(TV) The Walking Dead: Extended Trailer Season 7 Episode 16 Promo/Preview HD

(TV) The Walking Dead: The Walking Dead 7x15 Trailer Season 7 Episode 15 Promo/Preview [HD]

(TV) The Walking Dead: The Walking Dead Super Trailer Season 7 Episode 14 Promo/Preview (HD)

(TV) The Walking Dead: The Walking Dead season 7 episode 11 Extended trailer

(TV) The Walking Dead: The Walking Dead 7x10 “New Best Friends” Sneak Peek

(Note from the editor) New The Walking dead Reviews !!!

2017 has already been productive year for The Carnage Report and we look to continue the tends with a steady stream of great episode by episode reviews of The Walking Dead starting with Sunday's midseason premiere. 

Last year we left the clan finally willing to stand up to Negan's terrifying reign and if the second half of season 7 stays faithful to the comics, season 7 could easily be the best the series ever had. 

Be sure to check out our previous TWD reviews to catch yourself up for this Sunday as this season promises to be doozey and we're going to have fun reviewing it so stay tuned! 

Also check out the new excellent pieces from our Big Disrupt team coming thick and fast for the rest of this year. 

Thanks for reading    

Alex Clarke 

Founder and Editor 

The Carnage Report 

(TV) The Walking Dead: TWD Season 7 Midseason Premiere Promo

Check the tense and thrilling trailer for the second half Midseason premiere of AMC's ratings monster The Walking dead. 

(TV)The Walking Dead Season 7 Episode 6 Trailer & Preview Clip (2016) amc Se...

(TV)( The Walking Dead Season 7 Episode 5 sneak peek trailer

(TV) The Walking Dead: The Walking Dead Season 7 Episode 3 promo trailer

Fear The Walking Dead Season 1 1x01 First Promo - Teaser #1 "Pilot"

(TV) The Walking Dead 5x16 Promo [HD) "Conquer" Season 5 Episode 16 Promo (SE...

Check out the sneak peek trailer the season finale of AMC’s smash hit zombie drama “The Walking Dead”

(TV) The Walking Dead 5x15 Promo "Try" Season 5 Episode 15

Check out this intense trailer for next week’s installment (entitled “Try”) of AMC’s smash hit series, “The Walking Dead”.  

(TV) The Walking Dead Season 5 Episode 14 “Spend” TV Review

Tonight’s episode left an awful lot of questions that need to be answered but the main questions that popped into my head was just how did the Alexandrians last this long?

The honeymoon between the Rick and co and the Alexandrians is truly over as death visits both groups outside the walls which is not surprising but what was surprising was the cause of the deaths.

We’ve already seen that the Alexandrians are ignorant of the danger outside their walls and have super lax security measures but in this episode we two separate dangerous situations caused or exacerbated by the dangerous combination of cowardice and recklessness on the part of the Alexandrians.

The show has been setting us up to see the Alexandrians as desperately naïve and ignorant to the point it’s quite obvious the writers of the show are engineering a conflict between the two groups as Rick and co already know that the Alexandrians cannot hold their camp without their help.

The events of this week’s episode will surely bring the two groups at loggerheads as the the group loses Noah and Deanna lose her son Aidan. These two deaths will set up the mother of all conflicts between the two groups and no brainer who’s going to come up trumps.

Things started so well as we see Noah talking to Reg about learning how to build and reinforce the walls and Reg gave him a notebook. While the group is secretly split over the merits of the Alexandrian camp, Noah is one of members of the group who has bought in what the Alexandrians are trying to do and because of this Noah made the worst mistake you can make in The Walking Dead: aspire to keep hope alive by building a better future for himself and others.

We’ve seen the endeavor either get people killed in the most gruesome manner possible or turn them into a monster due to the moral compromises they had to make and in either outcome the character loses whether he or she lives or dies.  

