*major spoilers for The Walking Dead and this episode follow*
I've never really talked about The Walking Dead on this blog before outside of mentioning the show in my "Top 10 TV Shows" list. It's still there, trust me, but it hasn't left as large an impact on me as it did when I initially posted the list. Usually I'm busy doing either homework or other things right after The Walking Dead airs, or I just don't catch it when it does air, and can't give immediate thoughts. This episode? This episode needs my thoughts. In short: I really liked most of it. The Carol and Morgan bits were boring, but the drive to the Hilltop was insane and Negan is the best thing that's happened to The Walking Dead since the big prison battle in Season 4's "Too Far Gone" mid-season finale.
The ending kind of really frustrated me. Just that last moment, that stupid cliffhanger. But let me get there, I'll get through the groove of the episode as we build up to the moment like the show did.
So, like Morgan said he would last episode, he was going after Carol to bring her back, and probably to redeem her. Morgan's arc has been interesting this season if a bit lacking, but his character has hardly wavered and he is a powerful asset. Carol's arc just sort of happened. There was the episode where the group goes and slaughters the Saviors and she tries to save Maggie from leaving, and the next episode she's frail and weaker compared to before. Prior to that, she killed the main Wolf.
Carol's recent character development bothered me only on the principle that it seemed to come right out of nowhere. I don't mind her becoming like this, but it's just rubbed me wrong the whole way since she never mentioned that she was feeling like this prior to the two week time-skip. I do feel bad for her after this and I'm interested to see where her character goes at the start of the next season with Morgan and probably The Kingdom. Those guys were dressed like soldiers, and they weren't Saviors, so, can't really tell you who, but it's a good bet.
Thankfully, we only had two major arcs going on this episode, and the majority of the episode was about Rick and his crew trying to bring Maggie to Hilltop after something went wrong with her baby. It's unclear what it is, though one can probably assume it's something along the lines of a miscarriage (however, we never see the blood that comes with a miscarriage so, again, who knows). At first I thought it the show was going to go nuts and have the baby be "dead" and start eating Maggie from the inside. I mean, that'd be something we don't see. It wouldn't make much since, as Judith was also born in the zombie-apocalypse, but her seed may have been planted before and wow this just turned into Sex-Ed.
Huh.
I've always enjoyed it when we focus on Rick and a group. Sure getting to see the likes of Daryl and Glenn in action is great but Rick just has a commanding presence and he actually moves the plot along most of the time rather than drop little hints about what's to come. Or get captured.
The tension that the episode built with every road being blocked in some way was what really hooked me. At first it was just one roadblock, one that was set up in the opener. Fine. But then there's another group. And the walker chain-gang. And the trees blocking the road. And finally, when they think they've outsmarted the Saviors, everything comes crashing down.
It felt like true horror, something The Walking Dead has been straying from. The last time we saw something like this was back in Episode 9, "No Way Out," as the group tried the "Guts" technique that failed for various reasons. However in that episode I kind of wanted that punk kid to get his comeuppance and was maybe cheering when he did? Probably? Yeah, I was. Here though?
I was quaking quite a bit in my metaphorical boots. It was by the third or fourth trap that I think the group knew they were trapped. It wasn't that they faced a threat in front of them, but they faced a threat around them. It's something the group has always struggled with and finally came back to bite them: they can't pay attention to what's around them. They feign to, but it's always what's directly in front of them that takes most of their attention.
The major tone of this episode was also amazing. Again, it brought the horror. I know that people make fun of the fact that The Walking Dead has become less about the zombies, but who cares? It's still a horror story, and it's best parts are when it is a horror story. Some episodes are better than others that don't have majority horror elements (i.e. "Too Far Gone," "The Grove,") but the ones that do have those elements (i.e. "Four Walls and a Roof," "No Sanctuary," "Killer Within") are outstanding. This episode is no exception to that rule. Who says you need zombies to terrify someone? Some lunatic with a barbed baseball bat was the scariest thing I've seen in a long while, and the dread on the faces of our character was also chilling.
To speak on a technical aspect, the acting in this episode was so good, especially from Andrew Lincoln and Jeffery Dean Morgan, who now plays Negan, but every actor on 'death row' of sorts for Negan was great, showing the absolute fear that they had to portray with their character. I know I keep saying it, but that sold it in that moment. If you didn't notice, that moment with Negan just messing with everyone was just about ten minutes and it felt like an hour. Every second dripped by and each drop of it just brought along a faster heartbeat on my end.
It was quite spoopy, you may say.
