Even The Walking Dead Needs a Breather Now and Then

All good issues should come to an finish, and that features The Walking Dead’s latest streak of enjoyable episodes, it appears. The present closed out its second batch of episodes with a finale that was stuffed with sound and fury, signifying… effectively, little or no.

“Acts of God” is not at all a horrendous episode of TWD, however it takes the assorted storylines the present has been threading by the final couple of months after which gently units them down as a substitute of satisfyingly tying them off. The episode begins robust, with a caption studying “19 HOURS AND ONE ACT OF GOD AGO” simply earlier than Hornsby, at Hilltop alongside along with his Commontrooper troopers, steps in a puddle of blood and brains after which appears to be like up at a sky full of locusts. God (making His second visitor look on the present) unleashing a Biblical plague is a hell of a strategy to kick off a mid-season finale, or so it might appear.

Knowing Hornsby’s forces are on the best way, Maggie, Ezekiel, and a child who I’ll title Redd W. Shurt go away Hilltop to drop Maggie’s son Hershel off with Negan, Annie, and the opposite Riverbenders, who’ve been hiding in an previous (and extraordinarily massive) ex-Whisperer bunker. Hornsby sends Daryl, Gabriel, and Aaron out with some Commontroopers who’re clearly presupposed to kill them later, however the trio manages to kill all of them with solely Aaron sustaining a wound. The night time falls, Maggie leaves a tripwire within the Hilltop mansion to kill some ‘troopers, Leah shoots Mr. Shurt more or less between the eyes, and then things get kind of confusing.

Maggie, Leah, Daryl, Aaron, Gabriel, and Hornsby and his soldiers spend the bulk of the rest of the episode wandering around a dark forest, making it very difficult to get any kind of sense of where the characters are in relation to each other. This may be to add suspense to the proceedings, especially Maggie and Leah’s hunt for one another, however largely the scenes make everybody look misplaced versus tense, particularly since solely three characters handle to satisfy one another.

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The first two are Maggie and Leah, naturally, who’ve a quick combat within the woods earlier than Maggie is knocked out. When she awakes, Leah has her (poorly) tied to a chair, in a cabin, the place she makes the normal “I’m gonna kill everyone you love and then kill you” risk/speech. Maggie, fortunately however uninterestingly, manages to free herself from the ropes ostensibly tied by a former black-ops mercenary, and the 2 combat. To be honest, it’s an ideal, ugly battle between the 2 girls, and so they beat the holy hell out of one another till the third character stops by, Daryl, who shoots Leah simply earlier than she was about to kill Maggie. If Daryl has any type of an emotional response to murdering the girl he as soon as liked, he has it off-screen. Hornsby and his troops nearly discover them on the cabin, however Daryl and Maggie escape by a again window, avoiding a probably fascinating battle that the present is saving for the final third of the collection. Then Hornsby’s Commontroopers take over Hilltop, Alexandria, and Oceanside, unfurling their not-un-Fascist banners over the partitions. The finish.

You could have seen I haven’t talked about the locusts once more, and that’s as a result of they don’t determine into the story in any respect different. They’re buzzing round for some time, and folks sometimes search for on the swarms within the sky in apprehension, however they don’t do something or have an effect on anybody. You can barely name it an act of God, until that act is God briefly popping by to remind those that whereas He created the zombie apocalypse, He can carry extra distress down on individuals at any time.

Even the motion contained in the Commonwealth is weirdly neutered. Max manages to steal a file titled “Resettlements” from Pamela’s workplace, however when she, Eugene, Connie, Kelly, Magna, and Ezekiel test it out, all it says is that 200 Commonwealthers have been “resettled.” Although the variety of lacking individuals has elevated, the gang nonetheless has no concept the place they’ve been taken as a result of the file is in code. The solely factor of consequence that occurs is that Connie decides to put in writing an article about Kingsley’s heist from two episodes in the past whereas everybody waits for more information, which Governor Pam sees and is sort of vexed by. But if there’s an precise consequence to Connie’s front-page story, it’s additionally been saved for the ultimate eight episodes.

So, yeah. Revolution is brewing within the Commonwealth, which we knew. Daryl and the gang are persona non grata with Hornsby, which we knew was coming. Leah died, which is technically a improvement, besides this implies she achieved completely nothing after she escaped from Maggie when these spring episodes kicked off again in February. At least Hornsby has taken management of the three colonies, however this may absolutely really feel extra essential if we had any concept why he wished them aside from some extraordinarily nebulous sense of “power.”

Still, “Acts of God” wasn’t a nasty episode, it was only one the present spent spinning its wheels. It’s type of a bummer for a mid-season finale—The Walking Dead’s remaining mid-season finale—however it additionally doesn’t squander the goodwill fostered by the spate of solidly pleasing episodes that preceded it. When the present returns this fall, considered one of our ragtag teams of survivors will lastly go to conflict with the bigger and better-equipped military of the Commonwealth whereas the opposite tries to destroy the oligarchy from inside. Should be a very good time… at the least for the characters who survive.

Assorted Musings:

• First: I don’t know in the event that they’re precise locusts. I’m merely assuming that as a result of locusts have been one of many Biblical plagues and the episode is titled “Acts of God.”
• Eugene tells Max she’s essentially the most fantastic factor that’s ever occurred in his “heretofore uneventful life.” My dude, you’ve lived by a zombie apocalypse, satisfied a gaggle of individuals you had a treatment that might save the world, and briefly betrayed all your pals and joined the Saviors. “Uneventful” is just not the time period I might use.
• Ooh! Nearly forgot. The Maggie-Negan drama looks like it’s lastly over for good due to Negan rescuing her child Hershel at Riverbend. “Whatever has happened, I will never forget that,” she says. I used to be genuinely moved, if solely as a result of I’m extraordinarily completely happy to see the present transfer on.
• I don’t know what the deal is with Hornsby’s new obsession with coin flips is. It comes out of nowhere, after which ends with him mainly changing into the Batman villain Two-Face after Daryl shoots him throughout his cheek.
• I actually might discuss concerning the Commonwealth’s newspaper for about 2,000 phrases. It’s completely wild. Almost the whole thing of the entrance cowl is only a headline, and that headline in “PAMELA MILTON IS LYING TO YOU” which is a tangential level at greatest if the story is about her son Kingsley sending individuals to their loss of life to seize him some money. (Also, did Pam even know?) What’s even weirder is that the headline is written in 4 wildly totally different fonts, a choice that will give any skilled print journalist a mind aneurysm. Also, Pam throws about 50 items of paper on Max’s desk. Is the paper 50 pages or did Pam seize 50 copies? If it’s the previous, was there not a binder clip or one thing on it? I do know it’s the post-apocalypse but when the Commonwealth has ice cream and the flexibility to print a newspaper, it’s gotta have workplace provides, proper?

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