Episode 4: Some Guy
Here we are in the fourth episode and we're still in the same tv-time day! This season just might exacerbate the Carl's-Age Discrepancy. It's only been a few years since the apocalypse began in tv time, yet Carl has aged about five years more than he should have. We'll just pretend he's an early bloomer, but it's hard to ignore when the actor is on Twitter talking about being able to do new things as an adult!
Aaanyway, yes, we're picking back up where we left off and hopefully finishing out this dreadful tv day. We're back at the outpost where the battalion from The Kingdom has just been mowed down, watching an injured Ezekiel crawl out from beneath the pile of protectors who literally took bullets for him. Carol has not only survived but managed to sneak inside, where she mows down a handful of Saviors packing up some savage weaponry to take back to The Sanctuary. Their goal becomes clear: stop this shipment from reaching it's destination.
Alvaro (redshirt Kingdom member) comes out of nowhere to help Ezekiel hobble to safety on his jacked-up leg, but is taken out quickly leaving Ezekiel to his own devices. Savior peon Gunther (which can't help but make us think of Gunther from Central Perk), finds Ezekiel and starts marching him back toward The Sanctuary. Apparently there is a bounty on each of the leaders' heads because Negan wants The King, The Widow, and Rick taken alive. It doesn't last long, because just when it looks like Gunther is about to lose his composure and kill Ezekiel, trumpets sound as Jerry comes to the rescue to battle-axe Gunther in half. Okay, trumpets didn't really sound, but they should've.
Jerry and Ezekiel are trapped between a chained gate and a horde of walkers, many of which are turned Kingdom subjects. Carol is still inside the fence in a fire fight with a handful of Saviors who've been loading those weapons for transport. She makes the ultimate decision to let the Saviors get away so she can rescue Jerry and Ezekiel... But never fear! Rick and Daryl are nearby to intercept the shipment and run the truck off the road where they can kill the remaining Saviors and take the loot.
Jerry, Ezekiel, and Carol set off on foot but are quickly surrounded by walkers in a ravine. This scene becomes one of the most surprisingly heart-breaking ones so far... especially if you love animals. If you haven't guessed by now, Shiva meets her end pouncing in last minute to save the trio, but in the process becomes Walker Chow herself. ðŸ˜
Is it bad that we felt more upset about Shiva than we did Eric? Because if we're being completely honest here, we did, a little bit.
After all the carnage, Ezekiel no longer wants to pretend to be "King". He reveals that he was a lowly zoo keeper in his past life who only earned Shiva's trust by saving her life in a pinch one day. He clearly feels guilty that he led these folks, and Shiva to boot, to slaughter, but Jerry is having none of it. They need a leader, and Ezekiel is still it. The episode ends as the three hobble mournfully back through the gates of The Kingdom to relay to the residents what has happened.
The pacing is still holding steady even though we're not quite out of that first day of All Out War yet. There are still lulls in the action (it would be exhausting otherwise) but we're not totally camped out at one location or another. Rick & Daryl especially seem to be popping up whenever help is needed so there's always that buddy dynamic going on to some degree. The biggest complaint we're hearing has to do with these gun battles and how unrealistic they've become. They always have been (the ever present joke of the inexhaustible supply of ammo), but now we're talking about a lot of fire power missing it's mark... *all* the time. Carol fought against no less than five saviors and was still able to sneak away unscathed, while Rick and Daryl were able to avoid taking a substantial hit just by swerving and ducking. We're hearing rumbles that the gun battles are becoming so ridiculous that some long term fans are starting to be turned off of the show entirely.
The above definitely does not describe us, however. We are still engaged, still anxious to see how the rest of the war unfolds and what lie beyond... and next week, we get to find out what Negan does to Gabriel!! We're excited...
Are you?
www.WalkingDeadFamily.com
Monday, November 13, 2017
Monday, November 6, 2017
The Walking Dead: Season 8 Episode 3 WDF Review
Episode 3: Monsters
For an episode that felt like it had a lot in it, we didn't progress much in our story line this week. We wrap up Eric's story line (we all knew he'd not survive that sort of injury), see Morgan continue to battle his demons (and displace his aggression toward Jesus in an epic fight scene), watch Ezekiel and Carol overly enjoy what at first appears to be a great success for the Kingdom's regiment, see Maggie deal with Gregory awkwardly showing back up at Hilltop after selling them all out (followed shortly afterward by a small army of Saviors whom have been taken by Jesus as Prisoners of War), and watch Rick try to bargain with Morales before Daryl puts him down once and for all.
