The Walking Dead: Still Gotta Mean Something
April 2, 2018 5:35 AM - Season 8, Episode 14 - Subscribe
A Heaps prisoner makes a discovery; Carol searches for someone in the nearby forest; Rick and Morgan find themselves in the company of strangers.
No, nothing left on the cutting room floor, I think. One of Walking Dead's mystifying jumps, to build the intrigue and the weirdness. We'll find out in due time what that was all about, but totally hard to piece it together now!
I think you're correct about who Negan picked up - probably that Savior. More thoughts when I re-watch.
posted by agregoli at 12:21 PM on April 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
I think you're correct about who Negan picked up - probably that Savior. More thoughts when I re-watch.
posted by agregoli at 12:21 PM on April 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
I felt a real shock when Rick and Morgan turned on the Saviors after those Saviors helped them defeat a mess of walkers - and that surprised me. Rick has been ruthless frequently on the Walking Dead, so was it simply the blatant disrespect of his son's wishes this time that got me? I don't know. But I found myself wanting them to try to work with those particular Saviors, minus the rat-faced one, of course.
Jadis - why the flare, photos, tied-up Negan, walker-on-a-cart, and wheelbarrow of salt? It seemed like a play she was trying to perform, and failed at. Negan is a prize, so it would make sense to deliver him to someone, a someone with a helicopter, which we know is tied to the garbage patch because of the "helipad in back" Simon mentions. So someone administers the garbagelands? But why was Jadis wanting Negan to burn/not burn the photos of her community? Why did she give Negan a gun and a flare in the first place? The flare was somehow to signal the helicopter - but then why let Negan hold it? Where was she when she was changing clothes and packing a suitcase, hoping to go on the helicopter, I assume? Was that a trailer done up like a spotless hipster IKEA container living? Why?
So. Many. Questions.
posted by agregoli at 4:27 PM on April 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
Jadis - why the flare, photos, tied-up Negan, walker-on-a-cart, and wheelbarrow of salt? It seemed like a play she was trying to perform, and failed at. Negan is a prize, so it would make sense to deliver him to someone, a someone with a helicopter, which we know is tied to the garbage patch because of the "helipad in back" Simon mentions. So someone administers the garbagelands? But why was Jadis wanting Negan to burn/not burn the photos of her community? Why did she give Negan a gun and a flare in the first place? The flare was somehow to signal the helicopter - but then why let Negan hold it? Where was she when she was changing clothes and packing a suitcase, hoping to go on the helicopter, I assume? Was that a trailer done up like a spotless hipster IKEA container living? Why?
So. Many. Questions.
posted by agregoli at 4:27 PM on April 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
And then I'm reminded of how stupid a ton of people are when I see a headline this morning stating that "walking dead fans" think that Carl got into Negan's car and somehow faked or survived his death, despite the TWD showing us he was bit, when he was bit, the walker bite itself, his letters to people after his death, his last words to his dad and Micchone, the sound of him shooting himself, his body being buried, and his dad's grief at his death. Oh! And the fact that Chandler Riggs is OFF THE SHOW NOW.
I'm tired of being lumped in with these idiot fans who can't even watch the show at face value. And if I hear one more person complain about Maggie being pregnant "for three years" I will kick something.
posted by agregoli at 9:29 AM on April 3, 2018 [8 favorites]
I'm tired of being lumped in with these idiot fans who can't even watch the show at face value. And if I hear one more person complain about Maggie being pregnant "for three years" I will kick something.
posted by agregoli at 9:29 AM on April 3, 2018 [8 favorites]
The Maggie being pregnant "for three years" is pretty funny. It's only been a few months, at most, since Negan killed Glen and Big Red (I can't remember his name). Carl has only been dead a few days.
I joked that it could be Carl getting in the car even though I'm sure it's Lady Savior. The only reason I have doubts is because they didn't show us, which could mean it's meant to be more of a surprise. Maybe it's T-Dog.
posted by guiseroom at 1:54 PM on April 3, 2018
I joked that it could be Carl getting in the car even though I'm sure it's Lady Savior. The only reason I have doubts is because they didn't show us, which could mean it's meant to be more of a surprise. Maybe it's T-Dog.
posted by guiseroom at 1:54 PM on April 3, 2018
Huh? I think you must be baiting me now. T-Dog not only was shown to be bit and eaten, they even showed his body. Big Red is Abraham.
posted by agregoli at 2:55 PM on April 3, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by agregoli at 2:55 PM on April 3, 2018 [1 favorite]
I think that I will have a stronger opinion about this episode after a few more episodes have passed. What I can say for certain right now is that I was not angry at it while I was watching it which is an improvement over last week. This episode felt like set-up; at no point did I feel like Rick or Morgan or Negan was in any danger of dying, so the drama was all in the service of things that may come in later episodes. If they pay it off well, then this has the potential to be a great episode in hindsight. If The Walking Dead had not previously fumbled a bunch of promising starts, I would be more inclined to give this episode my unmitigated approval.
Rick needs to go. If Negan is about matching the person to the role that best suits them, Rick is the opposite: His followers find themselves asked to do things that they know will end badly for them and they do it for Rick anyway. People think of Negan as being worse than Rick because the writers make all of the antagonists into mustache-twirlers in order to distract from their actual deeds not being significantly different from the things that the audience is expected to accept from Rick.
