Very interesting indeed! This episode is another 9/10.

Carol bumped against a janitor on purpose and picked the keys out of his pocket to get into the medical record room. (But, my question is:- how on earth Yumiko's brother is now a doctor. I thought he was hiding this identity by being a baker. Now as a doctor, was he punished for hiding his medical training from the 'authority' for so long?)

Carol saw Lance dropping the wine bottles into the trash can. She picked up a broken bottle and saw the name of the store. That is how she found out the place and went there to investigate. Obviously the cellar was an abandoned place, thus not guarded by the CW. And, Lance likely got those few lower quality bottles from some other place.

I have a few thoughts too:-
a. Growing up within the CW in a ZA world is not good. Kids (like Judith's new friend) growing up without much exposure to the real world outside is actually 'weak' and unlikely to survive. Judith will become weak if she stays longer in the CW.

b. Pamela is not a good leader as she does not seem to know there is a growing large number of unhappy citizens. She wondered if there are thousands. She does not grasp the reality of ZA as fast and as good as Deanna.
In addition, her son Brat (I mean, Sebastian) is really really annoying. Incidentally, he and Aiden could become good friends.

c. Mercer might look tough as a special force soldier. But I bet Daryl's real world experience of surviving out there for so long is much more useful in a ZA world.

d. Good to see Mercer and Princess get connected.

 

Sebastian is amazingly irritating, but all amazingly irritating and evil people in the series are white. This episode was asinine, though incredibly typical. Before, they had no food, no stable shelter, no security, and scads of people killed, but this place is horrible because even though they can all get by easily, some have more. It's so bad that it existed before the fortuitous apocalypse solved society's problems by making everyone a loser.

 

Why the Star Wars costumes? Where did they acquire them?

 

The Stormtrooper costumes came from the comics. And it truly is a little ridiculous that they put them in the show. It was ok in the comics because comics are naturally a little weird and people expect such things.

But them doing things like that in the show is just another reason why this show has fallen off as quickly as it rose.

 

I had a feeling that the costumes were related to the comics. And thanks for reminding me of "Stormtrooper", I couldn't for the life of me remember that at the time I posted. I also agree they seem silly. Did the CW find a warehouse of movie memorabilia or something?

I think the guy's butt in the orange costume does look awesome tho. ha

 

The show definitely should have went in a different direction from the comics after the Savior arc.

Kirkman's comic ideas were just getting too goofy at that point. Again fine for the comic but tv viewers tend not to be as forgiving about stuff like that as people into comics are.

 

Darth Vader of course.

 

I got through half of the recent episode last night. I'll force myself to watch the final half at some point. That sums up how I feel about it.

 

Yeah I could really pick it apart piece by piece, but I won't go that far. Not even motivated at this stage to do that.

I think though they could've gone a long way in making it more palatable if Daryl had stayed in Alexandria. None of this is really a fit for his character.

 

@Stealth are you thinking about quitting the show before season 11 ends?

 

No I'll watch it to the end because I'm invested in seeing how the story concludes. Also Andrew Lincoln has been present in Georgia recently as they film the final 8, so I'm assuming he's not just visiting and is part of the final episodes.

I'll do the same thing with this week's episode, watch it after it airs and break it up in two halves that I can handle without getting too aggravated. lol

If they have a Negan bottle episode, or Maggie back at the original site I'll view those straight through.

 

It will be interesting to see if or how much Andrew Lincoln is in the final eight episodes. They would likely want to make a big announcement about it if he is going to be in it to help improve ratings for the final half. If it isn't a 100% obvious by the end of this part that he is going to play a big role at the end of season 11 than he probably isn't going to have much screen time.

 

Believe it or not, I just got to see last Sunday’s episode due to some technical difficulties. Of course, when discussing ll09 when I said maybe Carol should go back to baking cookies, I never really expected to see that. You can imagine the laugh I had over the opening of this epi with Carol and the cookies! Lol.

I don’t like the CW because it is just like a city from before. Every thing that was rotten then was just carried over in the formation of their “new” society. Why is Pamela Milton even the leader ? What did she actually do to merit that position? She didn’t create the CW alone. Since her father was president or some such rot, those loyal to her father’s administration no doubt, did all the hard work, but she and that spoiled son of hers reap all the benefits along with those they feel “worthy”. Too bad it looks like she’s going to learn a history lesson about revolution,

Not that the CW doesn’t seem like a nice and safe place to be for families but Milton should have seen that things were a bit more equitable for everyone. Just saying, is she that clueless? If there wasn’t so much privilege, pomp and circumstance at the top maybe Yumiko’s brother wouldn’t have tried to hide his true profession. At least the kids are getting to enjoy their childhood for awhile but they’re first on the menu if the CW goes south. Doesn’t look like they’re getting any self defense training.

I read with interest the comments about how Carol was able to kind of stealth around the place doing what she pleased. Were the writers trying to make a statement on how older women are “invisible” in society? Who’s afraid of older women and what they could do. Well, they don’t know Carol but they’re likely to find out. Being observant is the least of her skills. I did like that she was savvy as to how to get what she wanted in her new home after having been there only a month. A combination of what you know and who you know. You can always count on Carol.

*Oh, and least I forget, I wish people would stop interfering, and let Sebastian get bit already. The sooner the better. This is twice now our people have saved his life and he needs to go.

 

Your post makes me think a little further. I wonder, if Pamela Milton might be just a 'front', in the sense that she was propped up (since she is famous as her father used to be the President or something) for convenience sake to give a sense of continuity with the life before ZA. The actual show runners (aka ''deep state'') are the 'corporate rich and powerful', eg those who control the arms. This is not impossible as CW is supposed to have a population of 50000+.

Well, well, well. Carol is not that old! Her hair might be grey. I think the timeline would be, say, 10-12 years after ZA. Carol was probably mid-30's then (reference to how old Sophia was) and now she is probably late 40's, which is hardly 'old'.

 

If Andrew Lincoln has a significant role in the final 8 then it would be smart to drop a cameo in the final episode of this third of the season.

The best scene I think for that would be Rick returning to the area and the first person he encounters is Negan, and you end the episode there. That would get people talking and give them the best chance of promoting the end of TWD.

I haven't read of any sightings of Danai. If she isn't returning in some capacity I hope they don't just say that Michonne is someplace else. That would make no sense. It would have to be an offscreen death unfortunately.

 

LOL, I said older not elderly! Do we as viewers actually know Carol’s age? Many women have babies in their thirties or forties which would place her right where the actress is in real life which is in her fifties.

Except for Deanna and this Pamela Milton, we haven’t seen too many mature women in positions of power although we have seen some hard working contributing members such as Tammy from Hill Top for instance. With all of Carol’s skills, they had her baking and serving cookies? Really? Under utilized if you ask me.

My point though was never underestimate an older woman although it can work to our advantage on occasion to be perceived as an innocuous grandmotherly type. And to be fair, she is the “cookie” queen. In her entrance interview when they asked what she did pre ZA, she probably said, “just a housewife” which she knew would give her the freedom to do her thing.