Abraham: The Luckiest Man Alive

[nodorothyparker]

I have to admit he's grown on me this back half.  He still has moments of cartoonishness and some of the catch phrases still grate, but he's been feeling more like an actual person and less like a comic character who wandered in from another show.  His PTSD moments and disconnect with the ASZ construction crew were nicely done as were his moments of absolute reveling in the clarity of going full berserker on the walkers.

 

Now only if they could do something about the hair.  Hey, if we're expected to believe that Daryl can go from dirty blonde to near black, surely Abraham can fade to something less like he's been making weekly runs to the box color aisle at Walgreens and closer to the actor's natural color.

Edited March 19, 2015 by nodorothyparker

[kikismom]

Just re-watched the ep from the back 8 of season 4, with the scene of Abraham and Tara on nighttime guard duty. He admits he first thought she was interested in Glenn, but then figured out that wasn't what was going on.

 

He says, I was wrong, but I was right.

 

A first-person version of the line Carol caught so much hell for saying to Rick when they arrived at ASZ.

[AngelaHunter]

I have to admit he's grown on me this back half.  He still has moments of cartoonishness and some of the catch phrases still grate, but he's been feeling more like an actual person and less like a comic character who wandered in from another show.  His PTSD moments and disconnect with the ASZ construction crew were nicely done as were his moments of absolute reveling in the clarity of going full berserker on the walkers.

 

I feel the same way, and he's the only person who seems to derive great pleasure, if not joy, from killing zombies. The first time we met him and his "Oh, honey - look at you. You're a mess," and chuckling before smashing "her" head in Tara said, "It's not supposed to be fun." He's a soldier who needs a war, and doing battle is probably the only time he feels focused,  purposeful and useful. When there's no fighting, no mission (getting Eugene to WA) he sits around, depressed and drunk, causing trouble.

 

I'm thinking Abe is more interesting than has been revealed.

[nodorothyparker]

I think he definitely has the potential to be.  

 

The flashbacks in Self Help were such a muddled mess at trying to tell his backstory that I needed TTD and online discussion about the comic storyline to fully get that he singlehandedly beat several guys to death with canned goods because they'd brutalized his family while he was out on a run.  And that his wife and kids were so afraid of him that they chose the ZA equivalent of running out into traffic to be eaten rather than be around him.  I think the show was wanting us to take away from that that here was another person who'd lost his entire family and was despairing to the point of suicide and that's why he clung so ridiculously and fervently to Eugene's fairly obvious lie.  But if you really think about it, that entire story also says a lot about someone with a lot of very deep-seeded rage and propensity for blinding violence.  Almost Rickian levels of it.  His quickness to join in the bloodbath of the Termites at the church and the likelihood that he later would have easily beaten Eugene to death had the others not intervened support that.  As long as he's got an outlet for it (like a steady diet of bashing walker heads in), he hums along fairly well with nothing worse to show for it than a handful of corny catchphrases.  But take that away and he becomes a surly depressed drunk.

 

Like a lot of things about this character, though, it hasn't translated well.   He's instead come across as mostly oafish, like that guy you work with that you want to keep a safe distance from at all times because you know that sooner or later he's going to be wildly inappropriate.

Edited March 19, 2015 by nodorothyparker

[Nashville]

He's instead come across as mostly oafish, like that guy you work with that you want to keep a safe distance from at all times because you know that sooner or later he's going to be wildly inappropriate.

 

That's the guy I usually hung around.  He took the heat off me - and while whatever happened may or may not be appropriate, it was definitely going to be wildly entertaining.

[MrsRafaelBarba]

I will never stop laughing at the first words Abe said, upon the Group's arrival to ASZ.

 

 

 

"Who's DEannnnnnnnnnnnaa?!"

[editorgrrl]

I think when Abe was being choked he had a flashback sort of like the Hilltop guy who said he saw his wife and she had died before the ZA, Abe saw who he should be with: Rosita or Sasha. Then when he got up and the necklace had fallen off it made me think the choice was Sasha.

But he sure doesn't have qualms about doing the humpty dance with Rosita while he's "waffling" on his choices, huh? He was very clear and definitive with Sasha when he made his intentions known, but he's dragged this out a month or more. No wonder Sasha changed shifts. I hope the ultimate forshadowing in that scenario is that Abraham is gonna die, not either Sasha or Rosita.

According to closed captioning, while Abraham was being choked out by the maroon shirt he heard Sasha say, "Maybe that's why. Because the way things go." (From their earlier conversation on patrol.)

