Chewing the Fat with Jeff Fisher - Season 9 Episode 7: "Stradivarius" | 11/19/18

Episode Date: November 19, 2018

Along with Jason Buttrill and Maximus Fisher THAT MAKES THIS ‘TALKING WALKING DEAD’ IMDB description… Carol seeks out an old friend living alone in a wilderness teeming with walkers; survivors make the perilous trek to a new home. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to Chewing the Fat on Demand. Season 9, episode 7 of The Walking Dead, titled Stradivarius. Jeff Fisher, along with Jason Butchell and Maximus Fisher, and that makes this talking Walking Dead. All right, so we had episode 7 of the two episodes away from Rick. Carol, the IMDB description, Carol seeks out an old friend living alone in the wilderness, teaming with walkers, survivors, make the perilous trek to a new home. Directed by Michael Kudlitz.

You remember him, Abraham, back on the stomping ground of Walking Dead. I really, I want to like these episodes. And they're darn good, and I like the direction of the show. But I just kind of feel like we're at a point where, which I don't want to be at. is where's Rick?

Well, they're trying to replace Rick. I don't think they're trying to replace him. I kind of do, and that's why it irritated me with Michone. And that's kind of... You pick that on that as well? Yes. They're trying to force, like, you know how they always did Rick's growth? Like, he was very leery of the new guys, then warmed up to them, and it was all, like, peace, love and happiness.

And it made sense with Rick. Then he'd get into all great. But they're forcing the same storyline that we've already gone down with, Rick on to Michone. Yes. Which she's already a good character, so why do you change? Don't change her character. No.

Let her be Michon. Right. It's irritating. I know I feel you. I'm with you. Now, it was interesting and plus, Michelle. And that's, that goes back to that character development of her, you know, changing who she is.

But the Stradivarius scene where she, you know, turns around, he says, I can't. I mean, I know, I know it's a lot. I know it's a TV show. I got it. But in real life, wouldn't he just say, I have a violin in my head? Right. Yeah. I'm in hell down on Mishone.

I know. Like, he would look over his shoulder and go, whoa, whoa, whoa. I can't turn around. I'm holding this Stradivarius in my hand. I'm gluing it together. I'm fixing it. Don't do anything. Which I had no idea what a Stradivarius was before this episode.

Talk about you didn't? No. I barely know what a recorder is for crying out loud. I know what an electric guitar is. That's about it. You uncultured swine. Yes. Yes.

Amen, Maximus. Absolutely. I own up to that for sure. Maximus, if you had not known what that was, you'd be living in another home. I did like Luke's conversation to the whole group when he was explaining the whole ancient flute. That was a good conversation. Yeah, it's cool. You know what I was thinking, too?

I saw someone else talk about this. Him and beer guy from fear would get along great. Okay, let's not bring fear. Let's not bring fear into this. Plus, it ticks me off that he's overweight. I can't take this character because he's overweight. Every damn episode. Pisses me out.

So we had... Nobody else. I didn't know how, like, the whole thing with Magnus Group and, is shown and it was just irritating to me because I'm like really net you're still uh not trusting this group I'm like okay fine and then they did progress further and something else would happen to make you trust them and like she's still not she comes becomes even more of a hard ass I'm like it's just annoying I was like stop yeah stupid uh we have umiko explained their uh friend who died before we met them yeah they went to search and we found him and of course he's you know they knew

he was dead they knew he was already dead just Oh yeah, so that chick, the Asian chick, actually, she's actually a good leader. Yeah, she is. I thought Magna was going to be the leader, but this chick is obviously the leader. And she was good. Yes, she was.

But please, for the love of God, if you're going to continue to hire all these stupid effing British actors, please make them at least hide their accents. So we can pretend they're Americans. Well, except here's the thing, she's Asian. So? So? She's English, Asian.

She's United Kingdom Asian She's Australian agent Whatever it is They don't even hide the accent anymore I'm tired of this I think the actress who plays Magnus German I could be wrong

I L-O-L last night It's so funny Because I remember texting you Say they don't even hide it No god man Did we not have any more Homegrown actors anymore Are you serious

That we have the guy playing Henry And now watch If she becomes a big character We won't be able to get her on freaking talking walking dead because she'll be in freaking UK just like Morgan, you know, or Rick. You won't be able to have them because they're all the way across the Atlantic. This is stupid. And there's no, I mean, it's impossible.

