive in the apocalypse looks like four seasons. The irony of free people seeking security in a prison isn't lost on me…
In some ways it represents the idea that no matter how free we are today in a normal society we seek to go after law and order, we never truly want to be 100% free, that level of freedom can be chaotic, uncomfortable, and foreign. No one likes that, we like our routines. and this prison represents a little of that over this season and the next.
But I digress
They found a sanctuary, unfortunately its full of walkers. So the group has to decide if they want to clear it and risk their safety. Rick, being the leader, makes the call and leads the team into the prison and begin the journey of clearing it.
An Interesting side note, just a hole in the overall story, they were probably about a mile from the prison at the end of the second season. The little pan out showed us as much. And yet, they wondered for months and never came across it sooner? I mean maybe that's me being picky, but again if you've been out there for a long time its likely you would have stumbled on it.
Are we to believe they wandered in every other direction, back tracked and just missed it? I mean literally you choose a direction to go, either toward it or away from it. Not away from it, never finding it for months and then magically circling back to the area you started and going oh hey look… a prison?
Also it seems to me that Woodbury is probably within ten miles or so of the prison… at least that's what the show makes out. People literally run from Woodbury and manage to make it to the prison in a reasonable time. How is it the group didn't find that town? Or for that matter stumble across any of the people there out and about?
I could understand if you were merely wandering around for a few weeks, but its months and it shows us that you've been marauding around clearing neighborhoods for supplies..
But again that's being nit picky,
From there the show cuts over to Andrea, who we all forgot about even after jumping right from season 2 to 3 and not waiting a year like in the past.
She is now with a strange new character, one we caught a glimpse of after season two. Michonne. I have to say I always liked her character, she's not unusual in any way except she figured out that keeping a couple walkers near her all cut up disguises her from them.
Some may find that cheesy, but I didn’t. I put this in line with covering yourself with walker guts that hides you from the hordes.
So anyway Andrea appears to be pretty sick and like the other group they have been wandering around for a while too. Obviously the same amount of time, they have all these funny stories of them that they talk about later on. The two have made quite the friendship.
Again, never running into anyone in all that time… and somehow managed to run into the governors group now and not months sooner. But oh well..
A helicopter full of Army reservists is flying around and crashes in the woods, Andrea and Michonne stumble upon it but before they get close a group arrives.
This is where we get introduced to the Governor. A handsome, well spoken, and charming man who is the leader of a large community called Woodbury.
At first glances the Governor seems like a great guy. And wouldn't you know Murrel is with him! Again what are the freaking odds that Murrel stumbles out of Atlanta with his hand cut off and manages to find a group in the same geographical location as the other group who has his brother in it… Anyway…
Needless to say Andrea is a little shocked to see him as are the rest of us…
They get taken back to Woodbury, where she is treated with medicine and healed, but they were stripped of their weapons. The governor assured them its for everyone's safety and they could have them back if they wanted to leave.
Well Michonne doesn't take kindly to that, and can see right through the Governor's charm, so she wants to leave. But Andrea not so much, and can you blame her? They have been wandering around trying to survive and she almost died from the Flu and this town is the closest representation to the old world as it can get.
The parallels are nice here with Michonne and Andrea. You have to remember that in the second season Andrea never departed mentally from the old world.
We talked about that in the second season. That season represented the death of the old world and the birth to the new apocalyptic one. And all the people trying to navigate that and come to terms with it.
When Shane and Rick were debating on killing the prisoner that was the moment where the group had to decide what direction they were going in. Andrea at the last minute sided with Dale which was representative that she was still holding out that things could be normal again, that the old world wasn't dead.
And so it's no wonder she clinged so quickly to the governor and Woodbury, she so desperately wants to believe the old world still exists because when she didn't she wanted to die, hence the scene at the CDC in season one.
Michonne on the other hand was plunged into the fire of chaos early and had no time to weigh the options for herself. We later will find out about Michonne's past and why she is such a cunning survivor who fits in well in the new world.
Meanwhile back at the prison the group is dealing with caverns full of walkers. The prison is like a haunted maze, except in this you can actually die. They come across a group of prisoners hiding in the mess hall. This encounter is foreshadowing for Rick as he has to make a decision that will save his life and the group. One of the Prisoners is a psycho, and tries to kill Rick, well Rick had enough of that and drives an ax into the dude's skull.
