If there was one episode where music was exploited in the worst way possible in The Walking Dead, it would have to be this one.
Almost every story plot in the fifth episode, titled Go Getters, was affected by music, and not in a good way. Easy Street seemed like a more tolerable torture theme song compared to the way music ground some of the scenes.
Let’s start with Carl and Enid. I know we’re still trying to wrap our heads around the fact that the best couple in The Walking Dead is no longer after that gruesome season premiere. But that doesn’t mean that we need another one right away. After all, there’s Michonne and Rick and whatever sort of fledgling romance they have at the moment.
However, it appears that the writers are trying to push the young couple Carl and Enid together, but it’s just so painful to watch. They’ve probably been trying to put them together even before the recent events happened, especially with that little love triangle that they had going on before.
Even Enid’s scene with that one zombie was just ridiculous. She and Carl had some sort of fight when she wanted to go to the Hilltop alone. After all her snobbish talk about being able to take care of herself outside Alexandria, when she’s faced with one zombie, it seemed as if she didn’t even know what to do. The look on her face was the exact replica of how the non-combatant Alexandrians were like when faced with Rick and the gang.
If that wasn’t worse enough, here comes a car smashing into the zombie and then backing up on it—overkill of overkills?—to the tune of a very common suspense music.
It turns out, the guy driving the car like crazy is none other than Carl—again, after making a big show that he wasn’t going to save Enid anymore. I don’t know if it’s just young love that I don’t get, but it’s like the most clichéd of clichés in teen love. And don’t even get me started on the roller skates scene with background music plucked straight out of a young adult movie.
Over at the Hilltop, we have Maggie and Sasha. The former is supposed to get treatment following the shock that she experienced (plus, she is pregnant) while the latter pledged to get her there safely.
I have to say, I was expecting a lot of good developments from these two characters. They’re essentially the widow and the woman scorned after her new boy toy was bashed to bits. And as a long-time viewer of the show, I was hoping that we’ll see them bloom fully into who they’re supposed to be—the kickass women behind the now-deceased kickass men.
What happens after is like a mish mash of progress from being shunned visitors to potential leaders of the colony. The muddled part was getting from the first point to the next. See, we have Sasha who tries to be the tough girl friend by facing off against Hilltop leader Gregory. Maggie still plays the diplomatic and levelheaded person that she is.
But then we get to that one odd scene. One moment, Maggie and Sasha were quietly lying in bed. The next, loud music suddenly plays from nowhere and it’s like a marching band arrived to welcome in a small band of zombies.
Everything happened so impossibly and suddenly, it felt like I had gone on an imaginary bathroom break. The scene brought so many questions. One—how were there fires all over the place when things felt so peaceful just literal seconds ago? Second, how was the Hilltop gate just impossibly left wide open? Third, who the hell left the insanely loud music on when everyone seems to have already retired to their respective houses? It’s the kind of deus ex machina where you plop so many elements together just because.
What’s disappointing is that we’re never given any answers to these questions. Well, sure, the Saviors had a hand in it, but the logic of how it happened seems left out, if you look closely enough. It’s almost as if that unbelievable night of zombie fighting and Maggie giving orders and basically driving a tractor to mow down the zombies just had to happen so we can swallow the fact that Maggie should lead Hilltop.
This isn’t how I pictured Maggie rising up to power. This isn’t the way imagined the women’s transformation. And after the dawdling episodes following the premiere episode, this isn’t how I pictured the show picking up the pieces for a bang-up mid-season finale.
Is the episode title supposed to be a clue of what they’re trying to do to the characters? Pushing Enid and Carl into a weird relationship? Forcing Jesus to become some sort of leader even when he says he’s not? Making Maggie and Sasha “go and get” the Hilltop for themselves?
I’m afraid to hope what will happen next. The show is progressing in a downward spiral, and unless they create episodes that are far from fillers, this is going to be far from the game-changer season that they hoped it would be.
The Walking Dead airs Sundays on AMC.