More Than a Decade Later, The Walking Dead Changes the Game

If I advised you the perfect a part of tonight’s episode of The Walking Dead was a doorknob, would you imagine me? Because it’s true, however that seems like a much bigger knock in opposition to “Variant” than I imply it to be. It was a fairly cool doorknob.

While nonetheless completely happy to take its candy time strolling to the sequence finale, tonight’s episode picks up a bit of bit in comparison with final week’s “New Deal,” however solely when it’s outdoors of the Commonwealth, specializing in Aaron, Lydia, Jerry, and Elijah’s journey to convey provides to and examine on Oceanside. But since that’s enjoyable, let’s go forward and get the Commonwealth stuff out of the way in which.

Really, all you must know is that Pam needs one other scapegoat for final week’s debacle the place Eugene performed a secret recording of Kingsley St. Buffingsworth speaking about how silly non-rich individuals are, Hornsby’s goons created a bunch of zombies contained in the Commonwealth, and Kingsley ended up getting eaten. Pam is aware of each Max and Eugene have been answerable for the tape, however she’s content material to let Eugene take the autumn for all of it to Mercer’s aid, fairly than have his sister executed for treason. As searches are performed and all of the Alexandrians and Hilltoppers are rounded up and questioned, Eugene hides in Gabriel’s church and Max finally will get caught.

Eugene, in fact, lastly finds a bit of braveness to guard his woman love by turning himself in and confessing he did all of it and labored alone, however there are—and please strive to not be stunned by this—a couple of complicated scenes alongside the way in which, largely involving Pam, who appears to have change into as a lot as a weirdo because the final Governor to seem on the sequence. Whether she’s speaking to Sebastian’s corpse or visiting Hornsby and caressing his head (which appears extremely arousing to him, and because of this upsetting to me), Pam is a number of ranges extra sinister than she’s ever appeared earlier than, which ought to really feel like a reveal however as a substitute looks like a retcon.

For occasion, Pam in some way is aware of Hornsby’s answerable for letting the zombies unfastened within the Commonwealth and not directly getting Sebastian killed. She needs Max to signal a confession that she stopped taking her melancholy remedy and was thus led astray by Eugene and the opposite newcomers. She brings Sebastian’s zombie, a knife, and the nice and cozy corpse of Hornsby’s chief goon into Hornsby’s cell and tells him to feed her son. I assume, together with her son useless, her fame ruined by Connie’s evidence-free “newspaper” article and the recording, and Eugene able to confess, she’s going to attempt to seize and/or kill all of the Alexandrians only for one thing evil to do.

While the Commonwealth stays the A-storyline, it’s far much less attention-grabbing than Aaron and his gang’s tried journey to Oceanside. After working throughout a (single file?) line of zombies blocking the highway, Aaron makes the dumb determination to take the supplies-laden wagon off-road the place it instantly will get caught. Then it runs over Jerry’s foot and makes his knee bleed. They must gap up at a totally undiscovered Renaissance pageant locale. It’s nice!

Although they’ve triple-checked all the safety, that night time, Aaron and Lydia are shocked to find in some way zombies have entered the Renfest. Indeed, there are a variety of zombies, forcing the foursome to gap up within the citadel, the place… there’s a doorknob. And when the zombies mass outdoors, that doorknob begins to show, making the group relocate to the roof. “Whisperers!” Aaron curses, fairly moderately.

Neither Aaron nor the hobbled Jerry is especially stunned to discover a “zombie” crawling onto the roof to get them, or grabbing a rock to bash Jerry’s brains in. But it does make Aaron so mad he begins punching the Whisperer within the head together with his fist earlier than ripping their masks off—solely to discover a bloody cranium beneath. It wasn’t a Whisperer in any respect. It was a zombie—a zombie that remembered find out how to open doorknobs, climb, and use instruments.

If you’ve paid consideration to The Walking Dead franchise these previous few years—though goodness solely is aware of why you’d have—you might be most likely conscious that it’s been planting seeds about “variant” zombies, zombies who’re smarter and thus extra harmful than the common shambling corpse. It’s attainable you knew what was coming, like me, which is sort of a disgrace as I wager it might have been a really enjoyable reveal. But even realizing it was coming didn’t diminish my enjoyment of seeing The Walking Dead introduce an precise game-changer.

Of course, it’s weird and greater than a bit of tragic that TWD saved this extraordinarily attention-grabbing improvement for episode 172 of 177, technically the final 0.028 % of the TV sequence, when it might have made the present considerably extra attention-grabbing a lot, a lot sooner. And certain, it isn’t almost as thrilling because the introduction of the Whisperers, when an obvious zombie agilely dodged Jesus’ assaults out of nowhere, however we all know this improvement goes to have a lot deeper ramifications on future Walking Dead sequence, or not less than the Europe-based Daryl Dixon. Will it have future ramifications on the few remaining episodes of TWD correct? I actually hope so, however I’m pessimistic sufficient to count on that that is the one tease we’re getting, and we’ll have to remain tuned to the spin-offs for extra.

This will not be one thing I’m super-enthused by. Because though I used to be genuinely excited by a zombie turning a doorknob tonight, imagine me, I’m effectively conscious that my relationship with this present has reached some extent the place a doorknob is probably the most thrilling factor The Walking Dead can suppose to provide me.

Assorted Musings:

• About 90 % of the episode stills have been of Eugene in church, so take pleasure in this photograph of Kingsley getting became a Lunchable from final week.
• Turns out Jerry’s a samurai? It dominated, however it’s massively aggravating that TWD saved this scrumptious morsel after we might have been watching him slice his means by the apocalypse since he first appeared again in season seven.
• Princess has a great scene the place she talks to Mercer concerning the significance of not accepting the perfect a part of a nasty state of affairs that will have most likely been extra impactful if Princess had extra screentime this season.
• “We don’t have to disappoint each other anymore” is a fairly devastating line delivered from Pam to her horrible son’s corpse.
• Eugene attempting to threaten Daryl after which placing up his dukes was considerably amusing.
• I’m additionally fairly upset that TWD might have set a part of this sequence at a Renfest at any time however didn’t select to take action till now. Samurai King Jerry on the Renaissance Festival! Where is that spinoff?!

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