AMC zombie series from Frank 'Majestic' Darabont - The Walking Dead

Hermit was just playin' dead, under the covers.

Also I don't know if the Hermit death showed Mishonnes skillz or tough/merciless decision making skillz. Not sure why Rick and Daryl aren't as jumpy around her as they were with crazy ponytail inmate. Only difference is he was a little more outwardly nutty and dangerous before shit went down. I guess there was more of an alpha struggle going on in that situation.

not that this is shown/illustrated in any way but darryl and rick could probably get a sense right away from mishonne vs ponytail as to how erratic/freaked out they were...since mishonne carries herself pretty confidently in a fight, they didn't have to 'babysit' or pick up any of her slack

Also, what the hell, next week is a midseason finale? Does that mean there's going to be a long break before new episodes resume?

Final eight episodes of the season air starting in February. They did this last season as well. They don't want to air new episodes over the Christmas break. This season is also 16 episodes, so I wonder if they're using the the break to allow for more shooting.

come on you guys give glenn some props for zombie fighting tied to a chair!!

Merle/anyone would have expected him to just die so it's strange that they wouldn't just shoot him in the face after he ended up surviving the zombie.

Cool scene though.

Like the point seemed to be "kill Glenn/revenge for leaving me on the roof" so why wouldn't he kill Glenn after his miraculous victory?

yeah glenn was kind of a badass with the chairfighting scene

v proud of him

i think merle was just pissed at him and figured if he made it he made it and if he didn't no big deal.

yup yup, glenn deserves mad props for that one

he was ice cold

Was kinda hoping the Governor would come in and be like "hey, guys - MY CHAIR! WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO TO MY FUCKING CHAIR?!"

I understand that the Gov has ... issues, but I'm not sure where his ire toward the other crew comes from. Like, what's in it for the Gov? Also, why would the Gov keep a loose canon like Merle so close? Merle has injured or taken out more people than he has zombies. Also, what is up with the mad scientist, and why does Gov keep that guy around? Also, why is the mad scientist so stupid? I'm a little worried they're going to burn Woodbury down to the ground before they even give a glimpse of the Gov beneath his surface. And yes, I have read the comic, which is partially what is making the portrayal so perplexing. The heads in the tanks, his mood swings - is there a method to his madness?

mad scientist seems around just to feed the governor's hope that his daughter can be "cured" which is an angle i like, as much like Hershel he'll have to face the inevitability and hopelessness

merle actually seems a little toned down compared to the rest of his psycho shooty group, just a little dumber? when they killed that military outfit in the premiere, merle was the one who actually had something of a human reaction to the whole thing

i doubt they'll kill off the gov before the end of the full season - i'm hoping like Michonne we'll get some real flashbacks going more into his background soon

mad scientist seems around just to feed the governor's hope that his daughter can be "cured" which is an angle i like, as much like Hershel he'll have to face the inevitability and hopelessness

Sure, but remember: we're over a year out now, several months post farm. Surely they've figured out how things work, no?

but the governor is psychopathic and delusional and won't let it go. at least, that's how i'm interpreting it - they haven't been too explicit about it yet

my prediction is that michonne or someone will come in and axe his daughter and then he'll go into full blown rage mode or a crying fit

mad scientist seems around just to feed the governor's hope that his daughter can be "cured" which is an angle i like, as much like Hershel he'll have to face the inevitability and hopelessness
Sure, but remember: we're over a year out now, several months post farm. Surely they've figured out how things work, no?

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, November 29, 2012 9:11 AM (1 hour ago)

Well in this case the Gov is trying to have scientist guy figure out essentially if there is any shred of his daughter's consciousness or memory still trapped in her zombie body.

That's all well and good, but it doesn't quite explain why he is psycho on top of that, compelled to rape, torture and kill interlopers. Or National Guardsmen or whatever. His craziness seems to be divergent.

this last episode kind of highlighted that the Guvna's kinda rick + crazypoints minus any real integrity (though the lack of perceived integrity is just because we haven't hung with him through his backstory, he might have been a standup guy like rick fro at the beginning to, who the fuck knows).

but guvna's got a group of people + a town (Woodbury) that he's hellbent on *protecting* and he'll go to whatever lengths necessary to protect those thigns, because in his own mind Woodbury itself is enough of a justification. He's protecting ~a way of life~

now granted he's completely fucking batshit. so the lengths that he goes to, and the reasons that compel him to go to those lengths do not of course hold up to any rigors of logic really at all.

but in his mind that's what he's doing. and we haven't really seen much of Woodbury to believe it's worth preserving but maybe that's not the point - the point is *he's* super in love with this thing he's built so that's pretty much all the motivation he needs.

Maybe the hermit thought his shack was his own private Woodbury.

Anyway, don't know why he would consider Rick et al. a threat apropos of nothing.

they've survived up to this point on their own outside of the 'magical' woodbury --- they're a threat because it proves that the guvna isn't really necessary for people's survival. and rick's a threat to his leadership.

you have to think like a hunkered down fascist dictator for it to make sense

the "they didn't have THESE WALLS" line excuse following the military slaughter definitely keyed that mindset in for me

i felt a sense of pride when the gov was so shocked that they took over the prison with 10 people. MERLE said it couldn't be done! that's how i know i still like this show.

i know, i was kinda chuffed for rick over that too

Did the Gov actually rape her or was he leading her (and Glenn later) to believe that in a mind game?

i think the latter

god I fucking hope so

He clearly was trying to get her to talk by making her think he was going to do that, and when she still held her own he backed off then the scene cut. So...

