On an unfortunate evening of scheduling, Game of Thrones had its season premiere at the same time as The Walking Dead had its finale. One show being perhaps the greatest production on television of the day, and the other being The Walking Dead. How did The Walking Dead stand up? Find out below, in our look at “Welcome to the Tombs.”
Note: SPOILERS WILL BE DISCUSSED.
1. Our Prison is Your Prison
And by that, I mean the prison has now become a metaphor for everyone hoping that the show would move onto a new location, as the prison has already worn out its welcome and we’re going to be giving…wait for it…a whole ‘nother serving of it!
As this episode ends, the people of Woodbury – the ones that remain at least – are moving into the prison as Rick’s people sad face around them to sad sounding music. Given the start, the fact that the prison has now effectively become as big of a downer for me as a viewer as the farm is saying something. Yet this episode wraps having given us no real payoff for the season that preceded it, and with the promise of only more of the same to follow. This is something I am not excited for.
2. The Governor is ruined
This works in two ways: one, in that the Governor’s reign is forever over, and two, in that the character is such a caricature at this point it’s almost comical. After two weeks back where he went all Michael Myers on Andrea, I didn’t think he could get worse, but this episode found his entire Woodbury gang responding to Glenn and Maggie in riot gear as if they were a combination of the Dothraki from Game of Thrones and the alien death machines from War of the Worlds, and him losing it after they roll out (because they don’t want to die) and then mowing almost all of them down. Well, besides Martinez and his other lieutenant, who have a chance to kill him and move on but instead inexplicably fearfully get in a truck with him and roll out to parts unknown.
The astounding thing is in the comic, the Governor actually manages to be more defensible than this version. I mean, that guy was a monster, but at least he sort of took care of his people. This one? He’s just nuts, and there’s no rhyme or reason to him as a character anymore. He’s like Andrea on steroids with a mean case of the “I gotta murder Rick”s, except unlike Andrea, we will apparently have to continue to deal with him.
3. Speaking of…
Roughly 1/3 of this episode was Andrea hanging out in a room with Milton as he slowly died and she tried to uncuff herself with a pair of pliers. I probably should be able to say just that to adequately describe how big of an utter failure this episode is as television, but I will continue.
Effectively half of what Andrea said in this episode was checking to make sure that Milton hadn’t died yet (or just staring at him to make sure he hadn’t yet), instead of GETTING THE PLIERS AND GETTING OUT. The other half was her effectively being a speakerbox for the writers, apologizing for completely ruining her as a character. “I tried.” “I just didn’t want anyone to die.” None of that worked in effectively explaining the collapse of her narrative from a logic and interest standpoint, but it sure did fill those minutes. I’m glad she is off the show, and they were backed into a corner with her after the audience effectively turned on her.
4. The Plan
I can’t not address the master plan that Rick and the Team apparently concocted. You have all of the Governor’s forces inside the prison, so what you do is throw a couple smoke grenades to make them get in a tizzy, and have Glenn and Maggie wait outside to shoot them. That’s it. Where was Rick, Daryl, Michonne and Carol during all of this? You couldn’t have, I don’t know, one or two more people shooting at them?
Then afterwards, everyone celebrates like they won the Super Bowl, as if the Governor wasn’t likely to come back. “We drove them out! We won! Yay!” Really? Does he seem like the type who’s going to be like, “well, I lost!” It’s an awful plan that works through the power of bad scripting. Congrats.
Continued below5. What’s Next?
The season wraps on what I estimate to be a new low point. Which is astounding. I wish I could say I was excited for whatever’s coming, but I’m not. I honestly have no idea where next season’s narrative tension will come from, save for the still out there Governor. We are at an incredibly uninteresting place for the show, and that is really, really saying something.
Am I wrong? Is everyone excited for next season? Was that finale all killer, no filler? Let me know in the comments, because right now, I’m not seeing it.
What I am seeing is how awesome Game of Thrones is. Expect me reviewing that, come next week.
