The Walking Dead | Season 7 | Episode 2 | The Well [AMC] [SPOILERS]

Howard the Duck

8

Thought it was all a bit silly at the start but i liked the episode the more it went on and the last scene was very good were Ezekiel explained who he really was. Thought it was really good

Peace

Worst. Episode. Ever.

Gunslinger92

The Talking Bread wrote: »

Jesus lives in Hilltop (where Maggie is gone)

But I assume you are talking about Heath. He is back in Alexandria. The thing about him is that the actor is signed on to play the lead role in the new 24 series so hard to know what they are going to do with his character. In the comics he was a big player and was even there when Glenn got his head bashed in but he got very little screen time last season

Heath! That's it. thanks

I agree with the general consensus that this episode was boring as, but to be expected. I did like the bit where Ezekiel explained that it's all an act though. Also, he is a fine looking thing :pac:

TerrorFirmer

Boring as hell episode with one or two individually good scenes, I wish Carol would just die, I can't stand her character since her very first appearance.

I like TWD in general but they drag the seasons out far too much with pointless, poorly constructed filler. Not saying this episode was entirely filler, but a lot of it was and it wasn't well crafted overall.

Star_Nupa

2

I was pretty bored at times during that episode.

Carol's play-acting was done in a way as to make it so obvious to the viewer - it was bad. I for one would've appreciate a little more subtly.

I agree with Nervous Wreck, but I alway still look forward to the next episode, because you the show does tend to swing from one extreme to the other.

I thought Sheva look cool!

The Talking Bread

7

I think the meeting with Carol in the auditorium and with the guy folding the clothes was intentionally exaggerated to bring a little bit of comedy and light relief. I don't think the writers were taking her response seriously and we're well aware the viewers would know it was a little ott, even for "fake Carol".

I imagine going forward it's going to be a dark as sh1t season and a little bit of silly comedic scenes in an episode or 2 can be excused.

skipper_G

6

I actually enjoyed that episode for what it was, first impression of King Ezekiel is that he could be an excellent character. It was good that they went into his motivation somewhat but the reality is it's a zombie apocalypse and this guy with massive dreads is running around calling himself a King and he has a tiger. That is insane no matter the context, it shouldn't have worked.......but it did.

All in all a solid episode. 7/10

Side thought: I don't quite know what to make of Morgan anymore, has he realised that perhaps his mantra of "all life is precious" isn't feasible or is he just struggling with the guilt of killing Carol's assailant ?

CramCycle

6

I just thought the ott fake carol was stupid, considering how good she has been. This said, it was not a bad episode, just overlong again for what was in it.

Flippyfloppy

I have to say I enjoyed it as a more light hearted episode, as I'm not entirely delighted that Rick etcs world is such a horrifically grim place right now.

I initially thought the kingdom was silly but I'm glad Carol called it and Azeke admitted it was a farce, he's a pretty nice guy and I think we need fresh charismatic characters like himself and Jesus this season to balance out the irrepressible ****storm force that is the Saviors.

As an aside, was the kingdom received as a bit of a joke in the comics?

The Talking Bread

7

But Carol has always played people when she is suspicious of them or has an agenda. she was fake in the prison with the whole kids and shooting thing and killing the sick people and then more so when in Alexandria playing the cake and cookie baking housewife while scaring the shute out of Sam!
She knows how to turn it on and this scenario with a man in a throne with a pet tiger lent itself to her having to put on the biggest faccade yet.

It was a bit silly but not a highly unrealistic response by her to it all!

Okon

6

I thought it was an okay episode myself. Nothing spectacular mind you, but after last week's events things were obviously going to quieten down a bit.

I like Tigers, so that's a cool addition to the TV show... I bet Shiva gets to see a bit of bone munching action before the year is out too; it'd be fairly boring if all she did was stay on her chain!

I gave this episode a 7 in the poll as it wasn't a bad episode; it was enjoyable enough for what was in it.

