Although the title “Regular” doesn’t mean you’ll get to live for a long run on the show, Season 4 of the Walking Dead is getting 3 new regulars.

The Hollywood Reporter tells us that Tyreese, Sasha, and Beth are now part of the shows regular crew.

Chad Coleman (Tyreese), Sonequa Martin-Green (Sasha) and Emily Kinney (Beth) will be joining Rick, Daryl, Carol, and Herschel (and the newly sorta bad seed Carl) with Maggie and Glenn as Team Prison.  David Morrissey is also on board as a regular.

The Hollywood Reporter adds:

In addition, Melissa Ponzio – who plays Karen, the lone survivor of the Governor’s attack on his own Woodbury army that helped bring peace between Tyreese and Rick in the finale — will return to the series as a recurring guest star in season four.

I’m glad about this.  I like Beth a lot and want to see how that character helps in trying to pull Carl back from the dark side.  Also Tyreese and his sister need more screen time.  Tyreese is a great character in the comics and he and Rick need to bond.  Also there’s that whole Carol/Michonne triangle thing.

The Walking Dead Review/Recap

Prey

By Jessica Dwyer

By the episodes title you can ascertain that this episode will be one that focuses on being hunted.  But what you don’t know is who is the hunter and who’s the prey.  TWD 14th episode of Season 3 focuses on Andrea and the difficult situation she has gotten herself into.  This episode is actually a great one and I enjoyed it as it gives us another glimpse of the Governor unleashed and finally shows us Andrea becoming the badass we know her to be, unshackled and with a mind clear of his influence and with the truth firmly in hand.

At the beginning of the episode we get a flashback to the previous year (which is something I hoped we get to see of our gang…what happened in the time before the prison and after the farm.)  The pets are still (un)alive and restless.  Andrea figures out that Michonne actually knew them.  And we find out she did…and the fact that Michonne didn’t feel much sympathy for how they wound up.

We move forward to the present with a great dissolve to the Governor pulling at his own chains from those of the pets.  I have to point out here that this episode has some great music ques in it.  The underlying thrum of the music that’s to convey the Gov’s crazy that’s boiling just beneath the surface is perfect.

Woodbury is preparing for war.  The guns and ammo of the town are being gathered and Andrea knows that something is up.  There’s supposed to be a deal on the table with the prison, and what’s going on around them looks like someone is going out to blitzkrieg.  But the town isn’t the only one planning on destroying something piece by piece.  Milton finds the Governor preparing his torture room.  He actually confronts the man with the patch, asking him what good this is going to do for the town.  Milton has seen their supposed enemy and he knows they aren’t the evil ones…he’s realized who that is.  He goes to speak with Andrea and tells her to warn the prison gang.

Andrea has everything she’s started to suspect confirmed thanks to Milton’s warning and also his showing her the torture chamber that the Governor is in the process of setting up in detail.  She knows she needs to warn her friends and she needs to get the hell out of Woodbury.  She also knows that someone has to kill the Governor before he’s allowed to rain bloody death down on everyone.

Milton stops Andrea from blowing the Governor away and we find out that he knew Phillip before he became the Governor.  Andrea is unable to convince Milton to leave with her as she’s decided to go to the prison and warn them.  So she tells Milton if he chooses to stay, then he can’t keep looking away.  She leaves and on the way out has to give up her gun as all the weapons in town are being stockpiled.  She gives up her gun but she keeps her knife.

On her way out over the wall Andrea, Sasha, and Tyreese have words.  She tries to convince them of the Gov’s craziness but they don’t listen.  They do however let her leave.  The Gov’s in spin control after her escape.   Tyreese and Sasha don’t mention Andrea’s opinion of the Gov’s state of mind, but they are asked to help with a project.  See, the Governor is going after Andrea on his own.

Before he leaves The Governor figures out that Milton has betrayed him.  He confronts him and realizes just how much Andrea knows…which is everything.  He storms off leaving Milton shaken.  Meanwhile Allen and Tyreese have their own confrontation regarding something that happened with Allen’s wife.  Tyreese saved her at one point and Allen sees that as an embarrassment to him…that his wife never looked at him the same way after that.   It’s a bit more backstory for this new group which is always nice.

Meanwhile Andrea is on the run and trying to avoid the Governor who is hot on her trail.  In the woods she’s attacked by a group of walkers.  With just a knife Andrea takes them all down.  It’s a great scene, and once again shows that Andrea can hold her own.

