S10.E09: Squeeze

[nodorothyparker]

Airdate 2020.02.22

Quote

The group struggles to figure out how to get out of a precarious situation.

 

REMINDER:  This thread is for discussion of the episode only.  If you didn't see it happen onscreen, it does not belong here and your post WILL be removed.  DO NOT DISCUSS CASTING NEWS, including reported cast comings and goings.   We have separate threads for spoilers or the comics.  

[candall]

Moved over to live-chat.  Sorry.

 

Edited February 24, 2020 by candall

[MrsRafaelBarba]

Nice job CMurda.  

[CletusMusashi]

Usually the bookend episodes are kind of good. What the hell?

[AngelaHunter]

Well, that was by turns boring, impossible to see, cheesy and incredibly gross.

[mightysparrow]

This episode was non-stop misery. 

[TvGeek]

The group struggles to figure out how to get out of a precarious situation as we the viewers struggle with ptsd after seeing Alpha nekkid trying to sex up Negan.

Also the whole put an episode of something else between twd and TD is old. Like just put the shit in the nine or eight pm slot you play reruns anyways

Edited February 24, 2020 by TvGeek
Typo

[AngelaHunter]

2 minutes ago, TvGeek said:

The group struggles to figure out how to get out of a precarious situation as we the viewers struggle with ptsd after seeing Alpha nekkid trying to sex up Negan.

😆 I swear the last time anything on this show grossed me out this much was at the prison when the walkers stormed the fence and the one in front got squeezed and its eyeball oozed out between the chain links.

[RedDelicious]

That was unwatchable. And yet I watched it anyway and I am in full Sunday Scaries mode muttering what did I just DO to myself.

F*%#+%#-A Carol, you SUCK. 

I knew Alpha and Negan were going to get it on at some point but I didn’t know it was going to be in the mid-season premier 🤮

[heisenberg]

28 minutes ago, AngelaHunter said:

Well, that was by turns boring, impossible to see, cheesy and incredibly gross.

You prevented us about Negan and Alpha having sex... You were right... 🤢🤮

Carol:

 

Edited February 24, 2020 by heisenberg

[alrightythen]

That was a long hour.  I couldn't see anything going on in the cave at all.  The only daylight scene was of Negan and Alpha bumping uglies.  Whatever.  TWD is off to a riveting mid-season start.

[AngelaHunter]

8 minutes ago, heisenberg said:

You prevented us about Negan and Alpha having sex... You were right...

Yes, but as I've mentioned, I knew we wouldn't actually have to watch them, y'know - do it. This show is very bashful about s-e-x. I bet the next ep will open with them lying there, basking in the rosy afterglow of all that good lovin'. 😄 Good thing there's no flies whever they are now.

13 minutes ago, RedDelicious said:

F*%#+%#-A Carol, you SUCK. 

I used to love Carol, but honestly just looking at her now sets my teeth on edge. I am so sick of her angst, her dripping tears, her narcissicm, her unending drama with the pills and the claustrophobia and the "It's all about ME, all the time!" And someone needs to take that horrible wig off her. She looks like a witch.

[wintrygal]

Nice to see Negan land in that shit hole, since he uses that word so often, then she wants his body, gross..

[Lady Iris]

Sh*t we needed to see completely obscured in the dark. Sh*t we never wanted to see out in broad daylight. Why does this show hate us so much? 

Carol has fallen so far from the heights of Terminus. Why have they massacre’d her so?

Edited February 24, 2020 by Lady Iris

[slf]

First episode I've watched in a season and it features Negan having sex with a woman wearing a walker's face. How has the show become this bad?

Not terribly surprised by Carol's profoundly stupid plan. I remember when a flu was in the prison and she decided that she would just murder two innocent people to "prevent" it from spreading, even though a) flu usually has an incubation period of several days so it was impossible to know who all might be infected and therefor killing the sick would be completely pointless (which it was), b) she's not a doctor and didn't even bother to consult the actually medically trained people, c) one of the earliest flu victims looked her dead in the eyes and told her he was going to be sick and she decided it was a sign of personal weakness, not sickness, and dismissed him because again she isn't a doctor and knew fuckall about the flu, d) they had an Council to decide these things but she went behind their backs, and c) her plan not only didn't work it created more problems. So, good ol' Carol.

Edited February 24, 2020 by slf

[Lakebum]

So I never would have guessed that in a show about zombies eating people, the grossest thing I would ever see would involve nothing but two healthy people. But THAT was gross. (And I'm not sure if the walker mask made things better, or worse...)