Dempsey

In a world where food is scarce, would anyone really want to hang around or do any deals with a guy that likens himself to a King and insists on having a pet Tiger?

Pity the Tiger didnt eat everyone in the camp while they were out 'hunting'

BetsyEllen

2

I absolutely expected a slightly boring episode after the season opener, but this was really poor.

The tiger...as someone already said, it's funny how I will gladly accept flesh eating zombies as real but a tiger on a leash is just too far fetched.
I think the producers should have played it down a little and gone with a wolf or something, to make it slightly more believable?

But hey ho, I'm not a comic reader so maybe the tiger has a large part in the future so has to be in it. I don't know.

I only voted a 3 as I didn't really enjoy the episode at all and seeing as I was looking forward to it all day yesterday I was extremely disappointed.

Really hoping next week will be better!

Pete Moss

I think if I hadn't have read the comics, then I'd have disliked this episode. The background music with the royal harpsichord type melody going on really took this episode out of the Walking Dead realm (pun intended ) a lot of the time for me.

Ezekiel's openness in the garden was a good reveal for TV viewers at the façade of the Kingdom, but I agree with the sentiment that a lot of this episode could have been done in conjunction with another side-plot. While I really enjoy TWD, episodes tend to focus on one story or pocket of characters a lot more now than it did in the past, which IMO, is the reason for snoozefest-esque episodes at times.

All in all, it was important to introduce some new characters, location and story arc, however, I don't think an entire episode needed to be dedicated to this introduction.

On the plus side though, I thought the CGI for Shiva was fantastic and I'm thinking Ezekiel's right-hand man (big Samoan guy, can't remember his name) will become a good comic relief character.

Star_Nupa

2

The Talking Bread wrote: »

I think the meeting with Carol in the auditorium and with the guy folding the clothes was intentionally exaggerated to bring a little bit of comedy and light relief. I don't think the writers were taking her response seriously and we're well aware the viewers would know it was a little ott, even for "fake Carol".

I imagine going forward it's going to be a dark as sh1t season and a little bit of silly comedic scenes in an episode or 2 can be excused.

Comedy? It's not that kind of show. I think a little more complexity to the scene would've been far better.

The Talking Bread

7

Star_Nupa wrote: »

Comedy? It's not that kind of show. I think a little more complexity to the scene would've been far better.

It was comedic in the lighthearted less serious sense of the scene. There has been plenty of little bits of humour thrown into The Walking Dead over the years. Fans like a laugh also. I think people are getting carried away with Carol's reaction to be honest. It is her way of hiding her suspicions and opening up or exposing herself to people she doesn't trust.

Anyway, thats the way I saw it. Knowing Carol's character I definitely bought into her characters response to the situation.

Guffy

5

..... soooo... the king and Carol are hooking up?

frozenfrozen

could have been half an episode intercut with whatever our other friends are doing. I enjoyed it but now I'm waiting another week to drip fed another ounce of story. Might flow better when watched back to back.


nice parallel between the whole situation and 'A bugs life'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4GIAdlbtLY

found that posted on another site. someone else said it's just seven samurai. all I know is that bug feller is a lot like negan

That_Guy

1

I'm all for meaningful introductions of important characters but I don't know why they can't focus on two story arcs at the same time.

We get an incredibly gruesome and tension filled episode last week and then we get drawn out filler the next. There's no real balance to this show and the pacing of it suffers big time and has done for several seasons.

Really poor episode. Can't stand Morgan or Carol as it is so my judgement may be more negative than most.

Flip flopping between stories every other week can fúck right off.

alchemist33

7

I liked this episode. I needed something to cleanse the palate after last week -- if we had guts and glory every week, it'd get pretty old fast. Ezekiel was interesting, as was his deal with Negan's crew (zombie-fed pigs). Didn't find it boring at all.