Whatever happened this episode you knew that supply run was going to end badly given the lack of planning by Aidan and Nicholas despite Glen’s advice to come up with a different route out of the warehouse should things go pear shaped. Glen, at least up to this point, has never lost anybody on a supply run. On supply runs he saved Rick and Tara and gotten crucial supplies for the group but he mostly did supply runs by himself or with one other person  just as experienced out there as he was. However in “Spend” he found himself having to follow the lead two inexperienced but cocksure scouts in Aidan and Nicholas and watch the back of Eugene, who in his own words, “is not combat ready or combat inclined”.

Things start well on the supply run as they find what they’re looking for and prepare to leave but not before Aidan, neglecting to listen to Glen advising him to let the military clad walker come closer in order to kill it, shoots a live grenade which blows up which made a simple run ten times more deadly than they already was. In the next scene we see that everyone is more or less okay except for Aidan who is impaled by a forklift courtesy of the blast he caused and Tara knocked out with a bad cut to the head.

In the next scene we see Eugene, Noah, Glen and Nicholas in an office with Tara on a table unconscious pinned down by walkers which would have been fatal for all involved if Glen didn’t step up and come up with a plan to get them out of the office and save Aidan who came to after Nicholas thought he was dead.

So far just about every scene we’ve seen with the Alexandrians has shown us how unprepared and inexperienced they are to deal with threats outside and inside their walls as the scenes at the warehouse and building site show  both Glen and Abraham being forced to take the lead thanks to the recklessness and cowardice of  the Alexandrians.

Aidan and Noah wouldn’t have died if Aidan had listened to Glen and let the walker get close enough to kill it and the Alexandrian group would have watched one of their own get eaten alive if Abraham didn’t go commando and singlehandedly handle a whole herd with a little assistance from one of the Alexandrians who got over his fear thanks to Abraham’s display to badassery.

This episode also revealed that Deanna’s concerned that the group is taking leadership positions in the town too fast with Rick and Michonne already constables and after the incident at the building site, Abraham in charge of the community’s expansion which is understandable but takes a bit of gloss off her grand plans for the camp and doubt her motives when she’s worrying about the ascent of the only people in her group she knows who can keep the camp safe long enough to realize them. Sure almost everybody in the group is capable of cold blooded murder and sometimes struggle to know when to turn it off and on but the Alexandrians don’t have that kill switch and if they did, wouldn’t know what to do with it. We see that in the building site incident and fatefully, we see it in the poorly planned that gets Noah killed in the most gruesome way possible.

Noah death was particularly gruesome as we watch Glen, who’s never lost anybody on a supply run, watch Noah get torn apart by walkers thanks to Nicholas’s cowardice when they get cornered by walker in a revolving door. “Spend” was a big Eugene episode as we saw him step up as he carried Tara back to the van and drew the walkers away from the revolving allowing Nicholas, Noah and Glen to escape. Unfortunately, after panicking when Glen couldn’t break the glass of revolving door, Nicholas bailed on Glen and Noah leaving them susceptible to the walkers on the other side which lead to the walkers grabbing Noah and pulling him back into the lobby despite Glen’s best attempts to pull him back.

The writers of the show laid the gore on thick this week as the camera lingered on the horrible deaths of Aidan and Noah as both were eaten alive and torn apart literally by walkers making sure we didn’t miss a second of the whole ideal. The Walking Dead is comfortably the goriest show on TV right now and “spend” made sure we didn’t forget.

Not all the drama in “spend” was reserved for the events at the building site and the supply run from hell as the Rick, Jessie and Pete love triangle takes a new turn as we learn from Carol’s rather cold interaction with Sam and the tense doorstep visit to Pete’s and Jessie’s house (the kid she threatened to kidnap and leave in the woods last week) that creepy Pete, who in every scene we’ve seen him in is either trying to get Rick drunk or asking to check up on his kids is abusive towards Jessie and maybe Sam.

We already see that Rick doesn’t like Pete and would probably kill him anyway but thanks to Carol’s experience as a battered wife and being able to spot the signs, Rick has the perfect reason to get Pete out of the picture. While the way we deal with domestic abuse in our context leaves a lot of be desired given the alarming rate of death surrounding the issue, executing someone for being an abusive asshole to his wife and potentially his kid isn’t the answer either particularly in the post-apocalyptic world. Rick and Carol have elected themselves as judge, jury, and executioner before and we know they’re waiting for the slightest instance the Alexandrians get out of pocket to do it again.