That's a simplified version of that entire scene. But it's pivotal because it shows just how much of a monster Rick has become. Remember what we talked about in the last episode. Which is finding your inner monster. The group at an individual level will need to do that to survive.
Find your inner monster, and tame it. Shane found his quickly but couldn't tame it and it led to his demise. Rick found him at the very end of season two, and I said would he become the Tyrant? Or the fearless leader.
From the looks of this season, he has become the fearless leader and everyone has willfully followed him and his leadership.
Take note, that being the monster is a good thing, taming it is what you must do and when you do that people will respect you and look up to you. That's what happened here with Rick. He is now the fearless leader. And he does whatever it takes to protect his people.
Oh and I failed to mention in all of this that Hershcel was bitten in the leg, and Rick without hesitation threw on a tourniquet and cut Hershel's leg off saving his life. That is being a monster. That's stepping up and doing something unimaginable but doing it because it would save his life.
Become a monster in your life, Tame that monster, and thrive!
So needless to say the prison has not been a cupcake. However one of the bad prisoners escaped after Rick killed the psycho prisoner. The other two were sent to separate cell blocks and ordered to stay away from the group.
Later on the bad prisoner shows back up and decides to turn on the backup generators in the prison and trip the alarms. Which sends the walkers into a tizzy. The entire group gets pulled deep into the prison running from the dead and also trying to locate where or who triggered the alarms.
Rick and Derell come across the prisoner leading to a tussle between him and Rick who is promptly killed by the other prisoners in a show of good faith.
From here the group gains a couple of allies in the prisoners. But unfortunately Lori, Carl, and Maggie are cut off hiding from the dead when Lori's water breaks. Oh what perfect timing you cruel world.
Unfortunately Hershel and Carol are the ones trained on doing a C-section but they arent around and they do not have the proper medical equipment or supplies to perform it. Carl and Maggie have to do it because, otherwise the baby will die and kill Lori. However, If they perform the C-section Lori will die.
This is an awful situation, and one where Maggie tries to negotiate with Lori but unfortunately there's only one answer.
The episode ends with Rick and group meeting up in the prison yard, and Rick finding out that Lori is dead, and Carl had to put down his own mother.
Welcome to the new world everyone, Its nothing but hell and chaos and you gotta be strong enough mentally to navigate it. And if you are lucky you wont go insane from it.
Rick does tho, he starts to lose his mind promptly after, which requires others in the group to step up and lead in the meantime. Mainly Hershel and Glenn.
All of this leads to Maggie and Glenn Leaving the prison in search of baby formula. While out wouldn't you have it! They run into Merle who was hunting down Michonne who decided to cut ties with Andrea and leave Woodbury.
Merel takes Glen and Maggie back to Woodbury as captives, and Michonne takes the formula to the prison where Rick sees her standing there outside the gate.
This is where we really start to see the malevolence of the governor, Merel beats on Glenn for information on his brother, and the Governor forces himself on Maggie to get her to talk. Neither do until The Governor threatens to shoot Glenn.
Michonne leads the group to Woodbury to save Glenn and Maggie. A nice firefight breaks out and they manage to find them and pull them out.
This entire action sequence shows me that neither the writers or directors understand how firearms work. Every weapon is fully automatic and has an endless supply of ammo. A major beef I have always had with this show.
In any real world situation no one in their right mind would be unloading full magazines into the dark of night. Unless the Governor or Ricks group had a bullet manufacturing facility, it's safe to say ammo would not be plentiful.
Semi Auto people… Also most of the weapons they would find would only be semi-automatic anyway. As most legally owned rifles in the US are not fully auto as they are illegal to own and require special licensing to possess.
Even the military does not use full auto rifles. The M16A4 is semi-Auto or three round burst which is a stupid feature that we never used unless we just wanted to full around in the combat range. The M4 is fully auto but not used as much as the M16.
Any way I digress, the point is its just over the top and any one with half a brain knows, they gotta run out of ammo at some point. I don't see rick carrying a vest full off spare magazines for that AK47…
Details matter…
This entire operation sparks an obvious war between the prison and Woodbury.
