S11.E23: Family

[nodorothyparker]

Airdate 11.13.2022. Streaming on AMC+. As always, proceed at your own risk for spoilers before the airdate.

Quote

This family finishes the fight together. As Negan looks to the future Ezekiel can't forget the past.

[OoohMaggie]

Ep 23 was fairly decent,although there were way too many “Oh please” moments. How unlucky have you got to be to get attacked by the Walker gymnastic team? It was even worthy of an F Bomb from Saint Negan, it certainly didn’t feel like the penultimate episode though.

If we’re not getting a happy ending for one and all then they’re going to be dropping like flies in two weeks 🤔

Best line from Jeeery, you two get that arm looked at 😂, like how exactly? 🤣😂

Edited November 6, 2022 by OoohMaggie

[heisenberg]

9 hours ago, OoohMaggie said:

If we’re not getting a happy ending for one and all then they’re going to be dropping like flies in two weeks 🤔

At least they could have make a few of them dissapear this week. 

A nice episode ending would have been Judith turning into a zombie in Daryl's arms.

Judith playing the family card at the beginning wanted me to see her dead already.

"Your parents abandonned you and you are a sitting sheep"🐑.  i am not so hearthless usually but if you want to keep the story straight it is what it is:  Michonne and Rick are not good parents, ask Carl.

.

Edited November 7, 2022 by heisenberg

[Iguessnot]

Just weird to me. They are armed to the teeth, loading up in Alexandria, riding trains, heading back to Commonwealth, etc. They just seem to be appearing where they need to be, whether by foot, bus or train, with all sorts of plans.

When they showed those five or six unknowns walking into the train depot, I immediately yelled "red shirts!"

Once again the storm troopers in a running jeep get taken down by a walker. And with all their protective gear, they can't handle a walker one on one. Why would Pamela want a horde that large at Commonwealth?

Fools, if you miss the door to the RV, play it cool and shuffle around. The way they had Jerry just step out the RV and into the horde of walkers and politely close the door, was a perfect example of the plot shenanigans. 

[SharonH58]

This one wasn't too bad.   I agree with Iguessnot,  just go back around and get in the RV.  They panicked.  And how did Lydia who grew up a Whisperer get bitten?    No one is the crew are going to have 2 arms soon.   It's hard to believe this show is almost over with zero endings.  Maybe everyone will die!   bwahhhahahahahahaaa

[heisenberg]

11 hours ago, SharonH58 said:

And how did Lydia who grew up a Whisperer get bitten?

She started to wash herself?🙂

[Taget]

On 11/6/2022 at 11:01 PM, heisenberg said:

At least they could have make a few of them dissapear this week. 

A nice episode ending would have been Judith turning into a zombie in Daryl's arms.

Judith playing the family card at the beginning wanted me to see her dead already.

"Your parents abandonned you and you are a sitting sheep"🐑.  i am not so hearthless usually but if you want to keep the story straight it is what it is:  Michonne and Rick are not good parents, ask Carl.

.

I almost wish they were honest with Judith.

"Look.  Your real mom who you never met is dead.  Your real dad was your "dad"'s best friend who your dead step-brother murdered to save the man who kinda raised you for a bit as an infant.  So really none of them owed you a thing.  The woman you called mom went off to find her boyfriend, the man you were unrelated to, who you were trained to call "dad" who would never even recognize you if he saw you.

"Family is who chooses to be with you.  And they chose to be elsewhere.  But hey, you got us until we decide to skip town for our spinoffs."

Edited November 8, 2022 by Taget

[heisenberg]

4 hours ago, Taget said:

I almost wish they were honest with Judith.

"Look.  Your real mom who you never met is dead.  Your real dad was your "dad"'s best friend who your dead step-brother murdered to save the man who kinda raised you for a bit as an infant.  So really none of them owed you a thing.  The woman you called mom went off to find her boyfriend, the man you were unrelated to, who you were trained to call "dad" who would never even recognize you if he saw you.

"Family is who chooses to be with you.  And they chose to be elsewhere.  But hey, you got us until we decide to skip town for our spinoffs."

