Chewing the Fat with Jeff Fisher - S10 E22 I Talking Walking Dead

Episode Date: April 5, 2021

 TALKING WALKING DEAD: Season Ten Episode Twenty Two TITLED: Here’s Negan WELCOME TO IT… With myself Jeff Fisher, Jason Buttrill & Maximus Fisher EPISODE DESCRIPTION ON IMDB Carol takes Negan on a journey, hoping to minimize the increasing tension. Negan reflects on the events that led him to this point and comes to a conclusion about his future. Join us as we discuss the latest happenings and what the future has in store for The Walking Dead Universe… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Season 10, episode 22, the final episode of season 10, titled Here's Negan. Finally, finally, we get to this episode. That makes this talking walking dead. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Episode description on IMDB really doesn't do it justice. Carol takes Negan on a journey, hoping to minimize the increasing tension. Negan reflects on the events that led him to this point and comes to a conclusion about his future.

I love the episode. So we'll just lay it out on the table right now. I love the episode. I know that it was a little confusing for some with the flashbacks and the flashbacks and the flashbacks. but I enjoyed the episode. Now, I know that you have just one tiny issue, Jason, but welcome to Talking Fucking Dead with Jason Buttrill and Maximus Fisher and myself, Jeff Fisher. So we'll start with that.

I mean, I put it on the table. I love the episode. And there's, I mean, we're going to lay it out for you, go through the episode. But this actually is what we're here for. Yeah, for sure. I love it, too. I, this is what we've been wanting to see for God knows how long. I got minor gripes.

I don't want to sound like a fanboy, so I throw these in there, although I was fanboying all over this episode. The confusion, I was confused at one point which flashback we were in. So I was like, I was actually having to think about it. There was one point where I was like, wait a minute. I thought, oh, wait, what? I mean, when you're, they do this every once in a while. They're like, you know, flashes on the screen yesterday.

And then another flashback. day before yesterday. And then another one, the day before, the day before, the day before, the day before of the before, of the before. And you're like, what? And then three weeks ago. Yeah. Like, what?

It's a minor gripe and, like, how they, they've been doing this the entire season, you know, the little, like, prelude before, like, where someone's kind of, like, narrating, where it sounds like they somehow went into a tunnel and then found. a bathroom in the tunnel and then recorded the audio. I don't know how they did that. That's impressive. Yeah. But, yeah, it was good.

Yeah, I thought I really enjoyed this episode. I thought it was really good. I called something, too. I did call it. We'll talk about that later. You're your props, no problem. But I really enjoyed this episode. It was cool seeing his backstory finally.

We've been wanting that since season seven. It was different than the comics. a little bit, but they did change a lot. That wasn't a bad thing, though. The changes were pretty good, too. Both stories are really good. Well, I mean, they pretty much had to, right? And the reason that they had to is that by the time we get to the end, we realize that

Negan's not going anywhere. I mean, he's still part of the deal. Thank God. I know. Had we gone through that episode and that was it? Oh my gosh. Yeah. That would have been.

That would have hurt. Big time. That would have hurt a lot. Because in the comic books, right, he just goes away now. Mm-hmm. We're now in uncharted territory with Negan because after he's in the cabin, in the comics, he stays. He has nothing to do with the Commonwealth storyline whatsoever. You get a little hint of him in the last issue, but you don't see him.

And that's it. I'm shocked. I really am. because just budget, just for budget purposes only, I am shocked that they're keeping him in there. Well, I think that they, I think that, me too, I'm really glad. But I think that they, while we talk about, you know, the numbers not meaning much, and, you know, they have the AMC plus numbers to fall back on. I really do think that they realize, ooh, man, we need to do something to pick up the pace a little to keep the audience around. Yeah, I think it's interesting, especially just kind of really quickly, just,

the news of the day, you know, remember like, AMC stock was not doing well, just like the game stock, game stop stock, is not doing well. There's a reason why people were short-selling AMC when they did that whole thing, you know, boosting up the stock for AMC.

