The Walking Dead: Season 9, Episode 11: Bounty

So we have the Walking Dead and it’s a tale of two storylines. One which is really interesting and desperately what i want The Walking Dead to become and the other is just dull dull dull and needs to end quickly

Sadly I think I will be disappointed

So the dull dull dull first. Alpha has arrived at the gates of the Hilltop and is demanding her daughter. They’re a relatively small crowd of several unarmed people in scary masks. People take this seriously because of Luke and Alden they have hostage. Daryl still wants to tell them to jog on (and while I appreciate the sentiment, Jesus may have died but he didn’t make you king, Daryl) but his threat to mow them all down is weakened because they have a baby.

Plenty of targets besides the baby, just saying

So they need to exchange Lydia for their two hostages, only Henry who is REALLY TRYING to make me hate him has decided to rescue Lydia and run off with her because it’s all so mean and unfair. In fact, the meme MUST exist by now

Ah, internet, thank you.

Daryl catches up with them and Lydia says how she totally misses her people in a “I’m not lying honest” way and agrees to go back. She does point out that Alpha is breaking her rules by coming for her. There’s a prisoner exchange and Henry pouts. Aldren and Luke are greeted with hugs, Alpha slaps Lydia for calling her momma.

Oh but before that the dead move in and the baby won’t stop crying despite the zombie masked mother’s attempts to quiet them. Alpha has a simple rule - the baby is quiet or they leave it for the dead - and the mother leaves the baby on the floor to be eaten. Connie, who never made it to the wall, runs out to save the baby, alerted by Luke signing, and there’s a hairy moment of running through a corn field full of zombies carrying the baby (especially hard for the Deaf Connie since the corn restricts her vision and she can’t hear the dead advancing on her) before Darryl and Kerry rescue her - and the baby.

Henry is super pissed about all this but Enid and Darryl both make the point to him that sometimes things are awful and you have to live with it. He even invokes Daryl’s own history of abuse to demand how he could send Lydia back - which is just rubbing salt in the wounds.

Henry leaves in the night to save Lydia, Daryl goes after Henry and Connie goes after Daryl because we need to centre these new characters somehow.

Ok someone has to tell me why the Whisperers are so scary. Or how they even work

I mean, when we first met them directing a herd? That was scary. In the dark, whispering? That was scary. But outside of that context they’re like a haunted house with the lights turned on

The Walking Dead: Season 9, Episode 10: Omega

Lydia has been imprisoned in Hilltop and is now locked in a cell opposite Henry the sympathetic who wants to know her life story

She talks a lot about her life just after the apocalypse - and we get a flash back to her, her dad and her mother and them living in a shelter. In her recap, her dad was kind of an arsehole, being harsh and uncaring while her mother tried to comfort her and convince her that the world wasn’t ending while her dad was uncaring and awful and wanting to run off and generally snarling.

Lydia adds her own commentary about how her dad was the worst but her mother was strong and did what she had to - including at one point having to kill a man who was noisily panicking about being surrounded by scary zombies. Something Daryl thinks was necessary and understandable to survive since the apocalypse has you make hard choices. Later her dad ends up killed trying to save her from a zombie

This added to the lessons Lydia learned from her mother - you had to be hard, you had to be strong, and other bizarre ideas like “hunger is a gift”. She’s also convinced that settlements like this cannot possibly last becsause the world belongs to the dead and instead they have to wander around with zombies, catch blood poisoning from all the rotting meat and eat earth worms or anything lese they can just about scavenge without alerting the rotten nastiness around them

This makes perfect sense

Meanwhile Henry, listening to all this, decides it’s a great idea to tell Lydia about his parents and the other settlements in the area - until Daryl intervenes because they’re supposed to be questioning her and how can Henry possibly be this clueless? HOW?! Henry insists Lydia is a nice person and Daryl is a big ol’ mean meaning for not trusting the enemy agent who tried to kill one of them

Henry also sneaks her out in the middle of the night to eat earth worms (because that’s a thing the Whisperers do) and nearly get hit in the head by a hammer before she realises that maaaybe this settlement might actually be here to say

And Daryl confronts her - he recognises the marks on her arms as that she has been beaten - and guesses rightly that it was by her mother. As a man abused as a child himself he can see some parts of her story that don’t make sense - how her father has been cast as the villain but the story is inconsistent.

