It seems that this season of The Walking Dead is getting a lot of hate online at the minute. I can’t see exactly what the show is doing wrong, other than a few nit-picky things that I find throughout each episode, but I think that the people had really had enough. Of course the fan boys of the show are going to defend it, and haters are going to hate, so I feel that it is my duty to remain neutral and judge each episode individually (which is difficult because at times I am a pretentious comic book reading snob, but that is besides the point). And while, “Time For After” wasn’t the best of the show, it was still an entertaining episode and would have been well received if it had been made 5 years ago in the glory days of the series. It did feature a brief moment that I did thoroughly enjoy, which was straight out of the reel of a George A Romero film.

This episode continued shortly after the events of last week’s episode; Rick is still being held by the Trash people (does this group even have a name?), Eugene’s loyalties are still being questioned as he tries to find a solution to the Savior’s current situation, and Daryl and Co are still plotting to speed up the Savior’s demise. These were the three stories that were covered this week, with Rick’s not having too many scenes, and Daryl’s only really serving to push forward Eugene and everyone in Sanctuary’s story, so the Saviors were once again the foreground of the episode.

So the episode begins with Rick being let out of the shipping container in his boxers as he is taken before Jadis (the leader of the Trash People – named The Scavengers) and her bastard haircut. She begins taking polaroids of him, which made me question where was everyone getting these polaroid cameras from? How can so many different groups have so many? Maybe there is a camera shop in the middle of every colony.
Rick asks her to join him once again, but Jadis refuses, as well as makes reference to using the photos to make a sculpture of Rick, before locking him back up into the container.

At Sanctuary, Eugene confronts Dwight about his betrayal to Negan. He says that he will not tell if Dwight ceases, but Dwight is not standing for Eugene’s awkward way of speaking, telling him that Negan’s time is over.
Eugene leaves and visits Gabriel in the infirmary where the feverish reverend is still adamant about his idiot plan to get Dr Carson out of there, despite the place being totally surrounded by Walkers, to which Eugene tells him so.
Eugene’s actions make us question whose side he is really on, as we hope(?) that he has some greater plan in place, however as the episode goes on, we start to realise that he has truly gone over to Negan’s side. A little piece of me wanted him to have something else in play here, since his character did grow quite a bit the season before last, but now he seems to have reverted back to his old ways of just doing whatever he can to get by on the coat tails of others. This is enforced when Eugene is visited by one of Negan’s wives (the one who asked Eugene to poison him) who pretty much calls him an enormous pussy after asking him if he has fixed a radio that she asked him to work on, to which Eugene mugs her off a bit, telling her that he has had bigger issues on his hands – see: the enormous horde of flesh eating corpses outside their door, so I guess he does have a point.


Elsewhere, Daryl and the others are planning on driving a big truck into one of the Sanctuary’s walls, cracking it open like an egg to let all the dead flood inside and get a-munching. Randomly Rosita has a change of heart and says that she “believes in Rick Grimes” appearing to be greatly affected by Sasha’s death, which seemed a little odd to bring up (but this becomes apparent later. It is a classic technique to remind us of a key piece of information that will be brought up again. It kind of lays the ground work before hand so that it doesn’t seem so convenient when it crops up and saves the day). Rosita personally feels as if she is the one with one of the biggest reasons to kill Negan, given how she was last season, and this mind change seems a little out of character for her.

Back in Sanctuary, Eugene meets with Negan, who has really warmed to Eugene. He keeps saying about how smart he is and how big his brain is, but we haven’t really seen Eugene do anything during his time at Sanctuary, other than the zombie helmets that had no relevant to anything when it came to it.
Negan offers him his hand (which Eugene mistakes as a gesture to kiss it), but Negan is showing him some mutual respect for his hard work in trying to get them out of their current situation.
Eugene leaves determine to solve their problem, and heads down into the basement storage areas to look for something to help. It is here that he discovers Sasha’s coffin. Remember that bastard episode at the end of last season when it was her constantly listening to music with an almost orgasmic look on her face?
Eugene opens the coffin (after a cheap jump scare from when the zombiefied Sasha burst out last season) to find her iPod inside, giving Eugene a plan.
Was that coffin still attached to the truck at the end of the last season? Because if not, in their hurried state, the Saviors had to load that on and secure it before speeding off when the Kingdom attacked and came to Alexandria’s side. They then off-loaded it and took it all the way into the basement for some reason, rather than preparing themselves for the United Armies of the Hilltop, Alexandria and the Kingdom’s inevitable attack. This seems a little convenient, but thankfully they had reminded us of Sasha and the coffin earlier in the episode haha.

