The Walking Dead: Vatos

Spoilers for the episode

The Story:

Rick faces off against a gang in the city who also want the guns while Jim gets sunstroke and starts digging.

Thoughts:

This episode starts with Amy and Andrea fishing in a boat having a conversation about their father and they start crying which apparently scares the fish. Their dad told them that so they wouldn’t cry in the boat. And doesn’t that show just how annoying Andrea is.

Then it’s up to Dale on top of his caravan watching Jim digging holes.

In the city Daryl’s just discovered his brother had chopped off his own hand to escape the cuffs so decides to shoot T-Dog but Rick pulls a gun because we have to save him.

But Daryl decides not to shoot and instead picks up the hand for some reason. They don’t have a surgeon to reattach it so it’s kind of pointless unless he’s going to bury it and have a mini funeral if he can’t find him. The best part though is that he wraps it in a piece of cloth and puts it in Glen’s backpack.

They start tracking Meryl and T-Dog does something right by picking up Dale’s tools. At least he’s a little bit useful.

Dale goes to see Jim who’s still digging and fails at getting him to stop.

Andrea and Amy come back with loads of fish and Dale ruins the mood with news of Jim and his digging.

Back to the search and Daryl starts calling for Meryl which Rick doesn’t like but Daryl’s all screw that. I agree with him this is the first season they probably don’t have enough money for more walkers and it’s not quite as brutal or tough to stay alive as it is in later seasons. That’s why there are so many useless people around.

Meryl despite being chained to a roof for a night so is dehydrated and starving. Then must have major blood loss from cutting off his own hand, even if he did use his belt as a tourniquet. Has managed to take out a few walkers and cauterized his own wound using gas and left the building.

Rick and Daryl argue about their next move while Glen gets nervous about the noise they’re making. Too late to try and get us worried about that, Daryl was shouting in the previous scene. The plan is to grab the guns then check for Meryl for a few blocks.

Jim still won’t stop digging. Lori says he’s scaring the children. Well take the children away then don’t take them up there to where you’re confronting the man who’s having some sort of breakdown. You could probably hide it from them completely just leave them in the caravan.

Shane wants the shovel and Jim asks if he’ll get the same treatment as Ed. The others back up Shane and say Ed was hurting Carol. I wasn’t sure they would because the extent of the beating and the disgusted looks he got from some of them.

But Jim says who made him judge jury and executioner. Shane doesn’t like being questioned that much and tries to just take the shovel. Jim fights back and gets pinned to the floor.

Jim decides this is the moment to talk about his dead family and what happened. This is why the kids shouldn’t be there.

The only reason he got away was the dead were too busy eating his family. Well that’s depressing.

Back in the city and Glen makes a plan that is well thought out and thorough. Daryl’s impressed and asked what he did before. Pizza delivery.

The plan goes wrong but only because other people show up. A boy comes across Daryl and starts shouting for help. Daryl gets beaten up while some guys kidnap Glen and he manages to shoot one in the arse.

Jim gets tied to a tree right next to where Lori is teaching Carl. Again I think the kids should be kept away from possibly upsetting things. The world has become awful and they should be exposed to walkers so they know how to deal but a guy they know who is losing his mind probably not so much.

Shane brings him water and says he’ll only let him go when he’s sure he’s not a danger to himself or others.

Everyone thinks he had sunstroke but he also says he was doing it because of something in a dream he doesn’t remember. They don’t explore this issue now but what would you do with someone with a mental illness in the zombie apocalypse?

He praises Rick for reasons then tells Lori to keep Carl close. It’s almost like he can see the future and just how terrible she’s going to become at that.

Back in the city they start questioning the boy who decides to insult Meryl’s name and Daryl attacks him but Rick stops him. Daryl abandons whatever he was going to do with Meryl’s hand and throws it at the boy saying this time he’s starting with the feet. I love that line and it works to get him talking.

They get to where the gang is. The leader wants the guns, T-Dog’s the sniper (why would you have him as a sniper) and the gang threaten to push Glen off the roof. They get told to come back with the guns.

Rick owes Glen his life. He was an idiot stuck in a tank and Glen saved him. So they take the gang a few guns and their hostage.

Things escalate badly until an old lady shows up and asks Rick not to arrest her grandson. Rick tells her Felipe (the one Daryl shot) is helping them find a missing person. She leads them to Glen who’s not a prisoner and is hanging out with the old people.

The best scene is Glen’s reply to one of them asking what is this? And he replies ‘an asthma attack’. T-Dog says we thought you were being eating by dogs and the camera shows chihuahuas.

Rick pulls Gee aside to have a word. The staff left the old people to die and Gee was the custodian and Felipe was a nurse. Rick’s annoyed because he was going to shoot them all and then the old people would be defenseless and he’d be responsible. Lori would not be happy if he adopted a lot of old people. So Rick shares the guns.

They get back to where they left the van and it’s gone. Meryl’s screwed them over and Daryl thinks he’s going to be taking vengeance back to the camp. Daryl’s already being a good guy and actually caring about the others.

In the camp they’re having a small party with the fish. Ed refuses to join in and doesn’t want Sophia to either but carol stands up to him.

He gets eaten first and it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving guy. Then Amy gets eaten and I think I should feel worse about it but we barely know her and I know I can’t stand Andrea so all it means is we get more Andrea screen time.

Shane keeps Lori and Carl safe. Rick shows up and they take out loads of walker with the guns. But loads of people are already dead or dying.

Jim remembers his dream. He was digging graves. I don’t know what I’m meant to do with that information. Is he meant to be psychic? Because I don’t remember anyone else in the series having premonitions and the disease is science based. Maybe it’s just showing how bleak the future is.

I hate the start of this episode because I hate Andrea and she only gets worse as the show goes on.

Daryl is still really entertaining and so was the stuff in the city. It’s easy to see why Daryl became so popular because most of the characters in these early episodes are awful.

Jim digging holes is annoying because it involves all the characters I hate. It just makes me wish the walking dead was about the people protecting the old people in the city.

There wasn’t much walker action until the end and that scene felt like a huge pay off. Now no where is safe and you can’t stay in one place. They haven’t quite learned that lesson yet it takes another season.

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