S05.E10: 210 Words Per Minute

[nodorothyparker]

Airdate 2019.08.17

Quote

Morgan and Grace search an abandoned shopping mall for supplies and to fulfill a dying man's wish but the mission quickly turns to a fight for survival. Dwight's resolve to be a better man is tested.

[heisenberg]

Let's steal someone's fuel,  waste it by driving the most guzzling vehicules with only one person traveling in each of them🚚🚛🚙, and at the same time claim that we are the good ones making good actions...🤨

And why do that?

Why the "convoy"?  where are they going?  Someone knows?  Because I don't, did I miss something?🤔

[Haleth]

Dang it.  I was waiting for some crazy, off the wall stunt involving the carousel.  So disappointing.

I don't know what they're doing with the big honkin' convoy either.  And where did Morgan say he was going?

[SamBeckett]

6 hours ago, heisenberg said:

Let's steal someone's fuel,  waste it by driving the most guzzling vehicules with only one person traveling in each of them🚚🚛🚙, and at the same time claim that we are the good ones making good actions...🤨

And why do that?

Why the "convoy"?  where are they going?  Someone knows?  Because I don't, did I miss something?🤔

It probably doesn’t pay to dig too deeply into motivation, but it does seem many of us are sitting here going “What the hell?” As in, what IS the plan? Are they going to drive around the country picking up all the good strays they find by the side of the road? Will Morgan be willing to put down the bad strays? He was asked last night what would happen if he ran into the bad guy (blanking on name). He basically said, after some hemming and hawing, that they’d try to work it out. Hey, Morgan, what if the bad guys are like the Wolves you encountered in Alexandria?

Listan, driving around going good deeds is, well, a good deed. But you need a plan. Build a base of operations. Like the place Daniel had, or even the shopping mall once cleared. Then send teams out on jaunts, gathering new intel, supplies and good people.

If you grow too big, move. But this whole convoy thing seems to be more of a pain in the ass than anything. Now, if they had established they had a goal, then fine. But TPTB haven’t given us that.

[nitrofishblue]

Sorry, but that was one terrible episode. What has happened to the writing? Are they trying to put out the most boring dumbass shows ever? They have turned Morgan from a really bad assed fighter to a sissy guy who doesn't know what direction to go. His story line has been completely ruined.

Nothing makes sense anymore. I want to know where they get all the good fuel, diesel, and oil to run all those huge trucks. Love the walkie talkies that never seem to be charged. They run forever. Who is making all the ammo? The writers have jumped the shark!!!!

[nodorothyparker]

It seems like the entire plan is to just keep driving around rescuing strays until *something, even as we had characters like June last episode voicing the hope that they'd be settling somewhere permanent soon.  At this point I don't doubt that I'm not paying super close attention to everything either because I'm watching this thinking wait a minute.  Didn't Bitchy Max Headroom already show you guys the oil fields he's going on about?  Or was it just refinery operations and you guys took the next leap from there to locate raw fuel sources and that's what he's upset about?  Either that, or the show is being unhelpfully vague, which certainly wouldn't be the first time.

I'm mostly sorry they didn't take the opportunity to set up camp in the mall for an ongoing Dawn of the Dead, minus zombie babies.  It has plenty of resources for now and if they barricade the bottoms of the escalators, they'd have a reasonable line of defense from the second floor.  Still annoyed that I didn't get any carousel walkers, although in all fairness I'd have a hard time passing up the opportunity to take the ride myself in their situation.  Morgan finally seems to be moving past his verrrry long hair shirt phase to be feeling some things for Grace, but he's also clearly feeling some discomfort with that too no matter how times he tells himself and everybody else that it's time they stop endlessly trying to atone for their mistakes and figure out how to live.  A combined 13 1/2 seasons between two shows and the guy's still wearing his wedding ring.  He said he had to leave to go help Al "out there," which is when I realized I have no memory of Al from last episode beyond all the documentary stuff and thus have no idea what she needs help with "out there."  Watching Grace dither for the better part of an episode about trying to self diagnose cancer only to chuck it at the end wasn't exactly scintillating TV.

I get the idea that they don't want Bitchy Max Headroom to know where they are, but caravaning 50 large fuel guzzlers around a deserted landscape tends to be kind of noticeable in its own right.  Dwight is apparently setting up to be this bizarro mother show's version of bizarro Daryl.  Did love his captive bad guy audibly sighing and eye rolling when Dwight of all people started pontificating about his Big Evil past before he expected to be killed only to have that oh you're just going to let me go and hope that I make different choices from here?  Well, okay then moment.

