Ok so my friend and I finally sat down and watched the last 4 episodes of TWD in a marathon manner last night.
Loved all of them, watching them in succession like that makes them flow better. It also doesn't cause me to question things the thread spent 10+pages talking about. Where did the zombie herd come from. I was fully ready to buy into the idea of a migration(loosely mentioned), + the swamp drying out due to weather + all the shouting and gun shots around the farm for a few episodes. Then they show us the helicopter and problem solved before we can think on it any more.
Lori - yep, I hate her. I don't read the comic, is she like this in the comic? That woman is a clusterfuck of masterful proportions.
Sadly, Dale's fate was spoiled for me all over Facebook and even the "bullseye" of Entertainment Weekly. Luckily the same did not happen for Shane. Despite knowing from these threads that Shane dies way earlier in the comic I was resigned to the idea he'd be around longer here for sure. Then...he wasn't.
I too thought they would spend several episodes regrouping next season. Glad to see they are back together and we will not waste episodes doing that. Having not read the comics the hooded sword weilder was a "gotcha" moment for us. We both were very WTF--are those two armless zombies chained to him/her. We couldn't make out the sex of the individual. I now see it's a woman spot reading the thread.
So, that is the Prison I've heard much about. Are things about to crazy real fast? Seems to be the general idea.