S01.E04: Everybody Wins a Prize

[nodorothyparker]

Airdate 07.09.23. Streaming on AMC+. Proceed at your own risk for spoilers before airdate.

Quote

Maggie and Negan carry out an attack, but not everything unfolds according to plan. Ginny and Armstrong each make unexpected contact with others.

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

I'll be the one who says it - that was a pretty decent episode. The best this franchise has been in years. I'm sure they'll botch it eventually, but I'm enjoying it so far. 

[OoohMaggie]

17 hours ago, Superclam said:

I'll be the one who says it - that was a pretty decent episode.

I hope ill be able to say that at least once in the remaining two weeks, it was good to see old Simon again, I think that's pretty much the highpoint of the episode for me 🥹.

It was just so damn predictable, these people must have something about them to have stayed alive all those years, but here they are bumbling into one of the silliest traps ever, acting like five year olds when its sprung and getting killed in the usual stupid, perfectly avoidable ways.

Those Walkers can certainly get a move on when they have to, they were around the building and up the back stairs like a shot.

I was hoping Maggie was going to shout "Form Testudo" after grabbing those ring pads 🐢

It would have been nice to see the bald guy's amazing self rescue after being dragged away by those Walkers.

Is there anyone who didn't know Negan would turn around to see Marshal pointing a weapon at him? 🤔

Ive forgotten, what was the significance of the round tin Maggie picked up?

Having said the same about this episode, next weeks looks as though it might be interesting

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

57 minutes ago, OoohMaggie said:

Is there anyone who didn't know Negan would turn around to see Marshal pointing a weapon at him? 🤔

I would've been shocked if that didn't happen. Negan was right - that sheriff is a dick. 

58 minutes ago, OoohMaggie said:

It would have been nice to see the bald guy's amazing self rescue after being dragged away by those Walkers.

I was surprised when they seemed to kill him off so early, so I wasn't surprised that he survived. 

59 minutes ago, OoohMaggie said:

It was just so damn predictable, these people must have something about them to have stayed alive all those years, but here they are bumbling into one of the silliest traps ever, acting like five year olds when its sprung and getting killed in the usual stupid, perfectly avoidable ways.

I saw that going into the cage for protection thing coming from a mile away. I figured the Croat would've trapped them in there as the cliffhanger. 

 

1 hour ago, OoohMaggie said:

Ive forgotten, what was the significance of the round tin Maggie picked up?

No idea, I was waiting for someone here to let me know. Same thing with Negan's matches, they made a big deal about them for some reason. 

[Sailorgirl26]

On 7/8/2023 at 3:34 PM, Superclam said:

I would've been shocked if that didn't happen. Negan was right - that sheriff is a dick. 

I was surprised when they seemed to kill him off so early, so I wasn't surprised that he survived. 

I saw that going into the cage for protection thing coming from a mile away. I figured the Croat would've trapped them in there as the cliffhanger. 

 

No idea, I was waiting for someone here to let me know. Same thing with Negan's matches, they made a big deal about them for some reason. 

The metal tin was the cocoa butter  beeswax that belonged to the big guy Negan killed--last week Negan asked if he could use some for his hand and the guy said no. Negan took it off him after gratering him to death. 

Maggie had the matches but lied about it-- they showed her using them at the end of last week when she was debating burning the stuffed animal (which we all know she didnt burn) that belonged to the silent kid Negan was taking care of. 

Edited July 11, 2023 by Sailorgirl26
cocoa butter is NOT interchangeable with beeswax.

[Mr. Sparkle]

Thank you, @Sailorgirl26. Shows how much attention I've been paying! 

11 hours ago, Sailorgirl26 said:

The metal tin was the cocoa butter that belonged to the big guy Negan killed

Kind of stupid of Negan to take something that belonged to someone he killed. #plotpoints

[OoohMaggie]

15 hours ago, Sailorgirl26 said:

The metal tin was the cocoa butter that belonged to the big guy Negan killed-

That would explain the look Mags gave him, she's been giving out quite a lot of these looks recently.

 

4 hours ago, Superclam said:

Kind of stupid of Negan to take something that belonged to someone he killed.

He's probably banking on that they're all as observant as we are 😱

[OoohMaggie]

22 hours ago, Superclam said:

Negan was right - that sheriff is a dick. 

I know he's got a lot of competition, but does anyone else think that even though he's had little screen time, he is the most annoying character to appear on any of the shows for years? 

[Sailorgirl26]

4 hours ago, Superclam said:

Kind of stupid of Negan to take something that belonged to someone he killed. #plotpoints

well not really, though. Its the survival thing. The show has shown us that taking from the dead is a necessary evil in the post-apocalypse world. Even if you don't want to, or mean to, kill someone, you still search them after to find anything that will help you survive. 

