Truth Is Not A Business - Revolution, Season 2, Episode 6

I would like to start today’s recap with a literature lesson (suck it up).  Last night, we heard the full name Miles has been using in Willoughby:  Stu Redman.  The name sounded familiar to me, and it was.  Stu Redman is the name of a major character from Stephen King’s apocalyptic novel, The Stand.  Long (extremely long) story short:  Stu Redman is one of the extremely few survivors of a ‘super flu’ that leaves the scraps of humanity left to be the pawns in a battle of supernatural good and evil represented by an elderly woman and a drifter.  It ends with a nuclear explosion in Las Vegas that kills most of Stu’s friends, even though he makes it out and back to the woman he loves.  He goes on to live a quiet life with her, both happily ever after.    Parallels?  Well, Miles is one of the survivors of the Great Blackout, comes out of the Tower that launched nuclear strikes against Philly and Atlanta, after participating in battles for basically the control of the East Coast.  He then brings his girl back home to Texas, and settles down to live the life of quiet, fairly well-behaved alcoholism near her. 

Sadly, this Stu Redman spends a frantic night setting up a crime scene so there will be trouble between the Texas Rangers and the Patriots.  We see some very shadowy scenes that are meant to convey that Monroe and Miles set up the Patriot to be Fry’s killer, which for some reason includes putting someone’s body in the river.  The Texas Rangers find the scene and the body just as Monroe and Miles want them too, and the two seem pleased, until the next day when Miles finds that Monroe just couldn’t help himself and had to kidnap/torture/interrogate/kill a Patriot, and has tons of intel (hint: like Chekhov’s gun, it will have to be used) on the Patriots.  The two are sure that any minute now, the Texas Rangers will open up a can of Patriot whoopass.

We flashback, suddenly, to a camp scene about 13 years prior.  Only then, it’s Miles that wants to raid some neighbors for a cut of their cattle and goods, and disappear as ghosts.  Monroe tells him to get a girlfriend.  Monroe then checks on Shelly(?), pregnant, and they rhapsodize over their impending parenthood.

Aaron returns to town, and Rachel brings Charlie back to her dad’s place, who is ecstatic to see his granddaughter.  But he’s angrily asked where Rachel was, and Rachel and Charlie’s polite routine the next morning isn’t fooling him.  Rachel decides her dad’s place it totally lame, and goes to Miles’ place in town.  Miles and Rachel snap at each other over Monroe.  Miles, showing Rachel all the intel Monroe got that very morning, has resigned himself to, once again, witnessing Monroe’s psychopathic behavior and benefitting from it.  Rachel, like the mother of a teenager, tells Miles that he really shouldn’t hang around with guys who torture. 

Monroe is finally laying low as he was told, cooking something in anticipation of the bloodshed show to come by nightfall, when a grenade explodes in his shack.  Dazed and disoriented, he half-decently tries to fight his way out of a combination of Patriot and Texas forces, but fails.  Miles, Rachel, Charlie, and Aaron watch him being brought into Willoughby, by an honor guard that includes Ed Truman and General Carver, President of Texas.  They announce that they will bring justice to the war criminal Sebastian Monroe.  Rachel can barely contain her glee.   In Carver’s press corps is Bonnie, a former reporter for Forbes, who recognizes Aaron as he is reading an old comic about someone who can make fire, doodling a symbol he’s seeing in a comic supposedly from the public library (dude, respect library property!).  They chat a bit, and Bonnie says enough for Aaron to realize there will definitely not be any war between Texas and the US, and wonder why they are now so buddy buddy.  Aaron also realizes his cover is officially blown.  Bonnie is all cynical and jaded, writing only what politicians want to read about themselves “The truth is not my business,” she tells Aaron.

And… we move to an area about 2 hours’ walking from the Patriots’ East Coast re-education camp. Allenford says she’s not getting any closer.  She’s totally freaked out about being this close, but Neville is clear that she’s in it for the duration (well, until Neville can actually see his son).  They discover a campsite with inhabitants that have recently been brutally murdered, and Allenford is convinced  that it was by subjects from the re-ed camp, and that they’ve stumbled on training grounds, where re-ed ‘cadets’ learn how to viciously kill strangers.  She is now even more frightened.  With reason, because three cadets start shooting at them.  Neville and Allenford make a dash for it, and manage to hide in an abandoned building, right after Neville realizes one of the cadets is Boy Band himself.  Come on, Tom.  Do you really think Boy Band needs the excuse of re-ed conditioning to want to kill you?

Justice is pretty swift for Monroe; the judge pronounces the verdict and sentence (death, duh, it’s Texas), while Miles and Charlie get the bright idea to really get in some trouble by breaking Monroe out, but he is moved to the bank and it’s vault at the last minute.  Miles and Rachel snap at each other again, as she was the one who advised the Patriots to make the change.  She’s right, of course:  why should she lose her man and her daughter saving such a psychopath?  Charlie thinks Monroe’s saving her in the Plains Nation partially redeems him.  Rachel dismisses all arguments; Monroe is evil, despite being their best shot at confronting the Patriots, and a savior to her daughter.  Let justice happen.

Allenford and Neville confab a bit.  We learn that Allenford witnessed her own son’s “re-education”, and suffered her own husband’s indifference to it.  She’s more frightened of the Patriots than loyal to them.  She’s also convinced this is going to end with either Tom or Jason dead.  Oh, Allenford, don’t you know that Tom and Boy Band’s tense relationship is one of the show’s biggest draws?  Neville shows that he’s still got it: while Allenford cowers behind a grille, Nevile kills Boy Band’s drummer and rhythm guitarist, leaving only Boy Band.  It goes badly for Neville, as his own son gets the jump on him and is beating Neville senseless when Allenford knocks Boy Band out.

Flashback to the camp scene.  Shelley’s birth goes badly.  Miles grabs an innocent looking man we will come to know as the asshole second only to Monroe to get water, and we see Monroe come out with his hands covered in blood and losing his shit.

Back to Willoughby: Miles is ‘escorted’ to Monroe’s cell, to find out that Monroe asked to see him and that the Patriots know who “Stu” really is.  Miles shakes Monroes hand a little too long and turns to leave, when Monroe tells Miles that he has a son by Emma, a woman they both loved once.  Miles returns the favor, informing Monroe that he hid Monroe’s son and that the kid will always be safe from Monroe.  Monroe is pissy about this.  But there’s not much for Monroe to do, as he’s escorted shortly to his death chamber.   Carver and Truman exchange tidbits like tweenies at a school assembly.  Aaron is definitely freaked out by all this, as he can only see events happening as potential dangers to him.    Rachel’s dad will actually inject Monroe with poison, and he’s more than happy to do it:  Danny was his grandson, after all.  Rachel is assisting, and this definitely has her stamp of approval.  Monroe apologizes to Rachel’s dad, but it really is too late for all this, and we see Monroe twitch, his eyes go blank in the open position, and Rachel’s dad pronouncing him dead.

Boy Band wakes up in handcuffs with Neville telling him he’s going to deprogram him.  Boy Band is not cooperating, telling his dad he knew about Mom’s affair with one of Monroe’s colonels.  Between a father never home and an unfaithful mother, it’s not a big surprise that Boy Band is fairly disgusted with his parents and has no loyalty left to them.  Working for the Patriots, his dad’s sworn enemy, was probably not a hard choice for him.  But Neville informs his son in no uncertain terms that Neville has worked, plotted, and killed for his family and what’s left of it will respect and obey him, dammit. 

Flashback again:  Monroe is drinking and laughing with some buds in the campsite thirteen years ago.  A clueless Miles enters, wondering why Monroe is in such a groovy mood after losing both Shelley and the baby.  Monroe tells him that they raided the neighbors Miles wanted to just steal from, killed everyone, and took whatever they wanted.  Miles, who kind of gave Monroe the idea, is horrified as Monroe tells him he was just doing what Miles wanted. 

Back in Willoughby, “Stu” is drinking, and Charlie comes to give him some moral support.  Miles is convinced that someone must have given Monroe away, but doesn’t know who.  We see four new developments, all bad:  turns out Dr. Rachel’s Dad tipped off the Patriots about Monroe, and is working them, although he’s pretty clear with Ed Truman that he’s in charge of how much he cooperates, not Ed; Bonnie, after reminding Aaron that the truth is not her business, drunkenly tells Aaron that the US and Texas have agreed that Willoughby will be an island of the US in Texas, with the Patriots totally running Willoughby now; we see a strangely familiar man ride into town, and Aaron sees a box on the guy’s wagon with the symbol he’s been doodling in the comic;  and we see Rachel digging up Monroe’s grave.

Roanoke - Walking Dead, Season 4, Episode 3

Our plucky band of heroes has just been getting used to being a small town.  The Andrea Flu Strain sweeping through C Block and even creeping into D will reduce them back down a core group.  Each of our heroes slowly realizes this during the course of the episode, that a community will return to a tribe.  Or disappear altogether, like Roanoke.  Were the last days of that doomed settlement like this episode?

We begin with a little gravedigging.  Glenn and Maggie give each other sympathetic looks.  Question- whose grave has been marked with their handgun?  Not TDog’s (even though the gun resembles his old one), as he was a Christian and would have gotten a cross.  Hmmmm…

Tyrese is  furiously demanding that Rick solve Karen’s and, apparently, “David’s” murders, with Daryl and Carol trying to talk him down.  Dude, Tyrese, how do you even know they were alive when someone found them in their cells anyway?  Fortunately, everyone is smart enough to at least not suggest to Tyrese that there might not even be a murder here.  Rick, who’s had his own post-love-dying-crazy-time, tells Tyrese he’s been there, and that Tyrese needs to calm down.  There’s water to fetch, sick people to isolate, food to grow, living people’s needs to be settled.  This sends Tyrese over an edge, and he and Rick have it out with each other, ending only when Daryl pries Rick off of him.  Tyrese’s eye has been bludgeoned shut.  Carol is in shock more from a fist fight than the two burned bodies. 

