What I Watched Today
(rambling, random thoughts & annoyingly detailed recaps from real time TV watching)
The Walking Dead
Eugene wakes up, and Stephanie is next to him, reading his manuscript. He asks, what in the name of little Billy goats is she doing? She says she’s almost finished, and he says, on the other hand he’s nowhere near finished. Several early scenes without context will be made clear in subsequent chapters. She says she loves it; she’s proud of him. He says he went to get some knives sharpened and was thinking of her, and she asks if she should be alarmed. He says, his thoughts were not homicidal; the cutter was also a key maker. He wants to see more of her, and knows her job is taking up time, so he wants to make it easier. He gives her the key to his apartment, and says he loves her. She says she loves him too, and they kiss. Eugene walks out, manuscript in hand, and she waves from the fire escape.
Eugene tells Princess that he and Stephanie are meeting for ice cream, and he’s uncertain what his follow-up move should be. What transpired was a positive outcome, but he can’t conceive what comes next. Princess asks if he said he loved her, and he says, affirmative, and she told him that she loved him too. Princess tells him, then relax. When a woman tells you she loves you, believe her.
Eugene sits at a table outside, holding two ice cream cones, and smiles. He’s still sitting there, alone, when darkness falls, the ice cream has melted, and he’s no longer smiling.
Eugene goes to Stephanie’s apartment building, and sees a light on inside. He rings the bell, but there’s no answer, and when a man comes out, he uses the opportunity to get inside the building. He knocks on her door, and asks if she’s there. He keeps knocking and calling to her, but inside the apartment, she’s quickly tossing clothes into a suitcase.
In the newspaper office, Connie looks at what’s being printed, and signs to Kelly while Kelly interprets to Jan. Connie signs, it doesn’t look good. Tyler Davis has a story to tell, and wouldn’t risk being locked up. Jan says, he didn’t. There’s a statement from his doctor backing up that he had a PTSD episode. Connie signs that she doesn’t trust the military. Something happened to Tyler; something he blames Pamela Milton for, and was worth confronting her in public over. They clearly have a reputation for suppressing the truth. Jan says, that’s one interpretation. The other is that Tyler had a mental crisis, and it’s the only interpretation backed by the facts. Connie signs, and Kelly says, she should be… Kelly stops, and Connie looks at her, continuing to sign. Kelly says, Connie thinks she should be finding out what really happened, instead of paraphrasing the government’s press release, but Jan says, no. She wants Connie to paraphrase it so next time, she doesn’t have to.
Eugene confronts the guy who’s filling in for Stephanie at her job. Eugene says, no one has seen or talked to Stephanie. How could she have called in sick? The guy says, all he knows is, he was told to be there because she didn’t show up.
Kelly asks if Connie is sure; Tyler took a hostage. Connie signs that he was afraid for his life, and Kelly says she’s been afraid for her life too, but never took an innocent hostage. Connie wants to know what Milton did to cause this, because they’re keeping it a secret. The guard tells them, it’s a private room, and translating Connie’s signing, Kelly asks if Tyler has a lawyer, and what the charges are against him. Mercer opens the door from inside, looks at them, and closes it again.
Rosita and Green make a wellness check at Stephanie’s apartment. They come out, and Rosita tells Eugene, she’s not there. He thinks he should make a statement immediately, so he can recount the details while they’re fresh in his mind. Rosita says she’ll come to the station and help him fill out the paperwork. He looks up at Stephanie’s window, and remembers her waving to him.
Carol rides on a road through the woods in a wagon driven by Lance, while troopers stab any zombies that get in their way. Lance says, it might sound crazy, but he feels better out here than in the city. She says, it doesn’t sound crazy; a lot of her people feel that way. He says, she still sees it as her people and his people. He wants her see how the place works, and wants her to be part of it. He’s done fairly well, but didn’t start out at the top. The governor runs the city, but he knows how it runs. She asks if he started at the bottom, and he says he proved himself to the Milton family a long time ago. If you know the right people, the sky’s the limit. Lean climbing up in any organization, there are two types of people. Mercenaries, who are doing it for the money, or whatever psychological itch they have to scratch, and patrons, true believers, the ones who want to do good. In their hearts, they believe in the organization. She asks if he wants to make a true believer out of her, and he says he read her file. She’s there because she’s smart, and he needs her help dealing with this a-hole, but what she gets out of it is up to her.
They come to a clearing where a lot of people are milling around a camp, and Carol asks if they’re smugglers or drug dealers, and Lance says, smugglers, but it’s not what she thinks. This place isn’t part of the Commonwealth, but they need each other. The Commonwealth uses the poppies to make opium for the hospital. Things would be bleak if they ran out, so he makes sure that doesn’t happen. Sometimes it means dealing with guys like Moto. Lance approaches a guy, who says he told Lance this would happen. Lance says, Moto is supposed to be managing it, and Moto says, he told them to process the last batch, but they’re holding this harvest hostage. They’ll let it rot without a raise. Lance says, he’ll see what he can do.
