Category Archives: zombies

Jun5

June 4, 2023 – Morgan Hunts For Duane & Survive

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What I Watched Today

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

Fear the Walking Dead

Morgan goes to King County, and sees zombies feeding on some skunks. He walks to his old house, and says he’s here, calling out for Duane. He hears zombies growling inside, and runs. He kills the feeding zombies, and says he can kill them, but he can’t kill Duane. He doesn’t know why, but he can’t.

Grace shows up, and Morgan wonders how she knew he was here. She says, he sent her an SOS using their code, but he says he didn’t. No one knows he’s here. She asks what the smell is, and he says he killed some walkers feeding on skunks. She suggests they get him cleaned up, and asks what he’s doing so far inland. He hears something in the truck bed, and Mo comes out from under a tarp. She says she’s the one who sent the message, and tells Morgan that Madison got away. He wonders how she knew where he was headed, and she says she knew the graffiti on the boat meant something, even though he told her it didn’t. He says, she’s smarter than she has any right to be, and she asks about Jenny and Duane; their names were on the wall too. He tells Grace to get Mo out of here, and Grace tells Mo, those were his wife and son. Morgan says he came to put his boy to rest, and asks how Mo knew their code, Dock of the Bay. She says she knew the song meant something to him and mom, and asks if it’s okay she calls Grace that. Grace says, of course, and Mo asks if this is what getting in trouble with your parents is like. Morgan says, they’re not the ones she needs to worry about, and asks how she got away from PADRE. She says, Madison’s friend Daniel helped her. He’s building an army to take PADRE down. They can help him. Morgan says he has to do what he came here to do first, and Grace asks where Duane is. Morgan says, they were looking for food, and he told Duane to stay in the kitchen while he went to the basement. Maybe the door was ajar, because when he came up, Duane’s mother was standing opposite him, but she wasn’t his mother anymore. Before he could get his gun up, Jenny was on top of him. He finally did what he should have done weeks before, and fired, but it was too late. Grace says she’s sorry, and he says, the blood and the teeth… He just ran. He didn’t know what else to do. He ran and left his boy to become one of them. Mo asks where he went, but he says he doesn’t know. It’s a blur. It comes back to him in pieces. He started killing anything that moved, whether it was alive or dead. He thinks he should go inside by himself, but Mo says, they want to help him, and he really needs some new clothes.

They see a flare go up, and Morgan asks if Grace was followed, but she says she was careful. He suggests they get out of here, and they run, but Sherry rides up. They start to run in the other direction, but see Dwight, and duck behind a truck. Dwight says, there’s nowhere to go, and Morgan tells Mo and Grace to stay where they are. Mo asks how he knows Red Kite, and Morgan says, he’s the reason Dwight is at PADRE. He comes out, and asks how they found him. Dwight says, they’re here to take Morgan back to PADRE, and Sherry says, they heard the message he sent Grace. Coordinates and Dock of the Bay. Did he really think they wouldn’t figure it out? She smells Morgan, and says, he’s going on the back of Dwight’s horse. Morgan says, PADRE’s got their son, doesn’t he? He’s using their son against them. Sherry says, damn right, but if they bring Morgan back, he’s giving them their son and the freedom to go where they want. Morgan says, they can’t believe that, but Dwight says, they’ll take their chances. If they don’t bring Morgan back, worse will happen to Finch than has already happened. Morgan sold them out seven years ago to rescue his own kid; they’re just returning the favor.  A zombie toddles toward where Mo and Grace are hiding, and Dwight gives it an ax to the head. He sees Mo and Grace, and they come out. Sherry asks if Morgan brought them, but Mo says, technically, they came without his permission. Shrike radios Dwight, and he tells Sherry that PADRE will hurt Mo if they bring her back, but she says, they won’t see their kid if they don’t. Shrike radios again, asking if they need assistance, and Dwight says, if Morgan runs with Mo and Grace now, they’ll find some walkers and mess up their faces like they did with Virginia. Morgan says, they got lucky that time, and Sherry agrees. Dwight asks if she wants Finch to know what they traded for his freedom, and tells Morgan that there are two guards babysitting them. They rode ahead to sweep the town, and he suggests Morgan make his decision before they catch up. A guard radios that they’re approaching, and asks their status. Morgan says, there’s something he has to do first, but Grace tells him, let it go. He says he’s sorry, but he can’t, and tells them to run, grabbing his pokey stick to hold Dwight and Sherry at bay. He takes off, and Dwight tells Sherry to cut them off at the entrance.

Zombies start to come out, and Morgan leads Grace and Mo to a house. They go inside, and he says, it’s clear, after banging on the wall. He tells Grace where there are supplies, and that there’s a rifle upstairs. They’re going to need it. The walkers will find them before Dwight and Sherry do. She asks how he knows where everything is, and he says he lived here with Duane before he died. She asks if this is a good idea, and he asks if she has a better one.

Morgan uses tomato soup to get rid of the smell, but he thinks it just masks it. Mo asks how he knew it would work, and he says Duane had a dog when he was little who got on the wrong side of a skunk. They bathed her in it, and then she smelled like a mix of wet dog and bad ketchup. There was still soup there because Duane refused to eat it. She asks if the way things used to be was nice, and he says, it wasn’t bad. She wonders if it will ever be like that again and he says he thinks if they do things right, it could be even better. People can get the second chances they wanted. He apologizes for telling Mo they weren’t her parents. They are in every way that matters, but Isaac and Rachel were her real parents. They sacrificed everything so that she would survive. They hear zombies outside, and he tells Mo to go upstairs. Grace says, the walkers are going to lead Dwight and Sherry to them, and he says he wants her to take Mo and go as far north as her truck will take her. He has to take care of Duane, then he’ll catch up with them and they can regroup with Madison and Daniel. Grace says, he needs to leave now, but he says he has to put his boy to rest. She says, when they met, she was sacrificing herself for people who were already dead. It’s Mo’s life. He says, Mo needs to know he won’t let her down, , and she says, they’re trapped in this house now because he brought them here. Dwight radios Morgan, and says, we’re here. He tells Morgan to look out the window, and Morgan peeks out, seeing zombies clawing at the house, as well as Dwight, Sherry, and the guards. Dwight tells him to be smart about this, and Grace says, whatever happened in this house with Duane doesn’t have to happen with them. He tells Dwight that he’s listening, and Dwight tells him not to make it any harder. Grace says, maybe they can still make that deal, and Dwight says, we’re waiting. Morgan tells him, they can keep waiting. The walkers are a bigger problem for him and Sherry than they are for them. Sherry says, maybe they can help Morgan do what he came here for. PADRE thinks he came for a reason; weapons, more soldiers, to plan an attack. But Morgan says, it’s not like that. His boy died in one of the houses close by. He came back to bury him. Sherry says, they have their son to worry about too, and a guard sends up a flare. Dwight says, every walker within ten miles will be here soon, and Mo calls to Grace and Morgan. They go upstairs into a bedroom covered in graffiti, and Grace asks if Morgan did this. He says he doesn’t remember coming here after Duane died, and picks up the rifle. He tells her, Jenny was always outside. She came there most nights, and he’d wait. He wanted to put her to rest, and didn’t want Duane to see his mother like that. A man named Rick Grimes gave him the rifle to put her to rest, but he couldn’t. He looks at the walls, and says he must have come back here after Duane died. He wasn’t right for a long time afterward. Mo asks what clear means, and he says, that was when he was killing anyone or anything that came near him. Mo picks up a photo album, flips through it, and says she likes it when he smiles. Grace says she does too, and wonders what they’ve been doing the last seven years. He says, they were doing what they thought they had to, and Mo asks if they ever saw each other. Morgan says, now and then. If PADRE knew what they meant to each other… Mo says, PADRE would have used it against them. Another flare is shot, and Dwight says, maybe this will hurry them up. Morgan looks out and sees Jenny, as well as a zombie whose arm is on fire. Dwight says, they’ll save him a bullet; this one’s a courtesy kill – a guard gives the burning zombie a whack in the head – but the next one, they’re letting go. Morgan says, they’re going to get Mo killed, but Dwight says, no. Morgan will. They’re giving him five minutes, and then sending a zombie onto the porch. Morgan says he should have taken the deal, but Mo says, he made the right choice. Grace says they have to get back to her truck, and Mo says, he just has to clear for them. He says, it’s not that simple, but she says, this is his second chance. Grace says, maybe this is what he needs to show himself that things can be different this time, but Morgan says, PADRE will hurt Sherry and Dwight’s son. Mo says, not if they can help Daniel take the island first, and Grace says, Rick gave him the gun for a reason. Use it.

Morgan says, he’ll cover them, but when he says, take a hard right, go for the truck, and don’t stop. Grace says she meant what she said; she’s sorry they wasted so much time. She kisses Morgan, and Mo makes that face you make when you’re a kid and see your parents kiss. She asks, what’s that for? and Morgan asks if she’s never seen anyone kissing before. She says, no, and she doesn’t need to again. Grace kisses Mo’s cheek, and Mo asks if they can just start killing Carrion please. Grace opens the door, and Morgan comes out shooting. He kills a bunch of zombies, but then sees Jenny and can’t shoot. Grace whacks some zombies in the head, but one breaks through the porch railing and they get close to Mo. Grace tells her to go back in the house, and Mo goes in, slamming the door shut. While Morgan is still being weird about Jenny, Grace tells him that one is on fire. He’s still faltering, when a guard shoots the blazing zombie. Dwight asks why Morgan is really here, and Morgan says he told Dwight; he’s here for his boy. Dwight says, the only way PADRE is going to believe Morgan is if he shows them.

They go into Morgan’s old house, and he says, after they find his boy, they can take him back to PADRE, but they need to get Mo out of that house. Sherry says, they’ll make sure she’s okay, and they hear a zombie growling behind a door. Morgan asks to be the one to do it, and promises not to try anything. Dwight gives him a cross peen hammer, and opens the door. Morgan kills the zombie, but says, it’s not him. Morgan calls out for Duane, insisting he has to be here. He freaks out, and Sherry says, Duane must have gotten out. Morgan says he waited too long, and Grace says, it’s okay. He says, it’s not, sinking to the floor. He should have put his boy to rest then, and he can’t now. He put her and Mo in danger for nothing. The guard tells him, on his feet, and radios Shrike that he’s lying; his kid’s not here. Shrike says, if Morgan won’t tell him why he’s there, kill him, and the guard cocks her gun. Grace says, he needs to tell them about Duane, and the guard says, last chance. Grace says, he needs to tell them what happened here, but Morgan says, it’s already over. If they’re going to do it – he grabs the gun barrel and puts it against his forehead – then do it. Grace says, no, and Morgan pushes the gun barrel away. Dwight and Sherry knock the guards out, while Grace shields Morgan. Morgan says, they shouldn’t have done that, but Dwight says he’s not going to watch Morgan get killed in cold blood. Sherry says, he’s not the only one trying to escape his past, and Dwight says, what PADRE is making them do is like living at the Sanctuary all over again. Morgan says, their boy is going to end up just like his. He can’t have that on him. Shrike radios, and Morgan says, they’re going to kill Finch, but Dwight says, not if they have something to do with it. He answers the call, and Shrike says she wants to talk to Oriole. Dwight says, she can talk to Oriole after he talks to his son. He wants to know Finch is okay. Shrike tells Finch to go ahead, and Dwight asks how he’s feeling. Finch says he thinks the treatment worked. What’s going on? Dwight asks if Finch remembers that thing he taught him in class before he got sick; the Chimney Sweep. Do it now. Finch swipes a chair across Shrike’s legs, and she hits her head on the table going down. Finch says, she’s out. Now what? They’re going to find her. Dwight tells him that there’s a supply boat leaving in 20 minutes, and to hide on it. They’ll meet him on the dock where the boat lands. Finch says, okay, and Sherry says they have to get going. Dwight tells Morgan, whatever happened here, he has a chance to make things different with Mo. Don’t forget that. They leave.

Grace radios Mo and says, they’re coming to drive the walkers away. Mo tells her to hurry, and Morgan tells Grace that she’s Mo’s best shot. She saw what happened to him outside that house. She tells him that he has to put it behind him, but he says he can’t. She says, neither can she. She didn’t want him to hear what she was listening to in the truck. The book was on double speed. The radiation’s caught up with her, and she’s sick. He has to get Mo out of that house. He asks how long she’s known, and she says, a few months. She found a hospital and did a scan. She’s paying the price for chasing the dead, and he can’t do the same. He says he’ll get Mo out, and the three of them will spend time together. He radios Mo, and she says, one of the flares hit the house, and the fire is spreading. He tells her to get to the attic; he’s coming to get her.

The house is on fire, and zombies surround it. Morgan starts shooting them, and Mo hears something in the attic. Morgan sees Jenny, and once again can’t shoot. Mo sees a zombie chained to the wall, and says, Duane? like he might answer. Morgan says, you’re not her; none of you are her. He shoots several zombies, Jenny among them. A beam falls on Mo, and she gets trapped. Morgan gets in the house, and Mo yells that she’s stuck. Help her. He realizes he brought Duane there, but hesitates to shoot him. Mo says she knows he can do it, and he remembers Duane as a child. Recognizing that Duane is no longer that child, Morgan shoots him. He asks if Mo is okay, and she says, he did it. It’s going to be okay.

Morgan buries Duane and Jenny, and says, there are a few things he has to do, but he’ll be back. And it won’t take ten years; he promises. The three of them hug. Grace says, it’s over. He didn’t let it happen again and that’s what matters. He says, they’ll help Madison and Daniel with PADRE. They’ll reunite every child with a their parents who are still out there, then they’ll do what they said and spend time together. Grace says, he once told her that they can handle anything that comes, and that’s what they’re going to do. When do they tell Mo? He says, they were just reunited, and he doesn’t want to take that away from Mo just yet. Mo holds up the photo album, saying, look what she found. She sits to look through it, when a zombie pops out of the rubble and grabs her. Morgan and Grace run over to her, pulling the zombie off and killing it. Morgan asks if she got bit, and Mo says she didn’t, but she thinks the zombie was skunked. He says, forget the photos. They need to look for cans of tomato soup for her. Grace shows Morgan that she got bit during the struggle.

Sherry and Dwight wait at the dock in a shelter, and Sherry worries that Finch hasn’t gotten off the boat yet. Finch comes up behind them. They nearly shoot him, and he runs to them. Dwight suggests he never sneak up on them, when a truck pulls up. Sherry wonders if they’ve been seen, but Morgan gets out, shooting the boat guards. He tells them that he needs their help with Grace, and asks if Finch’s treatment worked. Sherry says, it looks that way, and he says, then they’ve got to get Grace to June. It’s her only chance.

Dwight drives the boat, and Morgan tells Grace to hang on. June can fix this. She says, he doesn’t know that, but he says, no matter what’s coming, they have to live. Grace says she promises they will.

Next time, the boat is attacked; Morgan tells Grace that June has a way to treat bites Shrike asks, why do they think she put the train car on wheels; and Morgan says, they can’t stop him.

🐞 Snug As a Bug In a Rug…

Stop by tomorrow for soap, sailing, and awful Summer people. Until then, stay safe, stay sensible, and stay not sneaking up on anyone during a zombie apocalypse.

May29

May 28, 2023 – The Truth About PADRE & Dreaming

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

Madison opens her eyes to a zombie head wrapped in a burlap sack and cinched in a vise above her. She struggles to get up, but realizes she’s tied up and strapped down. A guard comes in and tells her, sorry about the sedative, but it was easier that way. Madison asks if they haven’t taken enough blood, but the guard says, they’ve moved beyond studying her blood. It will be easier if Blue Jay explains. June comes in, and Madison says, Naomi, but June says, that was a long time ago. So long, I forgot she was ever called that. The guard says, PADRE wants her back on the island, and to get Madison ready. Madison asks if June is one of them, but June says, not by choice. Madison wonders if June has been the one drawing her blood, but June says she didn’t even know Madison was alive. She’s done everything she can to put Shrike off. Madison asks, from what? What is Shrike going to do to her? June says, Shrike has ideas on how to cure Carrion bites based on Alicia surviving as long as she did. It’s probably why Shrike was collecting Madison’s blood. It might be something besides radiation, something hereditary. Madison asks if Shrike is right, but June thinks it’s too soon to tell. There’s a boy who’s been responding to the radiation, but it hasn’t even been a week. Madison looks at the head moving around in the bag, and wonders if she can ask June a favor. June says, anything, and Madison says, there’s a file with the names of the children she took; their real names, not the names PADRE gave them. She promised Mo that she’d track down the kids’ parents, but June says, everything she’s tried to do since being at PADRE has blown up in her face. Shrike radios, asking if Madison is ready, and June nods. The guard tells Shrike that she is, and June reminds Madison of how she saved them all when she was left at the stadium. She won’t leave Madison now. She’ll be with her until the end. Madison looks again at the zombie head.

12 years ago. A teenage girl (obviously Shrike when she was younger) and boy walk into a room, and the girl says, they shouldn’t be here. They check out a two-way mirror, when a voice on the loudspeaker asks what they’re doing in here. They’re about to run, when a man in uniform comes in. It’s their dad, and he says, they should have seen their faces. The boy says, the mirror is creepy, and the soldier says, it helps him with meetings. The girl says, he needs to get the mic fixed too, but the soldier says, Sergeant Brenner says it’s probably just a faulty wire. The girl asks if he really has to go today, and the soldier says he wants to show them something.

The girl looks through binoculars and the soldier tells her, it’s a middle-spotted woodpecker. When their mom gave him the binoculars, she said, it was so he’d always see what’s coming. When he saw that bird this morning, he felt like she was trying to tell him that they’d be okay here. These birds live in families, and cooperate to raise their young. If the birds can do it, so can they. A soldier asks if they should load up, calling the man General Kreddick. The general asks for a minute, and his daughter says she hates when he leaves the island, but he says, that’s the way they’re going to help people rebuild; the same way they did this place. Each shipping container is filled with supplies to rebuild. The boy says, it’s dangerous out there. LA and Atlanta were bombed. Kreddick says, they need to seed new communities, calling the boy Ben. The young woman asks how they even know there’s still people out there, and Kreddick asks if they remember Elias and Senator Vasquez. They made contact with Vasquez yesterday. He and his staff are beneath the Franklin Hotel in Galveston. They’re safe. Ben asks why Kreddick can’t stay on the island until it’s safer, but Kreddick says, they’ll never survive here cut off from the world. What will happen when their supplies run out if they don’t have trading partners; other communities to rely on? He promises they’ll be safe here, and tells them to use the code names he gave them if they communicate by radio; it’s for their safety. The boy says he’s Crane, right? and the girl asks why she has to be Shrike. Kreddick says, the shrike may be small, but it’s brutal when it needs to be. Doesn’t hesitate to take care of its family. He tells her to take care of her brother while he’s gone, and she salutes him. He hugs them, says he’ll see them soon, and leaves.

Shrike removes the burlap, revealing the zombie head, which is pretty disgusting, and says, after everything PADRE gave Madison, she betrayed him. This is how she’s going to make it up to him. And she won’t be alone. Nightingale is going to next to her, as soon as they can find him. Madison asks why PADRE is doing this, and Shrike says, for the same reason he does everything. To ensure what he’s built endures.

Running along some railroad tracks, Mo whacks a zombie, and Dove asks if she realizes how far they are from the rest of the group. Mo says she has to do this. They need to see what’s in the railroad car.

Shrike tells Madison, years from now, when people talk about how PADRE was able to stop infections from Carrion bites killing, they’ll remember today. Madison will be a hero.

Mo thinks Finch might be inside. He never came back from his surgery. Dove says, he’s recovering from his surgery, but Mo says, after Finch’s boat got attacked, PADRE sent guards after him. She checked the logs, and it said they went to an old railroad museum, but nothing is there. She thinks someone moved the train car here. Maybe PADRE isn’t telling them the truth. What if something bad happened in there? What if it’s still happening?

June asks to sedate Madison, but Shrike says, she brought PADRE plenty of pain. It’s time she felt a little herself. The head moves closer.

Mo bangs on the tracks with a sledgehammer, and tells Dove that they have to know what’s going on in there. A guard asks what they’re doing, and comes toward them, but they run off.

