AMC's The Walking Dead

No argument there. I'm tired of the splintered storytelling, too. I missed chunks of the last two episodes and I don't care. It happens in comic books. An issue is not crucial to understanding the overall story, so you can skip it.

You are right that this is Rick's story. Kirkman has even said that, especially about the comic. Sometimes, the show gets away from that and loses direction.

 

Apparently not an episode that inspired a lot of reaction. No wonder.
Spent an hour getting from chasing the mystery car to getting close to the hospital.
S-l-o-w.

 

Worst episode I've seen. Could have been done in a 30 second montage. And that van going off the side? Weak. It's like they dropped it, someone got the idea of dropping the walkers onto the roof and had to (somehow) show the van landing on all four wheels, when a second before it was headed straight down into the ground.

 

Yeah, that was a pretty drearily dull episode. I don't know about 30 seconds, but it would have been fine as a subplot inserted into last week's episode with maybe 12 minutes of screen time.

 

It was slow until the end. And at least we finally see who's with Daryl.

And that raises a question about the timeline of the show. Was all of that with Carol and Daryl going on while the gang was getting ready to split up?

 

The night that Daryl and Carol were trailing the car and staying in the women's shelter was the night that Rick and Co. killed Gareth and the Terminus people.

The following day was on the same timeline as Abraham and Co. leaving the church. So Daryl and Noah's return, which was hinted at back at the end of episode 3, occurs on the first night Abe's group is gone.

I'm guessing Daryl will catch up everyone back at the church that night and they'll make plans to leave the next day. Which may not be in time for Abe's group to rejoin them if that group is headed back to the church following Eugene's admission. Some trailers and previews have suggested they're headed that way though and may play a factor in the midseason finale.

 

Carol going back into the skyway without looking (Noah surprises them), both of them getting into the van, the van apparently doing a complete somersault to land on its wheels, Carol getting out of the van without immediately looking up to make sure no more walkers are going to fall on them ... sloppy contrivances. And all the "deep" dialogue about burning away who she was, yada yada ... worst episode ever. Why'd the car they were chasing stop to grab at (but not take) a bicycle? Just to create some tension ("will he see them?") and to fill time?

 

This helps explain. Apparently the showrunners, or the network, didn't consider her a regular until Season 3, though she did.

http://tvline.com/2013/04/04/walking-dead-melissa-mcbride-series-regular/

 

And in the van-drop segment of the after-show, a producer referred to that episode as the 'action episode.'

It was dull. The last three episodes have been dull.

 

The van dropping off the bridge was bad. It looked like the van was going to land on its roof, only to cut away for a second, and then we see it land right-side up. How the crap does that work? It was a 40-50 foot drop, which probably isn't enough time for the van to do a full flip, right? Why the hell would they film it doing a nose dive and then cut to it landing on its wheels?

 

They ran out of vans? LOL

 

Last three weeks have drained the momentum from what I thought was a pretty good season till this. I'd rather they milked the Termites longer.