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.

We Can Do It! Michonne

“We Can Do It!: Women in Comics, Television and Beyond” is Hush Comics’ answer to what women in comics mean to the world and to us  Visit our page every Monday to learn about a new super lady!

Who:

Michonne

Nicknames/Aliases:

None

Skills:

Mad Katana swinging, fencing in her younger days, combat, a vast knowledge of law, an art aficionado, and the ability to leave her emotions at the door.

Origin Story:

Oddly enough, Michonne’s history is a bit of a mystery.  In addition, Michonne’s history in the comic books is much different than it is in the TV Series of The Walking Dead.  In the comics, Michonne pre-zombie outbreak was a lawyer.  She had two daughters and a husband.  At some point she left her husband and got with Mike.  When the outbreak happened, she was not home.  She ran to the home she shared with Mike.  Mike’s friend Terry was there for protection.  Later, she goes out to scavenge for supplies and in her neighbors home finds the Katana.  The Katana.  What a lucky find!  Anyway, when she goes back home, she finds Mike and Terry have turned and she is forced to use them as a barrier between her and the other zombies.  She cuts off their arms and jaws and uses them for protection.  During the outbreak, her daughters were with a nanny and she has never seen them again.  Since finding Rick Grimes and his group, Michonne has become Rick’s number 2.  And I don’t mean girlfriend, I mean she is his warrior.  Michonne the Warrior… I like the ring of that.

Why is she important?:

Not only is Michonne the strongest female in both versions of The Walking Dead, she is also just the strongest character.  And that is straight from the source.  Creator Robert Kirkman has been quoted as such in his Letter Hacks.  For Michonne, her “stats” are kinda irrelevant, and this could be because The Walking Dead takes place in a time where gender and race don’t matter anymore.  But it does seem that whether Michonne was a man or a woman, black or white, is really a mute point.  What matters is that she is the baddest, ahem, man in the whole damn town.

In addition, she is important because of her relationship to The Governor.   TV viewers may be asking… what??? Well let me tell you, but not in great detail because this website is still rated PG-13.  Yes in the TV show, Michonne and The Governor  do have a connection, and not the good kind.  Fans cheered when she poked out his eye, murdered his daughter and then skewered him outside the prison.  Oh have you not seen TWD through the end of season 4A?  Spoiler alert…. Anyhow, in the comics, it is beyond all those things.  Like, Be. Yond.  The Governor is much worse.  And for Michonne, her hatred of him is deeply rooted.  At one point in the books, she is kidnapped by him, kept in Woodbury and kept as his rape slave.  It’s true.  Does this make her important?  Very much so.  Because when she is rescued by Rick and Glenn, she could have just left.  Instead, she fulfills everyone’s revenge fantasy and she doesn’t even blink.  Not only does she scoop out The Governor’s eye with a spoon, she chops off a few of his appendages.  I’ll let you imagine what those may be.

Most importantly, she gets out alive.  Is her psyche totally damaged?  It seems as though hers is an ebb and flow of really crazy and not so crazy.  When we meet her, she talks to her boyfriend.  Keep in mind her boyfriend is one of her zombie pets that she ended up killing when she met Rick and gang.  After her ordeal with The Governor, she is broken.  But she has always found a way to deal with her trauma.  And she can still kick some serious ass.

What she means to me:

To me, Michonne means we can all survive.  We make the choice of how we live in this world, no matter if it is with other people, or zombies, or both.  She has made some tough choices.  She lives with them and then she just keeps going.  She is strong physically and emotionally, but can show her vulnerability, too.  One of my favorite Michonne moments in the TV Series was in “Claimed” when she found the bloody pink room.  It would have pushed anyone to break down.  She shed a tear for the family in the room and the family she once had (a son in the show), but was still able to protect Carl, Rick’s son, from seeing the horrific scene.  Michonne says to world, men and women, that it is OK to be strong, logical and a woman.  Thank you, Michonne!

Michonne Head Shot

Danai Gurira as Michonne

Michonne’s saves Andrea and shows the world that zombie pets are a thing.

Michonne’s Variant Cover Issue 101

Michonne did THAT to The Governor?!

Michonne’s Katana Skills

Michonne and Her Pets in the TV Series

Michonne and Her Pets Action Figures

photos belong to Image Comics and AMC

written by Adrian Puryear

The Walking Dead Review “After” S4E9

After such an explosive season 4A finale, the season 4B opener of the The Walking Dead was a little lackluster.  It may be because the producers need to save money and not pay actors, but having an opener being Carl-centric was a bit disappointing.  Let’s face it, most people were concerned with Glenn and Maggie reuniting and Daryl saving the day.  But that is probably why we didn’t get to see any of that at all.  Instead, we got to yell at the idiocy of angsty pre-teen Carl Grimes.  The redeeming part of “After” was Michonne having emotions.

We enter the episode with Michonne returning to the prison after everyone has scattered.  But she is going back for only one reason: to finish Hershel off.  Along the way is one of the big plusses of the episode, the recreation of Michonne’s Walker Pets. Then we get a good ole’ “way too soon” shot of Hershel’s little walker head and Michonne stabbing it.  All the feels.