Glenn returns from gravedigging to meet up with Hershel, who has just come from another death due to the Andrea Flu Strain (AFS), with Glenn both hoping they are at least past getting sick now, and mad that this flu can undo all the survival everybody’s been doing up until now.  Just as he finishes, we see Sasha stumbling out of C Block, obviously ill.  She waves off Hershel, and continues to stumble to A Block, where she sees that Doctor S has also come down with AFS. 

Carol and Rick discover the water line is gunked up with mud where the hoses connect in the creek outside the fences.  Someone will have to fix it.  Rick is sure they should do it tomorrow.  Carol points out that they could both be sick tomorrow. 

The Council worries about what to do – all of C Block is now definitely sick, including Prisonville’s only doctor.  Hershel declares that it’s not the flu actually doing the killing, but the symptoms.  He suggests that they make a supply run to a veterinary college fifty miles away, and that it might still be stocked, as most people don’t know that the animal antibiotics that will not cure any virus, much less the flu, will magically now work on humans, and that by treating the flu, the symptoms will then lessen and people could survive the flu.  Daryl and Michonne are immediately all for it, and will recruit Bob, since he can actually read Hershel’s shopping list.   Daryl and Michonne work together to prep Zach’s old car, and Daryl tells Michonne how glad he is Michonne is here, instead of looking for the ex-Gov.  But he messes up and Michonne takes it badly, leading to an awkward convo later.

Tyrese resists all attempts to have someone look at his horrible eye as he digs graves for Karen and Dave.  Rick tries to question him about any possible motive for their deaths besides being sick with a fatal flu virus; Tyrese declares that it doesn’t matter if someone tried to keep a deadly flu virus from spreading, especially since it didn’t work anyway.  That kind of rules out Hershel, Bob, and Doctor S, since they would have known that the flu was already spreading with or without the victims (at least we hope they did).  Rick realizes that he’s not going to get out figuring this out for Tyrese; he’s spent the season up until now avoiding solving anyone’s problems.  But Rick, once you strap on that Colt Python, don’t be surprised if people think you’re the Sheriff.

Hershel wants all the sick in A Block, and all the children (and reluctantly, himself) in the administration building since it’s uncontaminated with the flu.  Glenn starts feeling sick at the Council meeting, and only admits being sick when Maggie comes near him.  Carol ushers all the sick into A Block like she’s Mary-fucking-Poppins, including little Lizzie.  She can’t go into A Block with Lizzie, so after hugging Lizzie, and telling her to be brave, she all but pushes Lizzie into A Block and shuts the door.  Daryl tries to convince Tyrese to come the supply run, but Tyrese thinks someone should protect the sick, especially since his sister is in there.  Visiting with Sasha, who thinks a supply run is awesome, and Carol, who agrees reluctantly to check in on A Block, Tyrese volunteers to go drug-shopping with Daryl, Michonne, and Bob.  Carol, at first startled shitless by Tyrese, is so frustrated by Tyrese’s complete faith in her ability to help people she can’t help, she actually knocks down the water barrel, desperately scrambling to save what little she can.  Rick orders Carl into the admin building with the other kids, telling him to protect the kids, and let him know if anyone else gets sick.  Rick puts Carl on notice- the gun can only be used as a last resort.  Carl, like an evil child from a horror movie, tells Rick that they both know he’ll eventually have to.

Carl catches Hershel wandering out of the admin building, and Hershel tries to lie to him, but then admits he’s going out to pick elderberries for a folk remedy to the symptoms of the flu.  Carl, deciding he’s in charge of what adults do now, tries to lay down the law.  But Hershel is adamant- he’s not sitting around useless when relief is just a berry-picking adventure away.  So he and Carl go in search of bushes in the forest.  AND THE HAT IS BACK.  Set against the treetops of the magic forest, Carl’s hat is practically a character itself.  Carl keeps an eye out while Herhsel crouches over some nearby bushes.  Hershel and Carl palaver a bit, with Hershel telling Carl that it’s good that Carl toned it down, did some growing up and some goofing off.  Herhsel, didn’t you see the fucking hat?  Carl is all business.  Next to a torn and tattered tent, he spots a zombie that has literally rotted into a tree.  They both spot another zombie, with one leg caught in a bear trap, limping around.  Carl is ready to put them down, but Hershel talks him out of it; neither can actually catch up to them, even with Hershel’s prosthetic foot.  So they meander back to Prisonville, leaving these two characters to forever haunt the magic forest, like something out of Lord of the Rings.  For that is what the world is slowly becoming.  A series of haunted forests and roads and towns.

Maggie and Beth convo between a door.  Beth holds onto Judith for dear life in almost complete isolation, to keep both of them free of the flu.  Beth tells Maggie a bit of wisdom from their father:  You don’t get to get upset.  We all have jobs to do.  Alone with a baby who is her sole responsibility for the time being, with so many now dying, her father’s wisdom is all that’s holding Beth together.

As the team in Zach’s car finds out for real.  Racing down back roads, scattering leaves in their tailwind, Daryl tries to make right with Michonne.  He’s pretty sure the trail is cold on the ex-Gov, assuring Michonne he’d be out there too, if the ex-Gov could be found.  Will Michonne give up her quest for justice/revenge? It’s left unresolved.  Daryl turns on the stereo and Michonne starts in on Zach’s CD collection to avoid any more talk.  But the stereo is talking.  A garbled, staticy voice on the radio says stuff like survive, blah blah, untelligible.  It’s cut short when Daryl realizes he’s got an obstacle course of zombies, swerving like crazy to avoid hitting them.  He stops only when they see they’re head-on running into a horde of thousands of zombies, right between them and Hershel’s veterinary college.  Daryl quick reverses, frantically running over zombies behind them now just to put some distance between them and the herd.  But he eventually runs over so many the car is no longer actually on the road, wheels uselessy spinning and cutting up zombie heads under it.

Daryl tells them all to bail and head to the woods with him, don’t stop for anything, just move while the horde has gaps in it.   Daryl, Michonne, and Bob spring from the car, Daryl popping out of the sun roof, sliding down the front, and knifing his way away from the car.  Michonne gets away easily with her sword.  Bob shoots a few in the head, running as he goes.  Only Tyrese hesitates.  Is he scared? No no no.  He’s just saving it up, and springs from the car himself, last and surrounded by about a dozen zombies.  He whips out his hammer, furiously pounding zombie heads as they close in.  Convinced Tyrese is a goner, the others head into the woods without him.

Hershel heads to A Block with a few containers of his new tea.  He and Maggie and Rick have a snit fit over whether he’s allowed in.  Hershel explains that he’d rather go out knowing he tried to help, rather than cowering in fear of a disease he’s already been totally exposed to anyway.  He makes stops throughout A Block, telling Doctor S that he’s where he needs to be, telling Glenn that we all have jobs to do, and Glenn’s is to keep his shit together.  For everyone’s sake.  Maggie and Beth convo again, repeating their father’s wisdom to each other, commiserating on their father’s own risk-taking while they sit around useless.

Carol has decided to make amends for losing the water.  Activating a very cute noisemaker that distracts zombies from the creek bridge outside the fence, she is cleaning out the hose connection between the creek and Prisonville’s water pump.  But she’s a little noisier than she intends, and she only just gets away after quick cleaning out the hose and reconnecting it with Rick’s help.  He tries to scold her for such risk-taking, and reminds her they were going to this tomorrow.  Like Hershel, she’s not having it.  “We might not have tomorrow”, she tells Rick.  She’s right, and Rick is still not in charge.  Later, Rick finally decides to look into Karen and David’s death, because he’s going to have to have some progress to give Tyrese. The bodies have been removed, and almost all the blood cleaned up (it’s a huge contamination risk), but Rick finds a handprint against a doorframe that was missed by the cleaning crew.  It’s much smaller than his own hand.

Daryl’s team, now three, romp through the forest, bringing down zombies in their way, and find a clearing where they can outrun the zombies and lose them.  Two zombies stumble out of the woods to follow, but one is brought down by …. Tyrese!  Covered in zombie goop, he nearly collapses.  But Daryl brings down the other zombie, and grabs Tyrese.  They all head on together.

Carol is bringing water somewhere, probably to the sick, back in Prisonville.  Rick stops her, asks her if there’s anything she wouldn’t do for Prisonville.  There isn’t.  So he point-blank asks her if she killed Karen and David.  “Yes,” is all she says.   She walks away with no further explanation.  She has shit to do.  And people to save.  

Doesn't Play Well With Others - Revolution, Season 2, Episode 5

After last week’s stunning display of competence from our characters, I guess we were owed an episode that reminded us just how royally they can and do screw up.  And I guess we know now what those cells in D.C. were being prepared for, and whom.  And we know how Wifey’s first husband died. 

Monroe wants to help, honest.  But he’s like a five-year-old who really wants to help do the dishes, and ends up breaking half of them.  After talking Charlie down from stupidly just storming Willoughby’s gates, he meets up with Miles at an abandoned set of piers for a bridge long since gone.  Miles is understandably reluctant to accept his help.  Monroe always brings out the worst in Miles, whether Miles is fighting with him or against him.  But Miles has an appointment with a Texas Ranger later that night, and Monroe can help him produce what he needs for the appointment – evidence that the Patriots are responsible for the attack on the town.

