*Warning Spoilers are Ahead*
"After" shows the aftermath of the prison attack and the shocking death of one of my favorite characters, Hershel Greene. As expected, the episode follows what happened to Rick and Carl after the group split, but unfortunately, the episode rehashes some old themes with the conflict between Rick and Carl. Most of the episode featured Carl brooding and being angry at Rick for not treating him like a man. Haven't we already seen this conflict resolved in previous episodes? Or am I forgetting something. I am debating whether or not Carl make sense since he is still a teen, or at the same time, he acted more mature in the past. In the end, some of the scenes worked, others did not; it was mostly a mixed bag for me. When Carl sees the video games and has a this moment of joy, but then returns back to his survival self was a very well executed scene. Also, the part where he eats all of the chocolate pudding was perfect! And kind of hilarious, especially the part where he tells Rick that he did it. Speaking of Rick, I kept thinking: "There is no way that he is going to die, but maybe he will." I do not know why, but the way the episode presented his character, it seemed as though there was a slight chance that he would die, but in the back of mind, I knew they could not actually do it. Even though Rick acting like a zombie was something that I expected when he would not wake up, seeing Carl breakdown, unable to shoot his father, was well done. The best part of the episode was most definitely Michonne's scenes. The trippy dream-sequence/flashback was filmed brilliantly, particularly the part where her knife turns into her Samurai sword. Considering what Michonne had said in the past, it was obvious that she once had a child, but I did not expect her to he so well off since she sounded as though she had a difficult past before the zombies apocalypse. Hopefully we will get to see more of her backstory since her character is finally starting to be fully realized. My only compliant with the Michonne part is that the zombies seemed surprisingly easy to tame considering that in season three Milton said that the lack of arms and other methods to attack made the zombies easier to tame. However, I wish she did not kill her pack zombies again since I really liked that about her character in the third season.
As usual with the series, the zombie action was suspenseful as ever some very tense scenes that reminded me why The Walking Dead is such a great series. With the exception of a few characters, no one is safe, therefore every zombie encounter is suspenseful and exciting! Also, as always with the show, the effects for the zombies and everything was top notch.
Opening with a clear picture of the Government with a clearly defined bullet hole in his head that confirms that we will not be seeing him return as a Walker, although that would have been interesting. Alsp, seeing Hershel's zombified head was unexpected for sure, but it was good to confirm that his body was, indeed, dead.
Overall: 7.3/10- "After" gave us a solid, albeit not fantastic, episode that showed the aftermath of the mid-season finale, hopefully we will get to see more of everyone's favorite character, Daryl, next week.
Note: The ratings for The Walking Dead are not relative to other TV reviews such as Agents of SHIELD.
Providing these reviews have a decent readership, I will continue to post them as I watch the series. One other thing, this episode almost topped the Olympics in terms of ratings, and it did topped the Olympics in the most desired demographic. Considering that the Walking Dead is on cable and the Olympics is on network TV, that is mighty impressive!
What did you think of the episode? Please comment below.
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I largely agree - boring Carl scenes, better Michonne ones. As a return after a break, I thought it was a surprisingly lacklustre affair and relied on Carl being even more stupid than usual to get himself into scrapes. I like Kirkman as a comic writer on the books but think he lacks the subtlety needed for the TV version. he relies too much on characters giving speeches. Hopefully, things will bounce back in the next one, hopefully with some DARYL!!
ReplyDeleteThe series really should have started with Daryl and his group since he is the favorite of basically everyone. If this episode was the second episode of the season, I do not believe it would have been as disappointing or feel as lackluster. I need to read Kirkman's comic. I have the first issue downloaded, but I haven't read it.
Delete-James
While I found the rehashing of teen angst annoying, I never actually felt that it had been fully resolved before hand either. The end of the episode felt like it completely resolved that little Carl character development and completely reunited him with Rick, so I was happy by the end of the episode. While it wasn't what I expected to deal with in the first episode, I thought overall it was wrapped up well by the end. And Carl is only, what, fourteen or something? I was able to give him some room since at that age, we all think we're grown up when we're really not (even though it came off as annoying). :P Hopefully, we just won't have to revisit this angst again.
ReplyDeleteI still think Rick is untouchable, I still got a little worried by the end!!! Poor guy! I was startled by Hershel's head; just, "Awww, we just had to see him as a walker, didn't we? *cries*"
While Michonne still isn't one of my favorite characters or anything, I really appreciated getting some visual back story for her and I feel more open to her character on a whole now (I loved the very end, by the way!)
I hope we get to see what happened to Daryl, Judith and the others tonight! Hopefully the group won't be split for too long but that might be too much as to ask. :P
~Jamie
Thanks for the long comment Jamie! I agree, by the end of the episode, the conflict appeared resolved and I hope it stays that way. If this episode was the second or third episode after the break, Carl's angst would not have been as noticeable for me, I think. Yeah, I kept debating whether or not Carl should be acting that way since he is still a kid, and I ended up being in the middle of annoyed by him being dumb and okay with it since he is a teen, which is why I was mostly indifferent. :)
DeleteI know, Rick can't die, but I never thought as though he was going to actually more so than I did in that episode (did that statement make any sense?).
Michonne isn't one of my favorite characters either, but I do like her Samurai sword. :)
Can't wait for tonight!
-James