[Pete Martell]

I can't stop thinking about Abraham jabbing his two fingers in solidarity with Sasha. It was just so hilariously awkward - I don't know if it was supposed to be or not. This and the "pancakes" question to Glenn reminded me that Abraham is basically a higher functioning Eugene, which is probably the reason he protected Eugene as long as he did. 

 

I thought Michael Cudlitz was very good (I think he's gotten better and better in the role, less cartoonish) - I just wish they hadn't decided Abraham needed a love triangle. I get that it's not really a love triangle, in that sense, it's supposed to be Abraham facing what he has repressed (a wife and kids) and wondering if that's the man he should be again, but it's just such a disservice to Sasha and Rosita to basically exist on the canvas at the moment for his psychological issues. I really wish they'd instead focused on showing him develop friendships and a role. 

[ghoulina]

I agree that I don't like the fact that we've seen fuck all from Rosita and Sasha (who are two of the most capable women in this group) except for how they relate to Abraham and his needs. It's obnoxious. 

 

My other issue with this whole dilemma of his, is that it's not very clear. At least to me. I really like Michael Cudlitz, but I don't think the writers have ever handled his character very well. They always have Abraham rambling on and on with what I assume are supposed to be these deep, introspective speeches. But it all comes out like a bunch of mumbo jumbo to me. I never would have discerned, from watching the episode alone, that Abe was not just struggling with witch girl to be with, but the larger issue of does he just want a bedmate or does he want something real like Glenn and Maggie/Rick and Michonne. And I could understand that, after what happened with his wife and kids. But I think they're handling it in such a lazy and sloppy way that I don't really get it, nor do I care. 

 

I also think the way they're going about it is making Abraham very unlikable. Rosita seems very much into him, as more than just a bedmate, hence the necklace. But he's just dangling her along until he figures out what he wants. Likewise, he kind of made a promise to Sasha, to figure his shit out, but he didn't appear to have done anything since their conversation. It was like he wanted to have his cake and eat it too. 

 

I think the whole premise of shifting your priorities and realizing you're not with the right person, and having to navigate all that while living together could be interesting. But, of course, the writers have turned it into cringe worthy crap that I don't give two figs about, and then they force me to watch half an episode about it.

[Nashville]

The Abraham Anomaly: a skilled actor portraying multidimensional depth in a shallowly-written character.

[nodorothyparker]

I'm not at all happy either that Sasha and Rosita have completely disappeared as characters except as corners of Abraham's existential love triangle like they're in 90210: Apocalypse Version.

 

I keep feeling like there's the potential for something interesting to be said here about PTSD in extreme situations like this and how do you try to start planning the rest of your life when it finally feels like maybe you have a moment to breathe (and I'm still curious about all the living arrangements), but it's all just so damn muddled by the fact that it's so poorly written, the actor seems to have more chemistry with every other member of the cast than the two women in his orbit, and the ridiculous way he talks that always makes me want to reach for an Abraham to English dictionary.  And yeah, the triangle now is not painting him well on either end to the point where I'm now actively annoyed by the amount of screentime it's eating when we haven't seen other characters I like more who do make sense in weeks.

Edited March 3, 2016 by nodorothyparker

[CletusMusashi]

On first viewing, I thought he was just dumping Rosita so he could get with Sasha. On second viewing, I'm not so sure. They've given us a lot of indications that he has a bit of a suicidal streak. He might be distancing himself from her as a way of putting his affairs in order.

It's quite possible he's drawn to Sasha largely because she has enough demons of her own to feel like a more even fit for him than Rosita does. Rosita is closer to the Glenn end of the mental health spectrum, whereas Sasha is closer to the Rick end. 

Or... maybe he's just a big asshole walrus.

[ghoulina]

It's just more sloppy writing and character development, IMO. I was confuzzled last night when he had his back packed and told Rosita he was going. I seriously thought he meant he was leaving the group - not just leaving their home. Then I was shocked when he was along with the raid. I still really do not know where they are going with this dude, but they're really making me hate him. 

[editorgrrl]

It's just more sloppy writing and character development, IMO. I was confuzzled last night when he had his back packed and told Rosita he was going. I seriously thought he meant he was leaving the group—not just leaving their home.

Tara & Heath were going on the road directly after the Saviors raid. Perhaps Abraham planned to go to the Hilltop? They need a guy who can fight.

