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Articles about episode 14 The Grove

Discussion in 'Episode 414 - The Grove' started by Sharpie61, Mar 15, 2014.

  1. Sharpie61

    Sharpie61 Well-Known Member

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    http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/5434...ad-414-spoilers-lizzie-kills.htm#.UySQlPldUek

    SPOILERS !!!!!!!!!!
     
  2. Sharpie61

    Sharpie61 Well-Known Member

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    http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/03/14/walking-dead-robert-kirkman-big-episode/

    [h=1]The Walking Dead': Robert Kirkman on why Sunday's episode is the one you 'absolutely' have to watch[/h]



    By Dalton Ross on Mar 14, 2014 at 11:27AM [​IMG] @DaltonRoss

    [​IMG]
    Image Credit: Gene Page/AMC






    We’re hitting the home stretch of season 4 for AMC’s The Walking Dead, and according to creator Robert Kirkman, said homestretch is going to be a doozy. That doozydom — yes, I just made that word up — will begin this Sunday night with an episode that Kirkman insists is “definitely one that people are going to remember and it’s definitely one people are going to talk about. If there is one episode of The Walking Dead that you absolutely had to watch this season, it would be this one.”
    [h=3]Related[/h][​IMG]The Walking Dead: See Full Coverage
    [​IMG]'The Walking Dead': Lauren Cohan talks about Maggie's search for Glenn
    [​IMG]'The Walking Dead': Emily Kinney discusses the latest episode and Beth 2.0


    Translation: Uh-oh. Every time I hear something like that I get very nervous for everyone on screen. I chatted with Kirkman to get his take on the second half of season 4 so far — which has seen our big collection of survivors divided up into smaller groups — and have him look ahead to the pivotal episode on Sunday.
    ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Now that we’ve seen who is together in this back half of season 4, tell me about how you guys decided which characters to pair up. Because it’s sort of like a mix-and-match set you had to play with and there were a lot of ways you could have gone.
    ROBERT KIRKMAN: The overall idea here was to get characters out of their comfort zone. Outside of Rick and Carl, you’re not really seeing characters that are often associated with each other grouped together. So Glenn and Maggie are separated. Daryl and Carol are obviously separated. Tyreese and his sister are separated. We really wanted to do the most interesting pair ups. We wanted to do a few things. Of course Tyreese gets put with Carol because there is so much story potential there with those two being together after what Carol has done and the fact that Tyreese just didn’t happen to get that information.

    And the other thing was we tried to think of pairings that would pull as much character out of these people as possible. So in the case of Daryl and Beth, these aren’t people that have spent all that much time together, but there are other characters we have a lot of unanswered questions about. And by bringing the two of them together and figuring out their dynamic, it gives us a way to drill down into these characters and really find out what makes them tick. And that’s really been the driving force of these episodes, to say, “Look, it’s season 4. We’re getting ready to wind things down this season, but we really want to get to the heart of these people and make you hyper aware of who they are what they’ve been through and get you as invested as possible before we do terrible things to them.”
    GET EW ON YOUR TABLET: Subscribe today and get instant access!
    EW: You mentioned Daryl and Beth, and a lot of people have watched those episodes and been like, is there something romantic happening there or what? Obviously, he’s older than her. And Carol is still out there, although he doesn’t know that. What is their connection developing into?
    KIRKMAN: They’re growing close, just as anyone who is stuck in that situation would grow close. Now whether or not that is going to evolve into a romantic relationship remains to be seen. They’ve already been separated, so my hopes for that to happen are pretty low. There’s a pretty slim chance of that relationship coming together and it continues the narrative of poor old Daryl is unlucky in love. But they’re definitely clinging to each other for survival and growing a bond that forms when you’re in that kind of that situation.

    EW: I spoke to Lauren Cohan last week about how Glenn and Maggie really have been the show’s only real consistent couple since Lori died and she said she didn’t know if that made them more or less likely die. So which is it, Kirkman?
    KIRKMAN: [Laughs] I’ll never tell. Watch the rest of the season.

    EW: The longer a show is on, you need to find new ways to scare the audience, and I noticed that you guys have been playing a lot with issues of limited visibility in this back half of the season. We had Rick under the bed, Daryl & Beth in the trunk, and then Maggie, Bob, and Sasha in the mist. Was that something deliberate that you guys were doing there?
    KIRKMAN: The thing you can’t see is always scarier that the thing you can so it’s really a common horror trope that is always well used and great to do. But also these characters are incredibly capable at this point. They’ve been around for a good long time and there’s a unique set of circumstances that would lead to them being in danger just because they have been living in this world inhabited by walkers for so long that they’ve sort of gotten a handle on what you need to do to survive. So you need to focus on those extenuating circumstances and out in those scenarios. Because otherwise they kind of have this thing covered.

    EW: The structure of this second half of the season means we’ve been getting deeper dives on each of the characters like you spoke about earlier. But it also means we then may not see them for a few weeks. We all have our characters that we miss when they’re not around. Whom do you miss the most when they are not around for a particular episode?
    KIRKMAN: [Laughs] I can’t play favorites! C’mon, man! It’s just one of those things. We definitely feel like absence makes the heart grow fonder and when you finally do get that character that you’ve been longing for back in an episode, then we hope that it’s a big moment and really plays up how invested you are in a given episode. We thought it would be a fun thing to mix things up and take people off the table here and there and really pull back on different characters in given episodes. There’s always something that you’re wanting more of. You never leave an episode completely satisfied, so you’re just dying for it to come back next week.

    EW: Being a fan of the comic, the one that I’m missing is Abraham because he’s such a big deal and I was so excited for him to show up, but you’re doling him out in such small doses to us.
    KIRKMAN: I really hope that guys lasts into season 5 because if Abraham survives this season — and I’m not saying that he does — there would be some really cool stuff in season 5 with him.

    EW: One of things that excited me was a few weeks back when we saw Rick put on that new jacket and sort of assume that second iconic look from the comics. It must excite you even more to see stuff like that come to life on screen.
    KIRKMAN: That stuff is always awesome. That and all the wardrobing that is happening on Abraham, Rosita and Eugene. There are moments where it very much is like the comic book brought to life. It’s always very touching for me and Charlie Adlard, the artist on the comic. It always just reminds me, the weirdest thing that could ever happen has happened to you, and it’s something I’ll never get used to. It’s pretty great when it can all come together, especially when there are things that are directly pulled straight out of the comic. It’s a big deal.

    EW: What can you tell us about this episode coming up on Sunday?
    KIRKMAN: I would say this is a big one. It’s definitely one that people are going to remember and it’s definitely one people are going to talk about. If there is one episode of The Walking Dead that you absolutely had to watch this season, it would be this one. You kind of have to watch all of them, but it’s going to be a big episode. We’re going to catch a lot of people off guard.

    EW: I remember chatting with Andrew Lincoln a few months back and him telling me there was one episode where he could not believe you guys were actually doing what you were doing. I’m starting to get the feeling he was talking about this next episode.
    KIRKMAN: That would definitely be this episode.

    EW: Will we get to Terminus before the end of the season?
    KIRKMAN: I can’t say that! But I would say it would be ridiculous if we didn’t. I mean they are all on those tracks. And where are they going if they don’t get to Terminus at some point? Maybe they get to Terminus before the end of the season. You never know.





     
  3. Zvivor

    Zvivor Well-Known Member

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    The "deep dives" into the characters strategy Kirkman mentioned ( to get you invested in them before killing them) does not work for me. The two Beth/Daryl episodes made me dislike Beth intensely. As a result of these two episodes, Beth is at the top of my personal hit list for characters to die. Darryl -- there wasn't any new about him in those episodes -- but if he starts getting all goo-goo eyes over Beth as the show goes forward, he might have to be added to the hit list for the first time. Glenn is on the list too but could be de-listed if he'd do something --anything -- in the show other than drool over and obsess over Maggie. I don't like the "new" Maggie, but I don't see anything "new" about her. I didn't like the "old" Maggie much -- however not enough to put her on the hit list (yet).

