Chewing the Fat with Jeff Fisher - Season 4 Episode 5: "Laura" - 5/14/18

Episode Date: May 14, 2018

This is Jeff Fisher, joining me on the cast is Brad Staggs and Maximus Fisher. We recap the week delve into what it means and look ahead to the future. This is... ‘TALKING FEAR’ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Season 4, episode 5, titled Laura. This is Jeff Fisher. Joining me on the cast today, Brad Staggs, Jason Butchell and Maximus Fisher. Of course, Jason on special assignment this week, off in some foreign land. So he will be joining us next week. But that makes this talking fear. I guess I'm awake after that episode. You know, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was the first time around.

I watched it again this morning, and it was not. it was actually... Yeah, I watched some clips of it, so... It was kind of sweet. It was a nice... It was a... It was almost an homage to the Walking Dead. It was sort of an homage to the Walking Dead.

Well, in other words, the character study, it felt more like an episode of The Walking Dead than it did an episode of Fear of the Walking Dead in that it was actually good. In that it was actually good. It really... And it just goes to show you that the biggest problem with fear, I think, to this point has been the characters.

Because they're just, there was nothing with it. But I did like Nick, but he's just, John Dory is very, he's a deep character. He's likable. Laura, what's her other name, Naomi? Naomi. Naomi. I mean, whatever we want to call her. You know, she is, there's something about her, although she can get annoying.

Yes. She can. I don't need your help. I don't need you. I don't want to wear your boots. I mean, I saw, you know, one tweet about last night's Fear the Walking Dead episode was the best ever.

Congratulations and thank you. Best ever, but. And also to the season four, Fear the Walking Dead writers. I mean. Well, the writing was pretty good in this episode. We don't have our writer with us, so we can't, we can't have a. Jason's off chasing. We can't have a professional opinion.

Dodging rubber bullets and tear gas. That tweet came from, you know, Susan Lehman, She wrote a book on it. Yes, she did. She did. She did. She's her Twitter post. That's her Twitter account at TWD Life Lessons.

See? You can tag her as you tag. And you can find a book on Amazon.com. Yes, you can. And I've just started reading it. Mm-hmm. Well, I noticed that you had a bookmark in it, so. It's sitting right there.

Right. It's the pictures. I have not read it. Okay, Susan. I'm sorry. I haven't got to it yet. I had you covered there. We'll send you a poster soon, Susan.

I know. All right. So anyway, look, one of the reasons that we, you know, that we disliked the first three seasons and the seasons with some of the characters is that we enjoyed characters that they just killed off. And it seemed like characters that we didn't like were still around, hanging around. And we don't have anything to like about them. We don't have any backstory. We don't have any reason to like them.

And really, one of the things, you know, Nick dying, he was just becoming a character that I kind of liked. Yeah. He had overcome some issues in life. Yeah, all I know is, I didn't, I haven't watched the first three seasons, but I have not. Max, and you, you know what? You've had plenty of time by now to do that. Well, I did see.

Why have you not done it? One, I saw a recap, which pretty much explained everything. That was about three minutes, which is all you needed. Everyone I know about Nick, he was a druggy Then he liked walking around with walkers And then he started smoking Walker brains And then he got clean and now he's dead You know when you put it like that

It really makes it sound weird But that's the recap That's kind of the recap You're right Yes it is I forgot about the whole smoking Walker brains thing Yeah that was down to Mexico When you go down to Mexico

You smoke Walker brains That was a weird Kind of little chapter in the That was just weird Just get really high and wash yourself up with Walker Bloods. And maybe that's what they've done now. They were trying to make Fear the Walking Dead so different

by doing weird stuff like that. Maybe that's why we didn't like it. And now that they've gone over to the episodes feel more like The Walking Dead, it's like, oh, now it's good. We're home. Now it feels like the other show. So what did you guys think of the whole John being in the cabin alone for a while thing?

That was interesting, right? We got to see John. And it was fascinating. I feel like that wasn't so long ago. I mean, it wasn't up to... Long ago, but not so far away. Classic. What is it, Max?

Name that band. Yeah. They can't name that band, sorry. Grief. And he hasn't watched the first three seasons of the fear. What is wrong with you? She's dead now. She struggled with the same disease I struggle with.