Madison yells as the head comes closer, when Mo pulls the plug. Shrike tells the guards to get her out of here. Now. As the guards come for Mo, June grabs Shrike’s gun and knocks her out with the butt. Mo yells for June to help, and June stabs the head, then cuts Madison’s bonds, saying, she owes Madison one. June shoots one of the guards, and Madison gets herself free, grabbing Mo, and ducking down with her behind a cabinet. She asks what Mo is doing here, and Mo says they have to get out of here so they can do what they said, but Madison tells her that she’ll never be able to get near the island after this. Mo says her dad can help, but Madison says, until he’s back, they’re on their own. June has a gun battle with the remaining guard, and finally shoots him in the head. Mo tells Madison that they just have to find the prefects, and get through to them the way Madison got through to her. If they do that, the other kids will follow. June gives Madison some oxygen, and Hawk radios Shrike, saying,  they’re done for the day. Shrike reaches for the radio, but Madison kicks it away. Dove comes in, aiming her gun, and tells them not to move. Shrike tells her to call the prefects and tell them to get more guards, but Mo says, don’t. She was going to kill Lark. Dove says, Lark deserves it, and Mo asks if Finch did. Shrike tells Dove not to listen to Mo, and Mo says, Shrike killed him, didn’t she? Shrike says she saved him, but June says, that is a lie. Mo asks where he is, and Shrike says, somewhere his parents can’t do him anymore harm. June says, Shrike is the reason Finch got bit, and Dove asks, what the hell is going on here? Shrike says, she’s ensuring what PADRE built, and ensuring they have a future. Madison asks if that’s what this looks like to Dove, when Hawk radios Dove, asking her location. Shrike tells her to let them know and tell them to get over here, but Madison says, don’t do it. PADRE lied to her about this. Think of what else he’s lied about. Her parents could still be out there and she can help find them. Dove says, they abandoned her because they couldn’t take care of her, but Madison says, that’s not true. Dove asks how she knows, and Madison says she’s the one who took Dove away from her parents. Dove asks their names and where Madison took her from, but Madison says she doesn’t know, but knows Dove’s face. The only one tricking her is PADRE. June says, that’s why PADRE kept this a secret, but they can change that. Madison says she just needs to get to the island. There’s a file there with the names of all the kids she took, and where she took them from. That’s how she can help Dove. That’s how she can help all the kids. Hawk radios again for Dove’s location, but she turns the radio off. She says she’ll help Madison get back to the island. She doesn’t care what’s in the file, but she cares about the truth, and wants to hear it from PADRE. Shrike asks how she’ll do that, and Dove says she can if Shrike helps her. Shrike asks why she would, and Dove holds her gun to Shrike’s head. Shrike says, if Dove kills her, he’ll do worse than she planned to do to Lark today. Dove asks, why is that? and Shrike says, because she’s PADRE’s daughter. They hear something outside.

Kreddick tells the other soldiers, let’s move out, and Shrike peaks out from her hiding place, telling Ben the coast is clear. She says, he shouldn’t be here, but he says he just wants to make sure she’s safe. He sees that their dad forgot his binoculars, and wants to take them to him; he won’t be able to see what’s coming without them. Shrike says, it’s just a superstition. He’ll be fine. Ben says, that’s what they said about mom, and tells her to get out of his way, but she says, no. He shoves her out of the way, and locks her in, using a tool to brace the door shut. He runs after their father.

As they leave the train car, Shrike says, Dove is making a big mistake. Whatever answer she’s looking for, it’s not that. A group comes out of the woods with guns, and a man tells them, hands up. A woman (Diane) says, tell them what they want and no one gets hurt, and Madison says, she knows them. They’re all parents, aren’t they? Diane looks at Dove, who asks what she’s looking at. Diane asks where their kids are. Where’s Adrian? Madison says she doesn’t know any Adrian, but June says, he was here, he’s dead. Diane says, he just wanted to find his daughter, and June says, he did, but she’s dead too. She died a long time ago. Shrike says, because of June, but June says, because of what Shrike made her do. Mo says, if they want to find their kids, Madison can help, but Diane says, she’s with PADRE. Mo says, not anymore. She’s changed. Dove says, PADRE lied to all of them. Shrike is his daughter. Maybe they can find out what else he’s lied about – together. Diane says they’ll wait for the Commander, and Dove asks who that is, when a man tells them, turn around. Madison says, Daniel? and he says, Madison… and June. June says, he’s alive. Diane says, he knows these people? and he says, give them back their weapons. It seems they all have nine lives. Madison says, they’re going to need them.

Walking through the woods, Madison takes more oxygen, Daniel says he often considered the possibility of Madison being alive, but not like this. Madison says she’s not proud of what she did. She just wants a chance to make it right. He says, you and me both. Maybe they can help each other. He’s been looking for that damn island for years. If what she’s telling them is correct, she may be the best and only shot for these folks to get their children back from PADRE. She asks how he wound up with them, and he says, seven years ago, Morgan told PADRE they were out here, and PADRE found them. They brought everyone to a ship to assess them before deciding where they were going to be sent according to their skills and usefulness. Some went to the mainland, some went to the island; others, he doesn’t know where they went. PADRE thought he was too old to be of any use, so they dumped him in the swamp. Madison says she’s sorry, and Daniel says, PADRE was right about one thing, he is old. But PADRE was wrong about everything else. Being old doesn’t mean to be useless. He could take care of himself. So could everyone in the group, except for Charlie. She asks, what happened to Charlie? and he says, Morgan didn’t tell her? She says, Morgan didn’t get to tell her much before PADRE figured out what they were up to and separated them. He says, Charlie became very sick. She was like a daughter to him by then, and he promised he’d stay with her to the end, so she didn’t have to die alone. Like Ofelia. He broke his promise. He wasn’t there for her. He wasn’t there for Luciana either. She says she’s sorry, and knows Morgan would be too, and he says he had no purpose. Then he found these folks; this angry, desperate group of people in search of their kidnapped children. It gave him a purpose. He organized and trained them, and made them into an army. They’re strong and getting stronger, because there’s more of them out there. He lost his family, but he’s going to fight to help them get back theirs. She says, maybe he hasn’t lost all of his family. The files. There’s not just the kids in there. Luciana, Charlie, maybe he can find out what happened to them.

Dove says, maybe they can use the transport boat to get back to the island, and Shrike asks if she’s sure she wants to go down this road. Daniel suggests Shrike stop asking questions and start answering some, and Madison says, like who else knows she’s PADRE’s daughter? Shrike says, not many, and Daniel asks why her father separates children from their parents, but doesn’t do the same to himself. Shrike says, they don’t get it, but Madison says, they do. He’s an a-hole, like every other a-hole who runs places like this. Shrike says, he’s not. PADRE believes in the way the place is run and how they do things; he has for a very long time. Madison says, that makes no sense, and June says, she’s right. Why are they killing people for an experiment that will never pay off? Shrike says, it will pay off. Look at Finch. Madison asks, what happened to Shrike’s father? Why’d he build a place like this? Dove says, they’ve got to go, and Diane asks where Dove came from before PADRE, but Dove doesn’t know. Why does she care? Diane asks if Dove knows her, but Dove says she’s never seen the woman before. A bunch of guys from PADRE come out with guns, and one says, move away from the boat now. Madison says, they don’t understand. Shrike is PADRE’s daughter. They’ve been lied to. Daniel says, PADRE has been ripping families apart, yet kept his daughter by his side all this time. Mo says, it’s true, calling the guy Hawk. PADRE’s been lying to them all this time. Shrike suggests they focus more on getting her out of there, and Hawk says, Mo and Dove don’t have to go along with this anymore. Dove says, they’re going to the island, and Mo says, they’re going to get some answers from PADRE. Hawk asks who they are to question PADRE, and Dove says, it’s not just her. She’s seen some sh*t today. On the train. PADRE has a lot to explain. He says, she’s not thinking straight, and Daniel tells Hawk, the same could be said for him. All these people have lost children to PADRE. Maybe they could find Hawk’s parents. Hawk says, their parents abandoned them, but Diane says, we didn’t. We’ve been fighting this whole time. Daniel suggests Hawk’s group join them; fight alongside them. Hawk tells Dove to just hand her over, but Dove says, no. He says, maybe she’ll listen to PADRE, and takes out his radio, but Madison goes behind Shrike (who I keep wanting to call Shrek) and grabs her, holding a knife to her throat. She says, they can’t wait any longer. If PADRE knows they’re coming, they’ll destroy the files. Hawk asks, what files? and Madison says, the ones that say where Dove came from; who her parents are. Who all their parents are. Hawk says, they’ll make sure she never gets it. They’re not getting on that boat. Daniel says, they’re going to have to go through them, but Hawk asks if Daniel doesn’t think he’d shoot an old man. Mo stands in front of Daniel, and says, he might, but would he shoot her? Daniel says, they’ll hold them off, and tells Madison to go, but she says she’s not leaving Mo. Mo tells her, get that file. If Madison can show Dove the truth, the rest of the kids will follow. Go. June, Dove, Shrike, and Madison get on the boat, and Madison drives it away.

Ben runs through a container yard, yelling for his dad, while Sam/Shrike frees herself from the boat. She runs after him, calling his name, but it’s like a container maze, and she hits a dead end. She sees a container with DEAD HERE spray painted on it, reminiscent of the DEAD INSIDE sign Rick saw in the first Walking Dead episode. She hears Ben yelling for help, and zombies growling. A couple of them have cornered Ben, and more come and surround him. Shrike calls his name.

Finch sits in an interrogation room, and over the intercom, PADRE says he thinks it’s time Finch told them where he’s been. Finch asks what he means, and PADRE says, he was bit, but he’s still here. Healthy. Thriving. Finch asks where Red Kite is, and Starling, and PADRE says, they’ve been reassigned. Somewhere they can’t cause him any more harm. Finch says, they saved him, but PADRE says, they saved him. Over the radio, a man says, they have a situation, and the guard asks, what kind of situation? Madison says, they have his daughter. How about telling their guards to stand aside so they can have a chat? Shrike tells Madison not to do this, but Madison says, time to stop hiding behind the mirror and tell the truth. Shrike says, he doesn’t have to answer for anything, but Madison says, yes, he does. Every kid wants to know why they were ripped away from their parents, but he wouldn’t do the same with his own daughter. Over the radio, Daniel tells Madison that they got away and asks if Dove is still with her. One of their people thinks she might be Dove’s mother. He hands the radio to Diane, who says she didn’t think it was possible, but a mother knows. Shrike says, don’t fall for this crap, and Diane says, Dove’s name is Alex, and she was taken outside Baton Rouge years ago. She thinks it was that woman, Lark. She searched for so long. She sang You Are My Sunshine as they took Alex away. She never stopped looking. Shrike says, this woman is just trying to get into Dove’s head, but Madison says, stop lying to her. Shrike says she’s not lying, and Madison says, there’s one way to find out. Dove’s file. They want it. Shrike says she’s making a mistake, but Madison says, do it, or she tells everyone here who Shrike really is. PADRE says, give her what she wants, and Madison tells Dove that she’s about to get the answers she came here for.

Inside, a guard plops a box on the table, and Shrike says, there’s something Dove needs to understand before she sees that file. Madison asks, what’s that? They already know this place is built on a lie. Shrike says, it’s not what they think. It’s the only way to protect them from what happened here before. Madison asks PADRE, what happened before? but he says he doesn’t answer to her. She tells him, he always says he never lost a kid, but she doesn’t know if that’s true. Who did they lose?

Ben is totally hemmed in, whimpering, as Sam watches. There’s gunshots, and the zombies drop. Kreddick asks what they’re doing here, and Ben throws his arms around his father. Ben gives him the binoculars, saying, he forgot these, and Kreddick says, he has to get them out of here. The shipyard’s a pool of the dead. More zombies show up, and Kreddick shoots, but runs out of ammunition. The three of them take off.

Madison asks again, what happened here?

Kreddick says, they have to get back to the boat, but zombies are coming out of everywhere, and they’re completely trapped.

Shrike says, Madison is never going to get her father to admit to anything. Madison says, why is that? and picks up a sledgehammer she conveniently found on the way in.

Kreddick shoves the closest zombie away, and gives Shrike a boost to the top of a container. He shoves more zombies, and boosts Ben up.

Madison asks why he won’t answer them.

Ben reaches down, and Kreddick takes his hand, but they slip apart. The zombies start to feed on Kreddick, and he tells Ben, don’t let this die. It’s too important.

Madison smashes the two-way mirror with the sledgehammer.

Kreddick – who, to his credit, is taking this like a champ – says he loves them both. Ben and Shrike watch as the zombies envelop him, and a single tear rolls down Shrike’s cheek.

Madison sees Ben behind the mirror.

Kreddick goes down in a sea of zombies, as Ben cries.

Shrike says, her father can’t answer Madison because her father is dead. She and her brother lost him a long time ago. Dove wanted to ask PADRE for the truth. Go ahead. Ask them. They are PADRE.

Shrike watches the zombies mill around, her father now one of them.

Madison asks how this went from what their father was doing to what they’re doing now. Shrike says, they didn’t know how to go on.

Still on top of a container, Ben brings out a gun and says he found it inside. Shrike takes it, and in a voiceover, she says, what did they even have to go on for? In the past, a guy over the radio Shrike is holding asks if PADRE 1 copies.

Shrike says, but then the universe answered, and Ben says, it was one of the kids from the island. He wanted to know what happened to his parents. They all did. Shrike says, they knew what it would do to the kids if they knew their parents died; how it would break them. Madison says, so they lied, and Shrike says, they told them that their parents abandoned them. Their parents knew they couldn’t take care of them, so they fled. Madison says, and they believed it? and Ben says, their parents left and never came back. What else were they supposed to think? Shrike says, they told the kids that they’d face this new world together without their parents; that they’d be better for it. Madison says, and the shipyard? Those containers? Shrike says, their father died protecting what was inside. They made sure it stayed that way. Madison asks, how? but Ben says, it doesn’t concern her. June asks how they recruited adults. They were just a bunch of kids. Ben says, it was easy. They made them believe he was still here, and they kept on believing it. Dove asks why they lied, and Shrike says, to protect them. Dove asks, from what? and Shrike says, open it. It’s what she wanted. Madison looks through the files until she finds the one for Dove. Shrike says, go on. Tell Dove who she is. Madison sees that her name was Odessa and her mother was Ava Sanderson. She flashes back to Ava saying, she cried when Madison pulled Odessa away from her on the beach. Madison says, no, and Dove asks, what’s wrong? Shrike says, go on. She deserves the truth. Madison says, her name is Odessa, and Dove says, her parents? Madison says she knew Dove’s mother. Her name was Ava. Shrike asks, what happened to Ava? and Madison flashes back to killing zombie Ava. Madison says, she died, and Shrike asks, how? Madison says, she was trying to take Dove back from PADRE, and Shrike asks, who made her believe that was possible? Madison flashes back to telling Ava that they can help her and her baby, and Dove says, her mother is dead because of Madison? She slams Madison up against the wall, and June tells her, no. Dove says, Madison made her believe in something more, and puts her gun to Madison’s head. Shrike says, let her go, but Dove says, she needs to pay for this. Shrike says, she will, but not this way, and Ben radios the guards, telling Dove to stand down. The guards come in, and Madison asks what Shrike is going to do now. Shrike says, they’re going to continue what they started on the train, and June says, like hell they are, but Ben says she doesn’t have a choice. She says, he’s a monster, but Shrike says, she and her brother are protecting these kids from the worst pain of all; the pain of losing a parent. Madison asks what that has to do with the train. The experiments? Ben says, as long as the world is the way it is, children will continue to experience unimaginable loss, but if there’s a cure, that would change everything. Seriously? No one has thought of that before this? Shrike says, they can go back to family, to connection. But in the meantime, they’re going to protect these kids the way they always have. She holds out the microphone to Madison and asks if she wants to tell the kids she rescued the truth. Go ahead. Let the whole island hear… That’s what she thought. The guard takes Madison and June, and Dove leaves with Shrike.

June, Madison, and Dove are on a boat with two guards, Shrike driving. Madison asks what Nick and Alicia were like, and June says she doesn’t think Madison would have recognized them. The boat stops, and Dove says, let’s go. They start to walk through the woods, when Daniel, Mo, and company come out. Daniel says, they’ve got to stop meeting like this. The guards draw their guns, but Daniel says, let their people go, and they’ll walk away. No one has to get hurt. They’ve got another 12 soldiers deep in the woods, and they’ve got their prefects. Shrike says, they wouldn’t, but Daniel asks if she wants to take that chance. Shrike signals the guards, who lower their weapons, and some of Daniel’s group disarm everyone. Diane says, Alex? but Dove says, that’s not her name, and Diane isn’t her mother. Her mother’s dead. Because of Madison. June says, Dove can still have a family, even if it’s not who she thought. She said Madison made her believe in something more. That’s still there. Come with them. Dove doesn’t say anything, and Shrike says, looks like she made her choice. And every other kid on that island is going to make the same one. Remember that. Mo says, no, they won’t, and Madison tells Daniel that she’s sorry. Diane says, this was a mistake; she can’t help them. Daniel says, yes, she can, but Madison says, she’s right. Those kids are never going to follow her; not after everything she’s done. Diane says, not just them, and Madison says she’s not the leader they need. But she thinks she knows who might be. Mo asks, who’s that? and Madison says, your father. They walk off, leaving Shrike and Dove on the path.

Zombies growl behind a metal fence, as Shrike watches them. She asks if Crane copies. He says he does, and she says, he was supposed to meet her. Ben says, after what happened, being out in the open doesn’t seem like a good idea, but she says, they’ve got a bigger problem. The parents know where the island is, which means it’s only a matter of time until they get here. Ben looks at an old photo of him, Shrike, and their father, and says, they’ll destroy everything they’ve built. She says, not if they’re not here. It doesn’t matter if they know who they are. What matters is that what they’ve built survives. He asks how they’re going to do that, and she says, by expanding. They’re going to do what dad said. Ben says, there are thousands of Carrion in that shipyard. Carrion they put there to protect what’s inside. She says, they taught the kids to fight for a reason. It’s time the kids showed them what they’ve learned.

We see tons of zombies in the shipyard.

Next time, Dwight tells Morgan that there’s nowhere to go; Morgan says, they’re trying to burn them out; Mo calls to her dad for help; and Grace says, they’ll kill him if he doesn’t tell them what happened.

🧟‍♀️ Don’t Be a Stranger…

Stop by tomorrow for what’s on Deck, and smack talk about awful people reuniting and talking smack about each other. Until then, stay safe, stay remembering those we’ve lost in service to our country on Memorial Day, and stay knowing that if you ask for the truth, it might not be what you think it is, or what you want to hear.

May22

May 21, 2023 – A Train Full Of Zombie Experiments & Space

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What I Watched Today

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

Fear the Walking Dead

June tacks up signs on the trees that say: Turn Back. PADRE will take your children; PADRE is a lie – turn back. She stabs a zombie in the head, and keeps walking. She sees someone wrote, They took my daughter. Please help, on one of the signs. She hears someone contact Warbler on the radio, saying they have a lead on an egg; it might be a mess. Using binoculars, she sees a boat come through the canal or whatever it is. She shoots the two people in the boat with tranquilizing darts. Using surgical tools and skills, she cuts their index fingers off and sets the boat free. Back at her cabin, she puts the fingers in a jar, and hears Warbler say, they’ve been hit. That a-hole got us. When he finds that son of a bitch., he’s going to cut off both his hands. I love how he assumes it’s a man.

Walking in the woods, June sees another message written on one of her signs: Who are you? Where can I find you? She looks at an old billboard that says Coastal Railroad Museum, and on the radio, a woman says, PADRE 3; rescue complete. A man responds, en route to you now.

June deposits more fingers in the jar, when a man comes to the cabin. He says he just wants to talk, but June draws her gun. She asks how he found this place, and he says he followed her. He’s the one whose been writing on the signs. His name is Adrian, and he needs her help. The Collectors took his daughter Hannah from him a few years ago. June says she doesn’t know Hannah, and he says, but June knows PADRE, and he knows she can help him. He tells her to ask whatever she wants, but she says she doesn’t want to get to know him; she doesn’t want to know anybody. He asks what they did to her. Did they take her kid? Did she take kids for them? She tells him, get out and don’t come back, but he shows her Hannah’s picture, and says, it was taken when she was 7; she’d be 12 now. He shows her a friendship bracelet he’s wearing, and says, Hannah made one for each of them. She says she can’t help him, but he says he’ll be back every day. There are a lot of like-minded people who could help with what she’s doing. They’re forming an army to take PADRE. She tells him that if she sees him here again, she’ll kill him, but he says he thinks she’s just trying to scare him. She says, if PADRE’s had his daughter this long, he’s not getting her back. They use the people you care about the most against you. He says he’s not going to stop looking. She can either kill him or help him, but he’s not giving up. She backs him out the door, and shuts it, but he says, they know who she is now, and he’s not giving up.

June looks at the photo of Hannah that Adrian left, and packs a bag, including the jar of fingers. She leaves the photo behind.

