With the last episode – the midseason finale – leaving viewers with mouths agape and the show in a point with no obvious future, the biggest question I have for the second half is this: what’s next? Andrew Lincoln has said that the show is going to go in a radically different direction (his words, not mine), and with unlimited options available seemingly, I could see that. But is that what the show actually does? Let’s find out as we take a look at the midseason premiere.
As per usual, avoid this if you haven’t watched the episode. Spoilers aplenty from here on out.
1. What the hell was that cold open?
There are a lot of different ways you could have started this show, just like there are a lot of different ways they could have told the story in this episode. The open though often is a barometer of the rest of the episode for this show, though, and in this case, that was true once again. This open had me actively wondering “what the hell is going on?” as we had weirdo, stylized cuts being edited into familiar imagery (like the tower from the prison) as well as things we had never seen before, like Lizzie and Mika saying “it’s better now.” It was completely and utterly ridiculous, and it left me scratching my head and wondering what in the hell I was watching.
As it turned out, just like it often is for the show, it was a barometer of what was to come, albeit a far more literal one than usual. From the cold open, I could tell this episode was going to be an absolute cluster, and most definitely not in a good way.
How much better would this episode have been if they spend the cold open explaining where they were taking us – Richmond, Virginia, to Noah’s old home (which they kind of explained) – cross cut with how they got there, complete with all kinds of therapeutic zombie killings? The answer is this: way better.
2. The High Cost of Living
This episode was all about the weight that comes from living in this world. More specifically, it was about Tyreese dealing with that struggle, and as it has looked for a long time, he was pretty close to giving up. All he needed was a little push. Or, as it happens to be, a little stumble and fall, as two different zombies get the jump on him as he’s either a) zoning out while staring at a picture of Noah’s twin brother (h/t BlitzkriegJack) or b) having an in-depth conversation with several of the dead members of the cast he closely interacted with, resulting in him being bit not once, but twice.
While the team he is with – Noah, Rick, Michonne and Glenn – finds him and cuts his arm off in a desperate attempt to save him (and the effort was actually quite sudden and horrific), it’s too late, and by the end of the episode, Tyreese is dead.
As a character, Tyreese the TV show character never had the impact that Tyreese the comic character had, even though you could make the argument the former had more longevity (although it’s hard to compare). Still, Chad Coleman is a strong actor, and he made Tyreese one of the few characters who latched onto his humanity even as it slowly but surely doomed him. Even with that in mind, it was a necessary death, it was an expected one, but it was also one that lacked very much impact at all. Incredibly enough, I had started to fall asleep right before he was bitten (never a good sign), and the rest of the episode hardly stimulated me more.
Speaking of having a high cost of living, this episode brought Emily Kinney back one last time as Beth so she could sing a song to Tyreese, because of course she did and they hate me. That was the icing on this garbage cake.
3. Settling Down
Besides Tyreese’s slow, slow, slow descent into no longer living and Noah’s meltdown after the underexplained journey to his old home, the rest of the episode was Rick and Glenn having competing existential crises about the decisions they make in this new world while Michonne turned on a dime and became a talker as she tried to convince the two of them that they needed to stay in Richmond and the gated community they were in.
Continued belowWhile there was clear cut evidence that this wasn’t a good idea – someone attacked that place and was not so nice to the bodies (whether they were undead or living is uncertain), someone suggesting that they stay there made a certain amount of sense. Michonne being that person? Not so much. She’s been pretty firmly established as both a ronin and someone who is more than willing to follow everyone else. Now she’s fighting over the idea of staying in a zombie ridden hellhole. It doesn’t make a lot of sense.
4. Washington, Washington, Washington
The only thing that makes less sense? Michonne switching even faster to wanting to go to Washington, DC. Sure! It’s close! Yeah, there’s no cure there, but I’m guessing all’s great there. Why not?! Both her logic and her quick switch in that direction befuddled me, but that’s okay. It gave the show direction – literally so – as Rick agreed and that’s where they’re headed next.
The only thing that bothers me about that is the fact that unlike in the comic, they don’t really have any reason to go there. They already ended Eugene’s charade, so now they’re just going there to go there. In a lot of ways, this episode and the show’s somewhat wayward nature as it currently stands is all thanks to the decision to play that hand early, and you can feel the show suffering for it. Either way, it’s Washington or bust starting next week. Let’s hope for the former more than the latter.
5. Undoubtedly the worst episode in a long time
“It’s better now,” Mika and Lizzie say over and over throughout this entire episode. Well, sorry to disappoint, girls, but I beg to differ. This is worse. Much, much, much worse. Andrew Lincoln talked about how the show was going to go in a radically different direction, and if it’s this direction, I really don’t know if this is one I can follow the show down.
This was an episode of “The Walking Dead” that thought it was a Danny Boyle film, mistaking confusion and artistic cuts with quality storytelling. It had a direction to go down that (I guess) it needed to go down, but it did so in such a disastrous fashion that it was at best easy to ignore and at worst snoozeworthy. It was so not affecting, at least to this viewer, that it rivaled the lowest moments of the show.
Making it worse was the fact it was a premiere, as this was supposed to be the inspiring start to a new half season, but if anything, this inspired me to not want to watch the show again. It was frustrating to experience, as it was both trying very hard to not just be good, but artful in a way the show had never been previously, which made it almost laughable. Here’s hoping it gets back to where it was early last season, but my god was that a bad start.
