4261

Can someone recap opening scene for me pls?

4262

Flashbacks, followed by close up of Rick, slathered in blood, hands shaking (post-Claimers, but unknown at the moment). Opening credits.

4263

I’ve seen that in so many tv shows and movies and I always laugh at them for thinking it sounds badass. When the character has just been owned and has no visible means for even keeping himself alive, that’s not the time to act like he’s in control.

Those people seemed kind of ‘off’ to me. Mentally that is, I wonder if that’s going to be a part of what we find out about Terminus next season.

One other thing that was weird, Daryl telling Rick that Beth was just gone. What the hell? So walkers didn’t get her but she’s not with you, she’s just gone? Sounds legit.

4264

I thought it was a good episode, relatively speaking as I find most of them awful but I keep watching anyway. Yeah I don’t know why either. I fast forwarded the flash back crap. I enjoyed the 3 minutes or so where Rick and his crew slaughtered Daryl’s new friends. I don’t get the angst afterwards. Rick did nothing wrong, who could possibly think otherwise? So why is Carl looking at him funny and Michone having to talk it out?

The Terminus stuff was predictable, insofar as it was obviously a trap. I look forward to watching the next 16 episodes that will resolve nothing but Rick’s posse getting out of there and being back to square one.

4265

I loved this season, but wish this finale didn’t end on a cliff-hanger. Also, everything about Terminus was just goofy - the extent of organization and discipline at Terminus was ludicrous - they were cannibalistic super soldiers who were also adept at looking very ordinary. How did these characters evolve from being presumably ordinary, empathetic people who look like students and accountants or waiters — to being heartless cannibals, master hunters, remarkable marksmen who can corral dangerous opponents and never miss, candlework artists, and also seem like jovial, well groomed nerds who happily manufacture and execute masterful tactics. This crew might as well have whipped out light sabers or rode in on dragons, because they seemed no more plausible. Bad way to end.

Couple questions on events:

  • when the shooting started at Terminus – the guy Rick was talking to gave a signal to someone behind Rick, and Rick turned around and his hostage was shot in the head – I do not think Rick was the one who shot him, but I’m not certain. It looked like someone was trying to quickly take out Rick (maybe Tasha Yar?) but blew away his hostage instead?

  • the confrontation between Joe’s gang: um, not that I wanted to see anything more explicit, but are viewers supposed to presume Carl was actually raped by that creepy dude (and that was the only way network TV could display that sort of event)? I thought he was just manhandled and threatened (Joe suggested what was going to happen), but the reactions of the characters afterwards (Rick’s bloodlust, Carl in shock being comforted by Michonne in the car, etc) made me wonder if they were implying in the only ways they could that creepy man did more than restrain him.

4266

I don’t think Carl was raped, I think the “shock” was supposed to be more about Rick having eaten that dude’s throat and then stabbed the other guy about 5000 times than it was about what happened (or almost happened) to Carl.

IMO such shock was overplayed because Rick was justified in his actions, but I think that was what was supposed to be the shocking stuff.

Overall for a season finale this was a bit of a disappointment, IMO. I have no specific problems with the content of the episode, just the pacing of the latter half of the season… where they left off wasn’t that great in terms of wrapping up the previous season or in terms of really setting the stage for the next one.

Ah well, season 4 was still much much better than season 3!

4267

The Shocking Dead! Bleh…A chain in his pocket gave it all away? Couldn’t it really have been anything in that pocket? Did Rick see the watch before he went into accusatory mode? I accidentally deleted it from the DVR before I could check.
The Terminus shooters are awfully proficient in NOT hitting anyone at all while driving them towards the train car. Seems like shooting that close to the moving targets might result in an accidental hit or ten with all that gunfire. AND my wife’s water just broke holy crap…uh gotta go

4268

Yeah, it’s weird the way that Daryl doesn’t seem that concerned with figuring out what happened with Beth. So she just got carried away in a car, so that’s that. Oh well! And, yeah Desslock, I think they were clearly going for the implication that Carl was going to be raped, but nothing actually happened during the scuffle. But that guy holding Carl was straight out of central casting for child molester type.

And worth quoting for posterity:

“They’re going to feel pretty stupid when they find out.”

“Find out what?”

“That they’re screwing with the wrong people.”

Way to go out on a low note. It makes the waiting for the next season so much easier!

-Tom
4269

Yeah that was a dumb last line. Groan-worthy.

4270

  1. Carl wasn’t raped. Only man handled.

  2. Rick was shaken due to him almost dying, his son getting (almost) ass raped, eating a man’s neck and stabbing a guy like crazy in front of his son, losing Judith… along with the usual sleep deprivation, lack of food, fatigue and all the other shit he has gone through like the end of the world, losing his wife and his best friend Shane. Give the guy a break; I think a little trembling is in order.