It's, yeah, I mean, their shows are on the decline, including the Walking Dead. Yeah. Even if they have better numbers, it's on the decline. They had to do something to give it a shot in the arm. And I think Negan is a pretty damn good shot in the arm.

Absolutely. And I will say, And I will say that, just as a side note, they aired a show right after Walking Dead last night called Gangs of New York or Gangs of London. Oh, yeah. And it was really good. I don't need to watch that. That was really good. So, you know, they're actually, you know, producing some special content for AMC Plus and AMC, which goes to your and my narrative of they need to pick up the face a little when they know it.

Yeah. So, you know, good. Good. I mean, I'm happy. Look. As we got into the episode, you know, we have the beginning where Maggie takes him to the cabin and says, you know, you're out, or Carol, you know, here's your stuff and, you know, get out. And, you know, then I loved the evil Negan in the cabin talking to him as he's listening to him. I was really good.

We haven't seen that Negan in a bit. Yeah, he's a, you're a clown with a cult of a personality conversation. complex with no cult. I was like, that was a good line. But then we go back to 12 years prior. Actually, no. First, he goes back to the tree and we see a flashback of him getting his throat slit. Oh, yeah.

That's right, because they brought Rick in. We did see a flash of Rick there. 75% of the audience was like, who is this guy that was like, slash this? I disagree. I think it's more of the 25% and 75% was Ohio. Hi, Rick. We miss you. Yeah, and it also, I mean, there's no way they could do this episode without Rick, right, somewhere. I mean, they've got the movies to worry about.

They've got the audience to worry about. Again, I mean, we talked about it last week and maybe even, you know, before that where, you know, even if it is only, even if it is 25% of the audience that doesn't know Rick, that's a lot of people. Yeah. That's a lot of people. and that they need to you know they need to make sure that we that we know why we care about him right i think i think more flashbacks like that will will go a long way you know just explaining how we got here basically and uh you know then the scenes with uh nigan and the wife were tremendous i mean it i don't know i mean obviously i know it's acting so you pull it off

but it seems like it was a great call to bring in his own wife in real life to make it so that it was husband and wife, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Hillary Burton Morgan did an amazing job playing Lucille. I love the whole. You could see them setting this up from the very beginning when Evil Negan was like, you know, basically kind of saying you need Lucille.

you know, to be complete, he goes and digs Lucille up, you can tell that he was getting ready to bury her once again, just to, like, completely put that. Put it out. It was just a cool plot device. But I don't think, I think that, and as we go through the episode and, you know, the day before, the day before, and then, you know, 12 years before, and then today, you know, we find, you know, that while he finds Lucille, right,

and we go through the whole process of the living life of not being able to say goodbye to his wife, and she had already, you know, decided that, you know, there's no way that I can, I'm going to be able to survive this. No way. So that's why she asked him to stay, right? They were in the, they were in the plague house by themselves, you know, staying. as safe as they could, and, you know, he wanted to, you know, he wanted to continue to believe that he could save his wife, right? And there was just no way.

She had already decided. Yeah. Don't go, stay here. Let me, you know, I want to die with you here. And he wasn't going, he didn't want to admit that, right? I mean, as a, as a, you know, if you're in a husband and wife relationship, you can understand that feeling. Right. You don't want to give up.

You don't want to be able to be the one that says, okay, we're just, that's the end of it. He's been fighting this whole time to keep her alive. He's not going to say no to that. All of those flashbacks were just so good. Like, it was a different side of Negan that we hadn't seen. You know, at one point, the rocker Negan, he had long hair. Yeah, that was. Rocker, Biker, Negan, and he was a douche.

He seemed committed to her, but he was a douche because he was sleeping around. and even the thing with the jacket, you know, she was pissed off that he spent $600 on a jacket or whatever. I know, that was, well, pre-apocalypse. We don't see much of pre-apocalypse. Yeah, that was pretty funny. And the hoodie, he was playing video games, which I know what game that was.