The Talking Bread

7

Does tainted pig eating zombie meat kill you??

alchemist33

7

It obviously hasn't yet. Maybe they think it will, but as I said to herself last night, "It's like they're p1ssing in their corn flakes."

intheclouds

The Talking Bread wrote: »

Does tainted pig eating zombie meat kill you??

Why bother with the pigs eating tainted meat?

Why not just actually poison the food to be sure you kill the enemy?

helimachoptor

Okon wrote: »

I thought it was an okay episode myself. Nothing spectacular mind you, but after last week's events things were obviously going to quieten down a bit.

I like Tigers, so that's a cool addition to the TV show... I bet Shiva gets to see a bit of bone munching action before the year is out too; it'd be fairly boring if all she did was stay on her chain!

I gave this episode a 7 in the poll as it wasn't a bad episode; it was enjoyable enough for what was in it.

Shiva to eat Negan..

CramCycle

6

The Talking Bread wrote: »

Does tainted pig eating zombie meat kill you??

As far as I can tell it shouldn't, I don't think Bobs leg infected the cannibals (although we never found out). Plus if they have been doing it for awhile, surely Negans groups would know. I think it is just done out of spite, kind of like that guy who was pissing in the coffee pot in the US, won't kill anyone, just really spiteful (and in this case, justifiable).

wally79

6

The Talking Bread wrote: »

Does tainted pig eating zombie meat kill you??

I don't think so. People are already infected. That's why when they die in non zombie incidents they turn anyway

skipper_G

6

The Talking Bread wrote: »

Does tainted pig eating zombie meat kill you??

At the least it should give them a serious dose of apocalyptic trots

wally79

6

skipper_G wrote: »

At the least it should give them a serious dose of apocalyptic trots

But zombie bacon tastes good, zombie pork chops taste good

Olishi4

6

The Talking Bread wrote: »

Does tainted pig eating zombie meat kill you??

I always thought animals wouldn't eat Zombie meat??

CramCycle

6

helimachoptor wrote: »

Shiva to eat Negan..

Olishi4 wrote: »

I always thought animals wouldn't eat Zombie meat??

Pigs will pretty much eat anything. If they don't get infected like humans, no need to worry for them.

Olishi4

6

Agree that the tiger would have been better or more believable as a wolf.

Also, there have only been 3 songs that caught my attention on the show.

Oats in the Water by Ben Howard played while Hershal was having a moment and people were dying in the jail after getting ill, the record player with old music playing in the intro scene looking out from a country kitchen where lizzie was playing outside and this one where a group sang "Dont think Twice" by Bob Dylan. I loved the other two and thought they fit so well but i didnt like the way they did the Bob Dylan song here.

Other than that I didn't mind the episode and wasnt expecting anything crazy. I don't think the show needed shocking and crazy this week. I like Ezekiel.

Olishi4

6

CramCycle wrote: »

Pigs will pretty much eat anything. If they don't get infected like humans, no need to worry for them.

Ye it's just I thought that zombie flesh was spoiled meat? Would they eat that?

CramCycle

6

Olishi4 wrote: »

Ye it's just I thought that zombie flesh was spoiled meat? Would they eat that?

Pigs will eat almost anything that is edible. If the zombie was all that was their, so long as it didn't flail to much, I see no reason they wouldn't

Pete Moss

CramCycle wrote: »

As far as I can tell it shouldn't, I don't think Bobs leg infected the cannibals (although we never found out). Plus if they have been doing it for awhile, surely Negans groups would know. I think it is just done out of spite, kind of like that guy who was pissing in the coffee pot in the US, won't kill anyone, just really spiteful (and in this case, justifiable).

I think it's an element of this, as well as not using the Kingdom's food supply to fatten up the pigs. Using zombie meat for livestock food supply offers great economies of scale in the apocalypse. :P

Dempsey

Unless they are providing freshly turned zombies, which it doesnt look like, no animal no matter how hungry would eat meat that has been decaying in warm weather for weeks & months because it would just make themselves sick and die.

