Pity staid his hand.
“It’s a pity I’ve run out of cartridges.”
It turns out the zombie virus is like Extra-Extra-Extra-Strength Advil.
Oh, ok. I didn’t mean that they weren’t trying to convey themes (for instance, the unsubtle political one: crazed leader rallies people with fears of terrorists attacking the homeland, uses torture in secret, and ultimately rushes the people into a war where the resistance is much stiffer than expected), just that they were so bad at it that no clear themes emerged.
The problem with these thematic statement is that the show undermined it repeatedly. The Woodbury group is much more open to new people (Michonne and Woodbury were taken in and treated well, as was Tyreese’s group) and was doing much more to reestablish society than the prison group was.
The prison group expelled Tyreese’s group for the sin of being new people, banished Axel and Oscar to a separate wing, interrogated and lightly tortured Michonne, treated Andrea like a hostile interloper, treated Merle like a hostile interloper, abandoned some poor bastard on the highway to die, and killed the poor hermit.
I read that differently. Merle was never just a self-serving type, he was fiercely loyal to his brother (who was his blood, and had survived the same traumatic childhood), and to the Governor (who’d saved his life, cleaned him up, and trusted him with responsibilities). Whereas, he owed nothing to the people on the bridge. So, while I see the merit in your take, I don’t think the Merle arc was so much about the greater good, as it was penance for serving an evil master and doing evil things.
I don’t know, seemed pretty functional to me. I don’t think it was lack of community that so tormented Morgan, rather the accumulated loss and hopelessness of his life.
If they’d stopped and picked up the hitchhiker and integrated him into their community, it’d be a vital step toward supporting Rick’s later actions. As is, by merely looting the man’s gear, the scene really spoke more to ruthless pragmatism than anything else.
I don’t think they thought they were risking their lives; the zombies aren’t dangerous, particularly to Michonne.
Ok, I guess my problem with the above is, what made him value outsiders/others again? I can’t think of anything that motivated the change.
Woodbury is indeed jumbled, contradictory, and ultimately meaningless. If the communities are defined by what they mean to the leaders, I’m not sure where that leads. I have no idea what Rick’s group means to him or why.
I agree, Shotgun-Boy was lowering his weapon in a way that could still be considered as threatening, he could have still fired one handed at Carl and Freinds, he’d probably end up with a badly injured wrist in the process though, shotguns are definitely not a one handed weapon…
Merle would have definitely had his hand full with a shotgun, that’s for sure…
Tyreese and his sister letting them into Woodbury, perhaps.
Curse you for making me defend something about the show, but what motivated the change was Rick’s perception of Carl becoming a psychopath, not unlike the Governor. Hearing what Carl did, then seeing what the Governor did, made Rick realize that Carl was following in the Governor’s (and Shane’s, really) footsteps, and he was going to try to build a more civilized community to bring up Carl and his baby daughter in.
ETA: Of course, it would have helped if Carl had actually done something unambiguously psychopathic, but at least Rick was just going on what he was told by someone he trusts.
We’re thinking alike, I see…
I’m glad to see Andrea go, because her character was a hot mess and the writers didn’t have the first clue what they were doing with her. (And frankly I’m disappointed in the “haha, she’s a slut, glad she’s dead” jokes. She was a terribly written character and therefore not very likeable, but I don’t see anyone making derisive jokes about the Governor or Shane having sex with gasp *two *separate people.) That said, her taking time to have a focused discussion with Milton instead of using all her time to get the Magic Pliers was ridiculous, and I did kind of say “that’s what you get” when she fell seconds short of surviving.
Generally I agree with most people - this was pretty weaksauce, and I can’t believe they left the Gov out there. I had glimpsed an April fool’s image of Daryl eviscerated and, not knowing if it was real or not, I kept waiting for the Gov and co. to jump out of the tombs (remember how Tyreese told them about the entry there?) and slice him open at the last second. As a result, this felt even more dissatisfying and poorly paced than it actually was, but it was pretty bad in either case. I think **MeanJoe **sums up why nicely.
