Yolapukka

Sometimes I enjoy Hardwick's enthusiasm, sometimes I want someone to shoot him in the ass with a tranquilizer dart. He gets too wound up and bouncy and becomes tone deaf as a consequence. I prefer episodes which have more than one show person on them, the solitary show person being a younger cast member is not good either. Having Kevin Smith ramble (amusingly) about oral sex right before Katelyn Nagan came on put me on edge. He's a good guest and he was appropriate when he shared the couch with her. I enjoyed her more than I thought I might and I also appreciated Paul Bettany, but I felt the balance of guests this past week was poorly considered.

I wondered about that myself, sure she may not have Sasha's sniper skills, but unless I'm very confused she is competent with firearms. The only sense I could make of that exchange was maybe it was a conversation intended for public consumption, that it referenced the "lessons" she'd been getting from Daryl when she and Rick were considering taking over Alexandria by force if the people didn't wise up about security.

They were on the other side of the car from where Enid was standing in the open door, I think they were outside of it. I saw her mother, I'm not sure if her father was out of the frame entirely or I just failed to notice him. I could see her mother through the glass, but the angle and light made it look like she was not inside. Someone had a theory that "Just Survive Somehow" indicated that Enid locked the doors when the Walkers attacked. It does make sense to me that she might have done so, not necessarily to abandon her parents but certainly once it was clear they were doomed and she needed to ensure her own safety.

I thought the woman who Jessie took out simply had her guard down and turned her back to retrieve her knife, the one she'd tried to stab Jessie with before they struggled. I'm not sure about the gender of the two people walking in front of the townhomes who Carol shot. The other two coming down the steps included the woman Carol tangled with in the armoury, she had chased her down after Carol ran out of ammo and I thought she was armed with a blade as well. At least two of the people who surrounded and attacked Morgan looked like women to me.

I still can't connect the dots in the persistent theory that Enid is with the wolves, The timelines don't make sense to me, the glimpse we had of her background story makes it even less likely and I've yet to see anything to suggest she would be aligned with a bunch of crackpot spree killers. She's a weird, unsettling kid, that's about it. The only common thread is both she and the wolves are familiar with letters of the alphabet. ZOMG!!! maybe dead-eyed little Sam is a wolf too, he sure likes that red A stamp, he even vandalized Carol's porch with it. Quite a few of the wolves were women. I thought that a point was being made by that, they weren't just a marauding gang, like Randall or Joe's people but that they were a community of some sort, maybe they have a fixed base, maybe they move about a territory. Calling themselves Wolves has a suggestion of a nomadic lifestyle to me. Either way, with a fairly even mix of men and women, I'd expect that there would have been children, at least at some point. These people do not act like anyone who has an investment in the future, something children tend to represent. Did they lose all their children or do they sacrifice them? They want to destroy what remains of humanity.

Fixing the blind spots Enid was referencing would mean tearing down the houses inside the compound. The first priority needs to be shoring up the defences of the community, which means establishing a second perimeter around the current walls. Preferably that would involve another wall, this time with supports on the inside. It also allows them use the space within the expanded community for practical purposes, like gardening. Presumably they'd also have better sight-lines to spot invaders who made it within the first tier since there are fewer buildings and some of the derelict burnt-out ones should be torn down. As well as physical security, they need food security, The teams foraging for prepared food have to travel further and further to obtain supplies, they face increased risks due to travel and eventually they'll hit a point where there is very little to glean. Crops are easy if they have the space to grow them. I doubt livestock is practical, it was a draw for walkers when they kept pigs at the prison. I'm wondering if they could even find any domestic animals still alive. Game will probably be their best source of meat.

I do not think Morgan is a weak or apprehensive character at all, nor do I think he's being made to look less than in comparison to other characters. He's getting an accelerated version of Rick's journey over the course of a few episodes. He was confronted by multiple examples of the notion that you must take out a mortal threat at any opportunity or it will come back to bite you in the ass. I just don't see those scenes being repeatedly written for him in the course of a single episode being an accident of writing that was actually trying to make him look like a damn fool. Especially when those scenes had a growing build that led to him killing one of the Wolves by the end and not just any random Wolf, but the one he first encountered at his campsite and allowed to live despite the long-winded, pompous freak's attempt to take his life. The other of those two men was among those he allowed to leave, someone who then pointedly retrieved a gun from a dead Alexandrite in front of Morgan. Unlike the rest of the people who survived the onslaught, Morgan had the demeanour of someone who was not done and was not going to rest and take a time-out to consider how he felt about it all.