Texas Ranger Man puts on a good bluff for Ed Truman, but he later confesses to Miles that Texas does not have the manpower to kick the Patriots out, and that his job is to not make a treaty impossible, so Miles makes a deal to meet with him later to produce evidence that the Patriots are really good at defending towns they attacked in the first place.  When Charlie magically appears to tell Miles that Rachel is wanted by the same US Government that has been real chummy with her, and Monroe offers to help produce whatever evidence he needs, it’s off to the train yards they go. 

Titus’ Henchman produces the charred remains of the soldiers who almost killed Miles last night.  Henchman is angry, as there is no explanation, reasonable or otherwise, why two soldiers spontaneously combusted.  Ed blusters his way through it, but one must wonder:  who controls the Patriots – Ed Truman or Henchman?

Neville is surprised by a wagon that can’t possibly transport all the people who want to get on it.  Yes, folks, there’s a wagon right behind this one.  Just like there’s another subway train directly behind the one you don’t fit in, too.  Allenford informs him that this and future wagons are going to Magicland, with new wells and fancy sleeping arrangements out of the rain and everything.  She tells him he’s coming with her to D.C., rebuffing his attempt to brown-nose her.  Taking Neville with her reduces the trouble he can cause around her other soldiers, and keeps him where she can keep an eye on him.

Aaron takes one look at some false teeth by his front door and decides to pack for a trip.  We find out later the teeth were a gift from wifey months ago as a joke, and that wifey’s first husband was a real doozy.  We see Aaron applying for his job as a teacher, and later on we see that Aaron has actually been teaching electrical wiring at the Willoughby school, for reasons that are completely unclear.  Wifey later finds Rachel to tell her Aaron has disappeared, and Rachel offers to help, knowing Aaron cannot get far.  She finds him out by a bunch of boats sitting derelict in a field, abandoned since they no longer run.  Aaron reminds Rachel that he used to be rich by mentioning he used to own boats himself.  We learn that the soldiers from the night before aren’t the first people Aaron has killed with his “gift”.  Wifey’s first husband was torched while cheating on wifey and after threatening Aaron when Aaron found out.  Aaron, instead of realizing the potential of his power, has been terrified that he’s going to kill someone else for months before this.  No wonder when wifey praises him as a miracle, Aaron looks guilty.  Rachel assures Aaron he won’t kill anyone good, only bad people, which is a sure sign Aaron will kill wifey by mistake soon.

Neville is wearing pretty cool sunglasses as he walks along the wagon taking Allenford to D.C.  But the trip is cut short by fellow Patriots.  Allenford is spooked, but not surprised by their sudden appearance, but her efforts to talk her way through it fail, and the firefight gets her in the gut and kills everyone else, except Neville.  He starts to treat her wound, demanding to know why she was ambushed by her own team.  Allenford tells Neville that Magicland is really an internment camp for “re-education”, which involves psychological torture and forced hallucinogens.  Allenford felt it was unnecessary and uncalled for, and she’s been shot for protesting to her higher-ups.  Reality check- exactly what re-education is required to make former Americans saved by the US Government want to be Americans again?  This re-education is for much more, and much worse, than votes.  Neville, realizing Allenford is a nobody now and she can’t give him anything he wants, starts to leave.  But Allenford has a card to play: she tells Neville that Jason is at one of these camps, and she’ll take Neville to his son in return for treatment.  He reluctantly gets to work.  They are now allies, though they’ve both lied to each other repeatedly and will continue to do so.

The train yards are a bust for our intrepid heroes, but Miles and Monroe have a good bromance fight moment, and Charlie finds some wagon treads.  So it’s off to the ambush they go.  The ambush is predictable, and predictably fought off, with Charlie keeping the Patriots focused on her and her really loud gun while Miles and Monroe sneak around and kill the Patriots where they stand.  Except for one guy, Henchman.  Oh, the look on Miles’ face when he realizes who the double agent between the War Clan and the Patriots must have been.  Miles knocks him out with his just healed, handicapable hand.  Miles wants him alive, as Henchman is his proof.  The town will recognize him, especially the chick who was in the coop with Miles, as a part of the War Clan.  And now he’s in a Patriot uniform.  It will appear odd, to say the least, at how fast he changed sides.  Monroe is relieved to have the hard part done and Texas RangerMan on the way to take over.

So, of course Rachel screws it up by showing up out of the blue with Aaron.  Miles has to talk her down from killing Monroe, shush everyone up and send them away before Texas RangerMan arrives.  Rachel and Charlie have a snit-fit over Charlie bringing Monroe, which Rachel thinks was stupid.  Charlie is mad that her mother isn’t even thanking her for helping.  Aaron tells them they can bitch at each other later.  Monroe is playing backup somewhere, in case the meeting is screwed up by anything.  Texas RangerMan shows up, but Henchman has already killed himself with a cyanide tooth.  Miles is so impotently angry, pointing out how ridiculous it would be for a Patriot soldier to have such a thing, but Texas RangerMan tells Miles it’s not enough, and he’ll only recommend that Texas not trust the Patriots.  As he has decided to be useless, of course he gets shot suddenly and collapses dead.  And, of course, Monroe appears from behind with a gun and very pleased with himself.  Now, all they have to do is frame the Patriots for Texas RangerMan’s death!  Isn’t that awesome, Miles?  Rachel gives the worst I-told-you-so look to Charlie that a mother can give.  Aaron is convinced they’re all screwed.  The group slowly realizes they’ll have to cooperate to clean up the mess Monroe made, whether they want to or not.

Animal Farm - Walking Dead, Season 4, Episode 2

We start with a flashlight in the darkness, and zombie faces wandering into the beam of light.  Without the chain link fence between one and those faces, imagine being in the darkness with only feeble human night vision to prevent you from stumbling into these things.  But Flashlight Person is here for a purpose, to feed rat heads to zombies.  Since the rat is understandably shy, the zombies just push their mouths against the fence and bite down on rat heads.  The flashlight turns off. 

And we cut to something equally gross – smooching and mushy serenading.  Karen and Tyrese are canoodling somewhere between cell blocks D & C, with Tyrese singing pieces of “I’ve got you under my skin”, trying to be romantic with his special lady friend in between bemoaning the fact that people keep dying.  Karen begs off sleeping together, and proceeds with her own flashlight thru the passages we saw a season ago between the cell blocks, where Hershel got his ankle bitten.  She enters the same bathroom Patrick died in, proceeds to fill a sink with the water the boy hacked up a lung onto, and is interrupted by a sound from the showers.  Karen, to her credit, doesn’t fuck around.  She quickly but quietly searches the shower, finding nothing behind curtain #1.  After washing up, she proceeds to D block, where she goes behind the bed sheet/curtain door to her cell, settling in for the night.  But she’s not alone.  Patrick, as we knew he would, finally rouses himself, following Karen to D block, where he literally stands in silhouette at Karen’s “door”, before being lured by the sound of someone coughing a couple cells away.  Smart even when undead, Patrick starts by ripping out Sleepy’s throat, so even wide awake, he can’t call for help, and probably dies too quick to make noise any other way (would have taken seconds to bleed out).  Patrick gets to gorge himself all night in peace on juicy, yummy intestines.  It won’t be until morning, when the first rousing residents of D block distract him from his first meal. It also won’t be until morning when Sleepy re-awakens.  Between the two of them, they start to unleash unholy hell all over D block.

Glenn wakes up, spots Maggie sleeping, and decides it’s Polaroid time.  He then descends the ladder from the guard tower they shared to check the perimeter.  I’ll give you a hint, Glenn.  The zombies you didn’t clear yesterday are still there, plus some.  Next time, secure your own prison, then go on supply runs.

Waking Carl at 6am (how does he know it’s really 6 am?  Just set it at sunrise and hope for the best?), Rick hands off Judith to his au pair and takes Carl on a worm digging expedition.  Typically, boys like this, but Carl asks if maybe they should go clear walkers from the fence.  Proving, once again, that Carl is smarter than his father.  They see Michonne riding off again, and go to say goodbye.  Michonne asks where Carl’s old hat is, and he replies “It’s not a farming hat.”, clearly indicating that Carl’s days as the sheriff of Prisonville are supposed to be over.  Michonne rides out of the gate, on her way to Macon.   As Rick is feeding worms to the remaining pigs, he and Carl debate whether Carl should get his gun back.  Rick gives him the “fuck no, ‘cause I said so!” look, but suddenly, they hear pops that could either be illegal fireworks or guns.  Lizzie and Mika, bust out of D block screaming their heads off for help, as Rick, Sasha, Daryl, and Glenn book it for some heavy badassery.

Michonne hears the trouble and immediately rides back.  But there’s only one to open and shut both sets of gates, and Carl can open the outside doors, but can’t open the inner gate fast enough.  Two zombies get into the “vestibule” with Michonne, who is now trapped with them.  She’s a little slow with the sword, so she engages in a wrestling match with them, tripping over a rope in the area and struggling until she uses one big push to get one of them off her.  Carl has rushed to grab the nearest rifle and shoots one with no fanfare and perfect aim.  Maggie appears and shoots the other.  They bring a hobbling Michonne into the prison.  Someone won’t be going to Macon anytime soon.

