...I Lose Myself

I understand that this is fiction...it's about zombies for Christ sake...But there is so much inconsistency, so many bad decisions by the characters and so much of...well... Morgan...This show, continuously insults our intelligence...and it's getting tiresome...They have to do something about the dialogues and the dexisit making or there is no future... I shall remain hopeful for one more season...

The group pickup an unconscious Al in the city where she discovers a tape from Martha to Morgan. In the video, Martha tells Morgan that she's disappointed in him and vows to make him strong. Morgan decides to help her despite John telling him that she's a lost cause. He meets her at a mile marker where she started her vendetta and drags her to a car before killing Jim's corpse. June, at the truck stop with the group, tells him on radio that everyone is sick and Martha causes the car to crash. She reveals her walker bite from Jim saying he must either kill her or she will kill him. She snidely reveals that she poured antifreeze in the water. Morgan suddenly loses it and starts choking her in anger before stopping himself. He handcuffs Martha to the car and hobbles away.

At the truck stop, the group slowly succumbs to the poison until Morgan gets into radio contact with them and June tells them alcohol will dilute the effect of the antifreeze. Morgan arrives with Jim's beer in a truck and the group is cured. The next day, Morgan puts a reanimated Martha down and after reading Clayton's journal, Morgan decides they're going to continue helping people where they are at.

After "No One's Gone," Fear's course correction was itself in need of a course correction. But by introducing a new villain in Martha, the show instead went all in on Morgan's quixotic efforts to save her. Lennie James is certainly up to the task, making Morgan's inner turmoil believable. In the end, though, the finale's script, penned by Chambliss and Goldberg, isn't quite up to the task of sewing up this season in a way that feels true to Fear. Without Nick and Madison, "...I Lose Myself" is a grim reminder not of Morgan's personal struggles, but of the show's struggle with itself in the absence of two main characters.

And if it seems as though I'm dancing around discussing the finale itself, it's because I am. Aside from strong performances from James, Pinkins, and Maggie Grace, there isn't much I liked about this season ender. Just like last week's "I Lose People...," numerous plot contrivances plague this episode. In an unintentionally meta moment early on in "...I Lose Myself," Althea reacts to a moment of dumb luck by exclaiming, "You've gotta be shi**ing me!"

The episode only goes downhill after that - and not even John Dorie pitching some serious woo with June can save it. The crux of "...I Lose Myself," and indeed the crux of season 4B, is the notion of helping fellow survivors. It's a noble thought, this idea that by saving others, we ultimately save ourselves. This becomes a bit harder to believe, though, when the very person Morgan has endeavored to save has poisoned his friends with antifreeze. In dealing with this unexpected conundrum, Morgan is faced with a watered down version of an ethical dilemma known as the "trolley problem" in which saving one life is pitted against the saving of many lives. However, what should be a moral quandary is just a head-scratching exercise in futility. Why save someone who doesn't want to be helped if it means risking the lives of survivors who actually want and need help?

As for everyone back at the truck stop, it's here that the finale completely loses its way. Poisoning nearly every character is one thing - but there's nothing dramatic or engaging about multiple shots of the group slumped over in chairs or on the floor. Alicia certainly deserves better than this, especially after Debnam-Carey's career-defining performance in the far superior "Close Your Eyes." As luck would have it, June knows that ethanol cures antifreeze poisoning. Luckier still, there's a whole tanker of the stuff at this very rest stop. With this news, the group, which just moments before was on death's door, suddenly finds the wherewithal to kick some serious zombie ass.

But this turn of events begs several questions: Why does the group choose to go out the front door, through the thickest part of the horde? Doesn't this place have a back door? And just because the tanker gets shot up doesn't mean the ethanol is now somehow useless - right? Can't the group use what's gushing out of the bullet holes? Isn't this essentially ethanol on tap? The final nail in the episode's coffin is Morgan showing up to save the day. As if Luciana granting a dying man's wish with one beer weren't corny enough, Morgan drives up in an Auggie's Ales truck. Please, enough of Jim. Enough with the beer. Enough with this mawkish sentimentality. None of this changes the fact that Jim was an unapologetic j*rk who cared more about himself than anyone else. In the end, Fear banks heavily on the group going forth into the world to help others. On paper, this is very much the sort of optimism so many of us need right now. But in its execution, this desire to write off Alexandria in favor of helping local survivors feels more like an ending than it does a new beginning. In other words, "...I Lose Myself" feels less like a season finale than it does a series finale. Were the latter true, I'd be more at peace in writing this show off. Because in its current state, this isn't the Fear I once eagerly championed. For all intents and purposes, that show is dead.