Back in Woodbury, or at least nearby, Tyreese and his group are shown the Walker Trap.  They discover that this is a “scare tactic” by the Governor and just a precaution in case the prison gang decide to double cross them.  This use of Walkers doesn’t sit well with Tyreese and his confrontation with Allen boils back over into the two of them fighting about the use of Walkers as well as Tyreese putting their position in Woodbury in jeopardy.

I still say the use of Walkers as a weapon is one of the most awesome and creepy things the Gov has done.  It’s also something that people have written about before in other zombie centric entertainment.  But this is just some mean stuff and I’ve never seen it done in such a brutal way before like this.

Andrea is still making her way to the prison when the Governor catches up with her.  She finds a hiding place in a large abandoned factory.  While she’s inside the Governor calls out to her to come out and all will be forgiven.  When that doesn’t work he does something that is downright evil.  He whistles.  Now while that might not seem like much (and it is also a swing back to the beginning of the episode when he was testing the acoustics in the torture chamber AND RECORDING IT) it’s a very tricky way of getting Andrea to show herself…because the Walkers hear it and they come running like dogs.

Andrea has to deal with one walker, giving away her hiding place so she has to move quickly.  The Gov follows her into the building and the darkness, hot on her trail.  We flash back to the Walker Trap later that night and someone has some gasoline.  The stranger douses all the walkers in the gas and lights them on fire leaving them useless for any sort of attack on the prison.

Andrea meanwhile is still trying to keep one step away from the Governor.  She opens a door, hoping it’s an exit and discovers an entire stairwell full of Walkers.  She quickly shuts the metal door and turns to head back when she comes face to face with the man who’s been trying tracking her.  The Governor knows the jig is up with Andrea.  But you think for a moment she might still fall back under the spell of that false charm.  But no…she’s done with this.

Turning back before he can attack her, Andrea opens the metal door and hides behind it as the stream of walkers come down the stairs and straight at The Governor.  Andrea watches as he starts fighting them off in what looks like a losing battle and quickly leaves him behind.  No hesitation.

The next morning a check of the walker trap and finds a half groaning mass of burned and useless bodies.  There’s nothing left to use.  That same morning Andrea stands at the edge of the prisons outside field.  She sees Rick in the guard tower and starts to wave as she moves forward…and is then tackled by a very bloody and very angry Governor.  Rick thinks he saw something…but with his track record of seeing things that aren’t there he doesn’t go to investigate.

The Governor returns to Woodbury, telling anyone who asks that Andrea couldn’t be found and is most likely dead.  He also is told of what happened at the walker trap.  After some questioning of Tyreese and the gang who Ceasar had taken with him to the trap previously the Governor isn’t sure who may have done the deed.  That is until Milton finds him and in a nicely passive aggressive move basically admits he did it.  Milton’s not turning a blind eye (to borrow a phrase) to what is going on in Woodbury anymore…and the Governor realizes he may have a big problem on his hands.  But that problem is nowhere near as big as Andrea’s who we see is chained to the chair in the middle of the torture chamber…very much alive.

Prey is a great episode and one that I enjoy because it once again focuses on a very specific group of characters.  It gives everyone more depth and it shows how much deeper the Governors darkness has grown.  It also shows his grip slipping on not only reality but the people he once had complete control over.  Writers Glen Mazzara and Evan Reilly do a great job with the story and Andrea’s journey back to herself and the Governor losing more of who he was to the evil that’s growing in him.  It’s the strength of Laurie Holden and David Morrissey’s acting as well that keep this episode rocking as we watch the two of them play cat and mouse.  Dallas Roberts is to be commended too.  Milton has grown over the season and it’s nice to see a backbone in there, however hesitant it may be.

We’ve only got two more episodes this season…I know…I’m sad too.  The next is called “This Sorrowful Life” and is directed by Greg Nicotero.  The last episode is the eerily titled “Welcome to the Tombs” which can only mean one thing; death, destruction, and the way into the prison.  The showdown is near.

The Walking Dead

Arrow on the Doorpost

Recap/Review

By Jessica Dwyer

This episode of the Walking Dead is all about tension.  This is the first time the Governor and Rick meet and it’s as tense and glaring as you would ever think.  But tension isn’t just shown between these two leaders.  Back at the prison things are boiling over between Merle and Glenn.

The episode starts out it would seem at least a few days after the previous one, with Andrea having brought together the two leaders to talk out a peace accord.  It’s obvious she’s not in control of the situation Read more

The Walking Dead

Episode Recap/Review

“Clear”

By Jessica Dwyer

Following up last week’s character centric episode “I Ain’t No Judas,”  TWD continues with another character driven episode “Clear.”  This one shows us what happened to fan favorite character Morgan (Lennie James, who always delivers a stellar performance) and it is just as tragic as you can imagine.

