ZOMBIES: RECAP - 'Walking Dead: Made To Suffer' until February, S3 Ep.8

by Bowie Ibarra

THE PRISON POPULATION GROWS

This weeks episode opens with the appearance of Tyrese, apparently another popular character from the comic, regulating zeds in the woods with his friends.  We are treated to an example of his football acumen as he runs through the woods with skill and athleticism with a big backpack to help his team.  Though one of their team is bit, they end up finding sanctuary in a broken down wall and its building.  Look familiar?

Axel gets creepy with Beth, but is cut off by Carol, who pulls him aside.  He's pretty plain about his motivations, having spent so much time behind bars without the company of a female.  He thinks Beth is his only option, stating he thought Carol was a lesbian because of her haircut.

Later, young Carl, with his dad's hat, keeps tabs on the group and his little sister.  They hear a scream from the interior.  There's a funny moment when Herschel says it can't be Carol because she's in the guard tower with Axel.  We all remember the fun Maggie and Glenn had in the guard tower from a while back.  I wonder how Daryl's going to feel about that.

At any rate, Carl goes to investigate and finds Tyrese and his friends.  He helps them fend off the zeds, who seem to have followed them in, and leads them back to a secure room.

Its there that one of their team passes from a bite suffered in the woods.  Before they can smash her face in with a hammer before she rises, Carl locks them in the space.  That's when one of the team named Sasha's voices that she's not much for being 'secured', but Tyrese sees the advantage and they relax about it.


ZERO DEAD THIRTY:  THE RAID ON WOODBURY

Andrea volunteers to help scientist Mr. Mamet cremate Mr. Coleman.  As she leaves the governor's side, it gives the governor special time with Penny.  He plays music like Mr. Mamet's experiment, Penny runs at her dad, but is restrained by a leash.  He tries to calm her by undoing her bonds and singing to her.  Too bad she's interested in the blood pudding he made for her.  He shouts at her, losing patience, and puts her back in her cell.

Meanwhile, Maggie and Glenn are trying to come to terms from their respective forms of torture, and 'forget what people do'.  Glenn gets motivated and rips the arm off a zed in the room, taking its bones for use as weapons.

Meanwhile, outside, the WD Crew Fireteam of Michone, Rick, Oscar, and Daryl follow Michone's lead and begin their infiltration of Woodbury to find their friends.

The Governor and Merle are planning an assault on the prison.  Though Merle is concerned about his brother, the Gov feels they can get Daryl on his side.

The WD Crew move deeper into enemy territory, breaking into a building.  Rick thinks Michone might be leading them into a trap.  But they are spotted by some schmuck from the wall who walks in on them.  The dude doesn't think they are much of a threat.  But when Rick jumps the dude and asks where his friends are, its too late.

They end up finding out where the prisoners are when Maggie and Glenn make a move on enemies entering the room they were in.  They jump them and stab them with their bones, but its short lived because they had backup.

It gives enough time for the WD Crew to initiate an assault, freeing their friends and leading to a mad dash out of Woodbury.

The Governor tells the regular citizens not to worry and go home, but tells his militia to gear up.

Michone leads the team to a safe building to make another run at the wall before she runs off.  Its here that Glenn tells the team about Merle and the Governors knowledge of the prison.  Daryl wants to see his brother, but Rick tells him he needs him with the WD Crew.  We once again see that Rick's relationship with Daryl is just like the Governor's to Merle.  It's another striking moment when you see the duality of the two teams, just like when Michone first joined the WD Crew at the prison.  It was like Woodbury without the trappings of normalcy.

The Governor mobilizes his team against the 'terrorists', and tries to keep Andrea out of the action, who again gets all women's libbed up and ready to fight back.  But the Governor can't let her see the enemy.

That's when the WD Crew makes their move.  The set off smoke bombs and race to the wall.  Andrea claims she sees them.  The Governor thinks she was able to see them because she was able to identify the prisoner, Oscar.  Not by name, actually, but by clothes.  But that could spoil his plan to assault the prison, so he demands she goes to hide.

While the WD Crew is running and gunning their way to their escape, the ghost of Shane comes to haunt Rick and even shoots Oscar dead.  Rick puts the Shane-Ghost down to find it was a real man that was not really Wolverine Shane.

