Review: #TheWalkingDead S10x18 FIND ME #TWD

 Previously:  Review: S10x17 Home Sweet Home

Should be so close, but they're always moving apart...

~ S10 x 18  FIND ME ~ 

Directed by David Boyd

Written by Nicole Mirante Matthews

Wow, that was a hard one to watch... that scene at the end.  

The harshness of that aside, I thought this was an unexpected and fascinating episode, and I've found that I keep thinking about it.  But first, affairs of the heart...

Where does Daryl's heart lie?  When Leah said that he had to decide whether he belonged with her or his 'other family', he put them first —because, although he clearly loved or at least had strong feelings for her, she wasn't his 'brother' Rick, or Carol, Michonne, Judith.... his ties to those people are too strong ever to be broken, or even emotionally loosened. 

'You ain't gonna lose me...I've just got stuff to do.' 

Unfortunately for Leah, she did the crazy thing many people do when they want all of someone who isn't all theirs to have—she asked him to choose.  Never ends well, that one.

So Daryl goes back to his own camp, only to have Carol visit him again, and tell him, in a roundabout way, that she's putting Ezekiel and Henry first, from now on.  The hurt on his face when he said, 'You don't need my permission to move on with your life.  You're telling me I should move on with mine?' said everything.  Despite her being with Ezekiel, she had always kept him in a special place in her heart to which no one else had access, but now she was saying to him that her Kingdom family were more important.  When he'd just chosen her and everyone else over Leah...

Thinking Carol had said, 'I've moved on and so should you', he went back to find Leah—only to discover that it was too late.  Did she leave? The photo of her and Matthew was gone.  Would she have left Dog, though?  Who thinks she's going to resurface?

He was so brutal to Carol at the end, but that was him screaming out; that's what people do when they feel bad about themselves—they lash out at others.  And he's hurt—after all that he'd been through out there, he went home only to have it all go tits up yet again, and see Carol sail off on her boat. Remember, we weren't there in that year or so after 9x16 The Storm and before Season 10, so we never saw how bad it was for him when she left ... but Daryl is never okay when she's gone.  

Remember that other time she took off, at the end of S6 - how could anyone forget the scene when he found her?  

All those awful things he said to her at the end—I believe they came from the guilt he feels about Glenn, about Beth, about Hershel (remember when he cried in 4x12 Still, blaming himself because he'd stopped looking for the Governor?)...

Seeing Maggie again must have brought all that to the fore.  He feels guilty about not being able to find Rick, for knowing he failed Leah. As for Connie, she's one more person he's cared for and (thinks he's) lost, but he uses it to lash out at Carol for all the times she's left, because he's so broken up inside about every damn thing.  

I wondered what would have happened if Carol had said, 'Does anyone ever blame you for Glenn? No, they don't.'  But because of Ed, she's been conditioned to accept punishment and feel bad about herself, rather than to say, 'Hang on a minute.  You did something that was actually a bit worse.'  It was heartbreaking to see her so rejected by him, and so cruelly - even though it was only the 'hit them before they hurt you' thing, that Daryl has been doing since he was a kid.  Walk away from them so they can't walk away from you....

TWD episode titles often seem to have more than one meaning... I thought this one referred to Daryl and Carol asking each other, silently, to 'find me', as well.  

🏹🏹🏹

Inner turmoil apart, I loved this episode. The cinematography was amazing, of course... and it was good to see Daryl something other than asexual; the immediate attraction between him and Leah was so clear, right from the start.  

Maybe she was too like him... and she wasn't with him in Atlanta, at the farm, at the prison, at Terminus, and in that clearing in the woods with Negan.

🏹🏹🏹

Another reason I loved this episode was that, rather than just being told that 'Daryl lived out in the woods on his own for six years catching fish and eating snakes', we find out exactly what DID happen.  Back when he still had two wings on his waistcoat.  And that it was more obvious than before that Carol had taken fairly constant care of him all the time he was out there.

I liked how both of them, at the beginning, looked tired, worn and dirty, and as if they really had been through all they have.  These are tough people. Hard as nails, in some ways.  Strong, resilient....  

...and as @smoking_reedus said on Twitter said yesterday, this isn't a romcom, it's about survival.  It's about devastating pain and loss, while trying to keep yourself alive—anyone expecting hearts and flowers between Daryl and Carol is going to be disappointed.  I truly believe, though, that they'll get through it—maybe not until Season 11, but they will.  

~ They've still got New Mexico ~ 

(But please, please, can we have some happiness for Carol before that???)

TWD Gif Posts (click title)

Greatest Hits

Should have stayed - Glad they're gone 

Happy Birthday, TWD Actors!

TWD Animals 😸

The Story of Daryl and Carol 

Dinner Time 

A Thank You Letter From Judith Grimes 

Girl Power 

Days Gone Bye: A Tribute to Rick Grimes 

They Turned.... 

Review: #TheWalkingDead S10x17 HOME SWEET HOME #TWD

 Previously:  Review 10x16 A CERTAIN DOOM

- S10 x 17  HOME SWEET HOME -

Directed by David Boyd

Written by Kevin Deiboldt and Corey Reed

Riveting, right?!  Thanks to all concerned for this great start to the bonus 6 😁. 