June tranquilizes three more people in another boat, and is about to collect more fingers, but she unmasks one of them, and it’s Dwight. She unmasks another, and sees it’s Sherry. She says, sh*t. She hears a gun cock, and a boy tells her not to move. June says she didn’t know there were kids on board, and the boy says he hid under the tarp. He tells her that he’s going to call PADRE, and picks up a radio. He says, PADRE 2; we got attacked. A man addresses the boy as Finch, and asks, where’s Whistler? Finch says, dead; she killed him. He asks about Red Kite and Starling, and Finch says, she knocked them out. He asks the location, when Dwight and Sherry start to come around. June grabs the radio, and Finch accidently shoots the boat, which deflates. Dwight asks if that’s June, and Finch says, she shot them. She was trying to steal their boat. Sherry says, June’s the one who’s been cutting people’s fingers off, and Dwight snatches her tool roll from her. Finch wonders why June is calling Red Kite Dwight, and asks if she used to be at PADRE. Dwight tells her that they think Finch has appendicitis, and needs surgery. She asks why he doesn’t take Finch to the clinic, and he asks where she thinks they were headed. The man comes on the radio again, and Finch tells Dwight to tell them where they are, but he says, no. June is a nurse, and is going to help him. Sherry says, his appendix could burst by the time they get him to the clinic on foot, but June says she doesn’t have the equipment. Dwight says, she’ll have to figure it out, and June asks, why is that? He says, if she doesn’t, he’s telling PADRE who’s been cutting off his Collector’s fingers. June says she just wanted to leave, and Sherry asks, why? June says, it wasn’t safe for her anymore, and Dwight asks Finch to step away for a bit, giving the boy an oar in case he sees Carrion, and reminding him to aim for the eyes. Sherry wonders what happened to June, and says, if she does the surgery, they’ll get her a boat, and she can go wherever the hell she wants. PADRE will never know it was her. June says, Finch is their kid, isn’t he? The one Sherry was pregnant with when they were found on the rafts. Sherry says, PADRE doesn’t know Dwight is his father. Dwight teaches all the kids combat, and she’s in the nursery. Finch doesn’t know he’s their kid. Dwight says, they’ve been following PADRE’s rules, and Sherry says, once the surgery’s done, they’ll take Finch back, and no one will be the wiser. June says she knows where they can do the surgery, but they can’t ask any questions. She’ll take them there and do the surgery, then they have to keep up their end of the bargain and get her the boat. Sherry promises they will.

They go into a railroad car that looks less than sterile, and see a zombie head in a clamp. Dwight asks if June is sure it’s safe, and she stabs the zombie head, saying, it is now. She turns on some machines, and preps Finch for surgery. Finch asks if it will hurt, but Sherry says, he won’t feel a thing, and when he wakes up, he’ll feel better. Sherry finds a binder that contains studies on people who have turned, and asks June, what is this; who are these people? June says, the deal was no questions, but Sherry says, the deal’s changed. Dwight says, she’s got to give them something, when they hear the cock of a gun. It’s Adrian, and he asks who the kid is. June says she’s trying to help him, and Adrian says, two Collectors from PADRE? June says, it’s not what he thinks, and he says, PADRE has his daughter Hannah. Sherry says, maybe they can help him, and Dwight says, this doesn’t have to end in a fight. He’s sure she’s fine. PADRE hasn’t lost a kid yet. If Adrian can tell him what she looks like, maybe they can figure out something. A man asks Adrian’s location on the radio, and while he’s distracted, Dwight reaches for the gun. It goes off, hitting a wall. Outside, zombies gather. Dwight holds a gun on Adrian, and crushes the radio under his foot. Adrian says, there’s lots of more of them, and they can’t be stopped. They won’t let them hurt any more kids. Dwight says, they brought him here to save his life, and June says, they have a problem. The bullet hit the control panel, and she can’t do surgery without power. Finch cries out in pain, and June says, there’s an emergency override in the back of the train. They can have power if it’s turned on. Dwight says he’ll go, and gives Sherry the gun. June says, he can’t walk through the train; it’s full of the dead. She used to work here. It was off the books. PADRE didn’t want anyone to know about the experiments they were doing. Sherry asks if they’re the ones in the binder, and June says, the woman in the photos is Shrike. PADRE wanted her to find a way to stop the effect of walker bites. She had an idea; a treatment. Radiation. It was slow and painful. It was worse than dying from the bites. PADRE tried to force June to administer the treatments. She couldn’t do it, so she ran. Sherry says, they have to get to the back of the train. Dwight looks up, seeing a trapdoor, and says he doesn’t think they have to.

Adrian tells June that he’s sorry, and she says she told him to stay away. He says, if he had, he wouldn’t have seen this place. It shows she knows more about PADRE than she let on. She says she can’t help him, and he says, can’t, or won’t? Her attacks aren’t stopping them. She’s barely slowing them down. If she wants to do something, help him find Hannah, or help the boy and get him out before those Collectors bring him back to PADRE. She says she can’t, and he says, she told him PADRE uses the people you care about against you. He’s sorry for what happened to her, but if she never gets close to anyone again, what’s she living for? The electricity comes back on, and Dwight radios, asking how Finch is. June says, he’s still sleeping, but the medication won’t last much longer. Dwight and Sherry climb to the top of the train, and Dwight asks Sherry, what’s wrong? She says, seeing Finch and hearing him call her honey. She can’t snap back to the way things used to be. They made a choice when they were picked up on the rafts. They’d play by PADRE’s rules because they thought it was the safest place for their son. After what she’s seen today, she can’t bring Finch back here. It doesn’t feel safe. June knows all of PADRE’s collecting grounds and all the places he would look. They’ll find a place, and once they’re settled, they’ll find a way to let everyone know the truth about PADRE. He asks if they can really be a family, and she says, they can. She saw it earlier. They can do this. He kisses her, and they fall through the roof of the train into a car. June radios, asking, what happened? The car is full of zombies, and Dwight shoots some of them, then he and Sherry climb up onto a luggage rack. He tells June that they fell into a car of walkers like he’s never seen. She tells them to stay where they are. She’s on her way, but he says, it’s too risky. He doesn’t have nearly enough ammo. June says she’ll figure it out, but he says, no. Finch needs her for the operation. If they don’t make it back, promise him that she’ll take care of Finch. She tells him, stay put; she’s coming. Adrian asks what she’s doing, and she says, they have to survive for Finch. He asks if she’s doing this because it’s what’s best for Finch, or because she’s afraid she’ll have to take care of him, and she draws her gun, telling him, don’t follow her.

June walks through a car where there are shelves containing jars of zombie heads, and chained up zombies who snap at her as she goes by. She says she’s so sorry, and keeps walking. The door to the next car is padlocked, and the zombies start to break free since the pipes they’re chained to are pretty beat. She starts to shoot them, falls, and the gun goes flying. She fends them off as best she can, but luckily, Adrian didn’t listen to her, and comes in, stabbing them in the head. She says she told him not to follow her, and picks up her gun. He says, good thing he didn’t listen, but she says, he should have. He says, they’re a lot alike. The only difference is, he still has someone to live for. She has to find hers. Like he told her, there are more people like them. Together, they can take down PADRE. She says she can’t help him, but he says he’s not doing it for himself; he’s doing it for Hannah. He’s going to find her whether June helps him or not. And when he does, he wants her to see that her father isn’t who PADRE says he is. They should keep moving. Finch appears with his oar, and says he’s coming with them. June says, it’s too dangerous, but Finch says he can handle the Carrion; Red Kite taught him how.

The zombies start reaching through the rungs on the luggage rack, when June comes in shooting. Finch gets one with an oar, and asks, how was that? Dwight says, that was good, kid, and Adrian and June stab the last of the zombies. Sherry asks what Finch is doing here, and he says he’s going to tell PADRE how he fought the Carrion, but Sherry says, they’re not going back to PADRE. Dwight says, they want what’s best for Finch, and it’s not there. Sherry nods, and Dwight says, they’re his parents. Finch says, they’re not, no, and Sherry tells him that she knows it’s a lot to take in right now, but she promises they’ll figure it out as a family. Finch doubles over in pain, and June says, they should get him back to the operating room. They start to move forward, and Adrian turns around, seeing a child zombie through the door window. He says, no. Hannah. He grabs June, and says, that’s why she wouldn’t help him; she knew. June killed her. June says she tried to save her. She treated Hannah for asthma when she first came to PADRE. She was just a scared kid. She missed her dad. She reminded June of her own daughter, and June wanted to take care of her and make her feel safe. Adrian says, she’s a liar, and June says, then she went out on a scout. She went off-island and got bit. It was on her back, and June couldn’t amputate, but she had to do something. He asks if Shrike put Hannah through treatment, but June says, it wasn’t Shrike’s treatment; it was hers. She saw someone survive a bite longer than anyone she’d ever seen. She’d been exposed to radiation, so June thought, if it worked for her, it might work for Hannah. She gave Hannah radiotherapy using equipment salvaged from the hospital. It stopped the infection, but the amount of radiation it took made things worse for her, and June wanted to end her suffering. Adrian asks why she didn’t, and June says, Shrike wouldn’t let her. Shrike wanted to let Hannah turn so she could study her. See how long it took. Adrian says, and June let her? but June says she didn’t have a choice. Shrike held a gun on her, and said, as long as her finger was on the trigger, June had to keep the experiments going or other people would pay the price. That’s how this whole place happened, because she tried to save someone she cared about. Other people suffered as a result, so she made sure Shrike couldn’t do to anyone else what she did to her, and she took Shrike’s trigger finger. June knew they couldn’t do the experiments without her, and knew as long as she stayed away from here, away from people, no one else she cared about could get hurt. Adrian lets June go, and looks at zombie Hannah, saying, she was all he had left. He understands now why June wants to be alone. He walks up to the window and puts his hand on the pane. He opens the door and goes in, and June says, no! He holds Hannah, telling her that he’s got her, and the zombies close in on him. The others look away.

June stitches up Finch, and says, he’s stable. He should be awake soon. Dwight thanks her, and she says she held up her end of the deal. They should arrange for that boat. He says, they will, but when it comes, they want to all get in it together. June says, that wasn’t the deal, but Sherry says, things changed. June says, for who? and Sherry says, when Finch wakes up, they want to take him away from this place. Dwight says, they want to try and be a family, and she asks what it has to do with her. He says, she’s family, and Sherry says, they understand why June chose to be on her own, but they can’t let her end up like Adrian. Dwight says, someone who doesn’t have anybody to live for. He told her before, he wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for her and John. He has a family because of that, and wants her to be a part of it. That is, if she wants to. She says, okay. Adrian saved her so she could find someone to live for, but she needs to put Adrian and Hannah to rest first. They’ve suffered enough. As she’s about to walk into the next car, a couple of PADRE people come in with guns, and steampunk woman says, hello, Blue Jay. June is knocked out.

Steampunk woman says, oh good; June is coming around. June asks how she found her, and steampunk woman says, they figured it was her as soon as the Collectors started showing up without to the island without fingers. She holds up her hand, missing an index finger, and even though she doesn’t say it, we know she’s Shrike. Shrike says, no one else could be so precise. When they heard the boat that was missing had a kid who needed surgery on board, she knew June would come here. Dwight asks, what’s going on? and Shrike says she assumes Blue Jay told them what this place was; how much promise it had. Sherry asks if that’s what she calls murdering people, but Shrike says, they were about saving lives. Dwight says, she’s full of sh*t, but she says, he’s the one who lied to PADRE about what they were doing today. He says he brought Finch here to keep him safe from a-holes like her, but she says, no one wants the children safe more than PADRE. They created this place so the children would be safe from Carrion. But Blue Jay ran off before she could perfect the cure. June says, everyone she tried it on died, and Shrike says, that was then. She has faith June will get it right this time. PADRE’s got something big and expansive planned. He wants these children to be as safe as they can be. June needs to pick up where she left off. June says she won’t do it, but Shrike says, she just needs a little motivation. One of the men grabs June, pulling her to the side, and another brings in Adrian’s snapping head, putting it in the vise, and pushing it closer to a sleeping Finch. Dwight and Sherry get up, saying, hey, stop it! Sherry yells for Finch to wake up, and Shrike presses a button. The head moves closer to Finch, and June launches herself toward it, but Shrike pulls her back. Dwight and Sherry continue to yell, and the head bites Finch’s shoulder. Sherry cries, and Shrike makes the vise reverse. Dwight says he’s going to kill her, and she asks why he would do that. She’s the only one who can save his life… Well, they are. She tells the men to get them out of here, and they take Dwight and Sherry out; Sherry wailing, and Dwight threatening to kill Shrike. Shrike tells June that she’d better get to work. She’s got a lot to catch up on. They’ve got new patients on their way at this very moment. There’s just one thing they have to do first. They have to make sure that Blue Jay can never hurt them. She cuts off June’s finger, and June screams.

Morgan rides in the back of a truck with Madison, and she asks if he knows where they’re being taken. He says, her guess is as good as his, and she asks why he doesn’t think he can be the person Mo needs him to be. What the hell happened? What’s holding him back? They may not be alive long enough for her to pass judgement on him. He says he keeps thinking about a thing he did – actually, a thing he didn’t do – a long time ago. She asks, what? and he says, it doesn’t matter. She asks if he can fix it, but he says, not the worst of it, no. She says, some of it? and he says, maybe. She asks what the hell he’s doing here. Mo needs him. He needs to do whatever it takes so he can move forward. He says he’s not exactly in a position where he can call the shots, and Madison starts to cough. She falls off the bench, onto the floor, and Morgan yells for the driver to pull over. She can’t breathe. A man comes back, and pulls Madison back on the bench. Another man says, get her a tank, and as he’s reaching to get one, Madison rushes both of them, and shoves them out the back door, tumbling out with them. She yells for Morgan to go, as one of the men grabs her. Morgan takes off into the woods, and she yells, do what you need to do!

Next time, Madison gets the zombie head in her face; a fight on the train; Daniel returns; and Madison says, it’s time to tell the truth.

🐷 That’s All Folks…

See you tomorrow for the usual. Stay safe, sane, and as serene as you can.

May15

May 14, 2023 – Bringing In the Fear & Happy Mother’s Day

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What I Watched Today

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

Since it was the premiere, I figured I’d throw in a quickie.

Fear the Walking Dead

Morgan made it to Padre, but not the way he wanted to. More than a place, Padre is also a dude. Morgan sat in an interrogation room, Madison leaning against the wall. Speaking over an intercom, Padre said they wanted Morgan to be a collector, and a steampunkish woman put a baby monitor on the table. A baby started crying, and Morgan wondered why the parents weren’t brought in, but Padre said, the parents didn’t want to build something better, but wanted to rebuild what they’d had, but they couldn’t. Morgan said, someone should comfort her, but Padre said, she’d do what the other children did to survive; separate herself from her emotions. Morgan said she sounded scared. Knowing it must be Mo, he said, let him take his daughter and go, but Padre said, they were doing what was best for her, not Morgan. Morgan jumped up, knocking out a guard and grabbing a gun. He accused Madison of being with Padre, but Madison joined him, saying she was going to do what she said she was. He asked if she was sure, and she said there was nothing worse they could do to her than what she was already living.

In (at?) Padre, we were introduced to Dove and Wren, who were about 15 and 8 respectively. Wren put on protective clothing and went into a ring to fight a zombie. She had some flashbacks of zombies in a swamp, and froze, the zombie getting the better of her. She called to Dove for help, and after rescuing her, Dove said Wren was too young for this. Wren insisted she just needed some training, and offered to do Dove’s chores in return. In the city, some kind of troop or scout leader shouted things like, who sustains our way of life? Who is teaching us to be strong? after which, the group said, Padre! Madison was being kept in a cell in the basement, which looked pretty bleak. The door had a dirty, round window, and one of those slots they feed prisoners through. Wren brought down an oxygen tank, and Madison called her closer. When Wren opened the slot, Madison tried to grab her, and she ran. Later, while Madison was putting lines on the wall to mark the days, steampunk woman came in, saying, it was that time of the week. She gave Madison a shot in an arm scarred with previous shots, and Madison grabbed her gun. Putting it in her mouth, Madison tried to shoot herself, but the woman said there was no ammunition in it. She sedated Madison, and said, they knew what Madison wanted was to die, but in Padre, that wasn’t going to happen.

Wren told Dove that she wanted to go to the mainland to build their future, but Dove said the only thing out there was carrion with teeth. Wren asked about Madison, lying to Dove, and saying she’d come upon Madison’s cell by accident. Dove said her name was Lark and she’d been a collector. She’d saved more kids than anyone, until she helped a guy and his kid get off the island. She took out twelve guards with a sledgehammer, and twice as many carrion. She almost killed Padre.

Wren snuck down to see Madison, and asked if Madison would teach her how to kill carrion. She needed to show Padre that she wasn’t too young to wear the mantle. Madison said she wanted something in return; she wanted the oxygen valve turned off. Wren said she knew Madison wanted to die, and Madison said she’d already done what she set out to do. Madison told her to let the weight of the hammer do the work, and after Wren made an unsuccessful attempt at a swing, Madison asked her to come closer; she’d show her. Madison grabbed the hammer through the slot and got the door open, but Wren knocked Madison back into the cell and down. Madison noticed a scar on Wren, and asked where she’d gotten it. Wren said she’d had it since she was little, and Madison asked how old she was. Wren said she was 8, and Madison said Wren’s name was Mo. She’d helped Mo and her father escape. That’s why she was locked up. She took Mo and walked out, threatening to kill Mo if the guards came closer. Madison knocked out all the guards with the sledgehammer, and told Mo that she was taking her as far away from Padre as possible.

Madison drove Mo in a boat for a while, and heard they were looking for her over the radio. She told Mo that she’d made a promise to Mo’s father, and intended to keep it. They were going to find her dad. They got out, and started hiking, and Mo pretended to get stuck in some mud. When Madison went to help, Mo knocked Madison down, and grabbed the radio. Madison followed Mo, but lost her gun, and told Mo that they had to go inland. Mo said, Madison needed oxygen, but Madison said she could handle herself. Mo wouldn’t be able to handle the dead. Zombies were coming, and Mo tried to face one, but had another swamp flashback and froze. Madison killed the zombie, and Morgan came out of the brush. Madison told Mo that he was her dad, and asked Morgan why Mo was back in Padre. How did he find them? He said he’d heard the chatter on the walkies, and this was where they’d escaped 7 years ago. He was here to take Mo back. They kept walking until they got to Pip’s World of Wonders, a deserted fairground. I love a deserted fairground.

When Padre radioed, Morgan took the radio from Madison, identified himself as Nightingale, and said he had Wren. Madison was like, what just happened? and Morgan said she’d been locked away a long time. Madison asked what they were holding over him, but Morgan said Mo was better off with them than him. Mo said she wanted to go back, and Morgan said, this was about what was best for his kid. After a brief struggle, Morgan said that Madison was only doing this to make herself feel better about the other kids she took. Morgan radioed that he had Wren, and was told, Lark (Madison) was no longer needed, and was now a liability to the settlement. Morgan told Mo to go elsewhere, and was about to shoot Madison, saying, if he didn’t do it, they might not let Mo back in, and it’s what Madison wanted anyway. Madison got Morgan down and got his gun, insisting she was going to save them, but Morgan said they didn’t need saving. Zombies started to come, and Morgan said they’d go through the swamp; the swamps were like flypaper to the zombies. They come in, but they can’t get back out. I’d say that was more of a roach motel. Who still uses flypaper? As they walked, Madison asked if they had Grace, and if that was why Morgan was doing what they wanted. She told Mo, that’s what they did. They found out what mattered and threatened to take it away. Morgan said, they could provide a way of life that works. Hearing Morgan’s name, Mo asked, what kind of a name was that? and Madison said, it was Mo’s name too. They told Madison that they’d go after her kids if she didn’t do what they wanted. Her kids were already dead, but Padre made her believe they were alive. Morgan says, when he and Mo were found, they were out of food and water, and at the mercy of a posse. It was only a matter of time before things ended. A flare went up, and Morgan asked for the radio, but Madison threw it in the swamp instead.

