It’s not only me! Now, the TV review community is turning around on “The Walking Dead” in its so far stellar fifth season. Sure, it still has flaws (after all, tonight’s episode doesn’t finish off the Beth storyline like it really feels like it should), but it’s now a damn good show.
Well, probably. Did the Team Abraham centric “Self Help” keep it going? Let’s find out below.
As per usual, please do not read this review until you’ve watched the episode. You’ve been warned.
1. Eugene
If you read the comic, you knew it was only a matter of time until we got here, and here it was. Eugene didn’t have a cure, and he never did.
“I’m not a scientist! I lied! I’m not a scientist. I don’t know how to stop it.”
Before this episode on the show, the defining characteristic to the character was that he had really ridiculous hair and that he apparently had a cure. In this one, they finally built him up just before they tore him down, and it was a very, very effective episode of doing just that. Sure, they built him up by revealing him as a coward, a creepster (watching Rosita and Abraham have sex from the Self Help section was hilarious, and mostly lifted from the comic) and varying other not so good things, but they built him up no less.
It wasn’t all bad though. He’d been living a lie for so long he forgot how to be himself, and the way he bonded with the group and Tara reassured him that they’ll be with him no matter what armed him with the ability to feel confident in revealing his true nature. It was very effectively handled, and a really beautiful character moment even if he was lying the whole time about T. Brooks Ellis and his opinion of his Tennessee Top Hat. I don’t care about the cure, but how dare he slander T. Brooks Ellis’s name.
2. Abraham
Even more than Eugene, this episode was about Abraham. The reveal of his tragic backstory as to how he met Eugene was maybe the most heartbreaking story beat the series has ever had. That last scene, delivered perfectly after Eugene’s reveal, was just astonishing. There’s Abraham, destroyed by the death of his family after they gave up on him, about to kill himself only to be saved by Eugene and the mission he had to carry out. Eugene quite literally gave Abraham the will to live, and a reason to do so.
He was already breaking, but when Eugene shared that he wasn’t actually a scientist and didn’t actually have a cure…well, it was just too much for him to handle. The sheer ferocity with which he attacked Eugene was just outrageous. Cheers to Michael Cudlitz on the performance, as anyone who can deliver such physical power and emotional depths is an actor to be reckoned with. Hell, he delivered the line of the episode when he shared with Glenn that he was “gonna need some ass first” before his night watch. Cudlitz hasn’t had much of a chance to do anything besides be a heavy so far, but when given the opportunity to do more, by god did he deliver.
3. Tara
While she still doesn’t have that much to do, I’m amazed by how far Tara has come as a character. Originally a one note disaster under the guidance of the Governor, she’s somehow become a real asset to the show. Alanna Masterson gives the character weight, but she also brings an odd sense of irreverence to a show that can be deathly serious. I mean, that peek she took after she caught Eugene watching Abraham and Rosita bang was absolutely classic.
But more than that, she swings wildly between roles in the group and on the show and does it with equal aplomb. Whether its as an ancillary character or Eugene’s protector or confidante, she brings it each and every week. After more than a year of her existence on the show, I can wholly say that I’m happy she’s a part of it.
4. Humor
While it can hardly be mistaken for “Brooklyn Nine Nine”, I can’t be the only one who thought this episode was a little on the funny side, right? Sure, it was still hugely serious in parts, but I named three bits – Abraham and Glenn’s “ass” interaction, Eugene’s usage of “Tennessee Top Hat” and Tara’s innocent peek – that are about the pinnacle of funny for this show. And that’s without even mentioning how funny Eugene oddly is, as Josh McDermitt’s Rain Man-esque delivery of the character’s lines is almost always hysterical (perhaps in an unintentional way).
Continued belowThe episode needed it, as if you took the major beats out by themselves, this would have been a really, horribly depressing episode. But they cut it just well enough to make it work.
5. Hope
Much of this episode was about hope. Eugene’s hope that his new family would still like him. Maggie and Glenn’s hope for tomorrow (I loved Maggie’s “It feels really good having this. It’s not about what was. It’s about what’s going to be.” line). Rosita’s hopes to become more of a leader. Tara’s hope for acceptance. Abraham’s hope for meaning to his life. While by the end, much of it was dashed potentially, it’s hard not to feel like this is a good look for the show.
It’s like Andy Dufresne said in “The Shawshank Redemption”: “Get busy living or get busy dying.” A big part of this show’s resurgence is it has been more about finding a way to live a real life rather than sticking around in a hole waiting for death to come. This episode was excellent, but I sincerely hope that this ending wasn’t a portend for the future. Eugene or not, this show needs light at the end of that tunnel, however faint.
