11.16: The Walking Dead - Acts of God

[ctg]

Maggie defends Hilltop from Hornsby's invasion.

The last mid-season final. IMDB score 8.3. Runtime a hair over 42 minutes.

 

[ctg]

It has been a long time to arrive at this point. What they said about the season 11 being on par with the first one is basically true, but they have some much more going in this season than what they had in the original run. Back then I would not have expected Daryl to reach this far. Not talking about Carol and many others. They all have done monumental amount of work in these eleven season and we are on the verge of the final stretch.

The saddest thing is that we know four, who is going to survive the whole run, the rest is under murky tension and I still expect a lot of them to die. Disney ending isn't on the cards. That is certain.

I laughed when I realised he were witnessing a locust plague over the Hilltop. Man, spoiled trophies isn't something you can brag about to people. What he'd gained looked like nothing. Hilltop itself isn't the treasure. It's the fertile land that surrounds it that's the real thing and the people who tend it. But I doubt he really realise it as the Act of God swarms around him.

If they weren't hungry before, they are going to be as soon as the plague moves over the Commonwealth. Then we are going to see if they'll have secret crop dusters available to stop the hunger induced panic among the citizens.

The thing that he did with coin flip by dividing groups was terrible example of his ruthlessness in power. He doesn't care about anything but himself.

Maggie did the right thing by sending Hershel away. You cannot fight if you worry constantly. Well, you can but it's the emotions that ef us, but also keeps us human. It also surprised me that their little group could already hear the swarm in the air.

It is also interesting that she keeps educating Mini-Hershel with right and wrong choices instead of applying a normal curriculum. But I was amazed by Negan's promises and Maggie acknowledging the situation. What was has been and it is not coming around as they all have grown out of the past and they are firmly moving towards the future.

Setting an explosive trap in the Hilltop Mansion and it going off was such a brilliant move from her side. I laughed out loud when the black glad dudes went bye bye. At least Leah had a story shield and she escaped the carnage mostly intact, and absolutely pissed.

Why she didn't keep firing when she had Maggie's people in sight was stranger thing. According to her, she did to "Draw them out," so that she could finish the business "her way," instead of following Hornsby's commands.

Shooting accurately according to the footage, and not wasting ammo, from his blind side. The whole setup in the car park reminded me about some other conflict, and it played the same way. And shooting from the blind side isn't the only cock-up in this beautiful ambush battle. Daryl using a rifle scope sight instead of the red-dot was one of them.

It is also lovely that they have ammo to shoot and the Dead responds to it as they should. I was also slightly surprised that they used black mamba analogue before Gabriel slashed trooper's legs with his knife. Everything was brutal and quick as it should. It was also good to see that Aaron can do accurate shooting with a rifle, despite being wounded and having no support arm.

The look on Hornsby's face was priceless when he heard that Romano was no more. Instead of backing out, he sent in all of his troops ... as if it was going to have any other effect than the first one. A wiser man would have analysed what went wrong and then acted, but not him.

Why Leah didn't do it in the forest? She said, "I've waited for this moment for a long time."

Maggie replied, "I know what you want. I wanted it myself for a long time. You can't kill me. That would be too easy. If that what you wanted, you would have done already. You want me to suffer, feel everything you felt, all the pain, 'cause somewhere inside you, you that'll take away your pain. It won't."

Leah squinted her eyes. "You're wrong. It's not just you." She leaned forward and hissed at Maggie's face, "By the time I'm done, everyone you'll love will be dead."

Man, women and their vengeance. Everybody dies and nobody is happy. It surprised me when Maggie begged her to fire, she struggled to pull the trigger. Not so much with knife in her hand and if Daryl wouldn't have ended that fight, she would have finished the deal. No way she would have survived with Daryl's Deus Ex move. But at least now we know that their story is finished. There will be a rebellion in the Commonwealth.

He can smile! Eugene too has come a long way to reach a state of happiness. In the horror genre that is usually the worst position as soon as you're happy, you're usually destined to receive a horrifying ending.

It was only signified by Max listening the Governor narrating the end times in her journal. And then her denying the request for funds for the poor, as all the funds were going back to another celebration for the elite. The Commonwealth is as corrupted as some nation in the East.

However, she was also a smart girl for staying behind to check things when Milton went off for her "work dinner." But getting caught by Sebastian was so sloppy. She should have left as soon as she got the kill-list. I really don't think that they've relocated those people, instead I assume that they've been shoved in some of mass grave.

