S04.E02: Another Day in the Diamond

[raven]

Quote

A troubled survivor finds allies in an unexpected place. Meanwhile, the life Madison has fought to build comes under threat.

[raven]

So...Madison somehow saved everyone (except probably Alicia); Nick has PTSD, Strand is cheerful and stylish and we have BAD guys with salmon-hating kid spies and smug lawn chairs.

I don't trust the Maggie Grace character but am hoping for something interesting when we get everyone in the same timeline.

[Straycat80]

So I am assuming lawn chair guys maybe overthrew the baseball stadium and that was why Madison and co.  accosted  Morgan and the other ones on the road. I think Maggie Grace and Morgan are going to join Madison’s group. This is the same storyline as TWD and FTWD last season, fight the bad guys. 

[Crone]

5 minutes ago, Straycat80 said:

So I am assuming lawn chair guys maybe overthrew the baseball stadium and that was why Madison and co.  accosted  Morgan and the other ones on the road. I think Maggie Grace and Morgan are going to join Madison’s group. This is the same storyline as TWD and FTWD last season, fight the bad guys. 

Oooo- will it be All Out War?? 

[JackONeill]

That was ... what’s the word ... um, lame.

[candall]

Are we going to spend a few episodes learning what Tribe RV did to warm touchy-feely come-join-us! Madison to turn her and her spawn into cold blooded highway robbers?

 

Okay . . . I guess.  As long as they aren't setting us up for 2.5 seasons of siege.

[Straycat80]

18 minutes ago, Crone said:

Oooo- will it be All Out War?? 

I’d put money on...yes! 

[For Cereals]

I didn’t trust that kid the minute I saw her.  They made it too obvious.  I would’ve set her little book on fire.

I just feel sorry for Morgan.  All he wanted to do was walk the earth and people keep getting in the way...

[Christi]

Now both shows have a Scientologist...I blame them...for basically everything?

[MrsRafaelBarba]

So Ummm, yeah.

[GreyBunny]

So the main characters + some red shirts build a community, but can't grow food. Some cartoonish bad guys make a flamboyant entrance, demand all of the goods, or join them, or die. Where have I seen this before?

Edited April 23, 2018 by GreyBunny

[mxc90]

It would have been nice to see a sniper put one in Mel as he foolishly sat in the lawn chair.

[UNOSEZ]

Kevin zegers' face always annoys me... Makes me hate almost every character he plays... So far I'm not seeing that changing... I'm guessing the vultures hurt or took Madison.. And that's why the fantastic 4 are out here robbing and looting.. I guess this needed to be shown.. But I woulda preferred half a backstory and then jumping to everybody together 

[oakville]

9 hours ago, raven said:

So...Madison somehow saved everyone (except probably Alicia); Nick has PTSD, Strand is cheerful and stylish and we have BAD guys with salmon-hating kid spies and smug lawn chairs.

I don't trust the Maggie Grace character but am hoping for something interesting when we get everyone in the same timeline.

I would have liked to see how Madison built up the Stadium into a viable community after she escaped from the dam. Nick crashing a car just outside the gate is a waste of resources. Why would they send a search party for the little girl's family? They should have shown how the girl showed up at the stadium. I liked the premise of the community being affected by weavils killing the crops. However, having the "Vultures" show up is too similar to Negan's storyline.

What was the significance of Lucia putting the tattered "Little Prince" book on the ground for the little mole girl.

[oakville]

8 hours ago, candall said:

Are we going to spend a few episodes learning what Tribe RV did to warm touchy-feely come-join-us! Madison to turn her and her spawn into cold blooded highway robbers?

 

Okay . . . I guess.  As long as they aren't setting us up for 2.5 seasons of siege.

This show does change places more often than TWD. I liked it when they were living in a hotel in Mexico or at the Survivalist Camp.

I hope Madison didn't end up destroying her own baseball stadium.

I am intrigued by the Spray painted flags that the Vultures use. Perhaps it's a warning sign.

20 minutes ago, mxc90 said:

It would have been nice to see a sniper put one in Mel as he foolishly sat in the lawn chair.

They could have ended that storyline quickly. It's weird that Madison would let the Vultures set up a siege of the baseball stadium. They had baseballs- molotov cocktails.

[oakville]

5 minutes ago, icemiser69 said:

I would have  hoped that the writers would have had enough common sense not to have the Vultures be Nagen light.

Madison ditched the prune face look, and has lightened up a bit.  That is a plus.  Madison is still on the show, that is a minus.

Alicia as a badass, laughable.  The harder she tries the more my eyes roll. 

