TV Talk: There will be spoilers about the featured episode and previous episodes. I will not discuss major spoilers from the shows source material (even though I really want to). However, I might compare the source material and show only after that event has happened, or clearly won’t happen. TV Talk isn’t really a recap, or an official review. It’s how I feel about the episode and show in general. Just me, talkin’ about TV.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve done a TV Talk, but it’s time I shared my thoughts on a platform other than Twitter.

As you probably know, I’m a pretty big fan of The Walking Dead. I read the comics, watch the show, play the game… I literally have the show in my calendar as an event. However, what I don’t do is blind admiration. I adore the show. It stresses me out in a way that may concern others. But I’m not ignorant to its faults. Now I don’t mean to worry you, I actually enjoyed almost all of this episode, but it left me a little nervous, and I’ll tell you why.

If TWD writers learned anything from season 2, it was that fans were not fond of the slow-paced farm life. I valued the melodrama and character development that occurred, but of course it dragged on like a hot and humid southern summer. Season 3 on the other hand has been the complete opposite. It has been intense to the point where I feel like I’m out of breath after watching an episode. It’s exciting again. (Yay!) All of the things I love from the comic are happening… all except one. Rick loosing his mind.

Rick’s mental break is completely understandable. Add up a zombie apocalypse, plus killing your best friend and your cheater wife dying, and you have the perfect ingredients for a mental breakdown. But I don’t want this to happen to Rick. I want him to be strong, and more importantly sane. I didn’t like the “phone thing” in the comic, and it still annoys me on the show.

I feel like there’s a link missing that doesn’t make the “Crazy Rick story” fit quite right. It feels more like an awkward and forced way to illustrate the stresses of living in a perpetual war zone. Excuse me if this sounds strange, but Rick seeing dead Lori took it too far. Yes, I know I’m talking about a zombie show, but it’s “my” zombie show. I love it dearly, therefore feel I can say when I think it may be headed in the wrong direction. The Crazy Rick storyline, despite how much it makes sense in the scheme of things, I feel can easily jump the shark. I’m not entirely against it, but apprehensive of where it could go.

Enough of crazy old Rick… Now onto some random musing about what happened in this episode. Michonne isn’t going anywhere, let’s be real. So I’m not worried about Rick being determined to throw her out. He’s going to need her when The Gov comes looking for revenge. I’m still really excited to have Tyreese on the show, Rick can’t kick them out. They didn’t bring them in and make us like them for him to kick them out an episode later. So I’m not too worried about that either. Carl continues to be the bad ass that he is. It was a very touching (and sad) moment when he confessed to Carol that all he thinks about is being mean to his mom. There’s no amount of therapy that can fix that kid. Although, much time hasn’t passed in the show, you can already tell Carl’s personality has been dramatically molded by the apocalypse. In my opinion, he’s found a way to deal with it better than anyone else on the show.

Oh and Daryl will come back. He has to come back…