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shimmershae · 2 years

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My thoughts on Season 11, Episode 14--The Rotten Core--

Placing it behind a cut for those of you that’d rather sit this one out, lol.

I have a feeling Whiskey Sniffer is gonna live to rue his life choices watching those poor people he pushed off the roof reanimate. Forgive me, but I seem to have already forgotten his name. In my defense, there are just too many new folks this season.

Lance also is gonna live to regret underestimating Carol’s Queen Bitch skills, methinks. He’s already primed for his “bastard, ahem, slimy bastard has to die” moment.

Josh Hamilton is doing a fantastic job, by the way. There’s so much going on behind his eyes and…not. Like sometimes he has the fixed empty stare of a horror show doll (think Annabelle, lol).

Maggie and Aaron is a friend pairing/partnership that, at once, feels more fresh and tethered to ASZ than her and Daryl. Don’t get me wrong. They’re family. Since they bonded after the Farm’s fall. And they’ve shared some good, touching scenes together. But Daryl and Maggie scenes? They are not the touchstone and nod to the past that Daryl and Carol scenes are. Those supply the nostalgia, whatever the hell you wanna categorize them as. I get there’s just Daryl, Carol, and Maggie (and technically Judith) left from those days, but Daryl and Maggie are not the serve Kang thinks they are. Maggie’s closest people have all died. Daryl’s is still here and yet Kang keeps a fabricated distance between them. For reasons.

I love Lydia. That is all. Forever and ever, Amen.

“I was just looking for you.” Not Daryl seeking out his bestie when his OFFSCREEN tru wuv awaits.

LOL. Seriously, though. He was going out of his way to look for her. She was obviously doing the same to find him. Guess who neither are looking for?

Sidenote: How pretty does Carol look? And she’s wearing red! Nice callback to Season 2, AK.

It cracks my shit up, though, that Daryl has all these other choices of wardrobe now and he sticks with his angel wings vest and those pants.

There’s some meta sprinkled all over this little scene with these two and their interaction and choices of attire but I’m tired, hahaha, so I’ll let you lovelies read between the lines.

Tickled me that the Colonel—X-Ray helped me determine that, thanks—was like quit your flirting with the pretty cookie lady, Dixon, and get your ass to work.

Rosita and Daryl’s buddy banter has been gold since they’ve been on this stint as CW Stormtroopers.

Anybody else think Rosita’s smirk is as much over the knowledge that Daryl’s gone out of his way for his daily Carol fix as his daily donut run?

Interesting how everybody else is all suited up already but not Rosita and Daryl. Telling of their mindset.

Daryl’s slow, smart ass golf clap when Sebastian prompts him for validation is everything. As is Rosita’s expression in response, lol.

Lydia and Elijah having Maggie and Aaron’s backs. I know that’s right.

Cassady McClincy does so much with just her eyes and the inflection of her voice. Her entire face. Make you think of someone? Seriously. MMB is THE MASTERCLASS and Cassady is her pupil, her little master in training. How lucky are we to get to witness their brilliance?

Lydia being so hurt to see Negan with a new group pulls at my heartstrings. Not gonna lie.

Maggie and Aaron’s faces when Negan’s lady friend called him someone their group trusted, lol. I mean, they’re justified to have their doubts. Don’t @ me.

Can you imagine walking through a field in those ridiculous stormtrooper suits? Walking anywhere really.

Rosita wanted to rip Sebastian’s tiny ass balls from his sack via his throat when he called her “Sweetie.” Me too, girl. Me too.

That little prick risking peoples’ lives for money. Pamela is right. Her son is an asshole.

Lines of credit, lifestyles in a Z-APOC? Stuff that makes you go WTF.

Daryl and Rosita going feral over “their kids”? That’s hot.

Interesting, too, how Uncle Daryl is acting full on Daddy for those Grimes babies.

Is it just me or were those walkers Daryl accidentally bumped into all up in his face like “you wanna piece of me—come at me, Bro?”

Oh. So this is April, huh?

Negan being married reeks of WTFery but you know? Whatever. WTFery is apparently Angela’s brand.

“No, it isn’t. I hoped that they might be but they just want to swallow up other communities. They’re like the Whisperers. They just wear different masks.” You tell them, Baby Girl. You can tell Aaron knows Lydia’s dropping a nuclear truth bomb.

Oh snap. I see Hershel went to the Carl Grimes School of Shenanigans. Where all those people at complaining Maggie is the absolute worst as a mom like they did back in Lori’s days? Like, this is worse in a way because it’s not just the dead out to get them but the bad apple humans too.

