Normally we hand off most reviews to our resident reviewer. But there was no way I’d let that cantankerous undead jerk steal my chance to see the latest installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Director and writer James Gunn was tasked with breathing life into a talking, genetically-altered, cybernetic raccoon. His best friend, a giant talking tree—if you count a three word vocabulary as talking. A female assassin who has absolutely no damsel in distress inclinations. A guy covered in tattoos who speaks like he hasn’t read anything written after 1900. And their leader, a human kidnapped from Earth and raised by a gang of thieves called the Ravagers.
One of those thieves might have a familiar face. Just saying.
From Marvel:
An action-packed, epic space adventure, Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” expands the Marvel Cinematic Universe into the cosmos, where brash adventurer Peter Quill finds himself the object of an unrelenting bounty hunt after stealing a mysterious orb coveted by Ronan, a powerful villain with ambitions that threaten the entire universe. To evade the ever-persistent Ronan, Quill is forced into an uneasy truce with a quartet of disparate misfits—Rocket, a gun-toting raccoon, Groot, a tree-like humanoid, the deadly and enigmatic Gamora and the revenge-driven Drax the Destroyer. But when Quill discovers the true power of the orb and the menace it poses to the cosmos, he must do his best to rally his ragtag rivals for a last, desperate stand—with the galaxy’s fate in the balance.
Warning you guys now, it is impossible to go into this movie without expectations. Some will look at the concept on paper and write it off, watching only because it is a Marvel film. Others walk in humming the soundtrack, having memorized every line from the trailers. Try as I might—I do feel it’s my duty to present an unbiased review—I ended up being in the latter category. With absolutely no regrets once the first song poured from the theater speakers.
Unlike just about every other sci-fi action film, Guardians begins on a somber note—the death of Quill’s ailing mother. In his anguish, he runs outside to mourn without his family’s eyes on him. And in the process gets himself zapped onto an alien ship. The opening sequence said more about the Quill character than any of the numerous trailers, internet memes, and interviews combined. Going dark out the gate was a brave move. Movie-goers typically don’t like to cry in the first five minutes.
From there, the film jumps ahead to an adult Quill on a job to steal something. He has a certain . . . style to how he works. Which includes his trusty Walkman, good tunes, and using an alien-rat-thing that wants to eat his face off as a microphone. Sounds reasonable. Right? Hey, he got the job done. With one small, itty bitty, miniscule hiccup—henchmen from the Big Bad, Ronan the Accuser, show up to also steal the Orb Quill’s after. Oops. They should’ve checked the Thieves ‘R Us message board. That’s almost as bad as wearing the same battlesuit to a blaster fight.
ZSC brigadiers will recognize one devilish blue face amongst the Ravagers. Our very own Special Forces Commander Michael Rooker plays Yondu, Quill’s somewhat adoptive (reluctantly) father. Yondu isn’t a straight forward bad guy. Or a good guy. He’s a Yondu guy—liking whatever gets him what he wants, when he wants it, and with the largest paycheck at the end. Yet he’s got a soft spot for this kid he scooped up from Earth. Though if ever asked, it’s doubtful Yondu would admit to having a fondness for Quill at all. Ever.
The whole movie is bananas. A series of almost-fatal mishaps for Quill, who somehow wiggles free at the last moment. Usually with help from a group of people who tried to kick his backside across the galaxy the first time they met him. And thank goodness they decided to pick on him. The mix of Rocket, Gamora, Drax, and Groot is pure cinematic hilarity. How they managed to fly a space ship, let alone mastermind these hastily slapped together, and yet daring, save-the-galaxy plans astounds everyone.
Guardians is a road trip. Filled with good music, intelligent (most of the time) jokes, a lot of fighting, and a few figurative flat tires. But when you reach the final destination, it doesn’t feel like the end. The bond between the characters makes viewers want to hop in the car and drive anywhere with them again.
Luckily Marvel realized the goldmine it funded and announced at San Diego Comic-Con (a week before Guardians actually opened to the public) that Quill and company would be back for a second installment July 2017.
But, really, can we wait that long? I’m not sure I can even wait to see this film again, let alone wait three years for another masterfully directed film from James Gunn.
In this episode, we take a slight detour and focus mainly on a side-character’s struggle to return to a normal life after the implement of the government’s Give Back Scheme. Can Freddy find normalcy? Can any of the PDS sufferers who’ve returned to Roarton regain their old lives?
From BBC:
Fate throws Kieren and Simon together on the ‘Give Back’ scheme, this time at the doctor’s surgery. Simon reassures Kieren that he’s not leading Amy on, but the pair come to blows when Kieren thwarts his plan to free two caged rabids.
We also get to know PDS sufferer Freddie Preston. Freddie returned from the grave to find his childhood sweetheart Haley shacked up in their marital home with her new boyfriend Amir. Haley and Amir are allowing Freddie to stay in the spare room until he’s back on his feet. This is not ideal, as Freddie struggles with the notion of ’till death do us part’ and is determined to win back the woman he loves.
When Kieren is thrust into the aftermath of Freddie’s plan, he sees Simon’s views in a different light. Even though he hates the thought of hurting Amy, he can’t help but follow his heart.