All of that and we're still in the same day (tv-time wise) we started the season in, and we're not done with "today" yet. We're basically past the initial offensive and back to where we started, less a LOT of Saviors and a handful of Team Family (mostly redshirts), ready to regroup before the next plan of attack... except for Carol, Ezekiel, and the Kingdom's group who are caught in an ambush at the end of the episode, and picking back up with how they get out of that scrape is where we start Episode 4.
It's fairly clear who the "Monsters" are in each scenario. The most surprising is that Tara, Morgan, and Daryl are turning out to be the ones who only see in black & white. It's the whole you're either with us or you're against us and will soon be dead type of thing. This time around Rick and Jesus are the ones trying to retain a shred of humanity by not automatically killing Saviors on sight. While they recognize the distinction between "worker bee" and "soldier boy", the others just want them all gone. As we're all becoming far too aware, the only way to ensure someone doesn't come back to bite you is ending it on the spot (twice if necessary).
Now that Eric is gone, Aaron may join Group No-Nonsense in what seems to be an all-too-familiar character arc... you lose someone you love, you go stone cold crazy for a while, then you come back to reality just in time to possibly be axed yourself. We leave him in a strange place, though, having volunteered to take Gracie, the baby Rick found at the Saviors' outpost, back to Hilltop with him as he visibly grieves the loss of Eric. So now we have two babies and a pregnant lady in the apocalypse. Well, we needed to start over somewhere, since we chomped right through the last group of kids we had (at the prison).
Next week's episode is the half-way point to the mid-season break and it appears to be more of the same, inching toward a climax of some sort that we hope will just knock our socks completely off and across the room once we get there. When this is all over we're going to need a "party" episode to take a breath with, where the group just enjoys a big feast, a hot shower, and gossip about Mrs. Niedermeyer.
www.WalkingDeadFamily.com
For an episode that felt like it had a lot in it, we didn't progress much in our story line this week. We wrap up Eric's story line (we all knew he'd not survive that sort of injury), see Morgan continue to battle his demons (and displace his aggression toward Jesus in an epic fight scene), watch Ezekiel and Carol overly enjoy what at first appears to be a great success for the Kingdom's regiment, see Maggie deal with Gregory awkwardly showing back up at Hilltop after selling them all out (followed shortly afterward by a small army of Saviors whom have been taken by Jesus as Prisoners of War), and watch Rick try to bargain with Morales before Daryl puts him down once and for all.
All of that and we're still in the same day (tv-time wise) we started the season in, and we're not done with "today" yet. We're basically past the initial offensive and back to where we started, less a LOT of Saviors and a handful of Team Family (mostly redshirts), ready to regroup before the next plan of attack... except for Carol, Ezekiel, and the Kingdom's group who are caught in an ambush at the end of the episode, and picking back up with how they get out of that scrape is where we start Episode 4.
It's fairly clear who the "Monsters" are in each scenario. The most surprising is that Tara, Morgan, and Daryl are turning out to be the ones who only see in black & white. It's the whole you're either with us or you're against us and will soon be dead type of thing. This time around Rick and Jesus are the ones trying to retain a shred of humanity by not automatically killing Saviors on sight. While they recognize the distinction between "worker bee" and "soldier boy", the others just want them all gone. As we're all becoming far too aware, the only way to ensure someone doesn't come back to bite you is ending it on the spot (twice if necessary).
Now that Eric is gone, Aaron may join Group No-Nonsense in what seems to be an all-too-familiar character arc... you lose someone you love, you go stone cold crazy for a while, then you come back to reality just in time to possibly be axed yourself. We leave him in a strange place, though, having volunteered to take Gracie, the baby Rick found at the Saviors' outpost, back to Hilltop with him as he visibly grieves the loss of Eric. So now we have two babies and a pregnant lady in the apocalypse. Well, we needed to start over somewhere, since we chomped right through the last group of kids we had (at the prison).
Next week's episode is the half-way point to the mid-season break and it appears to be more of the same, inching toward a climax of some sort that we hope will just knock our socks completely off and across the room once we get there. When this is all over we're going to need a "party" episode to take a breath with, where the group just enjoys a big feast, a hot shower, and gossip about Mrs. Niedermeyer.
www.WalkingDeadFamily.com
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