    Characters on my DO-NOT-KILL list are Rick, Carl, Tyrese, Sasha, Carol,Michonne and Lizzie.

    Characters on my WISH-THEY-COULD-BE-REINCARNATED list are Shane, Merle, Milton and maybe Andrea (annoying as she sometimes was)

    On the post-mortem "glad to see them gone" list: Dale, Hershel, the Governor (aka Phillip/One-Eyed Bri)

    To me (and I realize many others have a different view), the character deep dive strategy was a major waste of time. I'd rather learn to love or hate the characters through stories with plots that force really tough choices. conflicts, heroics, wins and fails on them. A little humor like they used to have with Glenn and Merle would also go a long way toward improving this particular season Looks like 414 is going to finally return to telling an intense story, and I am looking forward to it.
     
  4. Arrow

    Arrow Active Member

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    Why is Lizzie on your "do not kill" list. She's a complete lunatic and why are Dale and Hershel on your "glad they died" list.
     
  5. Sharpie61

    Sharpie61 Well-Known Member

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    KIRKMAN: I can’t say that! But I would say it would be ridiculous if we didn’t. I mean they are all on those tracks. And where are they going if they don’t get to Terminus at some point? Maybe they get to Terminus before the end of the season. You never know.

    This makes me wonder if we get there in 15 and not 16.
     
  6. Zvivor

    Zvivor Well-Known Member

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    Lizzie is one of the more interesting characters on the show right now. They've tamed Michonne, neutred Rick, *ussified Glenn, and killed off strong, but controversial characters. So (even though Lizzie might be a complete lunatic who deserves to die), she is an interesting character, which is something to say bout a 12 year old.

    Dale and Hershel were a couple of santimonious old geezers, whose values did not conform the world everyone is now living in. Hershel made Rick weak. Dale nd Hershel, along with Lori, was responsible for the Shane-Rick falling out. Later, Hershel let Rick lie down on the job of defending Team Prison instead of encouraging him to be strong and get his act together. That might have been okay if Hershel had taken over or gotten someone else to take over an effective leadership. But Hershel-- the de facto leader of the council di nothing -- nothing -- to help Team Prison make a realistic plan for survivng. As I said before, Hershel made Rick weak. And Rick, until he became weak, was a phenomenal hero. Hershel's "we can all live together" mantra helped get Team Prison killed and destroyed and almost got Rick killed. Not saying the guy didn't have some redeeming qualities. Just saying I don't understand why everyone gives him such praise for wisdom, when his "wisdom" was ancient platitudes and not wisdom that would help them survive.
     
  7. Tony Davis

    Tony Davis Administrator
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    http://www.thewalkingdead.com/episode-414-post-mortem-with-robert-kirkman/
    [h=1]Episode 414 Post-Mortem with Robert Kirkman[/h] by Lizzy Iverson March 16th, 2014 [​IMG]
    Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on email Share on print More Sharing Services


    [​IMG]
    If you’ve managed to uncurl yourself from a sobbing fetal position after the emotional wringer of Episode 414: The Grove, maybe you’d like to hear what Robert has to say about it?
    TheWalkingDead.com: OK, that was a REALLY big episode, emotionally. From the Lizzie stuff, to Carol trying to parent her and Mika, to the fallout with Lizzie, to the confession to Tyreese. It was like, I need a moment after watching it. Do you have any recollections from the writers’ room in regards to breaking this episode?
    Robert Kirkman: This was a story that we always wanted to do, and it was adapting the Ben and Billy storyline from the comics. As we got further into the season and things started coming together, it really became a Carol story more than anything. I think a lot of that came from Scott Gimple, our excellent show runner, and I really think it was a good choice. In the comics, it’s Carl who ends up killing the other kid, but having it be such a emotional thing for Carol and having it be so intertwined with everything that was going on with her this season and everything that had been in her backstory for the life of the show, I think it really is just a testament to what can come out of working in this writers’ room and the tv process. This is another one of those moments where the events of the comic happened and existed, but everything that’s been changed for the show is definitely for the better. It’s shining examples of what can be done when we adapt things and alter things from the comic. And I think it turned out well. It’s definitely a gut-puncher of an episode.
    TWD: Since Scott was kind of shepherding this storyline from the comic, is that why he wrote it?
    RK: He had always planned to write this episode. It was a story he had in mind from the beginning and when you have that kind of a situation, it’s good to have the show runner actually write it because they have a specific vision of what they want out of the episode. If it’s given off to another writer, you can have things where they’re like, “No no no! You’re not getting that piece that’s in my head.” And so for Scott to step up and write this episode, even with his busy schedule, was really a great thing. Everybody knows that Scott has written some of the best episodes for the show, so anytime he says he wants take one I think everybody’s happy.
    TWD: With Ben in the comics and Lizzie in the show, are their actions some kind of coping mechanism, or were they this messed up before the apocalypse?
    RK: I think medically, that’s the kind of thing that just happens to people and is a part of them from the get go. I think that it can be heightened by this world, but the idea with that storyline is that there are sick people out there. In modern society, if there was a Lizzie or a Ben they would be in therapy for years and they would be monitored and there would be efforts taken to try to curb that behavior and prevent them from doing anything dangerous. Those options are not available in this world, and I think that’s another element of the zombie apocalypse that leads to interesting stories. What do we do when we have this person who is a danger to all of us, but they’re a kid and it’s not their fault, there’s just something wrong with them. In this world, that’s just kind of an impossible situation to be in.
    TWD: In the comics, Carl steps up and kills Ben when the adults are unable to take action, which was kind of a really sad, child-like attempt at being a grown up and taking responsibility. Carl in the show seems a little too old to get away with this. Was this part of the decision to switch this to Carol or was that just a matter of how the groups are split apart?
    RK: It made more sense from a writing standpoint to have it fall upon Carol, especially when she lost Sophia, that was a major change to the character. In the comics, Carol doesn’t lose Sophia, and there’s just too much story potential in the idea of this mother who loses her daughter and then has a surrogate daughter that she then has to kill for reasons beyond her control. There’s too much good story potential there to avoid that. And once we hit upon that, it was pretty clear that that was the direction the story would go. There are certain things on the road to Carl’s evolution that are important benchmarks that push him along on his journey, and the Ben and Billy situation was definitely one of them, but the show is doing well and is theoretically going to go for a while, and there are a lot of things Carl’s going to have to do that can replace that situation and affect him in possibly better ways. There’s always room to explore those possibilities, and I don’t really feel like I lost anything by taking this situation from Carl and giving it to Carol.
    TWD: These events have been teased for a while. Was Lizzie always going to fall into this Ben role from the comics?
    RK: That was by design. She was the one who was feeding the rats to the zombies, she was the one dissecting animals in the prison, so that was something that was building in her character from the start. And you have to hand it to the fans, there were definitely fans on Twitter who were like, “Wait a minute, Lizzie’s crazy. Are you going to do that Ben and Billy story with her?” after, like, the second episode aired. So that’s always cool, though in a sense you’re always like, aw man, they’re onto us! But with the show being an adaptation and the comics being available, there’s certainly clues out there that people can find in the comics that will indicate possible story points for the show. Sometimes they’re right and sometimes they’re massively wrong, which is always fun. But I think there’s a fun game to play for the fans to actually read the comic book and try to figure out if we’re adapting a certain story and what direction it’s going to take. I think that’s a cool aspect of how we adapt stories so that they’re not 100% faithful and have new elements added in.
    TWD: I think we’ve seen a lot of that in Season 4 so far.
    RK: And there’s more coming!
    TWD: The show continues to pull out a crazy new zombie every few episodes. The moss zombie earlier this season. This week, charred, smoking zombies emerging from the forest. Is there a conscious decision to sit down at the beginning of the season and come up with new walker designs for the season, or is that just something that Greg Nicotero comes up with each episode?
    RK: It always starts in the writers’ room. We’re always trying to come up with new and interesting and cool things that play up the uniqueness of what would happen in this world, like the moss zombie for instance. The idea was that these zombies don’t really move that much unless they’re provoked, and if one were to be pinned near a tree, it would be like one of those dead bodies that are left in the woods and have trees grow through. So the writers do come up with some stuff, but I will say that Greg is the master of his craft and is often improving any ideas we come up with and is definitely suggesting his own frequently. Between Nicotero and his team at KNB and all the writers, we’re always trying to one-up each other and always trying to come up with that next iconic zombie that AMC can make a DVD case out of.
    TWD: I like that thinking. That’s some George Lucas thinking right there. So, last question, what can we expect in these last two episodes? Early on there was a lot of talk about a jaw-dropping episode coming up. This was pretty jaw-dropping. Is this the episode or does it get even more crazy?
    RK: There are some moments in the finale that I think are some of the coolest stuff we’ve done in the show, and that’s the stuff I’m really excited about. We’re wrapping this season up in pretty great form. I think, coming out of this episode, people are gonna see how high the stakes are and how crazy things can get in this world, and we’re going to continue that is these next two episodes. There’s quite a bit of shock coming and I think people are going to be pretty startled with what happens moving forward and are definitely, definitely going to be anticipating the return of Season 5, which we’re working on right now and I can say is going to be pretty awesome. I think people should stay glued to the couch for these next two episodes, they’re going to be pretty cool.
     
