The Walking Dead Review – Consumed S5E6

“The reason I said we get to start over is cuz we gotta.” – Daryl Dixon

This week’s episode of The Walking Dead was a little slower than normal, but a wonderful introspection on two fan favorites: Daryl and Carol.  We got some insight into Carol, and she was able to analyze herself as well.  And Daryl got his fair share of reflection time as well. But most importantly, the shipping Tumblr wars continued to rage in the land of the internet, and “Consumed” fueled the fires.

Don’t mess with this woman.

Carol’s first flashback sets a trend for the rest of the episode.  The smoke meant something!  We get to follow her moves where there were a lot of blank spots.  Where did she go after her falling out with Rick? How did she get back to the prison?  What was done with Lizzie’s body? How did her face get so clean after the Terminus incident?!

Nevertheless, the questions many of us had about Carol’s whereabouts after the prison incident were answered.  Carol is a survivor plain and simple.  She survived her husband’s beatings. She survived the horrific death of her daughter. Twice.  Then she holed herself up in a law office and survived ALONE for days.  And she has continued to morph into the B.A.M.F. she is today.  Also, we learned that ziplock baggies are a great way to catch rain water.  Perhaps Glenn, Maggie, Abraham, et. al. should take note instead of their nasty toilet water from last week.

Carol and Daryl – a match made in… the end of the world.

The juxtaposition between Carol and Daryl was more fully explored this week.  It was something I haven’t thought about much, but they have had a very similar path.  Perhaps it is because we have gaps in Carol’s timeline, whereas we know much more about Daryl’s transformation, it is easy to look past.  Caryler’s will tell you that Daryl and Carol have the same wavelength going on.  Whether it was the little girl walker in the women’s shelter that Daryl took care, or the nod in the van before they went down, it is clear to see that those two, they just get each other. “Consumed” finally showed us why.

Daryl Dixon – the ultimate survivor – he always comes out swinging.

Daryl has deal with his own strife a plenty.  His issues with his brother are vast.  Merle was the man he looked up to, but Merle also abused him and used him.   And from different conversations he has had, we gather that Daryl was also abused by his dad.  And seemingly, his mom was not in the picture.  The writers did a great job of showing how far Daryl has come when his bag fell and out dropped the book on child abuse.  I love when a T.V. series shows us and knows the audience is smart enough to get it without having to tell us.

Alright, enough with the feelings, this episode also featured some really awesome and frightening moments.  Road-Kill walker was disgusting! The use of silence when Daryl and Carol were watching the people from the hospital was really well played, especially when a walker came to the window of the car.  There isn’t a need a for cheesy music in The Walking Dead when it comes to scaring the viewers.  And then was the van scene.  The likely hood of survival was nil.  Not only were they surrounded by walkers with virtually no weapons (I’ll get to that in a sec), they were launched hood first off a highway bridge.  There are sites that say they wouldn’t have survived that crash, and I believe them, but it was still freaking cool!  And having the walkers jump off the bridge after the van was such a good use of gore.  One of the best scenes of the episode for sure.

Noah the Robber, but not of Sherwood Forest.

Now let’s get to the loss of Carol and Daryl’s weapons.  Noah, the kid from the hospital who escaped, robs them.  I find a lot of flaws with this, and is the only downfall of the episode.  While it was neat to see what would happen to Daryl Dixon sans crossbow, we already know that Daryl is the guy to beat in the apocalypse.  Noah being the one to rob them seemed desperate.  His personality in the hospital never proved him to be a robber.  Yes, he wants revenge, or to get Beth back, or something.  And yes, he has serious trust issues because of what happened to him in the hospital.  But wouldn’t it make more sense to try to reason with the man with the crossbow and the woman with the gun instead of just straight up robbing them?  The rest of the episode probably would have played out the same if the three of them were together instead.  The only difference was that we got to see Daryl smoke a Morley cigarette while he balanced whether Noah should live or die, and that my friends, was the ultimate Daryl Dixon moment.

So what was the meaning of the episode, the quote about starting over, and all the smoke?  You could say that Carol has done some pretty bad things.  So has Daryl.  But they aren’t bad people.  And unlike many of the other characters in The Walking Dead they are gaining more humanity and courage than they had before the world went to shit.  With Daryl’s wings on his back, and Carol refusing to become ashes, it is clear that these two are phoenixes.  If I must say so myself, as far as taking from literary technique, this episode was one of the best.

And this:

• Carol screaming at the walker to “GO AWAY!” while crying in her station wagon was hilarious. To be fair, anyone would do that.
• Daryl told Carol that Beth saved herself. Bethyl’s shrieked.
• There were two “video game” moments: entering the skybridge, and Daryl finding that machete after they were robbed.  It felt like their should have been video game sounds to go with it.
• Carol, you were not aiming at Noah’s legs.  Let’s be honest.
• The line, “If I’m going to hell, I’m making sure I hold off as long as I can” was one of the best lines of the series.
• Finding bottled water is so much better than toilet water.  I am never going to get over the toilet water.
• That dog butt painting is why we love Daryl.
• When Carol says that Daryl doesn’t know her and he says, “Yeah, keep tellin’ yourself that” Caryler’s shrieked.

Hush Comics gives “Consumed” an A- for great use of symbolism (the fire in the present is Daryl’s, the fire in the past is Carol’s), character growth, and getting the core group back together faster than they did in season 4.

All images belong to AMC.  They are credited to Gene Page.

Conquering Cosplay: Tips and Tricks for Daryl Dixon and Sally

Conquering Cosplay is a monthly article written by Cosplay enthusiast Keriann McNamara-McCauliffe.  She shares her tips and tricks for Cosplay of various characters in the land of the nerd.

Halloween is here! It’s the best time of year for any Cosplayer, new or novice to try your hand at Cosplay. It’s also the best time to stock up on supplies you might need throughout the year. Halloween is a great opportunity to try new tricks with makeup and fabrication because luckily if you get it wrong most people won’t notice and you’re all the richer for the experience

Follow along with me here to learn some tips and tricks from someone who’s been in your shoes. I’ve been making my own costumes since I was a kid, and I’ve screwed them up pretty royally at times, but I’ve also learned and created great tips and tricks to look awesome last minute while saving money.

If you are anything like me you probably realized that Halloween is on tomorrow and, holy crap, you don’t have a costume. Maybe you got caught up in work, school, or the return of The Walking Dead. Never fear!

First things first, and in my opinion this is the hardest part, you need to select a character. It can be ANYBODY. If you’re a last minute person this year, don’t select anything too ambitious. There simply isn’t time to buy and mold craft foam or anything involving airbrushing. Think simple but still great. For this article’s sake let’s pretend for the ladies you’re creating a do it yourself Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas. For all you guys out there, let’s pretend you’re going to be The Walking Dead’s Daryl Dixon (swoon).

Sally:

Sally has a lot of little details. Her skin is very white with stitches in it, she wears orange socks, black shoes, and her hair is very red.

For Sally’s skin, don’t use the grease make-up sold at Halloween stores. 1. It will not stay in place and will rub off on you and everyone you hold dear, 2. It’s a pore clogging disaster that is really no fun to get off. Most of them require full on makeup removers which are just more oil. In the past when I’ve needed to change my skin color to look dead or something like that I’ve just gone to my local drug store and bought a cheap foundation and mixed it with color myself. Just look for a shade that will correspond with what you are trying to achieve, typically a lightest ivory white works best. Then, I know this sounds crazy, but look for an eye shadow or blush in the color you’re going for. For Sally, you’ll want a very light purple, white, and maybe some very light greens for accent.

When you’re ready to apply to your skin, or to do a test run, pour some of the foundation on a plastic tray or in a bowl and grind up the eye shadow or blush and start adding it to the foundation. Mix it until you get your desired color and apply to your skin with a makeup sponge or your fingers. This way your skin color will not run when you sweat, it won’t rub off if you touch it, and just regular soap and water will get it off in a jiff. Plus, if you choose a slightly metallic shade it adds a great opaqueness for zombie or dead skin. For the finishing touch of stitches you’ll just need a black eyeliner pencil. You can just draw them on top of your base face color.

For her hair, you have two options: a wig, or hair dye. Many times though, a wig is expensive. One tip I’ve learned in my travels is that food coloring makes a good temporary dye. The application can be very tricky, so I don’t recommend it for all over color, especially with long hair, but if you’re looking for washout streaks food coloring works really well. The easiest way to apply it is with q-tips for very small streaks or a sponge brush for larger pieces or all over color. Food coloring does stain, so take precautions and be careful.

Going to your local costume shop, you can look at the costume that is pre-made for her, and then don’t do that costume… Sally costumes for whatever reason are a solid piece with a print on the front of what looks like sewn together patches, but the back is a solid piece of fabric in bright yellow. For the manufacturer that is cheap and lazy, for someone wanting to do the character just that is a big no-no.

