Sunday, December 3, 2017

The Walking Dead: Season 8 Episode 7 - Time for After


Hello friends and welcome back to The Walking Dead season 7!  One more episode to go until mid-season.  This episode was kind of ridiculous.  It built more on the friction between Rick and Daryl which is a really silly way to stretch out this Negan conflict.  The bulk of the rest of the episode was the internal struggle of Eugene as he decides where his loyalty lies.  It was all a setup for the mid-season finale so I'm sure we'll expect some fireworks next week.  Let's discuss!

Recap

So the 3 story threads basically intersected by the end of the episode.  Outside sanctuary Daryl was conspiring with Michonne, Tara, Morgan and Rosita.  Morgan, Tara and Daryl wanted to end the whole thing NOW.   They essentially didn't trust Rick's plan.  Rosita was all about trusting Rick.  Michonne's whole "I have to see it for myself" directive was really bizarre.  All she wanted to do was see it, then all of a sudden she was in on barging a truck through the building.  But, by the end she decided that she wasn't into it.  I just kept watching these conversations happening and thinking (whilst also saying aloud), "this is really stupid."

Meanwhile on the inside, Eugene called Dwight out.  Dwight tried to convince Eugene that their plan is for the greater good.  The goal is to protect the people and just kill Negan.  Eugene promised to keep Dwight's secret as long as he didn't do anything to hurt more people.  Daryl's plan to accelerate the walker break-in to sanctuary threw Dwight over the edge.  He told Gabriel he would not help him get the doctor to Hilltop and then he was seemingly about to rat out Dwight to Negan to ensure his survival.  But, when Dwight entered, he couldn't bring himself to do it.  So instead he went to the bottle.

Meanwhile Rick easily took on all of the scavengers and convinced them to join the cause in bookending scenes.  Jadus was into her weird stuff with sculpting and wanting to see "EVERYTHING" on Rick's self but was agreeable in the end to 1/4th of the winnings from operation "kill Negan".  But, when Rick showed up things were not as he promised to the scavengers.  The Walkers were not 20 deep outside the compound.  They were already inside due to Daryl's impatience.  And come on, didn't Daryl basically tell Rick he wasn't waiting for him?   Why did he look so surprised?  

Discussion Points

  • Confirmed - Gabriel got infected from putting the zombie guts all over him.   The doc wasn't thrilled with his chances due to the meds in house.  
  • Gabriel is still determined to do the right thing and get the doc to Maggie.   No telling if Eugene will help in the end. 
  • Eugene was doing some Macgyver stuff with his contraptions in this episode.  He got Sasha's iPod out of the coffin (wait, they brought the coffin back from Alexandria?) and made some musical flying kite to draw the walkers away.  Where were the speakers on that thing?  Guess it doesn't matter since Dwight took it out anyway.  (better the machine than Eugene!) 
  • The hand kiss/shake thing between Negan and Eugene was pretty funny, I'll give them that. 
That's about all I have for this week.  We got 90 minutes coming to us for the mid-season finale next week.  I look forward to our discussion as always in the comments.  Hope you enjoyed my ramblings and I'll see you next week.

6 comments:

Jason B. said...

MJ - About Fear's timeline from last week, we definitely don't know for sure. But there is an estimated timeline, like there is for TWD, that says Fear is around 2 months in. I also could swear that I saw an article where the show runner talked about season 3 ending around the same timeline that season 1 of TWD ended, but I can't find it now. Here is the timeline if you want to look at it: http://walkingdead.wikia.com/wiki/Fear_The_Walking_Dead_Timeline

Also, did you guys see that Maggie Grace was cast for season 4 of FTWD? I am really excited for that, I've been hoping to see a more prominent Lost actor/actress appear on TWD or FTWD.

Anyway, it was nice to see that Rosita learned something from Sasha's death. Her and Tara completely switched attitudes on the strategy though. And then there is Daryl, whose impulsiveness got Glenn killed, and he clearly didn't learn from it. He even promised Maggie that he would wait for the right moment/strategy so that they could win, but now he goes and betrays both her and Rick by messing up the plan. I've never really been a fan of Daryl, but he is really bugging me now.

