The Walking Dead S5EP3 Review: Bloody Sunday School

RossaLincoln

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The Walking Dead S5EP3 Review: Bloody Sunday School

A tight, brisk episode with some of the most brutal violence yet seen, season 5, episode 3 of The Walking Dead is a gory standout. Even if it remains as overwrought as always with the theme-building.

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Skratt

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Great article! I honestly can't tell if I loved this episode or if I just like the new format. I felt the last season where everyone was split up was probably the best format because it jumps around to all different kinds of encounters and allows for various stories to be told at once without being "The prison season(s)" again. I was nearly ready to quit the show, despite loving it because they just stuck around in the same place so long. I felt like they could have cut 5-10 episodes out of the prison/woodberry timeframe and still hit on all the same important themes and character developments.

I hope they do a good job adapting some of the flaws in the comic by revising them like they did with Bob's story. Up until this latest episode, technically the end of the last one, his story was still an unknown. I kept wanting to know what it was and was glad for the late reveal. I don't think the Terminus buildup and rapid closure would have worked if we'd have had Bob's backstory too early.

I'm excited to see what they have in store for each storyline. I think the person in the woods is related to Beth getting captured, but I don't think it is Carol - I think Daryl has himself a prisoner and I'm guessing the preacher is going to know who.
 

Scarim Coral

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Yeah Garet or whatever his name was (leader of the cannibals) right that they devolved into hunters. Way a go bringing Bob to the group back despite having the Walkers nearby ( was it suppose to be a scared/ demotivate the group?) and way a go for waltz right into the church in utter darkness! Yeah they had it coming and Rick was justify for slaughtering them since that was the result of not going back and finish them off (same apply to the previous villain Governor).

Still I glad they were killed off already as I didn't feel they would had been able to carry the season by themselves unlike the Governor eventhought they were more threatening for their cannibals ways. I mean they were only five or six of them! Maybe if they still had Terminus and the rest of their members weren't all killed or eaten then it would of been a different matter.

Also were the people weak or didn't had the tools to break the Church window or were they suprisingly strong?

Lastly yeah it pretty obvious now that Sasha did had feeling for Bob and lastly I guessing the person that Daryl called back at the end of the episode could be Maggie kidnapped sister (that was resolved so soon).
 

Sight Unseen

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Scarim Coral said:
Yeah Garet or whatever his name was (leader of the cannibals) right that they devolved into hunters. Way a go bringing Bob to the group back despite having the Walkers nearby ( was it suppose to be a scared/ demotivate the group?) and way a go for waltz right into the church in utter darkness! Yeah they had it coming and Rick was justify for slaughtering them since that was the result of not going back and finish them off (same apply to the previous villain Governor).

Still I glad they were killed off already as I didn't feel they would had been able to carry the season by themselves unlike the Governor eventhought they were more threatening for their cannibals ways. I mean they were only five or six of them! Maybe if they still had Terminus and the rest of their members weren't all killed or eaten then it would of been a different matter.

Also were the people weak or didn't had the tools to break the Church window or were they suprisingly strong?

Lastly yeah it pretty obvious now that Sasha did had feeling for Bob and lastly I guessing the person that Daryl called back at the end of the episode could be Maggie kidnapped sister (that was resolved so soon).
Beth isn't with Daryl unless they plan to go back in time next episode. The preview scene for next episode showed Beth in a hospital in (what looks a lot like) Atlanta. A doctor and a police officer come in and say some things to her and then the preview ended.
 

balladbird

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I'm not usually the type to enjoy cathartic violence, dynasty warriors aside, but the writers for the show did a good job of making the terminus kids hate-able to me, as I said earlier. Even more so than the hunters they were based off of. This week just made that feeling stronger.

In my eyes, a person who can calmly and matter-of-factly commit an atrocity is far more disgusting than someone who does so with psychotic abandon or even glee, and to have the same people who were so businesslike about the murder of others beg pathetically for their own lives when cornered?

