I didn't understand the intercutting between Carl, Rick, and Michonne and then King E, Carol, Morgan, and the Saviors. Was there supposed to be some theme in opposition or something? The only thing I could come up with was that Gavin is saying nothing ever changes and Carl foresees change. I felt I was missing something that would make the intercutting less jarring if only I weren't clueless.

 

What the frickled pickles is Morgan doing just staring at Saviours? Even before I know the plan from the show I would say that I have a hunch of what they are up to and would have shot the machine gunning Saviours.

Aaand one second later it happens after I restart the show. Really? Why have sniper scouts in position if they gonna do nothing. "They will be out of ammo", yeah that worked well when the zombie wall is so thin that Judith would have managed to stop it on her own.

 

I took it was about how killing has become so easy, Carl referenced the boy he shot at the prison, and Carol and Morgan where blowing through the saviors like a kid does candy. Then you have the price to pay for the killing in the form of the children. Henry became like Carl was at the prison, killed that guy with no remorse. And it was a wake up call for Morgan and Carol, and Rick was getting his wake up call at the same time from Carl.

 

In the dark scenes with Carl's hair swept back due to fever and the bandage that holds his eye patch in place encircling his scalp and making his hair completely vanish, Carl looked like an aged old bald man instead of himself. Maybe that's just a complaint about my feeble old TV and not about how weird Carl looked.

WOW, he looked great on Talking Dead, though!

 

In those same scenes his 5 o'clock shadow should have been shaved off too lol I kept noticing it

 

I don't believe that you are clueless. Well, not in this case, anyways This was easily, and its saying an awful lot, the worse episode in the whole show. So far.
The mid season break was extremely annoying to start with.
This episode was full of very clumsy messages / morals about this and that, but the whole, long drawn out Carl death scene was simply excruciating. It must be the longest and dullest death scene since Jesus was crucified.
By any measure, Negan deserved to win and have obliterated all of these wooden characters. In fact, a series or two with Negan would be a helluva lot more entertaining!
This episode is the nail in the coffin for me.
Last thought. Do you think Walking Dead is sponsored by the NRA? Or financed? Consider it. Its all about defeating evil by killing. Mostly with sexy assault er....I mean 'automatic hunting rifles'. Nobody is seen Dead, Walking Dead, or just Walking, without an assault......SORRY....'automatic, belt fed, crew served, hunting rifle'.

 

You're not watching anymore? Then I feel honored to get your only post--unless you are planning to stick around here. lol Since we are about to go to war with Negan, the upcoming episodes might be the ones you have been waiting for.

 

I agree. I just hope, Henry will have the same motivation, to become like Carl later was. And I really hope it was a real wake up call for Morgan. They made a great team, but I thought for a moment, that even Carol was scared of Morgan there.

 

This was definitely a strong episode, but their were a few things that I thought could have been handled better - particularly with the B plot:

- The editing was a little too off. I feel like we should have spent more time in each respective A and B plot before volleying back and forth so quickly and so often. Intercutting Carl's farewell with so much of the action from the Kingdom kept taking me out emotionally of what was going on - especially with the commercials already on top of that (first time in a long time I watched it on AMC and man was I reminded of how much I hate live television).

- I am growing a little tired of Morgan and Carol's story and exploring the extremes of their behaviors. Great characters, but we've already done so for quite some time... Ezekiel and Gavin were strong points, but I would have cut-out some of Morgan and Carol's scenes in the interest of spending more time on the A plot w/ Carl. Especially because a lot of Carol and Morgan's scenes were just killing saviors... That could have been a brief montage.

- Ezekiel has seeking redemption for himself and in doing so has a new found confidence in who is as a leader, so it just seems logically inconsistent to have him continue his facade... Let's have the real Ezekiel already and explore that guy. It's like we're getting Shakespearean Ezekiel because the show is too afraid to let go of that gimmick, which if so, is really going to hamstring the character and make him superficial.

- I don't know why I should care about Henry. I get the juxtaposition between his decision to kill Gavin and Carl reflecting on killing Jody, but it just kind of fell flat. Maybe Henry is more of a prop for Carol and Morgan's development, but as written above, I am losing interest in exploring that too. I guess we're stuck with Henry since it would seem odd to kill another young boy so soon...

Happy to say I have no complaints about the A plot, aside from there not being enough of it - which I guess I'll cover in the positivity thread in a bit..

 

Am I the only one that thought Carl's goodbye's with everyone but Rick and Michonne, kinda lacking? Saddiq's was more thoughtful than Daryl's and we know Daryl can cry and hug. Tara just twitched her finger at Carl and offered a smile condolence. I would have cried and hugged him myself. I don't understand the point of the dry goodbyes. It was like "Oops so sad you got bit. Gotta go now." "Oh, thanks for saving the Alexandrians."

 

Yeah, that's fair. They were uncharacteristically dry among the supporting cast (e.g., did Rosita even say goodbye? I don't remember).

However, I am oddly fine with that since I am probably projecting how I feel about Daryl and Tara right now on the situation. For me, I was like "alright, yeah, get out of here so we can continue to have more moments with Rick and Michonne."

More objectively though, those goodbyes could have been handled better.

Carl was dying during an incredibly stressful situation that required immediate action and focus, but that's not mutually exclusive with writing in more sentimental material. At least Daryl did say something. He could have just grunted haha

 

Maybe that's what it was. More focus on Rick and Michonne. Still. Blows my mind that Daryl wasn't more upset. It's not what would happen in real life. I wish it had been written more so like real life. More relatable. Just shocked me since he's been with these people for so long.