LilySilver

Agreed. All I could think was that it would have been so much more complex to have the candle flicker into flame just as Brienne learned of Stannis' presence, thus requiring her to choose and revealing so much about her character, priorities, and motivations. Just as it would have been so much more complex, imo, to have Thorne suspicious or even aware of the mutiny at hand, but not directly involved--showing perhaps some conflict in his face while he ultimately chose not to intervene. I wanted him to be more complicated than he was so that we could fully appreciate how serious and alarming John Snow's decisions would have been to men of the night's watch. Which would allow the viewers to more fully appreciate both John's courage, his likely naivete, and his ultimate prescience. Hum. The walk was well done but WAY too long. And the haircutting scene---did we really have time to waste in this eppy?! I would have preferred a minor nod to Sansa's strength as well, if Theon's final lines had been hers, or if she had grabbed his hand and led him to the parapet. Would have made a world of difference to me. I did find myself feeling unexpectedly proud of Theon, though in general I find him irredeemable and deserving of his fate. I do appreciate the complexity his character is given in competing loyalties, daddy issues, etc. I had to restart HBOgo mid episode and it just happened to restart seconds before Myranda's "fall". I wouldn't have chosen to view it twice, but have to admit I enjoyed it just as much the second time. WHY would Sansa drop that corkscrew?! (ETA, "Auger", correct. jfc. ctfd. "Item that might be used as a weapon and is marginally better than nothing" was my point. I know the difference between an auger and a corkscrew, and know that it makes absolutely no difference in this context. Breathe, berry.) Ugh. Not that it would likely make an effective weapon, but better than nothing. For that matter, why not pick up an arrow or two whilst hustling by barrels full of them? I just want her to be a little smarter, tougher. ETA: *IF* Stannis is alive, it's because Brienne wants to punish his accomplice in Renly's murder and will carry him to the wall where his king's blood might be of use...Maybe. Not sure I care anymore whether Jon Snow is dead, DEAD dead, or if L + R = J. Did we get the ridiculous prison scene with Bronn just so he'd know about the antidote and save Myrcella? God, when Ellaria kissed her full on the lips I was running for a wet wipe to hand through the screen. But no one in Dorne though anything of it?! Really lame.

Maybe she (like me) was just trying to forget Andrea and her story line altogether... ? I don't know. Benefit of the doubt?

You see this endcap at a home decor superstore and can't stop giggling. Wistfully, you wish your pretend friends from TWoP/Previously TV forums could be there to share the moment. You pay no mind to the other shoppers giving you the side eye as you laugh out loud and snap a pic.

This makes total sense. Although I would add that to me Emily Kinney comes across as younger than she is, as well, so that may have been part of it, and certainly part of why I felt worse for her than I might have someone else. She talks and acts like she is maybe 19, and not in a bad way, but she does seem emotionally young to me. I still think it's weird the way they interacted and wonder if they left on awkward terms....Most people (strangers) would have patted her on the shoulder or something, at the very least. Hardwick was beside himself, lol, and I would have loved to know what he was thinking. I guess what it comes down to is that Kirkman presents himself as enjoying the power he holds over the show, the characters, the audience. It's triggering for me, due to the whole "Lost" debacle where the writers were just too too clever for us all...ugh. Really, I don't need big payoff from a show once I'm invested, but I do want it to make sense and give me something to think about.

