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shimmershae · 2 years ago

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My thoughts on the Walking Dead Series Finale, Rest in Peace.

Or did they change the title?

No matter. Spoilers ahead. So tread carefully through the lengthy landmine of my consciousness, lol.

Placing behind a cut because reasons. Oh and typos abound because it’s 3 am and I haven’t gotten a good night’s sleep since this episode so.

Some general thoughts about Season 11 and TWD in general—much like the season, this is gonna be all over the place so BEWARE and read accordingly

· Carol and Daryl deserved a better ending than that.

· Except for the images of all the characters we’ve loved and the ones we’ve lost along the way saying “we’re the ones that live”? I basically hated that Richonne coda. It was too long, too detailed, and too ambitious for a show that all too frequently in its latter season dropped the ball on the little things that would have paid off big.

· I’ve lost count of how many fucking time jumps this show has taken over the span of its entire run, but I do know there have been too many. Not only that but they’re always skipping valuable character moments and arriving at their “end destination” without any build up because, yep, they skipped it. What could have been forgivable a few times turned into one of this show’s biggest liabilities.

· So many characters just disappeared with little to no explanation. Off the top of my head? Heath. Cyndie. Hell. All of Oceanside was hand waved away this season. Virgil. Like did the dude die or what? And what of Annie? Negan’s insta-wife carrying his redemption-baby? After having comparable screen time to the show’s leading lady (c’mon, you know it’s true, especially in 11A and 11B), she just vanished.

· Speaking of screen time, what in the actual fuck were TIIC thinking sidelining their leading lady, their most talented actress, the heart and soul of the whole damn show? As Carol, Melissa McBride is an incomparable actress. Absolutely phenomenal. And as one of two OGs, she should rightfully have figured very prominently in the main storyline threads this entire season, not just had her appearances sprinkled over the last 8 episodes.

· Inexplicably, it seems Carol’s screen time was “given” to Maggie so that she might have a circular argument with Negan for 2/3’s of the season and only see any real forward momentum and emotional realism in the last handful of episodes. The final episode really. Given that she has her own spinoff with Negan, it makes very little sense and made for an extremely dull first 2/3’s of the season watching them basically meep, meep like the Road Runner on a treadmill going nowhere.

· About that “heart to heart”—I cannot overstate how much it pains me to call any moment between Maggie and Negan that, especially when the pair most deserving of a bonafide heart to heart only got the skim milk version when they should have gotten the full fat, vitamin D version-- in the final episode, it was overdue and I loved that Maggie didn’t pull any punches with Negan because the man murdered her husband with more glee than most children open presents Christmas morning and that’s saying something. He can seek redemption all the day long and keep “proving” himself. But does that mean he will ever “deserve” Maggie’s forgiveness? Personally, I don’t think so and feel it is selfish to want it. Negan suffering the realization of what he cost Maggie and Hershel frankly isn’t enough, IMHO. I don’t care how much the fangirls cry about his woobie face. He’s come a long way and morphed into a character I find multi-faceted and entertaining if not wholly likable during Angela Kang’s tenure and I appreciate that. But as his exclusion from Team Family’s Thanksgiving-esque feast following their last battle proves at least to me? He’s a bad man that’s done some good things not a good man that simply lost his way because lovelies? That road was lost ten thousand detours ago.

· Random observation. Or more like questions, lol. Just who in the hell prepared that big ass feast Team Family enjoyed in the finale to the tune of Stevie Nicks’ Landslide? Who had the energy? It couldn’t have been too long after the battle because generally Walker bite victims don’t tend to linger terribly long, unless TIIC threw their usual conventions out the window with Rosita. Which, come to think of it, wouldn’t be outside the norm. They’re always changing things to suit their current needs.

