In June 2012, at the Black and White Project Space in New York, NewVillager laid out an installation of 100 black, white, blue, red, and green household objects in a circle and performed the Upholder Game.
Friday, 28 December 2012
Thursday, 20 December 2012
Monday, 3 December 2012
Sunday, 2 December 2012
Welcome back to another ...PrettyMuchAMovie Liveblog!
Today's episode of The Walking Dead promises to either bring many separate conflicts to a head in neat and interesting ways, or to completely bore us and hold off on further development until we return next year. Eww. Hopefully they chose to move things along.
So, what's today's Mid-Life Season Crisis going to be, any way?
then we go to a commercial.
9:07 - andrea's checking herself out in the mirror,
then finding some pictures of the governor in his past life. he walks up behind her, and they discuss milton and cremating mr coleman. kind of sounds like a movie title, no?
interesting sexy talk.
anyway, andrea talks about helping the people through this mess, and the governor goes on about woodbury growing on her. then they kiss of course, and she takes off.
9:08 - later, the governor is in his head room, and we find out he keeps the daughter, penny there.
he turns on some music and calls her out.
"penny, hunnie, it's daddy."
he's got a bowl of gross shit to feed her, and she comes racing out at him, her head covered in a sack.
this child doesn't act it well (wriggles from the shoulders, but very little head-lunging), but the makeup is nice.
anyway, the gov goes and sings to the daughter, and it seems like she's calming down?
no, she really just wants the guts he brought her.
any way, she ignores him, and he starts screaming "look at me!" she ignores him some more ('cause she's still a zombie), so he locks her up.
i'd care more about this if he wasn't so gross, but hey.
9:10 - we open up on glenn and maggie.
"maggie, did he uhh,"
"no," she interrupts. "he barely touched me."
she goes on that after all this time with walkers, she forgot how terrible people can be. how they always could be.
then they hug.
i guess that's like, closure or whatever?
anyway, they keep showing suspicious long shots of the walker, so glenn goes over to it.
he proceeds to rip off the arm, and almost puke, then break it off at the elbow?
then disgustingly, he pulls out the broken radius and fashions it into a shiv for he and maggie.
glenn is fucking awesome. if he dies, it's fucking over (note: we doubt that glenn will ever die - at least this season).
9:12 - outside of woodbury, rick and his group wait. they watch the walls, and hear a twig snap behind them. everyone swings around, but it's michonne, and they actually let her lead.
9:13 - back inside, merle and the governor talk about taking out the prison. not to move in or anything, but just to kill them for his fun?
merle goes on to say that his brother's there, and the governor says they'll make him their inside man.
"whatever happens, nothing happens to my brother," merle tells the governor.
then they decide keeping andrea, glenn and maggie all around is dangerous, so they'll take glenn and maggie to the screaming pits.
9:15 - inside a house now, where michonne was questioned, the group argues.
daryl decides they should split up.
some guy comes in and tells them he knows they're in there
"i saw you moving from outside."
the man walks in further and rick gets a gun in the man's face after they zip-tie him.
"we're our own people and you're holding some of our people. where are they?"
they shove a rag in the dude's mouth, and knock him right out,
9:16 - okay, so back at the prison axel is being a COMPLETE perv towards beth as she and carl hang out in a cell with judith.
"how old are you?" axel asks her.
"seventeen."
"seventeen, interesting."
carol calls him out, and tells him to fuck off, and he says he hasn't seen women in a while, and he thought carol was a lesbian. i'd shoot him in the apocalypse. no question.
"you got the short hair. you're not a lesbian? my, my. this is interesting."
"no, it's not." she walks away. carol is pretty great. but yeah, totally kill that guy. he'll be trouble, and there've been enough sexual assaults this season.
9:17 - holy shit!
maggie and glenn storm out of hold and maggie kills the fuck out of one guy with that bone, taking the advice of my grade 9 english teacher and going for the jugular. it's seriously impressive and pretty gruesome.
merle gets glenn pinned with his sword, but maggie's on him with the dead guy's automatic.
"let him go," she tells him.
he does gladly though, because reinforcements are there, having heard the scuffle.
he beats up glenn, and then we're off to commercial, and trailers for the animal-murdering adaptation of the hobbit.
9:21 - rick and the group seem pretty damn close to infiltrating the inner workings.
merle tells maggie and glenn "i'm glad we could catch up" and then they're both hooded - but not until we get a shot of the couple staring into each others' eyes as glenn exhorts maggie to just keep looking at him. it's pretty sweet and terrible all at once.
as glenn and maggie are led away, rick and daryl flash bomb the hallway. daryl runs in and grabs them out.
further away, andrea walks around being sexy, and there's some chaos happening as people react to the gunfire and the guy the group beating up earlier being found and telling his story.
"we're under attack. you find out who and you find out how. you shoot to kill and you don't take any prisoners, you understand?" the governor tells his men.
9:23 - rick and the group run into a house, maggie asking how they found them, and where "that woman was" referring to michonne.
"daryl, this was merle," glenn tells him going in to explain how this was all done by merle.
"you mean merle is this scumbag?"
maggie explains that he's the governor's lieutenant or something.
daryl's freaking out, 'cause he wants to meet up with merle and talk to him.
"maybe they can work it out."
glenn explains "they" had to tell them where the prison was. it's pretty rad of him to continue to back maggie up and be on her side! we love glenn.
rick has to convince daryl to stay with him. even though i think rick's kind of a dickbag, i'm surprised he's able to talk daryl down like this. it's seriously like kicking a puppy. and reedus is a good enough actor for us to infer him blaming rick for him being separated from merle in the first place.
but, you know. it all works out.
9:25 - there's a tiny team meeting, and the governor delegates duties to his inner circle. merle leads a search team, and andrea (reluctantly) leads a door to door look around michonne.
9:26 - further away, michonne is in the gov's house, snooping about.
she unsheathes her sword and sits down to wait for him.
9:27 - rick's group throws another round of smoke bombs out the door and makes a run for it, under heavy gunfire. tons of woodburians are killed. andrea hears the gunfire and goes to investigate. daryl and rick and killing guys left right and centre.
andrea's shooting at people in the fog, not recognizing anyone yet.
she's joined by the governor.
"you alright?"
"i saw them," she tells him.
she explains one of the guys was "black guy, young. he was wearing a prison jumpsuit."
the governor opts for a pretty familiar fear-driven narrative: they must be escaped convicts! after our peaceful suburbian way of life!
governor decides they're not soldiers, they're survivors. they'll wait these people out.
daryl says he's going to stay behind and lay cover fire for the group.
this will obviously end well.
daryl hits some more people and the group slowly makes its way out.
rick is clearly going nuts 'cause he sees shane coming at him, and this shane guy kills oscar.
rick's nuts, obviously so he shoots the guy then goes to investigate. blah blah rick has feeeeeeelings and has forgotten about lori and OH MY GOD WHO CARES.
maggie has the common courtesy to actually kill poor oscar. she and glenn finally makes it over the fence as rick retreats and daryl looks caught up. of course.
hey guys, totally good job having a transitional black character between t-dog and tyreese so we umm, didn't think you were racist or anything, y'know?
oh well, at least reedus and lincoln are good actors, right?
commercials.
one of which is a django trailer.
9:33 - carl's whittling and hershel finally got judith to sleep.
carl goes on about going to get some formula for judith, and being hard in general.
they hear screams, and carl decides to investigate, 'cause it's carl. interesting note - carl is concerned the screaming woman could be carol, but hershel informs him that carol is with axel. so...that somehow means she couldn't be screaming? get it together!
9:34 - off he goes with his baseball bat lookin' silencer, through the dark, towards the screams. it's pretty fuckin' scary, really.
some noises are coming from the boiler room. he gets sentimental and weird, but a walker's up on him.
he blows its head off then heads in.
tyreese's group is killing the fuck out walkers but carl helps anyway.
"come on," he yells. "hurry."
they get into moral arguments about leaving the bitten lady, and then - !!
9:36 - we cut to michonne in the governor's house.
she hears the noises coming from his head room and kicks the doors in. she sees her boys and that soldier and becomes, well, pretty angry.
then she hears the daughter.
9:37 - she opens the door and crouches down to look in.
"it's okay," she says. "i'm not going to hurt you."
she clearly doesn't know.
but she knew the governor was so bad she thought he kept little girls chained up in his house? see...somehow to me, this means that michonne gets it in a way rick et al never will.
9:38 - anyway, michonne's right about to kill zombie-penny but somebody screams no, and it's the governor and he has a gun.
he quickly puts that down though.
"it's me you want," he tells michonne. "there's no need for her to suffer."
"she doesn't have needs."
great acting by the gov here! too bad i think he's mad yucky. it's a good performance nonetheless.
michonne straight fucking kills her, sword through the mouth and the governor's on her, punching her face and choking her. michonne gets the upper hand though, choking him with the sword. they struggle and eventually her head is slammed into the same fishtank as her boys, leading to her dragging down two MORE tanks, and she's cut up, and the heads are on the ground biting, and this is super intense.
why can't the entire show be this good?! goddamn! i mean, i'm having trouble watching this!
the's reaching for glass, and her sword, eventually choosing glas and ripping a piece of glass off of a fish tank with her bare hand and plunging it into the governor's eye.
so there's blood everywhere, and screaming and she's about to kill him when andrea comes to his defense?
"what have you done?" she asks michonne.
look at this place! what has he done, andrea?
any way, there's a stand off, and andrea lets michonne go.
she heads in to help the gov, but then sees all the walker heads, and him with glass shards sticking out of his eyes holding his walker daughter, and this is gruesome, and crazy, holy shit.
didn't expect the glass in the eye, and the daughter death or all the gruesome fun all at once. wow.
glad i had so much food for dinner
commercial.
9:46 - so here's carl inside the prison with tyreese's gang and their bitten woman.
he puts his gun up on her head and says he'll take care of it.
"she doesn't have much time."
"we take care of our own," tyreese says, then goes to use his hammer.
at least they put a bandana over her head.
they all stop when they hear a lock creaking.
"hey kid, did you just lock us in here?"
"this room is secure. you have food and water. you'll be safe in here."
the lady goes on screaming to carl about how they can't treat them like animals.
"back away from the man," tyreese says. "it's the best we've had in weeks, this man's house. plus we have things to take care of."
they walk away.
"shouldn't we help them?" beth asks carl.
"i did," he replies. carl's daddy taught him not to trust black people.
9:48 - back at woodbury, the indian doctor is still alive and helping the governor.
the governor apparently has some explaining to do for andrea, even though it won't make a difference to her and her foolish ways anyway. and really, why would he be obligated to tell her the truth? she's so naive it's almost painful.
"what the hell was that? why was she here? why was she fighting you?"
the governor, good ol' phil implies that andrea should know. after all, she spent all those months with that kitana-slinging loose cannon.
"the fishtanks? the heads?" andrea retorts
"i made myself look at them, to prepare me for the horrors outside."
"and penny," andrea asks.
boo, i called penny annie earlier.
any way, milton AND merle are here to help.
merle, uhhh, told the governor michonne was dead, so he's not to happy.
"they made it over the wall, i'll go after them in the morning."
the governor turns to merle, angry and kinda menacingly, then it's a commercial.