[FishyJoe]

Seriously, there are hundreds of oil rigs in Texas. It's not a secret where they are. There are public records of them all over, not to mention you can see a lot of them just driving around.

It's refining the oil that would be tricky. You can blow stuff up pretty easy if you don't know what you're doing. And refineries are definitely not in secret locations. 

[DrNowsWeightScale]

Not that it was flawless, but IMO, this episode was at least somewhat better than the last few, as we got to see something resembling character development.

I'm not sure if Morgan and Grace are attracted to each other? They both seemed to have tears streaming down their faces at the end of the episode, when Morgan said he won't be going with Grace.

I am not sure what that is about, unless they are developing feelings for each other.

If that is so, why could he not stay with Grace? She could help him go look for Al, if that was truly his concern.

It was kind of interesting watching Dwight wrestle with the kind of person he wants to be.

Another thing I liked about his scenes is that when the Logan Minion was trying to intimidate him into talking, you know after Negan, nobody is going to be as frightening to him, which he alluded to.

I had something similar happen to me back in my University days. I had one instructor at one university who has mean and sexist as all get-out, then I transferred to another school, where the instructor for the same subject matter was also rather rude and sexist.

My female classmates asked me how it was I was not intimidated by this guy, and I said, well, the instructor I just left for this major at the last university was ten times worse.

Compared to my last instructor, this new one is a tame puddy tat, so no, I'm not afraid of him.
He's nothing compared to the ass hat I used to have as an instructor.

So, I guess after someone has lived through Negan, who was among the worst of the worst, Logan & Co. don't seem as scary.

I did wonder why that mall they went to was not picked over already, picked clean.

There were mountains of protein powder drink mix and other supplies, even candy.

Surely, most of that stuff would've already been gone this far into the apocalypse?

As everyone is so freaking concerned about gas running out or going bad, it's quite strange how they are burning through gas on this show like it's nothing.

They even have a convoy AND they are nomads - one of them mentioned having different outposts around town. And all of that of course requires MORE driving, which means using up MORE gas.

I don't know if the people writing for this show are just sloppy or not thinking things through or what.

The TV critic over at Forbes writes a new recap / review after every new Fear episode (link to that below) - I usually agree with many of his complaints, but every so often, at least in my opinion, the guy is a little bit too hard on the show, like in this review:.

'Fear The Walking Dead' Season 5, Episode 10 Review: Another Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Episode - by Erik Kain, on Forbes

One excerpt from that review:

Quote

Oh, but we're supposed to think they're running short on goods because Logan's people keep hitting truckstops and apparently taking stuff...which, hey, take what you need, leave what you don't. He's just following the instructions right? I'm rooting hard for Logan at this point.

In slight defense of the show here, I think there's a distinction made between one group who is altruistic and wanting to help other people and share the wealth, while Logan's group is more about being selfish and wanting to hoard goods and things for themselves.

Logan is wanting to take all the supplies all for himself and his group and leaving zero for anyone else. He doesn't want to play nice and share the toys.

That happened on the original show - Rick Grimes started out helping other people, but as the seasons went by, his character became stingy, greedy, and only about protecting and helping him and his.

I think that's what Fear is trying to highlight now, this 'Selfish Vs. Being Giving' dichotomy vis a via Logan Vs. Morgan.

I do think Fear has some problems.
The actions of the characters don't always make sense, some plot points are silly, and some episodes are incredibly dull.
The guys at AMC should maybe consider getting a new batch of show-runners or script writers for this show.

More:

‘Fear The Walking Dead’ Just Made Morgan Do Something Unforgivable

Fear the Walking Dead Season 5 Episode 10 Review: 210 Words Per Minute

Edited August 19, 2019 by DrNowsWeightScale

[OoohMaggie]

Why didn't 'Headroom' just put one of his gang into a service station and let them ask for help? they would have been accepted into the group as quick as, they would have been able to discover where the oilfields were very quickly, job done.

They could have done a deal with the 'Wes' character instead of wrecking his bike and sidecar, or maybe they have and what we were shown was just a sly misdirection.

We found out that Morgan still can't handle feelings he thinks he shouldn't be experiencing, and Dwight's redemption is now complete, a tad too late for Denise unfortunately. 

