Rambling TV: Boardwalk Empire and The Walking Dead recaps + other TV thoughts

Oh man, Sunday was a good night for TV. Boardwalk Empire managed to break my heart several times, but luckily The Walking Dead made me feel a little better. (Didn't expect that after the awful season 4, huh?) Click those gifs to be redirected to their makers.

Boardwalk Empire
While Nucky spent the entire episode moping over Sally's death, getting drunk, fighting, then trying to fuck a few prostitutes, not everyone else was as lucky.

Van Alden and Eli's plan to rob Copone obviously goes wrong. "This was not thought through." Van Alden says at one point. When they're caught, and Capone unexpectedly comes back to his suite early and interrogates them, Van Alden picks the worst possible moment to let his pent up rage out. (Story of his life) as he's choking out Capone, he's met with a bullet to the head. (and loses a good portion of his skull along with it.) Eli confesses that what he was after, and as he and the double agent assigned to kill him walk out, he gives him some cash to catch a bus ticket home. I'm assuming this is the last time we see Chicago. We all know Capone gets nailed on tax evasion in a few years.

That felt kind of rushed, but since the show skipped the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, I'm not surprised. It just sucks to see my favorite character go...again.

Speaking of which, with Van Alden dead, my next favorite character fell to Chalky..LOL, NOPE! He confronts Narcisse about Daughter, and instead of killing him in front of Daughter and her...daughter, Narcisse offers a job to Chalky to help take down Luciano and Lansky. The entire time during this conversation, I'm thinking "that's not how I thought this would go." Apparently the TV read my mind because Narcisses essentially takes Chalky out back and shoots him in one of the most depressing endings since the Season 2 finale. Ugh. That killed me.

This week's flasbacks were Nucky and Mabel's pregnancy, which if you remember him explaining what happened during this to Margaret in Season 1, you know how depressing this is. They also find Gillian at the end of the episode. I was really hoping for a Jimmy flashback during all of this, but since we only have two episodes left, I don't think we're getting it. Young Eli is hilarious, trying to talk to Nucky about messing around with June the first time, then correcting him on his swearing. They did a great job casting these two guys.

The Walking Dead
Okay, let's move on to the show I love to hate, only last night I couldn't really hate anything about it.

Rick and co are still in the train car, trying to cut up pieces of wood to make weapons, prepared to fight their way out, when suddenly they're gassed and Rick, Bob, Daryl, and Glenn are taken to a trough where they will have their throats slit, be butchered, then eaten. Gareth comes in to casually get some counts as Bob tries to beg his way out. He also asks Rick about his gun bag he buried in the woods, Rick tells him how he's going to use a machete with a red handle to kill him. (foreshadowing!) Then there's an explosion...

Earlier, we saw Carol, Ty, and Judith in the woods. They run across another Termite talking over a walkie talkie about Michonne and Carl, they tie the guy up, demand answers, and when he has none, Carol goes in full rambo mode to save her friends at Terminus while Tyreese stays behind with Judith. The man in the cabin keeps telling Ty that since he's a good man, he'll die today. He brow beats Ty for awhile, then eventually lunges at Judith and threatens to kill her unless Ty takes care of the walkers outside the cabin. He does, comes back in and beats the guy up while screaming "I won't." over and over. Tyreese will not kill anyone.

Carol sees Rick and co being dragged into the train car. She disguises herself in walker guts to move along unnoticed, and blows up a gas tank to cause a distraction. She shoots several Termites, and goes through various rooms. She finds Rick's watch and Daryl's crossbow and takes them. She runs into Mary, who tries to explain that the people who ran terminus raped and killed, but they took it back. (Then made the jump to cannibalism? What?) Mary and Carol fight a little, Carol shoots her in the leg, looking for answers. When Mary gives none, Carol opens the door like a BAMF and lets the walkers have her.

This gives Rick time to stab the people guarding them with the wood from the boxcar, he and the other four leave to free everyone else. Glenn says they need to free others because that's still who they are. They shoot at Gareth, who looks like he fakes getting hit, but they escape before the heard moves in.

In the woods, Carol appears as they're digging up the guns, and the group looks happy. Daryl runs to her, picks her up and hugs her and cries. He obviously missed her. Rick asks her if "she did that." when she nods, he embraces her and says "thank you." She leads them to Tyreese and Judith, and tearful reunions take place.

After the credits, we see Morgan of all people is out in the woods too. 

As some of you may know, Rick and and Carol reconciling was big on my list of wants. I hated what season 4 did to their friendship and them hugging without Judith being involved yet was everything. I loved it so much. And Daryl and Carol's hug? That was almost too good to be true. I love them together. Carol and Michonne were even in the same frame for a second, progress! These two ladies need to be in more scenes. I can only hope that the rest of the season is like this. We really should take the time to appreciate that it was Carol who was crucial to their escape. Carol, the once abused house wife who stepped up to help her friends. She's the best.

Other random TV thoughts:
Gotham is still trying to find its footing, though the ending to Monday's episode was intriguing. Speaking of super heroes it looks like Agents of SHIELD finally found its own footing.. This past episode was pretty great. Iain De Caestecker (my personal favorite) really shined. The Big Bang Theory introduced Raj's girlfriend, and of course she is a total bitch to Penny. Because we must always be reminded that Penny is the pretty one and girls hate her.  19 Kids and Counting was such a bore this week, but the internet snark was not. They got their awful "I survived Roe v Wade/I am the generation that will abolish abortion" shirts blurred by TLC. (thank God) Jim Bob and J'Chelle managed to turn a triple date into the creepiest thing ever, AND someone actually did a tally of Jessa and Ben's wedding registries and found out that they are registered for over 30k in goods (including multiple guns, a Mac Book Air, fast food giftcards, and an iPad.) Typical wedding gifts you know. Frugal my ass. J'Chelle also managed to make her daughter's birthday all about her. "I'm taking her on a special trip to ride horses...because I need to conquer MY fear of horses!"