#// She tried her best but realistically the group as a whole raised Carl and did more for him than she when the undead started popping up

[deputygonebye]

No other canon character frustrates me more than Lori. She makes me wanna rip my hair out. LOL. I can respect her desire for chaos, though.

[dontdietwd]

Day 70, part 1

I was under attack. Walkers had overpowered the farm. No, worse, people had invaded and were stealing all we had, they would kill us all. No. No, wait. I was on my knees on the bed, the bedside table lamp in my hand ready to attack. Daryl had sat up and had a knife ready, both arms up.

But it was Mr. Greene and Patricia, who had barged into the room speaking something, startling us to death. I was breathing hard, heart hammering, and Daryl allowed himself to feel the sting from moving the stitches too harshly as he lowered the knife. I slowly lowered the lamp too, I have no idea how it ended up in my hand. The two intruders were silent, shocked to see me there and I turned to replace the lamp. Daryl motioned the sheet for me and only then I noticed I was on my bra in front of Mr. Greene. I sat back down on the bed and covered myself.

“Sorry,” I told them.

Patricia took the tray with Daryl’s ignored diner and replaced it with a cup of coffee and a plate with two toasts, and she said nothing.

“I’ll give you two a moment to gather yourselves,” Mr. Greene said, disapproval dripping from his tone. He looked down at Daryl, “It’s time to check on your stitches, and then you can go back out to your tent.”

They left at that, closing the door behind them. We both took another moment staring at the closed door, still confused, and then looked at each other wide eyed.

Oh, the self-consciousness I found in his eyes! The doubt of what was going to happen now, it I had been sure, if I had changed my mind, of what he should do! Daryl was his many flaws but how adorable he was! I adored it, but at the same time it got me angry imagining what people had done to him his whole life to make him so insecure, so defensive. It was unfair. He was such a good man, his heart was capable of so much and he didn’t even know it. He didn’t think I’d still want him the next morning, he was so unsure, ready for me to tell him it had been a mistake and it would never happen again.

But despite of all those thoughts that came to my mind in a second, to his utter confusion I laughed, trying to hold it and making an unladylike noise, lying down in bed by his side again.

“Fuck, it was like getting caught by daddy all over again!” I said as I laughed and turned on my side to face him. As I did I saw a slight change in his eyes, a little relaxation because the first thing I said was not ‘get the fuck outta my sight’. I stopped laughing and, still smiling told him “This ain’t how I imagined waking up today.”

He laid back down as well also on his side, getting real close to me, “How’d you imagine it?”

“Well…” I approached even more, “Something like…”

And I kissed him. He reached out for me immediately, responding to the kiss eagerly, his hand holding my waist and pulling me flush against him. I was still careful to avoid he bandages on his side and head and also his back, but other than that I let my hands roam to all the places I’d wanted to touch, his side, ribcage, chest, and lower to his ass to pull him closer. The turned a bit to me, nearly on top, his hand sliding from my waist to my stomach and slowly up. His kiss was so good, firm and demanding but still gentle, hot and slow and damn, got me all ready for him.

He let go to look down at me as soon as his hand touched the underside of my bra, and his eyes fixated on another tattoo he hadn’t seen yet. My underboob lilies, that start between my breasts and elongate to both sides right on the line under them. He stopped all to look at it, his fingers tracing it, dipping under the bra between my beasts.

“Fuck, this is sexy as hell…” he breathed out a moment before lowering his head and kissing it. I throbbed when I felt his tongue on my skin and his hand reaching up and under the bra to grab the underside of my breast. My hip thrusted up without my control when he replaced his fingers with his mouth and I must have mumbled something but I have no idea what. I was ready, damn, I was gonna fuck Daryl right there and now.

But he stopped, pulling my bra down to cover the part of it that was showing and looked up at me, his lips parted and his eyes hooded, fucking sexy as hell and he whispered, “We gotta stop.”

“No…” I whined ad I tried to pull him back to me, to kiss him and never stop, but he resisted.

“Can’t do it under grandpa’s roof.”

I breathed out, unable to tear my eyes off him. “Shit… You’re right.”

But he still kissed me again, this time a long, soft gentle kiss on my lips that got me holding his face just as tenderly. After the kiss we stared at each other for a long moment and I was unable to contain my smile.

