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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Follow Bowie on Twitter @wingback20

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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.

FIGHTS: Cotto is nowhere in sight in loss to champ Trout

by Bowie Ibarra

Apparently, Puerto Rican challenger Miguel Cotto (40-4) didn't show up in his alleged 'home' in Madison Square Garden when he had the opportunity to take the WBA Light Middleweight title from Texan Austin Trout (26-0).  Trout was able to defend against the atypically non-aggressive Cotto to defend his title as best in the WBA Light Middleweight class.  And, in the end, Cotto's undefeated MSG record was cracked.

Cotto did not display enough of his aggression and science and instead defended against the crisp and clean shots from Trout.  Cotto only made inroads with flurries at the end of some rounds, gaining some advantages at the end from rounds that were usually dominated by the efficient Trout.

It was a disappointing showing from Cotto, whose last fight was against the upstart boxing master, Floyd Mayweather.  Before these last two losses, Cotto looked good in wins against the Shabbas-honoring Yuri Foreman, the wild brawler Ricardo Mayorga, and the bitter rematch against Antonio Margarito.

Cotto had stretched Mayweather more than anyone else had up to their fight, but did not bring any of that crisp science or aggression that worked so well against Mayweather to Trout.

For the undefeated Trout, it was his first big test that he passed with flying colors.  Cotto was able to hurt Trout during the bout, but it wasn't enough to keep the champ from earning a unanimous decision victory.

Trout also had no problem calling out rising Mexican star, Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez.  If Cotto challenged Trout, then Alvarez is a good next step.  Alvarez has rolled through his opponents, and if Trout can handle Cotto, then its a good match up for both.  And Trout openly wants Canelo's belt.

Boxing fans have a good match up waiting for them in the near future.  Make it happen, boxing gods.

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Bowie Ibarra is the author of the "Down the Road" zombie horror series from Simon and Schuester and Permuted Press.  His upcoming books, "Pit Fighters: Baptism by Fire" and "Pit Fighters: Double Cross" feature adventures of a fight stable in the world of combat sports, including a Scottish boxer who crosses over to MMA.

You can network with Bowie at his website:  http://www.zombiebloodfights.com

ZOMBIES: Wild Speculation for the Walking Dead Finale - Will we see Zombie Lori?

by Bowie Ibarra

We come back to this picture from the 'Killer Within' episode.  You remember the moment, right?  Where Rick found a bullet that did not seem to have any blood on it.  Then a blood trail away from the apparent scene of the grisly birth and subsequent 'death' of Lori.

Well, ZombieBloodFights.com speculated wildly that perhaps we would find Carol had found a dying Lori and stitched her up.  Well, since then, Carol has been found, with still no sign of Lori.  We're led to believe that the fat zombie ate her up completely:  bones, skull, and all.

So here's this weeks ZombieBloodFights.com Wild Speculation:  Will the season finale feature a Zombie Lori?  A revelation that though Carl insisted he shot his mother in the face after turning, a murder we did not see happen with our own eyes, that he did not, in fact, kill his mother.

Let's see what happens in the mid-season finale (Damn you, Walking Dead)!

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

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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.

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

ZOMBIES - RECAP: Lots of 'action' in The Walking Dead: Hounded, Season 3, Ep. 6

by Bowie Ibarra

Things start of pretty fast in 'The Walking Dead: Hounded'.  Here's how it played out.

MERLE AND FRIENDS HUNT MICHONE
- Merle took a small team of killers with him to hunt down the exiled Michone.  They stumble across a warning from the Hanzo-sword wielding killer made up of dismembered zed body parrts.  One of the crew, an openly frightened Gargulio, deciphers the message as 'Go Back'.  Before they know it, Michone jumps the Woodbury crew and takes out two of the members.  Merle gets a shot off that wounds Michone, and the chase is on.

Only a few moments after looking for her, she jumps them again.  After a struggle, zeds join in the fun, giving Michone a chance to run.  But not before she cuts open the stomach of one of the ghouls while stuck on the ground, providing the viewer with some great Greg Nicotero special effects gore.

Merle calls it off, saying Michone is going into the 'red zone' and is as good as dead.  Gargulio speaks up and wants to make another run at finding and killing Michone, stepping up to Merle.  But Merle blasts the boy for speaking up and returns to Woodbury.

Trying to escape, Michone accidentally learns that the caked-on gore from the belly of the zed has disguised her to the walking dead.  So she moves on and into a nearby town.  Its here where she sees Glen and Maggie rolling in for supplies.  The problem is Merle arrives as well.  After setting up a false sense of security, Merle captures Glenn and Maggie and forces them to go drive Woodbury, leaving the baby food.

ACTION IN WOODBURY

Andrea tells the governor she didn't like the ZombieBloodFights from the night before and wants to work wall.  So she's assigned with this young girl who has a compound bow.  But the girl sucks with the bow she claimed she killed her father for, so Andrea has to go all women's lib on the zombie the girl tried to kill by jumping off the wall, stabbing the zed in the head, and making the girl look stupid.  But the girl rats her out to the governor.

In the proverbial principals office, the governor takes her off the wall.  But to get back in to his good graces, she changes her position (no pun intended) for the governor on the ZombieBloodFights.

The Governor sees that she's opening up to him (no pun intended), so he takes her back to his super mini garden for a drink and conversation.  It's here that he gets all Jim Jones on her and charms her with words and whiskey and gets her in the sack.  That's when Merle returns and lies about the expedition but the capture of Maggie and Glenn.
MYSTERY AT THE PRISON

The mysterious phone call is answered by Rick.  The people on the other line claim to be survivors, but they hang up on him.

