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9 thoughts on “558 – Cotton Clad Calamity”

  1. Raznaak

    Yup, he’s a bastard XD

  2. Dr. Norman (not a real doctor)

    Are those pajamas available in XXXL in the gift shop?

  3. Otaku

    It’s been a while, so let me ask: Did we get a reason for him to WANT Susie dead? Not to backseat, but if we didn’t, I’m worried were about to move into “Stupid Evil” territory. Now, stupid happens, don’t get me wrong. It’s not bad storytelling for that to be the case here.

    You’ve just done a good job NOT having that be a driving factor, so the “Kill off the stars of my successful reality TV show.” seems shortsighted, otherwise. Oh, I guess I could be mistaken about the in-story reality TV show’s success. Like, if the company behind them is losing money, or they think a change in management at the ranch would make the whole thing more popular/profitable, then I can see the above scenario happening as well.

    I REALLY think I’m just forgetting something important, but that I don’t have time to deep dive to remind me of, hence the comment. >_<

    1. Deoxy

      It certainly has been stretched out over quite a while, but there have definitely been hints from quite near the beginning that whoever is running the reality TV show definitely wants her dead.

      But I certainly don’t recall any reason why.

      1. Clint

        Yeah it’s fair to not remember since it’s been a hot minute (many, many minutes) but if you feel like a refresher the most relevant bits would be the beginning of Episode 8 and the end of Episode 15. We haven’t explicitly spelled out exactly what The Exec means by his “side hustle” or who was on the other end of that phone call, though.

        I’m hoping that when the whole thing is eventually available it will make sense, or at least enough sense to have hung this narrative on.

        1. Otaku

          Thanks for the replies, Deoxy and Clint. Yeah, I’d totally forgotten about those things. Good to know!

  4. Evervigilant

    Seems about time for the two people who aren’t there to make a surprise entrance as the ace Susie didn’t even know she had.

  5. Scarsdale

    There’s still 3-5 people on her side that might be planning something. This guy is a megalomaniac with a god complex, so letting him think he’s the sharpest tool in the shed sets him up for a fall. Everything depends on those cameras, and I suspect their little stop over by the charging coffins had something to do with her actual plan, not the one the a-hole thinks it is.

  6. lyra

    Really enjoyed the opening of Zombie Ranch. I like the combination of the western setting with the zombie concept, it gives the story a really distinctive atmosphere. I’m a freelance illustrator and animator, and I’d be interested in seeing how some of these scenes could translate into motion, especially as a short animated teaser or character scene.

    If you’re ever interested in something like that, you can reach me here:

    IG: eve_verse_
    Email: [contact.lilaclines@gmail.com](mailto:contact.lilaclines@gmail.com)
    Discord: Lyralilac_

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558 – Cotton Clad Calamity
Posted on August 26, 2026 by Dawn

What would you call this? Armchair assassination? Merk-from-home?

Well, Suzie ain't dead (or undead) quite yet, so we'll just have to see if his gloating is justifiable.

How far can you push?

Posted on April 6, 2016 by Clint

So before we get started, let’s get a couple of disclaimers out of the way. One, if you’re not caught up on AMC’s The Walking Dead through its current season finale, I suppose I’ll be spoiling something. Or… not spoiling something? That uncertainty ties in with my second disclaimer, which is that I haven’t been following TWD since about midway through its second season. It also ties in with how the show is only on my radar again right now by proxy, because my social media exploded with fans upset by the end of Sunday’s season finale to the point of declaring they’ve had enough and they’re bailing out.

Speaking of bailing out, that should all have been vague enough that you’ve had time to hit the back button or otherwise click away if you’re a slowpoke fan operating on a “news blackout” basis.

Okay, so the context on this is everything, and the context is apparently that for several months the PR for the show has centered around the debut of a new villain named Negan and that by season’s end he would be killing off one of the primary protagonists of the series. These events had already been depicted in the comics, but the showrunners have made several major deviations from the comics so there was still some suspense on whether it would be the same victim and circumstances. Lots of hype. Nerdist even had a speculative lead-up video which ended with their declaration of a giveaway contest based on people who called in to them with the right answer. I presume they’re now feeling a bit embarrassed that they won’t be giving away that Rick figure for several months. Why? Well, this is how the episode ended.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZvlEXEyjkk

Oof.

I don’t even really have a dog in this hunt, so to speak, but that does seem like a fascinatingly awful way to give your faithful audience the “reward” of waiting all over again for the promise of seeing something you already promised them back when the season began. Also like I said, I haven’t watched in years but it seemed like TWD never deviated much from the naturalistic camera style it established back when it began. This sudden breaking of the fourth wall, POV, blood on the lens stuff hearkens more to The Evil Dead than The Walking Dead, does it not? More than one reviewer has also snarkily remarked on the sense that by framing it this way it’s the audience that feels like they’re being bludgeoned into oblivion.

Yet on the other hand, when all’s said and done how many of the people claiming right now to be abandoning the series will be back at their televisions in October? And for all the fans who were deeply, vocally upset, there are many others who are taking it in stride or even supporting the decision. Word has it TWD has already pulled shenanigans on this level or close to it in the past and the ratings haven’t dipped as a result, so I’m guessing the showrunners are just as confident this won’t hurt, either.

Although… man, the way they did it is still very weird. Maybe it’s a test to see if the audience will accept things getting a bit stranger in presentation? I myself have played around with that. I’m still debating if and how I might eventually bring in the idea of a flashback sequence that’s not a “recorded earlier” scenario. After six seasons of a more-or-less naturalistic shooting style, do they want to shake things up a bit and change–if not the story itself–the scope of techniques they use to tell it? Is that laudably ambitious, or just jarring?

Or as the most vocal quitter talk goes, was it the last straw in a long spiral of declining writing and cynical, ratings-driven manipulation? Could some sort of derailment have even happened behind the scenes, where they really did plan to kill someone off (like Daryl Dixon as Nerdist speculated) but then at the last minute–just as rampant unfounded speculation–the orders come down from on high that “You can’t kill off Daryl Dixon, we have way too much Daryl Dixon merchandise to sell!” Or on a similar but less monetary note, “You can’t kill off Michonne or we’ll spend our entire break dealing with the social media fallout of killing a black woman. Also we just recently released her video game tie-in.” (Okay, so I guess that one came back to money again.) Did that leave them scrambling because now they had to figure out a different victim whose death wouldn’t derail future plans, so they just decided to postpone the decision while still fulfilling their season-long promise in a purely technical manner?

Point is this whole debacle has me interested as a writer because I’m as curious about the reasonings and reasons behind it as I am about if it will actually have any effect on whether people keep watching. Will it be looked back to down the road as the proverbial Jump the Shark moment? Has that moment already happened and this is just one more twitching symptom of decline? Or will all be forgiven once season seven shambles on in this October?

I presume at least some of you reading this are still current fans, or maybe even more specifically you’re one of the fans who just hit the breaking point. Any thoughts?