The Walking Dead 3.14 - Prey (spoiler alert)

[NewJeffCT]

Different tack last night - an almost all Woodbury episode featuring the Governor, Andrea and a bit of Milton, Tyreese & Sasha. Interesting that Milton seems to be turning on the Governor by firing the walker pit.

Pretty good game of cat & mouse between Andrea & The Governor in the old warehouse - good escape by Andrea, only to be caught later at the verge of rescue, and then end up in the torture chair.

 

[Eldarain]

I thought the cat and mouse dragged on a bit longer than it needed to myself. Definitely shaping up to be a crazy last two episodes though.

 

[Ahnehnois]

I found the chase suspenseful. It's better that they built the situation up for a while; the Gov is far more intimidating now. I did find the ending a bit glib.

 

[NewJeffCT]

BTW - the AMC Story Sync revealed it was Milton that torched the walkers - they had a poll question, "Why do you think Milton set the walkers on fire?" while it was running. So, way to blow the mystery... though, it was pretty obvious afterwards it was Milton.

 

[Richards]

Plenty of ick factor in that walker pit after the fires had died down...and there were still walkers moving around in there. They didn't destroy the brain....

Johnathan

 

[Deset Gled]

Plenty of ick factor in that walker pit after the fires had died down...and there were still walkers moving around in there. They didn't destroy the brain...

I find it interesting that the zombies survived the fire. Even if the brains didn't burn, they would have been exposed to very high heat. Since viruses are easily killed with heat, this would suggest that zombification is actually a prion based disease.

 

[Janx]

I though it was a No-Op episode. Basically, nothing was achieved by Andrea, and in fact, for all that running, she's now back in Woodbury. At best, Milton learned that his boss is evil and needs to die. Maybe he can redeem himself from being a Nazi Collaborator.

yet again, Andrea misses her opportunity to solve the problem.

The Governor appears to have super-senses as he always knows what everybody is going to do and is one step ahead.

he just happens to know to turn off into a field to chase Andrea

And where she's heading next?

And where she's hiding in the building?

Amidst all of that chasing, Andrea fails to secure a weapon of any kind. What part of, "you're in the woods, grab a club to clock a zombie" wasn't ingrained in people by this point. Even the Governor manages to find a shovel without too much trouble once he goes inside.

I hope Tyrese does the right thing, as he seems to be the only moral person in the town right now. It'd be nice if he gets some more screen time, as the show seems to burn through token black guys with little time spent on them.

 

[Grue]

I find it interesting that the zombies survived the fire. Even if the brains didn't burn, they would have been exposed to very high heat. Since viruses are easily killed with heat, this would suggest that zombification is actually a prion based disease.

Heh...the zombie plague of the walking dead is not a virus or any other sort of biological infection, super engineered or otherwise. It's magic. Well magic, miracle, or some alien nanotech in the Clarkian realm of sufficiently advanced technology. No virus ever has had an infection rate of 100%, penetrated the host population entirely with no signs of infection only to emerge either when the host is bitten or drops dead from some other cause, and laughs in the face of the laws of thermodynamics. Magic.

On the zombies 'surviving' the fire, the only water they seem to get is incidental from their feeding. While they are a bit 'juicy' with necrotic type fluid they certainly don't seem to be full of blood or other fluids that a normal living of the same size would possess....they look to be on the dry side. When they were lit on fire they should have become their own fuel source as their desicated fat burned...certainly consuming the brain.

If I ever run Shadowrun again though I'm replacing NAN with zombies...it would be more plausible.

 

[Bullgrit]

I want to like this show. I really, really do. I love the Zombie Apocalypse genre. I've only managed to catch 2 or 3 full episodes, (and maybe 20 minutes of bits and pieces), of this show, but every time, it has severely disappointed me.

I was happily surprised to find my personal schedule and this show's schedule synced up for an episode this week, and this one was it. But, this one was the final nail in the coffin for me -- I've lost even the hope that I'd like this show. So damn many hack tropes. So many stupid decisions and actions by the good guys, so many leaps of luck for the bad guys.

The guy confiscated Andrea's pistol? Why? And why the hell did she give it up? [I'd have said, "If you try to take my gun, I'll shoot you with it." But maybe I'm too cynical to be a ZA survivor.]

Why couldn't Andrea get out of the town without passing through a guarded check point? Couldn't she sneak out through one of the dozens of building windows? During the scene where she's talking with the two guards, there were obvious windows in the background.

Then when she has to get off the road to avoid the approaching truck -- of course she doesn't hear or see the three zombies approaching her until one grabs her and two others are within 20 feet. How can a survivor be that deaf and blind to creatures that *can't* be stealthy, especially in a woods?

Then when she's walking in the field of deep grass and hears the truck. The Governor manages to spot her before she ducks -- he has an amazing spotting skill for a freakin' one-eyed man. (Especially considering she was on his blind side!) And then when he pulls off the road and starts driving through the field where she is lying down, he manages to make a beeline directly for her spot? That big grassy field, and he pinpoints her? But at least she gets away...

