Margaux and I cry on each others’ shoulders after last night’s devastating episode of The Walking Dead.
Trevor: So let’s not talk about the elephant in the room – at least not right away. THAT THING notwithstanding, “Thank You” was a solid episode through and through. It cultivated a real, genuie sense of peril, and it actually delivered on it. (I don’t know how Rick is going to get out of his predicament.) Moreover, it tested our goodwill towards Daryl by having him peace out to do…what, exactly? It looked almost like he was running, but that would be pretty out of character. All we know (and enlighten me if you can) is that he got bored of the zombie parade and left Sasha and Abe all by themselves, which is a dick move no matter how you cut it.
Margaux: To build off what you just said, it’s hard to tell exactly what the stakes are right now for the zombie parade leaders, but in effort to be fair, I think we’re still in the set up phase. The stakes for Abe, Sasha, and Daryl aren’t as clearly delineated as they are for everyone else in “Thank You,” and their destination/end point is still ridiculously vague as hell. But Daryl has attempted to dip out on the group before, but something always pulls him back to do the right thing, and I don’t think his U-turn back to Abe and Sasha was so much out of character as it was just moving plot along.
Trevor: It’ll be interesting to see what exactly those three are up to, which I think we’ll see next week. (My guess, which so far has proven correct, is that the first half of the season is going to be different perspectives, tracing the disastrous aftermath of Rick’s plan and the Wolves’ attack on Alexandria.) Of course, the problem with doing what is essentially a three- or even six-part premier is that it runs the risk of treading water narratively. What do you think? Is this fragmented storytelling working for you? I’m on the fence, but episodes like “Thank You” go a long way towards justifying the experiment.
Margaux: I think this is the strongest and most confident storytelling the show has done in quite some time. I’m impressed with not only the sheer terrifying volume of walkers who infect so much of the screen you feel like you’re suffocating. But, also, the tension is/has been/hopefully continues to be so crazy high, especially after this episode, you can definitively say that no one is ever ‘safe’. Still not sure if my expectations were extra low post-Fear the Walking Dead, but the action sequences have been a real roller coaster emotionally and visually, and the pacing is very nearly perfect. It’s almost enough to make me forget the season on the farm that bored me to fuckin’ tears.
Trevor: I’ll agree with you there, it’s almost as if The Walking Dead remembered that it has zombies on it, so it’s okay to scare people instead of making us listen to awful people bitch at each other. This might be the best the show has ever looked, too – the walkers themselves on “Thank You” were particularly gruesome, and former Breaking Bad director of photography Michael Slovis really directed the hell out of the episode.
Okay, now we can talk about the elephant. RIP Glenn Rhee. You were on the show since the end of episode one, and it still didn’t feel long enough. I appreciate Glenn’s death as a way of TWD embracing a more nihilistic mode of storytelling, where the Father Gabriels can live, and the Glenns have to die – all because of Nicholas, a man who Glenn by all rights should have killed. If Glenn had done that, he’d arguably still be alive. Total fuckin gut punch of a realization.
Margaux: Did I scream: NO, FUCK, NOT GLENN?!?! Yes. Did I throw my notebook at my TV? Yes. Did I feel like one of those disgusting zombies ripped my fuckin’ heart out? Hell fuckin’ yeah. Is suicide just as inconsiderate and selfish an act in the apocalypse? YUP. All that being said, from a writing/story point of view though, it was absolutely the right move for The Walking Dead to make. And they tried to tell us several times that the clammy, dirty hands of death were reaching out to take Glenn away. Starting at the premiere episode, Maggie feebly tries to talk Glenn into staying behind with her. Then, we get the fantastic bait-and-switch with Tobin, who gets bit early on, but cowgirls up and tries to help out the group regardless, hoping to get back to Alexandria to tell his wife good-bye, even going so far as scratching a truly pitiful note on some toilet paper – prison style – while they’re holed up in a creepy, abandoned pet store. There’s a shot of group (Michonne, Tobin, Glenn, Gimpy Lady, Sasha’s IRL husband, and Heath) when Tobin is talking about his wife Betsy, who in all reality is most likely super dead thanks to the Wolves attack, has made him a better man and that they got ‘married’ post-apocalypse and despite Tobin talking to Michonne more or less, Glenn is lurking in the corner of the frame. And I don’t know about you, but the heavy foreshadowing with Nicholas made you anxiously wait for his other dumbass shoe to drop.