In the aftermath of last week’s accidental shooting by Jem, we see her attempt to do the correct thing . . . while the adults play “Hide the corpse in the woods.” Maxine and Gary do the exact opposite of what Jem needs to get her head on straight—with her guilt over shooting Henry and the PTSD she’s dealt with since the HVF was disbanded. As the adults in charge, they should take proper legal action. Instead, their hatred and fear of PDS people makes them accessories to her crime. The only reason Maxine isn’t upset is because Henry wasn’t the mythical “first risen” everyone’s searching for in Roarton, the undead who will ultimately bring about the second rising. After Maxine’s strange behavior—hello, talking to a suitcase—one begins to wonder how personal her efforts are to see this supposed second rising. Did she lose someone during the first rising, an undead lover or child who was slaughtered? Was she expecting someone to return who didn’t when Roarton’s graveyard vomited up its dead? She’s cagier than a parakeet, that’s for sure.
A large piece of this episode was dedicated to Freddy’s struggle to find his place in the village. After his release from the rehab facility, he returned home to discover during the years he roamed the countryside rabid, his wife had moved on and moved her boyfriend into the house they’d shared. As a favor, possibly out of pity, she’d allowed Freddy to stay with them. But they boyfriend’s had enough. Freddy is obviously still in love with his wife, but she’s having a hard time accepting that after years of mourning and maturing, whereas he’s stuck where he was the moment he died. His attempts to court her go awry. Freddy lures her to a place where they can be alone, where he tries to convince her one last time to run away with him. In the process, he forgets his meds and turns rabid. His inability to move on nearly cost him his life when Gary showed up. If Kieren hadn’t intercepted the call Gary put through to Jem asking her to help put Freddy down, they guy would be dead. And for what? A woman who said her goodbyes already and wants the freedom to settle down as she nears thirty? Freddy is desperate for anything to call his own. He’s been denied the opportunity to own his own business. He can’t even legally drive a car. And how can he make money to provide for himself when he’s forced into the Give Back Scheme? The PDS are stuck in a hole. Freddy is just the latest victim.
Kieren’s interactions with Simon started to heat up in the last episode. This time around, they’re fanning the embers. During the Give Back tasks for the day, the men are scheduled to work at the clinic as a clean-up crew, while Phillip traps Amy in the council office to play as his (unwilling) secretary. The guys argue over whether or not to free a pair of rabid undead caged in the clinic. When Kieren protests and stops Simon, Simon’s disappointment has teeth. He says a few times, his feeling for Amy aren’t romantic. Simon loves her, but not in the way she loves him. Has he used her to get to Roarton and Kieren? Undoubtedly. Everything he’s said in the last two episodes points to manipulation on his part. Amy is convinced she’ll marry Simon.
Simon is about as willing to do that as she is to have another one-night-stand with Phillip. How will she feel when she finds out her undead best friend kissed her maybe-to-be fiancé? Who knows? Perhaps the betrayal will aggravate her still unknown condition. We saw what happens when a PDS sufferer’s meds wears off when Freddy forgot his dose.
Will the same happen to Amy? It’d be awful to lose her vibrant personality amongst the doom and gloom generation.
A review of “In the Flesh” season 1 episode 1
By A. Zombie
They’re trying something a little different in the ZSC command center this summer. This time around, my assignment is to tackle the BBC’s breakout hit “In the Flesh.” Let’s not waste any time getting into episode one.
From BBC:
Partially Deceased Syndrome sufferer Kieren Walker returns home to the cauldron of Roarton, but doesn’t receive a warm welcome from all. His parents, Steve and Sue, are undoubtedly pleased to see him, but his sister, Jem, isn’t so ready to pick up where they left off when Kieren died back in 2009. Meanwhile, the zombie-hating Human Volunteer Force, led by the violent Bill Macy, are ready to take action against any PDS sufferer reintegrated on their patch.
Right out of the gate, the show is visually impressive. Detailed, but not overly done effects makeup on the undead. Fully dressed sets. The cinematography adds movement to the first moments, which could’ve been a boring one-sided walkie-talkie conversation. But they killed it when viewers realize they’ve used an age-old trope—opening a show with an action-packed dream or flashback sequence. It’s been done to death. Even with them working it into the plot, explaining that the rehabilitated zombies will suffer side-effects such as flashbacks, it’s not a strong start story-wise.
Where they catch interest is in the way they handle a beaten-to-death zombie plotline. Yes, the zombies rose from the dead. Yes, for quite some time humans were forced to fight against ravenous hordes or die. But instead of seeking to wipe out the undead population, the humans found a way to reboot a zombie’s mind with Neurotripteline and make them mostly human again. The rehabilitated zombies are slowly reintroduced into society. Sure, they have to put on colored contacts and paint their pallid flesh to resemble the living, but it’s worth it to be at home again. Much to the delight of folks in backward small towns.
That was sarcasm.
In Roarton, we’re introduced to the main cast. Some of whom we’ll no doubt grow to like or at least tolerate, like Kieren’s family. Others we can only hope will find the toothy end of a rabid rotter—slang for an untreated zombie. Of the latter are Bill Macy and his pal Vicar Oddie. Bill runs the local zombie killing group, the HVF. In its heyday, the HVF were heroes. Always on the front line against the zombies. But since the rehabilitation program and the PDS Protection Act went into law, most cities disbanded their local HVF chapters. But not good ol’ Roarton. There’s little to no official government involvement in a town so small. The Parish Council rules all, and most of them side with the HVF. Vicar Oddie has his fingers in all the pies. He knows what buttons to push to send his wild dog—Bill Macy—off on the hunt. He uses Bill’s anger after his son’s death for his own gain. Why should these zombies be allowed to come back and live with them when Bill’s son, Rick, remained dead in Afghanistan? We’re shown a brutal example of Bill’s hate toward the end of the episode. What would he do if he knew Kieren were back in town and that one of his own HVF soldiers, Jem, was protecting a zombie? Pretty sure we’ll find out soon enough.
