S05.E12: Remember

[mandolin]

I really don't think that name gives anything away.

[LexiconDevilOne]

Is it just me or there are no ther POC aside from those in Our Group in Jonestown Safe Zone?

 

 

You need to look up Jim Jones philosophies on the races, it's not what you think.

 

Other than that, we didn't see enough of the towns people to judge.

[meep.meep]

And stainless steel appliances!

 

Did they ask them to surrender all their weapons?  Or just the guns?  Carl sure kept his knife.

 

I think that Deanna complimented Glenn on the beat down because he had told her that he wanted to stay.  She's trying to reinforce that he's welcomed in.

 

And Rick's outside the walls reconnoitering about, and his son just shows up out of the blue, from the place he took him to be safe, and he doesn't even ask how he got out?  Or why?  Just "glad you could make it, let's stomp some zombie butt in a manly father and son bonding manner." ?

[RustbeltWriter]

Deanna should give Daryl the job of finding a spot for another settlement and a plan to outfit it and get there. It's nice they have this place but a back up is always nice and if more people come in you'll have a place to put them. I think that's kind of job Daryl could rise to.

[Caelicola]

I'm sorry if it's been already noted, I did read all comments, but maybe I forgot; I just noticed, on rewatch, that the comic Carl picks up is titled "Wolf fight".

Whether it's a fair fight or not is not specified (but we all know it isn't), but is it coincidence or foreshadowing? Aaaah, I'm intrigued by everything in this episode.

[LexiconDevilOne]

I believe it. Lots of prepper types with lots of cash around these parts.  A gated community with lots of guns all the comforts of home fully dressed and stocked for the zombie apocalypse not only COULD exist but I'd put money on DOES exist as we speak.

They do exist, all over. They are built for specific people. Most people have zero clue what being a prepper is. They think they do, because they have watched that horrible show on TV, but it's not a true depiction of the prepping community.

 

Prepping is all about self sustainability, self reliance, and off the gird living. Along with the tools, knowledge, and experience to go along with it.

Edited March 2, 2015 by LexiconDevilOne

[kj4ever]

Hey, come on! Those guys were in the ROTC!

Can you imagine if they had said that to Abraham?  He would have laughed in their face.

[Ocean Chick]

Hey - I just had a thought.  Yeah, rare, I know.

 

Anyways, for those who think Deanna suspects that Carol was lying about her skill sets, does anyone else think that maybe Carol was laying it on so thick in order to get Deanna wondering what game she was playing and taking her attention away from Rick so that he can slide under the radar?

[Timetoread]

They do exist, all over. They are built for specific people. Most people have zero clue what being a prepper is. They think they do, because they have watched that horrible show on TV, but it's not a true depiction of the prepping community.

 

Prepping is all about self sustainability, reliance, and off the gird living. Along with the tools, knowledge, and experience to go along with it.

 

Agreed!  I'd fit the bill if I could stomach being off the grid.  I want to marry the grid.  When the power goes out I am inconsolable.

[Mu Shu]

A sub-division of that size and wealth would have a playground. Why would kids be playing the middle of a street? (Which was what was one the other side of the gate.)

Not only that, but every other  subdivision in Florida comes with a man made lake.   I pass one every day with far more modest homes with the lake, playground,  and 9 foot concrete walls.    You would think a planned community with million dollar homes would be a walled fortress.

[Samx]

And Rick's outside the walls reconnoitering about, and his son just shows up out of the blue, from the place he took him to be safe, and he doesn't even ask how he got out?  Or why?  Just "glad you could make it, let's stomp some zombie butt in a manly father and son bonding manner." ?

 

I was yelling at the TV "Carl stay in the house" and expected Rick to say the same. In a way, it makes sense Rick isn't as fazed by Carl's shenanigans anymore but at the same time, he DID freak out when Carl and Judith were out of sight. I thought maybe I missed a scene where Rick told Carl to feel free to hop the fence as he pleases. I suppose Chandler Riggs will look like he's 20 any day now so we should get used to it.

[LexiconDevilOne]

Agreed!  I'd fit the bill if I could stomach being off the grid.  I want to marry the grid.  When the power goes out I am inconsolable.

We did too, until we got a generator. Now with the solar, WITH BATTERY BACK UP (the part most people miss), we never worry about it.

