Guest Blog: Episode 4: Vatos

That's right, geeks and walkers! We have our first guest blog, from frequent commenter and friend, Travis (or as I like to call him, T-Rave). Enjoy!

VATOS

It should be said that Robert Kirkman, the writer of the comic this series is based on, penned this week’s episode. The comic’s great when it focuses on the pervasive bleakness of survival rather than the monotony of survival; a difficult pose to hold as Kirkman has said the comic needs to continue as long as possible—to survive—to truly accomplish its goal (the medium is the message). Kirkman’s truly great when he tricks the audience into believing he’s telling a story rather than stalling for time.

And Kirkman’s aces when he opens on sisters Andrea and Amy, who spend the entire opening talking about fishing and not fishing—how their parents raised them differently because of the twelve years between them. How the world’s gone out from under their feet.The scene’s one of the first instances of the audience spending time with characters that aren’t Shane, Rick, or Lorie (other than the terrific sequence with Morgan in the first episode).

Developing the survivors is the territory the show needs to claim if it wants to keep an audience, unless it’s supposed to attract Food Network viewers who like characters that double as beef marionettes. Because we’re four episodes in and it feels like if The Walking Dead were a movie we wouldn’t have gotten out of the first thirty minutes.

Opening on Andrea and Amy, stretching the bounds of story from Rick Grimes discovering a desolated world, is so unusual for The Walking Dead that it telegraphs one of these girls will be eaten. Probably by sundown.   

Elsewhere in the camp, the loner Jim can’t stop digging holes, which frightens people for some reason. Shane sublimates his anger at Rick’s arrival into tackling Jim. From underneath Shane, Jim describes how powerless he was (is?) when the zombies took his family out of his hands. The holes he digs are a broken mind’s attempt at healing.

This was much better than last episode’s ass-kicking, establishing Shane’s dominance (and his need for dominance) as well as the camp’s reliance on his merciful force. I wonder how long until Shane demands for Lori’s return as well.

These two camp stories grow into one another with a zombie attack on the fish fry—the first true aggressive zombie move our survivors have gone through at the home base.

Kirkman’s script falls down repeatedly while Rick and Glenn and Daryl and T-Dog can’t find that dag-nabbed Merle, but instead find themselves in a whole mess of trouble with a Latin gang that goes after the guns Rick left near the tank at the exact same moment as our heroes.  Oh no!

The show seemed to want to play its zombie story pretty straight (from unoriginal first encounter to unoriginal first escape), which meant that the Latin gang, the Vatos, were supposed to be the big reveal that the true enemies aren’t the zombies but humans who will stop at nothing in an effort to survive. This is the storyline that Kirkman was toeing until he forgot how to have Guillermo take some action and let a grandmother wander in as a botched-joke-turned-poor-deus-ex-machina.

Turns out the Vatos are gangsters with hearts of gold. The gang leaders used to work at a rest home but wouldn’t let the dead kill the elderly. Their members come from cholos wanting to make sure their families were okay.

Kirkman seemed to want to talk about race relations in a world where authority has been decentralized (thanks to zombies). Without current social forces, what could be interpreted as a gang becomes a protective unit, practical in basic ways. That was the iceberg that Guillermo alluded to when he said that the zombies “hadn’t changed a thing” in the way things work. Latinos are not at home in a world run by white folks AND a world overrun by zombie folks.

Or, if you don’t want to read into it, Kirkman wanted to manufacture some tension without having to worry about wounding or killing off characters the viewer already knows and couldn’t blow up the budget with a big gun fight.

EXTRA THOUGHTS

-Kirkman loves to juxtapose what people were before the Zompocalypse and what they are now: pizza delivery guy, nurse, janitor.

-I’m glad Rick and company ran all the way back to camp. On foot.

-I guess they’re keeping Merle alive for a big bad guy show down to bring Shane and Rick together before the truth comes out. 