Yeah, best episode of TWD I've seen in a long time. XD
 

El Comandante

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This is exactly like pagans do it, stabbing animals and people to death, bashing in heads with a gunstock! Also they do it in churches, because mostly they stand upon once holy ground, now splattered with water fron countless attempted baby murders. What a stupid sentence!
Good episode anyway but not that brutal, you somehow managed to miss the death of the red viper.
 

RossaLincoln

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El Comandante said:
This is exactly like pagans do it, stabbing animals and people to death, bashing in heads with a gunstock! Also they do it in churches, because mostly they stand upon once holy ground, now splattered with water fron countless attempted baby murders. What a stupid sentence!
Good episode anyway but not that brutal, you somehow managed to miss the death of the red viper.
The term pagan is large, amorphous and nonspecific. I am an atheist and I certainly did not intend to insult pagans. I also know that pagan is a catch all term describing pretty much every non Abrahamic religion. Also, druids, mesoamerican and dionysian rites involved plenty of bloodshed, so...

Anyway, the fact is that it was a slaughter in a house of worship. That imagery wasn't accidental. It was a literal baptism in blood.
 

Deimir

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By the way, it's obvious that the next character arc the show will explore is "Dr." Porter's claims about stopping the apocalypse. Comic readers, again, know where this is going, but the show is taking great pains to make it clear just how shady he is. I look forward to seeing how he'll sabotage the church bus in order to force Abe and company to walk, not run, to D.C.

Please keep in mind that not all of us are comic readers, and putting these meta-spoilers in the review is really not cool. Yes, it's obvious that he's acting shady and that his supposed panacea doesn't make any sense, but foreshadowing stops working as foreshadowing when you skip ahead to the next chapter.

Lastly, anyone care to speculate just who was in the woods with Daryl?

I'm guessing Beth. Haven't seen any trailers for next week, but I'd guess that episode will cover Darryl and Carol's adventures in tracking her down, leading to Carol being captured or killed, most likely.
 

El Comandante

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RossaLincoln said:
I am an atheist and I certainly did not intend to insult pagans.
I know you did no want to and I´m sorry for being a bit harsh. But it´s a certain mindset that concerns me. A pagan blood ritual to desecrating a church, right from the grindhouse horror flick. It´s not the best stereotype for us.
RossaLincoln said:
I also know that pagan is a catch all term describing pretty much every non Abrahamic religion. Also, druids, mesoamerican and dionysian rites involved plenty of bloodshed, so...
Yes, but all Abrahamic religions also have blood and animal sacrifice involved in major rituals. Christianity is the only one that replaces blood with wine and the animal today is only a metapher (the lamb, and they also had a fair share of "savage" rituals in the past). Muslims and Jews however still slaughter in a Jewish kosher or Muslim halal way. That is still a common ritual. But in such a situation one would very rarely write of a "house of worship desecrated as its walls were splattered with blood and viscera in service to a merciless form of justice that resembled human sacrifice and jewish/ muslim ritual..."
Even if it would resemble a satanic "hobby" ritual, it still would be one of a Abrahamic religion and not pagan.
I the context of the sentence pagan can either be understood as unreligious, proofing that there is/are no god/s in this house, or as an anti-christian, sacrilegious act. It´s stripped of it´s own agenda, only existing to disproof/ oppose a christian god. It definitely portrays "pagan" as something savage and brutal. That is what a lot of people tend to think if someone says he/ she is pagan.
RossaLincoln said:
Anyway, the fact is that it was a slaughter in a house of worship. That imagery wasn't accidental. It was a literal baptism in blood.
Rick also said "Could have been us." at the end of the scene. That opens up a whole new bunch of interpretations.
I realy like your work by the way. I also think you should take a look at warhammer 40k if you want more grimdark characters, but they are all dense as fuck. ;)
 

The Hungry Samurai

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I will give all my internets to anyone who can explain why the Termites just up and dropped Bob off with our heroes alive and kicking (kinda) so that he can exposition dump all over the place, tell them that Carrol and Darryl weren't with him, and pretty much kill the Termites element of surprise.
 

