There is, of course, another possibility that the show didn't spend much time with because Carol has been removed from the situation (and did she have cancer or was that haircut just an unfortunate fashion choice?) and neither of the other women have nursed children that we know of, but it is possible to psychologically or pharmacologically induce lactation in a woman who hasn't just given birth, which exposes the possibility of wet nursing. If I were close enough to a hospital or other source from whence I might be able to procure the appropriate drugs, I would at least be carrying some around as a contingency, because it's one hell of a lot less bulky to carry around a super-sized jug of pills for mother (which one assumes would not be in particularly high demand) than it would be to scrounge formula in case of problems. I'm actually a little surprised that one of the men didn't at least ask about the possibility in the long term, but maybe they'll come back to that. Judging by the purchasing limitations on formula, you can run through that shit pretty damn fast, so they're going to have to figure something out before the accessible territory is completely scavenged. Assuming Woodbury is within traveling distance (which it better be, because otherwise this season is going to have a hell of a time coming together), they've presumably already picked through some of that. With respect to the rest of the episode, I have some concerns. For one, I really wish the show hadn't tried to talk up T-Bone there. You had your chance to make him any sort of character and you blew it - hopefully now you can just leave it alone. I also hope that Michonne has a somewhat different origin story than what I remember from the comics, as I'd really like for there to be some justification as to how she's totally a samurai now, maybe a year after the world ended. I also really don't quite understand the point of the zombie cage match. You've got two of your security guys fighting, which can only have negative consequences for you, and the zombies are....the electrified ring? I think that this is supposed to be one of those things that's reminiscent of the comic, but I also thought that in the comic it was people versus zombies, which makes more sense to me. And the Carol question needs to be resolved more conclusively, because I don't remember seeing her die, so she should either reappear or we should get a definitive statement of her final resolution. I think one of those three graves was supposed to be for her, but I can't help but feel as though I'm missing an entire scene. And because it wouldn't be me if I didn't, here's a dumb question: Should Rick really be running around swinging that axe with his mouth wide open like that? That doesn't seem particularly sanitary. I mean, if a bite from one of those things will kill you dead, I shudder to think what comes of eating them.
Greg Nicotero was on Talking Dead last night, and he insisted it was Carol's grave that Daryl visited. I saw two filled graves and one empty one, and I assumed the empty one was Carol's because they hadn't found her. I figured T-Dog was in one and Lori was in the other, but then Nicotero confirmed that the bloated just-had-Thanksgiving-dinner zombie with Rick in the last scene had eaten Lori, so there wasn't anything of her to bury. So yeah, I'm confused about the graves and about Carol's fate.
I thought it was pretty obvious that the graves were for T-Dogg and Carol - whether or not it was actually Carol's body that was found. Aside from Rick, no one's likely to have been as far in as the boiler room to retrieve Lori's remains.
OK i'm totally spacing... When did Carol go down? T-Dogg got eated and she ran away was the last thing I remember... Also, since when do Walkers eat bones? edit: I just looked; we never saw Carol go down. We're just lead to assume she did. Which means she'll be back in some form or another!
Her backstory in the comic gives a decent explanation for her prowess, and for how she got the sword. Why change it? The show and the comic are the same in this regard. Staged guard vs. guard fights. I thought I'd skipped an episode. That grave thing was handled clumsily, to say the least. My guess is that she'll turn up later. Gore gets all over them on the show and especially in the comic. It isn't a big deal, infection-wise.
Why doesn't tea-boy have some biters run on a hamster wheel or something if he needs more power? Heck, we're talking renewable energy here! I'm really hoping the scientist is doing all sorts of crazy experiments on the dead, in fact. That's totally what I would do, when I got a moment to catch my breath. 18th-century style science with no regards to ethics because, well, fuck 'em, you gotta learn somehow. I'm hoping the heads in the aquarium was his idea, not the Governer's.
Heads in aquarium = BATTERIES! You never know. Yeah the amount of zombie guts all over them doesn't seem to be a concern, it would sure bother the f- out of me.
I figured out that zombie goo doesn't matter when Rick and (Glen?) covered themselves in it as camouflage in Atlanta in S1.