Episode 4: Vatos, Take 2

Last week's episode, Tell It To The Frogs, ended on a gruesome cliff-hanger: where was the rest of Merle? Well, we still don't know but we know he's alive and we know the steps he took to stay alive. Daryl Dixon, Merle's brother (sorry for calling him Dylan in the last review), tells Rick straight away that Merle is the toughest S.O.B. he knows, and as we follow Merle's blood trail, we have to agree. The blood led across the roof, to a banged up door, down some stairs, into a room with TWO dead geeks, and into a kitchen. One of the stoves was on, flame still burning. Next to it was something reminiscent of an iron. Bits of flesh clung to the end of it. Merle cauterized his wrist-stump. I want you to stop and think about a couple of things. First, I want you to look at your right hand. Now imagine the resolve it would take to saw through it. Then, the strength it'd take to fight off and kill two zombies. And finally, think about how much it'd take to place a burning hot iron and burn your wound shut. Merle is a badass. And he might have a vehicle.

Vatos opens and closes with Amy and Andrea, the blond sisters. The opening had them in the middle of the quarry lake, fishing and chatting. They reminisce about their dad, and wonder whether or not Florida's any safer. The conversation didn't feel right to me—everything they said, I bought. And I liked the depth it added to them. But the content, well, it felt like the conversation you have a lot sooner after the outbreak. Are we to believe this was the first time either of them spoke about the likelihood of their dad's survival? It felt added on to give some umph for later in the show. In that regard, I felt that Andrea's scene in Dale's camper did more to advance the sisters' relationship. Once Andrea set down future plans for Amy, even if it was just a day in advance, I found myself invested. We needed more time with Amy to feel for her being attacked, and I think the writer of this episode, series creator Robert Kirkman, realized that, and made it more about Andrea, who we've gotten to know a bit more.

Rick, Daryl, T-Dog, and Glenn ran into trouble in downtown Atlanta trying to snag the bad of guns. Since the city's been overrun by flesh-eating dead people, you'd expect trouble. But this wasn't from the dead, it was from some vatos. They had their eye on the guns, so when Glenn snags them, things get dicey. Daryl and Glenn both get beat with an aluminum bat, Glenn gets abducted, and Daryl gets to shoot someone in the ass with arrow. But they do get a hostage—a vato youngin, who originally distracted Daryl. Rick and Daryl get to play good cop bad cop and Daryl, restricted from physically harming the kid, shows he's the brains of the Dixon boys. He pulls out Merle's severed hand and tells the kid it belonged to the last guy who pissed him off. This leads to our first showdown between our group and the gangsters. It's one of those moments where you question humanity, and how petty/foolish/immature it can be, to keep up the gang mentality. After a break for planning, the groups reconvene. Guns are leveled, rounds chambered, and trigger-fingers get itchy. But then grandma comes down. Nothing like a clueless, elderly woman to defuse a massacre-in-waiting. Our vatos are actually good people: two of them worked at a nursing home, one as a nurse, the leader, Guillermo, as the janitor. The rest of the gang visited loved ones and stuck around. They made the home a fortress, and put on the gang front to keep themselves safe. Rick gives them a bunch of guns and ammo, because that's just the fellow he is.

Back at the camp, Jim is having a breakdown. We hadn't met him yet, so our first moments with him didn't make him too shiny. For hours, he was digging and digging in the heat, not taking breaks of water. Dale gets worried and gets Shane and the rest of the adults. Jim goes a little crazy, swings a shovel at Shane, and winds up getting tied to a tree. Apparently, he was digging because of a dream he had. But he doesn't remember much more than that. Night comes along, and everyone's chowing down on the fish Amy and Andrea caught. Since people can't have a nice moment during the zombiepocalypse, there's an attack on the camp. Ed's the first to go and then we watch as Amy gets chomped on before people finally start making moves. The group's reaction really disappointed me. They live in a world where they're outnumbered by unfeeling monsters. The group knows these creatures are out there, but they don't have a night watch. They don't know how to react when they see one coming at them (see Amy stand there and let her arm get bitten). I'm willing to suspend disbelief for a zombie show. But these folks have been in it for a while now and have survived, that I expected more. That said, the fight was awesome. A lot of the group (that we hadn't met or even seen) was killed, and it looked like our principles were on their way out when Rick and co. arrive. They make short work of the zombies and give everyone a moment to assess their losses. Andrea gets right up to Amy, frightening close, as she dies. But did she die? It looked to me like she did, but she didn't turn. And the previews made it sound like they might try to get her help next episode. So I don't know. Either way, I thought Andrea probably shouldn't have been so close to Amy's mouth. 

