The moment fans everywhere have been waiting for and reviewers everywhere have been dreading is here, as AMC’s “The Walking Dead” returns with its midseason premiere, titled “After”. This episode is on the heels of the death and destruction that the previous one ended with, and pretty much everything is in shambles. Let’s get to that, shall we?
Reminder: spoilers will be discussed, so don’t read this if you have not seen the episode yet. Also, parts from the comic will be discussed on occasion. Also, these thoughts are mostly in order of appearance in the episode itself. They are not ranked otherwise.
1. What Once Was
Early on in the episode, when Carl and Rick are raiding houses for food and shelter, there’s a really wonderful moment that finds Carl lustily looking at an excellent set-up in a kids room, complete with a flatscreen TV and all the hottest (pre-crisis) games. It’s clear there is a flash of excitement, before cruel reality comes crashing in, as he strips the back of the TV for cords to be used to tie a knot to keep the front door of the house locked, which he quickly reminds his dad Shane had taught him. Low blow, Carl. Low blow. If “The Walking Dead” has proven anything, it’s that its characters have long memories.
Then, Michonne’s dream after the second commercial break showed her life before all this (through hallucinations/flashbacks), and holy shit, I’ll be damned if that wasn’t one of the absolute best scenes this series ever had. Creepy and great character work in one place.
Later on, there’s another wonderful moment where Carl, shortly after he realizes he’s maybe not so invincible, takes a second to enjoy some (112 ounces!) chocolate pudding while sitting on a roof overlooking his new kingdom. It’s another reminder that this kid is, in fact, a kid, and its moments like that one and the Michonne one previously mentioned that the show excels at, yet all too rarely makes happen.
2. The State of Things
Meanwhile, in the unpleasant present, Rick is…in rather bad shape. Clearly suffering from at least a punctured lung and other Governor fight related damage, there’s a decent portion where I genuinely thought he might be dead.
Carl straight up wishes he was (or so he says, at one point), and he blames his dad for everything that happened to the group and for not pursuing The Governor to protect them to begin with.
Michonne is on an island with just her memories and her two new pets, and for the vast majority of the episode is aimlessly wandering through forests invisible to passing walkers, including one who reminds her of herself.
In short, all is well and happy in the world of “The Walking Dead”, as per usual. Bravo though to Andrew Lincoln, Chandler Riggs and Danai Gurira for excellent performances, elevating what could have been an overtly bleak episode into an actually very quality one. Riggs and Gurira, in particular, have done a lot in their time to develop their characters, and we’ve gotten to the point where they are highlights of the cast (which is easy to say in an episode where only three characters appear, but still).
3. That’s So Walking Dead
Even in an episode that Carl, frankly, kicked ass in, one of the things that really bothers me about this show is how it relies on characters being over the top stupid to bring drama to an episode. Case in point: Carl walking two zombies away from the house his (VERY) unconscious father was in to a spot a ways away so he could shoot them without drawing others to him (good!), before walking directly backwards into another oncoming zombie right before a commercial break (bad!).
The rest of the episode being dedicated to Carl’s growth and abilities as a survivor was fantastic, and hugely necessary given how big of a role he is playing now, but having him do something that is rather foolish in the midst of it was, well, pretty damn dumb in a typically bad Walking Dead sort of way. A small hiccup, but a hiccup no less.
Continued below4. Therapy Killing
The show has gotten very smart about the one thing people are sure to want to see: zombie killings. While many shows are relying on character growth or phenomenal acting, I’m pretty sure the hordes that watch this show would be more than happy to tune in every week if there was simply the promise of a few zombies getting killed each week.
Recently, we’ve consistently gotten some good ol’ fashioned zombie killings, and this one had a no joke zombie death scene. While Carl got some good action in, Michonne, suffering some severe trauma related to the events since the zombie apocalypse hit, got to blow off some steam by not just killing over a dozen zombies, but one that looked like her. It was both an excellent bit of zombie killing, but a transcendent moment for a character who has struggled to fight her demons and rediscover who she is.
5. The Road
This is about as complimentary as I can get for “The Walking Dead”, but this episode in many ways reminded me of Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road”. Yeah, sure, it’s a bit on the nose because the majority of this episode is a man and his son traveling together in the apocalypse just like in the book, but I can’t help it. This was an introspective, thoughtful story in the same line, and there were wonderful character breakthroughs for everyone in the episode. In particular, everything with Carl and Rick rang true, and the scene where Carl thinks Rick has turned and he’s going to have to kill him was particularly heartbreaking.
This, my friends, is the “Walking Dead” show I always wanted to see.
More of this please.
