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The Walking Dead Review – Episode 404: Indifference

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“The Ministry of Rick and Daryl” warns: drinking and killing innocents will put you into a lot of trouble.

***WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS***

If you haven’t seen Indifference yet, I suggest you scroll down to the end of this post first and watch the entire episode before reading the rest of the text.

twd404_02If we thought the previous episode didn’t have a lot of action, Indifference was even worse. Despite a couple of walkers being killed by Daryl’s crew and only one by Rick, the rest of the episode was based on conversations, decisions and some character development. It wasn’t a bad episode, but it wasn’t a good one either (especially for Carol).

The episode was pretty much divided between Rick and Carol searching for supplies, although that was not what Rick really had in mind when he invited (surprise!) Carol to go with him; and the team composed by a crazy Tyreese, a sociable Michonne, an alcoholic Bob and a badass Daryl also looking for antibiotics and other medication for the people at the prison infected by the deadly virus. And that was it, there was no Carl, no Maggie, Beth, Glenn or any other known character.

In my opinion, the opening dialogue between Rick and Carol was among the best of the entire show: it was just as if they were the top mic workers from professional wrestling “studying” their competitors, focusing on Carol’s decision of killing the infected Karen BEFORE she actually died. When they had that dialogue and I saw Rick’s famous “I’m gonna kill you” face and some knives, I thought that was the end of Carol. Those two extra characters, the guy and girl that were hiding in a bathroom for two days because of one single zombie in pajamas, were used by Rick just to corroborate his original plan: casting Carol out of the group for not being “human” anymore. We all know that might not have been the best decision, because cold-hearted Carol will come back for sure and might be screaming for vengeance, maybe with the Governor by her side. The only thing that’s certain is that Rick doesn’t want Carol close to his son and daughter or close to anyone else at the prison, and he will kill her for sure if she tries to get back.

twd404_01Regarding the other group looking for medication, what we saw was an insane Tyreese trying to commit suicide by releasing some walkers over himself, and looking really desperate because his sister Sasha was going to be dead soon. Michonne tried to give him some advice on what to do and what not to do when you’re angry, about the horrible consequences of using anger as your only reason for anything, but she was caught by Tyreese when he asked her about her chase for the Governor. I might be wrong, but Michonne is probably just acting like a good girl until she finally puts her hands (and sword) on the Governor, and Tyreese kind of noticed that. He’s not going to be stupid to try stopping her, but the message he was trying to send to Michonne was “you got your business, I got mine.”

And finally, there’s that alcoholic idiot, Bob. He’s so sloppy and not focused that it’s hard to believe he has survived for so long. Daryl and Michonne know he’s trouble, we all saw he was the one responsible for the “zombie rain” on the 30 Days Without an Accident episode, he didn’t get any medication in his bag for the infected just to get a stupid bottle of whisky, so what else needs to happen for the group to get rid of that moron? He will do more shit, that’s for sure. Let’s just hope no one we like gets killed because of him, and also that next episode has more action and less talking.

Indifference (FULL EPISODE) 

The Walking Dead Review – Episode 403: Isolation

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Tyreese goes crazy and Carol finally does “something”. Oh, and there were over 7,500 walkers!

***WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS***

If you haven’t seen Isolation yet, I suggest you scroll down to the end of this post first and watch the entire episode before reading the rest of the text.

twd_s04e03_01Although Isolation might not have had as much action as the two previous episodes, there was a lot of improvement in terms of the storyline for some characters, especially for Tyreese and Carol. And that mega-herd of walkers was amazing! I’m hoping it will head to the prison before everybody leaves, and then we’ll see if those fences will be able to hold over 7,500 zombies eager for some human flesh! While that doesn’t happen (if that happens), let’s discuss about each relevant item of this episode and what to expect for the next one.

First of all, I’m happy to see that Tyreese is finally becoming more important for the whole story. In my opinion, he was a bit lost in the low-card before the end of the Infected episode, but now with the death of his beloved Karen and the likely death of his sister Sasha he’s moved to the mid-card and will probably play a crucial role in the next few episodes, just like everyone else in the show that either takes an unexpected decision or simply goes crazy (or both, which is his case). He’s at least more violent now: he punched Rick in the face, threatened Daryl, and killed dozens of zombies with just a small hammer (being crowned as the “zombie killer of the week”), things that no one was expecting from an easy-going guy like him before.