Madison said they had to find shelter, and Morgan said he knew a place. They came to a slowly sinking houseboat, and Mo flashed back to being there before with zombies surrounding it, and asked if something had happened to her here. Morgan said, the less she knew, the better. They needed to stay ahead of them. When they got to the houseboat, Morgan said, Padre was going to come looking for them when they didn’t show up at the estuary. He saw Madison’s arm, and she said, they drew her blood once a week. Sometimes she didn’t cooperate. He told her that he was sorry; he didn’t know they’d locked her up. He’d given himself a set of rules. He only took kids who’d lost their parents or whose parents wanted them to have a better way of life. Madison asked what Padre thought of that, but he said, they didn’t know. She asked, who else was on the rafts? and he said he didn’t know where Daniel and Luciana ended up, and no one knew where Victor was now. Mo looked around the houseboat, picking various things up, but Morgan wouldn’t give her any information about what anything was. She found the Walkman and listened to Grace singing. Morgan said, it was nothing, just a song, but Mo said, it wasn’t. She remembered.

Mo said, the zombies were going to pull them under. She remembered. Madison shouldn’t have taken her off the island. As zombies closed in, Mo got Morgan’s gun, but Morgan promised Mo that Padre would find them before anything happened. Mo said Madison wanted to die; now she was going to get them killed. Morgan said they were going to wait for Padre; this is how they were found last time. He’d radioed and told them to come. Madison said they didn’t have a radio this time, and Morgan said, there were as many zombies in the back of the boat. Madison said she’d draw their attention, while he and Mo got away, and Mo said, this is what happened last time, isn’t it? and Morgan said, yes, and he was sorry. Madison banged the sledgehammer against the outside of the boat, bringing the zombies to her. Mo said they couldn’t leave her behind, but Madison told them to go. Mo’s foot got stuck for real in the swamp, and as Morgan fought off zombies, she flashed back to the first rescue there. Madison started banging the boat again and yelling, over here! Morgan said he didn’t think Padre was coming this time, and just as the zombies were about to overpower Madison, Grace sped up the swamp in a boat, shooting all the zombies.

Grace said she got here as fast as she could ,and Mo asked who she was. Grace said, her mother. Now let’s get the hell out of here. She’d heard the radio chatter when Madison escaped, then heard Nightingale’s message. She figured they’d go to the houseboat. Mo said, Grace was the one singing, and Grace said, it was a long time ago. Mo needed to put that out of her mind. Mo said they didn’t have to go back. Seven years ago, Morgan almost died saving her. They could do this. Padre’s been lying to her, saying Morgan was selfish and couldn’t make hard calls, but he did before and did just now. Madison could come with them. Madison said she’d only slow them down, and Mo asked, what about the other kids she’d rescued from Padre? but Madison said she couldn’t help them. Mo asked, why not, since Madison had helped her, and Grace said, it may not be that simple. They hear boats coming, and Grace said she’d radioed Padre, and they were coming. Morgan said, Padre could protect Mo in ways they couldn’t, and it wasn’t up for debate. Grace said. Mo had to go back, but Mo said she wouldn’t go back. She knew something had been missing, and it was her parents. Morgan said they weren’t her parents. Her parents were Isaac and Rachel, and they were dead. He’d made them a promise a long time ago to take care of her, and that’s why she was going back to Padre. Madison said they had a chance to be with their daughter, and they were throwing it away, but Morgan told her to run and not to make it harder than it was. Mo told her to save herself, so she could save others, but Madison said she wasn’t going to make it. Mo said, she had to try, but it was too late.

Some boats came, and Madison was grabbed by guards. Steampunk woman told Madison not to worry; she still had use for her. Madison told Mo to remember what she’d shown her, and the Padre people took Mo and Madison away. Morgan said, at least they got to see her, and Grace said, that’s what made it so hard. Grace started to leave, and Morgan asked steampunk woman what his next assignment was. She told Morgan that he was being retired as a collector. They’d invested too much in Mo. They were afraid she and Morgan might cross paths again, and now she knew he was her father. He knew what was best for her now, but that might not always be the case. She told the guards to take him away.

In Padre, Mo sat in the interrogation room, and over the intercom, Padre said, sometimes we have to learn a lesson the hard way. He was just glad she was okay. He felt she was going to play a crucial role in the next steps the settlement was about to take.

Mo told Dove that she shouldn’t have gone. She wanted to be a part of what Padre was building Lark showed her what was out there. Lark showed her how lucky she is to be here.

Padre’s voice said he was glad to hear that; they needed people like her. That’s why he was going to let this transgression slide, but future transgressions would bring harsh consequences.

Dove said she hoped Mo learned her lesson, and Mo said she did. Getting in the same arena where she faltered the last time, Mo creamed a zombie.

Padre asked if he’d have to worry about her again, but Mo said, no, sir. He asked if he had her word, and she said, yes, sir.  

In the arena, Mo smiled, but then kept it to herself.

Next time, Mo says, something bad happened in there; an army gathers to fight Padre; Morgan and Mo are reunited; Padre comes after Morgan; and lots of zombies.

To All the Moms biological or not, Stepmoms, Moms-To-Be, Mother Figures, and of course Pet Moms…

Happy Mother’s Day!

Nov21

November 20, 2022 – The Ones Who Live, Dead Dissection, Finale Songs, Spin-Offs, Photos & Cult

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What I Watched Today

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

The Walking Dead Finale

Running into the hospital with Judith, Daryl yells for help. He tells Judith that she’ll be okay. She sees a distorted view of the hospital, troopers running in, and Daryl falling. She sees a zombie headed for the doors, and rolls herself off the gurney. She pushes and pulls at the inner sliding glass doors, getting them almost shut as a zombie bounces off of them. More zombies have gathered, and as she shuts the doors the last few inches, hands poke through. They fight to get in, and she shoves a desk in front of the doors. She passes out next to Daryl as zombies pound at the glass.

A zombie advertises DoorDash, and it’s quite funny. Now that I think of it, I wonder what a commercial spot cost for this show.

Maggie and the others kill zombies a million different ways, as their group fights its way through the horde. Jules gets bitten, and Luke spikes the zombie through the head. He tells her that she’ll be okay, but that’s not going to happen, since he gets grabbed. I say, noo! as the zombies pull at him, and he sees Jules getting eaten. Carol, Maggie, Negan and the others jet through somehow, scooping up Luke in the process. I honestly don’t know how any of them could make it through this death machine, she says like this could possibly be a real life situation.

Daryl is lying on a gurney, and hears, hey, it’s me. He opens his eyes, seeing Connie, Kelly, Magna, and Yumiko gathered around Luke on another gurney. Luke’s legs are pretty much gone, and he’s crying, as we all would. Daryl tells Carol that he’s fine, and gets up, but Carol says, no, he’s not. He looks at Judith, and says, she’s lost a lot of blood. Yumiko tells Luke to stay with them, and Carol says, it took everything they had. Pamela is holed up in the gated community, and left everyone to fend for themselves. If they go after her, there are going be troopers. Daryl asks if Mercer doesn’t know people on the inside, and she says, Max thinks so, and he said he’d come back. He asks if they just wait, but she says, no. They’re going to take care of Judith, and him. Kelly starts to cry, and Yumiko takes Luke’s harmonica out of his pocket, telling him, they’ll keep the music alive. Kelly says, for him, and Connie signs, for everyone. They love him so much. Now we’re all crying, and Luke slips away. Magna takes out a knife and stabs him, but we mercifully don’t see that happen, and everyone sobs. Except Carol and Daryl, who are stoic. Daryl asks if Carol knows how to do a blood transfusion; he’s going to give Judith blood. She says, the types have to match, but he says, his goes with anybody. His brother made him sell it when he was a kid. A cover is put over Luke, and Carol sets up an IV. They hear clattering, and Magna says, they have to sweep the hospital. Everyone leaves, except Daryl, who stays to do the transfusion.

Mercer paces a cell in a prison uniform, which seems startling. Zombies shuffle by in the hallway, and he hears machine guns. Princess yells for him to get back and cover his head. She gets rid of the zombies in the way, and busts in. Max runs to Mercer, hugging him, then Princess jumps into his arms, and they kiss. He smiles, which I don’t think we’ve seen before.  

Maggie tells Negan, get ready, and he asks if her weapon is for Pamela. She doesn’t say anything, and he says, the offer still stands. She says she’s good, and zombies begin to come. Mercer is back in his gear, and Ezekiel tells them to wait. Aaron and Lydia run up, and tell them that Jerry and Elijah are still out there. They jump in a truck, and Ezekiel drives.  

The nursery is chaos, and a zombie chows down on someone. Gabriel, Eugene, and Rosita run in, and Rosita says, Coco. She sees a zombie reaching into the crib, but as she runs over, another one grabs her. But she’s mama bear now, so these undead are no match. She goes into hyper-kickass mode, and saves her baby. Eugene runs in, followed by Gabriel, who scoops up another infant. On the radio, Mercer asks if there’s an update on the kids, and Gabriel says, they found them. Mercer says, thank God.

Daryl watches Judith, and she opens her eyes. She asks, what’s happening? Where is she? He says, at the hospital, and she asks, why? Is she going to die? He says, no, but she says she feels like she is. Then she can’t find her mom, who’s finding her dad, so they can all be together. He smooths her hair, and tells her that she’s fine. She says, her mom told her this thing that she told her dad; we’re the ones… She’s suddenly out, and Daryl tells her, wake up. Carol comes back, and says, the hospital’s been breached. They’ve got to go. Daryl says, he can’t, and Rosita radios that they’re in the alley behind the hospital. They went through the horde, and their ride is f***ed. Daryl wheels the gurney to another room. He tells Judith that she’ll be okay, and locks her in. He puts another gurney in front of the door, then knocks over some shelving for good measure. He runs to the front, joining the others, and a zombie is smashing at the glass with a rock. Some zombies are already inside, and the others finally crash through, tons of them pouring in. Daryl and Carol fight them, and Daryl says, they’ve got to move. Run. He goes back to where Judith is, shoving the shelves over, and pulls he bed out. Carol radios that the hospital has been breached. They’re going out the back. When they get there, it’s another cluster of zombies, so they keep going, and find another door.

Eugene comes out of a van, shooting, and Gabriel says, back to back. Eugene says, they’ve got to find a way out. A zombie grabs Rosita, but Gabriel shoots it. Rosita suggests they go up; she’ll be behind him. They climb up a pipe on the side of a building like freaking Spiderman, but then the zombies start climbing too. Rosita gets stuck they tell her, reach up, but she falls backward, along with Coco, in a pack strapped to her stomach. She somehow pops back up, and climbs onto an overturned ambulance. Eugene tells her to jump, and jumps onto the pipe, and gets in the window. That was one heart-stopping moment.

Daryl and company rendezvous with Mercer, who helps get Judith to a safe house, where Tomi examines her. He tells Daryl that it was good he gave her blood. He’ll do what he can. He tells them to prep an IV, and clear the room. Aaron checks on Lydia, and tells her that she’ll feel it sometimes, like it’s still there. Is she okay? She nods, and says, Luke and Jules… He says he knows, and she says, it’s the same with Eli; she knows it. That’s just what happens. People die; cities fall. Things just don’t work out. People tell her they do, but they don’t. Jerry’s not coming back either, is he? Aaron says he hasn’t given up hope. They’ll  find both of them. Carol hears, but says nothing. Maggie asks if Aaron has seen Negan, but he says, not for a while, and she runs off. She finds Negan climbing the stairs with a rifle, and asks if he’s going after Pamela. He asks what it matters, as long as it’s done, and she asks, what’s his angle? He says he has no goddam angle. He’s doing this for her. If she takes Pammy out with this thing, hell will rain down on her, and she ain’t gonna come back, and she has to come back. So he’s doing it. Last night, when he was down on his knees about to lose his wife, about lose everything, he finally understood what it must have felt like. He knows he probably owes Maggie more than this, but he’s so sorry for what he took from her and her son. She takes the rifle from him, and says, you comin’?

Eugene and Max doze, and Eugene sees Rosita watching Coco sleep. He walks over, and asks if she wants to take a break, but she says she just wants to soak Coco up. He smiles, and sits with her. He says he bets she can’t wait for summer. She can finally take Coco for a swim at Oceanside. In his research on child-rearing he came across an outline of the benefits that swimming has. It builds confidence; not that Coco will have a problem. Rosita has it in spades, so it’s in Coco too. He can’t wait for summer, can she? She doesn’t say anything, and he says, when she fell… She looks at him, and he asks, where? She shakes her head, and he pulls back the collar of her shirt, seeing the bite make on her shoulder. She says, it’s okay; no crying. She doesn’t want them to know yet, so pull his sh*t together. He says he can’t, but she says, he can. She’s still right here, and he’s going to be fine. Tears shine in her eyes, but yet she smiles, and Eugene says he just loves her so much. She says she loves him, he kisses her head, and leaves. He sits with Max, and she asks if he’s all right. He says he’s completely fine.

Daryl and Carol watch Judith. She stirs, and Daryl sits on the bed. He calls her a little ass-kicker, and she says, big ass-kicker. He says, damn straight, and she says she’s fine, like he promised. What she said about her mom and dad… He asks if it’s true. Is that why she never came back? Judith says she’s sorry she didn’t tell him. She was scared he’d leave too. He says he’s right here, when they hear gunshots and yelling. Mercer tells them that people are banging at the gate, and they’re shooting anyone who climbs over. Loads people are dying, and he can’t just stand by. The truck is gassed, and can get them home. It’s not their fight; these are not their people. Ezekiel says, they are; so is Mercer. They may not think this place is worth saving, given how they were treated, but it’s worth it to him. The people are worth it. He’s not allowing them to fall without a fight. Not today. Not with him. Who else will go? Aaron says, they can do more than save themselves, and they need to. Everyone is like, let’s go, and Ezekiel tells Mercer, lead the way, brother.

Pamela stands near the gates, watching all the people yelling for her to open them. Maggie looks at her through binoculars, and tells Negan, they’re almost there. Mercer comes out, along with Carol, Daryl, and company, and a group of trooper sympathizers. Pamela says, arrest them, and everyone draws their guns. Mercer says, the people outside want in, and she says, traitor. He says, no, she is. She disappeared hundreds of citizens, and lead the dead to their doorstep. She shot a child, and now she’s left thousands to die. A herd is also coming. The people yell, let us in, and Gabriel steps forward. He says he’s opening the gate, and he’ll kill anyone who tries to stop him. Trooper Vickers says, they’ll be forced to shoot him unless he stops, and Carol says, they’ll fire back. Pamela says, shoot him, and Daryl asks what the hell she’s doing. They all deserve better than this. She built this place based on the old world, a world that f***ed people over. Pamela says, if she opens the gate, the dead will get in, not just living, and he says, if she doesn’t, they lose everything anyway. We have one enemy, and it ain’t the walking dead.

Vickers tells the troopers to lower their weapons, and says, he’s right. Give the priest the key. On your command, General Mercer. Mercer says he’s arresting Pamela for high crimes against the people of the Commonwealth. Cuff her. Maggie tells Negan, she’s getting arrested, and he says, prison like that is worse than death. Gabriel unlocks the gate, and the people swarm in. Several of them help Gabriel to close and lock it behind them, and the zombies grope through the gate, still trying to get in. Eli runs to Lydia, who says she thought she’d never see him again. Jerry calls for Nabila, and Ezekiel says, come with him. Pamela looks dazed, and moves closer to the gate, seeing zombie Lance. She moves even closer, and he grabs her, pulling her toward him. She closes her eyes, and Judith tells Pamela, you have to help them. It’s not too late; it’s never too late. Maggie shoots Lance, and says, now we’ll take this place back.

Mercer says, here’s the new plan. They’re going to get a vehicle out, and clear a path. Don’t engage with the dead any more than necessary. We see them fight their way through the horde, and Aaron saying, hold the line. Mercer says, take the vehicle out back. He’s headed for the town square, and will let them know when it’s clear. Jerry is in charge of dumping the barrels of fuel from the depot into the sewer tunnels underneath. They’ll start the PA system to draw the zombies to the Estates. Eli does some wiring, and Mercer says, it’s almost go time. Get the fuel in the sewers. They only have one shot at this. They pour out the gasoline, and everyone is wiring something or hooking something up. Max says she hopes it works, and Princess says, if it doesn’t, they’re dead.

Living Colour’s Cult of Personality plays at top volume, and the zombies pour into the Estates. When the song stops, the record player arm goes back, and two flints ignite a spark. Everything blows up, and it’s quite an explosion. It rips through the tunnels, and outside, flaming zombies drop like… well, flaming zombies. Everything burns.

Pamela whines, it’s not easy having a good time so many lives in her hands, and she had to make ugly decision. How do you pick who does the jobs no one wants? Who gets the nicer house? Carol says, they had to make an ugly decision to keep alive after everything she’s done, because they’ve all done things. They’ll figure it out. They’ll make sure of it. At least they don’t have to worry about who gets her house. They close the cell door behind them.  

Negan looks at his old Whisperer mask, and tosses it. Maggie sits across from him, and says she was thinking about what he said. She wants to thank him. She can stop wondering if he’ll ever say those words, and if she can forgive him. She knows now she can’t. Glenn was beautiful. She’ll never love anyone like that again. She remembers his smile, his goodness, and the way he made her feel. But when looks at Negan, all she sees is the bat coming down, and blood running down Glenn’s face. She hears him calling for her, and hears Negan mocking her. She can’t forgive him, even though she’s grateful that he saved her son; even though she knows he’s trying. She’s trying too, because she doesn’t want to hate him anymore. She doesn’t want to hurt like that. She doesn’t want her son to see that anybody has that kind of hold over her. If he and Annie want to stay, they’ve earned their place. But if she can’t look at him some days, work with him, or move on, that’s why. All she has are her memories, and she doesn’t want to remember Glenn like that. He nods, pain visible in his eyes, and she leaves.

There’s a big group dinner, where there’s much laughter, Landslide playing on the phonograph. DOG IS HERE!!! Yumiko toasts to Luke, and they all raise their glasses, clinking them. Daryl looks outside, and sees Negan. He nods, and Negan nods back, but keeps walking. Yumiko asks Magna if she can just say… but she doesn’t finish because Magna kisses her. Gabriel sits with Rosita, and asks if she’s okay. She says, everything is perfect. She just wants to remember this moment. She whispers something to him, and he covers her hand with his. She wipes away a tear, and Judith sees.

Carol and Maggie walk Rosita into a bedroom, and she lies on the bed next to Coco. They leave, and she cuddles with Coco, as Daryl stands in the doorway. Gabriel comes in, and kneels next to the bed. He says, receive her into Your arms of mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace. And into the glorious company of the saints and light. May her soul, and the soul of all those departed, in the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen. He takes her hand, and she kisses Coco. Gabriel says, they’ll see her again someday, and takes Coco. Eugene comes in, and sits next to the bed. He says he wouldn’t be the man he is today if he hadn’t met her. He takes her hand, and she says she’s glad it was him in the end. She closes her eyes, and he cries.

One year later. Eugene leaves flowers at Rosita’s grave plaque, and we see plaques for those who are gone. We hear Ezekiel say, my fellow citizens. They’re here together today against all odds. Eugene takes Baby Rosie from Max, and Ezekiel says, they’re here to honor those who sacrificed for them, so they could pursue a more perfect union.  Even though they’re not bonded by blood, they’re family. As Governor, Ezekiel is making Mercer his Lieutenant Governor. Princess lets out a whoop, everyone laughs, and she blows Mercer a kiss. Ezekiel says, they pledge to live by those words, and everyone applauds. He and Mercer bro hug, and Connie hugs Daryl. She signs, what’s up, cowboy? How’s the frontier? He says, quiet for now, and asks, how’s work? She signs, great. She’s keeping the new administration honest. He says, she seems happy, and she signs, she is. Lydia hugs Judith, and gives her a present. Judith asks who it’s from, and Lydia says, it’s a surprise, and leaves. Judith opens it, and finds her compass with JG engraved on it, along with a note that says: This has always helped me find my way. I’m returning it to you in the hope that it can guide you to your dreams. Thank you for letting me use it. Negan.

Daryl and Carol look at the Wall of the Lost in rebuilt Alexandria, and everyone around them does normal stuff. Gracie runs in and hugs Judith, and Eli hugs Aaron. Aaron tells Gabriel that he never thought they’d get back to any of this. He had hope, but they’ve been lucky. Gabriel says, it’s not luck; it’s effort. They have a lot to be proud of; family, community, our future. Maggie hugs Daryl and Carol, and says she wants to talk about the future. There’s a lot out there to find out about, and she thinks it’s time they did. It’s a beautiful day to head out. Daryl says, yeah, and tells Carol that he wishes she was coming with him. She says she knows it will be good for both of them, and he says he’s proud of her. She took Hornsby’s job and made it her own. She made everything better for her kids, and she’ll keep making it better. She says, he will too, and he says, it’s not like they’ll never see each other again. She says she’s allowed to be a little sad, and a tear rolls down her cheek. She says, he’s her best friend, he puts his arm around her, and they look at the lake.

