They did "rationalize" him out of going back to Terminus and offing everyone with the whole "the fences are down, the place is in flames and swarming with walkers... they either run or die," though... and, in that respect, they were probably right. I don't know that I'd risk wading through a bunch of flaming walkers to go back and kill whatever Terminites might be left (unless I knew what would come of it in advance, of course).

Oh... and Gareth and his crew are soooooo many degrees of magnitude worse than the Governor and (pseudo spoiler if the TV show follows the comic even just a little) they kind of set up a lead in to another dude that's even worse than they are! Louisville Slugger wrapped in barbed-wire, anyone?

Point of note: I like "bat-s#!t crazy Rick," a lot!

I feel like, at this point, the show and the comics are distinct stories. Some things in common, but far from the same... and really, that's what needs to be the case, now.

Crazy Rick is fun. I have to say, at this point in time, you need a strong leader that people just follow. The whole council thing is great if you have peace, but when survival is on a knife edge, you don't have time to talk things out.

...the TV series has seriously diverged from the comics in a lot of respects in regards to both plot "arcs" and characters. Events have been shifted, some characters on the show are amalgams of several others (or analogs of characters with different names) in the comics, and there are several characters that died on the TV series that are still going strong(ish) in the comics and vice versa. Not to mention that, in a lot of cases, the characters in the series are portrayed as completely different from the comics.

Honestly, I think that's one of the reasons I like the show so much... The very first episode was pretty true to the first 3 or four issues of the comic series, so, initially, I was like, "oh, okay... I know where this is going and what's gonna happen to who..." and it was kind of depressing to think I'd ruined the show for myself. But then the TV show "went off the rails" and I was all kinds of WOOOOO-friggin-HOOOOOO!!! I actually prefer the TV show to the comics, these days... the writing is better and the visuals are just incredible and, while there are definite correlations between the show and the comics in some form or fashion, there's no longer that sense (as a long time reader of the comics) that I know what's coming and who's going to be who. It's AWESOME!

Is the surprise the Hunter's will have, if they go by the comics, as far as them eating Bob's leg.

Oh and yeah the Slugger guy he will be bad very bad if they again go by the comic..............

...They wrapped that threat up pretty darn quick! I was expecting it to have been drawn out for at least an episode or three longer.... Interesting...

I am SO glad that they did. I know that everybody loved the Governor... I felt like that drug on for about en entire season too long.

If we were going to have an entire season of cannibals - or, God forbid - a season plus - I was going to get very disillusioned with the show.

I get that there are going to be conflicts among humans. This should be part of the show, yes. The dynamic of the group that Darryl fell in with, post-prison, was really interesting.

But to me, this felt contrived. Rick knows that we can't let the cannibals survive, but c'mon, Rick, even though we can walk out of a horde, those guys will be dead or run away. Surprise! They're stalking you! Just, no.

Also, I'm sorry, but I HATED the entire cannibal concept, anyway.

Will people turn to cannibalism to survive? Sure.

Will people get xenophobic when the world goes crazy? Sure.

Do I buy for a moment that because some bad guys abused the Terminus people, a community of 50 plus people all decide to start luring strangers in for the sole purpose of eating them? C'mon, man.

I'm glad this part is over. More zombies in the zombie apocalypse for me, please.

...I just kind of came into the season believing that they would have drawn the hunters angle out a little longer (not saying I'm disappointed that they didn't). In light of last night's episode, I'm thinking that the whole Terminus thing was added to the show in order to actually shorten "The Hunters" arc as opposed to stretching it out.

Terminus wasn't in the comics and, it seemed to me, that Rick and company were stalked by the hunters in print for quite a bit longer than they were on TV... The outcome was pretty much the same, though. Merciless! Interested to see whats over the next bridge, now.

I'm interested to see what happens with the Beth angle. I'm glad that they did not go the comic route and have her eaten by the cannibals... to me, it would have really cheapened the character development she finally got last season with Darryl for her to die off camera like that.