The rest of the season focuses on that and Andrea trying desperately to stop the two groups from killing one another. Andrea is still stuck in the old world mentality. She has not found her inner monster and cant make the tough calls.
She knows that the Governor isn't a great guy at this point and has the opportunity to kill him, but cant. She cant bring herself to do it.
This would lead to massacre and deaths of a lot of people.
Sometimes the most brutal and awful decisions we have to make in life are the ones that could save the most lives, or even your own.
Which is the case for Andrea.
The governor makes it pretty clear to Rick there cant be any peace. But levels with him and says, if you can give me Michonne, I won't attack the prison.
Now I like this scene. It reminds me a lot of the old civil war era where the two generals would come off the battlefield and meet at a table to discuss terms as gentlemen. We definitely don't fight like that anymore.
And so this presents quite the conundrum for Rick and as viewers we already know that the Governor isnt gonna just let Rick and his group go, even if he gives up Michonne. But Rick isn't so sure, but he has a feeling that the Governor isn't a man of his word.
Needless to say Rick doesn't hand him over, Merel takes her, proclaiming Rick doesn't have the stones to do it so he will be the bad guy.
This is where we see an interesting character arch.
In the process of all this Merel has a change of heart. He lets Michonne go, but proceeds on toward the governor anyway. And in good Merel fashion, grabs a bottle of booz, liquours up and leads a group of walkers to the meet up location where the governor is waiting.
From there Merel begins to take out the Governors soldiers, which leads to his capture and death.
This right here folks is how you write a comeback story. Take note Kenobi!
Merle was not the most pleasant man, and needless to say after season one I doubt many fans liked him, and probably saw him as the protagonist. From there on when we link back up to him now we see he's still the same old selfish, and awful to deal with Merle. Doing the Governors bidding, and taking what he can.
Merel is essentially a pirate… He takes what can, and follows orders from the one man who's the captain.
But he redeems himself, he helps the group, and tries to make mends. But here's the kicker, and the key to writing a character arch where a bad guy becomes the anti-hero or for that matter a hero.
Merel sacrifices himself for the group. And through that can be redeemed and provoke sympathy and sadness from the viewer. This is good writing.
It's much like Darth Vader. Vader was a bad guy, he killed a lot of people and did a ton of evil things. But in the end redeemed himself by saving Luke and killing Palpatine. HOWEVER, he dies doing it.
He has to die, he cant survive. There is no way Vader walks away from all his crimes, a free and moral man who lives to the ripe old age of 80 and dies in bed with loved ones around him. Does Not work that way. There still has to be justice for his crimes, and his sacrifice is that justice. He dies the hero. Otherwise, he's tried for war crimes and rots in a prison. Which is fine, if that's what you are going for in the story. But Vader’s story is about the fall, and the redemption through sacrifice.
An obvious fail in this is in Kenobi with the Character Reva. Sure she had a troubled childhood, but she chose the path of the dark side, and anger. She literally cut a woman's hand off and tortured a little girl for information. And in the end… Kenobi says she can be whoever she wants to be now because she saw the error of her ways… no sacrifice, no justice, nope youre free to go, forget all the awful stuff you did its fine.
This makes her story unlikeable and laughable. The viewer won't show sympathy but instead probably just throw up in a trash can nearby from the nauseating writing..
Kenobi appears to be written by a five year old girl, and not a grown professional adult.
Anyway Merel sacrifices himself and now its WAR!
Rick was never gonna give up Michonne and so he sets off for weapons where he meets an old friend gone crazy. Why? Because he couldn't make the tough call. And so he lost his wife and son.
You see the trend here? Season 3 is about making the tough decisions, and what happens when you dont, or you do.
Season 3 is the ushering on of the new world, and the Characters now trying to survive in it. The old world is dead and now all thats left is Chaos and death.
Even the Governor tries to usher back in the old world with law and order in Woodbury, but as fast as it started, he lost it.
The governor would wage an attack on the prison and lose, he would then moh down the people fighting for him who wanted to run the other way. From there he was left alone and lost. In that time Andrea would die, something that may have been avoided had she made the tough decision. Andrea wasn't prepared to go into the new world from season one. And Unfortunately that new world took her life for it.