And there's no sense in hiding it, because someone will always see it, and even though they know where it came from, those people also know the reality of survival. That's one thing I've always liked about the show -- the ongoing fundamental question of how much of your humanity will you give up, or are willing to compromise, in order to live, and if you cross a line, can you ever come back? And I like that this is the question they're pushing with Negan. He gave up his humanity, got it back, and now he's on the edge again.

I really love that they're showing this character struggle -- OG Negan is bubbling just below the surface and it scares him, showing he really has changed. But can he stay on the "right" side of it -- its going to be interesting to see how they have him walk the line between the two. 

Edited July 9, 2023 by Sailorgirl26

[Mr. Sparkle]

6 hours ago, OoohMaggie said:

I know he's got a lot of competition, but does anyone else think that even though he's had little screen time, he is the most annoying character to appear on any of the shows for years? 

If I gave it a little thought, I'm sure I could up with more, but no, I really don't like this guy. 

[ICantDoThatDave]

I haven't watched Walking Dead in years, probably since around when Rick "left", & even then I was kinda meh & just saving up shows, catching up when I had nothing else to watch.  I tune in now, to this show, kinda randomly, &... Negan is still around?!?  I'm back out.  How many sharks can one show jump?

[gutbuster]

I need someone who's as excited to see me as the croat was to see Negan. "NeGAAAAAN, hee hee! ' Damn. 

Hate the Marshal more than Negan. How that is possible I don't know, but yeah, when Negan very predictably turned to see that ass training as weapon on him I was right there with Negan. That dude is a dick. Like dude, priorities, maybe? Your homies are dead, you were almost dead, you might still be dead from that wound on your leg, you got no boat home, no resources, but really, administering justice is his priority right now. Dumbass.

I'm finding that apart from the main show, now that it's over, I really just don't hate Negan as much as I did. I don't know why, but I think it may be due to a certain level of ambivalence since this show is basically 'bonus' material, like deleted scenes that are fun or interesting but don't affect anything.  It's a good thing, too, because I fell for thinking that this show was going to be about more than Negan, but this shit is clearly all about Negan, and I'm actually enjoying it despite that.

Still can only think about Negan being thisclose to killing Carl before pop-up Shiva stopped him whenever this 'Saviors don't hurt/kill kids' bullshit comes up. Only because they made it such a huge point of the croat's backstory and this story in general.

I think Maggie's fear that Hershel might actually be dead is coming across pretty well. The moment in the room where Negan went to check for her was really good. Except then that walker playing dead and being conveniently not chompy until Negan touched it kind of ruined it. I thought that walker-actor was a bit too hammy.

I did like the little group of walkers that were strolling down the sidewalk right before the group left the building and went down into the subway. They looked like a bunch of tourists. 

I thought the tin had beeswax? Shows how much I've been paying attention. But I'm glad Sailorgirl26 explained what it was. I just watched last week's episode again today (I slept through parts of the live show last week) and didn't catch that Negan took the tin from that guy. They could've shown him taking it to make it clearer. I thought it was the matches at first and was confused, then maybe Maggie's tin of memories she was looking at last week but I knew that one was squarish. There's too many small tins in this series.

Edited July 10, 2023 by gutbuster

[heisenberg]

10 hours ago, OoohMaggie said:

I know he's got a lot of competition, but does anyone else think that even though he's had little screen time, he is the most annoying character to appear on any of the shows for years? 

[Mr. Sparkle]

18 hours ago, Sailorgirl26 said:

well not really, though. Its the survival thing. The show has shown us that taking from the dead is a necessary evil in the post-apocalypse world. Even if you don't want to, or mean to, kill someone, you still search them after to find anything that will help you survive. 

I agree that it's necessary to steal to survive, but to risk everything with the new gang over cocoa butter? Negan must really hate dry skin. 

[OoohMaggie]

8 hours ago, gutbuster said:

Saviors don't hurt/kill kids' bullshit comes up.

How lovely a sentiment for Simon to show, was it not he who killed the Males at Oceanside, including the 16 year olds? 

[Sailorgirl26]

10 hours ago, gutbuster said:

I need someone who's as excited to see me as the croat was to see Negan. "NeGAAAAAN, hee hee! ' Damn. 

Hate the Marshal more than Negan. How that is possible I don't know, but yeah, when Negan very predictably turned to see that ass training as weapon on him I was right there with Negan. That dude is a dick. Like dude, priorities, maybe? Your homies are dead, you were almost dead, you might still be dead from that wound on your leg, you got no boat home, no resources, but really, administering justice is his priority right now. Dumbass.

I'm finding that apart from the main show, now that it's over, I really just don't hate Negan as much as I did. I don't know why, but I think it may be due to a certain level of ambivalence since this show is basically 'bonus' material, like deleted scenes that are fun or interesting but don't affect anything.  It's a good thing, too, because I fell for thinking that this show was going to be about more than Negan, but this shit is clearly all about Negan, and I'm actually enjoying it despite that.