So they bring back Dharma (Naomi), where is Greg?

Farmer Nick, I don't believe for a minute that dude knows how to grow anything other than my hatred of the character.

Madison did look friendlier this episode. It would be a disaster if fans are subjected to "Negan -light".

I like the new cast additions. Naomi is a nurse which could be useful.

The episode mentioned that they were living in the "Baseball Diamond stadium" for 365 days.

I find it strange that the Vultures would just show up after 365 days.  I assume that Maddie & her crew would have scouted the area during this 1 year period. How else would they get construction supplies?

Wouldn't a baseball stadium be located in an area surrounding restaurants or other buildings?

[nodorothyparker]

As aggravating as it is that the show so far hasn't even bothered to try to answer how any of these people it insists on keeping survived that dam explosion or how they found each other afterward or how they inexplicably just happened to hook back up with a character who left them at an entirely different location some time before that, it did at least attempt to chew down the timeline discrepancy with the mother show by mentioning that they'd been settled at the stadium for 365 days before the NotSaviors showed up.  That at least starts to put them in range for their inevitable meetup with Morgan, even if we had to sit through 50 something minutes of who cares about most of this to get back to two minutes of that story. 

Unless Madison finally managed to get herself killed by being her usual expressionlessly belligerent self with the NotSaviors and that's why she's not with our little gang of road pirates, they could have saved a whole lot of time and effort and just said yeah, bad stuff happened, we got separated again, and oh here's Jenna Elfman.  While the oil slick walkers were at least amusing, who is really going to go to that much effort and trouble for one person who's already tried to rob them and then ran away when offered help?

Of course Magical Junky Nick is the one character to end up with PTSD out of all them because of course he is.  He's just so sensitive and fragile that the car full of the women in his life have to drive around and fret about him while he hides behind walls and gets completely outplayed and outsmarted by a 10-year-old.  So Madison and company really couldn't think of a single thing to try to do other than just let the NotSaviors leisurely set up a siege outside their gates after they were done being yet another in the long line of most precious to ever precious groups we've ever seen in this franchise?

[Mahamid Frauded Me]

Very underwhelmed this episode...Now we have the not-Neegan's.... I was waiting for the whistle and all of them proclaiming "We are all lawn chairs"

[oakville]

1 hour ago, nodorothyparker said:

As aggravating as it is that the show so far hasn't even bothered to try to answer how any of these people it insists on keeping survived that dam explosion or how they found each other afterward or how they inexplicably just happened to hook back up with a character who left them at an entirely different location some time before that, it did at least attempt to chew down the timeline discrepancy with the mother show by mentioning that they'd been settled at the stadium for 365 days before the NotSaviors showed up.  That at least starts to put them in range for their inevitable meetup with Morgan, even if we had to sit through 50 something minutes of who cares about most of this to get back to two minutes of that story. 

Unless Madison finally managed to get herself killed by being her usual expressionlessly belligerent self with the NotSaviors and that's why she's not with our little gang of road pirates, they could have saved a whole lot of time and effort and just said yeah, bad stuff happened, we got separated again, and oh here's Jenna Elfman.  While the oil slick walkers were at least amusing, who is really going to go to that much effort and trouble for one person who's already tried to rob them and then ran away when offered help?

Of course Magical Junky Nick is the one character to end up with PTSD out of all them because of course he is.  He's just so sensitive and fragile that the car full of the women in his life have to drive around and fret about him while he hides behind walls and gets completely outplayed and outsmarted by a 10-year-old.  So Madison and company really couldn't think of a single thing to try to do other than just let the NotSaviors leisurely set up a siege outside their gates after they were done being yet another in the long line of most precious to ever precious groups we've ever seen in this franchise?

Is it possible to assume that Madison found an abandoned baseball stadium & built it into a functioning settlement with Strand, Nick & Alicia & Lucia in 365 days?

Is it possible that the stadium attracted 44 other people who had skills, weapons etc yet posed no threat to Madison's family?

Are the Vultures, the first hostile group that Madison's group has encountered.

Alicia was making molotov loading cocktails to kill walkers. Why couldn't they have bombed the first RV that showed up near the gates?

It's very confusing.

14 minutes ago, icemiser69 said:

If both series are going to have similar timelines, then why have two series?  I thought the whole point of FTWD was to have it take place in a different timeline?  We are only the second episode into this season, and it already feels like the mothership series.  The only difference is that these characters are far more annoying.

IF TPTB insist on keeping most of the original cast, I was so hoping that the new protagonists that were added this season would be mentors to them by teaching them how to survive in the ZA. 