[Ms Lark]

5 hours ago, RedDelicious said:

F*%#+%#-A Carol, you SUCK. 

Never thought I'd say that, but you beat me to it! I always say I'll stop watching if they kill off Carol. Well. That may happen sooner or I may not care at all by the time it happens.

I was very worried about Jerry, but he made it out. Phew!

Negan landing in the shit pit was the best, but how did he get so clean (or dry) so fast?

Can't tell you how much of this I fast-forwarded through. Even with my TV video set to retina-sear, it was still too dark. Except for Negan/Alpha 🤢, which was ff-ed super fast. Yeah.  Did not need to see that.

[Ouisch]

Um, Carol told everyone she was claustrophobic back when they were at the CDC. Guess she and Daryl (and the writers) forgot about that little exchange.

[Lady Iris]

My bff is gonna be happy with this ep at least. She’s a ginormous JDM fan. Least someone’ll be happy. 

[jackjill89]

Hey, Mr. Cinematographer -- it would help if we could see the people in peril so we could care about what's going on... or at least understand what's going on. 

Carol used to be one of my faves and I forgave a lot of what she did, but now I see how completely selfish and crazy pants she is, and probably always was.

The Whisperers and their Scooby Doo masks are irritating me to no end.

The scene with Negan and Alpha made me laugh a little. They deserve each other. 

The show used to be a show about humanity with Zombies. Now it is a show about Zombies completely. I'm bored and pretty much hate watch it now. It's sad to see how far it has fallen. 

[bc1795]

Somehow I was reminded of Barnaby chasing Tom Tom and BoPeep through Bogey Land.

[Mr. Sparkle]

1 hour ago, icemiser69 said:

Considering Alpha never wiped her ass after taking a shit, and Negan fell into the shit, how good could the sex have been?

🤮

1 hour ago, icemiser69 said:

I know I am in the minority (or is that manure-ity) but (or is that butt) I really liked this episode.   Yes, it was too friggin dark, and the most visible part was seeing Nagen hiding his "turtle" in Alpha.  Still the rest of the episode was quite good.

I really liked the cave scenes, I thought they were well done. I read an old issue of the Hulk where Bruce Banner was crawling through narrow passages to get into a cave and it totally freaked me out. This reminded me of that. 

[Lamima]

Show sucks! That's all I got.

[nodorothyparker]

I can only assume that cinematographers are shooting for the latest in TV technology as we were able to see most of the cave stuff fairly clearly on whatever fancy 4K TV my husband has in his TV room with the lights turned out.  But how many people are watching TV this way?

Some of this episode was rough, but I found myself liking a lot of the cave stuff which did indeed succeed in being fairly claustrophobic and ramping up the tension in a way the show used to be so good at before subjecting us to seasons of endless fakeouts and improbable "oh he was hiding under a dumpster" escapes.  But again, it probably helps that we could see it.  Even having read the spoilers and knowing that Jerry wasn't going to go out like that, I was all but holding my breath that he wasn't going to be eaten from the bottom up when he was jammed in the last hole.

I kind of love that the Forbes review headline just says outright what we were all thinking: Negan And Alpha Take ‘The Walking Dead’ To Gross New Places.  That after so many years of so many different ways to kill walkers and humans alike, the weirdest grossest thing we've seen still manages to be Alpha and Negan getting it on in black socks and a walker mask in the woods.  (Which sounds like the most fucked up game of Clue ever.) The Forbes reviewer thinks that this is all of a long con of Negan infiltrating the Whisperers to take them down from the inside.  While I would like to think that's what's happening because it's a lot more interesting than Negan escapes and promptly joins the closest chapter of Villains R Us he could find, and he certainly sounded like a man who's had plenty of time to do some serious reflecting about who he became and what kind of leader he was while likely listening to Rick drone on about Who We Are, I'm not sure I'm there yet in trusting the show to pull that off.

Carol, you know I love you in all your messy, ruthlessly internally focused self.  And you're not even wrong in your larger idea from the end of the last half season that if you take out the herd Alpha keeps hanging over everyone's head like the sword of Damocles that you're then just dealing with a bunch of weirdos in skin masks who don't seem to be very proficient fighters.  But you're making Daryl! (He of the let's ram a truck into the side of the besieged Savior compound to create a new big hole. What could go wrong?) look rational and measured and you just promised 30 seconds before to do better.  Maybe try that.

[Lady Iris]

If Negan is in this for the right reasons and is sexing it up with a filthy zombie mask wearing psycho then I'd say he might just earn a few points toward redemption. Note I said a few. Only a very small few. I'm still mad about Glenn and Abraham.

