Another week, another “The Walking Dead” game of Russian Roulette, with every sixth bullet being a ungodly monstrosity of an episode. Of course, that ratio used to be worse and the current ratio is way better, but you never really know when the show will regress to where it once was. Here’s hoping tonight’s episode, titled “Four Walls and a Roof”, is another step in the right direction. If it keeps it up, who knows, maybe this will just be its new normal?
Let’s find out, as I share five thoughts on it below.
As per usual, don’t read the review/recap until after you’ve seen the episode. Spoilers will be discussed at great length.
1. TAINTED MEAT!!!
So I simultaneously called that one and didn’t call that one, as I knew it was coming but backed away because it felt so weird that they didn’t have Bob say that at the end. Maybe they felt that the cannibal turn was enough of an angle to blow people’s minds at the end and they didn’t want to waste their flavor (!!) on two twists at the end.
Either way, the fact that the episode opened with that was pretty damn rad. It totally makes sense now, and Lawrence Gilliard, Jr. totally crushed that scene and every other scene he was in during this episode. The madness he conveyed there somehow made Gareth and the rest of the Hunters seem sane. While I’m sad Bob is on his way out, god damn if he isn’t going out in a blaze of glory. What a hell of an open, even if the shots of the Bob Buffet that preceded it were pretty damn gratuitous.
2. The Killer G’s
Besides Bob Stookey, who owned this episode, the two MVP’s of the episode were Father Gabriel and Gareth.
For the former, we found out his backstory, and it was the one we already expected. Seth Gilliam’s performance in laying out his personal tragedy – that this man of god wasn’t there for a potential new flock in their time of need – was heartbreaking, and he crushed it. Gilliam’s a fantastic new addition to the cast, and with Gilliard’s Bob now dead, hopefully he can continue on as the secret moral compass to the group.
Meanwhile, Andrew J. West’s Gareth met his demise in rather horrific fashion, and while it couldn’t have happened to a nicer cannibal, I have to say I’ll miss the guy. His performance in this show might just have been the most magnetic one it has ever had. For a monstrous cannibal, I couldn’t help but hang on his every word, and he was an endlessly interesting foil to Team Rick with his cold hard reason and even keel throughout. The sickest part of Gareth is that it’s easy to see his logic, even as it horrifies you. He’s a counter-point to Team Rick, and a cautionary tale of what could happen if you let the dark take over who you are.
3. The Misdirection Game
I have to say, I was very nearly pissed at the writers. One of my greatest frustrations in the show since its beginning has how it seemed that the writers would force otherwise effective characters to do wildly stupid things to create drama. It killed me and the show for several seasons. So when Rick and the Assault Team rolled out to take out Gareth and the Hunters, just like they wanted him to after dropping off Bob in front of the church, it was like a horrible flashback to the worst parts of the show.
But as the writing staff has done several times recently, they were just – in a way – using viewer expectations against us, as Rick saw right through Gareth’s plan. That he showed up right as Gareth’s team was about to make their move on the room everyone was hiding in was perfect, especially considering how they utilized the silencers that Glenn found in the last episode. Phenomenal writing, truly.
4. Getting Straight Nasty
A show called “The Walking Dead” is naturally going to be pretty bloody, but the vast majority of it is classified in the category of “fantasy violence” for me, as it’s 90% zombies getting killed. Intense? Sure. Violent? Yes. Disturbing? Not really, honestly.
Continued belowThis episode, however, was in my opinion the most hellaciously violent one we’ve seen yet. The way that Rick and his crew killed the Hunters wasn’t just effective, it was brutally so. It reminded me more of something like “Drive” in the way it wasn’t just killing, it was killing with a passion that was vaguely disturbing. There were demons being let out by Michonne, Rick, Sasha and Abraham, and it was a lot more than a kill. It was a score being settled. This show has really unleashed, and no episode has shown that better than this one.
5. “Nightmare’s end. They shouldn’t end who you are.”
Between the look on the faces of Maggie, Glenn and Tara during the demise of the Hunters, Rick and Abraham’s near fist fight, and Maggie’s response to Father Gabriel’s terror at the blood bath in his church (“This is the lord’s house.” “No, it’s just four walls and a roof.”), it was very much looking like some of the team was starting to think that maybe even the good side wasn’t so good.
Thankfully, in death Bob Stookey shared that last sentiment working off what he said in last week’s episode, and it was pretty much perfect. More than anyone, Rick has went to a rather dark place, and as Abraham knows – “The new world’s gonna need Rick Grimes.” – more than anyone, Rick can’t lose it. Characters like Bob are maybe the most important ones, as in a show filled with enough darkness to fill an eternal night, he reminds people that there’s more to life than a wait for death.
This was a dark, dark direction for the show, but a necessary and an incredibly fascinating one. With Beth and Carol almost certainly (they may kill one of them, who knows) returning for real in two episodes time after Daryl’s dramatic arrival at the end of the episode, and next week’s episode apparently focusing on what happened to Beth (and how Daryl and Carol got her out), things are looking up all things considered. Hopefully Rick can remember that instead of continuing the direction he might be headed.
