Season 5 | Episode 4 | Slabtown [AMC] [SPOILERS]

If I'd been asked beforehand how much I'd be looking forward to a Beth-centred episode I'd probably have said not a lot. But I enjoyed that to a certain degree. I've never really warmed to Beth, all that singing around the campfire nonsense just put me off. But her character definitely became more rounded here.

I hadn't seen the preview so I knew nothing about the hospital. It was fairly obvious early on that Beth wasn't there simply to recuperate. After a while I got the feeling that this was basically Woodbury in a hospital and on a much smaller scale and that this Dawn woman was their Governor. It played out pretty much as you'd expect but I honestly thought ...well, this makes things a lot more interesting. So many questions now.

I hope we move on fairly quickly, I'm not too sure the hospital characters are that interesting enough to keep around for too long.

It was great to see a destroyed Atlanta again, it brought me right back to season 1. And it was good to hear the doctor's account of how things went pear-shaped at the beginning of the outbreak. By the way, anyone else keep looking at him and seeing late-stage Walter White?!

I wasn't too impressed with the episode.Bit too slow for my liking.

I like Beth though so I'm happy out that she's alive.

Delighted the creepy rapey guard got his commupance.

Nervous Wreck wrote: »

I actually kinda hope Everybody Hates Chris survives!

Ha knew I knew him from somewhere! Decent episode overall, nice to have a new arc. Plus the ending definitely gave the episode a bit of a bump.

Quite disappointed in that episode. There wasn't a lot of explanation to this hospital. Also, did I misunderstand or was it not a lie when Hospital Governor told Beth that they found her at the side of the road, collapsed and about to be attacked? Was it not that she was just outside of the gaff her and Daryl were in and was taken? But still, her new pal seems nice but the hospital was rubbish. Carol being there at the end makes me wonder about the spoiler we saw at the end of E03.

Urgh. For the thousandth time every episode can not be all action all the time. Kirkman made the comic (and therefore the TV show) to focus on characters and how they react to the new world they found themselves in. If anyone found this "slow" there is something your clearly missing about the premise of this show.

Anyway, onto analysis of the episode. . I had to say I greatly enjoyed it. I still hate how immune main characters seem to be to zombies though, Beth going all bad ass on the walkers even though she was surrounded is just ridiculous. That took a few points off the episode for me. However, the hospital itself is super interesting. It's also a pretty great story, the fact Dawn wants to preserve it and will do anything to keep her guards happy (definitely not similar to The Governor like others have suggested, not as sociopathic but the stress of keeping everyone alive gets to her and she has clear anger issues) make for an interesting dynamic. The whole payback system is also intriguing. It's a way for them to try and bring normality back into the world. Instead of paying money (like you would in the pre-zombie world) labour is the way of paying, which is very interesting.

I wish we had seen more of the other women there (apart from Joan) to see what they are going through. Would have made for an interesting story. Also, anyone with half a brain cell would have coped that the guards were raping the women when Gorman comes out of the room near the start and a random female closes the door, looking pissed off and defeated. Made the shock value of the story a lot less impactful. Dr. Edwards was fantastic, properly self-serving. He realises his limitations and isn't afraid to use others to get what he wants (using Beth to kill Trevit and save his own hide). It's really interesting to see characters having more than one dimension to them-perfectly capable of being good, normal people but also having no problem manipulating others if they feel threatened.

All in all, very good episode, adding a new character, really fleshing out Beth and actually making her interesting (a problem they had in season 1-3), adding some interest by having Carol in the hospital as well. 7 outta 10

The worst episode of the walking dead ever.
Absolute tripe.

Episode 1 aside, so far this season has been crap.

Anybody notice that Joan was played by Kiwi actress Keisha Castle-Hughes? I only copped it half way through myself.

Hmmm...not sure that Beth's character is strong enough to carry off a whole episode, although she did show some balls by having the cop on to let Joan attack Gorman and finish him off. She seemed very much like an observer in this episode, with some of the back story of post-apocalyptic Atlanta, and the survivors left behind taking more centre stage...and letting her inject people with medication? If they didn't know her dad (RIP Hershel!) was a vet and she possibly had some basic medical training (and I can't see why she would tell them that) it seemed like a weird move to let her basically act unsupervised in the role of doctor or nurse just after her arrival. But that's just a niggly point that struck me.

I'm not sure where the whole Carol thing will go...I wouldn't hazard guessing whether she is genuinely injured or faking it. Tune in next week!

I think daryll is bringing one of the guys back from the hospital, gorman mentioned that one of his fellow cops was gone following a lead on guns.

They took carol as hostage to trade for guns from the main group. Rewatched the break out scene from the hospital by beth and everyone hates chris, I was trying to see could I catch a glimpse the car daryll and carole went chasing after in the parking lot, couldn't see it though