Walking Dead Season 5 (No Comic Spoilers) Part 3

[Free Northman Reborn]

My hope, given that the writers seem determined to go down the "Rick temptation" path, is that Rick comes to his senses before he sleeps with Jessie.

Because that will be a crossed line that will change his character arc irrevocably. Rick the "adultery participant" is not a tag he can escape. No matter how much he regrets it later.

Anyway, that's my fervent hope. Whether the writers have a different idea, only time will tell.

[Consigliere]

My hope, given that the writers seem determined to go down the "Rick temptation" path, is that Rick comes to his senses before he sleeps with Jessie.

Because that will be a crossed line that will change his character arc irrevocably. Rick the "adultery participant" is not a tag he can escape. No matter how much he regrets it later.

Anyway, that's my fervent hope. Whether the writers have a different idea, only time will tell.

If the writers do go that route, I'm guessing that they find a way to absolve Rick and Jessie of the adulterer tag. We are all waiting for the shoe to drop in Alexandria - perhaps an attack by the Wolves. I could see Jessie's husband being killed, leaving the writers free to pursue a relationship between Rick and Jessie without the moral conundrum.

[Elba the Intoner]

OK, I am finally caught up with this thread (which went off the rails for a few pages but seems to be back on track) and here are some of my thoughts:

Didn't it say in the show that the termites were the ones leaving the markings? Their leader said it in one of the episodes. Also, morgan was led to the school area/courtyard where the termites had their camp set up, so that makes sense as well.

As far as alexandria, i find it hard to believe that they have been there peaceful for the whole time. being that close to d.c. youd think other groups or people would have found it by now. Also, thought it was really stupid how they in the city lock up ALL of the guns. I can understand them not letting rick and company have them, but for no one to have any at all seems like a major safety risk. I think the show will go towards this town being safe, but being threatened by another group. Maybe the one that took down noah's place in richmond?

Yeah I haven't seen this mentioned too much so far, but it was clear that Noah's town in Richmond had been attacked by outsiders and then they found a group of walkers cut in half with "W" on their foreheads. We have seen a walker outside of Alexandria with that same W so it does look like there is this outside threat that attacked the Richmond community that is now nearby the Alexandria community.

Yeah, Eugene, Gabriel and Tara are sort of useless and annoying right now. I could do without them. I don't think any of them have spoken more than a word in the last two episodes. I figure Eugene and Gabriel will stick around, though, since they have too much story potential. Gabriel can go either way, helping to cool off the anger of people or being the doomsday preacher. Eugene can be the standard tv scientist trope who is somehow an expert in all things. Tara....she's probably served her purpose so far, with her best asset being adding diversity to the cast. Still, I don't think one (or all!) of these three being killed off by the J blender gun would add all that much drama for the group, specifically Rick. It's got to be someone where Rick can emo about how his blind caution gave the weapon to kill so-and-so.

Yes to all the books! Which further makes me think Eugene will stick around because they will need their token scientist to decipher them since he's constantly explaining how he's smarter than everyone.

Is there a still of the J blender gun that someone can link to? I don't remember noticing a J on it. Anyway, if the show goes with a storyline like this, I agree with others that think it will be one of the original 5 and my money is on Glen. Rick bonded with Glen from the get go. I also think there may have been some foreshadowing of Glen's death, as the show seems to do things like this from time to time. For example Glen was the next one in line to be killed at Terminus. If Glen starts really pushing the moral, "we've got to keep our humanity" stance then he's a goner for sure.

Lol, the only reason the Termites didn't have Rick's guns is because Carol came in blasting before they could get to them. But they had watched Rick bury the gun. This time, Rick hides a gun right next to a house and doesn't even look around to see if he's being watched despite the fact that there is a house right there and they are apparently ten feet from the front gate. Later, he doesn't ask anything about the exiles, even though he clearly remembers that loose ends always come back to bite people in the ass.

