These Bonus Episodes seem to be coming through thick and fast and I'm about to watch
TWD S10: E21(Bonus E5): Diverged which I think recenters back on Daryl & Carol, with a few things thrown in (they really are pushing the focus towards new viewers with the Daryl & Carol spin off, considering this will be two standalone episodes in this batch of six). First off though, it's time to revisit
TWD S10: E19(Bonus E3): One More & E20(Bonus E4): Splinter as I review the two most recent episodes.
In "One More" I thought this was the first one of the bonus lot to standalone quite well and it had the right balance. This really could have been a pilot to some TWD Universe side story - which in some ways it was. I think the episode was helped by having the excellent Robert Patrick (you will know him for certain), the once Liquid Metal Man or T-1000 if you like showed he can still play a convincing, if somewhat confused villain and also as his incredibly confused as well as imprisoned brother.
I'm going to touch on the T:2 reference for one moment because one of TWDs executives, Gale Anne Hurd obviously was a big part in bringing The Terminator series to the big screen. It's no coincidence then that both Gregory (Xander Berkeley) & May (Robert Patrick) ended up on TWD. It's a shame the two didn't get to work together again as Berkeley played the fated Todd Voight, subsequently killed by Patrick as T-1000 in "that" milk drinking scene.
Anyway back onto the episode. Gabe and Aaron are on a supply run, under Maggie's orders (this still grates with me a bit, there's no way she'd command that much respect, appearing out of the woods, after being pretty much AWOL for all this time.) as there are some locations that still have some goods left. After pretty much zero joy and the usual killing of Walkers, the two are thinking about home and their respective daughters. Aaron is really keen to head back but Gabe wants to scout just "one more" location. They get caught up in a sloppy mud pit and the map they have gets destroyed. Deeming their mission for Maggie pretty much over, unless they wander aimlessly.
They decide to kind of call it a day when they stumble upon a warehouse (which to me, looked similar to Daniel Salazar's warehouse in Fear TWD. Interesting but I'm not sure the two correlate, at least not geographically. Salazar's Warehouse was in Texas. Not sure where these pair are but they are somewhere they haven't been before and let's also consider that Aaron was a tracker/scouter for Alexandria so he's covered some square mileage around his stomping ground. They aint in Texas though!).
At this point it seems pretty slow and nothing is really happening. We think that we're just going to get Gabe and Aaron talk about things and we'll learn more about them. This kind of happens as whilst scouting the warehouse, it's empty but there are supplies. Aaron then comes face to face with a wild boar. Jackpot. Well at least for Gabe and Aaron. They also find whiskey and wind up hunkering down, playing cards, getting pissed, eating wild boar and we also find out how Gabe knows so much about whiskey. Again, fairly standard and slow, not much revealing.
Although during their game of poker, Gabe states that evil people are now the "rule, not the exception" which would be concerning coming from a man of the cloth (or so we've always been led to believe). Next morning, Gabe wakes and finds Aaron is not around. Which is where this episode then ramps up somewhat. Whilst looking for him enter stage left "Mays" played by Robert Patrick. It turns out Mays lives in the warehouse and that the wild boar Aaron and Gabe ate, was actually his domesticated apocalypse pet. Oh dear. Mays is a pretty cut up and deranged character and whilst sat at a table with Gabe, he reveals he has Aaron in the room where he found the boar. He then brings Aaron out, spiky arm missing and makes him sit across from Gabe. Time for another game?
Indeed, Mays pits the two against each other in a game of no compromise Russian Roulette. Either choose to shoot yourself or shoot your friend. If neither, he'll shoot the two of you. Essentially, one of them IS going to die. I still was trying to figure out what Mays was going to get out of this. He's seemingly been alone for quite some time and whilst they may have eaten his pet, there is potential to build a friendship. But this is TWD and sometimes the people aren't nice for any real reason. Maybe Father Gabe is right - maybe evil people are the rule now. Mays kind of gives them an excuse for his sadistic face off, stating that "this is who people are now". This comes after he actually stops Aaron from shooting his own face off. There was a click into the chamber and Mays allowed the both of them to take it all the way to within moments of their lives.
It was quite an intense and gripping moment. You couldn't be 100% certain if one of them would die. It would be strange and shocking in a bonus episode and the two characters aren't the main leads for TWD so for a while I thought "damn, one of them is for it". But Mays stops them after he's toyed with them. It seems like he's been convinced that Aaron and Gabe are actually decent people. We then find out the Mays lost all trust after his own brother stole most of his food and had to deal with him.
It is in this moment we first here of Mays introducing himself by name. Within seconds of him saying it to Aaron, we next see Aaron shocked and covered in blood. Another mini twist and for me personally I think Aaron must've likely thought he was kneeling down in front of Negan again. Gabe is stood there having bludgeoned Mays to death with Aaron's prosthetic arm! He simply says "We couldn't bring him back" or similar.
We then get another little twist as they do a final sweep of the warehouse before leaving. Hearing a noise from above, they discover that Mays was lying and they find his brother (also played by Patrick), chained up, surrounded by his dead family. In an act of retribution they unshackle him and consider bringing him back. But in a quick turnaround and possible state of shock, he wounds up shooting himself and dies next to his family corpses. This is quite a poignant moment for TWD because even when there is a chance of hope, people in this world are still incredibly hopeless. Even saving them can't save them. It's probably the biggest ongoing psychological element to TWD that we see on different occasions. How characters struggle mentally and they often do explore this well.
With Gabe and Aaron now leaving the Warehouse, they both actually agree to scout out the last place, the Water Tower, their "one more", we then see the Water Tower come in to shot and the episode is pretty much rounded up.