For the Sally costume you can either buy a few garments on the cheap in the right color or pull stuff from your own supply of things you no longer wear. Cut the clothes into large pieces that you will then sew back together. If hand sewing isn’t something you’re totally comfortable with I’d recommend picking up a dress that fits you and then just sewing your costume pieces to it so you don’t have to worry about making something from scratch. As a Cosplayer, you will ALWAYS want to have a hot glue gun and an abundance of glue sticks on hand. If you don’t want to sew anything you can piece what you want together and use glue. For the stitched together look of Sally’s dress you can just glue black yarn in place to give the appearance that your dress was stitched together. Luckily, your stitch job can be as sloppy and lazy as you want and you will only make your outfit look better.

You should look exactly like her now… except don’t actually stitch your skin up.

Daryl Dixon:

Daryl’s details include his bow and arrows, his angel winged vest and his zombie ear necklace. You can also add some wounds to make yourself look beat up.

For a Daryl costume, you could look for a crossbow and arrows that you can paint. You can also find bags of small body parts that people use for decoration at parties. If you can find a bag of ears you can pick them up to make Daryl’s zombie kill ear necklace.

Also, Halloween stores are a great place for FX makeup essentials like silicone and latex, and the do it yourself wound kits they sell are pretty good. I’d recommend stocking up on liquid latex for the year ahead, and if you see any wound kits that interest you go ahead and pick them up because you’ll never know when you need them or just want to test them out for fun. For the Daryl costume you can just pick up general latex wound kit to give your face a little wear and tear. Red food coloring always makes a great blood substitute, especially when paired with liquid latex. The zombie apocalypse is a scary place, after all.

Your final stop will be to a thrift store or your own closet. Look for various items that you can cut up or piece together to get what you need. Daryl is an easy one in this case, a pair of your own jeans and a black shirt will work. You’ll just want to pick up a leather jacket (because a leather vest is probably a lot harder to find) at a thrift store and cut the sleeves off to make it a vest. For his trademark angel wings on the back you can use a variety of things, you can buy patches from a craft store, paint them on yourself if you like, or fashion some from extra fabric and glue them on.

Your costume is together, but it’s hard to be as badass as this guy.

When you put all these things together, ta-da! You’ll have a pretty spot on version of your favorite character and you will have done it yourself. Don’t fret if it’s not perfect, at least now you’ve gotten your feet wet, and your next attempt you’ll do even better!

The picture of Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon belongs to AMC.  The picture of Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas belongs to Touchstone Pictures and Skellington Productions Inc.

The Walking Dead Review – “Four Walls and A Roof” S5E3

Every once in a blue moon, The Walking Dead takes a break from the divergent path it has made from the comic books in order to really bring it back to the source material. While the first three episodes of this season have varied in characters, their likeness to the comic books is completely uncanny. Whether or not it has done Robert Kirkman’s story justice is up for debate. If you’re having a hard time hitting the nail on the head, why not just get a bigger hammer, right? Viewers who have not read the comic books are in for a special treat, but avid readers may not get as much out of this episode as they would have liked.

In some ways, “Four Walls and A Roof” translates the events of the issues it takes its materials from (Volume 11: Fear the Hunters) flawlessly. The writers are able to seamlessly blend the events of the comic books with what has already happened at Terminus – a concept that doesn’t exist in the books – and make it all flow together. Word for word, the entire “Tainted Meat” scene is taken from The Walking Dead #66, and was a horrifying, yet appropriate way to open up the episode. We knew Bob had to go after we saw him legless at the end of “Strangers,” but that doesn’t mean he can’t go out in style, because he said the line we were all waiting for, and went out like a true G.

The Terminians, as the show has branded them, have always been a smart group of people. I mean, how else would they have been able to take back their camp, survive for so long, AND get the upper-hand on Rick’s group? Their downfall, however, would be their ridiculous arrogance. Leaving themselves a trail like Hansel and Gretel to get back to Terminus (is there even anything left there?) is inviting anybody – say, Morgan for example – to follow them. Also, while painting a big bloody “A” on the church when they returned Bob was spooky, a notion to the group that the Terminians still had them trapped, but it gave themselves away too early on.

However, Rick and Co. prove that their arrogance would be their undoing, as a small group trick the Terminians into entering the church under the pretense that all the strong members were leaving the weaker ones at the church to ambush the Terminians, but were rearing back around to surprise them. It was all going well until somebody, once again, decided to bring the baby to the apocalypse party. I swear, Judith better have the cure to the zombie virus because she is a complete crutch at this point. The scene where Rick finally finishes off Gareth and the rest of the Terminians is pretty quick. There’s not nearly as much build-up as I felt there were in the books, and even the poetic justice of Rick hacking away at Gareth with the red machete is a bit cliché. I would like to think that if I am about to commit gruesome revenge murder on somebody who just ate my friend’s leg, that I would have come up with a better punchline than “I already made you a promise.”

While the scene that unfolded in the comic books was not as visually vile as the one on the TV show, I felt an inane sense of horror reading it. The reaction that Rick, Sasha and Michonne get from the others is half-surprise, half-disgust. From the get-go, Maggie, Glenn and Tara have always known Rick’s group to be the “good guys,” which definitely challenges the idea of Rick gutting Gareth like a pig. Could that have been an influence for them to immediately join Abraham’s group in traveling to “Washington DC?” It seems as though Glenn has become the voice of reason in the group, and while Rick is not talking into disconnected telephones anymore, he sure doesn’t seem level-headed. Glenn even has to use his balls of steel to tell Rick to stand down.

With another episode of The Walking Dead in the books, we lose another group member in Bob. Bob’s character has gone through quite the transformation, going from the drunkard that Daryl almost through off a roof to a solid member of the team, and the only one able to crack the ice cold persona that Sasha had. The actor behind the Bob, Lawrence Gilliard Jr., has always been a Hush favorite. His place on the show has always been an auxiliary one, not one of great importance. Hey, at least he lasted longer here than he did on The Wire.

Speaking of that timeless show, the guy who really stole the show here was Seth Gilliam (Ellis Carver in The Wire), who plays the timid Father Gabriel. Under the confession-influencing blade of Sasha, Gabriel spills the beans about his cowardice when his congregation came to him at the start of the outbreak. Gabriel’s teary confession was both chilling and sad, making us really feel for him as a character. Gilliam plays the character to a T, really exploring the depths of his acting ability and making him instantly recognizable as the same character in the books. Although not necessary “useful” in the traditional sense of murdering scores of the undead, his spiritually-driven words will ground Rick Grimes, who seems to be teetering off the edge of normalcy.

Aside from the fact that the episode is primarily taken directly from the source material, there are a few Easter Eggs that the show refers to that might be of interest:

Tyreese face…

… is the new Dale Face

• When Father Gabriel voices his disapproval of the church slaughter to Michonne, and explains that he still hears the voices, Michonne coldly says, “Yeah, that won’t stop – hearing the voices.” This could be a reference to Michonne’s comic book character, who, like Rick and his phone, talks to her former lover through her Katana. When she states earlier that she did not miss the sword, perhaps she was trying to move on, but the pull of having it was a bond to more than just her killer, badass self, and more to the loved ones she has lost before joining the group.
• The marquee in the church has a series of Bible passages that relate specifically to the zombie apocalypse, or the second coming of Jesus, or whatever:
  • Romans 6.4: “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”
  • Ezekial 37.7: “So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone.”
  • Matthew 27.52: And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised”
  • Revelations: 9.6:  “During those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.“
  • Luke 24.5: “In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”
• Although not exactly in sync with The Walking Dead timeline, Morgan does make a brief appearance in the books about 15-20 issues after the Hunters are dealt with. It doesn’t look like Morgan is in the same frail state of mind we left him in Kings County seasons ago. Will he be good? Bad? Crazy?

Hush Comics gives “Four Walls and A Roof” a B for its solid adaptation of one of the most brutal chapters in this now over a decade-long series. The episode has effectively transformed Rick’s group into cold-hearted killers, where the role of the “good guy” is extremely subjective. The acting in the episode was phenomenal, from Andrew J West as Gareth to Seth Gilliam as Father Gabriel. However, I feel like comic book fans got the raw deal here. Where the show largely succeeds is its variation from the source material, and what he got here was a complete reenactment of what we already knew would happen. We would have liked to see a bit more originality and suspense. We do know that next week’s episode “Slabtown” will at least give us that much, as we get to see just what the hell Beth has been up to. #praythestrainaway?

All pictures belong to AMC.  They are credited to Gene Page.

The Walking Dead Review – “Strangers” S5E2

I should have known when last week’s episode of The Walking Dead concluded that the happiness I felt would be short lived. In all honesty, I knew the peace and serenity would be short lived for the characters I love so much, maybe I just didn’t want to admit it. At least last night’s episode, “Strangers”, was able to snap me out of my delusions.

