DJariya

By djariya at 2010-10-31

Synopsis:



Written by Adam Fierro (The Shield, Dexter, 24)

Directed by Guy Ferland (The Shield, Sons of Anarchy)

Here it is the season finale!!

A couple of notes on some MIA characters:

Original Desmond

That's a short friggin season ! i have saved the whole season to watch over xmas

6 eps, i'm disappointed

DJariya

Why are you so disappointed? It's been known all year that season 1 was only 6 episodes.

astrochimp

For those that didn't already know AMC is airing all 5 previous episodes starting at 4:30 pm(est) today leading up to the finale at 10.

Geofferson

AMC produced only 6 episodes to ensure it'd premiere by Halloween. Anyway, looking forward to the season finale tonight

Shazam

kstublen

I was going to post my thoughts later, but figured I'd get 'em all out while the episode was fresh in my head.

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What a truly awful episode. Probably my least favourite of the season.

But before I talk about the bad, I'll mention the one thing I enjoyed, which was the flashback. I think it was great to see what happened during the initial outbreak and how Shane dealt with it. It explains why he left, how Rick sort of survived, and why he was just as shocked as the rest of them to see Rick alive. It also made me appreciate what the character did more and cleared up any ambiguity as far as his motives were concerned.

Other than that though, garbage. Nothing happened. Okay, I get it...there's people that are going to want to accept their "fate" and die on their own terms, sort of peacefully; and there are those that are going to want to keep fighting until the bitter end. That was the whole point of the episode, I understand, but it was just so poorly executed.

Oh, and what was the point of Jenner collecting the blood sample? Was he hoping to find someone infected to carry on the research and if none of them were, he was just going to give up? That wasn't very clear at all. But if there was only a limited amount of time left, why even let them in in the first place? And I liked his justification of not letting them out: "I told you once these doors closed, they wouldn't open." Yeah, that was ridiculous.

So what happens at the end? We see characters standing around with 4 minutes left until a few of them decide whether they want to die or not. And it isn't until Dale tells them all to go that they actually try to leave. I'm sorry, but in that situation those people would've already been running, group be damned. Then, when they're all trapped, what's her name just magically produces this grenade that she found in Rick's clothes earlier in the season. How lucky!

Rick's drunken confession of how he thought they would all die or whatever and Shane's drunken attempted rape were both really stupid. I love how Rick's wife goes from having sex with Shane in the woods to being terribly afraid of him and never wanting to see him again. Doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to me, despite her "explanation" that she feels he lied to her and betrayed her by telling her Rick was dead. It's also a little ridiculous that she can't even listen to him for five minutes without totally dismissing him.

I figured at least we'd get some decent zombie explanations this episode, but even that was lacking. Jenner introduces the idea that the zombies aren't really dead at all, but are still living in some capacity. Will this eventually produce a moral question for our main characters of whether or not to kill them at all? And we get to see some fancy monitors flash images of the brain and about how it spreads like meningitis or something, but do we get any explanation about the breakout or how it actually spreads and infects? Do we know anything about what it does to the infected long-term? Nope.

I actually thought when Jenner was collecting blood samples that he might intentionally infect someone to carry on his study, then just tell the group the virus or whatever must have been dormant. I thought that would've been a cool angle, but obviously they didn't want to keep the group tied down to one location for too long or work to provide any answers on the disease.

I did get a pretty good laugh though when they were trying to break out of the building. They tried the axes, and then when those didn't work the guy tries a chair? lol, I guess it was at least a realistic portrayal of struggling and using whatever you had at your disposal. Still, it gave me a chuckle.

And then there's the whisper in the ear. Our main character now knows something no one else does, something of great importance. What do you think he is going to do with this information? Yes, that's correct...he's going to tell no one else and probably cause some more internal conflicts.

I just feel like this episode really accomplished nothing at all. Hopefully the rumors about the writing staff being fired are true, because it's the only thing lacking in an otherwise great show (as far as acting, production value, and direction are concerned).

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EDIT: So I watched the scene where Jenner "explainss" the infection again and I'm even more disappointed. These people have all seen this happen first hand. They've seen people die and come back to life. They've figured out that you have to shoot them through the brain to truly kill them. And yet, when Jenner puts it up on a monitor, they all act as though this is the first time they're seeing it and are completely and utterly clueless as to what's going on. Just another example of the terribly inconsistent writing on this show.

