‘The Walking Dead’ Season 8, Episode 13: “Do Not Send Us Astray”
Warning: This review may contain spoilers for this episode and previous episodes of The Walking Dead.
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Warning: This review may contain spoilers for this episode and previous episodes of The Walking Dead.
Stay Outside, a local band consisting of vocalist Aaron Becker, guitarist Garrett Johnston, bassist Sean West, and drummer Noah Mitchener, released a remixed EP called O,FN II. The EP takes the songs “Braveheart,” “Void,” and “Wanderer” from their previous EP, Okay, For Now and revamps them in a softer, more mellow tone while adding an appropriate “II” to the end of each title. It’s important to know going forward that this is a remix, this isn’t what the band normally sounds like. While these new songs aren’t a stretch for the band, it isn’t what you’d usually hear from them.
By: Phil Akin Stay Outside, a local band consisting of vocalist Aaron Becker, guitarist Garrett Johnston, bassist Sean West, and drummer Noah Mitchener, released a remixed EP called O,FN II. The EP takes the songs “Braveheart,” “Void," and “Wanderer” from their previous EP, Okay, For Now and revamps them in a softer, more mellow tone while adding an appropriate “II” to the end of each title. It’s important to know going forward that this is a remix, this isn’t what the band normally sounds like. While these new songs aren’t a stretch for the band, it isn’t what you’d usually hear from them.
By Phil Akin Warning: This review may contain spoilers for this episode and previous episodes of The Walking Dead. Last week I was lenient with “The Key.” That episode wasn’t a complete waste of time. I will not be as kind with “Do Not Send Us Astray.” This week’s episode was a complete waste of time and was littered with many problems. So many things could’ve happen this week but none of them did. This was the perfect opportunity to buck the trend of major characters only dying in a premiere or finale. It was the perfect chance to kill Daryl in a satisfying way but no, no they didn’t do that. Instead, they killed Tobin and a bunch of other characters so minor that they have had a collective screen time of five minutes at best. “But Phil, why are you being so harsh?” Well, let me tell you. This episode was a pivotal moment ripped straight from the comics, so why is it so bad? Four words: missed opportunities and Henry. See, the scene where the Saviors attack the Survivors with tainted weapons was HUGE in the comics. It was Rick who was shot by Dwight, and no one knew for a while if Rick was going to turn or somehow be immune. Well, it turns out that Dwight didn’t taint his weapon, so Rick was spared. That didn’t happen this episode. Instead, good ol’ Tara was shot by Dwight. The problem comes with the fact that she isn’t a big character. No one cares if she dies. In fact, she’s right up there just behind Daryl on my death wish list. There’s no real impact on the discussion of will or won’t she turn (she won’t). The other problem comes in the form of a complete 180 in character development. Just a few episodes ago Tara was actively trying to kill Dwight, but now she blames herself for Two-Face returning to the Saviors. What? If anything, Tara should be fuming to kill Dwight even more now that he shot her. Granted, he did save her. If it weren’t for him, she probably would have been killed by Simon. Another problem is with the severity of the situation in this episode. I’ve already mentioned how no one of any real impact dies in this episode. That could’ve been changed or, at the very least, teased. What I mean by that is Daryl should’ve been the one shot by Dwight. Even if it’s a bait-and-switch like Glenn’s dumpster adventure, it would have raised the stakes more than some extras dying. Sure, Tara won’t die (at least not right now) and neither would Daryl if the role was switched, but it would be so satisfying if there was even a chance of him dying. But there isn’t, not this episode anyway. So many missed opportunities to make things interesting. Also, as a side note, Enid’s acting when they made it seem like Tara would die was so poor I thought I was in actual Hell. A major problem was the lighting in this episode. The show has a bad track record of having big action sequences take place at night, when the viewer can barely see it. This made the episode hard to follow. What was going on? Did someone just die? It sounded like it but the screen was black save for the AMC logo in the corner. I understand why it took place at night, so that the Hilltop could blind the Saviors when they invaded. Also, so that the zombified Militia members could attack the others in their sleep. That’s swell and all, but it doesn’t mean anything if the viewer can’t see it. The final problem is with Henry. He shouldn’t be the character he is. I can understand how he got the gun, but there’s no way he should’ve gotten the key to unlock the Savior pen inside the Hilltop. He’s the reason Gregory and Jared escaped. Wow, stellar job there Henry. Granted, he did allow Alden and some other actually good Saviors to escape when Walkers started attacking people in the pen. I’ll give credit where credit is due. But the scene could’ve been handled by, say, a deranged Morgan looking to kill Jared. Speaking of Morgan, he’s going off the rails again. It’s a lazy way to write him off the main show and onto Fear the Walking dead. Is Alden legitimately good or is he playing Maggie? Will Siddiq prove useful enough to justify Carl’s death? Will Daryl or Tara or (better yet) both die soon? Will Henry die too? Will Morgan get a nice send off? Hopefully these questions are answered before the season ends.
