Episode 9, What Happened and What’s Going On
Summary:
After a few long weeks of waiting we finally get to enjoy our drug of choice again! The Walking Dead is back!
The mid season opener begins with sad remembrances of Beth as everyone deals with the aftermath of her death. Noah tells Rick that he and Beth were planning on going to a location he knew about – a place with a wall and safety. And thus the goal for the second half of the season is set. (At least until the end of the episode when we realize the opening moments were actually in honor of Tyreese.)
They jump to a road trip after coming back from the commercial break. They’ve gone 500 miles and are only a few minutes from reaching the place that Noah said was safe. When they get close Rick tells them to pull off the road so they can go in on foot and make sure the “safe place” is really okay.
Is Noah leading them into a trap? He said it was safe but there is a walker stuck in a wrecked truck. As they get closer they find wires rigged up between the trees. Noah said his people wanted to do it, but I get the impression it wasn’t there when he left.
They reach a walled community but when Glen looks over he nods his head. Its been burnt out. There are bodies and walkers. Noah is crushed, he thought he’d find some of his family still alive.
A lot of the houses show fire damage. Isn’t that what Morgan did in other areas? If not how did the walkers get in and who cleaned house afterwards?
Tyreese does his best to help Noah, and they find his dead mother when they go to his house. As Noah is talking to her Tyreese hears more walkers and goes to the back of the house. Tyreese gets drawn to the pictures of Noah’s twin and gets distracted – and ends up getting bit. He knows there were walkers in there – why would he stare at a wall?
Then, after Tyreese gets bit there is a bit of head tripping craziness as is visited by others who have died – and then gets attacked again by another walker. Although there is an awesome seen where he uses his already bitten arm as a meat shield so he can get the upper hand. Come on – I love Tyreese, you can’t kill him off!!!
Out on the street Michonne is trying to convince Rick & Glenn that they should stay, but when she goes to the break in the wall to try and convince them they see lots of strange things. Walkers that appear torn to bits, and parts of the wall that looked like they have been almost pushed over. What did all that damage? Whatever it was, seeing it makes Michonne realize they need to find some someplace. As they argue a small horde comes in from the woods and Rick agrees with Michonne about her new idea of a “Safe Place” – which is now Washington.
As Rick, Michonne, and Glenn are coming back they encounter Noah who is being attacked. They save him only to be told Tyreese has been bit. When they cut back to Tyreese he’s hallucinating again, thinking about all the people he’s known and cared about. Come on, stop pulling at my heart strings. Does he live or does he die?
I really find all the psychedelic craziness to be too much. Just move the plot forward.
And bang – Rick is pulling his arm out and Michonne is cutting the arm off.
So who carved “XI” into all the walkers foreheads and left them as torsos in the truck? Are the Rebels going to be the new bad guys?
My final thoughts on the episode is that it was way too overproduced. I didn’t need all the craziness around Tyreese’s death. Some of it felt like they wrote a 20 minute episode and needed filler.
Things I loved about this episode…
- The mid season break is finally over.
- Neither Rick nor Glenn thought the “Safe Place” would still be there when they got there.
- Tyreese doing his best to console Noah.
Things that I didn’t like about this episode…
- The long wait to get here.
- Where are they getting gas and electricity to power the walkies? They said they went 500 miles?
- Tyreese knows there are biters in Noah’s house. Why would he let himself get distracted? why would anyone ever be allowed to go anywhere unless they were in pairs.
- Why doesn’t everyone have a rope and a stick so they could make a tourniquet and at least try and cut off the offending limb.
- Is it me or has Michonne bulked up some? How is she putting on mass during the Apocalypse?
- Tyreese is dead.
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