I don't even know what the hell is happening.
This episode is even worse then the first one of this season.
The action was uninteresting. It’s like a generic action movie...shooting back and forth like white noise. Nothing interesting happening. Just shooting.
Boring speeches.
Daryl and Carol acting out of character.
Very few walkers.
the storyline of the walking dead is not 0 to 100
you start from 50 then you go to 80 then you see rick is an old man in 100 then you go back to 0 to see why this story becomes like this, then you see 80 to 90, then you go back to 20 to see how they have prepared for the fight!!!
why you tell the story like a puzzle? why cant you just simply start from the beginning and go to the end?
why the fuck the walking dead starts in the middle of a fight?!!
no background needed! the director is tired and is not in the mood of telling a story!!
you start to watch the walking dead, you press the play button, rick is shooting the saviors!! you dont know what happened? when did they plan for the fight? when did they become ready? and so many questions!!
you just see there is a fight going on without knowing what is going on and what happened before this fight had started!!
That was a hell lof of shooting. How many rounds were wasted? :p
Don't know if i'm watching The Walking Dead or Call Of Duty.
Oh, weak so weak. Probably the weakest episode so far.
Half of the runtime is just stupid unbelievable shooting at 5 meters apart (16 feet :D) nobody hitting anybody, all visibly not shooting and the sound is made in post-production.
I am afraid the show goes downhill from now on :(
All action in this one. Yet, some how I can't say I was really involved.
Could say like other people just said, same story guys, really bad episode..
one of the worst episodes in tv history.
I just have no idea What’s going on and it’s way too intense for zero storyline development.
God dammit, aren't they messing with Morgan. Poor guy first killed to survive, then they told him to stop killing and teach how to spare lives, then they literally forced him to start killing in order to survive as there's no other way, and now in this episode they again tell him not to kill. ahahah
[6.5/10] You are never going to fully get away from “Is it right to kill?” when you’re telling a zombie apocalypse story. Part of the inherent trappings of the genre is forcing people to make life and death decisions outside the normal day-to-day. That’s part of what makes undead movies and T.V. shows both thrilling and thought-provoking, putting the viewer in the shoes of the characters and letting them wonder whether they would be saints or slayers in such a state of nature.
But my god, The Walking Dead has been exploring these issues for seven-going-on-eight seasons at this point, and while it hasn’t dug into every possible permutation of them, it’s come close. There’s some benefit to putting new characters into those situations, to have them vacillate between Heaven and Hell and try to figure out what the right way to life in these harsh environs is. But you can only lean into this sort of “that’s not who we are” back-and-forth for so long on a television show before it starts to become rote, no matter how relevant it may be.
“The Damned” tries to make up for how many times it pushes that well-worn button by turning most of the episode into an endless cavalcade of military assaults, firefights, and action. Director Rosemary Rodriguez and editor Evan Schrodek do a nice job of making the images on the screen visually compelling even if the episode’s dialogue and thematic material is lacking.
The episode balances five major escapades all centered around the same multi-pronged attack by the coalition of the Alexandrians, the Hilltoppers, and the Kingdom. It features Aaron leading a frontal assault against one Savior compound. It has Rick and Daryl sneaking in the back of the same compound in search of guns. It has Carol and Ezekiel hunting down one of Negan’s lieutenants who use a grenade to escape their initial attack and threatens to warn the others of what’s coming. It has Jesus and Tara executing a raid on the same communications building where our heroes first encountered a collection of Saviors, and it has Morgan stalking his way through the same building, running support.
That’s a lot for one episode to juggle, and while it feels overstuffed in terms of storylines at times, it never feels out of sync visually. Schrodek does well at jumping from one setting to another to create a sense of continuity with these sequences. And Rodriguez captures the organized chaos of these attacks happening all at once, whether in the form of the bullet-trading from Aaron (whose boyfriend is potentially a casualty), to the cold and methodical killings from Morgan, to the quieter but ultimately more raw encounter between Rick and an enemy. Given the repetitive notes the episode continues to hit, some of these events feel empty in purpose, but they’re always compelling when conveying the heart-pumping, fraught qualities of these skirmishes.
The problem is that the skirmishes lead to more of the usual dilemmas that our heroes have confronted time and time again to diminishing results. The most obvious of these happens when Tara and Jesus, mid-invasion, come across a Savior with his hands up and his pants wet, having locked himself in a closet. Tara and Jesus argue about what to do with him, with the former arguing that he could be a threat and wanting to take him out and the latter buying his sob story and wanting to spare him given his unarmed, hands-up state. I’m sure there’s some intended social commentary there, particularly that last part, but it’s trite for the show at this point, and it doesn’t help when the Savior uses the duo’s indecision to take Jesus’s gun and hold him hostage.
Naturally, the situation works out for Jesus and Tara, and Jesus ties the guy up rather than kill him after their escape, but not before plenty more back and forths about what separates their group from Negan’s and whether they should violate their principles to end this now. It’s the same debate we’ve seen a million times, with nothing new to add, beyond the idea that there’s some sort of little-mentioned disagreement between Rick and Maggie on this issue that will decide what happens when Jesus and Tara try this on a larger scale with a collection of Savior hostages from the compound.