This episode focuses on three of the main characters, an unlikely trio.  Carl, Michonne, and Rick go out to find weapons for what is no doubt going to be a major confrontation with the Governor and his crew.  Rick leads them to the station house from the beginning of the series to find it ransacked with no bullets or weapons left.  Luckily though, Rick remembers those people in town he wrote gun permits for, and they go in search of those houses.

It is during the driving sequences at the beginning we get the first notion of how much the attitudes of Rick and Carl have changed.  Michonne has since we’ve known her been a tough and hardened character, but Rick and Carl have changed more than we may have truly realized.  The trio pass up a lone hitchhiker desperately screaming for a ride.  They leave him behind while ransacking lone cars on the road.  There’s no hesitation, they just leave him most likely to die on the road.

When they arrive in town they find warnings painted everywhere as well as booby death traps for both humans and zombies.  Someone has been busy.  They find out who when they are fired upon by a figure in a helmet and body armor.  Morgan’s a very changed man.

After Carl’s assist we get a peek inside the house that Morgan has built since Rick has last seen him.  Morgan’s rooms are a peek into his mind; violence, insanity, paranoia…it’s everywhere.  He’s got an arsenal of firearms and Rick decides to take half of them, but not before he tries to find out if Morgan can be saved from the path he’s going down.

While Rick waits with his friend, Carl and Michonne  go to get a crib for Judith (Lil Asskicker.)  Carl has a side trip in mind.  It’s during this time we see Carl and Michonne start to create a bond of mutual respect.  I really enjoyed the interaction between these two that we haven’t really seen be together on screen before.  Michonne doesn’t really treat Carl like a child, she sees he’s beyond that at this point.  He’s becoming a solider and is capable.  The time in the café/store is a nice piece of tension and the payoff of what Carl wants (the photo of his family) and Michonne’s own treasure she snagged (the rainbow cat of doom, I’m naming it officially) is great.

But the scene of the episode has to be Morgan’s storytelling to Rick of what happened to his child, Duane and it is truly horrifying and sad.  You realize why he has become the man he is and why he’s lost all hope.  His task is to make it clear.

We the viewers can take this a few different ways.  Clear the area of Walkers of course, but I think it means clear his mind of the memories or at least try to.  Perhaps clear the conscience of the blame or clear himself of all emotion, something that will never work.  His revelation to Rick that all the strong ones, like Carl, will die in this world while those who are weak like he is is chilling.  James deserves an Emmy nomination for this scene.

Of course this is far from what happened in the comics…but we never heard what he actually did with Duane after he was attacked by his mother.  There’s a chance that Duane may have been hidden inside that building somewhere.  But I’d hope that Morgan kept his son from that fate.

Once again we have another mirror to Rick’s story.   The Governor has lost his child and wife to the epidemic, Morgan has as well.  In a way we can take this to mean that Carl represents the last of Rick’s sanity, his only hold left as both of these men have surely gone down a rabbit hole they aren’t coming back from.  Carl shows Rick who he is, reminding him of that fact by wearing that hat that is now fitting him a heck of a lot better as Chandler Riggs grows up before our eyes.

As the trio leaves Morgan to his seemingly endless task of clearing Walkers, his last words to Carl of never being sorry for having to shoot or kill ring eerily in the air.  This is a new age and a new way of life for these people.   This fact is brought home solidly as Michonne (who tells Rick that she used to talk to her dead boyfriend…something that we comic readers was hoping would be discussed) is driving back to the prison.  The remains of the hitchhiker from the beginning of the episode lay by the road…and they stop to pick up his backpack.

What is truly clear is that this new world is not forgiving, nor are Rick and his crew.  This episode was one of the best of a season filled with great ones.  And from what we saw in this our heroes are not going to give up without one hell of a fight.

The Walking Dead Recap/Review

Home

By Jessica Dwyer

The Walking Dead has many levels to it, and one of the main story levels is family and home.  As the simple one word episode title states, that’s the center of what this episode is about, but there’s far more to the concept than a lot of people think.

Home to some of the characters is simply your family.  Home can mean the place you feel safe.  Other times home means just the opposite of safe.  It’s something this series does well because the concept of The Walking Dead’s universe is pretty much the end of the world and the loss of everything you’ve ever known.  Home is no longer home.

As I suspected last week The Governor is out to use Andrea to help control Woodbury.  In this instance he’s lost his family and that last piece of anything that connected him to humanity (his daughter.)  His home, even though Woodbury is still in one piece, has been taken from him by Michonne and Rick’s crew.  He’s angry and he wants revenge, even though he tells exactly the opposite to Andrea.

