But I'm gonna talk more about some things that bothered me.
First of all, I think it's a great second part opening with some not-that-great conclusions to the loose ends of the last episodes.
What I liked about this episode was how badass Gabriel has become and what a far cry he is from season 5. Great character development for Gabriel. And Maggie looks like that she doesn't give a sh anymore and it makes her more unpredictable and interesting.
The ending scene of "Six Months Later" with Maggie vs Daryl that's now a Commonwealth soldier was also really interesting but it's obvious that they're trying to mislead us and it's not actually what it seems. Because I don't think this matches the personality of Daryl. He might be undercover or they probably work with each other but Daryl is starting a rebellion against Commonwealth and Maggie is opposed to that. I don't know, we'll see.
So what actually bothered me in this episode?
Well, I gotta say that this is a thing that has bothered me for quite a while, and it's especially more apparent and obvious for me in season 11 from the beginning.
It's the feeling that some scenes are just phoned in and they don't flow naturally.
For example, Aaron needs to get into the basement through a window from outside. What happens next? They just cut to a scene of him already inside the basement. Doesn't it really feel like they cut the shot of him going through the window?
What about the next scene with him on the pipe? He needs to get out, but we again cut to the next scene focused on a rope and we see Aaron is outside now without any establishing shot of him actually getting out through the window.
Like is it a budget thing? Did the actor not fit through the window? Because the window seemed big enough. Is it a time constraint thing? Like you couldn't include the 2 second shot of him going through the window? At least do some cuts and editing like Edgar Wright does (which he actually includes the establishing shots I'm talking about in those quick cuts) so the transition from "he's inside" to "he's outside now" isn't jarring.
Like do you get what I mean? It's like if we saw Daryl and Beta staring off and lunging toward each other, then it cut to a scene where the dead body of beta is in the arms of Daryl. See what I mean?
This might seem a really small nitpick, but these little things altogether break the natural flow of the scenes and make some events and actions of the characters seem artificial and phoned in, instead of the writers coming up with something that feels more natural.
Another thing that bothered me, is how in the hell did Maggie know about the hidden door in the infirmary? Does Daryl know and he told her? We don't know! Maggie has been here before? We don't know! Not even Carver knew, because if he knew he would've checked, so HOW does Maggie know about that?
After that, we suddenly transition from Gabriel killing the other priest to Maggie running from Carver? Hello? Did I watch a bootleg version of this episode or what? Did they just cut 2 or 3 minutes of Maggie and Negan coming up with a plan and how even Maggie got Carver to chase him, and said "yeah, it's fine, it's more surprising for the audience"? That's not how you make a surprising scene! At least show Maggie getting out of the hidden wall trying to grab something and Carver finding her and trick the audience into thinking she's done goofed.
I don't know why they decided to cut those shots or even not film them at all, but they are necessary into making the scenes transition naturally and not be immersion-breaking. I mean the camera already stayed for a long time on Maggie crying for Alden, which I don't remember if she was that close to him or not to cry like this for him. But they definitely could've included those shots in here too. It also seems like some people had an issue with her just putting her hands on his face, and I didn't even think of it when watching the episode. But yeah, it kinda stupid to do that.
Those were the only complains I have and I hope as we go forward, we have less of these scenes that feel forced and artificial, and more of natural flow of scenes.
First of all, I think it's a great second part opening with some not-that-great conclusions to the loose ends of the last episodes.
What I liked about this episode was how badass Gabriel has become and what a far cry he is from season 5. Great character development for Gabriel. And Maggie looks like that she doesn't give a sh anymore and it makes her more unpredictable and interesting.
The ending scene of "Six Months Later" with Maggie vs Daryl that's now a Commonwealth soldier was also really interesting but it's obvious that they're trying to mislead us and it's not actually what it seems. Because I don't think this matches the personality of Daryl. He might be undercover or they probably work with each other but Daryl is starting a rebellion against Commonwealth and Maggie is opposed to that. I don't know, we'll see.
So what actually bothered me in this episode?
Well, I gotta say that this is a thing that has bothered me for quite a while, and it's especially more apparent and obvious for me in season 11 from the beginning.
It's the feeling that some scenes are just phoned in and they don't flow naturally.
For example, Aaron needs to get into the basement through a window from outside. What happens next? They just cut to a scene of him already inside the basement. Doesn't it really feel like they cut the shot of him going through the window?
What about the next scene with him on the pipe? He needs to get out, but we again cut to the next scene focused on a rope and we see Aaron is outside now without any establishing shot of him actually getting out through the window.
Like is it a budget thing? Did the actor not fit through the window? Because the window seemed big enough. Is it a time constraint thing? Like you couldn't include the 2 second shot of him going through the window? At least do some cuts and editing like Edgar Wright does (which he actually includes the establishing shots I'm talking about in those quick cuts) so the transition from "he's inside" to "he's outside now" isn't jarring.
Like do you get what I mean? It's like if we saw Daryl and Beta staring off and lunging toward each other, then it cut to a scene where the dead body of beta is in the arms of Daryl. See what I mean?
This might seem a really small nitpick, but these little things altogether break the natural flow of the scenes and make some events and actions of the characters seem artificial and phoned in, instead of the writers coming up with something that feels more natural.
Another thing that bothered me, is how in the hell did Maggie know about the hidden door in the infirmary? Does Daryl know and he told her? We don't know! Maggie has been here before? We don't know! Not even Carver knew, because if he knew he would've checked, so HOW does Maggie know about that?
After that, we suddenly transition from Gabriel killing the other priest to Maggie running from Carver? Hello? Did I watch a bootleg version of this episode or what? Did they just cut 2 or 3 minutes of Maggie and Negan coming up with a plan and how even Maggie got Carver to chase him, and said "yeah, it's fine, it's more surprising for the audience"? That's not how you make a surprising scene! At least show Maggie getting out of the hidden wall trying to grab something and Carver finding her and trick the audience into thinking she's done goofed.
I don't know why they decided to cut those shots or even not film them at all, but they are necessary into making the scenes transition naturally and not be immersion-breaking. I mean the camera already stayed for a long time on Maggie crying for Alden, which I don't remember if she was that close to him or not to cry like this for him. But they definitely could've included those shots in here too. It also seems like some people had an issue with her just putting her hands on his face, and I didn't even think of it when watching the episode. But yeah, it kinda stupid to do that.
Those were the only complains I have and I hope as we go forward, we have less of these scenes that feel forced and artificial, and more of natural flow of scenes.