The Walking Dead S08E09 "Honor" (My Review)

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After 2 months of no Walking Dead it feels good to continue watching it again!!!

I miss writing reviews for this show!!!

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If you don't want "Spoilers," scroll down to the "Non-Spoilers" where I give my broad conclusion and overall thoughts and after

"Non-Spoilers" is in big letters so you can't miss if you scroll down fast

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Spoilers (In-Depth Analysis)

• Honestly the first quarter of the episode there is no story progression but then again a lot of "The Walking Dead" episodes are like this.

• Gavin's death.
  This was the SHOCKING part for me. If you guys don't know who he is he is one of Negan's lieutenants who was at The Kingdom, Ezekiel's place. You see the tension of Ezekiel or Morgan about to spare or kill Gavin then the twist was him being killed by a kid. It reminds of the little girl in season 4 who killed her sister and Carol has to kill her cause the little girl was mentally unstable. That was one of the highlights in season 4 and Gavin's death reminded me of it.

• Is Carl dead?
  We saw him bitten from the last episode. Maybe it was hinted from the very beginning. I don't know if this is one of the glimpses of the future with Rick growing a white beard or is this a dream sequence. Yes he is gone. Dead he is. I was hoping for a plot twist cause in the beginning of the episode you see Rick and Michonne shoveling and burying a dead body and you hope it was some other person. You feel bad for Rick since his best friend died in season 2, his wife died in season 3, and his son died in season 8. I'm starting to think that in future seasons the bond between Rick and Judith will be like in the video game, "The Last of Us." For people who play video games I RECOMMEND you play "The Last of Us." I feel bad for Rick cause the only family closest by blood he has left is Judith. (Light Spoiler from the comics) Carl wasn't dead in the comics after the war between the Saviors and everyone else, Carl played an important role in the next arc and I am pretty sure that plays an important part of the story in the next arc.

• Comic vs. Television
  The people making the story decisions for the TV show are obviously going a MUCH different route than the comics MAINLY because Carl is dead in the TV series. I know in the comics, Carl fell in love with an important supporting character after the Savior war.

• Morgan and Carol
  This is actually my favorite part of "Honor" where they kill almost every Savior from Kingdom. Both of them are a deadly team especially Carol since she is a killing machine. I wished this episode showed more of them kicking ass.

• Negan does not appear in this episode.
  Honestly I don't like how restricted this is. It only takes place in Alexandria and Kingdom. I understand it supposed to focus a lot on Carl but come on. I want more variety in "Honor." I want to see just a bit of what's happening in Hilltop and Sanctuary and maybe Oceanside.

• Parallelism
  It made this episode more solid but it was a weak parallelism. The parallelism is Carl telling Rick to be a more compassionate person (not going to lie I skipped a bit of the scenes where Carl is talking to Rick and Michonne) while Morgan is contemplating on sparing or killing Gavin. Maybe thats why the setting of "Honor" is in two different places; Kingdom & Alexandria.

• The Last of Us
  That is the name of the video game Playstation exclusive and after watching "Honor" you will know what I mean.

• The ending
  Is it a dream sequence or in the future? Because I see Judith saying hi to Negan. I already know what happens to Negan in the comics after the war so its interesting to see how the war plays out in the end.

• Unanswered questions?
  Why did the writers put Siddiq in this show? Does he play a bigger part? Is he a spy?
  Is the scene where Rick grows a long white beard a dream sequence or a glimpse of the ending of the show?
  Will the people of Oceanside help Rick in the war?
  Speaking of which what will happen to Michael and the girl since he accidentally killed an important member of Oceanside if you remember watching S08E08 "How It's Gotta Be"?
  MOST IMPORTANTLY...What is that helicopter that Rick was chasing at the end of S08E05 "The Big Scary U"?

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Non-Spoilers (Conclusion)

This is a slow episode. If you expect a lot of things to happen in this episode then you are going to be disappointed. If you expect a TON of action like in S08E04 "Some Guy" and/or S08E08 "How It's Gotta Be" then you are ALSO going to be disappointed. There is plenty of action don't get me wrong but it is about a third of this episode. There are no twists and turns that I was hoping except the very ending that threw me off a bit...just a bit. There was one shocking moment in this episode that I can remember after watching it but it wasn't very shocking. This episode is meant to focus just on emotion/tragedy and if you don't mind it taking up 75% of the episode then you will definitely enjoy but for me I can only withstand it if I was watching a more realistic show like Breaking Bad because Breaking Bad is tied closer to reality where we can relate and understand it better. Still "Honor" is a fitting title to this episode since it focuses a lot on emotion/tragedy.
For me I am not into the weepy/sad stuff and past, especially if it takes up majority of the episode and especially since we see SO MUCH of it over the past 7 seasons but for what just happened it would be too harsh for me to downgrade it.

My Grading Rubric:

This picture grade means that it is simply AMAZING. It shows that the replay is high and makes you want to watch it again and again. It also means that the show excel in every bit with drama/story/plot-progression/build-up while leaving you excited for the next episode. The two-thumbs-up ALSO proves that it is highly memorable one.

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This picture grade means that its GREAT if not amazing. It means that it while it is not perfect it still has more strengths than weaknesses meaning that some parts are slow/boring while the rest is exciting or it gives plenty of thrills but overall generic. Even though it is not a two-thumbs-up the show can still be very memorable after watching the whole entire season.

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This picture grade shows at it is just MEDIOCRE at best. There is plenty of good parts that make this show still enjoyable to watch. Replay is low and after watching it once you don't feel like watching it all over again unless you a HARDCORE fan and/or if you just skim through it to watch a few scenes.

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This simply means that it is CRAP. It also means that for an amount of time you spend watching a movie/episode is also the amount of time you are never going to get back. I can simply have another picture that is two-thumbs-down to prove that it is dog shit but this picture grade shows that it is horrible and you want to avoid it at all costs.

My Grade For This Episode:

If you guys enjoyed reading this check out my other previous episode reviews of The Walking Dead:

S08E01 "Mercy"
S08E02 "The Damned"
S08E03 "Monsters"
S08E04 "Some Guy"
S08E05 "The Big Scary U"
S08E06 "The King, the Widow, and Rick"
S08E07 "Time For After"
S08E08 "How It's Gotta Be"