I think, despite the one off appearance, Mays (Patrick) really stole the show and it must've been great for both Ross Marquand and Seth Gilliam to work with such an iconic actor. You could tell the quality of delivery by Robert Patrick and we could easily have just had an episode carried solely by Mays. Maybe they could have had him linked to the CRM in some way? We never really knew enough about him, which is a shame...his story was similar to so many in that he wound up in that "safe haven" but I feel they missed a trick by not having him linked to the bigger picture of the CRM. It would also have made a good link across into the following episode too.
Again, of course these are just bonus episodes and I find I'm repeating this to myself. They are literally Bonus DVD content but I'm still thankful in some ways. Just expected a little more development. Having said that, this episode was a better one but it did need a bit more flesh around the Mays character. The main cast have come face to face with lone wolves (nice reference) before and never spent much time considering them. I think if you're going to feature them for a whole episode then we need to have something that underpins them being discovered, otherwise it just becomes a longer dead end.
I liked Mays, great character and that is purely testament to T-1000 himself - Robert Patrick.
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Ok so onto
TWD S10: E20(Bonus E4): Splinter which was confined to filming on a very small set and based pretty much all in a train freight car. This is the only episode so far to have a genuine follow on from the end of S10:E16 proper. Whereby we catch up with the Fab Four - Eugene, Ezekiel, Princess & Yumiko (who appears to not really feature in it all) and their tribulation of being ambushed by what we think or know to be the CRM or quite possibly a faction of. Nothing was really explained, they could be some very clever charlatans but as Chubbs and several others across the TWD Family/Viewership have mentioned...they make for some very convincing Stormtroopers
I also enjoyed this one and whilst there was not much going on in the "Whack-A-Zombie" stakes, there was a lot going on in the "this is trippy af, what's happening" stakes. It gave us some great development for Princess and not really a lot for anyone else. Possibly for Ezekiel but then if the majority of this was a mirage/apparition/delusion/hallucination then this episode was ALL about Princess (and the CRM or whoever they are).
I'll touch on the CRM theory quickly because these guys could easily be "something else". If you've seen TWDWB (World Beyond), FTWD and even in parts in TWD, then you'll notice one glaring and very contrasting difference. The CRM wear mostly all black uniforms and feature fairly heavily in FTWDs later seasons. Incidentally it now appears that the CRM (and Jadis) were responsible for saving/taking Rick. Essentially, the CRM or the "helicopter people". In FTWD, Althea falls for a CRM Operative too and has very close interceptions with the/a CRM helicopter. They also come across as very shady and very secretive.
So yep, black uniforms but these guys in S10E16&E20 are all predominantly wearing all white. Which means they could in fact be the group known as The Commonwealth. Now, in the comics (if you have read them) the CRM do not exist; The Commonwealth certainly do...so could this be the beginning of a division of all our TWD heroes? With Rick seemingly now collected by the CRM, Michonne heading that way and Daryl seemingly determined to find Rick we have three key characters going towards one path. Whilst on the flip, without fully knowing, we have Eugene, Ezekiel, Princess & Yumiko now looking like they are going to be utilised by The Commonwealth. Who else could join either? Maggie, Aarron, Gabe, Carol, Jerry, Negan...what about Asskicker?! Where does all this fit in and what does it mean for the rest of the cast. I'm happy to "forget" about a large chunk of them but there has to be some way bringing them to a conclusion of sorts. What about the rest of the original Famous Five (Yumiko we know about but Connie, Kellie, Luke & Magna) and then the likes of Lydia and so on? They all have decent strands linked to the last few seasons so at the minimum they will need tying up. I guess we'll kind of see this during S11s extended season (one would hope).
But yep that was my little CRM/Commonwealth side bit as if that's the way the story heads then we may see our original group of survivors essentially being pitted against each other? Possibly. As a final aside the CRM seems to be much larger than The Commonwealth. CRM consists of 3 main locations and two other areas (one being West Virginia). The Commonwealth are based purely in Charleston, West Virginia. Where Eugene thought he was finally going to meet his Radio HAM beau - Stephanie. Maybe he still will but if The Commonwealth is separate to the CRM, this could be the start of a much bigger story. If The Commonwealth is a faction of (one of the five) the CRM then it'll be interesting how it all pulls together.
Ok, so on with the episode, which doesn't really have a lot to tell except it focused on Princess' dissolution with trust, here constant hallucinations throughout. It was good, it kept you guessing what was real or not but other than that there wasn't a great deal else. It just revealed a bit more to us about the "Stormtroopers" and the fact that whether for the right reasons or not, they really can't be trusted. Basically if one of them will allow themselves to be battered to the point of death or even sacrifice themselves, just to maintain the status quo then that is what they are prepared to do - at any cost. So if nothing else, we now know what type of group we're dealing with and they are pretty well armed!
There isn't really much for me to add onto the episode. Princess gave a largely great individual performance and we learnt more possibly about her earlier life (and the things that trigger it). We're now left with all four with bags/hoods over their heads and I assume the next time we see them, will be via some form of further interrogation (because they already had been for some period during the episode) possibly?
As I said, this one just flows in between what we should see more of going into S11 so it was nice for continuity's sake. Another thing I will add is that this episode mirrored similarities very much of the S4 Finale: E16: A where Rick and the gang are captured and locked in a train car, at the hands by the Cannibals of Terminus.
That's about it for those two episodes, I think they were both somewhat better than the opening Bonus One and only for the fact Daryl was quite good I'd say they were both better than Bonus Two as well. I'm going to give a very short review of S10: E21(Bonus E5): Diverged because it really was the worse of the lot...I hope that they are saving the best till last with the self titled "Here's Negan".
Ok, I'm out. Let us know your thoughts (if not already). Is it just BBC (Bamboo, Berni & Chubbs) commenting here now? Well whatever, it's always good to hear your thoughts.
Cheers,
Bamboo