The Official Walking Thread: Season 9

You may not have to worry about Jesus for long.  You know what always happens to the moral compass of the group.

So is anybody else a little ticked off that Father Gabriel and Negan have been trapped in a trailer surrounded by walkers for two weeks without so much as a single second of screen time?  One of the best parts of All Out War is Negan.  Give him some scenes!  And Simon too please.

Jesus is right though in the sense that the only thing that divides Rick's crew from the Saviors is humanity. So if they don't have that, cough-Daryl-cough, then why are they the good guys? If they're going to build a new civilization when this is all over, they have to have people to do it. Most of the people Negan is "protecting" are playing by his rules so they don't get murdered with a bat. At least Maggie/Rick can give them free will to stay and be apart of a community or go and try their hand at independence alone. Either way, most of them were slaves and Jesus is giving them a chance to, eventually, be free.

It's kill or be killed in All Out War, but Jesus is thinking about the future of the human race, and really the prosperity of the Hill Top. This is quite a bit like the way Daenerys built her army in GoT. If you free slaves, and give them a chance to choose, then maybe they decide to fight along side you.

How many times can Carol get lucky? Also no way she got up above those ceiling tiles that fast without being seen or heard.

Decent episode. Jerry slicing that er in half was great. Seeing Shiva go sucked, but it was obvious AMC wouldn't keep doling out that CGI money for her for long. King Zeke has been... BROKEN! The Rick/Daryl side-mission was fun for what it was, but seeing Rick's Jeep taking all that fire and keep on chugging (while not being hit himself) was kinda laughable. But it is TWD, so...

Eh, could've been better. Could've been worse. I remain unenthused with the season overall, and can't believe how little Negan there has been.

She's more than earned it. She's a foundation character with Rick, Maggie and Daryl.

I think this last episode was the best so far this season. Maybe it was all the hype I heard for the All Out War arc, but this season has fallen a bit flat for me. Each episode since the premiere has been steeped in the same moral dilemma of whether mercy should be shown toward the Saviors, and has been shown in the tension between Jesus and Tara, Rick and Daryl, and Morgan's internal struggle. It was bothering me also that the groups had taken very little losses thus far. Even with the element of surprise, it's a bit too unbelievable that we'd only lost a semi-important character thus far.

Last week finally added the gravity that one should expect in a full-scale conflict. Ezekiel's facade was shattered into pieces, and the final scene was a big punch in the gut for me. While things like the chase scene and Carol taking down another dozen or so Saviors single handedly were again protecting the main characters too much, it was a much better balance than what they've been doing.

So looking forward to this week's Savior Cabinet meeting.

I was thinking a while back how Rick isn't really the best at head-to-heads. Except for Shane, the Claimers, and getting the jump on Garreth in the church, he really depends on other people in dire situations. The Governor would've punched Rick's ticket in the Prison courtyard if Michonne had not run him through. He was set to be slaughtered at Terminus if not for Carol. He was yet again at Negan's mercy in last season's finale before the Hilltop and Kingdom militia showed up. Then this season Daryl bailed him out when he was at the end of Morales's gun. That's Rick handling business on his own at a less-than 50% success rate.

On another topic, I somehow love Savior Gavin's complete aversion to any heavy lifting. You could see it in his handling of the Kingdom, and again in several instances this last episode.

Usually I can think of something, but this latest episode didn't really enthrall me...maybe it wasn't supposed to...that being said though:

- Simon Ogg is awesome as Trevor...I mean Simon...and good to see a bit of slight dissent between him and Negan.

- While I think Negan is great, this was IMO not his best showing, in keeping with his character. Then again, who knows, I'm going off of my preconceived idea of what and who Negan is...JDM does a wonderful job though. Just not my Negan.

- Gabriel was great, as was Dwight and Eugene. The tiff between Rick and Daryl was good and made better by them going their own ways.

See how we go next week.

Not just you. I know a lot of people crap on Season 2, but this has easily been the worst, imo.

We literally saw a dude get disintegrated with an RPG. Into thin air. Like, really? It gets to a point where it's impossible to take it seriously, even with all the suspended disbelief in the world.