Spoilers The Walking Dead - Season 9 discussion and spoilers

The Walking Dead
Season 9 / episode 14- "Scars"

Daryl: Nice scene between Daryl and Judith. Its easy to forget that she's has known him all of her life, and sees him as her uncle.

Michonne / Judith: So, she slaughtered a gang of children to protect her own. Sad backstory that more than justified what happened after Rick's disappearance (although Maggie's departure remains a mystery). That, and its sort of sweet that she found Rick's gun, but gave it to Judith when she was old enough, but above all else, the entire relationship between mother and daughter made this episode.

Judith's "I want to help too." Of course, this initially read as her wanting to help Negan, and that remains to be seen, but for now, at least the charter between communities will be signed.

Loved the arguments between Michonne and Negan. If he's telling the truth about letting Judith know what he did to Glen and Abraham, there should be no way she (Judith) still believes he's worth saving.

Jocelyn: Sooo, she knew Michonne pre- ZA--as her best friend, but there's no explanation why she turned into some sadistic, Fagin-esque character who brands captives. In any case, she earned her death.

NOTES: Laura (ex-Savior) has come a long way from the teasing ass she was while working for Negan. Now I hope she sticks around. The show needs more "B" and "C" players to last more than a year just to build on the feeling that its not a series with a few stars and an army of rotating extras.

Next week, Beta faces off with Daryl again....

Best episode of the season and it did not have one moment of conflict with the Whisperers. That's how real drama works.

 

Notice how this part of the season is turning into the "Mama Bear" Chronicles? Old Saviors hurt Henry, Carol burns them. Hilltop imprisons Lydia, Alpha makes a special trip and ignores her own rules just to threaten them to get her back. And now we see that Michonne will kill other people's kids just to protect her own. Anybody wondering what Rosita will do to protect the bun in her oven?

 

Someone screwed up last night because I kept getting commercials dropped right in the middle of several scenes throughout the episode. I have DirecTV. It was really irritating.

 

Small scale "breather" episode just before we hit what's sure to be some crazy shit in the coming episodes as we come closer to the fair and the season's end, but quite good. The X scars on Darryl and Michonne are explained, and although not as sinister as I initially expected, it was still a somewhat creepy and unsettling story.

So, the girl with Jocelyn's group who Michonne allowed to run, we thinking we'll see her again? Could she be among the Whisperers, or even the Highwaymen?

 

The episode featured Michonne slicing to death a group of children. That's kind of a strange thing to call "small scale/breather."

 

Well, that was certainly an interesting episode. We got a flashback to the early years of the time jump, and learned some things. We saw Michonne find Rick's gun, and Daryl developing an obsession with finding Rick. We found out how Michonne and Daryl got those brands (and it's just the two of them), and it was certainly not what I expected. And Michonne came clean about how Alexandria turned into an isolationist society despite what Rick and Carl wanted. And we also found out about a pretty dark day in Michonne's post-Apocalyptic life.

This was a Judith-centric episode all around, in both the present and the past. She's quite a handful-- "more than a kid," as Daryl said. In the past, Michonne's best friend from the pre-Zombie world turned up, and seemed like a sane survivor, but turned out to be the leader of a cult of homicidal kids. I hate when that happens. When she kidnapped Judith and the other kids from Alexandria, Michonne ultimately had to kill her, as well as most of the kids-- and the sight of a very pregnant Michonne slicing and dicing with her katana was quite a sight to behold. I wonder if we'll see Winnie again. She'd be about eighteen or so in the present, I suppose, if she lived. Michonne worried for years that Judith would be traumatized by all this, but Judith is made of sterner stuff-- her only concern was why they weren't helping the people they loved at the Hilltop and the Kingdom. And this convinced Michonne that isolationism is no longer a practical policy, as Ferrari said in Casablanca.

On the downside, a couple of Whisperers have located Alexandria. Looks like we'll soon find out which way Lydia will swing.

 

That was odd. Too much going on I think. Michonne's friend turning up, appearing normal but being anything but seemed awfully forced. I can see how they couldn't make that a slow burn, with it being a flashback and all, but it did seem strange. Was worth it for Michonne's Anakin Skywalker moment, that was brutal, not that she had a choice, it was self defence as much as she was protecting Judith and the other kids. To me this felt like an episode that needed another 5 or 10 minutes.

 

I loved this week's episode. It's the best one for me since Rick disappeared. I think one reason is no Whisperer story to bore me this week.

We finally got to see what happened to make Michionne so jaded about letting in new people, and I felt they delivered. It was hard enough watching her pregnant whilst fighting and killing the kids, but being stabbed in her stomach really made me flinch.

So whilst she'd been protecting Judith from the truth in the present, Judith already knew. I like that Michionne's seen sense and is helping Kingdom finally, but will it all end in tears?

I realise that we didn't see them interact, but as well as the Darryl and Dog spin-off I'm clamouring for, I think Judith and Negen would make another good one.

 

Heh, fair point. What I meant was it's more of a Michonne centred character piece that doesn't really advance the main arc. Though I guess it does address why she's had such a siege-like mentality when it comes to Alexandria's safety since the time-jump.

Still, if what I think's going to happen in the finale (based on the comics) does indeed happen, then Michonne slicing up kids is indeed small scale in comparison.