I wonder when someone will bring up the fact that they can't live on tins and packets forever, that they will have to seriously start thinking about growing their own food. The season is too short to include too many episodes that don't achieve very much at all.

[DrNowsWeightScale]

9 hours ago, heisenberg said:

Why the "convoy"?  where are they going?  Someone knows?  Because I don't, did I miss something?

I find that point a little confusing too.

I vaguely remember one of the characters (maybe June or Grace?) mentioning the Morgan Group has a series of out-posts around.

I don't know if she explained why.

She said they were searching for a more permanent place to hole up.

I wouldn't think it would be that difficult to do, so I don't know why they are camped out road side for weeks.

Find another shopping mall to hide out in (they are concerned Logan will find the one with Chuck the red jacket guy),
or find another ball park (like the one they had with Madison),
a hospital, a prison (like Grimes used on TWD),
a high rise business building downtown, or abandoned motel or hotel.

There are any number of places they could stay.

I wonder if John Dorie would be better off taking June back to their cabin and just keep existing on fish from the river, maybe grow some tomato plants out back.
At that cabin, the man had electricity (via a turbine, I think), pop corn, scrabble, and a VCR on a TV, for pete's sake, with no bad guy chasing them around.
That's virtual paradise compared to the nonsense he's involved with now.

And why can't they go back to the old blue jean mill, or whatever that place was, since Logan apparently left it(?) Or why not just repair the fence around Daniel's warehouse property and go back there?

My sneaking suspicion is that like the original show, the show writers think we the audience will get bored if our group stays in any one spot too long,
or stays in the same "type" of spot
(such as another ball park, another hospital, another prison, or any other venue we've seen already on this show, or on the original one).

I personally wouldn't mind too much if these groups went back to the same places or similar.
It seems unrealistic for these groups to NOT try another hospital, abandoned but walled-off sub-division with houses, a hotel, prison, etc., and there are only oh so many places one can choose in the apocalypse.

Edited August 19, 2019 by DrNowsWeightScale

[DrNowsWeightScale]

3 hours ago, Haleth said:

Dang it.  I was waiting for some crazy, off the wall stunt involving the carousel.  So disappointing.

I don't know what they're doing with the big honkin' convoy either.  And where did Morgan say he was going?

I believe Morgan told Grace he's going to look for Al because "she's out there on her own" -?

[SamBeckett]

5 minutes ago, OoohMaggie said:

The season is too short to include too many episodes that don't achieve very much at all.

Exactly! Some of these episodes have been mildly interesting, which I think is the general consensus. I think there's also a general consensus on what isn't working (too many characters, the caravan vs. settling down and growing things, etc) 

But this show, bless its little heart, can't seem to right itself.

One other thing that I've been thinking for awhile. (Post-Madison's departure.) The violence seems almost tame. The Walkers are not as threatening, and that seems, I don't know, deliberate. It's like FTWD is the PG-13 version of TWD. I think that's why some of these episodes go down easier than otherwise. If they were hardcore violence and tenser than crap, yet as poorly written, I might have checked out by now.

[DrNowsWeightScale]

2 hours ago, SamBeckett said:

(point 1)

Will Morgan be willing to put down the bad strays? He was asked last night what would happen if he ran into the bad guy (blanking on name). He basically said, after some hemming and hawing, that they’d try to work it out. Hey, Morgan, what if the bad guys are like the Wolves you encountered in Alexandria?

Yeah, I was wondering about that, too.

I understand Morgan's concerns and his principle about fighting only leading to more fighting, so why doesn't his group just turn the other cheek.

That is a lovely sentiment, but unfortunately, there are always going to be some people (or groups of people) who are selfish or psychotic - they cannot be reasoned with, or negotiated with.
They don't care about you and your needs and never will.
They will not hesitate or feel bad about trampling over you and yours to get what they need and want.

At some point, it may be necessary for Morgan or his people to beat up or kill another person / group of people, in order to avoid being killed themselves. 

We do see from the original show, TWD, that responding to violence with only more violence keeps this perpetual cycle of war and killing going on (e.g. Negan Vs. Rick Grimes war), which isn't good...
But I'm not sure if Morgan's apparent "do nothing in response if attacked" type of view will work, either.