“Just go,” he told me as he gently pushed me away.

It was never so hard to get up from a bed as it was that morning.

 * * *

 Carl was up and about that morning, physically looking as though nothing had happened, but when Shane caught him hiding a gun under his shirt he insisted in learning how to shoot, it was clear the incident had affected him more than anyone had thought. He had matured a little, I mean, as much as a 12-year-old boy can mature, and he had a point. I’d been saying he and Sophia had to learn how to defend themselves for a very long time now, and I agreed he should know how to shoot, but not only that. He, and all other from the group, had to restart a physical training with knives and other weapons, not just guns. I couldn’t understand how fucking difficult could it be for them to understand that guns were not our best choice. Lori ended up allowing Shane to teach him after hesitating a lot. I mean, a lot. I swear it was like she wasn’t living in the same world as I was.

Daryl came out of the house followed by Mr. Greene, who kept an eye on him as he climbed down the porch steps. Daryl was walking slowly but straight and looking well, without the bandage on his head, a hand placed on his side where I knew his stitches were. He saw me instantly as I walked towards him, as if his eyes were trained in finding me.

“Hey,” I smiled up at him. “Good to see you up!”

Daryl looked quickly over his shoulder to point at Mr. Greene, who as still there. “It’s no use anyway, he’s forbid me to go out there too soon.”

I laughed, “Yeah, as if you’ll actually listen to him.”

“Goin’ out there as soon as I can.”

“I know. Just don’t go today, the stitches are still too fresh,” I said reaching to touch his arm.

“Yeah…” he said quietly. “Still a bit sleepy from meds anyway.”

I was about to tell him he needed and deserved to rest all day, but Mr. Greene interrupted from his spot on the porch, “Miss Danes, a word if you please?”

I looked at him and back at Daryl, fighting a laugh, and he also seemed amused, eyebrows up, “Miss Danes?” I questioned

“Grandpa must be mad,” he said before also touching my arm and walking away towards the tents. I looked at him go for a moment before turning to Mr. Greene and climbing the steps.

“How you doing, Mr. Greene?”

“I have two young daughters, Sam,” he started directly. “I keep an eye on them, at Beth with her boyfriend, and have kept an eye of Maggie her whole teenage years,” oh I saw where he was going and this was a big, big nope. “I do not wish to have to keep an eye –”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Greene,” I cut him out. “for interrupting you but I have to stop you right there. First of all, you need to know that nothing happened between me and Daryl last night. I slept with him, and I say it in the most innocent meaning of the word, because he’d been hurt and I wanted to be close and check on him. I didn’t have a shirt on because I decided not to sleep on this one because I’d been wearing it all day,” well, okay, a bit of a lie there but I didn’t have to tell the old man that I took it off to show Daryl my scar so we’d bond over past traumatizing experiences. “So you can rest assured that nothing happened and nothing would have happened even if he wasn’t hurt. I would never disrespect your house like this when I know what your ways and beliefs are. Nothing happened, and you don’t need to give me the dad speech.”

I kept looking at him expecting him to say something, but he just tightened his lips and nodded, so I turned to go.

“Your people are getting a bit too comfortable here in my farm.”

To the point. Ok. I turned again to face him.

“I’m aware of what Rick asked you. I’d like you to know that he asked it on his own mind, he never talked to me about it before going to you. We only talked about it after.”

“And do you not share his thoughts and his request?”

“Honestly? I don’t.”

He seemed impressed, raising his thick grey eyebrows, “You don’t?”

“No, sir,” I placed both my hands on by jeans back pockets. “I’m leaning more to the realistic side. When Rick is thinkin’ ‘n actin’ out of desperation to find his wife and kid a safe place to live through the end of the world, I’m thinking more rationally about our safety.”

“You don’t think the farm is a safe place?” he crossed his arms, a bit defiantly as if it offended him I could think such thing.

So I explained to him everything I had already explained to Rick, all my thoughts about the safety of the place, how easy it had been for me to just run into the farm and barge in, how simple it had been for the others to find the farm and just drive into his land, and that if we had been able to do it so easily, anyone, dead or alive, could as well. I also told him what I thought we needed from a place to settle in.

“So if you’re considering Rick’s request, and I ain’t asking you to, we’d stay, but then you’d have to permit us to do a lot of changes around here to make it safe. I honestly don’t think it would be our best choice seeing that there’re places out there that got walls and gates built where we could just settle in.”