There's nothing called a phone that could reach across the ocean like that. No, that's better than. So then we had the whole travel scene with Magnus Group and Mishone and Sadiq. Yeah, look, and that was again setting up the Michone being cranky and, you know, that, that whole trip was just to set up Michone. That's all that trip was to set up her trusting, not trusting, trusting, trusting, not trusting. That was the whole, that was the whole Stradivarius thing. I am so, look, I am, I'm kind of, I'm so in the dark. They're obviously setting something up that something happened in the six month or six year time jump.

because when because Michone was not on bad terms with Maggie at all when we ended you know like before before Rick's death they weren't and in fact they were very accepting of each other they must have gone through a period where they were mourning Rick together so what the heck happened to where Michelle now is scared to go to Hilltop because she doesn't even want to go and deal with her

yeah like I mean I'm assuming they're going to pay that off but I'm like what the heck because right at the end the Rick death I mean Maggie decided not to kill Negan. Yeah. And so her and Maggie, or her and Michone were on the same page. They were cool. Yeah.

I don't get it. I don't know. And they seemed fine with each other when they were heading to the bridge. Right. Yeah. So, and then I do like the, you know, I know we've discussed her going and being angry that she didn't get the big farewell because Rick overshadowed her. But the other thing that Rick did that overshadowed Maggie was that Maggie was whining about money. Right.

she left because of dollars, I think. I think that was a part of the contractual deal. She left because she wanted more money and wanted to, for some reason, you know, she'd already signed the deal for the new show. So that's another reason that she kind of lost the fight of saying goodbye to her on the show, you know. Makes sense. You don't have to give her, I don't think she even rates a full-on episode like what Rick got for a farewell. Not even close.

But they screwed this. up royally, in my opinion. It is such an awkward. Oh, Maggie's not here. Oh, she went with Georgie. Like, what? Like, that's all we get. Like, really?

Yeah, she took Herschel with her. I mean, unless I'm missing, like, a big episode where they do like a, kind of like a Morgan-esque flashback scene. Unless they do something like that, then I'll be a little bit more okay about this. Which we might get. But in the, you know, we're, this coming week is the mid-season finale. right so we're not going to even get we're going to have that which is going to get it yeah which that's not going to happen in that episode right this this next episode is going to be

finding out that the whisperers are alive you know what the whispers are dude man she's been on this show for seven freaking years right and this is her sendoff that is so weird it just I don't care if you have bad blood you at least ride it better you know what I mean like if you didn't want to have her physically on set do it do it do it some other way But this was weird. We have Jesus leading hilltop now with Tara. They just didn't pay it off. I was just really...

No, I don't think so either. And I love how we've actually almost seemed like we have not progressed in six years. But we have because we have the postal service. Jesus is getting letters from Maggie. No. Yeah. We've still have... It's true.

We've got the Pony Express still working. Yeah. So we've expressed that. And we have Jesus leading hilltop now with Tara. is with Tara. Which he doesn't want to do. Oh, you don't like Tara, do you? Me?

Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh, whatever. I mean, I guess I'm indifferent. I did think it was kind of hilarious that, uh, that Jesus was pawning off all the stuff on Terra and making her do all the work. Because he doesn't want to do it. Yeah. I was like, hey, go ahead.

Take care of it. I want to go have my love wrestle with my new flame. That was so great. I know. I was weird. Like, what the heck when Aaron jumped Jesus? I was expecting more from that. I was expecting Barry White music or something.

All I heard in my head was Barry White. Maybe they did play it if we were both hearing the same thing. Very well as possible. Agonizing. I think I texted you. We saw a lot. We saw a play question mark. At the same time.

At the same time. I believe that we sent, I got to look. I mean, I seriously, I had hit send and yours came through. because it was tremendous. So great. I remember looking at it going, oh,

same time, 823 both. The same time. On the phone. Yours, foreplay, mine, these two of their love affair.