  8. Tony Davis

    Tony Davis Administrator
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    [h=1]'The Walking Dead': Did the show go too far?[/h]


    By Dalton Ross on Mar 16, 2014 at 9:59PM

    [​IMG]



    Creator Robert Kirkman said a lot of things about tonight’s episode of The Walking Dead when he spoke to Entertainment Weekly. He said it was going to be “big.” He said you “absolutely had to watch.” And he said “it’s definitely one people are going to talk about.” Now we know why. [SPOILER ALERT: Read on only if you have already watched Sunday's episode of The Walking Dead.]

    If you thought Carol had a zero-tolerance attitude when she killed and burned two bodies back at the prison to stop the spread of a deadly virus, tonight she went truly sub-zero. The insanity began when little Lizzie stabbed and killed her sister Mika to prove that she would come back to life, leaving Carol to knife Mika’s brain to stop her from coming back as a zombie. She and Tyreese then had to decide what to do with Lizzie, with Carol saying that, “We can’t sleep with her and Judith under the same roof. She can’t be around other people.” And with that, Carol walked Lizzie outside, told her to “look at the flowers,” and then put a bullet in her brain. And then, to make things even CRAZIER, Carol followed that up by confessing to Tyreese that she killed his girlfriend Karen and David. (He forgave her.)

    There are pretty direct parallels to The Walking Dead comic book, in which a boy named Ben — after torturing and killing a cat — stabs his brother Billy, believing that he will come back to life after he dies. While the group debates what to do with Ben, Carl sneaks into the van where he was being held and kills him to protect the rest of the group. Pretty gruesome stuff, but not the type of stuff you see on national TV. Until now, that is.

    The episode began with Carol warning Tyreese about both of the girls she had “adopted” — saying that Lizzie had a warped perception of the walkers (“She doesn’t see what they are”), while as for Mika: “She’s worse. She doesn’t have a mean bone in her body.” Carol then told Mika she had to toughen up, but the tyke wanted no part of it, saying, “I can’t kill people. I can never do that.” Okay, but at least she doesn’t play tag with a zombie. Lizzie was doing just, causing Carol to run out to stab the walker in the face, and causing psycho Lizzie to scream out, “You killed her! You killed her! She was my friend and you killed her.” First off, worst friend ever. Secondly, what the hell?!?

    Then it got worse, as Lizzie started feeding a zombie on the train tracks (basically outing her as the one doing it back at the prison) while sticking her hand out to get bit and telling her sister that “They just want me to change to feel like them…. I can make you all understand it.” She tried to do just that by stabbing her sister later, leaving Carol with a terrible decision to make. And then she made it.
    Did Carol do the right thing? And did the show go too far by murdering two children? Hit the message boards to weigh in and stay tuned for our full recap going up soon.
     
  9. jwcoombs

    jwcoombs Well-Known Member

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    I'm thinking that one of the groups will make it to Terminus before the finale, the rest most likely arriving in the finale. Because in the promo for 415 "Us", Abe and company appear to be having a late night meeting around a campfire when Abe remarks, "Tomorrow, we go to the end of the line!".
     
  10. Tony Davis

    Tony Davis Administrator
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    [h=1]'Walking Dead' Dissection: Melissa McBride Talks Carol's Devastating Decision[/h] 10:02 PM PDT 3/16/2014 by Lesley Goldberg

    • 0
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    [h=2]"The world will change you; but you have to adapt or die," the actress tells THR in our weekly postmortem.[/h] [​IMG]

    Gene Page/AMC
    "The Walking Dead's" Melissa McBride

    [Warning: This story contains spoilers from episode 414, "The Grove," of AMC's The Walking Dead as well as the comics it is based on.]
    AMC's The Walking Dead delivered one if its most gut-wrenching episodes of its fourth season Sunday when Carol (Melissa McBride) and Tyreese (Chad Coleman) thought they'd found a new place to settle down and live a very humble life with Lizzie, her sister, Mika, and Rick's daughter, Judith.
    But as fans of the zombie drama have come to learn, no one is ever really safe in this new post-apocalyptic world as a new threat emerged as Lizzie (Brighton Sharbino), and to a certain extent, Mika (Kyla Kenedy), illustrated that they could not adapt to the new rules of the world and do what it takes to survive.
    During the hour, Carol and Tyreese, exhausted from trying to survive on the road with three young girls, stumble on a cabin that's fully stocked with gas and running water and seek salvation there while debating the merits of Terminus. What they find, however, is that Lizzie was the one feeding rats to the walkers at the prison and the youngster still doesn't understand that walkers are deadly and neither of them want to kill anyone, including the undead.
    After Carol and Tyreese briefly leave the girls, they come back to find that Lizzie has killed her kid sister Mika but insists that she'll "come back" because she "didn't hurt her brain." Lizzie, with her hands covered in blood, holds Carol and Tyreese at gunpoint with baby Judith nearby and insists that they wait to see Mika return in order to truly understand that the walkers are not dangerous. Worse: Lizzie reveals that Judith can change, too, and she was just about to kill her as well.
    PHOTOS: 'The Walking Dead's' Most Shocking Deaths
    It's at that moment that Carol and Tyreese realize that Lizzie is incapable of taking care of herself in this world and is now a threat to everyone else. After briefly debating alternatives, they come to the same conclusion: Lizzie must be killed. Carol then takes Lizzie for a walk, when Lizzie apologizes -- not for killing her sister but instead for holding them at gunpoint. With tears streaming down Carol's face, she shoots Lizzie in the back of the head.
    Carol and Tyreese realize that they can't stay at the cabin and Carol then confesses to Tyreese that she was the one -- not Lizzie as he'd speculated -- who killed his girlfriend, Karen. Carol hands Tyreese her gun and leaves him to decide if she should live or die. He not only decides that she should live, but he also forgives her for trying to protect the group from the deadly virus and the two, with Judith, head for Terminus.
    POLL: 'The Walking Dead': Did Carol Make the Right Thing?
    The Hollywood Reporter caught up with McBride to discuss Carol's devastating decision, how this will change her moving forward and what she and Tyreese will expect from Terminus.
    How did you react when you first heard about what Carol had to do in this episode?
    Overwhelmed and devastated. I sat there reading the script with my mouth open. Shortly after Rick (Andrew Lincoln) banished Carol from the prison, [showrunner] Scott [M. Gimple] told me Carol was going to come back and something pretty bad was going to be required of Carol.
    How will Carol having to execute Lizzie change her going forward? Can she come back from that?
    It was something that had to be done in that world and under those circumstances; Lizzie in that world seemed inevitable. It would be impossible for Tyreese and Carol to move forward with Judith, who doesn't have any experience of the world before the apocalypse. It was so devastating for Carol to have to do that. Moving forward, Tyreese see forgave Carol after she confessed to killing Karen and she put her fate in his hands and gave him the choice of, "Do you think that I'm worthy of living?" He forgave her and he understood. That brings the whole humanity back. Moving forward, it's a new beginning.
    Did Carol have any option other than killing Lizzie?