I remember Abbie's dialogue indicating he was on some fairly potent stuff, which I took to mean as being treatment for the malaria exposure, possible infection from the knife wound and most especially pain medication as well. Ichabod's story about the colonial soldiers having resistance to malaria being key to particular victory just seemed like a story to me, intended to underline the specific blood-borne disease that had defeated the blade. It was definitely possible that he was saying he personally had shown prior resistance to the disease but that was not what I thought the main point of it was. I think there was a time jump between the events in the garage and Abbie being at work later on that was clumsily handled. You can do a lot of hand-waving in a show about the supernatural, but it works better if you keep the real world references grounded. I don't think we were meant to think too hard about the logistics of Abbie getting medical care for Ichabod, getting him home, dealing with generic pretty-girl victim, doing paperwork, hanging out with Reynolds over a drink and then going home to sit with Ichabod, but I think it would have been good if there had been a clearer indication of a day or more going by. The best route to seamless storytelling isn't always show don't tell, they should tell what they don't show. I would have liked it if Abbie had said that she needed to take her housemate home from the hospital as a reason for clearing out so quickly once she'd swallowed her drink.

There might be an improvement if they move it back to it's old spot, but either way they have really dropped the ball on promotion, I have noticed they have stepped it up a little, especially for the crossover. I do wonder if some of the reason for the lack of promotion is because the premiere was a weak episode that only fans would enjoy and they thought it would be a wasted effort but are willing to push the show once it works past the clunkiness from the reset.

There wasn't one point during viewing where I thought about Betsy Ross. It was only after the end that I even noticed her absence. I noticed when I wondered why the flashbacks in the episode enhanced the story rather than sucking energy out of the narrative as was the case in the first two episodes. It wasn't just the lack of Betsy, it was that they seemed brief and to the point in comparison, so therefore less intrusive. Maybe if they stopped trying so hard to charm us with showcases for her ... charms and concentrated on making the scenes work as a small part of a larger story. More actual humour, greater brevity, less "behold the awesomeness of Betsy, Isn't she awesome?" I don't know what to make of Abbie so openly taking Crane along to her crime scenes as an FBI agent, they gave it reasons to work in the first two seasons but now it seems clunky. Is that ever going to be addressed? Or is it going to be a continuous handwave? It partially worked for me because it was in keeping with the trope of the nice guy who actually sucks, because he's never going to see the pretty girl he pines for as anything other than an empty vessel for all his warped issues. Unfortunately it was also in keeping with a problem I've had with all actual and potential victims this season in that I didn't care about them. Writers! Don't make me miss season two! I mean it!!!

I have mixed feelings about it. I like them being more then side-kicks and having their own story which is not dependent on the witnesses and I appreciate that their plotline has a slow but increasing build to it. However, I liked the teamwork we saw in prior seasons and I miss it. It must be said that Joe was never part of that team and Jenny was so marginalized for much of last season that we didn't often see her interacting directly with the others, too often the communication was little more than phone calls with Abbie.

Their conversation implied he'd had medical attention between the stabbing and the couch scene. Abbie had an odd reaction to his comment about finding each other again, I didn't really know what to make of it and the comment itself was a little strange. It's covered now in roses, but blossoms on a tree usually lead to fruit, which made the metaphor often cited in American law."the fruit of the poison tree" pop into my mind. Skipping over references to evidence in law the phrase often is cited as coming from William Blakes' poem "A Poison Tree", which was inspired in part by exaggerated accounts of the upas tree which was reported to kill all living creatures within a 15 mile radius. (Of course, before it was used as a reference to evidence, it referred to the fruits of slavery.) I have no idea if the eventual use of the tree will pick up on any of that, but It does have me wondering increasingly about the meaning of that tree every episode. ETA I don't need to see everything, especially things that are a foregone conclusion, like Crane being safe, but all the same, It felt jarringly like there was a missing scene. Maybe though, it was supposed to be jarring and we were meant to be uncomfortable and impatient watching Abbie while she was at the office and then rushed through the drink and work chit-chat with her boss.

