Admittedly I was eyerolling something awful when it came to Rick. I don't begrudge the character his grief, but that was way boring for me.

We are as one. I kept waiting for something important to happen in his rampage, but it was just...rampagey. Far be it from me to begrudge anyone a good, grief-stricken zombie-killin' rampage, but as far as driving the plot, nada. Even if Rick's character goes into a downward grief-spiral, we didn't need this to believe it.

Spoilers for the graphic novel and Rick's characterization (not plot points): Beau was telling me that he liked Sunday night's ep because there is a point in the graphic novel where Rick's behavior is a bit unstable and another member of the group takes up the leadership mantel. So he was pleased that they seem to be keeping that dynamic.

Problem is that they didn't give this progression much time. Shane was alive too long and so Rick really didn't come into his own for very long, so if the above is where they are going, they didn't give the narrative threads proper time for development.

I'm only on volume 8, but, yeah, there have definitely been times in the comic so far where Rick has been much more unhinged than he's been on the show, so I, too, liked that they were taking him to that point.

I read the white font.

Fuck it, I'm asking for the compilation for Xmas.

i'm up to issue 63 or so. i really need to get back to them.

I'm fair with him unhinging because of the death but without needing to see every blessed moment of it. Are you saying the seeds were sown (and more sown from him, maybe clues displayed) from earlier?

ita,

in the novels you could clearly see the build up. He had lost his shit WAY before Lori died. It was pretty fucking clear. But then too, the graphic novel has a constant drumbeat of death. They gradually lost a lot of their party all along. Every issue someone was dying due to someone's stupidity.

In fact, T-Dogg was the one who took on the leadership role in the group because Rick had lost his shit. This is the biggest substantive change they have made to the plot that also affects some stuff going on at the Governor's.

I don't know how this will get reconciled.

In the comics, T Dogg was still a gentleman of high melanin? Don't they know there's a long and august heritage in the genr...okay, there's an old precedent. Whatevs. Still, would have been nice to see for a change.

If they film it so that Rick suddenly goes boinkers, having him bitchslap the undead on the way down isn't going to make a psychotic break look any more plausible, and it's a smidge less fun.

ita,

I cannot remember the character's name in the novels any longer, and there were more people of color as part of Rick's crew in the novels than there have been on tv - and, might I add, given more to do - but he was a serious, able-bodied Black man who was generally level-headed and took over the leadership position and did a decent job.

Not exactly T Dogg, in other words.

In the comics, T-Dog is named Tyreese, and he's one of my favorite characters, and he has a really interesting relationship with Rick, and he doesn't really have much in common with T-Dog except for being black and favoring melee weapons over guns.