This isn’t going to really be a recap of tonight’s episode. I usually watch the episode a few times, pause it, type, and continue on. I got called into work, so I need to sleep soon. Spoilers.
So that happened.
First, wow. I think I hated this episode as much as I hated last episode, but for different reasons. This was a raw episode and it almost hurt me to watch it. I feel like something bad is going to happen and we can’t help anyone. We’re just waiting around to see the aftermath.
God, there were some moments of good television in this episode, though. There were two main pieces of “action†we were following: Rick and Carol, and Daryl and Michonne.
I thought Rick dropped little hints in throughout the episode that he maybe didn’t believe Carol killed David and Karen. Or didn’t want to believe. The knife missing from the pack… Carol having a totally different knife? I don’t know, maybe *I’m* just looking for someone else to be the killer. I had hoped Rick’s talk to Carol at the end was him giving her a way to confess she didn’t kill Karen and David and is just protecting the real killer. But nope, she rode off with in her wagon with giant brass balls. Where will she go? What is going to happen when Rick comes back alone to the prison? What is Daryl going to say or do? I was screaming at the television. RICK, you asshole! Don’t let her go! You need her! Will she better off without the group? Will she find something to save the survivors at the prison?
Whoever killed David and Karen, you must admit Carol is a completely different person than she was in the first season, and Carol admits it, too. It’s like she’s started a different life. She talks about Sophia like she wasn’t even her kid and then gives away the last remaining piece of her old life: her husband’s watch (or was it her watch from him?). She’s grown and changed. Don’t we all, though? She had some really valid points when talking to Rick, mainly he killed Shane. What’s the difference?
Rick has also changed. For the better? You decide. He was the leader for a long time, everyone trusted him. I think the group needs him to step up again. Carol thinks so, too. She tells him he can be a farmer, he can’t *just* be a farmer. This show blows my mind and crushes my soul all at the same time. Carol is making the hard decisions right now. She’s being the leader. And Rick let’s her go.
The symbolism (themes?) in this show is fantastic. You have to know when to let go. Bob, let go of the bag. Tyreese, let go of the Walker. Let go. Michonne has let go of her anger over the Governor and is starting to put down roots in the prison. Carol has let go of Sophia and her husband. Rick, just let go of your watch.
With Daryl and Michonne, Tyreese has no more fucks to be given. He’s being reckless and putting others in danger. Bob is putting his drinking problem in front of the others, too. His need for booze almost gets him (at least) killed. Man, the scene where Daryl goes all badass up in Bob’s face was another brilliant piece of TV. Bob, you’ve fucked Daryl over and put the people he cares about in danger. You’re dead to him.
Who is going to be the leader? The prison isn’t safe anymore, and someone needs to realize this. Quickly.
Please, watch The Talking Dead after the real show. There was some really great points discussed tonight, and I just briefly touched on them. I can’t wait until next episode. If you want a real recap, fuck you. Thanks for watching!
Thoughts:
* I think Rick from the very beginning had planned on killing Carol. The entire time he was trying to both talk himself into it and talk himself out of it. He didn’t want anyone else going with them. He then didn’t want the two weirdos coming out with, giving him a chance to be alone with her. Then he chickened out and desperately wanted that guy to come back, not for his watch, but as a reason not to have to send Carol packing.
* Shane is a horrible comparison for what Carol did. Shane was actively trying to kill him at the time. Karen & David were weak and ill and tucked away on their own. They weren’t an immediate threat. Carol just moving them around put herself (and everyone else as well) of catching that bug just by doing what she did. Given the circumstances, there was so much wrong with that decision. If they couldn’t isolate them, okay, kill them and get it over with. But you can and did. It was just unnecessary. Especially when she circumvented the counsel and the group to do it. There’s just a major difference between an immediate, present threat and a possible, controlled threat. I’d still choose newCarol over newRick to survive with. I think you could have a rational discussion with her and come out finding a middle ground where next time she doesn’t act alone. With Rick? You just don’t know what he’s doing.
* Dude. Tyrese isn’t taking the loss of Karen well at all. He’s borderline suicidal. I think he’s saveable, but I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near him until he gets his shit together.
* I’d have pushed Bob into the Zombie mob. Saving the meds: Good. Saving the booze? Fuck you. That was a rickety ass hanging and I was sure the next step was for it to collapse after all that pulling and tugging. And for what? So the asshole could get drunk? Makes me wonder if he had something to do with his being the only survivor. It wasn’t a coincidence.
* This episode was too slow again. They need to pick up the pace. Big time. I get that there’s good quality character drama going on, but that’s not do this even seasons = shitty, odd seasons = awesome thing a la Bret Saberhagen.
I think the pacing of this episode was great. Real drama takes time. I certainly wouldn’t still be watching if it was still just one scene after another of OMG Zombies and Bud Guys!
I don’t need it to be constant, but it just felt too slow. If one group is having a drama moment, the other group doesn’t need to do that at the same time. The dramatic focus could/should have been on Rick & Carol intermixed with a faster paced action of Daryl et al trying to save all their asses. The juxtaposition and irony of it would have worked out nice.
Carol’s conversation with Rick about how much she’s changed is foreshadowed when the little girl (can’t remember her name) talks about how everyone changes, you don’t get to stay the same. I don’t think we’ve seen the last of Carol, though.
We better not have. Although I hope she doesn’t resurface super soon with a miracle solution to everyone’s problems. I hate those “twists”.
Darryl is a fantastic character, especially since he’s a fabrication of the TV version (I’m told). The comic writers have to be a bit sad they didn’t think of him first.
So you don’t want her to come back in a Ford Falcon at the last minute to save Carl with the creepy dude doing the driving, her doing the shooting and when Carl follows it up by killing the Governor, she yells “Great shot kid! That was one in a million!”?
Or find a doctor with medicine that can cure the prison, or whatever else…
“I’m back! And I’ve found the cure for the walkers! But um… you’re not going to like it. Wait, you don’t like to… um… with dead people… um… right? No, you’re not going to like it.”
I’m hoping she finds a hippie commune that has discovered a way to peacefully co-exist with the walkers through love and mutual understanding.
I thought they were all too hard on Bob. If you want to risk getting bit every now and again for a bottle of booze or a balloon of heroin, so what? It’s not like the available supply will allow you to descend into a serious substance abuse problem here anyway.
Did you not see how shaky that ledge was? And they’re short on people at the moment, risking your life and possibly the others in the group like that for booze? They were being chased after all.
I will miss Carol a lot, if she’s indeed gone forever. She might be. I get the feeling the big group approach to survival is about to get broken down into small bands again, and more than just one fave character might be lost to the winds. Also supposedly there’s a spin off show in the making.
I have no idea what the spinoff will be about or who will be in it, but I heard that it’s gonna be called “Carol’s Adventures In Zombieland In An Old Taurus Station Wagon.” Or something like that.
It’s an entirely new start with all new characters somewhere else.
So my sources suck. Ok, I’ll go kill them now.
Thread tomorrow.