While I like Daryl examining his own past (and Henry bringing in Carol and how she cut her hair to avoid her abusive husband using it as a way to hurt her and has only grown it out now she feels safe which is a nice touch), I do think that this is somewhat simplistic - I mean “my abuse didn’t look like that” is not a valid way to criticise another’s abuse. Nor is pointing to an abuser’s acts of kindness proof that they weren’t/aren’t an abuser.

With Daryl poking a different story emerges - Lydia’s father was the supportive, caring, protective one and all the bad actions Lydia has ascribed to her dad actually came from her mother. Her mother told her her version of events over and over and over and over so many times that Lydia herself came to believe them (classic gas lighting); from simple things like cutting her hair through to the violence and willingness to leave

And, above all, her dad’s death - not at the hands of a zombie, but at the hands of Lydia when he refused to abandon their friends when they were struggling against the newly raised walker.

Again I’m going with good but simplistic here -on the one hand gaslighting like this is such a common abusive tactic - telling Lydia the beatings make her stronger, how they have to be hard and how weakness is terrible while at the same time stressing that her dad was the bad guy.

What I consider simplistic is that Lydia, after years of believing this, could apparently be turned by a couple of minutes of Daryl’s doubt.

But Lydia now recognises her mother as the big bad - which is awkward, because her mother arrives with a strong of Whispers all within easy mow-down-with-nows range to demand her daughter back

The Walking Dead: Season 9, Episode 9: Adaption

The new reboot continues and we have to remember Jesus is still dead, after being already only blink-and-you-miss-it gay and having his storyline vastly cut from what it was. No, I’m not amused. Oh yet Negan is alive and free. Of course he fecking is

And we have the introduction of a new enemies, a group of people in a post technology world that exist by hanging around with lots of rotting bodies. They call themselves the Whispers. I call them the Sufferers of Septicaemia. And, of course, all the settlements have turned against each other for not apparent reason, perhaps only because without The Supreme Lord Rick everything must collapse because all hail Rick.

Which means we open with Jesus’s corpse (not over this) and Michonne and Darryl doing a fighting retreat while everyone withdraws. And having to learn that fighting human led Walkers is awkward - after all a closed gate is no longer an impassable barrier

Alas we do have to catch up with Negan and he isn’t just eaten. He is lurking around being sinister and trying to escape and is found by Judith holding a gun. He tries to talk her out of shooting him - but wisely realises she is Not Bluffing. Judith is a child of the apocalypse and ruthlessness will be baked into her.

At least I would have thought so -but she still lets him go. Aaaargh really? WHY IS HE NOT DEAD?! Everyone has to agree that “You won’t shoot” “yes I will - bang” would have been awesome.

In Alexandria a whole lot of people whose names I don’t remember are being organised by Tara and Enid. And Luke, one of the new guys I guess whose name I better remember, volunteers to help to get in with the group, teaming up with Enid’s boyfriend Alden

Alden is so going to die. He’s such angst fodder. They talk music but I’m not going to pay much attention to them until I know one or more of them is going to actually live

Either way it’s all pointless because Michonne and co make it back fine anyway. On the way they run into some Walkers and Daryl has found a convenient way to tell who is actually a Walker and who is a Whisperer… shoot them in the leg and when they scream they’re a human. And about to get eaten by all their fellows

Which kind of puts a big question on how effective the Whisperers are since they have to stumble around one trip or sneeze from being eaten, they’re incapable of running or seeking cover when faced with range attacking and have to go into battle while method acting. This has flaws as a battle strategy

Exploiting this, they manage to grab a captive to drag back to Alexandria. There everyone is sad about Jesus being dead. They quickly remind us as well that they want like ALL THE VENGEANCE because they totally care about Jesus. Honest. Unlike the writers

My bitterness rises

Michonne, after bonding with Daryl over the whole dead Rick thing, decides it’s time for her to head back to Alexandria, with Aaron declaring how he’s totally agreeing with Michonne on how they should hunker down and never co-operate with their faithful friends to launch a co-ordinated response to the army threatening them

Because… reasons? Yeah that made no sense at all.

