And once again, we’re a week late on our Walking Dead posts. I’m going to give up
on saying we’re one week late, and instead say we’re offering up weekly
previews to the upcoming episodes. We meant
to post this on a Sunday!! Because people liked our epistolary approach last
week, and because we will always be in very different geographical locations,
we thought we’d continue that format.
Dear Josh,
Well, we
Canadians like to think we’re a hardy bunch, but occasionally this weather gets
us down. In my case, it was looking up on Saturday to see a hole in my ceiling
above my bookcase and realizing that my beautiful cathedral ceilings slope down
on one side against the house, where the snow has been melting off and on for
the past three months, sliding down the main roof and creating a massive ice
rink between the two. It was inevitable that it would come through. But maybe,
in the end, we are hardy, since I was out there knocking down icicles and my
husband got right up on the roof, shovelling the whole thing off and then
proceeding to work his way through three feet of ice up there. The leak has
stopped. The hole in my office ceiling is huge and ugly. Ah well. I guess it
could have been worse, right? RIGHT?!
Yeah, I could
have had walkers up there.
On to this week’s
Walking Dead! Another well
constructed story, I thought, where we catch up on the remaining groups, each
split up to have their own focus:
-Beth and Derle
-Tyreese, Mika,
and Lizzie [Borden]… and Judith!! You called it! And Carol!! I called it!
:)
-Maggie, Bob
Stookey, and Sasha
-Glenn on his
own
-Glenn plus
Tara
Each story had
its own theme, and yet each one overlapped with the others. They didn’t
necessarily happen in chronological order, which is the best part (Tyreese and
the girls leave the grapes behind that Beth and Daryl find), but show how each
member of the group separated, yet they all follow the exact same path out of
there. Beth and Daryl’s story opened with a voiceover of Beth writing in her
diary months earlier, reminding us what a young girl she was and still is, and
yet at the same time how much she’s grown up since writing that naïve entry.
Tyreese has his hands full with a baby that won’t stop crying and two little
girls who handle stress in very different ways. Maggie has one goal and one
goal only, and that’s to find Glenn… and when she eventually kills a walker
with black hair and black shirt, it looks like she thinks she actually DID find
him and just killed him. Glenn wants to find Maggie, but must work together
with a girl who had helped the Governor, the very man who’d put them all in
this mess in the first place.
I think the
Tyreese story was the one that intrigued me the most, although I was pretty much
on the edge of my seat for a lot of it. Lizzie is clearly the one who had been
dissecting rats in the basement of the prison, and now, as Judith is
frantically crying and Mika is begging Lizzie to make her stop, I seriously
thought we were about to have a M*A*S*H moment there. Thank god
Carol showed up when she did. At the end of the first half of the season I said
I thought it would be great if Carol would meet up with Tyreese’s group and
have to deal with that awkward moment of wondering if he knows what she did,
while he’ll be leaning on her as a friend not knowing what she’d done. And sure
enough it looks like that’s how it’s going to play out. How long before they’re
reunited with the others and Tyreese discovers what happened? Until then, I’m
thrilled to have Carol back and think it’ll be an interesting storyline
(although I’m always a tad disappointed when things play out as I suspected; I
like surprises far more).
What was your
favourite storyline?
Whoa. There’s
an icicle outside my office window that’s as big as I am. Gulp.
Take care,
Nikki
Dear Nikki,
Well, our
vacation is over, I am sad to say. Mostly sad, anyhow, because to be completely
honest, five days at Walt Disney World is about as far as one can push the
happiness before something breaks. The truth is that for every attraction in
each of the parks, there are roughly fifteen stores filled to bursting with
things your children MUST HAVE PLEASE PLEASE DADDY OR I’LL JUST DIE. Couple
this profoundly aggressive marketing with the physical strain of kids who are
walking six or seven miles more per day than the norm, then multiply by the
cumulative mental stress of said kids being a preteen brother and sister prone
to goad one another to physical violence for fun (and with a frequency that would
make Desmond Hume cry like a newborn), and you can imagine how quickly the
potential for emotional eruption balloons from most likely to nigh-inevitable.
That, I will not miss.
But hey – the
bloodless parts were terrific.