[UNOSEZ]

I read a lot of comments here and elsewhere before I actually watched the episode.. But I gotta say I enjoyed it... Seeing as he isn't actually killing ppl I like... I'm enjoying Negan being a chatterbox around these creepy whisperers.. And I join in the crowd that's just way over carol... I mean she left King Ezekiel.. The guy who actually raised Henry and probably feels his death the hardest.. So she can be a fisherwoman or whatever.. And I generally can't stand characters who wanna self-implode.. But are kinda chicken but about it so they end up getting other ppl hurt with their nonsense 

[AngelaHunter]

7 hours ago, Lakebum said:

So I never would have guessed that in a show about zombies eating people, the grossest thing I would ever see would involve nothing but two healthy people.

I do recall a certain scene in a Billy Bob Thornton movie that tops the "Grossest sex ever" list for me, but yeah, this was a close second.

7 hours ago, Lakebum said:

(And I'm not sure if the walker mask made things better, or worse...)

Worse, for me. Negan putting his mouth on dead, decayed flesh is gross beyond words but it would have been much worse if it actually looked anything like rotting flesh instead of a goofy alien mask from a really low-budget sci-fi movie aimed at kids. So are we going to get "Baby Daddy Negan" now? Or maybe he's firing blanks. None of his "wives" ever bore the fruit of his loins, did they?

2 hours ago, jackjill89 said:

The show used to be a show about humanity with Zombies.

That's what drew me in from the start. There's nothing left of that, just a bunch of cartoon villains and random people coming and going and we don't even care when they die.

2 hours ago, icemiser69 said:

Fuck you Carol, and that headless turd you raised and dumped on Daryl. 

I had forgotten all about Prince Henry, the headless turd. 🤣

[Madding crowd]

I thought the cave parts were interesting. I don’t understand Negan walking in front of Alpha, thinking he would be killed and not trying to fight her. Why are people so scared of her they don’t even fight for their lives? I know she had other intentions but Negan didn’t know that.

I’m sure he is pulling a long con and intends to take her down.

[theredhead77]

I'll be over here in my party-of-one chair saying that I thought this was a solid episode. Neegan is learning he may have bit off more than he can chew with Alpha and the Whispers and he seemed pretty scared (good) when he was walking in front of Alpha. I'm never going to say no to a shirtless JDM but Alpha leaving the mask on was a bit much. I'd put my money on her wearing the mask was a mind-game to get Neegan back to being "murderingraplingNeegan" and it did seemed like he switched personas from reforming / deep spy to murderraping Neegan pretty quick.

 

[AngelaHunter]

2 hours ago, Madding crowd said:

I don’t understand Negan walking in front of Alpha, thinking he would be killed and not trying to fight her. Why are people so scared of her they don’t even fight for their lives?

After forcing myself to watch that scene again, Alpha appears to pull a gun on him? Hard to see, but do they have weapons and ammo? I forget. Anyway, of course he could have taken her out easily after they both got starkers and then headed for the hills. Why didn't he? Too desperate for some nookie after 10 years of forced celibacy? He wants to be Alpha's royal consort in the Kingdom of the Whisperers? Who knows. He's going to have competition from Chewie. Imagine a world that has deteriorated to the level of anyone fighting for the dirty, grubby little paw of the troll.

[jackjill89]

I wouldn't mind Negan pulling the long con on the Whisperers and helping out "the group." He's been locked up for years, maybe he has done some thinking. 

This may have been discussed before, but what is with the masks? Everyone looks like they have the same mask they have always had. So I assume it has dried. But, wouldn't it dry more rigid? Or wouldn't it just disintegrate? I would think they'd have to get fresh masks a lot, but it doesn't seem like they do. Wouldn't they be gross and germy if they were fresh? When we first saw the Whisperers, it wasn't apparent they were people in zombie masks. Now it is. You see the seams up the back. They throw them on like they are those rubber Halloween masks, but I don't know how this is possible. 

I know, I'm trying to be logical with something illogical. 

 

 

[Smad]

So from reading this...Carol is going to die this Season, right? Usually when a show with not so talented writers goes out of their way to ruin a beloved character to the point even the character's fans want them dead...they are dead.

Edited February 25, 2020 by Smad

[AngelaHunter]

11 minutes ago, Smad said:

Usually when a show with not so talented writers goes out of their way to ruin a beloved character to the point even the character's fans want them dead...they are dead.