The Governor plays her like a fiddle.  That slight, hesitant, almost admitting he needs her was most assuredly fake.  He knows she’s looking for someone to connect with since she’s lost everything too.  He knows she needs some sort of connection.  And so he works that angle.  It’s the same with Milton, making the man feel needed and as though he’s important to him.  Playing to his need to feel important to the Governor and making him feel “manly” by saying he’d take a bullet for him and putting him on the same level as a soldier.

The man is a smooth, crazy operator.  And Andrea doesn’t really figure it out until it’s too late that he’s lied about the whole not going to seek payback on the prison gang.  Will it matter to her when she figures that out?  Who’s to say…Andrea is stuck between a rock and a hard place of her own making.

Speaking of crazy, Rick is once again losing it and seeing Lori everywhere.  This is his version of home and its forever lost to him.  This is again more of the similarity between Rick and the Gov.  They can’t ever get these pieces of home back.  Lori’s spirit seems to have a purpose though, and perhaps we will see what that is by the end of the episode.  But I still feel this part of the story is more of a way the series is showing us how similar the paths of Rick and the Gov are.

Maggie and Glen’s story during this and last week’s episode is growing a bit repetitive.  I’m not quite sure why they are so angry with one another or at least that’s what it feels like.  But this part of the story is showing that need to protect your home and family, what Glen feels he failed to do with Maggie.  He’s now desperate to show he can do that, to step up and be the leader for the group with Rick’s mind seemingly broken.   This seems to be blinding him to the very thing he needs to see, which is Maggie herself, something that it takes Herschel to see.

Herschel’s role in this episode is one of a voice of reason, if we know The Governor is coming, we need to leave.  Glen wants to go on an assassination run to Woodbury and kill him before he has time to react.  The rest of the group either doesn’t want to leave or doesn’t know what to do…but they don’t feel up to the task of Glen’s plan.  Glen doesn’t want to leave the prison though, it’s their home.  It’s a bad situation all the way around and no good outcome can come from any one of the choices before them.  Also at this point Tyreese and his crew have disappeared, taken off for parts unknown.

In the part of the episode I like to call The Dead of Hazzard, Daryl and Merle Dixon are traveling the woods and trying to decide which of them is right about the direction they are going.  We’ve not really had time together with Daryl and Merle like this, and it’s entertaining to see Rooker and Reedus play off of one another.  When Daryl hears what he thinks is a baby crying (thoughts of Little Ass Kicker in his head) he runs off and discovers a Mexican family being attacked by walkers on a bridge.

This scene is pretty amazing and the music is great, bringing in a whole southern undercurrent of bad ass to the mix as Daryl takes out most of the walkers and Merle steps in to help out for a couple.  The zombie gore runs fast and free.  When it’s all over and Merle decides they’ve earned some payback from the family Daryl pulls his crossbow on him, telling him to leave them alone and tells the family to get the hell out of there.

This leads to a moment of revelation on the Dixon family dynamic and also another one of those many references throughout the episode of what home is.  Daryl finally tells his brother what he thinks of him.  He defends his choice of staying with Rick and his crew, and tells Merle that his lost hand was his choice long before it was actually cut off.  We also discover that Merle left his brother behind to an abusive father who was also abusive to Merle.  It’s a great scene and Merle actually shows something other than hate and smarminess in his face.  Rooker’s stricken expression tells it all as he sees Daryl returning to the prison gang which is more of a home to him than his own family has been.

Back at the prison, Axel and Carol have been flirting a bit and we’ve learned about Axel’s past issues.  He’s not been a lucky guy…and Carol’s history with men hasn’t been so lucky either.  Turns out that both their bad luck has come to nail Axel straight in the head with a messy bullet (I blame myself after posting on Lew Temple’s Facebook page “Please don’t croak, I like Axel.”)  Axel’s not really surprising but still crappy death starts off one of the most awesome scenes of the season.  Carol smartly uses his now dead body to shield herself (Carol seems to be the angel of death anymore…first T Dog and now Axel have kept her alive.)   And we see that The Governor is the man who pulled the trigger.  It’s on.

Bullets start flying and Herschel is trapped in a field as is Rick who he was trying to talk back inside.  You wonder if Lori’s spirit was trying to get Rick into a position he needed to be in before the attack started.  As it is though, Carl and Beth are trapped in the courtyard and Carol is trapped with the rapidly hole filled body of Axel.  Michonne is trapped next to a bus.  Glen has left and is unaware of what is going on.  Bullets keep flying and things are not looking great at all.  Maggie comes running out of the prison carrying some big ass guns…and I wonder while all this is happening “Who’s with the baby?”  The answer is no one…and that’s sort of a scary thought isn’t it?