 

Back to the show...I'm so glad we get to see Ricks beautiful face, and he looks like he smells good too, after two seasons of showerless smelly Rick!

 

Darryls turn next week, I hope.

Edited March 2, 2015 by LexiconDevilOne

[Bruinsfan]

And stainless steel appliances!

Finally a real reason to prefer those and granite countertops - hard surfaces against which one can bash zombie brains!

[larapu2000]

I was yelling at the TV "Carl stay in the house" and expected Rick to say the same. In a way, it makes sense Rick isn't as fazed by Carl's shenanigans anymore but at the same time, he DID freak out when Carl and Judith were out of sight. I thought maybe I missed a scene where Rick told Carl to feel free to hop the fence as he pleases. I suppose Chandler Riggs will look like he's 20 any day now so we should get used to it.

I thought it was hilarious that Rick freaked out inside the compound, but he wasn't worried about Carl in the wild.

[Nashville]

I remember this line and it didn't make any sense to me.  First of all, Sasha killed the walker just as the gate was closing.  So that's the first walker that has been around the walls in a long time?

When the gates are shut, how would they know?

  And did Deanna only mean around the walls?  Because Aaron talked about "clearing" the route that Rick decided against taking back to Alexandria.  I get that that's far away from the actual compound, but it's as though Deanna was saying that seeing a walker anywhere now was some rare occurrence.  That didn't make any sense to me.

  

I assumed "clearing" referred to moving abandoned/wrecked autos out of the road, to make them (relatively) safely drivable again.

Yeah, while it is believable that a planned community could have some large solar panel arrays, it wouldn't have anything substantial for energy storage, which means they really only should have electricity during the day, and even then it would be difficult to manage.

  

Most solar arrays have a minimum storage capacity of two days' worth of collection, so a single cloudy/rainy day doesn't totally deplete the reserve. If (I suspect) this community is at/under 10% occupancy, that reserve could stretch out more than a couple of weeks between recharges.

Granted, though, they are seeing a spike in the water pump/water heater usage at the moment.... ;)

Speaking if poker, what card game was Eugene leading in the RV?

  

Some bastardized version of either Baseball or Dr. Pepper (different seven-card stud variations).

So how does Enid normally get back in? Do the walls on the outside have the same exposed beams? (I don't think they do.)

  

I'm guessing a knotted rope ladder similar to what we saw hanging out the attic window in CDB House #2.

Those lawns need fertilizing.

 

Yeah, I don't think Chemlawn has been real assiduous about running it's routes lately....

 

I wonder if these rich "sustainable energy" folks knew something the rest of the world didn't about this virus. What else would be the point of building an exclusive community that could sustain itself from such as powerful force as this virus. Reminds me of the movie The Purge (SPOILER ALERT) where the rich were able to afford to put barriers and iron gates around their houses for protection

  

Doubtful. The time lapse between initial Wildfire declaration and global outbreak was just a little over four months; not much time to plan and build an entire neighborhood. My guess is it was built to market to the same paranoid rich people who bought mountain cabins in anticipation of Y2K.

Speaking of nicknames, anybody got one for the new location? I'm getting really tired of typing "Alexandria."

Me, I'm going with

ASZes

.

I thought it was hilarious that Rick freaked out inside the compound, but he wasn't worried about Carl in the wild.

I expect he was (a) more worried about Judith&Carl than Carl on his own, and (b) more worried about unpredictable humans than predictable walkers.

[Persnickety1]

So I'm a bit confused.

 

Enid scaled the 15-foot steel wall with the assistance of her handy pegs (or whatever they were).

 

But how the fresh hell does she get down on the other side?

 

Does she just jump from 15 feet and hope for the best when she lands?

 

Little details like that bug the bejeebus out of me.  

 

Also, I'm a cheap date.  As soon as I saw that French press coffee pot on the kitchen counter, and assuming they have coffee to go with that French press, I'd stay.  

 

ZA be damned.  If there's coffee to be had, I'm in for a penny, in for a pound, so to speak.  

[Mu Shu]

Ricksburg....

