Spoilers Walking Dead Season 8 discussion and spoilers.

[TREK_GOD_1]

The Walking Dead--
"The Damned"

Pretty tense episode, with once-longtime Alexandrians going the redshirt way, most notably Eric (his prayer talk in the previous episode placed him in the "hope and you're dead" category the same as Hershel, T-Dog and Beth) Tobin and Francine.

Morgan saying "I don't die" is reminiscent of his ranting during his season 3 episode, as if he's back in "clear" mode of being on earth only to eliminate everything....which sort of turns out to be true, with Rick and Jesus' conflicting views only making him unsure in certain cases (Benjamin's killer).

The shaking guy's failure to fire / death was a "finally" moment to show that not everyone is some battle-hardened badass in that world. Morgan faking his death was a good move...only why any of the Saviors did not check to see if he was dead is a mystery.

The pants-wetting guy seemed like the set up he was, and I'm guessing Jesus letting him live will not go well

The doubt on Carol's face (about Ezekiel's "victory" speech) might be the unspoken message of the season.

The big takeaway is the schism in Rick's side in the form of Tara and Maggie's, with Jesus' non-killing policy. I guess this is the genesis of the camps coming to serious disagreements, even I the wake of Rick finding the baby...and Morales.

I guess this is how Rick is captured.

 

[Aragorn]

I don't know how they can have such a rich universe and make such dull episodes. This amazes me every time. The whole episode was just bursting the barricade. Should have happened in the cold open.

This is the same show that gives solo episodes to Eugene and Tara.

 

[Starbreaker]

That was a badly directed episode. Wow. The face montages, the awful music, the subpar acting from some of the Saviors.. I think the show needs some change in leadership if it's going to get back to it's Glory days.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

This is the same show that gives solo episodes to Eugene and Tara.

A series needs to focus on B and C characters to add dimension. It cannot always be Rick and Daryl.

 

[137th Gebirg]

I found Ezekiel's performances to be borderline hubris. It's almost like he's asking for his whole crew to have someone lob a crate-full of grenades at them (and of course only Carol will survive! ) The gods like to fuck with humans with too much arrogant pride, y'know...

 

[Turd Ferguson]

I spoke too soon last week. This episode was freaking BORING! Nameless extras firing unlimited rounds of ammunition at glorified extras for 45 minutes is not exciting. Literally in several scenes, I saw people walking IN FRONT OF automatic weapons fire and not get hit, and other dumbasses would get up from where they were safe FOR NO REASON and get hit

I actually fell asleep for a minute, because when I woke up, Morgan was laying down next to a dead guy. Did the episode make him sleepy? Did he have to take a nap? Jesus.

Apparently, Morales came back too. Why the fuck would he leave a major population center like Atlanta with his family, and then go to AN EVEN BIGGER population center like Washington, D.C.? Rick, at least, had a reason in the form of Eugene claiming to have a cure for the zombie virus. What possible motivation did Morales have? Fucking stupid.

It's also nice to know ammunition is widely available in the apocalypse. At least in the comics, you had Eugene making ammunition for Alexandria. On an end note, I will say, the most exciting part of the episode was when the weekly Emergency Alert System test popped up.

 

[Beagleman]

That was a badly directed episode. Wow. The face montages, the awful music, the subpar acting from some of the Saviors.. I think the show needs some change in leadership if it's going to get back to it's Glory days.

Agreed, just like last week the editing was atrocious, whoever cuts this stuff is either dead himself or should be.

 

[Aragorn]

I spoke too soon last week. This episode was freaking BORING! Nameless extras firing unlimited rounds of ammunition at glorified extras for 45 minutes is not exciting. Literally in several scenes, I saw people walking IN FRONT OF automatic weapons fire and not get hit, and other dumbasses would get up from where they were safe FOR NO REASON and get hit

This is The Walking Dead. Either you unload an automatic weapon for 45 straight minutes and fail to hit everyone directly in front of you (Aaron), or you're the greatest one-shot kill ever (Morgan). It all depends on what the plot demands.

 

[Trekker4747]

It's also nice to know ammunition is widely available in the apocalypse. At least in the comics, you had Eugene making ammunition for Alexandria. On an end note, I will say, the most exciting part of the episode was when the weekly Emergency Alert System test popped up.

The EAS tests in your area on a cable channel in the middle of the night on a Sunday?

 

[Scout101]

awful episode. just pew-pew, nothing really going on. 42 minutes of automatic weapons from 15 feet away, not hitting anything. No real setup of what this part of the mission was for, just pew-pew raids on compounds without anything of substance.

I get that they need something to make it feel like the 'war' wasn't just yelling at each other and then five minutes of Rick vs Neegan fighting at the end, but gotta put more effort into it than this. Completely skipable episode.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

I actually fell asleep for a minute, because when I woke up, Morgan was laying down next to a dead guy. Did the episode make him sleepy? Did he have to take a nap? Jesus.