2 hours ago, SamBeckett said:

(point 2)
Listan, driving around going good deeds is, well, a good deed. But you need a plan. Build a base of operations. Like the place Daniel had, or even the shopping mall once cleared. Then send teams out on jaunts, gathering new intel, supplies and good people.

I think that was the strategy for the original Alexandrians on the TWD show, Deanna had her people holed up in their base (that fenced in community) and would send that dude out (I forget his name) to scout out people outside of their gates, to see if the new people would want to join them.

I am assuming the only reason they are not returning to Daniel's warehouse base is because in one episode, that trucker lady said she had to tear the wall down around his facility to take the plane out - the plane wouldn't fit through the gates.

But I sit there and wonder, well, can't fences be repaired???
What is stopping these people from getting more wood and whatever else and just repairing the fence at Daniel's place?

[DrNowsWeightScale]

2 hours ago, nitrofishblue said:

Nothing makes sense anymore. I want to know where they get all the good fuel, diesel, and oil to run all those huge trucks. Love the walkie talkies that never seem to be charged. They run forever. Who is making all the ammo? The writers have jumped the shark!!!!

I think that's the whole Logan Villain plot point. The Morgan group knows where the oil field is (which is to make gas for their cars?), but Morgan won't tell Logan where it is, I guess because if Logan finds it, he won't share it with other people.

As for the ammo, I've wondered about that too. They did at least broach this on the original show, when they had Eugene start up an ammo making factory.

John Dorie is an excellent shot, but how long can he keep that up if he runs out of ammo?

They did show Dorie finding ammo at the Humbug Gulch amusement park a few eps ago, and he has mentioned previously he's also good with rope tricks. I guess if the Gulch ammo runs out, he can use his rope to take down bad guys?

I love the Dorie character. I cringe at how this show either doesn't have him in entire eps at a time, or if he is on-screen, they don't use him that much, or give him dopey story-lines. 

[DrNowsWeightScale]

2 hours ago, nodorothyparker said:

....I'm mostly sorry they didn't take the opportunity to set up camp in the mall for an ongoing Dawn of the Dead, minus zombie babies.  It has plenty of resources for now and if they barricade the bottoms of the escalators, they'd have a reasonable line of defense from the second floor. 

I know that Dwight says that Logan may know about Chuck Red-Jacket's mall, so they would not be safe there - is he sure? who says? - but I don't see why they cannot stay at that mall, which was, IMO, a bit unrealistically over-stocked with food and goods. I'd assume it would've been picked over by now.

Anyway, another pet peeve of mine from that ep: the part where Morgan and Grace are at the top of the escalator, zombies keep coming up the escalator, Grace runs out of ammo, and Morgan has to spear stick each one in the head. Then Morgan starts yelling about Grace finding a table or something to block the pathway, since the On / Off button won't work.

I'm not a zombie, mall, or escalator expert, but did Morgan REALLY need a table to block the way?

With each zombie kill, it falls down on the spot, the next will fall down on top of or to the side of that one, until you get a whole pile of dead zombies there, which will serve as a barricade for days or weeks, until their bodies wither away.

So why couldn't Morgan just stand there, keep on killing zombies, until he had a mountain pile of zombie bodies to serve as a blockade from other zombies?

Quote

Watching Grace dither for the better part of an episode about trying to self diagnose cancer only to chuck it at the end wasn't exactly scintillating TV.

"Candy Bean-sies." 

Cringe. She meant "jelly beans." 

[DrNowsWeightScale]

1 hour ago, FishyJoe said:

Seriously, there are hundreds of oil rigs in Texas. It's not a secret where they are. There are public records of them all over, not to mention you can see a lot of them just driving around.

It's refining the oil that would be tricky. You can blow stuff up pretty easy if you don't know what you're doing. And refineries are definitely not in secret locations. 

Well now, we were introduced to Al as being a journalist who also knew how to drive and use fire arms on a SWAT vehicle, and later, when the planes broke down, we learn that she's also an ace plane mechanic
(as is Strand, who used to own a yacht - owning a big boat apparently qualifies one to fly or repair planes).

I am sure if or when the time comes for this group to refine oil, Al or Strand, or June, or some other group member will suddenly surprise us with their expertise at that.

Maybe we will find out that before becoming a trauma nurse, June used to work around oil refineries.  Or, she was married to a guy who worked at one, and she picked it up by osmosis. 