It does seem to be their usual MO. They did it with Glenn, Rick and Carl. At least they're successful at doing one thing - making us hate formerly beloved characters.

1 hour ago, jackjill89 said:

When we first saw the Whisperers, it wasn't apparent they were people in zombie masks. Now it is. You see the seams up the back. They throw them on like they are those rubber Halloween masks, but I don't know how this is possible. 

It's not possible. It's one of those things that are fine in comic books and look ludicrous, dumb and utterly silly in live action but no one seems to have the ability to see that.

[Artsda]

All episode it was so dark, then the scene that should have and I wished I couldn't see was the one that was bright. Eww.

[Sugaree]

My two takeaways:

Where are they getting batteries for their lanterns?

How is Negan maintaining his barber fresh haircut? 

[Lady Iris]

3 minutes ago, Sugaree said:

How is Negan maintaining his barber fresh haircut? 

Hah! I noticed that too! 

[materialgirl101]

7 hours ago, icemiser69 said:

As much as I love Jerry, he is the type of dude that would go hunting, read a sign that said "bear left" and then go home.  There is no way that they took the correct path to get out of the cave.  If anything, he should have gone in the opposite direction of the arrow that was carved into the wall.

And as much as I hate Carol (the dumbass self-absorbed twit that she is) it was Daryl that sent everyone into that cave after her.   He needs to own that shit.   His main squeeze (Connie) who he has never squoze wouldn't be buried in a collapsed cave along with Magna if he had told them all to go home and that he would chase after Carol.

Speaking of the two left in the cave (Magna and Connie), Connie can't hear.  Hopefully they are both still alive.   But if they are not and Connie is the only one alive, it will make it that much more difficult to find her.  Of course both of them could be dead.

I have a feeling we may see them, but as walkers 😞

[materialgirl101]

Carol seems to have a cyclical habit of running away (or being sent away) and then sort of redeeming herself later... But I am not holding my breath for her this time. She can get the fuck off of my screen.

1) Killing/Burning those people at the prison - being sent away by Rick, but then saving them at Terminus (IIRC)

2) Leaving Alexandria and her lover-dude to road trip by herself because reasons?

3)Living alone in that house outside of the Kingdom

4)Running off on the boat because Henry got himself and others killed, and breaking the King's heart....

She needs to cut that hair. She looks stupid. Bring back the pixie cut and maybe she will regain her sanity.

[RedDelicious]

The odd thing is...as Alpha was closing in on Negan, I noticed how perfectly straight and dare I say it, clean, her teeth were?!

I'm still unnerved by Carol's emotional freak out after the explosion.  

[theredhead77]

16 minutes ago, RedDelicious said:

I'm still unnerved by Carol's emotional freak out after the explosion.  

Say what you will about the writing for Carol, she is a woman in crisis and Melissa McBride is bringing it! 

[Quilty]

Stupid Carol. She's a liability now.

[Ohwell]

1 hour ago, materialgirl101 said:

3)Living alone in that house outside of the Kingdom

And waiting for the men to bring her food, and being coddled, but pretending that she's annoyed with them and doesn't want the attention.  I wish they had just left her alone to fend for herself. 

[AngelaHunter]

1 hour ago, RedDelicious said:

The odd thing is...as Alpha was closing in on Negan, I noticed how perfectly straight and dare I say it, clean, her teeth were?!

Everyone looks as though they came straight from a professional cleaning, but on her it's particularly ridiculous. She can't even wash her hands but can keep her teeth nice and shiny. This show may present all manner of disgusting gore and graphic violence, but dental plaque and hairy pits on women are still "Oh, my eyes!" taboo. I guess TPTB have to draw the line somewhere.

 

1 hour ago, theredhead77 said:

Say what you will about the writing for Carol, she is a woman in crisis and Melissa McBride is bringing it!

But she's always in crisis, or crying, or getting religion and cutting her hand with a cross, or doing something reckless with no regard for anyone but herself, or getting hit by a car in a dumb way, or pulling an attention-seeking Garbo who wants to be left alone(but not really - "Leave me alone! However, I'll accept food and other humble offerings but I won't say thank you".) or being hooked on pills or freaking out with claustrophobia. What's next? Will she be an alcoholic next week? Yes, she's been through stuff that would induce PTSD in anyone, but so has everyone else so why is her angst and her losses and her pain so much worse than anyone else's? When someone makes Daryl seem like the voice of mature reason,  logic, and common sense it's pretty bad. It's tiresome and it annoys me as she was once a favorite of mine. JMO.

