S09.E15: The Calm Before

[CletusMusashi]

I think it'll pay off. She can teach Dog to do all the tricks that Daryl never thought of.

Like "Fetch soap."

[Gobi]

5 hours ago, CletusMusashi said:

I think it'll pay off. She can teach Dog to do all the tricks that Daryl never thought of.

Like "Fetch soap."

Or, Dog could join the Whisperers and "Play dead".

[Timetoread]

6 hours ago, icemiser69 said:

If dog gets into trouble, Connie won't be able to hear him.

The point is that Dog WON'T get into trouble.   But enough arguing on GP, let's just go ahead and say that Daryl left Dog there to look after Connie, not the other way around.  That's his way of saying, "I had to come back, I forgot my toothbrush."  I see you Daryl!

[Eulipian 5k]

13 minutes ago, icemiser69 said:

Except that Dog isn't trained to be a guard dog. ......   Dog can't read her note pad. 

It seems Dog, right then, has only one loyalty: to Daryl. Leaving him with Connie feeding him keeps him safe and builds a home base. Otherwise, like any other dog, Dog would take off after Daryl the minute he left.

[Timetoread]

49 minutes ago, icemiser69 said:

Except that Dog isn't trained to be a guard dog.  He could just as easily have walked up to Alpha and found his head on a pike, if Alpha wanted to go that route.  If Connie needs help, how is she going to be able to communicate with Dog?   Dog can't read her note pad. 

Dog knows and likes Connie and knows that Daryl does too.  That’s all the training any dog needs to motivate them to protect.  They’re smart like that.  BTW plenty of deaf people own dogs.  Canines aren’t really verbal.  They communicate to each other with gestures and body language and other senses.  They dumb themselves down and vocalize to communicate with us very limited humans.  They’ll be fine.  Both Connie and Dog survived the apocalypse this far.  I’m sure they can both survive a week without Daryl.

[sarthaz]

Finally got around to watching this. Sad to see Tara go, mostly because Alanna is just a fun person, and Enid seemed so innocent. But honestly, I couldn't give two shits about any of those characters, so cleaning house is good. Henry was the worst of them. This show doesn't need an annoying-rebellious-teenager-with-parents-who-aren't-his-parents subplot, so let's move on.

Sure looked like Daryl could have just kicked Elpha off that cliff Sparta-style and solved a lot of problems. Like a responsible gun owner, she didn't have her finger anywhere near the trigger.

[Cotypubby]

On 3/24/2019 at 10:54 PM, UGAmp said:

My DVR only recorded an hour and ended with Alpha sitting down next to Lydia so I had no idea why Dalton Ross from EW was hyping this episode so much on Twitter. 

Omg mine too! It recorded an hour and then at the hour mark the last scene was Alpha shushing Lydia and then the scene cutting to black. I though it would then start the “Next time on TWD” promo which I didn’t want to see, so I hit Stop! It had no reason to think there was more, the title of the episode seemed like a set-up for the finale! I only realized I had missed something when I started watching the finale and was like “I don’t remember these scenes in the “Previously on” segment, heads on pikes what? Why is it winter, they were just at the fair...? Did I miss an episode, what is going on?” And then went to this one On Demand and scanned forward to see Holy Crap I missed the last 15 minutes wtf!?

[Nashville]

3 hours ago, Cotypubby said:

Omg mine too! It recorded an hour and then at the hour mark the last scene was Alpha shushing Lydia and then the scene cutting to black.

@Cotypubby - This was discussed a ways back in the thread:

On 3/25/2019 at 2:22 PM, Nashville said:

AMC had apparently pushed out an inaccurate initial channel guide listing for the episode, listing it as a 60-minute episode.  A corrected 90-minute listing was subsequently pushed out; most DVRs only update their channel guide listings in background off-time when the customer has the box turned off, though, so many DVRs (which hadn’t been turned off since the update was issued) didn’t pick up the correction.

[heisenberg]

On 3/31/2019 at 6:06 PM, Eulipian 5k said:

It seems Dog, right then, has only one loyalty: to Daryl. Leaving him with Connie feeding him keeps him safe and builds a home base. Otherwise, like any other dog, Dog would take off after Daryl the minute he left.

And I guess Dog will figure out that Connie does not react to sound then he will cope with that to help her.

[mcnelisp]

On 3/25/2019 at 4:58 PM, SimoneS said:

Because they only have a few bullets if any left so the guns are useless. 

But Eugene was making bullets for a whole season or more.    In fact they had an all out shoot -out with the Negan crew.  After that apparently all was relatively quiet for years so they should still have had their remaining bullets...and plenty of time for Eugene to make more.   I think the reason is if they had guns they would simply kill the whisperers quickly and the story line would be over.

[Gobi]

5 minutes ago, mcnelisp said:

But Eugene was making bullets for a whole season or more.    In fact they had an all out shoot -out with the Negan crew.  After that apparently all was relatively quiet for years so they should still have had their remaining bullets...and plenty of time for Eugene to make more.   I think the reason is if they had guns they would simply kill the whisperers quickly and the story line would be over.

