Margaux and I liked half of last night’s The Walking Dead. Unfortunately, we had to review the whole thing.
Trevor: Anybody sick of this back-and-forth about Glenn? The shot of the watch remains in the credits, which is where the show can reinsert Steven Yuen’s name, and that voice on the walkie-talkie at the end sounded a lot like Glenn. Why the cliffhanger? Jesus. Is The Walking Dead hurting for ratings? No! I needed to get this off my chest right away. This episode wasn’t even about Glenn and it’s all people are going to talk about anyway.
Margaux: I called out the Glenn trolling last week with the pointless In Memoriam wall in Alexandria, at this point, I’m ready to be annoyed for Glenn’s ultimate return to the TWD fold. I hope he doesn’t get the Beth treatment though, Glenn is reunited with the group only die immediately upon his arrival – most likely by that Wolf Morgan has stashed away in some house (not a jail cell) he could easily break out of. I was sad, but in the end glad the writers had killed off Glenn, making good on their threat that “anyone could die at any time,” yet the wishy-washy of whom (we all know, no matter the ‘danger’ Daryl is in, that he will never ever die on this show) and are they really dead bullshit is grinding my fucking gears, it’s hobbling them from getting on with the business of telling this fuckin’ story once and for all.
Trevor: I completely agree. The show is going to lose a lot of credibility with Glenn’s inevitable return, and like you said, Daryl’s mere existence strains credulity enough as it is.
That being said, “Always Accepted” was a pretty good hour for Norman Reedus. My complaints about Daryl’s believability notwithstanding, Reedus plays the hell out of the role, and is never less than watchable. His conscience really shines through, even when it bites him in the ass. How did the episode work for you?
Margaux: It treaded a lot of the same waters we’ve seen before and introduced, somewhat confusingly, three characters we were asked to care about slash get in invested in, only to watch one die pretty stupidly (and thankfully, cause really, insulin…in this apocalypse? How have you managed to survive this long?) is something this show loves to do time and time again. Though I think whatever connection blond man moron and hungry looking brunette broad have to the group they were running from and ultimately go to rejoin (I think) is setup for the future, possibly even setting up Negan and the Saviors, could’ve been a little more explicit instead of rehashing suicide hotline talk with Abe and Sasha. Lastly, if they were part of this group before, how did they not put together that Daryl WAS NOT with them? Wouldn’t you have noticed the leather guy with the crossbow at some point in time?
Trevor: Daryl’s plot worked more for me, I think, because I felt as though one of “our” characters had stumbled into someone else’s show. And I also appreciated the oblique introduction to Negan, if the Saviors were indeed who the trio was running from.
Abe and Sasha are a good pairing that we haven’t really seen before, but right away I can see them becoming a couple way too fast. Someone alert Tumblr, it’s time to come up with a dumbass portmanteau – “Sashabe”? “Abesha”? There are no bad ideas in brainstorming!
Margaux: Daryl’s plot did work better than Abesha’s because it made you ask questions and wasn’t very forthcoming with the answers, it was a nice touch to have Daryl’s first solo recruitment go so totally south – with his motorcycle and crossbow too. But that felt like a fairly obvious sign that these three will meet again. And on a side note(s): can those two bozos A.) work that crossbow? and B.) I don’t see them getting very far on that bike before either falling or seriously hurting themselves, they seemed feeble as fuck.
The quick turn from reckless to the point endangerment to “do you want a ride on this ginger mustache?” felt like two different scripts getting copy/pasted together haphazardly, I could buy Sasha and Abe getting together (although I don’t really ship it), but maybe not while they’re holed up inside an insurance company waiting for Daryl. Something about the timing felt like, “broken people get together to bang all the time, am I right GUYS?” – because as Abe helpfully points out, “a man always knows,” which would have come across as WAY creepier in a lesser actors mans, but still pretty misogynistic nonetheless.
Trevor: Well if nothing else, lines like that remind viewers that this show is about a bunch of Southerners – not Texas Southerners, fuckin Georgia and Virgina Southerners. Way different. Personally, I would have rather had Sasha and Abe just be friends, in the nonsexual vein of Daryl and Carol’s relationship (and this season’s structure of unfolding over one day has robbed us of too many scenes with those two). Even if they’re destined to be more than friends, do they need to start with the googly eyes right away? We all saw it coming, so the show can afford to take its time with it. At least Abe got a kickass rocket launcher, although trying to grab it off a walker’s back while it gnashes at your exposed arm is an incredibly dumb way to grab anything.
Margaux: That scene was incredibly frustrating and heavy handed – Abe’s shouting in the former military man was less than subtle – especially when the walker ended up taking care of itself (so to speak), at least he gets some cigars out of it. But at the end of scene, it just wouldn’t been best if we all the ham fisted “ABE IS RECKLESS” b.s.? It would have made for a more effective realization on his
OH! And to quickly circle back to the Glenn trolling and Sasha’s nihilism of last season, during the ‘Previously On’ part of “Always Accountable”, it kicked off with the shot of Sasha lying with the pile of dead-dead walkers and it looked like a call back to Glenn’s overhead zombie swarm shot.
Trevor: I didn’t even notice that, good eye. Shows that this show can still be smart sometimes, even in the face of mostly dumb episodes like this one. Maybe that’s being too harsh – I actually really enjoyed Daryl’s storyline. It had an arc and a twist ending, as well as a sinister hint of things to come. It was effective storytelling, well-acted and directed, but it was just half of the episode unfortunately. Sasha and Abe didn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know, and by jumping into a relationship seemingly right away, the show sacrifices what could have been a lot of great scenes of these two getting to know each other.
Margaux: To quote Abe, “loose ends make my ass itch” (shout out to the writer who is clearly a fan of the Kevin Kline classic, French Kiss), so I really hope we get to see more of the sinister aspects of Daryl’s encounter play out rather than Abe have an uncomfortable conversation with Rosita on the conscious uncoupling they have to do now.
Trevor: Oh man, I forgot about Rosita just as much as The Walking Dead did. Oh well, I’ve heard worse reasons than “zombie apocalypse” to try polyamory.
Margaux: In either scenario, Eugene will still watch your romantic encounters, so keep that in mind ladies when evaluating Abe’s proposition.
Trevor: Well, we all have different ways of coping with stress. You want to talk stars? If this were just Daryl’s episode, I’d say four; if it were just Sashabe’s, I’d say three; so I’m inclined to go 3.5.
Margaux: This episode started with so much promise! The zombie parade is over, Daryl on a motorcycle, and the ambush awaiting them was truly surprising, but then things just…petered out and became more of the same, at least we didn’t have to pretend to care about Alexandrians this week, but still leaves a lot to be desired. Tick tock, guys! There are only two episodes left before the bullshitty “mid-season” finale, let’s move past rehashing the same themes and give the people what they want, some motherfuckin’ action. Three stars. part.
About Author