· Ah, Rosita. I knew she’d been bitten soon as she fell into that sea of Walkers and the fact she didn’t have any torn or disheveled clothing was an eye-rolling moment for me. Also that she wasn’t bleeding because that, to me, suggests the bite didn’t break the skin and you know. Maybe I haven’t paid that much attention to all the various Walker bites in the past, sometimes I simply look away because of the gruesomeness of it all, but usually it takes a break in skin for infection to spread. I guess she got the Bob treatment, come to think of it.

· All that nitpicking aside, Rosita’s sendoff actually had some very lovely moments. Once I pushed back on how pissed I was that TIIC were leaving another child motherless. Were killing a WOC who had only recently enjoyed added dimension in her character and story (although…Rosita, like Carol, seemed be to relocated to the back of the class in Season 11 after having much more impactful screen time in Season 10, a far superior season). Her goodbye scenes with the people she loved, particularly Eugene, hit hard. But even those didn’t tug at my heart near as much as her trying to soak up every last second she could of her remaining time with Coco. That made me ugly cry.

· Know what made me ugly cry that I was in no way expecting? Luke’s death scene where Yumiko and Kelly and Magna and Connie were covered in his blood and their tears, sobbing as they fought futilely to save him. I don’t know. I wasn’t attached to him. I liked him well enough in the very small doses we got of him. But I didn’t actually expect to cry over him dying. Especially since we hadn’t seen him all season and he was obviously brought back to be sacrificed for a bloody death. Angel Theory, Eleanor Matsuura, Nadia Hilker, and Lauren Ridloff were very convincing in their love and grief for him.

· Carol and Daryl were no less convincing in their worry for the little Ass Kicker they both love but to be honest? Judith coming to in the nick of time and finding superheroine strength while being seemingly severely injured (I mean, she had blood coming out of her mouth) to rescue Uncle Daryl in the opening scene took me out of the moment so bad I had a hard time taking the ensuing scenes with her life being in jeopardy seriously. That and she might as well be wearing chain mail because Scott Gimple done fucked up once (and many times afterward, he’s a rambling, riddler of a perpetual fuck up) before by killing Carl and you’d hope AMC would have learned their lesson by now. I personally think not, but let’s move on from that, m’kay? I’ll address more on the Carol and Daryl front later. If I do so now, that’ll be all I talk about because I have a lot of feelings.

· Was Jules’ death a callback to Noah’s in that revolving door because it kind of felt like it?

· Sorry I’m bouncing around a lot here but these “reviews” of mine are always stream of consciousness and hey. I’m basically a human Dug, lol.

· So Daryl wakes up in that hospital bed with a massive shiner and gauze wrapped around his head. How’d he get there? Who else felt cheated by not getting to bear witness to Carol seeing her Pookie passed out cold on that hospital lobby floor alongside Judith? Who do you think she went to first? Judith or Daryl? Who helped her get them to safety? She’s the only one that has been shown to have the bare minimum of medical experience and it makes little sense she wasn’t taking lead on amputating Luke’s leg, at the very least assisting; I’m not discounting Connie’s bravery. Anybody that’s managed to survive in their world and make their disability their “superpower” would have to be, but I don’t see her taking that initiative. Assisting, yes. But holding the knife? No. Same thing with Kelly. So that part rang a little false for me but whatever. Anyway. Don’t you love how we have all these time skips and scene cuts that skip the parts we’re always curious about? Just me then? Okay.

· I can’t be the only person distracted by the increasing visibility of Norman Reedus’s real life tats. I mean. Daryl keeps having all this ink showing up, continuity be damned.