Really, I wish this could happen.   Maybe by July 4?   I wish they could stage a coup and depose Deanna's ropey neck  and her members only  wearing douchey son/s.    Carol could change into her regular gear and strap some ammo across her chest ala Rambo, and be all "Deanna, sit your wormy ass down and shut the fuck up.    I  was relieved when my piece of crap husband was drawn and quartered by zombies.   I  stabbed two people in the head and set them on fire.   I was excommunicated for my deeds, and during my time in exile, I shot a little girl in the head because she needed killin'.   Oh, and I shot a man in Reno.    Just to watch him die".    

 

And why does that damn  woman who cuts hair have time to make owl sculptures?     Shouldn't any idle time be filled by some sort of watch duty before creating sculptures?    People are jumping the fence, you hockey pucks.     I wonder if they have country time lemonade, like Woodbury did. 

Edited March 2, 2015 by Mu Shu

[MissL]

 

 

I do think one single episode inside Alexandria is a bit premature since there is plenty of talk on this thread about

Where are all the people?

Where are the children we heard?

How many people are there total? Why don't they come out?

Aaron said there were a lot, but the streets seemed pretty deserted to be taking a census, much less qualifying it by race, or gender, or age, or any other category. I'm going to wait till I've seen more

Right.  I know they said early on that they had advised the townspeople to back off and let Rick's group get acclimated but it was still weird not to see very many people around. I think it was just a director choice to make the town seem more scary, unknown, and suspicious but they have to realize the audience they have (us) would be asking these questions. 

[RedheadZombie]

  'Alexandria'/Congresswoman Deanna aren't what they appear to be.  This is pretty much a given, but its just a question of just what is going to happen.

 

It is hard to tell at this point.  I think a lot of the confusion may be deliberate misdirect by the show.  I think they want us to wonder about the sounds of the children and if these people are menacing or harmless.  They want us to wonder of Jessie is a honey trap.  So I'm not trusting a lot of things so far.  There's some bait and switch on the show's part.  I don't blame them because most of us suspect this group is going to turn out good.  Who wants another Governor/Claimers/Termites/Grady?

 

So here's my speculation.  Maybe this community - Deanna, et al. - have been betrayed in the past.  Rather than gunning down the whole group or becoming cannibals, they carefully present themselves as naïve and hapless.  The leader is a warm motherly woman.  Her son and his friend, who make the runs, are dumb and dumber.  The recruiters are a sweet gay couple.  The community is so safe that they keep the gate open half the time.  No snipers on the roof.  Here's two beautiful homes, here's food and water.  Thank you for knocking my stupid son on his ass.  Here's a hot blonde I'm sending to give you clothes, and give you an intimate hair cut.

 

I believe Deanna that they need to build up their community.  But I think she's experienced enough to know people will say anything to live in her community.  The first evaluation is performed by Aaron.  When they past that test, Deanna accepts you into her community and continues to evaluate.  She deliberately splits them into separate homes.  Aiden separates out three of the youngest to evaluate.  Hot blonde is immediately set to work on the leader - who Deana knows is straight and tragically widowed.  Deanna is carefully giving people jobs, which separates them out even more.  Deanna knows that Carl's not only a teenager, he's the leader's son.  Carl is immediately introduced to a mysterious girl his age.

 

So Deanna can be cunning, manipulating, lying, as well as well-intentioned.   We know our group is good and will make her community much stronger. If anything I'm speculating is true, Deanna is a great leader, and is doing what she needs to do for her people.

 

I really hope Alexandria isn't shifty, or at least, not THAT shifty. I think the idea of our gang, after being in full time survival mode for so long, and doing things and seeing things that are unimaginable, and losing so much, is going to attempt to re-join a version of polite society. Daryl is clearly having the most trouble, but it seems like it will be an issue with everyone. They finally found that safe haven they have been looking for all this time. So...now what?

 

My opinion is this group is going to be basically good.  We've seen evil groups almost exclusively.  We've seen bad leaders murdered.  We've seen our group filthy, homeless, and nearly starving, for more than a year now (our time).  Been there, done that, over and over and over again.  I think our group will be integrated into the community, possibly weed out some weak links, Rick will quickly become co-leader with Deanna, and the main threat will come from outside the community - the exiled members?

 

Rick does look much younger without the beard and I am so glad to see it go, but I agree he looks best with a scruff of a beard, and I hate the new cop uniform. Especially the tie. Is Michonne supposed to dress like that too? Good lord.

