Well, other than a few tidbits of silly narration (from Michonne this time) we have on our hands, dear readers, yet another very solid episode of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live.
I just wish it didn’t have such a silly title, because it really has been quite good so far. Two of my favorite lines this episode both involved Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh). In the first, we see Rick a new arrival at the CRM. Jadis—with a decent haircut for once—is there to meet him. They chat and at one point she says:
“Fries are good, but onion rings—that’s living.”
I agree with this! If onion rings are done well, I’ll take them over fries any day, though some really good truffle fries might sway me.
In a later conversation, after Rick mistakenly believes he’s helped Michonne (Danai Gurira) escape and tells Jadis that he’s faked her death so there’s no need for reprisal, she reminds him that she saved him once. Now you can save her, he replies. “You’re a hero . . . with a #$%^ haircut.”
I laughed out loud. That was genuinely the funniest line in a TWD show in ages. There’s never a ton of comic relief in these various versions of The Walking Dead, but I always appreciate a little humor to lighten up all the bleakness.
Mostly, though, the episode was quite dark. Rick tries to get Michonne to leave, tricking her by making it look like they’ll escape together. Obviously, this doesn’t work and she heads back, only now she’s angry. Thorne (Lesley-Ann Brandt) ends up bringing her into their little post-Okafor cabal, but when Michonne disobeys orders and gets into the fight with a zombie (or “delt”) horde, Thorne is unhappy about it. She’s got Okafor’s job now but still has no clue why Rick wants Michonne around. Michonne’s disobedience (and Rick’s complicity in that) is a, um, thorn in her side. She almost shoots her during the fight, but Rick gets in the way.
Instead, she sends Rick and Michonne—Dana still, to all but Rick, Jadis and the guy who draws the artwork on old phones and TVs—back to HQ. She’s upset and doesn’t want to see her again. I’m still a little fuzzy on all of this, to some degree. You want tough fighters in your military, right? You want A’s not B’s to be the ones doing the actual killing, or at least I would. I can understand being upset by disobedience, but if you have someone who is obviously a great fighter at your disposal, why order her to stay back? When she proves she’s one of the best soldiers on your team, why not promote her? Isn’t that what Okafor was trying to do since he seemed unhappy with the current A/B system?
I suppose that’s my only complaint with the premise for this show so far. The CRM is obviously doing a bang-up job at surviving and thriving in the zombie apocalypse. And maybe you want B’s as your ditch diggers and your food vendors. But you’d want A’s in your military ranks. I’m confused by the way this is handled outside of the CRM also. Why gas the caravan in last week’s episode if they’re using people like Jadis—and her trash people back in the day—to find B’s to take in. That might have been a caravan of B’s to take in! It’s all a bit muddled in terms of practicality.
We get a bit more General Beale (Terry O’Quinn) this episode. He tells Rick he can’t decide if he’s an asset or a liability. In fact, he uses the Ancient Greek word ‘pharmakon’ saying it means both “the poison” and “the cure.” I think he’s onto something. As Rick says—quoting an old friend— “People are a resource.”
In the end, Rick is told to take “Dana” back to HQ and they set off in a chopper in a storm. Michonne has a bit of annoying voice-over narration during this scene that wasn’t necessary, that could have been conveyed entirely through the look on her face, and then she grabs Rick and pulls the two of them out of the helicopter and into the storm, free-falling into black as the credits roll.
All told, not as strong as last week’s episode if only because Nat—poor Nat!—wasn’t in it, but still a good, entertaining episode that only slips here and there with voice-over and mostly has engaging dialogue, tense moments, some fun zombie killing and more kissing between the leads. What more could you ask for?
Nat not being killed off, I suppose. Ah well.
Here’s my review of episode 1 and my review of episode 2.
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