The Walking Dead returns with an exploding Roman candle of an episode
It wasn't flawlessly executed, but the AMC series burned through plot, reset the narrative, and blew things up nicely in its return
TV Reviews The Walking Dead
Well! That was a lot.
One of the more rewarding elements of sticking with The Walking Dead through its waning final years has been watching showrunner Angela Kang’s effort to avoid the listless, going-in-circles plotting that sometimes afflicted the show during weaker moments. That’s not to say we don’t still get the unfortunate treading-water installments here and there—we obviously do, and they suck—but any time the wheels spin for an hour, you can bet the next episode will do its level best to churn through some story, as though making up for lost time (which it sort of is).
So while it was a welcome twist to have the first arc of the final season end with the surprise death of Pope, who had been positioned as a Big Bad for the foreseeable future, “No Other Way” took a look at that momentum and said, “Hold my beer.” In short order, the entire Reaper organization has been decimated. Alexandria is lying in rubble. Negan takes off. The Commonwealth arrives, courtesy of Eugene, and invites our people to join the cause. Cut to six months later: Maggie’s defending the walls of Hilltop, someplace we haven’t seen in awhile, and a phalanx of threatening Commonwealth soldiers show up to do…something. Their leader? Daryl Dixon.
Like I said: a lot.
When we last checked in with our protagonists, Daryl’s Reaper ex-girlfriend, Leah, had just killed her boss, Pope, and sicced her crew on our beloved motorcycle-riding badass. The Reaper home base of Meridian was in the midst of assault from walkers, shepherded there by Maggie and Negan. And Leah had just unleashed a very silly-looking fireworks display on the undead, as the humans ran for cover. It was an exciting place to leave off—and this episode delivered on that promise, with explosions of both the literal and storytelling variety.
After a quick reminder of the aforementioned fireworks display (Maggie fights off a Reaper and then we get to watch him blow up!), it’s a sort of cat-and-mouse game within the walls of Meridian, as Daryl, Gabriel, and the others try to evade Reapers, with Maggie and Negan arguing over the value of getting out with their lives or sticking around to kill the baddies and get the food supply. Of course, it’s about that, but it’s also not: Maggie and Negan’s discussion is symbolic of a lot more. And by the end, when Maggie’s gone off to find zombie Alden and put him out of his undead misery, Negan shows up to drop a truth bomb: Maggie’s never going to let the past go, and it’s only a matter of time before she tries to kill him, too. So, he leaves.
But before that, holy hell, does the show have some fun exacting bloody vengeance on the Reapers. First, Daryl gets a one-on-one takedown of Austin, that ends with choking the guy out in silence while Leah prepares to break down the door. Next, there’s Gabriel, listening to an entire entreaty from the mad Reaper priest to lay down his weapons and embrace his faith, only to shrug it off and stab the guy in the chest. Then, there’s the killer three-on-one fight sequence with Carver versus Maggie, Elijah, and Negan. And that doesn’t even end in death; taking the most obnoxious Reaper hostage is a smart play, but it does mean Elijah has to play the waiting game on revenge for his sister.
Still, it’s all worth it once we get to the episode’s equivalent of a showdown. In the courtyard, what seems like a situation where Leah and her people are in control (and planning to kill Daryl et. al) quickly has its tables turned, as Gabriel kills the sniper and gets a cool-guy “You were expecting someone else?” zinger through the walkie talkie. And then—after all that intensity—Maggie immediately betrays Daryl’s guarantee that Leah and her people can leave in peace. She kills every Reaper and wounds Leah. It’s rare for The Walking Dead to deliver an episode so stuffed with fun, crowd-pleasing moments, but this one paid off in spades, even as it retained the icky moral ambiguity around Maggie’s behavior.
There was so much fun to be had at Meridian this week, it was almost a shame when we cut back to Alexandria, especially because the continuing drama with the storm and the walkers inside the walls was so uneven compared to what was going down at the Reaper encampment. For every tense and nervy little sequence (Aaron’s underwater struggle with a walker in the rapidly flooding basement), there was an abrupt and jarring edit (Lydia magically stringing a rope into the basement and Aaron escaping, all off-camera). In the case of the latter instance, I’m baffled: It’s like a second unit failed to make their shot schedule and just strung together what little they had. Honestly, it was weird to watch play out.