Edited August 19, 2019 by DrNowsWeightScale

[SamBeckett]

11 minutes ago, DrNowsWeightScale said:

With each zombie kill, it falls down on the spot, the next will fall down on top of or to the side of that one, until you get a whole pile of dead zombies there, which will serve as a barricade for days or weeks, until their bodies wither away.

So why couldn't Morgan just stand there, keep on killing zombies, until he had a mountain pile of zombie bodies to serve as a blockade from other zombies?

I'm with you!!! I was thinking of the movie 300, where the Spartans piled all the dead bad guys into a huge wall. Did no one on our team see that movie? 

[heisenberg]

28 minutes ago, DrNowsWeightScale said:

I love the Dorie character. I cringe at how this show either doesn't have him in entire eps at a time, or if he is on-screen, they don't use him that much, or give him dopey story-lines

Maybe he is costing too much to be on the show?

[DrNowsWeightScale]

6 minutes ago, heisenberg said:

Maybe he is costing too much to be on the show?

I wouldn't blame the actor if he leaves this show, because the quality has gone downhill, but I love John Dorie, so I hope he stays - and I hope the show gives him (and the other actors) better story lines. 

[SamBeckett]

18 minutes ago, heisenberg said:

Maybe he is costing too much to be on the show?

I've not been paying attention (sometimes it's all I can do to stay awake), but I don't think any one actor has had substantially more air time than any other character, with the exception of Morgan and, possibly, Alicia, and Morgan is faraway had gotten more air time than Alicia. (And that makes sense, at least to me, because they are, to me, rightly or wrongly, the leads.) Although, honestly, I think the trucker couple (whatever their names are) have been forgotten for so long they'll have to be reintroduced to the audience.

Honestly, I don't get the point of having such a large cast, except maybe something you said — Maybe all these secondary characters, Dories, Al, June, etc, only get a small amount of money for what — if you add up every minute they are on screen — equals a "guest star role." Not to pick on these actors, but I didn't see anyone beating down their doors to get them to star in their own projects. So better be on FTWD for all of 12 minutes than not be in anything.

Edited August 19, 2019 by SamBeckett

[OoohMaggie]

1 hour ago, DrNowsWeightScale said:

So why couldn't Morgan just stand there, keep on killing zombies, until he had a mountain pile of zombie bodies to serve as a blockade from other zombies?

I can only imagine how many people apart from myself, that were screaming at Grace to just hit the emergency stop button on the escalator. Instead she seemed to find a public accessible fuse box? maybe they do have them over there. There's  no way a 'stumbler' is making that step on a stationary escalator.

[OoohMaggie]

1 hour ago, SamBeckett said:

Honestly, I don't get the point of having such a large cast

I think that we all hark back to when TWD was at its zenith, when we had a small group fighting and surviving on a day to day basis, we saw our favourite characters every week and every week was more or less an exciting adventure. These expanded casts and forever frequented locations just sap that excitement away, IMO.

[OoohMaggie]

2 hours ago, DrNowsWeightScale said:

As for the ammo, I've wondered about that too. They did at least broach this on the original show, when they had Eugene start up an ammo making factory.

Fear is still several years behind TWD, which is why  petrol/diesel is only starting to become a problem, they also have ammo to burn at the moment, just as Rick did when they first attacked Negan at Sanctuary.

1 hour ago, DrNowsWeightScale said:

Well now, we were introduced to Al as being a journalist who also knew how to drive and use fire arms on a SWAT vehicle, and later, when the planes broke down, we learn that she's also an ace plane mechanic

Don't forget she apparently knew how to disarm landmines as well, talented girl that one!

[DrNowsWeightScale]

1 hour ago, SamBeckett said:

Honestly, I don't get the point of having such a large cast, except maybe something you said — Maybe all these secondary characters, Dories, Al, June, etc, only get a small amount of money for what....

And the show just added, what, about ten or so kids - tweens and teens - to the cast. 

I know that AMC wants to do a teen-based Walking Dead show, and maybe the appearance of all these kids is tied in to that somehow.

If not, I can't imagine why they want too many kids on here, unless they will serve as zombie fodder, to get eaten every so often to heighten drama.

Edited August 19, 2019 by DrNowsWeightScale

[DrNowsWeightScale]

22 minutes ago, OoohMaggie said:

Don't forget she apparently knew how to disarm landmines as well, talented girl that one!

Oh yeah, thank you for reminding me - that is true too. Is there anything Al cannot do?