No, it's not his problem at all, but there is a basic human way to handle it, especially if it's someone you have worked with and who you wrote out of the show. I was uncomfortable that she was so upset to begin with, but Kirkman's reaction seemed like a 13-year-old boy's, not a successful author/screenwriter/showrunner's. It just irked me. It was so much more awkward for Hardwick to cross over to her to give her a hug than it would have been for Kirkman to just put his arm around her. Clearly the relationship (and the social skills) wasn't there. Anyone else sitting next to her, I thought, would have helped her pull it together rather than just sitting there with a weird look on his face. As for Emily, yes, I wish she had not been so emotional but I got the feeling that some of her upset WAS from sitting next to him. Why was she still so upset this far down the line? It does sound like she was abruptly informed of her character's immediately impending death. Is that how they always do it? Maybe she's just still mad about the way it was handled, I don't know. Sometimes I cry when I'm mad. Mostly I scream obscenities, but sometimes, you know, a little teary. Lauren Cohan was crying on TD when Herschel died, so it's not a first. I don't mind killing off characters either. I mean it hurts! But it's part of the show, as with GOT. And I have really liked some of the episodes Kirkman's responsible for. What I said was that I don't like him (as in he just bugs), and I don't trust him to do right by the characters/storyline long term. In his interviews he often seems to be saying that any character development is simply a manipulation to get to the payoff of feeling shocked or saddened by the character's death. Of course it isn't; of course it can't be. He has to get that as a writer. Yet it's what he heavily implies time and again. Okay, his characters, his show. But I think it's a poor way to treat an audience and a poor way to keep a show interesting, unless you think your audience is just in it for the shock and gore (which surely some are--just that I ain't). Add to that the apparent insistence that the show follow the comics, which I think needs to handled with an eye toward what the show *is* rather than what it's based on, and I don't feel very hopeful that the quality of the show will remain high. Or watchable, which is really the low bar I'm using. If the characters and their struggles aren't the driving force of the show, but rather just tools (looking at you, Major Moobs) and cogs in an endless stream of pointless plotlines--if characters are not written consistently and continue to be used as a means to an end, then it's just not interesting to me. Not that there can never be inconsistencies. Writing is hard! But the impression I get from Kirkman's interviews (and it may just be a miscommunication, but it's pretty consistent in the way he presents it) is that he sees himself as a puppet master, and he decides which strings to pull not based on choreography (characterization and crafted conflict driving the plot), but by which will give him the biggest immediate shock/pain payoff from the audience. 'Specially in a MSF, ya'll! I don't like it.

Exactly why I felt so awful for Emily Kinney having to sit next to him in the midst of her little emotional breakdown... "Smug" is definitely the right word, I and I don't trust him to do right by characters for whom it seems I have greater affection and respect than he does---and they are his own creations. I think it's weird how he giggles about how "everybody dies," and doesn't seem aware that it's those characters that keep an awful lot of us coming back in spite of the gore, instead of vice-versa. Not that I can't handle it if characters die--any of the characters, really, if it's done properly (properly for Rick would of course involve my weeping body draped gracefully over his as he confessed with his dying breath that he had always secretly loved me too...and I'd need creative input as to the lighting and music)--Kirkman just seems so callous to the human element of the story, and so jazzed and impressed with himself over the gore and hopelessness. There's nothing wrong with a zombie story that's just about horror and gore, but it's not something I would ever watch. No one who knows me can believe I watch TWD as it is--for me it's all about the humanity, survival, and relationships. Kirkman doesn't seem to get that at all. As he sat there on TD with Emily in a puddle of tears next to him, with that smug expression, I swear I wanted to jab a teensy pair of scissors into his...upper arm? Ha. Take that, ye basterd. As Nurse Gigi said, when they can't take the time and care to do justice to the the characters and opt for the quickest contrivance available just to get the quick payoff/shock value, I feel cheated. There has to be enough to bring me back in spite of the gore and the bleak outlook. Don't be lazy, writers. I can forgive a lot, but it's been a pretty steady pattern of sacrificing the integrity of what we know of the characters.

I was just coming here to say that. It distracted me to the point that Beth's death probably impacted me less than it would have otherwise. I'm trying to think of a production reason that it would have been so important to shoot the scene in the hallway, and to make the exchange in that manner, and with the entire "away team" right there together with no one left back if things went wrong? Not hardly. Not Rick Grimes. Yes, thanks Kikismom. I would think we'd be seeing other RV camps dotting the landscape here and there--it wasn't a bad idea. Or fortifications of suburban neighborhoods....I guess there aren't that many people left? I think I remember reading that the showrunners were assuming that 1 in 5,000 survived, initially. Anyway, they make it seem like everyone left is either helpless ninnies (Woodburyites, wards, FPP, and fruit hippies) or eeeeeevil. Or cartoony like our new folks (who are also ninnies if you ask me--except the lovely Miss Rosita.) It seemed like the group with Martinez was a little dumb, too, but within the range of normal until the Governor returned. Did all the good, solid, smart, badasses left in Georgia just happen to end up with Rick?

