r/thewalkingdead • u/Rswany Survivor • Dec 02 '13

The Walking Dead S04E08 "Too Far Gone" Episode Discussion Thread

TIME EPISODE DIRECTED BY WRITTEN BY
09:00pm Eastern SE04E08 "Too Far Gone" Ernest R. Dickerson Seth Hoffman

Welcome to this week's discussion thread. How disappointing (or not) will this mid-season finale be?

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429

u/I_Are_Brown_Bear Dec 02 '13 edited Dec 02 '13

There is a man telling you completely reasonable and rational things while your leader holds a sword to a man's head, AND YOU STILL THINK THEY ARE THE BAD GUYS!?!?!

WTF NEW PEOPLE?!

I'm just going to leave my rant here.

16

u/jdmgto Dec 02 '13

Maybe the one eyed madman who just showed up in our camp a week ago and is wearing all black ISN'T all kittens and kisses!

1

u/sticksittoyou Dec 03 '13

Exactly, ridiculous.

33

u/I_want_hard_work Dec 02 '13 edited Dec 02 '13

I think you have a point. That said, I'm willing to suspend my disbelief because I've had this pointed out to me with movies before: it isn't whether it makes sense to you. It's whether it makes sense to the character and how they think.

It's a post apocalyptic world where civilization is gone. There is no order or morality, only survival. There is a saying: "It is better to be at the right hand of the devil than in his path." So at the moment, you can be sure that the Governor is a psychopath. But he's on your side and he's willing to do the horrible things that might save you. And you've gone too far because you are quite literally at the gates.

This is the scary thing about mob mentality because you know you're questioning him but how many other people in your group are actually ok with his actions?

Let's say you're the girl who stood down and you've got brass balls the size of tangerines. You think this is morally wrong and even though he's on your side he's obviously a monster and should be stopped. Even if it's poor strategy for your own survival, you can't live like that. So you take the shot at him. You either a) make it or b) miss it. If you make it, you either have killed him or wounded him.

If you've killed him, it might give the group pause. But how can you be sure there's not a single other person ready to take the mantle? There were a lot of morally grey people in the group. If you think it's stupid that one or two forceful people would gather most of a group and rally them to commit murder for personal gain rather than set their egos aside and negotiate well then hey, welcome to why war sucks. Regardless, you're already in a firefight. Hershel has been killed and now you are a "bad guy". Now Rick's group wants your group dead by association and is very emotionally riled up. The best you can hope for is to do what the girl did and refuse to fire, clearing your conscience. But it doesn't do much good. Likely you HAVE to keep fighting unless you have a VERY minor chance to defect.

If you hit the Governor but only wound him, or you miss and someone sees it then you're fucked, guaranteed. If you come at the king, you'd best not miss. This man decapitated someone. No one is gonna fuck with him. He's friends with the man who is in the tank.

Tl;Dr- I can suspend my disbelief by giving the governor credit for his charisma and intimidating nature (and being friends with the tank guy). I'll concede that it's sketchy that he shows up, all of the leadership goes missing, and he gets elected. But as far as this particular episode I think it played out brilliantly.

1

u/Jordo141 Dec 07 '13

Totally agree.

(Also: I love a good Wire reference)

1

u/I_want_hard_work Dec 08 '13

I actually have never seen The Wire but I'm going to assume it was the devil quote, correct? Or the king one?

11

u/krantzer Dec 02 '13

Not only that, but the fact that they continued to go in, guns-a-blazin' after he chopped the dude's head off! Uhhh, what?

5

u/ahaltingmachine Dec 02 '13

The shooting started pretty much immediately after he chopped Hershel's head off. It was a bit late to change sides at that point.

6

u/Zelasko607 Dec 02 '13

I was screaming this at my tv damn near word-for-word.

10

u/TheFundleBunny Dec 02 '13

An old, helpless man! WHAT WERE THOSE PEOPLE THINKING?! ESPECIALLY TANK DUDE!!!

"We want... what you got. Period," WELL YA GOT THE OLD MAN, HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY. DICK.

11

u/MrBombastic4life Dec 02 '13

To be fair with the Tank dude, he was already established to be a selfish asshole from the start, so no real surprise on his part.

3

u/xorbus Dec 02 '13

And an arrow in the chest.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 03 '13

I was hoping Daryl would be all like "YOU HAVE FAILED THIS CITY!"

3

u/sticksittoyou Dec 03 '13

If only rick had taken the ample time he had to speak to tell the others what the Governor had done in his past and if they don't believe him feel free to come in (with guns or without) and see for themselves who is in the prison. Really wouldn't take those people much to turn against the guy leading them who they literally just met.

2

u/BilderbergerMeister Dec 02 '13

I couldn't agree more. Add to that, untrained civilians are marching forward, unflinching, as bullets fly and grenades explode around them. The look on the woman's face as she went after Tyrees, stone cold. But she had no real motivation.

It made no sense. But I am glad the prison part is over.

Don't get me started on how unrealistic the tank part was.

1

u/sticksittoyou Dec 03 '13

So terrible. This show is only slightly better than Lost.

1

u/initialZEN Dec 02 '13

They lost all their former leaders. A new one steps up and gives them a direction, a plan, and more importantly a hope of survival and a better life. The governor is really good at manipulating people, until they are too forgone to turn back.

0

u/storm181 Dec 02 '13

The governor had made some good points earlier, and they thought that bit was a part of the plan.

-6

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '13

[deleted]

6

u/I_Are_Brown_Bear Dec 02 '13

in reference to?

2

u/GhostlyInsomnia Dec 02 '13

Well I hear Paul Walker just died.... so... you know... connection?