Kelly and Connie go up to a soldier among the team in the woods, and Kelly says, they’re with the Tribune. He tells them where to go, and Connie signs, this is bullsh*t. Jan knows how she feels about militarizing the police. Kelly suggests if Connie doesn’t want to be on Jan’s bad side, do it just one time. They see Mercer getting in his truck, and he and Connie lock eyes for a moment.
Princess knocks on Eugene’s door, and says she hasn’t seen him in a few days. How’s he holding up? He says he’s functioning within the relative parameters, and she says she can see that, calling him an a-hole. Let her in; she brought lasagna. She comes inside, and sees a chart like detectives make, with threads going to different pictures and articles. He says the dish is empty, and she says, sorry. She didn’t make lasagna, but people always let you in if you’re carrying food. She asks, what’s up? and he says, since they gave up the search, he decided to investigate Stephanie’s disappearance himself. Truth be told, as the hours ticked by with nary a breadcrumb found, he let despair get the best of him, until a chance encounter put him on her trail. Eugene remembers drinking in a bar, and seeing the guy who came out of Stephanie’s building go past. He goes outside, and approaches the guy, saying, he needs to talk to him. He saw the guy coming out of 1634 Racine, an apartment in Residential 1, three days ago, at 7 in the pm. The guy says he doesn’t remember being there, and Eugene says, someone dear to him has gone missing from there, and he might have seen something. The guy asks, where? and Eugene says, Residential 1, three days ago, at approximately 7 in the pm. The guy says he remembers now. He’s a plumber, and was called in to fix a clogged sink. Eugene points to a missing poster with a drawing of Stephanie, and asks if he remembers seeing her, or anything suspicious in or around the premises. The guy says, no. Are they done? Eugene says he sincerely apologizes for troubling him, and wishes they could talk another time, but the guy is already walking away. Eugene tells Princess, needless to say, he greeted the story with skepticism. When he came out of the building, the guy was wearing no uniform and had no tools, and there were no service trucks around. The one person who was there had a flimsy alibi. So Eugene started following him. Princess asks what he found out, and he says, the guy’s name is Roman Calhoun, and he is definitely not a plumber.
Eugene tells Princess, they mostly conduct business at night; the base of the operations in the warehouse district. It’s a plumbing business that on the surface seems legitimate, but the lights are on at odd hours when they’re closed. People go in and out all the time, but it’s the same four people. They arrive alone, and depart shortly afterward. On only one occasion did they all come together, and met with a fifth, who he thinks is the head honcho, the mastermind; maybe someone from a rogue element of the government that Stephanie ran afoul of. Princess asks if Eugene thinks Stephanie was kidnapped by the government, and he points to a drawing of a man who he calls, co-conspirator #2, aka Beany Hat Man. He belongs to the group of movers that took Stephanie’s belongings to an unknown location. The same day, he found a file at the station in Stephanie’s transcript saying she’d resigned, but the man who was filling in for her said she gave no notice. Such orders can’t falsified or fabricated without powerful influence. Stephanie knew they were coming for her, and eluded them. They took her belongings, anything that could be evidence, and silencing her is the last step. If he’s right, his only hope is to expose them before they find her.
Lance fishes with Moto, and says Moto’s hobby is also an apocalyptic skill. He can’t give them a raise, but he can meet them halfway with incentives. They more they produce, the more they make. Carol watches a woman watching them.
Two troopers are chased by zombies in the woods. They get to their car, but one is grabbed before he can get. He fends off the zombie, and stabs it in the neck, but another takes its place and gets him down. The zombie’s head suddenly splits open to reveal Mercer, who calmly walks away. Mercer asks if Connie saw what she needed to see, and she signs, more than enough. He says, then this is the part where she asks the questions they sent her, and she signs, it’s been a month since Tyler has been in the hospital under armed guard. What is he charged with? Mercer says, that’s not one of the questions, and she asks if it has anything to do with the woman Tyler took hostage being Mercer’s sister. He says he was wondering when she’d figure that out. For the record, the answer is, his sister doesn’t have a goddam thing to do with it. Connie signs, Tyler was loyal, and had been recommended for early promotion by Mercer. The military is being manipulated by the politicians. If she was him, she’d be interested in who she was risking her life for. He says, if he was her, he’d wonder why he was out there digging for answers that they both know will never see the light of day. He leaves, and Kelly signs, a-hole.
