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TNTtalk is charged and ready to go with season 8 of The Walking Dead. Tracey and Tameche (TNT) have an eventful conversation about the premiere episode titled ‘Mercy’.
First of all, congratulations to April for winning the Kingdom fan art from our Twitter giveaway!
Tracey and Tameche are super excited to be attending the five year anniversary of Walker Stalker Con Atlanta this weekend. They will report back with all the scoop on their time there.
Also, TNT Improvisational Theater is back. Do not miss the first installment of the season with many more to come.
The “blowback” (the podcast’s version of feedback) from the listeners focuses primarily on Rick’s confrontation with Negan.
Then as you listen to the co-hosts pick each others “brains” about the episode, give some thought to which “T” you tend to agree with most often since the pair has a friendly competition going between #TeamTameche and #TeamTracey. So, who are you most closely aligned with? Let us know!
Discussion moves from talking about the different communities on The Walking Dead to questions about the timeline to favorite lines in the episode and more.
There is rarely a dull moment with TNTtalk. Hope you enjoy dissecting the episode as much as we do!
Finally, we welcome your review of So Many Shows Podcast on iTunes. Thank you!
Hi Tracey and Tameche! I’m hoping if I post here, other listeners will chime in too. I have several comments so I’ll do like I did last week and divide them up by topic.
My first one’s easy: my favorite line. It’s been my favorite since we saw the sneak peek in September, and I think it’s the moment in the photo you put at the top of this post. Maggie says something about how Rick taught her to lead, and Rick says, “After this, I’m following you.”
Carl and Rick and what Carl was up to with the cans of food. This SO reminded me of many discussions I’ve had with my son. Like, for example, my son believes everyone should have free health care. While I don’t disagree with the sentiment, I realize that someone has to pay for it and if we devalue it enough, we won’t have good doctors, etc. So I see the practical limitations, partly because I’ve lived longer and have come to realize that we live in the real world, it’s not always how we’d like it to be.
So to carry that analogy to Rick and Carl: Rick has seen people pretend to be friends and then double-cross him and he’s realized that in this world, he has to be very careful who he trusts. Carl is more trusting that the person he encountered is not misrepresenting himself and just wants to help him. Typical Millennial.
I don’t think Rick would have said, Don’t leave him food. But he might have said it’s risky to go back, or you don’t even know the guy will still be there, so it could be a total waste of time.
Eugene and what are his motives and intentions? I don’t know if Rick and his group can forgive him, but I think Eugene is happy with the creature comforts that Negan has been able to provide thus far. Also, I think Eugene was seduced by the position of power Negan put him in. He seems to like giving orders to people and also he is in a position where his gifts are really useful, which didn’t seem to be the case mostly at Alexandria.
Father Gabriel and Negan (and Gregory): I saw people on Twitter calling Father Gabriel all sorts of mean names because he stopped to try and rescue Gregory. But I think the blame all lies on Gregory. He’s the scumbag, taking advantage and driving away without at least giving Gabriel a ride.
I think Gabriel does have a gun, but I bet he’s out of ammo, so I’m not sure how useful it will be against Lucille. Negan, despite all that’s just happened and the situation he’s currently in, seems very confident still. I wouldn’t want to be in Father Gariel’s shoes (nor in any of this clothing).
My last comment: I’m very confused about both the timeline and the plans that both sides might have made. I think we are meant to be feeling that way.
First, timeline: Rick at the gravesites, old man Rick with 5 year old Judith — I’m totally unsure how we’re to understand these. The old man scenes definitely have a dreamy quality to them, and the graveside scenes don’t, But I don’t know what that means, for sure. I read an article that proposed that the scenes at the gas station with Carl and Rick were also future scenes. I’ve read theories that they’re going to skip ahead in time at some point in this season, so maybe they’re laying ground for that? I really don’t know.
I think we saw part of the plans Rick and crew have made but maybe not all of them. And we don’t know which parts were moments where the plan went off the rails. Does Gregory being on the loose cause repercussions later on? How will the explosion toward the end, where Carol and Morgan are approaching some building, how will that affect their plan? And what kind of plans or traps or surprises might Negan and his group have cooked up? They were SO able to stay several steps ahead of Rick and company up till now, you can’t believe things could totally be switched around now.
One of the things Rick may have been thinking about is why do people follow Negan? Some, undoubtedly, follow him out of fear or not having another option, but you see people like Eugene willingly throw their hat in Negan’s ring. Rick wants whoever survives to follow him, to join his group, not regroup and form a new group of villains to fight. I think Rick is hoping Negan’s minions will join him. Is that why they shot up at the windows? Seemed like a waste of ammo to me. . .