
Has any show ever made grief as tedious as it is on The Walking Dead? Late in tonightâs episode (called âThe King, The Widow, And Rick,â presumably because âSome Other Shit Happensâ was too on the nose), Aaron shares a moment with Maggie, mourning their lost loves. It makes sense to acknowledge the impact death has on the living, but by now, these scenes are less like honest expressions of human suffering and more like form letters the writers can plug in to make sure every episode reaches the full running time. Characters are so routinely poleaxed by sorrow that it no longer works to see someone choking back tears and muttering, âDoes it ever get any easier?â Just because it makes sense doesnât mean we need to be there when it happens.
Contrast that with the scene in which Carol confronts Ezekielâa scene which is just as predictable (oh look, another optimist crushed by the weight of the horrible world) but actually has some juice in it. Partly thatâs because Carol and Ezekiel are just better characters than Aaron and Maggie, and partly because the writers find a slightly new way to attack the premise. Yes, Ezekiel is in despair because lots of people died, and he feels responsible, and Carol insists that he gets back to leading. (Funny how much more convincing this is when Rick isnât involved.) But when Carol asks why Ezekiel kept visiting her, it leads to an exchange thatâs specific to both of them, and not just the usual vague platitudes about need and loss. Hearing Ezekiel tell Carol that she made him âfeel realâ is legitimately moving, and both actors handle the moment well.
Which isnât to say this is a good episode. âThe King, The Widow, And Rickâ finds the show back to its regular bullshit, cramming together a bunch of dragging storylines as we kill time before the next big catastrophe. Rick makes his pitch to the Garbage People, and they give him a hard pass (the end of the hour finds him locked up naked in a trailer, which is probably not good); Michonne and Rosita decide to go to the Sanctuary for⌠reasons; Tara and Daryl decide to take matters into their own hands; Carl goes out to find the guy his dad chased away; and at the Hilltop, Maggie has to make a decision about her Savior prisoners and Gregory.
That last story thread at least builds off of whatâs come before it, though the morality of the series is so muddled at this point that itâs hard to know what exactly to take from the situation. Ambiguity isnât inherently bad, but trying to reconcile the coldness of Maggieâs decision-making process with previous events leaves a bad taste in the mouth. One of the showâs standard tricks is to put characters in situations where their old moral assumptions are no longer relevant, and it seems very much to be whatâs happening here. Jesus wants to let the captives live because shooting a bunch of unarmed people because they make life more complicated isnât a great way to build a society; Maggie lets them live, but only because thereâs a chance theyâll be useful in a prisoner exchange.
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And itâs hard to argue with Maggie, even though, as a human being, I think sheâs wrong (at least, I think her promise that sheâll kill the Saviors if they arenât useful is wrong). In context, the lesson she and Rick and the other survivors have learned again and again is that you canât trust an enemy; optimism and the âweaknessâ of mercy will, statistically speaking, get people you actually care about killed. Thatâs the context the show has created for itself, and while there may end up being nuance in this situation (at least one of the Savior guys doesnât seem like a complete asshole), itâs unsettling how thoroughly history has boxed everyone in. Slaughtering captives is what the bad guys do, but it often seems like the arc of The Walking Dead is the slow, painful process of people who try to be good learning theyâre safer and more effective as monsters.
But thatâs an argument for a Negan-centric episode, so put it aside for now. At least the stuff on the Hilltop has a certain queasy tension to it. Maggieâs decision to throw Gregory in with the Saviors is darkly hilarious, though again, thereâs that weird feeling of âYou should be uncomfortable about this <wink wink>â, acknowledging both that the widow is making some hard calls, and also that, given what we know about Gregory, her decision is tough to argue against. The show works hard to present scenarios in which conventional decency is insufficient to the problem at hand, and while that trick has gotten significantly less interesting (it just feels like a way to excuse shitty behavior), it still has at least a little juice in it.
Thatâs not really the case with Michonne and Rosita going on a road trip. While itâs great to see both characters again (is this the first weâve seen of Rosita this season? Kind of feels like it is), the amorphous need to act that motivates them doesnât make for compelling drama. Itâs fine, but none of this feels essential or anything more than just an excuse to trot out people we havenât seen in awhile. The fact that it dovetails in the end with Daryl and Tara, bringing all four to the Sanctuary for Darylâs big play (which will almost certainly backfire spectacularly) helps some, but this is mostly just a shoulder shrug.
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Really, thatâs the biggest problem with the episode. There are a few important moments, but too much of it is just the usual melange of characters wandering around like dispirited gas molecules. Carl finally tracks down Siddiq, the stranger Rick scared off earlier, and itâs a relief to find out that Siddiq isnât a bad guy, but the sequence is undercut by Carl being, well, Carl. His decision to stay and help Siddiq kill more zombies (he does it for his parents, which is actually a neat character idea) nearly gets them both killed.
And then thereâs Rick, who starts the hour with yet another speech (this one delivered by letter and voice-over), which⌠look, his speeches are terrible. Letâs just leave it at that. Weâre still waiting for the other shoe of his Garbage People plan to drop, as they refuse his offer of cooperation (âHe talks too muchâ) with a speed that kind of undermines Rickâs image as a great strategist. Iâm sure he has something else up his sleeve, but given that they couldâve just shot him in the head as soon as he arrivedâwell, that wonât happen because Rickâs the hero, but thatâs not information Rick should have.
Anyway. At one point, we see a zombie stuck on a spear trap struggling to reach a plastic bag. The metaphor is surprisingly on point.
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Stray observations
- The idea of passing letters around through established drop points is pretty clever, though I wouldâve assumed it would be just as easy to send messengers around.
- âWell, Jesus, Iâm no angel.â I changed my mind. Kill them all.
- Reminder that Jerry is great.
- The Garbage People wear aprons and nothing else when they make art. Theyâre so clearly designed to be odd and intriguing, but in a way thatâs obviously artificial and thus more annoying than fun. (âKingâ Ezekiel sometimes falls into a similar trap, but the actor is great and the character is so inherently likable that itâs easy to cut him a lot more slack.)
- Also, Rick saw a helicopter. Thatâs a pretty big deal which has no immediate impact on the episode.
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