I cannot disagree with Allahpundit ... the Dale character was a nosey gun grabber. He did make for some good zombie food though.
Posted on 03/05/2012 9:38:03 PM PST by DogByte6RER
Great news: Most annoying character on “The Walking Dead” now dead
I made the title of the post ambiguous in case any readers Tivo’d it and haven’t watched yet, but c’mon. We all know who I’m talking about. Realistically, it could only be one of two people: Either Sophia’s mopey mom, whose name I still don’t know, or that endlessly whining bleeding heart Dale. (Alas, the screencap AMC chose for the clip embedded below gives it away.) Now that some of the dead weight is being shed, I take it poor underused T-Dog is next. Or maybe Herschel’s other daughter, who tried to kill herself a few episodes ago? As with Sophia, until that plotline unspooled, I had no idea that character even existed. I wonder which barely-there member of the ensemble will be next to be suddenly thrust to center stage in the expectation that anyone watching cares a whit about them.
Incidentally, the kill scene here is dumb on several levels. How did Dale not hear it coming in the still of the night? These things growl constantly every time they’re onscreen, which isn’t often. How did the zombie disembowel him with his bare hands? (Admittedly, that’s happened in Romero movies too.) Tacking it on at the end right after the big dramatic climax with the prisoner made it feel random and haphazard, a zombie ex machina to get rid of the character before people start tuning out in sheer irritation at his do-good-ism. Then again, all’s well that ends well — and this certainly ended well. And in fairness, they did a brilliant job with the scene of Rick’s son tossing rocks at the zombie stuck in the mud. For all the grating soap-opera melodrama, there are sporadic flashes of genius in how the show captures the pathos of the zombies’ predicament. The scene of that zombie snarling from the end of a noose was the best thing about the first half of this season. Having little Carl amuse himself by humiliating a zombie who’s helpless in front of him was a more affecting moment of dehumanization than the entire Shane storyline. More of that and fewer weepy “here’s mah pappy’s timepiece” exchanges between Glenn and Herschel, please.
I cannot disagree with Allahpundit ... the Dale character was a nosey gun grabber. He did make for some good zombie food though.
Watch the scene at
http://www.amctv.com/the-walking-dead/videos/talked-about-scene-episode-211-the-walking-dead-dale
Dale served a purpose. With the exception of that stupid gun-theft stunt, he pretty much served as Rick’s conscience ... and the conscience of several others (Glenn, Andrea, T-Dog, Lori).
Just there to give another opinion that contrasts to Daryl, Rick and Shane, I guess.
It’ll be interesting to see if some of the group follows Shane into insanity with Dale gone. Or if Rick loses his mind without that little voice on his shoulder nagging him at every turn. Shane is the devil on one of Rick’s shoulders, Dale was the angel on the other.
Daryl seems to be the only one that knows what he’s doing, and can still keep his sanity.
SnakeDoc
ping
Oh wow I forgot this show was back on. I watched last season where the farmers relatives all became Democrats all he kept them locked in the barn, and the asian guy wins the lottery and gets to nail the farmers daughter.
I predicted that Dale would get it. I thought Shane would take him out but it wasn’t to be. Dale should have known that a high powered rifle with a scope was the wrong weapon to have for protection on a dark night.
With the addition of Herschel they had one too many. I expected one or the other to be written out, but didn't know which.
http://www.amctv.com/shows/the-walking-dead/cast/dale
Dale got zombie-gutted? I have an `Inspector Gadget’ hat just like his ... that’s too bad. About Dale, that is, not his hat. He’s a stock Stephen King movie character.
I lost interest/stopped watching when Shane was teasing the zombies outside the bus by smearing his blood on the door. And too much yakking, not enough hacking.
I like a good zombie movie as much as anyone, but no one in a zombie movie seems to realize that time is totally on their side.
I stopped watching when I started rooting for the zombies.
I like that idea about the barricaded grocery store ...
I’ve also wondered, why the two cops (Rick and Shane) can’t figure out to acquire/manufacture some silencers and load some subsonic ammo. Then they could shoot away without drawing any attention.
This is probably more a reflection on the Hollywood writers who are clueless about firearms and ammo loads.
Gimme a `B’! Gimme an `R’! And an `A’! `I’! `N’! `S’!