Azure23

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The Hungry Samurai said:
I will give all my internets to anyone who can explain why the Termites just up and dropped Bob off with our heroes alive and kicking (kinda) so that he can exposition dump all over the place, tell them that Carrol and Darryl weren't with him, and pretty much kill the Termites element of surprise.
This is another example of why the show just can't be as good as the comic book. We have less time with the hunters so their tactics aren't explained as well. In the comics the hunters take Dale's leg and decide to return him to scare the rest of the group, they want them to feel threatened enough to leave the church and get back in the road where they can pick them off. Also in the comics the hunters were in a random backyard of a house in a suburban neighborhood, significant in that it's not a super obvious and recognizable location like the elementary school. So returning him wasn't nearly as much of a risk. This was just kinda poorly thought out.
 

Azure23

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balladbird said:
I'm not usually the type to enjoy cathartic violence, dynasty warriors aside, but the writers for the show did a good job of making the terminus kids hate-able to me, as I said earlier. Even more so than the hunters they were based off of. This week just made that feeling stronger.

In my eyes, a person who can calmly and matter-of-factly commit an atrocity is far more disgusting than someone who does so with psychotic abandon or even glee, and to have the same people who were so businesslike about the murder of others beg pathetically for their own lives when cornered?

Yeah, best episode of TWD I've seen in a long time. XD
Coulda been a whole lot worse. The show has generally been shying away from the truly brutal encounters in the walking dead (with good reason). Such as the governor's vicious physical and sexual torture of Michionne, and Rick and Co mutilating the hunters one by one, and making the others watch. Generally I think this is a good thing, you can only get away with so much on TV, and their treatment of the hunters in the comic was disgusting, although it made sense as they had killed Dale, who basically functioned as Rick's father figure and the moral center of the group. Bob, while a great character (I was so glad he didn't turn out to be just another "unhinged lone survivor type") just didn't have the same impact on the group.

Edit: damn, thought I was responding to someone else, by your post you clearly know the scenes I'm talking about.
 

Jandau

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The Hungry Samurai said:
I will give all my internets to anyone who can explain why the Termites just up and dropped Bob off with our heroes alive and kicking (kinda) so that he can exposition dump all over the place, tell them that Carrol and Darryl weren't with him, and pretty much kill the Termites element of surprise.
What element of surprise? They group knew someone was following them, Bob vanished, as did Daryl and Carol (yes, that was unrelated, but the group couldn't know that, as seen when they confront the priest). Furthermore, they outnumber and outgun the Termies, which isn't very good odds for people used to overwhelming their prey, not slugging it out in anything resembling a fair fight.

The reason they dropped him off is quite obvious. It was to draw Rick and the more battle-ready members of the group out. Notice that the Termies were waiting just out of sight until the raid group left the Church. That was the idea - drop Bob off, all mutilated and shit, have him tell his now-enraged friends where he was held and then when they charge off to retaliate, swoop in and pick off whoever was left at the Church.

If it had worked, they would have taken out several of the group's members. Sure, the big hitters were away, but some of the gun hands were there. Also, it would demoralize and/or further enrage the rest, since Termies would kill or capture the kids and the non-combatants, further fracturing the survivors and giving Termies some bargaining chips.

It was a fairly sound plan, but Rick & Co. managed to see it coming and countered. To Rick's credit, their move was a fairly safe bet - if it worked, they get to wipe out their enemies. If they misread the Termies, they'd likely simply get to spend a night sitting in the woods. Sure, there was risk involved, but utter disaster wasn't very likely.
 

zumbledum

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The Hungry Samurai said:
I will give all my internets to anyone who can explain why the Termites just up and dropped Bob off with our heroes alive and kicking (kinda) so that he can exposition dump all over the place, tell them that Carrol and Darryl weren't with him, and pretty much kill the Termites element of surprise.
well as far as they know rick and crew have just run to the church , they dont know about the bag of buried guns they picked up. so yeah dropping off a partial eaten team member whose about to die and turn might be a good way to mess with the heads of people you think are armed with sticks and holed up in a largely wooden building.

but its a story and character piece not a historic document of reasons and dates, the shows going to play it abit fast and loose so we have the scenes it wants to show us.
 