And with the revelation of Pete being a domestic abuser and the death of Noah and Aidan sure to split the camp once Glen, Eugene, Tara and Nicholas make it back, Rick and Carol might just get their chance.

All in all, “Spend” was a great episode  that going to definitely split the group in two and I can’t wait to see what happens next week’s even though we have pretty good idea that it might not turn out of well for the Alexandrians in any case.

Till next week.

(TV) Game of Thrones Season 5: Trailer #2 - The Wheel (HBO)

Check out the second official trailer building up for the return of the brilliant HBO smash hit, “Game of Thrones” set to air 12^th April.

(TV) The Walking Dead Season 5 Episode 14 Promo

Watch the trailer for the next edition of AMC’s smash hit, “The Walking Dead”.

(TV) The Walking Dead Season 5 Episode 13 “Forget” TV Review

This week’s edition of walking dead was pretty much an extension of last week’s edition as we see the group adjust to their new surround and some managing better than others.

The Groups integration into the Alexandria camp is sure to produce some of the better drama of the series as we get to see Rick and co under the rule of a another e and the early signs in this and last week’s episode is proving fruitful. In “forget” we get see the depths of the psychological trauma within the group as the episode reveals some are clearly not ready to integrate into the all too pre- zombie apocalypse surroundings.

We see this in the opening few scenes with Sasha clearly freaked out by Olivia’s chipper attitude and mundane as if the end hasn’t ended. Still fresh from the losses of Bob and bother Tyreese, Sasha is less than likely to integrate given the stark contrast between the homely surroundings of the Alexandria camp and the existential nightmare outside its walls.

I have to admit myself I’ve found the juxtaposition between the two rather jarring to the point I nearly forget that all involved are survivors of a zombie apocalypse. From the outset the group has had to deal with the constant threat of danger and that’s been the main driver of the story so far so seeing rick get rid of the beard and Carol play house with residents of the Alexandria camp is quite a strange site.

This episode as well as last week’s installment addressed a major point in the show of how the group would interact with a group that aren’t murdering psychopaths or a group of murdering cannibals and the answer so far is pretty well up to a point. While Rick Carol and Daryl are more than justified to suspect that the Alexandria group is more sinister than it lets on but the most concerning moments of the last two episodes has been on the part of  the group from Rick planning to take over the camp to Carol threatening a little boy with death-by-walker.

While the show has done its best to show that the governor and the terminates were evil personified and they got what they deserved, it glosses over the fact that Rick and co are just as capable of cold blooded murder as both their previous foes ever were. Because we see everything from the point of view of the group, we forget that they defeated and kill both Governor and particularly the Terminites in a savage and ruthless fashion.

So for me it’s no surprise that Carol threatened a child with death then, in the same breath, bribed him with cookies. It’s now that we see them with a group of good people we see just how battle hardened the group has become with Rick, Carol and Daryl preparing for the next campaign before it happens.  “Forget” and “Remember have been two good episodes as both group are sizing each other up with the Alexandrians eyeing rick and co with curiosity and the group with varying degrees of suspicion.

In “forget”, we also get a little contempt from the group towards the Alexandria camp as fortunate circumstances notwithstanding, they have been sitting pretty at the end of the world and resentment from certain members of the group is palpable.

The quite resent among the group towards the Alexandria camp becomes clear when their leader starts talking about her ambitious plans for the camp which brings a smirk of incredulity across Rick’s face as hears just as much BS as he can take. His incredulity turns into concern when he finds out that no one mans the camp’s clock tower which is a perfect for a lookout and, if needed, a sniper.

All this resent plus the worryingly lax approach the Alexandrians have to security almost seems to justify Rick’s plan to take over the camp or at least take back their guns as their lax security policies put him and his family at risk. However, the Alexandrians have gone out of their way to welcome the group which makes things worse given their experience with other groups who embraced them with open arms.

