JSS – While Rick and most of their best fighters are away, The Wolves come out to play as Alexandria finds itself suddenly over run with vicious and sadistic intruders. While many residents desperately fight for their lives, Carol and Morgan try to rally a comeback.
“And everything was going so well” so who in the hell blew that horn? That’s what most of us were screaming last week in the episode's outstanding shocking conclusion. This follow up strings us on nicely with an opening third of blissful normality before a chaotic reality unfolds when The Wolves are not near, The Wolves are here. It’s curious to learn that sabotaging Rick’s mission with the herd wasn’t actually intentional, just to strike while so many of them were away from home.
The suddenness of the invasion comes at great shock value (even with the action movie cliché “smoking’s gonna kill you” setup) while simultaneously ringing true to the dangers Rick and his group have long prophesised. Enid even spells it out for an effective recap, “This place is too big to protect, with too many blind spots”. So in just the same way we’ve seen her slip over the fence so do these enemies come flying over. There’s an incredible feeling of masochism to the attackers as we witness them hacking up and mutilating bodies long after the kill. That “The Wolves” is not just a name but a state of being for these people. One subdued member even implies they that view themselves as animals, “People don’t belong here anymore”, which explains their barbaric and feral nature. This isn’t the kind of calculating and ruthless survival opportunist we’re used to seeing from the likes of Terminus or The Governor.
Even the cannibalistic actions of The Hunters came with some degree of self control. This is something new. This is humanity embracing the call of the wild with the darkest of intentions and leaves the survivors facing a terrifying enemy capable of anything. Although, despite the more impulsive actions seen in this episode one crucial detail implies there might be maniacal grand scheme in motion. Did anyone else think it strange that the attackers didn’t have a single gun among them? You could argue that gun shots would alert Rick and others but once inside nobody showed any signs of being at all covert. So we have to ask.... Were they meant to fail? Was this just the first wave designed to flash the group, test their defences and reveal their weaknesses? Were these just the hounds, with The Wolves still to come?
In true Under Siege style, the attackers crucially underestimated a cook to their demise. While Carol’s suburban casserole queen routine has been a lot of fun, it’s so great to see her finally untying the apron straps and reattaching the crimson headband into a full blown one woman weapon of mass destruction (you almost feel sorry for them). Just like last season’s assault on Terminus, she’s in outstanding form here as switches her humanity firmly off and goes full on guerrilla warfare. There’s great reflections back to walker pack camouflage as disguises herself as one of The Wolves for maximum damage and infiltration.
Carol has arguably become The Walking Dead’s best character through the sheer magnitude of her evolution from a helpless domestic abuse victim to Auntie Rambo. Like a few times before, we see that above all else, it is her willingness to do whatever is necessary without hesitation that is her greatest asset as a survivor. However, writer Seth Hoffman (Prison Break, House) finds the perfect natural counter argument to her actions in Morgan, and his ideals of all life being precious. His early anger at Carol killer his attacker is fantastic as she challenges the inner peace that became his salvation. Large parts of the episode play out into a moral tug of war between Carol’s kill or be killed approach and Morgan’s “killing will only get you killed” convictions. Good points are made on both sides as Carol happily ignores Father Gabriel in peril for the larger plan while Morgan goes out of his way to save him. There are further great examples of Morgan’s Jedi level restraint even in the face of grave opposition. Yet at the same time, we see many characters face their situations that feel a Thunderdome without choice. Jessie’s home ambush is the most shocking for her psychotic character flip in defence of her children; elder son Ron’s “who are you” reaction says it all. As if to show that a more horrifying enemy will require the worst parts of ourselves to defeat, like Rick & company killing The Hunters in cold blood last season.
The episode packs some great moments from supporting characters, and even achieves an impressive amount of setup before the Starks start raising hell. Enid’s opening flashback is brilliant as it charts her transition from a petrified girl watching her parents being eaten alive to a hardcore survivalist complete with an episode titling catchphrase. Her spot of alfresco Donatello for lunch even elevates her to Daryl levels of ruggedness. Back in the present she gets some good moments with Carl and thankfully the odd whiff of a love triangle with Ron quickly dissipates. Denise is an enjoyable new character taken straight of the comics. Her premise of being out of depth in a forced responsibility (as the community’s new doctor) is very relatable and we really emphasise with her fears of failure. Denise proves a good point of interaction for the BFFs of Tara and Eugene. Tara’s optimism plays well against Denise’s negativity and gives Eugene great comedic opportunities with his inappropriately unhelpful honesty. Claire and Deanna also get a nice early scene as Claire tries to help Deanna deal with Reg’s loss by encouraging her to help him live on through his legacy. As for Aaron discovering just how The Wolves found them, you can’t help but feel for him in his unspoken realisation. This could mark a huge shift in his character.
We’ve seen many Walking Dead episodes in the past succeed despite only focusing on a few characters and keeping a lot of big names on the bench, but JSS takes this to a whole new level. It’s no disrespect to call most of the featured characters (only excluding Carol and Carl) second string yet they pull out a win the first team could barely dream off. It’s onslaught of nail-biting thrills, some of the most brutal and bloody action we’ve seen in a couple of seasons, genuine character peril and some wonderful cast performances. There’s an outstanding momentum to this season already as we know that even as the smoke clears on this battle, the oncoming super herd of walkers is about to take them out of the frying pan and into the nuclear bomb blast. Welcome to Alexandria: the not-so safe zone but God has it given us an incredible episode!