I haven’t gone back and looked at my original speculation meta for season 6, but I know from the first two episodes that have already aired that I was way, way off. I’m kind of disappointed in myself, but instead of hiding my face in shame and throwing myself into a zombie hoard, I thought I’d have at it again.
I’ve been thinking about what we’ve seen already, and whether I want them to or not, predictions keep popping into my head. It’s probably the writer in me.
This isn’t much but on the double occasion of World Zombie Day and National Poetry Day, I think I would do my toe into a poem about Zombies:
Zombie,
Walker,
Rotter.
Slimy, slushing, smooshy.
Brainless, hairless,
Skinless.
Rabid.
Wants all the things
All the time.
Not knowing what
It wants.
It wants what was,
But not remembering
What that was.
Or what it is.
I decided to write this after a discussion with my husband when I first began to watch The Walking Dead. That was in the middle of the fifth season. During the mid-season hiatus, I was able to catch up with four years of episodes on Netflix. Over the years, since the beginning that my husband’s watched, he tried to get me into it by telling me the plot storylines each week. I mostly ignored him. I’m not a fan of zombies. I didn’t expect this to be any different. On the other hand, that didn’t stop me from having a favorite character: Daryl, of course. I am a fan of anyone who does archery, and he is the resident bowman. As a proud Sagittarian, I added him to my personal archer list that includes Robin Hood, Merida, Katniss, and The Avenger’s Hawkeye among others. Consequently, my husband regaled me with stories of Daryl and his brother Merle, even more so after seeing Michael Rooker [the actor who plays Merle] in Guardians of the Galaxy. I knew about the barn. I knew about the bar. I liked and understood Shane’s motivation, which made my husband crazy. I was not a fan of Carol’s, which also made my husband crazy.
What brought me on the meta train, however, was his talking about Daryl and Beth and Carol, and the fan response; the shippers. Who would he get with? Or was he gay? Is Rick more his game?
SPOILERS FOR SEASONS 1-6
WARNING For Language
I think we can all agree that this trailer is chock full of red herrings and wild goose chases. Every time I watch the trailer I see or hear something new that excites me and scares me for the characters. Things are shown out of order, out of context, they make it appear as if characters are talking to or about other ones, they show them, but we know that most of those transitions are misleading. We also know it’s intentional. TPTB can’t wait until we watch those scenes throughout the season, and see where our speculation went wrong. Or right.
Right or wrong or somewhere in between, this is mine. Unfortunately, because of the way the trailer is put together this meta might go back and forth in time and speculation. For example, the first scene where Rick is running, he’s not wearing any of the steri strips that he had after his fight with Pete, but when he’s talking to the Alexandrians, and with Morgan and Daryl, the morning after and the night of Reg’s death, he is wearing them, so right off the bat we’ve got a trailer out of order, but trying to make us think that it’s chronological. I also read that season 6 will play with time, opening in the middle of an action scene and then showing us past times, why things happened and how some of our characters got to where they are today.
Exciting!
When we meet Carol Peletier we can see that her husband is domineering, she’s easily apologetic and it is clear that she is Sophia’s prime caregiver. We have no idea what they’ve done for a living, but she seems to be a homemaker and he is certainly ready for some kind of dystopian world. They have plenty of supplies and he doesn’t want to share. This could be survival, but it can also be selfish douche; maybe he’s a hoarder. Or paranoid. Whatever it is she doesn’t argue the point and immediately goes to apologize to Lori as if she made a mistake. Lori senses something and let’s it go, herself apologizing to Carol.
At the end of season 5, we have a complete turnaround. She is no longer the mild-mannered, quiet follower that we first met. In fact, she has a contempt for those types of people. In Alexandria, she calls them children. If those were the only two episodes you watched, you’d find the change startling.
My husband told me when (not if, but when) I started watching The Walking Dead, I would love Carol. I would love her story arc, her character development, how she goes from Stepford wife, mother, and abuse victim to badass survivor and leader equal to Michonne or any of them. Once I began to watch, I tried; I really tried to like her, but my animosity towards her is almost equal to hers for the Alexandrians.
“If I’d known the world was ending, I would have brought better books.”
–Dale, The Walking Dead on AMC
It’s full of run on sentences but that just adds to the breathlessness of writing about Wales. I’m really happy with what I did in my travel writer’s class in the twenty minute exercise. Like, really happy with it. Homework is to continue the piece, which I’m very excited about.
Excellent Walking Dead finale! Can’t stop thinking about it. I’m writing great meta in my head, but it won’t transfer to the page. Still working on it. I also loved the April Fool’s from Stephen King about writing an episode. It’s funny how I don’t read his books, but I like everything else about the man.
Excellent Supernatural! Loved every bit of it. Cas jumping into the playground door to heaven was badass. Crowley standing up to Rowena. Rowena’s face when she didn’t kill Dean. Dean and Crowley having a drink together. The sĂ©ance. Bobby. BOBBY!
The Flash (SPOILERS) had the best moment on so many levels with Mark Hamill playing The Trickster. He leans down close into the copycat’s face and in telling him why he chose him, had a longish pause, and then says slowly and pointedly (and what I guessed was coming), “I am your father.” It was the perfect homage without the shark jumping clichĂ©. I find that’s the best thing about The Flash. It’s really the one thing we love to watch as a family. It has a great pace, full of humor and adventure. Great cast, great story, and as I am the non-comic book reader of the family you don’t need to read the comics to really enjoy this show.