The gun is clearly going to come back into play. Otherwise there is no point in making sure the audience sees that the hidden gun is very identifiable. It's pretty clear that the J will help him identify who stole the gun, and we're speculating who that gun will shoot.

Good point. In fact, Rick knows better than anyone what loose ends can do because of the prisoner (Andrew was his name I think) who he threw outside and thought the walkers got to him but then the prisoner came back and set off the alarms at the prison and set up a walker attack that ended in Lori's death. It does seem strange that Rick isn't more concerned about that. I am in line with the others who think that Enid took the gun as she was the one Carl spotted looking out the winder of the abandoned house before the group entered Alexandria.

Carol did what she had to do. If that kid would have blabbed that she was stealing guns that would've caused a shitstorm and blown her cover as a gullible do-gooder. Carol needs to remain invisible like she said. That scene was great.

This isn't a season or two ago, however. Characters change... That's a good thing.

I hated what Carol did in this episode and I think she could have come up with some other way of handling it. She was once an abused wife and now she is pulling one of the most despicable plays from the child predator 101 handbook? And I really have to question whether her invisible happy housewife routine is fooling anyone. If Aaron had been spying on the group for a while then he knows that Carol is way more capable that what she is portraying. I'm surprised he hasn't said anything to her about it. I wonder if he has mentioned this to Deanna. Also, I kind of get the feeling that Deanna knows it is a sham too but it's too early to tell if this will be the case or not.

I think people are overreacting to Rick's gun grab. I didn't view it as, "Rick is going to gun down that lady's husband in cold blood!" so much as "Rick grabbed the rebel gun to remind himself that he can't get too comfortable, and Jessie if anything represents the comfort of this new society."

She, and his desire for her, might be weakening his resolve and touching the hidden gun that he specifically has in case they need to forcefully take over Alexandria reminds him that his resolve cannot be weakened. It's why he immediately went to the wall, to remind himself that they are what's important. Not the people of Alexandria but the walls.

That's how I think of it at least.

I guess this makes sense and is more in character than this Rick "hey I am going to take this hot girl and I don't care that she is married, and in fact maybe I should just get rid of her husband right now so I can have my way" mentality that it looks like they are leading towards. I could see it if it was a few weeks or a month into their arrival and we got solid info that Jesse's and Pete's marriage is really bad, and though they are hinting that Pete is maybe an alcoholic (the little interplay with him getting the drinks and Jessie trying to stop him) and perhaps being abusive, it's just too soon and we don't know this yet. They only just got to Alexandria like two days ago in their timeline.

ETA I almost forgot to mention that my first thought when seeing the red A stamped on Rick's hand was the Scarlett letter, a mark of an adulterer. It immediately made me sit up and take notice and this is why I think they writers are clearly mean for Rick to go this route intentionally. Only a moment later did I think about how it is supposed to be and A for Alexandria, and then a while later I remembered that that was the boxcar in Terminus that they were herded into. I can only imagine that Rick thought of Terminus when he saw the A stamped on his hand.

[The Mother of The Others]

Yeah there's a traffic jam of symbolism with the letter stamping of people. It can be all of those, too. If I were Rick I would have had a Vietnam flashback to that train car when the A was applied to my skin by the kid. For a fraction of a second I did actually see the Scarlet Letter reference you caught but almost instantly forgot about it because I thought it was just my internal mind-clutter acting up. But in light of more recent events, hell yes it makes sense as Adulterer, and the dad might even be a swinger too. He has been identified on the aftershow as a porch dick, after all. And then you've got the other way of looking at the A, which is to contrast it with the W they found on that walker. This would be a continuation of the narrrative that there's a tougher world outside these people's fence and then inside the gates they have their silly version of stamping people that's harmless because they're harmless.

[Ser Cold Fingers]

I just want to know when Daryl will shower. For the love of...

And wash they dye out & get a haircut!

[dbunting]

I don't think killing off Jesse's husband helps any at all. She has two children to care for. Dealing with them and the trauma of their dad being killed would more than enough to handle without mom suddenly shagging "uncle Rick".