Whitechapel Season 3 Episode 1

While The Walking Dead is on hiatus until season 3 begins this fall I will be writing on different shows. I have chosen to write about Season 3 of BBC America's Whitechapel. The premise of the show is a team of police officers in an area of London called Whitechapel that is famous for the Jack the Ripper murders. In the first season they tracked down copycats of Jack the Ripper and other famous murders that took place in the Whitechapel neighborhood. According to the BBC America website: " The new season will find Detective Inspector Joseph Chandler, Detective Sergeant Miles and Edward Buchan spreading their investigations beyond the boundaries of East London’s Whitechapel, as they peel back layers of the East End’s most gruesome history. They have rescued a huge crime archive, a vast but chaotic collection of files and papers beneath the incident room, and Chandler is convinced that the crimes of the past hold the key to solving murders in the present."

Murder at a haberdashery

Now they didn't use the word haberdasher on the show, they used tailor instead, but because it basically means the same thing and I love to use fun words like haberdasher, I will continue to use that term. The lone female employee is sent out late at night to go get bagels for the owner and employees. When she comes back (after being followed out of the beigel shop, apparently that's how they spell bagels in the UK, by some guy who didn't like that she cut the line) she finds the place locked up like Fort Knox. She bangs on the door and shouts to be let in but no one answers. A beat cop hears the ruckus and helps her break in when they find everyone inside dead (bludgeoned by a hammer). The lights weren't working and had to be turned on using the fuse box. This crime is compared to a similar crime from 200 years ago known as the Ratcliff Highway murders.

One of the creepiest parts of this episode is the image of a man crawling on the ceiling. It was shown a few times and always reminds me of The Exorcist 3 which I was forced to keep watching by a certain sister of mine that didn't want to watch it alone. So being the nice sister that I am I stayed and watched it with her. I don't get scared easily by movie monsters and such but possessed people crawling on the ceiling or walls will always creep me out.

On to the suspects

Let's begin with the supernatural element for this episode. While interviewing the neighbors one of the cops mentions that several believe a jinn is the murderer. What is a jinn? Well, everything I know about jinns comes from the show Supernatural and wikipedia. According to wikipedia: "Jinn or genies are supernatural creatures in Arab folklore and Islamic mythology that occupy a parallel world to that of mankind. Together, jinn, humans and angels make up the three sentient creations of Allah. Like human beings, the Jinn can also be good, evil, or neutrally benevolent." Some folklore says they are made of smoke (perhaps that smoke monster on Lost was a jinn?) while others say they look like humans. This could explain the creepy crawling on the ceiling.

Daniel Wilkie - former gang leader who was sent to prison because the haberdasher testified against him in a mugging incident. He lost his gang and his territory during his stint in jail. He was friends with the shop girl that found the bodies. He says that he is glad he went to prison because it got him out of the gang life and he is now happy with a girlfriend and baby on the way. This seems to clear him of the murders, but appearances can be deceiving.

Sly Driscoll - carpenter working on renovating the haberdashery. He was dismissed as a suspect when none of his hammers were the right size or had blood on them. That doesn't mean he couldn't have more hammers at home. He made the point of saying that the owner wanted to restore the building using original tools and materials. Maybe he had a hammer from an earlier time period stashed at home?

Marcus Salter - Half-brother to the dead haberdasher, Ben Salter. He was jealous of his brother because Ben received all the attention and family money. He was seen on CCTV leaving the area of the murders and was identified by his limp and a girl who left the cab he was driving because he was acting crazy. This dude is super creepy. He admits to hating his brother and wishing he had killed him. He has a degenerative disease that makes his eyes sensitive to lights so he only goes out at night. This could be why the lights were turned off at the murder scene. He also managed to escape his locked prison cell after scaring the poor police officer that was on duty.

Murder number 2

The episode ends with a second family being murdered after the power goes out in their house. The Ratcliff murders also had a second set of murders a few days after the first. A suspect was arrested and imprisoned but he committed suicide in jail. That case was "solved" before an official police force even existed in England at the time. This time the police have forensics and cctv to help them with their investigation.

The old team is back

I really like the characters on this show. The chief officer, DI Joseph Chandler, is a handsome, English version of Monk. He is OCD, though not as bad as Monk, which means he is meticulous about the details in each case. He has become friends with the surly DS Ray Miles and they share a mutual respect. I love the character of Ed Buchan. He is this quirky writer who is obsessed with the history of murder and crime in London. They used him as a source of information for previous cases and I like that they have made him an official researcher for the police. Let's hope no harm will come to any of the officers this season.

Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 13, Finale "Beside the Dying Fire"

So Many Zombies!!!!

Farewell Farm

Our gang of survivors have been kicked out of the most boring farm on earth by a massive zombie herd. At least the farm's final moments where filled with action and excitement (as well as zombies). I thought the barn scenes were intense. It is a miracle that Carl and Rick were able to make it to the barn without being eaten. It was smart of them to set fire to the barn, not only to kill a few zombies but to also let the rest of the gang know that someone was alive at the barn and needed rescue.