She leaves Daryl behind to question the fragile little remaining Whisperer - he intimidates her a lot in which she talks about how grim everything is, they need the dead to survive and, oh, all settlements like this fail eventually. She mentions her mother but her estimate of the numbers of Whispers are clearly lies. Also they don’t have names.

The Walking Dead: Season 9, Episode 8: Evolution

The Walking Dead's previous issues with LGBTQ characters

Blink and you miss it LGBTQ portrayals

The Walking Dead: Season 9, Episode 7: Stradivarius

Andrew Lincoln Leaving the Walking Dead

Leadership on the Walking Dead

The Walking Dead, Season 9, Episode 6: Who Are You Now?

In Defence of Reboots

The Walking Dead: Season 9, Episode 5: What Comes After

The Walking Dead, Season 9, Episode 4: The Obliged

The Walking Dead, Season 9, Episode 3: Warning Signs

The Walking Dead, Season 9, Episode 2: The Bridge

Per our previous post: some of our recaps and reviews are now coming in video format.

Andrew Lincoln and Maggie leaving The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead, Season 9, Episode 1: A New Beginning

Per our previous post: some of our recaps and reviews are now coming in video format.

Links to relevant discussions mentioned in this recap:
Andrew Lincoln Leaving the Walking Dead
Glenn's death
Rick and his Fan Club
Dystopians: The Leadership of cishet white able bodied men.




And, of course, we all mark the passing of Scott Wilson. Rest in Peace

Fear the Walking Dead, Season 4, Episode 16.... I Lose Myself

Althea is still alive - running from zombies, alone until she runs into Martha who has a mission for her - she wants Althea to take a message to Morgan

Althea’s not having that

So, after a scuffle, Martha knocks her out - but does safely deliver Althea (she doesn’t hate Althea because Althea doesn’t help people - she trades for their stories which isn’t the same as help) to the rest of the gang with a video of Martha saying… well the same thing she’s always been saying. Let’s face it, Martha isn’t exactly a person with multiple messages and themes.

But the gangs together and Morgan tells them all about Alexandria and it’s time to head there - but on the way they’re going to Polar Bear’s truck stop so they can pick up boxes and still help people.

Except Morgan wants to help Martha, even though she’s sick, even though she’s dying, even though she continually trying to kill them over and over and over again. Morgan wants to help her and decides to go off alone to do that. John agrees to wait with the rest at the truck stop for 2 days before coming to find him. That gives them time to reflect on moving on, building a new future, making up for the bad stuff they’ve done and for June and John to have an “awww” moment.

Morgan and Martha meet up with Morgan killing zombie James and she’s clearly very very ill, unable to stand and generally sick. He insists on trying to help and offers her medicine and she continually refuses. He forces her into a police car so he can drag her back - while she struggles and fights and resists

He rightly concludes she’s lost someone and she tells him about her dead husband Hank. He tries to tell her how it’s all not her fault she doesn’t have to do this - and Martha isn’t to blame and is who he used to be etc etc etc they’ve been saying the same words over and over since she first appeared

But drama - all of the gang at the Truck Stop are suddenly horrifically ill and awful and call Morgan to say something’s wrong. It turns out that Martha has poisoned the bottled water with antifreeze as punishment for them helping people. Morgan steps on it to try and get back as soon as possible to tell them (his walkie doesn’t have the same range as the Truck Stop’s transmitter) - and Martha drives them off the road.