Mike V. said...

FTWD crossover - I keep seeing headlines of speculation with "how will Morgan transition to FTWD?" I don't have the wording right but it keeps sounding like it will be present timeline on TWD. But I'm sure it's not that cut and dry.

I did see Maggie Grace is coming to the show as well. Good stuff. I can't believe LOST has been off the air for 7.5 years!

Yeah I forgot to mention it was nice to see Tara acknowledging her Oceanside mishap. I really don't get the Daryl storyline this season. Maybe they were trying to give the character something meaty to work with. But I don't think Norman Reedus really has that kind of acting range to pull off any kind of weight.

I really feel like they're just finding silly storylines to fill in 16 episodes at this point. The 8 and 8 format worked for awhile, but maybe they need to think about trimming it down. The show is so popular though I'm sure they'll just keep printing money until it runs out.

I know I sound really sour on the show this season. I still enjoy it, but it seems to be following a rinse and repeat model more often than not to me.

Jason B. said...

I've been seeing that about Morgan too. It's really weird haha. They certainly want us to think that he is crossing over after the present time line in season 8, but man it would be weird for FTWD to have that big of a time jump. It would be equivalent to jumping from the end of season 1 of TWD to the end of season 8 of TWD. I really don't know at this point, but that seems crazy to me.

I get your point on the state of the show haha. Yeah, a shorter season might be what they need. Maybe the ratings drop will make AMC allow the writers to change some things. I think a ton of people have just given up watching it weekly in favor of watching a few or more episodes back-to-back. That's totally understandable to me, I enjoy being able to talk online about each individual episode though.

As far as the rinse and repeat model goes, if they follow the comics, I do guarantee that season 9 and on will see some major differences to anything we've seen before.

MJ said...

Daryl and Tara are idiots. Their whole plan is to let walkers in and hope the 'good people/workers' are smart enough to get out ? LOL Yet it's Rosita and not Michonne who says going behnd Rick's back is wrong ? And neither of them felt the need to tell Tara and Daryl they were being selfish ? And a little too much Eugene - he's better in smaller doses. And he's only keeping Dwights secret as ammo for when he needs it later. And the whole trsah heap thing was just odd - another fight with another walker to entertain them - and they she agrees to a deal ? SIGH. Though ripping the head off and having Jadis so close to it was cool.

As for Daryl - he's on a revenge kick - as is Tara. But it is stupid.

I don't mind the 8 and 8 - but they need to shake up the formula. Have 2 or 3 action eps, then have a few individual character eps, then ratchet up the drama and mid season break, Do it all again. That is why it is starting to be so been there done that. And they need to kill more central characters. Mike - you have said it many times - there is no sense of fear for us cause they ain't killing major characters very often. Glenn and Abraham aside - I didn't care that Eric died, or Tara's girlfriend. Or any of the red shirts for the Kingdom. And they need to stop the obvious - here is a no one character - lets give them 2 eps with lots of face time and then kill them. It's almost comical now.

Per Talking Dead some big surprise coming in the mid-season finale. We shall see.

FTWD - I did read about Maggie Grace. Also another big name actor as well.

Mike V. said...

Agreed...the "stupidity" of the characters feels so out of character for a bunch of them and just sloppy writing. And Michonne not going with Rick's plan also just doesn't make sense.

Even when they killed Glenn and Abraham it was almost an afterthought because we it was so expected with that off-season in between. The remaining characters have been basically untouchable which turns them into super heroes. Maybe that's why they're making Daryl's actions so unlikable. Maybe they're planning to kill him off. lol

I did hear about the 'surprise' too. Usually they underwhelm when they try to hype things up so we'll see. I'll admit it if they surprise me! :)

MJ said...

FTWD - I really do not see how current time Morgan could visit them. Not making sense to me - but we shall see.