Then we have Hershel, the most clearheaded character of all, trying to help as many people as possible putting himself into a lot of danger by getting exposed to the deadly virus. I bet everyone got worried about Glenn being one of the infected, but the way Beth and Maggie reacted to Hershel’s decision made me think that we won’t probably see our wise elderly friend for too long. Hershel gave us a lot of “clues” about his ending, with those speeches about making choices and risking your life for this or that reason. Let’s just hope he’s “wrong” about it and we can see him until the end of this season, because when he’s gone it will be a huge mess for the rest of the group.

Carl not killing two zombies and Rick’s gratuitous violence were also great improvements to their characters, but the most shocking development last night was with no doubt what happened to Carol. I’m sure no one saw that coming! Everybody was thinking about Dr. S or that other black dude being responsible for killing and setting fire to those two bodies, but Carol? What happened to her? The Walking Dead’s “Jamie Lee Curtis” suddenly revealed herself as a cold-hearted person, or at least she has become that within the past few episodes. I honestly don’t know what Rick will do about Carol’s actions or what will happen to her, but at least we can celebrate she has finally done “something relevant” to the show after so many episodes being almost useless.

twd_s04e03_02And last but not least, there was that amazing mega-herd of zombies blocking the super-team’s way to the hospital! The sequence of the car accelerating over the heads of some walkers and the following fighting scenes were pretty cool, and as I said it was awesome to see a fierce zombie-killer Tyreese in action. However, did you notice why over 7,500 walkers and a lot of killing were added to that scene all of a sudden? Think about it: Daryl, Tyreese, Michonne and the other black dude were all paying attention to that weird radio transmission about a “sanctuary” a few seconds before the action started, but nobody could actually reason anymore about it when the massive herd of zombies appeared. Will they remember to tell about it to Rick when they get back to the prison? What the hell was that? Is it going to be their true salvation, or maybe it’s just part of a gruesome ambush being prepared by the Governor?

Oh, I almost forgot about a VERY important part of the whole thing: right after last night’s episode, there was the nice show Talking Dead, but unfortunately this time with Marilyn Manson as one of the guests. It was a torture for anyone with at least two neurons working listening to what that stupid motherfucker was mumbling all the time. That freak is an annoying joke! The person responsible for inviting him to the show should be fired! I’d rather be eaten by a zombie than watching one more minute of Marilyn Manson talking again, and thumbs up to the host Chris Hardwick for being able to handle that fuckin’ idiot so well in the end.

Isolation (FULL EPISODE)

The Walking Dead Review – Episode 402: Infected

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The pigs might be gone, but at least our tough sheriff is back.

***WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS***

If you haven’t seen Infected yet, I suggest you scroll down to the end of this post first and watch the entire episode before reading the rest of the text.

I cannot believe I didn’t see what was actually happening to Greg Patrick last espisode! I thought he had some previous disease and died of natural causes, just as many other people, but it was in fact a new deadly virus like Ebola or the swine flu, a brand new threat to the whole group because it doesn’t matter how you die, you become a walker. I’m sad Greg Patrick won’t be in the show anymore, but happy to know that because of what happened to him there will be even more drama and danger in every episode to the survivors.

twd402_01Last night’s episode, Infected, had a lot of questions without answers, action, tough decisions and intestines (a scene inspired by the movie Day of the Dead, from the zombie master George A. Romero, according to Greg Nicotero), a perfect combination for all TWD fans. There were so many questions left that I can’t wait for next week’s episode to answer some of them: is there really a traitor in the group, the person that was feeding rats to zombies? Or were just those two stupid girls feeding their friend “Nick” in a very innocent (and idiot) way? How long will the prison fence stand still and strong against the increasing number of walkers looking for human flesh (I saw Nicotero saying there will be over 7,500 zombies in the next episode)? Who’s infected by the deadly virus, and who’s not? Is there a cure? How will everybody be able to sleep, knowing anyone can die at any minute and become a zombie inside the prison? Who burned the bodies of the two people that were already infected? How will Tyreese react to the death of his love, and to the presumable death of his sister Sasha, who is also infected by the virus? As I sad, too many questions to be answered.