Between Rick, Glenn, Daryl,  and maybe Tyrese, they clear out the zombies from D block, but not before said zombies take about 5 victims, at least one of which was one of the other kids.  One of them is a middle-aged guy, who is suddenly bitten on the wrist.  Wasting no time and showing just why she’s the one really in charge of Prisonville, Carol brings him to a cell behind the action where she immediately preps for amputation, not even bothering to wait for the Doctor.  Turning him over to properly cut off his arm, she sees she’ll have to cut off his head, too, while she’s at it.

Putting down all the bodies, Rick and Daryl realize someone else turned in the night – a local sleepwalker who locks himself in at night for his own safety.  Just like Patrick, he has been bleeding from the eyes, nose and mouth, with creepy, sunken, yellow eyes.  Later, they discuss this with Doctor S, an Indian guy with a British? Accent, who tells them it’s a virulent flu strain, and Patrick and sleepwalker died from the intense pressure build-up of blood in their internal organs.  Hershel figures it may have come from the pigs, since at least two have been seen sick lately.  Bob, the army medic who fucked up yesterday’s supply run, tells them the flu has definitely spread already as they live in such close quarters, and quarantines should be used on all exposed. 

Sharon’s note:  no, I do not have the flu.  If I had the flu, I wouldn’t be in to work.  I obviously had a cold that dried out and roughed up my throat, which is why I’m still coughing.  Stop telling me to get a flu shot, as they don’t prevent colds.  Just fuck off and let me suck on my cough drops.

Carol is breaking the bad news to her non-patient, and he begs her to look after his daughters, and Carol practically has to restrain herself from jumping up and down at the prospect of having a kid again.  Carol eventually calls the girls in to say goodbye to Dad.  Turns out they’re Lizzie and Mika, and they get there just in time to see Dad die. Lizzie wants to put Dad down, but wusses out at the last second, so Carol does it efficiently and quietly with the girls watching.  I personally wouldn’t go for the side, but would roll someone over and go right for the brain stem in the back, but I’m not quibbling with Carol.  Carol later tries to lecture Lizzie on her weakness, being a little harsh on someone who was just asked to put her own dad down.  Lizzie is preoccupied, not with the loss of her father, but with the loss of her new zombie-buddy Nick, who lies in a bloody heap just outside the fence.  Carol is frustrated, as she’s trying to tell Lizzie what she should have told Sophia and failed.  Lizzie runs off, avoiding grief and shock for her father by mourning for a zombie.  Mika tells Carol that Lizzie isn’t weak, just in shock.

Novel note:  in the graphic novel, there are two boys, sons of Donna and Allen, who become the group’s responsibility when Donna and Allen die. These boys meet and tragic and sobering end in the novel.  Are Lizzie and Mika stand-ins for these boys?

The council meets right away, around a table in the Prisonville Library.  Carol flat out lies to the council, telling them Patrick was fine yesterday, even though he was already nauseous at storytime.  There is an empty chair at the table, not saved for anyone, but to make the point that Rick should be there and isn’t.  They all decide to follow Bob’s suggestion, to quarantine anyone exposed to the newest flu.  They start with Karen, who they catch coughing as she and Tyrese are walking past the library.  Tyrese is not pleased with this, but he’s even less pleased at the thought of more people dying.  Karen was probably feeling unwell yesterday as well, explaining her brief pauses at the wall to contemplate her weapon in a couple of clips from the first episode, so she doesn’t protest all that much.

Rick meets up with Daryl later, and Rick gets ready to dig some graves.  They re-bond a bit, with Rick feeling like he should have left the rough stuff to the others, and Daryl telling him he was just fine and those jeans don’t make him look fat, so just buy them already.  Rick’s inability to find a long-term strategy and implement it nearly got his group killed last season, but it seems that Daryl hasn’t learned a goddamned thing from the being governed by people who actually know what they’re doing.  He tells Rick he’s totally cool with the way Rick rushes into whatever danger there is, mostly because Rick is the older brother Daryl wanted instead of Merle.  This bonding is cut short with Maggie screaming at them – she and Glenn have finally realized all those walkers bunched up at one of the fences are a problem.  So Rick and Daryl rush to the outer fence on the other side of the yard, dividing their time between putting down zombies and holding up the fence.  They finally let it sag a bit, and step back before one of them gets bitten by the zombies literally plastered to it.  Sasha finds the rat bodies, and is royally pissed that someone’s been feeding zombies and keeping them at the fence.  Rick gets one of his crazy ideas, after staring at his beloved pig pen.  He tells Daryl to get a truck.

Carol finds Carl making crosses for the latest dead, and tells him Patrick was an atheist, so Carl’s going to have to improvise for his grave marker.  They discuss the fact that Carol is giving kids weapons training without their parents’ permission.  Carl hates not telling his dad.  Carol hates thinking that the kids won’t be able to defend themselves if their parents wuss out on the lessons.  What part of Carol-knows-best does Prisonville still not know? 

Rick and Daryl head out on a jeep/flatbed combo with Rick on the flatbed next to a big wooden box, which turns out to carry the remaining pigs.  Very likely carrying the flu that is spreading in the prison, Rick realizes they are still good for one thing, even if not meat for them – he knifes them and leaves them squealing for zombies about fifty feet from the fences, in a slow progression to lure maximum zombies away from the fences long enough for Glenn and the ladies to shore up the fences.  Blood sprays all over Rick, potentially carrying the flu to him and representing Rick’s return to shedding blood.  Daryl is at his happiest all day, enjoying Rick’s latest crazy idea that turns out to work after all.  It’s like the Blues Brothers have reunited to get the band back together.

Beth and Michonne are confabbing while Michonne gets her ankle bandaged, and Beth entertains Judith.  In what will later be strained and dramatic conversations in future episodes, Michonne freaks out while Judith is crying, and later while holding Judith, who is really getting cute now.  Beth leaves her to her freak out, but look to these two to do some bonding over whatever past baby Michonne lost.

Carol sees Lizzie and Mika staring at zombies again from the graves, one of which has Patrick’s old eyeglasses dangling from the marker.  This time, Carol gets through to Lizzie.  Carol gives Lizzie a flower to wear in her hair, and Lizzie takes Carol’s knife for herself.

Cut to Rick.  He tosses gasoline over the pig pen, and takes off his old, blood-stained, police officer’s shirt and throws it away to burn.  Carl approaches, and confesses to his dad that he used a gun today because it was necessary to save Michonne.  He also tells Rick about Carol’s weapons lessons.  Rick has no wish to intervene, because now badass Rick is back, whether he goes crazy or not.  He opens up the magic box of past sins, reaches in and hands Carl his gun back.  He takes out his old holster, and his Colt Python.  He lights a match and sets the pig pen with his old shirt on fire.   Rick tells Carl they should both stay away from Judith for a bit, as they’ve both been exposed to the flu.  Which means no tender brother/father moments to get in the way being badasses for a while. He’s back, and he has no plan besides surviving to the next day.  

It’s getting dark out, and Prisonville has survived another day.  Tyrese has flowers for a certain quarantine patient, but he doesn’t get to deliver them.  Karen’s new cell has a lot of blood marks, but none of them are footprints, which means a bloody Karen was dragged out of her cell. Tyrese follows the blood trail to the yard outside the A block, finding two burned bodies, one of which was Karen.  The zombies at the fence were a distraction.  The real killing today was here.  Prisonville officially has a serial killer.

Like Dumbass Mother, Like Dumbass Daughter - Revolution, Season 2, Episode 4

The characters are really trying to mind their own business:  Aaron is trying to ignore his now-recurring visions, Rachel tries to mind her own business, Charlie tries to go home, Miles tries to enjoy trick-or-treating.  Tom tries cafeteria work.  And Monroe has been left behind.  This episode was very clear about the theme of Revolution:  that trouble will follow the Mathesons and the Nevilles no matter what they do, so they may as well kill their enemies and leave the crime scenes clean.

Rachel awakes in her breezy room in her dad’s house, the arrow shot is now bandaged, and is more of a bad dream than anything else.  Outside, a kid hiding behind a tree right in front of her, dressed as a scary skeleton is soon joined by his friends.  It’s Halloween, and Willoughby, TX is trick-or-treating and having a fair.  After stumbling through the town, she is met by Miles and Captain Ed Truman, who is now in charge.  He says all the right things, but to the wrong person.  Rachel and Miles know enough about “Patriots” to know Willoughby is being occupied for some reason.   They have an interesting pow wow that sends Miles off looking for more info on these guys.  Miles tells Rachel to lay low, and of course she doesn’t listen.  Getting caught while rifling through the Patriots’ stuff, finding letters with the eye-in-the-pyramid from our dollar bills.   Dad smooths Truman’s ruffled feathers and takes Rachel home.  He tells her in no uncertain terms that she sucks at solving problems, and should just sit there and look pretty.  Halleluhah.  Rachel, you destroyed the East Coast last time you got involved.  Just help your dad.  And to her credit, she actually listens to him.

Let’s face it, though:  Ed Truman must know he can’t kill her.  He addresses her as Mrs. Matheson, which means he knows who she is.  And since the Patriots want her alive, well, he can yell at her, or throw her in prison.  But he ain’t killing her.  Not unless he wants to explain this to Allenford, which he doesn’t.  The Patriots will keep her alive, at least until they can frame her and Monroe in a show trial for nuking the East Coast.  After all, wasn’t Rachel seen in Philly, working with Monroe?  Doesn’t she know where the Tower is(was?), and how to turn the power back on?  And wasn’t she in the Tower with Monroe on the night the East was nuked?  Case closed.  Coincidentally, I’m sure he knows “Stu” is a totally fake name, and that he has both Miles and Rachel Matheson in his hand.