    No, I don't think there was really any other option. There's a lot of nature vs. nurture going on in this episode to look at. As much as it broke Carol's heart to have to do this and to realize this had to be done, when they were walking toward the flowers in that scene and Lizzie says, "You're mad at me and I'm sorry." You'd think she'd be sorry for stabbing her sister to death but instead she's sorry for pointing gun at her and she just doesn't get it.
    PHOTOS: Inside 'The Walking Dead's' Spooky Season 4 Premiere
    Why do you think Lizzie and Mika could never wrap their heads around the new rules of the world?
    They're two very different people. You have one child who is afraid to hurt anything and another who doesn't mind killing people as long as they come back as a walker and live forever. It made me wonder what happened to their mother because she played an important role in that episode as well for me. When Mika first says, "Everything works out the way it's supposed to," that was the last thing Carol said to Lizzie. There was something mystical about that episode to me with the smoke burning and later when we're walking toward the grove and it's out. The house we found in the grove being so idyllic and having every sustainable thing we needed was there was a little too good to be true. The idea that we can stay there, and that brief happiness you saw was also too good to be true. That line, "Everything works out the way it's supposed to," for that to be on Carol's mind at that time was almost like a mom-to-mom kind of conversation.
    As a mother who lost her daughter (Sophia) and then had to watch her be put down, what kind of emotional damage might the Lizzie and Mika situation have on Carol now? Will this reopen old wounds?
    In a very big way, especially with that line from their mother, it almost helps Carol to close that old wound in a way. "Everything works out the way it's supposed to" -- in the context of all that went down and thinking it was inevitable that these children would lose their lives because they couldn't do what it took to defend themselves. Mika said she couldn't and would never kill another person and she couldn't defend herself from her sister, either. It just seemed it was something that would be inevitable.
    Carol blamed herself for not seeing how damaged Lizzie and Mika were. Will this close her off even more when she meets new people, especially children? How can she recover from this?
    I'm really interested to see how her mindset is moving forward after this. You have Judith and it's like trying to figure out again how do we adapt to this world. You have children now who are coming up who aren't aware of the world before the apocalypse. They'll experience these horrible things and how does that redefine trauma when it's something that's commonplace? For all I know, Lizzie could have been traumatized by her mother's death. Maybe that was the last thing her mother said to her -- what is this thing about bringing the walkers back? This already hard-wired nature [that Lizzie had] to destroy animals and that sort of thing -- that post-apocalyptic world would nurture that child in the worst way -- specifically a child like her. Then you have children who are born into the apocalypse. It's going to be interesting. The children are the hope of the future and to protect them is so important to Carol.
    PHOTOS: The 'Dead' and the Red: 'The Walking Dead Cast in Character and on the Red Carpet
    Carol did everything she could in order to help the girls but nothing could save them. What's the message here, that this world is not fit for children?
    It's not a world that's safe for anyone. The ability to fight isn't a one-size fits all; everybody is different. Thematically, there's a lot said about change. Something I got out of this episode for Carol, too, is that you have to change. The world will change you; but you have to adapt or die. It's about hanging on to that part of yourself: You can change but don't lose yourself. That's what was happening to Carol: Her mindset, she was so hell-bent on protecting these children that she lost a bit of something and that was her nurturing aspect. She was missing a lot of stuff because her eyes were so set on survival.
    Carol finally told Tyreese that she killed Karen. She gave Tyreese the option to kill her, handing him her gun. Do you think Carol wanted -- and deserved -- to die?
    It was about letting him determine her fate; that was the only way to move forward. Carol by then knew it had to be done at that moment. Carol felt like if Tyreese is the person that she has come to know -- he has seen what they've just been through -- then he's not going to kill her. But she leaves that to him. By giving him the choice, it puts Tyreese in her position in a way. By then she feels like he understands and she's putting that mindset to give him the choice: Do what you feel you have to do. But what she wasn't expecting was forgiveness.
    Lizzie was revealed to have been the one feeding rats to walkers at the prison, which helped weaken those walls. Will this be something that gets back to Rick when and if the group is reunited?
    I would imagine if they're reunited and he's asking, she would tell him everything that happened.
    As a father, how might Rick respond to learning of what Carol had to do? Could that make the wedge between them bigger?
    We'll have to wait and see. There's a lot going on between the time he banished Carol. Even when he comes back to the prison, he turns to Maggie and says, "There's no time to doubt yourself," which I thought was great after Carol gives him the watch with how she sees time. There was no time for her to doubt herself when she put Karen and David down. A lot has happened, maybe perspectives are changing, we'll see.
    Carol and Tyreese are now on the road to Terminus. Given their experience here, how much would you say they trust each other now?
    They trust each other 100 percent now. That was one of the reasons why it was so important for Carol to confess. She knew that she had to be able to trust the people she's with. He didn't kill her. Carol and Tyreese have bonded incredibly over this tragic experience and, as far as they know, the only two people. The only way to move forward is to be able to trust whomever you're with 100 percent.
    They thought the cabin could be a good sanctuary and that turned out to be too good to be true. Might they approach that a bit more cautiously?
    I totally believe that. Tyreese has every reason to as well. He was taken in by Woodbury and that was insane.
    Where was baby Judith?
    Tyreese is carrying her on his back, but she's with them.
    Daryl (Norman Reedus) is still out there and facing a threat in a new group of thugs. How might Carol react when and if she learns that nobody knows where he is?
    She's worried about everybody in her group. There's a part of her that believes he can handle himself alone but the threats in this world are so many and they're so horrifying. It's anybody's guess and there's always heartbreak with the hope in a way.
    What might Carol and Daryl's reunion look like, when and if that does come to pass?
    Bittersweet, maybe. He's probably very curious about what happened with Rick and Carol and the banishment and all that stuff. But I think that they'd be very happy to see that they're still alive.
    What did you think of Carol's decision? Do you think she had a choice? Click here to vote in THR's poll and hit the comments section below with your thoughts. The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on AMC.
    Email: Lesley.Goldberg@THR.com
    Twitter: @Snoodit
     
  11. Hawaiian Shirt Zombie

    Hawaiian Shirt Zombie Active Member

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    Thank you for the articles you guys! This episode will go down as one of my favorites.
     
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  12. Tony Davis

    Tony Davis Administrator
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    Inside TV
    ‘The Walking Dead’: Melissa McBride on Carol’s ‘devastating’ decision
    by Dalton Ross | March 17 2014 — 11:57 AM EDT


    Image Credit: Gene Page/AMC


    It’s The Walking Dead episode that has everyone talking, and now the woman at the center of it all — Melissa McBride, who plays Carol — gives her take on the events of last night’s episode, “The Grove.” [SPOILER ALERT: Read on only if you have already watched Sunday's episode of The Walking Dead.]
    Carol made another controversial decision last night, shooting her “adopted” daughter Lizzie in the head after Lizzie stabbed and killed her sister Mika to prove that she would come back to life. “We can’t sleep with her and Judith under the same roof,” Carol told Tyreese before going through with it. “She can’t be around other people.” And that was that. We caught up with McBride to get her take on the controversial episode and Carol’s controversial decision. Does she think Carol made the right move? What was it like filming those grisly scenes with the young girls? And what about that super secret appearance of Sophia in the episode? The woman who plays Carol reveals all here.


    ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So, you realize I am never going to look at flowers ever again because of you, right?
    MELISSA McBRIDE: Awwww. But that’s what they’re for, to give you something pretty to look at. It’s okay! Yeah, I’m hearing that a lot. Looking at the flowers will never be the same for me now.


