Walking Dead Thrillist Stop #2: The Creepy Hospital

If you are ever near 2352 Bolton Road in Atlanta, you'd best bring some hand sanitizer and a big ol' dog. 

This is another first season location - first episode, actually. Remember when Rick wakes up in a hospital?  And bangs out a metal door and discovers utter mayhem? And it looks like this?

While it is pretty amazing for a Walking Dead nerd to visit this site, this location is indeed VERY CREEPY.   I was expecting it to be a, you know, occupied building.  It is in fact abandoned, and silent, and filled with stained mattresses, weeds, and probably some Ebola-tipped needles.  This is probably not a place to take your kiddos.

Here, you can witness the aforementioned mattress:

 

Veeeeery cautiously, we approached so I could get a money shot:

"Look at me, I'm Rick!"

And we checked out the grounds, thankfully free of corpses:

And then we skadaddled, for upon our backs we felt the watchful eyes of many a street bum, wishing us gone.  Did I mention there's a wooden hill facing all of this?  A perfect place for transient murderers to prey on dumb tourists. 

But still, pretty cool!

Thrillist Stop #1: The Center for Disease Control!

The very first TWD site we visited whilst in Atlanta was that of season one's Center for Disease Control. Because what spells "vacation" like going out of your way to visit a fake Center for Disease Control? Upon realizing that we were actually somewhat close to its location (2800 Cobb Galleria Parkway), we gave in to temptation and pulled over.

You may remember this grim view:

And of course, it all ended with a kaboom:

And so, here am I, pretending to race away from the kaboom:  

 

What you cannot see is the Toys R' Us directly to its left.  

Just a little test

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S4: E4: "Indifference"

"I'm going on a run with Rick."

We begin by learning that Murderess Carol and Detective Rick are heading off on a road trip, to gather supplies and food.  After all, everyone in the prison is either sick or dying, practically.  What could possibly go wrong?

Last episode's bombshell, revealing a radical change in mentality in our dear friend Carol, is encapsulated thusly by little Lizzie:  "We all change.  We don't get to stay the same."  Carol, who began the show as pretty much the weakest, most cringing and crying character, has been irrevocably changed by her situation.  She lived for her daughter Sophie and her role as a mother; pointedly, she's pissed off when Lizzie tries to call her 'mom.'  She ain't nobody's momma, kid.  She's a survivor.  

And a murderer!  Of course, Carol was doing what she thought best, by eliminating the plague carriers.  And, uh, eliminating the bodies.  But something tells me that Rick is going to tightly clench on that stick up his ass...

It's interesting to see how determined Rick is to punish Carol for her behavior.  At this point in the show, Rick has stepped down from any role of authority - he hasn't played a part on the prison council, as Carol has.  And as we know, from his E1 encounter with the Irish lass, Rick has been meditating a lot lately on morality.  It's a bad combination.  He is grasping for the worldview of the past, trying to delineate good and bad, right and wrong.  And the former Ricktator seems to be arising, for he is just a little too quick to play the judge for Carol.  And worse yet, he's not even being fair, totally disregarding her virtues (helping the wounded hippies, for example!).

PS, did anyone else mistake the girl hippie for Zooey Deschanel?

This is a surprisingly well-handled episode, and I give credit to the actors.  This is a very introspective episode, which typically are written with all the grace of an elephant on ice.  But this is a quiet episode, and it's impressive, really, to see how much emotion, tension, and conflict the actors can convey as they rummage through medicine cabinets.

"You can be a farmer, Rick.  You just can't be only a farmer!"   Carol gives it to him straight, confronting him directly about the whole "I had to do it" murder situation.   Somebody's got to make tough decisions, and he has shrunk from this capacity for months.  True, true, true.  I have to say, as a viewer, I'm totally on Carol's side. 


Which is probably deliberate, because the next thing I know, Rick is dumping her in the subdivision. Yes, the Ricktator is back, and the tough / dick decision he's going to make on his first day of office is to EJECT CAROL from his prison community.

And here is how I feel about that:

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATT????!!!!

S4: E3: "Isolation"

Oh shit. So much for the idyllic glimpses we saw of prison life in episode 1.  The plague has taken over the prison, poisoning not only first victim/nerd Patrick but many, many others.  The slow, quiet  dread of episode 3 is punctuated with several moments of "oh shit"-ness:

Example 1: 

Oh shit. Tyrese is going to lose it, I just know it.  He is hovering over those smoking bodies... and oh no!  He's shouting!  He's advancing on Rick!  He's pushing away Daryl and confusing cops with detectives, demanding that Rick solve the mystery of who has killed his girlfriend.  This puzzles me, but I don't have time to think - OH SHIT a fight breaks out!

Tip: never insist that you know what Tyrese is going through.  He will punch you in the face!

Example 2:

Oh shit, Sasha is sick.  This is just terrible.  Her brother Tyreese is already having such a rough day.

Example 3:

Oh shit!  The water hose is clogged!  This means someone's going to have to go beyond the walls... and of course, New Carol (aka, fearless, tough, survivalist Carol) takes it upon herself, and nearly gets chomped.  Why did she try to go it alone?  In her words, "We don't know if we'll get a tomorrow.  Plus, she seems a little off - a fairly straightforward conversation with Tyreese sends her into a water-barrel kickin' hissy fit.  Overwhelmed by grief, or something else, Carol?

We don't have to wonder for very long.  Detective Rick figgers it out:

"Carol, did you kill Karen and David?"

"Yes."  

