Because The Walking Dead season 10 finale has been delayed thanks to the real-world virus, I have decided that to fill the void left in the schedule, to start a re-watch of the series. I live tweeted the episode as if it were playing live in the regular 9pm GMT slot on FOX TV UK. You can see all the tweets here or embedded below.
Tell It To The Frogs is an episode that is mainly used to flesh out the survivors in the camp. We see some more of Carol (Melissa McBride) and her husband Ed (Adam Minarovich) and the abusive nature of their relationship. What’s surprising is how open Ed is about treating Carol like dirt. He wants her by his side all the time, doing everything he says. The women are doing the clothes washing and Carol manages to open up and laugh with them, only for Ed to come along and verbally abuse her in front of everyone.
There is a good call made in this scene, in the division of labour has seen the women do the cleaning and the men do the hunting. This is another interesting thread that doesn’t get pulled on too much, eventually everything will even out, but in the early days of a crisis, it’s interesting to see how we fall into our neanderthal ways.
One of the hunters is Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus), brother to Merle (Michael Rooker). When his deer kill is eaten by a walker – who is brutally pounded on by all the men in the camp who look to be trying to vent their frustrations – Daryl begins calling out for his brother. When he’s told what happens, a scuffle ensues but is quickly resolved by Shane (Jon Bernthal) who is not happy Rick (Andrew Lincoln) wants to take a small group back to go and fetch Merle.
Venting frustrations continues after Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) tells Shane to keep away from her and her family. It is revealed that Shane told Lori that Rick had died. It isn’t clear if this was just so he could try to woo Lori or if, like anyone would have thought, he genuinely believed Rick would not have survived. Lori’s revelation comes just as Ed is beating on his wife, so Shane goes over and smashes Ed’s face in. It’s brutal and we learn we should never mess with Shane.
The episode is bookended with Merle on top of the roof of that department store. At the start he is rambling incoherent mumbojumbo and begging God to help him. But that quickly turns to hate for a God that he never asked for help from before. He tries to reach Dale’s tools in the hopes something will be able to get him out of the cuffs as zombies bash at the door. At the end of the episode, when Rick and crew arrive, Merle has gone. All that is left behind is his hand.
Rooker is excellent as Merle and this last scene is pure horror. An excellent way to end the episode, even if we do think Merle is the kind of person who would have taken his hand with him. It also begs the question, if you could saw through bone with that hacksaw, you could have gone through the pipe…but that aside, another great episode.
Overall Rating: 8
S01E03 Tell It To The… – Curated tweets by Zombie_Scribe