    EW: What was your reaction when showrunner Scott Gimple told you about this episode and what was going to transpire?
    McBRIDE: Well, it was a bit of a mystery when he first mentioned it. He said that Carol would be required to do something very difficult and I was thinking, oh dear, maybe there’s a scuffle between her and Tyreese. I had no idea. And then when I did read the episode and was going along and seeing how messed up Lizzie was…to answer your question, it was just devastating and heartbreaking. Period.


    EW: When I spoke with Andrew Lincoln recently he told me he couldn’t believe when he read the script that you guys were going to go ahead and do this episode and he even went to Scott and was like, “Are we really going to do this?” Was there any part of you wondering whether this was just too much?
    McBRIDE: No, because I figure they know what they’re doing. It was obviously so heavy and I just had to remember that there is this source material — Robert Kirkman’s source material — that they are pulling us from that and that’s what this show is. And it’s a story that needs to be told. It’s an element that had not been examined yet really from the perspective of our group — just the mental fragility and mindset and different perspectives of children. This is something that really needs to be explored in this world. And Carol’s arc has dealt so much with children that this group was the best one for this story to be told. It just had to be told.


    EW: You mentioned the source material. Did you go back and read that part of the comic book with the two brothers, Ben and Billy, which parallels what happened here on TV even though that didn’t even involve your character?
    McBRIDE: I don’t usually refer back to the graphic novels. I have most all of them and got through a great portion when we began filming, but I know that story and I know that it belonged to a couple of other characters. I know it was different in the graphic novels but that if they’re trying to bring that story to television, we know that they diverge and pull things and give it to other characters and it’s great to keep it fresh. But I think it was pretty brilliant the way that story unfolded from the comics to Carol and her group and these children.


    EW: Tell me about the puzzle you guys were doing during the episode because I understand that was no ordinary puzzle.
    McBRIDE: No, and we had no idea until we were shooting that confession scene. We had no idea what the puzzle was and we were trying to take little guesses and they would get certain portions of it together in between shoots when they would work on it. And then props would come along and mess it all up again to keep the continuity going, so the puzzle was never really getting anywhere as far as being completed. And then [director] Mike [Satrazemis] came out and said, “By the way, you know the puzzle on the table here, when you complete it, it looks like this.” And then he showed the picture of Sophia on the box of the puzzle. And it just took my breath away, to think this whole time that Sophia had been right there with us. It was kind of interesting. It’s just one of those little things directors will do. It was really cool.


    EW: Do you think Carol did the right thing?
    McBRIDE: I think there is no way to say it’s right or wrong. It’s unfortunate, but what she did had to be done in her mind. And Tyreese agreed. He understood these difficult decisions need to be made and there was no choice to do this if we were to keep going with Judith. It’s so tragic, and it’s by no fault of her own. That’s what is so horrible. But this world, she just wouldn’t do well in this world, and it would make it so difficult to survive with her for long. That’s no life for her, and it’s dangerous for other people. I think she just did what needed to be done.


    EW: Let’s talk about that scene at the end where you confess to Tyreese about killing his girlfriend. You guys each have about 10,000 different emotions happening right there, so how do you calibrate and balance each of those?
    McBRIDE: They’ve been through so much. I loved that scene, how quiet it was finally. Just the two of them with little Judith over in her crib. It was exhausting, it was an exhausting time. Unbelievable what the two had just been through. Unbelievable to them. And all the stuff going through Carol’s mind, there was a great deal of “I have to tell him, I have to tell him now.” For one, if we’re going to keep going together, there needs to be trust. Even more important than that, he needs to know what happened because Carol remembers not knowing what happened to Sophia. And she says, “That was the worst part. The worst part is not knowing.” And she can only imagine what was going on in Tyreese’s mind, imagining what might have gone down with Karen, and how it happened, and who did it eating away with him. And with that going on in his mind she knows they can’t keep moving if he’s continuously thinking about what may have happened. That needs to be done.


    She also needs to hand him the truth because even in her own mind, it’s like I need somebody to tell me I am doing okay here. I have done horrible, horrible things, and I need him to tell me it’s okay in some way. To at least know that he accepts what needs to be done, or let me go. And also, it puts him in the same position that she was in — to make a very difficult choice. She gives it to him, and I think it’s beautiful, So there are a lot of reasons why she’s confessing, and it’s all lumped into one thing: accepting that things need to be done, you have a choice, trust, moving forward. If he is the guy I think he is after seeing everything that we’ve been through together, he’s not going to do it. He’s going to understand. But she doesn’t expect his forgiveness. That scene is loaded. It is so loaded.


    EW: The thing about these episodes with the smaller groups is that a lot of you are getting to work with people you haven’t done a lot with before. What was it like getting to do all these scenes with Chad Coleman?
    McBRIDE: I think it’s great. I think it’s great for people in our prison group to be interacting with other people. It’s changes certain parts of you and challenges aspects of one another, just like in real life, how like we bounce off of other people. So it’s really important for them to interact with one other and get to know themselves and get to know each other better and see how that changes the world view and the experiences they are going through.


    EW: I know you have had to say goodbye to a lot of cast members along the way and I know it’s always difficult but, it’s usually adult cast members. What’s it like when you have two very young actresses like Brighton Sharbino (Lizzie) and Kyla Kennedy (Mika) going out like that and filming their last days on The Walking Dead set?
    McBRIDE: It was very somber and bittersweet because we all knew the story was important, we all knew it was difficult, we all knew that we were doing our best work and these kids were so amazing and you want to have them around. They very quickly become part of that Walking Dead family. And they’re a joy to work with and so bright and to know this is their last day…I don’t know. What we really try to do is celebrate who they are and the work that they’ve done and the time that we were able to spend together. We celebrate who they are, but it’s heartbreaking to lose them. I know these kids are gong to go and do some great things. But it’s never easy.
     
  13. Tony Davis

    Tony Davis Administrator
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    From Forbes

    [h=1]"Look At The Flowers:" Carol's Wrenching Choice Changes 'The Walking Dead' Forever In A Shocking Episode 414[/h]






    “She can’t be around other people.”
    With those six words, The Walking Dead crossed a line. A line from which there’s no turning back. And gave us a moment against which every moment in this series will forever be measured. Yeah, it was that big an episode. (Spoilers for The Walking Dead, Episode 414, “The Grove” as well as for Breaking Bad)
    Love it or hate it, The Walking Dead does not flinch. Not from a beheading. Not from a a 12-year-old boy shooting his mother in the head to keep her from turning into a walker. But there’s never been a scene like the one in which Carol tells Lizzie to look at the flowers.
    The whole season, if not the whole series, has been aiming toward this chilling moment. Carol adopting the girls. Carol killing David and Karen. Rick’s exile of Carol. The Governor’s attack on Prison Nirvana. Lizzie saving Tyreese’s life. Carol, Lizzie, Mika, and Tyreese re-uniting.
    Of all the post-battle re-union moments, I thought then that one with Carol, Tyreese and the girls really had the most juice. And now we understand why.
    For a moment, early in this episode it seemed like it could be okay. More than okay. Pecans. Puzzles. Venison. A stove that worked. And then…
    As Scott Gimple and the writers laid out this moment of reckoning, it was as fated as any Greek tragedy. The only “choice” was leaving the two sisters to play together. Once that that small mistake was made–today instead of tomorrow–everything else was inevitable.
    Truly inevitable, like Cain and Abel.
    The Grove is a morality play. It comes down hard on one side of the nature versus nurture line. There’s something in Lizzie’s wiring that led her to this. Carol and even Mika knew there was something wrong, but their fatal error was a failure to fully plumb the depths of a troubled tweenage girls’ pathology. The uncomprehending smile on Lizzie’s face as she waited for Mika to change, that said everything.
    Maybe living among the walkers flipped the switch, but the switch, the story insists, was always there. Carol gave Lizzie the tools–the same tools that kept them safe from walkers, and had saved Tyreese’s life back at the prison–but the impulse to use them, that was purely Lizzie’s.
    Once the gun is down and the baby is safe. Carol says what Tyreese can’t: “She can’t be around other people.”
    The calculus of survival is clear and chilling. Judith can’t survive unless she has two adults to protect her. And there are no juvenile detention facilities in the post-apocalypse. No pleas of insanity. Lizzie would be tried as an adult. We’ve always known that the old rules no longer apply, but that truth has never cut as deep as at this moment.
    “Maybe we could talk her back somehow?” Tyreese wonders.
    “This is how she is,” says Carol flatly. “It was already there. ”
    It’s a moment that’s almost Biblical in its savage simplicity and it falls to Carol to do what needs to be done. “
    She can’t be around other people.”
    While much of the credit for The Grove goes to showrunner Scott Gimple, who also wrote this episode (with a nod, perhaps, to John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men), there’s a lot of credit to go around in an episode as strong as this one. As Mika, Kyla Kennedy was not only sweet but steadfast, and Brighton Sharbino (who also played Marty Hart’s daughter in True Detective) played her confusion convincingly. Chad Coleman seemed like had seen something he wishes he could un-see. As Carol, Melissa McBride drew on the deposits of strength and decency, that allowed her to do this without seeming like a monster. Indeed, when she pulled the trigger, her eyes brimming with tears, it reminded me of Jesse killing Gale in Breaking Bad. And first-time director Michael Satrazemis understood that less is more, and his cutaway to Carol’s gun, and Tyreese’s distant view, lent the scene the quiet dignity it deserved.
    In the episode’s denouement, Carol confesses to Tyreese about killing Karen and David with the gun sitting on the table. Before all this, she couldn’t summon the words–or the courage. But now it seemed like an afterthought. But I didn’t think for a second that he would kill her. As he grabbed the gun, he was thinking about killing himself, but realized that in doing so he would be sentencing Judith to death as well.
    “Just look at the flowers.” I don’t think anyone who watched this episode will ever hear those words quite the same way again. And the most popular show on television has re-written its own rules in a truly devastating fashion.
     
