Month: February 2020

Friends TV Show Reunion Is Happening, And Here’s How Much The Stars Are Being Paid

HBO has officially given the green light to the long-rumored Friends reunion special. The network has confirmed that the Friends reunion will feature all six main stars of the original show and will premiere in May on HBO Max to help launch the new streaming service.

The Friends reunion special will be an hour-long unscripted show starring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer. Friends creators David Crane and Marta Kauffman are also involved in the reunion. This is not a new scripted series like the original show, but instead a one-off reunion of some kind. The format of the show is unclear, and it’s also unknown if the actors will be in character.

The six core stars are getting massive pay-days for for the reunion special. According to The Hollywood Reporter, each star will receive between $2.5 million and $3 million to appear.

The six actors are said to have collectively negotiated for the fees in the Friends reunion special. This is in keeping with tradition, as fans may recall that the actors also negotiated together to be paid $1 million per episode for the original show. This kind of collective bargaining was rare at the time, and it still is today for major TV shows.

As much as $3 million each, plus fees for Crane and Kauffman, will make the Friends reunion a very expensive TV show for just one hour of programming. That being said, Friends is one of the most iconic TV shows in history, and getting all six actors back together for a special like this should go a long way toward driving interest in HBO Max and help it get off the ground.

The announcement of the Friends reunion special comes after the removal of Friends from Netflix at the end of 2019. The only way to (legally) watch Friends currently is to buy the seasons digitally or on DVD, and sales have been booming in the wake of the show’s absence from Netflix. All 236 episodes of Friends’ 10 seasons will be available on HBO Max in May alongside the reunion special.

The new Friends special will be filmed at Warner Bros. Studio’s Stage 24, which is where the original show was filmed. The producer of James Corden’s late night TV show, Ben Winston, will direct the Friends reunion special.

“Guess you could call this the one where they all got back together–we are reuniting with David, Jennifer, Courteney, Matt, Lisa, and Matthew for an HBO Max special that will be programmed alongside the entire Friends library,” HBO Max boss Kevin Reilly said in a statement. “I became aware of Friends when it was in the very early stages of development and then had the opportunity to work on the series many years later and have delighted in seeing it catch on with viewers generation after generation. It taps into an era when friends–and audiences–gathered together in real time and we think this reunion special will capture that spirit, uniting original and new fans.”

The Mayor Of Boston Is Urging Sony To Return To PAX East

PlayStation has been dropping out of multiple expos and conferences lately, including both GDC and PAX East, citing fears over the coronavirus that has largely affected mainland China so far. The mayor of Boston, Marty Walsh, is not happy with Sony’s decision to drop out of PAX East (which is a Boston event), and has penned a letter to Sony president Kenichiro Yoshida asking him to reconsider.

The letter, which has been reported on and excerpted from by WCVB, points out that the odds of contracting the virus in Boston are “extremely low”–there has been just one reported case of the virus in the city, and the patient is now recovering at home.

“These fears reinforce harmful stereotypes that generations of Asians have worked hard to dismantle,” Walsh wrote in his letter. “They trigger our worst impulses: to view entire groups of people with suspicion, to close ourselves off, and to miss out on the opportunities and connections our global city provides.”

“As a large, international company, you have an opportunity to set a good example…As a leader in technology, you can show that you are motivated by facts, not fear.”

To date, there have been 35 total reported cases of the coronavirus in the US. No one in the country has died from it. PAX East has promised “enhanced cleaning and sanitization” across the show floor.

The main drawcard of Sony’s appearance at PAX East was going to be the presence of a playable demo of The Last of Us Part II–the first time the game would have been playable for the public. Attendees will now likely have to wait until the game releases on May 29, 2020 to get their hands on it.

PAX East runs from February 27 through to March 1. Sony has given no indication that it will reverse its decisions to pull out of PAX East and GDC at this time.