Charlie is drinking in a bar in Northern Texas, on her way back home to Mom.  Charlie has some idea that she can actually defend her mother from the US Government, but who am I to judge?  She falls for one of the oldest rapist tricks in the book- she drinks a drink made outside of her presence, from a stranger in an unfamiliar place.  She gets a few of them good, but there are too many and the drug in her drink kicks in, so cue Monroe to save her.  Last time I checked, homicidal lunatics don’t have ethical quibbles with rape, but Monroe does need her, undamaged, in order to get back to Willoughby and convince the Mathesons he just wants to help.  He viciously kills anyone stupid enough to fight him, as Charlie passes out.  He later informs her that he will take her back to Willoughby himself.  We’re still on for them to be boning by Xmas.

Aaron is hanging out, worrying, like he always does.  He has some sort of vision that puts him out for the count, until his wife finds him.  He gets put to bed.  Aaron, the unlikely prophet/paranormal subject.  So far, his part in last season has been totally unknown to the US Government.  Which means all the heat will be on Miles, Monroe, and Rachel.  But Aaron was the only one who could actually turn the power on and off, and now his life is getting weirder by the minute.  Won’t be long until Ed Truman takes an interest in him.  No wonder he’s in constant panic mode. 

In Georgia, Tom spits his teeth into a bowl while his new boss tells him to get back to work.  Tom is dirty after working whatever shitty job he has, and fed up with his boss.  Turns out that Allenford has taken his son somewhere, which is exactly what Allenford should have done.  She doesn’t know Tom, and doesn’t trust him.  So she holds on to Boy Band as a hostage.  This has Tom understandably pissy.

Ed Truman spends the days working on his unit’s act – they find a lone man outside town after escaping Willoughby, and they shoot him so they can claim later the war clan that “fled” Willoughby killed him.  Miles spends some quality time with Titus, who tells Miles that he was working with someone from the Patriots and that now the Patriots have killed/captured his “family” and are keeping the war clan in a train car somewhere.  Then he blames Miles for everything he himself caused and tries to kill Miles.  So Miles actually kills him, unlike the guy from the end of last night’s episode, who probably just knocked him out.  Let’s hope Titus stays dead after tonight.  Miles proceeds to find this train with the remaining war clan members.

Rachel meets up later with Ken, the town butcher.  He is chummy, happy to be alive, happy to have the troops in Willoughby after almost having to give up the town completely or face death. And he really wants to be Rachel’s friend.  That should have been a clue- who would be stupid enough to want to be friends with someone with such a Messiah complex?  And he so wants to hear about whatever is bothering her, no matter how crazy it is.  So, of course, they go off for a confab.

Tom finds the refugee camp’s whorehouse, playing an old record on a windup record player (Procul Harum’s “Whiter Shade of Pale”).  He finds a pretty and barely dressed blond.  She appears to have absolutely no emotions whatsoever and gives the camera a long view of her ass in skimpy panties and a butterfly tattoo on her lower back as she takes Tom back to another room.  He tells her he wants two hours in there, no one finding them or finding out.  Does it matter? The drugs will make her forget the whole thing in the morning, anyway.  Inside is Tom’s boss.  Turns out he’s a heroine addict, and completely blitzed on smack.  Tom steals the gun under the pillow, and ties Bossman to the bed.  Bossman wakes up to find himself defenseless, with Tom standing over him.  Tom wants a better job, his son back, and a better pension plan.  Plus a vending machine in the break area for all the employees.  Bossman can’t help him find Jason.  Which means he’s useless, since Tom already has a plan to get Bossman’s job and run the cafeteria better than Bossman’s half-assed attempt.  So Tom goes ahead and injects enough heroine for Bossman to OD.

Miles makes it to the trainyard, where a shitload of barrels containing who knows what but probably explosives gives Miles a great place to hide and watch Ed Truman and Titus’ old henchman pull two war clan members out of a freight car and shoot them both, so their dead bodies can be paraded in front of Willoughby residents tomorrow as “evidence” that the Patriots are good, War Clan outside the gates bad.  If the Patriots want to actually protect the town, why not just take the whole War Clan back and hang them for the residents to see?  It’s Texas, no one will object to a public hanging of people who attacked the town and killed the Sheriff and its residents.  So why not just vanquish the foe and get down to governance?  Because that is not their plan, and then Willoughby residents would feel safe leaving, which is also not part of the plan.  Miles sees his full just as he’s caught.

Aaron wakes up next to wifey and decides to go back to sleep.  Wifey very cutely pretends not to stare at him as he nods off.  As Miles fights off the first soldier who catches him, runs away and is caught again by two Patriots with rifles, Aaron sees the whole thing.  The Patriots slowly realize something’s going on in the sky, so Miles turns around to see the fireflies have turned into those fish from Finding Nemo who can make faces and shit.  The ground under the Patriots starts to buckle, and the Patriots spontaneously combust, so Miles can run off, without the Patriots knowing it was him snooping.  But, come on.  Eventually Ed Truman will figure out no one saw “Stu” all day or that evening.

Ken and Rachel have one of those talks that last a long time.  Ken acts like it’s a crazy story and he needs more wine, which is downstairs in his heavily insulated basement only accessible from his store.  Lucky for Rachel that she spots the papers with the US Government’s pyramid-eye symbol.  If she was smart, she would have just used the torch Ken handed her so he could open his special metal door and burned him, disabling him long enough to actually get away.  But Rachel plays the good girl, not realizing there’s no way Ken is letting her leave anyway.  She wakes up handcuffed to a ceiling in Ken’s little cubbyhole underground, while he’s digging her grave.  He explains to her that he’s not really supposed to kill her, but he’ll figure he’ll explain it to the boss somehow.  He goes on about how the Patriots want a “cleaner” America, and he’s a part of that.  Blah blah blah.  As he approaches Rachel with a big knife, she manages to kick him hard enough to send him to the floor.  She tries to pull her hand from one of the cuffs, but instead just pulls hard enough that the cuffs slip off the hook they’re hanging from, so she can grab the knife from the floor and stab Ken, killing him.

Rachel and Tom clean up their killings separate but together.  Keep in mind, that doesn’t mean these events are actually occurring at the same time.  Rachel buries the body, Tom puts Bossman’s gun back under the pillow.  Both erase prints that could put them on the scene.  Rachel walks off in the darkness.  Tom plays the faithful employee who just had to take over when Bossman didn’t show up, and does Allenford know where he is, anyway?  So after walking into the cafeteria and asking what’s going on, Allenford tells Tom his boss was transferred.  Well, if he was transferred, wouldn’t you have named a replacement for him before then, and not need to wonder what’s going on?  Score one for Tom.  Allenford definitely suspects Tom, but has nothing.

Rachel and Miles confab later, with Miles deciding there will be serious shit unless he goes all guerrilla warrior.  Aaron wonders about his scary dream.  We end with Charlie and Monroe riding in a wagon, 10 miles from Willoughby.  Charlie looks like a teenager being driven home early from the party.  How humiliating will it be, that she couldn’t get home on her own, and had to be brought home by the guy everyone hates?

Down On The Farm - Walking Dead, Season 4, Episode 1

We start off with decorating, a slow shot of potted plants by the steps to the cellblock, and Rick, looking exactly as he did about 9 months ago.  The prison has come along lately, thanks to more people, new gates combined with spikes, and a farmyard.  Cisterns with pumps provide shower water, and they’ve even gotten a horse.  Hershel has a fancy new prosthetic leg, and ‘Lil Asskicker has a new bonnet.  Carl no longer wears his father’s old deputy hat.  Or carries a gun.  Beth has found a mall with the latest fashions.  Glenn and Maggie have grown out their hair.  Daryl is now a celebrity in Prisonville, when once he was the redneck little brother who took Merle’s shit and was only valued for his hunting. 

Rick is listening to the most awful country music I have ever heard, from an unseeable source, probably an iPod.  He digs through mud in one of the farm fields, accidentally finding an old, possibly rusted out handgun.  Left there when Woodburyans fled the prison attack? Did Hershel leave it by mistake when the Governor ambushed them?  Rick takes out his earbud, yanks out the ammo clip, and throws the weapon and its ammo into his wheelbarrow.  Dude, there could be a bullet in the chamber.  Be a little more careful next time.  We realize, as this is happening, that Rick’s music is to drown out the moans and screams of his audience of walkers at the fence.  They are much louder this season, as if two years of undead-ness has made them more desperate, more obnoxious.  Rick grimaces at them, the way we look with pity at the People of Walmart.  A walker with eyes sunken way back into his sockets and old dried blood stains leaking from said eye sockets is especially gross.  Rick puts the earbud back in, and goes back to digging in the mud.

Prisonville has taken on numerous newbies:  Sasha, Tyrese, and Karen from Woodbury, plus Zach and Bob from who knows where.  And, for some reason, Harry Potter got stuck in Georgia during the Zombiepocalypse.  He is on kitchen duty with Carol, witnessing Carol and Daryl share an old friends moment.  Potter cannot resist thanking Daryl for a fresh deer by shaking his hand.  Daryl is stuck, holding a bowl while eating with the other hand, so he licks the fingers of his free hand before shaking.  To his credit, Potter doesn’t beat an eyelash over it.  I guess Daryl’s spit is worth something.   Food, of course, is an elemental that is not conjurable by magic. So Harry Potter needs Daryl to actually bring in some in order to cook it by magic.  Carol pulls Daryl aside, leaving Patrick in the kitchen, to show him new walkers lining the fences, with Fence Cleaners (yes, an actual job description in Prisonville) already at work on them.  But the morons are too close together, so the walkers bunch up and can be a threat.  Daryl points out that the walkers need spreading out, and that when his team leaves on a scavenging mission, that should draw some off.  But Carol is insistent – he won’t have as big a team as he wants, as Carol needs these walkers cleaned out before her big tea party tomorrow.