He was quiet for a long moment looking at me, then looked away, around at the people by the tents going on with their days, thoughtful, and then looked at me again.

“Your group surely don’t seem to know that’s how you’ve been thinking. I say it again; they are getting too comfortable.”

“You’re right, sir. I’ll gather them and set everything clear as soon as I can. Especially now that Carl is up, we’d all pro’ly better start planning our leave, finding another camp to keep looking for Sophia,” I paused. “So if you still considering letting us stay, now would be a good time to let us know so we can all start planning some stuff. But you want us gone, we gone, and forever grateful for what you’ve done for Carl and for the temporary shelter you provided us.”

As he again only nodded saying nothing, I turned and went down the steps, making my way to the tents. I found everyone ready to go gun training and I rushed to Daryl’s tent. He had the door open and I could see him in his cot with a book in his hand from a few steps away, and only the noticed Andrea was in there with him. Ugh.

‘What, no pictures?” Daryl was asking when I stopped right in front of the tent and crossed my arms.

“I’m so sorry… I feel like shit.”

Good, you feel like shit. Go on and keep feeling it.

“Yeah, you ‘n me both,” Daryl told her in a dry voice.

“I don’t expect you to forgive me, but if there’s anything I can do…”

“Can start by listenin’ to what people tell you for a start,” he said looking up at her. I didn’t hear her say anything, I don’t think she had an answer to give, because after a moment I saw her move and go through the open tent flap. She saw me then and froze a bit. “And hey,” we both heard Daryl said from his cot and Andrea turned to look at him. “Shoot me again and you’d best pray I’m dead.”

She nodded with a little smile and turned again. I said nothing just watched her approach me.

“I know you hate me,” was how she started, “never liked me before and even more now after what I did. But you need to understand that I did think it was a walker, I would have never shot if for a moment I thought it could be one of ours.”

I had my face showing clear confusion, “What are you talking about, Andrea? You think that’s why I’m angry? You think that was your mistake?” she said nothing and had the same confused expression, shaking her head a little. “We all thought it was a walker! The guys ran to him with bats and knives in hand to kill it. That was not the point, Andrea.”

“Oh, ok, then what was it?” she said defiantly crossing her arms. “Is it because it was me? Because people in this camp are suddenly so terrified of having me around guns?”

Jesus Christ and all the saints I didn’t even believe in!

I had to hold myself not to answer too fast and breath, my head going down as I pinched the bridge of my nose with my fingers.

“No, Andrea,” I finally said, looking up at her again. “That’s not it. At all, you got it all wrong. You think this is about you, when it isn’t. It’s not about you and your problems and whatever you will want to do with a gun. I am not that worried about you all the time to make decisions based on you. Okay?” she still tried to maintain her defiant expression, now mixed to show she was a bit offended. She pretended to laugh and shook her head. “Are you listening to me? There was a reason Dale and I told you not to shoot!”

“Oh, I know all about Dale’s reason!”

“Alright, I don’t care about Dale’s reason, I know about mine. You think I told you that because I don’t like you? Come on, Andrea, really? Are we in ninth grade?”

She stuttered a bit, looking away trying to say something but she had no answer. Then she gave up, huffing out a breath and looking down.

“It ain’t personal, Andrea! I told you not to shoot ‘cause shooting must be our last option. ‘Cause the guys had it. ‘Cause the noise of a round can attract walkers. ‘Cause every bullet counts and that one less bullet can mean whether you survive or not someday. It ain’t such a hard thing to understand.” Andrea said nothing, crossed arms, looking down. “You want to help with security? You got it,” this made her look up at me, surprised. “You’ll get the gun training and you’ll be put on lookout schedule and you’ll have a gun in hand. But the first thing you need to learn, Andrea, and learn really good, is when it is and when it isn’t the time to shoot. Until you know how to make this decision on your own, you’re gonna have to listen to what other people tell you.”

She was embarrassed, still trying to disagree but it was clear she’d heard me. Maybe Andrea was the kind of person who had never learned how to admit when she was wrong in her life, so it was probably a struggle. But at least she seemed to be fighting it internally. So I gave her a little smile, touched her arm and rounded her to get into Daryl’s tent. He was lying there, the book forgotten by his side on the cot, an arrow in hand. I looked back out and saw Andrea walking away.