Warning: This review may contain spoilers for this episode and previous episodes of The Walking Dead.
By Phil Akin Warning: This review may contain spoilers for this episode and previous episodes of The Walking Dead. To be blunt, “The Key” isn’t entirely pointless. Shocker, I know. Yes, there are parts that are definitely pointless, but some interesting things actually happen—notably introduction of a small group lead by Gracie, as well as Negan learning about how Simon disobeyed him. To start out, the show is predictable. Everyone knew that, but this episode has once again cemented that idea. When Negan and Rick were fighting, did anyone out there really think either one of them would die? No, because it’s not the finale. Also, both are such huge characters we can be sure they won’t die anytime soon. I say that, but the show is known for killing off interesting characters (*cough* AbrahamGlennMoralesCarl *cough*) so maybe they will die. But, if the writers are smart, that won’t happen. Getting back on track, the point is that the whole fight scene was irrelevant to the plot. Yes, it was very pleasing to watch. Seeing Lucille get lit on fire by Rick was satisfying, but there were no risks. Sure, Lucille is at risk here, but it’s just a bat. It can easily be replaced. Now, I've just said that the whole fight scene was pointless plot-wise, and I stand by that. There was no reason for it to be a physical fight, but this is when Negan finds out about Simon going behind his back and killing all of the Scavengers (except one) in a previous episode. So yes, important information was brought to Negan’s attention, and will probably come back in a future episode, but the point is that scene didn’t need to be a fight. It could have been any number of different things. An intense stare down, a hostage situation, a thumb war. You name it, it’d probably be better than what we got. Keeping with Negan, but moving on: at the end we see Jadis driving in a car and holding Negan hostage. Now this is an interesting turn of events. She’s a woman who has nothing else to lose. There are so many different possibilities with her character, but ultimately, she’ll probably just be killed (most likely by Negan himself). It would be cool to see her join Negan if they can come to an understanding that the end of the Scavengers was Simon’s fault. It’d also be interesting if she did manage to join Rick’s group since she despises the Saviors now, but she tried that in an earlier episode and it didn’t work out. Jadis is truly a wild card at this point, and it is interesting. Too bad the writers will inevitably find a way to ruin it. Lastly, there’s Gracie and her two followers. They’re a small group of people who have showed up as randomly as Father Gabriel did. Who are they? Where did they come from? Are they apart of a much larger group? Why are they so nice? Can they be trusted? There are several questions brought up by introducing these characters, and none are really answered. Gracie and company are brought to the Hilltop and they recognize that Maggie’s group needs food more than they do. That’s fantastic, but there’s got to be a catch. Gracie even says they’ll be back in the future to collect. Sounds pretty ominous to me. She also gives Maggie a binder full of “medieval” ideas like windmills and distilleries. That’s probably how we get to the massive community shown in the “Old Man Rick” dreams. Will Negan kill Jadis or will he smooth-talk her into joining him? Will he brutally murder Simon? Is Jadis going to speak normally from now on? What’s going to happen when Gracie eventually comes back seven seasons from now like Morales did? When will Daryl die? Only time will answer these questions.