I wonder if the plan is to use Fear as the spinoff series once The Walking Dead is cancelled. Morgan is the first to transfer over to Fear. It would be easy to have other characters from The Walking Dead transfer over to the new show.

[nodorothyparker]

19 minutes ago, icemiser69 said:

If both series are going to have similar timelines, then why have two series?  I thought the whole point of FTWD was to have it take place in a different timeline?

That's certainly a fair question for the showrunners who decided on a second series in the first place.  We know one of the original stated reasons for this show was to cover the early time period the mother show skipped while Rick was unconscious in the beginning, but then they blew that by having the original cast sit behind a fence none the wiser for nine days as the world went to hell.  Since then it's been mucking around the greater Southwest and parts of Mexico one month in?  Three months in?  Who the hell even knows?

The only reason to have the two shows on the same timeline now is Gimple running both and Morgan's crossover.  I'd say the only explanation for them to even bother at this point is that they don't want to listen to continual complaining about a character who exists on both shows being in one place on one show where his own timelines says is impossible for him to be on the other, but that's certainly never stopped them before.

[heisenberg]

Well... Unlimited gas and ammo again...  But Elmer J. Fudds wants your carrots you lousy wabbit.

 

How come doing a siege in front of a stadium gate is a thread?  They have other way in and out,  why not just ignore them? 

And them?  They make 5 miles per gallon per truck to steal...  Cabbage?

 

If all the shelfs are empty, where is the stuff? 

Everybody is dead, plenty of ressources statched all around should be available for those still living?  But no,  just gas and ammo, like when you play newbie levels in video games.

[JackONeill]

I have many fears when it comes to this show, and no they don’t have anything to do with the Walking Dead, but how long do we think TPTB is going to insist on keeping the two factions (Madison and The Dours and Morgan and The Grooves) apart. I have a funny, but sad, feeling that we’re going to do this weird time jumping (shifting?) between the two parties for a long time. So we’ll have Alicia Then and Alicia Now. I will grow weary of that. In fact, I already am.

[nitrofishblue]

Man, that was a god awful episode. I felt like the writers found a discarded TWD script and just changed the names and location. I could guess what was going to happen because it has all been done before. Would the camera man please stop taking profile shots of Madison. Her profile sucks!!!!

[Token]

Wow, so they took a bad show and have now modelled it after a show that has totally gone to shit.  The powers that be for TWD and FTWD really have no clue, do they?

[heisenberg]

3 hours ago, nitrofishblue said:

Would the camera man please stop taking profile shots of Madison. Her profile sucks!!!!

I would add to that 3/4 shots and... why not... Front shots also, unless she has both hands in front of her face.   

It would improve her acting. 

[oakville]

7 hours ago, heisenberg said:

Well... Unlimited gas and ammo again...  But Elmer J. Fudds wants your carrots you lousy wabbit.

 

How come doing a siege in front of a stadium gate is a thread?  They have other way in and out,  why not just ignore them? 

And them?  They make 5 miles per gallon per truck to steal...  Cabbage?

 

If all the shelfs are empty, where is the stuff? 

Everybody is dead, plenty of ressources statched all around should be available for those still living?  But no,  just gas and ammo, like when you play newbie levels in video games.

I have never understood this aspect on the show. The rapidity of the ZA as described on FTWD shows that civilization in Los Angeles  fell in about 9 days. It's impossible for all the supplies at any store like a Costco would be completely wiped out in 9 days. There should be enough supplies available if you look for them. Imagine if Madison found a a phone book or yellow pages that showed where stores are located.

1 hour ago, Token said:

Wow, so they took a bad show and have now modelled it after a show that has totally gone to shit.  The powers that be for TWD and FTWD really have no clue, do they?

The show would have be smart to focus on the weavils or other insects affecting the crops without the arrival of Negan Lite group.

[oakville]

7 hours ago, icemiser69 said:

This is by far the lower rated series, and so far this season it looks like this series has been retooled significantly.  It received a ratings bump for the first episode, only time will tell if it holds.  I just hope they don't fall into the old bad habits writing/acting wise that caused the problem in the first place.  The more people they bring over to this series, the more it will look like the mothership.

I think that the salaries for the actors on the Walking Dead would be much higher than those on Fear. AMC could play hardball with the characters on the Walking Dead & threaten to kill them off the main show if they don't accept lower pay to be on Fear. I do applaud the writers on Fear for at least showing us more different locations than on the Walking Dead. The boat, hotel Mexican Villa,Dam, Survival camp were more pleasant to watch than Hilltop or the Sanctuary. Madison is better at focusing on building communities.