First of all, let’s talk about Father Gabriel. Is he good? Is he evil? Like basically every single other person they’ve come across? I’m no fool, I know how this works, and clearly that man has some darkness in his past that he is trying to hide. Something is up with him and it’s very obvious, from the knife carvings on the outside of his oddly intact forest church to how clean his clothes are. I don’t trust him, but I feel bad for him. The man is terrified, regardless of what he was up to before he met our group. Yet, it was still sad to watch him panic.

Am I good? Am I bad? Does it matter since I was on The Wire?

For fans of the comics, the small screen adaptation of the Priest is spot on.  I was impressed with his skiddish-ness, his deer-in-the-headlghts looks, and fear of being “found out.”  So what did Father Gabriel do?  Well technically, he didn’t lie to Rick, answering the three interrogation questions as honestly as he could, but leaving out one major detail.  No, he hasn’t killed anyone; instead SPOILER, he just refused to let anyone in the congregation into the church because he wanted to save himself and all the food.  Is this just as bad as killing them himself?  It could be, but for a man of God, I think he really doesn’t care what others think, because only God can judge him, despite the ominous etching on the church that reads “You will burn for this.”

It is clear, though, that Father Gabriel judges himself.  He is very guilty about his actions, and this comes across flawlessly in this episode.  As fleeting as his character may seem right now, he is still around in the comics series.  He may be a character the audience will have to learn to love.  As a side note, Seth Gilliam, who plays Father Gabriel and is another alum of The Wire (Ellis Carver) is a fantastic actor.  This role is a total 180 from what I was used to from him.

“Strangers” was the good old The Walking Dead we all know and love, it was intense, gut-wrenching, and when it ended, all I could think about is how the hell am I going to make it to next week?! Not only that, but it was very aptly titled. The group doesn’t just meet a new stranger, who doesn’t repent to strangers, but in many ways they realize how they are strangers to themselves and each other at this point.

Do we really know any of these people?

The beginning of the episode spent a lot of time on Carol and her “strangerness.”  There are things she has done that parts of the group don’t know she did: David, Karen and Lizzie.  Carol is a stranger to the group, and frankly to herself.  If this was the Carol who was around when her husband was beating her up or when Sophia ran off, she may have been never gotten beat and never lost Sophia.  But it was all that, and her acts of murder, that changed Carol from abused housewife to full-on Linda Hamilton.  Unrecognizable.

Even Carl is a stranger.  He is not the kid who runs out of the house foolishly, but he still has a glimmer of humanity left in him.  He innately wants to help people.  He always is the one to run towards screams in the woods.  Carl is the man Rick was before the apocalypse.  He doesn’t torment walkers anymore, now he investigates.  Carl will continue to change drastically, at least I would guess so.  He is a teenage boy growing up in a very dangerous landscape.  The things that happen to him now will shape what kind of man he will become, and that could go one way, or the other, if he survives.  With that being said, in the comic series, at this exact point Carl is a murderer.  He killed a kid his age.  I doubt they will show this in the series, but it is the definitive moment of the books for Carl, in my opinion.

And then there is Rick.  Between his wife being a whore (yeah, I said it), having to kill his best friend, battling The Governor, losing people he loves, and losing not-his-baby, Rick is the best stranger; he has nearly lost all of his old humanity.  But we still trust his judgement.  And by we, I mean the audience (I assume) and his group.  They even say so by agreeing to go into the church in the first place.  Let’s face it: Rick is a murderer.  But he is loyal to people who don’t screw him over, and for the most part, he keeps them alive.

And now, for some rapid fire thoughts:

• From an outsider’s prospective, who doesn’t have to eat cesspool beanie weenies, it seems obvious that Eugene is a fraud. But I suppose that in a moment of “We almost got slaughtered” that he seems like their only hope, but he is no Obi-Wan for sure.
• Would you get in a cesspool of zombies and water leakage that have been cooking together for about two years?
• Would you eat the food that has been sitting in that cesspool whether it was canned or not?
• Michonne doesn’t miss her sword? Well I do.  She does explain that she found it in the first place, just like she did in the comics.
• Beth! Beth!  Carol and Daryl go after her!  Will they be in the next ep?  And so much for that whole, “we are sticking with Rick from now on” theory.

• The amount of religious symbolism was beautiful.  Father Gabriel has been copying the Bible word for word.  The carvings and quotes around the church are particularly poignant.  Especially “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has Eternal Life” from John 6:54, in reference to Jesus’ promise of heaven on the last day.

• Episodes written by The Walking Dead daddy are always great.  Thank you, Robert Kirkman for being so deliberate with your attention to detail.

At the end of last week’s episode we were shown how the “Termites” were once people, too, if you will, and that at one point all the survivors had their humanity intact, begging the question how much could a person take before they break? When Gareth comforted his poor mother in the train car I thought, “Okay, I might feel some sympathy for this guy. Maybe he’ll grow on me!” But after seeing what institutionalized evil becomes when it’s in the wild, I know that Gareth will only make the Governor look like the fat kid from Stand By Me.

Hey Beth. I’m bringing my last girlfriend with me to come rescue you. Hope that’s ok.

But what about Bob? (Yeah that was an intentional reference to the Bill Murray movie) Ever since Bob was introduced, I have been watching week after week, biting (ha!) my nails, waiting for the terrible inevitable death that awaits him. He’s a moral compass for the group, but more than that, he is their ray of sunshine. Yes, baby Judith gives us all hope simply by surviving, but Bob tries every day to find the beauty in the life he has, which was clear in the game he and Sasha play. When Bob got pulled down by the sewer walker, my heart stopped, but then he rose up and seemingly triumphed. But that doesn’t mean I wasn’t sitting there for the rest of the episode waiting for the reveal that he had in fact been bitten.

It is clear that Bob is the new Dale.  Not only for the show but a stand in for the comic book version.  The moral compass never stays around too long. And even though we have no official confirmation he was bitten down in the flood water, if he is in fact replacing the Dale of the comics, he was.  Will we get the famed line, “Tainted Meat!”?  I certainly hope so; it is one of the hallmarks of the entire comics series.

Will our group meet Gareth’s group again? Will there be a battle a la the comics?  Will Gareth’s group die because they are eating someone who is about to turn?  And what the hell happened to Beth?  There are so many questions still looming! How exciting!  Hush Comics gives “Strangers” an A- because it gave viewers exactly what we look for; a major cliffhanger, intense moments of stress, and reminders of why we love these characters so much and we tune in to root for them week after week.

All pictures belong to AMC.  They are credited to Gene Page.

The Walking Dead Review “Alone” S4E13

This week’s The Walking Dead “Alone” continued to set up for our survivors to find the Terminus camp.  With the absence of Rick, Carl, Michonne, Tyreese, Carol and the three girls, and only three episodes left, it left one to wonder how epic this Terminus place is going to be.  Clearly it won’t happen in the next episode, which leaves two possible episodes to wrap up all this set up.  Let’s hope all this build up is epic.  The only way for that to happen is for Terminus to NOT be the answer to the comic’s Alexandria compound.  It would be to predictable for comic fans, and a let down for television audiences in the long run.  What do I think it should be?  Give me a week to answer that question.

The episode begins with the story of Bob.  Before the prison, he had survived the death of two previous groups, was alone on the road and got drunk off of Nyquil.  Times are tough when the apocalypse happens.  In his travels, he built a little house, found a truck trailer to sleep on top of, and eventually is picked up by Daryl and Glenn.  Daryl asked him the all informative three questions, “How many walkers have you killed?”,”How many people have you killed?”,”Why?”  Bob tells him he killed one person because she asked him to.  This intro was very short, but it’s hard not to care about Bob.  He is a man just trying to cope.  The lack of dialogue was great, because for once, TWD was able to show instead of tell.  When he is asked if he has any questions, he tells them it doesn’t matter who they are.  In the end, no one wants to be alone.

The convenience of the Bob getting bitten over his bandage on his shoulder was a little irritating.  As was Maggie overhearing Bob and Sasha’s conversation about Glenn being dead.  Also, wasn’t it nice that the one town Sasha decided to stay in, Maggie was also there?  It seemed too tidy considering how long everyone else has been separated.

Then there is the heart wrenching stuff.  Beth and Daryl.  Daryl and Beth.  Baryl.  Yeah, fan fiction with that little name will be crashing the net in a few hours to days here.  And I don’t mind.  Has Carol been getting hotter every season?  Yes, but she also kinda killed some people, or at the least burned their bodies.  She is no longer the woman who needed a Cherokee Rose.  And Beth kinda saved Daryl.  So yes, I will be a fangirl for those two.  This episode did a wonderful job of making us invested in them.  Turns out he likes her singing.  And he likes her.  She changed him, which he proves when he stares into her eyes when she questions why he changed.  Their scenes also gave the best line of the season.  When they find a stash of food in a mortuary home they stumble upon, Daryl says, “Peanut butter and Jelly, diet soda, and pig’s feet.  That’s a white trash brunch right there.”  If someone isn’t going to market Daryl Dixon’s Pigs Feet, I will.  All their scenes were very sweet.