Warning: This review may contain spoilers for this season and previous episodes of Jessica Jones.
by Phil Akin Warning: This review may contain spoilers for this season and previous episodes of Jessica Jones. Jessica Jones season 2 is the most Jones we’ve seen from Jessica yet. Translation: This season has amazing depth and is incredibly emotional. The writing is solid, the acting phenomenal, and the subject matter heavy. It’s far different from the first season, but does that make it good? Yes and no. Like anything, there are good and bad aspects to it. But Jessica Jones season 2’s problems, while few, are somewhat blinding.
by Phil Akin Warning: This review may contain spoilers for this episode and previous episodes of The Walking Dead. “Honor” is emotionally heavy and unfortunate. Does that make it a good episode? Not really. Not much happens, apart from a couple insane moments. The show lost a couple of its more interesting characters this week. Carl and Gavin both died, which just continues AMC’s string of bad decisions (killing Morales, keeping Daryl alive, etc). This episode focuses primarily on Carl dying, which was expected, and - to a slightly lesser extent - on the Kingdom. To kick this off, we finally get to see what this whole “Old Man Rick” thing was about. Carl was imagining Rick building a better civilization where everyone lived peacefully. Michonne, Judith, Jerry, Siddiq, Eugene, and even Negan were all there in this perfect dream. The thing is, this is exactly what happens in the comics, give or take a couple characters. See, in the comics Rick does shave his head and lets his beard grow out. And Negan does begin to live at Alexandria. Don’t be surprised if what happened in these “dream” sequences actually comes to reality. Speaking of Carl, perhaps the biggest tragedy this episode is that he dies. Carl was divisive amongst fans. Some liked him, and others found him annoying. But I think most can agree that he didn’t need to go out the way he does in this episode. Sure, it's sentimental having him recount previous seasons and all that fun stuff. But it's boring. It's reminiscent of issue 167 when Andrea dies in the comics. She is dying in a bed, saying goodbye to loved ones. It takes up the entire issue just like Carl’s death took up this entire episode. It was nice that most of the cast was able to say their goodbyes to Carl. It’s just a shame that Daryl wasn’t in Carl’s spot this week. Oh well, there’s always next week for that. It remains to be seen how other characters not present in this episode will handle losing Carl. Characters like Maggie and Carol were very close to Carl, and Negan seemed to have a special bond to him (despite trying to kill him). This death should definitely shake up the rest of the season. Maybe Rick will honor Carl and spare Negan, perhaps locking him up in that jail cell Morgan built. Gavin unfortunately dies as well this episode. Like it was mentioned earlier, AMC has made some bad decisions lately by killing off characters who could potentially become good like Morales and Gavin. Out of all the Saviors (excluding Dwight), Gavin seemed like the nicest one who could turn on Negan and ally with Rick and the other survivors. But no, AMC can’t let us have nice things and interesting subplots, and as a result they made little Henry kill Gavin. It would have made some sense if Morgan was the one to kill Gavin, but no it was deus ex Henry who came out of nowhere. Did neither Ezekiel nor Carol see this kid sneak up? They easily could have prevented Gavin’s death, but they just stood there. Fingers crossed that Simon isn’t next. Speaking of Morgan, he has maybe the most gruesome kill this week since Negan bashed in Abraham and Glenn’s skulls. During a firefight between Morgan, Carol, and some Saviors, a Savior is shot in the stomach but not killed. This unnamed Savior then begins to fistfight Morgan, where Morgan drives his hand into the Savior’s wound, and rips out his intestines. That makes this otherwise-boring episode interesting. No doubt Negan won’t be happy to find out both Gavin and Carl have passed away. Will these deaths put things into perspective for Negan? Or will he continue until Rick & co. are dead? Hopefully we’ll find out next week.
This week on Remixed, it's all about the Grammys: winners, performers, nominees, and those who were snubbed.
Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda has released an EP under his own name, called Post Traumatic EP. The title comes from the aftermath of Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington’s suicide last July. This was a way for Shinoda to cope with his loss, and all three songs on the EP deal with the death of Bennington. All three tracks are basic songs, not meant to be anything more than a way for Shinoda to chronicle his grief. The instrumentals are not supposed to be the focus of this EP. Instead, the lyrics pick up the slack and more than make up for the somewhat subpar backing tracks. That’s not to say that the songs are bad, quite the opposite. It’s just that Shinoda’s lyrics are the focus first and foremost. The songs are reminiscent of Shinoda’s other project, Fort Minor. However, Shinoda has made clear that “this is not Linkin Park, nor is it Fort Minor – it’s just me”.
by Phil Akin Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda has released an EP under his own name, called Post Traumatic EP. The title comes from the aftermath of Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington’s suicide last July. This was a way for Shinoda to cope with his loss, and all three songs on the EP deal with the death of Bennington. All three tracks are basic songs, not meant to be anything more than a way for Shinoda to chronicle his grief. The instrumentals are not supposed to be the focus of this EP. Instead, the lyrics pick up the slack and more than make up for the somewhat subpar backing tracks. That’s not to say that the songs are bad, quite the opposite. It’s just that Shinoda’s lyrics are the focus first and foremost. The songs are reminiscent of Shinoda’s other project, Fort Minor. However, Shinoda has made clear that “this is not Linkin Park, nor is it Fort Minor – it’s just me”. Place to Start The first song, “Place to Start,” is the shortest of the three, lasting just longer than two minutes. It was recorded during the original recording of Linkin Park’s album One More Light with Linkin Park’s drummer, Rob Bourdon, supplying percussion. It was finalized for this release. Shinoda talks about how he “doesn’t have a leg to stand on” and asks if he “can put the past behind [him].” Mike is dealing heavily with the loss of Bennington and doesn’t know where to go. He goes on to say how he’s tired of losing control of the situation, feeling hopeless, and being scared. The latter is a reference to losing Linkin Park. This song is meant to display Shinoda’s thoughts since the death of Bennington. Over Again “Over Again” is primarily about the concert Linkin Park played in honor of Bennington, called Celebrate Life, as well as dealing with the band’s future. The first verse is entirely about Celebrate Life, and mentions Bennington without saying his name. To avoid quoting the entire verse, Shinoda talks about how they had no idea what to do after Bennington died, and someone suggested playing a show in his honor. He mentions how they weren’t worried about playing the songs, but that he wasn’t sure if they could actually perform without breaking down. Shinoda even states in the second verse that he “almost lost it in the middle of a couple songs.” Again in the second verse, Shinoda becomes passive aggressive toward people saying stuff like “wow, must be really hard to figure what to do now,” basically saying “you don’t say? It’s not much, just my entire life’s working hanging in the balance.” The chorus of this song is pretty much the same eight or nine words repeated, well, over and over again. Normally to me that would come across as lazy writing, but it makes sense in the context of this song. The chorus is “sometimes you don’t say goodbye once, you say goodbye over and over again.” This is meant to show that just about everything reminds him of his loss, and how he’s constantly saying goodbye time and time again. If “Place to Start” is about all of Shinoda’s thoughts and emotions, then “Over Again” is meant to take place in the moment of the Celebrate Life concert. Watching as I Fall The final song, “Watching as I Fall,” is probably the best song on this album, and the one I’ve listened to the most. The most passive aggressive and self-aware song, Shinoda is again dealing with Bennington’s death, but this time focusing on himself as a public figure. The first verse has the lines “thinking I’m okay, but they’re saying otherwise / tell me how I look but can’t look me in the eyes.” Everyone is quick to point out how hard this must be for Shinoda, but no one has the gall to actually look him in the eyes and mean it. The pre-chorus states how he should be more grateful to be around when it all came apart. Basically, saying how he should be thankful he’s the one going through this, instead of Bennington losing Shinoda. He is also saying he should be grateful he had this opportunity in the first place, despite his career coming to a sudden halt. In the second verse, Shinoda is well aware of how he appears to people in public, saying “honestly I buy that I can sound cold.” He’s probably tired of people constantly saying how sorry they are and just wants them to stop, but he acknowledges that he can come across as crass. From an outsider’s perspective I’ll be honest, as a die hard Linkin Park fan (that includes Fort Minor, Mike Shinoda, Dead by Sunrise, Stone Temple Pilots, etc) Post Traumatic EP can