It's that question of balance--it wasn't the pace or lack of action at the farm that got to me (there was actually a lot of action; I binge-watched that season so I never felt as claustrophobic about it as some did), but the fact that it veered toward soap-opera, that the the speechifying was out of balance with actual, more natural, character development. But as I've said before, one of the top five most moving scenes to me was at the farm, with Rick yelling, "Brother, don't do this!" to Shane. I did think that the Shane/Rick relationship managed some nuance which was given in small expressions, a twitch of Shane's eye, Rick's anger at Lori, Shane's confusion and rage at being the one to sacrifice his humanity to save Carl....Gee, now that I think of that part of the season, I guess I did like the season at the farm. But not the speechifying. God, not that. And that was what more than half of this midseason episode seemed to consist of to me--mostly Dawn speechifying, then the other rapey cop speechifying, and even Tyreese speechifying. I think even new Bob speechified as he lay dying iirc. But I get that it's difficult to write nuanced behavior and conversations and be sure you're communicating what you want to as writer. Me neither, but continuing to take precious episodes to worldbuild with characters I don't care about isn't going to work for me. I guess my question about the series of Big Bads is simply why don't we also meet groups more like CDB along the way? It seems like some of them would be getting it (closer to) right. Maybe we're just unlucky in who we run into.... I know it would muck things up narratively, but couldn't we bump into a nice group of folks who would let CDB stay in their isolation cell for the night and then usher them safely along their way? Or something? Or evidence that such people had existed? In fact that was a complaint I had when the whole Woodbury thing went down--I would have thought that someone would have at least tried to put things back together. I guess Morales did, but then along came "Brian." Anyway, I understand the complications in trying to set up a functioning society now. Do we have to keep reviewing it? I hope not but I don't see an alternative. I liked Beth just fine too. I liked what she represented to the group, and to Daryl in particular. I liked that in that particular case, she did save him. I think she had value. But I wasn't particularly attached to her, and I have never really cared much for Maggie either, so it was only in the loss I felt for the other characters that her death particularly got to me. Oh, and having to watch Emily cry on TD was also excruciating. Sitting next to Kirkman of all people (why didn't they set her in the middle so that somebody could put an arm around her without Chris having to awkwardly cross the set to do it?!) She does seem younger than she is. I really share your feeling about things getting too dark. I had to work myself up to start watching again when the season started. Part of the reason I love Rick is that he is relatable--I like to think that he is acting and feeling much as I would do in his place, in general--certainly there are certain decisions where we diverge. (And I like to think I'd pay a little more attention to hygiene.) If he gets too dark or brutal, he will lose a lot of his appeal for me. I love Michonne but don't think she would carry the show for me (she doesn't seem conflicted at all; very peaceful with who she is and what must be done vs. what cannot be done), Carl grates on my nerves, Daryl...well he might could be interesting enough to keep me watching if he were a bit fleshed out, Tyreese needs to get off my screen now, I like Sasha as a stalwart soldier, FPP could keep my attention for an episode or two with his shirt possibly off (can I say that? So sexist.), Glenn and Maggie are boring, Tara is silly, I love Rosita, and Abraham is stupid. I still miss Merle. So I'm kind of relying on Rick here to retain his humanity, which is what makes the show watchable for me. If he isn't a little broken by losing Beth like that, he won't be the Rick I think I know. He will be too dark. I think the farm and the prison, though, did serve a sort of a touchstone for the whole "family". They had, for a moment, peace and relative safety. They had a home, they know it's possible, and I think they will want to find it again at some point. It's been shown to be nearly impossible to maintain, but maybe they could have a little bit better emergency meetup plan the next time, and just prepare for the next big Baddie to show up.