This week we got the strange pairing of Daryl and Aaron outside hunting “Buttons”. There are few contrasts as stark between two characters on the show as those between Daryl and Aaron but in “Forget” we find out that both more alike than we’d thought. Both spend most of their time outside the camp and as intimated by Aaron, outside the camp’s eerily suburban circle of bliss for one reason or another.

We also find out that Aaron is adept with dealing with walkers and is a pretty good shot probably gained through his rather dangerous and thankless job of recruiting people when he knows full well that the majority of people left are either good people ruined by their loss and the moral compromises they made to survive or murdering psychopaths.

We knew from the outset that Daryl was never going to fit in with the other suburbanites in Alexandrian camp so it does make sense that Daryl makes nice with Aaron and Eric as Aaron invites him for “some serious spaghetti”. Later we see Aaron show him a half built motorcycle before offering him a job as recruiter which he accepts.

The people in the Alexandria camp so far seem nice and are trying their best to be accommodating to the group but they seem quite clueless about how the world outside is and how this has affected the group because if they did Deanna wouldn’t have come up with the ill-advised idea of inviting the group to a party. It wasn’t that long ago when Rick and co was in a barn living off squirrels and acorns so adjusting to suburban life after surviving an zombie apocalypse isn’t going to be easy.

We see this when Sasha snaps on one of the Alexandrians as she bugs out at the Stepford Wives quality of the mundane conversation as if there isn’t a world of flesh eating killing machines looking for their next meal.

The highlight of the episode however was that chilling scene between Carol and Jessie’s son Sam in the armory when Carol is caught by the boy pocketing guns from the camps’ stash. Not only was it the most disturbing yet compelling scene in the episode but possibly in the second half of the series as she delivered the threat with little or no change in emotion as she moves room threatening to kidnap Sam and tie him up to a tree in the middle of the woods in his sleep in the same breath of bribing him with cookies which was brilliant but unsettling television.

But given Carol’s history with other people’s children it wasn’t a shock as she taught the kids at the prison how to use weapons, killed Lizzie, and now gave Sam sleepless nights for the rest of his life. It’s almost fitting that the two most ruthless people in the group are the people who were from the original group when The Walking Dead started as both Carol and Rick have assimilated the quickest to their new surroundings yet happen to be the most skeptical of the intentions and motivations of the Alexandria camp.

It’s been hilarious yet disturbing to see how quick Carol went “invisible” as from the moment the gates opened she started playing the ditsy homemaker who didn’t know how to handle a gun when we know she’s arguably the most ruthless and dangerous member of the group for the simple fact nobody sees her coming.

However it’s been less than hilarious but just as disturbing watching Rick makes moves on a married Jessie while planning to arm himself and the group in the camp despite the Alexandrians welcoming with open arms. What’s worse is his outright sociopathic tendencies leak out when see Jesse walk by with her husband and reaches for stolen gun in the small of his back with contempt in face. The Alexandrians only crimes so far has been having an A level sense of south/Midwestern hospitality and a D level understanding of their new guests and the threats outside and inside their walls but this hasn’t stopped rick and Carol planning for the worse.

What’s even more creepier about watching Rick’s scenes in Alexandria was the kick he got out of hearing a walker on the other side of the fence brings a smirk on his face as if he feels some type of connection or sense of ease with the undead which was unsettling and adds to the concern I have that Rick might just turn heel.

All in all, “Forget” was a good episode and a companion piece to last week’s installment as we see the group still adapt to the surreal surroundings of the Alexandria camp. The episode also sets up potential for much needed conflict within the group as for too long it’s been Rick calling the shots with little dissent.

Till next week!!!   

(TV) Better Call Saul Season 1 Episode 4 “Hero” TV Review

In “hero” we get to see that Saul is anything but as the episode starts where last week’s episode left off after a short trip down memory lane where we see Saul in his criminal pomp back in Cicero running a con on a mark.

There isn’t much truth to be found in this week’s edition of Better Call Saul but then again, is there ever? We begin the episode with Saul and a partner in crime scamming a mark for beer money and after the opening credits, we hear the bullshit rationalizations from the Kettlemans as to why they stole money and even why they deserve the money in all fairness!!