Eugene and Princess sit within watching distance of Roman’s apartment building. She tells him, it’s really cool how he’s doing so much for Stephanie, but he says, strike that; reverse that. He’s repaying what he owes. He made promise himself in the early days, when they thought this would blow over quickly. If he lived through this, he’d pursue his dream of being a science fiction author. He jokingly related that story to Stephanie over the radio, and she told him that he can’t wait until after he’s lived through it. Ready or not, right now is all they’ve got. It gave him the courage to do what he’s always wanted to do. When someone does that for you, words like love seem insufficient.
They see Roman leave to go jogging, and Eugene runs to the back of the building. Princess says, Eugene might want to break in, but she doesn’t want to get into trouble. She’s got a little job, and a little flat, and she might get a little cat. Eugene says, Roman will be gone for 90 minutes, and begs her, please. She relents, and he gives her a boost up.
Lance tells Moto that he’s sorry they can’t stay for the fish fry, and Moto says, next time. On the side, Lance asks what Carol thinks, and she says, Moto is robbing them. She talked to one of their lieutenants, and he’s pocketing the money from their raises, and beating them to keep quiet. He went too far, and that’s why they’re on strike. Lance says, they’ll get their money back and their raise; he promises. She says, what about Moto? and Lance says he’s not going fishing with Moto anymore, that’s for sure. He tells a couple of the troopers, take him into custody. They grab Moto, who says, what the hell? and calls Lance a mother pussbucket as they take him away. There are imperceptible nods between Carol and the watching woman.
Eugene looks around Roman’s apartment, and finds a set of keys. It starts to thunder, then rain, and Princess asks what this guy does when it rains on his 10 mile run? Eugene says, because of the lack of precipitation, he has not gathered that data, and she says, he has it now. He’s here. They have to get out. He tells her, count his range, but she says she’s not good at that, and he says, just tell him how much time he has. He fiddles with the keys, trying to open a large case, and she says she is telling him; he has no time. He opens the case, and they see a bunch of weapons. Roman goes into another apartment, and they sneak out. A woman says, she saw them on a ladder outside. That’s them.
At the hospital, Mercer finds Tyler’s room empty, and asks a nurse where the patient in M-33 is, and soldiers with him. She says, no one is in M-33, and he says he realizes that. What happened to the man who was in there? He can’t be moved without Mercer’s authorization. The nurse says, apparently he can, and Mercer punches a hole in the wall.
Eugene tells Princes that he’s sorry he manipulated her into accompanying him on his lamebrained mission. He told them she was an unwitting participant. Lance comes in, and says, he just got back to town. What the hell, you two?
Lance looks through some papers, and tells Eugene that Roman Calhoun is who he says he is, a plumber for Ruby’s. They’re lazy with the paperwork, but have a contract. According to the invoice, he was sent to fix a sink in the building where Eugene saw him. Princess asks, what about the kidnap kit? Those weapons are illegal. Lance says, for them. Roman is a citizen, and a lot of people have go bags. He told Eugene’s story about Stephanie to Calhoun, and explained the mental anguish Eugene was going through, and Calhoun agreed not to press charges, but Eugene has to leave him alone. He also has to sign a statement saying he was emotionally distraught and in a paranoid state following the disappearance of his girlfriend. He’s sorry it didn’t lead where Eugene thought it would. Eugene was wrong, and needs to accept it. If he doesn’t, Lance can’t help. Eugene signs.
Back at his apartment, Eugene tells Princess that he should have known the conspiracy goes deeper than he initially thought, but she says, none of this is happening, Stephanie broke up with him. He says, that’s absurd, and she says, she’d been thinking, what if he right was right, but the guy was a plumber. There was paperwork for Stephanie’s work transfer order, and the moving guys literally came and took her furniture. Maybe it’s not that complicated. He says, her first bit of advice to him was, when a woman says, I love you, believe her, and Princess says, when a woman quits job and moves away without telling maybe he should believe that too. He sits heavily, and she says, the day her dad had enough, he just split. She thought it was because she’d smoked his cigarettes. She never saw him again, so who knows? Maybe that was it. You can think you know someone, then find out you never even met them. It sucks, but it happens all the time. He says he appreciates how she reached that conclusion, but he’s privy to one piece of data she is not; he knows how it felt. She says, okay; it was just a theory. She pats his shoulder and leaves. He looks at the board, gets up, and takes a rendering of the plumbing building down.
In Connie’s room, Kelly says, Connie did her job, and that’s a good thing. They’re not going be here forever. Every day doesn’t have to be a fight. That’s what moving here temporarily is about. Connie signs, maybe, and her doorbell light blinks. She goes to the door, and no one is there, but she finds a note. She signs to Kelly that it’s a list of names. Look at the last one. Tyler Davis.
