I have to hand it to the actor who played Martin. He was great in both 5.01 and 5.03. He was smirking and patronizing to the end.

 

Just him chewing his gum made me want to kick him in the face.

 

Possibly, but unless contrary plot comes out in future episodes, I think we are meant to take it at face value.

 

I loved how Tyreese was just staring form the door and then slowly went back.. It's relevant for Tyreese's development and how now questions are gonna pop up about why he didn't finish him off properly. I think that's why Tyreese offered to kill Bob (other than the fact that Sasha asked him to and they're siblings). I think he felt bad about how Bob's leg getting cut off could have been possibly avoided if he had just killed Martin, even if it weren't true.

 

I'm inclined to agree with this, but even with the dim lighting, I thought his face should have been more bruised.

 

I felt the same way. TWD does better than many shoes when it comes to realistic bruising, but it has its shortcomings. And bruises heal very quickly on TWD. Tyreese's own face, with an eye completely swelled shut, happened only like 11 days ago, yet its been healed for several episodes.

 

Yeah, I had a bike wreck a couple of years ago. Face plant with a broken nose, black eyes, and a missing front tooth. The healing took months, not days.

 

Yeah it was interesting you were almost expecting Martin to be involved in killing someone in the group...

My guess is that perhaps Martin helped them track Rick's group but this wasn't really as vetted on screen as it was originally intended to be? At some point the termites would have had to meet up with Martin and Martin at one point was pretty close to the group (when they all had gone to the cabin to find Tyreese and Judith) so it would make sense that they tracked the group from where Martin was. They may have very well of shot the scenes that tied this together and then they chose to cut it for one of two reasons:

A) Simply because there wasn't enough time in the episode.

B) From a "flow of the story" perspective...they would have almost needed to show this happen in the beginning of 5-2..meaning that you would be tipped to the fact that it was the termites tracking the group (it could have been Morgan after all) and you lose that element of "surprise" when Bob gets taken so there would have been an obvious trade off there.

 

Well, but if there's no evidence to something contrary on the show itself, then I think it makes more sense to go with what the actor claims rather than the opposite of what he claims. they may resolve the issue in a future episode, but if its never addressed, then I'll go along with what Chad says, because usually the director is telling them what to feel, and what the motivations behind their emotions and actions are, so one of the directors may have told Chad, "you're feeling angry now, because you thought you killed Martin" or something like that.

 

The significance was to show us Tyreese's inability to cope with killing people. Personally I liked that it didn't come back to bite Tyreese in the ass, that was what everyone was expecting.

He clearly knew that he didn't put him down to prevent him from turning though, (he would have to be really stupid to think he shot him or stabbed him in the brain when all he did was beat him up with fists) so he should have let Carol or whatever it was to go in there to check to see if he was alive/turned.

To me that is evidence in the show itself that suggests he wasn't 100% sure if he killed Martin. Carol or someone was gonna go in there to check on him, but Tyreese insisted for her not to go in suggests to me that while he thought he killed him, he wasn't sure but still wanted to let him live, a part of him wanted to let him live.

For example, would Rick have just beat him up and leave it to chance to let him live? No, Rick would shoot the bastard in the head, even if Rick thought he was dead from brutally beating him. That's because Rick has no problem killing threats to the group. If Tyreese really wanted the guy dead he'd have stabbed or shot him in the head or let Carol check up to see if he really was dead. I agree that initially he thought he killed him, but to me it appeared he did have some doubts, and that's why he prevented Carol/whoever it was from checking in there.

If Tyreese really felt 100% sure that he guy was dead, then I lost respect for his intelligence and ZA survivability. #1 rule is always shoot or stab in the head to assure death/prevent turning. I personally would NOT let a dead body just sit there without putting it in down in fear he'd turn and bite me., ESPECIALLY when I was going to stick around that area for awhile because of meeting up with the rest of the group. Carl-Dale 2.0 anyone?

 

Yes but cast and crew on TTD often lie, or tell half truths.

Tyreese, while punching Martin, kept repeating "I won't! I won't!", which I took to me kill anyone today (since that's what Martin and Tyreese were discussing before Martin made Tyreese go outside). Then the fact he physically prevented Carol from going in the cabin leads me to believe he knew full well he didn't kill him. So all of Bob's suffering when they ate his leg is on Tyreese. And the fact they knew everyone's names is also on him. I think he's going to get Sasha killed before he finally learns how things are.

 

True, but when they do that, its to mislead us regarding future development. If its never addressed in the future, then he'd have no reason to lie. I agree, its odd that he didn't stab his brain if he thought he killed him, to prevent him from waking up and biting somebody, but on the other side of the coin, he would have been pretty stupid to think that no one, out of 15 people, were going to walk into the cabin and check. Or just walk in there for shelter. So I think either way we view it, his actions don't completely make sense. If its never addressed in the future, then I think we could validly view it either way, and neither opinion is without flaws. Its another Ana Amputated Leg fiasco, where no explanation is really satisfactory.

 

Ana's leg is still annoying, even after all this time.

It's also a good username.

 

I still wonder if the termites were behind that since they had captured Sam.

 

Why would they waste perfectly good food though? And the blood trail/leg lying there/body way over there with no blood trail will never make sense.

 

I've been quietly wondering the same thing, just dint want to stir that pot.