I got no problem with plot pieces, as such. But in-line with the fiction, the guy has managed to last long. His appearance this late into the ZA, alone, shows that. Rick leaving him can mean a lot of things, but you can’t rationalize as he “won’t last long anyways”.
So on the hitchhiker, I just thought of a possible take: did either Carl or Michonne visibly react to the hiker (as opposed to reacting to Rick appearing to see someone)? One view of the hiker, early in the episode, is as a possible phantom that only Rick sees. Only after Rick admits to seeing people, albeit sarcastically, do we have them picking up the backpack. Even then, the live hiker may have only been in Rick’s head. The lack of discussion in the group about the hiker supports this possibility.
Admittedly, WD hasn’t been that big on playing with the viewer’s perceptions, but it be a nice Twilight Zone-like bit if the writers were aiming for something like that.
I was excited to see Morgan back and was really hoping he would join Rick. I was looking up what else Lennie James was in on IMDB and noticed an interesting thing about his character (spoiler: http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0226324/)
Spoiler alert.
That’s pretty awesome though.
I’m pretty sure Carl reacted to the hitchhiker, not to Rick looking at nothing. About the lack of talk, it seemed to me that on the way to town things were a bit chilly in that car, so no real conversation. On the return, they were certainly on friendlier terms, but would that be the time for Michonne to bring up “He’s dead? If we had picked him up…”? Say goodbye to all the good will you earned, lol.
Kyle700
3346
Maybe, but in his current mindset, he isn’t going to last very long… It doesn’t matter how long he has survived up until this point, if someone is running down the road screaming their head off, I wouldn’t pick them up. Maybe he survived with the help of a group and they just got attacked; he seemed pretty desperate.
jason
3347
Should there ever be an actual zombie apocalypse, remember to keep a white cloth on you at all times. When trying to get the attention of people in a car or at a distance, wave the white flag instead of yelling. You will live longer (at least as far as zombies are concerned, the people you’ve just flagged down might kill you anyway).
You don’t live in a ZA. If you’re running around screaming, in the normal world, yeah that’s a crazy guy. If you haven’t seen a car for months during a ZA, running and screaming is pretty much expected. Was he supposed to calmly ask for some Grey Poupon? I’m pretty sure there have been episodes where Rick is desperately begging people to help.
Passing the hiker up demonstrates a lot about the changes in Rick over the course of the ZA (season 1 Rick would have surely stopped, season 2 as well). But chalking it up to a rational, normal decision minimizes the relevance of those changes in Rick. His morals are starting to change, and it’ll be interesting to see if he actively tries to resist that.
Passing by the hitchhiker does demonstrate Rick’s changes, but I think the point is that everyone would go through those changes in a ZA. Well, the ones who expect to live anyways. Plus circumstances dictate actions to a certain degree, it’s not just personal changes.
Rick, pre-prison days, would have stopped I’m sure. But things, besides Rick himself, have changed drastically since then. Even if today’s Rick was nice and sane Rick, he shouldn’t stop. They are on a time sensitive mission to get guns and ammo to defend the prison, that is the reason he’s risking all three lives and by extension all the lives in his group. If they stopped for that hitchhiker and that resulted in a gunfight, that’s a result that Rick simply can’t afford. No one in that position could afford that gamble. Even if they ‘won’ by killing the guy all it would take is for one of them to be wounded and it’s, yes, game over man. Now they are in the middle of nowhere, with wounded, and no extra guns or ammo. Go forward or back, it doesn’t really matter now.
The only potential benefit is the guy is a kick ass Merle/Daryl level fighter. So what? He’s one guy, even if he does his best the opposing force is too large for one extra guy to matter enough to risk it all on picking him up.
The two of us have had this discussion before. Rick, at the beginning of the show, embodies altruism and morality. True altruism is about helping others without the expectation of gain and even at a cost to self. Altruism is inherently irrational, at least from the perspective of the individual. Shane, on the other hand, was the epitome of the rational, ruthless survivor.
The writers are clearly exploring the issue of morality and altruism with Rick’s recent changes. I just think rationalizing all of his behavior is missing the point of an exploration of morality: Rick, when he’s acting as an archetype of altruism, has always been “irrational” when it comes to his fellow man. Rick becoming more calculating, more rational, more worklike in his approach to other survivors, is a big part of the moral exploration in a ZA setting. Whether Rick fights it and swings back the other way is the true drama in the story.
Nah, Carl’s reaction was quite obvious: he looked at his dad with the expectation that Rick would do something, then when neither Rick nor Michonne does anything at all, he looks discomforted for a second before he sets his jaw.
Honestly, the kid playing Carl is pretty good for a child actor.