Now Playing: The Last Of Us Part II – Every Story Trailer So Far

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Adorable Little Girl Wins Pokemon Championship in Australia

The world of competitive gaming is one of thrilling victories, soul-crushing defeats, and extreme skill. That said, perhaps no major video game tournament will ever result in a moment cuter than when a young girl by the name of Simone Lim won the Pokemon Oceania International Junior Championships this week.

The official Play Pokemon Twitter account caught the final moments of Lim’s hard-fought victory against her older opponent, Justin Miranda-Radbord, who actually took home the Pokemon Oceania Junior Championship in 2019. According to the tournament’s commentators, this was also Lim’s first competitive season and her first major tournament after winning in two regional tournaments.

Leading into the final round, the odds seemed slightly stacked against the young Lim. Miranda-Radbord himself has won multiple Pokemon championships. He managed to go 5-0 through the event, had the top seed, and seemed to have a slight advantage going into the final turns of the Oceania tournament’s final rounds.

Lim herself had a tougher road to victory, going 3-2 earlier in the tournament and landing a seed 7. Managing to win one round against Miranda-Radbord, she pushed the competition to its final round, where she was faced with a tough situation: Facing Radbord’s two Pokemon (a Rhyperior and a Dusclops) with just one low-health Tyranitar. Lim managed to predict which Pokemon Radbord would use Protect on, allowing her to defeat the Dusclops first before using Superpower on Radbord’s final Pokemon, clenching a very close win and audibly stunning the audience.

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Lim can be seen just barely smiling through her hands, looking somewhat embarrassed, before her friend runs up to her and hugs her, eliciting a much bigger smile.

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In the post-game interview, Lim said she knew her opponent would use Protect on his Rhyperior, then thanked her friends and family while clutching onto a large Eevee plush toy.

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And here’s Lim standing next to her fellow champions in the other divisions of the Pokemon Oceania tournament. Needless to say, though she might be barely four feet tall, she’s standing head and shoulders above the competition today.

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You can watch the whole 5-hour tournament here if you like. The battle between Lim and Miranda-Radbord begins around the 4-hours-and-3-minutes mark.

Don’t forget to check out IGN’s Pokemon Sword and Shield hub page for more updates on the games, including the new Pokemon Home.

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Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/blubbering mess for IGN.

My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising Review – Flashy Fun Filler

There’s plenty to love about My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising–it manages to inject an exciting and compelling side story into the anime–but its conclusion dashes much of that goodwill with a single line of dialogue. Until that moment, though, Heroes Rising is a good superhero movie that manages to satisfyingly sell the theme of its central conflict.

Likely occurring at some point after the Joint Training Battle arc (manga chapters 195-216, a few arcs ahead of where the anime is right now), Heroes Rising sees Izuku Midoriya (Daiki Yamashita/Justin Briner), Katsuki Bakugo (Nobuhiko Okamoto/Clifford Chapin), and the rest of the superhero-in-training Class 1-A temporarily take over a hero agency to learn how to respond to problems without adult supervision. It’s a cushy job at first, but the situation takes a turn for the worst when the island where the class is stationed on is invaded by a group of supervillains led by the mysterious Nine (Yoshio Inoue/Johnny Yong Bosch), a man who can steal and store up to nine different superpowered Quirks at once.

Though the focus of the film is on Midoriya and Bakugo, Heroes Rising gives the entirety of Class 1-A a chance to shine. It’s a welcome change of pace, seeing as the anime–up to this point–has largely focused on only a portion of the class at a time or seen the students compete against each other. Heroes Rising provides the first true look at Class 1-A working as a team since their hike during the Forest Training Camp arc (manga chapters 70-83, anime episodes 39-45), establishing how much the group has grown as heroes and also lending greater support to the movie’s theme that selflessness is stronger than selfishness.