What an explosive and eventful season finale! I consider myself a fan of season 4 and I enjoyed this final ride as much as I've enjoyed the previous chapters.

I think the viewers really need to appreciate this new band of brothers, this amazing group: Every single one is likeable and even sketchy Wendell and Sarah are now two of my favorites. June's hopeful character developed so well and John Dorie is always a delight to watch, his actor is amazing! Althea finds herself in a predicament this episode and her survival-skills are stunning. It's entertaining to watch her fighting off walkers in the city! Her character is also a breath of fresh air in this franchise. I might get hate for this, but I've never liked or loved FTWD's core group. Sometimes they all felt shady and selfish and some decisions were just plain awful. In season 3, however, a lot changed and in season 4 almost everything changed - for many viewers it changed in a very bad way... I enjoy it throughout!

What I liked about this episode: The group is TOGETHER. I remember how I cheered up when the group came to rescue Momo in the previous episode. I had the same good feeling while watching the finale. The group-action in TWD and FTWD is always good and fun to watch. Though I'm a fan of well-done bottled episodes, I enjoy the "we-are-in-this-together"-episodes most. I also enjoyed the direction of the Virginia-story and I think the majority will love it as well!

What I didn't like about this episode: It's way too short. Some scenes felt a bit rushed, though the pace alltogether was entertaining. What bugged me during season 4b: Martha. I liked her back-story, but her character as a villain is sketchy, weird and not believeable. But I think people will enjoy her storyline in this season finale.

Let's see what season 5 will bring to the table.

So despite all the negative comments, I really enjoyed this season. Thought it was great seeing the older characters develop & grow. Was great initially watching Strand as a changed character but was so gutted when he reverted back to being an @rse! Love the new characters June & Al. Goes without saying love Morgan!

Updated after watching the episode.

I'm still having trouble believing that the script ISN'T written as an experiment in how stupid you can make plot points and get away with it. The ethanol tanker, cos that stuff was in big demand and tankers of it were all over the place just before the zombie apocalypse, yep, anyway...., hey look, there's one outside and they need to drink some of it cos it cures anti freeze, but it gets shot up,... and then there was none, hang on.??? like not even some in the bottom of the barrel?, or a last drip or 3 of it coming out the holes they could get with their bucket, or like puddles of it they could scoop up from the big tanker that spilled it's content onto the ground. Seriously, no seriously, could the 5 year old children who write this script not come up with a better reason for the ethanol run to fail than it poured onto the ground and becoming invisible? Here's one, it got set on fire, there you go, problem solved, and a nice special effect stunt to make it exciting. Honestly all of us apart from the '10/10, best-episode-ever!!!, 'please-don't-make-me-lose-my-job-by-getting-my-show-cancelled' bots' feel we could write a better show than the handful of people actually hired to write the show.

The rest was the normal (for this show) children's preschool level story telling, grunted in caveman level explanations. Morgan need to show he 'does what he says', Morgan tells everyone, "he does what he say", Morgan do what he say!!! everyone laughs 'ha ha, ha ha'. It really is that simplistic. And the moral of the story, beer cures everything, let's all have a happy beer, even the kid, but just this once,

Now there's a mysterious Denim factory we've not heard anything about before the last 5 mins?

This season started out well with ep 1, then 3 ok episodes, then a really good episode in ep 5 - 'Laura', the John Dorie focused one, then, a bunch of rubbish ones and one other decent one in ep 11, but only just decent. That's a pretty poor result for series 4 but still better than the last 2 series.

The actors are good, the production values, sound, and camera are good. The stories are terrible, and the writing is beyond bad, It's intelligence insulting nonsensical preschool basic rubbish. This show could be good. hire me, or anyone on this board apart from the drones you're already paying to put up good reviews.

Check it out. 5 glowing reviews of this episode almost before it even aired. How does that happen? I'm guessing these are staff writers, or maybe even the actual program script writers who put so little effort in on the actual show they had enough time to come on here and put in a little job security effort to try and get a dying show that lost its way and is all over the place, renewed for a 6th season. Good luck to you team. Hopefully the $20 you invested in this campaign of hype pays off and you all get gainful employment for another year. But, back to the show. I'll fill in the detail as soon as I see it.