Glenn and Maggie wake up.  It is ridiculously cute as they debate whether Maggie should go on the supply run today. I’m so over the cuteness.

Tyrese finds Karen, the diplomat who ended last season’s war in thirty seconds, and tells her that Fence Cleaning just ain’t his bag, but killing them beyond the fences seems a little easier to him.  Karen seems nonplussed at someone who’s ditching duty to go out, but it turns out they’re a couple, so she lets him off the hook.  Zach, a teenager from who knows where, sees Beth dressed up like Madonna in Desperately Seeking Susan, and they have a romance novel moment before Beth walks away, refusing to say goodbye.  Bob, a man on his own until Daryl brought in him a week prior to the episode, asks Sasha, who is almost in the car, if he can come.  He wants to earn his way here, but I think he could just as easily Fence Clean, or do the breakfast dishes (unless Harry Potter has already done them by magic).  Glen vouches for him, as Bob was a medic in the Army.  Already trained to work in a team, with some emergency medicine knowledge, Bob could be handy today.  So Sasha reluctantly agrees.

Rick sees Carl, who looks like an actual kid again, and razzes him for reading comics all night.  They look over a pig on the other side of a corral, whom Carl has named Violet.  Rick razzes him about naming food, and they both wonder, why is the pig sick?  Isn’t there a veterinarian somewhere who could help them?!?!?!  But I digress, because Michonne rides a horse to Prisonville’s new nifty gate, with stakes in a weird arrow configuration that makes it possible to open/close them quickly with very little chance walkers could get in.  I’m going to guess Michonne thought of it.  After handing Carl new comics, she hands Rick a razor and tells him to at least put some effort in.  She tells them “no sign of him”, and all know who the “him” is, including Daryl who has just ridden up.  Michonne and Daryl debate whether it’s worth it to ride up to Macon, which is 70 miles away.   There’s no resolution, and Rick has no interest in mediating or deciding this for them.  Michonne decides to go out with the supply run, and Rick tells Carl to brush the horse down and then go play, and maybe even attend storytime.

Carl good-naturedly agrees.  Gone is the little shit who thought he was a mini-adult and shot another kid just cause he thought the other kid might shoot him first.  Carl’s whole character has reverted to basically, the beginning of season 2.  He is a kid, a tweenie, who wants to see the Grand Canyon again.  It has made him whole and easier to manage, but what happens when he’s really an adult?  This ain’t Peter Pan, and Prisonville ain’t Neverland. 

Hershel and Rick have a conversation about replanting leaves to increase what I’m guessing is a strawberry crop.  Hershel also takes this moment to tell us, the viewers, that Prisonville is governed by a council (Hershel, Sasha, Daryl, Carol and probably someone else, I want to say Glenn), and the moment to tell Rick that said council has decided that when Rick leaves Prisonville to check the game traps, he has to take his gun.  Rick has been getting along with a knife recently, and I don’t blame him.  Firing a gun without the most dire need right where they live should have been forbidden by the council, but I guess they worry Rick needs a firearm.  So he takes his gun.  The game traps are a bit in the magic forest, where Rick encounters a wild pig, still breathing but downed by something.  As he approaches, he hears the characteristic sound of a walker approaching, and sees a female in old, dirty clothes practically collapse on the boar.  He decides to retreat, but the female hears him.  Instead of attacking, she calls out to him.  This was a great twist on the whole let-a-zombie-approach-because-you-think-the-dead-person-still-exists-in-there.  Instead of a zombie, we get an extremely dirty woman with an Irish accent.  Turns out she was on her way to her honeymoon with hubbie, stuck in an airport for four days, and on the run ever since when walkers got into the airport.  Hubbie is a short walk away, so Rick decides to go back to her camp with her, take a look at hubbie, and decide whether they can come to Prisonville if they answer his questions three. Literally. He has three mystery questions for them.  What is this, a bridge in Monty Python’s Holy Grail?  I hope Irish girl can remember the difference between the African and European swallows.

Some of the kids from Woodbury gather at the inner fence to stare at the walkers as the Fence Cleaners do their work.  The Cleaners have moved a whopping five feet away from each other, making them only slightly less bunched up than before.   I swear, Carol needs to come out and bitchslap them all.  The kids have noticed that one walker has a nametag with “Nick” on it, and so have named all the walkers in front of them.  Carl and Harry Potter show up behind them, and Carl lectures them on the non-personhood of walkers, and tells the kids to stop naming them. Yes, he’s just repeating Rick’s razzing to younger kids.  He tells the kids they haven’t seen what these walkers can do, but that’s so not true.  I’m sure each of those kids has at least one dead parent, and seen numerous people get eaten.  The kids decide that Carl is a dick, which he is, and they decide it’s story time, so they walk off.   Harry Potter sheepishly admits he likes storytime too, and goes off, leaving Carl with his soccer ball.  And Nick.

The supply run team:  Brave and fearless leader Sasha, Daryl, Tyrese, Bob the medic, Glenn, boytoy Zach, and Michonne, approach a fenced in area with temporary structures in front of a big box store named “Big Sp!t”, which is supposed to avoid trademark infringement.  Sasha & Glenn, days ago, cut a hole in the fence and set up a boom box with bad music to lure the walkers inside out and away, giving them free run of the grounds. They cautiously sweep, passing by long-truly-dead bodies as they approach the store.  Daryl pounds on the glass, tells Zach to cool it, and waits for the walkers to come to them, where they can be bottlenecked and slaughtered at the store entry doors.  Zach plays a game with Daryl, basically guess what Daryl did before the Turn.  I think it’s funny people think Daryl had a job before the Turn.  My guess would have been “inmate at the prison”, but Zach has decided that Daryl was a cop.  Daryl is so amused that he plays along, telling Zach he was an undercover cop.  Michonne is not having it, as she knew Merle, but Zach buys it for about a second, then tells Daryl he’ll guess again tomorrow, which is how we know Zach will die in this episode. 

After sweeping the store for walkers, the team splits up.  Glenn looks longingly at baby shit.  Michonne kills a zombie marketing cardboard cutout.  Bob lingers over the wine, obviously trying to stay on the wagon.  At first he loses the battle.  Then, as he returns the wine back to its shelf, the whole shelf crashes down, spilling wine everywhere and bringing two display shelves down on Bob’s foot.  The others prepare to help him,  only to find walkers falling through the roof above.  Turns out a helicopter crashed into the roof, weakening the structure (architect’s note: the roof should have collapsed long before this episode), so when walkers came walking toward the sound of the shelves crashing, they ended up causing the roof to fail altogether.  Walkers fall through the ceiling over and over, and the team can barely keep up, let alone free Bob.  Daryl manages to keep Bob from getting eaten, and Zach pitches in by lifting the shelves.  But a walker crawls under the lifted shelves to bite Zach in the ankle.  Before anyone can cut his foot off, said walker chomps into Zach’s neck, spewing blood everywhere.  Then the helicopter finally falls through the roof.  The team barely gets out before the helicopter falls into the store, bringing the whole roof down.  Mission failure, thy name is Bob.

Rick’s new friend reaches her campsite, and is so excited to tell hubbie that they have a new friend.  Hubbie isn’t in the tent- he’s in some sort of clump on the ground near the supplies, while Irish lady’s tent is neat and tidy, not looking like the home of someone starving at all.  And there’s only one sleeping bag.  Rick easily deflects the Irish lady’s knife stab, throwing her to the ground and drawing his gun.  But Irish lady is too quick for him.  Needless to say at this point, she wanted Rick as food, not for herself, but for her undead hubbie, who she didn’t have the heart to put down.  But she has the nerve to stab herself in the abdomen, collapsing on the grass as she begs Rick not to put her down, let her turn and be with her husband.  Irish wants Rick to ask his three questions now, so she can at least know what they were.  Here we go- 1- how many walkers have you killed?  None, hubbie killed them until he died.  2- how many people have you killed?  Only herself.  3- Why?  Because you can’t come back from doing that, Irish tells him.  Rick leaves her there to turn and join hubbie.  When he returns to Prisonville, Rick later goes outside, seeing that Violet is dead.  A normal person would remove the carcass, probably burn it since Violet was sick.  But Rick just stares at the pig.  Hershel later consoles him as he holds Lil Asskicker, looking ridiculously cute in her new pink bonnet.  Hershel reminds him that both he and Carl “came back” from the trauma of the last season. Rick goes outside, and sees the same walker with the formerly bleeding eyes again.  People and pigs die.  Good to know you can count on the walkers to stick around.

Carl has decided he wants in on storytime after all, and sneaks into the library.  Carol is reading from the Adventures of Tom Sawyer for about seven kids and one other adult, who leaves eventually.  Carol lets him go, then stops reading, sending one of the kids to watch while she pulls out a box of knives.  Huge knives.  She starts right in on her knife-holding lesson until Harry Potter asks to be excused.  Carol tells him to stop being a pussy, but it turns out Potter is actually unwell, and needs to throw up.  So Carol lets him go this time and gets back to it, until Carl stands up, revealing himself to Carol and the other kids.  Carol only asks Carl not to tell his father, and Carl leaves without saying anything. No one should ever question Carol, who has been right about everything she’s ever had an opinion on and is the best person to train kids to defend themselves.  And Rick has been blasé about anything anyone wants to do since dismantling his Ricktatorship.  So why storytime should be in danger is beyond me.

