Season 4 Discussion

[Lyndy]

Have to say, the young actresses playing Lizzie and Mika really killed it this week. Lizzie feeding the train tracks walker was all kinds of freaky. 

I like how they handled Carol's confession but I have to say, I have trouble staying interested in Tyrese. I get the feeling he's a fan favourite and I think the actor is doing a great job. I just can't bring myself to care about him. I guess I buy his grief over Karen? Except we knew this chick for about five minutes and I can't actually remember what she looks like and didn't remember what Dave's name was until this episode. Tyrese himself seems to toggle between a serene zen master and The Hulk. I want to care about this guy and I just don't.

[Omar G.]

I love Chad L. Coleman, but I really want to know more about Tyreese's backstory and they really haven't filled that in at all.  And no mention at all of Sasha?  Has he just assumed she's dead and no thought to the idea that she might be at Terminus?

 

[Kristen]

This episode was just so wonderfully acted. Melissa McBride and Chad Coleman made what could have been boring actually quite captivating. I thought, at first, that Mika wouldn't die because they were laying the foreshadowing on so thick that she couldn't possibly die, right? I was so in denial that when Tyreese and Carol came back to find Lizzie Bloodyhands I clapped my hand over my mouth. Then I yelled, "WHY DO THEY KEEP LEAVING THE KIDS ALONE??" Well...that's moot now. *womp womp*

[Portia]

My thoughts and prayers go out to Griselda Gunderson.

Edited March 18, 2014 by Portia

[Kim]

I was so mad when Rick kicked Carol out because I felt like Carol was the only one making the hard choices that needed to be made. I remember Dave tweeting at the time that they got rid of the show's best character and I agreed.

So I'm SO glad that they brought her back and gave Melissa McBride such a showcase because she was amazing. As a sometimes comics reader, I kind of knew what might be coming but it was still a gut punch because they did a great job of making me actually care about Mika.

I only wish the director or someone had made it more clear that Baby Judith was in a papoose because I spent the whole last scene thinking they left her in the house or killed her too or something.

[Tara Ariano]

Okay, but let's be real: that baby is a liability!

[jellysalmon]

Ok maybe I haven't been paying close enough attention to this show, but I really thought they were going to go a different route with Lizzie. I didn't think her zombie sympathy was well established at all. 

I agree that Carol has been the most practical about the situation and her giving the kids zombie survival training made total sense. I thought Lizzie was going to be her most eager (and therefore most troubling) pupil. When she almost smothers Judith, I was thinking "yes. Lizzie. Kill the baby before the baby gets you killed. That's what Carol taught you. Gotta do what you gotta do to survive." So I was expecting more of a "crazy over-the-top survivalist" Lizzie than a "crazy zombie lover Lizzie." I mean seriously. Have you seen those things? They're disgusting. No 10-year-old girl would sympathize with them.

I would have preferred if Lizzie killed her sister because she was judged as a liability, then Carol having to put Lizzie down because she created a psychopathic monster who took her lessons to the extreme.

As much as this episode was an improvement. They've wrapped up the two plot lines I cared about and I'm not sure how they'll keep my interest for the rest of the season. More Carl hijinks and outdated hairstyles? Mehhh.

[David T. Cole]

Ok maybe I haven't been paying close enough attention to this show, but I really thought they were going to go a different route with Lizzie. I didn't think her zombie sympathy was well established at all. 

I agree with this and you know I just assumed I wasn't really paying much attention to that storyline (I'll cop to iPad use during some of those old scenes). I thought she was going to be the remorseless killing machine as opposed to the loco-pants care-kill machine. Nice to know I wasn't alone.

[Kim]

I guess I just assumed all along that she was the one feeding the rats to the walkers. I know back when they were in the prison, there were one or two scenes where Lizzie talked about how she felt bad for the walkers: she named them, she didn't want to kill them, etc.

[Tara Ariano]

Survivors rely on brutality and faith.

[jellysalmon]

After talking to a friend, she informed me that Lizzie was the one naming the zombies (sorry, I refuse to call them walkers) at the prison. So I guess there was some precedent. I had forgotten since that episode was in early October. Thanks AMC mid season breaks!

[Tara Ariano]

And here's Omar's post on the episode!

[Lyndy]

Two things: It should bother Team Glenn/Maggie that Terminus is empty but for Earth Mother Tasha Yar considering the wide-reaching poster campaign. And why is everyone blindly taking Eugene's word for it that he knows how to save the world?

[Portia]

Why oh why can't everyone just LET MOMMA BE?  Haha, that's my new personal catchphrase.

And why is everyone blindly taking Eugene's word for it that he knows how to save the world?

That is an excellent question. I can't remember - has it been explained how he and Abraham met and how Abraham became convinced that Eugene has all the answers? 

I can forgive the guy for not being an action hero, but apparently Eugene needs closer supervision than Baby Judith does. He clearly saw the walker moving toward the edge of that platform--in fact, he had plenty of time to say, "oh crap"--but he just stood there like a big-eyed, doughy toddler. Tara got injured because he didn't think to, you know, step aside. Way to go, Mr. Too Dumb to Live. Yeah, I don't care of Eugene.