 

But nothing is permanent.  After a scare of walkers that turned out to be a one-eyed dog (if you don’t watch The Talking Dead, the dog only has one eye because he lost the one saving his owner from a carjacker), walkers really do invade the home.  In the wake of the scare, Beth runs and Daryl leads the hoard to the basement morgue.  In one of the stirring moments of this season, Daryl used the examination tables to block the walkers into the room.  It is many a close call.  Does it seem likely that a table with wheels would hold a large group of zombies off?  No, but it does seem likely that Daryl would be able to get out of it.  But the big “What the fuck?!” moment came when Daryl runs outside, finds Beth’s bag and sees a car peeling away.  Who kidnaps people in the apocalypse?  Who would ruin BARYL?!  WHY???

Straight from Tumblr. Thank you, shippers.

Ahem, anyway, the other plot of the episode was mediocre at best.  Sasha acts like a bitch about finding Glenn and Terminus.  She argues and mopes.  Bob is a good guy trying to cheer her up, but there is only so much he can do.  Maggie leaves them behind to find Terminus and eventually the others follow her.  Maggie had a major gross out moment where she killed a walker and used its guts to write a note to Glenn on the side of a shed.  It dawned upon me this episode that nobody uses hand sanitizer.  They all touch really gross things and then eat with their hands.  Ew. Too much time was spent focusing on Sasha.  She may be a tool, being used to make us to like Bob, but on the flip side, I already liked him.  He kisses Sasha to show her that there is hope in a world that she is afraid of.  She is really just afraid of finding out Tyreese is dead, which is understandable, but she reacts in such an adverse way.  More time could have been spent on Glenn, Mullet-Boy and friends, or even the show-runner, Rick, Carl and Michonne.

The most important scenes came at the end of the episode.  In the town Sasha decides to settle in alone, she finds the best loft apartment in Georgia.  Then she finds Maggie (coincidently).  Sasha and Maggie have their own zombie hoard to fight.  Armed with a sharp stick and a “No Parking” sign, the women easily defeat the walkers.  It was a little Buffy-esque and a reminder of the Buffy/Faith tag team.  No doubt I was lovin’ that.

I’ve never seen somebody kick so much ass in a sweater before.

However, once Sasha saw the walkers outside and away from where she was, why should she run outside, and she had none of her bags?  She is a woman who acts before she thinks.  It is amazing she survived this long with that train of thought.  Maggie gives the speech to Sasha that finally turns her attitude around.  The moral being that hope still does exist.  They catch up with Bob, who really isn’t alone anymore, which was a nice little wrap up to the beginning.

Daryl continues to look for Beth and sets down in the middle of a fork in a road.  Not to mention right by the train tracks.  Then the same biker gang Rick ran into surrounds him.  Daryl is forced to join them, but probably had a better chance of doing so then someone who wasn’t wearing biker attire.  I think it is of note that the actor who plays Joe the leader, Jeff Kober, rarely plays a good guy. Perhaps this is the group the comic book fans have been ready to eat.  I mean, meet. *wink*

A wolf joins a pack of dogs

Finally, we see Glenn.  And he sees the map to Terminus.  It all starts to come together.  What can all this lead to?  Thoughts for the remainder of the season wonder if this will culminate into something worthwhile.  Who will die? Will it be Daryl with the foreshadowing of him sleeping in a casket?  Or, will he survive in the biker gang and never look back?  Is Beth a goner?  Where the heck is Rick?  There are still a lot of questions without a single answer of where we are heading.

Hush Comics gives “Alone” a B.  It was slow beginning with too much emphasis on Sasha rather than Bob.  The perk was the chemistry between Beth and Daryl as well as the real terror of the walkers entering their new found sanctuary.  But it still seems so far away from a way to wrap up the season with them all in the same group again.

All images belong to AMC.

written by Adrian Puryear

The Walking Dead Review “Still” S4E12

Honestly, tonight’s episode of The Walking Dead is hard to review because it is so easy to just say, “Well, in the comic books…”  But “Still” took away our crutch.  Since neither Daryl or Beth are in the comics, its time The Walking Dead reviews come down to just the television show.  “Still” was the first episode to only star two of the headliners of the series, which meant a lot of character development.  Considering we finally got an episode centering on the fan-favorite bad-ass Daryl, this episode was surprisingly quiet.  However, with all the conversations, Beth and Daryl are more likable and relatable, making for an episode that will be at the forefront when thinking of either character.

The first scene shows a ragged looking Beth and Daryl traveling at night through a storm.  They come upon a car, but once they realize walkers are near, they both jump in the trunk.  It is a very good thing that it was Buick and not a Smart Car they came upon.  The next part was filmed very oddly, though.  It was confusing whether A) the hoards of walkers we hear are real, B) the hoards of walkers are in Beth’s imagination, or C) they are part of her dream, if she ever fell asleep in the trunk.  Either way, they were very lucky that they could both fit in that car.

Back at their camp, things get very Swiss Family Robinson.  Beth uses the glass she stole from the car to make fire with reflection.  It looks like somebody was in the Girl Scouts.  Daryl sets ups a border with the hubcaps and rope he took to make noise if walkers approach them.  Then he kills and skins a snake.  And honestly out of all the things I have seen on this show, yes, including Well Walker, watching Daryl skin a snake has to be the most vomit-inducing scene this series has had.  It was TOO real.

Beth suddenly suggests she needs a drink.  She is only, what, 18?  When Daryl rejects her without having to do a thing but eat his snake, she wonders off like a typical blonde in the movies.  When she almost gets found by a small group of walker (after she weakly throws a rock to distract them), Daryl finds her and takes her back to hubcap camp.  And then Beth displays the most rebellious behavior she can; she flips him the bird.  Ever since she cut herself, wanting to get drunk and flipping Daryl off are the two most angsty things she has done.

After Beth yells at Daryl that they need to “do somethin'”, they happen upon a golf course and the accompanying Pine Vista Country Club.  Seemingly nice, but eventually even the rich die.  They enter and all I can wonder is what does that place smell like?!  I mean there are piles of dead bodies everywhere.  Piles.  And hanging zombies who are just wiggling around in their nooses.  And they are all smelling.  And not even a wince from either of them.  As they scavenge, Beth finds a spoon that has the words Washington D.C. inscribed in it.  This could be a nod to the comics and that eventually, everyone heads to Washington D.C.  Daryl packs money of all things, even though it is worthless.  And as the walkers from the outside start to tear down the door, they make their way through the country club.  This part was pretty eery because it was so dark and there were so many dead walkers just laying around.  It was a great technique in filming for the horror part of the show.  When Beth finally finds a bottle that isn’t empty, she is instantly attacked by a walker, and she gets the best kill she has had.  Broken wine bottle to the face.  Its unrealistic, yet very cool.  But then she had to ruin it all by turning to Daryl and saying “Thanks for the help.”  They are only in a country club to get her some liquor, shouldn’t she be thanking him for even going there with her?  Ugh, teenage girls.

We got a reminder of how horrible the living can be, too.  Once the enter the store of the club, Beth finds a woman who has been cut in half and set on top of mannequin legs with a note nailed to her chest that says “Rich Bitch.”  Apparently, the workers of this golf course were none to kind to the people they worked for after things changed.  After trying to take down the Rich Bitch, Daryl covers her up. In the shop, Beth picks a new outfit, a nice yellow polo and white cardigan sweater.  Did no one tell Beth that you should wear white after the zombie apocalypse? .  They move onto a different room where they encounter many walkers.  But Daryl releases his inner Casey Jones and clubs them all with actual golf clubs.  The best part was Beth’s new white sweater getting ruined by the zombie head that Daryl clubs off, right at her.  Hmm, those stains will never come out. After a weak attempt to drink peach schnapps, Beth cries again.  It wasn’t about the destination, but about the journey.  And maybe drinking her troubles away won’t bring back her daddy.  Daryl smashes her bottle and lets her know schnapps is a sissy drink.  Even so, wouldn’t the alcohol been good for cleaning possible wounds?

Daryl takes Beth to a place he had found earlier: a home where the owner brewed his own moonshine.  Beth drinks up and Daryl seems weird about teaching her how and what to drink, but not trying any himself.  At this point, it becomes clear what Daryl was before this all happened.  He was a drinker.  A nobody.  Beth tries to guess before and after they get to the house, but doesn’t see what is obvious in this moment.  She is too busy calling him “Mr. Dixon” as if he is her lame parent.  They go through the house and Daryl opens up more about his childhood and the home he grew up in, which is very much like this one.

