Category Archives: walking dead

Jun14

June 13, 2021 – There’s No Stopping It, Dead Future, Victor Dissected, a Viewer’s Guide, AHS 10, About Those CMTs & Grave

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What I Watched Today

(rambling, random thoughts & annoyingly detailed recaps from real time TV watching)

Fear the Walking Dead

When we last left, Teddy had set off the bomb, and Morgan let Teddy jet with Dakota. Morgan told Victor to get lost, and was alone in the control room of the submarine.

Seagulls fly overhead. We see a sign that says, Coastal Access – 3 miles, lying on its side. Rachel tries to take the tire off of her truck, as baby Morgan cries in the backseat, and bloodhound Rufus waits in the truck bed. She gets on a walkie talkie, and asks if anyone can hear her. She needs help. Anybody? She sees the missile go up, and hears Morgan say he’s still going to try and stop what Teddy started. He’s not sure it’s possible. The missile is going to reenter the atmosphere, and has multiple warheads. This could be all the time they have left. Use it. Make it mean something. Give yourself the end you wanted, even if it’s not the one we all imagined. Rachel says, this isn’t the end, and goes back to the tire. The jack falls a little, but she keeps trying, but the jack lets go completely, and the car falls on her leg. A title says: Promise me you’ll find someone. She’s not messing around, and duct tapes her broken leg, bone hanging out and all, to a makeshift splint. She takes out Baby Morgan – who I have to mention has an amazing head of hair – and hobbles down the road, Rufus running ahead. She falls, but the baby is okay, even if crying. She says she’s sorry. They can’t do this. She sees the missile divide, and kisses her baby. She says she just can’t, and takes out a knife. We think she’s going to kill the baby, but instead, she rigs up the backpack to put the baby on her back. She says, this is the end for me, but not for you. She ties a rope around her waist, tying the other end to Rufus, and telling him to find people. She puts a gag in her own mouth, and says she’s sorry. She stabs herself, and keels over, as Baby Morgan cries.

Daniel screws with the radio, and hears Morgan giving his speech about the end. A title says: Dame el Arma. Rollie squeals into the parking lot, and he, Wes, and Riley get out of the car. Rollie says Riley knows where a bunker is where they can ride things out. Funny what you can get out of a true believer when they’re pulled away from their leader. Daniel asks why they should believe Riley. He heard a voice on the radio giving coordinates to a safe place to go. Rollie asks if it was Morgan, and Daniel says, no. It was someone else, but he knows that voice. Rollie says he remembers the last time they took Daniel’s word for something, and Luci says they have no time for this. Is Daniel sure about what he’s telling them? He’s a little iffy, so she says they’ll go with what Riley said. It’s their only choice. They all get in the truck, and drive over some zombies loitering in the road. Sarah gets on the radio, and says, if Wen can hear her, stay where he is. Daniel asks Riley, why not remain silent, and die for his cause? Why would he tell them about a safe place when they’re so close to the end? The truck suddenly fishtails, and Rollie says, the brakes went out. Sarah asks Jacob if he’s fixed brakes before, and they get out. Rollie says, all hands on deck; they have company. A cluster of zombies approaches, and Jacob helps to keep the zombies at bay, while Sarah works to patch a hole in the accumulator. She tells Jacob that they may not make their way to the bunker, but he says they will. She asks, what comes next? and he says she and Wen will be together, one way or another. She does some welding.

Daniel asks Riley, if he’s all about destruction, why help them survive? Riley says he wants to see their faces when it all turns to ash. They said Teddy and his group were all insane, but it’s just the beginning. Sarah says, it worked, and Riley tells Daniel, the next will rise, or some kind of nonsense lik that. Sarah says it’s a patch job, but should get them there in one piece, and Rollie says they’ll make it out of this thing yet. Daniel talks to Luci in Spanish, asking her to give him the gun, and he shoots Rollie. Daniel says, he was one of them. That’s how Teddy found out they were at the sub. That’s why they were prepared. Riley is shot from behind, and we see Charlie holding the literal smoking gun. He’s not dead, and Luci asks Riley if it’s true. He tells her, they lost their faith and turned on each other behind the wall. Daniel has himself to thank. Otherwise they would have never been found out. Nobody is going anywhere. Warheads start to come down, and Daniel says, the coordinates. They can still make it. Luci says he knew truth about Riley. They’re putting their faith in him. They read out the coordinates.  

Dwight and Shari ride up the road, and stop. Dwight says, there’s no school there. Shari wonders if they took a wrong turn, and Dwight says, they’ll go back. There’s got to be something nearby. They gallop away, and they hear Morgan on the radio, saying, give yourself the end you wanted, even if it’s not the one we all imagined. They see a cabin, and Shari says, maybe there’s beer and pretzels in there. He asks if she’s serious, and she says, it’s the one thing they said they’d do when they found each other, and they haven’t done it yet. If this is the end, it’s how she wants to go out; just them. A title says: Enjoy the view, a-hole. They go to the cabin, and Dwight says, maybe it’s not just them. They go inside, and Dwight checks the kitchen, while Shari looks at a photo of a couple with a baby. She goes out to the backyard, and Dwight joins her. He says he couldn’t find pretzels, but he found these bad boys, handing her a beer. He says, they’re warm, but they’ll do the trick. They drink, and Shari wonders why they didn’t do this sooner. They  found each other, after everything. That doesn’t just happen, but she couldn’t get past the past. She wasted so much time being pissed off; trying to fight the bad guys, but the bad guys always win. They’ve seen that every time, and nothing she did was going to change that. She cries, and says, all it did was cost her time with him. He takes her beer, and puts it with his on the porch, and holds her. He says, everything she did, everything she’s done, she has nothing to be sorry for. He kisses her, and says they still have this life, even if it’s just for now. The woman and man from the photo come out, the man holding a gun, and Dwight says, they don’t want any trouble. They thought the cabin was empty. Shari says, they’ll get out if they know a place where they can hole up. The man says they had a place, but they took it. Dwight asks what he’s talking about, and the man says, a storm cellar. They were about to go down, when two jackasses showed up, and forced them up. Dwight asks who they were, and the woman says, they didn’t introduce themselves. They just ranted about, the end is the beginning. A little girl comes out, and we assume she’s the baby from the photo. The woman says, just give them their house back, and Dwight asks where the cellar is. He’ll get it back for them. The woman asks, how? and Dwight asks if they have any rope.  

Dwight ties one end of a rope to the horse, and the other to the cellar door handle. He slaps the horse’s flank to get it moving, and it runs, pulling the door off. Two guys come out shooting. Shari shoots one, killing him, and shoots the other, who falls, but gets up and runs. Dwight shoots him in the back, and he crawls. They all run over to him, and Dwight turns him over. The guy says, do it, and Dwight says he looks scared. A zombie is heading their way, and the guy says, please, but Dwight says, no. He doesn’t think so. He’s going to do for the guy what the guy tried to do for the family there. Give him a front row seat to the sh*t show they brought on them. Someone shoots the zombie, and Shari shoots the guy in the knee, calling him an a-hole. As they walk to the cellar, Dwight tells Shari, maybe they’re both right, and the bad guys don’t always win. They go to the cellar door, and see the missile divide. They rush inside.   

Driving with Dakota, Teddy hears Morgan on the radio, saying he’s still going to try and stop what Teddy started, but he’s not sure it’s possible. Dakota snaps the radio off, startling Teddy. She says she’s sorry she saved Morgan. She’s the only reason Morgan is alive. If he’d died at the gulch, there would have been no one stopping the missiles. Teddy says he’s glad it went the way it did. Otherwise, he never would have met her. Dakota asks if he means it, and he says she gets him. All those others, hanging on his every word, doing what he tells them, not a single one understood what he was doing the way she does.

A title says: You have nothing to be sorry about. Teddy and Dakota stand at a viewing station, and look out. He says, it’s almost time. Look at it. Here they are with a front row seat. Dakota says Teddy told her that she got him. He was the first person who didn’t look at her like she had something wrong with her, and try to make her change. He takes her hand, and says, imagine if they’d found each other sooner. John comes up behind them, and tells Teddy, step away from the girl. Teddy asks if John is spending his last moments before he turns to mulch, putting him down. John says he’s there for Dakota. He’s not fixing to hurt her; he just wants to say something. Dakota says, he’ll try to make her change her mind, and John says, she can still make her life mean something. She just has to believe people are better than she thinks they are. She says that’s how John Jr. ended up with a bullet in him, and John says, even though he walked out on his son, John Jr. still found it in himself to forgive him years later. She asks what he’s going to do with her, and he says, forgive her for killing John; for taking her son’s life. Teddy tells Dakota not to listen to him. She has nothing to be sorry about. She asks if he means that, and he says he does. John puts his gun down, and Teddy raises his, but it’s shot out of his hand. June walks up, saying, John didn’t come alone, and John says she’s a better shot than he is. Dakota asks why they’re there, and June says she forgives Dakota too. It’s not too late, even if Dakota believes it is. As long as you’re alive, it’s not too late. Dakota asks, if June believes that, why did she kill Virginia? and June says, when she lost John, she lost what she believed, but she found it again. So can Dakota. John steps on something hard, and says, what the hell is under there? He brushes aside the grass, and sees a camouflaged trap door. It opens to a ladder going down into a tunnel. He says he thought Teddy was the end. It looks like he plans on sticking around. His talk about the beginning was just hot air to get his lambs to march to slaughter. June says John isn’t lying to Dakota. Teddy is here to do what he believes. Dakota asks, what the hell is this? and Teddy tells her they’re going to shoot off the rest of the missiles. When he dust clears, he can finish what he started. Dakota says, he didn’t mean it about her understanding him, but Teddy insists he did. She says, then why didn’t he tell her? He says he couldn’t risk anyone else finding out. He wanted it to be about her and him. Why else would he bring her? John says, he needs two people to launch a missile; only one can’t turn both keys. He doesn’t care about Dakota. He just needs her. Dakota says, he’s her family, and doesn’t want her to be something she’s not. Teddy says, John abandoned his son, and June tells Dakota that she has a chance to survive; it’s a sign there are second chances. They see the missile divide, and John says, it’s starting soon. Dakota can die being who she is, or go with them. She says, and pretend to be someone she’s not. He says, it’s her choice. She points the gun, but seems unsure, and points it at Teddy.

Riding down the road on a horse, Victor hears Morgan over the radio, saying the missile is going to reenter the atmosphere, and it has multiple warheads. A title says: Which man are you? He goes into a building fighting his way through zombies inside. He tries a door, but it’s locked. A zombie gets him up close and personal, but he stabs it in the head, and runs into a stairwell. He goes up to an empty floor, and asks if anybody is there. He sees dead people, but not like that kid in Sixth Sense. They lie all over on the floor. He looks out to the parking lot, and at the crowd of zombies wandering around. He yells at the top of his lungs, and sits on the floor. He hears something in the distance, and follows the sound. He opens a door and hears a recording of a man singing the blues. He walks into a humongous room where a lot of art is being stored. He hears a gun click behind him, and a man asks how he got past the dead he let in. Hand over his gun, and start talking. Victor turns around, and says, he didn’t see it? and the man says, it was hard to miss. Is it hitting there? Victor says, it’s hitting everywhere. The man asks how Victor knows, and Victor says, he was there. Unless the man has someplace to shelter, there’s nothing more he can do. The man says he guesses that’s the ballgame, puts his gun down, and asks if Victor likes bourbon. It’s from a distillery in Texas. It used to be in Texas anyway. He asks Victor to turn the record over. He says, it’s “Lemon Blind” Jefferson. He mostly played around Dallas in 1926 to ’29. Victor says he knows his history, and the man says he hopes so. He’s a historian, or he used to be. He was a teacher before the world did what it did. Victor puts the needle on the record, and asks if that’s where all of this came from. The man says, it came after. From museums, city halls… The flag is from the Alamo. He figured somebody should try to preserve history. Victor sees a medal around the man’s neck, and asks if he’s a religious man. He says, no; his wife was. She said it would protect him. So much for that. (I dunno about that; he’s still alive.) Victor says he gave one just like it to someone, a dear friend. The man asks what Victor was trying to protect them from, and Victor says, it’s complicated. The man says, now’s not the time to be cryptic, and asks Victor, who is he? What is he doing up there? What happened out there? Victor says they were trying to build a future, while the ones they were up against were trying to end it. He was trying to stop it. He should have stopped it. The man asks why he didn’t, and Victor says, it came down to two men. They had to give their lives to save everyone, and when push came to shove, one couldn’t. The man asks, why not? and Victor says, he wanted to survive. He wanted the tales of glory for himself, and consigned everyone to be destroyed trying to circumvent death. The man asks, which one was he? and Victor says, he was the one who ready to die. The man asks why he’s there. Why isn’t he with the rest of them? Victor says, something led him there, This must be the ending he deserved, or thought he did. They hear the warheads, and see one coming down in the distance. The man says he wishes they’d met sooner, and introduces himself as Howard. Victor says, he’s Morgan. Morgan Jones.   

Grace watches the missile, and hears Morgan on the radio, telling everyone to make it mean something, and give themselves the end they want. She throws the radio, and rages a little. A title says: I can hear her. She looks into the submarine, and says she knows the ending she wants. She goes down the ladder. Morgan is cursing his life at the controls, when she comes in. He tells her that he said he’d keep trying. He’s got to make it happen. She says he can’t make stop, but he says, it’s not over. She says, they don’t know where the missiles hit, but it’s close enough. Even if they survive, with the radiation and fallout, the won’t want to live in this world. She’s seen what it does. It will be worse than Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Dying from radiation is extremely long and painful, and there will be no escaping it. He takes her hand, and she says she’s not watching it happen again; not to someone else she loves. That’s the problem with her. Don’t tell her it’s not too late. Morgan kisses her, and tells he that he loves her. She says she knows, and puts her gun on the desk. She says, please don’t make her watch it again, and he says, he thought he’d die in the gulch, but there was a reason he kept breathing. It was her. He wanted to take care of her, to build something for Athena. She says, it’s not going to happen. She’s sorry, but neither one of them were meant to be there. He says he’s sorry; he truly is. He’s sorry for them, and for what could have been. He actually let himself believe he could have a family again, be a husband… be a father. She says he can be, just not there. When Athena was born Grace wished so long to hear her cry, but it never came. She needs to hear her baby cry. They hear something outside, and Grace says, it’s the warheads separating. He picks up the gun, and says he’s sorry it has to end this way, but she says, it’s for the best. They hug, and put their foreheads together. He puts the gun against the back of his own head. We hear a baby cry, and Grace says, I can hear her. Morgan says, he can too, and they realize it’s a real baby, not Athena in their heads.  

Outside, Rufus barks. He’s leading Rachel, who’s now a zombie. Morgan says, Rachel, and Grace grabs the dog. Morgan hesitates for a moment, but then stabs Rachel through the head with his pokey stick. He catches her as she falls, and takes Baby Morgan out of her backpack. I have literally never seen a head of hair like this on a baby this young; it’s amazing. Morgan laughs, and Grace hugs the dog. He says, it feels like a gift from Athena.

Wes and Sarah get out of the truck, followed by the others. Wes asks if Daniel is sure he had the right coordinates. Charlie says, there’s nobody here, and Daniel says he’s sorry. Sarah says, maybe Wen will be okay, and Riley says, he told them, there’s no escaping. Daniel grabs him, pulls him out of the truck, and throws him on the ground. He’s either knocked out or dead, and Wes goes through his pockets. Charlie looks up, and is the first to see the helicopter headed their way. Sarah says, sh*t in a sandbox, and Luci says, Daniel was right; she knew it. The helicopter lands, and they run to it. Sarah wonders who the hell it is, and the person on the passenger side says she’s glad they got the coordinates. Don’t ask the pilot any questions. The less they know, the better. She’s wearing a facemask, but we assume it’s Al. I also assume the pilot is Isabelle.

Dakota aims her gun at John again, and June says, please, but Dakota says she doesn’t have to change for anyone.  John asks if he ever told June about the St. Louis Barnraiser, and she nods. He shoots in the air, and Dakota shoots at him, getting him in the arm, as June shoots the gun out of her hand. June and John go down into the tunnel, leaving Dakota and Teddy behind. Dakota asks if Teddy ever really gave a sh*t, or did he just need her to turn the key? He doesn’t say anything, and she shoots him, saying, that’s what she thought. She shoots him again in the head, and tells him, he said she should never change, and she’s not. Now, he never gets to see his ending.

Victor and Howard go to the window, and watch the warheads come down.

Dakota looks out, everything goes white. She’s been burned to a crisp, and I laugh.   

John and June duck, and everything blows apart.

Dwight, Shari, and the family huddle together in the root cellar. They hear the door banging, but it suddenly stops.

Luci says, if they stick together, they’ll be fine. The helicopter takes off, and we see Wes has painted, This Isn’t The End on the road; the word End on Riley’s back. Riley gets up and walks away, as a mushroom cloud rises in the distance.   

Everything is blowing up everywhere. Grace sees a dust cloud coming , and Morgan says, go! They run, Morgan holding the baby, and Rufus gets in a truck. As usual, the dog is my main concern. Morgan and Grace go under a car with Baby Morgan, and it looks like that move The Day After.   

Victor grits his teeth and closes his eyes, but then it’s over. He and Howard they see mushroom cloud. Victor laughs, and Howard asks why he’s laughing. Victor says, because he’s alive. After everything he did, he’s still there. Howard says, everything he did? and Victor says he’s not the man he told Howard he was. He’s the other one. He’s not Morgan Jones; he’s Victor Strand. He’s a man who’s thrown other men to the wolves when it was necessary. He’s not afraid to the cut the cord when he’s had to. He’s a hustler and a backroom dealer, and he’s cheated if the opportunity presented itself. Howard asks, why? and Victor says, survival. He’s done it all his life. Despite the critics, he’s still there. He came from nothing, but he knows how to survive. He’s had to rebuild himself from the ground up, over and over again. They have a great future behind them. They can take that future and rebuild, with art, and books, and music, and good bourbon. It feels like the dawning of a new day to him. They look at the cloud, and Victor asks, how about Howard?  

Grace coughs, and she and Morgan come out with the baby. They see a zombie going by, the back of him smoking (dubbed Backdraft Zombie by Talking Dead). Morgan waits for it to approach, and stabs it in the throat. They hear some popping sounds, and Morgan looks at Grace, and then Baby Morgan.

No preview, since this was the finale.

⚰️ So I’m thinking about this episode as I’m editing and listening to Talking Dead, where they’re talking about FWD having a new reality for its characters due to the bombings. And I thought, but wait, doesn’t this mean they’ll have to do the same for Walking Dead, and whatever other shows are connected to it in the same timeline or after?

https://comicbook.com/tv-shows/news/fear-the-walking-dead-season-6-finale-explosive-ending-impacts-walking-dead-universe-crm-helicopter/

💣 Victor’s Villainy…

I never thought of villains as necessarily being queer, but hey, why not?

https://ew.com/tv/colman-domingo-fear-the-walking-dead-zola-pride/

🧛🏼 Speaking Of Queer…

A wonderful list of horror films. This article also contains one of my favorite horror film titles of all time, Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-a-Rama. I’ve never actually seen it, but I have seen Tammy and the T-Rex, also on the list. It was… interesting.

Queer Fear: A Viewer’s Guide to Shudder’s 2021 Queer Horror Collection

📽 It’s Coming…

The latest on American Horror Story.

https://www.ihorror.com/american-horror-story-announces-official-season-10-title/
‘American Horror Story’s’ New Season and Its Spin-Off Gets Premiere Dates

🐎 Country Wins…

Everything you ever wanted to know about this year’s CMT Awards, including the fashions of course.

https://www.cmt.com/cmt-music-awards

⛸ Skating…

Finally, my dog saw the vet, after screaming, crying, and stamping my feet to get an appointment that wasn’t three weeks from now. Slight exaggeration, but I was persistent. His health issues were dealt with, so hopefully, I’m back on track now. Until we meet for soap and a sail, stay safe, stay resilient, and stay being a survivor, but without throwing anyone to the wolves like Victor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX3mxjtpyBc
Jun7

June 6, 2021 – Teddy Launches a Big Stick, My Opinion About an Opinion, Victor’s Motives, Fear Finale, Jumping Time & Get Enough

Posted on by
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What I Watched Today

(rambling, random thoughts & annoyingly detailed recaps from real time TV watching)

Fear the Walking Dead

We see Morgan’s town in shambles; a burned out building, doors swinging in the wind, a playground merry-go-round turning. Teddy says Dakota saved Morgan’s life. She thought he was going to give her a fresh start in a place she felt safe, a place to call home, and a family. Did he? Dakota says, no, and we see Morgan walking through the desolation. She says he built a town, and filled it with people, but her sister… Her mom did the same thing, ten times over. She still never felt comfortable in her own skin in any of those places. Teddy says both of them wanted something from her she couldn’t give. They wanted her to be somebody she’s not. He heard her with Alicia. She wants what they all want; someone to love her the way she is. She asks if he thinks she’ll find that person in the new world, but he says she already has. She says, him? and he says, yes. She says he put Alicia in the bunker because he thought he saw something special in her. He says he did. He loves what Alicia will become. There’s something in Alicia that he and Dakota will never be. That’s nothing to feel sorry about. Dakota is so much like him. They’re two very logical conclusions in a world built on a foundation of violence, lies, and self-interest. That’s why they understand each other. He thinks she’ll agree. When he says they’re conclusions, he means they don’t belong in the world the way it is. Things are just about to get started. She asks, what will happen to them? and he says, they’re going to die with everyone else. He knows it’s a lot to take in. She needs to ask herself the question, when they figure it out, does she still want to be a part of it, or does she want to pretend to be someone else just to have the chance to keep on breathing? Does she want to stay as she is in the time they have left? She says she wants be who she is, and he says, good girl. She’s in the right place. The lights come on, and Riley says, it’s the emergency battery. They need diesel to be running before dark. She asks how Riley knows Teddy, and Riley says he was an officer on the boat. Teddy says Riley was a broken man when he found him. Riley found himself like Dakota; found himself without a family to call his own. Riley asks if Teddy has them, and Teddy shows him the keys around his neck. Dakota laughs, and Teddy asks, what’s funny? She says, Virginia had a thing about keys too. Virginia said they’d unlock the future, but she doesn’t think this is what Virginia had in mind. Riley leaves, and she asks, does he know? Does everyone know they’re going to die? Teddy says, everyone here is aware, and she asks how he got them to follow him, knowing they were going to die. He says, it’s easy to get people to follow you. Just offer them something they really want to believe in. It’s just that not a lot of people want to die. I suppose that would be a monkey wrench. We see Morgan put his hat on, and take out a gun. Teddy says, getting them to do that is something else. Morgan looks at his pokey weapon stuck in the ground. Teddy says, it’s something very few people have, and gives Dakota a gun. She asks what it takes, and he says, it’s not that complicated. You just have to be wiling die with them. Morgan looks at Dakota’s note saying he still has things to do. He rides up a hill where Victor and the others meet him. He asks if Victor is ready to do this, and Victor says he’s guessing that’s a rhetorical question. Morgan says, let’s go, and they ride toward the USS Pennsylvania.

Morgan cuts through the submarine hatch, sparks flying. He gets it open, and looks down the stairs. He throws a flare down, and says, it’s a lot further down than he thought. Grace holds a Geiger counter, and says, at 10,000 milligrams, they should start to worry. She should go down first. Morgan says he’s got this, and June says she’s got him covered. He starts to go down the stairs into the sub. Shari radios Luci, asking if they found the naval base. June is worried, but Dwight says, if they fire the missile, the sub is probably the safest place to be. The rest of them are sitting ducks. Morgan asks if they’re ready, and John tells them, fire at anything that moves, dead or alive. Morgan goes down further, and Grace asks what the reading is. He says, 10 milligrams, and goes to the next level. She asks what the reading is now, and he says, still holding at 10. She says, it hasn’t changed? and Morgan says, he thought she said 10… A zombie grabs him, knocking him down, and getting on top of him. He yells, shoot it! and John tells him to move its head. He does, and June gets it with one shot. Morgan says, thank you, and everyone breathes a sigh of relief. Morgan says, the crew must have all died, and Grace asks what the reading is now. He says, still holding at 10, and she says she’s going in. Cover her. Shari talks to Luci about the naval base.

