#just to find that ONE specific part where maggie reads the little merling. and then things got out of hand

[jabberwockprince]

people might've pointed this out already since erios and excessans were introduced two years ago, but i really like the detail of titan's influence throughout the entire webcomic

excessans and their language, for example. it's not weird to think about all the way titan has pushed his culture into the planets and races it colonizes, especially when we get erios admitting to just sign a bunch of shit for strategos that they most likely don't pay attention to. like look at this???

(shoutout to excessans for just singing their entire language btw, it's very cute to me that they're all just. naturals at music)

their fuckin capitalization directly takes from titan's own alphabet. the first letter of the sentence and any sort of capitalization MUST be from titan's alphabet. and even in their own excessan sites and what not, there's an awful lot of titan's language thrown in

and here, a public announcement that reads "new video from dj byte", only the word "from" is written in excessan?

and you could argue that titan language is just easier to use, because more ppl speak and read it. but in TITANS HEADQUARTERS, things are written in the regular alphabet we know

and this isn't some excessan translation moment where we're shown an edited version from their reality so that we can read, because we see that titan language, regular english and excessan are three distinct languages in many occasions? the best example i have at hand is the titan imports to excessa, which are a mix of excessan and titan language (with very few english words thrown in)

...WHICH ODIN SPECIFICALLY MENTIONS NOT BEING ABLE TO READ. AND THAT CHECKS OUT GIVEN HIS BACKGROUND

i just think it's very neat, and it adds a lot of layers to how titan treats the planets he conquers and owns. cause maggie and ava were from a titan refuge/reeducation planet, full of people titan saw as disposable given the scavenger's attack at the beginning of the webcomic. and then odin is from a planet that literally never encountered titan (SUS. VERY SUS. BUT THATS ANOTHER THOUGHT FOR ANOTHER DAY). so it makes sense that these three lack any visual details relating them to titan

but then there's gil, blind devotee to the religion, and erios, political ally to titan, who have these sort of T-shaped collars on their clothes

i mean it could all be a fun coincidence, or common knowledge confirmed through the streams and all but i just rlly love to look into things and the way the designs and everything just work out so well with the worldbuilding and character dynamics has me on a CHOKEHOLD

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Description of the Daryl Spinoff

This came out just a few days ago. Apparently, people are freaking out about it (’cuz, you know, the TWD fandom is known for being super calm about spoilers  😆) and specifically saying there will be another Leah-like love interest.

Here’s a link you can read where people are having meltdowns about it:

https://twitter.com/MrsGrimesGrant/status/1582150994477342721

I thought I’d post some of the discussion from our group.

@bethgreeneprevails​:

I don’t see anything in this that says he’s getting a relationship. Where are people getting that from? It’s very vague and sounds like he’s going to make some new friends. It would also make sense about him being conflicted if Beth is there.

@twdmusicboxmystery​:

I agree. They’re jumping to conclusions. I do think I know where it’s coming from, and while I disagree, I find it interesting. We always say the GA doesn’t pick up on TD symbolism. But, in a lot of ways they do, they just don’t draw the correct conclusions about it.

What stands out to me is that they capitalize the word “Odyssey.” That tells me we can use the Odysseus/Ulysses story as a template for the spinoff. And that already makes sense. He leaves home and his family and then has a lot of trouble and adventure trying to get back again.

But Odysseus doesn’t have tons of love interests while on his journey. He has a couple of affairs, and you could argue the Siren thing, but I kinda think Leah was already his siren. I don’t think they’ll do that storyline again. If nothing else, as I’ve harped on in the past, the writers have a pattern of using a non-soulmate relationship that plays out right before the character finally ends up with their soulmate. We saw this with Richonne, Carzekiel, Sashraham, and even Carnid. And in none of those was there a second, non-soulmate love interest. They already did this for Daryl, so they won’t do it again. And his soulmate (clearly Beth) should be arriving very soon.

Now, in terms of where this is coming from, I think it’s the line about Daryl figuring out where he belongs. Most recently and directly, it was Leah who asked him this. “Where do you belong, Daryl?” And I think that’s why people are saying there will be a second Leah. But this is short sighted.

The other episode that jumps to mind that it echoes is Home, 3x10. In that case, Daryl said this line to Merle. After realizing he belonged with his family at the prison, he walks away from Merle. Merle asks where he’s going and Daryl answers, “back where I belong.” So, this line isn’t exclusively applicable to romantic relationships. It’s about who Daryl considers to be family. He always belongs with them. And he very specifically did NOT choose Leah as his family. Just saying. In that case, he chose Rick. Or, looking for Rick’s body, over her.

So my point is that assuming this is indicative of another romance for Daryl is flawed logic.

In terms of “will this be Beth,” I just want to point out that there is very little that would keep Daryl from going home to Alexandria. Most of us think he will leave because one of the kids, probably Judith, will be taken. Possibly RJ too. But once he’s found them, why wouldn’t he just go back home? If there’s any chance Michonne is going to return, and he has no reason to think she’s dead, then he needs to be there and to keep her kids there. But then he’s also very loyal to others there like Carol (who we know won’t be going with him) Aaron, Gabriel, Maggie, etc. So, why wouldn’t he return?

In my opinion, only a stronger relationship than the ones waiting for him back home would keep him away. I’ll admit, that could be Rick. But other than Rick, the only one would be Beth. And there's that soulmate pattern. Despite the Rickyl shippers, Rick is not Daryl's soulmate.  😉 And all the symbolism we’ve noticed over the seasons has pointed to Beth being part of the CRM storyline. And we know Daryl will be going to confront the CRM in some capacity. So… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@galadrieljones​:

VERY light spoilers ahead: I love your comments, @twdmusicboxmystery​, because I had the same thoughts. I zeroed in on the Odyssey. We’ve talked about Daryl as Odysseus for a while, and also Leah as a Circe character who is trying to prevent him from going home.

Daryl mentions that “they even took Dog” in this past episode which is the first time we’ve heard mention of Dog for a while. This is significant because in the Odyssey, Odysseus is separated from his dog. When he comes home finally (to ITHACA), his dog Argos is the first to recognize him. Argos falls into filth and depression without Odysseus and basically lives just long enough to welcome him home. When Odysseus comes home, the dog “drops his ears and wags his tail,” recognizing him immediately even as nobody else did. Argos then dies, having fulfilled his duty to his master.

The other thing you mentioned is that Odysseus doesn’t have love stories. It’s true, because Odysseus is married. His wife Penelope doesn’t recognize him when she sees him upon his return. Odysseus’s return is a massive part of his story because he has been gone so long that he’s become unrecognizable. He encounters some of his most important trials when he arrives back in Ithaca. Penelope is being courted by many other men when he arrives, and so she holds a contest for them to prove themselves to her. The men must shoot an arrow from Odysseus’s bow through a series of rings. None of the men is strong enough to lift the bow but Odysseus himself who wins the contest. After that, he proves he is her husband by recognizing the bed he built for them out of an olive tree.

This indicates a lot about Daryl we already know. He hasn’t had any real love stories since Beth. Only temptation through Leah, which he does conquer in the end and overcome. Through the Odyssey template, a lot of TD theories are supported, like that they are separated for a long time, that Daryl becomes unrecognizable to Beth, and that he must somehow remind her of who he his. It also explains why we haven’t seen her yet. She is his reward in the end, but only after he has accomplished his entire journey and returned home—whatever that home may be.

If anyone is interested in my views on Beth and Daryl as spiritually married, you should check out my post on how “Alone” is a marriage allegory:

https://galadrieljones.tumblr.com/post/660624041601794048/alone-marriage-allegory-td

Adding to this: If anyone doesn’t know, Ithaca, NY is the setting of World Beyond season 2 and home to a major CRM research facility eventually headed by Jadis.

Also, I want to add that I think Penelope failing to recognize Odysseus could illustrate the Beth/memory loss theory. I think it’s likely she won’t remember Daryl at first, either due to physiological reasons from the headshot or because she’s repressed so much. She might also think he left her, or she might have some memories of a man she loved but who she can’t find or can’t tell if he was real or a dream from another life. We all know Daryl so well so the audience would have a very Daryl-centric view of their reunion. How could she forget him? It’s been ten years. In some ways, how could she not? Daryl went on living with his family. Beth would have been alone.

@twdmusicboxmystery​:

I’ll have to think on it more, but I wonder if Beth “not recognizing” him could take the form of a memory loss storyline. 🤔

@galadrieljones​:

Yeah this is totally what I’m referring to! I think it’s likely she won’t remember him at first, either due to physiological reasons from the headshot or because she’s repressed so much. She might also think he left her, or she might have some memories of a man she loved but who she can’t find or can’t tell if he was real or a dream from another life. 

We all know Daryl so well, so the GA would have a very Daryl-centric view of their reunion. How could she forget him? It’s been ten years. In some ways, how could she not? Daryl went on living with his family. Beth would have been alone.

@wdway​:

Love all this! Definitely love your synopsis of the Odyssey Daryl style.

I do feel that we and the general audience needs a reminder of Beth before the series ends. And seriously I think that's why we haven't been getting much details about the spinoff or the possible name of the spinoff because it would be too revealing about Beth.

@twdmusicboxmystery​:

Thoughts about the (very vague) Daryl spinoff synopsis?

[nd43taags]

Summer of Smooch: A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out

IT’S DONE FINALLY!  I’M SO GLAD.  Please enjoy this fic!

The crew of the Starblaster take part in an unusual courtship ritual on a planet they are visiting, and end up getting more than they bargained for when some of them get sick from it.

It seemed to be that this cycle was going to be one of the easier ones they had encountered.

The residents of this plane were friendly and helpful, the Light had been relatively simple to find, and the crew had plenty of time to do research and relaxation.  Davenport had suggested the crew learn about local customs, and they were quick to discover that this plane seemed to only be populated by humans, all of whom were excited to welcome their strange guests into their towns.

The townspeople were in the midst of preparing for a spring festival when the first recon team was sent in.  Taako didn’t really soak in many details (a lapse he would eventually regret), but it seemed to be a mating festival centered on the exchanging of flowers.  Couples exchanged bouquets containing a special local flower known as Lover’s Longing as a sign of affection.  The flower only bloomed for a few hours during the festival, and apparently had a captivating smell.  Taako caught sight of a few of the squat plants as they had walked through town, petals tightly closed waiting for the right moment to blossom.

“I wonder what they smell like?” Lup asked, examining the leaves of one of the plants in the marketplace.

“Oh, it’s different for everyone,” the saleswoman at the florist shop chuckled.  “For most people they take on a smell that you associate with a person you love.  My husband is a baker, so to me the flowers always smell like freshly baked bread.”

“That sounds awesome!” Magnus cried, “I can see why you guys made a festival around them!”

Read more on AO3 or under the cut!

