AMC's "The Walking Dead"

[Noah]

i'm not a fan of how it happened at all. Then again, I never wanted to see Beth die in the first place. It comes off almost like Dawn didn't mean to kill her. Instead, it was Beth trying to take her out, failing, and dying as a result. Not cool with that at all. Beth was a great character, and Emilly Kinney just too damn adorable to die.

I'm pretty sure Dawn started shouting that it was an accident, so it basically just showed that she had no control. But yeah, Beth did well to last as long as she did.

As an aside, I've finally caught up with the series!

S4

Herschel :'(

The prison :'(

I actually liked the Governor episodes, in fact, the only one I wasn't really a fan of was the Daryl and Beth one.

S5

Bob got the last laugh "Tainted meat," bitch!

Still love Eugene, don't even care.

Also, something's not right with Gabriel, don't like him at all.

S5

I don't see what's wrong with Gabriel other than that he is a big time coward, who essentially sacrificed others because of his cowardice but really is likely only alive today because of that. I don't think he has been, or is going to be part of some evil master plan if that's what you mean.

[JasonM]

Yeah, as Rabbit said. Gabriel is just a guy who hid behind his good book for all this time and sacrificed everyone to stay in relative calm and peace... And now that he's thrown in the real world he cant cope with what is going on.

A guy stuck in two worlds, one he still wants to be a peaceful preacher who is a massive hypocrite, but all the while he knows that he can't live in that world anymore.

[arwrestling]

So I've finally caught up on this season. Put in me in camp "I didn't like that character much anyways" in regards to who bites it in the mid-season finale. Never got attached to them at all, tried but couldn't really care. That being said, that scene was very shocking and emotional and I thought they did a very great job with it.

Season is decent so far, I've enjoyed it. If anything, this season has gotten rid of the characters I either didn't care for or didn't like in some cases.

[RPS]

I finally got around to watching the half season finale.

It was okay. I thought a lot was made about how this half season was the best yet, but the same elements that made other seasons less than great were there. The whole hospital storyline was underdeveloped. Mainly because everyone at the hospital was so evil, I wasn't sure who to trust, what the power dynamics were, etc. I thought it took a lot of edge off of Beths death because I wasn't at all invested in the power struggle and dynamics of the hospital.

The two things I did really like about the season was that we got to know more about the newer characters than we previously had before (particuarly liked the focus on the Priest and Abraham) and I do actually dig the direction of the rest of season (and potentially, the show?). Rick is slowly becoming unhinged and relying more and more on violence. Tyrese is becoming weary of the violence being used by those around him. The scene where Abraham, Rick, Sasha and Michonne slaughter the Terminus folk I think will be the main focus going forward. There definitely seems to be a growing group of individuals who seem horrified and outright opposed to the excessive, cutthroat violence (Tyrese, the Priest, Glen/Maggie, Daryl, Carl, I'm pretty sure the deaths scare precious little Judith).

[Gabriel]

Rick's growing reliance on violence is definitely a story going forward, but it seems like you've painted him as the bad guy in the situation, and he really isn't. If you take a look at the show, most of the death that Rick's camp experiences is due to the fact that they let their humanity be their guide instead of just outright killing the real bad guys. Rick sees this, but Tyreese (especially) and others are really bitching it up and going to cost more lives.

If Darryl and Rick had just gone in with extreme prejudice to get Beth, would she still be alive? That's the story going forward. You have pussy-ass Tyreese refusing to kill people and having that come back to bite him in the ass... you've got Rick seeing things the way they truly are... and now you've got Darryl, who didn't want to hurt people anymore, but now his moral-compass is gone... so what happens?

[RPS]

Rick's growing reliance on violence is definitely a story going forward, but it seems like you've painted him as the bad guy in the situation, and he really isn't. If you take a look at the show, most of the death that Rick's camp experiences is due to the fact that they let their humanity be their guide instead of just outright killing the real bad guys. Rick sees this, but Tyreese (especially) and others are really bitching it up and going to cost more lives.

