"Walking Dead Recap: Rick Grimes Is Officially the Worst ..." Topic

…Leader Ever.

SPOILER ALERT!!!

"If we've had anything to be happy about this season on The Walking Dead, anything at all, it's the fact that Rick has spent most of his time hoeing crops down at the prison farm in his invisible overalls, a place where at least his terrible decisions can only hurt potatoes instead of people. Unfortunately, since Rick remains the main character of the show, this blessed respite cannot last forever; no matter how much he – and we – would prefer it, we cannot abandon him to the cabbages that he surely loves like children and spend that time with far more interesting characters like Carl, Daryl, Michonne, Carol, Maggie and Glenn. Instead we must refocus, yet again, on Rick, a character so boring that it is increasingly difficult to work up the energy necessary to roll my eyes at him.

Yes, this is episode where Rick becomes The Leader once more, supposedly because he is so good at it. The show really needs us to believe this, which is why they've recruited Daryl and Carol – probably the two most solid members of the group – to get up during the last two episodes and give speeches about how great Rick was. "You were a good leader, probably better than I gave you credit for," lies Carol, convincing no one.

Just in case you've forgotten how useless and terrible Rick has been over the last four years, let's examine his highlight reel. You may remember Rick's complete absence of leadership in the first season, as he led his crew on a haphazard and occasionally lethal journey to Somewhere, I Guess. Or his bumbling leadership at the farm, where he repeatedly failed to make decisions until they escalated into dangerous situations; not only did he refuse to kill Shane until long after he became an significant threat to the group, but he saved Randall, a member of a brutal rival gang, rather than leaving him to die — then decided to kill him, then changed his mind and decided not to kill him, at least until someone else finally killed him. Decisiveness!…"
Full article here
link

Totally agree. Rick became a pain in the ass.
He made very bad decisions.
My vote goes for Daryl as nb. 1 there.

Amicalement
Armand

Agree.

The question might be then to what end does the show intend to go? Rick has no idea what he is doing. The "group" has pretty much taken every emotional hit it can take. I think they may need to look at ending this series. It's become a lesson small-group management skills that has gone on long enough.

This show is getting as depressing as China Beach…

ah… another show I really liked. Ummm…. why do I like depressing shows so much…

I guess looking for outside perspective and with retrospective makes it easy to bash him. Not sure I'd want to be in his shoes.

BrotherSevej, I totally agree.
Can't wait for the zombie apocalypse to finally happen, and all those smart analytic minds become zombie food during the first 24 hours ;-).
I love TWD, I like Rick, and hope for a return of the Governor .
So, you may start calling me FAN BOY now!

Why are their cars so clean, but they cannot be bother to wash (or scanvenge) for clean clothes?

Like the show though :)

Von Ted, the politics of product placement: You want viewers to recognise the product, dirt and grime on a car would be rather distracting.
The clothes are generic enough… But wait until some manufacturer of quality outdoor clothing steps up as a sponsor! ;-)

BTW, still can't get over the "officially" and "worst leader ever" parts of that article. I hate it when some hack (seems like there a lots of them at Wired) goes all categorical to make a point, insulting my intelligence.
Have to remember avoiding Wired, it's simply not worth the resulting emotional stress ;-).

What a bitter load of second guessing bile! I would…almost got me there…Remember, inflammatory hack writers are best ignored. To both sides of this argument: It's a TV SHOW! Get over it.

They do bring up some valid points about Rick's "leadership", though. My son and I were discussing these very same issues after the banishment of Carol. I get that the situations are all contrived for story plotline advancement, but the writers should probably try a little harder to turn Rick's character into a more decisive, less unbalanced leader. It's been three years since the outbreak, he, as leader, should be a bit more attuned to the new reality of life.
And why does NO ONE use the word zombie?

Remember, we are arguing about a show where they keep saying they need to preserve ammo – and then go and shoot a single zombie in the head when they could easily stab it.

