Stunt Granny Conversation: The Walking Dead – Season 5 – Episode 5: Self Help
Screen cap from undeadwalking.com
Kevin: I did the basics for The Walking Dead post last night. Ready whenever you are.
Jeremy: After last weeks middle of the road episode they came back strong this week.
Kevin: They certainly did. Plenty of action again with Eugene and Abraham at the center of it all.
Jeremy: Lets start where we always seem to, the end. Did anyone not expect this reveal? Seems obvious from the beginning Eugene was full of it.
Kevin: I think every episode he was in, I have questioned why everyone believes him in this very conversation. I understand wanting to have some hope in this zombie filled world but I’d want some more evidence before I believed that mulleted dope.
Jeremy: he has shown just enough smarts, or a perception of smarts, that it seemed ok to believe him. Also believe the perception of hope is a bit blinding as well. People need to grasp on to it in order to keep going.
Kevin: Well, now that those chowder heads latched on, they need to come up with a new plan. I would imagine it’d be back to the church considering they noted multiple times in the episode that they weren’t very far away.
Jeremy: it sounds logical, and considering there is a literal farm of walkers ahead it is the path they shoudl follow. But, their reason for being , Abraham, Eugene and Rosita at least, is gone. There was a motivation to keep living and now it is gone. Abraham is only alive to get to Washington.
Kevin: Now that’s something that was still a bit of a mystery to me. Abraham had his whole back story told last night or at least how he met Eugene. Did he lose his family, did they walk out on him or are they zombies?
Jeremy: You are speaking of Abraham right? If so, it was actually explained on Talking Dead. The flashbacks were a nod to the comic. The person he was beating to death was his neighbor and they were in the store with the rest of his neighbors. Abraham came back form a run or something and he found they had raped his family. yeah, the whole family, yuck. So in the show he beat them to death but apparently in the comic he dismembered them.
Kevin: Yes, I had meant Abraham so it’s a good thing one of us watches The Talking Dead. That helps fill in the questions I had about the event though.
Jeremy: Yeah, I thought that should have been explained a little. They even had the exec producer on and she didn’t elaborate, the info came from Michael Cudlitz. By not giving that small back story it appeared that he was a psycho killer.
Kevin: I didn’t assume that but as I started with, I was confused. Makes sense that Abraham tried to kill himself after his family was raped & killed though. They’re saying he always needed a mission. Protecting his family got taken away from him.
Jeremy: now his latest mission is over how does he go on. Seeing him collapse after the three strike knockout on Eugene was pretty deflating. he was all macho and bravado for the first 45 minutes then it all gets ripped away.
Kevin: That is my other question, Eugene is just knocked out after that? Maybe Abraham popped with that elbow because of him being a peeping Tom.
Jeremy: After all of that build up about Eugene being weak Ford attacks. he is defenseless and takes three straight shots and then the face first bump, which was hilarious, sorry it was funny and perfect. he sure seemed to be on the way out. Rick got his ass handed to him by The Governor but he was at least fighting back. What I mean is, I am not sure but he should be.
Kevin: I guess it wasn’t quite enough to kill Eugene but that sure was a solid beating for as few shots as Abraham threw. I think I’ve seen the women put up more of a fight than Eugene did. I have no idea what Abraham does though. Rick is the leader but they have no big plan aside from staying alive and together.
Jeremy: Abraham is pure Texas man. Smooth as a dolphin. The man who announces he needs some ass and then goes and gets it. The man who plows on through regardless of who is leering in the self help section. You keep him around for the sheer moxy he had.
Kevin: Abraham certainly seemed to love to have the one man audience. I was waiting for Tara to give it up to Eugene to distract him. But was she lesbian when she was introduced? Or was that her sister?
Jeremy: Yes Tara is a lesbian. She was checking out Rosita when Eugene called her on it. Her sister was banging out the Governor and Tara seemingly hooked up with the one girl who got shot in the head.
