Couch Potato: TWD Edition

Carol doll on Amazon

My friend requested a Walking Dead post on Mondays, and wish granted!

Before we get to talking about last night's episode of of The Walking Dead, I'd like to mention the new horror series Damien. The pilot aired last Monday. It seems promising, does a good job of evoking the atmosphere of the first Omen movie, imo. Episode 2 airs tonight on A&E at 9pm (same time as Better Call Saul on AMC).

Also, feel free to discuss any other tv or movies watching you may have done over the weekend.

And now, let us talk TWD! I am putting spoilers below the jump, proceed with caution...

Carol and Maggie's Girls' Night Out

Episode 13: "The Same Boat" picks up where the last episode ended, from Carol and Maggie's point of view. The "previously"flashbacks include Carol unhappily tallying up how many people she has killed. Carol and Maggie right now are on lookout as the rest of the gang raid the compound of the "Saviors." The alarm goes off and Maggie is about to rush off and help because "they need us!" Carol stops her with a "You're supposed to be someone else!"



Suddenly a guy rushes at them from out of the woods with a gun. Carol deliberately aims for his shoulder and he falls to the ground gripping his arm. Carol tells Maggie it's time to run. Maggie with gritted teeth says "Not 'til it's done" and raises her gun to kill him when a voice says "Stop! Or she dies!" A woman has a gun pointed at Carol's head. It's soulless ginger Paula (Alicia Witt). Apparently she's in charge. Two other women emerge from the woods. They all seem pretty tough, except for the guy, who seems whiny and unpopular. They take Carol and Maggie captive and put a tourniquet on the guy - I forget his name so let's just call him Whiny Guy.

Paula the soulless ginger checks out what is happening at the compound with her binoculars. She sees one of their guys, Primo,  surrounded by the gang with everyone's weapons trained on him. knowing Primo has a walkie talkie, she takes her walkie and saves him by saying "Lower your gun, prick." The gang looks around, confused, and Paula says "You, with the Colt Python, lower your gun. All of you, lower your guns."

Rick takes Primo's walkie and they talk - Paula let's them know they have "a Carol and a Maggie." Rick proposes an exchange. Paula says two for one does not seem fair. With the walkie off she scoffs that "smug prick" Rick must think she's stupid. Whiny Guy says they need Primo to patch up his shoulder. He calls Paula "babe" but she seems unmoved. They cover Maggie & Carol's heads and bring them to their lair. Carol can hear them talking to another group via walkie-talkie.

The lair appears to be an old slaughterhouse. I make this brilliant deduction based on the words "kill floor" stenciled on the floor. It has walkers in it on leashes and in rooms acting as guards. Maggie and Carol are gagged and bound (with duct tape). A walker gets in and they kill it. As they drag the body out, Carol spots a rosary that falls out of the walker's clothes. She covers it with her leg and manages to stuff it in her cargo pocket while no one is looking. Then she starts hyperventilating. Maggie is concerned and starts trying to talk despite the gag. Paula angrily takes her gag off - "what?!" Maggie says Carol is hyperventilating and they need to get her gag off. They do and everybody sneers at Carol being a "nervous little bird." They are even more contemptious when Carol reaches for the rosary. Paula asks her what she's so afraid of. Carol says it doesn't matter what happens to her, as long as Maggie's baby is ok.

Attention turns to Maggie with that bombshell. Paula calls her baby "a bite-sized snack for the dead." Paula says the only point is to stay standing, then she leaves. The older woman captor starts smoking and Maggie objects by saying "the baby." This amuses the older lady so much that she starts coughing. "In case you hadn't noticed, you've got bigger problems." Surprisingly, the other woman captor, who is about Maggie's age and even looks a bit like Maggie, backs her up. Smoker Lady is disgusted into another coughing fit. Carol remarks quietly "those things will kill you" (remember that line?) and Smoker Lady says "it already has" while flourishing her blood-stained hanky.

Whiny guy is getting more desperate. Paula says their scout group is just 30 minutes away. Maggie says he doesn't have 30 minutes, he will lose his arm or his life before that, so they should make the trade already. Paula refuses which enrages Whiny Guy and he decides to take it out on Carol since she shot him. If they aren't going to trade why can't he just kill her now. Paula says no, they are insurance. Whiny guy backhands Paula so he can get at Carol. Maggie desperately sweeps his leg so he falls down. He gets up and pulls Maggie's hair back while cursing her. Maggie head butts him. Carol hugs his leg to drag him away. He starts kicking the crap out of Carol while she's on the floor. Paula gets back in the game and cold-cocks him with her pistol.