Final Verdict: 9.35 Head Shots out of 10. This was by far the best episode since the premiere. We had proper character development, plenty of drama, action, zombies, gangs—but it never felt like too much.

Episode 4: Vatos

First off, I want to apologize for my missing recap/review of last week’s episode “Tell It To The Frogs.” My wife and I got a new TV and cable-service and, due to some issues, I was unable to catch the episode until a week later. I’ll write a special recap/review for it later this week. But for now, on to the latest episode.

So last night we got a reminder—zombies in The Walking Dead eat people. In the intense final scene of last night episode, “Vatos,” we saw the camp come under attack and our group lost several of its members. Last night’s episode was written by Robert Kirkman—the creator of the source material—and I couldn’t help but feel like there was a deep understanding of the characters in the writing. Perhaps it’s because there has been quite a bit of character development going on in the last two episodes, but because I think Kirkman is a genius I’m gonna say it’s him. Regardless, these characters are becoming very multi-dimensional and we are beginning to see the way these people think as well as their motivations.

In the beginning I didn’t really know what to make of the scene between Andrea and Amy. I liked the dialogue but I just didn’t really understand what they were trying to say about the way their father taught them to fish. I don’t know if there was supposed to be some kind of deeper meaning or if it was just supposed to add weight to the ending. I thought the scene did the latter very well, which may be all it was trying to do. We didn’t really know Amy too well—but Andrea did, and that is what is important. Amy’s death is going to affect Andrea the most out of anyone and the honesty in the acting from Laurie Holden as she watched her sister die in her arms was really an incredible thing to watch.

One of my favorite parts about this episode was how we immediately thought that the group that jumped Glenn and Daryl were thugs. They certainly acted like it. They kidnapped Glenn and ran off. These guys must be bad guys right? Well as it turned out—no, they were taking care of the survivors of a retirement home. They were just trying to protect their people. I really loved the line between Rick and the groups lead Guillermo just after we find out that before the outbreak Guillermo was the custodian of the home. Guillermo says to Rick that he doesn’t know why the elderly trust him, to which Rick responds “Because they can.” It’s a powerful statement that says more about Rick than it does about anyone else.

This is the state that these people live in—it is almost impossible to trust anyone when you’re only goal is to survive and try to keep your people alive. You have to assume that everyone else is going to steal from you, take your food, and leave you for dead. Thomas Hobbes, a famous English philosopher, wrote that in the state of nature (basically when we revert to our basic natural instincts) life is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.” According to Hobbes, humans will kill each other and take what they have if it is necessary to their survival. It’s an interesting theory (if not a bit flawed) and one that I think we will see experimented with a bit in the coming episodes.

I have to admit—I was a glad to see Ed get torn to pieces by zombies. If anyone in the group deserved it (though I don’t know that anybody can deserve that kind of death) it would be him. The violence in this episode (specifically in the last 10 minutes) was nothing short of intense. We’ve seen zombies and animals get dealt with violently, but until last night humans had remained relatively untouched. Our creators did not hold back when it came to blood, guts, and ripped flesh—and let’s be honest The Walking Dead would not have been an acceptable piece of zombie-lore if it had.

So we are left with one burning question. Where the hell is Merle? There is no way that Rick's group beat him to the camp on foot. Where did he go--and when will he come back? I can't imagine that he will be in the best mood when he finally reunites with the camp. "Good" times lay ahead for us!

Zombie of the Week: The jawless zombie in the beginning. Greg Nicotero is a genius.

Final Verdict: 9 out of 10 Headshots. “Vatos” has been my favorite episode of The Walking Dead since the premiere. A wonderful mix of character development, violence, as well as a bit of social commentary.