OK -The zombies who were pursuing Ron seemed to go off a sheer drop ( landing outside of the barricades) probably liquefiying what was left of their brains on landing but the ones who Rick observed dropping in to the other side seemed to be sliding down a steep incline. Probably there is a mix of immobilized zombies with those that are still ambulatory. Another good question might be why we didn't see partially destroyed crawling zombies making their way under the trucks. -I've fanwanked that helium cylinders were already on the Alexandria site because there was a planned sales event involving multiple balloon arches. -I think the sound, motion and lights from the car and motorcycle were more of a draw for those in front of the herd than balloons and those behind had more of a tendency to follow the herd that try to access something above their eye-line. The mylar sheet attracted more attention because it was at their eye-line and as well as movement, produced sound and flashes of reflected light. -Maybe there was an issue of range concerning the radios(?) Maybe it made more sense at the time to take all radios rather than leave one at the compound? It probably will seem like a terrible idea in retrospect if they took them all and can't communicate with those inside Alexandria. Also, it would be just like the Alexandrites and their head-up-the-assitude to not bother turning on or monitoring a radio. I think whomever is up in the watchtower should always have one. I'm fairly certain this will be Spencer, who is also the dude who trusted Father Pee-Pants to be responsible for closing the gate after himself. I'm all in favour of driving your SO crazy with snarky comments, my son is even better at this than myself (and I'm pretty damn snide) because he's also a loud talker. Although this hurts me. Not because as a parent I feel I should lead in all respects but because I'm sitting right next to you, kid, my ears are bleeding!

I think the writers need to sit down and marathon a season of Seinfeld. I'm not joking, for a show about nothing, they managed to jam an awful lot of plot into a half hour comedy. They managed to carry off a main plot, one or two subplots and there were often arcs that carried through several episodes or throughout the season. Right now, the Sleepy Hollow writers are at least trying to make things happen after the reductive vision of last season that shrank down the show. I will give the writers huge marks for trying to put more into an episode, but right now it's not hanging together as well as it could because the energy is being sucked out of the main plot by poor pacing.

I tended to read that as her believing him about as far as she could throw him but, it also coincided with what was useful to her when she felt Rick was not a person she could control or guide, so she put his words to use when she decided Rick was a threat to the stability of the community according to her notions of her own leadership.

Yeah though not a complete idiot, out of all the shots they could have chosen of Katrina they picked that one? That fugly thing? Katia is quite pretty in her barbie-world way, but they still managed to find a picture that was remarkably unflatterering; one in which she looks plain, is wearing a sack and appears to be a few bricks short of a load. Terrible choice of words, soulmate, partner, even goopy tripe like lady love would have been better. I agree with the clickbait idea others have mentioned.

Ron is certainly not who I think would be blowing the air-horn. For one, the running of the walkers is happening ahead of schedule, so it's debatable that he'd know to do it then. It also seems kind of a move mired in an I-hate-everyone death-wish but he's a sullen teen so I suppose there is ample precedent. Personally I think he's more inclined to show he's his father's son and start taking things out on his mom. My first thought is the Unfair Wolves are blowing their own horn to announce that their travelling zombie ass-clown theatre is about to put on a show, or the horn is a consequence of their arrival. It could be a warning siren that is set off in emergencies, or it could be the (surprisingly loud) horn of the car Enid was shown lurking inside of shortly before the sound began. Perhaps the wolves have her trapped and are baiting her or she spotted them and hid until they were clear and then blew the car horn as a warning.