However Saul’s not exactly BS free as he tries to get the Kettlemans to come home so he can get Nacho off the hook and save his own skin. The Kettlemans however are not so keen on coming back as coming back will make them guilty despite the fact they’re guilty as sin.

The Kettlemans are so determined not to go back or give back the money that they offer Saul a bribe which he rejects, at first.  After refusing the Kettlemans bribe several times, Saul suggests that he can take the money as a retainer to represent them legally. Saul then keys into sales patter selling himself as a better alternative to HHM but is shut down by Mr’s Kettleman with a galling but truthful line when she tells Saul he’s the “kind of lawyer guilty people hire”.

Saul has suffered one gut punch after another with nothing to show for it but in the next scene we see that this time he come out smelling of roses and lot of money. So far, Better Call Saul has been a tale about morally flawed man doing his best to fight his own moral corruption and getting punished for it at every turn but in “hero”, we see Saul become a little less morally conflicted and in the next few scenes bask in the “glory” of his ill-gotten spoils.

But before that we see Saul assert himself after Nacho accuses him of snitching. So far, we’ve seen Saul wear his fear of Nacho for all to see but in “hero” Saul’s disdain for Nacho’s crude methods would have got him caught without his “intervention”. Saul’s disappointed with most things but his pet peeve is inefficient criminals as we saw him castigate the twins for their choice of victim and rakes Nacho over the coals for his crude plan to extort the Kettlemans with brute force.

In the few scenes we see Saul return to his office making a paper trail for his new windfall that day before spending some of his new funds on a new suit and haircut. However, in the next scene we see what his transformation was for as Howard and Kim make a short tip off the highway to reveal a hilariously large advertisement with Saul cut like Howard from the hair to the winning smile promoting his “JMM” firm using the same logo and font as HHM. For all the we’ve learned about Saul so far what has clearly stuck out is his desire to compete with Howard and HHM despite him knowing he’s up against the odds as he is, in his own words, a lemonade stand going up against Wal-Mart.

And like the real Wal-Mart, HHM doesn’t take competition lightly no matter how insignificant it is as we find out when Kim makes a visit to Saul’s office with a cease and desist letter. Kim clearly cares about Saul as she probes him over his motivations in poking Howard and HHM in the eye by cloning his and the firms likeliness. Saul denies it’s personal but we all it’s definitely personal as Howard, through his brother, tried to get him to use another name than his own.

Since then Saul’s been looking for a way to get at Howard and HHM and the ad, placed perfectly in a highway Howard takes to get to work everday, was just another attempt to do it. Despite Kim’s attempts to reason with Saul, Saul remains resolute in his personal war with HHM and Howard in particular Kim (and Saul) knows he can’t win.

In the next scene we see Saul and Howard in front of a judge making their cases with Howard accusing Saul of trademark infringement as he stole the HHM logo and “Hamlindigo blue” font. Saul counters with the fact that he’s being penalized by using his own name by HHM causing a “restraint of trade” and basically cites them as being anti-competitive. However, the judge wasn’t buying it and order Saul to take down the ad.

Despite another setback, we get another montage showing Saul as his best trying to sell a story that frames him as the little upstart being thwarted by a bigger and faceless corporation in HHM. When that clearly doesn’t work, we see Saul resort to what he knows best, the con game.  This time Saul plays a con on the press as he just happens to film a public message attempting to shame HMM and the court that made him take down the billboard as he “saves” a billboard installer who hangs suspended in the air screaming for help before Saul climbs up and pulls him back up.

From the outset of Better Call Saul we’ve seen that Saul has a real talent for deception and “hero” is no different as his con on the press works perfectly as his local TV interview after his “heroic” effort makes it into the HHM boardroom and regional newspapers. He also gets 7 new messages on his answerphone which just might help him deal with his painful anxiety in checking his messages in the future.

However his work isn’t done as he has to hide all evidence of the con away from Chuck who can see through Saul’s bullshit a mile away. Knowing full well the truth will break his brother’s heart; Saul lies through his teeth about his recent success crediting his brother’s sage advice for the turnaround. While pleased with brother’s recent success, it clear that Chuck smells a rat and thanks to an episode induced by his desire to read a local paper, his suspicion are confirmed.

