Issue 177 of The Walking Dead: Good Issue With a Bad Cliffhanger.

In issue 177 of The Walking we got to meet more news characters, saw ones we had not seen in a while and had a few interruptions of intimate moments (wink).
The issue starts off with Rick reading a poem Mikey wrote about the death of his mother.
It was nice to see Rick again, who had been absent for three issues, which is apparently the longest time he has ever been absent in the series.
The scene between Rick and Mikey was very touching because of how Rick reacts to Mikey bringing up Andrea’s death.
Rick comments that he, “wouldn’t even know where to begin,” when writing a poem about her.
I like that Rick is still shown to be grieving Andrea, something that will probably take him many issues to bounce back from.
Although, it should be said that Rick will never be completely the same, considering that he loved her more than Lori.
Next at the Hilltop, we saw Maggie and Dante choose the absolute worst spot to hook up.
Seriously, if Maggie wanted to be discreet about her and Dante’s new relationship why did they choose a weapons shack where anyone could walk in?
Naturally, someone does and after that awkward situation we meet two new important characters named Sebastian and Mercer.
Sebastian is the son of Governor Milton and Mercer is his bodyguard.
Unfortunately for Mercer, Sebastian is a jerk who sees Mercer as below him, even though Mercer just saved him and his girlfriend’s life from multiple zombies.
This, however, did lead to a very funny moment where Sebastian criticized Mercer for not being able to handle two Walkers quickly and in the very next panel it reveals there were actually more than ten of them, which Mercer killed.
Then we finally get the conversation between Michonne and her daughter Elodie that had been built up the past two Issues.

michonne and elodie — Michonne shares a heartfelt moment with her daughter Elodie.

This was one of my favourite moments of Issue 177 because we learnt that Elodie is a real chip off the old block, when she reveals she murdered the men who raped her and murdered her sister.
This was very surprising to me because I thought Elodie would have found The Commonwealth early on and not had to resort to violence previously.
But no, just like Michonne, she has had to kill people to survive and knows exactly how bad things can get.
This may prove to be very interesting as their relationship progresses, with Elodie maybe helping Michonne in battle, instead of Michonne having to constantly protect her.
After this however, we get what I feel is the weakest part of the Issue and that is the cliffhanger.
Mercer meets with another soldier named George and the two discuss overthrowing Governor Milton, only to see Siddiq has overheard this conversation.

I do not like this cliffhanger for two reasons.
Number one, if Mercer and George were not just blowing off steam and are actually planning to overthrow Governor Milton, then this is happening too quickly.
The group just arrived at The Commonwealth.
It would have been better to have them, and thus the readers, get a better sense of the community before introducing this plot line.
Number two, this cliffhanger seemed way too similar to the scene Issue 89 when Glenn overheard Nicholas conspiring to kill Rick.
However, this might not turn out so bad if Mercer is just blowing off steam and I really hope he is because Mercer seems like a good character.
Overall, Issue 177 was a good Issue.
It introduced us to some interesting characters like Mercer and Sebastian and I really liked where Kirkman took Elodie’s story.
But the scene between Maggie and Dante was kind of dumb considering the loss of logic on Maggie’s part and I did not like the cliffhanger.

The Heart of The Walking Dead is Gone So What Happens Next?

Contains major spoilers for recent episodes:

I am ashamed to admit it but I have been in denial for a long time when it comes to The Walking Dead.
Just look at my earlier reviews and you will see I have been overpraising the show at times.
I gave the episode The Big Scary U five stars when it was not really worth that.
Looking back, its clear to me the reason I did that was because I was holding The Walking Dead to its own standards.
I was not rating episodes based on how good they were but on how good they were compared to the weaker episodes.
The thing that finally cleared my vision regarding this was the reveal of Carl’s fatal bite in the season 8 mid-season finale, How Its Gotta Be.

