The Walking Dead: TS-19

Spoilers for the episode

The Story:

The virus is explained a bit and not a lot else happens until the end of the episode.

Thoughts:

This episode starts with a flashback to when Rick was in the coma. Shane’s trying to get someone to help but the soldiers are shooting civilians and walkers alike.

He grabs a gurney to get Rick out but all the machines beep at him when he tries to pick Rick up. A soldier comes in and he hides.

He begs Rick to wake up or give him a sign that he’ll live. The power goes out and Shane blocks the door when walkers turn up. This is a useful scene because it shows you Shane’s not a completely awful person and you need that with all the bad stuff he’s going to do.

Back to the present and Jenna tells them a blood test is the price of admission and once the door is closed it stays closed.

They go underground and Jenna tells them he’s the only one left. Andrea complains about the blood the test because of course she does.

Then they have a party to celebrate. They give Carl some wine and eat a lot but Shane brings them down by wanting to know where all the other scientists are. Lots of people left to be with their families, the others bolted when the military got overrun and the rest were suicides. Jenna’s kept working just trying to do some good. Glen calls Shane a buzz kill.

They all enjoy their showers again apart from Andrea. She starts throwing up and is all depressed because there’s nothing left. Every thing’s gone. Dale tells her they can make a new start.

Drunk Rick goes to thank Jenna and tells him he doesn’t know what it’s like out there. I hate to break it to you Rick but it gets so much worse after this. Rick kept all his doubts in to lead the group but is now unloading them on Jenna.

Shane creepily watches Lori browse the books. Lori is still angry that Shane told her Rick was dead. She’s being irrational and could probably do with being a bit more understanding about the awful position Shane was in but he needs to back off and let it go.

He then forces himself on her even though she tells him to stop and she has to scratch him to get him off her. I wonder if everyone would agree this would have been rape if he’d kept going because she tells him to stop or if we’d have a game of thrones situation where no one seems to know what rape is. It’s bad when an attempted rape is refreshing because you can point to it and say that’s bad behaviour.

The next morning everyone’s hung over. Glen doesn’t want to drink ever again. Shane says he scratched himself in his sleep and he says it wasn’t like him at all while looking at Lori. That sounds like it should be an apology. Like him saying he wasn’t himself but it comes off more like he’s blaming her for defending herself.

Jenna shows them the brain of test subject 19 after being bitten. The first event invades the brain like meningitis and causes death. The second event causes resurrection and the time varies (this is probably plot convenience so they can have walkers come to life when they need it). It restarts the brain stem to get them up and moving but with no memories or personality. It could be anything that causes it. Virus, microbe, wrath of god. He has no communication with anyone else on the planet.

Dale asks about a clock on the wall counting down. Jenna says that’s when the generators run out of power. They ask what happens then and the computer answers decontamination but doesn’t say that means they’re all going to get blown up.

They head down to look at the generators and the lights go out and air has stopped circulating.

Jenna looks at a photo of his wife telling her he did the best he could.

They ask him what’s happening and he tells them the building is prioritizing electricity because zone 5 is shutting itself down. Rick tells the others to get their stuff.

The French thought they were close to a solution but they ran out of power.

At the 30 minute point he seals them in. The CDC has a lot of nasty viruses so the building needs to be destroyed . The air is going to be set on fire and they’ll die painless deaths.

He points out he told them those doors wouldn’t open again. I think you need to be more explicit with what will happen and the consequences.

They attack the door with axes but don’t even make a dent.

Jenna says those doors could withstand a rocket launcher and Daryl comes back with ‘well your head ain’t’ and attacks him with an axe. It’s the best moment in the episode.

Jenna carries on rambling. ‘This is our extinction event’ and it’s an easier way to go.

Then it’s Shane’s turn to attack Jenna but he’s got a shot gun. Rick points out if he kills Jenna then they’re all dead. They start fighting and Rick wins.

Jenna says there’s no hope but Rick says he’s lying because he chose to stay. So then we get some Jenna back story. He made a promise to his wife who was test subject 19. She was way smarter than him. Wow I think we might have found that rare couple where the man loves his wife for her intelligence rather than the other way round. And I found it in the walking dead of all places.

They want a choice to keep trying for as long as they can. Jenna’s wife didn’t have a choice but he does. They just want a chance.

Jenna releases the door but the ones on the building above are still locked.

Rick’s grateful but Jenna says a time will come when Rick won’t be.

Jackie decides to stay and so does Andrea but Dale refuses to leave without her.

Up top they’re struggling to get out the bullet proof windows. Until Carol pulls a grenade out of her handbag that she found in Rick’s pocket when she washed his clothes. See I told you it was a plot point. Although she really shouldn’t be stealing other people’s weapons.

Andrea tells Dale to go. He says you don’t get to come into someone’s life and make them care and then check out. She can’t have Dale’s death on her conscience but would it really matter you’ve only got minutes to live. Just close you’re eyes and pretend he’s not there. I hate Dale for making her live.

If I was Jackie I’d be pissed no one cared enough about me to make an ultimatum like that. Why couldn’t she have survived and Andrea died.

The explosion rips through the building. That’s going to draw a lot of walkers.

This episode was again light on walkers and I think the money it cost for special effects to blow up the building was probably to blame. It really wasn’t worth it.

I find the whole CDC thing weird. It didn’t feel necessary, like they felt they had to explain the virus when they really didn’t.

Despite that it’s not a bad episode just a bit boring and there wasn’t enough Daryl attacking people and being insensitive to make it entertaining. The scene when they got sealed in was the best scene because so much was going on at once. It felt desperate.

As a season final I guess they wanted a big ending but they should have kept it focused on the walkers.

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