7.07: The Walking Dead - Sing me a song...

[ctg]

Fat Joye and Negan (Photo by Gene Page/AMC)

A further peak into the Sanctuary

 

[ctg]

Man is a beast, guarded by rules. But when you remove them, he becomes a monster.

It's weird to think Negan any other way. However, strange as it is, Negan has so many rules for everyone else but him. You look at him in the harem or even in his office, boasting to a young man how he can bend every rule and you'll start to think who is kidding?

The biggest pleasure for Negan is seeing someone else breaking the rules. If I would not have seen it with my own eyes, I could swear Negan had a hard-on for seeing a smoking gun on Carl's hands. More so, when he ordered the bandages to be removed. It was almost as if he were a kid in candy-store and I started to think, if the way Negan carries himself is just a costume. Something he used to put up to get some kicks at the past.

More I see him behaving like a total dictator, more I believe it's all for just a show.

Sure, he has done pretty horrible things in this world, but what if Negan found himself in a position, where all mascarade was removed? Would he still have the power or would people simply turn away from him and leave him for the dead? I'm pretty sure they don't discriminate the meat they eat.

The reason I'm bringing all of this up is because of the way Savior's acted. It look really forced for them to get on knee, while a loyalist would have gone down on the ground and asked for more. In fact, more you look at those seventy odd souls in the Sanctury, more you should understand that all of them are in forced positions. Not because they love it, because they have to.

There is no peace outside the walls. Only nature and the dead. If they would remain still, somebody could call it a paradise. Just none of the survivors see it that way. They are more and less as anxious as Michonne on that road. In fact, even Rick seem to be recovering from the shock of losing two top lieutenants. When he found out about the secret hideout, you could almost guess what he had on his mind.

I don't think giving things to Savior's was on top of his list. Quite the opposite as the smell of a rebellion is already in the air. Carl made sure of it. Only Negan hasn't realised how bad it's going to hurt.


For the note: I was ready to hang up this series for good. There is one more to go before the mid-season break. If AMC don't cock it up, there might be still life in these threads.

 

[nixie]

ctg, please don't. Your insights into the series are one of the highlights of my week.

What is Negan's fascination with Carl? If he wasn't such an arrogant b****** he would kill Carl, unlike Rick or Daryl who will consider the consequences for others, Carl will take the opportunity to take out Negan without a thought as soon as the moment arises.

I think Negan's obsession with breaking him will be his ultimate downfall.

I was horrified when he picked up Judith.

 

[REBerg]

Negan takes great delight in terrifying others by his mere presence.
Hanging out in Alexandria, palling around with Carl, sipping lemonade on the front porch, hailing a neighbor about grilling out, cooing over Judith. No problems, other than that he might lash out and kill somebody at any moment. Not much fun for anyone but Negan.
Back at his HQ, Negan keeps the Saviors in line with an iron fist -- well, with an iron, anyway. That seemed very weird. I would think that a non-lethal love tap from his constant companion and symbol of his authority, Lucille, to the skull of a rule-breaker would be a more appropriate enforcement tool.

 

[ctg]

ctg, please don't.

I said I was ready, but this episode changed things. I think they should have played a bit Amy on Michonne's second scene, because Back to Black fits in it much better than the song they chose at the end.

What is Negan's fascination with Carl?

He sees a great promise in the young man. Nobody else really put up with his bullying, Carl is the one, who couldn't and wouldn't let Negan just walk over everything.

Carl, unlike Rick or Daryl who will consider the consequences for others, Carl will take the opportunity to take out Negan without a thought as soon as the moment arises.

Back at his HQ, Negan keeps the Saviors in line with an iron fist -- well, with an iron, anyway. That seemed very weird. I would think that a non-lethal love tap from his constant companion and symbol of his authority, Lucille, to the skull of a rule-breaker would be a more appropriate enforcement tool.