The Hungry Samurai

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Jandau said:
What element of surprise? They group knew someone was following them, Bob vanished, as did Daryl and Carol (yes, that was unrelated, but the group couldn't know that, as seen when they confront the priest). Furthermore, they outnumber and outgun the Termies, which isn't very good odds for people used to overwhelming their prey, not slugging it out in anything resembling a fair fight.

The reason they dropped him off is quite obvious. It was to draw Rick and the more battle-ready members of the group out. Notice that the Termies were waiting just out of sight until the raid group left the Church. That was the idea - drop Bob off, all mutilated and shit, have him tell his now-enraged friends where he was held and then when they charge off to retaliate, swoop in and pick off whoever was left at the Church.

If it had worked, they would have taken out several of the group's members. Sure, the big hitters were away, but some of the gun hands were there. Also, it would demoralize and/or further enrage the rest, since Termies would kill or capture the kids and the non-combatants, further fracturing the survivors and giving Termies some bargaining chips.

It was a fairly sound plan, but Rick & Co. managed to see it coming and countered. To Rick's credit, their move was a fairly safe bet - if it worked, they get to wipe out their enemies. If they misread the Termies, they'd likely simply get to spend a night sitting in the woods. Sure, there was risk involved, but utter disaster wasn't very likely.
I dunno, by returning Bob the team learned exactly who they were dealing with, and that Darryl and Carol weren't with them. Granted they were on alert that they were something was watching them, until Bob was returned the termites had many more advantages.

1. The team were still splitting their distrust amongst unknown assailants and potential co-conspirator Gabriel.
2. Bob and the others could have just run afowl of Zombies. It would have been safe to assume that Ricks people would have had issues over whether to form search parties for them, wait for them, or leave them behind. (In fact thats exactly what was going on. Those issues were put aside to form a plan to stop the termites thanks to Bob's info)
3. If Ricks team assumed that the Termites were dead and that the people stalking them were just local territorial people, they would have likely hit the road to avoid more conflict. This would have made them a easier target than they currently were holed up in that church.

Maybe I'm just thinking things through too much, it's easier to see from an outside perspective, but it doesn't seem like a very sound strategy for me. Another poster explained that it made more sense in the books. I can accept sloppy adaptation a little better than this.
 

RossaLincoln

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The Hungry Samurai said:
I will give all my internets to anyone who can explain why the Termites just up and dropped Bob off with our heroes alive and kicking (kinda) so that he can exposition dump all over the place, tell them that Carrol and Darryl weren't with him, and pretty much kill the Termites element of surprise.

The idea was to throw Rick's group off-balance. They clearly expected Rick and the crew to flip the fuck out in rage, lose their shit and not think clearly, then gather a posse and go looking for them, leaving the most vulnerable members of the survivor group alone in the church, easy pickings. Corralling the zombies to keep Rick and co busy was part of that, because it looked like the cannibals were covering their retreat.

Further, the element of surprise was "surprise, we're not actually at the elementary school chumps!" They thought they'd have quite a bit of time to slaughter everyone in the church then be waiting for Rick and the others when they realized the cannibals might have played them. But they failed to watch the pilot episode, or they'd have known they were screwing with the wrong people. They'd been living for who knows how long basically tricking people to come to Terminus where superior numbers, lay of the land, and the facade of being all nice and chill allowed them to disarm and then overwhelm new people. They'd also been enjoying most likely the pickings of people who were half starved and weak as hell. Like Gareth told rick, "you don't know what it's like to be hungry". They probably hadn't encountered people who were mostly well fed in a long time. Also, they'd only just started to actually be hunters, so they weren't actually that smart.

Also, they themselves were kind of losing their shit, gunning for stupid revenge and being too clever by half.
 