9:54 - we're back. michonne catches up with rick and his crow outside of woodbury, and rick has a gun on her?
he tells her to get her hands up and takes her sword.
"find the rest of your people?... i brought you here to save them."
rick says thanks for the help.
"you'll need help, to get them back to the prison, or to go back in there for daryl, either way. you'll need me."
her eyes are so pleading. ugh! i loathe rick!
9:56 - back inside woodbury, people are gathered around the biter fighting pen, and the governor appears to address them.
"what can i say? hasn't been a night like this since the walls were completed. and i thought we were past it. past the days when we all sat, huddled scared in front of the tv during the early days of the outbreak. the fear we all felt then, we felt it again tonight. i failed you. i promised to keep you safe. hell, look at me. now, i, i should tell you that we'll be okay. that we're safe. that tomorrow, we'll bury our dead and endure. but i won't. 'cause i can't. 'cause i'm afraid. that's right. i'm afraid of terrorists who want what we have. want to destroy us! and worse, 'cause one of those terrorists is one of our own! merle!"
there's a mumble and banter. and damn, he sure loves that word (terrorist).
"the man i trusted. he led 'em here, and he led them in." they take away his arm blade.
"it was you. you lied. you betrayed us all."
they bring out daryl, in a hood.
"and this is one of the terrorists. merle's own brother!"
"what should we do with them?" the governor asks
the crowd essentially starts chanting kill them, and we get a nice terminatoresque beat out of mcreary. oh fuck, we miss that show so much. it was sooooo fucking streets ahead of this mediocrity.
"you wanted your brother," the governor says, walking up to merle. "hey you got him."
then he walks back listening to the bloodthirsty crowd as we cut to credits.
whelp, that was actually a little less revelatory than expected, with very little really happening. like what? maggie and glenn swapped for merle? oscar swapped for tyreese? it was action filled and gory, and much less rapey, but does that really make it much better of an episode? (yes, yes it does. badass violence minus the sexual assault! whee!)
i guess we'll see where they take this moving forward, and what will really happen when woodbury retorts. february is a long time to wait, but that's when we'll have to reconvene for walking dead fun. make sure to stop by in the mean time, as some fun things are certainly in queue.
Today's episode of The Walking Dead promises to either bring many separate conflicts to a head in neat and interesting ways, or to completely bore us and hold off on further development until we return next year. Eww. Hopefully they chose to move things along.
So, what's today's Mid-
Will Rick and his small group of roamers break through the walls of Woodbury?
Will Andrea finally wake up and realize that the Governor is a disgusting slimy doucheball?
Will Carl be able to hold down the fort/prison with Rick and Daryl gone?
carl's hp has varied strongly from season one. he's even attained +4 bullet resistance. i guess that justifies placing him in charge of grown-ass adults?
For the answer to these and many more questions, jump with us, and get a little party going.
8:30 - well, i guess as long as we keep opening these things up early, somebody's going to keep being early. nothing exciting has happened yet, no walkers killed, no human drama started. maybe take a few minutes to get instrospective. maybe step outside for a little while and think.
not sure why daryl took this moment to remove his cool crossbow, but hey.
just don't blame us when you realize it's cold out, and you forgot your sleeves.
8:45 - with rumours of many scary and exciting things on the go for tonight's episode, we're going to need to be able to insulate these here emotions. we'll be doing that with james ready beer and mad tom ipa. david's tea will soothe our throats after.
8:55 - mute your phones and turn out the lights. the episode is just around the corner!
9:00 - hey... when did shows start doing midseason finales?
...or offering guest walk on roles? and two screen experiences?
we open on some shots of sunrise over a foggy field, and then a stock woman's scream.
a walker is attracted to it as we hear the woman again in the background.
a man, who presumably is tyreese shows up and beans it.
i like his little hammer deal he uses..
he runs into a woman who has a shovel and wears pearl earrings and confirms he's tyreese.
glad they kept the trademark toque.
they're part of a group that's not faring too well in this small horde they've encountered.
someone's mom is bitten, and an escape is made, walkers and the kid's mom in tow.
nice to see another functional multi-racial group though - that's, well, better than normal here.
9:03 - tyreese comes upon the guard towers of a prison. a woman cautions him.
"we don't know what's in there."
"but we know what's out here," tyreese says.
they decide the bitten woman can't live. she's a liability.
"we have to kill her now."
"maybe," tyreese says.
then there's a beauty of a shot of the prison (i think it's the prison) from the back with some nice theme music creeping in behind it.
then we go to a commercial.
9:07 - andrea's checking herself out in the mirror,
(link)
then finding some pictures of the governor in his past life. he walks up behind her, and they discuss milton and cremating mr coleman. kind of sounds like a movie title, no?
interesting sexy talk.
anyway, andrea talks about helping the people through this mess, and the governor goes on about woodbury growing on her. then they kiss of course, and she takes off.
9:08 - later, the governor is in his head room, and we find out he keeps the daughter, penny there.
he turns on some music and calls her out.
"penny, hunnie, it's daddy."
he's got a bowl of gross shit to feed her, and she comes racing out at him, her head covered in a sack.
this child doesn't act it well (wriggles from the shoulders, but very little head-lunging), but the makeup is nice.
anyway, the gov goes and sings to the daughter, and it seems like she's calming down?
no, she really just wants the guts he brought her.
perhaps the governor should try keeping bacon in his pocket.
(link)
any way, she ignores him, and he starts screaming "look at me!" she ignores him some more ('cause she's still a zombie), so he locks her up.
i'd care more about this if he wasn't so gross, but hey.
9:10 - we open up on glenn and maggie.
"maggie, did he uhh,"
"no," she interrupts. "he barely touched me."
she goes on that after all this time with walkers, she forgot how terrible people can be. how they always could be.
then they hug.
i guess that's like, closure or whatever?
anyway, they keep showing suspicious long shots of the walker, so glenn goes over to it.
he proceeds to rip off the arm, and almost puke, then break it off at the elbow?
then disgustingly, he pulls out the broken radius and fashions it into a shiv for he and maggie.
glenn is fucking awesome. if he dies, it's fucking over (note: we doubt that glenn will ever die - at least this season).
9:12 - outside of woodbury, rick and his group wait. they watch the walls, and hear a twig snap behind them. everyone swings around, but it's michonne, and they actually let her lead.
9:13 - back inside, merle and the governor talk about taking out the prison. not to move in or anything, but just to kill them for his fun?
merle goes on to say that his brother's there, and the governor says they'll make him their inside man.
"whatever happens, nothing happens to my brother," merle tells the governor.
then they decide keeping andrea, glenn and maggie all around is dangerous, so they'll take glenn and maggie to the screaming pits.
9:15 - inside a house now, where michonne was questioned, the group argues.
daryl decides they should split up.
some guy comes in and tells them he knows they're in there
"i saw you moving from outside."
the man walks in further and rick gets a gun in the man's face after they zip-tie him.
"we're our own people and you're holding some of our people. where are they?"
they shove a rag in the dude's mouth, and knock him right out,
9:16 - okay, so back at the prison axel is being a COMPLETE perv towards beth as she and carl hang out in a cell with judith.
"how old are you?" axel asks her.
"seventeen."
"seventeen, interesting."
(link)
carol calls him out, and tells him to fuck off, and he says he hasn't seen women in a while, and he thought carol was a lesbian. i'd shoot him in the apocalypse. no question.
"you got the short hair. you're not a lesbian? my, my. this is interesting."
"no, it's not." she walks away. carol is pretty great. but yeah, totally kill that guy. he'll be trouble, and there've been enough sexual assaults this season.
axel is crawling with red flags. he should really get that checked out!
(link)
9:17 - holy shit!
maggie and glenn storm out of hold and maggie kills the fuck out of one guy with that bone, taking the advice of my grade 9 english teacher and going for the jugular. it's seriously impressive and pretty gruesome.
merle gets glenn pinned with his sword, but maggie's on him with the dead guy's automatic.
"let him go," she tells him.
he does gladly though, because reinforcements are there, having heard the scuffle.
he beats up glenn, and then we're off to commercial, and trailers for the animal-murdering adaptation of the hobbit.
9:21 - rick and the group seem pretty damn close to infiltrating the inner workings.
merle tells maggie and glenn "i'm glad we could catch up" and then they're both hooded - but not until we get a shot of the couple staring into each others' eyes as glenn exhorts maggie to just keep looking at him. it's pretty sweet and terrible all at once.
as glenn and maggie are led away, rick and daryl flash bomb the hallway. daryl runs in and grabs them out.
further away, andrea walks around being sexy, and there's some chaos happening as people react to the gunfire and the guy the group beating up earlier being found and telling his story.
"we're under attack. you find out who and you find out how. you shoot to kill and you don't take any prisoners, you understand?" the governor tells his men.
9:23 - rick and the group run into a house, maggie asking how they found them, and where "that woman was" referring to michonne.
how?! how do you not know my name?!
(link)
"daryl, this was merle," glenn tells him going in to explain how this was all done by merle.
"you mean merle is this scumbag?"
maggie explains that he's the governor's lieutenant or something.
daryl's freaking out, 'cause he wants to meet up with merle and talk to him.
"maybe they can work it out."
glenn explains "they" had to tell them where the prison was. it's pretty rad of him to continue to back maggie up and be on her side! we love glenn.
rick has to convince daryl to stay with him. even though i think rick's kind of a dickbag, i'm surprised he's able to talk daryl down like this. it's seriously like kicking a puppy. and reedus is a good enough actor for us to infer him blaming rick for him being separated from merle in the first place.
but, you know. it all works out.
9:25 - there's a tiny team meeting, and the governor delegates duties to his inner circle. merle leads a search team, and andrea (reluctantly) leads a door to door look around michonne.
9:26 - further away, michonne is in the gov's house, snooping about.
she unsheathes her sword and sits down to wait for him.
9:27 - rick's group throws another round of smoke bombs out the door and makes a run for it, under heavy gunfire. tons of woodburians are killed. andrea hears the gunfire and goes to investigate. daryl and rick and killing guys left right and centre.
andrea's shooting at people in the fog, not recognizing anyone yet.
she's joined by the governor.
"you alright?"
"i saw them," she tells him.
she explains one of the guys was "black guy, young. he was wearing a prison jumpsuit."
the governor opts for a pretty familiar fear-driven narrative: they must be escaped convicts! after our peaceful suburbian way of life!
governor decides they're not soldiers, they're survivors. they'll wait these people out.
daryl says he's going to stay behind and lay cover fire for the group.
this will obviously end well.
daryl hits some more people and the group slowly makes its way out.
rick is clearly going nuts 'cause he sees shane coming at him, and this shane guy kills oscar.
rick's nuts, obviously so he shoots the guy then goes to investigate. blah blah rick has feeeeeeelings and has forgotten about lori and OH MY GOD WHO CARES.
maggie has the common courtesy to actually kill poor oscar. she and glenn finally makes it over the fence as rick retreats and daryl looks caught up. of course.
hey guys, totally good job having a transitional black character between t-dog and tyreese so we umm, didn't think you were racist or anything, y'know?
(link)
oh well, at least reedus and lincoln are good actors, right?
commercials.
one of which is a django trailer.