Exactly!🤣

[SharonH58]

16 hours ago, Taget said:

I almost wish they were honest with Judith.

"Look.  Your real mom who you never met is dead.  Your real dad was your "dad"'s best friend who your dead step-brother murdered to save the man who kinda raised you for a bit as an infant.  So really none of them owed you a thing.  The woman you called mom went off to find her boyfriend, the man you were unrelated to, who you were trained to call "dad" who would never even recognize you if he saw you.

"Family is who chooses to be with you.  And they chose to be elsewhere.  But hey, you got us until we decide to skip town for our spinoffs."

Your mom left you and your brother behind.  And they probably aren't taking you on their spin off.

[econ07]

This show.

I only saw the end.  Somehow, the troops of the Commonwealth were not able to keep zombies outside of a huge gate, but were able to perfectly herd those same zombies into a 2X2 neighborhood grid, with equal zombie distribution on each of the four entry streets (and perfectly timed), with nothing but barbed wire and temporary walls.  Another case of the writers lazily setting up a scene to get the predicament they want and trap our heroes.  No sense of setting up a scene with growing tension, and staying true to the rules you had set up for that situation all the way through.  

[Iguessnot]

2 hours ago, econ07 said:

This show.

I only saw the end.  Somehow, the troops of the Commonwealth were not able to keep zombies outside of a huge gate, but were able to perfectly herd those same zombies into a 2X2 neighborhood grid, with equal zombie distribution on each of the four entry streets (and perfectly timed), with nothing but barbed wire and temporary walls.  Another case of the writers lazily setting up a scene to get the predicament they want and trap our heroes.  No sense of setting up a scene with growing tension, and staying true to the rules you had set up for that situation all the way through.  

That last scene showed our folks getting swarmed in a way they could not survive but we know they will, just because. 

[millennium]

Never before have I seen a series finale spoil itself with a commercial for multiple spinoffs inserted into the penultimate episode.   Are the shows really going to be called "Daryl Dixon," "Rick and Michonne," etc? 

But the Rick Grimes movies!

[tv echo]

I stopped watching TWD several seasons ago, but tuned back in for these final S11 episodes. 

After watching this episode, I was thinking about whether they would really kill off Judith. Some possibilities:

1. Judith lives. Then she either accompanies Daryl when he leaves for his spinoff (following current trend of having little kid as companion for the hero) or Daryl abandons her because he feels he failed to protect her. (Lame)

2. Judith dies and turns into a zombie. You then have the emotional gut punch of Daryl having to kill her zombie self. Maybe he then leaves out of guilt for not saving her and takes off for his spinoff.

3. Judith dies but doesn't turn into a zombie. Since I haven't watched the show in a while, I don't know if they've shown any children die who were born during the post-apocalypse start period. Maybe this is how they find out that the next generation are not infected. Or maybe Judith turns out to be immune to the zombie virus. Then maybe Daryl takes off for Europe to pursue a lead on someone researching this issue, out of grief, in hopes of making this Judith's legacy. 

In any event, I thought it was really stupid and irresponsible for Daryl and Carol to let Judith go with them to the Commonwealth in the first place. 

As for the rest of the episode, I didn't recognize most of the characters now running around on this show. I still can't stand Negan. I dread what they will do with him and Maggie on their Dead City spinoff.

Edited November 14, 2022 by tv echo

[Lambie]

9 minutes ago, tv echo said:

3. Judith dies but doesn't turn into a zombie. Since I haven't watched the show in a while, I don't know if they've shown any children die who were born during the post-apocalypse start period. Maybe this is how they find out that the next generation are not infected. Or maybe Judith turns out to be immune to the zombie virus. 

I love this theory because there has to be a point in this show going onto a whole freaking universe with 3 spinoffs. But we've seen kid walkers around Judith's age or younger. Maggie had to kill one a few weeks ago. Of course, Judith may be special because she has a magic combo of Lori/Rick/Shane/Michonne DNA. That would need some serious explanation but we also just started having walkers climb walls 12 years in. Kudos to the poster in the live discussion thread who said the climber walker looked like he just won American Ninja Warrior. 

