As much as I have enjoyed the past few episodes, it sadly does not make up for what a clusterfuck this Season has been. I know many believe that this Season has been better than the previous 2 and perhaps that is true in a way, but there is still too much crap in the writing.
I mean, we can pretty much write off the entire first half of this Season as a complete waste. Wandering around aimlessly getting nowhere, all the Villains that come are dispatched just as quickly before any character development can be done (Gareth), or any development is quickly wasted before it can be utilized effectively (Dawn). The entire Hospital/Beth arc in retrospect is now one giant waste of time and pretty much could be called filler. Her experiences at the Hospital are useless as she got herself killed, and the person she died for (Noah) now has bit the bullet as well. Dawn could have been a great villain in hindsight as I figured her to be kind of like a true Evil Shane (former cop now crazy), but the writers decided to off her and Beth in the stupidest way imaginable just for "shock".
Then there is poor Bob, who died I believe saving Gabriel, who has now revealed himself to be purely insane and demented. Speaking of which, does anyone know exactly what event spurred this change in tempo for the character? I know he was supposed to be unhinged since the beginning, but his demeanor and manner of speech was completely in crazy land the previous episode, a far cry from his somewhat more composed self, and I totally have no idea what exactly was supposed to be the "triggering event" to have made him completely go off the deep end.
And we cannot forget Tyreese, who valiantly died staving off a ton of walkers to.....oh right...he got blindsided by Noah's evil twin stealth zombie and died for...nothing (Noah is dead now again too). While his actual death sequence was great, the way he died was just one of the most embarrassing things you'd think the writers would not have to rely upon (stealth zombies) and yet clearly keep coming back to as an insult to the viewer's intelligence.
And now here we are in this situation. The writers have zero subtlety on telegraphing how they want the story to go. The previous episode had the obvious setup of sowing doubt in Deanna's head with Gabriels psychotic warning to her, and then caps it off with the death of her son to ensure she'd heed his words (along with the treacherous Nicholas who Glenn should have off'd but for some reason keeps alive). Maggie's absence this episode is very odd considering she overheard Gabriel's warnings and is supposed to be Deanna's assistant. But I guess the writers are saving that for next week.
Sasha's craziness is only matched by Gabriel's at this point and I wouldn't be surprised if maybe the two kill each other.
So yeah, even if this Season has been "better". there's still a mountain of shit that the writers are pushing out that makes the show far less than it could be. Before anyone suggests I do not enjoy the show. I find it very entertaining, but that doesn't mean I can abide by some of the boneheaded writing decisions and amateur narration being pulled off.