The Group managed to fight off the governor and live another day. The season ends with Rick and the group rescuing the last of Woodvury and taking them back to the prison.
Obviously this is a very abbreviated rundown of the season. There is far too much detail to go over in one show. Out of all the seasons so far this one had a ton going on in it.
Generally since season one the group was always together, either at the quarry, in a convoy, or Hershel's farm. They were all together going through the exact same things at once.
In season three the writing changes a little and starts to show multiple stories at once. You have the prison and their story and then Woodbury and Andreas' story in that.
The season is well balanced out by this as its easy to track, and the Governor and Woodbury is as interesting as the Prison.
I found myself pretty locked in and ready for the next episode each time I watched. It was easy for me to binge as the story was compelling and interesting.
It was far different from the first two. Which was slower paced, and more methodical. In the start of season 3 you are immediately thrown into action and walkers are more prominent. I would say you probably see more walkers and walker death in the first two episodes of season three than all of season two.
I think this is intentional as I said before, season two was about the death of the old world. Season three is the birth of the new world and the group being casted off into it. Its Chaotic, fast paced, bloody, and unforgiving.
Season 3 as whole is all that, action packed and never quitting. You almost can feel what the characters are feeling as they deal with the stress of being lost in this dangerous world.
All in all I really liked season three and I especially loved how the casted and wrote the Governor character. David Morrisey played the perfect antagonist, and perfect first villain for Rick to encounter.
Like I said earlier, he's charming, well spoken and handsome, he is what you would expect from a malevolent leader. He's the hidden Tyrant. Everyone around him feels safe and willing to follow until they get too close then they see the truth come up but by then its too late.
You either do what he says or die. And that's what happened to Andrea.
When I first started watching season three again, I was trying to wrap my head around the Governor and why he does the things he does.
I like to try and understand the mind of all the characters and why they do what they do.
And at first it seems like much of the Governor's actions don't make a lot of sense. For instance when he comes up on the group of Army national guardsmen. He tricks them into lowering their weapons and then massecres them.
Now obviously this scene lends to showing us that the governor is actually a bad dude. And while I get that, why kill the soldiers? Why not take them in? Why take in Andrea and Michonne but not trained soldiers who could in theory help protect your city?
The only answer I could come up with is he felt they could pose a threat to Woodbury. Take over what he has built.
And so that got me thinking a little.
Why is the Governor, the Governor? Why is he evil? What drove this man to become this? Because he wasn't this way before. And I was struggling a little to find the motive of the Governor.
But I remembered watching a video of Jordan Peterson’s when he taught at the University of Toronto. And he was talking about how if you can't figure out the motive of someone the best way to find out is to see what they're actually doing. And he used an example of Hitler.
And he said most people think that Hitler wanted to win the war and return Germany to its rightful place as a superpower. But Jorden says that does not align with his actions, and why is that? Well for one if you really wanted to win the war and make Germany great, you wouldnt dedicate a massive amount of your war effort on the mass genocide of a group of people. Especially when you're losing the war. Because what happened when the Allies approached Germany? He Doubled down his efforts in the Camps.
So Jordan said you wouldnt do this if you wanted to win the war, however you may do this if your intentions all along were to inflict the most amount of damage and chaos as you can before you are taken out.
And that makes perfect sense, because Hitler was an angry and bitter man who was resentful of how the prior world war ended and blamed many groups including the jewish community for the outcome of it all.
And I think Jordan is half right. And this leads me to my next thought on how the Governor and Hitler are very similar.
Yes theyre both bad and maybe Hitler is a worse and fair point but here me out.
I think Hitler in his mind wanted the best for Germany, and so he waged war to take back what he believed was rightfully theirs. I mean he made negotiations and peace deals with countries in the region. Some he went back on sure, but others not so he was calculated.
My point is it would appear that Hitler had a plan all along to make Germany the superpower once again. And he was doing that. It wasn't until America and The allies got involved where things changed. When we started kicking his ass and pushing back in Germany I think that's when he went full chaos mode as Jordan Spoke to.
Its like well “If I cant have it no one can, and so Im just gonna burn it all down as fast as I can”. And this makes sense because he felt the Germany army betrayed him so he had no issue throwing them at the Allied lines to die. And he Hated and resented the Jews, Gypsies, and other ethnic groups. So what did he do? Well we saw what he did..