The Easter Vigil is tomorrow night. All throughout this week’s services and masses, people keep coming up to me, asking how I feel, patting my shoulder, hugging me, reminding me that it’s my first anniversary. I’m both excited and non-plussed as I don’t feel that different today than I felt a year ago after the vigil. This church is only becoming more of a belonging space for me. I’m asked to hand out papers and cards after mass. The ongoing support is continuing and welcome.
My son is on his school trip overseas, to France. Several of his close friends are also on the trip. It’s hard to believe he’s already 18, and he’s graduating this spring/summer. He’s just a wonderful person in so many ways.
The other two are fighting like cats and dogs and today is only the first day of spring break!
Last fish on Friday til next year and then turkey dinner for Easter. What should I make for dessert?
We’ll be visiting my mother in law next week. Many of you know that she was hit by a car in 2013 and has been recovering ever since. She is back in the rehab because of a slight set-back, but she is strong and feeling better. This rehab center gives her confidence; they are a good caring place.
I was originally going to write a reflection here on how I was feeling this Holy Week, but when I began to write this (more or less) social media update, I realized that it really spells out how my Holy Week is going and how it’s making me feel. While I didn’t do as much introspection and meditation as I would have liked this Lent, I think that was my own fault for committing myself to a daily reflection. Instead of being a spiritual release, on some days (not many), it became a burden, which was totally not my intention. I’ve never been a questioner about my conversion, but this Lent felt much more comfortable for me with a better direction and reasons for doing things. I found it easier to talk to my kids about Jesus and being Catholic, which was not something that I found stress-free in the past. This morning when I said that I wanted to bring them to the Good Friday service, they didn’t want to go, but when I explained that it was the day that Jesus died and I really wanted to attend, they understood the importance of that, and agreed to go with very little disagreement. They were also very well behaved and my son in particular joined in the group readings and sang along with the hymns. Not exactly something he does, so it made my heart warm. My daughter took out her Kindle and began drawing pictures of churches, steeples and crosses. That was her way of showing her respect and I thought it was right for her. (When I saw her Bike Race app however, I told her to put it away.)
The Supernatural family is still my family and The Walking Dead has sparked my creativity as has this new workshop for travel writing. Currently, the television is off, although the kids are on tablets, but the house is quiet, which is always a good thing. I did one weekend retreat in February, one day retreat in March, and in May I have plans to do an overnight at the same retreat house. They are very welcoming and accommodating with my money situation. I am also hoping to go again to Spring Enrichment with the Diocese.
I know it seems as though my little world revolves around my church, but the church seems to have brought all of the me’s together to form the birth (or re-birth) of an authentic me, a genuine me, a me who I should be. Add into that my writing, my travel, my faith, history and advocacy, justice and beauty, motherhood and mothering, family and camaraderie. All of my belonging spaces coming together to create my loft house in the woods where I am the only one who can see how the paths converge and spread like the threads of a spider web, catching all of the ideas, all of the wants, all of the being that I long for.
I wasn’t looking for a new religion when I went into my church initially. I wanted quiet; and comfort. Receiving both of those I looked for nothing else. My skepticism held fast, but when Jesus came to me in a bright light, no words were needed; indeed the words are already there through the Gospels. He needed no words to lead me to His salvation, or mine I suppose; the light was enough to open my eyes.
For me, the first half of this is no different from the second half. What I do in my daily life, whether important or insouciant, it is all with the basis of faith; with the foundation of belief; with the heart of Jesus.
What are your plans for the weekend?
I was asked this when I woke up this morning, and I was embarrassed to answer. After a long pause, the question was repeated.
Umm….I thought, well…..I’ll be watching The Walking Dead.
All weekend? The finale is Sunday at nine. At night.
Yup. All weekend. Marathon starts at eight tonight so I can catch up on all of the season five eps I missed, and then the rest tomorrow after Palm Sunday Mass. Then after dinner, the finale. What do you want for dinner?
I was answered with a shrug.
I’m already making plans to invite friends over in the fall for the premiere of season six, but that’s another happening for another time. That also assumes the kids will get their rooms and the living room clean in a spotless sort of way, although right now it kind of works for the zombie apocalypse theme.
So yeah, my entire weekend is revolving around a season finale of a show that six months ago I refused to watch. It just goes to show you how conclusions are jumped and mistakes are rectified. They’re not always something as insignificant as misjudging a television series. We all have our more serious misjudgments and mistakes in our past. None of us are perfect, and those mistakes remind us not only of our imperfections, but also of how to retake control of our lives and move forward.
We need to forgive ourselves for our mistakes and leave them in the past, and then keep on going.
Life is all about making choices and then reevaluating those choices.
For television I can decide to go back. Luckily for me (and others like me) there is Netflix to remedy this minor oversight.
In the coming days we’ll be reminded of this again when Peter denies Jesus, not once, but three times, and in the end he is still forgiven and it is forgotten as he is asked to be the foundation for the new church; the rock that the rest is built on.
Big or small, whatever lapses we make, there is always room for encouragement and do-overs.
Remember that.
I know that I will try to.
Griffins and Ginger Snaps 