The last great episode was only watched by slightly more people than the awful whisperers one, with 3.48 million vs 3.47. Hopefully the quality stays high from here on in!
The Walking Dead Season 10 - Episode 4 - "Silence the Whisperers" Michonne / Judith: Always the best thing about this show. Notice how Michonne is starting to speak to her / keep her informed like an adult/confidant, though she's still her little girl. ...and what a moment as Michonne had such a prideful smile as they took down walkers together. A sweet and rewarding sight. Daryl: Negan reads him like a book: Daryl has all of the piss and anger one would expect after dealing with Negan, but he's no executioner. Perhaps Rick and Carl's wishes are sinking in, or he's not as filled with bloodlust as other residents, but after all this time--years--he's backed away from killing him. Lydia: She's still lost--attempting to just relate to anyone, but receiving hate, or in Siddiq's case, a bizarre reaction.... Wanting to lock herself up served the dual purpose of protecting herself from the angry residents as well as testing her own thoughts about who she is--a heavy burden for a teenager, but there's no winning, sympathy or safety. It makes one wonder if she will eventually have enough of the hatred/brutality and return to her mother. Negan: He's certainly changed over the past 6 (in-universe) years, with his caring about Lydia's welfare, but his violent side continues to peek out, as if its waiting for the right opportunity...and now he has it on the road. His escape has all the makings of a mid-season finale disaster.... Carol: "...should have gone to Mexico." Yes, that's a "happily ever after" idea, one that I hope is not just a pipe dream for her, and her borderline romantic feelings for Daryl. Rosita / Father Gabriel: Their evening walk was a short but sweet moment, with no drama....and no Eugene lurking around. Siddiq: Yes, there was something to his panicked reaction at the sight of Lydia. It could be his recalling Alpha telling him that she intended to get her daughter back (Michonne said as much), and he was obliged to help; that would not be far fetched, as she has not fully divorced herself from feelings for Lydia. His sudden flood of outrage about the Whisperers (during the council meeting) read like his wanting it all to end, as if that would stop his wide-awake nightmares. Ezekiel: So, he finally opened up about losing all that he cared about. It goes without saying that its great he's retained a hold on hope, but that should not be centered on misplaced feelings for Michonne. NOTES: Luke moves out/away from the others. Seems like he's run out of plot. GRADE: A. Great character studies all around, including Magna believing Yumiko still acts as if she's her attorney. Implied lack of trust.
At this point, they might as well just let Negan stay out and issue "kill on sight" orders for him, because it's obvious that while these people are great at taking down walkers and enemy human beings, they are consistently shit at securing prisoners. And the new community situation isn't helping, because everyone is focused on external threats - Walkers and Whisperers - but mostly ignoring internal conflicts to the point where their Citizen's Committee can't ignore them anymore. This is bad. They desperately need at least two people who's main focus is keeping law and order within the community: A Sheriff and a Justice of the Peace. The sherriff can resolve conflicts before they get out of hand and deputize as needed to actually ride herd on whoever they decide to lock up 24/7, and in the event something heinous goes down you'd have a town judge to conduct a real trial instead of the half-ass Senate Hearing we got last night. And I get that the most experienced law enforcement officer who's ever been on the show is out in the never-never waiting for the Walking Dead Movie, but it shouldn't be that hard to appoint a judge. All you need's a lawyer and a black robe. Yumiko's a lawyer. Hell, Michonne's a lawyer.
Surprised no one mentioned the Ezekiel-Michonne kiss and how he mused that it could have happened "in another universe". In-joke aside..one of a few great character moments Carol going to Mexico...was that a Fear in-joke? Considering overly jolly Luke was acting...sounds like a typical TWD death set-up We really need to get this settled with Siddiq... Previous hints were good...now it is overkill Great scenes with Darryl...but still scratching my head on calling him a lead (like Rick). Darryl is VITAL...but not feeling the lead yet. Oh and the actress playing Lydia felt like a 180 from her character on the show
That was Deanna's idea back in 5B, and it was just dropped after the Alexandrians were caught up in a number of deaths, walker invasions, etc. I think for story purposes, an active police officer would have little to do, so the writers would either dump contrived problems" only the sheriff could address, or the idea would be dropped, because there's just not that much a need for a standing law enforcement officer in the ZA. While Yumiko and Michonne are/were lawyers, Michonne has her hands full running a community and raising her kids, while Yumiko--after this recent episode--is in relationship drama zone for the time being. I mentioned that he had misplaced feelings for her, since he was still sad about his not knowing how to speak to Carol anymore. It would be a joke to have Carol and Daryl completely pass the location of Virginia's group, never realizing that Morgan and Dwight were nearby. As I pointed out, I think he's run out of plot. Sure, he could be worked into the end of the Whisperer arc / beginning of whatever follows, but as a stand alone character, he's pretty much another version of Eugene when the latter was introduced in 4B: the weakest link in a small group. Is it? He's severely traumatized; if he witnessed or participated in the beheadings, he is going to continue to fall apart, and until he comes clean (if he has something to come clean about), his plight should not be a "here today, gone tomorrow" affair.