I swear, I said it at the same time. We saw a lot of, we saw a bit of Aaron's metal arm. Yeah, and he got to use that. I'm good for him. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, it's good for him. him. You got a Jamie Lannister type of treatment. That's Game of Thrones, son. You'll get to it someday. And then we had the whole thing with Daryl, Henry, and Carol. Yeah, that was cool. I mean, that was good to see those two.

And dog. We can't forget dog. I don't know that, I don't know that, I mean, you may be right, right? You were the one, Max, that talked about Henry taking the Carl role. Yeah. As soon as he said, help out with the bar. blacksmith. I was just like, yep. I think I texted that last night. I'm on team Max on this. I think he is going to take that over. And it just makes sense if there's going to be

like some kind of relationship with the whisper daughter also that it's with this kid. Yeah. You know what I mean? That just makes sense. And he'll be the, you know, he's the son of the king and the son of the queen. Yeah. Jeez. I did a, I like the, you know, Carol being happy that you know, Darrell and him getting along with each other because, you know, she was actually up and ready to help in the battle with Darrell and the kid. Trying to save the dog. And she was, but she let it go. She was like, yeah, therapeutic.

Yeah. Probably for both of them. Yeah. And so when she got up and there was nothing said, she was like, okay. I like that about Carol. She's always been about, especially when she turned hard, you know, like having people learn on their own, you know what I mean. That's what Darrell said to her.

Yeah. But she was there, though. She let them learn, but she was there as the backup. She was like, uh-uh. Yeah. They ain't going to happen. Yeah, Darrell's really weird, like his hermit thing. I mean, is he just out there trying to, I mean, obviously he doesn't want to deal with people, but did he say he was looking for Rick's body?

Kind of, yeah. Did he say that? I thought I heard that. Yeah, because Carol asked you, are you still looking for him? And then he says, like, we never found a body. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. So that's what he's out doing.

And he's, look, that's where he said it was just easier to stay out there. Yeah, I mean, that's where he's from, right? He's from the woods. Remember, that's where he's from. He's used to living out there. He can be alone. He's trained himself a dog now. But he also set up the whispers, too, because he said that, you know, that stops the walkers,

and there's been more of them lately. But he wouldn't know. I don't think that's the whispers fully. Yeah, it kind of is like them having more walkers. but I don't think any whispers have walked into his camp. No, but we're setting up, you know, there's just that giant herd and more and more walkers are showing up. So, because he, you know, that's when he said there's been more of them lately.

And I kind of like the, you know, the Daryl thing with the- The traps. Yeah, I mean, that's him. Yeah, the traps. That was kind of cool when he just shot the snake. And if he goes back, see, he knows, like he goes back to either the kingdom or Alexandria or Hilltop. Or Hilltop.

You know, he's Darrell, right? And everybody will want to have, you know, they expect him to be kind of a leader. And he doesn't want that. Yeah. That was Rick's job. Right. You know, I'll take, I stood behind Rick and I fought for Rick. And I, I took care and I saved you people.

And again, there was nothing that we couldn't do. But I'm not, I'm not leading your dumb ass. I've been highly critical on the writers and that other show. But the writers in this show have always just really nailed it. And I loved that whole, this, the entire conversation between Daryl and Carol was just awesome. Their chemistry is just dope. It's very good. And then like...

Always has been. Yeah, always has been. And then the set and setting up, you know, his return. Because at first he just shut down Carol and said, I ain't looking over this stupid kid. Because like, the way they crafted this was like, he didn't need anybody. That's why he was like, you know, I don't need anybody. I'm like a loner. But then when he actually had to, you know, when he got saved, you know, by the kid, he was like, okay.

That right there was when everything changed. Yeah. Then he was like, okay, I do need. people. And then he was talking. Obviously I do need people, yeah. Right. I say it was just, I mean, it was a very obvious set up there. I'm not telling anybody what they didn't already see, but it was just cool that, it was cool to see them how this is the way you do it. This is how you do character development. This is how you make people care about characters. And the other examples in the other show is how you don't do it. It's like for a second in that one scene with Daryl and Carol, it looked like she was about to cut his hair.