RedDeadFred

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RossaLincoln said:
The Hungry Samurai said:
I will give all my internets to anyone who can explain why the Termites just up and dropped Bob off with our heroes alive and kicking (kinda) so that he can exposition dump all over the place, tell them that Carrol and Darryl weren't with him, and pretty much kill the Termites element of surprise.

The idea was to throw Rick's group off-balance. They clearly expected Rick and the crew to flip the fuck out in rage, lose their shit and not think clearly, then gather a posse and go looking for them, leaving the most vulnerable members of the survivor group alone in the church, easy pickings. Corralling the zombies to keep Rick and co busy was part of that, because it looked like the cannibals were covering their retreat.

Further, the element of surprise was "surprise, we're not actually at the elementary school chumps!" They thought they'd have quite a bit of time to slaughter everyone in the church then be waiting for Rick and the others when they realized the cannibals might have played them. But they failed to watch the pilot episode, or they'd have known they were screwing with the wrong people. They'd been living for who knows how long basically tricking people to come to Terminus where superior numbers, lay of the land, and the facade of being all nice and chill allowed them to disarm and then overwhelm new people. They'd also been enjoying most likely the pickings of people who were half starved and weak as hell. Like Gareth told rick, "you don't know what it's like to be hungry". They probably hadn't encountered people who were mostly well fed in a long time. Also, they'd only just started to actually be hunters, so they weren't actually that smart.

Also, they themselves were kind of losing their shit, gunning for stupid revenge and being too clever by half.
You'd think they would have realized they were screwing with the wrong people when they managed to destroy their entire operation while killing the majority of them. I mean, even if they did slaughter everyone at the church while Rick and co. were out, they still would have had to deal with his wrath when he came back. At that point, there's no where they could've gone where Rick wouldn't have come after them. It just seemed like they were asking to be brutally murdered.
 

JSRevenge

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Deimir said:
By the way, it's obvious that the next character arc the show will explore is "Dr." Porter's claims about stopping the apocalypse. Comic readers, again, know where this is going, but the show is taking great pains to make it clear just how shady he is. I look forward to seeing how he'll sabotage the church bus in order to force Abe and company to walk, not run, to D.C.

Please keep in mind that not all of us are comic readers, and putting these meta-spoilers in the review is really not cool. Yes, it's obvious that he's acting shady and that his supposed panacea doesn't make any sense, but foreshadowing stops working as foreshadowing when you skip ahead to the next chapter.
I agree with this sentiment. Stop using quotation marks to emphasize sarcasm. Just call him Eugene, please.
 

balladbird

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Azure23 said:
Coulda been a whole lot worse. The show has generally been shying away from the truly brutal encounters in the walking dead (with good reason). Such as the governor's vicious physical and sexual torture of Michionne, and Rick and Co mutilating the hunters one by one, and making the others watch. Generally I think this is a good thing, you can only get away with so much on TV, and their treatment of the hunters in the comic was disgusting, although it made sense as they had killed Dale, who basically functioned as Rick's father figure and the moral center of the group. Bob, while a great character (I was so glad he didn't turn out to be just another "unhinged lone survivor type") just didn't have the same impact on the group.
Well with different audiences, there are differences to how much controversial activity the "good" side of a series can engage in before the audience starts to develop apathy toward them.

In the comics their rage and horrid actions, while difficult to read, and not something I enjoyed seeing, made sense because it was DALE! The paternal figure who had been with the group since the beginning. I liked Bob a lot, but seeing his death get the same degree of emotion out of the survivors as Dale's would have been... weird. XD
 

AstaresPanda

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I thought this was a good episode BUT had some moments to me that left me thinking WTF HOW STUPID ARE YOU DRAMA FOR NOTHING FFS. G.I.Joe wants to run off in the middle of the night, split the group up that had JUST found each other again due to the cannibal threat. ok understand but panic much ?
So then later they deal with them in the church. Threat gone. So why still in such a huge hurry ? wait for abit ? i mean it sounds like an important mission better chance in numbers. But no still goes off in the bus, even with the sorry note.

Otherwise it was a good episode i just wanna know whats happend with beth etc.