We hardly knew ye, but now your are dead, Hershel's gang

Jimmy - He had no personality and apparently no brains. He stops at the barn to let Rick and Carl get on top of the RV but instead of leaving as soon as he hears them on the roof he decides to go look at the zombies from an open window and get eaten.

Patricia - She was at least on her way out to a car when she was attacked by several walkers. I thought Hershel's other daughter was going to die too since Patricia wouldn't let go of her hand. At least she is now reunited with Otis to roam the earth as an undead.

Reunited and it feels so good

I was glad to see so many from our gang survive the herd and all magically decide to go back to the freeway. Now here is where the gang failed in making plans for the future. Everyone knows that a family is supposed to have an emergency escape plan which includes a rendezvous point. Luckily for them, they were all obsessed with getting back to the freeway to the spot they used to leave Sophia a message. I was kind of with T-Dog (yes he got some more lines!) on wanting to get as far away from the freeway as possible. But again Lori wouldn't let it go. She only cares about Carl after he disappears. When the kid is around she ignores him. I don't know what is wrong with the writers, but sometimes it feels like they hate women. Most of the female characters are annoying and incredibly irrational. It's time to get some smart women in the gang. Maybe Andrea's new friend will be the first? But more on her later.

Rick saves the group and they all want to lynch him as a thank you

What is wrong with everyone? Since the minute Rick joined up with the group they crowned him the unofficial leader. He has saved them countless times and convinced Hershel to let them stay at the farm. Now they are ready to shoot him because he wants to be smart about their survival. He realizes that they need to find a permanent location that they can fortify (since they did a crapo job doing that to Hershel's farm). I liked that Daryl stood up for Rick when Carol suggested he take over. Now you know how much I love Daryl and would love for him to be the leader but I liked that he was humble enough to see that Rick is still seen as the leader and has leadership qualities and a plan. I think Daryl should be Rick's deputy. I can understand people being upset with Rick because he didn't tell them that Jenner revealed that all of them are infected. But I am with Rick on this issue. It would only have incited panic and maybe some suicides (I'm looking at you Andrea). They are stronger in a larger number trying to survive. Rick wanted to give them hope. Without hope there would be no reason to go on living in a zombie land. (Side note: will Rick's baby be born infected, immune, or be a zombie baby?) Everyone needs to shut up and listen to Rick.

Andrea's all alone for a day

It really sucked to be Andrea in this episode. Props to actress Laurie Holden for spending an entire day running through the forest while being chased by zombies. Andrea shoots about a hundred zombies, saves Carol, and then gets left behind by the group. Now I understand that T-Dog and the others thought she'd been eaten, but what I don't understand is how Carol got away to be rescued by Daryl and Andrea didn't. Also, how she didn't make it to Rick's car when it was a few feet away and she still had ammon in her gun. The introduction to the the character of Michonne was amazing. The hood and her zombie slaves. She is most definitely going to be an awesome character to get to know.

Random thought about the episode

I totally thought that Hershel was going to die at the farm. I thought it would be his equivalent of a captain going down with their ship. According to show runner Glen Mazzara, Hershel was supposed to die a few episodes ago but they changed their minds.

I thought Hershel's other daughter (whose name I can't remember because she is so boring as a character) was going to die when Patricia was attacked. I thought for sure a zombie was going to chomp on her arm. Oh well, maybe they'll give her a personality next season.

How awesome was it that Daryl hear Carol scream and swooped up to save her on his white Stallion er, I mean his awesome motorcycle.

The building that they show at the end of the episode is a prison. I'm interested in seeing who they will encounter there and if they will be able to make that a permanent home.

The Civil Wars "Barton Hollow" the perfect song for The Walking Dead

More thoughts on Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 12

This episode blew my mind so much so that I need to say a few more things

Rick and Shane showdown

I was glad that Rick figured out that Shane was leading him on a wild goose chase in order to kill Rick. It was incredible to see the realization of the situation come to light on Rick's face. I think that both Andrew Lincoln and Jon Bernthal are amazing actors and the reason their showdown worked so well is because of their acting abilities. This look of this showdown was amazing. The dark skies with the full moon in this empty field. It was a horror movie version of the cowboy shootout at noon. I expected Rick was going to shoot Shane and not stab him in the chest. That felt very much like a scene from a prison movie where one prisoner is shanked by his best friend in the joint just to survive. The big question now is how will this affect Rick. Shane was the loose cannon that threatened the safety, some might say stability, of the group. Did Rick just take a step closer to becoming Shane? Or did he need to do this to protect his family and the group from a threat within their midst? I also found it very appropriate that Carl killed zombie Shane. He kills Shane in the graphic novel so I thought it was great of the writers to have Carl kill Shane in the series. Also, Carl pointed the gun at Rick before zombie Shane got up. So was he going to kill his own father?

Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 12 "Better Angels"

What The What?!