What’s that spell?
WHAT’S that SPELL?!
BRAINS!
Gooooooo Zombies!
Yup, it’s something like the Einsteins in `The Mist’. All they had to do was sit tight—they were in a **grocery store** for cryin’ out loud.
(”Hey, let’s turn on some flood lights and get a good look at these Canadian geese-sized bugs!”
“But won’t they be attracted by the light?”
“That’s OK, we’re going to ... set them on fire!”)
I knew he was dying this episode after his stupid “I don’t want to live in a world like this” speech.
He wasn’t teasing them, he was using that to off them one by one to be able to escape from the bus, eventually.
You Dale-haters are nuts. He was the only character with a level head on his shoulders and could talk some sense into these morons.
I was hoping that Carl (the kid) would slip and fall. And the pistol he had stolen and shoved in his pants would go off and cripple him. And then the zombie would finish him off.
Oh well.
Dale served his purpose well.
Oh - and the guy they captured should have been hanged for attempted murder.
Quite right. And they've always got to 'get somewhere'. There are unassailable zombie-proof places in every town and big city. Hell, you could live inside a Costco indefinitely, and if it's near a Home Depot, you'd be invincible for the duration of the zombie pandemic.
What galls me about this series is that they're tooling around in crappy high mileaqe vehicles like that lousy motor home and old Chevy farm trucks from the '60s -- yet they've passed up perfectly good Stryker/LAV-25 AFVs and HMMWVs just sitting around. I could teach a teenager to drive either one in ten minutes, and the LAV-25 is going to have 1000-meter magnified thermal sights, an M240 Golf, and a 25mm Bushmaster cannon. It can even swim in water, for God's sake. That baby towing a tank trailer full of diesel fuel, and any zombie hordes coming up on you are gonna get told.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The zombie apocolypse is just an allegory for the day the welfare checks bounce.
Interesting that the author brought up the scene with the boy but failed to mention that it was the same zombie that gutted Dale. Did he not notice that little detail?
That bothers me......The zombies are carrying a virus that turns them into zombies, Shane used his knife several times to stab a zombie in the head, then he uses the knife to cut his finger so he can smear blood on the door of the bus......one would think that he would now come down with the virus...
I don't think anyone knows for sure just how long a zombie can continue to walk around. It's never been discussed in past zombie movies either.
Winter is coming on, I'm wondering how that's going to affect them too.....I think they're going to have a hard time shuffling thru 3 or 4 feet of snow, depending on where they're located.
I think they're illegal to own unless you have a federal permit.....And since there's no federal office around, they can't apply for one.
Occupiers...
If Dale could have just talked to that walker maybe he wouldn’t have ripped his guts out. Come on, we’re all human you know. [/sarc]
I guess Dale found out in the end that walkers don't care if you are a liberal or conservative. They all taste the same. Maybe he would have become a survivalist in his last moments if he had a weapon.
Maybe because I have a slight hearing problem but I could swear I heard ol’ Dale say, as the gun was pointed at head, “Can’’t we just talk this through”?
I loved Dale. He’s no Alan Alda.....keeping guns away from Deputy Stab-You-In-The-Back isn’t being a pacifist wimp. Too bad Shane didn’t get it.
That, and I've lost interest in the "cliffhangers". About the only thing that I'm wondering about is what the heck that black thing was that Shane was looking at in the field. They showed the same scene twice, so it's got to be significant.
I can live without finding out, however.
I read an interesting interview with one of the writers.
This season, they had originally planned to do an entire show as a "backstory" on.... the zombie that Dale found in the tank. Actually, it would be the soldier who turned into a zombie. How he got through the apocalypse, how we wound up bitten and in the tank, and so on.
Would be a total one-off, and not contribute much to the plot line, but *I* thought it sounded cool and would have fleshed out the overall world a bunch. Apparently the suits at the network scrapped the idea.
No matter, I've lost interest in the show. Like a few previous posters have said, I've no idea how writers can make a Zombie Apocalypse so.......boring.
The book "World War Z" dealt with this. Roughly, the zombies freeze in place.
Good book, BTW. An easy summertime read, something to peruse over an afternoon with your feet propped up and a cold drink sitting next to you.
