Wolves – Simon’s Incoherent Blog

The Last of Us: Season 2, Episode 7 – Convergence

“It was easy. I just kept hurting her and hurting her.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

This week’s episode was an inevitably downbeat season finale for The Last of Us, a show that has never exactly traded in optimism. It also, at first, seemed surprisingly low-key for most of the time, retreading similar ground to earlier eps this season – I was expecting something more, well, not spectacular (the show rarely is), but dramatic. But in hindsight, I think there was a lot more going on in this ep than was immediately evident.

The Last of Us: Season 2, Episode 5 – Feel Her Love

“Would it have made a difference if my family had hurt his people first? No. No. And if I hadn’t killed him, if he had gotten away, I promise you I would have hunted him down forever.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

Feel Her Love, eh? Fnarr, fnarr 😊
Actually, though, the ep title really is a double entendre, albeit not in a smutty, Carry On film kind of way. Yes, there’s the literal motto of the Seraphites (or “scars”, as the WLF disparagingly refer to them). But it’s also, presumably, a reference to the burgeoning love affair between Ellie and Dina; which, having been properly established last week, is already in jeopardy with the unexpected return of old flame (and father to her baby) Jesse.

The Last of Us: Season 2, Episode 4 – Day One

“Every day, one of your Wolves comes to see the truth, and takes Her into their heart. Every day, every day, a Wolf leaves you to take the holy mortification to become a Seraphite. And none of us ever leave to become a Wolf.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

After an incredibly busy week enmeshed in the toils of Spanish bureaucracy (I needed to exchange my UK driving licence, a Herculean task of procedure), I’m now a week behind on The Last of Us – in fact, I’ve only just seen this fourth episode. With another one waiting in the wings, here’s some brief thoughts on episode 4 – Day One.

The Last of Us: Season 2, Episode 3 – The Path

“I want everyone to know – it’s not because I want revenge. It’s not about revenge.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

…And if you believe that, you’ll believe anything.

It was necessarily a more sedate episode of The Last of Us this week – well, how could it not have been, after the carnage last time? After a brief prologue showing the piles of Infected corpses, and various concerned parties grieving, we cut to three months later, and the debate about what happens next.

The Walking Dead: Season 6, Episode 6 – Always Accountable

“If you have a roof over your head… if you have food, you have walls – you have choices. And without Walkers, and bullets, and shit hitting the fan, you’re accountable for them. You’re always accountable.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

Still wondering if Glenn’s really dead? Well, I’m afraid you’ll have to wonder at least one week longer, as this week’s Walking Dead caught us up with yet another narrative strand in the gang’s long, long day. This time, we found out what happened to Abraham, Sasha and Daryl while all the other bad shit was going down back at the town; and as ever, the script (by Heather Bellson this week) gave us a satisfying balance of undead action and character development. Continue reading “The Walking Dead: Season 6, Episode 6 – Always Accountable”

The Walking Dead: Season 6, Episode 5 – Now

“This is what life looks like now. We have to see it. We have to fight it. If we don’t fight, we die.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

After last week’s fascinating diversion into Morgan’s Jedi training/psychoanalysis, it was back to business as usual in this week’s Walking Dead, as we returned to the running plot of Rick’s none too successful plan to lead the Walker herd away from Alexandria, just when the Wolves attacked. But if you found last week’s flashback frustrating for prolonging the tension of whether your favourite characters made it back alive, you must have been positively gnashing your teeth at this one. Continue reading “The Walking Dead: Season 6, Episode 5 – Now”

The Walking Dead: Season 6, Episode 2 – JSS

“How do you just live, when that’s the world?”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

After last week’s lesson about how ill-prepared they were to deal with the dead, this week’s Walking Dead saw the pampered Alexandrians get slapped in the face by the real world again – only this time by the living. I wasn’t entirely surprised to find that the blaring truck horn distracting the Walker herd at the end of last week was caused by the Wolves – I’d been expecting them to turn up. But I’d thought the show might have given the Alexandrians a little breathing room between dealing with hundreds of Walkers and the marauding living. Not a bit of it – The Walking Dead isn’t a show to give its characters a break. Continue reading “The Walking Dead: Season 6, Episode 2 – JSS”

The Walking Dead: Season 5, Episode 16 – Conquer

“Rick just wants his family to live. He wants all of you to live. Who he is, is who you’re going to be. If you’re lucky.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

So, I wasn’t quite accurate last week when I referred to this season finale of The Walking Dead as “double length”. AMC’s bold assertion of a “90 minute season finale” actually referred to the timeslot in which it was broadcast, with its attendant commercials. In actual fact, this ep ran for nearly 65 minutes, about half again as long as the usual 42ish. The show’s done this before, but not since the season two opener; here, though, it wasn’t to provide big budget Walker spectacle but to give some quite complex character drama room to breathe, which it did very well. Continue reading “The Walking Dead: Season 5, Episode 16 – Conquer”

The Walking Dead: Season 5, Episode 15 – Try

“People die now, Deanna. They do. There’s times like this, when you can decide who and when – or it can be decided for you.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

After last week’s high drama, this week’s ep of The Walking Dead was a slower paced affair. But while it may not have been packed with action, the tension has never been higher between our gang and the sheltered residents of Alexandria. It hung palpably in the air, just waiting for the inevitable explosion; and when the balloon finally went up, it was no surprise that it was Rick who was the spark that lit the fuse. Continue reading “The Walking Dead: Season 5, Episode 15 – Try”