Beth then coaxes Daryl into playing a drinking game she learned from her friends.  The “never have I ever” game tells us Daryl has never been out of Georgia, but more importantly that things can turn ugly when one assumes he has been to jail.  Drunk Daryl isn’t so fun loving.  And he pees in the house.  Then he gets a little crazy with his “nevers” getting too personal with things he knows Beth has done, like cutting herself for attention.  Then he goes really over the edge when he forces Beth out of the house to learn to shoot his crossbow at a walker.  It would be pretty difficult to learn how to shoot when a man has his arm around your neck.  Beth then puts him in his place by stabbing the walker and then calling Daryl a jackass.  She finally makes her point, and it is a turnin’, too.  She talks about how long she has survived, and that even though she is no Michonne, she still made it.  She still matters, even if she is viewed as weak.  She still sees her life as valuable, which says a lot for how much she has grown since we met her.  She calls Daryl afraid, and the tough guy says he isn’t afraid.  Beth then recalls when he was scared when Sophia came out of the barn.  Daryl’s comeback is one everyone is thinking, though.  Beth’s great mission of getting drunk is just like “some dumb college bitch.”  And even though its true, Daryl then breaks down.  This moment was one of Daryl’s best.  He really is afraid.  And he regrets what happened at the prison with The Governor.  And he feels as out of control as all humans do.  Beth hugs him from behind, and as awkward as it was, it was also incredibly tender.

In one of the quieter moments of the series, yet most poignant, Daryl tell Beth a story from his past.  He talks about hanging out with Merle and almost getting killed by a junkie over a children’s cartoon show.  The delivery and pace of his speech was chilling.  He confirmed what we already figured; that he just followed Merle around getting drunk and high was his great life was before this.  He was a nobody, and the apocalypse made him better.

Beth then talks about what she imagined her life to be.  Even after the outbreak, she looked forward to her father growing old and Maggie and Glenn having a child.  She wished for all that.  And as much as viewers may not like her, Beth became very human in this moment.  Everyone wishes for the impossible when they are in bad situations.  She may not wield a sword, but she can still dream of a better future.  Unfortunately, she knows how ridiculous that is.  She gets honest about her own mortality and tells Daryl he’ll be the last man standing.  In her final form of happy, crazy, drunk rebellion, she suggests they burn the house down.

And in a montage of splashing moonshine in preparation for the future fire that Smokey the Bear would surely not approve of, Beth and Daryl finally bond.  And after the stack of burning money from the country club is thrown to the fuel, they flip the house off and walk away better able to cope with their pasts and their futures.

Hush Comics gives “Still” a B.  The back and forth between Beth and Daryl was really good dialogue . She always questions him and he always has an answer back.  She realizes her mission for alcohol is silly, but at least its not laying around in her eyes.  Daryl knows her mission isn’t a good one, but he goes along for the ride anyway because he is a changed man.  But he is better built for this world than she is.  Then they come to the realization that he is still working through his past and she is working through her future.  Not to mention, the acting was great.  Reedus has always been one of the best on the show, but Emily Kinney proved her worth tonight.  In the past we have all predicted Beth and Daryl will become Baryl (ew), but it seems now they have a pretty good friendship.  The tension those two have is pretty thick, though. Beth seems way too young for him now, but if they do, we better keep that a secret from knife wielding Carol.  Kidding aside, this much human connection was one of the reasons the first season was so great, and this episode was able to rekindle all those feels.

all photos are credit of AMC.

written by Adrian Puryear

The Walking Dead: Season 4 Mid-Season Recap

Welcome to Spoiler City, population: you.

So many questions and so little time!  Last December, the first half of season 4 of The Walking Dead wrapped up with the raid on the prison.  Oh, did I say not to continue reading if you have not seen season 4 yet?  Take caution, this is only if A) you have seen season 4 or B) you haven’t, but don’t really want to watch 8 hours of quality television.  

Here is what has happened so far:

The displaced people of Woodbury made nice with our group in the prison.  Rick chatted up a lady in the woods and narrowly missed being fed to her husband.  Glenn and Maggie were almost pregnant.  Carl wasn’t allowed to use his gun.  Carol was teaching knife skills to tiny children secretly.  Michonne looked for The Governor on her horse.  Then supplies ran short.  They went on a run.  A helicopter came through the ceiling of a convenience store and an alcohol bottle broke a entire shelving unit.  Then people died.  Survivors at the prison realized that the walkers on the outside of the fence were being fed rats.  Then a survivor died of the flu and starting chowing down.  Then people died.  Rick farmed, and then he quit when he realized his pigs probably caused the flu.  Tyreese got flirty with Karen, the crazy lady from the Woodbury crew.  Then he found her body burnt along with a man’s burnt body outside.  Tyreese raged out.  The group then quarantined the fluers vs. the non-fluers.  Maggie cried that Glenn was a fluer.  Beth got told her she still had a job to do.  Carl and Hershel went the woods to look for elderberries.  Daryl, Bob (a newcomer), Michonne and Tyreese went to look for meds at a vet.  Bob found his medicine: liquor.  Daryl got real mad.  Then they got stuck in a herd of walkers.  Tyreese beat his way out with a hammer.   Rick investigated the burnt bodies.  Carol confessed.  Then they went on a run and Rick kicked Carol out of the group and gave her a station wagon.  Some of the fluers became walkers.  Hershel gave a speech, killed a walker and cried.  Meanwhile, The Governor was sad and alone.  Then he found some girls.  Then he had sex with one next to her kid.  Then they joined a group.  Then he killed their leaders and became the new leader.  They raided the prison.  Hershel died.  The Governor died.  Lots of people died.  And we were all sad.

No, no, no. SAD. SAAAAADD

There we go. Just plain old SAD.

How do the events of the TV show line up with the comic books:

Up to the mid-season finale, The Walking Dead has done a great job of separating the story in all mediums, giving even the most well-read fans their money’s worth when watching. Many of the characters in the comic books are represented in the television show, but a lot of the context that brought them together has changed drastically. However, it’s our theory that, with the show moving so quickly, there will be a lot more content borrowed from the other forms of The Walking Dead.

Here are some of the most noticeable differences, separated by the rag-tag groups that split off at the end of “Too Far Gone:”

Rick and Carl Grimes:

In the show: Rick and Carl have left the prison totally defeated emotionally. Rick spent most of the first half of Season 4 protecting Carl from the dangers of the outside, but during the calamity of the gate collapse, Carl went Rambo on the walkers to earn Rick’s respect. They leave the prison together (without Judith!). Rick is badly wounded.

In other literature: Pretty much exactly the same thing. The only difference is that, along with the loss of Judith, he saw his wife Lori get murdered right in front of him. He then proceeded to go insane, with the phone and the whole shi-bang. Oh yeah, Rick also lost his freaking hand!

Predictions: This will be Koooooaaarrrrlll’s (Carl’s) coming out party. In the books, this was a big moment for Lil Rambo, as he was forced to care for an ill Rick. Couple that with Chandler Briggs’ puberty growth spurt, and you will have one temperamental young man.

Michonne:

In the show: In a fashion that only a bad-ass ninja like her can have, Michonne was busy hacking and slashing every single walker in sight, alone.

In the comics: Most of the comics focused on Rick & Carl. Michonne emerged to save them from an attack, as they drove off together and met back up with the others.

Predictions: Hopefully it will be more of the same, and Michonne will mow down every walker in between herself and the Grimes. They’ll need all the help they can get.  But because the show can get so deep, it would be good to see some introspective stuff from Michonne.  Who was she?  Who is she now?  Why did she cry about the baby? And who were the men who were her zombie slaves?  Maybe now is the time to find out.

Glenn and the bus full of useless strangers:

In the show: Still recovering from whatever gross disease was making people bleed out of their eyeballs, Maggie had put Glenn on the bus. Seemingly, Glenn is in the best spot, but we all know that everybody in the apocalypse is useless.  Plus, the bus was shot at as it sped away.

In the comics: Glenn and Maggie had actually taken off early with Dale and Andrea, making a retreat to Herschel’s old farm (which was not burned down).

Predictions: There’s no doubt in our minds that the bus full of useless people will become zombie fodder. Glenn will be forced to get himself out of a sticky situation again, but there’s no way they let him die.

Tyreese, Sasha, Bob and the little girls training for a role in the remake of The Professional.

In the show: It looked like Tyreese went off on his own, but he could have tried to follow Lizzie and Mika. Meanwhile, Sasha and Bob ran off together in a separate direction.