How do you guys see this?

 

[REBerg]

It would appear that Maggie has finally made her peace with keeping Negan alive.
I wonder if she would have left Herschel Jr. with Negan without the assurances of the new Mrs. Negan, Annie, that she would help keep the boy safe. It sounded like a babysitting chain -- Negan watching the boy, Annie watching Negan.
I expected Leah to have a longer lifespan -- at least into a couple of the final season installment episodes.

 

[Dave]

It is also lovely that they have ammo to shoot

No problem with ammo this week it seems.

How much ammo do they really have? Where does it come from? (It was once so low that Negan had Eugene making it - 5 years ago?) One week they have none, the next they have plenty. Is that just a lie, a ploy? Where were they taking it when ambushed by Leah?

Some of the reluctance to use guns is because the noise attracts more walkers, but shooting bullets at random makes no sense at all. It's like burning money.... ah! they do that too! I guess that's where my argument falls down.

 

[ctg]

Leah hunts Maggie and captures her alive, taking her to the cabin where Leah shacked up with Daryl in Season 10. "By the time I'm done, everyone you love will be dead," she snarls.

"Then I guess that makes us even. I took your family, you take mine," Maggie says of the Reapers she gunned down at Meridian, avenging the slain Wardens. "I killed your people because it was what I wanted."

Before Leah can pull the trigger, Maggie escapes her bonds and attacks. Their brutal fight to the death ends when Daryl returns to the cabin and shoots Leah in the head.

"It's heartbreaking that he does have to shoot her, but there's also an element of he let her go earlier [in the midseason premiere 'No Other Way'] and it did turn out bad," Cohan told ComicBook in an exclusive postmortem Q&A.

"People aren't simply good or evil. There's good in Leah too, and there's the tragedy of what could have happened," she said. "There's what could have happened with her and Daryl. There's what could have happened with Leah as an ally if they had met under different circumstances, and if she had met Maggie's group and Alexandria and our team before aligning with The Reapers. It's always what happens in this world and that's what happens. You see capability and strength in people, and you end up seeing where they end up."

The Walking Dead Star Reacts to Midseason Finale Death

Warning: this story contains spoilers for Sunday’s “Acts of God” episode of The Walking Dead. Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned. Both are true in the last-ever midseason finale of The Walking Dead, where a locusts swarm of biblical proportions is...

comicbook.com

ComicBook: Let's jump straight to that ending with Lance unfurling Commonwealth flags over the walls of Alexandria, Hilltop, and Oceanside. What was your reaction to those flags coming down, and what can you say about what happens next?

Lauren Cohan: My reaction to the flags, I mean, that was just the culmination of all those suspicions of what Hornsby's about. It's certainly ominous. It feels like ... I don't know, sadly just like, if everything seemed too good to be true, it's probably because it was. And then at this point, yeah, he's an interesting character. He's definitely trying to gain control and it's pretty sinister.

ComicBook: Leah is probably Daryl's first romantic love ever, and he doesn't hesitate to kill her to save Maggie. How would you characterize the relationship between Maggie and Daryl after all these years?

Lauren Cohan: I think they're like brother and sister. I can't imagine if the situation was reversed for Maggie and there was somebody [who Maggie loved trying to kill Daryl]. I can't imagine her hesitating to save him because they've been through everything together. It's family in the deepest sense of the word, really. So it's heartbreaking that he does have to shoot her but there's also an element of, he let her go earlier [in the mid-season premiere "No Other Way"] and it did turn out bad.

The Walking Dead Midseason Finale: Lauren Cohan Postmortem (Exclusive)

Warning: this story contains spoilers for Sunday’s “Acts of God” episode of The Walking Dead. The last-ever midseason finale of The Walking Dead is one of walkers, wrath, and war of biblical proportions. In “Acts of God,” Part 2 of the three-part final season ends with Maggie (Lauren Cohan)...

comicbook.com

ComicBook: Maggie tells Negan she's starting to trust him. We've started to see that, but it's shocking to hear her say it. What does it mean for Maggie moving forward that she's twice now entrusted her son's life with the man who killed his father? Does it tie into Maggie's healthy way of dealing with Negan, as you said?