Trevor: His death was definitely telegraphed, but like Tyreese’s before this, that foreknowledge didn’t make it any easier to bear. The Walking Dead always goes out of its way to make characters look really good if they’re about to die, and Glenn looked damn near saintly in “Thank You.” But that wasn’t out of character – Glenn was a genuinely decent man, the kind of man who will give Nicholas a second chance that he in no way deserves. I’ll miss Steven Yuen’s funny, brave, and natural performance.
(There is some online speculation – as always – that Glenn could have escaped the horde. But what kind of a cop out would that be?)
Margaux: Part of me really wants to believe that Glenn could escape, but I just don’t see a non-groan and/or eye roll worthy way of doing it. I cannot stress it enough, the metric fuckton of walkers (though the placement and emphasis on the dumpster cannot be missed) makes me question the likelihood of his survival. My only hope is that we don’t agonize as much with Maggie like we have with previous S/O’s death on this show, but at least if we do, it’ll be a lot more warranted than with say, Tyreese or Sasha whining about for half a fuckin’ season.
What really upset me about Glenn’s untimely death was that it only serves to underline the Ricktatorship, which, even by Rick’s own account, isn’t going that goddamn well. I mean, how many fuckin’ ways can this plan go wrong? Besides exactly one million. And it’s not that Glenn spoke out against Rick’s rules, we saw what happened to that one guy in the first 5 minutes of “Thank You” who spoke out against Rick, insta face death, but more along the lines of letting someone quite literally drag you down, to the point of risking your own life.
Trevor: Rick’s repeated failure as a leader is actually something that keeps me coming back to TWD; the show doesn’t romanticize any of its cast (with the arguable exception of Daryl, who in real life would smell terrible, and likely hit women – Georgia redneck, remember). The show will punish people for others’ mistakes: look how Rick ran afoul of the Governor and cost Hershel his life, or look in “Thank You,” how Glenn paid the ultimate price (and kudos to the show for not remotely skimping on the gore in that scene). The Walking Dead is low-key very complex when it comes to characterization, which is why a mousy housewife can become TV’s biggest badass (Carol) and a rugged sheriff can become the group’s biggest liability instead of its savior (Rick).
Margaux: Makes me wonder if Rick will take any responsibility in his horribly flawed plan, or if he’ll keep on blaming Alexandrians for being “too soft.” Just like I wonder when the katana will drop on Morgan, whether it be by Michonne’s hand or Carol’s. He was sent back to Alexandria to warn them about the incoming herd, but stepped into a pile shit with the Wolves’, but did he ever end up warning anyone? Rick obviously put the pieces together after killing the two Wolves, now armed with handy guns Morgan let them skip off with, and found baby food in one of their persons.
Trevor: There’s definitely a lot we’re not seeing, but I chalk that up to how TWD is moving forward with the first half of its season. If the next few episodes are even close to being as confident as “Thank You,” I think the show has earned the benefit of the doubt. Do you want to talk stars, or is there anything else you’d like to add?
Margaux: Only that I enjoyed the “I keeps it real” off between Michonne and Heath, and that their exchanges make me wonder if men can whisper. Or if everyone in this universe is honest to goodness deaf, you don’t fire guns in that close of proximity without getting tinnitus.
“Thank You” is the type of episode that reminds you why you watch The Walking Dead. It’s on par with the greatness of season one, which, if we learned anything from the second episode of that season it’s that perhaps maybe Glenn can survive, but only if he’s covered in zombie guts (again).
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