Daryl is the real monster in this week’s episode of The Walking Dead, Monsters.

SPOILERS FOR THE WALKING DEAD SEASON 8, EPISODE 3.

The Walking Dead Season eight is still going strong with its third episode, Monsters, being released last night.
Season eight is a definite step up from Season seven, which often felt very drawn out, while season eight feels exciting and fast paced.
Even in its quieter moments every scene in this episode is brimming with tension.
Specifically the scene between Rick and Morales.
It was nice to see these two catch up, even if it was at gunpoint.
Morales learning that Glenn had a wife and him calling Rick “Officer Friendly,” (a callback to season one) were definite highlights in this scene.
Unfortunately, this ends when Daryl shows up and kills Morales, without a second thought, despite knowing who he is.
Originally, I found it very annoying that they brought Morales back, only to kill him an episode later.
I wanted Morales to have a big part in the story and contribute in the All Out War story arc.
However, despite this, I can still see that Morales coming back and dying did have a point.

For one thing, he called out how violent Rick has become and even asks him, point blank, if Rick had a gun on him, would he would have pulled the trigger.
Secondly, it also helps to show how far Daryl has gone.
He holds absolutely no sympathy for the Saviors and it does not matter if they surrender to him, he will kill them no matter what.
Another scene that shows this is when Daryl executes an unarmed Savior, who is surrendering, despite Rick’s promise that he can live if he does so.
This not only highlights how far Daryl will go when it comes to the Saviors but it also shows how Rick is seriously beginning to question the group’s morality.
His interaction with Morales has begun to show him how morally unethical they themselves are becoming and all this is shown through a look he gives to Daryl, after he executes the Savior.
Andrew Lincoln does a fantastic job in this episode, visually.
Two other important things happened in this part of the story.
First we have the death of Eric.
Now, personally, I preferred his comic book death because it shows how quickly someone can die in war but this was a good death too.
Eric’s heartfelt goodbye to Aaron was sad and really made me feel for them.
However, I did not like how they were not very clear that Eric had actually die.
All we get is Aaron seeing a Walker in the distance and assuming it is Eric.
I would consider it a possibility that he was still alive had the writers not confirmed his death.
It would have been better if they had actually shown the Walker was Eric.
The second important thing that happened in this episode was Rick going back for Gracie, the baby he orphaned in the previous episode, who Aaron offered to take back to the Hilltop.
This open ups the possibility of a crazy fan theory to happen, which will be interesting to see if it comes true.
I will not state this theory because I do not want to potentially ruin it for people but I can say it will be one of the best twists The Walking Dead has ever done, if it does happen.
The other storylines in the episode are also really good.
First we have Morgan, Tara and Jesus transporting the prisoners from the outpost to the Hilltop.
After a group of prisoners, including Jared, try to flee, Morgan starts executing them but is stopped by Jesus.
This leads to a great fight sequence between the two, ninja against ninja.

This was one of the most thrilling parts of the episode, however it did end with Morgan leaving, which I am concerned about.
Hopefully it will not turn out like Carol’s storyline from season six and seven.
Then we have the Hilltop storyline with Gregory arriving and begging to be let in.
This scene was hilarious, especially the interaction between Gregory and Kal.
“I did not eat those pancakes,” Gregory yells.
Xander Berkeley does a really great job of selling Gregory’s cowardice and pathetic nature.
Then Jesus and Tara arrive with the Savior prisoners who Maggie eventually decides to let in, despite the danger.
I wonder if Gregory will collude with Jared and the other Savior prisoners to take over the Hilltop.
The final storyline sees Ezekiel and Carol leading an attack on another Savior outpost.
Ezekiel was another standout in this episode, with his over confident nature backfiring at the end of the episode and is sure to continue to bite him, in the next episode.
The episode ends on a cliffhanger with Ezekiel’s men shielding him from gunfire.
We are certain to see the effects of Ezekiel’s over confidence in the next episode.

But, despite how much I did love the storylines in this episode, there was still one problematic scene, along with Morales abrupt death and Eric’s confusing one.
This scene was a gunfight between the Alexandrians and Saviors, at the outpost Rick was attacking.
In this scene the editing is a bit choppy and I did not recognize anyone from Alexandria or the Saviors so I could not tell who was who.
I was unable to tell if the Alexandrians or the Saviors were winning.
Still, this and the other two problems I previously mentioned were very minor in comparison to the rest of the episode, which was very exciting and enjoyable.
Season eight is off to a much better start than season seven and I am eagerly awaiting the next episode.