 

Yeah, this series has been rough on pregnant women. If you recall, Maggie was pregnant when she also received a knife slash to the stomach (by one of the Saviors) in season six's "The Same Boat."

Judith is such a fun kid, even as she makes some expected kid mistakes when it comes to judging character. About helping the Kingdom, without giving much away, I suspect something pretty big to unfold over the last 3 episodes of the season...probably a game changer for at least one main character.

 

Regarding pregnant women in the series, Lori dying in childbirth is the death that sticks with me after all of these years, especially with Carl there to ensure she doesn't change.

 

One thing for me is that Michonne's behavior since the Post-Rick time-jump seems a bit... extreme to me.

What she went through, and did, indeed was pretty damn intense but in the few years that've passed between then and "now" it seems like things are really tense between her/Alexandria and the other communities. This all stemmed from her cutting off all contact following the encounter with her old friend? I mean, yeah what she went through and did was brutal but as a result she cut off communication with people she'd already known for years like Maggie and Carol? I mean, things were so strained that Aaron was sneaking around to hang out with Jesus and the opposing side was so strained Jesus himself had to sneak around to hang out with Aaron. Michonne and the group are intercepted by Hilltop's sentries when they go to take the new group of people to them and it felt like it was just a tense interception and escort to Hilltop's gates.

So much tension and all because Michonne had to defend herself from attacking children? Yeah, by killing children, but...

And, there's a lot to accept and wave away when it comes to how pregnant women behave and such on TV, but between the stress/pain of being stuck by the brand, the fight, and the sword slash to her pregnant belly...... I'm kind of surprised RJ was born as a viable child. Women today who undergo the wrong levels of stress run the risk of having a miscarriage.

 

Her relationship with Maggie is not tied to her killing her old friend and the children, and we still do not know why Maggie took her child and hit the bricks to join Georgie's group. She was running Hilltop, so its not as if she was constantly having arguments with Michonne over keeping Negan alive. In any case, the series owes a more detailed reason why she would leave the only bit of normalcy left in her world (i.e. the companions she's known for years).

Despite the criticism that TWD is cruel to child characters, so far, it seems kids have no complications coming into the world. That, and usually, they end up being central to future plot lines.

 

Oh sure, there's still a lot more they need to address. But one thing I am glad of they didn't go the usual route of prequels/flashbacks and have one incident be what causes everything to be the way things currently are.

I guess I can see frustration in the sense that with only two episodes left of the season we're likely not getting any further explanations or flashback storylines since there's enough story content in the present day to keep two episodes filled with the fair and the Whisperers playing their next hand, but I'm fine with that.

 

I'll take "Meta-Answer" for $1000, Alex.

 

I thought it was just a new scheme to beat commercial skipping DVRs. Similar to inserting a clip of the show into the middle of commercial break.

 

Ratings rebound has ended. 4.57 for this one, lowest since the series low in week 11.

 

Well, it was a flashback in the actual episode. That's not to say those events still don't have a role to play going forward.

 

The Walking Dead
Season 9 / episode 15- "The Calm Before"

Daryl: I guess Daryl and Connie are becoming a thing...sort of.

Michonne / Judith: Love the nods to history by having Michonne reference how she was not trusted when she first arrived at the prison / Tara after being part of the Governor's group.

Carol / Ezekiel: Carol had not laid eyed on Judith in 5 years?

"Our son is taking a girl to the movies tonight." What that ever a set up...

Magna / Connie / Kelly / Yumiko / Luke: Surprised all of this group survived.

The Whisperers / Lydia: They've made themselves so irritating/stomach-turning that I would love to see them meet their end, even thought that's not happening anytime soon. Alpha's "I have a feeling its going to be a hard winter" was too cryptic a statement for Ezekiel not to think she was off-putting.

The way Alpha was caressing Lydia's face almost suggested an incestuous relationship, but i'm hoping Alpha was just being freaky in her Whisperer way.

Father Gabriel / Rosita: I suppose the showrunners needed to have Rosita ease tensions with Eugene, but I sense he's going to hold on to that crush for some time.

The pike victims:

Frankie (one of Negan's former wives), Tammy Rose...

Enid: The second Enid started being too happy / talking about her boyfriend and "the rest of our lives,", you just knew she was not long for the world. Still, after being introduced as a bitter loner, only to be brought out of her shell by Carl, then become a character trying to turn Carl away from his revenge tendencies, and finally becoming a doctor, she had come a long way, so one can feel a drop in the gut to see how she ends up.

.Tara--coming back from being a pawn of the Governor, bonding with Glen, taking a bit of a leadership role in the Oceanside situation...her death actually had an impact. That was not always the case wit her character, who at tomes was directionless.

Henry: So that's it--everyone is going to root for Carol to deliver some awful form of revenge against Alpha, but I would also expect her to go into shock..wanting to just back away again, now that she's lost four children. No one can just "badass" themselves out of that.

NOTES: While it was nice that the community leaders reached a point where they would agree to sign the charter, the episode title spoiled the fact that so much would go south in such a short time...but it had to happen to get the war going.

One would hope the communities seek out Georgie's group for support, but even if they did, I can see Georgie pulling a "that's not my business" and walk off. Then, there's the Negan factor...I'm guessing he will be set free, and immediately play both sides.

Next week: the season finale.