That was Years of War from the 360. That was really cool. He's like, cussed out kids. He's like, I don't know. Yeah, that was great. And the hoodie he was wearing, if I remember correctly from watching the show that comes on after Gangs of London

this was Jeffrey Dean Morgan's idea. There was a patch on his hoodie that said The Saviors, because that was the name of the team he coached in high school. Interesting. Yeah. Really interesting. It was really cool.

And for those of you that aren't aware, the Saviors was Negan's group that was up against Rick and our boy people you weren't around for that I think everybody knows I only do now and then

we got I don't know I just I really enjoyed it I did enjoy the the beginnings of Negan right I mean we've been dying to see it it was it was good to see

and I will say in talking to our during the and I was communicating just not with you during the show Yeah, I realized that when I was like, hello, hello, for like a radio. Hello, anybody there? Call her?

With our, with my main man, Justin, who. Oh, my God. What? You're talking to people on Twitter and stuff, but you're not answering my text. Now I'm pissed. Guys, I answered you. What's not talking about? I answered, you know, once.

After the show. And that was an order. Don't forget to show up for the podcast. Well, first of all, if we want to go back, we'll have to go back here for just one moment, please, because I want to be clear about something on this. After I heard you say, so annoying.

So annoying, flashbacks and the flashbacks. Hello, two mirrors facing one another. I was done with you. Oh, sorry. I couldn't handle it up But during that Like one flashback where it goes pre-apocalypse And it starts playing back in black

I had this huge smile on my face You know the yeah I made a note of that as well The soundtrack was good And when she jumped in her Mustang I can't remember what song it was It was another one of my faves I was like dang

Yeah well what's his face The guy that wrote it He talked about on the show that follows Gangs of London. He talked about that. He was the DJ. The writer, you know, the guy that wrote the show

was the DJ and that, I forget what song it was, though. But it was one of his, it was all flashbacks to Night of the Living Dead. Night of the Living Dead and, you know, other apocalyptic shows. That's cool. You know, like the posters and the signs and stuff that were all, you know, Easter eggs throughout the show, just throwing love to the other. Yeah.

Yeah, so it was really. I mean, they worked really hard on this episode. They packed love into this episode. Yeah. I mean, the others were like, yeah, Daryl and Carol can just walk along a dirt road. That's fun. That's fine. We're worried about this.

So we find out, of course, her figuring out that Negan's having an affair on her. So that was a... Yeah, it's just being a douche, right? He's a douche, and she still loves him. That was a tense scene for me a little bit. When it goes to her after she finds that she has cancer and she clicks it in her head that he's cheating on her. She's at their house. She's sitting at the table.

In one hand under the table is her cancer diagnosis in the other's epistle. Yeah. Yeah, married couples can relate to this, you know, especially from the wife's perspective, many times throughout your marriage, where she's like, should I kill him or should I give him one more chance? Absolutely. You know, Hillary, the real Hillary was interviewed about it. She said, I find it interesting that everybody thinks that was the first time I sat there with my gun. Yeah, exactly.

Exactly. It's 100% true. I hope my wife isn't listening to this at the moment. No, she's got one. Don't worry about it, my friend. So then we get to, you know, the creation of when he gets there, and she actually is dead, right? I mean, she had planned it, right?

And they, she had the, she had the, she had the, she had planned on, if you fall back to the way they filmed it, she had planned on using the gun, right, to kill herself. Because remember when she killed the walker, because Negan was such a wuss with his little goggles and his knife, that did, look at dork. Yeah. And she shot the walker. they said that was the last bullet. Apparently in the original script,

the original idea was going, I was saving that, but they found that line a little too cryptic and might have been a red flag for what might happen later. So they decided to change it to that that was just our last bullet. So, I mean,

like I said, you know, when he left to go get the medicine, she had already planned it, right? She told him stay. and she already was going to end it because she even, you know, she ended, that's why, you know, she wrote on the door, please don't leave me like this.