 

Can't wait to see Michonne in full uniform.  I hope her hair is up in a bun, tucked under her police cap.  And I hope she wears her katana while on duty.  And I hope Daryl snickers and tells her she looks ridiculous, followed by Michonne flipping him off, then threatening to arrest him.

[lamadeleine]

Watch out, Jesssie! That sound you're hearing is the key board strokes of Rick and Michone shippers, typing away furiously while wishing your death...

 

All shipping aside, the introduction of Jessie was kind of ridiculous. It played out like some kind of zombie apocolypse porn scenario. Newly hotified Rick gets out the shower and before he has a chance to dry his glistening chest off and put on a shirt...oh, surprise! The doorbelll rings and a hot blonde lady shows up not only with supplies, but just "happens" to have been a stylist and offers HotRick a haircut....I fully expected to hear "Bowchickabowbow" at some point.  Hopefully, her inclusion in the story will have more weight and dimension than just being some potential love interest.

 

Regarding Michonne, I feel like the show has done a decent job of setting up her desperate desire to find a place to land. She's one of the few characters who spent a good deal of time out in the post-apocolyptic world alone, save her zombie pets, and while she figured out how to negotiate that somewhat successfully, meaning she survived, it seemed to be at great cost to her emotionally. She knows and has spoken about the dangers of being out there too long. She knows how dehumanizing, lonely and awful that existence can be...even if technically you've found a way to live through it. Now that she's got people she loves and cares for around her..she doesn't ever want to go back to that, and she probably knows that not everyone in the group would survive it. I guess we just have to wait and see if her intense desire to make Alexandria work ends up being a good thing or a disaster.

[Boofish]

So I'm a bit confused.

 

Enid scaled the 15-foot steel wall with the assistance of her handy pegs (or whatever they were).

 

But how the fresh hell does she get down on the other side?

 

Does she just jump from 15 feet and hope for the best when she lands?

 

Little details like that bug the bejeebus out of me.  

 

 

She left the pegs in the wall, I assume so she could climb back down when she got back "home" The other side had those steel poles slanted and holding up the wall. She could easily slide down and scale back up. She seemed small and limber enough. Just a guess

[morgankobi]

I have now looked at my very first (somewhat) spoiler because, dammit, the name thing was bugging me!

Unless I am daft, it means absolutely nothing on it's own, and doesn't spoil anything. I say use it!

[Persnickety1]

She left the pegs in the wall, I assume so she could climb back down when she got back "home" The other side had those steel poles slanted and holding up the wall. She could easily slide down and scale back up. She seemed small and limber enough. Just a guess

 

Oh, good point, I hadn't thought of that.  

 

I was picturing at some point a nasty leg break when she landed and her immediately becoming zombie chow.  

[beedee]

So I'm a bit confused.

Enid scaled the 15-foot steel wall with the assistance of her handy pegs (or whatever they were).

But how the fresh hell does she get down on the other side?

Does she just jump from 15 feet and hope for the best when she lands?

Little details like that bug the bejeebus out of me.

I'm guessing she uses the support beams on the other side to slide down.

Noah's lack of a limp bugged me more. It was very noticeable just last episode when he was in the RV handing Aaron the painkillers. He has a little bit of a limp (much less noticeable though) while in the woods with the supply run group. Then when they came back through the gate, he was walking faster than both Nicholas and Aidan!

I do think the Alexandrians are losing their people faster than they expected and that is why they wanted to recruit. Aidan said as much "You're standing here because we lost four of our people last month." Clearly they need Glenn to train them on how to do a proper supply run.

Edited March 2, 2015 by beedee

[Watcher0363]

I owe Anthony DiNozzo and Remington Steele an apology. And deserve to have my TV watching privileges suspended for a week or a random house hold item smashed against my head or maybe just a good Gibbs head slap. For I miss the movie theme that the writers were beating me senseless with all night long. To  Akira Kurosawa, mea culpa mea culpa mea culpa.

I now get it, we were watching the ZA version of the Seven Samurai. Granted this was more like the Seven Samurai and friends. But there it was How could I have missed that. A small village with weak people needing harden men to keep them self. Perhaps with Rick all clean shaven we should call them the Magnificent Seven and friends.

[Timetoread]

Also, I'm a cheap date.  As soon as I saw that French press coffee pot on the kitchen counter, and assuming they have coffee to go with that French press, I'd stay.  

