by Robbie Jones
Nowhere is safe in The Walking Dead. Any kind of camp or shelter must be snatched away from Rick and his survivors. Hershel’s farm, the prison, and now their abandoned house, by a group of bandits no less. Of course, the show would have hardly any development if they got to stay cosy for the rest of their lives. Change is essential, and it seems their new course will take Rick, Carl and Michonne all the way back to Judith.
Nowhere is safe in The Walking Dead. Any kind of camp or shelter must be snatched away from Rick and his survivors. Hershel’s farm, the prison, and now their abandoned house, by a group of bandits no less. Of course, the show would have hardly any development if they got to stay cosy for the rest of their lives. Change is essential, and it seems their new course will take Rick, Carl and Michonne all the way back to Judith.
The Walking Dead’s use of tension is quite interesting. For a horror show, it’s been a long time since we’ve had any tense walker scenes. This week’s episode had Rick hiding under his bed, unarmed, from bandits who have entered his home. This section of the episode felt quite stretched out, and at times almost humorous. Speaking of humour, it seems Michonne isn’t great at making teenagers laugh but we hear a bit more about her back story as she tells Carl about her son Andre. This is then followed by the most haunting scene the show has had in a long, long time as Michonne enters an abandoned child’s bedroom, with several corpses lying on the beds, and one sitting in a rocking chair. The tension may be off, but the chill factor has been turned up to 11 even if just for this little bit. The look of horror on Michonne’s face sums up the exact feeling experienced with this scene, and this is someone who torn hundreds of zombies to death. Even after all this time, she can still get scared. The direction for this episode is excellent; the chilling over the shoulder shot of the rocking chair corpse is one of the show’s best to date.
In this episode we got a proper introduction to our three new characters: Abraham Ford, Rosita and Eugene. The group try to convince Tara and Glen, who is intent on finding Maggie, to join them on their special mission: They’re headed to Washington DC, where Eugene plans to create a cure for the infection. Despite this apparently brilliant knowledge, the show has made a point of just how stupid Eugene actually is, shooting out the truck’s gas tank whilst fighting walkers. Yet he still remains smug about his knowledge over Abraham’s. Whilst he initially comes off as a villainous, Abraham is a good guy at heart, and is intent on saving the world. Perhaps it’s a bit late for that. Also, what exactly is this cure for? Does it turn the dead back into the living, or does it protect the living from becoming walkers? Furthermore, are they aware that everyone is infected? The only logical effect of this cure would be to counteract the effects of a walker bite, though this little gang may be in for a surprise if they don’t know the truth about humans. Overall, it wasn’t the best introduction to these characters, especially Rosita who barely gets a look in.
A tad slow, and could still do with some more Daryl, but beautifully directed and chilling to the bone. And now that Rick is on the way back to his daughter, it won’t be long before some happiness is reignited in this show.
A tad slow, and could still do with some more Daryl, but beautifully directed and chilling to the bone. And now that Rick is on the way back to his daughter, it won’t be long before some happiness is reignited in this show.
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