I agree Carol's been "dumbed down" this season, and I think that's somewhat unfair to the character. She's a very smart person. To have such strong drive for vengeance that it clouds her judgement so badly, I am struggling to swallow.

I was also wondering about how much she doesn't care how any of her actions will affect the others. Is that out of character too? And actually, the more I think about it, this trait in her was always there. She would do amazing things for others, such as rescuing them from Terminus, saving them from the Wolves, but at other times she would do things for what she believes is for the "greater good", no matter who it might affect personally. Such as killing two people in the prison to stop the infection spreading, or now going after Alpha, as she considers her the head of the snake, which she's not wrong about, but still. It's gotten them all trapped. It is in character for her to let her own feelings take over and let the group, even Daryl in it, come second. It is how she could leave them in Season 6 altogether. She put her own needs before the group. Which is basically what she's doing now, although she's trying to convince herself that what she's doing is also in the best interest of the group, which is true in theory, but not in practice.

So yes, it's definitely annoying, and she's dumbed down a bit too much, but actually quite in character, and the story is very interesting.

 

At the start of the season I was all in on it being Carol to get Alpha. Now I'd take anyone doing it over her. I have a feeling she's going to get at least one person killed in this whole mess. With Michonne going I had previously thought Carol would be a good alternative to be leader at Alexandria, but they better not go that route. I'd prefer Aaron now.

 

If Carol wanted a suicide mission she should've just gone solo. Daryl commented that she should stay at Alexandria. She could've lied to him and then gone out on her own. Instead she's idiotically putting everyone in jeopardy, when it's clearly a trap. Alpha already captured them and showed them the herd, then she caught the others and beheaded them. So yeah, this time I'm sure she's just out for a stroll and you just caught her. Nothing to worry about here. You lucked out Carol and you'll be able to easily kill the Whisperer leader.

 

Rosita and Eugene?

 

I loved Daryl's speech to Carol about talking to a ghost. Then when he said she should be talking to HIM. I loved that whole thing. Daryl is being so human these days.

 

This season really hasn't done a very good job of creating brand new material that was never in the comic. The stuff that they are adapting from the comic has been ok but the stuff that is original material has just been eye rollingly bad at times and it is obvious that they are really struggling to find enough story to fill out a sixteen episode season. Carol's arc right now is bordering on being just as bad as her 'I want to run away from everyone' arc was. Melissa needs to just go work on something else than to put up with the things they are writing for her character in this show. Alpha is almost as ridiculous of villain as Negan was. It's even more ridiculous that people would be falling for her crap considering she is making people live out in the woods with zombie skin covering them all day long. Alpha was a passable villain in the comic because they left a lot open to the readers imagination. When you have to make a sixteen episode season though you can't afford to leave much open to the imagination.

 

I don’t think it’s a bad arc at all. Annoying? Yes. Frustrating? Yes?

But in character? Yes. Driving an interesting plot? Yes. Creating fascinating conflict between her and Daryl/rest of the group? Yes.

Both the runaway arc and the vengeance arc are very exciting parts for an actress to play, and Melissa is amazingly skilful.

It’s pretty exciting to explore two very human ways to respond to grief and losing your grip on your own reality: running away from it all, shut out the demands of everyone, cut ties and be free, as well as making someone pay for all the hurt they’ve caused you. I don’t think Melissa feels underchallenged.

They might be pushing her character a little too far down on the likability scale at the moment, but we all know that will be tipped back soon. She’s a fan favourite.

 

She may enjoy the opportunity to express the emotions of the character but I'm sure she recognizes it is just bad writing as well. Ten years into the apocalypse Carol should be smarter than this (heck all the characters should be smarter than this). But what do we have? We have a mid season finale where these characters that have been living in an apocalypse for ten years run blindly into a dark cave chasing a villain when just a few months earlier that villain put a whole bunch of people's heads on spikes through a similar situation. Kind of reminds me of that commercial where the people in the horror movie decide to go hide from the villain behind a bunch of chainsaws.

 

Lol, I won’t be defending the end of this episode, I thought it was stupid too, hence my lower score this time. I agree with the suggestion that it should have been just Carol falling in the trap. But once they started following her, it was impossible to stop, because that’s the kind of people they are. Caring wins over smart.

Regarding smart though... it’s easy for us to criticise: “After ten years (and recent pike incident) they should be smarter than this”. They should be. But human nature can override the powers of rational thinking. They’re all over the place. Grieving, confused, pulled in all directions. So they f**k up. Happens to us all, no?

 

I am one of the few in the camp of loving her "run away from it all" arc. I thought Melissa did a wonderful job and it was totally believable what she was going through.

 

It can. But that is why they have plans and orders in these situations and they follow those plans and orders. In the comic on the couple of occasions when they went out and combatted the Whisperers they followed very specific orders that they planned out beforehand. There was no character who went out on some vengeance crusade and no fellow Alexandrians followed them into their stupidity because 'I'll follow you to hell and back'.

I'm not saying Kirkman was a better writer than what we have for this show. Far from it as I definitely had some issues with Kirkman's writing as well from time to time. But one huge advantage Kirkman had with the comic over the people writing for this show was that Kirkman was able to just tell the story he wanted to tell regardless of how long or short it was. He didn't have a predetermined set of episodes required by a network that he had to work around.

This show was really at its heights when they were able to adapt two to three issues of comic material per episode. Now though they are having to adapt barely over one comic issue per episode. And as we all know the Walking Dead tv universe has never been at its best when it has tried to create its own original material.