 

ZA be damned.  If there's coffee to be had, I'm in for a penny, in for a pound, so to speak.  

 

Word!  I was in at power and running water.  Not to mention houses way better than mine now.  Do not underestimate my need to be comfortable.  I'd kiss the Governor and cook for the Termites before I'd leave that joint to walk the asphalt with the stinky bunch, chowing down on rabid dog and possum.  No way Jose - conformation for me!

 

ETA:  I started rewatching and I saw something that made my Grinch heart grow three sizes today.  In the scene where Rick can't sleep, he gets up and pulls the covers up over a sleeping Carl AND a sleeping Noah.  I love that!  Any kid that he lets in that group becomes HIS kid.

Edited March 2, 2015 by Timetoread

[mla40]

Another thing about jessie's haircut that bugs me...She had her scissors and razor with her? And a hand held mirror? In the goodie box? And Rick is the only one she approached for a haircut? Where was everyone else when all this was going down? Hanging out in the other house? The whole scenario just irks me.

[NeelyO]

I'm sorry if it's been already noted, I did read all comments, but maybe I forgot; I just noticed, on rewatch, that the comic Carl picks up is titled "Wolf fight".

Whether it's a fair fight or not is not specified (but we all know it isn't), but is it coincidence or foreshadowing? Aaaah, I'm intrigued by everything in this episode.

A post on Pajiba.com suggests that all the nods to the wolves last season (the graffiti, the trees in the shape of a "W", the heads with "W"s carved in them) were brought full circle in this episode with a pack of feral wolves entering Alexandria. Rich is alpha male, Michonne is alpha female, Daryll is the lone wolf, Carol is den mother, Carl is the cub and the rest make up the wolf pack. States that the title of the comic wrapped it all up in a nice little bow. When I read it I thought immediately of Daryll pacing back and forth when Rick pulled him off that guy. Anyway, I thought it was an interesting interpretation.

 

[mandolin]

I thought it was hilarious that Rick freaked out inside the compound, but he wasn't worried about Carl in the wild.

He really does view the living as the bigger threat.

[Caelicola]

A post on Pajiba.com suggests that all the nods to the wolves last season (the graffiti, the trees in the shape of a "W", the heads with "W"s carved in them) were brought full circle in this episode with a pack of feral wolves entering Alexandria. Rich is alpha male, Michonne is alpha female, Daryll is the lone wolf, Carol is den mother, Carl is the cub and the rest make up the wolf pack. States that the title of the comic wrapped it all up in a nice little bow. When I read it I thought immediately of Daryll pacing back and forth when Rick pulled him off that guy. Anyway, I thought it was an interesting interpretation.

That IS interesting, and I hadn't seen it, so thank you for mentioning it! Wow, I'm going to be ruminating on that one for a while, I think.

[RedheadZombie]

Something that's been bugging me about this whole fitting into society and being out in the ZA too long aspect of this storyline.  They really weren't.  Based on the compressed timeline they were out in the ZA for maybe 6-8 weeks post fall of the Prison.  Before that they spent close 6 months in the prison, creating a society, they had jobs, and rules, the kids had school etc.  Before that, they were at the Farm again, keeping their own society and looking to create a community. I could probably buy the whole fish out of water or been in the jungle too long if we hadn't just seen them having their own community not that long ago.

 

After the farm fell, they were roaming for six to seven months before they found the prison.  They were getting desperate - Carl almost ate a can of dog food before Rick knocked it out of his hands.

[morgankobi]

If Enid can shimmy up the (backward!) supports on the outside, so can others- and many all at once. In this world where the living are the biggest threat, this may be a huge oversight for this sheltered little suburb. 

 

ETA: I am only remembering her name because someone earlier noticed it is "dine" spelled backward :)

Edited March 3, 2015 by morgankobi

[GreyBunny]

I love that most of the attention was on the Atlanta Five + Michonne.    

I especially love that Rick, Carol, and Daryl teamed up for their own long con.  Carol the harmless den mother who feeds old people (and gets to size up the people in the community by hearing the gossip from the elderly and dying), Rick makes himself indispensable as Officer Friendly, and Daryl amps up his feral-ness to take the focus off of the others.  Nice!