Carl was the heart of The Walking Dead.
One of the main themes in both the show and the comic is how a zombie apocalypse would affect the development of a child and the person they would grow up to be because of it.
Now, the show has lost that theme.
To top it all off, Carl was incredibly important in the upcoming Whisperer arc, due to his relationship with Lydia from the comic.
They could still do this storyline in the show but they would have to replace Carl with a minor character, now that he is dead.
In short, I believe that killing off Carl is one of the worst decisions the show has ever made.
They have taken the character who was the representation of the story and killed him off.
That shows how desperate the showrunners are getting.
The mid-season premiere aired on Monday, featuring Carl’s death, and that did not do anything to sway my fears.

carl dies — Carl, played by Chandler Riggs, says goodbye to Rick and Michonne.

Carl’s death was poorly done for two reasons.
Number one, the way he got bit was really idiotic.
Number two, Rick’s reaction to Carl’s death.
Rick acted like he would if Morgan had died, not his own son.
When Lori died in season three, Rick was an emotional wreck and it took him an entire season to recover from it.
However, with Carl, who meant so much more to him than Lori, Rick acts like he lost a friend, instead of his son.
The Walking Dead does not really seem like it knows what it is doing anymore.
However, that being said, it is possible for the show to not only bounce back from this but to come back better than ever.
The first reason it could do this is that The Walking Dead is getting a new showrunner, Angela Kang, who has worked on the show for a while and know how it works.
The second reason it that season nine will deal with The New Beginning story arc.
This arc changed everything in the comic.
The story jumped years ahead and gave us a fresh look at the characters.
It even introduced some of the most frightening villains The Walking Dead has ever given us, with The Whisperers.
So, Carl’s death might not be the end for the show.
The Walking Dead may have lost its heart but it just needs to find it again.
And if it doesn’t… well, at least we still have the comic.

The Commonwealth is run like a modern day government in Issue 176 of The Walking Dead… but that’s not a good thing.

In Issue 176 of The Walking Dead, New World Order Part 2, we got to see how the Commonwealth operates when Eugene and the others are taken to meet its leader Pamela Milton.
The issue picks up immediately after the shocking reveal of the previous one that Michonne’s daughter Elodie is alive and looking for her.
Michonne’s reaction to this was well done, with her wanting to see Elodie immediately, even going so far as to threaten Lance to see her but he wants them to meet Milton first.
Over the next few pages we get to see how The Commonwealth operates.
We finally get to meet Stephanie, who tries to talk to Eugene but is reprimanded by Lance, rather severely in fact.
After this, we meet Maxwell Hawkins and the leader of The Commonwealth, Governor Pamela Milton (I am sure it is not a coincidence that Kirkman decided to bring another Governor into the story).
It is through these two characters that we see how The Commonwealth is actually run like a modern day government… but that is not a good thing.
It seems that Milton and Hawkins only see people who were of elite status before the apocalypse as important to The Commonwealth.
This can be seen when Hawkins decides to have Michonne talk to Milton instead of Eugene (even though Eugene was the one who lead them there and is one of the most important people from his community) just because he was a science teacher while Michonne was a lawyer.
It only gets worse when Michonne meets Milton.
Milton views herself as bringing back civilization, even though Rick’s group has been doing this as well and wants Michonne to thank her for what she has done when she has not done anything to help Michonne yet.
She also seems to view people below her status as weaker because of how she refers to the soldiers guarding her as “brutes”.

These factors combine to show that The Commonwealth is run by elites and people who were not important before the apocalypse but are now, like Eugene, are of no importance to them, apart from doing grunt work.
This has pretty bad implications when you think about it.
Milton views her soldiers as “brutes” and soldiers are technically more regarded than police officers.
Rick was a police officer before the apocalypse so Milton might view him as lower than her own soldiers and therefore see him as an unfit leader.
Since Milton views herself as bringing back civilization, she will probably try to take over Rick’s communities.
I do not believe she and The Commonwealth are villains because they do have the best intentions but they will most likely be a problem for Rick’s communities rather than allies.
It has some very interesting implications for the future of The Walking Dead, which I like.
Then we get the final scene of Michonne reuniting with her daughter Elodie.
I was very surprised by this because I thought it would be at least a couple more issues before the two reunited but I am very glad it happened sooner.
It was a very touching moment and I cannot wait to see how their relationship evolves, considering the two have spent years apart thinking each other were dead.
Overall Issue 176 of The Walking Dead was a pretty good one.
We got to see how The Commonwealth is run, opening up some interesting story points for the future and got to see the heart warming reunion between Michonne and Elodie.

