Everyone loves the idea of making changes for the better. Yet wanting change and actually making changes are two very different beasts. British singer/songwriter Frank Turner once wrote a great piece about it called Love Ire & Song (the title track from his second album), in which he talks about being young and wanting to change the world before aging and realizing that isn’t as simple as you imagined, “And all the things that I believed with all my heart when I was young, are just coasters for beers and clean surfaces for drugs”. As the dust settled on a walker-free Alexandria, Rick made promises of change, a new Alexandria and a new world. As the afterglow fades and normalcy returns will such an ideal suddenly seem more daunting than he realized?
The Next World – Weeks later, life is returning to normal in Alexandria. Rick and Daryl head out on a supply run but their good day becomes more problematic when they encounter a lone survivor known as Jesus.
Have you recovered yet? Last week’s epic walker-cidal cleansing was one of the best episodes the show has ever produced so the follow-up was always going to have its work cut out. That’s why the off -creen time jump becomes the perfect move. It immediately separates us from prior episode comparisons and substitutes the prior action levels for intrigue as we piece together the little changes within the community. Some are delivered with great passing subtlety, especially the new relationship between Denise and Tara. While we’ve seen some degree of connection between them previously, Denise mentioning Tara talking in her sleep, confirms their new conjugal night time arrangements. It all helps promote the general theme of people looking towards tomorrow rather than just surviving today. The crisis has past and even if the walls are weaker and supplies shorter, more than ever the community now believes they have a future, embodied in confidence by their recent accomplishment. The episode also dials this back nicely for a few faces still on the verge of moving on. At first, Spencer’s spot of Mystery Men cosplay (He shovels well.... he shovels very well) feels a bit like character occupying veg while Rick & Daryl’s adventures are the meat of the episode. Yet it does build into a satisfying conclusion even if Spencer still isn’t jumping up the list of fan-favourite characters. In fact, it’s more impressive for the way it incorporates Carl and teases the idea of his injury (the one you’ve been seeing memes about all week.... or half seeing?) having negative mental effects on him. While there is some good material to be found from badly Carl adjusting to his new outlook on life, it’s also a great testament to his forced maturity that he just deals with it. By next week, he many even start cracking a few patchy jokes about it. Speaking of patchy, Enid feels very out of place this episode. Despite an opening pledge of her becoming more involved, the more the episode progresses the more you’ll wonder why she’s there.
While the catching up on the Alexandria relationship statuses is interesting, if there’s one thing above all else, what this episode does right it is give us some good old fashioned Rick and Daryl action. We haven’t seen these two in the field together since before Alexandria, and it’s great to recapture that again by separating them from the rest of the group. There’s a clear narrative purpose too that harks right back to the old school idea of Daryl being Rick’s second-in-command. Rick has his new world philosophy. Now, he needs Daryl to believe it too so the pair of them can start making it happen. Throughout the episode, we see the pair having friendly clashes of pessimism and optimism with Daryl at least moving closer to Rick’s views if not yet in line. Not all of this works partly for being too light in tone compared to the rest of the episode, making it feel uneven as a whole. Yet the lighter approach has its moments. Daryl riding shotgun and suffering Rick’s music feels straight out of a 67 Chevy Impala. There’s even a comparable feel of Dukes of Hazard to the pair as they get into a mad adventure and just roll with the punches, “It is pretty stupid of us to go out there isn’t?..... Do it again tomorrow?”.
This episode also gives us a big comic character introduction in the form of Paul “Jesus” Rovia, and the timing of his arrival implies the show is sticking in the same source material direction (in literature, he first shows up after the conclusion of No Way Out). He is the gateway to another key location, which according to the next episode’s promo, appears an imminent destination. All that aside, there’s a lot to enjoy from Tom Payne’s performance at face value. He makes Jesus feel smart, quick-witted and surprisingly badass for his unassuming appearance. He quickly feels like a character that will be a lot of fun, especially while Rick and the rest go through an uncertain distrusting period with him. However, the biggest development in the episode has to be a certain relationship commencement. It feels natural enough and in many ways, like it’s been slowly on the cards for a long time..... and if someone could have told that to writers Matthew Negrete & Channing Powell, they might not have stamped home the point so heavily. The coming together itself is great but all the earlier setup is needless and ultimately damaging because it’s nothing but points and conclusions that viewers could have reached for themselves, and the self-realization is always more rewarding than having to be told.
It has some problems and of course it's nothing on last week’s family-axing, but the Rick and Daryl pairing alone make it worthwhile and overall, it does deserve credit for simultaneously picking up the pieces of a previous episode while still pushing things forward. What do they call soft drinks in your state?