[SometimesBites]

Okay, I really wanted to read all responses before pasting up my own, but at the rate this group gabs, I will never get anything else done today. I LOVED this episode.

 

Small details to love:

• At Rick's audition with Deanna, he left a filthy handprint on the white windowsill.
• At Michonne's audition, she plucks a copy of Crime and Punishment from the bookshelf.
• Rick setting his watch--symbolically syncing with the new situation (at least, from all outward appearances). And, without being explicitly asked, volunteering his own answers to The Questions.

Nicely done:

• The beard-shaving scene felt strongly to me like a call back to Shane, when he shaved his head post-Otis. And isn't this Rick much closer to that Shane? Didn't his final line sound a lot like something Shane would have said?
• Carl watching Enid climb the wall was perfection. Pre-ZA boys stare longingly at cheerleaders. Post-ZA boys stare longingly at girls who scale steel walls, knife in hand. Ditto Carl's bottom-line comment to Rick about not getting weak. I love this kid.
• Andrew Lincoln's face is breathtaking. I liked his beard, then I saw his face again. The man is the most delicious sort of eye candy.
• Glenn's perfect blend of disdain and restraint with Sonny-Boy.

Say what?

• Michonne is freshly showered, in a fresh change of clothes, and tooth-brushed...but wearing the same nasty headband she's had on for a very long time. Did she put her dirty socks back on, too? Does the headband give her special katana-wielding power?
• We actually saw long overgrown lawns. So...why? With everything else looking so orderly, why this detail?
• Possum Daryl...hm. Kind of funny, like back at the prison when he purposely licked his fingers before shaking hands with whats-his-name. But also sort of a hammy way to get the idea over that he's not only skeptical, but viscerally uncomfortable. The show is letting him teeter on the brink of stereotype, IMO--a waste.

 

Carol. That was just all kinds of wonderful, from her smiley "gosh, this big ol' gun is sure awkward" at the start, to her purposeful hide-in-plain-sight audition (god, that cracked me up), to her choice of librarian attire. LOVE that she's threatening to hose down Daryl. Their banter is just the best. If I could give her one caveat, though: Don't ever dress in something that you couldn't bear wearing for a long time, should the shit hit the fan unexpectedly. Beth tried to pull off pastels, too, and look how THAT worked out.

Edited March 3, 2015 by SometimesBites

[HalcyonDays]

Alright then. Since a couple of you have mentioned at this point it's not a spoiler, if you guys want to refer to the Alexandria community as ASZ, (for Alexandria safe zone), then you may. It will no longer be considered a spoiler (I was wondering, since last week it was). Carry on.

[BrokenRemote]

So I don't find the existence of this self-sustaining city odd. There are Eco-villages around the country, one near me. And they're not preppers--the idea is to live as ecologically neutral a life as possible, power, food , etc from the earth, drinking water without chlorine and eating food without pesticides and getting what you need from the earth. So this place is basically one of those. ($800,000 in a D.C. suburb isn't way out there, I don't think.) Some people would be interested in that aspect, rather than the prepping idea.

Edited March 3, 2015 by BrokenRemote

[Yolapukka]

I'm inclined to think Alexandria is safe, at least in terms of the community culture they've developed but their long term viability is in jeopardy because they are stagnant. They are not secure and I suspect we will see that come into play by the end of the season. They've been very lucky because their community's location in an evacuated area and self-sustaining nature has minimized their need to venture far afield and encounter large populations of walkers or dangerous humans. I think they have only a very abstract idea of how badly things could go if the trajectory of a dense walker herd or predatory humans intersects with them, if they even understand how significant those threats are. Aidan was proud that they have ventured as much as 50 miles distant but if they've picked over much of what was located within that perimeter that's more of an admission of a problem than of an accomplishment. If they have had only scant contact with others living or undead, he's only slightly more prepared than the more dependent individuals who have not ventured outside the wall. If they've been losing people on supply runs, then they are not as good at this as they should be and further, those they are losing are the young, fit ones who are the most necessary to keep the community going. 

