The Walking Dead mostly avoids being terrible, but Margaux and I just want it to be good.
Trevor: So once again I found myself impressed that The Walking Dead isn’t the shitshow that the first half of season seven taught us to expect. I know that’s damning with faint praise, but that’s hardly my fault, now is it? But I still think that “Say Yes” was a pretty solid episode; it gave Rosita and Sasha something to do besides gripe at each other, and I think it succeeded mainly because it focused on one of the show’s strongest pairings, Rick and Michonne. How did it work for you?
Margaux: Like most of my Walking Dead complaints, I thought the storyline with Rick and Michonne, and even Rosita and Sasha, would’ve come across less slapdash and clumsy if they were spread out over the course of a couple weeks, and doled out 20 minutes at a time. Like, I would’ve enjoyed Rick and Michonne’s endless quest of guns to be juxtaposed with the Eugene cowardly lion rise of last week. But we never get the things we’re really looking for on this show, and our characters still have not managed to learn that when you get greedy in this world, you will suffer the consequences, sooner or later. The dialogue hasn’t improved much this week either (“some serious rounds for some serious guns”); I know Rick was a country cop, but you’re telling me he never picked up UH book?
Trevor: That’s a good point, this would have worked better if it were folded into last week’s episode, but I’ve long since resigned myself to taking what I can get with this show. And no, the dialogue hasn’t improved much, but that’s no surprise, because “Say Yes” was written by Matthew Negrete, who wrote last season’s “Twice As Far,” one of my least favorite episodes the show has ever done. However, I think the acting was better, because director Greg Nicotero is better than most directors in the Walking Dead stable. Plus, the carnival full of walkers was a nice set, straight out of a video game. When the show stops navel-gazing and embraces Planet Terror-style pulp, it works a lot better for me.
Margaux: This episode was more cinematic in tone. Nicotero is a huge horror fan, and it shined in those scenes at the carnival slash military evacuation site – that setting was a bit confusing, they wanted to have it all in one set without having to give any reason as to how or why. But a lot of the conversations between Rick and Michonne there did not work for me. Maybe it was the undercurrent of rom-com affability that didn’t jibe with the badasses we’ve come to know. Like when they fall through the roof of the building and start laughing because it’s all so light hearted to free fall 25 feet onto your back? I mean, I suppose they were laughing at the up come of food and supplies, but still. It felt…off for them. I get that this mission was also a bang-vacation and everything, and I can appreciate an inject of light in a show where everyone dies, but still. I hated it.
Trevor: Strong words! I didn’t hate it – in fact, I enjoyed the opening montage of scavenging, sex, and dialogue – but I can see how it would rub you the wrong way.
Margaux: Well, it’s super male-gaze-y. “Isn’t it cool all this hot chick wants to do is agree with me, fuck, look for guns, and use her cool sword?” It’s fine, but I like solo Michonne more, they take better care of her character. Most rom-coms make me cringe because there’s this falseness in everything they say or do, and they repeat that mistake here, too. TWD does rom-com about as good as most things they do.
Trevor: Okay, fair enough. That’s well said.
Tonal shifts are always going to be polarizing on this show, especially when it’s so firmly planted its flag as an introspective drama about the nature of humanity (which it’s bad at) instead of a show about zombies and human depravity (which, when it’s on its game, it’s good at).
Margaux: Trevor: Exactly. And maybe it’s the pacing of this episode (and nearly every other episode of TWD), but everything feels too rushed, easy, and unearned. Like the deer that unintentionally leads them to the carnival showing back up again. I mean, really? The deer fled when super quiet Michonne tried to sneak up on it, but you’re telling me that after Rick FALLS OFF A FERRIS WHEEL and a hoard of mouth breathing zombie rolls up on it, it is one hundred percent unbothered, and holds still for them to rip it apart and devour it? UNEARNED.
Trevor: Yeah, and their escape from the car was way too easy. Echoes of Rick’s unseen escape from the RV last season. Don’t bother with tension if you’re going to undercut it seconds later – for instance, I never once worried that Rick was dead, and it was a dumb move on the show’s part to even bother.
Margaux: They basically ‘dumpster’ed’ Rick with that fucking deer fake out. Kudos to them, I shouted at my TV over it.
Trevor: Let’s switch gears and talk about Rosita and Sasha. TWD has made strides this season to make Father Gabriel less insufferable, and I liked his scene in “Say Yes.” He even got a good line: “Anything is possible till your heart stops beating.”
I guess my main problem, though, is that we know Negan isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, so the assassination plot is kind of destined to fizzle out. If anything, the show is just setting up Rosita and/or Sasha to die this season. Rosita even said it was a one-way trip.
Margaux: Sasha is supposed to be a main character in the CBS reboot of Star Trek (if it ever sees the light of day) and Rosita is pregnant in real life. So I basically tuned out their entire, pointless, talk because one and/or both (most likely both seeing whereas they have put in Jerry-levels of work to make us care and pay attention to them) are gonna be dead in a couple episodes anyway. Plus, Rosita had a very telling line at the beginning when Tara came over, telling her, “I’m done.” And I was like, yeah, you probably are.
We didn’t talk about President Rick 2020 yet! While I think it’s actually pretty smart they couched the conversation of what the future of the show (broadly) will be by having it be between Rick and Michonne and their vision of what a perfect world looks like to them. I think what they described is pretty close to what happens in the comics, all the communities work together. But then I wonder what the shows next big bad could be. Again, this show becomes infinitely more interesting when you ponder the “what could bes”. Rick as President sounds like a nightmare though, and Rick as the villain has always been something they seemed to want to explore more.
Trevor: It was definitely the best part of season five. If that’s their endgame, I’ll be very impressed. A lot has been made of Negan’s attempts to be Rick, but it would be an interesting switch if Rick ended up being Negan. Maybe the real threat of Negan is his corrosive influence. Or maybe I’m reading way too far into this and the whole thing will collapse. We spend a lot of these reviews talking about what would be a good move on the show’s part.
Margaux: What did you think of the cult’s demands for even more guns? Who’d have thought these people would be completely unreasonable and poor communicators.
Trevor: They mainly communicate in hoots and grunts, so it’s not all that surprising that something was lost in translation. I’m still interested in the junkyard gang, but something tells me this is going to end one of two ways: either they’re invaluable in the fight against Negan, or it turns out to be a whole lot of nothing and they refuse to help once the guns have been supplied. But Rick got my second-favorite line of the night in his negotiation: “I keep the cat.”
Margaux: Yeah, was there a cat involved? Or is that gun slang? (I know nothing about guns)
Trevor: It was that folk-art sculpture that Rick took last week, to replace the one that Michonne lost (which she got back in season 3). It was a sweet moment.
Margaux: DON’T CARE! It’s meaningless, much like what will end up happening with this trash group. Killing time because they have an episode order they don’t know how to fill.
Where’s Carl, though? Never thought I’d ponder that, but here we are.
Trevor: I don’t know, man, pudding? Enid? I’m sure he’ll show up, he’s around here somewhere. You want to talk stars?
Margaux: Another middle of the road, could’ve been better, but not terrible – comparatively – episode. 3.5 stars. Unless you have a case for a higher rating.
Trevor: Nah, I’m not enthusiastic enough about the show to argue ratings, unless I wanted to go 4 stars and you wanted to go 1. We could probably front-load these reviews and give everything 3 or 3.5 stars.
Margaux: Save for the finale. They (mostly) stick the landing.
3.5/5
About Author
