The Walking Dead - 11/17/19 - S10E7 "Open Your Eyes"

Based on the signage, it appears that they had potable water for drinking, and non-potable water that they used for other things. Dante apparently sabotaged the valve at some point so they had all been inadvertently drinking the bad water.

 

Spoiler

I just read an article in Entertainment Weekly (online, not the magazine) where the showrunner explains the twist in this episode. Siddiq sees in his visions that Dante is actually an agent of the Whisperers. This is why Siddiq tries to kill him. I did not get this while watching the episode. Maybe will have to check it out again.

Spoiler

OK, I watched the ending again. Dante makes a clicking noise with his tongue. This causes Siddiq to remember that the whisperer holding him down made the same noise. He realizes Dante is really a whisperer. To help emphasize that, he briefly sees Dante in his whisperer mask in the window reflection. Odd that I never made that connection the first time.

 

So what I makes no sense, at all, is that Dante randomly just starts making that clicking noise out of nowhere, after spending months undercover and not raising a single suspicion. I thought the whole thing was so weird. But what else is weird is that I assumed Dante was part of the community in the background since at least before the Whispers showed up - it kind of makes absolutely no sense that the Whisper war started and then all of a sudden this rando shows up at Alexandria and is immediately trusted with probably the most important job of all. The show has gone out of it's way to play up how big a role paranoia plays in this story line, which makes the whole thing more baffling. I kind of feel like this is another "twist for the sake of a twist" as opposed to a fully thought out, clever development.

I actually appreciated how much time they spent on displaying Siddiq's PTSD - I'm a "wannabe" writer and one of the things i always wish shows did more is show the rammifications of big events over time... Often it's discussed for the next couple of episodes, and then there's never a mentioned of it's impact again. What he witnessed was awful, and changed everything about who he was - they didn't skimp out there. But the whole spy thing...ugh.

I'm likely out after the mid-season finale. I've never watched a show for 10 years and stopped before it was over but at the end of the day, I don't connect to a single character or story thread at this point. And I think I'd stick with it but frankly Alpha is by far the absolute worse cast/acted/written villian in the show's history. I can't feel any of the stakes that I'm supposed to feel because she's just awful. Everyone says she's menacing, but she comes off as a joke... and for that reason, I'm out (hahaha been watching shark tank lately). Negan and The Governor were better crafted and WAY better acted. Alpha and Beta are just not scary. It's sad too because I like the idea of the storyline. Oh well.

I guess I'll tune back in when I hear the big Carol/Alpha showdown finally happened. The only thing I'm looking forward to before I bail is the inevitable moment Carol beats her to death with her bare hands.

 

I had no idea that Dante was revealed to be a spy until I saw the lead in to Talking Dead.

 

What’s confusing me is that a couple episodes ago, Aaron witnessed Gamma contaminating the stream with walker guts. Yet, now it is Dante sabotaging the water supply locally, not Gamma sabotaging the source. Or is it supposed to be a two-stage sabotage, somehow?

And why the hell didn’t Aaron alert anybody? So confusing.

 

I suspect this is exactly what it was. First poison the non-potable water, then trick everyone into drinking it.

Yeah, it made no sense. He sees something that is of the utmost importance for the community, and yet he continues to just hang out with a random whisperer for a couple days instead of going back and telling anyone about it.

Again, this is just bad writing for the sake of advancing the plot.

 

Me too. So much time goes by between seasons that I just figured he was one of the newer characters that was introduced that I didn't remember.

 

I thought it was strange that Lydia had no idea Dante was a Whisper. I guess it is possible. Just seems like she would have been a Whisper at the same time as him.

Thought it was sloppy that Siddiq didn't let someone know that Dante was a Whisper. He has been sick for weeks and weak. He had the opportunity to at least let Rosita know.

 

I thought he only figured it out when he was alone in the room with Dante. Or did I miss something?

From the preview for next week:

Spoiler

Dante is in jail.

 

I got the impression that he didn’t know this until he heard Dante making the clicking noise. Then he had a flashback to a Whisperer (wearing a mask) making the same noise and made the connection.

Edit: sorry for the repetitive post. I think we posted at exactly the same time.

 

well boy do I disagree.

I thought Saddiq's PTSD was a crock of BS. Everything we have come to know about the guy - especially that remembrance speech at the end of whatever season it was - and then they create this PTSD situation to serve the storyline and not the character. Especially now that he has Coco. I have not bought it from the moment it started and now with this episode I can see it was the invention of some dumbass writer in a room...

I also think Samantha Morton is quite brilliant as Alpha.
The absolute worse cast/acted/written villain in the show's history? - - - that award still goes to Negan.

If it also turns out to be true that Saddig figured out the water is bad and DIDN'T tell anyone before Dante killed him. That would just be stupid.

 

Negan ruined the show back when he was introduced. But now, after his rehabilitation, I feel like he's the only thing this show has going for it. Which is not good!

 

Did anyone else have this episode (S10E07) get recorded as Episode 8 on their tivos? It's listed as "S10 E8 Open Your Eyes". My TiVo also didn't record the finale, "The World Before", because it wasn't tagged "New" by the guide.
If I go to "All Episodes", it lists S10 E8 "Open Your Eyes" (New), S10 E7 "Open Your Eyes", S10E8 "The World Before". Is it worth contacting TiVo support, or is that a useless conversation?