 

I think there has been a little alarm ringing in the back of Deanna's head for some time now that danger is going to find them and it got a lot louder when they took Enid in 8 months ago. If the girl was so wary that it took her three weeks before she started talking to to others, she has likely been through some rough experiences and Deanna is one of the few people she would likely have told even the sketchiest version.  They stopped taking in newcomers after that point, even though they had room for more people and needed  more hands. Given that a tool like Aidan is in any kind of a leadership position, they're screwed if they don't top-up the quality and skills of their population. I think she may have assigned Aaron and Erick to get very selective about new recruits and find a group that had a sense of cohesion, were experienced survivors and included women and children who were part of the group rather than the property of the group. I think she was pleased that they handled their first night by sticking together rather than racing around trying to claim the comfiest bed and best rooms. 

 

I'm skeptical that Enid is contacting an outside group. 8 months seems an unlikely length of time for them to stay their hand, if enemies or to request to come in from the cold, if friendly and trustworthy. I think it's more likely that she is establishing survival caches in case she needs to escape a dangerous situation. I agree with those that think she is the most likely person to have removed the blender gun.

 

I don't think Carol has Deanna entirely fooled  but even so, she got exactly what she wanted out of the encounter.  I'm sure Deanna looked past the helpless act and sees that Carol is a highly competent person, but I doubt even her canniest analysis would reveal that Carol would be the sort to take down Terminus, or that she has the sort of ruthless pragmatism that would enable her to end the lives of sick people with a highly communicable disease or someone like Lizzie.

 

I think there is nothing off about the slight number of encounters they've had with other residents, IIRC Aaron mentioned that the rest of them would respect their privacy and keep their distance while they settle in.

 

 They need a second tier of walls,  better gate(s), perhaps a discreet barricade on the road before the wall is in sight and additional barriers like a line of junked cars between the wall and the treeline.

Edited March 3, 2015 by yuggapukka

[margol29]

We still need to find out about Morgan. Is he traveling by himself or with others. Just because we have only seen him alone does not mean he is.

 

Also, who is cutting up the walkers like we saw in the taking Noah home episode? Also the hobo carvings. Could it be one of the exiled from ASZ? Also why were the people exiled?

 

I also want to know where Enid ran off to and who took Rick's blender gun and who was in the window of the house outside of ASZ?

 

So many questions, so little time left in this season.

[Timetoread]

Watch out, Jesssie! That sound you're hearing is the key board strokes of Rick and Michone shippers, typing away furiously while wishing your death...

 

It was clear from the moment she happened upon wet Slick Rick - laughably unabashedly as a supposed married woman approaching a half naked man she's never met - that she's the new love interest (that and the news articles that ran months ago).  I'm a Richonne shipper who isn't the least bit upset because I knew that they were never going to put them together.  I just hoped that they'd consider it because I liked them as a potential couple. 

 

As for the sound, all I hear is the silence of the people who pontificated and chastised on how men and women can and should "just be friends", and how nobody has time for sex in an apocalypse, and how they don't watch this show to see Rick or ANYBODY hook up because this is a cerebral horror show, not a soap opera, or why does a female character have to be associated with a male.  I knew silence is exactly what I'd hear when Jessie showed on the scene look all fetching and appropriate.  I'll give this character a chance and a minute to wash Alexandra's AHS character out of my brain.  She's already had more lines so we'll get to see her acting chops, not just her chops.  I'll admit that I'm excited to see her owl scultpture because every society needs art.

 

On another note, upon rewatch, the person in the burned house outside the walls was not Enid or Deanna.  I'm wondering if the threat will be people who have found this place and were not welcome inside, so now they hover around outside ready to start trouble.  Also, I was wrong about Member's Only - I wanted to believe his ineptitude was an act, but I think it was real.  SMH.

 

Edited long afterwards because I forgot the main chastisement: Rick is still mourning Lori, still wears his ring, and therefore it is sheer idiocy to imagine that his manparts would even function with the pain still weighing so heavily on his heart.

Edited March 3, 2015 by Timetoread

[paigow]

First Church of Urinology FTW.

Is this guy Head Urinoligist?

[Dodginblue]

Given that a tool like Aidan is in any kind of a leadership position, they're screwed if they don't top-up the quality and skills of their population. 

 

I wondered about that as well.  That kid seemed completely unqualified to be outside the walls and if he represents their best choice for supply runs then something is wrong.  I laughed at him offering up ROTC as his main credential for being in charge of the runs.  It's a perfectly fine program but I think what he might have learned there that would be helpful in the ZA has probably long been exhausted.  Actually we haven't seen much in the way of military types surviving, or surviving for very long.

