*Spoilers Ahead*
Heading into the penultimate episode of this half-season, I was sort of hoping we’d start to see the show progressing forward after a trio of slow-moving episodes. Instead, we get a bit more of the slowed pace and a promise that things will be much worse for our crew come next episode.
First up, Glenn’s alive and I’m still a bit shocked at how many people bought that he might have died. The show is brave but it would take a bravery heretofore unseen to show him dead after all the time away. It should be noted that I’m fine with Glenn living but I have to question why the writers went about it this way. What exactly is accomplished by leaving his fate a mystery only to have him survive in a barely believable way?
Regardless, I won’t go as far as some and claim that Glenn’s survival ruins the believably of the show or somehow makes it less ruthless, I’ve never viewed this show as ruthless in who it kills because the most important (and popular) characters are still standing six seasons later. That said I can confidently say that this episode feels the most like a placeholder for the real developments that will happen next week.
One of the biggest things holding back The Walking Dead might just be the 16 episode season. The writers are beholden to this structure of having to write 16 episodes with the only real action happening in the first and last episode of each half season. The rest can be interesting and fun but more often than not it ends up being stalling until the finale.
I bring this up because this week feels like the most egregious example of what I’m talking about. It might just be because of how long it took me to finally get this review in (apologies for that by the way!) but I honestly don’t remember much of what goes on this week. That isn’t a stellar way of building a season, ideally, you would try to make each episode memorable in some way.
That isn’t to say there is nothing good coming out of this week. While Glenn’s survival is dubious at best his story with Enid is nice and proves that Glenn might just be the hero of this show provided he doesn’t just get killed later.
While there’s a decent focus in Alexandria the most interesting thing to come out of there this week is the growing dynamic between Carol and Morgan. They’ve been pitched as the two disparate sides of Rick and the scenes with the three of them together show that off a bit more than before. I’m not convinced that the show isn’t just going to make it clear that Morgan is wrong for thinking the way he is but after all the time showing us how he got to this train of thought I have to hope it leads somewhere.
With this half of the season heading towards it’s close we have the watchtower outside coming down and with it any hopes of the Alexandrians managing to live outside of the world as it currently is. If this whole half of the season has been about bringing the folks in Alexandria out of their bubble then this is one hell of a way to do it.
Bits ‘n Pieces
- Apologies again for the lateness of this going up. Thanksgiving weekend is always a bit crazy for me.
- I also want to say that I was pleasantly surprised to see Tara call out Rick for his mindset on the Alexandrians. I just hope to god she doesn’t end up dying now.
- Ron has been learning how to shoot with Rick and now he’s taken some bullets from the armory and is stalking Carl. This will end well.
- Also, that thing with Spencer trying to get over the herd was all sorts of dumb but I guess that was kind of the point.
- “The only thing that prevents you from becoming a monster is killing.”
Jesse Swanson is a would-be writer, podcaster and funny guy who covers TV shows of all shapes and sizes. You can find him on Twitter @JesseSwanson