All out war

The Walking Dead Just Keeps Walking

So, here we are. While Fear the Walking Dead has been getting increasingly better (in my opinion), nothing quite beats the original. Not yet at least. Lucky Season number 8. The ALL OUT WAR that many comic fans have been waiting for. The conflicts between societies that will determine how human civilization proceeds, at least in this part of the world. This series is certainly getting long in the tooth, but how did it fare out?

My history with TWD goes back before Season 1. I eagerly read all the comics, and was completely psyched for the show to begin. To some small degree, I'm partially to blame for the surge in "zombie" fiction. A millennial growing up in the late 80s / early 90s completely fascinated with original Romero films, and the campier "Revenge" of the living dead movies.

While there are still some serious stinkers, to a large degree we have been gifted with increasingly better plotting and special effects. Additionally, the gaming has gotten much better. I continue to insist that "The Last of Us" is the greatest game ever, at all levels. While I would almost certainly immediately perish in the advent of a zombie apocalypse, it's always been great fun to consider the consequences. Most examples of zombies in the media only look at the immediate consequences, as the original "Night of the Living Dead" did. However, with The Last of Us, we see the sort of drab and rundown civilization decades later.

It's got it ups and downs. You can't deny the view, though.

Give me Mercy

I really enjoyed this episode (for the most part). It had it's ups and downs; the ups being the action, the cinematography, the zombie effects as always. The downs being some utterly irrational behavior by the characters, no doubt in service of the plot, but it still remains a weakness of the series in many ways. I'll go into this in more detail after a quick plot synopsis.

# --- Here be Spoilers ---

Ok, so in contrast to the start of Season 7, this episode opens with a hopeful tone. A dutiful tone. The three societies of Alexandria (The Survivors), The Hilltop, and the Kingdom have rallied together to work as one to bring down Negan and his "Saviors."

To this end, they have a man on the inside in the scarred (physically and mentally) Dwight. While Rick and company outfit a fleet of vehicles with metal platting, Daryl receives a list of Savior lookout locations from Dwight. They proceed to assassinate the looks one-by-one, while Carol and company start driving a horde of walkers towards the Savior Sanctuary.

Following these preparatory steps, Rick takes out a couple guards and sets up at the Sanctuaries front gate, and then forms a blockade with the armored vehicles. Their army lines up and fires shots into the air to call out Negan, they have a confrontation, first of words where Rick makes and offer to Negan's lieutenants, offering them a peaceful exit, with the insistence that only Negan needs to "get what is coming to him"

Nobody accepts this offer, and Negan trots out the Hilltop "leader" Gregory as an attempt of fragmenting Rick's army. No Hilltop resident bends towards this, and there is a consensus that Maggie is, in fact, the leader of the Hilltop.

All cards having now been played, Rick begins to count from 10 for a final decision. He begins firing at 7, and Negan's forces scurry away. The army opens fire on the Sanctuary, peppering the concrete and shattering the windows with hundreds of bullets. Shortly after this, they began and orderly retreat as an armored RV is rolled towards the front door, and then explodes, blowing apart the perimeter defenses.

Rick tries to get a clear line of sight to shoot Negan, but is pulled way by Gabriel with the reminder that "it's not all about him." Rick escapes and Gabriel almost does, staying behind to try to save Gregory.

Gregory (unsurprisingly) steals Gabriel's ride and leaves him behind, surrounded by the horde. Gabriel manages to escape to a construction trailer staged outside the building, only to find himself locked in with Negan, surrounded by hundreds of Walkers.

Just another day in the zombie apocalypse

The Good

I already mentioned that I enjoyed the action. This is something that TWD usually does a good job of. The explosions were great, the gunfire well done. The assassinations of the lookouts very cool - Rick marking them off one by one. Although Negan makes an impressive show of his "vampire" bat Lucille, you really get the feeling that Rick's group is strictly more full of badasses.