Damn, this episode was firing on all cylinders this week. The highlight was of course the Negan and Lydia drama at Alexandria. Although hinted at in the premiere, we see the further development of an interesting sort of friendship/mentorship as Negan offers life advice to Lydia on how to deal with life in Alexandria and putting up with the Douche Squad bullying her. The scene where she carves the squirrel up was downright hilarious. It's kind of interesting to see Darryl trying to handle things in a mature and professional matter, even though you just know the squirrel carving thing is easily something he might have tried in his youth, or even in the earlier seasons of this show. Just as fascinating is Negan actually dispensing useful and logical advice on fitting in and dealing with people. Then things take a turn when the Douche Squad gangs up on Lydia and beats her up, leading to Negan coming to her rescue and resulting in the death of one of the Douche Squad. The people of Alexandria want Negan put to death, feeling their obligation to honour Rick's promise to Carl as expired, and Negan realizing the tide is turning against him after he actually does the right thing and defends the innocent for once, escapes and disappears. The Highwaymen seem to be becoming TWD's Redshirts. We lost two of them to the Whisperer Spikes last year after barely getting to know them, and now Margo in her third appearance joins up with the Douche Squad and gets killed by Negan. Speaking of the Douche Squad, I know one of the guys was one of the "cool kids" at Hilltop who Henry was trying to impress last year, who was the other guy? I didn't recognize him, is he new, or has he been there before? I kind of wonder, what with Darryl joining the Grimes family for dinner, looking after RJ while Michonne and Judith are gone, and representing Michonne by proxy on the Council, are they setting up for after Michonne leaves? Is Darryl going to assume her position on the Council, and become the kids' guardian? I can kind of see that, having sort of a surrogate family situation with Darryl, Lydia, Judith and RJ. We see this week that Ezekiel is just as messed up after his losses as Carol, maybe more so. True, Ezekiel isn't hallucinating, but Carol also hasn't attempted suicide either. This certainly helps differentiate this from any of the other times Carol got messed up mentally, which as mentioned in regards to last week's episode is a somewhat frequent occurrence, this time we have someone else experiencing the same loss, being messed up by it and having their own extreme reactions to it. And we seem to be setting up a recurring story thread for the season (or at least, this half-season) of strange happenings in the Communities, in that I'm almost certain the tree falling on Hilltop is connected to last week's Walker Surge at Alexandria, and despite what the characters are saying, I still don't believe the Whisperers are involved with either, but rather some unknown new group.
I would think the third-time escaped prisoner of war and the asylum seeker that was almost beat to death by bullies would be considered evidence to the contrary! I get what you're saying...the way the story is unfolding makes a law enforcement sub-plot superfluous, but by that logic why have the characters form any kind of government or treaty alliances? If all the communities are just going to be Rome under the Imperators their compacts are a waste of paper. If you say you don't need anyone to enforce or interpret the law, why create bodies to make them? In an objective sense, villifying the Governor and Negan is hypocritical because everybody will end up just like them anyway, which is one of the reasons they formed their councils in the first place. Lydia should not have had to rely on Negan to save her from people who already hate him more than they hate her. There should have been somebody in the area whose stated purpose is to keep everybody within the walls from hurting each other. It's not like they don't have enough bodies. They have plenty of people walking the wall day and night. Just turn a couple of them inward. Of course, this isn't likely to happen as the show progresses. It just bothers me. It usually takes something extraordinary to take me out of my favorite stories and this was the thing that finally kicked my butt out of TWD. Negan has escaped. Again. Three snot nosed kids almost beat another kid to death, and the citizenry wants to hang the guy that saved her. Come the f*** on!
Well, we had some interesting developments this week. Society has rebounded to the point where internal conflict and violence is becoming a threat, even more so given that there is a hostile foreign power lurking just out of sight-- I wonder if this was an intentional metaphor for the current Zeitgeist. In any case, their little board of directors is proving itself to be inadequate to handling law enforcement-- if they even have any laws outside of their constitution-- and they probably need to think about establishing some more formal system of justice. In any case, Negan is on the lam, ironically after doing the right thing for once in his life. That little group of self-appointed justice vigilantes probably would have killed Lydia if he hadn't intervened, but he intervened a little too hard. I wonder if his next step will be to attempt to manipulate the Whisperers. Maybe he thinks he can take over. And poor Ezekiel seems to have been on the verge of doing something drastic. He's a great character who has been kind of sidelined lately, so I hope this doesn't portend his demise. Not only would it be a waste of a good character, but it would nudge Carol even closer to the edge.
