Dead Viewing: Season 8, Episode 9-"Honor"

***WARNING***

***You may want to stop here.***

***There will be spoilers.***

***This is not a review. It is just my thoughts as I'm watching the show.***

***I update during commercials.***
Remember, I'm just writing what I see and reacting.

Opening with Rick praying, flashing forward to a future that includes Jerry and Judith, Rick and Michonne digging a grave, and we see how Carl gets bitten while helping Siddiq. Carl has grown in so many ways that I'm really pissed about how they are taking him away from us when we finally love this dude, but he seems oddly at peace with the whole thing by writing letters to all the people he cares about. Morgan at the Sanctuary. We now see how the Saviors got out of the Sanctuary. Morgan managed to make it out of the Sanctuary by using walkers, and now the Saviors are on the move with Morgan trailing them on foot. Should be interesting I guess.

Carol has gotten the people of the Kingdom to safety. Now, Carol is going back to rescue Ezekiel, and she will not let any of them go with her. Back to Alexandria and Carl is showing Rick and Michonne the bite. Carl gives the letters to Michonne who just can't handle this. He tells Rick about Siddiq, and how the bite just happened. Ezekiel is just calmly waiting with the Saviors, as they tell him Negan is going to kill. Ezekiel says that it doesn't matter what happens to him because he has ferried his people to freedom. Ezekiel tells the Savior that he made a choice that he can live with. Can he doe the same. Morgan has made it to the Kingdom roughly the same time. They realize that little Henry has made it to the Kingdom as well. Michonne and Rick both giving Siddiq the evil eye as he offers him medicine. We find out that Siddiq was a resident. We have a new doctor. Michonne is asking Dwight to sacrifice his life to get the Saviors to stop the bombing. Rosita and Michonne want to get everybody to the Hilltop now. Dwight wants them to wait out the bombing then go. Dwight doesn't think it is a good idea to go to the Hilltop, but Daryl thinks all of them together will be the savior's worst nightmare.

Carol and Morgan making plans to take out the Saviors. Two Saviors down. They got two more. Morgan is no longer hesitating. He's freaking Carol out a bit though. Gavin is still yammering to Ezekiel. Ezekiel is ever the philosopher. Michonne is comforting Carl. Carl tells her that it doesn't have to be like this. Judith is the quietest baby ever. Morgan is tripping again. He would have almost caught a bullet if not for Carol. Gavin tells Ezekiel that he going for his last ride. Gavin is like me. I'm just tired of all the darkness. They hear gunfire in the distance and move Ezekiel into the building.

Wait, Rick has Eugene in his flashforward, too? Back to Rick and Michonne digging, and now back to the sewer. Rick is going to stay with Carl as the others got to the Hilltop. Michonne says that she is going to stay. Rick wants her to take Judith. Daryl says that he will make sure Judith gets to Hilltop safely. Now, Carl is saying his goodbyes to Judith, and I'm about to blubber. Daryl praises Carl for saving everybody in Alexandria. Siddiq tells Carl that he is going to honor him and prove himself worthy to the group.

There is an all-out firefight in Ezekiel's throne room, and Morgan just disemboweled a Savior. Gavin even though limping manages to escape. Ezekiel tells Morgan they should take their leave. Morgan tells him they don't have to leave, because they are all dead. Carl is telling Michonne not to be angry or sad, and don't carry this with her. Carl just told Michonne that she is his best friend, and I'm tearing up. Now, they want to get Carl out of here.

Morgan is stalking Gavin as Michonne and Rick try to move Carl from the sewer. They take Carl into the burned out church. Carl is telling Rick about the kid he killed at the prison. He is talking about how easy it was to kill him. Gavin is trying to talk Morgan out of kill him. Rick tells him he was just a boy, but he said he changed he made friends of enemies. He said you put away your gun so I could change. To stop fighting is what's right. He is telling Rick that he can be like that again. Morgan doesn't kill Gavin, but he is still contemplating it. As Ezekiel tells him not to because he will reap his. Carol is also tell Morgan to stand down, because he doesn't want to. Morgan says he has to, but before he can, Henry takes Gavin out. So, the flash-forward was Carl's dream of everyone rebuilding Hilltop and Alexandria. He wants them to build and work together. Rick tells Carl that everything that he has done has been for Carl and Judith. Carl says he wants the dream for Rick. Rick tells him he is going to make it real.

Henry just pulled a Carl, and he tells Ezekiel that he had to. Ezekiel tells him it will be resolved. Carl tells Michonne and Rick to love, and he is taking Rick's gun, because he has grown up, and wants to do it himself. Rick tells Carl that he will make it real, and they both leave as Carl kills himself. Wait, what? Negan in the garden? If there was ever a snake in the garden. Until next week...