Morgan hears Grace coming behind him, and she asks if he’s okay. He says he’s fine, and she takes the Geiger counter from him. She says she wants to see if the device is still intact. It’s been reissued twice. He says he knows what she’s trying do, and she says, the same thing as him. He says she wants to make them pay, and she asks if there’s something wrong with that. He says, no, but they haven’t talked about… She says, now is not the time, and calls up to the others that it’s safe. Morgan says he hasn’t pushed it because he understands her pain, but if they don’t talk about it now, they might not get the chance. He has to do what needs to be done to stop this, and he might not make it. She says, we might not make it; she’s coming. He says she’s not coming. She’s got to stay. She’s alive, and got to be here for a reason. He thinks it might be so she can build the future Athena showed her. She says, what about him? He should build a future too, but he says, first, he has to make sure there’s a world left behind to rebuild. The others begin to join them, and June asks if they’re all right. Morgan says, yeah, and June asks him to let her take a look, but he says he’s fine. Grace wants to take more readings, and June tells Morgan to give Grace time. Victor says he’s not sure Teddy’s group are the a-holes they have to worry about right now, and Dwight says, there has to be a crew on that floor. John asks Shari if they know how many stand between them, and where they’re going. Shari radios Luci, asking if she has any idea how many crew members on the boat, but there’s too much interference and she can’t hear. She says, it’s getting worse as they go on, and Grace says she’ll get Lucy. Morgan says, let’s go, and they continue on without Grace, who moves closer to the steps, but still can’t hear Luci.  

Grace goes up the ladder, while the others walk through. Grace asks if Luci can hear her, and says they need to know the count of the crew. Luci says, 150, and Grace asks if they heard it. Victor says he wishes they hadn’t. They also hear zombies beyond the next hatch. Morgan bangs on the hatch with his pokey weapon, and John asks if they have any idea what’s beyond the hatch. Victor asks if it’s the only way, and Luci hears, and says, it looks like it. John wonders if they have enough ammo, and Dwight suggests they hold their fire while they’re down there. Victor agrees, and says, Alicia might be in there. If not, they need to find out where she is. Morgan says he’s going in, and tells them to kill anything that slips by him. June says he’s not going in alone, and he says, no one needs to get hurt. She says, neither does he. Victor hands him the note from Dakota, saying he dropped it. Morgan says it wasn’t for Victor to read, but Victor says, just because Dakota saved Morgan’s life doesn’t mean he needs to give it up there. Morgan says, it’s not about that. He was halfway to being one of those things. He knows how to get past them. Victor says, they’ll be behind him. He knows they’ve had their differences, but Alicia called him to take care of Morgan, and that’s what he’s going to do. John says he’s coming too. He gave up his family to put this guy away. He’s not about to let Teddy succeed now. They all want to go, and Dwight says, no use arguing. Realizing he’s outnumbered, Morgan says, let’s open it up.

Morgan opens the hatch, and going through a narrow hallway, dispatches several zombies in different ways with his pokey weapon. He checks the reading, and says, it’s clear. The others follow, and John closes the hatch. Dwight asks if he’s locking them in, and John says he doesn’t want any surprises. June asks if there’s any way to dismantle the missile from there, and Victor says, it’s not a good idea since they don’t understand it. Dwight says, do they think some psycho that’s been behind bars for 40 years knows how work this sh*t? and John tells them, don’t underestimate Teddy; he’s a resourceful fella. The hear zombies beyond the next hatch, and Morgan sees an intercom. He picks up the mic, and says, Grace? Grace says she thinks that’s the emergency com. They need power. Morgan says, they have to turn the silo off, and asks, which way to the weapons room? Grace calls Luci, and hears Teddy saying, they got there fast. Morgan asks, who’s this? and Teddy says Morgan knows damn well who it is. He says, Teddy? And Teddy says, bingo. That you, Morgan? John takes the radio and asks if Teddy recognizes his voice. Teddy says, he’s afraid he doesn’t, and John says he’ll give him a hint. The last time Teddy heard it, he was in a courthouse listening to his testimony against him. Teddy looks worried, and breathes heavily. He says, Officer Dorie; is it really him? John says he’s sorry he never paid Teddy a visit, but he has no stomach for death row. Teddy says John couldn’t kill him then, and he won’t now. John begs to differ. He has a bullet to put in Teddy’s head before the day ends. Teddy says he sees the day ending differently. No hard feelings. If John hadn’t put him away, he wouldn’t be sitting where he is now. June tells John not to let Teddy get to him, and John asks, where’s the girl? Teddy asks him to be more specific, and John says, where’s Alicia? Teddy says Alicia is safer than all of them, and John asks what he means. Teddy says what he means is, she’s tucked away someplace they’ll never find her. Morgan says, tell him where she is, and Teddy says, they didn’t think she’d be safe by the boat, did they? Morgan says, Teddy is going to kill his own people? but Teddy says he’s giving them a second chance. Morgan tells Grace to get on the walkie, and tell Luci to get everyone as far away from the sub as possible. She copies, and Teddy says, he and Morgan are like two peas in a pod. He’s leading everyone to their end, and Morgan is doing the same thing. Except Teddy isn’t fooling himself about what he’s doing. Excuse him; he’s got to run. He’s about to turn the power on. June radios Grace and tells her to reach her people; tell them to get somewhere safe. Grace says Charlie told her there’s a naval base nearby, but she’s not sure it will be far enough. Victor says, then they won’t fail. They hear zombies knocking on the other side of the hatch, and Victor asks, where’s Morgan?

Victor moves forward, the others behind him. He whispers for Morgan. A zombie pops out, and he sticks a knife in its head. Shari and Dwight see bunks full of dead undead, and Dwight wonders what happened. They keep moving, and Morgan walks further ahead, alone. A zombie come out behind him, and he stabs it in the eye. He starts to open the next hatch, when another zombie comes out, and he cracks its head open with the ax part of his pokey weapon. He goes in, and starts to close the opening, but Victor stops him, saying, let go. Morgan sees zombies coming behind Victor, and tells him, get in. He closes and locks the hatch, and Morgan says he doesn’t need Victor to be there, but Victor says Morgan’s not supposed to be there by himself. Morgan says he doesn’t want anyone else to die, and Victor says, no one has to die, but Morgan says, they might. Victor asks if this is what Morgan thinks he has to do. Dakota said he had things left to do in her note, but that’s not what she meant. Morgan says he’s been leading them from one dead end to another. He promised them something different, something better. He wants to be sure this time. Victor says Dakota wanted him to kill her mother; that’s what she meant, not this Morgan says he has to make sure. Victor says, people follow him because they want to, not because he owes them something. Morgan says he doesn’t know why Victor is even still there, and Victor says, Alicia asked him a difficult question when they were at the lodge. She asked if he was doing this for them or himself. Morgan says, and? and Victor says he’s doing it for everyone. Morgan’s Geiger counter goes wild, and they hear a zombie. A zombie woman stumbles out, covered with boils, we assume from radioactivity. She keels over, and Morgan says, don’t touch it. The zombie gets up all weird, like Exorcist weird, and reaches out toward them, then collapses.

They use Geiger counter, finding heavy radiation coming from the zombie, and Morgan and Victor carefully go around it to the next hatch. The Geiger counter goes crazy, and Victor says he thinks he knows where the zombie came from. Morgan says, the readings are high, when they hear something. He says, they’re about to get power, and radios Grace. He says they’re at the next door, and it’s off the charts at 40,000. Grace says, the only way they’d get that kind of a reading is if they exposed radioactive material. They have to find another way. If Morgan goes in, it will kill him. He asks how long he’d have, and she says she doesn’t know. Days? She yells for him, and Morgan and Victor look up, seeing zombies toddling along the grating above. One drops down, and Morgan says he’s going inside. Victor sees another ladder, and suggests he go up and kill them, Morgan following. Morgan says Victor isn’t thinking it through, but Victor says he wants to do what’s best for everyone. Morgan asks what that is, and Victor says, to live. Another zombie drops down, and Morgan asks if it’s clear. Victor says, let’s go, and they climb up.    

They see several zombies, but they’re behind a barrier, so not a threat. They see dead undead on the floor, and one leaning on the open hatch, all victims of radiation. Victor says he told Morgan there was another way. Lights begin to come on, and Morgan says, they must be getting closer to launch. Victor takes off the other way, and Morgan follows. Zombies come out of the hatch behind them, and they close the door. Morgan says, this is a dead end. It’s a bunkroom, and he sees pictures on the wall of Riley and his family. He tells Morgan, this sailor is one of Teddy’s people. He’s the one who attacked them when Grace was in labor. He says, there’s no way out, but Victor says they’ll find a way. Morgan says he had one. Whatever Victor had to prove, he proved it. Tons of zombies are suddenly coming their way, and Victor says, Alicia’s message was meant for Morgan, because he’ll do things Victor won’t. He struggles with Morgan over the pokey weapon, and Victor knocks Morgan down, ending up with only the pokey ax part. He says, Morgan didn’t want anyone to die. He’s going to get his wish. He kicks a zombie away, and jumps into the hatch.   

Victor approaches another hatch, the pokey ax in his hand. Dakota appears behind him with a gun, and tells him to drop it, and slide it to her. He does, and he says, she’s with them. Of course. She says, they gave her something no one else could. He tells her not to make the same mistake with him that she did with John, but she says she doesn’t think she is. Don’t think he can change her mind, especially after what he did. He says he doesn’t understand, but she says he doesn’t need to, or his people. She gets on the radio, and says, whoever is out there needs to listen. They need to know why they’re not going to stop this. They saved her to give her a fresh start. June did the first part; the second part is something else. If she lived with them, she’d have to be a different person, and fall into their ways. It would never work Morgan’s way.  She asks Victor if he really wants to be the person Morgan wants him to be? That’s why she killed Morgan. Listening on the radio, Grace gasps. Dakota says, Morgan’s way going forward is not how she wants to believe. Victor says, that’s not true, but Dakota says she wants to be the type of person she wants. That’s why killed John. Because of people like him, the world has to end. June told John that it wasn’t too late; the world still has meaning. She’s going to make it have meaning, just not the way he thought. Victor says, Teddy is going to kill everyone; Morgan isn’t. Dakota says, Alicia will still be there. She’s the beginning; they’re endings. When they start again, it won’t be with a-holes like him. She aims her gun at him, but seems uncertain. Victor closes his eyes, and she shoots, but she only gets him in the arm. Morgan comes out of nowhere, and slams her up against the wall, knocking her down with the stick part of the pokey weapon. She’s out, and he checks her pulse. He says Victor claimed it wasn’t on him, but he gave them the key. He did it to save Grace and the baby, and he can’t let it be for nothing. He radios Grace, saying he’s there and he’s all right. She says she’s there, and Morgan tells Victor, this ends now. Victor says, Morgan… but Morgan doesn’t want to hear it. He says they’ll deal with what Victor did later. He’s cost them enough time. Victor hands Morgan the stick part of the pokey weapon, which is now officially a pokey stick.   

Teddy asks how it’s looking, and Riley says, two minutes. He stopped something like this once, but they don’t have what it takes. Teddy says he’s glad Riley did that. His family returned to the earth, and now he can too. He’d be lost without Riley. Teddy radios Sue/Dakota, but gets no response, and an alarm sounds. Teddy gets a WTF? look on his face, and tells Riley, hurry.  

Morgan takes out a handful of key cards, and tries each one to get into the final hatch. Victor wonders where he got them, and Morgan says he took if off a dead soldier’s body after Victor left him. Victor tries to justify his actions, and Morgan tells him, stop.  

Behind the hatch, Riley says, on three, and Teddy says he copies. Morgan keeps trying the cards, but none of them are opening the hatch. Teddy puts in the key, and Riley says, one… Morgan prays the next card works, since it’s the last one. Riley says, two… three. Teddy turns the key. Morgan inserts the card, and the hatch opens. Victor and Morgan tell Teddy, stop, but Teddy says, they can’t. Riley says he told them it was inevitable. By the stairs going outside, John tells everyone, hold on. June tells Grace, they have to go, and Grace yells for Morgan. Everything begins to shake, and all is silent for a moment. They watch as a rocket shoots up out of the sub. Watching from the hill, Sarah says, damn, and Daniel says, that’s a big stick. They watch as it continues to go up into the sky.

Morgan grabs Teddy by his jacket, and puts his pokey stick in Teddy’s face, while Victor trains a gun on Riley. Riley moves, and Victor says, don’t. Riley tells Teddy, they only got one off, but Teddy says, it’s enough to get them started. They’ve begun. Victor says, how much, and Riley says, not enough. Victor asks where the missile is going, and Teddy asks if Riley would like to tell them what targets he programmed. Riley says, there are ten warheads on the missile. They’ll see where they land. It will be hard to miss. Victor says, where? and Teddy says, anywhere; everywhere. Maybe toward the water; maybe toward the town Morgan built. He’s been where Morgan is. A long time ago, he thought he was going to change everything, but a prison sentence put an end to it. What he didn’t realize was, it didn’t really end anything. He knows it’s not what Morgan wanted, but don’t look at it as an ending. The world is going to be a better place soon. Morgan just won’t get see it himself. Morgan threatens Teddy with the stick, looks him over, and lets go of Teddy’s jacket. He says, get out of here. Go. He tells Victor to let Riley go. Riley and Teddy can’t believe it, but get out while the getting’s good. Victor tells Morgan, it could been worse. They could have fired more. Morgan says, it could have been none if he’d gotten there sooner, and Victor says he did what he did to save lives, but Morgan says Victor did it for himself. He wanted to tell Alicia what a big hero he was. Leave. Victor sets down the pokey ax, walks to the hatch, and goes through. Morgan looks at the key in the control panel, and looks around. The camera pans out, and we watch through the hatch as he gets smaller.  

I don’t mean to be critical, but you’d think Morgan might start checking the controls to see if there’s an off button. On the other hand, Z Nation survived a nuclear bomb, so…

Next time season finale, Morgan and Grace reunite, some welding happens, Teddy says it’s almost time, Riley says, it’s just the beginning, and Victor screams.

👩🏽‍🏫 I was reading an article in Forbes, where reviewer Erik Kain not only said FWD’s scenario about a nuke being easily launched was unrealistic, but wondered how, after 40 years in the slammer, Teddy would know anything about how to launch it. First of all, I fail to see how a show about a zombie apocalypse should be expected to do anything realistically. And secondly, Dwight asked that question, and John answered it. Teddy is a resourceful guy. Kain also posed the question as to why Morgan would let Teddy and Riley go. I thought Morgan figured they were going to die in the radioactive fallout anyway, and it would be a more gruesome death than him killing them. Even with the pokey stick.

⌚️ About Strand…

What made Victor tick tonight.

https://ew.com/tv/fear-the-walking-dead-uss-pennsylvania-strand-morgan-showrunners-interview/

🎞 Coming Up…

A sneak peak at the finale, and yeah, what about Al?

https://comicbook.com/tv-shows/news/fear-the-walking-dead-season-finale-sneak-peek-familiar-voice-radio-daniel-salazar-616/

🪂 Possible Jump…

Speculation on what’s to come.

https://www.cbr.com/fear-the-walking-dead-s6-nuclear-explosion-time-jump/

🍃 Taking My Leave…

Time to call it a weekend. Or whatever you want to call the last two days. Until we meet for soap and Sailing, stay safe, stay unprejudiced, and stay resourceful, but not in the same way Teddy is.

May24

May 23, 2021 – Teddy Reveals What the Key Unlocks, Jumping Dead, Traveling Beyond, the Skinny On the Dead & Telephone

Posted on by
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What I Watched Today

(rambling, random thoughts & annoyingly detailed recaps from real time TV watching)

Fear the Walking Dead

We hear the news on the television saying that patients no longer have their faculties, and the hospitals will no longer offer medical care, because the patients aren’t in their right minds. We see Teddy in a Department of Corrections uniform, writing notes. On the walls on his cell are news articles about him, and John Dorie Sr. arresting him, along with a picture of his mother. He hears someone yelling, no! and the guards drag a guy down the hall. Teddy tells him, don’t be afraid. Remember, the end is the beginning. He’s about begin a new life. A guard asks if Teddy actually believes all that bullsh*t he spews. Get it all out. He’ll walk this walk soon enough. Teddy sets aside his dinner tray, and goes back to his notes. Alarms sound, and all the doors open. Zombies come through the hall, and Teddy looks out, then goes back in his call. Chaos begins, and as they go by, an inmate attacks a guard, then a guard attacks an inmate. A zombie walks into Teddy’s cell, and backs him against the wall. Teddy holds the zombie back, and stabs it in the head with his pen. It drops to the floor and he looks at his mother’s picture, saying, he was right. He just needed to be patient. He tells his mother’s photo, it’s not bullsh*t. It’s revelation. He scoots past the mayhem, and out.

A loudspeaker says, you have been here before. You have lived this moment before. We don’t want to believe it. We don’t want to accept it. We are in a loop. Alicia lies on a mat on the floor, while the recording repeats. The world wears it’s ugliness on its sleeve. It has told us who it is… Riley comes in and asks if she’s ready to accept his word. She just looks at him, and he tosses her a can of soda. We hear, we must break it, or we are doomed to repeat it

Teddy comes in, and Alicia is sitting at a table. She said he stopped sending his errand buy, and he says it wasn’t his preferred method of abduction for her. She says, locking her up like a prisoner? and he says he was locked up once. He thought it was the end of the road, but it was the opposite. He’d hoped it would hold the same revelation as it did for him. She says, sorry to disappoint him, and he says he brought good news. They’ve found a new home. They’re packing up as they speak. The Holding served its purpose, but they needed something safer and sturdier, where they can truly begin again. Before they take those first steps together, he needs assurances that she’s dedicated and committed to what they’re doing. She says he’s not going to get them, and he asks what he is going to get. She says she doesn’t know. Probably something he doesn’t like. Riley says he’s wasting his time, and aims his gun at Alicia. Teddy says, Riley… and Riley says, leave her behind. Teddy grabs Riley’s balls from behind instead, and says, no. She’s coming with him. He tells Alicia, it’s surprising what pick up on death row.

Teddy puts gas in the truck, and Riley asks where he’s taking Alicia. Teddy says, it’s a personal matter, and he wants her to accompany him. Riley says, why her? and Teddy says he’d like to get to know Alicia better. He has the feeling she’s going to be critical for their new beginning. Don’t question him about her again. A school bus arrives, and Teddy applauds. Alicia asks, who are they? and he says, new recruits, picked up while they were scouting. He says, welcome, and tells them to come and see their new home. Alicia says, Dakota? and Teddy asks if Dakota is a friend of Alicia’s. Alicia says, that’s not the word she’d use. Dakota killed someone she knew. Teddy asks, why? and Dakota says, it was something that had to be done. Teddy asks if Dakota came alone, with no family, and Alicia says Dakota actually tried to kill her own mother. Teddy asks if she succeeded, and Dakota says, someone else did. He tells her, hop in; she’s coming. Alicia says she’s not going anywhere with Dakota, but Teddy says she’s not at liberty to make that call. Alicia says, if he was smart, he wouldn’t bring her, and Riley says he shouldn’t bring any of them. Teddy puts his keys around Riley’s neck, and says if they don’t show by tomorrow, he knows what to do.    

Dakota tells Alicia, this isn’t what it looks like, and Alicia says, it wasn’t the last time either. Dakota says, this time it’s different. They went looking for Alicia, and she came there to help. Alicia says she doesn’t want or need Dakota’s help, and Dakota says Alicia left before she heard what happened. It was getting bad. Morgan tried to bring them together, but she thinks it’s worse. She wants to make up for what she did. She needs to, whether Alicia believes her or not. She’s heard what’s taking place. Teddy has a place stocked so they don’t have to step outside for years. They can kill him. He’s scary as hell, but he’s old. He’s stupid for not believing who we are. Alicia says, there is no we, and there never will be. Just stay out of her way. She wants to know what they’re up to and where they’re going. And why Teddy has those keys. Dakota asks what Alicia is going to do, when Teddy comes back, and they get in the truck.  

As they’re driving, Alicia says, it’s not going to work, and Teddy says, what? She says, bringing her out there. It’s not going to break her. Cut the sh*t. She knows Riley heard their recordings, and told him about the stadium where she used to live. He says, the place where her mother grew crops? It’s no coincidence she’s there. The universe sends signs, and it’s up to them to interpret them. Dakota says, like what? and he says, it’s no accident they’re there; the timing and reason for their arrival. Things can reveal themselves.

They go to a cemetery where there are several crypts, and Teddy opens one. He asks for a hand. They applaud. Just kidding. Alicia helps him pull out a casket, and he opens it. He says, hello, mother, and pets the corpse’s head. Alicia asks how she died, and he says, she was taken way before her time, but that doesn’t mean she can’t be a part of the new beginnings. When they’re finished, all this will be gone. I assume by that answer he means he killed her.

They drive with the corpse in the truck bed, and Alicia asks if that’s why Teddy brought them, to dig up his mother’s corpse. He says all three of them lost their mothers, and he wanted them to help him accompany his to their new home. Dakota asks, why? and he says he’s wanted to do this for a long time. He told his mother he was going to do it, and he ended up in a prison cell, condemned to death. He thought he’d failed. Every night, he looked at this. He shows them his mother’s picture, and says he was disgusted with himself. He thought was wrong, and what he’d done was all for nothing. Then he realized he wasn’t wrong. He just needed to be patient. And then it happened. Alicia says, what? and he says, the world changed, and with it his freedom. He had a chance to reshape the world, and everything in it. He could preserve what he loved, and destroy what he didn’t. Alicia asks if he thinks he can do all that with a pair of keys, and he laughs. She asks what it unlocks, and he says, their future. Dakota says he’s sounding like her mom, when the front tire hits something, and they careen all over the road. The corpse falls out, and Teddy stops the truck, yelling, mother! He gets out, and opens the blanket covering the body. He kisses her cheek and says, it will be all right. He asks Alicia and Dakota to please help him get her back on the truck. Please. They lift her, and Dakota sees that a bunch of zombies are about to approach them. Teddy is about to shoot, but Alicia says the sound will just draw more. Even without the sound, more are coming. Dakota picks up a chunk of hard wood, and she and Alicia smack TF out of the zombies’ heads, as Teddy stabs them. Suddenly, the zombies who are still on their feet are shot. Alicia says, Cole? Cole says, Alicia? She says, is that you? and he says he was about to ask her the same question. She goes over to Cole, and Teddy asks, who the hell is that? Alicia says, an old friend, and Teddy asks, what kind? Cole says, Alicia’s mom is the only reason he’s not a skinbag, and Teddy says, how’s that for a sign?

Teddy picks up the walkie talkie, and radios Riley, saying they’re in need of roadside assistance. Does he copy? He gets no response, and says he’ll see if he can fare any better up the road. Dakota goes with him, and Alicia says she can’t believe it’s Cole. Has he been on the road all this time? He nods, and says, a long time. They spent weeks looking for her, and finally figured she’d died in the fire at the stadium. There are some others still around, thanks to what her mom did. He asks how her brother is, and Alicia doesn’t say anything. He says he’s sorry, and she shakes her head. She tells him, Luciana is still alive; Victor too. Cole asks where they are, and she says Luci is living in the same place she is, and Victor went his own way. Cole says, he always does, and he asks what they’re doing out that way. They’ve come far, and have a lot of gas. You don’t see much of that these days. Alicia says, Teddy has been stocking up for a while, and Cole asks who Teddy is. What’s his deal? She says she’s still figuring it out, when Teddy comes back and says he can’t get a signal. He doesn’t suppose Cole knows where they can get a new car. Cole says there’s an old auto parts shop nearby, but they shouldn’t go there on their own; it’s not safe. He’s seen them set zombies on people as they’re passing through. Dakota asks who they are, and he says, unsavory types. A lot of the dead they see, they killed them. Some of them look like Swiss cheese after they take what they want. He can get them where they need to go. He knows the roads they need to take. Alicia says he doesn’t have to, but Cole says he believes he does. Lead the way. Teddy says he’ll need Cole’s gun, and Cole says he’s not handing Teddy anything. Teddy says, fine; hand it to Alicia. He’s beginning to trust her, and wants to make sure she trusts him. Cole gives Alicia his gun, and tells her, it’s all right. Teddy stabs one last zombie in the head, and they walk off.   

Dakota asks how long Teddy was locked up, and he says, almost 30 years. She asks what he did, and he says killed the people who got in his way; who didn’t see the world the way he did. His mom had him locked up. He did what he could to get away. She asks if he knew the people he killed, and he says, some of them. She asks if he feels bad, and he wonders if he detects some guilt. She says she only killed when she had to, and he asks if she knew them. She says, one more than the others. They were starting to become a family. He asks if she feels bad, but she says, no. She didn’t have much choice. People look at her like they’re scared of her, but it’s just the way things are. Teddy says, if they’re frightened by what she’s saying, it’s because it’s the truth. She’s right. That’s the way things are.

As they walk ahead, Cole says, Alicia has his gun. They could take Teddy out, but she says they can’t, He says, it doesn’t seem like much of a worry if he’s gone, and she says, he’s a guru. If he doesn’t do it, his people will. Cole asks if she has any idea what it is, and she says, no, but it’s something big. He has followers, and a bunker with enough food for years. Cole says Alicia could join them after she finds out what it is. They have it good. She says she can’t, and he says he’s been looking for a way to pay her mother back for the favor she did. Maybe this is it. Maybe he found it. They arrive at the auto parts place.