So I guess the big bads we keep having to endure are to function as character foils---"Here's where the Governor went wrong...Here's where Terminus cracked....Here's Dawn's overreaction/weakness...." as opposed to the fine tuning Rick, and the group along with him, have had to do. Yet all of those "bad" folks were able to sustain reasonable safe, stable existences more effectively than our group has done. I assume I'm supposed to come to the conclusion that being good is hard, and the only way to be "safe" in this world is to be evil... I just hope the show isn't always about the next Big Bad, though I suspect it will be. And they can't be on the road forever, so I'm interested to see if/where they make a new "home." How many times can the show explore the question of "how far is too far?" and "can you come back?" I really am interested to see where they take it, but I don't like nor trust Kirkman, and I do still have that "Lost" PTSD thing happening, so I'm wary as well and not getting my hopes up, especially after the past few episodes which have been uneven at best, imo. Who am I kidding? Rick shaves and Daryl gets a bath, I get a good solid 5 minutes of Michonne in an episode, and all is forgiven.

Agree with all of this. The thing about Bob's leg bothered me on the night of the big BBQ--seemed like all of them (were there, like, 5 or 6 termites there?) had a big hunk of meat. Does a human calf really have that much meat on it? I thought at the time... And now we see the leg and you can't even tell it's been eaten off of...Annoying. Usually I am just grossed out by how dirty they all are, but in this episode, the Rick Grimes' determination and focus were hot enough to overcome the (imagined) stench as well as my revulsion at that beard. Hot, hot, hot. I loved the kiss on the forehead, reclaiming Beth into the group. Darryl's reaction along with Rick's gutted me, but honestly the greasy hair and the filthy face are getting close to making Darryl's facial expressions impossible to read. The image of Darryl holding Beth's small, dead body had me sobbing, though. SO, the nail through Gabriel's foot was just so that he'd be slowed down enough not to be able to outrun the herd of walkers, thus leading them back to the church? Hum. So I guess he won't be dying of tetanus after all.... I wondered if Morgan had gone to the prison to find Rick (didn't Rick leave him directions?), then came upon Terminus and followed the marks from there? Kirkman's comments on TD made me worried--I was nothing but happy to see Morgan again until Kirkman suggested maybe he could be dangerous to our group. As for the talk vs. action--for me it's not that I don't like talk or character development, as I love both when well done. But as mentioned above, action can provide great character development when done well (as EVERY SECOND with Rick was in this episode) whereas endless jabber about the latest big-bad storyline has me in tears. Not in a good way. I just didn't care about the caricatures at the hospital. I do love the shot of the clean hospital hallway, with all of the wards choosing to stay put rather than go with filthy (hawt) Rick and filthy (just filthy) Darryl and their rag-tag, dangerous looking band. In fact that's the one thing I've enjoyed about this season, is being forced to look at my beloved peeps through the eyes of strangers. Gabriel is absolutely terrified of all of them (or was, until he realized that they had done what they had to do in reaction to what this world has become). Looking at them from his perspective, they do seem to be monsters. And in the hospital hallway, the stark difference in existences is on display. Do you want to claw and scratch and have blood all over you like those people? Or do you want to be clean and "safe" and put up with some bullying....and beatings....oh and maybe an occasional rape? For those not enduring the actual rape, the choice was probably an easy one. "I ain't going ANYWHERE with those people!" ETA: count me in for the "just can't" with Tyreese. He is going to get someone killed. Again. And this time it might be someone I care more about than Bob. The big blue eyes though. I might have to rewatch just the Rick scenes. Alone. By myself.

I was neutral on Beth, knew her time was probably up, but didn't want her to die. But what got me about it was Daryl's face and Rick's face. God, they just watched sweet little Beth, who they were so happy to have just gotten back, get shot in the head. Just like that. Right in front of them. Brutal. Rick's face killed me. And yes, Rick was especially hot in this episode. I think Morgan is still some time behind our group--the grass had grown up around the bbq pit, I thought. Yes! Who was it who called that the map would show up and Morgan would follow them? I love it!

oh, Thorin Oakenshield, yes! I'll follow you every time!! Wait. Sorry, distracted by the commercial breaks which are so far superior to this interminably slow storyline. I guess this is all so that we will find the final segment super intense and action-packed by comparison....great strategy showrunners! I feel like I'm getting screwed; don't I have some laundry to do?! Did love the "They're close," though. Heee. So deadpan Rick. Sexay, even through that silly fuzzy beard.

