S01.E04: Amy / Dr. Everett

[raven]

Quote

Years into the apocalypse, nature has consumed much of the world as we once knew it, and yet humans endeavor to survive. Naturalist Dr. Chauncey Everett has spent the last decade in voluntary isolation; however, when Amy, an extroverted survivor, knowingly crosses into no man's land. Dr. Everett's own humanity is put into question.

Streaming on AMC+. As always, proceed at your risk for spoilers before the airdate.

Airdate 22.09.04

[OoohMaggie]

We all know that the Walkers really shouldn’t be lasting very long, yet Dr Death said he’s been studying one of them for seven years, really 🤫

Once again we see supposedly skilled people, they were “skull-hunters” after all, somehow all get overwhelmed and bitten. Admittedly a couple of the undead did throw themselves rather athletically at poor Amy, but they do just shuffle along 🙄

[Mr. Sparkle]

This one actually was very good. Good writing and good acting? What show am I watching??? 

Even though they telegraphed the ending, it was still kind of sad. The alligator part was dumb, though. 

[kevvoi]

I liked it to. 

With Dr. Everett's research - I enjoyed watching him making observations and gathering data, but after the episode realized - Who is he actually gathering this information for???  I really felt that they needed to loop in the Civic Republic or some other community. It seemed like he was a lone wolf - so what is the point of actually gathering this data if he isn't sharing it with someone or know that there is someone he can hand off what has become his life's work.

I was also kind of intrigued that someone went to all the trouble of cutting a trench to separate the Dead Area from some portion of Georgia near the Chattahoochee River. I would have to rewatch the episode to remember just how long  - but it seemed like they cut a pretty long trench and it was wide and deep. I guess if this happened early on then the Army Corp of Engineers could have done it - but who would have the resources to do that kind of excavation later on in the apocalypse - CRM probably could have done something like this, but why would they want to do it in Georgia and not somewhere much closer to their home base?

I would like to have a population ecologist explain to me how a species like the Giraffe would have a large enough breeding population survive the early days of the apocalypse, escape the zoos, etc. to survive long enough to flourish. Though if was a herd animal living in the middle of the Zombie apocaplypse, I would probably hang out with the giraffes - have them be the early warning system to let other herd animals know a herd of walkers is heading their way. I looked up the population of Giraffe's in zoos today - and it was around 2000 worldwide with a large fraction of that in North American zoos - so it would be a difficult population to expand from the small clusters of individuals at specific zoos.

The Crocodile looked really fake that went after Specimen 21.

That 7 year old zombie was looking pretty dreadful - if I remember correctly it was the one laying on the ground. I do wonder if the zombies get some nutrients from the humans and animals that they prey upon - that might help them stay on their feet longer.

[Mr. Sparkle]

1 hour ago, kevvoi said:

I would have to rewatch the episode to remember just how long  - but it seemed like they cut a pretty long trench and it was wide and deep.

40 foot deep, 200 meters wide, spanning hundreds of miles. Yes, I looked. Interesting question as to who dug that and why. 

1 hour ago, kevvoi said:

With Dr. Everett's research - I enjoyed watching him making observations and gathering data, but after the episode realized - Who is he actually gathering this information for???  I really felt that they needed to loop in the Civic Republic or some other community.

They really could have used this show to tie in all the other shows - the CRM, Rick, the Commonwealth. But they didn't. 

[iMonrey]

I definitely thought this was the most interesting episode so far. I liked the majestic, sweeping documentary scenes and the narration - great job by Anthony Edwards. Felt like I was watching Wild Kingdom. I did wonder where they were supposed to be, though, to have every animal in the known world all thriving in one place. 

[Starchild]

On 8/31/2022 at 7:15 PM, Superclam said:

They really could have used this show to tie in all the other shows - the CRM, Rick, the Commonwealth. But they didn't. 

Maybe that's coming some day.

[Fellaway]

I really liked this ep. This one made the cost of admission for this series worth it.