[Jel]

I liked the episode, but I think they need some more creativity with the baddies. These guys are like the Saviors with a lower key vibe -- like the Termites.

The truck full of zombies made me think of a time where Daryl (I think) ran into a group who had a bunch of zombies in a van (sounds like the name of a 90s band). I wonder if they are related. Or if it's more like hey man, we were the first people to put zombies in a van, and now everyone's doing it!

[oakville]

8 minutes ago, Jel said:

I liked the episode, but I think they need some more creativity with the baddies. These guys are like the Saviors with a lower key vibe -- like the Termites.

The truck full of zombies made me think of a time where Daryl (I think) ran into a group who had a bunch of zombies in a van (sounds like the name of a 90s band). I wonder if they are related. Or if it's more like hey man, we were the first people to put zombies in a van, and now everyone's doing it!

Very true. Was that the Wolves?

[Haleth]

Perhaps TPTB saw the error of their ways with TWD and have set up a similar storyline here so we can get a satisfying -- and speedy-- resolution. Kind of a do over.

Well, one can hope.

[raven]

We're getting a bit too specific with TWD mentions here (Saviors, Termites, Wolves, etc).

Please take comparison talk of the two shows to the comparison thread here and let's just stick to discussing the events of this episode and how they relate to FTWD only.  Thank you.

[thuganomics85]

Well, that was something, I guess.

Basically it looks like after the dam explosion, everyone pretty much reunited, and they formed a community with a few likely redshirts, in a baseball stadium.  But Nick seems to have PTSD over whatever happened and Madison is, of course, overworking herself and not listening to Alicia.  OK, the last part is pretty much every episode of Fear the Walking Dead.

Oh, and Jenna Elfman has now join the cast as some nurse who seems broken over something.

Wow, these new villains do not seem interesting at all.  I hope that improves, but I'm not betting on it.

What's the over/under of Strand's new crush biting it?

Meanwhile, in the present, it seems the reason Alicia/Nick/Luciana/Strand have attacked Morgan, Garrett Dillahunt, and Maggie Grace, is because Maggie's truck is one of the same ones that this new villainous group is using.  I'm sure this all be straighten out.  For their sakes, hopefully before any walker chomping happens!

[MarMar]

I have not been a big fan in the past but I have really enjoyed the first two episodes of this new season. It feels like a re-set, a good one.  I cared about what was going to happen next and that is a new feeling. I like the new Maggie Grace character and the cowboy. I am cautiously optimistic about this season!

[loki567]

Consider me somewhat relieved. I enjoyed this episode and thought it got back to the quick pace that FtWD set up last year. And a BIG part of that is cutting down on the self-indulgent dialogue. This is probably one of the only shows on television where I would say I want less talking. A good lesson is to let things breathe more, built up some suspense. I'm hoping the same tone survives with Morgan interacting with the main cast next week. 

The show does and probably always will have a Madison problem as Kim Dickens is not capable of selling herself as an ultra-Mama bear who will kill anyone who threatens her babies. But at this point, what are you going to do? 

Edited April 25, 2018 by loki567

[Haleth]

I was glad to see the time jump at the end of the episode back to the present (NOW as the flashcard told us).  I'd been afraid the flashback to the stadium was going to last all season, moving forward slowly to the point where Madison et al meet up with Morgan et al.

[nodorothyparker]

I had to think even under new/old management this show wouldn't be stupid enough to hype the big crossover for MONTHS and then have that story disappear for six episodes while they meander around showing us how Madison's mismanagement lost them their latest refuge to the current crop of wannabe big bads.  I know, I know, this far in the game we've all seen some things, but surely even this crew would have realized that would be a bridge too far for a show that can't afford to bleed viewer numbers like the mothership.  Of course, this probably means that we'll still spend half the season on flashbacks of how everything went to shit and our band of original recipe cast ended up on that road.

[raven]

19 hours ago, loki567 said:

I enjoyed this episode and thought it got back to the quick pace that FtWD set up last year.

I rewatched it and I agree, the quicker pacing helps.  We have some questions about how Madison et al got to where they are and they'll probably be answered; for now I was OK to see what (until smug lawn chair people turned up) was an average day in the life. 

I'm not bothered by Nick's PTSD; everyone should be affected somehow but what they've been through and he was ready to die at the end of last season to save everyone.  What's more of a mystery is why intelligent, competent Luciana would want him, but hey, whatever floats your boat.