[David T. Cole]

Why oh why can't everyone just LET MOMMA BE?  Haha, that's my new personal catchphrase.

And now mine too. LOL.

@Omar, the last chunk of the story was great, thank you for that.

[Tara Ariano]

1. Eugene is the best character Patton Oswalt never played.

2. Eugene is clearly full of shit and I don't know why it's taking forever for that to become clear!

[David T. Cole]

Eugene is totally the guy who still goes to arcades just to put the beat down on little kids at the Tekken 3 machine and make himself feel good.

If he loses, he blames the controller.

[Omar G.]

Eugene bought an Xbox One on launch day just so he could tell the PS4 owners that their system sucks because it has inferior voice-recognition technology.

Ditto on LET MOMMA BE.

[jellysalmon]

As someone who plays video games pretty frequently (was the avatar not a giveaway?), my belief that Eugene was full of shit rose dramatically when he started talking game genres. Anyone who spends that much time gaming isn't a successful or knowledgable "scientist." Also, Walking Dead cast is terrible at follow up questions. When someone says something like "i know how to save the world," shouldn't your response be "oh? do tell."

[Lyndy]

Other stuff on my mind:

I'm not having this stupid Darryl's gang of thieves storyline. I like Jeff Kober well enough but the whole trapped with ignorant bullies thing is annoying. Can we put these assholes down in the finale? When Darryl said, "claimed", a piece of my soul died.

Maggie seems really unconcerned about her sister. Seems like she might want to hang onto her last living relative.

[Kristen]

Yes, thank you. Somebody frickin' ask Eugene the Mullet Machine what exactly he knows already!

[Kierstyn]

After last week's great episode, this week left me feeling seriously wanting.  I mean, this is the build-up to the finale? 

Also.. and yes, I know this makes me a horrible person... if I had been Glenn and Tara got her foot trapped in the rock?  I would NOT have been wasting bullets.  I would have offed her quietly and run like hell. My opinion of Glenn plummeted after his ill-planned bullet wasting.  OK, you ran out of bullets, attracting the remaining walkers to your position where you have a trapped person who you are for some unexplained reason refusing to leave, despite your earlier 'I must find my wife at any cost and screw you all' stance.  What are you going to do now, genius?
 

[Omar G.]

Glenn used to be one of my favorite characters. This has not been the case in a while now.

[David T. Cole]

PEOPLE BURGERS! GET YOUR RED HOT PEOPLE BURGERS RIGHT HERE IN TERMINUS!

As someone who plays video games pretty frequently (was the avatar not a giveaway?), my belief that Eugene was full of shit rose dramatically when he started talking game genres. Anyone who spends that much time gaming isn't a successful or knowledgable "scientist." Also, Walking Dead cast is terrible at follow up questions. When someone says something like "i know how to save the world," shouldn't your response be "oh? do tell."

Seriously! I'm at the point now where I'm unsure if the characters on the show are just so dumb they don't see this guy is basically your stereotypical basement dweller or if he's poorly written/acted and he's really supposed to be a smart cookie.

Either way I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.

[Kim]

Carol would have put Tara down in the tunnel FOR SURE.

I feel like Eugene is on a different show, he's just so tonally wrong. The actor was on Talking Dead and he's actually pretty funny.

[David T. Cole]

Yeah, he like a dunderhead from Justified.

[Guest]

Was it wrong of me to think Daryl was going to salvage the arrow from Len's (The Lying Asshole) head?

[Tara Ariano]

haha, I thought the same thing! Waste not, want not.

[Omar G.]

I'm sort of disgusted that Daryl didn't. Daryl's going soft.

[David T. Cole]

Ditto! I thought that too. ABC. Always Be Countingyourarrows.

[Omar G.]

What kind of survivalist can't carve his own arrows? They don't even have to be wood. I'm pretty sure there are plenty of bones around.

[David T. Cole]

In order to make them out of anything you find around, you'd have to be pretty... 

(•_•)

( •_•)>⌐■-■

(⌐■_■)

Arrowdynamic.

[Tara Ariano]

Many paths collide; Rick faces sheer brutality; the group struggles to survive.

[David T. Cole]

Quite the title.

[Too Late Kev]

Was it wrong of me to think Daryl was going to salvage the arrow from Len's (The Lying Asshole) head?

It was a different size arrow; it wouldn't have fit Daryl's crossbow. However, someone must have "claimed" Len's bow, so you'd think that person could use the arrow. The group he's with has about half a brain all together, so they probably didn't think of it. He can't get away from them fast enough to suit me.

[bravelittletoaster]

Two things: It should bother Team Glenn/Maggie that Terminus is empty but for Earth Mother Tasha Yar considering the wide-reaching poster campaign. And why is everyone blindly taking Eugene's word for it that he knows how to save the world?

I don't know, but I'm pretty excited that someone wants to do something besides hunker down in a really boring setting and argue with everyone all the time.  I don't know the comic books at all, but when Eugene's group appeared I just felt hope for the first time in years that there was going to be a plot that might interest me [former hate-watcher slowly evolving into a legit watcher on the strength of changes this season].