He didn't actually rape her, but the implication is he could have, and as far as the show is concerned he may as well have. Like someone noted above, horrifying but nothing near the Gov. analog in the comic, who was pretty much just a psycho. The show is confusing things - motives, characters - by conflating two storylines from the books, the Gov. and Woodbury.

Cutty!

Said that out loud when he came on screen

good episode, loved the new group introduction. the Woodbury rescue was great, too.

also, yay, they let Danai Gurira emote!!! finally! great confrontation b/w her and the Governor, though I kinda wish she had just said "uh, he sent a death squad after me" instead of stomping off quietly

speaking of which, Andrea's stupidity really did cross a new line here, i mean, come on, AQUARIUMS OF ZOMBIE HEADS. there is no rational explanation for that one. she really needs to pull out of this character dive ASAP when the show comes back, or just kill her off already.

also i'm gonna say it again: wtf AMC, you had to kill the black guy again? i was kinda joking about the minority actor rationing, but i mean, seriously, this is getting kind of fucked up

OK, gotta say, jut started this ep and that was the best cold open ever. Always interesting to see what other bands of survivors are like.

that cold open was great! major scouting fail on Rick's group's behalf to not know the whole back of the prison is open O_o

CUTTTTTYYYYYYYYYY yay so glad he's in this now

yeah I'm with u nhex, I was super bummed when they offed the black dude YET AGAIN. like, cmon man t-dogg was hard enough, let a few brothers live ffs.

the look on andrea's face when she was having that stand-off with Mishonne was like 'OMG YOU'RE RUINING EVERYTHING'

Wait, what exactly did Michonne have against the governor? In the comic (spoiler?) the gov, iirc, raped and tortured her, so she wanted vengeance. But what does she have against him in this telling?

he did send a death squad after her

Sure, but get in line, you know? Or take it out on Merle, for shooting her. But heading back to the person who sent the death squad after you, with that person still surrounded by said death squad? Doesn't seem worth the risk. Vs. vengeance after the guy raped and tortured you, which yes, I definitely see that.

I have noticed that for every black guy they kill they seem to add two more black characters. T-Dogg dies, we get Michonne and the prisoner. Prisoner dies, we get Cutty and his friend. At this rate there will be (does math) maybe four black speaking roles by the end of the season?

you're forgetting the chick from season 1 who decides to die in the explosion, and the escaped prisoner who sets off the alarm. i wouldn't take odds that Cutty's friend will make to the end of the season, but i'm hoping she will

Michonne definitely has some trust issues that i'm hoping they'll go back and explain, but i can easily accept that a) in their first meeting, his goons kidnap her and Andrea b) she figures out pretty fast that Gov/Merle & Co. are some stone cold psychos and c) if they sent out a bunch of dudes to kill her for basically NO reason, chances are good that they'll do it again, so it's worth slicing him up. also d) she knew something crazy was going on in that locked room, but i guess she's just a curious cat

of course, that makes the decision to NOT kill him because of Andrea's stupidity even worse, but ehhhhhhhhhhhhh ok there's my limit

I forgot everything about season one. Iirc, they were still working out how many dead black characters translate to new black characters. But I'm hopeful!

Isn't this show set around Atlanta? Which is majority African-American? Sort of adds insult to injury.

yup.

i think mishonne's beef with the guvna is a) turning andrea's head and taking her away b) threatening her when they had their last face-off ...and her first introdution to him was seeing him kill the helicopter dude who for her, for all intents and purposes was still human and had not turned. sure she didn't know about the carrier thing, that everyone will turn, but she sees him as a coldblooded killer from the getgo and I don't think any of her interactions with him changed that impression. and maybe she knew that killing the guvna was the only way to get andrea out? idk. that's me heavily editorializing so who the hell knows.

but there's a part of me that also thinks, for all her toughness at heart there's something v childlike in mishonne. and the guvna scared the fuck out of her. and maybe that was enough reason. i dunno her backstory but my guess is that's not the first time she's felt/been physically threatened by someone

shrug I'll stop, I'm just making shit up at htis point now, lol

enjoyed the yokel convict is a paedo interlude

yeah that was p lol

especially when he tried to double-down on the whole lesbian exchange with Carol.

Agreeably insane comic-style analysis of zombie kills in the series so far: http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/12/05/graphic-stopping-the-dead-a-statistical-look-back-at-the-walking-dead-series-so-far/

I can't have been the only one who thought "tailaways" when the new group turned up at the beginning of the episode.

was it just me or did anyone else have a fleeting moment where they half expected Carol to bone down with twitchy mustache guy

I kinda figured they were doing that in the tower.

maria hasn't been watching this and we watched the first two episodes of season one last night and man that is a weird experience. knowing what i know and all. definitely a show worth re-watching.

so stupid to play WHAT IF with this series but can't help thinking that if glenn hadn't mentioned merle they all would have just gotten out of there together. oh well. you need a cliffhanger. i was a little confused about why the gov decided that merle had to go. oh wait never mind i know now. merle had told the gov that he killed sword woman. duh. is that it?

he wasn't sure about his loyalties since they found out his brother was alive, and second yeah, Merle not killing Michonne AND lying about it - the resulting consequences were pretty bad for the ol' Gov. Plus you know, he's a fascist control freak who demands absolute loyalty

Plus this could all be long con stuff by the governor, especially if they're trying to still adhere somewhat loosely to the storyline as it played out in the comics.