I'm Tired...or I Hate Myself for Still Loving The Walking Dead

I'm tired, guys. Really, really, tired. It may be from this cold that has been kicking my butt all weekend (and quite frankly, winning). No...I'm tired of The Walking Dead. I have friends who have told me that I would love Game of Thrones, and I probably would, but thanks to The Walking Dead, I'm probably not going to watch it. I am not going to watch This is Us either. You see, I normally watch procedural shows, Law and Order, CSI, Rizzoli and Isles, etc., because rarely, if ever do they kill off the main characters. Main characters are usually killed off the show if they choose to leave, unfortunately die, or screw up and get fired. Even when Thomas Gibson was fired, Criminal Minds did not kill off Aaron Hotchner, and they left the door open for Shemar Moore to return as often as he likes as Derek Morgan. I like these shows. I like sitcoms for the same reason. It is rare that I watch a serial television series, because I like being able to miss an episode and not feel like I'm entirely lost.

Don't get me wrong, I grew up on a healthy dose of 1980s serials like Dallas, Knots Landing, and Falcon Crest. I still was not a huge fan, because I like for the story line to have an ending. Once again, it's why I like procedurals. When Lost first premiered, I was locked and loaded to give this show a shot. The first year, it was great, but then, it starred to go off the rails for me. Every year, it seemed that the hiatuses would get longer and longer. Then, the stories started getting stranger and stranger, and then...I quit watching. The same thing happened with Once Upon a Time.  I loved Regina and her amazing costumes. Yes, I loved the evil queen. Sue me. Yet, it began to act in a manner similar to Lost. In an effort to bring in every character from the Disney I got tired. The characters that I loved had to share air time with people I cared nothing about, and I got bored. 

Then, AMC brought this little gem of a show that few people thought would survive to life. The Walking Dead became Sunday Night must see television for me. I even missed some of Tony Gonzalez's final Sunday Night games to watch The Walking Dead. That is some dedication. I loved the action and the camaraderie between the characters. I loved Glenn, Rick, Daryl, and my favorite Michonne.  I stuck with the show through that year on the farm, and that year in the prison, and now it has been eight years, and frankly, I'm tired. I'm tired of the deaths and misery.

Seriously, can you not give these people a happy moment? It's just death, death, and more death. I know that it is a zombie apocalypse, but must we have constant non-stop misery? One bad guy replaces another. Don't get me wrong. There have been characters in The Walking Dead whose deaths I have not minded at all. Season one deaths, I don't count because I wasn't really attached yet, and Sophia, well stuff happens. I know that's harsh, but most of us cheered the deaths of Lori and Andrea. Sasha got a better job, so I was okay with her exit. Every body in Alexandria not part of our core team, bye. Lizzie was bat-crap crazy so, girl bye, but over the last few seasons, there have been deaths that have just annoyed the crap out of me. I think it started with Bob's death. Dude was just becoming part of the family, and then, he is bitten, barbequed, and dead. Then, there was Beth. Just when I started to like Beth, boom dead, and what should have been a happy reunion of the family, was met with more sadness as Daryl exited the building carrying Beth's body. I still cannot watch that episode, because there was just something about her death that bothered me. One week later, Tyrese is dead. Then, Noah.

Last season, opened with the deaths of Abraham and Glenn. I was barely over them when we lost Sasha, and now, we are about to lose Carl. Carl is one of those characters that annoyed me to no end during the first few seasons of the show. Never where he was supposed to be, getting shot, causing Dale's death, killing his mother's zombie, annoying his dad (and everybody else), but as he and Michonne bonded, and he became the "baby serial killer," I began to like Carl. So of course, you start liking a character, boom, their dead on this show, and frankly, I'm tired of it.

It is the reason I stopped watching Fear the Walking Dead. Travis was really the only thing keeping me tied to that show, because I literally hated everybody else. Then, he dies, and just like that I stopped watching. Normally, I would have watched every single episode of The Walking Dead marathons, but I haven't for the last two seasons, because, I just am not ready to watch my favorites constantly dying. I'm tired of Neegan, I'm tired of no one being able to have a moment's peace. Heck, Maggie can't even grow her baby belly! (Oh, and word on the street is she may be leaving the show, so there's that). I'll still be here on Sunday, I'll still do my blog posts, because there are still characters on the show that I love, but my heart is starting not to be in it. Let's hope they can find a way to make me excited to watch again.

Until show time, "I hate myself for loving you, can't break free from the things that you do. I wanna walk, but I run back to you, that's why I hate myself for loving you."-Joan Jett and Desmond Child