On This Day... Carol saves it again! S8:4 Some Guy #TWD #TheWalkingDead

Comment: First Three Episodes

Season 8 Episode 4: Some Guy

Someone told me I would need to get my hanky out in tonight's episode ~ there was me thinking it was just about the demise of the lovely Daniel!

The Lovely Daniel

The contrast of the rousing Braveheart stuff at the beginning, compared with the reality, was so well done ~ and finally we saw the man beneath the crown, who had never really done much fighting at all.  Not like the totally awesome Carol, who saved the day once more.  Like with the hand grenade at the CDC in Season 1, and the explosion at Terminus in Season 5, she kept her wits about her when all around her were losing theirs.  Makes you wonder if, during those long evenings in A&E when she was married to Ed, she used to read self-help books called 'Discover Your Inner Post-Apocalyptic Warrior'.

The best bit of all was the sight of Daryl steaming down the road on the Dixon Machine, after the Saviours and their Big Guns.... with Rick following.  Btw, anyone else noticed that Daryl has been wearing the same shirt since he escaped from the Sanctuary?  

If he'd like to come round to my house and take it off, I'll wash it for him.  No worries.

Had I read the recent comic books I would have known that Shiva was to die, though I didn't think it was as sad as the death of Buttons the horse in S5... if only you'd been able to catch him, Daryl! 

At least we won't have to listen to anymore of Ezekiel's pantomime speeches, though I felt so sad for the sorry figure he cut, as he walked through his expectant subjects at the end....  

But at least you've got the guns, Rick 😉

And the war rages on.... #TWD S8 Episode 3 Monsters

For my review of the first two episodes, click HERE


Never a dull moment, eh?  So much variation in last night's episode, I loved it!

Twice we saw the new 'shoot and ask questions later' Daryl, when he killed Morales and the guy in the yellow trousers, even after Rick had given the latter his woorr-rrd...  our Daryl is hitting back at the Saviours to purge the guilt he still feels about Glenn's death, I'd say, and it made me wonder ~ will this be a bone of contention between him and Rick?  And will he show mercy to Dwighty-Boy, when the time comes?  I'm guessing yes.  Meanwhile, someone close to me commented that he should have done the same to Big-Girl's-Blouse Jesus as he did to Yellow Trouser Guy...

Jesus playing in the woods, instead of killing nasty Saviours

...which brings me to Jesus's tussle with 'is-he-totally-losing-it-yes-probably' Morgan, who seems unable to find a middle ground between 'all life is precious' and 'kill anything that moves'.  I'm with Morgan and Tara on this one.  What do you think the captured Saviours are going to do, Jesus?  Sit in a trailer and twiddle their thumbs until they're let out, then start baking bread along with the Hilltoppers?

'I cannot sanction the harming of the scumbag who murdered dear sweet Benjamin.  I will, however, kick a guy who is supposed to be my friend and is also around 20 years my senior, in the chest.  I rock'.

This is just an excuse for a picture of (the lovely) Daniel

Talking of Morales, I was most disappointed to see him Dixoned before he and Rick ever had a chance to catch up.  ('So what did happen to Merle?  He ever get his hand back?'  'Hey, you ought to see the Widow Peletier now, bro.  No more moaning about her missed Maytag; she's a lean, mean fighting machine!').  Think that was a storyline opportunity missed ~ could he have been brought back into the fold, as a double agent?  ('We won't talk about you holding me at gun-point.  You have my woorr-rd.  But watch for flying arrows').

Who thought Eric was going to die, then?  Last we saw of him, he was Walkering off to join the herd ~ but wouldn't Aaron have run after him to do the knife-to-head thing?  I'm thinking he was let go so we can see him sink his teeth into an appropriate person's neck later on.  So (the lovely) Aaron takes Baby Gracie, and presumably heads back to Alexandria.  Which I'm missing ~ I want more Michonne!

I was thinking, earlier, about the brilliant first ever scene with Shane and Rick in the car, and wondering if the dialogue is not as good as it used to be ~ but then I thought of episodes like the terrific last talk between Rosita and Sasha at the end of the Season 7, and am sure there is more like that to come.  And probably more 'human' episodes, and hopefully some good Walker stuff too, for those of us who want more zombies!  A few less cheesy lines now, please, writers ~ we all know that they're going to stand side by side and take the world back.  We've got that, okay?  And we know Ezekiel's a good guy, and we know why he acts like a pantomime king (did community theatre in the old world, likes to play act as well as motivate his kingdom, etc etc), but perhaps a little less of it?

Now, Gregory....

#TWD100 Thoughts on the first two episodes: S8 #TheWalkingDead #TWD

A friend of mine said she thought episode one was too cheesy, and whereas I can see what she means, I kind of didn't care.... I loved Rick's Braveheart-style, motivational speech!  

Also loved the reflection of the very first episode - after the titles, the silence when Carl drove up to the overturned vehicles and got out, petrol can in hand ... he even looked under the car, just like his dad did, all those years ago.  

Blast from the past - Rick in the first ever episode, Days Gone Bye

So... where will Gregory go?  Who will have him now?  Will he head back for his Hilltop mansion, and skulk under the faded space where his painting used to be?  Justice for leaving the born-again priest to face the dead all on his own ~ not to mention facing Negan, who also found 'sanctuary' (!) in the trailer.  But why didn't Gabriel just turn round and shoot him?  Okay, I know... we're saving Negan's death for later.  Not today, not tomorrow, but some time soon, and at Rick's hand.

Really sad to see Francine die - a minor character who I've liked since she slapped Tobin in the mush in Season 5, when he left her for dead on the construction site.  And Craig and Freddie, but I'm betting that newbie gunslinger Eric will be miraculously saved.  How could they make the lovely Aaron suffer?

Evil Benjamin-shooting Jared

Not sure why Morgan didn't just kill evil Benjamin-shooting Jared straight off, as he doesn't seem to have a problem unloading his piece into everyone else in his path, but Jesus seems to have taken on the philosophies of his namesake; has he become the new Glenn, giving it "It's still who we are" in every episode?  And another observation, about Jesus, and Daryl ~ how come the chicks (Tara and Diane, and that nasty piece of work who got her neck eaten) get to tie their hair back for battle, but the guys don't?  Doesn't Daryl ever wonder why all he can see in front of him is hair?

 
And then we come to the big one: Morales!  What a brilliant surprise - until Rick said his name I was thinking, dammit, I know that face, who is it?  And that's me, who has watched the whole show an embarrassing amount of times.  Yes, he was the guy on the rooftop, when Merle was handcuffed to a pipe, who said, "Okay, Rick from down the road a ways, welcome to the big city", or words to that effect.  And to think Rick gave him a gun as a going away present!  He's a long way from Alabama, though; weren't his family going to Birmingham?

As for the rest, I'm loving Carol being back to normal, wondering if Saviour Gavin may end up being a good guy (he always seemed almost okay when he was at the Kingdom), hoping Dwighty-Boy sticks to the plan and maybe even gets forgiven by Daryl and Tara, wondering why Judith looks nothing like Lori, Rick or Shane (though she is SO gorgeous!), and if Maggie is ever going to look pregnant ... and no, I didn't think Rick was in a coma and it had all been a dream, in Bobby Ewing*-stylee ~ the flowers were different, and it was a different clock!

*for the under 45s ~ Bobby Ewing was a character in 1980s super-soap Dallas, who famously woke up at the beginning of one season, revealing that the whole of the previous one had been his wife's dream.  Yep, and we lapped it up.  Our TV expectations were much less sophisticated thirty-odd years ago.

Yes, Pam, you just dreamt the whole of the last season...