Yeah. She did. She did. I think, yeah. I don't think she cut it. Yeah, that was the deal. I thought She did, yeah, gave like a mini haircut. Yeah, she trimmed it. She probably trimmed it, but I was expecting, I was expecting like him to actually have short hair like he had in season one. Well, he wasn't going to let that happen. He let Carol get rid of the split ends. And then we're moving on. Norman Redis wouldn't allow that.

An actor. He's like, uh-uh, ain't touching it. I got ride to do it. Yeah. This is me. Yeah. That's his sales job. That's the way you're right.

Totally. Yeah. So then what else? Oh, wait a minute. The dog thing. Yeah, dog. I'm sorry, but you're stealing a plot line from a John Wayne movie. I cannot let that go.

That is so blatant. Unless it's the tip of the hat, and I want to hear someone, you know, what's the Kang, whatever our name is? Angela Kang. Angela Kang or Kirkman or someone say, okay, fine, it's just a tip. We didn't steal it. It's just a tip of the hat to John Wayne. Big Jake, this is exactly the plot line for Big Jake.

Big Jake runs around, you know what I mean, kind of like the, you know, lone wolf, you know, bad A. Right. And then his dog runs around and his name is dog. Dog. And the very last scene when Norman Reader's rides off on the... Let's go dog. Dog!

And the dog runs out ahead of him. That happened to Big Jake. But he runs off on a horse. I was like, come on, man. No, I'm guessing. I could be wrong. I'm guessing that a number of the viewers of Walking Dead don't know who John makes.

Yeah. Who is John Wayne? Stop talking. I'm kidding. I am kidding. I am not an uncultured swine. I know who John Wayne is. Please don't.

But I've seen Big Jake. I've not seen Big Jake. You uncultured Swine. That's got to be the dude. I don't know what a violin is, but you've never seen Big Jake. Come on, Max. I've seen John Wayne movies. You too.

Go. That's it. That's it. Yeah, you know, it was, it's, I don't know. You know, we mentioned last week a little bit about how, you know, how it's going without Rick. And, you know, that's the strong character of the show. And I just kind of feel like all the other characters are themselves and the change of Michone. I don't know.

I mean, I just feel like somebody else needs to step up. And I'm not sure who that is yet. Yeah, I agree. I think something that I noticed after this episode, I think, was that there's definitely enough strength within the group to carry the show, I believe. I agree that. I'm still very interested in it, and the way they're doing it's interesting, and all the characters are interesting.

So I'll continue to watch the show without Rick. But I do agree with you that they don't have that. Rick was always the one guy that everything revolved around. They don't have any, it's not going to revolve, the story is not going to revolve around one single person. Maybe that's the point. I don't know. Maybe they're setting up all the different, like, the hand, like the group, the story will,

will revolve around the group versus one guy and his son. I don't know. And I guess I'm okay with that, but then let's not, let's not push. Have Michone go through that, that Rick character. I totally agree.

Yeah, I don't know what to go on that. And also, if you didn't notice, when Daryl was changing his shirt and we see his back, he had the same X scar. Right. The D section. He had a baby as well.

He had a baby as well. He had his baby just. That's really weird. Seriously. What happened? Okay. All joke, ring with the D-section aside.

What the heck happened in the time jump? Something obviously. Something weird. I don't know. Maggie had the same scar too? I bet you all the, I bet you all the core guys might. Yeah.

Like, so did some, was that like, did they get rolled up on another group and they got branded or something? Or is that their sign? Is that their, is that their own little will, you know, that's their mafia sign, the mafia bloodletting. Don't know. But they're obviously setting up something to tease later.

They're teasing something. something for a reveal later. Straight up. Maybe that'll go in for why Maggie left. I don't know. Oh, that's possible. I don't know. And then,

that might have been what hurt. They're definitely going to tell us. I hope so. They better. I mean, because yesterday was so blatant when they showed that. Yeah. And it was blatant with Michone too.