“I wonder how it works,” Lup mused, rubbing a leaf between her finger and thumb.

“It’s probably a hallucinogenic compound in the pollen,” Barry explained plainly.  “It stimulates some olfactory nerves without actually smelling like anything.”

“You take all the fun out of things,” Lup moaned, teasingly elbowing Barry in the ribs.

“I mean the way more interesting question is why!” Barry laughed.  “What would a plant gain from having that kind of adaptation?”

“Ugh, spare me the hypothesis,” Taako groaned.  “What kind of food do they serve at this shindig?”

The festival was all anyone in town could talk about, and it seemed like quite an event to take part in.  There would be food and music and dancing around a bonfire, and even though they had seen dozens of festivals on other planets, the residents’ fervor was infectious and exciting all the same.

“I mean we can go,” Davenport admitted when they discussed the festival at dinner.  “If we really want to accurately represent these people in our records we should try to consume as much of their culture as we can.”

“Yes exactly,” Lucretia agreed.

“And we will all pretend it’s not just because the captain hasn’t had date night in a cycle and a half,” Taako said with a smirk, earning stern glances from the gnome and a chuckle from Merle.

“He’s right though,” Merle admitted.  “None of us have had a night off in awhile.”

“Then it’s decided,” said Davenport.  “We will all attend the festival when it occurs.”

And as much as Taako tried not to act excited, it was clear everyone was really looking forward to the event.  Lup and Lucretia were looking forward to checking out the local’s customs, and Barry couldn’t wait to examine the flowers in full bloom.  Davenport and Merle were looking forward to a nice evening with drinking and dancing.  And Magnus…

“I think it’s gonna smell like your body wash, Taako,” Magnus mused as they walked towards the bright lights in town on the night of the festival.  “Ooh, or maybe it will smell like the lemon cake you make on my birthday.  Or maybe-”

“You’re so sure it’s gonna smell like me,” Taako laughed, squeezing Magnus’ hand.  “What if I’m not the person it reminds you of?”

“Taako of course it’s gonna be you,” Magnus chuckled.  “I’ve never loved anyone the way I love you!”

At that Taako blushed.  Magnus was so honest with his feelings, it could get overwhelming at times.  Taako was reserved in his expressions - the fact that they were holding hands in public was a huge achievement on his part.

“I’m just excited to hear what smell you get,” Magnus continued.  “Hopefully it’s a nice smell, you know?

“You want me to sniff one too?”  Taako said.

“Of course!” laughed Magnus, “It’s a couple thing, right?  We should do it together!”

“Maggie it’s weird,” Taako insisted, “I’m not sure I’m that comfortable getting all up in these people’s traditions.”  He didn’t like the way Magnus’ smile got a little smaller.

“On that note, I do want to caution everyone about taking part in local customs,” Lucretia warned with a sly grin.  “Lest we forget the cycle were Merle and Taako accidentally got engaged.”

“We do not speak of that cycle, Lucy,” Taako hissed as Merle cackled.

“Lucretia makes a good point though,” Davenport agreed.  “You should take caution before participating in any local traditions.  I’m not saying you can’t, just be careful.  We’re strangers here, we don’t know the implications of everything.”

“Ah Dav, let the kids sniff their plants,” Merle laughed.

“I’m surprised you’re not itching to get in on that,” Taako muttered.

“I don’t like to get that involved in a plant before getting to know them a little first,” Merle teased with a wink.

Taako stuck his tongue out in response.

The festival was well in swing when they arrived, with people dancing and shouting and passing around drinks and platters of food.  It was a bit frantic, more than once Taako found himself holding a drink he did not remember asking for.  Still the energy was thrilling, and he couldn’t help but smile as Magnus dragged him out to dance in front of the bonfire time after time, grinning and hollering like an idiot to every song even though he didn’t know any of the words.

They had been partying about an hour when the flowers started to bloom.  Slowly, all around them, Taako could see the tight buds unfurlling, twisting themselves open to show off bright petals in vibrant pinks and yellows.  They were actually rather pretty once they were in bloom, not at all indicative of the shabby shrubs they came from.  Couples were starting to break off and exchange flowers, but Magnus didn’t move to join them, instead looking at Taako nervously.

“What’s the problem, big guy?” Taako asked.

“It’s nothing I just…” he blushed.  “I know I said I wanted to do it with you, but if you don’t want to… I don’t want to do it by myself.”

Taako watched over Magnus’ shoulder and saw Barry purchasing a flower from one of the vendors, only to have it snatched out of his hand by Lup with a grin.  It was a couples thing, after all.  He saw Lup smell the flower deeply, blush, and pass it back to Barry, who smelled it in return.  Both of them were bright red, laughing, and then began excitedly talking.  Probably about what they smelled, and some nerd shit Taako didn’t care about.

Magnus glanced back to where Taako was looking, and gave a sad smile.

“Maggie,” Taako replied.  “Lemme buy you one.”

“You sure?” gasped Magnus, almost unable to contain his excitement.

“Yeah sure,” Taako teased.  “Worst thing that happens is it smells like your dirty laundry, right?”

Leading Magnus by the hand, Taako made his way over to the vendor, who he recognized as the young woman they had spoken to earlier in the week.

“One of your weird flowers please!” Taako said with a smile, and the woman chuckled as she plucked one of the now open flowers off the bush she had on her countertop.  They exchanged currency, and Taako turned to Magnus, bright pink flower unfurled in the palm of his hand.

“Take a whiff big guy,” Taako teased, and Magnus carefully lifted the flower with tender fingers from Taako’s hand.  Cupping both hands around it, Magnus lifted the flower to his face and inhaled deeply.

“Holy shit!” he laughed, a huge smile spreading across his face as he began to get flush.  “It - it smells like warm vanilla!  And a little bit of cinnamon!  It smells just like what the kitchen does when you make cookies when you’re feeling frustrated about things.”

Taako felt himself blush.  It was a weirdly specific smell that Magnus associated with him, but Taako couldn’t deny it was an endearing pull.  Of course Magnus noticed that he made cookies when he was frustrated.  Of course he knew exactly what those cookies smelled like.  Magnus always noticed shit like that.  He looked up at Magnus, enjoying his flushed cheeks and wonder-filled eyes.

“You gonna let me get a sniff?” Taako said with a smile.

Magnus beamed as he held the flower out, still cupped in his hands.  Taako closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

At first he smelled nothing.  Then, all at once, the smells started to come forward.  Campfire smoke and pine, a little musky, a hint of salt.  Taako thought back to a cycle years ago where he and Magnus had a night alone camping on a beach, and they stayed up all night looking at constellations and talking about the future.  It was a simple night, not one of their more exciting dates, but Taako was surprised to feel a warmth spreading in his chest when he thought of it.  Of course this was the memory he would associate with Magnus.  It was simple, warm, and felt like home.

Just like Magnus.

“Well?” Magnus eagerly insisted.

“Smells like our camp-out on the purple-sand beach,” Taako admitted, and Magnus smiled.

Taako could see that other couples were putting the flowers in their hair, and he grabbed the blossom from Magnus’ palm and tucked it behind the human’s ear with a grin.  Magnus flushed even redder, and it was the cutest he could possibly be, bright pink petals contrasting so nicely with his blushing skin.

“Dance with me?” Taako asked, extending a hand, and Magnus eagerly took it.

They rushed back to the town square where the bonfire was still raging, and danced, hands entwined and smiles on their faces.

It was a night to remember for sure.

They weren’t sure when they made it back to the ship, but it was well after everyone else had headed back.  Taako was certain the sun was close to coming up as they stumbled back home, tangled in each other’s arms and giggling like school girls after all the festivities.  

Magnus was basically deadweight, hanging over Taako’s shoulder as he hummed nonsense tunes and occasionally stretched his neck over to kiss Taako on the cheek.  They had maybe had a couple drinks too many, but Magnus was usually the one carrying him home.  Still, the bright red cheeks on his face were endearing, and Taako didn’t mind dragging him back to the ship that much.

On entering the ship, Taako found Merle passed out on the couch in the common area, Davenport lovingly supporting his head in his lap as he read.  Taako noted a closed flower bloom twisted into Merle’s beard, just like the one shut tight tucked behind Magnus’ ear.

“You boys have a good time?” Davenport asked with a small grin.

“It was okay,” Taako deflected with a smile.

“Well duty is at o-seven hundred, hungover or not,” chuckled Davenport.  “Get a good night sleep.”

Dragging him back to his bunk, Taako tossed Magnus onto the bed, pausing only to pull his boots off before tucking his boyfriend in.  He considered climbing in next to him and curling up, but the alcohol was making him a little sweaty and he was dreading the idea of sharing a bed with Human Space Heater Magnus Burnsides.  So he kissed Magnus on the forehead and wandered back to his own cabin to flop down on the bed and pass out.

The morning came a lot faster than he would have hoped.

Fumbling his way down to the kitchen, Taako found Davenport and Lup chatting quietly while Merle brewed some tea and Lucretia served up some eggs.

“Morning Koko,” Lup hummed, taking a sip from her coffee.  “You and Maggie were out late.”

“A fact I am deeply regretting right now,” he muttered, snatching his sister’s coffee and taking a sip of his own.  She made a face at him but he pretended not to notice.

“Well at least you are up,” Davenport said.  “Magnus and Barry are going to be stuck with cleaning duty if they don’t get down here soon.”

“Cut the big guy a little slack,” Taako hummed as Lup swatted him away and he was forced to get his own cup of coffee.  “He is definitely hungover, he was a mess last night.  You saw, I had to carry him home.  That never happens.”

“I am shocked Barry is still out though,” Lup answered.  “He’s usually up before I am.  Poor guy must be tired.”

“So,” Merle said, pouring his tea, “who smelled the flowers last night?”

Lup and Taako sheepishly raised their hands, but Taako wasn’t too surprised to see Merle and Davenport raise their hands as well.

“Really?” Lucretia huffed.  “Am I the only one who had the sense not to inhale pollen from an unknown organism?”

“Aw, Lucy, Barry and I would have shared with you!” Lup said.

“No, I specifically told you guys to be careful about what you did at the festival,” Lucretia replied sternly.  “Our biology might not be the same as the people who live here.  Who knows how that flower will affect us!”

“I mean… it’s not seeming to have any effect at all,” Taako admitted, looking around the table.

“That isn’t the point,” Lucretia sighed.  “What if it turned out you were deathly allergic to it?  Would have been an embarrassing way to die.”

“Okay but I wasn’t,” Taako fired back.  “You gotta chill, Luce, sometimes a flower is just a flower.”

They finished up breakfast, and Davenport handed out duty for the day.  Magnus and Barry were still asleep, so they were stuck cleaning.  Merle and Taako were to head into town to stock up on some supplies they were running low on.  Lucretia and Lup were to help Davenport with some maintenance the Starblaster needed.