“In the Flesh” may have fresh-faced actors in the lead roles, resembling Warm Bodies, but where the film made light out of the zombie condition—curing it with the power of love—the show shines a blinding light on the hate that can manifest when normal people are faced with something they don’t comprehend. Jem calls her brother a demon when he returns home. She refuses to believe Kieren is actually back until he tells her something only he’d know. And even then, she still hates him because she cannot understand why he killed himself four years prior. Ignorance is the perfect breeding ground for turmoil, and there’s plenty of that in Roarton.
How long until the humans turn on each other? Hate can’t be contained to just one set of people, or not-quite-people in this case. Eventually tempers will get the better of everyone.
Another season of AMC’s “The Walking Dead” has come and gone, taking bits of our collective sanity with it. For the first half of season four, viewers waited for the inevitable—the Governor’s attack on a now peaceful survivor group making a home in a rundown prison. The second half lulled fans into a false sense of security, slowing the pace to nearly a standstill until the finale. Was it a smart move? Hard to say. While the events in the finale were indeed shocking—ample amounts of yelling echoed through the ZSC Command Center—some fans abandoned ship (and hope) before the episode aired, stating there wasn’t enough action to keep their interest. With a few exceptions (Look at the flowers…) the second half of season four didn’t pack the same punch as previous story arcs. It led up to a heck of a plot twist, though.
You know the drill, there’s spoilers in this review. If you haven’t watched the finale, do so before reading on.
To dig the knife in fan’s hearts a little more, the finale contained numerous flashbacks to life at the prison after the Governor’s first failed attack. Hershel played a key part in Rick’s life during that time, and fans were treated to Scott Wilson’s return to TWD, if only for one last episode. Hershel was the one to turn Avenger Rick into Farmer Rick by pointing out the potential in the land within the prison fences. Seeing Hershel again acted as a reminder that no matter how much one does for others, in the end kindness won’t stop a bullet, or sword, from taking their life.
Hershel saved Rick, gave him something other than vengeance and death to motivate him, get him out of bed every day. Rick in turn attempted to save Carl the same way. We saw how well Hershel’s guidance worked. Rick withdrew from the inner-workings of the survivor group, true. But his focus laid on providing the group with something new, something thought impossible after months on the run—sustainable food sources. An idea we’ll touch on again when Rick and company hit Terminus, but for a whole different reason.
A huge part of the weight dragging down Carl and his father is the question, who are they now? Rick long ago abandoned his notion of being a good cop, that part of his personality slaughtered by Shane, Lori, and the Governor. Carl grew up the instant he killed Shane’s reanimated corpse to save his father, and turned even colder after he put a bullet in his mother’s head to keep her from coming back undead. They went from a moderately happy family (the tension between Rick and Lori was established in episode one) to a man and his son, both baptized in blood and gore. How can anyone come back from what they’ve seen, what they’ve done in the name of survival? What would they say to Judith—should they find her again—to justify their actions? At last Rick seems able to cope with the turn in their life. Carl still struggles, wondering what they’ll say to the people at Terminus when they arrive. Rick answers, “We’re going to tell ’em who we are.” Carl isn’t appeased. “How can you say that? Who are we?”
“I was just another monster . . . . I was gone for a long time.”
Michonne faced the same struggle after her son’s death. She mutilated her boyfriend and friend after they were turned walker (while stoned, failing to protect young Andre) and lost herself amongst the walker herds until she stumbled across Andrea.
Admitting how far off the reservation she’d gone wasn’t easy, but Michonne wanted to drive home the quality and kind-hearted people Carl had been surrounded by, citing that Andrea, Rick, and the others saved her. They could save Carl as well, even if only through remembering their strength.
Too bad they weren’t there the night Joe and his gang attacked.
To make it short, sweet, and not rehash possible abuse triggers . . . Joe’s group deserved their brutal deaths. They thought they could be a law unto themselves, ignoring the basic morals that’d guided humanity up until the walkers arrived. They were wrong. So, so wrong. There are horrors only moderately acceptable in order to survive. What these guys did went way beyond that. If Daryl hadn’t been moping over Beth’s kidnapping, he would’ve seen it and possibly handled things long before they attacked Rick, Michonne, and Carl. He didn’t. That guilt will sit on his shoulders for a long time. Rick, on the other hand, has no qualms about what they did to Joe’s group. He did what he had to do. Calm, practical Rick has returned at last.
And he’s got a taste for blood. Literally. The guy tore another man’s throat out with his teeth.
At last, the majority of the prison group finds their way to Terminus. The place isn’t half bad—clean, nice gardens, loads of flowers, friendly faces . . . oh and a cage full of butchered human remains. Wait, what? We’re not given the full story about the folks running Terminus, but one can draw their own conclusion—they’ve found the secret to a sustainable food source with little to no effort, or water, needed. They don’t kill Rick and company after the group reacts to finding items they know belong to Maggie and Glenn. Instead Gareth, the man they first encounter at Terminus, and his goons herd the group through the maze of buildings with well-placed gunshots. Wasting ammo much? They must not need to pick off walkers with the way they’ve set up the compound. Or they’ve gotten really good at luring in well-supplied suckers.
So the bad news is, Rick and his crew are held captive in a train car, surrounded by possible cannibals. The upside? They’ve been reunited with Glenn, Maggie, Bob, and Sasha. Sgt. Ford and his group are alive as well. With that many people at his disposal, there’s no doubt Rick will get them out of this mess. You know, once season five airs in the fall.
Tell us your favorite season four moments in the comments below.