And through that I realized that's the Governor. The Governor is the Tyrant with a well meaningful plan that descends into Chaos. Now Meaningful to him, but malevolent to anyone with half a brain and a heart. Or maybe not.. Keep in mind many of the Germans thought they were on the good side during the war.
So what made him the Tryant?
Well he reveals it later on. He says, “I did not have what it took to protect my family, and I made a promise to myself I would do whatever it takes to protect what I love from now on”
And there it is…
HE DIDN'T HAVE WHAT IT TOOK TO MAKE THE TOUGH DECISIONS. And that's the theme of Season 3 by the way.
The death of his wife and daughter drove the governor to become a Tyrant. Which is what can happen. You find the inner monster, ok good. But your resentful, maybe at yourself or others but your resentful and angry just like Hitler was and that drives you into madness.
That's the governor. He found it too late, and by then he lost everything that mattered to him and that made him angry, resentful, and sad. All those things have driven him to become a malevolent tyrant. Because there's no way he's gonna let himself make that mistake again and it doesn't matter who gets in his way.
And so when he realizes he's lost the war to Rick what does he do? He goes into full chaos mode and wipes out his entire army leaving him with only two men. Its no longer about protecting anyone or anything, its about getting back at the world and causing as much destruction as possible.
And that’s what see, that's why he didn't take in the soldiers, and that's why he wanted to take out Rick's group. Thats why he comes back with vengeance in season four and destroys the prison. Its not really about keeping his new group safe, its about destroying everything he cant have and creating a massive amount of chaos in the process. I will touch more on that obviously in the next season.
The Governor is such a well written villain. He is simple and yet complex. He’s an average man, with a history that makes him relatable and can invoke sympathy at times from the viewer. They did a really good job on him, and is a continuation of the great character writing in this show.
That being said I had a few long winded Rants there, but overall the Season was a great and solid continuation from the prior season. We see so many character arcs in this season, and how the interestingly change through their experiences in the new world.
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Intro song:
The Walking dead original soundtrack
Theme from the walking dead
By: By McCreary
The Rant with David King
enJanuary 15, 2023
Andor, a Star Wars story worth watching
Just when I start to hate Disney they go and pull this on me….
I am talking of course about Star Wars Andor.
Describe the show.
The truth of it all is this show is actually really good. And go figure… It was created by the same people who gave us Rogue one. Arguably the only good Star wars movie that Disney has released.
Andor is what I expected from Disney when they bought the franchise.
Like Rogue one, it is its own story. It has its own chast of characters, its own plots, and does not have legacy characters, or nostalgia to carry it. The Plot is its very own too, something unlike anything we have seen in the Star Wars world. There's no force, no lightsabers, or over the top heroes.
This is a show with regular, average people living under the Empire and having to make tough decisions and sacrifices.
It's a grungy and harsh world, a world that feels so real like you could actually visit it. That's because they didn't use some warehouse with a giant green screen to make this show. These sets are on location, or built and they are massively detailed and well thought out. Each scene feels calculated and purposeful. Like the set designers were treated as important as Kathleen Kennedy's ego…
This show in every way is original and honestly you could take a few things out like the empire you might not even know this is even a Star Wars Tv Show.
This is what I expected from Disney, This is what I hoped for with The Book Bobba Fett. An original script, not relying on legacy characters, throwbacks to the original trilogy and fan fare.
I desperately wanted a show that was dark, grungy, the underbelly of the universe that Bobba Fett would be caught up in… But instead we got an entire season on the outskirts of Tattoine… where Bubba fett is useless and dumb and they needed the Mandalorian to come in and rescue the show from itself.
The Actors all seem like they wanted to do this show and take it seriously, the acting is actually good. More than I can say for past Star Wars shows… Kenobi. And each character feels well thought out, individualized, making the show more interesting and forces you to really pay attention.
At any moment things can change or be revealed, this is not a show that you can casually watch. It makes you pay attention, and makes you think for yourself.
Now with this all said there are some issues with it, and the one and really the only big one I can really say is its pacing is not very good.