Episode 3: Tell It To The Frogs

Before jumping into my review of Tell It To The Frogs, let’s pause for a moment—we’re halfway through The Walking Dead’s first season. AMC has already renewed the show for a second season at 13 episodes. This on top of the news that Disney and Marvel are planning at least three live action television adaptations (including The Hulk). We’re about to see comic books invade TV the way they took over the box office. I hope those shows get the same respect, dignity, and reverence that The Walking Dead received.

Onto the review! Tell It To The Frogs brings the Atlanta-group back to their camp outside the city. As such, the action was scaled back drastically, with only two zombie kills, let alone interactions. I appreciated the chastising of Glenn at the beginning for bringing back the Charger with its alarm still going. That was dumb, dumb, dumb on Glenn's part (especially since last episode the noise was what attracted the geeks). Rick pulled up in the construction truck soon after, and we all knew what was coming: Rick has finally found his family. Breathe easy, zomies (zombies + homies = zomies)! It looks like the zombie apocalypse has reinvigorated Lori's love; she may also be embarrassed and mad at herself and is overcompensating with affection, but we'll find out. At the very least, they had a passionate reunion...in the same tent as their sleeping son. I wonder if she and Shane had done the same, what with her stating, "He won't wake up."

When Lori told Shane to stay away from her and her family, I was shocked. Everything we'd seen to that point showed Shane as a stand-in dad to Carl. Breaking off the affair makes sense, but cutting Shane out completely? Was she that ashamed of herself? She couldn’t be blaming the affair entirely on him, right? Then we got the reveal: Shane told Lori that Rick was dead. Wow. Maybe not the best moment in his life. But let’s think this through: why would he say that? Could be he wanted Lori to himself. Think back to the first episode, when he and Rick are talking about their ladies. Shane’s demeanor is definitely…different when Rick brings up Lori. Or maybe he thought Rick really was a goner. Maybe he knew the only way to get Lori and Carl to safety and leave their over-run town was to lie and tell them Rick was dead. Right now, Shane looks like a giant d-bag but I’ll reserve judgment until we find out why he said it.

The Walking Dead isn’t doing much to dispel any rumors of Georgia being backwater; in Guts we had racist druggie Merle. Now we get sexist wife-beater Ed. We got hints of Ed’s nature while Rick was storytelling at the campfire with some fine acting, but they left it up in the air until the laundry scene. The laundry scene was one of those nice breaks from the intensity of their situation, and reenforced the idea that despite the circumstances, people can still be terrible. The writers succeeded in making Ed infuriating and detestable. When things escalated, Shane came in, freshly infuriated by Lori (and presumably his conscious). The result? Ed will be eating through a straw the remainder of the season. And in the real world, Shane’s entire hand would be shattered. Effective scene from the start of the laundry conversation to the end of Ed’s beating.

The show opened with Merle losing his mind. He might’ve been going through withdrawal, too, which added to his seeming insanity. Zombies were at the chained roof door and Merle was getting desperate. Back at the camp we met his brother, Dylan, who’s as abrasive as big brother. Was anyone else disquieted that Dylan used the same arrows he hunts with to kill zombies? I hope their sanitization is thorough. Anyways, Rick, Dylan, T-Dog, and Glenn head back into Atlanta to rescue Merle, even though the entire camp thought it was a bad idea. I think everyone said something like, “Merle? That piece of trash? Why?” Rick and T-Dog felt responsible for Merle’s death sentence and wanted to make it right. There was also the giant bag of weaponry and ammo Rick dropped in the streets. As the group climbed the stairs and cut the chains, I was worried about the silence coming from the roof. Last time we saw Merle, he was making noise. The silence and reveal were equal parts disturbing. The mindset of a man willing to cut through his wrist has to be questioned. It was an effective hook and immediately had me and my cousin talking.

The preview for Sunday's new episode added kerosine to my curiosity and now I'm counting down the days. Another group of survivor's is in Atlanta, not to mention a zombie attack on the group's camp? Then add in the search for Merle, and it looks like we've got a packed episode coming up.