The shot composition and pacing were pretty good. The overpass shot (imaged above) was a nice contrast between the bored Carol and Tara, and what would otherwise be the brute terror of a horde of walkers. Just overall, really well put together throughout.

I like the "plan" in a basic sense. Everyone was coordinated, the timing was spot on. Everyone was calm, and sure of themselves. It was a show of unity for this new "supergroup," and you really felt that. Negan had been one step ahead in the past, and it was really satisfying to see him finally be outmaneuvered.

Oh, and Daryl's motorcycle ride, potshotting exploding barrels, leading the horde along the way... that was awesome.

The Bad

Bullets vs Concrete, concrete wins

Bullets are scarce commodity in this world. This has been a repeatedly established point. Now, why oh why did they expend soooo many rare bullets on shooting up the concrete and windows of the sanctuary? The only explanation I've come across is that it was a show of force to, not necessarily Negan, but the dwellers of the Sanctuary. We can assume that these slaves haven't actually had to suffer through an attack, and breaking out all the windows of the place is a great way of sending a message.

This might be the case, but I can't help but think it was excessive. They could have had the same results with a half or quarter of the firepower. Perhaps they will illuminate the reasoning in future episodes, but from the current standpoint its just plain wasteful.

Secondly... Rick made it clear he was after Negan. Only Negan had to die, Negan was the main target. The Warlord lynchpin. Ok? Now, the whole army had an extended period of time with a clear shot on the guy, and didn't take it. This only makes sense from the perspective that Negan currently has "Plot armor," which kind of sucks, but I suppose isn't a huge deal ultimately.

Finally, and to go along with the second complaint, why did Gabriel not plug up Negan?!?

Episode 1 to Episode 100

The other stuff

If you've gotten this far, you might have noticed I haven't mentioned anything concerning the flash-forwards, or flash-backs, or whatever is going on with the weird breaks in continuity. The fact of the matter is that I don't have a whole lot to say about them. If you've read the comics, it's clear what is going on here. Otherwise, you can only speculate.

I also didn't mention anything really going on b-plot wise. The bit with Carl searching for gas in an almost shot-for-shot remake of the beginning of the whole series was pretty neat. In fact, the walker Rick takes down at the end of the segment was portrayed by the same actress as the teddybear-totting girl zombie in S1E1. Pretty cool stuff overall.

There's more to say on the growth of Maggie, and of Carl. The sadness of Tara, seemingly mostly checked out of everything (dismisses her time with the horde-leading group by saying something like "pleasure working with you," waving and walking away).

That's all well and good, but this is all about the War, and I really hope they focus on the War, and finish it up before this first half of the season is done. Please, oh please no more dragging this all out.

None of the lost-esque theories here are true

Misc

• That twizzler Tara was gnawing on... like, is she trying to quit smoking or something? Or maybe the twizzler is just that dry that it takes a good half-hour of soaking in to be consumable. Who knows?
• That arrow-based communication between Daryl and Dwight was pretty awesome. Also, hilarious that Daryl, I guess, decided to puncture the tire of the motorcycle Dwight was working on.
• Really... did they think Gregory would have any sway? That guy is such an asshole. Even Simon should know this.
• Where are the trash-people? Based on the amount of firepower Rick's crew has, I'm guessing we will get a flashback or something where they roll in and extract some vengeance. This might be off considering the apparent difficulty of that. One can only imagine the guerrilla warfare that could be waged against any invaders to the trash heaps, but where else would Rick get the firepower?
• Will we see the group Tara met up with last Season?
• What the hell was going on with that Polaroid picture Rick snapped? My guess is that he is aping what Negan and crew typically did, but this was still kinda strange.

In Conclusion

Let me know what you thought of the episode in the comments, and what you are looking forward to this season. I'll probably be writing up more thoughts on the season as it progresses, and certainly will be back for a review of Thor coming out on November 3rd. Thanks for reading!