We drove back
on Monday, and I was right back to work on Tuesday, so I’ve just finally had a
chance to catch up on this week’s episode. The vignette approach did a good job
of getting us up to speed on everyone else from the core group, but using such
a fractured structure wasn’t able to offer much in the way of substance,
dedicating only ten minutes or so to each pocket of survivors. As for Beth and
Daryl, we saw that the youngest Greene is trying hard to stay hopeful, and her
presence is forcing the youngest Dixon to keep his usual cynicism in check, at
least to a point, but there wasn’t much more to their interlude than that. The
Maggie, Bob and Sasha section showed just how hard Maggie is taking the
uncertainty surrounding Glenn’s fate, and Lauren Cohan was great. However,
while the whole bus sequence was torturously tense, it was pretty much the full
extent of their story this week. Both of these were solid enough sections, but
they were also rather cursory, and neither revealed more than what we assumed
to be true anyway.
The Tyreese and
Glenn scenes offered more meat, if not necessarily surprises. Baby Judith is
alive after all, and more important, little Lizzie is proven to be our amateur
surgeon, just as we suspected. So funny that you invoked the M*A*S*H finale,
because that is exactly what kept coming to mind as I waited for the tow-headed
psychopath to suffocate poor Judith to quiet her. Glad that’s not what
happened, but it still provided the most intense moments of the episode this
week, I thought.
There is a
similar storyline from the comics that I suspect we might be seeing set up
here, a sad interlude involving two brothers named Ben and Billy. I won’t
discuss specifics to prevent possible spoilers, but suffice to say that things
get very dark. This show has never shied away from the awfulness, but murderous
children will certainly take things to a new level, and I’m very interested in
seeing how far they’re willing to go.
Speaking of the
comics, we saw a few other nods to the source material this week in the
last-minute introduction of several characters immediately recognizable to
anyone who knows the source material, not to mention allusions to the ‘sanctuary’
we heard about over the car radio back in the first half of the season. The
poster that Tyreese & co. find posted at the train tracks is labeled with
the same word in its statement: ‘SANCTUARY FOR ALL, COMMUNITY FOR ALL. THOSE
WHO ARRIVE SURVIVE,’ alongside a map with a location marked TERMINUS. Locals
know that Terminus was the original name of the city of Atlanta, which first
came into being simply because it was the spot chosen for the end of the
railroad line into the southwest. To this day, ‘terminus’ is the name used for
train or bus stations that serve as a final destination – the end of the line.
Is that what it will prove to be for our survivors? And how are we to take the
implication? Comforting, or ominous?
Well, I’d best
get back to work. Hope things turned out ok in your study, as I can’t
immediately think of many more terrifying word strings than “hole in the
ceiling above my bookcase.” Even typing it made my throat clench up.
j
Dear
Josh,
Yes, I’ve got
stacks of books on the floor near my fireplace and away from the hole in the
ceiling as we continue to melt the ice from the roof (one week later, still
working through it). And just in case that sentence also scared you, it’s no
longer a working fireplace. :)
Your trip
sounds remarkably like mine last January when we took the family to Disney
World. I think that place is meant to drive parents completely batty by the end
of it. Here
was my account of my husband’s griping throughout the day.
I’m writing
this from Niagara Falls, where we’ve taken the kids for the weekend. The Falls
themselves have partially iced over, which looks amazing.
And you’re
right about the Sanctuary. It’s unclear if it’s safe or a trick, but in a scene
last season when Daryl, Michonne, Tyreese, and Bob Stookey were out driving
they heard a woman’s voice on the radio saying, "Those who arrive,
survive." This is clearly the same place. I’m intrigued and excited about
what that holds.
It looks like
both of us zoomed in on the same story being the most intriguing, which means
the others were just pushing the story forward. For me, the best thing about
this episode was the non-linear format. Daryl and Beth pass by a log and the
camera holds on it. I thought it was focusing on the grey fungus growing on the
side, and took it as clever symbolism: the fungus is a living thing feeding off
the dead, but in the rest of the world the dead are feeding off the living.
Only later did I realize that wasn’t fungus at all: it was the dead bunnies
that Lizzie was methodically killing (and not offering up to eat). Then we see
the shoe lying by the walkers in the Daryl scene. Later, the camera zooms in on
Tyreese’s shoe and it looks identical to the one on the ground. This sort of
storytelling created more suspense and intrigue than if they’d told it
straight.
I’m sitting in
a McDonald’s with the kids right now watching the Canada vs US hockey game.
People are swarming in from the street just to watch it, buying coffee so they
can stay. I love being in Canada during the Winter Olympics. So far we’re up by
one with only a couple of minutes to go. Yesterday someone posted on my FB wall
that the loser of this game has to keep Bieber. Fingers crossed it’s you guys.