Here we are, creeping closer to the end of Walking Dead’s fourth season. The first half gave viewers nervous ticks, keeping them on the edge of their seat until the mid-season finale. In stark contrast, the second half has so far lulled fans, calmed down the non-stop action from previous seasons. No doubt in preparation to drop a world of angst on their heads next week in the finale. Or so we hope. Things have picked up a little, but still haven’t brought the tension to the levels seen before the hiatus. What action we’ve seen that progresses the plot has only left a lot of question marks rattling around our heads. There’s loose threads waving around everywhere. We’ll have to wait and see what gets tied up in the finale and what’s left to hang until season five.
Beware, for the path you will take will lead you to certain spoilers!
After Rick, Michonne, and Carl ditched their invaded safe house, we haven’t seen them since the end of episode 411. In that time, apparently all they’ve done is walk and drink nearly all their water supply. Strange, since Michonne is the most capable killer on the show. Rick is the main character. And Carl has grown and matured the most in four seasons of TWD. A good chunk of what makes the show compelling lays with those three. We see them for maybe two minutes in this episode—just long enough to watch them walking and laughing. Sure, it shows Rick’s hope returning, along with Carl and Michonne’s building friendship, but after three episodes without, a quick peak isn’t enough to bring these three back into the story for the finale.
Finding trust in Mullet Man . . . I mean Eugene, is really difficult. There’s so many little things he does throughout his scenes that brings into question the truth behind his babbling. Boy, does he talk a lot. For the most part, when a character talks non-stop, we start to wonder what they’re hiding behind all the mindless chatter. Eugene dominates every conversation with what seems like inane chatter—ranging from how to build batteries ala MacGuyver, to the possibility of zombie dinosaurs. (A distant cousin to zombie bunnies? I’m not cleaning up after them.) Since joining forces, Eugene fought Sgt. Ford’s orders to follow Glenn and Tara in their search for Maggie. Could he be a closet romantic? Doubt it. Something about his interest in the others doesn’t feel right. Here’s a guy who supposedly knows what’s really going on with the zombies, yet he’s more than willing to delay their mission for days, possibly weeks, to help complete strangers in what was very much a doomed mission from the get-go. He signed his escorts on for a mission to hunt a needle in a haystack. Doesn’t make sense when he may be capable of putting an end to their primary problem—the creatures trying to eat them. Or can he fix this at all?
Glenn and Tara do a lot of rehashing about what happened during the prison attack in the episode. Honestly, most of it wasn’t needed. If they’d stuck to showing Tara’s guilt over what happened and wrapped it up with a truncated version of their conversation in the tunnel, Glenn’s acceptance of her would’ve had a larger impact. Instead, it kinda came across like woe-is-me whining. Tara needs to find her backbone again. After the prison, she lost everything that made her an interesting character and became a stereotypical angst-ridden, confused woman with no substance. When they finally tried to give her substance, it was something we’d heard so often it meant nothing, until Glenn reunited with Maggie and when he introduced Tara, he didn’t out her as one of the Governor’s lackeys.
Yes, Glenn and Maggie are together again, against all odds and reason. Once more, they’re using the pair to give a shaft of hope before chaos hits the fan. The reunion was telegraphed, killing some of the excitement.
At last we get to see more about Joe and his crew, who’ve decided to keep Daryl around—they’re reasoning being no one can survive alone. Something suggests they have ulterior motives. Those guys, not telling the full story? Never. [/sarcasmfont] Joe’s group isn’t completely lawless. Which is probably a good thing. They don’t seem to be stellar pillars of the community, Len being a primary example of what could happen if Joe allowed his guys off the leash. Len picked a fight with Daryl, and through no action on Daryl’s part, ended up vulture bait. Through subtle manipulation, giving his guys the illusion that they have control through the “claim” system, Joe keeps his wild dogs under control. Or should they be called alley cats? When he caught Daryl skulking around, his head wrapped up in Beth’s whereabouts Joe told him, “Ain’t nothin’ sadder than an outdoor cat that thinks he’s an indoor cat.” He knows their place. Fully understands that his crew is comprised of the dredges of humanity. Yet Joe embraces it and continues to adopt strays, similar to what Daryl did once they’d settled into the prison. With Joe’s influence, we’re seeing the rougher Daryl reemerge. Beth gave him someone to care for. None of the guys he’s traveling with now need that much, if any, help. Daryl has no responsibilities. He can sink back into the mind frame he had when chasing after Merle, wreaking havoc wherever their bikes took them. What’ll happen if they find Beth again? Can the alley cat learn to behave indoors?
Next week is the season four finale. We caught a glimpse of Terminus when Glenn and gang rolled in. So far it seems . . . pleasant. Then again, so did Woodbury. The preview suggests we have some yelling in store. About time.
What do you think, is Terminus a legitimate safe haven where the survivors can finally let their guard down? Let us know what you think is in store for everyone in the comments below.
This was a hectic week in the ZSC Command Center, with a good number of our commanders off in Sacramento, CA for Wizard World Comic Con. Perhaps it was the insanity of our week transferring, but somehow this week’s episode of “The Walking Dead” felt just as discombobulated. Disconnected. Schizophrenic. The scenes jumped around a lot. Possibly to force the show’s pace to pick up again after last week’s slow-down to focus on Daryl and Beth? Whatever the reason, the latest episode fell somewhat flat. The energy was forced, when in reality not much actually happened to progress the plot until the end of the hour. With that in mind, let’s see what some of the characters were up to this week.
You know the drill. There’s spoilers below this text. Read ahead at your own risk.