“Well, at least she’s got the decency to look ashamed,” I said looking down at him again and lowering myself to sit on the edge of his cot. It barely had space for one.

“You going away with’em today?” he asked me quietly as he fidgeted with the arrow.

“Yeah, I’ll see what I can do to help. Practice a little too, maybe learn something I don’t know. I ain’t a shooting expert anyway.”

“Did more than fine that night at the quarry.”

I smiled down at him, “Kinda, yeah, but I think I’d like to learn some other weapon, not rely just on guns.”

“I’ll teach you the crossbow if ya’d like.”

Adorable. Damn adorable man, he offered this shyly, as if he kind of expected me to say no.

“Yes!” I said excitedly. I loved the idea. “Yes, of course I’d like it!”

“Well then after that all we gotta do is find you another crossbow.”

“Pff, that’s just a detail,” I said waving my hand. “Alright, gotta go,” I slapped his thigh and got up, turning to go saying, “you get some sleep, I’ll be back later.”

“Slept just fine last night,” he said from his cot and I turned to look at him. Here was a little smug smile on his face that got me blushing a little. I just smiled like a stupid teenager in love and left.

 * * *

 They were not as bad at it as I had thought they’d be. The training Shane had started at the quarry with part of the group had had lasting results. I practiced a little too and let Shane and Rick oversee it all because they were professionals, Shane was even a certified instructor. He corrected my standing and my posture once and I did feel good results after that. Carl took a while but started hitting the big targets making Rick look inflated with pride and even Lori smile. Andrea was very good – I was glad she had not been that good yesterday. Jimmy kept trying to look cool and failing miserably. Carol did really well for someone who had never had a gun in her hand before. Maybe she had it in her and didn’t even know.

After over two hours at it, with my ears ringing loudly, I went back to camp with everyone except for Andrea and Shane. He offered to take her to a deeper training because she was doing so well, something about moving targets, and they took off together.

Mr. Greene had been right. People were counting too much on the farm to guarantee our futures. I could see how tense Lori was, having just found out her pregnancy, and I saw her discussing something with Rick, tense. I could understand her. I’d been there on the first couple of weeks after I figured I was pregnant. This desperation of not knowing how life was gonna be, in what world my child was going to grow up in. But as days passed I calmed down and started thinking rationally, like I did now. Lori needed someone rational to help her now, and Rick wasn’t it. I wasn’t even sure he knew she was pregnant, but I was sure Rick was not level headed right now, dis desperation for permanent shelter blinding him to the facts. He’d been talking to Hershel still, I’m sure insisting for him to let us stay even after I had that talk with him. It was necessary to set things clear with the group, as soon as possible.

Lori called me to talk a little after that, even before I had time to do check on Daryl, and we sat together on the same log again.

“I’ve come to a decision,” she started, looking to the ground between her knees, her big eyes unblinking. “I’m not keeping it.”

I said nothing, but my mind went overdrive. I could understand her decision, I had considered it myself, and honesty, I probably didn’t do it only because I wouldn’t know how, I wouldn’t have the resources.

“Ok,” I told her. “How you gonna do it?”

She looked up at me at that, mouth hanging a little open and huffed a breath with an attempted laugh.  “You’re so surprising, Sam, did you know that?”

I was genuinely confused. “Why’d you say that?”

“I just told you I plan to have an abortion!” she whispered.

“I know, so what?”

“It’s just - I just… Before it all if I told any friend I planned on doing this they’d go crazy! It’s an abortion, for God’s sakes!”

“Lori, I ain’t like your old friends, ok? I’ve always been what these days people were calling it ‘pro-choice’. I was not completely in favor of abortion, but never against it either. I think a woman has the right to choose, whatever her reasons are. You’re choosing, that’s all.”

She stared with the same baffled expression.

“I thought about doing it too,” I confessed.

“You did?”

“Yep… But I hadn’t told anyone, when I figured I was pregnant it was just me and the Dixons on the road. I didn’t tell them. And I had no idea how to do it, we didn’t go thought any pharmacy on the way and the days started passing and I just… I don’t know, accepted the fact. Knew I was fucked, but accepted it.”

