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Feb. 14th, 2017 12:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
proximoceptionWalking Dead 7.9
Getting fast suddenly, maybe in response to complaints but maybe by design - they made their point. 1) The Gabriel scene - taking all the food ensures he'll be followed. 2) Then Hilltop, where the leader guy may betray them. Enid seemed a bit taken aback to see everyone at once, but that needn't mean anything. 3) Then The Kingdom, where Richard seems ready to fake a terrorist attack or commit a real one on his own. They doing anything with the Rick/Richard thing, considering how loaded the Bob repetition was? 4) Then the herd, where they acquire explosives but leave lots of evidence that someone's messing with defenses near Negan HQ right after Daryl's escape, which seems likely to get him suspicious it's them. When he's suspicious he tends to kill everyone, I imagine. 5) Then Alexandria; Negan's henchman is in charge of Hilltop so may try there next, where that guy might give them away. 6) Then the boat again, which is a relief because it means that episode was relevant. So do they use the trapped area to scope out potential recruits? A screen for bravery? If they're another group hiding from the Saviors maybe this is a way to get in contact with people hustling to provide for them. Rick's face suggests this is his bag of gold, so maybe braving the gauntlet was somehow the rock he removed? Kind of forget the details of that episode. Were he and Aaron seen doing anything not just brave but good? Looking out for one another, certainly. Anything else? They were followed back, so that watcher may have noticed they departed right after Negan did, thus were maybe conspiring against him.
The two nos of the two leaders versus the yeses of their people were important, though of course very differently motivated. Morgan's wasn't exactly a no vote, but was taken that way by Ezekiel. Now that the leads aren't making ethical mistakes (for the first time since like episode 1 - Eric and muane surly Rosita excepted) are we going to see the curse transfer to others? The Hilltop guy might get all of Hilltop killed, Ezekiel all of the Kingdom (e.g. via Richard's haste). Kidnapping Negan seems like a difficult operation, so maybe we're to see Morgan's hesitation as a mistake too. Carol's isolationism is akin to Ezekiel's larger scale version - he's proud of Benjamin for carrying the water bottle and food for strangers but fails to extend the same. Probably this relates to his wishing to prevent his people from even knowing about the deal with the Saviors. Probably because he knows, like Tara does, that people mostly step up and do the right thing. Selfishness on behalf of others is in effect still selfishness, is I guess where they're going with Ezekiel, even if his is a much nicer version than the old Rick's. He takes in Daryl, too, and of course had taken in Carol and Morgan, so I guess we could say he is good on the personal level, selfish on the group one. How/whether things change when families or larger groups are involved has been the main concern of the show after the 6.10 reboot. Morgan's hesitancy may reflect that: if it were just Negan against them, his kidnapping idea might make sense. But when a group is set against you you sometimes need to go onto a war footing? I think WW2 is being evoked. Negan has killed entire groups, will freely kill entire others, so Ezekiel's verging on going Vichy (not Switzerland since, as Richard points out, they're making these people stronger with their tribute). The zombie scene was something of a loss of war virginity for Rick, both in that it was probably the no-turning-back point and in the trappings: mass killing at close quarters with explosives around that could hit one at any time. The polar opposite of cowering at imagined threats is Greatest Generation-style mass embrace of the greater good, is I think the point of this whole latterday section of the story. Might even excuse that odd 6.9 delay if that let it act as a hinge. Yeah, with the Negan episodes we're seeing how/why a dictator's put up with. Why people just follow orders. I think the bit about Tara (?) not wanting to think Gabriel could have relapsed after finding his bravery was key: the show is suggesting people mostly don't. One doesn't want to think the answer for America in its present malaise is a war big enough to require sacrifices and involvement from pretty much everyone, and the Cold War proves no one came out of WW2 immune to fear or anything, but presumably there was a lot of genuine consciousness-raising for many involved that had at least something to do with the good aspects of 1945-1980. The polls did reflect a tiny bump in anti-Trump sentiment among the c. 90 year olds, as I recall, as compared to the white people in their 60s to 80s who broke hard toward him. Some lessons stay learned by individuals, if never the species.