In the comics:  Tyreese was the one who was beheaded by Michonne’s sword in the comics. He was also MIchonne’s lover.  Sasha was not in the comics.  Bob stayed at Woodbury and we have seen him since.  The little girls seem to be the equivalent of Ben and Billy from the comics, a pair of brother’s who were a little odd.

Predictions: Tyreese has a leadership quality about him that has yet to be banked on.  Now that he is separate from the group, he may channel his inner Rick, especially if he is with the girls.  He may try to take on a father role to them.  Bob seems like he has a lot of development left in the show. We think it is possible he will be the cause of a lot more pain for our survivors.  Sasha doesn’t seem long for the world.  If Tyreese is to have any development, his overbearing sister will have to die.  We also believe that the little girl named Lizzie, the one who is a little more cuckoo will come clean about being the real murderer of Karen.  And maybe she will kill her younger sister.

Beth and Daryl:

In the show: Daryl and Beth escaped the carnage together. It’s almost too convenient for Beth, who has been after Daryl’s loins for over a full season now.

In the comics: Not applicable. Neither are in the comics.

Predictions: Daryl keeps everybody safe – well, everybody who looks to him for protection (RIP Merle), but something tells me that Daryl pushes her away; she will react similarly to the way Carol did in the comics. Carol, after being rejected by Rick when she offered to be shared by him and Lori (awwwwkward) and being cheated on by Tyreese,  jumped into the loving arms of a zombie. Besides, AMC has already announced that there will be Daryl-centric episode happening. Between Daryl and us, there’s no reason to let Beth become a third-wheel.

Carol:

In the show: Speaking of Carol… she is such a different person in the show vs. the comics and even a different version of herself than when we met her.  Last time we saw her, she had packed up her station wagon with a lot of gas cans and was on her way to find a different group after she admitted to killing and burning the bodies of Karen and David. Also, she felt like it needed to be done and didn’t feel very remorseful.

In the comics: Well, Carol never escaped prison, or even made it to the stand-off.  As said earlier, she asked to join the marriage of Lori and Rick and when she was rejected, walked right up to a walker and made out with it, subsequently, getting her face eaten off in front of the group.

Predictions: Carol will be at the Alexandria Safe Zone (rumored to be called “The Sanctuary” in the show).  It is the next place we go in the comic series and only makes sense that will be our next stop.  But with the way Carol left, not to mention the fact Melissa McBride has been making the late night circuit, we know that wan’t the last of Carol Peletier.

Burning Questions:

Question 1: Is Judith alive?

Hush Comics as a whole are torn on this issue, but we feel that Judith has nothing to offer to the story, and she (similar to Lori) was removed from the situation in a way that allowed The Walking Dead to stay on television.

Question 2: Who is the next core character to die?

According to an article from Comicbooks.com, the next character to die will be “somebody who hasn’t died yet in the comics.” Now, this narrows it down to: Maggie, Rick, Carl and Michonne. The most believable of that list is Maggie. Knowing TWD, I think there’s a play on words. I think that this implies that somebody who isn’t in the comics at all. And this list is much more interesting: Beth, Sasha, Daryl (yeah right!) and the two little girls.

Question 3: Where do we go from here?

Well, that’s the big question. This time, there’s no RV to the rescue and no Greene farm to go back to. Right now, we have several main characters all on the road, and all alone. Maybe they’ll head to Nebraska? The logical answer is that they will find a remote village, maybe by the name of Alexandria. However, I kind of hope that they take their time. The real fear in the apocalypse is the open road.

Question 4: Who else will join the ranks of the Survivors?

Abraham, Eugene and Rosita will definitely be making their debut this season. The trio were an integral part of the group in the comics, so I expect them to be great additions to the show.

 

Want to know more?  Check it out this video AMC released.  It gives the audience some scenes that make us speculate even more.  And don’t forget to watch The Walking Dead tonight on AMC!

All credit for pictures and videos are credited to AMC Television.

Written by Adrian Puryear and Sherif Elkhatib

The Walking Dead Review “Too Far Gone” S4E8

“Too Far Gone” .  Battles were fought.  Some won and some lost.

If you don’t want to know the specifics of those winners and losers, then for the love of whatever God you pray to, don’t read ahead.  In fact, if you haven’t seen the mid-season finale of The Walking Dead don’t go on the internet.  Just don’t internet.

The episode starts with The Governor giving his big campaign-style speech about how they all need to take the prison.  He becomes a voiceover for himself as he abducts Hershel and Michonne from the prison gates.  He explains to his groups that their territory isn’t safe, the prison is and that the people who currently live in the prison killed his daughter and the town of Woodbury.  Once Tara, his lover’s sister, says she’s “in” the others join in.  What sheep.  How can so many groups of people be sheep in this world? I suppose it is one of the points of this series.  Meanwhile, his lover, Lilly, is the only one who questions his actions and motives.  He has already admitted that he kidnapped two people from the prison.  Yet, he believes his sweet-talking works on her, but it will prove him fatal.

The Governor holds Michonne and Hershel in an RV as his personal inmates. He talks to them and Hershel tries to convince him that they can all live in the prison.  The Governor tells them they won’t get hurt, but they can’t all live together. At one point, Hershel calls Philip “Governor” and he is very quick to order Hershel not to call him that.  It seems so odd that he is promising them they won’t be hurt when we all know they are bargaining chips yet he doesn’t want to be called by the name he deserves to go by.  The two golden nuggets of this scene were The Governor telling Hershel, “You’re a good man; a better man than Rick” and Michonne telling The Governor, “I’m gonna kill you.”  Oh, Michonne.  What a clairvoyant.

The Governor has the group packing up for war as he leaves behind Lilly and Meghan. Lilly wants to just move somewhere by water since it seems safer.  The evil mastermind says his goodbyes to Meghan, who is making make believe peanut butter sandwiches out of red mud.  The Governor picks her up in his arms as if she is his own.  He believes that her legacy for the world will be to be alive.  We know that children who can’t protect themselves can’t stay alive.  The Governor does not know this yet.

Back at the prison, Maggie and a healing Glenn have cute couple banter.  Their anniversary is coming up.  Sometime.  Daryl and Rick discuss Carol’s ousting.  Unfortunately, we don’t get to see the entire talk, just Daryl’s mediocre reaction to it.  When Rick says he was worried about Tyreese’s reaction to Carol, Daryl threatens too late he would have taken care of it.  Daryl and Carol forever.  Sasha thanks Bob for helping save her life by treating her with meds.  He still feeling bad about life, probably the alcohol incident.  He was staring at and holding a shoe box.  What is in that box?  We will have to wait until February to find out.  Tyreese approaches Rick and Daryl before they approach him.  He found another rat that had been ripped apart, but by a human.  Right as Rick is about to tell Tyreese the “truth” about Carol (there is much debate in the Hush household about whether Carol really killed Karen) the prison gets hit by something big enough to rattle the concrete.  Rick and the rest run outside and are encountered with The Governor and his crew with the tank.  The Governor wants to talk and Rick tells him there is now a counsel.  When Rick is presented with the bargaining chips of Michonne and Hershel, who are brought out on there knees, it becomes clear that one if not both of them will be killed.  Comic book readers immediately know what is going to happen.  Clearly Rick in the TV series has not read the comics because he says, and I quote, “I don’t make decisions anymore.”  Uh, what?  Obviously there is a counsel for the poor decisions that were made but this seems a little more urgent than just throwing your hands up and saying, “Nope.  Uh-uh.”  But of course The Governor lets him know what is what and responds, “You’re making decisions today.”  Gulp.

The Governor music bangs loudly. Alisha stands behind Hershel and proves what a sheep she is.  Rick hugs Carl and walks down to the gate to have the chat.  As they start, Daryl begins to hand out the weapons to the group and conduct a plan for escape.  As Rick tries to negotiate, we see that the prison watchtower is ablaze from the tank.  The Governor and Rick go back and forth about who owns the prison, whether they can live together, that there doesn’t need to be violence.  Yada yada.  Negotiations cannot be made.  Did anyone else notice that Michonne has a band-aid on her forehead from getting pistol whipped?  Hershel must have found it in the RV.  What a sweetie.

Lilly sits by the river in a lawn chair.  She sees a walker on the other side and he adeptly makes it through the water considering he is lifeless.  “Mommy, can you please help me dig?’ Meghan calls out.  It is then that I knew Meghan was a goner.  If anyone digs in this world, it is for graves.  Meghan is still playing in the red mud and finds a sign that reads “WARNING: FLASH FLOOD AREA”  Just as she is able to read the sign, a hand reaches out of the mud from below her, in true zombie horror movie fashion.  The buried walker rises from the dead and takes a big bite from the little blonde-haired girl.  Take note blondies, dye your hair before the apocalypse because your future is bleak.