She said nothing, looking down again and nodding. We were silent for a moment.

“I don’t know I’m as strong as you are,” she told me. “Even scared you’re just facing it. We don’t even know if we’ll have a place to live in if Hershel decides not to let us stay…”

“Oh, so Rick told you.”

She looked at me. “Yes. And he’s pretty certain he’ll manage to convince him.”

“Did Rick tell you that I disagree with it?”

She was surprised again. “No. No, he didn’t. Do you? You don’t think we can stay?”

“Lori…” I paused, sighing and looking around. “I’m gonna gather everyone tonight and talk about it. You have doubts most of the others pro’ly have too. I’ll tell you all my thoughts about it and things I have in mind. Please don’t worry about it now?”

She nodded quietly again and moved on, “I’ll have Glenn pick something up for the at the pharmacy in town, like he did before. Do you think it’s okay?”

“If he’s up to it, sure. And,” I leaned to look at her in the eyes, “most important, if you’re sure.”

“I am. I think I am. I… I don’t know.”

“I guess you’ll know when you have the pills in your hand.”

 * * *

 I spend the rest of the late afternoon in Daryl’s tent. I zipped us in, enjoying the fact the sun was going down and it wasn’t so hot anymore. Saying nothing as he saw me enter, Daryl turned to his side making room in the cot, but just barely. I squeezed myself there, my back against his chest, his arm as a pillow, and let myself relax, breathing out loudly.

“What’s goin’ on?” he asked quietly behind me, his hand resting on my hip.

I breathed in, “Shane and Andrea fucked. Glenn and Maggie are together. Lori’s pregnant, it’s Shane’s, and she says she’s gonna end it. Hershel’s pro’ly telling us to leave now that Carl is recovered.”

He was quiet for a long time, I only knew he was awake because he was caressing my hip with his thumb, much like he’d done the night before. It was comforting. I relaxed and nearly fell asleep there, in the safety of his arms.

“Cherokee house,” was all he said, and it was all he had to say for a light to come to my mind.

I turned a little to look at him over my shoulders and he lifted his head a bit to look at me, “Cherokee house, of course!”

“It’s messed up but better than the tents,” he made a point. “And still in the area so we can keep looking for Sophia.”

I said nothing, too happy to even think of another good reason. I smiled at him and he kept looking for me for a moment before he leaned in a little and kissed me. The butterflies in my stomach took off flying. It was real… Daryl and I were together now, we wouldn’t even need to talk about this. We were it since the beginning, but now it was more, now he was my guy and I could kiss him when I wanted, and I could cuddle with him and have his support, as I always had before.

I was not alone.

 * * *

 There was a fire burning high in the middle of the circle. The Greene’s house had its lights on a bit far from there, quiet. I had asked everyone to gather there, we had diner – a divine chicken pot roast that Carol had made us all – and then it was time to talk. Daryl was up, a little outside the circle, up and leaning on his side against a tree. Lori was staring at me and when I looked at her, she held my eyes and shook her head slightly. She was telling me she hadn’t gone through with the abortion. I knew she would know what she really wanted when the moment came.

So that was it, one more new baby to the group.

Conversation died in its own, as everyone knew I wanted to say something. So I got up so all could see me, and got it over with.

“I wanted to talk to you about our situation here at the farm. Mr. Greene talked to me about it today and I felt like I should let you all know. Our, uh… Our stay here is most likely no permanent,” and as I had thought so, people reacted immediately as if I had just dropped the worst possible news. I waited for them to start listening again. “Rick’s talked to Mr. Greene and asked if he’d let us stay permanently – without discussing it with me or anyone before, I should add,” I said taking a look at him and everyone probably knew I didn’t like it, “and he says he’d consider it if we followed his rules as we’re here.”

“So there’s a chance?” Lori asked

“There is a chance but I honestly don’t believe in it. He’s too different from us, the way he thinks about walkers, he thinks there’s a cure for them and we shouldn’t kill them, for God’s sakes… But anyway, he’s thinking about it, and if he says yes, we’ll stay. He says no, we’re gone.”

“But where are we gonna go?” Andrea’s voice rose above the other’s and I heard Shame say something about Fort Benning.

“What we need to think,” I started and waited for silence again. “We need a safe place. Right? And as I explained to Rick before when he told me what he asked Mr. Greene, I don’t think this is the right place.”

