S08.E02: Blue Jay

[Mr. Sparkle]

After fleeing PADRE, June's safety and solitude is threatened by an unwelcomed reunion and a desperate father's search for his missing daughter.

Streaming early on AMC+ and premiering on AMC May 21, 9:00 PM EDT.

Proceed at your own risk for spoilers before the AMC airdate.

[Mr. Sparkle]

Y'know what? I'm surprised to say that was a decent episode. There's a lot of potential with this story line, it's a shame that they will probably screw it up. 

So, who do we think is PADRE? Strand? Madison as a double agent? Rick? Michonne? Carl? Judith? 

[maystone]

 

i liked it too once the story got going. I was afraid that we were never going to see much of anyone other than Morgan and Madison, but in pretty short order we got June, Dwight, and Honey - three of my favorite characters, along with Madison. Now all I need is my Daniel.

I'm envisioning the writers thumbing through the Audubon Society's book of bird names. They're all safe names now, but I'm waiting for "Horned screamer" and "Blue-footed booby" to get called to action. I admit that the character Shrike seems aptly named, though.

Learning that June is the one who created the radiation therapy was a nice twist, as is the way it's being used against her. I hope that the Padrats took the index finger from June's non-dominant hand, because drawing shots without a flexible index finger is going to be . . . well I'm just really looking forward to their work-around. The scene with June walking through the train cars filled with her therapeutic failures was well done. We haven't had spooky on FTWD in a while, and I definitely felt the spooky in parts of her walk. I can't remember the name of D's and Honey's kid, but I'm expecting him to be annoying as hell going forward.

Either Madison's breathing isn't as bad as she says it is, or the writer's are playing fast-and-loose with her pulmonary issues. I just don't think that she can be both falling to the floor coughing and gasping, and then tossing people out of the truck and bellowing to Morgan to run.

I'm hoping like hell for a Madison/Daniel reunion. Do not deprive me of this, show!!

I gotta admit that I love the desert/(Brendan Fraser's)Mummy/Raiders of the Lost Ark costume vibe that the underlings are given. It also means that TPTB can have like five people play all of the army of underlings as long as they don't all have to be in the same scene together.

[Starchild]

23 hours ago, maystone said:

I can't remember the name of D's and Honey's kid, but I'm expecting him to be annoying as hell going forward.

Finch. It stuck in my head because I love Person of Interest.

[iMonrey]

Quote

I can't remember the name of D's and Honey's kid

Honey? Do you mean Sherry? Oh was there an episode where she was called Honey?

I liked this better than last week's, but that's a pretty low bar. Mostly because I care about Dwight and Sherry more than Morgan, Grace and their NotKid. 

But considering June had just told D&S their kid needed immediate surgery before the medication wore off, it was pretty untimely for them to stop atop the train and discuss potential future moves. Save it 'til later, kids. And since when is June a surgeon anyway? Wasn't she just a nurse? Like a nurse should know how to do an appendectomy? 

I'm also still sick of sinister, crazy cult leaders and sinister, fascist communities. Didn't we just go through this with Stand and his building? And before that, Ginny and whatever the hell that community was called? What's the point of them taking down all these communities one by one only to run into yet another one season after season? Are the writers really that creatively bankrupt? 

I mean, I'm already sick of Shrike and her weird hair and I'm going to have to wait another 14 episodes before someone finally takes her out. 

[MrPissyPuppy]

44 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

Honey? Do you mean Sherry? Oh was there an episode where she was called Honey?

I mean, I'm already sick of Shrike and her weird hair and I'm going to have to wait another 14 episodes before someone finally takes her out. 

Dwight calls Sherry honey a lot. 

Shrike (and one of The Minimalist guys) remind me of Eraserhead. 

[nodorothyparker]

This was a better episode than I had any reason to expect at this point. You know, once you get past the head scratching entire premise of PADRE that just has no choice but to save all these kids from their more or less inept families but then expects them to be the future of humanity with no normal human attachments or feelings about any of it. I mean, they're actually not wrong that a whole lot of parents we've seen over the years on all the collected shows weren't doing a very good job of keeping their offspring alive. But then ... Mostly, I think I was just happy not to have to sit through another entire episode of the adventures of mopey Morgan and his NotKid.

I'm going to assume that Bad Haircut does have some perfected version of June's failed experiments to save Dwight and Sherry's spawn or that was a whole lot of setup that doesn't really lead anywhere beyond burning off an entire final season episode on atmosphere and nihilism for the sake of nihilism that even the mother show would have been envious of. Dwight and Sherry were among the few and far between bright spots to emerge from the interminable seasons of Negan, so I find myself still rooting for them to have some kind of decent ending. But I guess we're not supposed to think too hard about the notion that PADRE deliberately separates families because of the aforementioned ban on normal human attachments, knows it took a kid from Dwight and Sherry, but lets them hang around their same-age kiddie soldiers anyway for ... reasons? Either PADRE's recordkeeping is pretty shoddy for a group that seems to outsmart outwit and outlast all the parents in its far-flung radius or it's just sloppy because the plot calls for it. Maybe there was some explanation about them being incognito that I missed, but again, Dwight has a freaking ironed face. He's going to be hard to pass off as someone else.

Just like Madison's newfound lung issues are whatever they need to be any given week, I love how June's medical/psychiatric/surgical skills are whatever the plot calls for at any given time.

[iMonrey]

Quote

But I guess we're not supposed to think too hard about the notion that PADRE deliberately separates families because of the aforementioned ban on normal human attachments, knows it took a kid from Dwight and Sherry, but lets them hang around their same-age kiddie soldiers anyway for ... reasons?

And normally all these kids are taken while their families and parents are left behind but for some reason PADRE took everyone from the rafts, adults included, and incorporated them into their community. Why?

Also, this Adrian guy made a point of showing June this friendship bracelet his daughter made for him, and that she had a matching one. But when he finally found her in the train car there was no such bracelet. I would have thought the show would have followed up on that since it would have been our only way of identifying her.

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

16 hours ago, nodorothyparker said:

This was a better episode than I had any reason to expect at this point.

It was a good episode, IMO, and I like the concept of PADRE and where it could go. Unfortunately, my history with TWD Universe tells me there will be a completely off-the-rails episode that has nothing to do with what's going on, like some kind of flashback episode. 

Requisite pointing out of plot holes/dumbness:

• When June was walking through the cars and came upon the dead folk, maybe stab them in the head while they are still chained up and not give them a chance to escape? 
• Appendix kid who was moaning on the gurney and given some drugs made a pretty quick recovery without having surgery or anything like that. 

[Daltrey]

On 5/23/2023 at 8:13 AM, iMonrey said:

this Adrian guy made a point of showing June this friendship bracelet his daughter made for him, and that she had a matching one. But when he finally found her in the train car there was no such bracelet.

It was there, on her left wrist/forearm...REALLY hard to see but it was there.

[heisenberg]

On 5/23/2023 at 11:32 AM, Superclam said:

Appendix kid

😄😄😄

Seriously, that daughter was hitting hard on her father thru that window. She stayed there what?..

10 minutes making smiley faces?🙂

But I did like this episode, I might even get a crush on June who knows?