This week, Negan escaped with a jerkface named Brandon and talked about nut-tapping. Magna’s group is boring us, but Ryan Hurst is singing. My name is Kent, and I ask 5 weekly questions and then people answer them. Any comments in BOLD are written by me. I hope you enjoy and if you or someone you know may want to do this blog, contact me, leave a comment, etc.
1. Why was Kelly hunting alone given her hearing issues?
Bob: Her disability does not define her. She is resisting her body’s change. (While it doesn’t necessarily define her, it is a part of her being that makes certain things more risky. I mean, being bald doesn’t define me…wait, apparently, it does. I’m not sure that I have a point anymore.)
Raylene: It seemed fairly foolish.
Chris: Well, we needed a side story to counter the Negan scenes! I feel like that manufactured a problem to involve Kelly more in the story. (I like Kelly and am fine with giving her something to do. I guess I would have preferred her getting separated from the group and seeing her fend on her own, rather than her putting herself in potential danger. As you said, it was a nice counterbalance to the Negan stuff.)
Kent: Her name was drawn out of a hat to have a small side story. Congratulations, Kelly. On the plus side, I like her character and the actress portraying her.
2. Aaron tried to communicate with Gamma and even gave her a roll of gauze. Why? Is this leading to Gamma or Aaron’s demise, or both….or neither?
Bob: both of their demises are imminent. (I was gonna start quote a song by The Who, and then I realized that it is spelled Eminence Front and not Imminence Front, and here we are. Still a great song though.)
Raylene: Perhaps Aaron wants to infiltrate The Whisperers and do damage within. (Aaron has gotten some shine this season, so I feel anything is on the table at the moment.)
Chris: Maybe both. I’m starting to dislike how they are writing Aaron. In the last few episodes, we saw him essentially treat Negan and Lydia like dirt because they directly or indirectly caused deaths of people he loved. Now there is a Whisperer, and based on the last few episodes, the last thing he should do is help her. (Thanks, Chris. Now what am I supposed to complain about? He’s become a loose cannon. I truly don’t have any clue where they are going with his character, but it lacks logic, that’s for sure.)
Kent: I can think of so many different scenarios to play out this season, which is why I am digging this season, I think. Could Aaron get sick of the nonsense and just join the Whisperers? Could he infiltrate the group? Could he want to secretly lure Gamma into a false sense of security so that he can torture her? Is he going to try to do something and blame it on someone else? I can see him or Sid accidentally killing someone.
3. Yumiko and Magna are boring me. It was revealed that Magna lied to Yumiko and then there was food and possibly supply hoarding. You can talk about any of this, but what I really want to focus on is the song that was playing on the phonograph. That was Ryan Hurst (AKA Beta) singing. We also have seen Ryan’s face on a record cover toward the end of the most recent season of Fear TWD. Is this simply a funny Easter egg or will all of this eventually lead to more backstory for Beta?
Bob: More backstory please! YumMa is a try hard story and I wish I just delete them from the show. (I don’t have anything creative other than I would be fine if “YumMa” recreated 3:10 to Yuma. Just a thought.)
Raylene: I do think we will get a reveal of Beta’s face and story perhaps someone in the group will recognize him. (He’s covering his face for a reason, and I could initially accept the Easter Egg explanation. Now, I am hoping there is something more. If someone in the group were to recognize him, who would it be? I could see Magna, Luke, Eugene, Maggie, or Daryl. I’m trying to think of characters that seem like Country fans.)
Chris: Yumiko and Magna are very boring. If it wasn’t for Connie, the new group would be a big dud. I hope there is a reveal at some point, but I don’t think it’s necessarily needed. (It’s definitely not needed, but I hope this is something that can be talked into existence if there aren’t plans for it already. Gimple, you owe us this much!)
Kent: I didn’t like Magna’s group in the books. But then they started growing on me, aside from Yumiko, for whatever reason. She seems to be the least personable one of the group. I like the others, but they are all kinda getting their own little stories. Magna is saddled with this one and it’s not great. Give her something better by improving Yumiko. We are going to find out more about Beta. Gimple, consider this me doubling down. Make it happen. You killed Carl!
4. Negan finally got back to doing some Negan business after escaping. Negan claimed to have escaped on his own accord. A) Did somebody else help him? B) Are you surprised it took so long for Negan to kill Brandon? C) What is Negan’s plan in getting captured by the Whisperers?
Bob: A) Yes. B) Kind of. I feel like Negan can read people better than that. C) Infiltration (I think that is one of our favorite traits in a character. The ability to read someone properly, we’ll call it the Kenny Roger’s talent.)
Raylene: I was happy Brandon got it but I don’t think the true Negan is back. He definitely feels like perhaps he can take Beta or Alpha out. (But who is the true Negan? Was it the “villain” that they built him up to be or is this more in line with who Negan always was before capitalizing on the ZA?)
Chris: Someone had to have helped him. The lock didn’t unlock itself. I think he’s going to the Whisperers to find out how many there are and how dangerous they are. Kind of like a suicidal scouting mission. (My follow up question is, what does he think is going to happen when he tries or succeeds at escaping? It seems inevitable that he is going to bring some kind of Hell on the group that they aren’t prepared for.)
Kent: A) Gabe did. B) Yeah, as soon as “Carl” came out of Brandon’s mouth, I thought he was done. C) Here’s where I am a little confused. How much does Negan know? Yes, he hears people, he presumably talks to a few key members. But is that enough to formulate a plan? We know info, but I don’t know what he knows. Clearly, his plan is to carry out what Carl wanted.
5. Okay, I think it is safe to assume that eventually Alpha, Beta, and Gamma will all eventually die, although that isn’t a guarantee. Given the new developments, I want you to predict all 3 characters’ fates, meaning if they live or die and if they die, who kills them.
