I don't know what pipe you guys are puffin on but I gave this episode a 9.

This episode was a lot of fun. I love Tara's sense of humor. Her new calling card is flipping the bird at people that tick her off.

Tara creeping through the community and then evading attack was T-E-N-S-E. They totally had me believing that Heath had been killed. Can't wait to find out what happened to Heath. He's growing on me. I want him to be as important in the TV show as he was/is in the comic. If Corey Hawkins can't work on Walking Dead anymore because he's too busy, then they should recast him.

Speaking of growing on me, I had forgotten how much I loved Tara and why. This episode definitely reminded me of that.

But it also had some really dark moments that illuminated Negan as one of the best TV villains in decades. Killing 2-3 generations of men so as to squash any sort of rebellion? That's disgustingly efficient.

Also, xenophobia has never been so heartrendingly understandable. I'm a little relieved that Oceanside is xenophobic instead of misandrist/anti-male. I really appreciated the homage to the Amazons.

The reason why I didn't give it a 10 is because of the end. I didn't like how they danced around Tara's initial reaction to finding out that the Saviors have taken over and that Denise, Abraham and Glenn are dead.

 

My issue with this episode is not the story itself (Tara being lost, finding another group, who is afraid of the saviors). True it should have been much shorter and who cares about Heath.

My issue was the incredible bad acting. Sending two of the worst actors of this show (Tara + Heath) scavenging was a stupid idea, but to make it worse the group they found was full of bad actors as well....

... only the last scene with Rosita (solid acting) gave back a little of the walking dead feeling.

This was even below "Fear the walking dead".... totally bullshit. Gave it a "1" being generous.

 

1.

What a waste of time. "End of the bench" characters. Same old themes. Tara learning crap we went over several episodes ago. Awful writing. Heath is missing; probably will not be resolved for at least another half season

Ratings should look ugly this episode and next.

 

You should overthink your opinion. There are not millions of ghost drivers - it might be you who is just wrong here.

I don't need more kill or more action, usually I like the character episode, but the story was thin and the acting was soooo bad. Lets just hope Tara finds an end in this show soon. She got more than she deserved with this episode... let her die.

 

Only people who don't enjoy the character of Tara could rate it this low and comment like some of you did.

Her sense of humor and her good heart are unmatched, and she probably comes closest to every single one of you, because she is normal. She hasn't become a monster like many of the others, she is still true to herself - and true to any real person out there.

I love how each character has become important and gets their well deserved screen time. An episode about Tara's own adventure - how awesome! And the interaction between her and Heath, and her and the new characters we met - loved it. No other episode has ever made me feel like this could be really something that could actually happen - there was a flair of realism in all of it that we have not seen before, and it made me feel like I was there myself. Great directing and camera work, by the way!

10/10

Edit - Favorite moment: Tara realizes the two women were not going to come back to Alexandria with her but had been ordered to execute her in the woods, then runs for her life.

 

I agree with this post and also gave it a 7. Another post claims this is a filler episode but I would disagree and call it more a padded episode. I suspect it is laying some groundwork for later stuff but was longer than I thought it needed to be.

 

So odd to see the reactions -- this is the first episode this season that I mostly enjoyed and, from the second episode forward, did not find mostly boring.
Usually I can't stand Tara and I don't like how whiny and negative Heath usually is. The particular episode finally had some action in it instead of all the blah-blah-blah, interspersed with some occasional bursts of action. The "reveal" that the origins of Oceanside are Negan's mass murder of all the men and boys above the age of 10 gives some additional depth to the depravity and evil of Negan and his men. It was interesting that an entire community of women and children could escape from them -- meaning maybe escape and abandonment of Alexandria is something to be considered. After all, since they're not growing any food or raising any animals, or - absent a miracle - they're going to be in deep trouble when Negan's men come back.

On the Talking Dead, they said the writer of the episode was not the TWD writer crew, but a screen-writer picked up Gimple to write it.

 

This is the lowest I've rated an episode of TWD, but I have to give it a 2 this time. I'm confident now Gimple can do worse, so have to leave some room at the bottom. It was so bad that it's not even worth picking apart.

 

I gave it a 5. And that's being too generous in all honesty. It was wayyyy to drug out. Why 70 minutes? I would have like to seen the first 30 minutes of them finding the community, and the next 30 minutes of Tara getting back to Alexandria and seeing what conspired there. I'm gonna be honest. I can't tell you much of what happened this episode cause I didn't pay a whole lot of attention. It was that boring.