Then there were the tough decisions, most of them taken by Rick. It was sad seeing Rick throwing those poor little pigs to the zombies to protect the fence from falling down, but at least we got our good old sheriff back. No more farming, no more cropping, it’s time for some action! In my opinion, giving Carl’s gun back to the boy was the best decision he could make, especially because Carl is really good at shooting and can help saving many people. Moreover, how many lives has he already saved since he got his gun? As far as I can remember, he saved Rick, Michonne (a couple of times), his sister Judith, Maggie, among others. A boy with a gun will have serious consequences to the whole story, of course, probably most of them for good. And I’m pretty sure Carl will put on his sheriff hat back now, that little badass.

twd402_02The most touching scene in this episode was seeing Michonne crying when holding Judith in her arms. Why was she crying? Did she have a baby a couple of years ago? Did she lost a baby? Did walkers eat her baby? Another important question to be answered soon, I hope. Michonne is becoming more and more human, and less that tough super-woman from the previous season, but I don’t know how this can be good for the group. Well, I personally prefer her chopping zombie heads with her sword than carrying a baby, but the producers know what they are doing. And before I forget, it was nice seeing Beth singing I Don’t Want to Grow Up to Judith. I’m not a fan of Tom Waits, but I love The Ramones version. Lucky baby, anyway!

Stupid humans, thousands of walkers, a deadly virus, a decaying prison… What else can make their lives even more miserable and the show more interesting to us? Will there be any more surprises this season? And again, where the hell is the Governor? I guess when he returns he will kick some serious ass. It’s going to be totally brutal, and awesome.

Infected (FULL EPISODE)

The Walking Dead Review – Episode 401: 30 Days Without an Accident

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It’s raining zombies! Hallelujah!

***WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS***

If you haven’t seen 30 Days Without an Accident yet, I suggest you scroll down to the end of this post first and watch the entire episode before reading the rest of the text.

twd_s04e01_rickFinally, AMC’s The Walking Dead is back! And it was worth waiting for season 4 premiere this Sunday after all those months watching movies and TV series where we had to see people dying but not coming back as zombies… so boring!

Similarly to what happened in previous seasons, the first episode of season 4 didn’t start exactly at the same time where season 3 ended. Moreover, it also summarized what Rick’s group has been doing since they rescued all those people from Woodbury: cropping some food for everybody, reading for children, going hunting, and of course, trying to keep all the flesh-eating zombies away from the prison. We are introduced to some new faces, some not so new as Greg (from Everybody Hates Chris) Patrick, Daryl is now the “official” badass of the group, and we see a more sociable Michonne. And the zombies are getting better and better, as the one Rick stares at TWICE due to his bloody eyes, which by the way was an amazing job done by Greg Nicotero’s team.

Then there were many specific elements that made this season 4 premiere so interesting! Let’s start with that crazy woman that looked like the mother of that girl from the movie The Ring. She was a total lunatic, surviving somehow in the woods close to the prison, and feeding what once was her husband with anything she managed to find, including people. At first I thought they were going to introduce some cannibals to the show, which is something that happens in the comics, but that woman was just plain crazy. Well, at least there was a reason for that: Rick was able to see himself in her, when he was getting insane after Lori’s death, and that freaked him out so much that we won’t probably see the “crazy” Rick again in the show.

The second item that deserves our attention is the way the children are growing inside the prison: they’re becoming cold-hearted kids, without any fear of the zombies or death, and we see that in many different ways, like when the smaller kids are giving names to the zombies at the fence, when Carol starts teaching some kids how to use a knife to kill zombies and/or people, or when Beth simply ignores the fact that her boyfriend (what happened to her relationship with Carl?) became an afternoon snack while on a mission. The only thing Beth does about that is changing a Days Without Accident/Injury sign (where did she find that?) from 30 to zero. If this is not having a heart of stone, I really don’t know what is.

twd_s04e01_zombies_humansThird, that spectacular scene with the “zombie rain” is what every TWD fan wants to see in the show. In my opinion, it was the BEST “zombies vs. humans” fight of the entire series. Not even the zombie invasion when they were at the barn was so cool! The zombies falling from the rotten roof, hitting the floor so hard some were even losing parts of their bodies, but still seeking for human flesh, was one of those things that reminds us why this show is the best on TV today. What about that zombie that was hung by his entrails? I hope they add more gory scenes like that to future episodes. I just don’t know how they can be more creative than this Sunday, though. It was literally raining zombies! Hallelujah!

And last but not least, more important than anything else is what happens to Greg Patrick at the end of the episode, showing us that the biggest threat now resides inside the prison. I’m not going to say anything else about it, in case you haven’t seen the scene, but while watching it I couldn’t stop thinking about two things: first the movie Fido, an excellent zombie movie (shot in Canada, by the way) that has the exact same issue as the start of all its action; and second, I know TWD is a horror/action TV series, but it would have been totally awesome if the last scene (the last 5 seconds of it) had in the background the same audio that played at the end of every single episode from Chris Rock’s amazing TV series: Everybody haaaaaaates Chriiiis…

And where the hell is the Governor?

30 Days Without an Accident (FULL EPISODE)