At times Andor feels like it drags on way too long, methodically taking its time to make its point. The show could have been tightened up in that regard but you can avoid this problem by simply watching it once all the episodes air.
This is definitely a binge worthy show that I believe holds up better when you can watch multiple episodes in one sitting.
It's a damn good thing they released three episodes from the rip because the first two were agonizingly slow and really could have been made into one episode.
I was very critical of the pace and the fact that we get a lot of “walking around” scenes. This was one of my bigger beefs with Kenobi, Bubba Fett, and the Mandolorian. There's a ton of filler of just characters moving about.
This can be useful to set the scene or the tone but it can be overdone and they do that a lot with these TV Series. It is almost like these shows were really meant to be movies, but Disney wanted to stretch it out for content sakes.
That said Tony Gilroy the creator of this show and Rogue one has hit a double with disney. He is 2 for 2 and that comes as a little surprise really when you see his resume. He's written movies like the Bourne Series, The Devil's Advocate, and Armageddon.
Disney needs to give this man a corner office and leave him alone with a bottle of bourbon and a laptop. Because he clearly shows that he gets what Star Wars is. He Respects the fans and the legacy that George Lucas created. He did not create Andor to necessarily be his mark on the Franchise but instead make something that pays homage to what came before him.
This is the sum of a good writer who’s been hired to write something in a world that already exists. He wasn't interested in piggy backing off existing characters, plots, or fan fare. He set out to create a completely new cast and story within the universe that is Star Wars.
And that's all us fans have ever wanted
Take note Kathleen Kennedy… Take note Marvel.
As fans of this created world we expect that you honor what came before by not destroying the amazing characters that were created, Like Kenobi has done. Or feeding us full of bland empty characters that are simply put in place for marketing and monetizing.
Don't force opinions on us, let us decide if we like a character or not or relate or not… REVA!
And for God Sakes hire more people like this Guy that can actually WRITE!!!!
With all that said it will more than likely fall on deff ears. Disney is currently in shambles with their latest animated movie “Strange World” Losing over 100 million dollars… And dont get me started on She-Hulk… UGH.
And Andor, well it came too little too late as most people have begun to give up on the Star Wars world on Disney+. Most people I know haven't seen it and havent had the urge to, and that's too bad.
If only Disney led with this series, it might have been able to learn quickly what works and avoid disasters like Kenobi and Bobba Fett.
I really enjoyed this show and I will likely watch it again from start to finish to see what I may have missed the first go around. If you haven't watched it I would highly recommend you do. Turn your cell phone off, grab your favorite snack and lock in. Enjoy this little Gem.
Its not very often anymore that we great treated with this level of entertainment.
Wrap up
I give Andor an 8/10
The Walking Dead Special part 2
Describe season 2
Continuation of great character design and writing.
Deep meaningful plot with major psychological undertones.
Balance of action and drama
The zombies take a back seat as the characters and their own agendas take center stage.
- Rick still trying to figure out his role as a leader, saving his son and sophia
- Shane has come to terms with his reality, one of the few who has and is now willing to do whatever it takes to keep people safe, turning to his inner monster something I will touch on later.
- And much of the other cast has their own set of issues, that are all interesting, meaningful and add to the overall story.
In the very beginning at the highway and then Not until the very end do we really deal with a zombie problem. I believe this is intentional by the writer. To emphasize the safety that the farm offers and the idea that the world may still go back to normal at some point. The Farm offers false hope to everyone but they won't realize that until its too late.
As the season progresses different dangers present themselves including the living. A problem non-existent in the first season. This is meaningful as it is another representation of the final fall of civilization.
That is one of the things I love so much about this season and the first as it carefully and meticulously documents the complete destruction of society. You’re not watching a movie about people surviving an apocalypse, you're watching a detailed presentation of each step of the fall of man and the people caught up in that.
I honestly have very little bad to say about this second season. Especially after watching it a second time.
On the surface and at face value you think its just a dragged on season of trying to find a little girl, and boy who gets shot and wont stay in the damn house… GET BACK IN THE HOUSE CARL!...
But after watching it a second time i see the overall plot is deeper, more meaningful and accurate on its way to tell the story of this group and what each person is feeling. Allowing us to make our own conclusions as how to feel about what each character is doing or not doing. We find that we can relate to some, or not at all to others. And yet its natural, not forced.