;)
Any final
thoughts on the episode?
Nikki
P.S. Looks like
you get Biebs, woohoo!!! "Baby, baby, baby, oh..."
Dear Nikki,
Niagara Falls
sounds like a lovely way to spend a family weekend. Never been there myself.
However, I did once visit a McDonald’s in Montreal, and let me tell you: you’ve
never had a McMuffin until you’ve had a saucisse McMuffin avec oeuf.
I think we’ve
covered the high points for this episode, but there were a few other notable
developments we haven’t brought up. Foremost was the return of Lilly’s sister
Tara, who is now accompanying Glenn along with the as-yet-unnamed new faces
from episode’s end. I know you weren’t a big fan of her character during the Brian’s Song storyline, but I was glad
to see her just for the connectivity her appearance provides. We discussed the
narrative issues I had with the show’s attempts to redeem Philip Blake, but
despite my eagerness to put those events in the rear view mirror, I still
welcome a messier, more plausible denouement than the brisk economics of ‘Hershel’s
dead; prison’s gone; on the road again; the end.’ I don’t really understand why
we’re given such a hasty dismissal of Lilly’s fate, with Tara merely telling
Glenn about how she saw her sister passively overwhelmed by walkers – suicide
by zombie, in essence, as escape from the multifold tragedy her life had
become. This seems like a scene that belonged in the midseason finale rather
than offered up in an offhand walk-and-talk exposition dump. Nevertheless, I
was glad to get even these small measures of persistence beyond the practical
necessity of running the survivors out of the prison, and I hope Tara isn’t
back just to serve as cannon fodder for upcoming conflict.
Speaking of
sacrificial lambs, this week’s confirmation that Lizzie is indeed behind all
the ritualistic bunny slaughter has made me reconsider a theory I’d first
dismissed out of hand back when the subject first came up. Namely, is is
possible that Carol confessed to Karen’s murder just to cover for Lizzie’s
burgeoning psychosis? The idea that Carol killed Karen as an act of simple, icy
pragmatism was and is largely acceptable, but it still feels out of character
to me, regardless of the changes her personality has sustained over time. This
notion of her lying to protect her surrogate daughter seems more plausible now
than I originally believed, and I think it’s something to keep in the backs of
our minds as the situation further develops.
You guys have a
safe trip this weekend. And congratulations, by the way, on Canada’s decisive
hockey victory over the US team in the Olympic Games! After thirty-plus years,
you’d think we would be getting used to it by now. But while it’s true you are
the undisputed continental champion in many respects (please see: maple syrup
production, immigration, universal healthcare, Gino Vannelli fan club
membership), we still kick your butt in per capita hot dog consumption. So
there.
j
 |
| Beth, after spending the day at Disney World with two children. |
Dear Josh,
And do you ever rock that skill, my friend. It’s the morning of the gold medal game of Canada vs. Sweden, and every Canadian was getting up crazy early (on the west coast, 4 a.m.) to watch the game… which we won, of course. Special exemptions have been made for the bars to allow people to drink in the morning. Which prompted me to ask my husband why we’ve put these arbitrary restrictions on ourselves; if you have a beer with breakfast, you’re an alcoholic. If you have a beer with dinner, it’s normal. Hm. As someone who doesn’t want a beer with either, I guess I can’t really weigh in either way!
And do you ever rock that skill, my friend. It’s the morning of the gold medal game of Canada vs. Sweden, and every Canadian was getting up crazy early (on the west coast, 4 a.m.) to watch the game… which we won, of course. Special exemptions have been made for the bars to allow people to drink in the morning. Which prompted me to ask my husband why we’ve put these arbitrary restrictions on ourselves; if you have a beer with breakfast, you’re an alcoholic. If you have a beer with dinner, it’s normal. Hm. As someone who doesn’t want a beer with either, I guess I can’t really weigh in either way!
Just wanted to
say one last thing, that we did
actually discuss the option that Carol was covering up Lizzie murdering the
people, at first dismissing the idea because there’s no way Lizzie could have
dragged the bodies outside and doused them with gasoline, but later offering it
as a possibility if Lizzie did the killing and Carol was the one who dragged
them out and burned them. It was one of the early fan theories, and now one
that’s gaining more ground after this ep.
Looking forward
to this week’s installment! Yay Team Canada!!
Nikki
