The Walking Dead: The Bridge
October 23, 2018 3:52 PM - Season 9, Episode 2 - Subscribe
The communities join forces to restore a bridge that will facilitate communication and trade. Someone is gravely injured at the construction site.
Rick tells Negan about his day leading his ragtag crew of misfits in building a bridge.
A miscommunication, thanks to a solar-powered radio with a dead battery, costs Aaron his arm when they send a herd straight into their logging work site. Enid has been taking doctor lessons from Siddiq and dives into her first solo procedure: amputation!
Even though the shipment of ethanol from the Sanctaury is MIA, Maggie eventually decides to let Earl out of the slammer (that he built) and work on fixing that plow they snagged from the museum. You see, Hershel had a bit of the problem with the drink like Earl, so she wants to give him a second chance. Her dad Hershel, not the baby Hershel.
Maggie is also now on board with Michonne’s idea to create a legal system.
Saviors who have been walking off the bridge job site have been going missing, and after Justin of the broken radio takes his leave, we see him get ambushed by someone or something. Hopefully he’s dead, he was kind of a dick.
Rick tells Negan about his day leading his ragtag crew of misfits in building a bridge.
A miscommunication, thanks to a solar-powered radio with a dead battery, costs Aaron his arm when they send a herd straight into their logging work site. Enid has been taking doctor lessons from Siddiq and dives into her first solo procedure: amputation!
Even though the shipment of ethanol from the Sanctaury is MIA, Maggie eventually decides to let Earl out of the slammer (that he built) and work on fixing that plow they snagged from the museum. You see, Hershel had a bit of the problem with the drink like Earl, so she wants to give him a second chance. Her dad Hershel, not the baby Hershel.
Maggie is also now on board with Michonne’s idea to create a legal system.
Saviors who have been walking off the bridge job site have been going missing, and after Justin of the broken radio takes his leave, we see him get ambushed by someone or something. Hopefully he’s dead, he was kind of a dick.
I'm not a big fan of the "Rick narrates the day to Negan" framing, although I think we did need to at least check in with what they're doing with Negan.
This episode benefited from being mostly set at the bridge camp. The show has a bit of a too-many-locations / too-many-extras problem at the moment, in which our core characters are spread thinly across Alexandria, Hilltop, the Sanctuary, and currently also the bridge. They're getting a bit lost in the scale; narrowing it down to focus mostly on these-characters-at-this-location helps to counteract this.
But even so: the remaining Saviors are all pretty thinly characterized; they feel mostly like a generic angry mob. Nobody particularly memorable except for Justin, and we don't really learn much about him that he's an angry dick.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 5:45 PM on October 23, 2018
This episode benefited from being mostly set at the bridge camp. The show has a bit of a too-many-locations / too-many-extras problem at the moment, in which our core characters are spread thinly across Alexandria, Hilltop, the Sanctuary, and currently also the bridge. They're getting a bit lost in the scale; narrowing it down to focus mostly on these-characters-at-this-location helps to counteract this.
But even so: the remaining Saviors are all pretty thinly characterized; they feel mostly like a generic angry mob. Nobody particularly memorable except for Justin, and we don't really learn much about him that he's an angry dick.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 5:45 PM on October 23, 2018
Zach McGowan is totally wasted in this small role. He's excellent in Black Sails.
posted by Catblack at 5:59 PM on October 23, 2018
posted by Catblack at 5:59 PM on October 23, 2018
I was 100% expecting someone to say, "Enid, you didn't have to amputate, you could have just [some other medical procedure that wouldn't have cost the most blameless character on the show his arm]!"
Jadis was my favorite character last season; she was like your friend who may have been crazy but was never boring. Anne is your friend who used to be cool when you were in school together but now she's really serious about the PTA and loves Kings of Leon.
I only know Zach McGowan as the Russian robot guy from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. but agree he was wasted in this minor role.