 

I agree with your first paragraph. After all that training they’d done and all the time they had to come up with strategies on how to deal with the whisperers, it’s particularly maddening what has just happened.

Regarding original material versus comics, I must disagree. I think there have been many great original storylines and characters on the tv show and many improvements on the source material.

 

I thought your insights on Carol’s character were rather insightful. There’s a dichotomy about her alright which explains why she would be acting like this. I have no problem with her idea that she has to kill the head of the snake, and that she believes she’s doing it for the good of the community. What troubles me a bit is that at this point, as others have said, she should be doing it smarter and frankly stealthier. Her intended target demands that she uses her head, not just her heart if she wants to get the job done. So far that isn’t happening. She tromps out into the woods like she’s a Girl Scout rather than a seasoned tracker.

A more realistic ending, although not a cliff hanger, would have been for the group to follow Carol but stop at the door to the cave. They could have entered one or two at a time, softly calling out for her. If Carol had fallen down the hole she would have been able to call up that she was okay and guess what? Guys, I found the hoard and there’s a big hole so be careful. They could have posted a couple guards while the others started a rescue operation but where’s the fun in that, right?

 

That would have been a lot more realistic!

I think Carol will have her wake up call now in the cave and start using her smarts. She will turn things around in the second half, I’m sure, and make us proud again. Come on, it’s Carol. The one who got the lot of them out from Terminus.

 

YEP!!!

 

The Walking Dead, Season 10 Midseason finale "The World Before".

What I liked about it


1. Caryl: I loved all the Caryl scenes, especially the one in the woods where they embrace, and Daryl wipes a tear from Carol's eye.

2. Dante's death scene: I was shocked when Gabe repeatedly stabbed Dante to death. It was also a death that was justified and well deserved.

3. Michonne and Judith's scene: I'm still angry that Carl died, and that TPTB have made Judith too strong/brave/confident/intelligent for her age and the show's premise, but I almost shed a tear when Michonne said farewell to her adopted daughter.

4. Aaron's license plate collection: I'm glad to see that Aaron's odd choice for collecting wasn't just a throw away line and an introduction to a unique weapon/tool for a walker death (season 5 finale "Conquer" ) .

5. Daryl: I'm glad that season 10 has brought Daryl's back to (mostly) speaking clearly and being intelligent again.


What I hated about it


1. Timing for Caryl: Watching Daryl this season try to help Carol with her grief over Henry's death, as well as the two of them getting closer, I keep asking myself, "Why didn't this happen after Lizzie and Mika died back in season 5?!"

2. Carol falling for Alpha's trap. I get that Carol's out to avenge Henry, but she's too smart to fall for that.

3. Walkers: They just don't bite/kill people these days.

4. Cave walkers: They didn't growl a peep until the whole group fell into that cave?

5. Signature weapons: What's that steampunk club contraption that Luke's carrying around? I think it's absurd that every main, secondary, and even tertiary character wields a signature weapon.

6. Daryl's Crossbow: Did anyone else notice Daryl dropped his crossbow while he fought the walkers outside the cave? I guess that means Daryl will get a new one in 10B.

This was an okay episode, and I think the cliché of having Carol and the others fall for Alpha's trap prevented it from being better. I'll give the episode a 6.

 

There was an attempt. Daryl tried to reach out to her, when they took off after the Grady cops' car. He tried to encourage Carol to start over. Then of course Beth died, and Carol comforted Daryl, encouraged him to let himself feel it, and grieve properly. So they were there for each other as much as they could, but both of them were in a terrible place.

When they got to Alexandria, after an initial little relief, both of them were getting more and more depressed and unable to support the other. Carol struggled with this relentless obligation to kill in order to protect her loved ones, so much guilt, and losing a grip on herself. Whilst Daryl was also spiralling into deeper depression, losing faith in people completely after Dwight screwed him over, also losing the last shreds of himself. They both became these robotic survivors full of darkness, unable to feel any joy or connect to anyone in a meaningful way. Not even to one another. Then Carol left. Negan happened. The cell. Ezekiel. All out war. And separation. Carol staying with Zeke. Rick posting Daryl to the Sanctuary. (What a disastrous decision that was.) So we see some attempt for Carol and Daryl to reconnect here, Carol realising what this place was doing to Daryl. But of course soon after that Rick fake-died on the bridge and Daryl went off to be the man of the woods and Carol to play house with Zeke. Until she finally managed to reach Daryl enough to get him to the Hilltop and then he got caught in affairs there and without him noticing, he got reintegrated into the community.

After Henry's death the two of them got closer again, Daryl supporting Carol, but she decided to go off on her own again to Oceanside. Finally Daryl managed to convince her to stay, and the two of them are spending more time together, but goodness, both are still so guarded, especially Carol, who has so much more darkness in her right now than Daryl. I love how he's trying to be there for her, and I hope she'll finally open up to Daryl.

 

The other day @BlackBird did a really good job of pointing out how Carol has taken a more self centered approach in the past, and that much of it fits in her character. The trouble at this stage though is her likability. Like I said previously, if her recklessness gets someone killed I'm done with the character. Once you go full Shane you can't come back. lol

 

Yeah, I agree. I think Eugene and Rosita would be a good fit. The actors have decent chemistry, and their scenes are sometimes funny. She plays off of him well. The only time I like any Eugene scenes these days is when he's with her. Christian Serratos has also done an excellent job this season.