After the crash Morgan has something impaled in his leg and is all woozy as Martha draws on his face as she does all her prezombies with “Lose someone lose myself” just in case we missed the oh-so-subtle message here. Morgan again tries to save her and she reveals she’s been bitten

She made sure he couldn’t help her. And now he has to kill her to help his friends. He fights her but he’s utterly terrified that if he kills her he will change back to what he was. He’s also afraid that if he loses everyone, suffers another loss, he will also go back to the evil Morgan. This was why he left Alexandria in the first place - he didn’t want to lose more people he cared about and was afraid of what he would become. He refuses to kill her and instead leaves her handcuffed to the car so when she turns she can’t hurt anyone else

Really? She has been BITTEN. This is a point where putting her out of everyone’s misery would be quite reasonable here Morgan

He then staggers off on foot (did he even try to drive the car?), fighting zombies, hobbling, desperately trying to help his friends. He does get close enough to call them and tell them what they’ve been poisoned by - and June knows ethanol is the cure. They have a tanker of that but when they all fight to recover it, working together, rescuing each other, they end up losing it when Althea has to use the Big Guns on her truck to clear out the zombies.

Or apparently lose it

Fear the Walking Dead: Season 4, Episode 15: I Lose People

At the end of last episode, Morgan had one of his massive emotional yo-yos and is all depressed on the top of the hospital roof. James continues to insist on blaming Morgan for him being bitten but no-one else really buys into that - with Wendell happily volunteering to murder him and save everyone the trouble

June still has a borderline disturbing faith in Morgan still. But at least she’s not waiting around for him to lead. Oh she’d like him to lead but is willing to take charge but he can help. Because Althea is still down in the building somewhere and probably in need of a rescue.

The rest of the group have met up - Victor and John being found by Alicia and Charlie. Because everyone here is emotionally see-sawing at the moment it’s not John’s turn to be super depressed and give up hope. While Victor has come round the other way. Even though they’re at opposite ends of the lake full of monster alligators, he’s seeing Alicia working with Charlie. And if Alicia can forgive Charlie after all the devil child has done to her than anything can happen and everyone can come together and be all shiny and hippy.

Especially when Alicia hears June on their walkie-talkie. Except Morgan is a little less shiny because Martha is listening to them and he’s still full of self-blame and guilt and moping. Alicia isn’t buying it. Yes she was all fragile and close to breaking and needing a win last episode - but she has got her win. She’s on top of the world

I can’t decide if the hyper emotional see-sawing of everyone on this show is exhausting or perhaps a well written indication of how very emotionally damaged everyone is. Maybe both.

Alicia plans her next step, how to get to Victor and John across the island when Martha attacks. She’s furious that they’re trying to help and, seeing her wounds, Alicia and Charlie offer to help her. Martha gets rather agitated about that. She continues her ongoing spiel about helping making people weak. And then collapses because she is injured

This does leave them free to grab Althea’s big machine gun van which is perfect for crossing the water and rescuing Victor and John

They also take Martha captive because good guys never kill their enemies. And they really really really really need to start. She’s angry of course about all the helping stuff and also because they broke her “chain” (she kills a helper, makes them into a zombie then uses that zombie to kill the next one and takes that zombie. Yes she’s not rational).

Fear the Walking Dead, Season 4, Episode 14: MM54

It’s time for some history for Martha (i.e. muddy woman) - which is pretty necessary when you create a character that is pretty much “frothing psychopath” which is both problematic and really really really damn lazy.

So way back in presumably the early days of the apocalypse (I presume by the number of cars since you won’t see so many of them in current stage apocalypse) Martha and her partner where in a car when they had a terribad accident in which he is badly impaled. He is suffering and dying slowly and she tragically, tearfully reassures him someone will stop and help them. She tries to flag down several cars

None stop

In a truly tragic scene he dies and he turns into a zombie - and Martha has to kill him. She then buries him and has a complete breakdown lying on his grave getting steadily muddier. When she leaves she finds a woman leaving one of the boxes and Martha corrects her spelling (she was an English teacher. Also it’s clear these box deliverers are really really uber hippies because she even thanks Martha for nitpicking her spelling in the Apocalypse) and then kills her - for the crime of helping and suggest Martha helps

Martha then goes from box to box, killing helper after helper, turning them into zombies and then using said zombie to kill the next helper. She wants to find the person who started this - Polar Bear, ranting that people who are helped don’t learn to take care of themselves.