That was my first thought too, but my second thought was the dead were all that was especially flammable in that pit, with one notable exception. The exception being whatever fuel and fumes were left in the trucks, so maybe the concern was that the logistics of bombing/burning the walkers was difficult and dangerous and you could wind up with the same results as deliberately releasing them only this time with an uncontrolled herd of flaming zombies moving through the woods surrounding Alexandria. As it turns out the plan went into effect early when they were at the walkthrough stage because Ricks concern about one of the trucks on the road falling came into being while they were at the quarry. If they had been able to shore up the barriers, leaving the dead in place was the best solution since the pit acted as an irresistable draw to walkers that wandered into the area surrounding Alexandria. Eventually they will decompose completely Well, one son that definitely loved him and another that was plotting to kill him. I'll question the idea that they should be using any space within their compound for a cemetary. How about a memorial inside and the graves outside perhaps within sight? That way you wouldn't have the issue of who is allowed to be buried where or empty graves when someone is killed when they are away. Meh, I'd think she was Lori 2.0 if she was hopping on the nearest alpha-male following the death of her husband and was letting her kids run wild while she searched the bushes for dick. Agreed, I didn't really like them and thought it was cheesy, but it allowed me to sort out what was happening when, otherwise the episode would have been incoherent with all the jumping around in time. As it was, at first I thought the beginning might turn out to be a dream sequence, because that's how it came off on my first watch. I didn't know what to make of that. It did echo the earlier conversation in which Rick said Carter was going to get himself killed anyway. The flipping idiot ran straight into a trapped walker's mouth. Rick putting him down quickly was ruthless, but the situation called for it. It wasn't like he was robbing him of a better Bob-style death. Bad was about to get worse. I loved the episode overall. It entertained me greatly. BTW, If I were to ship anyone with Carol, it would be Morgan. Ships rarely seem to come in on this show, so I'll be fine with whatever else, friendship, watchful rivals, I'll take it. ETA I like the idea of thinning the herd in place, but keeping some there to draw walkers away from Alexandria.

Or possibly,

I can't watch the video, it simply won't load no matter what browser I use, so I don't have access to the actual words used, but what I'm hearing repeated here is pretty ambiguous. Someone on the team switches sides could mean anything, it could mean the effects of an enchantment, it could mean a team member acting as a double agent, it could even mean a surprise return by a past character, it does not have to mean a key member of the team goes dark side, betrays the mission and we see a redemption arc or even that Betsy is the most logical candidate. We don't know that she's coming into modern times either, maybe she does, but that is based on another vaguely worded tease that could mean anything. Personally, I find that unlikely, especially as a permanent condition, but that's just me. It seems like a fairly convoluted jump to conclude that the show is retelling Katrina's arc with Betsy. The characters are nothing alike, all they have in common is corsets and acting that is offbeat in a bad way.

My theory (and I'm sticking to it) is Betsy is mainly intended to be comic relief plus a side of madcap action and eye-candy. Unfortunately someone forgot to write much in the way of actual humour into that part of the script and Nikki Reed's attempt at comic timing makes Betsy seem funny-peculiar, not funny-ha-ha. I appreciate the idea of the events of the past informing the present, but rather than support the main story, the Tales Of Betsy are so far sucking energy and momentum out of the narrative.

Well as far as I'm concerned they did just that very thing. They didn't try to talk her out of dying at that very moment to instead have meaningful time with her son or literally enjoy a last sunset. That would have meant the inconvenience of sitting vigil with her. I can't see Madison being up for that, she's too ruthless and selfish. Travis is too spineless to do anything other than go along with them after expressing a weak protest.

Meh, she's not going to shoot down a potential romance, even if she knows better, because that possibility is what is currently being teased onscreen. However, It does look awfully one-sided. *ahem*.

There are two things that will get me fan-wanking, one is something so delightful that it frequently pops up in my thoughts and the other is something that really doesn't work, so I play what-if in order to make sense of it or at least make it less dreadful, at least in my own mind. So far, Betsy is really not working, I think part of it is, the intent is humorous but that is falling flat in the writing and Nikki's awkward acting choices are not helping. So my fanwank is we'll have a MOW that essentially puts ill-wishes into effect; if you wish someone into the corn they will go into the corn. Ichabod has an increasingly annoying conversation with a bartender who looks like his former partner, Betsy, she has no interest in the history Ichabod references and he gets persnickety and tells her he wishes she could experience the events she couldn't be bothered to learn. Blah-blah-blah conveniently wearing a corset, blah-blah marries a gay upholsterer patriot named Ross which enables her to have agency as an adventurer blah. And actually it is a bit like River Song because she and Ichabod encounter each other on different trajectories through time. There is no active romance, because Ichabod finds her to be an annoying nutbar in both timelines, though he does have the good grace to feel guilty over the successful ill-wishing. But really I think it's just bad acting and writing that over-relies on visual bits of nonsensical business over anything well considered.

If Betsy is from the present day, I think it would be a hoot if all she knows about the history she is living is only the sketchiest idea of events because she didn't like the subject in school and gave it little attention. It would have to be revealed in a conversation with Ichabod, because his reaction would be gold.