I'm not speaking to the plot contrivances that led to Maggie's capture, which are neither here nor there (it happened off-screen, so there are myriad ways it could have gone down), but to the fact that the writers need Maggie to be in the audience when we meet Negan's girlfriend. For reasons.

Yeah, it's hard to say with TWD these days, as the writers are really only able to do decent work when they have free rein or when they hew extremely close to the source material. It's the in-between where they try to put their own spin on the books that they fail hard. That and the unconvincing pretend death earlier…

I've been reading A.V. Club for years, and it's usually not so obvious that their writers aren't as clever as they'd like everyone else to think. That, or they don't generally try to impress people with wordplay they don't truly grasp.

I think it was both, but based on my knowledge of the comics (knowledge which abruptly ends halfway through the next story arc), it was mostly people who hadn't turned. That wall of photos was a very clear reference to something from the source material.

Oooh, I know why Maggie went and was captured. It's a serious plot conceit, and dumb as all hell, but it's for a reason. I guess in the Walking Dead writer's room, the end is worth the means, even if the means are such that they negatively impact the end.

How someone who was hired by A.V. Club could misuse "clamber" (v: to climb) and then misspell "portentous" in the same sentence is beyond me. There's someone checking these blurbs before they post, right?

The real question is whether or not Maggie will forget Glenn exists until he reappears, a la Beth.

Hmmm….

My reaction to the Slappening:

"Eph, give him to me."

You quoted me, then disagreed with something I didn't say. Gerd jerb.

Laurel manages, yet again, to be the worst ever. Crazy season finale: plot threads weaving together, character conflicts coming to the fore…Laurel yelling at her Dad for being an alcoholic? She lied to him about Sara's death and now dresses up and puts herself in danger nightly, so his regression could be attributed…

I'm wondering if we'll ever see more wrinkles from the book make their way into the show.

What? A villain can't use ice guns and simultaneously be a Foreigner fan? How is that fair?

So…you're saying…

Then you'll never play a multiplayer game again, I suppose.

What are you talking about?

I'd say buy the compendiums and just read the source material instead, if you haven't already.

Terry: "The challenge…is keeping the buttons on."

"That's where Dix fell!" - Bullock