Tag Archives: science fiction

Sep13

September 12, 2021 – Daryl Gets a Blast From the Past, Turning Down Glenn, Kang Talks Dead, Spinoff Update & the Twelfth

Posted on September 13, 2021 by theresakp

What I Watched Today

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

The Walking Dead

Daryl and Dog run through the woods. They come to a brick building, and a Reaper comes out, but Daryl throws something to get him to go in the other direction. A Reaper comes out of the woods, and Daryl fights with him. He grabs Dog, and I can’t look.

It’s daylight now, and Daryl puts guts from a body on his hands. He looks for Dog, who is okay, and sniffing around near the building. Daryl hears Dog bark, and runs to find the Reaper standing with Dog. He says, let him go, and the Reaper takes off their mask. It’s Leah, who says she never thought she’d see him again. He says he felt the same, and she asks what he’s doing there. Is he alone? She saw him with some people; who are they? She points a shotgun at him, and asks if he’s one of them. He says, it’s a small group, and no, he’s not one of them. He travels light, as always. He calls to Dog, but Dog doesn’t budge. He says he knows who she’s fighting, but he’s not part of it. A couple of Reapers come out. WTF?

Daryl is brought into Meridian, hooded and bound. Dog is oblivious, and walks behind with Leah. Well, he was her puppy first. Daryl is brought to an attic room, and left there. Leah comes in, and he says he came back for her. He looked everywhere for her. He’s sorry she ended up with these people. She says, these people are her family. They never stepped looking for her, and when they found her, she came home. He says, his family picked the wrong fight with the wrong people a long time ago. Like he told her, he’s alone. She says he found her, and gets a bucket of water. She wipes his face, then puts the cloth over his nose and mouth.

Two Reapers waterboard Daryl, who is back in the hood. And by that, I mean he’s literally wearing a hood again. Leah tells the guys, up, and Daryl coughs. One of the Reapers says, again, and asks Daryl if the others are still out there. Daryl says he doesn’t know, and the Reaper asks who their leader is. The woman? Daryl says he ain’t one of them, but the Reaper says, bullsh*t, and dumps more water on Daryl’s head. Leah says, enough. She’ll handle it. The Reaper says Daryl will crack. He just needs more time. She says she gave him enough time already. She said, up. The two Reapers leave, and Leah takes off Daryl’s hood. She says she needs him to cooperate, and he says he told them everything. She says, he told them nothing. Talk. He says he traded with the group for food, and knew them less than a week. Go ahead and kill him if she wants. He has nothing else to say. She leaves.

Daryl is is dragged to another room, and put in a cage. The men leave, and Leah looks at Daryl for a moment, then follows.

Daryl seems to be alone, but he hears someone say, sh*t, and some groaning. He sees Frost from Hilltop in an adjacent cage. Frost starts talking about Maggie and company, but Daryl says he doesn’t know who Frost’s friends are, and doesn’t care. Just because they shared a bag of grain doesn’t make him give a sh*t. He wants no part of the beef Frost has with these people. Does Frost hear him? Shut up, and leave him alone. Got it? Frost says, yeah, he’s got it, and calls Daryl an a-hole. Some people come in, and take Frost out. Daryl is alone again.

Leah comes back and shakes her head. She says he’s just as stubborn as ever, and Daryl asks if that’s what she thinks; this is him being stubborn. She says, fine. Hard-headed. He needs to tell her the truth. He says he never lied to her. Never. They have nothing else to talk about. She asks what he knows about the people he was with, but he says he doesn’t know sh*t. He’d help her if he could. Just give him Dog, and let him go. She’ll never see him again. She asks if that’s what he wants, when Frost is drug back in, and he’s not in good shape. One of the Reapers comes back, and says something to Leah, and she asks if it’s about Turner. She and the Reaper leave, and follow the sound of a man moaning in another room. Reaper Bossie is crying, and says he tried. The Reaper he’s talking to says he picked the right family. He brought Turner home. A man, who we come to find is Pope, chants over Turner’s dead body in what looks like a makeshift chapel. Leah is all sad, and Pope says, God is here. God is angry, and he’s angry. Does she feel that? The volume is so low, I think the boom person was on vacation. There’s no problem hearing the commercials though. There never is.

Leah stands in front of Daryl’s cage, then sits next to it on the floor, He asks, what happened? and she says, one of her brothers is dead; Michael Turner. They traveled world together, becoming mercenaries after fighting in the war together, and could actually pay their bills. Daryl is surprised at this information, and she says, Michael was like her, no family. He was the little brother she didn’t have and always wanted. She’s lost a lot of people, but not like this. He was the first person she was close to in a long time. Daryl says she didn’t lose him. He came back and she was gone. She says he left her. She asked what he wanted, and he left. He says he got scared, and she asks, of what? He says, letting go, and she ponders this. She says, it doesn’t matter. It wouldn’t have worked anyway. They couldn’t have been happy in a world like this. He suggests they talk about her family, and she says, don’t tell her that he’s never done things like kill people. She knows what he’s done, and he has no right to judge. This is her; the good and bad, all of it. He says he doesn’t believe her, and she says she can’t help the bad, but she can help him save himself. In spite of everything, she cares about him, and doesn’t want anything bad to happen to him. Just tell her anything. If he keeps silent, she can’t stop them. They’re angry about Turner, and want someone to pay. He says, a woman is the leader, but they spoke in code because he was an outsider. There’s a tall skinny guy who never shuts up, and a priest that carries a shotgun. They have the numbers. One of their soldiers slipped up, and they lost fighters, but they still have more than she has there. He asks when he’s going to meet this Pope.

Pope sits sharpening a knife, and Leah tells him that he was right. Daryl was hard to break, but he told her there are a lot more out there than they thought. She thinks he’ll be good there. They need the manpower, with Turner gone, and the other two missing. She tells him, say something. He knows she hates it when he does this. He says, do what? and she says, freeze her out. He asks if it’s about her and Daryl, and she tells him that she never said it was, but he says, yet here they are. She had to go on a fishing expedition for an old boyfriend. He sits in front of her, and says, go on then; tell him. Did she find what they were looking for? She says she told him Daryl would be useful, and she was right. Carver saw it, and he sees it. He says, he sees a guy who wants to get in her pants; someone who loved her. She says, fine, but she never said Daryl told her that he loved her. Pope says she could have handed Daryl over, but she didn’t; why? She says, at one point, he meant something to her, but that ended the day Pope found her. He showed her the family, and she never regretted her decision. She doesn’t want him to either. Does he? He touches her face, and says he believes in her more than the others. She says she knows.

Daryl sits in a chair in another building, and the two Reapers who waterboarded Daryl are now verbally harassing him. One asks if he has something to say. Come on; don’t be shy. He’s about to be a man. The other says he bets Daryl’s girlfriend wears the pants. Leah walks in, and tells them to knock it off. They leave, and Leah unties Daryl’s hands. She hears the door lock, and runs over to it. She tries the handle, but no luck. The lights go out, and fire comes out from under the door. She throws a chair at the door, and Daryl tells her, stay back. He starts ripping at the boards over a window, then breaks something, making a tool to pry them off. He breaks the window glass, and grabs Leah’s hand. He pushes her out first, and follows. All the dudes in the pack stand there watching, and Leah joins them. They all face Daryl, as the building he and Leah were in collapses. Pope says, forged by fire. Ordained by God. They welcome him. Welcome to fortitudo salutis.

Pope asks if Daryl believes in God, but Daryl says, not anymore. He guesses he only believes in himself now. Pope says, Daryl passed the test, but he’s not God, and pours drinks for himself and Daryl. Daryl asks what else Pope wants from him, and Pope saying he wants Daryl to understand. He gives Daryl the drink, and tells him to sit down. He says, they all met in the Valley of Death, the hills of Afghanistan. They carried their fallen brothers off the field so many times they lost count. Politicians wrote the checks, but they were just props. Today, they talked about God. He thought there ain’t no God; he never saw Its face. But they saw God everywhere; in the blood, horror, and death. God was there, telling them where to go. They didn’t have much else to hold on to in those days. They held on to each other. Pope lights a cigarette, and gives one to Daryl. He says, that war ruined all of them for good. They couldn’t find real jobs. People called them mercenaries. They did the dirty work that no one else wanted to do, and were paid handsomely for it. The real dirty work started after the fall. They’d never been in a war like that; had never seen that kind of chaos. The things they did… All that death, day after day after day. After a while, he started feeling like Daryl, wondering where God was, until He showed his face again. The politicians had one last war to get behind, this time, coming for them. The bombs came, and they lost some of their own. They found a church in a little town, and holed up there. When the chaos died down, he looked at his people, and couldn’t believe it. Not a trace of blood or burn marks; not even a scratch. They were the chosen ones. These men had no power over them. Daryl came out of the fire alive, and look at him now, sitting right there. Is he hurt? Any burns? A scratch? Daryl says he’s been through worse before, and Pope gets up. He asks if Daryl is coming, and Daryl nods.

Everyone is gathered around a campfire, eating, and Daryl joins them. Pope says Leah was right about this one, and she says, of course she was. Pope says, he’s family now. He goes over to Bossie and says, Bossie walked ten miles with his dead brother on his back. The strength that took. Does Daryl have any idea how crazy they are? Turner will have a proper burial. Bossie says he did what any one of them would have done, and Pope asks if he’s still hurt. Bossie shakes his head, and Pope says, he just has one question; something that’s been bothering him. The wounds are on his back. Leah says, it’s been a rough day, and Pope asks Bossie where he was when Turner was being attacked. Bossie says he was right there. Leah says, enough, and Pope ruffles Bossie’s hair. He says, it takes divine strength to face fear head on. They all saw what Daryl did. He got Leah out of the fire first. He kept her safe. Today, God baptized Daryl in that fire, and made him one of them. One thing he forgot to tell Daryl; never turn your back on your brother. God doesn’t only use fire as baptism. It’s also his wrath. He grabs Bossie, and throws him into the fire, holding his face in it until it’s charcoal. Daryl is like, oh, wow, and Pope says, they run into the battle. Into the fire. Always. Daryl looks at Leah.

Next time, Judith teaches the kids of Alexandria how to fight, Eugene says they can’t stay at the Commonwealth, Stephanie wants to help Eugene, and Negan says, the only way it works is if they trust each other.

👎 Turn Down…

I’m sure it’s frustrating, but First World problems.

https://ew.com/tv/steven-yeun-turned-down-roles-after-the-walking-dead-glenn/

🏃🏻‍♀️ Running the Show…

Angela Kang talks TWD; what might have been, what was, and what’s to come.

https://ew.com/tv/walking-dead-rendition-leah-daryl-pope-reapers-angela-kang-showrunner-interview/

🏍 Those Two Crazy Kids…

What’s happening with the Carol and Daryl spinoff.

https://www.eonline.com/news/1299525/the-walking-deads-melissa-mcbride-gives-a-coy-update-on-the-daryl-carol-spinoff

🏇 Leaving the Scene…

Join me tomorrow for a medical drama and a yacht in the Med. Until then, stay safe, stay exercising your mind, and stay not picking the wrong fights with the wrong people.

Sep6

September 5, 2021 – The Reapers Attack, Small Talk, No Notches For Eugene, New Villains, Rosita’s Dream, New World, Fear Again & Don’t

Posted on September 6, 2021 by theresakp

Standard

What I Watched Today

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

The Walking Dead

Everyone runs. Cole’s throat is slashed, Duncan is stabbed, and both Negan and Gabriel are hit with something. Elijah gets dragged away from the others by a rope, and Maggie is suddenly alone. She feels movement behind her, and flings a sickle she’s found at a Reaper, but it misses him, and sticks in a tree. I’m already thinking, if these people can’t get it together in ten years to gather roots, nuts, and berries, and grow tomatoes, they’re doomed.

Carol comes back to Alexandria with Kelly, and Magna asks if Kelly wants to do a shift together. Kelly says/signs, something came up, and Magna asks if she wants to talk, but Kelly says, there’s nothing to talk about. Aaron and some others raise a new wall made out of metal pieces, and Carol tells Aaron that they’re getting the horses back. He says they’ve been down this road before, and they’re about to fail. Carol says, if they don’t get the horses, they can’t carry more than a sack of grain. She gets a few supplies, and leaves.

Judith, RJ, Gracie, and RJ play cards, and talk about their parents. In other words, this part is boring.

Maggie walks through a desolate area, and comes to a mall. She walks past a bunch of scattered cars in what used to be the mall parking lot. I love an abandoned mall. She tries a door, and a knife comes flying through the air, sticking in the wall near her. She runs, and tries another door. This one opens, and she closes it behind her. She goes down stairs, and sees some empty bottles, where apparently someone has had a drinking party. She sets a couple of them on the push-bar of the exit door to alert her to intruders. She walks through the mall, and to another set of stairs. We hear zombie noises. She shines her flashlight around, and walks up. A zombie comes out of nowhere, scaring us both, and she sends it bouncing down the stairs. She flicks on a lighter, and we see a Reaper behind her. She sends him flying too. She hears footsteps, and jets.

Gabriel sits in the woods, saying, the Lord is my refuge and my strength. He he pulls an ice pick out of his leg, and sees someone limping away and a mask on the ground. He limps in their direction.

Maggie goes through a space housing a lot of mannequins, which are always good for a scare. Something falls, and she jumps a mile, but keeps walking. Someone comes out from behind a counter, and it’s Alden, but in a hot second, a Reaper pops out and takes him down. The Reaper goes after Maggie with a sickle, and she keeps him at bay while she reaches for an empty bottle nearby. She punches him, getting him off of her, breaks the bottle, and gouges him in the side of the head with it. Negan comes up behind him, and finishes him off. Before dying, the Reaper sets off a grenade, and Negan and Maggie duck for cover. When the smoke clears, Maggie sees Alden sitting on the floor, and goes to ten to him. He has a stomach wound, and she asks if he can walk, He says he won’t know until they try. Negan says she’s not seriously thinking about keeping going. What exactly is the plan? She says, the plan didn’t change; they need that food. They’ll go to the supply drop, and radio the others from there. He says he knows theatrics, and these people just showed them how insane they are. They can’t be on any road the Reapers are using. It’s a sh*t plan. She asks him for a better one that doesn’t starve them, and he says he’s on her side. She says, then help her with Alden. They help Alden up, get on either side of them, and help him outside.