And she hears Morgan on the radio

To the present when she has used Althea’s truck to unleash a hail of bullets against our heroes. And miraculously while everyone’s a little beat up no-one is actually dead or seriously injured. She stops the truck to try and finish them off - but Wendall gets out of the truck and shoots her (laying on the floor since his wheelchair was destroyed) - bird shot - but he does shoot her. This has her hiding in her truck and driving off mid rant. Not necessarily because she’s given up - but because a horde is arriving. And the truck - with all the boxes in it - explodes. An ever increasing number of zombies has gathered and the gang has no choice but to try and run and keep ahead of it.

They stagger down the road, kind of injured conscious of the fact that the zombies are following and they’re kind of beaten up. Morgan sees a sign for a hospital and thinks it’s a good place to hide and hold up and have June check their injuries

I mean… he’s kinda not exactly wrong with this reasoning. But in the zombie apocalypse I can think of few places more likely to be full of zombies: hospitals, residential homes, prisons.

James starts having a tantrum about how Morgan has led them astray and caused all these problems and no-one else is especially thrilled with this - Sarah in particular is quick to speak up in Morgan’s defence and demand James kind of get in line.

They arrive at the hospital and find that they do have something of a sanctuary for a little time, long enough for June to confirm no-one is that badly hurt and to get Morgan a wheelchair. We also have some character exploration: Althea, the journalist of eternal questions, asks Wendell what caused him to need a wheelchair (which… look “journalist” doesn’t justify intrusive unnecessary questions). He was hurt as a 10 year old child saving another child. This actually gave him a drive to help people - enough to join the marines who laughed him out without even looking at his application. Wendell is not entirely unsympathetic to to Martha’s point - helping people gets you hurt. (Which isn’t entirely Martha’s philosophy since she thinks helping people hurts them). This is also why Sarah left the Marines - not agreeing how they treated and devalued Wendell.

Fear the Walking Dead, Season 4, Episode 13: BlackJack

Morgan and the truckers are all still looking for the mysterious man who had the Truck before them, all of Morgan’s friends, Quinn world peace and some really good drugs

June not just wants to find John but she has definitely had a full blown conversion to the Morgan Cult.

James is not a fan, referring to the truck as an “airport shuttle” because of all the extras they’re grabbing. Althea is somewhat neutral but wants to find Quinn because he has her truck and she’s obsessive about it. Sarah and Wendell are kind of mellow because they’re kind of mellow about everything. They’re also great fun with their points for killing zombies, casual rogueish approach to the apocalypse, low key competence and general fun

It’s nice to have characters approaching the apocalypse with a casual amusement. I also like that Wendell proves he is quite capable of defending himself while James clearly isn’t (and learns strongly that Wendel is not incapable because he uses a wheelchair).

And they find one of the Dirty Woman’s written on zombie which leads to a walky talky conversation with her. It’s what we expect from her filthy weirdness. People are strong when they’re alone and stabbing people in the face for the last cookie in the world but helping people or needing help or accepting help just makes you super super super weak and shameful. I mean is she actually against all co-operation? Because any kind of co-operation requires a level of help. Does she think everyone should be a wandering loner?

She also reveals she knows Morgan was big bad and scary in the past so he needs to be so again.

Morgan’s not doing that. And to double down on that by burying the graffiti zombie because… well he’s almost a parody now. Ok Morgan, I get that you’re all good and fluffy now but, what, 90% of the entire world’s population is actually dead (though we are kind of assuming that. For all we know isolated islands are fine. Hey, maybe it’s confined entirely to the Americas) he’s going to be digging a whole long time. In fact you may cause more environmental damage with the holes than just leaving the bodies to rot. Morgan has a big speech about how they will continue to meet and help everyone

They spend a little while reflecting on how nice the guy - known as Polar Bear - who set up this trucking network was. Wendal and Sarah are sure he’s alive - they have standards. They wouldn’t steal from someone who couldn’t manage alone. Awww aren’t they nice.