I could give them a pass for this. They might have been unable to obtain the ingredients for gunpowder, and over the six years that were skipped they could have used up what ammo they had. I believe, too, that there is a limit to how many times shell  casings can be re-used.

[SimoneS]

30 minutes ago, mcnelisp said:

But Eugene was making bullets for a whole season or more.    In fact they had an all out shoot -out with the Negan crew.  After that apparently all was relatively quiet for years so they should still have had their remaining bullets...and plenty of time for Eugene to make more.   I think the reason is if they had guns they would simply kill the whisperers quickly and the story line would be over.

It has been six years! It isn't like they have a factory and can buy the gun powder, etc. to make bullets from gun manufacturers. This is what happens when society breaks down, one of the best things actually.

Edited April 10, 2019 by SimoneS

[Gobi]

1 hour ago, icemiser69 said:

Judith is still running around with a revolver full of bullets.  So that part of the advancement over time is complete bullshit.   If bullets are that precious (which they are) why is the little dumb shit running around with a loaded gun?

Why isn't Michonne watching over the kid and monitoring what she is doing?

How was it that Negan was able to run off with know one knowing about it?

Alexandria has rebuilt itself up pretty well, but I don't know how the hell that happened with so many people living in that settlement not having a clue what was going on.  That starts at the very top with Michonne.

[sarcasm]The same kind of stellar leadership that was at Kingdom and Hilltop. [/sarcasm]

I'm stunned that anyone would allow Judith to run around with a loaded gun. A gun which, by the way, if real would knock her on her ass when she fired it.

[Nashville]

2 hours ago, icemiser69 said:

Judith is still running around with a revolver full of bullets.  So that part of the advancement over time is complete bullshit.   If bullets are that precious (which they are) why is the little dumb shit running around with a loaded gun?

Because the usual rules of responsible firearm safety and use don’t apply if your plot armor is sufficiently bulletproof. ;>

[AngelaHunter]

4 hours ago, icemiser69 said:

How was it that Negan was able to run off with know one knowing about it?

Not just run off but hang around Alexandria all night and into the day AND strolled into Michonne's unlocked house, up the stairs and into Judith's room. Those people must sleep like the dead and who needs to lock a door anyway?

2 hours ago, Gobi said:

I'm stunned that anyone would allow Judith to run around with a loaded gun

AND run around with it outside the community and in the woods (no worries about some neer do well "Claimer" types taking it from her and raping and murdering her, I guess) AND spend leisure time with benevolent Uncle Neegs. No one ever noticed any of that either, not even Michonne. Oh, she'll be fine!

[OoohMaggie]

On 4/10/2019 at 9:04 PM, mcnelisp said:

think the reason is if they had guns they would simply kill the whisperers quickly and the story line would be over.

When Michonne brought the survivors that Judith saved to Hilltop, Michonne  was wearing a gun on her hip, when they were allowed within Hilltop’s walls, Carol was seen to have a gun on her hip, as was Tara I believe, the whole ‘gun’ thing has been quietly forgotten about, despite the fact that there should be plenty of them, and ammunition available, with or without Eugene’s help, Even ‘Elpha’ is brandishing a sawn off.

Its one of those things that we’re expected to overlook, just like there’s enough ‘fuel’ to power Daryl’s bike in Ep 15, but not enough to run any other kind of vehicle to prevent  people getting in the shit they end up in, or to go on a Whisperer hunt.

Edited April 12, 2019 by OoohMaggie

[OoohMaggie]

55 minutes ago, AngelaHunter said:

Those people must sleep like the dead and who needs to lock a door anyway

They obviously copied the tried and tested method used by Hilltop, when Tobin got munched and brought down virtually the whole community. Sentries? Nah, they can’t see anything in the dark anyway so why bother! 

[AngelaHunter]

3 minutes ago, OoohMaggie said:

They obviously copied the tried and tested method used by Hilltop, when Tobin got munched and brought down virtually the whole community.

Yes, but it was hot that night, the first hot night in VA, I guess, so they had no choice but to leave all the doors open to catch a refreshing breeze.

[Beemo]

On 3/24/2019 at 10:50 PM, sigmaforce86 said:

....How did the get those heads up there without destroying the brain I wonder?

On 3/24/2019 at 11:32 PM, natyxg said:

Like maybe Alpha forced him to behead the others in exchange for him living or something. Now that I think about it, did we even see anyone actually die? I think we just saw them fight back.

Hmm...with Sidique being a doctor NATYXG might be on to something 🤔

[PurpleTentacle]

Why does every villain in this show need to be so needlessly antagonistic?

"Here I have this massive herd I could use against you" should be more than enough to keep the civilised people off your land. But instead you kill their loved ones and antagonise them. Nice going, dipshit.

On 3/25/2019 at 3:36 AM, AngelaHunter said:

Okay, can someone explain to me like I'm five years old how Elpha & co. rounded up all these people and killed them so easily?

What do you mean? They just did it off screen. It's easy. As long as you are not on camera, nobody can hear you scream at a crowded fair!