Chapter 43-1 The Darkness Ahead

[MrRedBeard]

Friggin! Cabbage Patch nice one. Also anyone recognize the subtitle from this episode? If not there's a surprise in this week's episode of the We're Alive Fancast.

[TacticalJHP]

Did Scratch get the radio from the jail? Several of us have noticed Latch & Scratch seemed to move around with impunity.

I think you mean Scratch and Tardust. Unless you are talking about the ghost of her dead brother, then yes...he can move around with impunity.

You guys are reading too much into the narration. So what, I should think that Scratch is gonna eventually join the group because none of our heroes witnessed her scene with Tar?

I'm starting to wonder if Tardust eventually does not join up with one of the groups, especially since he seems disillusioned with Scratch and "Just wants it to be done."

He should not, though. He should be shot on sight.

But i'm kind of a harsh person like that.

Splitting the party:
Usually a bad plan. Especially since now we know that Scratch has been staking out the Colony since the Mallers fled and is waiting for an opportunity. Once the numbers advantage is gone, she's got her opening. But CJ's got a point. Without the resources to sustain a large group, they're better off splitting off into more manageable groups. Plus from a story standpoint it makes sense. It's time to focus in on the main cast for the final stretch and sending off all the extra people is a good way to get our core group all together and on the same page.

Splitting the party:
Why did the Colonists extend the Colony-territory based on CJ's plans in the first place? Were they ambitious enough to believe that they could stay there like forever? And did the resource-issue occur during the last weaks? Or did CJ have things in mind for quite a while already, but she let people work in order to keep them busy instead of worrying?

Splitting up the group? I had a feeling it would happen. Either voluntarily due to resources or involuntarily due to the Colony being overrun. Like others said in earlier posts in this thread, it will let us focus on the key players. The question in my mind on this topic is: do any of the groups make it away so that Michael & Co can get away from bad old LA when it's all done.

Ok, this is a horrible idea. Strength in numbers. Bigger talent pool, more people for more tasks, more options for survival.

CJ has a moving plan. OK, GREAT! At least that whine-fest a few chapters back was actually productive. Does not mean it is a good one. Maybe she should have brought a few of the other colony in on the plan.

If they are going to evac to another location, they need to take the time and think out which location will be:
1: a secure area
2: in an area with untapped resources
3: in an area where an adequate water supply exists:
4: in an area where food will be plentiful, both game and grow
5: large enough to support the entire population
6: where the enemy is scarce

And all this is assuming that the well cannot be fixed and that is a 'dry hole.' (Pardon the pun) and i think it will be ok, if Datu can work on it without being bothered, and gets more help. (Yay pete!)


And as far as the whole 'Saul is going to die' foreshadowing, Many soon to be fathers in high risk situations go through the same thing.
Does that mean he will die? No. But as a responsible father, and the fact that he could run into Ink and 200 behemoths next episode, he wanted to ask the one person he KNEW could protect his family to do the right thing in case the worst thing happens.

And as Vic pointed out, he really did not need to ask. In that situation, that bond between Vic and Saul, Vic would have stepped up if there had never been one word between the two men. All that conversation did was make Saul feel better. And when Saul feels better, Saul does his duties better because he is not worried about who is going to watch after Lizzy and baby.

[LiamKerrington]

Hi there,

And this is where I gotta criticize The Great One just a bit, regarding Scratch's motivation for still hanging around: okay, so Pegs shot her brother, but would that REALLY have been enough for her to stake her whole life, focus, resources, and manpower, for such an extended period of time, with this one revenge in mind? Hell, Latch's stupid-ass was the one ATTACKING the tower in the first place, so she could just as well placed the blame for his death with him, or maybe Durai for planning the attack. It's been such a long time since Scratch has even seen Pegs, I just don't know how realistic it is that she would still, STILL be hell-bent on coming after her, to the detriment of all else.

Not only that, but why the hell are the rest of the Mallers still in cahoots with her?! THEY didn't have their brother killed by this girl, so I would imagine their motivation for keeping on with Scratch's vendetta to be a whole lot more tenuous, especially after witnessing the fate of many of their comrades who got torched under the direction of Heir Scratch. We know about honor and thieves, so I imagine that most, or all, of them would have cut bait and snuck off one night while Scratch was sleeping...
[/COLOR]

Yes, I totally agree with anything you write here. Here are the explanations I have:
Latch was the only "close" person to Scratch; having lost him was like having lost the last 'beloved' person. Looking at it this way I somehow accept the way Scratch builds her agenda - that is, IF she still bothers about it and her once established goal to go and kill Pegs.
As for Mallers following her: Scratch has two very important skills making her an almost natural leader: 1) she is able to turn words around in your own mouth and deceiving people by putting a lot of pressure on them in order to make them follow her plans; this is what she has done nearly all the time; 2) she is an alpha-personality and does things, which gives people kind of orientieering. There may be a third reason: 3) She was it who rescued the guys from the prison. Final thought: The Mallers are like the Colonists or all the nameless guys from Dunbar or the Tower: they follow, they don't act on their own ... As for Tardust: I think he has a certain catch on Scratch. Not sure why I think so, but maybe he has a certain desire to be dominated by astrong femme fatale.

