Margaux and I discuss the season premiere that The Walking Dead should have had last week.
Trevor: So we can all agree that last week’s episode should have been the midseason finale and “The Next World” the midseason premiere, right? I mean, there was a time jump and everything, which would have made a lot more sense coming off of a two-month hiatus. I liked “The Next World” more than “No Way Out,” in case you can’t tell.
Margaux: We can definitely agree on what the episode order should’ve been, not only from a timeline perspective would it of made more sense, it would’ve also smoothed out the jump of friends to friends with benefits that is going to be better known now as Richonne. Parts of “The Next World” were a little jerky, sometimes the tone and urgency felt mismatched, but overall it was a more satisfying episode than “No Way Out.” Don’t we usually get a gleeful Rick at the start of new seasons, only to slowly see his sanity erode?
Trevor: On the one hand, I always like seeing Rick go crazy; on the other hand, we keep going back to that well and I’m kinda sick of it. It was weird – in a good way – to see him and Michonne so domestic, and I like that it didn’t become full-blown romance until the very end. Nice, tactful storytelling. It was a smart choice to make the two of them the focal points, more or less, of the episode’s two stories. What do you want to talk about first, Rick and Daryl finding Jesus (literally) or Michonne and Spencer taking a walk through the woods?
Margaux: There’s isn’t too much to be said about Michonne and Spencer’s arc this episode; it was probably my least favorite part of “The Next World,” apart from Carl’s appearance in it with Enid and Michonne’s heart-to-heart with Carl afterward, so we can save that for later.
I thought a lot of Rick and Daryl’s story was made up of things about The Walking Dead, on the whole as a show, that bug me; rookie-level ideas getting played out to their inevitable, ‘this was an unsound plan to begin with’ end. Though I enjoy Andrew Lincoln and Norman Reedus’s on-screen buddy chemistry, the thought that some asshole that looks like he was former Burning Man attendee could get the jump on Rick AND Daryl multiple times was a little grating.
Trevor: It was strange how much of “The Next World” flirted with flat-out comedy. Maybe that’s why I liked it much more than “No Way Out,” which was too self-serious for its own good. Lincoln and Reedus make some nice buddy comedy, even though I have trouble believing that Daryl would dread the prospect of Rick’s country music mix – isn’t Daryl from Georgia too?
As far as Jesus goes, he’s a pretty important character (I gather; I haven’t read this far into the books) whose arrival more or less heralds the arrival of Negan, who, let’s face it, we probably wont’ meet until the end of the season. As it is, Jesus is a little cartoonish – “My friends used to call me Jesus” is an impossible line to deliver well, especially while stretching your arms out in a Christ pose – but his arrival and subsequent tricking of Daryl and Rick allowed for some philosophical discussions between the two that for once didn’t feel shoehorned-in. (Plus the gag of Rick slamming on the brakes, making Jesus fall off the top of the truck, earned a solid laugh from me.)
Margaux: I mean, Jesus must’ve been some sort of magician in the pre-apocalypse because he got out of the rope Rick tied him up with and climbed on top of that moving truck real quick. Like you said, it’s bordering on too cartoonishly to be taken seriously, especially when The Walking Dead likes to go out of its way to remind you to, TRUST NO BITCH. Look, I’m sure Jesus will totally be the harbinger of doom he’s talked up to be, he does manage this Houdini feat not once, but twice, the second time ending up in Rick’s room, creepily watching over a tastefully nude Rick and Michonne. I’m sure that wasn’t a friendly, ‘we need to talk’ at the end of the episode.
Trevor: Yeah, that was a very interesting way to end the episode, with what might be the show’s first nude scene (well, as nude as you can get on AMC). Jesus as a character isn’t fully developed, but we’ve only known him for about twenty minutes, so I’m going to give the show some leeway on that.
One thing I want to add about Rick and Daryl’s supply run: I thought it was incredibly sweet of Daryl (and Denise by proxy) to try to find “pop” for Tara. Little human moments like that make me like Daryl way more than last week’s rocket launcher stunt.
