Now that's a F'n Trojan Horse!
Feb. 18th, 2013 02:17 pm![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
imorcaHome today feeling yucky. So, The Walking Dead it is.
And what a series of moments there were. Rick continues his freakish freakiness, leaving the prison yard in order to get his face rubbed by an hallucination of his dead wife all romantic style on the bridge over the River Quay. I swear to gawd, it was like a freakish prom/wedding picture photo shoot - her in a white dress, him in ecstasy over her in the white dress. If she'd had a corsage and/or a veil it would have been perfect. Never mind that somehow he manages to avoid the walkers that always inconveniently interrupt every other character every other *moment they are outside the fence. Nope, Rick can wander around hallucinating and nothing bothers him.
Glenn continues his "I'm an angry, angry man" routine, as he tells Hershel that he's "the next one in charge" - and promptly leaves the fucking prison, because that seems to be what MEN IN CHARGE ON THE WALKING DEAD DO - THEY LEAVE THE FUCKING PRISON. (Yes, that's become it's own trope for the show.) Here's the "Man Order" then: 1) Rick - hallucinating, LEFT THE FUCKING PRISON. 2) Daryl - out brother bonding, LEFT THE FUCKING PRISON. 3) Glenn - playing angry, angry man, LEFT THE FUCKING PRISON. But, before Glenn can really take on the roll/role by LEAVING THE FUCKING PRISON, he must first fill Rick's shoes by BEING AN ASSHOLE TO HIS ROMANTIC PARTNER. Yes, Glenn traumatizes Maggie who has just survived being sexually assaulted by forcing her to reassure him by "talking about it." [Sidenote: I watched Talking Dead last week, and Steven Yuen was on. He gave a fantastic interview about this, and was really great about how he played the piece. He emphasized he understood this to be a show of Glenn's lack of maturity, and the fact that he's having to become a man in a world without any decent modeling of how to deal with emotions (as if the regular world had much, let's be honest), and further how he's going to be going through a series of bad mistakes about his relationship with Maggie in the coming episodes. He was traumatized himself, and doesn't have the resources to handle it for himself, much less having any further resources to be any kind of source of strength for his partner. Sounds pretty familiar, eh?]
Daryl and Merle stop to take a leak in "the Woods," and Daryl starts to chafe under Merle's thumb. [Sidenote: Let me just say how irritated I am when people spell "Merle" as "Meryl" because they think the names should match.] In a scene that I don't know whether to call brilliant or heavy-handed, the brothers hear distant cries which Merle interprets as fornicating raccoons and Daryl as a baby. They come upon a family being attacked by a herd. Daryl steps in and saves the family with, like, 1 shot of help from Merle - who proceeds to try to rob them once the threat is over. Daryl has perhaps *the *grossest zombie kill of the series when he smashes the head of a walker in the hatchback of family Subaru, and also fulfills every Daryl-fan-fantasy when he turns his crossbow on Merle to force him out of the car, rescuing the family from his own brother and proving he is, truly, "a man of honor." As Daryl storms off the bridge where the confrontation took place, he walks past a sign that says it's the "Yellow Jacket Creek," further putting to rest the argument the brothers had been having on the way through the woods, proving Daryl the superior tracker.The thing about it was, Daryl was already trying to talk Merle to going back to the prison group before the confrontation, and leaves Merle after only this one incident. It hardly seems worth having him leave in the first place. Totally felt like it was playing the fans just to up ratings. There was an entire really subtle replay of family history, of leaving and not-protecting, played out between Michael Rooker and Norman Reedus that was so subtle and amazing. But, like I said - I can't quite tell how I feel about it after it was over. It's the same way I felt about Forest Gump: brilliant but abusive of the audience.
