Not for the 2013 pilot season.  2014 midseason?  Maybe, but I don't think so (since the only think that could've been considered a supporting cast for Shahi got killed halfway through the episode).  No, I think it was just an alternative format episode 1) greatly expanding the show's mythology, and 2) introducing a…

Two terrorists in the German train station.
Three in the German apartment.
Three tactical team members in the NYC 
Three bangers in the dealer's pad.
Two Program assassins in the hotel (Reese offs the third one).
And Wilson.

Fred was kinda unrestrained lunacy, though.  Okay, sometimes she was restrained.

If it's a backdoor pilot, then it's too late for the fall 2013 pilot season, so it's not a backdoor pilot.  Plus, they killed off anybody who might serve as a supporting cast (which, okay, was only Cole).  The point of the backdoor pilot is to introduce a new cast, not just one character.

@Picar:disqus Well, she can shoot a gun real good.  And she's blonde.  And… that's pretty much it.  Oddly, Maggie seems to have taken Andrea's badassery with a rifle because she seems to be the designated marksmen now.  God knows what we're going to do with Show Andrea now.

Not in New York.

@avclub-2654adfd65b6ca4a8ac25a9f727d2262:disqus I'd say that the show glorifies guns in much the same way that it glorifies breathing and not being a zombie.

Maybe it's Lilly!

Comic book Andrea would have been up on that tower and she would have murdered everyone that the Governor brought.  Woodbury soldiers would be dying left and right.    They'd be going "Who the hell is this guy?" as the next trooper over gets a bullet to the dome.  And Comic book Andrea would just not give a fuck.

Maggie is pissed at Glenn because Glenn is taking her sexual assault and trauma and making it all about him.  At least, that's what I got about it.

The sudden argument about whether or not Carl should be given a gun that the reviewer pulled out of his ass is utterly ridiculous.  Carl has been taught how to use a gun responsibly, and has over the course of this season taken a larger and larger role in the defense of the group.  He currently lives in a world where…

I'm not sure that the US Prime Suspect is the best show to be comparing characterizations of minor characters with, because the US Prime Suspect, despite nominally being about Jane Timoney first and foremost, was one of the best shows I've seen on network for building the characterizations of supporting characters.…

It's mentioned in the pilot that she gets a window office because she's supposedly the best paralegal in the firm.  We've since found out that this is only true because she is apparently the only paralegal in the firm who actually does her job*.

From the promos, her character seems to be more Dani Reese and less Kate Reed, which bodes well.

Mike is a raging hypocrite.  He has always been a raging hypocrite.  Sadly, I don't think that the show knows that.

@avclub-b7784c8bc13cfa7214f249fef97abfe9:disqus What we need is a portal from which we can summon Comics Andrea.  Comics Andrea may then proceed to slap the shit out of Show Andrea and tell her to shape the fuck up.  She may resort to the stock of her rifle as well.

Honestly I have to say the opposite.  The major deviations from the comic have all made the show suck horrendously.  Shane staying alive stilted Rick's character development big time, plus held back Andrea as well.  Andrea was an utterly awesome character in the comics who in the show just looks like some brainless…

Andrea's awesome!…. in the comics.  In the show it's like they take every possible opportunity to totally fuck her over.

Which begs the question of how many CIA or KGB station residents back in the day purposefully faked a brush pass or whatever on a total stranger just to fuck with the counterintelligence agents watching him or her.

The embassies are handy because they contain the other guy's spies that you know are spies so that if you ever need to talk to their spies you can.