You know, she had, she was all, you know, she was ready for it. Yeah. And, you know, it was really sad. And that scene, I mean, that whole scene of him coming home and finding her, oh, man, that was, that was really beautiful.

I am good, but brutal, no doubt about it. With you, you are so beautiful playing, which you find out the importance of that song, later. And so, I mean, it's really cool. Now, I will say that I do agree with my man, with my man Justin last night, other than, you know, he wasn't whining about the flashbacks when I was talking to him.

He is 100% correct, though. And I was thinking, and I was, you know, I was actually thinking, you know, the same thing. And we talk a little bit about it at the beginning of this was that AMC needs to invest in this storyline. Right? You know, all the other storylines are,

you know, are good. And I like some of the other storylines, Justin, however, doesn't. But he was, you know,

they need to do this storyline. And maybe, you know, you know, the, and I would title it rise to power, right?

And it would be the Negan rise to power and do that series up to meeting Rick. Oh my gosh. How many, more people would watch that. I know. Was it Ozzy and Harry?

No, it was like, what would we call it last time? The Daryl and Carroll show? I can't remember what you call it. Ozzie and Harriet, whatever. A lot of people have said they want, at least after this show ends, they want a Negan backstory like mini-series.

Not a full-border series. I mean, that's what I'm saying, invest in the storyline. And then it ends. Everybody has an idea on how it should end, and it's almost the same thing, where, he's in the RV prepping. You hear Simon knock on the door, and he walks out with the bat over his shoulder.

We piss in our pants yet. Credits. Yeah, and that would be up until he meets Rick, right? I mean, the rise to power. Oh, man. Yeah, if they would have started, like these bonus episodes, if this, if Here's Negan was the first episode and then the rise to the power over the next four episodes,

oh my gosh. Must watch TV. I would say that, And that would give them the six episodes of rise to power. It would have been the bonus episodes here of season 10, Niggins' rise to power. Oh, my gosh. I would have been all about it.

I wouldn't even have cared about the continuing plot line. I wouldn't care. No, because you've already got season 11 for that. Exactly. Yeah. It just would have been tremendous. And I will say that we know that they listen to this network, to this show.

We know this more than ever With Chris Hardwick last night On his little boosy show That he does after Talking Dead His show called Talking Dead Unlike, you know, mine is talking about walking Dead But I'm just saying that He used

A throwout, holler out line At the beginning of the show last night And My jaw was on the floor Proof that he listens to this network and it was just it was his way of saying hello with his

and for those of you that listen to my show Chewing the Fat and Pat Gray Unleashed and especially when I'm on the show and there's Pat doing me pretending to be me using the phrase

first of all first of all and Hardwick started the episode out with his First of all, I see you looking at the phone, so that means you have the audio. Uh-huh. So after Hardwick introduces the guest, he's about to start talking about the episode.

All right. First of all, first of all. All right, so this is shout out. Okay. I know. We hear, Chris. Yes, we do. My jaw was on the floor.

I was trying not to laugh. Yes. We do. Salute, my brother. Thank you. Thanks for watching the show. Appreciate it. Appreciate it.

We haven't even mentioned the biker gang. Well, I mean, look, that's the, that was his, when he, that's his beginning to rise to power, right? When he comes back and you see him becoming okay with killing, like he said in the beginning, right? He says, I'm not, I just don't want to, I'm afraid I'm going to get used to it. When he realizes after the wife is gone, that's the way he has to survive, right? Just, I'll do anything to survive. Okay, so this was, so I loved all the flashbacks and stuff else called. But this, seeing this, like, really what makes Negan-N-Negan was so interesting to me.

Because they kept, like, hinting about that incident he had where he got fired from some dude. Yeah. And so you're like, you know there's more to that. But you start to find out, especially when he's so timid around these bikers, that he's suppressing something for his wife, basically. He screwed something up with his relationship. It had to do with that. So that scene read, his anger issues, he was having to suppress.