The supply run team gets back, and each has different ways of dealing.  Glenn tells Maggie, since Zach was Beth’s boytoy.  Maggie tells Glenn that she’s not pregnant, and Glenn stupidly asks how she knows.  WTF, hasn’t Glenn seen Caddyshack? They debate whether to even have kids, with Glenn thinking it’s a bad idea, and Maggie saying it would be possible in Prisonville.  They very cutely don’t resolve anything.  Daryl tells Beth, whose whole reaction is to change a sign in her room from “This workplace has had 30 days with no accident” to “0”.  In other words, OSHA’s gonna’ be all over them.  Beth just can’t cry anymore, she tells Daryl.  Daryl says he’s tired of losing people.  Yeah, it’s a real drag.  So Beth hugs him.  Tyrese finds Karen sewing, and sits next to her, telling her he doesn’t like going outside, either.  Bob lays in his cot, thinking about what an asshole he is.  Michonne studies a map that shows Macon County, so she will be going there, whether Daryl thinks it’s worth it or not.

Harry Potter stumbles out of bed, so feverish his body is covered in sweat.  He gets to the showers, pumps water from the water barrel he then coughs into, and tries to take a shower.  Instead he collapses in the shower.  As his footprints dry off, we see him in a pool of his own blood, having bled from his eyes, nose and mouth.  Then his eyes open.  So now there’s a walker loose in the showers.  Don’t bend over for the soap.

Oh, Say, Can You See? - Revolution, Season 2, Episode 3

Secretary Allenford isn’t dumb or naïve after all.  In fact, I’m wondering if her little jaunt last week wasn’t an attempt to draw out an assassin and find out who her enemies are.  Tom finds himself and Jason flag patches, probably ripped from old Boy Scout uniforms.  After Jason whines about food service work (can you imagine this little shit working at Mickey Ds?), but before Jason can ask why there are stars and stripes on the patches,  father and son are chicknapped.  They are taken to a building that is eerily empty, while presumably close to a refugee camp full of people who would really like a roof over their heads.  Just sayin.  Jason shows some spirit, and seizes a gun from one of their attackers.  Tom, stupidly, tells him to relax, these people are just going to ask them some questions.  Little quibble- always hold on to the gun.  That way you can ask some questions of your own.  Their kidnappers toss out Tom Neville’s real name and old rank with the Monroe Militia, but Tom is unfazed.  Everyone’s favorite conspirator reminds them that he had to flee the Monroe Militia, which is a smart thing to reveal.  You can’t be executed for treason if you didn’t owe anyone your loyalty.  Tom spouts the same nonsense that Allenford told the refugees, but leaves Georgia blameless and puts everything on Monroe, which Tom is certainly entitled to do after Monroe’s treatment of him and Jason.  Allenford then comes out, gives Tom a speech that is meant to be totally not reassuring, but leaves the impression she’ll find something for him to do anyway.  Does Allenford know that Tom was in the tower?  I don’t think so, or Tom and Jason would both have had tragic accidents.  Does Allenford know how much Tom knows about the power and the pendants?  Does Allenford even know about them?

Aaron has told the wifey about his awesome backpack trip last year, and she is just as dumbfounded as we would expect.  Aaron’s nanotech lecture would seem like mumbo-jumbo to anyone, and at least as goofy as her god talk sounds to him.  But this way, when Aaron inevitably gets involved in future squabbles over turning the power back on, wifey will know what’s going on.  If she’s still alive by then.

I guess we can conlude that Allenford definitely knows creepy henchman of Titus Andover.  We find out that sick looking girl is his wife, who I guess is okay with her husband’s kiddie porn.  Not sure if blood transfusions can replace dialysis, but it’s working in TV Land, so who am I to nitpick?  As Miles is being hooked up to Mrs. A, Rachel appears and bludgeons people, freeing Miles, who insists on bring Mrs. A.  We think at first that Miles is trying to be a hero, especially after they break out another townie and hightail it back to Willoughby.  But Miles Matheson was a general in the Monroe Militia- he knows all taking kidnapping hostages, which becomes obvious when Titus WASP-Last-Name shows up with the Sons and Daughters of Anarchy.  We find out as Mrs. A is presented to Titus alive, that she SO wants a divorce, but Miles is adamant- the town will only survive if Mrs. A Goes back to her husband.  I feel for Mrs. A.  Last season, Miles would have found some cool way of giving her her wish.  But he’s now only a town drunk, with no mission except to get the residents of Willoughby safe passage away from Titus’ Reavers (Firefly reference).

Charlie and her new bud are hitchhiking through the Plains Nation, looking for Monroe.  Charlie gives new bud some info, and he tells her finding Monroe alive will keep his father alive.  We hear a crunching sound behind Charlie, and she turns back to see that Monroe has knocked out the bounty hunter (probably not a good one).  Monroe has been using his detective skills to root around the bounty hunter’s stolen wagon, and found flyers offering a reward for him from the US Government.  Charlie looks at him to say “Yes, I know.  I hope they fucking kill you.”  Then Monroe pulls out for Rachel.  Intrigued, they wake up Sleepy and interrogate him.  Turns out the captive-dad-as-hostage story is crap.  Which is good, because Charlie wasn’t going to care about Sleepy’s dad anyway.  Monroe knocks sleepy out again and Charlie tells Monroe to leave him, and changes course for Texas.  Monroe informs her he’ll go with her.  What help he would be able to give, and whether Rachel would even want it, remains to be seen.

Mrs. A chooses suicide instead, possibly because Rachel decided to leave her unattended.  Miles, realizing this will end badly now no matter what, prepares surprises for the invaders.  But even carefully laid plans can be overthrown, and Miles’ plan is only half-assed.  The invaders don’t even let out the last wagon before attacking, hacking townies as they run through town.  Aaron leads the last civilians of Willoughby to a building they can lock from the inside.  The look on his face as the ax is coming thru the door is fucking priceless.  Aaron has been resigned to dying at least twenty times throughout the story, without actually dying, and today is no exception.  We hear machine guns, a strange sound on this show as few people in power-less America have the bullets for guns anymore, let alone enough to feed an automatic weapon.  It’s strangely reassuring, especially when you realize the machine guns are taking out the Reavers.

Titus finds his wife, the touching scene where he basically treats her like a doll reminds me of the barber from Sweeney Todd.  But Titus’ grieving is cut short by Creepy Henchman, who smothers Titus My-Last-Name-Is-Better-Than-Yours.  Goodnight, sweet prince.  Stay away from the pre-teens!

Miles and Rachel fight the good fight.  Even one-handed, Miles just keeps slaughtering Reavers, while Rachel stumbles around with an arrow really really close to her aorta.  I personally feel she’s been stumbling through the entire series, but at least she and Miles have finally decided to face life and a future full of stupid mistakes together.  Rachel’s dad is shooting Reavers, and some cavalry or other saves the day, as Rachel collapses.  We end with Miles staring, confused, and not at all relieved at the sight of soldiers hoisting the US Flag over Willoughby.

Flag symbolism has been big throughout the series.   Tom Neville found one in the Monroe Militia and killed its owner.  Nora hoisted her shirtsleeve to show her flag tattoo as a symbol of a resistance movement.  Flag patches abound in this season, and now we see Miles eyeing the hoisting of a flag with… almost dread.   For most of America’s residents, the re-establishment of the US government will be a godsend, especially in the food-poor Plains Nation and the nuke-ravaged East Coast.  Whether California or Texas would feel any need to rejoin the Union is another question.  (And would they have to?  Can California and Texas argue that with the dissolution of the US Government 16 years ago, so went any obligations from joining in the first place?)  But our cast of characters knows, that the last thing the nuke launcher called himself is a “Patriot”, right before blowing his brains out.  Revolution has done a good job of showing a cast of characters who cannot, in good conscience, support the old government.

Who Ya' Gonna' Call? - Revolution, Season 2, Episode 2

Thank Christ the flashbacks are nearly over.  Last season was about a small group of characters’ effects on our nation’s power grid.  This season is about localized conflicts that will, no doubt, all intersect by the December mid-season finale.  Without the amulets, the characters are now, truly, without electricity.   So this season, I guess we get to see what they’re really made of.

One thing the show is doing much better this season is sharing information between characters in a believable way.  When the bounty hunter informs Charlie that the US government wants Monroe alive, she’s surprised, but it’s Monroe who doesn’t believe the US Government still exists.  Aaron starts to come clean with his wife on what he has to do with the power coming back on, because otherwise she’ll keep treating him like he’s a walking miracle, when he knows his new existence is because of some unknown property of the nanotech floating throughout the air.  We see, near the end of the episode, why it is that Tom Neville knows that it was the US Government that set off the nukes six months ago- he stormed the power/computer room at the tower seconds after the bombs dropped.  He would have eventually seen Randall’s body, and heard some sort of explanation from Miles, eventually.  We see the group fleeing in darkness from that part of the tower.  Something tells me more than the computers crashed there.

Tom Neville impresses even me, and further disgusts his son Jason, by conspiring to kill Secretary Allenford, a woman who acts like Jane Addams running Hull House.  Notice the letter she receives mid-way through the episode. Tom’s most impressive act of the night is killing the would-be assassin he recruited.  Brilliant. Jason is rightfully angry at his dad for betraying a guy Jason brought to him and vouched for, but still willing to go along with his dad.  This proves that Jason learned nothing from Season 1.