This is no sound stage and this entire sequence, already awesome, ratchets up past ten when we see a delivery truck come rocketing through the gates at high speeds and crashing into the prison grounds.  The Gov seems to be smiling creepily at this as the truck comes to rest in the middle of the field.  A few seconds pass and then the back of the truck opens up…and out pour a horde of walkers.  This is a Walker Delivery and it is beyond messed up.  The driver comes running out of the van in full body armor and brandishing a gun and you finally realize just how gone and evil The Gov truly is.

Rick is running out of ammo and Herschel is about to be killed as he’s in the same area as the walkers that just showed up.  Glen arrives, passing the Gov on the road back into the prison as he’s heading back to Woodbury, his message delivered.   Glen manages to get Herschel and everyone (sans Rick) into his truck and back to relative safety.

Rick’s about to become biter food, with two walkers holding onto him; then suddenly an arrow bursts through one’s head.  The Dixon boys, both of them, have come home.  Merle and Daryl help Rick take out some of the walkers but there are still a lot left to handle and the noise of the gunfire has no doubt attracted a ton more.

As the episode ends we see Rick looking at the horde and the horror that has been brought to his home and his expression is dark and dangerous and filled with just as much fury as ever we’ve seen.   Retribution is about to come down hard I have a feeling, straight into the heart of Woodbury.  Rick’s family and his home have been attacked and that’s something that no law man or man for that matter will stand for.  It’s going to be an eye for an eye, and the Governor only has one left…and I think Rick’s ready to stab it out.  This may be my favorite episode of the season and I can’t wait to see how they top it.

The Suicide King

Season 3.5 Premiere

The Walking Dead

Review/Recap

Written By Jessica Dwyer

SPOILERS

The second half of the new season of the Walking Dead begins immediately with where we left off with episode 8;  Merle and Daryl Dixon, both cornered and being yelled at by the very pissed off residents of Woodbury.  The Governor watches on, his remaining eye as cold and dead as those of the Walkers, Daryl looks scared perhaps for the first time since we’ve ever seen him.  It would appear the tag line of “Fear the Living” is appropriate as we see how people react once society has fallen and they are “governed” if you will, by the need to survive.   Norman Reedus does a great job in this scene as does Michael Rooker.  Daryl’s reaction to what is happening is telling and you can see that Merle is trying to figure it out in his head how he’s going to get his little brother out of there and save his own hide at the same time.

The Calvary arrives in the form of Rick and Maggie as they use tear gas and some well-placed (and not so well placed) fire power to rescue Daryl and (unwillingly so) Merle.  It’s during this time that Andrea gets a rude awakening on what’s been going on while she’s been playing house with “Phillip.”

It’s interesting to see the reactions by not only Maggie, Glenn and Michonne but also Rick’s reaction to Merle coming along.  Daryl’s response to them is also not surprising.  Merle of course is goading everyone on and laughing at the absurdity of it.  Daryl is trapped but his choice was made for him long ago when it came to Merle.  That’s his brother, and blood is blood.  Not even bothering to go back to the prison (he tells Rick that Carol will understand) he leaves with Merle rather than go back home without him.

This is where I have to say that this episode becomes truly more about the human interactions and about the characters and their motivations than zombies.  I think that’s one of the best parts of season 3, that it’s really ramped up the characters and letting the actors shine.  The arc of Daryl, Rick, and everyone else is really jumping ahead, especially with the relationship between Maggie and Glenn.  Glenn’s need to protect her and to prove himself to not only her and her father, but to his own sense of worth is intense.  I can only see things going badly and even darker.

When the gang arrives back at the prison we see Rick telling Carol that Daryl didn’t come back.  She’s stricken to tears by that (perhaps Daryl was wrong about her understanding.)  But later we see her talking to Beth about him.  This scene and Carol’s understanding of what makes Daryl tick is one of my favorites of the episode.

Carol tells Beth that basically Daryl is the victim of abuse, a lifetime of it really by his brother.  He’s got to break free of that hold to allow himself to be happy (or close to it) and accepted within the family he has now at the prison.  But she understands why he didn’t come back because not only is there the relationship with Merle he needs to break out from, but the code of ethics he’s got, and the world they live in now, a man like that is rare to find.

That sort of complexity comes from some great writing and the work of the actors like Reedus to give depth to what a lot of people that haven’t seen TWD probably throw away as just “that zombie show.”  Here we have an abused woman who has grown in strength of spirit and made it through the loss of her abusive husband and her only child still alive.  And she’s talking about how the character everyone considers the biggest badass of the show is a victim just like she was…and he hasn’t been able to break that cycle or that chain.