[wait.what]

The last scene with clean cardigan'ed Carol on one side of the porch contrasting with the dirty greasy Daryl on the other side with Rick in the middle. It just seemed on purpose.

[Guest]

I find Alexandria baffling.  I tend to think its less Dystopian nightmare than Governor/Terminus but it feels a little too good to be true.

 

From they way they are portraying themselves to Rick's crew, they should be dead.  They've gone out fifty miles, ejected three people that didn't work out, don't keep weapons on them inside the fence, let teenagers climb over the fence without noticing, toy with walkers and somehow they've either never been discovered or managed to repel the people that would have taken their community.  It stretches credulity.

 

When weighing that against their ability to watch Rick's group with enough stealth to know a lot about them, it implies that the ineptitude is for show while they suss out Rick's motives.  I think they are intentionally showing themselves as weaker than they are.  First to see if Rick's group will take a protective stance and second to hide their strength if Rick's group won't work in the community or tries to take what they have and must be evicted.

 

Deanna specifically said they asked everyone to stay inside to give them a chance to settle, like it was for the benefit of Rick's group.  But think about the new people they met.   A politician.  The blonde artist/hairs stylist.  Grandparents. Teenagers.  Dumb and dumber twenty something's.  The one person Rick wasn't supposed to meet, blonde's husband, was under cover of night and the ominous nature of that greeting can be chalked up to potential love triangle,  Awfully convenient and feels like misdirection.

[AngelaHunter]

440 posts! It'll take me the rest of the week to catch up, but

 

Daryl? truly looks like a wild animal in this setting, flinging possum guts all over that clean veranda. If anyone wants him to get clean, I think they may have to cross-tie him like a horse and sponge him down. He looks as thoug he should be sleeping outside in a pen every night.

 

I'm sure this has been brought up, but I was puzzled by Carol lying that way during her interview, and now she's wearing the disguise of a soccer mom.

 

ROTC Aiden - what a dipwad. Do these people really still know so little about zombies that they think they can punish them?

 

Off to start at the beginning of this huge thread.

 

 

[SometimesBites]

I think maybe THIS is what happened to Ricks J-gun:

[kikismom]

 

• At Michonne's audition, she plucks a copy of Crime and Punishment from the bookshelf..

Nicely done:

• The beard-shaving scene felt strongly to me like a call back to Shane, when he shaved his head post-Otis. And isn't this Rick much closer to that Shane? Didn't his final line sound a lot like something Shane would have said?

The book Michonne has is titled Crime Without Punishment---wonder if that was foreshadowing?

Yes, Greg Nicotero, who directed the episode, admitted he wanted the shaving scene to be reminiscent of Shane shaving after killing Otis. Also, the line at the end was echoing Allan and Ben at the prison with Sasha and Tyreese. Remember when Allan said We can take the whole place over for ourselves! and Ben said Survival of the fittest! and Tyreese and Sasha were horrified.

[SometimesBites]

The book Michonne has is titled Crime Without Punishment---wonder if that was foreshadowing?

Yes, Greg Nicotero, who directed the episode, admitted he wanted the shaving scene to be reminiscent of Shane shaving after killing Otis. Also, the line at the end was echoing Allan and Ben at the prison with Sasha and Tyreese. Remember when Allan said We can take the whole place over for ourselves! and Ben said Survival of the fittest! and Tyreese and Sasha were horrified.

Thanks for that catch, Kikismom...even better.

[Caelicola]

Last, silly, comment: anyone else notice that Rick promoted himself? As far as I remember, he was a deputy, not a sheriff.

[GreyBunny]

I'm wondering if the threat will be people who have found this place and were not welcome inside, so now they hover around outside ready to start trouble.

 

I think we'll be seeing those three banished men again.  I have to wonder if Deanna sent Aaron and Eric far afield specifically to try to find some helpful badasses because she knows trouble could be brewing outside the gates and her own son and his band of incompetents don't have the skills to defend the place.

[kikismom]

Speaking of, has anyone found the tumblr summary yet (or is it reddit)?

It's usually about 48 hour after the show ends; on reddit.

In the meantime, have you seen this one?:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YC5AmJAvOwE