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The entirety of Heroes Rising is devoted to the support of this theme and the movie’s conclusion is made better for it. Leading up to the final battle, again and again, the movie shows how friends who are willing to sacrifice for each other can accomplish tasks they couldn’t do alone. So when a selfless act is the key to defeating Nine–whose goal can only be achieved by selfishly stealing the Quirk of one of the island’s inhabitants–it’s believable to buy into the power of friendship. The movie lays the groundwork that there’s an actual basis to this belief instead of relying on the shonen trope that simply thinking of loved ones will somehow provide newfound strength.

Though Midoriya and Bakugo’s fight against Nine is Heroes Rising’s main attraction, the inclusion of three other villains presents additional threats for the rest of Class 1-A to contend with. Multiple fights are typically going on at the same time, and the movie transitions between each one at an increasingly frantic rate to match the growing anxiety of the escalating situation (save for the final fight, which instead relies on quick cuts to convey its mounting urgency). Chimera (Shunsuke Takeuchi/Greg Dulcie), Mummy (Kōsuke Toriumi/Brendan Blaber), and Slice (Mio Imada/Lydia Mackay) don’t go down easily, and the rapid-fire pacing of each fight reinforces the notion that the members of Class 1-A are pushing themselves to their absolute limits in order to go toe-to-toe with Nine’s fellow villains.

The four villains aren’t all that well-developed beyond personifying selfishness, though. Nine, Chimera, Mummy, and Slice have interesting designs and cool-looking superpowers, but the group’s entire characterization begins and ends with their shared goal: to see the birth of a new world where might makes right and they are the rulers. It’s absurdly simple in how single-mindedly evil it is, a poor motivation in comparison to the nuanced goals of My Hero Academia’s more notable villains like Stain, Overhaul, and Tomura Shigaraki.

It’s not the only cliche in Heroes Rising, either. When it comes to wrapping up a piece of fiction, very few things are more aggravating than seeing an author write off the difficult-to-explain aspects of a story as if they never occurred. Heroes Rising pulls such a stunt with about two minutes left in its runtime, which robs most of the emotional impact that Heroes Rising could have had on the overall story of My Hero Academia. Ending Heroes Rising with a reminder to the audience that the movie is a side story that’s not supposed to actually matter to the overall My Hero Academia canon leaves a strange impression.

But before that moment, Heroes Rising presents one hell of a ride for its final battle. The experience is marred by a villain with this-isn’t-even-my-final-form syndrome, but the explosive color of the animation and accompanying soft crescendo of the song “Might+U” (by Makayla Phillips) creates a beautiful moment of finality for one of the most impressive bouts that My Hero Academia has ever featured. Though the animation team should be applauded for how each superpower is portrayed throughout the movie–from the sharp lines that highlight the almost uncontrollable speed of Tenya Iida’s (Kaito Ishikawa/J. Michael Tatum) enhanced kicks to the whip-like movements that convey the incredible utility of Tsuyu Asui’s (Aoi Yūki/Monica Rial) frog tongue–the biggest spectacle is Bakugo’s fiery explosions and Midoriya’s lightning-infused blows working in tandem with each other.

Though the last few moments of Heroes Rising erase the character development between its two leads and deprive the story of concluding on as high of a note as the rest of the movie, the vast majority of Heroes Rising is good. The movie takes the time to contend that being a hero doesn’t always mean beating up bad guys, while also delivering on a satisfying multitude of well-animated fights.

The Batman Actor Jeffrey Wright Is Going Right Back To The Beginning For His Research

The Batman, the new Batman film from director Matt Reeves starring Robert Pattinson in the titular role, has begun filming. We’ve gotten our first look at the new Batsuit, both in official video and leaked photos, but it’ll be a long time until filming is complete, and longer still until we see a trailer. However, there’s more information all the time to speculate on.

Jeffrey Wright was announced for the role of Commissioner Gordon in September 2019, and he has recently taken to Instagram to post some of the material he’s reading for inspiration. As it turns out, he’s going further back than you might expect.

