>...Sam's death really spooked her.
>
>When she was delivering cookies and was approached by Morgan,
>she was standing at Sam's grave and left a cookie there.
>
>As far as the hostage situation, I agree that there wasn't
>much tension, but considering how it all played out I don't
>think that was the point. Much like how Carol and Maggie came
>out of it, my wife and I were sort of unsettled with all the
>carnage in that episode. Note that each captor was humanized
>with some glimpse into their backstory. They weren't aimless
>killers like the Wolves, they were normal people hardened by
>their environment. I think it was purposeful that the captors
>didn't do much to Carol and Maggie outside of hollow threats,
>yet they were still brutally slaughtered to a man.
>
>It continues along with the theme that, while their actions
>this season can be rationalized, Rick and his group can no
>longer be considered "the good guys" anymore.


Good assessment, but my problem is that too little time was spent establishing the back stories for the minor characters you mentioned for me to care about them; Sam from the town and Paula and the other captors included. Not saying you are wrong, but since none of the characters meant anything to me, Carol's abrupt turn made no sense to me. And I wasn't necessarily asking for the captors to be brainless psychopaths, but I at least wanted some sense of danger to the threats they were mentioning. The captors didn't even take advantage of the fact Maggie was pregnant since the threat of harming her would giver her leverage over Rick.