Valhalla

This is exactly what is ticking me off. It's the reason I stopped watching Lost (well that and it became clear the writers were just making it up as they went along). There's a fine line between building suspense and messing with viewers' heads. And Gimple's message to viewers read out on TTD was just more manipulation. If they had cut off the Glenn storyline in this episode with him and Nicholas surrounded by a sea of walkers, I'd be wondering "Oh no, how are the characters going to get out of this one?". The suspense is about the story. But instead I'm wondering whether the writers are pulling a big fake-out or not. The suspense is about the writers/producers, not the story.

Someone in another thread said that the zombies are the most realistic part of this show, and I have to agree. This bunch of absolute idiots are the luckiest group in the history of zombie apocalypses. First, they luck out by living in one of the few army-protected zones in LA. All the main characters survive despite taking numerous stupid and unnecessary risks, eg Madison's foray outside the fence. The don't even have to do light scavenging in their neighborhood, since the military delivers up all the essentials daily. They have so little to be concerned about in the midst of the apocalypse that the kids get in trouble through boredom and Mom becomes absorbed with redecorating. Then finally there's some bit of actual jeopardy but they just happen to hook up with super-rich guy because he's taken a weird shine to their junkie son AND who just happens to have a beachfront property with limited road access and a freakin' escape yacht!?!? Give me a break. I came closer to experiencing the apocalypse this last winter just living in the northeast.

After tonights episode, I realized that the ham-handed way they had Carol Lady MacBeth Rick about the whole abuse thing was just the mechanism to get Rick into that fist fight with Dr. Surgeon guy. The whole abuse storyline, which was entirely told and not at all shown, was just a not well-written mechanism for the fight and Rick's speechifying. Before tonight I thought it was just a not well-written abuse storyline. But it wasn't even that. Felt bad for Sasha because she's lost so much and she can't seem to take a break from the PTSD at ASZ like others. But I'm still mightily bothered by her childishness, like yelling at Michonne for killing the Walker which was about to gnaw on her. So, Rick wouldn't have "saved" a different woman who was what, less hot than Jessie? I hope that's not what they were trying to have Rick convey.

-- I didn't even think of, but yea....maybe they are the "Unfair Wolves". Interesting, but I'm not sure. The incompetence of the Alexandrians on the run is really hard to fake. I'd expect the unfair wolves to be really hard core, and not just in their own minds.

Bwahaha, I laughed out loud at Carol's question about the Junior League, and her self-desription of "den mother." Yeah, if den mother means the bitch from hell who taught her Story Hour charges how to kill, single handedly blew up the Termites and left Tasha Yar to die screaming being eaten up by Walkers, well then yeah she's just the head Girl Scout! I really liked this episode. Even though not much happened action-wise (I mean seriously, was anyone actually scared when walkers started lurching toward Rick and Carl? Or Tara?), all the emotional reactions from our group seemed right on line for people coming in from the cold. They are walking trauma. I get why Daryl won't shower, I just don't agree. Dude, you can still be a bad mofo after the application of some body wash -- your uncut hair will still scare off anyone alive!

Michonne was right to put a spike in Rick's initial reaction, that there was NO chance Aaron's community could be good. There's at least a chance Aaron and co. are ok. But after Woodbury and Terminus, I'd expect them to take more precautions, like leave part of the group outside as the rescue party or something. Anything besides just driving right up to the gate and everyone hopping out. After all, Woodbury had kids too. And Aaron had a bit of Gareth's Starbucks Asst Manager thing going on.

Actually, Michonne didn't say Tyreese was stupid. She said his anger made him stupid. Sasha: We can take 'em. Michonne: Your brother was pissed too, after what he lost. It made him stupid. I imagine Michonne brought Tyreese into the conversation because it was a concrete example of what happens in the ZA when you don't have control of your anger and grief. That's much more effective than just speculating that Sasha's anger might make her act stupidly. It's the example that Sasha is most likely to relate to and really, the most likely to jar her out of her anger-place. Michonne doesn't have time to conduct a therapy session with Sasha, or gently coax her into seeing the error of her ways. Just rewatched this scene, and I have to say, I really liked this moment for both the actors and the dialog. A huge amount of information and emotion was conveyed in just a very short, few sentences and facial expressions. TWD does have a tendency to maunder on about some of their emotional and philosophical conflicts (see: Season 2, entire). However, this one minute of show was jam-packed. Yes, this is right, Michonne was reacting to Sasha's comment that the group could take the Walker Wake building up behind them, before she endangered the whole group at the bridge.

My reaction to Sasha and Michonne was very different. Sasha's recklessness was endagering the whole group, she needed a wake up call. You don't get to make it all about you in the Zombie Apocalypse. And she was acting just like Tyreese when they went on that run to the Vet school (as well as other times) where he let his anger or his moral scruples endanger the whole group. I was a bit disappointed no one called her out on that explicitly.

I think this is exactly right. Rightly or wrongly, Noah feels almost entirely superfluous to his life with Helen and the kids. None of them need him (in his mind) for anything -- not financial support, not emotional support, not anything. It even explains why he followed up the discovery of his daughter's pregnancy with the announcement he wanted to leave Helen. He'd just heard Helen and Whitney talking and realized how Helen was basically saying exactly the right things to Whitney, while he had no clue what to do or say. Of course that was still a Class-A jerk move. But yet again, he's just a placeholder in his own life with Helen and their kids. I thought it was really interesting that Noah started to back off reporting Scotty to the police but ended up attacking him anyway. It actually falls out along the kind of class lines that the show keeps hammering on. Helen's "sort" of people fight things with lawyers and the authorities because the system works for them; but Noah's "sort" learn they can't really depend on getting that kind of support so are more likely to resort to settling matters themselves. I do think Noah did something to Scotty. Noah's memories have been shown to be self-serving but not outright delusional, which you would pretty much have to be to imagine you knocked someone to the ground and strangled them. Also, to get meta for a minute; the writers playing around with how people's memories change to give different shades of meaning to events is interesting, but having the characters fully invent events that didn't take place at all is just boring.

HumblePi, I thought Helen was likely talking about a miscarriage. I was really bewildered by the end. It seemed deliberately ambiguous, but came off as muddled.

Who the hell throws their pregnancy test away in the kitchen trash? Ick. Noah's part of the story does play like mid-life crisis. In other words, he's kind of a jerk. Alison's part is much more relatable. She comes across as genuinely torn about her feelings for both men, her child's death, and what she's doing with her life. On the other hand, super-double ick for sleeping with Bar Guy (I don't remember his name).

I truly thought Maggie was going to reply "Beth who?" when Michonne told her. Lauren's a decent actress but she just couldn't sell a season of sibling amnesia resulting in a grief stricken collapse. The only part that made me tear up was Darryl carrying Beth's body. I still do not get the point of the hospital arc. I get that they are trying to show other types of leadership and organization, but Dawn's characterization and even her self-rationalizations were all over the place. I think if her last articulation or example of leadership had been when she told Beth that she'd just killed that woman, it might have made some sense. That would have given Beth/we viewers a sense that she understood that power and authority can be subtle and difficult. Also, Beth might have learned that mouthing off isn't always the best way to get what you want. Instead we got 30 minutes of Dawn's incoherent blah blah blah. What was the point? Sometimes this show can do dialog so well -- like the episode with Carol, tyreese and Lizzie were there was as much unsaid but still communicated, and then there's this.