Rosita picks mushrooms or something by a creek, when Carol comes along, and Rosita says she didn’t want stay in the house. Kelly and Magna join them, and they surround a lone horse, each of them swinging a rope. They don’t try very hard, and it trots off. Rosita asks if Carol is okay, and Carol says she’ll be better when this is done. Rosita says she’s having dreams that Abe is trying to tell her something; somewhere they’re supposed to be. But just as she’s about to hear it, he gets shot in the head. She thinks it’s a message for them. Carol asks what he’s trying to say, but Rosita doesn’t know.

Outside the mall, Alden says they’d better get moving, and Maggie and Negan get on either side of him. They hear a woman scream, and head in that direction. Negan says, really? We’re going toward the screaming? Cool. They see Agatha stabbing zombies like a machine, and to prove his worth, Alden stabs one that they pass, but practically falls over. Duncan sits on the ground, and Agatha shakes her head, leaving Maggie with him. Maggie says she’s so sorry, and he asks, why? They were lucky. She says, for a little while, and he asks her to make sure Agatha gets home. Promise. He closes his eyes, and Maggie takes out a knife. She kisses his bald head, and stabs him.

Carol and her group go through the woods, when they see several dead, half-eaten horses by the river. Kelly says, no, and Magna hugs her. Carol says they’ll keep looking for the rest. Stay close to the water. Rosita says, it’s getting late, but Carol keeps walking. Rosita catches up with her, and says they don’t have to right now. They can do it tomorrow. Carol says they needed the horses yesterday. Now. Magna hugs her, and Carol says, let’s go home.

Kelly says they’ll try again next time, and Rosita says, maybe not. They run forward to a field, as a bunch of horses come running through. Kelly says, dope, and Rosita says, there’s a dairy farm. They have a paddock, and they can pen the horses in. The horses run in, and they try to round them up, but they’re about as good at that as they are growing food. Kelly tells them to drop their lassos, and Carol asks, why? Kelly says, just do it, and they put the lassos down. Kelly says, they’re not running. She thinks they’re home. Carol makes a sound like she’s calling a cat, and one of the horses comes to her. They all pet it.

Gabriel recites the 23^rd psalm – the Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He finds the unmasked Reaper leaning against a log, and the Reaper says Gabriel moved slower than he thought Gabriel would. He asks if Gabriel is scared, but Gabriel says he’s not. The Reaper says he’s been blessed, and Gabriel says he has a funny definition of blessed. He asks Gabriel to pray for him, and Gabriel says the Reaper tried to kill his friends. The Reaper says, they tried to kill him. Pray for him; even his enemies deserve that much. He thought Gabriel was a man of God. Gabriel says, God isn’t here anymore, and kills the Reaper. (Or as Cheech Marin said in Machete, God has mercy; I do not.)

In the woods, Maggie looks out with binoculars, seeing a load of zombies. Negan says, there are twice many as before. He believes they should rethink the plan. She says, if he wants to go, go, and he says he can help. Her friends trusted him. She was gone a long time. Things change; people change. She says he’s got them fooled, but not her. Stop pretending to be one of them. He walks away, and Alden asks if Maggie is okay. She says she can handle Negan, but he says he’s not talking about Negan. He asks if Hilltop is the place she told Hershel about, and she says, not much surprises her anymore. He says, they’ll build it better than it was. They’ll get it done. At least by the time Adam is old enough to remember. They’ll start when they get back. Maggie says, the good news is, Hershel lives in Alexandria. Small win. Negan finds a decrepit, charred zombie tied to a tree, with a sign that says JUDAS above him. The zombies surround them, and Maggie says, come on. They move faster, killing a few along the way, but Alden falls. Maggie grabs him back up, but the zombies are closer now. Agatha, Negan, and Maggie start slicing and dicing. Even Alden gets in a few licks before he falls again. Agatha gets bit, and Maggie comes flying toward her to pull her away, but the zombies are crowding in. Negan grabs Maggie, and drags her off, as the zombies bring Agatha down. Bye, Agatha.

Carol and her group bring the horses back to Alexandria, and Rosita says she’s out. They tie the horses up, and Carol keeps walking with hers. Magna catches up with her, and asks if they can talk. Carol says, sure, and Magna says, she knows what Carol is doing, and wants her to stop. She’s giving Kelly false hope. Carol says she doesn’t understand, but Magna thinks she does. She believes Connie is alive because she can’t accept what it means if she’s lost. Carol says, Connie is family, and Magna says she wants her family to heal. Kelly looks up to Carol. She’s sorry for whatever Carol is going through, but she’s asking, begging Carol; whatever she’s telling Kelly, stop. She’s just making it harder. Carol walks away, and brings the horse to a stable where it lies down. She pets it, then cuts its throat – which, thankfully, we don’t see, but I say, WTF? She puts the blood in a huge dish, and Alden comes in. Alden and I both say, WTF?

The boring group of children is brought a plate of horsemeat. Judith is like, eww, and Hershel tells her, smaller bites are better. She asks if he’s eaten it before, and he says, when he and his mother were on the road, they just ate what they found. It’s better than spiders. Just chew it fast; it’s not that bad. Rosita brings the baby to see the horses, and sees Carol washing up. I’m annoyed. The kids could have waited a hot minute while they rode to get something.

Magna and Kelly sit looking at the windmill. Carol comes by, and asks if Kelly is ready. Kelly goes with her.

Negan, Maggie, and Alden walk down the road. Negan eats something, and says, goddam sh*t, spitting it out. He asks if they’d like a taste of crap cardboard, and I figure it must be low carb. Negan suggests they go through the woods, but Maggie says the road is faster. Alden says, the woods are safer, and Maggie tells him, they need a break. They go into an old church, and Maggie says, they’ll rest for a while. She tells Negan that she knows what he’s thinking, and the answer is no. She tells Alden that they’re fine, and he says, maybe for now. If these guys are anything like she says, things are going to get worse, and he’s dead weight. They all know. He walked away from Negan because he trusts her to do the right thing. No matter how hard. No matter how much it costs her. She looks at him, and he says, supplies are the only thing that matters. Alexandria needs them to do this. They’re waiting for them. Hershel… Judith… Adam… Maggie says, Adam needs a father, but Alden says, if her plan fails, everything they’ve worked for, what they want for the future, dies with it. Then what happens to Adam? She gets up, and Negan says, the sun is going down. She has to make a decision. Maggie says, it’s easy for him, isn’t it? Being reckless with someone else’s life. He doesn’t get to decide who lives or who dies anymore. It’s his fault. He destroyed everything they built. Negan says she still has to decide, and she looks at Alden. She starts going through her bag, and gives him a canteen. She goes over to Negan, and holds out her hand. He gives her his knife, and she gives it to Alden. Negan moves a pew near the door, and Maggie says Alden better be there when they come back. He says they better come back. They leave, and he pushes the pew against the door, then sits on it.

A lone zombie walks toward Maggie and Negan as they walk through the woods. Negan cracks it in the head with a crowbar. He stands there, the crowbar dripping blood. Maggie walks past him, and he follows.

Next time, Daryl meets a Reaper in the woods, and once again I’m afraid for Dog.

⚰️ Later, on Talking Dead, Lauren Cohan (Maggie) said that the dripping crowbar was evocative of Lucille dripping blood after Negan killed Glenn and Abraham, but I wouldn’t have even thought of it if she hadn’t said that. In other trivia, the kids were eating beef jerky. Yeah, well, I would hope it wasn’t real horse.

🚇 In Case You Weren’t Sure…

Josh McDermitt confirms Eugene’s status.

https://ew.com/tv/walking-dead-eugene-virgin-josh-mcdermitt-archeron/

🔪 Fear Them…

Explaining the Reapers.

https://comicbook.com/tv-shows/news/the-walking-dead-are-reapers-comics-final-season-11-villains-reapers-pope-explained/

🙇🏻‍♂️ That’s One Theory…

I don’t know if I’d follow this trail of breadcrumbs, but like Maggie, not much surprises me anymore.

https://comicbook.com/tv-shows/news/the-walking-dead-rosita-abraham-dream-explained-season-11-father-gabriel-death-comics/

🌎 Beyond Dead…

October 3^rd begins the second, and final, season of The World Beyond. Too bad. I kind of liked it. It will probably end up on another platform, since they’re all trying to entice viewers with extensions of their network shows for a price.

https://showsnob.com/2021/09/03/the-walking-dead-world-beyond-season-2-trailer/

Crossing over.

https://comicbook.com/tv-shows/news/the-walking-dead-world-beyond-season-2-jadis-return-rick-grimes-movie-ties-crossover/

👹 Radioactive…

Fear the Walking Dead returns October 17^th.

https://comicbook.com/tv-shows/news/fear-the-walking-dead-season-7-teaser-trailer-punishing-new-world/

🛠 Labor This…

Whether you labor or not, celebrate anyway. Tomorrow’s GH is a rerun, so see you on Deck. Until then, stay safe, stay looking out for one another, and stay knowing that things change; people change.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oF7mP2LASCo

Aug30

August 29, 2021 – There’s a New Gang in Deadtown, Ratings Dip, First Of the Last Season, They’re Engaged & Insane

Posted on August 30, 2021 by theresakp

Standard

What I Watched Today

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

The Walking Dead

A zombie toddles around making zombie noises. Maggie drops down and shoots it in the head. She shoots a few more, but she and her bullets are outnumbered.

Gabriel drops into the subway car, followed by the others. Gabriel beats the crap out of a zombie, and they walk toward the next car. Negan looks tired, and Alden asks where Maggie is. Negan says she was right behind him. She wanted them to keep moving forward. Gabriel gets the door open, and says, they’ll go from car to car, hop off, and keep going.

Daryl busts through a wall to find Dog. He and Dog travel quietly. They come to a room where there’s all kinds of random stuff. He sees, It comes for us all, written on the wall. Next to it, a dead person sits on the floor, handcuffed to a briefcase of cash. Apparently, it didn’t do them much good. Daryl looks at a weird mural on the wall, a royal family overseeing what looks like a bizarre party. I have no clue what this is about, but later on Talking Dead, they explained it was people fighting each other, but not the zombies surrounding them. Okay, well, it looked like a strange party to me. And who were those people with crowns on? I want answers.

Yumiko tells Princess that the Commonwealth has structure and laws. There has to be someone in charge. She’s going to speak to them and demand results. Princess says, that’s her plan? Is she sure she can be cold as ice? Yumiko says she was a lawyer; it comes naturally. She loves her brother, and hasn’t seen him in a long time. She’ll be fine as long as she can speak to them. A trooper comes by, and Princess says, that was the woman from last night. She knows. Eugene comes back, and says he’s looked everywhere for Ezekiel, and he’s freaking out. It’s probably because Ezekiel told off the big guy. They should come clean about who they are, and where they’re from. Yumiko tells him to stick to the story. She gets up and strides over to the trooper. She says she demands to know where her friend was taken, but the trooper tells her, calm down. She doesn’t know where Yumiko’s friend is. Yumiko says she’d like to speak to someone who can give her answers, and the trooper says, Yumiko wants to speak to her supervisor? Princess says, yeah. They want to talk to the manager.

Daryl sees a plastic bag that has, among other things, a couple of candy bars in it. He takes them out, and pulls out a hundred dollar bill. He reads a message on it that says, Dear Dad, you always said if you don’t come back in a week to move on. Mom didn’t listen and went looking. It’s been 3 weeks, so we’re going next. I’ll watch Jesse and turn on the radio every day at 10. See you both soon. Love, Tom and Jesse. It’s accompanied by a photo of two kids. Dog senses something, and Daryl follows him. Dog leads him to a zombie lying by the wall, and Daryl shoots it with a crossbow. He sees a map on the wall, but he and Dog are distracted by a loud yell. Dog takes off and goes into a pipeline. Here we go again. Daryl calls to him, but Dog doesn’t come back, so he follows. Must we really have a heart attack about Dog tonight? Although this is the thing I like the most about Daryl now. He takes responsibility as a pet parent.

Yumiko sits in an office with the assessors, and the woman says she’s not sure why Yumiko is there; she’s already been assessed. Yumiko says, they think they’ve been assessing her? She’s been assessing them. The woman almost smiles, and says, Yumiko doesn’t know anything about them. Yumiko says it’s a large community; organization and bureaucracy are part of that. Probably the woman’s job before this was forensic psychologist. The guy was perhaps academic; a researcher. He assesses the lab rats in his community. Someone above them based their jobs on who it was thought they were. The assessor’s poke around in the dust of their brains, and push the boundaries about their toilet habits. They raked one of her friends over the coals for a two dollar bill. They use money as a powerful psychological tactic, because it’s familiar, and they know how desperately people miss the old world. They decide whether someone will enhance their community or just drain their resources, but the truth is, they need to justify their existence, because at the end of the day, they could rely on their gut instinct. She was a lawyer. She likes rules. They bring order to the chaos. She believes her brother, a thoracic surgeon, is at the Commonwealth. She’d like her groups’ processing expedited. The woman asks again where Yumiko went to school, and Yumiko says, Oxford and Harvard, but she knows that. Would she like Yumiko’s credentials again? Mercer comes in, and gives Yumiko a cup of coffee. Yumiko comes thisclose to smiling.

Eugene and Princess wait out in the hall, and Princess says she has to pee. She shouldn’t have mentioned it, since now she really does. Eugene doesn’t want her to go, but she says, the big guy just walked in with coffee; it must be going good. She goes up to two trooper, and speaks to one of them in another language – Italian? Spanish? I can’t find this out. She goes into another room, and the trooper follows her, leaving the other to guard the hallway.

Daryl follows Dog’s bark, and goes through another pipeline.