Back at Woodbury The Governor and Andrea are each dealing separately with the chaos that has ensued with the escape.  That escape has also left the town open defense wise to some Walkers who get inside.  The residence of Woodbury don’t consider themselves safe anymore and people want out.  Tensions run high and then the Walkers that managed to get inside attack.

Andrea is wondering where The Governor is in all this madness.  He’s not coming out of his apartment for whatever reason, and is letting the town feed upon itself.  So she takes command somewhat and helps take out the few Walkers who got inside.  But she can’t bring herself to shoot the still living victim of their attack.  The Governor at last appears and as unemotional as he was before, shoots the crying man in the head.

Andrea is told by the Governor after she follows him back inside that she’s got no business getting involved with Woodbury.  She’s a stranger, a visitor there.  And even if they were dancing in the sheets it didn’t mean she was going to be staying.  The Governor knows how to play people like a fiddle, and this is another one of those scenes we see it happen.  Andrea walks back outside and immediately starts telling everyone how Woodbury needs to stick together and that when the history books are written they’ll remember how “their” town survived.  Oh Andrea, you really are the queen of bad ideas and bad choices in men.

Back at the prison a decision needs to be made about Tyreese and his group staying or going.  Rick’s decision is they need to leave.  That’s not a real popular choice by everyone there…and then the figure appears on the catwalk.  The silhouette looks to be that of Lori and Rick’s reaction is not good.  While everyone thinks he’s screaming at Tyreese and his people to leave, it’s really Lori’s spirit that’s haunting him he is begging and pleading to leave.  Rick’s descent into madness isn’t quite over yet and that’s where we are left to wonder how far that descent into darkness will go.

I truly love how Rick and the Governor are still mirrors of one another.  This episode shows it again perfectly.  Rick feels too much, he can’t handle the amount of pain and sorrow, the grief he’s had to deal with upon losing everything.  His strength and clarity seem to all be personified within Carl now (maybe there is power in the hat after all.)  The Governor is in a way, the opposite.  The loss and grief have shut him down completely emotionally.  There’s nothing there within him anymore.  He’s turned into a machine.  When the two finally do meet face to face will be truly interesting to behold, because that mirror will no doubt shatter into a million jagged and blood pieces.

American Horror Story: Asylum

The Season Finale

A review

By Jessica Dwyer

At the beginning of this new season of American Horror Story I wondered, after seeing the many different plot points they had involved, how they could ever resolve them all.  It turns out they couldn’t.  The AHS Asylum finale closed the doors on the creepy Briarcliff with quite a few loose ends and not enough pay out.

That’s not to say that it didn’t give us some truly beautiful stuff as well as some touching moments.  The finale of one of the darkest shows on television actually showed us a tale of redemption and love.  It was also a cautionary tale for those with more ambition than sense.

The stories of demonic possession seem to have been forgotten along with the burned remains of Sister Mary Eunice and Doctor Arden.  There really wasn’t any mention of the fact that the devil walked in Briarcliff.  The horrible experiments and mutated creatures were only mentioned in passing.

The finale focused primarily on Lana Winters, the tougher than she looks lesbian reporter.  Sarah Paulson gives a great performance as well, holding her own with Lange.  The problem isn’t Paulson. it’s the fact that so much has happened in the show that…even though Lana has been through hell too…her story sort of pales in comparison to aliens and the devil.  Of course though, that’s the point.  Lana’s story is rooted in a more than truthful reality, and while some aspects of it are over the top, a lot of what happened to her is based in truth.  And truth is what Lana’s search was all about; the truth of evil and the truth that was hidden.  It was also about the truth of who she really was and admitting to what her ambition had cost.  The answer was a lot.

Sister Jude’s story is my favorite of the group of characters this time around.  Jessica Lange knocked the performance out of the park and gave us a character we at first hated and then would wind up shedding tears over at the end of her story.   We actually had resolution with her and a full arc for her character.

Evan Peters as Kit Walker was also great this season.  But his story is the one that felt like…even though we did get quite a bit of him in the finale…had no resolution.  Kit was relegated to the connecting factor to all the characters this season.  And his very random alien abduction and visitations plot was left completely unresolved and feeling more than a little tacked on.  There was no payoff with Kit or his two children.  It just sort of happened after having played what seemed like an important role the whole season.

At the end of the day AHS: Asylum was a great season of the series that left us with a sadly flat finale.  I give it a low end B- which causes the season to end with a high B+.  The first season had a finale that only helped drive home how great the rest of that season was.  This one only helped to show us the plot lines were as schizophrenic as some of the patients.

