Speaking of infected, I’m filling in for Oz this week.
Previously on The Walking Dead, Patrick went zombie in the shower. We were left wondering what was going on. Did somebody poison the watering hole? Was it the pigs? Is everyone sick?
This episode started out with a mind fuck. Someone has been feeding the zombies at the fence. Who? Why? We never got an answer because shit went down with Cell Block D(ead)*. After the reaction of the older blonde Village of the Damned girl when she finds out her zombie BFF Nick had been killed, I’m thinking she’s the culprit. Bitch be crazy, as evidenced by her Zombie Nick drawing.
Next we see Tyreese and Karen foreshadowing events at the end of the episode. Blahblahblah, we just have each other. So Tyreese wants Karen to come back to his place; she turns him down. Instead, Karen hits the showers and draws Zombie Patrick back to a sleeping cell block. In my opinion, Zombie Patrick is unlike the other zombies we’ve seen; he pretty quiet when he’s walking and eviscerating his fellow prison mates. This means Patrick and others were able to move fairly easily through D collecting victims. By the end of this episode 14 of our prison team had died.
As D Block is being eaten alive, Maggie and Glenn are bonding in the watch tower, Carl and Rick are bonding over chores, and Michonne is PMSing and heads out to find some M&M’s. Honey, we’ve all been there.
Shots ring out and sends everyone running to D to see the carnage. The gang quickly converges; they’ve got their shit locked down. This one is coming from INSIDE THE PRISON. Rick grabs his side for his missing gun before running to the action with a knife. Michonne, who also heard the shots and is returning on horseback, is met with a two-on-one Walker fight. Carl and Maggie are there to help, but not before Michonne injures her ankle. Rest. Ice. Compression. Elevate, Michonne. This is also the first time Carl has fired a gun since shooting a guy in the woods and getting his piece taken away.
When we get back to D, hell is breaking loose. Friends are eating friends. Daryl and Rick are saving children and it’s adorable. Glenn is there. So’s Carol, who is with the Village of the Damned’s father. He’s been bit and he can’t be saved with a backyard amputation. Carol brings the blonde girls in to see their dad one last time before she delivers the fatal blow. But hold the phone! Village girl wants to be the one who kills her dad. That went about as well as you thought it was going to. Needless to say Carol ended up killing Dad. When did Carol become so nonchalant about knives and killing? She stabbed the guy in the ear right after promising to take care of his two girls.
In the meantime, Daryl, Glenn, and Rick put the remaining semi-dead D Blockers out of their misery. Rick has a knife. Daryl has a bow and arrow. We see Rick pull out his knife and walk into the cell of an unknown. You don’t see who he kills, or how he kills them, but it’s startling. It’s personal. Rick has killed a member of a group he has sworn to protect. You don’t get to come back after this is over, Rick. You could see the turmoil all over Rick’s face and in his body language.
After the slaughter, the brain trust convenes over a corps; there are no wounds or bites to be found. Dr. S notes pleurisy and aspiration, meaning he choked to death on his own blood. Rick has seen this before, and soon the crew decides there’s a sickness in the prison not caused by the rotting zombies. It’s the flu, it’s aggressive, and it’s affecting the pigs and wild boars. I expect a discount on pork products in the prison grocery shortly.
Everyone who has been in D Block is now exposed.
The Counsel comes together to plan a quarantine. People with symptoms are going to be moved to a different part of the prison. Like magic, Karen walks by coughing. OH SHIT. She then throws David from Decatur under the bus, and they end up being separated from the group until someone knows what the hell to do about this flu.
As Daryl and Rick are outside burying the dead, Maggie screams for help. The walkers are overrunning the gates. Rick has been the happy farmer for a while now. In one day he’s been shoved back into a killer. You can’t come back, remember? Everything he’s been trying to get away from is still there. He’s killing Walkers face to face at the gate.
In a break from the second slaughter of the day, we possibly get a glimpse into Michonne’s past. She freaks out when she hears Judith’s cries and then cries after finally being forced to hold the chubby baby.
Back at the gate, they discover someone has been feeding the Walkers. And someone’s face gets made into French fries. Fear not! Rick has a plan, which leads us to the third slaughter of the day. Daryl takes Rick and the piglets out to lead the Walkers away from the gates. Rick cuts the pigs and throws them off the trailer. He is covered in blood. It’s hard to watch. He has to do it to save his family, right? Thus we had the First Annual Bacon Tuesday at the prison.