They also have not seemed to figure out barricades and long pole arm usage.

not one single Bec De Corbin, not one, shesh, doesn't anyone have a copy of the first edition of the Tunnels and Trolls rule book?

Oh, and can anyone find me a picture of that truck that they use in Alaska for wilderness tourist taking pictures of Polar Bears, the one that is like a huge party boat on giant tires? Why wouldn't you hunt one of those things down and live on it. Do these zombies climb ladders?

To me, the whole scenario screams second dark ages. Groups prosper if the leader keeps them safe and safety is in numbers and fortifications. In many ways the Governor was a better leader than Rick. The challenge is to support a military caste for fighters.

Why is the only scavenging mode to go in tiny teams that are easily overwhelmed? Take 5 vehicles and make a shield wall while you go systematically and loot. They still have horror movie – you go that way and we will meet you after a while disease.

The plague outbreak from this season makes no sense unless it was a spontaneous mutation within the group and it seems way too virulent for that kind of thing.

I love the show. The writers are showing Rick as a man, not perfect, not always right, but doing his best. He has faults and fails at times, as we all do.

Killing Shane, ya it had to be done, but Shane was his best friend and partner. That means alot for those that don't work with one. They had been friends since high school. I would do everything possible to avoid killing my best friend until I had no other choice.

Question: What would happen when that huge mob of zombies arrives to the prision wiring?
They are all lost!.

Amicalement
Armand

Yeah, I posted a screencap of that mob in another thread here last week. It's 7,500 of them. They've already shown that the fences will collapse under the strain of two dozen zombies, so SEVEN THOUSAND won't even notice them.

Then the crops and most of the water collection are gone.

So while the main facility/cell block is secure, they will just be betting on what will kill them first: starvation or the plague.

Carol will be back, she is just taking time off to grow out her lesbian hair cut.
I am done with the prison story line- it's time to hit the road and get some new scenarios going, get back to the basics-recon, raids, keep moving. The prison will be a speed bump when the hoard gets there.
I got five bucks that says Hershel is gone within two episodes.

keep in mind that AMC announced that they would be doing some spin off of TWD to feature other groups of survivors. I believe that carol will be the main character (for awhile at least) in that newly featured group. perhaps another character will be used to front yet another group. Can AMC really handle 2 or 3 zombie shows? will the audience want that many?

As far as Rick as leader, he's definitely imperfect and many times slow to grasp what is going on. Remember that Shane seemed to be the group leader (tho having some difficulties with Merle and Daryl) before Rick showed up. Frankly I think Shane did a better job (as long as laurie didnt manipulate him too much).

An unbelievable and completely unexpected episode. I couldn't believe Carol was banished and I don't think Darryl is going to be too happy either.

Aaaand, AMC announced a fifth season just recently…

Bob

It's only been 1.5 years since the outbreak according to the folks on the Talking Dead.

Rick forced Carol to leave due to the fact he could not trust her with his kids AND he knew Tyrese would kill her.

Lose your wife, kill your best friend and see other folks you care about slaughtered plus have your son turn into a killing machine in about 6-9 months. I wonder how many folks would handle that and still be able to roll on?

Thanks,

John

I doubt that Tyrese could kill Carol. All he's done is throw tantrums and act like a two year old. Carol would shiv him and walk on.

I hope one day we see a group of survivors on the show who have done everything right.

Carol would shiv him and walk on.

Hahaha seriously.

I hope one day we see a group of survivors on the show who have done everything right.

Boooooring. :)

I watched Season 1. I thought the humans acted incredibly stupid.
Then I started watching 2, and just gave up on it.
For some odd reason I started in on 4 and have found that their group intelligence has not improved.
So, I missed Shane and the Governor and all that.

Carol is badass, but she doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell against Tyreese. The man is a legend.

I agree. Unless she got him when he was asleep, she's toast.

I like the show only because I find myself thinking about the situation: how they need to organise, what they need to do to secure food shelter, etc.

As far as the interpersonal dynamics, the writers are trying to create tension. So they constantly have people do stupid things, and argue to justify it to each other.