“Do you think we should wake up the boys?” Lup asked as they prepared to head off to their separate duties.

“Nah, cleaning duty will be punishment enough,” Merle chuckled.  “Let them sleep it off.”

Still, Taako couldn’t help but feel a little nagging tinge of worry.  Sure Magnus had gotten pretty fucked up last night, but he usually bounced back pretty quickly.  And Barry was even stranger; the man kept charts that tracked his sleep cycle and bowel movements after all.  The idea of either of them sleeping through breakfast and well into the day was unheard of.  Still, they had things to do and no time to haul them out of bed.  The Starblaster was getting low on rations, and Davenport thought that they’d be able to get some of the leftover food from the festival at a discounted rate.

As Taako and Merle approached the nearby village, they were surprised to find the streets almost completely empty - a stark contrast to how things had been the night before.  Most of the businesses were closed, and very few folks were out walking on the street.

“Maybe the afterparty is just really hardcore?” Taako mused, looking at the closed sign hanging in the window of the shop closest to him.

“Enough to shut down the whole town?” Merle scoffed.  “Come on, let’s talk to someone and see what’s up.”

The hailed down a young man who was walking in the street, and learned that the festival was usually followed by a day or two of bedrest, since the majority of the adults in the village were overcome with “Lover’s Longing.”

“What is it, some kind of illness?” asked Merle

“Wasn’t that the name of the flower you have the festival for?” Taako realized.

“Well of course,” the young man replied.  “Anyone who smells the flower catches the Lover’s Longing.  It’s why we hold the festival in the first place.”

“And what does Lover’s Longing consist of?” Merle questioned.

“Mmm, it makes the afflicted wish to be closer to the people they love,” he said with a smile.  “A desire to be held tightly, a cold shiver down the spine, extreme warmth radiating throughout the body-”

“That is just a fever,” Merle interrupted, and the young man looked irritated by his response.

“Wait, anyone who smelled the flower comes down with this sickness?” Taako shouted, suddenly realizing what this meant.  “But…  How come you aren’t sick?”

The young man shrugged.  “Same as you two I assume, I never was offered a flower last night.  I recently broke up with my boyfriend.  One has to inhale the pollen to contract Lover’s Longing, and the exchanging of blooms is strictly a couple’s activity.”  He sighed.  “I wish I had someone to share a bloom with this year, but it wasn’t in the cards.  Perhaps next year.”

As the young man wandered off, Taako grabbed Merle by the shoulder.

“Fuck,” Taako muttered.  “Looks like Lucy was right again.”

“I dunno, I feel fine,” Merle admitted.  “Definitely don’t feel feverish.  If anyone who smells the flower gets sick, we don’t seem to be doing all that bad.”

“Yeah well what if it’s on, like, a delay,” Taako snapped, “What if we’re both about to get hit with a huge wave of it?”

“If I had to guess,” Merle reasoned, “it’s probably not affecting us because we aren’t humans.  You notice how there are only humans living in this village?  Maybe it doesn’t work on elves or dwarves.”

“But if that’s the case then…”  Taako’s ears flattened against the side of his head.  “Shit… Mags and Barold.”

Rushing back to the ship, they found Lup, Davenport, and Lucretia outside the ship, working on some the Starblaster’s paneling.

“Did the boys wake up yet?” Taako cried.

“Well I don’t know about Magnus, but I went in to see Barry,” Lup sighed, wiping her grease-covered hands off on her shorts.  “He’s got a real high fever, so I’m letting him sleep it off.”

“Well bad news,” Merle huffed.  “Turns out the flowers have something about them that make the locals go into a feverish stupor.  They call it ‘Lover’s Longing’, and based on what we heard the main symptom is a high fever.”

“Oh shit,” Lup cried.

“Are they gonna be okay?” Davenport asked.

“I mean it seems like the people around here induce the illness intentionally, so it can’t be that bad,” Merle reasoned.

“Well I know I’m not sick because I didn’t smell the flowers,” Lucretia admitted.  “But what about the rest of you?”

“We think it might be a human-specific illness,” Merle replied.

“The flower must have evolved symbiotically with the humans here,” Davenport muttered.  “It would be a reasonable explanation anyway.  That doesn’t mean we’re in the clear though.  It could just be taking longer to infect us.”

“That’s nice y'all but I think I’m going to check on Barry?” Lup said nervously.  “Just because it’s normal for people on this planet doesn’t mean it’s going to be good with Barry and his shitty immune system.”

“Oh fuck, Magnus!” Taako replied with a start, suddenly remembering just how bad Magnus had been the night before.  “I better check on the big guy then, he’s definitely got it too.”

Heading off to Magnus’ bunk, Taako slowly eased the door open and quietly tiptoed into the room, only to find Magnus tossing and turning, blanket thrown on the floor.

“Hey big guy, you okay?” Taako whispered.

Magnus groaned in response.  

As he neared the bed, Taako carefully extended a hand to Magnus, trying to feel if he was radiating any heat.  Sure enough, he could feel the warmth before he even touched Magnus.  “Maggie, you’re burning up.”

At that, Magnus rolled over, opening his eyes slowly as he looked up into Taako’s face.  He was sweaty and red, as though he had been running, and Taako was more than convinced that the Lover’s Longing had gotten him as well.  As soon as his bleary eyes focused, Magnus’ smiled up at Taako.

“Taako,” he hummed, grin as wide as it had been last night at the festival.  “It’s so good to see you.”

“Good to see you too, buddy,” Taako answered, checking Magnus’ pulse (which was racing).

“Get in bed with me,” Magnus continued in sleepy slurred words as he pat the mattress next to him.  “Come lay down.  I wanna give you a kiss.”

“Hell no Romeo,” Taako laughed.  “You’re sick and running a fever.  Lemme go get you some water.  Hang tight.”

As he left Magnus’ side, the fighter gave off a pitable moan of “noooo”, which Taako was surprised that he managed to drag out until Taako made it to the door.  Outside the cabin was Lup, who was looking concerned.

“Barry feels real hot, Taako,” Lup hissed.  “How’s Magnus?”

“Same,” Taako admitted, paused, and added, “also weirdly clingy?”

“God, Barry too,” Lup laughed.  “He kept grabbing my arm and trying to pull me down.”

“Magnus told me he wanted me to lay in bed with him,” Taako explained.  “The villager we talked to said that the illness makes the person want to be held, maybe that’s it?”

“Well, whatever it is, we need to bring their fevers down,” Lup insisted.  “Come on, let’s get to the kitchen.”

They loaded up on bland crackers, ice water, and damp washcloths, and headed back to their respective boyfriends.  Taako carefully plopped the wet towel on Magnus’ still beaming face, which made the human chuckle weakly.

“Taako!” he laughed.

“So I put crackers and water on the nightstand,” Taako explained, backing up towards the door.  “And if you’re gonna hurl I put the trash next to your bed.”

“I’m not gonna hurl, Taako,” Magnus grinned.

“We don’t know that!” Taako shouted.  “Just because you haven’t yet doesn’t mean you won’t.”

“I’m pretty sure I won’t,” Magnus assured him, sitting up and pulling the damp cloth from his face.  He extended a hand to Taako, still red and sweating.  “Come back over here.  I want to hold you.”

“Sorry, Maggie, but you’re sick and I might still get it,” Taako sighed.

“Taako, I’m not sick!” Magnus insisted, “I’m in love with you.”

“I know, big guy,” Taako replied.  “But you are sick.  Get some rest, I’ll be back to check on you in a bit.”

He closed the door and made his way out to the common area, where he found Merle carefully inspecting his blossom from the night before, as Lucretia stood far back, a napkin clutched to her face to keep herself from inhaling anything that may make her sick as well.  They had laid the flower out on the dining room table, and it seemed as though Merle had fetched his dissection kit from his room.  He was preparing to carefully cut back the petals and look inside.

“You should be wearing a mask,” Davenport muttered, leaning away from the flower.

“If I’m gonna get it I’m gonna get it,” Merle huffed, grabbing his forceps.  “Can’t undo that.”

“What’s going on in here?”  Taako asked.

“Trying to see if we can learn anything about this illness from the flower,” Merle explained, peeling back one of the tightly clasped petals.

“What, like an antidote?” Lup answered.

“Maybe, or just maybe an idea of what’s happening,” sighed Merle.  “How are the boys?”

“Delirious and sweaty,” Lup confirmed.  “Barry kept touching my face and telling me he loves me.”

“Magnus… did something similar,” Taako mused.  “If nothing else this illness deffo turns you into a huge sap.”

“I mean it does make sense,” Lucretia muttered through her napkin.  “If they use it as part of a romantic ritual, having increased affection would be a positive side effect.”

“So they… they huff the flower to make themselves get all snuggly?” Taako said, trying to piece it together.  “That’s… weird?  Why even go through that?”

“It’s most likely an old tradition they’ve been doing for years,” Merle said, “The way that young man talked about Lover’s Longing made it seem like it was something they look forward to, so it doesn’t seem like they think of it like an illness anymore.”

“Well, are we gonna get it?” Taako insisted.

“I’m not sure,” Merle hummed.  “I’ll have to do some tests on the pollen… Until then it’s probably best that someone keeps an eye on Magnus and Barry.”

“Well, since Taako and I were already exposed, I guess that’s us,” Lup sighed.

“Just keep their fevers down until I can figure out a next step,” Merle replied.  “Keep your mouth covered just in case, and wash your hands after touching them.  Better safe than sorry, you know?”

“Says the guy that’s nose deep in an unknown plant with no face mask,” Lucretia laughed.

“I’m a dwarf, I’m immune to poison,” Merle muttered, and everyone just let that nonsense go.

So Lup and Taako found themselves taking care of the two sick humans, waiting on Merle to finish analyzing the pollen samples.  It wasn’t horrible, Taako supposed.  Magnus wasn’t the best patient usually, but he was always happy to see Taako when he came into the room, and did his best to follow instructions.   In other cycles, Magnus was a horrible patient, not listening to restrictions people put on him, and usually overstraining himself as soon as his caretaker was out of sight.  Taako was shocked this time, as Magnus patiently let Taako dab his forehead with a cool cloth in exchange for getting to hold Taako’s hand.

The hand holding was definitely a major thing.  Magnus was desperate for the tiniest hint of contact, constantly asking Taako to touch him, to hold him, to kiss him; Taako couldn’t help but feel a little bad for him.  Not enough to risk mouth-to-mouth exposure, but enough to empathize and offer a hand for Magnus to hold in exchange for good behavior.  And Magnus would hold his hand with such tenderness and awe, like it was the most precious thing in the world to him.