The story much like the first season allows you to think for yourself, pick sides, and determine who's on the right path.
It also shows you a much deeper and psychological look into what surviving a pandemic may look like.
There's also some really deep symbolic moments throughout the season.
- Sophia is lost, she's an innocent little girl and the group is searching while searching for the old world, and the safety it holds. While Sophia’s death represents the death of innocence, and peace.
- The capture and potential execution of their hostage represents the end of civility, justice, and law and order. It represents the world changing into a surviving versus living state.
- The debate between Dale, Shane, and Rick about whether or not to execute the hostage is a representation of the old world and the new world. Dale is the old world and Shane represents the new one. Like the devil and angel on his shoulder Rick has to stand between them and make a choice of where he wants to go. Where does he want to lead the group? Does he hold on to what the world was? Or accept that the new one is here and it's brutal, cold, and unforgiving.
- And don't think for a minute that Dale's death was not calculated and purposeful. As it represents the death of the old world. Dale Dies, and Shane comes back after being killed, showing us that the new world can't be avoided. Something we will discover in more detail as the seasons progress. Everyone eventually becomes Shane.
Yes at first viewing I thought, well this is mundane. But after watching it again I can appreciate the pace of the season, the lulls mixed with the highs. The fact that every character had their own individual story within the overall plot making it deeper and more interestings.
The last season was a master class on character design, this is a master class on how to write a freaking interesting story.
Everything feels so well thought out, and purposeful. Each character changes with each conflict and in their own ways that resemble their personalities established over the previous season.
This show dives into some deep psychological traits as well that I find really interesting, and helps to make each character unique and worth investing in.
As I stated earlier Shane was able to realize the writing on the wall pretty quickly, taking on a roll as a leader in the early first season, and making sure the group was safe. As the second season progressed we watched as Shane Channeled his inner monster.
Something that all men have to do in real life. This comes from Dr. Jordan Peterson a renowned psychologist and author. He tells us to see just how much of a monster you can be and then tame it. Learn to channel it, and become stronger as a person by controlling it.
In other words, understand what you're capable of doing, and understand that you can control it. Realize how far you are willing to go, and be able to stop.
The Problem is Shane cant, and we see him grow from a controlled monster, to a tyrant. And that can happen very easily to anyone. It is why you should learn what you're capable of now and how you can control it or you too will be at risk of becoming a tyrant, or possibly a psychopath… who knows.. But it won't be good.
Shane represents the man finding his inner strength to do what is necessary and losing control of that. Whereas Rick is on the same path, the only difference is Rick isn't willing to do everything it takes at first, and he has to learn otherwise. Rick killing Shane represents Rick realizing how much of a monster he can be and may need to be. It's him crossing over into the new world as well.
The answer is can he control it? Or suffer the same fate as Shane and fall into chaos and become a tyrant? At the end of the second season you can see the visual and personality changes in Rick after that event. He is teetering on becoming the Tyrant as he tells everyone it's my way or the highway and shutting them down.
I think we will see much of the same from the rest of the group in the seasons to come. Each person will have to wrestle with their demons, navigate this new world, and how to survive in it while trying to keep their hands clean. Unfortunately that won't be easy, and maybe not even possible.
This is why the second season is such a great one, well written and executed from start to finish. It keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout and second guessing your own feelings about characters and situations. And if you are like me, you can see deeper psychological meanings behind many of the events in the show.
I strongly recommend this season, and find it a close runner up to the first. Its great for its own reasons, picks up right where the first left off but then turns into its own. Most shows struggle to do that, and can't get past the first season. Each new season mimicking much of the first. But not with The Walking Dead. This could have easily been the first season if they wanted and it would be damn good and made perfect sense.
Wrap it up.
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Intro:
The Walking Dead Main Theme
Apple Music, Bear McCreary
Big Rock License
Big Rock by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3436-big-rock
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
IMBD LINK TO SEASON 2:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1520211/episodes?season=2&ref_=tt_eps_sn_2
The Walking Dead Special Part one
Big Rock License
Big Rock by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3436-big-rock
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
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Theme from the Walking Dead
The Walking dead Original Television Soundtrack
Bear McCreary.