come across as pretty bland from an outsider’s perspective. This EP was made as something of a closure to fans and to Shinoda himself. “Place to Start” and “Over Again” are slower songs, with instrumentals that sound similar to Linkin Park’s One More Light, and honestly there isn’t much to talk about apart from the lyrics. “Watching as I Fall” is a faster song, and one that can stand on its own the most compared to the other two, but again the focus is on the lyrics first and foremost, so the everything else takes a backseat. Each song is good in its own right, but you won’t hear them played on the radio and probably never live either. If you aren’t a fan of Linkin Park, then I suggest listening to “Watching as I Fall” and maybe “Place to Start.” Shinoda has stated he plans to continue with Linkin Park, but even he doesn’t know what that means. Will they continue as a five-man group? Will they bring on a new vocalist? No one, not even Shinoda is sure about what will happen. But in the meantime, we’ve got this EP to tide us over until more news comes out. Featured Image from RapWave
Music reviews were a new endeavor for Byte this year, but it was a great first year to cover. We saw some disappointments from previously loved artists like Arcade Fire and Blondie, to be sure, but we also saw some pleasant comebacks and changeups from the likes of Lorde, Aimee Mann and Paramore. Some of these albums made us smile and others made us cry, but they all left some sort of indelible mark on us, and that’s why they’re the best albums of 2017.
by Phil Akin Warning: This review may contain spoilers for this episode and previous episodes of The Walking Dead. Wow. This episode. It’s clearly just biding its time until the mid-season finale. There are a couple problems with this episode, and they all come from bad writing. The main problems are Daryl, Tara, and Morgan. The other problem comes from Eugene, and since this was a rather Eugene-heavy episode, that problem bleeds throughout the whole episode. The only semblance of a saving grace for this episode comes from Rick and his time with Jadis and the Scavengers, but even those scenes have their bad moments. The problem with Eugene is that for being such a smart character, he’s incredibly stupid. Sure, he’s with Negan now, but he will probably go back to being with Rick and his group later this season. Maybe Dwight will convince him to rejoin that group. He tells Dr. Carson that he wants Gabriel to live, yet blames Gabriel for everything. When he is about to tell Negan about Dwight and his betrayal, he chickens out once Dwight shows up in person. When Dwight offers him a chance to help AHK, he refuses and tries to lure the Walkers away with an iPod. When Eugene picks up the iPod from the coffin, he has a flashback to when Sasha emerged as a Walker from said coffin. This of course does nothing to change his mind to help Dwight. He “needs” alcohol to deal with being at the Sanctuary, yet does nothing to fix his situation. He could have killed Negan last season, but chose not to. Granted, Negan has plot-armor for the time being, but the point is that all of Eugene’s problems stem from his piss-poor attitude. Moving on to Daryl’s little group. I said it last week and I’ll say it again; Daryl will more than likely become an antagonist to Rick, and this episode only further cements that idea. Daryl has had a streak this season of openly disobeying Rick. It began with killing Morales, and continues with ramming a garbage truck into the Sanctuary. Daryl, Tara and Morgan all want the Saviors dead. You can’t blame them for wanting that, but really only Negan and Jared need to die. There are innocent workers at the Sanctuary, and plenty of people like Dwight do not want to be there and are willing to help Rick’s cause. Others like Gavin could probably be swayed to join Rick or one of the other communities. But of course, Daryl, Tara and Morgan have tunnel vision and have to go off and do their own thing. Surprisingly, it seems for a moment that Michonne is going to join them on their clearly stupid crusade. Thankfully she backs out at the last minute. However, she isn’t completely innocent. Out of all people who knew how important this plan is, Michonne does nothing to prevent Daryl from ruining it. What’s even more surprising is that Rosita was the one who left first! How did we get to the point where Rosita of all characters, the one who took a shot at Negan and got Olivia killed as a result, is the moral compass of the group? While Rosita doesn’t really do anything to stop Daryl either, at least she has some common sense. Wow, I can’t believe I just typed that sentence. One of best scenes this week is when Rick is fighting off a Walker and two Scavengers. He grabs the leash that the Walker is on and beats the Scavengers with it, then rips off the zombie’s head and pins Jadis down right next to its chomping jaw. It’s nice to see Jadis in a helpless situation, as she is incredibly annoying and way too cocky. Not to mention she keeps running the “sleeping with Rick” gag into the ground every chance she gets. The plan seems to be going well until Rick finally sees what Daryl has done. Will Rick lock up Daryl? Can the plan still survive or is it finished? Hopefully we’ll find out next week. Featured image from AMC
Warning: This review may contain spoilers for this episode and previous episodes of The Walking Dead.