9:33 - carl's whittling and hershel finally got judith to sleep.
carl goes on about going to get some formula for judith, and being hard in general.
they hear screams, and carl decides to investigate, 'cause it's carl. interesting note - carl is concerned the screaming woman could be carol, but hershel informs him that carol is with axel. so...that somehow means she couldn't be screaming? get it together!
get it together, grouch.
(link)
9:34 - off he goes with his baseball bat lookin' silencer, through the dark, towards the screams. it's pretty fuckin' scary, really.
some noises are coming from the boiler room. he gets sentimental and weird, but a walker's up on him.
he blows its head off then heads in.
tyreese's group is killing the fuck out walkers but carl helps anyway.
"come on," he yells. "hurry."
they get into moral arguments about leaving the bitten lady, and then - !!
9:36 - we cut to michonne in the governor's house.
she hears the noises coming from his head room and kicks the doors in. she sees her boys and that soldier and becomes, well, pretty angry.
then she hears the daughter.
9:37 - she opens the door and crouches down to look in.
"it's okay," she says. "i'm not going to hurt you."
she clearly doesn't know.
but she knew the governor was so bad she thought he kept little girls chained up in his house? see...somehow to me, this means that michonne gets it in a way rick et al never will.
9:38 - anyway, michonne's right about to kill zombie-penny but somebody screams no, and it's the governor and he has a gun.
he quickly puts that down though.
"it's me you want," he tells michonne. "there's no need for her to suffer."
"she doesn't have needs."
great acting by the gov here! too bad i think he's mad yucky. it's a good performance nonetheless.
michonne straight fucking kills her, sword through the mouth and the governor's on her, punching her face and choking her. michonne gets the upper hand though, choking him with the sword. they struggle and eventually her head is slammed into the same fishtank as her boys, leading to her dragging down two MORE tanks, and she's cut up, and the heads are on the ground biting, and this is super intense.
why can't the entire show be this good?! goddamn! i mean, i'm having trouble watching this!
the's reaching for glass, and her sword, eventually choosing glas and ripping a piece of glass off of a fish tank with her bare hand and plunging it into the governor's eye.
i like to think this scene is an homage to this classic moment in dead and buried, but i'm probably wrong about that.
(link)
so there's blood everywhere, and screaming and she's about to kill him when andrea comes to his defense?
"what have you done?" she asks michonne.
look at this place! what has he done, andrea?
any way, there's a stand off, and andrea lets michonne go.
she heads in to help the gov, but then sees all the walker heads, and him with glass shards sticking out of his eyes holding his walker daughter, and this is gruesome, and crazy, holy shit.
didn't expect the glass in the eye, and the daughter death or all the gruesome fun all at once. wow.
glad i had so much food for dinner
commercial.
9:46 - so here's carl inside the prison with tyreese's gang and their bitten woman.
he puts his gun up on her head and says he'll take care of it.
"she doesn't have much time."
"we take care of our own," tyreese says, then goes to use his hammer.
at least they put a bandana over her head.
they all stop when they hear a lock creaking.
"hey kid, did you just lock us in here?"
"this room is secure. you have food and water. you'll be safe in here."
the lady goes on screaming to carl about how they can't treat them like animals.
"back away from the man," tyreese says. "it's the best we've had in weeks, this man's house. plus we have things to take care of."
they walk away.
"shouldn't we help them?" beth asks carl.
"i did," he replies. carl's daddy taught him not to trust black people.
9:48 - back at woodbury, the indian doctor is still alive and helping the governor.
the governor apparently has some explaining to do for andrea, even though it won't make a difference to her and her foolish ways anyway. and really, why would he be obligated to tell her the truth? she's so naive it's almost painful.
"what the hell was that? why was she here? why was she fighting you?"
the governor, good ol' phil implies that andrea should know. after all, she spent all those months with that kitana-slinging loose cannon.
"the fishtanks? the heads?" andrea retorts
"i made myself look at them, to prepare me for the horrors outside."
"and penny," andrea asks.
boo, i called penny annie earlier.
any way, milton AND merle are here to help.
merle, uhhh, told the governor michonne was dead, so he's not to happy.
"they made it over the wall, i'll go after them in the morning."
the governor turns to merle, angry and kinda menacingly, then it's a commercial.
9:54 - we're back. michonne catches up with rick and his crow outside of woodbury, and rick has a gun on her?
he tells her to get her hands up and takes her sword.
(link)
"get what you came for?""find the rest of your people?... i brought you here to save them."
rick says thanks for the help.
"you'll need help, to get them back to the prison, or to go back in there for daryl, either way. you'll need me."
her eyes are so pleading. ugh! i loathe rick!
9:56 - back inside woodbury, people are gathered around the biter fighting pen, and the governor appears to address them.
"what can i say? hasn't been a night like this since the walls were completed. and i thought we were past it. past the days when we all sat, huddled scared in front of the tv during the early days of the outbreak. the fear we all felt then, we felt it again tonight. i failed you. i promised to keep you safe. hell, look at me. now, i, i should tell you that we'll be okay. that we're safe. that tomorrow, we'll bury our dead and endure. but i won't. 'cause i can't. 'cause i'm afraid. that's right. i'm afraid of terrorists who want what we have. want to destroy us! and worse, 'cause one of those terrorists is one of our own! merle!"
there's a mumble and banter. and damn, he sure loves that word (terrorist).
(link)
"the man i trusted. he led 'em here, and he led them in." they take away his arm blade.
"it was you. you lied. you betrayed us all."
they bring out daryl, in a hood.
"and this is one of the terrorists. merle's own brother!"
"what should we do with them?" the governor asks
the crowd essentially starts chanting kill them, and we get a nice terminatoresque beat out of mcreary. oh fuck, we miss that show so much. it was sooooo fucking streets ahead of this mediocrity.
(link)
"you wanted your brother," the governor says, walking up to merle. "hey you got him."
then he walks back listening to the bloodthirsty crowd as we cut to credits.
whelp, that was actually a little less revelatory than expected, with very little really happening. like what? maggie and glenn swapped for merle? oscar swapped for tyreese? it was action filled and gory, and much less rapey, but does that really make it much better of an episode? (yes, yes it does. badass violence minus the sexual assault! whee!)
i guess we'll see where they take this moving forward, and what will really happen when woodbury retorts. february is a long time to wait, but that's when we'll have to reconvene for walking dead fun. make sure to stop by in the mean time, as some fun things are certainly in queue.
Sunday, 25 November 2012
Good Sunday Evening, everyone!
Clearly with it being Sunday, you've shuffled your internet self over here to have a few drinks, and crunch some chips, and find out all about Walkers, Biters, Lurkers and Creepers with us.
Today's episode is called "When the Dead Come Knocking", and promises to bring us further befuddlement of our favourite settlements at both Unnamed Prison, and Woodbury, Georgia.
Wouldn't you know it though, I'm not particularly aware of any songs out there in the world called "When the Dead Come Knocking". I do suppose that we could write it. Or maybe even that some obscure metal band has already done so and it's not on Youtube. Either way, everyone loves some Johnny Cash.
8:30 - welcome, madames et monsieurs to another installment of Walker/Biter Theatre. We'll be your hosts for another week.
it has been brought to our attention that a few weeks ago we made a clerical error, and as such have an editorial correction. Please note the following picture.
(link)
we're still making dinner, here. shrimp po' boy sandwiches. yay us.
8:45 - as we prepare our dinner, and while watching most of the episode, we'll be drinking la fin du monde and mill street stock organic. during talking dead? tea tea tea from david's tea.
what in the hell do you folks drink? always coca-cola?
Clearly with it being Sunday, you've shuffled your internet self over here to have a few drinks, and crunch some chips, and find out all about Walkers, Biters, Lurkers and Creepers with us.
Today's episode is called "When the Dead Come Knocking", and promises to bring us further befuddlement of our favourite settlements at both Unnamed Prison, and Woodbury, Georgia.
Wouldn't you know it though, I'm not particularly aware of any songs out there in the world called "When the Dead Come Knocking". I do suppose that we could write it. Or maybe even that some obscure metal band has already done so and it's not on Youtube. Either way, everyone loves some Johnny Cash.
Close enough, eh? Honourable mention to Knocking on Heaven's Door from Axl and Co.
So what do the sick fucks writers have in store for us this week?
How much longer will Andrea run around with her head in her ass?
How far will the Governor go in questioning Glenn and Maggie?
Will Little Ass-Kicker get a name? Or some of Michonne's formula?
Will Michonne find sanctuary with Rick's gang?
Will Michonne find sanctuary with Rick's gang?
oscar too has risen to a level of respect. it's true. otherwise, why would they even show us this?
Join us over the jump to get the answer to these, and hopefully many more questions.
8:30 - welcome, madames et monsieurs to another installment of Walker/Biter Theatre. We'll be your hosts for another week.
it has been brought to our attention that a few weeks ago we made a clerical error, and as such have an editorial correction. Please note the following picture.
we have noted that this is not, in fact a poncho, but instead a serape.
this, is a poncho
(link)
we apologize for any inconvenience.
now grab your snacks, and liquor up, friends. it promises to be a hectic week.
we're still making dinner, here. shrimp po' boy sandwiches. yay us.
8:45 - as we prepare our dinner, and while watching most of the episode, we'll be drinking la fin du monde and mill street stock organic. during talking dead? tea tea tea from david's tea.
what in the hell do you folks drink? always coca-cola?
(link)
she standss up.
daryl's on her with the crossbow.
it's intense, but i enjoy that she's talking.
michonne starts explaining about the settlement, woodbury, the governor, etc.
"a pretty boy. charming, jim jones type.
rick asks if they could infiltrate.
9:15 - glenn's had the shit kicked out of him, and merle's mouthy about it.
"i'm surprised you lasted this long," merle says to glenn, "so tell me, where y'all been at?"
"it's just a matter of time 'til they come looking, " glenn responds.
"i'll bake a cake, with pink frosting. think they'll like that?"
glenn goes on about how they're hard, rick, shane, dale, jim, andrea, how they're all coming.
he's clearly fucked up on the andrea part.
"we? is that right?" merle asks.
commercial time.
9:20 - back at the prison, hershel (who has plenty of experience with gunshot wounds, and also some pretty great eyebrows) is fixing up michonne while carl looks on, armed.
meanwhile, the group discusses going with michonne after maggie and glenn.
the whole gang is in.
they cut away, and everyone's loading up that toyata. tear gas and flash bombs, weapons and whatnot.
"don't you worry about your old man," daryl tells carl "i'll keep my eye on him."
aww!
i like their quasi-sibling relationship that seems to be developing.
michonne asks how they cleared the jail out and beth brings her up to speed on their losses. kind of a nice moment for both of them, who have each had limited lines so far this season.
they cut away and rick and carl are having a moment.
"...what you did for me..." rick starts.
carl asks how long they'll be gone, and says he'll be okay.
rick gives him instructions, but carl says he'll be okay.
"take care of your sister, alright?"
"daryl's been calling her asskicker."
"asskicker, has he now? what do you think we should call her?"
carl decides to name her judith, after his third grade teacher.
this was a nicely shot scene, skeletons of the prison in the background.
"stay safe," daryl tells carol.
"bring 'em back," hershel tells rick.