Eugene sneaks into the plumbing building and watches a woman go upstairs. He goes to the stairs, and hears a door open and close. He takes out a spray bottle. A man says, hey, and grabs Eugene, but Eugene throws him off and sprays his eyes. A woman flies out, and kicks Eugene in the stomach. She says she told the guy that she heard something. We see it’s Stephanie, and Lance comes downstairs. He says, he’ll handle it, and the others leave. Eugene says, you played me. Lance corroborated Calhoun’s bogus alibi, and Eugene was certain he was involved in covering up Stephanie’s disappearance. Now he realizes the depth of his self-delusion. Occam’s Razor should have led him to this conclusion, before a kick to the belly did. There was never any Stephanie, was there? Who is she? An undercover agent? A con artist who owes Lance a favor? She was very convincing. Lance used her to pull at his heartstrings, and trick him into telling Lance everything he wanted to know about the communities. It worked. She led him to the trainyard where they were captured by Lance. Lance thought he was easy mark, and split Eugene and his friends up, thinking he’d break, but he didn’t break. Then Stephanie led him to the radio room, where they were captured again. Lance got money’s worth; Eugene fell for that one twice. She told him that he could trust Lance, and he did. She read his book, so she could get helpful autobiographical information to serve Lance’s needs. When Lance got everything he wanted, there was no need to continue the ruse, but Lance didn’t see this twist. He’s going make absolutely certain everybody knows who and what Lance is. Lance says, okay. Who or what is that exactly? The villain, the boogeyman, or the best goddam thing that ever happened to him? Eugene is right. He did lie. Just like Eugene and his friends lied to get inside these walls, but who’s keeping score? Lance did what he had to, to get Eugene here, and Eugene should thank him for it. It’s not his fault they’re too stupid not to know a good thing when it lands in their laps. Eugene says he fell in love and everything was fiction, and Lance says, they tried to rip the band aid off when they saw it was getting serious, and Lance did what he could to get Eugene to stop looking. At least he can stop now. It wasn’t going to get better for his people; they were about to starve. Now Eugene is here, his community is getting fixed, and they’ve got everything from concerts to cancer surgery. All they’ve been asked in return is to be productive members of society as long as they choose to stay. The statement Eugene signed says he was suffering from paranoia as a result of nervous strain. Look at him. This has obviously taken a toll. Lance is sorry Eugene’s heart got broken, and he’s sure Eugene’s friends will be sad to hear about it too, but in the balance of things, Lance still thinks it worked out in everyone’s favor. Eugene’s friends probably would to. He puts his hand on Eugene’s shoulder for a moment, and starts to go up the stairs. He stops and turns, and says, by the way, Stephanie’s real name is Shira. She hates Iron Maiden, but genuinely enjoyed his book. He should stick with it. Lance continues on up.
In an alleyway, Eugene burns all his evidence, and throws his manuscript in the fire. Outside the gate, a woman asks if he’s all right. She needs to talk to him. This is Blue Weevil to Tater Bug; please come back. He turns around, and asks, who are you? She walks through the gate, and he sees it’s Max. She says, it’s me. I’m the one you were talking to on the radio.
Next time, Pamela says, nothing good is going to come from stretching their resources; Lance tells someone, if Maggie says no, cut them off; Maggie doesn’t trust the Commonwealth; Mercer tells Daryl, remember, they’re always watching; and Maggie and Pamela meet.
🪒 What He Said…
This is actually the third time I’ve heard this expression this week. Occam’s Razor: the simplest explanation is likely the correct one.
I wonder how many hits this webpage got tonight?
https://conceptually.org/concepts/occams-razor
⚰️ Going Rogue…
The AV Club does some dissection.
https://www.avclub.com/the-walking-dead-season-11-episode-11-rogue-element-1848613733
🧀 Dead Swiss Cheese…
Nerds Fans pick apart TWD’s plot.
https://www.express.co.uk/showbiz/tv-radio/1576584/The-Walking-Dead-season-11-Rick-Grimes-plot-hole
👠 Side Hustle…
When Alycia’s not being Alicia.
🔥 Strand Off…
What’s to come on FWD.
🤔 Theorizing…
I prefer the hybrid zombies myself.
https://screenrant.com/fear-walking-dead-alicia-zombie-memory-theory-twd/
🎮 Can’t Get Enough…
Just what we need, a Facebook game.
https://www.radiotimes.com/technology/gaming/walking-dead-last-mile-release-date/
📸 Totally Off-Topic…
More photos from the SAG Awards.
https://people.com/movies/sag-awards-2022-best-photos-of-the-night/
🍹 Come Monday, It’ll Be All Right…
Join me tomorrow for soap and Sailing. Until then, stay safe, stay moving it or losing it, and stay remembering, you can think you know someone, then find out you never even met them. It sucks, but it happens all the time.
What I Watched - TV With Theresa 