The Whisperers go out with a whimper in The Walking Dead Issue 173: Final Fight

You know, I was really looking forward to Issue 173 of The Walking Dead.
After the brilliant cliffhanger in the previous issue, which saw Beta about to ambush Jesus and Aaron, I could not wait to see what would happened.
I was really afraid Jesus or Aaron might die and that Beta’s return would have a massive impact on the story going forward.
However, what I did not want to happen was for Beta to appear only so Kirkman could kill him off, thus tying off the loose end of the Whisperers.
Unfortunately, that is exactly what happened.
Instead of Beta’s return presenting a turning point in the story and making the Whisperers a legitimate threat again, he is just killed off when Aaron shoots him.
It makes you wonder why Kirkman even bothered keeping Beta alive.
Why didn’t he just kill Beta in The Whisperer War, there was no reason to keep him alive since he dies pretty much immediately when he shows up again.

Although I did like the reveal of Beta actually being a famous basketball player before the apocalypse, his death here is incredibly disappointing.
Kirkman should have just revealed who he was and then killed him in The Whisperer War.
I can see why Kirkman wanted to kill Beta off though, considering he is bringing in a new group of survivors into the story and wants to focus on them.
But ending the Whisperer story like this is really disappointing and left a bitter taste in my mouth.
The Whisperers should have gone out with a bang, not a whimper.
The rest of the issue is alright and filled with your regular The Walking Dead character development.
It looks like Maggie is going after Negan next issue and I really hope she does not kill him.
We already had one interesting character die in a disappointing way, we do not need a great character to die that way as well.
There is also a scene where Carl helps out Sophia only for Lydia to glare at them jealously.
This could prove to be interesting, considering Lydia’s upbringing with the Whisperers.
Maybe she will threaten Sophia to stay away from Carl.
By far my favourite scene in the entire issue though was when Laura berates Dwight for his treatment of Rick.
Dwight is a really good character but recently he has been going downhill with his antagonism towards Rick so it is good to see someone put him in his place.
Hopefully Dwight will realise how he is acting and get on the right track again.

The issue ends with Eugene’s group arriving at the place where they will meet the Ohio group only to be ambushed by a new group with guns that has bayonets attached.
The Ohio group is very cautious it would seem, or maybe they are just evil, we’ll have to wait and see.
Overall this issue was pretty disappointing due to Beta and essentially the Whisperers themselves’ demise.
The rest of the issue was alright but this one thing just dragged it down for me.
The Whisperers used to be this great threat but the way Kirkman ended their storyline just made them seem kind of pathetic to me.
They deserved better.
Still, I am interested to see what the future holds for The Walking Dead, with the new Ohio group being introduced.
I will be sure to review the next issue when it comes out next month.

A surprise return makes an intriguing twist for the Walking Dead.

All out war continued in last night’s episode of The Walking Dead, The Damned, which saw Rick’s group attack two separate Savior outposts.
The Damned was a definite improvement on last week’s episode, as an almost solely action driven episode that left you on the edge of your seat.
The Walking Dead is definitely learning from its mistakes in season seven by focusing on multiple characters, instead of a small group of them one episode and another small group in the next.
All the main characters featured in this episode are given their moments to shine.
I especially liked the dynamic between Tara and Jesus and their debate over whether they should just kill all of the Saviors.
Morgan was also a standout in this episode as we saw him go full clear mode and take out a bunch of armed men with no hesitation or remorse.
He even went as far to flashback about Rick’s speech in season six about killing all of the Saviors, which almost made him killed Jared, the Savior who killed Benjamin.

I imagine that Morgan will come to regret not killing Jared, that guy is bad news.
It will be interesting to see what happens with the prisoners they captured this episode.
There was a lot of them so I wonder what they will do with them.
Will they escape or will someone like Morgan or Tara just start executing them?
We will have to wait and see.
The second of the three story lines this episode saw Carol and Ezekiel tracking a Savoir to stop him alerting his friends at the outpost of the coming attack.
This was a very minor plot point that is building to the big attack next episode, which will have dire consequences for Ezekiel, if they go the route of the comics.
However, although it was interesting to see Carol and Ezekiel interact, along with Ezekiel casually dropping his king persona, it did feel a bit weird, considering how it is urgent that they track this person and yet they are constantly stopping to talk.

It was great to see Shiva in action again this episode, eventually taking down the man they were tracking and I look forward to see how she is utilized next episode.
Now for the third story line, which saw Rick, Daryl, Aaron and Eric and their forces attacking a second Savior outpost.
This story line by far had the best parts of the episode.
From Rick’s intense fight with the Savior, to learning he had orphaned a child, to Eric getting shot, this story line was filled with intense moments.
Not to mention the surprise return of Morales, which was unfortunately spoiled for me before I watched the episode (thanks a lot internet!).