9:23 - they open up the gates and drive off.
back at woodbury, somebody's listening to records and looking at art?
the scientist?
andrea and the gov bust in on him.
he's feeding an elderly gentleman. perhaps mr coleman?
the governor gets cute with him, and thanks him for doing this great service, then departs. andrea stays behind oddly?
she changes the song on science guy's mark, who starts a bowl ringing with a piece of metal?
"my name is milton," the scientist goes on.
he asks the man to raise his hand when he identifies statements as true.
the man remembers himself, his wife and his children.
he holds milton's hand and the man whispers to him as he leans in.
"what did he say," andrea asks.
"he asked if i could keep it playing while we wait."
9:27 - so we cut back to glenn, obviously duct-taped into a chair from wrist to elbow.
merle brings a walker in, telling glenn that this is how he felt on the roof earlier.
"you're a pretty big snack for him, but you know what they say, he'll be hungry again in an hour."
so glenn's fighting a walker, duct-taped to a chair like drew barrymore in charlie's angels.
far less elegantly, he eventually breaks the chair apart and kills the walker with stumps of chair, then starts screaming. 'cause glenn is crazy hard. he hulked out. i thiiiiik merle is going to regret this, 'cause glenn is fucking awesome.
commercial.
lol, during the commercials melissa mcbride offers a list of reasons carol's hair never grows. wish i could have actually read it.
9:32 - back with Milton, we learn the purpose of the experiment.
Whether trace memory of human memory exists after the subject passes and turns.
Mr Coleman has prostate cancer and can't be treated, and as he passes they will keep testing for baseline memories.
Milton and he have spent much time together learning about one another, so that they can ascertain the true level of walker conscience.
Andrea claims there's obviously nothing left. and frankly, she would be pretty invested in that notion, what with having had to shoot amy and all.
"you haven't seen this before... the transformation?"
milton had no family before. he telecommuted to work. he hasn't seen shit.
he has no idea.
how sheltered are the people of Woodbury?
9:34 - whelp. they're restraining Mr Coleman who has passed, and it's a sombre mood here.
Andrea finishes the last parts for Milton who struggles.
9:35 - Merle brings The Governor up to speed.
They realize Glenn is hard, and this all leads to The Governor going to discuss things with Andrea.
Ahh, the old Good Cop, Bad Cop routine?
9:36 - Maggie's alone, dark room, creaky door, the whole nine whenJackson Lake, the Governor shows up.
nice foley on his boots as he stares her down and walks about.
He strolls behind her and undoes her duct tape binding.
He pulls out a chair and asks if he can sit down.
"We'll take you back to your people and explain that this is all just a misunderstanding. You tell us where they are and we'll drive them back there."
"I want to talk to Glenn."
The Governor says her people are dangerous because of what they did to Merle.
"You tell us where they are, and we'll bring them back here."
Well that changed.
She resists.
"No? Let's try something else," the Governor says. "Stand up please."
Maggie resists.
"Take off your shirt," he says.
"No."
"Take off your shirt or I'll bring Glenn's hand in here."
She removes her shirt.
Man, fuck this.
"Go on,"the Governor says.
and she undoes her bra, standing before him topless, covering herself.
He gets up and undoes his belt, then walks towards her.
This is completely called for.
He stands next to her and we can't reeeeally see what's going on, but he starts touching her. Hair first.
Then he slams her face into the table.
"So you want to talk?"
"Do whatever you're going to do, then go hell," she tells him.
He ponders it, then backs off?
That's two for three for sexual assaults of female characters seen having sex previously on screen here.
Classy.
And hey, congratulations, The Walking Dead! And a seeming word of advice to other shows: if you'd like to insulate your work from feminist criticism, just make it extremely painful for women and their allies to watch your show! Yaaaay!
Commercial.
9:44 - we're back.
rick's gang drives down the road.
that must feel weird these days.
anyway, after very little more driving, rick stops the car and they get out.
"they have patrols. we're better off on foot," michonne tells them.
they get out and gear up, walkers in the distance.
i like the sound of cicadas and grasshoppers.
the gang starts walking through the woods.
"i know what you did for me, for my baby, while i was working things out. thank you," rick says to daryl.
"it's what we do," daryl says.
the group comes up upon a pretty serious and sizeable horde within the forest.
some nice throbby music comes in, and rick tells the group to use no gunfire, then they start killing.
they do their best, but there are faaaar too many.
they make a retreat to a small log cabin.
inside daryl remarks on the smell.
"what is that," oscar asks
"probably a fox, or what's left of one," daryl responds.
they're completely surrounded by walkers in this cabin.
9:47 - rick whistles to daryl.
there's a guy under the covers who really resembles this guy:
"get the hell out of my house!"
he starts freaking out and michonne tells them to quiet him down.
the guy brandishes his gun.
"i'll call the cops!"
who the fuck is he?
"i am a cop," rick tells him.
the guy demands a badge, rick feints going for his and then grabs the guy's gun as he shoots and that him.
a struggle breaks out, and michonne ends up stabbing the guy as he heads for the door.
he was clearly a little off.
daryl looks out through the cracks in the walls and asks "remember the alamo?"
9:49 - oscar discerns that the rear exit is safe, so they throw crazy dude's body out the door.
oscar grabs this guy's gun and they make a run for it, as zombie walker hands crawl over the dude guy for much longer than seems interesting.
is this supposed to be worse than what happened to maggie?
who was that guy?
how did he not notice the lack of police? or his dead dog? what phone would he use?
commercial, anyway.
9:53 - we're back, and mr.coleman is turning!
sniffing the air, his eyes turning red.
milton runs through the entire gamut of questions as the former mr. coleman does nothing.
milton interprets a finger twitch (or the zombie clutching and grasping, as they sometimes do) as response, and tries to loosen the bindings to prove his hypothesis.
andrea offs the walker as it lunges for milton's face.
milton is sad.
9:55 - well, the governor and merle bring topless maggie in the room with glenn.
doubt this will end well.
"we're through with games," the governor says, putting a gun to glenn's head. "now one of you is going to give up your gang."
maggie tells him.
"prison..."
"how many are you," the governor asks. "that place was overrun."
"ten. we're ten now."
"ten people cleared that prison of biters?"
maggie's freaking out now, and the governor is mock comforting her, basically creeping (kissing her temples, stroking her hair, pulling her close - but she never breaks eye contact with glenn even as she visibly shudders and tears up and i hate this SO MUCH) before tossing her at glenn and taking off.
9:57 - The Governor's men have an emergeny meeting.
They decide either Maggie is lying, or Rick's Group is crazy scary.
Rick's (sample-sized!) group by the way, is on the outer borders.
"your brother might be out there right now, searching for them," the governor tells merle. "blood is blood, right? makes me wonder where your loyalties lie."
merle assures the governor that blah blah i could not give a fuck about either of you.
the governor decides to send a small scout crew to the prison.
whoaaaa. rick's and co are like, 50 feet from andrea on the other side of the gate, and yet nobody knows.
andrea heads inside to meet her sleazy sexual assualty boyfriend the governor, who asks if she had fun with milton.
andrea pours a drink
"what happened?" the governor asks
"mr coleman died," andrea tells him
bear mcreary throb is back. very dubby.
"and did milton find what he was looking for?"
andrea breaks down, and goes to the governor for comfort.
"hey. it's all right," he tells her. comforting her as he 'comforted' maggie before. "it's okay."
whelp, on that we go to commercial.
that episode was full of grossness. but hey, lots of screen time for female characters? only 1/5 of which were sexually assaulted over the course of the episode? that's.... pretty terrible. but hey, otherwise, it was... an episode of the walking dead?
hey, next week looks like a cracker.
8:55 - still making these damn shrimp sandwiches. ugh.
what does this mean for you? nothing.
what does it mean for me? kinda of cold dinner.
any way, hang on tight, kids, we're rolling soon!
9:00 - i'm so glad they remind me what happened last week. it's not like we blog it or anything.
hey, man. i want to be a character in their video game, or to win the...new...car... driven by the cast this season?
so any way, really - last week, michonne ran out, maggie and glenn got caught... oh, and fuck merle.
right - and michonne found the group.
9:01 - we start off with merle's stump interrogating a bound glenn.
merle claims he means to harm.
"i lowered my gun, but you raised yours."
merle goes on to tell him he was an asshole out there, just like they were in atlanta.
merle really hasn't let go of atlanta.
glenn says they went back for him, rick and daryl and t-dogg
oooh, man. racism! merle calls t-dog a "spear-chucker." off to a classy start, just like season one!
merle wants to meet up with him and bury the hatchet.
glenn tells him he didn't make it.
merle leans in,
"well i hope he went slow."
he goes on to ask about his brother, and then gets niiiiiice and creepy about maggie and glenn.
asking about when she gets scared, and how she kisses glenn. all the while, rubbing his knife/stump about him.
"i remember you. you're sneaky one. you don't get scared, do you?"
he keeps stalking around glenn, going on to ask about daryl.
merle gets his knife up in glenn's face.
"now, i want to know where my brother is. where to sheriff is."
glenn fights back and bloodies merle's nose with a pretty sweet headbutt, but merle eventually gets the better of him.
"i want to know now. tell me. where the hell are they?"
ohh, did we mention maggie is next door and can hear everything? no? well, she can.
so she hears merle beating the crap out of glenn as we go to commercial. did we mention that one of us doesn't actually enjoy human-on-human violence? why the fuck do we watch this show?
9:07 - were back at the prison, and there are walkers at the fence!
but surprise, also michonne.
her and rick have a stare-down. carl runs up as she notes her shot-up leg. i must say, and maybe this is just danai gurira adapting to the writers' lack of insight, but michonne is amazing at conveying things without words. and also at glaring. sexily and otherwise.
some walkers come at her and are dispelled easily.
carl asks if they should help her, but this is michonne. she's beheading shit all over.
she is getting over run though, and she faints.
it looks bad, but see our macro above....
..walkers are on her, but carl shoots them up. sometimes carl is actually pretty cool.
"shit"
rick says, then opens the gate, blasting away.
they put down all the walkers nearby.
carl goes for the formula and discarded backpack. what a little trooper! i'll try to be less annoyed by him.
rick's on her (michonne), and i am groooooossed out by the shot of him moving her clothes to check her injuries. in the moment, it seems way too sexualized, and i can't help but remember he is a law enforcement officer.
"is she bit?" hershel asks.
as a cop, rick correctly identifies her gunshot wound.
9:10 - rick carries michonne in, barking commands.
he claims she's not going to stay in the cellblock.
"who are you?" he asks her.
she goes for her sword.
"we're not going to hurt you, unless you try something stupid first."
"rick," daryl comes in. "who the hell is this?"
rick asks her if she wants to tell them her name.
daryl tells rick to come with him, presumably having looked through her shit.
carl grabs her bag and sword.
michonne catches no breaks.
"the doors are locked, you'll be safe here."
"i didn't ask for your help."
"doesn't matter. you'll be safe here."
rick locks her up and heads up.
9:11 - aww, everyone has a cute carol reunion.
i suppose we care.
i mean, i do like carol.
there's some mcreary shit here, with daryl being a hero, blah blah.
special magic daryl, and sad carol about lori, all while michonne is locked up in another cell.
any way, carl is crying, 'cause everyone's sad about what's happened.
everyone but michonne who looks on angrily.