The Walking Dead delivers a shocking twist with its latest Issue.

Warning: Contains spoilers for The Walking Dead Issue 175.

Well, that just happened.
After much anticipation, in Issue 175 of The Walking Dead, we finally got to meet the members of the Commonwealth community.
Naturally, everything did not go according to plan, with the group being held at gunpoint at the end of Issue 173.
Two Issues later we see how these events play out with the group meeting representative of The Commonwealth Lance Hornsby, Negan’s skinny twin brother (I am kidding about that last part).
Lance seems like an interesting character and is not afraid to threaten violence, although this comes across more as being cautious than anything else.
Watching the confrontation between Lance and Eugene was very interesting because both had valid reasons for mistrusting each other.
Lance did not trust Eugene’s group because of the danger they posed and Eugene did not trust Lance because Stephanie was mysteriously absent from the meeting.
It will be interesting to see how this mistrust plays out in future Issues, especially with the huge twist we just got.
I think this may be the best twist The Walking Dead has given us because it is revealed at the end of the Issue that one of Michonne’s daughters is alive and living in The Commonwealth.

Michonne reveal — Michonne sees a note from her daughter, revealing she is alive.

Michonne mentioned her daughters all the way back in Issue 139 so to see it come up again like this was great.
I can only imagine what the future holds for Michonne and the Commonwealth storyline.
And, what’s more, I actually think we may have already seen what a member of Michonne’s family looks like.
In Issue 139 Michonne says her children were in the care of her ex-husband.
What if her ex-husband is alive and is the Officer Mercer we see on the recently released cover of Issue 177?

Officer Mercer on the cover of Issue 177. Could he be Michonne’s ex-husband?

That would also be an interesting twist and give Michonne even bigger involvement in the story going forward.
Issue 175 was a great issue that did a good job of introducing us to some of the people of The Commonwealth.
I cannot wait to see what happens next, especially after that great twist.

Did The Walking Dead just doom itself with its latest episode?

Spoilers for The Walking Dead season 8 episode 8.

The mid season finale of The Walking Dead, The Way It’s Gotta Be, was a good episode overall but may have just doomed the show itself.
Coming into this episode, we all knew something big was going to happen, based on what the show runners said, and boy did it.
But maybe what happened was too big.
Because in this episode they actually set up the death of Carl Grimes.
Carl Grimes, the very future of The Walking Dead and they are going to kill him in the mid season premiere.
In the comics Carl has a hugely important story going forward and his very presence in both the comics and show defines who Rick is.
So, I believe that killing Carl was the worst possible decision they could have made because, without Carl, the story will no longer be as impactful.
The Walking Dead may have just doomed itself.

carl grimes — Carl’s upcoming death may have just ruined the future for The Walking Dead show.

Another thing I did not like was the spoilers.
The Walking Dead is terrible at keeping secrets because so many important deaths have been spoiled.
Noah and Aiden’s deaths in season 5, spoiled.
Glenn and Abraham’s deaths in the season 7 premiere, spoiled.
And now we have Carl, which was also spoiled for me.
I do not even go looking for the spoilers, I just run into them on accident and then the show is ruined for me.
The show really needs to get a handle on the spoilers being leaked.
Then there was Ezekiel’s storyline, which I found to be pretty ridiculous, considering how Ezekiel was able to free all his people.
Although the one thing I did like about this storyline was how they humanized Gavin again.
Then there was the explosive bombing of Alexandria.
Am I the only one who found this to be not that impactful?
I do not know why but a lot of the action in season 8 has not felt very intense for me.
This is strange because in this episode we have multiple buildings exploding and yet I do not even feel thrilled by it.
However, this episode is not all bad.
I loved the storyline with Maggie and, despite how much I hate what they are doing with Carl, Chandler Riggs did a fantastic job this episode.
He easily delivered his best performance as Carl.
The best scene he was in was when his possibly final confrontation with Negan.
The Negan and Rick fight was also fun to see.