I like the character just fine, but it's straining credulity at how she seems to be an expert at just about every obstacle the group encounters.

Does she have a military background?- that may help explain some of her know-how. If not, I am at a loss.

Edited August 19, 2019 by DrNowsWeightScale

[CloudySky]

3 hours ago, DrNowsWeightScale said:

I'm not sure if Morgan and Grace are attracted to each other? They both seemed to have tears streaming down their faces at the end of the episode, when Morgan said he won't be going with Grace.

I am not sure what that is about, unless they are developing feelings for each other.

If that is so, why could he not stay with Grace? She could help him go look for Al, if that was truly his concern.

...

The TV critic over at Forbes writes a new recap / review after every new Fear episode (link to that below) - I usually agree with many of his complaints, but every so often, at least in my opinion, the guy is a little bit too hard on the show, like in this review:.

'Fear The Walking Dead' Season 5, Episode 10 Review: Another Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Episode - by Erik Kain, on Forbes

One excerpt from that review:

In slight defense of the show here, I think there's a distinction made between one group who is altruistic and wanting to help other people and share the wealth, while Logan's group is more about being selfish and wanting to hoard goods and things for themselves.

Logan is wanting to take all the supplies all for himself and his group and leaving zero for anyone else. He doesn't want to play nice and share the toys.

At one point they focussed on Morgan smiling when he was sharing a scene with Grace. Remember, he told the story of his first date with his wife...and how he couldn't stop smiling and that's how he knew she was the one or something like that. So his smiling next to Grace meant he likes her and when he realized that, he made up the Al excuse to get away from her because he's not ready to let go of his wife yet. Grace was notably heartbroken because she probably has feelings too.

To be fair to Logan, Morgan and friends took his warehouse full of goods and are wasting them with a stupid plan of leaving them out on the road in the elements in case a survivor just happens to be walking past that road. Then when he told them about the oil field, they ditched him and now Morgan’s group are the only people with reliable vehicles who are raiding all the stores in the vicinity. Meanwhile, Logan is supposed to travel on foot and find food…where? If our group is scavenging in their trucks, everything in the vicinity is cleared. The only place to find food and supplies is in the boxes. Take what you need, leave what you don’t…Well, I need to eat every day…

If they don't show them talking about a long term plan for growing food, this show loses that last shred of believablity it's hanging onto. There was a scene of them counting supplies in the previous episode, so I'm mildly hopeful it will come up towards the end of the season. But come on! If you have 1000 cans of food and you drop off 20 boxes a day and need to feed a convoy of people, you'll be starving in a month or hunting down your own boxes!

I wish they'd show John fishing or Daniel hunting in the woods or the kids gathering water at a lake or SOMETHING to make us believe these people aren't just living on cans.

3 hours ago, DrNowsWeightScale said:

(as is Strand, who used to own a yacht - owning a big boat apparently qualifies one to fly or repair planes).

Strand couldn't even repair his own boat! Travis had to do it. But suddenly he's an airplane expert.

[DrNowsWeightScale]

3 minutes ago, CloudySky said:

Strand couldn't even repair his own boat! Travis had to do it. But suddenly he's an airplane expert.

Ah, I had forgotten about that, thank you for reminding me!

You raised some good points in your post.

I was saying above that I don't know why Dorie doesn't go back to his cabin with June, since they could keep on fishing in that river by his cabin, he has a stock pile of pop corn, they could grow tomatoes in his back yard, and I think he had a chicken coop for gathering eggs(?)

I guess I missed the part about Morgan saying he smiled when he was around his wife before they married.

I did hear him talking to Grace about smiling when he was with his kid, watching him play with the remote control car he bought him, or something.

[One4Sorrow2TooBad]

I actually started to think possibly there was a chance of Morgan and Grace getting together,would that be so impossible? Even if it was for a short time?

[raven]

I like the road trip aspect.  I was always interested in seeing how others across the country are faring.   I liked the quest for Chuck (which turned out surprisingly sweet) and though I wasn't interested in Grace's backstory, it was nice to see Morgan make a connection.   Morgan abruptly leaving Grace was affecting - well, Lennie James driving away and sniffling was affecting.

I thought this was a strong episode for Austin Amelio - he sold Dwight's debate about what to do and I think he's doing a good job showing growth in Dwight.