Ohh, here we go with Tyrese's moment of self awareness! Yay!! The most interesting thing to happen so far!! Talk talk talk. Action, pls.

Halfway into the midseason finale and I'm bored to tears and vaguely annoyed. Super!

As the walkers were pouring out of that building next to the firetruck, politely single file, was I the only one shouting at my TV, "SHUT THE FUCKING DOOR!!"? Morons.

Well, I think it depends on how far you are from larger population centers, and just how far up in the mountains or wilderness you go. The mountainous wilderness in the western United States is vast beyond imagining. It's not just a few square miles. Zombies are focused only on feeding, and would gather and move in groups based on the availability of food (ha. presumably. I speak as if it's a scientific fact. Well, let's just say, "It is known.") That a whole group of them would wander up into, say, the Bob Marshall Wilderness, sticking together, shambling along up steep mountainsides for hundreds of miles, finding something to eat that they could catch to keep them going, and continue roving until they found a very small encampment of a very few people seems unlikely to me. Certainly it would be a much more rare event that what you might see on a lovely old farm outside a large population center. There are millions of zombies there in a small geographical area to begin with. In Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, we're only talking a few million--across those three huge states just as one example--to begin with. The trade-off would be the lack of readily available resources for scavenging, and in most remote areas a difficult winter climate. I think you'd be more likely to starve to death than encounter a horde of zombies up in the remote mountains. Best to be a small group who could feed themselves by trapping, fishing, and some hunting of larger game.

Noah told Beth he had been at the hospital for a year, so it doesn't work with the timeline of when we last saw Morgan, unless he takes awhile to decide to leave and sees Rick, Carl, and Michonne in the interim. I will be a little irritated if Noah just happens to be Morgan's nephew, among millions of people. That would be silly, I think. I am enjoying this idea of the parallels between the hospital group and CDB, though. Clearly Dawn and Hanson were fairly close, pictured together pre-ZA. He was someone she respected, at least. She felt she had to take him out--ala Shane, as others have pointed out. Rather than "banishing" (still using that word under protest) group members who harm other members of the group (Gorman/Carol--though very different motives, yes--or even the group's unwillingness to accept Merle) Dawn takes the path of least resistance, justifying her choices with ends-justify-the-means type "greater good" arguments and dehumanizing herself and the cute little wards in the process. In the hospital we hear the echo of "everyone has a job to do," but at the prison it was real work willingly done for the good and survival of the family. Work done to keep the community healthy and alive and even happy. At the hospital, it's busy-work done to pay off manufactured debt (debt created when you get kidnapped and forced to submit to medical treatment, receive meals, etc.)--or work done to save your own hide, make yourself important, like the Doctor does. Or self-serving, predatory work like Gorman does. Dawn makes decisions that can't be questioned, from her pressed blue suit and her failure to come to grips with the reality staring her in the face. Rick gives up his uniform, faces the new world, and struggles with making decisions....struggles mightily, our dear Clutterbuck does. Nor does he worry at all about keeping things "neat". Rick keeps it real, whatever other complaints I might have about him. (Okay, except, you know, when he's all..."Operator? Uh, can you help me place this call? 'Cause I can't read the number that you just gave me..." Except for then.) So Beth can make a choice. She can trade her freedom for the appearance of safety, the way the Doctor has done and surely others have done. I wish they had shown us a few more of those others in a way we could understand and compare to Joan's, Noah's, and Beth's experiences of the place. I wish they had shown us why they so very much need more people there (wouldn't have been difficult) and shown us what power Dawn held over the rapey officers than kept them from overthrowing her. The subject came up repeatedly, but I think the only explanation we really got was the Doctor saying she had saved them all from Hanson's bad decision making....? I might have missed it, I was multi-tasking through the whole episode. Still, I like the opportunity to see that Beth does not choose the path of least resistance, and she doesn't choose suicide. She looks angry when Dawn implies she is too weak for this world and therefor should be happy to serve the rapey officers in payment for keeping her safe and fed. Did we have to go there with the guinea pigs? I suppose there might be some available at a research hospital (among other animals), and they are in fact used as a food source in other parts of the world. But all I could see was my first-grade class pet Squeaky. On a spit. Why not rats? Plenty of them in Atlanta, I'm sure.