If Darryl and Rick had just gone in with extreme prejudice to get Beth, would she still be alive? That's the story going forward. You have pussy-ass Tyreese refusing to kill people and having that come back to bite him in the ass... you've got Rick seeing things the way they truly are... and now you've got Darryl, who didn't want to hurt people anymore, but now his moral-compass is gone... so what happens?

I didn't say Rick is the bad guy. I don't think the show is really interested in painting him as a bad guy. But he is definitely becoming unhinged and way more unstable. He ran down a man who was handcuffed and than shot him in the head while he was completely defenseless. His gut reaction solution to saving two people from his group was to go guns ablazing, as opposed to thinking about safer, more reasonable, more peaceful solutions. He savagely murdered Martin and his group. Martin and his group ultimately had to be taken care of, but you had a scene in which they just pulverized their bodies with machetes when you could have just capped them right in the head. That murder wasn't about protecting the group, because if it was they would have simply killed them. It was about murdering them in the most savage way possible. Carol had to take care of Lizzie. That didn't mean she had to chop her up savagely with a machate while Carl was watching. I don't think I could watch that Martin scene and not feel uncomfortable.

I think the show will likely show that taking it to the extreme either way is a bad idea. Had they gone in guns ablazing, it is quite possible that members of their group die. It is possible that no one dies. Who knows? They didn't write the show that way. They wrote it that the group was skeptical of just going and shooting up the hospital.

I think you completely misunderstand what Tyrese viewpoint is. I don't think he is a pussy. I think he is a lot like the Priest - somebody who would rather keep their hands clean of the bad that is unfolding before them. If that means they die, so be it. However, they'd rather die with a clean conscience than to stoop down to the levels that other people are going. Perhaps if Tyrese had a Judith, he would think differently.

[Gabriel]

I feel like Tyrese is dealing with PTSD. He did some messed up things, and now he can't mentally handle it anymore. As someone who deals with mental illness, I see the signs there, whether intentional or not, that he is dealing with some shit inside of his mind that is handicapping his ability to survive. I don't believe that Tyrese's stance has anything to do with morality and wanting to be a good person, and everything to do with the fact that he can't handle what's going on around him.

Conversely, Darryl was always a bad man because of his brother, and now he has a purpose and knows that he can be good... so he's wrestling with this idea of what good and bad truly are... but while trying to straddle that line, Darryl has seen people he cares about get killed because he refused to be "the bad guy".

Rick, on the other hand, is fighting for survival... to protect his family and his friends. He's not a monster. He's a guy who understands what the world is, and who understands how people really are, but he doesn't want to be seen by his group the same way that Abraham was seen by his family. He doesn't want them to think he's a monster, so he's only doing these things that need to be done when there aren't eyes on him, or when he's tried it the non-violent way and it didn't work.

I stand by the idea that the non-violent approach to dealing with the antagonists on the show has led to the unnecessary deaths of many of Rick's group though... and I believe that the story is headed to a point where he's going to lose it on everybody and point this out. I'm expecting a rift to create within the group, shit to hit the fan, and for Rick and others to have to very violently and messily save the day... to drive the point home that there is no going back to the way life used to be.

[Herr Matzat]

The comic just gets better every issue right now.

[RPS]

Rick, on the other hand, is fighting for survival... to protect his family and his friends. He's not a monster. He's a guy who understands what the world is, and who understands how people really are, but he doesn't want to be seen by his group the same way that Abraham was seen by his family. He doesn't want them to think he's a monster, so he's only doing these things that need to be done when there aren't eyes on him, or when he's tried it the non-violent way and it didn't work.

But that is exactly what he is. He literally did the exact same thing as Abraham, except his family didn't run away. But he literally hacked away at Martin with a machete in a violent rage when he could have dealt with the situation much differently. He didn't have to run down an defenseless individual with his car and than shot him in the head. Those are two examples of situations where Rick chose to do something that went beyond the scope of survival and edged into the territory of 'Oh my god, you are becoming a sociopath'.

