Walking Dead

[MahrinSkel]

I think they'll find a way to make him live through it, because the other (canonical) way of going is just too juicy for the writers to pass up, and this is an elaborate head-fake to keep it from being obvious they are going there.

--Dave

[Velorath]

Agreed - but Kirkman does have a storyline in the comics (not yet addressed on TV) that pretty aggressively takes that idea to one messed up potential conclusion.

I feel like that storyline works though because it is taken to such an extreme. It makes a lot more sense for that to work as opposed to something like Michonne having a couple walkers on chains.

[jgsugden]

The rules do not make a lot of sense... As the sense organs degrade, it seems like they should have no ability to detect the difference between living and dead - if they can even sense anything at all.  On the other hand, complaining about the realism of the zombies is kinda self defeating logic. 

As noted, there are about a billion problems with the zombie logic, and a few hundred great ideas for eliminating huge numbers of walkers in a relatively safe manner (loud horn suspended over the edge of a cliff, loud horn leading them into a bonfire, herd them into a meat processing plant, lure them down a mine shaft, etc....)

[Velorath]

It's not so much complaining about the realism as it is complaining about some of the rules they went out of their way to establish and how they're inconsistently applied. A lot of it is easy to let slide, but if they end up using something like walker guts to keep a major character from dying it would come across as a bit of a cop out. If the writers found that covering people in walker parts was too easy of a solution that would negate too many threats, it's ok to just drop it entirely or show that it doesn't work consistently enough to be a big help.

Anyway, it's a minor nitpick and I'm only currently making it in the context of speculation on how the character in question might survive.

[jgsugden]

I think there is some advantages to having them ignore those things.... it gives their fans things to yell about... and to give them fodder for smugly thinking, "I could totally survive the zombie apocalypse because I would (cover myself in zombie guts / use the horn to lead them away / kill the Priest / etc...)"

[Samwise]

Now you've got me thinking about designs for wind-powered zombie disposal devices.

Like these things, where you just throw 'em out in a minefield and let them roll around on their own exploding mines:


but I'm envisioning some sort of windmill-powered thing that makes a noise to lure roamers in from miles around, and then mashes them to a pulp.  Set up a wide perimeter of those traps around your camp and not only are you fairly well protected, but over a long enough span of time you eradicate the zombie menace over a very wide area.

I guess the thing of just digging a big pit and putting a horn over it is good too, but the pit eventually fills up...

[Ironwood]

This from a guy who spent years perfecting his Goblin/Mant Squasher.

Be Afraid.

[Segoris]

While there are more simplistic, realistically possible, and roughly equally effective methods (like Woodberry's large wind chimes leading walkers to pits making them vulnerable), that wacky-wall-whacker equivalent of a giant rolling ball of death would definitely be more fun.

[Samwise]

This from a guy who spent years perfecting his Goblin/Mant Squasher.

Ha, I was actually thinking of those Minecraft contraptions people use to harvest monster parts.  But yes, also that.   

[apocrypha]

I literally started planning such a thing in my head after reading your post, using these (from a mod called Immersive Engineering):

[jgsugden]

I'm sensing a new tower defense game in the making...

[Evildrider]

Unlike some of the actors, this has been picked up for another season.  Shocker. 

[Slayerik]

Morgan episode...... Zzzzzzzzzz

[Evildrider]

Morgan episode...... Zzzzzzzzzz

The goat was the best part of the episode.

[Setanta]

Morgan episode...... Zzzzzzzzzz

That had to be the most boring, pointless episode that really didn't add to the character at all. Fuck Zen Morgan. I fell asleep twice during this episode and not even Season 2 did that to me.

I really hope they invested all that effort to kill him the fuck off next week George Martin style.

Bad episode was bad

[Evildrider]

Morgan episode...... Zzzzzzzzzz

That had to be the most boring, pointless episode that really didn't add to the character at all. Fuck Zen Morgan. I fell asleep twice during this episode and not even Season 2 did that to me.

I really hope they invested all that effort to kill him the fuck off next week George Martin style.

Bad episode was bad

I have a feeling his new morality is gonna get a bunch of people killed before he gets his.

[Tebonas]

Since we are supposed to take Ricks side I would almost be willing to bet money that it does. Another construct to validate Rick, however unhinged he becomes.

Thats not my problem with this episode though, thats valid drama, even if a bit heavy handed. My problem is this episode being boring as fuck.

[Bunk]

I'm not sure I really get it, do you guys want 13 straight hours of non-stop zombie fighting? Like just a giant gorefest with 10 random humans hitting zombies in the head, a few get eaten, a few new ones replace them, repeat ad naseum?

That's the impression I get after hearing the comments about every episode that doesn't have at least 50 zombie deaths in it.

I found this episode to be interesting, well acted (especially by the guest actor), and a nice change of pace. Mind you, I'm weird - I even enjoyed the farm season.

[Selby]

Eh, I liked it. Nice change of pace & gives us a little backstory to what happened to him.

