The Walking Dead Episode 409: "After"

[severina2001]

Interesting and intense. That hour FLEW by.

Everything under the cut contains spoilers for Episode 409: "After" which aired last night. Do not read further if you haven’t seen the episode!

Comments

[stargazer60]

I absolutely loved this episode. Great insight to these characters.

Danai can do so much in a scene with no dialogue whatsoever and Chandler was AMAZING.

[severina2001]

Danai really impressed me as well. Michonne has grown so much since our initial introduction to the character. And Chandler's just gotten PHENOMENAL.

[mi_nion]

I liked it. I see on the internet that people are hating Carl, but as you mentioned he behaved like every annoying 14 year old I've ever met with the added bonus that it's happening while living in the ZA. It makes sense that he would be unable to face the thought of having to kill his dad. He'd already had his world turned upside down with the ZA, had to put his mother down and seen countless friends die. If he lost Rick, he would have truly lost everything.

I liked the Michonne dream/nightmare for filling in some of the blanks on her backstory. My biggest nitpick was that terrible wig she was wearing in the dream sequence. A show full of SFX and that plastic looking mess was the best they could do?

Anyway, the show is off to a good start. I didn't want to throw things at the tv so that's a positive.

[severina2001]

Yay, we are in agreement. The writing was so spot-on for Carl at his age and with everything that's happened to him. And I'm just SO impressed with his acting.

I liked the way the dream was a mix of two different realities for her. I guess I don't really feel that I learned anything (other than confirmation that she had and lost a child, which we already pretty much inferred from her reaction when holding Judith.) And -- I may be misremembering -- but back in S3 when someone questioned her about her pets, didn't she say something about how they weren't good to her in life? I haven't watched S3 enough to remember the scene.

[mi_nion]

I'm not quite sure. I'd have to go back and rewatch, but I also got the impression that Mike & the other guy may have been her first pets, but not necessarily the ones we meet her with. I also read an internet theory that it may have been a turned Mike who killed her son. Hopefully we'll get some background info on her to fill in the blanks.

If they are going to use these next 7 eps to do character exploration I hope we get better info. LOST for all it's faults, was good at using flashbacks. If we're getting 7 ep with minimal characters, let's get some better exploration of Glenn, Maggie, Michonne,and Tyrese.

My fear is because this show is such as cash cow for AMC they will continue to be lazy with it's plotting. For the first time in a long time they have a showrunner for more than one season. This would be a good opportunity to do better.

[severina2001]

Hmm. I suppose it's possible that she's had multiple sets of pets, but it would seem to be needlessly complicating things. I think we're supposed to believe that Mike & friend became the pets we saw.

I gave up on Lost after 1.5 seasons so I can't really comment on their flashbacks, but I'm not sure Michonne's dream can be compared to flashbacks in general. I just mean because it was a dream, not a flashback per se, so it was basically multiple memories all mixed up and distorted and surreal. TWD has done a few straight flashbacks before and we can believe those because they're... well... flashbacks. With the dream option they were able to give us hints of Michonne both pre-apoca and post-apoca (whereas a flashback would've had to be one or the other, unless it was super long) but as a result there are no clear answers as to exactly what happened. Curious though I am, I'm also not sure story-wise that we need to know more than what we were given. I'm not sure it would advance Michonne's story or make us understand her any more

[tracys_dream]

This episode was amazing - Chandler knocked it out of the park!
I was so happy Michonne found them at the end.
I really liked that. :)

[severina2001]

Yeah, we really needed that moment of happiness and relief after so much grimness in the beginning. I liked the way that Michonne's footsteps even got faster and lighter the closer she got to finding Rick and Carl. And Chandler was brilliant.

[tracys_dream]

Yeah, that was really good.

[severina2001]

:)

[havers]

Chandler was really good. He really caught all the struggles of a teenager, being a man and a boy at the same time.

I really loved the last scene. Perfect ending.

The pudding arc was funny. Nice light elements between the walker fights.

Michonne's RL clothes were not my taste (plus for a business woman like in the comics???). Plus I didn't feel that we got now even more background story of her. It was pretty clear she was a mom. So many open questions and no answers. Wine wasn't the one.

Sniffle about Hershel's head. But I'm glad Michonne could send him to peace.

In the end it was so odd they couldn't find a nice shelter after they lost the Farm and now there had been so many good houses in walk distance to the prison.

But I like that there were the train rails all around. The other survivors can't be far away.

I'm still mad no one of the council thought of some meeting points in case of a prison attack.

[severina2001]

I agree, Chandler was just amazing this episode. And the writing for him in that bratty teen stage was perfect as well. Kudos to Kirkman!

Michonne's RL clothes were not my taste (plus for a business woman like in the comics???)

Well, I don't know anything about Michonne in the comics (and don't want to!), but there's nothing that says she was a businesswoman in the *TV Show*. Also, it seemed like a 'day off', so she would be way more relaxed at home even if she wore suits to an office every day. I agree that I don't think we were told anything that we didn't already know or couldn't have inferred from her interaction with Judith.

In the end it was so odd they couldn't find a nice shelter after they lost the Farm and now there had been so many good houses in walk distance to the prison.OHHHH, I meant to mention this! There was so much made at the beginning of S3 about how they were going in circles and had exhausted all the foraging in the area, and then at the beginning of S4 Hershel mentioned something about how "soon" they

[beloved4always]

Finally got the chance to see this ep. I agree it was powerful and intense (LOVED the ending).

Re Michonne's boyfriend - from the way I interpreted what he was saying (this isn't living, etc.) and Michonne's love/hate emotional response, I took from it that he killed himself and their son. Remember, in the beginning, it wasn't known that anyone who died became a zombie - they thought you had to be bitten by one to become one. And I do get the feeling he was one of zombies we originally saw her with.

[severina2001]

Yeah, I think he killed himself and their son as well. I just wonder if their camp was attacked and he did it thinking that they would never make it alive, or if Mike or his friend were bit, or... Ultimately I guess it doesn't really matter. I still think it doesn't seem to fit with her saying that the pets "were never human" back in S3. I remember thinking that they must have been people to tried to hurt or rape her. Though I guess if someone murders your son you may think that everything you felt for them before that was a lie, because you're so angry -- and she's just now getting around to trying to see it from Mike's POV. Of course, she also told Rick back in S3 when he was having his hallucinations that she used to talk to her boyfriend...

I have a feeling that I'd really like to see early-badass-Michonne in that camp. :)