S02.E02: Foothold

[raven]

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While some attempt to cover their tracks, others acclimate to their new surroundings.

 

NOTE:  AMC+ will stream each episode a week before airing on AMC.  Enter this topic at your own risk if you haven't watched yet.

AMC+ airdate: 2021.10.03    AMC airdate: 2021.10.10

Be mindful if you participate in the Live Posting Topic - that topic will follow the show as it airs on AMC, so AMC+ viewers will be one episode ahead.  DO NOT SPOIL those who are watching on AMC.

[Smad]

Darn it, I thought we would be rid of that stupid Fossil spear of Iris' now that she's Daryl Dixon for no reason. And predictably her killing the soldier meant the CRM would come by the community harboring her and the others. IMO Will was not angry enough with her. But I guess the undeserved Iris ass licking from last Season will just continue.

So Silas joins the clean up crew, assigned by Huck's boyfriend. Looks like the guy has been demoted to this position considering in the picture he was wearing military garb. I'm sure it's all part of this 'incident back home' that Elizabeth kept referring to last Season. Can't say I care to find out.

I was hoping Hope would be free of a love interest (too many of them already in the show and more to come) and her story would just focus on CRM (sigh). I was also hoping for her being my source of humor for the Season, constantly pranking Lyla. There is no way Hope would like that skittish mouse. Leo is such a stereotypical 'dumb, smart person'. Why are scientists always portrayed as super smart regarding science but utterly dumb in regards to people? Not only is she is so obviously a plant but she even tells him she gave info to the higher ups. Seriously dude, wake up and smell the spy especially since you know Huck was one. For his sake, Hope better figure it out the more time she spends with that woman.

Still no closer to finding out why CRM just kills 100k people. Still being fed tiny pieces of the puzzle. But the research stuff is certainly interesting. This show needs more CRM (and Elizabeth), less everything else. In fact since it's only a 2 Season event, it should have been a CRM show, period.

[OoohMaggie]

I don’t understand why blowing up a section of perimeter wall will inevitably lead to 50,000 people dying. Did those two colonies not have a military element, no form of civil defence force or just a plan of what to do in case of a breach.

Admittedly the sorry bunch we followed last season were totally useless, but there must be a huge percentage of that 50,000 who knew how to escape / survive. Answer, the convivial commander went in and killed every survivor, without the other colonies finding out, using enough soldiers willing to go along with such an insane plan, not buying it. Some seriously good writing is required to make any sense of it.

What can the big secret be? It is at least keeping me watching, the first appearance of Jadis should be a hoot and what with the funky haircut I hope she’s back to her evil ways.

[Smad]

5 hours ago, OoohMaggie said:

I don’t understand why blowing up a section of perimeter wall will inevitably lead to 50,000 people dying. Did those two colonies not have a military element, no form of civil defence force or just a plan of what to do in case of a breach.

Are you talking about Omaha and Campus Colony? With Omaha we actually saw that invasion plan in last Season's third episode. They blew up the defense at several points. Which means they would have had more than one mega herd to attack them. You can even see it in the premiere episode, there are places further into the city that they blew up.

But yeah one of my criticisms last Season was how easy Campus was destroyed. It's like these are all settlements full of Alexandrians who don't do the minimum in terms of protection (like perimeter guards, look outs etc.) and who don't teach anything beyond theoretical walker killing. Pretend like anything beyond the walls doesn't exist. I would also have to accept that in the 10 years no one came to these settlements that was out there for a couple of years and could provide them with some useful tips. Like seriously, imagine these people knew the 'blood&guts' trick that the casts of TWD and FTWD are familiar with. A herd coming through would only take those who freak out and can't keep quiet. But the CRM would have shit luck because the majority would still be alive despite their efforts. And then what? The CRM doesn't have the manpower to take on 90k people like Omaha.

For me the biggest mystery at this point isn't even why CRM is destroying all these colonies now after 10 years. It's why they do it this way because it seems just stupid. It's overly convoluted and resource heavy. Just use lethal gas or bombs, station soldiers at entry points to pick off people that manage to flee there and have your helicopters do fly overs to see if anyone gets over the walls elsewhere. CRM's method guarantees that there will be plenty escapees because they don't seem to do what I just mentioned.

Edited October 5, 2021 by Smad

[Mr. Sparkle]

Holy shit, this episode was a snooze.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

💤

What I'm trying to say is that I found it boring. 