“Twelve weeks. Give or take.” That Negan, Man. He works fast.

“If anything happens to him…” “It’ll have to happen to me first.” Weird thing is? I believe him. But they need to stop acting like Negan didn’t try to kill Carl and actually did kill that Hilltop kid.

“He’s in the hands of the man who killed his father.” That. That right there. No matter how much charisma JDM lends Negan, I cannot forget Glenn.

“He doesn’t get to forget.” 100% with Maggie on this. If what Annie says is true and he truly hasn’t, though? He has a strange way of showing it up until this point.

I don’t often praise LC for her acting. I honestly find it somewhat uneven. Maybe it’s the accent from the early days still influencing me. But I feel like she did a good job here as someone that absolutely cannot fathom how the man that devastated her happy life gets the chance at happiness of his own when she lives each day with her loss.

I mean, is Hershel just that damn smart or making anti-level leaps of logic? Maybe I should reword that because antis frequently be so far off the mark and sadly or stubbornly do not realize it, lol. Hershel went from A to Z real fast. Maybe he’s the one needing to skip two grades.

JDM is one of this show’s best actors, IMHO, and he’s doing the best with what he’s been given. BUT. I don’t know if it’s all the time jumps or Angela forcing us to read between the lines for so much when the characters are acting in opposition to what her interviews, etc. are telling us. It’s just coming across as disingenuous instead of organic because she skipped over all the hard work. Or, you know, she’s putting in all this effort to “redeem” or garner sympathy points for her show’s villains and doing nothing to stop fans “vilifying” her actual heroes/heroines. Like, where’s the disconnect?

It always amazes me how dark these abandoned houses are on TWD. Like, I get it. There’s no artificial light, the windows are shuttered/boarded up, etc. but still.

I swear. The walkers in Ohio/CW country be much more aggressive.

Okay. That alarm and the three of them—April, Rosita, and Daryl—is kind of giving me Killer Within flashbacks with Carl, Maggie, and Lori in the Boiler Room and Carol fleeing to the Tombs thanks to T-Dog’s sacrifice. RIP Dog. RIP Lori.

Daryl looking at Carol like OMFG, here’s my avenging angel.

The way Carol don’t mess around when her bae in danger. She went straight to probably the only person she feels has integrity in the whole of the CW—Mercer.

You know Carol done impressed TF outta Mercer because he ain’t looking at or addressing her as the Cookie Lady, LMAO.

Gutting up never works for the sheltered lambs. This April chick about to be walker chow.

Mercer, Daryl, Carol, and Rosita are the BADASS quad we need so much more of this season. Less newbies. More of them.

Poor April. That is all. Barely knew her but she didn’t deserve that.

Mercer trusting Carol to have his six. Yeah. The man recognizes a warrior when he sees one.

How they always stay so quiet, lol? I be breathing heavy when scared or my stomach growls and says come and get this bitch.

Does the CW have food? I mean, they do right? Maybe Father Savage joined a gym because he’s getting so damn skinny.

Welp. Whiskey Sniffer deserved nothing less, though.

How come everybody else looks dumb AF in their stormtrooper gear but Mercer looks fierce?

“How many others did you send in before them?” Carol getting to the heart of the matter. If Mercer himself hadn’t already had enough, I feel like my girl would have popped those two herself.

Carol’s expression afterward, though. Rosita’s too. My girls be like WTF. This man means business.

Okay. Who’s gonna get the joy of offing that weasel Sebastian?

“Finally.” So. Lance knew about Sebastian sending people out to die so he can continue life as a rich little douche canoe? My girl had to turn away.

Oh. He dead. He just don’t know it yet. That look. MMB out here slaying every day.

Hershel mean mugs like a champ, lol.

It’s the unasked for, unwelcomed return of the forest witch, aka Leah. Ugh.

Time for Angela’s explanation points—

Negan has a fondness/care for children, huh? Sure, Angela. Tell that to the Hilltop kid that got beat to death.

Always planning to bring Leah back, hmm? But why? She’s added absolutely NOTHING of value to this final season. Ugh. I’m FFing thru the rest of this shitpile, sorry.

Overall impressions:

It was a good episode with some good tension, but Angela obviously has a differing opinion than a lot of us about what makes the episode and what’s hitting the cutting room floor because we should have gotten to see the moment Mercer realized Carol wasn’t cookie cutter material. We were robbed. Not of just that but Carol’s face journey and MMB working those nuances when her Pookie missed their “date.” Not to mention we should have been able to bear witness how it came to be that Lydia and Elijah learned to trust and work together so well but nah. We got more redshirts and newbs to meet right up until the end credits roll.

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