The Spoiler's Review

!!SPOILER ALERT -- LISTEN TO THE PODCAST BEFORE YOU COME HERE!!

What! An early post?! Yeah, I may be out towards the end of the week due to the holiday so I'm making sure this gets out now. Plus I want to share all the stuff I found. Although this is was a short episode, it was one helluva cliffhanger. I think it just start to hit me how close the finale really is. I'm not prepared for this. Not yet.

Chapter 23.2 - Idle Minds

With a heavy sigh of relief, I listened to Saul describe what was left of the Arena. Tardust’s calculations were correct. The remaining tanker bombs only took out part of the building but it caused enough damage for the surviving creatures to abandon it. I’m amazed that Saul was able to make it there alone without running into a huge wave of uglies on the road. I consulted the WA map in search of an answer.

The Arena is NE of the Tower. SW of the Tower is the place we know as Ground Zero, aka Inglewood, and just West of that is LAX. It’s never said where Cain Hospital is located but if the creatures are passing through the Tower area, it’s quite possible the Arena horde is moving toward Ground Zero. There’s not enough evidence to prove it, but it lines up a possibility.

Still if there’s some truth in my suspicions and they are moving SW as Saul travels NE, I’d have expected them to bump into each other at some point along the way. Anywho, Saul finds the truck Lizzy was held in along with her bag and tape recorder. I totally forgot she had that thing. Burt’s voice cracks on the radio and like a concerned dad, he begs Saul to answer him. After a few moments of silent thought he turns the radio off.

I really can’t blame Saul for taking matters into his own hands. His one and only purpose for leaving the Tower was to find Lizzy. Michael ordered them to take a detour to scope out the helicopter. Imagine losing something precious to you and having other people delay the search to handle a secondary objective. I remember a long time ago when my dogs escaped from the yard in the middle of the night. When I discovered it the next morning, I was ready to steal mom’s car to go look for them. I didn’t care about the consequences or what anyone had to say, I just wanted my babies back. Saul’s situation is no different. He came out here to find Lizzy and only Lizzy. Upon hearing the others talk about delaying the search even longer to get the other chopper, Saul did what he had to do and went on his own.

Saul, I’m right here with you Bro.

It turns out Lizzy recorded her adventures on the tape when the Maller boys weren’t looking. GOLD STAR! Lizzy, you are awesome. Yes you are. From this point on Writing goes all out to squeeze out those tears. KC rips out our hearts and feeds it to the undead hoards walking the earth. Blaire Byhower, yet again, beautifully acts out another emotionally driven scene. Her acting is so full of pathos that you just fall in love with Lizzy right along with Saul. She is the perfect actress for the perfect part. Blaire and Nate Geez make their characters sound so damn cute together that the audience continuously SCREAMS for them to be reunited.

We listen to the aftermath after the explosion at the Arena on tape. As expected, the Mallers kicked an anthill and caused the Uglies to swarm. We hear a gun battle and the sounds of Bricks (?) struggling to free Lizzy from the overturned truck as Tardust and Scratch (yay!) and party hold off the creature’s advancement. (Anyone else surprised she let Lizzy be rescued? Just what are her plans?)

“Tell Saul I love him!”

Excuse me, I need a tissue.

The tape continues to play as Saul reacts to what he just heard. We hear the sounds of a large truck speeding away. The creatures appear to stop near the overturned truck to watch them flee. Then we hear something else of interest:

@6:23 – “Move..ahe~*GROWL.*”
@6:29 – “Move.”

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard these creatures speak real words. Suit Zombie spoke in Chapter 11 to fool Michael and party at the Tower. However, we don’t know if this actually is Suit Zombie talking. Remember, we left him on the road at the ambush site with the Little Ones? So this has to be a different Smart Zombie speaking. We know it’s smart because it’s giving orders, therefore we can say that Suit Zombie is not alone in his rank. There are others, others with power.

LOOKIE AT WHAT I FOUND

A subtle nod to our nations soldiers.

The story cuts to Cain Hospital where Riley and Burt are lost looking for Angel and Kalani. Somehow no one knows where they are. I know for a fact that everything hospitals have to be clearly labeled. There are directories by every elevator and main entrance and emergency escape plans all over the place. Even if the hospitals are jammed packed with people after a disaster, there are signs swinging from the ceilings and placards pasted to the walls pointing everywhere.

Eventually the four meet up and decide heading up to the chopper is the only option. This would present a problem since directions the helipad aren’t common knowledge in hospitals, especially to non-employees. And with the power out, that makes it even more difficult. Instead of moving their asses, they bicker as fear starts to set in. The creatures catch up with them forcing them to run into an On-Call Room and barricade the door.

They spend a few minutes running around the room like chickens with their heads cut off. They’re so disorganized that I start thinking “WWMD?” (what would Michael do?) Oh! I know! He would USE RILEY’S ALCOHOL TO REPEL THE CREATURES! If you don’t know why by now, refer to Chapter 5.

Angel comes up with a plan to tie bed sheets together to make a rope and climb out the window. Smart thinking. I noticed Riley isn’t a fan of heights. She avoided going on the sweat jar mission in Season 1, she freaked out when they had to climb down to the fire truck, and now this. When it comes to heights Riley goes GIRLY!

No one’s eager to drop out the window with a sheet but no one else has a better idea. Angel sends Riley out first, which is the best idea. Kalani goes next to “test the weight limit” but really it’s just to get the hell out of there. For some reason this scene reminds me of an I Love Lucy episode:

PLAY FROM 3:15 ON

The sheets rip and there’s nothing they guys can use to climb down. Burt chucks a radio down to Riley and Kalani then tells them to go ahead without them. Angel’s not ready to give up so quickly and I was just about to give him points until he 180’d back into the same selfish Angel he was during the fire. The man has learned NOTHING. So much for that bonding he and Kalani did at the base. All that brotherhood went straight out the window… literally.

Burt, however, has matured. I think this is a sign that Burt’s completed his transition. The older man calmly explains his reasons for letting the “fat one” go first. He gives the radio to Angel so he can have one of the hardest conversations of his life. He tells Riley to leave them, even shouting at her, but she stubbornly refuses. He uses her own hurtful words against her and you can almost hear her heart break over the radio. Maybe this will be enough to take all that bitchiness out of her.

Oh Shane, you made this part sound so sweet. It’s moments like this that make me feel sorry for Angel. If there were more of them in the story I’d forgive him more often for the times when he’s being a douche. But then, he wouldn’t be Angel.

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