Well, he had plenty of opportunities in the Sanctury and Alexandria to commit a murder, but he chose to observe events instead. Maybe Hershel's memory is playing back in his mind, because Carl didn't try to take him out, when Negan handed him Lucielle. It would have ended Negan there and then with just couple of swings, and at the end, Savior's would probably have thanked him.

 

[Gnrevolution]

Certainly better than last week this episode, but it all still seems to drag so much. Pretty much a whole episode of mind torture of Carl, and yeah it felt at times that Negan was acting like nothing more than a big kid who's got inside the candy store. Don't understand why Carl didn't just shoot him though, that was the plan, and it's not like he doesn't have the motivation. He could have at least tried, see that would have been good TV, even if he'd only winged him before being disarmed. But instead he froze. Maybe Negan has some sort of magic powers of hypnotism.

Negan rules by fear, but you are not really respected by that method, so the kneeling for him was not out of respect or love, it's having to do it because you have to. That won't last. That's what Dwight and I suspect a lot of the others are doing, biding their time until they see the merest hint of slippage from Negan, and then they'll be all over him like a dirty pack of Hyenas.

One thing that really bugged me. They clearly showed a guard on lookout at the top of the Saviour's compound, and yet no-one managed to notice Jesus riding on top of the truck? I'm starting to assume that this is the actual son of god after all with all the stuff he can do.

 

[SilentRoamer]

Better episode this week. I feel like the last Negan episode and this episode served the same purpose only this episode gave us more backstory for the saviors and was more fleshed out. Jeffrey Dean Morgan is doing a good job of being an absolute awful human being.

The Carl scene was poorly done and here's why:

Negan hid behind one of his men - so? Carl was already shooting them so it made no sense for Carl not to completely empty his clip. The scene would have played out much better if Carl would have shot everybody he could emptying the clip completely and THEN gets taken down. Otherwise the whole Negans "you scare the sh*t out of me" doesn't seem to fit. If on the other hand Carl just killed like 10 guards or something then it would make more sense.

I am wondering if the note to Darryl is from Dwights (ex) wife or just another setup - although I don't think it's a setup this time.

 

[ctg]

Otherwise the whole Negans "you scare the sh*t out of me" doesn't seem to fit. If on the other hand Carl just killed like 10 guards or something then it would make more sense.

In the original run it was several, and this episode was a minute over an hour in total length. So they could have acted it out and made it more believable.

One thing that really bugged me. They clearly showed a guard on lookout at the top of the Saviour's compound, and yet no-one managed to notice Jesus riding on top of the truck?

You mean the ride out scene. There were several guards on the ground. No tower. And yes, Jesus is a real ninja. Fear him.

 

[Gnrevolution]

In the original run it was several, and this episode was a minute over an hour in total length. So they could have acted it out and made it more believable.



You mean the ride out scene. There were several guards on the ground. No tower. And yes, Jesus is a real ninja. Fear him.

They showed it earlier in the episode, from the angle in the shot above you can't see it, can't find a screen grab anywhere atm

 

[REBerg]

One thing that really bugged me. They clearly showed a guard on lookout at the top of the Saviour's compound, and yet no-one managed to notice Jesus riding on top of the truck? I'm starting to assume that this is the actual son of god after all with all the stuff he can do.

My memory is less than perfect (as my wife would gladly attest), but weren't Carl and Jesus still in the truck when they came through the gate? It thought that after Jesus had bailed, he hid on a truck roof, possibly taking advantage of the ruckus caused by Carl?

 

[ctg]

My memory is less than perfect (as my wife would gladly attest), but weren't Carl and Jesus still in the truck when they came through the gate?

Carl ditched Jesus before the gate. He said, "I'll be behind you," a moment before Jesus bailed out from the back.

 

[ratsy]

Silentroamer, I was just assuming Jesus slipped the note under the door, but perhaps not. He had a couple glances with Dwight's wife.

Well it's official. My wife has bailed on me and the Walking Dead. She just can't stand watching these people let someone terrorise them, and I agree. I would rather kill Neegan, knowing I very well may die, even if I was a Savior, than be around that fear all the time. If I was Carl, I would have swung Lucile at Neegan when he was heading down those stairs to Iron that guy. Could have bashed his head in, and toppled him down 20' to the floor...but anyway...

