4341

I thought the season opener was the best episode in 3 years, maybe the best ever. Loved it.

4342

The only scenario I see Rick dying - he is the main protagonist of the comic - is if Andrew Lincoln decides to leave before the series ends and they don’t want to replace him with another actor.

4343

Now that they are all together (except for Beth), the group/herd is too large. Time for a culling. Start with Carl.

Worst way to go for Denise Crosby - Getting blasted by the black muck monster in ST:Next Generation or eaten alive by the zombie hoard?

4344

I had the same feeling, but in mulling it over afterwards, it did seem kind of rushed in a way. We spent quite a few episodes getting to Terminus last season, only to have it torn down in 30 minutes or less. And the move from “just protecting ourselves!” to “Yum, people stew!” was never really explained. I find it hard to believe that they would turn to cannibalism that quickly. Rick and his crew have managed to survive in less hospitable environments without resorting to Carl on a spit, so it’s not like it was the ONLY avenue they had.

4345

The show continues to exceed all expectations in terms of ratings – it’s gigantic. It beat Sunday Night Football, even.

4346

I think it was absolutely the right decision. Canabilism is really, really uncomfortable viewing material, even for Walking Dead. Stretching that out over episodes would have been horrible. The journey to Terminus was an exploration of the perpetual hope that a semblance of normal can be restored, once it was revealed that this was a false hope, it’s better to move on and explore how another false hope affects the characters.

4347

Cannibalism wouldn’t even be a blip on the radar of uncomfortableness that is The Walking Dead considering the subject matter they’ve covered previously. I will say that in the comic, the cannibals were dealt with rather quickly. So maybe they’re drawing inspiration from that.

And the entire show is already “an exploration of the perpetual hope that a semblance of normal can be restored”. That’s its core story. The reason for everything they do. The journey to Terminus was a way to get them back together after using the Governor’s assault as a way to break them apart in order explore the characters as individuals. There was no need for expedience in dealing with Terminus after it served that purpose.

As I said, I enjoyed the episode a great deal. I just wish it wasn’t as rushed when it came to the reasons behind the actions of the folks living at Terminus. I applaud the “Then” scenes that delved into why they were hostile to newcomers, but I would’ve appreciated some logic behind the leap from that to being a camp of cannibals.

4348

I guess they took the “You’re either the cattle or the butcher” mantra a bit too literally.

I was pleasantly surprised that they didn’t make the slaughter scene in to something over the top. They protrayed it as an efficient operation meant to dispatch the “cattle” as quickly as possible.

Now I’m all curious about where the priest storyline will go. Not much to go on from the “this season on The Walking Dead” teaser.

4349

I had forgotten about that. I guess that will have to do for an explanation.

By the way, for those who’ve read the comic over the last year, was that guy in the leather jacket at the end the person I think he was?

4350

I never read the comic but he has been on the show before. I’d spoiler it but for some reason I can’t figure out how to do that here.

4351

Chalk me up as another one who enjoyed the season opener. The slaughter operation over the sink was great, even if they did draw out Glenn’s turn to the point where it broke suspension of disbelief. Very brutal, efficient, and cold. Plus “get ready to shift back into public face” was very succinct and telling.

I liked Carol’s use of the herd, though I simply did not believe she’d score a hit with the fireworks rocket so easily.

4352

Re Glenn at the trough: I think it goes back to the example Hitchcock often used - if you have a scene of a couple talking and a bomb suddenly explodes, there’s a moment of shock. But if you show someone planting the bomb ahead of time, and cut back to the timer counting down, you have 5 minutes of suspense.

Part of the tension of that scene was the question of “are they going to kill off Glenn?”. Obviously they weren’t, so if they hadn’t shown the bat poised at his head a couple of times, a lot of that tension would be lost.

4353

I wish they had killed off someone…I like randomness in shows/movies…doesn’t happen much but they do kill off quite a few of the more than one episode actors on this show…just hoped it would happen here too.

4354

…and Tara would be the perfect candidate for that. And even then, via a walker bite or something–I didn’t want to see the Termites get even a little bit of a win by offing one of our heroes.

4355

Trade the Governor for the Termites and you got it in one! :)

4356

I finally got around to watching the season opener and like most here I really enjoyed it.

I don’t mind that they didn’t go too far in exploring Terminus. As others have noted, it was only a convenient point for the various character bands to focus on and bring everyone together. No need to linger on the false hope or whatever, especially since we as the audience already KNEW that it wasn’t going to be a “real” sanctuary from the minute they saw the first sign.

I liked the opening montage where the characters - who we know to be hardened survivors now - start to create murderous weaponry from everyday gear. I also like how (for the most part), none of it did a lick of good because their captors are ALSO hardened survivors.

Although I too think that Tyreese’s reaction to the baby-threatener was sort of silly, I really enjoyed how they showed his bad-assdom in the later scenes of zombie slaughter and the sounds of battle. I also disagree with someone above: I don’t think that Tyreese killed the Termite Field Agent - that’s why he wouldn’t let Carol go in and look; she’d just find the guy beaten bloody but not dead. I suspect we’ll see that guy again.

Agreed, but I was exceptionally happy that they actually showed that a rifle bullet would probably not ignite the gas tanks. We’ve been conditioned by every action-adventure TV show and movie since the A-Team (not to mention every video game ever made!) to think that holding a bullet anywhere within five feet of a propane tank will cause it to explode spectacularly. But of course, 999 times out of a thousand, all that will happen if you shoot one is that a hole will appear in the side… just like what happened in the show. Kudos to the writers for actually requiring FLAME.

4357

I wonder if that’s true, at least for subsequent bullets. Once the first bullet punches a hole and permits the liquid propane to expand into a gas, subsequent bullets hitting the tank might create sufficient sparks to ignite the gas.

On Tyrese, that guy looked pretty darned dead, after getting punched that severely. But you never know in TV land, I guess.

4358

We saw Gareth (the hipster a-hole) get winged, but he’s probably coming back, isn’t he?

BTW Stepsongrapes, I’m afraid Hollywood got you again with the bullet sparks trope: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BulletSparks

4359

I think Tyrese killed the guy. They did not show it, but I assume he would secure the kill to prevent a zombie rising in the same room he was in with a baby.

I enjoyed the Denise Crosby death. For a second it looked like Carol was going to let her live, then she opens the door to let in the horde. Really like the badassness with the zombie guts camo.

4360

Tested on Mythbusters. If you shoot at a big enough tank, you either get bullets bouncing off (dangerous!) or a neat little hole. They couldn’t get ignition from bullets alone. And if you ignite it, you tend to get a flamethrower rather than an earth-shattering kaboom. The whole fireworks thing is because I have no doubt Nicotero (who has been on Mythbusters for Zombie “myths”) was familiar with the episode.