The episode kicked off with an unexpected flashback showing Bob’s life in the week or so before Glenn and Daryl found him and brought him to the prison. He’d been completely alone, drinking cough syrup because there’s no liquor stores when wandering in the wilderness, and hardly doing anything that’d be considered truly living. There hasn’t been a flashback on the show—a true flashback, unlike Michonne’s weird dreams and hallucinations—in quite some time. Some viewers may have been confused, wondering where Sasha and Maggie were if Bob was alone and looking like he hadn’t shaved or seen bath water in over a month. While the flashback drove home the suck-fest that is surviving alone in the zombie apocalypse, it wasn’t necessary. Bob’s argument with Sasha later, the ragged emotion in his voice when he tells her about how awful the isolation was as he wandered aimlessly without anyone to watch his back so he could get even a couple hours of sleep, told the truth of the loneliness far better than a confusing flashback. Which only added to the disjointed feeling of the episode.
Strangely, instead of touching base with the show’s lead character, Rick, we caught up with Beth and Daryl again. Who we saw for an hour last week. Show runners are really driving that pair home in the minds of fans. Methinks the lady doth protest too much. We get it. There’s something brewing between these two. Short of renting an airplane and writing it in the sky, there’s not much more the writers can do to inform us this unspoken something between Daryl and Beth will be romantic. Though honestly it wasn’t until Daryl, the man who had been a nomad long before stumbling across his first walker, suggested settling down that the idea of a relationship between the two fully clicked. This is an instance where subtly was thrown out the window… which isn’t fair to fans. Watching something brew between two characters organically, like what happened with Glenn and Maggie, is part of the thrill. Daryl and Beth feels like fan service. Would it happen eventually without them forcing it? Probably.
As far as the characters know, they’re the only survivors from the prison. Everyone they knew is gone and for the most part, whenever they encounter new survivors, the newbies try to kill them. Take Beth’s random abduction, for example. Who has gas left over a year into the apocalypse? Even the group at the prison had to start rationing gas. Michonne took to riding a horse or walking on her numerous trips out to track the governor.
But they’ve introduced yet another group of survivors, led by a guy named Joe.
Right off the bat, it’s obvious they won’t take any guff from Daryl. But are they friend or foe? So far, they’ve only threatened violence if Daryl does something rash and stupid. Will they help him find Beth? Who knows? Joe and gang weren’t on screen long enough to do more than tease their existence.
When will we catch up with the other survivors? What do you think is happening with Glenn, Rick, Michonne, Carol, and the others? Let us know in the comments below.
Sunday night posed a viewing quandary for many folks. When time came. Of course the ZSC Command Center TV was turned to AMC for the newest episode of “The Walking Dead.” Unlike any other episode in the series, this week’s featured only two of the main cast for the duration. Kudos to Norman Reedus and Emily Kinney for their performances. It couldn’t have been easy to carry an episode on their own—with a little help from not-so-friendly neighborhood walkers.
Wait a minute . . . . Have you watched the episode? There’s spoilers below.
The overall theme for season four seems to be acceptance. Not necessarily of others, as we saw in this episode, but of the circumstances life’s thrown their way and the deaths they’ve witnessed along the way. Everyone in this world had to step back and look at their lives objectively. What good would it do to be pissed at the world? Would anger put food on the table? Could it bring back their loved ones? Anger certainly can come in handy when it comes to killing walkers, as we saw with Daryl’s hole-in-one tee-off in the locker room during the middle of the episode.
But anger can also make one sloppy, careless. Beth has been working through the stages of grief since her father’s murder and the attack on the prison. The anger stage set her off on a mission—she wanted booze. It wasn’t an end to their problems she desired, just a drink to take the edge off everything she’s avoided confronting emotionally.
“All I wanted to do today was lay down and cry, but we don’t get to do that.”
Beth’s ignored her feelings since early on at the prison. After they lost the farm, she switched her focus from what she needed to what others needed. It gave her a somewhat healthy distraction, but also didn’t allow her time to mourn her losses properly. Until now when it’s just her and a growly redneck traipsing through the woods. Now she’s got all the time in the world. There’s no kids to take care of. No food to cook. No home to clean. No one to talk to—let’s face it, Daryl is not Chatty Cathy. She’s stuck mourning all her losses at the same time, most notably losing the home she thought they’d remain in until someone somewhere came up for a solution for the undead problem.
Her mission for a “real” drink took them to a country club. Right off the bat, the place feels hinky. As they clear the building, picking up needed items along the way, it becomes apparent something horrible happened inside the club’s main building. Something not done at the hands of walkers. Even when death knocked at their door, the class structures inherent in a place like a country club—where the wealthy are given free rein to lord over the employees—were still in play. Through the dead Beth and Daryl found, we start to weave together a story told through the ages. The wealthy, when caught unprepared for disaster, were obliterated by those who felt their money made them less than human. How could anyone who never had to beg and scrape to pay the bills have any feelings? The reasoning isn’t sound. Frankly, it’s insane. The stress of survival does bad things to people. We’ve seen it time and time again in four seasons of the show.
Daryl doesn’t often show typical signs of stress. He’s like a duck in water, letting everything roll off his back. Sadly, it’s always been this way for him. This week we finally learned what exactly Daryl did before the walkers came—not a dang thing, apparently. He tooled around with his brother Merle, causing mischief and doing nothing productive with his life. Daryl didn’t call the shots. He acted as a lackey for his drug-addled, loud-mouthed older brother. Possibly the most shocking part of the episode wasn’t any of the walker kills, or even Daryl’s borderline abusive attempt to teach Beth how to use a cross bow. Daryl talked about Merle and his father. He never talks about his family, and hasn’t mentioned his brother since Merle was turned walker and Daryl killed him. Dwelling on the past is not his favorite pastime.