[Smad]

On 10/6/2021 at 3:03 AM, Superclam said:

What I'm trying to say is that I found it boring. 

I agree with that. Only interesting part was Lyla explaining the science they do with the zombies. And that lasted for all of 5 minutes. I want more of that, heck give me a show about walker experiments. I would so be down for that.

But both the Silas and Iris/Will/Felix part of the episode...so boring. The Silas part could have been done in one scene where we learned how the CRM is trying to clean out the state and make it free of the dead. The Iris/Will/Felix part could have been condensed into the new community learning Iris killed a CRM soldier, CRM coming by there to check the area and I/W/F almost being caught. The group catching a walker or two to dress them up as themselves (wonder how they would find a walker that could pass as Iris) and then CRM finding 'their' bodies. Both of those storylines could have been condensed to maybe 15 min total.

And I really hate how Iris just never pays for her stupidity. Will should have gone off on her instead of being mildly disapproving and then maybe I would have tolerated that endless scene of them trying to find a zombie that looks right. Or the new community should have kicked their asses out which if I were them, I would have absolutely done.

[BasilSeal]

On 10/8/2021 at 7:11 PM, Smad said:

Only interesting part was Lyla explaining the science they do with the zombies. And that lasted for all of 5 minutes. I want more of that, heck give me a show about walker experiments. I would so be down for that.

the problem with having a plot that revolves around the 'science' of the walkers is that zombies like the ones in TWD are a physical impossibility. I keep waiting for one of these brilliant scientists to remember their school science lessons and realise that the walkers defy the laws of physics, energy can neither be created or destroyed, but they're like necrotic perpetual motion machines. what powers them?and that's before we even get to how dead tissue can transmit neurological signals and enable the walkers to see and hear stimulus and react with co ordinated movements, I mean we know they're trying to eat the living, but they still go on indefinitely even if they aren't fed, where do they derive the energy from in order to keep moving? 

The zombies are a plot device and we just accept that they're there and that they do what they do and follow certain rules, suspension of disbelief and all that, but once you start trying to find pseudo scientific explanations for what might cause the zombies then you're likely to trip up over the first and second laws of thermodynamics.

[Smad]

3 hours ago, BasilSeal said:

the problem with having a plot that revolves around the 'science' of the walkers is that zombies like the ones in TWD are a physical impossibility. I keep waiting for one of these brilliant scientists to remember their school science lessons and realise that the walkers defy the laws of physics, energy can neither be created or destroyed, but they're like necrotic perpetual motion machines. what powers them?and that's before we even get to how dead tissue can transmit neurological signals and enable the walkers to see and hear stimulus and react with co ordinated movements, I mean we know they're trying to eat the living, but they still go on indefinitely even if they aren't fed, where do they derive the energy from in order to keep moving? 

The zombies are a plot device and we just accept that they're there and that they do what they do and follow certain rules, suspension of disbelief and all that, but once you start trying to find pseudo scientific explanations for what might cause the zombies then you're likely to trip up over the first and second laws of thermodynamics.

For me it's not about the science of the walkers. There is no earthly science there to be had. I'm talking about science done to the walkers, that's what I would be down for. I roll my eyes at the CRM+cure route. But the experiments they do on walkers such as climate, weather, electro shock (or whatever that is), exposing them to viruses, bacteria etc. ...to see what affects them. And I know that sounds kind of Frankenstein but isn't this supposed to be a horror universe?

Edited October 10, 2021 by Smad

[oakville]

I wish that the show would devote at least one episode to the origins of the CRM.  I don't understand why they would form an alliance with Omaha & then destroy it after 10 years. There is no indication that they were a threat to the CRM.

[Smad]

1 hour ago, oakville said:

I wish that the show would devote at least one episode to the origins of the CRM.  I don't understand why they would form an alliance with Omaha & then destroy it after 10 years. There is no indication that they were a threat to the CRM.

We kind of need an origin story for the CR(M). Over on Fear TWD we have the CRM soldier Isabelle. And unless I have my timelines wrong, her first appearance was 2 years and some months into the apocalypse. So the CR(M) were this organized even very early on. The question is how that was possible. But maybe they will save that for Tales of TWD because I can't imagine them doing it in this show.