All in all, “Hero” was another solid episode with Bob Odenkirk putting in another great performance.

Till next week!!

(TV) The Walking Dead Season 5 Episode 12 Promo "Remember" | The Walking Dead...

Check out this short sneak peek into next week’s episode of the AMC smash hit drama “The Walking Dead”.

(TV) The Walking Dead Season 5 Episode 11 “The Distance” TV Review

“The Distance” was great episode where we got to see the depths of Rick’s paranoia and someone, finally, get in his face and question his authority which instantly brought an end to the “Ricktatorship.”

While Rick officially brought an end his dictatorial reign at the back end of season three and part of season four, Rick still has made just about every major call since then without little or no push back. As per usual, not all his decisions we’re great including the dangerous 100 mile hike to Washington. But in “The Distance”,  Michonne makes herself heard and makes Rick see sense.

While we’ve seen Michonne grow leaps and bounds from when we first saw her and in this week’s episode we see her browbeat Rick into giving new character Aaron a chance. However, for all that we’ve seen in the last five seasons of The Walking Dead we can’t fault Rick from looking a gift horse in the mouth.

Just about every time the group has placed trust in strangers they’ve paid the price from the Governor to the Terminus residents and now a polite, well dressed and clean shaven man comes along promising salvation is sure to cause suspicion. Rick paranoia pops up front and center the moment Maggie and Sasha introduce Aaron to the group as Rick quizzes him wearing his “I’m going to kill you and wear your face” look. Despite the understandable skepticism, hostility and caution among Rick and most of the group, Aaron manages to keep his composure selling his community to a tough crowd.

From the first few minutes we can tell that Aaron has perfected his pitch and is a skill salesman but trust is hard enough to establish in the world we live in but so just imagine how much harder it is to do in a zombie apocalypse where the only humans left are more dangerous than the flesh eating monsters aimlessly walking around looking for lunch. This point is punctuated as Rick gets sick of his well-polished sales patter and nails him  with a right cross that put Aaron out cold.

And with that begun the episode long clash between Rick and Michonne as she gets in Rick’s face for attacking Aaron but Rick is too busy preparing for an ambush from Aaron’s group. Aaron come back from right cross induced stupor and still manages to keep his cool despite being decked and interrogated by a dead eyed Rick. In this scene Aaron makes a great point about trust when he questions Rick skeptical mindset about as points out to Rick that no matter how many of his people he says is out there, Rick won’t believe him anyway because he’s skeptical from the outset.

However his well-reasoned and argued point goes way over Rick’s head as he continues to wear his paranoia on his sleeve. You can’t really blame him as for all that he’s lost since the zombie apocalypse began; he still has the most to lose out of the group which makes the safety and well-being of Karl and Judith his number one priority.    

So for all the well-reasoned and argued points Aaron can come up with under serious interrogation from Rick and the group’s more skeptical members, he’s not making any hay on getting them to join his community. However Aaron does kind of shoot himself in the foot when making a point about what would happen if he had foul intentions by describing how he would ambush a group. This was a whopper of a mistake given all Rick and the group has shown him is hostility and suspicion. However I don’t really think this the fault of the show’s new character but of the writers of TWD looking for ways to introduce tension where it doesn’t exists.

The writers are well aware that TWD suffers from a serious lack of dramatic tension in light of the show having no real antagonist with The Governor gone and the Walker now a palpable but ultimately manageable threat. So far Aaron has maintained his polite demeanor and has given the group no reason to trust him but with the writers looking to introduce tension where there isn’t reveals the writers eagerness to fix a problem they can’t fix anytime soon.

After Aaron makes another attempt to get the group to trust him by revealing that another member of his community is up the road with a camper, Rick and Michonne clash again as Rick thinks it’s a trick but Michonne, notably desperate for sanctuary in the second half of this season, is willing to give Aaron the benefit of the doubt as is Maggie.