Gabriel manages to get the door open, and the group goes into the next car. They can hear zombies, along with a banging sound from underneath. Alden says, it’s Morse Code. SOS. It gets louder, and they open a trap door, Maggie popping through. She stares at Negan for a hot minute, then whacks him in the head with her gun. She says, she slipped. He saw her, and left her to die. Negan says, okay. So what? Gabriel says, he’s just going to admit it? Alden says, he tried to kill her? Negan says, she was in trouble, and he didn’t help; there’s a big difference. Duncan slams him up against the wall, and Negan says, Maggie was just talking about killing him sooner than later, and now somehow he’s a big a-hole because he didn’t risk his nuts for her? He’s been an asset. He killed Alpha – nice of him, he knows. If he hadn’t, every person they know, their skull would be on a spike. He did what needed to be done. He’s trying. Duncan says he’s not buying word of it, and Agatha says, they can get through the city without Negan. They hear someone yelling for help, and they run to the other end of car. Gage is in between cars, and he says he’s locked in. They were in the tunnels, and there were walkers everywhere. Maggie asks if he locked the other car door, but he didn’t, and she tells him, if they open the doors, they’ll all get in. Zombies are coming toward Gage, and he says he’s sorry; he won’t do it again. Gabriel says they have the time, but Maggie says they don’t have the ammo. She tells Gage that she’s sorry; they can’t. He says, liar, and pulls out two knives. He stabs himself, as the zombies reach him. Negan should point out the irony here, but maybe it’s too easy. Or he doesn’t want to die. They watch as Gage is torn apart. Now I’m wondering, why didn’t they just tell him to go underneath like Maggie did? It’s a wonder these people have survived eleven years.

Eugene shakes and twitches, and gets up. He wanders down the hall, and tells the trooper that he’s been waiting for his friend Yumiko. She was being questioned in that room, and he was wondering if they had an ETA for when she’d be done. The trooper says, there’s no one in there, and Eugene says, but he saw her and them. The trooper repeats, there’s no one in there, and Eugene says, his other friend went in to use the ladies room. The trooper says, what friend? He needs Eugene to leave.

Duncan messes with the door, and Negan paces a little. He sits, and Gabriel asks, what is it? The flashlight goes out, and Maggie lights a flare. They see Gage heading the zombie crowd. Alden does too, and he says, they don’t want to look, but he wants them to look. Gabriel says, all it is, is the shell of a man who died a coward, which is pretty harsh, if you ask me. Alden says, he didn’t deserve to die in the worst way imaginable. Maggie says, there are worse ways. She and Hershel were alone for a long time, and they came across an old man kneeling by a grocery cart full of scavenged clothes. He said they were for his daughter, and asked if they’d help him haul the cart back home. He’d give them some food for their trouble. She knew he was a liar, but she was starving. They followed him back, and she held a knife to his throat. She reached in his pocket, pulled out the chloroformed rag he was going to use on her, and stuffed it in his mouth. They went inside, and she locked her boy in a room, then went through the house. She came across three deformed… she woudn’t call them men. They came after her, and she handled them. The house was quiet, but she could hear a thudding sound from the attic. She thought there might be people tied up trying to get free. She opened up a door, seeing a set of stairs, and saw a shadow at the top. It was rocking back and forth, and she thought it was some kind of animal. It fell down the stairs, and came at her face. It was a walker. It used to be a woman. Her arms and legs were cut off and stitched up; her eyes had been gouged out; and she had no tongue. There was a cauterized gash in her throat where her vocal cords had been ripped out. Whatever was in there, was trying to get out. There were three more just like her. Their hearts were still beating. The first thing she thought was, if they’re alive, there must be food. She took care of it, and found the food; lots of it. She and Hershel filled the cart, and left. She tells Alden that she doesn’t feel anything when she tells him that, because that’s what’s out there. That makes it clear what they have in Alexandria; what they had in Hilltop and Meridien. It’s rare compared to everything out there. If it isn’t… Negan says, it means nobody has it figured out. Nobody ever di,d and nobody ever will.

Daryl keeps going through the pipe, and a zombie grabs his leg. He shoots it, and falls out the opening back to where the tracks are. He whacks a few zombies, cracking their heads with a pipe, gets his bag and light, and keeps going. He sees blood near the tracks, and hears Dog in the distance. He calls to Dog, and Roy comes out of the darkness, stumbling toward him. He falls, and Dog attacks a zombie. I won’t watch just in case, but Daryl shoots the zombie and Dog is okay. Seriously, they could kill off the whole cast, and I’d be fine as long as Dog made it. And I don’t trust them after Ezekiel’s tiger. More zombies pop out, and Daryl dispatches them. This is starting to get old. He goes to Roy, lying by the tracks, and Roy asks, how bad is it? Daryl says, it ain’t good, and Roy says he lost Cole. Daryl asks where the ammo bag is, and Roy says he lost that too. Daryl tries to tend to Roy’s head wound, but Roy says, don’t waste it on him. He gives Daryl some bullets and a grenade from his pockets, and says, it’s all he’s got. Tell the kids he didn’t die a coward.

Duncan pries open the next door, but the one going into the next car is locked. Zombies are coming, Gage leading the pack. Duncan uses an ax on the door, and Gabriel and Maggie get ready to shoot at the zombies. The door starts to give way, then falls. The zombies swarm in, Gage at the head.

Daryl and Dog run.

Gabriel shoots the oncoming zombies with a machine gun, and the rest use bows and arrows, getting the dead one by one as they straggle in. Duncan sees zombies coming from the other side, and Maggie hands a gun to Negan. He shoots, but the zombies just keep coming, and I think, either they have to run out of dead people or ammo at some point.

Daryl is inside the subway car, on the other side, and shoots his way through as the theme music plays. He gets to the door, and Negan opens it from the other side. Everyone runs into the car where Daryl is, and he tells them, get down. They duck under the seats, and Daryl shoves the grenade into a zombie’s mouth. He kicks it into the other car, and shuts the door. The grenade explodes, and it’s quiet. Blood cascades down the window.

Eugene sits at the table, and researcher dude opens a pouch that looks ominous, but really just contains office supplies. He takes out a pen, and Eugene asks what they’ve done with his traveling companions. Mercer says, they’re being processed, and Eugene says, as in administratively, or as in bologna and other meat stuffs? He’d like to see them. Mercer says, only one thing gets his heart pumping. Battling the dead gets it pumping every time; not in a bad way. He hands Eugene a box of tissues, and tells him, mop up. Eugene blots his face, and Mercer says Eugene can’t lie for sh*t, so don’t lie. Eugene says he wasn’t going to, and Mercer says, that makes him like Eugene. Keep doing that, and it will help him. But if he doesn’t… Does Eugene get him? Eugene nods, and Mercer says he knows Eugene is holding back. He has two questions, which require two answers. Truthful ones. Do that, and he’ll get to go, and see his friends again. Everything will be okay. It’s that simple. Ready? Where is their settlement, and why were they at the train station? If Eugene lies, he’ll know. Eugene says, okey-dokey. He has been holding something back. He was afraid of what his friends would think. In the course of their travels, he found a radio. Night after night, he would speak into the void, holding on to what if, as fools are wont to do, and he’s nothing if not a fool. He starts to cry, and says, then one night, a voice came back, a woman, a beautiful voice. They got to talking, and she was not repulsed by his musings. They spoke of train museums and ice cream cones, laughed, and sang Iron Maiden. They wanted to meet, so he got his friends to go the train yard, under the guise of asking for help. He knew they wouldn’t go otherwise, but he was thinking about Stephanie. He was lying the whole time, afraid he’d lose the three friends he has. He lied to Stephanie, saying he was from a large settlement, because he thought she might be a femme fatale, laying a trap for a lonely heart. He’s not one to whom relationships come easy, particularly those with the fairer sex. He is in fact a virgin, even though he’d observed the act more times than he cares to admit. He was hoping, after a suitable period of courtship, Stephanie might be the one to change his unenviable status. He’s afraid if Stephanie finds out he wasn’t honest with her either, she’ll have nothing to do with him. He cries, and says, here it is, and he’s very relieved to get it off his chest, because everything he’s said up until that has been the goddam truth.

Troopers bring a hooded Eugene in a wagon to a trailer. They bring him up the stairs, and take the hood off. He sees Yumiko, Princess, and Ezekiel. He hugs them, and laughs. He asks where they took Ezekiel, and Ezekiel says, the infirmary. A medic steamed his face, and gave him some nasty herbal cough syrup, and then he slept. Eugene asks if the tea was spiked, but Ezekiel says, no. They took the light from his room so he could sleep. They checked on him periodically, then brought Yumiko to visit him. They were brought to a holding room with Princess, then brought there. Mercer reads a bunch of legalese from the Commonwealth’s constitution, and says they’ve been granted asylum and citizenship. When they walk out, they’ll be escorted to orientation. He looks at Ezekiel, and says, by a beat cop. Welcome to the Commonwealth. He tells Ezekiel, I went to West Point, a-hole.

Princess asks what Yumiko found out, when a woman comes in. She asks which one of them is Eugene, and Eugene raises his hand. She says, she’s Stephanie, and he smile. Little hearts pop out of his eyes.

The group finally gets to the outside Negan gives Maggie back the gun, but hangs on to it for an extra beat or two. Maggie asks Daryl what he’s looking at, and he says, it’s a letter from the kid to his parents. Maggie tells everyone that they’ll be heading out, but they need to take a detour first. Arbor Hills. It’s a supply depot Georgie set up. They’d been set up all over, with ammo, food, and weapons. They’ll rest up there, and restock. A radio tower marks the neighborhood. Does Negan know where that is? Negan says, yeah, and they head out.

They see some dead men hanging upside down, and Negan says, this place sure has gone to s*h*t since I was here last. Let’s double back. They barely start to turn, when Roy, who is somehow still alive, gets an arrow to the forehead, and a sickle comes winging through the air, hitting Cole in the leg. Dragging Cole, they quickly find cover. We see a group of masked people marching toward them, looking like something out of the old Warriors movie. It’s the Reapers.

Next time, a fight in the woods, Maggie says the plan doesn’t change, Carol says they’re going to starve to death, and Gabriel says God isn’t here anymore.

📉 Dead Dive…

I’m kind of surprised. Geez, we’ve made it this far, why not finish it out?

https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/the-walking-dead-amc-season-11-ratings-1235050635/

⚰️ First Dead…

Who cares? As long as Dog is okay. And face it, dude was a pretty minor character

https://comicbook.com/horror/news/the-walking-dead-season-11-episode-2-death-spoilers-gage-dies-explained-reactions/

💍 Sorry Ladies…

Daryl is officially taken.

https://ew.com/celebrity/norman-reedus-diane-kruger-engaged/

🥱 Nighty-Night…

After Netflix and work this weekend, it’s back to the old Bravo grind. Until we meet on Deck, stay safe, stay following through, and stay out of that space between subway cars. No good can come of it.

Aug23

August 22, 2021 – The Dead’s Final Season Begins & Red

Posted on August 23, 2021 by theresakp

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What I Watched Today

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

The Walking Dead

Maggie is back home sweet home. It’s night, and she, Carol, Daryl, Rosita, and Kelly go out with a group. They open up a trap door into Fort Connors, and we see bodies everywhere. One lifts its head a little, but they seem to be in a suspended state, like they’re sleeping. Daryl and Jerry stay up top, as the others drop down quietly. They step through the bodies, which still aren’t moving. They go through the room to a padlocked door. One of them opens it, and the lock makes a noise popping open, but it’s okay, and they go into the building. They slip though the hallways, and into another room where they find supplies, and fill their bags. They send the bags back up to ground level, Jerry and Daryl bringing them up on pullies. One of the ropes snaps, but Daryl grabs the bag before it falls. He cuts himself, and a drop of blood falls on a zombie’s head, waking it up. It becomes animated, and alerts the rest, who start to rise. Daryl tells them, hurry, they’re awake, and Carol and Maggie shoot some with bows and arrows; Rosita whacks and slices a few; and Kelly uses her slingshot. They’re severely outnumbered, but still hold their own. Jerry and Daryl shoot arrows from above, and Maggie finally just takes out a gun and starts shooting. Luckily, these zombies are not too fast. Carol breaks out a machine gun and mows some down. It starts getting more chaotic, and the group starts to go back up on ropes, helped by Jerry and Daryl, while Carol and Maggie keep the zombies at bay. Carol shoves some more supplies in her bag, and grabs the rope. The zombies get close, but she gets up top. The zombies that are left huddle at the bottom.

They go back to Alexandria where Aaron meets them. Daryl calls Dog, and hugs Judith and RJ. Negan takes some of the supplies inside, and Maggie eyeballs him. Little Herschel runs to Maggie, and she picks him up. She tells Cole that it’s good to see him, and he says he figured if she was still alive, she’d be there. He’s brought her people Duncan, Agatha, and Frost with him. There’s a fight over some supplies, and Gabriel breaks it up, telling them to calm down; there’s enough food for everyone for one week. Daryl says, just one? and Aaron says, they’ll make it work. Carol wonders how, when they have no crops. Aaron says they’re still scavenging houses, but Gabriel says, it’s hard to build a wall on an empty stomach. Game is scarce too, and Daryl says, they’ll find new territory, but Gabriel says they need food now. Maggie says she knows one more place; where they lived before this – Meridien. It’s got plenty of food, water, and crops. Cole says, now it’s gone, and Rosita asks, what happened out there? Maggie says they were on a mission, leading walkers away. Doug, Agatha, and Frost took a shipment, and on the way back, things went sideways. They got stuck on a boat, but she doesn’t think it was an accident. They heard screams and raced home, but it was too late. The poor people were slaughtered. They ran for their lives. They knew two things about the people who attacked them. They come at night, and by the time you see them, you’re already dead. This was before they caught one. Daryl was with her. It came after them alone. Why? There were not that many at Meridian now, and there’s plenty of food to feed Alexandria until its back up and running. That’s why they took it, and now they need to take it back. Aaron says she’s leaving to fight ghosts? and she asks if he has a better plan. Aaron says, the walls aren’t stable in Alexandria. Walkers could get inside. It’s a matter of if, not when; they’re needed there. Maggie says her son is in Alexandria, so she has skin in the game. She has the best fighters from Meridien, and hopefully some of theirs too. Daryl says, if there’s no food, noting else will matter. He’ll go. Everyone volunteers except Rosita and Aaron, who think it’s a suicide mission. Maggie and the others head out.