Escaping the past isn’t so easy, though. The prison attack, all those needless deaths, it’s eating away at Daryl. He finally made something out of his life, finally stepped out free from his brother’s long shadow to fashion himself into an apocalyptic hero of sorts. Only to lose the majority of the people he’d agreed to protect. Beth told him, “I know you look at me and see another dead girl.” Because that’s all they’ve left in their wake from Atlanta to the farm to the prison, dead girls who couldn’t hack it. He saw this and tried like hell to save them. And failed. Listening to Beth’s resigned statements about her final fate, how he’ll be the only one of their group to survive, hurts Daryl on a level he’s not comfortable showing her. He doesn’t want to be alone. He doesn’t want to fail the family he’s chosen and fought for. Failing his blood family was bad enough.
Daryl and Beth vented, fought, drank, and finally came to understand what makes each other tick. This is vital to their continued survival. Beth won’t throw a fit and wander off to nearly be eaten. Daryl won’t try to take on too many walkers and end up at the wrong end of all those rotting teeth. They’ve got each other, now. No one else. They need to make it work or die trying to find a new place to call home.
What did you think about having an episode with only two cast members? Let us know in the comments below.
The second half of Walking Dead’s forth season should, by all rights, be slow-paced. Right? There’s no way with the huge cast cut down to manageable chunks to manage huge, tension-filled scenes chalk full of blood, guts, and grief.
Wrong.
So far the second half of the season moves smoothly, with a few hiccups mostly to cut out unneeded moments best covered in dialog later. This episode focused on the new folks—Sgt. Abraham Ford, Rosita Espinosa, and Eugene Porter—along with Tara and Glenn, and Rick, Carl, and Michonne’s plan to get their bearings before moving on from their little slice of normality.
Last week, we were introduced to Sgt. Abraham Ford and his companions, but didn’t get much further than, “Hey, who the heck are these people?” In episode 411, there’s a lot more time spent with Ford, in particular. Right out of the gate, it’s disturbing how much he enjoys a fight. Tara called him on it when she noticed his smile during a walker (biter) attack. Ford is a formidable fighter—mean and silent until he’s sure he’s got the upper hand. He wastes little energy on showmanship. And boy does he enjoy T.C.o.B. – Taking Care of Business when it comes to the walkers. What drives him? A personal vendetta against the undead? Or is he more like Lizzie, someone who kills because they enjoy it? Unlike the show’s pint-sized sociopath, Ford at least appears to care what happens to the people he’s taken under his wing. Not to mention, being totally gung-ho to deliver Eugene to whatever semblance of government survived this far past the original walker swarm. Yet Ford somehow fails to acknowledge Rosita’s emotional attachment. He’s isolated himself, drew everything in until he’s a laser, focused on the mission at hand.
For his part, Eugene doesn’t seem as concerned with reaching Washington as Ford. He’s smart. Smart enough to know they can’t travel alone and hope to survive. Does he really have the answers Rick and his crew struggled to find back in season one when their last-ditch effort landed them at the doors of the CDC? This far in, there’s no way to know what’s going on in Eugene’s head. Or on his head. What is up with the mullet? It makes me not want to trust this guy at all.
Glenn doesn’t seem to trust them, either. He’s still weak from the flu, liable to pass out again at any moment. But when it comes to finding Maggie, he’ll walk straight into Mordor and knock on Sauron’s front door. Which he very well could be doing. There are no guarantees he’ll find his wife again. The hope instilled in Glenn from his time with Hershel shines through like the sun through storm clouds. How far can he walk fueled by hope alone? Three hours by truck is a far way to backtrack on foot. By then, Maggie could be anywhere. She’s not going to sit idle, hoping he’ll come across the bus. Glenn is ruled by his emotions, blindly walking toward whatever future rises over the horizon. The only way they’re going to have hope of finding each other is if one stops and makes a plan. Obviously, Glenn isn’t the one thinking about tomorrow. Only today.
Better to live in the moment instead of haunted by the past. Michonne’s existence since the day she was introduced on the show has been dogged by what happened to her at the onset of the undead outbreak. Never once has she opened up about how she became the hardened fighter she is now. Not even to Andrea, with whom she spent months traveling and killing to survive. “I’m done taking breaks,” she told Rick. Michonne is finally ready to stop running from her past and embrace the future. A future she sees alongside Carl and Rick, apparently. For the first time ever, she reached out to someone else and vocalized her internal pain. Carl, for all his bravado, is actually a good shoulder to lean on. He’s eager to learn anything about his friend, to the point of badgering her. But he also knows she needs to do this. She needs to touch someone on an emotional level in order to ground herself against the tidal waves of pain the past sends her way. While in the process of bleeding the rot from her soul, Michonne doesn’t forget who she’s dealing with. She turns her soul cleansing into a game for Carl. In return for her mental growth, he learned how to better forage for essential supplies. Seems like a fair deal.
Unfortunately Rick doesn’t get a chance to witness the bonding between Michonne and Carl. He’s supposed to rest and heal after his beating from the Governor. Instead, he’s forced into flight-or-fight mode by a group of piggish intruders. These guys are bad news and we never really see them. The camera work during the moments when Rick dodges from room to room trying to avoid detection is well done, but slightly disorienting which detracts from the tension. Still, a very well done moment. It proved Rick isn’t ready to be put down like an old dog. He’s still in the fight, limping but committed to making it to tomorrow.