Enter Rick and Carl walking alone down the open road.  Carl walks ahead because he has tricked himself into thinking he is a badass.  It becomes clear that Carl doesn’t have respect for Rick anymore, but it is unclear why.  Is it because he realizes his dad isn’t invincible?  Is it because he thinks his dad let all their friends die?  Or is it simply that Carl is just a little shit?  It really could be all of the above.  They enter an abandoned restaurant and encounter Big Joe, the guy with the thickest skull this side of Wolverine.  Is it likely that Rick’s axe wouldn’t have killed Joe?  Probably not, but then we wouldn’t have gotten this piece of advice, “Every bullet counts.”  Rick says this to Carl after Carl shoots Joe.  Again Carl tries to show his upper hand by not doing what his father says.  They find a home and argue some more.  Then like a jealous woman, Carl brings up Shane.  Going for the jugular.  It was the moment for me that I realized that I don’t really like Carl, again.  He had half a season of being a tiny little Rambo, but now he just looks and acts like his stunt double, a 30 something woman.  It’s pretty terrible.

Michonne had a bad dream.  It seemed though that all of it really happened, just not in the same sequence as it happened in the dream.  We got a taste of her dressed up and talking like a normal human being.  She had a pretty nice apartment, too.  She has a “lover” and a child.  She also put her Katana in her knife block.  I am really hoping that a knife block featuring a Katana goes on sale at Target tomorrow.  Anyway, her dream got creepy and her boyfriend and his friend got their arms cut off before they were walkers.  But then she woke up!  But I guess waking up from a bad dream in the zombie apocalypse isn’t really waking up from a bad dream.

Back at the home Rick and Carl found, Carl sits in what was once a young man’s room.  A room with many of the same things Carl may have had if the zombies had never happened.  It was a simple little touch to what was an attempt at a coming of age story.  Unfortunately, this was the only good touch.  Rick is passed out on the couch and all Carl does to try to wake him up is scream at him.  He doesn’t even check his pulse!  It’s pretty ridiculous in a show about survival.  Anyway, of course his screaming attracted walkers.  And then Carl didn’t stay in the house.  Yeah, and I wasn’t the only one thinking that either.  I found this gem on Tumblr everywhere after typing in “The Walking Dead.”

And he decides to mess with the walkers.  Remember last time he did that?  Well Dale died.  This time, no one died, but Carl should have.  He leads them away from the house, more than likely because he knows he shouldn’t be out in the first place.  Then he encounters a third walker and barely is able to shoot all three.  They do die on top of him and he has to wriggle his way out.  Then he throws up, wasting the milkless Wheaties he and Rick had argued over the night before.  Instead of being scared though, like a little punk he says, “I win.”  This kids needs an ass whoopin’.  He goes back to the house and yells at an unconscious Rick some more, this time about being such a badass blah, blah, blah and then says he doesn’t need Rick anymore.  Mmm, mmm, mmm, what a little asshole (credit to the secretary in Ferris Bueller).  And moreover, it seemed like not so great acting.  I was not moved.  It may have been the content, but isn’t every 14 year old kid too big for their britches?  Is it that hard to act it well?

Carl decides to go explore some more and finds a lot of pudding in the kitchen of a nearby home.  But then he also finds a walker, wastes lots of bullets and when that one bullet he needed was gone, he tries to scoot away.  Didn’t he think of pistol whipping him?  Well, obviously not.  In a big show of cat and mouse, Carl ends up getting away, although I’m not entirely sure how because there were plenty of chances for his leg to be bit.  But his shoe did get taken away by the walker.  And that was the whoopin’ he got.  And it probably will be the only time that he gets beaten up and his shoe stolen from a bully.  Then he went and ate that puddin’ on top of a roof.  It was a little sweet, a boy and his puddin’.  But then I remembered that Carl is a total A-Hole and it wasn’t that sweet anymore.

Michonne ended up in the woods with her new pets in the midst of a herd.  When she sees a walker who looks eerily like herself she starts to freak out.  Then she copes.  She copes big time.  She literally killed an entire herd by herself.  Well, and her Katana.  And that is how Michonne got her groove back.  A big thanks to my friend Robert for saying that (and the shoe thing earlier) while we watched tonight’s ep.  Michonne then follows the tracks in the mud back to people.  She is ready to be with the living again.

Back at the house, Carl sits with Rick in the dark.  Rick wakes up, and seems like an un-dead man.  But then it turns out he is just continuing his dead-like breathing with his broken ribs and didn’t want to say anything to build suspense.  Then he says “Carl” in his very strange way and passes out.  Carl finally admits he’s scared and then he cries like a little whimp.

Michonne finds clues as to where they are and reunites with Rick and Carl.  Maybe Michonne will be the saving grace Rick needs, because Carl certainly didn’t go out looking for medicine.  It was all about chocolate pudding.

Hush Comics gives tonight’s episode of The Walking Dead a C.  The only redeeming factor was more background on Michonne, her awesome zombie genocide and more emotional depth as to why she is the way she is.  Carl was the center of the episode and if I wasn’t invested in the rest of the group, it would have been a deal breaker.  Carl nor the actor who portrays him are ready for such a tall order of carrying an episode.  It actually mirrors the comic book content pretty well, but the delivery by Chandler Riggs comes off much more like a pubescent tantrum than a boy becoming a man.  This is made compounding disappointing by the fact that it was written by the man, Robert Kirkman, himself.  Robert Kirkman may have been going for a coming of age tale, but all it did was make me dislike Carl more than I already did.  He may be Southern, but he is no Huck Finn.

All photos belong to AMC Television.

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