· Carol stroking Judith’s hair while she’s lying on that stretcher makes me wish we’d gotten more scenes of the two of them together. Maybe one where Judith, missing her mom, asked Aunt Carol to brush her hair at bedtime. Maybe even braid it. I mean, they established in one of the earlier eps Carol had been taking care of the kids in Daryl’s absence. They definitely could have spared a minute or two giving us a heartwarming scene like that to show a few things—how much Carol loves Judith despite trying to keep her somewhat at arms’ length, how very much she still misses Sophia, and where she was sleeping in Daryl’s apartment when he wasn’t there and if she and Dog were still missing him and sharing cuddles. 😉

· They really missed the boat big time not having Carol help Siddiq in the infirmary at Alexandria. I mean, sometimes I felt like they were hinting at it. Remember when Siddiq called Carol on the radio for Ezekiel and Dante answered? He was like “she’s right here.” I’ll forgive them not doing more with that though because Season 10 was chockful of Carol and she had so much going on. I didn’t feel the need to fix-it fic her into the fold because she was quite literally the fabric of the whole season but again. Let’s not dwell on that because feelings. I got lots of them.

· Mercer’s reunion with Princess was cute. She scaled that big man like a Sequoia, lol. It reminded me of how much I loved the idea of them earlier in the season. I really hate they got the fast-forward insta-couple treatment thanks to those oh-so-lovely time jumps and scene cuts because their courtship would have been something else. Literally so much of Maggie and Negan’s storyline could have been skipped over in favor of them and it wouldn’t have made a damn bit of difference other than the audience actually being more entertained and less exasperated.

· Okay though. I have to wonder two things about how the fuck Lydia and Aaron came to be back at the Commonwealth. How in the world did Lydia manage to stay upright much less walk with as much blood loss as she sustained? Also? That blood loss had to have her smelling like a Happy Meal to those Walkers. I mean, logic says so anyway, but I guess we all know logic doesn’t live here in this place.

· Rosita finding and rescuing Coco and there being a baby each for her, Eugene, and Father Gabriel made me laugh, not gonna lie.

· The callback to Shane blocking Rick’s door with the stretcher was a nice touch.

· Come on. Am I the only one LMAO at the obvious doll legs and feet in those shots of Eugene and Father Gabriel climbing that pipe? I mean, it was definitely distracting. Again, I ask how the fuck a Walker bit through the thick material of Rosita’s hoodie. It’s not like those assholes have shark teeth. Oh well, abandoning all measures of believability, I enjoyed how much of a fight Rosita put up and was inwardly cheering her on even as I had to refrain from rolling my eyes.

· We were robbed of witnessing Carol and Daryl’s reaction to seeing Lydia. Robbed, I tell you. Then again, we’ve been straight up pick pocketed all season.

· Negan looking concerned for Judith and flanking Lydia was an obvious blink and you miss it ploy to remind us he’s not all bad and it worked a tiny smidgen because JDM’s a softie with kids.

· I love that Aaron has come around where Lydia’s concerned. She’s a sweetheart of a kid that deserves all the love and Aaron has a lot of love to give at his core and experience with the situation she’s now in but dammit. Carol was right there and Melissa and Cassady would have literally brought us to our knees with nothing more than another tearful hug to mirror their last embrace. Why AMC? Why?

· Gimple’s version of Negan could never. That apology was a long damn time coming. Long damn time.

· Finally, I don’t feel resentment towards Eugene’s scenes this episode. Like for so very much of this season, Eugene and Maggie have been Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man, gobbling up all the airtime with stories we felt no emotional connection to or were just tired of hearing about because nothing novel happened but in this episode? They were stripped down to the heart of the matter. Somewhere along the way I fell a little bit in love with Eugene’s friendship with Rosita. I never expected to. There was an ick/cringe factor in the very early days. That changed about the time Rosita firmly friend-zoned him. I felt sympathy for the guy then even as I cheered Rosita on for saying the words he needed to hear. So him sussing out the truth of Rosita being bitten and her reaction to that? It broke my heart more than I ever thought it would. Their “I love you’s” were sweet and made me tear up and they were shaded so much differently than another pair of “I love you’s” that touched a nerve with a certain faction of fandom. I bet you can all guess who I’m talking about without my naming names. 😉. I mean, it’s not the first time the two relationships have been in direct juxtaposition with each other, demonstrating the true differences between platonic and romantic love.