by Phil Akin Warning: This review may contain spoilers for this episode and previous episodes of The Walking Dead. A lot happens in “The King, The Widow, and Rick”, and yet nothing really happens. This episode jumps around more than a kangaroo on crack. That’s not to say it's bad by any means, because this episode does sow a bunch of seeds. It’s just that there is little overall plot advancement. There are a lot of match-ups this episode that are intriguing though. We have pairings with interesting characters like Maggie and Jesus, Carl and Siddiq, and Michonne and Rosita (well, maybe not her). Does the story move forward? Yes, but not by much. To kick things off, Jerry has a new axe! I was very sad when he broke the other one in the episode from a few couple weeks ago, so I’m glad to see that he has a new weapon. He still insists on playing along with the whole “King” act, even though Ezekiel doesn’t seem to care anymore. Ezekiel is still wallowing in sorrow over the unnecessary loss of Shiva. Since the Kingdom is running low on fighters, Carol becomes a recruiter for child soldiers, albeit reluctantly. What could possibly go wrong? Maggie has probably the most interesting storyline this episode. She deals primarily with Jesus and the Saviors. Jesus, having a good heart, tries to take care of the Saviors by giving them food and water. Maggie understandably doesn’t like this, and to keep Jesus somewhat satisfied, she locks all the captured Saviors into a cage inside the Hilltop’s walls. But the beautiful thing about this makeshift prison is that everyone’s favorite douchebag Gregory is thrown in there as well. Gregory will most likely try to gain the favor of the captured Saviors, but only time will tell if he’ll have the spine to lead them if that does happen. On another note, Jared seems prime to die at any time now, as he planned on breaking out of this cage twice, but was stopped both times. Perhaps Morgan will kill Jared before he leaves for Fear the Walking Dead. Although Siddiq takes a departure from his comic book counterpart, the scenes between Carl and Siddiq were incredibly appealing to me. It’s always nice when the group gets a new member. Hopefully AMC doesn’t kill him off next week. Carl takes a page out of Rick’s book and questions Siddiq, making sure that he’s trustworthy enough to let into Alexandria. Carl also speaks about how sometimes the kid needs to show the parents the way. Typically, stuff like that tends to come back around, so we’ll have to wait and see how Carl shows up his dad. Maybe he will convince Rick to spare Negan? Rick has his own interesting little adventure in this episode: he tries to talk Jadis into joining his group again. The show finally reveals why Rick was taking pictures with the Polaroid in previous episodes. It was to prove to the Scavengers that the Saviors had been beaten (or so they think). However, Jadis and her group think that Rick’s threatening them, so naturally they strip him naked and lock him up. One can’t help but wonder if this is all a part of Rick’s overall plan, or if it’s going completely off the rails. After all, Daryl seems to really be into disobeying Rick now. Speaking of Daryl, why is he still here? He isn’t really serving a purpose anymore outside of becoming an antagonist for Rick. He killed Morales, who could’ve been a new and interesting subplot. He killed Todd after Rick told him that he’d be spared. Not to mention he got into a fistfight with Rick. Daryl is on his way to becoming a villain. Don’t be surprised if he outright turns on Rick. You heard it here first: Rick will either kick Daryl out of the group or put him in the prison cell that Morgan built. As much as I’d like to say Daryl will die, I doubt that will happen. But in all seriousness, the scene with Daryl and Tara crashing into that Savior truck with all the speakers was cool to see. Almost as cool as when Rosita shot that Savior with an RPG. At pretty much point-blank range, seemingly without any recoil too. There isn’t much of a budget with that explosion either. Guess they used it all on Shiva in previous episodes. What will happen with Rick? Will Gregory try to kill or harm Maggie for locking him in with the Saviors? Will Daryl become a minor villain, or even a major one? Featured image from AMC
Warning: This review may contain spoilers for this episode and previous episodes of The Walking Dead.
