Sunday night"s episode ofThe Walking Deadwas much better than the steaming pile of garbage served up to lớn us last week.
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The episode wasn"t perfect, but as far as Season 8 goes it was one of the stronger ones. Some good mystery helped keep things interesting, and we even got some interesting character building moments.
Let"s take a look at what worked first before moving on the the inevitable bad bits.
(You can read last week"s review here.)
The Good
I enjoyed Carol (Melissa McBride) this episode. She went from her typical fatalist self around kids, to discovering that hopes aren"t always dashed. She had a nice moment with Ezekiel (Khary Payton) though I still feel lượt thích any conversation with the king is undermined by his Shakespearean affectations at this point. I wish they would find some way to have him drop the act once và for all. I think we"d have a much stronger, more interesting character on our hands.
I also thought the bit where the Saviors let Rick (Andrew Lincoln) & Morgan (Lennie James) go was interesting. I was surprised that Rick lied, though maybe I shouldn"t have been. I also thought it was incredibly vile of him to kill the men who had just saved his lifebefore turning to Morgan andasking him why he saved his life years earlier, the irony of what he"d just done apparently not registering. Truly, this is how sociopaths và killers operate, not heroes.
My immediate thought was that if this had been Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) tied up by Rick"s people and they let him go, he wouldn"t have turned on them like that. In some ways, Rick has become one of the worst characters on this show, a remorseless killer và a man who"s word, we discover, means nothing at all.
A man"s word,he tells his Savior captors,that"s still gotta mean something.Hence the title of the episode. The only other person to lớn make a promise this evening was Negan, who promised Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh) that if he let her go he"d make things rightby presumably killing Simon (Steven Ogg.) One imagines he will keep his promise, unlike Rick. Negan is a bad dude, but he does keep his word.
I"m not sad to see Jared (the long-haired Savior who killed Henry"s brother) dead, và he got a fittingly gruesome death. But I feel bad for the other Saviors, và I think Rick the Prick is a very appropriate nickname for him at this point. Negan may not be a good guy, but he really does think of people as a resource, & Rick is foolish not to vày the same. He"s breaking bad again. (I used to think he"d become the show"s main antagonist.) I"m okay with that. I love flawed characters.
Speaking of Negan, I enjoyed his scenes with Jadis as well. He was less obnoxious & more relatable, especially telling the story of his wife, Lucille. We get to see just why he"s so attached to lớn his stupid bat. It goes well beyond just intimidation. I lượt thích that they"re fleshing out Negan"s character a bit, though I think it"s still going lớn be pretty much impossible lớn reconcile him with Maggie after he bashed Glenn"s head in that way. I just don"t see it happening. We"ll see.
Most intriguing of all was the helicopter showing up & Jadis ready with flares. Well, not quite ready. Somehow Negan got hold of her flare and a gun và she got it away from him so he wouldn"t use it to lớn burn her photographs. So the chopper shows up and apparently doesn"t see her despite it being broad daylight and then flies off again.
So what"s with the chopper? What"s with Jadis"s incredible little room, so neat và tidy with clean trắng sheets? What"s the story here? She must be part of a larger group, maybe the leader of some outpost that"s part of yet another large community, fully decked out with helicopters. It"s almost certainly the same group that flew a chopper over Rick earlier this season. Hopefully we find out more by the end of Season 8 as I"m genuinely curious what"s going on.
The other big mystery of the night is the mysterious passenger that Negan picks up on the way back khổng lồ the Sanctuary. Who could it be? I"m trying to come up with some theories, but there just aren"t that many people who would be out wandering around. My best guess? Laura. The Savior who discovered Dwight (Austin Amelio) was a traitor but who hasn"t reported back yet. Somehow she"s managed lớn survive though she apparently looks like hell. It could also be Gregory, which might even make more sense given he would have just escaped and likely also looks like hell.
If this is the case it would mean that Negan now knows that Dwight is working for the enemy and that Simon disobeyed his orders with the Trash People. Two of his top lieutenants betrayed him & there will be hell lớn pay. This would explain his order at the gates to lớn keep his arrival a secret. Does this mean Dwight"s toast? Simon almost certainly is.
