The Xs carved into the trees that Morgan found, post-credits: Is that Rick’s group doing that, now? Or is that supposed to keep us guessing?
Great ep!
I agree, Hentor. With the deus ex machina that has happened on the show repeatedly, their odds of survival - not counting the zombies - would be something like 1 million to 1. Getting kind of tired of it. Although, Rick was ready to kick some ass inside the trailer with the jury rigged weapons. They just didn’t count on being gassed from above.
Speaking of statistics on the show, think of this. We’ve seen probably about a thousand zombies by this point, and each of the characters have killed probably close to a hundred each. If you do the math, that means that something like only 1 percent of the population survived the outbreak.
I did kind of like the scientist finally explaining something. Only problem is, I would have asked him way earlier, like during the several hours of walking each day that they had to do. Although, it was disappointing to get the feeling like he wasn’t really in the know about what caused the zombie outbreak. He’s just a scientist guy who happened to work on pathogens, and has a hunch that that is what caused it, and assumes that he can reverse it. If I heard him say that - before being captured - I’m not sure I would have stuck around with him.
That slaughter scene in the beginning really made me nauseous. I had to stand and pace during it. I usually don’t get queasy at violence, but I think the whole lack of humanity and empathy is what turned my stomach.
On Talking Dead, they said that the blonde hair character that was slaughtered first was the other half of the couple that Rick and Carol happened upon in that neighborhood last season. We saw the girl being eaten by zombies, and now I guess we know what happened to the guy.
Incidentally, they also said that that actor is the same actor that plays The Penguin on Gotham. They flew him in just for that slaughter scene.
I am getting fucking sick of this shit, if I have to watch an aftershow to figure out WTF happened in the actual show you are FAILING as a film/show maker!
This isn’t the first time I have been like huh with TWD and had to go on a board to figure out what I just watched from someone posting what they said on Talking Dead:smack:
I mean it isn’t even like you can figure it out by watching the show itself, who would have guessed the house Daryl and Beth found was a trap for humans? And that Beth was kidnapped, instead of just taking off in a car? There are a bunch more.
If your show is so poorly constructed you can’t communicate to the audience through images or dialogue, get a new job.
Did Tyrese really kill the captured Termite?
Did anybody notice that a couple of the walkers in this ep were Zombie Walk/Zombie Prom amateurish!
I wondered why our crew ever bothered to kill zombies on the way out, they didn’t even have their hands or arms raised or were trying to bite! Wouldn’t it have been easier to just weave and dodge them or kick or elbow them over instead of stabbing/shooting them?
Am I the only person who didn’t recognize Morgan until Talking Dead? (We’ve only seen him twice and it’s been years.)
I figured out the house was a trap and that Beth was kidnapped just from watching the show, not from hearing it on Talking Dead. I thought it was pretty obvious.
As for the guy killed at the trough being the guy from the couple Rick and Carol had met earlier–I didn’t realize that, but it has no real importance to the plot and shouldn’t cause confusion for anyone who doesn’t catch it. It’s more like an easter egg for those who recognize him.
I thought on Talking Dead, Scott Gimple said it wasn’t a bait house, but just a house of an embalmer who didn’t make it back from a medication run.
The bait house thing always seemed stupid to me, since they really weren’t trapped in any way.
Another one I remembered was some detail we were supposed to notice about a war between the rich customers and poor employees at the country club Daryl and Beth were at, and somehow it related to them(Beth being Rich? somehow).
I just wish this stuff was made obvious in the damn episode, maybe a 3 second snippet of dialogue?(R…Rick right?! Its me! Remember me! Ahh gagged)
Grude, then you aren’t going to like what I have to say next.
Sure, with the flashbacks, we can deduce that Terminus was a peaceful place that got taken over by bad people. The Termites fought back and won, but it changed them - which was a parallel to our crew doing the same thing.
But, on Talking Dead, the producer explained how Terminus works. He said that if you appear to be weak, they take you right to the slaughter. If you appear to be strong, they keep you in the trailers for a while and feed you.
After a couple days of being fed, they pull you out and tell you that you have been eating humans. Based on your reaction, they either recruit you into Terminus, or slaughter you.
Rick’s crew obviously didn’t get that choice because of their hostility. But, Sergeant’s crew didn’t get that choice either because Sergeant mentioned to Gareth that they were just passing through onto DC. Knowing that Sergeant’s crew couldn’t be turned, they were selected to be slaughtered instead. This all happened off-screen.
Speaking of deus ex machina, if I was running the slaughtering program at Terminus, I would have a series of trailers spread out, and fill them as I emptied them. Kind of like, first-in, first-out. They obviously had a system going, so that would be a logical part of the system.