Right. You don't have a disease. They were known as the ham. Hammer builders, the hammer builders, and Karen Hammer Builder. Camber builders. What? That's where they were. They are now.

By the way, that's a 14-point word in Scrabble. Listen, Karen Carpenter passed away, okay, and she had anorexia, and she struggled with the same disease that I overcome. I didn't know you were anorexic. You know, you've swung, you've successfully swung the entire. for you. Yeah, you're like back on track. It's dangerous to play Scrabble by yourself. Right?

It drives you crazy. I mean, he figured out, I mean, he's walking around talking to himself while making coffee, adding a little caramel and talking in it. I feel like this wasn't, you know, this wasn't how long ago. It wasn't like we didn't go back. Yeah, we didn't go back to the beginning. Pretty close, though, I feel like. Maybe.

The store still had all of that stuff in it. plenty of style. I mean, it could be that just barely anyone shows up to the town. I mean, that's true. And it wasn't, you know, I'll give you that it wasn't the very beginning because we already had, you know, he knew about the bites. And he knew about what caused the walkers. Right. Yeah.

That kind of thing. So, I mean, he was very, right. We already knew how to kill them, right? And it seemed like at least in the beginning of fear, they didn't know that. Right. And that was the problem with fear, I felt like when we've rehashed this before, too, was that. you know, it was supposed to originally be from the beginning and I feel

like we lost that. Although Dharma did say something last night that she said I've seen be careful. You should have shot him. Remember when he killed the one that was coming in the Jeep? Dharma. Her name's Dharma. She was from Dharma and Greg. So John Doric kind of

found his show calls her Laura but his instance Dharma. So anyway she's you know he's beaten the crap out of the one that gets into the Jeep with him and she's like you know you should have shot him because I've seen people get pretty sick just coming in contact with this. Okay, which again...

Does that really what she said? Yeah. Do you remember that? She didn't say getting in context, you said it, I think, getting it in your eyes or something like that. But I mean, she intimated that you could get sick or bad things could happen to you if you got the stuff all over it. Which is what happened to Gabriel. But the thing

is, they've been smearing the stuff all over them for years now. Forever. Nick did it as a hobby before he was scared of it. And I mean, and Rick and the boys in Walking Dead

did it in Atlanta. They did it at Alexandria. Well, the first time they did it, they were wearing tarps. Yeah, but when they did it with the sheets too. I'll get to that. But they realized, don't forget, what's his face? Hubby that were still

distraught over being killed by Negan. He was buried in Walker Doe. That's right. Go ahead. And stayed alive. Yeah, go ahead. It seems like They play a little fast and loose with that. They do. I have to agree with you, and it's the exact same way in the comics. Exactly.

Really? So they kind of keep that as just like they're ace in the hole. They ever need something. We could have a die. Because we know that, right? I mean, what's his face told Rick in the Walking Dead? That everybody has it. Right.

Yeah. But why do you get it if you're bit? I mean, if you've got it, so why is getting bit activated? What's the difference between the bite? Mm-hmm. and getting it, rubbing it on you. Or if you had a nasty gash like... We don't know.

We don't find out how she got the gash. But it's not a bite. It's not a bite. It's not a bite. But what if she gets Walker Goo in there? Does she get... I think so, right? I think an open wound gets that.

Yeah, like what Negan did with Lucille and everything. Right. Which still, again, you know, he had the deal where the, you know, once it's in your system. But, I mean, Rick has been... Rick has had it sprayed on him. And Nick, let alone forget walking dead. Let's stick with fear. That's what we're doing.

They're talking fear. Nick has had it, you know, in every orifice. Right. Yes, yes, he has. It took a bullet to drop him. Yeah. Yeah. So I guess what we're going to have to do is suspend our disbelief.

Oh, my gosh. Wow. I know. It's crazy. But, I mean, the rest of the show remains factual, so we're good. Then there was the. Then there was a moving on. The dead have gotten up and walked around. I don't buy that.

John's alarm clock. Now the Billy Bass, that was. I love that thing, fish. The Billy Bass was good. And look, he lived alone and he was, you know. He had a windmill. He had a water purifier fire. It was really good.