The Talking Bread

7

I guess it means they don't have to use their own supplies to fatten up the pigs. I imagine that is the main reason. Also, Ezekiel is trying to keep Neagan's orders a secret from the general Kingdom population (apart from his main guys) so taking away and using their supplies would raise the suspicions of his people and may cause a bit of issues.

Obviously spite comes into it also. If it killed Neagan's people or, even made them ill, they would cop on soon enough where the cause of the illness emanated from.

Ezekiel seems to be very rational and knows the score with Neagan and his brutality, hence why he even allowed the long haired Saviour " a free shot" on that other Kingdom guy.

Here is a reasoning I found online, gives a good answer to this:

Ezekiel says his people want to fight, and that’s not something he wants to feed into. The Saviors would give his people a reason to fight, so he devises a plan to kill them off. Ezekiel orders his men to make the pigs they give to The Saviors eat the dead, therefore tainting the meat. The Saviors would have no way of knowing they’ve poisoned the food supply. If the Saviors get sick, the illnesses can be attributed to lack of refrigeration or someone not cleaning the meat properly. Ezekiel is a lot smarter than he appears to be

The Talking Bread

7

Dempsey wrote: »

Unless they are providing freshly turned zombies, which it doesnt look like, no animal no matter how hungry would eat meat that has been decaying in warm weather for weeks & months because it would just make themselves sick and die.

Yes, but the pigs are slaughtered soon after anyway. May depend how long it takes effect to make them sick. As someone said, they are under the virus anyway. It is death that turns them into zombies. Loss of blood, etc. Thats why Hershel's leg could be amputated and tended to and he still survived.

You also have to consider that during slaughters of zombies during attacks, zombie blood can easily be sprayed into the human's soft tissue like mouths and eyes, wounds etc. Yet they don't die.

Killing activates the virus, not the blood etc itself.

In 28 days later you could contract zombieism by exposing diseased blood to soft tissue (eyes, mouth, open wounds, etc).

At the end of the day, there are different rules in these fictional zombie programmes so you have to just go by this.

So, if they absolutely HAD to, they could possibly eat the zombies without repercussion if they could get their minds around the cannibalism factor.

Olishi4

6

The Talking Bread wrote: »

Yes, but the pigs are slaughtered soon after anyway. May depend how long it takes effect to make them sick. As someone said, they are under the virus anyway. It is death that turns them into zombies. Loss of blood, etc. Thats why Hershel's leg could be amputated and tended to and he still survived.

You also have to consider that during slaughters of zombies during attacks, zombie blood can easily be sprayed into the human's soft tissue like mouths and eyes, wounds etc. Yet they don't die.

Killing activates the virus, not the blood etc itself.

In 28 days later you could contract zombieism by exposing diseased blood to soft tissue (eyes, mouth, open wounds, etc).

At the end of the day, there are different rules in these fictional zombie programmes so you have to just go by this.

So, if they absolutely HAD to, they could possibly eat the zombies without repercussion if they could get their minds around the cannibalism factor.

I think Dempsy meant more that the flesh on a zombie is rotting meat and that they wouldn't eat it and if they did, that's what would make them sick, nothing to do with the virus.

But like you say, all zombie theories and rules are different in other movies/shows. I had just recently read a fairly reasonable explanation somewhere on zombies and their biology, where it was said that they are basically just like an active rotting corpse and the virus just activates the brain to an extent so if a zombie was a good few weeks old, i thought the pigs would naturally stay away so that was in my mind when I watched it.

wally79

6

"You got to starve the pigs for a few days, then the sight of a chopped-up body will look like curry to a pisshead. "

ThisRegard

The Talking Bread wrote: »

of course it was good/important to the overall architecture of the season, it introduced one of the most important characters going forward. It also was required to give a somewhat bckground to him and The Kingdom.

Whatever about the episode itself, it was an extremely pivotal introduction to Ezekiel.

You're looking at this retrospectively as it seems you're familiar with the comics. Otherwise it just felt like a lot of filler.