Love the situation and the characters, hate the writing and plot developments.

A good deal of leadership is having the will to feel responsible for something and for other. I don't think Daryl is into that.

I think part of Rick's story is that leadership is hard. It is not the character's fault that these things don't play out…the writers make it so. If they wanted his character to portray leading a band of post Z-pocaylpe survivors as a cake-walk, they could choose to do so (and probably loose me as a watcher).

Personally, I am glad that he has a hard time; it makes a more interesting show.

He sent Carol packing because he is cutting his losses in a bad situation. If he keeps Carol around and does not tell Tyresse, he runs the risk of it coming out another way and Tyresse coming after Carol, him, and perhaps even the kids getting hurt in the process. If Carol sticks around and Tyresse finds out, he will most likely go after Carol, which will trigger a death-match that may bring in more of the crew. They don't have the infrastructure for a trial, so banishing her is a doable option that is a better choice in the "hope" that it does not trigger more nastiness than the other options.

I wonder how the writers might use Carol's character again. Perhaps she will be the harbinger of the Gov.'s resurgence…she struggles back to the prison, nearly bled-out to tell the gang of the Gov.'s artillery fire base he is setting up over the next hill using commandeered 155s from some army installation. I don't see Carol joining the Gov. in a real way…but if she did out of necessity, it would be interesting to see what she would do when confronted with Daryl and those girls again.

Michonne might be able to begin to let go of her vendetta as she and Tyreese help each other heal their psychological damage after he learns who killed his girlfriend (and his sister dies perhaps). The Gov. however…any guy who is going to keep his zombie daughter around has a distinct issue with letting go of the past. I highly doubt that he is going to let anything go.

One other thing regarding stupidity…I think that the TV show characters make better decisions than the comic ones (at least up to the Gov. vs. prison confrontation as that is where I ended my reading for the moment).

Case in point. They come to the prison in the show, one of the the first things they do it get a handle on the armory…smart!

Has Carol ever met the governor?

"Case in point. They come to the prison in the show, one of the the first things they do it get a handle on the armory…smart!"

True. But then in a firefight, they put on the prison protective helmet, visor, vests, and kneepads (designed for beating down with batons). Dumb!

But then in a firefight, they put on the prison protective helmet, visor, vests, and kneepads (designed for beating down with batons). Dumb!

Maybe, but realistically dumb.

I am getting kind of tired of the prison/governor storylines. I want them to move on to other states and to see what life is like in the rest of the US. Head on up to South Carolina or over to Alabama or down to Florida. Do something more besides hanging around a prison and fighting a one eyed, bitter man.

I'm fairly confident they will be forced to move on soon. The trailer for next week's mid-season finale here in the UK (tonight in the US) looks like things are gonna go s h * t s up for all concerned and I bet making the prison untenable as a residence for anyone but the dead. Can't wait to see it, but yeah I'm a fanboy and hsve really enjoyed what they've dove do far but agree they should move it on now.

One thing I'm waiting to see is that when Andrea's luck ran out last series I read that Himple or whoever said her relevance would be shown later on. I'm still waiting for that 'relevance' to appear…

I thought gasoline separated into instable chemical components after six months or so of standing still. Yet they're still driving around, and jump starting cars? I'd get a mountain bike. Quiet, fast enough, and easily repairable.

And why on earth would they run a pipe to that festering stream, full of rotting bodies, to get water?

They don't plan for the most basic tactical principles: establishing rally points in case of separation, having escape routes, bases of fire and maneuver, etc.

SPOILER ALERT: And from last week's episode, why on earth would Martinez trust the Governor after what he's seen him do? Oh yeah, they need to create dramatic tension, even though it flies in the face of what reasonable people would do in those circumstances.

I'd be out scavenging for food supplies etc, build up massive stockpiles, and start creating renewable sources of food. And to last until then, start putting white rice (lasts for years) in rubbermaid containers to keep.

Good points Tuscaloosa.

Amicalement
Armand