Carl and Carol also talk about whether or not Carl told Rick about Knife Skillz 101. Carl promptly runs and tells Rick, but Rick gives no fucks. Carl has proven himself enough to get his gun back. Rick slips his holster back on, too, and my drop my spankies. You can’t come back, Rick. You have everyone’s blood on your hands. It’s time to protect them again.
Finally, Tyreese brings Karen some flowers, only to find two blood trails leading out of the prison. Following the trail, Tyreese discovers two burning bodies; Karen and David from Decatur. Tyreese is pissed. He wants answers. So do I.
This episode was dark, bloody, and left my heart racing. I can’t wait to see what happened to the quarantined survivors. Who burned the bodies? Were they already dead, or did they have help? Where did Doc S come from? He’s no Dr. Asshole. Tune in next week, FKers.
*h/t dmoas
I think whoever burnt the bodies did the deed with the rats. It’s unlikely the girl.
Stray thoughts:
1) Carol is Andrea from the graphic novel, though older and with Carol’s original background. Total bad ass chick. Not quite there yet, but getting there in a hurry.
2) Something that I’ve thought of since I found out they’re all technically dead waiting to rise: Why would you EVER want to sleep with someone? Seriously. Why? Fuck that shit. Fuck like rabbits, get him/her the boot. Lock yourself alone in a room. No way do I want someone dying in their sleep next to me. You know what happens when THAT happens. Heeeeell no. You thought sex with a stranger was risky.
3) The two little blondies appear to be bait for a holy shit incident that was in the graphic novel. If they go there, I won’t be surprised, I’d guess they significantly clean it up a bit for TV though. And I suspect the one who’s pulling all the hijinks would be the one to do it.
4) Carl needs to become the leader. Man did I hate that fking kid in Season 2. He redeemed himself in Season 3. Now he needs to be a parent to his old man. I’m still pissed at Hershel for being an idiot. You tell the guy with the gun to put it down. He doesn’t. I don’t give a shit if he really was going to hand it to you. Only an idiot falls for that. A dead idiot. Carl did the right thing, simple as that. There’s a reason Carl still has both his legs and Hershel doesn’t. Okay, I did go there. Probably shouldn’t have. But fk him with peg leg.
5) Those who follow the graphic novel were seriously disappointed with the Season 3 ending. They thought it was supposed to be the BIG battle with Guv, but it was merely the first one. I’m thinking that big one happens this season. Maybe mid-season, maybe by the finale. Who knows. But that shit’s coming. And it’ll be glorious.
6) It’s nice to have Red Shirts. Granted the idea that only our heroes get to survive will get old. But worse was everyone surviving and getting away in circumstances that someone needed to go down. Apparently they started out with 45 and they’re down to about 30ish. That’ll be fun.
7) The preview for next week. Holy. Shit. I hope they have the 8 cylinder version of that car, cause they’re going to need every big of horsepower they can muster to get through that throng.
7) Why did they stop? Accelerate!
Mostly because he was running off the road and not paying attention. Which is stop given that you ALWAYS pay attention in the land of the living dead. But yeah, I’d have fking punched it right away.
I’ve decided to try out the graphic novels. Mostly because I’m jonesing for a good zombie read. You convinced me.
I’m normally not a fan of comics and the like, but something about this one grabbed me. I ended up picking up the two giant book versions of them (like 4 years worth at a time). They’re very quick reads and Kirkman has a really twisted vision in that.
I saw the giant books. I think I’m going with the Kindle version. I have a black and white Kindle Paperwhite though. I CAN download it on my phone and PC too.
The entire thing is in black and white so hopefully that won’t be a big deal for a Paperwhite.
Oh good. I thought it was in full color.
And I’ve never read a comic before.
I appreciate that you’re delicate with the references to the books. I definitely do not want shit spoiled (and yes, I know they’re not necessarily following the original by the letter). It’s hard to comment from foreknowledge without spoiling, as seen on basically every Game of Thrones board everywhere, and so far you’re doing well, but please stay careful.
If it’s just Matty and me in this thread we’re going to start playing grab ass.
I’m going to hold you to that. And I’d start by holding your ass… to that.
Now it’s weird.