The episode also dips into the same sort of material with Rick’s hunt for guns in a different Savior compound. He gets into a knock-down-drag-out brawl with a Savior on the top floor, chokes him out, and them improbably impales him on a nearby wall protrusion. This is pretty standard combat and mayhem for The Walking Dead at this point, but the twist comes when Rick takes a key off the guy and uses it to walk into a locked room where he expects to find a cache of guns. Instead, he finds a sleeping baby.
In fairness, Andrew Lincoln does a great job of selling the moment, with the sort of disbelief and denial that Rick, a father to his own little girl, would have to this sight, that could pierce through his determined demeanor and make him realize the horror of taking another parent away from their child. But something about the moment feels unearned for the show, like a cheap trick to remind us that the Saviors, craven as they are, are still human beings, rather than something that’s developed from story or character as with Dwight or other characters we’ve gotten glimpses of in The Sanctuary.
Rick being held at gunpoint by someone he met back in Atlanta, now aligned with The Saviors, has some promise for a “how far we’ve come” reflection, but even that ends on another cheesy cliffhanger and bit of schmuck bait for the show. As I’ve said before, I’m not very interested in the battle for Rick’s soul anymore, and this tack to bring more humanity into his pragmatism does little to change that.
“The Damned” also plays the same game with Morgan to a certain extent. He is still in something of a fog and a rage after what happened with his surrogate son last season, and has turned into a cold killing machine. As much as his story hits the same beats that we’ve been over with umpteen characters at this point, it’s still compelling because Lennie James is a good enough actor to carry it. Like Rick, he’s been with the show from the beginning, but unlike Rick, we haven’t seen enough of him to have watched him go through this transformation and untransformation and retransformation several times over, so there’s still some juice left in the idea.
That said, the show can’t help depositing in on-the-nose flashbacks to signify what Morgan is feeling when the situation as depicted and James’s performance tells the audience all it needs to know. He, like Rick, nearly kills someone he knows from before because of the fog of war and his discombobulated mindset, until he’s stopped via the same moral thought experiment Jesus and Tara are engaging in. Exploring Morgan experiencing his trauma anew after things went wrong last season is a worth goal, but delivering it in these terms is a misstep.
Even the one storyline in the episode that doesn’t play to the same “we are not them” business is a repeat. Ezekiel boasts to his charges about their undoubted success in their mission, while Carol offers skeptical glances and reserved but perturbed questions. The thrust of this plot is Ezekiel dropping his act to Carol for a minute and admitting that he’s trying to pump his people up, encourage them loudly and publicly even if he has his own doubts so that they don’t visualize failure. We played this game already when they first met, and putting it in a combat setting doesn’t change much, despite some nice work from Melissa McBride and Khary Payton.
I can tell you as a committed Simpsons fan that if any show goes on long enough, it’s inevitably going to start repeating itself. You can only come up with so many novel situations, so many new reactions, before you start remixing old ideas. But this isn’t just a familiar beat reemerging in an unfamiliar form. It’s the same, essential zombie apocalypse question being asked and answered over and over and over again. It’s natural, maybe even necessary, to wonder what the ethical line is in the face of a ruthless, mortal threat, but this is the hundredth mortal threat the survivors of The Walking Dead have faced, and until the show finds new ways to explore that idea, it’s just going to feel like old hat, no matter who’s questioning whom and whether to kill this week.
I don't know what to feel about this episode to be honest. I'm giving it a 5 but I'm being generous lmao. This show has had better episodes. C'mon.
Summary:
SHOTS FIRED
SHOTS FIRED
SHOTS FIRED
Should I know who Morales is? I don't even care anymore
Man, there was A LOT of shooting in this episode! This could actually have been this episode's synopsis. It was that deep and meaningful and crucial for advancing with the story... What story? I don't even know anymore.
Why am I still watching this show.
They stopped trying a long time ago. The direction on this episode looked like it was fresh out of film school. The dialogue a hot mess as always. They have followed Game of Thrones and completely given up on a trace of realism too: suddenly they an army of people, troves of rifles and unlimited ammo.
Those shoot outs were painful. I question the tastes of anyone who finds this quality TV.
Not a good episode.
Shootout seems to be the main focus in this episode, but it is done rather terribly. Especially in Aaron's/Eric's/Tobin's team, where the conflicting parties hold each other in a very close gunpoint but nobody gets shot until the last moment (except for the Saviors of course, baddies always gets shot). The team also seems to have some trick up in their sleeves, but I guess the screenwriter thought the audience is stupid enough so one of the antagonist has to say it out loud. Morgan's/Jesus's/Tara's team is also bad, though not as bad as Aaron's/Eric's/Tobin's. There are these two scenes where people just rush without much caution exactly to the point where their teammates just got shot - you know how it ended up for them.