Rick clearly is still not well.


PENNY



Michone infiltrates the Governor's house and waits at the door for her revenge.  But she hears Penny in the side room.  She kicks open the Governor's rec room to find the heads and Penny locked up.  She thinks Penny is just a kid and takes off her chain.  But then she takes off the bag on her head to find she's dead.  When she tries to bite her, Michone takes control to set up a fatal strike with her Hanzo.

But that's when the Governor shows up and begs her not to hurt her.  He even puts his gun away and submits to her, offering himself up to Michone to spare his 'little girl'.  Michone sees the best way to hurt the Governor by killing Penny, which she promptly does by stabbing her through the neck and out her mouth.

A fight ensues, as you might imagine, breaking the fish tanks with the heads and brinking their biting into to the equation.  That's when Michone uses some glass to go Lucio Fulci on the Governor and stab him in the eye.

Its then that Andrea appears to see it all, and the two former BFF's have a face off.  Michone walks off because the Women's Libber can't pull the trigger.  The other problem is she is now exposed to the Governor's sick secrets in his rec room.

At the doctor's office, Andrea confronts the Governor about the heads.  But he doesn't have much to say.  When Merle arrives, he tells the governor he'll go after them.  But the governor is thinking about a different angle.

Rick mentions to Michone upon her return that Daryl moved back into Woodbury to find his brother.  But the problem is he gets caught and put in the arena of sport, the ZombieBloodFights.com Arena, where the Governor sets up a speech about how he's failed the city and sets up Merle to take the fall as a 'terrorist', saying he is responsible for letting the terrorists in for the attack.

Problem is, Daryl gets added into the mix, too, and all of Woodbury calls for their heads.

And that's it.  That's the mid-season finale.  Damn this mid-season finale bulls**t.

Anyway, enough of that.  We'll see you in February.

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Bowie Ibarra is the author of the 'Down the Road' zombie horror series from Permuted Press and Simon and Schuester.  His latest zombie story, The Fall of Austin, tells the story of military, police, convicts, and citizens of the Texas capitol as they deal with the zpoc.  It is available in Kindle and Paperback.

You can network with Bowie and read about his Tex-Mexploitation stories and check out his book trailers at his personal website, ZombieBloodFights.com

ZOMBIES: RECAP - The Walking Dead 'When the Dead Come Knocking' lights the fuse, S3, Ep7

by Bowie Ibarra

Here's how last week ended...

And here we go with this weeks episode, 'When the Dead Come Knocking'...

THE WOODBURY INTERROGATION

Merle has captured two of the WD Crew and begins by interrogating Glenn, pushing his buttons by insulting the cultural background of Glenn's friends and pushing him to say where the others are by threatening Maggie, who is in the next room and can hear it all.  Glenn draws first blood by catching Merle with a headbutt, and the beating begins.

Realizing how stubborn Glenn is, Merle uses one last cruel attempt to get Glenn to talk by unleashing a zombie on him.  But the once meek Glenn, who hid behind a trash can when it was 'go time' in season two, ups his game.  During a struggle, he escapes from his chair that he was bound to and kills the zed.

Merle reveals to the Governor that his brother is still alive, but doesn't know where.  So the Governor takes it upon himself to interrogate Maggie.  He's cordial, even unties her bonds.  But when she doesn't answer his plain and simple non-threatening questions, he begins a sexual humiliation of her and threatens rape.  I hate to think she's been in this predicament before, because it came across that this wasn't the first time by the way she handled herself with some real courage and repressed rage to call the Governor's bluff.

Turns out the Governor might be a weirdo, but he's not a rapist, and he diffuses the situation.  He pulls her into the next room with Glenn and forces her hand by putting a gun to Glenn's head.  That's all that needed to be done, as Maggie sings like a bird to spare Glenn.  The Governor adds insult to injury by attempting to console Maggie with a hug and a kiss.

THE WOODBURY EXPERIMENT

Andrea gets assigned to work with the scientist Mr. Mamet to help scientifically determine if the zeds have any conscious thoughts.  And before that, we get a Van Damme-style 'Put on my Calzoncillos after Banging it out' shot of Andrea by the window.  You remember the Van Damme 'Put On My Calzoncillos after Banging it out' shot from 'Bloodsport', right?  Yes, you do.