· The silent look that passed between Daryl and Carol as they sat vigil at Judith’s beside was intense and full of all the things they’ve never dared speak between them. No two do it better than Melissa McBride and Norman Reedus and that’s 100% fact. That said, the time for their long, long, long overdue “heart to heart” should have been right there in that very moment. Or at least the beginning of it. Because all that chilly distance Daryl’s been keeping between them all season melted with that look at her. He already knew his feelings. He tried to tell her then show her why it wasn’t like that before the cave in. And being faced again with the fragility and brevity of the one life they’re given? It just seemed like the perfect time for confessions to be made, even if they were in the form of a simple “I can’t lose you” echoed back to Carol this time. For apologies to be spoken and accepted. But the lazy AMC scribes relied on the power and magic of Melissa and Norman’s chemistry to do all the work for them like they have basically all season and seriously. Fuck that. Those intense gazes have lit me on fire each and every time all season but goddammit. We’re past time for words here. They’re the OGs. The OG ship. The ship to end all ships on TWD whether some people want to admit it or not. The least they warrant is an actual honest conversation where they stop dancing around the hot pink elephant in the room—they are in fucking love, your honor. Anyway. Let me nudge these thoughts along before I write ten more pages about that.

· Carol’s stroking Judith’s hair again and I can’t help feeling that the walls she’d erected around her heart to protect herself after losing Lizzie/Mika/Carl/Henry started melting like an ice cream cone on a hot summer’s day because she hasn’t been shown to be that tactile with Judith since the Grove. In that respect, what comes later, her staying to help care for the kids, isn’t as much a WTF moment as it could have been.

· The ensuing moment, however? Judith’s comment to Daryl—“Sorry I didn’t tell you before. I was scared that you would leave, too” and Daryl’s response of “I’m right here” definitely adds to the WTFuckery of Daryl’s ultimate exit.

· Ezekiel’s pontificating is an obvious setup for what comes next for him. And like, it’s been obvious all season. But I will say this. I personally resent the fuck out of him leapfrogging Mercer, a figure that’s already been established to have celebrity status with the people of the Commonwealth, someone that’s been there since the beginning, and having a leadership position. Their positions should have been switched but again. Logic has no rightful home in this place.

· It’s the small things. Carol and Daryl barely letting each other out of sight the whole episode makes my heart sing.

· Father Gabriel letting the people inside the walls, especially after the way he was introduced, really makes it strike home how much he’s changed.

· There would have been something poetic about Walker Lance ending Pamela, not gonna lie. But then we wouldn’t have gotten Carol being Queen of Sass with her so.

· Okay. The scene where they’re trying to corral all the Walkers to end them should leave me with more than the thought of “Wow, what a waste of all that fuel, it’s not like there’s an endless supply.” It was anticlimactic but whatever. I’m not here for the fights or explosions or the damn zombies. They could have mentioned it in a line of dialogue and I would have been largely satisfied at this point because we’ve lost so much time this season with so many characters. Carol was criminally underutilized until 11C. I’ll never forgive TIIC for that. Ever.

· “We already had to make an ugly decision. Kept you alive.” LMAO, I love it when Carol’s a savage queen. “…At least we don’t have to worry about who gets your house.”

· Glenn was beautiful, Maggie. So beautiful. I still miss my baby.

· The scene between Maggie and Negan where she tells him she can’t forgive him? It is literally the best scene Maggie has had all season. I don’t want to remember Glenn like that either.

· Who cooked a Thanksgiving feast? Who?

· Eugene watching Rosita with Coco. Mercer and Princess cuddled up. Carol smiling and laughing. Dog. All to the tune of Landslide. My heart is so full.

· Rosita watching it all and confessing to Father Gabriel about being bitten with Judith noticing had me teary again and I’ve always been in the WTF camp with Rosita and Gabriel. Cailey’s little face, though. The child has a bright future.