  14. Sharpie61

    Sharpie61 Well-Known Member

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    "EW: Tell me about the puzzle you guys were doing during the episode because I understand that was no ordinary puzzle.
    McBRIDE: No, and we had no idea until we were shooting that confession scene. We had no idea what the puzzle was and we were trying to take little guesses and they would get certain portions of it together in between shoots when they would work on it. And then props would come along and mess it all up again to keep the continuity going, so the puzzle was never really getting anywhere as far as being completed. And then [director] Mike [Satrazemis] came out and said, “By the way, you know the puzzle on the table here, when you complete it, it looks like this.” And then he showed the picture of Sophia on the box of the puzzle. And it just took my breath away, to think this whole time that Sophia had been right there with us. It was kind of interesting. It’s just one of those little things directors will do. It was really cool."

    That's pretty cool. ^^

     
  15. Tony Davis

    Tony Davis Administrator
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    [h=1]'The Walking Dead:' Showrunner Scott Gimple does a deep dive on Sunday's shocking episode[/h]


    By Dalton Ross on Mar 17, 2014 at 9:17PM

    [​IMG]





    It was the episode that set social media on fire. And now Walking Dead showrunner Scott M. Gimple breaks down the heart-wrenching episode that was “The Grove.”

    It would have been crazy enough to have an episode featuring one little girl (Lizzie) stabbing her sister (Mika) to death. But throw on top of that a scene of adult Carol then putting a bullet in young Lizzie’s brain and you have the true makings of a WTF?!?!? classic. We already spoke to the woman who pulled the trigger, Melissa McBride, who plays Carol Now we catch up with the man behind the plan, Walking Dead showrunner Scott M. Gimple, who explains why he did it, why he made some changes from the event in The Walking Dead comic book on which it was based, what he felt they could and could not show on screen, and why it was important for Tyreese to forgive Carol for killing his girlfriend. Gimple also offers some teases for what to expect coming up in the last two episodes of season 4. It’s a truly enlightening chat into the most impactful episode of the season, if not the entire series. (Click through both pages to read the entire interview.)

    ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: One of my pet peeves is when a TV show does something really dramatic but doesn’t lay the groundwork for it in the sense that it feels like they just realized “Hey, we need to do something crazy here,” so it doesn’t really track or make sense. What you guys did, however, was really play this thing out all season long. You dropped clues and hints and showed a progression that ultimately all led up to what transpired on Sunday.
    SCOTT M. GIMPLE: A lot of it is right there in episode 401 for you. And kind of the rest is in 402. We knew where we were going and I knew that this was a story that I desperately wanted to tell. This is an example of a story that I really dug in the comic book, but didn’t want to do it verbatim. But the story in the comic, which was different but was the basis for our story, was longplayed as I recall too.

    EW: It was, but you don’t necessarily see that patience played out on television. When this was first brought up, this whole storyline and the gruesome ending to it, was there any discussion like “Okay, this worked in the comic, but is this too much for TV?”
    GIMPLE: I had originally talked to [creator] Robert [Kirkman] about it because in the comic it’s more Carl’s story and I remember pitching it to him because I wanted to know what he thought. It was important to me. And what was funny is I started going, “I’m thinking about taking this thing away from Carl, this super-important part of the comic,” and initially he was like, “Oh, I don’t know.” And then I pitched him the story and he was like “That’s awesome!” Which was exciting because I was really nervous, because you want to honor the source material and I wanted him to be excited about it and he was. Beyond that, I wasn’t really that worried about AMC. I know they have faith in us. This was not a story that was sensational. We weren’t exploiting anything. It was something that was very much a part of Carol’s story and very much these girls’ story and very much a story of this world, and I felt that from the jump we had a very sensitive approach to it. No matter how extreme the end was, we weren’t just doing it for shock. And AMC felt the same way. Even between all this we tried to do it as sensitively as possible. There were a lot of conversations about that.

    EW: I was going to ask you about that, because when we spoke about baby Judith at one point you said how you couldn’t really show a baby being killed on TV. So how did you guys decide about exactly what you would and wouldn’t show as far as those two little girls being killed? You know, we see the body, but we don’t see the stabbing. We see the gun go off, but we don’t see the bullet land. How did those decisions get made and how much did AMC weigh in on that?
    GIMPLE: With Mika’s death, that was something I wanted Carol and Tyreese to discover. I didn’t want to see that happen. And I would love to take credit for an awesome idea, but basically that’s how it happens in the book. It was discovered. It wasn’t shown. It was very effective in the book. It worked on me when I read it and I knew that would be effective that way too. I don’t think we needed to see that part of it. That’s something where the audience’s imagination will be far more horrible that anything we could have done. As far as the gunshot, we did wrestle with the cut of that. We played around with it in a variety of iterations. Initially it was about what we felt was tasteful to show and what we felt was not tasteful to show and figuring that out. I’d say the discovery along the way was the shot where we don’t see it, but we see Carol pull the trigger and we stay on Carol. It’s such a remarkable piece of acting that Melissa does in that moment that I wouldn’t have wanted to cut away anyways, because really in that moment that is all about Carol. The die is kind of cast and this is Carol’s story. This is fulfilling a big part of Carol’s story in a very tragic way. And too see that character feel that moment and feel the gravity of that moment and the impact upon her and even just change her in that very moment. I actually felt Melissa’s portrayal of that moment — I could feel it. So in the end it went towards storytelling anyways.
    EW: What was the reaction of the cast? Because I remember Andrew Lincoln told me he read the script and asked you “Are we really going to do this?”
    GIMPLE: I was coming into Atlanta for prep on this episode, and I landed and I had a text from Andrew, who had also already called me. And the text said, “Just read your script, I really need to talk to somebody.” And yeah, he was asking, “Are we gonna do this?” It wasn’t out of fear that he was asking that. It was out of hope that we could tell the story the way we wanted to. So few of the cast was in the script but I got all these emails and texts just so excited to see this episode and so into the story we were telling.
    EW: How exactly does one go about telling two sweet little girls they are about to die incredibly horrible deaths? I mean, you’ve had to make those calls before to Scott Wilson and what have you. But I imagine it’s different when you are dealing with a child.
    GIMPLE: Well, it’s face to face whenever we can. The thing is, like I said, we knew where this story was going before when these gals were cast. So I was hinting at things going really badly from the moment we started. And they are both incredibly bright and talented and mature performers. We talked very candidly about everything from before we even started, so it was difficult and I talked to their moms first. But it wasn’t wholly unexpected. I was trying to lay the groundwork from that from the beginning. And they knew. Everybody was like, “Who is killing the rats?” and they knew. I didn’t share that with everybody, but the little girls did have that secret. I told Brighton and Kyla about their character’s histories and what led up to this. And Lizzie had her problems before the apocalypse. And it was just an incredible thing to lay it all out and see that groundwork from the beginning and slowly dole it out and see them grow close to Carol. And in episode 10, it was really something to see the reaction to people seeing Lizzie almost smother Judith, because that was a bit of a reveal at that point. Not to mention the bunny rabbits. Those poor bunny rabbits.
    EW: Let’s talk about the Carol and Tyreese scene at the end, which obviously could have played out a few ways. Was there ever a scenario discussed where Tyreese does not forgive Carol?
    GIMPLE: It was very important to me that we have this moment of grace from the beginning. And I remember talking to Chad Coleman at the beginning of the season —knowing where the story was going — and telling him that, you know, things in the apocalypse for Tyreese had not been sooooo terrible. He had lost people like anybody, but things that directly hit him, it hadn’t happened until Karen was killed. And I told him things were going to be very, very rough for him this year, and that he would come to a place where he would have every reason to lash out for revenge, and that through everything he had been up to at that point, Tyreese would find grace. He would find forgiveness. And this was all without telling him what everything was about, just a general arc. But it was very important to me that in the context of such darkness, there be some light. And Tyreese is a character, being such a humanistic character, that’s the way I believe he would go. I’m not excited about things that are just relentlessly dark — that are just one thing. I get excited about stories that really do show every part of the human experience, and even in that horrible, horrible, horrible situation, there was some good that came out of it. There was grace. I was so thrilled to see how it came out.