They walk in the midst of a thunderstorm, and some want to stop until it passes, but Maggie says they have no time. They see a Metro sign, and go down the stairs. Oh no. Dog is with them. I hate when Dog gets put in danger. Don’t touch Dog! Negan thinks they should wait for the storm to pass, and Maggie says, he doesn’t want to go? He says, no, and she says she doesn’t give a sh*t. Which way? He tells them what tracks to follow, and asks to talk to Daryl, but that’s a hard no. The others bump into Negan on purpose as they pass, like a bunch of babies. No wonder they’re not getting anywhere. Negan seems to do all the heavy lifting too.

They walk, and see graffiti that says, if there is a god, he will have to beg for my forgiveness. They hear a loud noise, and Cole says, it’s nothing serious, just the storm pushing the pipes. Negan says, it sounds serious. He thinks it’s God telling them to turn around, but Gabriel says, he’s sure God would run it him first. Negan asks if he’s willing to lose his remaining eyeball to this flood. He points out a watermark on the wall, and says the tunnel floods on a regular basis when rains. Daryl says, it’s worse up there, and Negan tells him, all he’s saying… but Daryl says, it ain’t working. Keep moving.

People wearing hoods are brought into the Commonwealth via wagons. Eugene sits in an interrogation room, and a woman asks if his name is Eugene Porter. He says, yes, that was his given moniker, and she says, no need to nervous… not if he’s honest. Eugene says, that’s how he rolls, and the woman explains that they’re auditors for the Commonwealth. If they pass inspection, they can go to Level 2. Eugene asks, if they don’t? and she says they go to reprocessing. He asks what that is, but she wants to start the assessment. As the questions are asked, we see the different characters answer them. Are their parents living; what did they do; what was their alma mater (we find out Yumiko went to Harvard Law); their zip code (Eugene has had several, and remembers them all); the results of their last routine physical; vaccinations; have they had cancer? Eugene says, none, and she asks about his goiter. He tells her that it’s a benign growth he’s had since birth. The woman asks Princess where she got the cash she had, and Princess explains that when she cashed her first paycheck, she’d asked for a two dollar bill, so she could have a reminder of the first money she made. The woman asks if they’ve been arrested, and do they have a history of drug use? Eugene says, he was in the anti-drug and alcohol commission when he was in high school, which is no surprise, and tells her that he wanted to meet Stephanie. The woman asks if they’re fundamentally honest, and repeatedly asks where their settlement is. Are there other groups they’ve come across? Some the questions are random and odd, like how they wipe themselves (Ezekiel passes, I don’t think pun intended), and how lucky are they? The woman continually repeats the question about their settlement, and Ezekiel starts to laugh. She asks if he thinks it’s funny, and he says he does. A stormtrooper in red-orange armor (Mercer) stands near them, and Ezekiel asks if he’s in charge; he’s standing there not talking like a man in charge. Mercer says, yeah, he’s in charge, and Ezekiel asks if Mercer thinks he fears him. Mercer says Ezekiel looks scared to him, and Ezekiel asks what Mercer did before the fall. His guess is dude was an a-hole beat cop. That’s why this fascist crap comes so easy. It’s another power trip, like before. They’ve been asked the same questions for over seven hours. He’s been cooperative, and his people have been cooperative. Ezekiel has a coughing fit, and Mercer asks if he’s thirsty, sliding over some water to him. Ezekiel drinks it down.

Back together, sitting at a table in a holding area, Eugene says, Ezekiel told off their leader? Ezekiel says, perhaps he could have handled it better, but he didn’t like way they talked to him. Yumiko says, do they know… but Ezekiel says, no; don’t worry about it. Mercer watches, and Princess says, they’ve got to pull the ripcord. It’s time to get out. Eugene wants them to wait, saying, the gruel isn’t the worst thing he’s ever eaten. Stephanie told him they were cautious. It’s a test. He thinks they should hunker down and level up; get honest. Ezekiel asks if Eugene wants these people to go to Hilltop with machine guns, but Eugene says, they need help. He thinks they can get it from these people. Princess sees a couple in another area, and asks how long they’ve been there. The man says, four months, but the woman says, nine, and he says the reprocessing confused him. One of the stormtroopers takes a guy out who does not want to go, and Mercer says, reprocessing. Eugene says, okay. Gotta go.

Maggie’s group follows the tracks, and stops, seeing bodies in plastic bags covering the space in front of them. Negan looks pretty worried, and Daryl moves to poke one of them. It startles both of us when it moves. He kills it, then checks out the body, saying, his throat was slashed so deep, it almost severed his head. Maggie says, they were killed during the fall, and Negan asks if she’s sure. Whoever is walking them through this masquerade, could still be there. She tells them to take each one out, and clear the path. They keep walking.

They stab each body in the head, but one gets up and out of his bag. He’s a big one too, and looks like one of the radioactive zombies in Planet Terror, all kinds of oozing bumps all over him. He sneaks behind Gage, and they tussle. Negan manages to push him away from Gage, and keeps him at bay for a minute, then shoves him against the wall, splitting his head open with an ax. Maggie tells everyone to pay attention so they don’t lose anymore. Negan asks if that’s her big plan; to pay attention. Does she want them to pay attention to anything in particular? A kid almost died. Daryl says Negan doesn’t give a sh*t about the kid, but Negan says, Maggie doesn’t give a sh*t about the kid. She’s playing dictator and not listening to anyone Whoever or whatever killed these people could still be there. Has that thought crossed anyone’s mind? …Exactly. This is a death march, with Maggie as the Pied Piper. If they want to roll with that sh*t, knock themselves out, but not him, not today. He’s out. Gage says he is too. Negan might be a d*ck, but he makes sense. Roy says, let them go, but Maggie says, Negan knows the city. Negan asks if that’s why he’s there; he’s their DC tour guide. Can no one read a goddam map? Maggie brought him there to die. She’ll find a reason, even if she has to do it herself, away from the prying eyes of Alexandria. He’d thought Daryl was in on it, but can tell by the glazed look in Daryl’s eyes, he had no clue. Gabriel says he’s paranoid, but Negan says, he’s still right. Him dying on her terms is not happening. He’s not letting her drag him through the mud, filth, and slime, and putting him down like a dog, like Glenn. Daryl punches Negan, knocking him down, and Maggie says their kids are starving, and she’s calling the shots because that’s how everyone voted. As for killing him – she cocks her gun, and aims it at him – it’s always on her mind. He’s not wrong about it. The woman who left six years ago, isn’t the one who’s there now. There’s a little bit of the old one keeping him breathing, but she doesn’t know how long it will last, so keep pushing her.

Princess points out two troopers who are flirting, and Ezekiel asks how she can tell them apart. And why does she think they’re flirting? She says she heard some stuff on the wagon, and gives them gossip about several troopers. Ezekiel says, they’re not even looking at each other, but Princess says, it’s obvious in the way they’re not looking at each other. When they go on break, one takes off first, then the other follows. She bets they spend most of their time taking the armor off. Oh…

Princess and Ezekiel are walked down a hall by two stormtroopers. They walk past an interrogation room, seeing the couple they’d spoken to before, and a third soldier comes out. She asks where Princess and Ezekiel are being taken, and one of the troopers says, reprocessing. She tells them to move along, and the troopers – who are really Eugene and Yumiko – walk Princess and Ezekiel to a room that has laundry bins full of money and papers, marked, for incineration, and a wall of photos and notes, that says, flag for expedited assessment and admittance. They look at the photos, and Eugene opens a door, peeking outside. He tells them that they’ve got to go now, but Princess asks Yumiko, isn’t that you? pointing at a photo. Yumiko looks at a picture of her and underneath it, a note from her brother. She says she has to stay.

In the tunnel, the group is still busy stabbing heads, when one of the flashlights goes out. Cole calls for Gage and Roy, saying, they have the rations, but they’re gone. Another dude says, Negan scared them off, because they just automatically blame Negan for everything. Daryl shines his flashlight down the tunnel, and we hear zombie noises. Yep. Here they come. Maggie uses her bow and arrow, and it’s the usual slicing and dicing. Negan, Gabriel, and Cole try to open a subway car, and I think maybe they wouldn’t be so obvious if Daryl would stop shining the flashlight at the zombies. Everyone scrambles to get on top of the car, and Dog takes off. Dammit! Daryl goes after him, which is as it should be, and Dog crawls into a hidey hole. Daryl goes in after him. Negan is next to last, climbing on top of the car, and Maggie starts to climb up behind him. The zombies are there, and it’s not good. One grabs Maggie’s leg, and on top of the car, Negan looks back. He sees what’s going on, and looks at her for a moment. She says his name, but he disappears, and she slips.

Next time, Negan says Maggie was right behind him, and Yumiko tells Eugene to stick to the story.

🙀 And So The End Starts…

Not a bad start to the final season. See you on Deck tomorrow, but until then, stay safe, stay equitable, and stay not bringing your dog on dangerous missions.

Jun7

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

Posted on June 7, 2021 by theresakp

Standard

What I Watched Today

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

Fear the Walking Dead

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

⌚️ About Strand…

What made Victor tick tonight.

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

🎞 Coming Up…

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

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

🪂 Possible Jump…

Speculation on what’s to come.

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

🍃 Taking My Leave…

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

May24

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

Posted on May 24, 2021 by theresakp

Standard

What I Watched Today

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

Fear the Walking Dead

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

🕰 Jumping Time…

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

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

🗺 New Places…

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

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

⚰️ Everything…

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

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

🌃 Calling It a Night…

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

May17

May 16, 2021 – June Meets a Surprising Stranger, Connections, New John In Town, Speculation, Something Silly & Zombie Music

Posted on May 17, 2021 by theresakp

Standard

What I Watched Today

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

Fear the Walking Dead

A zombie steps on a birds nest, then gets impaled on a spike because zombies aren’t too bright, and that’s what you get for stepping on a bird’s nest. Outside the gates of Morgan’s town, June walks up to Morgan. She asks, how’s she doing? and he says, she’s holed up. She won’t see anybody, him included. The baby might be alive if they hadn’t had to come to her. She says, it wouldn’t have made a difference, but he says, don’t say it. Grace has already gone there, saying the only reason the she’s alive is because the baby absorbed the bad sh*t in her body. June says she has to make sure Grace is okay, but he says there’s nothing she can say or do to make any of it okay. She tells him that she’s the closest thing they have to a doctor, and has to examine Grace, but he says he’s not letting her come in. June says, Grace needs see her, and he says, Grace does, or she does? She couldn’t do the one thing John wanted. She couldn’t stay, so why is she there when she’s not needed? Tell him again how she’s there for Grace and not herself. She turns around, and marches out.

A zombie crawls through a field, and June stabs it in the head. We see The End is The Beginning painted in huge letters on the road. June puts an X on a map, and puts it back in her pouch. She takes out John’s letter, and almost opens it, then puts it back. She checks gas cans in truck beds, but they’re empty. She hears something, and turns, drawing her gun, but it’s Dwight, who says, easy there. He tried to radio, but there was no answer. She asks what he’s doing there, and he says he could ask her the same question. He thought she had a hospital to build. She says, they can manage. She’s doing her part to figure out what they’re up against. He asks if it has something to do with what Morgan said to her, and she says, he heard it? but Dwight says, the man is hurting; he didn’t mean it. June says Dwight didn’t have to follow her to babysit her, and Dwight says, she’s the only reason he and Shari are still breathing. He couldn’t stand the idea of her out there all alone. She says, Morgan was right. She did the one thing John didn’t want her to. He didn’t want her to cut her hair, and she did. Dwight says, John was worried, and she says, John asked her to leave with him before they even got there. Dwight tells her not to do this to herself, but she says she should have just listened to John. He’d still be here. Instead he went with Ginny, and it didn’t make much difference in the end. He says, they’ve got company. She sees Shari, and says, you two…? but he shakes his head, and says she asked to come when she saw him leaving. June asks, why? and he says he’s not sure. Shari hasn’t said much. Shari says, don’t let her interrupt, and checks the gas cans in a truck bed. Dwight says, horses don’t take unleaded, and June says, there’s nothing there. They probably took the gas when they painted the messages. Dwight asks where June is going, and she says, Jimmy is on the run, and if anyone knows what they’re up against, it’s him. She asks if Dwight brought more company, and someone shoots at them. They duck down, seeing a man up on the hell. Shari says she’s going to take him out, but June says, they need him alive. He might have information. She kicks the mirror off the car she and Dwight are behind. She looks into it, and the guy shoots the mirror. Shari shoots back, and June repeats that they need him alive. Zombies are coming down the road, and June tells Dwight to cover her. He tells her, be careful, and shoots the zombies. June goes up the hill.

June sees a trailer, and slinks around it. She tries the door, but it’s locked. She covers her gun with a blanket, and smashes the window, pulling herself up and into the trailer. She pulls out a flashlight, and looks around. She sees a bulletin board with a map and Polaroids of places where The End Is The Beginning has been written. She hears a gun cock, and turns around, seeing Keith Carradine. He asks why she’s there. Is she one of them? She says, who? and he says, the folks painting the slogans. She says she might be on the same team as he is, and he says, if that’s true, her and her pals need to kick rocks. He knows what they’re capable of, and trust him, she wants no part of it. She asks what knows, and he says, the trail ran cold. If they think he’s going to catch them, and he’s getting too close, they’ll have to move up the plan. She asks, what plan? and he says he’s going to get to the bottom of it. She asks if they shouldn’t share information. She and her friends have been searching for days. He says he’s been searching a lot longer, and she says, let her help. He asks how she can help, and she says she didn’t realize the tags went that far south. He missed one; at the orchard. He says if she wants to help, and says they’re on the same side, prove it. Bring him to the orchard so he can see what he hasn’t. If she’s lying, and wasting his time, and it’s not them, he’ll put a bullet into her. She says she’s not leaving her friends, but he tells her, drive.