The dead getting up, walking around, and eating people is unexpected and a bit of an adjustment to get used to. What zombie fiction really doesn't prepare anyone for is that zombie goo actually smells really good. (It's part of why zombies are so popular.) Putrescine and cadaverine compounds are part of normal regular-type not-getting-up-again decomposition, but zombie rot is entirely different. When Rick's smashing heads open, that's actually a kind of aromatherapy as well as physically cathartic. Much like flower scent attracts bees and other pollinating insects, zombie perfume attracts survivors because of how good it smells. It's also mildly addictive, and withdrawal symptoms from not being around it causes headaches, a measurable drop in IQ, and general lassitude. This explains much of season 2.
OH MY GOD STOP TALKING ABOUT THE FIGHT. At least there are eight different plots running now so I can just ignore the more annoying ones.
Everything in this episode that didn't involve the Governor and Whiny McWho'sNotSuicidalAnymore was fucking awesome.
How did Rick show up back in the cell block all clean and wearing different clothes? I understand there may be a shower somewhere, but did he take a change of clothes with him on his little rampage/psychotic break? Also, the phone calls were really creepy with the background noise on the line, like an AM radio station too far away to tune in. Good seeing Carol.
Dry cleaning. I liked that Herschel didn't even get a dial tone, then he kinda' looked at Rick funny. And of course, Darryl found Carol. Eventually it's gonna' be brother vs brother on the mutha of all redneck showdowns! Both have practice fighting humans while the dead are clawing at them. Darryl's gotten soft, while Merle is badder than evah!
I thought the phone conversations were really, really dull, to be honest. Granted, I already knew who was behind them going in, since I've read the comics. Maybe if you don't know from the start that it's just Rick going crazy it's better. Now, the segments with Darryl, Oscar, and Carl were better, but the highlights for me this week were any scene involving Merle.
I have to admit, I enjoy the Merle/Daryl pair more after having heard Michael Rooker talk about the pronunciation of the names on a podcast. He insists that the end of the names should be pronounced the same: "Murl and Durl". Of course, now we have Durl getting ever closer with Curl, so that's also fun. Easily amused, I know.
I despise Carl, but that moment with Daryl was really nice. Looking forward to Andrea's bloody demise. Seriously, woman?
Andrea is going to earn herself a reputation at this rate. First it was Dale. Then it was Shane that one time. Now it's The Governor. At a bare minimum, that's a sign of terrible taste, and there could be some rather unfortunate implications if she ends up playing Michonne's role from the book (so far as I remember it - we're now at the very end of what I've read). Maggie seems like a more likely candidate at this point, though, what with that quarter of a second scene from next week. Also, this would be a good time for the show to get reasonable with some of its villains. For instance, Glen should not have let Merle talk him out of his gun. He should have shot Merle directly in the head and taken the chance that the man's reflexes still worked well enough to even try and pull the trigger before his brains fell out the other side of his head. It's not reasonable to negotiate in any way with villains in this show and it's particularly unreasonable to do so with Merle, given the time that we've seen both him and Glen in the group together. Not a bad episode - although I wonder whether we're going to have to do something more significant with the phone calls than "Rick is crazy," given the fact that this show is going to have to go off the air at some point and it's going to need to do so in a manner that's somehow satisfying to viewers. A magical solution seems like a pretty terrible way to deal with things (though a sadly typical one for genre television), but I would think that Mazarra, at the very least, needs to be squirreling away some stuff in the back of his mind for how the show can wrap production in a few years. The show has also put something of a clock on itself now with the baby. Assuming that it doesn't die (in many ways a more dramatically useful potential solution than any of the alternatives), by the time it achieves Lily/Harrison age, the show is going to need to take a jump or pretend it doesn't exist, because there comes an age at which children just don't work on television (one of Seppinwall or Feinberg identified that as the point at which they are no longer useful as props but also are incapable of working as actors in any useful way). Next week should be interesting, though I can't help feeling as though things are moving a little bit fast for the season as a whole. Conflict between the two camps seems inevitable at this point (particularly with Michonne removing any chance that Rick's group could hold any sort of charitable view toward Woodbury), and we've still got....well, last year it would have been half a season or more at this point. I forget when we did the Great Barn Opening. Assuming that the season is the same length, which is not something that I have researched at all, it seems like we'll need something to get all the way home, doesn't it?