When the Dead Come Knocking

The Walking Dead Episode Review

By Jessica Dwyer

SPOILERS!

This episode of the series is setting up the ground work for the midseason finale in a big way.  So much is going on in this one that it’s sort of amazing that it’s only an hour long.  We finally get a name for Rick’s child and they’ve gone the way of the comic…Judith Asskicker Grimes.  Plus Carol realizes that Lori’s no longer around in a scene that’s heartbreaking and shows that Melissa McBride is a great actress.

The stand out of this one though has to go to Steven Yeun and Lauren Cohan.  Maggie and Glenn haven’t had as much screen time so far this season, and this episode gives them both some great material to work with.  Steven Yeun especially gets to shine as Glenn shows just how tough he truly is.  We see murder gleaming in his eyes as he glares back at the Governor and Merle walk away, leaving a trembling and crying Maggie in his arms.

It’s one of those moments that you feel is pivotal in the characters story as well as the shows all around plot.  Seeing Steven Yeun get to be physical and fighting a desperate fight against a walker was amazing.  Glenn is a favorite of fans of the comic and the series for a reason.  Maggie’s character has been pushed to the limit as well, with Lori’s death and now with the Governor’s raping of her sense of self she’s going to have a lot to deal with.  These two characters are becoming more than the “who’s in the guard tower getting it on” punch line.

Dallas Robert’s as Milton, the man who is trying, along with the Governor, to find a glimpse of who the Walkers once were before they died still within them also gets a wake-up call.  His realization after Andrea’s many attempts to get him to see that the dead are dead is a great scene and shocking in its own right.  Andrea herself knows better than anyone about what is lost when a person turns.  She’s an interesting choice by the Governor to be there for the experiment.  He knows what she’s lost.

Merle as well has a revelation which we may or may not have guessed the true outcome of yet.  The Governors question of whose side would he be on made him pause.  The Dixon brothers seem pretty tight to me…would Merle truly sell out his brother?  It’s going to be interesting and a great mirror to the entire showdown that’s being set up by the end of this episode.  The two camps are going to collide and it’s not going to be pretty.

The episodes closing with the rescue party coming to stop out front of the Woodbury gates as a heartbeat like thudding music (which reminded me a lot of something from Dawn of the Dead) plays is a great set up for what is sure to be an action packed episode 8.

The episodes title “When the Dead Come Knocking” can be applied to a few things here.  The most obvious is that great sequence in the cabin where the poor hapless owner meets his end being bait for the walkers outside.  But there’s also the fight that Glenn goes through and succeeds in defeating the monster.  He answers the need for survival.  There’s also Michonne’s appearance at the prison and what that leads to.  There’s Milton’s answer he finally receives, and of course the gang getting ready to “knock on the gate.”

Episode 7 is an important entry into the third season.  I can’t wait to see what happens next. 

The Walking Dead

Episode 3.5

“Say the Word”

Review by Jessica Dwyer

SPOILERS AHOY!!!

Say The Word is an episode about what I feel is disillusion on many levels for various characters.  It’s not a happy episode by any stretch.  Even though we have moments within it that are supposed to be happy you just get a feeling that it’s going to be short lived.  But we’ll take them because we want our band of heroes to be happy after all the tragedy that’s gone on.

One major moment comes when we see the first glimpse of Penny.  The Governor is brushing her hair and it seems that he’s actually tamed his zombie daughter.  The scene is tranquil at first, but something seems off.  As he’s brushing her hair and a chunk of her scalp comes away everything changes and Penny’s zombie nature is shown.  We also see that Penny’s teeth have been removed.   The Governor’s child to him is something he’s holding on to.  A hope against hope he can have the child back.  This idea will no doubt be taken from him eventually but he’s holding onto the hope that he can have his child returned to him as she was, possibly cured.

This delusion is something similar to what Herschel had in his head during the time at the farm, and we saw how that all worked out…

Andrea’s delusion is her sense of Woodbury and her inability to see that there is something truly off about the place.  Michonne is desperate to get her to wake up to what her gut is telling her, but Andrea just doesn’t want to listen.  And so what happens is Michonne, a loner typically, leaves her behind as the dead are one thing she knows how to deal with.  They’ve got one goal, to eat you.  The living are an entirely different threat and something that you can’t trust because you don’t know what they going to attack with…words or weapons.

Andrea’s delusion is shattered as she sees the truth of Woodbury and the bloodthirsty nature of The Governor and his cronies.  She also realizes that The Governor’s brand of entertainment gives its own dangerous illusion to his townspeople by making a game of the Walkers and not showing how truly deep a threat they are.