He had the moat around the cabin, so the walkers would fall into that. All he needed was a woman. Right. He had a night back. He needed. And God set him one right there. Washed up to the front of the house. And then she talked.

So we don't have to suspend any kind of thing. I mean, it is just like real life. She opened her mouth and the words started coming out. She really was, uh, I know that they could understand for like the first day, her being suspicious. Yeah, but then she was, she seemed so. But then she went creepy. Yeah.

Stared at him while he was asleep and said, no, just waking up. He was just awake. I lost my job. And that's all we elaborate on that too. Just like, wait. It was just weird. I mean, I lost my child. It just, it was a weird.

What's more brittle? What do you want for me? Which was a good idea, him melting down the thing with movie nights. I love those little hard candies. Yeah, I mean, you could do anything in times of distress, times of where. I mean, that's how we made it through the Great Depression. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Candy. Hard candy. Hard candy. Hard candy. That was the answer to the Great Depression. It's a brittle. Hard caramel. Didn't he say he melted him down?

The caramel and the something else. The caramel and I think the toffies. Aren't they the same thing? No. No. Okay. What kind of can't? You don't know your candies?

I mean, they were both in the little wrappers, weren't they? Yes, the candies, little hard candies all come in separate little wrappers. So are you telling me that if I put two them down and you blind taste. tested, you could tell the difference between the caramel and the... Yeah, absolutely. Without, now, there'd be coffee without nuts. 100%. Okay.

So... Yeah, whatever. And then, of course... Are you calling me a liar? Nope. And then of course, then I'm going to... Going to Bill Shack, as I like to call it. If we keep going off the road, Max is going to get really...

I know, he really is. All right, so, Max, where were we? Them heading out to Bill Shack. Right. I went to the grocery store, which is fully stacked, which I thought was kind of weird, and he's signing out VHS tape still on Tuesday. He's a good guy. He's an honest, hardworking man.

But at times, you know. He's kind of weird aversion to guns, but, you know, whatever. Yeah. And, of course, that we see him cleaning the guns a couple times. That's his, you know, his way of working through not liking them anymore, right? He said he was a police officer, said he worked in the Western. show, you know, he was the cowboy. And when

he killed a bad guy, he was coming back from his weekend job, right? So he still, he killed them with those guns, with his cowboy stuff. And that made him cause more problems. But the weird thing is and they, maybe they teach

a cop something different, but when you aim your gun at somebody, don't aim to wound. That's the number one rule. If you're going to aim at somebody, shoot to kill. Right. And which he didn't do. This shows that John is a nice guy. But not, I mean, that's not a really smart thing to do.

And by proof that he's not a really smart guy, he jumped into the moat. Right, yes. The walkers were there. Which, why were the walkers all, when they brought the, I'd understand it when they took the roof off that gas pillar thing and then put it on to the broken fence? Right. But then that broke, so they pushed the car there. What attracted all the walkers to the car? It was the hole in the fence.

It was the hole in the fence, and it was the sound of the walker and the water, right? Is that what it was? I think so. So they're attracted to their own sound? Why don't they just stand around in groups and then? Well, they do. They not do anything, just like stand there and why were they going? I mean, that doesn't make any sense.

I mean, I understand one or two falling in, like that wash up, what's happened. and then but all of them going through it was kind of weird I didn't understand and then they moved the Jeep and because they moved the Jeep that brought the herd

it was really more of a semi large group than a herd so did they just all they did was delay all of them coming instead of showing up one every day for a week they all seven showed up

on one day well it was more than seven whatever it was. In other words, I mean, because all of those were going to eventually... It was more than seven, but not a herd. Right. But we just... A herds like at least 50. Couldn't they have just tumbled down the hill next to the bridge, too?

I mean, there was nothing magical about the bridge. That's the only place they get in the water. That was the magical inlet to the water. Okay. Well, then that makes sense in that case. And he went there every Tuesday, but it just so happened that the Tuesday that he went with her. Right. That they noticed, oh, right, got to fix that. We should fix that hole in the... Something needs to be done about that. I got some man to do.

Right. And of course we... Yeah. Then we see him dual-wielded the pistols, which is cool. Okay, no, wait a second. I just thought of something. What? Was that the hole in that fence?

Was that supposedly where the car in the water came from? Maybe that was her car. No. No, it wasn't. So, but... Why? She never said anything. Yes, she did. And...