Paula tells the Maggie look alike to take her and find out if she knows anything. So Doppelmaggie and Maggie have a little chat in the other room, really some nice girl bonding stuff. Meanwhile Smoker Lady patches up Paula and Carol still in weak pitiful mode says thanks for helping Maggie and her, ya know my husband Ed... but Soulless Paula cuts her off coldly saying she doesn't care. She knows exactly who Carol is which is "pathetic."

I'm gonna fast forward through some other character stuff and get to the action. Carol in pathetic state manages to interrogate her captors and finds out that there is no way they won't fight since those bikers were their people as well. Also she finds out that "they are all Neegan" but we don't find out what that means. Instead Paula goes into her monologue about who she used to be (a secretary in DC) and her boss that she hated and a bunch of stuff. Apparently back when Paula had a soul she also had 4 kids and a husband, all gone now. But at least she got to kill her useless boss who was always making her bring him coffee. Also no more stupid inspirational emails, ever. Every zombie apocalypse has a silver lining, amirite?

From here out it is all spoilers so be warned! 

They leave Carol for a while to prepare an ambush for Rick, I think (kind of fuzzy on the details except that Smoker Lady has to clear the hall of walkers). Carol uses the rosary crucifix to slice through her duct tape. She sneaks into the room her Maggie is (I don't know where Doppelmaggie is) and cuts Maggie's bonds. Carol says they should leave but Maggie wants to "finish it." They go back to the first room where Whiny Guy is still lying unconscious on the floor. Maggie checks on him and finds out he's dead. She takes his guy and rope that was used for his tourniquet.

A little later Smoker Lady comes back in the room and is warmly greeted by zombie Whiny Guy who has been tied near the door. He gives her a love bite and she kills him (women!). Maggie jumps Smoker Lady from behind and bashes her head in repeatedly with the pistol (I'm thinking pregnancy hormones are really affecting Maggie).

Later Paula comes in and see that Smoker Lady and Whiny guy are both dead. She gets her gun out and goes to look for the escapees. Carol and Maggie are in a corridor full of walkers that are mostly impaled on broken handrails on the walls. Paula catches up and starts shooting at them but runs out of bullets. Carol points her gun at Paula but pleads with her to run away while Maggie urges her to kill Paula. A walker comes up behind Carol and grabs her but Maggie kills it; however this lets Paula run, or more like stumble, away.

Maggie hears Doppelmaggie coming around the corner and she lies in wait to jump her (I'm guessing Maggie's gun has no bullets) and they go mano-a-mano but Doppelmaggie has a knife and shallowly slices Maggie in the torso. Carol comes and shoots Doppelmaggie in the head. They go back to Paula who is still stuck in the walker corridor and applauding. "If you can do all this, what were you so afraid of, Carol?" Carol, about to shoot, says "I was afraid of this, and Paula laughs hysterically then suddenly whacks Carol's gun aside and they grapple and shove. In the shoving Paula is impaled on a broken handrail next to a walker. She screams, then screams even louder when the walker starts eating her face. Just then her walkie starts talking - it's the scout group. Carol gingerly takes the walkie from screaming Paula and imitates Paula's voice, saying "meet us on the kill floor."

Next we see Carol and Maggie hiding in one of the rooms. We hear the scout group entering the next room looking for Paula and seeing no one. Carol lights a cigarette and throws the lighter into the room which lights up the gasoline that's been poured on the floor. Maggie and Carol drag the doors shut and trap the men inside an inferno. They walk out the building to meet Rick and the gang who have tracked them down after all. Maggie hugs Glenn and in tears says "I can't anymore." Daryl asks Carol if she's ok, she shakes her head "no" and he hugs her (awwww Darol 4evah!).

Rick tells Primo that all his friends are dead so he might as well talk. He tries to get him to say where Neegan is - whether he was in the building last night or here. Primo replies "Both. I am Neegan, shithead." Before he can explain, Rick shoots him in the head. We see Carol watching helplessly, gripping the rosary so hard her hand is bleeding.

Reaction

I enjoyed this episode a lot. What a great performance from Melissa McBride! Throughout the episode, I kept wondering - how much is an act, how much is Carol really on the edge of a breakdown? It seems that in her will to survive and protect those she cares for, she's lost her sense of self. What next for the character? It's a great reflection of how far off the rails the gang has fallen. As Doppelmaggie said, they are not the good guys, not anymore, not after what they did in the last episode.

What did you all think?