The Walking Dead - S6 E5 Review - Now

 

Well.

It's that time of year again.

That wonderful time where after a fantastic start to the season we're faced with a season first half slowdown and I'm pulling my hair out wondering why I let The Walking Dead do it to me every year, let it get my hopes up then disappoint me like some cheap lover who’s name it can’t remember the morning after a night of wild passion.

Deja –Vu

You may be getting the feeling that I didn't think too much of this week’s episode but, I guess, that’s really not the case. After the usual 45 minutes of viewing and after the credits had rolled I didn’t find myself disappointed per say but I didn’t find myself particularly excited either and that, in itself, was disappointing.

And that sense of disappointment isn’t unfamiliar, it seems like this happens every season start, 3 fantastic episodes out of the starting block that get our adrenaline going and truly grip us, “this season” we say “this season is going to be the best yet”, then it comes, one episode that makes us all wonder who in the pacing planning department thought it would be a good idea to throw in an existentialist meditation episode on the nature of life (Kung-Fu Morgan I’m looking at you) right in the middle of the high octane rollercoaster we’d started on. But our faith in the saintly show producers tell us “no, next episode they’ll be back on track, next episode they’ll be kicking ass and taking names, just you watch’ and we do and they don’t and we’re left wondering why, why can this show not maintain some semblance of quality consistency across it’s season arc.

I could talk about budget constraints likely playing a factor with them being burned up early to create great opening episodes or I could delve into the cliché about how without the low episodes we can’t experience the giddy heights, but, much like this week’s episode, I just don’t seem to have the energy as it all feels so mundane and expected. That’s it, pack up, reviews done, nothing to see here, I’m going home.

Psych

Ok, I’m not, so let’s talk about the diamonds in the roughage of the recent episode 5. It was an average episode. Given the depths of boringness to which some of the mid-season episodes have sunk to in the past (Now I’m looking at you Season 2 farm frolics) I think this isn't far off a compliment even if in the grand scheme of things it just sits squarely in the middle ranks with lots of other forgettable average episodes but, as mum always used to tell me, we can’t all be stars.

The episode opens with Deanna dealing with the fall out of the Wolves attack and by the end of this episode she’s starting to look and act a bit like she’s done 3 tours of duty in a ‘Nam warzone, as after brutally taking out her PTSD on a rogue Walker with a broken bottle she asks Rick dejectedly whilst covered in fresh blood  “was my hopes for this place just Pie in the Sky”, it’s then you realise that Deanna is a women for whom all bets are now off, she’s lost everything very quickly and when she walks past the town gates in the closing scenes I had to wonder if in some moment of madness she wasn’t just going to throw them open and say “be damned with it all”, that old girls got a glint in her eye...

Things Start Getting Real

And on that note of people dealing with there issues there were some nice moments of characterisation this week, the one that struck me the most was that of Denise who has so far been well played by Merrit Wever. She’s not the two dimensional housewife fodder the towns filled with but a very real character dealing with the very real issue of being thrust into the role of the towns doctor, the feelings of insecurity and uselessness  in the face of this immense burden having been so far very well acted and given a nice sense of gravity and weight to them in a genre where writers can be guilty of having characters all too easily pull up their sleeves and say “Yep it’s the apocalypse I guess I just got to make the most of it, look at me shining ma, you told me I'd never be a star!”. Her freak-out is believable and sincere and when she tells Tara she just wants to be at home reading “War and Peace” it reminds us just how fresh to this living nightmare the Alexandrians all are.

Speaking of Tara and The Doc, from the moment Tara paid her a concerned visit I had a chemistry pegged between them and whilst I found Denise’s kiss to be vindication of that inkling I’m not fully 100% convinced yet there’s a definite planned romance there but it was a kiss that did seem to linger a little too long for two new BFF's, perhaps when she invites her over next episode to play 'hide the extra long zuchini' we'll know for sure.

Zoom In On The Grief

The big plot thread that had to be explored this week of course was Maggie’s reaction to the news of Glenn's death (big metaphorical quote mark fingers) and all in all she seemed to take it well, but that’s only because much like the general viewing public she doesn’t believe it either. Maggie and Glenn really are the Romeo and Juliet of the Walking Dead world and as such the storylines involving them can be quite impactful as both the actors really do make us believe that these are two people in a good old fashioned functional relationship and would do anything for each other, making it all the more believable when Lauren Cohan breaks down into tears as she explains she just needs to see sweet Glenn's face one more time even if he’s dead.

Steadfast by her side on her short lived quest to find out if Glenn and Nicholas have survived is Aaron who’s dealing with the guilt of possibly being the reason the Wolves came to Alexandria, a fact he comes clean to his fellow Alexandrians in order to further drive home the point that Colonel Rick Grimes is the man they all need to listen to. I like Aaron, he’s a very likeable character although he’s not been given much screen time this season but he’s not afraid to muck in on the hard jobs and certainly seems like someone the Grime Commandos can depend on in a scrap.

Closing Arguments

And that was the episode really, Rick was doing his ‘fight to survive’ routine as usual and the Alexandrians all stood around passively taking it on board until a few semi-predictable scenes highlighted that their status quo is very much dead, with Jessie killing a suicidee returned as walker in front of all the street hens and Spencer breaking up the great pantry robbery of ‘15. But it all felt a bit flat, the town has just survived a mass homicidal gang killing spree and no-one seems to be shedding many tears or looking too anguished over what must be the death of their fundamental belief in the decency of humanity, instead they’re all kind of milling around mildly indignant at the inconvenience of the event interrupting their rather idyllic post-apocalyptic life, “I had to scrub Jenny from number 7’s brains off my porch, you should have seen the stain they left”!

So we were left without much resolution this week, really only questions, such as is Glenn alive, are Abraham and Sasha still driving along at 5mph like some zombie marathon pace setter vehicle and where did Enid hop off to, back to her “wolf pack” perhaps? After watching the trailer for episode 6 I get the feeling that the big one, the Glenn reveal, if it even happens won’t be until episode 7 and who knows, perhaps the raise the roof mid-season finale could see him survive just in time for him to have to deal with a whole new headache of problems…

 

Pet Peeves This Week

A few things that bugged me this episode, tell me if they did you too.

- How did Rick get out that RV? Also, can he not run faster than the zombo’s? He literally had them hot on his heels by the time he was back at the gates.

- Irony much in holding a ‘we need to be quiet to survive’ meeting right next to the wall of walkers and shouting very loudly so everyone at the back could hear?

- Jessie really didn’t have much problem dragging away her first kill, grabbing hold of the dead Wolves members legs as non-chalantly as taking out the trash.

- Maggie seemed to go full girly mode when those two mud walkers came slipping and sliding out of the old well, it was like she’d forgotten for 3 seasons she’s been a Walker killing machine