Keith Carradine keeps his gun on June, and she says, it’s not necessary. She wants them as bad as he does. He tells her, keep your eyes on the road, sweetheart, but she tells him not to call her that. He asks what he should call her, and she says, anything else. He says he didn’t ask her to gum up his investigation. She’s burning his time and resources. So with all due respect, sweetheart, shut up and drive. She jerks the RV all over, and he falls. She takes out her gun, and he sees the handle. He asks where she got the gun, and she asks why she should tell him. He says, because they belong to him. The JD on the handle, that’s him. He’s John Dorie. (But he is really Keith Carradine.)

Shari and Dwight ride, and Shari stops to pick up an empty gas container. She throws it into the woods, and Dwight says he wants to find June as bad as she does, but if they keep running the horses like this, she’s going to kill them. Even if the container was full, they’d only get six miles out of it. She says she just wants to find June, and be done with. She asks why he’s really there. Is he playing detective, or did Morgan tell him to keep an eye on June? He says, neither. When he was out looking for Shari, things got desperate. The trail got cold, and he was tired hungry and thinking about ending it. Not just the search; everything. The only reason he’s there is because John and June changed everything. She asks, how? and he says he doesn’t know. Seeing two people together, two people separated like them, made it seem possible. He thought maybe he and Shari could find each other again. Does she want to tell him why she’s there? She says, there’s no time, and gets back on her horse. She rides off, and he follows.

June looks at the gun, and says, the way John talked, the times he did, she thought he was dead. John Sr. says, as far as his son was concerned, he was. She asks when he last saw his son, and he says, he doesn’t know. He couldn’t been more than twelve. She says, he should know, John was good at sharpshooting, and he says, if his son was a good shot, it had nothing to do with him. She asks if he doesn’t have any questions, and he says, about what? She says, where his son is, or what he’s been up to for the past 40 years? He says he already knows the answer. Why else would she be there with that look on her face, and a gun on her hip? And she’s wearing two wedding rings. He was cop; he notices things. She says, so was his son, and John Sr. says, he became a cop? He thought his son would learn better from his old man. She says, oh no, and looks outside. She tells him that she lost her jacket, and needs to go back. He says she can have one of his, but she says she has to go back. He says he’s not wasting time on a jacket, but she says, it’s not the jacket. There’s a letter in the pocket. He asks what’s in it that’s so important? but she says, she doesn’t know; she hasn’t read it. He says, it must not be that important then. She’s welcome to go back, but the RV is only going in one direction; that’s forward. She gets in the driver’s seat, and starts it up, but it makes a weird sound. He says, kill it, and they listen. He says, sh*t; they have a stowaway. He looks underneath, and there’s a zombie stuck in the undercarriage. He crawls underneath and says, goddammit. She probably ran it over during her little maneuver. She asks if he has something to pull it out, and he says he does. He tells her to rev the engine a tiny bit; look for his signal. Nice and easy. She starts the van up, and he says, whoa! Cut the engine. The zombie is shredded, but still making zombie noises. She says, anything? and he says, that ain’t just blood, it’s transmission fluid. She probably nicked the line when she hit it. She asks if he can fix it, but he says, this thing is toast, thanks to her.

Dwight and Shari gallop along. Shari goes way ahead, but when Dwight catches up, he finds her on the ground, next to her horse, who’s also down. He says he told her to slow down. The horse’s heart is giving out. She shoots the horse, and says, let’s go. He asks, what’s going on? This isn’t about those cult a-holes. Why are they chasing gas cans? She says she’s going back home to Virginia. She needs to take out the person who’s really to blame for all of this. he says, Negan? and she says she’s going to find him, and put a bullet in his head. That’s why she asked him to come with her. She wanted to find the right way to say goodbye. He says he gets it. Lord knows, he’s done things he’s not proud of. He hopes they find June, and hopes they get out of there. She tells him that he said that before. Does he mean it this time? He says he does, but they’re going at his speed. He’s not running the horse into the ground. She says, all right, and they walk as he leads the horse.

Shari rides behind Dwight, and they see June’s jacket hanging from a tree branch. Dwight takes it off.

June looks at a newspaper article on the bulletin board about Teddy getting life in prison, and John says, he has them all up there a certain way; don’t go messing them up. Ha-ha! He sounds like me if someone touches something on my desk. She asks if this is him? and he says it’s when he arrested Teddy Mannix, the psycho killing preacher mortician, and put him away for life. He was supposed to be anyway. She asks what he means, and he says, The End Is The Beginning. He spouted the same thing back in the 70s. She says, Teddy is the person responsible for all this? and he says he should have killed Teddy when he had the chance. He guesses it’s not too late. She asks if John is sure it’s him, and he says, when he was foraging, he spotted The End Is The Beginning, and it was like a punch in the gut, seeing it after all this time. He went to the prison hoping to find a rotting corpse, but Teddy’s cell door was open and he was nowhere to be found. His life’s work wasn’t good enough for that SOB. When he put Teddy away, he wasn’t exactly clean. He did the wrong thing for the right reasons. She says, he framed Teddy? Did anyone find out? He says, people looked at him like he was a hero. He couldn’t sleep, and started drinking. His life was a lie. He was angry all the time. It was hard for John Jr. too. He thought the best thing was for him to get as far away from his family as possible. They thought he abandoned them, but they didn’t understand. She asks him to explain how, after 40 years, he checked on the man who ruined his life, but not his son? He says it was best thing did for John Jr., not showing up at the cabin. She says he may not have wanted to go before, but they can go now. It’s a lead to Teddy. He says he’s not going, and she says, it’s the best lead they’ve got. He says he has better leads; the orchard, Teddy’s childhood home. She says, Hill will be at the cabin, and he might have information. He has no time to take a short detour? He says, it’s where he left his boy 40 years ago. He won’t go back. She says she met and lost her husband at that cabin. The table has medical supplies on it, but she didn’t get the chance to save him. She’s finding Hill. What he knows will save a lot of lives, and he has something of hers. John asks, what’s that? and she says, John’s other pistol. He says, the guns. They do belong together.

John stabs a zombie in the head, and tells June, that’s Teddy’s doing. She asks how he knows, and he says, embalming fluid. Same as the first time, back when they dead stayed dead. They keep walking, and she asks what Teddy wants. John says, the same thing he’s always wanted; destruction. Teddy is spouting the same circle of life mumbo jumbo as he did before she was born. She asks, why embalming fluid? and he says, it’s how he keeps out the young horde. Preservation prevents folks from moving on to the next world. Teddy is crazy as a pet snake, but he could sell ice to Eskimos. His followers are armed and highly motivated. She says, they’re not the only ones, and he says, he doesn’t doubt it. June sees his hand is bandaged, and tells him that she’s nurse. She could take a look. He says, there’s a bait shop nearby, and she says, Bill’s. He says, she knows it. Were she and John married before or after? She says, after. John used a candy wrapper. He laughs, and she says, it was the best he could do at the time. He says he proposed to John’s mom the same way, but it was a Juicy Fruit wrapper. He was still at the Academy, and didn’t have a dime to his name.

Shari and Dwight look at John’s bulletin board, and tells Dwight, it looks like he’d been hunting for a lifetime before world fell apart. She can’t believe he’s John’s father. What are the odds? Dwight says, he never thought shooting at June and John would lead him to her, but here they are. She says, June left a note; Hill is at John’s cabin. He’s a Ranger, and she bets he has a truck. Dwight says, there’s a good chance there’s gas in it too, and she tells him to point her in the right direction.

John Sr. and June walk into a general store, and John says, the place has changed since he was last there. They used to eat ice cream on a bench outside. John Jr. has a sweet tooth… had. She looks on the shelves for supplies, and he sees the movie rental list. He says, John always loved movies. He warned his son that he’d wind up with square eyes. He watched Bullitt over and over. He puts the list back, and unwraps his hand. June sterilizes his wound, and asks him to tell her about the guns. She knows they were in his family for generations. He says, six. The first John Dorie brought them on the trail out west. The second JD shot Dead Eye Driscoll from Blackwater. Got his picture in the paper. His son was a good shot too? June says he taught her, and worked at Humbug’s Gulch on the weekends as a trick shooter. That’s where they were married; all their friends were there. He says, it sounds a nice affair, and tells her that his son wrote his initials on a wall in the back room. He wonders if they’re still there, and they walk to the back. June goes in first, and he closes the door, putting a bar across the handles. I had the feeling he was going to lock her in there. She asks what he’s doing, and he says, she and Junior shared a life. She’s not blood, but she’s the closest thing he’s got to family. She says, so he’s doing to her like he did to John? and he says, that’s not what this is. She says he think he’s protecting her, but he’s just punishing himself. He doesn’t think he deserves this. He says she’s the one carrying a letter she hasn’t opened. She can come at him all she wants. We all got ways of protecting ourselves. She says, she knows he thinks he’s doing the wrong thing for the right reasons, but they need to work together. He doesn’t hear her because he’s already gone.

At Bill’s, Shari checks out an old truck, and gets it started on a second try, but it dies. Dwight says, she got the engine to turn over, and she says, barely. She wonders if it’s the same truck her grandpa had, but Dwight says, her grandpa had a ’69; this is older. She asks if he remembers when they got the truck stuck in the mud on their way to the bonfire; and he says, they gave up, and drank beer in the car until they passed out. Is she sure this is what she wants to do? She does it, then what? . She comes back? Shari says, that’s the plan. She doesn’t know what’s going to happen. Is she really ready to say goodbye? She listens, and asks, what’s that?

John Sr. enters the cabin, and looks around, no doubt flooded with memories. He sits down, but hears something, and he cocks his gun. He goes out back, and hears a zombie. He puts the gun in his waistband, and stabs it in the head. A man comes up behind him with a gun and says, you picked the wrong cabin to rob, old timer. He gets distracted by another zombie, and John Sr. knocks him back against a tree, takes his gun, and shoots the zombie. He keeps the guy pinned against the tree, and says, this is his son’s cabin; that makes him a trespasser. The guy says he’s John’s old man, and that’s John’s gun, and John Sr. says, tell him all he knows about Theodore Maddox, or he’ll blow the guy’s head off. The guy asks who the hell Theodore is, and John Sr. says, he’s the one behind the spray paint. The guy asks what the hell it matters to John Sr., but John Sr. says that’s his business. The guy says, all he knows is, whatever they have planned, it’s big. John Sr. asks, how big? but the guy doesn’t know. He could never get anyone to talk. All he knows is, they want to kill everybody. John Sr. says, he’ll give the guy five minutes. Get his sh*t, and get the hell out of there. The guy says he lives there now. The previous occupant moved out permanently, in case you didn’t hear. He tries to get John Sr.’s gun, and they struggle. They both fall to the ground, and John Sr. knocks the guy out with a punch. He sees his son’s grave marker, a cross that says John Dorie, and gets distracted. The guy shoots him in the back, but then someone shoots the guy from behind. John touches the marker, and June runs to him, telling Dwight and Shari to help get him inside.

John opens his eyes, gets out of bed, and walks outside. He sees June with Shari and Dwight, and hears June thanking them for her jacket. John sits in the old truck, and June says he shouldn’t be out of bed. She just took a bullet out of him, and he lost a lot of blood. He says, they meant to fix the old girl up together. It was going to be his son’s first car. He didn’t run because he didn’t care. He did it because he does care. Just like he did with June at Bill’s. She says she knows, and he says, she was right. He was punishing himself, and also punishing his wife and boy. He did come back that summer. He went to Bill’s to fill up the tank, and saw John Jr. there. He looked so content eating his ice cream. He looked so happy. John had this light about him… Of course she knows. He was afraid he’d snuff it out, like the Teddy case did him. He decided to leave John Jr. there. His son would be better off without him. He went back, put the pistols on the porch, and never looked back. He never even said goodbye. June says, it’s not too late, and takes out the letter.

They stand at John’s grave, and June says, it was right there when she first met him. She was broken, and he sewed her back up with fishing line, butterscotch brittle, light, and love. She opens the letter. June. This is the hardest decision of my life and I hope you find it in your heart to forgive me for making it. For leaving you behind to save an innocent person’s life. Knowing I may not see you again, I believe you’ll forgive me one day, the same way I forgave… my dad for leaving. It took me a few years to see it from his shoes, but I forgave him. He was a good man, and in his own way, he did what he did because he loved me. Like I’m doing what I’m doing because I love you. No matter what happens, sure as the sun sets, I’ll never stop trying to get back to you. Back to those early days in the cabin – she starts to cry – and the pretty lady who washed up on my shore, and my life was forever changed. You’re the most amazing woman I’ve ever known. You rekindled the light in me, and brought me back to people. In believing in goodness, and doing good for what’s worth fighting for, like I fought for you. If I die, I will die knowing life was worth living because of a nurse by the name of June. You’re the light guiding my way. I love you, Junebug. She cries, I cry, and everyone looks sad. John Sr. puts his hand on June’s shoulder.

Dwight tells Shari, whoever did the work on the truck, did a good job. She should make it as far as Louisiana. She looks at the article about Teddy, and he asks, what is it? She says she’s not ready for this to be goodbye, and he asks what she means. She says, the man John Sr. has been chasing, he’s been chasing for how many years? He’s missed out on his entire life. She can’t let that happen to them. She’s been using Negan as an excuse for why they can’t be together. Dwight was able to change, and get back to who he once was. She thinks that’s what she’s afraid of; she won’t be able to do that. He says, he’s changed, but he’s not the same person he used to be, and she doesn’t have to be that either. She says she won’t be that for a while, and he says she’s probably right. They were young… Why don’t they just start over? He’s willing to give it a shot if she is. She says, yeah, and they hug.

June and John Sr. load up the truck. June takes off the rings, and gives them to Dwight. She thanks him for letting her borrow them. He says she doesn’t have to, but she says she wants to, and John would too. She’s giving them back to their rightful owners. He takes them, and puts around his neck. June takes a last look at the cabin, and she and John Sr. get in the truck. Dwight and Shari get on Dwight’s horse, and ride off.