“These cuddle-cooties are weird,” Lup mused, as she helped Taako wash some of the towels they had been using.  Cuddle cooties was Lup’s name for the illness.  Barry had also taken on that desperate need for contact, and Taako and Lup weren’t really sure how to mediate it or help them.  It was getting really bad too, leaving the room to get new washcloths or to fetch another bucket of ice resulted in the humans trying to get out of bed, trying to follow on wobbling feet.  Barry had already eaten shit once, feet tangled in blankets as he tried to chase after Lup.  “Do we know how long this is supposed to last?”

“No idea,” Taako grumbled, “But it can’t be too long, right?  Nobody would willingly infect themselves with something that put you out for weeks.”

“Based on what I’m seeing it’s barely an illness at all,” Merle said, coming into the laundry room.  He looked tired, curly gray hair tied up in a bun as he had worked through the afternoon and into the evening researching the plant.  He tossed a lab coat in with the towels to clean.  “Dav and I ran as many tests as we could.  The effects are one part medical, one part magical, one part psychological.  But the good news is we don’t think it’s going to spread to us.  Probably.”

“Probably,” Lup repeated.

“There’s like... an 85% chance that our biology is not compatible with the pollen in the way that humans are,” Merle explained, scratching his beard absently.  “And if that’s true, we won’t get it, or that if we do it’ll be so mild you might not even notice it.”

“And what’s that other 15%?” asked Taako.

“The other possibility is once it manages to work it’s way into our immune system, it’ll fuck us up right good,” Merle sighed.  “Having never been exposed to anything like it before, it could make us even sicker than any of the humans, and it might straight boil our brains.”

“Delightful,” Lup rolled her eyes.

“I should stress though,” Merle replied, hands held up cautiously.  “I don’t think it’s gonna do that.  It’s my professional opinion that it’s harmless.  Probably.”

“Probably,” Lup repeated.  “Great.”

“So I guess keep exercising caution,” Merle continued, “but don’t worry too much about catching it.  At this point you’ve already got it in your system, so it’s a moot point.  If you’re gonna get sick, you’re gonna get sick.  Just focus on making sure they don’t hurt themselves, and that their fevers don’t spike any higher, and we should get through this.”

“Can’t you check on them, as ship’s doctor?” Taako asked.

“Eh, I wanna run more tests,” Merle replied, waving his hand dismissively.  “If nothing else I want a clear record of this stuff for Lucretia to put in the books, in case we ever encounter something like this again.  You’re adults, they should be easy enough to handle without me.”

That night when he came in to check on Magnus after dinner, he found him fast asleep and curled around his pillow like he was holding a teddy bear.  He was still flushed, hair sticking to his damp forehead, but he at least looked peaceful.  Taako carefully checked his temperature with the back of his hand (still hot) before carefully draping another washcloth over his forehead.

Magnus sighed, but did not stir.

“Taako,” he heard Lup whisper, and he looked to see his sister peeking into the room through the doorway.  Taako crept over to the entrance, trying his best not to disturb Magnus.  “I’m worried Barry might wake up and try to come find me in the middle of the night, and end up hurting himself.  I’m gonna stay up with him.”

“Are you gonna, like, get in bed with him, or what?” Taako asked, glancing back at Magnus.

She shrugged.  “No, I’m just gonna set up a chair by his bed and sleep there if I have to.”

“That’s… probably smart,” Taako agreed.  “I should do the same.”

So Taako grabbed a chair and some blankets out of the common area, and set up a nice comfy spot in Magnus’ room.  They had the AC blasting in the cabins because of their high fevers, so Taako wasn’t about to spend the night in there without some blankets.  Once he was settled, wrapped up and feet propped up on the end of the bed, he took one last look at Magnus, who looked almost happy in his feverish sleep, before getting comfortable and trying to fall asleep himself.

He wasn’t out long before he was awoken by a low moaning and muttering coming from the bed.

“No,” Magnus groaned, rolling over though still fast asleep.  “No don’t.”

Taako pushed himself up from where he had slipped down in his chair as he had tried to get comfortable, ears perked at the sound of Magnus’ voice.  He was definitely asleep, Taako could see that his eyes were closed, but his mumbled sentences were coming fast and confused.

“I can’t…  Don’t…”

Taako gently put a hand on Magnus’ leg.

“You okay man?” he whispered, unsure if he should wake him or not.  Magnus moaned in response, but did not answer.  “Mags?”

Getting out of the chair, Taako came over to Magnus and put a hand on his forehead.  He was hotter than ever, and drenched in sweat.

“I’m not…” Magnus muttered, leaning into Taako’s cool touch.  “Taako… where are you?”

“I’m right here bubbale,” Taako assured him, moving his hand to Magnus’ cheek.  “I’m right here, taking care of you, babe.”

At that, Magnus stirred, his eyes slowly opening.  He looked confused, but once he saw Taako’s face leaning down over him, he smiled weakly.

“Taako,” he whispered softly.

“Hey, what you dreaming about, big guy?” Taako replied, running a hand through Magnus’ sweaty sideburns.

“Dreaming…  uh… I thought,” he paused, swallowing.  “I was alone, and it was dark and cold.  I was so cold.”

“You’re cold?” Taako asked with a frown.

“Yeah it’s…  it’s cold,” Magnus answered, and Taako watched as a bead of sweat rolled down Magnus’ cheek.  If he was cold, it certainly wasn’t showing.

“Do you need anything?” Taako asked, hesitant that he would ask for a blanket or something to get warm.  That really was the last thing he would need.

“I… I heard your voice,” Magnus sighed, closing his eyes.  “And I felt... warm again.”

Taako sat on the edge of the bed, putting his hand on Magnus’ chest.

“I’d never leave you, Magnus,” Taako assured him.  Magnus grabbed his hand in return, and smiled.

“Come to bed,” Magnus answered, squeezing Taako’s hand.

He was still so warm and his palms were so sweaty, but his eyes seemed to sparkle in the dark in a way that made Taako’s heart skip a beat.  It reminded him of the way Magnus’ eyes had sparkled under the stars, that night they had camped out on the beach.  He was so wonderful, so sweet and tender, and while he was still obviously very sick, Taako felt something give inside him.

“Ah… what the hell,” Taako shrugged.  “Merle says I probably already have it anyway.”

Climbing over Magnus, Taako flopped down on the bed next to him.  The room was cold, but curled up to Magnus felt incredibly warm.  Magnus rolled over to face Taako, his nose just barely avoiding touching Taako.  In fact, they were as close as they could be without actually touching.

“You are… so beautiful,” Magnus muttered, and Taako felt his warm breath on his face.

“Yeah, well, I know that, but you can’t see for shit in the dark,” Taako teased, rolling over to face him.  “And I’m pretty sure your brain is fried.”

“I love you,” Magnus insisted.  “I love you so much.  I feel like my heart is gonna burst when I’m with you.”

“Magnus,” Taako said, hearing Magnus’ racing heart in his chest.  “Honey, are you okay?”

“I’m great,” Magnus smiled, “I’m wonderful!  How could I not be?  You’re here, so everything is going to be okay.”

“Mag-”

And at that, Magnus surged forward, pressing his lips to Taako’s.

His lips were burning, slick with sweat, and Taako went to push Magnus away, putting a hand to Magnus’ cheek.  Just as Taako made contact, he noticed Magnus’ pulse slowing, his breathing steadying.  With a start, Taako pulled back, and his hand flew to Magnus’ forehead.

He was still sweaty, but the fever was suddenly gone.

“Holy shit,” Taako cried, sitting up, “Maggie, your fever!”

“What?” Magnus said, sounding clearer headed than he had all day.  “What is it?”

“It’s just… it’s just gone?” Taako answered in disbelief.  “You kissed me, and your fever broke!”

“Maybe your love cured me,” Magnus laughed.

“Get serious,” Taako replied. “What the fuck is happening?”

He stumbled out of bed, flicking his wrist to turn the lights on, and headed out to Merle’s room, Magnus chasing behind him.

When they entered Merle’s doorway, they found him still working over some potion bottles.  He looked up, confused at seeing both of them.

“Feeling better?” Merle asked.

“Yeah actually,” Magnus admitted.  “Taako-”

“Taako took care of him and the fever broke,” Taako replied, cutting Magnus off.

“Really!  That’s good to hear,” Merle answered, smiling fondly.  “I’d actually gotten some leads on the cure, but I guess you won’t be needing them.”

“What did you find out?” Magnus asked.

“Seems that when the spores are ingested, they emit a secondary chemical that causes the fever,” Merle explained, starting to clean up his work space.  “But, if it reacts with saliva, carbon dioxide and dopamine, it counteracts the side effects.”

“So…” mused Taako, trying to put the pieces together.

“So those are all the ingredients of a nice smooch with someone you love,” Merle said casually.  “Weird how you two stumbled on that by accident.”

Taako tried not to let his face get too red.

The next day, after letting Lup and Barry know about the cure, they headed back into town to purchase the rations they were unable to get before.  Sure enough, everyone in town seemed to be out and about again, as if nothing had happened.

“I guess… I guess it makes sense as a courtship ritual,” Barry mused.  “An exchange of flowers that results in an uncontrollable urge to be near someone you love, and a fever that can only be broken by their kiss.”

“There are so many better ways to go about this!” Taako cried.  “What a weird tradition!”

“They’ve probably been doing it for centuries,” Lup replied.  “It’s just normal to them now.”

“I’d be willing to bet they cultivated this flower specifically for those properties,” Lucretia agreed.  “The species probably only exists because they grow them for the festival every year.”

“Well at least no one got hurt,” Magnus laughed.

“It was a little touch and go,” Lup said, taking Barry’s hand.  “But yeah, no harm done.”

“I’m harmed,” Taako insisted sarcastically.  “I’m forever scarred by this experience.  This was the worst thing that’s ever happened to me.”

“And again, there was that plane where you accidentally got engaged,” Lucretia reminded him.

“We do not speak of that year,” Taako replied.

The others laughed, and moved on into town to finish getting supplies.  Just as Taako was about to follow, Magnus took his hand.

“Was it that bad?” Magnus asked, pulling Taako towards him.  “Taking care of me, I mean.”

“It… it wasn’t so bad,” Taako admitted quietly, putting his other hand on Magnus’ cheek.  “You’re a needy baby with no sense of self preservation, but the medication was easy enough to administer.”

“Speaking of which,” Magnus said with a grin, taking his hand and tucking it under Taako’s chin, “I think I’m feeling a little faint.  I might need another dose.”

“See, this was what I was talking about,” Taako said, his lips drawing in close to Magnus.  “Such a needy baby.”

They kissed, and it felt warm and right in the way that it should.

It felt just like home.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

TWD 10x17: Home Sweet Home - First Thoughts

All right, I can finally post my analysis. Actually, there will be several. So there’s a LOT to go over for this episode. As I usually do for episodes, I’ll just talk about broad themes I’m seeing today, and then I’ll do a details post tomorrow.