DarthVong

Wish the doctor would have had a bit more info on how things went to shit. Episode was probably the worst of the season IMO.

SuckaMC

Well, I liked it a lot. Opinions...

raven56706

i thought it was great... didnt really lead to much... but i think the doc told him about shane and his wife...

Giles

wow, such animosity towards this episode, didn't think it was THAT bad. On the plus side the episode was certainly the loudest and the best use of 5.1 surround sound, the varying gunshots, the voice of the computer to the final explosion were pretty powerful.

redrum

as a season finale not that great at all

as just a stand alone episode it was OK

but can you really have a great season finale with just 6 episodes to build towards it?

Scorpio

Bah, there was nothing wrong with this episode. You want all the answers laid out in a predictable fashion? It's going to be a loooong off-season.

nodeerforamonth

If people don't like the writing, why on earth are they watching the show? Or even bothering to post here?

onebyone

Because we want to believe!! I want to like this show so much it hurts but..

the writing is often truly horrible. I thought this was the worst episode of the season too, and that is saying something.

I am glad there's a long break, maybe they will use it all to work on this shows many, many flaws.

Osiris3657

Thought it was great!

Gobear

I enjoyed the episode, but I really hate that so many plot threads are left dangling--where did the helicopter Rick saw come from? What happened to Merle--but that's understandable because Darabont had to leave plot elements open to hang Season 2 on. And how much does it suck that the old guy pitches an emotional plea to Andrea to come with him and live, and he ignores Jacqui who's standing right there?

I've enjoyed every episode this season and will be waiting with bated breath until Season 2 arrives.

So what did Jenner whisper to Rick on the Walking Dead finale? My guess is "I thought Bill Murray should have gotten the Oscar for "Lost in Translation".

Fist of Doom

at Daryl trying to bust open the CDC door with an axe. I think he's my favorite character.

Loved the finale. Great job by the whole cast. This first shortened season was a triumph, as far as I'm concerned.

tofu

I liked the finale but would have liked to see some flashback of how all the stuff in the CDC went down.

Edison

But he had stated earlier (last episode, I think) how he felt like he had bonded with the two sisters.

I figured it was something to do with the blood test, either one of them was infected or pregnant.

Gobear

Could be that Jenner told him that Lori is pregnant, which would be awkward to explain; or maybe he said, "Watch out for Shane; I saw him attempt to rape your wife on the surveillance cam."

aynrandgirl

I hope we don't have to wait a year before more episodes. Six episodes every 4 months would be an interesting schedule. AMC never puts a lot of episodes in the can at one time so production losses are minimized if the series tanks, and we don't have a huge wait until our next zombie fix.

I wonder why the characters are so hesitant to use the word "zombie", since they seem to hesitate every time they give a name to the walking dead.

That show and tell bit was a total waste of time, other than to foreshadow the identity of TS-19. That was a rather large number of minutes spent telling us what we basically already knew. Yet again characters act stupid when it serves the plot, when they should have been grilling the doctor on a number of very specific questions.

"Can you get infected by means other than a break in the skin?"
"Did you contact anybody by radio?"
"Where did the military retreat to when they abandoned the CDC?"
"What was the last official communication you received?"
"Have you seen any helicopters or aircraft?"
"Have you seen anybody else besides us?"
"The disease shouldn't have spread so fast since it doesn't seem to be airborne. How did that happen?"
"What did the French researchers tell you?"
"Where did the researchers who left the CDC intend to go after they picked up their families?"

Breakfast with Girls

Uh, seriously? Have you somehow missed how Shane has become dangerously unhinged since Rick came back? How he shut the doors, wouldn't let her leave, and was wild-eyed and ranting--all of this before his aborted attempted rape?

SterlingBen

I am sure they all thought they were gong to have a lot more time there and that there would be plenty of time to ask questions. I personally had no idea they were going to blow it up!

I have really enjoyed this series and since it is going to be such a long wait I might loo into getting the comics...

Maybe he told him that his wife and shane both have vd?

wmansir

I'm giving it a . The writers were heavy handed in this episode, which kind of ruined it. I guess the felt the need to up the ante for the finale.