Several of the smaller survivor groups are headed in the same direction now. Dare we hope the crew will be whole once again? True fans of the show know better. Hope was decapitated long ago.
Why do you think Michonne lied to Carl about what she found in the pink room? Let us know in the comments below.
Talk about some tense moments. Pretty sure there’s holes in the Command Center’s couch after the newest episode of “The Walking Dead.” Well, holes not put there by scavenging zombie bunnies. They’ll eat anything, much like the walkers in this episode. Note to dead guys: flames are not food. Fire bad, bleeding corpse pretty. Okay?
You shall not pass . . . if you wish to avoid show spoilers.
This week, viewers caught up with the remainder of the main characters, starting with Daryl and Beth. During their stay at the prison, Beth fell back in the habit of journaling and covered their journey to make a home in the apocalypse—something we never saw, but once her entries were read in the episode, they struck a nerve. Listening to Beth’s strained hope after they found the prison in contrast with her and Daryl’s mad dash through zombie-infested woodlands twisted the knife still firmly implanted in viewer’s hearts after the mid-season finale. Beth’s hope stemmed from her father. From the idea that normalcy was once again obtainable after so long on the run once the farm fell to the undead. From the simple idea of having a bed to call her own. The prison is gone, a smoldering graveyard. Her bed left to provide rats and bugs with homes. And Hershel . . . there’s no hope left in his unseeing eyes.
Daryl isn’t packing much hope, either. He’s got the stare of a man waiting for the split second he isn’t good enough to make it in the wild. For him, that may be weeks out. Daryl also understands, without him, Beth and her journal of hopes and dreams would be chow, much like the pile of dead walkers and human chunks they found near the train tracks. In a way, she’s become his motivation. Before Daryl had Merle, then little a** kicker, and later when everything looked good he opened his home and heart to any stray people he encountered who needed help. Regret is a powerful drug. As is guilt. How many deaths does Daryl hold over his head? He personally rescued a good portion of the prison’s inhabitants, put them directly in the line of the Governor’s tank fire.
Luckily for Daryl, and Carl and Rick, Judith is alive. Tyreese is the kiddo pied piper. Not only did he rescue Judith from becoming a yummy snack, but he’s also toting around Lizzie and Mika. Much to his delight. Tyreese is all heart. There’s limits to it when faced with a screaming infant, eternally frightened Mika, and the picture of sociopath behavior Lizzie. Any saint would turn to Satan for help dealing. Tyreese doesn’t. He convinces himself he’ll see the three girls to safety, even if it means relying on the darkness in Lizzie to be his backup. That’s a dog that’ll come back to bite everyone. Lizzie is too unstable. Too unpredictable. The type of person who’d murder anyone and everyone to see to her own survival. Does that extend to her sister? For now. It certainly doesn’t extend to Judith. The only reason the baby survived the episode is because someone else stepped in.
Carol is back. Actually, according to her she never left. Which everyone should’ve expected. As far off the reservation as Carol went in the days before Rick told her to never return to the prison, she always acted in a way she thought would protect others. The good of the many outweigh the perils of the few. Since Sophia passed, Carol hardened her will. Forced herself to tap into the internal strength she’d built enduring her abusive husband’s verbal and physical attacks. Unfortunately, her extreme survivor’s point of view clashed with how Rick operated. Will Carol’s strength come in handy? Can she work with Tyreese to keep the girls alive? Most importantly, is there any way she can pull Lizzie back from the abyss?
Glenn and Maggie fans have it the roughest right now. They’re separated. Maggie faced a gauntlet of walkers to make sure her husband didn’t die when walkers overwhelmed the escape bus from the prison. Not alone, she’s supported by Sasha and Bob. They’re help, but not the succor she needs. Maggie won’t be whole or sane until she’s reunited with Glenn. Speaking of, the man has a well-intentioned death wish. Out of everyone who should’ve left the prison in the dust, he’s still there. Weakened from his bout with the super flu. And completely alone, or so he thinks. Glenn isn’t a helpless lamb. He’s learned how to toughen up since they abandoned the quarry. He’s also the only one of the main survivor group, aside from Carol, possessing any supplies not shoved in their pockets when they bolted. Supplies he’s now agreed to share with Tara because he knows his limits. He isn’t like Shane or Daryl. Glenn’s strength is in his heart and mind. Both of which he’ll se to find Maggie, no doubt.
There’s some new faces coming to the show. How they’ll mesh with the survivors is completely unknown.
Were all your questions from the mid-season finale answered? Tell us in the comments below.
These Walking Dead mid-season breaks seem to take longer and longer to pass. But here we are, back in the saddle . . . or rather, clinging to the couch cushions alongside 15.8 million viewers and partaking in the intimate, tense mid-season premiere.
Spoiler Warning! There, you’ve been warned. Proceed at your own risk.
Like the first half of season four, the second half is taking a step back from the grand full-cast episodes to focus on a handful of characters, delve deeper into what keeps them moving despite the fact that they’re at rock bottom. Starting from scratch after the prison battle won’t be easy, especially for those who relied on the council and Rick to keep them safe. This episode focused on Rick, Carl, and Michonne.