Final Verdict: 8.536 out of 10 Head Shots. Tell It To The Frogs was a lot slower than Guts, but that is not a bad thing. We got to see how everyone's been living the last few...weeks? Months? Who knows! Key storylines advanced and I'm once again anticipating the next adventure.


P.S.: Sorry this took so long. It's a sucky excuse, but I'm still adjusting to working 40 hours a week. I'll do my best to have my review up by Tuesday from here on. Thanks for reading!

Episode 2: Guts, Take 2

Guts opened with one of the simplest tension building techniques: Silence. We live in a world of such constant sound that when it's taken away, we get uncomfortable. The smallest crack, creak, or cry will elicit jumps. So when Lori goes off on her own, away from chattering people, we're using our ears more than our eyes. We're automatically worried because she's on her own, in the woods, in a zombie infested world. In your typical horror movie, anyone who goes off on their own isn't likely to come back. Our anticipation of something devious was toyed with and manipulated, followed swiftly by our emotions. You have to wonder how soon after Rick was abandoned in the hospital that Shane and Lori started their tryst. David asks a good question in his post: Is it really an affair? We'll find out together, friends! Maybe next episode, but I wouldn't bet on it.

More than anything, Guts moved the story forward. After spending an hour and a half getting to know Rick, Duane, and Morgan, we now jumped into hectic downtown Atlanta. A ton of characters were introduced but we never got to know much about them. I find myself having to use IMDB to get the names right. The only time we got to see much from these new characters was when Rick was with them, which could wind up hurting the show in the long run. These characters need to stand out on their own away from Rick. Despite character development taking a backseat here, great character moments were not scarce. Merle and his power-trip, Andrea and Rick in the jewelry store (are we looking at a potential love square?), Glenn cruising down an abandoned highway, T-Dog losing the key...Nice hints at the people underneath. Since they're a part of the main group that includes Shane, Lori, and Carl, we'll have another four episodes to get to know them.

While I hate to beat a zombie-devoured horse, I want to address something David mentioned: Humanity. After this episode, and having read a bit of the comic, I feel confident saying that humanity will be the biggest theme of this series. Nothing's black and white (which is itself a black and white statement), and it follows that there's shades of gray of humanity. We saw a lot of good in Days Gone Bye. That might have been the most we'll see in a single episode all season because Guts shows us that apocalypse is not the best catalyst for getting over prejudices, ignorance, anger, addiction, loss, etc. This is not uncommon in the zombie genre. It's another staple, but The Walking Dead gets to draw it out for at least one more season (it's been renewed for a 13-episode second season!). We'll really see it at play with the "Governor" story arc, if they get there. And it's one of the most fascinating aspects of post-apocalyptic movies, to me at least. I wonder how society would crumble, how quickly the worst in people would come out. Guts started us in that direction and I can't wait to see how desperate this group gets.

After Days Gone Bye, I read an article with Frank Darabont about the restrictions AMC put on them. Darabont responded there were no restrictions. When it came to gore, they could show whatever they wanted. On Sunday night, only the second episode, we were treated to the disemboweling and dismemberment of a zombie. Not satisfied with that, the zombie guts were then smeared on Rick and Glenn, complete with intestine necklaces for both. Preceding this scene, Rick and co. tried to figure out how the zombies identify one of their own and someone living. I liked that a lot. The scene wasn't dwelled on, but it was one of those subtle things I feel sets the series apart (yeah, yeah, I know it's early). Rarely do the characters ever try to infiltrate the zombies or discuss what mechanisms they're using. I think it expands the zombie mythology. These things are dead, yet the senses of smell, hearing, and sight still work. What else is firing away in their brains? I don't really expect to get an answer, but they're simple conversation leads to other, more complex ideas about zombie physiology.

Overall, I had fun watching it. What stood out the most were those character moments and Rick and Glenn among the walking dead (I am the most clever person I know). More than anything, though, this episode set up different characters in different, terrible situations. Rick says he's going back for Merle, Merle's brother won't be happy, Shane and Lori have to come to terms with Rick being alive, T-Dog may well have to deal with Merle being alive and pissed.

