# The Walking Dead; 5.11 "The Distance" (open spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 23, 2015, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-5-11-the-distance-open-spoilers/713377 "2015-02-23T00:35:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2015, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-5-11-the-distance-open-spoilers/713377/101 "2015-02-25T19:06:29Z")
I liked the episode because I think it might be moving us forward, but there are still moments that feel pointless. Like the dead battery. What was the point? Aaron not eating the applesauce because his mom made him eat a lot of it? Come on. Question, did Rick leave the gun in the blender at the property or did he bring that along? ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2015, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-5-11-the-distance-open-spoilers/713377/102 "2015-02-25T19:16:12Z")
> [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](#): > > I liked the episode because I think it might be moving us forward, but there are still moments that feel pointless. Like the dead battery. What was the point? Well, it’s completely at odds with every other vehicular incident for 4-1/2 years - “Oh, no, we’re out of washer fluid, we’ll have to walk again!” Just in general that they could hit a simple obstacle and overcome it is a refreshing change. I think the writers meant it to be non-ironic - “See, they’re getting their act together!” but IMVHO it’s a major fail on that nuance. > [@](#): > > Aaron not eating the applesauce because his mom made him eat a lot of it? Come on. That just gets weirder the more I think about it. I mean, there are foods I hate but if I was tied up with a madman who said “taste this Hawaiian pizza or I will probably kill you with a sharp stick,” hey, pile on the pineapple, dude. > [@](#): > > Question, did Rick leave the gun in the blender at the property or did he bring that along? He put it back in the junk pile, reasonably sure no one would find it in a few days or weeks. It’s in line with other moves they’ve made, caching weapons and supplies before going into unknown situations (they buried a whole duffel at Terminus, and later used it to help wipe out the residents). I’m pretty sure the extreme closeup was to show us it’s a Chekov brand pistol. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2015, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-5-11-the-distance-open-spoilers/713377/103 "2015-02-25T19:42:25Z")
> [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](#): > > I liked the episode because I think it might be moving us forward, but there are still moments that feel pointless. Like the dead battery. What was the point? Aaron not eating the applesauce because his mom made him eat a lot of it? Come on. > > Question, did Rick leave the gun in the blender at the property or did he bring that along? Aaron’s mother forced him to eat foods he didn’t like because she was trying to make him"more manly." In light of the revelation of his homosexuality, I think it’s safe to say that she was trying to “cure” him, and further that it’s likely he suffered other, less benign forms of abuse from her. Watch the scene again. Then search YouTube for “walking dead beth lollipop” and watch that. Consider the expressions on their faces. To Aaron, what Rick was doing was an assault with sexual overtones. He knew intellectually that Rick didn’t intend it that way, but that didn’t make it easier. And the scene, with Rick’s paranoid suspicions and brutal enforcing of his will, furthers the season’s theme of Team Grimes’s moral decay. ---
**Author:** ![stegon66](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee59a6/32.png) [@stegon66](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stegon66)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2015, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-5-11-the-distance-open-spoilers/713377/104 "2015-02-25T23:33:24Z")
News is in that the season finale will be a 90-minute episode. In other words, an extra 30 minutes of commercials. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2015, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-5-11-the-distance-open-spoilers/713377/105 "2015-02-26T04:47:12Z")
> [@Push\_You\_Down](#): > > I think this is wrong. For all it’s flaws, the show has been pretty consistent with characters and their shifts.\* Michonne in particular has shifted quite a bit and slowly. The change in Michonne largely happened when it was just her and Rick and Carl on the road which is more than just two episodes ago. Michonne as counter balance to Rick makes sense because they essentially became the family unit (mom, dad and two kids). > > (\*I think the only time things have come out of the blue is after a time jump between episodes or seasons-- like Rick the farmer–where we don’t necessarily know what has transpired to get there) > > I do think it’s an issue right now where they have a group in the double digits and there’s just never going to be enough time in episode to give everyone their due. This is total fanwank. The show is consistent with their shifts? That doesn’t even make sense. Michonne is extremely loyal to her people - see Andrea - but not to her places. She was immediately so suspicious at Woodbury that she was ready to hit the road. She wants to live in a close knit group, but has never previously been shown to be anything but cautious. There’s been no character development prior to this to suggest Michonne in particular would be the one to push back against Rick’s cautious attitude towards the new weird stranger. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2015, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-5-11-the-distance-open-spoilers/713377/106 "2015-02-26T07:26:48Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Well, it’s completely at odds with every other vehicular incident for 4-1/2 years - “Oh, no, we’re out of washer fluid, we’ll have to walk again!” Just in general that they could hit a simple obstacle and overcome it is a refreshing change. I think the writers meant it to be non-ironic - “See, they’re getting their act together!” but IMVHO it’s a major fail on that nuance. I don’t think that scene had anything to do with showing them getting their act together. It was just a callback to Dale. > [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > There’s been no character development prior to this to suggest Michonne in particular would be the one to push back against Rick’s cautious attitude towards the new weird stranger. Other than Michonne herself being the weird new stranger that the group accepted a few seasons ago? ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2015, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-5-11-the-distance-open-spoilers/713377/107 "2015-02-26T12:23:22Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > Other than Michonne herself being the weird new stranger that the group accepted a few seasons ago? Oh yeah. That description completely distinguishes Michonne from all the other characters in the group. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2015, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-5-11-the-distance-open-spoilers/713377/108 "2015-02-26T16:12:25Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Aaron’s mother forced him to eat foods he didn’t like because she was trying to make him"more manly." In light of the revelation of his homosexuality, I think it’s safe to say that she was trying to “cure” him, and further that it’s likely he suffered other, less benign forms of abuse from her. > > Watch the scene again. Then search YouTube for “walking dead beth lollipop” and watch that. Consider the expressions on their faces. To Aaron, what Rick was doing was an assault with sexual overtones. He knew intellectually that Rick didn’t intend it that way, but that didn’t make it easier. And the scene, with Rick’s paranoid suspicions and brutal enforcing of his will, furthers the season’s theme of Team Grimes’s moral decay. Why the dude doesn’t like applesauce is besides the point. He should have expected to be the trial guinea pig and putting up a fuss makes him that much more untrustworthy. I get where Rick is coming from. Pretty much every single group of people they’ve crossed paths with has been a bunch of bastards. At least Rick can acknowledge that there may be no way in hell he can ever trust anyone again. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2015, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-5-11-the-distance-open-spoilers/713377/109 "2015-02-26T17:00:14Z")
> [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](#): > > Why the dude doesn’t like applesauce is besides the point. He should have expected to be the trial guinea pig and putting up a fuss makes him that much more untrustworthy. > > I get where Rick is coming from. Pretty much every single group of people they’ve crossed paths with has been a bunch of bastards. At least Rick can acknowledge that there may be no way in hell he can ever trust anyone again. Characters in fiction don’t always act wisely or rationally, any more than people in the real world do. Aaron did not appreciate going in just how paranoid most of Team Grimes is. From his point of view–hell, from MY point of view–he’s been nothing but kind and accommodating, and for his trouble has been beaten, bound, and insulted. Moreover, he’s paying a penalty for knowledge. Knowing that the applesauce is harmless and seeing Rick’s objections as borderline batshit, his anxiety would be much higher than he might have expected going in. For Athena’s sake, he was helpless and alone with a crazy thug. As for Rick’s POV – yes, it’s understandable. But that doesn’t change the fact that his suspicions about the applesauce didn’t make a damn bit of sense and that he was alienating a potential ally. Rick was more in the wrong than Aaron. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-5-11-the-distance-open-spoilers/713377/110 "2015-02-27T22:06:07Z")
I’m actually going to have a little sympathy with the writers on this episode; we (and I definitely include myself) carp on them each week for making the characters do such _stupid_ things over and over, and then this week, when it looks like Team Grimes has finally wised up and is being extremely cautious, we’re jumping down their throats for that, too. They can’t win! ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-5-11-the-distance-open-spoilers/713377/111 "2015-02-27T23:26:53Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > This is total fanwank. The show is consistent with their shifts? That doesn’t even make sense. > > Michonne is extremely loyal to her people - see Andrea - but not to her places. She was immediately so suspicious at Woodbury that she was ready to hit the road. She wants to live in a close knit group, but has never previously been shown to be anything but cautious. There’s been no character development prior to this to suggest Michonne in particular would be the one to push back against Rick’s cautious attitude towards the new weird stranger. You are willfully ignoring A LOT of interactions and events. Saying “There’s been no character development prior to this to suggest Michonne in particular would be the one to push back against Rick’s cautious attitude towards the new weird stranger.” …you know except for this has been building since the end of the prison…yeah that over a season of episodes and stories sure was out of nowhere. Michonne’s whole arc since the beginning has been watching her go from cold loaner to a person with hope and a family. Resetting to who she was BEFORE the zombies (remember the flashbacks with her?). The group and I think very specifically Judith and Carl have been a big part of what made that happen. The culmination of that is wanting to settle down to a home. You’re upset because the character HAS changed and grown. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-5-11-the-distance-open-spoilers/713377/112 "2015-02-28T02:34:49Z")
> [@Push\_You\_Down](#): > > \ watching her go from cold loaner\ I don’t usually pick on typos, but this was a funny one. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-5-11-the-distance-open-spoilers/713377/113 "2015-02-28T05:46:27Z")
heh. A lonely loner may want to borrow a cold loaner. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-5-11-the-distance-open-spoilers/713377/114 "2015-02-28T14:15:49Z")
> [@Push\_You\_Down](#): > > You are willfully ignoring A LOT of interactions and events. Saying “There’s been no character development prior to this to suggest Michonne in particular would be the one to push back against Rick’s cautious attitude towards the new weird stranger.” > …you know except for this has been building since the end of the prison…yeah that over a season of episodes and stories sure was out of nowhere. > > Michonne’s whole arc since the beginning has been watching her go from cold loaner to a person with hope and a family. Resetting to who she was BEFORE the zombies (remember the flashbacks with her?). The group and I think very specifically Judith and Carl have been a big part of what made that happen. The culmination of that is wanting to settle down to a home. You’re upset because the character HAS changed and grown. I’m not upset at all. I’m just not so invested that I can fanwank away bad writing. You continue to conflate Michonne’s affiliative needs with her wariness. She wants to bond with Rick and the group. She wanted to bond with Andrea. She wanted to get the fuck away from Woodbury. Now she doesn’t mind all the weird vibes from Aaron. And the broader point is that the writers wanted to create some tension between Rick’s clearly over the top caution and someone else in the group. They picked Michonne, but it could equally well have been most other characters because they are indistinguishable at the level of motivations, desires, goals… I do understand that it is a little harder to do it the context of zombieland, which will impose some commonality on all characters. But think about the differences between Rick and Shane’s motivations and desires. They had real differences despite their superficial similarities. They wanted different things in a way that made some sense due to difference in the characters. Now, everyone wants to affiliate with the group, everyone has struggled with the same issue of fighting or not fighting, everyone has had the same kind of feelings of loss. The only way they can generate tension is to have someone behave in a weird way and have others react to that. Rick goes from “Let’s road trip on up to Virginia” to punching strangers in the mouth and petulantly saying “See this food. I keep this now. My food!” To flesh out the tension, they grab someone else for contrast, but nobody really contrasts from one another so it’s all just kind of flat. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2015, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-5-11-the-distance-open-spoilers/713377/115 "2015-03-01T03:06:57Z")
Not really a fanwank when it is actually on screen. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2015, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-5-11-the-distance-open-spoilers/713377/116 "2015-03-01T03:20:02Z")
> [@Push\_You\_Down](#): > > Not really a fanwank when it is actually on screen. QFT. Michonne’s been the voice of reason for a while now – as far back as the episode introducing Gabriel, when she explained that why she missed Andrea and Hershel, but not her then-lost katana. But some persons prefer her as a one-dimensional badass and so protest her evolution. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2015, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-5-11-the-distance-open-spoilers/713377/117 "2015-03-01T04:17:17Z")
Only on the SDMB could you find people who think the Walking Dead demonstrates good writing. They are consistent in their switches! So be it - it takes all kinds. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2015, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-5-11-the-distance-open-spoilers/713377/118 "2015-03-01T05:07:40Z")
I"m waiting for _Z Nation_ to come back, truth be told. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead-5-11-the-distance-open-spoilers/713377.md?page=5)