For the first time since her introduction at the end of season two, Michonne gets a little depth of soul. We’ve seen glimpses, primarily with Andrea and again after her friend’s death when Michonne reluctantly held baby Judith. Her dream/nightmare said more in three minutes about the south’s deadliest woman with a sword than a season and a half, filled primarily with her seemingly mindless zombie slaughter. It wasn’t until now that we know for sure she had a child, a lover, a friend she felt comfortable and joked around with. Most importantly, Michonne knew how to smile. How to love. A facet of the woman we’ve yet to see clearly. Even when she came around with gifts for Carl, they were found on hunts for the Governor. When she stayed with Andrea to keep the seriously ill woman safe before they went to Woodbury the first time, it was part kindness, part selfishness—she didn’t want to be alone any more.
Michonne came close to losing herself. And why not? She’d watched the people she came to trust and care for under attack from artillery and walkers. Some of those people died. Some survived. But she has no way to know who walked away from the mass grave that was once their home. Andrea left her. Michonne put a sword through Hershel’s decapitated head. Every single person she opened up to deserted her. Even though they didn’t do it by choice, after so much loss a person begins to wonder if there is something inherently wrong with them, they’re the catalyst to their own pain. Somehow pushing their loved ones away to deaden themselves to the horrors around them. Michonne is a pro at this. Until now. She fell into her old routine. Made a new pair of walker friends to lead her safely through a herd of undead. All it took was a glimmer of hope, a muddy boot print, to shake her mind loose of the numb blanket she’d wrapped it in after saying her final goodbye to Hershel. Her moment of clarity didn’t come with a light bulb. It came in a blood bath where she slaughtered twenty-three walkers to keep herself from physically joining them. She’d already joined them mentally.
On the flip side, Carl left the prison slaughter ready to live, to kill anything and everyone posing a threat to him. And his father. Not that he’d admit it. Carl’s sullen teenager act hit a high during the episode. He had good reason—his father’s near-death at the hands of the Governor, friends scattered to the winds, Judith most likely a walker hors d’œuvre, and the loss of the only home he’d known since the day Shane and Lori dragged him out of his childhood home in King County, Georgia. Necessity put Carl in the role of protector, provider. Using the skills he gleaned from Shane and Daryl, he embraced the sociopathy his idols exhibited to secure not only a house, but an entire neighborhood. Throwing it in his father’s face, using Shane to yet again grind in the salt Rick’s deceased best friend poured in his emotional wounds, wasn’t exactly Carl’s shining moment. Everyone has a breaking point. Michonne’s came when she saw herself as a walker. Carl’s came when he thought he’d be forced to live alone. Watching Chandler grow into the large shoes Carl will wear on the show often leaves fans stunned. He digs into a pit of emotion most kids his age can’t access and leaves it all there for us on the screen. Major kudos to Chandler on his work in this episode. It is above and beyond his best, with better things to come, for sure.
We didn’t see much from Rick in the episode. His injuries were too bad. He needed time to recover and fell into something mirroring the coma he’d been in when the series began. Which is fine. Rick has been the show’s punching bag from the get-go. He physically could not be the top dog this time around. Couldn’t even bring down a walker when armed with an ax. Falling short in sight of his impressionable and rebellious son ate at Rick. What could he do? Nothing. For once, the right thing for Rick involved a couch and an extremely long nap. Arguing with Carl would’ve been a waste of words. The kid was in his own zone—a stubborn refusal to listen he ironically inherited from his father.
Next week, it looks like we’ll catch up with Beth, Daryl, Glenn, and Maggie. Get used to the small cast episodes. Robert Kirkman has said they’re playing with the show’s format, keeping the focus on a few characters at a time so fans aren’t cheated out of what makes them tick.
Who else do you think survived the prison attack that we haven’t seen yet? Let us know in the comments below.
Right out of the gate, the show is visually impressive. Detailed, but not overly done effects makeup on the undead. Fully dressed sets. The cinematography adds movement to the first moments, which could’ve been a boring one-sided walkie-talkie conversation. But they killed it when viewers realize they’ve used an age-old trope—opening a show with an action-packed dream or flashback sequence. It’s been done to death. Even with them working it into the plot, explaining that the rehabilitated zombies will suffer side-effects such as flashbacks, it’s not a strong start story-wise.
In Roarton, we’re introduced to the main cast. Some of whom we’ll no doubt grow to like or at least tolerate, like Kieren’s family. Others we can only hope will find the toothy end of a rabid rotter—slang for an untreated zombie. Of the latter are Bill Macy and his pal Vicar Oddie. Bill runs the local zombie killing group, the HVF. In its heyday, the HVF were heroes. Always on the front line against the zombies. But since the rehabilitation program and the PDS Protection Act went into law, most cities disbanded their local HVF chapters. But not good ol’ Roarton. There’s little to no official government involvement in a town so small. The Parish Council rules all, and most of them side with the HVF. Vicar Oddie has his fingers in all the pies. He knows what buttons to push to send his wild dog—Bill Macy—off on the hunt. He uses Bill’s anger after his son’s death for his own gain. Why should these zombies be allowed to come back and live with them when Bill’s son, Rick, remained dead in Afghanistan? We’re shown a brutal example of Bill’s hate toward the end of the episode. What would he do if he knew Kieren were back in town and that one of his own HVF soldiers, Jem, was protecting a zombie? Pretty sure we’ll find out soon enough.
“In the Flesh” may have fresh-faced actors in the lead roles, resembling Warm Bodies, but where the film made light out of the zombie condition—curing it with the power of love—the show shines a blinding light on the hate that can manifest when normal people are faced with something they don’t comprehend. Jem calls her brother a demon when he returns home. She refuses to believe Kieren is actually back until he tells her something only he’d know. And even then, she still hates him because she cannot understand why he killed himself four years prior. Ignorance is the perfect breeding ground for turmoil, and there’s plenty of that in Roarton.