Judith and RJ say goodbye to Daryl, and Judith says, she’ll keep an eye on Dog. Daryl tells her to keep an eye on Carol too. If he sees anything, he’ll find both her parents, and bring them home. She says, he deserves a happy ending too, and he says he’ll be back. She says he knows, and they hug. Ezekiel takes the kids, and Carol straightens Daryl’s poncho. He says he loves her, and she says she loves him too. They hug, and he gets on his bike. He looks at her, starts the engine, and heads into down the road, passing a random zombie who was apparently Greg Nicotero.  

We go heavily down Dead Memory Lane, seeing all the characters we remember and those we forgot about, as…

A match lights the darkness, and we see Rick sitting by a fire, writing a letter. In a voiceover, he says he thinks about the dead all the time, and about the living… who he lost. Elsewhere, Michonne writes in a journal that she tried to get to their kids again and again, but it was too far. But they’ve got each other; they’re connected. He says, he thinks about them all every day; their faces, what he’s learned, how she made him who he is. She says, they’ll always be together, even when they’re apart. We together is the strongest thing. We’re love, and love is endless. We are endless. He says, together we’re the pieces of a whole that keeps going with what we gave each other; one unstoppable life. You showed me that. You gave me that. Michonne looks into the fire at Rick on the other side.

Michonne is in a stable with a horse, and Rick’s meager possessions. She writes, I know your brother is back there. Just as sure as I know he’s out there. Somewhere. Not just as a part of us. He’s alive out there. She will find him. She knows he’s trying to find them.

In another place and time, and with the same possessions, Rick is on a riverbank, wearing a CRM jacket.

Michonne saddles her horse, and rides out, lopping off a zombie’s head as she rides past.

On a beach rife with zombie heads poking out of the wet sand, Rick hears a helicopter, and says, no. He tosses his bag away, and a loudspeaker says, he’s been located. He’s being instructed to surrender. Remain in place with his hands up. He spikes one of the zombie heads with a tool I use for yanking out weeds from the garden. The loudspeaker tells him, it’s like she said; there’s no escape for the living.

As Michonne rides, she says, remember what she told him. It’s what he said. Hold it in your heart. It’s true. Forever.   

We hear, we’re the ones who live, and we see all the highlights of the past seasons. Michonne rides into the fog, ready to do battle. Rick holds up his hands, looks up, and smiles.  

Judith tells TJ, we get to start over. We’re the ones who live.

There was a thank you from each cast member to the fans.

Next on the agenda, Fear the Walking Dead, Dead City, Daryl Dixon, and Rick and Michonne. The Walking Dead Universe – bigger and deader.

👩🏾‍🏫 Explaining the Dead End…

An in depth look at the ending. For those who must.

https://ew.com/tv/walking-dead-finale-rick-michonne-ending-explained/

🎧 Playlisting Dead…

The cast chooses songs for the finale.

https://ew.com/tv/walking-dead-finale-cast-character-playlist-songs/

⚰️ Dead Next…

About that bigger and deader universe.

https://ew.com/tv/the-walking-dead-finale-spin-offs/

📸 Dead Snaps…

Photos from behind-the-scenes.

https://ew.com/tv/the-walking-dead-behind-the-scenes-photos/

👣 Dead On My Feet…

If you got to go to the finale, you’re a lucky dead dog, but the seat in front of the TV wasn’t bad. Lots of laughing, hugging, and reminiscing, and I definitely got the vibe they’d been passing out champagne… or something. Stop in tomorrow for some soap and OG Deck. Until then, stay safe, stay embracing, or at least accepting, the change of seasons, and stay knowing, you don’t have to be bonded by blood to be a family.

Nov14

November 13, 2022 – The Commonwealth Wall Is Breached, Some Talk, Vampire Season Finale & Tom’s November

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What I Watched Today

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

The Walking Dead

Judith’s voiceover says, for the longest time, we were fighting to survive, trying to get back what we lost. This family, my family, we would do anything to protect each other. We’re fighting now for something else, something bigger… a new beginning. But that comes with a cost. There’s always a cost. I never got to know my mom Lori. My brother Carl dreamed of a day we would live in peace. My mom Michonne tried to hang up her sword. My dad Rick was searching for mercy. And me? I guess I’m a Grimes too. She holsters her gun. I keep thinking about something my mom told me. She looks at a copy of the Constitution, and rolls it up. TJ walks in. It was a secret saying she shared with my dad; it was like a good luck charm. For me and RJ too. I was afraid to say it out loud; afraid say so many things out loud. But we didn’t know when we started this, that this would be the day everything changed forever.

Maggie and the others gather at the train. Rosita says, let’s go now, and they get in. Princess asks Magna if anyone knows how to drive a train, and Magna says she thinks one of the prisoners used to be an engineer. They load supplies, and Negan asks if Maggie has any thoughts on how they’re taking out the bitch. She says, Pamela? and he laughs. He says he gets that others have reasons of their own for going back, but no one is safe as long as Pamela is breathing. He assumes she agrees. Together, they can get this done. They don’t need the others. She closes the storage compartment, and says, we’re not a we. She sees Herschel, and gives him a hug, telling him that she loves him. Annie hugs Negan from behind, and tells him, be careful. He says she knows him; he always is. He tells her to hold down the fort, and she says, make sure he comes back in one piece. He says, yes ma’am, and everyone says their goodbyes. Judith tells Daryl that she’s coming with them, but he says, no. They need her here. She says, that’s crap. This isn’t the future her brother wanted. It’s not what her mom and dad fought for. They want to help everyone, not just themselves, and she wants to be a part of that; to make what her family believed in real. Carol says, they’ve been focused on what’s in front of them for so long, Judith is thinking, what about after? Maybe they should all do a little more of that. Daryl says, all right, but stay with him. Judith agrees, and Daryl asks Nabila to watch RJ.

Mercer brings Eugene to Max and Yumiko, and Eugene says he’s safe thanks to Max’s brother. Max hugs Mercer, and Yumiko asks why he didn’t tell them. Mercer says, it was safer this way. Some of her people have saved his ass through the years, and he won’t forget it. They need to lay low for now. Yumiko says, the people heard them. They’re angry, and they need to push them. Mercer says he needs to gather enough troops on his side to get Pamela. Yumiko and Max can stir the people, but Eugene has to stay out of sight. A sympathetic trooper opens the door, and tells Mercer that he’s out of time. The trooper radios in some bullsh*t about Mercer taking a statement, and how Mercer will come over when he’s done. They leave, and Eugene locks the door.

Zombies claw at the train, as Rosita goes over plans with Gabriel. She says, they won’t stand out as much in the wards, and can go behind the children’s house to rescue them. Gabriel says, they will get their daughter back, and she asks if that’s his faith talking. He says, in her, yes, and she says she’s glad he’s here. Tyler tells Princess, it’s weird them ending up in a place like this again. He’s sorry about what happened. She thanks him, but says she has no time for sorries. They have to contact the guy who will help. Tyler raises some kind of antenna out of an opening in the ceiling to get reception. Connie signs that she’s glad they found him, and Kelly tells him what Connie said, adding, they’ve been looking for him since Pamela’s party. Magna says, society threw him away. He was desperate and mad, but they heard him. He says he wanted Pamela to hear, but he shouldn’t have hurt people. Connie signs, he can fix his mistakes. The governor might not have listened, but soon the people of the Commonwealth will.  

The people shout outside Pamela’s office window, and she tells Mercer, incompetence. They have no idea how he got away. Mercer says, clearly he had help. Some people are unhappy with the verdict. It’s going to take time to narrow down the suspect list. There have been reports of people going missing for a while, and they don’t have answers. Maybe this time, they’ll get lucky. She says, just do your job, Michael – startling me, since I’ve only thought of him as Mercer – before more people get hurt. He leaves, and she tells trooper Vickers, keep an eye on him. She wants a door-to-door search for Eugene, and they’re to shoot him on sight. Vickers asks if Pamela would like them to try and disperse the crowd, but Pamela says, she’ll find some bones to throw them. If things escalate, there’s a plan in place. Vickers leaves, and Pamela takes out a super-secret radio, and says, B17.

Aaron and his group continue to walk with the zombie horde, as the trooper jeeps ride around them. The zombies follow a jeep, and Aaron says, now’s their chance. Get to the trees. The message is whispered throughout the group, and they start to move to the edge. A trooper on motorcycle goes past. Lydia is used to this, but the others look freaked. The horde follows the jeeps and bikes. From the crane shot, we see the road is long.

On the train, Ezekiel sees Negan looking at him, and says, what? Negan says he never thanked Ezekiel for getting in front of the rifles. Thank you. He asks why Ezekiel did it, and Ezekiel says, a lot of reasons. Dying like a martyr is too easy. Living and making something positive out of his days, that keeps him from giving into anger over what he lost. He doesn’t want to live out whatever days he has left in bitterness. He’s not even supposed to be here. The dead came for me, and yet I smile. War came for me, and yet I smile. He opens his collar, showing Negan the tumor, and says, cancer. And yet I smile. He tries to anyway. So why did Negan tell the warden his own name instead of Ezekiel’s? Negan says, for his wife, and his kid. He wants to leave a better story than the one Ezekiel’s been telling; when it mattered, he did something right. Not to prove anything or get anything, or to save his own ass. It was to save all of them. They’re better than him, and if Ezekiel thinks he doesn’t know that, then he hasn’t been paying attention.

Judith tells Daryl and Carol that she hasn’t heard from her mom in a long time. She tried a couple of times, but nothing came back. Carol says, there could be a lot of reasons. Judith’s mom can take care of herself better than anyone Carol knows. Daryl says, her mom would be proud of her; her dad too. Judith says, Carl too? He nods, and Carol says, Judith and Carl are a lot alike. Judith says, Carl died saving people. She wishes she’d had more time with him. She wishes they had more time to just remember them. Carol says, they will, and Daryl says, when this is over, he’ll tell her every story he remembers about all the people who loved her. He puts his arm around her, and she puts her head on his shoulder.

Mercer pretends to question Yumiko, who says, he thinks she had something to do with Eugene’s escape? He says, all they know is, he’s missing, and she was the last person to talk to him. Vickers says, if she knows where he is… and Yumiko says, she would be with him, and not stuck having this conversation. The sympathetic trooper tells Mercer that an Aurora is trying to raise him on the radio, and Mercer says he’ll take in here. Yumiko is dismissed, and Mercer says he needs the room. Vickers leaves, and he answers. It’s Princess, and he tells her that they should switch to another channel; her old apartment number. He asks if she’s all right, and she says she’s fine. How’s Eugene? Mercer says, he’s safe, for now. Where is she? She says she’s on a train headed back to him. She’s bringing people; the prisoners Hornsby and Pamela disappeared. He asks what she’s planning to do, and she says, change things; take Pamela down. Will he be okay with that? He says, yeah. Get the prisoners back to him. With them as witnesses, they’ll have legal grounds to remove Pamela. He tells her to bring everyone to an access tunnel that runs along the west wall, and tells her how to get there. He says, it leads to an industrial building. He’ll be there. It’s good to hear her voice. The trooper tells him that there’s been an alert. A swarm is coming from the east.

Aaron whispers, up ahead… to the RV, and the message is passed. They gravitate toward the van, and Aaron opens the door. They start to file in, but Jules gets moved along with the horde, and Luke decides to follow her. Eli ends up outside, and Lydia grabs for him, but gets badly bitten on the arm, and lets go. Aaron pulls her inside, and the zombies clamor at the RV door.

An alarm sounds, and the troopers get ready. There’s a PA announcement for the citizens to remain inside. Lockdown is being initiated. Max finds Mercer outside, and he tells her that he’s being sent out. She says, that doesn’t change the goal, but he tells her that she doesn’t want to give these hotheads and excuse to start trouble. Wait for him. If he’s lucky, his girlfriend is coming back, and she’s bringing her friends. Vickers watches him, and he tells Max that he’s supposed to meet them at Union Station. He hugs her, and tells her to keep them hidden until he gets back. He leaves, and Vickers looks at Max, while lockdown is being initiated repeats on the loudspeaker.

In the RV, Lydia says, they can’t leave, but Aaron says, they have no choice. She says, they can’t lose him, but Aaron says, he’ll lose her. Jerry says, they’ll find him, and Aaron checks her arm. He tells her that he made it all right. This is the hardest part. She cries, and Aaron says, she’s so loved, while Jerry gets his sword. Lydia bites down on a belt, Aaron keeps the tourniquet taut, and Jerry’s sword comes down. Lydia screams.

There are guards near the entrance to the tunnel, and Negan says, they’re sitting ducks, but Princess says, Mercer will show up. Daryl says, they’re out of time, and Carol suggests they find another place to slip in. Maggie says, there are only four of them; they can take them. Rosita says, if the guards go missing, they’ll know it’s them. One of the guards gets a radio call from Mercer, who says he needs more troops to deal with the incoming swarm. One of the troopers says, including the tunnel? Are they supposed to abandon their post? Mercer tells them, stop wasting time and move, and they leave. Daryl says, let’s go, and they go to a building where Gabriel breaks the lock. Maggie opens the door, and they go inside, Daryl going last, and closing the door behind him.

Pamela literally clutches her pearls, when Vickers come in. She tells Pamela that Mercer saw his sister, then reported to the wall. He asked for additional backup for the horde; nothing unusual. Pamela asks where he called them from, and Vickers tells her. She asks if Pamela wants her to recall any of them, but Pamela says, no. She’s sure he has his reasons.  

From the lookout tower, Mercer radios Echo, asking what position they’re in. Echo says, they’re approaching now, and Mercer says, once they’re clear, double back, and work their way east. The jeeps continue to circle the horde, and a zombie jumps into the back of one of them. Theta radios Mercer, saying, they’re out of control, and Mercer asks, what happened? but Theta says, it’s unclear. Mercer hears yelling and machine guns, and looks out with binoculars. He radios all units to fall back, and regroup on him. Bring out the heavy armor. Once they regroup, they’re going to knock the hell out of this thing before it gets to their city.

Eugene paces, and hears a trooper saying, mandatory search. He bangs on the door, and says, open up. Eugene quietly slides the chain off, and gets behind the door. The trooper busts open the door, and Eugene whacks him in the head from behind. He gets the trooper down, and beats the crap out of his head. The trooper’s radio comes to life, and someone asks, Brooks, what’s your 20?

Lydia drowses as the zombies clamor outside. She wakes, and says, we have to go, but Aaron says, she lost a lot of blood. She says, they need Elijah, but Jerry says, Elijah, Luke, and Jules are all pros. They don’t need their help. Lydia insists they do, and cries. Jerry holds her, and Aaron looks sad. He tells her, don’t sweat it. She’s lost enough. Jerry says he’ll find them, and Lydia says she’s going. Jerry says, no; they’ll meet up later. I find them; I find you. Piece of cobbler. See you on the other side. He takes a deep breath, puts his hood up, goes out, and closes the door.

Maggie and the others walk through the tunnel until they come to a ladder. Maggie goes up first, and comes out in the train station. The others follow, and they slip through quietly. Daryl sees padlocks on the doors, and says, something ain’t right. Tyler says, we’re almost there, and suddenly shots ring out, and he falls.

At the tower, Mercer says he’s lost contact, when Vickers shows up with some other troopers. She says, he’s under arrest, and resistance will get him life in prison or death. Mercer tells his troopers to lower their weapons, and tells Vickers, he’ll go, but they need to fortify the city’s defenses before the swarm hits. She says, Governor Milton insists the walls will hold, but he says, this is bigger than Pamela’s bullsh*t. They need to stop the dead before it’s too late,

At the station, everyone scrambles, and there’s a gunfight. The part of the group not shooting bellies under the benches to safety. Pamela comes out, and takes a gun from a dead trooper. Trying to shoot Maggie, she hits Judith, and everything stops. Daryl tries to rouse Judith, and tells the rest that they’ve got to go. Maggie shoots the trooper next to Pamela, making her freak out. Pamela yells, you did this, and Carol says, they’ve got to go now. Daryl tells Ezekiel, throw it, and Ezekiel rips a fire extinguisher off the wall. He throws it with the strength of ten, nearly all the way to the balcony, and Daryl shoots it in midair.

On the street, Yumiko and Max see what’s going on in the station, and join the group as they come out, Daryl carrying Judith. Eugene comes out another door, and follows a trooper, knocking him out. They run down an alleyway. The zombie horde is at the city wall, and a trooper in the tower radios, where the hell is the backup? They need every available… He sees a zombie halfway up the wall, and says, Christ! They’re climbing the walls. He shoots it, but another is already on the platform. He radios that they need back up; the east gate. The rotters are climbing… Arrgh! The other troopers are like, WTF? over and over. The trooper at the top gets his face eaten, and in an ironic twist, pushes the button to open the gate. Alarms go off, and zombies stream into the Commonwealth.

Pamela fixes her makeup, clearly not reading the room. Vickers comes in, and says, the parameter has been breached. They’ve lost 15 troops; and even more civilians are dead in the Commonwealth. Pamela says, that’s not possible. They have a standard. They’re supposed to be in lockdown. Vickers says, they’re climbing the walls and flooding in, but… They can still make a stand if they hold here, and save a big portion of the city. Pamela tells her to pull the forces back, and add troops to defend her home. They’ll divert the swarm to the lower ward. Vickers says, that will leave thousands of citizens unprotected. It’s a death sentence. Pamela tells her, protect the estate, and seal the rest off.

Daryl runs at the head of the group with Judith. A truck blocks their path, and Ezekiel says, this way, leading them around a corner. As they run, trucks go past, and Ezekiel realizes they’re blocked. He tells them, fall back, and Carol says, the trucks aren’t following them. Magna says, what is that? and Connie signs, they’re not coming for us. They’ve got bigger problems. The lightbulb comes on that there’s a zombie horde in the Commonwealth, and Negan voices what’s on everyone’s mind – what the f***? Luke and Jules magically appear, and Daryl tells everyone, move. Carol says, they’ll cut them off, and they shoot and slash zombies as they run through the throng. Carol grabs Daryl, pulling him and Judith through. Judith opens her eyes slightly, says, daddy? then closes her eyes again. It’s a mess

Next time, the series finale – zombies infiltrate the house where the children are being held; Ezekiel says, people might not think this place is worth saving, but it is to him; Daryl yells for help at the infirmary; and everybody dies. Just kidding.

⚰️ Things are getting weepy already on Talking Dead, and it looks to be a great episode next week for TWD finale, starting with a red carpet at 8:30. Tonight, the guests were asked to give three words about the finale. Michael James Shaw (Mercer) said, bunnies, blood, and sherbet. Cooper Andrews (Jerry) said, eat more cobbler. And executive producer Denise Huth said, massive, ridiculous, and she thinks we’ll cry.

🧛🏼‍♂️ Final Interview For the Season…

Recapping this week’s Vampire. It was pretty gory.

https://ew.com/tv/interview-with-the-vampire-season-1-finale/

And a little scandalous.

https://decider.com/2022/11/11/interview-with-the-vampire-season-1-finale-exclusive-clip/

No surprise, it’s been renewed already.

https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/a41936415/interview-with-the-vampire-season-2-release-date/

🤸🏽 On the Other Side…

Come take a load off tomorrow with some soap and a charter on the Med. Until then, stay safe, stay always bringing a hostess gift to a party, and stay making something positive out of your days, and not live them out in bitterness over what’s been lost.

Nov7

November 6, 2022 – Mercer Delivers the Best Line In an Episode Ever, a Thought, Latest Vampire & Wither

Posted on by
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What I Watched Today

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

The Walking Dead

Judith’s voiceover says, the world is dark and broken, but we’re not. Not yet. We stare into the face of death every day, until one day, that face is our own. How do we come back from that? My dad wanted mercy to prevail. If we lose that, we lose everything.

Negan and the others work clearing the tracks, as Nameless Boss watches. Kelly signs to Magna that there are two around the perimeter, and four inside. Princess tells Ezekiel, that’s Tyler Davis from the rail yard, and he asks if that isn’t the guy who took Max hostage. She tells him, she didn’t say she liked it, but he’s got balls. Ezekiel watches him, and Magna tells Negan, two on the perimeter, four inside. Negan writes something on the back of the map, and looks around. Ezekiel walks over, and says, the map. A trooper tells Annie to move, and diverts Negan’s focus. Negan walks over, and asks what a person has to do to get a break. The trooper asks what he said, calling him prisoner, but Negan says, not for him; for his wife. The trooper says, the Commonwealth doesn’t  recognize any unions here, but Negan says he’s not talking about the Commonwealth. He’s talking about the trooper. Another trooper comes over, and asks if there’s a problem. The first trooper says, just a prisoner mouthing off, and needing to be reminded of his place. Annie runs over to them, but the trooper knocks her down. She pops back up, and struggles with him, but the second trooper gets Negan down and holds a gun to his face.