Getting fast suddenly, maybe in response to complaints but maybe by design - they made their point. 1) The Gabriel scene - taking all the food ensures he'll be followed. 2) Then Hilltop, where the leader guy may betray them. Enid seemed a bit taken aback to see everyone at once, but that needn't mean anything. 3) Then The Kingdom, where Richard seems ready to fake a terrorist attack or commit a real one on his own. They doing anything with the Rick/Richard thing, considering how loaded the Bob repetition was? 4) Then the herd, where they acquire explosives but leave lots of evidence that someone's messing with defenses near Negan HQ right after Daryl's escape, which seems likely to get him suspicious it's them. When he's suspicious he tends to kill everyone, I imagine. 5) Then Alexandria; Negan's henchman is in charge of Hilltop so may try there next, where that guy might give them away. 6) Then the boat again, which is a relief because it means that episode was relevant. So do they use the trapped area to scope out potential recruits? A screen for bravery? If they're another group hiding from the Saviors maybe this is a way to get in contact with people hustling to provide for them. Rick's face suggests this is his bag of gold, so maybe braving the gauntlet was somehow the rock he removed? Kind of forget the details of that episode. Were he and Aaron seen doing anything not just brave but good? Looking out for one another, certainly. Anything else? They were followed back, so that watcher may have noticed they departed right after Negan did, thus were maybe conspiring against him.
The two nos of the two leaders versus the yeses of their people were important, though of course very differently motivated. Morgan's wasn't exactly a no vote, but was taken that way by Ezekiel. Now that the leads aren't making ethical mistakes (for the first time since like episode 1 - Eric and muane surly Rosita excepted) are we going to see the curse transfer to others? The Hilltop guy might get all of Hilltop killed, Ezekiel all of the Kingdom (e.g. via Richard's haste). Kidnapping Negan seems like a difficult operation, so maybe we're to see Morgan's hesitation as a mistake too. Carol's isolationism is akin to Ezekiel's larger scale version - he's proud of Benjamin for carrying the water bottle and food for strangers but fails to extend the same. Probably this relates to his wishing to prevent his people from even knowing about the deal with the Saviors. Probably because he knows, like Tara does, that people mostly step up and do the right thing. Selfishness on behalf of others is in effect still selfishness, is I guess where they're going with Ezekiel, even if his is a much nicer version than the old Rick's. He takes in Daryl, too, and of course had taken in Carol and Morgan, so I guess we could say he is good on the personal level, selfish on the group one. How/whether things change when families or larger groups are involved has been the main concern of the show after the 6.10 reboot. Morgan's hesitancy may reflect that: if it were just Negan against them, his kidnapping idea might make sense. But when a group is set against you you sometimes need to go onto a war footing? I think WW2 is being evoked. Negan has killed entire groups, will freely kill entire others, so Ezekiel's verging on going Vichy (not Switzerland since, as Richard points out, they're making these people stronger with their tribute). The zombie scene was something of a loss of war virginity for Rick, both in that it was probably the no-turning-back point and in the trappings: mass killing at close quarters with explosives around that could hit one at any time. The polar opposite of cowering at imagined threats is Greatest Generation-style mass embrace of the greater good, is I think the point of this whole latterday section of the story. Might even excuse that odd 6.9 delay if that let it act as a hinge. Yeah, with the Negan episodes we're seeing how/why a dictator's put up with. Why people just follow orders. I think the bit about Tara (?) not wanting to think Gabriel could have relapsed after finding his bravery was key: the show is suggesting people mostly don't. One doesn't want to think the answer for America in its present malaise is a war big enough to require sacrifices and involvement from pretty much everyone, and the Cold War proves no one came out of WW2 immune to fear or anything, but presumably there was a lot of genuine consciousness-raising for many involved that had at least something to do with the good aspects of 1945-1980. The polls did reflect a tiny bump in anti-Trump sentiment among the c. 90 year olds, as I recall, as compared to the white people in their 60s to 80s who broke hard toward him. Some lessons stay learned by individuals, if never the species.