Teddy watches Alicia, and she asks if there’s a problem. He says she reminds him of her, and she says, who? He gets teary, and says, his mother. Has she decided yet if she’s going to join them underground? She says, no, because he’s wrong. Suddenly a bunch of people come in, wearing bandanas bandit style, and carrying guns. Cole cocks his gun, and says, those unsavory types he told them about, he’s one of them. They take their bandanas off, and Doug says, sorry, Alicia. Next to him, Viv takes off her bandana, and Alicia says, they’re kidding her. Cole says they’re not, and Teddy says, after her mother saved their lives? and Cole says, maybe she should have let them die.

Alicia asks, what happened? and Cole says they were looking for a place to hole up and regroup. They looked for her, Nick, Victor, and Luci. They went to a motel off 78, and people were waiting for them. Most of them were killed. Alicia asks, who’s left? and he says, she’s looking at them. She says, so they decided to do the same thing to whoever else they crossed paths with? Teddy says, that’s what he’s trying to get her to understand; the patterns of the universe. It’s the people like Cole in the world, who they need to destroy. Dakota says she’s not proud of what she did, but it was all she could do. Alicia says, they had another way, and Cole says, they know how that ended. They tried to find a way to do things that was more than looking out for themselves, but most of them are gone. So they found this way, and they’re still standing. Alicia says, they became the people they’d been fighting off, and Cole says, there are always bad people waiting to make things go south. For you, not them. Teddy says he knows how to fix that. Get rid of Cole. Cole says, that will be hard to do when Teddy is on that end of the shotgun. Teddy laughs, and Cole says, keep walking, gramps.

Doug fixes the tire on the truck, and Teddy approaches Alicia. He says he doesn’t want to rub salt in her wound, but he knows what she’s thinking. She says she highly doubts it, and he says, she’s thinking her mother died for something. She’d thought the people her mother saved went off to live meaningful lives, but most of them are dead. Those that aren’t, are living like bottom feeders. Alicia asks if this isn’t what he wants, and he says he doesn’t want to see her in pain. He wants her to understand they’re both after the same thing. She can fulfill her potential more than she knows. He’s confident that she’s the person he’s been looking for. She says he’s delusional, and he says she doesn’t know what he’s set out to do. She says she’s been trying to figure it out for weeks, but has no clue. Just tell her. Cole comes over to them, and asks, what about a gun pointed at them makes them think they should take a break? Alicia tells him, take the truck. Take what they want, and let them walk out. Cole says, and they’ll never bother them again? but Teddy says, he doesn’t make promises he can’t keep. Cole says he tried Alicia’s way, and nearly got killed. Teddy’s place sounds nice. Tell him where it is. There’s got to be a map in the truck. Teddy says they won’t find anything in there, and Cole aims his gun at Teddy, saying, he’ll be more than happy to open it. Alicia says, Cole… and Cole asks why she’s protecting this a-hole. Doug calls to Cole, and tells him, they’ve been way too long, and Viv says, forget it. They have the truck, gas, and food. It’s more than they had this morning. Cole says, Teddy has a place stocked with supplies. They have water and power. They’ll be safe there; they can live there. He asks where it is, and Teddy says, go ahead and kill him. He’ll return to the earth, and live on. Someone else will finish what he started. Cole says he knows how to get Teddy to talk. Move. He pushes Teddy along.

Cole pulls the corpse out of the truck bed, and on to the ground. He says he saw upset Teddy was when the body went flying out. He shoots it in the chest, and Dakota says, what the hell? Cole says he’ll blow her head off, and Teddy says, go on. Cole asks what kind of psycho Teddy is, and Teddy says, Cole is the one shooting a corpse. Dakota says she’s sorry, and Teddy says, don’t be; that’s not his mother. His mother is buried on the family farm. Alicia says he lied, but he says, no; he showed her the truth. She was right; he confesses. Her journey was not a coincidence. He was hoping to find proof that the people who her mother saved were dead, but he didn’t suspect to find a living one. It proves his point even more. Cole says they’ll take the truck and tells Alicia he’s sorry. He really is. He knows what her mother did for them, so he’s going to do something he normally wouldn’t. Come with them. Alicia says she can’t. She has to find out what they’re doing. He asks, why? and she says, people will die. He says, who? Victor? Why isn’t Victor out looking for her? They have a truck and gas. They can get the hell out, and drive smart, far away. Whatever they’re doing, Victor is doing the same thing. He’s got to warn her. If she doesn’t take him up on it, he’ll have no choice but to kill her too. Alicia nods, and says she guesses that makes her decision easier. Go to hell. He cocks his gun, and tells her to get on her knees. He’ll make it fast.

Dakota and Alicia kneel, while Teddy sits cross-legged in the road. Cole says, one more chance, old man. Where are you going? Teddy tells Alicia and Dakota, everything he’s planned will proceed without them. Alicia asks if Cole is really doing this, and Cole says he gave her an out. He’ll put her down, and bury her. She sarcastically says, thank you, and he says they can be a warning to others. They hear zombie noises, and Doug tells Cole to get it over with. They’re about to have visitors. Alicia says, it doesn’t have be like this, but Cole says he’s heard that too many times. Sorry. Teddy says, these people don’t know what they know. They’re killing people off, but don’t know the difference between a weak and good thing. They don’t know him. Cole aims his gun at Teddy, but Alicia jumps up, and pushes the barrel away. The zombies arrive, and chaos happens. They eat Doug and Viv, and I think, it couldn’t happen to nicer people. Teddy laughs, as he slices away, and Cole shoots some of them. Alicia comes toward Cole, using a zombie as a shield, and aiming a gun from under the zombie’s arm. Teddy says, shoot him; do it. Instead, she shoves the zombie on Cole, but he shoots it. He and Alicia stand face to face, aiming their guns at each other. Alicia says, her mother died so he’d have a chance, and Teddy says he knows she doesn’t want to get rid of her mother… She tells him, shut up. She’s not talking him. She tells Cole, he was supposed to make it mean something, and threw it all away. Cole says, maybe in time she’ll listen to her friend… Maybe in time she’ll let go… She shoots him in the head. She says Teddy knows he’s wrong. They don’t have to destroy everything to make it better. Just people like Cole. Teddy smiles.

Zombie Doug gets a knife in the head from Alicia; ditto with zombie Viv. Dakota says, it’s not as hard as Alicia thinks, and Alicia says, for Dakota. Dakota says, not just for her. It’s how the world is working. She tried to explain to John, so he’d see it the same way we do. Again, Alicia says, there is no we, and Dakota says she had to do it. Alicia says she believes in something better, and Dakota says, like Alicia’s mom did. She never had that. No one gave her anything to believe in. Alicia says, that’s not true. She tried, and Dakota threw it away, like Cole did. Teddy says he’s proud of Alicia; she let go of the past. He laughs, and says she isn’t afraid to change. Alicia says, that doesn’t mean she’s going to fall in line behind him, and he says she’s not afraid to question him. She reminds him of his mother. Alicia asks if his mother thought he was a nutjob too. He says when he was at mortician school, he was trying to figure out how he could change things. He read about it in journals, but they only saw part of it; why they need to end everything. His mother thought he was sick… no, disturbed was the word she used. She threated to call social services, and have him committed. She said she wanted to put an end to his sick thoughts about new beginnings. She never knew how right he was. Alicia says she takes it his mother didn’t listen, and he says he killed her. (Points for me.) He buried her body on the farm, and waited through fall and winter. He was worried someone would find the body, but when spring came, the strangest thing happened. The most beautiful morning glories bloomed over her body. He realized, it wasn’t enough to change things – that was the first part. They needed a new beginning where people like his mother could thrive, free of the patterns of a broken world. Alicia asks how he plans to destroy the world, and he says she earned the truth today. The key will launch a missile from a beached submarine ashore in Galveston. That should do job, doesn’t she think? Alicia says she thinks – she takes the walkie talkie out of his hand – that Cole is not the only person they need to get rid of to make the world better. She aims her gun at him, and behind her, Dakota aims hers at Alicia. She says, Alicia will have to get rid of her too.

Alicia asks, what happened to making things right, and Dakota wanting to make a fresh start? Teddy says they’re not going to stop what he’s doing. He wants Alicia alive. Alicia goes up the road with the walkie talkie, and Teddy says, it’s okay. Alicia radios Morgan, and asks if anyone is there. She sees Riley coming with the others, and backs away. She asks if anyone can hear her, and Victor asks if she’s okay. She asks if she can trust him, and he says, of course. What’s wrong? She says  she knows what they’re going to do. There’s a beached submarine in Galveston. Dakota is part of it, and they need to get themselves far away. Riley draws his gun, and Teddy says Alicia is what he’s been hoping for. Alicia asks what he means, and he says she’s the right person for what’s to come. One of Teddy’s followers grabs her, and Teddy follows them to the car, along with Dakota.

They go to a hotel, and get out of the car, Alicia with her wrists bound. Teddy says, in the 1950s, Uncle Sam built a bunker beneath the resort for government officials to wait out the country’s inevitable destruction. It was long forgotten, but Riley found a mention in the newspaper. Uncle Sam was smart about what was coming, just not when. He asks Riley what it’s like, and Riley says, better than The Holding. Teddy says he supposes he should thank Alicia for burning down the other place. Alicia asks if his followers know, and he says, they know they’ll live in a well-stocked new home. He wants to show Alicia around himself. He tells the others to wait there. He’ll be all right. There’s nothing to worry about.

Teddy and Alicia go inside, and he says he wanted to get to know her, and he’s glad he did. She’s the one who can finish what he started. She says she’s not finishing anything, and he says, it’s nearly the end. He’s the ending, and can’t be the beginning, but she can. She asks, what makes him think that? and he says, she’ll do what needs to be done without losing sight of the one thing that will be in short supply when this is over. She says, what’s that? and he says, hope. He opens the door to the bunker, and Alicia says, she told them what he’s doing. They’re going to stop him. He locks her inside, and says, he knows it’s hard for her, but it’s what’s happening. They’re going to rebuild the world from there. He and Alicia are alike. He was ahead of his time, and while he was inside, the world changed to be perfectly suited for him. And that’s exactly what’s going to happen. She shakes her head, and he tells her, good luck. Alicia yells that she will not make the world the way he wants it, but he says he knows. That’s what he’s counting on. She watches him leave.

Next time – two episodes left – Teddy says things are about to get started, Dakota asks if everyone knows they’re going to die, Morgan and Victor go to the beach in Galveston, and Morgan asks if Victor is ready to do this.

🕰 Jumping Time…

I don’t mind a time jump, as long as there aren’t several within an episode. That makes me dizzy.

https://comicbook.com/tv-shows/news/fear-the-walking-dead-season-6-finale-time-jump-season-7-nuclear-missile/

🗺 New Places…

Oh, so they mean it will be more like Z Nation? Yes, I’m still bitter about it being canceled.

https://comicbook.com/tv-shows/news/the-walking-dead-world-beyond-season-2-crazy-different-places-new-locations-rick-grimes-scott-gimple/

⚰️ Everything…

Absolutely all you need to know about Season 11 of The Walking Dead, coming to you on August 22nd. This year.

https://www.tomsguide.com/news/the-walking-dead-season-11-release-date-cast-episodes-rick-grimes-return-and-latest-news

🌃 Calling It a Night…

Whether the Sunday scaries are back for you, you have nothing to be frightened of, or everything freaks you out, stay safe, stay environmentally conscious, and stay preserving what you love, but not by destroying anything.

May3

May 2, 2021 – A Visit To The Holding, Lucky Twice & May In Austen

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What I Watched Today

(rambling, random thoughts & annoyingly detailed recaps from real time TV watching)

Fear the Walking Dead

We see people working in an underground greenhouse, and a voiceover says, death, destruction, decay. What’s happening to the world isn’t new. The world has been breaking down since its inception until now. Everything is winding down, including us. Death is inevitable, but from death comes new life. The decaying body feeds the soil, which in turn feeds the plants, which feed us and the creatures who sustain us. That’s the way it’s always been, and the way it will always be. People see death everywhere, but if they looked hard enough, and with open eyes, they’d see life. It’s not their fault; they don’t know how. They’re seeing the way they always have. We know the truth and they don’t; we can see, they can’t. It’s incumbent upon them to help others to be unafraid of what’s to come. Do you know truth? Can you see? Can you help them be unafraid?   

A woman stares at a part zombie, part tree. Riley tells her, hurry up. They have new arrivals coming. They’re going to be hungry. She says she was trying to see like Teddy, but it hasn’t happened yet. The zombie tree reaches out.   

Riley asks where the new recruits are. Teddy says they’re in bad shape. The elevator doors open, and Alicia, Al, Wes, and Luci are there. Riley tells them, it’s okay. He knows they’ve been through a lot not. No one’s going to hurt them. Welcome to The Holding. He thinks they’ll like it here. They come out of elevator into what looks like a community room. Wes asks if Al is sure this is the place Virginia was talking about, and she says, yeah. Wes sees a tree painted on the wall, with the end is the beginning written above it.

A mic and recorder are set up. Alicia asks why Riley is recording, and he says, for Teddy. She asks who Teddy, and Riley says he’s the reason they’re all there. She asks if he’s there now, and Riley says, his presence is always with them. She says, he’s dead? but Riley says, no. He’s very much alive. When you cannot see, he guides you, and when you can’t walk, he’ll carry you. They’re lucky to have found them when they did. She says she’d like her weapon back, but he says, no outsiders are allowed to carry. He learned that lesson the hard way. He asks what they were doing on the road, and she says, scavenging.

He asks where they came from. Wes has replaced Alicia, and says, a place where they’re never going back. Riley asks, why? Teddy is interested in the path that led them there. Over the loudspeaker – which is always going – we hear, we found you, and helped you to see the truth. People look around up there, and see death everywhere. They gaze not on what’s really there. If they truly looked with open eyes, they would see life.

Wes asks, how many people live there? Al asks, are they allowed to leave? Luci says, she’s lived in a place like this before, but Riley says he doubts it. She asks how he can be sure, but he says, there is no place like this. There has never been a place like this.

Zombies are being ground up in a machine, and Al asks how long it takes to break them down. Riley says, a couple of months. They take the bones out for chicken meal. She asks if it’s safe, and he says, this is how all living creatures have decomposed from the beginning of time. Al says, food, water, power, impressive. It also feels like they’re preparing for something. He says they found the group at the right time. He thought he’d let Teddy tell them when he returned, and they can figure out if they want to stay. She says, there’s no reason they shouldn’t know now, and he says Teddy will be closing the doors soon for good. Alicia asks, why? and he says, so they never need to go topside again. That’s the old way. This is a new day. This is where life is beginning again. Ali asks how many people have been allowed to leave, and he says he’s more interested in what she has to say. One question in particular he likes to ask. She says, what is it? Can you see?

They stand in front of the zombie tree, and Riley says, it’s the simplest one there is. What does she see when she looks at it? She says, he’s see joking right? He says, no. Take a good look. Exactly what does she see? She says, a walker who should be in the ground, and he says, anything else? It’s okay. Nobody gets hung on their first try. He asks, what’s troubling her? Be honest; Teddy will know if she’s not. She asks, why would he have something to say about how she feels? and he says, Teddy can look in your eyes and see the truth in a way no one else can, not even her. Her answer will go a long way gaining Teddy’s favor.

Luci asks, what kind of trick is this? and Riley says he’s trying to gage how much she has left to learn. She says, it feels like a trick, and he says, she’s a skeptic. She keeps answering his questions with questions. He likes skeptics. When they’re won over, they’re true believers. As everyone there is.

Al asks what she’s looking for, and Riley says, there is no right or wrong answer.

Wes says he sees an eater, and Riley says, look closer. Wes asks, who painted the trees? and Riley wonders why he’s asking. Wes says he used to be a painter, and Riley asks what he painted. Wes says, all kinds of things. He started copying his brother. Riley says Wes has a brother? and Wes says, had. Alicia says, his name was Nick. Luci says, Pablo. Al says, her brother was her best friend. Wes says, he wanted be just like his brother. Why does Riley ask? Riley says, it’s about family. Teddy says, their survival is dependent on it. Each generation gives way to the next. Riley says, it looks like Alicia is being reminded of something, and she says, her mom grew crops in the place where they used to be. He asks, what happened to her? and Alicia says, she gave her life so they could live. Riley says, her end was your beginning.

The group reconvenes, and Al asks if they found out anything. Alicia says they have to gain The Holding’s trust, and Luci says, and Teddy’s. Has anyone seen him? None of them have, and Alicia says, in the meantime, they’ll find out what they can, why Virginia was scared sh*tless, and get the hell out. Luci says, it could be a long time before the people there get out. Riley joins them, and says, the others have returned. It’s time for them to meet Teddy. They wait by the elevator, and when it opens, Wes’s brother Derek comes out, and asks if they missed lunch. He’s starving. Riley asks where Teddy is, and Derek says, he’ll be back later. Wes walks forward, and says, Derek? Derek says, he’s alive? and hugs Wes. Wes says, Derek is alive, and Derek says, so is he, and they hug again. Alicia says, they found their way out.

Derek and Wes sit at a table, and Wes says, he doesn’t know how long it’s been since he was thinking Derek had been torn to pieces. Couldn’t he drink black coffee? Derek says, is Wes seriously mad because he went looking for creamer? Wes says he doesn’t know, and Derek says he’s sorry; he really is. He found some condensed milk, a whole crate of it, but when he went outside, he got cornered. He ran into a shed, and the eaters were clawing at it. He passed out, and thought that was it, but when he woke up, he was there. They saved him, just like they saved Wes. Wes asks if Derek thought to look for him, and Derek says he did, but Wes was gone… and so was his bike. Wes says he couldn’t stick around, and Derek asks, what happened? but Wes says Derek doesn’t want know. Derek says, it seems like Wes is running with good people. Wes says, things were a little bumpy at first, but they’re headed in the right direction. He says it looks like Derek is still painting, and Derek says he’s just trying to help people see what he does. Wes asks, what’s that? and Derek says, he saw people painting things on trees like, if you’re reading this, you’re still here. That wasn’t going to change anything. They meant well, but it didn’t mean anything. Teddy helped him see that, and now what he’s doing there means something. Wes asks, what exactly is Derek doing, but Derek says he’s not sure Wes is ready for that. Wes asks when he’ll be ready, and Derek says, when Wes sees like he does. He has to do a shift in the garden; he’ll catch Wes at dinner. Derek leaves, and Wes looks at the tree painting. Luci joins him, and says, be careful. Wes says no one is going to hurt him, and she says, what about Tanktown? What they did to everyone. He says, Derek doesn’t know about that, and Alicia says, did Wes ask him? Wes says, there’s no way Derek would do something like that, but Luci says, when people are desperate, they start believing things, and doing things they never thought they would. She did. He shakes his head, and says, Derek is different.  

Gary walks to his shift, with the ever-present loudspeaker going. Al asks what Wes’s brother said, but Wes says, not much. He said he wouldn’t tell him anything until he can see, like Derek does. She says he’s probably waiting to see if they can be trusted, and Wes says, maybe they’re not the threat Virginia thought they were. Maybe it wasn’t about them. Maybe it’s about Virginia. Maybe they were trying to take her out, or maybe she was trying to make us paranoid. Al says, what happened at the tower; they set that up. Wes says, there’s only one way to find out. He’ll ask. Derek sits down, and asks how they’re settling in. It takes some getting used to, not knowing if it’s day or night, but the food makes up for it. He tells Alicia that Wes said she pulled him through a rough patch after he left, and she says Wes helped her out too. A guy comes by, and says something to Derek, and Wes asks, what is it? Derek says, nothing. He has to go topside for a bit. He suggests they try the rhubarb pie. He leaves, and Luci says, what the hell was that? Al asks if Wes knows where Derek’s bunk is, and he says he does. She says, let’s get to work then.  

Al asks if Wes found anything, but he hasn’t. They continue to look through Derek’s stuff, and she asks if Wes hears that. We hear a rushing, gurgling sounds, but Wes encourages Al to keep going. Al says, there’s got to be something, and Wes picks up a can of condensed milk. The lid comes off, and he sees papers inside. He pulls out some things with the three circles on them, and calls Al over. Al asks how the hell Derek got this, and Wes asks, what are they? she says, stuff he shouldn’t have. She opens a floorplan, and says, this about more than Ginny. His brother and everyone there are trying to do as much damage as they can. He says she doesn’t know that, and she says, what about Tanktown? He says, that doesn’t mean anything, but she says, this does, showing him a log. Logs of when Virginia was sending people to Tanktown, and they were keeping track. Of other places too. She’s not saying Derek knew Wes was there, but he knew what they were doing. She’s sorry. He says Derek thinks these people helped him to see more clearly, but they’re not. Maybe it’s time for him to see things another way. Al asks how they’re going to do that, and Wes says, they’ll have to get Derek out of there.

Wes watches as Derek paints. Wes says, Derek did it. Those places he set up for attacks. Derek puts his brush down, and asks how Wes knows that. Wes says, the maps. Why did he do it? Derek says, Wes won’t understand; he’s not ready, and Wes says, why not? Derek says he told Wes; he can’t see. It’s okay; Derek couldn’t either. Not until he met Teddy. Wes says Teddy convinced Derek that killing is the right thing? and Derek says, they have to start over. They can’t until everyone and everything is gone up there. Wes asks if that includes him, and Derek asks what Wes is talking about. Wes says he was at the oil fields. He shows Derek his scars, and says he ate shrapnel. He never felt so much pain. He almost died, and lost friends, people he cared about. Derek says he didn’t know. He would have gotten Wes out. Wes says, but Derek would have killed the rest of them. Derek says, it’s what Teddy wants, but Wes says he doesn’t give a damn. People died. Wes killed people. What does he think about that? Good, innocent people; he killed them. Wes knows this ain’t him. Come with them. Derek says, those places up there are about how they used to live. This is how he wants to live now. Wes says where he lives isn’t about the past. It’s about how and where things are going to be. They won’t make Derek do anything he doesn’t want to, like this Teddy. Derek says Wes is thinking like Morgan, and asks, what about Virginia? Wes says, she’s dead. Morgan helped bring her down. Derek asks where Morgan is, and Wes says, come with them. Derek asks, where? and Wes asks, what does it matter? These people aren’t helping Derek see; they’re blinding him. He’s so lost, Wes knows Derek probably won’t come. To do what he did. The things… Wes is his brother; Derek just has to trust him. Derek looks around, and says, if they catch him trying leave, they’ll kill him. They’ll kill all of them. Wes says, then let’s not get caught.

Derek joins the group, and they go down in the elevator. Al says, when they get out, they’ll travel off the main roads. Alicia says, they’ll need weapons and food, and Al says, there was an emergency drop outside the city. Alicia asks what’s in Derek’s bag? and he says, maps, coordinates, places they were planning to hit next. She says, he’s bringing them? and he says, so nobody else gets hurt. She pops him in the nose, and grabs his gun, aiming it at him. She says, after what happened, they’re not taking any chances. Wes says he’s not leaving his brother. Just because Virginia screwed them over, doesn’t mean Derek will do the same thing. Alicia says, they can come back for him, but right now they have everything they need to take them down. They know the places that are going to be hit. Let’s go. Riley steps out with a bunch of his men, and says, they’re not going anywhere.

The group is pulled into a room with a lot of equipment, and Wes asks where his brother is. What are they doing to him? Alicia asks where the hell this is, and Al says, it’s embalming equipment. It’s a funeral home. Riley says, they won’t decay, and they can’t return to the earth, but it doesn’t have to be like this. Where’s Morgan Jones? Alicia asks how Riley knows Morgan, and he asks, where’s the place Morgan set up? He knows it’s not out of Virginia’s settlements. Who’s first? He nods at Wes, and a guy turns on a machine. Wes struggles with one of the men, and Riley says, his brother thought he’d be more cooperative. Derek comes in and says, answer him or he’ll kill you, and Wes says, Derek planned this. Derek says, only when Wes said they were with Morgan. They’ve been playing them. Wes says, they’re trying to help get Derek out, but Derek says he doesn’t want to leave. What he’s doing there means something. Wes says he’s trying to understand, and Derek says, this is where he needs to be. He saw the truth, and believes Wes can too. Let’s go find out. Wes leaves with Derek.

Back at the zombie tree, Derek asks Wes to tell him what he sees. Wes says he needs to ask one question first. They had people in the oil fields reporting back; it’s the only way they could have pulled it off. Did Derek know he was there? Derek says, people are people. Now tell him what he sees. Wes says he sees someone just like him. Someone walking, even though he’s dead inside. Derek says that’s exactly how he felt, but Wes says, he wasn’t talking about himself. Wes tries to grab Derek’s gun, and they struggle. Wes is almost shot, but gets the better of Derek, shoving him into the zombie tree, who (which?) bits him. I say, well, this isn’t good, and Wes says, I love you, man. He lowers Derek to the floor, cocks the gun, and says again that he loves Derek. We hear a shot.

