Don't Podcast Dead Inside

Meaks and Margot return after our first hiatus (yes we had a few in 2023) to talk season 3, episode 10 “Home” in which we get very excited to unpack the manipulative and abusive relationship that is Daryl and Merle. We also spend a good deal of time discussing Maggie’s processing of the sexual assault and how we finally earn this confrontation where she says her peace to Glenn. Plus, Andrea finally wakes up to the truth about the G...

Margot and Meaks discuss season three episode nine, “The Suicide King” and the dynamics between the Dixon brothers (Margot took so many notes)! We spend quite a bit of time unpacking this complex, abusive relationship and how it’s built, especially because it’s uncommon to see this specific type of abusive relationship between two men. We also have to talk about Glenn’s behavior around Maggie’s sexual assault, cause he makes it all...

Margot and Meaks discuss season three episode eight, “Made to Suffer,” rescue missions, reuniting with ex-girlfriends and brothers, and seeing ghosts! We spend a good chunk of time talking about how Glenn takes over Maggie’s sexual assault storyline and, while that’s a human reaction, it’s obnoxious AF because of how typical it is for men to make women’s stories about themselves. But it’s even more complicated because Asian America...

Margot and Meaks discuss season three, episode seven “When the Dead Come Knocking” and take a long hard look at no one’s favorite topic: sexual assault! We unpack Merle’s true face because we’re kind of relieved we don’t have to pretend he’s someone else anymore when he’s always been a huge, racist, misogynist jackass — the Gov’nah just told him to keep that in check when the community was around. We talk about the devastating tort...

Meaks and Margot discuss episode six of season three, “Hounded” and spend a lot of time talking about how tedious this episode is while having some truly stand-out moments. Those moments help us get through the repetitive phone calls and Andrea stuff we find oh so boring. But we love watching Merle and Michonne face off and see Daryl interact with Carl. 

Other topics and tangents include: Michonne’s walker hieroglyphics, drooling ov...

Margot and Meaks discuss season three episode five, “Say the Word” and that means we’re talking a lot about fatherhood. Rick is losing it and we draw many comparisons to his grief and the Govnah's. Woodbury is just not as interesting to us on this rewatch, but the fighting pits are worth discussion. Andrea ignores all of Michonne’s warnings and also, let’s remember she was a civil rights attorney, so it’s pretty abysmal that s...

Meaks and Margot discuss season three episode four, “Killer Within” with particular attention to how the deaths and disappearances of major characters make us feel (or not). We’re stoked, for instance, that T-Dog got some lines and backstory moments, but it’s a little too late, ain’t it? And lots of Lori and Carl makes us cry.

Other topics and tangents include: are Glenn and Maggie coming?, Carol’s iconic scarf that she’s totally ha...

Margot and Meaks discuss season three, episode three “Walk with Me” and linger oh so lovingly on all the dyke drama while Margot is dying from a coughy-cold and is very jealous at how fast Andrea seems to bounce back from hers (and also encounter every single internet and tech issue we could in one recording session). We finally meet the Gov’nah and we’re in awe of how good he is at conserving ammo (haha). And of course, we get to ...

Meaks and Margot talk about season three, episode two “Sick” and we spend a lot of the episode trying to figure out why it’s called Sick, and we finally figure it out (but like, way late)! We love “team family” and seeing how close they’ve grown, but we’re very tired of being mad at Lori so at least this episode makes it easier to be mad at Rick. We love love love the interactions between Lori and Carol and how much more vital Caro...

Margot and Meaks discuss season three, episode one “Seed,” and we are here for how hard this winter was for our heroes because it turned them all into competent survivalists who would not waste a whole canned ham down a well, or as Margot calls it “high-octane competence porn.” We unpack what we think this season will really be about, and we think “safe” is the watchword. We get real rowdy this episode about Daryl and Carol/Andrea ...

Margot and Meaks break between seasons to discuss fanfiction! (There are light spoilers for this episode past season 7 that are mostly Carol and Daryl related, but we try to stay away from big deaths or moments past season 7.) We dig into what we’re excited for in season three and then talk about fanfiction including the history of fanfiction, stigma around it, smut (Meaks’ favorite), our history reading and writing it, and our fav...

Margot and Meaks discuss the season finale of season two, “Beside the Dying Fire” and the death of one of our favorite locations: the farm. We talk a good deal about the death of location and the beginnings of the Ricktatorship but we also can’t help trying to make sense of Lori one last time (she still doesn’t make sense to Meaks though Margot is very convincing). What do we know about some of the people we lose? Not a lot, but we...

We’re back after a scheduling nightmare! 

Meaks and Margot talk about episode twelve of season two “Better Angels” and how this group continues to deal (or not) with death and losing its moral compass (?) if you had such feelings about Dale, which some of us did not. Lori continues to make no sense because she’s used as a prop to make Shane’s storyline clearer and UGHGHGHGGH. If you thought this show maybe would get better...

Meaks and Margot discuss episode eleven of season two “Judge Jury Executioner” and it takes them the whole recording to figure out that they are on opposite sides of this debate about killing Randall or not killing Randall. We do agree that Dale, for all his annoying nature, asks a worthwhile question about what kinds of people we want to be and what kind of civilization we are building. We finally find out what Andrea used to do a...

Meaks and Margot discuss season two, episode ten, “18 Miles Out” as contrasting sister and brother storylines while we figure out what to do with Randall (and our souls) and how to convince someone this world is worth living in (you can’t!). In particular, we draw a contrast between Rick, who wants to take a knee before acting, and Shane, who has become an unhinged, act-violently-first kind of guy, and how all that reflects on the ...

Margot and Meaks discuss season two, episode nine, “Triggerfinger” where we digest this bonkers timeline, cause this is still the same day as “Pretty Much Dead Already” and whoa, does that mean it’s a crazy-ass day (and like Carol’s worst day, tbh). We can finally read Lori’s dumb decision from the last episode a little more clearly, but it’s still dumb! And we get the prolonged Shane and Lori scene we haven’t wanted but maybe need...

Margot and Meaks discuss episode eight season two, “Nebraska,” and what it means to lose all hope in a single moment for the Greene’s as opposed to the gradual incline of apocalypse loss that the group has experienced. Margot is still scared of Shane, but we dive deeper into how he views himself as a savior of everyone around him and how terrifying that is. Meaks is in awe of how many one-sided conversations there are in this episo...

Margot and Meaks discuss season two, episode seven, “Pretty Much Dead Already,” in which we find Sophia, but it’s sad! We unpack how the writers made her death inevitable as soon as they made her a sign of hope and our complicated feelings around wanting a show that is not necessarily a positive, hopeful look at the apocalypse, but a show that also decides girls are not worth giving a personality outside of being a sign for men to ...

Margot and Meaks discuss season two, episode six, “Secrets,” our first Angela Kang episode, which makes Meaks very happy. Glenn’s hat is full of secrets and everyone is really blase about Carl having stolen a gun and then they reward him, because parenting! We continue to unpack how white capitalist heteropatriarchy is pretty much destroying these characters, even after civilization ends, but especially with Shane who remains confu...