Many see it as a military-based film: recruits being actively tortured, being their instructors as part of their training process. Be it life threatening acts like drowning or sheer overwhelming amounts of pain, an importance is placed on this experience. Why? Because some things you just can’t understand until you’ve been through them. Until you’ve felt that panic and fear take over body you’ll never be equipped to fight against it. This is something we see in this week’s The Walking Dead: that there some things about surviving in a zombie infested world that you just can’t understand until after you’ve had to suffer them.
Thank You – With half the super herd now being drawn towards Alexandria, Rick tries to distract them away again while Glen and Michone try to get everyone else safely back home but as injuries slow them down, they must face some horrible choices.
In same way that previous season’s have spent several episodes following, different groups of characters across the same time period so follow that same course this week. This episode takes place in the same hour or so as last week’s Alexandria Under Siege to focus on Rick, Glen, and the other members of the herd migration mission immediately after we left them hornier than they’d prefer. This really keeps the tense action momentum going, and even manages to elevate last week’s levels of desperation as Glen & Michone’s group discover that there’s no limit on how bad their day can get. Rick’s early warning of “they won’t all make it back” immediately sets the tone of impending moral ambiguity. At some point, they will face the survivor’s choice of some living or all dying. Yet rather than just leaving us hanging on for that inevitable moment, the episode plays excellently on the perspective innocence of the Alexandria residents. Heath becomes the focus, openly confronting and opposing Michone to begin with but as the episode progresses we see him coming to understand: That there are some things you just can’t be explained until you’ve been through them. This plays on the continuing theme of the isolated Alexandrians getting a crash course in the realities of this new world. Writer Angela Kang does a good job of creating attachment to many of the group: From the simple act of the injured members actually asking to be left behind for the others' sake to the more touching personal note of David telling of how he met his wife, knowing he may never see her again.
There’s an interesting undertone message of consequences to the episode. This week comes with a high body count, but for the many deaths seem to come as a consequence of their individual actions. The best examples come early through the “Red Shirt” Alexandria members of the group. One dares to suggest that Rick actually planned all this to have them killed (harking back to Carter’s ill contempt from the first episode), much to the disgust of the others, pays the price for it. Another terrified idiot panics and shoots one of his own before running away in fear to become a mid-afternoon snack. This is echoed later by Rick’s key message to the others, “We keep going forward for them, we can’t turn back because we’re afraid”. Doubt and selfish acts will get you killed. This all reaches a crescendo with Nicholas’s story, as his quest for redemption encounters the sins of his past, in the town that he and Aiden abandoned the rest of their team. Director Michael Slovis (Game of Thrones) visually shows his resulting PTSD with a series of Tom Hanks/Saving Private Ryan style wig outs, which are surprisingly effective. Like before, there’s great use of his unlikely friendship with Glen as our favourite “Go to Town Guy” pulls him back into the game. Yet Nicholas’ ultimate actions symbolise so much. While he recognises that Glen has given him the chance to be a good man again as pair keep fighting tooth and nail against a sea of walkers, when their chances of survival officially reach zero, he takes the selfish option. He doesn’t keep going as Rick said they need to and as a result, he makes a choice for himself that results in terrible consequences. While the Internet jury remains divided with the end result, it does not detract away from the shock value. You may need a hug afterwards.
The supporting stories don’t work as well in this episode as they feel too much like setup for the subsequent weeks rather than immediately relevant. While “Run Rick Run” does deliver a good shock payoff in the final minutes, Daryl’s indecision and the continuing cruising of Sasha and Abraham just don’t add anything to the episode. Even if Daryl’s choice is in keeping with central theme (going back for himself or keeping going for everyone), it still just equates to a few shots of Daryl just riding his bike. By contrast, a big success of the episode is the walker brutality. After the living impaired were almost absent last episode and only taking a small bite out of Carter the week before, here they are literally painting the screen red. We’re treated to many visceral and gruesome takedowns of the living with some truly horrific style as the numbers of the herd take their toll. From going down guns blazing to screaming in agony, there’s a lot to enjoy this week for the less squeamish viewer.
Despite the vast number of extras in some shots, Thank You doesn’t quite deliver the same epic feel as First Time Again, or the peril of JSS, but it’s still a very rewarding and entertaining episode. Spark your fan theories on whether a certain someone is still alive or dead (personally, I’m going for alive). After a few action packed weeks, the season could do with slowing itself down for an aftermath episode and hopefully that’s what next week’s Here’s Not Here will deliver. For now, all that’s left is to say thank you to The Walking Dead for giving us such an explosive season so far!