Another week, another great episode of The Walking Dead. I know I’ve said it many times before, but this is definitely my favourite season of the show so far in terms of acting quality, storyline, comic parallels, character development and direction.
Although I enjoyed it overall, the start of ‘Twice As Far’ was a little odd, with some awkward and repetitive scenes that were meant to show days going by. I think it could’ve been done better but it got the point across, albeit clunkily.
The episode was centered around Denise (the doctor with the glasses!) and her quest to contribute more to the group and conquer her fears. Although Rosita and Daryl weren’t happy about her coming along on a run to get medicine, she insisted by saying she would just go alone if they didn’t accompany her. Way to put your friends between a rock and a walker-infested rotting place, Denise.
I was initially worried the character chemistry just wasn’t there but it was actually quite a nice change to see the three of them interact away from the others. I really look forward to unusual character pairings as they can produce some of the best scenes, like when Carl went off with Michonne to get the picture of Lori when they lived at the prison. That’s one of my favourite character interactions as it was the beginning of a bond between the two of them that has lasted and remains strong to this day.
There were some nice references to the past in this episode, with a comment from Daryl about not travelling on train tracks. Clearly Terminus is still on his mind. It’s nice to see these reminders because it’s easy to forget what the characters have been through in the heat of an episode, especially when we judge them for being scared. They’ve escaped cannibals, a psychopath who has a tank full of heads instead of a TV and hordes of walking, rotting corpses as well as the untimely deaths of countless friends and family members. So yeah, the apocalypse isn’t exactly a picnic.
I think we can all agree that the whole ‘bring your only doctor on a run’ situation was beyond stupid, but the scenes at the start were meant to construe the monotony of life in Alexandria, so we can assume that seeing and doing the same thing day after day can make even the smartest person want to do something dumb just to feel like they’re doing something with their life.
One of the biggest changes is Carol’s reaction to being kidnapped by the Saviours. As I said before, her certainty of having to kill if her loved ones are in danger now poses a huge problem for her as she doesn’t want to kill anyone. She doesn’t want to become an unfeeling monster. Morgan has had a huge yet subtle effect on her but there is a marked difference in their two psyches; Carol has come around to seeing that they don’t have to kill but she knows that sometimes you must kill to save someone, and her solution is to leave rather than stay and put people in danger by not acting in a crisis. She doesn’t want to be in a situation where she has to kill for someone. Morgan is different in that he stays and in doing so puts the rest of the group in danger by his failure to act.
He has also been affected by Carol and her views, particularly in the wake of her latest decision. Seeing him framed bang in the middle between Carol’s creaking porch swing and the Alexandrians preparing for battle is a well shot scene. It hints that Morgan’s absolute resolve is crumbling and it will be interesting to see how far down the rabbit hole he falls.
Eugene and Abraham spent time together outside the walls during this episode and, despite a horribly edited cut-scene, their adventure was well filmed. It was good to see Eugene stand up for himself and create some real conflict between the two of them, which we haven’t really seen since Eugene revealed his lies about Washington a few seasons ago.
As it turns out, Daryl’s decision to stay away from tracks was a good one as his group soon face almost certain death after being ambushed by a (slightly burnt) face from the past. This scene starts off with a great speech from Denise and ends in tragedy with some of the best usage of non-walker CGI I’ve seen in the show.
I wasn’t sure if a particularly famous scene from the comics would ever be depicted on the small screen, but I was pleasantly surprised. Although I can’t say the same for a particular someone with a face only Freddie Krueger could love and black and blue nether regions to boot. Can’t say I feel bad for him!
What did you think of ‘Twice As Far’? Let us know in the comments!