    EW: It’s definitely a theme I’ve noticed in these back eight episodes. In the first Rick and Carl episode you had the lighter moment at the end with the knock at the door and Rick says, “It’s for you.” Then you had it in the Daryl and Beth episode where they burn the house down at the end. Then you had it last week with Bob, Maggie, and Sasha all smiling when they are reunited on the train tracks. I’ve definitely noticed that even in these brutal episodes, many of them are ending on a note of hope.
    GIMPLE: I think this show at its core is hopeful. Thee people are trying to remain people in extraordinarily bad circumstances, and to me that is one of the most hopeful things in the world. The thing about that is, if things do get light, if there are smiles, if there is love, if there is friendship and forgiveness and grace, it makes the darker things that much more dark and makes the defeats that much more crushing. And I will say that in my mind when Tyreese forgives Carol, in some ways, that is just a crushing thing. That’s a devastatingly sad thing, a reminder of the goodness of the world — and yet, they lost these little girls. They had seen how the world destroys, but it isn’t so easy to say the world is just a destructive place or just an evil place, With that there could be some sort of surrender. To know that life can be good to is both heartening and extremely painful.

    EW: Is that smoke we saw last night from the fire that Daryl set?
    GIMPLE: I keep getting asked that and I refuse to give a definitive answer. Because I don’t want to tell you what it is. If I wanted folks to believe that definitively, I would have somehow tied that in definitively, but I want people to decide that. In the end, I have very hard feelings about what everything means, but I would never tell the audience they’re wrong. Unless it was a story point that we were very specific about.

    EW: Was Greg Nicotero like a kid in a candy store coming up with those charbroiled zombies?
    GIMPLE: We had done charbroiled zombies in the past but I wanted them to be still smoking. And that was some amazing work. We had extra crispy and original style, which was like half -rispy.
    EW: Okay, just two more episodes left, sir. What can you tell us about where we go from here after that incredibly emotional installment?
    GIMPLE: To the emotional conclusion of the season. Both episodes are really big episodes. There are some insane things that happen. There are some tragic things that happen, There are some things that happen that are hopeful. And there is just some remarkably dark stuff. And stories crashing together.
    EW: So we may see some groups reuniting by chance?
    GIMPLE: Possibly, Maybe.
    EW: Those train tracks gotta be leading somewhere, right, Scott?
    GIMPLE: Or it’s just like Where the Sidewalk Ends.
     
  16. Sharpie61

    Sharpie61 Well-Known Member

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    Chad Coleman reveals with MTV about killing Lizzie
    http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1724334/walking-dead-chad-coleman-the-grove-spoilers.jhtml

    Mar 18 2014 1:38 PM EDT
    [h=1]'The Walking Dead': Chad Coleman Reveals Why Killing
     
  17. Tony Davis

    Tony Davis Administrator
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    ‘The Walking Dead’: Gale Anne Hurd discusses that ‘incredibly profound’ episode and what’s next
    by Dalton Ross | March 19 2014 — 10:49 AM EDT


    Image Credit: Gene Page/AMC


    Is that last Walking Dead episode still sinking in? If so, that’s not such a surprise seeing as how the events of “The Grove” — in which Carol shot her “adopted” daughter Lizzie in the head after Lizzie stabbed and killed her sister Mika to prove that she would come back to life — were definitely hard to digest. (Get it? Digest? Zombies? Oh, never mind.) We already chatted with Carol herself, Melissa McBride, about the controversial episode, and also got the full lowdown from showrunner Scott M. Gimple, but I know what you’re thinking: What the heck does producer Gale Anne Hurd have to say about this whole thing? Well, that’s what I was thinking too so I caught up with Hurd to get her take on the episode as well as her thoughts on season 4 and fan reaction to the show, as well as a tease on what to expect next and an update as to that big Walking Dead spin-off. So read on…if you dare.
    ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: This back half of season has felt really different from everything you guys have done before with the group all broken up, and with these smaller pairings leading to more personal stories. We had gotten some of those from time to time before, but certainly never in such rapid succession like this.
    GALE ANNE HURD: That’s true. And it’s something we had planned from the beginning of the season when we talked with [showruner] Scott Gimple and the writers. They said it was time to split them up, even though there were significant issues and dangers they had to deal with at the prison, including the infection and all of that. It was really sending them off on their own in small groups, where we got to know them much more individually. We had an opportunity to really get to know Bob and his backstory, which we hadn’t explored before. And certainly Beth has been a character that people felt perhaps that they didn’t know as much. And we’ve remedied all of that and certainly had some very explosive moments in the past few shows.


    EW: So let’s talk about this last episode, which certainly had people talking. I spoke with Scott and he mentioned how you guys played around with a lot of different iterations in terms of how much to show of that scene where Carol kills Lizzie. Tell me about the internal discussions you had with each other as producers and with AMC about how to adapt this horrific event from the comics to television. Because they are two different mediums and maybe what you show in one is not how you want to handle it in the other.
    HURD: We knew that this was something that was inevitable. It was something that built into the introduction of Lizzie, that at some point she is going to cross the line, like the twins did as we got to know them in the comic books from which this is derived. But what we didn’t want to do was make it more exploitive or graphic than it needed to be because emotionally it could connect without going over the top. And that was always our intent, to pack a really powerful emotional punch, and not just be graphic for the sake of pushing it too far.


    EW: Were you expecting any negative feedback from people about this episode who might be upset about kids-killing-kids and adults-killing-kids and might think it was just too much for television? Were you expecting that, and then did you get any of that at all?
    HURD: You know, when you start the TV series the way that we did in the very first episode, where the character of Rick kills a little zombie girl, I think that announces loud and clear what this apocalypse was going to be like, and at some point it was not just going to be zombie kids. And we’ve seen horrific things in the past. We’ve seen Carl fire on someone who may not really be a threat to him in the third season. So it really is about who these people are in the zombie apocalypse. Some people, it was their nature. And some people, it was the environment that created that reaction. And it gives us the opportunity to explore those very human conditions.