Riley hears the shot, and says, what the hell? Do it. His men grab everyone, but Wes comes in behind Riley and grabs him, holding the gun against him. Wes says, let them go, and Alicia realizes Derek isn’t there. She tells Wes that she’s sorry, and he says, him too. He tells the men, back away, and keeps Riley in front of him as a shield. He says, he’s the one who thought people were capable of more than saving their own skin. They go through a door, Wes last, leaving Riley behind, and they shut the door behind them. Al says, they have a couple of minutes, tops. They shine flashlights around, and see they’re in a room of zombies hanging from the ceiling. Al says, they’re all involved… Their jaws are wired shut. Riley and his men bang on the door, and the group walks through the zombies. Riley says, break it down, and Luci calls to Al. Al tells her, go ahead. One of the zombies is wearing a uniform like Isabelle’s, and is wearing a headcover. Al pulls it off, but it’s not Isabelle. It breaks the wires in its jaw, and Al slices open its throat. Instead of blood, green embalming fluid pours out.

The door opens a crack, and Luci says, now. Alicia says they’ve got to take this place down, and Al says, embalming fluid is flammable. She starts to slice the zombies’ throats open, but Alicia says, go; she’s got this, She takes over, and Wes says, let him, but she says he has to get the maps to Morgan. He told her people can do more, and they can. He says, they can’t leave her, but she says, they can; she’ll be right behind him. He runs, and she stabs the rest of the zombies as she moves through them. The door is almost off, and she lights a match. As the door opens completely, she drops it. Nice.

Morgan says he thought Alicia would be fine. Al says, she might have, and Morgan asks about the rest of them. Al says, some got away. He asks, how many? but she says, all they could see was fire. Morgan says, they were planning something, and Luci says, something big. Big enough keep them there for a long time. Al says they knew who Morgan was, and were trying to find him. Morgan asks if they have any idea why, but Al says, no. A woman says, whatever they were doing, it’s not going to happen. They’ve got to stop them. Morgan says, they’ll do what they can for Alicia, and Dwight asks if there’s any gas left. The woman says, no, but the horses are fed and watered. Dakota says she wants to help, but Morgan says, no. She says she wouldn’t be there but for Alicia. She’s the reason they went there, and she wants to do it for Alicia, for all of them. Morgan says he appreciates what she’s done, but they’re not there yet. They’ll start with the parking garage, and track what they left, He and Luci leave, but Al stays behind.

Dwight says he appreciates what Al has done, and asks if she’s all right. She says, the places that they’re targeting, the maps have drop safes all over them. If they had a chopper, they could take out a lot of people. He says, and her lady? Al says she has to find her and warn her. She’d thought she lost her. Dwight says he gets it, but if Al doesn’t check in, in a couple of days he’s going to come looking for her.

Alicia looks through stuff in the embalming room, when Riley comes in with another guy. She asks, what the hell was this? Why is keeping her there? Riley says, bodies feed the soil; the soil in turn, feeds the plants. Death brings new life. For most, but not for her. They’re going preserve her as she is. She tells the guy, don’t come any closer, and Riley says, get her ready. He has the feeling Teddy will want to do this himself. He leaves, and the guy turns on the machine. He says, it will go faster if she cooperates, and gestures to the table. He comes toward her, and she stabs him in the eye with a knife. She tries to get out, but he grabs her, and they roll over the table. He grabs a knife, and tries to stab her, but misses, stabbing the ground. He pins her down, but she sticks her thumb in the eye she stabbed, and grabs the embalming fluid needle, and stabs him in the neck. I laaagh. She scoots away.   

Someone walks in with Riley, but Alicia’s vision is blurry. We assume it’s Teddy. He stabs the newly dead guy in the head, and wipes the blade off on the guys shirt. Yep it’s John Glover Teddy. He tells Riley to give them a moment, and Riley leaves. Alicia says, so he’s the king of crazy, and he says, she’s Alicia. She asks how he knows her name, and he says he’s been listening to her voice. Riley made a recording of her when she first arrived. He moves closer, and she tells him, back off, but he says, if he meant her harm, they wouldn’t be having this conversation. She gave herself up so her friends could escape. They left her. She says she made them, and he says, they obliged. Some family. Family should be sacred. It is the beginning of every one of them. Did she sacrifice herself because she’s noble, or is she punishing herself, or following in her mother’s footsteps. Alicia shakes her head, and says she doesn’t care what he thinks or says. Whatever it is, get to it. He says, it’s okay; he’s a bit of mama’s boy himself. There’s a lot they can learn from each other. She says she’s not buying any of this sh*t he’s selling. What’s next? Does he want to kill her? That’s not going to happen. He says, she and the folks she came here with destroyed years of work, years of sacrifice, literally and figuratively. They destroyed it. Someone else in his position might find that unforgivable. He laughs, and says, if one lives by the sword… She knows how it goes. From every end springs a new beginning. She asks what he wants, and he says, to save her. Now it’s her turn to laugh, and she says she doesn’t need saving. He says he knows she doesn’t believe in this, or in them… yet, but she will. He’s been looking for someone like her for a long time. He holds out his hand and smiles.

Next time, Riley finds Morgan, Riley tells Morgan that he has something they want, lots of zombies, and a fire.  

⚰️ When Soaps and Dead Collide…

He’s doubly lucky, having played Lucky on General Hospital, and now he’s lucky to be in the final season of TWD.  

https://comicbook.com/tv-shows/news/the-walking-dead-final-season-11-casts-soap-star-jacob-young-deaver/

🤸‍♀️ Gotta Split…

Moving on to another Monday. Whatever that means anymore. Hopefully, your vaccination is behind you, or will be soon. Either way, stay safe, stay moving forward, and stay not living by the sword. You know how it goes.

May1

April 30, 2021 – Unexpected Allies Plan To Stop Cyrus, Close Call, a Tribute, Switching Genres, Sonja Votes No, Lucky 13, Going Down, May Day, New Drag, a Cardinal Number of Quotes & New Jackson

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What I Watched Today

(rambling, random thoughts & annoyingly detailed recaps from real time TV watching)

General Hospital

Carly says she doesn’t have time for Ava, but Ava says, it’s important. It’s about Avery. She’s in trouble. Carly tells her to come in, and asks, what kind of trouble? Ava says, the kind that comes from Cyrus Renault. Ava sees Laura on the couch, and Laura says, what about Cyrus? Carly’s phone rings, and it’s Britt.

Nina goes into the Tan-O, and Sonny says, hi. He asks how her friends is, and she says, on the mend. He asks how she is, and she says, fine. She was hoping he’d fill this thermos with coffee, so she could take it with her. He says, she’s going on a trip? and she says she’s bringing her friend back home. He says, he’s leaving Nixon Falls?

Jax struggles to put on his shirt, when Phyllis knocks on the door. He tells her, come in, and she rushes over to help him. She asks, how’s the shoulder? and he says, every time it flares up, he thinks about how Nina could have gotten shot, and how close he came to losing her. Phyllis says she sees. That means he’s not giving up on her. He says, he’s not, and she says, then he didn’t hear a word she said. He tells her, he heard every word she said, and he agrees with her. He has to respect Nina’s wishes. She asks if that shouldn’t be the end of it, and he says, it’s not the end; it’s a pause, a break between rounds. Because Nina’s worth fighting for.

Trina looks under the hood of the car, and Josslyn says, the dashboard light says, check engine. Trina says she’s checking, but she doesn’t know what she’s looking for. Josslyn looks at her phone and says she’ll see if she can find something online that can help. Trina says she’s sorry, but Josslyn says, what for? It’s not her fault the car overheated. Trina says she doesn’t think they’re going to get to Josslyn’s dad.

Alexis is working in the prison library, when Maggie asks if the warden is a friend of hers. Alexis says, no; why? and Maggie says, a cushy job like this needs connections. Just asking. Alexis hands Maggie two volumes, and says she pulled these books for her. They’ll help with her parole. Maggie thanks her, and says Alexis has been very helpful. She appreciates it. She adds, Alexis needs to watch out. Getting special treatment can put a target on your back. She leaves, and Alexis hears a voice saying he thinks he’s a bit overdue. She turns around to see Shawn, who says, hello, Alexis.

Britt tells Carly that she’s calling to tell her that her appointment has been rescheduled for Thursday, like she wanted. Carly thanks her, and says she’s feeling better already. Elizabeth approaches Britt and asks if she knows who installed all the new faces on the floor, like the janitor (i.e. the guy who was in Britt’s office yesterday) over there. Britt says she doesn’t know. HR approves new hires. Elizabeth asks if any of the new hires are security, or is one guard from Pentenville enough to handle Jason?

The guard says Cameron can’t be in Jason’s room, but Jason asks if he can stay. They need to talk.

Nina says, her friend can’t find his way back to Port Charles, so she’s going to drive him. Sonny says, good. The guy took a bullet. The least he deserves is a free ride, and a thermos full of Lenny’s coffee. She says she told him that she was going to drive to Port Charles; she didn’t say she was going to stay there. Sonny asks what she’s going to do. Drive there, and drop him off at his big mansion, and drive back? She says she’s going to take care of some stuff at Crimson, then she has a few loose ends to take care of. Then she’ll get in the car and drive back to Nixon Falls.  He says, it seems like a long drive to drop someone off and come back. Is her friend worth it? 

Jax tells Phyllis that he has a lot to prove to Nina, and he’s going to start by helping her be a part of her grandson’s life. He spoke to the boy’s father, and he seems open to it. Phyllis says she’s glad he’s doing what he can to help Nina see her grandson, and he says, but? She says she’s hoping it’s not just an avenue he’s using to win Nina back. He says, he loves her, and wants her back, but he wants her happiness more. She asks if he loves Nina enough to let her go.

Trina tells Josslyn, her mom’s motor club is sending someone. If they can’t fix it, they’ll tow them. They should be there within the hour. Josslyn says she’d hate to drive all this way to see her dad, and by the time they get there, he’s gone. Trina says, maybe they should have stuck to Plan A, and gone to the volleyball championship in Syracuse. At least they’d be with their friends. Josslyn says, sorry. She’d rather be pulled over there, with a check engine light. Sitting on the sidelines would be just another reminder that her final season is over, and so are her hopes for getting off the waitlist at SCU. Trina says she knows Josslyn is disappointed, but it’s Southern Coastal’s loss, and PCU’s gain. Think about how much fun they’ll have at PCU. Josslyn guesses she’s right, and Trina says, if Cameron bails on California, and joins them, that’s even better. Josslyn says she knows Trina is trying to make her feel better, but she has no idea what to do about Cameron right now. He’s convinced Jason killed Franco, and wants her to agree, but she won’t. She knows Jason didn’t do it. How do they get past that? Trina says, maybe start be realizing what’s going on between her and Cameron isn’t entirely about Jason. It’s also about Josslyn and Cameron.   

The guard says Cameron can talk to the prisoner, but the door stays open. He’ll be right outside. Cameron tells the guard, yes, sir. He says, Jason wanted to talk, so talk. Jason says, you go first. That’s why Cameron came there. Cameron tells him, he had a lot to say when he first found out Jason was there. Now that he sees Jason, he wants to see Jake’s father, the father Jake believes in so much, but he can’t. He just sees the person who killed Franco.

Britt asks if she has to remind Elizabeth that Jason is a patient there, and will be treated as such. Elizabeth says, so that guy over there has nothing to do with Jason? and Britt says, it might surprise Elizabeth, but HR doesn’t need to clear personnel decisions with the part-time nursing staff. Elizabeth says, something strange is going on. Jason is there for a minor stab wound, something that could have been treated in the prison infirmary. Why? Britt says, maybe it looked worse than it was. Maybe they were afraid of being sued by the Quartermaines. Who knows? Clearly, Jason’s presence there is upsetting Elizabeth. Maybe it’s time they had a talk about her status at GH.   

Carly asks Ava, what’s going on with Avery? and Ava says, Cyrus came by, and claimed he was there to see Nikolas. When she said Nikolas wasn’t there, Cyrus made himself at home anyway. Carly tells her to get to the part about Avery, and Ava says Nikolas thought if he got Cyrus’s mother back, Alexis would be kept safe in Pentenville. Laura says she told him he was making a deal with the devil, and Ava says, they all did. When she suggested to Cyrus that he had no further business with Nikolas, he started talking about family; how Nikolas was his nephew, and she was his niece-in-law. Then he picked up a photo of Avery, and pointed out how she bears a striking resemblance to her father. Carly says, that son of a bitch. Now does Laura see why Carly needs her help?

Nina tells Sonny that she’ll be gone two days, three tops. He says he’s glad to hear it. Who else would risk their toes being his dance partner? He asks if he can be a little pushy, and she says, why stop now? He says, it seems like she’s going out of her way for this guy who hurt her; keeping a secret about her child from her. What decent man does that? She says, he was trying to spare her some pain, which was not his decision to make. He should have trusted her enough to believe she was strong enough to face the truth. Eli comes in, and says, trust. That’s the key to every lasting relationship. Wouldn’t Mike/Sonny agree?

Jax tells Phyllis, if Nina is happier without him, of course (🍷) he’ll let her go. In the meantime, he reserves the right to at least try. She says she can tell he would move heaven and earth for Nina, if he could, and he says he would. She says, what if Nina’s not looking for a superhero, but just someone who will simply tell her the truth? He says, unlike him. He can assure Phyllis, it was an isolated incident. She says, one he can’t take back. Nina came there looking for a different life. It’s too soon to say if she found it, but if she decides she’s found a future there in Nixon Falls, then he has to let her choose it. She wishes him a safe journey, and he says, what if Nina decides her life is in Port Charles? Phyllis says, then he needs to step back, and let Nina come to him.

Josslyn tells Trina that she and Cameron were good until Franco was killed, and Cameron convinced himself Jason did it. Trina says, what if they weren’t? What if something was wrong between them already? Josslyn asks what Trina is trying to tell her, and Trina says she shouldn’t have mentioned it. It’s not her place to say. Josslyn says, since when has that stopped her? and Trina says, never, and Josslyn deserves to know. Josslyn says, know what? and Trina says, not what, who. May he rest in peace.

Alexis says, not that she’s complaining, but how did Shawn get access into the women’s wing? He says, special privilege; to access books the men’s wing doesn’t have on the shelves. Of course (🍷) he had to wait a couple of years to prove himself before they let him in. He asks what her secret is, and she says, they needed a library assistant, and everyone has always said she comes across bookish. He says, when TJ told him that she was sentenced there, he thought TJ made a mistake. She says, just a cavalcade of great personal errors, and he says, TJ told him that she pled guilty. She says she wanted to face the consequences, and as it happens, those consequences are right here. He asks if it’s true she stabbed Dante, and she says she went on a booze-fueled rampage, and almost killed Franco, but Dante got in the way. He says, that’s a lot, and she says it is. Does he remember how he couldn’t quit working for Sonny, and it ended with him being put in there? She couldn’t quit drinking, and it landed her there. He says she remembers them, and she says he’s not easy to forget. He says he doesn’t look back and try to figure out what might have been; not too much anyway. She says, eyes forward, and he says, something like that. She says, it turns out they’re family anyway; they’re in-laws. He says, Molly and TJ. Who knew when they met all those years ago as a couple of kids, they’d go the distance? She says, lucky them, and he agrees.

Elizabeth says she barely has any status left, and Britt says, the fact is, Elizabeth lost her husband, horribly and violently, and then came back to work too quickly. The head of infectious diseases asked that she be reassigned not to care for Detective Chase. If this pattern continues, Britt’s hands will be tied, and she can’t help. She thinks a leave of absence is in order – effective immediately. 

Cameron says, Jake keeps telling him that Jason didn’t do it. Jason says he told Jake the truth, and it’s exactly what he’ll tell Cameron. Cameron wonders if Jason is going to make him ask if he did it. He already knows the answer. Jason says, based on what? Cameron wasn’t there; he doesn’t know what happened. Cameron says, the cops think he did it. They arrested Jason and sent him to prison. Jason says, to await trial. He’s innocent until proven guilty. Cameron says that works great for Jason. He thinks he’ll get away with it, and why not? Jake thinks he’s a hero, Josslyn thinks he’s so great, but Franco is his hero, and he was an art therapist, not a killer like Jason.

Ava says, the way Cyrus was admiring that photo, you could practically hear it would be a shame if anything happened to her tanging in the air. Laura says, this has got to stop, and Carly asks if that means Laura will help her. Ava asks, help with what? but Carly says it doesn’t concern Ava. Ava tells Carly, if it concerns her mother-in-law and her daughter, she’d say it concerns her. Carly says, Ava chose to back Nikolas, who put them in the position of losing the leverage they had left, and Ava tells her, give it a rest. Carly kidnapped a sick old lady. Laura says, in fairness, Florence was well-cared for and happy, but when they had her, they had a check on Cyrus. That check is gone now. Ava says, Nikolas thought he was helping his aunt, and Laura says she knows, but the reality is that Cyrus has been unleashed. Carly says, Nikolas made a huge mistake, so if they find they have the devil at their door, that’s on them.  She’ll do anything to help Avery, but she’s not going to rescue Ava. Ava says she’s not there to ask for help. She’s there to offer it.

Sonny asks how long Eli was listening to their private conversation, and Eli says, does Sonny mean when did he walk into an open public establishment and hear the tail end of a conversation? Just now. Sonny asks where at the tail end did Eli feel there were asking him to give input? and Nina says, enough. She has to go to the clinic, get her friend, and drive him to Port Charles. While she’s gone, are they going to play nice, or does she have to call Lenny to referee? Sonny says he’s got work to do, and Eli tells her, don’t worry; they’ll behave. He hopes she hurries back. It’s not the same without her. She gets her bag, and smiles at Sonny. When she’s gone, Eli tells Sonny, Nina is right. They don’t have to be enemies. They want the same thing. Sonny says, what’s that? and Eli says, they both care about Nina, Lenny and Phyllis, and Nixon Falls, but thanks to the robbery the other night, the town he loves, the town Sonny adopted as his new home, is teetering on brink. Sonny says, and whose fault is that, Elijah?

Josslyn asks if this is about Oscar, but Trina says, it’s about Dev. She didn’t want to say anything because the loss is so fresh, but it’s been there, bubbling beneath the surface undermining Josslyn’s friendship with Cameron, and she didn’t even know it. Josslyn says, know what? and Trina says, before he died, Dev did something selfish, almost borderline creepy. He somehow found her journal, and showed it to Cameron. Josslyn asks if that’s why her journal is missing, and Trina says, yeah. She asks when Trina found out, and why she waited so long to say something. Trina says, it didn’t seem important, and happened a long time ago, but Josslyn says she thinks she should be the judge of that. Trina says she didn’t want to tarnish Dev’s memory, and Josslyn says she can see that. Trina says, and Cameron is still upset, and Josslyn says, he’s upset because Dev took her journal? Trina says, he’s upset about what was in it, and Josslyn says Trina lost her. What upset Cameron? Trina tells Josslyn that she’s already said too much. Josslyn needs to ask Cameron. The tow guy shows up, and says, Dr. Robinson? Trina thanks him for coming so quick, and tells him the car was overheating. He says, I’ll see what I can do about that, doc.  

Elizabeth says, a leave of absence is the last thing she needs. She needs more work. Britt asks if it’s about money, and Elizabeth says, of course (🍷) it’s about the money, but the only helping her heal is to work. Please reconsider. Britt says, okay. They’ll table the discussion for now, but take the rest of the day off – with pay. Britt will cover Elizabeth’s shift. Elizabeth starts to protest, but Britt says, go home. Elizabeth leaves, and the custodian watches.

Jason says he gets that Cameron needs to blame someone, but that doesn’t make it true. Cameron says, what makes it true is Jason pulling the trigger and murdering his stepfather. Britt comes in, and says, what’s going on? She asks what Cameron is doing, and Cameron says, he hopes they keep Jason nice and safe. He hopes Jason has a long life in prison, and dies and old man behind bars. He leaves, and Jason says, let him go. Britt says, he’s a charmer, and tells the guard that she needs to examine Jason, closing the door. She asks what that was about, and Jason says Cameron thinks he killed Franco. Britt says, Cameron is clearly in pain. Why doesn’t Jason help him, and tell him that it was Peter?

Ava tells Carly, Cyrus put Lulu in a coma, and put Jason in prison. She wouldn’t be surprised if he had something to do with what happened to Sonny. Now he’s threatening Ava’s husband and daughter. He’s threatening their girl. As much as Ava doesn’t like admitting it, Avery is theirs. Tell her what they’re up to, and let her help. Laura says she was on the fence until she heard Cyrus’s latest threat, against a child. They have to do something, and they have to do it now and do it together. All of them.

Eli says he hopes Mike/Sonny isn’t blaming him for Nixon Falls failing economy. Brick and mortar is suffering everywhere. Even Drummond’s Pawn Shop is struggling, and it thrives when people are forced to sell. Sonny says, hard times. He’s not blaming Eli for the economy, but he’s not sure about the robbery at the firehouse. Eli says Sonny thinks he had something… and Sonny says, Eli did leave before the shooting started. Eli says, he’s responsible because he wasn’t there? Mike/Sonny was in the thick of it, and not for the first time. Like he told Lenny, crime seems to follow Mike/Sonny wherever he goes. Why is that? What is the secret to his terrible timing?

Nina asks Jax how he’s doing, and he says he’s been released. He signed the paperwork, and back to Port Charles he goes. She asks if he’s walking back. She knows he can’t fly the plane with his shoulder like that. He says, of course (🍷), he’s made other arrangements, and she says, cancel them. She has a full tank of gas, and a thermos full of Lenny’s coffee. She’s driving him back home. She’s parked out front, and ready to roll. He says he’s sorry. He appreciates it, but he’s afraid he has to decline.

Alexis asks what made Shawn decide to get a business degree, and he says he spent the first few years proving how tough he was. Survival of the fittest. She says she’s familiar with that. Unfortunately, Darwin isn’t her friend there.  He says, he figured he had to take something from this place besides battle scars, so he started a group for inmates suffering from PTSD. That’s how he got access to the library. He started reading about business, and discovered he had a knack for it. She says, so here he is, and he says, one day, he’ll put it to use, if he lives that long. She says here’s hoping they both get out of there. She had a close call. He says, just one? and she says, a special one. He says she doesn’t look banged up, and she says, somebody intervened. He says, maybe someone got a notice from someone on the outside? and she says, something like that. She’s sure Sonny looked out for him when he was in there, and Shawn says, he was, but he knew he could trust Sonny. If someone comes to her with a deal that sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Jason says Britt saw how angry Cameron was. If he knew the truth… Britt says he’s right. Cameron would probably get in Peter’s face with the whole, you killed Franco and now I’m going to make you pay, and then Peter would kill him too. It’s good of Jason to take the hit. As long as Cameron keeps his anger directed at Jason, he should be safe. Jason says, until they can prove Peter did this. She smiles, and he says, what? She says, for an unfeeling killer, he can be kind of sweet. He says she shouldn’t be there, but she says it’s the only place they can have a private conversation. He says, Cyrus could be watching, and she says, that ship has sailed; Cyrus already called her out for spending too much time with him.

New custodian wheels his supplies past Jason’s room. He goes around the corner, and calls Cyrus. He says, she’s in with Jason now… He can’t hear. The door is closed… Okay. He’ll let Cyrus know. He watches as Britt sits down by Jason’s bed.

Carly says she doesn’t know what part Ava can play in this, and Ava says Carly is always accusing her of being ruthless. Now’s her chance to use that ruthlessness to her advantage. Laura says, Ava is right. Carly should listen to her. The one thing Carly and Ava have in common is their love for Avery, like she and Ava have their love for Nikolas in common. Let’s be real. They all have their reasons to distrust one another, but the one thing they can all agree on is, nothing is more important than their children. This man has taken her daughter from her, and she’s not going to stand by and watch him take Nikolas too. Whatever Carly has planned, she doesn’t want to know about it, but maybe Ava can help. Carly says she thinks Laura is right. Working together is the only way to stop Cyrus. Ava asks what she can do, and Carly says, call Cyrus and invite him to dinner at Windymere tonight.   

Sonny tells Eli, great question. He goes day to day, minding his own business, and trouble seems to come out of nowhere, like somebody wants bad things to happen to him, and has the force to make it happen. Maybe it’s just his paranoia talking. Does Eli know what the one good thing about Nina leaving is? Eli won’t be able to use her to pump up interest in Nixon Falls while he drives the real estate prices down. Eli says he doesn’t follow, and Sonny says, Eli’s friends keep buying real estate, and everyone is selling. Nina’s article comes out, and everybody says, Nixon Falls is a great destination; everybody’s got to go there. And when they come, Eli will sell – at a profit. Is he right? Eli says, that’s fascinating. For a guy who doesn’t know his own name, he sure has it figured out. Sonny yells that he’s got Eli figured out, Eli yells back, and they start with the no, you stuff. Phyllis comes in and asks if this is the thanks she gets for taking both of them in, and treating them like family. Is this how they disrespect her?  