Anyway, when Andrea arrives, the scientist is trying to program Mr. Coleman with audio and visual cues to see if the recently deceased and risen Mr. Coleman will remember the cues.  Andrea is doubtful, but the scientist somehow insists.  It seems the results could be of some value to the Governor when you think of his daughter.

When Mr. Coleman turns, Mr. Mamet tries to make a run with the audio and visual cues.  When he thinks Coleman might respond, he loosens the bonds only to get attacked.  Andrea puts a stop to the experiment with a knife to the head.

With that revelation, the Governor questions Merle's loyalty as well as Andreas.  Little does he know, the raid from the WD fireteam is about to happen.

MICHONE GETS LOCKED UP

Michone makes it to the fenceline of the jail with 'Lil' Ass Kicker's' baby food.  Rick and co. decide to make a move to help her before she is overrun by the zeds and bring her in.  Its this time that Carol is revealed by Daryl to the crew to much warm fuzzies.

Look at all this space

Then Rick and the crew help patch up Michone before they interrogate her on how she got there.  I have to admit, this felt like the duet scene that Michone probably got the role from, as she does a pretty good job here.  She even stares down the crossbow from her loose cannon rogue equivalent in Daryl.  She reveals the location of Woodbury, and the Governor.  Rick and his team mobilize, using the roomy and luxurious comfort of the Hyundai Death Dealer: Zombie Crusher Edition.  Rick puts the burden of protecting the prison on Carl, who apparently hates the nickname 'Lil' Ass Kicker' and gets Rick's approval to call the baby Judith in what I believe is a Freudian nod to Judith O'Dea, or Barbara from 'Night of the Living Dead'.

When the WD fireteam arrives near Woodbury, they are nearly overrun by zombies.  They requisition a house to hold off the zeds.  They don't realize the house has someone in it.  When the dude freaks out in spite of Rick trying to be calm about it, the dude almost runs out to let the zeds in, Michone takes matters into her own hand and kills the dude with her Hanzo sword for the safety of the team.

They feed the dead body to the zeds and the WD Fireteam makes a break for it.  And we get a great Greg Nicotero special effects gore feast.

Before long, they find Woodbury and gird their loins for the raid.

Looks like the mid-season finale (WTF?  C'mon, Walking Dead) is going to be filled with some action.  Until next time.

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Enjoy the blog?  Share it with your friends using the 'Facebook', 'Blogger' and 'Twitter' buttons below.

Leave a comment below using your Google+ or Blogger account.

Follow Bowie on Twitter @wingback20

Follow Bowie's Facebook page.

Bowie Ibarra is the author of the 'Down the Road' zombie horror series from Permuted Press and Simon and Schuester.  His latest zombie story, The Fall of Austin, tells the story of military, police, convicts, and citizens of the Texas capitol as they deal with the zpoc.  It is available in Kindle and Paperback.

You can network with Bowie and read about his Tex-Mexploitation stories and check out his book trailers at his personal website, ZombieBloodFights.com.

ZOMBIES: RECAP- The Walking Dead 'Seed' gets planted, Ep.1, Season 3

by Bowie V. Ibarra

So, here's the deal.

I moved to a new apartment.  It didn't have cable.  Not a big deal, all I need to be doing in this town is working and writing.  So it worked out.

But let's face it.  When those three little words all zpoc fanatics hear dance across their ears, you know its time to make it happen when you don't have cable.  And those three little words are 'The Walking Dead'.

Well, cable didn't get hooked up in time, so I had to find an alternative place to watch so my twenty-five noble blog followers could read about ZombieBloodFights.com's take on the show.  My first need was TV.  My second need was beer.

Lo and behold, the creator of the SATX sensation 'Bloodthirsty Thursday' works at a Black Eyed Pea just a few blocks form my current home.  I checked out the place moments before the world premiere of season three, and guess who was working the bar?  My horrorhound homie, Kelly Warren Hammond!

Is that not the perfect spontaneous picture ever

So without further ado, here's the ZombieBloodFights.com take on the season 3 opener of 'The Walking Dead' (complete with pics taken from my barstool).