On 4/24/2018 at 6:23 PM, thuganomics85 said:

What's the over/under of Strand's new crush biting it?

I know, right?  Way too cute back and forth obvious crushing for it to end any way but badly.

I was too busy blabbing in the LP thread and didn't realize that smug lawn chair guy Mel's plan is to sit and wait for Madison's group to fail and then come in and take everything.  That's...interesting.  Do they have enough supplies to sit outside the walls and wait?  Are they going to stop anyone from Madison's group from leaving?  Mel said Madison's people could join them.  I wonder if the numbered flags indicate how many useful items they took the from the site, or if they're just numbering the sites they hit.   Why be scavengers, be traders instead.  I have a feeling Mel's group isn't the worst to be encountered this season (just a feeling, no spoilers).  Then again, in the "now" sequence, the leftovers from Team Madison were pretty pissed off about the Vultures so maybe they are that bad.  I admit I'm a little curious.

[rmontro]

Big drop off in enthusiasm from last week to this, as what's left of the original cast is back (bleh).  The three new characters from last week are far more likable than this bunch.

The Vultures strategy is kind of interesting though.  They seem to have put a siege in place around the ballpark, and are waiting for them to starve themselves out.  They didn't harm Luciana when she came out to bring Charlie her "The Little Prince" book.  But if someone went out to make a supply run, would they interfere with that?  You would have to think so, because otherwise what they're doing wouldn't be seen as all that bad, would it?

The leader of the Vultures has the same kind of vibe that Gareth from Terminus did.  A sort of calm, this is the way it is, manner.

[notcreative enough]

14 hours ago, raven said:

I rewatched it and I agree, the quicker pacing helps.  We have some questions about how Madison et al got to where they are and they'll probably be answered; for now I was OK to see what (until smug lawn chair people turned up) was an average day in the life. 

I'm not bothered by Nick's PTSD; everyone should be affected somehow but what they've been through and he was ready to die at the end of last season to save everyone.  What's more of a mystery is why intelligent, competent Luciana would want him, but hey, whatever floats your boat.

I know, right?  Way too cute back and forth obvious crushing for it to end any way but badly.

I was too busy blabbing in the LP thread and didn't realize that smug lawn chair guy Mel's plan is to sit and wait for Madison's group to fail and then come in and take everything.  That's...interesting.  Do they have enough supplies to sit outside the walls and wait?  Are they going to stop anyone from Madison's group from leaving?  Mel said Madison's people could join them.  I wonder if the numbered flags indicate how many useful items they took the from the site, or if they're just numbering the sites they hit.   Why be scavengers, be traders instead.  I have a feeling Mel's group isn't the worst to be encountered this season (just a feeling, no spoilers).  Then again, in the "now" sequence, the leftovers from Team Madison were pretty pissed off about the Vultures so maybe they are that bad.  I admit I'm a little curious.

I think maybe the numbers are how many walkers are contained. But the one by the burned out van had like 400 something and there wasn't that many in the silo unless they were in all of them. Plus who can count that high with a mass group like that. 

[Texasmom1970]

15 hours ago, rmontro said:

  The three new characters from last week are far more likable than this bunch.

 

You stated all the problems with this perfectly with this one sentence!

[ratSenoL]

Notcreative enough beat me to it: I think the numbers on the flags are the number of walkers rounded up. Bicycle Dude rounded up 12 in the moving van and then put up a flag with 12 on it. The town had a flag with 451 or so. Is it conceivable that they cleared 451 walkers from the town (that seems about right for population of a small town), luring them into those tanks and setting some on fire?  Assuming that is the case, it raises a big question: to whom are they communicating this information? Is there a large group of Vultures coming behind them?  The shelves were empty because they (the Vultures?) cleared them, though for what purpose we haven't seen yet.  Perhaps Bicycle Dude and friends clear Walkers from an area and then other members of the group come behind them to clear the town of anything useful for consumption or trade.  Anybody remember the number over the building with all the walkers from last episode?

 

Amusing that they chose to title the ep, "Another Day in the Diamond." The baseball stadium in the episode is normally called Dell Diamond and it is the home of the Triple-A Round Rock Express, 

[rmontro]

Hey all.  We're at the halfway point in the season, but this (episode two) was the last episode I watched.  I have a question:

How is this show coming along?  I have the last six episodes recorded on my DVR, but I've kind of lost interest in watching them.  I watched the first two episodes of the season, but as soon as they brought the old cast back, I was pretty much meh.  Especially since they were acting like a bunch of arses.  Anyone think it's worth taking up again?  Has it gotten any better?