The Walking Dead
Season Four, Episode Twelve through Fourteen.
"Still", "Alone", "The Grove"
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| Kids say the darndest things! |
Twitters;
CIRCLING THE DRAIN
Aaaaaand we’re back. Where have we been, you ask? Unfortunately, my grandma passed away a couple weeks ago so between that, the funeral last week and just some good old fashioned sadness getting in the way of Getting Things Done, I wasn’t up to doing my end of the Walking Dead write-ups. So I’ll bang out my thoughts on the past three weeks here and hopefully get back to regular weekly reviews going forward.
“STILL”
This one felt like a huge waste of time. It’s meant to develop Beth and Daryl as characters, having them bond over moonshine and yelling their feelings at each other. Emily Kinney also lacks the gravitas to pull off such a philosophically conversational episode. The clock that Daryl pushed over said “Tempus Fugit” (Time Flies) on it. Not in this episode. Look, the burning still is a symbol of Daryl burning his shitty past! Ugh. At least they refrained from using any golf puns.
“ALONE”
I liked this one quite a bit. I thought it did a great job of developing Bob and Sasha’s characters as well as setting up a potential relationship there. Bob’s optimism and clarity is refreshing and I’ve always liked Sasha so I enjoyed all their scenes together. I hope Daryl doesn’t lose track of who he’s become now that it seems like he’s in with “the wrong crowd.” This episode also introduces two potential human villains (something the show really needs) in Joe (who takes in Daryl) and whoever Bethnapped Beth.
“THE GROVE”
What. The. Eff. This world is a pretty brutal place to be dealing with mental illness. As heavy as it was, this episode could have packed so much more wallop had it been a little better executed. First of all, why would Tyreese and Carol keep leaving the girls (one who clearly has reality issues, one who is “too nice” to shoot anything and one who is A FREAKING BABY) alone. They used this to create drama TWICE in the episode which really annoyed me. The issue of Lizzie’s mental illness is a tough one. While having Carol shoot a kid is pretty brutal, there isn’t exactly anywhere that Lizzie could get help (treatment, therapy, medication, or whatever) in the apocalypse. Really tragic. The conversation between Carol and Tyreese over the puzzle worked because both actors were great. After a few seasons of being a pylon, Carol has really become a more interesting character this year.
Is anyone else getting really tired of seeing everyone hiding behind trees all the time? It just seems like a lot of wheel spinning having so much “Wander through the woods. Find an old house/still/country club/mortuary. Bond. Repeat.” Especially with the Terminus tease every week. Let’s hope the next couple of episodes have some of the groups cross paths and maybe we’ll get a glimpse of Terminus.
How have these past few weeks treated you, Steve?
Well in light of your family's loss I can't complain. My condolences.
I think with the episodes we got the last few weeks there wouldn't have been much to talk about anyway so the 3-pack works great for me. Plus with the release of Titanfall last week I wasn't really in the mood to do anything other than play games. So let's finish this off.
“STILL”
Other than the glimpse into Daryl's up bringing with an alcoholic father being juxtaposed with Beth's "lavish" (compared to Daryl) life nothing much happened here. I'm also pretty sure Beth should be dead, it seemed like they were drinking for hours. Being it was Beth's first time drinking, I don't know that hours of drinking straight 'Shine are all that good for her. Not to mention she didn't even make any questionably immoral life choices as some drunks girls are known to do. I suppose my thoughts were summed up in my Facebook post at the time. "Blair and I decided to take the week off on the Walking Dead review while Daryl and Beth have a burning party for their pasts and embrace their bleak future."
“ALONE”
Bob and Sasha seem to be starting to build a relationship, although at the moment it seems more one sided in Bob's favor. This groups dynamic works well together, I think, there is a good mix of irrationalism(?), level headedness and compassion. I'm really interested to see what happens to Daryl and his new found "friends".
“THE GROVE”
I told you that bitch was crazy! But I REALLY did not see that coming. My sister-in-law and I both dropped a WTF out loud. We had to pause and discuss hoe we would have dealt with Lizzie. We agreed on the "Let Lizzie find out if she is right" method, lock her and Mika in a room together. Although we should have known, it was a case of the Walking Dead screen time curse. If you're a tertiary character and you start getting a lot of lines it means you are going to die soon. I agree totally that there was no reason for Carol and Ty to leave the kids alone. Forget Liz being cray cray, there are still walkers around, the houses hasn't had any work done to the defenses. Very sloppy, not only in the sense that it was out of character for Carol it was also sloppy plot manipulation. And I'm not generally the one to comment on the writing, that's Blair's department. I am glad that Carol admitted to her deeds, as well as providing Ty with an "option" to settle his score. So much for their happily ever after, on to Terminus.
Hopefully.
BURNING QUESTIONS/RANDOM OBSERVATIONS
-I hope that Daryl is not really in love with Beth.
- I had a huge fear during both "Still" and "Alone" that something romantic would happen between Daryl and Beth. So glad they didn't.
-I hope we get to see that dog again. Poor doggie looked sad.
-Joe was the guy on the porch that Rick narrowly avoided at the house, right?
-The smoke that Carol saw was from Daryl and Beth’s fire, right?
- If these events are all tied together, assuming so, it is a great way to show how close, yet so far, everyone is to each other. Not only the core group but also the one or even two bandit groups.
- Loved the cold open in “The Grove” with the view out the window of Lizzie and the walker basically dancing around the yard with no explanation.
- Who took Beth? Part of the crew that found Daryl? Glenn and his group? Rick?
-Who Needs a Haircut Power Rankings: 1. Eugene 2. Daryl 3. Carl
- That's 3 episodes with out Rick. With only 2 remaining I assume next week we will start to see the groups reuniting.
- Prediction; Final scene of the season will be a double shot of 2 different groups, in different locations, finally seeing Terminus in the distance
Blair’s Episode MVPs: The Golf Course (Still), Bob (Alone), Carol (The Grove)
Steve’s Episode MVPs: The Golf Course (Still), Sasha (Alone), Mika (The Grove)
Blair’s Episode Grades: C (Still), A- (Alone), B (The Grove)
Steve’s Episode Grades: 60 (Still), 2 thumbs (Alone), 5/5 pancakes (mainly for finally getting a WTF to come out of my mouth) (The Grove)
Blair’s Deadpool Pick: Beth
Steve’s Deadpool Pick: Eugene
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