Nina says Jax came all this way to talk to her, and she offers to spend hours on the road with him, and he turns her down? Jax says, let’s be honest. The two of them in a car after all that’s been said… She says he’s probably right. It’s a bad idea. He says, besides, he’s already made arrangements for a car and driver; they’re waiting outside. Josslyn walks in, and asks if someone asked for a driver. Don’t just stand there. Come hug your daughter… or don’t. What happened to his arm? He’d said it was a minor injury. He says, it’s fine. The bullet barely grazed his shoulder.

Elizabeth asks Cameron what he’s doing there, and he asks why she didn’t tell him that he was there. She says he means Jason. Please don’t tell her that he tried to see Jason. That’s exactly why she didn’t tell him; she wanted to spare him. He says, Jake and Josslyn kept saying Jason didn’t do it. Part of him thought maybe there was something decent in Jason. Jake loves him, so he can’t be all bad. But he is.

Britt tells Jason that she’d better be on her way, before the guard thinks she’s giving him preferential treatment. She wouldn’t want it to get back to the boss. He says, this is her last chance; she doesn’t have to do this. She says she knows the risks to her or anyone she cares about. Thankfully, it’s a small list. She puts her shaking hand in her pocket, and says, nobody lives forever. It’s how you live that matters. She spent a lot of her life on the wrong side. It’s about time she tried the right one. Jason says, but there’s one more thing he needs her to do.

Ava says, excuse her? and Carly says, Ava heard her. Invite Cyrus to dinner. Ava asks if she should make it a family affair, and Carly says, even better. Ava asks how a dinner party is going to neutralize Cyrus, and Carly says, trust has its limits. Call the man. The clock is ticking, and they’re running out of time.

Jax tells Josslyn, yes, it was an act of courage and heroism, and Nina says, he’s not wrong. Jax says he can tell her the rest on the drive home, and Nina says, they have a long drive ahead of them. They should probably hit the road. Jax says, especially in an ankle boot. How did Josslyn get there? He thought she was supposed to go to the state tournaments, and that her ankle was healing. Josslyn says, they’ll talk on the way home, as soon as Trina gets back with the car. Nina says, Trina is here too? and Josslyn says they borrowed her mom’s car. Trina was starving, so she dropped Josslyn off and went to get something to eat. Nina says, so she went to a drive-through? but Josslyn says, she wanted to go to a super cute place they saw on their way here. It’s called the Tan-O.   

Sonny apologizes to Phyllis. He meant no disrespect. Eli says, him either; no excuses. He tells Mike/Sonny, no hurt feelings? and they shake hands. Phyllis says she knows they’re putting on a show right now, but she hopes they actually take the opportunity to learn how to get along. Eli says he’s willing to bury the hatchet if Mike/Sonny is, and Sonny shrugs, saying, that’s part of the show, but if it’s what Phyllis wants, it’s what they’ll do. Eli says, absolutely, and leaves. Phyllis tells Sonny, he knows she can read his tone, and he says, it’s just the fact that Eli thinks he can snow Phyllis that’s disrespectful. Phyllis asks if that’s what Sonny is doing right now, but he says at least he’s telling the truth. That takes some honesty. She says, nice save. She still needs something from him. He says, name it, and she says if he wants Nina to be happy in Nixon Falls, help make it a place where she finds peace, and harmony, not shouting and aggression. Can he manage that? He says he can do that, and she says she believes he can do better than that. He asks if she ever gets tired of being right, and she says, never. Now get to work. He laughs, and they go into the back. Trina comes in the Tan-O.    

Alexis asks if Shawn is telling her to refuse help if it comes from the inside or the outside, and he says, that depends. If it comes from someone like Cyrus Renault, that kind of favor comes at a price. She asks what she should do; quit her job the first day to get the target off her back. He says, hell no. How else could he see his favorite in-law? Just remember, she’s got a friend inside too.

Elizabeth tells Cameron, Jason’s not all bad, but Cameron asks how she can say that. She saw him looming over Franco’s body. She says she saw the way he was talking to Jake. He says Jason lied in Jake’s face. She knows Jason is guilty as well as he does.

On the phone, Ava says she was thinking about what Cyrus said about the importance of family. She’d like to invite him to dinner with her and Nikolas at Windymere. Not just the three of them. She’s invited Martin… If they’re having difficulty in communicating, she’s sure Laura will… Yes, Laura is going to be there… Oh yes, she agreed to come. Dare I say, she’s looking forward to it. It will be a true family affair.

Britt says she knows it’s a change of pace for Jason. She senses asking people for things, such as help, isn’t something he does well. What can she do for him? He says she needs to leave, and she says, and go where? He says, if things go sideways, she needs deniability, from the cops and Cyrus. She says, okay. She’ll take herself to the MetroCourt, and have a very public drink, while all hell is breaking loose there. Get that bastard of a brother of hers. And while he’s at it, try not to die. As his doctor, she would take that personally.

As Carly and Ava walk Laura to the door, Laura says, well done, and Ava thanks her. Laura says she’s going home to try and wrap her mind around what she just agreed to. It should be a night to remember. Laura leaves, and Ava tells Carly, she’ll keep Cyrus at Windymere for as long as she possibly can, and good luck with whatever Carly’s part of the plan is. Carly says, wait. She believes Ava is doing this to keep Avery safe, and believes Ava will keep her end of the bargain, but if she’s wrong, and this is a double-cross… Ava says, it’s not. For once, they’re on the same side. Cyrus won’t know what hit him.

On Monday, Cyrus wonders why they’re at Windymere, Carly tells Spinelli that she doesn’t like it at all, and the guard tells Jason, it’s time to go.

💣 It Would Have Been Chaos…

Sonny almost gave GH the slip.

Maurice Benard Opens Up About Quitting GENERAL HOSPITAL

🕶 Save the Date…

On May 21st, GH will pay tribute to one of our favorite spies.

GENERAL HOSPITAL Announces Date for John Reilly Tribute Episode

🍀 Lucky Gets Lucky…

Funny though, no mention of GH.

https://screenrant.com/walking-dead-season-11-cast-jacob-young/

🦞 No Vote For You…

Not unless she gets a purse full of lobsters.

https://pagesix.com/2021/04/28/sonja-morgan-wont-vote-for-ex-rhony-star-barbara-kavovit-for-mayor/

🗽 New New York…

What’s to come on RHONY.

‘Real Housewives of New York’ Fans Will Not Believe Who Pops Up in the Season 13 Premiere

New Wife Eboni and Leah have a pregame dish.

https://extratv.com/videos/it-s-a-new-era-eboni-k-williams-and-leah-mcsweeney-dish-on-rhony-season-13/

🏆 Oscars So Low Rated…

Even lower than the Snow White fiasco.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/26/media/oscars-ratings-2021/index.html

The search for answers.

https://www.cinemablend.com/new/4-Possible-Reasons-Oscar-Ratings-Were-Down-Year-115297.html

💐 Tra-La It’s May…

The lowdown on May Day.

https://www.bhg.com/holidays/traditions/what-is-may-day/

🤯 Mind Officially Blown…

My favorite drag queen of all time does a Jackson duet. (See below for full video.)

Orville Peck and Trixie Mattel Channel Johnny Cash and June Carter in “Jackson” Music Video

🌬 Quotes of the Week

The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible. – Arthur C. Clarke

Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action. – William James

You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. – Jim Rohn

Rejection is an opportunity for your selection. – Bernard Branson

You’ve got to learn to leave the table when love’s no longer being served. – Nina Simone

Even if it makes others uncomfortable, I will love who I am. – Janelle Monáe

If you prioritize yourself, you are going to save yourself. – Gabrielle Union

Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is. – Vince Lombardi

One child, one teacher, one pen, and one book can change the world. – Malala Yousafzai

Aerodynamically, the bumble bee shouldn’t be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn’t know it so it goes on flying anyway. – Mary Kay Ash

Confidence comes not from always being right, but from not fearing to be wrong. – Peter McIntyre

Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear. – George Addair

The soul always knows what to do to heal itself. The challenge is to silence the mind. – Caroline Myss

We can’t even get cable TV here, and you want romance. – Linda Barrett (Phoebe Cates), Fast Times at Ridgemont High

🐧 Sliding Back Out Like…

Here it is again, those days once known as the weekend, before darkness fell on the land. But I hear they might be a thing again soon, so start practicing. And no matter which day it is, stay safe, stay lighthearted, and stay not being selfish and/or borderline creepy by stealing someone’s journal.

Apr14

April 13, 2021 – Peter Takes a Page From Faison’s Playbook, Temp Taggert, Sonny Reflects, Soap Siblings, Bittersweet, a Denial, a Real Couple, a Royal Farewell & Let Go

Posted on by
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What I Watched Today

(rambling, random thoughts & annoyingly detailed recaps from real time TV watching)

General Hospital

Finn goes to The Savoy, and tells Curtis, wow. This is very impressive. Curtis says he sees Finn finally dragged his butt down there to check it out, and Finn says he has something for Curtis. He sets a lunchbox-type case with a bow on it on the bar.

Jordan literally runs into Portia at the hospital because she’s busy on her phone. She apologizes, saying she should know better, and Portia says, it’s best to keep your wits about you around here. Jordan says she should have called first. She wanted to take TJ to dinner, but he’s assisting in surgery. She guesses she’ll go back home, but Portia says, or Jordan could join her for coffee. She looks on edge. Would it help to vent?

Britt comes into Maxie’s hospital room, where Maxie is packing her bag. She says Maxie’s papers are ready, and then asks, what’s wrong? Maxie says she just got off the phone with Peter’s assistant. She can’t find him, and wants him to know Carlton Media expressed interest in The Invader. Britt asks why Maxie is upset by that, and Maxie says, Carlton is a media conglomerate. Britt says, maybe it’s a cold offer, but Maxie says, or Peter plans on selling The Invader, and taking the money to leave Port Charles and the US, and taking her and the baby with him. Britt says Peter isn’t taking Maxie anywhere, but Maxie says, if he’s trying to make a deal, that means he’ll have the money to do it at any time. Britt says, then it’s good she bought the time they need by telling Peter that Maxie needs bedrest and no stress. Maxie thanks her again, and says she needs to go home and figure out what’s next. Obrecht comes in and says she’ll do no such thing. Get back in bed this instant.

Anna asks Peter what they forgot, and he says, they’re not the only ones who can make plans. She asks what he means, and he says if they go through with this, someone they care about will die. She says Peter isn’t in a position to make threats, and Valentin says, they’re taking him to a containment area until they get the evidence to convict him. Peter says, it sounds like the two of them; abducting him, and telling themselves that it’s all about justice. No matter. He set his plan in motion long ago, and the only way to stop it is to let him go.   

There’s a knock at Chase’s door, and Brook says she knows he’s in there. He’s too much of a grandpa to leave the lights on if he’s not home. He lets Brook in, the blanket wrapped around his shoulders, and she asks if he overslept again. Wake up; she has coffee. Is he doing okay? He looks like hell. What’s wrong with him?   

Michael tells Willow, he dreamed of this, and she says, her too. He’s glad it’s real, and he can finally say what he’s been wanting to say for months; what part of him has known longer than that. He loves her. She says she loves him too, and they get busy again.

Finn says, it’s Curtis’s very own portable defibrillator. He’d said he wanted one for behind the bar in case of an emergency. It’s a sound idea. Curtis thanks him, but says he was just asking for Finn’s input. He didn’t expect Finn to buy him one. Finn asks if Curtis is turning it down, but Curtis says, no; it’s going behind the bar. He says he appreciates Finn, and Finn says he appreciates Curtis letting him stop by. He just came from dinner with Chase, Jackie, and his dad. Curtis asks how it went, and Finn says, it went better than expected, but it was still incredibly awkward. Curtis says he knows how awkward things can get. He asks if Finn and Anna worked things out, but Finn says he’d rather talk about the new club. How is the opening coming? Curtis says, maybe it’s a good thing he’s still waiting for his liquor license. He has about a thousand decisions to make. He needs to hire a sound engineer and an audio guy, create a bar menu… Finn says Curtis is loving this, and Curtis says, every bit. It feels right. Finn is glad things are working out for Curtis, and Curtis says, at least here they are.

Obrecht asks Maxie, what’s all this talk about going home? She was ordered to rest; get in bed and start resting. Why she wasn’t told Maxie was admitted is a mystery to her. Britt says, it’s no mystery. They didn’t want people to know. How did Obrecht find out? Obrecht says, she’s not people; she’s oma. Maxie says she needs to get home before Mac and Felicia spoil James rotten, and Obrecht says she’ll straighten James out, but first she needs to examine Maxie. Britt says, she’s Maxie’s OB, not Obrecht. Is Obrecht questioning her as a doctor or as Chief of Staff? If her answer is yes to either, she’s going to ask Obrecht to leave immediately.   

Peter says, the best way to deal with a strong enemy, or enemies, is to target who they love. It’s effective. They made a feeble attempt to destroy him, but is it worth sacrificing someone they care about? Anna lunges for Peter, but Valentin grabs her and pulls her across the room. She says that’s what Faison used to do. Find a vulnerability and go after it. Valentin says, Peter knows he screwed up by killing Franco, and he’s trying to rattle her. It’s right out of Faison’s playbook; don’t let him. She says, but when Faison made a threat, there was always something real to back it up.

Brook sips her coffee, and says, thick rich foam, sublime vanilla, and sweet, sweet caffeine. Chase comes back in, and she asks if he feels better. He says he splashed some water on his face, and she says, it looks like it helped, but things are still not right. She tells him not to sit near her, and asks, what’s going on? He says he thought he had food poisoning, but his head is killing him. Should she be drinking that? She says, it’s decaf, but his is full strength; good for a headache. He says he’ll pass. He just drank his weight in water. She says if he wants to lie down, she’ll just make herself at home, and he asks, what’s going on? Is she trying to escape her dad? She says, more like Olivia the Hun. She swears Olivia has supernatural powers, and senses whenever Brook is going to put something sweet, salty, or fishy in her mouth. Olivia is monitoring every single thing. She can’t live like that, plus she wanted to see him, since they had no chance to catch up, and she could use a friend. Can she please stay a while?

Michael says, so many times he wanted to reach out to Willow, and kiss her, and make love to her. He remembers when she said she was moving out and looking for an apartment, his heart dropped. The thought of not seeing her every day tore him up inside. Now, he can talk about their future. She says she likes the sound of that – their future; her, Michael, and Wiley. He suggests he and Wiley move in. They could create their own home, and be close to the relatives, but not too close. Willow says she loves that, and asks if they should keep the bed in the living room. He says they probably should move it, but not now, and they get more busy.   

Curtis says he and Jordan decided to call it quits, and Finn says he’s sorry. Curtis gets Finn a ginger ale, and says that he and Jordan knew each other for a lot of years. They spent a lot of time dancing around each other, as friends, partners, extended family, and adversaries. When they finally acknowledged that they had feelings for each other, they took the next step. It wasn’t without challenges, but he loved Jordan, and wanted to marry her with all his heart. He doesn’t regret a single day, but love wasn’t enough to keep them together. He had to realize the relationship would never be Jordan’s first priority.

Portia asks Jordan how it’s going at home, now that she’s responsible for Taggert, and Jordan says, it’s not too difficult. Even when they had to be in close quarters on a stakeout, they learned how to co-exist, and how to stay out of each other’s way. Portia tells her, Taggert said the same thing when he came in for his post-op checkup, but something also came up that she wanted to talk to Jordan about.

Anna says she’s going to check on her family, and suggests Valentin make some calls. Valentin tells her that if he can’t get ahold of Charlotte, he’ll reach out, and Peter says, bye, Auntie Anna. She leaves, and Peter says he doesn’t suppose Valentin will loosen his bonds while they wait. Valentin says, no, and asks if Peter has anything else to say. Peter says he’s saving his strength. After all, actions speak louder than words, don’t they?

Obrecht tells Britt, she meant no disrespect. She just wants to do what’s best for Maxie and the baby. Britt says she forgives Obrecht. They both want what’s best for Maxie, and as for opi, it’s her opinion that Maxie would be better off at home. Maxie says Obrecht knows how noisy the hospital can get, and don’t get her started on the thread count of the sheets. Obrecht says, Britt is right; Maxie will be more comfortable at home. Still, she’ll need care, and Obrecht has the perfect solution. She’ll move in.

Chase says Brook can stay, but he might have to crash. Maybe he can get back to the good dream he was having. She says, sounds juicy; do tell. He says, it was about Willow. She wanted to move back in, and go back to the way things were. Brook flashes back to asking Willow saying she wasn’t sure where either she or Sasha stood with Michael, and that it was complicated. She tells Chase, sounds like some dream. Maybe it’s wishful thinking. He says, it’s becoming more and more reality. Willow is giving him a second chance. They’ve been through some heavy stuff, but he has every reason to believe they can get back to where they were.

Michael tells Willow, as much as they’ve enjoyed the mattress being there, it should probably be upstairs. He asks if she’s okay. Does she want to talk? What’s on her mind? He’ll help if he can. She’s thinking about Chase, isn’t she?

Obrecht says she’ll get her things, and meet Maxie back at the apartment. Maxie says, no. Obviously, she appreciates Obrecht stepping up to help, but she can’t have Obrecht doing that. She wants to look after James and Georgie. Time with her kids is the best medicine for her. Obrecht asks if Maxie is sure she’s not trying to close the door in Obrecht’s face to keep it open for Peter, and Maxie says, Obrecht needs to trust that she knows what she’s doing. Obrecht says, what Maxie must do is abandon the illusion; wake up and smell the psychopath. Get Henrik out of her life once and for all.

Curtis tells Finn, Jordan is a cop through and through. He knows how all-consuming a job it is. That’s why he started using. He thought being a P.I. would keep him in the game and close to the action, but it’s not the same. Finn says, so Curtis found something new. It takes courage and a high tolerance for risk. Curtis says he never thought he’d own a nightclub, but it just feels right. He hasn’t felt like this in years. Finn says, amazing. Curtis faced the facts that his old life wasn’t working for him, and found a new one. Curtis says, the only problem is, he lost Jordan along the way.

On the phone away from Peter, Valentin tells Charlotte that he’ll be home as quick as he can. He loves her. His mouth duct taped again, Peter mumbles that Valentin is wrong. Valentin rips off the tape, and says, what? Peter says, Valentin is worried about the wrong thing. Unlike Valentin, who used an infant against Anna, he’d never hurt a child. Valentin calls Brook, and leaves a message to call him. Peter says, oh no, and laughs. Valentin says, if Peter harms anyone he cares about, he will kill Peter.

Chase asks if Brook has ever had the feeling that there’s still the familiar caring and ease, even after she’s been away from someone? She says she has, and he says, it’s still there. It’s how he feels with Willow. He’s glad to have her back in his life. Brook says, they are starting from scratch, right? Not picking up where they left off. He says, yes and no. They still have history; it doesn’t disappear. He knows it was wrong to deceive Willow, even though he did it for the right reason. He learned his lesson, and wants to do everything right this time. After dealing with his family, he understands the damage secrets can do. Brook says she read the article, and it went over the line. She wanted to punch Peter in the face. He says he wouldn’t have arrested her, and she asks how he’s dealing with the fallout. He says, in the beginning, he wasn’t dealing with it at all, but after some coaching from Willow, he did better. He went dinner tonight with his family. She says, good, and he says, in theory, but in reality, it was pretty damn awkward. Then he came down with food poisoning to top it off. After talking about Willow, he’s feeling better. Brook says he’s got to take it slow, and he says, Brook only has one speed, full throttle. She says, it’s gotten her in a lot of trouble, acting without thinking of the long term consequences. Then when she’s faced the consequences, it’s too damn late. He asks, what’s going on? Is she in some kind of trouble? Is there anything he can do?

Willow says she can’t help but feel awful for Chase. They agreed to try again, and she wanted to make it work, but all the while, Michael was the only man in her heart. He wishes that didn’t make her sad, and she says, loving him doesn’t make her sad, but she needs to talk to Chase. He says, that’s not going to be an easy conversation. If she needs anything… Willow thanks him, but says, it will hard enough without him there. She thinks it’s best if she does it alone.

Valentin tells Peter not to ever doubt that he would kill him, not for a single, solitary second. Peter doesn’t have a protection plan, but if he does, and it involves harming anyone Valentin loves… Peter says his protection plan is simple. If they do nothing, someone dies. If they let him go, he’ll put it on pause. If they don’t let him go to live his life, someone innocent, whose only crime is being important to them, will pay the price.

Portia tells Jordan that Taggert knew she’d had an affair when he was undercover, and figured out it was Curtis. Jordan says she didn’t tell him, and Portia says she knows. Taggert put it together; it’s not surprising. They had a really good talk, and she made it clear that she and Curtis were in the past. It’s a delicate situation, and she wanted Jordan to know, especially since she’s living with Taggert. Jordan thanks her, and Portia says she doesn’t think Taggert will confront Curtis, but she didn’t want Jordan to be blindsided just in case it came up. The last thing she wants to do is add more turmoil to their lives. She’s hoping Jordan and Curtis work things out. Jordan says, actually, that’s not going to happen. That’s why she was there to see TJ, to let him know she and Curtis are getting a divorce.

Curtis tells Finn that he doesn’t give up easy. He fully intended to grow old with Jordan. Finn says he supposes he understands, and Curtis says he needs to look for a divorce lawyer. Finn asks if Curtis thinks it will get ugly, but Curtis says, it’s just a formality. They’re both going to leave the marriage with what they brought to it, but the toughest part is living with the question, could he have done more, and second guessing himself, wondering if his moral stance on the truth a real boundary. Finn says, the truth is important, but what’s the alternative? Married people have and keep secrets. Curtis says, it depends on what kind. He knows he made the right decision, but he misses Jordan. Finn says he knows that feeling too, and Anna comes in.

Brook tells Chase that she had the best intentions, when there’s a knock at the door. Chase says he’s got it, but she says he looks like death warmed over. He’ll scare whoever it is. He tells her to take full advantage of her pregnancy. Next time he might not be such a gentleman. He opens the door, and a big guy walks in and heads toward Brook. Chase is like, hey, but Brook says, it’s okay. He’s hers. He’s her bodyguard Yuri. She calls Valentin, and says, what? and he says she doesn’t return his calls or texts. She says he told her that she wouldn’t notice the bodyguard, and now she has the Incredible Hulk in a suit following her. Valentin says, Yuri can be unintrusive if she plays by the rules, and she says she’s busy. She can’t always stop to call and check in. He says he needs to know she and the baby are safe, and she says she’s fine. She’s sorry she worried him, but if anything was the matter, doesn’t he think Yuri would call? Valentin says, not if he’s dead. Valentin is concerned, having been a WSB agent, that people from his past might want to harm him. She says, and her? and he says she’s not in immediate danger – if she follows the rules. Do what Yuri says, and return his calls. She says, fine, and Yuri goes back outside. Chase asks if he was lurking in the hallway the whole time, and Brook says, here’s the deal. Valentin is an extra hands-on father, but kind of paranoid. He used to be a USB fighter or something, and is constantly concerned something will happen, so he hired a bodyguard. Obviously, she said no, but he told her that he’d have someone follow her anyway. It was up to her. She could cooperate, or he’d have some guy behind her 24/7. Willow knocks at the door, and when Chase opens it, she asks if everything is okay. There’s a big guy standing in the hallway. Brook says he’s hers; he follows her around like a puppy. Willow says she doesn’t want to barge in, but Chase says she’s not. He’s glad to see her. 

Obrecht tells Maxie that she knows how it is with a brilliant, dangerous man. He assures you that you’re the only woman who understands him, and you feel somehow privileged to be worthy of his affection and adoration. You convince yourself that you’ll turn your partner into a great ally, and you’ll help him reach his true potential, but nothing you can do will change who he is. Peter is a dangerous, twisted man. Maxie says she’s horrified about the crimes Peter is accused of, but he’s the father of her child. She can’t cut him out completely. Obrecht says Maxie has a kind heart, which she’s benefitted from time and again. Maxie has forgiven her so many times. Peter isn’t worthy of Maxie’s forgiveness. Peter and Nathan share their father’s blood, but they’re nothing alike. Nathan was decent and loving, which Peter can never be. Britt says they never doubted that Nathan and Peter are completely different, and Maxie says she loved Nathan with all her heart, and misses him every day. No one will ever replace him, but she still has to do what’s best for her child. She can’t close the door on Peter completely.

Portia says, divorce is such a huge step. Is Jordan sure she and Curtis can’t try to work through their issues? Jordan says, you need two for that, and Curtis is tried out. Portia says she’s so sorry. Anyone could tell Jordan and Curtis had something real. Jordan says, they did. They’ll always love each other; she knows she will. She kept secrets from Curtis, and lied at times. She told herself that she had a good reason, to protect him, but she was also protecting herself. As much as she loves him, her first instinct will always be to handle things on her own. Portia asks if Jordan is sure her job is worth the sacrifices she’s making, and Jordan says, being a doctor is a demanding job. There had to be times Portia couldn’t be there for Trina. Portia says she knows what it’s like to be a spouse on the other side of the law enforcement equation. You shut out the one person you share your life with. Jordan says she wanted to be the wife Curtis wanted, but she couldn’t. She had to let go. As much as it’s killing her, sometimes love isn’t enough.