Back when the Wolves plot was happening there was a lot of pushback on FanFare against Morgan advocating pacifism, but the intervening episodes have shown that Morgan was right and that staying with the Grimes band (who have been alarmingly comfortable with violence for a while now) ended in the madness and slaughter that he foresaw.
I keep thinking that if the Saviors had been the first ones to find Alexandria the outcome would have been a great deal better for the Alexandrians.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 4:07 PM on April 3, 2018
Rick needs to go. If Negan is about matching the person to the role that best suits them, Rick is the opposite: His followers find themselves asked to do things that they know will end badly for them and they do it for Rick anyway. People think of Negan as being worse than Rick because the writers make all of the antagonists into mustache-twirlers in order to distract from their actual deeds not being significantly different from the things that the audience is expected to accept from Rick.
Back when the Wolves plot was happening there was a lot of pushback on FanFare against Morgan advocating pacifism, but the intervening episodes have shown that Morgan was right and that staying with the Grimes band (who have been alarmingly comfortable with violence for a while now) ended in the madness and slaughter that he foresaw.
I keep thinking that if the Saviors had been the first ones to find Alexandria the outcome would have been a great deal better for the Alexandrians.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 4:07 PM on April 3, 2018
I disagree - very few people have "done anything for Rick" so to speak for a very long time. He's become marginalized as a leader, and the slavish devotion to him has been splintered in favor of character's own desires (Tara wanting to kill and then not kill Dwight, Daryl deciding to ram the truck into the Sanctuary, Micchone going off to look at the Sanctuary instead of staying put, Carl telling his father he is wrong wrong wrong, etc etc). Plus, with so many other groups, there have been many other leaders, instead of the show being the Rick Show like so many other seasons.
Negan is supposedly worse than Rick because he kills people indiscriminately who did not threaten him at all - people, who, in fact, were trying to obey him, most of the time. That...is an arguable thing, since he's gotten very slashy/trigger-happy lately. But this path does seem to lead to Rick dying. When characters become confused or conflicted on TWD, they die. And I can't imagine him being able to move on after this, especially since he's been going against what Carl wanted. And, of course, there is that shot of him sitting under a tree, wounded, talking about mercy and wrath. But then again, I've been predicting Rick's death for a long time and I've always been wrong. I really thought they'd kill Rick eventually to have a older Chandler Riggs take over to carry on the legacy, but that ship has sailed.
The show has to have someone advocating pacifism, otherwise what humanity do we have left to look towards? I enjoy that the show has had different characters preach rage and peace at different times.
The Saviors finding Alexandria first probably would have been a good thing, I agree.
posted by agregoli at 4:26 PM on April 3, 2018
Negan is supposedly worse than Rick because he kills people indiscriminately who did not threaten him at all - people, who, in fact, were trying to obey him, most of the time. That...is an arguable thing, since he's gotten very slashy/trigger-happy lately. But this path does seem to lead to Rick dying. When characters become confused or conflicted on TWD, they die. And I can't imagine him being able to move on after this, especially since he's been going against what Carl wanted. And, of course, there is that shot of him sitting under a tree, wounded, talking about mercy and wrath. But then again, I've been predicting Rick's death for a long time and I've always been wrong. I really thought they'd kill Rick eventually to have a older Chandler Riggs take over to carry on the legacy, but that ship has sailed.
The show has to have someone advocating pacifism, otherwise what humanity do we have left to look towards? I enjoy that the show has had different characters preach rage and peace at different times.
The Saviors finding Alexandria first probably would have been a good thing, I agree.
posted by agregoli at 4:26 PM on April 3, 2018
I liked this one reasonably well, the whole bit with Jadis and Negan aside.
Also, I increasingly don't really see what Morgan is contributing to the story. I feel like he exists solely to show the example of what it might look like when Rick breaks for real. Except that his whole being nuts schtick is so one-note that it's hard to see what the point of it is.
What I'm really hoping for from the end of this season is that Morgan and Negan both die. Maybe Rick too. This show has some very played out characters and it will be much better if it kills them off to let us focus on the characters that are still interesting (Like Maggie and Daryl and Ezekiel, etc).
posted by 256 at 9:49 AM on April 4, 2018 [1 favorite]
Also, I increasingly don't really see what Morgan is contributing to the story. I feel like he exists solely to show the example of what it might look like when Rick breaks for real. Except that his whole being nuts schtick is so one-note that it's hard to see what the point of it is.
What I'm really hoping for from the end of this season is that Morgan and Negan both die. Maybe Rick too. This show has some very played out characters and it will be much better if it kills them off to let us focus on the characters that are still interesting (Like Maggie and Daryl and Ezekiel, etc).
posted by 256 at 9:49 AM on April 4, 2018 [1 favorite]
I have a new theory - I think Negan might have picked up Dwight's wife at the end of the episode, not Laura-Neck-Tattoo-Savior. It's a classic WD misdirect move so I'm eager to see who it is.
posted by agregoli at 9:28 AM on April 5, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by agregoli at 9:28 AM on April 5, 2018 [1 favorite]
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The scene with Negan tied up felt like something was left on the cutting room floor because all of the sudden he had a gun, a flare, and pictures. I was also confused about the Swedish prison-looking room Jadis kept returning to.
The person Negan picked up at the end has to be the female Savior who knows Dwight is a traitor. Unless it's actually Carl, who is immune to zombie-itis like his paw.
posted by guiseroom at 11:32 AM on April 2, 2018