They do have jails, and aside from Negan, we have seen several people locked up, so there is a crime and punishment concept, but no need for say, an active police force. Probably. I would not be surprised if he kills Beta to assert his dominance, and tries to convince Alpha that due to his new friendship/protection of Lydia, he might be able to convince the girl to return to mommy dearest. I'm not sure his death would do that to Carol; she made a choice to leave him--the emotional bonds faded once Henry was murdered, which is always the core of her fight or flight motives in life. As for Ezekiel, like the character, who became a "ruler" through adopting a false identity, found that once that was gone, he never had much behind that, so we see just how fragile he is once circumstances forced him to drop the act. Its not uncommon for people who built their entire life on a creation to feel emotionally desolate and a lack of purpose / reason to live.
Without going too far into spoiler territory, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Ryan Hurst have both confirmed that Negan and Beta have scenes together this season...
I don't see how they can have such a bad government. Seeing how I think almost everyone in the communities are American you would think they would go with the Constitution with a few changes for things not relevant for this new world. Figuring out how to deal with a possible murder shouldn't be so complicated. Jason
The council is trying for a quasi-Constitutionalist democracy (they even have their own signed piece of parchment), but they're more like independent city-states running under sovereign oligarchs, generally acting like benevolent monarchs for the most part. Maggie, Michone (and Rick before them) in particular have shown frequent tendencies to brook no argument from the populous once they've made a decision that most may not agree with. In essence, no better than Negan, Alpha, or any of the other multitudes of bullies they've run into in the past decade. Hell, at least Ezekiel held no pretense about being called "The King", which is conceptually the most accurate description of the political system they've embraced. They are light-years away from organizing anything resembling a modern democracy or republic. Calling it either is nothing more than a feel-good tactic to placate the people. They are not in charge.
But they handle everything on an ad hoc basis. They don't even seem to have personnel policies, like a business would. I didn't even think of the Lydia angle. "I tried to help her." Especially after more than six years. Something must have happened during all that time. Yeah, it's still very feudal, despite the parchment.
The Walking Dead Season 10 - Episode 5 - "What It Always Is" Daryl: Connie considers Daryl her family. Okay, if this is going to become something more than a familial bond, the showrunners should just let that unfold--no shock deaths--and that includes Dog. Another Merle story this season. Last time, it was part of Carol's drug-induced dreams, but in the present, its nice to know Daryl still thinks of him on occasion. Kelly: What a frightening situation; unlike Connie, who was deaf all of her pre-ZA life, Kelly entered this world with her hearing somewhat functional, and to lose that... It would seem like being forcefully submerged in the ocean (and that's not even considering the sound FX used for the hearing loss). Magna: What a thug. Once a convict, always a convict. Stealing the thin resources from Hilltop, then copping an attitude with Yumiko about the way she looked at her (like a murderer, I presume). She's no ally after all of her time at Hilltop (and the sacrifices made for her group), and that makes her a threat. One can only wonder if Yumiko will finally write her as too much of a liability. Negan: JDM was on fire in this episode. He brings many faces to Negan--more than at any other time on the series (when Negan was in charge). His cold dismissal of the fanboy (who was going on and on and on about "Classic Negan") was something you could see coming a mile away, and I suspected the fanboy would do something to he hapless mother and son. Truly sad, as he instantly bonded with the kid. ..and yes, he still sees Rick as the man who destroyed all he had. Despite his plotting ways, he was triggered by the fanboy's loose-mouthed tall tales about Carl. After all this time, Carl is a sensitive subject for him, despite the fact Carl did not know him for long. Fearless as ever, he was more than ready to take on Beta, but he's seeing the long game. If he manages to kill Alpha--or use her, I can see him making a run at taking over one of the communities, forcing allegiance...or else. Alpha / Whisperers: Gamma--the other "daughter"--I imagine she might be used as a plant (sans the mask, of course), but it may not work as planned, since she was helped by Aaron. Siddiq: Rushing back to the ASZ once he heard Rosita was under the weather. One would think the way he spoke to Ezekiel about hat he believes people see in / expect of him meant he was an innocent party (I thought so, too at one point), but the burden he's carrying does not feel like Ezekiel: Ahhh...he has cancer. This explains his recent suicide attempt. I hope he does not try to go out in a "blaze of glory" against the Whisperers, thinking he has nothing left to live for, or he leads someone else to their death. NOTES: The Negan fanboy was as obsessed as some of Jeffrey Dean Morgan and/or Negan's real world fans, including a few who used to have YouTube channels... Only three episodes left to go in 2019. GRADE: A.
I have to say, I was quite pleased when the stupid teenager who did stupid teenage things died in the same episode he did them (instead of us having to wait a couple of seasons for his comeuppance.) The greatest service Negan has done for any community was hand the little asshole his Darwin Award.