Even though they have yet to meet face to face I think this episode is a great mirror for Rick and The Governor.   They now have both lost their wives.  They both are trying to protect the people they feel are their responsibility.  And this new world has broken both their minds.

Rick’s downward spiral is shown in the first moments we see him.  He’s unresponsive, checked out of reality and going down a deep dark path to destruction.  This becomes a reality when he suddenly bolts, grabs an axe and starts bloodily chopping zombies to bits.   He’s not focused on the newborn or even Carl, at this point his entire world is shattered and he’s lost the only thing that kept him going in the first place.  Add to that he believes she died thinking  he hated her and that he’s the reason she died in the first place with the pressure of making her have the baby…Rick’s mind snaps.  He’s got no fear left for himself, and you almost think that he wants one of the Walkers he’s slaughtering to kill him.

It falls upon Daryl to take the reins and to ensure the baby has a fighting chance.  This is a scene I think important for fans of Norman Reedus and the character he’s created.  Daryl has lost enough at this moment.  And while he doesn’t cry you can tell by his determination that this baby isn’t going to be die that he’s felt every bit of tragedy we’ve all witnessed.  Maggie as well takes it upon herself to keep the baby alive and goes with Daryl to find formulae and supplies.

The final minutes of the episode are some of the most telling of the delusional thread that is connecting the characters and the mirror universe of the two camps.  It’s also some of the most disturbing I think that’s happened of the show.

Daryl’s joking naming of the child as “Little Ass-kicker” and the groups smiles amidst the prison’s dark and dank surroundings was sort of amazing (also this will no doubt spur a number of photo ops requests for Reedus to be holding babies at conventions).  It’s a picture of hope in the middle of horror.  The reverse is happening back at Woodbury with the barbaric and dangerous fighting games going on in the middle of an idyllic town.  As Andrea witnesses some of the dark underbelly of Woodbury she’s seeing what the world has become in the middle of the outbreak.  And it’s not picket fences and lemonade.   The delusion is shattered and the mirror is reversed.

I think this is one of the more powerful episodes of the series.  The many different levels The Walking Dead works on is shown here and especially those of this season.  It’s leading up to what shall be an epic moment when The Governor and Rick meet face to face.  But what’s going to happen when that occurs?  I feel that Rick’s story is going to be a hard one to watch after such a heroic character loses his way as he has most definitely gone down a path he may never recover from.  In fact, Rick’s final scenes in this episode are some of the most disturbing of the series.

Unless I’m mistaken the bloated Walker that Rick discovers has eaten Lori’s remains.  And I think Rick, even insane, has figured this out too.  And so in his lunacy fueled rage, Rick takes his revenge on the Walker and then takes his knife to the creature.  I took from this a couple things.   One, perhaps Rick realized that Lori died having her stomach cut open and this was his way of inflicting that pain on the creatures he sees responsible for her death.  Or…and this is the grisly one…did he hope to find her remains inside the creature?  (shudder)   There’s no answer other than that of Rick’s raspy “Hello?” to the telephone’s ringing.

The Walking Dead

Walk With Me

Episode 3 Review

By Jessica Dwyer

Slightly Spoilery

 The third episode of the third season of AMC’s The Walking Dead makes a daring choice not often seen in a series, especially this one.  The entire episode focuses on Andrea and Michonne and it is through their eyes that we are introduced to the Governor and the disturbingly idyllic Woodbury.  We don’t see any of Rick and the prison team in the entire length of the show.

It’s an amazing episode and David Morrissey delivers as darkly charming a character as I’d hope as The Governor.  There’s something hiding behind his eyes, something very wrong.  As the episode progresses we realize that he’s as ruthless as we expected.  I think we’re going to see this Governor certainly as a mirror for what Rick can become and in some ways already has.  There’s no denying he’s trying to keep his town safe but the method to his definite madness is more terrifying than the zombies.

We are also introduced back to Merle Dixon played by the always fun Michael Rooker.  Merle seems to have found a home in Woodbury and appears to be a work in progress by the Governor who its seems is trying to polish him up some.  He’s also got a nearly Ash like knife hand weapon.  It will be interesting to see what happens when he comes face to face with Daryl again.  It’s also interesting how Merle and Andrea have a new connection as they both have been left behind by Rick and the group.  I’m curious to see if Merle will try to play that angel a bit harder.

The episode is shot beautifully once again, showing that The Walking Dead feels like a one hour movie a week than a TV series.  The final shot of the episode is also amazing and will make the fans of the comic quite happy.   It hints at even more twisted things to come.

I personally can’t wait for Rick and the Governor to come face to face, it’s going to be killer.