The Walking Dead Midseason Finale Recap/Talkback – So, Do We Riot?

Characters died. Did your favorites make it?

Well, unless you were wearing an “If Beth Dies, We Riot” shirt – and I’ve never seen one – you can put away the Molotov cocktails and V for Vendetta movie masks. Daryl Dixon still lives, as does pretty much every current character that people still like, though I must say Tyreese is heavily foreshadowing a nasty fate for himself. Every other line of dialogue that comes out of him these days makes me think of the guy in the war movie who says, “If anything happens to me, make sure this letter gets to my wife.”

Other thoughts:

-Total dumbfuckery there by the priest. Dig your way out, then when you get overwhelmed by the zombies that you knew were out there, come running back, and be somehow unable to fit back in your little crawlspace. What the hell did that achieve?

-Rick’s reaction to officer Bob (“Shut up”) was not unlike the way I respond any time a Talking Dead commercial comes on. (Don’t worry; all my gunshots have missed the TV thus far. Helps that they’re Nerf darts…and completely imaginary.)

-What is the way, that maybe Beth can live till another day? Shaft! Elevator shaft!

– Wasn’t there a side-scrolling fighting game where you could push guys down a shaft like that? I wanna say Ninja Turtles Arcade, but maybe Double Dragon.

-Everybody besides Abraham took the truth about Eugene pretty well.

-Here’s a joke: what dramatic construct this season should theoretically come in pairs?

-Answer: Noah’s arc.

-I actually liked Rick in this episode. That may not be a first, but it’s a first-in-a-while.

-Why do safe colonies inevitably turn out to be poorly – or psychotically – run? Are no humans capable of running a compound where people can be reasonably happy and non-rapey, all things considered?

-I wish I could say I’m sorry Beth died. Nahh, really I don’t. I never liked her character, but it’s shocking when anyone gets shot through the head like that, even in fiction.

-So is Lennie James only going to exist in the post-credits teases of major episodes? First of all, that’s cruel to people who DVR this and have the machine cut out early. Second, isn’t it exactly like the sort of thing Lost would have done in its first three seasons?

-Rick’s baby has to be the easiest infant in the world to care for. Never seems to vomit, shit or get sick. Just cries loudly when the plot calls for it. This is indeed a fantasy show.

Your turn. Last time we do this until February.