***As always, spoilers for 10x17 abound below. Don’t read until you’ve watched. You’ve been warned!***

It was all fabulous! It was a really great episode even independent of the TD stuff. Raises lots of questions about these new villains that has me super intrigued.

But let’s talk about the important stuff first!

So, there were the four mentions I talked about based on spoilers, and I was pleasantly surprised to find another that kind of trumped them all.

The two by-name mentions came in Daryl and Maggie’s conversation. I have no idea why the screener said Beth wasn’t mentioned by name. She totally was. Twice. Maggie first calls her “Bethie.” It’s when she says, “After Bethie died, Glenn and I talked about going there [to the ocean].” Then a minute later she talks about telling Hershel stories about his family. She says “Beth and Shaun and his granddaddy.” So yeah, two times.

Then there are mentions that we picked up from the spoilers, when Daryl says people are just gone and when Maggie and Kelly talk about their sisters. In the Maggie/Kelly convo, there’s not a huge smoking gun or anything. The thing that stood out to me was Kelly saying, “you had a sister too, right?” I feel like that’s a very blatant example of the writers reminding us of Beth. That Maggie once had a sister. But beyond that, they didn’t talk about Beth specifically.

The other one I noticed that trumped them all was during Maggie and Daryl’s convo about Connie. Maggie asks if Kelly’s sister is still out there and he says his “some people are just gone” line. (Which is obviously an exact callback to him saying this same line about Beth in 4x16).

And then Maggie says something that can really only be about Beth. She says, “even if you find them, you don’t always get them back.” Which is a reference to finding someone but they “die” anyway. And originally, I was thinking that this could point to more than one person. Glenn, Merle for Daryl, and the main reason to connect it to Beth is that they’re talking about Connie’s sister. 

But the more I think about it, it can really ONLY apply to Beth. Because while plenty of people have died, they were never really missing, either. Merle left, and Daryl went to find him, but just before his death, he wasn’t missing or separated from Daryl for a long period of time. Same with Glenn and everyone else they’ve lost. Maggie wasn’t with Glenn before he died, but she didn’t think he was missing, either. She didn’t even know he’d been captured until she saw him in the clearing. The ONLY person who was missing, found, and then lost again, was Beth.

So, we literally have Daryl and Maggie talk about Beth the night before, and then again the next morning with this convo. And then Maggie and Kelly reference her near the end. So great!

But that’s not by far all the great stuff in this episode. Lydia doing the voice-over recap at the beginning was super interesting. Most of it is just recapping the Whisper War, Alpha and Beta’s deaths, etc. But then at the end, she says, “But we were on the verge of something else. A bigger world.” And as it says that, it shows first Michonne on the boat, heading to look for Rick, followed by Eugene’s group being captured. So, both those storylines, in other words, are leading to this “bigger world.” We might have figured that with Rick, given the CRM and all that. But it kinda proves Eugene’s group is about to stumble onto some part of it, too. So bigger world for Michonne is Rick/CRM. Bigger world for Eugene’s group is Beth? Here’s hoping.

There were some minor changes to the opening credits, as we might expect. There is a burning ship in the background at once point. And at the end, when we see the walkers that have Whisperer masks on, there are a lot more walkers around them. Not all Whisperers or anything, but just a much bigger group of walkers. But I noticed the one that is a Whisperer was still there, which is interesting. And given that the Whisperers left a hole in the Alexandria wall when they left, we might have to deal with some stragglers at some point. Everything suggests they aren’t completely gone, even if the war is over.

Lots of great dialogue, most of which we’ve already mentioned from spoilers, but I’ll go over that more in my details post tomorrow.

So, obviously my TD brain was working overtime and I noticed a lot of sequential callbacks to earlier seasons. For one thing,  when Maggie and Daryl’s group is walking through the woods, it started showing them each walking in slow motion as they traveled. 

Remember in S5, when we got the slow motion walking from each member of TF throughout the episode? I think it was in 5x02. It reminded me of that. Like they might be calling back to that. So once again, it would just make sense if they’re doing this at the beginning and Beth shows up at the end.

There was a green preying mantis that was an obviously-placed symbol. I had to look that one up. Yes, we saw a preying mantis in Still. Or was it Inmates? It was around Beth either way. And check out this post on praying mantis symbolism. 

They actually use the term “stillness.” And of course it’s bright green. Yeah, I’d call that a purposeful symbol.

The cargo containers they stayed in overnight were very reminiscent of Terminus. Oh, but this is interesting. I’m seriously probably the only person in the fandom who would even notice this. There’s a sequence where a bunch of walkers are trying to come out of the container, but there’s tons of them and it would be bad for them to break out. 

So Maggie tries to hold the door shut. Daryl runs up to help her but here’s too many in there for just the two of them to overpower them. Finally, Elijah comes to help and there’s a super-gnarly moment where one of the walkers is pushing its head through the door and they squish it. But the point is they work together and actually do get the door shut and lock the walkers inside, so they aren’t overwhelmed.

Two things I think this calls back to. The first, perhaps most obvious one is 5x10, Them, when the entire group held the barn doors shut against the walkers. And once again, the music box woke up RIGHT after that. So it could be a harbinger of Beth.

The second thing it reminded me of was in 4b with the school bus. Remember Sasha and Bob tried to hold the back door to the bus closed but couldn’t and all the walkers got out? There’s a blond walker that falls at Maggie’s feet in that sequence and Maggie stabs her in the forehead. I always thought it was a Beth foreshadow. This almost feels like the opposite of that. In this case, they were able to get the door shut and didn’t have to kill all the walkers. So, if that sequence foreshadowed Grady, maybe this foreshadows the opposite? Things going better this time around? Just a thought.

Oh, Maggie hurts her forearm, though. I won’t say much about this except that we’ve seen other characters with this same injury and I’m sure it’s significant. I just haven’t entirely figured out what it means, yet. It’s not exactly the same as Beth’s because it’s on the wrong arm. But just keep it in mind. I’ll probably mention it again in the future.

When talking to Daryl, what she says about Georgie is interesting. I think we got most of it via spoilers and the Q&A. But she says Georgie went out west. I can’t help but wonder if she’ll be part of the New Mexico symbolism.

One thing the spoilers really didn’t do justice to is how upset Maggie is about what happened to the community she and Hershel were living in before. She’s REALLY upset about it and you can tell she’s barely holding it together. Daryl asks her what happened, but she says she can’t talk about it, yet. She told him the other stuff about Georgie, and says it’s nice to voice some of it, but she can’t voice all of it just yet. So whatever happened must have been pretty bad, because she’s really messed up about it.

I got the same vibe from Elijah. When he takes off his mask and him and Kelly bond, it’s because the Reaper sniper is hunting them. And it’s obvious that he’s terrified of these people (the Reapers). And that’s surprising because this is gray ninja guy who throws knives and had no trouble killing walkers and Whisperers, but he’s super afraid of the Reapers. We also know he lost his sister to them, so it may have a lot to do with that.

But still, I definitely want to know more about these Reapers. The sniper really is pretty creepy.

We see a lot of sunlight filtering through the trees. We had a small dark tunnel moment. Looking for Connie, Kelly is looking into the back of a truck and we see her from the inside, like someone looking out from the inside. Nothing really comes of it. She doesn’t find anything or crawl into it or anything. She’s just looking in as if to see if Connie is in there, but she isn’t.

In this same scene, she opens the cab of the trunk and looks into the front seat, which is empty. And then she sees a coat on top of the truck. That’s when Maggie and Daryl find her, and Elijah jumps up on top and throws some stuff down. The only other interesting thing is a little notebook (the one mentioned in the Q&A, I think). It’s not really a journal and there’s not much color to it. They don’t show us what’s actually in the notebook, but it’s obviously not Connie’s. I’m assuming it’s blank.

But think about all the callbacks there. This truck looks a lot like the one Bob slept on in 4x13, which was obviously a Beth parallel. We have an empty front seat. Now, we’ve mostly seen representations of a walker being in the front seat, right? And this is the opposite of that. So, much like Maggie managing to hold the door shut against walkers, I feel like they’re purposely showing us the opposite of what we’ve seen before, which just tells me Beth is about to appear.

There’s the notebook, which calls back to Connie, Beth, and the wolf trap in 5x16. The coat they threw down wasn’t a huge thing, but it looked vaguely blue. But the fact that it was on top of the truck (which was white) shows that someone slept up there. Also, when Judith and Maggie talked about looking at the stars, they specifically talked about going up on the roof to do it.

Oh, another interesting line that I’m wondering about. It’s back when Daryl and Maggie are talking about Connie. Maggie says the thing about how even when you find them you sometimes don’t get them back. Daryl says maybe it’s better that she doesn’t know that yet. (He means Kelly. Maybe it’s better if Kelly doesn’t realize that’s often the case.) And Maggie says no, Kelly should know. She says her daddy always said a wound couldn’t heal until air hits it. And Daryl says, “You know that’s not true, right? Medicine-wise?” And Maggie just kind of laughs and said her dad made it sound like it was.

So, I’m not sure what to make of that, but it’s obviously a purposeful line. And a medical reference.

Okay, so when Maggie gets back to her group, they’ve been attacked and scattered and two of them are dead, burnt to death in the fire. We had lots of X shapes in the burnt beams of the shack where they were staying. 

The two burnt bodies reminded me of the burnt walkers in 6x06. And as the episode went on, it occurred to me it was kind of a replay of the prison. This place burnt down and her entire group scattered. They were all out looking for each other in the woods. Also, the reason they knew it was burning is that when they got close, they could see smoke rising into the sky. It looked EXACTLY like the smoke from the moonshine shack in S4.

They eventually face off with the sniper guy. At one point, we see his one eye staring at them from where he’s hiding. Creepy, but also maybe a Sirius thing?

Maggie steps in a rope trap (one of those things that pulls you upward by one foot. The guy almost kills her while she’s trying to get lose. Daryl shoots him with his crossbow but drops it after that and goes after him with a knife. (This is why Kelly gets the crossbow. We don’t really see him drop it but I assume he did because the guy was really close to killing Maggie and he knew he didn’t have time to reload.) This guy is huge and throws Daryl against the tree like a rag doll.

Then we get this really interesting thing where we see the camera looking up at the sniper from Daryl’s point of view. We even seem the camera sort of “blink” which is supposed to be his eyes. And it’s interesting because 1) the guy is taking off his disguise. Yeah, this sniper kinda looks like a swamp thing when we see him. He’s covered in camouflage and that brown netting special ops guys wear to blend in with their surroundings. But at this point, he takes it off. I felt like it was him taking off his mask, as it were. 2) It’s blurry and in slow motion. That’s because Daryl is hurt from being thrown against the tree, but it just struck me as a foreshadow of something. We’ve always said that when he first sees Beth he’ll probably think he’s hallucinating. I have no idea if that’s what this is about, but it really jumped out at me as an intentional thing.