9:13 - we pan back on the wall of tires, we're at woodbury.
scientist guy, who i can never remember the name of?
yeah, he shows up at the governor's.
'mr.coleman is ready' he tells the governor.
andrea's putting on clothes, 'cause as you might remember she and the gov have some grossness happening.
but i'm not going to lie, that shimmy she does getting back into her pants?
9:14 - back at the prison, rick says he's going to give michonne food and water, but he wants to know why she had formula, and then to send her on her way.
michonne tells them about "the young asian guy, and the pretty girl" (but not the pretty white girl? writers, you're giving your vanilla selves away again!) to explain the formula, and the sonofabitch that shot her.
rick gets hostile and grabs at her wound. there's that fucking police brutality we ALL knew was coming, but dreaded all the same. so, uh, yay?
hey, man. i want to be a character in their video game, or to win the...new...car... driven by the cast this season?
so any way, really - last week, michonne ran out, maggie and glenn got caught... oh, and fuck merle.
right - and michonne found the group.
9:01 - we start off with merle's stump interrogating a bound glenn.
merle claims he means to harm.
"i lowered my gun, but you raised yours."
merle goes on to tell him he was an asshole out there, just like they were in atlanta.
merle really hasn't let go of atlanta.
glenn says they went back for him, rick and daryl and t-dogg
oooh, man. racism! merle calls t-dog a "spear-chucker." off to a classy start, just like season one!
merle wants to meet up with him and bury the hatchet.
glenn tells him he didn't make it.
merle leans in,
"well i hope he went slow."
he goes on to ask about his brother, and then gets niiiiiice and creepy about maggie and glenn.
asking about when she gets scared, and how she kisses glenn. all the while, rubbing his knife/stump about him.
"i remember you. you're sneaky one. you don't get scared, do you?"
i don't want to have any conversations about what a mysterious, inscrutable man i am!
you said it, chang.
(link)
he keeps stalking around glenn, going on to ask about daryl.
merle gets his knife up in glenn's face.
"now, i want to know where my brother is. where to sheriff is."
glenn fights back and bloodies merle's nose with a pretty sweet headbutt, but merle eventually gets the better of him.
"i want to know now. tell me. where the hell are they?"
ohh, did we mention maggie is next door and can hear everything? no? well, she can.
so she hears merle beating the crap out of glenn as we go to commercial. did we mention that one of us doesn't actually enjoy human-on-human violence? why the fuck do we watch this show?
9:07 - were back at the prison, and there are walkers at the fence!
but surprise, also michonne.
her and rick have a stare-down. carl runs up as she notes her shot-up leg. i must say, and maybe this is just danai gurira adapting to the writers' lack of insight, but michonne is amazing at conveying things without words. and also at glaring. sexily and otherwise.
some walkers come at her and are dispelled easily.
carl asks if they should help her, but this is michonne. she's beheading shit all over.
she is getting over run though, and she faints.
it looks bad, but see our macro above....
..walkers are on her, but carl shoots them up. sometimes carl is actually pretty cool.
(link)
"shit"
rick says, then opens the gate, blasting away.
they put down all the walkers nearby.
carl goes for the formula and discarded backpack. what a little trooper! i'll try to be less annoyed by him.
rick's on her (michonne), and i am groooooossed out by the shot of him moving her clothes to check her injuries. in the moment, it seems way too sexualized, and i can't help but remember he is a law enforcement officer.
"is she bit?" hershel asks.
as a cop, rick correctly identifies her gunshot wound.
9:10 - rick carries michonne in, barking commands.
he claims she's not going to stay in the cellblock.
"who are you?" he asks her.
she goes for her sword.
"we're not going to hurt you, unless you try something stupid first."
"rick," daryl comes in. "who the hell is this?"
rick asks her if she wants to tell them her name.
daryl tells rick to come with him, presumably having looked through her shit.
carl grabs her bag and sword.
michonne catches no breaks.
"the doors are locked, you'll be safe here."
"i didn't ask for your help."
"doesn't matter. you'll be safe here."
rick locks her up and heads up.
9:11 - aww, everyone has a cute carol reunion.
i suppose we care.
i mean, i do like carol.
there's some mcreary shit here, with daryl being a hero, blah blah.
(link)
special magic daryl, and sad carol about lori, all while michonne is locked up in another cell.
any way, carl is crying, 'cause everyone's sad about what's happened.
everyone but michonne who looks on angrily.
9:13 - we pan back on the wall of tires, we're at woodbury.
scientist guy, who i can never remember the name of?
yeah, he shows up at the governor's.
'mr.coleman is ready' he tells the governor.
andrea's putting on clothes, 'cause as you might remember she and the gov have some grossness happening.
but i'm not going to lie, that shimmy she does getting back into her pants?
(link)
9:14 - back at the prison, rick says he's going to give michonne food and water, but he wants to know why she had formula, and then to send her on her way.
michonne tells them about "the young asian guy, and the pretty girl" (but not the pretty white girl? writers, you're giving your vanilla selves away again!) to explain the formula, and the sonofabitch that shot her.
rick gets hostile and grabs at her wound. there's that fucking police brutality we ALL knew was coming, but dreaded all the same. so, uh, yay?
(link)
she standss up.
daryl's on her with the crossbow.
it's intense, but i enjoy that she's talking.
michonne starts explaining about the settlement, woodbury, the governor, etc.
"a pretty boy. charming, jim jones type.
rick asks if they could infiltrate.
9:15 - glenn's had the shit kicked out of him, and merle's mouthy about it.
"i'm surprised you lasted this long," merle says to glenn, "so tell me, where y'all been at?"
"it's just a matter of time 'til they come looking, " glenn responds.
"i'll bake a cake, with pink frosting. think they'll like that?"
glenn goes on about how they're hard, rick, shane, dale, jim, andrea, how they're all coming.
he's clearly fucked up on the andrea part.
"we? is that right?" merle asks.
(link)
commercial time.
9:20 - back at the prison, hershel (who has plenty of experience with gunshot wounds, and also some pretty great eyebrows) is fixing up michonne while carl looks on, armed.
meanwhile, the group discusses going with michonne after maggie and glenn.
the whole gang is in.
they cut away, and everyone's loading up that toyata. tear gas and flash bombs, weapons and whatnot.
"don't you worry about your old man," daryl tells carl "i'll keep my eye on him."
aww!
i like their quasi-sibling relationship that seems to be developing.
michonne asks how they cleared the jail out and beth brings her up to speed on their losses. kind of a nice moment for both of them, who have each had limited lines so far this season.
they cut away and rick and carl are having a moment.
"...what you did for me..." rick starts.
carl asks how long they'll be gone, and says he'll be okay.
rick gives him instructions, but carl says he'll be okay.
"take care of your sister, alright?"
"daryl's been calling her asskicker."
"asskicker, has he now? what do you think we should call her?"
carl decides to name her judith, after his third grade teacher.
this was a nicely shot scene, skeletons of the prison in the background.
"stay safe," daryl tells carol.
"bring 'em back," hershel tells rick.
9:23 - they open up the gates and drive off.
back at woodbury, somebody's listening to records and looking at art?
the scientist?
andrea and the gov bust in on him.
he's feeding an elderly gentleman. perhaps mr coleman?
the governor gets cute with him, and thanks him for doing this great service, then departs. andrea stays behind oddly?
she changes the song on science guy's mark, who starts a bowl ringing with a piece of metal?
"my name is milton," the scientist goes on.
he asks the man to raise his hand when he identifies statements as true.
the man remembers himself, his wife and his children.
he holds milton's hand and the man whispers to him as he leans in.
"what did he say," andrea asks.
"he asked if i could keep it playing while we wait."
9:27 - so we cut back to glenn, obviously duct-taped into a chair from wrist to elbow.
merle brings a walker in, telling glenn that this is how he felt on the roof earlier.
"you're a pretty big snack for him, but you know what they say, he'll be hungry again in an hour."
(link)
so glenn's fighting a walker, duct-taped to a chair like drew barrymore in charlie's angels.
far less elegantly, he eventually breaks the chair apart and kills the walker with stumps of chair, then starts screaming. 'cause glenn is crazy hard. he hulked out. i thiiiiik merle is going to regret this, 'cause glenn is fucking awesome.
commercial.
lol, during the commercials melissa mcbride offers a list of reasons carol's hair never grows. wish i could have actually read it.
9:32 - back with Milton, we learn the purpose of the experiment.
Whether trace memory of human memory exists after the subject passes and turns.
Mr Coleman has prostate cancer and can't be treated, and as he passes they will keep testing for baseline memories.
Milton and he have spent much time together learning about one another, so that they can ascertain the true level of walker conscience.
Andrea claims there's obviously nothing left. and frankly, she would be pretty invested in that notion, what with having had to shoot amy and all.
(link)
"you haven't seen this before... the transformation?"
milton had no family before. he telecommuted to work. he hasn't seen shit.
he has no idea.
how sheltered are the people of Woodbury?
9:34 - whelp. they're restraining Mr Coleman who has passed, and it's a sombre mood here.
Andrea finishes the last parts for Milton who struggles.
9:35 - Merle brings The Governor up to speed.
They realize Glenn is hard, and this all leads to The Governor going to discuss things with Andrea.
Ahh, the old Good Cop, Bad Cop routine?
wouldn't it be crazy with jim gordon leading this group instead?
9:36 - Maggie's alone, dark room, creaky door, the whole nine when
nice foley on his boots as he stares her down and walks about.
He strolls behind her and undoes her duct tape binding.
He pulls out a chair and asks if he can sit down.
"We'll take you back to your people and explain that this is all just a misunderstanding. You tell us where they are and we'll drive them back there."
"I want to talk to Glenn."
The Governor says her people are dangerous because of what they did to Merle.
"You tell us where they are, and we'll bring them back here."
Well that changed.
She resists.
"No? Let's try something else," the Governor says. "Stand up please."
Maggie resists.
"Take off your shirt," he says.
"No."
"Take off your shirt or I'll bring Glenn's hand in here."
She removes her shirt.
Man, fuck this.
"Go on,"the Governor says.
and she undoes her bra, standing before him topless, covering herself.
He gets up and undoes his belt, then walks towards her.
This is completely called for.
not!
(link)
He stands next to her and we can't reeeeally see what's going on, but he starts touching her. Hair first.
Then he slams her face into the table.
"So you want to talk?"
"Do whatever you're going to do, then go hell," she tells him.
He ponders it, then backs off?
That's two for three for sexual assaults of female characters seen having sex previously on screen here.
Classy.
And hey, congratulations, The Walking Dead! And a seeming word of advice to other shows: if you'd like to insulate your work from feminist criticism, just make it extremely painful for women and their allies to watch your show! Yaaaay!
(link)
Commercial.
9:44 - we're back.
rick's gang drives down the road.
that must feel weird these days.
anyway, after very little more driving, rick stops the car and they get out.
"they have patrols. we're better off on foot," michonne tells them.
they get out and gear up, walkers in the distance.
i like the sound of cicadas and grasshoppers.
the gang starts walking through the woods.