Kevin: That’s right. Then I had more tension viewing that scene because I thought something would happen to both of those awkward individuals. On screen sex is weird enough without a mullet and a lesbian.
Jeremy: You mean a Kentucky Waterfall or a Tennessee Tophat?
Kevin: They spent an inordinate amount of time on hair in general last night. Rosita needs to trim up Abraham, Sampson references and most of all, Business in Front & Party In the Back.
Jeremy: This is part of what makes Eugene a fun character. As a viewer he is funny. Who else would be so arrogant to tell someone you have lied to over and over that you are smarter than him. Him spitting on the dead walker cracked me up as well.
Kevin: Eugene is an awesome character so I hope for my own enjoyment that he isn’t dead. It was amusing that not only was he smarter than Abraham he was a “Good bit smarter” if I recall the wording correctly. Eugene also had the kills of the week by commandeering the fire hose and spraying their bodies apart.
Jeremy: Kill of the season and possibly the series. When the first walkers head just splatetred it was so great. Don;t get the feeling most people understand the pressure from those water cannons. Another thing revealed on talking Dead was that Eugene purposely shot the original truck up. He knew what he was doing when he was shooting the gun aimlessly. Adding to the Eugene awkwardness was his “running” from the walkers at the end.
Kevin: Damn son, I completely forgot about him shooting up that vehicle! Any time I see a water hose, I always think about Steve Austin when he hosed down the McMahons. Austin said he nearly took his own head off trying to get a swig of beer. Eugene was running perfectly for his character which did make it nine shades of awkward.
Jeremy: “I think they are getting faster.” his delivery and that line broke me up. Even with poor cardio you should be able to go a bit faster than that.
Kevin: Hahaha. He should have been able to get away from them. One would think for all of the sabotaging he did, Eugene could think up a decent way to kill walkers without having to commit the act. Just another awkward moment for him when he has a clean shot at the back of the one attacking Tara and he puts the knife into the low upper back area.
Jeremy: Another genuinely funny moment even if it wasn’t filmed to be funny. Ineptness can be a damn funny prop on a show and Eugene is great at it. How do you feel about these single episode arcs again? The main group is in a church somewhere, Beth is in a hospital, the DC group and now Daryl and Carol.
Kevin: I’m good with them because I’m assuming they are all taking place during the same time period. They showed the church group doing stuff after Abraham & company left. The Daryl & Carol episode coming next week should put an end to the separated episodes by tying in the Hospital and (assuming) they end with Daryl showing back up at the church if not going further into that story line.
Jeremy: I think these are a bit better than the second half of last season becuase of what you pointed ut. There is an end game where last season it seemed totally seperate and they just happened to find wach other.
Kevin: I’d say you can see the pieces coming together better than you did last season. You don’t know the answers, which is cool.
Jeremy: Right on. I also allows the viewers to not get tired of characters as fast as well. As long as the longing to see someoens story isn;t drawn out too long it will continue working. The cast is rather large after all.
Kevin: I’m just more invested in these groups for a whole variety of reasons. Some people needed more back story, some of the enjoyment is the action happening rather than blah Terminus blah. When the cast turns over as often as it does in this show, maybe it’s bound to have some lulls in the stories.
Jeremy: Right, we know very little about Sasha and Tyreese still. Other than Tyreese is a giant pussy who gets pushed too the edge.
Kevin: Yep, they’re blank slates. Rosita is still too. Beth is a blank slate which is why last week’s episode bombed. It’s been the only bad solo episode so far.
Jeremy: At least they helped explain Rosita sticking with Abraham and Eugene. She has a thing for Abraham. Beth is/was weak so at least her episode gave her a tad more to her character.
Kevin: It certainly did beef up Beth’s resume. Some of her character development was held back by her spot in the pecking order. But that isn’t always the problem. Abraham & Eugene were central characters but they were pretty blank until last night’s episode.
Jeremy: Got that right and now that we know Eugene is a coward and a pathological liar they may have killed him off. What a shame. All it took was for one person to show him friendship and he fell apart.
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