[SamIAm]

So what if it was a different size arrow? A sharp object is a sharp object when you need something to stab walkers in the head!

Daryl saying claimed just killed me. Don't go with these guys, especially the head guy (who will never be anyone but Mayor Hale from Sons of Anarchy to me).

[Milaxx]

I love Chad L. Coleman, but I really want to know more about Tyreese's backstory and they really haven't filled that in at all.  And no mention at all of Sasha?  Has he just assumed she's dead and no thought to the idea that she might be at Terminus?

 

I have to confess to a love of Chad largely due to The Wire. It is, however frustrating that other than Maggie & Glenn no one really seems concerns about their siblings. I this the most recent episode is the first time I've heard Sasha express any concern over Tyreese's status.

[Portia]

Is this TWD's answer to "IFT"? Sorry, I'm not having it.

[kikismom]

That's true; how excruciating would it be to flee a gunfight, be lost in the forest, pursued by flesh-eating monsters, get kidnapped/or have to be involved in child-murder drama...and then miraculously make it out alive only to have your sibling's first words be "Oh,...you were gone? Huh! I didn't notice. Whatever!"

[KarateKate]

I am really surprised no one took the arrow out of Len. More surprised than that they used an arrow on Len (also, I feel the desire to pretentiously refer to them as "bolts", even though what I know about archery comes mainly from "Walking Dead" discussion boards)

I get that they don't fit Daryl's crossbow. I didn't know that, but it makes sense when I read it. But It just seems too valuable to leave when it could be jammed up in the papermache oatmeal skulls of a walker by hand. 

[Constantinople]

And here's Omar's post on the episode!

Thanks for posting the link.

I too wished the tunnel collapsed on Glenn and Maggie.  I can take them separately, but together they're just so Gaggie I want to vomit.

 

And why is everyone blindly taking Eugene's word for it that he knows how to save the world?

Just because people aren't calling out Eugene doesn't mean they believe him.  Abraham believes him.  Apparently so does Rosita (sp?), and perhaps Sasha.  Although once Sasha has a little more time to think about, perhaps she won't believe him.  The jury's still out on everyone else.

They might believe him.  They might also think it's not worth it.  If you want to go find Maggie or Terminus or whatever, and Eugene's on board with that, why bother calling him out?

 

PEOPLE BURGERS! GET YOUR RED HOT PEOPLE BURGERS RIGHT HERE IN TERMINUS!

I was hoping for Walker Burgers.

[kikismom]

Maybe the Fonz shows up.

[ottoDbusdriver]

I just hope that all the members of the various groups don't start getting mysterious text messages on their phones once they all get to Terminus threatening to reveal embarrassing details about them if they don't comply with certain demands, despite the fact that none of them are little or pretty, though some are liars (though Rosita is kinda cute, spot on what she looked like in the graphic novels).

[KarateKate]

Jeopardy! category tie-over-style title? US last week, A this week. Perhaps we'll see some patriotic zombies.

Or a Hawthorne callback? A big scarlet letter of adultery (or are they cuing us in that the season finale will fizzle, giving us viewers a taupe letter of apathy?)

[lumibutterfly]

Perhaps there's a Terminus entrance test. Who will cheat to get an A? Obviously Rick finds out, and goes through a brutal mental struggle because his conscience tells him to turn in the cheater, but how can you tattle on a friend? Later, there will be cookies. 

[Too Late Kev]

So what if it was a different size arrow? A sharp object is a sharp object when you need something to stab walkers in the head!

Daryl saying claimed just killed me. Don't go with these guys, especially the head guy (who will never be anyone but Mayor Hale from Sons of Anarchy to me).

Good point! You all are right; he should have taken the arrow!

I think Daryl's just going along to get along. He probably still thinks claiming things is idiotic, but that's how he can get the strawberry and the strawberry plant. He's waiting until a better situation comes along. Now, let's just hope it does.

[Gentian root]

Maggie...might want to hang onto her last living relative.

Even though it's Beth?

[David T. Cole]

I was hoping for Walker Burgers.

First one, then the other.

[lawless]

Also, Walking Dead cast is terrible at follow up questions. When someone says something like "i know how to save the world," shouldn't your response be "oh? do tell."

I would say yes, particularly for any of the members of the core group who had the experience of meeting Jenner at the CDC in Atlanta, who was a much more scientisty-scientist, who they encountered in a widely known, legit, scientisty place, who informed them that the best, most knowledgeable scientists in the world (the US and France) couldn't figure it out, and that everyone was doomed!, doooooomed!, so very doomed!, that he was going to commit suicide and let them die too, without necessarily even telling them about the whole suicide by explosion thing, because things were just that hopeless.  That would have made an impression on me, such that I would very curious and doubtful that mullet-sporting, gaming Eugene had it all figured out. 

But to be fair to Glen, maybe he has these very thoughts, but has already been punched enough by the much larger, true-believer Abraham, and he doesn't want to antagonize him any further.  And Sasha, Maggie, and Bob weren't at the CDC.  Eugene's story is still mighty suspicious, but they are all very hungry and sleep deprived, and in any case, maybe they figure hey, why alienate the new group with all the handy weapons and canned goods?