· Carol and Maggie helping Rosita to bed and saying their goodbyes. The way Rosita seemed to squeeze Carol a little extra hard. I mean, everybody seems to just sink into a Carol hug and I’m pretty sure that’s all thanks to Melissa. Wouldn’t you? I know I would.

· “We’ll see you again someday.” When Father Gabe said that to Rosita, I let out a little sob and I never liked them as a ship. I was full on crying when Rosita told Eugene she was glad it was him with her in the end.

· Another fucking time jump. When will they ever end?

· Eugene and Max naming their baby Rosie was a sweet touch.

· I still can’t get over them making Ezekiel Governor instead of second in command to Mercer.

· Sounds like Daryl and Connie only see each other when he visits the different communities. I have many words for that but I won’t say them, lol.

· Lydia looks happy. She deserves it.

· Negan giving Judith her compass back—I’d honestly forgotten she gave it to him, it feels like forever ago. So I’m guessing he finally left like Carol tried to get him to when Maggie first returned. That’s what I got out of that scene anyway.

· They didn’t show us the whole memorial wall so all I can see is what looks like NIE, but I’m guessing Annie and the baby didn’t make it. Which is honestly too bad. In spite of her convenient insta-existence, I liked her.

· So. This time jump starts at the Commonwealth, goes to Alexandria where we see Carol with her beautiful short curls and the kids are there. The way Gracie greets Judith makes it plain Judith and RJ aren’t at Alexandria anymore. Carol’s little running hug of Aaron is adorable. Lydia and Elijah seem to go back and forth between the communities. Carol and Daryl, too, as evidenced by them traveling from Alexandria to Hilltop. Sorry for the run-on, thinking out loud commentary, lol. I’m just trying to piece everything together.

· Oh my heart. There’s no longer distance or the symbolism of distance between Carol and Daryl. They’re on the same side of the river, literally side by side. I mean, they’ve been that way the whole episode but this is different and you all know why.

· Can’t help being a little resentful of Maggie’s talk about the future that leads Daryl away from Carol’s side. Because ugh. All that talk of “we have a future” and him spending chunks of it away from her. Ugh. Did I say that already? I don’t care.

· Carol saying it’s a beautiful day to head out and Daryl looking right at her as he agrees. I’m crying.

· Nowhere in the fuck of ever has Carol expressed any interest in having Hornsby’s job so fuck whoever decided to retcon that into the narrative.

· “It’s not like we’ve never gonna see each other again.” But can you promise that, Daryl? Can you? Tomorrow isn’t promised. The world is shit sometimes. I hate TIIC for separating them and for why? Why? I know why, spinoff reasons, but narratively why? Make it make sense. You cannot. It’s not like he’s going out to look for Rick and Michonne because a year has passed and it’s apparent he hasn’t ventured all that much further than their established communities. He’s been out “in the frontier” but not so far out that he and Carol and the kids don’t have regular contact.

· So. They left Hilltop and went back to the Commonwealth? Did Carol ride home with him on his bike? Did the kids take a wagon or train? Somebody explain this to me like I’m 5 years old, please. I can’t help thinking she clung to him on the bike ride home, neither one of them really talking about what Maggie proposed because they didn’t want goodbye to be even closer and then they had that emotional talk by the river and oh my heart. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts.

· They’re beautiful. I love them. Now and forever.

· So what? Are the kids staying with Ezekiel now? Aunt Carol? I’m a little lost.

· Judith promising to keep an eye on Dog and Daryl having her promise to keep an eye on Carol. He loves her so much. It’s almost like…you know what? I swear to god if they went canon off-screen and had their first kiss and everything but exchanged those three words…

· Judith looking at Aunt Carol while telling Daryl he deserves a happy ending too is obviously a subtlety lost on a certain faction of shippers and I cannot fathom why because it is so very loud, lol.