Back at the stand-off, some walkers approach The Governor’s group.  He shoots them, though not adeptly, but they die evenutally.  Carl and Daryl aim for fire in the background and Carl talks big game.  Daryl calms him down.  Two of the little girls from Carol’s Knifefighting Academy carry baby Judith in a baby seat.  Lizzie tells the other girls that they should all have guns.  I would not want her on my island if it was just us.  But in an crisis, she is kind of smart.  Back at the non-negotiation, Rick tells The Governor that without the fences, the prison is worthless.  “We can all live in the prison, or none of us can.”  This was all The Governor needed.  He jumps down from the tank, grabs Michonne’s kitana, and puts it up to Hershel’s neck.  

Rick calls upon Tara aka “you in the ponytail” and asks if this is what she really wants.  Mitch chimes in saying they want what he (Rick) has.  Considering his brother was just stabbed in the back, he is such a dick.  Rick tells the group about having the people of Woodbury as their leaders in the prison and that they can be one of them now.  “We can still come back.  We’re not too far gone. I know we all can change.”

Hershel smiles at Rick ever so slightly, motioning that all those talks and pieces of advice had finally worked for the shows hero.  The Governor does not like Rick’s speech.  He snarls “LIAR” and slices Hershel’s neck with the kitana.  Is this a direct reference to the labels we saw in the last episode?  It would be great writing if it was.

The slow motion reactions of the group to Hershel’s death are palpable.  Maggie and Beth scream with no sound.  Choosing this effect worked so well for the emotion of the scene.  Rick screams, draws and fires his gun.  Michonne quickly rolls behind the cars of The Governor’s group to get out of the way of the gun fire.  Both groups are aiming for anybody they can.  Hershel isn’t fully dead, which is hard to watch him wiggle on the ground with half his neck detached.  Michonne gets out of her restraints.  The Governor takes her sword and begins to literally hack Hershel’s head off his neck.  For a split second, it seems that he is maybe stopping a zombie head from coming to life, but it is really just The Governor being a sick and twisted fuck head.  Ces’t la vie.

As the Governor gets done practicing his slicing skills, he looks up to see Lilly carrying a deceased Meghan.  He runs towards them.  Tara hides behind a truck and is panicking.  Alisha, her lover, tries to calm her down, but Tara brings up probably the most valid point ever said in The Walking Dead, “He chopped a guy’s head off with a sword!”  That sums following people for the sake of it pretty damn well.  The Governor takes Meghan’s lifeless body from her mother’s arms and shoots her in the head before she reanimates.  He has no emotion on his face.  He comes back to the group and commands them to all go for the prison and “Kill them all!” an iconic panel for comic fans.

From the time Hershel is so brutally murdered to the time The Governor orders the raid on the prison is only 3 minutes of screen time.  All this happens in 3 minutes.  Just soak that in for a minute.

The tank takes down the gates the prison, and really, who else thinks this is really dumb?  The Governor was able to convince them to go to the prison to take it as theres.  By running the gates down, the Prison has no use.  And then.. oh Jesus, and then, they start blowing holes in the prison walls with the tank.  Uh, what?  The one command of “Kill them all” was really enough to make a fairly peaceful group of Winnebago dwellers go all Full Metal Jacket?  Well I guess for the sake of time left in the episode it was.  But holes in the prison walls is not really a safe habitat for the RVers now.  The RVers shoot there way in as The Governor rears the back.  Beth and Maggie stop shooting and run to the bus.  Maggie instructs Beth to get everyone on the bus while she gets Glenn because “we all got jobs to do.”  Oh now they are gonna make me cry, pulling out Hershel’s advice not moments after he died.

When The Governor finally makes it to the gates of the prison, Rick attacks him and starts punching him in the face.  A lot.  It’s awesome.  They engage in fist-a-cuffs for a while and neither of them are in good shape.  Random people from both sides are shot.  Maggie and Glenn get to the bus and find Beth missing.  Beth was going to find Judith, so Maggie leaves to look for Beth.  Daryl is surrounded.  On one side, he has crazy Neo-Governors shooting at him and on the other side he has walkers.  But did anyone really think Daryl would go down like that?  Nope.  He uses one of the walkers as a body shield to be able to approach the real killers and throw a good ole grenade their way.  Bob gets hit by a bullet in the shoulder and just then, the bus takes off.  Sasha says, “We’ll figure it out.”  Clearly, she has missed a bus or two before.  Tyreese is ganged up on by Alisha, who apparently is cool with guys getting their heads chopped off.  He jumps in the garden and BAM, Lizzie and her kid sister are holding guns.

They shot Alisha.  The clearly graduated from Knife School.  They run off and Tyreese tells them to go the other way.

The Governor is now on top of Rick strangling him.  He is inches away from death when:

FUCK YES Michonne!  She skewered him.  She fucking skewered him.  Best female character on TV right now.  And she just watches him writhe in pain.

Rick gets up and goes to look for Carl.  Daryl throws a grenade in Mitch’s tank.  Shit blows up.  Daryl shoots Mitch with an arrow.  Beth runs to Daryl.  She couldn’t find the kids, but Daryl tells her they need to go. Rick yelps for Carl and is then approached by walkers. Carl takes them out and he and his father hug.  They go to look for Judith and instead find a bloodied baby seat.  A little too bloodied to be from somebody picking her up out of the seat, but not too bloodied to have been a plate full of zombie finger food..  It does not look good for Lil Asskicker.  A walker approaches and Carl shoots it too much and then he finally cries. And not just any cry, but a sad, sad cry. Like a Jennifer Lawrence Hunger Games cry.  He and Rick walk away.

As The Governor fights for life, Lilly approaches him and shoots him in the head just as he shot her daughter.  A hoard of walkers enter the prison, one stepping on the white chess piece.  The King is dead.

Rick and Carl are in the hills beyond the prison.  Rick tells his son, “Don’t look back.”

Wowza!  What an episode!  What a way to end!  So many cliffhangers.  The Governor is dead, but the rest of the group is in shambles.  At episode end, Glenn is with the bus, Daryl and Beth are together, Tyreese is alone, Sasha is with Bob, Maggie is alone and Rick and Carl are off in the woods.  Will they all come back together?  Will one of them stumble on Carol?  Will they join up with some of the RVers who feel badly?  The trailers hinted at some more comic book convergence, with Rick sick in the house alone with Carl. Another crazy thing is that Chandler Riggs is a growing boy. All the events in the books that occurred with him as a timid eight-year-old are now taking place with him as a pubescent young man with a deadly trigger finger. And where the hell is Carol?? We have to wait until February.  Oh, man.

Hush Comics gives “Too Far Gone” an A.  It was the best episode of the season thus far, but only because it was so full of action.  We finally have a dead Governor, but Hershel gone.  No more for our one-legged Summer Santa with the wisdom of a farmer.  Until February, fellow Dead Heads.

written by Adrian Puryear

The Walking Dead Review “Internment” S4E5

The Walking Dead “Internment” Review 

Naw man, it’s cool. I’ll just walk. Thanks anyway…

We open with Rick on his return trip to the prison. He is still struggling with his decision to banish Carol. He stares at the watch she gave him as he races down a deserted stretch of road, the camera focusing on his bandaged hand.

The epidemic is spreading. Herschel, Sasha and Glenn desperately fight to keep Henry alive by inserting a breathing device down his throat and squeezing air into his lungs.  These three have become the triage medics in the quarantined cell-block.  Herschel, played by Scott Wilson, was absolutely incredible this episode. He takes a commanding role in delegating responsibilities while maintaining a high sense of morality. He refuses to kill recently turned people in plain sight of the remaining survivors.  He inconsequently provided some much needed insight about the world that is now inhabited by the dead.  He does all of this and still finds time to give Lizzy a reading assignment; Lord knows that no child should be left behind in the Zombie Apocalypse. Tom Sawyer. This is an appropriate novel considering the circumstances and future events. Most lit-majors and bookworms may recall that Tom Sawyer didn’t get a Bible in Sunday school because of his deviant ways. This will come into play later in our episode.

Herschel reassures Maggie about Glenn’s worsening condition, restores faith to the infected while keeping them in their cells, and gives Glenn a much needed pep-talk. If not for Herschel’s temperance and hope we get the sense that all would be lost. Glenn, played by Steven Yeun plays a crucial part in this episode as well. His relationship with Herschel is built to a level that we haven’t seen before.   They are doing their best to keep the diseased from passing the point of no return with limited supplies, and time. Herschel appears to be the only adult in quarantine not showing symptoms of illness. The other is Lizzy.

Maggie is face to fence with hundreds of walkers. They are dangerously close to bringing down one side of the outer railing. She is cracking skulls and reinforcing the chained links with lumber.  She is over-whelmed, but calm. We get the sense now that anyone in our core group of survivors can make it on their own, including Carl. We’ll get to that later.