When they were... When John was paddling the canoe... Much of your attitude for a little. I just... When John was paddling the canoe, he sees the car in the water, he looks up, he sees the broken fence and send the guardrail. And then he asked, and then he asked her, was that your car? And then she goes, no, I'm definitely a better driver than that. Okay, but you see what I'm saying?

So the car that's in the water, how did it get in the water without taking out the whole guardrail? It did take out the guardrail. No, because they still flipped over the guard. Remember, they would walk up to it and they'd flip over the little thing that came up to about their knees. So it wasn't like there was a whole There was the fence The chain link was gone but not the guardrail part Right

So how did that work? It could have went to The wheels You're about to explain the impossible, Mac That's not impossible. If you have enough momentum The wheels could have bounced over the guardrail Yeah there was a pile of sand there

There would no Uh huh You could actually, that actually has happened Right you've seen that really How many times have you seen that happen Just give me one instance Okay, news reports. It was okay, man.

No, I know it's, look, I know it was not cartoons. It was an animated feature. Right. But there was that one animated feature. It was a coyote. I distinctly remember a coyote driving a Jeep and it... And then an anvil dropped right down. It said acne on it.

Right. Why are we talking about Roadrunner and coyote right now? Because that's how that car got into the... Yes. That's how that car got into the, the end of the river. I swear the guardrail was broken, though. Then why did they keep flipping over?

They didn't just walk into the water. They would come up and go boop and flip over it. Well, some of the guardrail, I think, was broken, actually, wasn't it? I didn't go back and watch now. I remember thinking, how did they? And it just didn't. Yes, part of the guardrail was still there. You could see it.

But I swear when you see the car in the water and then you see them patching it up with the roof, you see it like bent over. open. Sure you did. Sure you did. So anyway, that caused all the walkers, which I, you know, I just were okay, so I guess that's why it happened. I don't understand. And then they all fell in the

river and they all washed up in front of John's house. And I think we're skipping ahead just a smidge too far, and I didn't want to bring this up because I know it's uncomfortable. However, when they were fighting off all those walkers on that bridge, did no one else feel the sexual tension?

It felt to me like the two with them were like, weren't they like almost going to kiss? And then they all, they got it and they're mad. I mean, it was just a lot of, it was just me, just me. Okay. I mean, maybe that's, I mean, that was, I just felt that that was there. That was the starting of where we were supposed to believe that they were falling in love with each other. I think that that may have been the spark. The point. Yeah, that's possible. I think the spark would have been harassing the whole fishing thing, but. Oh, Max, you have so much to learn about women. So much

So much But the fishing thing is right Because we just could spend time together And we get to It was cool You can show me how to do it I might need it in the future Right

When I'm away from you I lost my job But right now I love you Right But it was cool How I cut those fish And cook them Would you did

And you have to admit it That is a good survival skill It is if you If you believe that you can still eat the fish Right Yeah That's a good point We can still eat the fish.

We can still eat the animals. Right, we still eat the animals. Hell, we've eaten the animals. Yeah, because the walker smeg is all in the river, and the fish are swimming in the river and drink in the water, and you're eating the fish. They don't drink water. They breathe water.

Whatever. I'm saying, you know, right now you talk about fish having mercury in them and all that, and why wouldn't they have Walker smegging them? That is true. See? Uh-huh. Uh-huh. That's why you got to clean them out real job.

Right. You got to get all that. Clean the gut go out. All right. I'm just saying. And of course, later those two playing Scrabble where it's not drawn by himself anymore. I love you. I love you too.

I'm sorry. What's some popcorn? Yeah, that's a popcorn. Which was a good reference because remember in the first episode he says, I got a lot of popcorn. I don't remember that. Yes. He did say that? Yeah.

Okay. I missed that. part that was probably where I fell asleep first and you know I don't know I just felt like I guess everybody liked it look the whole point is is that we we finally got a little backstory from the new characters which is what we wanted from the from the older characters right we needed a reason to like them and to wrap our arms around them and say we want you to live and we want you to it's okay we know you want to live but sometimes you have to be bad to live in these times right I mean that's what

we that's what we like about it yeah so you know in the Okay, that's fine. But I would have rather, I think, seen the backstory of everyone. Like, instead of making it just an extended episode with John and Laura or Dharma sitting in a tree, F-I-S-H-I-N-G. That was good.