Example 4:

We who have read the graphic novel get "ah shit!" moment, as the gang drives out... for some reason I missed.  It doesn't matter.  They hear voices on the radio - a transmission!  But before you can say "what the hey," they realize they have driven into a massive+gigantic zombie swarm.

Tyrese has gone catatonic, refusing to fight his way out.  He's had a rough one, so I can sympathize.  But rage and a decision to survive kick in, and we get a pretty sweet scene taken directly from the novels:

HAMMER TIME

All in all, we're back in business with "Isolation."  I admire how well this episode's ambiance plays against Episode 1, "30 Days."  That episode was hard to stomach because it was too Disneyland, crawling with happy Woodburyites and smiling Michonnes.

Which I guess that says something revealing about the TWD audience (or more specifically me)- honestly, nobody wants to see things work out for these poor characters. 

Ultimately, "Isolation" brings us back to familiar narrative territory, with an emptied and still prison that makes us feel more keenly the loss of vitality and relatively good spirits.  The characters had a nice chunk of time in which they were actually living - livin', lovin', even collecting comic books.  But this, of course, is the walking dead. 



"You don't have a choice.  The only thing you can choose is what yer risking yer life for!" 

S4: E2... well, maybe not this one again.

The first corner of my mara-blog-a-thon has been cut!

Re-reading my earlier post about this episode, I realize there's little to be gained by living it again.  Fast forward.

S4: E1 - Revisited!

I actually already wrote about the season opener, a full year ago when it actually premiered.  But I can't start a marathon by skipping a show, so I'm going to eyeball it again.

The opening scene makes me nervous.  Not because of the walkers or any horror element, but rather... 

The sledgehammer-like portrayal of "New Rick's State of Mind."  Rick has turned farmer, and we find him rooting about in the prison's garden, his back turned to the ghoulish zombies just beyond the fence.  They've become his background noise, clearly, and he can't be bothered .  He finds a gun in the dirt, and what does our sulkly little former-cop-turned-dictator do with it?

Chucks it in the bin and walks away.  So, there ya go.   We start with a very dull bang.

TWD has never been great at capturing, shall we say, the subtleties of character.  I'm a little concerned for Rick, because the show is great at horror and entertainment, but absolutely hideous/laughable when it tries to expand its reach by "conveying human emotion, behavior and/or drama."  TWD, this is not your forte.  You destroyed the Andrea character, and I get leery anytime the camera pulls aside to "give a character a personal storyline arc."  It just never ends well!  So, the producers want us to know that Rick no longer has balls.  I sense an ill-formed arc looming in the distance. 

Because this is the season opener, the main characters are paraded out quickly, letting us see how they've fared over the long Georgia winter:

• Carol has turned into a cafeteria boss, overseeing the deer stew from a New Mexican adobe-style outdoor kitchen.  She and Daryl chat, and are immediately approached by a nerd.  PLOT LINE RED FLAG!

Who is this nerd?  Where has this new character come from, and how has he kept his prescription glasses so pristine since the end of the world?  Even worse, he is trying to flatter Daryl.  This is so awkward, and moreover the comedy of it is poorly played out.  I fear Nerd may become an important character, since he is given screen time with two major characters. 

• POOKIE!  Did Carol just call Daryl pookie?  Their connection continues to feel arid and sexless, despite the coy delivery. 
• The blond girl who does nothing but sing to babies now has a boyfriend. 
• While watching this episode, I actually fucking learn something about growing tomatoes from Hershel.  
• That guy Bob is eager to help out and take on some front line action.
• Tyreese has a girlfriend.
• Michonne and Carl are cheery.  Which is also unsettling.  

I realize that for the writers of TV TWD, it was difficult to sustain Michonne as a hardened, non-emoting bad-ass.  I feel like they decided to pander to the audience, or what they think the audience wants - a tough lady with a heart of gold. This merits another essay on its own, regarding sexism intrinsic to the show's portrayal of female characters.

But not now!  The point is, things are going super-great within the walls of the prison.  Since the end of last season, we can now see that the residents have set up a sustainable system for survival: crops, councils, etc.   Additionally, our attention is drawn to the fact that there also exists a fairly large community of prison-children.  Carl has peers!  But can he reclaim his lost childhood?  It would appear not.  New girl Lizzie has been giving them names, and is thoroughly scolded for it by world-wise Carl (and his new BFF, Nerd).

Rick meets an Irish woman in the woods.  Cue "insight into Rick via action" sub-plot.

Craziness fucks things up, too.  The Irish lady is utterly mad (and was just, what, tent camping through the apocalypse?  What now?).   She dies, and freaks out Rick, who sympathizes with her rationale - hey, it's a shitty world, and you've gotta do shitty things.  Does that make one a shitty person?Oh hey - viewer, were you hoping for some action?  Great, because a big group has been sent out to make a "completely innocuous" run to the grocery store.  Glen, Daryl, Sasha, blond girl's boyfriend, and that guy Bob.  What could possibly go wrong?

As usual, alcoholism fucks everything for everyone.  In another painfully over-labored moment of character development, Bob finds the liquor aisle.  With such longing does he hold that bottle of cheap wine!  And with such resolve does he put it back on what is apparently an IKEA shelf, causing... well, briefly, a helicopter to break through the roof, a zombie swarm, and the death of blond girl's boyfriend.

Other bothersome things:

• Beth (finally remembered her name) hugging Daryl.  Way too big of an age gap, there, folks.  
• Carol tells the Nerd to buck up, which is hilarious because a) he tells her he feels sick and b)looks like hell.  If everyone in the world just died from a fever, wouldn't you put two and two together, Carol?