What happened to Lucille? Is she in storage somewhere, on display in a museum of awful things, was she destroyed? Named characters get to meet their fates onscreen, that's the rule!
posted by ejs at 12:56 AM on October 24, 2018 [4 favorites]
Jadis was my favorite character last season; she was like your friend who may have been crazy but was never boring. Anne is your friend who used to be cool when you were in school together but now she's really serious about the PTA and loves Kings of Leon.
I only know Zach McGowan as the Russian robot guy from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. but agree he was wasted in this minor role.
What happened to Lucille? Is she in storage somewhere, on display in a museum of awful things, was she destroyed? Named characters get to meet their fates onscreen, that's the rule!
posted by ejs at 12:56 AM on October 24, 2018 [4 favorites]
Seconding Catblack on Zach McGowan, nice to see him get some work, sorry not to see more of it.
But yeah, they needed someone high profile to be even a semi-believable physical/ psychological threat against the now Mythical Daryl Dixon.
Gabriel is supposed to be hated by the audience, right?
Interesting, IMDB bills Reedus as first, McBride second, followed by Lincoln, Cohan, and Gurira. lol Sean Patrick Flanery's career in comparison with Norman Reedus'
This is, what, season 9... haven't there been enough time that rank incompetents be weeded out already? Or at least a social survival behaviour emerge where not suffering fools is, like, the Zeroeth Rule (the "Oh Jesus, we have to get the Hell out of here" dude) that Gabriel avoided (or is the supreme product of)?
This is the kind of thing that this show really vexes me.
The other general class of stuff is the loading dressed logs onto trucks at the top of a hill (* a few kinds of wrong here) telegraphing a classical siege technique. The show has so much potential but seems to feel that it has to low-brow it. Or maybe the writers can't rise above low-brow.
Absolutely loving the choice and interpretation of Carol and Ezekiel. If I'm coming back for a little while, this is the reason.
Confirming that Negan is still alive - that jumped the book timeline by a lot, I think. But if this was a show that was serious show, this is a decent setup for later on.
ejrs: that wouldn't have cost the most blameless character on the show his arm
Yeah, but it might be the show compensating for not following a certain thing in the 'books.' Finally.
But a crushed arm without a crashcart? It's absolutely unbelievable that they managed to get him back to the camp before he went into shock. Also, a first time surgeon? Being successful? and it's just routine now. FTS.
posted by porpoise at 8:27 PM on October 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
But yeah, they needed someone high profile to be even a semi-believable physical/ psychological threat against the now Mythical Daryl Dixon.
Gabriel is supposed to be hated by the audience, right?
Interesting, IMDB bills Reedus as first, McBride second, followed by Lincoln, Cohan, and Gurira. lol Sean Patrick Flanery's career in comparison with Norman Reedus'
This is, what, season 9... haven't there been enough time that rank incompetents be weeded out already? Or at least a social survival behaviour emerge where not suffering fools is, like, the Zeroeth Rule (the "Oh Jesus, we have to get the Hell out of here" dude) that Gabriel avoided (or is the supreme product of)?
This is the kind of thing that this show really vexes me.
The other general class of stuff is the loading dressed logs onto trucks at the top of a hill (* a few kinds of wrong here) telegraphing a classical siege technique. The show has so much potential but seems to feel that it has to low-brow it. Or maybe the writers can't rise above low-brow.
Absolutely loving the choice and interpretation of Carol and Ezekiel. If I'm coming back for a little while, this is the reason.
Confirming that Negan is still alive - that jumped the book timeline by a lot, I think. But if this was a show that was serious show, this is a decent setup for later on.
ejrs: that wouldn't have cost the most blameless character on the show his arm
Yeah, but it might be the show compensating for not following a certain thing in the 'books.' Finally.
But a crushed arm without a crashcart? It's absolutely unbelievable that they managed to get him back to the camp before he went into shock. Also, a first time surgeon? Being successful? and it's just routine now. FTS.
posted by porpoise at 8:27 PM on October 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
I liked this episode on the whole, but Michonne agonizing over the hanging of Gregory is everything wrong about this show.
posted by 256 at 6:55 PM on December 11, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by 256 at 6:55 PM on December 11, 2018 [1 favorite]
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posted by jimw at 3:56 PM on October 23, 2018