Daryl and Carol watch from a distance.

Aaron, Jerry, Elijah, and Lydia have stopped the wagon to kill a zombie. Aaron tells them to stay alert. They don’t know if this is a one-time thing, or there are more of those things out here. He hears something, and Lydia says, it’s a human, not a walker. Aaron tells Lydia and Elijah to stay and protect the wagon. He and Jerry draw their swords, and walk toward the sound. Aaron says, come out now, and Luke and Jules appear. There are hugs all around, and Aaron says, it’s a pleasant surprise. They already know Lydia, and he introduces Elijah. He tells Luke and Jules, they were head to Oceanside if they want to join, but Luke says, it’s gone. Some guys in white gear showed up. Aaron says, the Commonwealth, and Julies says, they took over. Aaron says, they made a deal with the Commonwealth, but Jerry says, the deal must have changed because they’re being tracked. Jules says, if they’re found, they’re dead, and Luke suggests getting as far away as possible.

On the stand, Pamela says, it was the worst day of her life. Her trusted colleague Mercer was with her, and took her to the morgue. All she wanted was to hold her son, to keep him safe, but he was gone. There was nothing she could do. She cries, and says, Eugene took him from her. Eugene killed her boy, and this murderer needs to pay. There are rumblings from the gallery, and Yumiko objects, asking that it be stricken from the record, but the judge says, denied. Eugene tells Yumiko that there’s nothing they can do to dissuade the judge, who is a proverbial brick wall. Yumiko says, it’s not the judge they have to get to; it’s the people. Eugene looks at Max, and Yumiko gets up. She asks Pamela to tell them about the lottery. What does it mean to her? Pamela says, it means opportunity; hope for a better future. Yumiko says, or it’s a lie – there are murmurs from the crowd – just like Pamela’s son said. The prosecution objects, and the judge sustains it. Yumiko says, yes or no? It was on the recording; they all heard it. There’s a reaction from the gallery again, and Yumiko says, answer the question, governor. Pamela says, that wasn’t her son. She knows his voice, and that’s not it. The tape has been altered. Yumiko asks if Pamela actually expects them to believe it was altered. That someone… Pamela says, not someone; Yumiko’s client. He admitted that he played it, and caused chaos; not her son. A woman yells, free Eugene!

Daryl tells Maggie, it’s bad. He doesn’t think they’ll all make it. Carol says, they saw the adults, but not the kids, and Maggie says, they have to go in. Daryl says, they can’t, but Gabriel says, the Commonwealth turned their home into a prison after they promised to give it back. Daryl signs to Connie, you and me, down sh*t tunnel, and Connie signs that she’s going with Daryl. Daryl says, they’re going down into the sewer. Rosita wants to come, but Carol says, since she’s a sharpshooter, she should stay. They can keep in touch by radio. Maggie, Connie, Daryl, and Carol leave.

Ezekiel sees Tyler at mealtime, and he and Negan sit by him. Ezekiel says he knows Tyler stood up to Pamela, and wonders if Tyler wants out as much as they do. Tyler says he wants to live, but Negan says, this is not living; they’re barely surviving. Ezekiel says, they can take control, but Tyler asks if he doesn’t think it’s been tried. The same thing always happens; people who shouldn’t die, do. They have two choices; survival or that. They got a taste of it today. Try this, and they all die. Ezekiel says, or try it, and they all live. They’ve only got each other. If they lose faith in that and the idea they can change this – two troopers walk in – they’re as good as dead anyway. The troopers go over to Negan, and tell him, get up. He says, nope. Not until they tell him where his wife is. The grab him and take him out. Tyler tells Ezekiel, you’re on your own.

Negan is taken to a room where he’s told to sit. Nameless Boss tells a trooper – the same one who Negan asked for a break – that his transfer has been denied. The trooper says, his brother is sick, and Nameless Boss says, then the trooper should have told him directly instead of going around him and asking for a transfer. His duty’s been extended for six months. Negan sees the trooper make a fist, and the wheels turn in his head. Nameless Boss tells Negan they found this after Negan tussled with the guards, and hands him the map. Negan says, cool, and Nameless Boss says, what is it? Negan says, a poor man’s tic-tac-toe? He doesn’t know. Nameless Boss says, someone is keeping track of the guards; when they come and go, and how many are on a shift. Negan asks what that has to do with him, and Nameless Boss says, when the prisoners got here, he thought Negan was a leader, but he has other priorities. Real leaders cut themselves off from others because of what they do. Other people don’t have the stomach for it, and the ones that do are the real threats. There’s a threat in their midst, and he thinks it’s one of Negan’s people. Negan says, other than his wife, all these people hate him. He doesn’t know anything. Nameless Boss says he bets Negan can find out, and Negan says he bets he can’t. He hands back the map, and Nameless Boss says, that’s not really an option. Unless he’d rather not see his pregnant wife again.

A trooper lets Negan in to see Annie, and he sits on the bed. He asks if she’s okay, and not hurt, and she says she thinks he got the worst of it. He asks, how’s the little one? and she says, the baby kicked her so hard, she almost rolled off the bed. He says, going to be a badass like their mama, and Annie says, they’re going get out. He says, he knows; he’s working on it. She asks if that’s what he was doing on the tracks; working it his way. He tells her, old habits die hard, and she says, they can’t. They have to get to safety. He says he’d never risk them. Don’t worry. She says, that bad, huh? and he laughs. He says he’s known men like Nameless Boss his whole life. He used to be him. She says, no wonder everyone hated him, and he says, no sh*t. He’ll handle him. She says, sure. If she doesn’t do it first.

Daryl and Connie drop down into the sewer and look around with flashlights. He signs, is she okay? and she says, so-so. Is he okay? He says he’s good, and Carol radios that she and Maggie are good. Daryl says, them too, and signs to Connie that Maggie and Carol are here too. She signs, this will work? and he says, yes. They walk into an adjoining tunnel. In another area, Maggie removes the grating to the street.

Maggie and Carol sneak into one of their old houses, and go upstairs. A trooper is patrolling, and they stay out of sight. They hear him coming their way, and ambush him, Carol whacking him in the head with the butt of her gun. They drag him away.

Luke tells the others that they were behind the houses. He wanted to stay and fight, but Rachel wasn’t having any of it. He said, no way they were leaving them there, but she insisted they go, and warn everybody; tell them what’s coming. Jules says, they haven’t seen them since, and Luke says, they should have stayed. Jerry says, he found them, and now he has them. Aaron says, they were heading to Alexandria, and Lydia says, troopers are coming. They duck down, and Elijah says, they can’t outrun them. A bunch of zombies are headed for them on the other side, and Lydia looks at a body nearby. We all know what she’s thinking.

In his cell, the crowd chanting outside, Eugene says, Yumiko’s nerves mystify him. Does she hear what he hears? She got through to them. Yumiko says, that was the point, but there are still troopers doing Pamela’s bidding. If the troopers aren’t on their side, it doesn’t matter. Eugene says, she’s inspired an uprising, but she says, it might not be fast enough. Max asks if she’s saying they might lose, and Yumiko says she doesn’t think the people can stop it. Max asks, what happens next? and puts her hand on Eugene’s through the bars. Eugene says, perhaps this time they should accept the situation he finds himself in, but Max says, no. Eugene says, they knew this could come, and probably would come. He tears up, and says, they must prepare… if he’s declared guilty… let the troopers escort him to his… He starts to cry, and Yumiko says, Max’s brother commands respect here. If Max can get him on their side and to admit Pamela is corrupt in public… Max says, if he was going to, he would have when Princess was taken, and Yumiko asks if he knows. Pamela silos people off against each other. Eugene asks if Max thinks she could talk to Mercer, but she says, his men won’t let her near his office. Yumiko says, he might talk to her.

Mercer radios his men about a rendezvous, and walks into his office to find Yumiko. He says, she shouldn’t be here, and she says she came to convince him to do the right thing. He says, she should leave. He’s sure she doesn’t want to be late for the judge. She says, it doesn’t matter. They’re going to lose; she knows that. The man who Mercer’s sister loves is going to die, and her other friends might die too. Pamela’s men took them God knows where. Princess is with them. He says he knows, and Yumiko says she doesn’t believe he doesn’t care, and neither does his sister. She needs him to testify against Pamela in public to save Eugene. He says, doing what she’s asking won’t change a thing, but she says, people seeing him speak truth to power will. He says he has to get back, and she storms out.

Maggie and Carol hide in a janitorial closet with the unconscious trooper. Maggie peeks out at the troopers getting ready. She tells Carol that she hears Herschel’s voice; I want to be better. I want to do better. Sometimes she thinks it wasn’t fair to bring him into this world. Was she being selfish? Carol hugs her, and says, no. After Sophia and Henry, she felt that way, but she doesn’t believe it’s selfish to miss them and want them to come back. Maggie agrees, and Carol says, Maggie will try to make the world better because of him; that’s hope. They will find him.

Negan and Ezekiel shovel dirt, and Ezekiel asks if Negan is going to tell him what happened with the warden (i.e. Nameless Boss). Negan says he got put on latrine duty, and Ezekiel tells him not to go rouge again. They needed that map. Negan says he doesn’t really need to hear that sh*t again, and Ezekiel says, because he agreed to work with Negan, Negan thinks they’re friends now, but they’re not. He hasn’t forgotten for one minute what Negan took. Henry and his brother Benjamin were his family, and apologizing changes nothing, not for him. If it works out, and they get out of here, Negan doesn’t deserve a brand new life. He damn sure doesn’t deserve to be a father. Negan says he will be a father. Ezekiel can go ahead and live in the past. You do you, and I’ll do me, and you know what? I’m gonna do it for my kid. Negan walks away.

Nameless Boss gets up, and says, so. You got a name for me? Negan stands in front of him.

Outside, a zombie is tangled in vines, and Connie signs to Daryl, what’s going on? He stabs it in the head, and he signs, she’s scared too? She nods, puts her hand on his shoulder, and they move forward.

The judge thanks the prosecutor for him closing remarks, and says, they’re to be entered into public record. She asks if the defense rests, and Eugene says he’d like to address the court. Yumiko starts to protest, but he says, please, and the judge says she’ll allow it. He gets up, and says, the way he sees it, he was living on borrowed time for the past decade. Someone like him should have met their Maker on the first day the world fell apart. And he would have, if not for the aid of friends. Friends who have not only changed him, but the hearts and minds of so many others beyond here. He’s certain his fate won’t discourage them from keeping that going, and helping others find the courage to do what’s right. We see Mercer’s reaction off and on throughout Eugene’s speech. Eugene says, he was not always a good man. He fell in with a posse who thrived on downright unseemly acts, and he looked the other way. He valued order and safety above all other things. Then he realized, even though he wasn’t the one swinging the bat, nevertheless, he had blood on his hands. He knew his inaction made him culpable, and he hated himself. Then he did something in his own little way that changed the world. He learned that one person can do that. Sometimes all it takes is one person to do that. Thank you. That is all. He sits, and Yumiko says, the defense rests. In a surprise to no one, the judge says, the Commonwealth finds Eugene guilty of murder in the first degree. There will be a public execution in one hour. Pam is escorted out, and Max watches as Eugene is taken away.

Troopers rouse the railway workers, and tell them to get up and get outside. They move everybody along, and Ezekiel and Annie are both dragged out. Everyone is herded to the windmill, and Nameless Boss says, a traitor is in their in midst. Someone who thinks he’s above the rules. They bring out Negan, who looks pretty beat up, and Nameless Boss says, a prisoner has admitted to spearheading a rebellion. Any co-conspirators will be given the benefit of the doubt. He trusts they weren’t acting of their own free will. Only Negan will be punished, but it’s important they’re all here to see and to remember. Annie breaks away, but a trooper grabs her before she gets to Negan. Negan tells her, it’s okay. He loves her. Nameless Boss tells him to get on his knees. This is what happens when you don’t know your place. (I can hear Minister Mason from Snowpiercer saying, be a shoe!) Annie says, don’t let him. Listen to her. The troopers aim their guns, and Nameless Boss says, ready… aim… There are no martyrs here. He grabs Annie, dragging her up front, and Negan says, that’s not their deal. Nameless Boss says, he’ll feel this punishment, and Negan says, that’s not what he said. Ezekiel looks like he’s going to explode, and Negan says, take him; just him. Nameless Boss says, ready, and Negan sees that same trooper again. He says, you. You have a family. Don’t do this. Please. Nameless Boss repeats, ready, and Ezekiel walks to the front. Negan asks what he’s doing, and Ezekiel says he doesn’t know.

Princess goes up, and one by one, people start joining them, including Tyler. Nameless Boss says, he admires the bravery of the prisoners… Shoot them all. The troopers cock their guns, and Ezekiel says, they don’t have to do this. The world is broken; we don’t have to be. Our favorite trooper puts down his gun, then walks over to Nameless Boss. He’s about to shoot, and another trooper raises his gun, but the first trooper is faster, and kills him. Nameless Boss grabs Kelly, but he suddenly drops to the ground. We’re all like, what just happened? and then we see, Daryl is here!

Maggie hears Hershel yell for help. She kicks in the door to the room his cries are coming from, and Carol shoots the guard before he can react. Maggie asks if Herschel is okay, and he says he is. She hugs him, and Rosita comes in. She asks if Coco is here, but Herschel says he doesn’t know where she is, and Rosita runs out.

A zombie herd walks, Aaron’s group walking with them, using the covered-in-guts method. Jeeps patrol the perimeter of the herd, and shine searchlights into it. The group gravitates together, and a knife is dropped. Somehow, it’s swiftly retrieved, but it’s unclear by who. Or what.

Negan is about to go all Lucille on Nameless Boss, when Rosita runs up, saying, don’t kill him. She grabs Nameless Boss’s collar, and asks where her daughter is. Nameless Boss laughs, and she punches him in the face. She grabs the dead-now-zombie trooper, and drags him over, putting his face a few inches from Nameless Boss’s face. He says, she’ll lose everything, and she lets go of the zombie. Now it’s my turn to laugh as Nameless Boss screams while his eyeballs get pulled from his head.

Eugene is brought into the hall, wearing a hood. He’s walked through a series of hallways, and they stop. A trooper takes his hood off, and he stands in front of Mercer. His handcuffs are removed, and Mercer says, time to f*** sh*t up.

I cheer in my head.

Next time – two episodes left – Negan says, it’s not safe while Pamela is still breathing; Pamela wants to join the search for Eugene; and Mercer talks to Princess.

💭 What a great episode ending. What a great hero Mercer is.

🧛🏽‍♂️ Gives Great Vampire…

This show is so beautifully done, even if sad at times. The sets and costumes alone are worth watching for.

https://ew.com/tv/recaps/interview-with-the-vampire-season-1-episode-6/

Spoilers for the finale here.

https://wherever-i-look.com/tv-series/interview-with-the-vampire-season-1-episode-7-finale-recap-review-with-spoilers

🧐 I Spy With My Little Eye…

Moving on to Thanksgiving. You remember that holiday, don’t you? Apparently advertisers don’t, since I’m hearing Christmas carols in commercials already. Come on down for soap and yachting on the Med tomorrow. Until then, stay safe, stay enjoying the season you’re in before rushing to the next one, and stay changing the world by doing something in your own little way. Just because the world is broken, doesn’t mean we have to be.

Oct31

October 30, 2022 – Negan Asks Ezekiel To Work Together For Everyone, Tonight’s Vampire, Halloween Pet Safety, Yet More Costumes & Sympathy

Posted on by
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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, Judith says, the only way she’s known is to fight. They’ve done so much, but there’s so much more to do. She wants to believe there’s hope, but together there’s hope. Isn’t there?

Maggie struggles to get out of the zip tie on her wrists, as the guard snoozes. She frees herself, then Gabriel, who frees Rosita, but the guard wakes up. Gabriel and Rosita jump out, and Maggie gets the guard’s gun, shooting the two troopers in front, and tossing the guard out the back. The truck crashes, and Maggie gets out, ducking down as the rest of the caravan passes crash.

Gabriel and Rosita lie in the woods, as the one of the troopers reanimates. Gabriel leaps up, shoving the zombie away from Rosita, and she slices its head open from behind. Gabriel asks if she’s okay, and she says, she’s been better. Him? He says he’s been worse. He takes the trooper’s radio, and a call comes in. The caller says, there’s been no sign of 525 and the escapees, but they found a set of boot tracks that looks like they might be 525’s. Gabriel and Rosita jet.

On the bus, Ezekiel comes to, and takes his hood off. The others slowly do the same. They hear banging, and when it stops, Ezekiel asks if everyone is all right. Kelly asks how long they were out for, and he says he doesn’t know, but his neck is still sore from the injection. Negan says, no sign of Maggie, Gabriel, or Rosita, and Annie says, the trucks are being unleaded. They stopped for a few minutes, and there was a crash. Does he think it was them? A guy gets on the bus, and tells them, welcome. Today is the day of a new beginning. The world works when everybody knows their place. Their place is at the bottom. The resources they used bring old world back sustains the Commonwealth. Their labor will be appreciated, and is their redemption; their salvation. The children safe, and if they play by the rules, they’ll see them again. They must work as one. Here, nobody has a name. There’s no need for them. He’s not going to tell them his name, and they won’t address each other by theirs. If he points to them, they’re to stand up, and go to the rear. Some troopers open the back of the bus, and he picks people out. He points to Annie, but not Negan, and Negan tells her that he’s going to get them out of here, all three of them. The guy tells those left on the bus that the others are being transported to another site. The one on the bus are going to work until the tracks are clear. If they work hard, they’ll be protected by the Commonwealth. Although they’ve been delivered from the utopia of the Commonwealth, it’s better to be here than the wasteland. One of the troopers tells them, get to work.

Maggie wanders in the woods, and sees a child zombie. She flashes back to seeing him when he was alive, and picks up a rock, but walks past him.

Gabriel asks Rosita, what’s the plan? and she says, to follow the convoy. He says, then what? There’s only two of them. What are they going to do? Knock on the door and ask for their daughter? She says, if he has a better idea, she’s all ears. She suggests splitting up, but he says, no way, he’s not leaving her, and she says, then come on. A couple of zombies come out of the woods, and Gabriel kills them, but Rosita gets knocked down in the melee. She says, her arm is dislocated, and tells him what to do. He pops it back in, which is obviously painful, and she gets up. She starts walking, and he tells her that she needs to rest. What good is torturing herself? She asks, what she always says to him, and he says, quit bitching, and move forward. They hear a train, but Gabriel says, it can’t be a train.

Daryl looks through binoculars at the train, and tells Carol, there’s six of them. Carol wonders if they should follow the train, but Daryl says, if they hang back, they’ll be fine. He sees a trooper bring Connie over, and the trooper says, he received a call, and she’s not a worker, but a Designation Two. Get her there safely. Carol wonders what the designation is, but Daryl says, they can’t bust her out, so they’ll look for the kids. She says, they should follow the train, and get everyone out at once.

They drive to the nearest junction, and Carol suggests they sit tight until the train gets there. Daryl says he doesn’t think he can, but she says, when she saw Connie get on the train, she thought the same thing he did; the cave. Does he remember what Kelly said when her sister disappeared? He says, they can’t help anyone if they’re dead, and she says, if they go it alone, they might make the same mistakes again. He tells her, all right, and she takes his hand.

Maggie hears a motorcycle and hides. A trooper stops, and radios that the crossing is clear, and there’s no sign of the escapees. He’s moving to the next stop. The zombie kid toddles toward him, and he raises his gun, but Maggie jumps out, and gives him a sharp stick to the armpit. She gets him down, kills him, and grabs his gun. Since no good deed goes unpunished, the zombie kid grabs at her. She fends him off for a while, then puts him in a hold. She cradles him for a moment, then tells him, it’s all right, and stabs him in the head. Carol and Daryl drive up.