I can't believe there's only 1 episode left. I really hate that we're not getting an actual end (or a good last season) because they're just doing spinoffs and as they all get cancelled, one by one, we never got the payoff we wanted when there's an *actual* series finale.

[heisenberg]

9 hours ago, millennium said:

But the Rick Grimes movies!

It will be a serie with Michonne, they confirmed it.

[FierceCritter]

On 11/8/2022 at 2:48 PM, Taget said:

I almost wish they were honest with Judith.

"Look.  Your real mom who you never met is dead.  Your real dad was your "dad"'s best friend who your dead step-brother murdered to save the man who kinda raised you for a bit as an infant.  So really none of them owed you a thing.  The woman you called mom went off to find her boyfriend, the man you were unrelated to, who you were trained to call "dad" who would never even recognize you if he saw you.

"Family is who chooses to be with you.  And they chose to be elsewhere."

The truth of this just made me sad. 😿

[GustavMahler]

I was annoyed that AMC had the final episode listed and the thumbnail was spoilery. They yanked it off after a few hours but it was too late for me... 

[heisenberg]

Just now, GustavMahler said:

I was annoyed that AMC had the final episode listed and the thumbnail was spoilery. They yanked it off after a few hours but it was too late for me... 

I dont click on anything.🙂

[tennisgurl]

I admit that I have been behind on this season but I am glad to play catch up. If nothing else, I am still interested in seeing where this is going and these last few episodes are getting me excited. Even if I do have to continue to sit through Saint Negan and a whole host of Walker bait drama with characters who's names I can never remember even after binging half the season. 

[iMonrey]

The fact that this was the penultimate episode just speaks to how far the show has fallen. I don't get any of this. A group of them manage to escape the Commonwealth and make it back to Alexandria and then . . . take over Alexandria, somehow? And where were Judith and RJ this whole time? Wasn't Alexandria basically turned into a prison camp? Were Judith and JR performing manual labor?

And why go back to the Commonwealth? Who the hell cares about Pamela? Where did they get all those machine guns and all that ammo? 

This just feels like another season finale. And as villains go, and as communities go, Pamela and the Commonwealth have been about the most snooze-worthy of the entire series. Way to go out on with a whimper there, show.

As far as Judith is concerned, the show is never going to make me care. I do not feel any emotional connection to Judith. Judith was little more than a prop until a few seasons ago when they wrote Rick off the show, did a time jump and aged Judith up. It's not the same character to me, I don't feel like there's any connection to Rick with her. And clearly Michonne didn't give a shit about her either. Why should I?

[GustavMahler]

4 hours ago, heisenberg said:

I dont click on anything.🙂

Neither did I...I was watching on the AMC fire tv app where they have the season's episodes arrayed in a column. I saw the last episode thumbnail and thought they released both episodes at once, but that was not the case. The picture shown though was a spoiler...

[heisenberg]

1 hour ago, GustavMahler said:

Neither did I...I was watching on the AMC fire tv app where they have the season's episodes arrayed in a column. I saw the last episode thumbnail and thought they released both episodes at once, but that was not the case. The picture shown though was a spoiler...

Yeah, sometimes i go in the spoiler section, OoohMaggie puts the trailers there, but for that last episode I skipped it.  Sorry OoohMaggie!😁

[Mr. Sparkle]

12 hours ago, iMonrey said:

This just feels like another season finale.

Because that's exactly what it is. The 35 people who still watch this show all know about the upcoming spin-offs, so we know who's going to survive. It's basically a transition instead of an ending. 

I'm curious what's going to happen to the "universe" when the new spin-offs flop as hard as the previous ones did. 

[tricknasty]

I don’t care about Judith. Someone feel free to spoil me and let me know if RJ makes it in any of the spin-offs.

[SharonH58]

I don't care about anyone on this show.  We know the fate of the spin off people.  I don't care if Rick or Michonne come back or their spin off.   I just am curious how they 'end' a show that I used to be excited about each Sunday.  I spent the time between when Rick and company were captured at Terminus and the next season wondering how they would escape.  (though that was wrapped up too fast for me)  Then it started to spiral after Alexandria IMO.   I thought this last season would be a nail biter but it's been a yawner.   Wrap it up folks!

