Review: #TheWalkingDead S8:9 HONOR #TWD #TWD Family #TheWalkingDeadUK

Links to most of my other Walking Dead posts HERE


'It's not supposed to be like this.  I know it can be better.'

The end of a TWD era, as the Atlanta 4 becomes the Atlanta 3...

...and finally we get to see what Rick's red eyes in Episode 1 were all about.  Who could have guessed back then?  Soo-ooo sad....in my opinion Carl's death didn't quite trump the saddest ever TWD burial (Tyreese in S5:9 What Happened and What's Going On), but yes, I admit to tears when Rick told him he loved him at the end. 

Loved this shot

I thought Rick, Daryl and Michonne played it so well, with the best sort of dialogue, ie, not too much of it.  As usual, Daryl's hand-on-shoulder and odd, gruff sentences said all that was needed.  And Michonne's face when we heard the gunshot was heartrending. 

I've always loved the relationship between Michonne and Carl, since he first decided she was 'one of us' in S3: 12 Clear, and later when she told him about her baby, André.  Then there's the Crazy Cheese...

I have to say, I thought the meaningful conversation with Siddiq could have been skipped; I felt a bit 'who cares what he thinks?', not just because if it wasn't for him Carl would be alive (and I wonder how much of a problem this will be for Rick in days to come), but because he's a new character.  We just don't give much of a stuff about him yet.  They could have used that screen time to have Tara or Rosita, for instance, saying goodbye to him.  Or a bit more Daryl. 😉

Strange bedfellows

Back at the Kingdom, Gavin 'I never wanted all this' Saviour has to turn Ezekiel in, and our favourite drama queen tries to persuade him that he doesn't have to.  I wonder if Gav might have done the right thing had all his men not been killed by Carol and Morgan, who burst into Ezekiel's theatre with all the confidence of goodies who know that baddies are always terrible shots, and even if outnumbered 4-1, the goodies will usually win, if it's their turn to.  Negan needs to give his men some serious weapons training; even with constant fire, at fairly close range, they couldn't manage to do so much as graze Carol and Morgan's armour.

For those who are missing the Walkers, there was a nice bit of intestine ripping out by Morgan, just before he delayed killing Gavin for long enough to let wee Henry show off his skill with his aikido stick by shoving it through the Saviour's neck.  I imagine Henry will continue in his role as Carol's Sophia-replacement, like Sam, Lizzie and Mica before him.

Meanwhile back at Carl's deathbed:
'It was all for you, right from the start.  Back in Atlanta, the farm, everything I did was for you, and then at the prison, for you and Judith'.  Okay, that was the bit that made me cry!  Carl talks about when he gunned that kid down in S3:16
Welcome to the Tombs...

 ...and reminds Rick about afterwards: the prison in those 6 months twixt S3 and S4, when Rick brought Woodbury survivors in to join their community, kept pigs, grew cucumbers, put away his gun, and it all came good.  He says that he knows it can be like that again, because he's seen it ~ which is when we realise that the fantasy pictures of that idyllic community were in his head, not our glimpse into the future.  Yet it gives hope, not least of all that Rick won't go totally inShane again.  Not too sure about Negan joining the gardening detail, though....

'No more kids stuff'

To wrap it up... I'm guessing that the Saviours will be offed episode by episode; we've started with the could-have-been-a-good-guy, and will no doubt move on to Regina (you know, that bird with the muscly arms who popped up out of nowhere round the Sanctuary boardroom table in S8:1), then 'orrible Benjamin killer Jared, then Simon.... then.... well, you know who.  Will Eugene get his just deserts?  I hope he does, and that Dwight lives to fight another day on the side of the good, but I think it's more likely he won't. 

After all they've been through, to go out with a Walker bite.  Oh dear, and Enid doesn't know yet....

Daryl: 'All of us together.  We'll be their worst damn nightmare.' 

My summing up of the last 8 episodes and the clues that Carl had been bitten,  HERE