Lauren Cohan: Yeah. Well, the first time it happens, she's pretty pissed about it. But she's glad that Hershel ... I mean, she's scared that Hershel has actually followed them there. She doesn't feel good about the fact that Negan is with him but at the same time ... That's an interesting episode ["The Rotten Core"], when she and Annie (Medina Senghore) get to have that conversation and when they're alone together. I mean, in this episode it's like, it is a big moment when Maggie tells Negan she trusts him. A big part of that I think is for the needs at that moment, which is keeping Hershel safe so she can go and eliminate these threats that have to be eliminated. It's kind of a no-choice situation. I know that despite how she feels about Negan, he does have this reputation for being a caretaker of younger people and trustworthy in that sense. She knows in her rational mind that he is not going to enact things like he did with Glenn and Abraham now. The other thing is that Annie being there, and Annie vouching for him and his relationship with her, I think does help to pave the way for Maggie to accept that he has changed, which does not change what happened.

I think Maggie, she can see what Annie needs and what is fulfilled from this version of Negan for her, right? Enough to know that. I think right off the bat, she gets a sense of this woman and she feels a kinship with her because of the way she leads and because of her compassion, which I think is really evident as soon as you meet Medina's character. She just has that spirit and I think that Maggie recognizes that. And the fact that Annie embraces this 'not waiting to live,' which was such an important thing [which calls back to] Maggie being excited to be pregnant and to still embrace life in this world when her and Glenn were pregnant. Yeah. I think that's a certain type of person and I think she feels that kind of kinship with Annie. That's why I love that moment at the end and that definitely felt like throughout the scene, just the moment when I turned to Annie at the end for that extra reassurance.

 

[REBerg]

Man, spoiled trophies isn't something you can brag about to people. What he'd gained looked like nothing. Hilltop itself isn't the treasure. It's the fertile land that surrounds it that's the real thing and the people who tend it

How do you guys see this?

These symbols of conquest and ownership seem to serve no purpose other than to feed Hornsy's insatiable ego.
When Daryl told Maggie that Hilltop was no longer worth defending, she reluctantly agreed. The remaining people were the real value of the community, and too many of them were bailing for the Commonwealth.
So why is Hornsby so intent on building his own little empire -- to the extent of "clearing the field" of anyone who opposes his delusions of grandeur? Once he has murdered all or most of the residents of Alexandria, Hilltop and Oceanside, will the Commonwealth have enough citizens who will volunteer to rebuild the former communities?
That seems doubtful, unless the Commonwealth regime becomes so intolerable that a significant number of malcontents opt to trade safety and comfort for the pioneer life and return to the wild frontier.

 

[nixie]

Maggie entrusting Hershel to Negan, that must have taking a lot of soul searching. I think I'd have took him up on his offer to help with Hornsby and let Annie take care of Hershel.

The others looking to bring the Commonwealth down from the inside, could work but the Commonwealth have leverage on Daryl, Gabriel and Aaron( if that's where Gracie is). Rosita will fight tooth and nail for her baby, Carol will go nuclear if any threat to Judith or RJ materialises but the odds are against them.
I was expecting Leah to last longer, not surprised Daryl took her out, family comes first.
Toss of a coin if those left in Alexandria live is chilling.

I've been rewatching from the beginning, the walkers seemed more dangerous and looked to have retained some motor functions. The little girl picking up the teddy, Morgan's wife turning the door knob, walkers climbing the fence instead of just pushing against it.

 

[Dave]

I've been rewatching from the beginning, the walkers seemed more dangerous and looked to have retained some motor functions. The little girl picking up the teddy, Morgan's wife turning the door knob, walkers climbing the fence instead of just pushing against it.

You can't possibly mean that they have a problem with continuity, so are you suggesting that the disease has mutated over time and that the current form leaves the victims less able than the original variant?

 

[ctg]

so are you suggesting that the disease has mutated over time and that the current form leaves the victims less able than the original variant?

It would make sense, because that's what happens with viral diseases. They mutate.

 

[REBerg]

Viral mutation? Hah!
Clearly, walkers are being reanimated by alien nanobots.

 

[Dave]

Mutated alien nanobots!

 

[Jeffbert]

So, what happens to the guys inside the COMMONWEALTH, such as Carol after Daryl has turned on the stormtrooper-types? Unless D can eliminate all of them, & none use radios to report--

 

[nixie]

So, what happens to the guys inside the COMMONWEALTH, such as Carol after Daryl has turned on the stormtrooper-types? Unless D can eliminate all of them, & none use radios to report--

Well I did wonder, then I thought the writers will conveniently overlook it or our people have ways of contacting those on the inside and Carol will become one woman killing machine and wipe out the troopers, well Rosita may help a little