That was nice. Thank you. You can spell that. You just can't spell moat. We'll get to that. I would have liked to have seen, you know, we could have done them. Instead of the whole episode of beyond them, we could have gone between them and the crew coming to between the time of the explosion at the dam to at least the stadium. I see, I just don't care.

I don't care what happened to them, honestly. It's Madison's dead. Which on the show that comes on after Walking Dead or, excuse me, after the show, after the show, after. fear. They did say that later this season we will get the backstory on what happened at the dam. I don't care. Yeah,

I'm almost at the point where I don't care now. I kind of care now because I'm still focus a little bit on the old fear. Right. But if they continue to give me up to date where I have to believe that we've done the time

leap with Morgan and we've got the backstory on John and Dharma, Laura, and we've got a little bit of the backstory on Al. And we've got, we've already lived through a bunch of days from the stadium, and we know that whatever, something happened at the stadium. We don't know, Nick is dead. We kind of, we're surmising that Madison is dead. We're surmising that Dharma and Laura is dead.

We're still wondering what's going to happen with the vultures. Kill them. Right, we're wondering what happens to them. They're going to move into this phase called All Out War. But it's almost at the point where I don't care about. You're right. I'm with you there. We're going to get past the point of caring about how they got here.

They washed up on shore. They met some people. They left and went to Texas. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because that's where they had plans to go anyway with the drug dealer that blew up. Yeah. Yeah. So I just, I'm not.

I don't know. Yeah. So, I mean, and then, you know, and then Morgan and John, you know, limped off together in love. I mean, hand off into the sunset. I mean, Morgan asked him, hey, look me in the eye right now and tell me you believe that. And Tom was like, I did not. What did he say about that?

He wanted to. Well, he was talking about killing. Just maybe that's the right way to live now. Not caring about people, not trying to move on, but just kill everybody. and Morgan wouldn't have, you know, didn't believe that he believed that, and he ended up saying that he didn't believe that. He believed that people, you know,

we don't need to kill everybody, we don't need to fight everyone, we need to try to build a new life in a new way. Yeah, but every time you try to give people the benefit of the doubt, they turn into the vultures or need. I know. I know.

I mean, that's just the sad fact of the matter. And didn't you notice that Morgan has a, thing with police officers. First Rick, now John. He said, you know what? Why are you such a hater? He's attracted to police officers, Max. I don't see. I'm not hating. What's the problem there?

I'm not hating. Why? I mean... I'm just stating a fact. Think of it. The magnificent trio. Rick Grimes, Morgan Jones, John Dory. There's already fan stories being written about that. I wouldn't be surprised. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

We'll read them to you on the next talking few. I see where, you know, you mentioned the show that comes on after the show that comes on after fear. Right. Talking Dead. I'll give him his props now. Oh, you're actually giving Hardwick a props? He needs a little promotion since he's buried after Badlands. I like Chris a lot.

And he does a great job and it's a good gig. And if someone were to say, hey, Jeffie, want to do the Talking Dead show? Oh, no. I would have to think about it for, you know, a whole. Uh-huh. Okay. Can I think about it? Yes.

Okay, we're done. Yeah. And he does a good job with it. I got no problem with Chris. I joke around about not saying it, not saying it on this podcast. But he's really getting screwed. Yes, he is. With them airing badlands.

Right after fear. And they're doing it, you know, because they thought that it would bring them ratings. And all it's really doing is pissing off the view. viewers. Yes. We already have stories where people are mad and they're just going away. They're not coming back for Talking Dead. They're just going away because they don't want to watch into the Badlands. They're saying screw you to AMC. If you're not going to put Chris on, then we're going away. And the proof is in the numbers. They're already talking about it. And if I were Chris, I mean, I'd be really angry. All right. Here's something weird, though, despite a sizable drop in

the ratings during its sophomore outing, the Into the Badlands TV show was still the top. top rated AMC TV series that doesn't use the words Walking Dead in its title. Is that weird? That's weird. Well, Badlands and Dead have a completely different audience, I would guess. I've tried to watch Badlands. It just doesn't appeal to me at all.

