Great episode tonight, way better than last weeks stinker. When the show starts and they do “Previously on the Walking Dead” close your eyes and plug your ears. Seriously.
robsam
3322
Best episode of the entire series. I cared about the characters, I understood their motivations, I was emotionally involved. Black characters got lines! They were allowed to speak! Seriously, what an awesome episode.
God damn you Morgan for not joining Rick, I’ll miss you so much.
DrDel
3323
Not a bad episode.
Too bad about morgan and his son. Although the way his son died was a littletoo much over the top.
Nice to see the show diverge from the comics though.
I liked the episode a lot, but the way Michonne ninja-nabbed the framed picture from the inside of the café* was less than believable. Wasn’t it dropped (I presume by Carl) right under the feet of the mob that was chasing them as they went out the front doors? BTW, that’s some mighty strong decorative glass in those doors.
*in all of about 20 seconds.
tgb123
3325
Excellent episode in terms of character development for both Rick and Michonnne. As soon as the guy with the backpack appeared begging for a ride, I turned to my wife and said “That’s gonna be the girl in the red dress”. Except I thought he would reappear as a walker.
I never thought they could get away with a stand alone episode this far into the story, but I guess I was proven wrong. Also, while I understand the motivations, Rick was kind of a dick based on his actions at the beginning and end of the episode. All the bits in between though were excellent.
I guess I’m glad some of you guys liked this episode, but I thought the writing was absolutely terrible, and I normally like standalone episodes (the Patrick Wilson episode of Girls, the fly episode in Breaking Bad). It was already so ridiculously contrived that they run into Morgan, but whatever, it’s TV. But the stuff between Rick and Morgan was so sophomoric, obvious, and embarrassingly overacted. And running backpack guy was such an obvious setup and even more obvious payoff. I didn’t even enjoy the song they played at the end. What kind of budget blues ditty was that?
I did sort of enjoy the adventure game puzzle sequence of rolling caged rats in on skateboards so they could go around the convenient stealth wall. And it was nice to see Michonne actually smile. My friend does a great Michonne impression. He folds his arms across his chest, pouts, and does a sort of exaggerated harumph. It’s spot on.
-Tom
tgb123
3328
That doesn’t bode well for you, then, since the writer of this episode (I forget his name) is the new showrunner.
Pogo
3329
It had to be. In order for him to really go crazy they needed him to have that extreme guilt of seeing his son die from an encounter with a zombie that he didn’t have the muster to kill.
I don’t see how it is contrived that they ran into Morgan when they return to the same town Rick and Morgan are from. Or that Morgan has gone around the bend, living alone after his son died. It’s there for Rick to realize that perhaps he, too, has allowed himself to go too far around the bend. Heck, even Michonne realized perhaps she needs to reconnect with humanity.
What I didn’t enjoy was running back pack guy. How far has your humanity gone when you leave him to certain death when you know you need some recruits to replace loses (beyond that probably exceeds the budget). At least give him a lift as far as you are going. It can get to the point that if Rick gets zombified, it might be for the better because Daryl has developed a greater sense of empathy than Rick has at the moment.
If I was going to criticize something contrived, it would be how Rick got stabbed. Rick knows, from the experience with the prisoners, that you are at a huge disadvantage when it’s you vs someone else in their house. They know the layout, the know the secrets of the place, you don’t. In this case, Morgan has booby trapped everything, has a huge stockpile of weapons, and Rick decides to restrain him in such a way as to have the least amount of view of what Morgan is up to. In fact, Morgan could have been laying there awake for a long time and Rick would have had no way to see that. In internet meme terms, Rick you had ONE job…
Otherwise I loved the episode. I thought the acting was powerful in that scene between Morgan and Rick, not overacted. I felt that guy’s pain and if he couldn’t bring himself to shoot her why would his son be able to do it? So all that made sense to me. You have to read between the lines. Morgan said “it always came down to food” and he tried to call Rick- he screwed up big time by not leaving with Rick and he knew it. What happened to his kid was just the exclamation point on his failures. Morgan screwed up as much as Rick has as a leader, but without the support system of a group of people to be a safety net, so yeah he’s gonna be a little nuts.
The hitchhiker thing fits right in to how I see Rick. No, one more random person is not going to help in the fight against the Governor. Rick’s group is facing too large an army so he’s not worth picking up for that alone. Plus, Rick has two people with him, one he doesn’t really trust as it is(Michonne), so the last thing he needs right then is another untrustworthy passenger. Next he has his son with him, you really think he’s going to pick up a hitchhiker with his kid in the car?
LockerK
3332
I really liked this episode and was glad to see the payoff to a story line 2 seasons later. My biggest confusion is with them going back to Rick’s town. The past two seasons made it seem like they’d been moving further and further from the starting point and it was odd to see them take a day trip all the way back.
I figure it had to be Rick’s town because it’s the closet thing to a sure thing any of them have. Presumably they are doing this ASAP, which means they don’t really have time to scout various possible locations. That being the case, it’s Rick’s town or nothing. Rick knows where everything was in that town, it’s just a question of how much of that stuff is still there.
