Walking Dead

[Surlyboi]

That was fucking nuts. And it's only the first half.

[taolurker]

They're gonna feel really stupid when they find out....

[Hawkbit]

...that they'll have to wait six months to get any semblance of a resolution to that episode.

[schpain]

smarmy asshole is a dick.  news at 11.  i don't understand why Rick and the crew weren't just shot.  alot less bullets.

[Threash]

smarmy asshole is a dick.  news at 11.  i don't understand why Rick and the crew weren't just shot.  alot less bullets.

No electricity = no refrigeration = you don't kill your meat until you are going to eat it.

[Nevermore]

[jgsugden]

[CmdrSlack]

[Hawkbit]

Thoughts on the last few posts:

[Tebonas]

Good episode, but the cannibals (I think we can now safely assume thats what they are, with the fresh skeletons and all) don't make sense. If they don't kill their "food" as soon as they arrive, they have to feed them until they are slaughtered. Which might well mean a net loss in food. Better have some of the meat spoil and at least have no net gain instead of a net loss.

Yeah, I know, the main characters need to escape and all, but that bugged me.

[Ironwood]

The only way this episode redeems itself is if the next one shows a flashback of meeting Carol and Tyreese and keeping them outside in case shit goes wrong.  Because otherwise, this is all kinds of stupid.  Burying the guns and the whole 'Rabbit in a snare follows the tracks to the trap' fucknonsense is pointless unless your characters are cleverer than that.

I will say that I'm hugely satisfied at how they handled the rape gang.  Really, really well done.  The Ackbar trap ?  Not so much.

[Setanta]

Thoughts on the last few posts:

That was a good episode right to the trap - Michonne is becoming a stronger character as they show her human side and the Michonne/Carl side to things is redeeming a lot of the other crappy writing for me.

[Ironwood]

Yeah, it really was an episode of two halves.  First one continuing the 'good stuff' and the second one being a showcase to retardery.  (Possibly.  It might be a Rick Fakeout.)

[Cyrrex]

The reveal at the end pissed me off.  Or the non-reveal.  All those flashbacks and all that tension leading up to something, as if he had an ace up his sleeve, and it turns out to be nothing at all.  The only thing surprising about Terminus was that there was nothing suprising at all.  If there really is something up his sleeve, he should have at least hinted at it.  Fuck.

The build up to the end itself was fine, and the way they dealt with the roaming rape gang was pretty great.  Well played scene all around.

[Threash]

I really doubt the show would skip showing the reunion between Rick and Carl and lil ass kicker if it had happened.

[Ironwood]

Oh yeah, the baby.

Shite.  No, defo not that then.  The formula milk at the steps was a reminder there, so it's clearly not that.

Ah well, I can live in hope, eh ?

[Hawkbit]

Good episode, but the cannibals (I think we can now safely assume thats what they are, with the fresh skeletons and all) don't make sense. If they don't kill their "food" as soon as they arrive, they have to feed them until they are slaughtered. Which might well mean a net loss in food. Better have some of the meat spoil and at least have no net gain instead of a net loss.

Yeah, I know, the main characters need to escape and all, but that bugged me.

Rick looked down when he was getting in the train car and saw empty bags of powdered milk.  They're fattening them up for a relatively low cost.

[HaemishM]

Good episode but really suffered from not having the space in the season to actually get into what Terminus is. The build up starting mid-season meant that I knew they wouldn't do any real explanation of Terminus at all this season, so that last really badly filmed chase scene was a let down.

But... the resolution of the road gang....

FUCK.

[jgsugden]

I'm not sure if it was a 'if we had time we'd explain what Terminus is' situation.  I think they intentionally tried to hint at what it was (with the 'make you a plate line' and the bone graveyard they ran past), but wanted to leave it somewhat ambiguous. 

In the 'Talking Dead' they pointed out they that they wanted big moments in the finale, but no deaths in it to break the mold of prior finales. 

Not the best episode, not a great finale, but fine.  The episode, as a whole, was still good tv.

[Ironwood]

Some people keep saying that.  I'm not sure what ambiguity they're seeing.

[MrHat]

Not the best episode, not a great finale, but fine.  The episode, as a whole, was still good tv.

Wait. That was the finale?

[HaemishM]

Some people keep saying that.  I'm not sure what ambiguity they're seeing.

Yeah, there was pretty clear no ambiguity in whatever the fuck the Terminus people are doing - at least not in how it relates to Rick's group. I'm pretty sure the herding them forcibly into railway cars is meant to invoke a little bit of Jews being herded into railway cars during Nazi Germany. It's not a very subtle image.