by Phil Akin Warning: This review may contain spoilers for this episode and previous episodes of The Walking Dead. “Some Guy” is as filler as a filler episode could possibly be. It turns out that Ezekiel’s rants from last week’s episode about “not losing one of their ranks” turned into “losing all but three." Since Rick and Daryl did show up for a few minutes, we had to sit through a primarily Ezekiel-focused episode this week. Yay. Somehow that’s not even the worst part. In this week’s episode, viewers witnessed the death of one of The Walking Dead’s most beloved characters: Jerry’s axe. Now a moment of silence for our fallen brother. Oh, and Shiva died too. Because that was a completely necessary and unavoidable death that drove Ezekiel to become a more well-rounded character. Honestly, Jerry breaking his axe was the most emotional moment this episode. This episode opens with Khary Payton going through his daily routine to get into costume for King Ezekiel. This is of course followed by another pompous speech by Ezekiel before he leaves the Kingdom to fight the Saviors. This time, however, his speech is pleasantly juxtaposed with the aftermath of his men getting utterly wrecked. Ezekiel crawls out from under a pile of dead bodies and finds he’s been shot in the leg. On the bright side, now he has a legitimate excuse to use his cane. Somehow Alvaro manages to survive the ambush on the Kingdom warriors and tries to help Ezekiel along until he’s unfortunately shot in the back by none other than Gunther! Who is Gunther you may ask? Well he’s a one-off Savior, so don’t get too attached. He wants to bring Ezekiel back to Negan, so the two begin their journey towards the Sanctuary. After stopping to speak to each other a few times (even though Walkers are right behind them), the pair finally encounter a fence locked with a chain. With nowhere to go, Gunther tries to kill Ezekiel and escape, but then he gets deus ex machina’d when Jerry releases his inner Carol and cuts Gunther right in half. Things then take an unfortunate turn as Jerry tries to save both Ezekiel and himself by prying the locked chain with his axe, only for the axe to then break. I, along with the rest of America, was in utter disbelief when this happened. All of this was taking place the same time Carol was inside the compound waging a one-woman war against the Saviors. Carol gets to have a couple cool scenes of taking out a few Saviors (while hiding in the ceiling of all places) and generally being the badass we all know she is. Being the cunning woman she is, Carol tricks a few of the Saviors into thinking she has surrendered and surprises them by holding one of their own hostage. Unsurprisingly, the Saviors open fire on their own man which was just the distraction Carol needed to escape. It is surprising, however, that she chose to save Ezekiel and Jerry instead of killing the Saviors that she was much closer to. Thankfully she did, otherwise we wouldn’t have gotten that awesome car chase scene with Rick and Daryl. There isn’t much to say about this chase scene in all honesty. Rick and Daryl chase down the few saviors that Carol doesn’t kill and kill them for her. The Saviors shoot at the pair of survivors, Daryl shoots back, a couple cars run off the road. It’s what you expect from a car chase. While it was cool and a welcome change from this rather mundane episode, it wasn’t a huge part of the episode. Finally, after Carol saves Ezekiel and Jerry, the trio make their way through the woods trying to get back to the Kingdom. They encounter a creek with a lot of waterlogged Walkers lurking around. King Ezekiel finally drops his act during this part and yells at Jerry, saying “I ain’t nobody, just some guy." Shiva also makes a surprise and useless entrance by killing a Walker before being surrounded and eaten. Clearly she was trying to save Ezekiel, or at least make a distraction. But why? She could probably wipe out most, if not all, of those Walkers. But no, she just swipes at them a couple times and roars, doing nothing to save herself. There was no emotional weight to this death whatsoever, and only served as a way to further break Ezekiel. Shiva joins the group of unnecessary deaths alongside Beth and Glenn. Hopefully Ezekiel drops his cringy king act and becomes his normal, pre-apocalyptic self after this episode. Featured image from AMC