Bob: Alpha, death by Gamma; Beta, death by Lucille; Gamma, death by Beta. (So Gamma kills Alpha, Beta kills Gamma, Lucille kills Beta. This has a Reservoir Dogs vibe going for it. Now we just need a Steve Buscemi character leaving with the money. I nominate Earl.)
Raylene: Beta lives, Alpha dies by Lydia, Gamma dies by Carol when she tries to protect Alpha (Okay, I feel that you just want Beta to live. Just a hunch. I am curious if Lydia could or would kill her mom. Lydia seems like she is due to blow up.)
Chris: Ok. I don’t want to do this, but……. Alpha dies by Negan’s hand (although it almost seems too obvious….). Gamma kills herself (guilt over sister.). Beta dies via Carol and Daryl together. (I appreciate that you at least told me that you didn’t want to do this. I like how this plays out. It doesn’t give Aaron or Lydia a kill, but they could get their shine elsewhere. Gamma’s guilt makes for a good story.)
Kent: I feel that the good picks are taken, so allow me to get wacky. Alpha kills Michonne and Judith gets her first big kill. Beta gets killed either by Negan who is trying to protect someone like Judith or Gabe, or even better is Eugene killing Beta while he has Rosita or the baby cornered. Aaron and Gamma just leave together because they both feel like outsiders. If any of these 3 things happen, I will be holding a celebration.
6. If the plan was simply to give Ezekiel thyroid cancer, wouldn’t it have made more sense for his head to be on a pike? For that matter, what about Michonne? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to put their heads on a pike and keep talent around that wanted to remain on the show?
Bob: I think Ezekiel lives. (Is Ezekiel going to be Grace 2.0?)
Raylene: Perhaps Ezekial’s head will be like Herschel’s head. Jerry has it as a pet. (Well, why not just go Governor and get a nice aquarium set up? That is what they should have done after the border heads scene. I miss the Governor.)
Chris: I’m assuming they have something good planned for Michonne. Would it have made sense for Ezekiel to be on a spike? Maybe. I assume they are going somewhere with this. Although, it does bring up something new as far as deaths. Seeing how cancer is not uncommon, it’s surprising this is the first we’ve seen of it. (I think that we can agree that whatever they do with Michonne better be satisfying in some capacity. You’re right. How the hell hasn’t cancer been making an impact on this show? Good call!)
Kent: I wouldn’t have put both of them in the pikes scene, but I could make a good argument for having one of them. Either would have had a bigger impact than Henry or Tara to people not named Kent. I mean, as far as I’m concerned, it was the greatest scene ever. I don’t like the direction that they have taken Ezekiel. Between the Carol thing and now this, it’s a bit much for me as a fan. Can we just call him Sansa and be done with it, given his amazing luck?
7. Has there ever been a worse character than Brandon in TWD history (not including Fear)? If yes, then who?
Bob: Young Carl. (In the history of TV, how many characters have bounced back as well as Carl did? Season 3 was the beginning of it, ever so slowly. Jaime Lannister is probably in the conversation. Other than those 2, I am drawing a big blank at the moment. But yes, young Carl was horrible.)
Raylene: Laurie, Andrea, Beth, anyone that was involved with Beth’s storyline where we were introduced to Noah. The guy on top of the dumpster with Glenn. (Without Nicholas, we wouldn’t have been gifted the dumbest scene in TV history. Hyperbole? Maybe, but maybe not. The dumpster scene truly was such a big mistake on many levels. Maybe the hospital people will someday make a return. I don’t want that, but it could happen.)
Chris: Ummmm, Lori. Tara. Can I say Tara twice? (I’m never going to say no to any Tara bashing here. Quite frankly, I think our mutual disdain for Tara is our strongest connection.)
Kent: I know, I know, you may say that ____ is worse. I know that you suspect that blank could be Tara, given that I used exactly 4 underscores. Maybe Laurie, Andrea, the guy who wanted to rape Carl, anybody in Oceanside, Sophia, Randall, Jared, RJ, or even Kent. But the reality is, you never trust anybody named Brandon. NEVER. I do not care who I am offending at this point in time. If you are friends with a Brandon, click unfriend. If you are dating a Brandon, cheat on him because he’s already cheated on you. If you gave birth to a Brandon, find an old lady to walk behind you with a bell and say Shame every 7 seconds. If your name is Brandon, go get a new name and hope that nobody finds out your horrible secret. So yes, Brandon is the worst character on this show.
Final Thoughts – Brandon wanted to rate the walkers on their hotness or attractiveness. Is this in any way a reasonable thing given the world that he was raised in? Oh yeah, I just wanted to point out that Alpha was the one behind the attacks. I feel that was an important plot point and we have talked about the past 2 weeks, so just tossing that out there.
Bob: I actually thought that was hilarious especially when Negan said she’s clearly a three. (It was a really great line for Negan and got a laugh out of me. Negan made me laugh more in this episode than the Simpsons Treehouse of Horror this year. Sad but true.)
Raylene: I still say Ginny’s group will appear. (I don’t like your words.)
Chris: The idea that any flesh-eating zombie could receive a “hotness” score is, well……. Pretty damn weird, but they wanted us to believe Branden was crazy. Mission accomplished. (They really tried hard to make Brandon crazy. I admit it was pretty clever.)
Kent: It really wasn’t terribly outlandish. Look at the dumb shit people do today. Tide Pod challenges, any viral challenge on social media, that stupid Pokemon game. I feel dirty just saying this, but I don’t think that this was even a stretch to say that teenage boys would play this game given their circumstances. People are absolutely crazy nowadays.
Oh yeah, Alpha was behind the attacks. Drink it in maaaaan!