Rick, not willing to take the risk, retorts that Michonne’s plan to check Aaron’s claims out are dangerous but Michonne rightly points out that living hand to mouth in a barn in the middle of nowhere isn’t exactly safe either. Then what happens next is pretty much one of the highlights of the episode as Michonne rallies the group into following her plan and sternly insists that Rick plays ball. We’ve seen Rick for the most part get his way without much resistance right or wrong but in “The Distance”, Rick is forced to follow the lead of one of the group members.

This a good development as the “what Rick says goes” regime the group has pretty much cosigned from the outset clearly needs tweaking. Most of the group has been fine with merely surviving but Michonne has been pushing for a place to settle and realizes that it may take a risk like trusting a stranger to get it no matter how much what they have to say or offer is hard to believe due to the group’s bad experiences with other groups willing to take them in.

The group then splits in two with some of group following Michonne while other hanging back looking out for threats. Michonne’s plan was the smart play but leaving Rick with Aaron wasn't due to his paranoia clearly getting the best of him. We find that out pretty quickly as Rick threatens to put a knife in the base Aaron’s skull if  Michonne and co weren’t back in an hour.

In between the couple of scenes where we see that Aaron’s story checked out, we see the depths of Rick’s Paranoia after Aaron offers Rick apple sauce to feed Judith to stop her crying because she might attract walkers. Rick then makes Aaron taste the apple sauce before he gives it to Judith which is understandable but telling given the fact that if Aaron did poison the apple sauce, it would be an automatic death sentence for him given his job means he has to encounter groups with every reason to distrust him.

When Michonne, Maggie, Glenn, Rosita and Abraham return to the barn with a bevy of canned food, Michonne once again campaigns for the group to leave the barn, most of the group is onboard given Aaron story checked out and even Daryl, who’s been a Rick loyalist for the longest, joins Michonne in her insistence to leave the barn and join Aaron’s community.

Seeing that Michonne has pretty much has the whole group on her side, Rick reluctantly agrees. Once again Ricks mistrust puts him and others in danger as Aaron tells him and the group which road to take back his group but thanks his paranoia, Rick decided to split group with him, Michonne, Glen and Aaron take another route and the rest of the clan take the route Aaron suggested.

The plan pretty much went Pete Tong for Rick, Michonne, Aaron and Glen as Aaron was correct when he suggested that Rick’s plan to go down a route his group hadn’t cleared of walkers was a bad idea as Glen mows down a herd of walkers. The group get out of the car when  Aaron gets out of the car after seeing a flare light the sky. If the plan hadn’t already gone awry it’s about worse as the group end up having to shoot and chop their through a herd that nearly gets them killed before they make it back on to the main road and walk the rest of the trip.

As the group meet up again we follow Aaron into as he meets up with his partner Eric and find out Maggie and Glenn aren’t the only hope for relationships in the zombie apocalypse. The few seconds we spent with Aaron and Eric revealed a relationship that’s tender and loving which makes one of the bleakest and cynical shows on television today a more bearable watch considering the emotionally draining episodes over the last two weeks.

In the next scene we see that Aaron has some steel to go with his politeness as he stands up to Rick when tries to tell him where to sleep. This scene was particularly telling because Aaron was prepared to take on Rick before Glenn stepped in to talk sense into him. His steel is even more impressive as while he must have figured out by now that while Rick is good man willing to do what it takes to protect the ones he loves, he is also a stone cold killer with a serious case of paranoia made worse by the burden of leadership.

The real highlight of the whole episode was in the last three minutes of “The Distance” as get a close up on Rick’s eyes and in them we see a man looking for hope while waiting for other shoe to drop until the hears the sound of children playing which allows him relax as we see the life rush back into his dead green eyes. For all faults the show has, the performances from its cast are almost always on point with Andrew Lincoln acting his boots off in this episode.

Ross Marquand, who plays Aaron, was also pretty good in his first full episode as we, through his performance, learned much about his character. Now that Rick and co are now part of another group, we get to see how they deal with a group of real human beings that don’t want to kill them and keep their walker remains or eat them alive.

The show has needed an instance where the group joins a community where they’re not in control and now we get to see whether they can really play nice with others or has the being out in the world hardened them beyond repair.

We may get some answers on that front next week.