I disagree with 'Rick is trying to survive, he is the only one interested in surviving, he needs to use violence' sentiment. There is no indication that anything Rick has chosen to do this season would have resulted in a better outcome had he not resulted in extreme violence. He literally gained nothing from killing the cop he ran over and from savagely butchering Martin's gang with machetes. And there is no indication that going in guns ablazing on the hospital would have resulted in less death. Beth's death had zero to do with the prisoner exchange and all to do with the fact that she took it upon herself to stab Dawn at the hospital.

Everyone on the show wants to survive. Tyrese, Gabriel, Rick, Judith. Everyone wants to survive. It simply is a matter of the extent to which one is willingly to go and the lines you are willingly to cross to survive. I think saying Tyrese and other characters are pussy for not willingly to kill is bullshit. It just means there are boundaries they aren't willingly to cross and if they die as a result of not crossing those boundaries, than that is their fate. I think Tyrese has seen the worst in people (his girlfriend was burnt alive) and he probably doesn't want to walk down that line himself.

I'm not saying Rick is an evil human being, but I do walk away from the season thinking that Rick may be slowly morphing into the very people he calls evil.

[Noah]

Did Carl do much of anything this half season? I feel silly for asking, seeing as I watched it and all but I can't really remember anything significant he did.

Of course I did miss the first half of both the first 2 episodes, so there is that gap in my show knowledge.

[RPS]

Did Carl do much of anything this half season? I feel silly for asking, seeing as I watched it and all but I can't really remember anything significant he did.

Of course I did miss the first half of both the first 2 episodes, so there is that gap in my show knowledge.

I think the most notable thing he did was when they first arrived at Gabriel's church, Rick was instantly distrustful of Gabriel and Carl sort of played Devil's advocate, saying he trusted Gabriel and didn't think he was a threat. He was also the one protecting the group of Judith, Gabriel, Bob, and Tyrese when Martin and his group broke into the church.

[TGWL]

The comic just gets better every issue right now.

So create a comic thread if there isn't one already, and go talk about it there?

I know it's hard because people watch the show and read the comics, but I really wish it was left out of this thread. It's hard to determine what spoilers are when they're not labeled. I open each spoiler tag squinting my eyes ready to close it, and it's my fault, but I do enjoy reading opinions on the show or event that just happened.

Edited December 19, 2014 by TGWL

[TheSqauredCircleMessiah]

I agree that ongoing comic should be left out of here

[Benji]

This is the official poster for 5B. Looks naff.

[punky]

Well.. fuck. That's a way to pick back up.

Before the episode started, I was certain someone was going to die but I didn't think it was going to be Tyreese. But there wasn't really any place else for his character to go after forgiving Carol and him not having it in him to kill walkers (or scum like Martin) anymore.

Overall I think this episode was very good start to the final 8 episodes of the season and a nice change of pace. Greg Nicotero really did a wonderful job and made me care so much more about Tyreese and whether or not he would make it.

I also liked the small little seeds planted on the next group of survivors they are going to run into. I'm assuming they're going to be called "wolves" since there was that spray paint inside the walls on the curb that read "wolves not far" and the severed walker pieces everywhere and inside that truck. Interested to see where this is headed.

Edited February 9, 2015 by punky

[GoGo Yubari]

Good god that was awful.

[Josh]

I've been hate-watching this for the last season plus, but I really liked that episode. It makes me hopeful (perhaps wrongfully) that there will be an overall shift in returning to what made the first couple of seasons good.

[Ruki]

Tyreese

Not cool, show. Not cool.

[TKz]

Did that really need to be drawn out over an entire episode? By the end I was begging for him to hurry up and die.

[GoGo Yubari]

Did that really need to be drawn out over an entire episode? By the end I was begging for him to hurry up and die.

No, you don't get it, it was deeply important that The Governor came back. Who could forget all of his memorable interactions with Tyreese?