[Ironwood]

Well, yeah, but the whole Cannibals thing is pretty fucking conclusive, even if you just look at that episode alone.

I mean, Rick may as well have said 'This rabbit here is us, Son, in about 2 hours.  See, we go down this track and then get caught and eaten.'  Then he turns to the camera, Ian Richardson style and say 'DRAMATIC SUBTLETY BITCH'.  Or something.

I mean, these are well fed people roasting meat on barbecues with what has been made clear in the last 4 episodes is very very poor hunting grounds.

If they're going for the old fakeout next season because it's too strong a theme, fair enough, but it's just not been subtle.

[Threash]

Good episode but really suffered from not having the space in the season to actually get into what Terminus is. The build up starting mid-season meant that I knew they wouldn't do any real explanation of Terminus at all this season, so that last really badly filmed chase scene was a let down.

But... the resolution of the road gang....

FUCK.

I didn't see anything wrong with the chase scene, it was exactly what Rick taught Carl and Michonne: create a funnel and let your prey run itself into the trap.

[jgsugden]

....somewhat ambiguous. 

Man, you folks don't read adjectives, do you?

Somewhat ambiguous = not absolutely explicit.  Nobody said, "I'm going to eat you."  Nobody was gnawing on Beth's skull. 

The clues are all there, and pretty obvious if you pay moderate attention... but that could still, theoretically, be a collection of red herrings.  Theoretically.  However, I'd be shocked if it were not Soilent Green territory at this point.

[Evildrider]

Well, yeah, but the whole Cannibals thing is pretty fucking conclusive, even if you just look at that episode alone.

I mean, Rick may as well have said 'This rabbit here is us, Son, in about 2 hours.  See, we go down this track and then get caught and eaten.'  Then he turns to the camera, Ian Richardson style and say 'DRAMATIC SUBTLETY BITCH'.  Or something.

I mean, these are well fed people roasting meat on barbecues with what has been made clear in the last 4 episodes is very very poor hunting grounds.

If they're going for the old fakeout next season because it's too strong a theme, fair enough, but it's just not been subtle.

On Talking Dead, Scott Gimple said that not everything is what it seems at Terminus.

[KallDrexx]

I'm very dissappointed that Daryl didn't just walk up and go "Claimed bitches" to save Rick and co.

[Evildrider]

I was also waiting for that to happen, it seems like a missed opportunity by the writers.

[Ironwood]

On Talking Dead, Scott Gimple said that not everything is what it seems at Terminus.

I hope so.  I really, really do.  But they've said that shit before and then pulled the 'Complete Lack of Surprise, Motherfucker !'

I mean, Sophia was in the barn all along ?  WHO KNEW.

[Setanta]

On Talking Dead, Scott Gimple said that not everything is what it seems at Terminus.

I hope so.  I really, really do.  But they've said that shit before and then pulled the 'Complete Lack of Surprise, Motherfucker !'

I mean, Sophia was in the barn all along ?  WHO KNEW.

Give them their due. That season was so fucking tedious I'd be lucky if I remembered who Rick was. Sophia was "oh, yeah - that person" so there was some surprise.

[Ironwood]

 

[apocrypha]

The Terminus people were giving off a total Jehovah's Witness vibe too. Me & the wife were sat there going "cannibals!", "no, Godders!", "OK, cannibal Godders!".

Still don't quite understand the need for the bullet-wasting herding bit. I mean, they all put their weapons down on the floor... why wasn't that the time to capture them instead of giving them all their guns back and creating a tense standoff situation that puts them all at risk of getting shot? And extended automatic weapon fire at concrete floors surrounded by walls and no ricochet injuries? All seems stupidly risky to me.

And keeping them alive to eat them doesn't make sense either. Humans were preserving meat in lots of different ways long before the advent of electrically-powered refrigeration.

But hey, drama.

[Ironwood]

Mostly, I think, because they were taken by surprise and probably wanted to have a conversation before capture.  One almost thinks that the food offering initially is probably drugged - that would be the easiest way to subdue hungry travelers and also hugely ironic.

But it didn't really ring true either because they were taken by surprise and then tons of snipers and shooters showed up on the roofs and, yes, out at the gates where they'd been moments before.

The second half was all a bit silly when you think about it.  Which, alas, I can't help but do...

[KallDrexx]

And they needed a reason to tie in the rabbit trap into the story.

[jgsugden]

Ourt of curiosity, for those that hated this season / half season as a whole: What season of TV from the last 12 months did you find to be good?  Breaking Bad and what else?