“You don’t?” Dale asked

“It’s a good place!” Carol gave her opinion

“Well, it’s a good place, ok, there’s space, water, food, I can see all that and how this can masquerade it all as a perfect place to stay. But think about it! It’s all open, all around. Small wooden fences won’t stop any threat. Walkers can fall over it and reach us, people can jump over them, open gates. Hell, the way we got here? We just barged in, Mr. Greene couldn’t do anything about it! We had good intentions, but what about the next group that find the farm? It ain’t safe, not at all. It’s been good but it’s not supposed to be permanent because we need more than this. We need more than sleep in tents for fuck knows how long. We need a place we can build a life, make our own rules, have safety, somewhere we can make plans and think of the future.” I paused and they were all quiet looking at me, absorbing what I said. “The CDC, the nursing home, Fort Benning, this farm? We’ve been placing out future in other people’s hands. We’ve been looking for help since the beginning, and it hasn’t worked at all until now. I think it’s time we stop. We gotta stop looking for others to be our solution, we gotta stop believing other places and other people will save us. What we gotta do now is take control over our situation and make it happen. We, not others!”

I stopped because I thought I was getting too passionate. They were all quiet, kind of baffled staring at me and them looking around at each other.

“I like the thought…” it was Theo who said first.

“What do you suggest?” Glenn asked me.

“For now, I suggest we wait for Mr. Greene’s decision. I talked to him about it. If he lets us stay, we’ll have to work on the farm’s perimeter to make it safe, build around, you know, walls, strong fences, a sturdy gate, and I don’t think he’d want us making so many changes in the farm. And if he doesn’t we’ll accept it, pack our things and go. There’s that big farmhouse nearby where we can hole up as we keep looking for Sophia,” I looked at Carol who let her shoulders relax as soon as I said it. She was sure worried I was planning of abandoning the search, “but again, just temporarily because it’s just in the open as we are now and it’s not what we want. But at least there are real bedrooms and beds, so it’s be better than the tents we have now.”

“And after that?” Rick questioned.

“We’ll find another place, but not just any place. As I told you Rick, we need walls. We’ll find somewhere, a hotel, a school, a gated community, wherever we can be safe inside and stay permanently. I’m having a baby for fuck’s sake, I need to have a safe place to give birth, somewhere the baby’s cries will not attract walkers, ‘cause if we’re in the open, it will,” I looked briefly at Lori then and she knew I was also talking about her baby. “So what I mean is just… Be prepared to leave but don’t be all desperate about it. Leaving is actually out best choice. We’ll make things work; we don’t need this farm to make it. Just imagine how much we can do. All that we can build for ourselves and our kids. Ain’t gonna be easy, I’m well aware of that and I think you are too, but life ain’t easy or fair anyways, before or now.”

I thought it was enough, I’ve spoken a lot already and made my point, I guessed. People were still kind of stunned, digesting what I’d said, but I didn’t see anyone disagree. I even saw Shane nearly unperceptive nod, thoughtful. I looked at Daryl’s direction and he was staring right at me, head low and eyes on me, illuminated by the fire, and when he saw me look at him he nodded in support with a little smile. It calmed my heart a little more to see it.

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New Post has been published on https://shovelnews.com/the-walking-dead-season-9-episode-1-review-a-new-beginning/

'The Walking Dead' Season 9, Episode 1 Review: A New Beginning

Spoilers through Season 9 of ‘The Walking Dead’ follow.

‘The Walking Dead’ returns and offers up the best episode in over two years.Credit: AMC

The Walking Dead has been an agonizing show to watch ever since Negan took his first swing at bat way back in the Season 7 premiere.

In a lot of ways, the problems with the show predated Negan’s arrival, and can really be traced back to the group’s arrival at Alexandria. This is when the show’s cast started to balloon in size, and when the group stopped moving and settled down.

Season 6 had some great episodes—the Wolves attacking Alexandria was fantastic—but it had a lot of problems also. Chief among these was Glenn’s fake death (followed by his real one) but there were lots of others. Rick was super emo the entire season. Whole episodes were spent on filler characters. Things began to stagnate, essentially, and you could see the show going downhill.

It fell off a cliff in Season 7 and stayed in the gutter throughout Season 8. They killed Carl just to boost ratings temporarily. Gunfights were trash. Dialogue was nonsensical. Audiences fled in droves.