[oakville]

36 minutes ago, Smad said:

We kind of need an origin story for the CR(M). Over on Fear TWD we have the CRM soldier Isabelle. And unless I have my timelines wrong, her first appearance was 2 years and some months into the apocalypse. So the CR(M) were this organized even very early on. The question is how that was possible. But maybe they will save that for Tales of TWD because I can't imagine them doing it in this show.

I suspect that the CRM was part of the USA military. I remember an episode in the first season of Fear TWD where they evacuated the military hospital in LA using helicopters to a base in the California desert . I don't know how the CRM ended up being established in NY state, but its possible that other military bases were doing the same thing.

[Smad]

10 hours ago, oakville said:

I suspect that the CRM was part of the USA military. I remember an episode in the first season of Fear TWD where they evacuated the military hospital in LA using helicopters to a base in the California desert . I don't know how the CRM ended up being established in NY state, but its possible that other military bases were doing the same thing.

I don't doubt that the CRM is actually mostly former military (at least the higher ups) but my question is more about the quick formation and accomplishments. According to this show the CR has a civilian government. Now I wouldn't be surprised if that was mostly actual former politicians but it's curious because the military would probably outnumber any actual government and could just lead the whole thing. It's also amazing that they have production/manufacturing down this early in the timeline. The CRM outfits and weapons for example. So I wonder if in the world of TWD, the military and government had an emergency plan already in place 'in case of an apocalypse'. But that's why this show should have been 2 Seasons of CR(M) lore and 'get to know' instead of a YA novel.

[oakville]

The CRM storyline is much more interesting than the 4 teens wandering around the country.

It doesn't make sense for the CRM to consider Hope to be so valuable for their research department yet they let her loose in Albany with zombies nearby.

[Smad]

31 minutes ago, oakville said:

It doesn't make sense for the CRM to consider Hope to be so valuable for their research department yet they let her loose in Albany with zombies nearby.

The only way to interpret what they did with Hope in episode 1 this Season is to see it as basically a form of conditioning/brainwashing. The cross country journey was supposed to show her that the world is gone. Then you send her out, by herself, knowing that Hope knows there is nowhere she can run and no one to help her. Everything is gone. So Hope, if she wants to live, has no other choice but to join them. It's basically submit or die.

[Iguessnot]

I hated that Iris decided to daydream while going after a walker and someone had to save her butt. Then she responds somewhat flippantly when he asks her what's wrong. As soon as she spaced out I wanted her to get eaten.

There was some strange directing and acting choices going on in the Silas scene. At one point when they were in the "warehouse" it seemed the dude wanted to kiss Silas.

Standing on the other side of a tapestry covering a room entrance is called hiding?

[Smad]

10 hours ago, Iguessnot said:

As soon as she spaced out I wanted her to get eaten.

Only then? I've been waiting for that to happen every episode since she had the brilliant idea to go into a giant tire fire.

10 hours ago, Iguessnot said:

Standing on the other side of a tapestry covering a room entrance is called hiding?

Well this show doesn't have the smartest writers. Or Iris' stupidity is contagious and is now spreading to everyone else in that community.

[Nashville]

14 hours ago, Iguessnot said:

Standing on the other side of a tapestry covering a room entrance is called hiding?

No less so than hiding behind the chainsaws in a GEICO ad.  😁

[ctlady]

On 10/13/2021 at 11:06 AM, Nashville said:

On 10/12/2021 at 8:14 PM, Iguessnot said:

Standing on the other side of a tapestry covering a room entrance is called hiding?

No less so than hiding behind the chainsaws in a GEICO ad.  😁

Too bad there wasn't a running car out the back, they could've snuck out and......nevermind!

Dear Show: After a year of her only being able to muster pushing empties away, please stop trying to sell me that Iris is now a bad-ass zombie killer.

Iris;  [sees zombie and pulls out knife]  "I got this"  {suddenly.....freezes]

Carol:  "Hold my beer"

I don't care for the Elizabeth character.  I find her smug and unlikable

 

[Smad]

10 hours ago, ctlady said:

Iris;  [sees zombie and pulls out knife]  "I got this"  {suddenly.....freezes]

Carol:  "Hold my beer"

You know, it's been a while since Carol took a kid to look at the flowers. Considering that Iris pretty much feels nothing killing humans, it might be flower time again.

10 hours ago, ctlady said:

I don't care for the Elizabeth character.  I find her smug and unlikable

You know those are two attributes which perfectly fit villains. Which is what she is lol.