Yes, and frustratingly improbable that she and Noah would lower themselves into a pit of walkers without weapons, save for the gun she only recently acquired by happenstance (and which gun is probably what alerted everyone to their attempted escape). We've seen that many things can be made into weapons to use against walkers, so I kept waiting to see the part of her bed that she's fashioned into a shiv, or at least a butterknife she'd stolen from the cafeteria! Barring that, I expected her to yank a broken bone from one of the bodies at the bottom of the shaft and tell Noah to do the same. Poor planning, Beth!

I didn't understand the part about Gorman saying she should have been his either--I mean I understood that he thought so, but I didn't understand what kept him from "having" her. Dawn wanted the doctor to save the guy because the guy was also a doctor, so more valuable than most injured people they find. The Doctor didn't want to save him because he recognized him, knew he was a doctor (after Beth discovered the patient's identity and called the Doctor on it, he admitted the man was an oncologist from another hospital, whom he had known pre-ZA), and didn't want to compromise his own importance/power in the hospital group by adding another doctor on the scene. The Doctor didn't necessarily know that Dawn knew the guy was also a doctor, and Dawn seemed to want to keep that a secret from the Doctor, since she really refused to give him a good reason to try hard to save him, just insisting that he did so. Beth then finds the man's wallet in Dawn's office when looking for the key, with his hospital I.D., and she realizes what happened, why the doctor purposely had her kill the patient. I'm not a big Beth fan, and I didn't love nor hate this episode. But Beth knocks a guy over the head hard enough to knock him down if not out, keeping herself from being raped. She has thought quickly enough to see that Joan is reanimating and will finish the job for her. She sends Dawn into the scene to create a distraction so that she and Noah can use the plan she concocted (remember when she was looking at her sheets in her room?) to lower themselves down the shaft, where she protects them both through a horde of walkers and almost succeeds at effecting both their escapes. She "rescued" Noah, who has been there for a year. So yes, perhaps members of CDB will ultimately ride in and save her, but it seems to me that in the short time she's been there she's shown enough gumption for me to believe that she'd manage to get herself out eventually. She is certainly not waiting on anyone to come after her; she didn't go to Noah to help! please save! her--she went to him with a plan that involved his access to the laundry. I don't think we were supposed to see her as doe-eyed, but rather pretty clever, tough, and resourceful. Cute young blonds can be those things. With all the problems this episode had holding things together (from my perspective), Beth coming off as a Disney Princess just wasn't one of them.

I'm not spoiler tagging this because I thought this was the spoiler thread, but the following is a synopsis of next week's eppy so don't read it if you don't want to be spoiled....? Please lmk if I'm just not understanding how this thread is supposed to function. From wetpaint via The Spoiling Dead Fans FB page: What happens in episode 5. "Self Help"? Episode 5 follows Abraham (Michael Cudlitz), Eugene (Josh McDermitt), Rosita (Christian Serratos), Tara (Alanna Masterson), Glenn Rhee (Steven Yeun), and Maggie Greene (Lauren Cohan) in their church bus trip after leaving Father Gabriel’s House of Horrors at the end of Episode 3. That footage was filmed before Carol (Melissa McBride) and Daryl’s (Norman Reedus) Not-So-Excellent Adventure, which is still expected to be Episode 6 showing what happened to them while they were out in the world, and why Noah (Tyler James Williams) from the Beth hospital storyline is the one who returned to the church with Daryl. This attempt to reach D.C. should include a church bus crash (sorry 'bout your ride, Father G!), a trip to a fire station with Eugene hosing down walkers, a flashback to Abraham’s dark comic-book-heavy backstory, and most likely flashbacks to how the Washington, D.C. trio came together in Texas, before we met them in Georgia in Season 4. Heck, maybe we’ll even get to see some of the Abraham/Rosita romance, since they are said to be dating but we’ve yet to see how this odd couple became an item. All of those backstories are meant to be coming this season....... Check out the rest of the article here: http://www.wetpaint.com/walking-dead/articles/2014-10-31-season-5-what-happens-episode5

