AMC's The Walking Dead

I just got done watching this. Holy shit. My pulse was literally pounding during that final half-hour.
So much to talk about but I swear I am in shock right now.
So Herschel is dead. I'm surprised but I'm not surprised if that makes sense. The way he died was done in the source material that shall not be named but for another character so I was half expecting it. Still, so heartbreaking. I wonder who is going to be the group's moral compass now that both Dale and Herschel are dead. I wonder if they'll even have one.
Interesting that they killed off the Governor (at least I assume they did) the way they did. I thought for sure he'd make it to the end of the season but since he is (apparently) dead, any one want to take a guess who/what the next villain will be?
Also, am I correct in assuming that little asskicker is dead as well? I'm guessing so given the nature of the shots following Rick and Carl's discovery of the empty basket. If so, man, that's pretty heartless but it will be a damn interesting topic to see play out over the back-half of this season.
Anyway, I thought tonight was a pretty great episode though I have to say I'm pretty disappointed in the Governor's death. The way it went pretty much negated everything I loved about the episode two weeks ago.
Still, another great midseason finale. I especially love that this happened the way it did. I need a couple months away from this show after what went down tonight.

 

So what was that thing they found in the cell at the start of the episode?

 

Some sort of rat that was dissected. I'm assuming to draw walkers to the smell perhaps? Seems like it was probably done by the same person who was feeding the walkers at the gate. My guess is that it's a character we either don't know now or someone we don't know much about.

 

Who wants to hear a dead baby joke? [/toosoon?]

 

I'm guessing the children have the baby somewhere. The car seat was too heavy for them to carry, so they left it behind.
Nice nod to Fulci's "Zombi" with the zombie that killed the Governor's new daughter.

 

Now THAT was a terrific episode!

Anyone else feel Carol is covering for the older of the two little girls (the ones who saved Tyreese) for killing the two who were sick?

RIP, Herschel...

 

The Governor is definitely gone. Kirkman and others talked about it on Talking Dead, specifically getting into how it was done. He said he chose to involve Rick and Micchone to make it more satisfying than if it was just Lilly who did it (which is how it went in that other source some people whine about when we mention it).

I think the baby is alive, though nothing they do to any character, even an infant, would surprise me, no matter how brutal. Again, I'm taking hints from Talking Dead. Kirkman wouldn't say either way, which makes me think there is more story to tell there.

Why does that episode negate anything about two weeks ago? The Governor had a shot to redeem himself, but ended up going back to his old ways. I think his callous reaction to the little girl's death was perfect.

 

This story has a bunch of stuff that was similar yet different to the evil source. As a comic reader, I loved that. They had kinda gotten away from that, so it was cool seeing some of that finally after it didn't play out last season.

Put me on the side that thinks the baby is still around with someone who escaped. There were four kids when the one wanted to go get some guns; only two showed up to save Tyreese. I'm guessing the other two had the kid somewhere. I think there would've been something more definitive than a bloody carseat. I know it would never play out like it did in the Source Material Which Shall Not Be Named, but I still think it would be something less ambiguous.

 

Oh, I wouldn't put the bit from the Sourch Material Which Shall Not Be Named past them, though of course, at least one major detail would have to change.

 

Stupid ending to a lousy season of a show that keeps getting dumber. I might be done with it now. Whereas the first season carried with it a sense of dread and suspense, now it's all about people putting themselves in ridiculous situations so the audience can cheer on zombie kills and carry on about who is going to live or die. There's no longer any advancement of character. Everyone is just on a long, boring march to death.

The first 45 minutes of last night's show were interminable. I wanted to scream at them to just get to it. Then the idiotic B-movie action shootout which started with The Governor pinpointing two walkers with pistol shots from lord knows how far away and ending with bullets from automatic guns flying everywhere and hitting almost no one, or at least no one whose names we know. The bullets couldn't get through flower pots or file cabinets or zombie bodies. Then that dope used the tank to blow up walls of the prison instead of aiming for where people were.

The season was a joke. There were five episodes of people no one knew dying from a plague, a couple episodes of The Governor wandering around going from being a changed man back to his comic-book villain, then one episode of a fight that should have been how last season ended. Makes no sense that The Gov would off Hershel instead of Michonne, makes no sense that all those people would go war against the prison, makes no sense that none of those people would suspect The Governor killed the leadership of their camp, makes no sense that I continue watching.

 

I could have handled the Governor lasting into the second half of this season, but not after Michonne impaled him and then -- no, they're not going to do this, right?! -- walked away while he still was alive. That would have been a very cheap tactic to keep him in the game. At least they cleaned that up with Lilly finishing him.

Wouldn't have minded seeing a walker flossing with the string of the Governor's eye patch.

I also admit, I was pretty happy that the militant gal-pal gunslinger, the one who quickly paired up with Lilly's sister, was taken out definitively. She was nasty, falling in line so quickly and completely with the Governor's killing game. None of the ambivalence exhibited by multiple others in his quickie militia.

And once Darryl sent the the grenade into the tank's barrel, I figured the jerkoff who was inside was going to be toast. Bye-bye. Guess he's eligible to come back as a walker after "only" taking an arrow through the heart.

Given all that went on, I couldn't care less who dissected a rat in the prison. That's a mini-mystery trampled, for me, by the mayhem that now has taken, and still will take, place.

My guess is Judith still is alive, taken out by other kids.

I agree with TSP on a few things, such as why the Governor wouldn't have killed Michonne immediately and especially Darryl using the walker as a shield. We've seen how squishy those folks are, head to toe, so bullets surely were going to pass through it. He'd have been John Connally-ed.

 

I agree on the fight. The Gov. is a dead eye with his pistol, then no one can hit anything once the lead really starts flying. The tank was used primarily as a device to make the prison and unusable habitat for anyone -- great job.

The bit with the girls killing off the battle-hardened bitch was pretty good, though.