rick vs negan — The Rick vs Negan fight was one of the highlights of the episode.

Like I said earlier, this was a good episode.
But the lack of excitement I felt during the action and the implications of Carl’s certain death left a bitter taste in my mouth.
I honestly do not think The Walking Dead can come back from this.
Well, at least I still have the comics.

Issue 174 of The Walking Dead brings us the moment we have all been waiting for since Issue 100.

Finally after 74 issues, we finally got the scene we all wanted to see in The Walking Dead.
Going into Issue 174, A Solitary Life, I was actually pretty concerned.
So far, this story arc of The Walking Dead was not really doing it for me.
The conflict between Rick and Dwight seemed unnecessary and tedious, The Princess character was annoying and Beta met a hugely unsatisfying end.
I was really concerned that Issue 174 would suffer the same fate Issue 173 did, by giving us an unsatisfying death, that death being Negan’s.
I actually thought there was a high possibility Negan could die in A Solitary Life because I did not really think he had a place going forward in the story.
Thankfully though, he does have a place because Negan survives… for now at least.
The Issue starts with, well, Negan being Negan.
He is picking a flower to put on Lucille’s grave, while talking to it with his usual profanity of constant F bombs.
Negan remains a delight to watch and I really am surprised how much I have come to like him as a character, despite what he has done.
When we meet The Governor he was a character I loved to hate but Negan has become a character I hate to love.
He is just fascinating to watch and I really liked his arc in this Issue.
As the Issue goes along, we see Negan find another baseball bat and, after some debate, decides to create a Lucille 2.0.
However, he is then interrupted by Maggie holding him at gunpoint.
This is something we have wanted to see since Issue 100, when Negan killed Glenn, Maggie confronting him about it.
This scene was really moving and was obviously major turning points for both Maggie and Negan.
I particularly like how Maggie says all she can remember of Glenn is him with his bashed in skull, screaming her name in agony.
It is a chilling moment and really illustrates how much Glenn’s death still weighs on Maggie.
Negan’s reaction also surprised me.
I knew he regretted what he had done but I never thought he actually felt guilty about it.
Negan has said he has not felt emotions since his wife’s death so I felt it would be unrealistic if he was guilty about killing Glenn, however Kirkman handled this extremely well.
Negan compares Glenn to Lucille and feels guilty because he took someone’s Lucille away, when he lost his own.
It really brought you into Negan’s perspective.
Negan even wanted Maggie to kill him but Maggie refused, saying he is not worth it.
After this, it is clear that Maggie and Negan’s confrontation has changed the both of them for the better.
Maggie is able to seemingly put Glenn’s death behind her when she kisses Dante, who is hilariously left stunned by this and Negan has also seemed to put Lucille’s death behind him as well because he burns the second Lucille he had built.
This was a fantastic Issue.
It was great to see such an excellent issue, after the last few have been mediocre at best.
Negan was fun to watch, as always, and watching Maggie confront Negan about Glenn’s death and how they both grew from this confrontation was so satisfying.
It made me wonder where both characters would go in the future.