"i know what you did for me, for my baby, while i was working things out. thank you," rick says to daryl.
"it's what we do," daryl says.
the group comes up upon a pretty serious and sizeable horde within the forest.
(link)
they do their best, but there are faaaar too many.
they make a retreat to a small log cabin.
inside daryl remarks on the smell.
"what is that," oscar asks
"probably a fox, or what's left of one," daryl responds.
they're completely surrounded by walkers in this cabin.
9:47 - rick whistles to daryl.
there's a guy under the covers who really resembles this guy:
(link)
"get the hell out of my house!"
he starts freaking out and michonne tells them to quiet him down.
the guy brandishes his gun.
"i'll call the cops!"
who the fuck is he?
"i am a cop," rick tells him.
the guy demands a badge, rick feints going for his and then grabs the guy's gun as he shoots and that him.
a struggle breaks out, and michonne ends up stabbing the guy as he heads for the door.
he was clearly a little off.
daryl looks out through the cracks in the walls and asks "remember the alamo?"
9:49 - oscar discerns that the rear exit is safe, so they throw crazy dude's body out the door.
oscar grabs this guy's gun and they make a run for it, as zombie walker hands crawl over the dude guy for much longer than seems interesting.
is this supposed to be worse than what happened to maggie?
who was that guy?
how did he not notice the lack of police? or his dead dog? what phone would he use?
commercial, anyway.
9:53 - we're back, and mr.coleman is turning!
sniffing the air, his eyes turning red.
milton runs through the entire gamut of questions as the former mr. coleman does nothing.
milton interprets a finger twitch (or the zombie clutching and grasping, as they sometimes do) as response, and tries to loosen the bindings to prove his hypothesis.
andrea offs the walker as it lunges for milton's face.
milton is sad.
9:55 - well, the governor and merle bring topless maggie in the room with glenn.
doubt this will end well.
"we're through with games," the governor says, putting a gun to glenn's head. "now one of you is going to give up your gang."
maggie tells him.
"prison..."
"how many are you," the governor asks. "that place was overrun."
"ten. we're ten now."
"ten people cleared that prison of biters?"
maggie's freaking out now, and the governor is mock comforting her, basically creeping (kissing her temples, stroking her hair, pulling her close - but she never breaks eye contact with glenn even as she visibly shudders and tears up and i hate this SO MUCH) before tossing her at glenn and taking off.
9:57 - The Governor's men have an emergeny meeting.
They decide either Maggie is lying, or Rick's Group is crazy scary.
Rick's (sample-sized!) group by the way, is on the outer borders.
"your brother might be out there right now, searching for them," the governor tells merle. "blood is blood, right? makes me wonder where your loyalties lie."
merle assures the governor that blah blah i could not give a fuck about either of you.
the governor decides to send a small scout crew to the prison.
whoaaaa. rick's and co are like, 50 feet from andrea on the other side of the gate, and yet nobody knows.
andrea heads inside to meet her sleazy sexual assualty boyfriend the governor, who asks if she had fun with milton.
andrea pours a drink
"what happened?" the governor asks
"mr coleman died," andrea tells him
bear mcreary throb is back. very dubby.
"and did milton find what he was looking for?"
andrea breaks down, and goes to the governor for comfort.
"hey. it's all right," he tells her. comforting her as he 'comforted' maggie before. "it's okay."
whelp, on that we go to commercial.
that episode was full of grossness. but hey, lots of screen time for female characters? only 1/5 of which were sexually assaulted over the course of the episode? that's.... pretty terrible. but hey, otherwise, it was... an episode of the walking dead?
hey, next week looks like a cracker.
Sunday, 18 November 2012
welcome back!
we're here for another week of walker fun with rick et al (at least, that's certainly how the writers seem to view things).
today's episode is called "Hounded", again evoking some musical ideas.
8:30 - you're here early! are you sure you have enough snacks? nutrition is essential in walkerland. make sure you're stocked up on edibles.
9:00 - here we go again.
as you remember, some things happened last week. they were gruesome, and somewhat horrific, but on the whole less so than the week prior. this is a small victory for us, the viewer.
9:01 - we open up with merle out in the woods with some men.
they come upon some walkers, ripped apart and organized in a pattern
"what the hell is this mess?"
"she did this"
the men are pretty worried about michonne
"damn straight tim, we're doing a righteous public service."
"go back," one of the men says
it turns out, michonne has spelt out 'go back' in walker parts (arms, legs, and a back).
a walker-gram he calls it. i call it a rebus!
one of merle's men runs off, and he goes crazy about it, and gives him shit.
then he starts yelling at michonne in the woods.
"we're armed to the teeth and you're going to pop out with your little pig-sticker?"
she does so, decapitating one guy, and killing another two.
she runs off into the woods, with merle's goon that ran off watching, and merle chasing after screaming "are we having fun yet?" which, ew, nickelback. but it seems she's been shot as well (by merle, of course - these lackeys are pretty much stage-dressing at this point)
we're into the theme song then, and boom. commercials.
9:06 - rick is back... a woman is on the phone.
they've been calling since this all started.
they're safe 'cause they're careful.
"what makes your place so safe?"
"it's just away... from them?"
"i have a son... i have a newborn baby." (hey, he remembered! good job there, rick!)
rick is begging this woman.
"could you take on others?"
he's seriously begging.
"we're good people here. we can help. we just need help. please. you don't understand. we're dying. we're dying."
poor rick. he's gotten so desperate now...and he probably knows a lot of this is his fault.
9:08 - people are eating, and rick comes back, looking clean and safe.
everyone gets stiff..
"everyone okay?" he asks
"yeah. what about you?" hershel asks
"yeah. i cleaned out the boiler block."
rick doesn't even look at carl. he pats him on the shoulder, then talks about how many walkers he's killed, and how he needs to clean out the bodies. he plans briefly with hershel and takes off. man, poor carl!
9:09 - merle's beating up his one guy, who ran off. he's kind puking 'cause michonne decapitated some guys.
"shit's going down, i need you son. now, you know we don't ever let our own turn."
they go on to stab into the brains of the heads, all the heads.
they go on after her.
"she ain't running boy, she's hunting."
9:10 - we cut back to children singing nursery rhymes in woodbury.
andrea and the governor debate the ethics of their biter matches.
the governor wants to know her problem,
"i'm not going to tell you how to run your town."
"if it's an escape, it's not a good one... i think the world's brutal enough" she tells him.
she goes on to explain she wants to work the wall
"i'm a good shot. i want to stay that way."
he asks if she can use a bow, but not after asking her if she wouldn't be happier in the kitchens.
9:11 - rick is tapping the phone? taking it apart? using some kind of fancy police-techniques?
it rings.
now there's a guy.
"you the guy she was talking to?"
"yeah"
"and you want to come where we are?"
the guy goes on to explain no one's been attacked, no one's been bit, no one's turned, no one's gone crazy.
"have you killed anyone?" he asks rick.
"yes. people that have threatened my group."
"how many people have you killed?"
"four?"
"two were outsiders, one threw walkers at me. one was one of our own..."
the guy goes on to ask about rick's wife.
"how did you lose your wife?"
"how did you know i have a wife?"
"you have a boy and a baby. how did you lose your wife?"
"i don't want to talk about that."
...click.
rick goes crazy and busts the shit out of a stool, and the table.
this is fun.
commercials.
norman reedus has kind of a redneck zombie playlist. but it's got some neil young on it, so win.
(all though, including lynyrd skynyrd is kind of paradoxical, no? i'm not linking sweet home alabama, but them southern men...)
9:17 - andrea chats up another lady on the wall, she's young, and good at bows? they have some straight talk about shooting and killing family members. i guess they're bonding? and it's definitely unsettling how she speaks in the present tense (her bow being "worth more than [her] car."
andrea sees a walkers.
"walker," she says.
this girl takes a bunch of shots and misses all the time.
andrea jumps over
"we're not supposed to go over the wall," her friend yells
andrea takes it out, and her friend goes a little squirrely.
"what the hell was that?"
"that is how it's done." andrea is humorously smug.
"what is wrong with you? this isn't a game," woodbury-lady yells.
they have a staredown...the governor will be pissed.
9:19 - hershel goes and meets rick in the boiler room.
"may i," hershel asks rick, gesturing to a chair.
he's here to talk it seems.
hershel is badass.
"...still feel it. i'm wiggling my toes right now. i'm a ghost from the knee down." he says, rubbing his stump.
rick apologizes.
"you saved my life, rick."
he explains to rick that lori was sorry for the things that happened. she told hershel that, and she was going to tell rick.
hershel tells rick to take his time.
rick tells hershel about the phone.
"someone calls. i got a call. on this phone."
he passes the phone to hershel, who picks up and gets nothing.
"they said they were calling numbers and got me."
rick asks hershel not to tell the rest of the group.
hershel looks sad. it seems he's willing to humor rick for the time being, because he's still got a lot of essential compassion.
"i'll sit here with you. that's something i'm pretty good at nowadays."
rick declines and hershel turns around.
scott wilson, andrew lincoln, you men are pros.
unlike these hack ass writers who pencilled a commercial in here.
9:25 - merle and his guy track michonne through the woods.
she comes out of nowhere, slashing up his guy, and attacking merle.
she loses her sword, and the walkers are on them.
merle and his new hand fare well, and michonne, who has retrieved her sword, does okay,
disembowling walkers (despite the face full of walker guts. we'll let that be, i guess.)
walkers dispatched, the men look around and she's gone.
9:26 - oscar and daryl are inside, tracking rick.
he's left some walkers alive, but they're in no hurry to kill them.
looks like carl's with them.
daryl tells him a story about his mom, and her smoking, and her penchant for wine...
he was playing with some kids.
he could do that without merle, apparently.
(oooh, foreshadowing!)
they heard some sirens, blah, blah...
the kids had bikes and daryl didn't.
his friends were surprised when he caught up.
turns out his house burnt down, cause his mom smoked.
that's how she died?
"that was my mom in bed, burnt down to nothing. that was the hard part. she was gone. erased. nothing left of her. people said it was better that way." he laughs. "ha, i don't know. just makes her seem like it wasn't real."
"i shot my mom," carl tells him "she was out. hadn't turned yet. i ended it. it was real. sorry 'bout your mom."
"sorry 'bout yours."
wow. good job parenting, rick. gary-stu/daryl is filling in quite nicely though - at least, reedus is great.
9:29 - great, now andrea is getting chewed out by the governor for going over the wall.
she admits she liked the fights.
"...i didn't like that i liked them."
this leads to some stupid shit between the two of them that we don't approve of.
silly pseudo romantic bullshit writing with bullshit rammifications. eww.
9:31 - merle and his guy have given up. they're running.
"she killed tim and crowley."
merle says she's heading for the red zone and is as good as dead.
"what do we tell the governor," the guy asks merle.
"we tell him we killed her."
the guy doesn't agree to conspire. he wants to go after her.
"you're right," says merle. "you can't cut corners on this one."
merle asks the guy how to pronounce his name, gets it, and asks,
"hear that bird?"
then shoots him in the head.
hey look, a commercial.
9:36 - michonne, injured, is stocking up, walkers on her ass.
she unsheathes, but they walk right past?
'cause she's covered in guts? we're not getting this one.
