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Jeremy: For the love of all that is holy, why is Byron Saxton on commentary?

Kevin: Because he’s still better than David Otunga.

Jeremy: I would debate that. At least Otunga barely talks. I swear Saxton is on there just to play up, hopefgully play up, the nerd aspect because he is doing a fantastic job.

Kevin: He’s definitely playing up the nerd aspect although he still doesn’t do that great of a job. Not sure why anyone can’t defend themselves any more.

Jeremy: He talks and that takes away from Corey Graves talking. So this PPV has been underwhelming so far. First match was good but the logic was totally backwards. One move beats rusev, pretty stupid.

Kevin: I’m still having problems with pausing the Network so I caught the first half of Rusev vs Reigns match, the first  half of the Owens vs Rollins match and all of Sasha vs Charlotte. I caught the finish of the match before Sasha/Charlotte but don’t remember what it was.

Jeremy: I was having issues. I paused it and it went live after I hit play. So kept having to rewind. End of Rusev and Reigns was good outside the lone spear after Reigns is near out of it. The Hell in a Cell concept is useless with a PG rating. Yes I am saying it needs blood and needs to be more violent. Otherwise, what’s the point?

Kevin: It keeps everyone out! That’s the purpose. Ha.

Jeremy: They need to work on that then. Or have the damn cage go under the ring as well and have no door. Hahahaha Rollins was talkign smack to Owens. Owens tells him to shut up. Pretty funny. Oh my god Graves with a stunner of a line “Ripping that tape off slowly makes it feel liek flesh being ripped off the bones.” Holy crap.

Kevin: Not sure I heard that one but I know I almost tweeted another line from Graves. The computer was too far away though so I didn’t.

Jeremy: Had it on mute last night watching The Walking Dead.

Kevin: I finished watching that this morning. What a departure from last week.

Jeremy: A very enjoyable episode even though I am still lost on the Carol transformation. Gong back to last season it still feels totally out of the blue.

Kevin: It almost feels like Ground Hog’s Day in a way. Carol gets a re-boot. It does have to be puzzling though to be recovering from major injuries then one of the first orders of business after you have your faculties together is to meet a guy who has a pet tiger and calls himself King Ezekiel. I thought her suppressing laughter was a perfect response.

Jeremy: Yes in no way was I going to forget that. She is on a cart where walkers turn in to humans get killed by people riding horses wearing athletic equipment. Then wakes up in a potential “Wrong Turn” situation with a colander and utensils wind chime. Then the big news of a dude on a community theatre stage with a live tiger and a dude sitting on a throne with a castle backdrop.

Kevin: So, I’ll give her a pass for being a bit of a re-boot right now. We’ll see how she acts in the following weeks. The Walking Dead has continued to not mix the stories at the beginning of the season to get things all set up which I think helps in future episodes.

Jeremy: After such a dour episode last week something with a little levity was needed and it was successful. Giving Carol something different was needed because she was going to be borderline annoying if she didn’t change. You know how much I love her character but even for me it was getting long. it helped showed Ezekiel to be a rather shrewd. he got her to stay by staying with them on the farthest edge out. Also, he apparently is hooking up a booty call?

Kevin: Either that or they have an over abundance of pomegranates in the garden. I did like that the levity still had implications in larger scheme of things. Ezekiel breaking down how he ruled and why he allowed stories to carry on is good planning. Also the fact that he is aware of the Saviors is telling of his strategic thinking.

Jeremy: The Saviors thing was good. How he handled the delivery driver, didn’t catch his name, was pretty good. he was early and had exactly what they wanted. I know we have seen the results of crossing the Saviors but in this case it seemed like they have the process down pat. My favorite part of the Carol and Ezekiel conversation at the end was him admitting that having a tiger is impractical.

Kevin: It is getting pretty interesting how many communities are under watch. Hilltop & The Kingdom seemed fine with being cooperative. Hilltop didn’t do it’s own dirty work so they were practical in trying to weaken The Saviors through Alexandria? Or do we still call them “The Group”? Having a tiger is impractical since everyone has guns and things are pretty lawless.

Jeremy: Shiva is impractical for a food basis. I mean what you feed her? I know in comics she could eat walkers and they established on the show there is no harm form that for people. Hell they gave the pigs walkers to eat which was nasty. I think you have to keep calling them “The Group” since Alexandria is basically them now anyway.

Kevin: I did find that fascinating that you can feed the walkers to the animals. In that form, Shiva should be fairly easy to feed. I was always interested to know if animals could turn into walkers. Having a re-animated tiger on the loose would be crazy to say the least.

Jeremy: Well every animal that has come across walkers so far just gets eaten. As far as the other communities it seems like Ezekiel isn’t scared of the Saviors as much as he has just accepted what is going on. The Hilltop community seems to be in utter fear.

Kevin: They even did a decent job of explaining that aspect of things. I know it wasn’t Ezekiel that said the words but one of the other people in the Kingdom mentioned that they could fight the Saviors but the loss of life would be too great. A handful of communities banding together could be trouble of the Saviors but nothing like that seems on the immediate horizon.

Jeremy: Ezekiel mentioned that same thing when he was talking to Morgan or Carol. Or was it the kid Morgan was training? Either way, it seems like the Kingdom have assault rifles but probably not enough. I can see where the season is going through and you hit on part of it. Get all of the communities together. They ave weapons and possibly numbers? Also, Eugene has the formula to make bullets. Go off site like the kingdom and make some.  It makes sense and there has to be some way out of this Negan problem.

Kevin: I do think it was the trainee talking to Morgan now that you mention it. That would be kind of funny, they take forever and a day to reveal Negan, he gets taken out in less than a season. I did forget that Eugene was ready to make bullets. The building he wanted to use wasn’t in Alexandria so they still could do it covertly from The Saviors.

Jeremy: So there ya go. Eugene gave Rick the plans but that never came in to play for the Negan confrontation. It may take more than a season but I can see this is where it will go and that is fine. The journey is going to be the biggest part of this season. They have firmly established Negan as this all encompassing force so how do you keep that interesting without the series becoming so weighted down?

Kevin: That’s a question that I don’t have an answer for because I caught the preview and it certainly looks like more of weighted down episode since it seems to be centered around Daryl’s incarceration. I would imagine though that someone needs to come up with a plan to get all the communities together but no one looks like they’re in a position to do that now.

Jeremy: Rick was so utterly broken it may take all season. They can’t have him turn around in a few episodes. Doing that renders his fear totally moot when given the circumstances he has been through. Next week I am guessing is a split between Negan breaking down Daryl and Rick arriving back at Alexandria.

Kevin: Part of my smart ass answer about Negan is some hope that they do keep him around awhile. It’d just feel like a waste if he got offed any quicker than The Governor did.

Jeremy: Funny saying that considering he has been on 2 episodes so far. I am with you of course but for a character we have barely seen he sure has some traction now.

Kevin: To me, it’s easy to worry about Negan because he does seem to have no faults. Ezekiel admitted to his right up front and the kid admitted more of their group. Having no faults does make Negan over bearing and more of a target to be removed quickly because he’d be a hindrance to good story telling.

Jeremy: Isn’t Pride considered a fault? If so, well, you know where that is going.