After checking with the team, Rick returns to the room and a dude calls him back, asks if he's killed anyone and how many, then asks about his wife because he mentioned a boy and a baby to the lady who called the first time.  When he doesn't answer, the dude hangs up on Rick.

Herschel shows up to help sooth Rick, and Rick tells Herschel about the phone call.  Herschel listens on the phone, then offers to stay with him.  Herschel suggests the phone isn't working, and gives Rick some space.

Another few phone calls later, he then starts talking to Lori, and you know he's gone off the deep end.  But the message she has for him is a kind of consolation that helps get his focus back.  He returns to the team to hold his baby for the first time.

Oscar, Daryl, and Carl do some cleaning up of some of the prison.  While doing their search, Daryl shows off some acting chops with a monologue about how his mom died in bed when he was young in a fire.  Daryl says how unreal it was to him.  But Carl comes back with his experience shooting his mother in the face and saying 'That was real.'  They both console each other for their loss.

They had discovered a door that seemed to contain another zed.  They knew it couldn't be much of a threat if it couldn't open the door.  Later, when Carl and Oscar return to the team, Daryl moves to kill the zed after a moment of brooding.  It's then that he finds out it is Carol.

Meanwhile, Rick is having his moment outside with his baby, but notices something by the gates.  As he approaches, he finds Michone... with the baby food Glenn and Maggie left behind.

Just how will Michone be treated by the Walking Dead crew?  We'll see very soon.

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Enjoy the blog?  Please, 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

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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.

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

BLOOD: RUMOR from Horror Town USA: 12.1 Jason Vs. Tommy Jarvis?

Check out this great rumor from the Horror Town USA blog.

Technically, this would be Vorhees vs. Jarvis III, as the two first mixed it up in Friday the 13th IV and then again in part VI when Tommy dug Jason up from the grave to fight him again.

Anyway, check it out and follow the Horror Town USA blog while you're at it!

Horror Town USA: 12.1 Jason Vs. Tommy Jarvis?: Jason Vs. Tommy Jarvis? Sure, Maybe, Probably not.. Anyways, in a recent interview Corey Feldman aka Tommy Jarvis (The First Act) talke...

FIGHTS: Hatton gave it all with loss to Senchenko

by Bowie V. Ibarra

Ricky Hatton (48-3) gave it his all against a primed Vyacheslav Senchenko (33-1), but it wasn't enough to provide a triumphant return for the British brawler.

Hatton had fought some personal demons over the past few years since his devastating losses to two of the best fighters in the world in Mayweather and Pacquiao.  Pulling himself together, he got back into training as well as coaching to get his mojo back.

But it seems he set his goals super high against the recently defeated Ukranian, who lost his title to Paul Malignaggi, which handed him his first loss as well.  With Hatton hand-picking his opponent, many thought it was ambitious, as he clearly would have benefited from a tune-up match-up before jumping into the quality competition at welterweight.

The Manchester fans loved him, and he looked pretty good in the early rounds with relentless aggression and solid punches.

'The Ukraine Master' stayed in the game, though, in spite of being dazed and tested several times during the match.  And when the water started getting deep for Hatton in the later rounds, it was evident that Senchenko was more preapared than Hatton.  'The Hitman' showed signs of frustration, openly grumbling after missing shots.

But it was the cruelest of blows that leveled Hatton in the 9th, just minutes away from winning a fight he was taking on the cards.  A left hook to the kidney put Hatton away for good, dropping him to his knees in front of his adoring Manchester fans and his wife.

It was a tough loss for him, and a result of the immense amount of pressure he put on himself, saying he wanted his son and newborn daughter to be proud of him.

I just think he needs to put things in perspective here.  He beat drug and alcohol abuse.  He's got some bones to spend to help take care of his family.  He's got a career as a coach and trainer.  And he's got to remember his two losses before this one came against two of the best boxers of this day and age.

What is there to be ashamed of?

He really needed a tune-up before jumping in.  This bar he set for himself was super high.  Was it a realistic goal?  Sure.  He got to the 9th, so he was almost there.

But 'The Ukraine Master' has not had the kind of layoff Hatton has, so was much fresher.  That makes him just that much better to take Hatton in the home stretch.

I honestly pray he's not as hard on himself in this 2nd retirement.  I don't think he's got anything to be ashamed of.  If he's a good dad to his kids, they're going to love him no matter how many wins or losses he had in his career.

I get it.  Pride.  Pride is a sonovabitch.  But, Jesus Christ, I hope he puts things in perspective and is not so hard on himself in retirement.

If he wants to come out of retirement again and fight, I don't have a problem with it.  It seems like, even in defeat, his fans (who were still singing their song for him), would have no problem watching 'The Manchester Mexican' mix it up again.  He was fit and ready in what I saw (for being off for several years).  He's a warrior.  Boxing is just what he does, and deserves to do if his team thinks he's healthy enough to do it.

But if he does, I just hope he considers some more reasonable matchups before jumping into title contention, if there is a next time.

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ZombieBloodFights.com would also like to offer condolences to the family and fans of Hector "Macho" Camacho.  A champion in the boxing ring, and a master of his sport, dead at 50.

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BOWIE V. IBARRA is the author of the 'Down the Road' zombie horror series from Permuted Press and Simon and Schuester.  His combat sports themed book, Pit Fighters: Baptism by Fire , features a boxer from Scotland who transitions to mixed martial arts competition.

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

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

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