Maggie tells Carol that they just ripped Herschel away from her. She wasn’t strong enough. Carol says, she’s just one person, but Maggie says, it’s on her. The not knowing is worse. She cries, and Carol tells her again, she’s just one person. Maggie says, it doesn’t matter, and Carol holds her as she sobs. Carol says, she barely saw Daryl after she got her job at the Commonwealth. They were doing their own thing like in the old world. After the fall, they were forced to become a family. Pamela had to come at them when they were separated. What does that say? Maggie tells her, that they scared the sh*t out of them, and Carol says, they’re not alone anymore. Rosita and Gabriel come out of the woods, and Gabriel says, they heard a train. Rosita asks where Daryl is, and Carol says, inside

In the depot, a trooper sits against the wall, covered in blood. Daryl tells him that he’s running out of time. Do something good in the time he has left. Where is the train going? He has a friend on it, and she’s Designation Two. What does that mean? He was like the trooper once, and joined the force when his family needed money. He’s guessing that’s the trooper’s story too. They took his kids, and he wants them back. He kicks the trooper, and the others come in. Carol says, the train is going to be here soon, and Daryl asks if the trooper wants to die quick or screaming. Gabriel says he knows the trooper. Every Sunday in the back pew, closest to the door. He came in late, and left early. It seemed like he wanted to talk about something. The trooper asks if God forgives people like him, and Gabriel says he wishes he knew. The trooper says he has guilt and shame, and Gabriel says, that’s because he’s a coward. He’s trying not to be, but fear can cause us to do things that make us feel shame. Or he can push to the light, and die trying to do the right thing. The trooper says he’s trying to have peace, and Gabriel says he wishes he had peace too. People remember the last thing you do. The end of a story is important. How does he want his to end? The trooper says, they punish exiles by making them do hard labor. Their friends are on railway duty. Daryl asks, where? but the trooper says he doesn’t know. He got called when the three escaped. They have to follow the train. He’s heard rumors that those in Designation Two are taken far away and never seen again. Daryl and Maggie go back outside, and he asks Gabriel to pray with him while he goes. Gabriel asks Carol to give them a minute, and takes out his Bible.

Daryl wants to get Connie off the train, but Rosita says, they’ll radio ahead. The the best way to get everyone out is them not knowing they’re coming. He says, they can’t leave her, but Carol thinks there’s a way do both.

While working on the railroad all the livelong day, Kelly tells Ezekiel, there are three guards. They can run; the troopers can’t catch them all. Ezekiel says, don’t do anything, and a trooper tells them, stop talking, and keep working. Negan says, his wife is on the bus, and the trooper whacks him with a stick. He says, they stop to eat and sleep. Keep working. Some of the group make a break for it, and Kelly starts to go too, but Ezekiel grabs her. The troopers shoot the escapees, and Negan looks supremely pissed.

There’s a train delay – zombie on the tracks. A trooper gets out and kills it. He walks over to a lever, but it won’t budge. He radios the engineer, and says, there’s stuck junction switch. Another zombie comes along, and he stabs it through one of its nostrils. The engineer radios Outpost 22, while Maggie slips on the train. Another trooper comes outside, and asks, how hard can it be? The trooper on the tracks says, come over here and he’ll show him. Daryl and Carol crawl under the train to the other side, while the troopers deal with more zombies. Maggie ties up the engineer, and a trooper comes in, saying, the woods are cleared; he’s heading back. Maggie grabs his gun, and outside, the skeptical trooper tries to pull the switch, and the other one mocks him, saying, how hard can it be? The other trooper says, it’s bent; somebody jammed it. Everybody needs to get back here now. Carol shoots at them, and a gunfight ensues, bullets pinging off of everything metal. Maggie shoots at a trooper, and Daryl comes at him, but he brings out Connie, holding a gun to her head. He tells Daryl to drop his weapon, and asks if Daryl cut the wire or shut it off. Answer him. It’s the old if you’re gonna shoot, shoot don’t talk situation, and Connie knocks his gun out of his hand, then grabs it. Daryl checks Connie out, and puts her on the train. The trooper gets away on a motorcycle, and they shoot at him, but miss. Daryl gets another bike, and takes off after him. The trooper rides into the woods, and Daryl follows. The trooper gets off the bike, and goes under a huge fallen tree branch, but even though Daryl is knocked off his bike, he reaches under the branch. He knocks the trooper down, and kills him.

Daryl and Maggie bring the engineer inside the depot, and he says his family lives in a nearby outpost. If the warden finds out he helped them – he looks at the dead trooper – he’ll end up like his friend. Daryl says, they took his children. He has a family. The engineer tells them, there’s a map in the engine room. Daryl goes to get it, and signs to Connie that he thought he wasn’t going to see her again. She signs back, she’s not going anywhere. Outside, the engineer holds a sharp stick to his throat, and tells Carol and Maggie, if he helps them, his wife and kids will die. Carol says, they’ll injure him just enough make it look like he barely got away, but he says, they’ll know he lied, and kill his family. He can’t. He’s sorry. He stabs himself in the neck, and everyone is bummed.

Gruel is served to the railway laborers for dinner, and Negan sits near Ezekiel, telling him, don’t turn around. Ezekiel asks what Negan wants, and Negan says, to get on the same page. Ezekiel says, he stayed away from Negan for years for a reason, but Negan says, he’s going to have to shelve that sh*t. Ezekiel says, melting people’s faces with irons, coercing women into marrying him, slaughtering Ezekiel’s people. That sh*t he has not forgotten. Negan says, neither has he. He probably deserves to be in a place like this. But the others don’t, especially his wife and baby. Ezekiel asks where they were taken, but Negan doesn’t know. He needs to find her; he promised. He’s coming to Ezekiel as a soon-to-be father and a man who’s led people. He’s asking Ezekiel to put that sh*t aside, and work together for everyone, Ezekiel asks what he’s thinking, and Negan says, he knows the warden’s playbook, using fear as a weapon. Ezekiel asks if he’s going to scare them into an uprising, but Negan says, that only works if you’re the one with the gun. Fear doesn’t work, but hope does, That’s Ezekiel’s thing, not his. Ezekiel says, they thrive by separating people and breaking them down. They need a spark that reaches their hearts and wakes them up. He doesn’t know how to do that; they can barely talk to each other. Negan says he can get Ezekiel a spark, but when he does, Ezekiel ought to know, he doubts he’ll getting out with them. Ezekiel asks what he means, but a trooper says, back to work. Now. Negan asks if Ezekiel is with him, and Ezekiel says, he’s with Negan… for now.

Connie signs to Daryl, asking him which way the others went, but he signs, he doesn’t know. Connie signs, Kelly is with them. She can’t lose her. Daryl signs, they won’t. He promises they’ll get her out. Connie signs, how? and Rosita says, they’re going back to the train, and getting the radio back up.

The trooper tells the railway workers to pack it in and load up. A zombie comes out of the woods, and the trooper shoots it, then tells them, move it along.

Rosita radios outpost 22, saying, the train she was on was overtaken. She’s lost in the woods, and needs help. She waits, then radios again, and an operator asks, what’s her original setback and location? Rosita says, junction seven. She’s the last one left. She needs to get home. The woman says, damn. Don’t worry. They’ll get her home. Does she still have her compass? Rosita says she does, and the woman tells her, head north through the woods until she reaches a bridge. Cross it, and go to Packard Avenue, then head south to where is breaches to Highway 30. Eventually, she’ll reach a suburban neighborhood. There’s a section shored up with walls, and she’ll see friendly faces in the guard tower. Go to the northeast gate, and they’ll let her in. She’s sorry they don’t have a spare vehicle to pick her up, but they have a convoy coming for reprocessing. Governor’s orders. Rosita asks if she just said they have a convoy coming in for reprocessing, and the woman says, word is some of the processees used to live here before the Commonwealth took over the territory and turned it into an outpost back when it was still called Alexandria. Keep eye out for hostiles, but if she has to engage, shoot to kill. Watch her six, and Godspeed. There’s silence for a moment, and Maggie says, Milton has underestimated us since day one. We’re going to get our kids, take back our home, and make it right. And Pamela will never see it coming.

Next time – 3 episodes left – Negan tries to save Annie; Rosita says, they need to go in now; Eugene’s trial happens; and Ezekiel says, this world is broken, but they don’t have to be.

🧛🏽‍♂️ This Week In Vampire…

The latest episode of Interview with the Vampire.

Interview with the Vampire – Season 1 Episode 5 Recap & Review

🐶 Don’t Forget…

Have an amazing time, but don’t forget about your pets

https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/pet-owners/petcare/halloween-pet-safety

🎃 The List Goes On…

Some of these are quite original. I was at Halloween karaoke last night, and the first place winner of the costume contest was a couple doing Barbie and Ken, complete with boxes. I thought they deserved it just for having to stand all night.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/chelseastewart/best-celebrity-halloween-costumes-2022

🐺 Howling At the Moon…

When you’re done trick or treating, drop by for some soap and what’s on Deck tomorrow. Until then, stay safe, stay doubly safe on Halloween, and stay not bitching, but moving forward.

Oct24

October 23, 2022 – Yumiko Decides To Uphold Justice, Dragon Finale & Psycho

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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, Judith says, her mom once told her, the only thing more dangerous than the dead is the living. But if not for the living, we might as well be dead. The only people we can count on; not just about words, but actions. Having the strength to put someone’s life above your own. If you’re willing do that, maybe we can get back a piece of what we’ve lost.

Carol takes some loaves of bread from the bakery racks, and turns around to see Ezekiel. She says she thought she recognized his footsteps, and he says, she knows him too well. She tells him, they already said goodbye, but he says, think of it as a friendly talk before she leaves. He thought she might be able to use some extra medical supplies. She thanks him, going back to her task, and says she left him some of the bagels he likes in the back. When she turns around again, he’s gone. She calls to him, asking where he went, when a couple of guys come out. She throws the baker’s rack to the ground, blocking them, and runs out the back, throwing down other rack as she goes. She runs outside, and away.

Carol hides as troopers come by. After they pass, she quietly runs to the meeting place. She sees the empty wagon, and boxes of supplies everywhere. She bends down and sees blood on the ground, and the lock on the door has been broken. Inside, a big dude has Daryl on the ground, and is strangling him. Daryl reaches for a nearby gun, but dude pulls him away. Daryl digs in dude’s eyes with his thumbs. A few feet away, the corpse of another man reanimates, as Daryl continues to struggle against dude, who is now banging Daryl’s head against the cement floor. Carol finally gets inside, and pulls dude off of Daryl, and the zombie newbie finishes him. Daryl stabs the zombie and dude in their heads, and Carol tells him, they took everyone.

Pamela talks to some people in her office, and tells them, they have the enemies of the state situation in hand, and have suspended entry into the Commonwealth. A woman tells Pamela that she’s glad their contribution to the Common is not in vain, so apparently, they’re snitches. She says, on a personal note, she’s so sorry about Sebastian. Her daughter is distraught. To lose a child is unthinkable. Pamela says, worse than death, but Sebastian will always be with her. Yumiko charges in, and whacks the guard in the face when he tries to stop her. Pamela says, there’s no threat, and he backs off. Yumiko tells Pamela to say goodbye to her guests, and tell her what the hell is going on. She’s not leaving until she finds out. Pamela says, they were just wrapping up anyway, and thanks them. They leave, the guard following, and the look on his face is priceless, like, he can’t believe it. Pamela tells Yumiko that her friends have been removed, and Yumiko says, like the hundreds of others she made disappear? Pamela says, her friends caused rebellion and openly defied the law, and Yumiko says, as if Pamela had any respect for the law. Pamela says, that’s why she hired Yumiko. When justice has prevailed, order will be restored. She wants to assure the citizens that there will be an impartial trial for the man who killed Sebastian. They need to see justice will be served, and who better to bring impartial justice than Eugene’s friend? She wants Yumiko to prosecute Eugene on behalf of the Commonwealth. Yumiko says she’ll be signing his death warrant in a kangaroo court. Pamela says, then there will be no reunion with her friends. And she needs to consider how her actions will affect her brother. Pamela is going to hold a press conference announcing the prosecution. Don’t be late.

Daryl tells Carol that they were jumped; they even took Dog. What?! DEATH TO PAMELA AND THE COMMONWEALTH! Daryl says, the have to find Mercer, but Carol asks if he doesn’t think he’d turn them in. There is one other person… He says, Hornsby? and she says, who knows what dark sh*t goes on? She knows where to find him, but it’s not going be easy. He says, when is it ever?

Yumiko goes to the hospital, and finds Tomi finishing with a patient. The patient leaves, and Yumiko says, her friends were taken. All of them have removed on Pamela’s orders, and she’s demanding Yumiko prosecute Eugene or she’ll never see them again. He says he imagines Pamela will threaten him too, but Yumiko says she’s not going to let that happen. He says, Pamela expects her to fold. If she doesn’t, what happens to her? Yumiko says she doesn’t know, but there has to be another way. Tell her what to do. He says, it’s not what she wants to hear, but the best way to protect everyone is to give Pamela what she wants. She says, he means sacrifice Eugene? And he asks, what choice does she have? Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and Pamela is still standing. Justice isn’t waiting around the corner. She says, so she should just accept it? but he says, it’s not acceptance; it’s survival. It’s what her friends would want for her.

Connie grabs Yumiko as she’s walking past, and pulls her into a supply room. She signs that they were ambushed, but she stabbed one, and got away. Kelly is already gone. Yumiko signs back that if Connie hadn’t run, she’s be in the same situation. Connie signs, the man she stabbed needs medical attention. That’s why she came here. Yumiko looks through the grating into the next room, where she sees the guard Connie stabbed. Connie signs that she’s going to follow him when he’s released. He could lead her to her friends and her sister. She’s not going without Kelly. Yumiko signs, it’s too dangerous, but Connie signs, she’s not asking permission. Yumiko signs that they’ll be looking for Connie, but not her. She’ll do it. It’s the best chance they’ve got. Connie signs, if he spots her… Yumiko signs, they’ll know the two of them spoke, and Connie signs that she has faith in Yumiko. They hug, and Yumiko leaves.  

A trooper walks up and down the rows of cells, as Carol slips around. She makes a noise, and when he investigates, she shoots him with an arrow. Daryl knocks him out, and ties his hands behind his back. Carol takes the trooper’s keys, and she and Daryl look through the cell windows. Carol finds Lance, who’s mumbling about there being a path. They open the door, and see Sebastian, wallowing in blood and guts, and growling. They’re like, WTF? and Daryl stabs Sebastian in the head. Lance turns his coin as he says, there’s always a path; there’s always a way out.

Daryl grabs Lance by the throat, and asks, where did she take them? Lance starts to scream, and Daryl puts his hand over Lance’s mouth. He’s about to punch Lance, but Carol stops him. She gets close to Lance’s face, and tells him to look at her. They can’t leave him alive. Tell them where their friends are or he’s dead. She puts a knife up to his face, and he shakes his head. Carol looks at Daryl, who nods, but Lance says, he’ll show them. He gets that they don’t trust him, but knows a way out of the city. Daryl asks what’s on Lance’s ankle, and Lance says, a radio frequency monitor. It’ll be set off if he leaves. Daryl will have to cut off his foot. Is Daryl going to carry him? Carol says, get ready to run, and Lance says he needs to do something first.

An alarm blasts as they run. Troopers shoot at them, and Daryl shoots back. They keep running, and Daryl tells Carol to get Lance out. She says, not without him, but he says he’ll figure it out. She and Lance go out the door, Carol exchanging a last glance with Daryl, who goes back to shooting at the troopers.

The guard leaves the hospital, and Yumiko follows him. She looks around to see if anyone is following her, and the guard stops. She continues to walk past him, and he watches her. Pam tells her new assistant that the optics of the press conference are critical if they’re going to regain the people’s trust. Moving forward, being transparent and open is the way. She mistakenly calls her assistant Max, and corrects it to Kathleen, apologizing. She tells Kathleen the Commonwealth Army should be there, but in the background. They want a peaceful return to law and order. A police state might stir up lingering resentments. Her phone rings.  

Pamela walks with some troopers to Lance’s cell. She sees the now really dead Sebastian lying in a bloody mess. Lance’s coin peeks out of the mess, and she picks it up.

Lance and Carol walk up a hill, and Lance says, it’s a couple miles up. He never realized how much the Commonwealth looks like a prison from the outside. She was right to leave Daryl behind; he was slowing her down, like everyone. She asks what he means, and he says, she’s not like most people. She thinks ten steps ahead. Who else could have done what she just did? He hopes Daryl is all right. Carol trains her gun on him, and says she knows what he’s doing. He says he’s just making conversation, and she asks where they’re going. She’s done with his mind games. He says he’s not lying, but she says, he doesn’t give a sh*t what happens to Daryl. He says, he was just locked in a cell, and forced to feed Pamela’s son his colleague. Do it. Good luck find her friends. She takes off into the woods, and he follows. They duck down, and a jeep and two motorcycles with troopers come down the road. They stop, and one of them says, check the tree line. Lance tells Carol, he knows how to lose them. Come on.

Yumiko visits Eugene’s cell as a guard watches, and he says he can’t believe they’re gone. Yumiko says, Connie is trusting her, and she can’t let her down. She doesn’t think she has a choice but to do what Pamela is asking. With tears in his eyes, Eugene says if that means prosecuting him to the full extent of the law, he accepts his fate. He made his choices and bed, and now he must lie in it. But what if Pamela reneges on setting their kidnapped compadres free? She has to do something. Yumiko says, Pamela has all the leverage, and Eugene says he has to admit it appears that way, but he has to believe it’s something they can do. If it isn’t, then their friends are truly gone, and that’s a beast of burden he can’t live with, even in the truncated time he has left. She says, it’s not his fault, and he says, the one thing they can do is return the unwavering faith their friends have had in them, and trust that no matter how bleak, it’s not the end. He knows that’s not much coming from a soon to be convicted felon, but maybe it’s something. She puts her hand on his through the bars.

Lance and Carol walk across a field to a building, and Carol asks if he expects her to follow him in there. He says, she will if she doesn’t want to get caught. In the early days, this was a Commonwealth infrastructure repair project, but considered too unstable. He meant what he said; he hopes Daryl is okay. It’s hard to find someone who will do anything for you. That’s how he felt about Pamela, and thought she’d eventually feel the same. He helped her build and run the Commonwealth, and let her take the credit. Bringing them and the other communities in was mishandled, but it was never enough. Nothing he could do would change how Pamela saw him, her chauffeur’s son. There was something he wanted to ask Carol; what comes after? She says, after what? and he says, the unrest. If Pamela doesn’t survive, there will be a power vacuum. History shows that civilians suffer most in a revolution. She holds the fate of the people in her hands. She says, find her friends first, then they’ll discuss it, but he asks if she’s going to let the Commonwealth burn. She says, it’s not her problem, and she says, so she gets what she wants, and leaves them behind, him too? What about the kids? Is she going to deny them the only chance for the kind of life they took for granted? Shouldn’t the next generation be better than the one before? If not, what’s the point? They go inside, and Carol shines the flashlight around. Lance asks if that’s skin, and they hear zombies coming. One gets Lance down, and Carol grapples with it, the flashlight getting kicked away in the process. She bashes its head in, and we hear more coming. She shoots one, and another grabs her. She wrestles with it, and pulls the skin from its face, which is pretty cool. Underneath, it’s creepy looking, like a skeleton that still has muscles on it, and eyeballs in its sockets. She pushes it back, and shoots it. She looks at Lance, who has been no help whatsoever, and he says, sorry, the lights were out. She tells him to run, and they take off, zombies coming behind them. They run outside, and there’s a line of troopers. On says, drop your weapons. Radio back that they’ve been found. If they put up a fight, take them down. Daryl comes up behind them, and shoots them all. Carol and Daryl look at Lance.

Before the press conference, Pamela says she’s glad to see Yumiko, but Yumiko says she didn’t have a choice. Pamela tells her, Connie was picked up, and placed with the others. She admires Yumiko’s loyalty for her people, and hopes someday Yumiko understands why they need to do this. Yumiko says, Pamela is doing it for herself, not to restore peace. Giving Yumiko her speech, Pamela says, these are her words, but Yumiko says, they’re not. It’s bullsh*t theater. Pamela says, just make sure she knows her lines. The people gather, and the announcer says, they’re moving forward in prosecuting Eugene for the tragic events on Founders Day, including Sebastian’s murder. He introduces one of the Commonwealth’s most accomplished attorneys, Yumiko Okumura. Yumiko goes to the microphone, and tells the crowd that she wants to start be saying, it’s a privilege to be part of the great shining city, the Commonwealth. Not long ago, she was part of a group that was lost to the ravages of the outside world; they were left with nothing. Pamela welcomed them, and gave them the incredible gift of a second chance, to live life before it was gone. For her, this meant being a lawyer again, an opportunity to uphold the sacred ideal of the old world – justice. Eugene was part of her community. He was… someone she grew to know well over the years, someone she could trust. The events at the Founder’s Celebration have shaken her to her core. But they also renewed her belief that, regardless of the personal cost, they must always seek justice if they’re to preserve who they are as a people. Before she continues, she’d like to thank someone who means the world to her, and the people of the Commonwealth, their thoracic surgeon. She asks Tomi to stand up, and everyone applauds. She says, Tomi is an invaluable, irreplaceable member of the community, who always wants what’s best for her and the people of the Commonwealth. So she wants to take a moment to thank him. There’s more applause, and Pamela mulls this over, probably realizing that Yumiko just made her brother’s existence very public, and if he disappears now, it will be very much noticed. Yumiko says, she’d also like to thank her people for always having faith in her. She’d like to show them that she has faith in them by honoring the pursuit of justice. So she’s announcing her intent to defend Eugene, who’s been wrongly accused. They look forward to their day in court. They crowd doesn’t seem to hate the idea, and there’s applause. Yumiko drops the mic papers in front of Pamela, and says, there’s your speech.

