5th episode - "Wildfire"

[Gemini]

Great post by Wyldwraith above me. Agree with everything. The holes he points out has severely weakened the enitre series IMO. Nice rebuttal by bassman, but if the holes Wyldwraith points out had been filled in it would have been a much better episode, simple as that. Like I said before, the menace has to be convincing otherwise the whole show falls on its face. Hoping for a recovery in the season finale, but not getting my hopes up.

[Wyldwraith]

@Gemini: Thanks for the good word compadre. Been feeling a little on the pariah-side of late. @Bassman: I accept and concede your rebuttal concerning the CDC doc's behavior as PLAUSIBLE. Still not necessarily the best way they could've done it, but definitely one way a person could react, for the motives you ascribed. As for the relative zombie population being thin due to the CDC being on the city outskirts, or the zombies drawn away to elsewhere. Uh uh, this bucket doesn't hold zombie gore for me, because Rick was on the outskirts of the city during the horseback scene, and the FIRST four-way intersection he came to was PACKED with zombies, AND the above-view we got at end of-episode showed them pouring in from ALL directions. If the zombies are dense here, and not dense over there, then that above view shoulda shown tons of zombies coming down, say, 2 of the four streets, SOME zombies down the third street, and VERY FEW zombies down the fourth (for example.) That shot pretty conclusively demonstrated that the zombies are ALL OVER THE PLACE in Atlanta's outskirts. Which (to me) implied it was even worse further into the city. Finally, nearly deserted area or not, Rick on a horse had more zombies than the ENTIRE GROUP drew upon IMMEDIATELY entering the city outskirts. At the CDC? 2, MAYBE 3? That's WTH-worthy. Like I said, it's not a HUGE deal...it's just something that in a series of this overall high-caliber, I'd like to see more consistency in. Besides, even if we accept the notion that some parts of the city of Atlanta are wall-to-wall zombie while other parts are totally deserted, it doesn't change the FEEL of some scenes having X percentage of zombies present simply because that was convenient in regards to what the characters were doing. Ie: When holed up in a Dept. Store, Dawn '04/Day swarms. When searching for Merle, scattered and far fewer, when going to the CDC, next to none. I mean they wouldn't have had to change ANYTHING about the end of the 5th episode to make it look better. 10 more extras in ratty clothing doing the zombie walk in their direction. It's an atmosphere/ambiance thing. It would've (IMO) lent more strength to the drama of the group's words and their plight at the CDC doors. It just didn't FEEL as imminently desperate as Rick's near-breakdown was suggesting. They had guns and significant amounts of ammo. They can blast their way past a couple dozen zombies no prob if they must...so seeing 2-3 didn't FEEL like the doctor not opening the doors was = to "killing them" in an immediate sense, which Rick's tone and body language seemed to most vividly depict. In a protracted sense, absolutely. I dunno, guess I just think because they do such a great job with their "horde scenes" they coulda spared a "mini-horde" for the end of the next to last episode of the season. This was supposed to be setting up the season finale after all, and I wanted to feel like once they actually traveled to the CDC they were committed to that or real quick death. Instead, it simply felt like one of a few alternative ways the scene could've gone when the doc finally opened up.

[bassman]

Fair enough. I see where you're coming from and I can agree on a certain level. It doesn't bother me that there werent too many outside of the CDC, but it wouldn't have hurt to toss in a few more. One thing I want to point out though.....Rick was in the thick of the city when he gets taken off the horse. He wasn't on the outskirts. He made it all the way into the city before he saw the zombies in the bus/around the corner.

[Gemini]

On the other hand, had there been a swarm of zombies we would be complaining about how dumb it would be for CDC to open its doors, considering its surveillance capability. Some far-off Day-like moans of a dead city would have been sweet though. The bigger problem for me was the lone scientist. Hoping for a plausible explanation.

[Debbieangel]

I got the impression in that scene outside the doors of the CDC was Rick and company, the noise they were making was attracting the zombies. so more were coming at them off screen. Remember they were shooting as Rick was shouting at the Scientist, I thought they were shooting at zombies off camera which gave the illusion of zombies all around. imo it was a GREAT scene which kept me at the edge of my seat. I do like the "implied" concept of the scene, I thought any second zombies were gonna crash in all around them, but, that is my opinion. I don't over analyze I just enjoy the show. I know I know we love picking at things zombie and I am as bad as everyone else. But I am just sitting back in enjoying having a cool zombie series on TV. Really can we ask for anything more it's like having an early weekly Christmas present and that is so cool!!!

[Gemini]

well said debbie. We're DAMN lucky to even have this series!

[JonOfTheShred]

So someone definitely told this DR to 'act kinda like Jeff Goldblum.'

[Trin]

I'm very so-so on Ep 5. The plausibility issues are stacking up and the plot contrivances are getting thick. Don't let Andrea cling to her dead sister half the episode no matter how great an emotional scene it sets up. Not while the fellow survivors are second guessing their precautions. It undermines our faith in their common sense. They could set up an equally emotional scene, without sacrificing plausibility, and while adding internal conflict to the group, by forcing Andrea to let them restrain the dead body, thus later causing them to deal with it once reanimated and helpless and seemingly struggling to reach her beloved sister. I'm tired of Shane. They're jerking us around with his character and with the foreshadowing of the conflicts to come with Rick. The jarring shifts between evil sinister badguy and pragmatic survivalist leader are just tiresome. The Jim thing was fine, but they milked it a tad hard. It ate up a lot of screen time and was used to justify going to the CDC, which I see as plot contrivance. Don't get me wrong, I think going to check out the CDC is a fine idea. But not on a whim with the expectation that they're open for business handing out cures. That's insane. Once Jim is out of the picture, the way it played out was just intolerably stupid. There is utterly no excuse for them to show up at the CDC front doors at dusk low on food, low on gas, and desperate for help. Yes, it setup Rick's empassioned plea for help. That's plot contrivance. They either needed to: (A) ignore Jim's desires and press on to the CDC with him in agony, which would have justified their desperation or (B) re-evaluated after leaving Jim behind, showing some planning and deliberation as they moved about Unlike most everyone else, I did not mind the cutover to the CDC scenes. I agree they've got some explaining to do for how he's the ONLY one left. But I enjoyed the insider take on the plague. I'm interested to see if we get more backstory out of that plot thread. On the plus side I really like Daryl and I really like Dale. Two great characters who are getting better every week. I loved the look on Daryl's face during the head smashing by the wife. And Dale's exposition about Jim where he states to Rick, "When you shut me down..." was very good. Rick needed a little bit of that. I wish they'd done more with Glenn since he kinda sat this episode out. I also liked the visuals outside the CDC. They did a good job depicting a site that had undergone significant chaos. I'm okay with few or no zombies in the area since we've established the zombies are all but dormant during the day. I still haven't watched the finale.