Maybe he was going to stay wherever Darryl does. Or he was just being extra cruel to "make it easier" for Rosita to get over him. I doubt that, though. Abrahamlet (as Chris Hardwick called him on Talking Dead) has consistently been written as the guy with no filter.

[Pete Martell]

On first viewing, I thought he was just dumping Rosita so he could get with Sasha. On second viewing, I'm not so sure. They've given us a lot of indications that he has a bit of a suicidal streak. He might be distancing himself from her as a way of putting his affairs in order.

It's quite possible he's drawn to Sasha largely because she has enough demons of her own to feel like a more even fit for him than Rosita does. Rosita is closer to the Glenn end of the mental health spectrum, whereas Sasha is closer to the Rick end. 

Or... maybe he's just a big asshole walrus.

 

My first viewing I was mostly pissed off, but then I thought about it and felt similar to how you do. 

 

Here's what Michael Cudlitz said, which is sort of different:

 

http://comicbook.com/2016/03/07/the-walking-dead-michael-cudlitz-talks-abraham-rositas-big-scene/

 

"I think she forged him into that. I don't mean to blame her, obviously he's the one who f---ed up in the sense of, "Is it f---ed up to fall in love with someone else?" You know? I don't know," Cudlitz says. "When you're in a world where everything has been rebuilt or they're trying to rebuild and you're not a character who lies and you are a character who would rather not hurt somebody, if you fall in love with somebody, how do you best do that? I don't think Abraham is equipped to handle that in any other way other than to be honest about it.

 

"I think he's processing it and he knows that he has to leave and he's come to the conclusion that he has to leave and he's like, 'Well, I'm gonna leave. It's gonna be easy.' And she's like, 'Why? Why? Why?' She's pushing for the why. He doesn't really have the words to do it in a soft gentle way in that moment but it certainly pains him to do it. I think he's much more used to dealing with men. It's just the way it is is the way it is. He's not good at doing that, apparently. I'm sure the character is gonna get some blow back and I'm gonna get some blow back because people aren't gonna be happy about that but that's life. I don't think he is equipped to handle it in any other way."

 

 

I think if they'd done a better job developing Abraham, or his relationship with Rosita, it would have stung a bit less for me, as I can't really connect to the character enough to get past the dickishness. I guess if nothing else it's a reminder that he's very different from the other guys on the show, but I wish they could show this in ways beyond him treating his girlfriend like used tissue. I just wonder where they will take the character next, because I have a hard time imagining Sasha would want him. Maybe he can find Francine. 

 

I did notice that they've massively toned down the awful Ronald McDonald dye job this season...

[RedheadZombie]

It's just more sloppy writing and character development, IMO. I was confuzzled last night when he had his back packed and told Rosita he was going. I seriously thought he meant he was leaving the group - not just leaving their home. Then I was shocked when he was along with the raid. I still really do not know where they are going with this dude, but they're really making me hate him.

I thought the exact same thing, especially with Rosita's melodramatic reaction. All that was missing was her grabbing onto his legs and being dragged through the door as he left. It's not making me hate Abraham, because I blame the writers. I've always viewed them as friends and fuck-buddies, and I've never been shown anything else. Even Rick and Michonne were shown to be more tender after their first hookup.

I also don't believe Abe's comment of only being with Rosita because there were no other women. We've seen Abe's wife - she was no great beauty. And even though I think Sasha's beautiful, she's not as overtly sexual as Rosita.

I've always gotten the impression that Abraham's swaggering wise-cracking act is something he developed after losing his family. And I think, like Rick, he's been pretty numb, and has now figured out who he wants to be with. It was easy to be with Rosita. She's gorgeous and seemed just as comfortable with a friends with benefits relationship. But unlike Rick, Abe's decision wasn't eased by a convenient Walker death.

So I think they're doing something stupid like Abe's being a total asshole and is acting like he doesn't care because he thinks it's best that Rosita think of him that way. It's sort of like a bad Harlequin Romance. But since end game seems to be Abe/Sasha, I think it's a poor writing choice. Why would anyone root for that relationship now?

I also speculated in the episode thread that Rosita's going to die, so this is more to torture Abe with. I never really liked the character until we learned his back story. Something about beating Eugene, and then kneeling on the road in a sort of death vigil until Eugene woke up really moved me.

They made it very clear in the previous episode that Abe was thinking about his children, and the possibility of having another. It didn't jibe with what he's now doing, IMO. Maybe we're supposed to think that Abe is now reacting against that pull to have a family again. I don't know.

[Nashville]