The Walking Dead Season 8

I enjoyed this episode overall. It was far from perfect--dodging explaining how the Saviors got out via Eugene is just lazy writing--but I found myself on the edge of my seat for most of it.

Man, was this show dark. It was dark in a way that detracted from the overall look, I thought.


Dan

 

Oh no...not "Coral."

 

This show is so perverse I just can`t see any bright side I know it has to get darker and more hopeless.

 

I'm not sure what I just watched.

I've been watching Mr. Robot, where you have to watch intently lest you miss something. That's the same way I watch TWD, or any show for that matter. But what just happened?

When did Carl get bit? HOW could he get bit? There were no zombies in Alexandria?
(Was it evil of me to laugh at that reveal?)

Where did everyone come from all of a sudden? After all that, Rick leads the Garbage People into a fight and they turn tail at the first shots? Then Carol is driving...somewhere? Rick is what, walking? Jerry is driving...somewhere, too? Didn't we last see Carol and Jerry just chillin' at the Kingdom?

Where was Maggie and Jesus going?

Morgan just kind of showed up on his own? Didn't he have eyes on The Saviors, and would have been able to warn somebody when The Saviors lit out for Alexandria?

So, Aaron and *I forget her name* just decided, on their own, without Rick's plan to go enlist the Fish Woman? Oh snap! They go to ask for their help and then shoot their leader! Not a good look.

So, what was Rick's plan? Pin The Saviors in their sanctuary and then...?

And where did all of those Saviors come from? If most of them had been wiped out at the outposts, and many were killed at the compound, then they only had workers left, yet it was intimated that they don't fight, right?

I get how The Saviors got into Alexandria. I get how they stopped the Hilltop people on the road (wherever they were going). But who let The Saviors into The Kingdom? I guess they let them waltz on in? Ezekiel has no balls, if so. Where was Jerry driving again?

How did whole houses explode, top floors and everything from single grenades being shot blindly over the walls?

How in the heck did The Saviors rally so quickly, but even more, how did they know that so-and-so would be on those exact roads when they did? So, The Saviors had time to gather AND to hatch this elaborate plan that ended up working perfectly?

That's a lot of question marks. I don't know what just happened.

 

There are so many plot holes you could drive a garbage truck right through!

I agree that the writing has become incredibly bad. I guess the producers and AMC know that ratings will be good even if the material isn’t, which is a shame. When Darabont was running things it was much better.

So many viewers are invested in the show after watching all this time. Suspension of disbelief is a necessary component, but you really have to suspend it all to have patience with TWD at this point, and I’ve been watching since the first season.

 

No shortage of bullets or gas that far into the zombie apocalypse.

 

Apparently those smoke grenades can make a heavy, loud sewer grate light and silent.

 

Pretty good season finale. Kept me on edge on and off throughout. The one thing that pissed me off was the fight between Rick and Negan. What is it with Rick and fights. He always gets jumped or taken off guard. He got his ass whipped by the governor, by the wife beater in Alexandria (although Rick did manage to get a few good shots before being knocked out by Michonne), and now Negan. Wasn't Rick a cop. You'd think that an American cop of all people would know how to handle themselves in a scrap, especially when they're dealing with offenders on the street. I do like the fact that Rick, hunched over in pain after being hit by the Lucille, taunts Negan and says don't you ever shut up? and i loved it when Rick grabbed the bat and knocked Negan right in the nose, and Negan's fury "Leave her alone" as if the baseball bat was a living incarnation of his dead wife. But for all Rick's bravado in wanting to kill Negan, his adrenaline should have been at its peak and he should have just ripped Negan apart with the bat. I was hoping for more one on one and let Rick get more good shots just to satisfy some of his revenge after witnessing what Negan did to members of his group. He had the perfect opportunity to shoot Negan once he got pushed out of the window, he had his python in his hand.

 

There was that episode, a couple of seasons ago, where they discussed stockpiling old Christmas trees in the attics of those houses. So it's no surprise they exploded when hit with grenades.

 

Well, the whole mano-a-mano thing is a silly TV/movie Trope anyway. Why was Negan by himself? Why did Negan have to do that whole "I'm not going to kill you now, but I will kill you slowly and eventually..." thing? Rick has been an unhinged problem for Negan for too long now. A leader like Negan would know to kill or at least maim him first.

 

It's almost like they added on the Carl death to distract from the fact that this episode was one of the most confusing, aggravating, disjointed, maddening episodes of recent memory.