3 minutes ago, Ohwell said:

And waiting for the men to bring her food, and being coddled, but pretending that she's annoyed with them and doesn't want the attention.  I wish they had just left her alone to fend for herself. 

ETA: LOL. Posted at the same time.😊

[OoohMaggie]

22 hours ago, icemiser69 said:

Considering Alpha never wiped her ass after taking a shit, and Negan fell into the shit, how good could the sex have been?

I thought she used her fingers and wiped them on the grass 🤔
As I said, that must have been one fragrant moment 💐

Edited February 25, 2020 by OoohMaggie

[theredhead77]

11 hours ago, AngelaHunter said:

It's tiresome and it annoys me as she was once a favorite of mine. JMO.

And I get that. My point was, Melissa McBride is nailing the storyline they are giving Carol. 

 

I don't mind that everyone is relatively clean looking and they arne't depicting people with rotting teeth. I couldn't watch the show if I had to look at the main cast with a mouth full of decaying teeth. My stomach couldn't handle it.

[AngelaHunter]

6 minutes ago, theredhead77 said:

My point was, Melissa McBride is nailing the storyline they are giving Carol. 

I agree. She is a very good actress. The writers just made me lose patience with her character some time ago.

7 minutes ago, theredhead77 said:

I couldn't watch the show if I had to look at the main cast with a mouth full of decaying teeth.

Of course no one wants to see that. Everyone having perfect, gleaming teeth is something audiences just accept in movies/tv no matter how unlikely it might be, just as we accept a lot of other things that are unlikely or impossible without hurting our enjoyment of whatever we are watching. It seems people just start picking on little things when the writing and/or acting are horrible.

[Lady Iris]

 

58 minutes ago, theredhead77 said:

I don't mind that everyone is relatively clean looking and they arne't depicting people with rotting teeth. I couldn't watch the show if I had to look at the main cast with a mouth full of decaying teeth. My stomach couldn't handle it.

 Rotting teeth would be Deliverance for me and that I cannot take. Although Nekkid Negan and whatsherface are sorta up there too.

Edited February 25, 2020 by Lady Iris

[Mr. Sparkle]

47 minutes ago, AngelaHunter said:

Of course no one wants to see that. Everyone having perfect, gleaming teeth is something audiences just accept in movies/tv no matter how unlikely it might be, just as we accept a lot of other things that are unlikely or impossible without hurting our enjoyment of whatever we are watching. It seems people just start picking on little things when the writing and/or acting are horrible.

Fabulous armpit grooming is another classic. Full-on apocalypse, but not even a trace of stubble. 

[jackjill89]

I watched a movie with Tom Cruise in it -- I think it's called The Last Samurai. His teeth were blinding white, even though the movie was set during the Civil War. After that, I gave up worrying about white teeth. Everyone is Hollywood has white teeth. Actually, I noticed it more now when I watch an older moving and that actors don't have white teeth.

There is so much we need to let go of with this show in terms of grooming, clothing, etc. It was interesting they actually, after how many years, showed someone going to the bathroom.

I really do wish I could have seen what was going on in the cave scenes. I just couldn't even bring myself to care because I couldn't tell who was doing what. I am grieving my show that once was sooooo good and now is a shadow of its former self. As soon as a show chooses plot over characters, it takes a dive. 

 

 

[mightysparrow]

Reading these comments is a peculiar experience with so many people saying the things I've been saying about Carol for YEARS. 

I never thought the time would come when Daryl saw through Carol's bullshit and for that I say, God bless Connie.  Carol proved to Daryl that she wasn't worthy of his friendship and loyalty in that cave.  He kept trying to help her and all she could do was ramp up the histrionics in an attempt to reel him back in to the 'good old days'.  Even at the end, when Daryl was dealing with the possibility that the woman he cared for was dead, Carol had to make it ALL ABOUT HER.  It was sickening.

I wish I could say this means the end of Carol because I would love to get her selfish, self-absorbed ass off my tv screen but I don't think that's going to happen.  However, I don't think Ezekiel should make any plans for the future.  With Daryl off the hook, for now at least, I think Carol's going to run back to Ezekiel because she can't live without someone to manipulate.

Do the people who put this show together bother to watch dailies?  Did ANYBODY realize that most of the episode was too dark to see?  The carelessness was shocking.  It's like tptb know they're not getting any new viewers and they figure the old guard will watch any old shit so why bother.  I thought it was interesting that there were no A-list talent on the couch after the episode.   Nobody looked like they wanted to be there, just that they had drawn the short straw.