Daryl watches through binoculars, and says, it’s cool. There’s just two walking the perimeter. Lance says, Daryl should have no problem taking them out, and Carol says, then what? Lance says, he knows there’s a supply train and the route, and Carol is surprised to find out the Commonwealth has a train. Lance says, it was part of the plan; the vision to expand the Commonwealth. They were going to reach out, connecting with communities all the way to the sea. Carol says, connecting or conquering? and Lance says, they have to move before dawn. Daryl says, they will, but Lance won’t. Lance says, they can’t get there without him, but Daryl says, they can; that train. Carol says, they’ll just wait for it to come, and see where it goes. Lance insists they need him. He talked about creating a better future, and he knows Carol heard him. She says, that’s because he wouldn’t shut up. He says he helped build the Commonwealth, and together, they could make it better. A place where everyone could truly have a shot. Where here, you aren’t defined by who you are, but who you become. It will be a new age, where everyone will start again. Daryl says, not Lance, and Lance asks if Daryl is just going to kill him after everything he’s done for him. Carol says, he can run, and Lance says, where? She says, it’s up to him. All he gets is a chance. Daryl says, it’s more than he deserves, but Lance says he made a mistake. That’s not who he is anymore. That guy died in a cell. He won’t make it out here. Daryl says, good, and I laugh. Carol says, Lance is a smart guy. He might survive. Lance begs them to just hear him out, but Carol says, they’ve heard enough. Daryl moves toward Lance, and Lance starts to walk. As he passes a trooper jeep, he grabs a gun out of it, but by the time he aims it, Carol’s already shot him in the neck with an arrow. Carol and Daryl get in the jeep, Lance lying there gurgling blood as they drive away.  

On a bus, a trooper injects hooded prisoners in the neck with something that’s keeping them out of it. We see the bus traveling with a caravan of jeeps leading the way down the road.

Next time, it’s the first day of new beginnings; Negan tells Ezekiel they’ve got to work together; and Ezekiel says he’s with Negan.  

🐉 Ending Dragon Season…

And you can grade it!

House of the Dragon Finale Recap: The Dance of the Dragons Gets Underway —  Plus, Grade It!

🐍 Creepily Slithering Away…

Halloween is almost here, and I’m ready. Mostly. I got my candy for goody bags early, since I found out the hard way they run out of Mini Tootsie Pops on Amazon real quick. And big kids like them too. This year’s theme: Hocus Pocus. Float on by tomorrow for soap and what’s on Deck. Until then, stay safe, stay leaving it cleaner than you found it, and stay remembering, no matter how bleak, it’s not the end.

Oct17

October 16, 2022 – Pamela Wants Eugene’s Head, News Of the Dragon & Reaper

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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, Judith says, sometimes she wonders if it takes more courage to live or to die. We’ve all done things still be here; things we’d like to forget. We flash back to some of those, and she says, we became who we needed to be… Who we are now, the choices we make, maybe that’s all that matters.

There’s chaos in the commonwealth, and Eugene and Max get separated. A woman points to Eugene, and says, he’s the one who killed Sebastian. Daryl grabs him, and even though he doesn’t want to go without Max, shoves him inside the nearest building.

Sebastian is on an examining table, and Mercer asks if he should shoot him, but Pamela says, no one touches him until she says so. She tells Mercer, Sebastian was a good boy, despite what people thought. Perhaps she was too late. They had issues, but families are complicated. He says he knows that, and she says, his sister was loyal to her for over a decade. She wants to think Max just lost her way, and perhaps can be helped before it’s too late. Pamela needs an example to remind people that their actions have consequences. If they find and arrest Eugene, they can make him an example for the Commonwealth, and maybe she can help his sister. She wants them to do a city wide sweep, and capture everyone from Riverbend, Hilltop, and Alexandria. Any known associates of Eugene are to be questioned regarding the Founders Day riot and Sebastian’s death.

Aaron, Jerry, Lydia, and Elijah walk the horse and wagon on a path through the woods. They see some zombies milling around up ahead, and Jerry asks if Aaron thinks they should hunker down, but Aaron says, no. They’ll find a way around. Jerry thinks off-roading is risky, and he can dazzle them with his bean recipe, but Aaron says, they should keep moving. Jerry asks, what’s the rush? and Aaron says he wants to make sure Oceanside is okay, and get to Alexandria. They have no time to spare. They head into the woods.

Rosita sits in the interrogation room, and Mercer comes in. He sits down, opens a folder, and reads her statistics out loud. He asks if she can verify the information is true, and she says, seriously? So they’re strangers? He keeps repeating the question, and she says, it’s true. He says, she was seen with Eugene at the Founders Celebration, and she says, it was about a half hour before the riot broke out. He asks what they were talking about, and she says, his sister. She wanted to stay here, and change this place for the better. He asks if she’s seen Eugene since then, but she says, no. He says, at the end of the day, obviously, Eugene is going to be with her; they’re like family. He tells her that he respects her, even if at this moment, she doesn’t respect him. He needs her to tell Eugene to turn himself in. Eugene’s remorse and cooperation will go a long way in helping everyone. If her people make it harder than it needs to be, no one will be going anywhere, and it will only get worse for all of them. She laughs, and walks out.

In the church, Daryl is carving a stick, and there’s a knock at the door. Daryl answers, ready with a knife, but it’s Rosita. He asks, how’d it go? and she says, there were a lot of repeated questions and intense staring, and he says, same. They’re leaving at dawn. She asks if he knows Mercer is watching, and he says he’s counting on it. Eugene comes out from the sacristy, and Rosita asks how he’s holding up. He says, better than he deserves, and asks if she knows Max’s whereabouts. She says she doesn’t, sorry, but he says, he should be the one saying, sorry he got them in this compromising situation. Daryl says, they had it coming, and Rosita says, they’ll get Eugene out. Daryl says, the east gate. There’s a shift change at dawn. Rosita says, they’ll meet the others outside, but Eugene says, at the risk of sounding ungrateful, he can’t leave without his beloved. Daryl says, Eugene wouldn’t make it a block, but Eugene says, he won’t leave without at least ascertaining Max’s safety. Rosita says she’ll look for Max. If she can find Max, maybe they can get them both out. Over the loudspeaker, Pamela says, the perpetrator of these horrific events will  be be punished. Anyone who had information on his whereabouts will be rewarded. Anyone aiding and abetting him will share his fate of swift and final justice.

The wagon gets stuck in the mud, and Jerry suggests leaving it behind, but Aaron insists they can do this. They finally get it moving, but Jerry hurts his knee in the process. Aaron looks out, and says, this looks like it might be the place; it has walls. They’ll go on foot. They go inside what’s left of the Kingdom, and Elijah builds a fire. He and Lydia make eyes at each other. Aaron is trying to fix a flag, and tells Jerry, it’s got big walls, they have water nearby, and there’s tons of land to farm. The Kingdom 2.0. He messes up, and it totally changes his mood. He says, it’ll be dark soon. He’ll first watch.

Pamela cleans the blood off dead Sebastian’s face, and I wonder why he’s not a zombie yet. She says, he always complained that she chose this place over him, but there wasn’t a choice. She was never capable of giving him what he needed, or controlling him. And now… after all the struggle, trauma, and sacrifice, what are they left with? At least they don’t have to disappoint each other anymore. Sebastian starts growling, and Pamela looks disgusted. On her way out the door, she tells a trooper, take care of that.

Mercer takes Princess into his office, saying, she shouldn’t be here. She asks if he’s kicking her out, but he closes the door, and says he can’t be seen treating her differently. She says, so it’s nothing personal? and he says, Milton’s son is dead, and Eugene is being held responsible for it. Princess says, if they catch Eugene, they’ll kill him. How can Mercer be good with that? She was by herself for years, scaring off anyone who got close. Eugene believed in her, and accepted her; no judgments. He saved her. Bad people don’t do that; good people do. Eugene didn’t know that was going to happen, but it did, and they can’t change it. They have to look out for family. Mercer says, Eugene will get a trial, and Princess says, a fair one? He doesn’t say anything, and she nods. She asks, what’s the point of this place if a good man is put to death? A trooper comes in, and tells Mercer that Max has been sighted, and he says he’s got to go. Princess says, her too.

Aaron asks if Lydia wants to rest; he’ll take over watch. She says, she’s fine, and he asks if everything is good with her and Elijah. She says she just had a moment that brought back memories of Henry. She doesn’t think she can do it again. Aaron says he was married once; not legally, but married. He doesn’t talk about it much anymore. He and Eric met in DC, and had an instant connection. Eric asked him out, and he said no for six months. She asks, why? and he says he’s not sure. He thought he was too busy or not ready, or maybe he was just afraid. Eventually, he said yes, and their time together, and years in Alexandria were the happiest moments of his life. After Eric died, he thought he’d give anything to take back one of those noes, and have one more day. Loss is inevitable; it always has been. The only thing we can control is when we say yes. We see zombie hands gripping the top of the wall.  

Max slips around the buildings after dark. She sees Rosita, who starts to come toward her, but troopers are coming. Rosita holds up her hand, and Max starts to backtrack, but it’s too late. The troopers surround her, and tell her that she’s under arrest. She imperceptibly shakes her head at Rosita, who steps aside as they pass.

In the interrogation room, Max reads a confession, and says, those aren’t her words, but Mercer says, they need to be. She reads that she  suffered from depression, and stopped taking her medication. Her confusion and paranoia caused her to slander the Milton family, and manipulate the tapes. She hopes the Commonwealth can find it in their hearts to forgive her. He tells her, sign it and say Eugene got her involved, and she can get a pardon. She says she did this because she couldn’t stand being part of  something rotten anymore; it was killing her. They want to hang Eugene out to dry, and Mercer says, he’ll be executed for treason. She says, for trying to save this place. Speak the truth, no matter the cost. Their dad used to say that. Even as a general, he never forgot his responsibility as a citizen. She thinks he would have liked Eugene. She thinks he would have been proud of what they tried to do, and ashamed of Mercer. She pushes the confession back across the table to him, and he leaves.

Daryl sees Eugene looking out an open window, and asks if he’s trying to get caught. Eugene says he’s peeping at the trooper activity level. He’s tired of being on the proverbial sidelines. He starts to leave, and Daryl stands in front of him. Eugene tells him to step aside; there’s no need for this to get ugly. Daryl just looks at him, and Eugene says, very well, backs up, and rolls up his sleeves. He makes fists, and Daryl stands there a moment, then moves aside, telling him, go ahead. Eugene walks past Daryl, and says, Daryl’s not trying to stop him? Daryl says, he’s not going, and Eugene says, because he’s a coward, but Daryl says, no, because he’s smart. Eugene says, he’s always been a liability, relying on others to help him survive; relying on their courage. He knows he has a penchant for prevarication, and is ashamed that it’s his only discernable skill. He asks if Daryl thinks people are born brave or become it? and Daryl says, both.

Ezekiel tells Princess that they’re working to smuggle Eugene out, and she says, they’ll meet up with the others, and it will be like it was – them, Yumiko, and Eugene – the four of them on the road again. Ezekiel says, he’s not leaving, and she says, even after this crazy sh*t that’s been happening? She says, all the more reason to stay. The people want change, so what better time than when the powers that be are frightened? She says, maybe they don’t feel like fighting underneath. Maybe they think it sucks, and it’s not worth holding on to. He asks if she thinks Mercer is a good man, and she says she’s known a lot of guys who she thought were good, but they don’t always turn out to be good. He says, most people are trying to make the best of what’s in front of them. Maybe Mercer is doing the same. She says, maybe she deserves more than making the best of a bad situation, and he says, she does. He puts his hands on her shoulders, and says, whatever she decides, he’s here if she needs him.

On his knees in a cell, Lance hears footsteps coming toward the door. The door unlocks, and a trooper lets Pamela in. He leaves, and Lance thanks her, and says, he hoped she would come. He has a lot to say, but what matters most is talking to her about a way forward. She says, he killed her son. He had some workers murdered, and they turned into rotters who attacked the public. He says he needed to get her attention. He never intended… He took a gamble, and it didn’t go the way he thought it would. He and Sebastian had their differences, but in the end, he was there for Sebastian. When Sebastian needed people for his side projects, he helped her son. She smooths his hair back, and touches his face, then does the Vulcan Death Grip on his neck. She says, this is because of them; Hilltop and Alexandria started the descent into chaos… They’ll never stop until they’ve taken everything. He asks what they has to do with him, and she says, they’ll do it his way. She provocatively takes his lucky coin out of his pocket, and says, they’ll take a gamble. She tosses it back and forth in her hand, and says, if he wins, he gets to live. If he loses… Which hand? She holds out her fists, and he picks the left one. It’s in there, and I say, dammit. He thanks her, she puts it in his vest pocket. He promises to do better; no games, no secrets. He’s 100% at the Milton family’s disposal. She says she knows he is, and zombie Sebastian is brought in on one of those leash sticks. He says, he doesn’t understand, and she tells him, like he said, he’s at the family’s disposal. Thanks to him, this is all that’s left. A trooper tosses in a dead guy, with a bullet hole in his forehead, along with a knife. He undoes Lance’s bonds, and she says, the body is still warm. Feed her son.

Mercer comes to Princess’s apartment, and asks if they can talk. She says, sure, and he comes in. She says, this is awkward, and he says he doesn’t want her to leave. She says she kind of has to, and he says, because of him. She says, yeah… no… maybe. He’s great, but she’s just got to get out of here. Eugene is going to die. He says he’s doing everything he can to make sure that doesn’t happen, but she says, not everything. It’s all such a sh*tshow. He says he knows this place ain’t perfect, but she’s been out there. She’s seen what’s waiting, and it’s worse. She tells him, don’t say that, and he asks if he’s wrong. She says she needs him to understand. Nothing’s been easy. Even before all of this, it wasn’t easy. Her dad bailed on them when she was 9, and her mother remarried. Her stepfather brought her evil stepbrother to live with him, and they both started acting like they were her dad; yelling and shoving. They sit down, and she says, and her mom let it happen, just to keep him around. She’d raise hell all the time, and her new dad and new brother started tying her up and throwing her in a closet when she acted out. They’d leave her for hours, and she’d piss herself sometimes. Then they’d take turns beating her. All she can hear is, Juanita, you have a roof over your head; Juanita, the bills are being paid; Juanita, it could be worse. F*** that, thinking it could be better. It should be. This place is starting to look like her stepdad. If she sits by and watches it happen, that makes her, her mom. And she’s not her mom. So she’s got to go. She tears up, and Mercer tries to take her hand, but she pulls away. She picks up her bag, and says, because of what happened to her, when she sees a man, she sees a monster. She’s been seeing them like that before they died and turned into actual monsters. She knows that’s not him, and she wants him to know that. She leaves, and he stares at the empty doorway.

At the new old kingdom, Lydia tends the fire with Aaron. They hear a gate open, and Aaron says, they triple-checked everything and made sure it was locked. It’s probably the wind. They hear a bunch of noise, and Lydia says, that wasn’t wind. Aaron gets up, and says, maybe they should do another sweep, when some zombies come toward them. Aaron says, sh*t. Is Lydia good? She says, yeah, and they stab, whack, and gore the zombies. Lydia is having a problem killing one, and Aaron says, they need to get Elijah and Jerry now. They run like hell, yelling for Jerry and Elijah to wake up; there’s trouble. They dispatch zombies for a moment, then barricade themselves in the nearest place. Jerry wonders how they got through the walls, and sees a doorknob turn. It opens, and Jerry slams it shut with his body, saying, what the hell? Since when do the dead use doorknobs? Aaron says, the Whisperers. They have to get on the roof. Lydia goes up first, then helps Elijah. They look out, and there are tons of zombies milling around. Aaron asks how Jerry’s leg is, and Jerry says, good enough. Aaron says he’ll hold the door, and Jerry tells him, be careful. Arms are reaching in through the wall, as Jerry and Aaron switch places, and Jerry makes it to the roof, Aaron following. They discuss jumping to the next building, and ask if Jerry can make the jump. Jerry says, no problem, but Aaron says, they can’t risk it. Aaron says, there’s an area where they can get down, and separate the Whisperers from the rest of the group. Zombie hands appear on the top of the wall behind jerry, and followed by the whole zombie. It picks up a rock, and Jerry yells, dude! Aaron fights with the zombie, but finally gets it down. He says, another goddam Whisperer, but when he tries to take off its mask, its facial skin and scalp comes off in his hand. He stabs it in the head, and Jerry asks, how the hell are the zombies doing that? Aaron looks horrified.  

We don’t see it, but it’s now daylight, and zombies lie everywhere. Aaron looks at the face in his hand, and Jerry asks what he thinks it was. An aberration? Aaron says, he’s heard roamers and lurkers have come back to places they remember, and heard stories about zombies that climb walls and open doors. He’s not sure if the stories are true, but maybe there are other kinds. Jerry says he hopes not, and Aaron asks if he’s sure he’s okay to travel. Jerry says, thanks to Aaron, and Aaron says, it’s his fault. Jerry says, today is a new day, and Lydia goes over to where Elijah is loading the wagon. Elijah says he’s going to grab the rest of their stuff, but Lydia asks him to wait, and kisses him.  

Wagons ho! out of the latest Kingdom, and Aaron says, what Jerry was saying about The Kingdom 2.0, he sees it now. Jerry says, Ezekiel will be king again, but Aaron says, it feels more like it was built for King Jerry. Jerry says, and Queen Nabila; he likes the sound of that. Aaron says he does too.  

Rosita comes to the church, and tells Eugene that Max isn’t coming. It’s too late; she’s already in police custody. Daryl says, the shift change is about to happen, and they should get going. Eugene says, it’s time for him to bid them adieu, and Daryl says he’s going to  check on the others, and will meet Rosita back at her place. He leaves, and Eugene tell Rosita, his path is leading elsewhere, but she says, there is no other path. There is nothing he can do for Max. He says, maybe not, but what kind of a man would he be if he didn’t try? She says, they’ll kill him, and he agrees that it’s not rational, but matters of the heart never are. If he leaves, it won’t be a life worth living. When he was at his lowest, feeling like a posterior cosmic joke, Rosia told him that his person was out there, and he should find her. He trusted Rosita – he always does – and she was right. Now he needs her to trust him. It’s going to be okay. He wants her to give something to Coco for him, and takes off his bolo tie with a heart on the medallion. He says he believes that one day Coco will have the style to pull this off; maybe after age 15. She takes it, and hugs him.

Eugene walks into the trooper station, and one of them yells, on the ground! Name! He says, Eugene Porter. He’s here to confess he made a recording that he surreptitiously switched with the tape that was supposed to be played at the Founders Celebration. While he didn’t mean for it to happen, he’s confessing to the death of Sebastian and the melee that followed. Mercer says, anything else? and he says he acted alone. While Max was present, she had nothing to do with any of it. Mercer swallows hard, and says, take him.

Max sits stunned, while Mercer tells her what happened. Eugene sits alone in his cell. Rosita puts the necklace into her bag. Her door opens, and she says, is everyone ready? Two guys (not troopers) try to subdue her, and she kicks their asses, but a third jumps her, and she’s overwhelmed.

Next time, Pamela tells Yumiko that her friends have been removed from the Commonwealth, and she needs to consider how her actions will affect her brother; Pamela (who’s apparently very busy in this episode) tells Eugene, if he doesn’t tell her where his friends are, he’s dead; and Eugene says, no matter how bleak it appears, it’s not the end.

🐉 Dragon Tails…

Two recaps, and a trailer for the finale.

House of the Dragon Recap: A Succession to Rival Waystar Royco’s

https://ew.com/tv/recaps/house-of-the-dragon-season-1-episode-9/

https://ew.com/tv/house-of-the-dragon-finale-trailer-death/

⚰️ Not Dead Yet…

Stop by tomorrow to see what’s going on in Port Charles and on the Mediterranean Sea. Until then, stay safe, stay being a reliable friend, and stay understanding that loss is inevitable; it always has been. The only thing we can control is when we say yes.