We only spent a few minutes with everyone else, but the little reunions at episode’s end were a nice, very old-school moment of Walking Dead “we’re a family, see?” sentiment that we tend to see every few episodes or so. In this case, watching Daryl absolutely lose his shit over the return of Connie was the highlight, but equally affecting—in opposite manner—was the quiet emotional gut-punch Lydia received when she realized Negan was gone. It was perfectly underplayed (the camera barely lingered on her face for more than a second), and captured exactly why that relationship had become so meaningful, for them and us: Morgan and McClincy are two of the best performers on the show. I’d like more of them together, please!
By the time the Commonwealth arrived, it felt like the show was finally announcing how this last season is really going to play out. Some will fall for the Commonwealth’s facade of civility (but Daryl? Really?), and some will resist (hi, Maggie), but the struggle against the militarized outpost of humanity is clearly going to define the rest of the season. It’s a smart move: This is one of the only things we’ve never really seen before on the show, so leaning into it—as opposed to the been-there, killed-that Reapers storyline—will help keep things fresh on a series that, more often than it probably wants to admit, can feel like it’s running on the fumes of fumes. So bring on the Commonwealth, and the weirdness, and Josh Hamilton’s delightfully uptight middle-manager of the apocalypse.
Stray observations
- I can’t be the only one startled that Elijah actually lived, right? By the time he was lying in the dirt at Meridian, telling Maggie to avenge his family tragedy, it seemed obvious. But no, just a flesh wound!
- Bonus points for Aaron literally smashing that walker’s head to a pulp during the aforementioned underwater fight scene.
- We’re still doing the “Gabriel wrestles with his lack of faith” thing, but at least it feels more perfunctory. Dude’s made his choice.
- At first, I struggled to recall why Maggie gave a shit about returning to Alden, but then I remembered: He was the Savior she gave a chance to back when they were all locked up at Hilltop, and he then became the emblem of the “people can change” banner for her.
- “Choices—do they even matter any more?” A fitting question for the final year of The Walking Dead, Daryl.
- Re: The Commonwealth, there’s something about the idea of a seemingly benevolent group of wealthy folks descending upon a scrappy little community that has survived on its own forever, taking it over, and proceeding to destroy it it in the most obnoxious way possible that is really connecting, though I can’t for the life of me imagine why.
29 Comments
Re: The Commonwealth, there’s something about the idea of a seemingly
benevolent group of wealthy folks descending upon a scrappy little
community that has survived on its own forever, taking it over, and
proceeding to destroy it it in the most obnoxious way possible that is really connecting, though I can’t for the life of me imagine why. The wealthy folks also want them to suddenly pick up and relocate to a more expensive city (since you need actual money in Commonwealth), far from where they’ve been living and working for many years.
It seems like the Commonwealth would be better off setting Alexandria up as a plantation, like the Saviors did with Hilltop and The Kingdom.
Did Lauren Cohan’s ridiculous accent ever improve? You’d think doing it for so many years in Atlanta, things would marginally improve just by sheer repetition.
I hope not, because people whining about accents should never be catered to. Annoying
God that accent, it always drove me nuts. Also how no one in her family had the same southern accent. Hershel’s was a soft southern accent, I don’t think Beth even tried for one, and Maggie’s doesn’t exist any place in real life.
I tapped out on Walking Dead in, I think, really 2018. I just got tired of the same stuff over and over.Any reason to come back now? And if so, what’s a good re-entry point?Frankly, I realized what I want is a sore that’s little 20 years post-apocalypse, society has healed into something recognizably for the common good, and it’s all about restarting agriculture and technology and all that good stuff, plus the cultural changes triggered by our dead being so toxic. Kinda like Station 11, but not so entirely up its own ass about how meaningful art is.
I jumped off midway thru season 8 but still check out recaps out of curiosity. And you know what? I find following the show without actually having to watch the show to be just as satisfying.
I liked Station 11, but I have to agree, up its ass about art healing society.
It’s so bizarre, despite how much I, at the time, enjoyed Negan’s debut with the Lucille deaths, and felt that it was some kind of event episode of television, I honestly couldn’t continue with then series after that point. It’s baffling.
I was so pissed with the way they handled Abraham’s and Glenn’s deaths that I was out for quite awhile. I sort of caught up after awhile, but I truly hated the whole Whisperers storyline so I pretty much skimmed that. I’m not sure when it got interesting for me again, but this final season has definitely sparked my interest. I don’t really know where to tell you to start, but I’d probably suggest Andrew Lincoln’s final episode (season 9) and move on from there. Also you probably don’t need to watch every single episode. I sure haven’t although I’m pretty sure I’ve watched all of season 10.