Everything was *way* too dark; I eventually turned all the lights off in the room to *try* to see some of what was going in the periphery of the frame.

It was difficult to discern what was happening, where it was happening, or when it was happening. Where was Rick? And when? Why was he in a car with others, then they were all in separate cars?

The camera angle was utterly confusing when Simon shot the guy in the backseat of Maggie's car. It didn't help that they named the guy, but he's a borderline unknown character.

Carl's bite: Lame. The show has a ton of things wrong with it, but Carl as a character isn't even in the Top 50 of problems. His character is written poorly just as all the others are for the most part, rendering his death, like Glenn's, as far less emotional than it should be. But Carl was a character that at least had some sliver of potential to give the show a path to actually improve.

Look at Gimple on "Talking Dead." The guy is desperate and grasping at straws. Why have they not found a new showrunner?

Apparently, Chandler Riggs doesn't seem too happy about the decision, but Riggs's father is being even more blunt and is already calling the show and Gimple out for being idiots.

Apparently Chandler Riggs just bought a home in Georgia, and his father claims Gimple had, just recently prior to deciding to kill off Carl, told Riggs that he wanted him on the show going forward several years.

 

I hope there's chocolate pudding in heaven.

 

And the Rick/Negan fight was lame. Way too short. I get it; they're not going to do a "They Live" style 27-minute fight scene (although I could think of worse things). But it should have been a full segment of the show instead of Rick going through a window after 30 seconds and literally trotting off into the night.

And that's not even getting into how everything that occurred was confusing as far as where everybody was and why they were all there.

And why was the Enid/Aaron Oceanside drive even in this episode? Not that it wouldn't still be superfluous in a future episode, but it could have easily been held over to the next episode.

 

Also worth noting is that the new Chandler Riggs interview paints a picture that indicates this show is *not* going to improve.

Apparently they're going to see-saw back around for the 87th time with Rick going back to "we shouldn't kill people."

We're at the eighth season and we're still getting a "is it right to kill people?" debate?

 

And why both all the other characters in the show and the viewers wouldn't feel that Daryl is the biggest ***** in the history of the show is beyond me.

"We crashed a car into the Saviors' building and did zero follow-up, therefore I'm absolutely sure Negan and the Saviors are dead and/or will easily surrender."

 

This is how I felt watching the show. So much made so little sense, both in terms of literal action (as in, what's happening, and where, and when) and in a larger series context.

Having given it a bit more time and thought and breathing room, I have to say this episode was one of the most disjointed, confusing in the show's history.

 

'The Walking Dead' Just Killed Its Biggest Character Yet For The Worst Reason Possible

 

I hate this show with all of my being. Why do I keep watching?

 

Lots of unanswered questions from last night, but Gimple seems to like to jump back and forth in episodes like he did when the "good guys" showed up with "armored vehicles" at the Saviors' place. So I'm sure the whys and wheres and hows of all of the confusing story lines will be revealed in the second half of the season. Gimple really likes to "f" with people.

 

I've given up on the comic book (which is nearly as bad these days as the show) and will try with all my might to give up on the show.

 

But Carl isn’t dead yet.

Agreed.

 

Oh, I would imagine they'll lay on a nice layer of "emotional" moments as Carl literally dies.

What I meant was that everything was so confusing, and everything leading up to it was so disorienting and awful, and everything was wrapped up in ridiculous and unwarranted hype, that Carl's death (or rather "the reveal that he will die very soon"), much like Glenn's death, didn't pack nearly the emotional punch it should given the stature of the character within the show.

 

Easiest way is to skip the episode and then read recaps and comments the next day. After 10 minutes of doing that you'll be thanking the stars you saved that time for other things. Especially when the words closeups and eyes are mentioned a lot. It's how I quit after the second episode this season.

 

Even with a zombie bite, Carl managed a world's record for getting down a storm grate. Pretty impressive. The biggest plot hole for me was with all the scavaging, there would be any booze left at a distillery. Especially one with a big sign. All in all, lots of gunfire & explosions, a macho fistfist between Rick & Negan & pretty much nothing made any sense. Maybe in his spare time Eugene will whip up a remedy for zombie bites.

My prediction for the next episode when it starts again. Carl, when did you get bit? Oh, when I jumped off the staging when I was trying to convince Negan to kill me, I landed on a sharp rock. Looks just like bite marks, huh? We're not getting rid of the little bugger that easy.