Not a whole lot of this actually happening so far

We've seen this before (spoilers)

Just a quick note on the "mid-season" finale (it's really just two seasons, but they call it one in order to control the actor's costs). Long story short, I thought the plot was utterly nonsensical, and LOL worthy at times (when the Oceanside Grandma gets shot by JSS-girl?). Where it wasn't funny, it was just confusing. I just don't believe that these characters are actual humans at this point. They don't make rational decisions.

For instance:

• Why did Maggie and crew just sit in their cars while the Saviors pulled up? Why not get out and mount a defense?
• Why did the Saviors let Maggie and Crew go back to the Hilltop without an escort? Maggie now plans to increase their defenses and be the "last standing" amongst the Alexandria-Hilltop-Kingdom (AHK) alliance.
• Why did only two people go to the Oceanside group to "Make peace"? What was the point of this? I had thought that peace would be made once they returned the weapons.
• What is with this thing where Eugene is downing shots of wine?
• What was Daryl's ultimate plan here? Throw the truck into the savior compound, assume everything would be good, and then come back the next day to mop up? Why not stick around to make sure everything went as planned?

More than anything, I'm just sick of this back and forth. Rick kills a bunch of people, has the upper hand, Negan repays in turn, Rick revolts, Negan gets upper hand. Just boring at this point.

The Carl Thing ( comic spoilers )

So, the "moment you'll all remember" thing has to be the revelation of a bite on Carl's torso at the end of the episode. First of all, go figure for AMC wanting to have a "dramatic" cliff-hanger here, but there is no way that Carl is going out of the picture. They've tried to fool us before (Glenn dumpster death?), and Carl has just too central of a role in the comics, in particular once the war is over.

Carl is supposed to be the boy that grows up in the Zombie Apocalypse, and becomes a leader, and heir to his father. Negan comments on it in this episode, and he has a soft spot for Carl, proclaiming that he wants to take him in and make him a lieutenant within a few years. This partly part of what goes on in the comics, and so this seems at odds with the justification the show-runner Scott Gimple has put forth, saying that Carl had to go for "plot reasons." Not buying it.

Also, at the beginning of the season we see Carl in Rick's flashforward, where Rick matches the appearance of old-man Rick from the comments quite well.

Maybe it's just the beginning of the end?

So, TWD has been in decline both ratings, and quality wise over the last few seasons. Maybe it's true that Carl is actually bitten, and will actually die by the end of 8B. This is fine plotwise if the show isn't going to continue very much longer. Perhaps Gimple has an end state in mind (how long can they keep Rick and other principal actors around anyhow?), and sees that series finale a season or two down the road.

The fact of the matter is that, they have a franchise in place here, and like with Fear the Walking Dead, they can just make a whole new show, with a bunch of new actors that don't command the high salaries. Ultimately, you just have to have some people in stressful situations, and lots of zombie gore. They've got the pattern down, and can just cookie-cutter it as much as they like.

Yeah, I'll still be watching when it comes back in February

I'm just a sucker for zombies. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Let me know what you thought of the episode? Did I miss anything?