Time for Eugene to die after this episode of The Walking Dead

Contains Spoilers for The Walking Dead season eight episode seven, Time for After

The Walking Dead has delivered another fantastic episode with its seventh episode of season 8, Time for After.
This episode was another Saviour centered episode, just like episode five and, just like that episode, it is one of the best episodes of the season.
Eugene was a particular standout of this episode, with actor Josh McDermitt doing a great job.
It was exciting to see Eugene’s character arc in this episode and I loved how it was symbolized.
When Eugene is having a conversation with Gabriel, (the same one they had in the comics, only much earlier) light is covering Gabriel, giving him an almost angelic look while Eugene is covered in shadow, foreshadowing him doing darker things as he helps Negan rather than his friends.
I also loved the scene where Eugene had an outburst at Gabriel after witnessing many Saviours die.
McDermitt gives his best performance on The Walking Dead in this scene.
However, although McDermitt does give a great performance as Eugene, I can’t help but fear that his time on the show might be over by season eight’s end.
It really does not feel like Eugene is redeemable at this point so I think it is likely he could die some time this season.

Another character given time to shine in this episode was Dwight, who had various interactions with Eugene.
Although these scenes were great, it did make me wonder why Dwight did not just shoot Eugene during their rooftop confrontation.
Dwight is clearly not above murdering Eugene and it would be pretty easy to make it look like an accident so Negan would not suspect anything.
Then we get get the second storyline of the episode with Daryl, Tara, Michonne and Rosita going to attack the Saviours, going against Rick’s plan.
Thankfully Rosita and Michonne do not go through with it.
I was really glad to see Rosita be against the plan because it shows how much she has grown since last season.
However, Daryl and Tara still went through with the plan and this possibly led to the Saviours escaping at the end of the episode.
I like Daryl and Tara but these two need to keep a clear head or they are going to get people killed.
The final storyline in this episode saw Rick bring Jadis and the trash people over to their side.
It was very exciting to see Rick be able to defeat a Walker and three of the trash people, including Jadis, while tied up.

Although, I was kind of hoping Rick would just kill Jadis because of how annoying she and her trash people are but whatever.
Then we get the closing moments of the episode where Rick sees, much to his horror, the Saviours have escaped.
And, if the trailers are anything to go by, the mid-season finale will be brutal.
There was also the announcement that there will be a big death next episode so we will probably get the question of what Rick was crying about in the first episode of season 8 answered.
There is also a spoiler floating around about who it is that dies and I hope it is wrong because I hate getting spoiled.
Overall Time For After was one of the best episodes of The Walking Dead season 8.
Like most of the episodes so far this season, it would not get on a top 10 list but it is still a really great episode.

The Walking Dead delivers its weakest episode of season eight so far.

The Walking Dead season eight has been pretty good so far.
There have been no standout episodes but every episode has been above average and often great.
This changes with the sixth episode, The King, The Widow and Rick.
I do not think this is a bad episode but it is average, at best.
Compared to the rest of the season, there is not much happening in this episode.
The biggest event of the episode was Rick being captured by the, oh so annoying, trash people, although it is obvious he will not be a captive for long.
Rick’s storyline was the shortest in the episode, as it only had a few scenes.
It opened moments before Rick arrived at the Junkyard, with Jadis constructing ornaments naked… for some reason.
Then Rick arrives and, one intro later, Jadis greets him, having put on her clothes in record time.
Seriously, how did she put on her clothes so fast?
Anyway, we finally learn why Rick was taking Polaroids of their victories against the Saviours, when he uses this as proof of their failures.
Jadis, however, locks Rick up anyway.
Although, it is obvious that Jadis will eventually join Rick, it is good that she said no because it would have been highly unrealistic had she said yes.

Meanwhile we get a scene with Rosita and Michonne, trying to stop two Saviours from delivering a truck playing Opera music that will lead the Walkers at the Sanctuary away.
During this scene, Rosita blows up one of the Saviours with an RPG, which I found to be incredibly stupid.
They then meet up with Daryl and Tara and go to attack The Sanctuary, going against Rick’s plan.
I know they want revenge but this is a really stupid idea.
Why would they go against Rick’s plan when it is clearly working?
I hate it when the characters make stupid decisions just to advance the plot, when there were clearly other ways of doing so.
This storyline was by far the weakest of the episode.
Speaking of characters doing stupid things, Carl helps Siddiq kill some Walkers, when there is no reason to do so and nearly gets himself killed.
It felt like a gimmick to increase the tension of the episode, when really it just made me roll my eyes.
Although, Siddiq does seem like an interesting character.
I thought the character was someone else, other than Siddiq, but I was wrong about that.
I really did like how he remembers almost every single Walker he has killed, it was pretty funny.