Shane is cray cray, but we already knew that

I saw most his little plan for Randall from the previews for this week's episode. I knew he was probably going to set Randall lose in the forest and make it look like Randall had escaped and have everyone go looking for him as an excuse to get Rick to kill him. I didn't see that Shane would kill Randall right away. I want to give a shout out to Daryl for realizing something was fishy about Shane's story. Why isn't my man Daryl the leader of the group?

Ding Dong the Shane is Dead, but not for long

So Shane haters finally got to see Shane get what was coming to him. Unfortunately, he didn't stay dead for very long. Now this new twist on zombification had been hinted at a couple of episodes back when they made a point of mentioning how the two security guards didn't have any bite marks. Now I've heard that in the graphic novel all humans that die become zombies. I'm interested in hearing the explanation as to why all of a sudden everyone that dies is a zombie. In the first season they encountered many dead remains that, as far as we know, stayed dead. My current explanation for how this is working is that maybe some people are carriers of the zombie disease. Whatever this disease was killed some people but left some survivors. It's logical to think that some of those survivors could be immune to the disease but still be carriers.

So many zombies!!

Where in the world did all those zombies come from?! What is our little group of survivors going to do? At least they spent the first part of the episode trying to fortify the farm. Also, why was Carl out by himself, again, at night? What is wrong with Lori? I think she might win the award for world's worst mom in a zombie apocalypse.

T-Dog got some lines!

I just wanted to give a shout out to poor IronE Singleton for having to wait about three episodes without any lines and delivering in this episode. Can I get a "hell no"? Let's hope T-Dog gets used more, if he survives this season.

Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 11 "Judge, Jury, Executioner"

Civilization, er I mean Dale, is dead

They killed Dale!

I did not see that coming. The episode was so focused on the decision of whether or not to kill Randall that I was taken by surprise when they killed Dale. Though not as surprised as I'm sure Dale was when that zombie eviscerated him. It was interesting to see how in the end the one person that didn't want to shoot Randall in the head ended up being shot in the head. Of course my man Daryl was the one to do it. He is the only one thinking clearly at the moment and was the right person for that task. If I had to pick someone from that group to end my misery I would want it to be Daryl.

Why Daryl should be the new leader of the group

Daryl is the only one seeing things for how they are. He realizes the group is broken. The power struggle between camp Rick and camp Shane has caused a myriad of problems for the group. Some of which could have been avoided. Daryl is the guardian angel of the group. I take this view from the not so subtle wardrobe change. His leather vest have wings designs on the back. I don't think that is an accident. He knows what needs to be done and will do it, without hesitation (unlike Rick) and without being crazy (see Shane). He has shown compassion in his neverending search for Sophia and in ending Dale's misery. He knows that Randall needs to die and would do it. I according the episode director Greg Nicotero right befoere Dale dies they showed Daryl sharpening a knife near Randall because he was about to do what no one else in the group could, eliminate the new threat (see most recent episode of the Talking Dead).

Carl plays catch with a walker and everyone looses

Now I know some people may be hating on Carl for messing with that walker but I have some sympathy for the kid. He lives in an amoral world where the only way to survive is killed or be killed. Any other kid his age would be playig with fireworks or filming his own stunts for youtube. Kids his age do stupid and sometimes dangerous things. You now place that kid in a zombiepocalypse and he plays catch with a zombie instead. He is trying to be grown up while still being a child. His male rolemodels are all these macho alpha males that are constantly arguing about when to kill. He has become desensitized to death. He told his mother that he would have killed zombie Sophia. Let's hope he doesn't become a psychopath like Shane Now, his he partially responsible for Dale's death? Yes, but I don't think it is all his fault. The group makes a good effort of looking out for walkers during the day but apparently they don't bother to do so at night. Haven't they learned their lesson from the season one massacre that killed Andrea's sister? Walkers don't sleep. They can get to you as easily at night as they would during the day. They have all become a little too relaxed at the farm. It will be interesting to see what changes will be made after this death.

Is Randall the new Ben Linus?

This was brought up on the Talking dead by Scott Ian and I happen to agree with him. There is something off about Randall. He tries to play sweet and innocent but I don't buy his story. He told that creepy story to Daryl about some of the men from his group raping two teenage girls. He said he had nothing to do with it but I don't believe him. I think he would do anything to survive, and that includes raping women. He even tried to convinve Carl to set him free by promising to take Carl and his family back to his group. So does he know where his group is? Can we trust anything he says? I say let Daryl shoot him.

RIP civilization

A zombiepocalypse changes the world. Does that mean that civilization is dead? I don't know. I think rules need to be altered but not obliterated. If civilization were truly dead would the group have looked for Sophia or taken care of Randall? Wouldn't the men have raped the women? Now I know Shane tried to attack Lori in the CDC, which shows he was showing signs of craziness even then, but nobody else has tried to injure or take things from others. The question is, without Dale (the moral compass of the group) will the group become savages? Will someone else rise up to take his place? I would think for the sake of the group surviving someone else will take the place of moral compass. Without it the group will disintegrate and might not survive. Sound off in the comments below.