[econ07]

16 hours ago, iMonrey said:

And clearly Michonne didn't give a shit about her either. Why should I?

This was the worst writing of the series.  No mother or father would abandon their kids to go after the possibility of finding their lost partner.  Just terrible, terrible writing.

[rmontro]

Thought this was pretty underwhelming for a penultimate episode. 

The only other thing I want to say is this:  It is absolutely ridiculous and irresponsible that they would allow Judith to come along to be in the middle of a firefight.  What kind of parenting is that?  Garbage.  But I noticed 53% of people on the Talking Dead poll said they would take her along.  Explains a lot about the country, I think.

[Iguessnot]

3 hours ago, rmontro said:

Thought this was pretty underwhelming for a penultimate episode. 

The only other thing I want to say is this:  It is absolutely ridiculous and irresponsible that they would allow Judith to come along to be in the middle of a firefight.  What kind of parenting is that?  Garbage.  But I noticed 53% of people on the Talking Dead poll said they would take her along.  Explains a lot about the country, I think.

Yeah, whatever piece of wisdom the child gave about the future, that was no reason to include her on their special ops mission. If she wanted to take up arms and defend where she stands, fine. But heading two states over to the Commonwealth to fight, no.

I really don't have a problem with Michonne in terms of children abandonment. She had intel that Rick was alive. She could either pursue that info or do a Thank you, Next.  Having made the decision to look for him, the only responsible decision was to leave the children in the care of the community which was safe at the time.

[Taget]

5 hours ago, rmontro said:

Thought this was pretty underwhelming for a penultimate episode. 

The only other thing I want to say is this:  It is absolutely ridiculous and irresponsible that they would allow Judith to come along to be in the middle of a firefight.  What kind of parenting is that?  Garbage.  But I noticed 53% of people on the Talking Dead poll said they would take her along.  Explains a lot about the country, I think.

On the one hand she knew how to handle herself and knew how to fight.  But and this a big but.  Look at where they use child soldiers and why.  Children can be taught to fight and be not just good but superior fighters.  And it is because their minds are not fully formed and they are incapable of properly analyzing consequences and showing the good judgement that would prevent them from committing atrocities or getting themselves killed to complete the "mission."

You watch the show and you can almost go along with bringing her.  The actress to her great credit beautifully expresses the "wise beyond her years" dialogue that adult writers produce for her.  And with her reduced to a moving image on your tv box you can be forgiven for seeing her as a small adult rather than the child she is.  But if you watch the talking dead and see her talk in our own voice the way someone her age actually talks it should wake you up and say, "Hell no."  You leave the girl at home and even though you gave her the training to protect herself in case something happen you do not bring her into a dangerous mission to covertly decapitate the leadership of another community far away.

Edited November 16, 2022 by Taget

[deeznutz]

The walkers have been climbing not just in season 11. If you go back to season 1 ep2 a walkers climbs the fence where Rick and Glen get the box truck from. And before that there were walkers all over the tank that Rick was trapped in.

[iMonrey]

Quote

But I noticed 53% of people on the Talking Dead poll said they would take her along.  Explains a lot about the country, I think.

I think it explains a lot about what's left of the fanbase.

The thing that annoyed me about the whole Whisperers arc is that it contradicted everything we'd been told about walkers. Suddenly you could just put on a skin mask and shuffle around with them and they won't bother you. And you can lead them, apparently.

We've been down this path many times. As far back as the second episode Rick and Glenn covered themselves in fresh walker gore and shuffled along with a herd. That worked for maybe about five minutes. Then it rained and washed away some of the gore and the walkers turned on them.

In this episode, by the time Jerry left the RV, any blood or guts he had on him was bone dry and barely visible. He should have been chomped the minute he set foot outside the door.

So which is it? If you don't even need the blood and guts to fool the walkers then why did they bother with it? And if you do how was it still working on Jerry after most of it was gone?

They took this to another extreme on Fear the Walking Dead. I remember Nick would just smear walker blood on his face and that was enough to fool them.

Basically, it's really easy to fool the walkers. Except when it isn't.