Margaux: Crush: the pop of the zombie apocalypse. But my issue with Daryl’s would-be thoughtful gesture for Denise (and by proxy Tara) is that it ultimately cost them the truck of very useful supplies and saddled them with this probably psychotic stranger named Jesus. You just feel the hand the of the plot being moved in an inorganic way, going against the what the show tries to impart nearly every episode, nice guys get killed or at the very least, lose something useful, whether it be a crossbow or a truck full of toothpaste for Michonne.
Trevor: Okay, I’ll give you that. There was a bit of narrative contrivance involved to make sure that the audience knew just how crafty Jesus is. But that could have been achieved by taking him back to Alexandria and binding him, then having him escape. You’d still get that sorta-funny sorta-creepy ending. Rick and Daryl chasing a truck is slightly Benny Hill-ish, so I see why you’d take issue with it.
As for Michonne and Spencer: I don’t really care about Alexandrians, and neither does The Walking Dead, but I thought Spencer’s motivation was sweet and weirdly noble. Dispatching Deanna brought a nice sense of closure to that plotline, and we go to see some more of Carl’s maturity, as he refused to kill her, arguing that it should be a loved one. Nothing earth-shattering, but a collection of nice character moments is always welcome.
Margaux: Rick and Daryl running down the stolen truck, which shouldn’t have happened in the first place, was a ridiculous plan that shouldn’t of been successful, never mind successful enough for it to of gone to shit while we watch them, watch their booty unceremoniously sink to the bottom of a lake. Jesus, indeed.
As for Spencer and Michonne, though I’d argue the importance of keeping your post in favor of following around a dumb-dumb like Spencer into the woods, it was nice to see Spencer not behave like a total jackass. I think his character was more so redeemed in those scenes than it was closure for Deanna, she died two episodes and three months ago – don’t care, not sorry. I did appreciate the heartfelt, but still bleak, moment between Carl, who’s already had to kill one Mom, and Michonne. Even though it was unmistakably dark, it’s nice to know Carl and/or Michonne would stick a knife into the others temple should they turn into a zombie. It’s like one of those, “if we’re both single when 40, we’ll get married,” but for the apocalypse.
I did find Enid and Carl reading comics outside of the walls to be very, most likely unintentionally, hilarious. They were like a married couple who no longer feel anything for each other, “I don’t want to come out here anymore”, it’s like they were in their own avant-garde French film, all that was missing was them chain-smoking.
Trevor: Haha, don’t give anyone ideas, or poor Samir will have to sit through that at Telluride.
It’s smart of The Walking Dead to capitalize on the bond formed between Carl and Michonne way back in season three’s “Clear.” Also, just as a way to demonstrate just how badly this show can shit the bed sometimes, I think “Clear” is one of, if not the best, episode the show’s ever done (argument can be made for “Days Gone By,” “No Sanctuary,” or “The Grove”). It was a harrowing look into Morgan’s psyche, it was the first episode credited to now-showrunner Scott Gimple, and it was a brilliantly paced character piece. Now look how the show has dropped the ball with Morgan. One of my notes about “The Next World” is “Any episode without Morgan is a good episode.”
Margaux: And despite getting significantly less annoying, any episode without Father Gabriel is also better for it. Which sucks because they’re both very talented actors, but their characters have become so shrill and preachy, not having an entire episode dedicated to debating the morals of a situation till you can’t even remember what you were talking about in the first place is refreshing.
Trevor: It was nice to get a break from moralizing. “The Next World” was definitely a transitional episode, which I’m not usually a fan of, but it was so quiet and unassuming that it managed to get a lot of things right. This is a solid entry in a season that really needs some more of those. I’m gonna say 4 stars, but I’m not married to that. Do you want to sway me one way or another?
Margaux: It was a fine episode, if a little safe and expected, and obviously the odd placement of it gives it some tone/pacing/suspension of disbelief issues, but it was fine overall. If anything happens to Michonne because of her fraternizing with Rick – he is most certainly a curse to mostly all of his love interests – then I will be very upset. Until then, though, I think this episode is closer to 3 stars, but willing meet you at 3.5 to be fair(ish).
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