That was the point of it, right? That's the point of showing that and putting, pushing it in our face without ever saying it. And he had tons of other scars, too. Well, we already knew he had other scars. We did? Yeah, that was. Yeah.

We knew he had other scars. We've seen his back before, and he did have scars on his back. But the blatant one was the X. I don't remember any of the scars before. I'm trying to remember. I feel like that was, I feel like that was a long, you know, some of those scars were from when he was a kid or whatever. With his brother. Yeah, I could be wrong.

Max, I guess remembers more than I don't remember seeing him before, but I feel like then when he said that, I feel like maybe we did. look it doesn't matter right I mean he could have gotten him when he was staying at neat with Negan yeah right when he was suffering through the the Negan playing the same song every day we're on easy street

yeah so and I did like the one of my favorite parts though was the the the knights with the spears delivery guys coming no no no that would be like the soldiers of the hilltop because they have spears

Are you from Hilltop? Yes. Yeah. We have a message. That we'll start. No, that'd be king. That's kingdom. That's kingdom.

Why are they wearing Kingdom armor? They're not. That's Hilltop armor. That is King. Because they got the Spears. They got the spear. The armor is actually looks blacksmith. Yeah, that's the blacksmith armor.

Whereas Kingdom armor is more like football armor. Armor. Come on. The hill top. Or an armor anyway, come on. Right ahead. Tell them anyway. Tell them I'm going. Oh, Rosita. We didn't mention her that much.

And that's why they were there to like, they were going to Alexander and say they had her. And we still, we don't know what happened to Digglerberry, yeah. She said he would, she left him in a barn. Yeah, and Rosita, she looked like she had been like being chased by The Whispers for a long time. Yeah. Yeah, and she was definitely more. I don't know how much time passed. And then she was definitely more beat down than she was when she was in the mud last episode.

Sure. Yeah. She was thirsty. She had the big blood going down her face. I mean, it was definitely a horror movie scene. Oh, yeah. That was right. That first sequence was dope.

That was amazing. Yeah, that was really good. And you just hear the whispering around. So good. And that's what we're going to get next week, right? We saw the preview of her sitting up going, no, they can't. Yeah. No, that's not.

That's not just walkers. Yeah. So is the fair? They tease the fair again Like twice this episode So is that Do you think that'll happen next? That's got to be the second half

The final season You think? Wow they're going to drag that on that Because that's like the The pitiful Pivotal scene One of them One of them

Not the pivotal but one of them Is it the first time that Like they know that their whispers Are like crazy and this is real? No, they knew About the whispers And what happened after that

was pretty much Alpha was like you know what she took Rick to show them okay this is our people don't bug us here's our borders and she actually showed him where the borders were

and that was with the head that was with the pikes right and that's how he found out who died because the heads were on the pikes got so um I feel like

I feel like we had that long shot from the hilltop you know, where they show the growth of Hilltop and the farming community. It looked good. It did. Right. You know, the only thing we didn't see was the John Deer out there in the fields. But I feel like that's going to be a, I feel like we saw that because that's going to be where the herd of walkers comes in and just destroys Hilltop.

Is that happen in the books at all? No, the herd of walkers comes in and pretty much destroys Alexandria. What happens in Hilltop is the Whisperer's Shoe. show up with a few walkers, not as much as the giant herd that's attacking Alexandria. And then they use bow and arrows and shoot the place with flaming arrows. And everything pretty much burns to the ground. So they do destroy it. They just don't walk through with the herd.

So they destroy two, both communities? So the only thing left is the kingdom? They're not fully destroyed. Well, pretty much. They're pretty much, but they're not fully destroyed. But yeah. Where do they go? Where do they relocate to?

To the kingdom? They don't relocate. They rebuild. Again. Oh, my God. And then also they go out later. Huh. That's after the Whisper War.

Interesting. I don't know what to expect for the midseason finale next week then. I mean, I think the midseason finale next week is us getting truly introduced to the Whispers. Yeah, I think the title is evolution. The title is Evolution for the midseason finale. So we end up finding that they realized about the Whispers, right? I kind of felt somebody's got to die. if nobody dies, what the hell are we doing?