by Phil Akin Warning: This review may contain spoilers for this episode and previous episodes of The Walking Dead. The second episode of The Walking Dead’s Season 8 kind of does the same old stuff we’ve seen already. While it is better paced than last week’s episode and doesn’t have any incoherent dream scenes, it still could’ve been handled better. It keeps in line with the mercy theme from the first episode, but does a slightly better job at delivering this time around. In this episode there are several different subplots all happening at once, with each group in these subplots taking on different outposts that the Saviors have set up. “The Damned” doesn’t seem to know who or what it wants to focus on. Clearly it struggles with the morality of killing people, but who cares? Certainly not Morgan, who has changed his mind about killing people, what, three times now? Don’t be surprised if he goes back to building jail cells next week. Before Morgan’s group enters the Savior’s outpost, he mentions that he doesn’t die, and for the time being he may be right. But typically, when a character gets too happy or too cocky, death follows shortly. After seemingly being shot (but surprise, not really), Morgan picks himself up and goes on quite the rampage in this outpost. The remaining scenes with Morgan alternate between him channeling his inner John Wick and flashbacks to Rick telling him they need to take out the Saviors. Morgan has never been the most mentally stable character, and has to be physically restrained by Jesus so he doesn’t kill Jared after he and the rest of the Saviors surrender. Speaking of Jesus, he may be the only truly moral person left. Jesus was in the same group as Morgan, and while he was busy getting headshots, Jesus had his own moral battle with Tara. They encounter a man who has pissed himself and wants to surrender. Tara wants revenge for Denise, Abraham and Glenn and sees killing every single Savior as the way to do that. Jesus isn’t cool with killing a defenseless man and wants to spare him. But big surprise, the guy was faking it the whole time, reluctantly proving that Tara was right to kill him when they had the chance. Tara later makes the comment that even if Maggie sides with Jesus about sparing people, Rick will side with her. Rick talked about how his mercy will prevail over his wrath in the last episode, then in this one goes on to kill a father who was protecting his daughter. For someone who claims that only Negan must die, he (as well as the rest of the survivors) kills a lot of people. After going into the room and seeing Gracie in her crib, Rick realizes what he’s become. And if the audience couldn’t piece that together, there’s a nice, convenient mirror for Rick to stare at and reflect on what he’s done. Switching over to Aaron’s group, we see them attacking an outpost while hiding behind cover. We’ve seen that before. In last week’s episode to be exact. Aaron’s little story is the perfect example of material and actions that are being repeated. The only saving grace for this subplot is that Eric is shot. In the comics, Eric is killed next to Aaron in a similar fashion when they're attacking an outpost. This causes Aaron to rage and kill a bunch of Saviors in largely the same way Morgan does in this episode. Hopefully we’ll get to see something close to that play out next week. That just leaves Carol and Ezekiel’s group, who honestly didn’t do much outside of kill a few Saviors and talk about not retreating. This episode has a major surprise at the end that honestly would have been better in the 100th episode, not the 101st episode. The surprise comes shortly after Rick finds Gracie. After years of teasing that he was still alive, Morales has finally returned to the show after being absent for nearly seven seasons, and as a Savior no less. Props to you if you didn’t have to look up who he was. Where has he been the last few years? Why is he working for Negan? Is he going to try to kill Rick? Does he even know that Negan killed Glenn? We don’t have the answers right now, but hopefully AMC doesn’t drag their feet in giving them to us. Whether Rick can bring him back to his side or not, only time will tell. Featured image from AMC