June brings John Sr. to Morgan, who apparently lives his life standing at the entrance of his town. She says, there’s someone she’d like him to meet. This is John Dorie, John’s father. Morgan shakes John Sr.’s hand, and says, pleased to meet him. Morgan asks June, how? and she says, long story. Morgan says John Sr.’s son saved his life in more ways than one, and John Sr. says, his wife just did the same for him. He thinks he’ll stay a while, and Morgan says he’ll be a welcome addition. June says, John Sr. is looking for the man who attacked Morgan and Grace. He knows everything about him. They can help each other. Morgan says, it looks like they already are. June takes Morgan aside, and says she knows she can’t change what she did… He says she doesn’t have to say it, but she says, it’s what John wanted. Now she has a chance to do the same there. Morgan says, he might have been wrong when he told her there was nothing she could do or say to make things better. June asks if she can please check on Grace, and John Sr. says they can put their heads together, and man up against Teddy. He knows Teddy, bow to stern. If he’s doing now what he wanted to do before, he’s not going to stop until they’re all dead. Morgan says, let’s get to work, and they go inside.

Next time, Alicia and Teddy go on a road trip, Teddy needs assurances before he takes the first steps, Alicia is surprised to see someone, and a zombie attacks Teddy.

🍳 Hunt For the Eggs…

On Talking Dead, Keith Carradine marveled at all the nerdy things hidden in tonight’s FTWD.

https://ew.com/tv/fear-the-walking-dead-jd-keith-carradine-aisha-tyler-john-dorie-deadwood/

🐎 Another Day, Another John…

Surprise! It’s John Dorie.

https://www.cinemablend.com/television/2567496/fear-the-walking-dead-keith-carradine-surprise-role-john-dorie-history-with-cult-leader-teddy-garret-dillahunt

⚰️ Quite a Stretch…

Perhaps it’s wishful thinking, since we pretty much saw her get eaten, but who knows?

The Return-Of-Madison Speculation Heats Up Again For ‘Fear The Walking Dead’

👠 A Real Doll…

Trixie is getting around. First Overserved, now this.

https://ew.com/tv/trixie-mattel-crank-yankers-clip/

🧍🏽‍♀️ Toddling Off…

The Shahs of Sunset are back, but choices had to be made. I’ll have to catch up On Demand or on rerun. Until we meet On Deck tomorrow, stay safe, stay respecting others’ personal space, and stay not being so fast to judge a guy in an RV who’s shooting at you. It could be Keith Carradine.

May10

May 9, 2021 – Through Grace’s Eyes, Showrunning Fear, New Dexter, Prequel To Come, Goodbye To a Legend & Dreams

Posted on May 10, 2021 by theresakp

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What I Watched Today

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

Fear the Walking Dead

This was one of those weird episodes that’s even worse than time jumping. We were jumping from the real world to… something else. I hope it’s easier to follow than it was to transcribe. Although nothing was as bad as that episode of Z Nation where they were in the crates that kept moving around. And so…

Birds circle overhead. Grace lies on her back under trees in a forest that has pink foliage. She opens her eyes, and a zombie jumps on her, snapping at her face. A knife pokes through its eye from behind, and a young girl asks, what’s wrong, lady? Are you trying get yourself killed? Grace thanks her. The girl battles with several zombies, whacking and spearing. When she’s done, she holds out her hand, and helps Grace up. Grace asks where she learned to fight like that, and the girl says her dad taught her. He’s going to kill her; she’s not supposed to be outside the wall alone. They’ve got to move. There’s a clinic where she lives, and the doctor can check Grace out. Grace asks what her name is, and the girl says, Athena, like the Greek goddess. Her mom gave it to her because she thought it would make her strong. Athena asks Grace’s name, and Grace tells her. Athena starts to walk, and says they better get Grace to the clinic. Grace follows her.

The girl says, right there; that’s where she lives. It’s Morgan’s place, and Grace says, impossible. How long as she been there? Athena says, since she was born, and Grace asks how old she is. Athena says, sixteen; why? Grace sees Morgan’s pokey weapon, now rusted, where he left it outside, and the greenery is pink instead of green here too. She sees Athena talking with a grey-haired Morgan, and Grace says, Morgan? He asks if she remembers Morgan, and we hear zombies outside the wall. Morgan tells Athena to go inside, and he and Grace follow.

We see horses in a corral, and Morgan says he and Athena will talk later about how she’s going to muck out the stables for the next month. He asks Grace if she’s okay, and she says, it’s everything they wanted it to be. She asks if he doesn’t recognize her, and he says his memory isn’t what it used to be. Does he know her? She says, it’s her, Grace, and he says he doesn’t know what she’s trying to do, but… She says, it’s her. This place was different. If it’s not her, why does she know about riding the carousel with him? And how he and Duane used to race cars? It’s her. He says, Grace? And she cries, flashing back to the past. He says, this isn’t possible. She can’t be there. Grace asks, why?

We see Grace’s gravestone, and Grace asks if he’s sure it’s her. He says he buried her himself, and she asks how she died. He says, the labor took a lot out of her, and the radiation had made her sicker than they thought. He’s sorry. They tried to do everything they could. She says, and her baby? Did he make it? He says, she. Grace already met her. Grace says she should have known. Is she okay? She spent so much time reading about how babies can absorb radiation… He says, she’s fine; trust him. Before Grace passed, she said she had one wish; to see what her child would be like grown up. Maybe that’s why there. Sometimes things happen that we can’t explain. Grace says she’d love meet her, but if Athena asks about her, there’s only so much she knows, and only so much she can tell. She thinks she should hold off, at least until they know what’s going on. June comes by, and tells Morgan, she usually tries to keep them out of the grave; don’t scare her. He introduces June as Dr. Dorie. June says she was a nurse before, but Morgan insisted on the title change. Athena told her what happened. She looks Grace over, and says, no sign of concussion or brain injury. What’s the last thing she remembers? Grace says, she was traveling on a road with someone, but then it gets fuzzy. June tells her, stay, and get some rest; it will come back. She introduces Charlie as her apprentice, and Grace says, Charlie. Charlie says, her parents thought they were having a boy. Grace says, so did she.

Morgan tells Grace, a lot of things have changed. She sees Daniel cutting Victor’s hair, and he says she doesn’t happen to be a barber, does she? He’s getting too old for this. Victor says, they all are. Maybe the next one will give a decent haircut. Morgan asks Dwight how the harvest is going, and Dwight says, it should be ready next week. Dwight sees his little boy, and says that kid is more of a hellraiser than he was at his age. Shari comes by, carrying a baby, and says she’s not so sure. Morgan introduces Grace to Dwight and Shari, and Shari says, the baby is Keena and her boy is John. Grace says, it’s nice to see a happy family living there, and Dwight says, they got lucky. He and Shari leave, and Grace asks Morgan when they got back together. Morgan says, not long after Athena was born. She asks about Alicia and Al, and everyone. Morgan says, Alicia started a place of her own at the burned out stadium where she used to live, and Luci went with her. Al left a while ago. She said she was chasing a story, but he thinks she was chasing somebody. Grace says, she never told him before, but she didn’t think it would happen. The way they fell out with each other, and what they were facing; what brought them together? Morgan says they were struggling. They didn’t know who was painting the graffiti, or what to do about it. They couldn’t even agree on how to face it. Then she had Athena, and he lost her. Everybody forgot their differences, and rallied around the child; they still do. He’s sorry she didn’t live long enough to see happen, and she says, her too. He thinks there’s a way for her to get to know her daughter without having to explain. He calls to Athena, and asks if she wants to go on a run.

As they walk, Grace looks delighted. Athena tells Morgan that she knows what he’s doing. He thinks if he takes her on a run to the feed store every once in a while, she won’t sneak out. He asks if she thinks it will work, and she says, it might. Grace hears Athena singing In Dreams, and asks what she’s singing. Athena indicates the Walkman on her belt, and says she never goes anywhere without it. Grace asks if she can see it, but Athena says, no. Her mom wanted her to have it; it’s the only thing she has from her. Grace says, maybe not, and Morgan says, hold up. Eyes and ears. They see a car off the road, and Grace walks toward it. The End Is The Beginning is painted all around it, and Grace says, she remembers this. She’s seen it before. She tells Athena they were attacked before she born, and the people would leave messages like that. Athena says they have to warn everybody, and Grace tells Morgan, she’s seen this before, but he says, it was probably a long time ago. She says, no; she’s seen this before. She says, it’s just like the… and the car blows up.

Grace hears Morgan saying he needs her wake up, and she sees the car in flames. She screams Morgan’s name, and Athena says they’ve got to get out. Zombies are everywhere, and Grace asks where Athena’s dad is. They run, and Grace asks, how far? Athena says, a couple of miles, and Grace hears Morgan ask, where are you? His voice sounds very distant, and she says, right here. Athena stabs a zombie and tells Grace, come on. Morgan fades away, and Grace asks where he went. Please. She misses him. She hears him say, come back, and she says she’s right there. Athena says they have to keep moving, and Grace says she can hear him. A lone zombie toddles up, and Grace says, she remembers something. Athena asks if Grace can hear her, and stabs the zombie. Grace says she heard Morgan, and Athena says she’s going to get them both killed. Grace stabs another zombie, and Athena says, the wall is just ahead. They need to get back. Grace starts to walk in the opposite direction, saying, it’s this way. Morgan asks, what’s going on? and Athena tells Grace, the wall is this way. The scene repeats itself, and repeats itself. Finally, Grace turns her back on the lone zombie.

Grace lies on ground in the pink forest. Morgan says he’s got an idea, and goes toward the graffitied car. It blows up, and Grace is back where she was. Athena says, come on; they’re almost to the wall. Grace says, the car exploded like it did before. She must be unconscious.

Grace lies on the floor in the stables, and Morgan says he’s right there. He tells her that he needs her to wake up, so they can think about the baby. He can’t do this without her. She’s with Athena again, and hears him. Zombies clamor at the stable door, and Morgan says she’s got to wake up.

She tells Athena that Morgan is trying to wake her up, and asks if he can hear her. Athena says they’ve got to get her to Dr. Dorie; they’ve got to warn everyone. Grace says, Athena’s not real, and Athena pokes Grace with her stick, asking, does that feel real? Grace says Athena is in her head, there are fragments she’s trying make sense of. She wanted it be real; she wanted Athena to be real. Athena says she’ll be wishing something else is real soon. The car explodes again, and Grace says she’s hearing Morgan. She snatches the Walkman from Athena, and Athena says, that belonged to her mom, and Grace says she knows. She brought it so she could listen to it while she was in labor. Athena says, she has a kid? and Grace says she doesn’t know. She puts on the headphones, and says, come on, Morgan.

In the stables with Grace, Morgan says, June, can you hear me? June asks where he is, and he says, there’s no easy way there. She won’t make it. They were attacked on the road. There was an explosion, and people came after them. June asks, who’s after him? but he says, Grace is unconscious. She needs to tell him what to do. June asks how Grace’s vitals are, and he says, she’s breathing, but her pulse is weak. With Athena, Grace listens, and says, what? No. Athena asks, what’s the matter? and Morgan says, she needs to wake up. She’s in labor. June says, tell her where they are, and Morgan says, they’re in the vet’s office; the junction at 77^th and 28^th. June isn’t sure if she has enough gas, and says she’ll come on foot. Don’t worry. On the road, Grace talks into the recorder, and says she’s right there. How does she get him to hear her? Morgan tells June, he has to go; they found us. Grace asks, who found them? and Riley fires shots through the door.

Grace wonders, what the hell is going on? Morgan says, guys are shooting; they’re in trouble. Athena says, of course Grace isn’t there; she’s here. Riley breaks into the stables, and says Morgan is a hard man to find. He knows they’re there somewhere, and they have something he wants. Grace takes the headphones off, and says, no, Morgan. Athena takes the Walkman, and says Grace broke it. It’s all she has left. Grace says, it’s not working because Morgan shut it off. They have to find something else to connect her to him. She asks Athena if they’re near 77^th or 28^th, and Athena says, it’s not much further, and Grace asks, where’s the vet’s office? Athena says she’s not doing it, and Grace says, take her there, or she’ll break the Walkman.

In the real world (such as it is), Morgan tells Grace, sorry. He’s going to have to move her. Grace tells Athena, keep moving. They have to get to the building. At the stables, Riley says, it will all be over, and Athena asks, who’s that? Grace says, Athena heard it too? and she says, why wouldn’t she? Who are they? Grace says, the people who blew up the car. Grace suddenly falls to the ground in pain, and so does Athena.

Morgan wheels Grace in a wheelbarrow, and tells her, it’s okay; it’s just contractions. On the road, Grace cries out. Riley comes over to her, and says she has something they want. He takes out a knife, and Grace holds his hand back. Athena tries to get up, but can’t. Grace turns Riley’s hand and he stabs himself in the throat with his own knife. She stumbles over to Athena, and tells her, it’s okay. She thinks they’re contractions. She wonders why Athena is feeling them too, and says, she was wrong. Athena is real. It’s the only thing that makes any sense. They’re connected. Athena doesn’t understand, and Grace says, I’m your mother and I need to wake up so you can be born.

Athena asks why Grace didn’t tell her sooner, but Grace says she didn’t know how to explain it. She didn’t think Athena was real. Athena says she is real, and Grace says she’s sorry she took Athena’s tape recorder. Athena says she’s sorry she poked Grace with her stick, and Grace laughs. Athena asks, what happens when Grace wakes up? and Grace says she thinks all this goes away. Athena says, it’s not fair; she just found out about Grace. There’s so much she wants to know. She’ll have to ask her mother. Grace smiles, and says, right. She’ll just have to wait. it’s happening this way for a reason. She needs to wake up so Athena will be okay. Athena says, it will take hours on foot; it’s too far. A white horse gallops out of the woods. A very well trained and saddled horse. They get on, and Athena asks why her dad was singing that song, and Grace says, it was one of his favorites. She says she’s talking about Athena’s biological dad, and Athena asks what he was like. Grace says, his name was Matthew. He was kind, and handsome, and smart. And a big Roy Orbison fan. Athena asks, what happened to him? and Grace says they worked at a power plant together. They were exposed to radiation, he got very sick, and she lost him. She’ll always be grateful for what they had. Athena asks what they had, and Grace says, her.