I have a feeling his new morality is gonna get a bunch of people killed before he gets his.

I think this is a pretty good assessment and setup. In this new world you just have to kill sometimes even if you don't like it. To do otherwise gets people killed anyways.

[jgsugden]

I enjoyed it as well - a good palate cleanser after the first three weeks. 

[HaemishM]

I found this episode to be interesting, well acted (especially by the guest actor), and a nice change of pace.

This. I thought it was one of the best episodes of the last few seasons. Well-acted, well-scripted, well-shot and gave a good bunch of reasons for why Morgan is the way he is. I also liked the tie-in with the couple from a few seasons ago (the ones that gave him the can and the bullet - weren't they the ones from the episode when Rick banished Carol?). I think the reason most people are pissed about it (and rightly so) is that it came after the maybe-death of last episode and the "ambiguity" surrounding whether the character is dead or not.

[jgsugden]

... I also liked the tie-in with the couple from a few seasons ago (the ones that gave him the can and the bullet - weren't they the ones from the episode when Rick banished Carol?)...

I don't think so - IIRC, Penguin on Gotham was that guy (which made it hard to bring him in at the start of tghe Terminus episode and off him as he was busy with Gotham - but they managed to pull it off).  I just checked IMDB and the actor and actress in this most recent episode have no other Walking Dead credits to their name. 

[Bunk]

Yeah, I thought the same at first, but the injuries were reversed. With the Carol couple, she had the bad leg.

[Yegolev]

This guy I know was in the episode that you guys are speculating about (I still can't spot him through the makeup) and despite ignoring him (and the fact that he doesn't watch the show!) ... I'm led to believe several of us will be angry.

[Cyrrex]

I thought it was a great episode, one of the best in a long time.  Strange how so many of you have such totally invalid opinions about stuff  

[Yegolev]

Well, I liked the Morgan episode after watching only about 50% of it.  I was actually talking about the previous episode.  Context is hard.

[Ironwood]

I have no idea what you're all talking about.  That was brilliant.

[Velorath]

Yep, very solid episode.

[Evildrider]

[Velorath]

Sadder to see Tabitha go than Andrea, Dale, Lori, Mika, and Lizzie.

[Slayerik]

IDK, just kinda predictable. It changed absolutely nothing. I still find the non-killing in this world to be a massive weakness, not a strength. Rick should be dead cause of his hippie bullshit (but the guy had bad guy aim). At this point, he is as dangerous as the preacher was to the safety of the group.

The dude showed Morgan exactly what ya get for being nice to someone in this world. You get bit, and ya get dead. All life is precious...except your own I guess.

[Cyrrex]

Well, I liked the Morgan episode after watching only about 50% of it.  I was actually talking about the previous episode.  Context is hard.

I was responding to the general you and not the specific you.  I'm not even sure what your post was referring to.  Context indeed.

[Tebonas]

I thought about it and maybe its just the "Ricks new outlook is right" anvil that sours the episode for me after the fact.

This guys and Morgans viewpoint shouldn't be shown as completely wrong (if it was tempered with some reality checks now and then), but it is carried to such ridiculous extremes in this episode that it is tainted and invalidated by it.

While the same happend with Glen, at least you were distracted by the action. Here you had a whole quiet episode to contemplate over the fact that everybody that disagrees with Rick this season leads to the death of one or more persons.

Without that in the back of the head I maybe would have enjoyed the show more, too.

[Ironwood]

I don't really get that.  Eastman was a huge contradiction;  taking everything else out and looking Solely at this episode, it's quite clear that his ethos doesn't work.  Serial killer killed his family.  There are some things you simply can't avoid.  The question is WHAT you want to avoid.  Eastman would rather die than kill, fair enough.  Morgan has been suicidal since Duane, so his choice was really, really easy.

But Eastman kept saying how everything was connected and he's right.  Shirking a responsibility makes the consequences your responsibility (Just look at Spiderman, for example).  When that Wolf breaks out and eats people (and he will), that will be on Morgan.  He knows that.  But they've been banging the drum about Hope since episode one.

Rick doesn't have any Hope.  And maybe that's right, I don't know.  But it's a shitty way to live.  Eastman and Morgan have/had hope and it got them killed.  But we all die anyway.

I'm actually really, really glad they put a thinky episode in here to break it up.  It also wasn't terribly light on the undead carnage either, so I don't get the complaints. 

Finally, Morgan met two sets of people during this episode.  The first one he killed brutally and the second one he left alone.  It'd be interesting to see what the effect of the ones he let go were, since the ones he killed came back to bite him in the ass.  Well, bite Eastman in the ass anyway...

[Tebonas]

Thats the point I tried to make and thats what bugs me.

Eastman and Morgan don't work because they stretch their philosophy to ridiculous extremes, a bit toned down their philosophy would work better.

Basically they are strawman pacifists to show everybody what a bad idea nonviolence is. Coupled with Glens redemption failure I get the feeling they want to tell me that Shane was right so long ago.