I think beyond the snarky comments, you knew he was playing dead to....not end up dead in that moment.

Apparently, Morales came back too. Why the fuck would he leave a major population center like Atlanta with his family, and then go to AN EVEN BIGGER population center like Washington, D.C.? Rick, at least, had a reason in the form of Eugene claiming to have a cure for the zombie virus. What possible motivation did Morales have? Fucking stupid.

Well, let's see...in the various areas of Georgia seen on the show you had--

• Murderous overlords like The Governor
  
• Randall's transplanted rape gang
  
• The murderous, rapey Claimed gang
• Rapey, kidnapping cops at Grady Memorial Hospital
• A large camp of well organized (in how they successfully lured hot meals to their compound) cannibals at Terminus.
  
• Not to mention areas of Atlanta were not only overrun by endless legions of walkers, but the military dropping napalm on parts of the city turned it into a wasteland.
• Outside of Atlanta, there were people easily prodded into being killers such as Alisha and Mitch (part of the Governor's second group)
  
• ....and if you found a place like the prison, you had--you guessed it--more murderous people such as Tomas and Andrew living within.

The state was a minefield of death, so why not leave on the idea of finding a safe location? Moreover, we don't know (yet) if D.C. was Morales' first destination, or did he find himself running from one area to another. In any case, Georgia led to numerous tragedies for the families of Rick, Morgan, Andrea, The Governor, Michonne, Daryl, Carol, the Greenes..it goes on and on. Morales had nothing to lose by leaving, and for all we know (before episode 3 explains it), his family died in Georgia.

It's also nice to know ammunition is widely available in the apocalypse. At least in the comics, you had Eugene making ammunition for Alexandria.

There's more guns and ammo than the U.S. population in reality. If a zombie apocalypse occurred, there would be ammo and weapons everywhere, and not enough people left to hoard it all.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

The EAS tests in your area on a cable channel in the middle of the night on a Sunday?

I get off work late, so I have to DVR The Walking Dead. They usually test around 2:30 am

 

[Turd Ferguson]

The state was a minefield of death, so why not leave on the idea of finding a safe location? Moreover, we don't know (yet) if D.C. was Morales' first destination, or did he find himself running from one area to another. In any case, Georgia led to numerous tragedies for the families of Rick, Morgan, Andrea, The Governor, Michonne, Daryl, Carol, the Greenes..it goes on and on. Morales had nothing to lose by leaving, and for all we know (before episode 3 explains it), his family died in Georgia.

So, again, the question is, if the Atlanta area of Georgia was that dangerous, why would Morales take his family to an even bigger population center? It's just stupid. Why not take his family someplace secluded like northern Canada or Alaska? Obviously, finding gas ISN'T a problem in this universe, because Abraham made it from Texas to D.C., so Morales shouldn't have any trouble.

There's more guns and ammo than the U.S. population in reality. If a zombie apocalypse occurred, there would be ammo and weapons everywhere, and not enough people left to hoard it all.

Even if there's unlimited ammo, people still have to scrounge around and find it. It's not all piled up in a big heap with a "Free Ammo" sign posted for convenience. We can assume the military fired off thousands of rounds before initiating Operation Cobalt, and there's most likely all kinds of settlements and colonies all scrounging for the same ammo supply.

 

[Morpheus 02]

Well, let's see...in the various areas of Georgia seen on the show you had--

• Murderous overlords like The Governor
  
• Randall's transplanted rape gang
  
• The murderous, rapey Claimed gang
• Rapey, kidnapping cops at Grady Memorial Hospital
• A large camp of well organized (in how they successfully lured hot meals to their compound) cannibals at Terminus.
  
• Not to mention areas of Atlanta were not only overrun by endless legions of walkers, but the military dropping napalm on parts of the city turned it into a wasteland.
• Outside of Atlanta, there were people easily prodded into being killers such as Alisha and Mitch (part of the Governor's second group)
  
• ....and if you found a place like the prison, you had--you guessed it--more murderous people such as Tomas and Andrew living within.

The state was a minefield of death, so why not leave on the idea of finding a safe location? Moreover, we don't know (yet) if D.C. was Morales' first destination, or did he find himself running from one area to another. In any case, Georgia led to numerous tragedies for the families of Rick, Morgan, Andrea, The Governor, Michonne, Daryl, Carol, the Greenes..it goes on and on. Morales had nothing to lose by leaving, and for all we know (before episode 3 explains it), his family died in Georgia.

.

So, again, the question is, if the Atlanta area of Georgia was that dangerous, why would Morales take his family to an even bigger population center? It's just stupid. Why not take his family someplace secluded like northern Canada or Alaska? Obviously, finding gas ISN'T a problem in this universe, because Abraham made it from Texas to D.C., so Morales shouldn't have any trouble.

As i recall from the season 1 episode, Morales said he had other family in I think either Arkansas or ALabama ..but was definitely headed west.