Still can only think about Negan being thisclose to killing Carl before pop-up Shiva stopped him whenever this 'Saviors don't hurt/kill kids' bullshit comes up. Only because they made it such a huge point of the croat's backstory and this story in general.

I think Maggie's fear that Hershel might actually be dead is coming across pretty well. The moment in the room where Negan went to check for her was really good. Except then that walker playing dead and being conveniently not chompy until Negan touched it kind of ruined it. I thought that walker-actor was a bit too hammy.

I did like the little group of walkers that were strolling down the sidewalk right before the group left the building and went down into the subway. They looked like a bunch of tourists. 

I thought the tin had beeswax? Shows how much I've been paying attention. But I'm glad Sailorgirl26 explained what it was. I just watched last week's episode again today (I slept through parts of the live show last week) and didn't catch that Negan took the tin from that guy. They could've shown him taking it to make it clearer. I thought it was the matches at first and was confused, then maybe Maggie's tin of memories she was looking at last week but I knew that one was squarish. There's too many small tins in this series.

It might have been beeswax--that makes more sense as a healing salve. I wasn't 100% sure about the contents, just their purpose and how Negan ended up with it! 😆

[Iguessnot]

Definitely beeswax

[borealis]

12 hours ago, gutbuster said:

Hate the Marshal more than Negan. How that is possible I don't know, but yeah, when Negan very predictably turned to see that ass training as weapon on him I was right there with Negan. That dude is a dick. Like dude, priorities, maybe? Your homies are dead, you were almost dead, you might still be dead from that wound on your leg, you got no boat home, no resources, but really, administering justice is his priority right now. Dumbass.

That asshole doesn't even have jurisdiction! This isn't the United Municipalities of Zomberica. Is he going to extradite Negan back to New Babylon?? Now I want The Croat to feed him to the fleshies.

[nodorothyparker]

I'm still trying to wrap my head around most of the media about this episode hyping the Simon cameo in the beginning. Okay, Steven Ogg, sure. But did we forget that once the redemption bus started rolling for Negan that the mother show blamed every last terrible thing the Saviors did on Simon because oh no, Negan loves kids? Negan would never hurt a kid, you know, except for the times that he almost did. And now we're really expected to buy that the same guy we were told killed all the men and boys of Oceanside drew the line at a random kid from another one of the communities they were also trying to put under the boot? 

This cameo had almost the opposite effect on me that I think the show was going for: The show up to this point has done a pretty decent job of showing Negan as a different but same kind of panda. It's not pretending that he's not still very much Negan as we saw with the Glenn flashbacks and the theater of eviscerating the Croat's henchman. But he's not being forced to play the sad contrite panda over and over again to people who lathered, rinsed, and repeated on telling him he was trash who should be killed but then failed over and over to follow through. He's moved on to a place where he knows his redemption didn't really fully take but he's also not really chomping at the bit to go back full time to that darkest version of himself either. It's been a much more interestingly nuanced Negan that I could actually find tolerable. The flashback just reminds what a cartoon villain he was for two interminable seasons on another show and that the Croat's backstory is mostly a big "And?"

I keep waiting for the show to give me some reason to feel something about the marshal and instead we just end up agreeing that Negan's right. The guy is a dick. And an idiot. Unless the intent is to shoot Negan where he stands, what is the plan there alone on a hostile island you have no way of escaping?

The sequence of exploring torture rooms to find Not Herschel was really affecting. Maggie sold that fear really well. 

[Starchild]

On 7/8/2023 at 3:34 PM, Superclam said:

I saw that going into the cage for protection thing coming from a mile away. 

This is where Ginny using her words would have come in handy. "Hey, guys?" Her silence feels more like teen stubbornness than emotional trauma. It's annoying.

How brave would it have been if that kid really did turn out to be Hershel?

[Mr. Sparkle]

13 minutes ago, Starchild said:

How brave would it have been if that kid really did turn out to be Hershel?

We all know how predictable this series is, so if they killed Hershel in the middle of the first season, that would really be shocking.

[rmontro]

On 7/10/2023 at 12:56 PM, borealis said:

That asshole doesn't even have jurisdiction! This isn't the United Municipalities of Zomberica. Is he going to extradite Negan back to New Babylon?? Now I want The Croat to feed him to the fleshies.

I guess the whole justice bit is New Babylon's gimmick.  The self righteous prick is kind of like those guys who liked to play police officer, except a more sophisticated version.  You know, the guys who would get out and direct traffic if there was a fire or whatever.

[rmontro]

On 7/10/2023 at 12:10 AM, gutbuster said:

I need someone who's as excited to see me as the croat was to see Negan. "NeGAAAAAN, hee hee! '

Great impersonation, you sound just like him.  👍