Anna asks if Curtis minds if she steals Finn, and Curtis says he has plenty to do, making himself scarce. Finn asks if Anna has a tracking device on him, but she says she called, and the nanny told her where he was. They sit, and he asks, what’s going on? She says she wanted check and make sure he was all right. He says he is, as far as he knows. Why? Is something going on? Is she okay? She says she is, but Peter is showing his true colors. He’s dropped the pretense of innocence, and hates her. She’s worried he’s going to come after the people she loves. He says he’s fine, and Violet’s fine. Violet knows not to open the door to a stranger, and to look both ways when crossing the street. Anna says she’ll hold him to that. She’s sorry he still has to deal with her baggage, but he says he doesn’t hold it against her. Be careful, and he’ll do the same. Don’t worry. It didn’t work out, but he wants her to know, if she needs him, he’ll be there.

Chase invites Willow in, and she says she should have called first, but Brook says she was just leaving. She drops her bag, and Willow helps her pick everything up. Willow asks if Brook has part of a fetal heart monitor in her bag, and Brook says, remember how Valentin rushed her to the ER to get checked out? Somehow, it ended up in her purse. She says she has to go, and tells Chase, feel better; they’ll talk tomorrow. She signals Yuri, and he follows her. Willow says Chase isn’t feeling well? and he says he just has a headache. She says he looks flushed; that’s a sign of fever. He takes her hand, and says, stop worrying. Seeing her is the best medicine for him. She says they need to talk, and he says, about what?

At the gatehouse, Michael tells Wiley that this will be his new bedroom now. They’ll just hang out there until Wiley feels sleepy. They’re the luckiest guys in the world. They’ve got an amazing woman to love, and she loves them right back. He puts his arm around Wiley.

Obrecht says it’s not Maxie’s fault she was deceived be that worthless parasite. Obrecht lowered her guard, and accepted a job from him. She even went so far as to thank him for his generosity. In retrospect, any kindness he showed her was deployed to win Maxie’s trust. Maxie is pregnant with his child, and it’s a reality she’s been forced to deal with. Obrecht only wants to help in any way she can. Maxie promises to let her know if there’s anything she can do, and Britt says, but for now, the best thing is to get Maxie home. She’ll take Maxie herself. Britt starts to pick up her bag, and drops it, yelling in pain. Obrecht asks, what’s wrong? and Britt says, sorry. She just hit her funny bone against the bed. It startled her and hurt like hell. Maxie says she never understood why it was called that; there’s nothing funny about it. Truth! Obrecht tells Britt to be more careful, but Britt says she wasn’t running with scissors. She hit her elbow. Obrecht says, it’s made Britt crabby, but she won’t hold it against her. She hopes they take care of themselves and each other. Call if they need her. She leaves, and Britt picks up her bag. Maxie asks if Britt is really okay, and Britt says she’s fine. Maxie says, good. She can’t do any of this without Britt.

Portia says, if Jordan needs to talk, or needs anything, call her. Jordan says, she understands what comes next, but she can’t believe it yet. Portia says, it’s a painful process, no matter how civilized they are. She’s there if Jordan needs to be talked through it. Jordan says, look at them They’ve come a long way. 

Anna calls Valentin, who says he’s good. He asks about Robin, and Anna says she’s fine. Valentin tells her that he spoke to Charlotte and Brook, and they’re both fine. She says, Peter is bluffing; she’s coming back. He says he thinks she should hold off on that for a while. Peter is too confident, and he doesn’t like it. He says, Peter seems willing to play this out, but Anna says, he’s a master liar who’s learned from the best. Don’t let him play anymore.  Finn leaves a message for Chase to call him back, and Anna asks if everything is all right. He says he’s just trying to get through to Chase. He’s probably sleeping; he’s not feeling well. The four of them had dinner at Peridino’s, and it seems like Chase is the only one who got food poisoning.

Peter asks Valentin if Anna is on her way back from her fact finding mission. He can’t stress enough that time is of the essence. Valentin better let him go before it’s too late.

Michael says he’ll tell Wiley a secret. This is their home now. He laughs, and says, from now on, he, Wiley, and mom will be together all the time. They’re already a family, but now it’s even better. He and mom finally said the words. They said they love each other.

Chase checks his phone, and tells Willow, sorry. She wanted to talk? She says, yes, but he could take the call from Finn. He says he’ll call Finn later, and suggests they sit. She tells him to take the couch, since he’s not feeling well, but when he goes to sit down, he falls to the floor.  

Tomorrow, Willow wants to take Chase to the hospital, Jackie tells Finn that they have unfinished business with someone else, Peter asks if Valentin wants to tell Anna, and Sonny says, who knows what he has up his sleeve?

👥 Another Day Another Taggert…

I’m starting to wonder if they flip for which Taggert it will be today.

GENERAL HOSPITAL Temporarily Recasts Taggert

✍🏼 Read All About It…

Maurice Benard pens a memoir, and the nerds like it.

Review: Nothing General About It by Maurice Benard

🎉 Celebrating Siblings…

Celebrities, they’re just like us. Except they can fly their sister in for a visit. First class.

Soap Stars Celebrate National Siblings Day — See The Awesome Family Photos!

👶🏻 Tidings Of Joy…

Nearly a year after the daughter of RHOC’s Jeana mourns a death, she welcomes a new life.

https://people.com/parents/kara-keough-bosworth-welcomes-son-vaughn-mack/

https://people.com/parents/kara-keough-bosworth-marks-1-year-anniversary-son-mccoy-death/

👠 She’s Not Owning It…

LisaR claims it wasn’t her.

Lisa Rinna Denies Calling Andy Cohen to Complain About ‘WWHL’ Kids’ Special

💘 Negan and Lucille Unveiled…

Some great interviews, including news on Jeffrey’s latest project. That had to be my favorite Walking Dead episode of all time.

https://ew.com/tv/walking-dead-negan-lucille-jeffrey-dean-morgan-hilarie-burton-interview/

https://collider.com/jeffrey-dean-morgan-interview-walking-dead-unholy/

💂🏼‍♂️ Farewell, Sweet Prince…

A love story for the ages. A queen says goodbye to her Prince Charming, along with some wonderful pictures of their life together.

https://www.eonline.com/news/848345/inside-the-immeasurable-life-of-prince-philip-a-man-dedicated-to-his-queen-and-his-country

https://www.eonline.com/photos/32351/prince-philips-life-in-photos

🐊 Later Gator…

See you when it’s time for New Jersey from New Jersey. Whatever state you’re in, stay safe, stay indomitable, and stay living life courageously, with a high tolerance for risk.

Apr12

April 11, 2021 – John Looks For Meaning, a Dead Morsel, Joining the Fear, Dead Info, Anniversary Of Thrones & Gloomy

Posted on by
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What I Watched Today

(rambling, random thoughts & annoyingly detailed recaps from real time TV watching)

Fear the Walking Dead

John cleans his gun while he watches Meet John Doe. He loads the chambers with bullets. He messes around with some Scrabble letters, and sees a zombie outside. He shoots it through the open door from where he’s sitting, and takes a slug of whiskey. He spells out goodbye June, and puts the barrel under his chin. He shoots another zombie, and takes another drink. He repositions the gun, and says he’s sorry. Yet another zombie toddles along the shoreline, and he shoots it. He puts his head down on the table, and bangs the table with his fist, scattering the letters.

John paddles a canoe under a bridge where a bunch of zombies are contained by blockades. They look down at him like they’re watching a parade. He takes a look at the blockades, then walks to a boarded up gas station. He sees a few zombies bouncing against the side of the building, and shoots them. He looks inside, then opens the door. He says, I don’t want no trouble, but it’s trouble you want, I got some for you. Cowboy talk. He quietly walks through the mini-mart. It seems empty, but he sees some blood on the floor near the restroom. Dakota comes out, and he asks what the hell she’s doing there. She says, running from her sister; him? He guesses he could say the same thing, and asks if she passed the crowd on the bridge. She pushes open the restroom door, and John sees Morgan sitting on floor. He says, hey, John, and Dakota asks how John found them. He says the path to the bridge kept washing up to his cabin. The river has a way of bringing people back to life. He tells Morgan that he looks better, and Dakota says she put up the barricades, and patched Morgan up as good as she could. She heard shots, and didn’t think they’d make it. John says, neither did he, and she asks how he survived. He says he had help. He doesn’t know who, but when he came to, he was patched up and they’d moved on. Somebody else helped him later, and now he has to add Dakota to the list. Dakota says, it wasn’t hard. Somebody stocked the shelves with everything they needed. (Trivia: It was June a long time ago.) Morgan says, it’s good to see John, and John says, he feels like he’s looking at a ghost. Morgan says, Virginia sent the Rangers after them, and they ran. He, Alicia, and Charlie got separated by the herd. He should get back on the road. John says Morgan’s not going anywhere, not like that. Where is he going? Dakota says, Morgan has a place he’s rebuilding, and they hear something at the front of the store.

Dakota moves toward the front, taking Morgan’s battleax pokey weapon. John pulls her back again, and Ranger Marcus walks in. He says, anybody home? but they stay quiet. Marcus walks toward the back, grabbing a candy out of a dish as he walks past. He looks at the old VHS tapes, and looks at a chart on the wall. He sees John’s name, and gets on his radio, asking Hill, does he copy? He’s not going to believe this. He thinks Ranger Dorie has been there. He tells Hill, stand by. He’s coming for higher ground. John motions Dakota to go further back, and Marcus leaves.  

John tells Morgan, he’s gone, and Morgan gets up. Dakota says John should have shot him, but John says he didn’t need to. Morgan says, he’d be like the men they’ve tried hard not be, and John suggests they get out of there. They’ll be safer in his cabin.

John gives Dakota and Morgan dinner, and Dakota asks how John learned to cook. John says he spent summers there when he was a kid. When in Rome… He tries to replace the door with a new one, but it doesn’t fit right. Morgan says, the place they’re going is in a dry river bed. There’s water nearby, and plenty of fish. They need someone who knows how to cook. John says June cooks better than he does, and Morgan asks, how long has John been there? John says, a couple of weeks, and Morgan asks, where’s June? Why isn’t she with him? John says, it’s not worth talking about, and asks where the place is that Morgan settled. Morgan says, it’s 40 miles north, and John says, that’s a ways to go on foot, but he has enough gas in the truck to get them there. Morgan says he was hoping John would come. They could use somebody with his skills. John says, what might those be? and Morgan says, the plan keeps shifting. They can’t make clean trade with Virginia, but she’s going to want her sister back. Dakota asks if he wants to use her as bait, but Morgan tells her not to worry; he’s not going to let Virginia get to her. This means a fight. John says, it’s going to be difficult… Oh, that’s why Morgan needs him. Morgan says, it will be different this time. They’ll be fighting on their own turf, and on their own terms, for their family. Dakota holds up a piece of something, and asks what it is. John says, nothing, and she says, it looks like blood. He says, it’s part of a knife handle, and she asks, what knife? He says, the one that killed Cameron, and Morgan says, the Ranger that Janice was with? John says he thought if he could find the rest, it might lead to who killed Cameron, but he couldn’t find it. Dakota asks why he still has it, and Morgan says John is doing it again. John says, what? and Morgan says, what John told him that he did before, when he was a cop. He hid himself away. John says, the world is different this time, and Morgan asks, why is that? Ginny’s voice comes over the radio, asking if Morgan is there, and John says, don’t answer. Grace says, it’s me, and Morgan says he’s there. Ginny says she thought that would do the trick, and he says he wants to talk to Grace. He asks if Grace and the baby are okay, and Grace says, she’s okay; so is the baby. We see Ginny has a gun on her, and Grace says, it’s been about seven months. She thought he was dead; they all did. Ginny takes the radio back, and asks if he heard that. Grace is fine. Morgan tells her, call the Rangers off. She’ll get everyone killed, including her sister. She says the Rangers are going to find him, but in the meantime, she wants to know her sister is safe. If anything happens to her, it’s not just Grace and the kid; it will be the whole damn coop. We see Sarah, Luci, and June in some kind of jail, and Ginny says, they’ll talk soon. Morgan tells John and Dakota, they need to get out of there. Get to Virginia before she does something. June washed up the last time John holed himself away; now they did. If that’s not the universe telling John to come back, Morgan doesn’t know what is. John says he doesn’t care to kill anyone, and Morgan says, call him a ghost, and he is, but he’s only there to free Grace. He wants to give this baby a chance in the next world, where life might be precious. He thinks they can do it. It won’t be the way they want it, but they can end it. John says, it ain’t right; it just ain’t. He’s sorry. He can’t do it, but he’ll help them cross the bridge. It’s the only way. Morgan tells Dakota, they’ve got to pack up.

They load truck, and Dakota asks if John has enough ammunition to kill all the chompers. He says her guess is as good as his; there’s only one way to find out. Someone shoots at them, and Morgan slides under the car, while John and Dakota fling themselves into it. Morgan comes back out, and sees it’s Marcus on a horse. Before Morgan realizes it, he’s lassoed and being drug through the woods, bouncing behind the horse and rider. John tells Dakota to turn the car around, and shoots at Marcus. She tries to start the car, but says she thinks a bullet hit the engine. John shoots again, and Marcus falls from his horse. John and Dakota run to Morgan, and John asks if Morgan is all right, then checks on Marcus. Marcus looks dead already, and John shoots him in the head. No zombification for you.

John buries Marcus, and Morgan says he’s sorry. John says, what for? Morgan is the one who got dragged through the woods by his neck. He’s racking up a lot of miles, and almost got killed. Morgan says, but he didn’t; John stopped it. John says she should have taken a shot at Marcus earlier. Morgan says, but he didn’t. John has to know why Morgan needs him. He needs John to keep them from becoming like Ginny. John says, that’s not the only reason, and Dakota says, they’re going to need another car. John says he saw another vehicle by Bill’s, but Morgan says, not with the Rangers looking. There might be more when Marcus doesn’t check in. He points, and says, what about that one? and John says, it’s been collecting rust since he was a kid. Morgan uncovers an old truck, and Dakota asks where it came from. John says, it belonged to his dad. They were going to fix it up together. Morgan says he’s spent time in one garage or another making cars in worse shape than this run again. It needs a battery and a distributor cap, but he thinks he can get it running. John says, it’s not too late, and Dakota asks what he means. He says, it’s something his daddy used to say. It’s not too late to learn something, to do the right thing, to fix a mistake, and apparently, it’s not too late to get an old Chevy truck running. Morgan says he saw some cars one cabin over. It’s less likely the Rangers will be there. Morgan tells John to take Dakota, but John says he can handle it. Morgan says he’s not sure if he can. If Virginia comes looking for Dakota, and brings more Rangers, he might just get everyone else in trouble.

Dakota sits on the roof of the truck, while John fiddles with the engine. She asks if John got his tools from the warehouse, but John says they belonged to his pop, who sent them to him the summer they were supposed to fix the Chevy. Dakota asks why his dad didn’t bring them, and John says, he never showed up. He moved to a cabin of his own up north, away from everybody. John got the occasional birthday and Christmas card, and a phone call once in a blue moon, but John never saw him again. He asks her to hold the battery, and she asks why John’s father left. Did he kill someone like John did? John says, no. He did the wrong thing but for the right reasons. She says it seems like his dad was punishing self, and John says, may be. She says, just like him. Morgan is right, isn’t he? That’s why John is there. John tells her, come on. He’s got to get one more thing. He calls her a know-it-all, and she says, what happened with Janice… He doesn’t have to feel bad about how life is now. People kill; people die. He says, it should mean something, and she asks, why? He says, if it doesn’t mean something when you die, it didn’t mean much when you were alive, and she says, so? He says he’s glad Morgan is taking her to that place. She’s starting to sound an awful lot like her sister. They get to a big shed, and John knocks on the door. When he doesn’t hear anything, he opens it. She says there’s nothing in there they need for the truck, and John says, who told her that he needed something for the truck? She asks why he needs a door if he’s coming with them, and Morgan appears. He says, John isn’t coming; is he right? He shows John the Scrabble letters, and says he found these. There are only so many words they spell out. John says they weren’t meant for Morgan, and Morgan says he knows they were meant for June. John says he was going to tell Morgan after they cleared the bridge. He’s going to keep his word, and get them across, but then he’s coming back. Morgan says, because of what he had to do to Marcus? but John says he doesn’t know why he didn’t kill Marcus before. He doesn’t know why he’s not meant to live in this world. If he’d only kept his nose out of it, Cameron would still be alive, and so would Janice. Morgan says, it will be okay. John went looking for a door to shut himself away, and found them. Does that tell him anything? Like the man who walked halfway around the world and found himself at John’s campfire. Morgan found John, and everyone he thinks of as family. He found Grace, and that wouldn’t have happened if John hadn’t insisted he sleep in the truck bed that night. John gave him a family, and has to help him get back. John says he will, the best way he knows how. He’s going to get them across the bridge, and stay out of their way. Morgan says there’s no door that’s going to keep them away, not him or June, and John says, it’s not a door to keep people out. It’s to keep the past from getting at him before he does what he needs to do. He just wants it to be over.

John sits with his gun, and Morgan comes in. He says he got the truck running, and John says, that’s good. Morgan sits, and says, it wasn’t that long ago, he was in a place like John is now. John says, when he works himself up to it, the past washes up, and steals his nerve. Morgan says it’s not John’s time; it’s not how should go out. That night at the gulch, whoever saved him, left him that. He shows John a note that says he still has things left to do. He says, it wouldn’t mean anything unless it was all of them. If he’s going to get everyone there, he had to make a change, or he’d lose all of them. John knows he’s not his dad. He doesn’t have to make the same mistakes his dad made, but he can come with them. Morgan found his way to keep going, and thinks John will find his. John says, don’t count on it, and shoots a zombie through the open door. He says they better get up there, and he and Morgan start to go outside. John sees the discarded doors, and says they might need the doors after all.

At the bridge, we see the front of the truck is rigged with the doors to keep the zombies at bat. John says, they could get tangled in the wheels, and asks if Dakota can get it across. She says her daddy let her drive in the church parking lot on Sunday afternoons, and he says he’ll talk her through it. He leaves her a gun in case the zombies get lucky. John goes to the truck bed, and Morgan unties the blockade. John says, ready, and Morgan opens it. John shoots the zombies as they come through, and Morgan runs back to the truck bed. John says, now, and Dakota starts the truck. She drives to the blockade, pushing it down. Zombies clamor at the car windows, as John hits them back with the butt of the gun. He and Morgan get as many as possible, and John tells Dakota keep going. She continues on, and Morgan gives a zombie a nice spike though the mouth. The doors help shovel them back, and John tells Dakota, pretend it’s one of those Sunday drives. Morgan pushes them back, and the truck stalls. Dakota asks, what’s going on? and we see a zombie wedged under a back wheel. John tells her to put it in first, and clear it. Now the zombie’s arm is getting ground into the wheel well, and John shoots it. The rest of the zombie follows its arm, and is now wedged above the tire. I say, oh, fu…dge.  

Dakota asks what’s wrong with the engine, and Morgan says, it’s the alternator. He’ll go. John says, Morgan is in no shape, and moves to the front of the truck, while Morgan whacks stray zombies away. John gets between the doors and fencing attached to the front, and opens the hood. He says he’ll tell Dakota when. We can see Morgan is in pain, but he still fends off the zombies. One gets near John, and pins him half into the engine. Dakota grabs the gun, and tells John to move. She shoots the zombie through the windshield, and John pushes it onto the ground. He jumpstarts the engine, and tells Dakota, now. The truck starts, and John closes the hood, jumping on top of it. He shoots whatever zombies get through, but one pulls at him, and he smashes it with the gun butt. There are two clingers on the car, and Dakota tells Morgan to get down. She takes off, telling John to hang on, and hits the side of the bridge, knocking the zombies into the river, John kicking the last one off. Brilliant scene. Morgan stabs a few stragglers in their wormy little heads. Success!

They look back at the zombie carnage on the bridge, and John says, that is ugly mustard. Morgan says, yes it is, and they sit for a moment. Morgan gets out of the truck bed, and comes around the front. He tells John, when he was working on the truck, he found something. He hands John a photo of a little boy with a grown man, and Morgan says, that’s John isn’t it? And his dad. John says, his dad was more in his life than he cares to admit. He wonders why his father didn’t come by that summer, but thinks he’s starting to get it. He’s not coming. Morgan says, then John is stuck making the same mistakes as before; the same mistakes his father made. It’s like a loop. Morgan takes out the radio, and John asks what he’s doing. Morgan asks if Virginia can read him, and Virginia asks, what’s the plan? Is he ready to talk? He says he is, but not like this. He wants to meet in person. There’s a general store called Bill’s… John tries to grab the radio, telling Morgan, stop it. Morgan says, there’s a cabin John told them about, and Ginny says, she’s been there; John has terrible taste in movies. Morgan says he’ll wait there for her. He tells John, now he can’t go back, and John says Morgan had no right to do that. It’s not his choice to make. Morgan says it wasn’t his choice to have John chase him down the road when he had a busted leg, but John did it all the same. He’s alive now because John did. John can hit him if he likes, but he’ll be damned if he’s going to stand by and let his best friend kill himself.  

Morgan says he’s going to try and get a signal; hear where Virginia is. He doesn’t want to cross paths with her on his way out. John continues to work on the engine in silence, and Dakota says he’ll have to talk to Morgan eventually. John says, the clip that was holding the wire fell off. That’s why it stalled. He wants to fix it before they get back on the road. He tells her, it’s a little red clip, and they both start looking. She picks up his hat, hands it to him, and thanks him. He asks why she’s thanking him, and she says, for letting her drive, and trusting her with a gun. She doesn’t feel like she needs to be behind locked behind walls all the time. She casually kills a zombie, and says he should come, but he says, it’s not a good idea. She says she thinks it would be; she likes being around him. He can’t go back to the cabin. He says, sure he can, but she says her sister will be there. He says if Morgan leads her to the place he’s working on, it could get messy real quick. He can be waiting for Ginny, and end this. Dakota says he can’t do alone, but he says Ginny won’t be expecting it. Dakota says, she would; she is. She’ll have Rangers with her. Even if John kills her, the Rangers will kill him. He says, then his death will mean something. He finishes the zombies off who aren’t quite undead dead, and says, as it should. Dakota sees the red clip on the ground, and says she found it. She picks it up, and a zombie grabs her ankle, causing her to fall. She stabs it with a knife she has handy, and tells John, it’s okay; she’s got it. He sees the knife, and asks, what is it? What is she hiding? He walks over, and pulls the knife out of the zombie, and asks where she got it. She shakes her head, and says she found it, but he says, don’t lie to him. Oh my God. She killed Cameron; Virginia was covering for her. Dakota says she didn’t know Ginny was going to kill Janice, and John asks why she pushed him to investigate. She says she knew Ginny wouldn’t let it get back to her, and if it seemed like Ginny was hiding something, people would start to doubt her. John asks why she killed Cameron, and she says he figured out how she was sneaking in and out, and he told Ginny. He took away the one way she had to get out of Lawrence. John says, and she thought he deserved to die for that? She says, it’s no different than what everyone else is doing to get what they want. It’s what her sister does; it’s what the Rangers do. He understands. John says he doesn’t understand, but she says, it’s how things are. She can’t. She turns the gun on him, and says he ruined this for her. He says he’s not going to tell anyone. He’s not going to hurt her. He puts his gun in his waistband, and she says he’s lying. He says he knows she’s been through a lot. He gets why she wouldn’t believe him, but give him a chance to show her they can get past this. He can help her. Morgan said he needed a reason to live, to keep going. Maybe it’s her. Put the gun down; she doesn’t want shoot him. She doesn’t want to do that to herself. She doesn’t want to live with that. It’s not what he wants for her.

To the surprise of all of us, she shoots him, and he staggers back. She says, she’s sorry. It doesn’t always have to be something. She pushes him off the bridge. What a fu…dge.

He’s going to live somehow, right? Right? And am I wrong that this was totally out of character for what we know about Dakota? A hot minute ago, she was telling John that he needed to make up with Morgan, and she liked being around him.

John hits the water, and we see blood run from him. He floats to the bottom, and there’s a song part. I feel cheated. He sees the photo on the floor of the river. and picks it up. He looks at the sun above the water, and swims up. He pulls himself onto a door floating in the water, and says, not today. He floats down the river.