And he just completely lets that go. That final, I hope I'm not jumping too far ahead, but... No, we're good. Dude, that final scene when he walks in and beats the hell out of all those bikers and walks in, he instantly transformed into the Nigan. Like it really wasn't that much time, but he instantly became that different person. When he was all talking to him, he was all sarcastic that he wasn't in the earlier part of the show. You could tell that this guy, there was no way in hell he was getting out of there without a big dent in his skull.

I mean, I was like, oh, gosh. I know. And that was, you know, you saw him starting to transform a little bit and still fight it when he had to get back to the wife, right? When he was starting to unscrew the screw at the bottom of the chair, because he was. was already starting to think to himself, I'm going to have to just, I'm going to have to snap. And then he didn't have to, right? He ends up telling him, you know, he ends up breaking and telling him and leaving because he had to get back to the wife. And he didn't really want to because they were, the bikers were, you know, doing harm to the doctors.

And isn't that barcode girl? Yeah, that's Laura. Yeah, I noticed that too. Yeah, we find out now she was the first state. behavior, basically, and she was the one who gave him the bat. Yeah. She's still around, right? No, but they killed her.

Oh, gosh. I thought she was still around. Oh, that's right. That's right. We were bummed when he killed Barcoe girl. Oh, well. Oh, well. So I have some questions.

So in the very beginning, evil Negan told, good Negan, he said that you're never going to be basically you without me. And so he had to embrace that, you know, to get his rise. So I'm just curious, since he did burn Lucille, the bat, and basically put that to bed. So did he effectively bury that? He's at peace with that. But when you see that smile, when he walks back into Alexandria. I know.

You know, or that I grinned when he looked at Maggie. That's not good, Negan, right? That's like... Well, they didn't say when listening to the producers and the writers of that, and they said, he said that he filmed it both ways, without a smile, just a look. And he said that... And he gave...

And one with, you know, the Negan smile. And all he said was, that's the one. they put in. Interesting. Yeah. Because the original script, it didn't say, it didn't say, and then Negan looked at Maggie and smiled. It was just Negan and Maggie looked at each other and had like a stare down.

And then Jeffrey Dean Morgan decided, I think he should smile here, but I'll film it both ways. And they chose the one where he smiles. Yeah. So as a director, you don't put that scene in there. Well, you would think about not putting it in there because you would, you would, don't want to give away plotline going further. But I think that they do, right?

That's the way that they keep us hooked. And by the way, he is, you know, they're in Georgia filming now. You know, that god awful state of Georgia, by the way. Don't even, don't even. But he's there filming now, right? So his character is still alive and well. And you would think the reason, you know, obviously you would think that the reason that they leave the Negan smile in

is because he's hasn't necessarily given up that Nekin? Yeah. Because you're right with the you know with the funeral.

I called it by the way this past week we were speculating and I kept I just had a feeling that the bat was going to break. I just had this feeling it was going to break. He didn't think it would.

Well, I did. I mean, that's what brought on the burial, right? I guess they could. Yeah, I guess he couldn't come strolling back in with the instrument that killed. Right. And it's been out there for, what, eight years now? And I think the only thing holding it together was the barbed wire. And then he hits the Walker with it, snap.

Yeah. So, I mean, it was, you know, you have the death of Lucille. Now, the other thing is that perhaps they do, do, do, do. Do-Doo, what we had talked about in previous episodes is that that's how he reacts and gets, and gets Maggie to maybe not like him but be okay with him by saving the kid somehow. Right. I mean, he saves the kid somehow and, you know, Maggie has to be okay with him being at Alexandria. I hope not.

I hope they don't go there. I don't want them to reconcile. I really don't. that just doesn't work for me. You know, I didn't know they were filming in Georgia right now. I guess they don't care about voting loss. I, uh, I, uh, anyway, yeah, I lost my train of thought. I know, I know.

Sorry. There's so many, so many bad things. Not now. I don't want to hear about this. We did find out last night that 822 is, uh, the season premiere of the 11th and final season of walking good. second. That would be 822. Yes, I know.