Batman: The Golden Age Volume 1 covers Batman’s original origin in comics, dating back to 1939. The book’s store page outlines its content: “These original stories from Detective Comics #27-45, Batman #1-3 and New York World’s Fair Comics #1 include the origin of the Dark Knight, as well as the debuts of Robin, Commissioner Gordon, Professor Hugo Strange, The Joker, Catwoman and more!”

Some have assumed that The Batman will draw inspiration from Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One, which focuses on a younger, less experienced Batman. However, with so much history to pull from, and Year One having already been done to death, it’s possible that Wright is looking for inspiration elsewhere.

Several other major Batman characters will feature in the film, including Catwoman (Zoe Kravitz), the Penguin (Colin Farrell), the Riddler (Paul Dano), and Alfred (Andy Serkis). One character you won’t be seeing, though, is Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker.

The Batman swoops into cinemas on June 25, 2021.

Now Playing: Giving Batman: Arkham Origins A Second Chance

How Rob McElhenney’s $150 Million Minecraft Movie Fell Apart After 2.5 Years Of Work

At one point in time It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s Rob McElhenney was attached to direct the Minecraft movie, but his version of the animated movie fell apart. McElhenney is now speaking for the first time about his version of Minecraft and why it all came tumbling down.

“I’m comfortable talking about it, because f**k them at this point,” McElhenney started off in an appearance on the HappySadConfused podcast.

McElhenney said he is a big fan of Minecraft; he enjoyed playing the game himself and with his children, so he was excited to be part of the project. Whereas other video game adaptations tend to fail because they follow a fixed narrative, Minecraft had the opportunity to stand out because it was open-ended, he said.

“I thought one of the greatest assets to Minecraft was they didn’t have a fixed narrative. It was an open world experience,” McElhenney explained. “All you were essentially give was the building blocks to do whatever you want. I thought, what an amazing tool, much like Legos except now you’re talking about infinite possibilities because it’s digital, to give to kids–and not just kids, but any person who feels powerless. Kids mostly feel powerless; all day long they’re being told what to do, how to dress, do your homework, go to bed. I felt like that could extend to other people. I think everybody feels marginalized to an extent. Your boss is telling you what to do all day long, or your spouse is. You just feel like you don’t have this sense of agency over your own life. The game gave you that, and I thought that’s a really profound experience.”

McElhenney went on to say that he was lucky enough to be asked to visit Pixar to meet with a “braintrust” of high-level creatives, including Andrew Stanton (A Bug’s Life, Wall-E, Finding Nemo), from whom he learned all about the movie-making process for animated films.

He returned to Warner Bros. with a strong pitch for a story that involved “people taking agency over their experience in this digital landscape.” Warner Bros. went for the idea, and they were so enthusiastic that they agreed to spend $150 million to produce it, McElhenney said.

“I really felt supported, all the way through,” he explained.

But trouble came when Warner Bros. movie chief Greg Silverman left the studio in 2016 to pursue other projects. Toby Emmerich replaced Silverman, and he had a different vision for Warner Bros., one that did not include McElhenney’s idea for the Minecraft movie.

With Emmerich now leading Warner Bros., McElhenney’s Minecraft movie “slowly died on the vine.”

“I don’t harbor any resentment. I get it. I get the way that it works,” McElhenney said.

The actor and director said he’s doesn’t hold a grudge about how it all shook out, but he said he’s bummed because he is such a fan of the franchise and he got so close to making the movie.

Indeed, it was very close to happening. McElhenney shared that the script was in a good place, they hired an art and a visual effects company, and Steve Carell signed a contract to appear in the movie. Additionally, stages in Vancouver were booked for filming, and McElhenney even had a house rented in town for him and his family to stay at during production.

McElhenney said it was difficult to see the project come to an end after he spent 2.5 years working on it, but that’s just how it goes sometime in Hollywood. “With these kinds of numbers and this kind of scale, $150 million, which is what we were budgeted for, it can fall apart at any moment. You have to live in that mystery,” he said.

