Walking Dead Discussion Thread: S3 E10, “Home”
Spoiler Alert: Do not read this post or the comment section if you have not seen the show. Also, for those who have read the comics, please do not discuss plot elements not revealed on the show.
Last night was an interesting episode. As I suspected, Andrea is being positioned by the Governor to run Woodbury so he can pursue his revenge agenda. We know she is going to visit the prison soon and after the attack last night her loyalties will have to be decided.
I liked the scenes with Merle and Darryl. As my wife said, “Merle sure talks a lot.” Darryl obviously misses his friends and realizes his brother is an a-hole. The scene on the bridge was almost too ‘Hero Darryl’, but I liked that we saw a new group briefly only for them to leave. It shows that there are more people out there and makes me think about hundreds of little dramas playing out across the landscape daily.
The tension with Maggie and Glenn seem completely normal in the wake of what they went through, but nevertheless makes me uncomfortable because I think the world ALWAYS needs a little romance. I hate to see that get wrecked, although I’m sure they will come through it.
Poor Carol. She loses Darryl (temporarily) and then Axel. His death was obviously very shocking and the writers did a great job there. The attack on the prison was so violent and so sudden that it is amazing they only lost one person. Hershel’s suggestion that they hit the road seems pretty good in retrospect. There’s no way they can defend the prison against determined invaders with the group they have. The only thing that would have made the Dixon Brother’s return more awesome is if Tyreese showed up right behind them.
Going forward I don’t see the Governor marshaling the whole town of Woodbury for a second attack unless the prison retaliates or more likely, he stages a second attack. If he continues to only have his praetorian guard to work with the prison can probably match him, especially when Tyreese inevitably returns.
There are still a lot of separate plot lines which I like a lot right now. Rick’s conversation with Hershel was SO GOOD. He knows he’s having hallucinations but he wants to believe they mean something. Hershel is doing his Obi-wan thing and their relationship makes me miss my own father terribly. I can’t wait to see Carol and Merle fight for Darryl’s soul.
I fear Andrea’s reunion with the group will be frustrating because the writers like to use intentional information gaps to advance the story. She will probably suggest it is a misunderstanding. The group won’t give her all the details she needs to make the correct decision. We will want to strangle her. But that’s drama for you…
P.S. I read a review this morning that called the truck full of zombies a ‘walker bomb’. Meta-awesome.
This ep was about a zillion times better than last week’s. Sad to see Axel go, he was shaping up to be interesting I thought. The backstory stuff on the Dixon brothers was good too; if the writers are going to redeem Merle at all, they obviously need to do something, so he’s still a psycho racist; but he was abused as a child, which goes a little way towards explaining him.
And I know Andrew Lincoln’s acting gets guff from some people, but I think he is totally selling this whole hallucinating crack-up. I also really liked the beautiful, minimal synth score during those scenes.
And hey, Michonne communicated, VERBALLY even, some useful info she had observed (the Gov.’s fishtank heads) ! Baby steps, Michonne, baby steps…Report
The scene where Merle ripped Daryl’s shirt and realized he had been abused as well and said (sincerely) that he had to leave or he would have killed him (their father?)… was really good. He looked genuinely pained to have that realization. I hope they can redeem him but I agree that is a long way off. Here’s to finding him and Michionne in bed together in Season 6!Report
Merle also had the (guilt? self-awareness? self-preservation-instinct?) to admit that he had beaten the snot out of Glenn; he knew that due to that, he wasn’t likely to be accepted at the prison.
Whatever his motivation for saying it, or his feelings about it, it demonstrated a little more thought process than just ‘psycho troublemaker’.
I also liked Glenn realizing that somebody needed to step up, but fast; there’s not a lot of time to debate proper rules of succession, when you’ve got a one-legged old guy and a baby in yr group and the sheriff is clearly off his rocker.Report
I’d note that with Axel’s death that is the last of the original prison natives to be offed. I feel a little bad about that, particularily with the massive raw deal Oscar got.Report
I noticed that too. That matches up with the comic book but I was hoping this was one area where they would deviate. He was very slowly growing on me.Report
come on he was showing character development. that’s a sure sign of impending death. that or being the second black guy.Report
While cinematically they were pleasant (and astonishingly idle: drenched in sun, swaddled in the hum of the insects and the slosh of water) Rick’s dazed roaming annoyed the fish out of me.
