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Talking Through Twice as Far…
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We may have come “Twice as Far” with this episode, but it feels like we were half as ready for what happened. Two beloved characters gone, one gone for good, and yes, we definitely need therapy after this next episode of The Walking Dead. Just make sure if you are ever on a zombie-apocalypse show that you never experience any character growth, or become the moral compass, or make plans for the future, because that’s the surest way to get killed off. How many more encounters with the Saviors will our gang have before it destroys them? Or before it destroys their spirits? Dr. Denise may have been awkward, but she was the best kind of awkward. Merritt Wever did such an amazing job of bringing this character to life that we barely got enough time to get to know and make us love her. She and her character will be terribly missed.
Here are a few more thoughts about the episode that I either didn’t say when we were recording or that I want to expand on (READ: she’s gonna ramble on for a little while…). First, about the cold open, they are once again trying something new and different from what they have done before, and I like it. I like that they aren’t stuck in a rut and that they aren’t afraid to try new things. Some of those new things will land for some of the audience, and some will fall flat, but at least they aren’t going to just “play it safe” and ride this success wave as far as they can. What I liked about the cold open is that they were able to convey information without exposition, which is always nice, and that they made us pay attention. I also liked how the cold open-ended with Carol and the rosary, and the episode ended with Morgan noticing Carol was missing. Not quite a bookend, but again, they are keeping it interesting.
When Daryl did not want to take the train tracks, it occurred to me that he is not always the most diplomatic person. In other words, whereas other people might take the time to say why or why not, Daryl just does what he wants sometimes without explanation. I bet if he had taken the time to tell Rosita and Denise why he didn’t want to take the tracks, they probably would have indulged him. But the way it went down, as Brian said, they weren’t really acting like much of a team (which should have clued me in that Denise was doomed!), and sometimes to be better teammates, we need to be vulnerable and expose our soft gooey center.
Finally, I attempted to tackle one of my biggest pet peeves this episode, and here is a little more info on “begging the question.” When we were talking about it, I couldn’t remember exactly what it was, but I essentially had it right. It’s a term or phrase used in logic and philosophy to describe a fallacy, or in short, it’s a logical fallacy, more commonly known as circular reasoning, or circular logic. The technique is used most often during formal debates and is derived from the Latin phrase petitio principii, which if you believe Wikipedia actually means “assuming the initial point.” If you want to learn more about how it has been subverted for popular usage because probably one time someone somewhere used it wrong and other people thought that person was smart and so more and more people wanted to be smart, too…well, you can do your own google research on that. But, here are a few websites about begging the question that I like that explain it a little bit more: BTQ, Grammar Girl and NY Times.
We got a ton of feedback again this week from our facebook group, and one solitary audio submission. Cutter, you get the gold star this week! I can only assume that the reason you all don’t submit more audio feedback is that you really enjoy our dramatic readings of what you have to say.
As the only special holiday coming up that I can think of is my birthday, all I can say is, I’m sure you know someone who has a birthday, or is having a baby, or know of some other ordinary occasion to go shopping on Amazon, so please will you use our affiliate link? Make it easy on yourself and install the Amazing Affiliate Link extension into your Chrome browser so you won’t forget. Our affiliate ID is thefr08-20.
We are stuck at 32, so help us boost our Apple Podcasts notoriety by giving us a review or rating. We really want to break 40 before our 40th episode (or my 40th birthday!).
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