Sarah and Wendell still aren’t entirely on side with riding to the rescue and Sarah even begins to draw a blade on Morgan … which he deals with in 2 seconds with his stick. Sarah and Wendell quickly realise Morgan has 10,000 levels of badass more than them and decide they have absolutely no objection with going where he wants to go - especially since Althea can drive the truck

Fear the Walking Dead, Season 4, Episode 12: Weak

After the hurricane, June and Althea survived. And June is super sad she didn’t go with John. Despite the fact she was definitely in two minds about going home with him and making a happy life together. She throws in a bit of beating herself up - how she always runs when something terrible happens.

She keeps trying to call John on the walky talky. They’re both stranded near Althea’s big, scary SWAT van - they’ve ran out of diesel, but Althea is obsessed with this van. She can’t bring herself to leave it - even as they begin stripping all the resources from the area.

When they get some static on the Walky, June insists they go to high ground to find out - despite Althea being super reluctant to leave the van. And beginning to feel ill which is always worrisome in an apocalypse. You need radical healing methods

As they travel Althea is very evasive whenever June tries to ask her about her story. As they drive they see her SWAT van drive past - someone has stolen it. Althea is NOT HAVING THAT and charges after them at such a terrible unsafe scene they end up crashing off the road… and when trying to fix the car it’s clear Althea isn’t just a little ill - she’s can’t-stand-sweating-messily sick. She needs medicine - medicine she claims she has on the van

So when June hears the van’s guns she goes to investigate. She’s held at gunpoint by a man and desperately tries to reason with him by not-subtly throwing around this season’s theme. Yes we all used to be evil, stealing, taking, desperately getting by, screw everyone else but we don’t have to be that way. We can make better choices and be good people. Kumbaya et al. He’s not convinced and even makes a good point - if he does join them he will be “guy in group who once didn’t shoot June” which makes him pretty disposable

He’s kinda not wrong. I mean even aside from a “who do we save” perspective, from a narrative point the writers would so make him disposable. I mean not THE most disposable but still.

June does get the upper chance in the fight and suddenly he’s all willing to talk - and he tells him it’s time to leave. She doesn’t shoot him - just drives him off. She then calls Althea to ask her where the medicine is - which takes a while because the very sick Althea is having zombie issues. But that dealt with she manages to tell June there isn’t any - she just wanted the van back

She wanted June to risk her life to get the van back for a lie.

And Althea doesn’t even seem sorry. Even when June explains why she’s really furious - not because she nearly died. But she nearly killed - she nearly became the person she used to be again!

Ooooh that may be that subtle redemption theme sledgehammering its way into the episode again.

Also, Althea… I think we have some flowers for you to look at. You need to drop these habits before you get to Alexandria.

Thankfully they find some magical healing meds and Althea is all healed. But this is when they get a message from Morgan - he’s leading his little mystery tour of Texas broadcasting out to everyone that hey he has loads of supplies, please come murder him. (I mean, really, I get that he’s taken 8 levels of crunchy hippy here, but this is suicidal. “I am Here! I have supplies!”)

June wants to drive to them as soon as possible, naturally. But Althea wants to stay. Because the truck. And at this point we have to concede that Althea’s attachment to the truck is perhaps a bit unhealthy. June asks about this - and Althea says it’s her tapes. She needs her tapes - they not only have the stories of people she’s met but also the stories of several people she loves. Stories of people she cared about, her story. She can’t face abandonning them

Um… they’re in a car. It has carrying capacity. This isn’t The Walking Dead Survival Instinct.

Why go for this? I mean maybe she just really really likes driving around in a giant fecking tank with big big guns? In fact Althea reminds me a little bit like the people of Alexandria before Rick arrived - she’s sheltered. Not because she’s been in a safe settlement - but because she’s been driving around in something equivalent - allowing her to face off against zombies and violent people alike. I think it’s understandable that she’d view this as something of a safety blanket.