And about the Kelly/bow thing, it’s nothing. People were really freaking out about the picture of her with Daryl’s bow, but it was seriously small potatoes. Daryl recovers and Maggie gets free and they both attack the sniper at the same time, but then the rest of Maggie’s group shows up with Kelly. One of them shoots the sniper with an arrow before Maggie or Daryl can, and Kelly shows up holding the crossbow. I think she just picked it up from where he dropped it, but she doesn’t even shoot it or anything.

So then Maggie asks the sniper who he is and why his group bulldozed their community. He won’t answer her and then pulls out the grenade.

And this is another thing that’s really interesting. I almost want to connect this group to the Wolves. Not literally but symbolically. Because from what they said, this group didn’t just attack them to take their supplies or because they were bad guys who wanted to take over their community. After their community went down, they’re actually hunting them. Trying to pick them all off. Why? That’s weird. And the Wolves are the only other group I can think of that actually hunted people just to kill them.

The sniper does say, “Pope marked you.” I don’t know if that’s a name or a title, but it has religious implications. So, someone has marked Maggie’s group for death, but we have no idea why, and neither does she. See why I say this was a great episode even aside from TD stuff? It’s just very intriguing and raises lots of questions moving forward.

Then there’s little Hershel. Not only does he look like Glenn, but he’s practically wearing Glenn’s S1 outfit. Complete with blue and white shirt and baseball cap. So. Stinking. Cute.

Not tons to add about Maggie and Kelly’s convo aside from what was in the spoilers. But I will say that there’s a huge “coming home” theme in this episode. Maggie says she almost came home after Knoxville. Daryl asks her to come home. At the end, he asks if this means she’s coming home. (She says yes.) They just say it like half a dozen times through out the episode.

So, let me just mention my biggest takeaway from this episode. Hershel Jr. is a type of Beth or Beth proxy. It took me watching a couple of times to put this together, but here’s the short version. The building Maggie’s people were in that burnt down is a lot like the prison going down. Her group scatters into the woods into several small groups, much like TF did after the prison. And little Hershel goes missing. Now, Maggie doesn’t really think he’s dead or anything, but she just doesn’t know where he is or if he’s okay. Then, at the end, she finds him. It’s kind of a return, you know?

And once I realized that, I started seeing all kinds of parallels and callbacks. For one thing, when Daryl was tracking him, he recognized Hershel’s tracks because they were kid tracks, rather than adult. That’s a parallel to Beth and Daryl tracking Lizzie and Mica’s kid tracks in Inmates.

Maggie had a “we don’t know that” line, which is exact Beth dialogue. For Maggie, it was about whether or not any of their people were still alive in the wake of the attack. Beth said it about whether anyone from the prison survived in the wake of the Governor’s attack. And there are tons of those. But I’ll go over more of them tomorrow.

And finally, they find Hershel sitting in the tree. Tree/trunk is a Beth symbol, as @frangipanilove has show us. But the tree is also in the shape of a giant cross. So this isn’t just a return. It’s a Christ, resurrection symbol. See why it parallels to Beth?

So yeah, I’ll go over more template details tomorrow and later in the week. But there was SO much good stuff in this episode!

[twdmusicboxmystery]

TWD 10x05: What It Always Is - First Thoughts

I originally started writing a ginormous post and the realized that I would need to break it into two: first thoughts and details. The bigger one, of course, will be Details, and I’ll post that on Tuesday. Today, I’m just going to give a few thoughts on broader arcs and, of course, the Donnie stuff.

***As always, spoilers abound below for 10x05. Don’t read until you’ve watched!!!***

There were five major sections here: the opening sequence with Kelly, Negan/Brandon, Aaron/Gamma/Alpha, Ezekiel, and Magna/Connie/Daryl.

Kelly/Opening Sequence:

The opening sequence with Kelly definitely has some TD symbolism in it, which I’ll get into more tomorrow. I was right that Kelly didn’t die here, but I do think this foreshadows something bigger down the road.

There’s all the Beth-ish symbolism, which suggests it may foreshadow something to do with Beth, or be a parallel to Beth in some way. But there’s also missing stuff that we didn’t see. I had to watch it more than once to catch this, but in the opening sequence, we see Kelly sit down against a boulder, and a walker reaches out for her.

When Daryl, Magna, and Connie find her, she’s sitting against a tree, and we don’t know what actually happened with that walker. The assumption is that she fought it off and kept running, falling down by the tree a little ways away. But still, there’s stuff there we didn’t actually witness, which I think is significant. I still think the walker reaching for her foreshadows her being taken by the Whisperers in some form.

Negan/Brandon:

So in terms of the arc, this definitely leads to Negan going to the Whisperers camp. That follows the CBs, and we figured this would happen. As I’ve said many times, I’m glad to see this because I think something about Negan’s arc here will lead to Beth.

The first thing we saw was Negan near some water. Brandon obviously idolizes Negan and keeps trying to be the perfect Savior to impress him. I think at least part of this, where Negan is concerned, had to do with him realizing he doesn’t want that way of life anymore. He likes TF’s way of life better. In the CBs, he goes to the Whisperers camp to prove his loyalty to Rick, and it seems to me like they’re doing something similar in the show. After Brandon kills Milo—who I think reminded Negan of Carl—he decides he wants to go back, but knows he won’t be welcome unless he proves his loyalty. So he’s off to the Whisperer camp.

And how about the school bus? It’s mostly GREEN with red and blue stripes on it.

They honestly focused way more on the kid, Milo, than on the Mom, Amelia. I had to sit and think about the bus symbol for a bit, though. I kind of realized that I don’t have a specific meaning for the bus. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve done several theories on school buses (X) and I know it’s related to Beth’s arc, or at least the death fake out arcs. But what does it specifically stand for? I’m not sure. Looking at how it’s functioned, this is what I came up with.

I thought it might stand for something that SHOULD have saved people, but didn’t. In 4a, lots of people left the prison on the bus when it went down. It was their escape plan. But they all died anyway. Similarly, in 5x05, Abraham and co were on the short bus, which should have carried them a ways safely, but it crashed.

You could also argue that someone who was SUPPOSED to die on the bus, didn’t. In S4, that would have been Glenn. Maggie left him on the bus and thought he was on it, but he got off and she didn’t realize. Similarly, as bad as the crash in 5x05 was, it’s kind of amazing no one died or even sustained serious injuries.

So what about this scene with Negan? I’m not sure. He saved Amelia and Milo, which means they should have lived. But Brandon killed them, and they died. So if anything, it’s kind of the opposite of what we’ve seen elsewhere. So I’m not entirely sure what to make of this yet. I know I say this a lot, but it will probably make more sense when we understand more of where Negan’s arc is going.

I’m wondering if he’ll somehow rescue Beth or some other kids from some kind of situation represented by the bus. He also made a big deal about how he would never kill a kid. That was partly to make him a foil to Brandon, who was obviously mildly homicidal. But I also think that’s a foreshadowing that we’ll see him protecting kids at some point in the future. We’ve already seen him save/protect Judith. I’ll we’ll see it again with either her or others So, I’ll keep an eye on this moving forward.

Aaron/Gamma/Alpha:

This actually starts with Aaron. He’s practicing his weaponry on a bridge, which is kind of interesting. He doesn’t fall off of it, so it’s not exactly foreshadowing a death fake out for him. But I think he’ll be taken from the community (represented by the bridge) in some way. At this part, we also saw a spiders web near him. (Yes, I know this pic is super blurry. I couldn’t get a decent shot of the spiders web. It went by too fast. The blur at the top left is the spider.)

I think I mentioned this before, but the spider is symbol for Alpha. Siddiq hallucinated a spider synonymously with reliving the be-headings in 10x01. He saw the spider and then saw Alpha in the barn with the machete. Since then, I’ve noticed spiders or spider’s webs several times just before something happened with the Whisperers.

So here, I would have said that Aaron would end up with the Whisperers at some point. Like, maybe this represented that they’d take him from his community. Well, we got confirmation before the end of the episode that at least Alpha wants to do this. She tells Gamma that Aaron might be useful. So I’ve said that I think some people will be taken captive and/or taken somewhere by Alpha. I’m mostly focused on Connie for that, which I’ll talk more about in a minute, but I’ve toyed with the idea of Aaron being involved. Mostly because Rick gave him Gracie in S8, which I think a foreshadow of something else.

Yeah, I think it’s safe to say he’ll be involved somehow. But I think all the associations are important here. Let’s talk about Gamma poisoning the water.

I said that the satellite falling represented Wormwood, which poisons all the water. So after it fell, the water would start being poisoned. And what do you know? Only a few episodes later, Gamma is trying to poison the water.

I honestly don’t know if this is the endgame for the “bad water” symbolism. Maybe, but it seems like kind of small potatoes, so it may only be one small portion of the symbolism. Or it may foreshadow something much bigger down the road.

But in terms of associations, we had Aaron seeing the poisoning happening, and then approach Gamma when she got hurt. That feels like a foreshadow of a much bigger arc for him that has to do with the poisoned water and the Whisperers.

Also, despite what she says, Gamma seems to be having some trouble processing her sister’s death. She’s having an almost Siddiq-like PTSD reaction to it now, which is how she hurt her hand to begin with.

In the Whisperer camp, we learn that they’re damning up the creek and trying to poison the water in order to crush TF. Again, I’m not convinced this is the endgame of the bad water stuff, but it’s interesting, and will definitely play into it.

Ezekiel:

Yeah, he has thyroid cancer. So all the theories about him being sick were true. But so was what we said: if he has cancer, maybe it can be treated with radiation. Guess what, guys? There’s basically not an easier cancer to treat than thyroid cancer. As they said in the episode, it has a 98% survival rate in our world. And that’s important. If they were just going to do a tragic death for him, because TF no longer has the medical resources in the apocalypse that they would have had in the old world, they wouldn’t be so heavily emphasizing that this type of cancer used to be survivable.

There are two major treatments for this type of cancer. Removal of the lump, and radiation. That’s pretty much it. And I’m sure most of you saw the spoilers this past week that TWD was filming in downtown Atlanta again, including filming people with white lab coats that looked a lot like doctors and even walkers wearing police uniforms. (Grady anyone?) So whether it’s actually Grady or just something very similar to them, I think our theories about Zeke’s cancer being treated with radiation are right on track.

Daryl/Connie/Magna:

Yeah, Magna is definitely spiraling. They had an interesting conversation between her and Yumiko. It sounds like Magna was in prison for killing someone who killed her cousin. Yumiko thought she didn’t actually do it, but Magna admitted that she did. Yeah, that’s kind of a problem. I’m sure the guy who killed her cousin deserved it, but it also shows that she’s willing to go vigilante if she feels she’s being treated unfairly, as also evidenced by her stealing supplies. So it will be interesting to see how this progresses, but I have a feeling we’re headed for catastrophe.