Warner Bros. replaced McElhenney with Peter Sollett, who previously directed Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist. The story seems to have changed as well, as developer Mojang says the story will follow a teenage girl and her pals as they fight the evil Ender Dragon to save Overworld. The film is due in theatres on March 4, 2022.

McElhenney is not the first director to leave the Minecraft movie. Night at the Museum’s Shawn Levy was originally attached to write and direct, but Mojang vetoed his Goonies adventure-style idea, and he quit the project.

Minecraft remains a juggernaut in the gaming world. By the latest count, it had 91 million monthly active players, which is many millions more than Fortnite. It has already spawned a variety of adaptations and licensing, from books and collectibles to Telltale’s Minecraft Story Mode.

The latest video game movie, Sonic the Hedgehog, is in theatres now–and it’s breaking records.

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My Hero Academia Season 4, Episode 19 Review

With a title like this week’s, we could only assume that we were in for the very best episode in what’s left of Season 4. And while that can’t be said for certain just yet, it’s definitely an incredibly fun episode, and one that offers some well-balanced excitement with tight character focus.

My Hero Academia has perfected the art of balancing several disparate tones and atmospheres across its story, its characters, and even its aesthetics. And being able to expertly pull off the joyous atmosphere of the School Festival after such a gruelling battle with Overhaul is pretty impressive storytelling. Even more than that, introducing the camp and hilarious villains Gentle Criminal and La Brava now, during the School Festival, shows a degree of self-awareness that allows us as an audience to fully immerse ourselves in the light, celebratory atmosphere that this arc is throwing at us.

Watch the English dub trailer for the new MHA movie, Heroes Rising:

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Bakugo has become a personal best boy for a lot of My Hero Academia fans, and he certainly works for that status in the first half of this episode. Class 1-A has decided on a musical performance for their role in the School Festival, with Jiro the multi-instrumentalist taking center stage, so to speak. But as she attempts to build the band, she first needs to find a drummer. What she finds is Bakugo.

Now, while the drums are certainly a perfect fit for Bakugo’s rage-fuelled personality, and there’s a simple joy to be found in seeing him hammer out a short groove, the real beauty of this scene comes from seeing how Bakugo’s perspective and motivation have matured and shifted over time. Bakugo is a complex angry young man, and we’re seeing here that his anger has layers, that his waters run far deeper than we ever expected when we met him back in Season 1. Bakugo has very slowly and carefully been built up and torn down over time, resulting in a potential hero who isn’t just a controversial choice for best boy of Class 1-A, but who is genuinely a complex and lovable hero with a lot about him to respect and admire. And we get all of this distilled down into one fantastic little monologue from Bakugo after he picks up the sticks.

The preparation for the School Festival does, indeed, turn out to be an awful lot of fun as the students plan how to best use their own skills, knowledge, quirks, and imagination to build an exciting musical performance. It’s reminiscent of the movie School of Rock, with Jack Black finding a role for every member of the class, on and off the stage. That planning and preparation is even more hilarious and ridiculous here, with the brilliant idea of turning Aoyama into a twinkling disco ball.

The bulk of this episode is the sorting of roles for the festival, but the crowning moment of the entire episode is one in which Mineta attempts to play the guitar, only to lament in a pseudo-fourth-wall-break, “Because of my character design, my hands won’t reach!” It’s a real laugh-out-loud moment and not only is it the kind of joke that My Hero Academia doesn’t usually make, but it might also be the first time Mineta has been anything less than dreadful.

Class 1-A of My Hero Academia is such an eclectic bunch of well-defined individuals, which means the manga and the show can, whenever they desire, build an arc that doesn’t focus around Deku and his growth as a character, which is typical of almost every shonen battle anime. This cast is almost equal in terms of how well we know and love each character. Rarely (in any medium) do we get such a large and likable cast of characters, and this School Festival is already proving to be a welcome chance to enjoy each and every one of them in top form.