I have to try to watch it soon. You know. You still have three seasons of fear to catch up on. I could binge shows easy. The rest of us suffered through those first three seasons. you've got to do your text. If I had time, I could easily bend binge 50 episodes within four days.

And we need to. You're still, you know, leading the pack as far as Sunday night viewing and specifically for AMC and cable shows. Well, I mean, obviously not close to what Walking Dead does. But the Nick show where he died,

you know, now they have where they do the live reporting, which I love, by the way. I like that they were getting numbers for the, live show and then we're getting numbers for people watching it who have DVRed it. Right. And those, you know, the extended views, they had a big jump, I know.

So people went back and went, ooh, Nick died. So they all went back. They all went back and asked it again. They wanted to see Nick die. Which is, you know, good for them. Right. But, Dead, Chris's show didn't even, didn't even make it. And talking dead is usually like the highest rated talk show in the country.

People are just not going to sit through. Badlands, especially not when it's... I know, and didn't they also, didn't Hardwick also say, like, the episode, Nick died on I'm gonna say, talking dead, he said, I didn't know Nick died if they would have told me

I would have had him on the show. It doesn't seem like to a lot of communication, or at least up until this point, there hasn't been a lot of good communication. Maybe that was the problem with the show. Maybe it was the producers. That's possible. I mean, it's, and again, we go back to our theory that they never wanted to do this show to start with, and

they did their best to make it a bad show. And they still couldn't go away. And still couldn't go away. So now Scott Gimple is going to go over there and see if, and maybe what they're doing is prepping it to be the follow up to the Walking Dead. Well, look, Dead has at least one more year. One more season. They've signed for nine.

Yeah. They got, thank God, we've got, what's her face back? Maggie. Yeah. Oh, right. Yeah. Well, in that whole... Lauren Cahan.

In the plot where she's going to overtake Rick and all of a sudden, what's his name? Daryl? He's going to help her over... It makes no sense. No, it doesn't. We just stop that right. Some people said they weren't surprised that Daryl turned. Daryl's not going to turn.

No. It makes no sense. He's not going to turn on Rich. Because what Rick is doing... He would tell Rick, look, no problem. You don't want to kill anymore. Don't worry about it. I got it. Well, but honestly, what

Rick is doing with Negan makes a lot of sense showing, okay, we're not going to, we're turning over a new leaf here. Yeah. This is how we are going forward. We're not going to be the animals that we've been where the guy gets a life sentence. True. I'm guessing if they're doing whispers, they're going to be, he's going to be out of that way. We'll life sentence soon.

It's got another season left. Then we're all going to. And then Rick and his company all moved to Texas and joined Fear the Walking. You really think Dead's doomed. I mean, Bob sends them a telegram. Come on down. Hey, it's really cool here.

Met a new friend. His name's John, Lori. We've got a really good place here. We've started a Westworld. Uh-huh. We learned how to fish and we can stitch each other up. It's going to be big fun.

Have you started watching Fortitude yet? I have. Yes, actually, I'm on season two of Fortitude. Because tell me I'm wrong. It's the beginning of the beginning. It is. It's just the beginning. The thing of the beginning of walking down.

Yeah. They could have, if they had taken those elements out of fortitude, you're wrong. Go ahead. Tell me I'm wrong. You're wrong. But you're not wrong. If they had just taken those elements from fortitude and put them into a slightly, what did I say? Put them into fortitude.

No, no, take the elements of fortitude and put them into fear, yes. Yes. But made it a faster pace because fortitude. No, I know. I know that. Yes, you're right. So the show fortitude, you see his. the beginning of the beginning.

It's the beginning of the start of the virus. Yes. It absolutely is. And we never got that from fear, which is what fear was supposed to be. Well, fear would, I don't think they ever said few were supposed to explain. Did you watch the first three seasons?

No, you haven't even watched the first three. So what are you even, why are you even? From the beginning. All right. Turn your mic off. No, not again. Turn your mic off.

Not again. Anything else? I think we've killed it. I think we've killed it. Listen, thanks a lot for listening. I appreciate it. It does. It warms my heart that this particular podcast is even better than the actual show. Just remember you can't get these 30 minutes back. Thanks for listening. See you next week.