We’re coming to the end of what is in my opinion the best season of The Walking Dead since season 1 and, although I’m sickened to see it end, I’m currently trying to control my hype for what is likely to be the most nail-biting finale in the history of the show.
Although I was on the edge of my seat during another stunning performance by Melissa McBride (get that woman an Emmy!), there was one particular scene meant to shock that was a little lacklustre, to say the least. When it comes to the last minute of tonight’s episode, I didn’t even gasp. Usually whenever my favourite characters are in precarious positions, a la Glenn in season 6a, I’m squirming nervously and sweating through my eyeballs. This time, I didn’t even skip a beat.
Perhaps it’s because the scene itself looked vaguely like a sub-par video game or, more likely, the notion of killing off one of the show’s most popular characters in such an anti-climatic way is just ludicrous. In fact, I think by just injuring the character, it almost excludes them completely from the list of those who may face death in the season’s finale. The organisers are hardly going to pull another Glenn, and if they do, it would be a major cop-out.
Needless to say, the final scene was just awful. My only thought on why it was so bad is that perhaps they’re saving the big-budget stuff for the finale and maybe they didn’t think Maggie’s scene back in Alexandria was good enough to end the penultimate episode with. In actuality, it would’ve been a hell of a lot better.
Carol has been getting lots of screen time in season 6b and I’m loving it. She quickly became a favourite of mine when she started making the tough decisions and doing what needed to be done. However, she isn’t a sociopath and her actions have now well and truly caught up to her. It’s easy to see small cracks in her tough facade over the past few seasons but because she’s so good at getting on with things, they’re easy to dismiss. Now that she’s decided she doesn’t want to kill and is trying to distance herself from any situation that would lead to her killing, it seems the universe is nudging anyone it wants dead into her path. She just can’t catch a break.
What she is going through now is similar to the way Rick was at the prison. He was a total badass and then started having what I like to call a mid-apocalypse crisis and decided he wanted to be a farmer and leave the killing to everyone else. Nobody came down on him like a herd of walkers when that happened; they acknowledged that Rick was having a problem dealing with things and left him to it for a while. Now that Carol is having a perfectly understandable PTSD-related episode, people are losing their minds. And by ‘people’ I mean ‘the internet’. I personally love how the writers are portraying the realistic side of having to kill all the time to protect those you love. It takes its toll.
Although this episode is definitely filler, it’s filler done right. In particular, it’s great to see characters who don’t usually mix interacting and bonding with each other, like Rick and Abe as well as Glenn and Michonne who, although they’ve been together for a long time, haven’t been around each other much lately.
This episode shows how fiercely loyal the group is and how they consider each other family. One person leaving the group is akin to a body without a limb, and so they’re pursued despite the dangerous circumstances in doing so. I also loved how most of the group who left Alexandria’s safe zone have not yet found out about the drastic decision by one of the group’s core members, so it will be interesting to see their reaction. The finale will need every second of those 90 minutes, that’s for sure.
One character who is seriously getting on my nerves is Morgan. I get what the writers were trying to portray with him but I think fans are just getting totally sick of his lack of logic. When he was speaking with Rick in this episode, his speech really rubbed me the wrong way. Justifying keeping the Wolf alive by saying he saved Denise’s life is so stupid because she would never have been in danger if Morgan hadn’t dragged her to the cell to attend to him. And Alexandrians would never have died if Morgan had just killed him in the first place. I understand he was focusing on the act of the Wolf saving her but it was just ridiculous; in my view, his other horrifying actions outweigh one momentary act of mercy.
Although the group has been making some seriously amateur and downright stupid decisions this season (you’d think they were new to the apocalypse and not the hardened survivors they are), the episode was still very good. Though I wish the writers would deviate from the whole ‘captured by Saviours – escape – captured by Saviours – escape’ formula they’re rehashing again and again.
The finale next week is going to leave me absolutely reeling and I know I’ll need to mentally prepare myself before I watch it. Not only have cast members publicly stated they were physically ill after reading the script, it’s also the episode that we’ll be introduced to the notorious Negan. Rick’s cockiness has reached an all-time high too, which is apparent by his speech to Michonne during their morning tryst. He truly believes they’re going to deal with Negan and his lot like they were a bunch of irritating bugs. Well, someone is going to get squashed, and something tells me the casualties won’t be on Negan’s side.
What did you think of the episode? Let us know in the comments!