When she reaches the building, she hears his truck again. So he guessed where she was going? And when she realizes he's coming, instead of running in any direction, to hide in any of the dozen easy places I saw on screen for her to hide, she runs into the damn building. A place any ZA survivor would know is probably teeming with zombies.

And of course she goes around stepping backwards through the dark. Come on! So many places to hide, so many implements to take up as a weapon, and yet she continues walking through the dark bumping into zombies. Sigh.

At least the way she gets away by siccing some zombies on him was clever. We even hear him run out of bullets in his pistol.

Then she finally reaches the outskirts of the prison, surprise! It turns out that not only did the Governor actually survive the zombies in the building, but he teleports right up behind her. Again he accurately predicts exactly where she'll be, he gets there quickly, invisibly, and silently. And though this woman has managed to fight and kill dozens of zombies through this series, she can't handle one living man. A man with one hand grasping her left arm, and the other covering her mouth, leaving her right arm -- the hand that holds the knife that she has used to stab half a dozen zombies in the head just in this episode. While she struggled with him, I was staring at the TV waiting for that unrestrained arm to swing up and stab the hell out of him. It was obvious to me that she would finish this guy off like that. I mean how could she not?

And at the end we see that not only did she not kill him, but how the hell did he manage to get her in that torture chair? Did she just frickin' give up? Why? This woman has fought off swarms of unnaturally strong zombies in hand-to-hand struggles, but one living man, (with all the weak spots of a living person), overpowers her? WTF?

I was literally stunned at this. I was left shaking my head at the sheer stupidity and laziness of the writers. It's like they just write one draft and go with it. No effort to put thought into the logic or anything.

As much as I love the ZA genre, I hate this show's attempt at it.

Bullgrit

 

[Umbran]

I want to like this show. I really, really do. I love the Zombie Apocalypse genre. I've only managed to catch 2 or 3 full episodes, (and maybe 20 minutes of bits and pieces), of this show, but every time, it has severely disappointed me.

Ah, well, that's part of your problem, I'd wager. You don't get to understand the characters in this show with snippets here and there. The history matters.

That, and this one show focused on Andrea, who happens to be one of the characters with the weakest judgement.

So many stupid decisions and actions by the good guys, so many leaps of luck for the bad guys.

Andrea, unfortunately, has managed to survive despite being boneheaded. She had the opportunity to end this several episodes back, and chose to not take it...

The guy confiscated Andrea's pistol? Why? And why the hell did she give it up?

There was an implied threat that you didn't get, due to lack of context. If she had not given it up, she probably would have been shot, and she knows it. Woodbury is not the Wild West, where everyone does as he or she likes and gets away with it. The guy asking for her weapon was the head of the Governor's personal guard - proven smart enough that he'd not push it right there, but would come back with a half-dozen guys with automatic weapons to take it from her, who would gleefully rough her up for "resisting".

Why couldn't Andrea get out of the town without passing through a guarded check point? Couldn't she sneak out through one of the dozens of building windows? During the scene where she's talking with the two guards, there were obvious windows in the background.

You can't get out a window, because that implies that walkers could get *IN* a window. It was established early on that Woodbury's wall is well guarded, both to keep walkers out, and people in.

Then when she has to get off the road to avoid the approaching truck -- of course she doesn't hear or see the three zombies approaching her until one grabs her and two others are within 20 feet. How can a survivor be that deaf and blind to creatures that *can't* be stealthy, especially in a woods?

They have taken pains, in fact, to show that the main characters no longer really pay attention to zombies in the background. They are part of the environment, and lone zombies simply aren't that much of a threat most of the time any more.

And, plus, this *is* ZA genre. If you're not having people surprised by zombies every once in a while, you're doin' it wrong!

Then she finally reaches the outskirts of the prison, surprise! It turns out that not only did the Governor actually survive the zombies in the building, but he teleports right up behind her. Again he accurately predicts exactly where she'll be, he gets there quickly, invisibly, and silently. [./quote]

It is entirely reasonable for him to guess she's going to the prison - it is the only place for her to go, really, and her purpose to save her old crew is pretty obvious, too. And it seemed pretty clear to me that the implication is that he's been tracking and stalking, not predicting and teleporting.

I mean how could she not?

Dramatic inappropriateness. You keep saying you're a fan of ZA genre, but then how can you miss the fact that, as a branch of horror, only some characters have the moral position to defeat the villain? She isn't one of them.

They obviously *cannot* show every single second of action on-screen. Exactly how does the Gov subdue her? We don't have time to go into it, and that isn't the interesting bit of story, anyway.

And at the end we see that not only did she not kill him, but how the hell did he manage to get her in that torture chair?

I figure there's a gun involved, and she's exhausted and unarmed.

Did she just frickin' give up? Why?

She has fought off swarms of zombies, sure. But she's also learned that sometimes fighting is not the best way to survive - you pick your battles when you can. She probably didn't think that he'd put her in that chair, though, or she might have fought.