I feel like somebody has to die. Any death theories, anyone. I feel like the preacher man's going to be pissed when he finds out. When the guards come to Alexandria to report that your lover is hurt. Oh, he'll be a good one. I hope he goes. Father Gabriel, you're done, buddy. No, but before.

I'm going to make that prediction because I'm going to hope that it's true. Before that, they weren't going. Once Michone said she was going to hilltop, the two guards. from Hilltop turned around and went back. No, they didn't. Yeah, they did. No, she said, go tell them. Let them know. She said, continue. Tell them, I'm going to Hilltop. She did. I know what you're saying, though, because she did say that, but they kept riding off in the same direction that they were riding towards. Go tell them, I'm here. That's what she said, but they continued riding towards Alexandria.

Which is weird. Oh, no. Oh, so, oh, yeah, they continued riding to, but I think that was just a continuity, continuity screw up. because they were going back to, they were supposed to go back to help up. They were? Yeah. And then, no, I swear the horses, they, they turned their horses.

Are you? I have a real. Do we need to do a drug test? Well, Enon needs some, it's not important. Either right. Enid,

he's like, Enon needs those medicinal herbs. Right. Yeah, Edid. We saw Enid this episode. Started on her. Pretended to be a doctor, traitor.

Sleeper agent. She's, as soon as Negan comes back out, She's guns blazing. You know it's going to happen. For six and a half years. No, no, no, no. For seven and a half years, she has been waiting.

You know it's going to happen. That's the way it works. That's the way it works. That's why they're called sleeper agents. So anyway, I really am still enjoying the show very much. Yeah. I find it amazing that the numbers, the ratings, have dramatically gone down. Oh, really?

The live watching has gone way down. Now, that first, the first show for the season was like 47% less than before. I don't, I don't, I'm not surprised. I mean, I have a good portion of your audience were like hardcore comic diehards. Now, that was live, though. And then when you, when you work in the recording watching and, you know, like three day after three, I forget what they call it now. Gosh, I never can remember what they call it.

But it's a, it's like a three day thing. So you get the live and then you have three days to catch up with all the they count those numbers from the recording of the DVRs. And it's always good to know that they're watching. And they it wasn't it didn't drop that much, but it did drop. I mean, it didn't drop 47 percent, but it did drop quite a bit. And each week has gone down dramatically, which is. Wasn't there a little, wasn't there a spike in episode five and then it dropped again? But I'm not, but that's not surprising though.

I really isn't. I mean, because I debated on stop watching, stopping watching after Rick. I know. You can only screw with the main plotline for so much before it's a different show at that point. Which we have. Right? But we've opened up ourselves to say, okay, well, it's a different show, but we've still got a lot of the main characters that we like. So we'll give it a shot.

Yeah. And I'm going to give it a shot. I mean, we'll... It's been good so far. It has been good. It has been good. But let's, you know, it'll be fascinating to see. what happens this back half, right?

This next episode, the last show will be great, and we'll find out the whispers, and it'll be scary, and it'll leave us hanging, and we'll wait. I'm guessing probably come back sometime in February, February or April. I mean, it'll be a while. Ugh.

Right? Because there are no way they come back before the Super Bowl, which is the first of February, and then you're looking at trying to catch up with making it right for fear. They are stupid if they started in April, because guess what starts in April? The same day. On the same day.

You are dumb. You're going to lose a ton. So they'll come back in February then, mid-February after the Super Bowl. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. So they're already up and running by the time Game of Thrones premieres. Yeah. It'll end.

It'll end the very next week will be the premiere of Game of Thrones. Watch. They're usually very crafty at that. Oh, I don't know about that. You don't think so? No, because, I mean, I'm really. April, May. You're looking at another eight episodes, right?

So two months? February, March, April, the four. Maybe. I bet they do. If not, it'll be really damn close. Jeffie slash dad, I have a question. Yes. Can I watch Game of Thrones?

Thanks for listening to Talking Blacking Dead. I really appreciate it. Don't forget to listen to Chewing the Fat Monday through Friday, a special Saturday edition where all Blaze podcasts are available. You can download them wherever free podcasts are sold. We'll talk. Thanks for listening.