  3. Terminus did look a little fake but I thought that was more due to budgetary issues than anything else. I don’t understand why they can’t do a leg shot to cripple them. But then again as a hunter I suspect they will follow the philosophy that it will spoil/damage the meat.

  4. I was expecting to see people with missing body parts in the train car (like the comics or in the movie The Road – cannibals who take off a leg, eat it for dinner, then eat the next leg the following day, etc). I was also expecting the Mayor of Terminus to be Anthony Hopkins. I was upset when I didn’t see him.

  5. I agree the delivery of the last line could have been better, but it is a difficult line to deliver. Furthermore, now that I realize the last line was from the comics and a tribute from the comics I can give it a pass.

4271

Maggie never bothered to even ask.

4272

According to Lincoln and Gimple on Talking Dead (ha ha I watched Talking Dead) they shot the f-bomb version of the final line, so maybe we’ll see it on Netflix or Blu-ray. It would have been dramatically more effective.

4273

Maggie didn’t know that Darryl and Beth escaped together. Plus, we got all of 2 minutes of reunion time. That, at least, seems reasonable.

4274

I got the impression that it was standard Terminus procedure to kill the hostage in that situation. The guy Rick grabbed kept pleading with the leader guy to let him handle it, presumably because he knew the next step was his own demise. Leader guy kept telling him to shut up, presumably so as to not give away the next step.

And that’s where my issues with Terminus come into play. Granted we haven’t seen much yet, but all signs point to a zombie apocalypse version of cannibal shipwreckers. Lure groups of survivors in, capture them alive, take their stuff, and feast on tasty treats for weeks afterwards. During the battle scene we saw the gang run through the creepy candle room, which seemed to be equal parts tributes to Terminus’ own dead citizens and a monument to their distrust of outsiders. The gang also ran past a couple of stacked shipping containers where you could easily hear people pounding on the walls of the container and yelling “help us!”, Daryl even paused to say “What the hell?” or something along those lines and Rick shouted to keep going. Finally, they ran past a large open cage-type area that was filled with human skeletal remains that looked like they’d been picked clean. It wasn’t dead walkers, or even dead people, it was the obvious byproduct of butchering, only with human parts.

So all signs point to a honey-pot of cannibals. My problem is that there are a lot of them, and they seem to be intelligent, super well organized, efficient and ruthless, not to mention incredible shots and very well coordinated in terms of communication (you don’t orchestrate a corralling of armed people that well without some means of communicating to everyone what the plan is). Seems far fetched that so many people that smart, talented and resourceful would all decide to shake off their humanity and go cannibal, especially when they seem to have plenty of space and resources to grow their own food. Hell, they made of point of showing all the little garden plots and plant boxes everywhere, and they certainly don’t lack for protected space and mateirals to grow plenty of crops. I could easily see how being burned early on by a couple of bands of guys like Daryl’s new pals could make the Terminus folks want to shoot all outsiders on sight, but I just can’t see how that many people become quasi-cultist cannibals over the course of 18 months.

4275

Not really. It doesn’t change the fact that they were just herded like cattle at gunpoint into a train car and the only weapons they have are buried outside. It’s the equivalent of the schoolyard kid threatening that his dad will beat you up.

4276

True, but that moment is SO anti-climactic – it really could have used a good f***ing.

Regardless, given that it’s so blindingly obvious that these people are cannibals, it’s strange the show didn’t formally reveal it to the characters. Why hold it back? The crew’s reaction to seeing a half-eaten Beth would have made for a far more personal, stakes-raising cliffhanger.

4277

What would be awesome is if S5 opens with Rick delivering that line - and everyone else collapsing with laughter.

4278

They took the time to bury the guns. Why didn’t they also take the time to, you know, leave one of them outside the gates while the rest went to check it out? If it was all kosher, they could have indicated that they had a dude still out there. Instead, now they will either need to save themselves, or unknowingly count on Carol, Tyreese, and an infant to save them.

4279

I think it would be great if it turned out they really aren’t cannibals. Just versions of Rick’s group that learned to distrust everyone after repeated attacks. They could be a look into what might happen to Rick and his friends were they pushed too far. The rest of that episode certainly played up that whole examination of how far one would go to defend one’s loved ones (rick and carl, michonne and baby michonne). Personally, cannibal is just too easy. It’s the go to shocker for post apocalyptic world shows/books/comics. I’m holding out hope that all those signs you’re all citing are just red herrings.

Anyway, I thought it was a good episode overall.

Ummmm…guys?

4280

I got more of a Jonestown vibe out of Terminus, and it would be interesting to see this explored next season.