Best wishes!
Liam

[Graves]

So glad to have the second half of the season going.

I totally expected the story to swing back into the "Scratch Saga" but certainly didn't see the awesome transition we got for it, another moment where I can practically see the scene unfold in my head.

As always when I read predictions I hope everybody is wrong and that those obvious predictions never happen (using the behemoths against Ink, Saul's foreshadowed death, etc) but that said here's my prediction which I'm guessing is going to happen rather soon.

Pete the poor bastard has just slipped on his red shirt and is just waiting to get eaten, so don't get comfortable with him around, methinks he's only going to bring trouble their way (and I don't mean Hope)

[Gooer]

Wow, @Gooer, you're really beating this drum today.

Yea, haha i am i bit aren't I.....

[Gooer]

Cool episode for a "non-action" one.

We learn that even Ink is afraid of the Behemoths, maybe? He seemed to be ok with McKibben Arrow Head in Chap 36 but maybe that was some sort of nervous truce. The way that Michael and Tanya talk about the jail and it's residents makes sense. Ink doesn't want to risk taking the big boys on personally so he'll lock them up and hope they just go away. Methinks we haven't seen the last of them. Whatever lives and escapes from the jail will be an equal opportunity killer...

What i want to know, If Ink is scared of the Behemoths, why did he have two of them in his "army" when he attacked the Colony? While he might of had some sort of trust in arrow head, what about the other one?

[GamerGirl]

Scratch & Tardust not breaking the rules: wouldn't be ironic if scratch has been keeping her own journal this whole time (or started after seeing Lizzy's). It could explain how we get her side of that story arc.

Cover art: I see abstract hands along the edges (especially along the left side 2nd or 3rd down) - but w/ Kc's love of double meanings I really like the crow feathers idea too.

🔮 time: scratch & co attack a group while they are leaving the colony. Michael & co take them down. All the distractions (Pegs, Burt, Riley, CJ ) not in the picture so when scratch falls, she does so with out anyone getting vengeance (showing how much of a waste of time pure vengeance is in this new world. Thus may also give Victor some thing to do that shows he was more than just a salesman.

Side note 1: is anyone else picturing the award silence when Kc was like "you can come back as Pete, but you have to drive Hope around"......

Side note 2: So my 🔮 was broken for the title of the episode (I fell for "There Here"), but I did call Scratch's rerun at the end of this episode

Side note 3: Congrats on v2.0 Nick!

[Cabbage Patch]

I wonder if Scratch and Tardust are hiding out at the same police station that CJ, Victor and Saul used. That would pretty ironic.

If the Locations in the story match the real ones in Westminster, CA, then the Police Station, where Saul, Victor and CJ had eyes on the Colony, and the Sheriff's station, where they hid out, should be inside of the area the Colony expanded in to. So should that garage where they found the Shelby Cobra; I'd love to see that come back into the story somehow.

[Cabbage Patch]

This might be a stupid question, but is there a juvenile detention center in LA? Specifically close to the rest of the action? I keep thinking a hospital would have at least been attempted to be cleared out, but a juvie? Along the same lines as the jail and already captive test subjects.

There are four Juvenile Detention Facilities in LA County, only one of which is in the city limits. That one, Eastlake Juvenile Hall, is a mile or so east of the Twin Towers, on the other side of the 5 Freeway. It looks like another big campus.

The LA Children's Hospital is maybe five miles northwest of the Twin Towers.

[scbubba]

What i want to know, If Ink is scared of the Behemoths, why did he have two of them in his "army" when he attacked the Colony? While he might of had some sort of trust in arrow head, what about the other one?

I'm working off pure memory here but I don't think Ink had more than 1 behemoth in the "general population" and that was Arrow Head. The other behemoth encounters were isolated encounters, IIRC. It was obviously Arrow Head at the Colony in Ch 36 and probably Arrow Head at the Arena way back when. It could have been random Big Boy at the Water Works and then encountered (and put down) by Angel and Kalani (may they rest in peace). The one autopsied by Tanya early in this season was just found dead somewhere. Not necessarily tied to Ink and his crew.

I'm not a 100% sold on Tanya's theory that Ink is afraid of the and is keeping them locked up in hopes that they are too stupid to figure a way out. I'm simply pointing put that we have the seed planted that any and all of Ink's experiments still alive at the Jail may end up turned loose as indiscriminate killing machines. This could level the playing field by eliminating some of Ink's Little Ones or give a common cause to band some number of characters together (e.g., bringing Burt and Riley back in, the infamous Scratch alliance, Pegs in a "Death from Above" role)

Anyway, I don't think we've seen the last of whatever is in there....