Brian, Season 3 is going to be longer -- 16 episodes -- and I agree that after a full season languishing at the farm, they seem to be moving at hyperspeed here. At the current pace, they could, if they desired, reach the end of the published comics this season.
Was it clear whether Hershel heard a dial tone? (I assume that's why he wanted to stay and wait with him.) By the way, what was with him going to the boiler room alone? Maybe the walkers don't even bother to chase a one-legged guy due to the lack of challenge?
No way. Even being generous with what events have happened in the show vs. where they happen in the comics, we're right around the middle of the 6th trade paperback right now. Out of 17. Granted, the second season ended about at the end of the second trade, so by comparison they're going lightning-fast this season, and all trades being equal, they might have a chance of doing what you said. However, the comic slows WAY the fuck down between the 3rd and 9th trades with a lot of meaningless sub-plots, which is why the show's been able to move through them so quickly. After the 9th, though, things pick up again fast, and there are at least three major plots I can think of, (meaning potentially season-supporting plots,) before the end of the published comics. And I haven't even read them all. I expect they'll go all the way through the 9th TP and maybe parts of the 10th by the end of the season. Around there is where a shift occurs in the comics that works well as a season break. So you know, if you're reading along at home, that would be a good place to stop.
If they wanted. I assume cutting out most of the "nothing much happens" time after the next really major event.
They both had their guns on him, they're both good shots, and they both didn't shoot when he went for his gun. I'm trying to remember if either Glen or Maggie has killed anyone that wasn't a walker. I was watching with headphones on. There was no dialtone, just weird static on the line. No idea if he wanted to stay because he wanted to confirm that Rick was nuts or if he just wanted to try and be there generally. Rick had just finished saying that he cleared out that section of the prison.
Ah, I missed that. I guess that made it plausible why Herschel could roll in on his own. (They obviously wanted a one-on-one conversation there.) In general, Herschel ought to consider having a permanent wingman. He's like a slow-walking pork chop.
"Slow walking pork chop" - That's good! He needs to visit the medical supply store Merle found. Find a leg, in time and get a little more speed.
I think he should go Rose McGowan in Grindhouse - Planet Terror style.. couldn't you see Herschel with a nice little shotgun leg?
I think they're somewhat setting up for Daryl to kill Merle (never the other way around I don't think, nobody actually likes Merle). The brothers have pretty much grown apart in the way they treat the people close to them, and whatever clashing is going to happen between the prison and the governor is going to set them at odds. Also, Andrea's actually better than the comics at this point. Her progression from regular woman to hardened survivor has been more natural, and I think this episode did a good job of bringing it out organically. We'll see how she reacts if/when she learns more about the governor.
Seeing as TV-Andrea patently isn't a survivor, but more of a PTSD-stricken leech on whoever she's dependent upon this week - I disagree. Comics-Andrea = badass. TV-Andrea = worse than Lori.
Well you got to hand it to Merle, he's got in good with the gov, a right hand man if you will, knows what to tell him and what not to. I guess he's not doing meth anymore. He also knows not to trust the governor.
I predict amid some larger conflict Merle will end up making a comment to Daryl along the lines of "You can do a lot better than that used up old woman" which will result directly in Merle being forced to eat his right hand.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I would not be shocked if Merle kills Daryl. I think we're in for some shocks.
Killing off Daryl would leave a gaping hole in the series' cast. They've had some exceptionally shitty character development overall and I doubt they could recover from writing out Daryl. So yeah, it would be shocking! :)
Killing off Daryl would be a big mistake imo, he's the only likeable person on the show, at least to me.
Killing off Darrell isn't going to happen because he's a primary character in the poorly advised video game that the network keeps running contests around. Michael Rooker has already been dead for most of the series anyway, so losing him isn't really subtracting anything, but they won't take away the primary merchandising tie-in to their interactive property until that property has at least come to market. Unless the story pitch for that thing has changed, which is possible, but doesn't seem too likely to me. At this point I'd say that Rick and Darrell are probably the only two really untouchable characters on the show for this season. Maybe Glen, too. I don't know of anything else that Stephen Yeun has been in, so he can't be the most expensive line item. Michael Rooker, on the other hand, I am almost certain will not survive the season (certainly not as a regular in the top credits like he is now, getting paid for every episode), because he's a movie guy and he can't come cheap.
