It is not the worst. The first seasons are still having more episodes with less content. Like the Latino-gangster daycare center of the old was probably the dumbest episode in the show. Stereotypical "Ey loco" gangsters and stereotypical old people going "where is mah lawnmover!?"

But the build up to this mid season took pretty much 7 episodes and the overall quality they spoiled us with has made people go disappointed. There is some factors they could have changed or made better to make this even more perfect. I say the Season 4 mid season finale was pretty similar to this but done better. This one was just to chaotic, made no sense events and many characters went out of character. This is shit you see in Z-Nation. Walking Dead is top tier quality compared to those other low budget, bad writing, shitty acting shows. So the demand for better in Walking Dead will be higher and therefor lower grade, it is not really that bad but we are spoiled but I still say it is justified to complain when the overall quality level is lowered by producer or writers.

 

Dumb. It wasn't a great episode but there have been far, far worse.

*cough* Still *cough*

*cough* Slabtown *cough*

*cough* Always Accountable *cough*

 

*cough* Alone *cough*

 

It sucked. Worse ever? Definitely in the debate/Top 5. The cliffhangers were expected except the run in with Negan's crew. Yes we have come to expect more from this show and this episode fell short, far short of expectations.

 

Did slab town really happen I thought that was a bad dream I had. I feel like this is part 1 of a 2 part episode that is going to be totally redeemed by part 2. In February....

For those that get to binge watch this and the next episode, this won't seem so off key.

 

You and I can be in the minority together. While it was not my favorite episode of season 6, I do not think that it deserves the bashing that it is receiving. I honestly liked all 8 episodes of the season thus far, but of course some more than others. The first three episodes were by far my favorite and I really enjoyed what I think was the 5th episode, simply because we were given a bit more time with Aaron. I have yet to rate an episode below a 7 and I am now questioning if that number is actually an 8. Either way my answer to your question is that I do not think that this episode warrants the scathing reviews and remarks it is garnering.

This fandom is riddled with "fans" who seem to complain just for the sake of complaining. Will use the end of episode 8 once again as an example. you have people who complained that the ending was too abrupt, that it did not give enough away to make it a good cliffhanger. If that were to have happened, been given a little more of a tease, then there would have been the others who took to the internet complaining that they gave away too much in the mid season finale and now they do not have anything to look forward to. And the always present complaint of "dropped story line".... this usually comes from the camp of fans who want all things answered and every episode should end like an episode of Castle, all tied up with a pretty bow. Example: a reviewer complained about the Rick/Jessie kiss and the aftermath of said kiss. She (reviewer) was peeved because Rick and Jessie, the next day, were acting as though nothing happened between them the night before. The next day kind of brought about a whole new set of problems i.e. the wall toppling over and a mass of walkers descending upon the town. Were Rick and Jessie suppose to spend the time leading up to that mooning over one another? I would think that Rick had more pressing matters at hand such as having his chat with Morgan, continuing to try and develop a plan to lure the walkers away. At times it just seems as though it is a no win for the show no matter what they do, how they do it, why they do it.

I am sorry, I went on a mini rant and veered off course...apologies!

 

That was only half crap. The Maggie/Bob/Sasha scenes were fantastic, it is exempt due to them.

 

I read that review but I disagree with comparing Sophia with Glenn. Sophia had a payoff that was so heartbreaking and dramatic. There was a lot of character development behind the events including Daryl who had really found himself in the group and finally had something to care about. TWD was showing us back then that they will go there, that they will show us the real sh*t that goes down. I cried when Sophia walked out of that barn not necessarily for me but for Carol and Daryl and the whole group. With Glenn there was no payoff, no character development, just a very cheesy scene with him looking like he's was being ripped apart with this sad music playing and then "oh look everyone I'm alive!" When Maggie made her speech I thought that maybe that meant we weren't going to know about Glenn and that was something new for fans but it just ended up being bait on a hook, especially with the bs of taking his name out of the credits.
I'm definitely not one of those fans who's not really a fan. I'm all about going along for the ride for the fun of it and looking past details that in the end don't detract from the main story but this episode made some the characters look incredibly stupid as if they wouldn't know what to do in situations they have been in before. It was bad story telling, forcing the characters to contort to fit the action rather than the other way around. For me, this last episode did some damage to the whole and I really hope they bring back some consistency and development with the characters.

 

I don't think the episode is as bad as some are saying. I thought it was just "meh." It was annoying how some of the group were behaving way out of character. The Carol/Morgan thing was silly. Seems like settling the wolf's fate could have waited until, you know, they first deal with the 5k walkers outside. Rick leaving a bitten and dying Deanna alone upstairs with Judith. Not telling Sam to "Be very quiet or we're all dead." Also, the town filled with walkers unrealistically fast. There was a 10-ft gap in the fence (filled with debris to stumble on), yet they're all sprinting for cover with walkers nipping at their heels from all angles.

At first I was annoyed with Carl for covering for that d-bag. But I've softened on that. Rick had his hands full enough without that little tidbit of info. And Carl handled the situation maturely and effectively.

I was hoping for more a cliff-hanger though. Perhaps another 20 seconds into the last scene. I expected it to end with a "bang" so to speak.

 

I forgot that the cliff hanger I mentioned with D, Sasha, Bull was not even in the episode...D'oh!

