Once the military collapses the show should pick up. I suspect the finale will be the ep that finally shows zombie action. The second season definitely.

 

What SHOULD they be doing now, other than having bags of supplies and weapons packed for a quick an silent getaway?

 

The writing is really uninteresting along with the characters. There should be some catalyst introduced that creates some action. If they are just going to pout and argue and walk around at least add something into that telling something insightful about them. If Maddie was once an addict say so, definitively enough to shape something in her character. If Travis is really a leader let us know because he shows zero signs of that to date. And so on. Plus this episode starts with a voice over video diary it cannot get much more amateurish.

 

You're right about one thing, people with nothing to do would get argumentative, eventually fighting with the military (like we're starting to see) etc. A good tactic for the military would have been putting people to work, for example asking everyone to weed and hoe a giant garden in their yard, assigning them p.e. and emergency locations and drills, etc. to keep them busy and give them a sense of purpose and community. If even a few soldiers were involved in these exercises as well, people would feel they were a part of the solution and wouldn't be as distrustful of the military.

 

I almost guarantee that hole Madison cut in the fence will come back to bite someone in the ass.

 

It's sad state of affairs where the three series teasers (skate park, swimming pool, woman unpacking car) had more terror/zombie interacting with humans for first time than we saw in the actual series. That was the stuff we should've been seeing in the first 9 days! i think that's why people are annoyed because that was what we were teased we were going to be seeing... It makes me wonder tbh whether Kirkman can only write with characters holed up in fenced locales... (Prison, hershells farm, woodbury, alexandria safe zone)

 

It was. I liked the episode overall but that was extremely cheesy and the bad acting from Chris only made it worse.

 

It was also an unusual choice for the video diary, a more secondary character so far. You'd think someone like Alicia would be a better choice.

We'll see how this ends in the next couple of weeks. But the first season of the show was generally billed as one that would show us what happened while Rick was in the hospital. Jumping 9 days when your audience is primarily hardcore TWD fans was a very poor decision. And it might cost them.

 

I actually liked the video diary..especially from Chris because he has been keeping a video diary since the LA riots.. I just didn't like the 9 day lapse in time.. I would like to see what Chris has captured on video within that 9 day lapse...and not just show video of a light flashing in the house...something we all just saw.

 

Cannot totally disagree. I was so bored with this episode for the first 35 t0 40 minutes of it (half of which seemed to be commecials, I almost turned it off. I found Madison sneaking outside the fence to check out some strangers with a flashing light which could have been an automatic blinker totally ridiculous. No mother in the dire straits they are in would leave her children , teens or not, to their unprotected fate by taking a risk like that. That said -- I like Madison. She's the one with the most balls in the whole group -- except maybe Mr. Salazar.

But then, just as I was about to turn it off, things got more interesting. Madison assaulted Nick and I could empathise with a mother pushed beyond her limits by a son who doesn't seem to want to survive. Then the -- what's military up to angle- became interesting. And the heartbreak of, after the last thing you may ever see of your son, derelict or not, is you beating him. That's harsh. On top of it, her lover, Travis, is just out to lunch, unrealistic.in a dangerous kind of way. Here's the questions for Travis -- just how many walkers will have to try to eat you (or the people around you before you get THEY'RE DANGEROUS?

Then, the behavior of the military presents an interesting angle. Is this just the Lifeboat theory (not enough resources for everyone, save those you can)? Is it just that it is too risky to everyone to let people who are injured or sick and might die and attack us, stay die and attack the people around them in this "safe zone," Not illogical in the situation they are in. OR, is this some evil military plot/government plot to do -- not clear what? I sure hope the show is not going in that direction. I much prefer "The Last Ship" approach.

 

That's a good point. They could've actually used the video diary to at least show us parts of those 9 days. I would prefer to have had a significant portion of an episode dedicated to it like many here, but that would've been better than just the flashing light.

 

Maybe this is how they will Flashback too so we can also see what has happened?
Maybe not.

 

Chris's video diary to show flashbacks of the mayhem and panic of the initinal breakout would be a convienent way for AMC to get around the low budget..showing thru the camcorder would be low production and cheap to film.. so they have no excuse now..

 

That would be great. But at this point I think they've gone down another road with the focus being on getting Nick back.

 

Personally, I gave up on the evil gov't plot idea because it just doesn't make sense. Since we have a military that's willing to gun down Americans in cold blood, why would the gov waste time trying to find sick people to test things on in the camps? Just round up a couple hundred, or thousands or whatever, outside the camp and use them. At this point I think Dr. Exner's role is to cull the camp of anyone who poses a danger to it. Tough job. I guess I'll find out next week whether this was correct or not.