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Side-note: Simon didn"t actually go against Negan"s plan for Hilltop last week at all. It"s really strange, actually, because he was basically telling everyone lớn throw out the plan where they just turn people with zombified weapons. Instead they go in & do...exactly what Negan wanted them khổng lồ do. They don"t use guns, don"t try khổng lồ kill everyone, don"t wipe them from the face of the planet. Very peculiar writing choice.
Finally, I liked Michonne (Danai Gurira.) I don"t really care for the Michonne/Rick romantic relationship---they just don"t have the right chemistry and work much better as companions than lovers---but I lượt thích what Michonne had to say, even though I feel like Rick is still well within the window of intense grief and it"s okay if he isn"t ready to lớn fully accept his loss just yet. He does kết thúc up reading the letter at the over but we don"t know what it says (we can guess pretty easily given Carl"s message to lớn Negan and the things he said on his deathbed.)
The Bad
Naturally, I can"t get through an entire review ofThe Walking Deadwithout some complaints! Here are a few:
Rick & Morgan show up on the trail of the Saviors they"re chasing down. They see some amputated limbs & then...there"s a sound lượt thích a oto door hitting Rick maybe? I"m not sure. Anyways, it cuts khổng lồ black & next thing we know they"re both tied up and captured by the Saviors. Why not show what actually happened? Why not make this scene less confusing? Similarly, did I miss something or did Negan just magically get hold of the gun and flare và photographs? He was tied up, scooting his little cart around, & then Jadis wheels out that super creepy zombie (if only the whole show was as good as its zombies!) và next thing we know he"s got all this stuff. Very weird and confusing. I really don"t lượt thích Morgan"s visions. They keep saying "You know what it is" but we don"t. We don"t know. And we are tired of seeing dead people lượt thích this is the friggin"Sixth Sense.We all already know that Morgan is crazy, we don"t need a reminder. I was honestly hoping Henry would die because he"s just another really annoying kid. They can"t vị not-annoying kids on this show for some reason (except that crazy girl, Lizzie---she was incredible.) Oh well, this was nice for Carol I guess. Oh, and I think Henry"s reaction khổng lồ the news that Morgan killed his brother"s killer was actually pretty spot-on. Instead of feeling better he just says "I"m sorry." Morgan is rattled, và rightfully so. Daryl man. Daryl is the worst. Seriously, somehow Tara went from being the worst a couple episodes ago lớn being okay again. She"s realized that Dwight is a good guy now và thinks he deserves a second chance, just like she was given. Daryl wasn"t always such a good guy, either, so he should know better. His stubbornness at this point is just irritating. Daryl continues khổng lồ be underutilized as a character, sticking around because Norman Reedus is popular but then given nothing worthwhile lớn do. I am curious to lớn see how he & Rosita take out Eugene"s bullet-making operation, though.The Ugly
The ugly award goes to lớn that one zombie with Henry"s spear in it. Holy hell that was one ugly walker. Just incredible make-up.If only the rest of the show was that good!
Verdict
All told, not really that much terrible stuff this episode. Some of the dialogue dragged, particularly the repeated scenes with Morgan & people pestering Morgan & him telling them that he sees dead people & hey, maybe they"re allactually dead và that"s the big twist.Or something.
The writers think that by saying the same thing more than once they"ll drive the point home. Have the same conversation four times and audiences will somehow understand it better. That"s just not how it works.
I"m definitely intrigued by the helicopter và the mysterious passenger in Negan"s car, & I"m actually looking forward to lớn Negan"s plans for Simon and Dwight, partly because I"m curious khổng lồ see if Dwight manages khổng lồ escape. (Even if he picks up Gregory instead of Laura, I"m pretty sure Gregory knows about Dwight and could spill the beans himself.)
Only two more episodes left, folks. Hopefully these final episodes are more lượt thích this one và less like last week"s abysmal excuse for a television show. We shall see...
What bởi vì you think of Episode 14?Let me know onTwitterandFacebook. And don"t forgetto subscribe to lớn my blog!Thanks for reading và Happy Easter/April Fool"s Day!
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Erik Kain writes a widely read and respected blog about video clip games, entertainment và culture at forestcitymalaysias.com. He is a Shorty Award-nominated journalist & critic whose work has appearedin The Atlantic, The National Review, Mother Jones, True/Slant và elsewhere. Kain co-founded the political commentary blog The League Of Ordinary Gentlemen, whose members have gone on to lớn write at multiple major publications including The thành phố new york Times & Slate. He lives in Arizona with his family.