Now, he had no idea of the dangers that Trek God mentioned, so am not sure what brought him the opposite direction.

I was hoping Morales would show up on Fear the Walking Dead, since he was headed that way, and next season would be a reasonable time to get there.

 

[Big Data]

The Morgan "I don't die" and Terminator walk was the only saving grace of the episode. The characters randomly deciding to take prisoners they are in no way able to safely manage feels contrived. More action made boring by the walking dead with the gunfights. If they could have added an ounce of good plot to this it would have gone a long way. I wasn't even sure where each group was or what their objective was. Them expecting me to remember this Morales character is ludicrous.

 

[Big Data]

Missed opportunity: Rick trying to get out with the baby and keep it safe.

 

[137th Gebirg]

The Morgan "I don't die" and Terminator walk was the only saving grace of the episode. The characters randomly deciding to take prisoners they are in no way able to safely manage feels contrived. More action made boring by the walking dead with the gunfights. If they could have added an ounce of good plot to this it would have gone a long way. I wasn't even sure where each group was or what their objective was. Them expecting me to remember this Morales character is ludicrous.

Yeah I have absolutely no recollection of Morales from their Atlanta days. I'm not even terribly motivated to look up his character and find out what he did back then - far more interested in the other stuff going on.

And Morgan falling off the murder wagon and going full-on T-1000 was pretty entertaining to watch.

I agree they should have wiped out all the captives. Every one of them is a potential poison pill that could cut them up from within if not properly managed, and they just don't have the resources to do that.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

I agree they should have wiped out all the captives. Every one of them is a potential poison pill that could cut them up from within if not properly managed, and they just don't have the resources to do that.

What more could you possibly need than infinite ammo and gas?

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

So, again, the question is, if the Atlanta area of Georgia was that dangerous, why would Morales take his family to an even bigger population center? It's just stupid.

I've lived and worked in Canada, and it is not a desert; its a heavily populated country, and even in areas that are more undeveloped land, if a zombie apocalypse broke out, I would expect mass migration from the bigger provinces to those areas, so the danger you see in D.C. remains. Getting to Alaska requires crossing a stretch of land that would threaten major living and dead attacks no matter where you turned.

I see Morales' move to D.C. (Before the series explains it) as being the result of the same reasoning Michonne believed Eugene used to convince his companions to go to D.C. Larger population or not, it would seem the area might have a more secure infrastructure (as in surviving populations/possibly military, etc.).

Even if there's unlimited ammo, people still have to scrounge around and find it. It's not all piled up in a big heap with a "Free Ammo" sign posted for convenience. We can assume the military fired off thousands of rounds before initiating Operation Cobalt, and there's most likely all kinds of settlements and colonies all scrounging for the same ammo supply.

No one said it was piled, up, but we have seen a number of weapons laying around, whether attached to walkers (as in "18 Miles Out"), or more recently, when Abraham found the military vehicle with the rocket launcher case, the boathouse (discovered by Rick and Aaron) loaded with weapons, or the amusement park (discovered by Rick and Michonne) where dead soldiers left a wealth of firearms. Remember, as the apocalypse spread, people ran or hid in all directions, with no sense or planning (arguably with the exception of the Grady Memorial cops) so it was not as though they all the presence of mind to collect as many firearms as possible.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

The Walking Dead--
"Monsters"

Soo..Morales has been beaten down so much, that it did not take much to have him set sail on the Negan boat, including making the argument that he and Rick are the same.

Speaking of being the same, the Morgan vs. Jesus fight was visually interesting, but the series leans on the "Morgan will never be fixed" angle too much. After the carefully plotted breakdown/psychological repair of Morgan during his time with Eastman, he should not just fall back to a confused state simply because Benjamin died, and he had to face unrelenting killers. He was well aware that there were always going to be predator/killer types running around, and would not seek any sort of negotiation, so that should not be so taxing to his spirit, particularly when he's only using violence as a last resort.

Still...aside from the "they're people" comments, there's no realistic way to contain and/or expect the Saviors to change into sane/safe people.

Aaron/Eric: well, I thought Eric starting to pray--meaning he's become hopeful--meant he signed his own death warrant. Typical of the series. Unfortunately, the summer teaser had a clip of Aaron preparing to go somewhere (post Eric, I'm assuming) and I believe Enid saying she would go with him. If that memory is correct, get ready for a sad end for a teenage girl, and a blow to Carl's optimism (expressed to Rick in S8E1). On tat note, Rick's reaction to Daryl not caring about killing Morales was the most interesting moment of the episode, as it shows Daryl becoming more of a revenge-minded, uncaring person (about many relationships) at a time when Rick (for the moment) was trying to see things Carl's way.

Carol buying into Ezekiel's war speeches...you know that's going to backfire in a number of ways, probably before the mid-season finale.

...and about Maggie. Come on--cheap set-ups by letting Gregory and the captives into the Hilltop when no one in their right mind should ever trust or deal with them Can you say insurrection? Can you say baby killing?