Well, Walking Dead isn't known to have the greatest action scenes anyway (though I still remember the Woodbury one was pretty good), but even in the drama department the tense kinda falls flat. One of the team has this scenes where they pose this "have we become what we hate"/"gaze into abyss" question - an interesting theme that seems to have been brought up by Walking Dead occasionally - but the scenes are mixed together between the loud firefights and the weird scenes involving King Ezekiel being smug of himself. That editing... really ruins the mood. They're making it hard to care with the seriousness of the theme raised.
Last - Rick encounters a familiar face. I'm getting a sense that the screenwriter is trying to evoke some sort of nuanced, conflicting values by returning this character like they did terrifically in Season 3 with Morgan (Episode 12 "Clear", still one of the best TWD episode). Except... it leaves no impression at all. I don't even remember who this guy is - something that the screenwriter seems to be aware of, that they made Rick spills the line, "Your name is..." (seriously!) It just came out of nowhere, with no foreshadowing and no build up at all. Even more so considering the character didn't get enough screen time back in Season 1.
So, yeah. The opening and closing of the episode also feel like a failed arthouse attempt to make dramatic moments - if not merely serving as filler. Unfortunately this season is still going bad so far.
What an episode! Amazing, thrilling and entertaining from beginning to end. I loved the symmetry the episode represented: it started with slo-mo close-ups of everyone's faces and ended the same way. Gotta love the cinematography of the show. Morales, lmao. I could sense the collective "Holy shit!" when he appeared. Jaw-dropping moment. Has this show jumped the ship out of the shark? It caught me by surprise. But look at him, he seems like he lost everything and he's a Savior. Let's see how long until he dies, lol. I also loved how this episode was all about humanizing people and the contrast with Tara and Morgan. Rick's expression when he found that baby was like looking into the mirror and seeing what you've become. Outstanding. Jesus all of a sudden decides to take prisoners and spare their lives when they don't deserve it. And Morgan's plot armor? Wtf? "I don't die", yeah, cause you're defended by plot armor. So two guys by his side get murdered with loads of gunshots and he just has a scratch in his arm? Eric getting shot was seen miles away. And so, did Tobin die? It was way too quick but I'm pretty sure he did. That shot of Rick walking down the dark corridor spooked me. That was a great scene.
Ezekiel's "Fake it till you make it baby" killed me. I laughed my ass off. Best line this episode.
Quick question then, did I miss something or where the hell is that infinite ammo coming from? I remember when bullets were a short supply. And they didn't have a lot of guns and if I'm not mistaken they gave a lot of guns to the garbage people. The Montage with Morgan shooting the Saviours point blank was epic! He should've killed that stupid price Jared.
In all honesty, the deepest part of the episode was Rick realizing he killed the baby's father. That really hit me. It was gut wrenching to see him leave the baby there.
When Daryl saw those cuffs I wondered if he thought of Merle or his time in the cell. Or both
pfffff another baby that fucks up the walking dead....Why do we even neer this..OMG....and please lets try to learn oud freedom fighters to aim whole shooting. It's like you coupe audition them for the A team right away...
THE DAMNED
-101-
Awesome!
Just fucking Awesome!
The Walking Dead is back on track!
So much action in this one...
Oh my. Love it. Can't belive the action goes on.
Morgan going full badass after getting shot. O.o
Savage as fuck!
Ezekiel is just... you can't describe it^^
Shiva kills another guy. What's not to like.
Wonder how that hostage situation for Jesus and Tara turns out...
Rick and Daryl at that Outpost. Intense. And as he saw that little baby.
Not all of them are bad. Or are they? Which brings me to the next thing:
Morales is back!
Yesss! After all this years!
Creepy to think that if they would have come with him, they could have become Saviors....
The directing on this episode was really below average, typified by those bookend close up shots which were equal parts pretentious and atrocious. Also, the lack of sense of place, what the objectives were, why people were splitting/meeting up, bad fight scenes, Rick & Daryl wandering around the Saviors' main lair with almost no one there to stop them, and...actually just everything. Worst of all we're no further advanced than last week, ok, they've taken 1 (count 'em) one outpost.
In fact, this week's episode of Z Nation had a better sense of place, equal movement of the plot, and less confusing machinations than this one and the protagonists in that show spent the whole episode in weird teleporting boxes being zapped unconscious with sound by an unknown entity who was using them to clear out a zombie infested underground factory complex after being honey-potted by a driver-less ghost-truck.
Nothing... Literally nothing of any importance happened this episode.
Way better episode than last weeks but its still not a good episode. There were at least people fighting back this time, even though they were missing 99% of their shots.
I don't understand Morgan. He seems to be all in on killing when necessary, not killing, and now he is pulling a Rick Grimes and going crazy killing people. There is no middle ground with him, can't he just act like everyone else? Plus how thick is his plot armor in this episode? I mean two guys shot dead with multiple bullets right next to him and he has a scratch on his arm, come on.
It's been so long since season 1 that I had to look up who this Morales was. When someone is in a few episodes 7 seasons ago I need a refresher on the show. Don't make me go look it up.
Welcome back Morales! We missed you lol
Shout by Jacob PBlockedParentSpoilers2023-03-21T06:53:01Z
All Out War is the best way to describe both episodes in this season so far. Intense, action-packed and with a hugely unanticipated ending!