Once Glenn has LEFT THE FUCKING PRISON, guess who comes knocking!? Oh, yeah, that's right...the cliched, eye-patched guv'na. And the scene has two horrifying moments that are just unforgettable. The first is this: the writers had FINALLY made Axel not creepy. First episode ever where he was almost human. He'd flirted with Carol, and we got to see her feel good about herself. Finally! She showed him how to load a gun, and she felt useful! Hurray! Then they were standing in the yard talking like normal people and he got shot in the head out of the blue! In the middle of a sentence! And if that wasn't horrifying enough, Carol was forced to LAY BEHIND HIS BODY AND USE IT AS A SHIELD to avoid being riddled with bullets. Seriously, it was one of the most disturbing moments of personal horror in a show full of personal horror I've seen. This woman who 10 seconds previously was joking with the man about his brother loaning him money, is cowering behind his corpse in the middle of an open yard with only his dead, head-shot carcass as cover, and has to cower behind it as it is riddled by round after round of machine gun fire because she's the clearest fucking target in an open fucking field! Gaaaaaahh!
The second unforgettable moment is when a bread truck comes driving at break-neck pace and smashes into the prison yard through the chained fences. Honestly, at first I thought it was team Dixon returning to save the day. But then the scene shoots to the guv'na looking pretty satisfied. Oh, no. This shit looks bad. The back of the bread truck opens to reveal...THE MOST HORRIFYING TROJAN HORSE EVER!!!! The Woodbury crew has just driven a fresh load of walkers into the prison yard! Holy crap! Carol is trapped under Axel's corpse without a weapon! Rick is out in the countryside hallucinating and then trapped by gunfire. Glenn LEFT THE FUCKING PRISON! Hershel is caught out by the fence where he'd been trying to wrangle in Rick, and is the closet walker-chow to be had. Michonne doesn't know how to fire a gun worth shit, 'cause she uses a katana! Carl and Beth somehow managed to take cover behind a wall and their 8 round pistols are not going to match the automatic weapons of the guv'na's men, nor THE GUNMAN WHO MANAGED TO GET ONTO ONE OF THE PRISON TOWERS not to mention THE NEW ZOMBIE HOARD!! Maggie made her way out but is shooting from...behind...a filing cabinet???? And now Rick ran out of bullets!? And Herschel with his one leg is supposed to crutch his way through the walkers and the shoulder high grass back to safety!? And Glenn who LEFT THE FUCKING PRISON drives back in leisurely and TURNS HIS HEAD TO WATCH AS THE GOV'NA'S MEN DRIVE AWAY!!??!! That's some fucking Trojan Horse! Well played, guv'na. Well played.
Andrea remains in Woodbury. The guv'na told her he wasn't fit to lead the town, but she was. My gawd. This should have caused her to pack and leave the instant the words left his mouth. This guy accepts no challenge to his authority. I said last week that the speech she made marked her for death with him. She. Is. Daft. I "get" that she doesn't want to abandon the people who *are probably just in need to protection there, but geeze, get a grip, honey. Michonne was so right. Especially when you can tell both the guv'na AND Milton are lying to you...and the woman on the wall - Elaine was it? Run. Run while you can. And either take Milton with your or put him out of his misery. You've been lied to a lot - and that's just the one's you've figured out. You've made so many mistakes in judgment about this town you need to spend about 3 months simply following somebody else's orders and following a vow of silence (as, might I add, does Rick). Please! Please, writers. Please rehabilitate Andrea. And please, please, writers. Please do NOT put her together with Daryl. If you must kill off Carol (which I am increasingly convinced you will), at least don't have him get together with her. Rick - fine. Bad judgment for bad judgment. But just don't put her with Daryl. Anybody but her.
And where was Tyreese's group during the fire fight? Are you telling me they couldn't hear any of that gunfire? They don't have weapons, but were they locked away? I'm guessing so. I hope this screws the heads on straight about needing more help. I think Hershel's about ready to step up and exercise some leadership and wisdom. He had good judgment. Or, they could just do what I've been asking for for weeks - implement the Carltatorship!! I think the 13 year old boy has the best judgment of the entire crew! Bring it on!
And, why is there a mood for "exanimate" (how many people know what that means w/o looking it up? I mean, I got a near-perfect score on my GRE language test and I don't), but not for something like "foolish". That's just foolish.
