“If those walls don’t hold this safe zone is going to get pretty interesting..... Define interesting?..... Oh God! Oh God! We’re all not coming back for Season 7”. It’s been coming ever since Rick and company strolled into Alexandria; the day when everything would truly go to hell and the security its residents had taken for granted gets ripped away like a leaf on the wind, meeting a sharp breeze. It’s mid-season finale time and there’s no way out. So grab up those kill off bingo cards, ready your “if Daryl dies” riot kit and sit back to see just who it’s going to be in the last Walking Dead of 2015.
Start and Finish – With the collapsing tower creating a large breach in the perimeter walls, the vast walker hordes start flooding into Alexandria sending the residents scurrying into the houses for safety against insurmountable numbers. Will it be enough to save them?
The episode has been gifted iwth high dramatic stakes from last week, and uses them well as it combines frantic and desperate action moments of walker threats with quieter character moments in the houses in between. For all the severity and the mass peril, it’s these smaller moments that produce the episode’s best scenes whether it’s the most ill-timed of personal conflicts or general reflections about the need to carry on and not give up on the settlement. Tara expresses the later best in implying that such a place as theirs has to come with a price, and maybe they are finally being asked to pay it in order to remain. However, it’s the points of character conflict that provide the best thrills many of these were sign posted last episode or beyond, but first act of the episode does some good rope-a-dope misdirection to suggest that such things will be put aside due to the current state of emergency. The “Rick & Shane legacy” battle of Carl Vs Ron has many interesting elements to it. The biggest being that it’s an implied moment of madness from Ron rather than the pre-ordained action that the previous episode implied. We see him in a genuine moment of loss thinking he, his family, and everyone else are as good as dead because of Rick and Carl merely becomes the vent for these feelings of blame. The pair have a good mini tussle but it’s all their scenes afterwards that impress as Ron appears to regain himself, and Carl even lies about the incident to cover for him (we could still see them becoming best post-apocalyptic bros forever yet). From what initially looked like a teen love triangle, this has evolved into a great storyline for the pair, especially Carl who almost has a coming-of-age in the maturity he handles things with. You have to love his blunt spelling out of their situation, “Look man I get it, my dad killed your dad but you need to know something: your dad was an asshole”.
Then, we have the tale Carol, Morgan and the Wolf. Although it’s neither of those that initially provide the drama but the kind of surprise of Denise being left alone with the Wolf after Carol and Morgan are cut off (well we knew she was taken there last week but so much happens early on it’s easy to forget she’s still there). This literally gives us a sheep encaged with a wolf, even if a wounded one as we know Denise is no fighter. The Wolf even feels like he’s psychologically toying with her, with his gentle conversations about rights to live or die that eventually make her feel confident enough to attend his wound. Then of course, Carol and Morgan bust in for the real thunder dome as their apposing philosophies collide face-to -ace over whether the Wolf should live or die. This works so well because both arguments as their strengths and flaws. While Morgan’s preaching of all life being sacred has its humanity, the Wolf himself completely debunks any notions of his rehabilitation by flatly claiming that he will kill definitely everyone. At the same time, Carol does not feel at all herself even with Rambo mode as she advocates killing him at all costs. Even her logic has more holes in it than Trump’s manifesto, “I’ll kill you and him to stop anyone else dying”. It brings great tension and a close, gritty coming together when words just ‘aint cutting it. The only down side is it resolves itself a tad predictably. From the moment all four faces are in, the same room the outcome feels regrettably obvious, especially on such a big season episode where shock turn ups can happen.
Many of the smaller plots play out very well. Deanna and Michone’s tender more moments about keeping the Alexandria dream alive (“Someday this pain will be useful to you") in resolution of continuing on are very enjoyable. Less so is Sam going into full child mode as the “anti-Carl” in the face of such horror. While the early hazy shots of his perspective worked well, his inability to keep quiet puts a flashing neon sign of “I will get people killed when I run off or panic” above his head that will have many fans viewing him as the unwanted reincarnation of little Sophia. Gabriel’s apparent sterner resolve means that (God help him) he might start being interesting again. You could argue that the episode plays the cliff hanger card to heavily as it concludes, but on the flip side, that leaves us with a guaranteed good place to resume.
Despite the premise and a body count heavy source story from the comics, the end result is more of sedate fair than most would have expected, though with the heavy feeling of the story not being over yet. In case you missed the post-credits scene (not shown until the first ad break of Badlands), check it out for a name drop worth getting excited over. Then just like that, The Walking Dead is gone again for a good 10 weeks. In February, it even returns on Valentine’s Day..... finally a February 14th that geeks can look forward to.