The build up the moment was paid off very well. Negan's big introduction couldn't have been better. He was charismatic, he was funny, but most of all: he was evil. He carried himself with a much larger sense of gravitas than the Governor ever did, he was more insane than anyone from Terminus, and he held more of a grip on our group than anyone ever did and could. While most people may think the Governor as the big bad of the TV series, it's clear that Negan isn't going anywhere anytime soon. But he isn't a villain like Game of Thrones' Joffrey or Ramsey, because they at least exist on a relative plane with others in the hierarchy of the world.
Negan? He places himself over everyone. It was chilling to see what he'd done to the rest of the groups he's encountered, like Hilltop. I had to remind myself that, oh yeah, these are our heroes and they've faced threats before. This isn't just a threat they face, it's an absolute monster. Negan, almost without effort, subdued them in such a way that they could never have anticipated.
Some may say this is similar to what the folks at Terminus did, since they led the group in with some tricks, and then trapped them in the A Cart, but this was different. The Saviors first captured the separated survivors, then led their wise leader and more of their soldiers via a series of traps and psychological torment. Plus the literal atmosphere was different: this was at night, they were close-quarters surrounded, and Negan promised that someone would die and fulfilled that promise.
Not that we see the full impact, which is what was the most disappointing element of the show. Okay, so, serious spoilers if you've stuck around for some reason:
So Negan, like in the comic's famous Issue #100, does indeed go through with slaughtering a member of the group with his baseball bat right in front of everyone. For the sake of spoilers for the source material I won't say who, but I will say that we see who it is and what the reaction of the group is. Here though?
Negan pounds them on the head once, then again, and then the screen fades to black as he just keeps going until they're dead. We don't see who and we don't hear who it may have been as nobody calls out for them. What Negan says does clue us in with a guarantee the two characters that did not die before he kills the person, but...
This is so frustrating. I'm not mad about the fact that we have a cliffhanger. Not like we haven't seen those before (and not just on this show, which is probably what the finale was going for), but this was a poor place to put it. The season would have ended on a real high-note if we saw who it was--perhaps not the act since this is network television--and the reaction by the other characters. Then Negan just lets them go and the group remains stunned as the camera fades to black. Now we have to wait until October to find out in the premiere and there will undoubtedly be spoilers and clues beforehand to who met their ultimate and gruesome fate, but that just puts more pressure on AMC to not leak anything and will ruin any surprises later on.
Showrunner Scott Gimple said during The Talking Dead that this "part of the story" ended without the audience seeing who it was that died, and that the next part of the story picks up when we find out who...which is ridiculous. That's like saying a story "ends" before a bomb drops and then picks up during the explosion. That's dumb. The story ends with the explosion and the cliffhanger is us knowing who survived and who might have died.
I can see, from a business perspective, why this was done. It'll attract way more viewers to see who died, so ratings will be through the roof. This is also how they don't lose people, just in case their favorite character was the one that died. From a story-telling perspective, though, it's just dumb. The cliffhanger last episode, with Daryl being shot by Dwight and us not knowing the extent of the wound was a smart move. When Glenn "died" earlier in the season, it was great. We didn't really know, and had to wait to find out. It was divisive, but smart.
This was not. This was ending on a cliffhanger for the sake of being a cliffhanger, and not following through with the rest of the episode. For the sake of the story, we should have seen who was the one who died. The build up was tense, and there were several red herrings and possibilities. Abraham asked if he could have a renewed life with Sasha (usually results in death). Eugene had a sad farewell and sacrifice (usually results in death), and Glenn tried to throw himself at Negan (will probably result in death in future episodes). Rick and Carl? Not dead. Maggie? Probably not, we don't have resolution with her baby yet.
I'm not going to be one of those pretentious people and say, "I DESERVE TO KNOW" because I don't, but I am saying that the story just took a crippling blow from not revealing who Negan killed. The episode was otherwise pretty good. The Morgan and Carol material was decent, but the stuff building up to Negan was the best we've seen in a long time and Negan himself delivered on all notes. It's just unfortunate that we don't get to know who it was that he killed. That was what really helped deliver Negan's presence in the comics, and it would have been insane if we see who it was, particularly if it were a major character. Imagine if that happened in the comic. Negan swings the bat and....
Well, find out next issue! :D
It's just not good storytelling, which is a shame in an episode full of that. I'm not sure how The Walking Dead can pick up next season in October, but I'm curious to see what the repercussions will be. I'm not mad...I'm just disappointed. Oh well. Happens.
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