When I read this I immediately thought back to their arrival at ASZ and before entering the gates Carol tells Rick "Even though you were wrong, you're still right" - her decision was not based on her feelings about Gabriel, it was simply to get to the weapons in order to save the greatest number of lives. Which reminds me of another quote, but from Rick "how many of you do I have to kill to save your lives". These two must have been separated at birth!

 

missed you too! Good to have you back. Remember that Carl was the one to first accept Michonne back in Clear. He may just be a lot more flexible that Rick is, and this is character development for him too.

 

Yeah, it was after Carl's "approval" of Michonne that made Rick accept her, because he was smiling and Carl seemed sure of it. So maybe it's the same song and dance here.

 

Morgan saving FG was divine intervention. Maybe he keeps being saved for a reason? the lord truly works in mysterious ways, a bit like Reg's ASZ walls.

I agree with Carol being focused on the armoury. I am pretty sure she would have left any of the group at that stage to prevent the armoury being sacked.

I also agree, that no-one else would be that focused.

 

She simply gave FG a taste of his own medicine.
While some folks see this behavior as wrong there are those who believe that maybe a taste of one's own medicine is just what is required to coerce that person to start thinking about making a change.
It's normal behavior for her.
While I am sometimes surprised at her implementation, I simply would not have expected different.

But if you thought this was bad, how about that scare tactic she pulled on the little kid when he caught her stealing some food? She probably traumatized him for life.

 

Yes, she is continually put in these situations, where she has to choose. For example, when putting down Karen and David or Lizzie for their own good, or for the good of others, she had time to think about the pros and cons of her choice. Now, she does not hesitate, like when she covered the neighbour's mouth and stabbed her in the back of the neck (her preferred stabbing spot) or when she ran past FG.

I liked the parallel to Rick stabbing Carter in the neck last episode. Rick and Carol made the same choice for the same reason and neither hesitated.

 

Carol simply wanted to go get the job done and save those worth saving and Gabriel has been too much of an ass to really be a top priority for Carol. She can't wait for him and miss her chance to save everyone else. Sometimes choices need to be made for the greater good.

 

So funny how Carol tells Morgan "leave him!" and keeps going. That was the right choice. She barely got to those guns in time.

 

Everything is a slippery slope.

 

The heavy price Carol pays for those kills ties in with Morgan saying to Carol, "You don't enjoy this."

Of course she doesn't. None of our group have the blood lust to kill for the sake of killing, so I'm not sure what is the point of Morgan's comment. Maybe that truth is the last straw that pushes Carol to her limit, into struggling not to cry on the porch, aching over Sam still having a gentle soul and reaching out to her, her own misery over what she does against her own truest nature.

 

Carol had the right idea the armory was top priority. If the wolves got there we would be going into the next episode still on this conflict and its likely some of the core group would have died. At this point FG was not worth the risk. Had it been someone higher up on her list it would have been different.

 

Also by now, FG really should know how to defend himself. He's been offered training before and hasn't made much initiative to learn. Her thinking may have been, look you're on your own; its a dangerous world now, you have to fight your own battles. We've offered you protection, observation, weapons, and training. If you don't care to learn and fight then I have to move forward and save those who never had the chance. I'm not saying she was thinking all this at once, but it may have also been the general attitude she might've had about him (aside from the priority of getting to the armory and thinking he's a piece of poo).

 

I think it would have forced him to do what he needed to do to survive in this world. But then he got saved by Morgan, right? So...whoops

 

Yes! I just re-watched the episode, and wanted to comment on just these things. First though -Man, MMB does such an amazing job as Carol, I just love how well she can convey her emotions.
Like you said Apollonia, the look in her eyes after she killed her friend on the stoop, you could just see all the thoughts and emotions playing on her face- The despair and anguish she felt was so obvious- like she had almost hoped they would be safe in ASZ but was basically like, ok well here we go and takes that moment to feel those emotions but then steadies herself to go and do what she knows she has to do. And once shes doing it, man she is all business.
And the thing with saving FG- she glanced over and weighed her odds in a fraction of a second- it was NOT worth it to blow her cover and lose the armory to the wolves to save someone who is a traitor and basically useless to their group. She's not heartless and probably does care if he were to die, but that is a sacrifice she knows she has to make. It's what makes her a survivor and the ultimate Queen Bitch. But I also agree that these scenes such as the one after she has to kill the porch lady, and the one where she almost decides to smoke, are glimpses into her heart. She can only keep this up for so long before it all comes crashing in on her. Like she said to Daryl in "Them" She can't feel it -it will break her, so she shuts it all out. And we all know that not dealing with trauma and shutting it out- well it eventually catches up to you. You can see it too when she saw the stamp that Sam left on her deck, she cares about Sam and is worried about his safety, but every other child she's loved since the ZA has come to a horrible end. I can't imagine the pain she must be constantly suppressing. Carol and Rick are pretty comparable characters, and we've seen Rick break a few times now. I wonder what's coming for Carol.

edit- I wanted to just give a shout out to the foreshadowing at the beginning -when Carol is using the leftover crap to make her casserole I think its Olivia says, "Carol, you are a real hero" or something to that effect. You can tell Carol is thinks they are complete idiots if that's all it takes to be a hero in their eyes. Glad she got to show them how she can actually be a REAL hero.

 

Carol was doing such an excellent job of being a home maker, I wondered for a split second, if she'd gone soft. They have only been at Alexandria for a couple of weeks, but like when you're on holiday, the real world is a wrench to go back to.

She just switched, gone are the cookies and casseroles, back in is the ice cold stare, quick thinking and the assassin skills.

 

Agree it was wrong to abandon Father Gabriel to be killed. But I think that's the point the writers were trying to make. It's not that Morgan is wrong and Rick, Carol, etc...are right. It's that what's right exists somewhere in the middle. And that it's hard to find that balance. Or - at least that's the way I see it.

 

or slippery soap from Blue's Clues.

 

In my previous post, I have put a hypothetical Carl in the place of Gabe to test Carol's ''lose one to save many''. And, I bet, in such situation, she would not tell Morgan ''leave him'' but would rather ask Morgan to go to help Carl while she continues on.

Maybe a better test would put a hypothetical Sophia in the place of Gabe.
Would Carol tell Morgan ''leave her''? I think, even now that Carol is a hardened fighter, she would not sacrifice Sophia for the common good of Alexandria. I think, she would not even ask Morgan to go to help Sophia but she would run to help Sophia herself and asks Morgan to go to secure the armoury.

We have to remember that, at that specific moment, Carol does not have the foreknowledge that the Wolves will reach the armoury in less than a minute. So, while we can say that she made the right decision, we can only speak with the benefit of hindsight.

 

Exactly ! Getting to the armory to secure it was #1, and also getting weapons for ASZ'ers to use against the Wolves.
Morgan might not have even known the existence of the armory, or where it was.

Carol's not only Supreme Badass Queen Bitch, but she's a military strategic genius.

 

Nahhhh . She would've gutted or slit Pete's throat if he would've taken one step towards her ...or even make a sound, when she kindly brought him the casserole. Nice pretext for the neighbors.