That being said, this episode’s third act still provides us with some really gratifying one-on-one teacher/student time with Deku and All Might. It’s a bonding moment but, even more importantly, it’s a short step away from the School Festival where we get to see a little bit of combat growth from Deku. After all, he and All Might are still our main protagonists, and getting a little focus time on them is not only appreciated, but satisfying.

Samurai Shodown Director Would Love To Reboot Another Big SNK Franchise

Samurai Shodown releases for Nintendo Switch releases on February 25, 2020, bringing the well-received fighting game reboot to Switch. Samurai Shodown has been praised as a high-quality entry in the long-running series, and now that it’s done, director Nobuyuki Kuroki might be able to set his sights on another SNK series.

Talking to Nintendo Life about the impending Switch release, Kuroki revealed that the game he’d most like to bring back. “Personally, I wish that we can revive Garou: Mark of the Wolves,” he told the site.

Garou, which launched in 1999 for the Dreamcast, is also technically the most recent entry in the Fatal Fury series, is a beloved game. The PC, PS4, and Vita versions recently received a substantial netcode update, which made them easier to play online without issue.

There’s absolutely no confirmation that the game will actually return, though, and it’s clear from the interview that this is Kuroki’s desire rather than something that is in active development. SNK Corporation is currently working on another fighting game in a long-running series, with King of Fighters XV due to release in 2020 for PS4.

The second season of Samurai Shodown’s DLC will start on February 26 with new fighter Mina Majikina.

Now Playing: Samurai Shodown – Darli Dagger Story Mode Gameplay

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Spider-Man: Disney And Sony Executives Hopeful That Current Movie Deal Will Keep Going

In 2019, despite Spider-Man: Far From Home becoming the first dedicated Spider-Man movie to gross over $1 billion, the film franchise’s history was briefly in doubt. A dispute between Disney and Sony nearly meant that Tom Holland’s take on the character was almost removed from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), and while the character still would have received another film, it would have no longer addressed the wider Marvel world, beyond, potentially, the characters Sony owns the rights to (such as Venom and Morbius).

However, a deal was eventually struck, and Spider-Man will return for another MCU film on July 16, 2021. This new deal–which, as before, stipulates that there must be a new dedicated Spider-Man movie every two years–only covers one more dedicated Spider-Man film and the character’s appearance as part of a team in one other movie.

Now, in a videoed roundtable chat with The Hollywood Reporter (as picked up on by Syfy), Sony executive Tom Rothman and Disney executive Alan Horn have talked about what happened with Spidey, and delicately touched on their hope that the deal will continue.

Rothman says that the news cycle around the dispute churned things up further, saying “I think we would have gotten there. The news got ahead of some things.” At the same time, the outpouring of fan support helped matters, according to Horn. “The fanbase, which is important to all of us, seemed to really respond to what Tom and his folks had done before with our people,” he said. “We heard feedback out there that suggested joining forces once again was probably really a good idea.”

Asked if they believed the relationship keeping Spider-Man in the MCU would continue, Horn responded “I hope so,” noting that it was “a classic win, win, win” for Sony, Disney, and fans.

The full discussion is below.

Tom Holland has so far played the character in five films between 2016 and 2019: Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers, Endgame, and Spider-Man: Far From Home.

The next Marvel movie is Black Widow, which arrives in cinemas on May 1, 2020.

Now Playing: Spider-Man is Returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe

The Walking Dead Midseason Premiere Review

Warning: Full spoilers for The Walking Dead’s Season 10 midseason premiere follow. To refresh your memory of where we left off, check out our review of TWD Season 10, episode 8.

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The Walking Dead kicked off Season 10’s remaining eight episodes with a dark, cramped crawl through some creepy caverns overrun with both walkers and Whisperers.

Oh, and with Negan and Alpha doing the (actual) dirty out in the woods. Yikes! But more on that later…

When we last left our heroes, in the midseason finale cliffhanger, things didn’t seem all that dire. Trapping Carol, Daryl, and the rest in a savage scenario against a herd of walkers didn’t exactly feel cliffhanger-worthy since we’ve seen our survivors escape dozens of similar scenes over the years. In fact, the show itself made a montage out of rapid-fire zombie assaults on Alexandria earlier in the season as if it wasn’t a situation worth spending a lot of time with because everyone could handle themselves.