Final Verdict: 8.329 out of 10 Head Shots. The lack of character development hurt, especially in light of introducing more than five new people. But there were great scenes and the set-up is there. 

Episode 2: Guts

I think it’s safe to say that “Guts” is a much different animal than “Days Gone Bye.” And not necessarily for better or for worse. It was just different. The action was amped up, the character development was toned down, and our characters moved into position like chess pieces in our overall story building to an attack. While I did not enjoy “Guts” as much as “Days Gone Bye,” I certainly felt it was a welcomed change of pace and definitely an interesting episode of television.

Bottom line up front: Last night we got to see not only how far our characters will go to survive in a world ruled by the dead—but how far our show creators are willing to go when it comes to gore. I have never witnessed a scene like the one of Rick chopping up the corpse with an axe. While it was gory, "Guts" added comedy to several disturbing moments. I thought the humor that was added in this episode—like when Glen puked while being smeared with zombie guts—was nice as it put us to ease a bit after the somber, dark premiere.

How about that opening? I mean I’ve seen sex scenes on TV before but that one just felt dirty. Seeing Shane all over Rick’s wife as they snuck away for a quickie made me shudder. Especially seeing her take her husband's wedding band from around her neck and toss it to the side. It was a short scene that gave us a glimpse of what kind of hell is in store for Rick when he finds his family—that is if he ever finds out about the “affair”. I put affair in quotations because I’m wondering: Is it really an affair if you think your husband is dead, but have had no physical proof? Just curious. Regardless, The Walking Dead is two for two when it comes to effective opening scenes!

Early on in "Guts" we meet Glen, the character that helps Rick escape the tank, as well as a group of his fellow survivors: T-Dog, Andrea, Morales, Jacqui, Ed and Merle. (Am I forgetting anyone?) The only issue that I had with this episode is that I felt it may have introduced too many characters at once, but that may have been intentional. This is a show that has a lengthy bit of time to work with all of these characters in the future. Perhaps introductions are all we need at this point. I’m sure we will spend plenty of time getting to know these characters in the future—at least the ones that don’t get killed off—but for right now, we just needed them to get the hell out of downtown Atlanta and back to camp.

Another thing I wanted to take note of: How awesomely cinematic are the shots of an apocalyptic Atlanta? They really took the time to dress this show and make it feel like a almost lifeless world.

I think I’m going to start a new thing in my columns—David’s Favorite Zombie. Last week’s would be a no-brainer: The half-zombie woman crawling through the grass, grabbing for Rick. The few scenes she was in were grotesque and heartbreaking. This week the award goes to (drum roll, please): the rat-eating zombie Glen and Morales discover in the sewer system. Man, that was gross (awesome).

I like that the theme of people grasping on to their humanity, which was heavily featured throughout the premiere (see Joey’s review), is still present here. For instance, there is absolutely no reason at all for T-Dog to go back to unchain the despicable character Merle. Not only did he insult T-Dog repeatedly, but he beat him to a bloody pulp. So why did T-Dog go back to help his attacker when he could have just left him there? It seems to me that the act would have been more for him than for Merle. I don’t think that he could have lived with himself knowing that he left a man to die on the roof. I think that he knew the guilt would have been too much for him. But alas, T-Dog wasn't successful in his mission to help Merle, as he tripped and dropped the key, leaving Merle stranded on the roof.

Will they go back to help Merle? The previews for next week seem to say yes, but the real question is what happens when they do? I have my doubts that Merle will be ”eternally grateful” to whoever comes back for him—but that’s just me.

What were your thoughts, observations, or criticisms? Please share by commenting below!

Final Verdict: 8.5 out of 10 Headshots.

Days Gone Bye Full Episode!

Ladies and gents, walkers and shufflers, we are happy to bring you the entire first episode of The Walking Dead, thanks to AMC. In case you found yourself hospitalized without a TV or in a similar predicament, watch it here. If you did watch it, check it again and tell us what you like, dislike, what scared you, what you're anticipating...You know, the usual stuff. Enjoy!