I liked this episode. I didn’t have an issue with Rick, Carl and Michonne returning to Rick’s town. I figure that they never really got that far from Atlanta in season one, they ended up going back to do the CDC stuff, and then in season two they only travelled in vehicles for like a single day before coming to the roadblock on the highway and ending up mired at Herschal’s farm. Given that they travelled mostly on foot from then on it’s not inconceivable that they could be within a 400 mile car trip from Rick’s home town. It also makes sense that knowing the Governor had probably cleaned out everything around Woddbury and the prison, Rick would want to go far afield to find weapons and ammo, and what better place than one he is intimately familiar with?
I thought the hitchhiker guy was a barometer for Rick’s state of mind. When they were on the way into town Rick was still in lockdown, he knew he was losing it, and his focus was on getting the objective completed and probably getting rid of Michonne as soon as she had served her purpose. The encounter with Morgan helped Rick see himself from an outsiders perspective, and I think it snapped him back a lot closer to sane again seeing his friend brought down mentally that way after suffering even greater loss and heartbreak than Rick. Rick’s exchange with Michonne prior to leaving shows that he’s changed from who he was when the arrived in town. On the way out of town I bet Rick might have stopped for the hitchhiker, but had to be content with collecting the supplies instead. As an aside, how the hell did the hitchhiker get taken down? There were no hordes nearby, so he must have been done in by a small group of walkers, which you’d think he could have easily run away from. But then we wouldn’t have that scene on the way out of town…
I am very diappointed that Morgan won’t be joining the survivors. Lenny James would have made a great addition to the regular cast, and Morgan would have made Rick a stronger leader by his presence. I get it though, this was just a nod to fans to let all of us who loved Lenny James’ character know his fate and that of his son.
If Rick’s group settles down again somewhere they totally need to incorporate the “walker spikes” and caged rats thing. What an awesome setup. I was lol-ing at the impaled walkers when they were leaving town.
hepcat
3335
I’m also disappointed that James won’t be joining the cast. He’s one of those great character actors that just elevates any show they’re on.
I read somewhere that Robert Kirkman mentioned that the theme of the episode was that you cannot survive the Zombie Apoc alone, lone-wolf style. You need other people. It ties the backpacker guy, Morgan, and the Carl/Michone teamup through out the episode. It makes sense when you think about it. Backpacker, obivously alone dies. Morgan loses his mind now that he is alone. Carl saves his dad by shooting Morgan against the advice of running back to the car. Carl and Michone could not have done what they did if they did not help each other…
Think about how persistant Michone was to Carl to stay at the front of the doors. He was the bait, while Michone snuck around.
Who the hell do you think you are? You act like you own this joint. This was obviously one of the best episodes of the whole series. I have to totally question your critical acumen, who ever you are.
I enjoyed the hell out of that episode. The brutality of leaving the backpacker (and especially the last scene), Morgan’s insanity, Michonne insinuating herself into the crew, the walker-traps, even Carl’s overconfidence.
After a string of mediocre episodes (that, I maintain, were still better than most of last season), this season gets back on its story-telling feet. I have to say though that I’m not really looking forward to more Woodbury next week.
I really liked this one… I wish that they had left the Morgan plot line open, as it made it seem like a real zombie apocalypse; pretty hard to meet up with people randomly. But it was still the best one in pretty much all of season 3. I liked the guy in the backpack; why would Rick stop for someone screaming in the middle of the road? He’s obviously stupid, and not going to last very long.
I liked the scene of Morgan taking the bodys to the cremation site, as the car was passing. Pretty neat scene.
Not looking forward to more Woodbury. Move on plz.
HEX716
3340
Great episode…Tom, don’t know what you are seeing but I think your going into watching them with the correction pen in hand and that never works. You lost points off the bat for not even knowing it was Morgan’s town, it made perfect sense for him to be there. Everything fit in this one from beginning to end I thought. What really caught me was how refreshing it was to be out of the prison and Woodbury with new scenery…they need to hit the road next season.
I wouldn’t totally close the book on Morgan just yet…I mean yeah it looked like he was stuck in repeating hell but he now knows where Rick is and after seeing Carl I wouldn’t be shocked to see him show up to save the day towards the end with his shooting skills. Maybe something stayed with him.
Lionel…why was Rick being a dick? We have already seen you can’t trust half the people you meet…look at Tyrese and his group…half of them would have killed them for the car. To risky to pick up backpack guy…plus his son in the car. Heck it’s too risky even in the regular world to pick up one. You usually only get one chance to make the right choice in a zombie apocalypse…better safe then dead.
Loved the little touch with the sign for Erin…then when you see them swarm the car you see the one female zombie with the Erin bracelet…she never made it.
I enjoyed the bonding moments with Michonne and hope that Rick seeing future Rick in Morgan helps “clear” his head…