Meanwhile with the king storyline, we see how the deaths of Ezekiel’s people and Shiva is affecting him.
We get a very moving scene between Ezekiel and Carol that makes it seems like they will get together after all.
However, the writers seem to be forgetting that Carol was already in a relationship with Tobin so hopefully they resolve that and do not make it just a forgotten plot thread.
Besides, The music in this scene was excellent and perfectly reflected what was happening.
Despite the episode being the weakest of the season, for me, it definitely had the best music.
Finally we get the widow storyline, with Maggie deciding what to do with the Saviour prisoners.
This was my favourite part of the episode because we got more of a sense of who some of the Saviours are and it possibly hinted at a future storyline.
I like that we are seeing good Saviours as well as bad ones.

The Saviour Dillon looks to be an interesting character going forward, due to his reluctance to fight and risk everyone’s lives.
He is a great contrast to Jared, in that regard because the two are polar opposites.
Gregory being locked up with The Saviours is also interesting because it raises the possibility of Gregory’s storyline happening much earlier than it does in the comics.
However, other than that, there really was not that much interesting happening in this episode.
Michonne and Rosita’s storyline felt more like filler to get them to join up with Daryl and Tara so they could go to The Sanctuary.
Rick’s storyline was very brief and offered so surprises because we saw that he got captured in the trailer and, although Siddiq seems like an interesting character, the scene with him and Carl killing Walkers was stupid.
The storylines at The Hilltop and The Kingdom were the only interesting ones but The Kingdom’s storyline was really short.
Then there was the fact of how stupid many of the characters were being just for plot convenience.
Overall a very average episode, with nothing exciting happening.
Hopefully we will get more next episode.

What happened to Negan is no longer unknown in The Big Scary U.

Spoilers for The Walking Dead Season 8 episode 5 follow.

The Walking Dead has delivered its best episode of season eight yet, with The Big Scary U.
The U, in this case, stands for unknown, as Gregory points out in the opening sequence, which is one of the longest, if not the longest, opening sequence in all of The Walking Dead.
This opening sequence goes on for a while but every moment of it is absolutely riveting, even though no action is happening.
Negan is scarier than he has ever been in this episode, as he yells at Simon for suggesting killing everyone at the Hilltop.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan is definitely the standout of this episode, delivering his best performance as Negan so far.
I cannot wait to see more of Negan in the rest of the season.

And it is about time we saw him too since both he, Gabriel and the rest of the main Saviours have been absent for four episodes.
It is kind of strange, considering that Negan is the leader of The Saviours and yet he has not been seen in the war since the first episode, although this is because Morgan had scheduling conflicts.
It was great to see the way Negan and Gabriel interacted this episode, with a scene ripped straight from the comics, when Negan reveals he had a wife to Gabriel… after Gabriel tries to kill him, of course.
Meanwhile, inside the Sanctuary, we see the remaining Saviours falling apart.
This gives us a clear indication of why Negan has been able to keep power so long, he is the only one of this group that can keep them together, no matter how extreme his methods are.
We got a really good look at who many The Saviours are, who we did not have a good sense of earlier, which I really liked.
First there is the new Saviour Regina, who we met in the season premiere.
We got a good look at who she is along with who Simon is.
Until this episode, Simon felt more like a generic henchman to me and I had no interest in him.
This episode changed that however as we saw how Simon reacts to this dire situation and we also got a sense of his backstory as well, if it was his backstory.
From what Negan says, it appears that Simon was in charge of The Sanctuary before he arrived and was incapable of leading.
This clearly translates to how things play out in The Sanctuary and it makes Simon seem like he will have a bigger role in the war to come.

