Poppin' Off Early Edition- The Walking Dead Season Five Finale

*As always, this post will contain spoilers from Sunday night's episode. If you haven't watched it or haven't heard what happened yet, you probably don't want to read this.*

Oh Alexandria. What a fickle place you are. So naive and yet a little bit vicious. I kinda like it. There was a lot of speculation on what Sunday night's episode was going to be. With it being bumped up to 90 minutes, everyone was thinking something big was coming. I was pretty sure that Glenn was going to eat it, and I'm not the only one. With all the teasers of Glenn and bats, his demise at the hands of Lucille seemed inevitable this season. So when I made the mistake on getting on Twitter while the East Coast was watching the finale, and I started seeing the OMG GLENN NOOOOOO tweets, I thought for sure he was a goner. Well, he wasn't. So you guys on the East Coast are a little dramatic lol. But he did come close, twice, at the hands of Nicholas, and when Glenn didn't kill that fool, I got a little angry. He needs to go.

You know who else needs to go? Father Gabriel. When he went on his little nature walk, and told that zombie that he was ready, I got so excited! He betrayed Rick's group by going to Deanna and saying what horrible people they are. They're so horrible that they let him tag along, even though he's been nothing but a whiny baby and a hindrance to the group. And excuse me, but who was the one that locked all his churchy friends out and let them die in the interest of self preservation? Yeah, that was you Father Gabriel, not Rick. So on the scale of one to you're a mega douche, I'd say he's a lot worse than Rick and Company. At least Rick kills for the protection of his makeshift family. Father Gabriel just hides in the corner like a puss. Then when Sasha went to him for help, and he told her that it was her and Tyreese's fault that Bob died. What the hell dude? That's not very priest-like, that's messed up. And the Padre still isn't very apocalypse savvy, as he left the gate open for zombies to just come on in and make themselves at home. Its a good thing Rick noticed that one had gotten through, and the delivery of its head to his hearing was a nice touch. It's probably the reason that Deanna let him stay in Alexandria. That, and when Porchdick Pete was trying to kill Rick, he sliced open Reg first and Deanna asked Rick to kill him for her. So long Porchdick! It was nice knowing you. Now maybe Rick can start a family again with Jessie.

Michael Cudlitz (Abraham) did an interview where he said that fans would be pissed off at this finale. His comments added to the Glenn dying theory, but after watching the finale, I don't think that's what he meant. I left the finale feeling pissed off that they killed the wrong people! I mean, Porchdick Pete needed to go, that's for sure. But poor Reg? He didn't do anything. I know that they are following a comic book story line there (and that's amazing, since I haven't read one Walking Dead comic, but comment sections on TWD articles are so informative), but did they really have to do it? Nicholas and Father Gabriel really needed to die in that episode. And really, Sasha did too. Shes so self destructive right now, its annoying and she either needs to get over it, or she needs to get back in that pit with the zombies.

This episode also brought us Morgan. After seeing little glimpses of him throughout the season, he is finally brought to the group. He helped save Aaron and Daryl from a trap that the Wolves had set. And that's the other big takeaway from this finale- The Wolves. We've been seeing these zombies with W's on their heads for this last half of the season, and now we know that they are marked for Wolves. Morgan had a talk with a Wolves member at the start of episode, where the Wolves member tells him that hes going to take everything from Morgan, including his life. As we know, that didn't happen, but the monologue was a nice way to explain what this group is and what the people of Alexandria are going to be up against. At the end of the episode, after we see more Wolves members resetting their food truck trap that almost killed Aaron and Daryl, we see them killing the member that failed to capture them, and we also see them looking at pictures of Rick's group in Alexandria. Season six will have to center around conflict with the Wolves, and if what all the comment commandos are saying is true....Glenn with finally meet his demise at the hands of Negan and Lucille :(

And lastly, it's also been hinted that someone in the group is going to turn into a bad guy (or gal). After watching these past few episodes, does anything think that's Carol (or Scarol? I can't think of her as anything else thanks to Chris Hardwick)? She came into Alexandria playing the timid old lady who can't do much, but shes basically Martha Stewart on steroids. Being a gangsta towards that kid, threatening Pete in the finale, turning on Rick when they were asking him about the gun, even though it had been her idea to get them....It just seems like shes planning her own thing now.

Source.

What did you think of the finale?  Were you thinking that Glenn was going to die too? Let me know in the comments below!

Poppin' Off- The Walking Dead Mid-Season Finale

I don't usually write about specific teevee episodes. I'm more of a series-as-a-whole type of person. But last Sunday's season five mid season finale of The Walking Dead was so talked about that I thought I would throw my two cents in. And yes, there are spoilers if you *still* haven't watched it or read any of the articles or tweets or Facebook statuses about it yet :)

I am the type of person that actively seeks out spoilers. I didn't use to be like that. But lately, they almost seem unavoidable, so I figured I would just embrace the spoiling culture. But with this episode, I didn't want to know. I knew someone was going to die, and I just didn't want to deal with it yet. However, I had been reading articles that speculated who was going to die, and most of the comments had Tyreese, Judith and Sasha as the main picks. Carol was also a top contender after Norman Reedus said that he spent hours crying before shooting a particular scene. Only once did I see someone say that they thought it was Beth, because they had read somewhere that she had a new gig lined up already. Spoiler alert, that commenter was right. So that night, I tried so hard to stay away from the Internet dumping grounds. No Facebook. No Twitter. No Yahoo with its spoiler filled front page. But I went on Instagram. And damnit, I saw a spoiler. So I knew it was coming. But it still shocked me.

I don't know why her death got to me like it did. She wasn't a favorite of mine. I didn't hate her character, but I didn't love her either. I felt like I was finally getting to know her this past season, when she was off with Daryl. But then they took her away. And when they finally did bring her back, and with her own story arc no less, they killed her off. Weak. The whole episode was pretty tame too, until the end. Then it was like "Here's all the emotions! Feel them! NOW!!!" Seeing Rick and Daryl cry was tough. And then Maggie. Oh Maggie. That made me tear up. Twitter almost crashed with reaction. So many people were upset, I almost wonder if Robert Kirkman and the rest of TWD creative team regrets choosing Beth as the one to die. And then that awkward Talking Dead where he had to sit next to her while she cried about having to leave the show....

The fan reactions weren't all mourning her loss though. Some were mourning the wasted episodes. Why build up the hospital arc, only to kill off Beth and then leave the hospital without taking anything or anyone from it? Others tried to liken it to current events because of Dawn, which is so unnecessary I can't even fathom why they thought that was a good idea. Just because they were cops means....what? I believe that Dawn knew that story about how the other officer died was fake. She was already well aware of the fact that her cronies in the hospital were losing faith in her leadership abilities, as exhibited by her friend that met his demise in the elevator shaft. Her adding Noah to the negotiations was her way of grandstanding to the hospital folks, trying to show that she still wears the pants. I think Beth's pitiful attempt to stab Dawn in her bulletproof vest protected shoulder was an attempt to get her group to help the hospital people get away from Dawn. I don't think she expected Dawn to shoot her since they'd had the bonding moment in the elevator area. In any event, she shouldn't have gone out like that. It was pitiful, and she had developed into a much stronger girl then she was when they found her at the farm. She deserved a better send off, if not more time on the show.

all photos from tvline.com

What did you think of the finale? Was it what you were expecting, or were you disappointed by Beth's death? There's so much to cover on this one! Let me know what you thought of it in the comments :)