    EW: This is a show with a lot of different characters and everyone has their moment to shine. But for me, the most gripping arc has really been Carol’s and I never would have believed that could happen a year or two ago. As you start to look back on this year — because I know you’re already in the planning stages of season 5 — is that one of the things you all are most proud of, being able to take this character who was maybe more of a secondary one, and make it so rich and vital.
    HURD: Absolutely. We always knew that Melissa McBride just has the acting chops that could deliver the performance that she gave in “The Grove.” You can’t really focus back at the prison on one particular character. Or in this case, the four characters from “The Grove.” So we needed to basically be patient and allow her character to evolve and reach the point where we understood her and her choices. As well as Tyreese’s choices in this episode. And that’s why we really thank the fans for their patience. Because at times it’s frustration — it’s frustrating that things can play out slowly. But they trust us knowing that we’re building to something where all of those things — you know, “look at the flowers,” or who killed Karen and David? — it’s all going to be paid off.


    EW: It’s interesting you bring up the fans and hoping that they will show patience, because I was going to ask you about that. When you have a procedural show on a broadcast network where they are solving a crime every week, you really sort of judge that on an episode-by-episode basis. When you have a serialized storyline that’s telling a whole tale it’s a lot harder. You look back at season 2 for you guys when a lot of people were complaining at the beginning “Hey, it’s too slow. Nothing’s happening,” but that was not knowing the payoff that was coming, which was the Barnageddon episode that it all led up to — which is really considered one of the show’s finest hours, I think. So how much as a producer do sort of look at fan reaction on a week-by-week basis, knowing what you know — that they don’t have all the information?
    HURD: [Laughs] You know, in earlier seasons it was tough. It was tough because I watch every episode when it airs. And I see the feedback in real time on social media. And people do get frustrated. They get frustrated that “not a lot happens.” But they wouldn’t care as deeply and the sequences wouldn’t pack such an emotional punch if we hadn’t built to it. And you can’t set someone up in the first part of an episode and knock them off at the end of the episode and have any kind of emotional impact. You just can’t care about someone that quickly. It is interesting because the echo of Sophia was so clear in Sunday night’s episode. That was really motivating so much of what Carol has been doing — training the kids and trying to toughen them up so they could survive the way Sophia didn’t. And then to see it all crumble in that episode was incredibly profound.


    EW: You know I’m not letting you off the line until you give up some teases for the last two episodes. What can we expect in these next two weeks?
    HURD: The world of The Walking Dead is all about human choices, about what one has to do to survive, and how much each character is willing to sacrifice and compromise their humanity. And we will really see certain characters pushed to their limit — in a way the way that Carol was — in these final two episodes.


    EW: I spoke with Robert Kirkman and he told me that we’re going to see Rick pushed to the absolute limit. And he said, If you think you’ve seen him at the limit before, you don’t know what the limit is.
    HURD: Exactly. And it’s always a question of how much can you come back from those moments, and those choices. And that’s where season 5 will take us.


    EW: Well, what about the spin-off? Any news there in terms of when you are thinking about getting that rolling?
    HURD: Right now our focus is on The Walking Dead and we’d rather have it slow and right than just be quick. We take it very seriously and AMC has been terrific in understanding — all in good time.
     
  18. Tony Davis

    Tony Davis Administrator
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    [h=1]The Walking Dead Episode 414 Interview with Brighton Sharbino[/h] [​IMG]We caught up with Brighton Sharbino last month to talk about her role on The Walking Dead Season 4, but that took place before her big part in Episode 414, which was easily one of this season’s best episodes. Our friends over at The Walking Dead Cast recently interviewed Brighton and plenty of discussion took place around that episode, so we wanted to give our readers some of the highlights:
    When you are playing Lizzie and as long as they’re not being super aggressive, if they are just hanging around, what does Lizzie see when she looks at a zombie?
    Brighton Sharbino: I think that Lizzie sees them like people, not like a specific person, but in one episode she said that there was someone or something… she still thinks they are somewhat alive. I think it’s a hard concept for her, where her hard-wiring doesn’t wrap around the fact because there are people that are dead, there are walkers, and there are people – a new transition in that. I think she thinks of it as a new kind of being.
    That’s interesting. We talk about this show a lot and we talked about Lizzie a lot, and I was thinking, “Well, if she just thinks the zombies are like people, then that’s kind of not that big of a deal…”, but then she also did that thing with the bunny rabbit. That makes me think that, like you said, there’s something off.
    Brighton Sharbino: I don’t think she does anything out of anger. I think she was just really confused about things. She doesn’t see it as a normal thing, she is off in that way. She doesn’t see [zombies] like other people do, she sees them in a new way. In the last episode, the one where Carol shot her, she said, “I can hear them.” So, I think, in some ways, that her mind is playing tricks on her in that way. She is confused; she doesn’t understand. Even with Judith – it wasn’t out of anger or hatred. I think she was experimenting – trying to figure out about the zombies. All of it was part of her big experiment. Her conclusion was wrong, and I think that led to some bad things for her.
    When you say that, it makes me feel even worse about what Carol did. I am curious if you think Carol did the right thing.
    Brighton Sharbino: In some ways, I think that she did, and in some ways, I think that she didn’t. I guess it was kind of her decision to make because she was the one looking after [Lizzie] and she didn’t think she could help her anymore
    Right, it’s so sad. We were watching it with a few other people, and there was this one woman who I don’t even know, grabbed my knee. She was like [in a distressed voice], “I’m grabbing your knee; I don’t know who you are, but it’s too intense!” [Laughter] It was tough watching it.
    Brighton Sharbino: Yeah, it was a sad thing because Lizzy wasn’t trying to be mean. She just wanted her sister to live with her forever. To be with her.
    Oh, that’s really sweet and hopeful… in a way. [laughs] Are you sad to be off the show?
    Brighton Sharbino: I’m definitely going to miss everybody. I was really upset that we finished shooting, but I just want what’s best for the show, and I think [the writers] thought that it would be a good episode – that it would be a good addition to the show.
    What was your favorite thing about working on The Walking Dead?
    Brighton Sharbino: I think it was just nice to get to meet everyone and hang out with them. It’s like a big family over there; it’s so welcoming. I had a really good time working with everybody. They are all brilliant actors.
    When Lizzie was looking at the flowers, right before the end. Do you think she had any idea about what was going to happen?
    Brighton Sharbino: She doesn’t think that she did anything wrong; so, I don’t think she thought that Carol would shoot her for doing nothing. She thought she didn’t do anything.
    A couple more questions, when the zombie was stuck in the tracks, was that a real mouse you were holding?
    Brighton Sharbino: [Laughs] At the beginning it was a real mouse; it was really cool. It actually peed on my hands a few times, [Laughter] but I had fun with the little rat. We would go right to [the zombie extra’s] mouth, and then we would cut and we would take a foam mouse, with jelly inside, and put it in his mouth. [Laughs]
    When you were on the set of The Walking Dead did you hang out with the other kid actors, like Chandler [Riggs] and Kyla [Kenedy] a lot?
    Brighton Sharbino: Yeah, Kyla was actually my friend when I was seven; we used to go to the same acting class. Then we were at the same school. We went to the same school together.
    Is that one reason why they picked you both because you had a relationship already?
    Brighton Sharbino: I think that was… because at the chemistry read we were both there. I think the original role of [Mika] was for a boy, and then they changed it up. We were so excited because we actually had a sleepover the day we got our call back.
     
  19. STRINGS

    STRINGS Well-Known Member

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    I agree 100% w/your main points about Beth & Daryl. Points I disagree about Sasha though (prefer her to be Zombie Sushi), & only Merle should be reincarnated (Shane was WAY too much of an a-hole to be brought back to life, Milton too wimpy, Andrea too annoying). Hershel should still be on the show, as well as my fave The Governor (though I completely understand his arc & character ran it's course). But man oh man, do I miss him bringing chaos, mayhem, & havoc on those around/near him!!
    But it's all good, and why they make chocolate & vanilla...
     

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