I really did like the callousness of the hitchhiker sequences. The silence in the car and Carl’s conflicted feelings were decently well-done, but I really liked how both Rick and Michonne refused to even acknowledge the man screaming for help as they got back in the car the in second scene… it was a nice combination of “let’s not even acknowledge his existence” and “this doomed idiot is not worthy of our time.” And finally the stopping for the backpack was a cold “waste not, want not” coda to the whole thing.
If that was going to happen, the guy could have simply started shooting while Michonne’s hands were both still on the wheel. Perfect in-plain-sight ambush. Compare how Daryl still had the empathy to go to far more danger recently to aid people he didn’t need to.
robsam
3353
I thought it was obvious that Rick made the right decision to pass by hitchhiker guy, he was shouting and waving his arms and the camera kept pointing out the loud clinking pan hanging from his perfectly packed backpack gear. He’s shouting, with a loud LOOK AT ME orange bedroll with a clanking pan. Looked like a perfect decoy to put on the road to slow down sympathetic people, so the ambush from the woods can happen.
They still could have shot if there was an ambush. If they didn’t have firearms, Rick didn’t have a whole lot to fear between his gun and Michonne’s sword or just accelerate away. Once the backpacker catches up to him while they were getting out of the mud, its pretty obvious that there was no ambush.
The idea the hiker being hallucinated is an interesting notion, which I kind of like. Neither Carl nor Michonne commented about him either coming or going. They both looked back in his direction but they could have been tipped off to look based upon Rick’s actions. I had been wondering why nobody said anything, but I figured it was just all of them deciding to avoid an awkward conversation they knew would end up with “let the guy die.” They did find the bag around where they/he first saw the hiker, so that and Rick’s decision to have Michonne drive while saying “because I see things” does potentially fit in with it having been a “vision” of his.
However, I think it was more likely a silent decision to not trust anybody, an outlook that more strongly manifested after what they’d been through with Woodbury and the governor.
Daryl wasn’t pressed for time though, in fact he literally had nothing better to do at the time. I wouldn’t be surprised if he did it partially to annoy his brother too.
I’d doubt a bad guy, using the hitchhiker ploy, is going to come out guns blazing against people still in their car. That’s got to be the least effective approach. I’m thinking if you stop for this guy to see if he’s suitable for joining up, you have to stop and exit the car, at least one of you. You have to ‘interview’ him. This is all extremely dangerous.
I think of it like a party based RPG. Would you take a chance and go for one more party member, if it means your eight current high level characters risk having to fight a large mob with basic non magic weapons? Or would you rather give up on the ninth character if it means fighting with eight high level characters equipped with higher end gear? At the time of the decision, Rick was expecting not to come home empty handed, or why risk Carl’s life?
I don’t get why your so opposed to anyone in the show ever doing something because they’re altruistic or based on gut. It’s clear that the writers have thrown Daryl out there as a “good guy”. Rick was, until recently, also a “good guy”. They’re not guys that have fortuitiously always fallen into situations that allow their unerringly rational actions to align with outwardly good actions.
Yes, you try and set up the ideal situation, but a constantly traveling ambush that lets the ambushee define the location by random arrival time in walker infested locations is pretty incompetent from the word go. And the ideal situation doesn’t mean you still would pass up taking a shot at a car and figuring that if you get the driver you’re 9/10s of the way there, anyway. And as I noted (and you excised), once the backpacker catches up to him while they were getting out of the mud, its pretty obvious that there was no ambush.
I think of it like a party based RPG. Would you take a chance and go for one more party member, if it means your eight current high level characters risk having to fight a large mob with basic non magic weapons? Or would you rather give up on the ninth character if it means fighting with eight high level characters equipped with higher end gear? At the time of the decision, Rick was expecting not to come home empty handed, or why risk Carl’s life?
Sure - my RPG group does it all the time - many merchants ride under our banner and are happy for it. Doesn’t mean they are obligated to join us, or that we want them to join us. This is just giving one guy a lift - if it works out to something more, fine, if not, one more human in the world rather than having him end up a walker would seem a good thing. As I said, the whole ambush argument falls apart on the second encounter.
Kyle700
3359
Either way, it’s not really a good idea to pick him up. He wouldn’t bring anything to the group, and being that loud is just an instant sign that he’s not bright. I doubt that Rick would have picked him up if he was being quiet either, but still.
corsair
3360
I’m kind of mystified by these comments. Again, Daryl had just saved peoples lives far more proactively than Rick would have had to without the slightest interest in them “bringing anything to the group”. They don’t have to bring a thing to the group. They don’t have to become part of the group. Why is that the only condition to aiding someone in need? And why is yelling an instant sign that he’s not that bright? A speeding car is quiet? Knowing that getting a ride might be the only way you live, do you yell to get their attention or do you keep a stiff upper lip and thrust your umbrella into the air from the curb, signaling for a ride but keeping your dignity?