They travel down the road, and Grace says, it’s working. They’re close. Morgan says Grace has got to wake up. There’s not much time. Riley tells his men, get in there. Morgan sets up a blockade, and tells Grace to wake up. Grace tells Athena, the stables. They’re here. She opens the door and walks in. They see a zombie busy looking at the ceiling and poking at something, paying no attention to them. Athena looks around, and asks Grace, what’s wrong? Grace says, this may be the only time she has with Athena before… She didn’t tell Athena everything. The reason why they’re here is that Grace’s subconscious created this place. Out there in the real world, she’s sick. She was exposed to radiation like Matthew. She survived long enough to grow Athena, but doesn’t think she has much longer. She doesn’t think she’ll have a chance to get to know Athena. Athena says Grace can get better, but Grace says, you don’t get better from the kind of stuff she was exposed to. She knows why they’re here. She was scared for Athena to be born into a world that didn’t deserve her, and wanted to protect her, but she knows Athena will be okay. She’s strong. Athena starts to cry, and Grace says Athena is going to bring everyone together. She’s going to be the hope they need. Grace takes her hand, and Athena says she knows the reason she was at the wall when she found Grace. She was worried about her dad – about Morgan. She thought if she went out looking for seeds, he wouldn’t have to. She didn’t want to grow up without him. Grace says she won’t have to. He’ll raise her. Everyone will raise her. In the stables, Riley says, they have nowhere to go. How about giving him what he came for?

Morgan tells Grace, wake up; they’re going to find us. Now zombified Riley and his group of zombies break in. Grace tells Athena to get behind her. They have to get through and inside. Athena says, this might be all the time she has with Grace. She’s going to fight for every second. Zombie Riley and his group come closer.

Morgan stands ready, and Riley and his men break in. Morgan tells Riley, turn around and leave now, but Riley says, hand over the key, and it all goes away. He’s been looking for the key for a while. He hired someone to find it, and they didn’t deliver. He sent two friends after the first guy, and they didn’t come back. He’s guessing Morgan had something to do with them not coming back. Morgan says he’s going to do to Riley what he did to them, and Riley says, the key will change everything; he’s not leaving without it. Morgan moves forward at the same time Grace and Athena do in Grace’s mind. Morgan fights Riley and his men, while Grace and Athena fight zombie Riley and his zombie men. In reality, now it’s just Morgan and Riley, and Morgan spears Riley in the shoulder. Riley says Morgan can’t stop them, but Morgan says he thinks he just did, and Riley runs out.

Grace sees the key around Athena’s neck, and asks where she got it. She says, her dad… Morgan. He gave it to her when she was little, to wear as a reminder. Grace says, a reminder of what? Athena says something about peace that I don’t quite grasp, and Grace asks what that means, then falls to the ground.

Morgan tells Grace, hang on. Athena asks, what’s wrong? and a zombie grabs her. Morgan says, she’s not breathing; he’s losing her. Zombie Riley tells Grace, she’s already dead; they both are. Morgan does chest compression, and says, come on, Grace. Grace sees Matthew, and then the carousel. Zombie Riley says he knows they thought it would end differently, and handles the key around Athena’s neck. Morgan continues to do chest compression, and zombie Riley says, that was just a dream. Morgan says, he’ll never give up, and zombie Riley is stabbed by old Morgan. Old Morgan holds out his hand to Grace, and says, they don’t have much time. She takes his hand.

Morgan is still doing chest compression, and old Morgan asks if Grace is ready. She says she doesn’t want to say goodbye, but she has to. Morgan says, stay with me, and Grace hugs old Morgan. She says, even if she’s not there, she knows he’s going to build everything they couldn’t. Morgan listens to Grace’s chest, and says, please come back to him. Grace hugs Athena, and tells her, remember this when you get older. Athena says she will, and hands Grace the recorder, saying, she can make sure. Record what she wants Athena to remember. Morgan says, listen to him; please come back. Grace says she loves Athena, and always will. She kisses Athena’s hand, and Athena says she doesn’t want to lose Grace. Grace says, she won’t; she never will. She doesn’t have to be afraid. Grace will always be with her. You can let go, my angel. Grace backs away.

The door opens to a bright light. Grace opens her eyes, and Morgan says she’s awake. He thought he lost her. She says she had to come back. It’s a girl. They’re going to have a girl. She tells him that doesn’t think she’s going to make it, but he says she doesn’t know that. She says she does; she saw it. He says, saw what? and she says, the future… our future. Everything is going to be okay. They have a daughter.

Grace says she recorded a playlist of songs when she left. She hopes when Athena listens to it, it makes her smile. it will make her feel like Grace is there with her because she will be. Morgan tells Grace, he got the water, and she thanks him. He says, that’s for… She says, Athena. Morgan tells her that she kept saying that name. What happened when she was out? What does she think the dream was? Grace says, she knows when someone is close to their last moments, like she was, sometimes they see things they can’t explain. Morgan says, the near-death thing, and she says, it felt real. She thinks it was Athena. That’s how she knows everything will be all right.

A truck barrels through the door of the stables, taking part of the wall with it. Riley gets out, holding a gun, and tells Morgan, drop the stick or he’ll shoot him. Morgan drops it, and Riley says he told Morgan that he’d get what he came for. Morgan says, something tells him that Riley is getting less, and Grace asks what they’re talking about. Riley says, the key. Morgan knows what to do. Riley aims the gun at Grace, and says, give him the key, and he’ll walk away. Morgan asks what it opens, and why Riley wants it, but Riley says, it doesn’t matter. It’s inevitable, no matter what Morgan does. Grace tells Morgan to give Riley what he wants. The key isn’t their future; the baby is. This baby is going create a future where people like Riley never win. That is inevitable. He already lost. He just doesn’t know it. Morgan hesitates, and she screams, do it! He takes the key off, and tosses it to Riley. Riley surprises us all, and instead of blowing them away, says, good luck, jumps back in the truck, and squeals away.

Morgan asks if Grace is okay, but she tells him that he doesn’t have to worry. The baby is going to bring everyone together. She’ll give everyone something to fight for. She knows it. Morgan says, okay. He believes she will.

Grace breathes between contractions, and Morgan bathes her face with water. Roy Orbison’s song In Dreams plays, and Grace listens. Grace pushes the baby out, and Morgan takes it. She takes the headphones off, and asks, what’s wrong? Why isn’t she crying? He says, come on, and I don’t mean to judge, but he isn’t being very aggressive here. He places the unmoving infant on Grace’s chest, and she cries. Morgan says he doesn’t understand, and she says, they weren’t her last moments; they were Athena’s. He nods, and she says she thought it was going to be different. It was just a dream. She cries.

Yeah, Grace, we all thought it was going to be different.

Next time, June’s journey; Morgan tells someone, there’s nothing they can say or do to make it okay; Dwight and Shari reunite; and someone asks June why she’s there.

⚰️ Explaining the Dead…

The showrunners talk Fear.

https://ew.com/tv/fear-the-walking-dead-holding-crm-showrunners-interview/

https://ew.com/tv/fear-the-walking-dead-in-dreams-grace-athena-showrunners-interview/

🩸 Reviving Dexter…

Choose your teaser.

https://ew.com/tv/dexter-revival-teaser/

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/countdown-dexter-reboot-heres-scheduled-031648451.html

🐉 Fanning the Flame…

The prequel is coming… along with winter.

https://ew.com/tv/2019/10/30/house-of-the-dragon-thrones/

https://ew.com/tv/house-of-the-dragon-first-look-photos-cast-game-of-thrones-prequel/

https://ew.com/tv/house-of-dragon-cast-game-of-thrones-prequel-production-photos/

🥀 Farewell, Sweet Vixen…

I admired Tawny Kitaen for her bravery in coming out about the health hazards that breast implants cause women. May she dance on the clouds the way she danced on the hood of that car.

https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/9569450/tawny-kitaen-dead-obituary/

Tawny Kitaen Dead: Cause of Death Not Clear for ’80s Music Video Icon

🌉 Slipping Into the Night…

I have to finish some copywriting for the www.MupoEntertainment.com weekly interview show, Mupo and Friends, which can be found on YouTube. Glorious YouTube. Where would we be without it? Okay, maybe there are some hours we can’t take back looking at puppies, but it was worth it. The upcoming interview is with scream queen Brooke Lewis Bellas, and I think she’ll be a lot of fun. Check us out. I also write articles for the magazine at the website. Now that I’m done with plugging myself, until we sail away tomorrow, stay safe, stay well-informed, and stay in one world or another. It’s too confusing to commute.

May3

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

Posted on May 3, 2021 by theresakp

Standard

What I Watched Today

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

Fear the Walking Dead

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

⚰️ When Soaps and Dead Collide…

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

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

🤸‍♀️ Gotta Split…

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

Apr26

April 25, 2021 – Morgan Calls a Meeting, the Award Goes To & Care

Posted on April 26, 2021 by theresakp

Standard

What What I Watched Today

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

Fear the Walking Dead

Daniel says, beachball… elephant… grape. Should he go on? We see him sitting in a cell, and he says, they asked how he felt when the day began. He felt hopeful.

Daniel is playing a Traveling Wilburys record, and everyone is happy and building stuff. You know that won’t last long. Daniel serves soup, and Morgan says, nice lunch. Daniel asks if this is the way Morgan imagined it, and Morgan says, it’s getting there. He guesses he has Daniel to thank for it. Confined Daniel says, if he hadn’t kept everyone in the dark, he wouldn’t have been there. Now they’re all together. Grace walks up, and Daniel says his wife ate this soup all the time she was pregnant with Ofelia, but she says she doesn’t have much of an appetite today. Morgan asks if she’s all right, and she says she’ll be fine. They walk off together, and confined Daniel says he was glad to see everyone together. It felt as if everything he’d done was beginning to pay off.

Charlie says, they’re here, and Daniel says, go tell Morgan. She rides off, and Daniel looks through binoculars, seeing the tank coming. He goes out to meet them. Bald guy whose name I don’t know, and Shari get out of the tank, while Sarah rides up on a horse. Bald guy says, it’s been a while, and Sarah asks if there’s any chance of them sharing fuel. If they do, Wen can join her on the runs. Shari says, if they share with her, they’ll have to share with everybody, and they’re running on fumes as it is. Victor rides up, and says, greetings. Sarah asks how everyone has been, and Victor dumps out some empty spray cans. He says their foes from Tanktown persist. He thinks the meeting is long overdue. Morgan joins them, and Sarah says she’s looking forward to see what Morgan has done. Morgan says, it’s come a long way, and says it’s nice to see Victor. Victor says, it’s nice to see Morgan too. It’s good to know they can lend a hand in these troubled times. Morgan says, there’s a threat to their existence. Something Virginia didn’t think she could handle, and he thought they shouldn’t face down on their own. That’s why he called them. Can they work together and pool their resources, put their differences aside? Can they face the thing that threatens all of them? He only has one rule – the same one he made when they gathered there the last time. Anybody breaking it – anybody – will not be welcome here again. He tells them, come on in. We’ve got work to do. Confined Daniel says, they can see why he was hopeful. Then, everything changed.

Daniel feels Grace’s belly, and says, he is strong. Grace asks if he’s sure they’re not contractions, and confined Daniel says, the last time he felt something like that was when his wife was pregnant with Ofelia. That was the moment he decided they should move to L.A., and decided to change everything. He wanted to give his daughter the life he thought she deserved. He supposes he wanted this place to be the same, for Grace’s baby; for everyone. That’s why they didn’t take chances. Everyone checked their weapons at the door, for all of their safety. The weapons were logged and locked away. Only he and Morgan had the keys.

Victor puts his gun on the table, and Daniel says, and the knife? Victor laughs, and takes off his jacket, unbuckling the sheath, and putting it on the table. Daniel says, anything else? Victor puts a pet carrier on the table, and Daniel says, Skidmark! I laugh, and Daniel asks where Victor found him. Victor says Virginia had him at a station to hunt rats, but all he does is sit around licking his unmentionables. Daniel says the cat hasn’t changed a bit, and thanks Victor for the peace offering. He says, Victor understands why Daniel couldn’t let him in on it, and Victor says, they’ve both played games. The better man won. Kudos. It appears Daniel’s gambit paid off. Confined Daniel asks, why did hearing that mean so much to him? There’s a good reason, but they’re not there yet. They need to understand like he did.

Victor asks where Alicia is, and Morgan says, on a supply run. Victor asks if Alicia knew he was coming, but Charlie runs up, and says they need Morgan. It’s Grace. He leaves, and Daniel locks up the weapons.

Sarah is with Grace, and says, June will take a day to get there. It’s either Braxton Hicks or contractions. Grace asks how they know, and she says, they wait until the baby gets there. Morgan asks how they know the baby is okay, and Sarah tells him that they need a fetal monitor. He says he knows where he can find one. He had one in the place he had set up before this place. Daniel says he’ll get it, but Morgan says, it’s off the beaten path, and not easy to find. Morgan takes Grace’s hand, and says he’ll be there and back in a few hours.

Confined Daniel says, Morgan gave the keys to the rabbi just in case. He asked Daniel to keep the peace until he returned. Get the conversation started. Everyone sits at a big table, and Sarah asks what Dakota is doing there. Daniel says, they’re going to share information, and Morgan says, no one was closer to Virginia than Dakota. Victor says, they’ll have to take whatever she says with a gargantuan grain of salt, and Sarah says Victor was no better, lining them up to be shot. He says, if she recalls, he turned the guns the other way at the first opportune moment, but she says, only when he saw which way the wind was blowing. Daniel tells them, they’re not here to rehash the past; they’re here to protect the future together. Daniel asks Dakota if Virginia ever said anything about these people, and Dakota tells him, the last thing Virginia said about them was that they were laying low. The other stuff was just about the messages. Dwight says, the last time they listened to Dakota, someone ended up dead, but Luci says, one of those people could have become one of them, without them realizing. Charlie says, or one of them could have been turned into one of those people, and everyone starts talking at once, and arguing. Confined Daniel says, he didn’t want to believe one of them was a traitor, but he’d lied to everyone about losing his memory. They’d all lied at some point. Now when they needed each other most, they couldn’t trust each other. Something blows up outside, and everyone ducks. They go out to look.