· The fact that Judith called him Daryl instead of Uncle Daryl makes me think he’s still involved in their lives and loves them very much but he’s not involved in their everyday lives and he’s distancing himself from them. Then again, it could just be that Judith’s growing up because Cailey has grown so very much since she first started the show.

· Speaking of growing up, dwell on this little nugget. Daryl’s been in Judith’s life from the start. Rick was only there for maybe the first 3 years. Like the man has missed the entirety of RJ’s life and the majority of Judith’s and then they had Michonne leave them basically searching for a needle in a haystack, no guarantee she’d ever find him or make it back to them, and now she’s missed what? Almost 2 years of those babies’ lives? I know the storyline was steered a certain way because of Danai’s exit from the show but it will never sit well with me that a woman, fictional though she may be, would ever leave her children to go on a search that might lead to absolutely nothing in such a dangerous world. Especially with her history of losing Andre. By the time Michonne (and Rick) makes it back, those kids could be half grown and that’s sad AF.

· That hug between Ezekiel and Daryl was a weird touch but hey. Maybe they’ve made their peace with each other and their respective places in Carol’s life.

· I mean, Ezekiel took those kids with him to give Daryl some privacy saying goodbye to her so.

· Carol waiting by Daryl’s bike. 😊 ☹. She’s never shied away from showing Daryl affection in the past. Pre the Prison falling. She’s been more reticent and careful since then unless they’ve embraced. Then she’s clung to him like a lifeline she never wants to let go of. The way she fusses over him and his poncho seems domestic AF and like something a wife would do. Plus, it’s giving her a reason not to look directly into his eyes because she doesn’t want to risk falling apart like she did a little bit at the riverside. Honestly it feels like she’s trying desperately not to ask him to stay. With her.

· Daryl telling Carol he loves her is a huge deal. HUGE. Carol saying it back to him is just as big because Lizzie is the only person we’ve ever heard her say it to. And look. I think she is trying to inject some lightness into a heavy moment because despite what she said to him while they were sitting on that bench? She doesn’t want him to go. He doesn’t want to leave her. He looks like he wants to change her mind before he rides off. She wants to make it easier for him and I want to die.

· I don’t think anything will ever hurt me as bad as watching him ride off without her. FUCK AMC for that. Because it didn’t have to be that way, solo spinoff or not. They could have still left together. They could have shared those “I love you’s” and a kiss 12 years in the making. If this episode wasn’t a springboard for the spinoffs like Gimple claimed it wasn’t? Why not give us and them the whole enchilada? It’s been more than earned. They could have gone all in on them, finally made clear that they were IN LOVE, had them leave TOGETHER, and then cut to a shot where Daryl wakes up somewhere by himself and calls out her name or vice versa. Same result. Still painful AF to think of them spending any time apart. But not without hope because they weren’t separated willingly or by some asinine reason that wasn’t even explicitly spoken. But I guess we all know why AMC didn’t do that, don’t we?

· UGGGGGGHHHHHHHH.

· I’m not going to say too much about that coda. It was bad. The clips of dearly departed characters, though. The clips of all the people they and we loved and them saying “we’re the ones that live”? Those parts struck a chord and made my heart swell with remembered love for this show. They’re the parts that gave me chills. The other parts were dramatic but meh. Otherwise, I think having Rick’s voice crackle over a walkie talkie or just getting a glimpse of his silhouette or even having him wake up in a hospital bed again a la the very first episode would have been much more effective and not locked them into anything so far as the spinoff goes or given too much away. But that’s just me. Your mileage may very well vary. I did find it fitting it ending with that shot of Judith and RJ. So there’s that.

· Anywho. Those are just some of my thoughts and there’s a lot of them but this is just the tip of the iceberg. I won’t bore you with anymore tonight, lol. Er, this morning. Happy Thanksgiving, lovelies. I’m headed to catch a few hours’ sleep.

#The Walking Dead #Season 11 spoilers #Series Finale spoilers #things that make me cry #for reasons #my heart

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