Lydia was such a good choice for the 'where we're at now' summary at the start, and it's promising that Michonne was included in the recap, which I hope means that we will get to see her again, wherever she is ('under the same sky, looking at the same stars'), not to mention her reunion with Rick.  Also, great to see 'Lauren Cohan' back in the titles!

The scene we've all been waiting for, when Maggie came face to face with Negan - I thought it was perfect.  Afterwards, Angela Kang said that dialogue was originally present, but they quickly saw that it made more impact without.  She's so right.  I don't know if it would have been possible to convey the enormity of what Maggie felt in mere words, but her face spoke volumes.  That's some acting - saying so much by saying nothing at all.  As for Negan, he just looked tired, and almost regretful.

I can't begin to imagine how this is going to play out; maybe at first, she will just avoid him, but now Hershel junior knows about how his dad was killed, and is old enough to understand who this guy is...  

...and isn't Hershel just perfect?  He's the image of Glenn (genius to put him in a baseball cap!), and I loved how, afterwards, Angela showed those two couple of scenes from S1.  I know we've all seen them so many times, but it's never not a good time for a Glenn scene! 

When Daryl looked up at him, sitting in that tree, he had a kind of wonder on his face, like he was seeing his old friend again. 😍

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That was a tense moment between Carol and Maggie, when Carol revealed, in words of one syllable, the truth about how Negan got out and why, and what happened the night Hilltop burned.  It was absolutely the right thing to do - to tell it to her, straight, so that Maggie would know the score from the off; it showed respect for Maggie's feelings, not to bullshit her.  I wondered if Carol has had so much grief from everyone about the things she's done that she thought, what the hell, I'll just say it.  And who could blame her?  It was brave—and totally Carol.  ('Did you kill Karen and David?  'Yes.' *walks away*)

In every conversation between Daryl, Maggie and Carol, you could feel all the years and memories between them, all that they have endured together.  During that enormously touching scene when Maggie talked to Daryl in the shelter—in which Daryl, as always, said so much by saying so little—she felt safe enough to show her vulnerability. She trusts him, because they go back to the beginning, when she was the farmer's daughter and he was the rebel with the crossbow...

Bit of a reminisce here...when, with Cole, Elijah and Kelly, they went in to clear out the walkers so they could sleep there, I was immediately taken back to when Daryl and Maggie were part of another group of five, clearing out the walkers before they could shelter at the prison, in 3x01 Seed.

RIP T-Dog and Glenn.  Miss you, Rick

(one more!) ... and when Maggie and Daryl were leaning up against the door, desperately trying to hold the Walkers in, it made me think of 5x10 Them when everyone else was asleep in the barn, and Daryl saw that Walkers were trying to get in; Maggie was the first to jump up and help him.

Back to the present, and this Cole guy put my back up straight away - when he started being critical about the prospect of living in Alexandria, I thought Daryl was going to say, you don't have to come... I can see there being some friction between the two of them, especially as it looks like Cole is Maggie's right-hand man.  I look forward to seeing him put him in his place (go on, Carol!) (Or Negan? Or Gabriel?).

Interesing to hear how Maggie has spent the last few years, and hear her talk about Beth, Glenn and Hershel—and that Georgie has gone to some town out west—will this be the Commonwealth?  

Once Home Sweet Home......

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Kelly was an inspired addition to the crew in this episode, just the right person to go along with Daryl, especially with the missing sister situation, to which Maggie can so relate... I think we're going to love Elijah, and he seems like a handy person to have around.  The scenes through the woods were proper TWD scary—and even the name 'The Reapers' is enough to send a shiver down the spine!  And what did Suicide Man mean by 'Pope marked you'?  It was almost brushed off at the time, but one of the things I've always loved about TWD is how things are said or seen and you don't realise their significance until later (like when Michonne walked past the 'Wolves Not Far' graffiti in 509 What Happened and What's Going On),

When the group reached what Beta and the Whisperers had left of Alexandria, Cole said 'Home Sweet Home' in a derisive, sarcastic fashion, but he didn't know that to Maggie, it is.  It's the place where she lived with Glenn ... and Abraham, Sasha, Enid, Deanna, Carl, Tara, Noah, Rick and Michonne.  Though now there's a cuckoo in the nest...

Stuff I'm hoping for:

• Maggie talking to Judith about the day she delivered her, and more about Lori.
• Negan not doing anything to backslide the progress he's made...
• Everyone appreciating Carol and all she does for everyone, again!
• More Rosita, and Rosita and Gabriel as the power couple :)
• Daryl and Carol getting closer... please, can we have a little bit of that before the season ends (and I don't want to think about this Leah woman until I've seen the next episode!)???
• Eugene meeting Stephanie....soooon!
• Cole getting put in his place.
• More Aaron, more Alden, Kelly and Luke - and more from the background characters still there from S5 - Scott and Barbara!
• Just a bit of happiness for Ezekiel?
• Daryl and Carol talking to Hershel about the Glenn they knew even before Maggie did.

Until next time....