 

Addendum:

Okay... :zombies_rolleyes:

Do I need to remind you (and everyone else who has made similar statements) of the Daryl episode? If you count "lack of progress, because nothing much happened" as a criteria, then that one was definitely your episode to criticize, not "Swear". However, I keep wondering how some people seem to have no understanding whatsoever for development that happens within a character (in their head, not by words or actions) or the emotions they go through (often provided by less dialogue and subtle acting instead) - declaring either episode (The Cell or Swear) "boring" with "hardly progressing the story" is insane. In fact, such episodes are rare gems in today's television diet of meaningless junk food.

This.

 

I thought it was great! 8/10 for me.
I'm really glad we got a Tara-centric episode, she's one of my favourite characters and she pulled it off wonderfully! Great cast, I enjoyed the entire community of women fighters and they weren't one-note-wonders. Good episode!

 

[MENTION=8031]Jen7[/MENTION] [MENTION=6095]Emdier[/MENTION] [MENTION=103371]BlackLightning[/MENTION] thank you for your posts, you guys have given me food for thought and a reason to re-watch the episode this evening.

I did not like that I did not like the episode after my initial viewing
[MENTION=5347]Zvivor[/MENTION] the writer for this episode also wrote Chupacabra (205) and Triggerfinger (209). Just so happens that Triggerfinger is one of those episodes I will skip when re-watching on blu ray. The writer appears to have been involved in a great deal of work that included Darabont.

 

I love Tara and I was missing her, so I'll still give this episode a 6/10 mainly for having her in it. The all women camp was interesting, but the episode didn't do much for me overall. It wasn't terrible, but it felt unnecessary especially when the show is already juggling four stories.

The big difference between The Cell and Swear is The Cell felt like it had more purpose with how it connected with the season as a whole. In The Cell we see Negan trying to break Daryl. We learn more about how Negan and his people live/work and we have a better understanding of why they are the way they are. To each their own, but I felt like the events in Swear weren't important or exciting enough to focus on for an entire episode. I wouldn't call it boring, but I thought it was somewhat pointless and a bit offtrack. If someone would've passed me a slice of pizza during my Thanksgiving meal, I just wouldn't want it at that time. Not bad, just unnecessary and a bit unwelcome at the moment. I think it would've made a nice 15-20 min internet episode tho.

 

5. Not bad, but also not good. I'm glad Heath is back, but I'm disappointed his fate was left hanging like that. And by the looks of some sources, it looks like we might not find out about his status this season... I am also on the boat of liking Tara, but not feeling she warranted a bottle episode. Two keypoints from this episode that are crucial for the plot:

- We know the Saviors are the ones who caused havoc in Oceanside and killed the men.
- A new community that also has conflict with the Saviors, means a possible new ally for Alexandria.

 

I think they will turn out to be very important in the near future.

True, the information gathered on the Oceanside camp could have been put into a short 15-20 minutes, as you state, but then we would have missed out on the development of a new friendship bond (between Tara and Cindie), on some of the new characters that will likely turn out to be important to the show (Cindie, the Oceanside leader, the girl Rachel), and on personality stuff about Tara (and also about Heath, who surprised me as I didn't expect to see him turn around and try to come to Tara's rescue after his previous speech in the trailer).

 

I gave it an 8.

I admit that I loved this episode b/c it had my girl in it. But I can certainly understand those who felt like it diluted narrative drive (to the extent the show has had any this season) and that it could have been one of a trio or quartet of stories that brought all the characters up to speed. I do, however, think this community is going to join up w/ our gang (not to be confused with Our Gang, most of whom are dead and hey, wouldn't Spanky make an adorable zombie?) for AOW, the pay-off of which will hopefully be of the hugantic. (I'd also like to see Tara and Cindy, um, re-engage.)

Moments of Poignancy and Lust:

**"I have a girl-friend I want to get back to!"

**Tara finding the bobble-head doctor doll...

**Eugene's face telling Tara (almost) everything she had to know. I thought Josh and Alanna both did a great job, the latter especially as her face transitioned from relative light-heartedness at seeing her friend to realizing that something was wrong to realizing that something was heart-breaking. I would have liked more from that scene (and the one with Rosita) at the expense of some of TWD's ubiquitous loooooong camera shots of people looking/waiting/wondering.

**Tara, on the beach, in a wet shirt, with dark wet hair falling about her face.

ETA: Hey [MENTION=115461]DocCovington[/MENTION], welcome and LOVE the avi!

 

Yeah, fair enough. I'll probably feel differently in the near future. I think I have more problems with the pacing than anything else sometimes. I usually need to re-watch, because my expectations can take away from an episode I didn't want at the moment. I already just read a couple subtle things I missed...

 

Might I add that Alanna had DELICIOUS legs on Talking Dead also?

 

Meh. It's about what I have come to expect this season.

I'm not really into the dedication of an entire episode to a single character thing. It seems like the writers are now pretending each episode is a comic book.

 

My frustration with this season as well.