One of the buildings in progress is gone, and Daniel explains they were using the dynamite to clear the field. A rock must have fallen, causing the explosion; it was an accident. Luci looks at Dakota, who asks why Luci is looking at her. She was sitting at the table with them. Shari says, they’re not the only ones there. She thinks the attack was from the inside, and Daniel suggests they take a break. Confined Daniel says, he wanted to believe it was an accident, but didn’t have time to make up his mind.

Zombies tumble down the hill and head toward the town. Dwight says, the explosion must have drawn them, and Shari says she wants her gun back. Daniel says, not unless it’s absolutely necessary, and Victor says he thinks this qualifies. Daniel says their weapons will only kill a fraction of the dead. Morgan is coming back with the truck and its guns. They’ll wait it out; the walls will hold. Confined Daniel says, he did think the walls would hold, but when it comes to the dead, they had to be prepared in case of a breach. He unlocks the gun shed, and Charlie asks what he’s doing. He says, what he has to do to be prepared, in case the gate doesn’t hold. They go inside, and confined Daniel says, when he saw the guns missing, he knew the explosion was no accident. Someone wanted to trap them inside, draw the dead, and leave them defenseless. The only question was, who?

Zombies keep coming, and Grace wonders what she does now. Daniel asks if she feels well enough to travel, and she laughs, and says, no, but he says she’s not safe there. He’s going to fix that, but until he does, she’s better off somewhere else. There’s a fishing shack nearby. He’s marked it on the map. He’s put the map in a bag, along with food, water, and a first aid kit. He wouldn’t ask her to go if it wasn’t absolutely necessary. She says, okay, and confined Daniel says, the reason Morgan found this place was for Grace’s child. Now it’s not safe for him. He needed to find those weapons. Charlie goes through backpacks in one of the tents, and bald guy looks in. He asks if there’s something he can help her with, and she says, no. Sorry, she… Daniel calls to her, and asks if she found the hammer he asked her to look for. She says, not yet, and tells bald guy that she didn’t realize it was his tent. She thought it was Mike’s. He tells her, anyone touches his sh*t again, they’re going to have a problem. Confined Daniel says, he lost Ofelia. He wasn’t going to lose Charlie too. He sent her away to meet Grace, where she’d be safe. So he could do what he needed to do to find out who stole the weapons.

Zombies clamor at the gate, and a few toddle into the town. Luci says they have a breach, and she and Sarah fight the zombie with metal buckets and chairs, whatever they can grab. One gets Dwight down, and he fends it off by putting a handsaw in its mouth, but another is getting close. We hear shots, and the zombies are dead. Daniel says, it was Victor, and Victor asks what Daniel means. Dwight wonders how the zombies got in, and Daniel says he let them in. Dwight asks, why? and Daniel says he needed to figure out who stole the weapons. Now he knows. He locks Victor in a cell, and asks where the weapons are, but Victor says he didn’t take them. Daniel says Victor is always lying. He doesn’t think Victor can tell the difference anymore. Victor says, this, coming from a man who hid what he’s been doing for months, but Daniel says he did it to free them from Virginia. Victor is doing it to tear them apart. What was Victor offered to betray them? Lawton? The opportunity to be a big shot? Victor says, he wasn’t offered anything. He’s there for the same reason Daniel is, but if he hadn’t kept his weapon, someone would be dead. Daniel says, Victor continues to give him every reason to hurt him.

Confined Daniel says, it’s not what he wanted. Morgan was right, if they do things in there the same way as they did them out there, nothing’s gonna change. Nothing will be different from before. Victor asks if Daniel is hearing him, and Daniel says, before more dead get inside, they need the weapons. He leaves, and Victor calls to him.

The zombies push down the door, which didn’t look all that sturdy to begin with.

The zombies get to the inside gate, and Daniel says, it’s not built to hold that much weight. Victor was with them during the explosion, so he couldn’t have done it on his own. Whichever one of them is working with him, he’s giving them a warning. A betrayal of those closest to them will come with a cost. It will come back to haunt them, and there will be consequences. Where are the weapons? He tells Dwight, they’ll search the tents, and Shari wonders where Grace and Charlie are. Daniel says, they’re not a part of this, but Sarah says Shari has a point; Charlie was on the other team. Luci says, that was a long time ago, and bald guy says he caught Charlie going through his sh*t earlier. Daniel repeats, Charlie is not part of this. They’ll have to take his word. Shari says, maybe the whole thing is a scam, and Morgan wants to keep them there. Dwight says she doesn’t believe that, but Shari says they don’t know, and need to look out for themselves. Sarah says, if they work together, they stand a chance of reinforcing the gate, but Dwight doesn’t think it will hold. Luci is right; they need the need weapons. They try to shore up the gate, and Daniel takes out the one gun he has. Sarah says, that won’t be enough, but Daniel says, yes it will.

Confined Daniel says, Morgan left his ax at the gate. Daniel thought he could be the man he once was outside too, but it wasn’t an option. He tells Victor, no more games. Where are the weapons? Victor doesn’t say anything, and Daniel says he doesn’t need to remind Victor that you can survive a shot to the face. What Victor doesn’t know is what it does to you later. He takes a plate out of his mouth, and shows Victor. He says he winces every time he takes a sip of water. You have to eat soup the rest of your life, and learn to hide the pain. You wheeze when you breathe at night, but most of all, you’ll never forget who did all of that. Where are the weapons? Victor says, forgive him. Daniel has to forgive him. Daniel points the gun at Victor, and asks again, where are the weapons? Victor says, please, he doesn’t know, and Daniel looks crazed. There’s machinegun fire outside, and Daniel goes out.

Zombies lie everywhere, and smoke obscures everything. Daniel sees someone, and says, Morgan? Morgan asks, what the hell happened?

Morgan asks if Daniel found the weapons, but Daniel says, not yet. Daniel asks if Morgan has heard from Grace; they should almost be there. He asks Morgan to let him know if he hears from her, and goes back in to see Victor. Victor says, it’s just a matter of time. He’ll wait for Daniel’s apology. He asks if Daniel meant it, and Daniel says, what? Victor says, what Daniel said about his jaw; the pain it caused him. Daniel laughs, and says, no. Victor asks what Daniel wants, and Daniel says to stop Victor, and whoever he’s working with. Victor asks why Daniel cares so much about this place working. When he found Daniel, he was happily living alone in a warehouse with a cat. He doesn’t know half of these people, and Victor is willing to bet Daniel can’t stand the other half, but he almost shot Victor in the face to protect them. Why? Daniel says, it was a fair question when Victor asked him the first time, and it still is. He couldn’t answer it then, but thinks he can now. He thinks he knows why it means so much. When he was cutting hair in Lawton, and pretending he didn’t remember anything, it’s not different from when he was in the barbershop, pretending the past didn’t exist. Ofelia never knew who her father was. Their relationship was based on a lie, a deception. Morgan’s idea made him believe he could help create the home he wanted for Ofelia. It could be a place where you didn’t have to pretend to be what you weren’t. He hoped by doing that, he could redeem himself from all the lies he told, for Ofelia’s death, but it doesn’t seem to work that way, does it? Morgan radios, saying, he’s at the shack, but Grace isn’t. Daniel says, she should be there, but Morgan says, she’s not. Where is she?

Morgan and Daniel are in the woods with some of the others, and Morgan radios Grace, but there’s no response. Sarah suggests fanning out, and Daniel asks if Morgan is sure Grace isn’t there. Morgan says, it didn’t look like anyone had been near the place in months. He tries the radio again, and Jacob says, they can’t be far. Maybe they had to leave. Maybe they heard the gunfire, and they’ll be back. Morgan tries again, but gets nothing. He says, you don’t think they suspected? but Daniel says he doesn’t know. Grace finally comes over the radio, and Morgan asks, where is she?

Grace and Charlie have joined the group; Grace sitting on a log. Morgan asks if she’s all right, and she says she thinks the contractions are getting closer. Daniel says, he told them, the shack. What happened? She asks what he’s talking about, and he says, the shack in the woods; he marked it on the map he gave her. She says he told her to avoid the shack; it wasn’t safe. Daniel says, no; he told her to go there and wait for him. Morgan asks, what’s going on? and Daniel says, Charlie says she was there. Charlie says he told her to go to the old caverns, and told Grace the same thing. Daniel asks why he’d send them there. They haven’t surveyed it yet. Grace says, he did, and she shows him the map. The caverns are clearly marked, and Grace suddenly cries out. Sarah says they have to get her back, and Morgan says they can figure this out later. Luci radios, and says, they’ve found the weapons. Morgan asks, where? and Luci says he’ll want to see for himself. He says they’re on the way.

Luci takes the cover off of a small wagon, and reveals the weapons, saying, they found this in Daniel’s shed. Morgan asks how they ended up in Daniel’s shed, but Daniel says he doesn’t know. He locked them up like he said. Morgan asks if this is everything, and Dwight says it matches everything in the log. Daniel says, someone moved them, and Luci says she had to break the lock to the shed where the weapons are kept. Daniel says, then it was Victor and the Rangers, or whoever is working with Victor. Morgan asks, what’s going on? and Daniel says, someone is trying to make him look bad; make them go against each other. Morgan says, first sending Grace and Charlie to the shack, and now this? Is Daniel sure he didn’t make a mistake? Whatever is going on, he needs Daniel’s help to understand. Daniel says he knows what he did, and Morgan says he’s just asking; is Daniel sure? Look at him. Is he okay? Is he feeling all right? Daniel says he’s not sure. It’s confusing. Morgan puts his hand on Daniel’s shoulder, and says, it’s okay, but maybe Daniel should talk to somebody. Daniel tells him, okay.

Daniel says, now he’s talking to them. He moved the weapons, and didn’t remember. Then he sent Grace to a dangerous place. Why? June says, it’s okay. They’re going to get to the bottom of whatever is going on. She promises him that.

Daniel draws a clock, and the numbers are correct. June asks if he can tell her the words he remembers from the beginning of the session. He says, beachball… elephant… grape. He wonders what that has to do with anything, and she says, it’s a test. It’s not neurological. He asks what it is, and she says she thinks it’s psychological. He asks what that means, and she says, symptomatically, he’s experiencing memory loss and disassociated thinking, but there’s no underlying physical cause, which is good. He asks why this is happening now, and she says he’s finally slowed down, and has something to lose. Is he worried about something happening? He says, they all were, and she asks if that’s why he moved the weapons. Did he think they were a danger where they were? He says he’s spent his whole life giving people reason not to trust him, and now he can’t trust himself. He deserves this. She says, this kind of thing is far from her area of expertise. Let her educate herself, and she’ll come back. She leaves, and outside, Morgan says it’s good of her to be there for him. She says, she came as soon as she could. She’s going to check on Grace, and Morgan asks if there’s any chance Daniel is… She says, faking it? She doesn’t think so. They’d get people in the ER from time to time who were just as confused. It’s hard to fake. Morgan asks if Daniel needs anything, but Daniel doesn’t respond.

Victor says he hopes Morgan understands him taking his leave, and bald guy says, just because Daniel was wrong about this, doesn’t mean they don’t have to worry about who’s out there. Morgan says he saw graffiti on the water tower about ten miles south. If they’ve been there, they know about the town, especially after the explosion. Victor says, all the more reason to leave, and Morgan says, if they know about them, they know about Lawton. Victor laughs, and says, then he’d better get back. Shari says she’s making the same call, and Dwight tells her to be safe. She thanks him, and he gives her a lingering kiss on the cheek. Dakota says she thinks she can help. She’s been thinking about everything Virginia said about the people painting the messages. She heard Virginia telling Hill that they went underground. Dakota thought she meant they were laying low, but what if it was for real? Wes asks what she means. Like are they living in a basement, or storm tunnel? She says the last place Virginia scouted was two days south of Tanktown, and Dwight says, that’s Dallas. It’s where they found some graffiti. Morgan says, they can start there, and Luci thinks they should send out scouting parties. Morgan says, then they’ll come back together, and make a decision.

Daniel walks out with a horse, and Charlie asks if he’s leaving. He says he has to go; he can’t stay. It’s not safe for him to be there. He’s not worried so much about himself as about them. He let the dead in, and would have shot Victor if Morgan hadn’t returned. He put Grace and the baby in danger. He thinks for a while, and says, the last time things happened in his mind, he set a place on fire. He can’t risk that happening now. Charlie asks where he’s going to go, and Daniel says, the warehouse, if it’s still there. (BTW, he is taking Skidmark.) Charlie says, if not? and he says he’ll find a place. Victor tells him, come to Lawton, and Daniel asks, why go there? Victor says he’ll have a better chance at survival. He can keep Daniel safe, and everyone around him. He’s not doing this for Daniel. He’s doing it for Ofelia. Daniel can lead an honest life. So…? Shall we? Victor heads for his horse, and Morgan asks if Victor is really going to help Daniel. Victor wonders what Morgan thinks of him, and Morgan says Daniel just put a gun in Victor’s face; he has a right to ask. Victor says he thinks Daniel would be better off with him, than there with Morgan, or wherever else. Morgan says he’s going to hold Victor to this, but Victor says Morgan doesn’t have to hold him to anything. He said what he said. Victor gets on his horse, and Daniel tells Morgan, it’s for the best. Morgan shakes Daniel’s hand, and tells him to take care of himself. Daniel says he’s sorry, and Morgan says, it’s okay. Charlie hugs Daniel, and says, he’ll get better. He says, he promises, and tells her not to worry. He leaves with Victor, and we’re all sad.

Next time, the end is the beginning, Dakota wants to help, a zombie tree, and John Glover joins the cast. I’m psyched.

🎭 The Envelope Please…

The more important stuff, like the fashions, tomorrow, but for now, here’s the list of winners.

https://ew.com/awards/oscars/oscars-2021-winners-list/

🛶 Rowing This Boat Ashore…

Hope you were able to change it up a little for the past two days, or what we once called the weekend. Are we back to that yet? Until the sails on tomorrow’s yacht unfurl, stay safe, stay uninhibited by convention, and stay leading an honest life.