A New World

The Season 9 premiere is titled ‘A New Beginning’ and it has a double meaning. For the characters in the show, we’ve jumped 18 months into the future and the survivors in all the various communities have been rebuilding, growing crops, learning to ride horses, and building things like windmills and other low-tech tools. They’ve started over after the war with Negan, and their entire world is new and different now.

For viewers, this is also a new beginning. Angela Kang, the new showrunner who took over when Scott Gimple was kicked upstairs, has brought a fresh style and voice to the show that it desperately needed. While this episode was largely about introducing us to the characters and their new somewhat precarious peace, and not much happened really until the end, you can still see just how much the show has improved.

In many ways, these are small, subtle changes that add up to make a much better viewing experience. The dialogue is much better. Characters like Daryl have actual lines that make sense. I feel bad for Lennie James (Morgan) since he left the very bad Season 8 to go to what was a very good show in Fear The Walking Dead only to have that show jump off its own cliff. Fear, alas, has been ruined ever since Dave Erickson left as showrunner, but the opposite appears to be happening here.

Kang has done a fantastic job breathing new life into The Walking Dead, something I honestly wasn’t sure was even possible. But this is undoubtedly better television than what we’ve been getting. There’s more variety in filming locations. The cinematography doesn’t feel quite as cheap as hit’s felt over the past couple of seasons. And the central conflict at the core of the season is much more interesting than Negan ever was.

Danai Gurira as Michonne, Sydney Park as Cyndie, Callan McAuliffe as AldenCredit: AMC

War and Peace

That conflict is, essentially, how do we all get along? How do the members of Oceanside whose men and boys were all killed by the Saviors, ever forgive and forget? How does Maggie,whose husband was brutally murdered by Negan, live with the fact that he’s still alive and out of her reach? How do Ezekiel’s people at the Kingdom make peace with the Saviors who slaughtered so many of them during the war?

On one side we have Rick, backed by Michonne and to a lesser degree Carol, trying to make the peace hold. On the other side we have Maggie and Daryl who are growing more and more fed up with the Saviors. Maggie’s tired of giving them food that her people grow. Daryl’s sick of the Saviors’ crappy attitudes. There are even signs that some Saviors want Negan back, though others seem grateful to Rick and his people.

The peace is fragile, in other words, and not everyone agrees with how it’s being handled. Trouble is brewing. Everyone is tense and you get a sense that the dam will break at any time.

Lauren Cohan as Maggie Rhee, Norman Reedus as Daryl DixonCredit: AMC

Gregory the Snake

So naturally Gregory plays his cards with this in mind. The Hilltop blacksmith’s son is killed during a mission to Washington D.C. to salvage old tools and other goods from a museum. They blame Maggie for having sent him on a dangerous mission. It’s kind of ludicrous, to be honest, since he was a grown man and this is a dangerous world. It’s hardly Maggie’s fault, but there’s no reasoning with grief. Gregory not-so-subtly adds to the discontent people are feeling over this and the Saviors, hinting that if he were in charge (he lost an election to Maggie, apparently) things would be different.

Then he gets the blacksmith (who’s been sober for 20 years) and his wife drunk and after the wife passes out, he convinces the blacksmith to attack Maggie. Then he tricks Maggie into thinking that someone defiled Glenn’s grave and she walks right into the trap. The drunken blacksmith attacks and she barely escapes. She knows it’s Gregory who did it and confronts him. You almost think she’s going to just kill him then and there, but she has other plans in mind.

And so we finally get a hanging. Gregory is hoisted up on the scaffolding, seated on a horse, and then hung from his neck. We can cross him off my list of characters who need to die this season, and good riddance.

But Maggie’s unilateral decision to execute Gregory (but not the blacksmith) raises some eyebrows. What is the extent of her power? Of anyone’s power? What are the rules and laws that people need to follow? Why isn’t any of this being established more formally? That’s a question that will grow as the season progresses. Rebuilding society isn’t just about new tools and planting crops. It’s about laws and customs and solving problems through procedures rather than the whims of those in charge.

Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes, Danai Gurira as MichonneCredit: AMC

Not everything is roses and sunshine.