Gosh we just raided a much larger heavily armed human encampment a days’ journey or two away from us and we know that they know where we are. You know what this is a perfect time to do? Go into a fugue state!!!
Gosh we’ve lost people; we’ve got some really solid seeming dudes offering to throw in with us and help manage the crippling manpower shortage we’ve been suffering from. Also we’ve just severely pissed off our neighbor who has dozens of armed peeps in his employ; evening up the numbers might help a lot. You know what this is the perfect time to do? Go into a fugue state!!!*
I despise angry Glenn. I suppose psychologically it makes sense that he’s livid though the whole scene of it smacks of some kind of uncomfortable gender thing that makes me feel twitchy. One thing is for sure, his bombastic bellowing, stomping and general idiocy really doesn’t settle well with me. It’d look dumb on a big hulking guy but on a smaller dude it looks really dumb. I wonder if he drove off to the back side of the prison and punched trees a little while listening to heavy metal or something.
I’ll give it to the show though, when they blew that walker-bomb truck through the gate and thus turned the front yard from potential farmland to just another walker hole I felt for the group. I could feel my heart sink. I don’t imaging the group is capable of repairing that gate. Also shout out to the Governor ya evil psycho- you’ve got some dedicated people if you were able to convince someone to drive a gate through the enemy’s front door them hoof it out on foot while they shoot at you.
Michonne is a terrible shot. This is appropriate because she’s a badass at melee.
Also the Spanish group on the bridge: Why do none of you dingbats have any melee weapons at all? They literally were bapping walkers with their pistol buts once they ran out of bullets.
Speaking of bullets, how many did the Governor and Ricks group plow through in that firefight? The sheer waste of precious irreplaceable resources in that engagement (and the others now that I think about it) is agonizing. What’re the odds of a dice cast and ammo fabricating setup existing in functional form anywhere on the east coast that is making new bullets? I mean geeze..
*And a shout out to Tyreese. Yeah the prison looked pretty nice while they were visiting but good on you for recognizing an irredeemably bad situation when Rick started burbling his lips and waving a gun at you and bugger out of there.Report
The thing with Tyreese was a weird mis-communication. If I was one of the other folks I would have pulled them aside and told them to go chill in the block they cleared for Axel and Oscar until Rick calms down. Report
I wondered about the ammo thing too. The Governor in particular was just firing volleys into the air, not even spraying AT anything…WTF? Just waving his d**k around I guess?
“able to convince someone to drive a truck through the enemy’s front door them hoof it out on foot while they shoot at you. ” Not just any truck, an ice-cream truck full of the undead.
I don’t know if I’d want that job, seems to have about the life-expectancy of “Jurassic Park Raptor-Delivery Guy”Report
I took the ‘spray and pray’ strategy to be about keeping them pinned down until the walkers could get them (Hershel was most in danger). That’s honestly the only way his strategy could work because obviously Rick’s group can handle a yard full of zombies if they have time to plan.Report
Frankly the main damage was done when the truck smashed the gate down. Anything past that was trivial compared to the towering devastation of that blow. A huge part of the prison’s appeal was the idea of a large open area that could be unambigously secured. Not any more.Report
Meh. Remember Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior ? The good guys secured their little fort by armoring up one side of a school bus and then rolling it into place as a gate. It’s actually way more secure than a chain-link fence. I could see Rick and company doing something like that.Report
Possibly, but then walkers could crawl under and around the vehicle. Also this is TWD world so I am doubtful they would be so pragmatic as to repair a busted gate.Report
At the end of the episode where it shows a trailer of the next episode does Carl say to rick “stop being a leader” and if he does do you think that will happenReport