And what a series of moments there were. Rick continues his freakish freakiness, leaving the prison yard in order to get his face rubbed by an hallucination of his dead wife all romantic style on the bridge over the River Quay. I swear to gawd, it was like a freakish prom/wedding picture photo shoot - her in a white dress, him in ecstasy over her in the white dress. If she'd had a corsage and/or a veil it would have been perfect. Never mind that somehow he manages to avoid the walkers that always inconveniently interrupt every other character every other *moment they are outside the fence. Nope, Rick can wander around hallucinating and nothing bothers him.
Glenn continues his "I'm an angry, angry man" routine, as he tells Hershel that he's "the next one in charge" - and promptly leaves the fucking prison, because that seems to be what MEN IN CHARGE ON THE WALKING DEAD DO - THEY LEAVE THE FUCKING PRISON. (Yes, that's become it's own trope for the show.) Here's the "Man Order" then: 1) Rick - hallucinating, LEFT THE FUCKING PRISON. 2) Daryl - out brother bonding, LEFT THE FUCKING PRISON. 3) Glenn - playing angry, angry man, LEFT THE FUCKING PRISON. But, before Glenn can really take on the roll/role by LEAVING THE FUCKING PRISON, he must first fill Rick's shoes by BEING AN ASSHOLE TO HIS ROMANTIC PARTNER. Yes, Glenn traumatizes Maggie who has just survived being sexually assaulted by forcing her to reassure him by "talking about it." [Sidenote: I watched Talking Dead last week, and Steven Yuen was on. He gave a fantastic interview about this, and was really great about how he played the piece. He emphasized he understood this to be a show of Glenn's lack of maturity, and the fact that he's having to become a man in a world without any decent modeling of how to deal with emotions (as if the regular world had much, let's be honest), and further how he's going to be going through a series of bad mistakes about his relationship with Maggie in the coming episodes. He was traumatized himself, and doesn't have the resources to handle it for himself, much less having any further resources to be any kind of source of strength for his partner. Sounds pretty familiar, eh?]
Daryl and Merle stop to take a leak in "the Woods," and Daryl starts to chafe under Merle's thumb. [Sidenote: Let me just say how irritated I am when people spell "Merle" as "Meryl" because they think the names should match.] In a scene that I don't know whether to call brilliant or heavy-handed, the brothers hear distant cries which Merle interprets as fornicating raccoons and Daryl as a baby. They come upon a family being attacked by a herd. Daryl steps in and saves the family with, like, 1 shot of help from Merle - who proceeds to try to rob them once the threat is over. Daryl has perhaps *the *grossest zombie kill of the series when he smashes the head of a walker in the hatchback of family Subaru, and also fulfills every Daryl-fan-fantasy when he turns his crossbow on Merle to force him out of the car, rescuing the family from his own brother and proving he is, truly, "a man of honor." As Daryl storms off the bridge where the confrontation took place, he walks past a sign that says it's the "Yellow Jacket Creek," further putting to rest the argument the brothers had been having on the way through the woods, proving Daryl the superior tracker.The thing about it was, Daryl was already trying to talk Merle to going back to the prison group before the confrontation, and leaves Merle after only this one incident. It hardly seems worth having him leave in the first place. Totally felt like it was playing the fans just to up ratings. There was an entire really subtle replay of family history, of leaving and not-protecting, played out between Michael Rooker and Norman Reedus that was so subtle and amazing. But, like I said - I can't quite tell how I feel about it after it was over. It's the same way I felt about Forest Gump: brilliant but abusive of the audience.