Yup. Count me in as one rooting for Carl to shoot that guy. In the context of civilization I’m a liberal who’s (to be honest) kind of afraid of and squicked out by guns, but if the apocalypse comes, you can be damnsure I’m teaching my nine year old that if she warns someone to disarm, and they instead try to get in grabbing distance, shoot them in the face.
Carl did say, “I didn’t have a choice.” By the standards of this show, that was a dissertation on a valid self-defense argument.
Terrible season finale. Just awful. I’ve been reading complaints here for quite some time but I’ve been overall satisfied up until this episode. It just wasn’t satisfying. It didn’t leave me in anticipation for the next season like a season finale should. The only moment I enjoyed was Carl shooting the enemy. Because I honestly believe it was the right thing to do at the time. I was more disappointed in Herschel acting like he just murdered someone in cold blood. That “kid” was quite a bit larger than Carl and the way he was inching up instead of throwing down his gun made him an immediate threat.
It’s more the case that I’m shamelessly ripping off your premise.
The governor single-handedly mowing down a dozen people, several armed, without even being shot at was one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen. The scene was crowned by the final bit where the last man standing trains a rifle on him and the gov just slowly takes out his pistol and shoots him in the head. Do these people not have any sense of self preservation?
Good thing for our plucky protagonists the mounted machine gun miraculously jammed and they (I guess) ran out of grenade launcher ammunition.
Why didn’t the gov and his men go back to Woodbury?
Why would they go back? there weren’t enough of them left to fight off the prison crew and the only ones back there were children and old people.
You think? They had Karen to vouch for them, so I don’t think it was a great leap of trust or anything.
Hmmmm. That seems more solid, but as you note, it’d be on firmer ground if Carl had actually been out of line with the shooting.
Yeah, the Governor, being a goofy, over-the-top caricature, gets to operate by comic-book rules, one of which is that no one shoots back at him (the National Guardsmen were similarly taken down without returning fire).
And that the militia didn’t just regroup and attack again, in a not-stupid way.
You would think they’d at least want to grab some food and fuel for the road. Perhaps they have caches in the area.
Is Herschel turning into the new Dale, or something? Yeesh. The kid did the right thing; back the fuck off.
As long as the guy was holding a weapon (or within reach of a weapon), I figure any reasonable Rules of Engagement justifies shooting him, especially since he’s part of a group that has already attacked the prison with deadly force. It certainly would have been more interesting if the guy had dropped his weapon, made an unambiguous gesture of surrender and Carl shot him anyway (under the circumstances, I think I would have shot the guy, surrendering or not), but the writers of this show have a weird reluctance on matters like this, as other have already remarked.
By the way, what happened to the guy’s shotgun? I didn’t see Carl or anyone else carrying it when they got back to the prison.
On review, I see the Glen and Maggie shed their riot gear as soon as the attack was over, which strikes me as a tad premature since, as Glen points out, they don’t know where the Governor is at that point and it is quite possible he’ll return for a second round, hence Glen and Maggie decide to stay at the prison to defend it.
Of course, why all of them are not wearing protective gear 24/7 remains unclear.
Yup. If Rick continues to think of Carl as a kid, that’s going to backfire hugely quite quickly.
Don’t forget talk about how something needs to be done right now in a hoarse whisper. 
That we know of.
Speaking of Rick and his daughter, have we seen him holding him more than once all season? He sure doesn’t seem well bonded with her.
The idea of the civilized community is an interesting one. As I said earlier, Carl is much more suited for the new world than Rick is. That is something that Carl is going to figure out fairly soon.
There is a lot in this show that remains unclear.
Pretty decent pedicure on Andrea. Woodbury must have had a salon.
Saw that too - I think it was from Pandorum, if I remember correctly.
That’s exactly what I was thinking. I thought that when Rick went to ask him what he should do with Michonne.
Carl has a future in the LAPD.