The show opens with what will always be a tribute to the video game 'Resident Evil' to me.  The cliche 'zombie eye'

Naturally, its moments before the zed gets blasted by the WD crew, busting through the house like a SWAT team to loot the place.  Everyone gets a piece of the action, including that young rapscallion, Carl, who does his share of zombie blasting.  More on that curious development later.

They pillage the house, and Daryl even shots a big barn owl for food, which is an ominous start to the series, as owls are sometimes considered harbingers of death.  Not that the dead rising from the grave to attack the living isn't already a bad omen to the future of the living.

At any rate, when surrounding zeds catch wind of the WD crew, they bail and head to their vehicles, including the legendary Hyundai Zombie Death Dealer. 

They try to figure out their next move when they discover a prison nearby.  Rick decides it would be an amazing place to be safe if they can secure it.  Everyone decides they can do it, and they make a move to secure the prison.  It's a Monroeville Mall for a new generation.

So, one of the things that cracked me up is the fact that Carl apparently became a sharpshooter with a pistol.  This is the same kid that only one season ago shit his pants and couldn't pull the trigger when the zed was stuck in the mud in front of him.  Now, he's hitting headshots on zombies from 100 yards with pistol.  That's right.  A kid is hitting moving targets with a pistol like a military marksman.

Okay, and Rick has to use a scope to get the shot.  I get it.

Great fast start to the show with the mad dash ala Dawn '78 through the prison gates.

Even the preggos Lori gets her some.  And with a pistol at close range.

The show unsubtly sets up the couples, including Daryl and Carol doing their part to secure the yard together as a team.

So, after securing the yard, they settle in to relax.  Carol flirts with Daryl, and Herschel's girls sing an old family song.

The next morning, the WD crew decides they want to take the prison, so they move on it.  They take on dead prisoners and even dead riot guards still in their garb.  They knock one down and rip off their mask, revealing some great Greg Nicotero magic.

 They make their way into the prison, and like some kind of D&D game, they start picking up treasure, so to speak.  One of the biggest pieces of booty found is keys to prison cells on a dead security guard.  I believe this is going to be huge in the coming episodes.

Let's face it.  The keys seem innocuous at first.  But think about it:  whoever has those keys has the power to lock people up.  Those keys are going to be big power pieces as the show advances, I believe.

So they find a secure cell block and settle in, picking cells, apart from Daryl, who is fine with sleeping outside a cell.

Things then start to remind me of 'Women's Prison Massacre' for some reason.

Preggos Lori starts to get anxious about her impending birth, and is set right by Herschel.

Did I mention the mysterious 'Michion' and her jawless and armless pets dismantled some zombie goons with her Hanzo sword.  She's also caring for noted Walking Dead Women's Libber Andrea.  They are adventuring together.

So the WD crew decide to secure more of the cell blocks in the prison and make a move on the dark corridors of the prison.

Great camera shots once again with the lights split by the darkness.

Yikes!  As expected, walking dead prisoners.  But the team is overrun, and Herschel is bit.

Here's one of the bartenders posing for a shot as Herschel's daughter is weeping with fear at the bite on her father's leg.

And here's the zed that bit her dad.  You know those zombie bastards don't last long when they've started munching on friends.

Rick gives Herschel the 'Day of the Dead '84' Miguel treatment by cutting off his leg in the hope of stopping the infection from spreading.  We know how that played out.

Right when you think Herschel's death is the big finish to a grand start to the season, it gets even bigger with the revelation that there are actually prisoners that are still alive and have watched the whole thing play out.

"Holy Shit"

And that's the amazing finish to the fast start that was season 3 of 'The Walking Dead'.

Watch for the keys to play a big part in this season.  And will Hershel have a meltdown like Miguel did in 'Day..'84'?

Only time will tell.

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Enjoy the blog?  Share it with your friends using the 'Facebook', 'Blogger' and 'Twitter' buttons below.

Leave a comment below using your Google+ or Blogger account.

Bowie Ibarra is the author of the 'Down the Road' zombie horror series from Permuted Press.  His latest zombie story, The Fall of Austin, tells the story of military, police, convicts, and citizens of the Texas capitol as they deal with the zpoc.

You can network with Bowie and read about his Tex-Mexploitation stories at his personal website, ZombieBloodFights.com.