Coral

Yea, it was obvious they the roof caved in and believe. Didn't have a problem with that. Of course the timing was convenient - but then they need to create some drama or the show gets more boring.

Not getting Herschel involved with the sick pig was weird. And as soon as I saw that the pig was sick, I immediately thought there's some kind of virus going around. I would've been wondering if their something going around if I were in their shoes. It's not like great medical care is available. The show has always made their characters not as cautious as they should be - and it's frustrating since they've already been through so much so you'd think they'd be extra cautious.

msdmoney

Overall I liked the setup in tone of this episode, it started with everybody seeming comfortable again. Everybody has their routines, they feel safe with the extra protections they've set up, they've gotten themselves much more organized/specialized in the tasks they perform. The roof incident at the Big Lots seems to foreshadow how the unexpected can catch them unaware and quickly disrupt their organization. Before they went in the one girl told them to stay in formation until they had gone through the place. Once they went through the store they dropped their guard. The kid dying at the end seems to be the setup for how this same theme is going to play out this season.

Agreed, it seemed odd that the helicopter, the heaviest thing on the roof stayed up the longest while each individual zombie dropped through the roof. It is much more likely that a localized area of the plywood supporting the roof would rot out than the whole roof allowing individual zombies to all fall through all over the roof at that one moment. If the roof were that flimsy it never would have supported the crashed helicopter (It never would have anyways).

I kind of let that one go even though it bothered me. I let some of the odd dialogue go as well.

I was intrigued by the girl's (I don't know anybody's name) reaction to her boyfriends death, it seems that the young are treating death differently from the older members of the group?

DthRdrX

Is it safe to assume there was a group of people living on the store roof using that helicopter for runs?

rw2516

The sick pig got me wondering if the zombie virus had been picked up by animals now we have zombie dogs, birds, etc. attacking.

Groucho

There was a military refugee camp in the store's parking lot. My guess is that when the shit hit the fan, everybody went to the roof for an evacuation and it went south.

redrum

I thought they made it pretty obvious that the sound they made caused the Zombies to start moving around on the roof

VinVega

I kind of thought they were in the helicopter when it crashed. One zombie was cut in half and its upper half was flailing around. Obviously something bad happened with the heli and everyone on the roof turned.

sracer

The original group has an immunity to the disease... they were exposed to something at the CDC that caused their immunity.

redrum

Wow those ratings are crazy

So can we expect atleast 10 seasons of this show

Deftones

I don't think so. Everyone has the disease. It's "activated" when you die or you get bit by a zombie.

sracer

I'm not talking about the zombie disease, I'm referring to the diseased that killed Patrick/Wonder Years boy.

DJariya

I thought it was a pretty good hour.

Poor Beth, her new boyfriend gets eaten and crushed by a chopper and she doesn't shed a tear. I liked her reasoning and assume she's come to accept that people will die in this ugly world no matter what the circumstances. It eases the pain.

The zombie attack after the roof collapse was pretty cool. It's been a long time, but I forget how Larry Gilliard's character was introduced last season or is he new this season? Can't recall. I guess he has some kind of issue with alcohol.

I like that we're gradually seeing more personality with Michonne. I guess getting away from that annoying Andrea opened her up.

The dude with the glasses getting sick at the end was an interesting turn.

Gambit

The number of zombies on that roof in such a confined space is a little hard to reconcile. They somehow made it onto the roof and then got trapped there. Or, they were all alive and died at the same time. The only way to turn into a zombie is to die away from other zombies. Otherwise, they will eat you before you have a chance to turn.

It's possible the helicopter crash created all of them, but there would have had to be a whole lot of people on the roof at the time of the crash and it somehow killed most of them.

TomOpus

If something is in the water, wouldn't more people be affected?

Deftones

Where are you getting that? I don't recall anything like that.

DJariya

It would not surprise me at all if this gets renewed for a 5th season before the midseason finale. No matter how many internet posters complain about it's writing etc., it's currently the most watched & popular basic cable TV series.

It killed pretty much all of the big 3 network competition last night. Those shows can barely get a 2.0 Sunday night and this gets an 8.2.

flashburn

Awesome, I didn't know D'Angelo Barksdale was going to be on the show. Unfortunately he is a fuck up here too, but he'll probably be dead in an episode or two anyway.

DthRdrX

Someone had to take Andrea's place ...

Just kidding, since he is a medic I have a feeling he will be important with the sickness plot they just started.

Jason

Not a bad start. I imagine the domestic tranquility will be over in a week or two and we'll be back to a much smaller group of survivors.

A few thoughts on points mentioned above:

We might get some acknowledgement of Hershel's examination of the dead pig next week. One of those "that boy might have had the same virus that killed your pig, Rick." lines.

When the crazy lady and Rick were talking about coming back, they were talking about coming back from darkness, not being a zombie. Hershel said as much when he said that Rick and Carl both came back.

The raining zombies didn't really work for me. Those roofs are steel sheeting with a tar/rubber roof. It's not going to rot, and certainly wouldn't rust through in the year or so (?) it's been without maintenance. Emaciated walkers couldn't weigh that much. Would have been better if they had seen damage to the roof because of the helicopter, but didn't realize there were walkers up there. The whole thing just seemed like a mission in a video game.

And I still can't figure out why they're living in a dank prison when Woodbury was theirs for the taking.

flashburn

I guess I missed the detail that he's a medic. That's interesting.

Reading back in this thread, holy shit, some of you guys nitpick this show to death. This show was never a "smart" show, just accept it or move on. Or not, I guess some of you guys have nothing to do but bitch about a dumb TV show.

DthRdrX

He was a medic in the comics and they were quite hesitant to bring him along on the run to the store. Press release identified the character as former medic/town drunk.

Jason

One other thing, the walker at the fence that caught Rick's attention. My first thought was they were trying to imply a "smarter" walker, one with more awareness than an mindless wanderer. Either that, or they were giving screen time to some sort of contest winner. Didn't they hold some kind of "be a walker" contest last season?

dalbowski

He'll fall off the wagon at the most inopportune time.

DthRdrX

I considered that Jason, as the creative team emphasized that they wanted to go back to the zombies as a threat, but I spotted a few of those zombies with weird eyes walking around outside the fence. They seemed to walk right along with the regular zombies. Didn't seem smarter.

The opening "previously on" segment reminded us that they were all infected, so perhaps the new condition is the result of a major viral sickness interacting with the walker virus they all carry.

Whatever it is I wonder if this was the major story that Mazzara was rallying against happening in S4.

Nausicaa

The problem with the roof thing isn't that it collapsed, it's the way all the zombies were just suddenly falling through holes all over the place. It was especially bad because in the scene right before they show the fuel leaking, the soaked roof, and where it's about to cave in.

Would have been better if the kid who died was the one who got trapped, and the roof just caved in on top of him with all the zombies at once.

It was a pretty good episode overall though. This show has never been great, except for maybe the first half of season 3. It's entertaining, but the writing and plotting could be a lot stronger. And the execution is sometimes baffling, like the roof thing.