by Thom Yee

Images courtesy of AMC and Fox International Channels

4×08:  “Too Far Gone”

One of the big surprises from last season’s conclusion is that the Governor got away.  He wasn’t shot, eaten, or tortured to death, and remained at large no matter what fate he seemed to have earned.  That’s something we all knew was going to come up at some point, and I’m happy to see that his return has been largely fulfilling.

The first moment we see Rick and Daryl arguing over Rick’s decision to abandon Carol was a sobering one for me.  Remember, Carol had been the one that killed the first two people with the virus, and… oh, who cares!  Man, I was tired of that storyline, and if we hadn’t had two episodes away from the prison, I think I would’ve been pretty sick of the whole show by now.  Sure, the last two Governor-centric episodes may have made the overall arc of the first half of this season a little uneven, but by now the affairs of the prison had become so overdrawn that seeing them all blown away by a tank (rather than worked through with reason or logic or “talking about our problems”) is a welcome relief.

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 by Thom Yee

Images courtesy of AMC and Fox International Channels

4×07:  “Dead Weight”

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:  if I ever find myself in a post-apocalyptic zombie world, I will give up almost immediately.  None of this running around, gathering supplies, forming uneasy alliances with groups that clearly have their own interests at heart until the whole thing goes belly up in a final confrontation between the good and evil that stirs within all men’s hearts (because who are the real monsters?).  Supposedly there are innate patterns of behaviour we follow given certain stimuli, instincts that tell us — right or wrong — what to do.  Instinctively, we can sense danger.  Instinctively, we’d run if a zombie were after us.  Most of us, instinctively, would reach out to help someone running from a zombie if we could do so without putting ourselves in too much danger.  I still maintain that in a world of the walking dead I would find my way to the top of a tall building and jump, my instincts having told me that survival in such a world wouldn’t be worth it.

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by Thom Yee

Images courtesy of AMC and Fox International Channels

4×06:  “Live Bait”

After what, in retrospect, turned out to be an exhausting series of season-opening episodes based around the comparatively invisible threat of a virus, “Live Bait” turned out to be a pretty big relief.  The show may have come back in a big way with last week’s “Internment”, a surprisingly action-packed installment, but a break away from our normal setting turned out to be a welcome respite from the normal doom and gloom of a dreary prison and an even drearier people.

“Internment” concluded with this season’s debut of the Governor, menacingly staring at the prison just outside the forestry surrounding it.  We’ll have to wait at least another week to see how that reunion goes, as this week (and next) we have the continuing adventures of the Governor, aka Philip Blake, aka Brian Heriot, aka Snake Plissken on the road.  Continue reading →

by Thom Yee

Images courtesy of AMC and Fox International Channels

4×05:  “Internment”

There was a moment of sheer terror as I watched Hershel, Glenn and Sasha help yet another heretofore unidentified virus-stricken person stay alive for a few more hours, and I thought to myself, “… is this going to be a bottle episode?”  It was starting to feel like the kind of episode that would rely heavily on introspection as we faced even more (boring) realities of fighting a virus and not much action.  For those not blessed enough to have lived significant parts of their lives watching Community, a bottle episode is an episode designed to be produced cheaply, relying on sets already built, main characters, and as little preparation and outside work as possible.  But holy sh*t, this was not a bottle episode.

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