Patience. It’s only the beginning. We haven’t even touched weird yet.
I’m not braiding your back hair.
Ew. I shave that shit. Yuck. Now my pubes on the other hand…
We could shave each other’s backs.
I think I’d be okay with that.
The grab ass is over.
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Call me. Wink.
You mean I have to pay ~$8 for each novel?
So far I’m liking this new showrunner Gimple. Rick hobbled his pigs, one by one, to make them zombie bait, symbolically putting to death his hopes of redeeming he and Carl’s souls by becoming farmers rather than killers. And then it’s time to strap the six shooter back on. A nice artistic piece of film-making for a show that has mostly to date chosen to bludgeon us with its revelations.
In a similar vein, and along the lines of my hope last week that we’re going to see more emotional depth and complexity in our characters, it was great to see the suggestion that Michonne’s hardness stems in part from her having lost a child before we met her.
While I can get behind Carol’s general belief that even the kids need to learn to kill to defend themselves, going along with the blond girl offering to knife her own dad was horrible.
But that’s what they need to do. And she also recognized that they couldn’t. This is they’re life. I think Carol has made the most progression of everyone, and has the most to teach.
I agree. He’s done in two episodes what season two took the whole @$@!*$* year doing: showing that normal life in zombie land is unpossible.
And, with approximately equal depth.
I don’t disagree. But I also think season 2 was necessary. It gave you a nice long set up with a sense that hey, you could potentially live a normal life in the zombie land. Then, when you have your hopes sufficiently up, it comes collapsing in on you. The entire season was all about Rick trying to get a foot in the door to permanently staying at the farm. And just when they get there, BOOM! It collapses like the house of cards it is. Now that they’re at the prison, there’s no such false sense of security. No one’s believing for a second that they’re safe behind those walls. The biggest failure of season 2 wasn’t the pace or over dependence on character development, it was just the lack of eventfulness. There could have been plenty of reasons to leave the farm for runs and whatnot and that could have been used to enhance the suspense. As could more “Carl”-like stupidity done elsewhere that could have been used to unknowingly advance the herd towards them.
I want to start watching this series over again. I really liked the first episode. If things were perfect I’d throw a pajama party and we’d all snuggle in and eat gummy worms and drink hot chocolate and watch it together.
No shit! It’s about time! Baseball Zombie tailgate needs to happen!
We’d have to have it at Matty’s house so he’d make an appearance. . But in return I’d let him touch my boobs.
Matty?
dmoas
A question.
The are nice boobs.
*they
Yeaaaah… no. My place isn’t the place to do such things.
No place to grab my boobs or having a TWD party?
There’s ALWAYS a place to grab your boobs.
Also, I know. I’m fucking around.
Me too. I wouldn’t set you up that way. Just being silly.
Set me up? Or Matt?
Neither. I’m just a plain girl, actually.
Of the people who have the read the comic, are you pissed about what they have done to Tyresse’s character? I mean WTF…
Really glad they got rid of ‘white trash older brother’, the whole ‘bigoted racist Aryan thing’ wasn’t in the original story and took the show down a notch for me.’
This season has been above and beyond last season, but I still laugh about the description I heard somewhere- “A show about people arguing w/ occasional zombie attacks”, yup.
But hey, compared to Lost, it’s Citizen MFing Kane.
I’m much more pissed with what they did with Andrea’s character all the way up to the casting choice. At least with Tyresse, it’s early enough in the character development that he can saved. I was okay with the Meryl thing, but yeah, he definitely hung on a little too long, but it helped with Daryl’s development (even though he also wasn’t in the comic) it was a net win.
orson would like the music of lost better. true genius usage. that’s all i got.
Great job, Jennifer! I think you should take over doing these threads.
Whatever. If you don’t want to do it.
You were much more thorough in your discussion of the episode. Plus, my thread never lead to a dialogue on boob-grabbing.
I mentioned my own boobs. Doesn’t count.
Pretty sure if I mention mine, they won’t generate much discussion.
You thought wrong, dude.
I’m reading the comic… it’s been so long since I’ve seen the first season I’m getting characters mixed up. Was there a Donna in the Atlanta camp?
New thread tomorrow.
I’m finally watching and catching up so I can read these! Since we’re clearly past this, I won’t add much, but I wanted to say good writeup Jennifer.