However, the show is kind of aimless.  Is there no long term plan (characters and show).  Does no one in the group have a long term goal?  They are aware that gas won't last forever.   There's safety in numbers so I can see why they want to bring others in but there are too many people.  It's hard to get invested when characters disappear or are minimal for too many episodes. 

I miss snarky Strand.  The show doesn't know what to do with John and June now that they are safely in love.  Alicia I guess is in some kind of crisis?  It would be nice to see her develop a friendship with Strand like Madison had. 

The actors are pretty much doing a good job when they have material (though Grace doesn't interest me, the actress is good; hey, even Chuck's actor was good) but there's not a lot of meat there. 

[maystone]

I heard Tess - Land Mine Mom - say that they'd passed a ranch that looked like it could be cleared, and they could use that as a base of operations. I believe she was going to take the car part of the convoy there toward the end of the episode.

I really like the actor who plays Grace. I thought that she and Lennie James had some chemistry happening in this episode, but then the writers decided that Morgan must never get over his wife. Personally I'm hoping that the next store or office he's in, he hears a ringing phone - and it's his wife calling. It worked for Rick; well after he got over that pesky crazy spell.

I'm interested in the new character who got his motorcycle shot all to hell. Honestly, when they first teased his appearance by only showing a couple dreads and a dark-skinned hand, I shouted, "It's Heath!" I'm so confused by the time differences between the mother ship and this, that I don't even know if it's feasible for Heath to end up in a crossover. But even if he isn't Heath, he looks to be an intriguing addition.

[Donder]

I call these soul searching episodes as a prelude to a nervous breakdown or pulling your self out of one. Morgan collapsed when he couldn't get over his wife to enjoy his affections for Grace. Dwight, it was a like a awakening and release back to masculinity. For men nervous breakdows are far worse than for women.

[SamBeckett]

15 minutes ago, icemiser69 said:

If TPTB end up killing off a bunch of characters, I hope they are smart enough to do it on screen.

This show is in a bad-way, what with so many characters. Has TPTB ever shown a major character on this show get killed in a gruesome way? (For comparison, think Glenn, Abraham, Noah, etc from TWD). I don’t think so. Travis’s son (remember him?) died off camera. Travis fell out of a helicopter. Okay, now Nick had a straight-up death, but though surprising, it wasn’t gruesome. And Madison had the old-fashioned Day Crockett death at the Alamo, going down swinging, but no death shown. I think TBTB on this show (and I know there have been a few) are afraid of showing character’s death, except in a noble way. 

So, Houston, we have a problem!!!

p.s. I’m not talking about secondary characters, like the two sons of the rancher. I’m talking MAIN characters.

[nodorothyparker]

I don't know if it's about being afraid to show main character deaths as much as this show has always been the mother show's cheaper cousin and special effects like eyeballs popping out of sockets, heads caving in, being torn apart by a herd, etc., cost money to not look like they were done by a crew from Party City.  From the very beginning when the show promised to let us see the fall of civilization play out and then parked behind a chain link fence to "9 days later," it's always taken the cheapest route possible to get there.   While I will say I think that cheapness has gotten less noticeable since this show was brought under Gimple's most high grand poobah of all things WD umbrella, (Arts and crafts with walker intestines, anyone?), I also don't think this version of the ZA has quite the same love affair with nihilism and gore for gore's sake as the mother ship crew.

This one also hasn't made the six-year time jump following Rick's "death" as the mother show, so they're at least that far behind on the time line and breakdown of resources.

[meep.meep]

If you watch the title scenes, it seems to show the carousel outside.

[sd dude]

On ‎8‎/‎19‎/‎2019 at 10:53 AM, DrNowsWeightScale said:

Does [Al] have a military background?- that may help explain some of her know-how. If not, I am at a loss.

In the minefield episode, she mentioned that she had been on a journalist assignment in a war zone and had learned something at that time about defusing a land mine.  I'm not saying that's realistic, but I suppose that is the in-story explanation about where she gets her survival skills.

[DrNowsWeightScale]

On 10/2/2019 at 1:01 PM, sd dude said:

In the minefield episode, she mentioned that she had been on a journalist assignment in a war zone and had learned something at that time about defusing a land mine.  I'm not saying that's realistic, but I suppose that is the in-story explanation about where she gets her survival skills.

She and or Strand are also plane pilots and can repair planes. And one or more of their group knows how to refine oil into gasoline. Sigh.

I guess most of the characters on this show are "Mary Sues," even some of the men.