I think the reviewer's first language is not English. That explains some of the painful syntax, but not the vacuous content :). Though I didn't hate "Still", it didn't leave me quite as breathless as it did this reviewer! I'll read anything to get my spoiler fix. Obvs. Another new cast member in "Noah" ? I will lose track of them all!

Clearing a small southern town's square, as they did in Woodbury, and working their way out to clear an ever increasing area is the best and most workable idea, imo. You can farm plant/farm in yards and parks. It's easy to fortify as the buildings themselves provide walls, and a street can be easily blocked by a few large vehicles. It was perfect! You could never keep hold of it without doing some dark deeds, but there's no need for toothless zombie gladiators or zombie head aquariums. There are plenty of semis, plenty of hay bales, plenty of tires, plenty of heavy equipment and since gas doesn't go bad in this universe, they could easily move them into place as needed. As I've said before, I'd watch that show! But it wouldn't be TWD. I'm just hoping Major Moobs & Co. doesn't swallow my t.v. this season. I want (always) more Michonne, more Sasha now that she's becoming somebody. More Father Pee Pants, PLEASE!! Heck, more Beth. But please hold the Ginger for now. Please. Until you can get some better dialogue written for him, at least. I love this. I'm going with this theory. In his mind, it all happened slowly--in slow motion; in reality, perhaps it happened very quickly. Over the months, he convinces himself that he could have saved them all if he hadn't been such a coward, if he had just opened the doors. I think this is consistent with what PTSD can do to events in one's memory. For that to happen and then for him to be left alone, with an abundance of supplies.....all alone for so long, makes sense to me. In any case, I appreciate the eye candy and I'm interested to see how this man reacts now that he is exposed, in every way, to the horrors of the ZA world. I hope they take some time and care in developing this character. So much potential. (Speaking of PTSD, memories of Lost are creeping in now....must...not...put....faith....in....showrunners......)

Advance review from spoilertv.com http://www.spoilertv.com/2014/10/the-walking-dead-slabtown-advance.html It doesn't sound like Beth dies, but maybe this reviewer is just playing his cards close to the vest? ETA: Am I the only one for whom the title: "Advance Preview" grates? But yes I will slog through the writing as it is to get my fix. Sick, sick, sick.

Like scorpions--In my house? GROSS!! Encased in Lucite with a little glitter floating around in there for effect? Niiiice. I'll pay 13.99 for that shit every time. I know long-term fortification against marauding humans gets to be the most complicated part of survival at some point--gathering enough ammo, building moats or walls or whatever so that stupid fucking governors with stupid fucking tanks don't ruin your fucking farm!!!!!!!!!!! Argh. Okay. Deep breath. But as far as being able to keep zombies out so that you can get things set up, work on your perimeter, park buses and semis and stack bales of hay etc. to make a good solid wall (yes I've overthought this), it just isn't rocket science. Heck a few bundles of t-posts (or some sharpened poles made from sapling for that matter) and a couple rolls of barbed wire would go a long way in creating a quick, even somewhat portable, first line of defense from zombies. Of course a horde of them would take it down easily--I'm just saying that people like Carol shouldn't have to venture out to clear out pump hoses unprotected when it's easy enough to erect fences--even layers of fences--that would minimize the risk. We're sheltering in place here in the Rocky Mountain West. It'll be a trick to get through the winters, but we do have 4 horses if worse comes to worst (sorry, guys, love ya, mean it.) and I know how to build a smoke house :) There's a creek down the road that runs all winter, with fish in it. Chickens shouldn't be too hard to come by, nor rabbits, goats, and game birds. It'll be the human predators that will give us much more trouble than feeding ourselves, not that general survival is easy.

No one came out, but the door was open as Tyrese witnessed the horror with his big bug eyes.