Instead, we see four of our crew mixed with four other strangers from a different trailer. In reality, they would have taken all of the victims from the same trailer, and we would have seen main characters getting slaughtered - especially since they feasibly have a limited supply of gas grenades to subdue the victims in the trailers.
Something occurred to me about the whole slaughtering process while watching the show. A human body has probably about, maybe, 50 pounds of edible meat on it - depending on the size of the human, and how well the butchers are at their job? I’m guessing. I don’t know anything about butchering or cannibalism.
I’m also guessing that there were probably, maybe, 25 active members of Terminus? That gives each member of Terminus two pounds of meat a day. That seems like - well, maybe not a lot - but a substantial portion, just from one human per day. Let’s say my math is off, and you factor in needing more meat for potential new visitors. So, you only really need to slaughter two people a day.
There did not seem to be any refrigeration. Smoking it would preserve it for a short time, but in short order, you would end up with a massive oversupply of meat if you slaughter eight people at a time.
Several afterthoughts:
I really wished Rick’s crew was willing to go back in and kill everyone. They had the advantage, and there were a lot of valuable supplies to be had. He even said that they could pick off people from a distance using the rifles.
In one of the last scenes, we see another flashback, and distinctly see what seemed to be the main bad villain that caused the bad stuff to happen at Terminus in the first place. I bet that he is still alive, and that we’ll see him again.
Oo! A couple seasons ago, when they were still on the farm, Rick and Hershel were sitting in a bar in the local town, when some strangers walked in. It ended poorly for the strangers - Rick shot them, and then we see a pickup truck speed away, and Rick and Hershel were able to capture one of the strangers that were left behind. Shane ended up interrogating and eventually killing the kid that they captured, but the kid told a story about how he was with a crew of a couple dozen really bad guys who were going around looting, raping, pillaging, and plundering. I am guessing that this is the same crew that took down Terminus the first time.
Also, we’ll definitely see Gareth again. I am betting on it. Bad guys like that just don’t disappear.
I guess Morgan finally cleared the town center, got bored, and walked away. It’s good to see him again. I really liked him both before-crazy and after-crazy.
Wow that was a tense first 10 minutes or so. At the end of last season I was hoping Carol would be the one to carefully scope the place out and save the day and I’m completely satisfied. 
I’m glad you guys reminded me who Morgan was. I’ve seen that actor in so many other scifi shows I thought he could be anything.
So, they showed the slaughtering and butchering, but did they ever definitely confirm the Termites were eating their victims? They never actually said it, did they? Of course it sure looked like it.
Using pathogens to fight pathogens doesn’t really convince me he isn’t full of it, but I’m glad they put it out there so we don’t have to wonder if he had any idea. Not sure why it’d even be classified.
Great ep though!
I’m pretty sure that was the first guy that Rick and crew released and promptly killed after having just escaped. He was locked up *alone *in a container and had obviously been there a while and had gone (more) insane. The guy had destroyed their sanctuary and repeatedly raped King Termite’s mother, so I guess he got *special *treatment.
So what was the deal with that creepy room with all the candles and writing on the walls? A cult? The apocalypse equivalent of a motivational-poster break room?
I thought it was a memorial to those at terminus that died when the baddies took over. I’d say it also served as a reminder of why they do what they do.
Seriously? You were confused about what was going on at the trough because you didn’t recognize the first guy to get slaughtered? For real?
You win the “Most Ridiculous Nerdrage” post for the week.
It only took 5 seasons, but finally someone just came out, grabbed another person and said “are you a zombie?”. To which Rick said “no”. They killed him afterwards, but still, it was a lot easier then getting all weird about everything. I’ve been saying they should do that since the I started watching this show.
I think so. Even if not, it’s some additional bogeymen for the crew to have to worry about. Worse than walkers.
Hey, you have to learn to be a zombie somehow…
I did notice during the marathon (and the ep) that a huge percentage of female zombies wore very long, out-of-date skirts. Not maxi-skirts. Just long skirts with floppy tops.
I assume this is a costuming decision, and not evidence of a bunch of religious sorts being turned into zombies, but it was distracting.
Would it not have added emotional heft to know the first guy killed that the camera lingered on was a minor sympathetic character? How was anyone supposed to recognize him without the creator saying so?
All that said I really liked the episode, I just wish they would show in the show and not tell on TD.
Speaking of costumes, I noticed that Carol was wearing a scarf. I don’t think she’s ever worn one and, to me, it seemed very out of place. It looked out of place for her character, it seemed wrong from a practical standpoint (easy to grab) and I’m guessing the ZA started before the scarf apocalypse that started in the last two or three years…of course, I’m in the midwest, so it may have started on the East and West coast earlier.
Still, I thought it looked stupid on her.