Of course, I have some questions: Who made the trench; how did the savvy Amy (as well as the skull hunters) just stumble back into her group and get zombiefied; how do some of those animals manage to survive in that climate; how did Dr. Everett's electronics survive seven years of the ZA; etc. But this ep also made me think and feel. I haven't felt sorry for a walker since Bicycle Girl way back in Season 1 (When Rick said he was sorry this happened to her, right before putting her out of her misery, is when I fell in love with TWD.), but I felt for that poor walker surrounded by the caution tape. I wondered if that walker had been someone Dr. Everett knew, like 21, or if it was just his scientific detachment preventing him from putting it out of its misery, but I wanted him to. I was both sad and happy when it died. The ending was not a surprise,, but his character development over the ep made it seem organic. As he grappled with whether to tag Amy or put her out of her misery, it showed he wasn't as detached from humanity as he thought. I liked they left it to each viewer to decide which outcome they believed.

[rmontro]

I almost hate to admit it, but this series hasn't been that bad.  I was going to skip it, but a couple of episodes looked interesting.  This story about the guy studying walkers probably intrigued me the most, before any of the shows had aired.  This and the one about Alpha.  The worst episode so far was probably the first one.  I've been week to week, but there are only two left, might as well finish up.  Definitely better than World Beyond.

Edited September 8, 2022 by rmontro

[Mr. Sparkle]

5 hours ago, rmontro said:

I almost hate to admit it, but this series hasn't been that bad.  I was going to skip it, but a couple of episodes looked interesting.  This story about the guy studying walkers probably intrigued me the most, before any of the shows had aired.  This and the one about Alpha.  The worst episode so far was probably the first one.  I've been week to week, but there are only two left, might as well finish up.  Definitely better than World Beyond.

I kind of agree, although I didn't like Episode 5. I guess I was hoping for some tie-in to the "big picture." which I fear we're not going to get. Overall, I'd give the show a B-. 

[rmontro]

11 hours ago, Superclam said:

I kind of agree, although I didn't like Episode 5. I guess I was hoping for some tie-in to the "big picture." which I fear we're not going to get. Overall, I'd give the show a B-. 

I haven't seen Episode 5 yet, so I can't comment on that.  But yeah, this appears to be just a filler fluff series, not anything that you need to see to enhance your Walking Dead experience.  But my expectations were very low, so it's beaten that.  At least it avoids the main shows' conundrum of "This character has been on here for four years now and I still haven't cared enough to figure out their name".  Or "Oops, they killed that guy.  Was I supposed to know who that was?" lol.

[Nashville]

2 hours ago, rmontro said:

I haven't seen Episode 5 yet, so I can't comment on that.  But yeah, this appears to be just a filler fluff series, not anything that you need to see to enhance your Walking Dead experience.  But my expectations were very low, so it's beaten that.  At least it avoids the main shows' conundrum of "This character has been on here for four years now and I still haven't cared enough to figure out their name".  Or "Oops, they killed that guy.  Was I supposed to know who that was?" lol.

I think of it like this: TWD was a long-standing love affair, while each episode of TOTWD is more like a kiss.

...but sometimes, a kiss in the dark can be pretty damn good. 💋😉

[Whimsy]

On 8/31/2022 at 6:16 PM, kevvoi said:

With Dr. Everett's research - I enjoyed watching him making observations and gathering data, but after the episode realized - Who is he actually gathering this information for???  I really felt that they needed to loop in the Civic Republic or some other community. It seemed like he was a lone wolf - so what is the point of actually gathering this data if he isn't sharing it with someone or know that there is someone he can hand off what has become his life's work.

I just kind of took it as his only way to cope and stay somewhat sane.  He was a scientist, what else was he going to do with his long days? 

[BasilSeal]

The  problem with introducing science into the equation is that walkers defy the laws of physics, and yet our guy preoccupied with pure science doesn't think that worth mentioning.