9:37 - phone rings.
"you didn't want to tell her how your wife died?"
"no we just lost her, do you want me to tell you?"
"it would be good to talk about it, rick."
he asks how she knows his name.
she hangs up.
9:38 - michonne limps along, her leg clearly pretty messed up.
a truck drives along in the distance.
it's likely merle.
cicadas buzz.
shit, it's maggie! not merle.
9:38 - she's got glenn with her.
they decide it's clear, then start making out. clearly they are distracted by romance! was this meant to be foreshadowed a couple of episodes ago when they were banging in the guard tower?
they are being watched by at least one external party.
"it's a beautiful day," she tells him.
michonne watches from a distance as glenn uses bolt cutters to break into a building.
in the necessary jolt of the minute, some birds fly out.
maggie tells him to get that toy duck as michonne sneaks up. she (maggie) sounds so happy about the prospect of getting the kid something to play with! i guess no one had the heart to tell her lil' asskicker would probably be just as happy with a set of keys.
9:40 - the governor and andrea wax poetic about non walker life, and we learn he didn't care about his car.
andrea says she finds it hard to believe he didn't have a single thing he was proud of.
"i didn't say that," he tells her. "so how long's it been?"
"...since you had whiskey this good?"
nice save, you perv douchebag. but of course, andrea flirts back. because writing.
now he claims that there's no place he'd rather be than here or now. that's pretty informative.
he also tells her there's no need to be ashamed of liking the fight, or liking to fight.
"most people don't have it," he tells her. "...that's why there's a whole lot more of them then us."
"us?" she asks
"eat, drink and be merry... 'cause tomorrow we die" he toasts.
then they have some pretty gross makeouts initiated by the tasteless andrea.
"other things happen."
poor musical cues, bear.
poor cues indeed.
9:42 - glenn and maggie have "hit the formula jackpot"
breaking into a well-stocked pharmacy.
maggie comments on how quiet it is here, without them lining up against the fences
like "back home."
all of a sudden merle sneaks up on them.
"and where are y'all people calling home?"
oh, shit merle found them!
he recognizes glenn and drops his gun. sneaky!
"can you tell me, is my brother alive?"
merle says if they take him to his brother he'll call it even. he notices glenn staring at his newly-weaponized former hand.
"you like that? yeah, i found myself a medical supply warehouse, fixed it up myself."
hmm. okay, player.
that's some exposition i'd have actually liked to see realized. maybe a webisode (that actually works for international viewers, you dicks!)?
this is tense.
glenn offers to tell daryl where merle is.
"the fact we found each other is a miracle, don't you trust me?"
"you trust us," glenn tells him. demanding merle stay put. goddammit, glenn should be the leader!
merle disagrees, and shoots at glenn.
then he grabs maggie and tells glenn to get in the car.
michonne watches on.
fuuuuu
looks like glenn and maggie are woodbury-bound,
and clearly based on that shot we go to commercial on,
that baby formula is staying there.
dammit glenn! shoot people.
commercials.
9:49 -
"now that's what i'm talking about."
great dialogue, folks. good job identifying the new trivialized black character in rick's crew. you know, now that you've totally fucked over t-dog.
anyway, daryl, oscar and carl are making their way further in.
oscar and daryl shoot up a walker.
this walker has carol's knife in it.
9:50 - rick's phone is ringing.
"how did you know my name?"
"because i know you. the people you were talking to today. that was jim, jacqui and amy."
wow, this is lori.
glad they did this. we anticipated a much weaker adaptation!
"what happened, rick? baby, what happened?" she asks him.
"i loved you...i couldn't put it back togethr, i couldn't put it back together, " he tells her. "i made a deal with myself. i would keep you alive. i'd find a place. i'd fix that, there . i couldn't open that door. i couldn't risk it. i was going to keep you alive. carl, and the baby, and then.. i just thought there would be time, but there's never time. but i love you. i loved you. i couldn't put it back together. i should have said it. i should have said it."
"rick, now rick, you listen to me. you have the baby. our baby, and carl. i love you!...rick, i love you.... can... can...rick. can... can you do that? rick? rick?"
then it starts sounding awesome, with lori calling out to him.
i quite approve.
andrew lincoln again, ladies and gentlemen.
he hangs up the phone.
9:54 - in a gross turn of events, andrea and the governor are naked, and we are nauseated, and andrea what the fuck...
you look great, though. just saying.
..any way, the governor has a visitor at the door, which thankfully prompts him to put on a robe.
it's merle.
he brings the news about their men being lost.
"...yeah, she cut them down, put a sword through 'em. then biters got in the way. then i got her."
the governor says merle can tell a story at the funeral.
then he asks for her head, and her sword. 'cause he's disgusting.
merle lies through his teeth, then tells about his surprise meeting with glenn and maggie,
"from the looks of it, they've got to be set up pretty good," merle says, "i'll find out where."
governor goes back inside.
andrea asks if everything is okay.
"hell yeah," he responds, disrobing.
9:57 - rick goes to meet his group and little asskicker, clothed in something pink and proper, thankfully. gotta observe strict geder roles in the zombie apocalypsem don'tcha know?
we have a cute little moment of him holding his daughter for the first time and saying hey, but frankly, it's not particularly effective this far in. we know rick is rather screwed in the head, and we know this kid's life is going to suck. why does the inception of all that seem heart-warming?
9:58 - daryl's in the hallway, making noise with carol's knife.
i guess it's time for his breakdown?
he's going to let some walkers out and kill them, but god damn if it isn't carol, all locked up in a closet! this is a pretty big shock, as we've already seen her disembodied scarf - one of the side-character's most vital of organs.
yay, daryl has saved yet another life on his way to being the babe ruth / michael jordan of walking dead.
9:59 - rick and the group walk outside, with rick finally carrying the baby.
"hey, she looks like you," he tells carl. then he sees something. something in the distance.
he gives carl the baby and walks off towards the gate.
michonne is against the fence, amongst the walkers.... are walkers racist? is that why they don't see her?
guess it could also be considered a callback to rick and glenn's walk through the streets in walker guts from season one. hey, y'know, whatever. zombie walk season one was great!
she's against the fence with the basket that maggie and glenn lost.
the basket full of formula.
will rick let her in?!
we go to the credits before we know. but hey, he overcame his cop training and didn't shoot her on sight! go rick?
...our verdict? ...sort of a movie. live!
well, that was an interesting story. it foretells some things that we don't really want to see, but do indeed happen in the comics. today held to the comics fairly closely itself, along with the past few episodes. andrew lincoln continues to be pretty great, and once michonne gets like, consistent lines we might be heading towards a show that seems mediocre when viewed favourably? like, from a critical perspective?
we're here for another week of walker fun with rick et al (at least, that's certainly how the writers seem to view things).
today's episode is called "Hounded", again evoking some musical ideas.
we are in no way as old as our musical references imply
a whole lot's been happening, and we've yet to see full ramifications from many of the events thus far.
since lori's death, rick has:
-killed various walkers in gruesome fashions.
-answered imaginary phone calls.
-pinned glenn to walls inside the prison.
and since lori's death rick has not:
-held his newborn daughter.
-talked to his son.
-appeared to be sane.
what will he do to shake things up this week?
how will michonne fare outside of woodbury?
is woodbury anywhere near jackson lake?
we're just blowing off steam!
(link)
join us after the jump for the answer to these and many more questions!
8:30 - you're here early! are you sure you have enough snacks? nutrition is essential in walkerland. make sure you're stocked up on edibles.
we're a little more partial to pizza pizza, but hey.
8:45 - tonight our drink selection is almost as limited as the governor's. we're into some james ready 5.5 tonight, along with some grande cuvée weizenbock and as always david's tea.
8:50 - people often ask if there's some sort of official pretty much a movie drinking guide to the things we liveblog. and no, frankly, there is not. the best advice we have is to drink when you feel like it. sometimes we'll add a suggestion here and there. but in general, y'know, walker kills, cool things, stupid things, commercials, cliches, bad voice overs, good music, good foley, neat sets, good makeup, nice attention to detail, bad continuity, etc.
...might as well test your drink now. make sure it's cold, right? or hot, in the case of tea.
9:00 - here we go again.
as you remember, some things happened last week. they were gruesome, and somewhat horrific, but on the whole less so than the week prior. this is a small victory for us, the viewer.
9:01 - we open up with merle out in the woods with some men.
they come upon some walkers, ripped apart and organized in a pattern
"what the hell is this mess?"
"she did this"
the men are pretty worried about michonne
"damn straight tim, we're doing a righteous public service."
"go back," one of the men says
it turns out, michonne has spelt out 'go back' in walker parts (arms, legs, and a back).
a walker-gram he calls it. i call it a rebus!
ooh, neil!
(link)
one of merle's men runs off, and he goes crazy about it, and gives him shit.
then he starts yelling at michonne in the woods.
"we're armed to the teeth and you're going to pop out with your little pig-sticker?"
she does so, decapitating one guy, and killing another two.
she runs off into the woods, with merle's goon that ran off watching, and merle chasing after screaming "are we having fun yet?" which, ew, nickelback. but it seems she's been shot as well (by merle, of course - these lackeys are pretty much stage-dressing at this point)
we're into the theme song then, and boom. commercials.
9:06 - rick is back... a woman is on the phone.
they've been calling since this all started.
they're safe 'cause they're careful.
"what makes your place so safe?"
"it's just away... from them?"
"i have a son... i have a newborn baby." (hey, he remembered! good job there, rick!)
already a better father than this douchebag. and my baby's getting bornt by randy!
(link)
rick is begging this woman.
"could you take on others?"
he's seriously begging.
"we're good people here. we can help. we just need help. please. you don't understand. we're dying. we're dying."
poor rick. he's gotten so desperate now...and he probably knows a lot of this is his fault.
9:08 - people are eating, and rick comes back, looking clean and safe.
everyone gets stiff..
"everyone okay?" he asks
"yeah. what about you?" hershel asks
"yeah. i cleaned out the boiler block."
rick doesn't even look at carl. he pats him on the shoulder, then talks about how many walkers he's killed, and how he needs to clean out the bodies. he plans briefly with hershel and takes off. man, poor carl!
9:09 - merle's beating up his one guy, who ran off. he's kind puking 'cause michonne decapitated some guys.
"shit's going down, i need you son. now, you know we don't ever let our own turn."
they go on to stab into the brains of the heads, all the heads.
(link)
they go on after her.
"she ain't running boy, she's hunting."
9:10 - we cut back to children singing nursery rhymes in woodbury.
andrea and the governor debate the ethics of their biter matches.
the governor wants to know her problem,
"i'm not going to tell you how to run your town."
"if it's an escape, it's not a good one... i think the world's brutal enough" she tells him.
she goes on to explain she wants to work the wall
"i'm a good shot. i want to stay that way."
he asks if she can use a bow, but not after asking her if she wouldn't be happier in the kitchens.
(link)
9:11 - rick is tapping the phone? taking it apart? using some kind of fancy police-techniques?
hey, i've got some weed in my, uh, boogie van.
(link)
it rings.
now there's a guy.
"you the guy she was talking to?"
"yeah"
"and you want to come where we are?"
the guy goes on to explain no one's been attacked, no one's been bit, no one's turned, no one's gone crazy.