Kang has breathed new life into The Walking Dead but you can see she’s picked up some bad habits over the years (she’s been on the team since Season 2.)

For instance, there’s this long scene at the museum where they’re bringing all these heavy items down a big staircase and then walking them over a glass floor. It’s a sturdy glass floor but beneath it are a whole bunch of zombies. It starts to crack at one point and everyone is trying to move across the surface really carefully.

But here’s the thing: For many of these items (other than the cart) they could pass them over the staircase’s low banister and just avoid the glass altogether. Wouldn’t you do this if you saw the floor begin to crack? Wouldn’t it be safer even if it was a little harder to do?

Then, when the glass actually cracks it’s because stupid Ezekiel walks across the whole thing way out into the middle where it’s cracking instead of just turning immediately to the left or right and getting off the glass right away. Why? Why do that? Oh, it’s because writers are making characters do insanely stupid things to create fake tension and suspense. This is the most consistently bad thing about The Walking Dead (and Fear). The writers do this all the time and I want to go to the writer’s room and yell at all the writers until they get it through their thick skulls that making characters act like idiots does not equal good TV.

Suspense is great. That could have been a suspenseful scene without having characters behave like idiots. The glass could have broken when they were bringing the giant cart through, since there was no other way for them to get that out other than taking it across the glass. That would have made sense and it would have been a much better, more realistic scene.

Norman Reedus as Daryl DixonCredit: AMC

When the zombies catch up with them on the road we have another series of weird, stupid moments. Why do they need to abandon the cart they worked so hard to get? They’re all highly skilled zombie killers at this point. They could have just killed the zombies and been about their business. There were obviously not too many zombies to dispatch because that’s what they end up doing in the end anyways. They were really just going to leave the cart and the horses instead of just killing the zombies? Why? WHY? WHY????

This results in the young guy’s death since he tries to free the horses like a decent person but isn’t quick enough or smart enough to avoid getting bitten. The whole thing was just incredibly frustrating. Classic Walking Dead. It just feels lazy to me. Like nobody is paying enough attention to the details to make these scenes work.

In this second scene, they could have decided to get away and come back for the cart and Rick or somebody could have said “Free the horses!” and then when the kid went to free the horses he could have gotten kicked in the head or something and died from that, not from being the only person to not run away immediately.

The episode was written by Kang and directed by Greg Nicotero, and I guess I was just expecting more from these two when it comes to basic logic. Oh well. If I had one piece of advice for Kang as she takes over this show it would be to increase quality control. Make sure that every script makes sense and doesn’t include characters acting like idiots for no reason. Creating tension and conflict is important, and sometimes that includes characters being stupid (people are stupid sometimes!) but it can’t be so obviously stupid to the point where it doesn’t make sense for the character and how they normally act.

Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon, Lauren Cohan as Maggie Rhee, Melissa McBride as Carol Peletier, Danai Gurira as Michonne, Khary Payton as Ezekiel, Sydney Park as CyndieCredit: AMC

You can watch my video review below. It’s been copyright claimed and blocked in some countries, however, so hopefully I can get that resolved. Hopefully you can see it!

Verdict

Other than these silly moments, I really enjoyed the season premiere. It’s not the best Walking Dead premiere ever but it’s a step in the right direction. I have hope for the first time in years that this might actually be a decent season. I think we’re probably past the show’s heyday, but you never know.

I also feel like we’re getting more of the characters we care about and less of the characters we don’t care about. So more Daryl, more Carol, etc. and less Eugene, less Tara etc. That’s great. The cast is way too big still and we need to focus on the people we actually care about more and build their stories out. This, coupled with the better dialogue and acting, is one of the things that you notice right away this season. Hopefully it continues in this positive direction.

I’ve watched the first three episodes of Season 9 and you can read my spoiler-free preview of those here. All three are good, with episode 3 quite possibly the best of the bunch.

I’m very curious to hear what you all thought of tonight’s premiere. Do you think we’re back in business? Will you keep watching the season after this or is the show dead to you now? Swing by my Facebook page for the post-episode discussion or drop me a tweet on Twitter.

Thanks for reading! I may update this post or write a follow-up with further thoughts so check back for updates Monday morning.

Gallery: ‘The Walking Dead’ Season 9 In Photos

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Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2018/10/07/the-walking-dead-season-9-episode-1-review-a-new-beginning/