Morales has been the face of fan speculation and memes for years now, concerning his disappearance in season one and what happened to him.
The level of interest that has circled Morales over the years is kind of odd, when you think about it because he was only in four episodes and was more of a side character than anything else.
Still is is good to see him back and on the side of the Saviors.
Clearly a lot has happened since we last saw him, back in season one.
It will be interesting to see what they do with his character… if they do anything with him at all.
I hope he is not just a one episode bad guy that dies in the next episode because, if he is, what was the point of bringing him back?
I hope they actually do something with Morales and he has a point being here.
Overall, this was a great episode, with only a few minor faults in Ezekiel and Carol’s story line.
It will be interesting to see what happens in the next episode and what Morales’ return holds for the future.

The Walking Dead crawls out of its grave for an exciting season premiere

And here I was thinking The Walking Dead was un-dead and buried.
After one of the worst cliffhangers in television history, followed by the worst season of The Walking Dead, it seemed like the show was following the example of Heroes, starting out as a fantastic show before eventually fading into downright stupidity and ridiculousness and then finally ending to the relief of everyone.
Which is why I am overjoyed to say The Walking Dead has crawled out its grave prematurely to deliver an exciting season premiere and 100th episode with Mercy.
The show runners seem to have taken the complaints about season seven into account because when viewing this episode it no longer feels slow and struggling for ideas.
This is all out war and it certainly shows.
Mercy is kind of like the season six premiere as the story is told in different timelines, although this time there are more timelines and it is not very clear which is happening when, with a few exceptions.
In this episode we see Rick leading Alexandria, the Hilltop and The Kingdom’s forces to attack The Sanctuary and bring an end to Negan’s reign once and for all… but since this is only the beginning of the season we all knew it was not going to go down like that.
The opening moments of the episode are certainly thrilling, as we see Rick and the group take out Savior lookouts on the way to the Sanctuary.
This has probably my favorite moment of the episode, when a Savior that Rick takes down taunts him, telling him how he saw Rick cry and beg during the season seven premiere and saying Negan will kill Carl.
It is then that Rick, rightfully so, allows the man to be eaten by a Walker.
It is brutal and shows that, although Rick believes only Negan has to die at this stage, he is not above killing anyone else to achieve that goal.

This episode has plenty of callbacks, it being the 100th episode and all, including a shot for shot recreation of the first episode’s opening scene, only it is Carl instead of Rick.
It is in this scene where Carl comes across a mysterious man who most people seem to theorize is Siddiq but since this person looks nothing like the Siddiq from the comics I think he is someone else.
We’ll have to see what part he has to play in the coming story.
The confrontation with Negan at his factory brought a smile to my face as Negan and Rick’s roles seemed to have reversed, with Rick having the upper hand and reminding Negan of how weak he made the group feel and now how strong they are compared to him.
“Are you going to make me count?” Rick asks, repeating a line Negan spoke to him in the season seven premiere.
The shootout that follows is intense and shows Rick’s dedication to killing Negan, completing ignoring an advancing Walker herd.
It is Gabriel who snaps Rick out of it and urges him to leave with the others.
God bless Gabriel, the TV version of him is so much better than the comic book version.
A rare occurrence when a TV character is better than their comic book counterpart, in terms of The Walking Dead.
However not all is good for Gabriel because he risks his life to safe the cowardly Gregory, despite his betrayal, only for Gregory to steal his car and leave him to die.
While it is great to see how much Gabriel has changed during his time on the show, (at the beginning he wouldn’t risk his life to save people he knew and now he is risking his life for someone he barely knows and betrayed them) this can only lead to bad things for him.
Sure enough it does, with Gabriel being trapped in a trailer with Negan.
“I hope you got your s$*!ing pants on,” he says.
We do Negan, we certainly do.

However, although this episode is a great step in the right direction for The Walking Dead, not everything is perfect.
The uncanny valley, in terms of special effects, in this episode is very apparent like in the previous seasons.
For example, Shiva the tiger looks very realistic with its CGI however a shot of a car exploding looks unbelievably fake and made me wonder why they couldn’t just blow it up practically, they did it later in the episode.
Also, while the multiple timeline idea is a very intriguing way to style the episode, I do have a problem with the Old Man Rick timeline.
Fans who have not read the comics will not know what this means but as someone who has read the comics I think this spoils the events of all out war and removes all tension surrounding who will live and die.
Because of this Old Man Rick timeline fans will now have no reason to think Rick, Michonne, Carl or Judith will die during all out war because we see them in this future timeline.
Instead of actually showing this timeline they should have just hinted at it with maybe a few shots of Rick’s cane, the flowers and Old Man Rick himself.

However, other than these problems this was a great way to start season eight and I can’t wait to see how the rest of the season will go.
Hopefully The Walking Dead will go all out for all out war.