"have you killed anyone?" he asks rick.
"yes. people that have threatened my group."
"how many people have you killed?"
"four?"
"two were outsiders, one threw walkers at me. one was one of our own..."
the guy goes on to ask about rick's wife.
"how did you lose your wife?"
"how did you know i have a wife?"
"you have a boy and a baby. how did you lose your wife?"
"i don't want to talk about that."
...click.
(link)
rick goes crazy and busts the shit out of a stool, and the table.
this is fun.
commercials.
norman reedus has kind of a redneck zombie playlist. but it's got some neil young on it, so win.
(all though, including lynyrd skynyrd is kind of paradoxical, no? i'm not linking sweet home alabama, but them southern men...)
9:17 - andrea chats up another lady on the wall, she's young, and good at bows? they have some straight talk about shooting and killing family members. i guess they're bonding? and it's definitely unsettling how she speaks in the present tense (her bow being "worth more than [her] car."
andrea sees a walkers.
"walker," she says.
this girl takes a bunch of shots and misses all the time.
andrea jumps over
"we're not supposed to go over the wall," her friend yells
andrea takes it out, and her friend goes a little squirrely.
"what the hell was that?"
"that is how it's done." andrea is humorously smug.
"what is wrong with you? this isn't a game," woodbury-lady yells.
they have a staredown...the governor will be pissed.
in the name of terrible conformity, he shall punish you!
9:19 - hershel goes and meets rick in the boiler room.
"may i," hershel asks rick, gesturing to a chair.
he's here to talk it seems.
hershel is badass.
"...still feel it. i'm wiggling my toes right now. i'm a ghost from the knee down." he says, rubbing his stump.
rick apologizes.
"you saved my life, rick."
he explains to rick that lori was sorry for the things that happened. she told hershel that, and she was going to tell rick.
hershel tells rick to take his time.
rick tells hershel about the phone.
"someone calls. i got a call. on this phone."
he passes the phone to hershel, who picks up and gets nothing.
"they said they were calling numbers and got me."
rick asks hershel not to tell the rest of the group.
hershel looks sad. it seems he's willing to humor rick for the time being, because he's still got a lot of essential compassion.
"i'll sit here with you. that's something i'm pretty good at nowadays."
rick declines and hershel turns around.
scott wilson, andrew lincoln, you men are pros.
unlike these hack ass writers who pencilled a commercial in here.
9:25 - merle and his guy track michonne through the woods.
she comes out of nowhere, slashing up his guy, and attacking merle.
she loses her sword, and the walkers are on them.
merle and his new hand fare well, and michonne, who has retrieved her sword, does okay,
disembowling walkers (despite the face full of walker guts. we'll let that be, i guess.)
walkers dispatched, the men look around and she's gone.
9:26 - oscar and daryl are inside, tracking rick.
he's left some walkers alive, but they're in no hurry to kill them.
looks like carl's with them.
(link)
daryl tells him a story about his mom, and her smoking, and her penchant for wine...
he was playing with some kids.
he could do that without merle, apparently.
(oooh, foreshadowing!)
they heard some sirens, blah, blah...
the kids had bikes and daryl didn't.
his friends were surprised when he caught up.
turns out his house burnt down, cause his mom smoked.
that's how she died?
"that was my mom in bed, burnt down to nothing. that was the hard part. she was gone. erased. nothing left of her. people said it was better that way." he laughs. "ha, i don't know. just makes her seem like it wasn't real."
"i shot my mom," carl tells him "she was out. hadn't turned yet. i ended it. it was real. sorry 'bout your mom."
"sorry 'bout yours."
wow. good job parenting, rick. gary-stu/daryl is filling in quite nicely though - at least, reedus is great.
9:29 - great, now andrea is getting chewed out by the governor for going over the wall.
she admits she liked the fights.
"...i didn't like that i liked them."
this leads to some stupid shit between the two of them that we don't approve of.
silly pseudo romantic bullshit writing with bullshit rammifications. eww.
9:31 - merle and his guy have given up. they're running.
"she killed tim and crowley."
merle says she's heading for the red zone and is as good as dead.
"what do we tell the governor," the guy asks merle.
"we tell him we killed her."
the guy doesn't agree to conspire. he wants to go after her.
"you're right," says merle. "you can't cut corners on this one."
merle asks the guy how to pronounce his name, gets it, and asks,
"hear that bird?"
then shoots him in the head.
hey look, a commercial.
9:36 - michonne, injured, is stocking up, walkers on her ass.
she unsheathes, but they walk right past?
'cause she's covered in guts? we're not getting this one.
9:37 - phone rings.
"you didn't want to tell her how your wife died?"
"no we just lost her, do you want me to tell you?"
"it would be good to talk about it, rick."
he asks how she knows his name.
she hangs up.
9:38 - michonne limps along, her leg clearly pretty messed up.
a truck drives along in the distance.
it's likely merle.
cicadas buzz.
shit, it's maggie! not merle.
9:38 - she's got glenn with her.
they decide it's clear, then start making out. clearly they are distracted by romance! was this meant to be foreshadowed a couple of episodes ago when they were banging in the guard tower?
they are being watched by at least one external party.
"it's a beautiful day," she tells him.
michonne watches from a distance as glenn uses bolt cutters to break into a building.
in the necessary jolt of the minute, some birds fly out.
(link)
maggie tells him to get that toy duck as michonne sneaks up. she (maggie) sounds so happy about the prospect of getting the kid something to play with! i guess no one had the heart to tell her lil' asskicker would probably be just as happy with a set of keys.
9:40 - the governor and andrea wax poetic about non walker life, and we learn he didn't care about his car.
andrea says she finds it hard to believe he didn't have a single thing he was proud of.
"i didn't say that," he tells her. "so how long's it been?"
"...since you had whiskey this good?"
nice save, you perv douchebag. but of course, andrea flirts back. because writing.
now he claims that there's no place he'd rather be than here or now. that's pretty informative.
he also tells her there's no need to be ashamed of liking the fight, or liking to fight.
"most people don't have it," he tells her. "...that's why there's a whole lot more of them then us."
"us?" she asks
"eat, drink and be merry... 'cause tomorrow we die" he toasts.
then they have some pretty gross makeouts initiated by the tasteless andrea.
"other things happen."
poor musical cues, bear.
poor cues indeed.
9:42 - glenn and maggie have "hit the formula jackpot"
maggie comments on how quiet it is here, without them lining up against the fences
like "back home."
all of a sudden merle sneaks up on them.
"and where are y'all people calling home?"
oh, shit merle found them!
he recognizes glenn and drops his gun. sneaky!
"can you tell me, is my brother alive?"
is draco alive?
(link)
merle says if they take him to his brother he'll call it even. he notices glenn staring at his newly-weaponized former hand.
"you like that? yeah, i found myself a medical supply warehouse, fixed it up myself."
hmm. okay, player.
that's some exposition i'd have actually liked to see realized. maybe a webisode (that actually works for international viewers, you dicks!)?
this is tense.
glenn offers to tell daryl where merle is.
"the fact we found each other is a miracle, don't you trust me?"
"you trust us," glenn tells him. demanding merle stay put. goddammit, glenn should be the leader!
merle disagrees, and shoots at glenn.
then he grabs maggie and tells glenn to get in the car.
michonne watches on.
fuuuuu
looks like glenn and maggie are woodbury-bound,
and clearly based on that shot we go to commercial on,
that baby formula is staying there.
dammit glenn! shoot people.
commercials.
9:49 -
"now that's what i'm talking about."
great dialogue, folks. good job identifying the new trivialized black character in rick's crew. you know, now that you've totally fucked over t-dog.
(link)
anyway, daryl, oscar and carl are making their way further in.
oscar and daryl shoot up a walker.
this walker has carol's knife in it.
9:50 - rick's phone is ringing.
"how did you know my name?"
"because i know you. the people you were talking to today. that was jim, jacqui and amy."
wow, this is lori.
glad they did this. we anticipated a much weaker adaptation!
not bad.
(link)
"what happened, rick? baby, what happened?" she asks him.
"i loved you...i couldn't put it back togethr, i couldn't put it back together, " he tells her. "i made a deal with myself. i would keep you alive. i'd find a place. i'd fix that, there . i couldn't open that door. i couldn't risk it. i was going to keep you alive. carl, and the baby, and then.. i just thought there would be time, but there's never time. but i love you. i loved you. i couldn't put it back together. i should have said it. i should have said it."
"rick, now rick, you listen to me. you have the baby. our baby, and carl. i love you!...rick, i love you.... can... can...rick. can... can you do that? rick? rick?"
rick? rick? rick?ˆ
(link)
then it starts sounding awesome, with lori calling out to him.
i quite approve.
andrew lincoln again, ladies and gentlemen.
he hangs up the phone.
9:54 - in a gross turn of events, andrea and the governor are naked, and we are nauseated, and andrea what the fuck...
you look great, though. just saying.
..any way, the governor has a visitor at the door, which thankfully prompts him to put on a robe.
it's merle.
he brings the news about their men being lost.
"...yeah, she cut them down, put a sword through 'em. then biters got in the way. then i got her."
the governor says merle can tell a story at the funeral.
then he asks for her head, and her sword. 'cause he's disgusting.
merle lies through his teeth, then tells about his surprise meeting with glenn and maggie,
"from the looks of it, they've got to be set up pretty good," merle says, "i'll find out where."
governor goes back inside.
andrea asks if everything is okay.
"hell yeah," he responds, disrobing.
9:57 - rick goes to meet his group and little asskicker, clothed in something pink and proper, thankfully. gotta observe strict geder roles in the zombie apocalypsem don'tcha know?
we have a cute little moment of him holding his daughter for the first time and saying hey, but frankly, it's not particularly effective this far in. we know rick is rather screwed in the head, and we know this kid's life is going to suck. why does the inception of all that seem heart-warming?
9:58 - daryl's in the hallway, making noise with carol's knife.
i guess it's time for his breakdown?
he's going to let some walkers out and kill them, but god damn if it isn't carol, all locked up in a closet! this is a pretty big shock, as we've already seen her disembodied scarf - one of the side-character's most vital of organs.
yay, daryl has saved yet another life on his way to being the babe ruth / michael jordan of walking dead.
9:59 - rick and the group walk outside, with rick finally carrying the baby.
"hey, she looks like you," he tells carl. then he sees something. something in the distance.
he gives carl the baby and walks off towards the gate.
michonne is against the fence, amongst the walkers.... are walkers racist? is that why they don't see her?
guess it could also be considered a callback to rick and glenn's walk through the streets in walker guts from season one. hey, y'know, whatever. zombie walk season one was great!
memories...
(link)
she's against the fence with the basket that maggie and glenn lost.
the basket full of formula.
will rick let her in?!
we go to the credits before we know. but hey, he overcame his cop training and didn't shoot her on sight! go rick?
...our verdict? ...sort of a movie. live!
well, that was an interesting story. it foretells some things that we don't really want to see, but do indeed happen in the comics. today held to the comics fairly closely itself, along with the past few episodes. andrew lincoln continues to be pretty great, and once michonne gets like, consistent lines we might be heading towards a show that seems mediocre when viewed favourably? like, from a critical perspective?
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