Hello. The writers for this ep took a page out of Desperate Housewives and stamped it as domesticated ZA drama. Not my cup of tea.

 

It must have been Wednesday.

 

I love seeing the group in this new setting and how they interact. I give it an 8/10. I'm a bit disappointed in carol and her behavior toward Sam. She's come so far to be reduced to threatening little kids...but that's why I love this show, you just never know what is going to happen or who is going to lose it.

Loved the scenes with Aaron and Daryl...but really? Another horse?!

 

I gave it a 7. Good episode setting things up. Watching it felt "weird", it was so different. Poor Sasha. Good old PTSD.

I have to say though, I really hated that scene with poor Buttons...

 

Me too. I was like "damn it, Carol". She is flawed, like everyone at this point, but like you said it keeps things interesting.

 

I felt they were going a little over the top with her.

 

I gave it a 5, literally only for Daryl, Aaron, Sasha and Abraham and Michonne. So 1 point for each of them.

 

Prior to viewing the episode I was hoping to at the very least like it. I faltered and read the spoilers and was not expecting an episode that would make me sit up and take notice. Honestly, based on the spoilers I was feeling less than the warm fuzzies. BUT I watched with an open mind and have to say that I liked the episode, overall. I gave an 8

 

5/10...I really disliked the episode aside from the Aaron/Daryl interactions. Its really not about no action and walkers that kills it for me. I think the writers really struggle with "connections", dialogue, and "the build" at times. Im all for character development and the relationships among the characters is really what drew me into this show...It seems like the writing has been weak at times since they left the prison. Did they lose some of the main writers around that time? They just need to be more consistent in my opinion, I know they cant ALL be bad ass, but its felt like all or nothing from episode to episode lately....The Rick kiss seemed forced, early, and overall he irked me....Im tired of Mary Poppins/Hyde Carol already as well....

 

I'll give it a 6.

Overall, it was an enjoyable episode. Strengths being Daryl, Aaron, Carol and Sasha. Weaknesses being the over-reliance of the party scenes (I would have preferred the party scenes to be shortened and seen more of Alexandria instead), and Rick taking a turn I'd hoped he wouldn't and uncharacteristically channeling his inner Shane.

 

I agree, I don't know why the writers thought it was necessary to show Carol threatening the kid. We already know she can and will do what she feels is necessary in order to survive and for the survival of the group i.e. Karen, David, Lizzie. Threatening the kid in painstaking detail might have been analogous to Rick's statement about taking Alexandria if they have to. I like tough Carol, but this seems a deliberate attempt by the writers to make her character cold hearted and callous. I don't like the direction they're trying to take her character at this point.

 

I enjoyed Daryl (I haven't enjoyed him a lot this season but I liked him here), Aaron, Carol, Sasha, Abraham and Michonne this episode. However, I didn't enjoy quite a few of the party scenes, and what they did with Rick this episode. 6.5/10

 

A Solid 6.8 this week from me which is high for a TWD episode these days. I really haven't enjoyed much this season except for [502]-[503] but last week's ep and this one i've actually liked. A new atmosphere, a lot of new dynamics between characters but i wish they'd get some stuff happening. TWD's plot progression even in it's 'fast paced' episodes or so they're called is very slow and they really need to change that. A well done action scene does not make an episode great nor does it make it fast paced and i wish people would learn that because [408] "Too Far Gone" is considered fast paced and yet it was 10 minutes of actual story progression, 15 minutes of filler conversations and 20 minutes of redshirts dying / castmates shooting at unseen targets while making bad cryfaces.

Storylines can be furthered without action even in a Zombie show and i'm sick of people thinking otherwise. One thing i disliked in this episode was the amount of Daryl scenes, it was neccecsary to show what job he got and it was done it typical TWD fashion, showing half an episode of one character walking through the woods with another while they bond and come to a final conclusion.

The most enjoyable scene for me tonight was Carol and Sam in the gun lockers. I see a lot of "she was over the top" and "it's ruining the character" when it's quite the contrary, so far what we've seen from Carol is a woman who's suffered constantly and had to sit by and watch everything crumble around her, with Sophia, with T-Dog, Andrea, The Prison and then Lizzie and Mika and nearly at Terminus where she was actually able to do some good when yet again the world slapped her in the face with Beth. With kids you either have to buy their trust which even then is still not guaranteed or scare them enough to put them into place. Carol saw what Ed had was likely doing to Sophia and how scared she was of him and she played the same card here tonight.

EDIT: Some more on Carol's character from a post below.
Carol is a character who's learned by trial and error about the world she lives in or has lived in and that's something that i doubt she'll ever have the chance to let go of or will want to let go of. It's what keeps her safe and in the end that's all that matters to her. People still think of Carol as the woman who's been abused and to an extent that is true but since Season 4 she's taken a step up and is willing to do whatever it takes to survive even if it's abusive on her part.

 

100% agree. I hope they don't ruin the character.

 

They really aren't ruining the character at all and i've seen your earlier posts about this but she is not over the top at all. I've quoted my post above on this.

Carol is a character who's learned by trial and error about the world she lives in or has lived in and that's something that i doubt she'll ever have the chance to let go of or will want to let go of. It's what keeps her safe and in the end that's all that matters to her. People still think of Carol as the woman who's been abused and to an extent that is true but since Season 4 she's taken a step up and is willing to do whatever it takes to survive even if it's abusive on her part.

 

An 8. Not much progression but a lot of setup and some great scenes...Like Carol being the most horrible person in the world and Daryl/Aaron bonding.

 

"the distance" & "remember" immediately became all time favorites for me.. hell, "remember" might have passed "nebraska" as my favorite episode ever..

"forget" was pretty average in comparison.. although i did find daryl's & aaron's interaction believable & unforced.. rick kissing jessie for all to see, was not.. neither was carol being successfully followed by a little kid.. really?? the stakes are way to high for both of them to be that sloppy.. obviously..

i gave "forget" a 6 out 10.. i must be in a generous mood or something..

 

agreed.. threatening to kill jessie's kid seemed worse to me than actually killing lizzie..

it just felt ugly..

 

I gave it an 8. I like this Alexandria storyline but didn't like this episode as well as last week's.

The Darryl and Aaron interaction was the best part. Hated the horse scene but I understood the symbolism. And what is with Rick kissing Jessie, that didn't seem like him at all.

 

I give this one a 8. Definately one of the better episodes this season IMO. Finally some more relaxed character interaction.