When Morgan comes back, Dakota turns the gun on him. He asks what she did, and she says she didn’t want to do it; she had to do it. He asks where John is, and she starts to cry, because she’s an a-hole. He asks her again, and she says, John is floating down the river with a bullet in his chest. Morgan sees the knife in Dakota’s hand, and says, it’s her knife. She killed the Ranger. She says he’s going to take her to the place he’s building, and let her be a part of it, like he was before. He grabs her, and puts his battleax pokey weapon up to her throat. She says he’s not going to hurt her, but he tells her not to be so sure. She says she’s the reason he’s alive. She saved him at the gulch. He says, that’s not what happened. She says, Virginia left him to die, and he dragged himself to the church. The dead followed him, and were on top of him, about to eat him, but she was there. She killed them. He says, that’s not possible, and she says she followed Ginny and the Rangers to the gulch. That’s a good thing, right? She fixed him up, and stopped the bleeding. She gave him antibiotics and painkillers. He says, no more lies, and she says he doesn’t know her, but she heard his message. He needed to do this thing. He still has things left to do. She wrote the note and left it for him, and she was right. She’s seen it. He has to. She had to do it. He says, now what? and she says, he has to kill her sister to have the silly paradise he has to build. He’s grieving because he’s the only person left who can end her. He says, that’s not what he’s about, and she says, it is. It’s the  only reason he’s still there.

Ginny gets to the cabin, and says they cleaned the place out. Where the hell are they? She asks June, where? but June says she doesn’t know. A Ranger asks if she’s sure she doesn’t know their whereabouts, when Morgan radios Ginny. She tells him that he’s late, and he says, John has been hurt, and needs help. Her sister did it. June asks where John is, and Ginny asks where her sister is. Morgan says, John is coming down the river. Help him if Morgan can’t find him first. He’s trying to get to him. Please help. Then they can talk. Ginny tells her Rangers, find Ranger Dorie.

Alicia is walking with Charlie and Dwight, and says, this is it. Morgan comes over the radio, and tells Dwight, get the damn wall ready. They might be bringing the fight with Virginia to their own doorstep. He needs to get Shari. They’ll need all the firepower they can get.

June tells Virginia, send more Rangers, and Ginny say she already has. June says, if Virginia wants her to help, she needs to know what happened. Morgan comes on the radio, and June grabs it. She asks, what’s going on? June looks out the door, and Ginny grabs it back. John has washed up on shore, and June runs out, calling to him. She stumbles, and falls to the ground just as she gets to him. He pulls himself along, and we realize his eyes are milky. He reaches for her, and puts his hand on hers. She stays there a moment, then stabs him in the head with a knife. I guess that’s love?

This season, Virginia says, bad things are about to happen, Daniel says it’s not safe, we meet a new group, John Glover joins the cast, and says Alicia doesn’t know what he’s setting out to do. He looks kind of like a mad professor.

👌🏻 Interesting tidbit. Jenna Elfman was on Talking Dead tonight, and said because of the pandemic, they had to sit on this episode for a year and half before it was actually filmed.

📰 Latest Additions…

New blood will be coming to FTWD this season.

https://www.cbr.com/fear-walking-dead-john-glover-keith-carradine-nick-stahl-cast-season-6/

⚰️ Dead News…

What’s to come in season 11.

The Walking Dead Season 11: The Commonwealth, Reapers, and What Else to Expect

What came last week with Here’s Negan.

https://comicbook.com/tv-shows/news/the-walking-dead-season-10-finale-recap-heres-negan-origin-backstory-1022/

https://comicbook.com/tv-shows/news/negans-last-name-revealed-on-the-walking-dead-heres-negan-smith-robert-kirkman/

🐉 Celebrating the Game…

HBO has plans.

https://comicbook.com/tv-shows/news/game-of-thrones-iron-anniversary-hbo-celebration/

🎉 After the Party’s Over…

Whether you called it a weekend, or just another two days on the calendar, I hope you changed it up a little. Until it’s time to sail away, stay safe, stay keeping it simple, and stay making sure it all means something.

Apr5

April 4, 2021 – Here’s Negan (the moment you’ve been waiting for) & Amazing Mahalia

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What I Watched Today

(rambling, random thoughts & annoyingly detailed recaps from real time TV watching)

The Walking Dead

In a voiceover, Negan says he had a deal with Carol. She said if he did this for her, he would be thought of differently. So he disappeared, and wore a flesh mask. It was sick as all hell, but he gained Alpha’s trust. He found a way to steal her kid, and brought Alpha’s head back. He helped take out Beta and the horde, but nothing changed the way Maggie sees him. He understands; he really does. Some things can’t be forgotten.

Maggie walks with her son Hershel through Alexandria, and they chat. She asks if he remembers the song they used to sing, and he sings You Are My Sunshine. Negan looks at them, but Maggie ignores him, saying good morning to the woman working alongside him. Carol watches from the window.

Negan sees Carol in the woods, carrying a dead rabbit she’s trapped. He walks with her, and thanks her for getting him the hell out of Dodge. Things with Maggie are tense. He doesn’t mind lay low Negan, but there’s only so far he can go to get out of her way. He’s thinking maybe Carol could put in a word for him. At least get the ball rolling. Given their recent history, he figures she owes him that much. He follows her to a cabin outside of the town, and he asks if she knows this place. She says, mm-hmm, and goes inside. He says he sees he’s moved in, and she says, Daryl helped. The council voted to banish him. What he wants isn’t going to happen, and she knows it’s not what she promised, but given their less recent history, it’s better than he deserves. He says, it is what it is. If she doesn’t mind him asking, is it that the council banished him, or is it more like Carol is seizing the reins? She smiles, and says the rabbit is for him.

Negan looks into the fire, and has a drink. He hears, little pig, little pig, let me in, and sees himself sitting in a chair with his bat Lucille. He turns away, but illusion Negan says, it’s all right. He knows Negan can hear him loud and clear. Nobody likes to hear an I told you so. He must be a bit masochistic. The sad part isn’t that he ended up there. Face it. It could be a helluva lot worse. The sad part is, he thought for a second those folks would see him for anything except who he truly is… which is me. He’s a clown, a cultive personality with no cult. Negan can call him names, but he wants Negan to admit that he got further with a kind word and Lucille than just a kind word. It’s time to face the facts, old man. He’s nothing without her. Negan smashes the glass against the now empty chair.

We see the tree where the stained glass panels hang, looking a little worse for the wear. Negan remembers telling Rick that Carl said they didn’t have to be fighting, and Rick beating him down near the tree. He flashes back to being in his cell, telling Michonne that he needs to see her, and Michonne saying they don’t have his bat. He’s brought a shovel with him, and starts digging near the tree. He sees a zombie in the distance, shakes his head, and keeps digging. He digs in another spot, and another, and pretty soon, the area is full of holes. The zombie is closer, and he digs some more. He finally hits something, and scrapes away the dirt. He smiles, and pulls out Lucille, turning the bat in his hands.

Twelve years earlier. Craven from the Valaks Vipers biker gang walks over to a guy tied to a chair wearing a hood. Craven removes the hood, and the man is a younger Negan. Negan says Craven has to let him go. His wife has cancer and needs that. Craven  takes an IV bag out of a cooler filled with the medicine, and takes a bag out. Negan says, keeping him here, kills him and her, and Craven says he knows; Negan told him. His heart goes out to Negan. He can’t imagine what Negan is going through, just wondering if she’s ever going to get her treatment. He handles the bag, and says they drove out to where Negan told them the doctors gave him the stuff, but they weren’t there. Negan says it’s not his fault. He told them, the doctors move around, but Craven says, they were never there. It was so overgrown, they couldn’t get the pick-up down the road. He can’t get this stuff just anywhere; somebody took care of this for a long time, and probably has a lot of other stuff too. Tell him where he got it, and Negan can take it to his wife. Otherwise, he’ll pour it in the toilet, and make Negan watch. He punches Negan in the mouth, and Negan says, please put it back in the cooler. He’ll tell Craven what he wants to know; please keep it safe. He tells Craven, the medical part is true, and Craven says, they have a facility, right? and Negan says, they have a stockpile. Craven asks where they keep the drugs, and Negan says he doesn’t know where the stuff came from, but he’d been tracking them for weeks. He found them…

Two or three days ago. Negan hides behind a tree in the woods, holding a gun. He takes a quick look at a couple of trailers, then jumps out. He startles a man outside, and sees another one on the roof of a trailer. He says he doesn’t want to shoot, but he will, and the man says, take it easy. Negan’s vision is getting blurry, and the man says, don’t! A woman hits Negan over the head, knocking him out, and the man says she didn’t have to do that. (FYI, it’s Laura who will become one of the Saviors later.)

Negan is handcuffed to a chair inside the trailer. He tells the man that his name is Negan, and the man says he’s Franklin. Franklin takes out a key, and asks if they’re going to have any problems. Negan says, no sir, no problems, and Franklin uncuffs him. He gives Negan some pasta, and Negan wolfs it down. Franklin says, Negan is exhausted, add malnutrition, and no wonder a guy like him is in the state he’s in. He’s trying to rob a bunch of doctors with an empty belly. Negan says his wife has cancer. She was under treatment when the world went to sh*t. They’ve been trying to keep it going. Franklin asks if Negan is a doctor, and Negan says he’s a high school gym teacher. Franklin asks what he means by keep it going, and Negan says the doctor gave him a calendar of what was needed when. All he had to do was find it, and figured out how to do infusions. Franklin says, a doctor taught Negan how to give chemo? and Negan says, it’s not complicated, unless something goes wrong. Franklin asks if something went wrong, and Negan says, yeah, you could say that.   

Six weeks earlier. Negan goes to the refrigerator, and takes out a bag. His wife Lucille digs in a box, and says she’s trying to figure out what James Bond movie to watch. He tells her, the generator makes too much noise, and we hear a zombie outside. She says he’ll have to kill it, but he says if he turns the generator off, they lose interest; they always do. He puts two IV bags in the freezer, along with a thermometer. He goes outside to turn on the generator, but sees a zombie clamoring at the fence.

Back in the house, Negan reads out loud from Pride and Prejudice, and tells Lucille, this book sucks; he can’t do it. She says he won’t let her watch James Bond, so read. We hear the zombie again, and she says he’s got to take care of it. Outside, the zombie bangs on the house, and Negan comes up behind it, but as soon as it sees him, it grabs him. He swings a hammer at it, but it gets the better of him, and pins him against the house, snapping at him. He stabs it in the eye, but the knife doesn’t go deep enough to even slow it down. He says, seriously? and a shot rings out, the zombie slumping to the ground. Lucille stands there holding a gun, and still attached to her IV. He asks if she’s all right, and she tells him, turn the generator on so she can watch a movie. She goes back inside.

Negan tries to syphon gas out of a car, but gets nothing. He goes inside the car, and looks around. He finds a pouch, looks in it, and smiles.

Negan asks his wife how she’s doing, and she says, good. He says he’s got something for her. He found a stash. It’s a little dried out, but it will help with her nausea. She says he has to go out further every time, and he says, they need gas, and the place has been picked over. That’s what’s keeping them safe; there’s nothing there anyone wants. She wonders about reaching out to other people, but he says, it’s too dangerous out there. She says, that’s her point, and he says, they have three treatments left. That’s it. When they get her strength up, he’ll strap her to his motorcycle, and they’ll go wherever she wants; wherever she dreams up. He promises.

They lie in bed, and Negan sings You Are So Beautiful to her. We see them goofing around in wigs, and him giving her treatments. A zombie makes noise outside, and Negan says, dammit. She says, it’s not like killing a person. It’s kind of like killing an animal; don’t let it bother him. He says, it doesn’t. He’s just worried he’ll get used to it. She says, okay, then turn the generator on. He continues to eat, and asks, how’s her dinner? She says, really good. If she’d known dog food could taste like this, she would have been eating that sh*t all along. He laughs, and she tells him, happy anniversary, handing him a gift bag. He asks if she actually knows what day it is, and she says, no, but they had one coming up. He takes out a leather jacket, and says, holy sh*t. Where did she get this? She says, it was in the crawlspace the whole time. She was so mad that she couldn’t return it, she hid it. She’s sorry. If she’d known all this was going to happen, she wouldn’t have cared about the stupid credit card. He says he knows, but he doesn’t deserve anything from her. She shouldn’t be apologizing to him. He should be apologizing to her, for the man he was, and the pain he put her through… He lies awake at night wondering how he got so lucky she stuck with him. She laughs, and sits on his lap. She says she stuck with him because she’s always seen the man he is now, even when he wasn’t. And that a-hole really had it coming. He says, yes ma’am, and she suggests they go to bed. He says, no, and she asks if he has to go to work tomorrow. He asks if she’s sure she’s okay, and she kisses him.

They lie in each other’s arms, and Negan wakes to the sound of dripping. He jumps out of bed, and says, no! He runs to the refrigerator, and opens the freezer. Water pours out, and he looks at the thermometer, which is in the Fahrenheit 40s.

He looks at a map, and asks if she remembers a guy and his family who came through. Their kid had leukemia, and they were looking for a group of doctors who travel around. He showed Negan his map, and said they travel the same route, and make the same stops every time. He thinks he knows where they are. If he leaves now, he could catch them. She says, they could be dead, and even if he finds them, he has nothing to barter with. He starts to argue, and she says, stop. She has something to tell him.

Seven months earlier. Normal life is still happening. Negan is playing video games, and says, don’t be a p*ssy. You’ve got to take it. Lucille comes in, and asks if he’s playing with children, and he says they’re mostly over ten. She looks at the credit card bill, and says please don’t tell her that he spent $600 on this Happy Days bullsh*t. He says he’s got two leads, one of which is going to pay a lot. He’s celebrating early. She says he’s telling her about leads, but he can’t be a gym teacher anymore. He’s being charged with misdemeanor assault, and he refuses to go back to school. Tell her all about the job that’s going to pay for his legal bills. He doesn’t say anything, and she says she’s returning the jacket. He says he threw the receipt away.

We see Lucille on the phone with a friend, who says talks about it being cute when he was younger, but not now. Lucille says, it feels wrong to give up on him. He wasn’t in a good space. He loved his job and the kids. The friend says he put someone in the hospital, and Lucille says, that a-hole had it coming.

Negan and Lucille have dinner in silence. He asks how the food is, and she says, good. Did he do something different? He says he used rosemary instead of oregano, and a white wine reduction for the chicken sauce. She tells him that she has a 2:15 appointment tomorrow, and he asks, what appointment? She says she’s getting an MRI, and needs him to drive her home. He says he can’t tomorrow. He has a meeting with his probation officer. She’ll probably have to sit for three hours for them to tell her everything is fine anyway.

Lucille sits in the waiting room, and thinks about hearing, if it’s caught early on. She stares into space, and the doctor asks if she has someone to drive her home.

She gets in her car, and calls Negan, but gets voicemail. She tries calling her friend Janine, and the call also goes to voicemail. She calls the probation officer, and says, he should be there. He said his appointment was at 3; he should have been there 20 minutes ago. The parole officer says, sorry. He doesn’t know what to tell her. He’s not on the calendar for another two weeks. She cries quietly, and looks at her phone, she sees the call to Negan and Janine both went to voicemail at the same time, and realizes they’re seeing one another. She slams phone down, and pulls out, blasting rock and roll. I think AC/DC.

Lucille sits at home with a gun by her side. Negan comes in, and asks, what’s going on? What is it? Her hand moves slightly on the gun, but she throws cancer treatment pamphlets on to the table instead. She says she’s got cancer.

Back to where we were before, and Negan says, she knew about them the whole time? Just so she knows, he broke up with her as soon as they got the diagnosis. He never saw or talked to her again. He cries, and she says she knows. He says he doesn’t understand why she’s telling him now, and she says she wants him to know he made up for it. If he really wants to help her, just stay. He says they’re so close. It can work; the doctors said it could work. She says, no, they didn’t. Now it’s time for him to go on without her. Live life for her. Stay. He says, no. They’re not giving up. They’ve made it this far, and they’re going to see it through. He’s going to find the doctors, and they’re going to kick the cancer out of her. They’re not giving up. Not ever. She kisses him, and I’m feeling very sad.

About six weeks ago. Negan tells Franklin, he scavenged along the way, but it was worse than they thought. Then they had a problem with the dead, and here he is. Franklin says he sent his daughter Laura to the warehouse to see if they have what he needs. Laura comes in with a cooler, and says they had it all. Negan tells them, he doesn’t know what to say, and Franklin says they have a lot, and just want to help.

Outside, Negan says he came threatening their lives, and they patched him up, and gave him the first decent meal he’s had in weeks. They gave him everything he asked for, and haven’t asked for anything in return. Franklin says, what goes around, comes around, and Laura asks if the gun is Negan’s only weapon. He says he broke his knife on the way there, and she says, take this, handing him the bat. He says, the bat she hit him with? Damn, that girl packs a wallop.  

Craven tells Negan, enough. Tell him where he got the drugs. All Negan has done is told one stupid pointless story after another. First, he wouldn’t talk, now he’s begging Negan to shut up. Storytime is over. Tell him where he got the drugs, or he’s going to pull the trigger. Then Negan’s wife dies, and she’ll think he ran out on her. If Negan doesn’t start talking, he swears to God… Negan says bring him his map. Another man unties Negan’s hands, and he circles a spot on the map. Craven asks, what about security? and Negan says, it’s light. It’s just a guy and his daughter. The guards on top of the RVs are decoys, and there could be a couple of others, but they have no guns. Craven says, if they’re not there for literally any reason, he’ll come back and kill Negan, no questions asked. He tells the other guy to keep Negan locked in the storage room.  

Negan is told he’s good to go. He grabs the cooler, and runs outside to his bike. I feel sick. The trailer is in the parking lot, and Negan hears Laura saying, no! Stop! He gets on his bike, and rides out, taking one last look. There’s a scream from the trailer.

Negan arrive back home, and calls for Lucille. He heads for the bedroom, but the door is closed, and written on it is, please don’t leave me like this, with a heart. He opens the door, and hears zombie noises. He looks at the bed and cries. Lucille has restrained herself, and there’s a plastic bag tied on her head. She makes zombie gurgles, and reaches her free hand toward him. He takes out the bat. He’s obviously in anguish, but she’s nothing but a monster now. He comes closer, and we hear Joe Cocker singing You Are So Beautiful. Negan rips the bag from Lucille’s head, and cries some more, getting as close as possible.

He sits against the bed, and she reaches for him, still chained down. He rolls a bottle of scotch around in his hands, and looks at the cooler.

Outside, Negan cuts barbed wire from the fence, and wraps it around the bat.

He pours gasoline all over the house, stands in the bedroom, and lights a match. He drops it, and the room begins to burn. He looks at Lucille through the flames.

He busts out the front door with the bat, and leaves the house. He drives away on his bike, knocking the mailbox (which says Smith) down with the bat as he goes by.

The house burns.

Craven pummels Franklin, and laughs. He says, it’s been a long day; he didn’t get much sleep. This is the last time he’s going to ask. Tell him where they keep the good stuff or he’ll bring out the girl. She’s a little young for Franklin, doesn’t he think?

The other guy sits outside, and Negan comes back with his bat, and bashes the guy with it. A guard comes out of the trailer, and Negan shoots him.

Hearing the shot, Craven asks, what the hell is going on? Another guy says he’s checking it out, and Franklin works at the same screw in the chair that Negan did when he was in it. At the time, I thought it insignificant, since nothing came of it. I should have known better. There are more gunshots, and Craven ducks. He gets on his radio, and asks, will one of you idiots tell me what the hell is going on? He hears shots come closer, and looks scared. Franklin unties himself, while Craven is preoccupied with aiming at the door. Franklin gets free as Negan walk in and shoots Craven. Craven crawls for the gun, and Negan whacks him with the new Lucille. Franklin asks if there are any more of them, but Negan says he got all of them. Franklin says, damn, and Negan hands him a gun, telling him to take it and find his daughter; make sure she’s okay. Franklin leaves, and Negan pulls Craven up to his knees.

Negan sits and says, look at us; here we are again. Last time, Craven said he talks too much. The bad news is, he’s got stuff to get off his chest this time as well. This time, Craven best hope he never stops talking. When he does, something terrible is going to happen to Craven. He never killed a man before tonight. He came close once. There was a bar that he and his wife used to go to; it was their favorite bar. It was their favorite because it had their favorite jukebox that played their favorite song; You Are So Beautiful, by the one and only Joe Cocker. The greatest love ballad ever written; he’s sure Craven agrees. There was this guy there who had one of those voices you can’t unhear; it was like Negan’s brain had been hijacked until he couldn’t hear anymore. Their song was playing, and the guy was talking and laughing, so Negan’s wife Lucille goes over to where the guy is, and politely asks him to keep it down so she can hear her song. Let’s just say he chose poorly. So now, Negan has to get up, and go over. He says the guy owes him 50 cents, so they can play the song again, and he can shut the hell up so Negan’s wife can enjoy her song. Now here’s the important part – the part where he really wants Craven to pay attention. You know when people say they’re so angry, they see red? That sh*t is actually true. The a-hole comes at him, and all he sees is red; it’s like he’s looking through blood. He wailed on the guy until he wasn’t moving, reached out, grabbed his wallet, and took out a dollar. They played the song twice. It turns out, the pr*ck had kids who went to school where Negan taught gym. Needless to say, the school was unthrilled. He got fired, the guy sued him, and since he had no job, his wife had to pay the guy’s medical bills. The point of the story is, there are consequences to him seeing red. Seeing red meant bad things then; he was a bad man then. Now, nobody is suing anybody, nobody got fired, and nobody’s keeping score. Now seeing red is a question of what Negan is capable of. He hates to break it to Craven, but he’s starting to think he’s capable of damn near anything. So this is for not killing him. He beats Craven with new Lucille.

In the present, the zombie has finally reached Negan, and he whacks it twice. He looks at looks at the bat, breathing heavy.

Negan is back in the cabin, sitting in front of the fireplace, holding the bat. He says he’s sorry. He was a coward. He couldn’t face the pain he was in. He ran away, and made himself not feel anything. He didn’t want to feel shame; shame was the one thing he still felt. He’s sorry she went out like that; he should have been there. He’s sorry he named the baseball bat after her, and sorry for the pain he put her through. He hopes she found someone in the afterlife, and is screwing her brains out… Not really, but fair is fair. He misses her. He loved the sh*t out of her, and he’s going to do her fighting for her. He puts a cloth over the bat, and puts it in the fireplace. He watches it burn.

Negan walks back into town. Carol and Maggie see him, and Carol walks over to him. He asks where the A-team is off to, and she says, an Army base. If they find anything, they’ll bring something back to his cabin. He says, that won’t be necessary. The situation isn’t going to work out. Carol says, if Negan stays, Maggie will kill him. Carol didn’t want his death on her conscience; now it’s not. He says, fair enough. He keeps walking, and looks at Maggie as he goes by. He smiles, but with Maggie, it’s more like, if looks could kill…

This was the finale, and Fear the Walking Dead starts its new season next week.

This had to be the saddest episode ever.

💐 Happy Easter…

Hope you enjoyed whatever it is you enjoy on Easter Sunday, or if Easter is not your celebration, enjoyed whatever you enjoy on any Sunday. See you tomorrow for Sailing, and until then, stay safe, stay seeking wisdom, and stay not judging those who carry baseball bats covered in barbed wire. You might not know their whole story. Although then again, you might want to non-judgmentally run.

Mar29

March 28, 2021 – Carol Needs To Fix Something, What’s To Come, Behind the Scenes, Psychic Dive & Visualizer

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What I Watched Today

(rambling, random thoughts & annoyingly detailed recaps from real time TV watching)

The Walking Dead

In a voiceover, Carol tells us that she didn’t plan on surviving. She was going die with the horde, but her family pulled her back; they always do. The Whisperers destroyed Hilltop, and she had to tell Maggie that she’d sent Negan to be part of them. They’re working tirelessly to rebuild in Alexandria, but the Whisperers destroyed their crops. The return of Maggie, along with more people, meant more mouths to feed, and she and Daryl found that the horde had killed everything worth hunting. Every tough decision Carol made was to protect them, and she’ll do whatever it takes. She’ll do what she can to make things right.

Carol walks with Daryl and Dog on a path through the woods, Daryl gives Carol a knife to open her canteen (I find out later on Talking Dead that it’s Leah’s knife), and they share some water with Dog. Carol says she wishes they had more to show for their trip. All the new mouths to feed… He says she’ll make it work. She always does. She says, he’s not coming back? and he says he’s staying a while longer. He asks if she wants a ride; his bike isn’t far. As they walk, he says, hey… and she says he doesn’t have to apologize. He tells her that he was just going to say good luck. She says, good luck to him too. They walk in opposite directions, and Dog is conflicted, but goes with Carol. Daryl says, fine.

Daryl pushes his bike out of woods, and starts it up. He drives off.

Carol returns to Alexandria with Dog. Dog pokes at a ratty scarf on the ground, and Carol picks it up and keeps walking. She goes into where she and Daryl stay, and gives Dog a bowl of water. Funny, I see Dog drink a lot of water, but never see him pee. She tells Dog, for the record, she didn’t need an apology from Daryl. She knows what he said – an apology is just a truce. It doesn’t fix anything. She pets Dog.