 

I'm one of the minority who really enjoyed this last episode.

 

I think 608 was a solid episode. I rate it a 7.5. But it was disappointing for a MSF.

Disappointment aside, I don't think the episode is in worst of all time (for TWD) category.

 

I have been very critical of a number of episodes in this season. NOT because of the story or the actors, but because of the disjointed, gamesmanship way the story was told - which deprives each story of each character of their stories full power. THIS episode was not one of those. I liked it a lot. Because it brought so many different story lines to a head.

One thing I’ve noticed on the message boards. Posters are increasingly judging the show against the comic book. I haven’t read the comics, but if all anybody wanted was that, then this should have been a cartoon show. This is so much more than that, and personally I am sick of hearing about people’s disappointment because the show doesn’t match the comics.

Could I nitpick about some of the details — like why in blazes would Rosita and Tara throw their guns down instead of shooting Wolfie boy in the head? Etc? Sure. But this episode drove home the main story which deals with the complexities of pacifism/don’t kill versus kill or be killed. There are heavy prices with both philosophies. This is the main point of this whole season so far, but it’s been lost in the hop-scotch of the show.

I loved that walkers are a threat again, not just – ho, hum - bash ‘em once or shoot 'em once and you’re safe; that Carol and Morgan came to blows over their sincere beliefs – and that Morgan STILL doesn’t get the costs of his "all lives are precious" when evil people don’t agree with him. Annoying as Sam was – I understand the "PTSD" of this child and his mother doing the best she can to deal with him in the extreme circumstances in which they find themselves – full well knowing it may not be good enough but praying that it will. And not knowing what to do in response to "Mom; Mom.."

I thought Maggie’s scramble to survive was scary and breathtaking and that the Morgan-Carol fight was astonishingly violent. I loved that both of them ended up knocked out -- even if it meant Wolfie-Boy got free (for the moment).

In my view, the reviewers who trashed this episode need to watch it one more time. It has some meat on its bones.

 

It felt like it could have been episode 7 instead. I feel like they should have done 601-603 like normal except but space out Morgan's flashbacks in the first 4 episodes. Like, we get 20 mins of flashbacks in ep1, and some more in ep2, and 3, and then ep4 ends his flashbacks, showing Morgan talking with the wolf, then starting the events of "Now". Then ep5 would be always accountable, ep6, heads up and ep7, start to finish and episode 8 no way out.

 

I was a bit disappointed by it, but I certainly don't think that level of harsh criticism is justified. I feel like they built up a lot of steam this whole season and then failed to release it all during the MSF. This has been my favorite season of the whole series so far, and the MSF was still a good episode. But it wasn't as good as it could have been.

The issue I had was that so many characters were acting so far out of character. The way Carol was acting during the whole Carol/Morgan conflict was distinctly "un-Carol" like. I can chalk that up to her having a concussion though I suppose.

Tara and Rosita have proven themselves some of the most able fighters in the whole group. Them simply surrendering their guns to the Wolf right away, no questions asked was ridiculous.

Daryl, Abraham, and Sasha seemed to totally let their guard down when they got stopped. They just stepped out unarmed. Although I'm not so sure that they're surrendering or anything like that.

There were plenty of redeeming qualities too though. The scenes with Maggie were great. The scenes with Deanna in her last moments were excellent.

This certainly wasn't one of the best episodes ever in my opinion, but it's far better than Slabtown and some of the Andrea/Governor episodes, and it was still better than any other TV show that I'm aware of.

 

On watching weekly I was a little put off by the pacing and jumping around of the different story lines, but upon binge watching straight through the whole season I didn't have that same felling. I had a better appreciation for the season after I re-watched it in one sitting. It seems to me that this season was created with the binge watcher in mind.

 

I think this is a very apt observation. Well said.

 

1. They have failed to drive ANYTHING home with the complexities of pacifism. They could have made that a very compelling storyline, but instead they just made Morgan look like a complete moron. I would estimate that 90% of people watching the show disagree completely with Morgan(the other 10% have brain damage). Having that high a percentage of people on one side of the 'debate' is not very compelling at all. They should have chosen a better avenue to express that philosophy, because they failed miserably...unless their goal was to make Morgan look like a court jester fool, in which they succeeded!

In contrast, in season 1 and 2, the adversarial viewpoints between Rick and Shane in leading the group were compelling, realistic, and is what made the show better then vs now (despite being less action in the first two seasons). The show misses that 'realistic' element.

2.They have already ruined any chance of making zombies a threat. They are killed off so easily, it is ridiculous to even think that they would have taken over the world. In fact, they showed this season already how easy it is to control them by leading thousands out of the quarry. Since they know that works, now all they have to do is simply lead them away again with the same method; all they have to do is get a damn car, park it on the road in front of them, honk the horn, and start driving down the road like they did before to lead them away. There are a million ways to accomplish that.

Instead, they make the characters look like idiots for not thinking of stuff like that...just like they made Rosita and Tara look like idiots for how they handled that situation, when in every other instance they make them look like super heroes with unrealistic shooting ability and world class badass survival skills. Now they all of a sudden turn them into two scared little school girls so they could push the weak plot line forward. Dumb.

 

Agree with the bold.