The Walking Dead: The Distance

Well, it's been awhile.  I know there've been a few episodes upon the show's return, but if you've been following my other blogs, you know the novel's going well, and time is at a premium.  I'm doing what I can.  So, as it's late, very quickly:

--My guess is that this time, Rick's group will be the reason a utopian society doesn't work.  Maybe they'll be so hardcore, so paranoid, that they either cause the place to implode from within the walls, or the society gets together and forces Rick's group to leave.  Just my guess, and I haven't read the comics, but I'm thinking it's time that Rick's group messes up a good thing for once.

--Having said that, let the record show that Aaron lied about the pictures.  Not about collecting the license plates, or about how many other people were waiting with him--but Michonne did catch him in a lie about the pics, and she knew it.

--Then they splattered through a large group of walkers with the car, and everything else got lost in the shuffle, especially when it turned out that he'd spoken the truth about everything else, even the license plates--but he lied about people in the pics.

--That will come back.

--As will the gun Rick hid near that shack just outside the gate.

--Are Glen and Maggie not going out anymore?  They haven't been close for a helluva long time now.

--Didja notice that Father Gabriel was mostly absent, but understood to be there.  Maybe he was filming an episode of Teen Wolf nearby.  That's the beauty of an ensemble cast.  You show an actor at the very beginning, and maybe at the very end, and it's understood he's been there the whole time.

--Again, I haven't read the comics, but I'm guessing the sound of children playing is from a tape.  Did they hear it once they got inside?  I'm not feelin' it.

--The sound of the kids playing would be to get anyone hesitant inside the gates.  Not necessarily for nefarious reasons.  Same goes for the lie about the lack of people in the pics.

--I'm guessing there aren't a helluva lot of people in this town, and they need the Ricktatorship to protect them.  There's a flaw in the safety of the camp they're not telling Rick's group.  Just a guess.

--If I were a member of Rick's group, and that place was actually a real, safe place, I would still crawl up inside my own house, lock the doors, and be totally okay with myself, my food (every house would have an internal and external garden, and a greenhouse), my books, my writing and, hopefully, my baseball cards.  Forever.  I'd say hello to the rest of the group now and again, when I saw them outside in passing.

--It's not that I don't trust anyone or anything.  It's just that I don't trust anyone, or anything.

Walking Dead: Episode 2--"Infected"

 Photo: from Time.com.  Karen, we hardly knew ya.  Unless, of course, you were wise enough to put your bracelet around someone else, knowing that someone was going to kill and burn the sick.  And if that actually happened, maybe you, Karen, are killing and burning the sick.  Or maybe I just overthink things.  But the more I think about it, the more I like this storyline of mine.

A few quick things about this episode:

--The sacrificing of the pigs was incredibly depressing.  I'm trying to convince myself that they were going to all get sick and die anyway.

--So much for Farmer Rick.

--Never once in any episode has anyone ever said the word "zombie."

--Why wouldn't the walkers go back to the gate and knock it down after they finished with the pigs?

--I liked Karen.  Oh, well.

--The squealing of the pigs reminded me of The Silence of the Lambs.  That's how my noggin' works.

--How come nobody smelled the burning bodies?

--I'm surprised more wasn't done with the cellblock and gate-crashing walkers.  Separate or together, they could've driven everyone out of the prison.  Permanently.  And the gate-crashers still might.

--I'm tiring of all of the ads for Walking Dead-related products and games.

--I've never heard of Hayley Williams or Paramore, for those of you who saw The Talking Dead afterwards.

--For awhile there, I thought the baby was going to turn and bite the blonde girl.  I'm so young, yet so cynical.

--I agree with The Talking Dead's guest: Lizzie is feeding rats to the gate-crashing walkers.

--And I'm saying that Herschel killed and burned the sick.

--Hopefully nobody from PETA watched this episode.

--Carol's gotten weird.

--And the kid who plays Carl had a massive growth spurt.

--If Daryl's in charge, he's not effectively keeping law and order amongst his own people.  Nobody would be feeding rats to the dead during the Ricktatorship.  (Yeah, I stole that.)

--Rick's a bit of a lost soul right now.  But he'll be asked to lead them again, and he'll reluctantly agree to do so.

--It's been so long since I've seen an episode as it aired that I didn't realize how impossibly long the commercial breaks were.  I know there's a lot of commercials, but this is way too much.

--Which is why I'm going to watch as many episodes as possible on DVR.

--A viewer's awesome question: Herschel was a veterinarian, so why didn't he look at the dead pig to find out how it died?  Greg Nicotero's answer was simple enough: Rick never told him about it.  Technically I guess that's true, but that answer still is unsatisfying BS.  But you can't think of everything, I guess.  And Herschel mentions in the middle of the episode that he knows there are sick hogs, and Rick says right there that he saw a dead pig the day before.

--And how did they know that Patrick was the first one to die?  Carol and the others in the library knew that he didn't feel well, but they had no evidence in the carnage that followed that he was the first to go.

--So I don't feel so old and out of touch, I'm going to Wikipedia Paramore now.  ::later:: Oh.  Eh.  Sort of like Hanson, but female.  I'm seeing some early 80s pink pop, a la Cyndi Lauper, kind of.  I'd read they were alternative rock, but that's not what I saw in the video "Still Into You."  That ain't alternative.  It's bubble-gum pop for girls between 7th and 11th grade, or so.  Like, whatever, man.