Also, Eugene has discovered that it was Dwight who is working with Rick and the others, although it appears he is keeping quiet about it, at least for now.
Hopefully he and Dwight will begin working together soon.
Finally we have a few scenes with Rick and Daryl, where we continue to see how dangerous Daryl is becoming.
He is willing to bomb The Sanctuary, even if it risks the lives of the innocent people inside.
Rick thankfully is against this and it leads to an interesting fight between the two.
This leads to a great callback to the first season with Rick telling Daryl “a choke hold is illegal,” which is what Daryl said when Shane choke held him in the first season.
The two then go there separate ways with Rick going to see Jadis and the Trash People.
However, along the way he sees a helicopter flying overhead.
I’m curious as to what this could mean for future storylines but also I’m wondering what is The Walking Dead’s deal with helicopters.
There was one in Season One, a second one in Season two, one in Fear The Walking Dead and now in this episode.
It is kind of weird how a helicopter is a recurring thing in the world of The Walking Dead.

Overall, this was a fantastic episode.
It is easily the best of the season so far, with great scenes like the one between Negan and Gabriel.
It is episodes like this that show The Walking Dead is not losing its cool.

Some Guy is not some episode in the latest The Walking Dead episode.

Spoilers for The Walking Dead season eight episode four, Some Guy.

Many people are already calling Some Guy the best episode of Season 8 of The Walking Dead.
However, I do not feel that way.
I did like Some Guy but it had a few too many obvious flaws, for my liking.
In fact, I actually think this is the weakest episode of the season so far.
The Some Guy title refers to Ezekiel, in this episode, who we see torn down from a leader confident of victory, to a shell of that man who no longer wants to be called king.
I really liked a lot of the scenes with Ezekiel.
As the episode went along, we saw Ezekiel gradually lose more hope, starting with the death of his soldiers, until he loses it completely, with the death of Shiva.

Even Jerry had moments to shine in this episode, when he cut a Saviour, who was holding Ezekiel hostage, in half.
Although it is weird that he hits him twice with it, considering he obviously killed him with the first blow but that is a nitpick.
Carol is another central character in this episode, mowing Saviours down, left and right and just generally being Carol.
However, although I did like these things, as I said, this episode did have more flaws than previous episodes.
For one thing, the danger never feels real in this episode.
For most of the episode, the characters never felt in danger to me.
When Carol was being shot at from behind the car, it was ridiculous that she was not hit with the amount of bullets being fired.

Even worse is the scene where Rick and Daryl chase the Saviours with the 50. Calibur Machine Gun.
They are shot at repeatedly with this gun and, due to plot armor, are never hit.
If this was a real situation, then they would have been torn apart by gunfire.
It made the action feel very artificial and the danger not very apparent.
This episode also has a few scenes that just do not work.
First there is Ezekiel’s conversation with the Jeffrey Dahmer look alike, who took him hostage.
Some of this conversation was really good and interesting but, mostly, it was a bit of a drag.
I was just waiting for a Walker or Jerry to show up and kill him.
The final problem I have with this episode is Shiva’s death.
Yes, it was a sad death but the way it happened did not work at all.
In the comics, Ezekiel is overwhelmed by Walkers and about to be devoured when Shiva charges in and saves him, sacrificing herself in the process.
In the show however, Ezekiel, Carol and Jerry are not even close to being overwhelmed.
They could easily walk over an embankment and escape but Ezekiel wants to stay behind and sacrifice himself, even though they could all escape together.
This leads to Shiva charging in and sacrificing herself but since Ezekiel could have easily fled, her sacrifice felt completely unnecessary.

Although, I did love Ezekiel’s reaction to her death.
Khary Payton did a great job in this episode.
It is these problems that makes me think this episode is the weakest in the season so far.
I still liked the episode though because there was enough character development, with Ezekiel, and some interesting action scenes to keep me interested.