Regardless, “Squeeze” made the most of these spelunky surroundings, crafting a full episode’s worth of danger out of it and, maybe most importantly, creating a crucible where it felt like someone could die. Granted, taking stock of all the characters and whether or not they were narratively “ready” to go, Jerry was the one most likely to get torn to bits. But he didn’t. This is where the episode kind of broke even because it would have sucked for Jerry to die since he’s one of the few favorites left – but also, without a grand demise, the entire adventure felt a bit toothless in the end.

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Sure, the cave collapsed, leaving Connie and Magda’s fates unknown, but since we didn’t see them die… they’re obviously still around. Because that’s the show.

Can Daryl Forgive Carol?

Daryl probably won’t be able to forgive Carol until he finds Connie still alive. Worst-case scenario here, if the show still wants to play things viciously, Daryl finds her alive, but right as she’s dying. Or comes to the rescue just moments too late. We don’t know what actress Lauren Ridloff’s Marvel’s Eternals role means yet for her role in the series.

Story-wise though, and knowing how Daryl obsessed over Rick’s “death,” and spent months and months looking for him in the woods, Daryl has to find these two. He can’t revert back to Season 9 Daryl.

The dramatic heart here, in “Squeeze,” was Carol finally realizing how destructive and careless she’s been after getting stuck in a place where she felt utterly useless because of her claustrophobia. She had to come to terms with her obsession for revenge against Alpha and recognize how it blinded her to this rather obvious trap. Man, if Jerry had died because of this, she’d never come back. That’s probably the main reason he survived – even though it certainly looked like the undead had chewed up his foot.

To be fair though, this was a super dark episode. Not thematically, just light-wise. Watching it through a press screener made things even harder to make out, given how much action happened in the shadows. I certainly got the gist of most of what was going on, with the actual squeezing moments, through the very narrow crawl spaces, being the most intense parts.

And the Carol/Daryl stuff remains, truly, the only big relationship on the show that still works to holds everything together. After that, you’ve got Rosita and Eugene (maybe?), and Negan and Judith. Everything else is kind of empty. So “Squeeze” was wise to focus on this, along with Daryl’s burgeoning feelings for Connie.

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Alpha, Negan, and Uncomfortable Silences

The Whisperer side of the story was pretty strange – and not just because of Alpha’s big romantic gesture out in the woods with Negan, where she menacingly stripped down to her zombie skin and boots in order to woo him, or in the very least shut him up.

No, it was the part where Negan snitched on Gamma and Alpha realized that she had a spy in her midst. Negan giving Gamma up made sense, but overall it felt odd for Gamma to have been brought in as a character this season, quickly promoted through the ranks (to the dismay and jealousy of Beta), and then for us to see her unceremoniously come undone. Alpha sending Beta after her, with no mention of his past warnings or Alpha’s previous stubbornness, seemed a bit off.

And then, yes, there was Alpha and Negan’s tryst in the woods. Presented, without commentary, to those who might be looking for an even more uncomfortable Negan scene than his “nut tapping” conversation with that young boy back in “What It Always Is” (which is even more disturbing when you consider it was probably the kid’s last conversation on Earth). With Alpha and Negan’s glorious coupling comes all of our fears and anxieties about post-apocalyptic smells. After a while, after this many years into the series, we can assume everyone’s now nose-blind to the lack of proper daily hygiene. But it just takes one moment, like disrobing in the woods (which is itself a nasty place to get nasty), to remind us that everyone stinks to high heaven. Especially the Whisperers. Especially those masks.

This is the Whisperers’ downfall right here. Whether you’ve read the comics or not, it’s plain to see that Alpha trusting Negan, or even developing slivers of feelings for him, is his ticket into controlling, or destroying, them all.

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