AMC's The Walking Dead

That makes sense. I'm a little late to this show. Watched the marathon before season 4 and stuck with it ever since. I've just heard a lot about Negan and the trouble he's going to bring. He should be quite a formidable adversary for Rick.

 

In before Buck says it was a boring episode.

 

I won't get too spoiler-y either, but I will say that Negan was the closest thing to a supervillain the Walking Dead comics had. Even more than the Governor. More than once I was sure Rick's crew had come up with the right plan only for Negan to be safe and sound in the next frame

 

I get where they are going with this and I'm familiar with the "die a hero or watch yourself become the monster" theme that is buried here. I understand for five seasons (two years?) these folks have been balancing survival and humanity and I know the things they've done to survive (rick killing a man with his teeth, Carol doing what she had to with the psycho kid and the flu epidemic.

That said, I just felt...uneasy about the Carol-Sam interaction and Rick kissing that girl and subsequently reaching for his gun. I can look past reaching for the gun (in the context of Walking Dead) based on his prior interaction with the husband (not to mention his run-ins with virtually everyone since the outbreak began) but since it happened after he made a move on the wife the night before...

 

I don't mean to be picky but I really would prefer not to hear about characters that haven't appeared yet. That's a spoiler in itself, folks.

 

It is a fair point, HC. There is a thread for those discussions.

 

FWIW, I absolutely loathe that line. Worst written line Nolan's Batman universe. Makes no sense.

I liked the tension of the episode, but hoped for a little better payoff, even if only a tease to next week. Ultimately, it was just tension for tension's sake without much happening.

I thought Daryl learned a lot about WhatsHisFace (Adam?), though. Guy is a helluva good shot and maybe better in a zombie fight than Daryl expected.

Also, forget the kid Carol scared the shit out of. They're going to get caught with the guns because Carol took the damned piece of chocolate out of the impeccably kept inventory.

 

I wonder if Carol is daring them to catch her. Maybe she wants to force a confrontation, which would then compel Rick and the rest of the group to take over. It certainly seems like something she would do at this point.

I actually like that line. I think Dent's point was that eventually a hero is going to have to compromise and do something ugly to serve a greater purpose. Obviously, it serves as clunky foreshadowing for the end of the movie, but the line itself makes sense, especially coming from Dent. Remember the scene with one of Joker's men. Dent is ready to cross the line before Batman stops him. The darkness is already there. The Joker simply brings it out.

This may be the comic and cartoon fan in me seeing that in Harvey Dent. I always think of the Batman: The Animated Series version of the character, who had a split personality even before he was scarred. He tried so hard to bury his anger, it created a second personality, then he cracked entirely. (Sorry for the tangent. I've always loved the psychology of Batman and his villains.)

 

There was so much about that line that made it total shit for me. There was no subtlety to it whatsoever - Dent literally dies the hero, while Batman literally lives long enough to see himself become the villain (albeit unjustly). As Dick would say, it's too "on the nose." It's also definitively incorrect. He presents it as a binary outcome - this OR that - when, obviously, there are multiple possible outcomes - this, this, this, this and/or that, that, etc.

I guess clunky, as you put it, is the best description of the line. It was just poorly written.

Back to TWD, you have a point about Carol, and I would agree with you if it happened after her last conversation with Rick and Daryl. I think she's ready to be done with the charade and she's guarded against the possibility that Daryl and Rick will become complacent. But in the context of how it was shown, it seemed more like an afterthought, rather than a calculated decision. I would have expected more of a knowing glance, or something to indicate it was part of a plan, if that were the case.

 

Maybe, though Carol has developed a pretty good poker face. I'd have to watch the scene again.

To the line, it's not so much that the line is truly accurate. I'm saying it made sense for Dent to think that way.

 

Yeah, but she thought she was alone, so need for a poker face. I think it's just a plot point for the writers to force the conflict, but not a calculated move by Carol to force the conflict.

 

Then where do you get the idea that it was an afterthought if not reading her expression? Maybe I just need to watch it again.