I'll still watch obviously, but I do want someone to 'man up' and I fully suspect it will be a woman who does that. So many story lines to come together now. Rick is off scavenging, Michone is trying to get to Negan. Rosita has her bullet. Carol and Morgan are over with the Kingdom. Maggie and Sasha with Hilltop, and Darryl and Jesus at the Saviour's camp. I hope they resolve....something at least this mid-season break.

 

[nixie]

I think Carl will play a part in Negan' s downfall but feel it will be Maggie who delivers the killer blow. Only problem with this theory is we may have to wait for the baby to be born before we can be rid of him.

 

[Gnrevolution]

I think Carl will play a part in Negan' s downfall but feel it will be Maggie who delivers the killer blow. Only problem with this theory is we may have to wait for the baby to be born before we can be rid of him.

Oh god no, please don't make it last until the baby is born! That's close to 9 months of TWD time, equivalent to about 3 seasons!

 

[nixie]

Then again someone could tell Carol, he killed Glen, threatened Maggie, locked up Daryl, had the audacity to pick up Judith then tell her where the saviours are based and leave some explosives lying around.

 

[Gnrevolution]

from reddit these are the lookouts I referred to earlier...

 

[ctg]

from reddit these are the lookouts I referred to earlier...

We certainly didn't get a long look at that, while in the comic's you can just study it for a while, which confirms the myth of Ninja Jesus. He has supernatural gifts to be able to know when to escape, from the sight, before the lookouts noticed him. LOL

Maybe he's an alien?

Everyone once and while TWD collapses on the impossible situations. Maybe AMC wants the producers to deliver scenes that aren't scientifically accurate down to the last detail. Hence they tried their best to not give the viewers a good look on the Sanctuary.

There are same things in the original run, especially around this time, when Mr Kirkman had several holes in the narrative because the science collapsed. It seems this same thing happens this time as well, and I feel they should have left Jesus out from the picture. Narratively, they couldn't leave Jesus hanging at Sanctuary but he had to come back for the mid-season final, because of the no-holes policy.

 

[Culhwch]

Ugh. Negan episode.

Why are these episodes longer, exactly? I'm assuming it's solely for added advertising space.

I had a lot of the same problems mentioned above. Carl going all that way, surely knowing it was a suicide mission at best, and then not following through when he had a clear shot. Jesus not being spotted on top of that truck. It's just more lazy writing, and I'm actually getting to the point of thinking the writers have very little respect for their audience. That way lies a loss of ratings and swift cancellation, guys.

So as far as predictions go for the season finale. I think Michonne is going to run into an escaping Daryl and Jesus (although did Jesus stay on the truck all the way to Alexandria?). I think Rosita is going to have a crack at Negan and die as a consequence. She may even be killed by an Alexandrian, and I'm looking at Spenser and that bow suspiciously. He could see it as a move to gain Negan's favour. I hope we see the Kingdom again, but I'm not holding my breath. I think Rick and Aaron will find a stash of weapons they can use in the second half of this season to fight back against the Saviors.

I think it will be underwhelming, to be honest. Hope I'm wrong...

 

[Judderman]

Good to see that the head wife gave Daryl the cue to escape. Though there will still be some guards around even if Negan is away.

Rick and Aaron finding weapons makes sense. Though you would think the weapons at the coastal womens village would be important, maybe not.

If next episode is better it may give a little encouragement for the 2nd half of the season. But it is so frustrating to have wait another couple of months hoping things pick up. February isn't too bad I suppose.

 

[Culhwch]

Rick and Aaron finding weapons makes sense. Though you would think the weapons at the coastal womens village would be important, maybe not.

You'd hope so, but given the current state of writing on the show I don't know if I'd count on it. The whole point of that episode may have simply been to fill in an episode before the season finale. Other than, the only takeaway from that episode seemed to be that killing strangers is bad... unless you're Rick, then it's justified.