I tapped out around Negan. I figure I am going to wait until the last season hits Netflix and then just binge the whole thing once through.
It’s weird Carver’s the only one still wearing a mask, albeit on his belt.I think they stopped wearing them as soon as Leah took hers off.They should’ve stopped reminding us that masks were a thing with The Reapers.
Any sign of Luke this week?Or did Dan Fogler finally escape a weirdly thankless role?
At first I thought you were talking about Luke Skywalker and was confused. Then I realized you meant the guy with Connie, Yumiko, Etc. Yeah, haven’t seen him recently
Well, I saw this and just finished the next episode since I think AMC + releases them one week early. Anyway, knowing this show is coming to a close is why I’m sticking with it. Out of morbid curiosity on just how they’ll end the show that will lead into other movies and spin offs. But honestly, after this episode and episode 10, I think they should’ve just finished shooting everything and then released everything out all at once for binging. Because it’s just not as entertaining as a weekly episodic show anymore. I personally feel if they released the rest of the season all at once, it might be more entertaining to binge and not leaving too much time in between episodes to pick it apart and begin eyerolling everything. When it comes to the Reapers, yeah there was nowhere they could go and nothing for them since they were created specifically for the show almost as filler. If they showed up a few seasons ago around after the Governor or at the same time fighting Negan as the enemy of my enemy is my enemy kind of deal, it would’ve been a better fit for them. So, I’m just glad for the most part, that paintball fallout cosplay war is over. As for the Commonwealth. The show is playing their part and making an effort. It’s kind of a dull flavor. It’s just that the whole dystopian of class division has been done a lot recently in both shows, movies, and games, these last few years that this one is just not as well done in comparison to others that have done something similar. I would say the way they’re handling the Commonwealth storyline is on the same level as Snowpiercer season 1&2 class division dystopian society. Which is meh. Generic. Not terrible, but nothing much above that. My attitude is like most places in the Walking Dead that says they have rebuilt society and are on their way back to rebuilding the world; how is it all going to burn down? Veering off from the comics of course. Then there’s the failure of the World Beyond’s ending with the tease that AMC may go Army of the Dead/Resident Evil whatever route to keep the franschise alive in anyway. Honestly, I just don’t know how AMC is going to try something similar as Paramount is doing with Star Trek.
Andrew Lincoln is down in Atlanta right now — pics of him with Norman Reedus out on the town dining at some restaurant. Makes me wonder if the CRM’s going to show up which reminds me I need to finish the second season of World’s Beyond. But I find it so boring it’s hard to get motivated to do that.And yeah Walking Dead has always been better as a binge watch. The story hangs together better that way instead of it getting chopped up by weekly episodes and especially one that’s constantly being interrupted by commercials. I remember all the pissing and moaning about season 2 on the farm, but I binge watched on Netflix and the season worked really well.
Oh Michonne and crew are 100% back in the final episodes…they have to be
It’d be nice and I hope it happens.
That edit in the scene with Lydia and Aaron was truly baffling. “Hang on, I’ll be right back…with magic.” I’d like to think that the showrunners lost a lot of sleep about whatever f-up resulted in that being the best they could do.
Eh, it was a little bizarre, but it didn’t bug me that much. I mean did we really need to see Lydia retrieve a rope and, between the two of them get it anchored so Aaron could escape? I was satisfied with seeing Aaron survive.
Yeah…how the rope got even to him to be tied was a headscratcher…but with this show sometimes you just gotta go with it…no thinking allowed
I genuinely thought this show ended a year or two ago.
Did another pudding get out of control?
I never understand what the fuck you’re typing, though it has the cadence of something clever
-The A.V. Club
I have always seen the group of survivors that we follow throughout the show as a disease, maybe worse than the walkers. Every group or society that they encounter becomes decimated by their encounter with them.
Yuuuup. It was pretty clear a while ago the reason the villains had to keep getting worse and worse (Governor, Claimers, Negan, etc) was because the “heroes” were themselves become less and less human.By the time he rolls in to Alexandria, Rick is basically no better than the Governor.
Oh man I hope Darryl comes to his senses and makes it out okay…
Where is the Commonwealth growing the wheat, sugar cane, mango, coffee beans, etc. Where is their electricity coming from. What does their perimeter wall look like and who is patrolling it, as it must be gigantic to fit the above. Who makes the customized postapocalyptic hockey armor for the goon squad and from what. Why do I continue to watch. Some late night thoughts.