Last night marked the mid-season premiere of The Walking Dead—and HOO BOY! It was full of “sad,” with a heapin’ helpin’ of “artsy” and “fartsy.” Want to read a recap and chitty chat about it? Hit the jump for all the spoilerific details!
- Courtesy AMC
- “Wait… I want the light to catch me just right. Okay, take the picture.”
Here’s what I’m thinking about last night’s episode, “What Happened and What’s Going On.”
1) So last night The Walking Dead discovered Instagram filters, and used every single one of them in the artsiest and fartsiest episode yet. The episode opens with a bunch of random images—all which come back later in haunting fashion—and a funeral, which we all presume was Beth’s following her murder at the hospital a few weeks back. Apparently Beth had agreed to go with Noah (AKA Everybody Hates Chris) to his gated community in Raleigh, Virginia which was supposed to be a safe haven. Rick agrees to take him there, thinking it might also be a nice new home for the rest of the gang. And so? ROOOOAD TRIIIIP!
2) Tyreese overshares during the car trip, telling Everybody Hates Chris that when he was growing up, learning about world events was “the high price of living”—which in case you didn’t already gather, is a thing called FORESHADOWING. Rick and gang stop a couple miles away from the gated community and sneak in, apparently wanting to avoid another Terminus situation. When they get there… absolutely no one except Everybody Hates Chris is surprised to see that the joint is overrun by zombies. GAH! THOSE DICKS RUIN EVERYTHING!!
3) This puts everybody in a bummed out contemplative mood, and as they scour for supplies, Michonne makes the case that the gang needs to settle down and find a place… and this place in particular, unless they want to turn into a bunch murdering jerks [gives Rick an accusatory side-eye glance].
4) Meanwhile Tyreese’s pep talk goes sideways and Everybody Hates Chris freaks out, limp-running all the way to his old house. Tyreese agrees to let him check it out, as long as Mr. T goes in first. Unsurprisingly it’s a blood-bath in there, and here’s where things get kind of stupid. Tyreese—who is clearly one of the more capable members of the group when it comes to zombie fighting—is entranced by some family photos, and lets a goddamn zombie kid get the drop on him. The zombie kid bites Tyreese, and Everybody Hates Chris stabs the kid in the skull with a model toy jet. (That was awesome and hilarious, except that we’re supposed to be feeling sad for Tyreese, right? Dumb move, show runner.)
5) As Everybody Hates Chris run-limps off to get the others, Tyreese goes into an Instagram hallucinatory state, where he’s visited by various ghosts from Walking Dead past—including Amputee Bob, that crazy kid who shot her sister, and even Governor Morrissey. It all gets very artsy and philosophical. Snore.
6) The gang tries to chop off his arm to stop the zombie spit from infecting Tyreese, but they are too late, which means we’ve lost two major characters in just as many episodes. WHAT THE EFF, GUYS? Anyway, Michonne convinces Rick they need to settle down, and they decide to go to Washington, DC… where they might get the opportunity to chop off the head of zombie Ted Cruz? (I hope, I hope, I hope.)
7) WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THAT EPISODE? While I appreciate the change of tone, and the writers’ wish to keep us on our toes, I thought Beth got a far more superior send-off than Tyreese, who deserved better. I really liked him, and was hoping he’d go down in a much more heroic manner. But that’s the “high price of living” in a zombie apocalypse, amirite? See ya next week, and drop off your comments in the comments!
- Courtesy AMC
- “In my defense, the zombie kid was very stealthy.”
We are now down to only one The Wire alumnus. Hopefully, the gang makes a wrong way detour stop in Baltimore on the way to D.C. for reinforcements. I want character crossover, dammit. I want Herc to be wrecking corner zombies! Why do more shows not do this sort of thing?
As for the episode itself, I held out a bit of hope that Tyrese would become a one arm wrecking crew, but it was a nice swerve to off him. His character ran its course.
The background radio reports were really clever if I heard right. Its as if someone was reporting on the events of the group as if they were the enemy and you could definitely see this sort of narrative if the TWD society ever stabilized and certain survivors controlled the narrative.
I actually thought the opposite about Tyrese’s death. I felt his death was done with more emotion and care, meanwhile Beth’s death was awkward, weird and totally forced. Beth’s death felt like they filmed the episode and at the last second Kirkman was like, “oh right, we have to kill someone. Hmmm ok let’s shoot Beth in the head for no reason.”
Tyrese was one of the worst characters on the show, a guy that big who was totally useless and scared of his own shadow was not good TV. But the way they did that episode actually made me well up to watch him die, while Beth’s death was a disappointing letdown. Thank you for making fun of the stupid Instagram student filmaker art house shots that were out fo place on the show.
I guess you’ve never seen a Terrence Malick film. It as an homage to his style. And I can’t think of a more art film beautiful send off an actor could have. It was perfect for Chad L. Coleman and Tyrese. I guess it’s the style of writing you’ve chosen for your recap but it would be great to treat these actors as actors and use their real names. This show has some of the finest work in television both technically and in acting and scripting. If you have trouble finding peoples names visit IMDB.com. 🙂
BEST COMMENT ABOVE YES X 1000. ALWAYS THINKIN’ THIS LIKE BADLANDS WHEN I WATCH WD EXPESCIALLY THEM GUVERNOR SEASONS OR THAT ONE WHERE THEY DICKED AROUND ON A FARM FOR 12 HRS OF TEEVEE HEY CHAD L COLEMAN IS A GREAT ACTOR BUT HE’S BLACK AFTER ALL SO GOOD ON WD FOR KILLING HIM OFF THAT’S NOW TWO WIRE ACTORS KILLED OFF BY MY COUNT AS LONG AS THIS THEY TO FOLLOW THIS TACT PLEASE TAKE OUT NAMON’S MOM SHE WORSE THAN MARLO AKA JAMIE HECTOR IF THAT FALLS THROUGH AT LEAST THAT AHOLE WHO SHOOK DOWN BUBS NEVER GOT HIS COMMUPANCE HATE THAT DUDE STILL SORRY DON’T KNOW HIS REAL NAME
That was 15 minutes of show crammed into fade ins/outs and 35 mins of commercials. Yes the parts of the show that we saw were great, but there could have been much more of it. At one point I had had enough of the commercials and decided to time them out. At the 39th min there was a 3:30 commercial break followed by one minute of recap, two and a half minutes of new material and then another 4 minutes of commercials. It’s all getting to be a bit too much. Next time I’ll wait for it to get to a media that I can FFWD through all the advertising and not waste an extra half hour of my life.