Next, on the Donnie stuff (or lack thereof). I’ve already addressed this somewhat, but I’ll say what I’ve already told my group and my fellow theorists.

I’m usually prepared for what small potatoes the Donnie or Caryl stuff is compared to what a big deal the shippers make about it. But this seemed more ridiculous to me than most other instances. Like, there was really, REALLY nothing there.

The scene everyone freaked out about where he told her the Merle story and clasped her hand? The thing I didn’t connect is that they weren’t even alone at that point. Magna was out with them, which the spoilers mentioned, but I just didn’t internalize it. So while Daryl is telling Connie that story, Magna is standing like ten feet away. She’s just not in the shot. (Okay, probably more than ten feet, but you get my meaning.)

There was definitely some Beth symbolism in there, which I’ll go over tomorrow. But I think something this clip is trying to show is how much more effectively Daryl interacts with people now. I noticed this and started thinking about it last week with Lydia. He’s been more touchy with everyone—Lydia, Michonne, Carol, of course—and obviously he’s not in love with all of them (which shows, by extension, that he’s not in love with any of them). While there’s obviously some huge symbolism and Beth vibes in this scene, I also feel like there are literal/plot take always here. Beth taught Daryl how to interact with people. Not only through touch but through sharing personal stories. There is a moment in this scene where Connie is upset and blaming herself and you see Daryl think about it for a minute before following her and launching into his story. I feel like he might have been thinking about Beth in that moment and how him telling her a story about Merle not only helped them connect but helped her feel better about her situation and stop blaming herself, so he did the same with Connie. And it worked. I also think it hearkens back to what Norman and the writers always say about Daryl’s feelings for Beth: that he didn’t understand them. By extension, he wouldn’t have had the first idea how to express them. I think this is the way they’re showing his emotional growth. So when Beth returns, he WILL recognize his own feelings and WILL be able to express them.

One more thing? Remember that every long term, soul mate couple we’ve seen on the show has done the intertwined fingers. The camera focused on him clasping Connie’s hand and they specifically DIDN’T intertwine their fingers. That’s as big and purposeful a statement as anything. This was their chance to foreshadow romance, and they very purposefully didn’t do it.

This is becoming a very close friendship, and I thought this scene was very sweet. It’s a healthy relationship—much like the one he has with Michonne, and far healthier than the one he has with Carol—but this scene specifically told us that’s it’s not heading in the romance direction. If it were, we would have seen a different kind of hand hold.

Then there’s the end scene. Connie apologizes to Daryl for asking him to lie for Magna (about her stealing the supplies). He shrugs it off and says, “Family, right?” She smiles and then points to him and then herself (You and me) and makes the sign for family as well. Then Daryl smiles. 

So it’s cute and sweet. But I think it’s important because, now that she’s said that, I think we all know Daryl would do anything for her. Just like Carol or Michonne or Aaron or anyone else, if something happens to her, or to anyone she cares about (such as Magna’s group) you know he’ll be right there to help. So they’re setting this up pretty much exactly as I thought they would.

(Notice that she doesn’t say, you and me, lovers! 😆) Also, Daryl leaves at the end. So once again he’ll be at Alexandria and she’ll be at Hilltop. Yeah, that’s what people who are in love and want to spend their lives together act. Okay, I’ll stop with the sarcasm.

My point is that this puts them squarely in the friend zone. This is what I mentioned the other day when I said the writers pretty much confirm this to be a familial, rather than romantic bond. I still think it’s possible that Connie harbors some feelings for Daryl, but this, combined with the lack of entwined fingers, means it will never be more than friendship.

I also want to point out that this entire conversation happened right next to Daryl’s motorcycle, which might be a foreshadow of something.  😉 (My theory about him and Carol leaving together on the motorcycle to find Connie.)

Okay, I’ll stop there for today. Details tomorrow!

[twdmusicboxmystery]

10x02: We Are The End of the World - First Thoughts

Okay, how did everyone like the episode. I thought it was stellar, to be honest. I know not everyone was excited for this episode because it’s a bottle episode about Alpha and Beta, but me and my fellow theorists fully expected to get a lot of interesting symbolism and foreshadow, and we were not disappointed!

***As always, spoilers abound for episode 10x02 below. Don’t read until you’ve watched!***

Opening Sequence:

I firmly believe the opening sequence represents what happened to Beth after Coda. I kind of suspected it would anyway because sneak peek, we saw Alpha and Lydia run into a hospital. Watching the entire thing confirmed it. It starts with a woman who is passed out in her car. It appears she's gotten into an accident. When we first see her, she's laying against the steering wheel with horn blaring and the airbag deployed. But she's not dead.

She wakes up and tries to get out of the car. The sound of the crash and the blare of the horn have brought walkers down on her. She tries to get out and away before the walkers surround her. She tries to get out her door but can’t, which I thought was kind of interesting. She slides over and exits the passenger side, diving under the car, but doesn't make it. A walker grabs her leg and bites it and proceeds to eat her.

Alpha and Lydia are nearby and Lydia's earmuffs get knock off. She hears a woman screaming and start screaming herself. That brings the walkers down on them and they have to run. They end up running into the hospital.

I think this represents Beth waking up in the car, being surrounded by walkers, and getting out. She probably crawls under the car for some reason. (It actually reminded me a lot of when Aaron and Daryl did this in 5x16 to get away from the Wolf trap.) And then eventually she makes her way back into the hospital (Grady).

Other evidence of this? Alpha and Lydia pass a fire lane sign. That's a reference to the fire truck. Only firetrucks can park in fire lane. The last time we saw the fire truck was at Grady.

Just before they get inside at the admittance door, they pass a sign that says, "Second lives." Yeah, that's pretty on-the-nose. After all, Beth's "second life," would have begun the moment she woke up in that car where TF left her and made her way back into the hospital.

From there, it's hard to know how to interpret Alpha meeting Beta, or how to apply that to Beth. When Beth goes back into Grady, will she meet someone who will become a good friend and always stay with her or travel with her after that? Maybe. Maybe Edwards could fulfill that role. Or maybe it will be a new character we didn't actually meet in S5.

It's also possible there will be no such thing. Maybe the opening sequence was about Beth, but after that, this just becomes about Alpha and the parallels diverge. No way to tell yet.

Sibling parallels and anti-parallels:

After the opening sequence, we get some interesting stories going on. Alpha stays in the hospital with Lydia for one night and gets to know Beta little bit better.

She finds a picture of him and another man who's wearing the smiley face shirt in the place where he stays. A walker wearing that same shirt comes out and Alpha kills him. It's also obvious that this man, whoever he was, meant a lot to Beta. So, I figure this man must have either been his brother, his best friend, or possibly his boyfriend.

For various reasons, I don't think Beta is gay. I’ll get into why in just a second. But my guess would be that this was his brother. Why? Mostly because the parallel story in the present-day (non-flashbacks) was about two sisters. So, it makes sense for the story in the past to be about two brothers. And of course it doesn't have to be his biological brother. After all, Rick and Daryl are "brothers." But either way, it's a man he cared a great deal about. So, I’ll first talk about Beta’s story and then we'll talk about the two sisters. There was just so much in this episode. It was hard for me to decide how to break down my discussions.

Beta:

If I'm right that Beta lost his brother, then he and his brother must have stayed in the hospital but at some point, but his brother died. We don't know how. From what I could tell, he was keeping his brother locked in a room as a walker, because he couldn't bring himself to kill him. Lydia let the walker out and Alpha ended up stabbing it in the head. Then she invited Beta to come with them, into the darkness, as a Whisperer.

Now, I said earlier that there were several different interpretations of this. On the one hand, I said last season I believed Alpha and Beta represented Beth and Daryl, only were anti-parallels. In other words, these are evil versions of it of Beth and Daryl. This episode confirm it for me more than ever.

So, the first way to interpret this would be as a parallel to Daryl and Merle. Because Daryl lost his brother and saw him become a walker as well. Similarly, Daryl didn't want to leave his brother. Back in S3, he left the prison with for a time before returning, and refused to let Merle go off on his own. He campaigned to let Merle stay at the prison for that very reason. So, he did not want to leave his brother either. The big difference is that when Daryl saw that Merle had become a walker, he immediately put him down and mourned him.

Beta let his brother keep running around as a walker, did not put him down, and we didn't see any tears from him over the death. (Not crying was a big theme in this episode. I'll come back to it.)

The second way I think you could interpret this is the way I've always interpreted the Lizzie/Mika situation. Which is that it represents the stronger half and the weaker half of one person. The weaker half (Mika) dies while the stronger but often more twisted half (Lizzie) lives on. Well, that makes it sound like Beth really is dead because she was always the happy, hopeful one.

But the one who lives doesn’t always HAVE to be twisted either. If you compare this to Daryl and Merle, Daryl lived on because he genuinely was the stronger one, but he's obviously not twisted. He was the good one between the two, so the Lizzie situation doesn't always hold true. But we've seen several pairings with the good one died and the twisted one lived on. (I.e. Lizzie and Mika, Beta and this guy, and the other pair of sisters we see in this episode.)

A third way to interpret this can be as parallels to Daryl leaving Beth behind. Not all the circumstances in this situation match, but we have this person Beta cared about being struck in the head while in the hospital, have him going down right in front of Beta, and then talk of leaving him behind. So there are definitely callbacks to Grady and Coda going on here.

The two sisters:

These two sisters are never named. They even call each other sister. As I watched, I tried to figure out how we should interpret this. Perhaps the most obvious would be the sibling parallel. To Maggie and Beth. I do believe there is something to that because the sister who gave birth to a baby that Alpha made her leave behind definitely had parallels to Beth. Let me show you.

You can see that she is sweet and missing her child. She's obviously not as callous as many of the other Whisperers. But there were more specific things that reminded me of Beth.

For one thing, there's a part where she's and her sister are lying on the ground, trying to sleep. She's lying on some sort of light animal skin. I honestly can't tell what it is because it's just a pelt and we can't see we can't discern what kind of animal it came from. It occurred to me it could be a dog skin. Granted, it could also be a white wolf skin. No way to tell. But the thing that really floored me was that there's a part where, talking to her sister, she says, "I'm so sorry." I think rewound that three times to listen to it because something about bothered me.

Finally, I figured out what it was. Beth says that exact thing to Joan when she wakes up in the hospital without an arm. "I'm so sorry." But it wasn't just the words that are the same. By itself, I probably wouldn't have remembered that line from Beth in Slabtown. It's the actual sound of her voice. This woman has a small, timid, high-pitched voice that sounds exactly like Emily's. Try to listen to the two side by side if you can. They sound like the same person!

Now, with that being said, the other sister would represent Maggie. And as with Alpha and Beta paralleling Beth and Daryl, this is definitely an antiparallel. The sister says, “I should have left you behind when I had the chance.” She later sacrifices her sister in favor of Alpha. Obviously, Maggie would never have done that. So once again, we have this being an anti-parallel to TF and their values.