Carol walks through town, and sees Jerry. She says she was thinking of working on the north gate post, and if that works out, she’ll clean the dead fish from the fishery, but Jerry says Rosita already has a crew fixing the gate post, and the fishery has been cleared out. She says, it doesn’t smell like it, and he says it’s being used for fertilizer. He asks how the trip was, and she says, good. He asks if she need help, but she says, no. She has to figure something out. He asks what she’s got in her hand, and she says she found it in the street. Somebody must have dropped it during the evacuation, and she thought she’d mend it. She just wants to fix something. Tell her how she can help; anything at all. He says he’s thinking, and his stomach rumbles. He says, food is important to thinking. She says she’s sure she can whip up something from what she found, and he tells her, a bunch of people are crashing in Michonne’s kitchen, and the solar panels are messed up; Whisperers probably. They also had to throw out a bunch of grain. Carol asks, why? and he says, rats. She says, anything else? and he asks what she’s going to make. She says she doesn’t know; maybe soup. She’s got a couple of fish, nuts, and mushrooms. She’ll make it work. He says she always does, and she asks if he ever heard the story of Stone Soup. They used to read it in school. (I actually remember having that book as a kid.) A stranger came to a village, and had nothing to trade but rocks. He convinced the people that he could make stone soup. Then he told one person that he needed to borrow some salt, and another, a little bit of onion. A little bit of this, and a little bit of that from everyone in the village, until there was real soup, and everyone was happy. Jerry says, it doesn’t sound very tasty. Maybe Ezekiel and the others will bring help soon, and she won’t have to make soup out of rocks. She says she hopes so.  

Daryl is riding along the path, and his bike stops. He checks something, takes up his crossbow, and begins to walk.

Carol checks out the pantry/garage, and finds a few things. She cuts some mushrooms, and chops up some fish. She puts some salt in the pot, and throws some over her shoulder. She hears Dog growling, and runs into the living room where Dog is attacking a blanket. She says, hey, and he grabs the scarf. She picks up a book that belongs to Daryl, The Golden Age of Piracy, and says Dog is being a bad dog. He knocks over a lamp, and she tells him, back off. Take it easy. She rights the lamp, and sees the cord has been chewed. She looks down and sees rat droppings. And tells Dog, it’s okay. It’s a rat, She hears it too. Dog takes off through the house, and knocks the pot over in the pantry. She says, bad dog. Go. She tells Dog not to look at her like that. This is serious. They need that food. Go. Dog goes back in the living room, and Carol closes the door. She looks at the spilled ingredients, and says, dammit. She devises a trap, and sets it on the floor, saying, see you later, a-hole, and leaves.

Jerry sees Carol, and asks how the soup is coming. She says, great. She needs a couple more ingredients, and she’s going to see what she can rustle up. He tells her, rustle up some stones too, and she laughs. She walks around a field, gathering some greens. A zombie toddles along, and more come out of the woods. She asks if they think she can’t take them herself. She says, first, you, and stabs the loner in the head. She points to the others, and says, then you, you, and you, and you.

We hear zombie noises, and the sounds of zombies being whacked in the head. We see the wildflowers in the forefront, while Carol dispatches zombies in the background. Carol picks up her greens, and continues on.

Daryl walks through the woods on the path. He sees an abandoned car, opens the hood, and pulls something out. How convenient! He sees a truck, and goes underneath, taking something else. It’s like a mini graveyard of cars, and he sees another with a decrepit zombie inside. He opens the hood, but can’t find what he needs. He puts down his stuff, and slides under the car. I say, don’t do that, but he doesn’t listen. The zombie moves to the backseat, and the car moves, nearly squashing Daryl. He tells it, stop moving, and the car rocks as the zombie scrambles to the front. Daryl grabs some wires, and slides back out. He bangs on the window, picks up his stuff, and says, thanks, buddy.

Jerry sees Carol coming back with blood on her, and asks, what the hell happened? She says, nothing, and tells him that she got some greens for tasty nutrition. He asks if she’s sure she’s okay, and she says, yeah. Back to it. She returns to her place, and dumps out the greens. She checks the trap, but nothing yet.

Daryl goes back to his bike. The music is tense, so I wonder what’s going to happen. He checks his pockets, and remembers handing Carol his pocketknife. He takes out a bigger knife, and screws around with something on the bike. He walks the bike out onto the road.

Carol rights a solar panel, and strips the ends of the wires. Jerry comes by with a wheelbarrow, and asks if she’s got it. She says she’s good, and he says, let him know if she needs anything. He keeps walking, and she says, sure will. Then she single-handedly fixes the solar panel. On his way back, Jerry sees the panel, and just looks at her. She goes back in, and tries the light switch. The light comes on.

Daryl continues to walk alongside his bike, and pushes it up a hill. He comes to railroad tracks, and sees some zombies in the distance. He takes out binoculars, and checks them out, seeing one wearing military camo. He puts his backpack on the bike, takes up his crossbow, and walks toward the zombies.

Daryl gets his bow ready, and walks toward the zombies. He steps on a twig that cracks, and it captures their attention. He walks faster past them, and they follow. He aims his bow at a zombie in camo caught in a tree near the edge of a hill. I guess he figures, why waste a shot? since he puts the bow down, and tries to reach for the zombie. He slips, and the zombie goes sliding down the hill along with him. He manages to throw it off of him, and gets on top of it, grabbing for the knife on the ground. He stabs its head, and goes through the zombie’s stuff, pulling out what he needs. He hears the others coming, and sees them at the top of the hill. He sidesteps, and one slides down, the rest following like lemmings. He heads back to his bike. He messes with the engine, and a zombie crawls toward him. He’s like, enough already, and shoots it with his crossbow. He takes the arrow out of the zombie, and goes through its pockets, finding some good stuff. Too bad there isn’t an engine in there. He says, nice, and fiddles some more with the bike.

Carol tells Dog, come on. Dog sits, and she says, don’t make her beg. She tells him, good boy, and he comes into the pantry with her. She puts the greens in a pot, and tells him, if he’s good boy, she’ll save him some scraps. She lifts the trap, and is startled by the rat, who gets away. She chases it all around the pantry, knocking things over, and Dog is like, WTF? She yelled at me for doing that. The rat runs into a hole in the wall, and she stuffs a towel into it. She tells Dog, what? Are you two friends now because I yelled at you earlier? She says, screw it, and unplugs the pot, saying, she’ll make soup tomorrow. She goes into the bedroom, but dog hesitates. She tells him, come on, and he jumps on the bed without any coaxing. He lies next to her, and she says she feels the fight coming out of her. Dog misses him, doesn’t he? Don’t worry; he’ll come back. He always comes back. She doesn’t though, does she? She asks if Dog thinks they should scram, and get out of everybody’s hair. They could. Dog gives her kisses. I love Dog.

Daryl does an elaborate fixing of the bike, using a multitool, and holding a flashlight in his mouth.

Dog stirs, and wakes Carol. He makes a small bark, but she tells him, shh, and gets up.

Daryl tries the bike, and it starts. He drives off.

Carol goes downstairs, lighting the way with a flashlight. Dog goes ahead. I also constantly worry about Dog. She looks around the pantry, and hears Dog making noises near the wall where the rat was. She pokes through the wall with a knife, and makes a hole. She listens, and waits. She slashes at the wall some more, and waits again. She goes back another time, and makes more holes in the wall. She knocks over a shelf, and starts bringing down the wall by hand. She leans against what’s left, and slides down to the floor. Dog looks worried, and comes over to her, lying next to her. She puts her hand on Dog and pets him, because dogs calm everyone down and make everything better.

Carol cleans up the pantry, sweeping up the mess. Jerry knocks at the door, and she slides it open. She says, hey. He looks inside, seeing the wall, and she says, it’s fine; she’s fixing it. What’s up? He says his cover story is that he’s coming by for soup, but no poker face. He’s going to fess up. He’s just checking on her. She asks if he thinks she needs checking on, and he says he does. Ezekiel would agree with him. She says she can’t argue with that, and Jerry says he wishes he could check on Ezekiel too. She says she’s sure Ezekiel is coming back as fast as he can. He likes checking up on people as much as Jerry does; it’s pathological. Why can’t they just let people like her suffer in peace? Jerry says, it’s a real problem, and she says, yesterday wasn’t her best day. It was a bad day. He says, the wall is all busted up. Ezekiel would have a saying for this kind of thing. She says maybe she just needs to fix what she broke. He says, a friend thinks you’re perfect even when everyone thinks you’re broken. He noticed Daryl didn’t come back with her, and two plus two equals eureka. She says, what if you’re broke, and your best friend realized later than everyone else? and he says, Ezekiel probably has a saying for that too. He just doesn’t know what it is. She asks what he would say, and he hugs her. The rat walks out the door, and goes around the corner. He says, was that… and she says, yeah. Come on in. The soup is almost ready.

Daryl drives into Alexandria. Carol is putting the wall back together. She starts to put on the scarf, looks at it, and says, sorry, throwing it in the trash. She goes over to close the door, and Dog runs out. He runs to Daryl, and she asks, what the hell happened to him? He says he was going to ask her the same thing. The usual. He says, yeah, same, and she asks if he found anything. He says, yeah, and asks if Dog was good. She nods, and wonders if he’s hungry. She made soup for everyone. He says he’s all right, and thanks her. She says, sure, and tells him that she forgot to give him his knife back. He tells her to keep it, and she says, really? He nods, and she puts it in her pocket. He says he’s beat. He’s going to hit the sack. She says, her too, and he goes off with Dog. Carol goes back inside, seeming lighter.

Next time – the finale – Here’s Negan. Negan’s backstory, and the birth of Lucille. Hilarie Burton Morgan – Jeffrey Dean’s real life wife – will be playing Negan’s wife, the first Lucille.

🧨 Here He Is…

A preview of what’s to come in the finale.

https://comicbook.com/tv-shows/news/the-walking-dead-heres-negan-sneak-peek-season-10c-finale-jeffrey-dean-morgan-hilarie-burton-morgan/

⚰️ Drama in Deadland…

A little gossip, a little news.

https://comicbook.com/tv-shows/news/the-walking-dead-creator-robert-kirkman-defends-former-showrunner-scott-gimple-fan-ruined-show/

🩹 About That Splinter…

Showrunner Angela Kang does a deep dive into the psyche of Princess.

https://ew.com/tv/walking-dead-princess-angela-kang-showrunner-splinter/

🚕 You Don’t Have To Go Home…

The weekend has come to a close, so back to the same old after two days of the other same old. Whatever same old it is for you, stay safe, stay being open to opportunity, and stay thinking your friends are perfect, even if they’re broken.

Mar22

March 21, 2021 – Princess Removes a Splinter, The Commonwealth, the Eleventh Season & the Top

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What I Watched Today

(rambling, random thoughts & annoyingly detailed recaps from real time TV watching)

The Walking Dead

In a voiceover, Eugene tells us that he, Ezekiel, and Yumiko embarked on a journey to look for another civilization, and met Princess along the way. We flash back to that, and he says, arriving at the railyard, it appeared they’d missed their rendezvous. We see what look like a group of stormtroopers grabbing them, and Eugene says they found themselves in a nefarious pickle.

They stand back to back, hands up, and the soldiers take Yumiko. She tries to run back, yelling for them to leave Princess alone, but they grab her again, saying it’s her last chance. Yumiko yells, don’t hurt her, sh*theads! but they drag Princess away in the other direction. She’s thrown into a wooden boxcar so violently that she whacks her head on the far wall. She hears noise outside, and yells, what’s going on? She looks around, but the car is empty. She looks up to the ceiling, and sinks to the floor.

Princess tries to pry the door open, but no luck. She walks back, counting her steps in Spanish. She sees shadows of people outside, and remembers what happened. She recites the state capitals, and breathes a sigh of relief that she can still do it. She looks under an old tarp, but there’s nothing. She tries to look out the slats, but can only see part of the soldiers walking by.

She goes to the other side, and manages to pull off part of a slat, cutting her finger. She hears a voice say, Princess, are you there? and says, Yumiko? Yumiko tells her, shh. It’s her. She’s in the next car over. Princess says she’ll try to get to Yumiko, and asks her to move closer. She says she feels terrible, but she’s going make it up to Yumiko. She’s just got to find a way through the wall. She suggests Yumiko get the soldiers to come over there, so they can talk to them, but Yumiko says it’s a terrible idea. Princess says she has to do something. She says Yumiko sounds a little groggy. Did she hit her head? Yumiko says she did, and Princess asks, how bad? Is it bleeding? Yumiko tells Princess to calm down, but Princess says she can’t sit while Yumiko is hurt. Yumiko tells Princess, just do what she says, and Princess agrees, saying, sorry. It’s just that it’s dark and small. Can Yumiko still hear her? Yumiko says, yeah, and Princess says, stay awake. She’s going to try and get help, but keep talking. Princess picks at the wall, and tells Yumiko about an infection she got when she was 14, and had to stay home from school. There were some cool kids at school, and a girl who totally changed her life. Princess wonders where she is now, and blesses herself. She asks if Yumiko is still with her, but gets no answer. She says she nagged her mom, and her mom sent her back to school, but her finger got infected again. It swelled up like a birthday balloon; she felt like a swamp monster. Her stepdad wouldn’t let her eat at the table. He was mad, but she said he couldn’t push her away. It was her house first. He smacked her hard across her jaw. She told her mom, and asked if her mom was going to do something. Don’t send her out to eat by herself. Her mom said, don’t eat. She calls to Yumiko, but doesn’t hear anything. She tells Yumiko, wake up. Answer her. She hears someone, and yells that her friend needs help. She hears them come into Yumiko’s car, and asks where they’re taking her. Are they helping her? She’s told to shut up, and she starts to recite the state capitals again.

The soldiers walk outside of the boxcars, and Princess calls for Yumiko, asking if she’s back. There’s no response, and Princess walks the length of the car. She sees light coming through, and says, no way. She sees a loose board, and takes it off. There’s an opening bug enough for her to slide through, and she sees Eugene in the next car. He tells her, stop. Get back in. They’re making frequent checks. She tells him, they took Yumiko, and he suggests their potential benefactors are giving Yumiko assistance. Princess asks him to come with her, but he says, not a good idea. They’ll see what’s going on when they clear the process. Their metal is being tested. He’s sure the soldiers are required to keep them in good enough shape to talk. Princess says, this is bad sh*t, and he says, stop it. The soldiers walk past, and she slips around the back of the car, and watches them. They keep going, and she goes back to Eugene. He says, if they catch her, it could be disastrous. They’re in the middle of a fierce battle, and he’s being counted on to be a cross between Santa Claus and a guardian angel. They have to present themselves as being in allegiance. There’s no room for miscalculations. Don’t make things worse. She goes back into the car, and covers the opening.

The door opens, and a soldier tells Princess to come; hands up, move slow. She asks where they’re going, but he just says, walk.  

Princess is naked, and asks what they’re going to do to her. A soldier tells her, turn around, and she says, if he’s looking for bites, she doesn’t have any. She does have a splinter that’s driving her nuts. Can they take it out? She sits at a table, and works at the splinter, while the head soldier watches her from the other side. She says, please tell her why she’s there, and he says, start with her name. She doesn’t say anything, and he asks if she doesn’t know her name. She says, Princess, and he asks if she thinks this is a joke. She asks how her friend is. They’re helping her, right? He asks, how old is she? and she says, 28, 29. She could be 50. She’s lost track. He asks where she’s from, and she asks where she is. He says, okay, fine. Where was she when the fall happened? She asks why any of that is important? then says, Pittsburgh. Just tell her if they’re alive. He asks why they came there, and she says her friend hurt her head. He tells her that she’s avoiding the questions, and she says her friend might have a concussion. Just let her see… He says tell him about her friends. Start with the one she’s worried about. What’s her name? Princess asks why she’s there, and he says, the others; what are their names? She says, can’t he ask them that? and he says, tell him why they’re there. Where are they from? He gets up, and she asks what he wants. He says, they’re done. She says she gave him answers. Why can’t she see her friend? He says because she’s being a bitch, and Princess says she wants to see her friend. He whacks her across the face, and she falls to the floor. He says she should have answered.

Princess is back in the boxcar, and looks through the slat. She says, Yumiko? She’s so sorry. She tried to do like Yumiko said, and didn’t tell them anything. They kept grilling her, and asking what she knew about them, like she’s some kind of narc. Her friends… They used that word. She hears something, and listens where the opening is. She takes the board away, and slips out again. She looks into the next car, but Eugene is gone, and all she sees is his dousing rod on the floor. She hears the soldiers coming, and slips around the side, going back in the car, and replacing the board. She tries to get the image out of her head, and the car roof opens. Ezekiel looks in, and puts his finger to his lips. He drops down, and tells her, it took some maneuvering not to be spotted. She hugs him, and says, they got him too. He says, not the most fun interview he’s ever had. He tells her, they’ll be here soon, and she asks if he has any idea where the others are. Yumiko and Eugene are gone. He says he doesn’t know, but they’ll figure it out. They have to get out of there. She says, right now? and he says, no; next week. Yes, right now. She says she thinks they took Yumiko, and she didn’t do them any favors during the interview. He asks what she did, and she says, nothing… She got a little bit upset, and she might have… She hits her palm with her fist, and he says, the inquisition was aggressive. These people are toying with them. He tells her, let’s go, and asks, what’s wrong? She says she doesn’t think running will help, but Eugene said these people would help, and Ezekiel says he doesn’t know if they can be trusted. She asks if they can find a way out, but he doesn’t know. He tells her, it will be fine, but she says, nothing is fine. He can see something is wrong, and she says, d*ckhead nailed her over an old fracture, and she nurses her jaw. He examines it, and she says she’ll be okay. It healed fine every time before. He says, no one is going to hurt her anymore. Not while he’s there.

Ezekiel tells Princess, he’ll keep watch at the top for when they change the guards. She asks where Eugene is, and says, they can’t leave the rest of them. He asks if she thinks he doesn’t know that. They’re his friends. She says he doesn’t have to be an a-hole about it. She knows how to be friends with people, and was just trying to be helpful. He says, fear brings out the worst in them, as it just did in him. He apologizes, and they sit on the floor. He asks, what if Eugene trusted the wrong people this time? and Princess says, people suck. He says, they say one thing, and mean another. They tell you they love you… She says, and don’t act like it. People are a-holes, especially family. He says, not all families, but she says, most families. She just wants to do the right thing. He says he knows. They need a better plan. The door suddenly opens, and Ezekiel somehow makes himself scarce. A soldier brings in a plate of food, and Princess says, sorry about before. She didn’t mean to be difficult, but this is a little scary. The questions, the guns, the whole get-up. Ezekiel comes up behind the soldier, and knocks him out. Princess asks what the hell he just did, and Ezekiel closes the door.

Princess wonders what’s going to happen to them now. What about Yumiko and Eugene? This is not a better plan. He says, the opportunity presented itself, and he took it. Who cares? He’s here now. He takes the gun, the soldier rouses, and Ezekiel tells him, quiet. What did they do with their friends? The soldier says they don’t have to do this, and Princess tells Ezekiel to let her do the talking. She says, she just needs to  know her friend is okay. His boss said she’s getting help. Is she? He asks why she wouldn’t be. She’s probably with a medic. Ezekiel asks if they’re supposed to believe him, and the soldier says, for the benefit of all; and for all who seek solace. It’s what they stand for. She says they beat up her friend, and he says she doesn’t know that. What if it’s possible they’re not the bad guys? Just stay calm. She says, they’re locked in cars, and he says they can help. They have access to things that are valuable in times like these. She says, like food and medicine? but he tells her, he’s not saying yes, and he’s not saying no. They’re organized. Let them help. It’s why they came, right? She tells him, let’s say they’re actually helpful, even though they look like scary action figures come to life. What’s the point of messing with them? He tells her, this just standard protocol. They have paperwork to fill out. The place where they live is a good place, and it’s their job to keep the good people who live there safe. They have to be careful; they have a lot to lose. She says she gets that, but she still needs answers. Like a good will gesture. Where are her friends? He says he doesn’t know. His orders are to keep then fed until they’re ready. She says, for what? but he says he’s just a grunt. Three squares and a uniform. She has to believe him. He’s so green, the gun isn’t even loaded. He’s on probation, and this is going to get him fired, being snatched up by some chick. He tries to get away, and Ezekiel jumps him. He starts to pound on the soldier, and Princess tells him, stop. She says Ezekiel is going to kill him. Ezekiel keeps punching, and says, no one is going to hurt them anymore. Princess looks down, and sees the soldiers blood on her hands. She flashes back to everything that’s happened in this episode, and realizes she’s alone with the soldier.   

The soldier handcuffed in the car, Princess takes off running with his gun. She tries crawling under a fence, but the gun gets caught, and hangs her up. She remembers her friends, and turns around. She hears Ezekiel say, come on, girl. Get your sh*t together. Don’t be so hard on yourself. She looks back at the fence, and sees Ezekiel, standing between two zombies. He says, time waits for no one. They say we start dying the day we’re born. He tells her to come over there, but she says she doesn’t think she can. What about her friends? He says she met them a week ago. She says, that’s lifetime in apocalypse years. He says she’s learned to trust her instincts by now. She knows better than that. She looks at the splinter in her finger, and he says, she’s good on her own. She says she’s a superhero on her own. He says, so go on, and she says she wants to. He says, believe him. He knows it makes him like her like mom. She says her mom was a survivor, and he says, she was a monster. There are always monsters. She says she’s scared, and he says, everybody gets scared. His mom was like hers. They had to learn their lessons the hard way, and take their freedom. She says, not everyone is bad. Travis… She smiles, and says, Sammy and his people, and them. Ezekiel says, there are the stories you tell yourself, and then there’s the truth. She says, maybe, but they came back for her. She walks back to the cars, and we see there are only two zombies on the other side of the fence, yoked together, guarding it. She goes back into the boxcar.

She says she gets stressed at times, and the soldier asks who she’s talking to now. She says, him. She’s not crazy, if that’s what he’s thinking. There is the ADHD, anxiety, depression, crushing loneliness, an over-active imagination, and PTSD, but it helps her cope. Maybe it’s the only sane response to an insane world. Small dark spaces do bad things to her head. She doesn’t like them. He says, who does? and she says, screw him for judging. He says, he didn’t say anything, and she says, sorry. She doesn’t want mess anything else up. He says, then don’t, but she says she’d like to hold onto the gun a while longer, if it’s all same to him. He says, can she at least…? and holds out hands. She undoes the cuffs, and says, the splinter came out. He gets up, and she thanks him for not screaming. He says this isn’t exactly going to look good for him, and she asks if he’s really going to get busted. He says, what’s it to her? He’ll have to explain this, and he needs his rifle. She says maybe he could say he slipped, but he says, no. He screwed up, and he has to face the consequences. Then she and her friends can go back to whatever sh*tty part of the world they came from. She says there’s got to be a way they can help each other out, and he says he’s listening. She says, what if she answers his boss’s questions. Could she see her friends? He says, it’s not his call, and she says, fine. She just met them, and doesn’t now how old they are. Who cares? If you’re alive during the apocalypse, you’re 150 years old anyway. She doesn’t know where they’re from; nowhere and everywhere probably, like everyone else. She’s from Pittsburgh by way of San Juan. Do days and countries exist or even matter anymore? They had been on the road for a week. They had wheels for a while, then walked; that’s how they got there. He asks why she’s there, and she says, to be with them. Their names are Eugene, Yumiko, and Ezekiel. He already knew her name; it’s really Princess. He says, good, and  thanks her. She gives him the rifle back, and he says, see? It didn’t have to be hard. The rules are simple, and the questions are routine. People complicate them. They just need to know she can play ball with them. He puts his helmet back on, and she asks when she can see her friends. He says, right now, and yells he’s got her; let’s go. He opens the door, and she sees Eugene, Yumiko, and Ezekiel kneeling, flanked by soldiers, and wearing hoods over their heads. The soldier slips a hood over Princess’s head.  

Next time, another Carol and Daryl adventure. Daryl tells Carol that he’s staying a while longer, and they wish each other good luck. They go in different directions, but Dog goes with Carol.

🏙 Friend Or Foe…?

What role with the Commonwealth play?

https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/a35875268/walking-dead-commonwealth-season-10-villain/

⚰️  All About Eleven…

Teasers…

https://bleedingcool.com/tv/the-walking-dead-season-11-teaser-god-needs-to-beg-for-forgiveness/

Spoilers…

The Walking Dead Season 11 Release Date on AMC : Cast, Spoilers and Everything Else

And Mercer.

https://ew.com/tv/walking-dead-season-11-mercer-explained/

🌠 Here Comes Another One…

I hope the weekend brought you something different, or you at least binged a good show. I checked out Showtime’s Your Honor (On Demand), and it was well worth it. Bryan Cranston stars as a judge who has to make a tough decision about his son, who’s been involved in a hit-and-run. It will make you question the lengths you’d go to protect someone you loved. As we move on through March, remember to stay safe, stay attentive, and stay giving a sane response to an insane world, whatever that may be for you.