Wow, that's close. That's crazy. I know. So, and he and Jeffrey D. Morgan said that they are season 11 while the bonus episodes that we just got done seeing were to use his term filmed in a bottle, you know, under the COVID restrictions and all of that. that these episodes are not. You know, they're really going all out for the final season. So, I mean, yeah, but I mean, they've got so many episodes, right? I mean, it's season 11, 20-some episodes. I mean, they got some distance to cover.

Yeah. Which is why, to me, it would have made sense to have that, you know, get rid of the Darrell-Carroll love story promotion of, you know, their new. show coming up after season 11. You could do that during season 11 and do the rise to power. That should have been the series. Yeah, I don't think we'll ever get to see that, but I wish they would.

But I'm so stoked, though, that Negan's sticking around. I hope it's like what we were theory crafting a couple episodes back where, you know, they use, they learn to use bad Negan and unleash him when they have to. You like what Carol did with Alpha. Or exactly

that. Yeah, just use that template. But who is the craziest person out there we need to get rid of? Let's stick Negan on it. He'll take care of it. It's weird because at least some of the OGs, because a lot of the new people in Alexandria, they just know, oh, we have this prisoner. We heard he did bad things, but we really don't know what he did.

It's only like the OGs from Alexandria who know what he did. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, we definitely have somebody to look forward to. Now, next week we have the premiere of Fear the Walking Dead. titled The Door. All the promotions seem to be like usual, make me feel like I would need to watch it.

So we'll see if they hold up. Last year they kind of held up. You know, last season they kind of held up because they did what we had recommended by breaking down each episode as a different episode instead of trying to move along a storyline that didn't work. So we'll see if they continue with that. It didn't look like they continue with that, though.

It looks like they're going to go back to a storyline where they all are focused on the same thing. And I don't know if that works. If they do it better, it can work if they do it better. The problem is... Can I close you on that? If they do it better, it'll be good. Well, like I say, it's possible if they write it differently, but the problem is they haven't given any evidence they can. That's my only issue.

And, yeah, the previews I saw those, they did look good. The only problem, another problem with it is just... They're bad guys. It's like they're trying to elevate them to pretend they're like on the level of like the saviors. And they're just not scary. I'm sorry, they're laughable. You want to make fun of them every time they show up. You mean the Cowboy Comic-Con?

Right. They're like cosplaying. They literally have cosplayers of the bad guys. Well, the Cowboy Rangers, that kind of makes sense. If there was an apocalypse, I would not be surprised, especially here in Texas, especially here in Texas. No. That there would be cowboys. No, sure, but they wouldn't go,

let's go on down the under, down the pasture down over there. Yeah, they would. I know people like that now. I reckon we should get some whiskey, you know, with this steak. Yeah, come on. We would not revert back to how we spoke in the 1800s. Except there are people who speak like that now.

One of my best friends does. He can attest to this. My father right here can prove to that. That is true that there are some... full-blooded Texans that still exist. They still don't talk that way. They do talk similar to that, though. They have an accent?

That's possible. They have an accent. And they would lasso you. Okay, my friend, so just zip it. Come on. I was working at camp one time. I was working at camp one time with this one person. And guess what he said to, guess what he said.

Hey, can you pass the, bachelor there. Yeah. I'm not kidding. So, you know, he could work with the fear cosplayers and, you know, be a part of the bad guys in the apocalypse.

It is slightly possible. That's a kidding me. Killing me. Thanks for listening to Talking Walking Dead. We have fear next week, so, you know, we'll be back and we'll talk a little fear and see how it holds up with the rest of the Walking Dead

universe. But But the six episodes of the bonus shows for season 10 all were made okay by Here's Negan episode. The others that we suffered through, we suffered through just to get to Here's Negan. So Jason Butchell, Maximus Fisher, and you, the listener, be sure to subscribe to chewing the fat so you know when Talking Walking Dead uploads every week

because we're here for you, really. We are. And you know you need to listen, right? Okay, that's good. We'll see you next week.