Paddy Cow

The Talking Bread wrote: »

Killing activates the virus, not the blood etc itself.

In 28 days later you could contract zombieism by exposing diseased blood to soft tissue (eyes, mouth, open wounds, etc).

Isn't it the same in TWD? A bite from a zombie makes you sick and kills you so there must be something in the zombie blood/saliva/tissue. If the pigs eat the zombies and then humans eat the pigs, it's plausible that the humans will become sick.

We don't know how long the saviours have been taking food from the kingdom and they do it on rotation. The saviours said this time the pigs are a lot bigger so maybe this is the first time they have sent tainted pigs?

Robsweezie

7

Last weeks ep was a big greasy burger rammed down your throat. This ep felt more like a scoop of vanilla ice cream and syrup. I like the contrast between episodes.

Mellor

5

Avatar MIA wrote: »

I'm liking the King and the CGI is quite good.

The Talking Bread wrote: »

Ah, stop. That CGI was more than impressive.

Pete Moss wrote: »

On the plus side though, I thought the CGI for Shiva was fantastic

The fantastic CGI was actually animatronic. The less fantastic sections, as in those that were noticeably CGI, were obviously CGI.

pc7

6

Right I'm getting confused with the gangs/locations is it -
Negans gang, the saviours at the Sanctuary
Eziekial, the kingdom (have they a name)
Jesus crew the hilltop?

Gunslinger92

^ think that's right, yeah.

I keep getting Jesus and Heath mixed up. Googled Jesus there and I really liked him I hope he comes back in to it

Mellor

5

Gunslinger92 wrote: »

Googled Jesus there and I really liked him I hope he comes back

BetsyEllen

2

Paddy Cow wrote: »

The saviours said this time the pigs are a lot bigger so maybe this is the first time they have sent tainted pigs?

Yes I thought this also

mahamageehad

7

I don't understand all the hate for the episode, I quite enjoyed it! It was a bit ridiculous and over the top, but it was meant to be. I thought the score was a tad kitsch but other than that it was great to just see this random fiefdom in the centre of the zombie apocalypse. Even the tiger. I'm not a comic reader and have been keeping away from spoilers so it was completely unexpected.

Also, side note, aren't pomegranates also called love apples? I think that makes it a booty call! :P

I actually enjoyed this more than last week's episode, even though I know I'm in the minority. At least the character decisions made sense (that's exactly how Carol would act) and we got a few new faces introduced, as well as seeing how these places are all linked. I do think the next food collection will have Darryl turn up there though and see Carol. We'll be right back to all the doom and gloom then and that'll make all you miserable bäckstards happy! :P :pac:

sonofenoch

For those who find walking undead flesh eaters more believable than a bloody tiger on a leash :rolleyes:

OneOfThem Stumbled

I'm finding these episodes away from the action hard to buy. The ones where we see "civilised life".

Food, electricity, housing are all plentiful. The place is spotless, clothes are new, people are all clean. While some of these things are forgiveable (scavenging and whatnot), it's just a bit much to suspend disbelief.

Carol even asks for a tissue at one stage. Are they still manufacturing those things? Surely in this sort of society you'd be using handkerchiefs.

Pomegranates and peaches? Those imported :rolleyes: or home grown, because that's fresh produce. They *can* be grown in places like Ireland and mid Atlantic seaboard in Untied States, but it's pretty damn difficult.

Most people were wearing clothes like jeans: again, are these merely scavenged or produced locally? We are a number of years into the post-apocalyptic setting at this point, can supermarkets and shops still be abundantly stocked?

It would be interesting to see the citizens deal with the problems of production and survival. Hearing home-spun philosophy about violence, national determinism, or individual freedom are tiresome and ill placed. If I hear one more person going on about how they can't take their current predicament, or one more person preaching from their moralistic platform, I cannot be held responsible for what I will do to these screen writers.

The tiger is okay though - taken from zoo or circus and fed on scraps perhaps.