As with the Beta situation, this could also be construed as the weaker half dying where the stronger, more twisted half lives.

It even occurred to me that if you wanted to compare this to Lizzie and Mika (these two sisters are kind of grown-up versions of Lizzie and Mika) his shows how Alpha is also an anti-parallel to Carol. Because when Lizzie killed her sister, Carol recognized how evil it was. She even went as far as to kill Lizzie to keep her from doing that to anyone else. Here, Alpha actually praises the sister and rewards her for killing her sister. Yeah, definitely twisted.

And again, this can obviously be interpreted in terms of Beth, because we have a situation where the sisters are together and surrounded by walkers. The older sister sacrifices the younger (remember fathers Gabriel's words in 5x16, "you sacrificed one of your own,") and then leaves her behind. Again, this is not the same way it went down with TF and Beth, but this is just the evil version versus the good version.

Okay, a couple more things. I was very interested in the part where Alpha and Beta mentioned their “mission.”

One who has followed me for very long remember this, but I did a post about the Wolves’ religion back in S6. It’s obvious that the wolves were a foreshadow of the Whisperers. Not only do they call themselves a pack several times in this episode, but I'm getting the feeling that they believe much with the Wolves believed.

Back in S6, I did a post on the religion of the wolves. One of them, who talked to Morgan, said that they were freeing the people the killed. It almost felt like they saw killing human beings as freeing them so that they could enter a higher plane of existence or something. And of course, when people die, they become walkers. So it felt like they were very pro-walker and anti-human.

We also saw them gathering armies of walkers which they used in their traps, one of which Daryl and Aaron accidentally tripped in 5x16.

Again, we’re seeing the exact same thing with the Whisperers. At the beginning, Alpha and Beta talk about it together, saying, "Have you forgotten our mission?" We don't actually know what their mission statement is yet, but there are gathering walkers who they refer to as guardians. We also learn in this episode that Beta is very pro-walker. He actually likes the sound the dead make. It's the only song he doesn't want to hear end. That's very telling. No wonder he was drawn too Alpha walking among the dead. It's not just a survival thing for him. He actually enjoys it.

Meanwhile, Alpha also talked about how the dead are free because they love nothing and fear nothing. They only want to feed. That parallels what the Wolf told Morgan about being free. So I kind of feel like they want to turn the entire world into walkers. They definitely seem more pro-walker than pro-human. Just kind of interesting.

Because I said I come back to it, let's talk for a minute about the tears. Last season, we saw Alpha kill someone because he saw her crying. Because she wants to be strong for her and lead her pack, she says she doesn't cry. That, of course, parallels strongly with Beth saying she doesn't cry anymore.

We saw a lot more of that theme this episode. The two sisters talked about how Alpha didn't cry. Even when she left Lydia and thereby lost her daughter, she didn't cry. (By the way, it seems she told the Whisperers, including Beta, that she killed Lydia, which is untrue.) The two sisters talk about wanting to be strong and not cry in the same way as Alpha. And at the end, when one sister sacrifices the other, she doesn't cry at all. (Another anti-parallel between her and Maggie.)

It's more subtle, but I also noticed that when Beta lost the man with the smiley face shirt, he didn't cry either.

Obviously, seeing TF mourned for those they love, seeing Daryl cry for Merle and Beth and Rick, seeing Carol cry when she had to put down Lizzie and Mika, etc., is very important. It's the tears that make them human and make them the good guys. Only the bad guys don't cry for the ones they lose.

Also, notice how Alpha is full of crap. She says she doesn't cry, and that Lydia was dead to her a long time ago. Yet, she's keeping a shrine to Lydia and she cries and misses her. 

I also see this as yet another parallel to Beth. At the beginning of S4, she told Daryl she doesn’t cry anymore, which was kind of crap. She tried not to cry and thought that made her strong, but it was a misconception on her part. She kind of abandoned it when the prison fell (she cried in Inmates) and especially after Still when Daryl razzed her about not crying for her dead boyfriends. I think she had to learn the value of mourning. And she did.

So, in a lot of ways, Gamma is actually more psychopathic than Alpha, because she genuinely doesn't cry and has made herself hard to the point of not being human. Alpha pretends to be that way, but it's all a ruse.

Oh, I also said I’d come back to why Beta is not gay. Because he and Alpha entwined fingers at the end. I don’t know if they actually have a physical relationship. They haven’t shown us a sexual element between these two, so they truly may not. But I think they are supposed to be emotionally romantic soul mates. Hence the entwined fingers. So I don’t think the guy Beta lost was his boyfriend.

I’ll go into this more tomorrow in my Details post, but I feel like this was Alpha and Beta’s Still episode. They met, got to know one another, and forged a deep (albeit twisted) connection. More on that tomorrow.

I think I'll end there today. Those were the biggest takeaways for me. There are a lot of references in this episode that I need to touch on tomorrow. Alpha and Beta got a lot of Beth and Daryl’s dialogue here, and how the sisters parallel Beth as well. Stay tuned.

Thoughts?

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Instances of Beth and the Home Theme

 I was gonna answer this on Sunday. I started to and the realized it would be too long for an Ask. So here it is.

For the most part, I do want to point you toward @frangipanilove’s posts because she goes into a lot more detail about this then I will. But if I understand you correctly, I think you’re saying that you understand the home theme, but you’re looking for particular ways in which we can link Beth to it. I’ll give you all the ones that come to mind for me.

Let’s start by revisiting the very obvious, in-your-face instance we had of the home theme (thank you Angela) in S9. Over the radio, Ezekiel told Judith that just because they’d lost where they lived (the Kingdom) didn’t mean they’d lost their home. So the idea is that home isn’t a place. It’s where your family is. That’s the theme I’m going to connect to Beth. This list is by no means exhaustive, though.

3x01: Seed

I’m going to go all the way back to S3. In 3x01, we saw Beth sing by the fire, right? This is the same episode where they shut down the idea of Daryl and Carol being romantic and Daryl stares at Beth while she sings.

Before Hershel asks her to sing, she has a conversation with Lori, where she assures her the prison is a good, safe place to have the baby. Now, this was probably at least in part an apology on Beth’s part for how nasty she was to Lori in S2 about having become pregnant. But the point is that once Beth worked through all her issues, she was all about helping people feel safe and finding a home.

3x10: Home

I have to mention this episode, which just so happen to be called Home. I’ve said before that it’s my favorite episode in S3, mostly because it’s a Daryl-heavy episode (the one where he’s out in the woods with Merle and we get a good look at the scars on his back).

So obviously this episode is the embodiment of the home theme. Not only because of the title, but because of what happens in it. Daryl goes with Merle because Merle is his family, and his loyalty to Merle was always absolute. But after being out in the woods with him for a time, Daryl went back to the prison. “Back where I belong,” as he put it. Because by then, he also had loyalty to Rick and TF. So he went back home to the prison. Where his family was.

This is interesting for two reasons. 

1) That they used Daryl, rather than any other character to illustrate this theme. If they’d used any other character, we couldn’t have connected Beth to this particular instance. But her connection with him automatically connects this to her. 

2) It’s while Daryl is gone with Merle that we had the scene where Beth talks to Carol about Daryl and kinda crushes on him. So that scene, specifically, is connected to the home theme. 

3) Backs up what many of us have said in the past about how Beth = Daryl’s home. Because she’s his family.

4x10 – Inmates

Fast forward to S4 and we have Beth’s diary voice over in this episode. She specifically talks about finding a home and a safe place for Lori’s baby. So that connects her to the home theme as well. I also want to point out how often kids/babies are connected to this. (X)

Here’s her actual words from the voice over:

Something happened. Something good. Finally. Daddy thinks that we can make it into a home. He says we can grow crops in the field, find pigs and chickens, stop running, stop scavenging. Lori’s baby’s just about due. She’ll need a safe place when it comes. The rest of us, we just need a safe place to be. I woke up in my own bed yesterday. My own bed, in my own room. But I’ve been keeping my bag packed. Keeping my gun close. I’ve been afraid to get my hopes up, thinking we can actually stay here. The thing is, I’ve been starting to get afraid that it’s easier just to be afraid. But this morning, Daddy said something. “If you don’t have hope, what’s the point of living?” So I unpacked my bag, and I found you, so I’m going to start writing in you again. And I’m going to write this down now because you should write down wishes to make them come true. We can live here. We can live here for the rest of our lives.

4b:

About a million years ago, I wrote a theory about how, in 4b, the group divided into smaller groups, and all of them tried to stop several times. (Rick, Michonne and Carl at the Claimer house; Carol, Tyreese and the girls at the little cabin; Beth and Daryl at the funeral home; Sasha at the place by the train tracks, etc.) It never worked. Something always happened that pushed them forward. So there was kind of an unspoken theme that they had to all be together to survive. But that’s just another instance of home being where your family is.

5x03: Four Walls and a Roof

Moving on to S5, I think the title and phrase of “four walls and a roof” is part of this theme. Father Gabriel gets upset about the violence that takes place in his church and says, “this is God’s house.” Maggie replies, “No. It’s just four walls and a roof.” 

So they’re referencing the difference between a house and a home here. And I think the idea is that Gabriel’s church, other than him, was empty. His flock was all dead and he had no family. So his church couldn’t possibly have been his home.  

5b:

Of course, after Beth is shot, TF eventually makes Alexandria their new home. I could point to numerous home reference in the early days when they settled in Alexandria. One that jumps to mind is Daryl saying to Deanna, "the boy and the baby. They deserve a roof, I guess."

It quickly became apparent to that Daryl didn't settle in anywhere and make it his home because he didn't have Beth. She was his family and without her, he's never felt at home again.

He still had Rick, who was also his family. It's interesting because, as close as Carol and Daryl are, they can obviously live without each other for long stretches of time without a problem. It’s Rick that Daryl always followed around and lived close to. Having Rick was probably the only thing that kept Daryl going right after he lost Beth.

It’s very telling that when Rick went missing in 9x05, Daryl abandoned the communities all together. Rick was the only thing still holding him there. Without Beth or Rick, he truly left what should have been his home to live alone in the woods.

6x10: The Next World

This is where the theory connects to lots of other Beth symbols like the Sirius theory and the North Star. Carl tells baby Judith that she can use the North Star to find her way home. 

So again, the home theme, and we like to connect it to Beth because the North Star is part of the Little Dipper, and Beth’s D.C. spoon was her little dipper, which by extension shows she’ll eventually make her way to D.C., where her family, and therefore her home, is.

I think I’ll stop there. I’m absolutely positive there are more references I haven’t covered, but if you can accept and understand these, then go re-read @frangipanilove’s post and all of the instances she connects will instantly make sense.

Hope that helps! Xoxo!