Apparently, neither did Charlie, because the stupid is on full maximum.  She tries to silently proceed through a camp of what we’ll learn later are bounty hunters, only to get caught herself.  But these are understanding guys.  While they won’t let Charlie get in the way of their payday, they will tie her up next to Monroe so she can gloat over his seeming helplessness.  I’m going to give Monroe some credit here: he doesn’t deceive himself, and he doesn’t pretend to care about the people who died on his rise to power.  He seems only to care about his people killed in the nuke strike on Philly, which Charlie doesn’t believe for good reason.  Too bad she’s also right later, when the bounty hunters lose Monroe and one of their own, despite Charlie literally running behind the wagon to try to save the day.  Guess Charlie and her new friend have their work cut out for themselves.

The pre-blackout references abound in this episode, including Miles’ typical, half-disappointed reaction in finding out that the Sheriff thinks Walker, Texas Ranger was a real man.  But he has no time to tell the Sheriff the truth before the poor guy is shot in the head for having the wrong blood type.  Miles tries to escape, but he just can’t leave the woman there.  Is she selfish for wanting him to free her too?  Is he selfish for hesitating to help her, or stupid for helping her after all?  After his escape fails, Miles finds out he’s the prisoner of a man who thinks he’s entitled to his kiddie porn.  My god, if you have kiddie porn, can you at least NOT pretend it wasn’t traumatic for the kids to make?  Titus shows Miles that no help is coming from Austin because the town messenger was killed en route.  Titus then goes on some unbearable spiel about how no one gets to tell him what to do, not unlike a certain red-headed dipshit from another show who comes from pre-catastrophe mediocrity.   Titus then shows what a poor liar and hypocrite he is by breaking Miles’ hand so Miles can only do what Titus tells him to do.   Titus’ main asshole sends a letter sealed by the pyramid symbol from US Currency (also, a Freemason symbol), that we see on a letter sent to Allenford immediately after.  Does this asshole know this is Miles Matheson?  Does Allenford want him for some reason?  Wow.  The world is full of people who want Miles for something or other.  Turns out, Titus wants him for his blood.  Looks like someone needs constant transfusions, possibly for Van Allen’s disease.  But why would Titus care whether this woman lives or not?  She’s too old to make kiddie porn.

Rachel spends most of the episode in the filler scenes, helping Aaron recover from his actual death, begging people who want nothing more than to hole up in town to leave town and confront some angry, violent fuckers over “Stu”.  Aaron spends most of the episode trying to not let his wife rope him into her religious fervor, in between re-telling eighties movies to kids.  To be fair, I can see how wifey would think this is a miracle.  Her pastor is telling her it’s a miracle, she knows nothing about the nanotech, or that any of it was used on him before, and Aaron has never seen fit to tell her anything himself.  But why see Ben after all this time?  And why see him dying again? Is Aaron going back, mentally, to where he was when the series began?  Who would ever want that?  And why is Aaron the first to see a dead rat?

Rachel, after not convincing anyone that her suicide mission is a great idea, decides to go it alone.  But Dad surprises her with two of his friends, who I’m sure will die in the next episode.  She and her dad and their human shields ride off into the darkness, and quickly realize their horses are walking on unstable ground.  Yuck.  Dead.  Rats.  Everywhere.  Hey, at least we end on transfusion girl instead of this. 

Lord of the Fireflies - Revolution, Season 2, Episode 1

The season opens with a repeat of Randall’s suicide, reminding us all, as if we needed a reminder, that Randall is a total asshole.  Miles and Rachel spend a few desperate moments berating Aaron to turn the power back off, desperate to now stop two atomic bombs hitting major East Coast cities.  Well, they’ve been launched, Miles and Rach, they’ll fall somewhere no matter what you do.  Have Miles and Rach considered (of course they haven’t) that recovering from a nuclear strike would be easier with electrical power?  Grace’s darker prediction ended up coming true, in a way. Rachel did end the world, at least for Atlanta and Philly.

We cut to Charlie in a bar, working on getting laid.  Charlie has emigrated, leaving her mother and uncle about two months after arriving in Texas.  She’s drifting through a post-apocalyptic, Wild West version of Sex and The City.  I can’t blame her.  The very opposite of the trusting girl who thought the world outside would be kinder a season ago, she gets a tip on a certain asshole’s location, within easy traveling distance from her.  She can’t have electricity, or ice cream, or even her old postcards back.  But she can at least put Sebastian Monroe’s head on pike.

We cut to Miles stumbling out of a shed, bloody from obviously killing someone, because he burns down the shed.  Miles does what he always does.  He burns the shed, cleans himself off, and stumbles back to the small Texas town he’s been living in, slipping right past the sheriff.  Miles may realize what a terrible person he is, but it’s not like he wants to pay a price, or suffer any consequences, for his flaws.  He returns to Rachel, and we find out they’ve been living with Rachel’s dad for about six months now.  Rachel blames herself for the nuclear strikes on the East Coast, probably thinking that if she had just screamed into Aaron’s ear a little louder, the bombs would have magically gone back to their silos.  While I can’t blame her for turning the power back on, everyone rooted for that for good reasons, I can definitely blame her for stupidly turning the power back off just when approximately 10 million people on the East Coast needed hospitals, emergency transportation, heat and clean water.  

Aaron has “remarried”, got another teaching job near Rach and Miles, and is basically trying desperately not to tell his new wife, whose name I refuse to learn because she’ll be dead by the mid-season finale, everything.  Who would believe him anyway?  Well, he could tell the fireflies that glow like the Northern Lights in his backyard.  But then, the fireflies probably already know everything.

While patching Miles up from his fight, Rachel’s dad decides to give Miles the “You’re terrible for my daughter.  Disappear before I get all medieval lord on you” speech.  Miles listens and tries to ride off, after a pointless attempt by Rachel to convince him to stay.  I’m of two minds on their relationship.  Part of me wants them to just jump each other already, stumbling through mistake after mistake together.  But they’d probably tear each other apart if they face their own flaws together; better to screw up, each on their own, and minimize the damage to civilization.  Miles gets as far as the shed he’s burned down, only to find that his fighting skills are needed for a nearby family being attacked by outlaws so bad Miles ends up dragging a body back to town to explain to the sheriff just how bad.  The sheriff, in contradiction to every way a plot warning is supposed to go, believes Miles and starts to shore up the town’s defenses.  Miles and Rachel talk again about whether they’ll ever be rid of each other.   We find out that Rachel still thinks Charlie will return to her.  Miles knows that’s not going to happen, we know that’s not going to happen. 

Major Neville has not been idle.  He’s presumably walked back to Georgia to wander through refugee camps looking for his very likely dead wife.  Jason is resigned to his mother’s fate, going from pity for his father’s hopeless crusade to contempt at Tom’s meager attempt to commit suicide. An old-fashioned sailing ship showing up with food and US flags, coincidentally on a sunny day, sliding through a shining river brings everyone together.  It’s run by US military, and a woman who introduces herself as a Cabinet Secretary of some kind shows up with kind words for them, respect for the rebels fighting against Georgia’s mortal enemy, accusations of genocide against Monroe and his militia, and assurances that now they have something to live for.  Tom, who is only driven by naked self-interest and hate, has a new purpose.  He knows this woman is full of shit.  But he wants to know exactly what game they’re playing, and then ruin it somehow.  Their game, whatever it is, involves jail cells in the basement of the old White House.

Sebastian Monroe is obviously doing well, in a job that allows and encourages his psychotic desire to kill.  No more uniforms, no more burdens of governing the NE United States.  Just beating guys up, to the death(?), with his bare hands.  He’s not really happy, but numbs himself with booze and gambling.  Someone besides Charlie is interested in him, but Charlie moves first with the bookie, setting up the kill.  That she almost gets.  Christ, Charlie, shoot sooner next time.  Unnamed stalker guy has buddies who whisk Monroe away in the dark, with Charlie getting the choice of either following and getting her revenge, or letting these guys do whatever with him.

Aaron is locking up, and deciding to stay up and keep watch over the house.  His resolution is quickly forgotten when his wife tells him she’s in the mood.  Which is just as well, since their bedroom is where the first attack on the town starts, with Aaron taking a baseball bat to the guy, and getting a good hit in before his inexperience and (still!) terrible physical shape get him slashed across the chest.    Nothing can help him now, and he bleeds to death in Rachel’s arms while Miles attacks the invaders, and is saved by the sheriff’s awesome shooting.  Really. The guy is a firearms expert or something.  Too bad he doesn’t remember to check behind him, because that’s where the blow that takes him down comes from.  Surrounded, Miles gives us the resigned-to-yet-another-stupid-defeat look.  Marched up to the invaders’ leader, we then get the what-the-fuck-is-this look when the leader offers them tea.  Sweet tea.  I’m thinking he’s got some of the last half tea/half lemonade bottled drinks in existence. 

Rachel has still not left Aaron, even after the wife goes downstairs and sees the fireflies gathering outside.  We are left to admire the show for killing off a major character in the season premiere, which is a gutsy move.  But that admiration turns to resignation at contrived plot lines when we close on Aaron’s face, at peace before he gasps and opens his eyes.

Questions – who did Miles kill at the beginning of the episode?  Why are fireflies now glowing green and stalking Aaron?  How long until Monroe and Charlie have hot sex?