Dale always carried a scoped rifle slung over his shoulder . Didn’t do much good when things got up close and personal .
Still my favorite show...bar none. This is one show where I have no problem looking past those who wish to pick it apart or complain about it. Daryl is my favorite....may he never be eaten.
It’s fun to watch Carl slowly getting more and more messed up. When he noticed that the Zombie was the one he was taunting, I thought it was awesome (admittedly predictable). It made me say, “Oh he’s going to be messed up now”. I can’t wait to see how he does next week.
Had no problem with Dale either. He helped to show both sides of whether or not you would summarily execute a teenage kid if you were in that position. Could I pull the trigger? Would I retreat to the campsite while the dirty work was done? Would I be convinced by Dale?
Humans can be annoying. Fractures among the group and moral dilemmas are just part of the fun for me.
This is one of those shows where the wife and I can plan on a late-night taco run, and then settle in to see what happens.
A bunch of like-minded people doing nothing but hacking up zombies would run its course much faster, imho. When I want that, I watch Zombieland (great movie).
Bingo.
I thought he took everybody’s guns — not just Shane’s — out to the forest to bury them.
SnakeDoc
It was a walker, and that's another discrepency in the film editing.
The walker was seen in the field walking from right to left, the direction the car was driving. Scene shot from the passenger side.
Then when the car was returning home, the same walker was shown in the same field walking in the same direction, right to left, as the car was driving..again being shot from the passenger side
The scene should have been shot out of the drivers side window
I thought the same until I realized that there is going to be a confrontation between his group and this clan and it's going to be his testimony that this clan ultimately saved his life by yanking him off that fence while his buddy driving the truck left him to die.
That will save this clan from the others and they will be allowed to continue heading towards nowhere...........
“.....one would think that he [Shane] would now come down with the virus... “
HMMMMM!!???
And my one young daughter (and myself) noticed the walker out the same window walking in the same direction out in the field - although the car was now heading in the opposite direction the second time. I think the other daughter said they mentioned the meaning of the walker in the field on some website. (But probably not the poor editing - unless that was part of the meaning?) Like it is all pointless - you’ll just end up a zombie wandering around. Or perhaps - this guy was the best zombie so far of the season - and he’s “outstanding in his field”.
Good thought on the two clans avoiding a clash over the kid. Although it may not be so nice - the kid seems devious. Although I guess if I was trying to save my neck I would be too. But, at the least they can use him in negotiations.
THANK YOU.
If I wanted brainless (pun intended) zombie-killing action, there’s always Left 4 Dead.
I’ll take a show that exhibits what a zombie apocalypse would do to people that actually have to live with it.
So I guess executing wounded American prisoners is acceptable to these people.
And poor ol' Dale is demonized for trying to talk sense into the other characters.
Buhahahahahahah [drawing breath] ...aaaaaahahahahahah!
As it happens I don’t agree with you in most cases - leaving room for satisfaction when idiot characterss buy the farm - but you have a gift for description. That was a most marvelous, well-written rant, sir or madam. Thank you for the read!
While I can’t comment on the most recent few episodes, I’m fine with realistic depictions of group dynamics. People are frikkin NUTS.
Viewers, I give a pass to, because it’s a TV show, and the majority seem to expect something that’s action-packed (even though the graphic novel the show is based on was never about action), and are thus disappointed with all of the “drama”.
The characters, I also give a pass, to a certain extent; how much does it take for ‘civilization’ to pass away? To paraphrase Dale, how long until the world we know gives way to one ruled by Darwinism?
Given that we only have certain snippets of life before Rick’s awakening in the pilot episode, I can only speculate how long it took for people to reach their breaking point...and how many people saw the end of life as we knew it as an opportunity to do whatever the heck they wanted.
If certain story arcs begin to emerge from this (like the Prison, Michonne, or the town of Woodbury - aka, fiefdom of the Governor), we’ll some light shed on both.
Dale never balked about killing the walkers (in fact, he had a hunting rifle with him at the time of his death; he was simply caught from behind).
He balked at the group deciding to execute a stranger with little to no hesitation.
Which, quite frankly, is a very good thing to balk at.
A grocery store is probably the first place that gets looted when society breaks down. Locking up there wouldn’t do you any good.
For later.
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