And from here, the Washington storyline. Though man... DON'T SPLIT THE PARTY, RICK!

I agree last night's episode did follow what I know of the comic's. I loved the part where Bob went from crying to laughing, though I wished there would have been more shock when they all realized they had eaten 'tainted meat'

Personally I thought Rick should have, while waiting for Daryl and Carol's return, tied up Garath and watched to see if he turned. Be the ultimate revenge to calmly talk to him as he is in the process of becoming a zombie. Then after he turns kill him with the machete as promised in the first episode of this season.

As far as the full comic storyline I knew about the Hunters's and the baseball batman However is there another villain before he shows up they could possibly throw into the mix?

Interesting episode in which we find out (at long last) what happened to Beth. To me, this was somewhat of a complete left turn for the series (paring the episode down to focus on a single character - and one who, for the most part, hadn't really done much of anything aside from sing and look pretty since season 2 (and the last couple of episodes she was in in S4)) aaaaaand I really kind of liked it!!! As I said, not really your "standard" Walking Dead episode and, IMO, a rather needed side-trip to remind some of us what this show really has the potential to be!

Beth's "character development" in this episode was kind of a big adrenaline rush - you got to see her go from a perceived meekling to a surprise hero in the span of forty-some minutes and it's just spectacular!

As to Officer Dawn and the hospital crew... I'm thinking that we just got our first look at the TV show's analog to the comic series "Saviors" which, most likely, will lead to the introduction of the next "truly" Big Bad but I'm kind of hoping that they save that reveal for perhaps the season finale (not the mid-season) and they play with Dawn and/or another chapter of Saviors for a time before we get into the depths of it all and run into our next "Governor-type" antagonist.


I have also decided that I really would like to see Beth stick around for a while. I was apathetic about her character one way or another for a time but her "bonding with Daryl episodes" form the end of last season and this particular episode have gotten me a little more emotionally invested in her... which means if she doesn't get munched in the next episode, then she'll get munched in the mid-season finale most likely.

I feel exactly like you do about Beth and this arc, Eol. I never cared for her character, but the time with Daryl changed that. I was ticked for some time, as I thought they had killed her off screen with the cannibals, nice to know that's not the case.

Seeing Beth set the bad cop up to get munched was epic.

Dawn is an utter fruit loop. I'll be glad to see her die.

Last night kind of sucked. I knew that Eugene smelled like BS, but this? Oi.

I had high hopes for Abraham. Guess he's too broken. :/

...that they sprang on us much sooner than I had expected! *blink-blinkity-blink* They're tearing through a LOT of material with a crazy quickness this season and, as much as I hate to say it, might be "losing" some people in the process.

It wasn't the most exciting episode, for sure, and I can't say that I hated it at all, but I do think that, if you're not one of us "I've read the comics" types, a LOT of the impact surrounding Abraham's flashback scenes (and to a lesser extent, Eugene's "confession") might have gotten lost. *shrugs*

Still, story-arc ambiguity aside, I'm interested to see how things work out for Abe and company vs the "print version"... and hoping that, in a future episode or two, they fill in some of the blanks they scrawled out with this last one.

What about that season opener? Hated the loss we had there.

Last night's was a pretty good episode, too, though I hate all of the defeatism that's going on right now. Understand it, mind you, but I hate it.

I swear, if this new guy is yet another bad guy/cannibal/jerkface with some long game, I'm going to scream. I'm tired of man vs man, let's have some man vs the environment, man vs zombie, etc for a while.

Also... Washington, DC. Really? You guys steered clear of Atlanta due to the overwhelming zombie numbers. But Washington is a good idea... why?

Ok question to all Walking Dead fans.

Who do you think Negan will kill in the season finale if they don't do it as a cliff hanger.

I think Abraham.

MAJOR SPOILER Stop reading now.........














Though Daryl may have been shot he I really think he is not dead. If he dies it will be by Negan's baseball bat not Dwight. Much more impact if he is killed by Negan that way. Plus as the #1 fav character Daryl's death would be a season final thing not a 1 episode before hand thing.