Rick returns. He explains why he voted Carol off the island and we are hit with a new twist. Maggie’s reaction seems odd. Instead of passing judgment, voicing an opinion, or showing some anger she asks if Carol “said she did it,” in reference to the murders of Karen and David. There was a moment of contemplation and confusion. This could be nothing, or it could mean that Carol was covering for someone else. The plot thickens.

Rick makes Carl his first priority upon his homecoming.  He forbids Carl from coming outside to help with the much needed tasks of walker defense and curing the sick, but Carl says, “You can’t keep me from it,” meaning the death and chaos of this world. Rick says that it is “his job to try.”  Carl seems defeated, but we know that eventually he will be needed.  There are only so many people who are not infected left in the prison. With Tyrese, Michonne, Daryl and Bob still gone, there are limited options.

“A sad soul can kill quicker than a germ.” This quote from Steinbeck’s Travels With Charley: In Search of America seems to drive Herschel. It gives him the push he needs to ensure that lives aren’t lost in quarantine.  Herschel admits that he thinks that there is still a plan and a reason for everything that is happening. His faith has been shaken, but not broken.

The fence is failing. Rick and Maggie are working hard at keeping it up. Rick falls after a walker grabs his leg and Maggie chops its arm off. For those of you who read the comics, you are well aware that Rick lost his right hand in issue 28. We are once again teased in the series with the foreshadowing of Rick losing an appendage. We think that Rick will lose his hand by the end of this season.

The situation in quarantine goes to shit. Several people have died, Glenn and Sasha have fallen seriously ill, walkers are now lumbering around free, chaos ensues and Mr. “Stay in your cells” goes to work.  Maggie leaves fence detail to help inside, and Rick is left with hundreds of the dead meters away from breaking their defenses. Rick, left with no choice, recruits Carl to help with the walkers. The fence comes tumbling down and Carl and Rick are exposed to the herd coming through the breach. They quickly decide to take arms and eradicate the on-coming threat. Fanboys, Carl finally gets his M-16! 

The sight of Rick and Carl mowing down the herd warms the heart. It gives you that same fuzzy feeling you get when you see a father-son potato sack race. It was a beautiful union of gun fire and exploding heads! Carl clearly owned at C.O.D. before the turn. It’s such a spectacle that Rick has to take a moment to pause and absorb all of his son’s badassery.

Dafuq?

Meanwhile, Herschel is alone in quarantine with several walkers, Lizzy wandering around like a lost kid in a department store, and he is still trying to avoid killing the dead in front of the others. What a guy! He eventually saves the day with Maggie’s help. They take out the residual walkers and stabilize Glenn. Carl and Rick make short work of the zombie mob and Rick clearly has a new respect for his son. All of the key players in this episode unveiled a character trait that almost guarantees them another day in this world.  Hell, even Lizzy put her life on the line to save Glenn. Daryl and the others finally make it back after things calmed and the medication they brought is distributed.

Father-Son Potato Sack Champions

We finally get a quiet moment with Herschel. He takes a seat and opens up a Bible. The Tom Sawyer reference comes full circle. After all the trial and tribulation he is able to find his faith again. This moment is powerful and done to perfection. Before we fade to black Herschel sheds some much needed tears. We believe that these tears did not come from exhaustion or remorse for the infected people or the turned. We believe that he was crying because he still believes that the walkers are just sick people and that he just committed murder. Remember the barn full of zombies?  Hopefully we will get more insight into this theory as the season continues.

 

As the zombie clean up around the fence continues we get a perimeter shot of the prison. Carl and Rick walk out of focus and our view widens.  Just yards from the gate a shadowy figure is revealed.  Holy shit! It’s the Governor! Somebody tell Michonne that she sucks at tracking. We knew that he would eventually show up because David Morrissey is still in the credits this season. We can’t wait for what follows. More gut-wrenching than the Governor’s re-appearance is the talk that Rick and Daryl will have to have about Carol. Could the best tag team since Gumby and Pokey really be over??

Why ruin it by asking about Carol?

Hush Comics gives “Internment” an A for great character display, especially on the part of Herschel. Lizzy is still bat-shit crazy, Maggie reminded us that she is still a BA, and Rick finally realized what a Big Asskicker he has raised. Come back for next week’s return of The Governor and our recap of “Live Bait.”

I… HATE…. SPAGHETTI!

written by John Soweto and Sherif Elkhatib

All images credited to AMC Television

The Walking Dead Review “Indifference” S4E4

We open with Carol speaking to Lizzy behind quarantined glass because of the flu out-break in the prison. The child and several others are still confined until Daryl, Tyrese, Michonne and Bob make it back with supplies from the college. The exchange between our favorite 40 something Jamie Lee Curtis replica and this eerie little girl is quite compelling. The entire conversation is about change, but the analogy of dying and turning into a walker is used here to explain a greater change, the change a person goes through when they have to make a hard decision.  As they speak we see cut-aways of Rick packing a vehicle he and Carol will take on a run, but the foreshadowing is almost too obvious. Rick is clearly contemplating Carol’s fate. Flashbacks of Karen’s murder seem to torment our anti-hero cop but not in that creepy, I still see Lori walking around in her pajamas way. Carol is clearly not the woman we met in the first season. Her hair is spiked; old woman cleavage is showing and she has a machete ready to split any walker in two! She tries to justify her actions to Rick on their road-trip, but it falls on deaf ears. She would have probably got a better response out of him from a game of Marry, Fuck, or Murder. They raid a house and end up finding two survivors. Our first official hippies of walker-land are unmistakably unprepared for this world. They need 5 or 6 bullets to take a walker down and don’t know that a blow to the head will take one out.

I don’t know about these two. I think there’s some trouble… A-FOOT. Ha!

We finally catch up to our favorite band of Zombie killers. Tyrese, Michonne and Daryl are on the road and seem as comfortable as kittens in laundry.  And then there is Bob. I seriously wondered how long it would take the “other” black guy in the zombie apocalypse to die. He has the swag of a Star Fleet ensign beamed down to some M-Class planet with the OA team. Bob is struggling with addiction and he confides in Daryl. Daryl in turn absolves Bob of his past sins – ya know, the whole getting Zach eaten thing that happened in the premiere episode.

Carol and Rick have a great dialog about the necessity of murder while raiding a house and both make pretty good arguments. Carol has accepted her role in the new world and has become a threat to Rick. After looting the college for Herschel’s goodies and running into some much needed walker action Bob proves how worthless he is by refusing to drop a bag containing a bottle of ill-gotten booze into a school of biters. See what I did there? What happens next is precious. Bob reaches for his gun when Daryl threatens to toss the liquor into the walkers. NOT A GOOD IDEA BOB! Daryl punks Bob with the exchange of a sandbox brawl. I was immediately taken back to 4^th grade. As non-violent as it was, it was intense and resulted in Bob getting his gun confiscated by Daryl. I felt bad for Tyrese and Michonne, they had that look like, “Ninjas always gotta mess it up for somebody!”

Veritas Aequitas, beee-yotch!

The end of the episode does not disappoint. Rick has made the decision to exile Carol. He claims it’s for her own good, but it is apparent that he is afraid of her. The decision to banish her, I think, can be attributed to more of a power struggle than differing opinions. Remember, Rick has killed how many to protect the good of the group? Rick is trying to establish his dominance over Carol, and when she will not submit to him, his response is to kick her out. Not only are the morals behind his decision fuzzy, but we at Hush Comics believe that this is a HUGE strategic mistake. She is one loose end you don’t want to unthread. A million things could go wrong. She could meet up with the Governor and combine forces; she could lead an army of creepy Brady Bunch girls, she could taint the prison’s water-supply. In all seriousness, where is she really gonna go? Would you just accept that you had been banished from the only ones in this world alive to you and go on about your merry way, especially when nobody else knows her secret? Either way, we feel like this decision will come back to bite Rick. See what I did there?!?!

You done messed up now, Sheriff!

After the past few episodes have focused on primarily the disease spreading, it was a refreshing change of pace to get back to some good old fashion zombies “soap opera” action. While the fallout from Carol’s exile is just beginning, my stomach is already churning from what will happen. Will Carol somehow find and join forces with the Governor? Will Daryl, in his angst, abandon the group and search for Carol the same way he did Merle? Is Tyreese going to find out and really get in a fight with Rick? Mostly though, I think it’s about time for Rick’s hand to go (“Are you a righty or a lefty?”).

“Indifference” is my favorite episode this season and I can’t wait to see what happens to Carol next. Yeah, I said it; Carol! There are a lot of waves about to be made from Rick’s decision, and I don’t think it will be a welcome choice, even after the truth comes out. Hush Comics gives “Indifference” a solid A for it’s great character-defining moments and the monumental decision to get rid of Carol (for now…).

written by John Soweto and Sherif Elkhatib

All images credited to AMC Television