Daryl and Co prepare their attack, but now it seems that Rosita’s words have gotten to Michonne, and she doesn’t want to go through with it (as no doubt Rick will be pretty pissed with her for going against him). It is here that I really saw the main reason I find the show annoying. Nobody has any real conversations… ever. It is always one person making a big dramatic speech before another person adds in their words of determination of their own individual character. It makes all these characters feel a little one dimensional, rather than making them feel real. Most of the time I phase of whenever the good characters are talking to one another as I can pretty much guess what they are going to say.
Example: “I am going to fight, because I believe that we have a chance of making this world better. We have a moment of hope and I will do what I can to get that”. “I used to think I was weak, but now you have shown me the way. I will fight for you”. Or something along the lines. It doesn’t feel real anymore. It feels a little cheesy and can be quite annoyingly dull to listen to every fucking episode.


On the balcony of Sanctuary (clearly out of sight of the apparent snipers posted all around), Eugene has built a drone using the radio parts and the iPod mentioned earlier, with a plan to use it to lure the dead away. Dwight shows and attempts to stop it, but Eugene has grown a pair and sends it off. It appears to work for a moment, but Dwight shoots it down. Thankfully this goes unnoticed as Daryl’s truck comes crashing through the wall (under the cover of Morgan and Tara’s gunfire). Daryl jumps out a little bit before and watches as the dead begin to pour inside.
Inside the best moments of the season took place; the Saviors are caught off-guard and try to defend themselves as more Walkers swarm inside and overrun the lower levels of Sanctuary. There were some shots that felt straight out of one of the “of the Dead” films, with the Walkers acting more like zombies from these movies rather than the ones we have previously seen in the show. Classic zombie movie mistakes happen, such as one person thinking that can stand still and just fire at one walker, as more surround him.
Eugene witnesses the death and destruction and appears to “lose his shit” as he goes and screws at a barely conscious Gabriel about how he is doing the right thing by helping the Saviors.
It is at this point I would like to enquire as to what the hell is wrong with Gabriel? Where has this fever come from? I literally have no idea. One moment he is fine and then he spends 45 minutes in one of those dodgy cells and now he is at death’s door.

Our final scenes inside Sanctuary are that of Eugene telling Negan that he has a “possible solution” to their situation, but appearing to bottle it when Dwight walks in and makes up some poor excuse about how it was just to get the intercom working again to make it easier to communicate. If I was Negan, I would have battered his head in.
It is strange to me that Eugene doesn’t dobb Dwight in to Negan, making me once again unsure of his motives. Every time I feel like I have him figured out, the show throws some kind of curve ball in and I am left a little frustrated, especially following his outburst at Gabriel about how he is solely loyal to Negan.


The end of the episode focuses on Rick as he is lead out (once again in his pants) before Jadis and another armoured up Walker attached to a pole. It would have been wicked if the Scavengers had loads of these armoured Walkers and used them to attack, rather than just a muck about at the junk yard (like that other spiked one from last season. Remember Rick stabbed his own hand through one of them? Chronologically that wasn’t that long ago).
Rick manages to totally dominate the situation (in his pants) and knocks down the nearby Trash people, take the Walker’s head off, disarm Jadis, and pin her to the floor hear the decapitated Walker’s head as it snaps it jaws at her face.
Jadis decides (as you would do) to join Rick and accept his deal. Rick tells her the plan to show up at Sanctuary and make Negan’s lieutenant surrender.
Jadis then asks for a sculpt of Rick’s nob… which Rick refuses.

Jadis and a group of Scavengers follow Rick to Sanctuary to discover that it has all gone to shit, with the wall breeched by the truck and no walkers in sight.


Overall the episode was actually quite enjoyable. I liked that the tension was rising inside Sanctuary, and I am intrigued to see what waits the Saviors now that the entire lower levels are overrun.
I also really enjoyed those brief moments when the dead flooded inside, as it gave us a glimpse of what the show should have more of (and maybe it wouldn’t get any hate).
The scenes involving the good guys was are bit dull, other than Rick’s battle with the armoured Walker, as I am finding myself less interested into what they are up to, and more eager to find out what the baddies are up to and how they are going to get out of their situation.
I personally believe that Daryl has given them a perfect opportunity, and his actions will cause the ever growing rift between him and Rick, possibly leading to Daryl’s demise at the end of the season (as I have been making sure you are very aware, throughout these reviews, that I called it first).

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