Once Glenn has LEFT THE FUCKING PRISON, guess who comes knocking!? Oh, yeah, that's right...the cliched, eye-patched guv'na. And the scene has two horrifying moments that are just unforgettable. The first is this: the writers had FINALLY made Axel not creepy. First episode ever where he was almost human. He'd flirted with Carol, and we got to see her feel good about herself. Finally! She showed him how to load a gun, and she felt useful! Hurray! Then they were standing in the yard talking like normal people and he got shot in the head out of the blue! In the middle of a sentence! And if that wasn't horrifying enough, Carol was forced to LAY BEHIND HIS BODY AND USE IT AS A SHIELD to avoid being riddled with bullets. Seriously, it was one of the most disturbing moments of personal horror in a show full of personal horror I've seen. This woman who 10 seconds previously was joking with the man about his brother loaning him money, is cowering behind his corpse in the middle of an open yard with only his dead, head-shot carcass as cover, and has to cower behind it as it is riddled by round after round of machine gun fire because she's the clearest fucking target in an open fucking field! Gaaaaaahh!
The second unforgettable moment is when a bread truck comes driving at break-neck pace and smashes into the prison yard through the chained fences. Honestly, at first I thought it was team Dixon returning to save the day. But then the scene shoots to the guv'na looking pretty satisfied. Oh, no. This shit looks bad. The back of the bread truck opens to reveal...THE MOST HORRIFYING TROJAN HORSE EVER!!!! The Woodbury crew has just driven a fresh load of walkers into the prison yard! Holy crap! Carol is trapped under Axel's corpse without a weapon! Rick is out in the countryside hallucinating and then trapped by gunfire. Glenn LEFT THE FUCKING PRISON! Hershel is caught out by the fence where he'd been trying to wrangle in Rick, and is the closet walker-chow to be had. Michonne doesn't know how to fire a gun worth shit, 'cause she uses a katana! Carl and Beth somehow managed to take cover behind a wall and their 8 round pistols are not going to match the automatic weapons of the guv'na's men, nor THE GUNMAN WHO MANAGED TO GET ONTO ONE OF THE PRISON TOWERS not to mention THE NEW ZOMBIE HOARD!! Maggie made her way out but is shooting from...behind...a filing cabinet???? And now Rick ran out of bullets!? And Herschel with his one leg is supposed to crutch his way through the walkers and the shoulder high grass back to safety!? And Glenn who LEFT THE FUCKING PRISON drives back in leisurely and TURNS HIS HEAD TO WATCH AS THE GOV'NA'S MEN DRIVE AWAY!!??!! That's some fucking Trojan Horse! Well played, guv'na. Well played.
Andrea remains in Woodbury. The guv'na told her he wasn't fit to lead the town, but she was. My gawd. This should have caused her to pack and leave the instant the words left his mouth. This guy accepts no challenge to his authority. I said last week that the speech she made marked her for death with him. She. Is. Daft. I "get" that she doesn't want to abandon the people who *are probably just in need to protection there, but geeze, get a grip, honey. Michonne was so right. Especially when you can tell both the guv'na AND Milton are lying to you...and the woman on the wall - Elaine was it? Run. Run while you can. And either take Milton with your or put him out of his misery. You've been lied to a lot - and that's just the one's you've figured out. You've made so many mistakes in judgment about this town you need to spend about 3 months simply following somebody else's orders and following a vow of silence (as, might I add, does Rick). Please! Please, writers. Please rehabilitate Andrea. And please, please, writers. Please do NOT put her together with Daryl. If you must kill off Carol (which I am increasingly convinced you will), at least don't have him get together with her. Rick - fine. Bad judgment for bad judgment. But just don't put her with Daryl. Anybody but her.
And where was Tyreese's group during the fire fight? Are you telling me they couldn't hear any of that gunfire? They don't have weapons, but were they locked away? I'm guessing so. I hope this screws the heads on straight about needing more help. I think Hershel's about ready to step up and exercise some leadership and wisdom. He had good judgment. Or, they could just do what I've been asking for for weeks - implement the Carltatorship!! I think the 13 year old boy has the best judgment of the entire crew! Bring it on!
And, why is there a mood for "exanimate" (how many people know what that means w/o looking it up? I mean, I got a near-perfect score on my GRE language test and I don't), but not for something like "foolish". That's just foolish.
